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[
"Tamar Braxton",
"1977-99: Early life and career beginnings",
"Where was Tamar Braxton born?",
"Tamar Estine Braxton was born in Severn, Maryland",
"When did Tamar Braxton started singing?",
"Tamar started singing as a toddler.",
"How many siblings does Tamar Braxton have?",
"The youngest of the Braxtons' six children,"
]
| C_00103a91805c44b497270c6971e3d702_1 | When did Braxton release her first single? | 4 | When was Tamar Braxton's first single released? | Tamar Braxton | Tamar Estine Braxton was born in Severn, Maryland on March 17, 1977 to Michael and Evelyn Braxton. The youngest of the Braxtons' six children, Tamar started singing as a toddler. The Braxton children would eventually enter in their church choir, where their father Michael Braxton was a pastor. Sisters Toni, Traci, Towanda, Trina, and Tamar Braxton signed their first record deal with Arista Records in 1989. In 1990, they released their first single, "Good Life". "Good Life" was unsuccessful only peaking at No. 79 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles chart. At the time of the single's release, the members' age differences created a problem with marketing. Subsequently, The Braxtons were dropped from Arista Records. In 1991, during a showcase with L.A. Reid and Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, who were in the process of forming LaFace Records, Toni Braxton, minus her four sisters, was chosen and signed as the label's first female solo artist. At the time, the remaining members were told that LaFace was not looking for another girl group since it had just signed TLC. After Toni's departure from the group, the remaining Braxtons members became backup singers for Toni's first tour, music videos, and promotional appearances. Traci, Towanda, Trina, and Tamar were featured in the music video for Toni Braxton's third single, "Seven Whole Days", from her self-titled debut album. In 1993, LaFace Records A&R Vice President, Bryant Reid, signed The Braxtons to LaFace. However, the group never released an album or single for the label. When Reid moved on to work for Atlantic Records, he convinced executives at LaFace to allow him take the group to Atlantic also. It was reported in Vibe magazine that in 1995, Traci Braxton had left the group to pursue a career as a youth counselor. However, it was not confirmed until a 2011 promotional appearance on The Mo'Nique Show, that Traci was not allowed to sign with Atlantic because of her pregnancy at the time. In 1996, Tamar, Trina, and Towanda returned with a new album entitled So Many Ways, which peaked at No. 26 on the Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. At the time of its release, Reid told Billboard Magazine, "I had a vision for them then that was about young sophistication with sex appeal." The trio also performed a remixed version of "So Many Ways" with rapper Jay-Z on September 9, 1996 at the Soul Train Lady of Soul Awards. So Many Ways went on to peak at No. 83 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and number 32 on the UK Singles Chart. Braxton and her fellow The Braxtons members served as the opening act for Toni Braxton on the European Leg of her Secrets Tour in 1997. The Braxtons decided to part ways as a group after lead singer Tamar Braxton left to pursue a solo career with DreamWorks Records in 1998. CANNOTANSWER | In 1990, they released their first single, | Tamar Estine Braxton (born March 17, 1977) is an American singer and television personality.
Braxton began her career in 1990 as a founding member of The Braxtons, an R&B singing group formed with her sisters. The Braxtons released their debut album, So Many Ways, as a trio in 1996, and disbanded shortly afterward. In 2000, she released her debut self-titled album through DreamWorks Records. Following a thirteen-year break, Braxton released her second studio album, Love and War (2013), through Epic Records, which reached the number two position on the Billboard 200 chart. She later released her fourth and fifth albums, Calling All Lovers (2015) and Bluebird of Happiness (2017), respectively. Braxton has won a BET Award and three Soul Train Music Awards throughout her career. She has also been nominated for four Grammy Awards.
Since 2011, Braxton has starred in the We TV reality television series Braxton Family Values alongside her mother and sisters. She also served as a co-host on the Fox syndicated daytime talk show The Real from 2013 until 2016, for which she received two Daytime Emmy Award nominations. In 2019, she won the second season of Celebrity Big Brother.
Life and career
1977–1999: Early life and career beginnings
Tamar Estine Braxton was born to Michael and Evelyn Braxton in Severn, Maryland on March 17, 1977. The youngest of the Braxtons' six children, Braxton started singing as a toddler. The Braxton children would eventually enter in their church choir, where their father Michael Braxton was a pastor. She and her sisters Toni, Traci, Towanda, and Trina, signed their first record deal with Arista Records in 1989. In 1990, they released their first single, "Good Life", which peaked at No. 79 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles chart. At the time of the single's release, the members' age differences created a problem with marketing. Subsequently, The Braxtons were dropped from Arista Records.
In 1991, during a showcase with L.A. Reid and Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, who were in the process of forming LaFace Records, Toni Braxton, minus her four sisters, was chosen and signed as the label's first female solo artist. At the time, the remaining members were told that LaFace was not looking for another girl group since it had just signed TLC. After Toni's departure from the group, the remaining Braxtons members became backup singers for Toni's first tour, music videos, and promotional appearances. She and her sisters Traci, Towanda, and Trina were featured in the music video for Toni Braxton's third single, "Seven Whole Days", from her self-titled debut album.
In 1993, LaFace Records A&R Vice President, Bryant Reid, signed The Braxtons to LaFace. However, the group never released an album or single for the label. When Reid moved on to work for Atlantic Records, he convinced executives at LaFace to allow him to take the group to Atlantic also. It was reported in Vibe magazine that in 1995, Traci Braxton had left the group to pursue a career as a youth counselor. However, it was not confirmed until a 2011 promotional appearance on The Mo'Nique Show, that Traci was not allowed to sign with Atlantic because of her pregnancy at the time.
In 1996, Tamar, Trina, and Towanda returned with a new album entitled So Many Ways, which peaked at No. 26 on the Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. At the time of its release, Reid told Billboard magazine, "I had a vision for them then that was about young sophistication with sex appeal." The trio also performed a remixed version of "So Many Ways" with rapper Jay-Z on September 9, 1996 at the Soul Train Lady of Soul Awards. So Many Ways went on to peak at No. 83 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and number 32 on the UK Singles Chart. Braxton and her fellow group members served as the opening act for Toni Braxton on the European Leg of her Secrets Tour in 1997. The Braxtons decided to part ways as a group after Braxton left to pursue a solo career with DreamWorks Records in 1998.
2000–2009: Tamar and label troubles
Later, Braxton met Christopher "Tricky" Stewart. She recorded her solo debut album, Ridiculous, so-named for the many different musical styles on the album. The album spawned two buzz singles ("Let Him Go" and "Just Cuz") in hopes of garnering attention from the public eye; however, when the songs failed to gain impact on urban radio outlets, the album was pushed back and canceled. That same year, Braxton was featured on Sole's, "4 The Love of You." Instead of shelving the album, Dreamworks Records abandoned 3 old tracks, added new ones, and renamed it Tamar. The lead single "Get None" was produced by Jermaine "J.D." Dupri and also featured rap verses from him as well as former Jay-Z protégée Amil. The song also included uncredited background vocals and songwriting by R&B singer Mýa. As soon as the song began to pick up airplay, Braxton announced the album would be released in early 2000, alongside a second single, "If You Don't Wanna Love Me". The album featured production from Missy Elliott, Tim & Bob, and Tricky Stewart, but still peaked at number 127 on the Billboard 200. When the album's second single failed to gain significant radio airplay, her label dropped her from their roster.
In 2001, Braxton's previously unreleased song "Try Me" appeared on the soundtrack album for the film Kingdom Come. She also began to work alongside her sister Toni Braxton in a number of songs and music video cameos, including the video for "He Wasn't Man Enough." She performed, co-wrote and sang background vocals on songs for Toni's albums, The Heat (2000), Snowflakes (2001), More than a Woman (2002), Libra (2005) and Pulse (2010). When her sister launched her Las Vegas revue Toni Braxton: Revealed, Braxton again sang backup until she was replaced by singer Sparkle.
By 2004, Braxton was signed to Tommy Mottola's reactivated Casablanca Records and began work on her second album. A "Grindin'"-influenced single, "I'm Leaving," was released with a guest appearance from Bump J. alongside promotional remixes featuring Sheek Louch, Styles P. and Ali Vegas.
2010–2013: Television debut and Love and War
In 2010, Braxton signed to Universal Records, where she released a single "The Heart In Me" in July of that year which was included on the Adidas 2: The Music compilation. Her momentum with Universal would not rise to a satisfactory level to launch a second album. In January 2010, We TV confirmed that it had signed Braxton and her mother and sisters for a reality television series titled Braxton Family Values. The show premiered on April 12, 2011. On December 15, 2011, it was confirmed that Braxton and her husband Vincent would star in their own reality series centered on her solo career and their married life. In November 2011, Braxton performed "Love Overboard" at the 2011 Soul Train Awards for Lifetime Achievement recipient Gladys Knight. In September 2012, news broke that Braxton had inked a fresh recording contract with Streamline Records, an imprint of Interscope Records founded by Vincent. Later that month, her reality television show Tamar & Vince premiered on We TV.
Braxton was the featured model for the "Front Row Couture" collection during the "ELLE/Style360" NYC Fashion Week event. Braxton was a co-host of Tameka Cottle's late night talk show, Tiny Tonight, on VH1. Basketball Wives star Tami Roman became a co-host after Braxton. Later, she hosted The Culturelist, a show on BET's sister channel Centric. Former Destiny's Child member LeToya Luckett became the host after her. Braxton announced she was pregnant with her first child on March 13, 2013, during an interview on Good Morning America promoting the new season of Braxton Family Values. She gave birth to a son, Logan Vincent Herbert, on June 6, 2013.
In March 2013, it was revealed that Braxton had signed to Epic Records ahead of the release of her second album, Love and War. The album's lead single, the title track, was released on December 6, 2012. The song was a commercial success, spending 9 weeks at #1 on the Adult R&B Songs chart. Although the single reached number one on the US iTunes chart, it peaked at number 57 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 13 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.
Braxton released "The One" as the second single from Love and War on May 7, 2013; it peaked at number 34 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. The third single, "All the Way Home," was released August 21, 2013; it peaked at number 96 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 37 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. The song was followed by the release of Love and War on September 3, 2013. The album was a commercial success in the United States, selling 114,000 copies in its opening week, and debuting at number two on the Billboard 200 and number one on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. Outside the US, it debuted at number 34 on the UK R&B Albums Chart.
In 2013, Braxton became a co-host of the syndicated daytime talk show The Real alongside Adrienne Bailon, Loni Love, Jeannie Mai, and Tamera Mowry, which premiered on July 15, 2013. The second season of Tamar & Vince premiered on September 5, 2013. The second season is centered on the preparation and birth of the couple's baby, and her launch of Love and War. Braxton's special Listen Up: Tamar Braxton premiered on Centric in September 2013. Braxton's first Christmas album, Winter Loversland, was released on November 11, 2013; it debuted at number 43 on the Billboard 200 with 8,000 copies sold in its first week. In December 2013, Braxton received three nominations for the 56th Annual Grammy Awards; Best Urban Contemporary Album for Love and War, and Best R&B Song and Best R&B Performance for its title track.
2014–2018: Studio albums and Dancing with the Stars
On February 25, 2014, the remix of Robin Thicke's single "For the Rest of My Life" which features Braxton, was released as a digital single. Season 3 of Tamar & Vince premiered in October 2014, and it consisted of 10 episodes just like the previous seasons. On October 6, Braxton's new single "Let Me Know" featuring rapper Future peaked at #2 on the Billboard Trending 140 chart, less than an hour after its premiere on Braxton's official SoundCloud account and eventually reached #1 by 12:00 AM October 7. Billboard.com gave the song 4 out of 5 stars in its review of "The Best and Worst Singles of the Week" for the second week of October.
On May 27, 2015, the single "If I Don't Have You" was released. The song peaked at number 6 on the US Adult R&B Songs chart. Braxton's new album, Calling All Lovers, was released on October 2, 2015. The album peaked at number two on the US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums. On September 2, 2015, she was revealed as one of the celebrities who would be competing on the 21st season of Dancing with the Stars. She was paired with reigning champion, Valentin Chmerkovskiy. On November 11, Braxton revealed that she would have to withdraw from the competition due to health problems. Braxton and Chmerkovskiy finished in fifth place overall.
In October 2015, the group The Braxtons, including all five Braxton sisters, released a holiday album titled Braxton Family Christmas. On November 21, Braxton Family Christmas debuted at number 27 on the US Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, number 10 on the US R&B Chart and number 12 on US Top Holiday Albums on November 21, 2015. The album charted at number 4 on the US Heatseekers Albums on December 12, 2015. On December 7, 2015, Braxton received one Grammy nomination for "If I Don't Have You" at the 58th Annual Grammy Awards; Best R&B Performance from her latest album titled Calling All Lovers.
In May 2016, Braxton departed The Real. The following month, it was announced on The Steve Harvey Morning Show that Steve Harvey had signed Braxton to produce her own talk show and television series with East 112th Street Productions. In April 2017, it was announced that Braxton left Epic Records to sign with Entertainment One for a $1 million deal with the label. On April 27, 2017, Braxton released "My Man" from her fifth album, Bluebird of Happiness. The song peaked at number three on the US Adult R&B Songs Billboard. Bluebird of Happiness was released on September 29, 2017, through Logan Land Records and Entertainment One, with "Blind" released as its second single. The album reached the top of the Billboard independent chart.
On March 23, 2018, Braxton and sister Towanda guest starred on their sister Toni's music video "Long as I Live". In the same year, she appeared on Hip Hop Squares. On March 28, 2018, Braxton was featured on the Todrick Hall title "National Anthem", from his album Forbidden. That same year, Braxton co-starred in the stage play Redemption of a Dogg opposite Snoop Dogg. In Parallel, she was featured on the song "Lions And Tigers And Bears", from the Todrick Hall musical Straight Outta Oz.
2019–present: Television ventures
In 2019, Braxton appeared as a contestant in the second season of the American reality television series Celebrity Big Brother. The show premiered on CBS on January 21, 2019 and concluded on February 13, 2019. She went on to win the competition and become the first African-American person to win a season of Big Brother in the United States. In Big Brother tradition, Braxton appeared on the American television soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful, portraying a character named Chef Chambre. She taped her episode on February 20, 2019. The episode aired on Friday, March 29, 2019.
Braxton starred in the film True To The Game 2 alongside Vivica A. Fox, which premiered on April 10, 2020. In support of the film, she released a new song titled "Crazy Kind of Love", produced by Hitmaka, which was officially released on March 20, 2020. In April 2020, it was announced that Braxton would be hosting a reality television series for VH1 entitled To Catch A Beautician; the series premiered in June. In July, Braxton and We TV parted ways, with the network stating that it "will work with her representatives to honor her request to end all future work for the network." The We TV docuseries Tamar Braxton: Get Ya Life!, in which she starred, premiered in September 2020. Braxton has since then been featured on several songs for other artists such as, Mr.P and Elijah Blake. She also announced in early 2021 that she has started back recording music (after announcing retirement in 2017) and would releasing be two albums back to back, with the first slated for release in early 2022.
Artistry
Braxton possesses a five-octave soprano vocal range. She lists Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, Diana Ross, Kim Burrell, and her eldest sister, Toni, as some of her influences.
Personal life
Braxton is the youngest of her siblings including her sisters Toni, Traci, Towanda, and Trina, as well as her only brother Michael, Jr. On an episode of The Real, she revealed that she suffered from vitiligo. In November 2015, she discovered that she had several pulmonary emboli in her lungs, which forced her to withdraw from her work on Dancing with the Stars. During an interview in October 2020, Braxton stated that she had been diagnosed with anxiety and depression.
In 2001, Braxton was married to her first husband, music producer Darrell "Delite" Allamby. Allamby was a songwriter and producer who worked with his frequent songwriting partner Lincoln "Link" Browder, as well as Silk, Busta Rhymes and Gerald Levert. The two met while Allamby worked on her 2000 debut album's tracks "Money Can't Buy Me Love" and "Once Again". The couple divorced in 2003 after two years of marriage.
In 2003, Braxton began dating Vincent Herbert, a record executive whom she met through her sister, Toni. The couple married on November 27, 2008. Braxton gave birth to the couple's first child, a son named Logan Vincent, in 2013. In October 2017, Braxton filed for divorce from Herbert, citing "irreconcilable differences" and seeking joint custody of their son. Their divorce was finalized in July 2019.
Braxton was in a relationship with financial adviser David Adefeso. On July 16, 2020, Braxton was hospitalized following a suicide attempt. In September 2020, Adefeso filed a restraining order against Braxton for domestic violence.
Discography
Studio albums
Tamar (2000)
Love and War (2013)
Winter Loversland (2013)
Calling All Lovers (2015)
Bluebird of Happiness (2017)
Filmography
Tours
Headlining
2014: Love and War Tour
Opening act
2013: Love in the Future Tour
2014: Black Panties Tour
2015: The London Sessions Tour
2015: Promise To Love Tour
2017 : Lions And Tigers And Bears
2017-18: The Great Xscape Tour
2019 : Welcome To The Dungeon Tour
Awards and nominations
References
External links
1977 births
20th-century African-American women singers
21st-century African-American women singers
Actresses from Maryland
African-American actresses
African-American Methodists
African-American television personalities
American contemporary R&B singers
American film actresses
American sopranos
American soul singers
American television actresses
African-American television talk show hosts
American television talk show hosts
Big Brother (American TV series) winners
Big Brother (franchise) winners
The Braxtons members
Living people
Participants in American reality television series
People from Severn, Maryland
People with vitiligo
Singers from Maryland | true | [
"On Earth is the second studio album by American singer Traci Braxton. The album was released on August 24, 2018 through Soul World Entertainment. The album was preceded by the release of one single—\"Lifeline\" and one promotional single \"Broken Things\" featuring Toni Braxton, Towanda Braxton and Trina Braxton. The album features production for Dave \"DaveyBoy\" Lindsey (Monica, Missy Elliott) and production duo Chris N Teeb (Jennifer Lopez, Danity Kane).\n\nBackground and release\nFollowing the release of her debut studio album Crash & Burn (2014), work began on her second studio album in late 2015. On May 17, 2016, during a Facebook live video on the Braxton Family Values page it was announced that Braxton would release a new single in 2016 titled \"Body Shots\" from her upcoming second studio album. On an episode of Braxton Family Values, Braxton and her sisters Toni, Towanda and Trina Braxton recorded \"Broken Things\" in the studio which was later added to the album. On March 23, 2018, on Soul World Entertainment's YouTube channel, uploaded two short episodes of a behind the scenes look on the recording process of the album titled \"Traci Braxton Now or Never\".\n\n\"Broken Things\" was released as a buzz single to promote the upcoming release of \"On Earth\" on April 11, 2018. On August 3, 2018, Braxton released her official lead single, \"Lifeline\". On August 17, 2018, Braxton announced via social media that her album \"On Earth\" was available for pre-order, announcing the release date, August 24, 2018. Two days later, Braxton revealed the album cover on her social media pages.\n\nUpon, release the album debuted at number 24 on the Billboard R&B Album Sales chart.\n\nSingles\n\"Lifeline\" was released as the album's lead single on August 5, 2018.\n\nPromotional songs\n\"Broken Things\" featuring Toni Braxton, Towanda Braxton and Trina Braxton was released as the album's promotional single on April 11, 2018, via several streaming services.\n\nTrack listing\n\nRelease history\n\nReferences\n\n2018 albums\nTraci Braxton albums",
"\"Let Me Know\" is a song by American singer Tamar Braxton, featuring collaborative vocals by American rapper Future. Epic and Streamline Records released it as a digital download on October 7, 2014. Initially promoted as the lead single from Braxton's fourth studio album Calling All Lovers, it was replaced by her 2015 release \"If I Don't Have You\" and was only included on the record's Walmart deluxe edition.\n\nAl Sherrod \"A-Rod\" Lambert, Braxton, and Ericka J. Coulter wrote \"Let Me Know\", while Harmony Samuels and Tiyon \"TC\" Mack produced the song. It is a R&B ballad, with lyrics revolving around the need for communication within a relationship. It samples the chorus of American singer Aaliyah's 1994 cover of The Isley Brothers' single \"(At Your Best) You Are Love\" (1976).\n\nCritical response to \"Let Me Know\" was positive; several critics praised Braxton's vocals, specifically her whistle register. It peaked at number four on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles Billboard chart; the single also appeared on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay Billboard charts. Braxton directed the song's music video, which featured her in various outfits. It received positive feedback from critics.\n\nBackground and release\n\"Let Me Know\" was written by Al Sherrod \"A-Rod\" Lambert, Tamar Braxton, and Ericka J. Coulter, while it was produced by Harmony Samuels and Tiyon \"TC\" Mack. Mack was also the track's engineer, with Jaycen Joshua handling mixing and Gene Grimaldi serving as the mastering engineer. Ryan Kaul and Maddoxx Chhim provided additional support as assistant engineers. Jamia Nash sang background vocals. The single includes guest vocals by American rapper Future. After recording her parts of the song, Braxton said that she \"felt [Future] should be on it\" and had her manager Vincent Herbert set up the collaboration.\n\nEpic and Streamline Records released the song as a digital download on October 7, 2014. It was initially promoted as the lead single from Braxton's fourth studio album Calling All Lovers, but was later replaced by the 2015 track \"If I Don't Have You\" as its lead single. The Walmart deluxe edition of the album includes the song as a bonus track. In a 2017 interview, Braxton said that radio stations refused to play \"Let Me Know\" because it included a rapper. According to her, radio stations had requested a version without Future for airplay. Due to the experience, she said that she would never release a hip hop song in her future career.\n\nComposition and lyrics\n \n\"Let Me Know\" is a R&B ballad that lasts three minutes and 59 seconds. Its composition samples American singer Aaliyah's 1994 cover of The Isley Brothers' single \"(At Your Best) You Are Love\" (1976), by adopting the chorus \"let me know\". Elias Leight of Billboard described the sample as \"chipmunked\", or heavily edited. When discussing the reference, Braxton said that she was friends with Aaliyah through the business connections between Tamar's sister Toni Braxton and Aaliyah's uncle Barry Hankerson. She also identified herself as a fan of Aaliyah's music. Bianca Gracie of Idolator described the song as having a \"smooth mid-tempo\" composition. The instrumentation also includes a piano.\n\nThe song's lyrics revolve around the need for better communication between a couple. Jeff Benjamin of Fuse connected the content with Braxton's comment on the state of R&B music, when she said: \"[the genre] is on the rise because we're not afraid to talk about what's really happening in our personal relationships.\" Throughout the song, Braxton sings lyrics to her partner such as: \"We've been through so many things / Ups and downs and in-betweens / If you need more love from me / I give you more, just let me know.\" She also talks about love, saying: \"When it's right, you don't let go\" and \"You don’t give it up to nobody / When you love somebody.\" \"Let Me Know\" ends with Braxton singing in belts and whistle notes.\n\nFuture does not sing a separate verse, but provides the song's hook instead; his vocals are processed through Auto-Tune, which Benjamin described as part of the performer's \"signature\" style. Future's lyrics include: \"Do you love the way I do / When I’m loving your body.\" Wetpaint's Afiya Augustine described Future as \"the male persona to complement Tamar’s lyrics of staying by her man’s side no matter what\".\n\nReception\n\nCritical reception to \"Let Me Know\" was primarily positive on its release. Elias Leight chose it as one of the best singles of the week, calling it Braxton's best release to date. Writing for Mic, Leight praised her inclusion of the Aaliyah sample, and her decision to work with Future, as indications of her awareness of trends in contemporary music. Tanya Rena Jefferson of AXS described \"Let Me Know\" as Braxton's best song from her first three studio albums. Idolator's Bradley Stern wrote that it was a strong choice as a lead single, and commended it as \"a dreamy R&B ode\". Stacy Lambe of The Boombox described the single as a way to \"surely heat up some cold nights this winter\". She complimented the \"sultry\" lyrics and referred to the production as a \"slick beat\".\n\nMusic critics praised Braxton's voice. Afiya Augustine compared it to Chanté Moore. Due to her use of whistle notes in the single, she also compared Braxton to American singer Mariah Carey, as did Jeff Benjamin, who wrote that \"[she] is not playing when it comes to vocal acrobatics\". Latoya Cross of Jet commended the singer's range and her connection with the song, explaining that \"it’s obvious she’s in touch with every lyric\". The collaboration between Braxton's and Future's voices received primarily positive reviews from critics, but Kevin Apaza of Direct Lyrics criticized Future's contributions as \"unintelligible adlibs\".\n\n\"Let Me Know\" peaked at number four on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles Billboard chart on February 14, 2015, and remained on the chart for 12 weeks. The same day, it reached number 31 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs Billboard chart, and stayed on the chart for a total of 17 weeks. For the R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay Billboard chart, it peaked at number eight simultaneously, and remained on the chart for a span of 20 weeks.\n\nMusic video and promotion\nBraxton directed the single's accompanying music video, which premiered on October 22, 2014 on 106 & Park. On Vevo, the director is credited as \"Rene & Radka\". It was the first music video Braxton directed. Throughout the video, she is shown \"yearning for her man to come get her loving\". The singer is featured in seven looks, while wearing blonde, brunette, and black wigs. Scenes include Braxton in her bedroom, lying on a diving board, and relaxing in lingerie and fishnets. A writer for Essence wrote that the bedroom scenes featured the singer channeling Marilyn Monroe. In the latter half of the video, Braxton performs in a nude bodysuit covered with glitter. Future does not appear in the video. Braxton first performed \"Let Me Know\" live during the For Sisters Only concert, on October 11, 2014.\n\nThe video received a positive response from critics. A writer from Rap-Up praised it for allowing Braxton to appear \"in all her diva glory,\" and Vibe's Sharifa Daniels felt the visual showcased Braxton's creative vision. Bradley Stern described the singer as \"turn[ing] up the heat\" with her wardrobe choices, and described her glitter look as \"eye-popping\". The glitter bodysuit was also positively received by Stacy Lambe, who felt that it was inspired by Britney Spears' music video for her 2004 single \"Toxic\" and Beyoncé's photoshoot for Flaunt.\n\nTrack listing\n\nCredits and personnel\nCredits adapted from Tidal.\n\nComposer – Al Sherrod \"A-Rod\" Lambert, Ericka J. Coulter, and Tamar Braxton\nLyricist – Lambert, Coulter, and Braxton\nProducer – Tiyon \"TC\" Mack and Harmony Samuels\nMixing Engineer – Jaycen Joshua\n\nMastering Engineer – Gene Grimaldi\nEngineer – Mack\nVocals – Braxon and Future\nBackground Vocals – Jamia Nash\nAssistant Engineer – Ryan Kaul and Maddox Chhim\n\nCharts\n\nRelease history\n\nReferences\n\n2010s ballads\n2014 songs\nTamar Braxton songs\nContemporary R&B ballads\n2014 singles\nEpic Records singles\nSongs written by Tamar Braxton"
]
|
[
"Tamar Braxton",
"1977-99: Early life and career beginnings",
"Where was Tamar Braxton born?",
"Tamar Estine Braxton was born in Severn, Maryland",
"When did Tamar Braxton started singing?",
"Tamar started singing as a toddler.",
"How many siblings does Tamar Braxton have?",
"The youngest of the Braxtons' six children,",
"When did Braxton release her first single?",
"In 1990, they released their first single,"
]
| C_00103a91805c44b497270c6971e3d702_1 | Did the single do well on the charts? | 5 | Did Tamar Braxton's first single do well on the charts? | Tamar Braxton | Tamar Estine Braxton was born in Severn, Maryland on March 17, 1977 to Michael and Evelyn Braxton. The youngest of the Braxtons' six children, Tamar started singing as a toddler. The Braxton children would eventually enter in their church choir, where their father Michael Braxton was a pastor. Sisters Toni, Traci, Towanda, Trina, and Tamar Braxton signed their first record deal with Arista Records in 1989. In 1990, they released their first single, "Good Life". "Good Life" was unsuccessful only peaking at No. 79 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles chart. At the time of the single's release, the members' age differences created a problem with marketing. Subsequently, The Braxtons were dropped from Arista Records. In 1991, during a showcase with L.A. Reid and Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, who were in the process of forming LaFace Records, Toni Braxton, minus her four sisters, was chosen and signed as the label's first female solo artist. At the time, the remaining members were told that LaFace was not looking for another girl group since it had just signed TLC. After Toni's departure from the group, the remaining Braxtons members became backup singers for Toni's first tour, music videos, and promotional appearances. Traci, Towanda, Trina, and Tamar were featured in the music video for Toni Braxton's third single, "Seven Whole Days", from her self-titled debut album. In 1993, LaFace Records A&R Vice President, Bryant Reid, signed The Braxtons to LaFace. However, the group never released an album or single for the label. When Reid moved on to work for Atlantic Records, he convinced executives at LaFace to allow him take the group to Atlantic also. It was reported in Vibe magazine that in 1995, Traci Braxton had left the group to pursue a career as a youth counselor. However, it was not confirmed until a 2011 promotional appearance on The Mo'Nique Show, that Traci was not allowed to sign with Atlantic because of her pregnancy at the time. In 1996, Tamar, Trina, and Towanda returned with a new album entitled So Many Ways, which peaked at No. 26 on the Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. At the time of its release, Reid told Billboard Magazine, "I had a vision for them then that was about young sophistication with sex appeal." The trio also performed a remixed version of "So Many Ways" with rapper Jay-Z on September 9, 1996 at the Soul Train Lady of Soul Awards. So Many Ways went on to peak at No. 83 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and number 32 on the UK Singles Chart. Braxton and her fellow The Braxtons members served as the opening act for Toni Braxton on the European Leg of her Secrets Tour in 1997. The Braxtons decided to part ways as a group after lead singer Tamar Braxton left to pursue a solo career with DreamWorks Records in 1998. CANNOTANSWER | ". "Good Life" was unsuccessful only peaking at No. 79 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles chart. | Tamar Estine Braxton (born March 17, 1977) is an American singer and television personality.
Braxton began her career in 1990 as a founding member of The Braxtons, an R&B singing group formed with her sisters. The Braxtons released their debut album, So Many Ways, as a trio in 1996, and disbanded shortly afterward. In 2000, she released her debut self-titled album through DreamWorks Records. Following a thirteen-year break, Braxton released her second studio album, Love and War (2013), through Epic Records, which reached the number two position on the Billboard 200 chart. She later released her fourth and fifth albums, Calling All Lovers (2015) and Bluebird of Happiness (2017), respectively. Braxton has won a BET Award and three Soul Train Music Awards throughout her career. She has also been nominated for four Grammy Awards.
Since 2011, Braxton has starred in the We TV reality television series Braxton Family Values alongside her mother and sisters. She also served as a co-host on the Fox syndicated daytime talk show The Real from 2013 until 2016, for which she received two Daytime Emmy Award nominations. In 2019, she won the second season of Celebrity Big Brother.
Life and career
1977–1999: Early life and career beginnings
Tamar Estine Braxton was born to Michael and Evelyn Braxton in Severn, Maryland on March 17, 1977. The youngest of the Braxtons' six children, Braxton started singing as a toddler. The Braxton children would eventually enter in their church choir, where their father Michael Braxton was a pastor. She and her sisters Toni, Traci, Towanda, and Trina, signed their first record deal with Arista Records in 1989. In 1990, they released their first single, "Good Life", which peaked at No. 79 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles chart. At the time of the single's release, the members' age differences created a problem with marketing. Subsequently, The Braxtons were dropped from Arista Records.
In 1991, during a showcase with L.A. Reid and Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, who were in the process of forming LaFace Records, Toni Braxton, minus her four sisters, was chosen and signed as the label's first female solo artist. At the time, the remaining members were told that LaFace was not looking for another girl group since it had just signed TLC. After Toni's departure from the group, the remaining Braxtons members became backup singers for Toni's first tour, music videos, and promotional appearances. She and her sisters Traci, Towanda, and Trina were featured in the music video for Toni Braxton's third single, "Seven Whole Days", from her self-titled debut album.
In 1993, LaFace Records A&R Vice President, Bryant Reid, signed The Braxtons to LaFace. However, the group never released an album or single for the label. When Reid moved on to work for Atlantic Records, he convinced executives at LaFace to allow him to take the group to Atlantic also. It was reported in Vibe magazine that in 1995, Traci Braxton had left the group to pursue a career as a youth counselor. However, it was not confirmed until a 2011 promotional appearance on The Mo'Nique Show, that Traci was not allowed to sign with Atlantic because of her pregnancy at the time.
In 1996, Tamar, Trina, and Towanda returned with a new album entitled So Many Ways, which peaked at No. 26 on the Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. At the time of its release, Reid told Billboard magazine, "I had a vision for them then that was about young sophistication with sex appeal." The trio also performed a remixed version of "So Many Ways" with rapper Jay-Z on September 9, 1996 at the Soul Train Lady of Soul Awards. So Many Ways went on to peak at No. 83 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and number 32 on the UK Singles Chart. Braxton and her fellow group members served as the opening act for Toni Braxton on the European Leg of her Secrets Tour in 1997. The Braxtons decided to part ways as a group after Braxton left to pursue a solo career with DreamWorks Records in 1998.
2000–2009: Tamar and label troubles
Later, Braxton met Christopher "Tricky" Stewart. She recorded her solo debut album, Ridiculous, so-named for the many different musical styles on the album. The album spawned two buzz singles ("Let Him Go" and "Just Cuz") in hopes of garnering attention from the public eye; however, when the songs failed to gain impact on urban radio outlets, the album was pushed back and canceled. That same year, Braxton was featured on Sole's, "4 The Love of You." Instead of shelving the album, Dreamworks Records abandoned 3 old tracks, added new ones, and renamed it Tamar. The lead single "Get None" was produced by Jermaine "J.D." Dupri and also featured rap verses from him as well as former Jay-Z protégée Amil. The song also included uncredited background vocals and songwriting by R&B singer Mýa. As soon as the song began to pick up airplay, Braxton announced the album would be released in early 2000, alongside a second single, "If You Don't Wanna Love Me". The album featured production from Missy Elliott, Tim & Bob, and Tricky Stewart, but still peaked at number 127 on the Billboard 200. When the album's second single failed to gain significant radio airplay, her label dropped her from their roster.
In 2001, Braxton's previously unreleased song "Try Me" appeared on the soundtrack album for the film Kingdom Come. She also began to work alongside her sister Toni Braxton in a number of songs and music video cameos, including the video for "He Wasn't Man Enough." She performed, co-wrote and sang background vocals on songs for Toni's albums, The Heat (2000), Snowflakes (2001), More than a Woman (2002), Libra (2005) and Pulse (2010). When her sister launched her Las Vegas revue Toni Braxton: Revealed, Braxton again sang backup until she was replaced by singer Sparkle.
By 2004, Braxton was signed to Tommy Mottola's reactivated Casablanca Records and began work on her second album. A "Grindin'"-influenced single, "I'm Leaving," was released with a guest appearance from Bump J. alongside promotional remixes featuring Sheek Louch, Styles P. and Ali Vegas.
2010–2013: Television debut and Love and War
In 2010, Braxton signed to Universal Records, where she released a single "The Heart In Me" in July of that year which was included on the Adidas 2: The Music compilation. Her momentum with Universal would not rise to a satisfactory level to launch a second album. In January 2010, We TV confirmed that it had signed Braxton and her mother and sisters for a reality television series titled Braxton Family Values. The show premiered on April 12, 2011. On December 15, 2011, it was confirmed that Braxton and her husband Vincent would star in their own reality series centered on her solo career and their married life. In November 2011, Braxton performed "Love Overboard" at the 2011 Soul Train Awards for Lifetime Achievement recipient Gladys Knight. In September 2012, news broke that Braxton had inked a fresh recording contract with Streamline Records, an imprint of Interscope Records founded by Vincent. Later that month, her reality television show Tamar & Vince premiered on We TV.
Braxton was the featured model for the "Front Row Couture" collection during the "ELLE/Style360" NYC Fashion Week event. Braxton was a co-host of Tameka Cottle's late night talk show, Tiny Tonight, on VH1. Basketball Wives star Tami Roman became a co-host after Braxton. Later, she hosted The Culturelist, a show on BET's sister channel Centric. Former Destiny's Child member LeToya Luckett became the host after her. Braxton announced she was pregnant with her first child on March 13, 2013, during an interview on Good Morning America promoting the new season of Braxton Family Values. She gave birth to a son, Logan Vincent Herbert, on June 6, 2013.
In March 2013, it was revealed that Braxton had signed to Epic Records ahead of the release of her second album, Love and War. The album's lead single, the title track, was released on December 6, 2012. The song was a commercial success, spending 9 weeks at #1 on the Adult R&B Songs chart. Although the single reached number one on the US iTunes chart, it peaked at number 57 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 13 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.
Braxton released "The One" as the second single from Love and War on May 7, 2013; it peaked at number 34 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. The third single, "All the Way Home," was released August 21, 2013; it peaked at number 96 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 37 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. The song was followed by the release of Love and War on September 3, 2013. The album was a commercial success in the United States, selling 114,000 copies in its opening week, and debuting at number two on the Billboard 200 and number one on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. Outside the US, it debuted at number 34 on the UK R&B Albums Chart.
In 2013, Braxton became a co-host of the syndicated daytime talk show The Real alongside Adrienne Bailon, Loni Love, Jeannie Mai, and Tamera Mowry, which premiered on July 15, 2013. The second season of Tamar & Vince premiered on September 5, 2013. The second season is centered on the preparation and birth of the couple's baby, and her launch of Love and War. Braxton's special Listen Up: Tamar Braxton premiered on Centric in September 2013. Braxton's first Christmas album, Winter Loversland, was released on November 11, 2013; it debuted at number 43 on the Billboard 200 with 8,000 copies sold in its first week. In December 2013, Braxton received three nominations for the 56th Annual Grammy Awards; Best Urban Contemporary Album for Love and War, and Best R&B Song and Best R&B Performance for its title track.
2014–2018: Studio albums and Dancing with the Stars
On February 25, 2014, the remix of Robin Thicke's single "For the Rest of My Life" which features Braxton, was released as a digital single. Season 3 of Tamar & Vince premiered in October 2014, and it consisted of 10 episodes just like the previous seasons. On October 6, Braxton's new single "Let Me Know" featuring rapper Future peaked at #2 on the Billboard Trending 140 chart, less than an hour after its premiere on Braxton's official SoundCloud account and eventually reached #1 by 12:00 AM October 7. Billboard.com gave the song 4 out of 5 stars in its review of "The Best and Worst Singles of the Week" for the second week of October.
On May 27, 2015, the single "If I Don't Have You" was released. The song peaked at number 6 on the US Adult R&B Songs chart. Braxton's new album, Calling All Lovers, was released on October 2, 2015. The album peaked at number two on the US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums. On September 2, 2015, she was revealed as one of the celebrities who would be competing on the 21st season of Dancing with the Stars. She was paired with reigning champion, Valentin Chmerkovskiy. On November 11, Braxton revealed that she would have to withdraw from the competition due to health problems. Braxton and Chmerkovskiy finished in fifth place overall.
In October 2015, the group The Braxtons, including all five Braxton sisters, released a holiday album titled Braxton Family Christmas. On November 21, Braxton Family Christmas debuted at number 27 on the US Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, number 10 on the US R&B Chart and number 12 on US Top Holiday Albums on November 21, 2015. The album charted at number 4 on the US Heatseekers Albums on December 12, 2015. On December 7, 2015, Braxton received one Grammy nomination for "If I Don't Have You" at the 58th Annual Grammy Awards; Best R&B Performance from her latest album titled Calling All Lovers.
In May 2016, Braxton departed The Real. The following month, it was announced on The Steve Harvey Morning Show that Steve Harvey had signed Braxton to produce her own talk show and television series with East 112th Street Productions. In April 2017, it was announced that Braxton left Epic Records to sign with Entertainment One for a $1 million deal with the label. On April 27, 2017, Braxton released "My Man" from her fifth album, Bluebird of Happiness. The song peaked at number three on the US Adult R&B Songs Billboard. Bluebird of Happiness was released on September 29, 2017, through Logan Land Records and Entertainment One, with "Blind" released as its second single. The album reached the top of the Billboard independent chart.
On March 23, 2018, Braxton and sister Towanda guest starred on their sister Toni's music video "Long as I Live". In the same year, she appeared on Hip Hop Squares. On March 28, 2018, Braxton was featured on the Todrick Hall title "National Anthem", from his album Forbidden. That same year, Braxton co-starred in the stage play Redemption of a Dogg opposite Snoop Dogg. In Parallel, she was featured on the song "Lions And Tigers And Bears", from the Todrick Hall musical Straight Outta Oz.
2019–present: Television ventures
In 2019, Braxton appeared as a contestant in the second season of the American reality television series Celebrity Big Brother. The show premiered on CBS on January 21, 2019 and concluded on February 13, 2019. She went on to win the competition and become the first African-American person to win a season of Big Brother in the United States. In Big Brother tradition, Braxton appeared on the American television soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful, portraying a character named Chef Chambre. She taped her episode on February 20, 2019. The episode aired on Friday, March 29, 2019.
Braxton starred in the film True To The Game 2 alongside Vivica A. Fox, which premiered on April 10, 2020. In support of the film, she released a new song titled "Crazy Kind of Love", produced by Hitmaka, which was officially released on March 20, 2020. In April 2020, it was announced that Braxton would be hosting a reality television series for VH1 entitled To Catch A Beautician; the series premiered in June. In July, Braxton and We TV parted ways, with the network stating that it "will work with her representatives to honor her request to end all future work for the network." The We TV docuseries Tamar Braxton: Get Ya Life!, in which she starred, premiered in September 2020. Braxton has since then been featured on several songs for other artists such as, Mr.P and Elijah Blake. She also announced in early 2021 that she has started back recording music (after announcing retirement in 2017) and would releasing be two albums back to back, with the first slated for release in early 2022.
Artistry
Braxton possesses a five-octave soprano vocal range. She lists Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, Diana Ross, Kim Burrell, and her eldest sister, Toni, as some of her influences.
Personal life
Braxton is the youngest of her siblings including her sisters Toni, Traci, Towanda, and Trina, as well as her only brother Michael, Jr. On an episode of The Real, she revealed that she suffered from vitiligo. In November 2015, she discovered that she had several pulmonary emboli in her lungs, which forced her to withdraw from her work on Dancing with the Stars. During an interview in October 2020, Braxton stated that she had been diagnosed with anxiety and depression.
In 2001, Braxton was married to her first husband, music producer Darrell "Delite" Allamby. Allamby was a songwriter and producer who worked with his frequent songwriting partner Lincoln "Link" Browder, as well as Silk, Busta Rhymes and Gerald Levert. The two met while Allamby worked on her 2000 debut album's tracks "Money Can't Buy Me Love" and "Once Again". The couple divorced in 2003 after two years of marriage.
In 2003, Braxton began dating Vincent Herbert, a record executive whom she met through her sister, Toni. The couple married on November 27, 2008. Braxton gave birth to the couple's first child, a son named Logan Vincent, in 2013. In October 2017, Braxton filed for divorce from Herbert, citing "irreconcilable differences" and seeking joint custody of their son. Their divorce was finalized in July 2019.
Braxton was in a relationship with financial adviser David Adefeso. On July 16, 2020, Braxton was hospitalized following a suicide attempt. In September 2020, Adefeso filed a restraining order against Braxton for domestic violence.
Discography
Studio albums
Tamar (2000)
Love and War (2013)
Winter Loversland (2013)
Calling All Lovers (2015)
Bluebird of Happiness (2017)
Filmography
Tours
Headlining
2014: Love and War Tour
Opening act
2013: Love in the Future Tour
2014: Black Panties Tour
2015: The London Sessions Tour
2015: Promise To Love Tour
2017 : Lions And Tigers And Bears
2017-18: The Great Xscape Tour
2019 : Welcome To The Dungeon Tour
Awards and nominations
References
External links
1977 births
20th-century African-American women singers
21st-century African-American women singers
Actresses from Maryland
African-American actresses
African-American Methodists
African-American television personalities
American contemporary R&B singers
American film actresses
American sopranos
American soul singers
American television actresses
African-American television talk show hosts
American television talk show hosts
Big Brother (American TV series) winners
Big Brother (franchise) winners
The Braxtons members
Living people
Participants in American reality television series
People from Severn, Maryland
People with vitiligo
Singers from Maryland | false | [
"Treddin' on Thin Ice is the debut album by UK grime artist Wiley released on XL Recordings. It was released on 26 April 2004. The album is seen as a critical success in grime music with an enduring and influential forward facing sound. However, commercially the album did not do as well, with one single (\"Wot Do U Call It\", a song addressing the debate over the categorization of grime) making the top 40 in the UK music charts.\n\nTrack listing\n\nCertifications\n\nReferences\n\n2004 debut albums\nWiley (musician) albums\nXL Recordings albums",
"Sakura (サクラ) is the twenty-third single by the Japanese hip-hop group Lead, released five months after their previous single Green Days/Strings, on February 26, 2014. The single performed well on the Oricon charts, taking the #3 slot for the weekly ranking, remaining on the charts for two weeks.\n\nThe single was released as a standard CD edition, along with three limited edition, two of which were CD+DVD combos, each carrying different content. While every edition contained the b-side \"With U\", each edition harbored a bonus track. The CD+DVD editions not only contained differing content on the CD portions, but also harbored different content on the DVDs.\n\nInformation\nSakura (サクラ) is the twenty-third single by the Japanese hip-hop group Lead and first of 2014. The single charted well on the Oricon Singles Charts, taking the #3 spot for the week and remaining on the charts for two consecutive weeks. This became the group's fifth consecutive single to chart in the top five of the Oricon charts, beginning with Wanna Be With You, which was released two years prior in March 2012.\n\nThe single was released in four editions, a regular CD, two limited edition CD+DVD combo packs, and a limited CD only edition. The standard CD contained the title track, the coupling track \"With U\" - which was available on every edition - and the corresponding instrumentals. The type A CD+DVD housed the two tracks, the bonus track \"Akeneiro Somaru Koro Ni\" (茜色染まるころに / Around Midnight) and their corresponding instrumentals, while the DVD portion contained the music video for \"Sakura\" and the making video. The limited type B CD+DVD harbored the bonus track \"Just Do It\" (stylized as Just do it) on the CD, while carrying the dance version \"Sakura\" on the DVD, along with the recording document of the song \"With U.\" The limited CD only version carried the bonus track \"Can't Stop Loving You,\" along with the corresponding instrumental.\n\nThe lyrics to \"Sakura\" were written by AnDisM, while the composition and arrangement was performed by musical composer YUKIYOSHI. AnDisM also wrote and composed the single's coupling tracks \"With U\", \"Akeneiro Somaru Koro Ni\" and \"Just do it.\" AnDisM had worked with Lead for their previous song \"Green Days,\" where they wrote both the lyrics and the musical composition.\n\nPackaging\nSakura was released in four editions, three of which were limited editions. Along with the standard CD, the single was given two CD+DVD versions with different bonus tracks on the CD portion and differing content on the DVD portions. The limited CD contained one bonus track.\n\nThe regular edition contained the title track and the coupling track \"With U,\" along with both songs' corresponding instrumentals. The single's cover was also the only one where each member was in a separate frame, while a white border on the bottom housed the title.\n\nThe type A limited edition harbored both songs, along with the track \"Akeneiro Somaru Koro Ni\" and the instrumentals. The DVD contained the music video for \"Sakura\" and the video's off-shot. The type B limited editions contained the bonus track \"Just do it\" coupled with the other tracks. The DVD carried the dance version of \"Sakura\" and the recording document of \"With U.\" While the type C limited edition did not carry a DVD, it did harbor the bonus track \"Can't Stop Loving You.\"\n\nTrack listing\n\nCharts (Japan)\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nLead Official Site\n\n2014 singles\n2014 songs\nLead (band) songs\nPony Canyon singles\nJapanese-language songs"
]
|
[
"Tamar Braxton",
"1977-99: Early life and career beginnings",
"Where was Tamar Braxton born?",
"Tamar Estine Braxton was born in Severn, Maryland",
"When did Tamar Braxton started singing?",
"Tamar started singing as a toddler.",
"How many siblings does Tamar Braxton have?",
"The youngest of the Braxtons' six children,",
"When did Braxton release her first single?",
"In 1990, they released their first single,",
"Did the single do well on the charts?",
"\". \"Good Life\" was unsuccessful only peaking at No. 79 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles chart."
]
| C_00103a91805c44b497270c6971e3d702_1 | Who was the first record company that Braxton signed up with? | 6 | Who was the first record company that Tamar Braxton signed to? | Tamar Braxton | Tamar Estine Braxton was born in Severn, Maryland on March 17, 1977 to Michael and Evelyn Braxton. The youngest of the Braxtons' six children, Tamar started singing as a toddler. The Braxton children would eventually enter in their church choir, where their father Michael Braxton was a pastor. Sisters Toni, Traci, Towanda, Trina, and Tamar Braxton signed their first record deal with Arista Records in 1989. In 1990, they released their first single, "Good Life". "Good Life" was unsuccessful only peaking at No. 79 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles chart. At the time of the single's release, the members' age differences created a problem with marketing. Subsequently, The Braxtons were dropped from Arista Records. In 1991, during a showcase with L.A. Reid and Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, who were in the process of forming LaFace Records, Toni Braxton, minus her four sisters, was chosen and signed as the label's first female solo artist. At the time, the remaining members were told that LaFace was not looking for another girl group since it had just signed TLC. After Toni's departure from the group, the remaining Braxtons members became backup singers for Toni's first tour, music videos, and promotional appearances. Traci, Towanda, Trina, and Tamar were featured in the music video for Toni Braxton's third single, "Seven Whole Days", from her self-titled debut album. In 1993, LaFace Records A&R Vice President, Bryant Reid, signed The Braxtons to LaFace. However, the group never released an album or single for the label. When Reid moved on to work for Atlantic Records, he convinced executives at LaFace to allow him take the group to Atlantic also. It was reported in Vibe magazine that in 1995, Traci Braxton had left the group to pursue a career as a youth counselor. However, it was not confirmed until a 2011 promotional appearance on The Mo'Nique Show, that Traci was not allowed to sign with Atlantic because of her pregnancy at the time. In 1996, Tamar, Trina, and Towanda returned with a new album entitled So Many Ways, which peaked at No. 26 on the Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. At the time of its release, Reid told Billboard Magazine, "I had a vision for them then that was about young sophistication with sex appeal." The trio also performed a remixed version of "So Many Ways" with rapper Jay-Z on September 9, 1996 at the Soul Train Lady of Soul Awards. So Many Ways went on to peak at No. 83 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and number 32 on the UK Singles Chart. Braxton and her fellow The Braxtons members served as the opening act for Toni Braxton on the European Leg of her Secrets Tour in 1997. The Braxtons decided to part ways as a group after lead singer Tamar Braxton left to pursue a solo career with DreamWorks Records in 1998. CANNOTANSWER | Sisters Toni, Traci, Towanda, Trina, and Tamar Braxton signed their first record deal with Arista Records | Tamar Estine Braxton (born March 17, 1977) is an American singer and television personality.
Braxton began her career in 1990 as a founding member of The Braxtons, an R&B singing group formed with her sisters. The Braxtons released their debut album, So Many Ways, as a trio in 1996, and disbanded shortly afterward. In 2000, she released her debut self-titled album through DreamWorks Records. Following a thirteen-year break, Braxton released her second studio album, Love and War (2013), through Epic Records, which reached the number two position on the Billboard 200 chart. She later released her fourth and fifth albums, Calling All Lovers (2015) and Bluebird of Happiness (2017), respectively. Braxton has won a BET Award and three Soul Train Music Awards throughout her career. She has also been nominated for four Grammy Awards.
Since 2011, Braxton has starred in the We TV reality television series Braxton Family Values alongside her mother and sisters. She also served as a co-host on the Fox syndicated daytime talk show The Real from 2013 until 2016, for which she received two Daytime Emmy Award nominations. In 2019, she won the second season of Celebrity Big Brother.
Life and career
1977–1999: Early life and career beginnings
Tamar Estine Braxton was born to Michael and Evelyn Braxton in Severn, Maryland on March 17, 1977. The youngest of the Braxtons' six children, Braxton started singing as a toddler. The Braxton children would eventually enter in their church choir, where their father Michael Braxton was a pastor. She and her sisters Toni, Traci, Towanda, and Trina, signed their first record deal with Arista Records in 1989. In 1990, they released their first single, "Good Life", which peaked at No. 79 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles chart. At the time of the single's release, the members' age differences created a problem with marketing. Subsequently, The Braxtons were dropped from Arista Records.
In 1991, during a showcase with L.A. Reid and Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, who were in the process of forming LaFace Records, Toni Braxton, minus her four sisters, was chosen and signed as the label's first female solo artist. At the time, the remaining members were told that LaFace was not looking for another girl group since it had just signed TLC. After Toni's departure from the group, the remaining Braxtons members became backup singers for Toni's first tour, music videos, and promotional appearances. She and her sisters Traci, Towanda, and Trina were featured in the music video for Toni Braxton's third single, "Seven Whole Days", from her self-titled debut album.
In 1993, LaFace Records A&R Vice President, Bryant Reid, signed The Braxtons to LaFace. However, the group never released an album or single for the label. When Reid moved on to work for Atlantic Records, he convinced executives at LaFace to allow him to take the group to Atlantic also. It was reported in Vibe magazine that in 1995, Traci Braxton had left the group to pursue a career as a youth counselor. However, it was not confirmed until a 2011 promotional appearance on The Mo'Nique Show, that Traci was not allowed to sign with Atlantic because of her pregnancy at the time.
In 1996, Tamar, Trina, and Towanda returned with a new album entitled So Many Ways, which peaked at No. 26 on the Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. At the time of its release, Reid told Billboard magazine, "I had a vision for them then that was about young sophistication with sex appeal." The trio also performed a remixed version of "So Many Ways" with rapper Jay-Z on September 9, 1996 at the Soul Train Lady of Soul Awards. So Many Ways went on to peak at No. 83 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and number 32 on the UK Singles Chart. Braxton and her fellow group members served as the opening act for Toni Braxton on the European Leg of her Secrets Tour in 1997. The Braxtons decided to part ways as a group after Braxton left to pursue a solo career with DreamWorks Records in 1998.
2000–2009: Tamar and label troubles
Later, Braxton met Christopher "Tricky" Stewart. She recorded her solo debut album, Ridiculous, so-named for the many different musical styles on the album. The album spawned two buzz singles ("Let Him Go" and "Just Cuz") in hopes of garnering attention from the public eye; however, when the songs failed to gain impact on urban radio outlets, the album was pushed back and canceled. That same year, Braxton was featured on Sole's, "4 The Love of You." Instead of shelving the album, Dreamworks Records abandoned 3 old tracks, added new ones, and renamed it Tamar. The lead single "Get None" was produced by Jermaine "J.D." Dupri and also featured rap verses from him as well as former Jay-Z protégée Amil. The song also included uncredited background vocals and songwriting by R&B singer Mýa. As soon as the song began to pick up airplay, Braxton announced the album would be released in early 2000, alongside a second single, "If You Don't Wanna Love Me". The album featured production from Missy Elliott, Tim & Bob, and Tricky Stewart, but still peaked at number 127 on the Billboard 200. When the album's second single failed to gain significant radio airplay, her label dropped her from their roster.
In 2001, Braxton's previously unreleased song "Try Me" appeared on the soundtrack album for the film Kingdom Come. She also began to work alongside her sister Toni Braxton in a number of songs and music video cameos, including the video for "He Wasn't Man Enough." She performed, co-wrote and sang background vocals on songs for Toni's albums, The Heat (2000), Snowflakes (2001), More than a Woman (2002), Libra (2005) and Pulse (2010). When her sister launched her Las Vegas revue Toni Braxton: Revealed, Braxton again sang backup until she was replaced by singer Sparkle.
By 2004, Braxton was signed to Tommy Mottola's reactivated Casablanca Records and began work on her second album. A "Grindin'"-influenced single, "I'm Leaving," was released with a guest appearance from Bump J. alongside promotional remixes featuring Sheek Louch, Styles P. and Ali Vegas.
2010–2013: Television debut and Love and War
In 2010, Braxton signed to Universal Records, where she released a single "The Heart In Me" in July of that year which was included on the Adidas 2: The Music compilation. Her momentum with Universal would not rise to a satisfactory level to launch a second album. In January 2010, We TV confirmed that it had signed Braxton and her mother and sisters for a reality television series titled Braxton Family Values. The show premiered on April 12, 2011. On December 15, 2011, it was confirmed that Braxton and her husband Vincent would star in their own reality series centered on her solo career and their married life. In November 2011, Braxton performed "Love Overboard" at the 2011 Soul Train Awards for Lifetime Achievement recipient Gladys Knight. In September 2012, news broke that Braxton had inked a fresh recording contract with Streamline Records, an imprint of Interscope Records founded by Vincent. Later that month, her reality television show Tamar & Vince premiered on We TV.
Braxton was the featured model for the "Front Row Couture" collection during the "ELLE/Style360" NYC Fashion Week event. Braxton was a co-host of Tameka Cottle's late night talk show, Tiny Tonight, on VH1. Basketball Wives star Tami Roman became a co-host after Braxton. Later, she hosted The Culturelist, a show on BET's sister channel Centric. Former Destiny's Child member LeToya Luckett became the host after her. Braxton announced she was pregnant with her first child on March 13, 2013, during an interview on Good Morning America promoting the new season of Braxton Family Values. She gave birth to a son, Logan Vincent Herbert, on June 6, 2013.
In March 2013, it was revealed that Braxton had signed to Epic Records ahead of the release of her second album, Love and War. The album's lead single, the title track, was released on December 6, 2012. The song was a commercial success, spending 9 weeks at #1 on the Adult R&B Songs chart. Although the single reached number one on the US iTunes chart, it peaked at number 57 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 13 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.
Braxton released "The One" as the second single from Love and War on May 7, 2013; it peaked at number 34 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. The third single, "All the Way Home," was released August 21, 2013; it peaked at number 96 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 37 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. The song was followed by the release of Love and War on September 3, 2013. The album was a commercial success in the United States, selling 114,000 copies in its opening week, and debuting at number two on the Billboard 200 and number one on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. Outside the US, it debuted at number 34 on the UK R&B Albums Chart.
In 2013, Braxton became a co-host of the syndicated daytime talk show The Real alongside Adrienne Bailon, Loni Love, Jeannie Mai, and Tamera Mowry, which premiered on July 15, 2013. The second season of Tamar & Vince premiered on September 5, 2013. The second season is centered on the preparation and birth of the couple's baby, and her launch of Love and War. Braxton's special Listen Up: Tamar Braxton premiered on Centric in September 2013. Braxton's first Christmas album, Winter Loversland, was released on November 11, 2013; it debuted at number 43 on the Billboard 200 with 8,000 copies sold in its first week. In December 2013, Braxton received three nominations for the 56th Annual Grammy Awards; Best Urban Contemporary Album for Love and War, and Best R&B Song and Best R&B Performance for its title track.
2014–2018: Studio albums and Dancing with the Stars
On February 25, 2014, the remix of Robin Thicke's single "For the Rest of My Life" which features Braxton, was released as a digital single. Season 3 of Tamar & Vince premiered in October 2014, and it consisted of 10 episodes just like the previous seasons. On October 6, Braxton's new single "Let Me Know" featuring rapper Future peaked at #2 on the Billboard Trending 140 chart, less than an hour after its premiere on Braxton's official SoundCloud account and eventually reached #1 by 12:00 AM October 7. Billboard.com gave the song 4 out of 5 stars in its review of "The Best and Worst Singles of the Week" for the second week of October.
On May 27, 2015, the single "If I Don't Have You" was released. The song peaked at number 6 on the US Adult R&B Songs chart. Braxton's new album, Calling All Lovers, was released on October 2, 2015. The album peaked at number two on the US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums. On September 2, 2015, she was revealed as one of the celebrities who would be competing on the 21st season of Dancing with the Stars. She was paired with reigning champion, Valentin Chmerkovskiy. On November 11, Braxton revealed that she would have to withdraw from the competition due to health problems. Braxton and Chmerkovskiy finished in fifth place overall.
In October 2015, the group The Braxtons, including all five Braxton sisters, released a holiday album titled Braxton Family Christmas. On November 21, Braxton Family Christmas debuted at number 27 on the US Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, number 10 on the US R&B Chart and number 12 on US Top Holiday Albums on November 21, 2015. The album charted at number 4 on the US Heatseekers Albums on December 12, 2015. On December 7, 2015, Braxton received one Grammy nomination for "If I Don't Have You" at the 58th Annual Grammy Awards; Best R&B Performance from her latest album titled Calling All Lovers.
In May 2016, Braxton departed The Real. The following month, it was announced on The Steve Harvey Morning Show that Steve Harvey had signed Braxton to produce her own talk show and television series with East 112th Street Productions. In April 2017, it was announced that Braxton left Epic Records to sign with Entertainment One for a $1 million deal with the label. On April 27, 2017, Braxton released "My Man" from her fifth album, Bluebird of Happiness. The song peaked at number three on the US Adult R&B Songs Billboard. Bluebird of Happiness was released on September 29, 2017, through Logan Land Records and Entertainment One, with "Blind" released as its second single. The album reached the top of the Billboard independent chart.
On March 23, 2018, Braxton and sister Towanda guest starred on their sister Toni's music video "Long as I Live". In the same year, she appeared on Hip Hop Squares. On March 28, 2018, Braxton was featured on the Todrick Hall title "National Anthem", from his album Forbidden. That same year, Braxton co-starred in the stage play Redemption of a Dogg opposite Snoop Dogg. In Parallel, she was featured on the song "Lions And Tigers And Bears", from the Todrick Hall musical Straight Outta Oz.
2019–present: Television ventures
In 2019, Braxton appeared as a contestant in the second season of the American reality television series Celebrity Big Brother. The show premiered on CBS on January 21, 2019 and concluded on February 13, 2019. She went on to win the competition and become the first African-American person to win a season of Big Brother in the United States. In Big Brother tradition, Braxton appeared on the American television soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful, portraying a character named Chef Chambre. She taped her episode on February 20, 2019. The episode aired on Friday, March 29, 2019.
Braxton starred in the film True To The Game 2 alongside Vivica A. Fox, which premiered on April 10, 2020. In support of the film, she released a new song titled "Crazy Kind of Love", produced by Hitmaka, which was officially released on March 20, 2020. In April 2020, it was announced that Braxton would be hosting a reality television series for VH1 entitled To Catch A Beautician; the series premiered in June. In July, Braxton and We TV parted ways, with the network stating that it "will work with her representatives to honor her request to end all future work for the network." The We TV docuseries Tamar Braxton: Get Ya Life!, in which she starred, premiered in September 2020. Braxton has since then been featured on several songs for other artists such as, Mr.P and Elijah Blake. She also announced in early 2021 that she has started back recording music (after announcing retirement in 2017) and would releasing be two albums back to back, with the first slated for release in early 2022.
Artistry
Braxton possesses a five-octave soprano vocal range. She lists Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, Diana Ross, Kim Burrell, and her eldest sister, Toni, as some of her influences.
Personal life
Braxton is the youngest of her siblings including her sisters Toni, Traci, Towanda, and Trina, as well as her only brother Michael, Jr. On an episode of The Real, she revealed that she suffered from vitiligo. In November 2015, she discovered that she had several pulmonary emboli in her lungs, which forced her to withdraw from her work on Dancing with the Stars. During an interview in October 2020, Braxton stated that she had been diagnosed with anxiety and depression.
In 2001, Braxton was married to her first husband, music producer Darrell "Delite" Allamby. Allamby was a songwriter and producer who worked with his frequent songwriting partner Lincoln "Link" Browder, as well as Silk, Busta Rhymes and Gerald Levert. The two met while Allamby worked on her 2000 debut album's tracks "Money Can't Buy Me Love" and "Once Again". The couple divorced in 2003 after two years of marriage.
In 2003, Braxton began dating Vincent Herbert, a record executive whom she met through her sister, Toni. The couple married on November 27, 2008. Braxton gave birth to the couple's first child, a son named Logan Vincent, in 2013. In October 2017, Braxton filed for divorce from Herbert, citing "irreconcilable differences" and seeking joint custody of their son. Their divorce was finalized in July 2019.
Braxton was in a relationship with financial adviser David Adefeso. On July 16, 2020, Braxton was hospitalized following a suicide attempt. In September 2020, Adefeso filed a restraining order against Braxton for domestic violence.
Discography
Studio albums
Tamar (2000)
Love and War (2013)
Winter Loversland (2013)
Calling All Lovers (2015)
Bluebird of Happiness (2017)
Filmography
Tours
Headlining
2014: Love and War Tour
Opening act
2013: Love in the Future Tour
2014: Black Panties Tour
2015: The London Sessions Tour
2015: Promise To Love Tour
2017 : Lions And Tigers And Bears
2017-18: The Great Xscape Tour
2019 : Welcome To The Dungeon Tour
Awards and nominations
References
External links
1977 births
20th-century African-American women singers
21st-century African-American women singers
Actresses from Maryland
African-American actresses
African-American Methodists
African-American television personalities
American contemporary R&B singers
American film actresses
American sopranos
American soul singers
American television actresses
African-American television talk show hosts
American television talk show hosts
Big Brother (American TV series) winners
Big Brother (franchise) winners
The Braxtons members
Living people
Participants in American reality television series
People from Severn, Maryland
People with vitiligo
Singers from Maryland | false | [
"\"Good Life\" is a 1990 single by The Braxtons, featuring Toni Braxton and her four sisters: Towanda, Trina, Traci, and Tamar. \"Good Life\", written by the German songwriting/production team Klarmann/Weber, was Toni Braxton's first professional recording.\n\nToni Braxton and her sisters signed with Arista Records as The Braxtons in 1989. In 1990, they released \"Good Life\", their first and only single as a fivesome. The single, backed with \"Family\" as a B-side, reached #79 on the Billboard Hot Black Single charts. The song wasn't a major hit but it caught the attention of the songwriting/production team of L.A. Reid and Babyface, who had just formed their own label, LaFace Records (associated with Arista). Toni Braxton was signed with LaFace as a solo artist.\n\nThe Braxtons disbanded as a foursome but would later reunite as a threesome in 1996, when Trina, Tamar, and Towanda released So Many Ways on Atlantic Records. Traci was not signed because she was pregnant at the time. The Braxtons disbanded for good when Tamar left the group for a solo record deal.\n\n\"Good Life\" is featured on The Essential Toni Braxton.\n\nReferences \nBraxton Family values: 20 Fun Facts About Toni Braxton - article on WeTV\n\n1990 singles\nToni Braxton songs\nSongs written by Felix Weber (songwriter)\n1990 songs\nArista Records singles",
"Traci Renee Braxton (born April 2, 1971), is an American singer, reality television personality and radio personality. She is the younger sister of American R&B singer Toni Braxton.\n\nBraxton's solo debut album, Crash & Burn, was released in October 2014, preceded by the single \"Last Call\". \"Last Call\" peaked at number 16 on the US R&B Adult. \"Crash & Burn\" debuted at No. 108 on the Billboard Hot 200 with sales of 4,000 in its first week and reached No. 11 on the relaunched Billboard R&B Albums chart and at No. 1 on the Heatseekers Albums chart. In April 2018, she released the single \"Broken Things\" featuring her sisters Toni, Towanda and Trina. In August 2018, Traci Braxton released the song \"Lifeline\" as the official lead single from her second album, On Earth, which was released later that month.\n\nIn 2011, Braxton reunited with her sisters for the WE tv reality show Braxton Family Values. The first season was the No. 1 rated reality show on WE tv, and the network ordered a 13-episode second season of the show after the third episode. In 2013, Braxton got her own radio show called The Traci Braxton Show on the BLIS.F.M. radio. The show is a success.\n\nIn parallel to her singing career, she has acted in films such as Sinners Wanted (2018), All In (2019) and The Christmas Lottery (2020).\n\nEarly life \nShe was born in Severn, Maryland. Her father, Michael Conrad Braxton Sr., was a Methodist clergyman and power company worker, and her mother, Evelyn Jackson, a native of South Carolina, was a former opera singer and cosmetologist, as well as a pastor. Braxton's maternal grandfather was also a pastor.\n\nBraxton has an older brother, Michael Jr. (born in 1968), and four sisters, Toni (born in 1967), Towanda (born in 1973), Trina (born in 1974) and Tamar (born in 1977). Braxton and her siblings were raised in a strict religious household, and Braxton's first performing experience was singing in her church choir.\n\nCareer\n\n1989–1991: Career beginnings with The Braxtons \nToni, Traci, Towanda, Trina, and Tamar Braxton signed their first record deal with Arista Records in 1989. In 1990, they released their first single, \"Good Life\". It would be their only single as a fivesome. \"Good Life\" was not a hit, peaking at No. 79 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles chart. At the time of the single's release, the members' age differences created a problem with marketing. Subsequently, The Braxtons were dropped from Arista Records.\n\nIn 1991, during a showcase with Antonio \"L.A.\" Reid and Kenneth \"Babyface\" Edmonds, who were in the process of forming LaFace Records, Toni Braxton, minus her four sisters, was chosen and signed as the label's first female solo artist. At the time, the remaining members were told that LaFace was not looking for another girl group since it had just signed TLC.\n\n1992–1995: Career complications and pregnancy \n\nAfter Toni's departure from the group in 1991, the remaining Braxtons members became backup singers for Toni's first U.S. tour, music videos, and promotional appearances. Traci, Towanda, Trina, and Tamar were featured in the music video for Toni Braxton's third single, \"Seven Whole Days\", from her debut album.\n\nIn 1993, LaFace Records A&R Vice President, Bryant Reid, signed The Braxtons to LaFace. However, the group never released an album or single for the record label. When Reid moved on to work for Atlantic Records, he convinced executives at LaFace to allow him take the group to Atlantic also.\n\nIt was reported in Vibe magazine that in 1995 Traci Braxton had left the group to pursue a career as a youth counselor. However, it was not confirmed until 2004 when Towanda Braxton appeared in season 2 of the reality show Starting Over, that Traci was not allowed to sign with Atlantic because of her pregnancy at the time.\n\n2011–2014: Reality television \nIn 2011, Braxton reunited with her sisters for the WE tv reality show, Braxton Family Values. She makes appearances as backing vocal singer of her sisters in some shows over the years. In 2013, Braxton and her husband Kevin Surratt joined the third season of Marriage Boot Camp.\n\nIn 2013, Braxton began her solo career after signing with independent media conglomerate Entertainment One under eOne Music and Soul World Entertainment to released an album. The same year, she got her own radio show called The Traci Braxton show on the BLIS.F.M. radio.\n\nHer solo debut album, Crash & Burn, was released on October 7, 2014. The album's lead single \"Last Call\" peaked at number 16 on the US R&B Adult. \"Crash & Burn\" debuted at No. 108 on the Billboard Hot 200 with sales of 4,000 in its first week. The album also reached No. 11 on the relaunched Billboard R&B Albums chart and at No. 1 on the Heatseekers Albums chart. A follow-up single \"Perfect Time\" was released in 2015.\n\n2015–present: The Braxtons reunion, films and On Earth \nOn January 14, 2015, she joined the judging panel of Mrs. DC America 2015. In October 2015, The Braxtons released their second album Braxton Family Christmas. The album will be released on October 30 and pre-order on October 16. Braxton Family Christmas debuted at number 27 on the US Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, number 10 on the US R&B chart and number 12 on US Top Holiday Albums on November 21, 2015. The album charted at number 1 on the US Heatseekers Albums on December 12, 2015.\n\nOn May 17, 2016, during a Facebook live video on the Braxton Family Values page it was announced that Braxton will be releasing a new single in 2016 titled \"Body Shots\" from her upcoming second studio album.\n\nOn May 21, 2017, she starred on the stageplay There's a Stranger in My House. On September 26, 2017, Braxton was featured on the Kokayi rapper title \"Moonlight\".\n\nOn April 20, 2018, she released the single \"Broken Things\" featuring her sisters Toni, Towanda and Trina. On August 3, 2018, Traci Braxton released \"Lifeline\" as the official lead single from her second album, On Earth, which was released on August 24, 2018\n\nIn the same time, she made her movie acting debut in the feature film Sinners Wanted. On June 13, 2019, she acted in the film, All In, starring Lil Mama.\n\nOn December 12, 2020, she starred in the film The Christmas Lottery.\n\nOn September 24, 2021, she was featured on the song \"Stay with Me\", performed by Candiace, taken from her album Deep Space.\n\nDiscography\n\nAlbums\n\nSingles\n\nAppearances \nFilm\n2018: Sinners Wanted: Nana\n2019: All In: Foster Mom\n2020: The Christmas Lottery: Announcer\n\nTelevision\n Braxton Family Values (as herself, 2011–present)\n Marriage Boot Camp (as herself, 2014)\n\nRadio\n The Traci Braxton Show\n\nTheater\n There's a Stranger in My House (2017)\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n\n1971 births\nLiving people\nPeople from Severn, Maryland\nMusicians from Maryland\nThe Braxtons members\nAmerican contemporary R&B singers\n21st-century African-American women singers\nAmerican Methodists"
]
|
[
"Tamar Braxton",
"1977-99: Early life and career beginnings",
"Where was Tamar Braxton born?",
"Tamar Estine Braxton was born in Severn, Maryland",
"When did Tamar Braxton started singing?",
"Tamar started singing as a toddler.",
"How many siblings does Tamar Braxton have?",
"The youngest of the Braxtons' six children,",
"When did Braxton release her first single?",
"In 1990, they released their first single,",
"Did the single do well on the charts?",
"\". \"Good Life\" was unsuccessful only peaking at No. 79 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles chart.",
"Who was the first record company that Braxton signed up with?",
"Sisters Toni, Traci, Towanda, Trina, and Tamar Braxton signed their first record deal with Arista Records"
]
| C_00103a91805c44b497270c6971e3d702_1 | What did Arista Records do with the Braxtons when their single didn't do well? | 7 | What did Arista Records do with the Braxtons when their single didn't do well? | Tamar Braxton | Tamar Estine Braxton was born in Severn, Maryland on March 17, 1977 to Michael and Evelyn Braxton. The youngest of the Braxtons' six children, Tamar started singing as a toddler. The Braxton children would eventually enter in their church choir, where their father Michael Braxton was a pastor. Sisters Toni, Traci, Towanda, Trina, and Tamar Braxton signed their first record deal with Arista Records in 1989. In 1990, they released their first single, "Good Life". "Good Life" was unsuccessful only peaking at No. 79 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles chart. At the time of the single's release, the members' age differences created a problem with marketing. Subsequently, The Braxtons were dropped from Arista Records. In 1991, during a showcase with L.A. Reid and Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, who were in the process of forming LaFace Records, Toni Braxton, minus her four sisters, was chosen and signed as the label's first female solo artist. At the time, the remaining members were told that LaFace was not looking for another girl group since it had just signed TLC. After Toni's departure from the group, the remaining Braxtons members became backup singers for Toni's first tour, music videos, and promotional appearances. Traci, Towanda, Trina, and Tamar were featured in the music video for Toni Braxton's third single, "Seven Whole Days", from her self-titled debut album. In 1993, LaFace Records A&R Vice President, Bryant Reid, signed The Braxtons to LaFace. However, the group never released an album or single for the label. When Reid moved on to work for Atlantic Records, he convinced executives at LaFace to allow him take the group to Atlantic also. It was reported in Vibe magazine that in 1995, Traci Braxton had left the group to pursue a career as a youth counselor. However, it was not confirmed until a 2011 promotional appearance on The Mo'Nique Show, that Traci was not allowed to sign with Atlantic because of her pregnancy at the time. In 1996, Tamar, Trina, and Towanda returned with a new album entitled So Many Ways, which peaked at No. 26 on the Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. At the time of its release, Reid told Billboard Magazine, "I had a vision for them then that was about young sophistication with sex appeal." The trio also performed a remixed version of "So Many Ways" with rapper Jay-Z on September 9, 1996 at the Soul Train Lady of Soul Awards. So Many Ways went on to peak at No. 83 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and number 32 on the UK Singles Chart. Braxton and her fellow The Braxtons members served as the opening act for Toni Braxton on the European Leg of her Secrets Tour in 1997. The Braxtons decided to part ways as a group after lead singer Tamar Braxton left to pursue a solo career with DreamWorks Records in 1998. CANNOTANSWER | The Braxtons were dropped from Arista Records. | Tamar Estine Braxton (born March 17, 1977) is an American singer and television personality.
Braxton began her career in 1990 as a founding member of The Braxtons, an R&B singing group formed with her sisters. The Braxtons released their debut album, So Many Ways, as a trio in 1996, and disbanded shortly afterward. In 2000, she released her debut self-titled album through DreamWorks Records. Following a thirteen-year break, Braxton released her second studio album, Love and War (2013), through Epic Records, which reached the number two position on the Billboard 200 chart. She later released her fourth and fifth albums, Calling All Lovers (2015) and Bluebird of Happiness (2017), respectively. Braxton has won a BET Award and three Soul Train Music Awards throughout her career. She has also been nominated for four Grammy Awards.
Since 2011, Braxton has starred in the We TV reality television series Braxton Family Values alongside her mother and sisters. She also served as a co-host on the Fox syndicated daytime talk show The Real from 2013 until 2016, for which she received two Daytime Emmy Award nominations. In 2019, she won the second season of Celebrity Big Brother.
Life and career
1977–1999: Early life and career beginnings
Tamar Estine Braxton was born to Michael and Evelyn Braxton in Severn, Maryland on March 17, 1977. The youngest of the Braxtons' six children, Braxton started singing as a toddler. The Braxton children would eventually enter in their church choir, where their father Michael Braxton was a pastor. She and her sisters Toni, Traci, Towanda, and Trina, signed their first record deal with Arista Records in 1989. In 1990, they released their first single, "Good Life", which peaked at No. 79 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles chart. At the time of the single's release, the members' age differences created a problem with marketing. Subsequently, The Braxtons were dropped from Arista Records.
In 1991, during a showcase with L.A. Reid and Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, who were in the process of forming LaFace Records, Toni Braxton, minus her four sisters, was chosen and signed as the label's first female solo artist. At the time, the remaining members were told that LaFace was not looking for another girl group since it had just signed TLC. After Toni's departure from the group, the remaining Braxtons members became backup singers for Toni's first tour, music videos, and promotional appearances. She and her sisters Traci, Towanda, and Trina were featured in the music video for Toni Braxton's third single, "Seven Whole Days", from her self-titled debut album.
In 1993, LaFace Records A&R Vice President, Bryant Reid, signed The Braxtons to LaFace. However, the group never released an album or single for the label. When Reid moved on to work for Atlantic Records, he convinced executives at LaFace to allow him to take the group to Atlantic also. It was reported in Vibe magazine that in 1995, Traci Braxton had left the group to pursue a career as a youth counselor. However, it was not confirmed until a 2011 promotional appearance on The Mo'Nique Show, that Traci was not allowed to sign with Atlantic because of her pregnancy at the time.
In 1996, Tamar, Trina, and Towanda returned with a new album entitled So Many Ways, which peaked at No. 26 on the Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. At the time of its release, Reid told Billboard magazine, "I had a vision for them then that was about young sophistication with sex appeal." The trio also performed a remixed version of "So Many Ways" with rapper Jay-Z on September 9, 1996 at the Soul Train Lady of Soul Awards. So Many Ways went on to peak at No. 83 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and number 32 on the UK Singles Chart. Braxton and her fellow group members served as the opening act for Toni Braxton on the European Leg of her Secrets Tour in 1997. The Braxtons decided to part ways as a group after Braxton left to pursue a solo career with DreamWorks Records in 1998.
2000–2009: Tamar and label troubles
Later, Braxton met Christopher "Tricky" Stewart. She recorded her solo debut album, Ridiculous, so-named for the many different musical styles on the album. The album spawned two buzz singles ("Let Him Go" and "Just Cuz") in hopes of garnering attention from the public eye; however, when the songs failed to gain impact on urban radio outlets, the album was pushed back and canceled. That same year, Braxton was featured on Sole's, "4 The Love of You." Instead of shelving the album, Dreamworks Records abandoned 3 old tracks, added new ones, and renamed it Tamar. The lead single "Get None" was produced by Jermaine "J.D." Dupri and also featured rap verses from him as well as former Jay-Z protégée Amil. The song also included uncredited background vocals and songwriting by R&B singer Mýa. As soon as the song began to pick up airplay, Braxton announced the album would be released in early 2000, alongside a second single, "If You Don't Wanna Love Me". The album featured production from Missy Elliott, Tim & Bob, and Tricky Stewart, but still peaked at number 127 on the Billboard 200. When the album's second single failed to gain significant radio airplay, her label dropped her from their roster.
In 2001, Braxton's previously unreleased song "Try Me" appeared on the soundtrack album for the film Kingdom Come. She also began to work alongside her sister Toni Braxton in a number of songs and music video cameos, including the video for "He Wasn't Man Enough." She performed, co-wrote and sang background vocals on songs for Toni's albums, The Heat (2000), Snowflakes (2001), More than a Woman (2002), Libra (2005) and Pulse (2010). When her sister launched her Las Vegas revue Toni Braxton: Revealed, Braxton again sang backup until she was replaced by singer Sparkle.
By 2004, Braxton was signed to Tommy Mottola's reactivated Casablanca Records and began work on her second album. A "Grindin'"-influenced single, "I'm Leaving," was released with a guest appearance from Bump J. alongside promotional remixes featuring Sheek Louch, Styles P. and Ali Vegas.
2010–2013: Television debut and Love and War
In 2010, Braxton signed to Universal Records, where she released a single "The Heart In Me" in July of that year which was included on the Adidas 2: The Music compilation. Her momentum with Universal would not rise to a satisfactory level to launch a second album. In January 2010, We TV confirmed that it had signed Braxton and her mother and sisters for a reality television series titled Braxton Family Values. The show premiered on April 12, 2011. On December 15, 2011, it was confirmed that Braxton and her husband Vincent would star in their own reality series centered on her solo career and their married life. In November 2011, Braxton performed "Love Overboard" at the 2011 Soul Train Awards for Lifetime Achievement recipient Gladys Knight. In September 2012, news broke that Braxton had inked a fresh recording contract with Streamline Records, an imprint of Interscope Records founded by Vincent. Later that month, her reality television show Tamar & Vince premiered on We TV.
Braxton was the featured model for the "Front Row Couture" collection during the "ELLE/Style360" NYC Fashion Week event. Braxton was a co-host of Tameka Cottle's late night talk show, Tiny Tonight, on VH1. Basketball Wives star Tami Roman became a co-host after Braxton. Later, she hosted The Culturelist, a show on BET's sister channel Centric. Former Destiny's Child member LeToya Luckett became the host after her. Braxton announced she was pregnant with her first child on March 13, 2013, during an interview on Good Morning America promoting the new season of Braxton Family Values. She gave birth to a son, Logan Vincent Herbert, on June 6, 2013.
In March 2013, it was revealed that Braxton had signed to Epic Records ahead of the release of her second album, Love and War. The album's lead single, the title track, was released on December 6, 2012. The song was a commercial success, spending 9 weeks at #1 on the Adult R&B Songs chart. Although the single reached number one on the US iTunes chart, it peaked at number 57 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 13 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.
Braxton released "The One" as the second single from Love and War on May 7, 2013; it peaked at number 34 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. The third single, "All the Way Home," was released August 21, 2013; it peaked at number 96 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 37 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. The song was followed by the release of Love and War on September 3, 2013. The album was a commercial success in the United States, selling 114,000 copies in its opening week, and debuting at number two on the Billboard 200 and number one on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. Outside the US, it debuted at number 34 on the UK R&B Albums Chart.
In 2013, Braxton became a co-host of the syndicated daytime talk show The Real alongside Adrienne Bailon, Loni Love, Jeannie Mai, and Tamera Mowry, which premiered on July 15, 2013. The second season of Tamar & Vince premiered on September 5, 2013. The second season is centered on the preparation and birth of the couple's baby, and her launch of Love and War. Braxton's special Listen Up: Tamar Braxton premiered on Centric in September 2013. Braxton's first Christmas album, Winter Loversland, was released on November 11, 2013; it debuted at number 43 on the Billboard 200 with 8,000 copies sold in its first week. In December 2013, Braxton received three nominations for the 56th Annual Grammy Awards; Best Urban Contemporary Album for Love and War, and Best R&B Song and Best R&B Performance for its title track.
2014–2018: Studio albums and Dancing with the Stars
On February 25, 2014, the remix of Robin Thicke's single "For the Rest of My Life" which features Braxton, was released as a digital single. Season 3 of Tamar & Vince premiered in October 2014, and it consisted of 10 episodes just like the previous seasons. On October 6, Braxton's new single "Let Me Know" featuring rapper Future peaked at #2 on the Billboard Trending 140 chart, less than an hour after its premiere on Braxton's official SoundCloud account and eventually reached #1 by 12:00 AM October 7. Billboard.com gave the song 4 out of 5 stars in its review of "The Best and Worst Singles of the Week" for the second week of October.
On May 27, 2015, the single "If I Don't Have You" was released. The song peaked at number 6 on the US Adult R&B Songs chart. Braxton's new album, Calling All Lovers, was released on October 2, 2015. The album peaked at number two on the US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums. On September 2, 2015, she was revealed as one of the celebrities who would be competing on the 21st season of Dancing with the Stars. She was paired with reigning champion, Valentin Chmerkovskiy. On November 11, Braxton revealed that she would have to withdraw from the competition due to health problems. Braxton and Chmerkovskiy finished in fifth place overall.
In October 2015, the group The Braxtons, including all five Braxton sisters, released a holiday album titled Braxton Family Christmas. On November 21, Braxton Family Christmas debuted at number 27 on the US Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, number 10 on the US R&B Chart and number 12 on US Top Holiday Albums on November 21, 2015. The album charted at number 4 on the US Heatseekers Albums on December 12, 2015. On December 7, 2015, Braxton received one Grammy nomination for "If I Don't Have You" at the 58th Annual Grammy Awards; Best R&B Performance from her latest album titled Calling All Lovers.
In May 2016, Braxton departed The Real. The following month, it was announced on The Steve Harvey Morning Show that Steve Harvey had signed Braxton to produce her own talk show and television series with East 112th Street Productions. In April 2017, it was announced that Braxton left Epic Records to sign with Entertainment One for a $1 million deal with the label. On April 27, 2017, Braxton released "My Man" from her fifth album, Bluebird of Happiness. The song peaked at number three on the US Adult R&B Songs Billboard. Bluebird of Happiness was released on September 29, 2017, through Logan Land Records and Entertainment One, with "Blind" released as its second single. The album reached the top of the Billboard independent chart.
On March 23, 2018, Braxton and sister Towanda guest starred on their sister Toni's music video "Long as I Live". In the same year, she appeared on Hip Hop Squares. On March 28, 2018, Braxton was featured on the Todrick Hall title "National Anthem", from his album Forbidden. That same year, Braxton co-starred in the stage play Redemption of a Dogg opposite Snoop Dogg. In Parallel, she was featured on the song "Lions And Tigers And Bears", from the Todrick Hall musical Straight Outta Oz.
2019–present: Television ventures
In 2019, Braxton appeared as a contestant in the second season of the American reality television series Celebrity Big Brother. The show premiered on CBS on January 21, 2019 and concluded on February 13, 2019. She went on to win the competition and become the first African-American person to win a season of Big Brother in the United States. In Big Brother tradition, Braxton appeared on the American television soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful, portraying a character named Chef Chambre. She taped her episode on February 20, 2019. The episode aired on Friday, March 29, 2019.
Braxton starred in the film True To The Game 2 alongside Vivica A. Fox, which premiered on April 10, 2020. In support of the film, she released a new song titled "Crazy Kind of Love", produced by Hitmaka, which was officially released on March 20, 2020. In April 2020, it was announced that Braxton would be hosting a reality television series for VH1 entitled To Catch A Beautician; the series premiered in June. In July, Braxton and We TV parted ways, with the network stating that it "will work with her representatives to honor her request to end all future work for the network." The We TV docuseries Tamar Braxton: Get Ya Life!, in which she starred, premiered in September 2020. Braxton has since then been featured on several songs for other artists such as, Mr.P and Elijah Blake. She also announced in early 2021 that she has started back recording music (after announcing retirement in 2017) and would releasing be two albums back to back, with the first slated for release in early 2022.
Artistry
Braxton possesses a five-octave soprano vocal range. She lists Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, Diana Ross, Kim Burrell, and her eldest sister, Toni, as some of her influences.
Personal life
Braxton is the youngest of her siblings including her sisters Toni, Traci, Towanda, and Trina, as well as her only brother Michael, Jr. On an episode of The Real, she revealed that she suffered from vitiligo. In November 2015, she discovered that she had several pulmonary emboli in her lungs, which forced her to withdraw from her work on Dancing with the Stars. During an interview in October 2020, Braxton stated that she had been diagnosed with anxiety and depression.
In 2001, Braxton was married to her first husband, music producer Darrell "Delite" Allamby. Allamby was a songwriter and producer who worked with his frequent songwriting partner Lincoln "Link" Browder, as well as Silk, Busta Rhymes and Gerald Levert. The two met while Allamby worked on her 2000 debut album's tracks "Money Can't Buy Me Love" and "Once Again". The couple divorced in 2003 after two years of marriage.
In 2003, Braxton began dating Vincent Herbert, a record executive whom she met through her sister, Toni. The couple married on November 27, 2008. Braxton gave birth to the couple's first child, a son named Logan Vincent, in 2013. In October 2017, Braxton filed for divorce from Herbert, citing "irreconcilable differences" and seeking joint custody of their son. Their divorce was finalized in July 2019.
Braxton was in a relationship with financial adviser David Adefeso. On July 16, 2020, Braxton was hospitalized following a suicide attempt. In September 2020, Adefeso filed a restraining order against Braxton for domestic violence.
Discography
Studio albums
Tamar (2000)
Love and War (2013)
Winter Loversland (2013)
Calling All Lovers (2015)
Bluebird of Happiness (2017)
Filmography
Tours
Headlining
2014: Love and War Tour
Opening act
2013: Love in the Future Tour
2014: Black Panties Tour
2015: The London Sessions Tour
2015: Promise To Love Tour
2017 : Lions And Tigers And Bears
2017-18: The Great Xscape Tour
2019 : Welcome To The Dungeon Tour
Awards and nominations
References
External links
1977 births
20th-century African-American women singers
21st-century African-American women singers
Actresses from Maryland
African-American actresses
African-American Methodists
African-American television personalities
American contemporary R&B singers
American film actresses
American sopranos
American soul singers
American television actresses
African-American television talk show hosts
American television talk show hosts
Big Brother (American TV series) winners
Big Brother (franchise) winners
The Braxtons members
Living people
Participants in American reality television series
People from Severn, Maryland
People with vitiligo
Singers from Maryland | true | [
"\"Good Life\" is a 1990 single by The Braxtons, featuring Toni Braxton and her four sisters: Towanda, Trina, Traci, and Tamar. \"Good Life\", written by the German songwriting/production team Klarmann/Weber, was Toni Braxton's first professional recording.\n\nToni Braxton and her sisters signed with Arista Records as The Braxtons in 1989. In 1990, they released \"Good Life\", their first and only single as a fivesome. The single, backed with \"Family\" as a B-side, reached #79 on the Billboard Hot Black Single charts. The song wasn't a major hit but it caught the attention of the songwriting/production team of L.A. Reid and Babyface, who had just formed their own label, LaFace Records (associated with Arista). Toni Braxton was signed with LaFace as a solo artist.\n\nThe Braxtons disbanded as a foursome but would later reunite as a threesome in 1996, when Trina, Tamar, and Towanda released So Many Ways on Atlantic Records. Traci was not signed because she was pregnant at the time. The Braxtons disbanded for good when Tamar left the group for a solo record deal.\n\n\"Good Life\" is featured on The Essential Toni Braxton.\n\nReferences \nBraxton Family values: 20 Fun Facts About Toni Braxton - article on WeTV\n\n1990 singles\nToni Braxton songs\nSongs written by Felix Weber (songwriter)\n1990 songs\nArista Records singles",
"Zones were a Scottish power pop and new wave band founded in late 1977, following the demise of PVC2 (formerly the bubbleglam and soft rock band Slik).\n\nCareer\nPVC2 consisted of Midge Ure (future Ultravox frontman) on guitar and vocals, Russell Webb on bass, Billy McIsaac on keyboards and Kenny Hyslop on drums. In late 1977, Ure left PVC2 to join Rich Kids with Glen Matlock. Then, Webb, Hyslop and McIsaac called in Alex Harvey's cousin Willie Gardner to replace Ure on guitar and vocals, and Zones was formed.\n\nIn February 1978, Zones released a single \"Stuck with You\", which attracted the attention of BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel, leading to the band recording a session for his show. It also drew the attention of Arista Records, who signed them and would release the rest of their discography.\n\nTheir next single, \"Sign of the Times\", released in July. Zones also toured with Magazine and recorded a further session for John Peel. On 1 June 1979, Zones released Under Influence, an album of post-punk power pop.\n\nShortly afterwards, they released a 7\" single called \"Mourning Star\", whose eponymous song (a shorter version of the album song) was backed with \"Under Influence\" (which did not appear on the album, despite the name being the same). They also had a song that was featured in the movie That Summer! entitled \"New Life.\" Shortly afterwards, the band decided to split up, as the album did not reach expectations.\n\nGardner joined Endgames, with Simple Minds' original drummer Brian McGee. McIsaac and Hyslop continued with a project called Science, a band considered as a continuation of Zones, but only McIsaac was the supposedly remaining member. Webb and Hyslop joined Skids.\n\nIn 1990, McIsaac moved to study piano performance college at the Royal Academy of Music in Glasglow, and later formed a self-titled wedding band, which he played in until retiring in 2012.\n\nWebb collaborated with Skids' singer Richard Jobson (Skids singer) until 1988, and Hyslop, after collaborating with Skids album, Joy, moved to Simple Minds (1981–1982) and later Set the Tone (1982–1983).\n\nDiscography\nAlbums\n1979 – Under Influence (Arista Records, 1 June 1979) (released in four various album covers.)\n1979 – That Summer! soundtrack (Various artists compilation) (Arista Records) (song: \"New Life\")\n\nSingles\n1978 – \"Stuck with You\" b/w \"No Angel\" (Zoom Records, 17 February 1978)\n1978 – \"Sign of the Times\" b/w \"Away from It All\" (Arista Records, July 1978)\n1979 – \"Looking to the Future\" b/w \"Do It All Again\" (Arista Records, 24 May 1979)\n1979 – \"Mourning Star\" b/w \"Under Influence\" (Arista Records, 20 July 1979)\n1980 – \"Look Don't Touch\" b/w \"Scalectrik\" (Rialto Records, June 1980) (As \"Science.\")\n1981 – \"Tokyo\" b/w \"Tokyo (instrumental)\" (Rialto Records, January 1981) (As \"Science.\")\n\nSee also\nList of Peel sessions\nList of British punk bands\n\nReferences\n\nScottish new wave musical groups\nMusical groups from Glasgow\nMusical groups established in 1977\nMusical groups disestablished in 1979\nArista Records artists\nScottish power pop groups\nScottish punk rock groups\nScottish post-punk music groups"
]
|
[
"Tamar Braxton",
"1977-99: Early life and career beginnings",
"Where was Tamar Braxton born?",
"Tamar Estine Braxton was born in Severn, Maryland",
"When did Tamar Braxton started singing?",
"Tamar started singing as a toddler.",
"How many siblings does Tamar Braxton have?",
"The youngest of the Braxtons' six children,",
"When did Braxton release her first single?",
"In 1990, they released their first single,",
"Did the single do well on the charts?",
"\". \"Good Life\" was unsuccessful only peaking at No. 79 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles chart.",
"Who was the first record company that Braxton signed up with?",
"Sisters Toni, Traci, Towanda, Trina, and Tamar Braxton signed their first record deal with Arista Records",
"What did Arista Records do with the Braxtons when their single didn't do well?",
"The Braxtons were dropped from Arista Records."
]
| C_00103a91805c44b497270c6971e3d702_1 | What did Toni Braxton do after she was dropped from Arista Records? | 8 | What happened to Toni Braxton career after the Braxtons were dropped from Arista Records? | Tamar Braxton | Tamar Estine Braxton was born in Severn, Maryland on March 17, 1977 to Michael and Evelyn Braxton. The youngest of the Braxtons' six children, Tamar started singing as a toddler. The Braxton children would eventually enter in their church choir, where their father Michael Braxton was a pastor. Sisters Toni, Traci, Towanda, Trina, and Tamar Braxton signed their first record deal with Arista Records in 1989. In 1990, they released their first single, "Good Life". "Good Life" was unsuccessful only peaking at No. 79 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles chart. At the time of the single's release, the members' age differences created a problem with marketing. Subsequently, The Braxtons were dropped from Arista Records. In 1991, during a showcase with L.A. Reid and Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, who were in the process of forming LaFace Records, Toni Braxton, minus her four sisters, was chosen and signed as the label's first female solo artist. At the time, the remaining members were told that LaFace was not looking for another girl group since it had just signed TLC. After Toni's departure from the group, the remaining Braxtons members became backup singers for Toni's first tour, music videos, and promotional appearances. Traci, Towanda, Trina, and Tamar were featured in the music video for Toni Braxton's third single, "Seven Whole Days", from her self-titled debut album. In 1993, LaFace Records A&R Vice President, Bryant Reid, signed The Braxtons to LaFace. However, the group never released an album or single for the label. When Reid moved on to work for Atlantic Records, he convinced executives at LaFace to allow him take the group to Atlantic also. It was reported in Vibe magazine that in 1995, Traci Braxton had left the group to pursue a career as a youth counselor. However, it was not confirmed until a 2011 promotional appearance on The Mo'Nique Show, that Traci was not allowed to sign with Atlantic because of her pregnancy at the time. In 1996, Tamar, Trina, and Towanda returned with a new album entitled So Many Ways, which peaked at No. 26 on the Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. At the time of its release, Reid told Billboard Magazine, "I had a vision for them then that was about young sophistication with sex appeal." The trio also performed a remixed version of "So Many Ways" with rapper Jay-Z on September 9, 1996 at the Soul Train Lady of Soul Awards. So Many Ways went on to peak at No. 83 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and number 32 on the UK Singles Chart. Braxton and her fellow The Braxtons members served as the opening act for Toni Braxton on the European Leg of her Secrets Tour in 1997. The Braxtons decided to part ways as a group after lead singer Tamar Braxton left to pursue a solo career with DreamWorks Records in 1998. CANNOTANSWER | Toni Braxton, minus her four sisters, was chosen and signed as the label's first female solo artist. | Tamar Estine Braxton (born March 17, 1977) is an American singer and television personality.
Braxton began her career in 1990 as a founding member of The Braxtons, an R&B singing group formed with her sisters. The Braxtons released their debut album, So Many Ways, as a trio in 1996, and disbanded shortly afterward. In 2000, she released her debut self-titled album through DreamWorks Records. Following a thirteen-year break, Braxton released her second studio album, Love and War (2013), through Epic Records, which reached the number two position on the Billboard 200 chart. She later released her fourth and fifth albums, Calling All Lovers (2015) and Bluebird of Happiness (2017), respectively. Braxton has won a BET Award and three Soul Train Music Awards throughout her career. She has also been nominated for four Grammy Awards.
Since 2011, Braxton has starred in the We TV reality television series Braxton Family Values alongside her mother and sisters. She also served as a co-host on the Fox syndicated daytime talk show The Real from 2013 until 2016, for which she received two Daytime Emmy Award nominations. In 2019, she won the second season of Celebrity Big Brother.
Life and career
1977–1999: Early life and career beginnings
Tamar Estine Braxton was born to Michael and Evelyn Braxton in Severn, Maryland on March 17, 1977. The youngest of the Braxtons' six children, Braxton started singing as a toddler. The Braxton children would eventually enter in their church choir, where their father Michael Braxton was a pastor. She and her sisters Toni, Traci, Towanda, and Trina, signed their first record deal with Arista Records in 1989. In 1990, they released their first single, "Good Life", which peaked at No. 79 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles chart. At the time of the single's release, the members' age differences created a problem with marketing. Subsequently, The Braxtons were dropped from Arista Records.
In 1991, during a showcase with L.A. Reid and Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, who were in the process of forming LaFace Records, Toni Braxton, minus her four sisters, was chosen and signed as the label's first female solo artist. At the time, the remaining members were told that LaFace was not looking for another girl group since it had just signed TLC. After Toni's departure from the group, the remaining Braxtons members became backup singers for Toni's first tour, music videos, and promotional appearances. She and her sisters Traci, Towanda, and Trina were featured in the music video for Toni Braxton's third single, "Seven Whole Days", from her self-titled debut album.
In 1993, LaFace Records A&R Vice President, Bryant Reid, signed The Braxtons to LaFace. However, the group never released an album or single for the label. When Reid moved on to work for Atlantic Records, he convinced executives at LaFace to allow him to take the group to Atlantic also. It was reported in Vibe magazine that in 1995, Traci Braxton had left the group to pursue a career as a youth counselor. However, it was not confirmed until a 2011 promotional appearance on The Mo'Nique Show, that Traci was not allowed to sign with Atlantic because of her pregnancy at the time.
In 1996, Tamar, Trina, and Towanda returned with a new album entitled So Many Ways, which peaked at No. 26 on the Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. At the time of its release, Reid told Billboard magazine, "I had a vision for them then that was about young sophistication with sex appeal." The trio also performed a remixed version of "So Many Ways" with rapper Jay-Z on September 9, 1996 at the Soul Train Lady of Soul Awards. So Many Ways went on to peak at No. 83 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and number 32 on the UK Singles Chart. Braxton and her fellow group members served as the opening act for Toni Braxton on the European Leg of her Secrets Tour in 1997. The Braxtons decided to part ways as a group after Braxton left to pursue a solo career with DreamWorks Records in 1998.
2000–2009: Tamar and label troubles
Later, Braxton met Christopher "Tricky" Stewart. She recorded her solo debut album, Ridiculous, so-named for the many different musical styles on the album. The album spawned two buzz singles ("Let Him Go" and "Just Cuz") in hopes of garnering attention from the public eye; however, when the songs failed to gain impact on urban radio outlets, the album was pushed back and canceled. That same year, Braxton was featured on Sole's, "4 The Love of You." Instead of shelving the album, Dreamworks Records abandoned 3 old tracks, added new ones, and renamed it Tamar. The lead single "Get None" was produced by Jermaine "J.D." Dupri and also featured rap verses from him as well as former Jay-Z protégée Amil. The song also included uncredited background vocals and songwriting by R&B singer Mýa. As soon as the song began to pick up airplay, Braxton announced the album would be released in early 2000, alongside a second single, "If You Don't Wanna Love Me". The album featured production from Missy Elliott, Tim & Bob, and Tricky Stewart, but still peaked at number 127 on the Billboard 200. When the album's second single failed to gain significant radio airplay, her label dropped her from their roster.
In 2001, Braxton's previously unreleased song "Try Me" appeared on the soundtrack album for the film Kingdom Come. She also began to work alongside her sister Toni Braxton in a number of songs and music video cameos, including the video for "He Wasn't Man Enough." She performed, co-wrote and sang background vocals on songs for Toni's albums, The Heat (2000), Snowflakes (2001), More than a Woman (2002), Libra (2005) and Pulse (2010). When her sister launched her Las Vegas revue Toni Braxton: Revealed, Braxton again sang backup until she was replaced by singer Sparkle.
By 2004, Braxton was signed to Tommy Mottola's reactivated Casablanca Records and began work on her second album. A "Grindin'"-influenced single, "I'm Leaving," was released with a guest appearance from Bump J. alongside promotional remixes featuring Sheek Louch, Styles P. and Ali Vegas.
2010–2013: Television debut and Love and War
In 2010, Braxton signed to Universal Records, where she released a single "The Heart In Me" in July of that year which was included on the Adidas 2: The Music compilation. Her momentum with Universal would not rise to a satisfactory level to launch a second album. In January 2010, We TV confirmed that it had signed Braxton and her mother and sisters for a reality television series titled Braxton Family Values. The show premiered on April 12, 2011. On December 15, 2011, it was confirmed that Braxton and her husband Vincent would star in their own reality series centered on her solo career and their married life. In November 2011, Braxton performed "Love Overboard" at the 2011 Soul Train Awards for Lifetime Achievement recipient Gladys Knight. In September 2012, news broke that Braxton had inked a fresh recording contract with Streamline Records, an imprint of Interscope Records founded by Vincent. Later that month, her reality television show Tamar & Vince premiered on We TV.
Braxton was the featured model for the "Front Row Couture" collection during the "ELLE/Style360" NYC Fashion Week event. Braxton was a co-host of Tameka Cottle's late night talk show, Tiny Tonight, on VH1. Basketball Wives star Tami Roman became a co-host after Braxton. Later, she hosted The Culturelist, a show on BET's sister channel Centric. Former Destiny's Child member LeToya Luckett became the host after her. Braxton announced she was pregnant with her first child on March 13, 2013, during an interview on Good Morning America promoting the new season of Braxton Family Values. She gave birth to a son, Logan Vincent Herbert, on June 6, 2013.
In March 2013, it was revealed that Braxton had signed to Epic Records ahead of the release of her second album, Love and War. The album's lead single, the title track, was released on December 6, 2012. The song was a commercial success, spending 9 weeks at #1 on the Adult R&B Songs chart. Although the single reached number one on the US iTunes chart, it peaked at number 57 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 13 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.
Braxton released "The One" as the second single from Love and War on May 7, 2013; it peaked at number 34 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. The third single, "All the Way Home," was released August 21, 2013; it peaked at number 96 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 37 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. The song was followed by the release of Love and War on September 3, 2013. The album was a commercial success in the United States, selling 114,000 copies in its opening week, and debuting at number two on the Billboard 200 and number one on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. Outside the US, it debuted at number 34 on the UK R&B Albums Chart.
In 2013, Braxton became a co-host of the syndicated daytime talk show The Real alongside Adrienne Bailon, Loni Love, Jeannie Mai, and Tamera Mowry, which premiered on July 15, 2013. The second season of Tamar & Vince premiered on September 5, 2013. The second season is centered on the preparation and birth of the couple's baby, and her launch of Love and War. Braxton's special Listen Up: Tamar Braxton premiered on Centric in September 2013. Braxton's first Christmas album, Winter Loversland, was released on November 11, 2013; it debuted at number 43 on the Billboard 200 with 8,000 copies sold in its first week. In December 2013, Braxton received three nominations for the 56th Annual Grammy Awards; Best Urban Contemporary Album for Love and War, and Best R&B Song and Best R&B Performance for its title track.
2014–2018: Studio albums and Dancing with the Stars
On February 25, 2014, the remix of Robin Thicke's single "For the Rest of My Life" which features Braxton, was released as a digital single. Season 3 of Tamar & Vince premiered in October 2014, and it consisted of 10 episodes just like the previous seasons. On October 6, Braxton's new single "Let Me Know" featuring rapper Future peaked at #2 on the Billboard Trending 140 chart, less than an hour after its premiere on Braxton's official SoundCloud account and eventually reached #1 by 12:00 AM October 7. Billboard.com gave the song 4 out of 5 stars in its review of "The Best and Worst Singles of the Week" for the second week of October.
On May 27, 2015, the single "If I Don't Have You" was released. The song peaked at number 6 on the US Adult R&B Songs chart. Braxton's new album, Calling All Lovers, was released on October 2, 2015. The album peaked at number two on the US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums. On September 2, 2015, she was revealed as one of the celebrities who would be competing on the 21st season of Dancing with the Stars. She was paired with reigning champion, Valentin Chmerkovskiy. On November 11, Braxton revealed that she would have to withdraw from the competition due to health problems. Braxton and Chmerkovskiy finished in fifth place overall.
In October 2015, the group The Braxtons, including all five Braxton sisters, released a holiday album titled Braxton Family Christmas. On November 21, Braxton Family Christmas debuted at number 27 on the US Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, number 10 on the US R&B Chart and number 12 on US Top Holiday Albums on November 21, 2015. The album charted at number 4 on the US Heatseekers Albums on December 12, 2015. On December 7, 2015, Braxton received one Grammy nomination for "If I Don't Have You" at the 58th Annual Grammy Awards; Best R&B Performance from her latest album titled Calling All Lovers.
In May 2016, Braxton departed The Real. The following month, it was announced on The Steve Harvey Morning Show that Steve Harvey had signed Braxton to produce her own talk show and television series with East 112th Street Productions. In April 2017, it was announced that Braxton left Epic Records to sign with Entertainment One for a $1 million deal with the label. On April 27, 2017, Braxton released "My Man" from her fifth album, Bluebird of Happiness. The song peaked at number three on the US Adult R&B Songs Billboard. Bluebird of Happiness was released on September 29, 2017, through Logan Land Records and Entertainment One, with "Blind" released as its second single. The album reached the top of the Billboard independent chart.
On March 23, 2018, Braxton and sister Towanda guest starred on their sister Toni's music video "Long as I Live". In the same year, she appeared on Hip Hop Squares. On March 28, 2018, Braxton was featured on the Todrick Hall title "National Anthem", from his album Forbidden. That same year, Braxton co-starred in the stage play Redemption of a Dogg opposite Snoop Dogg. In Parallel, she was featured on the song "Lions And Tigers And Bears", from the Todrick Hall musical Straight Outta Oz.
2019–present: Television ventures
In 2019, Braxton appeared as a contestant in the second season of the American reality television series Celebrity Big Brother. The show premiered on CBS on January 21, 2019 and concluded on February 13, 2019. She went on to win the competition and become the first African-American person to win a season of Big Brother in the United States. In Big Brother tradition, Braxton appeared on the American television soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful, portraying a character named Chef Chambre. She taped her episode on February 20, 2019. The episode aired on Friday, March 29, 2019.
Braxton starred in the film True To The Game 2 alongside Vivica A. Fox, which premiered on April 10, 2020. In support of the film, she released a new song titled "Crazy Kind of Love", produced by Hitmaka, which was officially released on March 20, 2020. In April 2020, it was announced that Braxton would be hosting a reality television series for VH1 entitled To Catch A Beautician; the series premiered in June. In July, Braxton and We TV parted ways, with the network stating that it "will work with her representatives to honor her request to end all future work for the network." The We TV docuseries Tamar Braxton: Get Ya Life!, in which she starred, premiered in September 2020. Braxton has since then been featured on several songs for other artists such as, Mr.P and Elijah Blake. She also announced in early 2021 that she has started back recording music (after announcing retirement in 2017) and would releasing be two albums back to back, with the first slated for release in early 2022.
Artistry
Braxton possesses a five-octave soprano vocal range. She lists Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, Diana Ross, Kim Burrell, and her eldest sister, Toni, as some of her influences.
Personal life
Braxton is the youngest of her siblings including her sisters Toni, Traci, Towanda, and Trina, as well as her only brother Michael, Jr. On an episode of The Real, she revealed that she suffered from vitiligo. In November 2015, she discovered that she had several pulmonary emboli in her lungs, which forced her to withdraw from her work on Dancing with the Stars. During an interview in October 2020, Braxton stated that she had been diagnosed with anxiety and depression.
In 2001, Braxton was married to her first husband, music producer Darrell "Delite" Allamby. Allamby was a songwriter and producer who worked with his frequent songwriting partner Lincoln "Link" Browder, as well as Silk, Busta Rhymes and Gerald Levert. The two met while Allamby worked on her 2000 debut album's tracks "Money Can't Buy Me Love" and "Once Again". The couple divorced in 2003 after two years of marriage.
In 2003, Braxton began dating Vincent Herbert, a record executive whom she met through her sister, Toni. The couple married on November 27, 2008. Braxton gave birth to the couple's first child, a son named Logan Vincent, in 2013. In October 2017, Braxton filed for divorce from Herbert, citing "irreconcilable differences" and seeking joint custody of their son. Their divorce was finalized in July 2019.
Braxton was in a relationship with financial adviser David Adefeso. On July 16, 2020, Braxton was hospitalized following a suicide attempt. In September 2020, Adefeso filed a restraining order against Braxton for domestic violence.
Discography
Studio albums
Tamar (2000)
Love and War (2013)
Winter Loversland (2013)
Calling All Lovers (2015)
Bluebird of Happiness (2017)
Filmography
Tours
Headlining
2014: Love and War Tour
Opening act
2013: Love in the Future Tour
2014: Black Panties Tour
2015: The London Sessions Tour
2015: Promise To Love Tour
2017 : Lions And Tigers And Bears
2017-18: The Great Xscape Tour
2019 : Welcome To The Dungeon Tour
Awards and nominations
References
External links
1977 births
20th-century African-American women singers
21st-century African-American women singers
Actresses from Maryland
African-American actresses
African-American Methodists
African-American television personalities
American contemporary R&B singers
American film actresses
American sopranos
American soul singers
American television actresses
African-American television talk show hosts
American television talk show hosts
Big Brother (American TV series) winners
Big Brother (franchise) winners
The Braxtons members
Living people
Participants in American reality television series
People from Severn, Maryland
People with vitiligo
Singers from Maryland | true | [
"\"Good Life\" is a 1990 single by The Braxtons, featuring Toni Braxton and her four sisters: Towanda, Trina, Traci, and Tamar. \"Good Life\", written by the German songwriting/production team Klarmann/Weber, was Toni Braxton's first professional recording.\n\nToni Braxton and her sisters signed with Arista Records as The Braxtons in 1989. In 1990, they released \"Good Life\", their first and only single as a fivesome. The single, backed with \"Family\" as a B-side, reached #79 on the Billboard Hot Black Single charts. The song wasn't a major hit but it caught the attention of the songwriting/production team of L.A. Reid and Babyface, who had just formed their own label, LaFace Records (associated with Arista). Toni Braxton was signed with LaFace as a solo artist.\n\nThe Braxtons disbanded as a foursome but would later reunite as a threesome in 1996, when Trina, Tamar, and Towanda released So Many Ways on Atlantic Records. Traci was not signed because she was pregnant at the time. The Braxtons disbanded for good when Tamar left the group for a solo record deal.\n\n\"Good Life\" is featured on The Essential Toni Braxton.\n\nReferences \nBraxton Family values: 20 Fun Facts About Toni Braxton - article on WeTV\n\n1990 singles\nToni Braxton songs\nSongs written by Felix Weber (songwriter)\n1990 songs\nArista Records singles",
"\"Maybe\" is a song by American singer Toni Braxton from her third studio album, The Heat (2000). It was released to urban adult contemporary radio in the United States on February 6, 2001, as the album's fourth and final single.\n\nMusic video\nThe music video for \"Maybe\", directed by Chris Robinson, remained unreleased as Braxton felt it was too risqué. The treatment saw Braxton arriving home from the 2001 Grammy Awards ceremony after winning the award for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance for \"He Wasn't Man Enough\". She enters in the infamous dress and begins to undress while a peeper (played by James C. Mathis III) looks in. Although the video was never released, Braxton shows a clip of the never-before-seen video on her DVD From Toni with Love: DVD Collection. It was later leaked onto YouTube with the unreleased video for \"The Heat\" following it.\n\nTrack listings\nUS promotional CD single\n\"Maybe\" (Radio Edit) – 3:08\n\"Maybe\" (Instrumental) – 3:08\n\"Maybe\" (Call Out Research Hook) – 0:10\n\nUS promotional 12-inch single\nA1. \"Maybe\" (HQ² Club Mix) – 8:30\nA2. \"Maybe\" (HQ² Radio Mix) – 3:33\nB. \"Maybe\" (Dynamix NYC Club Mix) – 8:07\n\nCharts\n\nReferences\n\n2000 songs\n2001 singles\nArista Records singles\nLaFace Records singles\nMusic videos directed by Chris Robinson (director)\nSongs about sexuality\nSongs written by Keith Crouch\nSongs written by Toni Braxton\nToni Braxton songs"
]
|
[
"Tamar Braxton",
"1977-99: Early life and career beginnings",
"Where was Tamar Braxton born?",
"Tamar Estine Braxton was born in Severn, Maryland",
"When did Tamar Braxton started singing?",
"Tamar started singing as a toddler.",
"How many siblings does Tamar Braxton have?",
"The youngest of the Braxtons' six children,",
"When did Braxton release her first single?",
"In 1990, they released their first single,",
"Did the single do well on the charts?",
"\". \"Good Life\" was unsuccessful only peaking at No. 79 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles chart.",
"Who was the first record company that Braxton signed up with?",
"Sisters Toni, Traci, Towanda, Trina, and Tamar Braxton signed their first record deal with Arista Records",
"What did Arista Records do with the Braxtons when their single didn't do well?",
"The Braxtons were dropped from Arista Records.",
"What did Toni Braxton do after she was dropped from Arista Records?",
"Toni Braxton, minus her four sisters, was chosen and signed as the label's first female solo artist."
]
| C_00103a91805c44b497270c6971e3d702_1 | Did Braxton eventually decide to do a solo career? | 9 | Did the rest of the Braxton's eventually decide to have a solo careers following Toni Braxtons departure? | Tamar Braxton | Tamar Estine Braxton was born in Severn, Maryland on March 17, 1977 to Michael and Evelyn Braxton. The youngest of the Braxtons' six children, Tamar started singing as a toddler. The Braxton children would eventually enter in their church choir, where their father Michael Braxton was a pastor. Sisters Toni, Traci, Towanda, Trina, and Tamar Braxton signed their first record deal with Arista Records in 1989. In 1990, they released their first single, "Good Life". "Good Life" was unsuccessful only peaking at No. 79 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles chart. At the time of the single's release, the members' age differences created a problem with marketing. Subsequently, The Braxtons were dropped from Arista Records. In 1991, during a showcase with L.A. Reid and Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, who were in the process of forming LaFace Records, Toni Braxton, minus her four sisters, was chosen and signed as the label's first female solo artist. At the time, the remaining members were told that LaFace was not looking for another girl group since it had just signed TLC. After Toni's departure from the group, the remaining Braxtons members became backup singers for Toni's first tour, music videos, and promotional appearances. Traci, Towanda, Trina, and Tamar were featured in the music video for Toni Braxton's third single, "Seven Whole Days", from her self-titled debut album. In 1993, LaFace Records A&R Vice President, Bryant Reid, signed The Braxtons to LaFace. However, the group never released an album or single for the label. When Reid moved on to work for Atlantic Records, he convinced executives at LaFace to allow him take the group to Atlantic also. It was reported in Vibe magazine that in 1995, Traci Braxton had left the group to pursue a career as a youth counselor. However, it was not confirmed until a 2011 promotional appearance on The Mo'Nique Show, that Traci was not allowed to sign with Atlantic because of her pregnancy at the time. In 1996, Tamar, Trina, and Towanda returned with a new album entitled So Many Ways, which peaked at No. 26 on the Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. At the time of its release, Reid told Billboard Magazine, "I had a vision for them then that was about young sophistication with sex appeal." The trio also performed a remixed version of "So Many Ways" with rapper Jay-Z on September 9, 1996 at the Soul Train Lady of Soul Awards. So Many Ways went on to peak at No. 83 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and number 32 on the UK Singles Chart. Braxton and her fellow The Braxtons members served as the opening act for Toni Braxton on the European Leg of her Secrets Tour in 1997. The Braxtons decided to part ways as a group after lead singer Tamar Braxton left to pursue a solo career with DreamWorks Records in 1998. CANNOTANSWER | After Toni's departure from the group, the remaining Braxtons members became backup singers for Toni's first tour, music videos, and promotional appearances. | Tamar Estine Braxton (born March 17, 1977) is an American singer and television personality.
Braxton began her career in 1990 as a founding member of The Braxtons, an R&B singing group formed with her sisters. The Braxtons released their debut album, So Many Ways, as a trio in 1996, and disbanded shortly afterward. In 2000, she released her debut self-titled album through DreamWorks Records. Following a thirteen-year break, Braxton released her second studio album, Love and War (2013), through Epic Records, which reached the number two position on the Billboard 200 chart. She later released her fourth and fifth albums, Calling All Lovers (2015) and Bluebird of Happiness (2017), respectively. Braxton has won a BET Award and three Soul Train Music Awards throughout her career. She has also been nominated for four Grammy Awards.
Since 2011, Braxton has starred in the We TV reality television series Braxton Family Values alongside her mother and sisters. She also served as a co-host on the Fox syndicated daytime talk show The Real from 2013 until 2016, for which she received two Daytime Emmy Award nominations. In 2019, she won the second season of Celebrity Big Brother.
Life and career
1977–1999: Early life and career beginnings
Tamar Estine Braxton was born to Michael and Evelyn Braxton in Severn, Maryland on March 17, 1977. The youngest of the Braxtons' six children, Braxton started singing as a toddler. The Braxton children would eventually enter in their church choir, where their father Michael Braxton was a pastor. She and her sisters Toni, Traci, Towanda, and Trina, signed their first record deal with Arista Records in 1989. In 1990, they released their first single, "Good Life", which peaked at No. 79 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles chart. At the time of the single's release, the members' age differences created a problem with marketing. Subsequently, The Braxtons were dropped from Arista Records.
In 1991, during a showcase with L.A. Reid and Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, who were in the process of forming LaFace Records, Toni Braxton, minus her four sisters, was chosen and signed as the label's first female solo artist. At the time, the remaining members were told that LaFace was not looking for another girl group since it had just signed TLC. After Toni's departure from the group, the remaining Braxtons members became backup singers for Toni's first tour, music videos, and promotional appearances. She and her sisters Traci, Towanda, and Trina were featured in the music video for Toni Braxton's third single, "Seven Whole Days", from her self-titled debut album.
In 1993, LaFace Records A&R Vice President, Bryant Reid, signed The Braxtons to LaFace. However, the group never released an album or single for the label. When Reid moved on to work for Atlantic Records, he convinced executives at LaFace to allow him to take the group to Atlantic also. It was reported in Vibe magazine that in 1995, Traci Braxton had left the group to pursue a career as a youth counselor. However, it was not confirmed until a 2011 promotional appearance on The Mo'Nique Show, that Traci was not allowed to sign with Atlantic because of her pregnancy at the time.
In 1996, Tamar, Trina, and Towanda returned with a new album entitled So Many Ways, which peaked at No. 26 on the Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. At the time of its release, Reid told Billboard magazine, "I had a vision for them then that was about young sophistication with sex appeal." The trio also performed a remixed version of "So Many Ways" with rapper Jay-Z on September 9, 1996 at the Soul Train Lady of Soul Awards. So Many Ways went on to peak at No. 83 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and number 32 on the UK Singles Chart. Braxton and her fellow group members served as the opening act for Toni Braxton on the European Leg of her Secrets Tour in 1997. The Braxtons decided to part ways as a group after Braxton left to pursue a solo career with DreamWorks Records in 1998.
2000–2009: Tamar and label troubles
Later, Braxton met Christopher "Tricky" Stewart. She recorded her solo debut album, Ridiculous, so-named for the many different musical styles on the album. The album spawned two buzz singles ("Let Him Go" and "Just Cuz") in hopes of garnering attention from the public eye; however, when the songs failed to gain impact on urban radio outlets, the album was pushed back and canceled. That same year, Braxton was featured on Sole's, "4 The Love of You." Instead of shelving the album, Dreamworks Records abandoned 3 old tracks, added new ones, and renamed it Tamar. The lead single "Get None" was produced by Jermaine "J.D." Dupri and also featured rap verses from him as well as former Jay-Z protégée Amil. The song also included uncredited background vocals and songwriting by R&B singer Mýa. As soon as the song began to pick up airplay, Braxton announced the album would be released in early 2000, alongside a second single, "If You Don't Wanna Love Me". The album featured production from Missy Elliott, Tim & Bob, and Tricky Stewart, but still peaked at number 127 on the Billboard 200. When the album's second single failed to gain significant radio airplay, her label dropped her from their roster.
In 2001, Braxton's previously unreleased song "Try Me" appeared on the soundtrack album for the film Kingdom Come. She also began to work alongside her sister Toni Braxton in a number of songs and music video cameos, including the video for "He Wasn't Man Enough." She performed, co-wrote and sang background vocals on songs for Toni's albums, The Heat (2000), Snowflakes (2001), More than a Woman (2002), Libra (2005) and Pulse (2010). When her sister launched her Las Vegas revue Toni Braxton: Revealed, Braxton again sang backup until she was replaced by singer Sparkle.
By 2004, Braxton was signed to Tommy Mottola's reactivated Casablanca Records and began work on her second album. A "Grindin'"-influenced single, "I'm Leaving," was released with a guest appearance from Bump J. alongside promotional remixes featuring Sheek Louch, Styles P. and Ali Vegas.
2010–2013: Television debut and Love and War
In 2010, Braxton signed to Universal Records, where she released a single "The Heart In Me" in July of that year which was included on the Adidas 2: The Music compilation. Her momentum with Universal would not rise to a satisfactory level to launch a second album. In January 2010, We TV confirmed that it had signed Braxton and her mother and sisters for a reality television series titled Braxton Family Values. The show premiered on April 12, 2011. On December 15, 2011, it was confirmed that Braxton and her husband Vincent would star in their own reality series centered on her solo career and their married life. In November 2011, Braxton performed "Love Overboard" at the 2011 Soul Train Awards for Lifetime Achievement recipient Gladys Knight. In September 2012, news broke that Braxton had inked a fresh recording contract with Streamline Records, an imprint of Interscope Records founded by Vincent. Later that month, her reality television show Tamar & Vince premiered on We TV.
Braxton was the featured model for the "Front Row Couture" collection during the "ELLE/Style360" NYC Fashion Week event. Braxton was a co-host of Tameka Cottle's late night talk show, Tiny Tonight, on VH1. Basketball Wives star Tami Roman became a co-host after Braxton. Later, she hosted The Culturelist, a show on BET's sister channel Centric. Former Destiny's Child member LeToya Luckett became the host after her. Braxton announced she was pregnant with her first child on March 13, 2013, during an interview on Good Morning America promoting the new season of Braxton Family Values. She gave birth to a son, Logan Vincent Herbert, on June 6, 2013.
In March 2013, it was revealed that Braxton had signed to Epic Records ahead of the release of her second album, Love and War. The album's lead single, the title track, was released on December 6, 2012. The song was a commercial success, spending 9 weeks at #1 on the Adult R&B Songs chart. Although the single reached number one on the US iTunes chart, it peaked at number 57 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 13 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.
Braxton released "The One" as the second single from Love and War on May 7, 2013; it peaked at number 34 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. The third single, "All the Way Home," was released August 21, 2013; it peaked at number 96 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 37 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. The song was followed by the release of Love and War on September 3, 2013. The album was a commercial success in the United States, selling 114,000 copies in its opening week, and debuting at number two on the Billboard 200 and number one on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. Outside the US, it debuted at number 34 on the UK R&B Albums Chart.
In 2013, Braxton became a co-host of the syndicated daytime talk show The Real alongside Adrienne Bailon, Loni Love, Jeannie Mai, and Tamera Mowry, which premiered on July 15, 2013. The second season of Tamar & Vince premiered on September 5, 2013. The second season is centered on the preparation and birth of the couple's baby, and her launch of Love and War. Braxton's special Listen Up: Tamar Braxton premiered on Centric in September 2013. Braxton's first Christmas album, Winter Loversland, was released on November 11, 2013; it debuted at number 43 on the Billboard 200 with 8,000 copies sold in its first week. In December 2013, Braxton received three nominations for the 56th Annual Grammy Awards; Best Urban Contemporary Album for Love and War, and Best R&B Song and Best R&B Performance for its title track.
2014–2018: Studio albums and Dancing with the Stars
On February 25, 2014, the remix of Robin Thicke's single "For the Rest of My Life" which features Braxton, was released as a digital single. Season 3 of Tamar & Vince premiered in October 2014, and it consisted of 10 episodes just like the previous seasons. On October 6, Braxton's new single "Let Me Know" featuring rapper Future peaked at #2 on the Billboard Trending 140 chart, less than an hour after its premiere on Braxton's official SoundCloud account and eventually reached #1 by 12:00 AM October 7. Billboard.com gave the song 4 out of 5 stars in its review of "The Best and Worst Singles of the Week" for the second week of October.
On May 27, 2015, the single "If I Don't Have You" was released. The song peaked at number 6 on the US Adult R&B Songs chart. Braxton's new album, Calling All Lovers, was released on October 2, 2015. The album peaked at number two on the US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums. On September 2, 2015, she was revealed as one of the celebrities who would be competing on the 21st season of Dancing with the Stars. She was paired with reigning champion, Valentin Chmerkovskiy. On November 11, Braxton revealed that she would have to withdraw from the competition due to health problems. Braxton and Chmerkovskiy finished in fifth place overall.
In October 2015, the group The Braxtons, including all five Braxton sisters, released a holiday album titled Braxton Family Christmas. On November 21, Braxton Family Christmas debuted at number 27 on the US Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, number 10 on the US R&B Chart and number 12 on US Top Holiday Albums on November 21, 2015. The album charted at number 4 on the US Heatseekers Albums on December 12, 2015. On December 7, 2015, Braxton received one Grammy nomination for "If I Don't Have You" at the 58th Annual Grammy Awards; Best R&B Performance from her latest album titled Calling All Lovers.
In May 2016, Braxton departed The Real. The following month, it was announced on The Steve Harvey Morning Show that Steve Harvey had signed Braxton to produce her own talk show and television series with East 112th Street Productions. In April 2017, it was announced that Braxton left Epic Records to sign with Entertainment One for a $1 million deal with the label. On April 27, 2017, Braxton released "My Man" from her fifth album, Bluebird of Happiness. The song peaked at number three on the US Adult R&B Songs Billboard. Bluebird of Happiness was released on September 29, 2017, through Logan Land Records and Entertainment One, with "Blind" released as its second single. The album reached the top of the Billboard independent chart.
On March 23, 2018, Braxton and sister Towanda guest starred on their sister Toni's music video "Long as I Live". In the same year, she appeared on Hip Hop Squares. On March 28, 2018, Braxton was featured on the Todrick Hall title "National Anthem", from his album Forbidden. That same year, Braxton co-starred in the stage play Redemption of a Dogg opposite Snoop Dogg. In Parallel, she was featured on the song "Lions And Tigers And Bears", from the Todrick Hall musical Straight Outta Oz.
2019–present: Television ventures
In 2019, Braxton appeared as a contestant in the second season of the American reality television series Celebrity Big Brother. The show premiered on CBS on January 21, 2019 and concluded on February 13, 2019. She went on to win the competition and become the first African-American person to win a season of Big Brother in the United States. In Big Brother tradition, Braxton appeared on the American television soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful, portraying a character named Chef Chambre. She taped her episode on February 20, 2019. The episode aired on Friday, March 29, 2019.
Braxton starred in the film True To The Game 2 alongside Vivica A. Fox, which premiered on April 10, 2020. In support of the film, she released a new song titled "Crazy Kind of Love", produced by Hitmaka, which was officially released on March 20, 2020. In April 2020, it was announced that Braxton would be hosting a reality television series for VH1 entitled To Catch A Beautician; the series premiered in June. In July, Braxton and We TV parted ways, with the network stating that it "will work with her representatives to honor her request to end all future work for the network." The We TV docuseries Tamar Braxton: Get Ya Life!, in which she starred, premiered in September 2020. Braxton has since then been featured on several songs for other artists such as, Mr.P and Elijah Blake. She also announced in early 2021 that she has started back recording music (after announcing retirement in 2017) and would releasing be two albums back to back, with the first slated for release in early 2022.
Artistry
Braxton possesses a five-octave soprano vocal range. She lists Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, Diana Ross, Kim Burrell, and her eldest sister, Toni, as some of her influences.
Personal life
Braxton is the youngest of her siblings including her sisters Toni, Traci, Towanda, and Trina, as well as her only brother Michael, Jr. On an episode of The Real, she revealed that she suffered from vitiligo. In November 2015, she discovered that she had several pulmonary emboli in her lungs, which forced her to withdraw from her work on Dancing with the Stars. During an interview in October 2020, Braxton stated that she had been diagnosed with anxiety and depression.
In 2001, Braxton was married to her first husband, music producer Darrell "Delite" Allamby. Allamby was a songwriter and producer who worked with his frequent songwriting partner Lincoln "Link" Browder, as well as Silk, Busta Rhymes and Gerald Levert. The two met while Allamby worked on her 2000 debut album's tracks "Money Can't Buy Me Love" and "Once Again". The couple divorced in 2003 after two years of marriage.
In 2003, Braxton began dating Vincent Herbert, a record executive whom she met through her sister, Toni. The couple married on November 27, 2008. Braxton gave birth to the couple's first child, a son named Logan Vincent, in 2013. In October 2017, Braxton filed for divorce from Herbert, citing "irreconcilable differences" and seeking joint custody of their son. Their divorce was finalized in July 2019.
Braxton was in a relationship with financial adviser David Adefeso. On July 16, 2020, Braxton was hospitalized following a suicide attempt. In September 2020, Adefeso filed a restraining order against Braxton for domestic violence.
Discography
Studio albums
Tamar (2000)
Love and War (2013)
Winter Loversland (2013)
Calling All Lovers (2015)
Bluebird of Happiness (2017)
Filmography
Tours
Headlining
2014: Love and War Tour
Opening act
2013: Love in the Future Tour
2014: Black Panties Tour
2015: The London Sessions Tour
2015: Promise To Love Tour
2017 : Lions And Tigers And Bears
2017-18: The Great Xscape Tour
2019 : Welcome To The Dungeon Tour
Awards and nominations
References
External links
1977 births
20th-century African-American women singers
21st-century African-American women singers
Actresses from Maryland
African-American actresses
African-American Methodists
African-American television personalities
American contemporary R&B singers
American film actresses
American sopranos
American soul singers
American television actresses
African-American television talk show hosts
American television talk show hosts
Big Brother (American TV series) winners
Big Brother (franchise) winners
The Braxtons members
Living people
Participants in American reality television series
People from Severn, Maryland
People with vitiligo
Singers from Maryland | true | [
"Braxton Family Christmas is the first Christmas album, and second studio album overall, by R&B female group The Braxtons. The album was released on October 30, 2015, by Def Jam.\n\nBackground and composition\nBraxton Family Christmas consists of eight tracks, including three covers of Christmas standards and carols (\"This Christmas\", \"O' Holy Night\", and \"Mary, Did You Know?\"), three original songs (\"Every Day is Christmas\", \"Blessed New Year\", and \"Under My Christmas Tree\") and a cover of Wham!'s \"Last Christmas\".\n\nThe family's reality show, Braxton Family Values, featured footage of the sisters throughout the recording process.\n\nCritical reaction\nThe Black Media reviewed the album in an article, \"The Braxton Family finally got it done. For four years fans have been waiting for the sisters to put a project out, together! We've seen Tamar Braxton's solo success, chart-topping hits, and grammy nods. Trina's successful single releases, and Bar Chix grand opening, Towanda's acting career, and assistant training services. Traci's radio career, and successful solo career and amazing album release, and of course Toni Braxton's return to music going platinum with Baby Face and winning a Grammy after almost quitting. Fans wanted one thing, a joint album...and we've got it\".\n\nSoul Tracks reviewed the album in an article, \"With unpredictable sales of full-length albums over the past decade, artist holiday collections have grown more scarce. That's why the release of a seasonal set by an act as storied and soulful as The Braxtons is a most welcome gift. Although only eight songs in length, Braxton Family Christmas is a delightful listen marked by an even mixture of standards and originals. It might not go down in history as memorably as sister Toni's own Snowflakes from 2001 (or Tamar's Winter Loversland from 2013), but hearing the five siblings together on several tracks for the first time in decades makes for some noteworthy musical moments. Toni serves as executive producer of Braxton Family Christmas, and she is, in fact, the focal point of roughly half the set (being the sole vocalist on the opening rendition of Donny Hathaway's \"This Christmas\" and the newly composed ballad, \"Blessed New Year\").\n\nTamar, Trina, Towanda, and Traci, however, brighten things harmonically—and with a few solo spots—on a finely tuned a cappella reading of \"O' Holy Night\" and a nostalgic remake of Wham!'s \"Last Christmas.\" But perhaps the high point of the set is a full-hearted, majestic interpretation of \"Mary, Did You Know?\" Toni's rich, deep tones and delicate phrasing make a bold impact from the get-go, with a touching string arrangement by Lee Blaske providing a sentimental feeling that's in perfect complement. The sisters trade leads throughout the tune, climaxing with an impassioned vocal interplay that is powerful without going over the top. Close in effect, but on a more lighthearted note, the upbeat \"Every Day Is Christmas\" (co-written by Toni and Babyface) evokes a warm mood with mellow production by Antonio Dixon and smoothly honed harmonies enhancing the verses and engaging chorus.\n\nIt's the stuff that both soul and pop holiday classics are made of, with relatable lyrics and a sing-along melody to bring the message home: \"Every day's Christmas 'cause of you/winter and fall and springtime, too/Got me all wrapped up, yes you do...Wish the whole world could feel the way I do.\" Rounding out the Braxton Family Christmas festivities is a lush ballad, \"Under My Christmas Tree,\" written by brother Michael (who duets with Toni atop a piano-driven backdrop graced by a soothing trumpet solo) and the 'Braxton Family Version' of \"This Christmas.\" The latter makes for a feel-good closer with a lively rhythmic structure and colorful, slightly jazzy background vocal arrangements. Straightforward, merry, and also spiritual with consistently authoritative vocals, Braxton Family Christmas is an ideal addition to the collection of any lover of uplifting holiday music.\n\nSingles\nOn November 5, 2015 \"Every Day is Christmas\" was released as the first single. The audio-video for \"Every Day is Christmas\" was released on VEVO on November 9, 2015.\"\n\nCommercial performance\nBraxton Family Christmas debuted at number 144 on the US Billboard 200 on January 9, 2016. The album charted at number 27 on the US Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, number 10 on the US R&B Chart, and number 12 on US Top Holiday Albums on November 21, 2015. The album charted at number 4 on the US Heatseekers Albums on December 12, 2015, and has since peaked at number 1. The seasonal effort has sold 21,000 to date.\n\nPromotion\nThe Braxtons performed \"Mary, Did You Know?\" and \"Under My Christmas Tree\" with their brother Michael Braxton Jr on the daytime talk show The Real (which the youngest Braxton sibling Tamar co-hosted) on December 18, 2015.\n\nTrack listing\n\nCredits and personnel\n\n Performers and musicians\n\nToni Braxton - Vocals, Background\nTraci Braxton - Vocals, Background\nTowanda Braxton - Vocals, Background\nTrina Braxton - Vocals, Background\nTamar Braxton - Vocals, Background\nMichael Braxton Jr. - Vocals, Background (track 7)\n\n Technical personnel\n\nToni Braxton - Composer, Producer\nAntonio Dixon\t- Composer, Producer\nKenneth \"Babyface\" Edmonds - Composer, Producer\nKhristopher Riddick-Tynes - Composer, Producer\nMichael Braxton - Composer\nAdolphe-Charles Adam - Composer\nBuddy Greene - Composer\nDonny Hathaway - Composer\nHarold Lilly - Composer\nMark Lowry - Composer\nNadine McKinnor - Composer\nGeorge Michael - Composer\nLeon Thomas III - Composer\n\nCharts\n\nRelease history\n\nReferences\n\n2015 Christmas albums\nChristmas albums by American artists\nContemporary R&B Christmas albums\nDef Jam Recordings albums\nThe Braxtons albums\nGospel Christmas albums\nPop Christmas albums",
"Recital Paris 71 is an album by American jazz saxophonist and composer Anthony Braxton recorded in 1971 and released on the Futura label. The album features a solo saxophone performance of \"Come Sunday\" dedicated to Johnny Hodges and a composition by Braxton performed on four multitracked pianos dedicated to pianist/composer David Tudor.\n\nTrack listing\n \"Come Sunday\" (Duke Ellington) - 25:10\n \"G N 6 (X' 70B)\" (Dedicated To David Tudor) \t8:52\n\nPersonnel\nAnthony Braxton - alto saxophone, piano\n\nReferences\n\nFutura Records albums\nAnthony Braxton albums\n1971 albums"
]
|
[
"Linda Ronstadt",
"Career summary"
]
| C_70757043f51f42d0bbea7205aa5d0e84_1 | What did Linda Ronstadt do after the 1960s? | 1 | What did Linda Ronstadt do after the 1960s? | Linda Ronstadt | Establishing her professional career in the mid-1960s at the forefront of California's emerging folk rock and country rock movements - genres which defined post-1960s rock music - Ronstadt joined forces with Bobby Kimmel and Kenny Edwards and became the lead singer of a folk-rock trio, the Stone Poneys. Later, as a solo artist, she released Hand Sown ... Home Grown in 1969, which has been described as the first alternative country record by a female recording artist. Although fame eluded her during these years, Ronstadt actively toured with the Doors, Neil Young, Jackson Browne, and others, appeared numerous times on television shows, and began to contribute her singing to albums by other artists. With the release of chart-topping albums such as Heart Like a Wheel, Simple Dreams, and Living in the USA, Ronstadt became the first female "arena class" rock star. She set records as one of the top-grossing concert artists of the decade. Referred to as the "First Lady of Rock" and the "Queen of Rock", Ronstadt was voted the Top Female Pop Singer of the 1970s. Her rock-and-roll image was as famous as her music; she appeared six times on the cover of Rolling Stone and on the covers of Newsweek and Time. In the 1980s, Ronstadt went to Broadway and garnered a Tony nomination for her performance in The Pirates of Penzance, teamed with the composer Philip Glass, recorded traditional music, and collaborated with the conductor Nelson Riddle, an event at that time viewed as an original and unorthodox move for a rock-and-roll artist. This venture paid off, and Ronstadt remained one of the music industry's best-selling acts throughout the 1980s, with multi-platinum-selling albums such as What's New, Canciones de Mi Padre, and Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind. She continued to tour, collaborate, and record celebrated albums, such as Winter Light and Hummin' to Myself, until her retirement in 2011. Most of Ronstadt's albums are certified gold, platinum, or multi-platinum. Having sold in excess of 100 million records worldwide and setting records as one of the top-grossing concert performers for over a decade, Ronstadt was the most successful female singer of the 1970s and stands as one of the most successful female recording artists in U.S. history. Ronstadt opened many doors for women in rock and roll and other musical genres by championing songwriters and musicians, pioneering her chart success onto the concert circuit, and being at the vanguard of many musical movements. CANNOTANSWER | Ronstadt joined forces with Bobby Kimmel and Kenny Edwards and became the lead singer of a folk-rock trio, the Stone Poneys. | Linda Maria Ronstadt (born July 15, 1946) is a retired American singer who performed and recorded in diverse genres including rock, country, light opera, and Latin. She has earned 11 Grammy Awards, three American Music Awards, two Academy of Country Music awards, an Emmy Award, and an ALMA Award. Many of her albums have been certified gold, platinum or multiplatinum in the United States and internationally. She has also earned nominations for a Tony Award and a Golden Globe award. She was awarded the Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award by the Latin Recording Academy in 2011 and also awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award by the Recording Academy in 2016. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April 2014. On July 28, 2014, she was awarded the National Medal of Arts and Humanities. In 2019, she received a star jointly with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for their work as the group Trio. Ronstadt was among five honorees who received the 2019 Kennedy Center Honors for lifetime artistic achievements.
Ronstadt has released 24 studio albums and 15 compilation or greatest hits albums. She charted 38 US Billboard Hot 100 singles. Twenty-one of those singles reached the top 40, ten reached the top 10, and one reached number one ("You're No Good"). Ronstadt also charted in UK as two of her duets, "Somewhere Out There" with James Ingram and "Don't Know Much" with Aaron Neville, peaked at numbers 8 and 2 respectively and the single "Blue Bayou" reached number 35 on the UK Singles charts. She has charted 36 albums, ten top-10 albums, and three number 1 albums on the US Billboard Pop Album Chart.
Ronstadt has collaborated with artists in diverse genres, including: Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, Bette Midler, Billy Eckstine, Frank Zappa, Carla Bley (Escalator Over the Hill), Rosemary Clooney, Flaco Jiménez, Philip Glass, Warren Zevon, Gram Parsons, Neil Young, Paul Simon, Earl Scruggs, Johnny Cash, and Nelson Riddle. She has lent her voice to over 120 albums and has sold more than 100 million records, making her one of the world's best-selling artists of all time. Christopher Loudon, of Jazz Times, wrote in 2004 that Ronstadt is "blessed with arguably the most sterling set of pipes of her generation."
Ronstadt reduced her activity after 2000 when she felt her singing voice deteriorating, releasing her last full-length album in 2004 and performing her last live concert in 2009. She announced her retirement in 2011 and revealed shortly afterwards that she is no longer able to sing as a result of a degenerative condition later determined to be progressive supranuclear palsy. Since then, Ronstadt has continued to make public appearances, going on a number of public speaking tours in the 2010s. She published an autobiography, Simple Dreams: A Musical Memoir, in September 2013. A documentary based on her memoirs, Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice, was released in 2019.
Early life
Linda Maria Ronstadt was born in Tucson, Arizona, on July 15, 1946, the third of four children of Gilbert Ronstadt (19111995), a prosperous machinery merchant who ran the F. Ronstadt Co., and Ruth Mary (née Copeman) Ronstadt (19141982), a homemaker.
Ronstadt was raised on the family's ranch with her siblings Peter (who served as Tucson's Chief of Police for ten years, 19811991), Michael, and Gretchen. The family was featured in Family Circle magazine in 1953.
Ronstadt family history
Ronstadt's father came from a pioneering Arizona ranching family and was of German and Mexican ancestry. The family's influence on and contributions to Arizona's history, including wagon making, commerce, pharmacies, and music, are chronicled in the library of the University of Arizona. Her great-grandfather, graduate engineer Friedrich August Ronstadt (who went by Federico Augusto Ronstadt) immigrated to the Southwest (then a part of Mexico) in the 1840s from Hanover, Germany, and married a Mexican citizen, eventually settling in Tucson. In 1991, the City of Tucson opened its central transit terminal on March 16 and dedicated it to Linda's grandfather, Federico José María Ronstadt, a local pioneer businessman; he was a wagon maker whose early contribution to the city's mobility included six mule-drawn streetcars delivered in 190304.
Ronstadt's mother Ruth Mary, of German, English, and Dutch ancestry, was raised in Flint, Michigan. Ruth Mary's father, Lloyd Groff Copeman, a prolific inventor and holder of nearly 700 patents, invented an early form of the electric toaster, many refrigerator devices, the grease gun, the first electric stove, and an early form of the microwave oven. His flexible rubber ice cube tray earned him millions of dollars in royalties.
Career summary
Establishing her professional career in the mid-1960s at the forefront of California's emerging folk rock and country rock movementsgenres which defined post-1960s rock musicRonstadt joined forces with Bobby Kimmel and Kenny Edwards and became the lead singer of a folk-rock trio, the Stone Poneys. Later, as a solo artist, she released Hand Sown ... Home Grown in 1969, which has been described as the first alternative country record by a female recording artist. Although fame eluded her during these years, Ronstadt actively toured with the Doors, Neil Young, Jackson Browne, and others, appeared numerous times on television shows, and began to contribute her singing to albums by other artists.
With the release of chart-topping albums such as Heart Like a Wheel, Simple Dreams, and Living in the USA, Ronstadt became the first female "arena class" rock star. She set records as one of the top-grossing concert artists of the decade. Referred to as the "First Lady of Rock" and the "Queen of Rock", Ronstadt was voted the Top Female Pop Singer of the 1970s. Her rock-and-roll image was as famous as her music; she appeared six times on the cover of Rolling Stone and on the covers of Newsweek and Time.
In the 1980s, Ronstadt performed on Broadway and received a Tony nomination for her performance in The Pirates of Penzance, teamed with the composer Philip Glass, recorded traditional music, and collaborated with the conductor Nelson Riddle, an event at that time viewed as an original and unorthodox move for a rock-and-roll artist. This venture paid off, and Ronstadt remained one of the music industry's best-selling acts throughout the 1980s, with multi-platinum-selling albums such as Mad Love, What's New, Canciones de Mi Padre, and Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind. She continued to tour, collaborate, and record celebrated albums, such as Winter Light and Hummin' to Myself, until her retirement in 2011.
Most of Ronstadt's albums are certified gold, platinum, or multi-platinum. Having sold in excess of 100 million records worldwide and setting records as one of the top-grossing concert performers for over a decade, Ronstadt was the most successful female singer of the 1970s and stands as one of the most successful female recording artists in U.S. history. She opened many doors for women in rock and roll and other musical genres by championing songwriters and musicians, pioneering her chart success onto the concert circuit, and being in the vanguard of many musical movements.
Career overview
Early influences
Ronstadt's early family life was filled with music and tradition, which influenced the stylistic and musical choices she later made in her career. Growing up, she listened to many types of music, including Mexican music, which was sung by her entire family and was a staple in her childhood.
Ronstadt has remarked that everything she has recorded on her own recordsrock and roll, rhythm and blues, gospel, opera, country, choral, and mariachiis all music she heard her family sing in their living room or heard played on the radio, by the age of 10. She credits her mother for her appreciation of Gilbert and Sullivan and her father for introducing her to the traditional pop and Great American Songbook repertoire that she would, in turn, help reintroduce to an entire generation.
Early on, her singing style had been influenced by singers such as Lola Beltrán and Édith Piaf; she has called their singing and rhythms "more like Greek music ... It's sort of like 6/8 time signature ... very hard driving and very intense." She also drew influence from country singer Hank Williams.
She has said that "all girl singers" eventually "have to curtsy to Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday". Of Maria Callas, Ronstadt says, "There's no one in her league. That's it. Period. I learn more ... about singing rock n roll from listening to Maria Callas records than I ever would from listening to pop music for a month of Sundays. ... She's the greatest chick singer ever." She admires Callas for her musicianship and her attempts to push 20th-century singing, particularly opera, back into the bel canto "natural style of singing".
A self-described product of American radio of the 1950s and 1960s, Ronstadt is a fan of its eclectic and diverse music programming.
Beginning of professional career
At age 14, Ronstadt formed a folk trio with her brother Peter and sister Gretchen. The group played coffeehouses, fraternity houses, and other small venues, billing themselves as "the Union City Ramblers" and "the Three Ronstadts", and they even recorded themselves at a Tucson studio under the name "the New Union Ramblers". Their repertoire included the music they grew up onfolk, country, bluegrass, and Mexican. But increasingly, Ronstadt wanted to make a union of folk music and rock 'n' roll, and in 1964, after a semester at Arizona State University, the 18-year-old decided to move to Los Angeles.
The Stone Poneys
Ronstadt visited a friend from Tucson, Bobby Kimmel, in Los Angeles during Easter break from college in 1964, and later that year, shortly before her eighteenth birthday, decided to move there permanently to form a band with him. Kimmel had already begun co-writing folk-rock songs with guitarist-songwriter Kenny Edwards, and eventually the three of them were signed by Nik Venet to Capitol in the summer of 1966 as "the Stone Poneys". The trio released three albums in a 15-month period in 196768: The Stone Poneys; Evergreen, Volume 2; and Linda Ronstadt, Stone Poneys and Friends, Vol. III. The band is widely known for their hit single "Different Drum" (written by Michael Nesmith prior to his joining the Monkees), which reached number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart as well as number 12 in Cashbox magazine. Nearly 50 years later, the song remains one of Ronstadt's most popular recordings.
Solo career
Still contractually obligated to Capitol Records, Ronstadt released her first solo album, Hand Sown ... Home Grown, in 1969. It has been called the first alternative country record by a female recording artist. During this same period, she contributed to the Music from Free Creek "super session" project.
Ronstadt provided the vocals for some commercials during this period, including one for Remington electric razors, in which a multitracked Ronstadt and Frank Zappa claimed that the electric razor "cleans you, thrills you ... may even keep you from getting busted".
Ronstadt's second solo album, Silk Purse, was released in March 1970. Recorded entirely in Nashville, it was produced by Elliot Mazer, whom Ronstadt chose on the advice of Janis Joplin, who had worked with him on the Cheap Thrills album. The Silk Purse album cover showed Ronstadt in a muddy pigpen, while the back and inside cover depicted her onstage wearing bright red. Ronstadt has stated that she was not pleased with the album, although it provided her with her first solo hit, the multi-format single "Long, Long Time", and earned her first Grammy nomination (for Best Contemporary Vocal Performance/Female).
Touring
In 1975, Ronstadt performed shows with Jackson Browne, the Eagles, and Toots and the Maytals. In a 1976 Rolling Stone interview with Cameron Crowe, Ronstadt said, "they haven't invented a word for that loneliness that everybody goes through on the road. The world is tearing by you, real fast, and all these people are looking at you. ... People see me in my 'girl-singer' suit." In 1974 she told Peter Knobler in Crawdaddy, "People are always taking advantage of you; everybody that's interested in you has got an angle."
Several years before Ronstadt became what author Gerri Hirshey called the first "arena-class rock diva" with "hugely anticipated tours" she began her solo career touring the North American concert circuit. But being on the road took its toll both emotionally and professionally. There were few "girl singers" on the rock circuit at the time, and they were relegated to "groupie level when in a crowd of a bunch of rock and roll guys", a status Ronstadt avoided. Relating to men on a professional level as fellow musicians led to competition, insecurity, bad romances, and a series of boyfriend-managers. At the time, she admired singers like Maria Muldaur for not sacrificing their femininity but says she felt enormous self-imposed pressure to compete with "the boys" at every level. She noted in a 1969 interview in Fusion magazine that it was difficult being a single "chick singer" with an all-male backup band. According to her, it was difficult to get a band of backing musicians because of their ego problem of being labeled sidemen for a female singer.
Soon after she went solo in the late 1960s, one of her first backing bands was the pioneering country-rock band Swampwater, which combined Cajun and swamp-rock elements in their music. Its members included Cajun fiddler Gib Guilbeau and John Beland, who later joined the Flying Burrito Brothers, as well as Stan Pratt, Thad Maxwell, and Eric White, brother of Clarence White of the Byrds. Swampwater went on to back Ronstadt during TV appearances on The Johnny Cash Show and The Mike Douglas Show, and at the Big Sur Folk Festival.
Another backing band included Don Henley, Glenn Frey, Bernie Leadon, and Randy Meisner, who went on to form the Eagles. They toured with her for a short period in 1971 and played on Linda Ronstadt, her self-titled third album, from which the failed single, Ronstadt's version of Browne's "Rock Me on the Water", was drawn. At this stage, Ronstadt began working with producer and boyfriend John Boylan. She said, "As soon as I started working with John Boylan, I started co-producing myself. I was always a part of my productions. But I always needed a producer who would carry out my whims." Also in 1971, Ronstadt began talking with David Geffen about moving from Capitol Records to Geffen's Asylum Records label.
Collaborations with Peter Asher
Ronstadt began her fourth solo album, Don't Cry Now, in 1973, with Boylan (who had negotiated her contract with Asylum Records) and John David "J.D." Souther producing most of the album's tracks. But needing someone willing to work with her as an equal, Ronstadt asked Peter Asher, who came highly recommended to her by James Taylor's sister Kate Taylor, to help produce two of them: "Sail Away" and "I Believe in You".
The album featured Ronstadt's first country hit, "Silver Threads and Golden Needles", which she had first recorded on Hand Sown ... Home Grownthis time hitting the Country Top 20.
With the release of Don't Cry Now, Ronstadt took on her biggest gig to date as the opening act on Neil Young's Time Fades Away tour, playing for larger crowds than ever before. Backstage at a concert in Texas, Chris Hillman introduced her to Emmylou Harris, telling them, "You two could be good friends", which soon occurred, resulting in frequent collaborations over the following years. Meanwhile, the album became Ronstadt's most successful up to that time, selling 300,000 copies by the end of 1974.
Asher turned out to be more collaborative, and more on the same page with her musically, than any producer she had worked with previously. Ronstadt's professional relationship with Asher allowed her to take command and effectively delegate responsibilities in the recording studio. Although hesitant at first to work with her because of her reputation for being a "woman of strong opinions (who) knew what she wanted to do (with her career)", he nonetheless agreed to become her full-time producer, and remained in that role through the late 1980s. Asher attributed the long-term success of his working relationship with Ronstadt to the fact that he was the first person to manage and produce her with whom there was a solely professional relationship. "It must be a lot harder to have objective conversations about someone's career when it's someone you sleep with", he said.
Asher executive produced a tribute CD called Listen to Me: Buddy Holly, released September 6, 2011, on which Ronstadt's 1976 version of Buddy Holly's "That'll Be The Day" appears among newly recorded versions of Holly's songs by various artists.
Vocal styles
Ronstadt captured the sounds of country music and the rhythms of ranchera musicwhich she likened in 1968 to "Mexican bluegrass"and redirected them into her rock 'n' roll and some of her pop music. Many of these rhythms and sounds were part of her Southwestern roots. Likewise, a country sound and style, a fusion of country music and rock 'n' roll called country rock, started to exert its influence on mainstream pop music around the late 1960s, and it became an emerging movement Ronstadt helped form and commercialize. However, as early as 1970, Ronstadt was being criticized by music "purists" for her "brand of music" which crossed many genres. Country Western Stars magazine wrote in 1970 that "Rock people thought she was too gentle, folk people thought she was too pop, and pop people didn't quite understand where she was at, but Country people really loved Linda." She never categorized herself and stuck to her genre-crossing brand of music.
Interpretive singer
Ronstadt is considered an "interpreter of her times", and has earned praise for her courage to put her "stamp" on many of her songs. Nevertheless, her hits were criticized in some quarters for being cover songs. Ronstadt herself has indicated that some of her 1970s hits were recorded under considerable pressure to create commercially successful recordings, and that she prefers many of her songs that were non-hit album tracks. An infrequent songwriter, Ronstadt co-composed only three songs over her long career.
Ronstadt's natural vocal range spans several octaves from contralto to soprano, and occasionally she will showcase this entire range within a single work. Ronstadt was the first female artist in popular music history to accumulate four consecutive platinum albums (fourteen certified million selling, to date). As for the singles, Rolling Stone pointed out that a whole generation, "but for her, might never have heard the work of artists such as Buddy Holly, Elvis Costello, and Chuck Berry."
Others have argued that Ronstadt had the same generational effect with her Great American Songbook music, exposing a whole new generation to the music of the 1920s and 1930smusic which was pushed aside because of the advent of rock 'n' roll. When interpreting, Ronstadt said she "sticks to what the music demands", in terms of lyrics. Explaining that rock and roll music is part of her culture, she says that the songs she sang after her rock and roll hits were part of her soul. "The (Mariachi music) was my father's side of the soul," she was quoted as saying in a 1998 interview she gave at her Tucson home. "My mother's side of my soul was the Nelson Riddle stuff. And I had to do them both to reestablish who I was."
In the 1974 book Rock 'N' Roll Woman, author Katherine Orloff writes that Ronstadt's "own musical preferences run strongly to rhythm and blues, the type of music she most frequently chooses to listen to ... (and) her goal is to ... be soulful too. With this in mind, Ronstadt fuses country and rock into a special union."
By this stage of her career, Ronstadt had established her niche in the field of country-rock. Along with other musicians such as the Flying Burrito Brothers, Emmylou Harris, Gram Parsons, Swampwater, Neil Young, and the Eagles, she helped free country music from stereotypes and showed rockers that country was okay. However, she stated that she was being pushed hard into singing more rock and roll.
Most successful female singer of the 1970s
Author Andrew Greeley, in his book God in Popular Culture, described Ronstadt as "the most successful and certainly the most durable and most gifted woman Rock singer of her era." Signaling her wide popularity as a concert artist, outside of the singles charts and the recording studio, Dirty Linen magazine describes her as the "first true woman rock 'n' roll superstar ... (selling) out stadiums with a string of mega-successful albums." Amazon.com defines her as the American female rock superstar of the decade. Cashbox gave Ronstadt a Special Decade Award, as the top-selling female singer of the 1970s.
Her album covers, posters, magazine coversher entire rock 'n' roll imagewere as famous as her music. By the end of the decade, the singer whom the Chicago Sun Times described as the "Dean of the 1970s school of female rock singers" became what Redbook called "the most successful female rock star in the world." "Female" was the important qualifier, according to Time magazine, which labeled her "a rarity ... to (have survived) ... in the shark-infested deeps of rock."
Although Ronstadt had been a cult favorite on the music scene for several years, 1975 was "remembered in the music biz as the year when 29-year-old Linda Ronstadt belatedly happened."
With the release of Heart Like a Wheelnamed after one of the album's songs, written by Anna McGarrigleRonstadt reached number 1 on the Billboard 200 chart; it was also the first of four number 1 Country Albums, and the disc was certified double-platinum (over two million copies sold in the U.S.). In many instances, her own interpretations were more successful than the original recordings, and many times new songwriters were discovered by a larger audience as a result of her interpretation and recording. Ronstadt had major success interpreting songs from a diverse spectrum of artists.
Heart Like a Wheels first single release, "You're No Good"a rockified version of an R&B song written by Clint Ballard, Jr. that Ronstadt had initially resisted because Andrew Gold's guitar tracks sounded too much like a "Beatles song" to herclimbed to number 1 on both the Billboard and Cash Box Pop singles charts. The album's second single release, "When Will I Be Loved"an uptempo country-rock version of a Top 10 Everly Brothers songhit number 1 in Cashbox and number 2 in Billboard. The song was also Ronstadt's first number 1 country hit.
The album's critical and commercial success was due to a fine presentation of country and rock, with Heart Like a Wheel her first of many major commercial successes that would set her on the path to being one of the best-selling female artists of all time. Ronstadt won her first Grammy Award for Best Country Vocal Performance/Female for "I Can't Help It (If I'm Still in Love with You)" which was originally a 1940s hit by Hank Williams. Ronstadt's interpretation peaked at number 2 on the country chart. The album itself was nominated for the Album of the Year Grammy.
Rolling Stone put Ronstadt on its cover in March 1975. It was the first of six Rolling Stone covers shot by photographer Annie Leibovitz. It included her as the featured artist with a full photo layout and an article by Ben Fong-Torres, discussing Ronstadt's many struggling years in rock n roll, as well as her home life and what it was like to be a woman on tour in a decidedly all-male environment.
In September 1975, Ronstadt's album Prisoner in Disguise was released. It quickly climbed into the Top Five on the Billboard Album Chart and sold over a million copies. It became her second in a row to go platinum, "a grand slam" in the same year (Ronstadt would eventually become the first female artist in popular music history to have three consecutive platinum albums and would ultimately go on to have eight consecutive platinum albums, and then another six between 1983 and 1990). The disc's first single release was "Love Is A Rose". It was climbing the pop and country charts but "Heat Wave", a rockified version of the 1963 hit by Martha and the Vandellas, was receiving considerable airplay. Asylum pulled the "Love Is a Rose" single and issued "Heat Wave" with "Love Is a Rose" on the B-side. "Heat Wave" hit the Top Five on Billboards Hot 100 while "Love Is A Rose" hit the Top Five on Billboard's country chart.
In 1976, Ronstadt reached the Top 3 of Billboards Album Chart and won her second career Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for her third consecutive platinum album Hasten Down the Wind. The album featured a sexy, revealing cover shot and showcased Ronstadt the singer-songwriter, who composed two of its songs, "Try Me Again" (co-authored with Andrew Gold) and "Lo Siento Mi Vida". It also included an interpretation of Willie Nelson's ballad "Crazy", which became a Top 10 Country hit for Ronstadt in early 1977.
At the end of 1977, Ronstadt surpassed the success of Heart Like a Wheel with her album Simple Dreams, which held the number 1 position for five consecutive weeks on the Billboard 200 chart. It sold over 3½ million copies in less than a year in the U.S. alone – a record for a female artist. Simple Dreams spawned a string of hit singles on numerous charts. Among them were the RIAA platinum-certified single "Blue Bayou", a country-rock interpretation of a Roy Orbison song; "It's So Easy"previously sung by Buddy Holly, a cover of The Rolling Stones' "Tumbling Dice", and "Poor Poor Pitiful Me", a song written by Warren Zevon, an up-and-coming songwriter of the time. The album garnered several Grammy Award nominationsincluding Record of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Performance/Female for "Blue Bayou"and won its art director, Kosh, a Grammy Award for Best Album Cover, the first of three Grammy Awards he would win for designing Ronstadt album covers. In late 1977, Ronstadt became the first female recording artist to have two songs in the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Top Ten at the same time. "Blue Bayou" was at No. 3 while "It's So Easy" was at No. 5.
Simple Dreams became one of the singer's best-selling international-selling albums as well, reaching number 1 on the Australian and Canadian Pop and Country Albums charts. Simple Dreams also made Ronstadt the most successful international female touring artist. The same year, she completed a concert tour around Europe. As Country Music magazine wrote in October 1978, Simple Dreams solidified Ronstadt's role as "easily the most successful female rock and roll and country star at this time."
Also in 1977, she was asked by the Los Angeles Dodgers to sing the U.S. National Anthem at game three of the World Series against the New York Yankees.
Time magazine and "rock chick" image
Ronstadt has remarked that she felt as though she was "artificially encouraged to kinda cop a really tough attitude (and be tough) because rock and roll is kind of tough (business)," which she felt wasn't worn quite authentically. Female rock artists like her and Janis Joplin, whom she described as lovely, shy, and very literate in real life and the antithesis of the "red hot mamma" she was artificially encouraged to project, went through an identity crisis.
By the mid-1970s, Ronstadt's image became just as famous as her music. In 1976 and 1977, she appeared on the covers of Rolling Stone and Time, respectively. The Rolling Stone cover story was accompanied by a series of photographs of Ronstadt in a skimpy red slip, taken by Annie Leibovitz. Ronstadt felt deceived by the photographer, not realizing that the photos would be so revealing. She says her manager Peter Asher kicked Leibovitz out of the house when she visited to show them the photographs prior to publication. Leibovitz had refused to let them veto any of the photos, which included one of Ronstadt sprawled across a bed in her underpants. In a 1977 interview, Ronstadt explained, "Annie [Leibovitz] saw that picture as an exposé of my personality. She was right. But I wouldn't choose to show a picture like that to anybody who didn't know me personally, because only friends could get the other sides of me in balance."
Her 1977 appearance on the cover of Time magazine under the banner "Torchy Rock" was also upsetting to Ronstadt, considering what the image appeared to project about the most famous woman in rock. At a time in the industry when men still told women what to sing and what to wear, Ronstadt hated the image of her that was projected to the world on that cover, and she noted recently how the photographer kept forcing her to wear a dress, which was an image she did not want to project. In 2004, she was interviewed for CBS This Morning and stated that this image was not her because she did not sit like that. Asher noted, "Anyone who's met Linda for 10 seconds will know that I couldn't possibly have been her Svengali. She's an extremely determined woman, in every area. To me, she was everything that feminism's about." Qualities which, Asher has stated, were considered a "negative (in a woman at that time), whereas in a man they were perceived as being masterful and bold". Since her solo career had begun, Ronstadt had fought hard to be recognized as a solo female singer in the world of rock, and her portrayal on the Time cover did not appear to help the situation.
In 1978, Rolling Stone declared Ronstadt "by far America's best-known female rock singer." She scored a third number 1 album on the Billboard Album Chart – at this point equaling the record set by Carole King in 1974 – with Living in the USA. She achieved a major hit single with "Ooo Baby Baby", with her rendition hitting all four major singles charts (Pop, AC, Country, R&B). Living in the USA was the first album by any recording act in music history to ship double-platinum (over 2 million advance copies). The album eventually sold 3 million U.S. copies.
At the end of that year, Billboard magazine crowned Ronstadt with three number-one Awards for the Year: Pop Female Singles Artist of the Year, Pop Female Album Artist of the Year, and Female Artist of the Year (overall).
Living in the USA showed the singer on roller skates with a newly short, permed hairdo on the album cover. Ronstadt continued this theme on concert tour promotional posters with photos of her on roller skates in a dramatic pose with a large American flag in the background. By this stage of her career, she was using posters to promote every album and concert – which at the time were recorded live on radio or television.
Ronstadt was also featured in the 1978 film FM, where the plot involved disc jockeys attempting to broadcast a Ronstadt concert live, without a competing station's knowledge. The film also showed Ronstadt performing the songs "Poor, Poor Pitiful Me", "Love Me Tender", and "Tumbling Dice". Ronstadt was persuaded to record "Tumbling Dice" after Mick Jagger came backstage when she was at a concert and said, "You do too many ballads, you should do more rock and roll songs."
Following the success of Living in the USA, Ronstadt conducted album promotional tours and concerts. She made a guest appearance onstage with the Rolling Stones at the Tucson Community Center on July 21, 1978, in her hometown of Tucson, where she and Jagger sang "Tumbling Dice". On singing with Jagger, Ronstadt later said, "I loved it. I didn't have a trace of stage fright. I'm scared to death all the way through my own shows. But it was too much fun to get scared. He's so silly onstage, he knocks you over. I mean you have to be on your toes or you wind up falling on your face."
Highest-paid woman in rock
By the end of 1978, Ronstadt had solidified her role as one of rock and pop's most successful solo female acts, and owing to her consistent platinum album success, and her ability as the first woman to sell out concerts in arenas and stadiums hosting tens of thousands of fans, Ronstadt became the "highest paid woman in rock". She had six platinum-certified albums, three of which were number 1 on the Billboard album chart, and numerous charted pop singles. In 1978 alone, she made over $12 million () and in the same year her albums sales were reported to be 17 milliongrossing over $60 million ().
As Rolling Stone dubbed her "Rock's Venus", her record sales continued to multiply and set records themselves. By 1979, Ronstadt had collected eight gold, six platinum, and four multi-platinum certifications for her albums, an unprecedented feat at the time. Her 1976 Greatest Hits album would sell consistently for the next 25 years and in 2001 was certified by the RIAA for seven-times platinum (over seven million U.S. copies sold). In 1980, Greatest Hits, Volume 2 was released and certified platinum.
In 1979, Ronstadt went on an international tour, playing in arenas across Australia to Japan, including the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne, and the Budokan in Tokyo. She also participated in a benefit concert for her friend Lowell George, held at The Forum, in Los Angeles.
By the end of the decade, Ronstadt had outsold her female competition; she had five straight platinum LPsHasten Down the Wind and Heart Like a Wheel among them. Us Weekly reported in 1978 that Ronstadt, Joni Mitchell, Stevie Nicks, and Carly Simon had become "The Queens of Rock" and "Rock is no longer exclusively male. There is a new royalty ruling today's record charts."
She would go on to parlay her mass commercial appeal with major success in interpreting The Great American Songbookmade famous a generation before by Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgeraldand later the Mexican folk songs of her childhood.
From rock to operetta
In February 1980, Ronstadt released Mad Love, her seventh consecutive platinum-selling album. It was a straightforward rock and roll album with post-punk, new wave influences, including tracks by songwriters such as Elvis Costello, the Cretones, and musician Mark Goldenberg who played on the record himself. As part of the album's promotion, a live concert was recorded for an HBO special in April. A partial soundtrack for this special (omitting most of the Mad Love tracks) was released as her first official live album in February 2019.
She also made the cover of Rolling Stone for a record-setting sixth time. Mad Love entered the Billboard Album Chart in the Top Five its first week (a record at that time) and climbed to the number 3 position. The project continued her streak of Top 10 hits with "How Do I Make You", originally recorded by Billy Thermal, and "Hurt So Bad", originally a Top 10 hit for Little Anthony & the Imperials. The album earned Ronstadt a 1980 Grammy Award nomination for Best Rock Vocal Performance/Female (although she lost to Pat Benatar's Crimes of Passion album). Benatar praised Ronstadt by stating, "There are a lot of good female singers around. How could I be the best? Ronstadt is still alive!"
In the summer of 1980, Ronstadt began rehearsals for the first of several leads in Broadway musicals. Joseph Papp cast her as the lead in the New York Shakespeare Festival production of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance, alongside Kevin Kline. She said singing Gilbert and Sullivan was a natural choice for her, since her grandfather Fred Ronstadt was credited with having created Tucson's first orchestra, the Club Filarmonico Tucsonense, and had once created an arrangement of The Pirates of Penzance.
The Pirates of Penzance opened for a limited engagement in New York City's Central Park, eventually moving its production to Broadway, where it became a hit, running from January 8, 1981, to November 28, 1982. Newsweek was effusive in its praise: "... she has not dodged the coloratura demands of her role (and Mabel is one of the most demanding parts in the G&S canon): from her entrance trilling 'Poor Wand'ring One,' it is clear that she is prepared to scale whatever soprano peaks stand in her way." Ronstadt co-starred with Kline and Angela Lansbury in the 1983 operetta's film version; this was her only acting role in a motion picture (her other film appearances, such as in the 1978 drama, FM, being concert footage as herself). Ronstadt received a Golden Globe nomination for the role in the film version. She garnered a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical and The Pirates of Penzance won several Tony Awards, including a Tony Award for Best Revival.
As a child, Ronstadt had discovered the opera La bohème through the silent film with Lillian Gish and was determined to someday play the part of Mimi. When she met the opera superstar Beverly Sills, she was told, "My dear, every soprano in the world wants to play Mimi!" In 1984, Ronstadt was cast in the role at Joseph Papp's Public Theater. However, the production was a critical and commercial disaster, closing after only a few nights.
In 1982, Ronstadt released the album Get Closer, a primarily rock album with some country and pop music as well. It remains her only album between 1975 and 1990 not to be officially certified platinum. It peaked at number 31 on the Billboard Album Chart. The release continued her streak of Top 40 hits with "Get Closer" and "I Knew You When"a 1965 hit by Billy Joe Royalwhile the Jimmy Webb song "Easy For You To Say" was a surprise Top 10 Adult Contemporary hit in the spring of 1983. "Sometimes You Just Can't Win" was picked up by country radio, and made it to number 27 on that listing. Ronstadt also filmed several music videos for this album which became popular on the fledgling MTV cable channel. The album earned Ronstadt two Grammy Award nominations: one for Best Rock Vocal Performance/Female for the title track and another for Best Pop Vocal Performance/Female for the album. The artwork won its art director, Kosh, his second Grammy Award for Best Album Package.
Along with the release of her Get Closer album, Ronstadt embarked on a North American tour, remaining one of the top rock-concert draws that summer and fall. On November 25, 1982, her "Happy Thanksgiving Day" concert was held at the Reunion Arena in Dallas and broadcast live via satellite to NBC radio stations in the United States.
In 1988, Ronstadt returned to Broadway for a limited-run engagement in the musical show adaptation of her album celebrating her Mexican heritage, Canciones De Mi PadreA Romantic Evening in Old Mexico.
Artistic aspirations
Ronstadt has remarked that in the beginning of her career she "was so focused on folk, rock and country" that she "got a bit bored and started to branch out, and ... [has] been doing that ever since." By 1983, her estimated worth was over $40 million mostly from records, concerts and merchandising.
In the early 1980s, Ronstadt was criticized for accepting $500,000 to perform at the South African resort Sun City, violating the cultural boycott imposed against South Africa because of its policy of apartheid. At the time, she stated, "the last place for a boycott is in the arts" and "I don't like being told I can't go somewhere". Paul Simon was criticized for including her on his 1986 album Graceland, recorded in South Africa, but defended her: "I know that her intention was never to support the government there ... She made a mistake. She’s extremely liberal in her political thinking and unquestionably antiapartheid."
Ronstadt eventually tired of playing arenas. She had ceased to feel that arenas, where people milled around smoking marijuana cigarettes and drinking beer, were "appropriate places for music". She wanted "angels in the architecture"a reference to a lyric in the Paul Simon song "You Can Call Me Al" from Graceland. (Ronstadt sang harmony with Simon on a different Graceland track, "Under African Skies". The second verse's lyrics pay tribute to Ronstadt: "Take this child, Lord, from Tucson, Arizona. ..."). Ronstadt has said she wants to sing in places similar to the theatre of ancient Greece, where the attention is focused on the stage and the performer.
Ronstadt's recording output in the 1980s proved to be just as commercially and critically successful as her 1970s recordings. Between 1983 and 1990, Ronstadt scored six additional platinum albums; two are triple platinum (each with over three million U.S. copies sold); one has been certified double platinum (over two million copies sold), and one has earned additional certification as a Gold (over 500,000 U.S. copies sold) double-disc album.
Jazz/pop trilogy
In 1981, Ronstadt produced and recorded an album of pop standards (later marketed in bootleg form) titled Keeping Out of Mischief with the assistance of producer Jerry Wexler. However, Ronstadt's displeasure with the final result led her, with regrets, to scrap the project. "Doing that killed me," she said in a Time magazine interview. But the appeal of the album's music had seduced Ronstadt, as she told Down Beat in April 1985, crediting Wexler for encouraging her. Nonetheless, Ronstadt had to convince her reluctant record company, Elektra, to approve this type of album under her contract.
By 1983, Ronstadt had enlisted the help of 62-year-old conductor Nelson Riddle. The two embarked on an unorthodox and original approach to rehabilitating the Great American Songbook, recording a trilogy of traditional pop albums: What's New (1983U.S. 3.7 million as of 2010); Lush Life (1984U.S. 1.7 million as of 2010); and For Sentimental Reasons (1986U.S. 1.3 million as of 2010). The three albums have had a combined sales total of nearly seven million copies in the U.S. alone.
The album design for What's New by designer Kosh was unlike any of her previous disc covers. It showed Ronstadt in a vintage dress lying on shimmering satin sheets with a Walkman headset. At the time, Ronstadt received some chiding for both the album cover and her venture into what was then considered "elevator music" by cynics, but remained determined to record with Riddle, and What's New became a hit. The album was released in September 1983 and spent 81 weeks on the Billboard Album Chart and held the number three position for a month and a half (held out of the top spot only by Michael Jackson's Thriller and Lionel Richie's Can't Slow Down) and the RIAA certified it triple platinum (over three million copies sold in the U.S. alone). The album earned Ronstadt another Grammy nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, and critical raves, with Time magazine calling it "one of the gutsiest, most unorthodox and unexpected albums of the year."
Ronstadt faced considerable pressure not to record What's New or record with Riddle. According to jazz historian Peter Levinson, author of the book September in the Raina Biography on Nelson Riddle, Joe Smith, president of Elektra Records, was terrified that the Riddle album would turn off Ronstadt's rock audience. Ronstadt did not completely turn her back on her rock and roll past, however; the video for the title track featured Danny Kortchmar as the old beau that she bumped into during a rainstorm.
What's New brought Riddle to a younger audience. According to Levinson, "the younger audience hated what Riddle had done with Frank Sinatra, which in 1983 was considered 'Vintage Pop'". Working with Ronstadt, Riddle brought his career back into focus in the last three years of his life. Stephen Holden of The New York Times wrote, What's New "isn't the first album by a rock singer to pay tribute to the golden age of the pop, but is ... the best and most serious attempt to rehabilitate an idea of pop that Beatlemania and the mass marketing of rock LPs for teenagers undid in the mid-60s. ... In the decade prior to Beatlemania, most of the great band singers and crooners of the 40s and 50s codified a half-century of American pop standards on dozens of albums ... many of them now long out-of-print." What's New is the first album by a rock singer to have major commercial success in rehabilitating the Great American Songbook.
In 1984, Ronstadt and Riddle performed these songs live, in concert halls throughout Australia, Japan, and the United States, including multi-night performances at historic venues Carnegie Hall, Radio City Music Hall, and Pine Knob.
In 2004, Ronstadt released Hummin' to Myself, her album for Verve Records. It was her first foray into traditional jazz since her sessions with Jerry Wexler and her records with the Nelson Riddle Orchestra, but this time with an intimate jazz combo. The album was a quiet affair for Ronstadt, giving few interviews and making only one television performance as a promotion. It reached number 2 on Billboard's Top Jazz Albums chart but peaked at number 166 on the main Billboard album chart. Not having the mass distribution that Warner Music Group gave her, Hummin' To Myself had sold over 75,000 copies in the U.S. as of 2010. It also achieved some critical acclaim from the jazz cognoscenti.
"Trio" recordings
In 1978, Ronstadt, Dolly Parton, and Emmylou Harris, friends and admirers of one another's work (Ronstadt had included a cover of Parton's "I Will Always Love You" on Prisoner in Disguise) attempted to collaborate on a Trio album. Unfortunately, the attempt did not pan out. Ronstadt later remarked that not too many people were in control at the time and everyone was too involved with their own careers. (Though the efforts to complete the album were abandoned, a number of the recordings were included on the singers' respective solo recordings over the next few years.) This concept album was put on the back burner for almost ten years.
In January 1986, the three eventually did make their way into the recording studio, where they spent the next several months working. The result, Trio, which they had conceived ten years earlier, was released in March 1987. It was a considerable hit, holding the number 1 position on Billboard's Country Albums chart for five weeks running and hitting the Top 10 on the pop side also. Selling over three million copies in the U.S. and winning them a Grammy Award for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal, it produced four Top Ten Country singles including "To Know Him Is to Love Him" which hit number 1. The album was also a nominee for overall Album of the Year, in the company of Michael Jackson, U2, Prince, and Whitney Houston.
In 1994, the three performers recorded a follow-up to Trio. As was the case with their aborted 1978 effort, conflicting schedules and competing priorities delayed the album's release indefinitely. Ronstadt, who had already paid for studio timeand owed her record company a finished albumremoved Parton's individual tracks at Parton's request, kept Harris's vocals, and produced a number of the recordings, which she subsequently released on her 1995 return to country rock, the album Feels Like Home.
However, in 1999, Ronstadt, Parton, and Harris agreed to release the Trio II album, as was originally recorded in 1994. It included an ethereal cover of Neil Young's "After The Gold Rush" which became a popular music video. The effort was certified Gold (over 500,000 copies sold) and won them a Grammy Award for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals for the track. Ronstadt co-produced the album with George Massenburg and the three women also received a nomination for the Grammy Award for Best Country Album.
Canciones de Mi Padre
At the end of 1987, Ronstadt released Canciones de Mi Padre, an album of traditional Mexican folk songs, or what she has described as "world class songs". Keeping with the Ronstadt history theme, her cover art was dramatic, bold, and colorful; it shows Ronstadt in full Mexican regalia. Her musical arranger was mariachi musician Rubén Fuentes.
These canciones were a big part of Ronstadt's family tradition and musical roots. In January 1946, the University of Arizona published a booklet by Luisa Espinel entitled Canciones de mi Padre. Luisa Espinel, Ronstadt's aunt, was an international singer in the 1920s and 1930s. Espinel's father was Fred Ronstadt, Linda Ronstadt's grandfather, and the songs she had learned, transcribed, and published were some of the ones he had brought with him from Sonora. Ronstadt researched and extracted from the favorites she had learned from her father Gilbert and she called her album by the same name as her aunt's booklet and as a tribute to her father and his family. Though not fully bilingual, she has a fairly good command of the Spanish language, allowing her to sing Latin American songs with little discernible U.S. accent; Ronstadt has often identified herself as Mexican-American. Her formative years were spent with her father's side of the family. In fact, in 1976, Ronstadt had collaborated with her father to write and compose a traditional Mexican folk ballad, "Lo siento mi vida"a song that she included on Hasten Down the Wind. Ronstadt has also credited Mexican singer Lola Beltrán as an influence on her own singing style, and she recalls how a frequent guest to the Ronstadt home, Eduardo "Lalo" Guerrero, father of Chicano music, would often serenade her as a child.
Canciones de Mi Padre won Ronstadt a Grammy Award for Best Mexican-American Performance. In 2001, it was certified double-platinum by the RIAA for shipments of over 2 million copies in the United States, making it the best-selling non-English-language album in U.S. music history. The album and later theatrical stage show served as a benchmark of the Latin cultural renaissance in North America.
Ronstadt produced and performed a theatrical stage show, also titled Canciones de mi Padre, in concert halls across the U.S. and Latin America to both Hispanic and non-Hispanic audiences. These performances were later released on DVD. Ronstadt elected to return to the Broadway stage, four years after she performed in La bohème, for a limited-run engagement. PBS's Great Performances aired the stage show during its annual fund drives and the show was a hit with audiences, earning Ronstadt a Primetime Emmy Award for Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program.
Ronstadt recorded two additional albums of Latin music in the early 1990s. Their promotion, like most of her albums in the 1990s, was a quieter affair, with Ronstadt making only a limited number of appearances to promote them. They were not nearly as successful as Canciones De Mi Padre, but were critically acclaimed in some circles. In 1991, she released Mas Canciones, a follow-up to the first Canciones. For this album, she won a Grammy Award for Best Mexican/Mexican-American Album. The following year, she stepped outside of the mariachi genre and decided to record well-known Afro-Cuban songs. This album was titled Frenesí. Like her two previous Latin recordings ventures, it won Ronstadt a Grammy Award, this time for Best Traditional Tropical Latin Album.
In 1991, Ronstadt acted in the lead role of archangel San Miguel in La Pastorela, or A Shephard's Tale, a musical filmed at San Juan Bautista. It was written and directed by Luis Valdez. The production was part of the PBS Great Performances series.
In December 2020, it was announced that Canciones de Mi Padre had been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Returning to the contemporary music scene
By the late 1980s, while enjoying the success of her big band jazz collaborations with Riddle and her surprise hit mariachi recordings, Ronstadt elected to return to recording mainstream pop music once again. In 1987, she made a return to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart with "Somewhere Out There", which peaked at number 2 in March. Featured in the animated film An American Tail, the sentimental duet with James Ingram was nominated for several Grammy Awards, ultimately winning the Grammy Award for Song of the Year. The song also received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Original Song and achieved high sales, earning a million-selling gold single in the U.S.one of the last 45s ever to do so. It was also accompanied by a popular music video. On the heels of this success, Steven Spielberg asked Ronstadt to record the theme song for the animated sequel titled An American Tail: Fievel Goes West, which was titled "Dreams to Dream". Although "Dreams to Dream" failed to achieve the success of "Somewhere Out There", the song did give Ronstadt an Adult Contemporary hit in 1991.
In 1989, Ronstadt released a mainstream pop album and several popular singles. Cry Like A Rainstorm, Howl Like The Wind became one of the singer's most successful albumsin production, arrangements, sales, and critical acclaim. It became Ronstadt's tenth Top 10 album on the Billboard chart, reaching number 7 and being certified triple-platinum (over three million copies sold in the U.S.). The album also received Grammy Award nominations. Ronstadt included New Orleans soul singer Aaron Neville on several of the album's songs.
Ronstadt incorporated the sounds of the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir, Tower of Power horns, the Skywalker Symphony, and numerous musicians. It included the duets with Aaron Neville, "Don't Know Much" (Billboard Hot 100 number 2 hit, Christmas 1989) and "All My Life" (Billboard Hot 100 number 11 hit), both of which were long-running number 1 Adult Contemporary hits. The duets earned several Grammy Award nominations. The duo won both the 1989 and 1990 Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal awards. Ronstadt's last known live Grammy Award appearance was in 1990 when she and Neville performed "Don't Know Much" together on the telecast. ("Whenever I sing with a different artist, I can get things out of my voice that I can't do by myself", Ronstadt reflected in 2007. "I can do things with Aaron that I can't do alone.")
In December 1990, she participated in a concert held at the Tokyo Dome to commemorate John Lennon's 50th birthday, and to raise awareness of environmental issues. Other participants included Miles Davis, Lenny Kravitz, Hall & Oates, Natalie Cole, Yoko Ono, and Sean Lennon. An album resulted, titled Happy Birthday, John.
Return to roots music
Ronstadt released the highly acclaimed Winter Light album at the end of 1993. It included New Age arrangements such as the lead single "Heartbeats Accelerating" as well as the self-penned title track and featured the glass harmonica. It was her first commercial failure since 1972, and peaked at number 92 in Billboard, whereas 1995's Feels Like Home was Ronstadt's much-heralded return to country-rock and included her version of Tom Petty's classic hit "The Waiting". The single's rollicking, fiddle-infused flip side, "Walk On", returned Ronstadt to the Country Singles chart for the first time since 1983. An album track entitled "The Blue Train" charted 10 weeks in Billboards Adult Contemporary Top 40. This album fared slightly better than its predecessor, reaching number 75. Both albums were later deleted from the Elektra/Asylum catalog. Ronstadt was nominated for three Lo Nuestro Awards in 1993: Female Regional Mexican Artist of the Year, Female Tropical/Salsa Artist of the Year, and her version of the song "Perfidia" was also listed for Tropical/Salsa Song of the Year.
In 1996, Ronstadt produced Dedicated to the One I Love, an album of classic rock and roll songs reinvented as lullabies. The album reached number 78 in Billboard and won the Grammy Award for Best Musical Album for Children.
In 1998, Ronstadt released We Ran, her first album in over two years. The album harkened back to Ronstadt's country-rock and folk-rock heyday. She returned to her rock 'n' roll roots with vivid interpretations of songs by Bruce Springsteen, Doc Pomus, Bob Dylan, and John Hiatt. The recording was produced by Glyn Johns. A commercial failure, the album stood at 57,897 copies sold at the time of its deletion in 2008. It is the poorest-selling studio album in Ronstadt's Elektra/Asylum catalog. We Ran did not chart any singles but it was well received by critics.
Despite the lack of success of We Ran, Ronstadt kept moving towards this adult rock exploration. In the summer of 1999, she released the album Western Wall: The Tucson Sessions, a folk-rock-oriented project with Emmylou Harris. It earned a nomination for the Grammy Award for the Best Contemporary Folk Album and made the Top 10 of Billboards Country Albums chart. Still in print as of December 2016, it has sold 223,255 copies per Nielsen SoundScan.
Also in 1999, Ronstadt went back to her concert roots when she performed with the Eagles and Jackson Browne at Staples Center's 1999 New Year's Eve celebration kicking off the December 31 end-of-the-millennium festivities. As Staples Center Senior Vice President and general manager Bobby Goldwater said, "It was our goal to present a spectacular event as a sendoff to the 20th century", and "Eagles, Jackson Browne, and Linda Ronstadt are three of the most popular acts of the century. Their performances will constitute a singular and historic night of entertainment for New Year's Eve in Los Angeles."
In 2000, Ronstadt completed her long contractual relationship with the Elektra/Asylum label. The fulfillment of this contract commenced with the release of A Merry Little Christmas, her first holiday collection, which includes rare choral works, the somber Joni Mitchell song "River", and a rare recorded duet with the late Rosemary Clooney on Clooney's signature song, "White Christmas".
Since leaving Warner Music, Ronstadt has gone on to release one album each under Verve and Vanguard Records.
In 2006, recording as the ZoZo Sisters, Ronstadt teamed with her new friend, musician and musical scholar Ann Savoy, to record Adieu False Heart. It was an album of roots music incorporating pop, Cajun, and early-20th-century music and released on the Vanguard Records label. But Adieu False Heart was a commercial failure, peaking at number 146 in the U.S. despite her touring for the final time that year. It was the last time Linda Ronstadt would record an album, having begun to lose her singing ability as a result of a degenerative condition later determined to be progressive supranuclear palsy, but initially diagnosed as Parkinson's disease, in December 2012. Adieu False Heart, recorded in Louisiana, features a cast of local musicians, including Chas Justus, Eric Frey and Kevin Wimmer of the Red Stick Ramblers, Sam Broussard of the Mamou Playboys, Dirk Powell, and Joel Savoy, as well as an array of Nashville musicians: fiddler Stuart Duncan, mandolinist Sam Bush, and guitarist Bryan Sutton. The recording earned two Grammy Award nominations: Best Traditional Folk Album and Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical.
In 2007, Ronstadt contributed to the compilation album We All Love Ella: Celebrating the First Lady of Songa tribute album to jazz music's all-time most heralded artiston the track "Miss Otis Regrets".
In August 2007, Ronstadt headlined the Newport Folk Festival, making her debut at this event, where she incorporated jazz, rock, and folk music into her repertoire. It was one of her final concerts.
In 2010, Ronstadt contributed the arrangement and lead vocal to "A La Orilla de un Palmar" on the Chieftains' studio album San Patricio (with Ry Cooder). This remains her most recent commercially available recording as lead vocalist.
Retirement
In 2011, Ronstadt was interviewed by the Arizona Daily Star and announced her retirement. In August 2013, she revealed to Alanna Nash, writing for AARP, that she has Parkinson's disease and "can no longer sing a note." Her diagnosis was subsequently re-evaluated as progressive supranuclear palsy.
Selected career achievements
On April 10, 2014, Ronstadt was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In July 2019, Ronstadt was selected as a Kennedy Center Honoree.
As of 2019, Ronstadt has earned three number 1 pop albums, 10 top-ten pop albums and 38 charting pop albums on the Billboard Pop Album Charts. She has 15 albums on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart, including four that hit number 1. Ronstadt's singles have earned her a number 1 hit and three number 2 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, with 10 top-ten pop singles and 21 reaching the Top 40. She has also scored two number 1 hits on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, and two number 1 hits on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart. Rolling Stone wrote, a whole generation "but for her, might never have heard the work of Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, or Elvis Costello."
She has recorded and released over 30 studio albums and has made guest appearances on an estimated 120 albums by other artists. Her guest appearances included the classical minimalist Philip Glass's album Songs from Liquid Days, a hit classical record with other major pop stars either singing or writing lyrics (Ronstadt's two tracks on the album saw her singing lyrics written by Suzanne Vega and Laurie Anderson). She also appeared on Glass's follow-up recording 1000 Airplanes on the Roof. She appeared on Paul Simon's Graceland, where she sang a duet with Simon, "Under African Skies." In that song, there is a verse dedicated to Ronstadt, her voice and harmonies and her birth in Tucson, Arizona. She voiced herself in The Simpsons episode "Mr. Plow" and sang a duet, "Funny How Time Slips Away," with Homer Simpson on The Yellow Album.
Ronstadt has also appeared on albums by a vast range of artists including Emmylou Harris, the Chieftains, Dolly Parton, Neil Young, J. D. Souther, Gram Parsons, Bette Midler, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Earl Scruggs, the Eagles, Andrew Gold, Wendy Waldman, Hoyt Axton, Kate and Anna McGarrigle, Ann Savoy, Karla Bonoff, James Taylor, Jimmy Webb, Valerie Carter, Warren Zevon, Maria Muldaur, Randy Newman (specifically his musical adaptation of Faust), Nicolette Larson, the Seldom Scene, Rosemary Clooney, Aaron Neville, Rodney Crowell, Hearts and Flowers, Laurie Lewis and Flaco Jiménez. As a singer-songwriter, Ronstadt has written songs covered by several artists, such as "Try Me Again", covered by Trisha Yearwood; and "Winter Light", which was co-written and composed with Zbigniew Preisner and Eric Kaz, and covered by Sarah Brightman.
Her three biggest-selling studio albums to date are: her 1977 release Simple Dreams, 1983's What's New and 1989's Cry Like A Rainstorm, Howl Like The Wind. Each one has been certified by the Recording Industry Association of America for over three million copies sold. Her highest-selling album to date is the 1976 compilation Greatest Hits, certified for over seven million units sold in 2001. Ronstadt became music's first major touring female artist to sell out sizeable venues; she was also the top-grossing solo female concert artist for the 1970s. She remained a highly successful touring artist into the 1990s, at which time she decided to scale back to smaller venues. In the 1970s, Cashbox magazine, a competitor of Billboard during that time period, named Ronstadt the "#1 Female Artist of the Decade". "Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" included Heart Like a Wheel (1974) at number 164 and The Very Best Of Linda Ronstadt (2002) at number 324. The 2012 revision kept only the compilation, but raised it to the place once occupied by Heart Like a Wheel.
Ronstadt's album sales have not been certified since 2001. At that time, Ronstadt's U.S. album sales were certified by the Recording Industry Association of America at over 30 million albums sold; however, Peter Asher, her former producer and manager, placed her total U.S. album sales at over 45 million. Likewise, her worldwide albums sales are in excess of 100 million albums sold, according to the former president of Warner Bros. Records, Joe Smith, now a jury member of the Hit Parade Hall of Fame. Her RIAA certification (audits paid for by record companies or artists for promotion) tally as of 2001 totaled 19 Gold, 14 Platinum and 7 Multi-Platinum albums. She was the first female in music history to score three consecutive platinum albums and ultimately racked up a total of eight consecutive platinum albums. Her album Living in the USA was the first album by any recording artist in U.S. music history to ship double platinum (over two million advanced copies). Her first Latin release, the all-Spanish 1987 album Canciones De Mi Padre, stands as the best-selling non-English-language album in American music history. As of 2013, it had sold over 2½ million U.S. copies.
Ronstadt has served as producer on albums from various musicians that include her cousin, David Lindley, Aaron Neville and singer-songwriter Jimmy Webb. She produced Cristal – Glass Music Through the Ages, an album of classical music using glass instruments with Dennis James, where she sang on several of the arrangements. In 1999, Ronstadt also produced the Grammy Award-winning Trio II. She has received a total of 27 Grammy Award nominations in various fields that include rock, country, pop and Tropical Latin, and has won 11 Grammy Awards in the categories of Pop, Country, Tropical Latin, Musical Album for Children and Mexican-American. In 2016, Ronstadt was again honored by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences with the Lifetime Achievement Grammy.
She was the first female solo artist to have two Top 5 singles simultaneously on Billboard magazine's Hot 100: "Blue Bayou" and "It's So Easy". By December of that year, both "Blue Bayou" and "It's So Easy" had climbed into Billboards Top 5 and remained there for the month's last four weeks. In 1999, Ronstadt ranked number 21 in VH1's 100 Greatest Women of Rock & Roll. Three years later, she ranked number 40 in CMT's 40 Greatest Women in Country Music.
Personal life
Beginning in the mid-1970s, Ronstadt's private life became increasingly public. It was fueled by a relationship with then-Governor of California Jerry Brown, a Democratic presidential candidate. They shared a Newsweek magazine cover in April 1979, as well as the covers of Us Weekly and People magazine.
In 1983, Linda Ronstadt dated comedian Jim Carrey for eight months. From the end of 1983 to 1988, Ronstadt was engaged to Star Wars director George Lucas.
In December 1990, she adopted an infant daughter, Mary Clementine Ronstadt. In 1994, she adopted a baby boy, Carlos Ronstadt. Ronstadt has never married. Speaking of finding an acceptable mate, in 1974 she told Peter Knobler in Crawdaddy, "... he's real kind but isn't inspired musically and then you meet somebody else that's just so inspired musically that he just takes your breath away but he's such a moron, such a maniac that you can't get along with him. And then after that it's the problem of finding someone that can stand you!"
After living in Los Angeles for 30 years, Ronstadt moved to San Francisco because she said she never felt at home in Southern California. "Los Angeles became too enclosing an environment", she says. "I couldn't breathe the air and I didn't want to drive on the freeways to get to the studio. I also didn't want to embrace the values that have been so completely embraced by that city. Are you glamorous? Are you rich? Are you important? Do you have clout? It's just not me and it never was me." In 1997, Ronstadt sold her home in San Francisco and moved back to her hometown of Tucson, Arizona, to raise her two children. In more recent years, Ronstadt moved back to San Francisco while continuing to maintain her home in Tucson.
In 2009, in honor of Ronstadt, the Martin Guitar Company made a 0042 model "Linda Ronstadt Limited Edition" acoustic guitar. Ronstadt appointed the Land Institute as recipient of all proceeds from her signature guitar.
In 2013, Simon & Schuster published her autobiography, Simple Dreams: A Musical Memoir, as well as the Spanish version, Sueños SencillosMemorias Musicales.
In August 2013, Ronstadt revealed she was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, leaving her unable to sing due to loss of muscular control, which is common to Parkinson's patients. She was diagnosed eight months prior to the announcement and had initially attributed the symptoms she had been experiencing to the aftereffects of shoulder surgery and a tick bite. In late 2019, it was reported her doctors had revised their diagnosis to progressive supranuclear palsy, a degenerative disease commonly mistaken for Parkinson's due to the similarity of the symptoms.
Ronstadt describes herself as a "spiritual atheist".
Political activism
Ronstadt's politics received criticism and praise during and after her July 17, 2004, performance at the Aladdin Theatre for the Performing Arts in Las Vegas. Toward the end of the show, as she had done across the country, Ronstadt spoke to the audience, praising Fahrenheit 9/11, Michael Moore's documentary film about the Iraq War; she dedicated the song "Desperado" to Moore. Accounts say the crowd's initial reaction was mixed, with "half the crowd heartily applauding her praise for Moore, (and) the other half booing."
Following the concert, news accounts reported Ronstadt was "evicted" from the hotel premises. Ronstadt's comments, as well as the reactions of some audience members and the hotel, became a topic of discussion nationwide. Aladdin casino president Bill Timmins and Michael Moore each made public statements about the controversy.
The incident prompted international headlines and debate on an entertainer's right to express a political opinion from the stage and made the editorial section of The New York Times. Following the incident, many friends of Ronstadt's, including the Eagles, immediately cancelled their engagements at the Aladdin. Ronstadt also received telegrams of support from her rock 'n' roll friends around the world like the Rolling Stones, the Eagles and Elton John. Amid reports of mixed public response, Ronstadt continued her praise of Moore and his film throughout her 2004 and 2006 summer concerts across North America.
At a 2006 concert in Canada, Ronstadt told the Calgary Sun that she was "embarrassed George Bush (was) from the United States. ... He's an idiot. ... He's enormously incompetent on both the domestic and international scenes. ... Now the fact that we were lied to about the reasons for entering into war against Iraq and thousands of people have diedit's just as immoral as racism." Her remarks drew international headlines. In an August 14, 2007, interview, she commented on all her well-publicized, outspoken views, in particular the Aladdin incident, by noting, "If I had it to do over I would be much more gracious to everyone ... you can be as outspoken as you want if you are very, very respectful. Show some grace".
In 2007, Ronstadt resided in San Francisco while also maintaining her home in Tucson. That same year, she drew criticism and praise from Tucsonans for commenting that local city council's failings, developers' strip mall mentality, greed and growing dust problem had rendered the city unrecognizable and poorly developed.
In August 2009, Ronstadt, in a well-publicized interview to PlanetOut Inc. titled "Linda Ronstadt's Gay Mission", championed gay rights and same-sex marriage, and stated "homophobia is anti-family values. Period, end of story."
On January 16, 2010, Ronstadt converged with thousands of other activists in a "National Day of Action". Ronstadt stated that her "dog in the fight"as a native Arizonan and coming from a law enforcement familywas the treatment of illegal aliens and Arizona's enforcement of its illegal immigrant law, especially Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's efforts in that area.
On April 29, 2010, Ronstadt began a campaign, including joining a lawsuit, against Arizona's new illegal-immigration law SB 1070 calling it a "devastating blow to law enforcement ... the police don't protect us in a democracy with brute force", something she said she learned from her brother, Peter, who was Chief of Police in Tucson.
Ronstadt has also been outspoken on environmental and community issues. She is a major supporter and admirer of sustainable agriculture pioneer Wes Jackson, saying in 2000, "the work he's doing right now is the most important work there is in the (United States)", and dedicating the rock anthem "Desperado" to him at an August 2007 concert in Kansas City, Kansas.
National arts advocacy
In 2004, Ronstadt wrote the foreword to the book The NPR Curious Listener's Guide to American Folk Music, and in 2005, she wrote the introduction to the book Classic Ferrington Guitars, about guitar-maker and luthier Danny Ferrington and the custom guitars that he created for Ronstadt and other musicians such as Elvis Costello, Ry Cooder, and Kurt Cobain.
Ronstadt has been honored for her contribution to the American arts. On September 23, 2007, she was inducted into the Arizona Music & Entertainment Hall of Fame, along with Stevie Nicks, Buck Owens, and filmmaker Steven Spielberg. On August 17, 2008, Ronstadt received a tribute by various artists, including BeBe Winans and Wynonna Judd, when she was honored with the Trailblazer Award, presented to her by Plácido Domingo at the 2008 ALMA Awards, a ceremony later televised in the U.S. on ABC.
In 2008, Ronstadt was appointed Artistic Director of the San José Mariachi and Mexican Heritage Festival. On March 31, 2009, in testimony that the Los Angeles Times termed "remarkable", Ronstadt spoke to the United States Congress House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment & Related Agencies, attempting to convince lawmakers to budget $200 million in the 2010 fiscal year for the National Endowment of the Arts.
In May 2009, Ronstadt received an honorary doctorate of music degree from the Berklee College of Music for her achievements and influence in music and her contributions to American and international culture. Mix magazine stated that "Linda Ronstadt (has) left her mark on more than the record business; her devotion to the craft of singing influenced many audio professionals ... (and is) intensely knowledgeable about the mechanics of singing and the cultural contexts of every genre she passes".
Awards and nominations
Grammy Awards
In 1981 the album In Harmony: A Sesame Street Record won the Grammy for Best Album for Children. Ronstadt was one of the various artists featured on the album. The Grammys were awarded to the producers, David Levine and Lucy Simon.
Latin Grammy Awards
Primetime Emmy Awards
Tony Awards
Golden Globe Awards
1983Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical or Comedy, Linda Ronstadt in The Pirates of Penzance
Arizona Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame
2007Inducted for her significant impact on the evolution and development of the entertainment culture in the state of Arizona
Academy of Country Music
1974Best New Female Artist
1987Album of the Year/ Trio, Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris
Country Music Association
1988Vocal Event of the Year / Trio, Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris
American Latino Media Arts
2008Trailblazer Award for Contribution to American Music
Lo Nuestro nominations
1989Regional Mexican Female Artist, Regional Mexican Album (Canciones de Mi Padre), and Crossover Artist
1992Regional Mexican Female Artist
1993Tropical Female Artist, Regional Mexican Female Artist, and Tropical Song ("Perfidia").
Kennedy Center
2019 Kennedy Center Honoree
Discography
Studio albums
Hand Sown ... Home Grown (1969)
Silk Purse (1970)
Linda Ronstadt (1972)
Don't Cry Now (1973)
Heart Like a Wheel (1974)
Prisoner in Disguise (1975)
Hasten Down the Wind (1976)
Simple Dreams (1977)
Living in the USA (1978)
Mad Love (1980)
Get Closer (1982)
What's New (1983)
Lush Life (1984)
For Sentimental Reasons (1986)
Canciones de Mi Padre (1987)
Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind (1989)
Mas Canciones (1991)
Frenesí (1992)
Winter Light (1993)
Feels Like Home (1995)
Dedicated to the One I Love (1996)
We Ran (1998)
A Merry Little Christmas (2000)
Hummin' to Myself (2004)
Live albums
Live in Hollywood (2019)
Duets and trios
Trio (1987) (Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton, and Linda Ronstadt)
Trio II (1999) (Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton, and Linda Ronstadt)
Western Wall: The Tucson Sessions (1999) (with Emmylou Harris)
Adieu False Heart (2006) (with Ann Savoy)
The Complete Trio Collection (2016) (Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton, and Linda Ronstadt)
Compilation albums
Different Drum (1974) – The first compilation album of Ronstadt's work released by Capitol
Greatest Hits (1976)
A Retrospective (1977)
Greatest Hits, Volume 2 (1980)
'Round Midnight (1986) – 2-CD set
The Linda Ronstadt Box Set (1999) – 4-CD set
The Very Best of Linda Ronstadt (2002) – Billboard No. 19 Country Album
Mi Jardin Azul: Las Canciones Favoritas (2004)
The Best of Linda Ronstadt: The Capitol Years (2006) – 2-CD set
Standards with Nelson Riddle Orchestra (2008)
The Collection (2011) – British 2-CD set
Duets (2014)
Just One Look: Classic Linda Ronstadt (2015)
Like A Rose: The Classic 1976 Broadcast Recording (2021)
Spanish-language albums
Canciones de Mi Padre (1987) - (English translation: "Songs of My Father") - Best Mexican-American Performance Grammy Award winner (1989)
Mas Canciones (1991) - (English translation: "More Songs") - Best Mexican-American Album Grammy Award winner (1993)
Frenesí (1992) - (English translation: "Frenzy") - Best Tropical Latin Album Grammy Award winner (1993)
Mi Jardin Azul: Las Canciones Favoritas (2004) - Compilation (English translation: "My Blue Garden: The Favorite Songs")
Filmography
Book
See also
Notes
References
External links
Official website
Image of Linda Ronstadt reclining on a porch railing in Los Angeles, California, 1974. Los Angeles Times Photographic Archive (Collection 1429). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners
United States National Medal of Arts recipients
1946 births
Living people
Actresses from Tucson, Arizona
American actresses of Mexican descent
American alternative country singers
American atheists
American country rock singers
American country singer-songwriters
American women country singers
American women rock singers
American women singer-songwriters
American film actresses
American memoirists
Women in Latin music
American multi-instrumentalists
American musical theatre actresses
American musicians of Mexican descent
American performers of Latin music
American pop rock singers
American stage actresses
American television actresses
American writers of Mexican descent
Big band singers
Cajun musicians
Feminist musicians
Rock and roll musicians
Grammy Award winners
Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners
Hispanic and Latino American women singers
Hispanic and Latino American musicians
Primetime Emmy Award winners
Spanish-language singers of the United States
American women memoirists
Asylum Records artists
Capitol Records artists
Vanguard Records artists
Verve Records artists
American people of Canadian descent
American people of Dutch descent
American people of English descent
American people of German descent
Arizona Democrats
Country musicians from Arizona
Country musicians from California
Musicians from San Francisco
Musicians from Tucson, Arizona
Record producers from Arizona
Record producers from California
Singers from Los Angeles
Writers from Los Angeles
Writers from San Francisco
Writers from Tucson, Arizona
20th-century American actresses
21st-century American actresses
20th-century American singers
21st-century American singers
20th-century American non-fiction writers
21st-century American non-fiction writers
20th-century American composers
21st-century American composers
20th-century American women singers
20th-century American women writers
21st-century American women writers
21st-century American women singers
American women record producers
Jerry Brown
American country guitarists
American acoustic guitarists
American women guitarists
Guitarists from Arizona
Guitarists from Los Angeles
Tambourine players
20th-century women composers
21st-century women composers
Chicano rock musicians
Traditional pop music singers
Singer-songwriters from California
Singer-songwriters from Arizona | true | [
"\"How Do I Make You\" is a song composed by Billy Steinberg and recorded by Linda Ronstadt in 1980, reaching the top 10 in the United States.\n\nWriting and recording\nSteinberg stated that he was \"a little bit influenced\" by the Knack hit \"My Sharona\" in writing \"How Do I Make You\". He originally recorded the song with his band Billy Thermal as one of several demos produced while the band was signed to Planet Records. The label ultimately did not release these songs. However, several Billy Thermal demos, including \"How Do I Make You\", were eventually included on a Billy Thermal EP released by Kinetic Records, a Los Angeles-based independent label.\n\nAccording to Steinberg, the song's later rise to fame was born from a relationship between Billy Thermal's guitarist, Craig Hull, and Wendy Waldman, a backing vocalist for Linda Ronstadt's live shows: \"without asking my permission or anything, Wendy and Craig played the Billy Thermal demos for Linda Ronstadt, and Linda liked the song 'How Do I Make You.'\"\n\nRelease\n\"How Do I Make You\", which featured Nicolette Larson on backing vocals, was released as an advance single from the album Mad Love. It exemplified Ronstadt's change to a harder-edged style, propelling her stardom briefly in the direction of new wave. Shipped on January 15, 1980, \"How Do I Make You\" hit number 6 on the Cash Box Top 100 chart. On the Billboard Hot 100, it reached a peak of number 10.\n\nA non-album track, Ronstadt's version of the traditional \"Rambler Gambler\", was the B-side of \"How Do I Make You\" and was serviced to C&W radio, charting on the Billboard C&W chart at number 42.\n\n\"How Do I Make You\" appeared in the U.S. Top 10 for several weeks during March and April 1980. The track hit number 1 on many AOR (Album Oriented Rock) stations' charts. The single was also successful in Australia (number 19) and New Zealand (number 3).\n\nA live version, recorded for an HBO special in April 1980, is included in the 2019 release \"Live In Hollywood\".\n\nCritical reception\nAllMusic critic Mike DeGagne assessed \"How Do I Make You\" as \"a far cry from the ballads, the love songs, and the ample amount of cover versions that [Ronstadt] had charted with in the past\" saying \"[the track's] quick tempo and pulsating pace had Ronstadt showing some new wave spunk mixed with a desire to rock out a little.\" However, Rolling Stone critic Stephen Holden, felt that on \"How Do I Make You\" Ronstadt \"frankly imitates Deborah Harry,\" the lead vocalist of defining new wave act Blondie. He further described the song as \"Buddy Holly-like\" and that it roughly brackets \"How Do I Make You\" with earlier Ronstadt hits \"That'll Be the Day\" (1976) and \"It's So Easy\" (1977), both remakes of Buddy Holly records.\n\nCover version\nThe 1980 album Chipmunk Punk by Alvin and the Chipmunks featured a cover of How Do I Make You, with Simon Seville singing the lead.\n\nIn 2019, Australian hard rock band Baby Animals released a version as the lead single from their first greatest hits album.\n\nCharts\n\nReferences\n\nLinda Ronstadt songs\nBaby Animals songs\nSongs written by Billy Steinberg\n1980 singles\n2019 singles\nSong recordings produced by Peter Asher\n1979 songs\nAsylum Records singles\nAlvin and the Chipmunks songs",
"Mas Canciones (correct form: Más canciones; Spanish for \"more songs\") is an album by American singer/songwriter/producer Linda Ronstadt, released in late 1991.\n\nA significant hit in the U.S. for a non-English language album, it peaked at number 88 on the Billboard album chart, and reached number 16 on the Top Latin Albums chart. The single \"Grítenme Piedras del Campo\" peaked at number 15 on the Hot Latin Tracks chart.\n\nIn 2016, this album was reissued on the Rhino label after several years out of print.\n\nHistory\n\nMas Canciones was released four years after the release of Ronstadt's Double Platinum-certified, first Spanish-language album, Canciones de Mi Padre.\n\n\"The reason I did it is selfish,\" Ronstadt said in an interview. \"I had started to make a record in English, but I didn't like it and put it away. I found myself sleeping and dreaming in Spanish, and these songs were driving me crazy. I kept waking up in the middle of the night thinking that the musicians who know this music are old, and if they go I won't have anybody to help me do it. I didn't dare put it off another minute.\"\n\nThe album, according to Ronstadt, \"concentrated more on trio and ensemble singing than did its predecessor.\" For the vocal trios, Ronstandt was joined by her two brothers, Pete and Mike. Pete Ronstadt at the time was the chief of police in Tucson, Arizona, where Mike owned a hardware store. Except for the professional guitar-playing, Ronstadt said, the arrangements are the same as those they sang in the living room when they were growing up.\n\nMas Canciones won Linda the 1993 Grammy Award for Best Mexican/Mexican-American Album.\n\nReception\n\nIn his AllMusic review, critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine called the album a \"thoroughly enjoyable collection of Spanish and Mexican songs that is arguably stronger than its predecessor, since Ronstadt sounds more comfortable with the material than ever before.\"\n\nTrack listing\n\nCharts\n\nPersonnel\nLinda Ronstadt – vocals\nPete Ronstadt – vocals\nMichael J. Ronstadt – vocals\nLeonel Gálvez – guitar\nGilberto Puente – guitar\nPedro García – violin\nFlaco Jiménez – accordion\nAngela Koregelos – flute\nMartin Lara – trumpet\nJuan José Almaguer – choir, chorus, violin\nJesús Guzmán – choir, chorus, violin\nSantiago Maldonado – choir, chorus, harp\nJosé Martínez – choir, chorus\nRafael Palomar – choir, chorus, guitar\nJuan Morales – choir, chorus\nNati Cano – violin\nVíctor \"El Pato\" Cárdenas – vihuela\nJosé Martínez, Jr. – violin\nKatie McElrath – flute\nMario Rodríguez – violin\nFederico Torres – trumpet\nProduction notes:\nGeorge Massenburg – producer, engineer, mixing\nRubén Fuentes – producer, arranger, conductor\nDoug Sax – mastering\nAlan Yoshida – mastering\nNathaniel Kunkel – engineer\nKevin Scott – assistant engineer\nCraig Silvey – assistant engineer\nM.T. Silvia – assistant engineer\nJohn Kosh – art direction, design\nGilbert Ronstadt – artwork, painting\nRossy Corsly – translation\nMercedes Dalton – translation\nLinda Ronstadt – translation\nWilliam Coupon – photography\n\nReferences \n\n1991 albums\nElektra Records albums\nLinda Ronstadt albums\nGrammy Award for Best Mexican/Mexican-American Album"
]
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[
"Linda Ronstadt",
"Career summary",
"What did Linda Ronstadt do after the 1960s?",
"Ronstadt joined forces with Bobby Kimmel and Kenny Edwards and became the lead singer of a folk-rock trio, the Stone Poneys."
]
| C_70757043f51f42d0bbea7205aa5d0e84_1 | Was she with the trio a long time? | 2 | Was Linda Ronstadt with the Stoney Poneys a long time? | Linda Ronstadt | Establishing her professional career in the mid-1960s at the forefront of California's emerging folk rock and country rock movements - genres which defined post-1960s rock music - Ronstadt joined forces with Bobby Kimmel and Kenny Edwards and became the lead singer of a folk-rock trio, the Stone Poneys. Later, as a solo artist, she released Hand Sown ... Home Grown in 1969, which has been described as the first alternative country record by a female recording artist. Although fame eluded her during these years, Ronstadt actively toured with the Doors, Neil Young, Jackson Browne, and others, appeared numerous times on television shows, and began to contribute her singing to albums by other artists. With the release of chart-topping albums such as Heart Like a Wheel, Simple Dreams, and Living in the USA, Ronstadt became the first female "arena class" rock star. She set records as one of the top-grossing concert artists of the decade. Referred to as the "First Lady of Rock" and the "Queen of Rock", Ronstadt was voted the Top Female Pop Singer of the 1970s. Her rock-and-roll image was as famous as her music; she appeared six times on the cover of Rolling Stone and on the covers of Newsweek and Time. In the 1980s, Ronstadt went to Broadway and garnered a Tony nomination for her performance in The Pirates of Penzance, teamed with the composer Philip Glass, recorded traditional music, and collaborated with the conductor Nelson Riddle, an event at that time viewed as an original and unorthodox move for a rock-and-roll artist. This venture paid off, and Ronstadt remained one of the music industry's best-selling acts throughout the 1980s, with multi-platinum-selling albums such as What's New, Canciones de Mi Padre, and Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind. She continued to tour, collaborate, and record celebrated albums, such as Winter Light and Hummin' to Myself, until her retirement in 2011. Most of Ronstadt's albums are certified gold, platinum, or multi-platinum. Having sold in excess of 100 million records worldwide and setting records as one of the top-grossing concert performers for over a decade, Ronstadt was the most successful female singer of the 1970s and stands as one of the most successful female recording artists in U.S. history. Ronstadt opened many doors for women in rock and roll and other musical genres by championing songwriters and musicians, pioneering her chart success onto the concert circuit, and being at the vanguard of many musical movements. CANNOTANSWER | as a solo artist, she released Hand Sown ... Home Grown in 1969, | Linda Maria Ronstadt (born July 15, 1946) is a retired American singer who performed and recorded in diverse genres including rock, country, light opera, and Latin. She has earned 11 Grammy Awards, three American Music Awards, two Academy of Country Music awards, an Emmy Award, and an ALMA Award. Many of her albums have been certified gold, platinum or multiplatinum in the United States and internationally. She has also earned nominations for a Tony Award and a Golden Globe award. She was awarded the Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award by the Latin Recording Academy in 2011 and also awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award by the Recording Academy in 2016. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April 2014. On July 28, 2014, she was awarded the National Medal of Arts and Humanities. In 2019, she received a star jointly with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for their work as the group Trio. Ronstadt was among five honorees who received the 2019 Kennedy Center Honors for lifetime artistic achievements.
Ronstadt has released 24 studio albums and 15 compilation or greatest hits albums. She charted 38 US Billboard Hot 100 singles. Twenty-one of those singles reached the top 40, ten reached the top 10, and one reached number one ("You're No Good"). Ronstadt also charted in UK as two of her duets, "Somewhere Out There" with James Ingram and "Don't Know Much" with Aaron Neville, peaked at numbers 8 and 2 respectively and the single "Blue Bayou" reached number 35 on the UK Singles charts. She has charted 36 albums, ten top-10 albums, and three number 1 albums on the US Billboard Pop Album Chart.
Ronstadt has collaborated with artists in diverse genres, including: Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, Bette Midler, Billy Eckstine, Frank Zappa, Carla Bley (Escalator Over the Hill), Rosemary Clooney, Flaco Jiménez, Philip Glass, Warren Zevon, Gram Parsons, Neil Young, Paul Simon, Earl Scruggs, Johnny Cash, and Nelson Riddle. She has lent her voice to over 120 albums and has sold more than 100 million records, making her one of the world's best-selling artists of all time. Christopher Loudon, of Jazz Times, wrote in 2004 that Ronstadt is "blessed with arguably the most sterling set of pipes of her generation."
Ronstadt reduced her activity after 2000 when she felt her singing voice deteriorating, releasing her last full-length album in 2004 and performing her last live concert in 2009. She announced her retirement in 2011 and revealed shortly afterwards that she is no longer able to sing as a result of a degenerative condition later determined to be progressive supranuclear palsy. Since then, Ronstadt has continued to make public appearances, going on a number of public speaking tours in the 2010s. She published an autobiography, Simple Dreams: A Musical Memoir, in September 2013. A documentary based on her memoirs, Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice, was released in 2019.
Early life
Linda Maria Ronstadt was born in Tucson, Arizona, on July 15, 1946, the third of four children of Gilbert Ronstadt (19111995), a prosperous machinery merchant who ran the F. Ronstadt Co., and Ruth Mary (née Copeman) Ronstadt (19141982), a homemaker.
Ronstadt was raised on the family's ranch with her siblings Peter (who served as Tucson's Chief of Police for ten years, 19811991), Michael, and Gretchen. The family was featured in Family Circle magazine in 1953.
Ronstadt family history
Ronstadt's father came from a pioneering Arizona ranching family and was of German and Mexican ancestry. The family's influence on and contributions to Arizona's history, including wagon making, commerce, pharmacies, and music, are chronicled in the library of the University of Arizona. Her great-grandfather, graduate engineer Friedrich August Ronstadt (who went by Federico Augusto Ronstadt) immigrated to the Southwest (then a part of Mexico) in the 1840s from Hanover, Germany, and married a Mexican citizen, eventually settling in Tucson. In 1991, the City of Tucson opened its central transit terminal on March 16 and dedicated it to Linda's grandfather, Federico José María Ronstadt, a local pioneer businessman; he was a wagon maker whose early contribution to the city's mobility included six mule-drawn streetcars delivered in 190304.
Ronstadt's mother Ruth Mary, of German, English, and Dutch ancestry, was raised in Flint, Michigan. Ruth Mary's father, Lloyd Groff Copeman, a prolific inventor and holder of nearly 700 patents, invented an early form of the electric toaster, many refrigerator devices, the grease gun, the first electric stove, and an early form of the microwave oven. His flexible rubber ice cube tray earned him millions of dollars in royalties.
Career summary
Establishing her professional career in the mid-1960s at the forefront of California's emerging folk rock and country rock movementsgenres which defined post-1960s rock musicRonstadt joined forces with Bobby Kimmel and Kenny Edwards and became the lead singer of a folk-rock trio, the Stone Poneys. Later, as a solo artist, she released Hand Sown ... Home Grown in 1969, which has been described as the first alternative country record by a female recording artist. Although fame eluded her during these years, Ronstadt actively toured with the Doors, Neil Young, Jackson Browne, and others, appeared numerous times on television shows, and began to contribute her singing to albums by other artists.
With the release of chart-topping albums such as Heart Like a Wheel, Simple Dreams, and Living in the USA, Ronstadt became the first female "arena class" rock star. She set records as one of the top-grossing concert artists of the decade. Referred to as the "First Lady of Rock" and the "Queen of Rock", Ronstadt was voted the Top Female Pop Singer of the 1970s. Her rock-and-roll image was as famous as her music; she appeared six times on the cover of Rolling Stone and on the covers of Newsweek and Time.
In the 1980s, Ronstadt performed on Broadway and received a Tony nomination for her performance in The Pirates of Penzance, teamed with the composer Philip Glass, recorded traditional music, and collaborated with the conductor Nelson Riddle, an event at that time viewed as an original and unorthodox move for a rock-and-roll artist. This venture paid off, and Ronstadt remained one of the music industry's best-selling acts throughout the 1980s, with multi-platinum-selling albums such as Mad Love, What's New, Canciones de Mi Padre, and Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind. She continued to tour, collaborate, and record celebrated albums, such as Winter Light and Hummin' to Myself, until her retirement in 2011.
Most of Ronstadt's albums are certified gold, platinum, or multi-platinum. Having sold in excess of 100 million records worldwide and setting records as one of the top-grossing concert performers for over a decade, Ronstadt was the most successful female singer of the 1970s and stands as one of the most successful female recording artists in U.S. history. She opened many doors for women in rock and roll and other musical genres by championing songwriters and musicians, pioneering her chart success onto the concert circuit, and being in the vanguard of many musical movements.
Career overview
Early influences
Ronstadt's early family life was filled with music and tradition, which influenced the stylistic and musical choices she later made in her career. Growing up, she listened to many types of music, including Mexican music, which was sung by her entire family and was a staple in her childhood.
Ronstadt has remarked that everything she has recorded on her own recordsrock and roll, rhythm and blues, gospel, opera, country, choral, and mariachiis all music she heard her family sing in their living room or heard played on the radio, by the age of 10. She credits her mother for her appreciation of Gilbert and Sullivan and her father for introducing her to the traditional pop and Great American Songbook repertoire that she would, in turn, help reintroduce to an entire generation.
Early on, her singing style had been influenced by singers such as Lola Beltrán and Édith Piaf; she has called their singing and rhythms "more like Greek music ... It's sort of like 6/8 time signature ... very hard driving and very intense." She also drew influence from country singer Hank Williams.
She has said that "all girl singers" eventually "have to curtsy to Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday". Of Maria Callas, Ronstadt says, "There's no one in her league. That's it. Period. I learn more ... about singing rock n roll from listening to Maria Callas records than I ever would from listening to pop music for a month of Sundays. ... She's the greatest chick singer ever." She admires Callas for her musicianship and her attempts to push 20th-century singing, particularly opera, back into the bel canto "natural style of singing".
A self-described product of American radio of the 1950s and 1960s, Ronstadt is a fan of its eclectic and diverse music programming.
Beginning of professional career
At age 14, Ronstadt formed a folk trio with her brother Peter and sister Gretchen. The group played coffeehouses, fraternity houses, and other small venues, billing themselves as "the Union City Ramblers" and "the Three Ronstadts", and they even recorded themselves at a Tucson studio under the name "the New Union Ramblers". Their repertoire included the music they grew up onfolk, country, bluegrass, and Mexican. But increasingly, Ronstadt wanted to make a union of folk music and rock 'n' roll, and in 1964, after a semester at Arizona State University, the 18-year-old decided to move to Los Angeles.
The Stone Poneys
Ronstadt visited a friend from Tucson, Bobby Kimmel, in Los Angeles during Easter break from college in 1964, and later that year, shortly before her eighteenth birthday, decided to move there permanently to form a band with him. Kimmel had already begun co-writing folk-rock songs with guitarist-songwriter Kenny Edwards, and eventually the three of them were signed by Nik Venet to Capitol in the summer of 1966 as "the Stone Poneys". The trio released three albums in a 15-month period in 196768: The Stone Poneys; Evergreen, Volume 2; and Linda Ronstadt, Stone Poneys and Friends, Vol. III. The band is widely known for their hit single "Different Drum" (written by Michael Nesmith prior to his joining the Monkees), which reached number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart as well as number 12 in Cashbox magazine. Nearly 50 years later, the song remains one of Ronstadt's most popular recordings.
Solo career
Still contractually obligated to Capitol Records, Ronstadt released her first solo album, Hand Sown ... Home Grown, in 1969. It has been called the first alternative country record by a female recording artist. During this same period, she contributed to the Music from Free Creek "super session" project.
Ronstadt provided the vocals for some commercials during this period, including one for Remington electric razors, in which a multitracked Ronstadt and Frank Zappa claimed that the electric razor "cleans you, thrills you ... may even keep you from getting busted".
Ronstadt's second solo album, Silk Purse, was released in March 1970. Recorded entirely in Nashville, it was produced by Elliot Mazer, whom Ronstadt chose on the advice of Janis Joplin, who had worked with him on the Cheap Thrills album. The Silk Purse album cover showed Ronstadt in a muddy pigpen, while the back and inside cover depicted her onstage wearing bright red. Ronstadt has stated that she was not pleased with the album, although it provided her with her first solo hit, the multi-format single "Long, Long Time", and earned her first Grammy nomination (for Best Contemporary Vocal Performance/Female).
Touring
In 1975, Ronstadt performed shows with Jackson Browne, the Eagles, and Toots and the Maytals. In a 1976 Rolling Stone interview with Cameron Crowe, Ronstadt said, "they haven't invented a word for that loneliness that everybody goes through on the road. The world is tearing by you, real fast, and all these people are looking at you. ... People see me in my 'girl-singer' suit." In 1974 she told Peter Knobler in Crawdaddy, "People are always taking advantage of you; everybody that's interested in you has got an angle."
Several years before Ronstadt became what author Gerri Hirshey called the first "arena-class rock diva" with "hugely anticipated tours" she began her solo career touring the North American concert circuit. But being on the road took its toll both emotionally and professionally. There were few "girl singers" on the rock circuit at the time, and they were relegated to "groupie level when in a crowd of a bunch of rock and roll guys", a status Ronstadt avoided. Relating to men on a professional level as fellow musicians led to competition, insecurity, bad romances, and a series of boyfriend-managers. At the time, she admired singers like Maria Muldaur for not sacrificing their femininity but says she felt enormous self-imposed pressure to compete with "the boys" at every level. She noted in a 1969 interview in Fusion magazine that it was difficult being a single "chick singer" with an all-male backup band. According to her, it was difficult to get a band of backing musicians because of their ego problem of being labeled sidemen for a female singer.
Soon after she went solo in the late 1960s, one of her first backing bands was the pioneering country-rock band Swampwater, which combined Cajun and swamp-rock elements in their music. Its members included Cajun fiddler Gib Guilbeau and John Beland, who later joined the Flying Burrito Brothers, as well as Stan Pratt, Thad Maxwell, and Eric White, brother of Clarence White of the Byrds. Swampwater went on to back Ronstadt during TV appearances on The Johnny Cash Show and The Mike Douglas Show, and at the Big Sur Folk Festival.
Another backing band included Don Henley, Glenn Frey, Bernie Leadon, and Randy Meisner, who went on to form the Eagles. They toured with her for a short period in 1971 and played on Linda Ronstadt, her self-titled third album, from which the failed single, Ronstadt's version of Browne's "Rock Me on the Water", was drawn. At this stage, Ronstadt began working with producer and boyfriend John Boylan. She said, "As soon as I started working with John Boylan, I started co-producing myself. I was always a part of my productions. But I always needed a producer who would carry out my whims." Also in 1971, Ronstadt began talking with David Geffen about moving from Capitol Records to Geffen's Asylum Records label.
Collaborations with Peter Asher
Ronstadt began her fourth solo album, Don't Cry Now, in 1973, with Boylan (who had negotiated her contract with Asylum Records) and John David "J.D." Souther producing most of the album's tracks. But needing someone willing to work with her as an equal, Ronstadt asked Peter Asher, who came highly recommended to her by James Taylor's sister Kate Taylor, to help produce two of them: "Sail Away" and "I Believe in You".
The album featured Ronstadt's first country hit, "Silver Threads and Golden Needles", which she had first recorded on Hand Sown ... Home Grownthis time hitting the Country Top 20.
With the release of Don't Cry Now, Ronstadt took on her biggest gig to date as the opening act on Neil Young's Time Fades Away tour, playing for larger crowds than ever before. Backstage at a concert in Texas, Chris Hillman introduced her to Emmylou Harris, telling them, "You two could be good friends", which soon occurred, resulting in frequent collaborations over the following years. Meanwhile, the album became Ronstadt's most successful up to that time, selling 300,000 copies by the end of 1974.
Asher turned out to be more collaborative, and more on the same page with her musically, than any producer she had worked with previously. Ronstadt's professional relationship with Asher allowed her to take command and effectively delegate responsibilities in the recording studio. Although hesitant at first to work with her because of her reputation for being a "woman of strong opinions (who) knew what she wanted to do (with her career)", he nonetheless agreed to become her full-time producer, and remained in that role through the late 1980s. Asher attributed the long-term success of his working relationship with Ronstadt to the fact that he was the first person to manage and produce her with whom there was a solely professional relationship. "It must be a lot harder to have objective conversations about someone's career when it's someone you sleep with", he said.
Asher executive produced a tribute CD called Listen to Me: Buddy Holly, released September 6, 2011, on which Ronstadt's 1976 version of Buddy Holly's "That'll Be The Day" appears among newly recorded versions of Holly's songs by various artists.
Vocal styles
Ronstadt captured the sounds of country music and the rhythms of ranchera musicwhich she likened in 1968 to "Mexican bluegrass"and redirected them into her rock 'n' roll and some of her pop music. Many of these rhythms and sounds were part of her Southwestern roots. Likewise, a country sound and style, a fusion of country music and rock 'n' roll called country rock, started to exert its influence on mainstream pop music around the late 1960s, and it became an emerging movement Ronstadt helped form and commercialize. However, as early as 1970, Ronstadt was being criticized by music "purists" for her "brand of music" which crossed many genres. Country Western Stars magazine wrote in 1970 that "Rock people thought she was too gentle, folk people thought she was too pop, and pop people didn't quite understand where she was at, but Country people really loved Linda." She never categorized herself and stuck to her genre-crossing brand of music.
Interpretive singer
Ronstadt is considered an "interpreter of her times", and has earned praise for her courage to put her "stamp" on many of her songs. Nevertheless, her hits were criticized in some quarters for being cover songs. Ronstadt herself has indicated that some of her 1970s hits were recorded under considerable pressure to create commercially successful recordings, and that she prefers many of her songs that were non-hit album tracks. An infrequent songwriter, Ronstadt co-composed only three songs over her long career.
Ronstadt's natural vocal range spans several octaves from contralto to soprano, and occasionally she will showcase this entire range within a single work. Ronstadt was the first female artist in popular music history to accumulate four consecutive platinum albums (fourteen certified million selling, to date). As for the singles, Rolling Stone pointed out that a whole generation, "but for her, might never have heard the work of artists such as Buddy Holly, Elvis Costello, and Chuck Berry."
Others have argued that Ronstadt had the same generational effect with her Great American Songbook music, exposing a whole new generation to the music of the 1920s and 1930smusic which was pushed aside because of the advent of rock 'n' roll. When interpreting, Ronstadt said she "sticks to what the music demands", in terms of lyrics. Explaining that rock and roll music is part of her culture, she says that the songs she sang after her rock and roll hits were part of her soul. "The (Mariachi music) was my father's side of the soul," she was quoted as saying in a 1998 interview she gave at her Tucson home. "My mother's side of my soul was the Nelson Riddle stuff. And I had to do them both to reestablish who I was."
In the 1974 book Rock 'N' Roll Woman, author Katherine Orloff writes that Ronstadt's "own musical preferences run strongly to rhythm and blues, the type of music she most frequently chooses to listen to ... (and) her goal is to ... be soulful too. With this in mind, Ronstadt fuses country and rock into a special union."
By this stage of her career, Ronstadt had established her niche in the field of country-rock. Along with other musicians such as the Flying Burrito Brothers, Emmylou Harris, Gram Parsons, Swampwater, Neil Young, and the Eagles, she helped free country music from stereotypes and showed rockers that country was okay. However, she stated that she was being pushed hard into singing more rock and roll.
Most successful female singer of the 1970s
Author Andrew Greeley, in his book God in Popular Culture, described Ronstadt as "the most successful and certainly the most durable and most gifted woman Rock singer of her era." Signaling her wide popularity as a concert artist, outside of the singles charts and the recording studio, Dirty Linen magazine describes her as the "first true woman rock 'n' roll superstar ... (selling) out stadiums with a string of mega-successful albums." Amazon.com defines her as the American female rock superstar of the decade. Cashbox gave Ronstadt a Special Decade Award, as the top-selling female singer of the 1970s.
Her album covers, posters, magazine coversher entire rock 'n' roll imagewere as famous as her music. By the end of the decade, the singer whom the Chicago Sun Times described as the "Dean of the 1970s school of female rock singers" became what Redbook called "the most successful female rock star in the world." "Female" was the important qualifier, according to Time magazine, which labeled her "a rarity ... to (have survived) ... in the shark-infested deeps of rock."
Although Ronstadt had been a cult favorite on the music scene for several years, 1975 was "remembered in the music biz as the year when 29-year-old Linda Ronstadt belatedly happened."
With the release of Heart Like a Wheelnamed after one of the album's songs, written by Anna McGarrigleRonstadt reached number 1 on the Billboard 200 chart; it was also the first of four number 1 Country Albums, and the disc was certified double-platinum (over two million copies sold in the U.S.). In many instances, her own interpretations were more successful than the original recordings, and many times new songwriters were discovered by a larger audience as a result of her interpretation and recording. Ronstadt had major success interpreting songs from a diverse spectrum of artists.
Heart Like a Wheels first single release, "You're No Good"a rockified version of an R&B song written by Clint Ballard, Jr. that Ronstadt had initially resisted because Andrew Gold's guitar tracks sounded too much like a "Beatles song" to herclimbed to number 1 on both the Billboard and Cash Box Pop singles charts. The album's second single release, "When Will I Be Loved"an uptempo country-rock version of a Top 10 Everly Brothers songhit number 1 in Cashbox and number 2 in Billboard. The song was also Ronstadt's first number 1 country hit.
The album's critical and commercial success was due to a fine presentation of country and rock, with Heart Like a Wheel her first of many major commercial successes that would set her on the path to being one of the best-selling female artists of all time. Ronstadt won her first Grammy Award for Best Country Vocal Performance/Female for "I Can't Help It (If I'm Still in Love with You)" which was originally a 1940s hit by Hank Williams. Ronstadt's interpretation peaked at number 2 on the country chart. The album itself was nominated for the Album of the Year Grammy.
Rolling Stone put Ronstadt on its cover in March 1975. It was the first of six Rolling Stone covers shot by photographer Annie Leibovitz. It included her as the featured artist with a full photo layout and an article by Ben Fong-Torres, discussing Ronstadt's many struggling years in rock n roll, as well as her home life and what it was like to be a woman on tour in a decidedly all-male environment.
In September 1975, Ronstadt's album Prisoner in Disguise was released. It quickly climbed into the Top Five on the Billboard Album Chart and sold over a million copies. It became her second in a row to go platinum, "a grand slam" in the same year (Ronstadt would eventually become the first female artist in popular music history to have three consecutive platinum albums and would ultimately go on to have eight consecutive platinum albums, and then another six between 1983 and 1990). The disc's first single release was "Love Is A Rose". It was climbing the pop and country charts but "Heat Wave", a rockified version of the 1963 hit by Martha and the Vandellas, was receiving considerable airplay. Asylum pulled the "Love Is a Rose" single and issued "Heat Wave" with "Love Is a Rose" on the B-side. "Heat Wave" hit the Top Five on Billboards Hot 100 while "Love Is A Rose" hit the Top Five on Billboard's country chart.
In 1976, Ronstadt reached the Top 3 of Billboards Album Chart and won her second career Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for her third consecutive platinum album Hasten Down the Wind. The album featured a sexy, revealing cover shot and showcased Ronstadt the singer-songwriter, who composed two of its songs, "Try Me Again" (co-authored with Andrew Gold) and "Lo Siento Mi Vida". It also included an interpretation of Willie Nelson's ballad "Crazy", which became a Top 10 Country hit for Ronstadt in early 1977.
At the end of 1977, Ronstadt surpassed the success of Heart Like a Wheel with her album Simple Dreams, which held the number 1 position for five consecutive weeks on the Billboard 200 chart. It sold over 3½ million copies in less than a year in the U.S. alone – a record for a female artist. Simple Dreams spawned a string of hit singles on numerous charts. Among them were the RIAA platinum-certified single "Blue Bayou", a country-rock interpretation of a Roy Orbison song; "It's So Easy"previously sung by Buddy Holly, a cover of The Rolling Stones' "Tumbling Dice", and "Poor Poor Pitiful Me", a song written by Warren Zevon, an up-and-coming songwriter of the time. The album garnered several Grammy Award nominationsincluding Record of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Performance/Female for "Blue Bayou"and won its art director, Kosh, a Grammy Award for Best Album Cover, the first of three Grammy Awards he would win for designing Ronstadt album covers. In late 1977, Ronstadt became the first female recording artist to have two songs in the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Top Ten at the same time. "Blue Bayou" was at No. 3 while "It's So Easy" was at No. 5.
Simple Dreams became one of the singer's best-selling international-selling albums as well, reaching number 1 on the Australian and Canadian Pop and Country Albums charts. Simple Dreams also made Ronstadt the most successful international female touring artist. The same year, she completed a concert tour around Europe. As Country Music magazine wrote in October 1978, Simple Dreams solidified Ronstadt's role as "easily the most successful female rock and roll and country star at this time."
Also in 1977, she was asked by the Los Angeles Dodgers to sing the U.S. National Anthem at game three of the World Series against the New York Yankees.
Time magazine and "rock chick" image
Ronstadt has remarked that she felt as though she was "artificially encouraged to kinda cop a really tough attitude (and be tough) because rock and roll is kind of tough (business)," which she felt wasn't worn quite authentically. Female rock artists like her and Janis Joplin, whom she described as lovely, shy, and very literate in real life and the antithesis of the "red hot mamma" she was artificially encouraged to project, went through an identity crisis.
By the mid-1970s, Ronstadt's image became just as famous as her music. In 1976 and 1977, she appeared on the covers of Rolling Stone and Time, respectively. The Rolling Stone cover story was accompanied by a series of photographs of Ronstadt in a skimpy red slip, taken by Annie Leibovitz. Ronstadt felt deceived by the photographer, not realizing that the photos would be so revealing. She says her manager Peter Asher kicked Leibovitz out of the house when she visited to show them the photographs prior to publication. Leibovitz had refused to let them veto any of the photos, which included one of Ronstadt sprawled across a bed in her underpants. In a 1977 interview, Ronstadt explained, "Annie [Leibovitz] saw that picture as an exposé of my personality. She was right. But I wouldn't choose to show a picture like that to anybody who didn't know me personally, because only friends could get the other sides of me in balance."
Her 1977 appearance on the cover of Time magazine under the banner "Torchy Rock" was also upsetting to Ronstadt, considering what the image appeared to project about the most famous woman in rock. At a time in the industry when men still told women what to sing and what to wear, Ronstadt hated the image of her that was projected to the world on that cover, and she noted recently how the photographer kept forcing her to wear a dress, which was an image she did not want to project. In 2004, she was interviewed for CBS This Morning and stated that this image was not her because she did not sit like that. Asher noted, "Anyone who's met Linda for 10 seconds will know that I couldn't possibly have been her Svengali. She's an extremely determined woman, in every area. To me, she was everything that feminism's about." Qualities which, Asher has stated, were considered a "negative (in a woman at that time), whereas in a man they were perceived as being masterful and bold". Since her solo career had begun, Ronstadt had fought hard to be recognized as a solo female singer in the world of rock, and her portrayal on the Time cover did not appear to help the situation.
In 1978, Rolling Stone declared Ronstadt "by far America's best-known female rock singer." She scored a third number 1 album on the Billboard Album Chart – at this point equaling the record set by Carole King in 1974 – with Living in the USA. She achieved a major hit single with "Ooo Baby Baby", with her rendition hitting all four major singles charts (Pop, AC, Country, R&B). Living in the USA was the first album by any recording act in music history to ship double-platinum (over 2 million advance copies). The album eventually sold 3 million U.S. copies.
At the end of that year, Billboard magazine crowned Ronstadt with three number-one Awards for the Year: Pop Female Singles Artist of the Year, Pop Female Album Artist of the Year, and Female Artist of the Year (overall).
Living in the USA showed the singer on roller skates with a newly short, permed hairdo on the album cover. Ronstadt continued this theme on concert tour promotional posters with photos of her on roller skates in a dramatic pose with a large American flag in the background. By this stage of her career, she was using posters to promote every album and concert – which at the time were recorded live on radio or television.
Ronstadt was also featured in the 1978 film FM, where the plot involved disc jockeys attempting to broadcast a Ronstadt concert live, without a competing station's knowledge. The film also showed Ronstadt performing the songs "Poor, Poor Pitiful Me", "Love Me Tender", and "Tumbling Dice". Ronstadt was persuaded to record "Tumbling Dice" after Mick Jagger came backstage when she was at a concert and said, "You do too many ballads, you should do more rock and roll songs."
Following the success of Living in the USA, Ronstadt conducted album promotional tours and concerts. She made a guest appearance onstage with the Rolling Stones at the Tucson Community Center on July 21, 1978, in her hometown of Tucson, where she and Jagger sang "Tumbling Dice". On singing with Jagger, Ronstadt later said, "I loved it. I didn't have a trace of stage fright. I'm scared to death all the way through my own shows. But it was too much fun to get scared. He's so silly onstage, he knocks you over. I mean you have to be on your toes or you wind up falling on your face."
Highest-paid woman in rock
By the end of 1978, Ronstadt had solidified her role as one of rock and pop's most successful solo female acts, and owing to her consistent platinum album success, and her ability as the first woman to sell out concerts in arenas and stadiums hosting tens of thousands of fans, Ronstadt became the "highest paid woman in rock". She had six platinum-certified albums, three of which were number 1 on the Billboard album chart, and numerous charted pop singles. In 1978 alone, she made over $12 million () and in the same year her albums sales were reported to be 17 milliongrossing over $60 million ().
As Rolling Stone dubbed her "Rock's Venus", her record sales continued to multiply and set records themselves. By 1979, Ronstadt had collected eight gold, six platinum, and four multi-platinum certifications for her albums, an unprecedented feat at the time. Her 1976 Greatest Hits album would sell consistently for the next 25 years and in 2001 was certified by the RIAA for seven-times platinum (over seven million U.S. copies sold). In 1980, Greatest Hits, Volume 2 was released and certified platinum.
In 1979, Ronstadt went on an international tour, playing in arenas across Australia to Japan, including the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne, and the Budokan in Tokyo. She also participated in a benefit concert for her friend Lowell George, held at The Forum, in Los Angeles.
By the end of the decade, Ronstadt had outsold her female competition; she had five straight platinum LPsHasten Down the Wind and Heart Like a Wheel among them. Us Weekly reported in 1978 that Ronstadt, Joni Mitchell, Stevie Nicks, and Carly Simon had become "The Queens of Rock" and "Rock is no longer exclusively male. There is a new royalty ruling today's record charts."
She would go on to parlay her mass commercial appeal with major success in interpreting The Great American Songbookmade famous a generation before by Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgeraldand later the Mexican folk songs of her childhood.
From rock to operetta
In February 1980, Ronstadt released Mad Love, her seventh consecutive platinum-selling album. It was a straightforward rock and roll album with post-punk, new wave influences, including tracks by songwriters such as Elvis Costello, the Cretones, and musician Mark Goldenberg who played on the record himself. As part of the album's promotion, a live concert was recorded for an HBO special in April. A partial soundtrack for this special (omitting most of the Mad Love tracks) was released as her first official live album in February 2019.
She also made the cover of Rolling Stone for a record-setting sixth time. Mad Love entered the Billboard Album Chart in the Top Five its first week (a record at that time) and climbed to the number 3 position. The project continued her streak of Top 10 hits with "How Do I Make You", originally recorded by Billy Thermal, and "Hurt So Bad", originally a Top 10 hit for Little Anthony & the Imperials. The album earned Ronstadt a 1980 Grammy Award nomination for Best Rock Vocal Performance/Female (although she lost to Pat Benatar's Crimes of Passion album). Benatar praised Ronstadt by stating, "There are a lot of good female singers around. How could I be the best? Ronstadt is still alive!"
In the summer of 1980, Ronstadt began rehearsals for the first of several leads in Broadway musicals. Joseph Papp cast her as the lead in the New York Shakespeare Festival production of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance, alongside Kevin Kline. She said singing Gilbert and Sullivan was a natural choice for her, since her grandfather Fred Ronstadt was credited with having created Tucson's first orchestra, the Club Filarmonico Tucsonense, and had once created an arrangement of The Pirates of Penzance.
The Pirates of Penzance opened for a limited engagement in New York City's Central Park, eventually moving its production to Broadway, where it became a hit, running from January 8, 1981, to November 28, 1982. Newsweek was effusive in its praise: "... she has not dodged the coloratura demands of her role (and Mabel is one of the most demanding parts in the G&S canon): from her entrance trilling 'Poor Wand'ring One,' it is clear that she is prepared to scale whatever soprano peaks stand in her way." Ronstadt co-starred with Kline and Angela Lansbury in the 1983 operetta's film version; this was her only acting role in a motion picture (her other film appearances, such as in the 1978 drama, FM, being concert footage as herself). Ronstadt received a Golden Globe nomination for the role in the film version. She garnered a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical and The Pirates of Penzance won several Tony Awards, including a Tony Award for Best Revival.
As a child, Ronstadt had discovered the opera La bohème through the silent film with Lillian Gish and was determined to someday play the part of Mimi. When she met the opera superstar Beverly Sills, she was told, "My dear, every soprano in the world wants to play Mimi!" In 1984, Ronstadt was cast in the role at Joseph Papp's Public Theater. However, the production was a critical and commercial disaster, closing after only a few nights.
In 1982, Ronstadt released the album Get Closer, a primarily rock album with some country and pop music as well. It remains her only album between 1975 and 1990 not to be officially certified platinum. It peaked at number 31 on the Billboard Album Chart. The release continued her streak of Top 40 hits with "Get Closer" and "I Knew You When"a 1965 hit by Billy Joe Royalwhile the Jimmy Webb song "Easy For You To Say" was a surprise Top 10 Adult Contemporary hit in the spring of 1983. "Sometimes You Just Can't Win" was picked up by country radio, and made it to number 27 on that listing. Ronstadt also filmed several music videos for this album which became popular on the fledgling MTV cable channel. The album earned Ronstadt two Grammy Award nominations: one for Best Rock Vocal Performance/Female for the title track and another for Best Pop Vocal Performance/Female for the album. The artwork won its art director, Kosh, his second Grammy Award for Best Album Package.
Along with the release of her Get Closer album, Ronstadt embarked on a North American tour, remaining one of the top rock-concert draws that summer and fall. On November 25, 1982, her "Happy Thanksgiving Day" concert was held at the Reunion Arena in Dallas and broadcast live via satellite to NBC radio stations in the United States.
In 1988, Ronstadt returned to Broadway for a limited-run engagement in the musical show adaptation of her album celebrating her Mexican heritage, Canciones De Mi PadreA Romantic Evening in Old Mexico.
Artistic aspirations
Ronstadt has remarked that in the beginning of her career she "was so focused on folk, rock and country" that she "got a bit bored and started to branch out, and ... [has] been doing that ever since." By 1983, her estimated worth was over $40 million mostly from records, concerts and merchandising.
In the early 1980s, Ronstadt was criticized for accepting $500,000 to perform at the South African resort Sun City, violating the cultural boycott imposed against South Africa because of its policy of apartheid. At the time, she stated, "the last place for a boycott is in the arts" and "I don't like being told I can't go somewhere". Paul Simon was criticized for including her on his 1986 album Graceland, recorded in South Africa, but defended her: "I know that her intention was never to support the government there ... She made a mistake. She’s extremely liberal in her political thinking and unquestionably antiapartheid."
Ronstadt eventually tired of playing arenas. She had ceased to feel that arenas, where people milled around smoking marijuana cigarettes and drinking beer, were "appropriate places for music". She wanted "angels in the architecture"a reference to a lyric in the Paul Simon song "You Can Call Me Al" from Graceland. (Ronstadt sang harmony with Simon on a different Graceland track, "Under African Skies". The second verse's lyrics pay tribute to Ronstadt: "Take this child, Lord, from Tucson, Arizona. ..."). Ronstadt has said she wants to sing in places similar to the theatre of ancient Greece, where the attention is focused on the stage and the performer.
Ronstadt's recording output in the 1980s proved to be just as commercially and critically successful as her 1970s recordings. Between 1983 and 1990, Ronstadt scored six additional platinum albums; two are triple platinum (each with over three million U.S. copies sold); one has been certified double platinum (over two million copies sold), and one has earned additional certification as a Gold (over 500,000 U.S. copies sold) double-disc album.
Jazz/pop trilogy
In 1981, Ronstadt produced and recorded an album of pop standards (later marketed in bootleg form) titled Keeping Out of Mischief with the assistance of producer Jerry Wexler. However, Ronstadt's displeasure with the final result led her, with regrets, to scrap the project. "Doing that killed me," she said in a Time magazine interview. But the appeal of the album's music had seduced Ronstadt, as she told Down Beat in April 1985, crediting Wexler for encouraging her. Nonetheless, Ronstadt had to convince her reluctant record company, Elektra, to approve this type of album under her contract.
By 1983, Ronstadt had enlisted the help of 62-year-old conductor Nelson Riddle. The two embarked on an unorthodox and original approach to rehabilitating the Great American Songbook, recording a trilogy of traditional pop albums: What's New (1983U.S. 3.7 million as of 2010); Lush Life (1984U.S. 1.7 million as of 2010); and For Sentimental Reasons (1986U.S. 1.3 million as of 2010). The three albums have had a combined sales total of nearly seven million copies in the U.S. alone.
The album design for What's New by designer Kosh was unlike any of her previous disc covers. It showed Ronstadt in a vintage dress lying on shimmering satin sheets with a Walkman headset. At the time, Ronstadt received some chiding for both the album cover and her venture into what was then considered "elevator music" by cynics, but remained determined to record with Riddle, and What's New became a hit. The album was released in September 1983 and spent 81 weeks on the Billboard Album Chart and held the number three position for a month and a half (held out of the top spot only by Michael Jackson's Thriller and Lionel Richie's Can't Slow Down) and the RIAA certified it triple platinum (over three million copies sold in the U.S. alone). The album earned Ronstadt another Grammy nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, and critical raves, with Time magazine calling it "one of the gutsiest, most unorthodox and unexpected albums of the year."
Ronstadt faced considerable pressure not to record What's New or record with Riddle. According to jazz historian Peter Levinson, author of the book September in the Raina Biography on Nelson Riddle, Joe Smith, president of Elektra Records, was terrified that the Riddle album would turn off Ronstadt's rock audience. Ronstadt did not completely turn her back on her rock and roll past, however; the video for the title track featured Danny Kortchmar as the old beau that she bumped into during a rainstorm.
What's New brought Riddle to a younger audience. According to Levinson, "the younger audience hated what Riddle had done with Frank Sinatra, which in 1983 was considered 'Vintage Pop'". Working with Ronstadt, Riddle brought his career back into focus in the last three years of his life. Stephen Holden of The New York Times wrote, What's New "isn't the first album by a rock singer to pay tribute to the golden age of the pop, but is ... the best and most serious attempt to rehabilitate an idea of pop that Beatlemania and the mass marketing of rock LPs for teenagers undid in the mid-60s. ... In the decade prior to Beatlemania, most of the great band singers and crooners of the 40s and 50s codified a half-century of American pop standards on dozens of albums ... many of them now long out-of-print." What's New is the first album by a rock singer to have major commercial success in rehabilitating the Great American Songbook.
In 1984, Ronstadt and Riddle performed these songs live, in concert halls throughout Australia, Japan, and the United States, including multi-night performances at historic venues Carnegie Hall, Radio City Music Hall, and Pine Knob.
In 2004, Ronstadt released Hummin' to Myself, her album for Verve Records. It was her first foray into traditional jazz since her sessions with Jerry Wexler and her records with the Nelson Riddle Orchestra, but this time with an intimate jazz combo. The album was a quiet affair for Ronstadt, giving few interviews and making only one television performance as a promotion. It reached number 2 on Billboard's Top Jazz Albums chart but peaked at number 166 on the main Billboard album chart. Not having the mass distribution that Warner Music Group gave her, Hummin' To Myself had sold over 75,000 copies in the U.S. as of 2010. It also achieved some critical acclaim from the jazz cognoscenti.
"Trio" recordings
In 1978, Ronstadt, Dolly Parton, and Emmylou Harris, friends and admirers of one another's work (Ronstadt had included a cover of Parton's "I Will Always Love You" on Prisoner in Disguise) attempted to collaborate on a Trio album. Unfortunately, the attempt did not pan out. Ronstadt later remarked that not too many people were in control at the time and everyone was too involved with their own careers. (Though the efforts to complete the album were abandoned, a number of the recordings were included on the singers' respective solo recordings over the next few years.) This concept album was put on the back burner for almost ten years.
In January 1986, the three eventually did make their way into the recording studio, where they spent the next several months working. The result, Trio, which they had conceived ten years earlier, was released in March 1987. It was a considerable hit, holding the number 1 position on Billboard's Country Albums chart for five weeks running and hitting the Top 10 on the pop side also. Selling over three million copies in the U.S. and winning them a Grammy Award for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal, it produced four Top Ten Country singles including "To Know Him Is to Love Him" which hit number 1. The album was also a nominee for overall Album of the Year, in the company of Michael Jackson, U2, Prince, and Whitney Houston.
In 1994, the three performers recorded a follow-up to Trio. As was the case with their aborted 1978 effort, conflicting schedules and competing priorities delayed the album's release indefinitely. Ronstadt, who had already paid for studio timeand owed her record company a finished albumremoved Parton's individual tracks at Parton's request, kept Harris's vocals, and produced a number of the recordings, which she subsequently released on her 1995 return to country rock, the album Feels Like Home.
However, in 1999, Ronstadt, Parton, and Harris agreed to release the Trio II album, as was originally recorded in 1994. It included an ethereal cover of Neil Young's "After The Gold Rush" which became a popular music video. The effort was certified Gold (over 500,000 copies sold) and won them a Grammy Award for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals for the track. Ronstadt co-produced the album with George Massenburg and the three women also received a nomination for the Grammy Award for Best Country Album.
Canciones de Mi Padre
At the end of 1987, Ronstadt released Canciones de Mi Padre, an album of traditional Mexican folk songs, or what she has described as "world class songs". Keeping with the Ronstadt history theme, her cover art was dramatic, bold, and colorful; it shows Ronstadt in full Mexican regalia. Her musical arranger was mariachi musician Rubén Fuentes.
These canciones were a big part of Ronstadt's family tradition and musical roots. In January 1946, the University of Arizona published a booklet by Luisa Espinel entitled Canciones de mi Padre. Luisa Espinel, Ronstadt's aunt, was an international singer in the 1920s and 1930s. Espinel's father was Fred Ronstadt, Linda Ronstadt's grandfather, and the songs she had learned, transcribed, and published were some of the ones he had brought with him from Sonora. Ronstadt researched and extracted from the favorites she had learned from her father Gilbert and she called her album by the same name as her aunt's booklet and as a tribute to her father and his family. Though not fully bilingual, she has a fairly good command of the Spanish language, allowing her to sing Latin American songs with little discernible U.S. accent; Ronstadt has often identified herself as Mexican-American. Her formative years were spent with her father's side of the family. In fact, in 1976, Ronstadt had collaborated with her father to write and compose a traditional Mexican folk ballad, "Lo siento mi vida"a song that she included on Hasten Down the Wind. Ronstadt has also credited Mexican singer Lola Beltrán as an influence on her own singing style, and she recalls how a frequent guest to the Ronstadt home, Eduardo "Lalo" Guerrero, father of Chicano music, would often serenade her as a child.
Canciones de Mi Padre won Ronstadt a Grammy Award for Best Mexican-American Performance. In 2001, it was certified double-platinum by the RIAA for shipments of over 2 million copies in the United States, making it the best-selling non-English-language album in U.S. music history. The album and later theatrical stage show served as a benchmark of the Latin cultural renaissance in North America.
Ronstadt produced and performed a theatrical stage show, also titled Canciones de mi Padre, in concert halls across the U.S. and Latin America to both Hispanic and non-Hispanic audiences. These performances were later released on DVD. Ronstadt elected to return to the Broadway stage, four years after she performed in La bohème, for a limited-run engagement. PBS's Great Performances aired the stage show during its annual fund drives and the show was a hit with audiences, earning Ronstadt a Primetime Emmy Award for Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program.
Ronstadt recorded two additional albums of Latin music in the early 1990s. Their promotion, like most of her albums in the 1990s, was a quieter affair, with Ronstadt making only a limited number of appearances to promote them. They were not nearly as successful as Canciones De Mi Padre, but were critically acclaimed in some circles. In 1991, she released Mas Canciones, a follow-up to the first Canciones. For this album, she won a Grammy Award for Best Mexican/Mexican-American Album. The following year, she stepped outside of the mariachi genre and decided to record well-known Afro-Cuban songs. This album was titled Frenesí. Like her two previous Latin recordings ventures, it won Ronstadt a Grammy Award, this time for Best Traditional Tropical Latin Album.
In 1991, Ronstadt acted in the lead role of archangel San Miguel in La Pastorela, or A Shephard's Tale, a musical filmed at San Juan Bautista. It was written and directed by Luis Valdez. The production was part of the PBS Great Performances series.
In December 2020, it was announced that Canciones de Mi Padre had been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Returning to the contemporary music scene
By the late 1980s, while enjoying the success of her big band jazz collaborations with Riddle and her surprise hit mariachi recordings, Ronstadt elected to return to recording mainstream pop music once again. In 1987, she made a return to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart with "Somewhere Out There", which peaked at number 2 in March. Featured in the animated film An American Tail, the sentimental duet with James Ingram was nominated for several Grammy Awards, ultimately winning the Grammy Award for Song of the Year. The song also received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Original Song and achieved high sales, earning a million-selling gold single in the U.S.one of the last 45s ever to do so. It was also accompanied by a popular music video. On the heels of this success, Steven Spielberg asked Ronstadt to record the theme song for the animated sequel titled An American Tail: Fievel Goes West, which was titled "Dreams to Dream". Although "Dreams to Dream" failed to achieve the success of "Somewhere Out There", the song did give Ronstadt an Adult Contemporary hit in 1991.
In 1989, Ronstadt released a mainstream pop album and several popular singles. Cry Like A Rainstorm, Howl Like The Wind became one of the singer's most successful albumsin production, arrangements, sales, and critical acclaim. It became Ronstadt's tenth Top 10 album on the Billboard chart, reaching number 7 and being certified triple-platinum (over three million copies sold in the U.S.). The album also received Grammy Award nominations. Ronstadt included New Orleans soul singer Aaron Neville on several of the album's songs.
Ronstadt incorporated the sounds of the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir, Tower of Power horns, the Skywalker Symphony, and numerous musicians. It included the duets with Aaron Neville, "Don't Know Much" (Billboard Hot 100 number 2 hit, Christmas 1989) and "All My Life" (Billboard Hot 100 number 11 hit), both of which were long-running number 1 Adult Contemporary hits. The duets earned several Grammy Award nominations. The duo won both the 1989 and 1990 Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal awards. Ronstadt's last known live Grammy Award appearance was in 1990 when she and Neville performed "Don't Know Much" together on the telecast. ("Whenever I sing with a different artist, I can get things out of my voice that I can't do by myself", Ronstadt reflected in 2007. "I can do things with Aaron that I can't do alone.")
In December 1990, she participated in a concert held at the Tokyo Dome to commemorate John Lennon's 50th birthday, and to raise awareness of environmental issues. Other participants included Miles Davis, Lenny Kravitz, Hall & Oates, Natalie Cole, Yoko Ono, and Sean Lennon. An album resulted, titled Happy Birthday, John.
Return to roots music
Ronstadt released the highly acclaimed Winter Light album at the end of 1993. It included New Age arrangements such as the lead single "Heartbeats Accelerating" as well as the self-penned title track and featured the glass harmonica. It was her first commercial failure since 1972, and peaked at number 92 in Billboard, whereas 1995's Feels Like Home was Ronstadt's much-heralded return to country-rock and included her version of Tom Petty's classic hit "The Waiting". The single's rollicking, fiddle-infused flip side, "Walk On", returned Ronstadt to the Country Singles chart for the first time since 1983. An album track entitled "The Blue Train" charted 10 weeks in Billboards Adult Contemporary Top 40. This album fared slightly better than its predecessor, reaching number 75. Both albums were later deleted from the Elektra/Asylum catalog. Ronstadt was nominated for three Lo Nuestro Awards in 1993: Female Regional Mexican Artist of the Year, Female Tropical/Salsa Artist of the Year, and her version of the song "Perfidia" was also listed for Tropical/Salsa Song of the Year.
In 1996, Ronstadt produced Dedicated to the One I Love, an album of classic rock and roll songs reinvented as lullabies. The album reached number 78 in Billboard and won the Grammy Award for Best Musical Album for Children.
In 1998, Ronstadt released We Ran, her first album in over two years. The album harkened back to Ronstadt's country-rock and folk-rock heyday. She returned to her rock 'n' roll roots with vivid interpretations of songs by Bruce Springsteen, Doc Pomus, Bob Dylan, and John Hiatt. The recording was produced by Glyn Johns. A commercial failure, the album stood at 57,897 copies sold at the time of its deletion in 2008. It is the poorest-selling studio album in Ronstadt's Elektra/Asylum catalog. We Ran did not chart any singles but it was well received by critics.
Despite the lack of success of We Ran, Ronstadt kept moving towards this adult rock exploration. In the summer of 1999, she released the album Western Wall: The Tucson Sessions, a folk-rock-oriented project with Emmylou Harris. It earned a nomination for the Grammy Award for the Best Contemporary Folk Album and made the Top 10 of Billboards Country Albums chart. Still in print as of December 2016, it has sold 223,255 copies per Nielsen SoundScan.
Also in 1999, Ronstadt went back to her concert roots when she performed with the Eagles and Jackson Browne at Staples Center's 1999 New Year's Eve celebration kicking off the December 31 end-of-the-millennium festivities. As Staples Center Senior Vice President and general manager Bobby Goldwater said, "It was our goal to present a spectacular event as a sendoff to the 20th century", and "Eagles, Jackson Browne, and Linda Ronstadt are three of the most popular acts of the century. Their performances will constitute a singular and historic night of entertainment for New Year's Eve in Los Angeles."
In 2000, Ronstadt completed her long contractual relationship with the Elektra/Asylum label. The fulfillment of this contract commenced with the release of A Merry Little Christmas, her first holiday collection, which includes rare choral works, the somber Joni Mitchell song "River", and a rare recorded duet with the late Rosemary Clooney on Clooney's signature song, "White Christmas".
Since leaving Warner Music, Ronstadt has gone on to release one album each under Verve and Vanguard Records.
In 2006, recording as the ZoZo Sisters, Ronstadt teamed with her new friend, musician and musical scholar Ann Savoy, to record Adieu False Heart. It was an album of roots music incorporating pop, Cajun, and early-20th-century music and released on the Vanguard Records label. But Adieu False Heart was a commercial failure, peaking at number 146 in the U.S. despite her touring for the final time that year. It was the last time Linda Ronstadt would record an album, having begun to lose her singing ability as a result of a degenerative condition later determined to be progressive supranuclear palsy, but initially diagnosed as Parkinson's disease, in December 2012. Adieu False Heart, recorded in Louisiana, features a cast of local musicians, including Chas Justus, Eric Frey and Kevin Wimmer of the Red Stick Ramblers, Sam Broussard of the Mamou Playboys, Dirk Powell, and Joel Savoy, as well as an array of Nashville musicians: fiddler Stuart Duncan, mandolinist Sam Bush, and guitarist Bryan Sutton. The recording earned two Grammy Award nominations: Best Traditional Folk Album and Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical.
In 2007, Ronstadt contributed to the compilation album We All Love Ella: Celebrating the First Lady of Songa tribute album to jazz music's all-time most heralded artiston the track "Miss Otis Regrets".
In August 2007, Ronstadt headlined the Newport Folk Festival, making her debut at this event, where she incorporated jazz, rock, and folk music into her repertoire. It was one of her final concerts.
In 2010, Ronstadt contributed the arrangement and lead vocal to "A La Orilla de un Palmar" on the Chieftains' studio album San Patricio (with Ry Cooder). This remains her most recent commercially available recording as lead vocalist.
Retirement
In 2011, Ronstadt was interviewed by the Arizona Daily Star and announced her retirement. In August 2013, she revealed to Alanna Nash, writing for AARP, that she has Parkinson's disease and "can no longer sing a note." Her diagnosis was subsequently re-evaluated as progressive supranuclear palsy.
Selected career achievements
On April 10, 2014, Ronstadt was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In July 2019, Ronstadt was selected as a Kennedy Center Honoree.
As of 2019, Ronstadt has earned three number 1 pop albums, 10 top-ten pop albums and 38 charting pop albums on the Billboard Pop Album Charts. She has 15 albums on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart, including four that hit number 1. Ronstadt's singles have earned her a number 1 hit and three number 2 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, with 10 top-ten pop singles and 21 reaching the Top 40. She has also scored two number 1 hits on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, and two number 1 hits on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart. Rolling Stone wrote, a whole generation "but for her, might never have heard the work of Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, or Elvis Costello."
She has recorded and released over 30 studio albums and has made guest appearances on an estimated 120 albums by other artists. Her guest appearances included the classical minimalist Philip Glass's album Songs from Liquid Days, a hit classical record with other major pop stars either singing or writing lyrics (Ronstadt's two tracks on the album saw her singing lyrics written by Suzanne Vega and Laurie Anderson). She also appeared on Glass's follow-up recording 1000 Airplanes on the Roof. She appeared on Paul Simon's Graceland, where she sang a duet with Simon, "Under African Skies." In that song, there is a verse dedicated to Ronstadt, her voice and harmonies and her birth in Tucson, Arizona. She voiced herself in The Simpsons episode "Mr. Plow" and sang a duet, "Funny How Time Slips Away," with Homer Simpson on The Yellow Album.
Ronstadt has also appeared on albums by a vast range of artists including Emmylou Harris, the Chieftains, Dolly Parton, Neil Young, J. D. Souther, Gram Parsons, Bette Midler, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Earl Scruggs, the Eagles, Andrew Gold, Wendy Waldman, Hoyt Axton, Kate and Anna McGarrigle, Ann Savoy, Karla Bonoff, James Taylor, Jimmy Webb, Valerie Carter, Warren Zevon, Maria Muldaur, Randy Newman (specifically his musical adaptation of Faust), Nicolette Larson, the Seldom Scene, Rosemary Clooney, Aaron Neville, Rodney Crowell, Hearts and Flowers, Laurie Lewis and Flaco Jiménez. As a singer-songwriter, Ronstadt has written songs covered by several artists, such as "Try Me Again", covered by Trisha Yearwood; and "Winter Light", which was co-written and composed with Zbigniew Preisner and Eric Kaz, and covered by Sarah Brightman.
Her three biggest-selling studio albums to date are: her 1977 release Simple Dreams, 1983's What's New and 1989's Cry Like A Rainstorm, Howl Like The Wind. Each one has been certified by the Recording Industry Association of America for over three million copies sold. Her highest-selling album to date is the 1976 compilation Greatest Hits, certified for over seven million units sold in 2001. Ronstadt became music's first major touring female artist to sell out sizeable venues; she was also the top-grossing solo female concert artist for the 1970s. She remained a highly successful touring artist into the 1990s, at which time she decided to scale back to smaller venues. In the 1970s, Cashbox magazine, a competitor of Billboard during that time period, named Ronstadt the "#1 Female Artist of the Decade". "Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" included Heart Like a Wheel (1974) at number 164 and The Very Best Of Linda Ronstadt (2002) at number 324. The 2012 revision kept only the compilation, but raised it to the place once occupied by Heart Like a Wheel.
Ronstadt's album sales have not been certified since 2001. At that time, Ronstadt's U.S. album sales were certified by the Recording Industry Association of America at over 30 million albums sold; however, Peter Asher, her former producer and manager, placed her total U.S. album sales at over 45 million. Likewise, her worldwide albums sales are in excess of 100 million albums sold, according to the former president of Warner Bros. Records, Joe Smith, now a jury member of the Hit Parade Hall of Fame. Her RIAA certification (audits paid for by record companies or artists for promotion) tally as of 2001 totaled 19 Gold, 14 Platinum and 7 Multi-Platinum albums. She was the first female in music history to score three consecutive platinum albums and ultimately racked up a total of eight consecutive platinum albums. Her album Living in the USA was the first album by any recording artist in U.S. music history to ship double platinum (over two million advanced copies). Her first Latin release, the all-Spanish 1987 album Canciones De Mi Padre, stands as the best-selling non-English-language album in American music history. As of 2013, it had sold over 2½ million U.S. copies.
Ronstadt has served as producer on albums from various musicians that include her cousin, David Lindley, Aaron Neville and singer-songwriter Jimmy Webb. She produced Cristal – Glass Music Through the Ages, an album of classical music using glass instruments with Dennis James, where she sang on several of the arrangements. In 1999, Ronstadt also produced the Grammy Award-winning Trio II. She has received a total of 27 Grammy Award nominations in various fields that include rock, country, pop and Tropical Latin, and has won 11 Grammy Awards in the categories of Pop, Country, Tropical Latin, Musical Album for Children and Mexican-American. In 2016, Ronstadt was again honored by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences with the Lifetime Achievement Grammy.
She was the first female solo artist to have two Top 5 singles simultaneously on Billboard magazine's Hot 100: "Blue Bayou" and "It's So Easy". By December of that year, both "Blue Bayou" and "It's So Easy" had climbed into Billboards Top 5 and remained there for the month's last four weeks. In 1999, Ronstadt ranked number 21 in VH1's 100 Greatest Women of Rock & Roll. Three years later, she ranked number 40 in CMT's 40 Greatest Women in Country Music.
Personal life
Beginning in the mid-1970s, Ronstadt's private life became increasingly public. It was fueled by a relationship with then-Governor of California Jerry Brown, a Democratic presidential candidate. They shared a Newsweek magazine cover in April 1979, as well as the covers of Us Weekly and People magazine.
In 1983, Linda Ronstadt dated comedian Jim Carrey for eight months. From the end of 1983 to 1988, Ronstadt was engaged to Star Wars director George Lucas.
In December 1990, she adopted an infant daughter, Mary Clementine Ronstadt. In 1994, she adopted a baby boy, Carlos Ronstadt. Ronstadt has never married. Speaking of finding an acceptable mate, in 1974 she told Peter Knobler in Crawdaddy, "... he's real kind but isn't inspired musically and then you meet somebody else that's just so inspired musically that he just takes your breath away but he's such a moron, such a maniac that you can't get along with him. And then after that it's the problem of finding someone that can stand you!"
After living in Los Angeles for 30 years, Ronstadt moved to San Francisco because she said she never felt at home in Southern California. "Los Angeles became too enclosing an environment", she says. "I couldn't breathe the air and I didn't want to drive on the freeways to get to the studio. I also didn't want to embrace the values that have been so completely embraced by that city. Are you glamorous? Are you rich? Are you important? Do you have clout? It's just not me and it never was me." In 1997, Ronstadt sold her home in San Francisco and moved back to her hometown of Tucson, Arizona, to raise her two children. In more recent years, Ronstadt moved back to San Francisco while continuing to maintain her home in Tucson.
In 2009, in honor of Ronstadt, the Martin Guitar Company made a 0042 model "Linda Ronstadt Limited Edition" acoustic guitar. Ronstadt appointed the Land Institute as recipient of all proceeds from her signature guitar.
In 2013, Simon & Schuster published her autobiography, Simple Dreams: A Musical Memoir, as well as the Spanish version, Sueños SencillosMemorias Musicales.
In August 2013, Ronstadt revealed she was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, leaving her unable to sing due to loss of muscular control, which is common to Parkinson's patients. She was diagnosed eight months prior to the announcement and had initially attributed the symptoms she had been experiencing to the aftereffects of shoulder surgery and a tick bite. In late 2019, it was reported her doctors had revised their diagnosis to progressive supranuclear palsy, a degenerative disease commonly mistaken for Parkinson's due to the similarity of the symptoms.
Ronstadt describes herself as a "spiritual atheist".
Political activism
Ronstadt's politics received criticism and praise during and after her July 17, 2004, performance at the Aladdin Theatre for the Performing Arts in Las Vegas. Toward the end of the show, as she had done across the country, Ronstadt spoke to the audience, praising Fahrenheit 9/11, Michael Moore's documentary film about the Iraq War; she dedicated the song "Desperado" to Moore. Accounts say the crowd's initial reaction was mixed, with "half the crowd heartily applauding her praise for Moore, (and) the other half booing."
Following the concert, news accounts reported Ronstadt was "evicted" from the hotel premises. Ronstadt's comments, as well as the reactions of some audience members and the hotel, became a topic of discussion nationwide. Aladdin casino president Bill Timmins and Michael Moore each made public statements about the controversy.
The incident prompted international headlines and debate on an entertainer's right to express a political opinion from the stage and made the editorial section of The New York Times. Following the incident, many friends of Ronstadt's, including the Eagles, immediately cancelled their engagements at the Aladdin. Ronstadt also received telegrams of support from her rock 'n' roll friends around the world like the Rolling Stones, the Eagles and Elton John. Amid reports of mixed public response, Ronstadt continued her praise of Moore and his film throughout her 2004 and 2006 summer concerts across North America.
At a 2006 concert in Canada, Ronstadt told the Calgary Sun that she was "embarrassed George Bush (was) from the United States. ... He's an idiot. ... He's enormously incompetent on both the domestic and international scenes. ... Now the fact that we were lied to about the reasons for entering into war against Iraq and thousands of people have diedit's just as immoral as racism." Her remarks drew international headlines. In an August 14, 2007, interview, she commented on all her well-publicized, outspoken views, in particular the Aladdin incident, by noting, "If I had it to do over I would be much more gracious to everyone ... you can be as outspoken as you want if you are very, very respectful. Show some grace".
In 2007, Ronstadt resided in San Francisco while also maintaining her home in Tucson. That same year, she drew criticism and praise from Tucsonans for commenting that local city council's failings, developers' strip mall mentality, greed and growing dust problem had rendered the city unrecognizable and poorly developed.
In August 2009, Ronstadt, in a well-publicized interview to PlanetOut Inc. titled "Linda Ronstadt's Gay Mission", championed gay rights and same-sex marriage, and stated "homophobia is anti-family values. Period, end of story."
On January 16, 2010, Ronstadt converged with thousands of other activists in a "National Day of Action". Ronstadt stated that her "dog in the fight"as a native Arizonan and coming from a law enforcement familywas the treatment of illegal aliens and Arizona's enforcement of its illegal immigrant law, especially Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's efforts in that area.
On April 29, 2010, Ronstadt began a campaign, including joining a lawsuit, against Arizona's new illegal-immigration law SB 1070 calling it a "devastating blow to law enforcement ... the police don't protect us in a democracy with brute force", something she said she learned from her brother, Peter, who was Chief of Police in Tucson.
Ronstadt has also been outspoken on environmental and community issues. She is a major supporter and admirer of sustainable agriculture pioneer Wes Jackson, saying in 2000, "the work he's doing right now is the most important work there is in the (United States)", and dedicating the rock anthem "Desperado" to him at an August 2007 concert in Kansas City, Kansas.
National arts advocacy
In 2004, Ronstadt wrote the foreword to the book The NPR Curious Listener's Guide to American Folk Music, and in 2005, she wrote the introduction to the book Classic Ferrington Guitars, about guitar-maker and luthier Danny Ferrington and the custom guitars that he created for Ronstadt and other musicians such as Elvis Costello, Ry Cooder, and Kurt Cobain.
Ronstadt has been honored for her contribution to the American arts. On September 23, 2007, she was inducted into the Arizona Music & Entertainment Hall of Fame, along with Stevie Nicks, Buck Owens, and filmmaker Steven Spielberg. On August 17, 2008, Ronstadt received a tribute by various artists, including BeBe Winans and Wynonna Judd, when she was honored with the Trailblazer Award, presented to her by Plácido Domingo at the 2008 ALMA Awards, a ceremony later televised in the U.S. on ABC.
In 2008, Ronstadt was appointed Artistic Director of the San José Mariachi and Mexican Heritage Festival. On March 31, 2009, in testimony that the Los Angeles Times termed "remarkable", Ronstadt spoke to the United States Congress House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment & Related Agencies, attempting to convince lawmakers to budget $200 million in the 2010 fiscal year for the National Endowment of the Arts.
In May 2009, Ronstadt received an honorary doctorate of music degree from the Berklee College of Music for her achievements and influence in music and her contributions to American and international culture. Mix magazine stated that "Linda Ronstadt (has) left her mark on more than the record business; her devotion to the craft of singing influenced many audio professionals ... (and is) intensely knowledgeable about the mechanics of singing and the cultural contexts of every genre she passes".
Awards and nominations
Grammy Awards
In 1981 the album In Harmony: A Sesame Street Record won the Grammy for Best Album for Children. Ronstadt was one of the various artists featured on the album. The Grammys were awarded to the producers, David Levine and Lucy Simon.
Latin Grammy Awards
Primetime Emmy Awards
Tony Awards
Golden Globe Awards
1983Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical or Comedy, Linda Ronstadt in The Pirates of Penzance
Arizona Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame
2007Inducted for her significant impact on the evolution and development of the entertainment culture in the state of Arizona
Academy of Country Music
1974Best New Female Artist
1987Album of the Year/ Trio, Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris
Country Music Association
1988Vocal Event of the Year / Trio, Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris
American Latino Media Arts
2008Trailblazer Award for Contribution to American Music
Lo Nuestro nominations
1989Regional Mexican Female Artist, Regional Mexican Album (Canciones de Mi Padre), and Crossover Artist
1992Regional Mexican Female Artist
1993Tropical Female Artist, Regional Mexican Female Artist, and Tropical Song ("Perfidia").
Kennedy Center
2019 Kennedy Center Honoree
Discography
Studio albums
Hand Sown ... Home Grown (1969)
Silk Purse (1970)
Linda Ronstadt (1972)
Don't Cry Now (1973)
Heart Like a Wheel (1974)
Prisoner in Disguise (1975)
Hasten Down the Wind (1976)
Simple Dreams (1977)
Living in the USA (1978)
Mad Love (1980)
Get Closer (1982)
What's New (1983)
Lush Life (1984)
For Sentimental Reasons (1986)
Canciones de Mi Padre (1987)
Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind (1989)
Mas Canciones (1991)
Frenesí (1992)
Winter Light (1993)
Feels Like Home (1995)
Dedicated to the One I Love (1996)
We Ran (1998)
A Merry Little Christmas (2000)
Hummin' to Myself (2004)
Live albums
Live in Hollywood (2019)
Duets and trios
Trio (1987) (Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton, and Linda Ronstadt)
Trio II (1999) (Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton, and Linda Ronstadt)
Western Wall: The Tucson Sessions (1999) (with Emmylou Harris)
Adieu False Heart (2006) (with Ann Savoy)
The Complete Trio Collection (2016) (Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton, and Linda Ronstadt)
Compilation albums
Different Drum (1974) – The first compilation album of Ronstadt's work released by Capitol
Greatest Hits (1976)
A Retrospective (1977)
Greatest Hits, Volume 2 (1980)
'Round Midnight (1986) – 2-CD set
The Linda Ronstadt Box Set (1999) – 4-CD set
The Very Best of Linda Ronstadt (2002) – Billboard No. 19 Country Album
Mi Jardin Azul: Las Canciones Favoritas (2004)
The Best of Linda Ronstadt: The Capitol Years (2006) – 2-CD set
Standards with Nelson Riddle Orchestra (2008)
The Collection (2011) – British 2-CD set
Duets (2014)
Just One Look: Classic Linda Ronstadt (2015)
Like A Rose: The Classic 1976 Broadcast Recording (2021)
Spanish-language albums
Canciones de Mi Padre (1987) - (English translation: "Songs of My Father") - Best Mexican-American Performance Grammy Award winner (1989)
Mas Canciones (1991) - (English translation: "More Songs") - Best Mexican-American Album Grammy Award winner (1993)
Frenesí (1992) - (English translation: "Frenzy") - Best Tropical Latin Album Grammy Award winner (1993)
Mi Jardin Azul: Las Canciones Favoritas (2004) - Compilation (English translation: "My Blue Garden: The Favorite Songs")
Filmography
Book
See also
Notes
References
External links
Official website
Image of Linda Ronstadt reclining on a porch railing in Los Angeles, California, 1974. Los Angeles Times Photographic Archive (Collection 1429). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners
United States National Medal of Arts recipients
1946 births
Living people
Actresses from Tucson, Arizona
American actresses of Mexican descent
American alternative country singers
American atheists
American country rock singers
American country singer-songwriters
American women country singers
American women rock singers
American women singer-songwriters
American film actresses
American memoirists
Women in Latin music
American multi-instrumentalists
American musical theatre actresses
American musicians of Mexican descent
American performers of Latin music
American pop rock singers
American stage actresses
American television actresses
American writers of Mexican descent
Big band singers
Cajun musicians
Feminist musicians
Rock and roll musicians
Grammy Award winners
Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners
Hispanic and Latino American women singers
Hispanic and Latino American musicians
Primetime Emmy Award winners
Spanish-language singers of the United States
American women memoirists
Asylum Records artists
Capitol Records artists
Vanguard Records artists
Verve Records artists
American people of Canadian descent
American people of Dutch descent
American people of English descent
American people of German descent
Arizona Democrats
Country musicians from Arizona
Country musicians from California
Musicians from San Francisco
Musicians from Tucson, Arizona
Record producers from Arizona
Record producers from California
Singers from Los Angeles
Writers from Los Angeles
Writers from San Francisco
Writers from Tucson, Arizona
20th-century American actresses
21st-century American actresses
20th-century American singers
21st-century American singers
20th-century American non-fiction writers
21st-century American non-fiction writers
20th-century American composers
21st-century American composers
20th-century American women singers
20th-century American women writers
21st-century American women writers
21st-century American women singers
American women record producers
Jerry Brown
American country guitarists
American acoustic guitarists
American women guitarists
Guitarists from Arizona
Guitarists from Los Angeles
Tambourine players
20th-century women composers
21st-century women composers
Chicano rock musicians
Traditional pop music singers
Singer-songwriters from California
Singer-songwriters from Arizona | true | [
"Mary Osborne (July 17, 1921 – March 4, 1992) was an American jazz guitarist and guitar manufacturer. She began performing at a young age and was featured on a radio program in North Dakota, where she grew up. In New York City during the 1940s, she played with jazz musicians such as Dizzy Gillespie, Art Tatum, Coleman Hawkins, and Thelonious Monk. After moving to California in 1968, she and her husband founded the Osborne Guitar Company.\n\nBiography\nOsborne was born in Minot, North Dakota, the tenth of eleven children. Her family was musically inclined; her mother played guitar and her father, in addition to constructing violins, allowed his barbershop to be the meeting place for the town's musicians. As early as 3 years of age, she showed an interest in music. Osborne's earliest instruments included piano, ukulele, violin, and banjo. At age nine, she first played the guitar. At ten, she started playing banjo in her father's ragtime band. She also came to be featured on her own radio program, which she would continue to perform on twice weekly until she was fifteen. At twelve she started her own trio of girls to perform in Bismarck, North Dakota. The music she was playing during this time period was largely \"hillbilly\", or country music, in which the guitar was simply used to accompany her own vocals.\n\nAt the age of fifteen, Osborne joined a trio led by pianist Winifred McDonnell, for which she played guitar, double bass, and sang. During this time, she heard Charlie Christian play electric guitar in Al Trent's band at a stop in Bismarck. She was enthralled by his sound, at first mistaking the electric guitar for a saxophone. She said of it, \"What impressed everyone most of all was his sense of time. He had a relaxed, even beat that would sound modern even today.\" Osborne immediately bought her own electric guitar and had a friend build an amplifier. She sat in with Christian, learning his style of guitar. Later, McDonnell's trio was absorbed into Buddy Rogers's band, after Rogers heard them play in St. Louis. But within a year of the band moving to New York in 1940, the trio broke up and left Rogers's band, having found husbands. Osborne married trumpeter Ralph Scaffidi, who encouraged her musical career.\n\nIn the 1940s, Osborne sat in on jam sessions on 52nd Street, where she played with some of the biggest names in jazz. In 1941, she went on the road with jazz violinist Joe Venuti. In 1942, she was working freelance in Chicago when she made a recording with Stuff Smith. In 1945, Osborne headlined a performance with Dizzy Gillespie, Art Tatum, Coleman Hawkins, and Thelonious Monk in Philadelphia, to reviews and audiences that praised her specifically. Osborne, Tatum, and Hawkins went on to record in concert in New Orleans.\n\nIn 1945, Osborne returned to New York. There she recorded with Mary Lou Williams in 1945, Coleman Hawkins, Mercer Ellington, and Beryl Booker in 1946, and led her own swing trio. Her trio lasted from 1945–1948 and played in clubs on 52nd street, had a year-long engagement at Kelly's Stables, and made several recordings. Throughout the 1950s, she played with Elliot Lawrence's Quartet on The Jack Sterling Show, a daily morning CBS radio program, and appeared on the television show Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts. The last few years of the decade she spent recording, both with Tyree Glenn and as a leader. Shortly after, Osborne felt that she had been doing the same thing musically for too long and wanted a change. In 1962, she started learning Spanish classical guitar under Alberto Valdez-Blaine. She used classical techniques, such as pick-less playing, in her jazz playing.\n\nIn 1968, Osborne moved to Bakersfield, California, where she lived the rest of her life. With her husband, she founded the Osborne Guitar Company. She taught music and continued to play jazz locally and in Los Angeles. She played in the Newport and Concord festivals in the early 1970s, and in the Kool Jazz Festival in New York in 1981. In 1989 and 1990, she played at the Los Angeles Classic Jazz Festival, and in 1990 also played at the Playboy Jazz Marathon. In 1991, in what would be her final performances, Osborne returned to the Village Vanguard in New York for a week-long engagement.\n\nOsborne died in March 1992 at the age of 70, the result of chronic leukemia.\n\nDiscography\n A Girl and Her Guitar (Warwick, 1959)\n Now's the Time (Halcyon, 1977)\n Now and Then (Stash, 1981)\n Esquire's All-American Hot Jazz Sessions (RCA, 1988) with the 52nd Street All-Stars, RCA Studio 2, New York City, February 27, 1946. Produced by Leonard Feather\n\nWith Louis Bellson and Gene Krupa\n The Mighty Two (Roulette, 1963)\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\nMary Osborne: Queen of the Jazz Guitar (NPR jazz program)\n\n1921 births\n1992 deaths\n20th-century American guitarists\nAmerican jazz guitarists\nWomen jazz guitarists\nAmerican women guitarists\nGuitarists from North Dakota\nPeople from Minot, North Dakota\n20th-century American women guitarists",
"Suzanne Chaigneau (14 June 1875 – 13 April 1946) was a French violinist and chamber musician, and a noted violin teacher.\n\nShe spent her childhood between Barbizon and Paris, receiving her musical education from her mother and family friends including Charles Lamoureux and Camille Chevillard. With her sisters she formed a piano trio which gave its first concert in Paris on 25 February 1895.\n\nShe was the daughter of painter Ferdinand Chaigneau and Louise Deger, the twin sister of the cellist Marguerite and the sister of pianist Thérèse, with whom she played as the Trio Chaigneau. In 1910 she married the son of violinist Joseph Joachim, Hermann Joachim, an officer in the German army, and was the mother of the singer Irène Joachim. The Chaigneau home welcomed many artistic visitors and was also considered close to the Dreyfusard cause, with Georges Picquart among other visitors to the home.\n\nThe Trio Chaigneau played in London and Edinburgh and, with assistance from Joachim, undertook a tour of Germany in 1905. Their repertoire was both the Austro-German classics – Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart – and modern French composers. Apart from a few appearances in 1920, the Trio ended at the start of the First World War.\n\nSuzanne Chaigneau was stranded in Berlin during the war, and her husband died of tuberculosis in 1917. However she was able to continue with musical activity which brought her into contact with Wanda Landowska and Carl Flesch. Although she was able to send her daughter back to France in 1918, she herself was only able to return around 1920. Back in Paris she taught the violin, and founded the Institut moderne du violon with Lucien Capet in 1924. She also became a music correspondent for the Berliner Tageblatt, signing her articles as 'S Francoeur'.\n\nIn 1926 and 1927 Chaigneau spent time in Chicago with the Yanker family to teach her violin method. Her books on violin playing included L’Art d’etudier, as well as a translation of the Journal Intime of Novalis.\n\nSources\nMassin B. Les Joachim – Une famille de musiciens. Fayard, Paris, 1999.\n\n1875 births\n1946 deaths\n20th-century French women classical violinists\nViolin pedagogues\nFrench music educators\n19th-century French women classical violinists"
]
|
[
"Linda Ronstadt",
"Career summary",
"What did Linda Ronstadt do after the 1960s?",
"Ronstadt joined forces with Bobby Kimmel and Kenny Edwards and became the lead singer of a folk-rock trio, the Stone Poneys.",
"Was she with the trio a long time?",
"as a solo artist, she released Hand Sown ... Home Grown in 1969,"
]
| C_70757043f51f42d0bbea7205aa5d0e84_1 | What did she do after 1969 with her career? | 3 | What did Linda Ronstadt do after 1969 with her career? | Linda Ronstadt | Establishing her professional career in the mid-1960s at the forefront of California's emerging folk rock and country rock movements - genres which defined post-1960s rock music - Ronstadt joined forces with Bobby Kimmel and Kenny Edwards and became the lead singer of a folk-rock trio, the Stone Poneys. Later, as a solo artist, she released Hand Sown ... Home Grown in 1969, which has been described as the first alternative country record by a female recording artist. Although fame eluded her during these years, Ronstadt actively toured with the Doors, Neil Young, Jackson Browne, and others, appeared numerous times on television shows, and began to contribute her singing to albums by other artists. With the release of chart-topping albums such as Heart Like a Wheel, Simple Dreams, and Living in the USA, Ronstadt became the first female "arena class" rock star. She set records as one of the top-grossing concert artists of the decade. Referred to as the "First Lady of Rock" and the "Queen of Rock", Ronstadt was voted the Top Female Pop Singer of the 1970s. Her rock-and-roll image was as famous as her music; she appeared six times on the cover of Rolling Stone and on the covers of Newsweek and Time. In the 1980s, Ronstadt went to Broadway and garnered a Tony nomination for her performance in The Pirates of Penzance, teamed with the composer Philip Glass, recorded traditional music, and collaborated with the conductor Nelson Riddle, an event at that time viewed as an original and unorthodox move for a rock-and-roll artist. This venture paid off, and Ronstadt remained one of the music industry's best-selling acts throughout the 1980s, with multi-platinum-selling albums such as What's New, Canciones de Mi Padre, and Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind. She continued to tour, collaborate, and record celebrated albums, such as Winter Light and Hummin' to Myself, until her retirement in 2011. Most of Ronstadt's albums are certified gold, platinum, or multi-platinum. Having sold in excess of 100 million records worldwide and setting records as one of the top-grossing concert performers for over a decade, Ronstadt was the most successful female singer of the 1970s and stands as one of the most successful female recording artists in U.S. history. Ronstadt opened many doors for women in rock and roll and other musical genres by championing songwriters and musicians, pioneering her chart success onto the concert circuit, and being at the vanguard of many musical movements. CANNOTANSWER | Ronstadt actively toured with the Doors, Neil Young, Jackson Browne, and others, appeared numerous times on television shows, and began to contribute her singing to albums by other artists. | Linda Maria Ronstadt (born July 15, 1946) is a retired American singer who performed and recorded in diverse genres including rock, country, light opera, and Latin. She has earned 11 Grammy Awards, three American Music Awards, two Academy of Country Music awards, an Emmy Award, and an ALMA Award. Many of her albums have been certified gold, platinum or multiplatinum in the United States and internationally. She has also earned nominations for a Tony Award and a Golden Globe award. She was awarded the Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award by the Latin Recording Academy in 2011 and also awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award by the Recording Academy in 2016. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April 2014. On July 28, 2014, she was awarded the National Medal of Arts and Humanities. In 2019, she received a star jointly with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for their work as the group Trio. Ronstadt was among five honorees who received the 2019 Kennedy Center Honors for lifetime artistic achievements.
Ronstadt has released 24 studio albums and 15 compilation or greatest hits albums. She charted 38 US Billboard Hot 100 singles. Twenty-one of those singles reached the top 40, ten reached the top 10, and one reached number one ("You're No Good"). Ronstadt also charted in UK as two of her duets, "Somewhere Out There" with James Ingram and "Don't Know Much" with Aaron Neville, peaked at numbers 8 and 2 respectively and the single "Blue Bayou" reached number 35 on the UK Singles charts. She has charted 36 albums, ten top-10 albums, and three number 1 albums on the US Billboard Pop Album Chart.
Ronstadt has collaborated with artists in diverse genres, including: Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, Bette Midler, Billy Eckstine, Frank Zappa, Carla Bley (Escalator Over the Hill), Rosemary Clooney, Flaco Jiménez, Philip Glass, Warren Zevon, Gram Parsons, Neil Young, Paul Simon, Earl Scruggs, Johnny Cash, and Nelson Riddle. She has lent her voice to over 120 albums and has sold more than 100 million records, making her one of the world's best-selling artists of all time. Christopher Loudon, of Jazz Times, wrote in 2004 that Ronstadt is "blessed with arguably the most sterling set of pipes of her generation."
Ronstadt reduced her activity after 2000 when she felt her singing voice deteriorating, releasing her last full-length album in 2004 and performing her last live concert in 2009. She announced her retirement in 2011 and revealed shortly afterwards that she is no longer able to sing as a result of a degenerative condition later determined to be progressive supranuclear palsy. Since then, Ronstadt has continued to make public appearances, going on a number of public speaking tours in the 2010s. She published an autobiography, Simple Dreams: A Musical Memoir, in September 2013. A documentary based on her memoirs, Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice, was released in 2019.
Early life
Linda Maria Ronstadt was born in Tucson, Arizona, on July 15, 1946, the third of four children of Gilbert Ronstadt (19111995), a prosperous machinery merchant who ran the F. Ronstadt Co., and Ruth Mary (née Copeman) Ronstadt (19141982), a homemaker.
Ronstadt was raised on the family's ranch with her siblings Peter (who served as Tucson's Chief of Police for ten years, 19811991), Michael, and Gretchen. The family was featured in Family Circle magazine in 1953.
Ronstadt family history
Ronstadt's father came from a pioneering Arizona ranching family and was of German and Mexican ancestry. The family's influence on and contributions to Arizona's history, including wagon making, commerce, pharmacies, and music, are chronicled in the library of the University of Arizona. Her great-grandfather, graduate engineer Friedrich August Ronstadt (who went by Federico Augusto Ronstadt) immigrated to the Southwest (then a part of Mexico) in the 1840s from Hanover, Germany, and married a Mexican citizen, eventually settling in Tucson. In 1991, the City of Tucson opened its central transit terminal on March 16 and dedicated it to Linda's grandfather, Federico José María Ronstadt, a local pioneer businessman; he was a wagon maker whose early contribution to the city's mobility included six mule-drawn streetcars delivered in 190304.
Ronstadt's mother Ruth Mary, of German, English, and Dutch ancestry, was raised in Flint, Michigan. Ruth Mary's father, Lloyd Groff Copeman, a prolific inventor and holder of nearly 700 patents, invented an early form of the electric toaster, many refrigerator devices, the grease gun, the first electric stove, and an early form of the microwave oven. His flexible rubber ice cube tray earned him millions of dollars in royalties.
Career summary
Establishing her professional career in the mid-1960s at the forefront of California's emerging folk rock and country rock movementsgenres which defined post-1960s rock musicRonstadt joined forces with Bobby Kimmel and Kenny Edwards and became the lead singer of a folk-rock trio, the Stone Poneys. Later, as a solo artist, she released Hand Sown ... Home Grown in 1969, which has been described as the first alternative country record by a female recording artist. Although fame eluded her during these years, Ronstadt actively toured with the Doors, Neil Young, Jackson Browne, and others, appeared numerous times on television shows, and began to contribute her singing to albums by other artists.
With the release of chart-topping albums such as Heart Like a Wheel, Simple Dreams, and Living in the USA, Ronstadt became the first female "arena class" rock star. She set records as one of the top-grossing concert artists of the decade. Referred to as the "First Lady of Rock" and the "Queen of Rock", Ronstadt was voted the Top Female Pop Singer of the 1970s. Her rock-and-roll image was as famous as her music; she appeared six times on the cover of Rolling Stone and on the covers of Newsweek and Time.
In the 1980s, Ronstadt performed on Broadway and received a Tony nomination for her performance in The Pirates of Penzance, teamed with the composer Philip Glass, recorded traditional music, and collaborated with the conductor Nelson Riddle, an event at that time viewed as an original and unorthodox move for a rock-and-roll artist. This venture paid off, and Ronstadt remained one of the music industry's best-selling acts throughout the 1980s, with multi-platinum-selling albums such as Mad Love, What's New, Canciones de Mi Padre, and Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind. She continued to tour, collaborate, and record celebrated albums, such as Winter Light and Hummin' to Myself, until her retirement in 2011.
Most of Ronstadt's albums are certified gold, platinum, or multi-platinum. Having sold in excess of 100 million records worldwide and setting records as one of the top-grossing concert performers for over a decade, Ronstadt was the most successful female singer of the 1970s and stands as one of the most successful female recording artists in U.S. history. She opened many doors for women in rock and roll and other musical genres by championing songwriters and musicians, pioneering her chart success onto the concert circuit, and being in the vanguard of many musical movements.
Career overview
Early influences
Ronstadt's early family life was filled with music and tradition, which influenced the stylistic and musical choices she later made in her career. Growing up, she listened to many types of music, including Mexican music, which was sung by her entire family and was a staple in her childhood.
Ronstadt has remarked that everything she has recorded on her own recordsrock and roll, rhythm and blues, gospel, opera, country, choral, and mariachiis all music she heard her family sing in their living room or heard played on the radio, by the age of 10. She credits her mother for her appreciation of Gilbert and Sullivan and her father for introducing her to the traditional pop and Great American Songbook repertoire that she would, in turn, help reintroduce to an entire generation.
Early on, her singing style had been influenced by singers such as Lola Beltrán and Édith Piaf; she has called their singing and rhythms "more like Greek music ... It's sort of like 6/8 time signature ... very hard driving and very intense." She also drew influence from country singer Hank Williams.
She has said that "all girl singers" eventually "have to curtsy to Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday". Of Maria Callas, Ronstadt says, "There's no one in her league. That's it. Period. I learn more ... about singing rock n roll from listening to Maria Callas records than I ever would from listening to pop music for a month of Sundays. ... She's the greatest chick singer ever." She admires Callas for her musicianship and her attempts to push 20th-century singing, particularly opera, back into the bel canto "natural style of singing".
A self-described product of American radio of the 1950s and 1960s, Ronstadt is a fan of its eclectic and diverse music programming.
Beginning of professional career
At age 14, Ronstadt formed a folk trio with her brother Peter and sister Gretchen. The group played coffeehouses, fraternity houses, and other small venues, billing themselves as "the Union City Ramblers" and "the Three Ronstadts", and they even recorded themselves at a Tucson studio under the name "the New Union Ramblers". Their repertoire included the music they grew up onfolk, country, bluegrass, and Mexican. But increasingly, Ronstadt wanted to make a union of folk music and rock 'n' roll, and in 1964, after a semester at Arizona State University, the 18-year-old decided to move to Los Angeles.
The Stone Poneys
Ronstadt visited a friend from Tucson, Bobby Kimmel, in Los Angeles during Easter break from college in 1964, and later that year, shortly before her eighteenth birthday, decided to move there permanently to form a band with him. Kimmel had already begun co-writing folk-rock songs with guitarist-songwriter Kenny Edwards, and eventually the three of them were signed by Nik Venet to Capitol in the summer of 1966 as "the Stone Poneys". The trio released three albums in a 15-month period in 196768: The Stone Poneys; Evergreen, Volume 2; and Linda Ronstadt, Stone Poneys and Friends, Vol. III. The band is widely known for their hit single "Different Drum" (written by Michael Nesmith prior to his joining the Monkees), which reached number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart as well as number 12 in Cashbox magazine. Nearly 50 years later, the song remains one of Ronstadt's most popular recordings.
Solo career
Still contractually obligated to Capitol Records, Ronstadt released her first solo album, Hand Sown ... Home Grown, in 1969. It has been called the first alternative country record by a female recording artist. During this same period, she contributed to the Music from Free Creek "super session" project.
Ronstadt provided the vocals for some commercials during this period, including one for Remington electric razors, in which a multitracked Ronstadt and Frank Zappa claimed that the electric razor "cleans you, thrills you ... may even keep you from getting busted".
Ronstadt's second solo album, Silk Purse, was released in March 1970. Recorded entirely in Nashville, it was produced by Elliot Mazer, whom Ronstadt chose on the advice of Janis Joplin, who had worked with him on the Cheap Thrills album. The Silk Purse album cover showed Ronstadt in a muddy pigpen, while the back and inside cover depicted her onstage wearing bright red. Ronstadt has stated that she was not pleased with the album, although it provided her with her first solo hit, the multi-format single "Long, Long Time", and earned her first Grammy nomination (for Best Contemporary Vocal Performance/Female).
Touring
In 1975, Ronstadt performed shows with Jackson Browne, the Eagles, and Toots and the Maytals. In a 1976 Rolling Stone interview with Cameron Crowe, Ronstadt said, "they haven't invented a word for that loneliness that everybody goes through on the road. The world is tearing by you, real fast, and all these people are looking at you. ... People see me in my 'girl-singer' suit." In 1974 she told Peter Knobler in Crawdaddy, "People are always taking advantage of you; everybody that's interested in you has got an angle."
Several years before Ronstadt became what author Gerri Hirshey called the first "arena-class rock diva" with "hugely anticipated tours" she began her solo career touring the North American concert circuit. But being on the road took its toll both emotionally and professionally. There were few "girl singers" on the rock circuit at the time, and they were relegated to "groupie level when in a crowd of a bunch of rock and roll guys", a status Ronstadt avoided. Relating to men on a professional level as fellow musicians led to competition, insecurity, bad romances, and a series of boyfriend-managers. At the time, she admired singers like Maria Muldaur for not sacrificing their femininity but says she felt enormous self-imposed pressure to compete with "the boys" at every level. She noted in a 1969 interview in Fusion magazine that it was difficult being a single "chick singer" with an all-male backup band. According to her, it was difficult to get a band of backing musicians because of their ego problem of being labeled sidemen for a female singer.
Soon after she went solo in the late 1960s, one of her first backing bands was the pioneering country-rock band Swampwater, which combined Cajun and swamp-rock elements in their music. Its members included Cajun fiddler Gib Guilbeau and John Beland, who later joined the Flying Burrito Brothers, as well as Stan Pratt, Thad Maxwell, and Eric White, brother of Clarence White of the Byrds. Swampwater went on to back Ronstadt during TV appearances on The Johnny Cash Show and The Mike Douglas Show, and at the Big Sur Folk Festival.
Another backing band included Don Henley, Glenn Frey, Bernie Leadon, and Randy Meisner, who went on to form the Eagles. They toured with her for a short period in 1971 and played on Linda Ronstadt, her self-titled third album, from which the failed single, Ronstadt's version of Browne's "Rock Me on the Water", was drawn. At this stage, Ronstadt began working with producer and boyfriend John Boylan. She said, "As soon as I started working with John Boylan, I started co-producing myself. I was always a part of my productions. But I always needed a producer who would carry out my whims." Also in 1971, Ronstadt began talking with David Geffen about moving from Capitol Records to Geffen's Asylum Records label.
Collaborations with Peter Asher
Ronstadt began her fourth solo album, Don't Cry Now, in 1973, with Boylan (who had negotiated her contract with Asylum Records) and John David "J.D." Souther producing most of the album's tracks. But needing someone willing to work with her as an equal, Ronstadt asked Peter Asher, who came highly recommended to her by James Taylor's sister Kate Taylor, to help produce two of them: "Sail Away" and "I Believe in You".
The album featured Ronstadt's first country hit, "Silver Threads and Golden Needles", which she had first recorded on Hand Sown ... Home Grownthis time hitting the Country Top 20.
With the release of Don't Cry Now, Ronstadt took on her biggest gig to date as the opening act on Neil Young's Time Fades Away tour, playing for larger crowds than ever before. Backstage at a concert in Texas, Chris Hillman introduced her to Emmylou Harris, telling them, "You two could be good friends", which soon occurred, resulting in frequent collaborations over the following years. Meanwhile, the album became Ronstadt's most successful up to that time, selling 300,000 copies by the end of 1974.
Asher turned out to be more collaborative, and more on the same page with her musically, than any producer she had worked with previously. Ronstadt's professional relationship with Asher allowed her to take command and effectively delegate responsibilities in the recording studio. Although hesitant at first to work with her because of her reputation for being a "woman of strong opinions (who) knew what she wanted to do (with her career)", he nonetheless agreed to become her full-time producer, and remained in that role through the late 1980s. Asher attributed the long-term success of his working relationship with Ronstadt to the fact that he was the first person to manage and produce her with whom there was a solely professional relationship. "It must be a lot harder to have objective conversations about someone's career when it's someone you sleep with", he said.
Asher executive produced a tribute CD called Listen to Me: Buddy Holly, released September 6, 2011, on which Ronstadt's 1976 version of Buddy Holly's "That'll Be The Day" appears among newly recorded versions of Holly's songs by various artists.
Vocal styles
Ronstadt captured the sounds of country music and the rhythms of ranchera musicwhich she likened in 1968 to "Mexican bluegrass"and redirected them into her rock 'n' roll and some of her pop music. Many of these rhythms and sounds were part of her Southwestern roots. Likewise, a country sound and style, a fusion of country music and rock 'n' roll called country rock, started to exert its influence on mainstream pop music around the late 1960s, and it became an emerging movement Ronstadt helped form and commercialize. However, as early as 1970, Ronstadt was being criticized by music "purists" for her "brand of music" which crossed many genres. Country Western Stars magazine wrote in 1970 that "Rock people thought she was too gentle, folk people thought she was too pop, and pop people didn't quite understand where she was at, but Country people really loved Linda." She never categorized herself and stuck to her genre-crossing brand of music.
Interpretive singer
Ronstadt is considered an "interpreter of her times", and has earned praise for her courage to put her "stamp" on many of her songs. Nevertheless, her hits were criticized in some quarters for being cover songs. Ronstadt herself has indicated that some of her 1970s hits were recorded under considerable pressure to create commercially successful recordings, and that she prefers many of her songs that were non-hit album tracks. An infrequent songwriter, Ronstadt co-composed only three songs over her long career.
Ronstadt's natural vocal range spans several octaves from contralto to soprano, and occasionally she will showcase this entire range within a single work. Ronstadt was the first female artist in popular music history to accumulate four consecutive platinum albums (fourteen certified million selling, to date). As for the singles, Rolling Stone pointed out that a whole generation, "but for her, might never have heard the work of artists such as Buddy Holly, Elvis Costello, and Chuck Berry."
Others have argued that Ronstadt had the same generational effect with her Great American Songbook music, exposing a whole new generation to the music of the 1920s and 1930smusic which was pushed aside because of the advent of rock 'n' roll. When interpreting, Ronstadt said she "sticks to what the music demands", in terms of lyrics. Explaining that rock and roll music is part of her culture, she says that the songs she sang after her rock and roll hits were part of her soul. "The (Mariachi music) was my father's side of the soul," she was quoted as saying in a 1998 interview she gave at her Tucson home. "My mother's side of my soul was the Nelson Riddle stuff. And I had to do them both to reestablish who I was."
In the 1974 book Rock 'N' Roll Woman, author Katherine Orloff writes that Ronstadt's "own musical preferences run strongly to rhythm and blues, the type of music she most frequently chooses to listen to ... (and) her goal is to ... be soulful too. With this in mind, Ronstadt fuses country and rock into a special union."
By this stage of her career, Ronstadt had established her niche in the field of country-rock. Along with other musicians such as the Flying Burrito Brothers, Emmylou Harris, Gram Parsons, Swampwater, Neil Young, and the Eagles, she helped free country music from stereotypes and showed rockers that country was okay. However, she stated that she was being pushed hard into singing more rock and roll.
Most successful female singer of the 1970s
Author Andrew Greeley, in his book God in Popular Culture, described Ronstadt as "the most successful and certainly the most durable and most gifted woman Rock singer of her era." Signaling her wide popularity as a concert artist, outside of the singles charts and the recording studio, Dirty Linen magazine describes her as the "first true woman rock 'n' roll superstar ... (selling) out stadiums with a string of mega-successful albums." Amazon.com defines her as the American female rock superstar of the decade. Cashbox gave Ronstadt a Special Decade Award, as the top-selling female singer of the 1970s.
Her album covers, posters, magazine coversher entire rock 'n' roll imagewere as famous as her music. By the end of the decade, the singer whom the Chicago Sun Times described as the "Dean of the 1970s school of female rock singers" became what Redbook called "the most successful female rock star in the world." "Female" was the important qualifier, according to Time magazine, which labeled her "a rarity ... to (have survived) ... in the shark-infested deeps of rock."
Although Ronstadt had been a cult favorite on the music scene for several years, 1975 was "remembered in the music biz as the year when 29-year-old Linda Ronstadt belatedly happened."
With the release of Heart Like a Wheelnamed after one of the album's songs, written by Anna McGarrigleRonstadt reached number 1 on the Billboard 200 chart; it was also the first of four number 1 Country Albums, and the disc was certified double-platinum (over two million copies sold in the U.S.). In many instances, her own interpretations were more successful than the original recordings, and many times new songwriters were discovered by a larger audience as a result of her interpretation and recording. Ronstadt had major success interpreting songs from a diverse spectrum of artists.
Heart Like a Wheels first single release, "You're No Good"a rockified version of an R&B song written by Clint Ballard, Jr. that Ronstadt had initially resisted because Andrew Gold's guitar tracks sounded too much like a "Beatles song" to herclimbed to number 1 on both the Billboard and Cash Box Pop singles charts. The album's second single release, "When Will I Be Loved"an uptempo country-rock version of a Top 10 Everly Brothers songhit number 1 in Cashbox and number 2 in Billboard. The song was also Ronstadt's first number 1 country hit.
The album's critical and commercial success was due to a fine presentation of country and rock, with Heart Like a Wheel her first of many major commercial successes that would set her on the path to being one of the best-selling female artists of all time. Ronstadt won her first Grammy Award for Best Country Vocal Performance/Female for "I Can't Help It (If I'm Still in Love with You)" which was originally a 1940s hit by Hank Williams. Ronstadt's interpretation peaked at number 2 on the country chart. The album itself was nominated for the Album of the Year Grammy.
Rolling Stone put Ronstadt on its cover in March 1975. It was the first of six Rolling Stone covers shot by photographer Annie Leibovitz. It included her as the featured artist with a full photo layout and an article by Ben Fong-Torres, discussing Ronstadt's many struggling years in rock n roll, as well as her home life and what it was like to be a woman on tour in a decidedly all-male environment.
In September 1975, Ronstadt's album Prisoner in Disguise was released. It quickly climbed into the Top Five on the Billboard Album Chart and sold over a million copies. It became her second in a row to go platinum, "a grand slam" in the same year (Ronstadt would eventually become the first female artist in popular music history to have three consecutive platinum albums and would ultimately go on to have eight consecutive platinum albums, and then another six between 1983 and 1990). The disc's first single release was "Love Is A Rose". It was climbing the pop and country charts but "Heat Wave", a rockified version of the 1963 hit by Martha and the Vandellas, was receiving considerable airplay. Asylum pulled the "Love Is a Rose" single and issued "Heat Wave" with "Love Is a Rose" on the B-side. "Heat Wave" hit the Top Five on Billboards Hot 100 while "Love Is A Rose" hit the Top Five on Billboard's country chart.
In 1976, Ronstadt reached the Top 3 of Billboards Album Chart and won her second career Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for her third consecutive platinum album Hasten Down the Wind. The album featured a sexy, revealing cover shot and showcased Ronstadt the singer-songwriter, who composed two of its songs, "Try Me Again" (co-authored with Andrew Gold) and "Lo Siento Mi Vida". It also included an interpretation of Willie Nelson's ballad "Crazy", which became a Top 10 Country hit for Ronstadt in early 1977.
At the end of 1977, Ronstadt surpassed the success of Heart Like a Wheel with her album Simple Dreams, which held the number 1 position for five consecutive weeks on the Billboard 200 chart. It sold over 3½ million copies in less than a year in the U.S. alone – a record for a female artist. Simple Dreams spawned a string of hit singles on numerous charts. Among them were the RIAA platinum-certified single "Blue Bayou", a country-rock interpretation of a Roy Orbison song; "It's So Easy"previously sung by Buddy Holly, a cover of The Rolling Stones' "Tumbling Dice", and "Poor Poor Pitiful Me", a song written by Warren Zevon, an up-and-coming songwriter of the time. The album garnered several Grammy Award nominationsincluding Record of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Performance/Female for "Blue Bayou"and won its art director, Kosh, a Grammy Award for Best Album Cover, the first of three Grammy Awards he would win for designing Ronstadt album covers. In late 1977, Ronstadt became the first female recording artist to have two songs in the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Top Ten at the same time. "Blue Bayou" was at No. 3 while "It's So Easy" was at No. 5.
Simple Dreams became one of the singer's best-selling international-selling albums as well, reaching number 1 on the Australian and Canadian Pop and Country Albums charts. Simple Dreams also made Ronstadt the most successful international female touring artist. The same year, she completed a concert tour around Europe. As Country Music magazine wrote in October 1978, Simple Dreams solidified Ronstadt's role as "easily the most successful female rock and roll and country star at this time."
Also in 1977, she was asked by the Los Angeles Dodgers to sing the U.S. National Anthem at game three of the World Series against the New York Yankees.
Time magazine and "rock chick" image
Ronstadt has remarked that she felt as though she was "artificially encouraged to kinda cop a really tough attitude (and be tough) because rock and roll is kind of tough (business)," which she felt wasn't worn quite authentically. Female rock artists like her and Janis Joplin, whom she described as lovely, shy, and very literate in real life and the antithesis of the "red hot mamma" she was artificially encouraged to project, went through an identity crisis.
By the mid-1970s, Ronstadt's image became just as famous as her music. In 1976 and 1977, she appeared on the covers of Rolling Stone and Time, respectively. The Rolling Stone cover story was accompanied by a series of photographs of Ronstadt in a skimpy red slip, taken by Annie Leibovitz. Ronstadt felt deceived by the photographer, not realizing that the photos would be so revealing. She says her manager Peter Asher kicked Leibovitz out of the house when she visited to show them the photographs prior to publication. Leibovitz had refused to let them veto any of the photos, which included one of Ronstadt sprawled across a bed in her underpants. In a 1977 interview, Ronstadt explained, "Annie [Leibovitz] saw that picture as an exposé of my personality. She was right. But I wouldn't choose to show a picture like that to anybody who didn't know me personally, because only friends could get the other sides of me in balance."
Her 1977 appearance on the cover of Time magazine under the banner "Torchy Rock" was also upsetting to Ronstadt, considering what the image appeared to project about the most famous woman in rock. At a time in the industry when men still told women what to sing and what to wear, Ronstadt hated the image of her that was projected to the world on that cover, and she noted recently how the photographer kept forcing her to wear a dress, which was an image she did not want to project. In 2004, she was interviewed for CBS This Morning and stated that this image was not her because she did not sit like that. Asher noted, "Anyone who's met Linda for 10 seconds will know that I couldn't possibly have been her Svengali. She's an extremely determined woman, in every area. To me, she was everything that feminism's about." Qualities which, Asher has stated, were considered a "negative (in a woman at that time), whereas in a man they were perceived as being masterful and bold". Since her solo career had begun, Ronstadt had fought hard to be recognized as a solo female singer in the world of rock, and her portrayal on the Time cover did not appear to help the situation.
In 1978, Rolling Stone declared Ronstadt "by far America's best-known female rock singer." She scored a third number 1 album on the Billboard Album Chart – at this point equaling the record set by Carole King in 1974 – with Living in the USA. She achieved a major hit single with "Ooo Baby Baby", with her rendition hitting all four major singles charts (Pop, AC, Country, R&B). Living in the USA was the first album by any recording act in music history to ship double-platinum (over 2 million advance copies). The album eventually sold 3 million U.S. copies.
At the end of that year, Billboard magazine crowned Ronstadt with three number-one Awards for the Year: Pop Female Singles Artist of the Year, Pop Female Album Artist of the Year, and Female Artist of the Year (overall).
Living in the USA showed the singer on roller skates with a newly short, permed hairdo on the album cover. Ronstadt continued this theme on concert tour promotional posters with photos of her on roller skates in a dramatic pose with a large American flag in the background. By this stage of her career, she was using posters to promote every album and concert – which at the time were recorded live on radio or television.
Ronstadt was also featured in the 1978 film FM, where the plot involved disc jockeys attempting to broadcast a Ronstadt concert live, without a competing station's knowledge. The film also showed Ronstadt performing the songs "Poor, Poor Pitiful Me", "Love Me Tender", and "Tumbling Dice". Ronstadt was persuaded to record "Tumbling Dice" after Mick Jagger came backstage when she was at a concert and said, "You do too many ballads, you should do more rock and roll songs."
Following the success of Living in the USA, Ronstadt conducted album promotional tours and concerts. She made a guest appearance onstage with the Rolling Stones at the Tucson Community Center on July 21, 1978, in her hometown of Tucson, where she and Jagger sang "Tumbling Dice". On singing with Jagger, Ronstadt later said, "I loved it. I didn't have a trace of stage fright. I'm scared to death all the way through my own shows. But it was too much fun to get scared. He's so silly onstage, he knocks you over. I mean you have to be on your toes or you wind up falling on your face."
Highest-paid woman in rock
By the end of 1978, Ronstadt had solidified her role as one of rock and pop's most successful solo female acts, and owing to her consistent platinum album success, and her ability as the first woman to sell out concerts in arenas and stadiums hosting tens of thousands of fans, Ronstadt became the "highest paid woman in rock". She had six platinum-certified albums, three of which were number 1 on the Billboard album chart, and numerous charted pop singles. In 1978 alone, she made over $12 million () and in the same year her albums sales were reported to be 17 milliongrossing over $60 million ().
As Rolling Stone dubbed her "Rock's Venus", her record sales continued to multiply and set records themselves. By 1979, Ronstadt had collected eight gold, six platinum, and four multi-platinum certifications for her albums, an unprecedented feat at the time. Her 1976 Greatest Hits album would sell consistently for the next 25 years and in 2001 was certified by the RIAA for seven-times platinum (over seven million U.S. copies sold). In 1980, Greatest Hits, Volume 2 was released and certified platinum.
In 1979, Ronstadt went on an international tour, playing in arenas across Australia to Japan, including the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne, and the Budokan in Tokyo. She also participated in a benefit concert for her friend Lowell George, held at The Forum, in Los Angeles.
By the end of the decade, Ronstadt had outsold her female competition; she had five straight platinum LPsHasten Down the Wind and Heart Like a Wheel among them. Us Weekly reported in 1978 that Ronstadt, Joni Mitchell, Stevie Nicks, and Carly Simon had become "The Queens of Rock" and "Rock is no longer exclusively male. There is a new royalty ruling today's record charts."
She would go on to parlay her mass commercial appeal with major success in interpreting The Great American Songbookmade famous a generation before by Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgeraldand later the Mexican folk songs of her childhood.
From rock to operetta
In February 1980, Ronstadt released Mad Love, her seventh consecutive platinum-selling album. It was a straightforward rock and roll album with post-punk, new wave influences, including tracks by songwriters such as Elvis Costello, the Cretones, and musician Mark Goldenberg who played on the record himself. As part of the album's promotion, a live concert was recorded for an HBO special in April. A partial soundtrack for this special (omitting most of the Mad Love tracks) was released as her first official live album in February 2019.
She also made the cover of Rolling Stone for a record-setting sixth time. Mad Love entered the Billboard Album Chart in the Top Five its first week (a record at that time) and climbed to the number 3 position. The project continued her streak of Top 10 hits with "How Do I Make You", originally recorded by Billy Thermal, and "Hurt So Bad", originally a Top 10 hit for Little Anthony & the Imperials. The album earned Ronstadt a 1980 Grammy Award nomination for Best Rock Vocal Performance/Female (although she lost to Pat Benatar's Crimes of Passion album). Benatar praised Ronstadt by stating, "There are a lot of good female singers around. How could I be the best? Ronstadt is still alive!"
In the summer of 1980, Ronstadt began rehearsals for the first of several leads in Broadway musicals. Joseph Papp cast her as the lead in the New York Shakespeare Festival production of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance, alongside Kevin Kline. She said singing Gilbert and Sullivan was a natural choice for her, since her grandfather Fred Ronstadt was credited with having created Tucson's first orchestra, the Club Filarmonico Tucsonense, and had once created an arrangement of The Pirates of Penzance.
The Pirates of Penzance opened for a limited engagement in New York City's Central Park, eventually moving its production to Broadway, where it became a hit, running from January 8, 1981, to November 28, 1982. Newsweek was effusive in its praise: "... she has not dodged the coloratura demands of her role (and Mabel is one of the most demanding parts in the G&S canon): from her entrance trilling 'Poor Wand'ring One,' it is clear that she is prepared to scale whatever soprano peaks stand in her way." Ronstadt co-starred with Kline and Angela Lansbury in the 1983 operetta's film version; this was her only acting role in a motion picture (her other film appearances, such as in the 1978 drama, FM, being concert footage as herself). Ronstadt received a Golden Globe nomination for the role in the film version. She garnered a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical and The Pirates of Penzance won several Tony Awards, including a Tony Award for Best Revival.
As a child, Ronstadt had discovered the opera La bohème through the silent film with Lillian Gish and was determined to someday play the part of Mimi. When she met the opera superstar Beverly Sills, she was told, "My dear, every soprano in the world wants to play Mimi!" In 1984, Ronstadt was cast in the role at Joseph Papp's Public Theater. However, the production was a critical and commercial disaster, closing after only a few nights.
In 1982, Ronstadt released the album Get Closer, a primarily rock album with some country and pop music as well. It remains her only album between 1975 and 1990 not to be officially certified platinum. It peaked at number 31 on the Billboard Album Chart. The release continued her streak of Top 40 hits with "Get Closer" and "I Knew You When"a 1965 hit by Billy Joe Royalwhile the Jimmy Webb song "Easy For You To Say" was a surprise Top 10 Adult Contemporary hit in the spring of 1983. "Sometimes You Just Can't Win" was picked up by country radio, and made it to number 27 on that listing. Ronstadt also filmed several music videos for this album which became popular on the fledgling MTV cable channel. The album earned Ronstadt two Grammy Award nominations: one for Best Rock Vocal Performance/Female for the title track and another for Best Pop Vocal Performance/Female for the album. The artwork won its art director, Kosh, his second Grammy Award for Best Album Package.
Along with the release of her Get Closer album, Ronstadt embarked on a North American tour, remaining one of the top rock-concert draws that summer and fall. On November 25, 1982, her "Happy Thanksgiving Day" concert was held at the Reunion Arena in Dallas and broadcast live via satellite to NBC radio stations in the United States.
In 1988, Ronstadt returned to Broadway for a limited-run engagement in the musical show adaptation of her album celebrating her Mexican heritage, Canciones De Mi PadreA Romantic Evening in Old Mexico.
Artistic aspirations
Ronstadt has remarked that in the beginning of her career she "was so focused on folk, rock and country" that she "got a bit bored and started to branch out, and ... [has] been doing that ever since." By 1983, her estimated worth was over $40 million mostly from records, concerts and merchandising.
In the early 1980s, Ronstadt was criticized for accepting $500,000 to perform at the South African resort Sun City, violating the cultural boycott imposed against South Africa because of its policy of apartheid. At the time, she stated, "the last place for a boycott is in the arts" and "I don't like being told I can't go somewhere". Paul Simon was criticized for including her on his 1986 album Graceland, recorded in South Africa, but defended her: "I know that her intention was never to support the government there ... She made a mistake. She’s extremely liberal in her political thinking and unquestionably antiapartheid."
Ronstadt eventually tired of playing arenas. She had ceased to feel that arenas, where people milled around smoking marijuana cigarettes and drinking beer, were "appropriate places for music". She wanted "angels in the architecture"a reference to a lyric in the Paul Simon song "You Can Call Me Al" from Graceland. (Ronstadt sang harmony with Simon on a different Graceland track, "Under African Skies". The second verse's lyrics pay tribute to Ronstadt: "Take this child, Lord, from Tucson, Arizona. ..."). Ronstadt has said she wants to sing in places similar to the theatre of ancient Greece, where the attention is focused on the stage and the performer.
Ronstadt's recording output in the 1980s proved to be just as commercially and critically successful as her 1970s recordings. Between 1983 and 1990, Ronstadt scored six additional platinum albums; two are triple platinum (each with over three million U.S. copies sold); one has been certified double platinum (over two million copies sold), and one has earned additional certification as a Gold (over 500,000 U.S. copies sold) double-disc album.
Jazz/pop trilogy
In 1981, Ronstadt produced and recorded an album of pop standards (later marketed in bootleg form) titled Keeping Out of Mischief with the assistance of producer Jerry Wexler. However, Ronstadt's displeasure with the final result led her, with regrets, to scrap the project. "Doing that killed me," she said in a Time magazine interview. But the appeal of the album's music had seduced Ronstadt, as she told Down Beat in April 1985, crediting Wexler for encouraging her. Nonetheless, Ronstadt had to convince her reluctant record company, Elektra, to approve this type of album under her contract.
By 1983, Ronstadt had enlisted the help of 62-year-old conductor Nelson Riddle. The two embarked on an unorthodox and original approach to rehabilitating the Great American Songbook, recording a trilogy of traditional pop albums: What's New (1983U.S. 3.7 million as of 2010); Lush Life (1984U.S. 1.7 million as of 2010); and For Sentimental Reasons (1986U.S. 1.3 million as of 2010). The three albums have had a combined sales total of nearly seven million copies in the U.S. alone.
The album design for What's New by designer Kosh was unlike any of her previous disc covers. It showed Ronstadt in a vintage dress lying on shimmering satin sheets with a Walkman headset. At the time, Ronstadt received some chiding for both the album cover and her venture into what was then considered "elevator music" by cynics, but remained determined to record with Riddle, and What's New became a hit. The album was released in September 1983 and spent 81 weeks on the Billboard Album Chart and held the number three position for a month and a half (held out of the top spot only by Michael Jackson's Thriller and Lionel Richie's Can't Slow Down) and the RIAA certified it triple platinum (over three million copies sold in the U.S. alone). The album earned Ronstadt another Grammy nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, and critical raves, with Time magazine calling it "one of the gutsiest, most unorthodox and unexpected albums of the year."
Ronstadt faced considerable pressure not to record What's New or record with Riddle. According to jazz historian Peter Levinson, author of the book September in the Raina Biography on Nelson Riddle, Joe Smith, president of Elektra Records, was terrified that the Riddle album would turn off Ronstadt's rock audience. Ronstadt did not completely turn her back on her rock and roll past, however; the video for the title track featured Danny Kortchmar as the old beau that she bumped into during a rainstorm.
What's New brought Riddle to a younger audience. According to Levinson, "the younger audience hated what Riddle had done with Frank Sinatra, which in 1983 was considered 'Vintage Pop'". Working with Ronstadt, Riddle brought his career back into focus in the last three years of his life. Stephen Holden of The New York Times wrote, What's New "isn't the first album by a rock singer to pay tribute to the golden age of the pop, but is ... the best and most serious attempt to rehabilitate an idea of pop that Beatlemania and the mass marketing of rock LPs for teenagers undid in the mid-60s. ... In the decade prior to Beatlemania, most of the great band singers and crooners of the 40s and 50s codified a half-century of American pop standards on dozens of albums ... many of them now long out-of-print." What's New is the first album by a rock singer to have major commercial success in rehabilitating the Great American Songbook.
In 1984, Ronstadt and Riddle performed these songs live, in concert halls throughout Australia, Japan, and the United States, including multi-night performances at historic venues Carnegie Hall, Radio City Music Hall, and Pine Knob.
In 2004, Ronstadt released Hummin' to Myself, her album for Verve Records. It was her first foray into traditional jazz since her sessions with Jerry Wexler and her records with the Nelson Riddle Orchestra, but this time with an intimate jazz combo. The album was a quiet affair for Ronstadt, giving few interviews and making only one television performance as a promotion. It reached number 2 on Billboard's Top Jazz Albums chart but peaked at number 166 on the main Billboard album chart. Not having the mass distribution that Warner Music Group gave her, Hummin' To Myself had sold over 75,000 copies in the U.S. as of 2010. It also achieved some critical acclaim from the jazz cognoscenti.
"Trio" recordings
In 1978, Ronstadt, Dolly Parton, and Emmylou Harris, friends and admirers of one another's work (Ronstadt had included a cover of Parton's "I Will Always Love You" on Prisoner in Disguise) attempted to collaborate on a Trio album. Unfortunately, the attempt did not pan out. Ronstadt later remarked that not too many people were in control at the time and everyone was too involved with their own careers. (Though the efforts to complete the album were abandoned, a number of the recordings were included on the singers' respective solo recordings over the next few years.) This concept album was put on the back burner for almost ten years.
In January 1986, the three eventually did make their way into the recording studio, where they spent the next several months working. The result, Trio, which they had conceived ten years earlier, was released in March 1987. It was a considerable hit, holding the number 1 position on Billboard's Country Albums chart for five weeks running and hitting the Top 10 on the pop side also. Selling over three million copies in the U.S. and winning them a Grammy Award for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal, it produced four Top Ten Country singles including "To Know Him Is to Love Him" which hit number 1. The album was also a nominee for overall Album of the Year, in the company of Michael Jackson, U2, Prince, and Whitney Houston.
In 1994, the three performers recorded a follow-up to Trio. As was the case with their aborted 1978 effort, conflicting schedules and competing priorities delayed the album's release indefinitely. Ronstadt, who had already paid for studio timeand owed her record company a finished albumremoved Parton's individual tracks at Parton's request, kept Harris's vocals, and produced a number of the recordings, which she subsequently released on her 1995 return to country rock, the album Feels Like Home.
However, in 1999, Ronstadt, Parton, and Harris agreed to release the Trio II album, as was originally recorded in 1994. It included an ethereal cover of Neil Young's "After The Gold Rush" which became a popular music video. The effort was certified Gold (over 500,000 copies sold) and won them a Grammy Award for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals for the track. Ronstadt co-produced the album with George Massenburg and the three women also received a nomination for the Grammy Award for Best Country Album.
Canciones de Mi Padre
At the end of 1987, Ronstadt released Canciones de Mi Padre, an album of traditional Mexican folk songs, or what she has described as "world class songs". Keeping with the Ronstadt history theme, her cover art was dramatic, bold, and colorful; it shows Ronstadt in full Mexican regalia. Her musical arranger was mariachi musician Rubén Fuentes.
These canciones were a big part of Ronstadt's family tradition and musical roots. In January 1946, the University of Arizona published a booklet by Luisa Espinel entitled Canciones de mi Padre. Luisa Espinel, Ronstadt's aunt, was an international singer in the 1920s and 1930s. Espinel's father was Fred Ronstadt, Linda Ronstadt's grandfather, and the songs she had learned, transcribed, and published were some of the ones he had brought with him from Sonora. Ronstadt researched and extracted from the favorites she had learned from her father Gilbert and she called her album by the same name as her aunt's booklet and as a tribute to her father and his family. Though not fully bilingual, she has a fairly good command of the Spanish language, allowing her to sing Latin American songs with little discernible U.S. accent; Ronstadt has often identified herself as Mexican-American. Her formative years were spent with her father's side of the family. In fact, in 1976, Ronstadt had collaborated with her father to write and compose a traditional Mexican folk ballad, "Lo siento mi vida"a song that she included on Hasten Down the Wind. Ronstadt has also credited Mexican singer Lola Beltrán as an influence on her own singing style, and she recalls how a frequent guest to the Ronstadt home, Eduardo "Lalo" Guerrero, father of Chicano music, would often serenade her as a child.
Canciones de Mi Padre won Ronstadt a Grammy Award for Best Mexican-American Performance. In 2001, it was certified double-platinum by the RIAA for shipments of over 2 million copies in the United States, making it the best-selling non-English-language album in U.S. music history. The album and later theatrical stage show served as a benchmark of the Latin cultural renaissance in North America.
Ronstadt produced and performed a theatrical stage show, also titled Canciones de mi Padre, in concert halls across the U.S. and Latin America to both Hispanic and non-Hispanic audiences. These performances were later released on DVD. Ronstadt elected to return to the Broadway stage, four years after she performed in La bohème, for a limited-run engagement. PBS's Great Performances aired the stage show during its annual fund drives and the show was a hit with audiences, earning Ronstadt a Primetime Emmy Award for Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program.
Ronstadt recorded two additional albums of Latin music in the early 1990s. Their promotion, like most of her albums in the 1990s, was a quieter affair, with Ronstadt making only a limited number of appearances to promote them. They were not nearly as successful as Canciones De Mi Padre, but were critically acclaimed in some circles. In 1991, she released Mas Canciones, a follow-up to the first Canciones. For this album, she won a Grammy Award for Best Mexican/Mexican-American Album. The following year, she stepped outside of the mariachi genre and decided to record well-known Afro-Cuban songs. This album was titled Frenesí. Like her two previous Latin recordings ventures, it won Ronstadt a Grammy Award, this time for Best Traditional Tropical Latin Album.
In 1991, Ronstadt acted in the lead role of archangel San Miguel in La Pastorela, or A Shephard's Tale, a musical filmed at San Juan Bautista. It was written and directed by Luis Valdez. The production was part of the PBS Great Performances series.
In December 2020, it was announced that Canciones de Mi Padre had been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Returning to the contemporary music scene
By the late 1980s, while enjoying the success of her big band jazz collaborations with Riddle and her surprise hit mariachi recordings, Ronstadt elected to return to recording mainstream pop music once again. In 1987, she made a return to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart with "Somewhere Out There", which peaked at number 2 in March. Featured in the animated film An American Tail, the sentimental duet with James Ingram was nominated for several Grammy Awards, ultimately winning the Grammy Award for Song of the Year. The song also received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Original Song and achieved high sales, earning a million-selling gold single in the U.S.one of the last 45s ever to do so. It was also accompanied by a popular music video. On the heels of this success, Steven Spielberg asked Ronstadt to record the theme song for the animated sequel titled An American Tail: Fievel Goes West, which was titled "Dreams to Dream". Although "Dreams to Dream" failed to achieve the success of "Somewhere Out There", the song did give Ronstadt an Adult Contemporary hit in 1991.
In 1989, Ronstadt released a mainstream pop album and several popular singles. Cry Like A Rainstorm, Howl Like The Wind became one of the singer's most successful albumsin production, arrangements, sales, and critical acclaim. It became Ronstadt's tenth Top 10 album on the Billboard chart, reaching number 7 and being certified triple-platinum (over three million copies sold in the U.S.). The album also received Grammy Award nominations. Ronstadt included New Orleans soul singer Aaron Neville on several of the album's songs.
Ronstadt incorporated the sounds of the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir, Tower of Power horns, the Skywalker Symphony, and numerous musicians. It included the duets with Aaron Neville, "Don't Know Much" (Billboard Hot 100 number 2 hit, Christmas 1989) and "All My Life" (Billboard Hot 100 number 11 hit), both of which were long-running number 1 Adult Contemporary hits. The duets earned several Grammy Award nominations. The duo won both the 1989 and 1990 Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal awards. Ronstadt's last known live Grammy Award appearance was in 1990 when she and Neville performed "Don't Know Much" together on the telecast. ("Whenever I sing with a different artist, I can get things out of my voice that I can't do by myself", Ronstadt reflected in 2007. "I can do things with Aaron that I can't do alone.")
In December 1990, she participated in a concert held at the Tokyo Dome to commemorate John Lennon's 50th birthday, and to raise awareness of environmental issues. Other participants included Miles Davis, Lenny Kravitz, Hall & Oates, Natalie Cole, Yoko Ono, and Sean Lennon. An album resulted, titled Happy Birthday, John.
Return to roots music
Ronstadt released the highly acclaimed Winter Light album at the end of 1993. It included New Age arrangements such as the lead single "Heartbeats Accelerating" as well as the self-penned title track and featured the glass harmonica. It was her first commercial failure since 1972, and peaked at number 92 in Billboard, whereas 1995's Feels Like Home was Ronstadt's much-heralded return to country-rock and included her version of Tom Petty's classic hit "The Waiting". The single's rollicking, fiddle-infused flip side, "Walk On", returned Ronstadt to the Country Singles chart for the first time since 1983. An album track entitled "The Blue Train" charted 10 weeks in Billboards Adult Contemporary Top 40. This album fared slightly better than its predecessor, reaching number 75. Both albums were later deleted from the Elektra/Asylum catalog. Ronstadt was nominated for three Lo Nuestro Awards in 1993: Female Regional Mexican Artist of the Year, Female Tropical/Salsa Artist of the Year, and her version of the song "Perfidia" was also listed for Tropical/Salsa Song of the Year.
In 1996, Ronstadt produced Dedicated to the One I Love, an album of classic rock and roll songs reinvented as lullabies. The album reached number 78 in Billboard and won the Grammy Award for Best Musical Album for Children.
In 1998, Ronstadt released We Ran, her first album in over two years. The album harkened back to Ronstadt's country-rock and folk-rock heyday. She returned to her rock 'n' roll roots with vivid interpretations of songs by Bruce Springsteen, Doc Pomus, Bob Dylan, and John Hiatt. The recording was produced by Glyn Johns. A commercial failure, the album stood at 57,897 copies sold at the time of its deletion in 2008. It is the poorest-selling studio album in Ronstadt's Elektra/Asylum catalog. We Ran did not chart any singles but it was well received by critics.
Despite the lack of success of We Ran, Ronstadt kept moving towards this adult rock exploration. In the summer of 1999, she released the album Western Wall: The Tucson Sessions, a folk-rock-oriented project with Emmylou Harris. It earned a nomination for the Grammy Award for the Best Contemporary Folk Album and made the Top 10 of Billboards Country Albums chart. Still in print as of December 2016, it has sold 223,255 copies per Nielsen SoundScan.
Also in 1999, Ronstadt went back to her concert roots when she performed with the Eagles and Jackson Browne at Staples Center's 1999 New Year's Eve celebration kicking off the December 31 end-of-the-millennium festivities. As Staples Center Senior Vice President and general manager Bobby Goldwater said, "It was our goal to present a spectacular event as a sendoff to the 20th century", and "Eagles, Jackson Browne, and Linda Ronstadt are three of the most popular acts of the century. Their performances will constitute a singular and historic night of entertainment for New Year's Eve in Los Angeles."
In 2000, Ronstadt completed her long contractual relationship with the Elektra/Asylum label. The fulfillment of this contract commenced with the release of A Merry Little Christmas, her first holiday collection, which includes rare choral works, the somber Joni Mitchell song "River", and a rare recorded duet with the late Rosemary Clooney on Clooney's signature song, "White Christmas".
Since leaving Warner Music, Ronstadt has gone on to release one album each under Verve and Vanguard Records.
In 2006, recording as the ZoZo Sisters, Ronstadt teamed with her new friend, musician and musical scholar Ann Savoy, to record Adieu False Heart. It was an album of roots music incorporating pop, Cajun, and early-20th-century music and released on the Vanguard Records label. But Adieu False Heart was a commercial failure, peaking at number 146 in the U.S. despite her touring for the final time that year. It was the last time Linda Ronstadt would record an album, having begun to lose her singing ability as a result of a degenerative condition later determined to be progressive supranuclear palsy, but initially diagnosed as Parkinson's disease, in December 2012. Adieu False Heart, recorded in Louisiana, features a cast of local musicians, including Chas Justus, Eric Frey and Kevin Wimmer of the Red Stick Ramblers, Sam Broussard of the Mamou Playboys, Dirk Powell, and Joel Savoy, as well as an array of Nashville musicians: fiddler Stuart Duncan, mandolinist Sam Bush, and guitarist Bryan Sutton. The recording earned two Grammy Award nominations: Best Traditional Folk Album and Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical.
In 2007, Ronstadt contributed to the compilation album We All Love Ella: Celebrating the First Lady of Songa tribute album to jazz music's all-time most heralded artiston the track "Miss Otis Regrets".
In August 2007, Ronstadt headlined the Newport Folk Festival, making her debut at this event, where she incorporated jazz, rock, and folk music into her repertoire. It was one of her final concerts.
In 2010, Ronstadt contributed the arrangement and lead vocal to "A La Orilla de un Palmar" on the Chieftains' studio album San Patricio (with Ry Cooder). This remains her most recent commercially available recording as lead vocalist.
Retirement
In 2011, Ronstadt was interviewed by the Arizona Daily Star and announced her retirement. In August 2013, she revealed to Alanna Nash, writing for AARP, that she has Parkinson's disease and "can no longer sing a note." Her diagnosis was subsequently re-evaluated as progressive supranuclear palsy.
Selected career achievements
On April 10, 2014, Ronstadt was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In July 2019, Ronstadt was selected as a Kennedy Center Honoree.
As of 2019, Ronstadt has earned three number 1 pop albums, 10 top-ten pop albums and 38 charting pop albums on the Billboard Pop Album Charts. She has 15 albums on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart, including four that hit number 1. Ronstadt's singles have earned her a number 1 hit and three number 2 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, with 10 top-ten pop singles and 21 reaching the Top 40. She has also scored two number 1 hits on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, and two number 1 hits on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart. Rolling Stone wrote, a whole generation "but for her, might never have heard the work of Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, or Elvis Costello."
She has recorded and released over 30 studio albums and has made guest appearances on an estimated 120 albums by other artists. Her guest appearances included the classical minimalist Philip Glass's album Songs from Liquid Days, a hit classical record with other major pop stars either singing or writing lyrics (Ronstadt's two tracks on the album saw her singing lyrics written by Suzanne Vega and Laurie Anderson). She also appeared on Glass's follow-up recording 1000 Airplanes on the Roof. She appeared on Paul Simon's Graceland, where she sang a duet with Simon, "Under African Skies." In that song, there is a verse dedicated to Ronstadt, her voice and harmonies and her birth in Tucson, Arizona. She voiced herself in The Simpsons episode "Mr. Plow" and sang a duet, "Funny How Time Slips Away," with Homer Simpson on The Yellow Album.
Ronstadt has also appeared on albums by a vast range of artists including Emmylou Harris, the Chieftains, Dolly Parton, Neil Young, J. D. Souther, Gram Parsons, Bette Midler, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Earl Scruggs, the Eagles, Andrew Gold, Wendy Waldman, Hoyt Axton, Kate and Anna McGarrigle, Ann Savoy, Karla Bonoff, James Taylor, Jimmy Webb, Valerie Carter, Warren Zevon, Maria Muldaur, Randy Newman (specifically his musical adaptation of Faust), Nicolette Larson, the Seldom Scene, Rosemary Clooney, Aaron Neville, Rodney Crowell, Hearts and Flowers, Laurie Lewis and Flaco Jiménez. As a singer-songwriter, Ronstadt has written songs covered by several artists, such as "Try Me Again", covered by Trisha Yearwood; and "Winter Light", which was co-written and composed with Zbigniew Preisner and Eric Kaz, and covered by Sarah Brightman.
Her three biggest-selling studio albums to date are: her 1977 release Simple Dreams, 1983's What's New and 1989's Cry Like A Rainstorm, Howl Like The Wind. Each one has been certified by the Recording Industry Association of America for over three million copies sold. Her highest-selling album to date is the 1976 compilation Greatest Hits, certified for over seven million units sold in 2001. Ronstadt became music's first major touring female artist to sell out sizeable venues; she was also the top-grossing solo female concert artist for the 1970s. She remained a highly successful touring artist into the 1990s, at which time she decided to scale back to smaller venues. In the 1970s, Cashbox magazine, a competitor of Billboard during that time period, named Ronstadt the "#1 Female Artist of the Decade". "Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" included Heart Like a Wheel (1974) at number 164 and The Very Best Of Linda Ronstadt (2002) at number 324. The 2012 revision kept only the compilation, but raised it to the place once occupied by Heart Like a Wheel.
Ronstadt's album sales have not been certified since 2001. At that time, Ronstadt's U.S. album sales were certified by the Recording Industry Association of America at over 30 million albums sold; however, Peter Asher, her former producer and manager, placed her total U.S. album sales at over 45 million. Likewise, her worldwide albums sales are in excess of 100 million albums sold, according to the former president of Warner Bros. Records, Joe Smith, now a jury member of the Hit Parade Hall of Fame. Her RIAA certification (audits paid for by record companies or artists for promotion) tally as of 2001 totaled 19 Gold, 14 Platinum and 7 Multi-Platinum albums. She was the first female in music history to score three consecutive platinum albums and ultimately racked up a total of eight consecutive platinum albums. Her album Living in the USA was the first album by any recording artist in U.S. music history to ship double platinum (over two million advanced copies). Her first Latin release, the all-Spanish 1987 album Canciones De Mi Padre, stands as the best-selling non-English-language album in American music history. As of 2013, it had sold over 2½ million U.S. copies.
Ronstadt has served as producer on albums from various musicians that include her cousin, David Lindley, Aaron Neville and singer-songwriter Jimmy Webb. She produced Cristal – Glass Music Through the Ages, an album of classical music using glass instruments with Dennis James, where she sang on several of the arrangements. In 1999, Ronstadt also produced the Grammy Award-winning Trio II. She has received a total of 27 Grammy Award nominations in various fields that include rock, country, pop and Tropical Latin, and has won 11 Grammy Awards in the categories of Pop, Country, Tropical Latin, Musical Album for Children and Mexican-American. In 2016, Ronstadt was again honored by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences with the Lifetime Achievement Grammy.
She was the first female solo artist to have two Top 5 singles simultaneously on Billboard magazine's Hot 100: "Blue Bayou" and "It's So Easy". By December of that year, both "Blue Bayou" and "It's So Easy" had climbed into Billboards Top 5 and remained there for the month's last four weeks. In 1999, Ronstadt ranked number 21 in VH1's 100 Greatest Women of Rock & Roll. Three years later, she ranked number 40 in CMT's 40 Greatest Women in Country Music.
Personal life
Beginning in the mid-1970s, Ronstadt's private life became increasingly public. It was fueled by a relationship with then-Governor of California Jerry Brown, a Democratic presidential candidate. They shared a Newsweek magazine cover in April 1979, as well as the covers of Us Weekly and People magazine.
In 1983, Linda Ronstadt dated comedian Jim Carrey for eight months. From the end of 1983 to 1988, Ronstadt was engaged to Star Wars director George Lucas.
In December 1990, she adopted an infant daughter, Mary Clementine Ronstadt. In 1994, she adopted a baby boy, Carlos Ronstadt. Ronstadt has never married. Speaking of finding an acceptable mate, in 1974 she told Peter Knobler in Crawdaddy, "... he's real kind but isn't inspired musically and then you meet somebody else that's just so inspired musically that he just takes your breath away but he's such a moron, such a maniac that you can't get along with him. And then after that it's the problem of finding someone that can stand you!"
After living in Los Angeles for 30 years, Ronstadt moved to San Francisco because she said she never felt at home in Southern California. "Los Angeles became too enclosing an environment", she says. "I couldn't breathe the air and I didn't want to drive on the freeways to get to the studio. I also didn't want to embrace the values that have been so completely embraced by that city. Are you glamorous? Are you rich? Are you important? Do you have clout? It's just not me and it never was me." In 1997, Ronstadt sold her home in San Francisco and moved back to her hometown of Tucson, Arizona, to raise her two children. In more recent years, Ronstadt moved back to San Francisco while continuing to maintain her home in Tucson.
In 2009, in honor of Ronstadt, the Martin Guitar Company made a 0042 model "Linda Ronstadt Limited Edition" acoustic guitar. Ronstadt appointed the Land Institute as recipient of all proceeds from her signature guitar.
In 2013, Simon & Schuster published her autobiography, Simple Dreams: A Musical Memoir, as well as the Spanish version, Sueños SencillosMemorias Musicales.
In August 2013, Ronstadt revealed she was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, leaving her unable to sing due to loss of muscular control, which is common to Parkinson's patients. She was diagnosed eight months prior to the announcement and had initially attributed the symptoms she had been experiencing to the aftereffects of shoulder surgery and a tick bite. In late 2019, it was reported her doctors had revised their diagnosis to progressive supranuclear palsy, a degenerative disease commonly mistaken for Parkinson's due to the similarity of the symptoms.
Ronstadt describes herself as a "spiritual atheist".
Political activism
Ronstadt's politics received criticism and praise during and after her July 17, 2004, performance at the Aladdin Theatre for the Performing Arts in Las Vegas. Toward the end of the show, as she had done across the country, Ronstadt spoke to the audience, praising Fahrenheit 9/11, Michael Moore's documentary film about the Iraq War; she dedicated the song "Desperado" to Moore. Accounts say the crowd's initial reaction was mixed, with "half the crowd heartily applauding her praise for Moore, (and) the other half booing."
Following the concert, news accounts reported Ronstadt was "evicted" from the hotel premises. Ronstadt's comments, as well as the reactions of some audience members and the hotel, became a topic of discussion nationwide. Aladdin casino president Bill Timmins and Michael Moore each made public statements about the controversy.
The incident prompted international headlines and debate on an entertainer's right to express a political opinion from the stage and made the editorial section of The New York Times. Following the incident, many friends of Ronstadt's, including the Eagles, immediately cancelled their engagements at the Aladdin. Ronstadt also received telegrams of support from her rock 'n' roll friends around the world like the Rolling Stones, the Eagles and Elton John. Amid reports of mixed public response, Ronstadt continued her praise of Moore and his film throughout her 2004 and 2006 summer concerts across North America.
At a 2006 concert in Canada, Ronstadt told the Calgary Sun that she was "embarrassed George Bush (was) from the United States. ... He's an idiot. ... He's enormously incompetent on both the domestic and international scenes. ... Now the fact that we were lied to about the reasons for entering into war against Iraq and thousands of people have diedit's just as immoral as racism." Her remarks drew international headlines. In an August 14, 2007, interview, she commented on all her well-publicized, outspoken views, in particular the Aladdin incident, by noting, "If I had it to do over I would be much more gracious to everyone ... you can be as outspoken as you want if you are very, very respectful. Show some grace".
In 2007, Ronstadt resided in San Francisco while also maintaining her home in Tucson. That same year, she drew criticism and praise from Tucsonans for commenting that local city council's failings, developers' strip mall mentality, greed and growing dust problem had rendered the city unrecognizable and poorly developed.
In August 2009, Ronstadt, in a well-publicized interview to PlanetOut Inc. titled "Linda Ronstadt's Gay Mission", championed gay rights and same-sex marriage, and stated "homophobia is anti-family values. Period, end of story."
On January 16, 2010, Ronstadt converged with thousands of other activists in a "National Day of Action". Ronstadt stated that her "dog in the fight"as a native Arizonan and coming from a law enforcement familywas the treatment of illegal aliens and Arizona's enforcement of its illegal immigrant law, especially Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's efforts in that area.
On April 29, 2010, Ronstadt began a campaign, including joining a lawsuit, against Arizona's new illegal-immigration law SB 1070 calling it a "devastating blow to law enforcement ... the police don't protect us in a democracy with brute force", something she said she learned from her brother, Peter, who was Chief of Police in Tucson.
Ronstadt has also been outspoken on environmental and community issues. She is a major supporter and admirer of sustainable agriculture pioneer Wes Jackson, saying in 2000, "the work he's doing right now is the most important work there is in the (United States)", and dedicating the rock anthem "Desperado" to him at an August 2007 concert in Kansas City, Kansas.
National arts advocacy
In 2004, Ronstadt wrote the foreword to the book The NPR Curious Listener's Guide to American Folk Music, and in 2005, she wrote the introduction to the book Classic Ferrington Guitars, about guitar-maker and luthier Danny Ferrington and the custom guitars that he created for Ronstadt and other musicians such as Elvis Costello, Ry Cooder, and Kurt Cobain.
Ronstadt has been honored for her contribution to the American arts. On September 23, 2007, she was inducted into the Arizona Music & Entertainment Hall of Fame, along with Stevie Nicks, Buck Owens, and filmmaker Steven Spielberg. On August 17, 2008, Ronstadt received a tribute by various artists, including BeBe Winans and Wynonna Judd, when she was honored with the Trailblazer Award, presented to her by Plácido Domingo at the 2008 ALMA Awards, a ceremony later televised in the U.S. on ABC.
In 2008, Ronstadt was appointed Artistic Director of the San José Mariachi and Mexican Heritage Festival. On March 31, 2009, in testimony that the Los Angeles Times termed "remarkable", Ronstadt spoke to the United States Congress House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment & Related Agencies, attempting to convince lawmakers to budget $200 million in the 2010 fiscal year for the National Endowment of the Arts.
In May 2009, Ronstadt received an honorary doctorate of music degree from the Berklee College of Music for her achievements and influence in music and her contributions to American and international culture. Mix magazine stated that "Linda Ronstadt (has) left her mark on more than the record business; her devotion to the craft of singing influenced many audio professionals ... (and is) intensely knowledgeable about the mechanics of singing and the cultural contexts of every genre she passes".
Awards and nominations
Grammy Awards
In 1981 the album In Harmony: A Sesame Street Record won the Grammy for Best Album for Children. Ronstadt was one of the various artists featured on the album. The Grammys were awarded to the producers, David Levine and Lucy Simon.
Latin Grammy Awards
Primetime Emmy Awards
Tony Awards
Golden Globe Awards
1983Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical or Comedy, Linda Ronstadt in The Pirates of Penzance
Arizona Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame
2007Inducted for her significant impact on the evolution and development of the entertainment culture in the state of Arizona
Academy of Country Music
1974Best New Female Artist
1987Album of the Year/ Trio, Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris
Country Music Association
1988Vocal Event of the Year / Trio, Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris
American Latino Media Arts
2008Trailblazer Award for Contribution to American Music
Lo Nuestro nominations
1989Regional Mexican Female Artist, Regional Mexican Album (Canciones de Mi Padre), and Crossover Artist
1992Regional Mexican Female Artist
1993Tropical Female Artist, Regional Mexican Female Artist, and Tropical Song ("Perfidia").
Kennedy Center
2019 Kennedy Center Honoree
Discography
Studio albums
Hand Sown ... Home Grown (1969)
Silk Purse (1970)
Linda Ronstadt (1972)
Don't Cry Now (1973)
Heart Like a Wheel (1974)
Prisoner in Disguise (1975)
Hasten Down the Wind (1976)
Simple Dreams (1977)
Living in the USA (1978)
Mad Love (1980)
Get Closer (1982)
What's New (1983)
Lush Life (1984)
For Sentimental Reasons (1986)
Canciones de Mi Padre (1987)
Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind (1989)
Mas Canciones (1991)
Frenesí (1992)
Winter Light (1993)
Feels Like Home (1995)
Dedicated to the One I Love (1996)
We Ran (1998)
A Merry Little Christmas (2000)
Hummin' to Myself (2004)
Live albums
Live in Hollywood (2019)
Duets and trios
Trio (1987) (Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton, and Linda Ronstadt)
Trio II (1999) (Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton, and Linda Ronstadt)
Western Wall: The Tucson Sessions (1999) (with Emmylou Harris)
Adieu False Heart (2006) (with Ann Savoy)
The Complete Trio Collection (2016) (Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton, and Linda Ronstadt)
Compilation albums
Different Drum (1974) – The first compilation album of Ronstadt's work released by Capitol
Greatest Hits (1976)
A Retrospective (1977)
Greatest Hits, Volume 2 (1980)
'Round Midnight (1986) – 2-CD set
The Linda Ronstadt Box Set (1999) – 4-CD set
The Very Best of Linda Ronstadt (2002) – Billboard No. 19 Country Album
Mi Jardin Azul: Las Canciones Favoritas (2004)
The Best of Linda Ronstadt: The Capitol Years (2006) – 2-CD set
Standards with Nelson Riddle Orchestra (2008)
The Collection (2011) – British 2-CD set
Duets (2014)
Just One Look: Classic Linda Ronstadt (2015)
Like A Rose: The Classic 1976 Broadcast Recording (2021)
Spanish-language albums
Canciones de Mi Padre (1987) - (English translation: "Songs of My Father") - Best Mexican-American Performance Grammy Award winner (1989)
Mas Canciones (1991) - (English translation: "More Songs") - Best Mexican-American Album Grammy Award winner (1993)
Frenesí (1992) - (English translation: "Frenzy") - Best Tropical Latin Album Grammy Award winner (1993)
Mi Jardin Azul: Las Canciones Favoritas (2004) - Compilation (English translation: "My Blue Garden: The Favorite Songs")
Filmography
Book
See also
Notes
References
External links
Official website
Image of Linda Ronstadt reclining on a porch railing in Los Angeles, California, 1974. Los Angeles Times Photographic Archive (Collection 1429). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners
United States National Medal of Arts recipients
1946 births
Living people
Actresses from Tucson, Arizona
American actresses of Mexican descent
American alternative country singers
American atheists
American country rock singers
American country singer-songwriters
American women country singers
American women rock singers
American women singer-songwriters
American film actresses
American memoirists
Women in Latin music
American multi-instrumentalists
American musical theatre actresses
American musicians of Mexican descent
American performers of Latin music
American pop rock singers
American stage actresses
American television actresses
American writers of Mexican descent
Big band singers
Cajun musicians
Feminist musicians
Rock and roll musicians
Grammy Award winners
Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners
Hispanic and Latino American women singers
Hispanic and Latino American musicians
Primetime Emmy Award winners
Spanish-language singers of the United States
American women memoirists
Asylum Records artists
Capitol Records artists
Vanguard Records artists
Verve Records artists
American people of Canadian descent
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Arizona Democrats
Country musicians from Arizona
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Musicians from San Francisco
Musicians from Tucson, Arizona
Record producers from Arizona
Record producers from California
Singers from Los Angeles
Writers from Los Angeles
Writers from San Francisco
Writers from Tucson, Arizona
20th-century American actresses
21st-century American actresses
20th-century American singers
21st-century American singers
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21st-century American non-fiction writers
20th-century American composers
21st-century American composers
20th-century American women singers
20th-century American women writers
21st-century American women writers
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Jerry Brown
American country guitarists
American acoustic guitarists
American women guitarists
Guitarists from Arizona
Guitarists from Los Angeles
Tambourine players
20th-century women composers
21st-century women composers
Chicano rock musicians
Traditional pop music singers
Singer-songwriters from California
Singer-songwriters from Arizona | true | [
"Ilene Beckerman (born 1935) is an American writer, who was not published until she was 60 years old, and a former advertising agency executive. She is best known for her first book Love, Loss, and What I Wore, published in 1995, which in 2008 became a successful play written by Nora Ephron and Delia Ephron based on her book.\n\nEarly life\nIlene Beckerman was born in 1935, and grew up in Manhattan in the 1940s and 1950s.\n\nCareer\nBeckerman did not start her career as a writer until she was almost 60 years old, after having risen to become vice-president of an advertising agency. Her journalism has appeared in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times', and Ladies' Home Journal.\n\nIn 1995, at the age of 60, Beckerman published Love, Loss, and What I Wore, which Publishers Weekly called a \" \"captivating little pictorial autobiography for adults ... a wry commentary on the pressures women constantly face to look good\".\n\nIn 2011, she published, The Smartest Woman I Know, an account of her life with her grandmother, Ettie Goldberg, who she lived with after her mother died.\n\nSelected publications\n Love, Loss, and What I Wore (1995)\n The Smartest Woman I Know (2011)\n Mother of the Bride Makeovers at the Beauty Counter of Happiness What We Do for Love''\n\nPersonal life\nWhen she was 12 years old, her mother died, and she went to live in Manhattan with her grandparents, who ran a candy store on Madison Avenue between 64th and 65th Streets.\n\nIn 1955, aged 20 years, Beckerman married her Boston sociology professor, 17 years her senior. The marriage was short-lived and ended in divorce. She married again, and had six children, one of whom died in infancy, and eventually divorced.\n\nBeckerman lives in Bethlehem Township, New Jersey, with her husband Stanley.\n\nReferences\n\nLiving people\nAmerican memoirists\nAmerican women memoirists\n1935 births\n21st-century American women",
"Ruth Benamaisia-Opia is a veteran Nigerian broadcaster. She was the anchor of NewsLine on Nigerian Television Authority. She was a one-time Commissioner for Information in Bayelsa State and also was a radio presenter with Radio Nigeria, Enugu.\n\nEarly life and career\nRuth was born in Lagos State to a diplomat father from Bayelsa State and an Ndokwa mother from Delta State. She lived her early life in Nairobi, Kenya and there, she watched presenters, newsreaders and that was where the passion and love for broadcasting came from.\nShe started her broadcasting career in 1977 in Enugu after her father asked her what she wanted to do and he introduced me to some people in broadcasting and she did some auditions. She started broadcasting straight out of secondary school with the NTA where she was casting the 9 o'clock news. She later became the anchor for NewsLine on same station by 9 o'clock every Sunday night. After she left the NTA, she worked in an oil company where she was the community relations manager.\nShe returned to broadcasting in 2016 with the Lagos Weekend Television. she was previously working with the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) as a newscaster. She is an entrepreneur and the chief executive officer of 'Jesus Junkie Clothing', her clothing line. She is also popular British-Nigerian movie and stage actress.\n\nPersonal life\nRuth is married to Prof Éric Opia, former OMPADEC Chairman. She is mother of Weruche Opia, British-Nigerian film and stage actress and entrepreneur.\n\nReferences\n\nNigerian women\nNigerian broadcasters\nLiving people\nYear of birth missing (living people)"
]
|
[
"Linda Ronstadt",
"Career summary",
"What did Linda Ronstadt do after the 1960s?",
"Ronstadt joined forces with Bobby Kimmel and Kenny Edwards and became the lead singer of a folk-rock trio, the Stone Poneys.",
"Was she with the trio a long time?",
"as a solo artist, she released Hand Sown ... Home Grown in 1969,",
"What did she do after 1969 with her career?",
"Ronstadt actively toured with the Doors, Neil Young, Jackson Browne, and others, appeared numerous times on television shows, and began to contribute her singing to albums by other artists."
]
| C_70757043f51f42d0bbea7205aa5d0e84_1 | What tv shows did she appear on? | 4 | What tv shows did Linda Ronstadt appear on? | Linda Ronstadt | Establishing her professional career in the mid-1960s at the forefront of California's emerging folk rock and country rock movements - genres which defined post-1960s rock music - Ronstadt joined forces with Bobby Kimmel and Kenny Edwards and became the lead singer of a folk-rock trio, the Stone Poneys. Later, as a solo artist, she released Hand Sown ... Home Grown in 1969, which has been described as the first alternative country record by a female recording artist. Although fame eluded her during these years, Ronstadt actively toured with the Doors, Neil Young, Jackson Browne, and others, appeared numerous times on television shows, and began to contribute her singing to albums by other artists. With the release of chart-topping albums such as Heart Like a Wheel, Simple Dreams, and Living in the USA, Ronstadt became the first female "arena class" rock star. She set records as one of the top-grossing concert artists of the decade. Referred to as the "First Lady of Rock" and the "Queen of Rock", Ronstadt was voted the Top Female Pop Singer of the 1970s. Her rock-and-roll image was as famous as her music; she appeared six times on the cover of Rolling Stone and on the covers of Newsweek and Time. In the 1980s, Ronstadt went to Broadway and garnered a Tony nomination for her performance in The Pirates of Penzance, teamed with the composer Philip Glass, recorded traditional music, and collaborated with the conductor Nelson Riddle, an event at that time viewed as an original and unorthodox move for a rock-and-roll artist. This venture paid off, and Ronstadt remained one of the music industry's best-selling acts throughout the 1980s, with multi-platinum-selling albums such as What's New, Canciones de Mi Padre, and Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind. She continued to tour, collaborate, and record celebrated albums, such as Winter Light and Hummin' to Myself, until her retirement in 2011. Most of Ronstadt's albums are certified gold, platinum, or multi-platinum. Having sold in excess of 100 million records worldwide and setting records as one of the top-grossing concert performers for over a decade, Ronstadt was the most successful female singer of the 1970s and stands as one of the most successful female recording artists in U.S. history. Ronstadt opened many doors for women in rock and roll and other musical genres by championing songwriters and musicians, pioneering her chart success onto the concert circuit, and being at the vanguard of many musical movements. CANNOTANSWER | The Pirates of Penzance, | Linda Maria Ronstadt (born July 15, 1946) is a retired American singer who performed and recorded in diverse genres including rock, country, light opera, and Latin. She has earned 11 Grammy Awards, three American Music Awards, two Academy of Country Music awards, an Emmy Award, and an ALMA Award. Many of her albums have been certified gold, platinum or multiplatinum in the United States and internationally. She has also earned nominations for a Tony Award and a Golden Globe award. She was awarded the Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award by the Latin Recording Academy in 2011 and also awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award by the Recording Academy in 2016. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April 2014. On July 28, 2014, she was awarded the National Medal of Arts and Humanities. In 2019, she received a star jointly with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for their work as the group Trio. Ronstadt was among five honorees who received the 2019 Kennedy Center Honors for lifetime artistic achievements.
Ronstadt has released 24 studio albums and 15 compilation or greatest hits albums. She charted 38 US Billboard Hot 100 singles. Twenty-one of those singles reached the top 40, ten reached the top 10, and one reached number one ("You're No Good"). Ronstadt also charted in UK as two of her duets, "Somewhere Out There" with James Ingram and "Don't Know Much" with Aaron Neville, peaked at numbers 8 and 2 respectively and the single "Blue Bayou" reached number 35 on the UK Singles charts. She has charted 36 albums, ten top-10 albums, and three number 1 albums on the US Billboard Pop Album Chart.
Ronstadt has collaborated with artists in diverse genres, including: Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, Bette Midler, Billy Eckstine, Frank Zappa, Carla Bley (Escalator Over the Hill), Rosemary Clooney, Flaco Jiménez, Philip Glass, Warren Zevon, Gram Parsons, Neil Young, Paul Simon, Earl Scruggs, Johnny Cash, and Nelson Riddle. She has lent her voice to over 120 albums and has sold more than 100 million records, making her one of the world's best-selling artists of all time. Christopher Loudon, of Jazz Times, wrote in 2004 that Ronstadt is "blessed with arguably the most sterling set of pipes of her generation."
Ronstadt reduced her activity after 2000 when she felt her singing voice deteriorating, releasing her last full-length album in 2004 and performing her last live concert in 2009. She announced her retirement in 2011 and revealed shortly afterwards that she is no longer able to sing as a result of a degenerative condition later determined to be progressive supranuclear palsy. Since then, Ronstadt has continued to make public appearances, going on a number of public speaking tours in the 2010s. She published an autobiography, Simple Dreams: A Musical Memoir, in September 2013. A documentary based on her memoirs, Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice, was released in 2019.
Early life
Linda Maria Ronstadt was born in Tucson, Arizona, on July 15, 1946, the third of four children of Gilbert Ronstadt (19111995), a prosperous machinery merchant who ran the F. Ronstadt Co., and Ruth Mary (née Copeman) Ronstadt (19141982), a homemaker.
Ronstadt was raised on the family's ranch with her siblings Peter (who served as Tucson's Chief of Police for ten years, 19811991), Michael, and Gretchen. The family was featured in Family Circle magazine in 1953.
Ronstadt family history
Ronstadt's father came from a pioneering Arizona ranching family and was of German and Mexican ancestry. The family's influence on and contributions to Arizona's history, including wagon making, commerce, pharmacies, and music, are chronicled in the library of the University of Arizona. Her great-grandfather, graduate engineer Friedrich August Ronstadt (who went by Federico Augusto Ronstadt) immigrated to the Southwest (then a part of Mexico) in the 1840s from Hanover, Germany, and married a Mexican citizen, eventually settling in Tucson. In 1991, the City of Tucson opened its central transit terminal on March 16 and dedicated it to Linda's grandfather, Federico José María Ronstadt, a local pioneer businessman; he was a wagon maker whose early contribution to the city's mobility included six mule-drawn streetcars delivered in 190304.
Ronstadt's mother Ruth Mary, of German, English, and Dutch ancestry, was raised in Flint, Michigan. Ruth Mary's father, Lloyd Groff Copeman, a prolific inventor and holder of nearly 700 patents, invented an early form of the electric toaster, many refrigerator devices, the grease gun, the first electric stove, and an early form of the microwave oven. His flexible rubber ice cube tray earned him millions of dollars in royalties.
Career summary
Establishing her professional career in the mid-1960s at the forefront of California's emerging folk rock and country rock movementsgenres which defined post-1960s rock musicRonstadt joined forces with Bobby Kimmel and Kenny Edwards and became the lead singer of a folk-rock trio, the Stone Poneys. Later, as a solo artist, she released Hand Sown ... Home Grown in 1969, which has been described as the first alternative country record by a female recording artist. Although fame eluded her during these years, Ronstadt actively toured with the Doors, Neil Young, Jackson Browne, and others, appeared numerous times on television shows, and began to contribute her singing to albums by other artists.
With the release of chart-topping albums such as Heart Like a Wheel, Simple Dreams, and Living in the USA, Ronstadt became the first female "arena class" rock star. She set records as one of the top-grossing concert artists of the decade. Referred to as the "First Lady of Rock" and the "Queen of Rock", Ronstadt was voted the Top Female Pop Singer of the 1970s. Her rock-and-roll image was as famous as her music; she appeared six times on the cover of Rolling Stone and on the covers of Newsweek and Time.
In the 1980s, Ronstadt performed on Broadway and received a Tony nomination for her performance in The Pirates of Penzance, teamed with the composer Philip Glass, recorded traditional music, and collaborated with the conductor Nelson Riddle, an event at that time viewed as an original and unorthodox move for a rock-and-roll artist. This venture paid off, and Ronstadt remained one of the music industry's best-selling acts throughout the 1980s, with multi-platinum-selling albums such as Mad Love, What's New, Canciones de Mi Padre, and Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind. She continued to tour, collaborate, and record celebrated albums, such as Winter Light and Hummin' to Myself, until her retirement in 2011.
Most of Ronstadt's albums are certified gold, platinum, or multi-platinum. Having sold in excess of 100 million records worldwide and setting records as one of the top-grossing concert performers for over a decade, Ronstadt was the most successful female singer of the 1970s and stands as one of the most successful female recording artists in U.S. history. She opened many doors for women in rock and roll and other musical genres by championing songwriters and musicians, pioneering her chart success onto the concert circuit, and being in the vanguard of many musical movements.
Career overview
Early influences
Ronstadt's early family life was filled with music and tradition, which influenced the stylistic and musical choices she later made in her career. Growing up, she listened to many types of music, including Mexican music, which was sung by her entire family and was a staple in her childhood.
Ronstadt has remarked that everything she has recorded on her own recordsrock and roll, rhythm and blues, gospel, opera, country, choral, and mariachiis all music she heard her family sing in their living room or heard played on the radio, by the age of 10. She credits her mother for her appreciation of Gilbert and Sullivan and her father for introducing her to the traditional pop and Great American Songbook repertoire that she would, in turn, help reintroduce to an entire generation.
Early on, her singing style had been influenced by singers such as Lola Beltrán and Édith Piaf; she has called their singing and rhythms "more like Greek music ... It's sort of like 6/8 time signature ... very hard driving and very intense." She also drew influence from country singer Hank Williams.
She has said that "all girl singers" eventually "have to curtsy to Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday". Of Maria Callas, Ronstadt says, "There's no one in her league. That's it. Period. I learn more ... about singing rock n roll from listening to Maria Callas records than I ever would from listening to pop music for a month of Sundays. ... She's the greatest chick singer ever." She admires Callas for her musicianship and her attempts to push 20th-century singing, particularly opera, back into the bel canto "natural style of singing".
A self-described product of American radio of the 1950s and 1960s, Ronstadt is a fan of its eclectic and diverse music programming.
Beginning of professional career
At age 14, Ronstadt formed a folk trio with her brother Peter and sister Gretchen. The group played coffeehouses, fraternity houses, and other small venues, billing themselves as "the Union City Ramblers" and "the Three Ronstadts", and they even recorded themselves at a Tucson studio under the name "the New Union Ramblers". Their repertoire included the music they grew up onfolk, country, bluegrass, and Mexican. But increasingly, Ronstadt wanted to make a union of folk music and rock 'n' roll, and in 1964, after a semester at Arizona State University, the 18-year-old decided to move to Los Angeles.
The Stone Poneys
Ronstadt visited a friend from Tucson, Bobby Kimmel, in Los Angeles during Easter break from college in 1964, and later that year, shortly before her eighteenth birthday, decided to move there permanently to form a band with him. Kimmel had already begun co-writing folk-rock songs with guitarist-songwriter Kenny Edwards, and eventually the three of them were signed by Nik Venet to Capitol in the summer of 1966 as "the Stone Poneys". The trio released three albums in a 15-month period in 196768: The Stone Poneys; Evergreen, Volume 2; and Linda Ronstadt, Stone Poneys and Friends, Vol. III. The band is widely known for their hit single "Different Drum" (written by Michael Nesmith prior to his joining the Monkees), which reached number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart as well as number 12 in Cashbox magazine. Nearly 50 years later, the song remains one of Ronstadt's most popular recordings.
Solo career
Still contractually obligated to Capitol Records, Ronstadt released her first solo album, Hand Sown ... Home Grown, in 1969. It has been called the first alternative country record by a female recording artist. During this same period, she contributed to the Music from Free Creek "super session" project.
Ronstadt provided the vocals for some commercials during this period, including one for Remington electric razors, in which a multitracked Ronstadt and Frank Zappa claimed that the electric razor "cleans you, thrills you ... may even keep you from getting busted".
Ronstadt's second solo album, Silk Purse, was released in March 1970. Recorded entirely in Nashville, it was produced by Elliot Mazer, whom Ronstadt chose on the advice of Janis Joplin, who had worked with him on the Cheap Thrills album. The Silk Purse album cover showed Ronstadt in a muddy pigpen, while the back and inside cover depicted her onstage wearing bright red. Ronstadt has stated that she was not pleased with the album, although it provided her with her first solo hit, the multi-format single "Long, Long Time", and earned her first Grammy nomination (for Best Contemporary Vocal Performance/Female).
Touring
In 1975, Ronstadt performed shows with Jackson Browne, the Eagles, and Toots and the Maytals. In a 1976 Rolling Stone interview with Cameron Crowe, Ronstadt said, "they haven't invented a word for that loneliness that everybody goes through on the road. The world is tearing by you, real fast, and all these people are looking at you. ... People see me in my 'girl-singer' suit." In 1974 she told Peter Knobler in Crawdaddy, "People are always taking advantage of you; everybody that's interested in you has got an angle."
Several years before Ronstadt became what author Gerri Hirshey called the first "arena-class rock diva" with "hugely anticipated tours" she began her solo career touring the North American concert circuit. But being on the road took its toll both emotionally and professionally. There were few "girl singers" on the rock circuit at the time, and they were relegated to "groupie level when in a crowd of a bunch of rock and roll guys", a status Ronstadt avoided. Relating to men on a professional level as fellow musicians led to competition, insecurity, bad romances, and a series of boyfriend-managers. At the time, she admired singers like Maria Muldaur for not sacrificing their femininity but says she felt enormous self-imposed pressure to compete with "the boys" at every level. She noted in a 1969 interview in Fusion magazine that it was difficult being a single "chick singer" with an all-male backup band. According to her, it was difficult to get a band of backing musicians because of their ego problem of being labeled sidemen for a female singer.
Soon after she went solo in the late 1960s, one of her first backing bands was the pioneering country-rock band Swampwater, which combined Cajun and swamp-rock elements in their music. Its members included Cajun fiddler Gib Guilbeau and John Beland, who later joined the Flying Burrito Brothers, as well as Stan Pratt, Thad Maxwell, and Eric White, brother of Clarence White of the Byrds. Swampwater went on to back Ronstadt during TV appearances on The Johnny Cash Show and The Mike Douglas Show, and at the Big Sur Folk Festival.
Another backing band included Don Henley, Glenn Frey, Bernie Leadon, and Randy Meisner, who went on to form the Eagles. They toured with her for a short period in 1971 and played on Linda Ronstadt, her self-titled third album, from which the failed single, Ronstadt's version of Browne's "Rock Me on the Water", was drawn. At this stage, Ronstadt began working with producer and boyfriend John Boylan. She said, "As soon as I started working with John Boylan, I started co-producing myself. I was always a part of my productions. But I always needed a producer who would carry out my whims." Also in 1971, Ronstadt began talking with David Geffen about moving from Capitol Records to Geffen's Asylum Records label.
Collaborations with Peter Asher
Ronstadt began her fourth solo album, Don't Cry Now, in 1973, with Boylan (who had negotiated her contract with Asylum Records) and John David "J.D." Souther producing most of the album's tracks. But needing someone willing to work with her as an equal, Ronstadt asked Peter Asher, who came highly recommended to her by James Taylor's sister Kate Taylor, to help produce two of them: "Sail Away" and "I Believe in You".
The album featured Ronstadt's first country hit, "Silver Threads and Golden Needles", which she had first recorded on Hand Sown ... Home Grownthis time hitting the Country Top 20.
With the release of Don't Cry Now, Ronstadt took on her biggest gig to date as the opening act on Neil Young's Time Fades Away tour, playing for larger crowds than ever before. Backstage at a concert in Texas, Chris Hillman introduced her to Emmylou Harris, telling them, "You two could be good friends", which soon occurred, resulting in frequent collaborations over the following years. Meanwhile, the album became Ronstadt's most successful up to that time, selling 300,000 copies by the end of 1974.
Asher turned out to be more collaborative, and more on the same page with her musically, than any producer she had worked with previously. Ronstadt's professional relationship with Asher allowed her to take command and effectively delegate responsibilities in the recording studio. Although hesitant at first to work with her because of her reputation for being a "woman of strong opinions (who) knew what she wanted to do (with her career)", he nonetheless agreed to become her full-time producer, and remained in that role through the late 1980s. Asher attributed the long-term success of his working relationship with Ronstadt to the fact that he was the first person to manage and produce her with whom there was a solely professional relationship. "It must be a lot harder to have objective conversations about someone's career when it's someone you sleep with", he said.
Asher executive produced a tribute CD called Listen to Me: Buddy Holly, released September 6, 2011, on which Ronstadt's 1976 version of Buddy Holly's "That'll Be The Day" appears among newly recorded versions of Holly's songs by various artists.
Vocal styles
Ronstadt captured the sounds of country music and the rhythms of ranchera musicwhich she likened in 1968 to "Mexican bluegrass"and redirected them into her rock 'n' roll and some of her pop music. Many of these rhythms and sounds were part of her Southwestern roots. Likewise, a country sound and style, a fusion of country music and rock 'n' roll called country rock, started to exert its influence on mainstream pop music around the late 1960s, and it became an emerging movement Ronstadt helped form and commercialize. However, as early as 1970, Ronstadt was being criticized by music "purists" for her "brand of music" which crossed many genres. Country Western Stars magazine wrote in 1970 that "Rock people thought she was too gentle, folk people thought she was too pop, and pop people didn't quite understand where she was at, but Country people really loved Linda." She never categorized herself and stuck to her genre-crossing brand of music.
Interpretive singer
Ronstadt is considered an "interpreter of her times", and has earned praise for her courage to put her "stamp" on many of her songs. Nevertheless, her hits were criticized in some quarters for being cover songs. Ronstadt herself has indicated that some of her 1970s hits were recorded under considerable pressure to create commercially successful recordings, and that she prefers many of her songs that were non-hit album tracks. An infrequent songwriter, Ronstadt co-composed only three songs over her long career.
Ronstadt's natural vocal range spans several octaves from contralto to soprano, and occasionally she will showcase this entire range within a single work. Ronstadt was the first female artist in popular music history to accumulate four consecutive platinum albums (fourteen certified million selling, to date). As for the singles, Rolling Stone pointed out that a whole generation, "but for her, might never have heard the work of artists such as Buddy Holly, Elvis Costello, and Chuck Berry."
Others have argued that Ronstadt had the same generational effect with her Great American Songbook music, exposing a whole new generation to the music of the 1920s and 1930smusic which was pushed aside because of the advent of rock 'n' roll. When interpreting, Ronstadt said she "sticks to what the music demands", in terms of lyrics. Explaining that rock and roll music is part of her culture, she says that the songs she sang after her rock and roll hits were part of her soul. "The (Mariachi music) was my father's side of the soul," she was quoted as saying in a 1998 interview she gave at her Tucson home. "My mother's side of my soul was the Nelson Riddle stuff. And I had to do them both to reestablish who I was."
In the 1974 book Rock 'N' Roll Woman, author Katherine Orloff writes that Ronstadt's "own musical preferences run strongly to rhythm and blues, the type of music she most frequently chooses to listen to ... (and) her goal is to ... be soulful too. With this in mind, Ronstadt fuses country and rock into a special union."
By this stage of her career, Ronstadt had established her niche in the field of country-rock. Along with other musicians such as the Flying Burrito Brothers, Emmylou Harris, Gram Parsons, Swampwater, Neil Young, and the Eagles, she helped free country music from stereotypes and showed rockers that country was okay. However, she stated that she was being pushed hard into singing more rock and roll.
Most successful female singer of the 1970s
Author Andrew Greeley, in his book God in Popular Culture, described Ronstadt as "the most successful and certainly the most durable and most gifted woman Rock singer of her era." Signaling her wide popularity as a concert artist, outside of the singles charts and the recording studio, Dirty Linen magazine describes her as the "first true woman rock 'n' roll superstar ... (selling) out stadiums with a string of mega-successful albums." Amazon.com defines her as the American female rock superstar of the decade. Cashbox gave Ronstadt a Special Decade Award, as the top-selling female singer of the 1970s.
Her album covers, posters, magazine coversher entire rock 'n' roll imagewere as famous as her music. By the end of the decade, the singer whom the Chicago Sun Times described as the "Dean of the 1970s school of female rock singers" became what Redbook called "the most successful female rock star in the world." "Female" was the important qualifier, according to Time magazine, which labeled her "a rarity ... to (have survived) ... in the shark-infested deeps of rock."
Although Ronstadt had been a cult favorite on the music scene for several years, 1975 was "remembered in the music biz as the year when 29-year-old Linda Ronstadt belatedly happened."
With the release of Heart Like a Wheelnamed after one of the album's songs, written by Anna McGarrigleRonstadt reached number 1 on the Billboard 200 chart; it was also the first of four number 1 Country Albums, and the disc was certified double-platinum (over two million copies sold in the U.S.). In many instances, her own interpretations were more successful than the original recordings, and many times new songwriters were discovered by a larger audience as a result of her interpretation and recording. Ronstadt had major success interpreting songs from a diverse spectrum of artists.
Heart Like a Wheels first single release, "You're No Good"a rockified version of an R&B song written by Clint Ballard, Jr. that Ronstadt had initially resisted because Andrew Gold's guitar tracks sounded too much like a "Beatles song" to herclimbed to number 1 on both the Billboard and Cash Box Pop singles charts. The album's second single release, "When Will I Be Loved"an uptempo country-rock version of a Top 10 Everly Brothers songhit number 1 in Cashbox and number 2 in Billboard. The song was also Ronstadt's first number 1 country hit.
The album's critical and commercial success was due to a fine presentation of country and rock, with Heart Like a Wheel her first of many major commercial successes that would set her on the path to being one of the best-selling female artists of all time. Ronstadt won her first Grammy Award for Best Country Vocal Performance/Female for "I Can't Help It (If I'm Still in Love with You)" which was originally a 1940s hit by Hank Williams. Ronstadt's interpretation peaked at number 2 on the country chart. The album itself was nominated for the Album of the Year Grammy.
Rolling Stone put Ronstadt on its cover in March 1975. It was the first of six Rolling Stone covers shot by photographer Annie Leibovitz. It included her as the featured artist with a full photo layout and an article by Ben Fong-Torres, discussing Ronstadt's many struggling years in rock n roll, as well as her home life and what it was like to be a woman on tour in a decidedly all-male environment.
In September 1975, Ronstadt's album Prisoner in Disguise was released. It quickly climbed into the Top Five on the Billboard Album Chart and sold over a million copies. It became her second in a row to go platinum, "a grand slam" in the same year (Ronstadt would eventually become the first female artist in popular music history to have three consecutive platinum albums and would ultimately go on to have eight consecutive platinum albums, and then another six between 1983 and 1990). The disc's first single release was "Love Is A Rose". It was climbing the pop and country charts but "Heat Wave", a rockified version of the 1963 hit by Martha and the Vandellas, was receiving considerable airplay. Asylum pulled the "Love Is a Rose" single and issued "Heat Wave" with "Love Is a Rose" on the B-side. "Heat Wave" hit the Top Five on Billboards Hot 100 while "Love Is A Rose" hit the Top Five on Billboard's country chart.
In 1976, Ronstadt reached the Top 3 of Billboards Album Chart and won her second career Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for her third consecutive platinum album Hasten Down the Wind. The album featured a sexy, revealing cover shot and showcased Ronstadt the singer-songwriter, who composed two of its songs, "Try Me Again" (co-authored with Andrew Gold) and "Lo Siento Mi Vida". It also included an interpretation of Willie Nelson's ballad "Crazy", which became a Top 10 Country hit for Ronstadt in early 1977.
At the end of 1977, Ronstadt surpassed the success of Heart Like a Wheel with her album Simple Dreams, which held the number 1 position for five consecutive weeks on the Billboard 200 chart. It sold over 3½ million copies in less than a year in the U.S. alone – a record for a female artist. Simple Dreams spawned a string of hit singles on numerous charts. Among them were the RIAA platinum-certified single "Blue Bayou", a country-rock interpretation of a Roy Orbison song; "It's So Easy"previously sung by Buddy Holly, a cover of The Rolling Stones' "Tumbling Dice", and "Poor Poor Pitiful Me", a song written by Warren Zevon, an up-and-coming songwriter of the time. The album garnered several Grammy Award nominationsincluding Record of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Performance/Female for "Blue Bayou"and won its art director, Kosh, a Grammy Award for Best Album Cover, the first of three Grammy Awards he would win for designing Ronstadt album covers. In late 1977, Ronstadt became the first female recording artist to have two songs in the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Top Ten at the same time. "Blue Bayou" was at No. 3 while "It's So Easy" was at No. 5.
Simple Dreams became one of the singer's best-selling international-selling albums as well, reaching number 1 on the Australian and Canadian Pop and Country Albums charts. Simple Dreams also made Ronstadt the most successful international female touring artist. The same year, she completed a concert tour around Europe. As Country Music magazine wrote in October 1978, Simple Dreams solidified Ronstadt's role as "easily the most successful female rock and roll and country star at this time."
Also in 1977, she was asked by the Los Angeles Dodgers to sing the U.S. National Anthem at game three of the World Series against the New York Yankees.
Time magazine and "rock chick" image
Ronstadt has remarked that she felt as though she was "artificially encouraged to kinda cop a really tough attitude (and be tough) because rock and roll is kind of tough (business)," which she felt wasn't worn quite authentically. Female rock artists like her and Janis Joplin, whom she described as lovely, shy, and very literate in real life and the antithesis of the "red hot mamma" she was artificially encouraged to project, went through an identity crisis.
By the mid-1970s, Ronstadt's image became just as famous as her music. In 1976 and 1977, she appeared on the covers of Rolling Stone and Time, respectively. The Rolling Stone cover story was accompanied by a series of photographs of Ronstadt in a skimpy red slip, taken by Annie Leibovitz. Ronstadt felt deceived by the photographer, not realizing that the photos would be so revealing. She says her manager Peter Asher kicked Leibovitz out of the house when she visited to show them the photographs prior to publication. Leibovitz had refused to let them veto any of the photos, which included one of Ronstadt sprawled across a bed in her underpants. In a 1977 interview, Ronstadt explained, "Annie [Leibovitz] saw that picture as an exposé of my personality. She was right. But I wouldn't choose to show a picture like that to anybody who didn't know me personally, because only friends could get the other sides of me in balance."
Her 1977 appearance on the cover of Time magazine under the banner "Torchy Rock" was also upsetting to Ronstadt, considering what the image appeared to project about the most famous woman in rock. At a time in the industry when men still told women what to sing and what to wear, Ronstadt hated the image of her that was projected to the world on that cover, and she noted recently how the photographer kept forcing her to wear a dress, which was an image she did not want to project. In 2004, she was interviewed for CBS This Morning and stated that this image was not her because she did not sit like that. Asher noted, "Anyone who's met Linda for 10 seconds will know that I couldn't possibly have been her Svengali. She's an extremely determined woman, in every area. To me, she was everything that feminism's about." Qualities which, Asher has stated, were considered a "negative (in a woman at that time), whereas in a man they were perceived as being masterful and bold". Since her solo career had begun, Ronstadt had fought hard to be recognized as a solo female singer in the world of rock, and her portrayal on the Time cover did not appear to help the situation.
In 1978, Rolling Stone declared Ronstadt "by far America's best-known female rock singer." She scored a third number 1 album on the Billboard Album Chart – at this point equaling the record set by Carole King in 1974 – with Living in the USA. She achieved a major hit single with "Ooo Baby Baby", with her rendition hitting all four major singles charts (Pop, AC, Country, R&B). Living in the USA was the first album by any recording act in music history to ship double-platinum (over 2 million advance copies). The album eventually sold 3 million U.S. copies.
At the end of that year, Billboard magazine crowned Ronstadt with three number-one Awards for the Year: Pop Female Singles Artist of the Year, Pop Female Album Artist of the Year, and Female Artist of the Year (overall).
Living in the USA showed the singer on roller skates with a newly short, permed hairdo on the album cover. Ronstadt continued this theme on concert tour promotional posters with photos of her on roller skates in a dramatic pose with a large American flag in the background. By this stage of her career, she was using posters to promote every album and concert – which at the time were recorded live on radio or television.
Ronstadt was also featured in the 1978 film FM, where the plot involved disc jockeys attempting to broadcast a Ronstadt concert live, without a competing station's knowledge. The film also showed Ronstadt performing the songs "Poor, Poor Pitiful Me", "Love Me Tender", and "Tumbling Dice". Ronstadt was persuaded to record "Tumbling Dice" after Mick Jagger came backstage when she was at a concert and said, "You do too many ballads, you should do more rock and roll songs."
Following the success of Living in the USA, Ronstadt conducted album promotional tours and concerts. She made a guest appearance onstage with the Rolling Stones at the Tucson Community Center on July 21, 1978, in her hometown of Tucson, where she and Jagger sang "Tumbling Dice". On singing with Jagger, Ronstadt later said, "I loved it. I didn't have a trace of stage fright. I'm scared to death all the way through my own shows. But it was too much fun to get scared. He's so silly onstage, he knocks you over. I mean you have to be on your toes or you wind up falling on your face."
Highest-paid woman in rock
By the end of 1978, Ronstadt had solidified her role as one of rock and pop's most successful solo female acts, and owing to her consistent platinum album success, and her ability as the first woman to sell out concerts in arenas and stadiums hosting tens of thousands of fans, Ronstadt became the "highest paid woman in rock". She had six platinum-certified albums, three of which were number 1 on the Billboard album chart, and numerous charted pop singles. In 1978 alone, she made over $12 million () and in the same year her albums sales were reported to be 17 milliongrossing over $60 million ().
As Rolling Stone dubbed her "Rock's Venus", her record sales continued to multiply and set records themselves. By 1979, Ronstadt had collected eight gold, six platinum, and four multi-platinum certifications for her albums, an unprecedented feat at the time. Her 1976 Greatest Hits album would sell consistently for the next 25 years and in 2001 was certified by the RIAA for seven-times platinum (over seven million U.S. copies sold). In 1980, Greatest Hits, Volume 2 was released and certified platinum.
In 1979, Ronstadt went on an international tour, playing in arenas across Australia to Japan, including the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne, and the Budokan in Tokyo. She also participated in a benefit concert for her friend Lowell George, held at The Forum, in Los Angeles.
By the end of the decade, Ronstadt had outsold her female competition; she had five straight platinum LPsHasten Down the Wind and Heart Like a Wheel among them. Us Weekly reported in 1978 that Ronstadt, Joni Mitchell, Stevie Nicks, and Carly Simon had become "The Queens of Rock" and "Rock is no longer exclusively male. There is a new royalty ruling today's record charts."
She would go on to parlay her mass commercial appeal with major success in interpreting The Great American Songbookmade famous a generation before by Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgeraldand later the Mexican folk songs of her childhood.
From rock to operetta
In February 1980, Ronstadt released Mad Love, her seventh consecutive platinum-selling album. It was a straightforward rock and roll album with post-punk, new wave influences, including tracks by songwriters such as Elvis Costello, the Cretones, and musician Mark Goldenberg who played on the record himself. As part of the album's promotion, a live concert was recorded for an HBO special in April. A partial soundtrack for this special (omitting most of the Mad Love tracks) was released as her first official live album in February 2019.
She also made the cover of Rolling Stone for a record-setting sixth time. Mad Love entered the Billboard Album Chart in the Top Five its first week (a record at that time) and climbed to the number 3 position. The project continued her streak of Top 10 hits with "How Do I Make You", originally recorded by Billy Thermal, and "Hurt So Bad", originally a Top 10 hit for Little Anthony & the Imperials. The album earned Ronstadt a 1980 Grammy Award nomination for Best Rock Vocal Performance/Female (although she lost to Pat Benatar's Crimes of Passion album). Benatar praised Ronstadt by stating, "There are a lot of good female singers around. How could I be the best? Ronstadt is still alive!"
In the summer of 1980, Ronstadt began rehearsals for the first of several leads in Broadway musicals. Joseph Papp cast her as the lead in the New York Shakespeare Festival production of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance, alongside Kevin Kline. She said singing Gilbert and Sullivan was a natural choice for her, since her grandfather Fred Ronstadt was credited with having created Tucson's first orchestra, the Club Filarmonico Tucsonense, and had once created an arrangement of The Pirates of Penzance.
The Pirates of Penzance opened for a limited engagement in New York City's Central Park, eventually moving its production to Broadway, where it became a hit, running from January 8, 1981, to November 28, 1982. Newsweek was effusive in its praise: "... she has not dodged the coloratura demands of her role (and Mabel is one of the most demanding parts in the G&S canon): from her entrance trilling 'Poor Wand'ring One,' it is clear that she is prepared to scale whatever soprano peaks stand in her way." Ronstadt co-starred with Kline and Angela Lansbury in the 1983 operetta's film version; this was her only acting role in a motion picture (her other film appearances, such as in the 1978 drama, FM, being concert footage as herself). Ronstadt received a Golden Globe nomination for the role in the film version. She garnered a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical and The Pirates of Penzance won several Tony Awards, including a Tony Award for Best Revival.
As a child, Ronstadt had discovered the opera La bohème through the silent film with Lillian Gish and was determined to someday play the part of Mimi. When she met the opera superstar Beverly Sills, she was told, "My dear, every soprano in the world wants to play Mimi!" In 1984, Ronstadt was cast in the role at Joseph Papp's Public Theater. However, the production was a critical and commercial disaster, closing after only a few nights.
In 1982, Ronstadt released the album Get Closer, a primarily rock album with some country and pop music as well. It remains her only album between 1975 and 1990 not to be officially certified platinum. It peaked at number 31 on the Billboard Album Chart. The release continued her streak of Top 40 hits with "Get Closer" and "I Knew You When"a 1965 hit by Billy Joe Royalwhile the Jimmy Webb song "Easy For You To Say" was a surprise Top 10 Adult Contemporary hit in the spring of 1983. "Sometimes You Just Can't Win" was picked up by country radio, and made it to number 27 on that listing. Ronstadt also filmed several music videos for this album which became popular on the fledgling MTV cable channel. The album earned Ronstadt two Grammy Award nominations: one for Best Rock Vocal Performance/Female for the title track and another for Best Pop Vocal Performance/Female for the album. The artwork won its art director, Kosh, his second Grammy Award for Best Album Package.
Along with the release of her Get Closer album, Ronstadt embarked on a North American tour, remaining one of the top rock-concert draws that summer and fall. On November 25, 1982, her "Happy Thanksgiving Day" concert was held at the Reunion Arena in Dallas and broadcast live via satellite to NBC radio stations in the United States.
In 1988, Ronstadt returned to Broadway for a limited-run engagement in the musical show adaptation of her album celebrating her Mexican heritage, Canciones De Mi PadreA Romantic Evening in Old Mexico.
Artistic aspirations
Ronstadt has remarked that in the beginning of her career she "was so focused on folk, rock and country" that she "got a bit bored and started to branch out, and ... [has] been doing that ever since." By 1983, her estimated worth was over $40 million mostly from records, concerts and merchandising.
In the early 1980s, Ronstadt was criticized for accepting $500,000 to perform at the South African resort Sun City, violating the cultural boycott imposed against South Africa because of its policy of apartheid. At the time, she stated, "the last place for a boycott is in the arts" and "I don't like being told I can't go somewhere". Paul Simon was criticized for including her on his 1986 album Graceland, recorded in South Africa, but defended her: "I know that her intention was never to support the government there ... She made a mistake. She’s extremely liberal in her political thinking and unquestionably antiapartheid."
Ronstadt eventually tired of playing arenas. She had ceased to feel that arenas, where people milled around smoking marijuana cigarettes and drinking beer, were "appropriate places for music". She wanted "angels in the architecture"a reference to a lyric in the Paul Simon song "You Can Call Me Al" from Graceland. (Ronstadt sang harmony with Simon on a different Graceland track, "Under African Skies". The second verse's lyrics pay tribute to Ronstadt: "Take this child, Lord, from Tucson, Arizona. ..."). Ronstadt has said she wants to sing in places similar to the theatre of ancient Greece, where the attention is focused on the stage and the performer.
Ronstadt's recording output in the 1980s proved to be just as commercially and critically successful as her 1970s recordings. Between 1983 and 1990, Ronstadt scored six additional platinum albums; two are triple platinum (each with over three million U.S. copies sold); one has been certified double platinum (over two million copies sold), and one has earned additional certification as a Gold (over 500,000 U.S. copies sold) double-disc album.
Jazz/pop trilogy
In 1981, Ronstadt produced and recorded an album of pop standards (later marketed in bootleg form) titled Keeping Out of Mischief with the assistance of producer Jerry Wexler. However, Ronstadt's displeasure with the final result led her, with regrets, to scrap the project. "Doing that killed me," she said in a Time magazine interview. But the appeal of the album's music had seduced Ronstadt, as she told Down Beat in April 1985, crediting Wexler for encouraging her. Nonetheless, Ronstadt had to convince her reluctant record company, Elektra, to approve this type of album under her contract.
By 1983, Ronstadt had enlisted the help of 62-year-old conductor Nelson Riddle. The two embarked on an unorthodox and original approach to rehabilitating the Great American Songbook, recording a trilogy of traditional pop albums: What's New (1983U.S. 3.7 million as of 2010); Lush Life (1984U.S. 1.7 million as of 2010); and For Sentimental Reasons (1986U.S. 1.3 million as of 2010). The three albums have had a combined sales total of nearly seven million copies in the U.S. alone.
The album design for What's New by designer Kosh was unlike any of her previous disc covers. It showed Ronstadt in a vintage dress lying on shimmering satin sheets with a Walkman headset. At the time, Ronstadt received some chiding for both the album cover and her venture into what was then considered "elevator music" by cynics, but remained determined to record with Riddle, and What's New became a hit. The album was released in September 1983 and spent 81 weeks on the Billboard Album Chart and held the number three position for a month and a half (held out of the top spot only by Michael Jackson's Thriller and Lionel Richie's Can't Slow Down) and the RIAA certified it triple platinum (over three million copies sold in the U.S. alone). The album earned Ronstadt another Grammy nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, and critical raves, with Time magazine calling it "one of the gutsiest, most unorthodox and unexpected albums of the year."
Ronstadt faced considerable pressure not to record What's New or record with Riddle. According to jazz historian Peter Levinson, author of the book September in the Raina Biography on Nelson Riddle, Joe Smith, president of Elektra Records, was terrified that the Riddle album would turn off Ronstadt's rock audience. Ronstadt did not completely turn her back on her rock and roll past, however; the video for the title track featured Danny Kortchmar as the old beau that she bumped into during a rainstorm.
What's New brought Riddle to a younger audience. According to Levinson, "the younger audience hated what Riddle had done with Frank Sinatra, which in 1983 was considered 'Vintage Pop'". Working with Ronstadt, Riddle brought his career back into focus in the last three years of his life. Stephen Holden of The New York Times wrote, What's New "isn't the first album by a rock singer to pay tribute to the golden age of the pop, but is ... the best and most serious attempt to rehabilitate an idea of pop that Beatlemania and the mass marketing of rock LPs for teenagers undid in the mid-60s. ... In the decade prior to Beatlemania, most of the great band singers and crooners of the 40s and 50s codified a half-century of American pop standards on dozens of albums ... many of them now long out-of-print." What's New is the first album by a rock singer to have major commercial success in rehabilitating the Great American Songbook.
In 1984, Ronstadt and Riddle performed these songs live, in concert halls throughout Australia, Japan, and the United States, including multi-night performances at historic venues Carnegie Hall, Radio City Music Hall, and Pine Knob.
In 2004, Ronstadt released Hummin' to Myself, her album for Verve Records. It was her first foray into traditional jazz since her sessions with Jerry Wexler and her records with the Nelson Riddle Orchestra, but this time with an intimate jazz combo. The album was a quiet affair for Ronstadt, giving few interviews and making only one television performance as a promotion. It reached number 2 on Billboard's Top Jazz Albums chart but peaked at number 166 on the main Billboard album chart. Not having the mass distribution that Warner Music Group gave her, Hummin' To Myself had sold over 75,000 copies in the U.S. as of 2010. It also achieved some critical acclaim from the jazz cognoscenti.
"Trio" recordings
In 1978, Ronstadt, Dolly Parton, and Emmylou Harris, friends and admirers of one another's work (Ronstadt had included a cover of Parton's "I Will Always Love You" on Prisoner in Disguise) attempted to collaborate on a Trio album. Unfortunately, the attempt did not pan out. Ronstadt later remarked that not too many people were in control at the time and everyone was too involved with their own careers. (Though the efforts to complete the album were abandoned, a number of the recordings were included on the singers' respective solo recordings over the next few years.) This concept album was put on the back burner for almost ten years.
In January 1986, the three eventually did make their way into the recording studio, where they spent the next several months working. The result, Trio, which they had conceived ten years earlier, was released in March 1987. It was a considerable hit, holding the number 1 position on Billboard's Country Albums chart for five weeks running and hitting the Top 10 on the pop side also. Selling over three million copies in the U.S. and winning them a Grammy Award for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal, it produced four Top Ten Country singles including "To Know Him Is to Love Him" which hit number 1. The album was also a nominee for overall Album of the Year, in the company of Michael Jackson, U2, Prince, and Whitney Houston.
In 1994, the three performers recorded a follow-up to Trio. As was the case with their aborted 1978 effort, conflicting schedules and competing priorities delayed the album's release indefinitely. Ronstadt, who had already paid for studio timeand owed her record company a finished albumremoved Parton's individual tracks at Parton's request, kept Harris's vocals, and produced a number of the recordings, which she subsequently released on her 1995 return to country rock, the album Feels Like Home.
However, in 1999, Ronstadt, Parton, and Harris agreed to release the Trio II album, as was originally recorded in 1994. It included an ethereal cover of Neil Young's "After The Gold Rush" which became a popular music video. The effort was certified Gold (over 500,000 copies sold) and won them a Grammy Award for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals for the track. Ronstadt co-produced the album with George Massenburg and the three women also received a nomination for the Grammy Award for Best Country Album.
Canciones de Mi Padre
At the end of 1987, Ronstadt released Canciones de Mi Padre, an album of traditional Mexican folk songs, or what she has described as "world class songs". Keeping with the Ronstadt history theme, her cover art was dramatic, bold, and colorful; it shows Ronstadt in full Mexican regalia. Her musical arranger was mariachi musician Rubén Fuentes.
These canciones were a big part of Ronstadt's family tradition and musical roots. In January 1946, the University of Arizona published a booklet by Luisa Espinel entitled Canciones de mi Padre. Luisa Espinel, Ronstadt's aunt, was an international singer in the 1920s and 1930s. Espinel's father was Fred Ronstadt, Linda Ronstadt's grandfather, and the songs she had learned, transcribed, and published were some of the ones he had brought with him from Sonora. Ronstadt researched and extracted from the favorites she had learned from her father Gilbert and she called her album by the same name as her aunt's booklet and as a tribute to her father and his family. Though not fully bilingual, she has a fairly good command of the Spanish language, allowing her to sing Latin American songs with little discernible U.S. accent; Ronstadt has often identified herself as Mexican-American. Her formative years were spent with her father's side of the family. In fact, in 1976, Ronstadt had collaborated with her father to write and compose a traditional Mexican folk ballad, "Lo siento mi vida"a song that she included on Hasten Down the Wind. Ronstadt has also credited Mexican singer Lola Beltrán as an influence on her own singing style, and she recalls how a frequent guest to the Ronstadt home, Eduardo "Lalo" Guerrero, father of Chicano music, would often serenade her as a child.
Canciones de Mi Padre won Ronstadt a Grammy Award for Best Mexican-American Performance. In 2001, it was certified double-platinum by the RIAA for shipments of over 2 million copies in the United States, making it the best-selling non-English-language album in U.S. music history. The album and later theatrical stage show served as a benchmark of the Latin cultural renaissance in North America.
Ronstadt produced and performed a theatrical stage show, also titled Canciones de mi Padre, in concert halls across the U.S. and Latin America to both Hispanic and non-Hispanic audiences. These performances were later released on DVD. Ronstadt elected to return to the Broadway stage, four years after she performed in La bohème, for a limited-run engagement. PBS's Great Performances aired the stage show during its annual fund drives and the show was a hit with audiences, earning Ronstadt a Primetime Emmy Award for Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program.
Ronstadt recorded two additional albums of Latin music in the early 1990s. Their promotion, like most of her albums in the 1990s, was a quieter affair, with Ronstadt making only a limited number of appearances to promote them. They were not nearly as successful as Canciones De Mi Padre, but were critically acclaimed in some circles. In 1991, she released Mas Canciones, a follow-up to the first Canciones. For this album, she won a Grammy Award for Best Mexican/Mexican-American Album. The following year, she stepped outside of the mariachi genre and decided to record well-known Afro-Cuban songs. This album was titled Frenesí. Like her two previous Latin recordings ventures, it won Ronstadt a Grammy Award, this time for Best Traditional Tropical Latin Album.
In 1991, Ronstadt acted in the lead role of archangel San Miguel in La Pastorela, or A Shephard's Tale, a musical filmed at San Juan Bautista. It was written and directed by Luis Valdez. The production was part of the PBS Great Performances series.
In December 2020, it was announced that Canciones de Mi Padre had been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Returning to the contemporary music scene
By the late 1980s, while enjoying the success of her big band jazz collaborations with Riddle and her surprise hit mariachi recordings, Ronstadt elected to return to recording mainstream pop music once again. In 1987, she made a return to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart with "Somewhere Out There", which peaked at number 2 in March. Featured in the animated film An American Tail, the sentimental duet with James Ingram was nominated for several Grammy Awards, ultimately winning the Grammy Award for Song of the Year. The song also received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Original Song and achieved high sales, earning a million-selling gold single in the U.S.one of the last 45s ever to do so. It was also accompanied by a popular music video. On the heels of this success, Steven Spielberg asked Ronstadt to record the theme song for the animated sequel titled An American Tail: Fievel Goes West, which was titled "Dreams to Dream". Although "Dreams to Dream" failed to achieve the success of "Somewhere Out There", the song did give Ronstadt an Adult Contemporary hit in 1991.
In 1989, Ronstadt released a mainstream pop album and several popular singles. Cry Like A Rainstorm, Howl Like The Wind became one of the singer's most successful albumsin production, arrangements, sales, and critical acclaim. It became Ronstadt's tenth Top 10 album on the Billboard chart, reaching number 7 and being certified triple-platinum (over three million copies sold in the U.S.). The album also received Grammy Award nominations. Ronstadt included New Orleans soul singer Aaron Neville on several of the album's songs.
Ronstadt incorporated the sounds of the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir, Tower of Power horns, the Skywalker Symphony, and numerous musicians. It included the duets with Aaron Neville, "Don't Know Much" (Billboard Hot 100 number 2 hit, Christmas 1989) and "All My Life" (Billboard Hot 100 number 11 hit), both of which were long-running number 1 Adult Contemporary hits. The duets earned several Grammy Award nominations. The duo won both the 1989 and 1990 Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal awards. Ronstadt's last known live Grammy Award appearance was in 1990 when she and Neville performed "Don't Know Much" together on the telecast. ("Whenever I sing with a different artist, I can get things out of my voice that I can't do by myself", Ronstadt reflected in 2007. "I can do things with Aaron that I can't do alone.")
In December 1990, she participated in a concert held at the Tokyo Dome to commemorate John Lennon's 50th birthday, and to raise awareness of environmental issues. Other participants included Miles Davis, Lenny Kravitz, Hall & Oates, Natalie Cole, Yoko Ono, and Sean Lennon. An album resulted, titled Happy Birthday, John.
Return to roots music
Ronstadt released the highly acclaimed Winter Light album at the end of 1993. It included New Age arrangements such as the lead single "Heartbeats Accelerating" as well as the self-penned title track and featured the glass harmonica. It was her first commercial failure since 1972, and peaked at number 92 in Billboard, whereas 1995's Feels Like Home was Ronstadt's much-heralded return to country-rock and included her version of Tom Petty's classic hit "The Waiting". The single's rollicking, fiddle-infused flip side, "Walk On", returned Ronstadt to the Country Singles chart for the first time since 1983. An album track entitled "The Blue Train" charted 10 weeks in Billboards Adult Contemporary Top 40. This album fared slightly better than its predecessor, reaching number 75. Both albums were later deleted from the Elektra/Asylum catalog. Ronstadt was nominated for three Lo Nuestro Awards in 1993: Female Regional Mexican Artist of the Year, Female Tropical/Salsa Artist of the Year, and her version of the song "Perfidia" was also listed for Tropical/Salsa Song of the Year.
In 1996, Ronstadt produced Dedicated to the One I Love, an album of classic rock and roll songs reinvented as lullabies. The album reached number 78 in Billboard and won the Grammy Award for Best Musical Album for Children.
In 1998, Ronstadt released We Ran, her first album in over two years. The album harkened back to Ronstadt's country-rock and folk-rock heyday. She returned to her rock 'n' roll roots with vivid interpretations of songs by Bruce Springsteen, Doc Pomus, Bob Dylan, and John Hiatt. The recording was produced by Glyn Johns. A commercial failure, the album stood at 57,897 copies sold at the time of its deletion in 2008. It is the poorest-selling studio album in Ronstadt's Elektra/Asylum catalog. We Ran did not chart any singles but it was well received by critics.
Despite the lack of success of We Ran, Ronstadt kept moving towards this adult rock exploration. In the summer of 1999, she released the album Western Wall: The Tucson Sessions, a folk-rock-oriented project with Emmylou Harris. It earned a nomination for the Grammy Award for the Best Contemporary Folk Album and made the Top 10 of Billboards Country Albums chart. Still in print as of December 2016, it has sold 223,255 copies per Nielsen SoundScan.
Also in 1999, Ronstadt went back to her concert roots when she performed with the Eagles and Jackson Browne at Staples Center's 1999 New Year's Eve celebration kicking off the December 31 end-of-the-millennium festivities. As Staples Center Senior Vice President and general manager Bobby Goldwater said, "It was our goal to present a spectacular event as a sendoff to the 20th century", and "Eagles, Jackson Browne, and Linda Ronstadt are three of the most popular acts of the century. Their performances will constitute a singular and historic night of entertainment for New Year's Eve in Los Angeles."
In 2000, Ronstadt completed her long contractual relationship with the Elektra/Asylum label. The fulfillment of this contract commenced with the release of A Merry Little Christmas, her first holiday collection, which includes rare choral works, the somber Joni Mitchell song "River", and a rare recorded duet with the late Rosemary Clooney on Clooney's signature song, "White Christmas".
Since leaving Warner Music, Ronstadt has gone on to release one album each under Verve and Vanguard Records.
In 2006, recording as the ZoZo Sisters, Ronstadt teamed with her new friend, musician and musical scholar Ann Savoy, to record Adieu False Heart. It was an album of roots music incorporating pop, Cajun, and early-20th-century music and released on the Vanguard Records label. But Adieu False Heart was a commercial failure, peaking at number 146 in the U.S. despite her touring for the final time that year. It was the last time Linda Ronstadt would record an album, having begun to lose her singing ability as a result of a degenerative condition later determined to be progressive supranuclear palsy, but initially diagnosed as Parkinson's disease, in December 2012. Adieu False Heart, recorded in Louisiana, features a cast of local musicians, including Chas Justus, Eric Frey and Kevin Wimmer of the Red Stick Ramblers, Sam Broussard of the Mamou Playboys, Dirk Powell, and Joel Savoy, as well as an array of Nashville musicians: fiddler Stuart Duncan, mandolinist Sam Bush, and guitarist Bryan Sutton. The recording earned two Grammy Award nominations: Best Traditional Folk Album and Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical.
In 2007, Ronstadt contributed to the compilation album We All Love Ella: Celebrating the First Lady of Songa tribute album to jazz music's all-time most heralded artiston the track "Miss Otis Regrets".
In August 2007, Ronstadt headlined the Newport Folk Festival, making her debut at this event, where she incorporated jazz, rock, and folk music into her repertoire. It was one of her final concerts.
In 2010, Ronstadt contributed the arrangement and lead vocal to "A La Orilla de un Palmar" on the Chieftains' studio album San Patricio (with Ry Cooder). This remains her most recent commercially available recording as lead vocalist.
Retirement
In 2011, Ronstadt was interviewed by the Arizona Daily Star and announced her retirement. In August 2013, she revealed to Alanna Nash, writing for AARP, that she has Parkinson's disease and "can no longer sing a note." Her diagnosis was subsequently re-evaluated as progressive supranuclear palsy.
Selected career achievements
On April 10, 2014, Ronstadt was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In July 2019, Ronstadt was selected as a Kennedy Center Honoree.
As of 2019, Ronstadt has earned three number 1 pop albums, 10 top-ten pop albums and 38 charting pop albums on the Billboard Pop Album Charts. She has 15 albums on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart, including four that hit number 1. Ronstadt's singles have earned her a number 1 hit and three number 2 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, with 10 top-ten pop singles and 21 reaching the Top 40. She has also scored two number 1 hits on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, and two number 1 hits on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart. Rolling Stone wrote, a whole generation "but for her, might never have heard the work of Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, or Elvis Costello."
She has recorded and released over 30 studio albums and has made guest appearances on an estimated 120 albums by other artists. Her guest appearances included the classical minimalist Philip Glass's album Songs from Liquid Days, a hit classical record with other major pop stars either singing or writing lyrics (Ronstadt's two tracks on the album saw her singing lyrics written by Suzanne Vega and Laurie Anderson). She also appeared on Glass's follow-up recording 1000 Airplanes on the Roof. She appeared on Paul Simon's Graceland, where she sang a duet with Simon, "Under African Skies." In that song, there is a verse dedicated to Ronstadt, her voice and harmonies and her birth in Tucson, Arizona. She voiced herself in The Simpsons episode "Mr. Plow" and sang a duet, "Funny How Time Slips Away," with Homer Simpson on The Yellow Album.
Ronstadt has also appeared on albums by a vast range of artists including Emmylou Harris, the Chieftains, Dolly Parton, Neil Young, J. D. Souther, Gram Parsons, Bette Midler, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Earl Scruggs, the Eagles, Andrew Gold, Wendy Waldman, Hoyt Axton, Kate and Anna McGarrigle, Ann Savoy, Karla Bonoff, James Taylor, Jimmy Webb, Valerie Carter, Warren Zevon, Maria Muldaur, Randy Newman (specifically his musical adaptation of Faust), Nicolette Larson, the Seldom Scene, Rosemary Clooney, Aaron Neville, Rodney Crowell, Hearts and Flowers, Laurie Lewis and Flaco Jiménez. As a singer-songwriter, Ronstadt has written songs covered by several artists, such as "Try Me Again", covered by Trisha Yearwood; and "Winter Light", which was co-written and composed with Zbigniew Preisner and Eric Kaz, and covered by Sarah Brightman.
Her three biggest-selling studio albums to date are: her 1977 release Simple Dreams, 1983's What's New and 1989's Cry Like A Rainstorm, Howl Like The Wind. Each one has been certified by the Recording Industry Association of America for over three million copies sold. Her highest-selling album to date is the 1976 compilation Greatest Hits, certified for over seven million units sold in 2001. Ronstadt became music's first major touring female artist to sell out sizeable venues; she was also the top-grossing solo female concert artist for the 1970s. She remained a highly successful touring artist into the 1990s, at which time she decided to scale back to smaller venues. In the 1970s, Cashbox magazine, a competitor of Billboard during that time period, named Ronstadt the "#1 Female Artist of the Decade". "Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" included Heart Like a Wheel (1974) at number 164 and The Very Best Of Linda Ronstadt (2002) at number 324. The 2012 revision kept only the compilation, but raised it to the place once occupied by Heart Like a Wheel.
Ronstadt's album sales have not been certified since 2001. At that time, Ronstadt's U.S. album sales were certified by the Recording Industry Association of America at over 30 million albums sold; however, Peter Asher, her former producer and manager, placed her total U.S. album sales at over 45 million. Likewise, her worldwide albums sales are in excess of 100 million albums sold, according to the former president of Warner Bros. Records, Joe Smith, now a jury member of the Hit Parade Hall of Fame. Her RIAA certification (audits paid for by record companies or artists for promotion) tally as of 2001 totaled 19 Gold, 14 Platinum and 7 Multi-Platinum albums. She was the first female in music history to score three consecutive platinum albums and ultimately racked up a total of eight consecutive platinum albums. Her album Living in the USA was the first album by any recording artist in U.S. music history to ship double platinum (over two million advanced copies). Her first Latin release, the all-Spanish 1987 album Canciones De Mi Padre, stands as the best-selling non-English-language album in American music history. As of 2013, it had sold over 2½ million U.S. copies.
Ronstadt has served as producer on albums from various musicians that include her cousin, David Lindley, Aaron Neville and singer-songwriter Jimmy Webb. She produced Cristal – Glass Music Through the Ages, an album of classical music using glass instruments with Dennis James, where she sang on several of the arrangements. In 1999, Ronstadt also produced the Grammy Award-winning Trio II. She has received a total of 27 Grammy Award nominations in various fields that include rock, country, pop and Tropical Latin, and has won 11 Grammy Awards in the categories of Pop, Country, Tropical Latin, Musical Album for Children and Mexican-American. In 2016, Ronstadt was again honored by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences with the Lifetime Achievement Grammy.
She was the first female solo artist to have two Top 5 singles simultaneously on Billboard magazine's Hot 100: "Blue Bayou" and "It's So Easy". By December of that year, both "Blue Bayou" and "It's So Easy" had climbed into Billboards Top 5 and remained there for the month's last four weeks. In 1999, Ronstadt ranked number 21 in VH1's 100 Greatest Women of Rock & Roll. Three years later, she ranked number 40 in CMT's 40 Greatest Women in Country Music.
Personal life
Beginning in the mid-1970s, Ronstadt's private life became increasingly public. It was fueled by a relationship with then-Governor of California Jerry Brown, a Democratic presidential candidate. They shared a Newsweek magazine cover in April 1979, as well as the covers of Us Weekly and People magazine.
In 1983, Linda Ronstadt dated comedian Jim Carrey for eight months. From the end of 1983 to 1988, Ronstadt was engaged to Star Wars director George Lucas.
In December 1990, she adopted an infant daughter, Mary Clementine Ronstadt. In 1994, she adopted a baby boy, Carlos Ronstadt. Ronstadt has never married. Speaking of finding an acceptable mate, in 1974 she told Peter Knobler in Crawdaddy, "... he's real kind but isn't inspired musically and then you meet somebody else that's just so inspired musically that he just takes your breath away but he's such a moron, such a maniac that you can't get along with him. And then after that it's the problem of finding someone that can stand you!"
After living in Los Angeles for 30 years, Ronstadt moved to San Francisco because she said she never felt at home in Southern California. "Los Angeles became too enclosing an environment", she says. "I couldn't breathe the air and I didn't want to drive on the freeways to get to the studio. I also didn't want to embrace the values that have been so completely embraced by that city. Are you glamorous? Are you rich? Are you important? Do you have clout? It's just not me and it never was me." In 1997, Ronstadt sold her home in San Francisco and moved back to her hometown of Tucson, Arizona, to raise her two children. In more recent years, Ronstadt moved back to San Francisco while continuing to maintain her home in Tucson.
In 2009, in honor of Ronstadt, the Martin Guitar Company made a 0042 model "Linda Ronstadt Limited Edition" acoustic guitar. Ronstadt appointed the Land Institute as recipient of all proceeds from her signature guitar.
In 2013, Simon & Schuster published her autobiography, Simple Dreams: A Musical Memoir, as well as the Spanish version, Sueños SencillosMemorias Musicales.
In August 2013, Ronstadt revealed she was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, leaving her unable to sing due to loss of muscular control, which is common to Parkinson's patients. She was diagnosed eight months prior to the announcement and had initially attributed the symptoms she had been experiencing to the aftereffects of shoulder surgery and a tick bite. In late 2019, it was reported her doctors had revised their diagnosis to progressive supranuclear palsy, a degenerative disease commonly mistaken for Parkinson's due to the similarity of the symptoms.
Ronstadt describes herself as a "spiritual atheist".
Political activism
Ronstadt's politics received criticism and praise during and after her July 17, 2004, performance at the Aladdin Theatre for the Performing Arts in Las Vegas. Toward the end of the show, as she had done across the country, Ronstadt spoke to the audience, praising Fahrenheit 9/11, Michael Moore's documentary film about the Iraq War; she dedicated the song "Desperado" to Moore. Accounts say the crowd's initial reaction was mixed, with "half the crowd heartily applauding her praise for Moore, (and) the other half booing."
Following the concert, news accounts reported Ronstadt was "evicted" from the hotel premises. Ronstadt's comments, as well as the reactions of some audience members and the hotel, became a topic of discussion nationwide. Aladdin casino president Bill Timmins and Michael Moore each made public statements about the controversy.
The incident prompted international headlines and debate on an entertainer's right to express a political opinion from the stage and made the editorial section of The New York Times. Following the incident, many friends of Ronstadt's, including the Eagles, immediately cancelled their engagements at the Aladdin. Ronstadt also received telegrams of support from her rock 'n' roll friends around the world like the Rolling Stones, the Eagles and Elton John. Amid reports of mixed public response, Ronstadt continued her praise of Moore and his film throughout her 2004 and 2006 summer concerts across North America.
At a 2006 concert in Canada, Ronstadt told the Calgary Sun that she was "embarrassed George Bush (was) from the United States. ... He's an idiot. ... He's enormously incompetent on both the domestic and international scenes. ... Now the fact that we were lied to about the reasons for entering into war against Iraq and thousands of people have diedit's just as immoral as racism." Her remarks drew international headlines. In an August 14, 2007, interview, she commented on all her well-publicized, outspoken views, in particular the Aladdin incident, by noting, "If I had it to do over I would be much more gracious to everyone ... you can be as outspoken as you want if you are very, very respectful. Show some grace".
In 2007, Ronstadt resided in San Francisco while also maintaining her home in Tucson. That same year, she drew criticism and praise from Tucsonans for commenting that local city council's failings, developers' strip mall mentality, greed and growing dust problem had rendered the city unrecognizable and poorly developed.
In August 2009, Ronstadt, in a well-publicized interview to PlanetOut Inc. titled "Linda Ronstadt's Gay Mission", championed gay rights and same-sex marriage, and stated "homophobia is anti-family values. Period, end of story."
On January 16, 2010, Ronstadt converged with thousands of other activists in a "National Day of Action". Ronstadt stated that her "dog in the fight"as a native Arizonan and coming from a law enforcement familywas the treatment of illegal aliens and Arizona's enforcement of its illegal immigrant law, especially Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's efforts in that area.
On April 29, 2010, Ronstadt began a campaign, including joining a lawsuit, against Arizona's new illegal-immigration law SB 1070 calling it a "devastating blow to law enforcement ... the police don't protect us in a democracy with brute force", something she said she learned from her brother, Peter, who was Chief of Police in Tucson.
Ronstadt has also been outspoken on environmental and community issues. She is a major supporter and admirer of sustainable agriculture pioneer Wes Jackson, saying in 2000, "the work he's doing right now is the most important work there is in the (United States)", and dedicating the rock anthem "Desperado" to him at an August 2007 concert in Kansas City, Kansas.
National arts advocacy
In 2004, Ronstadt wrote the foreword to the book The NPR Curious Listener's Guide to American Folk Music, and in 2005, she wrote the introduction to the book Classic Ferrington Guitars, about guitar-maker and luthier Danny Ferrington and the custom guitars that he created for Ronstadt and other musicians such as Elvis Costello, Ry Cooder, and Kurt Cobain.
Ronstadt has been honored for her contribution to the American arts. On September 23, 2007, she was inducted into the Arizona Music & Entertainment Hall of Fame, along with Stevie Nicks, Buck Owens, and filmmaker Steven Spielberg. On August 17, 2008, Ronstadt received a tribute by various artists, including BeBe Winans and Wynonna Judd, when she was honored with the Trailblazer Award, presented to her by Plácido Domingo at the 2008 ALMA Awards, a ceremony later televised in the U.S. on ABC.
In 2008, Ronstadt was appointed Artistic Director of the San José Mariachi and Mexican Heritage Festival. On March 31, 2009, in testimony that the Los Angeles Times termed "remarkable", Ronstadt spoke to the United States Congress House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment & Related Agencies, attempting to convince lawmakers to budget $200 million in the 2010 fiscal year for the National Endowment of the Arts.
In May 2009, Ronstadt received an honorary doctorate of music degree from the Berklee College of Music for her achievements and influence in music and her contributions to American and international culture. Mix magazine stated that "Linda Ronstadt (has) left her mark on more than the record business; her devotion to the craft of singing influenced many audio professionals ... (and is) intensely knowledgeable about the mechanics of singing and the cultural contexts of every genre she passes".
Awards and nominations
Grammy Awards
In 1981 the album In Harmony: A Sesame Street Record won the Grammy for Best Album for Children. Ronstadt was one of the various artists featured on the album. The Grammys were awarded to the producers, David Levine and Lucy Simon.
Latin Grammy Awards
Primetime Emmy Awards
Tony Awards
Golden Globe Awards
1983Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical or Comedy, Linda Ronstadt in The Pirates of Penzance
Arizona Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame
2007Inducted for her significant impact on the evolution and development of the entertainment culture in the state of Arizona
Academy of Country Music
1974Best New Female Artist
1987Album of the Year/ Trio, Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris
Country Music Association
1988Vocal Event of the Year / Trio, Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris
American Latino Media Arts
2008Trailblazer Award for Contribution to American Music
Lo Nuestro nominations
1989Regional Mexican Female Artist, Regional Mexican Album (Canciones de Mi Padre), and Crossover Artist
1992Regional Mexican Female Artist
1993Tropical Female Artist, Regional Mexican Female Artist, and Tropical Song ("Perfidia").
Kennedy Center
2019 Kennedy Center Honoree
Discography
Studio albums
Hand Sown ... Home Grown (1969)
Silk Purse (1970)
Linda Ronstadt (1972)
Don't Cry Now (1973)
Heart Like a Wheel (1974)
Prisoner in Disguise (1975)
Hasten Down the Wind (1976)
Simple Dreams (1977)
Living in the USA (1978)
Mad Love (1980)
Get Closer (1982)
What's New (1983)
Lush Life (1984)
For Sentimental Reasons (1986)
Canciones de Mi Padre (1987)
Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind (1989)
Mas Canciones (1991)
Frenesí (1992)
Winter Light (1993)
Feels Like Home (1995)
Dedicated to the One I Love (1996)
We Ran (1998)
A Merry Little Christmas (2000)
Hummin' to Myself (2004)
Live albums
Live in Hollywood (2019)
Duets and trios
Trio (1987) (Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton, and Linda Ronstadt)
Trio II (1999) (Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton, and Linda Ronstadt)
Western Wall: The Tucson Sessions (1999) (with Emmylou Harris)
Adieu False Heart (2006) (with Ann Savoy)
The Complete Trio Collection (2016) (Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton, and Linda Ronstadt)
Compilation albums
Different Drum (1974) – The first compilation album of Ronstadt's work released by Capitol
Greatest Hits (1976)
A Retrospective (1977)
Greatest Hits, Volume 2 (1980)
'Round Midnight (1986) – 2-CD set
The Linda Ronstadt Box Set (1999) – 4-CD set
The Very Best of Linda Ronstadt (2002) – Billboard No. 19 Country Album
Mi Jardin Azul: Las Canciones Favoritas (2004)
The Best of Linda Ronstadt: The Capitol Years (2006) – 2-CD set
Standards with Nelson Riddle Orchestra (2008)
The Collection (2011) – British 2-CD set
Duets (2014)
Just One Look: Classic Linda Ronstadt (2015)
Like A Rose: The Classic 1976 Broadcast Recording (2021)
Spanish-language albums
Canciones de Mi Padre (1987) - (English translation: "Songs of My Father") - Best Mexican-American Performance Grammy Award winner (1989)
Mas Canciones (1991) - (English translation: "More Songs") - Best Mexican-American Album Grammy Award winner (1993)
Frenesí (1992) - (English translation: "Frenzy") - Best Tropical Latin Album Grammy Award winner (1993)
Mi Jardin Azul: Las Canciones Favoritas (2004) - Compilation (English translation: "My Blue Garden: The Favorite Songs")
Filmography
Book
See also
Notes
References
External links
Official website
Image of Linda Ronstadt reclining on a porch railing in Los Angeles, California, 1974. Los Angeles Times Photographic Archive (Collection 1429). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners
United States National Medal of Arts recipients
1946 births
Living people
Actresses from Tucson, Arizona
American actresses of Mexican descent
American alternative country singers
American atheists
American country rock singers
American country singer-songwriters
American women country singers
American women rock singers
American women singer-songwriters
American film actresses
American memoirists
Women in Latin music
American multi-instrumentalists
American musical theatre actresses
American musicians of Mexican descent
American performers of Latin music
American pop rock singers
American stage actresses
American television actresses
American writers of Mexican descent
Big band singers
Cajun musicians
Feminist musicians
Rock and roll musicians
Grammy Award winners
Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners
Hispanic and Latino American women singers
Hispanic and Latino American musicians
Primetime Emmy Award winners
Spanish-language singers of the United States
American women memoirists
Asylum Records artists
Capitol Records artists
Vanguard Records artists
Verve Records artists
American people of Canadian descent
American people of Dutch descent
American people of English descent
American people of German descent
Arizona Democrats
Country musicians from Arizona
Country musicians from California
Musicians from San Francisco
Musicians from Tucson, Arizona
Record producers from Arizona
Record producers from California
Singers from Los Angeles
Writers from Los Angeles
Writers from San Francisco
Writers from Tucson, Arizona
20th-century American actresses
21st-century American actresses
20th-century American singers
21st-century American singers
20th-century American non-fiction writers
21st-century American non-fiction writers
20th-century American composers
21st-century American composers
20th-century American women singers
20th-century American women writers
21st-century American women writers
21st-century American women singers
American women record producers
Jerry Brown
American country guitarists
American acoustic guitarists
American women guitarists
Guitarists from Arizona
Guitarists from Los Angeles
Tambourine players
20th-century women composers
21st-century women composers
Chicano rock musicians
Traditional pop music singers
Singer-songwriters from California
Singer-songwriters from Arizona | true | [
"Nisha Krishnan is an Indian film and television actress who has appeared in Tamil films and serials. After making her breakthrough portraying Draupadi in the TV series Mahabharatham and hosting shows such as Surya Vanakkam on Sun TV, she has gone on to appear in supporting roles in feature films.\n\nCareer\nNisha started her acting as a college student in Vijay TV's Kana Kannum Kalangal Kalloriyin Kadhai and later appeared in Saravanan Meenatchi as Thenmozhi. Nisha Krishnan made her breakthrough portraying Draupadi in the TV series Mahabharatham and subsequently went on to host shows such as Surya Vanakkam, Kitchen Galatta and Sun Singer (Season- 2) and appeared in the TV series Deivamagal as Ragini on Sun TV.\n\nAs a media student, she was actively involved in short film-making during her education and collaborated with them when making the films Bench Talkies - The First Bench (2015) and Chennai Ungalai Anbudan Varaverkirathu (2015). She has also gone on to appear in supporting roles in feature films, notably portraying roles in Ivan Veramathiri (2013) and Naan Sigappu Manithan (2014).\n\nPersonal life\nNisha Krishnan got engaged to actor Ganesh Venkatraman in February 2015, and the pair got married on 22 November 2015.In June 2019 she gave birth to their first child Samaira.\n\nFilmography\n\nTelevision \nSerials\n\nShows\n\nReferences\n\nTamil television actresses\nActresses in Tamil television\nIndian film actresses\nTamil actresses\nLiving people\nIndian VJs (media personalities)\nActresses from Chennai\nYear of birth missing (living people)",
"Primi Townsend (born 2 March 1951) is a British actress.\n\nShe was a regular cast member on the sitcom Lame Ducks and is also remembered for her role in the Doctor Who serial The Pirate Planet.\n\nOther TV credits include: Z-Cars, Minder, 1990, Blake's 7 and Bergerac and a major role in TV series written by Ted Whitehead \"Worlds End\" 13 eps on BBC 2\n\nShe recently appeared recounting her appearance in Doctor Who in a documentary on the season 16 story The Pirate Planet, which was released in 2007.\n\nPrimi appeared in many stage shows, both West End and regional, as well as touring overseas. She played the part of \"Rita\" in Educating Rita opposite Gareth Thomas, who had portrayed the character Blake in Blake's 7 (although they did not appear in the series together).\n\nTelevision\n\nFilm\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n\nBritish television actresses\nLiving people\n1951 births"
]
|
[
"Linda Ronstadt",
"Career summary",
"What did Linda Ronstadt do after the 1960s?",
"Ronstadt joined forces with Bobby Kimmel and Kenny Edwards and became the lead singer of a folk-rock trio, the Stone Poneys.",
"Was she with the trio a long time?",
"as a solo artist, she released Hand Sown ... Home Grown in 1969,",
"What did she do after 1969 with her career?",
"Ronstadt actively toured with the Doors, Neil Young, Jackson Browne, and others, appeared numerous times on television shows, and began to contribute her singing to albums by other artists.",
"What tv shows did she appear on?",
"The Pirates of Penzance,"
]
| C_70757043f51f42d0bbea7205aa5d0e84_1 | Did she sing with any other artists? | 5 | Did Linda Ronstadt sing with any other artists other than Bobby Kimmel and Kenny Edwards? | Linda Ronstadt | Establishing her professional career in the mid-1960s at the forefront of California's emerging folk rock and country rock movements - genres which defined post-1960s rock music - Ronstadt joined forces with Bobby Kimmel and Kenny Edwards and became the lead singer of a folk-rock trio, the Stone Poneys. Later, as a solo artist, she released Hand Sown ... Home Grown in 1969, which has been described as the first alternative country record by a female recording artist. Although fame eluded her during these years, Ronstadt actively toured with the Doors, Neil Young, Jackson Browne, and others, appeared numerous times on television shows, and began to contribute her singing to albums by other artists. With the release of chart-topping albums such as Heart Like a Wheel, Simple Dreams, and Living in the USA, Ronstadt became the first female "arena class" rock star. She set records as one of the top-grossing concert artists of the decade. Referred to as the "First Lady of Rock" and the "Queen of Rock", Ronstadt was voted the Top Female Pop Singer of the 1970s. Her rock-and-roll image was as famous as her music; she appeared six times on the cover of Rolling Stone and on the covers of Newsweek and Time. In the 1980s, Ronstadt went to Broadway and garnered a Tony nomination for her performance in The Pirates of Penzance, teamed with the composer Philip Glass, recorded traditional music, and collaborated with the conductor Nelson Riddle, an event at that time viewed as an original and unorthodox move for a rock-and-roll artist. This venture paid off, and Ronstadt remained one of the music industry's best-selling acts throughout the 1980s, with multi-platinum-selling albums such as What's New, Canciones de Mi Padre, and Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind. She continued to tour, collaborate, and record celebrated albums, such as Winter Light and Hummin' to Myself, until her retirement in 2011. Most of Ronstadt's albums are certified gold, platinum, or multi-platinum. Having sold in excess of 100 million records worldwide and setting records as one of the top-grossing concert performers for over a decade, Ronstadt was the most successful female singer of the 1970s and stands as one of the most successful female recording artists in U.S. history. Ronstadt opened many doors for women in rock and roll and other musical genres by championing songwriters and musicians, pioneering her chart success onto the concert circuit, and being at the vanguard of many musical movements. CANNOTANSWER | Ronstadt actively toured with the Doors, Neil Young, Jackson Browne, and others, | Linda Maria Ronstadt (born July 15, 1946) is a retired American singer who performed and recorded in diverse genres including rock, country, light opera, and Latin. She has earned 11 Grammy Awards, three American Music Awards, two Academy of Country Music awards, an Emmy Award, and an ALMA Award. Many of her albums have been certified gold, platinum or multiplatinum in the United States and internationally. She has also earned nominations for a Tony Award and a Golden Globe award. She was awarded the Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award by the Latin Recording Academy in 2011 and also awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award by the Recording Academy in 2016. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April 2014. On July 28, 2014, she was awarded the National Medal of Arts and Humanities. In 2019, she received a star jointly with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for their work as the group Trio. Ronstadt was among five honorees who received the 2019 Kennedy Center Honors for lifetime artistic achievements.
Ronstadt has released 24 studio albums and 15 compilation or greatest hits albums. She charted 38 US Billboard Hot 100 singles. Twenty-one of those singles reached the top 40, ten reached the top 10, and one reached number one ("You're No Good"). Ronstadt also charted in UK as two of her duets, "Somewhere Out There" with James Ingram and "Don't Know Much" with Aaron Neville, peaked at numbers 8 and 2 respectively and the single "Blue Bayou" reached number 35 on the UK Singles charts. She has charted 36 albums, ten top-10 albums, and three number 1 albums on the US Billboard Pop Album Chart.
Ronstadt has collaborated with artists in diverse genres, including: Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, Bette Midler, Billy Eckstine, Frank Zappa, Carla Bley (Escalator Over the Hill), Rosemary Clooney, Flaco Jiménez, Philip Glass, Warren Zevon, Gram Parsons, Neil Young, Paul Simon, Earl Scruggs, Johnny Cash, and Nelson Riddle. She has lent her voice to over 120 albums and has sold more than 100 million records, making her one of the world's best-selling artists of all time. Christopher Loudon, of Jazz Times, wrote in 2004 that Ronstadt is "blessed with arguably the most sterling set of pipes of her generation."
Ronstadt reduced her activity after 2000 when she felt her singing voice deteriorating, releasing her last full-length album in 2004 and performing her last live concert in 2009. She announced her retirement in 2011 and revealed shortly afterwards that she is no longer able to sing as a result of a degenerative condition later determined to be progressive supranuclear palsy. Since then, Ronstadt has continued to make public appearances, going on a number of public speaking tours in the 2010s. She published an autobiography, Simple Dreams: A Musical Memoir, in September 2013. A documentary based on her memoirs, Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice, was released in 2019.
Early life
Linda Maria Ronstadt was born in Tucson, Arizona, on July 15, 1946, the third of four children of Gilbert Ronstadt (19111995), a prosperous machinery merchant who ran the F. Ronstadt Co., and Ruth Mary (née Copeman) Ronstadt (19141982), a homemaker.
Ronstadt was raised on the family's ranch with her siblings Peter (who served as Tucson's Chief of Police for ten years, 19811991), Michael, and Gretchen. The family was featured in Family Circle magazine in 1953.
Ronstadt family history
Ronstadt's father came from a pioneering Arizona ranching family and was of German and Mexican ancestry. The family's influence on and contributions to Arizona's history, including wagon making, commerce, pharmacies, and music, are chronicled in the library of the University of Arizona. Her great-grandfather, graduate engineer Friedrich August Ronstadt (who went by Federico Augusto Ronstadt) immigrated to the Southwest (then a part of Mexico) in the 1840s from Hanover, Germany, and married a Mexican citizen, eventually settling in Tucson. In 1991, the City of Tucson opened its central transit terminal on March 16 and dedicated it to Linda's grandfather, Federico José María Ronstadt, a local pioneer businessman; he was a wagon maker whose early contribution to the city's mobility included six mule-drawn streetcars delivered in 190304.
Ronstadt's mother Ruth Mary, of German, English, and Dutch ancestry, was raised in Flint, Michigan. Ruth Mary's father, Lloyd Groff Copeman, a prolific inventor and holder of nearly 700 patents, invented an early form of the electric toaster, many refrigerator devices, the grease gun, the first electric stove, and an early form of the microwave oven. His flexible rubber ice cube tray earned him millions of dollars in royalties.
Career summary
Establishing her professional career in the mid-1960s at the forefront of California's emerging folk rock and country rock movementsgenres which defined post-1960s rock musicRonstadt joined forces with Bobby Kimmel and Kenny Edwards and became the lead singer of a folk-rock trio, the Stone Poneys. Later, as a solo artist, she released Hand Sown ... Home Grown in 1969, which has been described as the first alternative country record by a female recording artist. Although fame eluded her during these years, Ronstadt actively toured with the Doors, Neil Young, Jackson Browne, and others, appeared numerous times on television shows, and began to contribute her singing to albums by other artists.
With the release of chart-topping albums such as Heart Like a Wheel, Simple Dreams, and Living in the USA, Ronstadt became the first female "arena class" rock star. She set records as one of the top-grossing concert artists of the decade. Referred to as the "First Lady of Rock" and the "Queen of Rock", Ronstadt was voted the Top Female Pop Singer of the 1970s. Her rock-and-roll image was as famous as her music; she appeared six times on the cover of Rolling Stone and on the covers of Newsweek and Time.
In the 1980s, Ronstadt performed on Broadway and received a Tony nomination for her performance in The Pirates of Penzance, teamed with the composer Philip Glass, recorded traditional music, and collaborated with the conductor Nelson Riddle, an event at that time viewed as an original and unorthodox move for a rock-and-roll artist. This venture paid off, and Ronstadt remained one of the music industry's best-selling acts throughout the 1980s, with multi-platinum-selling albums such as Mad Love, What's New, Canciones de Mi Padre, and Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind. She continued to tour, collaborate, and record celebrated albums, such as Winter Light and Hummin' to Myself, until her retirement in 2011.
Most of Ronstadt's albums are certified gold, platinum, or multi-platinum. Having sold in excess of 100 million records worldwide and setting records as one of the top-grossing concert performers for over a decade, Ronstadt was the most successful female singer of the 1970s and stands as one of the most successful female recording artists in U.S. history. She opened many doors for women in rock and roll and other musical genres by championing songwriters and musicians, pioneering her chart success onto the concert circuit, and being in the vanguard of many musical movements.
Career overview
Early influences
Ronstadt's early family life was filled with music and tradition, which influenced the stylistic and musical choices she later made in her career. Growing up, she listened to many types of music, including Mexican music, which was sung by her entire family and was a staple in her childhood.
Ronstadt has remarked that everything she has recorded on her own recordsrock and roll, rhythm and blues, gospel, opera, country, choral, and mariachiis all music she heard her family sing in their living room or heard played on the radio, by the age of 10. She credits her mother for her appreciation of Gilbert and Sullivan and her father for introducing her to the traditional pop and Great American Songbook repertoire that she would, in turn, help reintroduce to an entire generation.
Early on, her singing style had been influenced by singers such as Lola Beltrán and Édith Piaf; she has called their singing and rhythms "more like Greek music ... It's sort of like 6/8 time signature ... very hard driving and very intense." She also drew influence from country singer Hank Williams.
She has said that "all girl singers" eventually "have to curtsy to Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday". Of Maria Callas, Ronstadt says, "There's no one in her league. That's it. Period. I learn more ... about singing rock n roll from listening to Maria Callas records than I ever would from listening to pop music for a month of Sundays. ... She's the greatest chick singer ever." She admires Callas for her musicianship and her attempts to push 20th-century singing, particularly opera, back into the bel canto "natural style of singing".
A self-described product of American radio of the 1950s and 1960s, Ronstadt is a fan of its eclectic and diverse music programming.
Beginning of professional career
At age 14, Ronstadt formed a folk trio with her brother Peter and sister Gretchen. The group played coffeehouses, fraternity houses, and other small venues, billing themselves as "the Union City Ramblers" and "the Three Ronstadts", and they even recorded themselves at a Tucson studio under the name "the New Union Ramblers". Their repertoire included the music they grew up onfolk, country, bluegrass, and Mexican. But increasingly, Ronstadt wanted to make a union of folk music and rock 'n' roll, and in 1964, after a semester at Arizona State University, the 18-year-old decided to move to Los Angeles.
The Stone Poneys
Ronstadt visited a friend from Tucson, Bobby Kimmel, in Los Angeles during Easter break from college in 1964, and later that year, shortly before her eighteenth birthday, decided to move there permanently to form a band with him. Kimmel had already begun co-writing folk-rock songs with guitarist-songwriter Kenny Edwards, and eventually the three of them were signed by Nik Venet to Capitol in the summer of 1966 as "the Stone Poneys". The trio released three albums in a 15-month period in 196768: The Stone Poneys; Evergreen, Volume 2; and Linda Ronstadt, Stone Poneys and Friends, Vol. III. The band is widely known for their hit single "Different Drum" (written by Michael Nesmith prior to his joining the Monkees), which reached number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart as well as number 12 in Cashbox magazine. Nearly 50 years later, the song remains one of Ronstadt's most popular recordings.
Solo career
Still contractually obligated to Capitol Records, Ronstadt released her first solo album, Hand Sown ... Home Grown, in 1969. It has been called the first alternative country record by a female recording artist. During this same period, she contributed to the Music from Free Creek "super session" project.
Ronstadt provided the vocals for some commercials during this period, including one for Remington electric razors, in which a multitracked Ronstadt and Frank Zappa claimed that the electric razor "cleans you, thrills you ... may even keep you from getting busted".
Ronstadt's second solo album, Silk Purse, was released in March 1970. Recorded entirely in Nashville, it was produced by Elliot Mazer, whom Ronstadt chose on the advice of Janis Joplin, who had worked with him on the Cheap Thrills album. The Silk Purse album cover showed Ronstadt in a muddy pigpen, while the back and inside cover depicted her onstage wearing bright red. Ronstadt has stated that she was not pleased with the album, although it provided her with her first solo hit, the multi-format single "Long, Long Time", and earned her first Grammy nomination (for Best Contemporary Vocal Performance/Female).
Touring
In 1975, Ronstadt performed shows with Jackson Browne, the Eagles, and Toots and the Maytals. In a 1976 Rolling Stone interview with Cameron Crowe, Ronstadt said, "they haven't invented a word for that loneliness that everybody goes through on the road. The world is tearing by you, real fast, and all these people are looking at you. ... People see me in my 'girl-singer' suit." In 1974 she told Peter Knobler in Crawdaddy, "People are always taking advantage of you; everybody that's interested in you has got an angle."
Several years before Ronstadt became what author Gerri Hirshey called the first "arena-class rock diva" with "hugely anticipated tours" she began her solo career touring the North American concert circuit. But being on the road took its toll both emotionally and professionally. There were few "girl singers" on the rock circuit at the time, and they were relegated to "groupie level when in a crowd of a bunch of rock and roll guys", a status Ronstadt avoided. Relating to men on a professional level as fellow musicians led to competition, insecurity, bad romances, and a series of boyfriend-managers. At the time, she admired singers like Maria Muldaur for not sacrificing their femininity but says she felt enormous self-imposed pressure to compete with "the boys" at every level. She noted in a 1969 interview in Fusion magazine that it was difficult being a single "chick singer" with an all-male backup band. According to her, it was difficult to get a band of backing musicians because of their ego problem of being labeled sidemen for a female singer.
Soon after she went solo in the late 1960s, one of her first backing bands was the pioneering country-rock band Swampwater, which combined Cajun and swamp-rock elements in their music. Its members included Cajun fiddler Gib Guilbeau and John Beland, who later joined the Flying Burrito Brothers, as well as Stan Pratt, Thad Maxwell, and Eric White, brother of Clarence White of the Byrds. Swampwater went on to back Ronstadt during TV appearances on The Johnny Cash Show and The Mike Douglas Show, and at the Big Sur Folk Festival.
Another backing band included Don Henley, Glenn Frey, Bernie Leadon, and Randy Meisner, who went on to form the Eagles. They toured with her for a short period in 1971 and played on Linda Ronstadt, her self-titled third album, from which the failed single, Ronstadt's version of Browne's "Rock Me on the Water", was drawn. At this stage, Ronstadt began working with producer and boyfriend John Boylan. She said, "As soon as I started working with John Boylan, I started co-producing myself. I was always a part of my productions. But I always needed a producer who would carry out my whims." Also in 1971, Ronstadt began talking with David Geffen about moving from Capitol Records to Geffen's Asylum Records label.
Collaborations with Peter Asher
Ronstadt began her fourth solo album, Don't Cry Now, in 1973, with Boylan (who had negotiated her contract with Asylum Records) and John David "J.D." Souther producing most of the album's tracks. But needing someone willing to work with her as an equal, Ronstadt asked Peter Asher, who came highly recommended to her by James Taylor's sister Kate Taylor, to help produce two of them: "Sail Away" and "I Believe in You".
The album featured Ronstadt's first country hit, "Silver Threads and Golden Needles", which she had first recorded on Hand Sown ... Home Grownthis time hitting the Country Top 20.
With the release of Don't Cry Now, Ronstadt took on her biggest gig to date as the opening act on Neil Young's Time Fades Away tour, playing for larger crowds than ever before. Backstage at a concert in Texas, Chris Hillman introduced her to Emmylou Harris, telling them, "You two could be good friends", which soon occurred, resulting in frequent collaborations over the following years. Meanwhile, the album became Ronstadt's most successful up to that time, selling 300,000 copies by the end of 1974.
Asher turned out to be more collaborative, and more on the same page with her musically, than any producer she had worked with previously. Ronstadt's professional relationship with Asher allowed her to take command and effectively delegate responsibilities in the recording studio. Although hesitant at first to work with her because of her reputation for being a "woman of strong opinions (who) knew what she wanted to do (with her career)", he nonetheless agreed to become her full-time producer, and remained in that role through the late 1980s. Asher attributed the long-term success of his working relationship with Ronstadt to the fact that he was the first person to manage and produce her with whom there was a solely professional relationship. "It must be a lot harder to have objective conversations about someone's career when it's someone you sleep with", he said.
Asher executive produced a tribute CD called Listen to Me: Buddy Holly, released September 6, 2011, on which Ronstadt's 1976 version of Buddy Holly's "That'll Be The Day" appears among newly recorded versions of Holly's songs by various artists.
Vocal styles
Ronstadt captured the sounds of country music and the rhythms of ranchera musicwhich she likened in 1968 to "Mexican bluegrass"and redirected them into her rock 'n' roll and some of her pop music. Many of these rhythms and sounds were part of her Southwestern roots. Likewise, a country sound and style, a fusion of country music and rock 'n' roll called country rock, started to exert its influence on mainstream pop music around the late 1960s, and it became an emerging movement Ronstadt helped form and commercialize. However, as early as 1970, Ronstadt was being criticized by music "purists" for her "brand of music" which crossed many genres. Country Western Stars magazine wrote in 1970 that "Rock people thought she was too gentle, folk people thought she was too pop, and pop people didn't quite understand where she was at, but Country people really loved Linda." She never categorized herself and stuck to her genre-crossing brand of music.
Interpretive singer
Ronstadt is considered an "interpreter of her times", and has earned praise for her courage to put her "stamp" on many of her songs. Nevertheless, her hits were criticized in some quarters for being cover songs. Ronstadt herself has indicated that some of her 1970s hits were recorded under considerable pressure to create commercially successful recordings, and that she prefers many of her songs that were non-hit album tracks. An infrequent songwriter, Ronstadt co-composed only three songs over her long career.
Ronstadt's natural vocal range spans several octaves from contralto to soprano, and occasionally she will showcase this entire range within a single work. Ronstadt was the first female artist in popular music history to accumulate four consecutive platinum albums (fourteen certified million selling, to date). As for the singles, Rolling Stone pointed out that a whole generation, "but for her, might never have heard the work of artists such as Buddy Holly, Elvis Costello, and Chuck Berry."
Others have argued that Ronstadt had the same generational effect with her Great American Songbook music, exposing a whole new generation to the music of the 1920s and 1930smusic which was pushed aside because of the advent of rock 'n' roll. When interpreting, Ronstadt said she "sticks to what the music demands", in terms of lyrics. Explaining that rock and roll music is part of her culture, she says that the songs she sang after her rock and roll hits were part of her soul. "The (Mariachi music) was my father's side of the soul," she was quoted as saying in a 1998 interview she gave at her Tucson home. "My mother's side of my soul was the Nelson Riddle stuff. And I had to do them both to reestablish who I was."
In the 1974 book Rock 'N' Roll Woman, author Katherine Orloff writes that Ronstadt's "own musical preferences run strongly to rhythm and blues, the type of music she most frequently chooses to listen to ... (and) her goal is to ... be soulful too. With this in mind, Ronstadt fuses country and rock into a special union."
By this stage of her career, Ronstadt had established her niche in the field of country-rock. Along with other musicians such as the Flying Burrito Brothers, Emmylou Harris, Gram Parsons, Swampwater, Neil Young, and the Eagles, she helped free country music from stereotypes and showed rockers that country was okay. However, she stated that she was being pushed hard into singing more rock and roll.
Most successful female singer of the 1970s
Author Andrew Greeley, in his book God in Popular Culture, described Ronstadt as "the most successful and certainly the most durable and most gifted woman Rock singer of her era." Signaling her wide popularity as a concert artist, outside of the singles charts and the recording studio, Dirty Linen magazine describes her as the "first true woman rock 'n' roll superstar ... (selling) out stadiums with a string of mega-successful albums." Amazon.com defines her as the American female rock superstar of the decade. Cashbox gave Ronstadt a Special Decade Award, as the top-selling female singer of the 1970s.
Her album covers, posters, magazine coversher entire rock 'n' roll imagewere as famous as her music. By the end of the decade, the singer whom the Chicago Sun Times described as the "Dean of the 1970s school of female rock singers" became what Redbook called "the most successful female rock star in the world." "Female" was the important qualifier, according to Time magazine, which labeled her "a rarity ... to (have survived) ... in the shark-infested deeps of rock."
Although Ronstadt had been a cult favorite on the music scene for several years, 1975 was "remembered in the music biz as the year when 29-year-old Linda Ronstadt belatedly happened."
With the release of Heart Like a Wheelnamed after one of the album's songs, written by Anna McGarrigleRonstadt reached number 1 on the Billboard 200 chart; it was also the first of four number 1 Country Albums, and the disc was certified double-platinum (over two million copies sold in the U.S.). In many instances, her own interpretations were more successful than the original recordings, and many times new songwriters were discovered by a larger audience as a result of her interpretation and recording. Ronstadt had major success interpreting songs from a diverse spectrum of artists.
Heart Like a Wheels first single release, "You're No Good"a rockified version of an R&B song written by Clint Ballard, Jr. that Ronstadt had initially resisted because Andrew Gold's guitar tracks sounded too much like a "Beatles song" to herclimbed to number 1 on both the Billboard and Cash Box Pop singles charts. The album's second single release, "When Will I Be Loved"an uptempo country-rock version of a Top 10 Everly Brothers songhit number 1 in Cashbox and number 2 in Billboard. The song was also Ronstadt's first number 1 country hit.
The album's critical and commercial success was due to a fine presentation of country and rock, with Heart Like a Wheel her first of many major commercial successes that would set her on the path to being one of the best-selling female artists of all time. Ronstadt won her first Grammy Award for Best Country Vocal Performance/Female for "I Can't Help It (If I'm Still in Love with You)" which was originally a 1940s hit by Hank Williams. Ronstadt's interpretation peaked at number 2 on the country chart. The album itself was nominated for the Album of the Year Grammy.
Rolling Stone put Ronstadt on its cover in March 1975. It was the first of six Rolling Stone covers shot by photographer Annie Leibovitz. It included her as the featured artist with a full photo layout and an article by Ben Fong-Torres, discussing Ronstadt's many struggling years in rock n roll, as well as her home life and what it was like to be a woman on tour in a decidedly all-male environment.
In September 1975, Ronstadt's album Prisoner in Disguise was released. It quickly climbed into the Top Five on the Billboard Album Chart and sold over a million copies. It became her second in a row to go platinum, "a grand slam" in the same year (Ronstadt would eventually become the first female artist in popular music history to have three consecutive platinum albums and would ultimately go on to have eight consecutive platinum albums, and then another six between 1983 and 1990). The disc's first single release was "Love Is A Rose". It was climbing the pop and country charts but "Heat Wave", a rockified version of the 1963 hit by Martha and the Vandellas, was receiving considerable airplay. Asylum pulled the "Love Is a Rose" single and issued "Heat Wave" with "Love Is a Rose" on the B-side. "Heat Wave" hit the Top Five on Billboards Hot 100 while "Love Is A Rose" hit the Top Five on Billboard's country chart.
In 1976, Ronstadt reached the Top 3 of Billboards Album Chart and won her second career Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for her third consecutive platinum album Hasten Down the Wind. The album featured a sexy, revealing cover shot and showcased Ronstadt the singer-songwriter, who composed two of its songs, "Try Me Again" (co-authored with Andrew Gold) and "Lo Siento Mi Vida". It also included an interpretation of Willie Nelson's ballad "Crazy", which became a Top 10 Country hit for Ronstadt in early 1977.
At the end of 1977, Ronstadt surpassed the success of Heart Like a Wheel with her album Simple Dreams, which held the number 1 position for five consecutive weeks on the Billboard 200 chart. It sold over 3½ million copies in less than a year in the U.S. alone – a record for a female artist. Simple Dreams spawned a string of hit singles on numerous charts. Among them were the RIAA platinum-certified single "Blue Bayou", a country-rock interpretation of a Roy Orbison song; "It's So Easy"previously sung by Buddy Holly, a cover of The Rolling Stones' "Tumbling Dice", and "Poor Poor Pitiful Me", a song written by Warren Zevon, an up-and-coming songwriter of the time. The album garnered several Grammy Award nominationsincluding Record of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Performance/Female for "Blue Bayou"and won its art director, Kosh, a Grammy Award for Best Album Cover, the first of three Grammy Awards he would win for designing Ronstadt album covers. In late 1977, Ronstadt became the first female recording artist to have two songs in the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Top Ten at the same time. "Blue Bayou" was at No. 3 while "It's So Easy" was at No. 5.
Simple Dreams became one of the singer's best-selling international-selling albums as well, reaching number 1 on the Australian and Canadian Pop and Country Albums charts. Simple Dreams also made Ronstadt the most successful international female touring artist. The same year, she completed a concert tour around Europe. As Country Music magazine wrote in October 1978, Simple Dreams solidified Ronstadt's role as "easily the most successful female rock and roll and country star at this time."
Also in 1977, she was asked by the Los Angeles Dodgers to sing the U.S. National Anthem at game three of the World Series against the New York Yankees.
Time magazine and "rock chick" image
Ronstadt has remarked that she felt as though she was "artificially encouraged to kinda cop a really tough attitude (and be tough) because rock and roll is kind of tough (business)," which she felt wasn't worn quite authentically. Female rock artists like her and Janis Joplin, whom she described as lovely, shy, and very literate in real life and the antithesis of the "red hot mamma" she was artificially encouraged to project, went through an identity crisis.
By the mid-1970s, Ronstadt's image became just as famous as her music. In 1976 and 1977, she appeared on the covers of Rolling Stone and Time, respectively. The Rolling Stone cover story was accompanied by a series of photographs of Ronstadt in a skimpy red slip, taken by Annie Leibovitz. Ronstadt felt deceived by the photographer, not realizing that the photos would be so revealing. She says her manager Peter Asher kicked Leibovitz out of the house when she visited to show them the photographs prior to publication. Leibovitz had refused to let them veto any of the photos, which included one of Ronstadt sprawled across a bed in her underpants. In a 1977 interview, Ronstadt explained, "Annie [Leibovitz] saw that picture as an exposé of my personality. She was right. But I wouldn't choose to show a picture like that to anybody who didn't know me personally, because only friends could get the other sides of me in balance."
Her 1977 appearance on the cover of Time magazine under the banner "Torchy Rock" was also upsetting to Ronstadt, considering what the image appeared to project about the most famous woman in rock. At a time in the industry when men still told women what to sing and what to wear, Ronstadt hated the image of her that was projected to the world on that cover, and she noted recently how the photographer kept forcing her to wear a dress, which was an image she did not want to project. In 2004, she was interviewed for CBS This Morning and stated that this image was not her because she did not sit like that. Asher noted, "Anyone who's met Linda for 10 seconds will know that I couldn't possibly have been her Svengali. She's an extremely determined woman, in every area. To me, she was everything that feminism's about." Qualities which, Asher has stated, were considered a "negative (in a woman at that time), whereas in a man they were perceived as being masterful and bold". Since her solo career had begun, Ronstadt had fought hard to be recognized as a solo female singer in the world of rock, and her portrayal on the Time cover did not appear to help the situation.
In 1978, Rolling Stone declared Ronstadt "by far America's best-known female rock singer." She scored a third number 1 album on the Billboard Album Chart – at this point equaling the record set by Carole King in 1974 – with Living in the USA. She achieved a major hit single with "Ooo Baby Baby", with her rendition hitting all four major singles charts (Pop, AC, Country, R&B). Living in the USA was the first album by any recording act in music history to ship double-platinum (over 2 million advance copies). The album eventually sold 3 million U.S. copies.
At the end of that year, Billboard magazine crowned Ronstadt with three number-one Awards for the Year: Pop Female Singles Artist of the Year, Pop Female Album Artist of the Year, and Female Artist of the Year (overall).
Living in the USA showed the singer on roller skates with a newly short, permed hairdo on the album cover. Ronstadt continued this theme on concert tour promotional posters with photos of her on roller skates in a dramatic pose with a large American flag in the background. By this stage of her career, she was using posters to promote every album and concert – which at the time were recorded live on radio or television.
Ronstadt was also featured in the 1978 film FM, where the plot involved disc jockeys attempting to broadcast a Ronstadt concert live, without a competing station's knowledge. The film also showed Ronstadt performing the songs "Poor, Poor Pitiful Me", "Love Me Tender", and "Tumbling Dice". Ronstadt was persuaded to record "Tumbling Dice" after Mick Jagger came backstage when she was at a concert and said, "You do too many ballads, you should do more rock and roll songs."
Following the success of Living in the USA, Ronstadt conducted album promotional tours and concerts. She made a guest appearance onstage with the Rolling Stones at the Tucson Community Center on July 21, 1978, in her hometown of Tucson, where she and Jagger sang "Tumbling Dice". On singing with Jagger, Ronstadt later said, "I loved it. I didn't have a trace of stage fright. I'm scared to death all the way through my own shows. But it was too much fun to get scared. He's so silly onstage, he knocks you over. I mean you have to be on your toes or you wind up falling on your face."
Highest-paid woman in rock
By the end of 1978, Ronstadt had solidified her role as one of rock and pop's most successful solo female acts, and owing to her consistent platinum album success, and her ability as the first woman to sell out concerts in arenas and stadiums hosting tens of thousands of fans, Ronstadt became the "highest paid woman in rock". She had six platinum-certified albums, three of which were number 1 on the Billboard album chart, and numerous charted pop singles. In 1978 alone, she made over $12 million () and in the same year her albums sales were reported to be 17 milliongrossing over $60 million ().
As Rolling Stone dubbed her "Rock's Venus", her record sales continued to multiply and set records themselves. By 1979, Ronstadt had collected eight gold, six platinum, and four multi-platinum certifications for her albums, an unprecedented feat at the time. Her 1976 Greatest Hits album would sell consistently for the next 25 years and in 2001 was certified by the RIAA for seven-times platinum (over seven million U.S. copies sold). In 1980, Greatest Hits, Volume 2 was released and certified platinum.
In 1979, Ronstadt went on an international tour, playing in arenas across Australia to Japan, including the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne, and the Budokan in Tokyo. She also participated in a benefit concert for her friend Lowell George, held at The Forum, in Los Angeles.
By the end of the decade, Ronstadt had outsold her female competition; she had five straight platinum LPsHasten Down the Wind and Heart Like a Wheel among them. Us Weekly reported in 1978 that Ronstadt, Joni Mitchell, Stevie Nicks, and Carly Simon had become "The Queens of Rock" and "Rock is no longer exclusively male. There is a new royalty ruling today's record charts."
She would go on to parlay her mass commercial appeal with major success in interpreting The Great American Songbookmade famous a generation before by Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgeraldand later the Mexican folk songs of her childhood.
From rock to operetta
In February 1980, Ronstadt released Mad Love, her seventh consecutive platinum-selling album. It was a straightforward rock and roll album with post-punk, new wave influences, including tracks by songwriters such as Elvis Costello, the Cretones, and musician Mark Goldenberg who played on the record himself. As part of the album's promotion, a live concert was recorded for an HBO special in April. A partial soundtrack for this special (omitting most of the Mad Love tracks) was released as her first official live album in February 2019.
She also made the cover of Rolling Stone for a record-setting sixth time. Mad Love entered the Billboard Album Chart in the Top Five its first week (a record at that time) and climbed to the number 3 position. The project continued her streak of Top 10 hits with "How Do I Make You", originally recorded by Billy Thermal, and "Hurt So Bad", originally a Top 10 hit for Little Anthony & the Imperials. The album earned Ronstadt a 1980 Grammy Award nomination for Best Rock Vocal Performance/Female (although she lost to Pat Benatar's Crimes of Passion album). Benatar praised Ronstadt by stating, "There are a lot of good female singers around. How could I be the best? Ronstadt is still alive!"
In the summer of 1980, Ronstadt began rehearsals for the first of several leads in Broadway musicals. Joseph Papp cast her as the lead in the New York Shakespeare Festival production of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance, alongside Kevin Kline. She said singing Gilbert and Sullivan was a natural choice for her, since her grandfather Fred Ronstadt was credited with having created Tucson's first orchestra, the Club Filarmonico Tucsonense, and had once created an arrangement of The Pirates of Penzance.
The Pirates of Penzance opened for a limited engagement in New York City's Central Park, eventually moving its production to Broadway, where it became a hit, running from January 8, 1981, to November 28, 1982. Newsweek was effusive in its praise: "... she has not dodged the coloratura demands of her role (and Mabel is one of the most demanding parts in the G&S canon): from her entrance trilling 'Poor Wand'ring One,' it is clear that she is prepared to scale whatever soprano peaks stand in her way." Ronstadt co-starred with Kline and Angela Lansbury in the 1983 operetta's film version; this was her only acting role in a motion picture (her other film appearances, such as in the 1978 drama, FM, being concert footage as herself). Ronstadt received a Golden Globe nomination for the role in the film version. She garnered a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical and The Pirates of Penzance won several Tony Awards, including a Tony Award for Best Revival.
As a child, Ronstadt had discovered the opera La bohème through the silent film with Lillian Gish and was determined to someday play the part of Mimi. When she met the opera superstar Beverly Sills, she was told, "My dear, every soprano in the world wants to play Mimi!" In 1984, Ronstadt was cast in the role at Joseph Papp's Public Theater. However, the production was a critical and commercial disaster, closing after only a few nights.
In 1982, Ronstadt released the album Get Closer, a primarily rock album with some country and pop music as well. It remains her only album between 1975 and 1990 not to be officially certified platinum. It peaked at number 31 on the Billboard Album Chart. The release continued her streak of Top 40 hits with "Get Closer" and "I Knew You When"a 1965 hit by Billy Joe Royalwhile the Jimmy Webb song "Easy For You To Say" was a surprise Top 10 Adult Contemporary hit in the spring of 1983. "Sometimes You Just Can't Win" was picked up by country radio, and made it to number 27 on that listing. Ronstadt also filmed several music videos for this album which became popular on the fledgling MTV cable channel. The album earned Ronstadt two Grammy Award nominations: one for Best Rock Vocal Performance/Female for the title track and another for Best Pop Vocal Performance/Female for the album. The artwork won its art director, Kosh, his second Grammy Award for Best Album Package.
Along with the release of her Get Closer album, Ronstadt embarked on a North American tour, remaining one of the top rock-concert draws that summer and fall. On November 25, 1982, her "Happy Thanksgiving Day" concert was held at the Reunion Arena in Dallas and broadcast live via satellite to NBC radio stations in the United States.
In 1988, Ronstadt returned to Broadway for a limited-run engagement in the musical show adaptation of her album celebrating her Mexican heritage, Canciones De Mi PadreA Romantic Evening in Old Mexico.
Artistic aspirations
Ronstadt has remarked that in the beginning of her career she "was so focused on folk, rock and country" that she "got a bit bored and started to branch out, and ... [has] been doing that ever since." By 1983, her estimated worth was over $40 million mostly from records, concerts and merchandising.
In the early 1980s, Ronstadt was criticized for accepting $500,000 to perform at the South African resort Sun City, violating the cultural boycott imposed against South Africa because of its policy of apartheid. At the time, she stated, "the last place for a boycott is in the arts" and "I don't like being told I can't go somewhere". Paul Simon was criticized for including her on his 1986 album Graceland, recorded in South Africa, but defended her: "I know that her intention was never to support the government there ... She made a mistake. She’s extremely liberal in her political thinking and unquestionably antiapartheid."
Ronstadt eventually tired of playing arenas. She had ceased to feel that arenas, where people milled around smoking marijuana cigarettes and drinking beer, were "appropriate places for music". She wanted "angels in the architecture"a reference to a lyric in the Paul Simon song "You Can Call Me Al" from Graceland. (Ronstadt sang harmony with Simon on a different Graceland track, "Under African Skies". The second verse's lyrics pay tribute to Ronstadt: "Take this child, Lord, from Tucson, Arizona. ..."). Ronstadt has said she wants to sing in places similar to the theatre of ancient Greece, where the attention is focused on the stage and the performer.
Ronstadt's recording output in the 1980s proved to be just as commercially and critically successful as her 1970s recordings. Between 1983 and 1990, Ronstadt scored six additional platinum albums; two are triple platinum (each with over three million U.S. copies sold); one has been certified double platinum (over two million copies sold), and one has earned additional certification as a Gold (over 500,000 U.S. copies sold) double-disc album.
Jazz/pop trilogy
In 1981, Ronstadt produced and recorded an album of pop standards (later marketed in bootleg form) titled Keeping Out of Mischief with the assistance of producer Jerry Wexler. However, Ronstadt's displeasure with the final result led her, with regrets, to scrap the project. "Doing that killed me," she said in a Time magazine interview. But the appeal of the album's music had seduced Ronstadt, as she told Down Beat in April 1985, crediting Wexler for encouraging her. Nonetheless, Ronstadt had to convince her reluctant record company, Elektra, to approve this type of album under her contract.
By 1983, Ronstadt had enlisted the help of 62-year-old conductor Nelson Riddle. The two embarked on an unorthodox and original approach to rehabilitating the Great American Songbook, recording a trilogy of traditional pop albums: What's New (1983U.S. 3.7 million as of 2010); Lush Life (1984U.S. 1.7 million as of 2010); and For Sentimental Reasons (1986U.S. 1.3 million as of 2010). The three albums have had a combined sales total of nearly seven million copies in the U.S. alone.
The album design for What's New by designer Kosh was unlike any of her previous disc covers. It showed Ronstadt in a vintage dress lying on shimmering satin sheets with a Walkman headset. At the time, Ronstadt received some chiding for both the album cover and her venture into what was then considered "elevator music" by cynics, but remained determined to record with Riddle, and What's New became a hit. The album was released in September 1983 and spent 81 weeks on the Billboard Album Chart and held the number three position for a month and a half (held out of the top spot only by Michael Jackson's Thriller and Lionel Richie's Can't Slow Down) and the RIAA certified it triple platinum (over three million copies sold in the U.S. alone). The album earned Ronstadt another Grammy nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, and critical raves, with Time magazine calling it "one of the gutsiest, most unorthodox and unexpected albums of the year."
Ronstadt faced considerable pressure not to record What's New or record with Riddle. According to jazz historian Peter Levinson, author of the book September in the Raina Biography on Nelson Riddle, Joe Smith, president of Elektra Records, was terrified that the Riddle album would turn off Ronstadt's rock audience. Ronstadt did not completely turn her back on her rock and roll past, however; the video for the title track featured Danny Kortchmar as the old beau that she bumped into during a rainstorm.
What's New brought Riddle to a younger audience. According to Levinson, "the younger audience hated what Riddle had done with Frank Sinatra, which in 1983 was considered 'Vintage Pop'". Working with Ronstadt, Riddle brought his career back into focus in the last three years of his life. Stephen Holden of The New York Times wrote, What's New "isn't the first album by a rock singer to pay tribute to the golden age of the pop, but is ... the best and most serious attempt to rehabilitate an idea of pop that Beatlemania and the mass marketing of rock LPs for teenagers undid in the mid-60s. ... In the decade prior to Beatlemania, most of the great band singers and crooners of the 40s and 50s codified a half-century of American pop standards on dozens of albums ... many of them now long out-of-print." What's New is the first album by a rock singer to have major commercial success in rehabilitating the Great American Songbook.
In 1984, Ronstadt and Riddle performed these songs live, in concert halls throughout Australia, Japan, and the United States, including multi-night performances at historic venues Carnegie Hall, Radio City Music Hall, and Pine Knob.
In 2004, Ronstadt released Hummin' to Myself, her album for Verve Records. It was her first foray into traditional jazz since her sessions with Jerry Wexler and her records with the Nelson Riddle Orchestra, but this time with an intimate jazz combo. The album was a quiet affair for Ronstadt, giving few interviews and making only one television performance as a promotion. It reached number 2 on Billboard's Top Jazz Albums chart but peaked at number 166 on the main Billboard album chart. Not having the mass distribution that Warner Music Group gave her, Hummin' To Myself had sold over 75,000 copies in the U.S. as of 2010. It also achieved some critical acclaim from the jazz cognoscenti.
"Trio" recordings
In 1978, Ronstadt, Dolly Parton, and Emmylou Harris, friends and admirers of one another's work (Ronstadt had included a cover of Parton's "I Will Always Love You" on Prisoner in Disguise) attempted to collaborate on a Trio album. Unfortunately, the attempt did not pan out. Ronstadt later remarked that not too many people were in control at the time and everyone was too involved with their own careers. (Though the efforts to complete the album were abandoned, a number of the recordings were included on the singers' respective solo recordings over the next few years.) This concept album was put on the back burner for almost ten years.
In January 1986, the three eventually did make their way into the recording studio, where they spent the next several months working. The result, Trio, which they had conceived ten years earlier, was released in March 1987. It was a considerable hit, holding the number 1 position on Billboard's Country Albums chart for five weeks running and hitting the Top 10 on the pop side also. Selling over three million copies in the U.S. and winning them a Grammy Award for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal, it produced four Top Ten Country singles including "To Know Him Is to Love Him" which hit number 1. The album was also a nominee for overall Album of the Year, in the company of Michael Jackson, U2, Prince, and Whitney Houston.
In 1994, the three performers recorded a follow-up to Trio. As was the case with their aborted 1978 effort, conflicting schedules and competing priorities delayed the album's release indefinitely. Ronstadt, who had already paid for studio timeand owed her record company a finished albumremoved Parton's individual tracks at Parton's request, kept Harris's vocals, and produced a number of the recordings, which she subsequently released on her 1995 return to country rock, the album Feels Like Home.
However, in 1999, Ronstadt, Parton, and Harris agreed to release the Trio II album, as was originally recorded in 1994. It included an ethereal cover of Neil Young's "After The Gold Rush" which became a popular music video. The effort was certified Gold (over 500,000 copies sold) and won them a Grammy Award for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals for the track. Ronstadt co-produced the album with George Massenburg and the three women also received a nomination for the Grammy Award for Best Country Album.
Canciones de Mi Padre
At the end of 1987, Ronstadt released Canciones de Mi Padre, an album of traditional Mexican folk songs, or what she has described as "world class songs". Keeping with the Ronstadt history theme, her cover art was dramatic, bold, and colorful; it shows Ronstadt in full Mexican regalia. Her musical arranger was mariachi musician Rubén Fuentes.
These canciones were a big part of Ronstadt's family tradition and musical roots. In January 1946, the University of Arizona published a booklet by Luisa Espinel entitled Canciones de mi Padre. Luisa Espinel, Ronstadt's aunt, was an international singer in the 1920s and 1930s. Espinel's father was Fred Ronstadt, Linda Ronstadt's grandfather, and the songs she had learned, transcribed, and published were some of the ones he had brought with him from Sonora. Ronstadt researched and extracted from the favorites she had learned from her father Gilbert and she called her album by the same name as her aunt's booklet and as a tribute to her father and his family. Though not fully bilingual, she has a fairly good command of the Spanish language, allowing her to sing Latin American songs with little discernible U.S. accent; Ronstadt has often identified herself as Mexican-American. Her formative years were spent with her father's side of the family. In fact, in 1976, Ronstadt had collaborated with her father to write and compose a traditional Mexican folk ballad, "Lo siento mi vida"a song that she included on Hasten Down the Wind. Ronstadt has also credited Mexican singer Lola Beltrán as an influence on her own singing style, and she recalls how a frequent guest to the Ronstadt home, Eduardo "Lalo" Guerrero, father of Chicano music, would often serenade her as a child.
Canciones de Mi Padre won Ronstadt a Grammy Award for Best Mexican-American Performance. In 2001, it was certified double-platinum by the RIAA for shipments of over 2 million copies in the United States, making it the best-selling non-English-language album in U.S. music history. The album and later theatrical stage show served as a benchmark of the Latin cultural renaissance in North America.
Ronstadt produced and performed a theatrical stage show, also titled Canciones de mi Padre, in concert halls across the U.S. and Latin America to both Hispanic and non-Hispanic audiences. These performances were later released on DVD. Ronstadt elected to return to the Broadway stage, four years after she performed in La bohème, for a limited-run engagement. PBS's Great Performances aired the stage show during its annual fund drives and the show was a hit with audiences, earning Ronstadt a Primetime Emmy Award for Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program.
Ronstadt recorded two additional albums of Latin music in the early 1990s. Their promotion, like most of her albums in the 1990s, was a quieter affair, with Ronstadt making only a limited number of appearances to promote them. They were not nearly as successful as Canciones De Mi Padre, but were critically acclaimed in some circles. In 1991, she released Mas Canciones, a follow-up to the first Canciones. For this album, she won a Grammy Award for Best Mexican/Mexican-American Album. The following year, she stepped outside of the mariachi genre and decided to record well-known Afro-Cuban songs. This album was titled Frenesí. Like her two previous Latin recordings ventures, it won Ronstadt a Grammy Award, this time for Best Traditional Tropical Latin Album.
In 1991, Ronstadt acted in the lead role of archangel San Miguel in La Pastorela, or A Shephard's Tale, a musical filmed at San Juan Bautista. It was written and directed by Luis Valdez. The production was part of the PBS Great Performances series.
In December 2020, it was announced that Canciones de Mi Padre had been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Returning to the contemporary music scene
By the late 1980s, while enjoying the success of her big band jazz collaborations with Riddle and her surprise hit mariachi recordings, Ronstadt elected to return to recording mainstream pop music once again. In 1987, she made a return to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart with "Somewhere Out There", which peaked at number 2 in March. Featured in the animated film An American Tail, the sentimental duet with James Ingram was nominated for several Grammy Awards, ultimately winning the Grammy Award for Song of the Year. The song also received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Original Song and achieved high sales, earning a million-selling gold single in the U.S.one of the last 45s ever to do so. It was also accompanied by a popular music video. On the heels of this success, Steven Spielberg asked Ronstadt to record the theme song for the animated sequel titled An American Tail: Fievel Goes West, which was titled "Dreams to Dream". Although "Dreams to Dream" failed to achieve the success of "Somewhere Out There", the song did give Ronstadt an Adult Contemporary hit in 1991.
In 1989, Ronstadt released a mainstream pop album and several popular singles. Cry Like A Rainstorm, Howl Like The Wind became one of the singer's most successful albumsin production, arrangements, sales, and critical acclaim. It became Ronstadt's tenth Top 10 album on the Billboard chart, reaching number 7 and being certified triple-platinum (over three million copies sold in the U.S.). The album also received Grammy Award nominations. Ronstadt included New Orleans soul singer Aaron Neville on several of the album's songs.
Ronstadt incorporated the sounds of the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir, Tower of Power horns, the Skywalker Symphony, and numerous musicians. It included the duets with Aaron Neville, "Don't Know Much" (Billboard Hot 100 number 2 hit, Christmas 1989) and "All My Life" (Billboard Hot 100 number 11 hit), both of which were long-running number 1 Adult Contemporary hits. The duets earned several Grammy Award nominations. The duo won both the 1989 and 1990 Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal awards. Ronstadt's last known live Grammy Award appearance was in 1990 when she and Neville performed "Don't Know Much" together on the telecast. ("Whenever I sing with a different artist, I can get things out of my voice that I can't do by myself", Ronstadt reflected in 2007. "I can do things with Aaron that I can't do alone.")
In December 1990, she participated in a concert held at the Tokyo Dome to commemorate John Lennon's 50th birthday, and to raise awareness of environmental issues. Other participants included Miles Davis, Lenny Kravitz, Hall & Oates, Natalie Cole, Yoko Ono, and Sean Lennon. An album resulted, titled Happy Birthday, John.
Return to roots music
Ronstadt released the highly acclaimed Winter Light album at the end of 1993. It included New Age arrangements such as the lead single "Heartbeats Accelerating" as well as the self-penned title track and featured the glass harmonica. It was her first commercial failure since 1972, and peaked at number 92 in Billboard, whereas 1995's Feels Like Home was Ronstadt's much-heralded return to country-rock and included her version of Tom Petty's classic hit "The Waiting". The single's rollicking, fiddle-infused flip side, "Walk On", returned Ronstadt to the Country Singles chart for the first time since 1983. An album track entitled "The Blue Train" charted 10 weeks in Billboards Adult Contemporary Top 40. This album fared slightly better than its predecessor, reaching number 75. Both albums were later deleted from the Elektra/Asylum catalog. Ronstadt was nominated for three Lo Nuestro Awards in 1993: Female Regional Mexican Artist of the Year, Female Tropical/Salsa Artist of the Year, and her version of the song "Perfidia" was also listed for Tropical/Salsa Song of the Year.
In 1996, Ronstadt produced Dedicated to the One I Love, an album of classic rock and roll songs reinvented as lullabies. The album reached number 78 in Billboard and won the Grammy Award for Best Musical Album for Children.
In 1998, Ronstadt released We Ran, her first album in over two years. The album harkened back to Ronstadt's country-rock and folk-rock heyday. She returned to her rock 'n' roll roots with vivid interpretations of songs by Bruce Springsteen, Doc Pomus, Bob Dylan, and John Hiatt. The recording was produced by Glyn Johns. A commercial failure, the album stood at 57,897 copies sold at the time of its deletion in 2008. It is the poorest-selling studio album in Ronstadt's Elektra/Asylum catalog. We Ran did not chart any singles but it was well received by critics.
Despite the lack of success of We Ran, Ronstadt kept moving towards this adult rock exploration. In the summer of 1999, she released the album Western Wall: The Tucson Sessions, a folk-rock-oriented project with Emmylou Harris. It earned a nomination for the Grammy Award for the Best Contemporary Folk Album and made the Top 10 of Billboards Country Albums chart. Still in print as of December 2016, it has sold 223,255 copies per Nielsen SoundScan.
Also in 1999, Ronstadt went back to her concert roots when she performed with the Eagles and Jackson Browne at Staples Center's 1999 New Year's Eve celebration kicking off the December 31 end-of-the-millennium festivities. As Staples Center Senior Vice President and general manager Bobby Goldwater said, "It was our goal to present a spectacular event as a sendoff to the 20th century", and "Eagles, Jackson Browne, and Linda Ronstadt are three of the most popular acts of the century. Their performances will constitute a singular and historic night of entertainment for New Year's Eve in Los Angeles."
In 2000, Ronstadt completed her long contractual relationship with the Elektra/Asylum label. The fulfillment of this contract commenced with the release of A Merry Little Christmas, her first holiday collection, which includes rare choral works, the somber Joni Mitchell song "River", and a rare recorded duet with the late Rosemary Clooney on Clooney's signature song, "White Christmas".
Since leaving Warner Music, Ronstadt has gone on to release one album each under Verve and Vanguard Records.
In 2006, recording as the ZoZo Sisters, Ronstadt teamed with her new friend, musician and musical scholar Ann Savoy, to record Adieu False Heart. It was an album of roots music incorporating pop, Cajun, and early-20th-century music and released on the Vanguard Records label. But Adieu False Heart was a commercial failure, peaking at number 146 in the U.S. despite her touring for the final time that year. It was the last time Linda Ronstadt would record an album, having begun to lose her singing ability as a result of a degenerative condition later determined to be progressive supranuclear palsy, but initially diagnosed as Parkinson's disease, in December 2012. Adieu False Heart, recorded in Louisiana, features a cast of local musicians, including Chas Justus, Eric Frey and Kevin Wimmer of the Red Stick Ramblers, Sam Broussard of the Mamou Playboys, Dirk Powell, and Joel Savoy, as well as an array of Nashville musicians: fiddler Stuart Duncan, mandolinist Sam Bush, and guitarist Bryan Sutton. The recording earned two Grammy Award nominations: Best Traditional Folk Album and Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical.
In 2007, Ronstadt contributed to the compilation album We All Love Ella: Celebrating the First Lady of Songa tribute album to jazz music's all-time most heralded artiston the track "Miss Otis Regrets".
In August 2007, Ronstadt headlined the Newport Folk Festival, making her debut at this event, where she incorporated jazz, rock, and folk music into her repertoire. It was one of her final concerts.
In 2010, Ronstadt contributed the arrangement and lead vocal to "A La Orilla de un Palmar" on the Chieftains' studio album San Patricio (with Ry Cooder). This remains her most recent commercially available recording as lead vocalist.
Retirement
In 2011, Ronstadt was interviewed by the Arizona Daily Star and announced her retirement. In August 2013, she revealed to Alanna Nash, writing for AARP, that she has Parkinson's disease and "can no longer sing a note." Her diagnosis was subsequently re-evaluated as progressive supranuclear palsy.
Selected career achievements
On April 10, 2014, Ronstadt was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In July 2019, Ronstadt was selected as a Kennedy Center Honoree.
As of 2019, Ronstadt has earned three number 1 pop albums, 10 top-ten pop albums and 38 charting pop albums on the Billboard Pop Album Charts. She has 15 albums on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart, including four that hit number 1. Ronstadt's singles have earned her a number 1 hit and three number 2 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, with 10 top-ten pop singles and 21 reaching the Top 40. She has also scored two number 1 hits on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, and two number 1 hits on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart. Rolling Stone wrote, a whole generation "but for her, might never have heard the work of Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, or Elvis Costello."
She has recorded and released over 30 studio albums and has made guest appearances on an estimated 120 albums by other artists. Her guest appearances included the classical minimalist Philip Glass's album Songs from Liquid Days, a hit classical record with other major pop stars either singing or writing lyrics (Ronstadt's two tracks on the album saw her singing lyrics written by Suzanne Vega and Laurie Anderson). She also appeared on Glass's follow-up recording 1000 Airplanes on the Roof. She appeared on Paul Simon's Graceland, where she sang a duet with Simon, "Under African Skies." In that song, there is a verse dedicated to Ronstadt, her voice and harmonies and her birth in Tucson, Arizona. She voiced herself in The Simpsons episode "Mr. Plow" and sang a duet, "Funny How Time Slips Away," with Homer Simpson on The Yellow Album.
Ronstadt has also appeared on albums by a vast range of artists including Emmylou Harris, the Chieftains, Dolly Parton, Neil Young, J. D. Souther, Gram Parsons, Bette Midler, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Earl Scruggs, the Eagles, Andrew Gold, Wendy Waldman, Hoyt Axton, Kate and Anna McGarrigle, Ann Savoy, Karla Bonoff, James Taylor, Jimmy Webb, Valerie Carter, Warren Zevon, Maria Muldaur, Randy Newman (specifically his musical adaptation of Faust), Nicolette Larson, the Seldom Scene, Rosemary Clooney, Aaron Neville, Rodney Crowell, Hearts and Flowers, Laurie Lewis and Flaco Jiménez. As a singer-songwriter, Ronstadt has written songs covered by several artists, such as "Try Me Again", covered by Trisha Yearwood; and "Winter Light", which was co-written and composed with Zbigniew Preisner and Eric Kaz, and covered by Sarah Brightman.
Her three biggest-selling studio albums to date are: her 1977 release Simple Dreams, 1983's What's New and 1989's Cry Like A Rainstorm, Howl Like The Wind. Each one has been certified by the Recording Industry Association of America for over three million copies sold. Her highest-selling album to date is the 1976 compilation Greatest Hits, certified for over seven million units sold in 2001. Ronstadt became music's first major touring female artist to sell out sizeable venues; she was also the top-grossing solo female concert artist for the 1970s. She remained a highly successful touring artist into the 1990s, at which time she decided to scale back to smaller venues. In the 1970s, Cashbox magazine, a competitor of Billboard during that time period, named Ronstadt the "#1 Female Artist of the Decade". "Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" included Heart Like a Wheel (1974) at number 164 and The Very Best Of Linda Ronstadt (2002) at number 324. The 2012 revision kept only the compilation, but raised it to the place once occupied by Heart Like a Wheel.
Ronstadt's album sales have not been certified since 2001. At that time, Ronstadt's U.S. album sales were certified by the Recording Industry Association of America at over 30 million albums sold; however, Peter Asher, her former producer and manager, placed her total U.S. album sales at over 45 million. Likewise, her worldwide albums sales are in excess of 100 million albums sold, according to the former president of Warner Bros. Records, Joe Smith, now a jury member of the Hit Parade Hall of Fame. Her RIAA certification (audits paid for by record companies or artists for promotion) tally as of 2001 totaled 19 Gold, 14 Platinum and 7 Multi-Platinum albums. She was the first female in music history to score three consecutive platinum albums and ultimately racked up a total of eight consecutive platinum albums. Her album Living in the USA was the first album by any recording artist in U.S. music history to ship double platinum (over two million advanced copies). Her first Latin release, the all-Spanish 1987 album Canciones De Mi Padre, stands as the best-selling non-English-language album in American music history. As of 2013, it had sold over 2½ million U.S. copies.
Ronstadt has served as producer on albums from various musicians that include her cousin, David Lindley, Aaron Neville and singer-songwriter Jimmy Webb. She produced Cristal – Glass Music Through the Ages, an album of classical music using glass instruments with Dennis James, where she sang on several of the arrangements. In 1999, Ronstadt also produced the Grammy Award-winning Trio II. She has received a total of 27 Grammy Award nominations in various fields that include rock, country, pop and Tropical Latin, and has won 11 Grammy Awards in the categories of Pop, Country, Tropical Latin, Musical Album for Children and Mexican-American. In 2016, Ronstadt was again honored by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences with the Lifetime Achievement Grammy.
She was the first female solo artist to have two Top 5 singles simultaneously on Billboard magazine's Hot 100: "Blue Bayou" and "It's So Easy". By December of that year, both "Blue Bayou" and "It's So Easy" had climbed into Billboards Top 5 and remained there for the month's last four weeks. In 1999, Ronstadt ranked number 21 in VH1's 100 Greatest Women of Rock & Roll. Three years later, she ranked number 40 in CMT's 40 Greatest Women in Country Music.
Personal life
Beginning in the mid-1970s, Ronstadt's private life became increasingly public. It was fueled by a relationship with then-Governor of California Jerry Brown, a Democratic presidential candidate. They shared a Newsweek magazine cover in April 1979, as well as the covers of Us Weekly and People magazine.
In 1983, Linda Ronstadt dated comedian Jim Carrey for eight months. From the end of 1983 to 1988, Ronstadt was engaged to Star Wars director George Lucas.
In December 1990, she adopted an infant daughter, Mary Clementine Ronstadt. In 1994, she adopted a baby boy, Carlos Ronstadt. Ronstadt has never married. Speaking of finding an acceptable mate, in 1974 she told Peter Knobler in Crawdaddy, "... he's real kind but isn't inspired musically and then you meet somebody else that's just so inspired musically that he just takes your breath away but he's such a moron, such a maniac that you can't get along with him. And then after that it's the problem of finding someone that can stand you!"
After living in Los Angeles for 30 years, Ronstadt moved to San Francisco because she said she never felt at home in Southern California. "Los Angeles became too enclosing an environment", she says. "I couldn't breathe the air and I didn't want to drive on the freeways to get to the studio. I also didn't want to embrace the values that have been so completely embraced by that city. Are you glamorous? Are you rich? Are you important? Do you have clout? It's just not me and it never was me." In 1997, Ronstadt sold her home in San Francisco and moved back to her hometown of Tucson, Arizona, to raise her two children. In more recent years, Ronstadt moved back to San Francisco while continuing to maintain her home in Tucson.
In 2009, in honor of Ronstadt, the Martin Guitar Company made a 0042 model "Linda Ronstadt Limited Edition" acoustic guitar. Ronstadt appointed the Land Institute as recipient of all proceeds from her signature guitar.
In 2013, Simon & Schuster published her autobiography, Simple Dreams: A Musical Memoir, as well as the Spanish version, Sueños SencillosMemorias Musicales.
In August 2013, Ronstadt revealed she was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, leaving her unable to sing due to loss of muscular control, which is common to Parkinson's patients. She was diagnosed eight months prior to the announcement and had initially attributed the symptoms she had been experiencing to the aftereffects of shoulder surgery and a tick bite. In late 2019, it was reported her doctors had revised their diagnosis to progressive supranuclear palsy, a degenerative disease commonly mistaken for Parkinson's due to the similarity of the symptoms.
Ronstadt describes herself as a "spiritual atheist".
Political activism
Ronstadt's politics received criticism and praise during and after her July 17, 2004, performance at the Aladdin Theatre for the Performing Arts in Las Vegas. Toward the end of the show, as she had done across the country, Ronstadt spoke to the audience, praising Fahrenheit 9/11, Michael Moore's documentary film about the Iraq War; she dedicated the song "Desperado" to Moore. Accounts say the crowd's initial reaction was mixed, with "half the crowd heartily applauding her praise for Moore, (and) the other half booing."
Following the concert, news accounts reported Ronstadt was "evicted" from the hotel premises. Ronstadt's comments, as well as the reactions of some audience members and the hotel, became a topic of discussion nationwide. Aladdin casino president Bill Timmins and Michael Moore each made public statements about the controversy.
The incident prompted international headlines and debate on an entertainer's right to express a political opinion from the stage and made the editorial section of The New York Times. Following the incident, many friends of Ronstadt's, including the Eagles, immediately cancelled their engagements at the Aladdin. Ronstadt also received telegrams of support from her rock 'n' roll friends around the world like the Rolling Stones, the Eagles and Elton John. Amid reports of mixed public response, Ronstadt continued her praise of Moore and his film throughout her 2004 and 2006 summer concerts across North America.
At a 2006 concert in Canada, Ronstadt told the Calgary Sun that she was "embarrassed George Bush (was) from the United States. ... He's an idiot. ... He's enormously incompetent on both the domestic and international scenes. ... Now the fact that we were lied to about the reasons for entering into war against Iraq and thousands of people have diedit's just as immoral as racism." Her remarks drew international headlines. In an August 14, 2007, interview, she commented on all her well-publicized, outspoken views, in particular the Aladdin incident, by noting, "If I had it to do over I would be much more gracious to everyone ... you can be as outspoken as you want if you are very, very respectful. Show some grace".
In 2007, Ronstadt resided in San Francisco while also maintaining her home in Tucson. That same year, she drew criticism and praise from Tucsonans for commenting that local city council's failings, developers' strip mall mentality, greed and growing dust problem had rendered the city unrecognizable and poorly developed.
In August 2009, Ronstadt, in a well-publicized interview to PlanetOut Inc. titled "Linda Ronstadt's Gay Mission", championed gay rights and same-sex marriage, and stated "homophobia is anti-family values. Period, end of story."
On January 16, 2010, Ronstadt converged with thousands of other activists in a "National Day of Action". Ronstadt stated that her "dog in the fight"as a native Arizonan and coming from a law enforcement familywas the treatment of illegal aliens and Arizona's enforcement of its illegal immigrant law, especially Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's efforts in that area.
On April 29, 2010, Ronstadt began a campaign, including joining a lawsuit, against Arizona's new illegal-immigration law SB 1070 calling it a "devastating blow to law enforcement ... the police don't protect us in a democracy with brute force", something she said she learned from her brother, Peter, who was Chief of Police in Tucson.
Ronstadt has also been outspoken on environmental and community issues. She is a major supporter and admirer of sustainable agriculture pioneer Wes Jackson, saying in 2000, "the work he's doing right now is the most important work there is in the (United States)", and dedicating the rock anthem "Desperado" to him at an August 2007 concert in Kansas City, Kansas.
National arts advocacy
In 2004, Ronstadt wrote the foreword to the book The NPR Curious Listener's Guide to American Folk Music, and in 2005, she wrote the introduction to the book Classic Ferrington Guitars, about guitar-maker and luthier Danny Ferrington and the custom guitars that he created for Ronstadt and other musicians such as Elvis Costello, Ry Cooder, and Kurt Cobain.
Ronstadt has been honored for her contribution to the American arts. On September 23, 2007, she was inducted into the Arizona Music & Entertainment Hall of Fame, along with Stevie Nicks, Buck Owens, and filmmaker Steven Spielberg. On August 17, 2008, Ronstadt received a tribute by various artists, including BeBe Winans and Wynonna Judd, when she was honored with the Trailblazer Award, presented to her by Plácido Domingo at the 2008 ALMA Awards, a ceremony later televised in the U.S. on ABC.
In 2008, Ronstadt was appointed Artistic Director of the San José Mariachi and Mexican Heritage Festival. On March 31, 2009, in testimony that the Los Angeles Times termed "remarkable", Ronstadt spoke to the United States Congress House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment & Related Agencies, attempting to convince lawmakers to budget $200 million in the 2010 fiscal year for the National Endowment of the Arts.
In May 2009, Ronstadt received an honorary doctorate of music degree from the Berklee College of Music for her achievements and influence in music and her contributions to American and international culture. Mix magazine stated that "Linda Ronstadt (has) left her mark on more than the record business; her devotion to the craft of singing influenced many audio professionals ... (and is) intensely knowledgeable about the mechanics of singing and the cultural contexts of every genre she passes".
Awards and nominations
Grammy Awards
In 1981 the album In Harmony: A Sesame Street Record won the Grammy for Best Album for Children. Ronstadt was one of the various artists featured on the album. The Grammys were awarded to the producers, David Levine and Lucy Simon.
Latin Grammy Awards
Primetime Emmy Awards
Tony Awards
Golden Globe Awards
1983Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical or Comedy, Linda Ronstadt in The Pirates of Penzance
Arizona Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame
2007Inducted for her significant impact on the evolution and development of the entertainment culture in the state of Arizona
Academy of Country Music
1974Best New Female Artist
1987Album of the Year/ Trio, Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris
Country Music Association
1988Vocal Event of the Year / Trio, Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris
American Latino Media Arts
2008Trailblazer Award for Contribution to American Music
Lo Nuestro nominations
1989Regional Mexican Female Artist, Regional Mexican Album (Canciones de Mi Padre), and Crossover Artist
1992Regional Mexican Female Artist
1993Tropical Female Artist, Regional Mexican Female Artist, and Tropical Song ("Perfidia").
Kennedy Center
2019 Kennedy Center Honoree
Discography
Studio albums
Hand Sown ... Home Grown (1969)
Silk Purse (1970)
Linda Ronstadt (1972)
Don't Cry Now (1973)
Heart Like a Wheel (1974)
Prisoner in Disguise (1975)
Hasten Down the Wind (1976)
Simple Dreams (1977)
Living in the USA (1978)
Mad Love (1980)
Get Closer (1982)
What's New (1983)
Lush Life (1984)
For Sentimental Reasons (1986)
Canciones de Mi Padre (1987)
Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind (1989)
Mas Canciones (1991)
Frenesí (1992)
Winter Light (1993)
Feels Like Home (1995)
Dedicated to the One I Love (1996)
We Ran (1998)
A Merry Little Christmas (2000)
Hummin' to Myself (2004)
Live albums
Live in Hollywood (2019)
Duets and trios
Trio (1987) (Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton, and Linda Ronstadt)
Trio II (1999) (Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton, and Linda Ronstadt)
Western Wall: The Tucson Sessions (1999) (with Emmylou Harris)
Adieu False Heart (2006) (with Ann Savoy)
The Complete Trio Collection (2016) (Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton, and Linda Ronstadt)
Compilation albums
Different Drum (1974) – The first compilation album of Ronstadt's work released by Capitol
Greatest Hits (1976)
A Retrospective (1977)
Greatest Hits, Volume 2 (1980)
'Round Midnight (1986) – 2-CD set
The Linda Ronstadt Box Set (1999) – 4-CD set
The Very Best of Linda Ronstadt (2002) – Billboard No. 19 Country Album
Mi Jardin Azul: Las Canciones Favoritas (2004)
The Best of Linda Ronstadt: The Capitol Years (2006) – 2-CD set
Standards with Nelson Riddle Orchestra (2008)
The Collection (2011) – British 2-CD set
Duets (2014)
Just One Look: Classic Linda Ronstadt (2015)
Like A Rose: The Classic 1976 Broadcast Recording (2021)
Spanish-language albums
Canciones de Mi Padre (1987) - (English translation: "Songs of My Father") - Best Mexican-American Performance Grammy Award winner (1989)
Mas Canciones (1991) - (English translation: "More Songs") - Best Mexican-American Album Grammy Award winner (1993)
Frenesí (1992) - (English translation: "Frenzy") - Best Tropical Latin Album Grammy Award winner (1993)
Mi Jardin Azul: Las Canciones Favoritas (2004) - Compilation (English translation: "My Blue Garden: The Favorite Songs")
Filmography
Book
See also
Notes
References
External links
Official website
Image of Linda Ronstadt reclining on a porch railing in Los Angeles, California, 1974. Los Angeles Times Photographic Archive (Collection 1429). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners
United States National Medal of Arts recipients
1946 births
Living people
Actresses from Tucson, Arizona
American actresses of Mexican descent
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Women in Latin music
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American performers of Latin music
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American writers of Mexican descent
Big band singers
Cajun musicians
Feminist musicians
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Grammy Award winners
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Hispanic and Latino American musicians
Primetime Emmy Award winners
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American people of Canadian descent
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Writers from Tucson, Arizona
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Tambourine players
20th-century women composers
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Chicano rock musicians
Traditional pop music singers
Singer-songwriters from California
Singer-songwriters from Arizona | true | [
"Amelia Lehmann (née Chambers) (3 February 1838 – 1 April 1903) was a British and composer and arranger of art songs and popular ballads, many of which she published under the pseudonym \"A. L.\". She was also considered a gifted singer and was the first singing teacher of her daughter Liza Lehmann. Among her other students of voice was the soprano Evangeline Florence. Several of her works were performed at the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts between 1897 and 1928, and her song \"When love is kind\" was recorded by Ada Forrest for Pathé Records.\n\nLehmann was the daughter of Anne (née Kirkwood) and Robert Chambers, the Scottish writer and publisher. In 1861, after a lengthy courtship, she married the painter Rudolf Lehmann. Their daughter Liza wrote in her memoirs:\nMy mother certainly had extraordinary gifts, but suffered all her life from quite abnormally developed diffidence. As a girl, she was so musical that her father declared she did not require lessons! It was, therefore, not until after her marriage that she began to study music seriously. I have met most of the artists of my day, and I have never met any one so naturally gifted as my beloved mother. She had a lovely voice, and studied singing with several vocal teachers of renown; but she was never confident about her own achievements, and could hardly ever be induced to sing before any one. The few people who heard her sing have never forgotten her quite peculiar charm. She had a wonderful ear, the gift known as \"absolute pitch,\" and could transpose easily at sight. She wrote some beautiful music, notably an operatic setting of a Goethe libretto; but the same diffidence and exaggerated, almost morbid self-criticism, led her to destroy most of her compositions, including with them many of her best.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n1838 births\n1903 deaths\nLehmann family\nWomen classical composers\nBritish classical composers\n19th-century British women musicians",
"This page presents the albums and singles discography of Filipino singer Sarah Geronimo.\n\nAlbums\n\nStudio albums\n\nSoundtrack albums\n\nCompilation albums\n\nLive albums\n\nVideo and DVD releases\n\nSingles\n\nSongwriting credits\n\nSoundtracks\n\nOther appearances\n\nOther VCD/DVD releases\n (2004) Sing Along With Sarah Vol.1\nFormat: VCD/DVD\n (2007) Sing Along With Sarah Vol.2\nFormat: VCD\n\nNotes\n\nReferences\n\nDiscographies of Filipino artists\nPop music discographies\ndiscography"
]
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"Virat Kohli",
"Playing style"
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| C_e1a26ef3a8c64460bdcf951d80b1693b_1 | What was Virat's playing style? | 1 | What was Virat Kohli's playing style? | Virat Kohli | Kohli is a naturally aggressive batsman with strong technical skills. He usually bats in the middle-order, but, on many occasions, has opened the innings as well. He bats with a slightly open-chested stance and a strong bottom-hand grip, and is said to have quick footwork. He is known for his wide range of shots, ability to pace an innings and batting under pressure. He is strong through the mid-wicket and cover region. He has said that the cover drive is his favourite shot, while also saying that the flick shot comes naturally to him. He does not play the sweep shot often, being called "not a natural sweeper of the cricket ball". His teammates have praised his confidence, commitment, focus and work ethics. Kohli is also known to be a "sharp" fielder. Kohli is regarded as the best limited-overs batsmen in the world, especially while chasing. In ODIs, he averages more than 67 in matches batting second as opposed to around 47 batting first. 21 of his 35 ODI hundreds have come in run-chases and he holds the record for most hundreds batting second. Regarding his impressive record batting second, Kohli has said "I love the whole situation that comes with chasing. I like the challenge of testing myself, figuring out how to rotate strike, when to hit a boundary." Kohli is often compared to Sachin Tendulkar, due to their similar styles of batting, and sometimes referred to as Tendulkar's "successor". Many former cricketers expect Kohli to break Tendulkar's batting records. Kohli has stated that growing up his idol and role model was Tendulkar and that as a kid he "tried to copy the shots [Tendulkar] played and hit sixes the way he used to hit them." Former West Indies great Vivian Richards, who is regarded as the most destructive batsman in cricket, stated that Kohli reminds him of himself. In early 2015, Richards said Kohli was "already legendary" in the ODI format, while former Australian cricketer Dean Jones called Kohli the "new king of world cricket". Kohli is noted for his on-field aggression and was described in the media as "brash" and "arrogant" during his early career. He has got into confrontations with players and umpires on several occasions. While many former cricketers have backed his aggressive attitude, some have criticised it. In 2012, Kohli had stated that he tries to limit his aggressive behaviour but "the build-up and the pressure or the special occasions make it tough to control the aggression." CANNOTANSWER | Kohli is a naturally aggressive batsman with strong technical skills. | Virat Kohli (; born 5 November 1988) is an Indian international cricketer and former captain of the Indian national team. He plays for Delhi in domestic cricket and Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League as a right-handed batsman. Kohli is often considered one of the best batsmen of his era and some critics believe him to be one of the best limited-overs batsmen in history. Between 2013 and 2022, Kohli captained the India cricket team in more than 200 matches across all three formats.
Kohli made his Test debut in 2011. He reached the number one spot in the ICC rankings for ODI batsmen for the first time in 2013. He has won Man of the Tournament twice at the ICC World Twenty20 (in 2014 and 2016). He also holds the world record of being the fastest to 23,000 international runs.
Kohli has been the recipient of many awards– most notably the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy (ICC Men's Cricketer of the Decade): 2011–2020; Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy (ICC Cricketer of the Year) in 2017 and 2018; ICC Test Player of the Year (2018); ICC ODI Player of the Year (2012, 2017, 2018) and Wisden Leading Cricketer in the World (2016, 2017 and 2018). At the national level, he was awarded the Arjuna Award in 2013, the Padma Shri under the sports category in 2017 and the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award, the highest sporting honour in India, in 2018.
He is ranked as one of the world's most famous athletes by ESPN and one of the most valuable athlete brands by Forbes. In 2018, Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world. In 2020, he was ranked 66th in Forbes list of the top 100 highest-paid athletes in the world for the year 2020 with estimated earnings of over $26 million.
Early life
Virat Kohli was born on 5 November 1988 in Delhi into a Punjabi Hindu family. His father, Prem Kohli, worked as a criminal lawyer and his mother, Saroj Kohli, is a homemaker. He has an older brother, Vikash, and an older sister, Bhavna.
Kohli was raised in Uttam Nagar and started his schooling at Vishal Bharti Public School. In 1998, the West Delhi Cricket Academy was created and a nine-year-old Kohli was part of its first intake. Kohli trained at the academy under Rajkumar Sharma and also played matches at the Sumeet Dogra Academy at Vasundhara Enclave at the same time. In ninth grade, he shifted to Saviour Convent in Paschim Vihar to help his cricket practice. Kohli's family lived in Meera Bagh until 2015 when they moved to Gurugram.
Kohli's father died on 18 December 2006 due to a stroke after being bed-ridden for a month.
Youth and domestic career
Delhi
Kohli first played for Delhi Under-15 team in October 2002 in the 2002–03 Polly Umrigar Trophy. He became the captain of the team for the 2003–04 Polly Umrigar Trophy. In late 2004, he was selected in the Delhi Under-17 team for the 2003–04 Vijay Merchant Trophy. Delhi Under-17s won the 2004–05 Vijay Merchant Trophy in which Kohli finished as the highest run-scorer with 757 runs from 7 matches with two centuries. In February 2006, he made his List A debut for Delhi against Services but did not get to bat.
Kohli made his first-class debut for Delhi against Tamil Nadu in November 2006, at the age of 18, he scored 10 runs in his debut innings. He came into the spotlight in December when he decided to play for his team against Karnataka on the day after his father's death and went on to score 90. He went directly to the funeral after he got out in the match. He scored a total of 257 runs from 6 matches at an average of 36.71 in that season.
India Under-19
In July 2006, Kohli was selected in the India Under-19 squad on its tour of England. He averaged 105 in the three-match ODI series against England Under-19s and 49 in the three-match Test series. India Under-19 went on to win both the series. In September, the India Under-19 team toured Pakistan. Kohli averaged 58 in the Test series and 41.66 in the ODI series against Pakistan Under-19s.
In April 2007, he made his Twenty20 debut and finished as the highest run-getter for his team in the Inter-State T20 Championship with 179 runs at an average of 35.80. In July–August 2007, the India Under-19 team toured Sri Lanka. In the triangular series against Sri Lanka Under-19s and Bangladesh Under-19s, Kohli was the second highest run-getter with 146 runs at an average of 29 from 5 matches. In the two-match Test series that followed, he scored 244 runs at an average of 122 including a century and a fifty.
In February–March 2008, Kohli captained the victorious Indian team at the 2008 Under-19 Cricket World Cup held in Malaysia. Batting at number 3, he scored 235 runs in 6 matches at an average of 47 and finished as the tournament's third-highest run-getter and one of the three batsmen to score a hundred in the tournament. He was helped India in a three-wicket semi-final win over New Zealand Under-19s by taking 2 wickets and scoring 43 runs in the run-chase and was awarded the man of the match.
Indian Premier League
Following the Under-19 World Cup, Kohli was bought by the Indian Premier League franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore for $30,000 on a youth contract. In June 2008, Kohli and his Under-19 teammates Pradeep Sangwan and Tanmay Srivastava were awarded the Border-Gavaskar scholarship. The scholarship allowed the three players to train for six weeks at Cricket Australia's Centre of Excellence in Brisbane. He was also picked in the India Emerging Players squad for the four-team Emerging Players Tournament and scored 206 runs in six matches at an average of 41.20.
International career
Early years
In August 2008, Kohli was included in the Indian ODI squad for tour of Sri Lanka and the Champions Trophy in Pakistan. Prior to the Sri Lankan tour, Kohli had played only eight List A matches. So, his selection was called a "surprise call-up". During the Sri Lankan tour, as both first-choice openers Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag were injured, Kohli batted as a makeshift opener throughout the series. He made his international debut, at the age of 19, in the first ODI of the tour and was dismissed for 12. He made his first ODI half century, a score of 54, in the fourth match. He had scores of 37, 25 and 31 in the other three matches. India won the series 3–2 which was India's first ODI series win against Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka.
After the postponement of Champions Trophy to 2009, Kohli was picked as a replacement for the injured Shikhar Dhawan in the India A squad for the unofficial Tests against Australia A in September 2008. He batted only once in the two-match series, and scored 49 in that innings. Later that month in September 2008, he played for Delhi in the Nissar Trophy against SNGPL (winners of Quaid-i-Azam Trophy from Pakistan) and top-scored for Delhi in both innings, with 52 and 197. The match was drawn but SNGPL won the trophy on first-innings lead. In October 2008, Kohli played for Indian Board President's XI in a four-day tour match against Australia.
Kohli, after recovering from a minor shoulder injury, returned to the national team replacing the injured Gautam Gambhir in the Indian squad for the tri-series in Sri Lanka. He batted at number 4 for India in the 2009 ICC Champions Trophy because of an injury to Yuvraj Singh. In the group match against the West Indies, Kohli scored an unbeaten 79 in India's successful chase of 130 and was awarded man of the match award. Kohli played as a reserve batsman in the seven-match home ODI series against Australia, appearing in two matches. He found a place in the home ODI series against Sri Lanka in December 2009 and scored 27 and 54 in the first two ODIs before making way for Yuvraj who regained fitness for the third ODI. However, Yuvraj's finger injury recurred leading to him being ruled out indefinitely. Kohli returned to the team in the fourth ODI at Kolkata and scored his first ODI century–107 off 114 balls–sharing a 224-run partnership for the third wicket with Gambhir, who made his personal best score of 150. India won by seven wickets to seal the series 3–1. The man of the match was awarded to Gambhir who gave the award to Kohli.
Tendulkar was rested for the tri-nation ODI tournament in Bangladesh in January 2010, which enabled Kohli to play in each of India's five matches. Against Bangladesh, he scored 91 to help secure a win after India collapsed to 51/3 early in their run-chase of 297. In the next match against Sri Lanka, Kohli ended unbeaten on 71 to help India win the match with a bonus point having chased down their target of 214 within 33 overs. The next day, he scored his second ODI century, against Bangladesh, bringing up the mark with the winning runs. He became only the third Indian batsman to score two ODI centuries before their 22nd birthday, after Tendulkar and Suresh Raina. Kohli was much praised for his performances during the series in particular by the Indian captain Dhoni. Although Kohli made only two runs in the final against Sri Lanka in a four-wicket Indian defeat, he finished as the leading run-getter of the series with 275 runs from five innings at an average of 91.66. In the three-match ODI series at home against South Africa in February, Kohli batted in two games and had scores of 31 and 57.
Rise through the ranks
Raina was named captain and Kohli vice-captain for the tri-series against Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe in Zimbabwe in May–June 2010, as many first-choice players skipped the tour. Kohli made 168 runs at an average of 42.00 including two fifties, but India suffered three defeats in four matches and crashed out of the series. During the series, Kohli became the fastest Indian batsman to reach 1,000 runs in ODI cricket. He made his T20I debut against Zimbabwe at Harare and scored an unbeaten 26. Later that month, Kohli batted at 3 in an Indian team throughout the 2010 Asia Cup and scored a total of 67 runs at an average of 16.75. His struggles with form continued in the tri-series against Sri Lanka and New Zealand in Sri Lanka where he averaged 15.
Despite the poor run of form, Kohli was retained in the ODI squad for a three-match series against Australia in October, and in the only completed match of the series at Visakhapatnam, scored his third ODI century–118 off 121 balls–which helped India reach the target of 290 after losing the openers early. Winning the man of the match, he admitted that he was under pressure to keep his place in the team after failures in the two previous series. During the home ODI series against New Zealand, Kohli scored a match-winning 104-ball 105, his fourth ODI hundred and second in succession, in the first game, and followed it up with 64 and 63* in the next two matches. India completed a 5–0 whitewash of New Zealand, while Kohli's performance in the series helped him become a regular in the ODI team and made him a strong contender for a spot in India's World Cup squad. He was India's leading run-scorer in ODIs in 2010, with 995 runs from 25 matches at an average of 47.38 including three centuries and seven fifties.
Kohli was India's leading run-getter in the five-match ODI series of the South African tour in January 2011, with 193 runs at an average of 48.25 including two fifties, both in Indian defeats. During the series, he jumped to number two spot on the ICC Rankings for Men's ODI batters, and was named in India's 15-man squad for the World Cup.
Kohli played in every match of India's successful World Cup campaign. He scored an unbeaten 100, his fifth ODI century, in the first match against Bangladesh and became the first Indian batsman to score a century on World Cup debut. In the next four group matches he had low scores of 8, 34, 12 and 1 against England, Ireland, Netherlands and South Africa respectively. Having returned to form with 59 against the West Indies, he scored only 24 and 9 in the quarter-final against Australia and semi-final against Pakistan respectively. In the final against Sri Lanka at Mumbai, he scored 35, sharing an 83-run partnership with Gambhir for the third wicket after India had lost both openers within the seventh over chasing 275. This partnership is regarded as "one of the turning points in the match", as India went on to win the match by six wickets and lift the World Cup for the first time since 1983.
Consistent performance in limited overs
When India toured the West Indies in June–July 2011, they selected a largely inexperienced squad, resting Tendulkar and others such as- Gambhir and Sehwag missing out due to injuries. Kohli was one of three uncapped players in the Test squad. He found success in the ODI series which India won 3–2, with a total of 199 runs at an average of 39.80. His best efforts came in the second ODI at Port of Spain where he won the man of the match for his score of 81 which gave India a seven-wicket victory, and the fifth ODI at Kingston where his innings of 94 came in a seven-wicket defeat. Kohli made his Test debut at Kingston in the first match of the Test series that followed. He batted at 5 and was dismissed for 4 and 15 caught behind off the bowling of Fidel Edwards in both innings. India went on to win the Test series 1–0 but Kohli amassed just 76 runs from five innings, struggling against the short ball and was particularly troubled by the fast bowling of Edwards, who dismissed him three times in the series.
Initially dropped from the Test squad for India's four-match series in England in July and August due to poor performance in his debut series, Kohli was recalled as a replacement for the injured Yuvraj, though he did not got to play in any match in the series. He found moderate success in the subsequent ODI series in which he averaged 38.80. His score of 55 in the first ODI at Chester-le-Street was followed by a string of low scores in the next three matches. In the last game of the series, Kohli scored his sixth ODI hundred–107 runs off 93 balls–and shared a 170-run third-wicket partnership with Rahul Dravid, who was playing his last ODI, to help India post their first 300-plus total of the tour. Kohli was dismissed hit wicket in that innings which was the only century in the series by any player on either team and earned him praise for his "hard work" and "maturity". However, England won the match by D/L method and the series 3–0.
In October 2011, Kohli was the leading run-scorer of the five-match home ODI series against England which India won 5–0. He scored a total of 270 runs across five matches at an average of 90, including unbeaten knocks of 112 from 98 balls at Delhi, where he put on an unbroken 209-run partnership with Gambhir, and 86 at Mumbai, both in successful run-chases. Owing to his ODI success, Kohli was included in the Test squad to face the West Indies in November. He was selected in the final match of the series in which he scored a pair of fifties in the match. India won the subsequent ODI series 4–1 in which Kohli managed to accumulate 243 runs at 60.75. During the series, Kohli scored his eighth ODI century and his second at Visakhapatnam, where he made 117 off 123 balls in India's run-chase of 270, a knock which raised his reputation as "an expert of the chase". Kohli ended up as the leading run-getter in ODIs for the year 2011, with 1381 runs from 34 matches at 47.62 including four centuries and eight fifties.
During tour of Australia in December 2011, Kohli failed to go past 25 in the first two Tests, as his defensive technique was exposed. While fielding on the boundary during the second day of the second match, he gestured to the crowd with his middle finger for which he was fined 50% of his match fee by the match referee. He top-scored in each of India's innings in the third Test at Perth, with 44 and 75, even as India got their second consecutive innings defeat. In the fourth and final match at Adelaide, Kohli scored his maiden Test century of 116 runs in the first innings. India suffered a 0–4 whitewash and Kohli, India's top run-scorer in the series, was described as "the lone bright spot in an otherwise nightmare visit for the tourists".
In the first seven matches of the Commonwealth Bank triangular series that India played against hosts Australia and Sri Lanka, Kohli made two fifties–77 at Perth and 66 at Brisbane–both against Sri Lanka. India registered two wins, a tie and four losses in these seven matches. Being set a target of 321 by Sri Lanka, Kohli came to the crease with India's score at 86/2 and went on to score 133 not out from 86 balls to take India to a comfortable win with 13 overs to spare. India earned a bonus point with the win and Kohli was named Man of the Match for his knock. Former Australian cricketer and commentator Dean Jones rated Kohli's innings as "one of the greatest ODI knocks of all time". However, Sri Lanka beat Australia three days later in their last group fixture and knocked India out of the series. With 373 runs at 53.28, Kohli finished as India's highest run-scorer and lone centurion of the series.
Kohli was appointed the vice-captain for the 2012 Asia Cup in Bangladesh on the back of his fine performance in Australia. Kohli was in fine form during the tournament, finishing as the leading run-scorer with 357 runs at an average of 119. He scored 108 in the first match against Sri Lanka in a 50-run Indian victory, while India lost their next match to Bangladesh in which he made 66. In the final group stage match against Pakistan, he scored a personal best 183 off 148 balls, his 11th ODI century. He helped India to chase down 330, their highest successful ODI run-chase at the time. His knock was the highest individual score in Asia Cup history surpassing previous record of 144 by Younis Khan in 2004, the joint-second highest score, with Dhoni, in an ODI run-chase and the highest individual score against Pakistan in ODIs. Kohli was awarded the man of the match in both the matches that India won, but India could not progress to the final of the tournament.
In July–August 2012, Kohli struck two centuries in the five-match ODI tour of Sri Lanka–106 off 113 balls at Hambantota and 128* off 119 balls at Colombo–winning man of the match in both games. India won the series 4–1 and Kohli was named player of the series. In the one-off T20I that followed, he scored a 48-ball 68, his first T20I fifty, and won the player of the series award. Kohli scored his second Test century at Bangalore during New Zealand's tour of India and won man of the match award. India won the two-match series 2–0, and Kohli averaged 106 with one hundred and two fifties from three innings. In the subsequent T20I series, he scored 70 runs off 41 balls, but India lost the match by one run and the series 1–0. He continued to be in good form during the 2012 ICC World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka, with 185 runs, the highest among Indian batsmen, from 5 matches at an average of 46.25. He hit two fifties during the tournament, against Afghanistan and Pakistan, winning man of the match for both innings. He was named in the ICC 'Team of the Tournament'.
Kohli's Test form dipped during the first three matches of England's tour of India, between October 2012 and January 2013, with a top score of 20 and England leading the series 2–1. He scored a patient 103 from 295 balls in the last match. However, the match ended in a draw and England won their first Test series in India in 28 years. Against Pakistan in December 2012, Kohli averaged 18 in the T20Is and 4.33 in the ODIs, being troubled by the fast bowlers, particularly Junaid Khan, who dismissed him on all three occasions in the ODI series. Kohli had a quiet ODI series against England, apart from a match-winning 77* in the third ODI at Ranchi, with a total of 155 runs at an average of 38.75.
Kohli scored his fourth Test century (107) at Chennai in the first match of the home Test series against Australia in February 2013. India completed a 4–0 series sweep, becoming the first team to whitewash Australia in more than four decades. Kohli averaged 56.80 in the series .
In June 2013, Kohli featured in the ICC Champions Trophy in England which India won. He scored a 144 against Sri Lanka in warm-up match. He scored 31, 22 and 22* in India's group matches against South Africa, West Indies and Pakistan respectively, while India qualified for the semi-finals with an undefeated record. In the semi-final against Sri Lanka at Cardiff, he struck 58* in an eight-wicket win for India. The final between India and England at Birmingham was reduced to 20 overs after a rain delay. India batted first and Kohli top-scored with 43 from 34 balls, sharing a sixth-wicket partnership of 47 runs off 33 balls with Ravindra Jadeja and helping India reach 129/7 in 20 overs. India went on to secure a five-run win and their second consecutive ICC ODI tournament victory. He was also named as part of the 'Team of the Tournament' by the ICC.
Setting records
Kohli stood-in as the captain for the first ODI of the triangular series in the West Indies after Dhoni injured himself during the match. India lost the match by one wicket, and Dhoni was subsequently ruled out of the series with Kohli being named the captain for the remaining matches. In his second match as captain, Kohli scored his first century as captain, making 102 off 83 balls against the West Indies at Port of Spain in a bonus point win for India. Many senior players, including Dhoni, were rested for the five-match ODI tour of Zimbabwe in July 2013, with Kohli being appointed captain for an entire series for the first time. In the first game of the series at Harare, he struck 115 runs from 108 balls, helping India chase down the target of 229 and winning the man of the match award. He batted on two more occasions in the series in which he had scores of 14 and 68*. India completed a 5–0 sweep of the series; their first in an away ODI series.
Kohli had a successful time with the bat in the seven-match ODI series against Australia. After top-scoring with 61 in the opening loss at Pune, he struck the fastest century by an Indian in ODIs in the second match at Jaipur. Reaching the milestone in just 52 balls and putting up an unbroken 186-run second-wicket partnership with Rohit Sharma that came in 17.2 overs, Kohli's innings of 100* helped India chase down the target of 360 for the loss of one wicket with more than six overs to spare. This chase was the second-highest successful run-chase in ODI cricket at the time, while Kohli's knock became the fastest century against Australia and the third-fastest in a run-chase. He followed that innings with 68 in the next match at Mohali in another Indian defeat, before the next two matches were washed out by rain. In the sixth ODI at Nagpur, he struck 115 off only 66 balls to help India successfully chase the target of 351 and level the series 2–2 and won the man of the match. He reached the 100-run mark in 61 balls, making it the third-fastest ODI century by an Indian batsman, and also became the fastest batsman in the world to score 17 hundreds in ODI cricket. India clinched the series after winning the last match in which he was run out for a duck. At the conclusion of the series, Kohli moved to the top position in the ICC ODI batsmen rankings for the first time in his career.
Kohli batted twice in the two-match Test series against the West Indies, and had scores of 3 and 57 being dismissed by Shane Shillingford in both innings. This was also the last Test series for Tendulkar and Kohli was expected to take Tendulkar's number 4 batting position after the series. In the first game of the three-match ODI series that followed at Kochi, Kohli made 86 to seal a six-wicket win and won the man of the match. During the match, he also equalled Viv Richards' record of becoming the fastest batsman to make 5,000 runs in ODI cricket, reaching the landmark in his 114th innings. He missed out on his third century at Visakhapatnam in the next match, after being dismissed for 99 playing a hook shot off Ravi Rampaul. India lost the match by two wickets, but took the series 2–1 after winning the last match at Kanpur. With 204 runs at 68.00, Kohli finished the series as the leading run-getter and was awarded the man of the series.
Overseas season
India toured South Africa in December 2013 for three ODIs and two Tests. Kohli averaged 15.50 in the ODIs, including a duck. In the first Test at Johannesburg, playing his first Test in South Africa and batting at 4 for the first time, Kohli scored 119 and 96. His hundred was the first by a subcontinent batsman at the venue since 1998. The match ended in a draw, and Kohli was awarded man of the match. India failed to win a single match on the tour, losing the second Test by 10 wickets in which he made 46 and 11.
During New Zealand tour, he averaged 58.21 in the five-match ODI series in which his all efforts went in vain as India were defeated 4–0. He made 214 runs at 71.33 in the two-match Test series that followed including an unbeaten 105 on the last day of the second Test at Wellington that helped India save the match.
India then traveled to Bangladesh for the Asia Cup and World Twenty20. Dhoni was ruled out of the Asia Cup after suffering a side strain during the New Zealand tour, which led to Kohli being named the captain for the tournament. Kohli scored 136 off 122 balls in India's opening match against Bangladesh, sharing a 213-run third-wicket stand with Ajinkya Rahane, which helped India successfully chase 280. It was his 19th ODI century and his fifth in Bangladesh, making him the batsman with most ODI centuries in Bangladesh. India were knocked out of the tournament after narrow losses against Sri Lanka and Pakistan, in which Kohli scored 48 and 5 respectively.
Dhoni returned from injury to captain the team for 2014 ICC World Twenty20 and Kohli was named vice-captain. In India's opening match of the tournament against Pakistan, Kohli top-scored with 36 not out to guide India to a seven-wicket win. He scored 54 off 41 balls in the next game against West Indies and an unbeaten 57 from 50 balls against Bangladesh, both in successful run-chases. In the semi-final, he made an unbeaten 72 in 44 deliveries to help India achieve the target of 173. He won the man of the match for this knock. India posted 130/4 in the final against Sri Lanka, in which Kohli scored 77 from 58 balls, and eventually lost the match by six wickets. Kohli made a total of 319 runs in the tournament at an average of 106.33, a record for most runs by an individual batsman in a single World Twenty20 tournament, for which he won the Man of the Tournament award.
India conceded a 3–1 defeat in the five-match Test series against England. Kohli fared poorly in the series averaging just 13.40 in 10 innings scoring 134 runs overall with a top score of 39. It was a nightmare tour for him as he was dismissed for single-digit scores on six occasions in the series and was particularly susceptible to the swinging ball on off stump line, being dismissed several times edging the ball to the wicket-keeper or slip fielders. Man of the series James Anderson got Kohli's wicket four times, while Kohli's batting technique was questioned by analysts and former cricketers. India won the ODI series that followed 3–1, but Kohli's struggles with the bat continued with an average of 18 in four innings. In the one-off T20I, he scored 41-ball 66, his first fifty-plus score of the tour. India lost the match by three runs, but Kohli reached the number one spot for T20I batsmen in the ICC rankings.
Kohli had a successful time during India's home ODI series win over the West Indies in October 2014. His 62 in the second ODI at Delhi was his first fifty across Tests and ODIs in 16 innings since February, and he stated that he got his "confidence back" with the innings. He struck his 20th ODI hundred–127 runs in 114 balls–in the fourth match at Dharamsala. India registered a 59-run victory and Kohli was awarded man of the match. Dhoni was rested for the five-match ODI series against Sri Lanka in November, enabling Kohli to lead the team for another full series. Kohli batted at 4 throughout the series and made scores of 22, 49, 53 and 66 in the first four ODIs, with India leading the series 4–0. In the fifth ODI at Ranchi, he made an unbeaten 139 off 126 balls to give his team a three-wicket win and a whitewash of Sri Lanka. Kohli was awarded player of the series, and it was the second whitewash under his captaincy. During the series he became the fastest batter in the world to go past the 6000-run mark in ODIs. With 1054 ODI runs at 58.55 in 2014, he became the second player in the world after Sourav Ganguly to make more than 1,000 runs in ODIs for four consecutive calendar years.
Test captaincy
For the first Test of the Australian tour in December 2014, Dhoni was not part of the Indian team at Adelaide due to an injury, and Kohli took the reins as Test captain for the first time. Kohli scored 115 in India's first innings, becoming the fourth Indian to score a hundred on Test captaincy debut. In their second innings, India were set a target of 364 to be scored on the fifth day. Kohli put on 185 runs for the third wicket with Murali Vijay before Vijay's dismissal, which triggered a batting collapse. From 242/2, India was bowled out for 315 with Kohli's 141 off 175 balls being the top score.
Dhoni returned to the team as captain for the second match at Brisbane where Kohli scored 19 and 1 in a four-wicket defeat for India. In the Melbourne Boxing Day Test, he made his personal best Test score of 169 in the first innings while sharing a 262-run partnership with Rahane, India's biggest partnership outside Asia in ten years. Kohli followed it with a score of 54 in India's second innings on the fifth day, helping his team draw the Test match. Dhoni announced his retirement from Test cricket at the conclusion of this match, and Kohli was appointed as the full-time Test captain ahead of the fourth Test at Sydney. Captaining the Test team for the second time, Kohli hit 147 in the first innings of the match and became the first batsman in Test cricket history to score three hundreds in his first three innings as Test captain. He was dismissed for 46 in the second innings and the match ended in a draw. Kohli's total of 692 runs in four Tests was the most by any Indian batsman in a Test series in Australia.
In January 2015, India failed to win a single match in the tri-nation ODI series against the hosts Australia and England. Kohli was unable to replicate his Test success in ODIs, failing to make a two-digit score in any of the four games. Kohli's ODI form did not improve in the lead-up to the World Cup, with scores of 18 and 5 in the warm-up matches against Australia and Afghanistan respectively.
In the first match of the World Cup against Pakistan at Adelaide, Kohli hit 107 in 126 balls. For his knock, he was awarded the man of the match award. Kohli also became first Indian batsman to score a century against Pakistan in a World Cup match. He was dismissed for 46 in India's second match against South Africa. India went on to register a 130-run victory in the match. India batted second in their remaining four group matches in which Kohli scored 33*, 33, 44* and 38 against UAE, West Indies, Ireland and Zimbabwe respectively. India went on to secure wins in these four fixtures and top the Pool B points with an undefeated record. In India's 109-run victory in the quarter-final over Bangladesh, Kohli was dismissed by Rubel Hossain for 3, edging the ball to the wicket-keeper. India was eliminated in the semi-final by Australia at Melbourne, where Kohli was dismissed for 1 off 13 balls, top-edging a short-pitched delivery from Mitchell Johnson.
Kohli had a slump in form when India toured Bangladesh in June 2015. He contributed only 14 in the one-off Test which ended in a draw and averaged 16.33 in the ODI series which Bangladesh won 2–1. Kohli ended his streak of low scores by scoring his 11th Test hundred in the first Test of the Sri Lankan tour which India lost. India won the next two matches to seal the series 2–1, Kohli's first series win as Test captain and India's first away Test series win in four years.
During South Africa's tour of India, Kohli became the fastest batsman in the world to make 1,000 runs in T20I cricket, reaching the milestone in his 27th innings. In the ODI series, he made a century in the fourth ODI at Chennai that helped India draw level in the series. India lost the series after a defeat in the final ODI and Kohli finished the series with an average of 49. India came back to beat the top-ranked South African team 3–0 in the four-match Test series under Kohli's captaincy, and climbed to number two position on the ICC Test rankings. Virat scored a total of 200 runs in the series at 33.33.
No. 1 Test team and limited-overs captaincy
Kohli started 2016 with scores of 91 and 59 in the first two ODIs of the limited-overs tour of Australia. He followed it up with a pair of hundreds–a run-a-ball 117 at Melbourne and 106 from 92 balls at Canberra. During the course of the series, he became the fastest batsman in the world to cross the 7000-run mark in ODIs, getting to the milestone in his 161st innings, and the fastest to get to 25 centuries. After the ODI series ended in a 1–4 loss, the Indian team came back to whitewash the Australians 3–0 in the T20I series. Kohli made fifties in all three T20Is with scores of 90*, 59* and 50, winning two man of the matches as well as the man of the series award. He was also instrumental in India winning the Asia Cup in Bangladesh the following month in which he scored 49 in a run-chase of 84 against Pakistan, followed by an unbeaten 56 against Sri Lanka and 41 not out in the Final against Bangladesh.
Kohli maintained his form in the 2016 ICC World Twenty20 in India, scoring 55* in another successful run-chase against Pakistan. He struck an unbeaten 82 from 51 balls in India's must-win group match against Australia in "an innings of sheer class" with "clean cricket shots". It helped India win by six wickets and register a spot in the semi-final; Kohli went on to rate the innings as his best in the format. In the semi-final, Kohli top-scored with an unbeaten 89 from 47 deliveries, but West Indies overhauled India's total of 192 and ended India's campaign. His total of 273 runs in five matches at an average of 136.50 earned him his second consecutive Man of the Tournament award at the World Twenty20. He was named as captain of the 'Team of the Tournament' for the 2016 World Twenty20 by the ICC.
Playing his first Test in the West Indies since his debut series, Kohli scored 200 in the first Test at Antigua to ensure an innings-and-92-run win for India, their biggest win ever outside of Asia. It was his first double hundred in first-class cricket and the first made away from home by an Indian captain in Tests. India went on to wrap the series 2–0 and briefly top the ICC Test Rankings before being displaced by Pakistan at the position. He scored another double hundred–211 at Indore in the third Test against New Zealand–as India's 3–0 whitewash victory saw them regain the top position in the ICC Test Rankings. In the subsequent ODI series, Kohli set up two wins for India batting second with unbeaten knocks of 85 and 154. He then made 65 in the series-deciding fifth game at Visakhapatnam which India won.
Kohli got double centuries in the next two Test series against England and Bangladesh, making him the first batsman ever to score double centuries in four consecutive series. He broke the record of Australian great Donald Bradman and Rahul Dravid, both of whom had managed to get three. Against England, he got his then-highest Test score of 235.
10,000 runs in ODIs before age of 30
He followed it up with ODI centuries against the West Indies and Sri Lanka in consecutive series, equalling Ricky Ponting's tally of 30 ODI centuries. In October 2017, he was adjudged the ODI player of the series against New Zealand for scoring two ODI centuries, during the course of which he made a new record for the most runs (8,888), best average (55.55) and highest number of centuries (31) for any batsman when completing 200 ODIs. Kohli made several more records during the 3 match Test series against Sri Lanka at home in November. After scoring a century and a double century in the first two Tests, he ended up scoring yet another double century in the third Test, during which he became the eleventh Indian batsman to surpass 5000 runs in Test cricket while scoring his 20th Test century and 6th double century. During this match he also became the first batsman to score six double hundreds as a captain. With 610 runs in the series, Kohli also became the highest run-scorer by an Indian in a three-match Test series and the fourth-highest overall. India comfortably won the three-match series 1–0 and Kohli was adjudged man of the match for the second and third Test matches and player of the series. With this win, India equaled Australia for the record streak of nine consecutive series wins in Test cricket. He ended the year with 2818 international runs, which is recorded as the third-highest tally ever in a calendar year and the highest tally ever by an Indian player. The ICC named Kohli as captain of both their World Test XI and ODI XI for 2017.
Overseas season-including Windies at home
Kohli had a fared average in the Test matches as India lost 1–2 during the South Africa tour in 2018, but came back strongly to score 558 runs in the 6 ODIs, making a record for the highest runs scored in a bilateral ODI series. This included three centuries, remaining unbeaten in two with a best of 160*. India won the ODI series 5–1, Kohli becoming the first Indian captain to win an ODI series in South Africa.
In March 2018, Kohli played county cricket in England in June, in order to improve his batting before the start of India's tour to England the following month. He signed to play for Surrey, but a neck injury ruled him out of his stint in England before it even began. On 2 August, Kohli scored his first Test century on English soil in the first test match of the series against England. On 5 August, Kohli displaced Steve Smith to become the No. 1 ranked Test batsman in the ICC Test rankings. He also became the seventh Indian batsman and first since Sachin Tendulkar in June 2011 to achieve this feat. In the third test at Trent Bridge, Nottingham, Kohli scored 97 and 103, and helped India win by 203 runs. At the end of 5-match test series, Kohli scored 593 runs, which was third highest runs by an Indian batsman in a losing test series. Kohli's consistent performance in the series against the moving ball when other batsman failed to perform was hailed by British Media as one of his finest. The Guardian describes Kohli's batting display as One of the Greatest batting display in a losing cause.
During ODI series against West Indies in 2018, Kohli became the 12th batsman and fastest player to score 10,000 ODI runs. He surpassed the milestone with 205 innings which is 54 innings less than the next quickest to the landmark, Sachin Tendulkar. In the course he scored his 37th ODI century. On 27 October, after scoring his 38th ODI century, Kohli became the first batsman for India, first captain and tenth overall, to score three successive centuries in ODIs. He ended up scoring 453 runs in 5 innings, at an average of 151.00, in the 5-match series and was the Player of the Series.
On 16 December 2018 in the 2018-2019 Border Gavaskar Trophy, Kohli scored his 25th test hundred in Perth. His knock of 123 was his 6th hundred in three tours to Australia making him the only Indian to score 6 test hundreds in Australia after Sachin Tendulkar. He also became the fastest Indian and second fastest overall (125 innings) to score 25 test hundreds, second only to Donald Bradman (68 innings) which was bettered by Steven Smith during 2019 Ashes (119 innings). Kohli's knock was rated by several analysts and former cricketers as one of his finest against a quality Australian attack.
Although he broke several records in the game, his innings proved to insufficient as India went down by 146 runs as Australia levelled the series with two tests remaining. Overall, he finished the series with 282 runs at an average of 40. By winning the test series in Australia, he had become the first Indian and also the first Asian skipper to win a test series in Australia. He was again named as captain of both the World Test XI and ODI XI for 2018 by the ICC.
Captaining India in ICC events
2017 ICC Champions Trophy
Virat Kohli got the chance to captain in an ICC tournament for the first time in the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy. In the semi-final against Bangladesh, Kohli scored 96*, thus becoming the fastest batsman, in terms of innings, to reach 8,000 runs in ODIs in 175 innings. India reached the final, but lost to Pakistan by 180 runs. In the third over of Indian innings, Virat Kohli was dropped in the slips for just five runs but caught the next ball by Shadab Khan at point on the bowling of Mohammad Amir. He was also named as part of the 'Team of the Tournament' at the 2017 Champions Trophy by the ICC.
2019 Cricket World Cup
In April 2019, he was named the captain of India's squad for the 2019 Cricket World Cup. On 16 June 2019, in India's match against Pakistan, Kohli became the fastest batsman, in terms of innings, to score 11,000 runs in ODI cricket. He reached the landmark in his 222nd innings. Eleven days later, in the match against the West Indies, Kohli became the fastest cricketer, in terms of innings, to score 20,000 runs in international cricket, doing so in his 417th innings. Kohli scored five consecutive fifty plus score in the tournament. India lost the semi-final against New Zealand, in which Kohli was out for just a run.
2021 ICC World Test Championship Final
In June 2021, India lost the 2021 ICC World Test Championship Final to New Zealand. This was Kohli's third defeat as captain in knockouts and finals of ICC tournaments. Virat Kohli scored 44 and 13 runs in the 1st and 2nd innings respectively.
2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup
In September 2021, Kohli was named as the captain of India's squad for the 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup. India could not make it through the semi-finals, which was the first time in the past 9 years.
Home season
In October 2019, Kohli captained India for the 50th time in Test cricket, in the second Test against South Africa. In the first innings of the match, Kohli scored an unbeaten 254 runs, passing 7,000 runs in Tests in the process, and became the first batsman for India to score seven double centuries in Test cricket. In November 2019, during the day/night Test match against Bangladesh, Kohli became the fastest captain to score 5,000 runs in Test cricket, doing so in his 86th innings. In the same match, he also scored his 70th century in international cricket.
Poor form across formats
Disastrous tour of New Zealand
India toured to New Zealand from January to March 2020 to play 5-match T20 series along with a 3 and 2-match ODI and test series respectively. During the tour, Kohli badly struggled against the moving ball on tricky New Zealand pitches throughout the tour making the tour as his worst ever after the England tour in 2014. During the entire tour he only managed 218 across formats in 12 innings at an average of 19.81 with one half-century during first ODI. This was his lowest aggregate of runs in a tour where he played in all formats. India managed to win the T20I series 5–0. However Kohli-led side was badly hammered during the ODI and Test leg of the tour losing 3-0 and 2-0 respectively. This was also India's first whitewash under Kohli's captaincy.
India's tour of Australia and home series versus England
India travelled to Australia during November 2020 till January 2021 for a long tour. During the ODI Series, Kohli managed to score two half-centuries in three innings with a aggregate of 173 runs at an average of 57.67 despite this India lost the series 2–1. Also in November, Kohli played in his 250th ODI match, in the second match against Australia.
However, India bounced backed strongly and clinch the T20I series 2–1 with Kohli being the highest run scorer in the series for India (134 runs at 44.37). During the first test of the tour played as Day/night match at Adelaide, Kohli scored a fluent 74 before being run out. However he only managed 4 runs in next innings where India scrambled to 36/9, their lowest ever score in Test cricket history. After the 1st Test, Kohli left the tour on paternity leave as he was expecting the birth of his first child. He received mixed responses for his decision. Indian batting great Sunil Gavaskar along with Kapil Dev slammed Kohli for leaving the tour after the Indian team lost the 1st Test in Adelaide. Gavaskar slammed the double standard of BCCI for Kohli getting the paternity leave while T. Natarajan wasn't allowed for the same. Despite his absence India managed to clinch the test series 2–1 under the able leadership of stand-in captain Ajinkya Rahane. The Daily Telegraph described India's recovery as one of the great comebacks in cricket history.
In November 2020, Kohli was nominated for the Sir Garfield Sobers Award for ICC Male Cricketer of the Decade, as well as Test, ODI and T20I player of the decade and won two(Male cricketer of the decade and ODI cricketer of the decade).
The England tour of India begin with a long 4-match Test series. Kohli struggled to find his form through the series as he managed 172 runs across 4 Test matches at an average of 28.66 with 2 half-centuries and 2 ducks. This was also the first time Kohli got out for two ducks in a Test series after his disastrous tour of England in 2014. However, during the second test at Chepauk, Kohli scored a crucial 62 on a minefield of a pitch which English batting great Geoffrey Boycott described as a template to bat and score runs on a turning pitch.
Kohli got out for a duck again in the 1st T20I of a 5-match series. However, he found his form in the latter part of the series and ended the series as the highest run-scorer from both sides with 231 runs to his name and 3 half-centuries at an average of 115.50 as India clinched the series 3–2. Kohli was adjudged as the Man of the Series for his performances. During the second T20I, Kohli became the first ever batsman to complete 3,000 runs in the format.
In the 3-match ODI series, Kohli managed to score 129 runs in 3 innings with 2 half-centuries at a moderate average of 43.00 as India won the series 2–1. During the 2nd ODI, Kohli became the second batsman after Ricky Ponting to score 10,000 runs batting at number 3.
Tour of England and South Africa
Indian cricket team toured England in 2021 for a 5-match test series. During the 1st innings of the first test, Kohli got dismissed for a golden duck by James Anderson. Kohli managed to score 2 fifties in the next 6 innings he played. He has scored a total of 218 runs in the first four matches of the series, with an average of 31.14. The fifth test of the series is yet to played.
Indian cricket team toured South Africa in late 2021 and early 2022 for a 3-match test series and a 3-match ODI series. Kohli managed to score 161 runs in the 4 innings of test series he played, averaging at 40.25. He could not play 2nd test of the series due to an injury. India lost the series by 2-1, despite winning the first test.
In the ODI series, Kohli scored 116 runs in 3 innings, including two fifties, with an average of 38.66. South Africa won all three matches, thus whitewashing India.
Retirement from captaincy across all formats
In September 2021, Kohli announced that he would step down as India's T20I captain following the 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup .
In December 2021, Kohli was replaced by Rohit Sharma as India's ODI captain. BCCI President Sourav Ganguly later explained the decision to drop Kohli as ODI captain by saying that the selectors did not feel right to have two white ball captains. Later Ganguly said that BCCI had told Virat to not step down as T20I captain. Virat Kohli, during a press conference, contradicted the BCCI President and said that his decision of stepping down as captain was "received well" and termed as "progressive" by the BCCI officials. He also claimed that chief selector Chetan Sharma informed him 90-minutes before the announcement of the Test squad for India's tour of South Africa, about the removal from ODI captaincy. More than a week later, during the announcement of squad for ODI series versus South Africa, Chetan Sharma contradicted Kohli by saying that officials had asked Virat to reconsider his decision of stepping down as T20I captain.
On 15 January 2022, Kohli stepped down as India's Test captain, following the 2–1 test series defeat against South Africa during the India's Tour of South Africa.
Indian Premier League
Kohli was bought by the Indian Premier League franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore for $30,000 on a youth contract. He was the captain of Royal challengers Bangalore for 8 seasons but could not win a trophy.
Kohli had an poor 2008 season, with a total of 165 runs in 12 innings at an average of 15.00 and a strike rate of 105.09. He did slightly better in the second season in which he made a total of 246 runs at 22.36, striking at over 112, while his team made it as far as the final. In the 2010 season, Kohli was the third highest run-getter for his team with 307 runs, averaging 27.90 and improving his strike rate to 144.81.
Kohli was the second-highest run-getter of the season, only behind teammate Chris Gayle, and his team finished as runners-up. Kohli scored total 557 runs at an average of 46.41 and at the strike rate of over 121 including four fifties. In the 2012 IPL, he averaged 28 and scored 364 runs.
During 2013 season, Kohli averaged 45.28 and hit a total of 634 runs at a strike rate of over 138 including six fifties and a top-score of 99 and finished as the season's third-highest run-scorer.
Bangalore finished seventh in the next season in which Kohli made 359 runs at 27.61. He found success with the bat in the 2015 IPL in which he led his team to the playoffs. He finished fifth on the season's leading run-getters list with 505 runs at an average of 45.90 and a strike rate of more than 130.
At the 2016 IPL, the Royal Challengers finished runners-up and Kohli broke the record for most runs in an IPL season (of 733 runs) by scoring 973 runs in 16 matches at an average of 81.08, winning the Orange Cap as well as Most-valuable Player Award of Vivo IPL 2016. He scored four centuries in the tournament, having never scored one in the Twenty20 format before the start of the season, and also became the first player to reach the 4000-run milestone in the IPL. At the launch event of his biography, 'Driven: The Virat Kohli Story' in New Delhi, in October 2016, Kohli announced that RCB would be the IPL franchise that he would permanently play for.
Kohli missed the start of the 2017 season due to a shoulder injury. Moreover, RCB finished the tournament at the bottom of the table, with Kohli scoring the most runs for his team, with 308 from 10 matches. On the occasion of the 10 year anniversary of IPL, he was also named in the all-time Cricinfo IPL XI.
In the 2018 season, Kohli was retained by RCB for a price of , the highest for any player that year. Kohli scored 530 runs in the season and became the first batsman to score more than 500 runs in 5 different seasons. Moreover, RCB failed to qualify for Playoffs and finished sixth on the points table.
On 28 March 2019, Kohli became the second player to reach 5000 IPL runs after Suresh Raina. In the same season, Kohli surpassed Raina to become leading runs scorer in IPL when he scored 84 runs in a match against KKR.
On 22 April 2021, against Rajasthan Royals, Kohli became the first ever player to reach 6000 IPL Runs. On 20 September, Royal Challengers Bangalore announced that Kohli would step down as captain following the 2021 IPL season.
Player profile
Playing style
Kohli is a naturally aggressive batsman with strong technical skills. He usually bats at the no.3 position in ODI cricket. He bats with a slightly open-chested stance and a strong bottom-hand grip. He is not a big hitter and plays more grounded shots. He is known for his wide range of shots, ability to pace an innings and batting under pressure. He is strong through the mid-wicket and cover region. He has said that the cover drive is his favourite shot, while also saying that the flick shot comes naturally to him. He does not play the sweep shot often, being called "not a natural sweeper of the cricket ball". Kohli is strong on leg stump line bowling. If bowled at leg stump he plays flick shot.
According to cricket pundit VVS Laxman, for Virat Kohli, balling line outside the off stump is his weakness. He got out many times by outside off stump line ball and opposition team's bowlers tries to exploit his weakness in Test as well as ODIs. Out swinging balls his one of the weakness as per Richard Hadlee.
His teammates have praised his confidence, commitment, focus and work ethics. Kohli is also known to be a "sharp" fielder.
Kohli is regarded as the best limited-overs batsman in the world, especially while chasing. In ODIs, he averages around 69 in matches batting second as opposed to around 51 batting first. 26 of his 43 ODI hundreds have come in run-chases and he holds the record for most hundreds batting second.
Aggression
Kohli is noted for his on-field aggression and was described in the media as "brash" and "arrogant" during his early career. He has got into confrontations with players and umpires on several occasions. While many former cricketers have backed his aggressive attitude, some have criticised it. In 2012, Kohli had stated that he tries to limit his aggressive behaviour but "the build-up and the pressure or the special occasions make it tough to control the aggression."
Comparisons to Sachin Tendulkar
Kohli is often compared to Sachin Tendulkar, due to their similar styles of batting, and sometimes referred to as Tendulkar's "successor". Many former cricketers expect Kohli to break Tendulkar's batting records. He is ranked as one of the world's most famous athletes by ESPN Kohli has stated that growing up his idol and role model was Tendulkar and that as a kid he "tried to copy the shots [Tendulkar] played and hit sixes the way he used to hit them." Former West Indies great Vivian Richards, who is regarded as the most destructive batsman in cricket, stated that Kohli reminds him of himself. In early 2015, Richards said Kohli was "already legendary" in the ODI format, while former Australian cricketer Dean Jones called Kohli the "new king of world cricket". Aakash Chopra, an Indian commentator, stated that "Sachin had more shots as compared to Virat".
Career summary
, Kohli has made 70 centuries and 7 double centuries in international cricket—27 centuries, 7 double centuries in Test cricket and 43 centuries in One Day Internationals (ODIs).
Test match performance
ODI match performance
T20I match performance
Records
Virat Kohli is leading run scorer in T20I with most 50 plus scores. He is the only cricketer to have been awarded player of the tournament twice in T20 World Cup. He scored 319 runs with 4 fifties in T20 World Cup 2014 and was leading run scorer in the tournament.
He has 2nd most centuries in ODI(43) and only behind Tendulkar who has 49 centuries. He has 3rd most centuries(70) in international cricket and only behind Tendulkar(100) and Ponting(71). He is the fastest player to score 10,000 runs in ODI in terms of innings and took 54 less innings than previous record of 259 innings. In 2018, He scored 1000 ODI runs in just 11 innings which is the least number of innings taken to score 1000 runs in a calendar year.
Awards
National honours
2013 - Arjuna Award
2017 - Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian award.
2018 - Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award, India's highest sporting honour.
Sporting honours
Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy (ICC Men's Cricketer of the Decade): 2011–2020
Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy (ICC Cricketer of the Year): 2017, 2018
ICC ODI Player of the Year: 2012, 2017, 2018
ICC Test Player of the Year: 2018
ICC ODI Team of the Year: 2012, 2014, 2016 (captain), 2017 (captain), 2018 (captain), 2019 (captain)
ICC Test Team of the Year: 2017 (captain), 2018 (captain), 2019 (captain)
ICC Spirit of Cricket: 2019
ICC Men's ODI Cricketer of the Decade: 2011–2020
ICC Men's Test Team of the Decade: 2011–2020 (captain)
ICC Men's ODI Team of the Decade: 2011–2020
ICC Men's T20I Team of the Decade: 2011–2020
Polly Umrigar Award for International Cricketer of the Year: 2011–12, 2014–15, 2015–16, 2016–17, 2017–18
Wisden Leading Cricketer in the World: 2016, 2017, 2018
CEAT International Cricketer of the Year: 2011–12, 2013–14, 2018–19
Barmy Army - International Player of Year: 2017, 2018
Other honours and awards
People's Choice Awards India For Favourite Sportsperson: 2012
CNN-News18 Indian of the Year: 2017
Delhi & District Cricket Association (DDCA) renamed a stand after Kohli at Arun Jaitley stadium, Delhi.
Outside cricket
Personal life
Kohli started dating Bollywood actress Anushka Sharma in 2013; the couple soon earned the celebrity couple nickname "Virushka". Their relationship attracted substantial media attention, with persistent rumours and speculations in the media, as neither of the two publicly talked about it. The couple married on 11 December 2017 in a private ceremony in Florence, Italy. On 11 January 2021, they became parents to a baby girl, Vamika.
In 2018, Kohli revealed that he completely stopped consuming meat to cut down his uric acid levels which caused him a cervical spine issue and started affecting his finger and, in turn, his batting. In 2021, he clarified that he is a vegetarian and not a vegan.
Kohli has admitted that he is superstitious. He used to wear black wristbands as a cricket superstition; earlier, he used to wear the same pair of gloves with which he had "been scoring". Apart from a religious black thread, he has also been wearing a kara on his right arm since 2012.
Commercial investments
According to Kohli, football is his second favourite sport. In 2014, Kohli became a co-owner of Indian Super League club FC Goa. He stated that he invested in the club with the "keenness of football" and because he "wanted football to grow in India". He added, "It's a business venture for me for the future. Cricket's not going to last forever and I'm keeping all my options open after retirement."
In September 2015, Kohli became a co-owner of the International Premier Tennis League franchise UAE Royals, and, in December that year, became a co-owner of the JSW-owned Bengaluru Yodhas franchise in Pro Wrestling League.
In November 2014, Kohli and Anjana Reddy's Universal Sportsbiz (USPL) launched a youth fashion brand WROGN. The brand started to produce men's casual wear clothing in 2015 and has tied up with Myntra and Shopper's Stop. In late 2014, Kohli was announced as a shareholder and brand ambassador of the social networking venture 'Sport Convo' based in London.
In 2015, Kohli invested to start a chain of gyms and fitness centres across the country. Launched under the name Chisel, the chain of gyms is jointly owned by Kohli, Chisel India and CSE (Cornerstone Sport and Entertainment), the agency which manages Kohli's commercial interests. In 2016, Kohli started Stepathlon Kids, a children fitness venture, in partnership with Stepathlon Lifestyle.
Charity
In March 2013, Kohli started a charity foundation called Virat Kohli Foundation (VKF). The organisation aims at helping underprivileged kids and conducts events to raise funds for the charity. According to Kohli, the foundation works with select NGOs to "create awareness, seek support and raise funds for the various causes they endorse and the philanthropic work they engage in." In May 2014, eBay and Save the Children India conducted a charity auction with VKF, with its proceeds benefiting the education and healthcare of underprivileged children.
Kohli has captained the All Heart Football Club, owned by VKF, in charity football matches against All Stars Football Club, owned by Abhishek Bachchan's Playing for Humanity. The matches, known as "Celebrity Clasico", feature cricketers playing for All Heart and Bollywood actors in the All Stars team, and are organized to generate funds for the two charity foundations.
Social media fan following
Kohli is very active on social media and has a huge fan following on the platform. He is the only cricketer, and fifth sports personality, to have more than 150 million followers on Instagram.
In popular culture
Kohli was featured in episodes of The Test (documentary) of Amazon prime, about Australian team's journey after ball tampering scandal.
Super V (Super Virat), an Indian animated superhero television series portrays a fictionalized version of Kohli's teen years where he discovers hidden superpowers.
Mega Icons (2018-2020), an Indian documentary television series on National Geographic about prominent Indian personalities, dedicated an episode to Kohli's achievements in cricket.
See also
List of players who have scored 10,000 or more runs in One Day International cricket
List of cricketers by number of international centuries scored
List of cricketers who have scored centuries in both innings of a Test match
Notes
References
Bibliography
External links
1988 births
Living people
Indian cricketers
India Test cricketers
India One Day International cricketers
India Twenty20 International cricketers
Royal Challengers Bangalore cricketers
Delhi cricketers
Cricketers at the 2011 Cricket World Cup
Cricketers at the 2015 Cricket World Cup
Cricketers at the 2019 Cricket World Cup
Cricketers from Delhi
India Test cricket captains
North Zone cricketers
Punjabi people
Indian Hindus
People from Delhi
Recipients of the Padma Shri in sports
International Cricket Council Cricketer of the Year
Wisden Cricketers of the Year
Recipients of the Khel Ratna Award
Recipients of the Arjuna Award | true | [
"Super V is an Indian animated television series loosely based on Virat Kohli and was created by Harman Baweja for Star India. It was launched on multiple Star Network and Disney India's channels from 5 November 2019.\n\nPlot \nSuper V is the story of Virat. A teenager at the cusp of childhood and adulthood. An impulsive boy, who is trying to find his identity between his aspirations, his father’s expectations and other pressures. What happens when a boy like this, becomes a superhero?\n\n15 year old Virat lives with his parents and Sister in New Delhi. His father, Ashok is a lawyer, someone infamous for his strict honesty, and his mother, Gogi is a homemaker, a supermom, who always manages to ground the situation no matter how volatile it gets. The reason? Well the same reason that disturbs the situation in every house, the relationship between Virat and Ashok. Ashok wants Virat to be more responsible and Virat wants to be himself. Ashok wants Virat to be more disciplined and Virat wants to be left alone. Ashok wants Virat to be more mature and well, Virat wants to stay a teenager for a few more years.\n\nThere are a few more things Virat wants, one to become the best batsman in the whole world. He idolizes Sachit Wadekar and wants to be as good as him. The boy is a prodigy. His coach, teacher, even his father, knows that Virat is meant to shine in the field of cricket and the only thing that stops him from shining is his anger.\nThe other thing that causes problems in his dream to become a great cricketer, is the school baddie, the school bully, Sooraj, who is the reigning captain of the under 19 Indian team. Virat arch nemesis, Sooraj is a very good bowler. He tries his level best to create problems for Virat while playing cricket. What makes it easy for him is that he comes from a rich, influential back-ground.\n\nVirat is the kind of a guy who doesn’t talk to everyone, but with the few that he talks to, he talks non-stop. And three such people are. Jo, Bunny, and Amara. His best friends. They stick with him through thick and thin. And of course, there is also Shazia, Virat’s crush. Virat is tongue-tied whenever she is around.\n\nHis journey to become a superhero starts when his grandfather comes in his dream on his 15th birthday and tells him that his family has a secret. They are a family of superheroes! As he inherits his family’s heirloom, he realizes that he can use these powers of the kada (the bracelet) for good. But the rule of the universe is that if there is good then there must be evil. As the Superhero rises, so does a Supervillian. Navar, the supervillain of the story has a plan to take over the world.\n\nAn intertwining story of how Virat must balance his life at home, with his friends, his love interest, saving the world from Navar’s evil plans and must still find it within himself to make India win the world cup!\n\nCast \n Upen Chauhan as Virat / Super V (Voice-over by Vaibhav Thakkar)\nSamay Raj Thakkar as Nawaal\nAnil Dutt as Virat's Grandfather\n Rishabh Arora as Bunny \nMallika Singh as Amara / Shazia\nNathan Dcosta as Jo (English) \nKetan Kava as Jo (Hindi)\nAkash Chopra (Cameo) as the commentator\n\nEpisodes\n\nRelease \nThe series premiered simultaneously on 5 November 2019 across five Star India owned networks - Disney Channel India, Marvel HQ, Star Sports and Star Plus as well as streaming service Hotstar. In North America it was streamed exclusively on Hotstar USA, and in the United Kingdom the series was aired on Star Plus UK. The series is dubbed into Bengali and broadcast on Star Jalsha.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n\n \n\n2019 Indian television series debuts\nIndian children's animated action television series\nIndian children's animated comedy television series\nIndian children's animated superhero television series\nDisney Channel (Indian TV channel) original programming\nStarPlus original programming\nHindi-language Hotstar original programming",
"Solo Brathuke So Better () is a 2020 Indian Telugu-language romantic comedy film directed by debutant Subbu and produced by B. V. S. N. Prasad. The film stars Sai Tej and Nabha Natesh.\n\nPrincipal photography of the film began in November 2019 with the filming taking place primarily at Visakhapatnam. Initially scheduled to release on 1 May 2020, it was postponed due to COVID-19 pandemic. The film released theatrically on 25 December 2020 and opened to mixed reviews from the critics.\n\nPlot\nThe film starts with a student riot stating they want justice for an unnamed act. The film then flashes back to 2012, where Virat (Sai Tej) is lecturing the students in his college to not fall in love and stay a bachelor. He encourages them to read his book, also called Solo Brathuke So Better, which has 108 principles to live life 'solo', as a bachelor. He is supported in this venture by his friends and uncle (Rao Ramesh) (who is married and is unable to handle his wife's constant nagging.) and he becomes the leader and founder of the Solo Brathuke So Better union. During the college farewell, Virat's classmate Rashi proposes to him, but he rejects her, leaving her in tears.\n\nVirat goes to Hyderabad to take up a job in an event management company and along with his friends, finds an apartment to stay. Govind Gowda (Vennela Kishore), comes over to invite the friends to his wedding and Virat refuses to come. However, he becomes the event manager for Govind's wedding, so he ends up at the wedding. Unfortunately, the wedding ends up getting cancelled due to Virat's antics and also because Govind had lied about his age. As time passes, each of Virat's friends end up getting married and he gets frustrated at this. One night, he sees his inspiration (who the SBSB union was started on) giving an interview on TV urging guys to get married. After seeing his foundation shook, upon that Virat returns to his house where he finds out that his aunt had passed away months ago and finds his uncle regretting the constant fights they had. Influenced by both of these incidents, Virat decides to get married and calls his friends over. They try to find a suitable girl but no one from their college is ready to marry him, since Virat was the 'villain' in their love stories; the only one willing to marry him is his boss, but he isn't ready to, as she's comparatively older than him.\n\nGovind returns again inviting Virat to his next wedding, to which he agrees when Govind keeps pestering Virat to come. However, that wedding gets stopped as well as the bride Amrutha (Nabha Natesh) states publicly that she is in love with Virat. Virat becomes jubilant and decides to marry her as well. However, on talking with her, Amrutha tells Virat that she is a staunch believer of Virat's policies, that staying a bachelor is best. Virat realizes that what he was doing was wrong and decides to change her mind. These involve a fight with Ravanudu (Ajay), taking her to a Titanic painting exhibition, but she defeats these attempts using Virat's SBSB policies. Virat's uncle commits suicide unable to handle the loneliness, and finding no way out, Virat decides to confess his love for Amrutha, but Ravanudu takes her hostage to avenge his prior humiliation. Virat defeats the henchmen and is about to confess to Amrutha but she says that her father had spoken to her and changed her mind. Virat is ecstatic and confesses everything to Amrutha. This leads to a riot by the SBSB followers, following which Virat appeases the crowd by stating that he will write 108 principles to convince them to fall in love, and the film ends with Virat and Amrutha getting married.\n\nCast \nSai Tej as Virat\nNabha Natesh as Amrutha\nNazia Davison as Rashi Singh\nRajendra Prasad as Venkataramana, Amrutha's father\nNaresh as Virat's father\nRao Ramesh as Virat uncle\nKalyani Natarajan as Virat's mother\nVennela Kishore as Govind Gowda\nAjay as Ravanudu\nSathya as Murali, Virat's friend\nSudarshan as Virat's friend\nHyper Aadi as painter & Virat's friend\nKalpalatha as Virat's Aunt\n\nProduction \nSri Venkateswara Cine Chitra announced a movie with Sai Tej and shooting commenced during Tej's previous movie Prati Roju Pandage, and the film was formally launched on 7 October 2019, by commencing a puja ceremony attended by film team.\n\nFilming \nPrincipal photography began on International Men's Day 19 November 2019. A shoot was scheduled in Kailasagiri, Visakhapatnam for more than 20-days. A shoot was also scheduled for 15 days at Andhra University and GITAM Visakhapatnam. The film was reportedly made on a budget of 20 crore.\n\nSoundtrack \n\nThe music for this film is composed by S. Thaman. The first single, \"No Pelli\" written by Raghuram and sung by Armaan Malik and was released on 25 May 2020. Varun Tej and Rana Daggubati were both featured in the promotional video song of \"No Pelli\". The second single \"Hey Idi Nenena\" was sung by Sid Sriram and was released on 25 August 2020. The third single \"Amrutha\" was sung by Nakash Aziz and was released on 15 October 2020. The last single \"Solo Brathuke So Better\" was sung by Vishal Dadlani and was released on 11 December 2020.\n\nRelease \nSolo Brathuke So Better was initially scheduled to release on 1 May 2020, but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.\n\nReception\n\nCritical reception \nThe film received mixed reviews from critics. The Times of India critic Neeshita Nyaypati rated the film 3 stars out of 5 and stated: \"Solo Brathuke So Better had the potential to be a film that’s fresh and even funny, despite the predictability, because the concept at the core of it all might not be new but is solid.\" Nyayapati criticized the film's reliance on \"fat-shaming\" and \"ageism\" to generate humour. Firstpost's Hemant Kumar wrote: \"Solo Brathuke So Better chugs along to make its point about the need for a companion, but the journey is bland,\" rating the film 2.5/5.\n\nY. Sunita Chowdhary of The Hindu opined that the film could have benefited from a better script. \"The dialogues are good, the screenplay is convincing but there is not enough content or high point in the story. The conflict is not strong and there is hardly anything exciting to look forward to,\" Chowdhary wrote. Vishwanath writing for The New Indian Express criticized the film by stating, \"A scintillating achievement of Solo Brathuke So Better is that it is so bizarre that it makes us miss cliche-ridden films with so much ease. It plays out a semi-joke of an idea believing that it will touch the hearts of the audience. That’s its spectacular tragedy.\"\n\nKarthik Keramulu of Film Companion opined that the romcom follows a tried and tested formula. \"If Virat’s chemistry with Amrutha had been as good as the one he shared with Govinda Gowda, this film would have landed safely,\" Keremulu added while explaining that the film did not convey why Virat wants to marry her. Jeevi from Idlebrain.com rated the film 3 out of 5 stars, stating, \"First half is entertaining. Second half is emotional. Plus points are casting, engaging narration and less runtime (2 hours and 6 minutes). On the flipside, the second half travels in a predictable manner.\"\n\nBox office\nIn Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, the film was screened with a cap of 50% on occupancy owing to the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. The film netted over on its opening day, with an estimated gross of 3–4 crore. In three days, the film grossed 10.8 crore in the domestic market and 12.4 crore worldwide.\n\nIn the international market, the film grossed $67,000 at the U.S. box office, and $58,739 in Australia on its opening weekend.\n\nAccolades\n\nNotes\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n \n\nTelugu-language films\n2020s Telugu-language films\nIndian films\nFilms postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic\nFilms set in Visakhapatnam\nFilms shot in Visakhapatnam\n2020 directorial debut films\nIndian romantic comedy films\n2020 romantic comedy films"
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"Virat Kohli",
"Playing style",
"What was Virat's playing style?",
"Kohli is a naturally aggressive batsman with strong technical skills."
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| C_e1a26ef3a8c64460bdcf951d80b1693b_1 | How did his team view him? | 2 | How did Virat Kohli's team view him? | Virat Kohli | Kohli is a naturally aggressive batsman with strong technical skills. He usually bats in the middle-order, but, on many occasions, has opened the innings as well. He bats with a slightly open-chested stance and a strong bottom-hand grip, and is said to have quick footwork. He is known for his wide range of shots, ability to pace an innings and batting under pressure. He is strong through the mid-wicket and cover region. He has said that the cover drive is his favourite shot, while also saying that the flick shot comes naturally to him. He does not play the sweep shot often, being called "not a natural sweeper of the cricket ball". His teammates have praised his confidence, commitment, focus and work ethics. Kohli is also known to be a "sharp" fielder. Kohli is regarded as the best limited-overs batsmen in the world, especially while chasing. In ODIs, he averages more than 67 in matches batting second as opposed to around 47 batting first. 21 of his 35 ODI hundreds have come in run-chases and he holds the record for most hundreds batting second. Regarding his impressive record batting second, Kohli has said "I love the whole situation that comes with chasing. I like the challenge of testing myself, figuring out how to rotate strike, when to hit a boundary." Kohli is often compared to Sachin Tendulkar, due to their similar styles of batting, and sometimes referred to as Tendulkar's "successor". Many former cricketers expect Kohli to break Tendulkar's batting records. Kohli has stated that growing up his idol and role model was Tendulkar and that as a kid he "tried to copy the shots [Tendulkar] played and hit sixes the way he used to hit them." Former West Indies great Vivian Richards, who is regarded as the most destructive batsman in cricket, stated that Kohli reminds him of himself. In early 2015, Richards said Kohli was "already legendary" in the ODI format, while former Australian cricketer Dean Jones called Kohli the "new king of world cricket". Kohli is noted for his on-field aggression and was described in the media as "brash" and "arrogant" during his early career. He has got into confrontations with players and umpires on several occasions. While many former cricketers have backed his aggressive attitude, some have criticised it. In 2012, Kohli had stated that he tries to limit his aggressive behaviour but "the build-up and the pressure or the special occasions make it tough to control the aggression." CANNOTANSWER | His teammates have praised his confidence, commitment, focus and work ethics. | Virat Kohli (; born 5 November 1988) is an Indian international cricketer and former captain of the Indian national team. He plays for Delhi in domestic cricket and Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League as a right-handed batsman. Kohli is often considered one of the best batsmen of his era and some critics believe him to be one of the best limited-overs batsmen in history. Between 2013 and 2022, Kohli captained the India cricket team in more than 200 matches across all three formats.
Kohli made his Test debut in 2011. He reached the number one spot in the ICC rankings for ODI batsmen for the first time in 2013. He has won Man of the Tournament twice at the ICC World Twenty20 (in 2014 and 2016). He also holds the world record of being the fastest to 23,000 international runs.
Kohli has been the recipient of many awards– most notably the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy (ICC Men's Cricketer of the Decade): 2011–2020; Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy (ICC Cricketer of the Year) in 2017 and 2018; ICC Test Player of the Year (2018); ICC ODI Player of the Year (2012, 2017, 2018) and Wisden Leading Cricketer in the World (2016, 2017 and 2018). At the national level, he was awarded the Arjuna Award in 2013, the Padma Shri under the sports category in 2017 and the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award, the highest sporting honour in India, in 2018.
He is ranked as one of the world's most famous athletes by ESPN and one of the most valuable athlete brands by Forbes. In 2018, Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world. In 2020, he was ranked 66th in Forbes list of the top 100 highest-paid athletes in the world for the year 2020 with estimated earnings of over $26 million.
Early life
Virat Kohli was born on 5 November 1988 in Delhi into a Punjabi Hindu family. His father, Prem Kohli, worked as a criminal lawyer and his mother, Saroj Kohli, is a homemaker. He has an older brother, Vikash, and an older sister, Bhavna.
Kohli was raised in Uttam Nagar and started his schooling at Vishal Bharti Public School. In 1998, the West Delhi Cricket Academy was created and a nine-year-old Kohli was part of its first intake. Kohli trained at the academy under Rajkumar Sharma and also played matches at the Sumeet Dogra Academy at Vasundhara Enclave at the same time. In ninth grade, he shifted to Saviour Convent in Paschim Vihar to help his cricket practice. Kohli's family lived in Meera Bagh until 2015 when they moved to Gurugram.
Kohli's father died on 18 December 2006 due to a stroke after being bed-ridden for a month.
Youth and domestic career
Delhi
Kohli first played for Delhi Under-15 team in October 2002 in the 2002–03 Polly Umrigar Trophy. He became the captain of the team for the 2003–04 Polly Umrigar Trophy. In late 2004, he was selected in the Delhi Under-17 team for the 2003–04 Vijay Merchant Trophy. Delhi Under-17s won the 2004–05 Vijay Merchant Trophy in which Kohli finished as the highest run-scorer with 757 runs from 7 matches with two centuries. In February 2006, he made his List A debut for Delhi against Services but did not get to bat.
Kohli made his first-class debut for Delhi against Tamil Nadu in November 2006, at the age of 18, he scored 10 runs in his debut innings. He came into the spotlight in December when he decided to play for his team against Karnataka on the day after his father's death and went on to score 90. He went directly to the funeral after he got out in the match. He scored a total of 257 runs from 6 matches at an average of 36.71 in that season.
India Under-19
In July 2006, Kohli was selected in the India Under-19 squad on its tour of England. He averaged 105 in the three-match ODI series against England Under-19s and 49 in the three-match Test series. India Under-19 went on to win both the series. In September, the India Under-19 team toured Pakistan. Kohli averaged 58 in the Test series and 41.66 in the ODI series against Pakistan Under-19s.
In April 2007, he made his Twenty20 debut and finished as the highest run-getter for his team in the Inter-State T20 Championship with 179 runs at an average of 35.80. In July–August 2007, the India Under-19 team toured Sri Lanka. In the triangular series against Sri Lanka Under-19s and Bangladesh Under-19s, Kohli was the second highest run-getter with 146 runs at an average of 29 from 5 matches. In the two-match Test series that followed, he scored 244 runs at an average of 122 including a century and a fifty.
In February–March 2008, Kohli captained the victorious Indian team at the 2008 Under-19 Cricket World Cup held in Malaysia. Batting at number 3, he scored 235 runs in 6 matches at an average of 47 and finished as the tournament's third-highest run-getter and one of the three batsmen to score a hundred in the tournament. He was helped India in a three-wicket semi-final win over New Zealand Under-19s by taking 2 wickets and scoring 43 runs in the run-chase and was awarded the man of the match.
Indian Premier League
Following the Under-19 World Cup, Kohli was bought by the Indian Premier League franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore for $30,000 on a youth contract. In June 2008, Kohli and his Under-19 teammates Pradeep Sangwan and Tanmay Srivastava were awarded the Border-Gavaskar scholarship. The scholarship allowed the three players to train for six weeks at Cricket Australia's Centre of Excellence in Brisbane. He was also picked in the India Emerging Players squad for the four-team Emerging Players Tournament and scored 206 runs in six matches at an average of 41.20.
International career
Early years
In August 2008, Kohli was included in the Indian ODI squad for tour of Sri Lanka and the Champions Trophy in Pakistan. Prior to the Sri Lankan tour, Kohli had played only eight List A matches. So, his selection was called a "surprise call-up". During the Sri Lankan tour, as both first-choice openers Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag were injured, Kohli batted as a makeshift opener throughout the series. He made his international debut, at the age of 19, in the first ODI of the tour and was dismissed for 12. He made his first ODI half century, a score of 54, in the fourth match. He had scores of 37, 25 and 31 in the other three matches. India won the series 3–2 which was India's first ODI series win against Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka.
After the postponement of Champions Trophy to 2009, Kohli was picked as a replacement for the injured Shikhar Dhawan in the India A squad for the unofficial Tests against Australia A in September 2008. He batted only once in the two-match series, and scored 49 in that innings. Later that month in September 2008, he played for Delhi in the Nissar Trophy against SNGPL (winners of Quaid-i-Azam Trophy from Pakistan) and top-scored for Delhi in both innings, with 52 and 197. The match was drawn but SNGPL won the trophy on first-innings lead. In October 2008, Kohli played for Indian Board President's XI in a four-day tour match against Australia.
Kohli, after recovering from a minor shoulder injury, returned to the national team replacing the injured Gautam Gambhir in the Indian squad for the tri-series in Sri Lanka. He batted at number 4 for India in the 2009 ICC Champions Trophy because of an injury to Yuvraj Singh. In the group match against the West Indies, Kohli scored an unbeaten 79 in India's successful chase of 130 and was awarded man of the match award. Kohli played as a reserve batsman in the seven-match home ODI series against Australia, appearing in two matches. He found a place in the home ODI series against Sri Lanka in December 2009 and scored 27 and 54 in the first two ODIs before making way for Yuvraj who regained fitness for the third ODI. However, Yuvraj's finger injury recurred leading to him being ruled out indefinitely. Kohli returned to the team in the fourth ODI at Kolkata and scored his first ODI century–107 off 114 balls–sharing a 224-run partnership for the third wicket with Gambhir, who made his personal best score of 150. India won by seven wickets to seal the series 3–1. The man of the match was awarded to Gambhir who gave the award to Kohli.
Tendulkar was rested for the tri-nation ODI tournament in Bangladesh in January 2010, which enabled Kohli to play in each of India's five matches. Against Bangladesh, he scored 91 to help secure a win after India collapsed to 51/3 early in their run-chase of 297. In the next match against Sri Lanka, Kohli ended unbeaten on 71 to help India win the match with a bonus point having chased down their target of 214 within 33 overs. The next day, he scored his second ODI century, against Bangladesh, bringing up the mark with the winning runs. He became only the third Indian batsman to score two ODI centuries before their 22nd birthday, after Tendulkar and Suresh Raina. Kohli was much praised for his performances during the series in particular by the Indian captain Dhoni. Although Kohli made only two runs in the final against Sri Lanka in a four-wicket Indian defeat, he finished as the leading run-getter of the series with 275 runs from five innings at an average of 91.66. In the three-match ODI series at home against South Africa in February, Kohli batted in two games and had scores of 31 and 57.
Rise through the ranks
Raina was named captain and Kohli vice-captain for the tri-series against Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe in Zimbabwe in May–June 2010, as many first-choice players skipped the tour. Kohli made 168 runs at an average of 42.00 including two fifties, but India suffered three defeats in four matches and crashed out of the series. During the series, Kohli became the fastest Indian batsman to reach 1,000 runs in ODI cricket. He made his T20I debut against Zimbabwe at Harare and scored an unbeaten 26. Later that month, Kohli batted at 3 in an Indian team throughout the 2010 Asia Cup and scored a total of 67 runs at an average of 16.75. His struggles with form continued in the tri-series against Sri Lanka and New Zealand in Sri Lanka where he averaged 15.
Despite the poor run of form, Kohli was retained in the ODI squad for a three-match series against Australia in October, and in the only completed match of the series at Visakhapatnam, scored his third ODI century–118 off 121 balls–which helped India reach the target of 290 after losing the openers early. Winning the man of the match, he admitted that he was under pressure to keep his place in the team after failures in the two previous series. During the home ODI series against New Zealand, Kohli scored a match-winning 104-ball 105, his fourth ODI hundred and second in succession, in the first game, and followed it up with 64 and 63* in the next two matches. India completed a 5–0 whitewash of New Zealand, while Kohli's performance in the series helped him become a regular in the ODI team and made him a strong contender for a spot in India's World Cup squad. He was India's leading run-scorer in ODIs in 2010, with 995 runs from 25 matches at an average of 47.38 including three centuries and seven fifties.
Kohli was India's leading run-getter in the five-match ODI series of the South African tour in January 2011, with 193 runs at an average of 48.25 including two fifties, both in Indian defeats. During the series, he jumped to number two spot on the ICC Rankings for Men's ODI batters, and was named in India's 15-man squad for the World Cup.
Kohli played in every match of India's successful World Cup campaign. He scored an unbeaten 100, his fifth ODI century, in the first match against Bangladesh and became the first Indian batsman to score a century on World Cup debut. In the next four group matches he had low scores of 8, 34, 12 and 1 against England, Ireland, Netherlands and South Africa respectively. Having returned to form with 59 against the West Indies, he scored only 24 and 9 in the quarter-final against Australia and semi-final against Pakistan respectively. In the final against Sri Lanka at Mumbai, he scored 35, sharing an 83-run partnership with Gambhir for the third wicket after India had lost both openers within the seventh over chasing 275. This partnership is regarded as "one of the turning points in the match", as India went on to win the match by six wickets and lift the World Cup for the first time since 1983.
Consistent performance in limited overs
When India toured the West Indies in June–July 2011, they selected a largely inexperienced squad, resting Tendulkar and others such as- Gambhir and Sehwag missing out due to injuries. Kohli was one of three uncapped players in the Test squad. He found success in the ODI series which India won 3–2, with a total of 199 runs at an average of 39.80. His best efforts came in the second ODI at Port of Spain where he won the man of the match for his score of 81 which gave India a seven-wicket victory, and the fifth ODI at Kingston where his innings of 94 came in a seven-wicket defeat. Kohli made his Test debut at Kingston in the first match of the Test series that followed. He batted at 5 and was dismissed for 4 and 15 caught behind off the bowling of Fidel Edwards in both innings. India went on to win the Test series 1–0 but Kohli amassed just 76 runs from five innings, struggling against the short ball and was particularly troubled by the fast bowling of Edwards, who dismissed him three times in the series.
Initially dropped from the Test squad for India's four-match series in England in July and August due to poor performance in his debut series, Kohli was recalled as a replacement for the injured Yuvraj, though he did not got to play in any match in the series. He found moderate success in the subsequent ODI series in which he averaged 38.80. His score of 55 in the first ODI at Chester-le-Street was followed by a string of low scores in the next three matches. In the last game of the series, Kohli scored his sixth ODI hundred–107 runs off 93 balls–and shared a 170-run third-wicket partnership with Rahul Dravid, who was playing his last ODI, to help India post their first 300-plus total of the tour. Kohli was dismissed hit wicket in that innings which was the only century in the series by any player on either team and earned him praise for his "hard work" and "maturity". However, England won the match by D/L method and the series 3–0.
In October 2011, Kohli was the leading run-scorer of the five-match home ODI series against England which India won 5–0. He scored a total of 270 runs across five matches at an average of 90, including unbeaten knocks of 112 from 98 balls at Delhi, where he put on an unbroken 209-run partnership with Gambhir, and 86 at Mumbai, both in successful run-chases. Owing to his ODI success, Kohli was included in the Test squad to face the West Indies in November. He was selected in the final match of the series in which he scored a pair of fifties in the match. India won the subsequent ODI series 4–1 in which Kohli managed to accumulate 243 runs at 60.75. During the series, Kohli scored his eighth ODI century and his second at Visakhapatnam, where he made 117 off 123 balls in India's run-chase of 270, a knock which raised his reputation as "an expert of the chase". Kohli ended up as the leading run-getter in ODIs for the year 2011, with 1381 runs from 34 matches at 47.62 including four centuries and eight fifties.
During tour of Australia in December 2011, Kohli failed to go past 25 in the first two Tests, as his defensive technique was exposed. While fielding on the boundary during the second day of the second match, he gestured to the crowd with his middle finger for which he was fined 50% of his match fee by the match referee. He top-scored in each of India's innings in the third Test at Perth, with 44 and 75, even as India got their second consecutive innings defeat. In the fourth and final match at Adelaide, Kohli scored his maiden Test century of 116 runs in the first innings. India suffered a 0–4 whitewash and Kohli, India's top run-scorer in the series, was described as "the lone bright spot in an otherwise nightmare visit for the tourists".
In the first seven matches of the Commonwealth Bank triangular series that India played against hosts Australia and Sri Lanka, Kohli made two fifties–77 at Perth and 66 at Brisbane–both against Sri Lanka. India registered two wins, a tie and four losses in these seven matches. Being set a target of 321 by Sri Lanka, Kohli came to the crease with India's score at 86/2 and went on to score 133 not out from 86 balls to take India to a comfortable win with 13 overs to spare. India earned a bonus point with the win and Kohli was named Man of the Match for his knock. Former Australian cricketer and commentator Dean Jones rated Kohli's innings as "one of the greatest ODI knocks of all time". However, Sri Lanka beat Australia three days later in their last group fixture and knocked India out of the series. With 373 runs at 53.28, Kohli finished as India's highest run-scorer and lone centurion of the series.
Kohli was appointed the vice-captain for the 2012 Asia Cup in Bangladesh on the back of his fine performance in Australia. Kohli was in fine form during the tournament, finishing as the leading run-scorer with 357 runs at an average of 119. He scored 108 in the first match against Sri Lanka in a 50-run Indian victory, while India lost their next match to Bangladesh in which he made 66. In the final group stage match against Pakistan, he scored a personal best 183 off 148 balls, his 11th ODI century. He helped India to chase down 330, their highest successful ODI run-chase at the time. His knock was the highest individual score in Asia Cup history surpassing previous record of 144 by Younis Khan in 2004, the joint-second highest score, with Dhoni, in an ODI run-chase and the highest individual score against Pakistan in ODIs. Kohli was awarded the man of the match in both the matches that India won, but India could not progress to the final of the tournament.
In July–August 2012, Kohli struck two centuries in the five-match ODI tour of Sri Lanka–106 off 113 balls at Hambantota and 128* off 119 balls at Colombo–winning man of the match in both games. India won the series 4–1 and Kohli was named player of the series. In the one-off T20I that followed, he scored a 48-ball 68, his first T20I fifty, and won the player of the series award. Kohli scored his second Test century at Bangalore during New Zealand's tour of India and won man of the match award. India won the two-match series 2–0, and Kohli averaged 106 with one hundred and two fifties from three innings. In the subsequent T20I series, he scored 70 runs off 41 balls, but India lost the match by one run and the series 1–0. He continued to be in good form during the 2012 ICC World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka, with 185 runs, the highest among Indian batsmen, from 5 matches at an average of 46.25. He hit two fifties during the tournament, against Afghanistan and Pakistan, winning man of the match for both innings. He was named in the ICC 'Team of the Tournament'.
Kohli's Test form dipped during the first three matches of England's tour of India, between October 2012 and January 2013, with a top score of 20 and England leading the series 2–1. He scored a patient 103 from 295 balls in the last match. However, the match ended in a draw and England won their first Test series in India in 28 years. Against Pakistan in December 2012, Kohli averaged 18 in the T20Is and 4.33 in the ODIs, being troubled by the fast bowlers, particularly Junaid Khan, who dismissed him on all three occasions in the ODI series. Kohli had a quiet ODI series against England, apart from a match-winning 77* in the third ODI at Ranchi, with a total of 155 runs at an average of 38.75.
Kohli scored his fourth Test century (107) at Chennai in the first match of the home Test series against Australia in February 2013. India completed a 4–0 series sweep, becoming the first team to whitewash Australia in more than four decades. Kohli averaged 56.80 in the series .
In June 2013, Kohli featured in the ICC Champions Trophy in England which India won. He scored a 144 against Sri Lanka in warm-up match. He scored 31, 22 and 22* in India's group matches against South Africa, West Indies and Pakistan respectively, while India qualified for the semi-finals with an undefeated record. In the semi-final against Sri Lanka at Cardiff, he struck 58* in an eight-wicket win for India. The final between India and England at Birmingham was reduced to 20 overs after a rain delay. India batted first and Kohli top-scored with 43 from 34 balls, sharing a sixth-wicket partnership of 47 runs off 33 balls with Ravindra Jadeja and helping India reach 129/7 in 20 overs. India went on to secure a five-run win and their second consecutive ICC ODI tournament victory. He was also named as part of the 'Team of the Tournament' by the ICC.
Setting records
Kohli stood-in as the captain for the first ODI of the triangular series in the West Indies after Dhoni injured himself during the match. India lost the match by one wicket, and Dhoni was subsequently ruled out of the series with Kohli being named the captain for the remaining matches. In his second match as captain, Kohli scored his first century as captain, making 102 off 83 balls against the West Indies at Port of Spain in a bonus point win for India. Many senior players, including Dhoni, were rested for the five-match ODI tour of Zimbabwe in July 2013, with Kohli being appointed captain for an entire series for the first time. In the first game of the series at Harare, he struck 115 runs from 108 balls, helping India chase down the target of 229 and winning the man of the match award. He batted on two more occasions in the series in which he had scores of 14 and 68*. India completed a 5–0 sweep of the series; their first in an away ODI series.
Kohli had a successful time with the bat in the seven-match ODI series against Australia. After top-scoring with 61 in the opening loss at Pune, he struck the fastest century by an Indian in ODIs in the second match at Jaipur. Reaching the milestone in just 52 balls and putting up an unbroken 186-run second-wicket partnership with Rohit Sharma that came in 17.2 overs, Kohli's innings of 100* helped India chase down the target of 360 for the loss of one wicket with more than six overs to spare. This chase was the second-highest successful run-chase in ODI cricket at the time, while Kohli's knock became the fastest century against Australia and the third-fastest in a run-chase. He followed that innings with 68 in the next match at Mohali in another Indian defeat, before the next two matches were washed out by rain. In the sixth ODI at Nagpur, he struck 115 off only 66 balls to help India successfully chase the target of 351 and level the series 2–2 and won the man of the match. He reached the 100-run mark in 61 balls, making it the third-fastest ODI century by an Indian batsman, and also became the fastest batsman in the world to score 17 hundreds in ODI cricket. India clinched the series after winning the last match in which he was run out for a duck. At the conclusion of the series, Kohli moved to the top position in the ICC ODI batsmen rankings for the first time in his career.
Kohli batted twice in the two-match Test series against the West Indies, and had scores of 3 and 57 being dismissed by Shane Shillingford in both innings. This was also the last Test series for Tendulkar and Kohli was expected to take Tendulkar's number 4 batting position after the series. In the first game of the three-match ODI series that followed at Kochi, Kohli made 86 to seal a six-wicket win and won the man of the match. During the match, he also equalled Viv Richards' record of becoming the fastest batsman to make 5,000 runs in ODI cricket, reaching the landmark in his 114th innings. He missed out on his third century at Visakhapatnam in the next match, after being dismissed for 99 playing a hook shot off Ravi Rampaul. India lost the match by two wickets, but took the series 2–1 after winning the last match at Kanpur. With 204 runs at 68.00, Kohli finished the series as the leading run-getter and was awarded the man of the series.
Overseas season
India toured South Africa in December 2013 for three ODIs and two Tests. Kohli averaged 15.50 in the ODIs, including a duck. In the first Test at Johannesburg, playing his first Test in South Africa and batting at 4 for the first time, Kohli scored 119 and 96. His hundred was the first by a subcontinent batsman at the venue since 1998. The match ended in a draw, and Kohli was awarded man of the match. India failed to win a single match on the tour, losing the second Test by 10 wickets in which he made 46 and 11.
During New Zealand tour, he averaged 58.21 in the five-match ODI series in which his all efforts went in vain as India were defeated 4–0. He made 214 runs at 71.33 in the two-match Test series that followed including an unbeaten 105 on the last day of the second Test at Wellington that helped India save the match.
India then traveled to Bangladesh for the Asia Cup and World Twenty20. Dhoni was ruled out of the Asia Cup after suffering a side strain during the New Zealand tour, which led to Kohli being named the captain for the tournament. Kohli scored 136 off 122 balls in India's opening match against Bangladesh, sharing a 213-run third-wicket stand with Ajinkya Rahane, which helped India successfully chase 280. It was his 19th ODI century and his fifth in Bangladesh, making him the batsman with most ODI centuries in Bangladesh. India were knocked out of the tournament after narrow losses against Sri Lanka and Pakistan, in which Kohli scored 48 and 5 respectively.
Dhoni returned from injury to captain the team for 2014 ICC World Twenty20 and Kohli was named vice-captain. In India's opening match of the tournament against Pakistan, Kohli top-scored with 36 not out to guide India to a seven-wicket win. He scored 54 off 41 balls in the next game against West Indies and an unbeaten 57 from 50 balls against Bangladesh, both in successful run-chases. In the semi-final, he made an unbeaten 72 in 44 deliveries to help India achieve the target of 173. He won the man of the match for this knock. India posted 130/4 in the final against Sri Lanka, in which Kohli scored 77 from 58 balls, and eventually lost the match by six wickets. Kohli made a total of 319 runs in the tournament at an average of 106.33, a record for most runs by an individual batsman in a single World Twenty20 tournament, for which he won the Man of the Tournament award.
India conceded a 3–1 defeat in the five-match Test series against England. Kohli fared poorly in the series averaging just 13.40 in 10 innings scoring 134 runs overall with a top score of 39. It was a nightmare tour for him as he was dismissed for single-digit scores on six occasions in the series and was particularly susceptible to the swinging ball on off stump line, being dismissed several times edging the ball to the wicket-keeper or slip fielders. Man of the series James Anderson got Kohli's wicket four times, while Kohli's batting technique was questioned by analysts and former cricketers. India won the ODI series that followed 3–1, but Kohli's struggles with the bat continued with an average of 18 in four innings. In the one-off T20I, he scored 41-ball 66, his first fifty-plus score of the tour. India lost the match by three runs, but Kohli reached the number one spot for T20I batsmen in the ICC rankings.
Kohli had a successful time during India's home ODI series win over the West Indies in October 2014. His 62 in the second ODI at Delhi was his first fifty across Tests and ODIs in 16 innings since February, and he stated that he got his "confidence back" with the innings. He struck his 20th ODI hundred–127 runs in 114 balls–in the fourth match at Dharamsala. India registered a 59-run victory and Kohli was awarded man of the match. Dhoni was rested for the five-match ODI series against Sri Lanka in November, enabling Kohli to lead the team for another full series. Kohli batted at 4 throughout the series and made scores of 22, 49, 53 and 66 in the first four ODIs, with India leading the series 4–0. In the fifth ODI at Ranchi, he made an unbeaten 139 off 126 balls to give his team a three-wicket win and a whitewash of Sri Lanka. Kohli was awarded player of the series, and it was the second whitewash under his captaincy. During the series he became the fastest batter in the world to go past the 6000-run mark in ODIs. With 1054 ODI runs at 58.55 in 2014, he became the second player in the world after Sourav Ganguly to make more than 1,000 runs in ODIs for four consecutive calendar years.
Test captaincy
For the first Test of the Australian tour in December 2014, Dhoni was not part of the Indian team at Adelaide due to an injury, and Kohli took the reins as Test captain for the first time. Kohli scored 115 in India's first innings, becoming the fourth Indian to score a hundred on Test captaincy debut. In their second innings, India were set a target of 364 to be scored on the fifth day. Kohli put on 185 runs for the third wicket with Murali Vijay before Vijay's dismissal, which triggered a batting collapse. From 242/2, India was bowled out for 315 with Kohli's 141 off 175 balls being the top score.
Dhoni returned to the team as captain for the second match at Brisbane where Kohli scored 19 and 1 in a four-wicket defeat for India. In the Melbourne Boxing Day Test, he made his personal best Test score of 169 in the first innings while sharing a 262-run partnership with Rahane, India's biggest partnership outside Asia in ten years. Kohli followed it with a score of 54 in India's second innings on the fifth day, helping his team draw the Test match. Dhoni announced his retirement from Test cricket at the conclusion of this match, and Kohli was appointed as the full-time Test captain ahead of the fourth Test at Sydney. Captaining the Test team for the second time, Kohli hit 147 in the first innings of the match and became the first batsman in Test cricket history to score three hundreds in his first three innings as Test captain. He was dismissed for 46 in the second innings and the match ended in a draw. Kohli's total of 692 runs in four Tests was the most by any Indian batsman in a Test series in Australia.
In January 2015, India failed to win a single match in the tri-nation ODI series against the hosts Australia and England. Kohli was unable to replicate his Test success in ODIs, failing to make a two-digit score in any of the four games. Kohli's ODI form did not improve in the lead-up to the World Cup, with scores of 18 and 5 in the warm-up matches against Australia and Afghanistan respectively.
In the first match of the World Cup against Pakistan at Adelaide, Kohli hit 107 in 126 balls. For his knock, he was awarded the man of the match award. Kohli also became first Indian batsman to score a century against Pakistan in a World Cup match. He was dismissed for 46 in India's second match against South Africa. India went on to register a 130-run victory in the match. India batted second in their remaining four group matches in which Kohli scored 33*, 33, 44* and 38 against UAE, West Indies, Ireland and Zimbabwe respectively. India went on to secure wins in these four fixtures and top the Pool B points with an undefeated record. In India's 109-run victory in the quarter-final over Bangladesh, Kohli was dismissed by Rubel Hossain for 3, edging the ball to the wicket-keeper. India was eliminated in the semi-final by Australia at Melbourne, where Kohli was dismissed for 1 off 13 balls, top-edging a short-pitched delivery from Mitchell Johnson.
Kohli had a slump in form when India toured Bangladesh in June 2015. He contributed only 14 in the one-off Test which ended in a draw and averaged 16.33 in the ODI series which Bangladesh won 2–1. Kohli ended his streak of low scores by scoring his 11th Test hundred in the first Test of the Sri Lankan tour which India lost. India won the next two matches to seal the series 2–1, Kohli's first series win as Test captain and India's first away Test series win in four years.
During South Africa's tour of India, Kohli became the fastest batsman in the world to make 1,000 runs in T20I cricket, reaching the milestone in his 27th innings. In the ODI series, he made a century in the fourth ODI at Chennai that helped India draw level in the series. India lost the series after a defeat in the final ODI and Kohli finished the series with an average of 49. India came back to beat the top-ranked South African team 3–0 in the four-match Test series under Kohli's captaincy, and climbed to number two position on the ICC Test rankings. Virat scored a total of 200 runs in the series at 33.33.
No. 1 Test team and limited-overs captaincy
Kohli started 2016 with scores of 91 and 59 in the first two ODIs of the limited-overs tour of Australia. He followed it up with a pair of hundreds–a run-a-ball 117 at Melbourne and 106 from 92 balls at Canberra. During the course of the series, he became the fastest batsman in the world to cross the 7000-run mark in ODIs, getting to the milestone in his 161st innings, and the fastest to get to 25 centuries. After the ODI series ended in a 1–4 loss, the Indian team came back to whitewash the Australians 3–0 in the T20I series. Kohli made fifties in all three T20Is with scores of 90*, 59* and 50, winning two man of the matches as well as the man of the series award. He was also instrumental in India winning the Asia Cup in Bangladesh the following month in which he scored 49 in a run-chase of 84 against Pakistan, followed by an unbeaten 56 against Sri Lanka and 41 not out in the Final against Bangladesh.
Kohli maintained his form in the 2016 ICC World Twenty20 in India, scoring 55* in another successful run-chase against Pakistan. He struck an unbeaten 82 from 51 balls in India's must-win group match against Australia in "an innings of sheer class" with "clean cricket shots". It helped India win by six wickets and register a spot in the semi-final; Kohli went on to rate the innings as his best in the format. In the semi-final, Kohli top-scored with an unbeaten 89 from 47 deliveries, but West Indies overhauled India's total of 192 and ended India's campaign. His total of 273 runs in five matches at an average of 136.50 earned him his second consecutive Man of the Tournament award at the World Twenty20. He was named as captain of the 'Team of the Tournament' for the 2016 World Twenty20 by the ICC.
Playing his first Test in the West Indies since his debut series, Kohli scored 200 in the first Test at Antigua to ensure an innings-and-92-run win for India, their biggest win ever outside of Asia. It was his first double hundred in first-class cricket and the first made away from home by an Indian captain in Tests. India went on to wrap the series 2–0 and briefly top the ICC Test Rankings before being displaced by Pakistan at the position. He scored another double hundred–211 at Indore in the third Test against New Zealand–as India's 3–0 whitewash victory saw them regain the top position in the ICC Test Rankings. In the subsequent ODI series, Kohli set up two wins for India batting second with unbeaten knocks of 85 and 154. He then made 65 in the series-deciding fifth game at Visakhapatnam which India won.
Kohli got double centuries in the next two Test series against England and Bangladesh, making him the first batsman ever to score double centuries in four consecutive series. He broke the record of Australian great Donald Bradman and Rahul Dravid, both of whom had managed to get three. Against England, he got his then-highest Test score of 235.
10,000 runs in ODIs before age of 30
He followed it up with ODI centuries against the West Indies and Sri Lanka in consecutive series, equalling Ricky Ponting's tally of 30 ODI centuries. In October 2017, he was adjudged the ODI player of the series against New Zealand for scoring two ODI centuries, during the course of which he made a new record for the most runs (8,888), best average (55.55) and highest number of centuries (31) for any batsman when completing 200 ODIs. Kohli made several more records during the 3 match Test series against Sri Lanka at home in November. After scoring a century and a double century in the first two Tests, he ended up scoring yet another double century in the third Test, during which he became the eleventh Indian batsman to surpass 5000 runs in Test cricket while scoring his 20th Test century and 6th double century. During this match he also became the first batsman to score six double hundreds as a captain. With 610 runs in the series, Kohli also became the highest run-scorer by an Indian in a three-match Test series and the fourth-highest overall. India comfortably won the three-match series 1–0 and Kohli was adjudged man of the match for the second and third Test matches and player of the series. With this win, India equaled Australia for the record streak of nine consecutive series wins in Test cricket. He ended the year with 2818 international runs, which is recorded as the third-highest tally ever in a calendar year and the highest tally ever by an Indian player. The ICC named Kohli as captain of both their World Test XI and ODI XI for 2017.
Overseas season-including Windies at home
Kohli had a fared average in the Test matches as India lost 1–2 during the South Africa tour in 2018, but came back strongly to score 558 runs in the 6 ODIs, making a record for the highest runs scored in a bilateral ODI series. This included three centuries, remaining unbeaten in two with a best of 160*. India won the ODI series 5–1, Kohli becoming the first Indian captain to win an ODI series in South Africa.
In March 2018, Kohli played county cricket in England in June, in order to improve his batting before the start of India's tour to England the following month. He signed to play for Surrey, but a neck injury ruled him out of his stint in England before it even began. On 2 August, Kohli scored his first Test century on English soil in the first test match of the series against England. On 5 August, Kohli displaced Steve Smith to become the No. 1 ranked Test batsman in the ICC Test rankings. He also became the seventh Indian batsman and first since Sachin Tendulkar in June 2011 to achieve this feat. In the third test at Trent Bridge, Nottingham, Kohli scored 97 and 103, and helped India win by 203 runs. At the end of 5-match test series, Kohli scored 593 runs, which was third highest runs by an Indian batsman in a losing test series. Kohli's consistent performance in the series against the moving ball when other batsman failed to perform was hailed by British Media as one of his finest. The Guardian describes Kohli's batting display as One of the Greatest batting display in a losing cause.
During ODI series against West Indies in 2018, Kohli became the 12th batsman and fastest player to score 10,000 ODI runs. He surpassed the milestone with 205 innings which is 54 innings less than the next quickest to the landmark, Sachin Tendulkar. In the course he scored his 37th ODI century. On 27 October, after scoring his 38th ODI century, Kohli became the first batsman for India, first captain and tenth overall, to score three successive centuries in ODIs. He ended up scoring 453 runs in 5 innings, at an average of 151.00, in the 5-match series and was the Player of the Series.
On 16 December 2018 in the 2018-2019 Border Gavaskar Trophy, Kohli scored his 25th test hundred in Perth. His knock of 123 was his 6th hundred in three tours to Australia making him the only Indian to score 6 test hundreds in Australia after Sachin Tendulkar. He also became the fastest Indian and second fastest overall (125 innings) to score 25 test hundreds, second only to Donald Bradman (68 innings) which was bettered by Steven Smith during 2019 Ashes (119 innings). Kohli's knock was rated by several analysts and former cricketers as one of his finest against a quality Australian attack.
Although he broke several records in the game, his innings proved to insufficient as India went down by 146 runs as Australia levelled the series with two tests remaining. Overall, he finished the series with 282 runs at an average of 40. By winning the test series in Australia, he had become the first Indian and also the first Asian skipper to win a test series in Australia. He was again named as captain of both the World Test XI and ODI XI for 2018 by the ICC.
Captaining India in ICC events
2017 ICC Champions Trophy
Virat Kohli got the chance to captain in an ICC tournament for the first time in the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy. In the semi-final against Bangladesh, Kohli scored 96*, thus becoming the fastest batsman, in terms of innings, to reach 8,000 runs in ODIs in 175 innings. India reached the final, but lost to Pakistan by 180 runs. In the third over of Indian innings, Virat Kohli was dropped in the slips for just five runs but caught the next ball by Shadab Khan at point on the bowling of Mohammad Amir. He was also named as part of the 'Team of the Tournament' at the 2017 Champions Trophy by the ICC.
2019 Cricket World Cup
In April 2019, he was named the captain of India's squad for the 2019 Cricket World Cup. On 16 June 2019, in India's match against Pakistan, Kohli became the fastest batsman, in terms of innings, to score 11,000 runs in ODI cricket. He reached the landmark in his 222nd innings. Eleven days later, in the match against the West Indies, Kohli became the fastest cricketer, in terms of innings, to score 20,000 runs in international cricket, doing so in his 417th innings. Kohli scored five consecutive fifty plus score in the tournament. India lost the semi-final against New Zealand, in which Kohli was out for just a run.
2021 ICC World Test Championship Final
In June 2021, India lost the 2021 ICC World Test Championship Final to New Zealand. This was Kohli's third defeat as captain in knockouts and finals of ICC tournaments. Virat Kohli scored 44 and 13 runs in the 1st and 2nd innings respectively.
2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup
In September 2021, Kohli was named as the captain of India's squad for the 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup. India could not make it through the semi-finals, which was the first time in the past 9 years.
Home season
In October 2019, Kohli captained India for the 50th time in Test cricket, in the second Test against South Africa. In the first innings of the match, Kohli scored an unbeaten 254 runs, passing 7,000 runs in Tests in the process, and became the first batsman for India to score seven double centuries in Test cricket. In November 2019, during the day/night Test match against Bangladesh, Kohli became the fastest captain to score 5,000 runs in Test cricket, doing so in his 86th innings. In the same match, he also scored his 70th century in international cricket.
Poor form across formats
Disastrous tour of New Zealand
India toured to New Zealand from January to March 2020 to play 5-match T20 series along with a 3 and 2-match ODI and test series respectively. During the tour, Kohli badly struggled against the moving ball on tricky New Zealand pitches throughout the tour making the tour as his worst ever after the England tour in 2014. During the entire tour he only managed 218 across formats in 12 innings at an average of 19.81 with one half-century during first ODI. This was his lowest aggregate of runs in a tour where he played in all formats. India managed to win the T20I series 5–0. However Kohli-led side was badly hammered during the ODI and Test leg of the tour losing 3-0 and 2-0 respectively. This was also India's first whitewash under Kohli's captaincy.
India's tour of Australia and home series versus England
India travelled to Australia during November 2020 till January 2021 for a long tour. During the ODI Series, Kohli managed to score two half-centuries in three innings with a aggregate of 173 runs at an average of 57.67 despite this India lost the series 2–1. Also in November, Kohli played in his 250th ODI match, in the second match against Australia.
However, India bounced backed strongly and clinch the T20I series 2–1 with Kohli being the highest run scorer in the series for India (134 runs at 44.37). During the first test of the tour played as Day/night match at Adelaide, Kohli scored a fluent 74 before being run out. However he only managed 4 runs in next innings where India scrambled to 36/9, their lowest ever score in Test cricket history. After the 1st Test, Kohli left the tour on paternity leave as he was expecting the birth of his first child. He received mixed responses for his decision. Indian batting great Sunil Gavaskar along with Kapil Dev slammed Kohli for leaving the tour after the Indian team lost the 1st Test in Adelaide. Gavaskar slammed the double standard of BCCI for Kohli getting the paternity leave while T. Natarajan wasn't allowed for the same. Despite his absence India managed to clinch the test series 2–1 under the able leadership of stand-in captain Ajinkya Rahane. The Daily Telegraph described India's recovery as one of the great comebacks in cricket history.
In November 2020, Kohli was nominated for the Sir Garfield Sobers Award for ICC Male Cricketer of the Decade, as well as Test, ODI and T20I player of the decade and won two(Male cricketer of the decade and ODI cricketer of the decade).
The England tour of India begin with a long 4-match Test series. Kohli struggled to find his form through the series as he managed 172 runs across 4 Test matches at an average of 28.66 with 2 half-centuries and 2 ducks. This was also the first time Kohli got out for two ducks in a Test series after his disastrous tour of England in 2014. However, during the second test at Chepauk, Kohli scored a crucial 62 on a minefield of a pitch which English batting great Geoffrey Boycott described as a template to bat and score runs on a turning pitch.
Kohli got out for a duck again in the 1st T20I of a 5-match series. However, he found his form in the latter part of the series and ended the series as the highest run-scorer from both sides with 231 runs to his name and 3 half-centuries at an average of 115.50 as India clinched the series 3–2. Kohli was adjudged as the Man of the Series for his performances. During the second T20I, Kohli became the first ever batsman to complete 3,000 runs in the format.
In the 3-match ODI series, Kohli managed to score 129 runs in 3 innings with 2 half-centuries at a moderate average of 43.00 as India won the series 2–1. During the 2nd ODI, Kohli became the second batsman after Ricky Ponting to score 10,000 runs batting at number 3.
Tour of England and South Africa
Indian cricket team toured England in 2021 for a 5-match test series. During the 1st innings of the first test, Kohli got dismissed for a golden duck by James Anderson. Kohli managed to score 2 fifties in the next 6 innings he played. He has scored a total of 218 runs in the first four matches of the series, with an average of 31.14. The fifth test of the series is yet to played.
Indian cricket team toured South Africa in late 2021 and early 2022 for a 3-match test series and a 3-match ODI series. Kohli managed to score 161 runs in the 4 innings of test series he played, averaging at 40.25. He could not play 2nd test of the series due to an injury. India lost the series by 2-1, despite winning the first test.
In the ODI series, Kohli scored 116 runs in 3 innings, including two fifties, with an average of 38.66. South Africa won all three matches, thus whitewashing India.
Retirement from captaincy across all formats
In September 2021, Kohli announced that he would step down as India's T20I captain following the 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup .
In December 2021, Kohli was replaced by Rohit Sharma as India's ODI captain. BCCI President Sourav Ganguly later explained the decision to drop Kohli as ODI captain by saying that the selectors did not feel right to have two white ball captains. Later Ganguly said that BCCI had told Virat to not step down as T20I captain. Virat Kohli, during a press conference, contradicted the BCCI President and said that his decision of stepping down as captain was "received well" and termed as "progressive" by the BCCI officials. He also claimed that chief selector Chetan Sharma informed him 90-minutes before the announcement of the Test squad for India's tour of South Africa, about the removal from ODI captaincy. More than a week later, during the announcement of squad for ODI series versus South Africa, Chetan Sharma contradicted Kohli by saying that officials had asked Virat to reconsider his decision of stepping down as T20I captain.
On 15 January 2022, Kohli stepped down as India's Test captain, following the 2–1 test series defeat against South Africa during the India's Tour of South Africa.
Indian Premier League
Kohli was bought by the Indian Premier League franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore for $30,000 on a youth contract. He was the captain of Royal challengers Bangalore for 8 seasons but could not win a trophy.
Kohli had an poor 2008 season, with a total of 165 runs in 12 innings at an average of 15.00 and a strike rate of 105.09. He did slightly better in the second season in which he made a total of 246 runs at 22.36, striking at over 112, while his team made it as far as the final. In the 2010 season, Kohli was the third highest run-getter for his team with 307 runs, averaging 27.90 and improving his strike rate to 144.81.
Kohli was the second-highest run-getter of the season, only behind teammate Chris Gayle, and his team finished as runners-up. Kohli scored total 557 runs at an average of 46.41 and at the strike rate of over 121 including four fifties. In the 2012 IPL, he averaged 28 and scored 364 runs.
During 2013 season, Kohli averaged 45.28 and hit a total of 634 runs at a strike rate of over 138 including six fifties and a top-score of 99 and finished as the season's third-highest run-scorer.
Bangalore finished seventh in the next season in which Kohli made 359 runs at 27.61. He found success with the bat in the 2015 IPL in which he led his team to the playoffs. He finished fifth on the season's leading run-getters list with 505 runs at an average of 45.90 and a strike rate of more than 130.
At the 2016 IPL, the Royal Challengers finished runners-up and Kohli broke the record for most runs in an IPL season (of 733 runs) by scoring 973 runs in 16 matches at an average of 81.08, winning the Orange Cap as well as Most-valuable Player Award of Vivo IPL 2016. He scored four centuries in the tournament, having never scored one in the Twenty20 format before the start of the season, and also became the first player to reach the 4000-run milestone in the IPL. At the launch event of his biography, 'Driven: The Virat Kohli Story' in New Delhi, in October 2016, Kohli announced that RCB would be the IPL franchise that he would permanently play for.
Kohli missed the start of the 2017 season due to a shoulder injury. Moreover, RCB finished the tournament at the bottom of the table, with Kohli scoring the most runs for his team, with 308 from 10 matches. On the occasion of the 10 year anniversary of IPL, he was also named in the all-time Cricinfo IPL XI.
In the 2018 season, Kohli was retained by RCB for a price of , the highest for any player that year. Kohli scored 530 runs in the season and became the first batsman to score more than 500 runs in 5 different seasons. Moreover, RCB failed to qualify for Playoffs and finished sixth on the points table.
On 28 March 2019, Kohli became the second player to reach 5000 IPL runs after Suresh Raina. In the same season, Kohli surpassed Raina to become leading runs scorer in IPL when he scored 84 runs in a match against KKR.
On 22 April 2021, against Rajasthan Royals, Kohli became the first ever player to reach 6000 IPL Runs. On 20 September, Royal Challengers Bangalore announced that Kohli would step down as captain following the 2021 IPL season.
Player profile
Playing style
Kohli is a naturally aggressive batsman with strong technical skills. He usually bats at the no.3 position in ODI cricket. He bats with a slightly open-chested stance and a strong bottom-hand grip. He is not a big hitter and plays more grounded shots. He is known for his wide range of shots, ability to pace an innings and batting under pressure. He is strong through the mid-wicket and cover region. He has said that the cover drive is his favourite shot, while also saying that the flick shot comes naturally to him. He does not play the sweep shot often, being called "not a natural sweeper of the cricket ball". Kohli is strong on leg stump line bowling. If bowled at leg stump he plays flick shot.
According to cricket pundit VVS Laxman, for Virat Kohli, balling line outside the off stump is his weakness. He got out many times by outside off stump line ball and opposition team's bowlers tries to exploit his weakness in Test as well as ODIs. Out swinging balls his one of the weakness as per Richard Hadlee.
His teammates have praised his confidence, commitment, focus and work ethics. Kohli is also known to be a "sharp" fielder.
Kohli is regarded as the best limited-overs batsman in the world, especially while chasing. In ODIs, he averages around 69 in matches batting second as opposed to around 51 batting first. 26 of his 43 ODI hundreds have come in run-chases and he holds the record for most hundreds batting second.
Aggression
Kohli is noted for his on-field aggression and was described in the media as "brash" and "arrogant" during his early career. He has got into confrontations with players and umpires on several occasions. While many former cricketers have backed his aggressive attitude, some have criticised it. In 2012, Kohli had stated that he tries to limit his aggressive behaviour but "the build-up and the pressure or the special occasions make it tough to control the aggression."
Comparisons to Sachin Tendulkar
Kohli is often compared to Sachin Tendulkar, due to their similar styles of batting, and sometimes referred to as Tendulkar's "successor". Many former cricketers expect Kohli to break Tendulkar's batting records. He is ranked as one of the world's most famous athletes by ESPN Kohli has stated that growing up his idol and role model was Tendulkar and that as a kid he "tried to copy the shots [Tendulkar] played and hit sixes the way he used to hit them." Former West Indies great Vivian Richards, who is regarded as the most destructive batsman in cricket, stated that Kohli reminds him of himself. In early 2015, Richards said Kohli was "already legendary" in the ODI format, while former Australian cricketer Dean Jones called Kohli the "new king of world cricket". Aakash Chopra, an Indian commentator, stated that "Sachin had more shots as compared to Virat".
Career summary
, Kohli has made 70 centuries and 7 double centuries in international cricket—27 centuries, 7 double centuries in Test cricket and 43 centuries in One Day Internationals (ODIs).
Test match performance
ODI match performance
T20I match performance
Records
Virat Kohli is leading run scorer in T20I with most 50 plus scores. He is the only cricketer to have been awarded player of the tournament twice in T20 World Cup. He scored 319 runs with 4 fifties in T20 World Cup 2014 and was leading run scorer in the tournament.
He has 2nd most centuries in ODI(43) and only behind Tendulkar who has 49 centuries. He has 3rd most centuries(70) in international cricket and only behind Tendulkar(100) and Ponting(71). He is the fastest player to score 10,000 runs in ODI in terms of innings and took 54 less innings than previous record of 259 innings. In 2018, He scored 1000 ODI runs in just 11 innings which is the least number of innings taken to score 1000 runs in a calendar year.
Awards
National honours
2013 - Arjuna Award
2017 - Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian award.
2018 - Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award, India's highest sporting honour.
Sporting honours
Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy (ICC Men's Cricketer of the Decade): 2011–2020
Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy (ICC Cricketer of the Year): 2017, 2018
ICC ODI Player of the Year: 2012, 2017, 2018
ICC Test Player of the Year: 2018
ICC ODI Team of the Year: 2012, 2014, 2016 (captain), 2017 (captain), 2018 (captain), 2019 (captain)
ICC Test Team of the Year: 2017 (captain), 2018 (captain), 2019 (captain)
ICC Spirit of Cricket: 2019
ICC Men's ODI Cricketer of the Decade: 2011–2020
ICC Men's Test Team of the Decade: 2011–2020 (captain)
ICC Men's ODI Team of the Decade: 2011–2020
ICC Men's T20I Team of the Decade: 2011–2020
Polly Umrigar Award for International Cricketer of the Year: 2011–12, 2014–15, 2015–16, 2016–17, 2017–18
Wisden Leading Cricketer in the World: 2016, 2017, 2018
CEAT International Cricketer of the Year: 2011–12, 2013–14, 2018–19
Barmy Army - International Player of Year: 2017, 2018
Other honours and awards
People's Choice Awards India For Favourite Sportsperson: 2012
CNN-News18 Indian of the Year: 2017
Delhi & District Cricket Association (DDCA) renamed a stand after Kohli at Arun Jaitley stadium, Delhi.
Outside cricket
Personal life
Kohli started dating Bollywood actress Anushka Sharma in 2013; the couple soon earned the celebrity couple nickname "Virushka". Their relationship attracted substantial media attention, with persistent rumours and speculations in the media, as neither of the two publicly talked about it. The couple married on 11 December 2017 in a private ceremony in Florence, Italy. On 11 January 2021, they became parents to a baby girl, Vamika.
In 2018, Kohli revealed that he completely stopped consuming meat to cut down his uric acid levels which caused him a cervical spine issue and started affecting his finger and, in turn, his batting. In 2021, he clarified that he is a vegetarian and not a vegan.
Kohli has admitted that he is superstitious. He used to wear black wristbands as a cricket superstition; earlier, he used to wear the same pair of gloves with which he had "been scoring". Apart from a religious black thread, he has also been wearing a kara on his right arm since 2012.
Commercial investments
According to Kohli, football is his second favourite sport. In 2014, Kohli became a co-owner of Indian Super League club FC Goa. He stated that he invested in the club with the "keenness of football" and because he "wanted football to grow in India". He added, "It's a business venture for me for the future. Cricket's not going to last forever and I'm keeping all my options open after retirement."
In September 2015, Kohli became a co-owner of the International Premier Tennis League franchise UAE Royals, and, in December that year, became a co-owner of the JSW-owned Bengaluru Yodhas franchise in Pro Wrestling League.
In November 2014, Kohli and Anjana Reddy's Universal Sportsbiz (USPL) launched a youth fashion brand WROGN. The brand started to produce men's casual wear clothing in 2015 and has tied up with Myntra and Shopper's Stop. In late 2014, Kohli was announced as a shareholder and brand ambassador of the social networking venture 'Sport Convo' based in London.
In 2015, Kohli invested to start a chain of gyms and fitness centres across the country. Launched under the name Chisel, the chain of gyms is jointly owned by Kohli, Chisel India and CSE (Cornerstone Sport and Entertainment), the agency which manages Kohli's commercial interests. In 2016, Kohli started Stepathlon Kids, a children fitness venture, in partnership with Stepathlon Lifestyle.
Charity
In March 2013, Kohli started a charity foundation called Virat Kohli Foundation (VKF). The organisation aims at helping underprivileged kids and conducts events to raise funds for the charity. According to Kohli, the foundation works with select NGOs to "create awareness, seek support and raise funds for the various causes they endorse and the philanthropic work they engage in." In May 2014, eBay and Save the Children India conducted a charity auction with VKF, with its proceeds benefiting the education and healthcare of underprivileged children.
Kohli has captained the All Heart Football Club, owned by VKF, in charity football matches against All Stars Football Club, owned by Abhishek Bachchan's Playing for Humanity. The matches, known as "Celebrity Clasico", feature cricketers playing for All Heart and Bollywood actors in the All Stars team, and are organized to generate funds for the two charity foundations.
Social media fan following
Kohli is very active on social media and has a huge fan following on the platform. He is the only cricketer, and fifth sports personality, to have more than 150 million followers on Instagram.
In popular culture
Kohli was featured in episodes of The Test (documentary) of Amazon prime, about Australian team's journey after ball tampering scandal.
Super V (Super Virat), an Indian animated superhero television series portrays a fictionalized version of Kohli's teen years where he discovers hidden superpowers.
Mega Icons (2018-2020), an Indian documentary television series on National Geographic about prominent Indian personalities, dedicated an episode to Kohli's achievements in cricket.
See also
List of players who have scored 10,000 or more runs in One Day International cricket
List of cricketers by number of international centuries scored
List of cricketers who have scored centuries in both innings of a Test match
Notes
References
Bibliography
External links
1988 births
Living people
Indian cricketers
India Test cricketers
India One Day International cricketers
India Twenty20 International cricketers
Royal Challengers Bangalore cricketers
Delhi cricketers
Cricketers at the 2011 Cricket World Cup
Cricketers at the 2015 Cricket World Cup
Cricketers at the 2019 Cricket World Cup
Cricketers from Delhi
India Test cricket captains
North Zone cricketers
Punjabi people
Indian Hindus
People from Delhi
Recipients of the Padma Shri in sports
International Cricket Council Cricketer of the Year
Wisden Cricketers of the Year
Recipients of the Khel Ratna Award
Recipients of the Arjuna Award | true | [
"Matthew 4:20 is the twentieth verse of the fourth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament. Jesus has just begun preaching in Galilee and has encountered the fishermen Simon Peter and Andrew. He has called them to join him as \"fishers of men,\" and in this verse the pair take up his offer.\n\nContent\nThe original Koine Greek, according to Westcott and Hort, reads:\nοι δε ευθεως αφεντες τα δικτυα ηκολουθησαν αυτω\n\nIn the King James Version of the Bible the text reads:\nAnd they straightway left their nets, and followed him.\n\nThe World English Bible translates the passage as:\nThey immediately left their nets and followed him.\n\nFor a collection of other versions see Biblehub Matthew 4:20\n\nAnalysis\nThe traditional view is that the decision to join Jesus after this brief meeting was an example of his divine power. France, however, notes that this view is not explicit in the Gospel and that the alternate view that Jesus knew, and was even close friends, with both men beforehand is perfectly possible. John 1 and imply this version of events. Clarke notes that as a carpenter one of Jesus' tasks might very well have been building and repairing fishing vessels and he thus had many opportunities to interact and befriend fishers such as Simon and Andrew.\n\nAlbright and Mann note that Matthew consistently emphasizes the importance of renunciation in coming to Jesus, as represented by the fishers' abandonment of their nets. Fishing was a profitable, but capital intensive, occupation and abandoning everything would have been an important sacrifice. Clarke notes that this abandonment of worldly possessions was taken as a model by later Christian ascetics.\n\nCommentary from the Church Fathers\nGregory the Great: (Hom. in Evan. v. 1.) Peter and Andrew had seen Christ work no miracle, had heard from him no word of the promise of the eternal reward, yet at this single bidding of the Lord they forgot all that they had seemed to possess, and straightway left their nets, and followed Him. In which deed we ought rather to consider their wills than the amount of their property. He leaves much who keeps nothing for himself, he parts with much, who with his possessions renounces his lusts. Those who followed Christ gave up enough to be coveted by those who did not follow. Our outward goods, however small, are enough for the Lord; He does not weigh the sacrifice by how much is offered, but out of how much it is offered. The kingdom of God is not to be valued at a certain price, but whatever a man has, much or little, is equally available.\n\nPseudo-Chrysostom: These disciples did not follow Christ from desire of the honour of a doctor, but because they coveted the labour itself; they knew how precious is the soul of man, how pleasant to God is his salvation, and how great its reward.\n\nChrysostom: To so great a promise they trusted, and believed that they should catch others by those same words by which themselves had been caught.\n\nPseudo-Chrysostom: These were their desires, for which they left all and followed; teaching us thereby that none can possess earthly things and perfectly attain to heavenly things.\n\nReferences\n\n04:20",
"SuperBrawl VII was the seventh SuperBrawl professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Championship Wrestling (WCW). The event took place on February 23, 1997 from the Cow Palace in San Francisco, California.\n\nStorylines\nThe event featured wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds and storylines. Wrestlers portrayed villains, heroes, or less distinguishable characters in the scripted events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches.\n\nEvent\n\nSyxx pinned Dean Malenko to win the WCW World Cruiserweight Championship after hitting him with the title belt. Eddy Guerrero interfered late in the match and tried to stop Syxx from hitting Malenko, but inadvertently caused Malenko to be hit.\n\nBuff Bagwell was disqualified when the nWo rushed the ring after a Diamond Cutter by Diamond Dallas Page.\n\nJeff Jarrett pinned Steve McMichael after hitting him with a briefcase thrown to him by Debra. As a result of this victory, Jarrett was allowed to join the Four Horsemen.\n\nLex Luger did not come down to the ring for the WCW World Tag Team Championship match until late in the match after The Giant was powerbombed by Kevin Nash. Nash submitted to the Torture Rack, followed by the Giant pinning Scott Hall after a chokeslam.\n\nHollywood Hogan pinned Roddy Piper after Randy Savage interfered by breaking up a submission and giving Hogan brass knuckles to strike Piper with. Piper was originally awarded the decision by submission with a sleeper hold after Hogan failed to respond after having his arm raised three times, but referee Mark Curtis restarted the match after Hogan was ruled to have had his foot under the ropes. Hogan, however, clearly did not have his feet under the ropes when his hand fell the third time; Savage was supposed to pull Hogan under the ropes but did so too late. Savage and Hogan then attacked Piper post-match, followed by Savage turning heel and joining the nWo.\n\nAftermath\nEric Bischoff stripped Luger and Giant of the tag team titles the next night on Nitro due to Luger not getting a proper medical clearance before Bischoff left the previous week's Nitro.\n\nResults\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nSuperBrawl VII\n\nSuperBrawl 7\nProfessional wrestling in San Francisco\n1997 in San Francisco\nEvents in San Francisco\n1997 World Championship Wrestling pay-per-view events\nFebruary 1997 events in the United States"
]
|
[
"Virat Kohli",
"Playing style",
"What was Virat's playing style?",
"Kohli is a naturally aggressive batsman with strong technical skills.",
"How did his team view him?",
"His teammates have praised his confidence, commitment, focus and work ethics."
]
| C_e1a26ef3a8c64460bdcf951d80b1693b_1 | Did he influence others? | 3 | Did Virat Kohli influence others? | Virat Kohli | Kohli is a naturally aggressive batsman with strong technical skills. He usually bats in the middle-order, but, on many occasions, has opened the innings as well. He bats with a slightly open-chested stance and a strong bottom-hand grip, and is said to have quick footwork. He is known for his wide range of shots, ability to pace an innings and batting under pressure. He is strong through the mid-wicket and cover region. He has said that the cover drive is his favourite shot, while also saying that the flick shot comes naturally to him. He does not play the sweep shot often, being called "not a natural sweeper of the cricket ball". His teammates have praised his confidence, commitment, focus and work ethics. Kohli is also known to be a "sharp" fielder. Kohli is regarded as the best limited-overs batsmen in the world, especially while chasing. In ODIs, he averages more than 67 in matches batting second as opposed to around 47 batting first. 21 of his 35 ODI hundreds have come in run-chases and he holds the record for most hundreds batting second. Regarding his impressive record batting second, Kohli has said "I love the whole situation that comes with chasing. I like the challenge of testing myself, figuring out how to rotate strike, when to hit a boundary." Kohli is often compared to Sachin Tendulkar, due to their similar styles of batting, and sometimes referred to as Tendulkar's "successor". Many former cricketers expect Kohli to break Tendulkar's batting records. Kohli has stated that growing up his idol and role model was Tendulkar and that as a kid he "tried to copy the shots [Tendulkar] played and hit sixes the way he used to hit them." Former West Indies great Vivian Richards, who is regarded as the most destructive batsman in cricket, stated that Kohli reminds him of himself. In early 2015, Richards said Kohli was "already legendary" in the ODI format, while former Australian cricketer Dean Jones called Kohli the "new king of world cricket". Kohli is noted for his on-field aggression and was described in the media as "brash" and "arrogant" during his early career. He has got into confrontations with players and umpires on several occasions. While many former cricketers have backed his aggressive attitude, some have criticised it. In 2012, Kohli had stated that he tries to limit his aggressive behaviour but "the build-up and the pressure or the special occasions make it tough to control the aggression." CANNOTANSWER | Kohli is regarded as the best limited-overs batsmen in the world, especially while chasing. | Virat Kohli (; born 5 November 1988) is an Indian international cricketer and former captain of the Indian national team. He plays for Delhi in domestic cricket and Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League as a right-handed batsman. Kohli is often considered one of the best batsmen of his era and some critics believe him to be one of the best limited-overs batsmen in history. Between 2013 and 2022, Kohli captained the India cricket team in more than 200 matches across all three formats.
Kohli made his Test debut in 2011. He reached the number one spot in the ICC rankings for ODI batsmen for the first time in 2013. He has won Man of the Tournament twice at the ICC World Twenty20 (in 2014 and 2016). He also holds the world record of being the fastest to 23,000 international runs.
Kohli has been the recipient of many awards– most notably the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy (ICC Men's Cricketer of the Decade): 2011–2020; Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy (ICC Cricketer of the Year) in 2017 and 2018; ICC Test Player of the Year (2018); ICC ODI Player of the Year (2012, 2017, 2018) and Wisden Leading Cricketer in the World (2016, 2017 and 2018). At the national level, he was awarded the Arjuna Award in 2013, the Padma Shri under the sports category in 2017 and the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award, the highest sporting honour in India, in 2018.
He is ranked as one of the world's most famous athletes by ESPN and one of the most valuable athlete brands by Forbes. In 2018, Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world. In 2020, he was ranked 66th in Forbes list of the top 100 highest-paid athletes in the world for the year 2020 with estimated earnings of over $26 million.
Early life
Virat Kohli was born on 5 November 1988 in Delhi into a Punjabi Hindu family. His father, Prem Kohli, worked as a criminal lawyer and his mother, Saroj Kohli, is a homemaker. He has an older brother, Vikash, and an older sister, Bhavna.
Kohli was raised in Uttam Nagar and started his schooling at Vishal Bharti Public School. In 1998, the West Delhi Cricket Academy was created and a nine-year-old Kohli was part of its first intake. Kohli trained at the academy under Rajkumar Sharma and also played matches at the Sumeet Dogra Academy at Vasundhara Enclave at the same time. In ninth grade, he shifted to Saviour Convent in Paschim Vihar to help his cricket practice. Kohli's family lived in Meera Bagh until 2015 when they moved to Gurugram.
Kohli's father died on 18 December 2006 due to a stroke after being bed-ridden for a month.
Youth and domestic career
Delhi
Kohli first played for Delhi Under-15 team in October 2002 in the 2002–03 Polly Umrigar Trophy. He became the captain of the team for the 2003–04 Polly Umrigar Trophy. In late 2004, he was selected in the Delhi Under-17 team for the 2003–04 Vijay Merchant Trophy. Delhi Under-17s won the 2004–05 Vijay Merchant Trophy in which Kohli finished as the highest run-scorer with 757 runs from 7 matches with two centuries. In February 2006, he made his List A debut for Delhi against Services but did not get to bat.
Kohli made his first-class debut for Delhi against Tamil Nadu in November 2006, at the age of 18, he scored 10 runs in his debut innings. He came into the spotlight in December when he decided to play for his team against Karnataka on the day after his father's death and went on to score 90. He went directly to the funeral after he got out in the match. He scored a total of 257 runs from 6 matches at an average of 36.71 in that season.
India Under-19
In July 2006, Kohli was selected in the India Under-19 squad on its tour of England. He averaged 105 in the three-match ODI series against England Under-19s and 49 in the three-match Test series. India Under-19 went on to win both the series. In September, the India Under-19 team toured Pakistan. Kohli averaged 58 in the Test series and 41.66 in the ODI series against Pakistan Under-19s.
In April 2007, he made his Twenty20 debut and finished as the highest run-getter for his team in the Inter-State T20 Championship with 179 runs at an average of 35.80. In July–August 2007, the India Under-19 team toured Sri Lanka. In the triangular series against Sri Lanka Under-19s and Bangladesh Under-19s, Kohli was the second highest run-getter with 146 runs at an average of 29 from 5 matches. In the two-match Test series that followed, he scored 244 runs at an average of 122 including a century and a fifty.
In February–March 2008, Kohli captained the victorious Indian team at the 2008 Under-19 Cricket World Cup held in Malaysia. Batting at number 3, he scored 235 runs in 6 matches at an average of 47 and finished as the tournament's third-highest run-getter and one of the three batsmen to score a hundred in the tournament. He was helped India in a three-wicket semi-final win over New Zealand Under-19s by taking 2 wickets and scoring 43 runs in the run-chase and was awarded the man of the match.
Indian Premier League
Following the Under-19 World Cup, Kohli was bought by the Indian Premier League franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore for $30,000 on a youth contract. In June 2008, Kohli and his Under-19 teammates Pradeep Sangwan and Tanmay Srivastava were awarded the Border-Gavaskar scholarship. The scholarship allowed the three players to train for six weeks at Cricket Australia's Centre of Excellence in Brisbane. He was also picked in the India Emerging Players squad for the four-team Emerging Players Tournament and scored 206 runs in six matches at an average of 41.20.
International career
Early years
In August 2008, Kohli was included in the Indian ODI squad for tour of Sri Lanka and the Champions Trophy in Pakistan. Prior to the Sri Lankan tour, Kohli had played only eight List A matches. So, his selection was called a "surprise call-up". During the Sri Lankan tour, as both first-choice openers Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag were injured, Kohli batted as a makeshift opener throughout the series. He made his international debut, at the age of 19, in the first ODI of the tour and was dismissed for 12. He made his first ODI half century, a score of 54, in the fourth match. He had scores of 37, 25 and 31 in the other three matches. India won the series 3–2 which was India's first ODI series win against Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka.
After the postponement of Champions Trophy to 2009, Kohli was picked as a replacement for the injured Shikhar Dhawan in the India A squad for the unofficial Tests against Australia A in September 2008. He batted only once in the two-match series, and scored 49 in that innings. Later that month in September 2008, he played for Delhi in the Nissar Trophy against SNGPL (winners of Quaid-i-Azam Trophy from Pakistan) and top-scored for Delhi in both innings, with 52 and 197. The match was drawn but SNGPL won the trophy on first-innings lead. In October 2008, Kohli played for Indian Board President's XI in a four-day tour match against Australia.
Kohli, after recovering from a minor shoulder injury, returned to the national team replacing the injured Gautam Gambhir in the Indian squad for the tri-series in Sri Lanka. He batted at number 4 for India in the 2009 ICC Champions Trophy because of an injury to Yuvraj Singh. In the group match against the West Indies, Kohli scored an unbeaten 79 in India's successful chase of 130 and was awarded man of the match award. Kohli played as a reserve batsman in the seven-match home ODI series against Australia, appearing in two matches. He found a place in the home ODI series against Sri Lanka in December 2009 and scored 27 and 54 in the first two ODIs before making way for Yuvraj who regained fitness for the third ODI. However, Yuvraj's finger injury recurred leading to him being ruled out indefinitely. Kohli returned to the team in the fourth ODI at Kolkata and scored his first ODI century–107 off 114 balls–sharing a 224-run partnership for the third wicket with Gambhir, who made his personal best score of 150. India won by seven wickets to seal the series 3–1. The man of the match was awarded to Gambhir who gave the award to Kohli.
Tendulkar was rested for the tri-nation ODI tournament in Bangladesh in January 2010, which enabled Kohli to play in each of India's five matches. Against Bangladesh, he scored 91 to help secure a win after India collapsed to 51/3 early in their run-chase of 297. In the next match against Sri Lanka, Kohli ended unbeaten on 71 to help India win the match with a bonus point having chased down their target of 214 within 33 overs. The next day, he scored his second ODI century, against Bangladesh, bringing up the mark with the winning runs. He became only the third Indian batsman to score two ODI centuries before their 22nd birthday, after Tendulkar and Suresh Raina. Kohli was much praised for his performances during the series in particular by the Indian captain Dhoni. Although Kohli made only two runs in the final against Sri Lanka in a four-wicket Indian defeat, he finished as the leading run-getter of the series with 275 runs from five innings at an average of 91.66. In the three-match ODI series at home against South Africa in February, Kohli batted in two games and had scores of 31 and 57.
Rise through the ranks
Raina was named captain and Kohli vice-captain for the tri-series against Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe in Zimbabwe in May–June 2010, as many first-choice players skipped the tour. Kohli made 168 runs at an average of 42.00 including two fifties, but India suffered three defeats in four matches and crashed out of the series. During the series, Kohli became the fastest Indian batsman to reach 1,000 runs in ODI cricket. He made his T20I debut against Zimbabwe at Harare and scored an unbeaten 26. Later that month, Kohli batted at 3 in an Indian team throughout the 2010 Asia Cup and scored a total of 67 runs at an average of 16.75. His struggles with form continued in the tri-series against Sri Lanka and New Zealand in Sri Lanka where he averaged 15.
Despite the poor run of form, Kohli was retained in the ODI squad for a three-match series against Australia in October, and in the only completed match of the series at Visakhapatnam, scored his third ODI century–118 off 121 balls–which helped India reach the target of 290 after losing the openers early. Winning the man of the match, he admitted that he was under pressure to keep his place in the team after failures in the two previous series. During the home ODI series against New Zealand, Kohli scored a match-winning 104-ball 105, his fourth ODI hundred and second in succession, in the first game, and followed it up with 64 and 63* in the next two matches. India completed a 5–0 whitewash of New Zealand, while Kohli's performance in the series helped him become a regular in the ODI team and made him a strong contender for a spot in India's World Cup squad. He was India's leading run-scorer in ODIs in 2010, with 995 runs from 25 matches at an average of 47.38 including three centuries and seven fifties.
Kohli was India's leading run-getter in the five-match ODI series of the South African tour in January 2011, with 193 runs at an average of 48.25 including two fifties, both in Indian defeats. During the series, he jumped to number two spot on the ICC Rankings for Men's ODI batters, and was named in India's 15-man squad for the World Cup.
Kohli played in every match of India's successful World Cup campaign. He scored an unbeaten 100, his fifth ODI century, in the first match against Bangladesh and became the first Indian batsman to score a century on World Cup debut. In the next four group matches he had low scores of 8, 34, 12 and 1 against England, Ireland, Netherlands and South Africa respectively. Having returned to form with 59 against the West Indies, he scored only 24 and 9 in the quarter-final against Australia and semi-final against Pakistan respectively. In the final against Sri Lanka at Mumbai, he scored 35, sharing an 83-run partnership with Gambhir for the third wicket after India had lost both openers within the seventh over chasing 275. This partnership is regarded as "one of the turning points in the match", as India went on to win the match by six wickets and lift the World Cup for the first time since 1983.
Consistent performance in limited overs
When India toured the West Indies in June–July 2011, they selected a largely inexperienced squad, resting Tendulkar and others such as- Gambhir and Sehwag missing out due to injuries. Kohli was one of three uncapped players in the Test squad. He found success in the ODI series which India won 3–2, with a total of 199 runs at an average of 39.80. His best efforts came in the second ODI at Port of Spain where he won the man of the match for his score of 81 which gave India a seven-wicket victory, and the fifth ODI at Kingston where his innings of 94 came in a seven-wicket defeat. Kohli made his Test debut at Kingston in the first match of the Test series that followed. He batted at 5 and was dismissed for 4 and 15 caught behind off the bowling of Fidel Edwards in both innings. India went on to win the Test series 1–0 but Kohli amassed just 76 runs from five innings, struggling against the short ball and was particularly troubled by the fast bowling of Edwards, who dismissed him three times in the series.
Initially dropped from the Test squad for India's four-match series in England in July and August due to poor performance in his debut series, Kohli was recalled as a replacement for the injured Yuvraj, though he did not got to play in any match in the series. He found moderate success in the subsequent ODI series in which he averaged 38.80. His score of 55 in the first ODI at Chester-le-Street was followed by a string of low scores in the next three matches. In the last game of the series, Kohli scored his sixth ODI hundred–107 runs off 93 balls–and shared a 170-run third-wicket partnership with Rahul Dravid, who was playing his last ODI, to help India post their first 300-plus total of the tour. Kohli was dismissed hit wicket in that innings which was the only century in the series by any player on either team and earned him praise for his "hard work" and "maturity". However, England won the match by D/L method and the series 3–0.
In October 2011, Kohli was the leading run-scorer of the five-match home ODI series against England which India won 5–0. He scored a total of 270 runs across five matches at an average of 90, including unbeaten knocks of 112 from 98 balls at Delhi, where he put on an unbroken 209-run partnership with Gambhir, and 86 at Mumbai, both in successful run-chases. Owing to his ODI success, Kohli was included in the Test squad to face the West Indies in November. He was selected in the final match of the series in which he scored a pair of fifties in the match. India won the subsequent ODI series 4–1 in which Kohli managed to accumulate 243 runs at 60.75. During the series, Kohli scored his eighth ODI century and his second at Visakhapatnam, where he made 117 off 123 balls in India's run-chase of 270, a knock which raised his reputation as "an expert of the chase". Kohli ended up as the leading run-getter in ODIs for the year 2011, with 1381 runs from 34 matches at 47.62 including four centuries and eight fifties.
During tour of Australia in December 2011, Kohli failed to go past 25 in the first two Tests, as his defensive technique was exposed. While fielding on the boundary during the second day of the second match, he gestured to the crowd with his middle finger for which he was fined 50% of his match fee by the match referee. He top-scored in each of India's innings in the third Test at Perth, with 44 and 75, even as India got their second consecutive innings defeat. In the fourth and final match at Adelaide, Kohli scored his maiden Test century of 116 runs in the first innings. India suffered a 0–4 whitewash and Kohli, India's top run-scorer in the series, was described as "the lone bright spot in an otherwise nightmare visit for the tourists".
In the first seven matches of the Commonwealth Bank triangular series that India played against hosts Australia and Sri Lanka, Kohli made two fifties–77 at Perth and 66 at Brisbane–both against Sri Lanka. India registered two wins, a tie and four losses in these seven matches. Being set a target of 321 by Sri Lanka, Kohli came to the crease with India's score at 86/2 and went on to score 133 not out from 86 balls to take India to a comfortable win with 13 overs to spare. India earned a bonus point with the win and Kohli was named Man of the Match for his knock. Former Australian cricketer and commentator Dean Jones rated Kohli's innings as "one of the greatest ODI knocks of all time". However, Sri Lanka beat Australia three days later in their last group fixture and knocked India out of the series. With 373 runs at 53.28, Kohli finished as India's highest run-scorer and lone centurion of the series.
Kohli was appointed the vice-captain for the 2012 Asia Cup in Bangladesh on the back of his fine performance in Australia. Kohli was in fine form during the tournament, finishing as the leading run-scorer with 357 runs at an average of 119. He scored 108 in the first match against Sri Lanka in a 50-run Indian victory, while India lost their next match to Bangladesh in which he made 66. In the final group stage match against Pakistan, he scored a personal best 183 off 148 balls, his 11th ODI century. He helped India to chase down 330, their highest successful ODI run-chase at the time. His knock was the highest individual score in Asia Cup history surpassing previous record of 144 by Younis Khan in 2004, the joint-second highest score, with Dhoni, in an ODI run-chase and the highest individual score against Pakistan in ODIs. Kohli was awarded the man of the match in both the matches that India won, but India could not progress to the final of the tournament.
In July–August 2012, Kohli struck two centuries in the five-match ODI tour of Sri Lanka–106 off 113 balls at Hambantota and 128* off 119 balls at Colombo–winning man of the match in both games. India won the series 4–1 and Kohli was named player of the series. In the one-off T20I that followed, he scored a 48-ball 68, his first T20I fifty, and won the player of the series award. Kohli scored his second Test century at Bangalore during New Zealand's tour of India and won man of the match award. India won the two-match series 2–0, and Kohli averaged 106 with one hundred and two fifties from three innings. In the subsequent T20I series, he scored 70 runs off 41 balls, but India lost the match by one run and the series 1–0. He continued to be in good form during the 2012 ICC World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka, with 185 runs, the highest among Indian batsmen, from 5 matches at an average of 46.25. He hit two fifties during the tournament, against Afghanistan and Pakistan, winning man of the match for both innings. He was named in the ICC 'Team of the Tournament'.
Kohli's Test form dipped during the first three matches of England's tour of India, between October 2012 and January 2013, with a top score of 20 and England leading the series 2–1. He scored a patient 103 from 295 balls in the last match. However, the match ended in a draw and England won their first Test series in India in 28 years. Against Pakistan in December 2012, Kohli averaged 18 in the T20Is and 4.33 in the ODIs, being troubled by the fast bowlers, particularly Junaid Khan, who dismissed him on all three occasions in the ODI series. Kohli had a quiet ODI series against England, apart from a match-winning 77* in the third ODI at Ranchi, with a total of 155 runs at an average of 38.75.
Kohli scored his fourth Test century (107) at Chennai in the first match of the home Test series against Australia in February 2013. India completed a 4–0 series sweep, becoming the first team to whitewash Australia in more than four decades. Kohli averaged 56.80 in the series .
In June 2013, Kohli featured in the ICC Champions Trophy in England which India won. He scored a 144 against Sri Lanka in warm-up match. He scored 31, 22 and 22* in India's group matches against South Africa, West Indies and Pakistan respectively, while India qualified for the semi-finals with an undefeated record. In the semi-final against Sri Lanka at Cardiff, he struck 58* in an eight-wicket win for India. The final between India and England at Birmingham was reduced to 20 overs after a rain delay. India batted first and Kohli top-scored with 43 from 34 balls, sharing a sixth-wicket partnership of 47 runs off 33 balls with Ravindra Jadeja and helping India reach 129/7 in 20 overs. India went on to secure a five-run win and their second consecutive ICC ODI tournament victory. He was also named as part of the 'Team of the Tournament' by the ICC.
Setting records
Kohli stood-in as the captain for the first ODI of the triangular series in the West Indies after Dhoni injured himself during the match. India lost the match by one wicket, and Dhoni was subsequently ruled out of the series with Kohli being named the captain for the remaining matches. In his second match as captain, Kohli scored his first century as captain, making 102 off 83 balls against the West Indies at Port of Spain in a bonus point win for India. Many senior players, including Dhoni, were rested for the five-match ODI tour of Zimbabwe in July 2013, with Kohli being appointed captain for an entire series for the first time. In the first game of the series at Harare, he struck 115 runs from 108 balls, helping India chase down the target of 229 and winning the man of the match award. He batted on two more occasions in the series in which he had scores of 14 and 68*. India completed a 5–0 sweep of the series; their first in an away ODI series.
Kohli had a successful time with the bat in the seven-match ODI series against Australia. After top-scoring with 61 in the opening loss at Pune, he struck the fastest century by an Indian in ODIs in the second match at Jaipur. Reaching the milestone in just 52 balls and putting up an unbroken 186-run second-wicket partnership with Rohit Sharma that came in 17.2 overs, Kohli's innings of 100* helped India chase down the target of 360 for the loss of one wicket with more than six overs to spare. This chase was the second-highest successful run-chase in ODI cricket at the time, while Kohli's knock became the fastest century against Australia and the third-fastest in a run-chase. He followed that innings with 68 in the next match at Mohali in another Indian defeat, before the next two matches were washed out by rain. In the sixth ODI at Nagpur, he struck 115 off only 66 balls to help India successfully chase the target of 351 and level the series 2–2 and won the man of the match. He reached the 100-run mark in 61 balls, making it the third-fastest ODI century by an Indian batsman, and also became the fastest batsman in the world to score 17 hundreds in ODI cricket. India clinched the series after winning the last match in which he was run out for a duck. At the conclusion of the series, Kohli moved to the top position in the ICC ODI batsmen rankings for the first time in his career.
Kohli batted twice in the two-match Test series against the West Indies, and had scores of 3 and 57 being dismissed by Shane Shillingford in both innings. This was also the last Test series for Tendulkar and Kohli was expected to take Tendulkar's number 4 batting position after the series. In the first game of the three-match ODI series that followed at Kochi, Kohli made 86 to seal a six-wicket win and won the man of the match. During the match, he also equalled Viv Richards' record of becoming the fastest batsman to make 5,000 runs in ODI cricket, reaching the landmark in his 114th innings. He missed out on his third century at Visakhapatnam in the next match, after being dismissed for 99 playing a hook shot off Ravi Rampaul. India lost the match by two wickets, but took the series 2–1 after winning the last match at Kanpur. With 204 runs at 68.00, Kohli finished the series as the leading run-getter and was awarded the man of the series.
Overseas season
India toured South Africa in December 2013 for three ODIs and two Tests. Kohli averaged 15.50 in the ODIs, including a duck. In the first Test at Johannesburg, playing his first Test in South Africa and batting at 4 for the first time, Kohli scored 119 and 96. His hundred was the first by a subcontinent batsman at the venue since 1998. The match ended in a draw, and Kohli was awarded man of the match. India failed to win a single match on the tour, losing the second Test by 10 wickets in which he made 46 and 11.
During New Zealand tour, he averaged 58.21 in the five-match ODI series in which his all efforts went in vain as India were defeated 4–0. He made 214 runs at 71.33 in the two-match Test series that followed including an unbeaten 105 on the last day of the second Test at Wellington that helped India save the match.
India then traveled to Bangladesh for the Asia Cup and World Twenty20. Dhoni was ruled out of the Asia Cup after suffering a side strain during the New Zealand tour, which led to Kohli being named the captain for the tournament. Kohli scored 136 off 122 balls in India's opening match against Bangladesh, sharing a 213-run third-wicket stand with Ajinkya Rahane, which helped India successfully chase 280. It was his 19th ODI century and his fifth in Bangladesh, making him the batsman with most ODI centuries in Bangladesh. India were knocked out of the tournament after narrow losses against Sri Lanka and Pakistan, in which Kohli scored 48 and 5 respectively.
Dhoni returned from injury to captain the team for 2014 ICC World Twenty20 and Kohli was named vice-captain. In India's opening match of the tournament against Pakistan, Kohli top-scored with 36 not out to guide India to a seven-wicket win. He scored 54 off 41 balls in the next game against West Indies and an unbeaten 57 from 50 balls against Bangladesh, both in successful run-chases. In the semi-final, he made an unbeaten 72 in 44 deliveries to help India achieve the target of 173. He won the man of the match for this knock. India posted 130/4 in the final against Sri Lanka, in which Kohli scored 77 from 58 balls, and eventually lost the match by six wickets. Kohli made a total of 319 runs in the tournament at an average of 106.33, a record for most runs by an individual batsman in a single World Twenty20 tournament, for which he won the Man of the Tournament award.
India conceded a 3–1 defeat in the five-match Test series against England. Kohli fared poorly in the series averaging just 13.40 in 10 innings scoring 134 runs overall with a top score of 39. It was a nightmare tour for him as he was dismissed for single-digit scores on six occasions in the series and was particularly susceptible to the swinging ball on off stump line, being dismissed several times edging the ball to the wicket-keeper or slip fielders. Man of the series James Anderson got Kohli's wicket four times, while Kohli's batting technique was questioned by analysts and former cricketers. India won the ODI series that followed 3–1, but Kohli's struggles with the bat continued with an average of 18 in four innings. In the one-off T20I, he scored 41-ball 66, his first fifty-plus score of the tour. India lost the match by three runs, but Kohli reached the number one spot for T20I batsmen in the ICC rankings.
Kohli had a successful time during India's home ODI series win over the West Indies in October 2014. His 62 in the second ODI at Delhi was his first fifty across Tests and ODIs in 16 innings since February, and he stated that he got his "confidence back" with the innings. He struck his 20th ODI hundred–127 runs in 114 balls–in the fourth match at Dharamsala. India registered a 59-run victory and Kohli was awarded man of the match. Dhoni was rested for the five-match ODI series against Sri Lanka in November, enabling Kohli to lead the team for another full series. Kohli batted at 4 throughout the series and made scores of 22, 49, 53 and 66 in the first four ODIs, with India leading the series 4–0. In the fifth ODI at Ranchi, he made an unbeaten 139 off 126 balls to give his team a three-wicket win and a whitewash of Sri Lanka. Kohli was awarded player of the series, and it was the second whitewash under his captaincy. During the series he became the fastest batter in the world to go past the 6000-run mark in ODIs. With 1054 ODI runs at 58.55 in 2014, he became the second player in the world after Sourav Ganguly to make more than 1,000 runs in ODIs for four consecutive calendar years.
Test captaincy
For the first Test of the Australian tour in December 2014, Dhoni was not part of the Indian team at Adelaide due to an injury, and Kohli took the reins as Test captain for the first time. Kohli scored 115 in India's first innings, becoming the fourth Indian to score a hundred on Test captaincy debut. In their second innings, India were set a target of 364 to be scored on the fifth day. Kohli put on 185 runs for the third wicket with Murali Vijay before Vijay's dismissal, which triggered a batting collapse. From 242/2, India was bowled out for 315 with Kohli's 141 off 175 balls being the top score.
Dhoni returned to the team as captain for the second match at Brisbane where Kohli scored 19 and 1 in a four-wicket defeat for India. In the Melbourne Boxing Day Test, he made his personal best Test score of 169 in the first innings while sharing a 262-run partnership with Rahane, India's biggest partnership outside Asia in ten years. Kohli followed it with a score of 54 in India's second innings on the fifth day, helping his team draw the Test match. Dhoni announced his retirement from Test cricket at the conclusion of this match, and Kohli was appointed as the full-time Test captain ahead of the fourth Test at Sydney. Captaining the Test team for the second time, Kohli hit 147 in the first innings of the match and became the first batsman in Test cricket history to score three hundreds in his first three innings as Test captain. He was dismissed for 46 in the second innings and the match ended in a draw. Kohli's total of 692 runs in four Tests was the most by any Indian batsman in a Test series in Australia.
In January 2015, India failed to win a single match in the tri-nation ODI series against the hosts Australia and England. Kohli was unable to replicate his Test success in ODIs, failing to make a two-digit score in any of the four games. Kohli's ODI form did not improve in the lead-up to the World Cup, with scores of 18 and 5 in the warm-up matches against Australia and Afghanistan respectively.
In the first match of the World Cup against Pakistan at Adelaide, Kohli hit 107 in 126 balls. For his knock, he was awarded the man of the match award. Kohli also became first Indian batsman to score a century against Pakistan in a World Cup match. He was dismissed for 46 in India's second match against South Africa. India went on to register a 130-run victory in the match. India batted second in their remaining four group matches in which Kohli scored 33*, 33, 44* and 38 against UAE, West Indies, Ireland and Zimbabwe respectively. India went on to secure wins in these four fixtures and top the Pool B points with an undefeated record. In India's 109-run victory in the quarter-final over Bangladesh, Kohli was dismissed by Rubel Hossain for 3, edging the ball to the wicket-keeper. India was eliminated in the semi-final by Australia at Melbourne, where Kohli was dismissed for 1 off 13 balls, top-edging a short-pitched delivery from Mitchell Johnson.
Kohli had a slump in form when India toured Bangladesh in June 2015. He contributed only 14 in the one-off Test which ended in a draw and averaged 16.33 in the ODI series which Bangladesh won 2–1. Kohli ended his streak of low scores by scoring his 11th Test hundred in the first Test of the Sri Lankan tour which India lost. India won the next two matches to seal the series 2–1, Kohli's first series win as Test captain and India's first away Test series win in four years.
During South Africa's tour of India, Kohli became the fastest batsman in the world to make 1,000 runs in T20I cricket, reaching the milestone in his 27th innings. In the ODI series, he made a century in the fourth ODI at Chennai that helped India draw level in the series. India lost the series after a defeat in the final ODI and Kohli finished the series with an average of 49. India came back to beat the top-ranked South African team 3–0 in the four-match Test series under Kohli's captaincy, and climbed to number two position on the ICC Test rankings. Virat scored a total of 200 runs in the series at 33.33.
No. 1 Test team and limited-overs captaincy
Kohli started 2016 with scores of 91 and 59 in the first two ODIs of the limited-overs tour of Australia. He followed it up with a pair of hundreds–a run-a-ball 117 at Melbourne and 106 from 92 balls at Canberra. During the course of the series, he became the fastest batsman in the world to cross the 7000-run mark in ODIs, getting to the milestone in his 161st innings, and the fastest to get to 25 centuries. After the ODI series ended in a 1–4 loss, the Indian team came back to whitewash the Australians 3–0 in the T20I series. Kohli made fifties in all three T20Is with scores of 90*, 59* and 50, winning two man of the matches as well as the man of the series award. He was also instrumental in India winning the Asia Cup in Bangladesh the following month in which he scored 49 in a run-chase of 84 against Pakistan, followed by an unbeaten 56 against Sri Lanka and 41 not out in the Final against Bangladesh.
Kohli maintained his form in the 2016 ICC World Twenty20 in India, scoring 55* in another successful run-chase against Pakistan. He struck an unbeaten 82 from 51 balls in India's must-win group match against Australia in "an innings of sheer class" with "clean cricket shots". It helped India win by six wickets and register a spot in the semi-final; Kohli went on to rate the innings as his best in the format. In the semi-final, Kohli top-scored with an unbeaten 89 from 47 deliveries, but West Indies overhauled India's total of 192 and ended India's campaign. His total of 273 runs in five matches at an average of 136.50 earned him his second consecutive Man of the Tournament award at the World Twenty20. He was named as captain of the 'Team of the Tournament' for the 2016 World Twenty20 by the ICC.
Playing his first Test in the West Indies since his debut series, Kohli scored 200 in the first Test at Antigua to ensure an innings-and-92-run win for India, their biggest win ever outside of Asia. It was his first double hundred in first-class cricket and the first made away from home by an Indian captain in Tests. India went on to wrap the series 2–0 and briefly top the ICC Test Rankings before being displaced by Pakistan at the position. He scored another double hundred–211 at Indore in the third Test against New Zealand–as India's 3–0 whitewash victory saw them regain the top position in the ICC Test Rankings. In the subsequent ODI series, Kohli set up two wins for India batting second with unbeaten knocks of 85 and 154. He then made 65 in the series-deciding fifth game at Visakhapatnam which India won.
Kohli got double centuries in the next two Test series against England and Bangladesh, making him the first batsman ever to score double centuries in four consecutive series. He broke the record of Australian great Donald Bradman and Rahul Dravid, both of whom had managed to get three. Against England, he got his then-highest Test score of 235.
10,000 runs in ODIs before age of 30
He followed it up with ODI centuries against the West Indies and Sri Lanka in consecutive series, equalling Ricky Ponting's tally of 30 ODI centuries. In October 2017, he was adjudged the ODI player of the series against New Zealand for scoring two ODI centuries, during the course of which he made a new record for the most runs (8,888), best average (55.55) and highest number of centuries (31) for any batsman when completing 200 ODIs. Kohli made several more records during the 3 match Test series against Sri Lanka at home in November. After scoring a century and a double century in the first two Tests, he ended up scoring yet another double century in the third Test, during which he became the eleventh Indian batsman to surpass 5000 runs in Test cricket while scoring his 20th Test century and 6th double century. During this match he also became the first batsman to score six double hundreds as a captain. With 610 runs in the series, Kohli also became the highest run-scorer by an Indian in a three-match Test series and the fourth-highest overall. India comfortably won the three-match series 1–0 and Kohli was adjudged man of the match for the second and third Test matches and player of the series. With this win, India equaled Australia for the record streak of nine consecutive series wins in Test cricket. He ended the year with 2818 international runs, which is recorded as the third-highest tally ever in a calendar year and the highest tally ever by an Indian player. The ICC named Kohli as captain of both their World Test XI and ODI XI for 2017.
Overseas season-including Windies at home
Kohli had a fared average in the Test matches as India lost 1–2 during the South Africa tour in 2018, but came back strongly to score 558 runs in the 6 ODIs, making a record for the highest runs scored in a bilateral ODI series. This included three centuries, remaining unbeaten in two with a best of 160*. India won the ODI series 5–1, Kohli becoming the first Indian captain to win an ODI series in South Africa.
In March 2018, Kohli played county cricket in England in June, in order to improve his batting before the start of India's tour to England the following month. He signed to play for Surrey, but a neck injury ruled him out of his stint in England before it even began. On 2 August, Kohli scored his first Test century on English soil in the first test match of the series against England. On 5 August, Kohli displaced Steve Smith to become the No. 1 ranked Test batsman in the ICC Test rankings. He also became the seventh Indian batsman and first since Sachin Tendulkar in June 2011 to achieve this feat. In the third test at Trent Bridge, Nottingham, Kohli scored 97 and 103, and helped India win by 203 runs. At the end of 5-match test series, Kohli scored 593 runs, which was third highest runs by an Indian batsman in a losing test series. Kohli's consistent performance in the series against the moving ball when other batsman failed to perform was hailed by British Media as one of his finest. The Guardian describes Kohli's batting display as One of the Greatest batting display in a losing cause.
During ODI series against West Indies in 2018, Kohli became the 12th batsman and fastest player to score 10,000 ODI runs. He surpassed the milestone with 205 innings which is 54 innings less than the next quickest to the landmark, Sachin Tendulkar. In the course he scored his 37th ODI century. On 27 October, after scoring his 38th ODI century, Kohli became the first batsman for India, first captain and tenth overall, to score three successive centuries in ODIs. He ended up scoring 453 runs in 5 innings, at an average of 151.00, in the 5-match series and was the Player of the Series.
On 16 December 2018 in the 2018-2019 Border Gavaskar Trophy, Kohli scored his 25th test hundred in Perth. His knock of 123 was his 6th hundred in three tours to Australia making him the only Indian to score 6 test hundreds in Australia after Sachin Tendulkar. He also became the fastest Indian and second fastest overall (125 innings) to score 25 test hundreds, second only to Donald Bradman (68 innings) which was bettered by Steven Smith during 2019 Ashes (119 innings). Kohli's knock was rated by several analysts and former cricketers as one of his finest against a quality Australian attack.
Although he broke several records in the game, his innings proved to insufficient as India went down by 146 runs as Australia levelled the series with two tests remaining. Overall, he finished the series with 282 runs at an average of 40. By winning the test series in Australia, he had become the first Indian and also the first Asian skipper to win a test series in Australia. He was again named as captain of both the World Test XI and ODI XI for 2018 by the ICC.
Captaining India in ICC events
2017 ICC Champions Trophy
Virat Kohli got the chance to captain in an ICC tournament for the first time in the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy. In the semi-final against Bangladesh, Kohli scored 96*, thus becoming the fastest batsman, in terms of innings, to reach 8,000 runs in ODIs in 175 innings. India reached the final, but lost to Pakistan by 180 runs. In the third over of Indian innings, Virat Kohli was dropped in the slips for just five runs but caught the next ball by Shadab Khan at point on the bowling of Mohammad Amir. He was also named as part of the 'Team of the Tournament' at the 2017 Champions Trophy by the ICC.
2019 Cricket World Cup
In April 2019, he was named the captain of India's squad for the 2019 Cricket World Cup. On 16 June 2019, in India's match against Pakistan, Kohli became the fastest batsman, in terms of innings, to score 11,000 runs in ODI cricket. He reached the landmark in his 222nd innings. Eleven days later, in the match against the West Indies, Kohli became the fastest cricketer, in terms of innings, to score 20,000 runs in international cricket, doing so in his 417th innings. Kohli scored five consecutive fifty plus score in the tournament. India lost the semi-final against New Zealand, in which Kohli was out for just a run.
2021 ICC World Test Championship Final
In June 2021, India lost the 2021 ICC World Test Championship Final to New Zealand. This was Kohli's third defeat as captain in knockouts and finals of ICC tournaments. Virat Kohli scored 44 and 13 runs in the 1st and 2nd innings respectively.
2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup
In September 2021, Kohli was named as the captain of India's squad for the 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup. India could not make it through the semi-finals, which was the first time in the past 9 years.
Home season
In October 2019, Kohli captained India for the 50th time in Test cricket, in the second Test against South Africa. In the first innings of the match, Kohli scored an unbeaten 254 runs, passing 7,000 runs in Tests in the process, and became the first batsman for India to score seven double centuries in Test cricket. In November 2019, during the day/night Test match against Bangladesh, Kohli became the fastest captain to score 5,000 runs in Test cricket, doing so in his 86th innings. In the same match, he also scored his 70th century in international cricket.
Poor form across formats
Disastrous tour of New Zealand
India toured to New Zealand from January to March 2020 to play 5-match T20 series along with a 3 and 2-match ODI and test series respectively. During the tour, Kohli badly struggled against the moving ball on tricky New Zealand pitches throughout the tour making the tour as his worst ever after the England tour in 2014. During the entire tour he only managed 218 across formats in 12 innings at an average of 19.81 with one half-century during first ODI. This was his lowest aggregate of runs in a tour where he played in all formats. India managed to win the T20I series 5–0. However Kohli-led side was badly hammered during the ODI and Test leg of the tour losing 3-0 and 2-0 respectively. This was also India's first whitewash under Kohli's captaincy.
India's tour of Australia and home series versus England
India travelled to Australia during November 2020 till January 2021 for a long tour. During the ODI Series, Kohli managed to score two half-centuries in three innings with a aggregate of 173 runs at an average of 57.67 despite this India lost the series 2–1. Also in November, Kohli played in his 250th ODI match, in the second match against Australia.
However, India bounced backed strongly and clinch the T20I series 2–1 with Kohli being the highest run scorer in the series for India (134 runs at 44.37). During the first test of the tour played as Day/night match at Adelaide, Kohli scored a fluent 74 before being run out. However he only managed 4 runs in next innings where India scrambled to 36/9, their lowest ever score in Test cricket history. After the 1st Test, Kohli left the tour on paternity leave as he was expecting the birth of his first child. He received mixed responses for his decision. Indian batting great Sunil Gavaskar along with Kapil Dev slammed Kohli for leaving the tour after the Indian team lost the 1st Test in Adelaide. Gavaskar slammed the double standard of BCCI for Kohli getting the paternity leave while T. Natarajan wasn't allowed for the same. Despite his absence India managed to clinch the test series 2–1 under the able leadership of stand-in captain Ajinkya Rahane. The Daily Telegraph described India's recovery as one of the great comebacks in cricket history.
In November 2020, Kohli was nominated for the Sir Garfield Sobers Award for ICC Male Cricketer of the Decade, as well as Test, ODI and T20I player of the decade and won two(Male cricketer of the decade and ODI cricketer of the decade).
The England tour of India begin with a long 4-match Test series. Kohli struggled to find his form through the series as he managed 172 runs across 4 Test matches at an average of 28.66 with 2 half-centuries and 2 ducks. This was also the first time Kohli got out for two ducks in a Test series after his disastrous tour of England in 2014. However, during the second test at Chepauk, Kohli scored a crucial 62 on a minefield of a pitch which English batting great Geoffrey Boycott described as a template to bat and score runs on a turning pitch.
Kohli got out for a duck again in the 1st T20I of a 5-match series. However, he found his form in the latter part of the series and ended the series as the highest run-scorer from both sides with 231 runs to his name and 3 half-centuries at an average of 115.50 as India clinched the series 3–2. Kohli was adjudged as the Man of the Series for his performances. During the second T20I, Kohli became the first ever batsman to complete 3,000 runs in the format.
In the 3-match ODI series, Kohli managed to score 129 runs in 3 innings with 2 half-centuries at a moderate average of 43.00 as India won the series 2–1. During the 2nd ODI, Kohli became the second batsman after Ricky Ponting to score 10,000 runs batting at number 3.
Tour of England and South Africa
Indian cricket team toured England in 2021 for a 5-match test series. During the 1st innings of the first test, Kohli got dismissed for a golden duck by James Anderson. Kohli managed to score 2 fifties in the next 6 innings he played. He has scored a total of 218 runs in the first four matches of the series, with an average of 31.14. The fifth test of the series is yet to played.
Indian cricket team toured South Africa in late 2021 and early 2022 for a 3-match test series and a 3-match ODI series. Kohli managed to score 161 runs in the 4 innings of test series he played, averaging at 40.25. He could not play 2nd test of the series due to an injury. India lost the series by 2-1, despite winning the first test.
In the ODI series, Kohli scored 116 runs in 3 innings, including two fifties, with an average of 38.66. South Africa won all three matches, thus whitewashing India.
Retirement from captaincy across all formats
In September 2021, Kohli announced that he would step down as India's T20I captain following the 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup .
In December 2021, Kohli was replaced by Rohit Sharma as India's ODI captain. BCCI President Sourav Ganguly later explained the decision to drop Kohli as ODI captain by saying that the selectors did not feel right to have two white ball captains. Later Ganguly said that BCCI had told Virat to not step down as T20I captain. Virat Kohli, during a press conference, contradicted the BCCI President and said that his decision of stepping down as captain was "received well" and termed as "progressive" by the BCCI officials. He also claimed that chief selector Chetan Sharma informed him 90-minutes before the announcement of the Test squad for India's tour of South Africa, about the removal from ODI captaincy. More than a week later, during the announcement of squad for ODI series versus South Africa, Chetan Sharma contradicted Kohli by saying that officials had asked Virat to reconsider his decision of stepping down as T20I captain.
On 15 January 2022, Kohli stepped down as India's Test captain, following the 2–1 test series defeat against South Africa during the India's Tour of South Africa.
Indian Premier League
Kohli was bought by the Indian Premier League franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore for $30,000 on a youth contract. He was the captain of Royal challengers Bangalore for 8 seasons but could not win a trophy.
Kohli had an poor 2008 season, with a total of 165 runs in 12 innings at an average of 15.00 and a strike rate of 105.09. He did slightly better in the second season in which he made a total of 246 runs at 22.36, striking at over 112, while his team made it as far as the final. In the 2010 season, Kohli was the third highest run-getter for his team with 307 runs, averaging 27.90 and improving his strike rate to 144.81.
Kohli was the second-highest run-getter of the season, only behind teammate Chris Gayle, and his team finished as runners-up. Kohli scored total 557 runs at an average of 46.41 and at the strike rate of over 121 including four fifties. In the 2012 IPL, he averaged 28 and scored 364 runs.
During 2013 season, Kohli averaged 45.28 and hit a total of 634 runs at a strike rate of over 138 including six fifties and a top-score of 99 and finished as the season's third-highest run-scorer.
Bangalore finished seventh in the next season in which Kohli made 359 runs at 27.61. He found success with the bat in the 2015 IPL in which he led his team to the playoffs. He finished fifth on the season's leading run-getters list with 505 runs at an average of 45.90 and a strike rate of more than 130.
At the 2016 IPL, the Royal Challengers finished runners-up and Kohli broke the record for most runs in an IPL season (of 733 runs) by scoring 973 runs in 16 matches at an average of 81.08, winning the Orange Cap as well as Most-valuable Player Award of Vivo IPL 2016. He scored four centuries in the tournament, having never scored one in the Twenty20 format before the start of the season, and also became the first player to reach the 4000-run milestone in the IPL. At the launch event of his biography, 'Driven: The Virat Kohli Story' in New Delhi, in October 2016, Kohli announced that RCB would be the IPL franchise that he would permanently play for.
Kohli missed the start of the 2017 season due to a shoulder injury. Moreover, RCB finished the tournament at the bottom of the table, with Kohli scoring the most runs for his team, with 308 from 10 matches. On the occasion of the 10 year anniversary of IPL, he was also named in the all-time Cricinfo IPL XI.
In the 2018 season, Kohli was retained by RCB for a price of , the highest for any player that year. Kohli scored 530 runs in the season and became the first batsman to score more than 500 runs in 5 different seasons. Moreover, RCB failed to qualify for Playoffs and finished sixth on the points table.
On 28 March 2019, Kohli became the second player to reach 5000 IPL runs after Suresh Raina. In the same season, Kohli surpassed Raina to become leading runs scorer in IPL when he scored 84 runs in a match against KKR.
On 22 April 2021, against Rajasthan Royals, Kohli became the first ever player to reach 6000 IPL Runs. On 20 September, Royal Challengers Bangalore announced that Kohli would step down as captain following the 2021 IPL season.
Player profile
Playing style
Kohli is a naturally aggressive batsman with strong technical skills. He usually bats at the no.3 position in ODI cricket. He bats with a slightly open-chested stance and a strong bottom-hand grip. He is not a big hitter and plays more grounded shots. He is known for his wide range of shots, ability to pace an innings and batting under pressure. He is strong through the mid-wicket and cover region. He has said that the cover drive is his favourite shot, while also saying that the flick shot comes naturally to him. He does not play the sweep shot often, being called "not a natural sweeper of the cricket ball". Kohli is strong on leg stump line bowling. If bowled at leg stump he plays flick shot.
According to cricket pundit VVS Laxman, for Virat Kohli, balling line outside the off stump is his weakness. He got out many times by outside off stump line ball and opposition team's bowlers tries to exploit his weakness in Test as well as ODIs. Out swinging balls his one of the weakness as per Richard Hadlee.
His teammates have praised his confidence, commitment, focus and work ethics. Kohli is also known to be a "sharp" fielder.
Kohli is regarded as the best limited-overs batsman in the world, especially while chasing. In ODIs, he averages around 69 in matches batting second as opposed to around 51 batting first. 26 of his 43 ODI hundreds have come in run-chases and he holds the record for most hundreds batting second.
Aggression
Kohli is noted for his on-field aggression and was described in the media as "brash" and "arrogant" during his early career. He has got into confrontations with players and umpires on several occasions. While many former cricketers have backed his aggressive attitude, some have criticised it. In 2012, Kohli had stated that he tries to limit his aggressive behaviour but "the build-up and the pressure or the special occasions make it tough to control the aggression."
Comparisons to Sachin Tendulkar
Kohli is often compared to Sachin Tendulkar, due to their similar styles of batting, and sometimes referred to as Tendulkar's "successor". Many former cricketers expect Kohli to break Tendulkar's batting records. He is ranked as one of the world's most famous athletes by ESPN Kohli has stated that growing up his idol and role model was Tendulkar and that as a kid he "tried to copy the shots [Tendulkar] played and hit sixes the way he used to hit them." Former West Indies great Vivian Richards, who is regarded as the most destructive batsman in cricket, stated that Kohli reminds him of himself. In early 2015, Richards said Kohli was "already legendary" in the ODI format, while former Australian cricketer Dean Jones called Kohli the "new king of world cricket". Aakash Chopra, an Indian commentator, stated that "Sachin had more shots as compared to Virat".
Career summary
, Kohli has made 70 centuries and 7 double centuries in international cricket—27 centuries, 7 double centuries in Test cricket and 43 centuries in One Day Internationals (ODIs).
Test match performance
ODI match performance
T20I match performance
Records
Virat Kohli is leading run scorer in T20I with most 50 plus scores. He is the only cricketer to have been awarded player of the tournament twice in T20 World Cup. He scored 319 runs with 4 fifties in T20 World Cup 2014 and was leading run scorer in the tournament.
He has 2nd most centuries in ODI(43) and only behind Tendulkar who has 49 centuries. He has 3rd most centuries(70) in international cricket and only behind Tendulkar(100) and Ponting(71). He is the fastest player to score 10,000 runs in ODI in terms of innings and took 54 less innings than previous record of 259 innings. In 2018, He scored 1000 ODI runs in just 11 innings which is the least number of innings taken to score 1000 runs in a calendar year.
Awards
National honours
2013 - Arjuna Award
2017 - Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian award.
2018 - Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award, India's highest sporting honour.
Sporting honours
Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy (ICC Men's Cricketer of the Decade): 2011–2020
Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy (ICC Cricketer of the Year): 2017, 2018
ICC ODI Player of the Year: 2012, 2017, 2018
ICC Test Player of the Year: 2018
ICC ODI Team of the Year: 2012, 2014, 2016 (captain), 2017 (captain), 2018 (captain), 2019 (captain)
ICC Test Team of the Year: 2017 (captain), 2018 (captain), 2019 (captain)
ICC Spirit of Cricket: 2019
ICC Men's ODI Cricketer of the Decade: 2011–2020
ICC Men's Test Team of the Decade: 2011–2020 (captain)
ICC Men's ODI Team of the Decade: 2011–2020
ICC Men's T20I Team of the Decade: 2011–2020
Polly Umrigar Award for International Cricketer of the Year: 2011–12, 2014–15, 2015–16, 2016–17, 2017–18
Wisden Leading Cricketer in the World: 2016, 2017, 2018
CEAT International Cricketer of the Year: 2011–12, 2013–14, 2018–19
Barmy Army - International Player of Year: 2017, 2018
Other honours and awards
People's Choice Awards India For Favourite Sportsperson: 2012
CNN-News18 Indian of the Year: 2017
Delhi & District Cricket Association (DDCA) renamed a stand after Kohli at Arun Jaitley stadium, Delhi.
Outside cricket
Personal life
Kohli started dating Bollywood actress Anushka Sharma in 2013; the couple soon earned the celebrity couple nickname "Virushka". Their relationship attracted substantial media attention, with persistent rumours and speculations in the media, as neither of the two publicly talked about it. The couple married on 11 December 2017 in a private ceremony in Florence, Italy. On 11 January 2021, they became parents to a baby girl, Vamika.
In 2018, Kohli revealed that he completely stopped consuming meat to cut down his uric acid levels which caused him a cervical spine issue and started affecting his finger and, in turn, his batting. In 2021, he clarified that he is a vegetarian and not a vegan.
Kohli has admitted that he is superstitious. He used to wear black wristbands as a cricket superstition; earlier, he used to wear the same pair of gloves with which he had "been scoring". Apart from a religious black thread, he has also been wearing a kara on his right arm since 2012.
Commercial investments
According to Kohli, football is his second favourite sport. In 2014, Kohli became a co-owner of Indian Super League club FC Goa. He stated that he invested in the club with the "keenness of football" and because he "wanted football to grow in India". He added, "It's a business venture for me for the future. Cricket's not going to last forever and I'm keeping all my options open after retirement."
In September 2015, Kohli became a co-owner of the International Premier Tennis League franchise UAE Royals, and, in December that year, became a co-owner of the JSW-owned Bengaluru Yodhas franchise in Pro Wrestling League.
In November 2014, Kohli and Anjana Reddy's Universal Sportsbiz (USPL) launched a youth fashion brand WROGN. The brand started to produce men's casual wear clothing in 2015 and has tied up with Myntra and Shopper's Stop. In late 2014, Kohli was announced as a shareholder and brand ambassador of the social networking venture 'Sport Convo' based in London.
In 2015, Kohli invested to start a chain of gyms and fitness centres across the country. Launched under the name Chisel, the chain of gyms is jointly owned by Kohli, Chisel India and CSE (Cornerstone Sport and Entertainment), the agency which manages Kohli's commercial interests. In 2016, Kohli started Stepathlon Kids, a children fitness venture, in partnership with Stepathlon Lifestyle.
Charity
In March 2013, Kohli started a charity foundation called Virat Kohli Foundation (VKF). The organisation aims at helping underprivileged kids and conducts events to raise funds for the charity. According to Kohli, the foundation works with select NGOs to "create awareness, seek support and raise funds for the various causes they endorse and the philanthropic work they engage in." In May 2014, eBay and Save the Children India conducted a charity auction with VKF, with its proceeds benefiting the education and healthcare of underprivileged children.
Kohli has captained the All Heart Football Club, owned by VKF, in charity football matches against All Stars Football Club, owned by Abhishek Bachchan's Playing for Humanity. The matches, known as "Celebrity Clasico", feature cricketers playing for All Heart and Bollywood actors in the All Stars team, and are organized to generate funds for the two charity foundations.
Social media fan following
Kohli is very active on social media and has a huge fan following on the platform. He is the only cricketer, and fifth sports personality, to have more than 150 million followers on Instagram.
In popular culture
Kohli was featured in episodes of The Test (documentary) of Amazon prime, about Australian team's journey after ball tampering scandal.
Super V (Super Virat), an Indian animated superhero television series portrays a fictionalized version of Kohli's teen years where he discovers hidden superpowers.
Mega Icons (2018-2020), an Indian documentary television series on National Geographic about prominent Indian personalities, dedicated an episode to Kohli's achievements in cricket.
See also
List of players who have scored 10,000 or more runs in One Day International cricket
List of cricketers by number of international centuries scored
List of cricketers who have scored centuries in both innings of a Test match
Notes
References
Bibliography
External links
1988 births
Living people
Indian cricketers
India Test cricketers
India One Day International cricketers
India Twenty20 International cricketers
Royal Challengers Bangalore cricketers
Delhi cricketers
Cricketers at the 2011 Cricket World Cup
Cricketers at the 2015 Cricket World Cup
Cricketers at the 2019 Cricket World Cup
Cricketers from Delhi
India Test cricket captains
North Zone cricketers
Punjabi people
Indian Hindus
People from Delhi
Recipients of the Padma Shri in sports
International Cricket Council Cricketer of the Year
Wisden Cricketers of the Year
Recipients of the Khel Ratna Award
Recipients of the Arjuna Award | false | [
"Above the Influence originated as a government-based campaign of the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign conducted by the Office of National Drug Control Policy in the United States that included broad messaging to focus on substances most abused by teens, intended to deliver both broad prevention messaging at the national level and more targeted efforts at the local community level.\n\nThe media campaign had two distinct areas of focus: a teen-targeted Above the Influence Campaign, and a young-adult-targeted anti-meth campaign. By law, the purpose of the media campaign was to prevent drug abuse among teens in the United States; increase awareness of adults of the impact of drug abuse on young people; and encourage parents and other interested adults to discuss with young people the dangers of illegal drug use.\n\nThe goal of this campaign was to help teens stand up to negative pressures, and influences. The more aware one becomes about the influences around them, the more prepared they will be to face them, including the pressure to use drugs and alcohol. \n\n\"Above the Influence\" is symbolized by its campaign logo featuring an arrow pointing up with a circle around it.\n\nAs of March 2014, federal funding and oversight of Above the Influence ceased, and it transitioned to become a program of the not-for-profit Partnership for Drug-Free Kids.\n\nStudies\nIn 2006, the Government Accountability Office released the results of a five-year study, concluding that the previous \"My Anti-Drug\" campaign was ineffective, and likely counterproductive, leading those exposed to an increased perception that others use marijuana, stating, \"analysis also indicated that among current, non-drug-using youth, exposure to the campaign had unfavorable effects on their anti-drug norms and perceptions of other youths’ use of marijuana — that is, greater exposure to the campaign was associated with weaker anti-drug norms and increases in the perceptions that others use marijuana.\"\n\nIn 2011, Ohio State University released the results of an independent scientific study stating that the Above the Influence campaign appears to have effectively reduced marijuana use by teenagers.\n\n\"Evidence for the success of Above the Influence is especially heartening because the primary independent evaluation of its predecessor campaign, 'My Anti-Drug', showed no evidence for success\", said Michael Slater, principal investigator of the new study and professor of communication at Ohio State University. \"The 'Above the Influence' campaign appears to be successful because it taps into the desire by teenagers to be independent and self-sufficient\", Slater said. He also mentioned the limitations of the study. These include the fact that findings regarding the ONDCP campaign were based on survey results and not a randomized, experimental design in which some youth saw the ONDCP campaign and others did not. Another limitation was that the study, while taking place in twenty communities around the U.S., did not use a random sample of U.S. youth.\n\nSee also\n TheTruth.com\n Public Service Announcement\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n Above the Influence White House whitepaper \n\nAdvertising campaigns\nHistory of drug control\nDrug policy of the United States\n2005 introductions\n2005 neologisms\nAmerican advertising slogans\nHistory of drug control in the United States",
"Boris Vasilievich Avilov (1874–1938) was a Russian Marxist who left the Bolsheviks as he did no go along with their support for Lenin. He joined Vladimir Bazarov, Gavriil Lindov and others to form the United Social-Democrat Internationalists. They set out to bring together the Menshevik-Internationalists with the more moderate Bolsheviks into a new group. Despite always being very small, the group wielded a certain influence through the editorial line of their widely-read newspaper Novaya zhizn in 1917–18. At the Second All-Russia Congress of Soviets in October 1917 the group remained at the congress although the Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries walked out in protest over the Bolshevik seizure of power.\n\nReferences\n\n1874 births\n1938 deaths"
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"Kohli is a naturally aggressive batsman with strong technical skills.",
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"Kohli is regarded as the best limited-overs batsmen in the world, especially while chasing."
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| C_e1a26ef3a8c64460bdcf951d80b1693b_1 | Why was he regarded as this? | 4 | Why was Virat Kohli regarded as the best limited-overs batmen in the world? | Virat Kohli | Kohli is a naturally aggressive batsman with strong technical skills. He usually bats in the middle-order, but, on many occasions, has opened the innings as well. He bats with a slightly open-chested stance and a strong bottom-hand grip, and is said to have quick footwork. He is known for his wide range of shots, ability to pace an innings and batting under pressure. He is strong through the mid-wicket and cover region. He has said that the cover drive is his favourite shot, while also saying that the flick shot comes naturally to him. He does not play the sweep shot often, being called "not a natural sweeper of the cricket ball". His teammates have praised his confidence, commitment, focus and work ethics. Kohli is also known to be a "sharp" fielder. Kohli is regarded as the best limited-overs batsmen in the world, especially while chasing. In ODIs, he averages more than 67 in matches batting second as opposed to around 47 batting first. 21 of his 35 ODI hundreds have come in run-chases and he holds the record for most hundreds batting second. Regarding his impressive record batting second, Kohli has said "I love the whole situation that comes with chasing. I like the challenge of testing myself, figuring out how to rotate strike, when to hit a boundary." Kohli is often compared to Sachin Tendulkar, due to their similar styles of batting, and sometimes referred to as Tendulkar's "successor". Many former cricketers expect Kohli to break Tendulkar's batting records. Kohli has stated that growing up his idol and role model was Tendulkar and that as a kid he "tried to copy the shots [Tendulkar] played and hit sixes the way he used to hit them." Former West Indies great Vivian Richards, who is regarded as the most destructive batsman in cricket, stated that Kohli reminds him of himself. In early 2015, Richards said Kohli was "already legendary" in the ODI format, while former Australian cricketer Dean Jones called Kohli the "new king of world cricket". Kohli is noted for his on-field aggression and was described in the media as "brash" and "arrogant" during his early career. He has got into confrontations with players and umpires on several occasions. While many former cricketers have backed his aggressive attitude, some have criticised it. In 2012, Kohli had stated that he tries to limit his aggressive behaviour but "the build-up and the pressure or the special occasions make it tough to control the aggression." CANNOTANSWER | he holds the record for most hundreds batting second. | Virat Kohli (; born 5 November 1988) is an Indian international cricketer and former captain of the Indian national team. He plays for Delhi in domestic cricket and Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League as a right-handed batsman. Kohli is often considered one of the best batsmen of his era and some critics believe him to be one of the best limited-overs batsmen in history. Between 2013 and 2022, Kohli captained the India cricket team in more than 200 matches across all three formats.
Kohli made his Test debut in 2011. He reached the number one spot in the ICC rankings for ODI batsmen for the first time in 2013. He has won Man of the Tournament twice at the ICC World Twenty20 (in 2014 and 2016). He also holds the world record of being the fastest to 23,000 international runs.
Kohli has been the recipient of many awards– most notably the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy (ICC Men's Cricketer of the Decade): 2011–2020; Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy (ICC Cricketer of the Year) in 2017 and 2018; ICC Test Player of the Year (2018); ICC ODI Player of the Year (2012, 2017, 2018) and Wisden Leading Cricketer in the World (2016, 2017 and 2018). At the national level, he was awarded the Arjuna Award in 2013, the Padma Shri under the sports category in 2017 and the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award, the highest sporting honour in India, in 2018.
He is ranked as one of the world's most famous athletes by ESPN and one of the most valuable athlete brands by Forbes. In 2018, Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world. In 2020, he was ranked 66th in Forbes list of the top 100 highest-paid athletes in the world for the year 2020 with estimated earnings of over $26 million.
Early life
Virat Kohli was born on 5 November 1988 in Delhi into a Punjabi Hindu family. His father, Prem Kohli, worked as a criminal lawyer and his mother, Saroj Kohli, is a homemaker. He has an older brother, Vikash, and an older sister, Bhavna.
Kohli was raised in Uttam Nagar and started his schooling at Vishal Bharti Public School. In 1998, the West Delhi Cricket Academy was created and a nine-year-old Kohli was part of its first intake. Kohli trained at the academy under Rajkumar Sharma and also played matches at the Sumeet Dogra Academy at Vasundhara Enclave at the same time. In ninth grade, he shifted to Saviour Convent in Paschim Vihar to help his cricket practice. Kohli's family lived in Meera Bagh until 2015 when they moved to Gurugram.
Kohli's father died on 18 December 2006 due to a stroke after being bed-ridden for a month.
Youth and domestic career
Delhi
Kohli first played for Delhi Under-15 team in October 2002 in the 2002–03 Polly Umrigar Trophy. He became the captain of the team for the 2003–04 Polly Umrigar Trophy. In late 2004, he was selected in the Delhi Under-17 team for the 2003–04 Vijay Merchant Trophy. Delhi Under-17s won the 2004–05 Vijay Merchant Trophy in which Kohli finished as the highest run-scorer with 757 runs from 7 matches with two centuries. In February 2006, he made his List A debut for Delhi against Services but did not get to bat.
Kohli made his first-class debut for Delhi against Tamil Nadu in November 2006, at the age of 18, he scored 10 runs in his debut innings. He came into the spotlight in December when he decided to play for his team against Karnataka on the day after his father's death and went on to score 90. He went directly to the funeral after he got out in the match. He scored a total of 257 runs from 6 matches at an average of 36.71 in that season.
India Under-19
In July 2006, Kohli was selected in the India Under-19 squad on its tour of England. He averaged 105 in the three-match ODI series against England Under-19s and 49 in the three-match Test series. India Under-19 went on to win both the series. In September, the India Under-19 team toured Pakistan. Kohli averaged 58 in the Test series and 41.66 in the ODI series against Pakistan Under-19s.
In April 2007, he made his Twenty20 debut and finished as the highest run-getter for his team in the Inter-State T20 Championship with 179 runs at an average of 35.80. In July–August 2007, the India Under-19 team toured Sri Lanka. In the triangular series against Sri Lanka Under-19s and Bangladesh Under-19s, Kohli was the second highest run-getter with 146 runs at an average of 29 from 5 matches. In the two-match Test series that followed, he scored 244 runs at an average of 122 including a century and a fifty.
In February–March 2008, Kohli captained the victorious Indian team at the 2008 Under-19 Cricket World Cup held in Malaysia. Batting at number 3, he scored 235 runs in 6 matches at an average of 47 and finished as the tournament's third-highest run-getter and one of the three batsmen to score a hundred in the tournament. He was helped India in a three-wicket semi-final win over New Zealand Under-19s by taking 2 wickets and scoring 43 runs in the run-chase and was awarded the man of the match.
Indian Premier League
Following the Under-19 World Cup, Kohli was bought by the Indian Premier League franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore for $30,000 on a youth contract. In June 2008, Kohli and his Under-19 teammates Pradeep Sangwan and Tanmay Srivastava were awarded the Border-Gavaskar scholarship. The scholarship allowed the three players to train for six weeks at Cricket Australia's Centre of Excellence in Brisbane. He was also picked in the India Emerging Players squad for the four-team Emerging Players Tournament and scored 206 runs in six matches at an average of 41.20.
International career
Early years
In August 2008, Kohli was included in the Indian ODI squad for tour of Sri Lanka and the Champions Trophy in Pakistan. Prior to the Sri Lankan tour, Kohli had played only eight List A matches. So, his selection was called a "surprise call-up". During the Sri Lankan tour, as both first-choice openers Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag were injured, Kohli batted as a makeshift opener throughout the series. He made his international debut, at the age of 19, in the first ODI of the tour and was dismissed for 12. He made his first ODI half century, a score of 54, in the fourth match. He had scores of 37, 25 and 31 in the other three matches. India won the series 3–2 which was India's first ODI series win against Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka.
After the postponement of Champions Trophy to 2009, Kohli was picked as a replacement for the injured Shikhar Dhawan in the India A squad for the unofficial Tests against Australia A in September 2008. He batted only once in the two-match series, and scored 49 in that innings. Later that month in September 2008, he played for Delhi in the Nissar Trophy against SNGPL (winners of Quaid-i-Azam Trophy from Pakistan) and top-scored for Delhi in both innings, with 52 and 197. The match was drawn but SNGPL won the trophy on first-innings lead. In October 2008, Kohli played for Indian Board President's XI in a four-day tour match against Australia.
Kohli, after recovering from a minor shoulder injury, returned to the national team replacing the injured Gautam Gambhir in the Indian squad for the tri-series in Sri Lanka. He batted at number 4 for India in the 2009 ICC Champions Trophy because of an injury to Yuvraj Singh. In the group match against the West Indies, Kohli scored an unbeaten 79 in India's successful chase of 130 and was awarded man of the match award. Kohli played as a reserve batsman in the seven-match home ODI series against Australia, appearing in two matches. He found a place in the home ODI series against Sri Lanka in December 2009 and scored 27 and 54 in the first two ODIs before making way for Yuvraj who regained fitness for the third ODI. However, Yuvraj's finger injury recurred leading to him being ruled out indefinitely. Kohli returned to the team in the fourth ODI at Kolkata and scored his first ODI century–107 off 114 balls–sharing a 224-run partnership for the third wicket with Gambhir, who made his personal best score of 150. India won by seven wickets to seal the series 3–1. The man of the match was awarded to Gambhir who gave the award to Kohli.
Tendulkar was rested for the tri-nation ODI tournament in Bangladesh in January 2010, which enabled Kohli to play in each of India's five matches. Against Bangladesh, he scored 91 to help secure a win after India collapsed to 51/3 early in their run-chase of 297. In the next match against Sri Lanka, Kohli ended unbeaten on 71 to help India win the match with a bonus point having chased down their target of 214 within 33 overs. The next day, he scored his second ODI century, against Bangladesh, bringing up the mark with the winning runs. He became only the third Indian batsman to score two ODI centuries before their 22nd birthday, after Tendulkar and Suresh Raina. Kohli was much praised for his performances during the series in particular by the Indian captain Dhoni. Although Kohli made only two runs in the final against Sri Lanka in a four-wicket Indian defeat, he finished as the leading run-getter of the series with 275 runs from five innings at an average of 91.66. In the three-match ODI series at home against South Africa in February, Kohli batted in two games and had scores of 31 and 57.
Rise through the ranks
Raina was named captain and Kohli vice-captain for the tri-series against Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe in Zimbabwe in May–June 2010, as many first-choice players skipped the tour. Kohli made 168 runs at an average of 42.00 including two fifties, but India suffered three defeats in four matches and crashed out of the series. During the series, Kohli became the fastest Indian batsman to reach 1,000 runs in ODI cricket. He made his T20I debut against Zimbabwe at Harare and scored an unbeaten 26. Later that month, Kohli batted at 3 in an Indian team throughout the 2010 Asia Cup and scored a total of 67 runs at an average of 16.75. His struggles with form continued in the tri-series against Sri Lanka and New Zealand in Sri Lanka where he averaged 15.
Despite the poor run of form, Kohli was retained in the ODI squad for a three-match series against Australia in October, and in the only completed match of the series at Visakhapatnam, scored his third ODI century–118 off 121 balls–which helped India reach the target of 290 after losing the openers early. Winning the man of the match, he admitted that he was under pressure to keep his place in the team after failures in the two previous series. During the home ODI series against New Zealand, Kohli scored a match-winning 104-ball 105, his fourth ODI hundred and second in succession, in the first game, and followed it up with 64 and 63* in the next two matches. India completed a 5–0 whitewash of New Zealand, while Kohli's performance in the series helped him become a regular in the ODI team and made him a strong contender for a spot in India's World Cup squad. He was India's leading run-scorer in ODIs in 2010, with 995 runs from 25 matches at an average of 47.38 including three centuries and seven fifties.
Kohli was India's leading run-getter in the five-match ODI series of the South African tour in January 2011, with 193 runs at an average of 48.25 including two fifties, both in Indian defeats. During the series, he jumped to number two spot on the ICC Rankings for Men's ODI batters, and was named in India's 15-man squad for the World Cup.
Kohli played in every match of India's successful World Cup campaign. He scored an unbeaten 100, his fifth ODI century, in the first match against Bangladesh and became the first Indian batsman to score a century on World Cup debut. In the next four group matches he had low scores of 8, 34, 12 and 1 against England, Ireland, Netherlands and South Africa respectively. Having returned to form with 59 against the West Indies, he scored only 24 and 9 in the quarter-final against Australia and semi-final against Pakistan respectively. In the final against Sri Lanka at Mumbai, he scored 35, sharing an 83-run partnership with Gambhir for the third wicket after India had lost both openers within the seventh over chasing 275. This partnership is regarded as "one of the turning points in the match", as India went on to win the match by six wickets and lift the World Cup for the first time since 1983.
Consistent performance in limited overs
When India toured the West Indies in June–July 2011, they selected a largely inexperienced squad, resting Tendulkar and others such as- Gambhir and Sehwag missing out due to injuries. Kohli was one of three uncapped players in the Test squad. He found success in the ODI series which India won 3–2, with a total of 199 runs at an average of 39.80. His best efforts came in the second ODI at Port of Spain where he won the man of the match for his score of 81 which gave India a seven-wicket victory, and the fifth ODI at Kingston where his innings of 94 came in a seven-wicket defeat. Kohli made his Test debut at Kingston in the first match of the Test series that followed. He batted at 5 and was dismissed for 4 and 15 caught behind off the bowling of Fidel Edwards in both innings. India went on to win the Test series 1–0 but Kohli amassed just 76 runs from five innings, struggling against the short ball and was particularly troubled by the fast bowling of Edwards, who dismissed him three times in the series.
Initially dropped from the Test squad for India's four-match series in England in July and August due to poor performance in his debut series, Kohli was recalled as a replacement for the injured Yuvraj, though he did not got to play in any match in the series. He found moderate success in the subsequent ODI series in which he averaged 38.80. His score of 55 in the first ODI at Chester-le-Street was followed by a string of low scores in the next three matches. In the last game of the series, Kohli scored his sixth ODI hundred–107 runs off 93 balls–and shared a 170-run third-wicket partnership with Rahul Dravid, who was playing his last ODI, to help India post their first 300-plus total of the tour. Kohli was dismissed hit wicket in that innings which was the only century in the series by any player on either team and earned him praise for his "hard work" and "maturity". However, England won the match by D/L method and the series 3–0.
In October 2011, Kohli was the leading run-scorer of the five-match home ODI series against England which India won 5–0. He scored a total of 270 runs across five matches at an average of 90, including unbeaten knocks of 112 from 98 balls at Delhi, where he put on an unbroken 209-run partnership with Gambhir, and 86 at Mumbai, both in successful run-chases. Owing to his ODI success, Kohli was included in the Test squad to face the West Indies in November. He was selected in the final match of the series in which he scored a pair of fifties in the match. India won the subsequent ODI series 4–1 in which Kohli managed to accumulate 243 runs at 60.75. During the series, Kohli scored his eighth ODI century and his second at Visakhapatnam, where he made 117 off 123 balls in India's run-chase of 270, a knock which raised his reputation as "an expert of the chase". Kohli ended up as the leading run-getter in ODIs for the year 2011, with 1381 runs from 34 matches at 47.62 including four centuries and eight fifties.
During tour of Australia in December 2011, Kohli failed to go past 25 in the first two Tests, as his defensive technique was exposed. While fielding on the boundary during the second day of the second match, he gestured to the crowd with his middle finger for which he was fined 50% of his match fee by the match referee. He top-scored in each of India's innings in the third Test at Perth, with 44 and 75, even as India got their second consecutive innings defeat. In the fourth and final match at Adelaide, Kohli scored his maiden Test century of 116 runs in the first innings. India suffered a 0–4 whitewash and Kohli, India's top run-scorer in the series, was described as "the lone bright spot in an otherwise nightmare visit for the tourists".
In the first seven matches of the Commonwealth Bank triangular series that India played against hosts Australia and Sri Lanka, Kohli made two fifties–77 at Perth and 66 at Brisbane–both against Sri Lanka. India registered two wins, a tie and four losses in these seven matches. Being set a target of 321 by Sri Lanka, Kohli came to the crease with India's score at 86/2 and went on to score 133 not out from 86 balls to take India to a comfortable win with 13 overs to spare. India earned a bonus point with the win and Kohli was named Man of the Match for his knock. Former Australian cricketer and commentator Dean Jones rated Kohli's innings as "one of the greatest ODI knocks of all time". However, Sri Lanka beat Australia three days later in their last group fixture and knocked India out of the series. With 373 runs at 53.28, Kohli finished as India's highest run-scorer and lone centurion of the series.
Kohli was appointed the vice-captain for the 2012 Asia Cup in Bangladesh on the back of his fine performance in Australia. Kohli was in fine form during the tournament, finishing as the leading run-scorer with 357 runs at an average of 119. He scored 108 in the first match against Sri Lanka in a 50-run Indian victory, while India lost their next match to Bangladesh in which he made 66. In the final group stage match against Pakistan, he scored a personal best 183 off 148 balls, his 11th ODI century. He helped India to chase down 330, their highest successful ODI run-chase at the time. His knock was the highest individual score in Asia Cup history surpassing previous record of 144 by Younis Khan in 2004, the joint-second highest score, with Dhoni, in an ODI run-chase and the highest individual score against Pakistan in ODIs. Kohli was awarded the man of the match in both the matches that India won, but India could not progress to the final of the tournament.
In July–August 2012, Kohli struck two centuries in the five-match ODI tour of Sri Lanka–106 off 113 balls at Hambantota and 128* off 119 balls at Colombo–winning man of the match in both games. India won the series 4–1 and Kohli was named player of the series. In the one-off T20I that followed, he scored a 48-ball 68, his first T20I fifty, and won the player of the series award. Kohli scored his second Test century at Bangalore during New Zealand's tour of India and won man of the match award. India won the two-match series 2–0, and Kohli averaged 106 with one hundred and two fifties from three innings. In the subsequent T20I series, he scored 70 runs off 41 balls, but India lost the match by one run and the series 1–0. He continued to be in good form during the 2012 ICC World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka, with 185 runs, the highest among Indian batsmen, from 5 matches at an average of 46.25. He hit two fifties during the tournament, against Afghanistan and Pakistan, winning man of the match for both innings. He was named in the ICC 'Team of the Tournament'.
Kohli's Test form dipped during the first three matches of England's tour of India, between October 2012 and January 2013, with a top score of 20 and England leading the series 2–1. He scored a patient 103 from 295 balls in the last match. However, the match ended in a draw and England won their first Test series in India in 28 years. Against Pakistan in December 2012, Kohli averaged 18 in the T20Is and 4.33 in the ODIs, being troubled by the fast bowlers, particularly Junaid Khan, who dismissed him on all three occasions in the ODI series. Kohli had a quiet ODI series against England, apart from a match-winning 77* in the third ODI at Ranchi, with a total of 155 runs at an average of 38.75.
Kohli scored his fourth Test century (107) at Chennai in the first match of the home Test series against Australia in February 2013. India completed a 4–0 series sweep, becoming the first team to whitewash Australia in more than four decades. Kohli averaged 56.80 in the series .
In June 2013, Kohli featured in the ICC Champions Trophy in England which India won. He scored a 144 against Sri Lanka in warm-up match. He scored 31, 22 and 22* in India's group matches against South Africa, West Indies and Pakistan respectively, while India qualified for the semi-finals with an undefeated record. In the semi-final against Sri Lanka at Cardiff, he struck 58* in an eight-wicket win for India. The final between India and England at Birmingham was reduced to 20 overs after a rain delay. India batted first and Kohli top-scored with 43 from 34 balls, sharing a sixth-wicket partnership of 47 runs off 33 balls with Ravindra Jadeja and helping India reach 129/7 in 20 overs. India went on to secure a five-run win and their second consecutive ICC ODI tournament victory. He was also named as part of the 'Team of the Tournament' by the ICC.
Setting records
Kohli stood-in as the captain for the first ODI of the triangular series in the West Indies after Dhoni injured himself during the match. India lost the match by one wicket, and Dhoni was subsequently ruled out of the series with Kohli being named the captain for the remaining matches. In his second match as captain, Kohli scored his first century as captain, making 102 off 83 balls against the West Indies at Port of Spain in a bonus point win for India. Many senior players, including Dhoni, were rested for the five-match ODI tour of Zimbabwe in July 2013, with Kohli being appointed captain for an entire series for the first time. In the first game of the series at Harare, he struck 115 runs from 108 balls, helping India chase down the target of 229 and winning the man of the match award. He batted on two more occasions in the series in which he had scores of 14 and 68*. India completed a 5–0 sweep of the series; their first in an away ODI series.
Kohli had a successful time with the bat in the seven-match ODI series against Australia. After top-scoring with 61 in the opening loss at Pune, he struck the fastest century by an Indian in ODIs in the second match at Jaipur. Reaching the milestone in just 52 balls and putting up an unbroken 186-run second-wicket partnership with Rohit Sharma that came in 17.2 overs, Kohli's innings of 100* helped India chase down the target of 360 for the loss of one wicket with more than six overs to spare. This chase was the second-highest successful run-chase in ODI cricket at the time, while Kohli's knock became the fastest century against Australia and the third-fastest in a run-chase. He followed that innings with 68 in the next match at Mohali in another Indian defeat, before the next two matches were washed out by rain. In the sixth ODI at Nagpur, he struck 115 off only 66 balls to help India successfully chase the target of 351 and level the series 2–2 and won the man of the match. He reached the 100-run mark in 61 balls, making it the third-fastest ODI century by an Indian batsman, and also became the fastest batsman in the world to score 17 hundreds in ODI cricket. India clinched the series after winning the last match in which he was run out for a duck. At the conclusion of the series, Kohli moved to the top position in the ICC ODI batsmen rankings for the first time in his career.
Kohli batted twice in the two-match Test series against the West Indies, and had scores of 3 and 57 being dismissed by Shane Shillingford in both innings. This was also the last Test series for Tendulkar and Kohli was expected to take Tendulkar's number 4 batting position after the series. In the first game of the three-match ODI series that followed at Kochi, Kohli made 86 to seal a six-wicket win and won the man of the match. During the match, he also equalled Viv Richards' record of becoming the fastest batsman to make 5,000 runs in ODI cricket, reaching the landmark in his 114th innings. He missed out on his third century at Visakhapatnam in the next match, after being dismissed for 99 playing a hook shot off Ravi Rampaul. India lost the match by two wickets, but took the series 2–1 after winning the last match at Kanpur. With 204 runs at 68.00, Kohli finished the series as the leading run-getter and was awarded the man of the series.
Overseas season
India toured South Africa in December 2013 for three ODIs and two Tests. Kohli averaged 15.50 in the ODIs, including a duck. In the first Test at Johannesburg, playing his first Test in South Africa and batting at 4 for the first time, Kohli scored 119 and 96. His hundred was the first by a subcontinent batsman at the venue since 1998. The match ended in a draw, and Kohli was awarded man of the match. India failed to win a single match on the tour, losing the second Test by 10 wickets in which he made 46 and 11.
During New Zealand tour, he averaged 58.21 in the five-match ODI series in which his all efforts went in vain as India were defeated 4–0. He made 214 runs at 71.33 in the two-match Test series that followed including an unbeaten 105 on the last day of the second Test at Wellington that helped India save the match.
India then traveled to Bangladesh for the Asia Cup and World Twenty20. Dhoni was ruled out of the Asia Cup after suffering a side strain during the New Zealand tour, which led to Kohli being named the captain for the tournament. Kohli scored 136 off 122 balls in India's opening match against Bangladesh, sharing a 213-run third-wicket stand with Ajinkya Rahane, which helped India successfully chase 280. It was his 19th ODI century and his fifth in Bangladesh, making him the batsman with most ODI centuries in Bangladesh. India were knocked out of the tournament after narrow losses against Sri Lanka and Pakistan, in which Kohli scored 48 and 5 respectively.
Dhoni returned from injury to captain the team for 2014 ICC World Twenty20 and Kohli was named vice-captain. In India's opening match of the tournament against Pakistan, Kohli top-scored with 36 not out to guide India to a seven-wicket win. He scored 54 off 41 balls in the next game against West Indies and an unbeaten 57 from 50 balls against Bangladesh, both in successful run-chases. In the semi-final, he made an unbeaten 72 in 44 deliveries to help India achieve the target of 173. He won the man of the match for this knock. India posted 130/4 in the final against Sri Lanka, in which Kohli scored 77 from 58 balls, and eventually lost the match by six wickets. Kohli made a total of 319 runs in the tournament at an average of 106.33, a record for most runs by an individual batsman in a single World Twenty20 tournament, for which he won the Man of the Tournament award.
India conceded a 3–1 defeat in the five-match Test series against England. Kohli fared poorly in the series averaging just 13.40 in 10 innings scoring 134 runs overall with a top score of 39. It was a nightmare tour for him as he was dismissed for single-digit scores on six occasions in the series and was particularly susceptible to the swinging ball on off stump line, being dismissed several times edging the ball to the wicket-keeper or slip fielders. Man of the series James Anderson got Kohli's wicket four times, while Kohli's batting technique was questioned by analysts and former cricketers. India won the ODI series that followed 3–1, but Kohli's struggles with the bat continued with an average of 18 in four innings. In the one-off T20I, he scored 41-ball 66, his first fifty-plus score of the tour. India lost the match by three runs, but Kohli reached the number one spot for T20I batsmen in the ICC rankings.
Kohli had a successful time during India's home ODI series win over the West Indies in October 2014. His 62 in the second ODI at Delhi was his first fifty across Tests and ODIs in 16 innings since February, and he stated that he got his "confidence back" with the innings. He struck his 20th ODI hundred–127 runs in 114 balls–in the fourth match at Dharamsala. India registered a 59-run victory and Kohli was awarded man of the match. Dhoni was rested for the five-match ODI series against Sri Lanka in November, enabling Kohli to lead the team for another full series. Kohli batted at 4 throughout the series and made scores of 22, 49, 53 and 66 in the first four ODIs, with India leading the series 4–0. In the fifth ODI at Ranchi, he made an unbeaten 139 off 126 balls to give his team a three-wicket win and a whitewash of Sri Lanka. Kohli was awarded player of the series, and it was the second whitewash under his captaincy. During the series he became the fastest batter in the world to go past the 6000-run mark in ODIs. With 1054 ODI runs at 58.55 in 2014, he became the second player in the world after Sourav Ganguly to make more than 1,000 runs in ODIs for four consecutive calendar years.
Test captaincy
For the first Test of the Australian tour in December 2014, Dhoni was not part of the Indian team at Adelaide due to an injury, and Kohli took the reins as Test captain for the first time. Kohli scored 115 in India's first innings, becoming the fourth Indian to score a hundred on Test captaincy debut. In their second innings, India were set a target of 364 to be scored on the fifth day. Kohli put on 185 runs for the third wicket with Murali Vijay before Vijay's dismissal, which triggered a batting collapse. From 242/2, India was bowled out for 315 with Kohli's 141 off 175 balls being the top score.
Dhoni returned to the team as captain for the second match at Brisbane where Kohli scored 19 and 1 in a four-wicket defeat for India. In the Melbourne Boxing Day Test, he made his personal best Test score of 169 in the first innings while sharing a 262-run partnership with Rahane, India's biggest partnership outside Asia in ten years. Kohli followed it with a score of 54 in India's second innings on the fifth day, helping his team draw the Test match. Dhoni announced his retirement from Test cricket at the conclusion of this match, and Kohli was appointed as the full-time Test captain ahead of the fourth Test at Sydney. Captaining the Test team for the second time, Kohli hit 147 in the first innings of the match and became the first batsman in Test cricket history to score three hundreds in his first three innings as Test captain. He was dismissed for 46 in the second innings and the match ended in a draw. Kohli's total of 692 runs in four Tests was the most by any Indian batsman in a Test series in Australia.
In January 2015, India failed to win a single match in the tri-nation ODI series against the hosts Australia and England. Kohli was unable to replicate his Test success in ODIs, failing to make a two-digit score in any of the four games. Kohli's ODI form did not improve in the lead-up to the World Cup, with scores of 18 and 5 in the warm-up matches against Australia and Afghanistan respectively.
In the first match of the World Cup against Pakistan at Adelaide, Kohli hit 107 in 126 balls. For his knock, he was awarded the man of the match award. Kohli also became first Indian batsman to score a century against Pakistan in a World Cup match. He was dismissed for 46 in India's second match against South Africa. India went on to register a 130-run victory in the match. India batted second in their remaining four group matches in which Kohli scored 33*, 33, 44* and 38 against UAE, West Indies, Ireland and Zimbabwe respectively. India went on to secure wins in these four fixtures and top the Pool B points with an undefeated record. In India's 109-run victory in the quarter-final over Bangladesh, Kohli was dismissed by Rubel Hossain for 3, edging the ball to the wicket-keeper. India was eliminated in the semi-final by Australia at Melbourne, where Kohli was dismissed for 1 off 13 balls, top-edging a short-pitched delivery from Mitchell Johnson.
Kohli had a slump in form when India toured Bangladesh in June 2015. He contributed only 14 in the one-off Test which ended in a draw and averaged 16.33 in the ODI series which Bangladesh won 2–1. Kohli ended his streak of low scores by scoring his 11th Test hundred in the first Test of the Sri Lankan tour which India lost. India won the next two matches to seal the series 2–1, Kohli's first series win as Test captain and India's first away Test series win in four years.
During South Africa's tour of India, Kohli became the fastest batsman in the world to make 1,000 runs in T20I cricket, reaching the milestone in his 27th innings. In the ODI series, he made a century in the fourth ODI at Chennai that helped India draw level in the series. India lost the series after a defeat in the final ODI and Kohli finished the series with an average of 49. India came back to beat the top-ranked South African team 3–0 in the four-match Test series under Kohli's captaincy, and climbed to number two position on the ICC Test rankings. Virat scored a total of 200 runs in the series at 33.33.
No. 1 Test team and limited-overs captaincy
Kohli started 2016 with scores of 91 and 59 in the first two ODIs of the limited-overs tour of Australia. He followed it up with a pair of hundreds–a run-a-ball 117 at Melbourne and 106 from 92 balls at Canberra. During the course of the series, he became the fastest batsman in the world to cross the 7000-run mark in ODIs, getting to the milestone in his 161st innings, and the fastest to get to 25 centuries. After the ODI series ended in a 1–4 loss, the Indian team came back to whitewash the Australians 3–0 in the T20I series. Kohli made fifties in all three T20Is with scores of 90*, 59* and 50, winning two man of the matches as well as the man of the series award. He was also instrumental in India winning the Asia Cup in Bangladesh the following month in which he scored 49 in a run-chase of 84 against Pakistan, followed by an unbeaten 56 against Sri Lanka and 41 not out in the Final against Bangladesh.
Kohli maintained his form in the 2016 ICC World Twenty20 in India, scoring 55* in another successful run-chase against Pakistan. He struck an unbeaten 82 from 51 balls in India's must-win group match against Australia in "an innings of sheer class" with "clean cricket shots". It helped India win by six wickets and register a spot in the semi-final; Kohli went on to rate the innings as his best in the format. In the semi-final, Kohli top-scored with an unbeaten 89 from 47 deliveries, but West Indies overhauled India's total of 192 and ended India's campaign. His total of 273 runs in five matches at an average of 136.50 earned him his second consecutive Man of the Tournament award at the World Twenty20. He was named as captain of the 'Team of the Tournament' for the 2016 World Twenty20 by the ICC.
Playing his first Test in the West Indies since his debut series, Kohli scored 200 in the first Test at Antigua to ensure an innings-and-92-run win for India, their biggest win ever outside of Asia. It was his first double hundred in first-class cricket and the first made away from home by an Indian captain in Tests. India went on to wrap the series 2–0 and briefly top the ICC Test Rankings before being displaced by Pakistan at the position. He scored another double hundred–211 at Indore in the third Test against New Zealand–as India's 3–0 whitewash victory saw them regain the top position in the ICC Test Rankings. In the subsequent ODI series, Kohli set up two wins for India batting second with unbeaten knocks of 85 and 154. He then made 65 in the series-deciding fifth game at Visakhapatnam which India won.
Kohli got double centuries in the next two Test series against England and Bangladesh, making him the first batsman ever to score double centuries in four consecutive series. He broke the record of Australian great Donald Bradman and Rahul Dravid, both of whom had managed to get three. Against England, he got his then-highest Test score of 235.
10,000 runs in ODIs before age of 30
He followed it up with ODI centuries against the West Indies and Sri Lanka in consecutive series, equalling Ricky Ponting's tally of 30 ODI centuries. In October 2017, he was adjudged the ODI player of the series against New Zealand for scoring two ODI centuries, during the course of which he made a new record for the most runs (8,888), best average (55.55) and highest number of centuries (31) for any batsman when completing 200 ODIs. Kohli made several more records during the 3 match Test series against Sri Lanka at home in November. After scoring a century and a double century in the first two Tests, he ended up scoring yet another double century in the third Test, during which he became the eleventh Indian batsman to surpass 5000 runs in Test cricket while scoring his 20th Test century and 6th double century. During this match he also became the first batsman to score six double hundreds as a captain. With 610 runs in the series, Kohli also became the highest run-scorer by an Indian in a three-match Test series and the fourth-highest overall. India comfortably won the three-match series 1–0 and Kohli was adjudged man of the match for the second and third Test matches and player of the series. With this win, India equaled Australia for the record streak of nine consecutive series wins in Test cricket. He ended the year with 2818 international runs, which is recorded as the third-highest tally ever in a calendar year and the highest tally ever by an Indian player. The ICC named Kohli as captain of both their World Test XI and ODI XI for 2017.
Overseas season-including Windies at home
Kohli had a fared average in the Test matches as India lost 1–2 during the South Africa tour in 2018, but came back strongly to score 558 runs in the 6 ODIs, making a record for the highest runs scored in a bilateral ODI series. This included three centuries, remaining unbeaten in two with a best of 160*. India won the ODI series 5–1, Kohli becoming the first Indian captain to win an ODI series in South Africa.
In March 2018, Kohli played county cricket in England in June, in order to improve his batting before the start of India's tour to England the following month. He signed to play for Surrey, but a neck injury ruled him out of his stint in England before it even began. On 2 August, Kohli scored his first Test century on English soil in the first test match of the series against England. On 5 August, Kohli displaced Steve Smith to become the No. 1 ranked Test batsman in the ICC Test rankings. He also became the seventh Indian batsman and first since Sachin Tendulkar in June 2011 to achieve this feat. In the third test at Trent Bridge, Nottingham, Kohli scored 97 and 103, and helped India win by 203 runs. At the end of 5-match test series, Kohli scored 593 runs, which was third highest runs by an Indian batsman in a losing test series. Kohli's consistent performance in the series against the moving ball when other batsman failed to perform was hailed by British Media as one of his finest. The Guardian describes Kohli's batting display as One of the Greatest batting display in a losing cause.
During ODI series against West Indies in 2018, Kohli became the 12th batsman and fastest player to score 10,000 ODI runs. He surpassed the milestone with 205 innings which is 54 innings less than the next quickest to the landmark, Sachin Tendulkar. In the course he scored his 37th ODI century. On 27 October, after scoring his 38th ODI century, Kohli became the first batsman for India, first captain and tenth overall, to score three successive centuries in ODIs. He ended up scoring 453 runs in 5 innings, at an average of 151.00, in the 5-match series and was the Player of the Series.
On 16 December 2018 in the 2018-2019 Border Gavaskar Trophy, Kohli scored his 25th test hundred in Perth. His knock of 123 was his 6th hundred in three tours to Australia making him the only Indian to score 6 test hundreds in Australia after Sachin Tendulkar. He also became the fastest Indian and second fastest overall (125 innings) to score 25 test hundreds, second only to Donald Bradman (68 innings) which was bettered by Steven Smith during 2019 Ashes (119 innings). Kohli's knock was rated by several analysts and former cricketers as one of his finest against a quality Australian attack.
Although he broke several records in the game, his innings proved to insufficient as India went down by 146 runs as Australia levelled the series with two tests remaining. Overall, he finished the series with 282 runs at an average of 40. By winning the test series in Australia, he had become the first Indian and also the first Asian skipper to win a test series in Australia. He was again named as captain of both the World Test XI and ODI XI for 2018 by the ICC.
Captaining India in ICC events
2017 ICC Champions Trophy
Virat Kohli got the chance to captain in an ICC tournament for the first time in the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy. In the semi-final against Bangladesh, Kohli scored 96*, thus becoming the fastest batsman, in terms of innings, to reach 8,000 runs in ODIs in 175 innings. India reached the final, but lost to Pakistan by 180 runs. In the third over of Indian innings, Virat Kohli was dropped in the slips for just five runs but caught the next ball by Shadab Khan at point on the bowling of Mohammad Amir. He was also named as part of the 'Team of the Tournament' at the 2017 Champions Trophy by the ICC.
2019 Cricket World Cup
In April 2019, he was named the captain of India's squad for the 2019 Cricket World Cup. On 16 June 2019, in India's match against Pakistan, Kohli became the fastest batsman, in terms of innings, to score 11,000 runs in ODI cricket. He reached the landmark in his 222nd innings. Eleven days later, in the match against the West Indies, Kohli became the fastest cricketer, in terms of innings, to score 20,000 runs in international cricket, doing so in his 417th innings. Kohli scored five consecutive fifty plus score in the tournament. India lost the semi-final against New Zealand, in which Kohli was out for just a run.
2021 ICC World Test Championship Final
In June 2021, India lost the 2021 ICC World Test Championship Final to New Zealand. This was Kohli's third defeat as captain in knockouts and finals of ICC tournaments. Virat Kohli scored 44 and 13 runs in the 1st and 2nd innings respectively.
2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup
In September 2021, Kohli was named as the captain of India's squad for the 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup. India could not make it through the semi-finals, which was the first time in the past 9 years.
Home season
In October 2019, Kohli captained India for the 50th time in Test cricket, in the second Test against South Africa. In the first innings of the match, Kohli scored an unbeaten 254 runs, passing 7,000 runs in Tests in the process, and became the first batsman for India to score seven double centuries in Test cricket. In November 2019, during the day/night Test match against Bangladesh, Kohli became the fastest captain to score 5,000 runs in Test cricket, doing so in his 86th innings. In the same match, he also scored his 70th century in international cricket.
Poor form across formats
Disastrous tour of New Zealand
India toured to New Zealand from January to March 2020 to play 5-match T20 series along with a 3 and 2-match ODI and test series respectively. During the tour, Kohli badly struggled against the moving ball on tricky New Zealand pitches throughout the tour making the tour as his worst ever after the England tour in 2014. During the entire tour he only managed 218 across formats in 12 innings at an average of 19.81 with one half-century during first ODI. This was his lowest aggregate of runs in a tour where he played in all formats. India managed to win the T20I series 5–0. However Kohli-led side was badly hammered during the ODI and Test leg of the tour losing 3-0 and 2-0 respectively. This was also India's first whitewash under Kohli's captaincy.
India's tour of Australia and home series versus England
India travelled to Australia during November 2020 till January 2021 for a long tour. During the ODI Series, Kohli managed to score two half-centuries in three innings with a aggregate of 173 runs at an average of 57.67 despite this India lost the series 2–1. Also in November, Kohli played in his 250th ODI match, in the second match against Australia.
However, India bounced backed strongly and clinch the T20I series 2–1 with Kohli being the highest run scorer in the series for India (134 runs at 44.37). During the first test of the tour played as Day/night match at Adelaide, Kohli scored a fluent 74 before being run out. However he only managed 4 runs in next innings where India scrambled to 36/9, their lowest ever score in Test cricket history. After the 1st Test, Kohli left the tour on paternity leave as he was expecting the birth of his first child. He received mixed responses for his decision. Indian batting great Sunil Gavaskar along with Kapil Dev slammed Kohli for leaving the tour after the Indian team lost the 1st Test in Adelaide. Gavaskar slammed the double standard of BCCI for Kohli getting the paternity leave while T. Natarajan wasn't allowed for the same. Despite his absence India managed to clinch the test series 2–1 under the able leadership of stand-in captain Ajinkya Rahane. The Daily Telegraph described India's recovery as one of the great comebacks in cricket history.
In November 2020, Kohli was nominated for the Sir Garfield Sobers Award for ICC Male Cricketer of the Decade, as well as Test, ODI and T20I player of the decade and won two(Male cricketer of the decade and ODI cricketer of the decade).
The England tour of India begin with a long 4-match Test series. Kohli struggled to find his form through the series as he managed 172 runs across 4 Test matches at an average of 28.66 with 2 half-centuries and 2 ducks. This was also the first time Kohli got out for two ducks in a Test series after his disastrous tour of England in 2014. However, during the second test at Chepauk, Kohli scored a crucial 62 on a minefield of a pitch which English batting great Geoffrey Boycott described as a template to bat and score runs on a turning pitch.
Kohli got out for a duck again in the 1st T20I of a 5-match series. However, he found his form in the latter part of the series and ended the series as the highest run-scorer from both sides with 231 runs to his name and 3 half-centuries at an average of 115.50 as India clinched the series 3–2. Kohli was adjudged as the Man of the Series for his performances. During the second T20I, Kohli became the first ever batsman to complete 3,000 runs in the format.
In the 3-match ODI series, Kohli managed to score 129 runs in 3 innings with 2 half-centuries at a moderate average of 43.00 as India won the series 2–1. During the 2nd ODI, Kohli became the second batsman after Ricky Ponting to score 10,000 runs batting at number 3.
Tour of England and South Africa
Indian cricket team toured England in 2021 for a 5-match test series. During the 1st innings of the first test, Kohli got dismissed for a golden duck by James Anderson. Kohli managed to score 2 fifties in the next 6 innings he played. He has scored a total of 218 runs in the first four matches of the series, with an average of 31.14. The fifth test of the series is yet to played.
Indian cricket team toured South Africa in late 2021 and early 2022 for a 3-match test series and a 3-match ODI series. Kohli managed to score 161 runs in the 4 innings of test series he played, averaging at 40.25. He could not play 2nd test of the series due to an injury. India lost the series by 2-1, despite winning the first test.
In the ODI series, Kohli scored 116 runs in 3 innings, including two fifties, with an average of 38.66. South Africa won all three matches, thus whitewashing India.
Retirement from captaincy across all formats
In September 2021, Kohli announced that he would step down as India's T20I captain following the 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup .
In December 2021, Kohli was replaced by Rohit Sharma as India's ODI captain. BCCI President Sourav Ganguly later explained the decision to drop Kohli as ODI captain by saying that the selectors did not feel right to have two white ball captains. Later Ganguly said that BCCI had told Virat to not step down as T20I captain. Virat Kohli, during a press conference, contradicted the BCCI President and said that his decision of stepping down as captain was "received well" and termed as "progressive" by the BCCI officials. He also claimed that chief selector Chetan Sharma informed him 90-minutes before the announcement of the Test squad for India's tour of South Africa, about the removal from ODI captaincy. More than a week later, during the announcement of squad for ODI series versus South Africa, Chetan Sharma contradicted Kohli by saying that officials had asked Virat to reconsider his decision of stepping down as T20I captain.
On 15 January 2022, Kohli stepped down as India's Test captain, following the 2–1 test series defeat against South Africa during the India's Tour of South Africa.
Indian Premier League
Kohli was bought by the Indian Premier League franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore for $30,000 on a youth contract. He was the captain of Royal challengers Bangalore for 8 seasons but could not win a trophy.
Kohli had an poor 2008 season, with a total of 165 runs in 12 innings at an average of 15.00 and a strike rate of 105.09. He did slightly better in the second season in which he made a total of 246 runs at 22.36, striking at over 112, while his team made it as far as the final. In the 2010 season, Kohli was the third highest run-getter for his team with 307 runs, averaging 27.90 and improving his strike rate to 144.81.
Kohli was the second-highest run-getter of the season, only behind teammate Chris Gayle, and his team finished as runners-up. Kohli scored total 557 runs at an average of 46.41 and at the strike rate of over 121 including four fifties. In the 2012 IPL, he averaged 28 and scored 364 runs.
During 2013 season, Kohli averaged 45.28 and hit a total of 634 runs at a strike rate of over 138 including six fifties and a top-score of 99 and finished as the season's third-highest run-scorer.
Bangalore finished seventh in the next season in which Kohli made 359 runs at 27.61. He found success with the bat in the 2015 IPL in which he led his team to the playoffs. He finished fifth on the season's leading run-getters list with 505 runs at an average of 45.90 and a strike rate of more than 130.
At the 2016 IPL, the Royal Challengers finished runners-up and Kohli broke the record for most runs in an IPL season (of 733 runs) by scoring 973 runs in 16 matches at an average of 81.08, winning the Orange Cap as well as Most-valuable Player Award of Vivo IPL 2016. He scored four centuries in the tournament, having never scored one in the Twenty20 format before the start of the season, and also became the first player to reach the 4000-run milestone in the IPL. At the launch event of his biography, 'Driven: The Virat Kohli Story' in New Delhi, in October 2016, Kohli announced that RCB would be the IPL franchise that he would permanently play for.
Kohli missed the start of the 2017 season due to a shoulder injury. Moreover, RCB finished the tournament at the bottom of the table, with Kohli scoring the most runs for his team, with 308 from 10 matches. On the occasion of the 10 year anniversary of IPL, he was also named in the all-time Cricinfo IPL XI.
In the 2018 season, Kohli was retained by RCB for a price of , the highest for any player that year. Kohli scored 530 runs in the season and became the first batsman to score more than 500 runs in 5 different seasons. Moreover, RCB failed to qualify for Playoffs and finished sixth on the points table.
On 28 March 2019, Kohli became the second player to reach 5000 IPL runs after Suresh Raina. In the same season, Kohli surpassed Raina to become leading runs scorer in IPL when he scored 84 runs in a match against KKR.
On 22 April 2021, against Rajasthan Royals, Kohli became the first ever player to reach 6000 IPL Runs. On 20 September, Royal Challengers Bangalore announced that Kohli would step down as captain following the 2021 IPL season.
Player profile
Playing style
Kohli is a naturally aggressive batsman with strong technical skills. He usually bats at the no.3 position in ODI cricket. He bats with a slightly open-chested stance and a strong bottom-hand grip. He is not a big hitter and plays more grounded shots. He is known for his wide range of shots, ability to pace an innings and batting under pressure. He is strong through the mid-wicket and cover region. He has said that the cover drive is his favourite shot, while also saying that the flick shot comes naturally to him. He does not play the sweep shot often, being called "not a natural sweeper of the cricket ball". Kohli is strong on leg stump line bowling. If bowled at leg stump he plays flick shot.
According to cricket pundit VVS Laxman, for Virat Kohli, balling line outside the off stump is his weakness. He got out many times by outside off stump line ball and opposition team's bowlers tries to exploit his weakness in Test as well as ODIs. Out swinging balls his one of the weakness as per Richard Hadlee.
His teammates have praised his confidence, commitment, focus and work ethics. Kohli is also known to be a "sharp" fielder.
Kohli is regarded as the best limited-overs batsman in the world, especially while chasing. In ODIs, he averages around 69 in matches batting second as opposed to around 51 batting first. 26 of his 43 ODI hundreds have come in run-chases and he holds the record for most hundreds batting second.
Aggression
Kohli is noted for his on-field aggression and was described in the media as "brash" and "arrogant" during his early career. He has got into confrontations with players and umpires on several occasions. While many former cricketers have backed his aggressive attitude, some have criticised it. In 2012, Kohli had stated that he tries to limit his aggressive behaviour but "the build-up and the pressure or the special occasions make it tough to control the aggression."
Comparisons to Sachin Tendulkar
Kohli is often compared to Sachin Tendulkar, due to their similar styles of batting, and sometimes referred to as Tendulkar's "successor". Many former cricketers expect Kohli to break Tendulkar's batting records. He is ranked as one of the world's most famous athletes by ESPN Kohli has stated that growing up his idol and role model was Tendulkar and that as a kid he "tried to copy the shots [Tendulkar] played and hit sixes the way he used to hit them." Former West Indies great Vivian Richards, who is regarded as the most destructive batsman in cricket, stated that Kohli reminds him of himself. In early 2015, Richards said Kohli was "already legendary" in the ODI format, while former Australian cricketer Dean Jones called Kohli the "new king of world cricket". Aakash Chopra, an Indian commentator, stated that "Sachin had more shots as compared to Virat".
Career summary
, Kohli has made 70 centuries and 7 double centuries in international cricket—27 centuries, 7 double centuries in Test cricket and 43 centuries in One Day Internationals (ODIs).
Test match performance
ODI match performance
T20I match performance
Records
Virat Kohli is leading run scorer in T20I with most 50 plus scores. He is the only cricketer to have been awarded player of the tournament twice in T20 World Cup. He scored 319 runs with 4 fifties in T20 World Cup 2014 and was leading run scorer in the tournament.
He has 2nd most centuries in ODI(43) and only behind Tendulkar who has 49 centuries. He has 3rd most centuries(70) in international cricket and only behind Tendulkar(100) and Ponting(71). He is the fastest player to score 10,000 runs in ODI in terms of innings and took 54 less innings than previous record of 259 innings. In 2018, He scored 1000 ODI runs in just 11 innings which is the least number of innings taken to score 1000 runs in a calendar year.
Awards
National honours
2013 - Arjuna Award
2017 - Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian award.
2018 - Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award, India's highest sporting honour.
Sporting honours
Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy (ICC Men's Cricketer of the Decade): 2011–2020
Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy (ICC Cricketer of the Year): 2017, 2018
ICC ODI Player of the Year: 2012, 2017, 2018
ICC Test Player of the Year: 2018
ICC ODI Team of the Year: 2012, 2014, 2016 (captain), 2017 (captain), 2018 (captain), 2019 (captain)
ICC Test Team of the Year: 2017 (captain), 2018 (captain), 2019 (captain)
ICC Spirit of Cricket: 2019
ICC Men's ODI Cricketer of the Decade: 2011–2020
ICC Men's Test Team of the Decade: 2011–2020 (captain)
ICC Men's ODI Team of the Decade: 2011–2020
ICC Men's T20I Team of the Decade: 2011–2020
Polly Umrigar Award for International Cricketer of the Year: 2011–12, 2014–15, 2015–16, 2016–17, 2017–18
Wisden Leading Cricketer in the World: 2016, 2017, 2018
CEAT International Cricketer of the Year: 2011–12, 2013–14, 2018–19
Barmy Army - International Player of Year: 2017, 2018
Other honours and awards
People's Choice Awards India For Favourite Sportsperson: 2012
CNN-News18 Indian of the Year: 2017
Delhi & District Cricket Association (DDCA) renamed a stand after Kohli at Arun Jaitley stadium, Delhi.
Outside cricket
Personal life
Kohli started dating Bollywood actress Anushka Sharma in 2013; the couple soon earned the celebrity couple nickname "Virushka". Their relationship attracted substantial media attention, with persistent rumours and speculations in the media, as neither of the two publicly talked about it. The couple married on 11 December 2017 in a private ceremony in Florence, Italy. On 11 January 2021, they became parents to a baby girl, Vamika.
In 2018, Kohli revealed that he completely stopped consuming meat to cut down his uric acid levels which caused him a cervical spine issue and started affecting his finger and, in turn, his batting. In 2021, he clarified that he is a vegetarian and not a vegan.
Kohli has admitted that he is superstitious. He used to wear black wristbands as a cricket superstition; earlier, he used to wear the same pair of gloves with which he had "been scoring". Apart from a religious black thread, he has also been wearing a kara on his right arm since 2012.
Commercial investments
According to Kohli, football is his second favourite sport. In 2014, Kohli became a co-owner of Indian Super League club FC Goa. He stated that he invested in the club with the "keenness of football" and because he "wanted football to grow in India". He added, "It's a business venture for me for the future. Cricket's not going to last forever and I'm keeping all my options open after retirement."
In September 2015, Kohli became a co-owner of the International Premier Tennis League franchise UAE Royals, and, in December that year, became a co-owner of the JSW-owned Bengaluru Yodhas franchise in Pro Wrestling League.
In November 2014, Kohli and Anjana Reddy's Universal Sportsbiz (USPL) launched a youth fashion brand WROGN. The brand started to produce men's casual wear clothing in 2015 and has tied up with Myntra and Shopper's Stop. In late 2014, Kohli was announced as a shareholder and brand ambassador of the social networking venture 'Sport Convo' based in London.
In 2015, Kohli invested to start a chain of gyms and fitness centres across the country. Launched under the name Chisel, the chain of gyms is jointly owned by Kohli, Chisel India and CSE (Cornerstone Sport and Entertainment), the agency which manages Kohli's commercial interests. In 2016, Kohli started Stepathlon Kids, a children fitness venture, in partnership with Stepathlon Lifestyle.
Charity
In March 2013, Kohli started a charity foundation called Virat Kohli Foundation (VKF). The organisation aims at helping underprivileged kids and conducts events to raise funds for the charity. According to Kohli, the foundation works with select NGOs to "create awareness, seek support and raise funds for the various causes they endorse and the philanthropic work they engage in." In May 2014, eBay and Save the Children India conducted a charity auction with VKF, with its proceeds benefiting the education and healthcare of underprivileged children.
Kohli has captained the All Heart Football Club, owned by VKF, in charity football matches against All Stars Football Club, owned by Abhishek Bachchan's Playing for Humanity. The matches, known as "Celebrity Clasico", feature cricketers playing for All Heart and Bollywood actors in the All Stars team, and are organized to generate funds for the two charity foundations.
Social media fan following
Kohli is very active on social media and has a huge fan following on the platform. He is the only cricketer, and fifth sports personality, to have more than 150 million followers on Instagram.
In popular culture
Kohli was featured in episodes of The Test (documentary) of Amazon prime, about Australian team's journey after ball tampering scandal.
Super V (Super Virat), an Indian animated superhero television series portrays a fictionalized version of Kohli's teen years where he discovers hidden superpowers.
Mega Icons (2018-2020), an Indian documentary television series on National Geographic about prominent Indian personalities, dedicated an episode to Kohli's achievements in cricket.
See also
List of players who have scored 10,000 or more runs in One Day International cricket
List of cricketers by number of international centuries scored
List of cricketers who have scored centuries in both innings of a Test match
Notes
References
Bibliography
External links
1988 births
Living people
Indian cricketers
India Test cricketers
India One Day International cricketers
India Twenty20 International cricketers
Royal Challengers Bangalore cricketers
Delhi cricketers
Cricketers at the 2011 Cricket World Cup
Cricketers at the 2015 Cricket World Cup
Cricketers at the 2019 Cricket World Cup
Cricketers from Delhi
India Test cricket captains
North Zone cricketers
Punjabi people
Indian Hindus
People from Delhi
Recipients of the Padma Shri in sports
International Cricket Council Cricketer of the Year
Wisden Cricketers of the Year
Recipients of the Khel Ratna Award
Recipients of the Arjuna Award | true | [
"Albert George Henry Why, known by the alias Alby Carr, (1899–1969) was an Australian rugby league footballer who played in the 1920s player for South Sydney, who played under his alias for most of his career.\n\nPlaying career\nHe was born at Brewarrina in 1899. His family later moved to Redfern and he played his junior football in Wellington and later at Mascot.\n\nAs Alby Carr, he played four seasons for South Sydney between 1924 and 1927, including winning the 1926 and 1927 Grand Final's. Carr was also a premiership winner with South Sydney in 1925 as the club went the entire season undefeated. He represented New South Wales in 1924 under his alias. He played one last season with South Sydney in 1930, this time under his correct name of Alby Why. He played one season as Alby Why in 1930 before retiring. He was the brother of Australian Kangaroo, Jack Why.\n\nCoaching career\nIn 1950, Alby Why coached the Canterbury-Bankstown team for a season before taking over from Vic Bulgin halfway through 1951. He continued to coach Canterbury-Bankstown in 1952.\n\nAlias, and exposure\nA newspaper report from 1929 exposed Alby Carr as a 'ring-in' , who was actually Alby Why, the brother of Jack Why. The report was tabled at the NSWRFL on 13 May 1929. Alby Carr's true identity was revealed at the meeting regarding the 'ring-in' allegations. Alby Why tells the story: \"I commenced my footballing days at Wellington in 1917. In 1921 he was at Redfern Oval and was asked to play third grade for the Mascot team as 'A.Carr'. Alby Why candidly admitted that he was Alby Carr, in what was known in the turf-world as a 'ring-in'. Then selected as A. Carr, he played one year with Newtown in 1922, then joining the City Houses Competition before being graded with South Sydney Rabbitohs in 1924. During this time and later in England playing with Huddersfield, he retained the name 'Carr', but by 1929 he wished to be recognized by his real name, as his brother Jack Why also played with Souths.\"\n\nDeath\nAlbert George Henry Why died on 29 December 1969, aged 70.\n\nReferences\n\nSources\n \n\n1899 births\n1969 deaths\nAustralian rugby league coaches\nAustralian rugby league players\nCanterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs coaches\n\nNew South Wales rugby league team players\nRugby league centres\nRugby league second-rows\nSouth Sydney Rabbitohs players",
"\"Why I'm Here\" is a song by the American hard rock band Oleander. It was the lead single from their major label debut album, February Son. The track was previously included on Oleander's eponymous EP in 1996 and their independent LP, Shrinking the Blob, in 1997. Despite comparisons to Nirvana's \"Heart-Shaped Box,\" or perhaps because of them, \"Why I'm Here\" would become Oleander's best known song, charting higher than any of their other singles.\n\nThe melancholy power ballad features various hallmarks of post-grunge. A simple, clean guitar pattern strikingly similar to \"Heart-Shaped Box\" begins the song; the first three notes, as well as the overall chord progression, of both songs are indeed identical and largely responsible for its criticism. An additional guitar melody and drums enter shortly after with lonesome singing. The pre-chorus introduces a bittersweet violin and eventually enters an aggressive, heavy chorus. Lyrically, \"Why I'm Here\" describes people's vague resentment toward the narrator as well his/her indifference toward a significant other, shouting \"I can't love you anymore/I'm scared of the sound of it.\"\n\nThe promotional CD single of \"Why I'm Here\" includes both the album version and a \"No Strings Attached\" version which omits the violin.\n\nThe song was featured in the Dawson's Creek second season finale, \"Parental Discretion Advised.\"\n\nReception\nAllmusic's Heather Phares named \"Why I'm Here\" one of three AMG Album Picks in her review of February Son. She regarded it as among the band's \"finest post-grunge-isms.\" However, Noel Murray of The A.V. Club viewed the song more negatively, regarded Oleander as \"[arriving] too late for grunge and too early for emo.\" He elaborated that \"the band gamely struggles to justify its existence to major-label masters who can hear something marketable, but can't figure out who'd want to buy it.\"\n\nTrack listing\n\nCharts\n\nEnd of year charts\n\nReferences\n\n1999 singles\nOleander (band) songs\nRock ballads\n1990s ballads\n1996 songs\nUniversal Records singles"
]
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"Virat Kohli",
"Playing style",
"What was Virat's playing style?",
"Kohli is a naturally aggressive batsman with strong technical skills.",
"How did his team view him?",
"His teammates have praised his confidence, commitment, focus and work ethics.",
"Did he influence others?",
"Kohli is regarded as the best limited-overs batsmen in the world, especially while chasing.",
"Why was he regarded as this?",
"he holds the record for most hundreds batting second."
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| C_e1a26ef3a8c64460bdcf951d80b1693b_1 | Is there any other interesting aspects of this article? | 5 | Is there any other interesting aspects of Virat Kohli's article besides the record for the most hundreds batting second? | Virat Kohli | Kohli is a naturally aggressive batsman with strong technical skills. He usually bats in the middle-order, but, on many occasions, has opened the innings as well. He bats with a slightly open-chested stance and a strong bottom-hand grip, and is said to have quick footwork. He is known for his wide range of shots, ability to pace an innings and batting under pressure. He is strong through the mid-wicket and cover region. He has said that the cover drive is his favourite shot, while also saying that the flick shot comes naturally to him. He does not play the sweep shot often, being called "not a natural sweeper of the cricket ball". His teammates have praised his confidence, commitment, focus and work ethics. Kohli is also known to be a "sharp" fielder. Kohli is regarded as the best limited-overs batsmen in the world, especially while chasing. In ODIs, he averages more than 67 in matches batting second as opposed to around 47 batting first. 21 of his 35 ODI hundreds have come in run-chases and he holds the record for most hundreds batting second. Regarding his impressive record batting second, Kohli has said "I love the whole situation that comes with chasing. I like the challenge of testing myself, figuring out how to rotate strike, when to hit a boundary." Kohli is often compared to Sachin Tendulkar, due to their similar styles of batting, and sometimes referred to as Tendulkar's "successor". Many former cricketers expect Kohli to break Tendulkar's batting records. Kohli has stated that growing up his idol and role model was Tendulkar and that as a kid he "tried to copy the shots [Tendulkar] played and hit sixes the way he used to hit them." Former West Indies great Vivian Richards, who is regarded as the most destructive batsman in cricket, stated that Kohli reminds him of himself. In early 2015, Richards said Kohli was "already legendary" in the ODI format, while former Australian cricketer Dean Jones called Kohli the "new king of world cricket". Kohli is noted for his on-field aggression and was described in the media as "brash" and "arrogant" during his early career. He has got into confrontations with players and umpires on several occasions. While many former cricketers have backed his aggressive attitude, some have criticised it. In 2012, Kohli had stated that he tries to limit his aggressive behaviour but "the build-up and the pressure or the special occasions make it tough to control the aggression." CANNOTANSWER | Kohli is noted for his on-field aggression and was described in the media as "brash" and "arrogant" during his early career. | Virat Kohli (; born 5 November 1988) is an Indian international cricketer and former captain of the Indian national team. He plays for Delhi in domestic cricket and Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League as a right-handed batsman. Kohli is often considered one of the best batsmen of his era and some critics believe him to be one of the best limited-overs batsmen in history. Between 2013 and 2022, Kohli captained the India cricket team in more than 200 matches across all three formats.
Kohli made his Test debut in 2011. He reached the number one spot in the ICC rankings for ODI batsmen for the first time in 2013. He has won Man of the Tournament twice at the ICC World Twenty20 (in 2014 and 2016). He also holds the world record of being the fastest to 23,000 international runs.
Kohli has been the recipient of many awards– most notably the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy (ICC Men's Cricketer of the Decade): 2011–2020; Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy (ICC Cricketer of the Year) in 2017 and 2018; ICC Test Player of the Year (2018); ICC ODI Player of the Year (2012, 2017, 2018) and Wisden Leading Cricketer in the World (2016, 2017 and 2018). At the national level, he was awarded the Arjuna Award in 2013, the Padma Shri under the sports category in 2017 and the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award, the highest sporting honour in India, in 2018.
He is ranked as one of the world's most famous athletes by ESPN and one of the most valuable athlete brands by Forbes. In 2018, Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world. In 2020, he was ranked 66th in Forbes list of the top 100 highest-paid athletes in the world for the year 2020 with estimated earnings of over $26 million.
Early life
Virat Kohli was born on 5 November 1988 in Delhi into a Punjabi Hindu family. His father, Prem Kohli, worked as a criminal lawyer and his mother, Saroj Kohli, is a homemaker. He has an older brother, Vikash, and an older sister, Bhavna.
Kohli was raised in Uttam Nagar and started his schooling at Vishal Bharti Public School. In 1998, the West Delhi Cricket Academy was created and a nine-year-old Kohli was part of its first intake. Kohli trained at the academy under Rajkumar Sharma and also played matches at the Sumeet Dogra Academy at Vasundhara Enclave at the same time. In ninth grade, he shifted to Saviour Convent in Paschim Vihar to help his cricket practice. Kohli's family lived in Meera Bagh until 2015 when they moved to Gurugram.
Kohli's father died on 18 December 2006 due to a stroke after being bed-ridden for a month.
Youth and domestic career
Delhi
Kohli first played for Delhi Under-15 team in October 2002 in the 2002–03 Polly Umrigar Trophy. He became the captain of the team for the 2003–04 Polly Umrigar Trophy. In late 2004, he was selected in the Delhi Under-17 team for the 2003–04 Vijay Merchant Trophy. Delhi Under-17s won the 2004–05 Vijay Merchant Trophy in which Kohli finished as the highest run-scorer with 757 runs from 7 matches with two centuries. In February 2006, he made his List A debut for Delhi against Services but did not get to bat.
Kohli made his first-class debut for Delhi against Tamil Nadu in November 2006, at the age of 18, he scored 10 runs in his debut innings. He came into the spotlight in December when he decided to play for his team against Karnataka on the day after his father's death and went on to score 90. He went directly to the funeral after he got out in the match. He scored a total of 257 runs from 6 matches at an average of 36.71 in that season.
India Under-19
In July 2006, Kohli was selected in the India Under-19 squad on its tour of England. He averaged 105 in the three-match ODI series against England Under-19s and 49 in the three-match Test series. India Under-19 went on to win both the series. In September, the India Under-19 team toured Pakistan. Kohli averaged 58 in the Test series and 41.66 in the ODI series against Pakistan Under-19s.
In April 2007, he made his Twenty20 debut and finished as the highest run-getter for his team in the Inter-State T20 Championship with 179 runs at an average of 35.80. In July–August 2007, the India Under-19 team toured Sri Lanka. In the triangular series against Sri Lanka Under-19s and Bangladesh Under-19s, Kohli was the second highest run-getter with 146 runs at an average of 29 from 5 matches. In the two-match Test series that followed, he scored 244 runs at an average of 122 including a century and a fifty.
In February–March 2008, Kohli captained the victorious Indian team at the 2008 Under-19 Cricket World Cup held in Malaysia. Batting at number 3, he scored 235 runs in 6 matches at an average of 47 and finished as the tournament's third-highest run-getter and one of the three batsmen to score a hundred in the tournament. He was helped India in a three-wicket semi-final win over New Zealand Under-19s by taking 2 wickets and scoring 43 runs in the run-chase and was awarded the man of the match.
Indian Premier League
Following the Under-19 World Cup, Kohli was bought by the Indian Premier League franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore for $30,000 on a youth contract. In June 2008, Kohli and his Under-19 teammates Pradeep Sangwan and Tanmay Srivastava were awarded the Border-Gavaskar scholarship. The scholarship allowed the three players to train for six weeks at Cricket Australia's Centre of Excellence in Brisbane. He was also picked in the India Emerging Players squad for the four-team Emerging Players Tournament and scored 206 runs in six matches at an average of 41.20.
International career
Early years
In August 2008, Kohli was included in the Indian ODI squad for tour of Sri Lanka and the Champions Trophy in Pakistan. Prior to the Sri Lankan tour, Kohli had played only eight List A matches. So, his selection was called a "surprise call-up". During the Sri Lankan tour, as both first-choice openers Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag were injured, Kohli batted as a makeshift opener throughout the series. He made his international debut, at the age of 19, in the first ODI of the tour and was dismissed for 12. He made his first ODI half century, a score of 54, in the fourth match. He had scores of 37, 25 and 31 in the other three matches. India won the series 3–2 which was India's first ODI series win against Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka.
After the postponement of Champions Trophy to 2009, Kohli was picked as a replacement for the injured Shikhar Dhawan in the India A squad for the unofficial Tests against Australia A in September 2008. He batted only once in the two-match series, and scored 49 in that innings. Later that month in September 2008, he played for Delhi in the Nissar Trophy against SNGPL (winners of Quaid-i-Azam Trophy from Pakistan) and top-scored for Delhi in both innings, with 52 and 197. The match was drawn but SNGPL won the trophy on first-innings lead. In October 2008, Kohli played for Indian Board President's XI in a four-day tour match against Australia.
Kohli, after recovering from a minor shoulder injury, returned to the national team replacing the injured Gautam Gambhir in the Indian squad for the tri-series in Sri Lanka. He batted at number 4 for India in the 2009 ICC Champions Trophy because of an injury to Yuvraj Singh. In the group match against the West Indies, Kohli scored an unbeaten 79 in India's successful chase of 130 and was awarded man of the match award. Kohli played as a reserve batsman in the seven-match home ODI series against Australia, appearing in two matches. He found a place in the home ODI series against Sri Lanka in December 2009 and scored 27 and 54 in the first two ODIs before making way for Yuvraj who regained fitness for the third ODI. However, Yuvraj's finger injury recurred leading to him being ruled out indefinitely. Kohli returned to the team in the fourth ODI at Kolkata and scored his first ODI century–107 off 114 balls–sharing a 224-run partnership for the third wicket with Gambhir, who made his personal best score of 150. India won by seven wickets to seal the series 3–1. The man of the match was awarded to Gambhir who gave the award to Kohli.
Tendulkar was rested for the tri-nation ODI tournament in Bangladesh in January 2010, which enabled Kohli to play in each of India's five matches. Against Bangladesh, he scored 91 to help secure a win after India collapsed to 51/3 early in their run-chase of 297. In the next match against Sri Lanka, Kohli ended unbeaten on 71 to help India win the match with a bonus point having chased down their target of 214 within 33 overs. The next day, he scored his second ODI century, against Bangladesh, bringing up the mark with the winning runs. He became only the third Indian batsman to score two ODI centuries before their 22nd birthday, after Tendulkar and Suresh Raina. Kohli was much praised for his performances during the series in particular by the Indian captain Dhoni. Although Kohli made only two runs in the final against Sri Lanka in a four-wicket Indian defeat, he finished as the leading run-getter of the series with 275 runs from five innings at an average of 91.66. In the three-match ODI series at home against South Africa in February, Kohli batted in two games and had scores of 31 and 57.
Rise through the ranks
Raina was named captain and Kohli vice-captain for the tri-series against Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe in Zimbabwe in May–June 2010, as many first-choice players skipped the tour. Kohli made 168 runs at an average of 42.00 including two fifties, but India suffered three defeats in four matches and crashed out of the series. During the series, Kohli became the fastest Indian batsman to reach 1,000 runs in ODI cricket. He made his T20I debut against Zimbabwe at Harare and scored an unbeaten 26. Later that month, Kohli batted at 3 in an Indian team throughout the 2010 Asia Cup and scored a total of 67 runs at an average of 16.75. His struggles with form continued in the tri-series against Sri Lanka and New Zealand in Sri Lanka where he averaged 15.
Despite the poor run of form, Kohli was retained in the ODI squad for a three-match series against Australia in October, and in the only completed match of the series at Visakhapatnam, scored his third ODI century–118 off 121 balls–which helped India reach the target of 290 after losing the openers early. Winning the man of the match, he admitted that he was under pressure to keep his place in the team after failures in the two previous series. During the home ODI series against New Zealand, Kohli scored a match-winning 104-ball 105, his fourth ODI hundred and second in succession, in the first game, and followed it up with 64 and 63* in the next two matches. India completed a 5–0 whitewash of New Zealand, while Kohli's performance in the series helped him become a regular in the ODI team and made him a strong contender for a spot in India's World Cup squad. He was India's leading run-scorer in ODIs in 2010, with 995 runs from 25 matches at an average of 47.38 including three centuries and seven fifties.
Kohli was India's leading run-getter in the five-match ODI series of the South African tour in January 2011, with 193 runs at an average of 48.25 including two fifties, both in Indian defeats. During the series, he jumped to number two spot on the ICC Rankings for Men's ODI batters, and was named in India's 15-man squad for the World Cup.
Kohli played in every match of India's successful World Cup campaign. He scored an unbeaten 100, his fifth ODI century, in the first match against Bangladesh and became the first Indian batsman to score a century on World Cup debut. In the next four group matches he had low scores of 8, 34, 12 and 1 against England, Ireland, Netherlands and South Africa respectively. Having returned to form with 59 against the West Indies, he scored only 24 and 9 in the quarter-final against Australia and semi-final against Pakistan respectively. In the final against Sri Lanka at Mumbai, he scored 35, sharing an 83-run partnership with Gambhir for the third wicket after India had lost both openers within the seventh over chasing 275. This partnership is regarded as "one of the turning points in the match", as India went on to win the match by six wickets and lift the World Cup for the first time since 1983.
Consistent performance in limited overs
When India toured the West Indies in June–July 2011, they selected a largely inexperienced squad, resting Tendulkar and others such as- Gambhir and Sehwag missing out due to injuries. Kohli was one of three uncapped players in the Test squad. He found success in the ODI series which India won 3–2, with a total of 199 runs at an average of 39.80. His best efforts came in the second ODI at Port of Spain where he won the man of the match for his score of 81 which gave India a seven-wicket victory, and the fifth ODI at Kingston where his innings of 94 came in a seven-wicket defeat. Kohli made his Test debut at Kingston in the first match of the Test series that followed. He batted at 5 and was dismissed for 4 and 15 caught behind off the bowling of Fidel Edwards in both innings. India went on to win the Test series 1–0 but Kohli amassed just 76 runs from five innings, struggling against the short ball and was particularly troubled by the fast bowling of Edwards, who dismissed him three times in the series.
Initially dropped from the Test squad for India's four-match series in England in July and August due to poor performance in his debut series, Kohli was recalled as a replacement for the injured Yuvraj, though he did not got to play in any match in the series. He found moderate success in the subsequent ODI series in which he averaged 38.80. His score of 55 in the first ODI at Chester-le-Street was followed by a string of low scores in the next three matches. In the last game of the series, Kohli scored his sixth ODI hundred–107 runs off 93 balls–and shared a 170-run third-wicket partnership with Rahul Dravid, who was playing his last ODI, to help India post their first 300-plus total of the tour. Kohli was dismissed hit wicket in that innings which was the only century in the series by any player on either team and earned him praise for his "hard work" and "maturity". However, England won the match by D/L method and the series 3–0.
In October 2011, Kohli was the leading run-scorer of the five-match home ODI series against England which India won 5–0. He scored a total of 270 runs across five matches at an average of 90, including unbeaten knocks of 112 from 98 balls at Delhi, where he put on an unbroken 209-run partnership with Gambhir, and 86 at Mumbai, both in successful run-chases. Owing to his ODI success, Kohli was included in the Test squad to face the West Indies in November. He was selected in the final match of the series in which he scored a pair of fifties in the match. India won the subsequent ODI series 4–1 in which Kohli managed to accumulate 243 runs at 60.75. During the series, Kohli scored his eighth ODI century and his second at Visakhapatnam, where he made 117 off 123 balls in India's run-chase of 270, a knock which raised his reputation as "an expert of the chase". Kohli ended up as the leading run-getter in ODIs for the year 2011, with 1381 runs from 34 matches at 47.62 including four centuries and eight fifties.
During tour of Australia in December 2011, Kohli failed to go past 25 in the first two Tests, as his defensive technique was exposed. While fielding on the boundary during the second day of the second match, he gestured to the crowd with his middle finger for which he was fined 50% of his match fee by the match referee. He top-scored in each of India's innings in the third Test at Perth, with 44 and 75, even as India got their second consecutive innings defeat. In the fourth and final match at Adelaide, Kohli scored his maiden Test century of 116 runs in the first innings. India suffered a 0–4 whitewash and Kohli, India's top run-scorer in the series, was described as "the lone bright spot in an otherwise nightmare visit for the tourists".
In the first seven matches of the Commonwealth Bank triangular series that India played against hosts Australia and Sri Lanka, Kohli made two fifties–77 at Perth and 66 at Brisbane–both against Sri Lanka. India registered two wins, a tie and four losses in these seven matches. Being set a target of 321 by Sri Lanka, Kohli came to the crease with India's score at 86/2 and went on to score 133 not out from 86 balls to take India to a comfortable win with 13 overs to spare. India earned a bonus point with the win and Kohli was named Man of the Match for his knock. Former Australian cricketer and commentator Dean Jones rated Kohli's innings as "one of the greatest ODI knocks of all time". However, Sri Lanka beat Australia three days later in their last group fixture and knocked India out of the series. With 373 runs at 53.28, Kohli finished as India's highest run-scorer and lone centurion of the series.
Kohli was appointed the vice-captain for the 2012 Asia Cup in Bangladesh on the back of his fine performance in Australia. Kohli was in fine form during the tournament, finishing as the leading run-scorer with 357 runs at an average of 119. He scored 108 in the first match against Sri Lanka in a 50-run Indian victory, while India lost their next match to Bangladesh in which he made 66. In the final group stage match against Pakistan, he scored a personal best 183 off 148 balls, his 11th ODI century. He helped India to chase down 330, their highest successful ODI run-chase at the time. His knock was the highest individual score in Asia Cup history surpassing previous record of 144 by Younis Khan in 2004, the joint-second highest score, with Dhoni, in an ODI run-chase and the highest individual score against Pakistan in ODIs. Kohli was awarded the man of the match in both the matches that India won, but India could not progress to the final of the tournament.
In July–August 2012, Kohli struck two centuries in the five-match ODI tour of Sri Lanka–106 off 113 balls at Hambantota and 128* off 119 balls at Colombo–winning man of the match in both games. India won the series 4–1 and Kohli was named player of the series. In the one-off T20I that followed, he scored a 48-ball 68, his first T20I fifty, and won the player of the series award. Kohli scored his second Test century at Bangalore during New Zealand's tour of India and won man of the match award. India won the two-match series 2–0, and Kohli averaged 106 with one hundred and two fifties from three innings. In the subsequent T20I series, he scored 70 runs off 41 balls, but India lost the match by one run and the series 1–0. He continued to be in good form during the 2012 ICC World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka, with 185 runs, the highest among Indian batsmen, from 5 matches at an average of 46.25. He hit two fifties during the tournament, against Afghanistan and Pakistan, winning man of the match for both innings. He was named in the ICC 'Team of the Tournament'.
Kohli's Test form dipped during the first three matches of England's tour of India, between October 2012 and January 2013, with a top score of 20 and England leading the series 2–1. He scored a patient 103 from 295 balls in the last match. However, the match ended in a draw and England won their first Test series in India in 28 years. Against Pakistan in December 2012, Kohli averaged 18 in the T20Is and 4.33 in the ODIs, being troubled by the fast bowlers, particularly Junaid Khan, who dismissed him on all three occasions in the ODI series. Kohli had a quiet ODI series against England, apart from a match-winning 77* in the third ODI at Ranchi, with a total of 155 runs at an average of 38.75.
Kohli scored his fourth Test century (107) at Chennai in the first match of the home Test series against Australia in February 2013. India completed a 4–0 series sweep, becoming the first team to whitewash Australia in more than four decades. Kohli averaged 56.80 in the series .
In June 2013, Kohli featured in the ICC Champions Trophy in England which India won. He scored a 144 against Sri Lanka in warm-up match. He scored 31, 22 and 22* in India's group matches against South Africa, West Indies and Pakistan respectively, while India qualified for the semi-finals with an undefeated record. In the semi-final against Sri Lanka at Cardiff, he struck 58* in an eight-wicket win for India. The final between India and England at Birmingham was reduced to 20 overs after a rain delay. India batted first and Kohli top-scored with 43 from 34 balls, sharing a sixth-wicket partnership of 47 runs off 33 balls with Ravindra Jadeja and helping India reach 129/7 in 20 overs. India went on to secure a five-run win and their second consecutive ICC ODI tournament victory. He was also named as part of the 'Team of the Tournament' by the ICC.
Setting records
Kohli stood-in as the captain for the first ODI of the triangular series in the West Indies after Dhoni injured himself during the match. India lost the match by one wicket, and Dhoni was subsequently ruled out of the series with Kohli being named the captain for the remaining matches. In his second match as captain, Kohli scored his first century as captain, making 102 off 83 balls against the West Indies at Port of Spain in a bonus point win for India. Many senior players, including Dhoni, were rested for the five-match ODI tour of Zimbabwe in July 2013, with Kohli being appointed captain for an entire series for the first time. In the first game of the series at Harare, he struck 115 runs from 108 balls, helping India chase down the target of 229 and winning the man of the match award. He batted on two more occasions in the series in which he had scores of 14 and 68*. India completed a 5–0 sweep of the series; their first in an away ODI series.
Kohli had a successful time with the bat in the seven-match ODI series against Australia. After top-scoring with 61 in the opening loss at Pune, he struck the fastest century by an Indian in ODIs in the second match at Jaipur. Reaching the milestone in just 52 balls and putting up an unbroken 186-run second-wicket partnership with Rohit Sharma that came in 17.2 overs, Kohli's innings of 100* helped India chase down the target of 360 for the loss of one wicket with more than six overs to spare. This chase was the second-highest successful run-chase in ODI cricket at the time, while Kohli's knock became the fastest century against Australia and the third-fastest in a run-chase. He followed that innings with 68 in the next match at Mohali in another Indian defeat, before the next two matches were washed out by rain. In the sixth ODI at Nagpur, he struck 115 off only 66 balls to help India successfully chase the target of 351 and level the series 2–2 and won the man of the match. He reached the 100-run mark in 61 balls, making it the third-fastest ODI century by an Indian batsman, and also became the fastest batsman in the world to score 17 hundreds in ODI cricket. India clinched the series after winning the last match in which he was run out for a duck. At the conclusion of the series, Kohli moved to the top position in the ICC ODI batsmen rankings for the first time in his career.
Kohli batted twice in the two-match Test series against the West Indies, and had scores of 3 and 57 being dismissed by Shane Shillingford in both innings. This was also the last Test series for Tendulkar and Kohli was expected to take Tendulkar's number 4 batting position after the series. In the first game of the three-match ODI series that followed at Kochi, Kohli made 86 to seal a six-wicket win and won the man of the match. During the match, he also equalled Viv Richards' record of becoming the fastest batsman to make 5,000 runs in ODI cricket, reaching the landmark in his 114th innings. He missed out on his third century at Visakhapatnam in the next match, after being dismissed for 99 playing a hook shot off Ravi Rampaul. India lost the match by two wickets, but took the series 2–1 after winning the last match at Kanpur. With 204 runs at 68.00, Kohli finished the series as the leading run-getter and was awarded the man of the series.
Overseas season
India toured South Africa in December 2013 for three ODIs and two Tests. Kohli averaged 15.50 in the ODIs, including a duck. In the first Test at Johannesburg, playing his first Test in South Africa and batting at 4 for the first time, Kohli scored 119 and 96. His hundred was the first by a subcontinent batsman at the venue since 1998. The match ended in a draw, and Kohli was awarded man of the match. India failed to win a single match on the tour, losing the second Test by 10 wickets in which he made 46 and 11.
During New Zealand tour, he averaged 58.21 in the five-match ODI series in which his all efforts went in vain as India were defeated 4–0. He made 214 runs at 71.33 in the two-match Test series that followed including an unbeaten 105 on the last day of the second Test at Wellington that helped India save the match.
India then traveled to Bangladesh for the Asia Cup and World Twenty20. Dhoni was ruled out of the Asia Cup after suffering a side strain during the New Zealand tour, which led to Kohli being named the captain for the tournament. Kohli scored 136 off 122 balls in India's opening match against Bangladesh, sharing a 213-run third-wicket stand with Ajinkya Rahane, which helped India successfully chase 280. It was his 19th ODI century and his fifth in Bangladesh, making him the batsman with most ODI centuries in Bangladesh. India were knocked out of the tournament after narrow losses against Sri Lanka and Pakistan, in which Kohli scored 48 and 5 respectively.
Dhoni returned from injury to captain the team for 2014 ICC World Twenty20 and Kohli was named vice-captain. In India's opening match of the tournament against Pakistan, Kohli top-scored with 36 not out to guide India to a seven-wicket win. He scored 54 off 41 balls in the next game against West Indies and an unbeaten 57 from 50 balls against Bangladesh, both in successful run-chases. In the semi-final, he made an unbeaten 72 in 44 deliveries to help India achieve the target of 173. He won the man of the match for this knock. India posted 130/4 in the final against Sri Lanka, in which Kohli scored 77 from 58 balls, and eventually lost the match by six wickets. Kohli made a total of 319 runs in the tournament at an average of 106.33, a record for most runs by an individual batsman in a single World Twenty20 tournament, for which he won the Man of the Tournament award.
India conceded a 3–1 defeat in the five-match Test series against England. Kohli fared poorly in the series averaging just 13.40 in 10 innings scoring 134 runs overall with a top score of 39. It was a nightmare tour for him as he was dismissed for single-digit scores on six occasions in the series and was particularly susceptible to the swinging ball on off stump line, being dismissed several times edging the ball to the wicket-keeper or slip fielders. Man of the series James Anderson got Kohli's wicket four times, while Kohli's batting technique was questioned by analysts and former cricketers. India won the ODI series that followed 3–1, but Kohli's struggles with the bat continued with an average of 18 in four innings. In the one-off T20I, he scored 41-ball 66, his first fifty-plus score of the tour. India lost the match by three runs, but Kohli reached the number one spot for T20I batsmen in the ICC rankings.
Kohli had a successful time during India's home ODI series win over the West Indies in October 2014. His 62 in the second ODI at Delhi was his first fifty across Tests and ODIs in 16 innings since February, and he stated that he got his "confidence back" with the innings. He struck his 20th ODI hundred–127 runs in 114 balls–in the fourth match at Dharamsala. India registered a 59-run victory and Kohli was awarded man of the match. Dhoni was rested for the five-match ODI series against Sri Lanka in November, enabling Kohli to lead the team for another full series. Kohli batted at 4 throughout the series and made scores of 22, 49, 53 and 66 in the first four ODIs, with India leading the series 4–0. In the fifth ODI at Ranchi, he made an unbeaten 139 off 126 balls to give his team a three-wicket win and a whitewash of Sri Lanka. Kohli was awarded player of the series, and it was the second whitewash under his captaincy. During the series he became the fastest batter in the world to go past the 6000-run mark in ODIs. With 1054 ODI runs at 58.55 in 2014, he became the second player in the world after Sourav Ganguly to make more than 1,000 runs in ODIs for four consecutive calendar years.
Test captaincy
For the first Test of the Australian tour in December 2014, Dhoni was not part of the Indian team at Adelaide due to an injury, and Kohli took the reins as Test captain for the first time. Kohli scored 115 in India's first innings, becoming the fourth Indian to score a hundred on Test captaincy debut. In their second innings, India were set a target of 364 to be scored on the fifth day. Kohli put on 185 runs for the third wicket with Murali Vijay before Vijay's dismissal, which triggered a batting collapse. From 242/2, India was bowled out for 315 with Kohli's 141 off 175 balls being the top score.
Dhoni returned to the team as captain for the second match at Brisbane where Kohli scored 19 and 1 in a four-wicket defeat for India. In the Melbourne Boxing Day Test, he made his personal best Test score of 169 in the first innings while sharing a 262-run partnership with Rahane, India's biggest partnership outside Asia in ten years. Kohli followed it with a score of 54 in India's second innings on the fifth day, helping his team draw the Test match. Dhoni announced his retirement from Test cricket at the conclusion of this match, and Kohli was appointed as the full-time Test captain ahead of the fourth Test at Sydney. Captaining the Test team for the second time, Kohli hit 147 in the first innings of the match and became the first batsman in Test cricket history to score three hundreds in his first three innings as Test captain. He was dismissed for 46 in the second innings and the match ended in a draw. Kohli's total of 692 runs in four Tests was the most by any Indian batsman in a Test series in Australia.
In January 2015, India failed to win a single match in the tri-nation ODI series against the hosts Australia and England. Kohli was unable to replicate his Test success in ODIs, failing to make a two-digit score in any of the four games. Kohli's ODI form did not improve in the lead-up to the World Cup, with scores of 18 and 5 in the warm-up matches against Australia and Afghanistan respectively.
In the first match of the World Cup against Pakistan at Adelaide, Kohli hit 107 in 126 balls. For his knock, he was awarded the man of the match award. Kohli also became first Indian batsman to score a century against Pakistan in a World Cup match. He was dismissed for 46 in India's second match against South Africa. India went on to register a 130-run victory in the match. India batted second in their remaining four group matches in which Kohli scored 33*, 33, 44* and 38 against UAE, West Indies, Ireland and Zimbabwe respectively. India went on to secure wins in these four fixtures and top the Pool B points with an undefeated record. In India's 109-run victory in the quarter-final over Bangladesh, Kohli was dismissed by Rubel Hossain for 3, edging the ball to the wicket-keeper. India was eliminated in the semi-final by Australia at Melbourne, where Kohli was dismissed for 1 off 13 balls, top-edging a short-pitched delivery from Mitchell Johnson.
Kohli had a slump in form when India toured Bangladesh in June 2015. He contributed only 14 in the one-off Test which ended in a draw and averaged 16.33 in the ODI series which Bangladesh won 2–1. Kohli ended his streak of low scores by scoring his 11th Test hundred in the first Test of the Sri Lankan tour which India lost. India won the next two matches to seal the series 2–1, Kohli's first series win as Test captain and India's first away Test series win in four years.
During South Africa's tour of India, Kohli became the fastest batsman in the world to make 1,000 runs in T20I cricket, reaching the milestone in his 27th innings. In the ODI series, he made a century in the fourth ODI at Chennai that helped India draw level in the series. India lost the series after a defeat in the final ODI and Kohli finished the series with an average of 49. India came back to beat the top-ranked South African team 3–0 in the four-match Test series under Kohli's captaincy, and climbed to number two position on the ICC Test rankings. Virat scored a total of 200 runs in the series at 33.33.
No. 1 Test team and limited-overs captaincy
Kohli started 2016 with scores of 91 and 59 in the first two ODIs of the limited-overs tour of Australia. He followed it up with a pair of hundreds–a run-a-ball 117 at Melbourne and 106 from 92 balls at Canberra. During the course of the series, he became the fastest batsman in the world to cross the 7000-run mark in ODIs, getting to the milestone in his 161st innings, and the fastest to get to 25 centuries. After the ODI series ended in a 1–4 loss, the Indian team came back to whitewash the Australians 3–0 in the T20I series. Kohli made fifties in all three T20Is with scores of 90*, 59* and 50, winning two man of the matches as well as the man of the series award. He was also instrumental in India winning the Asia Cup in Bangladesh the following month in which he scored 49 in a run-chase of 84 against Pakistan, followed by an unbeaten 56 against Sri Lanka and 41 not out in the Final against Bangladesh.
Kohli maintained his form in the 2016 ICC World Twenty20 in India, scoring 55* in another successful run-chase against Pakistan. He struck an unbeaten 82 from 51 balls in India's must-win group match against Australia in "an innings of sheer class" with "clean cricket shots". It helped India win by six wickets and register a spot in the semi-final; Kohli went on to rate the innings as his best in the format. In the semi-final, Kohli top-scored with an unbeaten 89 from 47 deliveries, but West Indies overhauled India's total of 192 and ended India's campaign. His total of 273 runs in five matches at an average of 136.50 earned him his second consecutive Man of the Tournament award at the World Twenty20. He was named as captain of the 'Team of the Tournament' for the 2016 World Twenty20 by the ICC.
Playing his first Test in the West Indies since his debut series, Kohli scored 200 in the first Test at Antigua to ensure an innings-and-92-run win for India, their biggest win ever outside of Asia. It was his first double hundred in first-class cricket and the first made away from home by an Indian captain in Tests. India went on to wrap the series 2–0 and briefly top the ICC Test Rankings before being displaced by Pakistan at the position. He scored another double hundred–211 at Indore in the third Test against New Zealand–as India's 3–0 whitewash victory saw them regain the top position in the ICC Test Rankings. In the subsequent ODI series, Kohli set up two wins for India batting second with unbeaten knocks of 85 and 154. He then made 65 in the series-deciding fifth game at Visakhapatnam which India won.
Kohli got double centuries in the next two Test series against England and Bangladesh, making him the first batsman ever to score double centuries in four consecutive series. He broke the record of Australian great Donald Bradman and Rahul Dravid, both of whom had managed to get three. Against England, he got his then-highest Test score of 235.
10,000 runs in ODIs before age of 30
He followed it up with ODI centuries against the West Indies and Sri Lanka in consecutive series, equalling Ricky Ponting's tally of 30 ODI centuries. In October 2017, he was adjudged the ODI player of the series against New Zealand for scoring two ODI centuries, during the course of which he made a new record for the most runs (8,888), best average (55.55) and highest number of centuries (31) for any batsman when completing 200 ODIs. Kohli made several more records during the 3 match Test series against Sri Lanka at home in November. After scoring a century and a double century in the first two Tests, he ended up scoring yet another double century in the third Test, during which he became the eleventh Indian batsman to surpass 5000 runs in Test cricket while scoring his 20th Test century and 6th double century. During this match he also became the first batsman to score six double hundreds as a captain. With 610 runs in the series, Kohli also became the highest run-scorer by an Indian in a three-match Test series and the fourth-highest overall. India comfortably won the three-match series 1–0 and Kohli was adjudged man of the match for the second and third Test matches and player of the series. With this win, India equaled Australia for the record streak of nine consecutive series wins in Test cricket. He ended the year with 2818 international runs, which is recorded as the third-highest tally ever in a calendar year and the highest tally ever by an Indian player. The ICC named Kohli as captain of both their World Test XI and ODI XI for 2017.
Overseas season-including Windies at home
Kohli had a fared average in the Test matches as India lost 1–2 during the South Africa tour in 2018, but came back strongly to score 558 runs in the 6 ODIs, making a record for the highest runs scored in a bilateral ODI series. This included three centuries, remaining unbeaten in two with a best of 160*. India won the ODI series 5–1, Kohli becoming the first Indian captain to win an ODI series in South Africa.
In March 2018, Kohli played county cricket in England in June, in order to improve his batting before the start of India's tour to England the following month. He signed to play for Surrey, but a neck injury ruled him out of his stint in England before it even began. On 2 August, Kohli scored his first Test century on English soil in the first test match of the series against England. On 5 August, Kohli displaced Steve Smith to become the No. 1 ranked Test batsman in the ICC Test rankings. He also became the seventh Indian batsman and first since Sachin Tendulkar in June 2011 to achieve this feat. In the third test at Trent Bridge, Nottingham, Kohli scored 97 and 103, and helped India win by 203 runs. At the end of 5-match test series, Kohli scored 593 runs, which was third highest runs by an Indian batsman in a losing test series. Kohli's consistent performance in the series against the moving ball when other batsman failed to perform was hailed by British Media as one of his finest. The Guardian describes Kohli's batting display as One of the Greatest batting display in a losing cause.
During ODI series against West Indies in 2018, Kohli became the 12th batsman and fastest player to score 10,000 ODI runs. He surpassed the milestone with 205 innings which is 54 innings less than the next quickest to the landmark, Sachin Tendulkar. In the course he scored his 37th ODI century. On 27 October, after scoring his 38th ODI century, Kohli became the first batsman for India, first captain and tenth overall, to score three successive centuries in ODIs. He ended up scoring 453 runs in 5 innings, at an average of 151.00, in the 5-match series and was the Player of the Series.
On 16 December 2018 in the 2018-2019 Border Gavaskar Trophy, Kohli scored his 25th test hundred in Perth. His knock of 123 was his 6th hundred in three tours to Australia making him the only Indian to score 6 test hundreds in Australia after Sachin Tendulkar. He also became the fastest Indian and second fastest overall (125 innings) to score 25 test hundreds, second only to Donald Bradman (68 innings) which was bettered by Steven Smith during 2019 Ashes (119 innings). Kohli's knock was rated by several analysts and former cricketers as one of his finest against a quality Australian attack.
Although he broke several records in the game, his innings proved to insufficient as India went down by 146 runs as Australia levelled the series with two tests remaining. Overall, he finished the series with 282 runs at an average of 40. By winning the test series in Australia, he had become the first Indian and also the first Asian skipper to win a test series in Australia. He was again named as captain of both the World Test XI and ODI XI for 2018 by the ICC.
Captaining India in ICC events
2017 ICC Champions Trophy
Virat Kohli got the chance to captain in an ICC tournament for the first time in the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy. In the semi-final against Bangladesh, Kohli scored 96*, thus becoming the fastest batsman, in terms of innings, to reach 8,000 runs in ODIs in 175 innings. India reached the final, but lost to Pakistan by 180 runs. In the third over of Indian innings, Virat Kohli was dropped in the slips for just five runs but caught the next ball by Shadab Khan at point on the bowling of Mohammad Amir. He was also named as part of the 'Team of the Tournament' at the 2017 Champions Trophy by the ICC.
2019 Cricket World Cup
In April 2019, he was named the captain of India's squad for the 2019 Cricket World Cup. On 16 June 2019, in India's match against Pakistan, Kohli became the fastest batsman, in terms of innings, to score 11,000 runs in ODI cricket. He reached the landmark in his 222nd innings. Eleven days later, in the match against the West Indies, Kohli became the fastest cricketer, in terms of innings, to score 20,000 runs in international cricket, doing so in his 417th innings. Kohli scored five consecutive fifty plus score in the tournament. India lost the semi-final against New Zealand, in which Kohli was out for just a run.
2021 ICC World Test Championship Final
In June 2021, India lost the 2021 ICC World Test Championship Final to New Zealand. This was Kohli's third defeat as captain in knockouts and finals of ICC tournaments. Virat Kohli scored 44 and 13 runs in the 1st and 2nd innings respectively.
2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup
In September 2021, Kohli was named as the captain of India's squad for the 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup. India could not make it through the semi-finals, which was the first time in the past 9 years.
Home season
In October 2019, Kohli captained India for the 50th time in Test cricket, in the second Test against South Africa. In the first innings of the match, Kohli scored an unbeaten 254 runs, passing 7,000 runs in Tests in the process, and became the first batsman for India to score seven double centuries in Test cricket. In November 2019, during the day/night Test match against Bangladesh, Kohli became the fastest captain to score 5,000 runs in Test cricket, doing so in his 86th innings. In the same match, he also scored his 70th century in international cricket.
Poor form across formats
Disastrous tour of New Zealand
India toured to New Zealand from January to March 2020 to play 5-match T20 series along with a 3 and 2-match ODI and test series respectively. During the tour, Kohli badly struggled against the moving ball on tricky New Zealand pitches throughout the tour making the tour as his worst ever after the England tour in 2014. During the entire tour he only managed 218 across formats in 12 innings at an average of 19.81 with one half-century during first ODI. This was his lowest aggregate of runs in a tour where he played in all formats. India managed to win the T20I series 5–0. However Kohli-led side was badly hammered during the ODI and Test leg of the tour losing 3-0 and 2-0 respectively. This was also India's first whitewash under Kohli's captaincy.
India's tour of Australia and home series versus England
India travelled to Australia during November 2020 till January 2021 for a long tour. During the ODI Series, Kohli managed to score two half-centuries in three innings with a aggregate of 173 runs at an average of 57.67 despite this India lost the series 2–1. Also in November, Kohli played in his 250th ODI match, in the second match against Australia.
However, India bounced backed strongly and clinch the T20I series 2–1 with Kohli being the highest run scorer in the series for India (134 runs at 44.37). During the first test of the tour played as Day/night match at Adelaide, Kohli scored a fluent 74 before being run out. However he only managed 4 runs in next innings where India scrambled to 36/9, their lowest ever score in Test cricket history. After the 1st Test, Kohli left the tour on paternity leave as he was expecting the birth of his first child. He received mixed responses for his decision. Indian batting great Sunil Gavaskar along with Kapil Dev slammed Kohli for leaving the tour after the Indian team lost the 1st Test in Adelaide. Gavaskar slammed the double standard of BCCI for Kohli getting the paternity leave while T. Natarajan wasn't allowed for the same. Despite his absence India managed to clinch the test series 2–1 under the able leadership of stand-in captain Ajinkya Rahane. The Daily Telegraph described India's recovery as one of the great comebacks in cricket history.
In November 2020, Kohli was nominated for the Sir Garfield Sobers Award for ICC Male Cricketer of the Decade, as well as Test, ODI and T20I player of the decade and won two(Male cricketer of the decade and ODI cricketer of the decade).
The England tour of India begin with a long 4-match Test series. Kohli struggled to find his form through the series as he managed 172 runs across 4 Test matches at an average of 28.66 with 2 half-centuries and 2 ducks. This was also the first time Kohli got out for two ducks in a Test series after his disastrous tour of England in 2014. However, during the second test at Chepauk, Kohli scored a crucial 62 on a minefield of a pitch which English batting great Geoffrey Boycott described as a template to bat and score runs on a turning pitch.
Kohli got out for a duck again in the 1st T20I of a 5-match series. However, he found his form in the latter part of the series and ended the series as the highest run-scorer from both sides with 231 runs to his name and 3 half-centuries at an average of 115.50 as India clinched the series 3–2. Kohli was adjudged as the Man of the Series for his performances. During the second T20I, Kohli became the first ever batsman to complete 3,000 runs in the format.
In the 3-match ODI series, Kohli managed to score 129 runs in 3 innings with 2 half-centuries at a moderate average of 43.00 as India won the series 2–1. During the 2nd ODI, Kohli became the second batsman after Ricky Ponting to score 10,000 runs batting at number 3.
Tour of England and South Africa
Indian cricket team toured England in 2021 for a 5-match test series. During the 1st innings of the first test, Kohli got dismissed for a golden duck by James Anderson. Kohli managed to score 2 fifties in the next 6 innings he played. He has scored a total of 218 runs in the first four matches of the series, with an average of 31.14. The fifth test of the series is yet to played.
Indian cricket team toured South Africa in late 2021 and early 2022 for a 3-match test series and a 3-match ODI series. Kohli managed to score 161 runs in the 4 innings of test series he played, averaging at 40.25. He could not play 2nd test of the series due to an injury. India lost the series by 2-1, despite winning the first test.
In the ODI series, Kohli scored 116 runs in 3 innings, including two fifties, with an average of 38.66. South Africa won all three matches, thus whitewashing India.
Retirement from captaincy across all formats
In September 2021, Kohli announced that he would step down as India's T20I captain following the 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup .
In December 2021, Kohli was replaced by Rohit Sharma as India's ODI captain. BCCI President Sourav Ganguly later explained the decision to drop Kohli as ODI captain by saying that the selectors did not feel right to have two white ball captains. Later Ganguly said that BCCI had told Virat to not step down as T20I captain. Virat Kohli, during a press conference, contradicted the BCCI President and said that his decision of stepping down as captain was "received well" and termed as "progressive" by the BCCI officials. He also claimed that chief selector Chetan Sharma informed him 90-minutes before the announcement of the Test squad for India's tour of South Africa, about the removal from ODI captaincy. More than a week later, during the announcement of squad for ODI series versus South Africa, Chetan Sharma contradicted Kohli by saying that officials had asked Virat to reconsider his decision of stepping down as T20I captain.
On 15 January 2022, Kohli stepped down as India's Test captain, following the 2–1 test series defeat against South Africa during the India's Tour of South Africa.
Indian Premier League
Kohli was bought by the Indian Premier League franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore for $30,000 on a youth contract. He was the captain of Royal challengers Bangalore for 8 seasons but could not win a trophy.
Kohli had an poor 2008 season, with a total of 165 runs in 12 innings at an average of 15.00 and a strike rate of 105.09. He did slightly better in the second season in which he made a total of 246 runs at 22.36, striking at over 112, while his team made it as far as the final. In the 2010 season, Kohli was the third highest run-getter for his team with 307 runs, averaging 27.90 and improving his strike rate to 144.81.
Kohli was the second-highest run-getter of the season, only behind teammate Chris Gayle, and his team finished as runners-up. Kohli scored total 557 runs at an average of 46.41 and at the strike rate of over 121 including four fifties. In the 2012 IPL, he averaged 28 and scored 364 runs.
During 2013 season, Kohli averaged 45.28 and hit a total of 634 runs at a strike rate of over 138 including six fifties and a top-score of 99 and finished as the season's third-highest run-scorer.
Bangalore finished seventh in the next season in which Kohli made 359 runs at 27.61. He found success with the bat in the 2015 IPL in which he led his team to the playoffs. He finished fifth on the season's leading run-getters list with 505 runs at an average of 45.90 and a strike rate of more than 130.
At the 2016 IPL, the Royal Challengers finished runners-up and Kohli broke the record for most runs in an IPL season (of 733 runs) by scoring 973 runs in 16 matches at an average of 81.08, winning the Orange Cap as well as Most-valuable Player Award of Vivo IPL 2016. He scored four centuries in the tournament, having never scored one in the Twenty20 format before the start of the season, and also became the first player to reach the 4000-run milestone in the IPL. At the launch event of his biography, 'Driven: The Virat Kohli Story' in New Delhi, in October 2016, Kohli announced that RCB would be the IPL franchise that he would permanently play for.
Kohli missed the start of the 2017 season due to a shoulder injury. Moreover, RCB finished the tournament at the bottom of the table, with Kohli scoring the most runs for his team, with 308 from 10 matches. On the occasion of the 10 year anniversary of IPL, he was also named in the all-time Cricinfo IPL XI.
In the 2018 season, Kohli was retained by RCB for a price of , the highest for any player that year. Kohli scored 530 runs in the season and became the first batsman to score more than 500 runs in 5 different seasons. Moreover, RCB failed to qualify for Playoffs and finished sixth on the points table.
On 28 March 2019, Kohli became the second player to reach 5000 IPL runs after Suresh Raina. In the same season, Kohli surpassed Raina to become leading runs scorer in IPL when he scored 84 runs in a match against KKR.
On 22 April 2021, against Rajasthan Royals, Kohli became the first ever player to reach 6000 IPL Runs. On 20 September, Royal Challengers Bangalore announced that Kohli would step down as captain following the 2021 IPL season.
Player profile
Playing style
Kohli is a naturally aggressive batsman with strong technical skills. He usually bats at the no.3 position in ODI cricket. He bats with a slightly open-chested stance and a strong bottom-hand grip. He is not a big hitter and plays more grounded shots. He is known for his wide range of shots, ability to pace an innings and batting under pressure. He is strong through the mid-wicket and cover region. He has said that the cover drive is his favourite shot, while also saying that the flick shot comes naturally to him. He does not play the sweep shot often, being called "not a natural sweeper of the cricket ball". Kohli is strong on leg stump line bowling. If bowled at leg stump he plays flick shot.
According to cricket pundit VVS Laxman, for Virat Kohli, balling line outside the off stump is his weakness. He got out many times by outside off stump line ball and opposition team's bowlers tries to exploit his weakness in Test as well as ODIs. Out swinging balls his one of the weakness as per Richard Hadlee.
His teammates have praised his confidence, commitment, focus and work ethics. Kohli is also known to be a "sharp" fielder.
Kohli is regarded as the best limited-overs batsman in the world, especially while chasing. In ODIs, he averages around 69 in matches batting second as opposed to around 51 batting first. 26 of his 43 ODI hundreds have come in run-chases and he holds the record for most hundreds batting second.
Aggression
Kohli is noted for his on-field aggression and was described in the media as "brash" and "arrogant" during his early career. He has got into confrontations with players and umpires on several occasions. While many former cricketers have backed his aggressive attitude, some have criticised it. In 2012, Kohli had stated that he tries to limit his aggressive behaviour but "the build-up and the pressure or the special occasions make it tough to control the aggression."
Comparisons to Sachin Tendulkar
Kohli is often compared to Sachin Tendulkar, due to their similar styles of batting, and sometimes referred to as Tendulkar's "successor". Many former cricketers expect Kohli to break Tendulkar's batting records. He is ranked as one of the world's most famous athletes by ESPN Kohli has stated that growing up his idol and role model was Tendulkar and that as a kid he "tried to copy the shots [Tendulkar] played and hit sixes the way he used to hit them." Former West Indies great Vivian Richards, who is regarded as the most destructive batsman in cricket, stated that Kohli reminds him of himself. In early 2015, Richards said Kohli was "already legendary" in the ODI format, while former Australian cricketer Dean Jones called Kohli the "new king of world cricket". Aakash Chopra, an Indian commentator, stated that "Sachin had more shots as compared to Virat".
Career summary
, Kohli has made 70 centuries and 7 double centuries in international cricket—27 centuries, 7 double centuries in Test cricket and 43 centuries in One Day Internationals (ODIs).
Test match performance
ODI match performance
T20I match performance
Records
Virat Kohli is leading run scorer in T20I with most 50 plus scores. He is the only cricketer to have been awarded player of the tournament twice in T20 World Cup. He scored 319 runs with 4 fifties in T20 World Cup 2014 and was leading run scorer in the tournament.
He has 2nd most centuries in ODI(43) and only behind Tendulkar who has 49 centuries. He has 3rd most centuries(70) in international cricket and only behind Tendulkar(100) and Ponting(71). He is the fastest player to score 10,000 runs in ODI in terms of innings and took 54 less innings than previous record of 259 innings. In 2018, He scored 1000 ODI runs in just 11 innings which is the least number of innings taken to score 1000 runs in a calendar year.
Awards
National honours
2013 - Arjuna Award
2017 - Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian award.
2018 - Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award, India's highest sporting honour.
Sporting honours
Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy (ICC Men's Cricketer of the Decade): 2011–2020
Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy (ICC Cricketer of the Year): 2017, 2018
ICC ODI Player of the Year: 2012, 2017, 2018
ICC Test Player of the Year: 2018
ICC ODI Team of the Year: 2012, 2014, 2016 (captain), 2017 (captain), 2018 (captain), 2019 (captain)
ICC Test Team of the Year: 2017 (captain), 2018 (captain), 2019 (captain)
ICC Spirit of Cricket: 2019
ICC Men's ODI Cricketer of the Decade: 2011–2020
ICC Men's Test Team of the Decade: 2011–2020 (captain)
ICC Men's ODI Team of the Decade: 2011–2020
ICC Men's T20I Team of the Decade: 2011–2020
Polly Umrigar Award for International Cricketer of the Year: 2011–12, 2014–15, 2015–16, 2016–17, 2017–18
Wisden Leading Cricketer in the World: 2016, 2017, 2018
CEAT International Cricketer of the Year: 2011–12, 2013–14, 2018–19
Barmy Army - International Player of Year: 2017, 2018
Other honours and awards
People's Choice Awards India For Favourite Sportsperson: 2012
CNN-News18 Indian of the Year: 2017
Delhi & District Cricket Association (DDCA) renamed a stand after Kohli at Arun Jaitley stadium, Delhi.
Outside cricket
Personal life
Kohli started dating Bollywood actress Anushka Sharma in 2013; the couple soon earned the celebrity couple nickname "Virushka". Their relationship attracted substantial media attention, with persistent rumours and speculations in the media, as neither of the two publicly talked about it. The couple married on 11 December 2017 in a private ceremony in Florence, Italy. On 11 January 2021, they became parents to a baby girl, Vamika.
In 2018, Kohli revealed that he completely stopped consuming meat to cut down his uric acid levels which caused him a cervical spine issue and started affecting his finger and, in turn, his batting. In 2021, he clarified that he is a vegetarian and not a vegan.
Kohli has admitted that he is superstitious. He used to wear black wristbands as a cricket superstition; earlier, he used to wear the same pair of gloves with which he had "been scoring". Apart from a religious black thread, he has also been wearing a kara on his right arm since 2012.
Commercial investments
According to Kohli, football is his second favourite sport. In 2014, Kohli became a co-owner of Indian Super League club FC Goa. He stated that he invested in the club with the "keenness of football" and because he "wanted football to grow in India". He added, "It's a business venture for me for the future. Cricket's not going to last forever and I'm keeping all my options open after retirement."
In September 2015, Kohli became a co-owner of the International Premier Tennis League franchise UAE Royals, and, in December that year, became a co-owner of the JSW-owned Bengaluru Yodhas franchise in Pro Wrestling League.
In November 2014, Kohli and Anjana Reddy's Universal Sportsbiz (USPL) launched a youth fashion brand WROGN. The brand started to produce men's casual wear clothing in 2015 and has tied up with Myntra and Shopper's Stop. In late 2014, Kohli was announced as a shareholder and brand ambassador of the social networking venture 'Sport Convo' based in London.
In 2015, Kohli invested to start a chain of gyms and fitness centres across the country. Launched under the name Chisel, the chain of gyms is jointly owned by Kohli, Chisel India and CSE (Cornerstone Sport and Entertainment), the agency which manages Kohli's commercial interests. In 2016, Kohli started Stepathlon Kids, a children fitness venture, in partnership with Stepathlon Lifestyle.
Charity
In March 2013, Kohli started a charity foundation called Virat Kohli Foundation (VKF). The organisation aims at helping underprivileged kids and conducts events to raise funds for the charity. According to Kohli, the foundation works with select NGOs to "create awareness, seek support and raise funds for the various causes they endorse and the philanthropic work they engage in." In May 2014, eBay and Save the Children India conducted a charity auction with VKF, with its proceeds benefiting the education and healthcare of underprivileged children.
Kohli has captained the All Heart Football Club, owned by VKF, in charity football matches against All Stars Football Club, owned by Abhishek Bachchan's Playing for Humanity. The matches, known as "Celebrity Clasico", feature cricketers playing for All Heart and Bollywood actors in the All Stars team, and are organized to generate funds for the two charity foundations.
Social media fan following
Kohli is very active on social media and has a huge fan following on the platform. He is the only cricketer, and fifth sports personality, to have more than 150 million followers on Instagram.
In popular culture
Kohli was featured in episodes of The Test (documentary) of Amazon prime, about Australian team's journey after ball tampering scandal.
Super V (Super Virat), an Indian animated superhero television series portrays a fictionalized version of Kohli's teen years where he discovers hidden superpowers.
Mega Icons (2018-2020), an Indian documentary television series on National Geographic about prominent Indian personalities, dedicated an episode to Kohli's achievements in cricket.
See also
List of players who have scored 10,000 or more runs in One Day International cricket
List of cricketers by number of international centuries scored
List of cricketers who have scored centuries in both innings of a Test match
Notes
References
Bibliography
External links
1988 births
Living people
Indian cricketers
India Test cricketers
India One Day International cricketers
India Twenty20 International cricketers
Royal Challengers Bangalore cricketers
Delhi cricketers
Cricketers at the 2011 Cricket World Cup
Cricketers at the 2015 Cricket World Cup
Cricketers at the 2019 Cricket World Cup
Cricketers from Delhi
India Test cricket captains
North Zone cricketers
Punjabi people
Indian Hindus
People from Delhi
Recipients of the Padma Shri in sports
International Cricket Council Cricketer of the Year
Wisden Cricketers of the Year
Recipients of the Khel Ratna Award
Recipients of the Arjuna Award | true | [
"Přírodní park Třebíčsko (before Oblast klidu Třebíčsko) is a natural park near Třebíč in the Czech Republic. There are many interesting plants. The park was founded in 1983.\n\nKobylinec and Ptáčovský kopeček\n\nKobylinec is a natural monument situated ca 0,5 km from the village of Trnava.\nThe area of this monument is 0,44 ha. Pulsatilla grandis can be found here and in the Ptáčovský kopeček park near Ptáčov near Třebíč. Both monuments are very popular for tourists.\n\nPonds\n\nIn the natural park there are some interesting ponds such as Velký Bor, Malý Bor, Buršík near Přeckov and a brook Březinka. Dams on the brook are examples of European beaver activity.\n\nSyenitové skály near Pocoucov\n\nSyenitové skály (rocks of syenit) near Pocoucov is one of famed locations. There are interesting granite boulders. The area of the reservation is 0,77 ha.\n\nExternal links\nParts of this article or all article was translated from Czech. The original article is :cs:Přírodní park Třebíčsko.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nNature near the village Trnava which is there\n\nTřebíč\nParks in the Czech Republic\nTourist attractions in the Vysočina Region",
"Interesting Times: The Secret of My Success is a 2002 Chinese documentary film by director Duan Jinchuan about China's contemporary politics of democracy and the realities of the one child policy. The director shows how this policy is being implemented in Fanshen, a rural village in Northeast China.\n\nThis film is part of the 2002 series 'Interesting Times' showing different aspects of modern life in China:\nThe secret of my success - shows how Chinese politics are implemented in the countryside.\nThe war of love Directors: Duan Jinchuan & Jiang Yue - is a portrait of a marriage broker.\nXiao’s long march Director: Wu Gong - about the People's Liberation Army.\nThis happy life Director: Jiang Yue - aims to define the concept of political education in China.\n\nAwards\nIDFA Award for best Mid-Length Documentary (2002)\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n Interesting times: the secrets of my success documentary online\n\nChinese documentary films\n2002 films\n2002 documentary films\nChinese films\nOne-child policy"
]
|
[
"Jello Biafra",
"Alternative Tentacles"
]
| C_1c892d3c20fa42df8350499241317562_0 | what is alternative tentacles? | 1 | What is Jello Biafra's Alternative Tentacles? | Jello Biafra | In June 1979, Biafra co-founded the record label Alternative Tentacles, with which the Dead Kennedys released their first single, "California Uber Alles". The label was created to allow the band to release albums without having to deal with pressure from major labels to change their music, although the major labels were not willing to sign the band due to their songs being deemed too controversial. After dealing with Cherry Red in the UK and IRS Records in the US for their first album Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables, the band released all later albums, and later pressings of Fresh Fruit on Alternative Tentacles. The exception being live albums released after the band's break-up, which the other band members compiled from recordings in the band partnership's vaults without Biafra's input or endorsement.. Biafra has been the owner of the company since its founding, though he does not receive a salary for his position; Biafra has referred to his position in the company as "absentee thoughtlord". Biafra is an ardent collector of unusual vinyl records of all kinds, from 1950s and 1960s ethno-pop recordings by the likes of Les Baxter and Esquivel to vanity pressings that have circulated regionally, to German crooner Heino (for whom he would later participate in the documentary Heino: Made In Germany); he cites his always growing collection as one of his biggest musical influences. In 1993 he gave an interview to RE/Search Publications for their second Incredibly Strange Music book focusing primarily on these records, and later participated in a two-part episode of Fuse TV's program Crate Diggers on the same subject. His interest in such recordings, often categorized as outsider music, led to his discovery of the prolific (and schizophrenic) singer/songwriter/artist Wesley Willis, whom he signed to Alternative Tentacles in 1994, preceding Willis' major label deal with American Recordings. His collection grew so large that on October 1, 2005, Biafra donated a portion of his collection to an annual yard sale co-promoted by Alternative Tentacles and held at their warehouse in Emeryville, California. In 2006, along with Alternative Tentacles employee and The Frisk lead singer Jesse Luscious, Biafra began co-hosting The Alternative Tentacles Batcast, a downloadable podcast hosted by alternativetentacles.com. The show primarily focuses on interviews with artists and bands that are currently signed to the Alternative Tentacles label, although there are also occasional episodes where Biafra devoted the show to answering fan questions. CANNOTANSWER | Biafra co-founded the record label Alternative Tentacles, | Eric Reed Boucher (born June 17, 1958), better known by his professional name Jello Biafra, is an American singer and spoken word artist. He is the former lead singer and songwriter for the San Francisco punk rock band Dead Kennedys.
Initially active from 1979 to 1986, Dead Kennedys were known for rapid-fire music topped with Biafra's sardonic lyrics and biting social commentary, delivered in his "unique quiver of a voice". When the band broke up in 1986, he took over the influential independent record label Alternative Tentacles, which he had founded in 1979 with Dead Kennedys bandmate East Bay Ray. In a 2000 lawsuit, upheld on appeal in 2003 by the California Supreme Court, Biafra was found liable for breach of contract, fraud and malice in withholding a decade's worth of royalties from his former bandmates and ordered to pay over $200,000 in compensation and punitive damages; the band subsequently reformed without Biafra. Although now focused primarily on spoken word performances, Biafra has continued as a musician in numerous collaborations. He has also occasionally appeared in cameo roles in films.
Politically, Biafra is a member of the Green Party of the United States and supports various political causes. He ran for the party's presidential nomination in the 2000 presidential election, finishing a distant second to Ralph Nader. In 1979 he ran for mayor of San Francisco, California. He is a staunch believer in a free society, and utilizes shock value and advocates direct action and pranksterism in the name of political causes. Biafra is known to use absurdist media tactics, in the leftist tradition of the Yippies, to highlight issues of civil rights and social justice.
Early life
Eric Reed Boucher was born in Boulder, Colorado, the son of Virginia (née Parker), a librarian, and Stanley Wayne Boucher, a psychiatric social worker and poet. His sister, Julie J. Boucher, was Associate Director of the Library Research Service at the Colorado State Library; she died in a mountain-climbing accident on October 12, 1996. Biafra has a Jewish great grandparent, but was unaware of this until the mid-2000s. He grew up in a secular household and has said that he is "not really Jewish".
As a child, Boucher developed an interest in international politics that was encouraged by his parents. An avid news watcher, one of his earliest memories was of the John F. Kennedy assassination. Biafra says he has been a fan of rock music since first hearing it in 1965, when his parents accidentally tuned in to a rock radio station. Boucher ignored his high school guidance counselor's advice that he spend his adolescence preparing to become a dental hygienist.
He began his career in music in January 1977 as a roadie for the punk rock band The Ravers (who later changed their name to The Nails), soon joining his friend John Greenway in a band called The Healers. The Healers became well known locally for their mainly improvised lyrics and avant garde music. In the autumn of that year, he began attending the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Musical career
Dead Kennedys
In June 1978, Biafra responded to an advertisement placed in a store by guitarist East Bay Ray, stating "guitarist wants to form punk band", and together they formed the Dead Kennedys. He began performing with the band under the stage name Occupant, but soon began to use his current stage name, a combination of the brand name Jell-O and the short-lived African state Biafra. The band's lyrics were written by Biafra. The lyrics were mostly political in nature and displayed a sardonic, sometimes absurdist, sense of humor despite their serious subject matter. In the tradition of UK anarcho-punk bands like Crass and the Subhumans, the Dead Kennedys were one of the first US punk bands to write politically themed songs. The lyrics Biafra wrote helped popularize the use of humorous lyrics in punk and other types of hard-core music. Biafra cites Joey Ramone as the inspiration for his use of humor in his songs (as well as being the musician who made him interested in punk rock), noting in particular songs by the Ramones such as "Beat on the Brat" and "Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue".
Biafra initially attempted to compose music on guitar, but his lack of experience on the instrument and his own admission of being "a fumbler with my hands" led Dead Kennedys bassist Klaus Flouride to suggest that Biafra simply sing the parts he envisioned to the band. Biafra sang his riffs and melodies into a tape recorder, which he brought to the band's rehearsal and/or recording sessions. This later became a problem when the other members of the Dead Kennedys sued Biafra over royalties and publishing rights. By all accounts, including his own, Biafra is not a conventionally skilled musician, though he and his collaborators (Joey Shithead of D.O.A. in particular) attest that he is a skilled composer and his work, particularly with the Dead Kennedys, is highly respected by punk-oriented critics and fans.
Biafra's first popular song was the first single by the Dead Kennedys, "California über alles". The song, which spoofed California governor Jerry Brown, was the first of many political songs by the group and Biafra. The song's popularity resulted in its being covered by other musicians, such as The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy (who rewrote the lyrics to parody Pete Wilson), John Linnell of They Might Be Giants and Six Feet Under on their Graveyard Classics album of cover versions. Not long after, the Dead Kennedys had a second and bigger hit with "Holiday in Cambodia" from their debut album Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables. AllMusic cites this song as "possibly the most successful single of the American hardcore scene" and Biafra counts it as his personal favorite Dead Kennedy's song. Minor hits from the album included "Kill the Poor" (about potential abuse of the then-new neutron bomb) and a satirical cover of Elvis Presley's "Viva Las Vegas".
The Dead Kennedys received some controversy in the spring of 1981 over the single "Too Drunk to Fuck". The song became a hit in Britain, and the BBC feared that it would manage to be a big enough hit to appear among the top 30 songs on the national charts, requiring a mention on Top of the Pops. However, the single peaked at number 31 in the charts.
Later albums also contained memorable songs, but with less popularity than the earlier ones. The EP In God We Trust, Inc. contained the song "Nazi Punks Fuck Off!" as well as "We've Got A Bigger Problem Now", a rewritten version of "California über alles" about Ronald Reagan. Punk musician and scholar Vic Bondi considers the latter song to be the song that "defined the lyrical agenda of much of hardcore music, and represented its break with punk". The band's most controversial album, Frankenchrist, brought with it the song "MTV Get Off the Air," which accused MTV of promoting poor quality music and sedating the public. The album also contained a controversial poster by Swiss surrealist artist H. R. Giger entitled Penis Landscape.
The Dead Kennedys toured widely during their career, starting in the late 1970s. They began playing at San Francisco's Mabuhay Gardens (their home base) and other Bay Area venues, later branching out to shows in southern Californian clubs (most notably the Whisky a Go Go), but eventually they moved to major clubs across the country, including CBGB in New York. Later, they played to larger audiences such as at the 1980 Bay Area Music Awards (where they played the notorious "Pull My Strings" for the only time), and headlined the 1983 Rock Against Reagan festival.
On May 7, 1994, punk rock fans who believed Biafra was a "sell out" attacked him at the 924 Gilman Street club in Berkeley, California. Biafra claims that he was attacked by a man nicknamed Cretin, who crashed into him while moshing. The crash injured Biafra's leg, causing an argument between the two men. During the argument, Cretin pushed Biafra to the floor and five or six friends of Cretin assaulted Biafra while he was down, yelling "Sellout rock star, kick him", and attempting to pull out his hair. Biafra was later hospitalized with serious injuries. The attack derailed Biafra's plans for both a Canadian spoken-word tour and an accompanying album, and the production of Pure Chewing Satisfaction was halted. However, Biafra returned to the Gilman club a few months after the incident to perform a spoken-word performance as an act of reconciliation with the club.
Biafra has been a prominent figure of the Californian punk scene and was one of the third generation members of the San Francisco punk community. Many later hardcore bands have cited the Dead Kennedys as a major influence. Hardcore punk author Steven Blush describes Biafra as hardcore's "biggest star" who was a "powerful presence whose political insurgence and rabid fandom made him the father figure of a burgeoning subculture [and an] inspirational force [who] could also be a real prick ... Biafra was a visionary, incendiary [performer]."
After the Dead Kennedys disbanded, Biafra's new songs were recorded with other bands, and he released only spoken word albums as solo projects. These collaborations had less popularity than Biafra's earlier work. However, his song "That's Progress", originally recorded with D.O.A. for the album Last Scream of the Missing Neighbors, received considerable exposure when it appeared on the album Rock Against Bush, Vol. 1.
Obscenity prosecution
In April 1986, police officers raided Biafra's house in response to complaints by the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC). In June 1986, L.A. deputy city attorney Michael Guarino, working under City Attorney James Hahn, brought Biafra to trial in Los Angeles for distributing "harmful material to minors" in the Dead Kennedys album Frankenchrist. However, the dispute was about neither the music nor the lyrics from the album, but rather the print of the H. R. Giger poster Landscape XX (Penis Landscape) included with the album.
Music author Reebee Garofalo argued that Biafra and Alternative Tentacles may have been targeted because the label was a "small, self-managed and self-supported company that could ill afford a protracted legal battle." Facing the possible sentence of a year in jail and a $2,000 fine, Biafra, Dirk Dirksen, and Suzanne Stefanac founded the No More Censorship Defense Fund, a benefit featuring several punk rock bands, to help pay for his legal fees, which neither he nor his record label could afford. The jury deadlocked 5 to 7 in favor of acquittal, prompting a mistrial; despite a motion to re-try the case, the judge ordered all charges dropped. The Dead Kennedys disbanded during the trial, in December 1986, due to the mounting legal costs; in the wake of their disbandment, Biafra made a career of his spoken word performances.
Biafra has a cameo role in the 1988 film Tapeheads. He plays an FBI agent who arrests the two protagonists (played by Tim Robbins and John Cusack). While arresting them his character asks "Remember what we did to Jello Biafra?" lampooning the obscenity prosecution.
On March 25, 2005, Biafra appeared on the U.S. radio program This American Life, "Episode 285: Know Your Enemy", which featured a phone call between Jello Biafra and Michael Guarino, the prosecutor in the Frankenchrist trial.
Lawsuit and reunion activities
In October 1998, three former members of the Dead Kennedys sued Biafra for nonpayment of royalties. The other members of Dead Kennedys alleged that Biafra, in his capacity as the head of Alternative Tentacles records, discovered an accounting error amounting to some $75,000 in unpaid royalties over almost a decade. Rather than informing his bandmates of this mistake, the suit alleged, Biafra knowingly concealed the information until a whistleblower employee at the record label notified the band.
According to Biafra, the suit resulted from his refusal to allow one of the band's most well-known singles, "Holiday in Cambodia", to be used in a commercial for Levi's Dockers; Biafra opposes Levi's because of his belief that they use unfair business practices and sweatshop labor. Biafra maintained that he had never denied them royalties, and that he himself had not even received royalties for re-releases of their albums or "posthumous" live albums which had been licensed to other labels by the Decay Music partnership. Decay Music denied this charge and have posted what they say are his cashed royalty checks, written to his legal name of Eric Boucher. Biafra also complained about the songwriting credits in new reissues and archival live albums of songs, alleging that he was the sole composer of songs that were wrongly credited to the entire band.
In May 2000, a jury found Biafra and Alternative Tentacles liable by not promptly informing his former bandmates of the accounting error and instead withholding the information during subsequent discussions and contractual negotiations. Biafra was ordered to pay $200,000, including $20,000 in punitive damages. After an appeal by Biafra's lawyers, in June 2003, the California Court of Appeals unanimously upheld all the conditions of the 2000 verdict against Biafra and Alternative Tentacles. Furthermore, the plaintiffs were awarded the rights to most of Dead Kennedys recorded works—which accounted for about half the sales for Alternative Tentacles. Now in control of the Dead Kennedys name, Biafra's former bandmates went on tour with a new lead vocalist.
Other bands
In the early 1980s, Biafra collaborated with musicians Christian Lunch and Adrian Borland (of The Sound) and Morgan Fisher (of Mott the Hoople) for the electropunk musical project The Witch Trials, releasing one self-titled EP in its lifetime.
In 1988, Biafra, with Al Jourgensen and Paul Barker of the band Ministry, and Jeff Ward, formed Lard. The band became yet another side project for Ministry, with Biafra providing vocals and lyrics. According to a March 2009 interview with Jourgensen, he and Biafra are working on a new Lard album, which is being recorded in Jourgensen's El Paso studio. Jourgensen also claimed in 2021 that Biafra was in works of a new Lard album. While working on the film Terminal City Ricochet in 1989, Biafra did a song for the film's soundtrack with D.O.A.. As a result, Biafra worked with D.O.A. on the album Last Scream of the Missing Neighbors. Biafra also worked with Nomeansno on the soundtrack, which led to their collaboration on the album The Sky Is Falling and I Want My Mommy the following year. Biafra also provided lyrics for the song "Biotech is Godzilla" for Sepultura's 1993 album Chaos A.D..
In 1999, Biafra and other members of the anti-globalization movement protested the WTO Meeting of 1999 in Seattle. Along with other prominent West Coast musicians, he formed the short-lived band the No WTO Combo to help promote the movement's cause. The band was originally scheduled to play during the protest, but the performance was canceled due to riots. The band performed a short set the following night at the Showbox in downtown Seattle (outside the designated area), along with the hiphop group Spearhead. No WTO Combo later released a CD of recordings from the concert, entitled Live from the Battle in Seattle.
As of late 2005, Biafra was performing with the band The Melvins under the name "Jello Biafra and the Melvins", though fans sometimes refer to them as "The Jelvins". Together they have released two albums, and worked on material for a third collaborative release, much of which was premiered live at two concerts at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco during an event called Biafra Five-O, commemorating Biafra's 50th birthday, the 30th anniversary of the founding of the Dead Kennedys, and the beginning of legalized same-sex marriage in California. Biafra was also working with a band known as Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine, which included Ralph Spight of Victims Family on guitar and Billy Gould of Faith No More on bass. This group debuted during Biafra Five-O.
In 2011, Biafra appeared in a singular concert event with an all-star cast of Southern musicians including members from Cowboy Mouth, Dash Rip Rock, Mojo Nixon and Down entitled, "Jello Biafra and the New Orleans Raunch & Soul All Stars" who performed an array of classic Soul covers to a packed house at the 12-Bar in New Orleans, Louisiana. He would later reunite with many of the same musicians during the Carnival season 2014 to revisit many of these classics at Siberia, New Orleans. A live album from the 2011 performance, Walk on Jindal's Splinters, and a companion single, Fannie May/Just a Little Bit, were released in 2015.
Alternative Tentacles
In June 1979, Biafra co-founded the record label Alternative Tentacles, with which the Dead Kennedys released their first single, "California über alles". The label was created to allow the band to release albums without having to deal with pressure from major labels to change their music, although the major labels were not willing to sign the band due to their songs being deemed too controversial. After dealing with Cherry Red in the UK and IRS Records in the US for their first album Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables, the band released all later albums, and later pressings of Fresh Fruit on Alternative Tentacles. The exception being live albums released after the band's break-up, which the other band members compiled from recordings in the band partnership's vaults without Biafra's input or endorsement.. Biafra has been the owner of the company since its founding, though he does not receive a salary for his position; Biafra has referred to his position in the company as "absentee thoughtlord".
Biafra is an ardent collector of unusual vinyl records of all kinds, from 1950s and 1960s ethno-pop recordings by the likes of Les Baxter and Esquivel to vanity pressings that have circulated regionally, to German crooner Heino (for whom he would later participate in the documentary Heino: Made In Germany); he cites his always growing collection as one of his biggest musical influences. In 1993 he gave an interview to RE/Search Publications for their second Incredibly Strange Music book focusing primarily on these records, and later participated in a two-part episode of Fuse TV's program Crate Diggers on the same subject. His interest in such recordings, often categorized as outsider music, led to his discovery of the prolific (and schizophrenic) singer/songwriter/artist Wesley Willis, whom he signed to Alternative Tentacles in 1994, preceding Willis' major label deal with American Recordings. His collection grew so large that on October 1, 2005, Biafra donated a portion of his collection to an annual yard sale co-promoted by Alternative Tentacles and held at their warehouse in Emeryville, California.
In 2006, along with Alternative Tentacles employee and The Frisk lead singer Jesse Luscious, Biafra began co-hosting The Alternative Tentacles Batcast, a downloadable podcast hosted by alternativetentacles.com. The show primarily focuses on interviews with artists and bands that are currently signed to the Alternative Tentacles label, although there are also occasional episodes where Biafra devoted the show to answering fan questions.
Spoken word
Biafra became a spoken word artist in January 1986 with a performance at University of California, Los Angeles. In his performance he combined humor with his political beliefs, much in the same way that he did with the lyrics to his songs. Despite his continued spoken word performances, he did not begin recording spoken word albums until after the disbanding of the Dead Kennedys.
His ninth spoken word album, In the Grip of Official Treason, was released in October 2006.
Biafra was also featured in the British band Pitchshifter's song As Seen on TV reciting the words of dystopian futuristic radio advertisements.
Politics
Biafra has resisted identifying with any particular political party or ideology, saying, "I don't label myself strictly an anarchist or a socialist or let alone a libertarian or something like that," In a 2012 interview, Biafra said "I'm very pro-tax as long as it goes for the right things. I don't mind paying more money as long as it's going to provide shelter for people sleeping in the street or getting the schools fixed back up, getting the infrastructure up to the standards of other countries, including a high speed rail system. I'm totally down with that."
Mayoral campaign
In the autumn of 1979, Biafra ran for mayor of San Francisco, using the Jell-O ad campaign catchphrase, "There's always room for Jello", as his campaign slogan. Having entered the race before creating a campaign platform, Biafra later wrote his platform on a napkin while attending a Pere Ubu concert where Dead Kennedys drummer Ted told Biafra, "Biafra, you have such a big mouth that you should run for Mayor." As he campaigned, Biafra wore campaign T-shirts from his opponent Quentin Kopp's previous campaign and at one point vacuumed leaves off the front lawn of another opponent, current U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, to mock her publicity stunt of sweeping streets in downtown San Francisco for a few hours. He also made a whistlestop campaign tour along the BART line. Supporters committed equally odd actions; two well known signs held by supporters said "If he doesn't win I'll kill myself" and "What if he does win?"
At the time, in San Francisco any individual could legally run for mayor if a petition was signed by 1500 people or if $1500 was paid. Biafra paid $900 and got signatures over time and eventually became a legal candidate, meaning he received statements put in voters' pamphlets and equal news coverage.
His platform included unconventional points such as forcing businessmen to wear clown suits within city limits, erecting statues of Dan White, who assassinated Mayor George Moscone and City Supervisor Harvey Milk in 1978, around the city and allowing the parks department to sell eggs and tomatoes with which people could pelt the statues, hiring workers who had lost their jobs due to a tax initiative to panhandle in wealthy neighborhoods (including Senator Dianne Feinstein's), and a citywide ban on cars. Biafra has expressed irritation that these parts of his platform attained such notoriety, preferring instead to be remembered for serious proposals such as legalizing squatting in vacant, tax-delinquent buildings and requiring police officers to run for election by the people of the neighborhoods they patrol.
He finished third out of a field of ten, receiving 3.79 percent of the vote (6,591 votes); the election ended in a runoff that did not involve him (Feinstein was declared the winner).
Presidential campaign
In 2000, the New York State Green Party drafted Biafra as a candidate for the Green Party presidential nomination, and a few supporters were elected to the party's nominating convention in Denver, Colorado. Biafra chose death row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal as his running mate. The party overwhelmingly chose Ralph Nader as the presidential candidate with 295 of the 319 delegate votes. Biafra received 10 votes.
Biafra, along with a camera crew (dubbed by Biafra as "The Camcorder Truth Jihad"), later reported for the Independent Media Center at the Republican and Democratic conventions.
Post-2000
After losing the 2000 nomination, Biafra became highly active in Nader's presidential campaign, as well as in 2004 and 2008. During the 2008 campaign Jello played at rallies and answered questions for journalists in support of Nader. When gay rights activists accused Nader of costing Al Gore the 2000 election, Biafra reminded them that Tipper Gore's Parents Music Resource Center wanted warning stickers on albums with content referencing homosexuality.
After Barack Obama won the general election, Biafra wrote an open letter making suggestions on how to run his term as president. Biafra criticized Obama during his term, stating that "Obama even won the award for best advertising campaign of 2008." Biafra dubbed Obama "Barackstar O'Bummer". Biafra refused to support Obama in 2012. Biafra has stated that he feels that Obama continued many of George W. Bush's policies, summarizing Obama's policies as containing "worse and worse laws against human rights and more and more illegal unconstitutional spying."
On September 18, 2015, it was announced that Biafra would be supporting Bernie Sanders in his campaign for the 2016 presidential election. He has strongly criticised the political position of Donald Trump, saying "how can people be so fucking stupid" on hearing the election result, and later adding "The last person we want with their finger on the nuclear button is somebody connected to this extreme Christianist doomsday cult."
On February 28, 2020, Jello announced that he would be supporting both Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders in the 2020 presidential election. “I personally like Warren slightly better than Bernie because: 1) She’s done her homework. Bernie too, but not to quite the same depth or degree. 2) Think about it — who really has a better chance of actually beating Trump, and helping flip Congress and state legislatures? It’s Elizabeth Warren, hands down.” He went on to say that he considered Joe Biden and Mike Bloomberg "almost as bad as Trump".
On April 12, 2020, Biafra expressed disappointment that Sanders had suspended his campaign for the 2020 Democratic nomination.
Boycott of Israel
In mid-2011 Jello Biafra and his band were scheduled to play at the Barby Club in Tel Aviv. They came under heavy pressure by the pro-Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, and finally decided to cancel the concert – after a debate which according to Biafra "deeply tore at the fabric of our band ... This whole controversy has been one of the most intense situations of my life – and I thrive on intense situations".
Biafra then decided to travel to Israel and the Palestinian Occupied Territories, at his own expense, and talk with Israeli and Palestinian activists as well as with fans disappointed at his cancellation. In the article stating his conclusions he wrote:
"I will not perform in Israel unless it is a pro-human rights, anti-occupation event, that does not violate the spirit of the boycott. Each musician, artist, etc. must decide this for themselves. I am staying away for now, but am also really creeped out by the attitudes of some of the hardliners and hope some day to find a way to contribute something positive here. I will not march or sign on with anyone who runs around calling people Zionazis and is more interested in making threats than making friends."
Personal life
Biafra married Theresa Soder, a.k.a. Ninotchka, lead singer of San Francisco-area punk band the Situations, on October 31, 1981. The wedding was conducted by Flipper vocalist/bassist Bruce Loose, who became a Universal Life Church minister just to conduct the ceremony, which took place in a graveyard. The wedding reception, which members of Flipper, Black Flag, and D.O.A. attended, was held at director Joe Rees' Target Video studios. The marriage ended in 1986. Biafra generally does not discuss his private life. He lives in San Francisco, California.
Selected discography
For a more complete list, see the Jello Biafra discography.
Dead Kennedys
1980 – Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables
1981 – In God We Trust, Inc.
1982 – Plastic Surgery Disasters
1985 – Frankenchrist
1986 – Bedtime for Democracy
1987 – Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death
Spoken word
1987 – No More Cocoons
1989 – High Priest of Harmful Matter: Tales From the Trial
1991 – I Blow Minds for a Living
1994 – Beyond the Valley of the Gift Police
1998 – If Evolution Is Outlawed, Only Outlaws Will Evolve
2000 – Become the Media
2002 – The Big Ka-Boom, Pt. 1
2002 – Machine Gun in the Clown's Hand
2006 – In the Grip of Official Treason
Lard
1989 – The Power of Lard
1990 – The Last Temptation of Reid
1997 – Pure Chewing Satisfaction
2000 – 70's Rock Must Die
Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine
2009 – The Audacity of Hype
2011 – Enhanced Methods of Questioning
2012 – SHOCK-U-PY
2013 – White People and the Damage Done
2020 – Tea Party Revenge Porn
Collaborations
Filmography
1977 – This Is America, Pt. 2
1981 – Urgh! A Music War
1983 – Anarchism in America
1986 – Lovedolls Superstar, directed by Dave Markey
1987 – Household Affairs, directed & filmed by Allen Ginsberg
1988 – Tapeheads, directed by Bill Fishman
1990 – Terminal City Ricochet
1991 – Highway 61, directed by Bruce McDonald
1994 – Skulhedface, directed by Melanie Mandl
1997 – Mary Jane's Not a Virgin Anymore, directed by Sarah Jacobson
1999 – The Widower
1999 – Virtue
2001 – Plaster Caster
2002 – Bikini Bandits, directed by Steve and Peter Grasse
2004 – Death and Texas
2004 – Punk: Attitude
2005 – We Jam Econo: The Story of the Minutemen
2006 – Punk's Not Dead, directed by Susan Dynner
2006 – Whose War?, directed by Donald Farmer
2007 – American Drug War: The Last White Hope, directed by Kevin Booth
2008 – Nerdcore Rising, directed by Negin Farsad
2009 – Open Your Mouth and Say Mr. Chi Pig, directed by Sean Patrick Shaul
2010 – A Man Within, directed by Yony Leyser
2011 – I Love You ... I Am the Porn Queen, short film directed by Ani Kyd
2014 – Heino: Made in Germany, directed by Oliver Schwabe
2014 – Portlandia, season 4, episode 4 – "Pull-Out King"
2018 – Bathtubs Over Broadway, directed by Dava Whisenant (as himself)
2018 – Boiled Angels: The Trial of Mike Diana, directed by Frank Henenlotter (narrator)
2019 – The Last Black Man in San Francisco, directed by Joe Talbot
Notes
References
External links
Jello Biafra on Alternative Tentacles
1958 births
Living people
20th-century American politicians
Candidates in the 2000 United States presidential election
Alternative Tentacles
Alternative Tentacles artists
American anti–Iraq War activists
American anti-war activists
American human rights activists
American male film actors
American people of Jewish descent
American punk rock singers
American satirists
American male singer-songwriters
American spoken word artists
Anti-consumerists
Anti-corporate activists
Anti-globalization activists
Boulder High School alumni
California Greens
Dead Kennedys members
Finance fraud
Green Party of the United States politicians
Hardcore punk musicians
Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine members
Lard (band) members
Male actors from Boulder, Colorado
Musicians from Boulder, Colorado
Pigface members
Pranksters
Teenage Time Killers members
Singer-songwriters from Colorado | true | [
"Fleshies is an American punk rock band from Oakland, California, United States, that released three albums on Jello Biafra's Alternative Tentacles, Kill the Dreamer's Dream, The Sicilian, and Scrape the Walls. Fleshies have also released albums on Recess Records (\"Brown Flag\"), Adeline Records (\"The Futbol EP\"), Life is Abuse Records, Thrillhouse Records and S.P.A.M. Records, as well as singles, 7\" records and splits on a variety of labels. They are known for their outlandish stage presence, their left-wing politics and their non-stop world touring schedule from 1999 to 2006. From their inception, they were an influential presence at events such as Geekfest, held in the late 1990s, The Fest in Gainesville, Florida, and Wantage Records' Total Fest. As of May 2019, the band released Introducing The Fleshies on Portland's Dirt Cult Records, its first album in ten years.\n\nDiscography\n\nStudio albums\n Arbgabdo, Baby! (Tape only, 1999)\n Fleshies (CD demo also known as The Baby, S.P.A.M. 2000; reissued on Thrillhouse Records in 2010 on LP)\n Kill The Dreamer's Dream (S.P.A.M / Alternative Tentacles, 2001)\n The Sicilian (Alternative Tentacles, 2003)\n Gung Ho! (7\" Tracks, B-sides, Comp Tracks Collection), (Life is Abuse Records, 2004)\n Scrape the Walls (Alternative Tentacles, 2006)\n Brown Flag (Recess Records and Recess Records Japan, 2009 and 2010)\n Introducing The Fleshies (Dirt Cult Records, 2019)\n\nSingles and EPs\n Playdough EP (Split 7\" with The Jocks, S.P.A.M. Records/Risk Records, 2000)\n The Phantom Limbs / Fleshies (Split 7\" with The Phantom Limbs, S.P.A.M./Mungaso Records, 2001)\n Federation X / Fleshies (Split 7\" with Federation X, Molasses Manifesto Records, 2001)\n Victim's Family / Fleshies (Split 7\" with Victim's Family, Alternative Tentacles, 2001)\n The Game Of Futbol (Adeline Records, 2002)\n Fleshies / Toys That Kill (split picture disc 7\", Geykido Comet Records, 2003)\n\nCompilation contributions\n Apocalypse Always (Alternative Tentacles, 2002)\n Dropping Food On Their Heads is Not Enough: Benefit For RAWA (Geykido Comet Records, 2002)\n This Just In... Benefit For Indy Media (Geykido Comet Records, 2005)\n Noisy DVD compilation - four tracks filmed live in London (Punkervision, 2005)\n Noise Ordinance LP compilation, put out by Maximumrocknroll Magazine (MRR, 2011)\n\nSee also\nAlternative Tentacles\nAdeline Records\nLife Is Abuse Records\nGeykido Comet Records\nMaximumrocknroll\n\nExternal links\nOfficial site\nAlternative Tentacles\nGC Records\nThrasher Magazine Article on Fleshies, October 2003\nFleshies page on mtv.com\nReview of Scrape The Walls on about.com\nReview of \"The Sicilian\" from SF Weekly\nInterview with Fleshies in OC Weekly, May 2002\n\nAnarcho-punk groups\nGeykido Comet Records\nMusical groups from Oakland, California\nAlternative Tentacles artists\nAdeline Records artists\nPunk rock groups from California",
"Knights of the New Crusade is an American Christian punk and Christian rock band, and they primarily play garage rock and punk rock. They came from San Francisco, California. The band started making music in 1999, and releasing three albums, two of them with Alternative Tentacles.\n\nBackground\nThe band make garage rock and punk rock music, with an emphasis on Christian punk and Christian rock themed lyricism. They started in November 1999 in San Francisco as a band, where they were eventually signed to the Alternative Tentacles label in 2005.\n\nMusic history\nThe band released three studio albums. The first, My God Is Alive! Sorry About Yours! Songs In Praise Of Our Lord God And In Condemnation Of Sin was released on CD in the U.S. by Gabriel's Trumpet and on vinyl in Germany by Screaming Apple in 2004. Their second release, A Challenge to the Cowards of Christendom, that was released on March 28, 2006, with Alternative Tentacles Records. Their subsequent and final release with the label, Knight Vision: Hymns For The Invisible Church, came out in 2010.\n\nMembers\nMembers\n Leaky - vocals\n John - guitar\n Scoop - bass\n Lump - drums\n\nDiscography\nStudio albums\n My God Is Alive! Sorry About Yours! Songs In Praise Of Our Lord God And In Condemnation Of Sin (2004, Gabriel's Trumpet)\n A Challenge to the Cowards of Christendom (2006, Alternative Tentacles)\n Knight Vision: Hymns For The Invisible Church (2010, Alternative Tentacles)\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nAlternative Tentacles profile\n\nMusical groups from California\n1999 establishments in California\nMusical groups established in 1999"
]
|
[
"Jello Biafra",
"Alternative Tentacles",
"what is alternative tentacles?",
"Biafra co-founded the record label Alternative Tentacles,"
]
| C_1c892d3c20fa42df8350499241317562_0 | who did he co-found it with? | 2 | Who did Jello Biafra co-found record label Alternative Tentacles with? | Jello Biafra | In June 1979, Biafra co-founded the record label Alternative Tentacles, with which the Dead Kennedys released their first single, "California Uber Alles". The label was created to allow the band to release albums without having to deal with pressure from major labels to change their music, although the major labels were not willing to sign the band due to their songs being deemed too controversial. After dealing with Cherry Red in the UK and IRS Records in the US for their first album Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables, the band released all later albums, and later pressings of Fresh Fruit on Alternative Tentacles. The exception being live albums released after the band's break-up, which the other band members compiled from recordings in the band partnership's vaults without Biafra's input or endorsement.. Biafra has been the owner of the company since its founding, though he does not receive a salary for his position; Biafra has referred to his position in the company as "absentee thoughtlord". Biafra is an ardent collector of unusual vinyl records of all kinds, from 1950s and 1960s ethno-pop recordings by the likes of Les Baxter and Esquivel to vanity pressings that have circulated regionally, to German crooner Heino (for whom he would later participate in the documentary Heino: Made In Germany); he cites his always growing collection as one of his biggest musical influences. In 1993 he gave an interview to RE/Search Publications for their second Incredibly Strange Music book focusing primarily on these records, and later participated in a two-part episode of Fuse TV's program Crate Diggers on the same subject. His interest in such recordings, often categorized as outsider music, led to his discovery of the prolific (and schizophrenic) singer/songwriter/artist Wesley Willis, whom he signed to Alternative Tentacles in 1994, preceding Willis' major label deal with American Recordings. His collection grew so large that on October 1, 2005, Biafra donated a portion of his collection to an annual yard sale co-promoted by Alternative Tentacles and held at their warehouse in Emeryville, California. In 2006, along with Alternative Tentacles employee and The Frisk lead singer Jesse Luscious, Biafra began co-hosting The Alternative Tentacles Batcast, a downloadable podcast hosted by alternativetentacles.com. The show primarily focuses on interviews with artists and bands that are currently signed to the Alternative Tentacles label, although there are also occasional episodes where Biafra devoted the show to answering fan questions. CANNOTANSWER | Biafra has been the owner of the company since its founding, | Eric Reed Boucher (born June 17, 1958), better known by his professional name Jello Biafra, is an American singer and spoken word artist. He is the former lead singer and songwriter for the San Francisco punk rock band Dead Kennedys.
Initially active from 1979 to 1986, Dead Kennedys were known for rapid-fire music topped with Biafra's sardonic lyrics and biting social commentary, delivered in his "unique quiver of a voice". When the band broke up in 1986, he took over the influential independent record label Alternative Tentacles, which he had founded in 1979 with Dead Kennedys bandmate East Bay Ray. In a 2000 lawsuit, upheld on appeal in 2003 by the California Supreme Court, Biafra was found liable for breach of contract, fraud and malice in withholding a decade's worth of royalties from his former bandmates and ordered to pay over $200,000 in compensation and punitive damages; the band subsequently reformed without Biafra. Although now focused primarily on spoken word performances, Biafra has continued as a musician in numerous collaborations. He has also occasionally appeared in cameo roles in films.
Politically, Biafra is a member of the Green Party of the United States and supports various political causes. He ran for the party's presidential nomination in the 2000 presidential election, finishing a distant second to Ralph Nader. In 1979 he ran for mayor of San Francisco, California. He is a staunch believer in a free society, and utilizes shock value and advocates direct action and pranksterism in the name of political causes. Biafra is known to use absurdist media tactics, in the leftist tradition of the Yippies, to highlight issues of civil rights and social justice.
Early life
Eric Reed Boucher was born in Boulder, Colorado, the son of Virginia (née Parker), a librarian, and Stanley Wayne Boucher, a psychiatric social worker and poet. His sister, Julie J. Boucher, was Associate Director of the Library Research Service at the Colorado State Library; she died in a mountain-climbing accident on October 12, 1996. Biafra has a Jewish great grandparent, but was unaware of this until the mid-2000s. He grew up in a secular household and has said that he is "not really Jewish".
As a child, Boucher developed an interest in international politics that was encouraged by his parents. An avid news watcher, one of his earliest memories was of the John F. Kennedy assassination. Biafra says he has been a fan of rock music since first hearing it in 1965, when his parents accidentally tuned in to a rock radio station. Boucher ignored his high school guidance counselor's advice that he spend his adolescence preparing to become a dental hygienist.
He began his career in music in January 1977 as a roadie for the punk rock band The Ravers (who later changed their name to The Nails), soon joining his friend John Greenway in a band called The Healers. The Healers became well known locally for their mainly improvised lyrics and avant garde music. In the autumn of that year, he began attending the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Musical career
Dead Kennedys
In June 1978, Biafra responded to an advertisement placed in a store by guitarist East Bay Ray, stating "guitarist wants to form punk band", and together they formed the Dead Kennedys. He began performing with the band under the stage name Occupant, but soon began to use his current stage name, a combination of the brand name Jell-O and the short-lived African state Biafra. The band's lyrics were written by Biafra. The lyrics were mostly political in nature and displayed a sardonic, sometimes absurdist, sense of humor despite their serious subject matter. In the tradition of UK anarcho-punk bands like Crass and the Subhumans, the Dead Kennedys were one of the first US punk bands to write politically themed songs. The lyrics Biafra wrote helped popularize the use of humorous lyrics in punk and other types of hard-core music. Biafra cites Joey Ramone as the inspiration for his use of humor in his songs (as well as being the musician who made him interested in punk rock), noting in particular songs by the Ramones such as "Beat on the Brat" and "Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue".
Biafra initially attempted to compose music on guitar, but his lack of experience on the instrument and his own admission of being "a fumbler with my hands" led Dead Kennedys bassist Klaus Flouride to suggest that Biafra simply sing the parts he envisioned to the band. Biafra sang his riffs and melodies into a tape recorder, which he brought to the band's rehearsal and/or recording sessions. This later became a problem when the other members of the Dead Kennedys sued Biafra over royalties and publishing rights. By all accounts, including his own, Biafra is not a conventionally skilled musician, though he and his collaborators (Joey Shithead of D.O.A. in particular) attest that he is a skilled composer and his work, particularly with the Dead Kennedys, is highly respected by punk-oriented critics and fans.
Biafra's first popular song was the first single by the Dead Kennedys, "California über alles". The song, which spoofed California governor Jerry Brown, was the first of many political songs by the group and Biafra. The song's popularity resulted in its being covered by other musicians, such as The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy (who rewrote the lyrics to parody Pete Wilson), John Linnell of They Might Be Giants and Six Feet Under on their Graveyard Classics album of cover versions. Not long after, the Dead Kennedys had a second and bigger hit with "Holiday in Cambodia" from their debut album Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables. AllMusic cites this song as "possibly the most successful single of the American hardcore scene" and Biafra counts it as his personal favorite Dead Kennedy's song. Minor hits from the album included "Kill the Poor" (about potential abuse of the then-new neutron bomb) and a satirical cover of Elvis Presley's "Viva Las Vegas".
The Dead Kennedys received some controversy in the spring of 1981 over the single "Too Drunk to Fuck". The song became a hit in Britain, and the BBC feared that it would manage to be a big enough hit to appear among the top 30 songs on the national charts, requiring a mention on Top of the Pops. However, the single peaked at number 31 in the charts.
Later albums also contained memorable songs, but with less popularity than the earlier ones. The EP In God We Trust, Inc. contained the song "Nazi Punks Fuck Off!" as well as "We've Got A Bigger Problem Now", a rewritten version of "California über alles" about Ronald Reagan. Punk musician and scholar Vic Bondi considers the latter song to be the song that "defined the lyrical agenda of much of hardcore music, and represented its break with punk". The band's most controversial album, Frankenchrist, brought with it the song "MTV Get Off the Air," which accused MTV of promoting poor quality music and sedating the public. The album also contained a controversial poster by Swiss surrealist artist H. R. Giger entitled Penis Landscape.
The Dead Kennedys toured widely during their career, starting in the late 1970s. They began playing at San Francisco's Mabuhay Gardens (their home base) and other Bay Area venues, later branching out to shows in southern Californian clubs (most notably the Whisky a Go Go), but eventually they moved to major clubs across the country, including CBGB in New York. Later, they played to larger audiences such as at the 1980 Bay Area Music Awards (where they played the notorious "Pull My Strings" for the only time), and headlined the 1983 Rock Against Reagan festival.
On May 7, 1994, punk rock fans who believed Biafra was a "sell out" attacked him at the 924 Gilman Street club in Berkeley, California. Biafra claims that he was attacked by a man nicknamed Cretin, who crashed into him while moshing. The crash injured Biafra's leg, causing an argument between the two men. During the argument, Cretin pushed Biafra to the floor and five or six friends of Cretin assaulted Biafra while he was down, yelling "Sellout rock star, kick him", and attempting to pull out his hair. Biafra was later hospitalized with serious injuries. The attack derailed Biafra's plans for both a Canadian spoken-word tour and an accompanying album, and the production of Pure Chewing Satisfaction was halted. However, Biafra returned to the Gilman club a few months after the incident to perform a spoken-word performance as an act of reconciliation with the club.
Biafra has been a prominent figure of the Californian punk scene and was one of the third generation members of the San Francisco punk community. Many later hardcore bands have cited the Dead Kennedys as a major influence. Hardcore punk author Steven Blush describes Biafra as hardcore's "biggest star" who was a "powerful presence whose political insurgence and rabid fandom made him the father figure of a burgeoning subculture [and an] inspirational force [who] could also be a real prick ... Biafra was a visionary, incendiary [performer]."
After the Dead Kennedys disbanded, Biafra's new songs were recorded with other bands, and he released only spoken word albums as solo projects. These collaborations had less popularity than Biafra's earlier work. However, his song "That's Progress", originally recorded with D.O.A. for the album Last Scream of the Missing Neighbors, received considerable exposure when it appeared on the album Rock Against Bush, Vol. 1.
Obscenity prosecution
In April 1986, police officers raided Biafra's house in response to complaints by the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC). In June 1986, L.A. deputy city attorney Michael Guarino, working under City Attorney James Hahn, brought Biafra to trial in Los Angeles for distributing "harmful material to minors" in the Dead Kennedys album Frankenchrist. However, the dispute was about neither the music nor the lyrics from the album, but rather the print of the H. R. Giger poster Landscape XX (Penis Landscape) included with the album.
Music author Reebee Garofalo argued that Biafra and Alternative Tentacles may have been targeted because the label was a "small, self-managed and self-supported company that could ill afford a protracted legal battle." Facing the possible sentence of a year in jail and a $2,000 fine, Biafra, Dirk Dirksen, and Suzanne Stefanac founded the No More Censorship Defense Fund, a benefit featuring several punk rock bands, to help pay for his legal fees, which neither he nor his record label could afford. The jury deadlocked 5 to 7 in favor of acquittal, prompting a mistrial; despite a motion to re-try the case, the judge ordered all charges dropped. The Dead Kennedys disbanded during the trial, in December 1986, due to the mounting legal costs; in the wake of their disbandment, Biafra made a career of his spoken word performances.
Biafra has a cameo role in the 1988 film Tapeheads. He plays an FBI agent who arrests the two protagonists (played by Tim Robbins and John Cusack). While arresting them his character asks "Remember what we did to Jello Biafra?" lampooning the obscenity prosecution.
On March 25, 2005, Biafra appeared on the U.S. radio program This American Life, "Episode 285: Know Your Enemy", which featured a phone call between Jello Biafra and Michael Guarino, the prosecutor in the Frankenchrist trial.
Lawsuit and reunion activities
In October 1998, three former members of the Dead Kennedys sued Biafra for nonpayment of royalties. The other members of Dead Kennedys alleged that Biafra, in his capacity as the head of Alternative Tentacles records, discovered an accounting error amounting to some $75,000 in unpaid royalties over almost a decade. Rather than informing his bandmates of this mistake, the suit alleged, Biafra knowingly concealed the information until a whistleblower employee at the record label notified the band.
According to Biafra, the suit resulted from his refusal to allow one of the band's most well-known singles, "Holiday in Cambodia", to be used in a commercial for Levi's Dockers; Biafra opposes Levi's because of his belief that they use unfair business practices and sweatshop labor. Biafra maintained that he had never denied them royalties, and that he himself had not even received royalties for re-releases of their albums or "posthumous" live albums which had been licensed to other labels by the Decay Music partnership. Decay Music denied this charge and have posted what they say are his cashed royalty checks, written to his legal name of Eric Boucher. Biafra also complained about the songwriting credits in new reissues and archival live albums of songs, alleging that he was the sole composer of songs that were wrongly credited to the entire band.
In May 2000, a jury found Biafra and Alternative Tentacles liable by not promptly informing his former bandmates of the accounting error and instead withholding the information during subsequent discussions and contractual negotiations. Biafra was ordered to pay $200,000, including $20,000 in punitive damages. After an appeal by Biafra's lawyers, in June 2003, the California Court of Appeals unanimously upheld all the conditions of the 2000 verdict against Biafra and Alternative Tentacles. Furthermore, the plaintiffs were awarded the rights to most of Dead Kennedys recorded works—which accounted for about half the sales for Alternative Tentacles. Now in control of the Dead Kennedys name, Biafra's former bandmates went on tour with a new lead vocalist.
Other bands
In the early 1980s, Biafra collaborated with musicians Christian Lunch and Adrian Borland (of The Sound) and Morgan Fisher (of Mott the Hoople) for the electropunk musical project The Witch Trials, releasing one self-titled EP in its lifetime.
In 1988, Biafra, with Al Jourgensen and Paul Barker of the band Ministry, and Jeff Ward, formed Lard. The band became yet another side project for Ministry, with Biafra providing vocals and lyrics. According to a March 2009 interview with Jourgensen, he and Biafra are working on a new Lard album, which is being recorded in Jourgensen's El Paso studio. Jourgensen also claimed in 2021 that Biafra was in works of a new Lard album. While working on the film Terminal City Ricochet in 1989, Biafra did a song for the film's soundtrack with D.O.A.. As a result, Biafra worked with D.O.A. on the album Last Scream of the Missing Neighbors. Biafra also worked with Nomeansno on the soundtrack, which led to their collaboration on the album The Sky Is Falling and I Want My Mommy the following year. Biafra also provided lyrics for the song "Biotech is Godzilla" for Sepultura's 1993 album Chaos A.D..
In 1999, Biafra and other members of the anti-globalization movement protested the WTO Meeting of 1999 in Seattle. Along with other prominent West Coast musicians, he formed the short-lived band the No WTO Combo to help promote the movement's cause. The band was originally scheduled to play during the protest, but the performance was canceled due to riots. The band performed a short set the following night at the Showbox in downtown Seattle (outside the designated area), along with the hiphop group Spearhead. No WTO Combo later released a CD of recordings from the concert, entitled Live from the Battle in Seattle.
As of late 2005, Biafra was performing with the band The Melvins under the name "Jello Biafra and the Melvins", though fans sometimes refer to them as "The Jelvins". Together they have released two albums, and worked on material for a third collaborative release, much of which was premiered live at two concerts at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco during an event called Biafra Five-O, commemorating Biafra's 50th birthday, the 30th anniversary of the founding of the Dead Kennedys, and the beginning of legalized same-sex marriage in California. Biafra was also working with a band known as Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine, which included Ralph Spight of Victims Family on guitar and Billy Gould of Faith No More on bass. This group debuted during Biafra Five-O.
In 2011, Biafra appeared in a singular concert event with an all-star cast of Southern musicians including members from Cowboy Mouth, Dash Rip Rock, Mojo Nixon and Down entitled, "Jello Biafra and the New Orleans Raunch & Soul All Stars" who performed an array of classic Soul covers to a packed house at the 12-Bar in New Orleans, Louisiana. He would later reunite with many of the same musicians during the Carnival season 2014 to revisit many of these classics at Siberia, New Orleans. A live album from the 2011 performance, Walk on Jindal's Splinters, and a companion single, Fannie May/Just a Little Bit, were released in 2015.
Alternative Tentacles
In June 1979, Biafra co-founded the record label Alternative Tentacles, with which the Dead Kennedys released their first single, "California über alles". The label was created to allow the band to release albums without having to deal with pressure from major labels to change their music, although the major labels were not willing to sign the band due to their songs being deemed too controversial. After dealing with Cherry Red in the UK and IRS Records in the US for their first album Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables, the band released all later albums, and later pressings of Fresh Fruit on Alternative Tentacles. The exception being live albums released after the band's break-up, which the other band members compiled from recordings in the band partnership's vaults without Biafra's input or endorsement.. Biafra has been the owner of the company since its founding, though he does not receive a salary for his position; Biafra has referred to his position in the company as "absentee thoughtlord".
Biafra is an ardent collector of unusual vinyl records of all kinds, from 1950s and 1960s ethno-pop recordings by the likes of Les Baxter and Esquivel to vanity pressings that have circulated regionally, to German crooner Heino (for whom he would later participate in the documentary Heino: Made In Germany); he cites his always growing collection as one of his biggest musical influences. In 1993 he gave an interview to RE/Search Publications for their second Incredibly Strange Music book focusing primarily on these records, and later participated in a two-part episode of Fuse TV's program Crate Diggers on the same subject. His interest in such recordings, often categorized as outsider music, led to his discovery of the prolific (and schizophrenic) singer/songwriter/artist Wesley Willis, whom he signed to Alternative Tentacles in 1994, preceding Willis' major label deal with American Recordings. His collection grew so large that on October 1, 2005, Biafra donated a portion of his collection to an annual yard sale co-promoted by Alternative Tentacles and held at their warehouse in Emeryville, California.
In 2006, along with Alternative Tentacles employee and The Frisk lead singer Jesse Luscious, Biafra began co-hosting The Alternative Tentacles Batcast, a downloadable podcast hosted by alternativetentacles.com. The show primarily focuses on interviews with artists and bands that are currently signed to the Alternative Tentacles label, although there are also occasional episodes where Biafra devoted the show to answering fan questions.
Spoken word
Biafra became a spoken word artist in January 1986 with a performance at University of California, Los Angeles. In his performance he combined humor with his political beliefs, much in the same way that he did with the lyrics to his songs. Despite his continued spoken word performances, he did not begin recording spoken word albums until after the disbanding of the Dead Kennedys.
His ninth spoken word album, In the Grip of Official Treason, was released in October 2006.
Biafra was also featured in the British band Pitchshifter's song As Seen on TV reciting the words of dystopian futuristic radio advertisements.
Politics
Biafra has resisted identifying with any particular political party or ideology, saying, "I don't label myself strictly an anarchist or a socialist or let alone a libertarian or something like that," In a 2012 interview, Biafra said "I'm very pro-tax as long as it goes for the right things. I don't mind paying more money as long as it's going to provide shelter for people sleeping in the street or getting the schools fixed back up, getting the infrastructure up to the standards of other countries, including a high speed rail system. I'm totally down with that."
Mayoral campaign
In the autumn of 1979, Biafra ran for mayor of San Francisco, using the Jell-O ad campaign catchphrase, "There's always room for Jello", as his campaign slogan. Having entered the race before creating a campaign platform, Biafra later wrote his platform on a napkin while attending a Pere Ubu concert where Dead Kennedys drummer Ted told Biafra, "Biafra, you have such a big mouth that you should run for Mayor." As he campaigned, Biafra wore campaign T-shirts from his opponent Quentin Kopp's previous campaign and at one point vacuumed leaves off the front lawn of another opponent, current U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, to mock her publicity stunt of sweeping streets in downtown San Francisco for a few hours. He also made a whistlestop campaign tour along the BART line. Supporters committed equally odd actions; two well known signs held by supporters said "If he doesn't win I'll kill myself" and "What if he does win?"
At the time, in San Francisco any individual could legally run for mayor if a petition was signed by 1500 people or if $1500 was paid. Biafra paid $900 and got signatures over time and eventually became a legal candidate, meaning he received statements put in voters' pamphlets and equal news coverage.
His platform included unconventional points such as forcing businessmen to wear clown suits within city limits, erecting statues of Dan White, who assassinated Mayor George Moscone and City Supervisor Harvey Milk in 1978, around the city and allowing the parks department to sell eggs and tomatoes with which people could pelt the statues, hiring workers who had lost their jobs due to a tax initiative to panhandle in wealthy neighborhoods (including Senator Dianne Feinstein's), and a citywide ban on cars. Biafra has expressed irritation that these parts of his platform attained such notoriety, preferring instead to be remembered for serious proposals such as legalizing squatting in vacant, tax-delinquent buildings and requiring police officers to run for election by the people of the neighborhoods they patrol.
He finished third out of a field of ten, receiving 3.79 percent of the vote (6,591 votes); the election ended in a runoff that did not involve him (Feinstein was declared the winner).
Presidential campaign
In 2000, the New York State Green Party drafted Biafra as a candidate for the Green Party presidential nomination, and a few supporters were elected to the party's nominating convention in Denver, Colorado. Biafra chose death row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal as his running mate. The party overwhelmingly chose Ralph Nader as the presidential candidate with 295 of the 319 delegate votes. Biafra received 10 votes.
Biafra, along with a camera crew (dubbed by Biafra as "The Camcorder Truth Jihad"), later reported for the Independent Media Center at the Republican and Democratic conventions.
Post-2000
After losing the 2000 nomination, Biafra became highly active in Nader's presidential campaign, as well as in 2004 and 2008. During the 2008 campaign Jello played at rallies and answered questions for journalists in support of Nader. When gay rights activists accused Nader of costing Al Gore the 2000 election, Biafra reminded them that Tipper Gore's Parents Music Resource Center wanted warning stickers on albums with content referencing homosexuality.
After Barack Obama won the general election, Biafra wrote an open letter making suggestions on how to run his term as president. Biafra criticized Obama during his term, stating that "Obama even won the award for best advertising campaign of 2008." Biafra dubbed Obama "Barackstar O'Bummer". Biafra refused to support Obama in 2012. Biafra has stated that he feels that Obama continued many of George W. Bush's policies, summarizing Obama's policies as containing "worse and worse laws against human rights and more and more illegal unconstitutional spying."
On September 18, 2015, it was announced that Biafra would be supporting Bernie Sanders in his campaign for the 2016 presidential election. He has strongly criticised the political position of Donald Trump, saying "how can people be so fucking stupid" on hearing the election result, and later adding "The last person we want with their finger on the nuclear button is somebody connected to this extreme Christianist doomsday cult."
On February 28, 2020, Jello announced that he would be supporting both Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders in the 2020 presidential election. “I personally like Warren slightly better than Bernie because: 1) She’s done her homework. Bernie too, but not to quite the same depth or degree. 2) Think about it — who really has a better chance of actually beating Trump, and helping flip Congress and state legislatures? It’s Elizabeth Warren, hands down.” He went on to say that he considered Joe Biden and Mike Bloomberg "almost as bad as Trump".
On April 12, 2020, Biafra expressed disappointment that Sanders had suspended his campaign for the 2020 Democratic nomination.
Boycott of Israel
In mid-2011 Jello Biafra and his band were scheduled to play at the Barby Club in Tel Aviv. They came under heavy pressure by the pro-Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, and finally decided to cancel the concert – after a debate which according to Biafra "deeply tore at the fabric of our band ... This whole controversy has been one of the most intense situations of my life – and I thrive on intense situations".
Biafra then decided to travel to Israel and the Palestinian Occupied Territories, at his own expense, and talk with Israeli and Palestinian activists as well as with fans disappointed at his cancellation. In the article stating his conclusions he wrote:
"I will not perform in Israel unless it is a pro-human rights, anti-occupation event, that does not violate the spirit of the boycott. Each musician, artist, etc. must decide this for themselves. I am staying away for now, but am also really creeped out by the attitudes of some of the hardliners and hope some day to find a way to contribute something positive here. I will not march or sign on with anyone who runs around calling people Zionazis and is more interested in making threats than making friends."
Personal life
Biafra married Theresa Soder, a.k.a. Ninotchka, lead singer of San Francisco-area punk band the Situations, on October 31, 1981. The wedding was conducted by Flipper vocalist/bassist Bruce Loose, who became a Universal Life Church minister just to conduct the ceremony, which took place in a graveyard. The wedding reception, which members of Flipper, Black Flag, and D.O.A. attended, was held at director Joe Rees' Target Video studios. The marriage ended in 1986. Biafra generally does not discuss his private life. He lives in San Francisco, California.
Selected discography
For a more complete list, see the Jello Biafra discography.
Dead Kennedys
1980 – Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables
1981 – In God We Trust, Inc.
1982 – Plastic Surgery Disasters
1985 – Frankenchrist
1986 – Bedtime for Democracy
1987 – Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death
Spoken word
1987 – No More Cocoons
1989 – High Priest of Harmful Matter: Tales From the Trial
1991 – I Blow Minds for a Living
1994 – Beyond the Valley of the Gift Police
1998 – If Evolution Is Outlawed, Only Outlaws Will Evolve
2000 – Become the Media
2002 – The Big Ka-Boom, Pt. 1
2002 – Machine Gun in the Clown's Hand
2006 – In the Grip of Official Treason
Lard
1989 – The Power of Lard
1990 – The Last Temptation of Reid
1997 – Pure Chewing Satisfaction
2000 – 70's Rock Must Die
Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine
2009 – The Audacity of Hype
2011 – Enhanced Methods of Questioning
2012 – SHOCK-U-PY
2013 – White People and the Damage Done
2020 – Tea Party Revenge Porn
Collaborations
Filmography
1977 – This Is America, Pt. 2
1981 – Urgh! A Music War
1983 – Anarchism in America
1986 – Lovedolls Superstar, directed by Dave Markey
1987 – Household Affairs, directed & filmed by Allen Ginsberg
1988 – Tapeheads, directed by Bill Fishman
1990 – Terminal City Ricochet
1991 – Highway 61, directed by Bruce McDonald
1994 – Skulhedface, directed by Melanie Mandl
1997 – Mary Jane's Not a Virgin Anymore, directed by Sarah Jacobson
1999 – The Widower
1999 – Virtue
2001 – Plaster Caster
2002 – Bikini Bandits, directed by Steve and Peter Grasse
2004 – Death and Texas
2004 – Punk: Attitude
2005 – We Jam Econo: The Story of the Minutemen
2006 – Punk's Not Dead, directed by Susan Dynner
2006 – Whose War?, directed by Donald Farmer
2007 – American Drug War: The Last White Hope, directed by Kevin Booth
2008 – Nerdcore Rising, directed by Negin Farsad
2009 – Open Your Mouth and Say Mr. Chi Pig, directed by Sean Patrick Shaul
2010 – A Man Within, directed by Yony Leyser
2011 – I Love You ... I Am the Porn Queen, short film directed by Ani Kyd
2014 – Heino: Made in Germany, directed by Oliver Schwabe
2014 – Portlandia, season 4, episode 4 – "Pull-Out King"
2018 – Bathtubs Over Broadway, directed by Dava Whisenant (as himself)
2018 – Boiled Angels: The Trial of Mike Diana, directed by Frank Henenlotter (narrator)
2019 – The Last Black Man in San Francisco, directed by Joe Talbot
Notes
References
External links
Jello Biafra on Alternative Tentacles
1958 births
Living people
20th-century American politicians
Candidates in the 2000 United States presidential election
Alternative Tentacles
Alternative Tentacles artists
American anti–Iraq War activists
American anti-war activists
American human rights activists
American male film actors
American people of Jewish descent
American punk rock singers
American satirists
American male singer-songwriters
American spoken word artists
Anti-consumerists
Anti-corporate activists
Anti-globalization activists
Boulder High School alumni
California Greens
Dead Kennedys members
Finance fraud
Green Party of the United States politicians
Hardcore punk musicians
Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine members
Lard (band) members
Male actors from Boulder, Colorado
Musicians from Boulder, Colorado
Pigface members
Pranksters
Teenage Time Killers members
Singer-songwriters from Colorado | true | [
", known exclusively by his stage name K.A.Z, is a Japanese musician and songwriter. He is known for his work with Oblivion Dust, hide with Spread Beaver and Vamps.\n\nCareer\nK.A.Z originally wanted to be a drummer, but drums were too expensive. He found a guitar in his sister's room and began to play with it when she was out.\n\nK.A.Z was first guitarist of the bands Gemmy Rockets and The Lovers, before forming Oblivion Dust in 1996. In January 1998, he joined hide's backing band, Spread Beaver. However this did not last long due to hide's death on May 2, with K.A.Z only appearing on two songs on his final album Ja, Zoo, released at the end of the year. Although, Spread Beaver did go through with the 1998 tour, with K.A.Z joining them. He and his Spread Beaver bandmates I.N.A. and D.I.E. remixed a song for Zilch's Bastard Eyes in 1999. K.A.Z also appears on hide with Spread Beaver's 2000 version of \"Tell Me\" and has played with them each time they reunited; 2008, 2016, and 2018.\n\nIn 2001, the year Oblivion Dust disbanded, he co-arranged the song \"Tightrope\" on the debut double A-side single of L'Arc~en~Ciel bassist Tetsu.\n\nIn 2002, K.A.Z formed the short-lived rock unit Spin Aqua with singer, actress, and former model Anna Tsuchiya. After producing three singles and one album, they dispersed in mid-2004.\n\nHe started to work with L'Arc~en~Ciel vocalist Hyde in 2003, co-arranging all the songs on 666. He co-arranged and co-produced Hyde's third solo album Faith, and composed five of the songs, including the single \"Season's Call\". He also served as support guitarist on Hyde's tours.\n\nIn late 2004, K.A.Z created the band Sonic Storage with his former Spread Beaver bandmate I.N.A.. He also participated in, influential Korean musician, Seo Taiji's album 7th Issue.\n\nOn June 28, 2007, it was announced that Oblivion Dust would reunite, and in early 2008 K.A.Z and Hyde formed Vamps.\n\nK.A.Z is also a composer for films, including Detroit Metal City (2008) for which he wrote the main track \"Satsugai\".\n\nEquipment\nK.A.Z signature guitars:\nESP VP-K350\nESP KZ.V-ONE-W\nESP KZ.P-ONE-W&Fire\nESP Potbelly K.A.Z Custom\nESP K.A.Z Model\nESP TE-K300\nESP SG Type\nPRS with P-90'\nDean Markley Strings\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n\n1968 births\nLiving people\nJapanese rock guitarists\nJapanese record producers\nJapanese songwriters\nVisual kei musicians\nJapanese alternative rock musicians\nMusicians from Yamanashi Prefecture\n20th-century Japanese guitarists\n21st-century Japanese guitarists",
"George Jacobs (1877 – 1945) was an American inventor, who invented enamel insulation for magnet wire. He founded Dudlo Manufacturing, which became part of General Cable Corporation, and Inca Manufacturing, which became Phelps-Dodge Magnet Wire.\n\nIn 1901, George Jacobs was working as a chemist working in the General Electric factory in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where he met co-worker Ethel Mossman. In 1905, he moved to Cleveland, Ohio to take a position with Sherwin-Williams, and continued to work in his own time on an enamel insulation for magnet wire. In 1907, he perfected his formula, and asked Ethel to marry him, and join him in Cleveland, where he went into business in 1911 as Dudlo Manufacturing. The name came from Dudley. Massachusetts, where Jacobs was born, and Ohio.\n\nUndercapitalized, and without business experience, Dudlo initially did not thrive. William Mossman, his father-in-law, came from a monied background. James Mossman had been the court jeweler for the Scottish king James VII, and William was owner of Mossman Yarnell hardware wholesalers. A lonely widower, he offered to back Jacobs in his venture, but demanded that they move back to Fort Wayne. With the help of William Mossman and Ethel's brother B. Paul Mossman, Dudlo built a factory on Wall Street in Fort Wayne, and opened their doors with a dozen employees in 1912.\n\nPreviously, magnet wire was insulated with cloth. Jacob's enamel insulation did not wear like cloth did, was less bulky, and more economical to produce. The enamel insulation was especially valuable for producing very thin wire. The company found a market eager for the product - especially the automotive industry, which found the wire indispensable for economical reliable ignition coils. The company's timing could hardly have been better, with the Model-T Ford coming out in 1910. In 1917, the company started drawing its own wire, and by 1922, was the largest manufacturer of magnet wire in the world.\n\nIn 1927, the General Cable Corporation was being formed, and fearing that the roaring 20s economy was a bubble that would soon burst, the Mossmans sold the company. Victor Rea, who had been with Dudlo almost from the start, became president of Dudlo in 1928 when Jacobs left the company to start a new business: INCA manufacturing.\n\nPhelps Dodge bought INCA in 1930. Jacobs remained with Phelps Dodge for several more years, then moved to California with his wife, who was in ill health. He died in 1945.\n\nGeneral Cable closed the Fort Wayne offices of Dudlo in 1930 and moved the remainder of their Fort Wayne operations to Rome, New York in 1933. Essex Wire was formed and set up operations in the former Dudlo factory. Victor Rea joined with three co-workers to form Rea Magnet Wire.\n\nIn October, 2005, Rea Magnet Wire announced agreement had been reached to buy Phelps Dodge Magnet Wire.\n\nThe three Fort Wayne companies, Rea, Phelps Dodge Magnet Wire, and Essex account for 2/3 of the world's production of magnet wire (enamelled wire).\n\nReferences\n\n1877 births\n1945 deaths"
]
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[
"Jello Biafra",
"Alternative Tentacles",
"what is alternative tentacles?",
"Biafra co-founded the record label Alternative Tentacles,",
"who did he co-found it with?",
"Biafra has been the owner of the company since its founding,"
]
| C_1c892d3c20fa42df8350499241317562_0 | when was it founded? | 3 | When was Jello Biafra's Alternative Tentacles record label founded? | Jello Biafra | In June 1979, Biafra co-founded the record label Alternative Tentacles, with which the Dead Kennedys released their first single, "California Uber Alles". The label was created to allow the band to release albums without having to deal with pressure from major labels to change their music, although the major labels were not willing to sign the band due to their songs being deemed too controversial. After dealing with Cherry Red in the UK and IRS Records in the US for their first album Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables, the band released all later albums, and later pressings of Fresh Fruit on Alternative Tentacles. The exception being live albums released after the band's break-up, which the other band members compiled from recordings in the band partnership's vaults without Biafra's input or endorsement.. Biafra has been the owner of the company since its founding, though he does not receive a salary for his position; Biafra has referred to his position in the company as "absentee thoughtlord". Biafra is an ardent collector of unusual vinyl records of all kinds, from 1950s and 1960s ethno-pop recordings by the likes of Les Baxter and Esquivel to vanity pressings that have circulated regionally, to German crooner Heino (for whom he would later participate in the documentary Heino: Made In Germany); he cites his always growing collection as one of his biggest musical influences. In 1993 he gave an interview to RE/Search Publications for their second Incredibly Strange Music book focusing primarily on these records, and later participated in a two-part episode of Fuse TV's program Crate Diggers on the same subject. His interest in such recordings, often categorized as outsider music, led to his discovery of the prolific (and schizophrenic) singer/songwriter/artist Wesley Willis, whom he signed to Alternative Tentacles in 1994, preceding Willis' major label deal with American Recordings. His collection grew so large that on October 1, 2005, Biafra donated a portion of his collection to an annual yard sale co-promoted by Alternative Tentacles and held at their warehouse in Emeryville, California. In 2006, along with Alternative Tentacles employee and The Frisk lead singer Jesse Luscious, Biafra began co-hosting The Alternative Tentacles Batcast, a downloadable podcast hosted by alternativetentacles.com. The show primarily focuses on interviews with artists and bands that are currently signed to the Alternative Tentacles label, although there are also occasional episodes where Biafra devoted the show to answering fan questions. CANNOTANSWER | June 1979, | Eric Reed Boucher (born June 17, 1958), better known by his professional name Jello Biafra, is an American singer and spoken word artist. He is the former lead singer and songwriter for the San Francisco punk rock band Dead Kennedys.
Initially active from 1979 to 1986, Dead Kennedys were known for rapid-fire music topped with Biafra's sardonic lyrics and biting social commentary, delivered in his "unique quiver of a voice". When the band broke up in 1986, he took over the influential independent record label Alternative Tentacles, which he had founded in 1979 with Dead Kennedys bandmate East Bay Ray. In a 2000 lawsuit, upheld on appeal in 2003 by the California Supreme Court, Biafra was found liable for breach of contract, fraud and malice in withholding a decade's worth of royalties from his former bandmates and ordered to pay over $200,000 in compensation and punitive damages; the band subsequently reformed without Biafra. Although now focused primarily on spoken word performances, Biafra has continued as a musician in numerous collaborations. He has also occasionally appeared in cameo roles in films.
Politically, Biafra is a member of the Green Party of the United States and supports various political causes. He ran for the party's presidential nomination in the 2000 presidential election, finishing a distant second to Ralph Nader. In 1979 he ran for mayor of San Francisco, California. He is a staunch believer in a free society, and utilizes shock value and advocates direct action and pranksterism in the name of political causes. Biafra is known to use absurdist media tactics, in the leftist tradition of the Yippies, to highlight issues of civil rights and social justice.
Early life
Eric Reed Boucher was born in Boulder, Colorado, the son of Virginia (née Parker), a librarian, and Stanley Wayne Boucher, a psychiatric social worker and poet. His sister, Julie J. Boucher, was Associate Director of the Library Research Service at the Colorado State Library; she died in a mountain-climbing accident on October 12, 1996. Biafra has a Jewish great grandparent, but was unaware of this until the mid-2000s. He grew up in a secular household and has said that he is "not really Jewish".
As a child, Boucher developed an interest in international politics that was encouraged by his parents. An avid news watcher, one of his earliest memories was of the John F. Kennedy assassination. Biafra says he has been a fan of rock music since first hearing it in 1965, when his parents accidentally tuned in to a rock radio station. Boucher ignored his high school guidance counselor's advice that he spend his adolescence preparing to become a dental hygienist.
He began his career in music in January 1977 as a roadie for the punk rock band The Ravers (who later changed their name to The Nails), soon joining his friend John Greenway in a band called The Healers. The Healers became well known locally for their mainly improvised lyrics and avant garde music. In the autumn of that year, he began attending the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Musical career
Dead Kennedys
In June 1978, Biafra responded to an advertisement placed in a store by guitarist East Bay Ray, stating "guitarist wants to form punk band", and together they formed the Dead Kennedys. He began performing with the band under the stage name Occupant, but soon began to use his current stage name, a combination of the brand name Jell-O and the short-lived African state Biafra. The band's lyrics were written by Biafra. The lyrics were mostly political in nature and displayed a sardonic, sometimes absurdist, sense of humor despite their serious subject matter. In the tradition of UK anarcho-punk bands like Crass and the Subhumans, the Dead Kennedys were one of the first US punk bands to write politically themed songs. The lyrics Biafra wrote helped popularize the use of humorous lyrics in punk and other types of hard-core music. Biafra cites Joey Ramone as the inspiration for his use of humor in his songs (as well as being the musician who made him interested in punk rock), noting in particular songs by the Ramones such as "Beat on the Brat" and "Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue".
Biafra initially attempted to compose music on guitar, but his lack of experience on the instrument and his own admission of being "a fumbler with my hands" led Dead Kennedys bassist Klaus Flouride to suggest that Biafra simply sing the parts he envisioned to the band. Biafra sang his riffs and melodies into a tape recorder, which he brought to the band's rehearsal and/or recording sessions. This later became a problem when the other members of the Dead Kennedys sued Biafra over royalties and publishing rights. By all accounts, including his own, Biafra is not a conventionally skilled musician, though he and his collaborators (Joey Shithead of D.O.A. in particular) attest that he is a skilled composer and his work, particularly with the Dead Kennedys, is highly respected by punk-oriented critics and fans.
Biafra's first popular song was the first single by the Dead Kennedys, "California über alles". The song, which spoofed California governor Jerry Brown, was the first of many political songs by the group and Biafra. The song's popularity resulted in its being covered by other musicians, such as The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy (who rewrote the lyrics to parody Pete Wilson), John Linnell of They Might Be Giants and Six Feet Under on their Graveyard Classics album of cover versions. Not long after, the Dead Kennedys had a second and bigger hit with "Holiday in Cambodia" from their debut album Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables. AllMusic cites this song as "possibly the most successful single of the American hardcore scene" and Biafra counts it as his personal favorite Dead Kennedy's song. Minor hits from the album included "Kill the Poor" (about potential abuse of the then-new neutron bomb) and a satirical cover of Elvis Presley's "Viva Las Vegas".
The Dead Kennedys received some controversy in the spring of 1981 over the single "Too Drunk to Fuck". The song became a hit in Britain, and the BBC feared that it would manage to be a big enough hit to appear among the top 30 songs on the national charts, requiring a mention on Top of the Pops. However, the single peaked at number 31 in the charts.
Later albums also contained memorable songs, but with less popularity than the earlier ones. The EP In God We Trust, Inc. contained the song "Nazi Punks Fuck Off!" as well as "We've Got A Bigger Problem Now", a rewritten version of "California über alles" about Ronald Reagan. Punk musician and scholar Vic Bondi considers the latter song to be the song that "defined the lyrical agenda of much of hardcore music, and represented its break with punk". The band's most controversial album, Frankenchrist, brought with it the song "MTV Get Off the Air," which accused MTV of promoting poor quality music and sedating the public. The album also contained a controversial poster by Swiss surrealist artist H. R. Giger entitled Penis Landscape.
The Dead Kennedys toured widely during their career, starting in the late 1970s. They began playing at San Francisco's Mabuhay Gardens (their home base) and other Bay Area venues, later branching out to shows in southern Californian clubs (most notably the Whisky a Go Go), but eventually they moved to major clubs across the country, including CBGB in New York. Later, they played to larger audiences such as at the 1980 Bay Area Music Awards (where they played the notorious "Pull My Strings" for the only time), and headlined the 1983 Rock Against Reagan festival.
On May 7, 1994, punk rock fans who believed Biafra was a "sell out" attacked him at the 924 Gilman Street club in Berkeley, California. Biafra claims that he was attacked by a man nicknamed Cretin, who crashed into him while moshing. The crash injured Biafra's leg, causing an argument between the two men. During the argument, Cretin pushed Biafra to the floor and five or six friends of Cretin assaulted Biafra while he was down, yelling "Sellout rock star, kick him", and attempting to pull out his hair. Biafra was later hospitalized with serious injuries. The attack derailed Biafra's plans for both a Canadian spoken-word tour and an accompanying album, and the production of Pure Chewing Satisfaction was halted. However, Biafra returned to the Gilman club a few months after the incident to perform a spoken-word performance as an act of reconciliation with the club.
Biafra has been a prominent figure of the Californian punk scene and was one of the third generation members of the San Francisco punk community. Many later hardcore bands have cited the Dead Kennedys as a major influence. Hardcore punk author Steven Blush describes Biafra as hardcore's "biggest star" who was a "powerful presence whose political insurgence and rabid fandom made him the father figure of a burgeoning subculture [and an] inspirational force [who] could also be a real prick ... Biafra was a visionary, incendiary [performer]."
After the Dead Kennedys disbanded, Biafra's new songs were recorded with other bands, and he released only spoken word albums as solo projects. These collaborations had less popularity than Biafra's earlier work. However, his song "That's Progress", originally recorded with D.O.A. for the album Last Scream of the Missing Neighbors, received considerable exposure when it appeared on the album Rock Against Bush, Vol. 1.
Obscenity prosecution
In April 1986, police officers raided Biafra's house in response to complaints by the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC). In June 1986, L.A. deputy city attorney Michael Guarino, working under City Attorney James Hahn, brought Biafra to trial in Los Angeles for distributing "harmful material to minors" in the Dead Kennedys album Frankenchrist. However, the dispute was about neither the music nor the lyrics from the album, but rather the print of the H. R. Giger poster Landscape XX (Penis Landscape) included with the album.
Music author Reebee Garofalo argued that Biafra and Alternative Tentacles may have been targeted because the label was a "small, self-managed and self-supported company that could ill afford a protracted legal battle." Facing the possible sentence of a year in jail and a $2,000 fine, Biafra, Dirk Dirksen, and Suzanne Stefanac founded the No More Censorship Defense Fund, a benefit featuring several punk rock bands, to help pay for his legal fees, which neither he nor his record label could afford. The jury deadlocked 5 to 7 in favor of acquittal, prompting a mistrial; despite a motion to re-try the case, the judge ordered all charges dropped. The Dead Kennedys disbanded during the trial, in December 1986, due to the mounting legal costs; in the wake of their disbandment, Biafra made a career of his spoken word performances.
Biafra has a cameo role in the 1988 film Tapeheads. He plays an FBI agent who arrests the two protagonists (played by Tim Robbins and John Cusack). While arresting them his character asks "Remember what we did to Jello Biafra?" lampooning the obscenity prosecution.
On March 25, 2005, Biafra appeared on the U.S. radio program This American Life, "Episode 285: Know Your Enemy", which featured a phone call between Jello Biafra and Michael Guarino, the prosecutor in the Frankenchrist trial.
Lawsuit and reunion activities
In October 1998, three former members of the Dead Kennedys sued Biafra for nonpayment of royalties. The other members of Dead Kennedys alleged that Biafra, in his capacity as the head of Alternative Tentacles records, discovered an accounting error amounting to some $75,000 in unpaid royalties over almost a decade. Rather than informing his bandmates of this mistake, the suit alleged, Biafra knowingly concealed the information until a whistleblower employee at the record label notified the band.
According to Biafra, the suit resulted from his refusal to allow one of the band's most well-known singles, "Holiday in Cambodia", to be used in a commercial for Levi's Dockers; Biafra opposes Levi's because of his belief that they use unfair business practices and sweatshop labor. Biafra maintained that he had never denied them royalties, and that he himself had not even received royalties for re-releases of their albums or "posthumous" live albums which had been licensed to other labels by the Decay Music partnership. Decay Music denied this charge and have posted what they say are his cashed royalty checks, written to his legal name of Eric Boucher. Biafra also complained about the songwriting credits in new reissues and archival live albums of songs, alleging that he was the sole composer of songs that were wrongly credited to the entire band.
In May 2000, a jury found Biafra and Alternative Tentacles liable by not promptly informing his former bandmates of the accounting error and instead withholding the information during subsequent discussions and contractual negotiations. Biafra was ordered to pay $200,000, including $20,000 in punitive damages. After an appeal by Biafra's lawyers, in June 2003, the California Court of Appeals unanimously upheld all the conditions of the 2000 verdict against Biafra and Alternative Tentacles. Furthermore, the plaintiffs were awarded the rights to most of Dead Kennedys recorded works—which accounted for about half the sales for Alternative Tentacles. Now in control of the Dead Kennedys name, Biafra's former bandmates went on tour with a new lead vocalist.
Other bands
In the early 1980s, Biafra collaborated with musicians Christian Lunch and Adrian Borland (of The Sound) and Morgan Fisher (of Mott the Hoople) for the electropunk musical project The Witch Trials, releasing one self-titled EP in its lifetime.
In 1988, Biafra, with Al Jourgensen and Paul Barker of the band Ministry, and Jeff Ward, formed Lard. The band became yet another side project for Ministry, with Biafra providing vocals and lyrics. According to a March 2009 interview with Jourgensen, he and Biafra are working on a new Lard album, which is being recorded in Jourgensen's El Paso studio. Jourgensen also claimed in 2021 that Biafra was in works of a new Lard album. While working on the film Terminal City Ricochet in 1989, Biafra did a song for the film's soundtrack with D.O.A.. As a result, Biafra worked with D.O.A. on the album Last Scream of the Missing Neighbors. Biafra also worked with Nomeansno on the soundtrack, which led to their collaboration on the album The Sky Is Falling and I Want My Mommy the following year. Biafra also provided lyrics for the song "Biotech is Godzilla" for Sepultura's 1993 album Chaos A.D..
In 1999, Biafra and other members of the anti-globalization movement protested the WTO Meeting of 1999 in Seattle. Along with other prominent West Coast musicians, he formed the short-lived band the No WTO Combo to help promote the movement's cause. The band was originally scheduled to play during the protest, but the performance was canceled due to riots. The band performed a short set the following night at the Showbox in downtown Seattle (outside the designated area), along with the hiphop group Spearhead. No WTO Combo later released a CD of recordings from the concert, entitled Live from the Battle in Seattle.
As of late 2005, Biafra was performing with the band The Melvins under the name "Jello Biafra and the Melvins", though fans sometimes refer to them as "The Jelvins". Together they have released two albums, and worked on material for a third collaborative release, much of which was premiered live at two concerts at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco during an event called Biafra Five-O, commemorating Biafra's 50th birthday, the 30th anniversary of the founding of the Dead Kennedys, and the beginning of legalized same-sex marriage in California. Biafra was also working with a band known as Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine, which included Ralph Spight of Victims Family on guitar and Billy Gould of Faith No More on bass. This group debuted during Biafra Five-O.
In 2011, Biafra appeared in a singular concert event with an all-star cast of Southern musicians including members from Cowboy Mouth, Dash Rip Rock, Mojo Nixon and Down entitled, "Jello Biafra and the New Orleans Raunch & Soul All Stars" who performed an array of classic Soul covers to a packed house at the 12-Bar in New Orleans, Louisiana. He would later reunite with many of the same musicians during the Carnival season 2014 to revisit many of these classics at Siberia, New Orleans. A live album from the 2011 performance, Walk on Jindal's Splinters, and a companion single, Fannie May/Just a Little Bit, were released in 2015.
Alternative Tentacles
In June 1979, Biafra co-founded the record label Alternative Tentacles, with which the Dead Kennedys released their first single, "California über alles". The label was created to allow the band to release albums without having to deal with pressure from major labels to change their music, although the major labels were not willing to sign the band due to their songs being deemed too controversial. After dealing with Cherry Red in the UK and IRS Records in the US for their first album Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables, the band released all later albums, and later pressings of Fresh Fruit on Alternative Tentacles. The exception being live albums released after the band's break-up, which the other band members compiled from recordings in the band partnership's vaults without Biafra's input or endorsement.. Biafra has been the owner of the company since its founding, though he does not receive a salary for his position; Biafra has referred to his position in the company as "absentee thoughtlord".
Biafra is an ardent collector of unusual vinyl records of all kinds, from 1950s and 1960s ethno-pop recordings by the likes of Les Baxter and Esquivel to vanity pressings that have circulated regionally, to German crooner Heino (for whom he would later participate in the documentary Heino: Made In Germany); he cites his always growing collection as one of his biggest musical influences. In 1993 he gave an interview to RE/Search Publications for their second Incredibly Strange Music book focusing primarily on these records, and later participated in a two-part episode of Fuse TV's program Crate Diggers on the same subject. His interest in such recordings, often categorized as outsider music, led to his discovery of the prolific (and schizophrenic) singer/songwriter/artist Wesley Willis, whom he signed to Alternative Tentacles in 1994, preceding Willis' major label deal with American Recordings. His collection grew so large that on October 1, 2005, Biafra donated a portion of his collection to an annual yard sale co-promoted by Alternative Tentacles and held at their warehouse in Emeryville, California.
In 2006, along with Alternative Tentacles employee and The Frisk lead singer Jesse Luscious, Biafra began co-hosting The Alternative Tentacles Batcast, a downloadable podcast hosted by alternativetentacles.com. The show primarily focuses on interviews with artists and bands that are currently signed to the Alternative Tentacles label, although there are also occasional episodes where Biafra devoted the show to answering fan questions.
Spoken word
Biafra became a spoken word artist in January 1986 with a performance at University of California, Los Angeles. In his performance he combined humor with his political beliefs, much in the same way that he did with the lyrics to his songs. Despite his continued spoken word performances, he did not begin recording spoken word albums until after the disbanding of the Dead Kennedys.
His ninth spoken word album, In the Grip of Official Treason, was released in October 2006.
Biafra was also featured in the British band Pitchshifter's song As Seen on TV reciting the words of dystopian futuristic radio advertisements.
Politics
Biafra has resisted identifying with any particular political party or ideology, saying, "I don't label myself strictly an anarchist or a socialist or let alone a libertarian or something like that," In a 2012 interview, Biafra said "I'm very pro-tax as long as it goes for the right things. I don't mind paying more money as long as it's going to provide shelter for people sleeping in the street or getting the schools fixed back up, getting the infrastructure up to the standards of other countries, including a high speed rail system. I'm totally down with that."
Mayoral campaign
In the autumn of 1979, Biafra ran for mayor of San Francisco, using the Jell-O ad campaign catchphrase, "There's always room for Jello", as his campaign slogan. Having entered the race before creating a campaign platform, Biafra later wrote his platform on a napkin while attending a Pere Ubu concert where Dead Kennedys drummer Ted told Biafra, "Biafra, you have such a big mouth that you should run for Mayor." As he campaigned, Biafra wore campaign T-shirts from his opponent Quentin Kopp's previous campaign and at one point vacuumed leaves off the front lawn of another opponent, current U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, to mock her publicity stunt of sweeping streets in downtown San Francisco for a few hours. He also made a whistlestop campaign tour along the BART line. Supporters committed equally odd actions; two well known signs held by supporters said "If he doesn't win I'll kill myself" and "What if he does win?"
At the time, in San Francisco any individual could legally run for mayor if a petition was signed by 1500 people or if $1500 was paid. Biafra paid $900 and got signatures over time and eventually became a legal candidate, meaning he received statements put in voters' pamphlets and equal news coverage.
His platform included unconventional points such as forcing businessmen to wear clown suits within city limits, erecting statues of Dan White, who assassinated Mayor George Moscone and City Supervisor Harvey Milk in 1978, around the city and allowing the parks department to sell eggs and tomatoes with which people could pelt the statues, hiring workers who had lost their jobs due to a tax initiative to panhandle in wealthy neighborhoods (including Senator Dianne Feinstein's), and a citywide ban on cars. Biafra has expressed irritation that these parts of his platform attained such notoriety, preferring instead to be remembered for serious proposals such as legalizing squatting in vacant, tax-delinquent buildings and requiring police officers to run for election by the people of the neighborhoods they patrol.
He finished third out of a field of ten, receiving 3.79 percent of the vote (6,591 votes); the election ended in a runoff that did not involve him (Feinstein was declared the winner).
Presidential campaign
In 2000, the New York State Green Party drafted Biafra as a candidate for the Green Party presidential nomination, and a few supporters were elected to the party's nominating convention in Denver, Colorado. Biafra chose death row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal as his running mate. The party overwhelmingly chose Ralph Nader as the presidential candidate with 295 of the 319 delegate votes. Biafra received 10 votes.
Biafra, along with a camera crew (dubbed by Biafra as "The Camcorder Truth Jihad"), later reported for the Independent Media Center at the Republican and Democratic conventions.
Post-2000
After losing the 2000 nomination, Biafra became highly active in Nader's presidential campaign, as well as in 2004 and 2008. During the 2008 campaign Jello played at rallies and answered questions for journalists in support of Nader. When gay rights activists accused Nader of costing Al Gore the 2000 election, Biafra reminded them that Tipper Gore's Parents Music Resource Center wanted warning stickers on albums with content referencing homosexuality.
After Barack Obama won the general election, Biafra wrote an open letter making suggestions on how to run his term as president. Biafra criticized Obama during his term, stating that "Obama even won the award for best advertising campaign of 2008." Biafra dubbed Obama "Barackstar O'Bummer". Biafra refused to support Obama in 2012. Biafra has stated that he feels that Obama continued many of George W. Bush's policies, summarizing Obama's policies as containing "worse and worse laws against human rights and more and more illegal unconstitutional spying."
On September 18, 2015, it was announced that Biafra would be supporting Bernie Sanders in his campaign for the 2016 presidential election. He has strongly criticised the political position of Donald Trump, saying "how can people be so fucking stupid" on hearing the election result, and later adding "The last person we want with their finger on the nuclear button is somebody connected to this extreme Christianist doomsday cult."
On February 28, 2020, Jello announced that he would be supporting both Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders in the 2020 presidential election. “I personally like Warren slightly better than Bernie because: 1) She’s done her homework. Bernie too, but not to quite the same depth or degree. 2) Think about it — who really has a better chance of actually beating Trump, and helping flip Congress and state legislatures? It’s Elizabeth Warren, hands down.” He went on to say that he considered Joe Biden and Mike Bloomberg "almost as bad as Trump".
On April 12, 2020, Biafra expressed disappointment that Sanders had suspended his campaign for the 2020 Democratic nomination.
Boycott of Israel
In mid-2011 Jello Biafra and his band were scheduled to play at the Barby Club in Tel Aviv. They came under heavy pressure by the pro-Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, and finally decided to cancel the concert – after a debate which according to Biafra "deeply tore at the fabric of our band ... This whole controversy has been one of the most intense situations of my life – and I thrive on intense situations".
Biafra then decided to travel to Israel and the Palestinian Occupied Territories, at his own expense, and talk with Israeli and Palestinian activists as well as with fans disappointed at his cancellation. In the article stating his conclusions he wrote:
"I will not perform in Israel unless it is a pro-human rights, anti-occupation event, that does not violate the spirit of the boycott. Each musician, artist, etc. must decide this for themselves. I am staying away for now, but am also really creeped out by the attitudes of some of the hardliners and hope some day to find a way to contribute something positive here. I will not march or sign on with anyone who runs around calling people Zionazis and is more interested in making threats than making friends."
Personal life
Biafra married Theresa Soder, a.k.a. Ninotchka, lead singer of San Francisco-area punk band the Situations, on October 31, 1981. The wedding was conducted by Flipper vocalist/bassist Bruce Loose, who became a Universal Life Church minister just to conduct the ceremony, which took place in a graveyard. The wedding reception, which members of Flipper, Black Flag, and D.O.A. attended, was held at director Joe Rees' Target Video studios. The marriage ended in 1986. Biafra generally does not discuss his private life. He lives in San Francisco, California.
Selected discography
For a more complete list, see the Jello Biafra discography.
Dead Kennedys
1980 – Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables
1981 – In God We Trust, Inc.
1982 – Plastic Surgery Disasters
1985 – Frankenchrist
1986 – Bedtime for Democracy
1987 – Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death
Spoken word
1987 – No More Cocoons
1989 – High Priest of Harmful Matter: Tales From the Trial
1991 – I Blow Minds for a Living
1994 – Beyond the Valley of the Gift Police
1998 – If Evolution Is Outlawed, Only Outlaws Will Evolve
2000 – Become the Media
2002 – The Big Ka-Boom, Pt. 1
2002 – Machine Gun in the Clown's Hand
2006 – In the Grip of Official Treason
Lard
1989 – The Power of Lard
1990 – The Last Temptation of Reid
1997 – Pure Chewing Satisfaction
2000 – 70's Rock Must Die
Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine
2009 – The Audacity of Hype
2011 – Enhanced Methods of Questioning
2012 – SHOCK-U-PY
2013 – White People and the Damage Done
2020 – Tea Party Revenge Porn
Collaborations
Filmography
1977 – This Is America, Pt. 2
1981 – Urgh! A Music War
1983 – Anarchism in America
1986 – Lovedolls Superstar, directed by Dave Markey
1987 – Household Affairs, directed & filmed by Allen Ginsberg
1988 – Tapeheads, directed by Bill Fishman
1990 – Terminal City Ricochet
1991 – Highway 61, directed by Bruce McDonald
1994 – Skulhedface, directed by Melanie Mandl
1997 – Mary Jane's Not a Virgin Anymore, directed by Sarah Jacobson
1999 – The Widower
1999 – Virtue
2001 – Plaster Caster
2002 – Bikini Bandits, directed by Steve and Peter Grasse
2004 – Death and Texas
2004 – Punk: Attitude
2005 – We Jam Econo: The Story of the Minutemen
2006 – Punk's Not Dead, directed by Susan Dynner
2006 – Whose War?, directed by Donald Farmer
2007 – American Drug War: The Last White Hope, directed by Kevin Booth
2008 – Nerdcore Rising, directed by Negin Farsad
2009 – Open Your Mouth and Say Mr. Chi Pig, directed by Sean Patrick Shaul
2010 – A Man Within, directed by Yony Leyser
2011 – I Love You ... I Am the Porn Queen, short film directed by Ani Kyd
2014 – Heino: Made in Germany, directed by Oliver Schwabe
2014 – Portlandia, season 4, episode 4 – "Pull-Out King"
2018 – Bathtubs Over Broadway, directed by Dava Whisenant (as himself)
2018 – Boiled Angels: The Trial of Mike Diana, directed by Frank Henenlotter (narrator)
2019 – The Last Black Man in San Francisco, directed by Joe Talbot
Notes
References
External links
Jello Biafra on Alternative Tentacles
1958 births
Living people
20th-century American politicians
Candidates in the 2000 United States presidential election
Alternative Tentacles
Alternative Tentacles artists
American anti–Iraq War activists
American anti-war activists
American human rights activists
American male film actors
American people of Jewish descent
American punk rock singers
American satirists
American male singer-songwriters
American spoken word artists
Anti-consumerists
Anti-corporate activists
Anti-globalization activists
Boulder High School alumni
California Greens
Dead Kennedys members
Finance fraud
Green Party of the United States politicians
Hardcore punk musicians
Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine members
Lard (band) members
Male actors from Boulder, Colorado
Musicians from Boulder, Colorado
Pigface members
Pranksters
Teenage Time Killers members
Singer-songwriters from Colorado | true | [
"Det Hoffensbergske Etablissement was a publishing house and printing business based at Kronprinsessegade 28 in Copenhagen, Denmark.\n\nHistory\nThe company was founded 1844 when Julius Hoffensberg (1828-1895) took over a small lithography workshop after a deceased brother. In 1874 this company merged with Otto Schwarts Eftf.s Boghandel (founded 1865) and Em. Bærentzen & Co. (founded 1838) under the name Hoffensberg Jespersen & Trap. The book printing business G. S. Eibes Bogtrykkeri (founded 1859) was also part of the merger. I. P. Trap's son, Frederik Trap;, took over his father's share over the company later that same year. The name of the company was changed to Hoffenberg & Trao when E. Jespersen left the company in 1878. Trap died in 1882, leaving Hoffensberg as the sole partner until his was joined by Alfred Grut 1887 in 1898. When Hoffensberg returned in 1888. Grut was instead joined by P. Poulsen but he died the following year. In 1890, The company was converted into a limited company (aktieselskab) in 1890.\n\nLocation\nThe company was based at Kronprinsessegade 28 in Copenhagen.\n\nSee also\n Hagen & Sievertsen\n\nReferences\n\nPrinting companies of Denmark\nDanish companies established in 1844",
"The Shree Diamond Public Academy Higher Secondary School) is a school in Gaddachauki, Nepal. It was founded in 1996.\n\nThe school was founded by Hira Chand when he was just 16 years old. At that time there was no English medium school in Gaddachauki, \nSchools in Nepal\nEducational institutions established in 1996\n1996 establishments in Nepal"
]
|
[
"Jello Biafra",
"Alternative Tentacles",
"what is alternative tentacles?",
"Biafra co-founded the record label Alternative Tentacles,",
"who did he co-found it with?",
"Biafra has been the owner of the company since its founding,",
"when was it founded?",
"June 1979,"
]
| C_1c892d3c20fa42df8350499241317562_0 | what did he release through the company? | 4 | What did Jello Biafra release through the record label Alternative Tentacles? | Jello Biafra | In June 1979, Biafra co-founded the record label Alternative Tentacles, with which the Dead Kennedys released their first single, "California Uber Alles". The label was created to allow the band to release albums without having to deal with pressure from major labels to change their music, although the major labels were not willing to sign the band due to their songs being deemed too controversial. After dealing with Cherry Red in the UK and IRS Records in the US for their first album Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables, the band released all later albums, and later pressings of Fresh Fruit on Alternative Tentacles. The exception being live albums released after the band's break-up, which the other band members compiled from recordings in the band partnership's vaults without Biafra's input or endorsement.. Biafra has been the owner of the company since its founding, though he does not receive a salary for his position; Biafra has referred to his position in the company as "absentee thoughtlord". Biafra is an ardent collector of unusual vinyl records of all kinds, from 1950s and 1960s ethno-pop recordings by the likes of Les Baxter and Esquivel to vanity pressings that have circulated regionally, to German crooner Heino (for whom he would later participate in the documentary Heino: Made In Germany); he cites his always growing collection as one of his biggest musical influences. In 1993 he gave an interview to RE/Search Publications for their second Incredibly Strange Music book focusing primarily on these records, and later participated in a two-part episode of Fuse TV's program Crate Diggers on the same subject. His interest in such recordings, often categorized as outsider music, led to his discovery of the prolific (and schizophrenic) singer/songwriter/artist Wesley Willis, whom he signed to Alternative Tentacles in 1994, preceding Willis' major label deal with American Recordings. His collection grew so large that on October 1, 2005, Biafra donated a portion of his collection to an annual yard sale co-promoted by Alternative Tentacles and held at their warehouse in Emeryville, California. In 2006, along with Alternative Tentacles employee and The Frisk lead singer Jesse Luscious, Biafra began co-hosting The Alternative Tentacles Batcast, a downloadable podcast hosted by alternativetentacles.com. The show primarily focuses on interviews with artists and bands that are currently signed to the Alternative Tentacles label, although there are also occasional episodes where Biafra devoted the show to answering fan questions. CANNOTANSWER | the Dead Kennedys released their first single, "California Uber Alles". | Eric Reed Boucher (born June 17, 1958), better known by his professional name Jello Biafra, is an American singer and spoken word artist. He is the former lead singer and songwriter for the San Francisco punk rock band Dead Kennedys.
Initially active from 1979 to 1986, Dead Kennedys were known for rapid-fire music topped with Biafra's sardonic lyrics and biting social commentary, delivered in his "unique quiver of a voice". When the band broke up in 1986, he took over the influential independent record label Alternative Tentacles, which he had founded in 1979 with Dead Kennedys bandmate East Bay Ray. In a 2000 lawsuit, upheld on appeal in 2003 by the California Supreme Court, Biafra was found liable for breach of contract, fraud and malice in withholding a decade's worth of royalties from his former bandmates and ordered to pay over $200,000 in compensation and punitive damages; the band subsequently reformed without Biafra. Although now focused primarily on spoken word performances, Biafra has continued as a musician in numerous collaborations. He has also occasionally appeared in cameo roles in films.
Politically, Biafra is a member of the Green Party of the United States and supports various political causes. He ran for the party's presidential nomination in the 2000 presidential election, finishing a distant second to Ralph Nader. In 1979 he ran for mayor of San Francisco, California. He is a staunch believer in a free society, and utilizes shock value and advocates direct action and pranksterism in the name of political causes. Biafra is known to use absurdist media tactics, in the leftist tradition of the Yippies, to highlight issues of civil rights and social justice.
Early life
Eric Reed Boucher was born in Boulder, Colorado, the son of Virginia (née Parker), a librarian, and Stanley Wayne Boucher, a psychiatric social worker and poet. His sister, Julie J. Boucher, was Associate Director of the Library Research Service at the Colorado State Library; she died in a mountain-climbing accident on October 12, 1996. Biafra has a Jewish great grandparent, but was unaware of this until the mid-2000s. He grew up in a secular household and has said that he is "not really Jewish".
As a child, Boucher developed an interest in international politics that was encouraged by his parents. An avid news watcher, one of his earliest memories was of the John F. Kennedy assassination. Biafra says he has been a fan of rock music since first hearing it in 1965, when his parents accidentally tuned in to a rock radio station. Boucher ignored his high school guidance counselor's advice that he spend his adolescence preparing to become a dental hygienist.
He began his career in music in January 1977 as a roadie for the punk rock band The Ravers (who later changed their name to The Nails), soon joining his friend John Greenway in a band called The Healers. The Healers became well known locally for their mainly improvised lyrics and avant garde music. In the autumn of that year, he began attending the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Musical career
Dead Kennedys
In June 1978, Biafra responded to an advertisement placed in a store by guitarist East Bay Ray, stating "guitarist wants to form punk band", and together they formed the Dead Kennedys. He began performing with the band under the stage name Occupant, but soon began to use his current stage name, a combination of the brand name Jell-O and the short-lived African state Biafra. The band's lyrics were written by Biafra. The lyrics were mostly political in nature and displayed a sardonic, sometimes absurdist, sense of humor despite their serious subject matter. In the tradition of UK anarcho-punk bands like Crass and the Subhumans, the Dead Kennedys were one of the first US punk bands to write politically themed songs. The lyrics Biafra wrote helped popularize the use of humorous lyrics in punk and other types of hard-core music. Biafra cites Joey Ramone as the inspiration for his use of humor in his songs (as well as being the musician who made him interested in punk rock), noting in particular songs by the Ramones such as "Beat on the Brat" and "Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue".
Biafra initially attempted to compose music on guitar, but his lack of experience on the instrument and his own admission of being "a fumbler with my hands" led Dead Kennedys bassist Klaus Flouride to suggest that Biafra simply sing the parts he envisioned to the band. Biafra sang his riffs and melodies into a tape recorder, which he brought to the band's rehearsal and/or recording sessions. This later became a problem when the other members of the Dead Kennedys sued Biafra over royalties and publishing rights. By all accounts, including his own, Biafra is not a conventionally skilled musician, though he and his collaborators (Joey Shithead of D.O.A. in particular) attest that he is a skilled composer and his work, particularly with the Dead Kennedys, is highly respected by punk-oriented critics and fans.
Biafra's first popular song was the first single by the Dead Kennedys, "California über alles". The song, which spoofed California governor Jerry Brown, was the first of many political songs by the group and Biafra. The song's popularity resulted in its being covered by other musicians, such as The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy (who rewrote the lyrics to parody Pete Wilson), John Linnell of They Might Be Giants and Six Feet Under on their Graveyard Classics album of cover versions. Not long after, the Dead Kennedys had a second and bigger hit with "Holiday in Cambodia" from their debut album Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables. AllMusic cites this song as "possibly the most successful single of the American hardcore scene" and Biafra counts it as his personal favorite Dead Kennedy's song. Minor hits from the album included "Kill the Poor" (about potential abuse of the then-new neutron bomb) and a satirical cover of Elvis Presley's "Viva Las Vegas".
The Dead Kennedys received some controversy in the spring of 1981 over the single "Too Drunk to Fuck". The song became a hit in Britain, and the BBC feared that it would manage to be a big enough hit to appear among the top 30 songs on the national charts, requiring a mention on Top of the Pops. However, the single peaked at number 31 in the charts.
Later albums also contained memorable songs, but with less popularity than the earlier ones. The EP In God We Trust, Inc. contained the song "Nazi Punks Fuck Off!" as well as "We've Got A Bigger Problem Now", a rewritten version of "California über alles" about Ronald Reagan. Punk musician and scholar Vic Bondi considers the latter song to be the song that "defined the lyrical agenda of much of hardcore music, and represented its break with punk". The band's most controversial album, Frankenchrist, brought with it the song "MTV Get Off the Air," which accused MTV of promoting poor quality music and sedating the public. The album also contained a controversial poster by Swiss surrealist artist H. R. Giger entitled Penis Landscape.
The Dead Kennedys toured widely during their career, starting in the late 1970s. They began playing at San Francisco's Mabuhay Gardens (their home base) and other Bay Area venues, later branching out to shows in southern Californian clubs (most notably the Whisky a Go Go), but eventually they moved to major clubs across the country, including CBGB in New York. Later, they played to larger audiences such as at the 1980 Bay Area Music Awards (where they played the notorious "Pull My Strings" for the only time), and headlined the 1983 Rock Against Reagan festival.
On May 7, 1994, punk rock fans who believed Biafra was a "sell out" attacked him at the 924 Gilman Street club in Berkeley, California. Biafra claims that he was attacked by a man nicknamed Cretin, who crashed into him while moshing. The crash injured Biafra's leg, causing an argument between the two men. During the argument, Cretin pushed Biafra to the floor and five or six friends of Cretin assaulted Biafra while he was down, yelling "Sellout rock star, kick him", and attempting to pull out his hair. Biafra was later hospitalized with serious injuries. The attack derailed Biafra's plans for both a Canadian spoken-word tour and an accompanying album, and the production of Pure Chewing Satisfaction was halted. However, Biafra returned to the Gilman club a few months after the incident to perform a spoken-word performance as an act of reconciliation with the club.
Biafra has been a prominent figure of the Californian punk scene and was one of the third generation members of the San Francisco punk community. Many later hardcore bands have cited the Dead Kennedys as a major influence. Hardcore punk author Steven Blush describes Biafra as hardcore's "biggest star" who was a "powerful presence whose political insurgence and rabid fandom made him the father figure of a burgeoning subculture [and an] inspirational force [who] could also be a real prick ... Biafra was a visionary, incendiary [performer]."
After the Dead Kennedys disbanded, Biafra's new songs were recorded with other bands, and he released only spoken word albums as solo projects. These collaborations had less popularity than Biafra's earlier work. However, his song "That's Progress", originally recorded with D.O.A. for the album Last Scream of the Missing Neighbors, received considerable exposure when it appeared on the album Rock Against Bush, Vol. 1.
Obscenity prosecution
In April 1986, police officers raided Biafra's house in response to complaints by the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC). In June 1986, L.A. deputy city attorney Michael Guarino, working under City Attorney James Hahn, brought Biafra to trial in Los Angeles for distributing "harmful material to minors" in the Dead Kennedys album Frankenchrist. However, the dispute was about neither the music nor the lyrics from the album, but rather the print of the H. R. Giger poster Landscape XX (Penis Landscape) included with the album.
Music author Reebee Garofalo argued that Biafra and Alternative Tentacles may have been targeted because the label was a "small, self-managed and self-supported company that could ill afford a protracted legal battle." Facing the possible sentence of a year in jail and a $2,000 fine, Biafra, Dirk Dirksen, and Suzanne Stefanac founded the No More Censorship Defense Fund, a benefit featuring several punk rock bands, to help pay for his legal fees, which neither he nor his record label could afford. The jury deadlocked 5 to 7 in favor of acquittal, prompting a mistrial; despite a motion to re-try the case, the judge ordered all charges dropped. The Dead Kennedys disbanded during the trial, in December 1986, due to the mounting legal costs; in the wake of their disbandment, Biafra made a career of his spoken word performances.
Biafra has a cameo role in the 1988 film Tapeheads. He plays an FBI agent who arrests the two protagonists (played by Tim Robbins and John Cusack). While arresting them his character asks "Remember what we did to Jello Biafra?" lampooning the obscenity prosecution.
On March 25, 2005, Biafra appeared on the U.S. radio program This American Life, "Episode 285: Know Your Enemy", which featured a phone call between Jello Biafra and Michael Guarino, the prosecutor in the Frankenchrist trial.
Lawsuit and reunion activities
In October 1998, three former members of the Dead Kennedys sued Biafra for nonpayment of royalties. The other members of Dead Kennedys alleged that Biafra, in his capacity as the head of Alternative Tentacles records, discovered an accounting error amounting to some $75,000 in unpaid royalties over almost a decade. Rather than informing his bandmates of this mistake, the suit alleged, Biafra knowingly concealed the information until a whistleblower employee at the record label notified the band.
According to Biafra, the suit resulted from his refusal to allow one of the band's most well-known singles, "Holiday in Cambodia", to be used in a commercial for Levi's Dockers; Biafra opposes Levi's because of his belief that they use unfair business practices and sweatshop labor. Biafra maintained that he had never denied them royalties, and that he himself had not even received royalties for re-releases of their albums or "posthumous" live albums which had been licensed to other labels by the Decay Music partnership. Decay Music denied this charge and have posted what they say are his cashed royalty checks, written to his legal name of Eric Boucher. Biafra also complained about the songwriting credits in new reissues and archival live albums of songs, alleging that he was the sole composer of songs that were wrongly credited to the entire band.
In May 2000, a jury found Biafra and Alternative Tentacles liable by not promptly informing his former bandmates of the accounting error and instead withholding the information during subsequent discussions and contractual negotiations. Biafra was ordered to pay $200,000, including $20,000 in punitive damages. After an appeal by Biafra's lawyers, in June 2003, the California Court of Appeals unanimously upheld all the conditions of the 2000 verdict against Biafra and Alternative Tentacles. Furthermore, the plaintiffs were awarded the rights to most of Dead Kennedys recorded works—which accounted for about half the sales for Alternative Tentacles. Now in control of the Dead Kennedys name, Biafra's former bandmates went on tour with a new lead vocalist.
Other bands
In the early 1980s, Biafra collaborated with musicians Christian Lunch and Adrian Borland (of The Sound) and Morgan Fisher (of Mott the Hoople) for the electropunk musical project The Witch Trials, releasing one self-titled EP in its lifetime.
In 1988, Biafra, with Al Jourgensen and Paul Barker of the band Ministry, and Jeff Ward, formed Lard. The band became yet another side project for Ministry, with Biafra providing vocals and lyrics. According to a March 2009 interview with Jourgensen, he and Biafra are working on a new Lard album, which is being recorded in Jourgensen's El Paso studio. Jourgensen also claimed in 2021 that Biafra was in works of a new Lard album. While working on the film Terminal City Ricochet in 1989, Biafra did a song for the film's soundtrack with D.O.A.. As a result, Biafra worked with D.O.A. on the album Last Scream of the Missing Neighbors. Biafra also worked with Nomeansno on the soundtrack, which led to their collaboration on the album The Sky Is Falling and I Want My Mommy the following year. Biafra also provided lyrics for the song "Biotech is Godzilla" for Sepultura's 1993 album Chaos A.D..
In 1999, Biafra and other members of the anti-globalization movement protested the WTO Meeting of 1999 in Seattle. Along with other prominent West Coast musicians, he formed the short-lived band the No WTO Combo to help promote the movement's cause. The band was originally scheduled to play during the protest, but the performance was canceled due to riots. The band performed a short set the following night at the Showbox in downtown Seattle (outside the designated area), along with the hiphop group Spearhead. No WTO Combo later released a CD of recordings from the concert, entitled Live from the Battle in Seattle.
As of late 2005, Biafra was performing with the band The Melvins under the name "Jello Biafra and the Melvins", though fans sometimes refer to them as "The Jelvins". Together they have released two albums, and worked on material for a third collaborative release, much of which was premiered live at two concerts at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco during an event called Biafra Five-O, commemorating Biafra's 50th birthday, the 30th anniversary of the founding of the Dead Kennedys, and the beginning of legalized same-sex marriage in California. Biafra was also working with a band known as Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine, which included Ralph Spight of Victims Family on guitar and Billy Gould of Faith No More on bass. This group debuted during Biafra Five-O.
In 2011, Biafra appeared in a singular concert event with an all-star cast of Southern musicians including members from Cowboy Mouth, Dash Rip Rock, Mojo Nixon and Down entitled, "Jello Biafra and the New Orleans Raunch & Soul All Stars" who performed an array of classic Soul covers to a packed house at the 12-Bar in New Orleans, Louisiana. He would later reunite with many of the same musicians during the Carnival season 2014 to revisit many of these classics at Siberia, New Orleans. A live album from the 2011 performance, Walk on Jindal's Splinters, and a companion single, Fannie May/Just a Little Bit, were released in 2015.
Alternative Tentacles
In June 1979, Biafra co-founded the record label Alternative Tentacles, with which the Dead Kennedys released their first single, "California über alles". The label was created to allow the band to release albums without having to deal with pressure from major labels to change their music, although the major labels were not willing to sign the band due to their songs being deemed too controversial. After dealing with Cherry Red in the UK and IRS Records in the US for their first album Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables, the band released all later albums, and later pressings of Fresh Fruit on Alternative Tentacles. The exception being live albums released after the band's break-up, which the other band members compiled from recordings in the band partnership's vaults without Biafra's input or endorsement.. Biafra has been the owner of the company since its founding, though he does not receive a salary for his position; Biafra has referred to his position in the company as "absentee thoughtlord".
Biafra is an ardent collector of unusual vinyl records of all kinds, from 1950s and 1960s ethno-pop recordings by the likes of Les Baxter and Esquivel to vanity pressings that have circulated regionally, to German crooner Heino (for whom he would later participate in the documentary Heino: Made In Germany); he cites his always growing collection as one of his biggest musical influences. In 1993 he gave an interview to RE/Search Publications for their second Incredibly Strange Music book focusing primarily on these records, and later participated in a two-part episode of Fuse TV's program Crate Diggers on the same subject. His interest in such recordings, often categorized as outsider music, led to his discovery of the prolific (and schizophrenic) singer/songwriter/artist Wesley Willis, whom he signed to Alternative Tentacles in 1994, preceding Willis' major label deal with American Recordings. His collection grew so large that on October 1, 2005, Biafra donated a portion of his collection to an annual yard sale co-promoted by Alternative Tentacles and held at their warehouse in Emeryville, California.
In 2006, along with Alternative Tentacles employee and The Frisk lead singer Jesse Luscious, Biafra began co-hosting The Alternative Tentacles Batcast, a downloadable podcast hosted by alternativetentacles.com. The show primarily focuses on interviews with artists and bands that are currently signed to the Alternative Tentacles label, although there are also occasional episodes where Biafra devoted the show to answering fan questions.
Spoken word
Biafra became a spoken word artist in January 1986 with a performance at University of California, Los Angeles. In his performance he combined humor with his political beliefs, much in the same way that he did with the lyrics to his songs. Despite his continued spoken word performances, he did not begin recording spoken word albums until after the disbanding of the Dead Kennedys.
His ninth spoken word album, In the Grip of Official Treason, was released in October 2006.
Biafra was also featured in the British band Pitchshifter's song As Seen on TV reciting the words of dystopian futuristic radio advertisements.
Politics
Biafra has resisted identifying with any particular political party or ideology, saying, "I don't label myself strictly an anarchist or a socialist or let alone a libertarian or something like that," In a 2012 interview, Biafra said "I'm very pro-tax as long as it goes for the right things. I don't mind paying more money as long as it's going to provide shelter for people sleeping in the street or getting the schools fixed back up, getting the infrastructure up to the standards of other countries, including a high speed rail system. I'm totally down with that."
Mayoral campaign
In the autumn of 1979, Biafra ran for mayor of San Francisco, using the Jell-O ad campaign catchphrase, "There's always room for Jello", as his campaign slogan. Having entered the race before creating a campaign platform, Biafra later wrote his platform on a napkin while attending a Pere Ubu concert where Dead Kennedys drummer Ted told Biafra, "Biafra, you have such a big mouth that you should run for Mayor." As he campaigned, Biafra wore campaign T-shirts from his opponent Quentin Kopp's previous campaign and at one point vacuumed leaves off the front lawn of another opponent, current U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, to mock her publicity stunt of sweeping streets in downtown San Francisco for a few hours. He also made a whistlestop campaign tour along the BART line. Supporters committed equally odd actions; two well known signs held by supporters said "If he doesn't win I'll kill myself" and "What if he does win?"
At the time, in San Francisco any individual could legally run for mayor if a petition was signed by 1500 people or if $1500 was paid. Biafra paid $900 and got signatures over time and eventually became a legal candidate, meaning he received statements put in voters' pamphlets and equal news coverage.
His platform included unconventional points such as forcing businessmen to wear clown suits within city limits, erecting statues of Dan White, who assassinated Mayor George Moscone and City Supervisor Harvey Milk in 1978, around the city and allowing the parks department to sell eggs and tomatoes with which people could pelt the statues, hiring workers who had lost their jobs due to a tax initiative to panhandle in wealthy neighborhoods (including Senator Dianne Feinstein's), and a citywide ban on cars. Biafra has expressed irritation that these parts of his platform attained such notoriety, preferring instead to be remembered for serious proposals such as legalizing squatting in vacant, tax-delinquent buildings and requiring police officers to run for election by the people of the neighborhoods they patrol.
He finished third out of a field of ten, receiving 3.79 percent of the vote (6,591 votes); the election ended in a runoff that did not involve him (Feinstein was declared the winner).
Presidential campaign
In 2000, the New York State Green Party drafted Biafra as a candidate for the Green Party presidential nomination, and a few supporters were elected to the party's nominating convention in Denver, Colorado. Biafra chose death row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal as his running mate. The party overwhelmingly chose Ralph Nader as the presidential candidate with 295 of the 319 delegate votes. Biafra received 10 votes.
Biafra, along with a camera crew (dubbed by Biafra as "The Camcorder Truth Jihad"), later reported for the Independent Media Center at the Republican and Democratic conventions.
Post-2000
After losing the 2000 nomination, Biafra became highly active in Nader's presidential campaign, as well as in 2004 and 2008. During the 2008 campaign Jello played at rallies and answered questions for journalists in support of Nader. When gay rights activists accused Nader of costing Al Gore the 2000 election, Biafra reminded them that Tipper Gore's Parents Music Resource Center wanted warning stickers on albums with content referencing homosexuality.
After Barack Obama won the general election, Biafra wrote an open letter making suggestions on how to run his term as president. Biafra criticized Obama during his term, stating that "Obama even won the award for best advertising campaign of 2008." Biafra dubbed Obama "Barackstar O'Bummer". Biafra refused to support Obama in 2012. Biafra has stated that he feels that Obama continued many of George W. Bush's policies, summarizing Obama's policies as containing "worse and worse laws against human rights and more and more illegal unconstitutional spying."
On September 18, 2015, it was announced that Biafra would be supporting Bernie Sanders in his campaign for the 2016 presidential election. He has strongly criticised the political position of Donald Trump, saying "how can people be so fucking stupid" on hearing the election result, and later adding "The last person we want with their finger on the nuclear button is somebody connected to this extreme Christianist doomsday cult."
On February 28, 2020, Jello announced that he would be supporting both Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders in the 2020 presidential election. “I personally like Warren slightly better than Bernie because: 1) She’s done her homework. Bernie too, but not to quite the same depth or degree. 2) Think about it — who really has a better chance of actually beating Trump, and helping flip Congress and state legislatures? It’s Elizabeth Warren, hands down.” He went on to say that he considered Joe Biden and Mike Bloomberg "almost as bad as Trump".
On April 12, 2020, Biafra expressed disappointment that Sanders had suspended his campaign for the 2020 Democratic nomination.
Boycott of Israel
In mid-2011 Jello Biafra and his band were scheduled to play at the Barby Club in Tel Aviv. They came under heavy pressure by the pro-Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, and finally decided to cancel the concert – after a debate which according to Biafra "deeply tore at the fabric of our band ... This whole controversy has been one of the most intense situations of my life – and I thrive on intense situations".
Biafra then decided to travel to Israel and the Palestinian Occupied Territories, at his own expense, and talk with Israeli and Palestinian activists as well as with fans disappointed at his cancellation. In the article stating his conclusions he wrote:
"I will not perform in Israel unless it is a pro-human rights, anti-occupation event, that does not violate the spirit of the boycott. Each musician, artist, etc. must decide this for themselves. I am staying away for now, but am also really creeped out by the attitudes of some of the hardliners and hope some day to find a way to contribute something positive here. I will not march or sign on with anyone who runs around calling people Zionazis and is more interested in making threats than making friends."
Personal life
Biafra married Theresa Soder, a.k.a. Ninotchka, lead singer of San Francisco-area punk band the Situations, on October 31, 1981. The wedding was conducted by Flipper vocalist/bassist Bruce Loose, who became a Universal Life Church minister just to conduct the ceremony, which took place in a graveyard. The wedding reception, which members of Flipper, Black Flag, and D.O.A. attended, was held at director Joe Rees' Target Video studios. The marriage ended in 1986. Biafra generally does not discuss his private life. He lives in San Francisco, California.
Selected discography
For a more complete list, see the Jello Biafra discography.
Dead Kennedys
1980 – Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables
1981 – In God We Trust, Inc.
1982 – Plastic Surgery Disasters
1985 – Frankenchrist
1986 – Bedtime for Democracy
1987 – Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death
Spoken word
1987 – No More Cocoons
1989 – High Priest of Harmful Matter: Tales From the Trial
1991 – I Blow Minds for a Living
1994 – Beyond the Valley of the Gift Police
1998 – If Evolution Is Outlawed, Only Outlaws Will Evolve
2000 – Become the Media
2002 – The Big Ka-Boom, Pt. 1
2002 – Machine Gun in the Clown's Hand
2006 – In the Grip of Official Treason
Lard
1989 – The Power of Lard
1990 – The Last Temptation of Reid
1997 – Pure Chewing Satisfaction
2000 – 70's Rock Must Die
Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine
2009 – The Audacity of Hype
2011 – Enhanced Methods of Questioning
2012 – SHOCK-U-PY
2013 – White People and the Damage Done
2020 – Tea Party Revenge Porn
Collaborations
Filmography
1977 – This Is America, Pt. 2
1981 – Urgh! A Music War
1983 – Anarchism in America
1986 – Lovedolls Superstar, directed by Dave Markey
1987 – Household Affairs, directed & filmed by Allen Ginsberg
1988 – Tapeheads, directed by Bill Fishman
1990 – Terminal City Ricochet
1991 – Highway 61, directed by Bruce McDonald
1994 – Skulhedface, directed by Melanie Mandl
1997 – Mary Jane's Not a Virgin Anymore, directed by Sarah Jacobson
1999 – The Widower
1999 – Virtue
2001 – Plaster Caster
2002 – Bikini Bandits, directed by Steve and Peter Grasse
2004 – Death and Texas
2004 – Punk: Attitude
2005 – We Jam Econo: The Story of the Minutemen
2006 – Punk's Not Dead, directed by Susan Dynner
2006 – Whose War?, directed by Donald Farmer
2007 – American Drug War: The Last White Hope, directed by Kevin Booth
2008 – Nerdcore Rising, directed by Negin Farsad
2009 – Open Your Mouth and Say Mr. Chi Pig, directed by Sean Patrick Shaul
2010 – A Man Within, directed by Yony Leyser
2011 – I Love You ... I Am the Porn Queen, short film directed by Ani Kyd
2014 – Heino: Made in Germany, directed by Oliver Schwabe
2014 – Portlandia, season 4, episode 4 – "Pull-Out King"
2018 – Bathtubs Over Broadway, directed by Dava Whisenant (as himself)
2018 – Boiled Angels: The Trial of Mike Diana, directed by Frank Henenlotter (narrator)
2019 – The Last Black Man in San Francisco, directed by Joe Talbot
Notes
References
External links
Jello Biafra on Alternative Tentacles
1958 births
Living people
20th-century American politicians
Candidates in the 2000 United States presidential election
Alternative Tentacles
Alternative Tentacles artists
American anti–Iraq War activists
American anti-war activists
American human rights activists
American male film actors
American people of Jewish descent
American punk rock singers
American satirists
American male singer-songwriters
American spoken word artists
Anti-consumerists
Anti-corporate activists
Anti-globalization activists
Boulder High School alumni
California Greens
Dead Kennedys members
Finance fraud
Green Party of the United States politicians
Hardcore punk musicians
Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine members
Lard (band) members
Male actors from Boulder, Colorado
Musicians from Boulder, Colorado
Pigface members
Pranksters
Teenage Time Killers members
Singer-songwriters from Colorado | false | [
"Marcia: Greatest Hits 1975–1983 is a compilation album released on 22 November 2004. \nIt was released just two months after the release of Hinesight.\n\nThe album contains tracks taken from the albums, Marcia Shines, Shining, Ladies and Gentlemen, Ooh Child, Take it From the Boys and Love Sides.\n\nIn 2020, the album was released digitally with a slightly altered track listing. The first 17 songs are the same, but tracks 18-27 were not on the original release.\n\nTrack listing\n Standard edition\n \"Fire and Rain\" (4:44)\n \"From the Inside\" (3:28)\n \"Trilogy\" (4:20)\n \"Don't Let the Grass Grow\" (2:59)\n \"I Just Don't Know What to Do with Myself\" (3:08)\n \"Shining\" (3:41)\n \"(Until) Your Love Broke Through\" (3:17)\n \"Empty\" (2:35)\n \"A Love Story\" (3:33)\n \"I've Got the Music in Me\" (4:12)\n \"What I Did for Love\" (3:17)\n \"You\" (3:12)\n \"I Don't Know How to Love Him\" (3:48)\n \"Music Is My Life\" (2:08)\n \"Let the Music Play\" (4:29)\n \"Something's Missing (In My Life)\" (4:38)\n \"Where Did We Go Wrong\" (4:04)\n \"Your Love Still Brings Me to My Knees\" (3:33)\n \"What a Bitch Is Love\" (3:50)\n \"Heart Like a Radio\" (3:51)\n\n 2020 Digital Edition\n \"Fire and Rain\" (4:44)\n \"From the Inside\" (3:28)\n \"Trilogy\" (4:20)\n \"Don’t Let the Grass Grow\" (2:59)\n \"I Just Don't Know What to Do with Myself\" (3:08)\n \"Shining\" (3:41)\n \"(Until) Your Love Broke Through\" (3:17)\n \"Empty\" (2:35)\n \"A Love Story\" (3:33)\n \"I've Got the Music In Me\" (4:12)\n \"What I Did for Love\" (3:17)\n \"You\" (3:12)\n \"I Don't Know How to Love Him\" (3:48)\n \"Music Is My Life\" (2:08)\n \"Let the Music Play\" (4:29)\n \"Something's Missing (In My Life)\" (4:38)\n \"Where Did We Go Wrong\" (4:04)\n \"You Gotta Go\" (3:30)\n \"Jumpin' Jack Flash\" (3:18)\n \"Dance You Fool Dance\" (5:19)\n \"Whatever Goes Around\" (2:58)\n \"Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I'm Yours\" (3:30)\n \"In a Mellow Mood\" (2:38)\n \"Believe in Me\" (1:41)\n \"Moments\" (3:27)\n \"You\" (2005 remix) (3:24)\n \"April Sun in Cuba\" (3\"34\n\nWeekly charts\nMarcia: Greatest Hits 1975-1983 debuted at 92 and peaked at 67 on 13 December 2004.\n\nRelease history\n\nReferences\n\nMarcia Hines compilation albums\n2004 greatest hits albums\nAlbums produced by David Mackay (producer)\nSony Music Australia compilation albums",
"What Chaos is Imaginary is the third studio album by American duo Girlpool. It was released on February 1, 2019 through Anti- Records.\n\nRelease and promotion\nOn October 9, 2018, Girlpool released the double single \"Lucy's\" and \"Where You Sink\", their first release to feature Tucker singing much deeper than he did previously due to taking testosterone. On November 13, the band released the single \"Hire\", and announced What Chaos Is Imaginary. Girlpool toured the United States in April and May 2019 to promote the album.\n\nCritical Reception\n\nWhat Chaos Is Imaginary received a weighted score of 74 out of 100 from review aggregate website Metacritic, indicating \"universal acclaim\", based on 19 reviews from music critics. Sasha Geffen of Pitchfork said about the album, \"Weaving in and out of concrete, direct, indie-rock songwriting and meditative, impressionistic dream pop, the record takes up more space than any of Girlpool’s previous music.\"\n\nTrack listing\n\nCharts\n\nReferences\n\n2019 albums\nAnti- (record label) albums\nGirlpool albums"
]
|
[
"Jello Biafra",
"Alternative Tentacles",
"what is alternative tentacles?",
"Biafra co-founded the record label Alternative Tentacles,",
"who did he co-found it with?",
"Biafra has been the owner of the company since its founding,",
"when was it founded?",
"June 1979,",
"what did he release through the company?",
"the Dead Kennedys released their first single, \"California Uber Alles\"."
]
| C_1c892d3c20fa42df8350499241317562_0 | when was the single released? | 5 | When was the Dead Kennedys' single "California Uber Alles" released? | Jello Biafra | In June 1979, Biafra co-founded the record label Alternative Tentacles, with which the Dead Kennedys released their first single, "California Uber Alles". The label was created to allow the band to release albums without having to deal with pressure from major labels to change their music, although the major labels were not willing to sign the band due to their songs being deemed too controversial. After dealing with Cherry Red in the UK and IRS Records in the US for their first album Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables, the band released all later albums, and later pressings of Fresh Fruit on Alternative Tentacles. The exception being live albums released after the band's break-up, which the other band members compiled from recordings in the band partnership's vaults without Biafra's input or endorsement.. Biafra has been the owner of the company since its founding, though he does not receive a salary for his position; Biafra has referred to his position in the company as "absentee thoughtlord". Biafra is an ardent collector of unusual vinyl records of all kinds, from 1950s and 1960s ethno-pop recordings by the likes of Les Baxter and Esquivel to vanity pressings that have circulated regionally, to German crooner Heino (for whom he would later participate in the documentary Heino: Made In Germany); he cites his always growing collection as one of his biggest musical influences. In 1993 he gave an interview to RE/Search Publications for their second Incredibly Strange Music book focusing primarily on these records, and later participated in a two-part episode of Fuse TV's program Crate Diggers on the same subject. His interest in such recordings, often categorized as outsider music, led to his discovery of the prolific (and schizophrenic) singer/songwriter/artist Wesley Willis, whom he signed to Alternative Tentacles in 1994, preceding Willis' major label deal with American Recordings. His collection grew so large that on October 1, 2005, Biafra donated a portion of his collection to an annual yard sale co-promoted by Alternative Tentacles and held at their warehouse in Emeryville, California. In 2006, along with Alternative Tentacles employee and The Frisk lead singer Jesse Luscious, Biafra began co-hosting The Alternative Tentacles Batcast, a downloadable podcast hosted by alternativetentacles.com. The show primarily focuses on interviews with artists and bands that are currently signed to the Alternative Tentacles label, although there are also occasional episodes where Biafra devoted the show to answering fan questions. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Eric Reed Boucher (born June 17, 1958), better known by his professional name Jello Biafra, is an American singer and spoken word artist. He is the former lead singer and songwriter for the San Francisco punk rock band Dead Kennedys.
Initially active from 1979 to 1986, Dead Kennedys were known for rapid-fire music topped with Biafra's sardonic lyrics and biting social commentary, delivered in his "unique quiver of a voice". When the band broke up in 1986, he took over the influential independent record label Alternative Tentacles, which he had founded in 1979 with Dead Kennedys bandmate East Bay Ray. In a 2000 lawsuit, upheld on appeal in 2003 by the California Supreme Court, Biafra was found liable for breach of contract, fraud and malice in withholding a decade's worth of royalties from his former bandmates and ordered to pay over $200,000 in compensation and punitive damages; the band subsequently reformed without Biafra. Although now focused primarily on spoken word performances, Biafra has continued as a musician in numerous collaborations. He has also occasionally appeared in cameo roles in films.
Politically, Biafra is a member of the Green Party of the United States and supports various political causes. He ran for the party's presidential nomination in the 2000 presidential election, finishing a distant second to Ralph Nader. In 1979 he ran for mayor of San Francisco, California. He is a staunch believer in a free society, and utilizes shock value and advocates direct action and pranksterism in the name of political causes. Biafra is known to use absurdist media tactics, in the leftist tradition of the Yippies, to highlight issues of civil rights and social justice.
Early life
Eric Reed Boucher was born in Boulder, Colorado, the son of Virginia (née Parker), a librarian, and Stanley Wayne Boucher, a psychiatric social worker and poet. His sister, Julie J. Boucher, was Associate Director of the Library Research Service at the Colorado State Library; she died in a mountain-climbing accident on October 12, 1996. Biafra has a Jewish great grandparent, but was unaware of this until the mid-2000s. He grew up in a secular household and has said that he is "not really Jewish".
As a child, Boucher developed an interest in international politics that was encouraged by his parents. An avid news watcher, one of his earliest memories was of the John F. Kennedy assassination. Biafra says he has been a fan of rock music since first hearing it in 1965, when his parents accidentally tuned in to a rock radio station. Boucher ignored his high school guidance counselor's advice that he spend his adolescence preparing to become a dental hygienist.
He began his career in music in January 1977 as a roadie for the punk rock band The Ravers (who later changed their name to The Nails), soon joining his friend John Greenway in a band called The Healers. The Healers became well known locally for their mainly improvised lyrics and avant garde music. In the autumn of that year, he began attending the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Musical career
Dead Kennedys
In June 1978, Biafra responded to an advertisement placed in a store by guitarist East Bay Ray, stating "guitarist wants to form punk band", and together they formed the Dead Kennedys. He began performing with the band under the stage name Occupant, but soon began to use his current stage name, a combination of the brand name Jell-O and the short-lived African state Biafra. The band's lyrics were written by Biafra. The lyrics were mostly political in nature and displayed a sardonic, sometimes absurdist, sense of humor despite their serious subject matter. In the tradition of UK anarcho-punk bands like Crass and the Subhumans, the Dead Kennedys were one of the first US punk bands to write politically themed songs. The lyrics Biafra wrote helped popularize the use of humorous lyrics in punk and other types of hard-core music. Biafra cites Joey Ramone as the inspiration for his use of humor in his songs (as well as being the musician who made him interested in punk rock), noting in particular songs by the Ramones such as "Beat on the Brat" and "Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue".
Biafra initially attempted to compose music on guitar, but his lack of experience on the instrument and his own admission of being "a fumbler with my hands" led Dead Kennedys bassist Klaus Flouride to suggest that Biafra simply sing the parts he envisioned to the band. Biafra sang his riffs and melodies into a tape recorder, which he brought to the band's rehearsal and/or recording sessions. This later became a problem when the other members of the Dead Kennedys sued Biafra over royalties and publishing rights. By all accounts, including his own, Biafra is not a conventionally skilled musician, though he and his collaborators (Joey Shithead of D.O.A. in particular) attest that he is a skilled composer and his work, particularly with the Dead Kennedys, is highly respected by punk-oriented critics and fans.
Biafra's first popular song was the first single by the Dead Kennedys, "California über alles". The song, which spoofed California governor Jerry Brown, was the first of many political songs by the group and Biafra. The song's popularity resulted in its being covered by other musicians, such as The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy (who rewrote the lyrics to parody Pete Wilson), John Linnell of They Might Be Giants and Six Feet Under on their Graveyard Classics album of cover versions. Not long after, the Dead Kennedys had a second and bigger hit with "Holiday in Cambodia" from their debut album Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables. AllMusic cites this song as "possibly the most successful single of the American hardcore scene" and Biafra counts it as his personal favorite Dead Kennedy's song. Minor hits from the album included "Kill the Poor" (about potential abuse of the then-new neutron bomb) and a satirical cover of Elvis Presley's "Viva Las Vegas".
The Dead Kennedys received some controversy in the spring of 1981 over the single "Too Drunk to Fuck". The song became a hit in Britain, and the BBC feared that it would manage to be a big enough hit to appear among the top 30 songs on the national charts, requiring a mention on Top of the Pops. However, the single peaked at number 31 in the charts.
Later albums also contained memorable songs, but with less popularity than the earlier ones. The EP In God We Trust, Inc. contained the song "Nazi Punks Fuck Off!" as well as "We've Got A Bigger Problem Now", a rewritten version of "California über alles" about Ronald Reagan. Punk musician and scholar Vic Bondi considers the latter song to be the song that "defined the lyrical agenda of much of hardcore music, and represented its break with punk". The band's most controversial album, Frankenchrist, brought with it the song "MTV Get Off the Air," which accused MTV of promoting poor quality music and sedating the public. The album also contained a controversial poster by Swiss surrealist artist H. R. Giger entitled Penis Landscape.
The Dead Kennedys toured widely during their career, starting in the late 1970s. They began playing at San Francisco's Mabuhay Gardens (their home base) and other Bay Area venues, later branching out to shows in southern Californian clubs (most notably the Whisky a Go Go), but eventually they moved to major clubs across the country, including CBGB in New York. Later, they played to larger audiences such as at the 1980 Bay Area Music Awards (where they played the notorious "Pull My Strings" for the only time), and headlined the 1983 Rock Against Reagan festival.
On May 7, 1994, punk rock fans who believed Biafra was a "sell out" attacked him at the 924 Gilman Street club in Berkeley, California. Biafra claims that he was attacked by a man nicknamed Cretin, who crashed into him while moshing. The crash injured Biafra's leg, causing an argument between the two men. During the argument, Cretin pushed Biafra to the floor and five or six friends of Cretin assaulted Biafra while he was down, yelling "Sellout rock star, kick him", and attempting to pull out his hair. Biafra was later hospitalized with serious injuries. The attack derailed Biafra's plans for both a Canadian spoken-word tour and an accompanying album, and the production of Pure Chewing Satisfaction was halted. However, Biafra returned to the Gilman club a few months after the incident to perform a spoken-word performance as an act of reconciliation with the club.
Biafra has been a prominent figure of the Californian punk scene and was one of the third generation members of the San Francisco punk community. Many later hardcore bands have cited the Dead Kennedys as a major influence. Hardcore punk author Steven Blush describes Biafra as hardcore's "biggest star" who was a "powerful presence whose political insurgence and rabid fandom made him the father figure of a burgeoning subculture [and an] inspirational force [who] could also be a real prick ... Biafra was a visionary, incendiary [performer]."
After the Dead Kennedys disbanded, Biafra's new songs were recorded with other bands, and he released only spoken word albums as solo projects. These collaborations had less popularity than Biafra's earlier work. However, his song "That's Progress", originally recorded with D.O.A. for the album Last Scream of the Missing Neighbors, received considerable exposure when it appeared on the album Rock Against Bush, Vol. 1.
Obscenity prosecution
In April 1986, police officers raided Biafra's house in response to complaints by the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC). In June 1986, L.A. deputy city attorney Michael Guarino, working under City Attorney James Hahn, brought Biafra to trial in Los Angeles for distributing "harmful material to minors" in the Dead Kennedys album Frankenchrist. However, the dispute was about neither the music nor the lyrics from the album, but rather the print of the H. R. Giger poster Landscape XX (Penis Landscape) included with the album.
Music author Reebee Garofalo argued that Biafra and Alternative Tentacles may have been targeted because the label was a "small, self-managed and self-supported company that could ill afford a protracted legal battle." Facing the possible sentence of a year in jail and a $2,000 fine, Biafra, Dirk Dirksen, and Suzanne Stefanac founded the No More Censorship Defense Fund, a benefit featuring several punk rock bands, to help pay for his legal fees, which neither he nor his record label could afford. The jury deadlocked 5 to 7 in favor of acquittal, prompting a mistrial; despite a motion to re-try the case, the judge ordered all charges dropped. The Dead Kennedys disbanded during the trial, in December 1986, due to the mounting legal costs; in the wake of their disbandment, Biafra made a career of his spoken word performances.
Biafra has a cameo role in the 1988 film Tapeheads. He plays an FBI agent who arrests the two protagonists (played by Tim Robbins and John Cusack). While arresting them his character asks "Remember what we did to Jello Biafra?" lampooning the obscenity prosecution.
On March 25, 2005, Biafra appeared on the U.S. radio program This American Life, "Episode 285: Know Your Enemy", which featured a phone call between Jello Biafra and Michael Guarino, the prosecutor in the Frankenchrist trial.
Lawsuit and reunion activities
In October 1998, three former members of the Dead Kennedys sued Biafra for nonpayment of royalties. The other members of Dead Kennedys alleged that Biafra, in his capacity as the head of Alternative Tentacles records, discovered an accounting error amounting to some $75,000 in unpaid royalties over almost a decade. Rather than informing his bandmates of this mistake, the suit alleged, Biafra knowingly concealed the information until a whistleblower employee at the record label notified the band.
According to Biafra, the suit resulted from his refusal to allow one of the band's most well-known singles, "Holiday in Cambodia", to be used in a commercial for Levi's Dockers; Biafra opposes Levi's because of his belief that they use unfair business practices and sweatshop labor. Biafra maintained that he had never denied them royalties, and that he himself had not even received royalties for re-releases of their albums or "posthumous" live albums which had been licensed to other labels by the Decay Music partnership. Decay Music denied this charge and have posted what they say are his cashed royalty checks, written to his legal name of Eric Boucher. Biafra also complained about the songwriting credits in new reissues and archival live albums of songs, alleging that he was the sole composer of songs that were wrongly credited to the entire band.
In May 2000, a jury found Biafra and Alternative Tentacles liable by not promptly informing his former bandmates of the accounting error and instead withholding the information during subsequent discussions and contractual negotiations. Biafra was ordered to pay $200,000, including $20,000 in punitive damages. After an appeal by Biafra's lawyers, in June 2003, the California Court of Appeals unanimously upheld all the conditions of the 2000 verdict against Biafra and Alternative Tentacles. Furthermore, the plaintiffs were awarded the rights to most of Dead Kennedys recorded works—which accounted for about half the sales for Alternative Tentacles. Now in control of the Dead Kennedys name, Biafra's former bandmates went on tour with a new lead vocalist.
Other bands
In the early 1980s, Biafra collaborated with musicians Christian Lunch and Adrian Borland (of The Sound) and Morgan Fisher (of Mott the Hoople) for the electropunk musical project The Witch Trials, releasing one self-titled EP in its lifetime.
In 1988, Biafra, with Al Jourgensen and Paul Barker of the band Ministry, and Jeff Ward, formed Lard. The band became yet another side project for Ministry, with Biafra providing vocals and lyrics. According to a March 2009 interview with Jourgensen, he and Biafra are working on a new Lard album, which is being recorded in Jourgensen's El Paso studio. Jourgensen also claimed in 2021 that Biafra was in works of a new Lard album. While working on the film Terminal City Ricochet in 1989, Biafra did a song for the film's soundtrack with D.O.A.. As a result, Biafra worked with D.O.A. on the album Last Scream of the Missing Neighbors. Biafra also worked with Nomeansno on the soundtrack, which led to their collaboration on the album The Sky Is Falling and I Want My Mommy the following year. Biafra also provided lyrics for the song "Biotech is Godzilla" for Sepultura's 1993 album Chaos A.D..
In 1999, Biafra and other members of the anti-globalization movement protested the WTO Meeting of 1999 in Seattle. Along with other prominent West Coast musicians, he formed the short-lived band the No WTO Combo to help promote the movement's cause. The band was originally scheduled to play during the protest, but the performance was canceled due to riots. The band performed a short set the following night at the Showbox in downtown Seattle (outside the designated area), along with the hiphop group Spearhead. No WTO Combo later released a CD of recordings from the concert, entitled Live from the Battle in Seattle.
As of late 2005, Biafra was performing with the band The Melvins under the name "Jello Biafra and the Melvins", though fans sometimes refer to them as "The Jelvins". Together they have released two albums, and worked on material for a third collaborative release, much of which was premiered live at two concerts at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco during an event called Biafra Five-O, commemorating Biafra's 50th birthday, the 30th anniversary of the founding of the Dead Kennedys, and the beginning of legalized same-sex marriage in California. Biafra was also working with a band known as Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine, which included Ralph Spight of Victims Family on guitar and Billy Gould of Faith No More on bass. This group debuted during Biafra Five-O.
In 2011, Biafra appeared in a singular concert event with an all-star cast of Southern musicians including members from Cowboy Mouth, Dash Rip Rock, Mojo Nixon and Down entitled, "Jello Biafra and the New Orleans Raunch & Soul All Stars" who performed an array of classic Soul covers to a packed house at the 12-Bar in New Orleans, Louisiana. He would later reunite with many of the same musicians during the Carnival season 2014 to revisit many of these classics at Siberia, New Orleans. A live album from the 2011 performance, Walk on Jindal's Splinters, and a companion single, Fannie May/Just a Little Bit, were released in 2015.
Alternative Tentacles
In June 1979, Biafra co-founded the record label Alternative Tentacles, with which the Dead Kennedys released their first single, "California über alles". The label was created to allow the band to release albums without having to deal with pressure from major labels to change their music, although the major labels were not willing to sign the band due to their songs being deemed too controversial. After dealing with Cherry Red in the UK and IRS Records in the US for their first album Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables, the band released all later albums, and later pressings of Fresh Fruit on Alternative Tentacles. The exception being live albums released after the band's break-up, which the other band members compiled from recordings in the band partnership's vaults without Biafra's input or endorsement.. Biafra has been the owner of the company since its founding, though he does not receive a salary for his position; Biafra has referred to his position in the company as "absentee thoughtlord".
Biafra is an ardent collector of unusual vinyl records of all kinds, from 1950s and 1960s ethno-pop recordings by the likes of Les Baxter and Esquivel to vanity pressings that have circulated regionally, to German crooner Heino (for whom he would later participate in the documentary Heino: Made In Germany); he cites his always growing collection as one of his biggest musical influences. In 1993 he gave an interview to RE/Search Publications for their second Incredibly Strange Music book focusing primarily on these records, and later participated in a two-part episode of Fuse TV's program Crate Diggers on the same subject. His interest in such recordings, often categorized as outsider music, led to his discovery of the prolific (and schizophrenic) singer/songwriter/artist Wesley Willis, whom he signed to Alternative Tentacles in 1994, preceding Willis' major label deal with American Recordings. His collection grew so large that on October 1, 2005, Biafra donated a portion of his collection to an annual yard sale co-promoted by Alternative Tentacles and held at their warehouse in Emeryville, California.
In 2006, along with Alternative Tentacles employee and The Frisk lead singer Jesse Luscious, Biafra began co-hosting The Alternative Tentacles Batcast, a downloadable podcast hosted by alternativetentacles.com. The show primarily focuses on interviews with artists and bands that are currently signed to the Alternative Tentacles label, although there are also occasional episodes where Biafra devoted the show to answering fan questions.
Spoken word
Biafra became a spoken word artist in January 1986 with a performance at University of California, Los Angeles. In his performance he combined humor with his political beliefs, much in the same way that he did with the lyrics to his songs. Despite his continued spoken word performances, he did not begin recording spoken word albums until after the disbanding of the Dead Kennedys.
His ninth spoken word album, In the Grip of Official Treason, was released in October 2006.
Biafra was also featured in the British band Pitchshifter's song As Seen on TV reciting the words of dystopian futuristic radio advertisements.
Politics
Biafra has resisted identifying with any particular political party or ideology, saying, "I don't label myself strictly an anarchist or a socialist or let alone a libertarian or something like that," In a 2012 interview, Biafra said "I'm very pro-tax as long as it goes for the right things. I don't mind paying more money as long as it's going to provide shelter for people sleeping in the street or getting the schools fixed back up, getting the infrastructure up to the standards of other countries, including a high speed rail system. I'm totally down with that."
Mayoral campaign
In the autumn of 1979, Biafra ran for mayor of San Francisco, using the Jell-O ad campaign catchphrase, "There's always room for Jello", as his campaign slogan. Having entered the race before creating a campaign platform, Biafra later wrote his platform on a napkin while attending a Pere Ubu concert where Dead Kennedys drummer Ted told Biafra, "Biafra, you have such a big mouth that you should run for Mayor." As he campaigned, Biafra wore campaign T-shirts from his opponent Quentin Kopp's previous campaign and at one point vacuumed leaves off the front lawn of another opponent, current U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, to mock her publicity stunt of sweeping streets in downtown San Francisco for a few hours. He also made a whistlestop campaign tour along the BART line. Supporters committed equally odd actions; two well known signs held by supporters said "If he doesn't win I'll kill myself" and "What if he does win?"
At the time, in San Francisco any individual could legally run for mayor if a petition was signed by 1500 people or if $1500 was paid. Biafra paid $900 and got signatures over time and eventually became a legal candidate, meaning he received statements put in voters' pamphlets and equal news coverage.
His platform included unconventional points such as forcing businessmen to wear clown suits within city limits, erecting statues of Dan White, who assassinated Mayor George Moscone and City Supervisor Harvey Milk in 1978, around the city and allowing the parks department to sell eggs and tomatoes with which people could pelt the statues, hiring workers who had lost their jobs due to a tax initiative to panhandle in wealthy neighborhoods (including Senator Dianne Feinstein's), and a citywide ban on cars. Biafra has expressed irritation that these parts of his platform attained such notoriety, preferring instead to be remembered for serious proposals such as legalizing squatting in vacant, tax-delinquent buildings and requiring police officers to run for election by the people of the neighborhoods they patrol.
He finished third out of a field of ten, receiving 3.79 percent of the vote (6,591 votes); the election ended in a runoff that did not involve him (Feinstein was declared the winner).
Presidential campaign
In 2000, the New York State Green Party drafted Biafra as a candidate for the Green Party presidential nomination, and a few supporters were elected to the party's nominating convention in Denver, Colorado. Biafra chose death row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal as his running mate. The party overwhelmingly chose Ralph Nader as the presidential candidate with 295 of the 319 delegate votes. Biafra received 10 votes.
Biafra, along with a camera crew (dubbed by Biafra as "The Camcorder Truth Jihad"), later reported for the Independent Media Center at the Republican and Democratic conventions.
Post-2000
After losing the 2000 nomination, Biafra became highly active in Nader's presidential campaign, as well as in 2004 and 2008. During the 2008 campaign Jello played at rallies and answered questions for journalists in support of Nader. When gay rights activists accused Nader of costing Al Gore the 2000 election, Biafra reminded them that Tipper Gore's Parents Music Resource Center wanted warning stickers on albums with content referencing homosexuality.
After Barack Obama won the general election, Biafra wrote an open letter making suggestions on how to run his term as president. Biafra criticized Obama during his term, stating that "Obama even won the award for best advertising campaign of 2008." Biafra dubbed Obama "Barackstar O'Bummer". Biafra refused to support Obama in 2012. Biafra has stated that he feels that Obama continued many of George W. Bush's policies, summarizing Obama's policies as containing "worse and worse laws against human rights and more and more illegal unconstitutional spying."
On September 18, 2015, it was announced that Biafra would be supporting Bernie Sanders in his campaign for the 2016 presidential election. He has strongly criticised the political position of Donald Trump, saying "how can people be so fucking stupid" on hearing the election result, and later adding "The last person we want with their finger on the nuclear button is somebody connected to this extreme Christianist doomsday cult."
On February 28, 2020, Jello announced that he would be supporting both Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders in the 2020 presidential election. “I personally like Warren slightly better than Bernie because: 1) She’s done her homework. Bernie too, but not to quite the same depth or degree. 2) Think about it — who really has a better chance of actually beating Trump, and helping flip Congress and state legislatures? It’s Elizabeth Warren, hands down.” He went on to say that he considered Joe Biden and Mike Bloomberg "almost as bad as Trump".
On April 12, 2020, Biafra expressed disappointment that Sanders had suspended his campaign for the 2020 Democratic nomination.
Boycott of Israel
In mid-2011 Jello Biafra and his band were scheduled to play at the Barby Club in Tel Aviv. They came under heavy pressure by the pro-Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, and finally decided to cancel the concert – after a debate which according to Biafra "deeply tore at the fabric of our band ... This whole controversy has been one of the most intense situations of my life – and I thrive on intense situations".
Biafra then decided to travel to Israel and the Palestinian Occupied Territories, at his own expense, and talk with Israeli and Palestinian activists as well as with fans disappointed at his cancellation. In the article stating his conclusions he wrote:
"I will not perform in Israel unless it is a pro-human rights, anti-occupation event, that does not violate the spirit of the boycott. Each musician, artist, etc. must decide this for themselves. I am staying away for now, but am also really creeped out by the attitudes of some of the hardliners and hope some day to find a way to contribute something positive here. I will not march or sign on with anyone who runs around calling people Zionazis and is more interested in making threats than making friends."
Personal life
Biafra married Theresa Soder, a.k.a. Ninotchka, lead singer of San Francisco-area punk band the Situations, on October 31, 1981. The wedding was conducted by Flipper vocalist/bassist Bruce Loose, who became a Universal Life Church minister just to conduct the ceremony, which took place in a graveyard. The wedding reception, which members of Flipper, Black Flag, and D.O.A. attended, was held at director Joe Rees' Target Video studios. The marriage ended in 1986. Biafra generally does not discuss his private life. He lives in San Francisco, California.
Selected discography
For a more complete list, see the Jello Biafra discography.
Dead Kennedys
1980 – Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables
1981 – In God We Trust, Inc.
1982 – Plastic Surgery Disasters
1985 – Frankenchrist
1986 – Bedtime for Democracy
1987 – Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death
Spoken word
1987 – No More Cocoons
1989 – High Priest of Harmful Matter: Tales From the Trial
1991 – I Blow Minds for a Living
1994 – Beyond the Valley of the Gift Police
1998 – If Evolution Is Outlawed, Only Outlaws Will Evolve
2000 – Become the Media
2002 – The Big Ka-Boom, Pt. 1
2002 – Machine Gun in the Clown's Hand
2006 – In the Grip of Official Treason
Lard
1989 – The Power of Lard
1990 – The Last Temptation of Reid
1997 – Pure Chewing Satisfaction
2000 – 70's Rock Must Die
Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine
2009 – The Audacity of Hype
2011 – Enhanced Methods of Questioning
2012 – SHOCK-U-PY
2013 – White People and the Damage Done
2020 – Tea Party Revenge Porn
Collaborations
Filmography
1977 – This Is America, Pt. 2
1981 – Urgh! A Music War
1983 – Anarchism in America
1986 – Lovedolls Superstar, directed by Dave Markey
1987 – Household Affairs, directed & filmed by Allen Ginsberg
1988 – Tapeheads, directed by Bill Fishman
1990 – Terminal City Ricochet
1991 – Highway 61, directed by Bruce McDonald
1994 – Skulhedface, directed by Melanie Mandl
1997 – Mary Jane's Not a Virgin Anymore, directed by Sarah Jacobson
1999 – The Widower
1999 – Virtue
2001 – Plaster Caster
2002 – Bikini Bandits, directed by Steve and Peter Grasse
2004 – Death and Texas
2004 – Punk: Attitude
2005 – We Jam Econo: The Story of the Minutemen
2006 – Punk's Not Dead, directed by Susan Dynner
2006 – Whose War?, directed by Donald Farmer
2007 – American Drug War: The Last White Hope, directed by Kevin Booth
2008 – Nerdcore Rising, directed by Negin Farsad
2009 – Open Your Mouth and Say Mr. Chi Pig, directed by Sean Patrick Shaul
2010 – A Man Within, directed by Yony Leyser
2011 – I Love You ... I Am the Porn Queen, short film directed by Ani Kyd
2014 – Heino: Made in Germany, directed by Oliver Schwabe
2014 – Portlandia, season 4, episode 4 – "Pull-Out King"
2018 – Bathtubs Over Broadway, directed by Dava Whisenant (as himself)
2018 – Boiled Angels: The Trial of Mike Diana, directed by Frank Henenlotter (narrator)
2019 – The Last Black Man in San Francisco, directed by Joe Talbot
Notes
References
External links
Jello Biafra on Alternative Tentacles
1958 births
Living people
20th-century American politicians
Candidates in the 2000 United States presidential election
Alternative Tentacles
Alternative Tentacles artists
American anti–Iraq War activists
American anti-war activists
American human rights activists
American male film actors
American people of Jewish descent
American punk rock singers
American satirists
American male singer-songwriters
American spoken word artists
Anti-consumerists
Anti-corporate activists
Anti-globalization activists
Boulder High School alumni
California Greens
Dead Kennedys members
Finance fraud
Green Party of the United States politicians
Hardcore punk musicians
Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine members
Lard (band) members
Male actors from Boulder, Colorado
Musicians from Boulder, Colorado
Pigface members
Pranksters
Teenage Time Killers members
Singer-songwriters from Colorado | false | [
"\"Boy Who Cried Wolf\" is a song by the English band The Style Council which was their twelfth single to be released. It was composed by lead singer Paul Weller, and was released in 1985. It is the fourth single from the band's second album, Our Favourite Shop (1985). Our Favourite Shop was renamed Internationalists in the United States. However, the single was not released in UK.\n\nCompilation appearances\nAs well as the song's single release, it has only been featured on two compilation albums released by The Style Council. The song was included on The Complete Adventures of The Style Council in 1998, and The Collection in 2001.\n\nTrack listing\n 12\" Single (883 280-1)\n\"Boy Who Cried Wolf\" – 3:34\n\"Our Favourite Shop (Club Mix)\" – 4:12\n\"(When You) Call Me\" – 3:16\n\"The Lodgers (Club Mix)\" – 3:46\n\n 7\" Single (883 280-7)\n\"Boy Who Cried Wolf\" – 3:34\n\"(When You) Call Me\" – 3:16\n\nCharts\n\nReferences\n\n1985 singles\nThe Style Council songs\nSongs written by Paul Weller\n1985 songs\nPolydor Records singles",
"\"When We Were Young\" is the second single by Australian dance band Sneaky Sound System, taken from their second studio album 2. It was released on 15 November 2008 on Whack Records as a CD single and digital download. The song was written by band members Angus McDonald (aka Black Angus) and Connie Mitchell.\n\nBackground\nSneaky Sound System's second album, 2 was released by Whack Records on 16 August 2008 and produced by band members Black Angus (aka Angus McDonald) and Donnie Sloan; it was mixed by 'Spike' Stent and Paul PDub Walton (Madonna, Björk, Massive Attack, Gwen Stefani) at Olympic Studios in London. The first single to be released from the album, \"Kansas City\" was released on 12 July, which peaked at #14 on the Australian ARIA Singles Chart, becoming their second biggest hit after \"UFO\". \"When We Were Young\" was the second single from the album, it was released on 15 November. The song did not show as much success as \"Kansas City\" and was their second single not to enter the top 100 after \"Tease Me\" but it did chart at #16 on the dance chart and #7 on the independent chart, the remix also charted at #9 in the club chart. \"16\", the third single, was released on 14 February 2009. \"It's Not My Problem\" was the fourth single from the album, which peaked at #8 on the Australian Club Chart, and #79 on the Australian Airplay Chart.\n\nTrack listing\n\nCharts\n\n(1) indicates that The Goodwill/Breakbot/Gloves mix charted.\n\nRelease history\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\"When We Were Young\" CD single on Waterfront Records\n\nSneaky Sound System songs\n2008 singles\nSongs written by Connie Mitchell\n2008 songs"
]
|
[
"Jello Biafra",
"Alternative Tentacles",
"what is alternative tentacles?",
"Biafra co-founded the record label Alternative Tentacles,",
"who did he co-found it with?",
"Biafra has been the owner of the company since its founding,",
"when was it founded?",
"June 1979,",
"what did he release through the company?",
"the Dead Kennedys released their first single, \"California Uber Alles\".",
"when was the single released?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_1c892d3c20fa42df8350499241317562_0 | who were the dead Kennedys? | 6 | Who were the members of the Dead Kennedys? | Jello Biafra | In June 1979, Biafra co-founded the record label Alternative Tentacles, with which the Dead Kennedys released their first single, "California Uber Alles". The label was created to allow the band to release albums without having to deal with pressure from major labels to change their music, although the major labels were not willing to sign the band due to their songs being deemed too controversial. After dealing with Cherry Red in the UK and IRS Records in the US for their first album Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables, the band released all later albums, and later pressings of Fresh Fruit on Alternative Tentacles. The exception being live albums released after the band's break-up, which the other band members compiled from recordings in the band partnership's vaults without Biafra's input or endorsement.. Biafra has been the owner of the company since its founding, though he does not receive a salary for his position; Biafra has referred to his position in the company as "absentee thoughtlord". Biafra is an ardent collector of unusual vinyl records of all kinds, from 1950s and 1960s ethno-pop recordings by the likes of Les Baxter and Esquivel to vanity pressings that have circulated regionally, to German crooner Heino (for whom he would later participate in the documentary Heino: Made In Germany); he cites his always growing collection as one of his biggest musical influences. In 1993 he gave an interview to RE/Search Publications for their second Incredibly Strange Music book focusing primarily on these records, and later participated in a two-part episode of Fuse TV's program Crate Diggers on the same subject. His interest in such recordings, often categorized as outsider music, led to his discovery of the prolific (and schizophrenic) singer/songwriter/artist Wesley Willis, whom he signed to Alternative Tentacles in 1994, preceding Willis' major label deal with American Recordings. His collection grew so large that on October 1, 2005, Biafra donated a portion of his collection to an annual yard sale co-promoted by Alternative Tentacles and held at their warehouse in Emeryville, California. In 2006, along with Alternative Tentacles employee and The Frisk lead singer Jesse Luscious, Biafra began co-hosting The Alternative Tentacles Batcast, a downloadable podcast hosted by alternativetentacles.com. The show primarily focuses on interviews with artists and bands that are currently signed to the Alternative Tentacles label, although there are also occasional episodes where Biafra devoted the show to answering fan questions. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Eric Reed Boucher (born June 17, 1958), better known by his professional name Jello Biafra, is an American singer and spoken word artist. He is the former lead singer and songwriter for the San Francisco punk rock band Dead Kennedys.
Initially active from 1979 to 1986, Dead Kennedys were known for rapid-fire music topped with Biafra's sardonic lyrics and biting social commentary, delivered in his "unique quiver of a voice". When the band broke up in 1986, he took over the influential independent record label Alternative Tentacles, which he had founded in 1979 with Dead Kennedys bandmate East Bay Ray. In a 2000 lawsuit, upheld on appeal in 2003 by the California Supreme Court, Biafra was found liable for breach of contract, fraud and malice in withholding a decade's worth of royalties from his former bandmates and ordered to pay over $200,000 in compensation and punitive damages; the band subsequently reformed without Biafra. Although now focused primarily on spoken word performances, Biafra has continued as a musician in numerous collaborations. He has also occasionally appeared in cameo roles in films.
Politically, Biafra is a member of the Green Party of the United States and supports various political causes. He ran for the party's presidential nomination in the 2000 presidential election, finishing a distant second to Ralph Nader. In 1979 he ran for mayor of San Francisco, California. He is a staunch believer in a free society, and utilizes shock value and advocates direct action and pranksterism in the name of political causes. Biafra is known to use absurdist media tactics, in the leftist tradition of the Yippies, to highlight issues of civil rights and social justice.
Early life
Eric Reed Boucher was born in Boulder, Colorado, the son of Virginia (née Parker), a librarian, and Stanley Wayne Boucher, a psychiatric social worker and poet. His sister, Julie J. Boucher, was Associate Director of the Library Research Service at the Colorado State Library; she died in a mountain-climbing accident on October 12, 1996. Biafra has a Jewish great grandparent, but was unaware of this until the mid-2000s. He grew up in a secular household and has said that he is "not really Jewish".
As a child, Boucher developed an interest in international politics that was encouraged by his parents. An avid news watcher, one of his earliest memories was of the John F. Kennedy assassination. Biafra says he has been a fan of rock music since first hearing it in 1965, when his parents accidentally tuned in to a rock radio station. Boucher ignored his high school guidance counselor's advice that he spend his adolescence preparing to become a dental hygienist.
He began his career in music in January 1977 as a roadie for the punk rock band The Ravers (who later changed their name to The Nails), soon joining his friend John Greenway in a band called The Healers. The Healers became well known locally for their mainly improvised lyrics and avant garde music. In the autumn of that year, he began attending the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Musical career
Dead Kennedys
In June 1978, Biafra responded to an advertisement placed in a store by guitarist East Bay Ray, stating "guitarist wants to form punk band", and together they formed the Dead Kennedys. He began performing with the band under the stage name Occupant, but soon began to use his current stage name, a combination of the brand name Jell-O and the short-lived African state Biafra. The band's lyrics were written by Biafra. The lyrics were mostly political in nature and displayed a sardonic, sometimes absurdist, sense of humor despite their serious subject matter. In the tradition of UK anarcho-punk bands like Crass and the Subhumans, the Dead Kennedys were one of the first US punk bands to write politically themed songs. The lyrics Biafra wrote helped popularize the use of humorous lyrics in punk and other types of hard-core music. Biafra cites Joey Ramone as the inspiration for his use of humor in his songs (as well as being the musician who made him interested in punk rock), noting in particular songs by the Ramones such as "Beat on the Brat" and "Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue".
Biafra initially attempted to compose music on guitar, but his lack of experience on the instrument and his own admission of being "a fumbler with my hands" led Dead Kennedys bassist Klaus Flouride to suggest that Biafra simply sing the parts he envisioned to the band. Biafra sang his riffs and melodies into a tape recorder, which he brought to the band's rehearsal and/or recording sessions. This later became a problem when the other members of the Dead Kennedys sued Biafra over royalties and publishing rights. By all accounts, including his own, Biafra is not a conventionally skilled musician, though he and his collaborators (Joey Shithead of D.O.A. in particular) attest that he is a skilled composer and his work, particularly with the Dead Kennedys, is highly respected by punk-oriented critics and fans.
Biafra's first popular song was the first single by the Dead Kennedys, "California über alles". The song, which spoofed California governor Jerry Brown, was the first of many political songs by the group and Biafra. The song's popularity resulted in its being covered by other musicians, such as The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy (who rewrote the lyrics to parody Pete Wilson), John Linnell of They Might Be Giants and Six Feet Under on their Graveyard Classics album of cover versions. Not long after, the Dead Kennedys had a second and bigger hit with "Holiday in Cambodia" from their debut album Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables. AllMusic cites this song as "possibly the most successful single of the American hardcore scene" and Biafra counts it as his personal favorite Dead Kennedy's song. Minor hits from the album included "Kill the Poor" (about potential abuse of the then-new neutron bomb) and a satirical cover of Elvis Presley's "Viva Las Vegas".
The Dead Kennedys received some controversy in the spring of 1981 over the single "Too Drunk to Fuck". The song became a hit in Britain, and the BBC feared that it would manage to be a big enough hit to appear among the top 30 songs on the national charts, requiring a mention on Top of the Pops. However, the single peaked at number 31 in the charts.
Later albums also contained memorable songs, but with less popularity than the earlier ones. The EP In God We Trust, Inc. contained the song "Nazi Punks Fuck Off!" as well as "We've Got A Bigger Problem Now", a rewritten version of "California über alles" about Ronald Reagan. Punk musician and scholar Vic Bondi considers the latter song to be the song that "defined the lyrical agenda of much of hardcore music, and represented its break with punk". The band's most controversial album, Frankenchrist, brought with it the song "MTV Get Off the Air," which accused MTV of promoting poor quality music and sedating the public. The album also contained a controversial poster by Swiss surrealist artist H. R. Giger entitled Penis Landscape.
The Dead Kennedys toured widely during their career, starting in the late 1970s. They began playing at San Francisco's Mabuhay Gardens (their home base) and other Bay Area venues, later branching out to shows in southern Californian clubs (most notably the Whisky a Go Go), but eventually they moved to major clubs across the country, including CBGB in New York. Later, they played to larger audiences such as at the 1980 Bay Area Music Awards (where they played the notorious "Pull My Strings" for the only time), and headlined the 1983 Rock Against Reagan festival.
On May 7, 1994, punk rock fans who believed Biafra was a "sell out" attacked him at the 924 Gilman Street club in Berkeley, California. Biafra claims that he was attacked by a man nicknamed Cretin, who crashed into him while moshing. The crash injured Biafra's leg, causing an argument between the two men. During the argument, Cretin pushed Biafra to the floor and five or six friends of Cretin assaulted Biafra while he was down, yelling "Sellout rock star, kick him", and attempting to pull out his hair. Biafra was later hospitalized with serious injuries. The attack derailed Biafra's plans for both a Canadian spoken-word tour and an accompanying album, and the production of Pure Chewing Satisfaction was halted. However, Biafra returned to the Gilman club a few months after the incident to perform a spoken-word performance as an act of reconciliation with the club.
Biafra has been a prominent figure of the Californian punk scene and was one of the third generation members of the San Francisco punk community. Many later hardcore bands have cited the Dead Kennedys as a major influence. Hardcore punk author Steven Blush describes Biafra as hardcore's "biggest star" who was a "powerful presence whose political insurgence and rabid fandom made him the father figure of a burgeoning subculture [and an] inspirational force [who] could also be a real prick ... Biafra was a visionary, incendiary [performer]."
After the Dead Kennedys disbanded, Biafra's new songs were recorded with other bands, and he released only spoken word albums as solo projects. These collaborations had less popularity than Biafra's earlier work. However, his song "That's Progress", originally recorded with D.O.A. for the album Last Scream of the Missing Neighbors, received considerable exposure when it appeared on the album Rock Against Bush, Vol. 1.
Obscenity prosecution
In April 1986, police officers raided Biafra's house in response to complaints by the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC). In June 1986, L.A. deputy city attorney Michael Guarino, working under City Attorney James Hahn, brought Biafra to trial in Los Angeles for distributing "harmful material to minors" in the Dead Kennedys album Frankenchrist. However, the dispute was about neither the music nor the lyrics from the album, but rather the print of the H. R. Giger poster Landscape XX (Penis Landscape) included with the album.
Music author Reebee Garofalo argued that Biafra and Alternative Tentacles may have been targeted because the label was a "small, self-managed and self-supported company that could ill afford a protracted legal battle." Facing the possible sentence of a year in jail and a $2,000 fine, Biafra, Dirk Dirksen, and Suzanne Stefanac founded the No More Censorship Defense Fund, a benefit featuring several punk rock bands, to help pay for his legal fees, which neither he nor his record label could afford. The jury deadlocked 5 to 7 in favor of acquittal, prompting a mistrial; despite a motion to re-try the case, the judge ordered all charges dropped. The Dead Kennedys disbanded during the trial, in December 1986, due to the mounting legal costs; in the wake of their disbandment, Biafra made a career of his spoken word performances.
Biafra has a cameo role in the 1988 film Tapeheads. He plays an FBI agent who arrests the two protagonists (played by Tim Robbins and John Cusack). While arresting them his character asks "Remember what we did to Jello Biafra?" lampooning the obscenity prosecution.
On March 25, 2005, Biafra appeared on the U.S. radio program This American Life, "Episode 285: Know Your Enemy", which featured a phone call between Jello Biafra and Michael Guarino, the prosecutor in the Frankenchrist trial.
Lawsuit and reunion activities
In October 1998, three former members of the Dead Kennedys sued Biafra for nonpayment of royalties. The other members of Dead Kennedys alleged that Biafra, in his capacity as the head of Alternative Tentacles records, discovered an accounting error amounting to some $75,000 in unpaid royalties over almost a decade. Rather than informing his bandmates of this mistake, the suit alleged, Biafra knowingly concealed the information until a whistleblower employee at the record label notified the band.
According to Biafra, the suit resulted from his refusal to allow one of the band's most well-known singles, "Holiday in Cambodia", to be used in a commercial for Levi's Dockers; Biafra opposes Levi's because of his belief that they use unfair business practices and sweatshop labor. Biafra maintained that he had never denied them royalties, and that he himself had not even received royalties for re-releases of their albums or "posthumous" live albums which had been licensed to other labels by the Decay Music partnership. Decay Music denied this charge and have posted what they say are his cashed royalty checks, written to his legal name of Eric Boucher. Biafra also complained about the songwriting credits in new reissues and archival live albums of songs, alleging that he was the sole composer of songs that were wrongly credited to the entire band.
In May 2000, a jury found Biafra and Alternative Tentacles liable by not promptly informing his former bandmates of the accounting error and instead withholding the information during subsequent discussions and contractual negotiations. Biafra was ordered to pay $200,000, including $20,000 in punitive damages. After an appeal by Biafra's lawyers, in June 2003, the California Court of Appeals unanimously upheld all the conditions of the 2000 verdict against Biafra and Alternative Tentacles. Furthermore, the plaintiffs were awarded the rights to most of Dead Kennedys recorded works—which accounted for about half the sales for Alternative Tentacles. Now in control of the Dead Kennedys name, Biafra's former bandmates went on tour with a new lead vocalist.
Other bands
In the early 1980s, Biafra collaborated with musicians Christian Lunch and Adrian Borland (of The Sound) and Morgan Fisher (of Mott the Hoople) for the electropunk musical project The Witch Trials, releasing one self-titled EP in its lifetime.
In 1988, Biafra, with Al Jourgensen and Paul Barker of the band Ministry, and Jeff Ward, formed Lard. The band became yet another side project for Ministry, with Biafra providing vocals and lyrics. According to a March 2009 interview with Jourgensen, he and Biafra are working on a new Lard album, which is being recorded in Jourgensen's El Paso studio. Jourgensen also claimed in 2021 that Biafra was in works of a new Lard album. While working on the film Terminal City Ricochet in 1989, Biafra did a song for the film's soundtrack with D.O.A.. As a result, Biafra worked with D.O.A. on the album Last Scream of the Missing Neighbors. Biafra also worked with Nomeansno on the soundtrack, which led to their collaboration on the album The Sky Is Falling and I Want My Mommy the following year. Biafra also provided lyrics for the song "Biotech is Godzilla" for Sepultura's 1993 album Chaos A.D..
In 1999, Biafra and other members of the anti-globalization movement protested the WTO Meeting of 1999 in Seattle. Along with other prominent West Coast musicians, he formed the short-lived band the No WTO Combo to help promote the movement's cause. The band was originally scheduled to play during the protest, but the performance was canceled due to riots. The band performed a short set the following night at the Showbox in downtown Seattle (outside the designated area), along with the hiphop group Spearhead. No WTO Combo later released a CD of recordings from the concert, entitled Live from the Battle in Seattle.
As of late 2005, Biafra was performing with the band The Melvins under the name "Jello Biafra and the Melvins", though fans sometimes refer to them as "The Jelvins". Together they have released two albums, and worked on material for a third collaborative release, much of which was premiered live at two concerts at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco during an event called Biafra Five-O, commemorating Biafra's 50th birthday, the 30th anniversary of the founding of the Dead Kennedys, and the beginning of legalized same-sex marriage in California. Biafra was also working with a band known as Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine, which included Ralph Spight of Victims Family on guitar and Billy Gould of Faith No More on bass. This group debuted during Biafra Five-O.
In 2011, Biafra appeared in a singular concert event with an all-star cast of Southern musicians including members from Cowboy Mouth, Dash Rip Rock, Mojo Nixon and Down entitled, "Jello Biafra and the New Orleans Raunch & Soul All Stars" who performed an array of classic Soul covers to a packed house at the 12-Bar in New Orleans, Louisiana. He would later reunite with many of the same musicians during the Carnival season 2014 to revisit many of these classics at Siberia, New Orleans. A live album from the 2011 performance, Walk on Jindal's Splinters, and a companion single, Fannie May/Just a Little Bit, were released in 2015.
Alternative Tentacles
In June 1979, Biafra co-founded the record label Alternative Tentacles, with which the Dead Kennedys released their first single, "California über alles". The label was created to allow the band to release albums without having to deal with pressure from major labels to change their music, although the major labels were not willing to sign the band due to their songs being deemed too controversial. After dealing with Cherry Red in the UK and IRS Records in the US for their first album Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables, the band released all later albums, and later pressings of Fresh Fruit on Alternative Tentacles. The exception being live albums released after the band's break-up, which the other band members compiled from recordings in the band partnership's vaults without Biafra's input or endorsement.. Biafra has been the owner of the company since its founding, though he does not receive a salary for his position; Biafra has referred to his position in the company as "absentee thoughtlord".
Biafra is an ardent collector of unusual vinyl records of all kinds, from 1950s and 1960s ethno-pop recordings by the likes of Les Baxter and Esquivel to vanity pressings that have circulated regionally, to German crooner Heino (for whom he would later participate in the documentary Heino: Made In Germany); he cites his always growing collection as one of his biggest musical influences. In 1993 he gave an interview to RE/Search Publications for their second Incredibly Strange Music book focusing primarily on these records, and later participated in a two-part episode of Fuse TV's program Crate Diggers on the same subject. His interest in such recordings, often categorized as outsider music, led to his discovery of the prolific (and schizophrenic) singer/songwriter/artist Wesley Willis, whom he signed to Alternative Tentacles in 1994, preceding Willis' major label deal with American Recordings. His collection grew so large that on October 1, 2005, Biafra donated a portion of his collection to an annual yard sale co-promoted by Alternative Tentacles and held at their warehouse in Emeryville, California.
In 2006, along with Alternative Tentacles employee and The Frisk lead singer Jesse Luscious, Biafra began co-hosting The Alternative Tentacles Batcast, a downloadable podcast hosted by alternativetentacles.com. The show primarily focuses on interviews with artists and bands that are currently signed to the Alternative Tentacles label, although there are also occasional episodes where Biafra devoted the show to answering fan questions.
Spoken word
Biafra became a spoken word artist in January 1986 with a performance at University of California, Los Angeles. In his performance he combined humor with his political beliefs, much in the same way that he did with the lyrics to his songs. Despite his continued spoken word performances, he did not begin recording spoken word albums until after the disbanding of the Dead Kennedys.
His ninth spoken word album, In the Grip of Official Treason, was released in October 2006.
Biafra was also featured in the British band Pitchshifter's song As Seen on TV reciting the words of dystopian futuristic radio advertisements.
Politics
Biafra has resisted identifying with any particular political party or ideology, saying, "I don't label myself strictly an anarchist or a socialist or let alone a libertarian or something like that," In a 2012 interview, Biafra said "I'm very pro-tax as long as it goes for the right things. I don't mind paying more money as long as it's going to provide shelter for people sleeping in the street or getting the schools fixed back up, getting the infrastructure up to the standards of other countries, including a high speed rail system. I'm totally down with that."
Mayoral campaign
In the autumn of 1979, Biafra ran for mayor of San Francisco, using the Jell-O ad campaign catchphrase, "There's always room for Jello", as his campaign slogan. Having entered the race before creating a campaign platform, Biafra later wrote his platform on a napkin while attending a Pere Ubu concert where Dead Kennedys drummer Ted told Biafra, "Biafra, you have such a big mouth that you should run for Mayor." As he campaigned, Biafra wore campaign T-shirts from his opponent Quentin Kopp's previous campaign and at one point vacuumed leaves off the front lawn of another opponent, current U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, to mock her publicity stunt of sweeping streets in downtown San Francisco for a few hours. He also made a whistlestop campaign tour along the BART line. Supporters committed equally odd actions; two well known signs held by supporters said "If he doesn't win I'll kill myself" and "What if he does win?"
At the time, in San Francisco any individual could legally run for mayor if a petition was signed by 1500 people or if $1500 was paid. Biafra paid $900 and got signatures over time and eventually became a legal candidate, meaning he received statements put in voters' pamphlets and equal news coverage.
His platform included unconventional points such as forcing businessmen to wear clown suits within city limits, erecting statues of Dan White, who assassinated Mayor George Moscone and City Supervisor Harvey Milk in 1978, around the city and allowing the parks department to sell eggs and tomatoes with which people could pelt the statues, hiring workers who had lost their jobs due to a tax initiative to panhandle in wealthy neighborhoods (including Senator Dianne Feinstein's), and a citywide ban on cars. Biafra has expressed irritation that these parts of his platform attained such notoriety, preferring instead to be remembered for serious proposals such as legalizing squatting in vacant, tax-delinquent buildings and requiring police officers to run for election by the people of the neighborhoods they patrol.
He finished third out of a field of ten, receiving 3.79 percent of the vote (6,591 votes); the election ended in a runoff that did not involve him (Feinstein was declared the winner).
Presidential campaign
In 2000, the New York State Green Party drafted Biafra as a candidate for the Green Party presidential nomination, and a few supporters were elected to the party's nominating convention in Denver, Colorado. Biafra chose death row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal as his running mate. The party overwhelmingly chose Ralph Nader as the presidential candidate with 295 of the 319 delegate votes. Biafra received 10 votes.
Biafra, along with a camera crew (dubbed by Biafra as "The Camcorder Truth Jihad"), later reported for the Independent Media Center at the Republican and Democratic conventions.
Post-2000
After losing the 2000 nomination, Biafra became highly active in Nader's presidential campaign, as well as in 2004 and 2008. During the 2008 campaign Jello played at rallies and answered questions for journalists in support of Nader. When gay rights activists accused Nader of costing Al Gore the 2000 election, Biafra reminded them that Tipper Gore's Parents Music Resource Center wanted warning stickers on albums with content referencing homosexuality.
After Barack Obama won the general election, Biafra wrote an open letter making suggestions on how to run his term as president. Biafra criticized Obama during his term, stating that "Obama even won the award for best advertising campaign of 2008." Biafra dubbed Obama "Barackstar O'Bummer". Biafra refused to support Obama in 2012. Biafra has stated that he feels that Obama continued many of George W. Bush's policies, summarizing Obama's policies as containing "worse and worse laws against human rights and more and more illegal unconstitutional spying."
On September 18, 2015, it was announced that Biafra would be supporting Bernie Sanders in his campaign for the 2016 presidential election. He has strongly criticised the political position of Donald Trump, saying "how can people be so fucking stupid" on hearing the election result, and later adding "The last person we want with their finger on the nuclear button is somebody connected to this extreme Christianist doomsday cult."
On February 28, 2020, Jello announced that he would be supporting both Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders in the 2020 presidential election. “I personally like Warren slightly better than Bernie because: 1) She’s done her homework. Bernie too, but not to quite the same depth or degree. 2) Think about it — who really has a better chance of actually beating Trump, and helping flip Congress and state legislatures? It’s Elizabeth Warren, hands down.” He went on to say that he considered Joe Biden and Mike Bloomberg "almost as bad as Trump".
On April 12, 2020, Biafra expressed disappointment that Sanders had suspended his campaign for the 2020 Democratic nomination.
Boycott of Israel
In mid-2011 Jello Biafra and his band were scheduled to play at the Barby Club in Tel Aviv. They came under heavy pressure by the pro-Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, and finally decided to cancel the concert – after a debate which according to Biafra "deeply tore at the fabric of our band ... This whole controversy has been one of the most intense situations of my life – and I thrive on intense situations".
Biafra then decided to travel to Israel and the Palestinian Occupied Territories, at his own expense, and talk with Israeli and Palestinian activists as well as with fans disappointed at his cancellation. In the article stating his conclusions he wrote:
"I will not perform in Israel unless it is a pro-human rights, anti-occupation event, that does not violate the spirit of the boycott. Each musician, artist, etc. must decide this for themselves. I am staying away for now, but am also really creeped out by the attitudes of some of the hardliners and hope some day to find a way to contribute something positive here. I will not march or sign on with anyone who runs around calling people Zionazis and is more interested in making threats than making friends."
Personal life
Biafra married Theresa Soder, a.k.a. Ninotchka, lead singer of San Francisco-area punk band the Situations, on October 31, 1981. The wedding was conducted by Flipper vocalist/bassist Bruce Loose, who became a Universal Life Church minister just to conduct the ceremony, which took place in a graveyard. The wedding reception, which members of Flipper, Black Flag, and D.O.A. attended, was held at director Joe Rees' Target Video studios. The marriage ended in 1986. Biafra generally does not discuss his private life. He lives in San Francisco, California.
Selected discography
For a more complete list, see the Jello Biafra discography.
Dead Kennedys
1980 – Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables
1981 – In God We Trust, Inc.
1982 – Plastic Surgery Disasters
1985 – Frankenchrist
1986 – Bedtime for Democracy
1987 – Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death
Spoken word
1987 – No More Cocoons
1989 – High Priest of Harmful Matter: Tales From the Trial
1991 – I Blow Minds for a Living
1994 – Beyond the Valley of the Gift Police
1998 – If Evolution Is Outlawed, Only Outlaws Will Evolve
2000 – Become the Media
2002 – The Big Ka-Boom, Pt. 1
2002 – Machine Gun in the Clown's Hand
2006 – In the Grip of Official Treason
Lard
1989 – The Power of Lard
1990 – The Last Temptation of Reid
1997 – Pure Chewing Satisfaction
2000 – 70's Rock Must Die
Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine
2009 – The Audacity of Hype
2011 – Enhanced Methods of Questioning
2012 – SHOCK-U-PY
2013 – White People and the Damage Done
2020 – Tea Party Revenge Porn
Collaborations
Filmography
1977 – This Is America, Pt. 2
1981 – Urgh! A Music War
1983 – Anarchism in America
1986 – Lovedolls Superstar, directed by Dave Markey
1987 – Household Affairs, directed & filmed by Allen Ginsberg
1988 – Tapeheads, directed by Bill Fishman
1990 – Terminal City Ricochet
1991 – Highway 61, directed by Bruce McDonald
1994 – Skulhedface, directed by Melanie Mandl
1997 – Mary Jane's Not a Virgin Anymore, directed by Sarah Jacobson
1999 – The Widower
1999 – Virtue
2001 – Plaster Caster
2002 – Bikini Bandits, directed by Steve and Peter Grasse
2004 – Death and Texas
2004 – Punk: Attitude
2005 – We Jam Econo: The Story of the Minutemen
2006 – Punk's Not Dead, directed by Susan Dynner
2006 – Whose War?, directed by Donald Farmer
2007 – American Drug War: The Last White Hope, directed by Kevin Booth
2008 – Nerdcore Rising, directed by Negin Farsad
2009 – Open Your Mouth and Say Mr. Chi Pig, directed by Sean Patrick Shaul
2010 – A Man Within, directed by Yony Leyser
2011 – I Love You ... I Am the Porn Queen, short film directed by Ani Kyd
2014 – Heino: Made in Germany, directed by Oliver Schwabe
2014 – Portlandia, season 4, episode 4 – "Pull-Out King"
2018 – Bathtubs Over Broadway, directed by Dava Whisenant (as himself)
2018 – Boiled Angels: The Trial of Mike Diana, directed by Frank Henenlotter (narrator)
2019 – The Last Black Man in San Francisco, directed by Joe Talbot
Notes
References
External links
Jello Biafra on Alternative Tentacles
1958 births
Living people
20th-century American politicians
Candidates in the 2000 United States presidential election
Alternative Tentacles
Alternative Tentacles artists
American anti–Iraq War activists
American anti-war activists
American human rights activists
American male film actors
American people of Jewish descent
American punk rock singers
American satirists
American male singer-songwriters
American spoken word artists
Anti-consumerists
Anti-corporate activists
Anti-globalization activists
Boulder High School alumni
California Greens
Dead Kennedys members
Finance fraud
Green Party of the United States politicians
Hardcore punk musicians
Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine members
Lard (band) members
Male actors from Boulder, Colorado
Musicians from Boulder, Colorado
Pigface members
Pranksters
Teenage Time Killers members
Singer-songwriters from Colorado | false | [
"Carlos Cadona (born 1958 or 1959), better known by his stage name 6025, is an American musician who served as the second guitarist for the American punk rock band Dead Kennedys, from their formation in July 1978 to March 1979.\n\nDead Kennedys (1978–1979) \nJello Biafra met Cadona, who dubbed himself 6025 from a clothing inspection ticket, at the Mabuhay Gardens, and asked him if he wanted to pose as the band's drummer. 6025 then told Biafra that he could play guitar, and was invited to the group, subsequently joining in July 1978. Although he is sometimes claimed to have been a drummer or singer, frontman Jello Biafra has stated that 6025 was recruited solely as a guitarist. The other members joined after answering an ad placed by Ray.\n\nBiafra stated, \"[A] week before our first gig we got a guitarist who called himself 6025 and he left about six months later\". He actually parted with the band roughly eight months later, in March 1979. According to Biafra, he was the best all-around musician in the band; however, his taste for prog rock and idiosyncratic songwriting alienated him from the rest of the band. 6025's final live appearance with Dead Kennedys was on March 3, 1979. The performance was taped and a few tracks appeared on compilation before being officially released in its entirety 25 years later as Live at the Deaf Club.\n\nCarlos Cadona surfaced in an October 19, 2017 article in The Press Democrat titled “Shelters remain safe havens for Santa Rosans fleeing fires”. The article, which featured Santa Rosa citizens who were fleeing the wildfires, cited Cadona (referred to as Carlo Cadona) as a former member of the Dead Kennedys. In the article it stated he was evacuated from his Mark West Springs Road home of a dozen years as a result of the fires.\n\nDiscography\n\nDead Kennedys\n 1980 – Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables\n 1987 – Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death\n 2004 – Live at the Deaf Club\n\nSnakefinger\n 2010 – Live at the Savoy 1981\n\nReferences\n\nLiving people\nAmerican punk rock guitarists\nDead Kennedys members\nPlace of birth missing (living people)\nAmerican male guitarists\n1958 births",
"Mutiny on the Bay is a live album by the Dead Kennedys. It was compiled and released after a lengthy lawsuit, which resulted in the rights to the Dead Kennedys' catalog being transferred from lead singer/songwriter Jello Biafra's record label, Alternative Tentacles to the other three members of the band. Its quality has been criticized by Jello Biafra.\n\nTrack listing\n\nVenues\nThe album is not one consecutive concert, but rather tracks culled from various performances in 1982 and 1986.\n\nThe tracks \"Police Truck\", \"Holiday in Cambodia\", \"Forward to Death\", \"I Am the Owl\" and \"Riot\" were recorded at the Elite Club, San Francisco, on March 20, 1982. \"Hellnation\", \"California über alles\", \"Too Drunk to Fuck\" and \"This Could Be Anywhere\" were recorded at The Stone, San Francisco, on February 16, 1986. \"Moon Over Marin\", \"M.T.V. − Get off the Air\" and \"Goons of Hazard\" were also recorded at The Stone the following day.\n\nAs a peculiarity \"Kill the Poor\" was recorded on February 21, 1986, at Freeborn Hall in Davis, California. The show is notable in that it was the final performance of the Dead Kennedys.\n\nPersonnel\n Jello Biafra – lead vocals\n East Bay Ray – guitar, producer\n Klaus Flouride – bass, backing vocals\n D.H. Peligro – drums\n Sue Brisk – photography\n John Cuniberti – engineer, mixer\n\nDead Kennedys albums\n2001 live albums"
]
|
[
"Jello Biafra",
"Alternative Tentacles",
"what is alternative tentacles?",
"Biafra co-founded the record label Alternative Tentacles,",
"who did he co-found it with?",
"Biafra has been the owner of the company since its founding,",
"when was it founded?",
"June 1979,",
"what did he release through the company?",
"the Dead Kennedys released their first single, \"California Uber Alles\".",
"when was the single released?",
"I don't know.",
"who were the dead Kennedys?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_1c892d3c20fa42df8350499241317562_0 | what happened to alternative tentacles? | 7 | What happened to record label Alternative Tentacles? | Jello Biafra | In June 1979, Biafra co-founded the record label Alternative Tentacles, with which the Dead Kennedys released their first single, "California Uber Alles". The label was created to allow the band to release albums without having to deal with pressure from major labels to change their music, although the major labels were not willing to sign the band due to their songs being deemed too controversial. After dealing with Cherry Red in the UK and IRS Records in the US for their first album Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables, the band released all later albums, and later pressings of Fresh Fruit on Alternative Tentacles. The exception being live albums released after the band's break-up, which the other band members compiled from recordings in the band partnership's vaults without Biafra's input or endorsement.. Biafra has been the owner of the company since its founding, though he does not receive a salary for his position; Biafra has referred to his position in the company as "absentee thoughtlord". Biafra is an ardent collector of unusual vinyl records of all kinds, from 1950s and 1960s ethno-pop recordings by the likes of Les Baxter and Esquivel to vanity pressings that have circulated regionally, to German crooner Heino (for whom he would later participate in the documentary Heino: Made In Germany); he cites his always growing collection as one of his biggest musical influences. In 1993 he gave an interview to RE/Search Publications for their second Incredibly Strange Music book focusing primarily on these records, and later participated in a two-part episode of Fuse TV's program Crate Diggers on the same subject. His interest in such recordings, often categorized as outsider music, led to his discovery of the prolific (and schizophrenic) singer/songwriter/artist Wesley Willis, whom he signed to Alternative Tentacles in 1994, preceding Willis' major label deal with American Recordings. His collection grew so large that on October 1, 2005, Biafra donated a portion of his collection to an annual yard sale co-promoted by Alternative Tentacles and held at their warehouse in Emeryville, California. In 2006, along with Alternative Tentacles employee and The Frisk lead singer Jesse Luscious, Biafra began co-hosting The Alternative Tentacles Batcast, a downloadable podcast hosted by alternativetentacles.com. The show primarily focuses on interviews with artists and bands that are currently signed to the Alternative Tentacles label, although there are also occasional episodes where Biafra devoted the show to answering fan questions. CANNOTANSWER | Biafra began co-hosting The Alternative Tentacles Batcast, a downloadable podcast hosted by alternativetentacles.com. | Eric Reed Boucher (born June 17, 1958), better known by his professional name Jello Biafra, is an American singer and spoken word artist. He is the former lead singer and songwriter for the San Francisco punk rock band Dead Kennedys.
Initially active from 1979 to 1986, Dead Kennedys were known for rapid-fire music topped with Biafra's sardonic lyrics and biting social commentary, delivered in his "unique quiver of a voice". When the band broke up in 1986, he took over the influential independent record label Alternative Tentacles, which he had founded in 1979 with Dead Kennedys bandmate East Bay Ray. In a 2000 lawsuit, upheld on appeal in 2003 by the California Supreme Court, Biafra was found liable for breach of contract, fraud and malice in withholding a decade's worth of royalties from his former bandmates and ordered to pay over $200,000 in compensation and punitive damages; the band subsequently reformed without Biafra. Although now focused primarily on spoken word performances, Biafra has continued as a musician in numerous collaborations. He has also occasionally appeared in cameo roles in films.
Politically, Biafra is a member of the Green Party of the United States and supports various political causes. He ran for the party's presidential nomination in the 2000 presidential election, finishing a distant second to Ralph Nader. In 1979 he ran for mayor of San Francisco, California. He is a staunch believer in a free society, and utilizes shock value and advocates direct action and pranksterism in the name of political causes. Biafra is known to use absurdist media tactics, in the leftist tradition of the Yippies, to highlight issues of civil rights and social justice.
Early life
Eric Reed Boucher was born in Boulder, Colorado, the son of Virginia (née Parker), a librarian, and Stanley Wayne Boucher, a psychiatric social worker and poet. His sister, Julie J. Boucher, was Associate Director of the Library Research Service at the Colorado State Library; she died in a mountain-climbing accident on October 12, 1996. Biafra has a Jewish great grandparent, but was unaware of this until the mid-2000s. He grew up in a secular household and has said that he is "not really Jewish".
As a child, Boucher developed an interest in international politics that was encouraged by his parents. An avid news watcher, one of his earliest memories was of the John F. Kennedy assassination. Biafra says he has been a fan of rock music since first hearing it in 1965, when his parents accidentally tuned in to a rock radio station. Boucher ignored his high school guidance counselor's advice that he spend his adolescence preparing to become a dental hygienist.
He began his career in music in January 1977 as a roadie for the punk rock band The Ravers (who later changed their name to The Nails), soon joining his friend John Greenway in a band called The Healers. The Healers became well known locally for their mainly improvised lyrics and avant garde music. In the autumn of that year, he began attending the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Musical career
Dead Kennedys
In June 1978, Biafra responded to an advertisement placed in a store by guitarist East Bay Ray, stating "guitarist wants to form punk band", and together they formed the Dead Kennedys. He began performing with the band under the stage name Occupant, but soon began to use his current stage name, a combination of the brand name Jell-O and the short-lived African state Biafra. The band's lyrics were written by Biafra. The lyrics were mostly political in nature and displayed a sardonic, sometimes absurdist, sense of humor despite their serious subject matter. In the tradition of UK anarcho-punk bands like Crass and the Subhumans, the Dead Kennedys were one of the first US punk bands to write politically themed songs. The lyrics Biafra wrote helped popularize the use of humorous lyrics in punk and other types of hard-core music. Biafra cites Joey Ramone as the inspiration for his use of humor in his songs (as well as being the musician who made him interested in punk rock), noting in particular songs by the Ramones such as "Beat on the Brat" and "Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue".
Biafra initially attempted to compose music on guitar, but his lack of experience on the instrument and his own admission of being "a fumbler with my hands" led Dead Kennedys bassist Klaus Flouride to suggest that Biafra simply sing the parts he envisioned to the band. Biafra sang his riffs and melodies into a tape recorder, which he brought to the band's rehearsal and/or recording sessions. This later became a problem when the other members of the Dead Kennedys sued Biafra over royalties and publishing rights. By all accounts, including his own, Biafra is not a conventionally skilled musician, though he and his collaborators (Joey Shithead of D.O.A. in particular) attest that he is a skilled composer and his work, particularly with the Dead Kennedys, is highly respected by punk-oriented critics and fans.
Biafra's first popular song was the first single by the Dead Kennedys, "California über alles". The song, which spoofed California governor Jerry Brown, was the first of many political songs by the group and Biafra. The song's popularity resulted in its being covered by other musicians, such as The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy (who rewrote the lyrics to parody Pete Wilson), John Linnell of They Might Be Giants and Six Feet Under on their Graveyard Classics album of cover versions. Not long after, the Dead Kennedys had a second and bigger hit with "Holiday in Cambodia" from their debut album Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables. AllMusic cites this song as "possibly the most successful single of the American hardcore scene" and Biafra counts it as his personal favorite Dead Kennedy's song. Minor hits from the album included "Kill the Poor" (about potential abuse of the then-new neutron bomb) and a satirical cover of Elvis Presley's "Viva Las Vegas".
The Dead Kennedys received some controversy in the spring of 1981 over the single "Too Drunk to Fuck". The song became a hit in Britain, and the BBC feared that it would manage to be a big enough hit to appear among the top 30 songs on the national charts, requiring a mention on Top of the Pops. However, the single peaked at number 31 in the charts.
Later albums also contained memorable songs, but with less popularity than the earlier ones. The EP In God We Trust, Inc. contained the song "Nazi Punks Fuck Off!" as well as "We've Got A Bigger Problem Now", a rewritten version of "California über alles" about Ronald Reagan. Punk musician and scholar Vic Bondi considers the latter song to be the song that "defined the lyrical agenda of much of hardcore music, and represented its break with punk". The band's most controversial album, Frankenchrist, brought with it the song "MTV Get Off the Air," which accused MTV of promoting poor quality music and sedating the public. The album also contained a controversial poster by Swiss surrealist artist H. R. Giger entitled Penis Landscape.
The Dead Kennedys toured widely during their career, starting in the late 1970s. They began playing at San Francisco's Mabuhay Gardens (their home base) and other Bay Area venues, later branching out to shows in southern Californian clubs (most notably the Whisky a Go Go), but eventually they moved to major clubs across the country, including CBGB in New York. Later, they played to larger audiences such as at the 1980 Bay Area Music Awards (where they played the notorious "Pull My Strings" for the only time), and headlined the 1983 Rock Against Reagan festival.
On May 7, 1994, punk rock fans who believed Biafra was a "sell out" attacked him at the 924 Gilman Street club in Berkeley, California. Biafra claims that he was attacked by a man nicknamed Cretin, who crashed into him while moshing. The crash injured Biafra's leg, causing an argument between the two men. During the argument, Cretin pushed Biafra to the floor and five or six friends of Cretin assaulted Biafra while he was down, yelling "Sellout rock star, kick him", and attempting to pull out his hair. Biafra was later hospitalized with serious injuries. The attack derailed Biafra's plans for both a Canadian spoken-word tour and an accompanying album, and the production of Pure Chewing Satisfaction was halted. However, Biafra returned to the Gilman club a few months after the incident to perform a spoken-word performance as an act of reconciliation with the club.
Biafra has been a prominent figure of the Californian punk scene and was one of the third generation members of the San Francisco punk community. Many later hardcore bands have cited the Dead Kennedys as a major influence. Hardcore punk author Steven Blush describes Biafra as hardcore's "biggest star" who was a "powerful presence whose political insurgence and rabid fandom made him the father figure of a burgeoning subculture [and an] inspirational force [who] could also be a real prick ... Biafra was a visionary, incendiary [performer]."
After the Dead Kennedys disbanded, Biafra's new songs were recorded with other bands, and he released only spoken word albums as solo projects. These collaborations had less popularity than Biafra's earlier work. However, his song "That's Progress", originally recorded with D.O.A. for the album Last Scream of the Missing Neighbors, received considerable exposure when it appeared on the album Rock Against Bush, Vol. 1.
Obscenity prosecution
In April 1986, police officers raided Biafra's house in response to complaints by the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC). In June 1986, L.A. deputy city attorney Michael Guarino, working under City Attorney James Hahn, brought Biafra to trial in Los Angeles for distributing "harmful material to minors" in the Dead Kennedys album Frankenchrist. However, the dispute was about neither the music nor the lyrics from the album, but rather the print of the H. R. Giger poster Landscape XX (Penis Landscape) included with the album.
Music author Reebee Garofalo argued that Biafra and Alternative Tentacles may have been targeted because the label was a "small, self-managed and self-supported company that could ill afford a protracted legal battle." Facing the possible sentence of a year in jail and a $2,000 fine, Biafra, Dirk Dirksen, and Suzanne Stefanac founded the No More Censorship Defense Fund, a benefit featuring several punk rock bands, to help pay for his legal fees, which neither he nor his record label could afford. The jury deadlocked 5 to 7 in favor of acquittal, prompting a mistrial; despite a motion to re-try the case, the judge ordered all charges dropped. The Dead Kennedys disbanded during the trial, in December 1986, due to the mounting legal costs; in the wake of their disbandment, Biafra made a career of his spoken word performances.
Biafra has a cameo role in the 1988 film Tapeheads. He plays an FBI agent who arrests the two protagonists (played by Tim Robbins and John Cusack). While arresting them his character asks "Remember what we did to Jello Biafra?" lampooning the obscenity prosecution.
On March 25, 2005, Biafra appeared on the U.S. radio program This American Life, "Episode 285: Know Your Enemy", which featured a phone call between Jello Biafra and Michael Guarino, the prosecutor in the Frankenchrist trial.
Lawsuit and reunion activities
In October 1998, three former members of the Dead Kennedys sued Biafra for nonpayment of royalties. The other members of Dead Kennedys alleged that Biafra, in his capacity as the head of Alternative Tentacles records, discovered an accounting error amounting to some $75,000 in unpaid royalties over almost a decade. Rather than informing his bandmates of this mistake, the suit alleged, Biafra knowingly concealed the information until a whistleblower employee at the record label notified the band.
According to Biafra, the suit resulted from his refusal to allow one of the band's most well-known singles, "Holiday in Cambodia", to be used in a commercial for Levi's Dockers; Biafra opposes Levi's because of his belief that they use unfair business practices and sweatshop labor. Biafra maintained that he had never denied them royalties, and that he himself had not even received royalties for re-releases of their albums or "posthumous" live albums which had been licensed to other labels by the Decay Music partnership. Decay Music denied this charge and have posted what they say are his cashed royalty checks, written to his legal name of Eric Boucher. Biafra also complained about the songwriting credits in new reissues and archival live albums of songs, alleging that he was the sole composer of songs that were wrongly credited to the entire band.
In May 2000, a jury found Biafra and Alternative Tentacles liable by not promptly informing his former bandmates of the accounting error and instead withholding the information during subsequent discussions and contractual negotiations. Biafra was ordered to pay $200,000, including $20,000 in punitive damages. After an appeal by Biafra's lawyers, in June 2003, the California Court of Appeals unanimously upheld all the conditions of the 2000 verdict against Biafra and Alternative Tentacles. Furthermore, the plaintiffs were awarded the rights to most of Dead Kennedys recorded works—which accounted for about half the sales for Alternative Tentacles. Now in control of the Dead Kennedys name, Biafra's former bandmates went on tour with a new lead vocalist.
Other bands
In the early 1980s, Biafra collaborated with musicians Christian Lunch and Adrian Borland (of The Sound) and Morgan Fisher (of Mott the Hoople) for the electropunk musical project The Witch Trials, releasing one self-titled EP in its lifetime.
In 1988, Biafra, with Al Jourgensen and Paul Barker of the band Ministry, and Jeff Ward, formed Lard. The band became yet another side project for Ministry, with Biafra providing vocals and lyrics. According to a March 2009 interview with Jourgensen, he and Biafra are working on a new Lard album, which is being recorded in Jourgensen's El Paso studio. Jourgensen also claimed in 2021 that Biafra was in works of a new Lard album. While working on the film Terminal City Ricochet in 1989, Biafra did a song for the film's soundtrack with D.O.A.. As a result, Biafra worked with D.O.A. on the album Last Scream of the Missing Neighbors. Biafra also worked with Nomeansno on the soundtrack, which led to their collaboration on the album The Sky Is Falling and I Want My Mommy the following year. Biafra also provided lyrics for the song "Biotech is Godzilla" for Sepultura's 1993 album Chaos A.D..
In 1999, Biafra and other members of the anti-globalization movement protested the WTO Meeting of 1999 in Seattle. Along with other prominent West Coast musicians, he formed the short-lived band the No WTO Combo to help promote the movement's cause. The band was originally scheduled to play during the protest, but the performance was canceled due to riots. The band performed a short set the following night at the Showbox in downtown Seattle (outside the designated area), along with the hiphop group Spearhead. No WTO Combo later released a CD of recordings from the concert, entitled Live from the Battle in Seattle.
As of late 2005, Biafra was performing with the band The Melvins under the name "Jello Biafra and the Melvins", though fans sometimes refer to them as "The Jelvins". Together they have released two albums, and worked on material for a third collaborative release, much of which was premiered live at two concerts at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco during an event called Biafra Five-O, commemorating Biafra's 50th birthday, the 30th anniversary of the founding of the Dead Kennedys, and the beginning of legalized same-sex marriage in California. Biafra was also working with a band known as Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine, which included Ralph Spight of Victims Family on guitar and Billy Gould of Faith No More on bass. This group debuted during Biafra Five-O.
In 2011, Biafra appeared in a singular concert event with an all-star cast of Southern musicians including members from Cowboy Mouth, Dash Rip Rock, Mojo Nixon and Down entitled, "Jello Biafra and the New Orleans Raunch & Soul All Stars" who performed an array of classic Soul covers to a packed house at the 12-Bar in New Orleans, Louisiana. He would later reunite with many of the same musicians during the Carnival season 2014 to revisit many of these classics at Siberia, New Orleans. A live album from the 2011 performance, Walk on Jindal's Splinters, and a companion single, Fannie May/Just a Little Bit, were released in 2015.
Alternative Tentacles
In June 1979, Biafra co-founded the record label Alternative Tentacles, with which the Dead Kennedys released their first single, "California über alles". The label was created to allow the band to release albums without having to deal with pressure from major labels to change their music, although the major labels were not willing to sign the band due to their songs being deemed too controversial. After dealing with Cherry Red in the UK and IRS Records in the US for their first album Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables, the band released all later albums, and later pressings of Fresh Fruit on Alternative Tentacles. The exception being live albums released after the band's break-up, which the other band members compiled from recordings in the band partnership's vaults without Biafra's input or endorsement.. Biafra has been the owner of the company since its founding, though he does not receive a salary for his position; Biafra has referred to his position in the company as "absentee thoughtlord".
Biafra is an ardent collector of unusual vinyl records of all kinds, from 1950s and 1960s ethno-pop recordings by the likes of Les Baxter and Esquivel to vanity pressings that have circulated regionally, to German crooner Heino (for whom he would later participate in the documentary Heino: Made In Germany); he cites his always growing collection as one of his biggest musical influences. In 1993 he gave an interview to RE/Search Publications for their second Incredibly Strange Music book focusing primarily on these records, and later participated in a two-part episode of Fuse TV's program Crate Diggers on the same subject. His interest in such recordings, often categorized as outsider music, led to his discovery of the prolific (and schizophrenic) singer/songwriter/artist Wesley Willis, whom he signed to Alternative Tentacles in 1994, preceding Willis' major label deal with American Recordings. His collection grew so large that on October 1, 2005, Biafra donated a portion of his collection to an annual yard sale co-promoted by Alternative Tentacles and held at their warehouse in Emeryville, California.
In 2006, along with Alternative Tentacles employee and The Frisk lead singer Jesse Luscious, Biafra began co-hosting The Alternative Tentacles Batcast, a downloadable podcast hosted by alternativetentacles.com. The show primarily focuses on interviews with artists and bands that are currently signed to the Alternative Tentacles label, although there are also occasional episodes where Biafra devoted the show to answering fan questions.
Spoken word
Biafra became a spoken word artist in January 1986 with a performance at University of California, Los Angeles. In his performance he combined humor with his political beliefs, much in the same way that he did with the lyrics to his songs. Despite his continued spoken word performances, he did not begin recording spoken word albums until after the disbanding of the Dead Kennedys.
His ninth spoken word album, In the Grip of Official Treason, was released in October 2006.
Biafra was also featured in the British band Pitchshifter's song As Seen on TV reciting the words of dystopian futuristic radio advertisements.
Politics
Biafra has resisted identifying with any particular political party or ideology, saying, "I don't label myself strictly an anarchist or a socialist or let alone a libertarian or something like that," In a 2012 interview, Biafra said "I'm very pro-tax as long as it goes for the right things. I don't mind paying more money as long as it's going to provide shelter for people sleeping in the street or getting the schools fixed back up, getting the infrastructure up to the standards of other countries, including a high speed rail system. I'm totally down with that."
Mayoral campaign
In the autumn of 1979, Biafra ran for mayor of San Francisco, using the Jell-O ad campaign catchphrase, "There's always room for Jello", as his campaign slogan. Having entered the race before creating a campaign platform, Biafra later wrote his platform on a napkin while attending a Pere Ubu concert where Dead Kennedys drummer Ted told Biafra, "Biafra, you have such a big mouth that you should run for Mayor." As he campaigned, Biafra wore campaign T-shirts from his opponent Quentin Kopp's previous campaign and at one point vacuumed leaves off the front lawn of another opponent, current U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, to mock her publicity stunt of sweeping streets in downtown San Francisco for a few hours. He also made a whistlestop campaign tour along the BART line. Supporters committed equally odd actions; two well known signs held by supporters said "If he doesn't win I'll kill myself" and "What if he does win?"
At the time, in San Francisco any individual could legally run for mayor if a petition was signed by 1500 people or if $1500 was paid. Biafra paid $900 and got signatures over time and eventually became a legal candidate, meaning he received statements put in voters' pamphlets and equal news coverage.
His platform included unconventional points such as forcing businessmen to wear clown suits within city limits, erecting statues of Dan White, who assassinated Mayor George Moscone and City Supervisor Harvey Milk in 1978, around the city and allowing the parks department to sell eggs and tomatoes with which people could pelt the statues, hiring workers who had lost their jobs due to a tax initiative to panhandle in wealthy neighborhoods (including Senator Dianne Feinstein's), and a citywide ban on cars. Biafra has expressed irritation that these parts of his platform attained such notoriety, preferring instead to be remembered for serious proposals such as legalizing squatting in vacant, tax-delinquent buildings and requiring police officers to run for election by the people of the neighborhoods they patrol.
He finished third out of a field of ten, receiving 3.79 percent of the vote (6,591 votes); the election ended in a runoff that did not involve him (Feinstein was declared the winner).
Presidential campaign
In 2000, the New York State Green Party drafted Biafra as a candidate for the Green Party presidential nomination, and a few supporters were elected to the party's nominating convention in Denver, Colorado. Biafra chose death row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal as his running mate. The party overwhelmingly chose Ralph Nader as the presidential candidate with 295 of the 319 delegate votes. Biafra received 10 votes.
Biafra, along with a camera crew (dubbed by Biafra as "The Camcorder Truth Jihad"), later reported for the Independent Media Center at the Republican and Democratic conventions.
Post-2000
After losing the 2000 nomination, Biafra became highly active in Nader's presidential campaign, as well as in 2004 and 2008. During the 2008 campaign Jello played at rallies and answered questions for journalists in support of Nader. When gay rights activists accused Nader of costing Al Gore the 2000 election, Biafra reminded them that Tipper Gore's Parents Music Resource Center wanted warning stickers on albums with content referencing homosexuality.
After Barack Obama won the general election, Biafra wrote an open letter making suggestions on how to run his term as president. Biafra criticized Obama during his term, stating that "Obama even won the award for best advertising campaign of 2008." Biafra dubbed Obama "Barackstar O'Bummer". Biafra refused to support Obama in 2012. Biafra has stated that he feels that Obama continued many of George W. Bush's policies, summarizing Obama's policies as containing "worse and worse laws against human rights and more and more illegal unconstitutional spying."
On September 18, 2015, it was announced that Biafra would be supporting Bernie Sanders in his campaign for the 2016 presidential election. He has strongly criticised the political position of Donald Trump, saying "how can people be so fucking stupid" on hearing the election result, and later adding "The last person we want with their finger on the nuclear button is somebody connected to this extreme Christianist doomsday cult."
On February 28, 2020, Jello announced that he would be supporting both Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders in the 2020 presidential election. “I personally like Warren slightly better than Bernie because: 1) She’s done her homework. Bernie too, but not to quite the same depth or degree. 2) Think about it — who really has a better chance of actually beating Trump, and helping flip Congress and state legislatures? It’s Elizabeth Warren, hands down.” He went on to say that he considered Joe Biden and Mike Bloomberg "almost as bad as Trump".
On April 12, 2020, Biafra expressed disappointment that Sanders had suspended his campaign for the 2020 Democratic nomination.
Boycott of Israel
In mid-2011 Jello Biafra and his band were scheduled to play at the Barby Club in Tel Aviv. They came under heavy pressure by the pro-Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, and finally decided to cancel the concert – after a debate which according to Biafra "deeply tore at the fabric of our band ... This whole controversy has been one of the most intense situations of my life – and I thrive on intense situations".
Biafra then decided to travel to Israel and the Palestinian Occupied Territories, at his own expense, and talk with Israeli and Palestinian activists as well as with fans disappointed at his cancellation. In the article stating his conclusions he wrote:
"I will not perform in Israel unless it is a pro-human rights, anti-occupation event, that does not violate the spirit of the boycott. Each musician, artist, etc. must decide this for themselves. I am staying away for now, but am also really creeped out by the attitudes of some of the hardliners and hope some day to find a way to contribute something positive here. I will not march or sign on with anyone who runs around calling people Zionazis and is more interested in making threats than making friends."
Personal life
Biafra married Theresa Soder, a.k.a. Ninotchka, lead singer of San Francisco-area punk band the Situations, on October 31, 1981. The wedding was conducted by Flipper vocalist/bassist Bruce Loose, who became a Universal Life Church minister just to conduct the ceremony, which took place in a graveyard. The wedding reception, which members of Flipper, Black Flag, and D.O.A. attended, was held at director Joe Rees' Target Video studios. The marriage ended in 1986. Biafra generally does not discuss his private life. He lives in San Francisco, California.
Selected discography
For a more complete list, see the Jello Biafra discography.
Dead Kennedys
1980 – Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables
1981 – In God We Trust, Inc.
1982 – Plastic Surgery Disasters
1985 – Frankenchrist
1986 – Bedtime for Democracy
1987 – Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death
Spoken word
1987 – No More Cocoons
1989 – High Priest of Harmful Matter: Tales From the Trial
1991 – I Blow Minds for a Living
1994 – Beyond the Valley of the Gift Police
1998 – If Evolution Is Outlawed, Only Outlaws Will Evolve
2000 – Become the Media
2002 – The Big Ka-Boom, Pt. 1
2002 – Machine Gun in the Clown's Hand
2006 – In the Grip of Official Treason
Lard
1989 – The Power of Lard
1990 – The Last Temptation of Reid
1997 – Pure Chewing Satisfaction
2000 – 70's Rock Must Die
Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine
2009 – The Audacity of Hype
2011 – Enhanced Methods of Questioning
2012 – SHOCK-U-PY
2013 – White People and the Damage Done
2020 – Tea Party Revenge Porn
Collaborations
Filmography
1977 – This Is America, Pt. 2
1981 – Urgh! A Music War
1983 – Anarchism in America
1986 – Lovedolls Superstar, directed by Dave Markey
1987 – Household Affairs, directed & filmed by Allen Ginsberg
1988 – Tapeheads, directed by Bill Fishman
1990 – Terminal City Ricochet
1991 – Highway 61, directed by Bruce McDonald
1994 – Skulhedface, directed by Melanie Mandl
1997 – Mary Jane's Not a Virgin Anymore, directed by Sarah Jacobson
1999 – The Widower
1999 – Virtue
2001 – Plaster Caster
2002 – Bikini Bandits, directed by Steve and Peter Grasse
2004 – Death and Texas
2004 – Punk: Attitude
2005 – We Jam Econo: The Story of the Minutemen
2006 – Punk's Not Dead, directed by Susan Dynner
2006 – Whose War?, directed by Donald Farmer
2007 – American Drug War: The Last White Hope, directed by Kevin Booth
2008 – Nerdcore Rising, directed by Negin Farsad
2009 – Open Your Mouth and Say Mr. Chi Pig, directed by Sean Patrick Shaul
2010 – A Man Within, directed by Yony Leyser
2011 – I Love You ... I Am the Porn Queen, short film directed by Ani Kyd
2014 – Heino: Made in Germany, directed by Oliver Schwabe
2014 – Portlandia, season 4, episode 4 – "Pull-Out King"
2018 – Bathtubs Over Broadway, directed by Dava Whisenant (as himself)
2018 – Boiled Angels: The Trial of Mike Diana, directed by Frank Henenlotter (narrator)
2019 – The Last Black Man in San Francisco, directed by Joe Talbot
Notes
References
External links
Jello Biafra on Alternative Tentacles
1958 births
Living people
20th-century American politicians
Candidates in the 2000 United States presidential election
Alternative Tentacles
Alternative Tentacles artists
American anti–Iraq War activists
American anti-war activists
American human rights activists
American male film actors
American people of Jewish descent
American punk rock singers
American satirists
American male singer-songwriters
American spoken word artists
Anti-consumerists
Anti-corporate activists
Anti-globalization activists
Boulder High School alumni
California Greens
Dead Kennedys members
Finance fraud
Green Party of the United States politicians
Hardcore punk musicians
Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine members
Lard (band) members
Male actors from Boulder, Colorado
Musicians from Boulder, Colorado
Pigface members
Pranksters
Teenage Time Killers members
Singer-songwriters from Colorado | true | [
"Lard is an American hardcore punk/industrial band founded in 1988 as a side project by Jello Biafra (vocals; formerly of Dead Kennedys), Al Jourgensen (guitar; of Ministry), Paul Barker (bass; also of Ministry), and Jeff Ward (drums; once a Ministry touring member). Over the years, several other members of Ministry played with Lard, namely Bill Rieflin, Mike Scaccia, and Rey Washam.\n\nLike most of Biafra's work, Lard's songs are angrily political (the War on Drugs is a particularly common theme) but often have a tinge of humor.\n\nLard has not officially toured and has only performed live a handful of times, mostly around the San Francisco area (where Jello lives and operates his Alternative Tentacles record label). The band played during Ministry's 1988 tour and throughout their 1989–1990 dates, once in Chicago after wrapping the recording of The Last Temptation of Reid, once at the conclusion of a Ministry concert in Los Angeles (March 24, 2003), and at the San Francisco (September 26, 2004), Portland (September 28, 2004) and Seattle (September 29, 2004) dates of Ministry's Evil Doer tour. Because its key members are active with other projects, it is unlikely that the band will tour.\n\nAccording to a March 2009 interview with Jourgensen, he and Biafra are working on a new Lard album, which was to be recorded in Jourgensen's El Paso studio. However, according to a January 2010 interview with Jello Biafra, he indicated that a new Lard album was unlikely, saying \"Me and Al have talked about it for years, but we've never been able to nail down a time to try and put it together.\".\n\nDiscography \n\nThe Power of Lard – (12\"/CD/Cass EP) 1989 - Alternative Tentacles • (12\" EP) 1989 - Fringe Product\nI Am Your Clock – (12\" Single) 1990 - Alternative Tentacles\nThe Last Temptation of Reid – (LP/CD/Cass Album) 1990 - Alternative Tentacles\nPure Chewing Satisfaction – (LP/CD/Cass Album) 1997 - Alternative Tentacles\n70's Rock Must Die – (12\"/CD EP) 2000 - Alternative Tentacles\n\nCompilation appearances\n\nReferences\n\n \n\nAlternative Tentacles artists\nAmerican industrial music groups\nIndustrial metal musical groups\nIndustrial rock musical groups\nMusical groups established in 1988\nMusical groups disestablished in 2000\nHardcore punk groups from Illinois",
"Knights of the New Crusade is an American Christian punk and Christian rock band, and they primarily play garage rock and punk rock. They came from San Francisco, California. The band started making music in 1999, and releasing three albums, two of them with Alternative Tentacles.\n\nBackground\nThe band make garage rock and punk rock music, with an emphasis on Christian punk and Christian rock themed lyricism. They started in November 1999 in San Francisco as a band, where they were eventually signed to the Alternative Tentacles label in 2005.\n\nMusic history\nThe band released three studio albums. The first, My God Is Alive! Sorry About Yours! Songs In Praise Of Our Lord God And In Condemnation Of Sin was released on CD in the U.S. by Gabriel's Trumpet and on vinyl in Germany by Screaming Apple in 2004. Their second release, A Challenge to the Cowards of Christendom, that was released on March 28, 2006, with Alternative Tentacles Records. Their subsequent and final release with the label, Knight Vision: Hymns For The Invisible Church, came out in 2010.\n\nMembers\nMembers\n Leaky - vocals\n John - guitar\n Scoop - bass\n Lump - drums\n\nDiscography\nStudio albums\n My God Is Alive! Sorry About Yours! Songs In Praise Of Our Lord God And In Condemnation Of Sin (2004, Gabriel's Trumpet)\n A Challenge to the Cowards of Christendom (2006, Alternative Tentacles)\n Knight Vision: Hymns For The Invisible Church (2010, Alternative Tentacles)\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nAlternative Tentacles profile\n\nMusical groups from California\n1999 establishments in California\nMusical groups established in 1999"
]
|
[
"Jello Biafra",
"Alternative Tentacles",
"what is alternative tentacles?",
"Biafra co-founded the record label Alternative Tentacles,",
"who did he co-found it with?",
"Biafra has been the owner of the company since its founding,",
"when was it founded?",
"June 1979,",
"what did he release through the company?",
"the Dead Kennedys released their first single, \"California Uber Alles\".",
"when was the single released?",
"I don't know.",
"who were the dead Kennedys?",
"I don't know.",
"what happened to alternative tentacles?",
"Biafra began co-hosting The Alternative Tentacles Batcast, a downloadable podcast hosted by alternativetentacles.com."
]
| C_1c892d3c20fa42df8350499241317562_0 | who was he co-hosting it with? | 8 | Who was Jello Biafra co-hosting The Alternative Tentacles Batcast with? | Jello Biafra | In June 1979, Biafra co-founded the record label Alternative Tentacles, with which the Dead Kennedys released their first single, "California Uber Alles". The label was created to allow the band to release albums without having to deal with pressure from major labels to change their music, although the major labels were not willing to sign the band due to their songs being deemed too controversial. After dealing with Cherry Red in the UK and IRS Records in the US for their first album Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables, the band released all later albums, and later pressings of Fresh Fruit on Alternative Tentacles. The exception being live albums released after the band's break-up, which the other band members compiled from recordings in the band partnership's vaults without Biafra's input or endorsement.. Biafra has been the owner of the company since its founding, though he does not receive a salary for his position; Biafra has referred to his position in the company as "absentee thoughtlord". Biafra is an ardent collector of unusual vinyl records of all kinds, from 1950s and 1960s ethno-pop recordings by the likes of Les Baxter and Esquivel to vanity pressings that have circulated regionally, to German crooner Heino (for whom he would later participate in the documentary Heino: Made In Germany); he cites his always growing collection as one of his biggest musical influences. In 1993 he gave an interview to RE/Search Publications for their second Incredibly Strange Music book focusing primarily on these records, and later participated in a two-part episode of Fuse TV's program Crate Diggers on the same subject. His interest in such recordings, often categorized as outsider music, led to his discovery of the prolific (and schizophrenic) singer/songwriter/artist Wesley Willis, whom he signed to Alternative Tentacles in 1994, preceding Willis' major label deal with American Recordings. His collection grew so large that on October 1, 2005, Biafra donated a portion of his collection to an annual yard sale co-promoted by Alternative Tentacles and held at their warehouse in Emeryville, California. In 2006, along with Alternative Tentacles employee and The Frisk lead singer Jesse Luscious, Biafra began co-hosting The Alternative Tentacles Batcast, a downloadable podcast hosted by alternativetentacles.com. The show primarily focuses on interviews with artists and bands that are currently signed to the Alternative Tentacles label, although there are also occasional episodes where Biafra devoted the show to answering fan questions. CANNOTANSWER | Alternative Tentacles employee and The Frisk lead singer Jesse Luscious, | Eric Reed Boucher (born June 17, 1958), better known by his professional name Jello Biafra, is an American singer and spoken word artist. He is the former lead singer and songwriter for the San Francisco punk rock band Dead Kennedys.
Initially active from 1979 to 1986, Dead Kennedys were known for rapid-fire music topped with Biafra's sardonic lyrics and biting social commentary, delivered in his "unique quiver of a voice". When the band broke up in 1986, he took over the influential independent record label Alternative Tentacles, which he had founded in 1979 with Dead Kennedys bandmate East Bay Ray. In a 2000 lawsuit, upheld on appeal in 2003 by the California Supreme Court, Biafra was found liable for breach of contract, fraud and malice in withholding a decade's worth of royalties from his former bandmates and ordered to pay over $200,000 in compensation and punitive damages; the band subsequently reformed without Biafra. Although now focused primarily on spoken word performances, Biafra has continued as a musician in numerous collaborations. He has also occasionally appeared in cameo roles in films.
Politically, Biafra is a member of the Green Party of the United States and supports various political causes. He ran for the party's presidential nomination in the 2000 presidential election, finishing a distant second to Ralph Nader. In 1979 he ran for mayor of San Francisco, California. He is a staunch believer in a free society, and utilizes shock value and advocates direct action and pranksterism in the name of political causes. Biafra is known to use absurdist media tactics, in the leftist tradition of the Yippies, to highlight issues of civil rights and social justice.
Early life
Eric Reed Boucher was born in Boulder, Colorado, the son of Virginia (née Parker), a librarian, and Stanley Wayne Boucher, a psychiatric social worker and poet. His sister, Julie J. Boucher, was Associate Director of the Library Research Service at the Colorado State Library; she died in a mountain-climbing accident on October 12, 1996. Biafra has a Jewish great grandparent, but was unaware of this until the mid-2000s. He grew up in a secular household and has said that he is "not really Jewish".
As a child, Boucher developed an interest in international politics that was encouraged by his parents. An avid news watcher, one of his earliest memories was of the John F. Kennedy assassination. Biafra says he has been a fan of rock music since first hearing it in 1965, when his parents accidentally tuned in to a rock radio station. Boucher ignored his high school guidance counselor's advice that he spend his adolescence preparing to become a dental hygienist.
He began his career in music in January 1977 as a roadie for the punk rock band The Ravers (who later changed their name to The Nails), soon joining his friend John Greenway in a band called The Healers. The Healers became well known locally for their mainly improvised lyrics and avant garde music. In the autumn of that year, he began attending the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Musical career
Dead Kennedys
In June 1978, Biafra responded to an advertisement placed in a store by guitarist East Bay Ray, stating "guitarist wants to form punk band", and together they formed the Dead Kennedys. He began performing with the band under the stage name Occupant, but soon began to use his current stage name, a combination of the brand name Jell-O and the short-lived African state Biafra. The band's lyrics were written by Biafra. The lyrics were mostly political in nature and displayed a sardonic, sometimes absurdist, sense of humor despite their serious subject matter. In the tradition of UK anarcho-punk bands like Crass and the Subhumans, the Dead Kennedys were one of the first US punk bands to write politically themed songs. The lyrics Biafra wrote helped popularize the use of humorous lyrics in punk and other types of hard-core music. Biafra cites Joey Ramone as the inspiration for his use of humor in his songs (as well as being the musician who made him interested in punk rock), noting in particular songs by the Ramones such as "Beat on the Brat" and "Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue".
Biafra initially attempted to compose music on guitar, but his lack of experience on the instrument and his own admission of being "a fumbler with my hands" led Dead Kennedys bassist Klaus Flouride to suggest that Biafra simply sing the parts he envisioned to the band. Biafra sang his riffs and melodies into a tape recorder, which he brought to the band's rehearsal and/or recording sessions. This later became a problem when the other members of the Dead Kennedys sued Biafra over royalties and publishing rights. By all accounts, including his own, Biafra is not a conventionally skilled musician, though he and his collaborators (Joey Shithead of D.O.A. in particular) attest that he is a skilled composer and his work, particularly with the Dead Kennedys, is highly respected by punk-oriented critics and fans.
Biafra's first popular song was the first single by the Dead Kennedys, "California über alles". The song, which spoofed California governor Jerry Brown, was the first of many political songs by the group and Biafra. The song's popularity resulted in its being covered by other musicians, such as The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy (who rewrote the lyrics to parody Pete Wilson), John Linnell of They Might Be Giants and Six Feet Under on their Graveyard Classics album of cover versions. Not long after, the Dead Kennedys had a second and bigger hit with "Holiday in Cambodia" from their debut album Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables. AllMusic cites this song as "possibly the most successful single of the American hardcore scene" and Biafra counts it as his personal favorite Dead Kennedy's song. Minor hits from the album included "Kill the Poor" (about potential abuse of the then-new neutron bomb) and a satirical cover of Elvis Presley's "Viva Las Vegas".
The Dead Kennedys received some controversy in the spring of 1981 over the single "Too Drunk to Fuck". The song became a hit in Britain, and the BBC feared that it would manage to be a big enough hit to appear among the top 30 songs on the national charts, requiring a mention on Top of the Pops. However, the single peaked at number 31 in the charts.
Later albums also contained memorable songs, but with less popularity than the earlier ones. The EP In God We Trust, Inc. contained the song "Nazi Punks Fuck Off!" as well as "We've Got A Bigger Problem Now", a rewritten version of "California über alles" about Ronald Reagan. Punk musician and scholar Vic Bondi considers the latter song to be the song that "defined the lyrical agenda of much of hardcore music, and represented its break with punk". The band's most controversial album, Frankenchrist, brought with it the song "MTV Get Off the Air," which accused MTV of promoting poor quality music and sedating the public. The album also contained a controversial poster by Swiss surrealist artist H. R. Giger entitled Penis Landscape.
The Dead Kennedys toured widely during their career, starting in the late 1970s. They began playing at San Francisco's Mabuhay Gardens (their home base) and other Bay Area venues, later branching out to shows in southern Californian clubs (most notably the Whisky a Go Go), but eventually they moved to major clubs across the country, including CBGB in New York. Later, they played to larger audiences such as at the 1980 Bay Area Music Awards (where they played the notorious "Pull My Strings" for the only time), and headlined the 1983 Rock Against Reagan festival.
On May 7, 1994, punk rock fans who believed Biafra was a "sell out" attacked him at the 924 Gilman Street club in Berkeley, California. Biafra claims that he was attacked by a man nicknamed Cretin, who crashed into him while moshing. The crash injured Biafra's leg, causing an argument between the two men. During the argument, Cretin pushed Biafra to the floor and five or six friends of Cretin assaulted Biafra while he was down, yelling "Sellout rock star, kick him", and attempting to pull out his hair. Biafra was later hospitalized with serious injuries. The attack derailed Biafra's plans for both a Canadian spoken-word tour and an accompanying album, and the production of Pure Chewing Satisfaction was halted. However, Biafra returned to the Gilman club a few months after the incident to perform a spoken-word performance as an act of reconciliation with the club.
Biafra has been a prominent figure of the Californian punk scene and was one of the third generation members of the San Francisco punk community. Many later hardcore bands have cited the Dead Kennedys as a major influence. Hardcore punk author Steven Blush describes Biafra as hardcore's "biggest star" who was a "powerful presence whose political insurgence and rabid fandom made him the father figure of a burgeoning subculture [and an] inspirational force [who] could also be a real prick ... Biafra was a visionary, incendiary [performer]."
After the Dead Kennedys disbanded, Biafra's new songs were recorded with other bands, and he released only spoken word albums as solo projects. These collaborations had less popularity than Biafra's earlier work. However, his song "That's Progress", originally recorded with D.O.A. for the album Last Scream of the Missing Neighbors, received considerable exposure when it appeared on the album Rock Against Bush, Vol. 1.
Obscenity prosecution
In April 1986, police officers raided Biafra's house in response to complaints by the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC). In June 1986, L.A. deputy city attorney Michael Guarino, working under City Attorney James Hahn, brought Biafra to trial in Los Angeles for distributing "harmful material to minors" in the Dead Kennedys album Frankenchrist. However, the dispute was about neither the music nor the lyrics from the album, but rather the print of the H. R. Giger poster Landscape XX (Penis Landscape) included with the album.
Music author Reebee Garofalo argued that Biafra and Alternative Tentacles may have been targeted because the label was a "small, self-managed and self-supported company that could ill afford a protracted legal battle." Facing the possible sentence of a year in jail and a $2,000 fine, Biafra, Dirk Dirksen, and Suzanne Stefanac founded the No More Censorship Defense Fund, a benefit featuring several punk rock bands, to help pay for his legal fees, which neither he nor his record label could afford. The jury deadlocked 5 to 7 in favor of acquittal, prompting a mistrial; despite a motion to re-try the case, the judge ordered all charges dropped. The Dead Kennedys disbanded during the trial, in December 1986, due to the mounting legal costs; in the wake of their disbandment, Biafra made a career of his spoken word performances.
Biafra has a cameo role in the 1988 film Tapeheads. He plays an FBI agent who arrests the two protagonists (played by Tim Robbins and John Cusack). While arresting them his character asks "Remember what we did to Jello Biafra?" lampooning the obscenity prosecution.
On March 25, 2005, Biafra appeared on the U.S. radio program This American Life, "Episode 285: Know Your Enemy", which featured a phone call between Jello Biafra and Michael Guarino, the prosecutor in the Frankenchrist trial.
Lawsuit and reunion activities
In October 1998, three former members of the Dead Kennedys sued Biafra for nonpayment of royalties. The other members of Dead Kennedys alleged that Biafra, in his capacity as the head of Alternative Tentacles records, discovered an accounting error amounting to some $75,000 in unpaid royalties over almost a decade. Rather than informing his bandmates of this mistake, the suit alleged, Biafra knowingly concealed the information until a whistleblower employee at the record label notified the band.
According to Biafra, the suit resulted from his refusal to allow one of the band's most well-known singles, "Holiday in Cambodia", to be used in a commercial for Levi's Dockers; Biafra opposes Levi's because of his belief that they use unfair business practices and sweatshop labor. Biafra maintained that he had never denied them royalties, and that he himself had not even received royalties for re-releases of their albums or "posthumous" live albums which had been licensed to other labels by the Decay Music partnership. Decay Music denied this charge and have posted what they say are his cashed royalty checks, written to his legal name of Eric Boucher. Biafra also complained about the songwriting credits in new reissues and archival live albums of songs, alleging that he was the sole composer of songs that were wrongly credited to the entire band.
In May 2000, a jury found Biafra and Alternative Tentacles liable by not promptly informing his former bandmates of the accounting error and instead withholding the information during subsequent discussions and contractual negotiations. Biafra was ordered to pay $200,000, including $20,000 in punitive damages. After an appeal by Biafra's lawyers, in June 2003, the California Court of Appeals unanimously upheld all the conditions of the 2000 verdict against Biafra and Alternative Tentacles. Furthermore, the plaintiffs were awarded the rights to most of Dead Kennedys recorded works—which accounted for about half the sales for Alternative Tentacles. Now in control of the Dead Kennedys name, Biafra's former bandmates went on tour with a new lead vocalist.
Other bands
In the early 1980s, Biafra collaborated with musicians Christian Lunch and Adrian Borland (of The Sound) and Morgan Fisher (of Mott the Hoople) for the electropunk musical project The Witch Trials, releasing one self-titled EP in its lifetime.
In 1988, Biafra, with Al Jourgensen and Paul Barker of the band Ministry, and Jeff Ward, formed Lard. The band became yet another side project for Ministry, with Biafra providing vocals and lyrics. According to a March 2009 interview with Jourgensen, he and Biafra are working on a new Lard album, which is being recorded in Jourgensen's El Paso studio. Jourgensen also claimed in 2021 that Biafra was in works of a new Lard album. While working on the film Terminal City Ricochet in 1989, Biafra did a song for the film's soundtrack with D.O.A.. As a result, Biafra worked with D.O.A. on the album Last Scream of the Missing Neighbors. Biafra also worked with Nomeansno on the soundtrack, which led to their collaboration on the album The Sky Is Falling and I Want My Mommy the following year. Biafra also provided lyrics for the song "Biotech is Godzilla" for Sepultura's 1993 album Chaos A.D..
In 1999, Biafra and other members of the anti-globalization movement protested the WTO Meeting of 1999 in Seattle. Along with other prominent West Coast musicians, he formed the short-lived band the No WTO Combo to help promote the movement's cause. The band was originally scheduled to play during the protest, but the performance was canceled due to riots. The band performed a short set the following night at the Showbox in downtown Seattle (outside the designated area), along with the hiphop group Spearhead. No WTO Combo later released a CD of recordings from the concert, entitled Live from the Battle in Seattle.
As of late 2005, Biafra was performing with the band The Melvins under the name "Jello Biafra and the Melvins", though fans sometimes refer to them as "The Jelvins". Together they have released two albums, and worked on material for a third collaborative release, much of which was premiered live at two concerts at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco during an event called Biafra Five-O, commemorating Biafra's 50th birthday, the 30th anniversary of the founding of the Dead Kennedys, and the beginning of legalized same-sex marriage in California. Biafra was also working with a band known as Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine, which included Ralph Spight of Victims Family on guitar and Billy Gould of Faith No More on bass. This group debuted during Biafra Five-O.
In 2011, Biafra appeared in a singular concert event with an all-star cast of Southern musicians including members from Cowboy Mouth, Dash Rip Rock, Mojo Nixon and Down entitled, "Jello Biafra and the New Orleans Raunch & Soul All Stars" who performed an array of classic Soul covers to a packed house at the 12-Bar in New Orleans, Louisiana. He would later reunite with many of the same musicians during the Carnival season 2014 to revisit many of these classics at Siberia, New Orleans. A live album from the 2011 performance, Walk on Jindal's Splinters, and a companion single, Fannie May/Just a Little Bit, were released in 2015.
Alternative Tentacles
In June 1979, Biafra co-founded the record label Alternative Tentacles, with which the Dead Kennedys released their first single, "California über alles". The label was created to allow the band to release albums without having to deal with pressure from major labels to change their music, although the major labels were not willing to sign the band due to their songs being deemed too controversial. After dealing with Cherry Red in the UK and IRS Records in the US for their first album Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables, the band released all later albums, and later pressings of Fresh Fruit on Alternative Tentacles. The exception being live albums released after the band's break-up, which the other band members compiled from recordings in the band partnership's vaults without Biafra's input or endorsement.. Biafra has been the owner of the company since its founding, though he does not receive a salary for his position; Biafra has referred to his position in the company as "absentee thoughtlord".
Biafra is an ardent collector of unusual vinyl records of all kinds, from 1950s and 1960s ethno-pop recordings by the likes of Les Baxter and Esquivel to vanity pressings that have circulated regionally, to German crooner Heino (for whom he would later participate in the documentary Heino: Made In Germany); he cites his always growing collection as one of his biggest musical influences. In 1993 he gave an interview to RE/Search Publications for their second Incredibly Strange Music book focusing primarily on these records, and later participated in a two-part episode of Fuse TV's program Crate Diggers on the same subject. His interest in such recordings, often categorized as outsider music, led to his discovery of the prolific (and schizophrenic) singer/songwriter/artist Wesley Willis, whom he signed to Alternative Tentacles in 1994, preceding Willis' major label deal with American Recordings. His collection grew so large that on October 1, 2005, Biafra donated a portion of his collection to an annual yard sale co-promoted by Alternative Tentacles and held at their warehouse in Emeryville, California.
In 2006, along with Alternative Tentacles employee and The Frisk lead singer Jesse Luscious, Biafra began co-hosting The Alternative Tentacles Batcast, a downloadable podcast hosted by alternativetentacles.com. The show primarily focuses on interviews with artists and bands that are currently signed to the Alternative Tentacles label, although there are also occasional episodes where Biafra devoted the show to answering fan questions.
Spoken word
Biafra became a spoken word artist in January 1986 with a performance at University of California, Los Angeles. In his performance he combined humor with his political beliefs, much in the same way that he did with the lyrics to his songs. Despite his continued spoken word performances, he did not begin recording spoken word albums until after the disbanding of the Dead Kennedys.
His ninth spoken word album, In the Grip of Official Treason, was released in October 2006.
Biafra was also featured in the British band Pitchshifter's song As Seen on TV reciting the words of dystopian futuristic radio advertisements.
Politics
Biafra has resisted identifying with any particular political party or ideology, saying, "I don't label myself strictly an anarchist or a socialist or let alone a libertarian or something like that," In a 2012 interview, Biafra said "I'm very pro-tax as long as it goes for the right things. I don't mind paying more money as long as it's going to provide shelter for people sleeping in the street or getting the schools fixed back up, getting the infrastructure up to the standards of other countries, including a high speed rail system. I'm totally down with that."
Mayoral campaign
In the autumn of 1979, Biafra ran for mayor of San Francisco, using the Jell-O ad campaign catchphrase, "There's always room for Jello", as his campaign slogan. Having entered the race before creating a campaign platform, Biafra later wrote his platform on a napkin while attending a Pere Ubu concert where Dead Kennedys drummer Ted told Biafra, "Biafra, you have such a big mouth that you should run for Mayor." As he campaigned, Biafra wore campaign T-shirts from his opponent Quentin Kopp's previous campaign and at one point vacuumed leaves off the front lawn of another opponent, current U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, to mock her publicity stunt of sweeping streets in downtown San Francisco for a few hours. He also made a whistlestop campaign tour along the BART line. Supporters committed equally odd actions; two well known signs held by supporters said "If he doesn't win I'll kill myself" and "What if he does win?"
At the time, in San Francisco any individual could legally run for mayor if a petition was signed by 1500 people or if $1500 was paid. Biafra paid $900 and got signatures over time and eventually became a legal candidate, meaning he received statements put in voters' pamphlets and equal news coverage.
His platform included unconventional points such as forcing businessmen to wear clown suits within city limits, erecting statues of Dan White, who assassinated Mayor George Moscone and City Supervisor Harvey Milk in 1978, around the city and allowing the parks department to sell eggs and tomatoes with which people could pelt the statues, hiring workers who had lost their jobs due to a tax initiative to panhandle in wealthy neighborhoods (including Senator Dianne Feinstein's), and a citywide ban on cars. Biafra has expressed irritation that these parts of his platform attained such notoriety, preferring instead to be remembered for serious proposals such as legalizing squatting in vacant, tax-delinquent buildings and requiring police officers to run for election by the people of the neighborhoods they patrol.
He finished third out of a field of ten, receiving 3.79 percent of the vote (6,591 votes); the election ended in a runoff that did not involve him (Feinstein was declared the winner).
Presidential campaign
In 2000, the New York State Green Party drafted Biafra as a candidate for the Green Party presidential nomination, and a few supporters were elected to the party's nominating convention in Denver, Colorado. Biafra chose death row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal as his running mate. The party overwhelmingly chose Ralph Nader as the presidential candidate with 295 of the 319 delegate votes. Biafra received 10 votes.
Biafra, along with a camera crew (dubbed by Biafra as "The Camcorder Truth Jihad"), later reported for the Independent Media Center at the Republican and Democratic conventions.
Post-2000
After losing the 2000 nomination, Biafra became highly active in Nader's presidential campaign, as well as in 2004 and 2008. During the 2008 campaign Jello played at rallies and answered questions for journalists in support of Nader. When gay rights activists accused Nader of costing Al Gore the 2000 election, Biafra reminded them that Tipper Gore's Parents Music Resource Center wanted warning stickers on albums with content referencing homosexuality.
After Barack Obama won the general election, Biafra wrote an open letter making suggestions on how to run his term as president. Biafra criticized Obama during his term, stating that "Obama even won the award for best advertising campaign of 2008." Biafra dubbed Obama "Barackstar O'Bummer". Biafra refused to support Obama in 2012. Biafra has stated that he feels that Obama continued many of George W. Bush's policies, summarizing Obama's policies as containing "worse and worse laws against human rights and more and more illegal unconstitutional spying."
On September 18, 2015, it was announced that Biafra would be supporting Bernie Sanders in his campaign for the 2016 presidential election. He has strongly criticised the political position of Donald Trump, saying "how can people be so fucking stupid" on hearing the election result, and later adding "The last person we want with their finger on the nuclear button is somebody connected to this extreme Christianist doomsday cult."
On February 28, 2020, Jello announced that he would be supporting both Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders in the 2020 presidential election. “I personally like Warren slightly better than Bernie because: 1) She’s done her homework. Bernie too, but not to quite the same depth or degree. 2) Think about it — who really has a better chance of actually beating Trump, and helping flip Congress and state legislatures? It’s Elizabeth Warren, hands down.” He went on to say that he considered Joe Biden and Mike Bloomberg "almost as bad as Trump".
On April 12, 2020, Biafra expressed disappointment that Sanders had suspended his campaign for the 2020 Democratic nomination.
Boycott of Israel
In mid-2011 Jello Biafra and his band were scheduled to play at the Barby Club in Tel Aviv. They came under heavy pressure by the pro-Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, and finally decided to cancel the concert – after a debate which according to Biafra "deeply tore at the fabric of our band ... This whole controversy has been one of the most intense situations of my life – and I thrive on intense situations".
Biafra then decided to travel to Israel and the Palestinian Occupied Territories, at his own expense, and talk with Israeli and Palestinian activists as well as with fans disappointed at his cancellation. In the article stating his conclusions he wrote:
"I will not perform in Israel unless it is a pro-human rights, anti-occupation event, that does not violate the spirit of the boycott. Each musician, artist, etc. must decide this for themselves. I am staying away for now, but am also really creeped out by the attitudes of some of the hardliners and hope some day to find a way to contribute something positive here. I will not march or sign on with anyone who runs around calling people Zionazis and is more interested in making threats than making friends."
Personal life
Biafra married Theresa Soder, a.k.a. Ninotchka, lead singer of San Francisco-area punk band the Situations, on October 31, 1981. The wedding was conducted by Flipper vocalist/bassist Bruce Loose, who became a Universal Life Church minister just to conduct the ceremony, which took place in a graveyard. The wedding reception, which members of Flipper, Black Flag, and D.O.A. attended, was held at director Joe Rees' Target Video studios. The marriage ended in 1986. Biafra generally does not discuss his private life. He lives in San Francisco, California.
Selected discography
For a more complete list, see the Jello Biafra discography.
Dead Kennedys
1980 – Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables
1981 – In God We Trust, Inc.
1982 – Plastic Surgery Disasters
1985 – Frankenchrist
1986 – Bedtime for Democracy
1987 – Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death
Spoken word
1987 – No More Cocoons
1989 – High Priest of Harmful Matter: Tales From the Trial
1991 – I Blow Minds for a Living
1994 – Beyond the Valley of the Gift Police
1998 – If Evolution Is Outlawed, Only Outlaws Will Evolve
2000 – Become the Media
2002 – The Big Ka-Boom, Pt. 1
2002 – Machine Gun in the Clown's Hand
2006 – In the Grip of Official Treason
Lard
1989 – The Power of Lard
1990 – The Last Temptation of Reid
1997 – Pure Chewing Satisfaction
2000 – 70's Rock Must Die
Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine
2009 – The Audacity of Hype
2011 – Enhanced Methods of Questioning
2012 – SHOCK-U-PY
2013 – White People and the Damage Done
2020 – Tea Party Revenge Porn
Collaborations
Filmography
1977 – This Is America, Pt. 2
1981 – Urgh! A Music War
1983 – Anarchism in America
1986 – Lovedolls Superstar, directed by Dave Markey
1987 – Household Affairs, directed & filmed by Allen Ginsberg
1988 – Tapeheads, directed by Bill Fishman
1990 – Terminal City Ricochet
1991 – Highway 61, directed by Bruce McDonald
1994 – Skulhedface, directed by Melanie Mandl
1997 – Mary Jane's Not a Virgin Anymore, directed by Sarah Jacobson
1999 – The Widower
1999 – Virtue
2001 – Plaster Caster
2002 – Bikini Bandits, directed by Steve and Peter Grasse
2004 – Death and Texas
2004 – Punk: Attitude
2005 – We Jam Econo: The Story of the Minutemen
2006 – Punk's Not Dead, directed by Susan Dynner
2006 – Whose War?, directed by Donald Farmer
2007 – American Drug War: The Last White Hope, directed by Kevin Booth
2008 – Nerdcore Rising, directed by Negin Farsad
2009 – Open Your Mouth and Say Mr. Chi Pig, directed by Sean Patrick Shaul
2010 – A Man Within, directed by Yony Leyser
2011 – I Love You ... I Am the Porn Queen, short film directed by Ani Kyd
2014 – Heino: Made in Germany, directed by Oliver Schwabe
2014 – Portlandia, season 4, episode 4 – "Pull-Out King"
2018 – Bathtubs Over Broadway, directed by Dava Whisenant (as himself)
2018 – Boiled Angels: The Trial of Mike Diana, directed by Frank Henenlotter (narrator)
2019 – The Last Black Man in San Francisco, directed by Joe Talbot
Notes
References
External links
Jello Biafra on Alternative Tentacles
1958 births
Living people
20th-century American politicians
Candidates in the 2000 United States presidential election
Alternative Tentacles
Alternative Tentacles artists
American anti–Iraq War activists
American anti-war activists
American human rights activists
American male film actors
American people of Jewish descent
American punk rock singers
American satirists
American male singer-songwriters
American spoken word artists
Anti-consumerists
Anti-corporate activists
Anti-globalization activists
Boulder High School alumni
California Greens
Dead Kennedys members
Finance fraud
Green Party of the United States politicians
Hardcore punk musicians
Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine members
Lard (band) members
Male actors from Boulder, Colorado
Musicians from Boulder, Colorado
Pigface members
Pranksters
Teenage Time Killers members
Singer-songwriters from Colorado | true | [
"Phillip Forsyth was a Canadian newspaper and radio journalist, who was co-host of As It Happens, with Harry Brown and William Ronald, from 1968 to 1969. Previous to his hosting As It Happens, he was an editor for the Canadian Press, a staff writer with the Toronto Star and then a freelance broadcast journalist.\n\nReferences\n\nCanadian talk radio hosts\nYear of birth missing (living people)\nLiving people",
"Hostucan is an online web hosting search and review website. It is affiliated to its parent company Shanghai Racent Information Tech Co. Ltd.\n\nOverview \nThe company has a platform where users can search for the web hosting, domain, keyword, SSL solutions and customer reviews.\n\nHistory \nThe company was launched a decade ago and was established by Ray Zheng. The website comes along with its Chinese version website Hostucan.cn as well.\n\nIn 2012, HostUcan released its Search Engine Ranking tool in beta, with which webmasters could check the keyword ranking of their sites in the major search engines like Google and Bing.\n\nIn 2013, Hostucan revamped their website and added new features. They improved the domain search tool which enables users to find research and buy domain names.\n \nThe company also released SSL, Whois and 'Who is hosting this' tool intended for professional webmaster tutorials.\n\nOn September 30, 2013, Hostucan co-organized WHD.china2013 with WorldHostingDays in Shanghai, the first non-official hosting event in China.\n\nOn May 22, 2014, Hostucan partnered with Ressellerclub and took part in HostingCon in Shanghai.\n\nOn November 21, 2014, Hostucan partnered with WorldHostingDays as the local host in Beijing for WHD.china2014.\n\nRelated websites \nOther websites owned by Racent include Pinnok, Top10InAction and a Chinese website Shangbangla.\n\nReferences\n\nWeb hosting"
]
|
[
"Jello Biafra",
"Alternative Tentacles",
"what is alternative tentacles?",
"Biafra co-founded the record label Alternative Tentacles,",
"who did he co-found it with?",
"Biafra has been the owner of the company since its founding,",
"when was it founded?",
"June 1979,",
"what did he release through the company?",
"the Dead Kennedys released their first single, \"California Uber Alles\".",
"when was the single released?",
"I don't know.",
"who were the dead Kennedys?",
"I don't know.",
"what happened to alternative tentacles?",
"Biafra began co-hosting The Alternative Tentacles Batcast, a downloadable podcast hosted by alternativetentacles.com.",
"who was he co-hosting it with?",
"Alternative Tentacles employee and The Frisk lead singer Jesse Luscious,"
]
| C_1c892d3c20fa42df8350499241317562_0 | did they have a dispute? | 9 | Did Jello Biafra and Jesse Luscious have a dispute? | Jello Biafra | In June 1979, Biafra co-founded the record label Alternative Tentacles, with which the Dead Kennedys released their first single, "California Uber Alles". The label was created to allow the band to release albums without having to deal with pressure from major labels to change their music, although the major labels were not willing to sign the band due to their songs being deemed too controversial. After dealing with Cherry Red in the UK and IRS Records in the US for their first album Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables, the band released all later albums, and later pressings of Fresh Fruit on Alternative Tentacles. The exception being live albums released after the band's break-up, which the other band members compiled from recordings in the band partnership's vaults without Biafra's input or endorsement.. Biafra has been the owner of the company since its founding, though he does not receive a salary for his position; Biafra has referred to his position in the company as "absentee thoughtlord". Biafra is an ardent collector of unusual vinyl records of all kinds, from 1950s and 1960s ethno-pop recordings by the likes of Les Baxter and Esquivel to vanity pressings that have circulated regionally, to German crooner Heino (for whom he would later participate in the documentary Heino: Made In Germany); he cites his always growing collection as one of his biggest musical influences. In 1993 he gave an interview to RE/Search Publications for their second Incredibly Strange Music book focusing primarily on these records, and later participated in a two-part episode of Fuse TV's program Crate Diggers on the same subject. His interest in such recordings, often categorized as outsider music, led to his discovery of the prolific (and schizophrenic) singer/songwriter/artist Wesley Willis, whom he signed to Alternative Tentacles in 1994, preceding Willis' major label deal with American Recordings. His collection grew so large that on October 1, 2005, Biafra donated a portion of his collection to an annual yard sale co-promoted by Alternative Tentacles and held at their warehouse in Emeryville, California. In 2006, along with Alternative Tentacles employee and The Frisk lead singer Jesse Luscious, Biafra began co-hosting The Alternative Tentacles Batcast, a downloadable podcast hosted by alternativetentacles.com. The show primarily focuses on interviews with artists and bands that are currently signed to the Alternative Tentacles label, although there are also occasional episodes where Biafra devoted the show to answering fan questions. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Eric Reed Boucher (born June 17, 1958), better known by his professional name Jello Biafra, is an American singer and spoken word artist. He is the former lead singer and songwriter for the San Francisco punk rock band Dead Kennedys.
Initially active from 1979 to 1986, Dead Kennedys were known for rapid-fire music topped with Biafra's sardonic lyrics and biting social commentary, delivered in his "unique quiver of a voice". When the band broke up in 1986, he took over the influential independent record label Alternative Tentacles, which he had founded in 1979 with Dead Kennedys bandmate East Bay Ray. In a 2000 lawsuit, upheld on appeal in 2003 by the California Supreme Court, Biafra was found liable for breach of contract, fraud and malice in withholding a decade's worth of royalties from his former bandmates and ordered to pay over $200,000 in compensation and punitive damages; the band subsequently reformed without Biafra. Although now focused primarily on spoken word performances, Biafra has continued as a musician in numerous collaborations. He has also occasionally appeared in cameo roles in films.
Politically, Biafra is a member of the Green Party of the United States and supports various political causes. He ran for the party's presidential nomination in the 2000 presidential election, finishing a distant second to Ralph Nader. In 1979 he ran for mayor of San Francisco, California. He is a staunch believer in a free society, and utilizes shock value and advocates direct action and pranksterism in the name of political causes. Biafra is known to use absurdist media tactics, in the leftist tradition of the Yippies, to highlight issues of civil rights and social justice.
Early life
Eric Reed Boucher was born in Boulder, Colorado, the son of Virginia (née Parker), a librarian, and Stanley Wayne Boucher, a psychiatric social worker and poet. His sister, Julie J. Boucher, was Associate Director of the Library Research Service at the Colorado State Library; she died in a mountain-climbing accident on October 12, 1996. Biafra has a Jewish great grandparent, but was unaware of this until the mid-2000s. He grew up in a secular household and has said that he is "not really Jewish".
As a child, Boucher developed an interest in international politics that was encouraged by his parents. An avid news watcher, one of his earliest memories was of the John F. Kennedy assassination. Biafra says he has been a fan of rock music since first hearing it in 1965, when his parents accidentally tuned in to a rock radio station. Boucher ignored his high school guidance counselor's advice that he spend his adolescence preparing to become a dental hygienist.
He began his career in music in January 1977 as a roadie for the punk rock band The Ravers (who later changed their name to The Nails), soon joining his friend John Greenway in a band called The Healers. The Healers became well known locally for their mainly improvised lyrics and avant garde music. In the autumn of that year, he began attending the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Musical career
Dead Kennedys
In June 1978, Biafra responded to an advertisement placed in a store by guitarist East Bay Ray, stating "guitarist wants to form punk band", and together they formed the Dead Kennedys. He began performing with the band under the stage name Occupant, but soon began to use his current stage name, a combination of the brand name Jell-O and the short-lived African state Biafra. The band's lyrics were written by Biafra. The lyrics were mostly political in nature and displayed a sardonic, sometimes absurdist, sense of humor despite their serious subject matter. In the tradition of UK anarcho-punk bands like Crass and the Subhumans, the Dead Kennedys were one of the first US punk bands to write politically themed songs. The lyrics Biafra wrote helped popularize the use of humorous lyrics in punk and other types of hard-core music. Biafra cites Joey Ramone as the inspiration for his use of humor in his songs (as well as being the musician who made him interested in punk rock), noting in particular songs by the Ramones such as "Beat on the Brat" and "Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue".
Biafra initially attempted to compose music on guitar, but his lack of experience on the instrument and his own admission of being "a fumbler with my hands" led Dead Kennedys bassist Klaus Flouride to suggest that Biafra simply sing the parts he envisioned to the band. Biafra sang his riffs and melodies into a tape recorder, which he brought to the band's rehearsal and/or recording sessions. This later became a problem when the other members of the Dead Kennedys sued Biafra over royalties and publishing rights. By all accounts, including his own, Biafra is not a conventionally skilled musician, though he and his collaborators (Joey Shithead of D.O.A. in particular) attest that he is a skilled composer and his work, particularly with the Dead Kennedys, is highly respected by punk-oriented critics and fans.
Biafra's first popular song was the first single by the Dead Kennedys, "California über alles". The song, which spoofed California governor Jerry Brown, was the first of many political songs by the group and Biafra. The song's popularity resulted in its being covered by other musicians, such as The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy (who rewrote the lyrics to parody Pete Wilson), John Linnell of They Might Be Giants and Six Feet Under on their Graveyard Classics album of cover versions. Not long after, the Dead Kennedys had a second and bigger hit with "Holiday in Cambodia" from their debut album Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables. AllMusic cites this song as "possibly the most successful single of the American hardcore scene" and Biafra counts it as his personal favorite Dead Kennedy's song. Minor hits from the album included "Kill the Poor" (about potential abuse of the then-new neutron bomb) and a satirical cover of Elvis Presley's "Viva Las Vegas".
The Dead Kennedys received some controversy in the spring of 1981 over the single "Too Drunk to Fuck". The song became a hit in Britain, and the BBC feared that it would manage to be a big enough hit to appear among the top 30 songs on the national charts, requiring a mention on Top of the Pops. However, the single peaked at number 31 in the charts.
Later albums also contained memorable songs, but with less popularity than the earlier ones. The EP In God We Trust, Inc. contained the song "Nazi Punks Fuck Off!" as well as "We've Got A Bigger Problem Now", a rewritten version of "California über alles" about Ronald Reagan. Punk musician and scholar Vic Bondi considers the latter song to be the song that "defined the lyrical agenda of much of hardcore music, and represented its break with punk". The band's most controversial album, Frankenchrist, brought with it the song "MTV Get Off the Air," which accused MTV of promoting poor quality music and sedating the public. The album also contained a controversial poster by Swiss surrealist artist H. R. Giger entitled Penis Landscape.
The Dead Kennedys toured widely during their career, starting in the late 1970s. They began playing at San Francisco's Mabuhay Gardens (their home base) and other Bay Area venues, later branching out to shows in southern Californian clubs (most notably the Whisky a Go Go), but eventually they moved to major clubs across the country, including CBGB in New York. Later, they played to larger audiences such as at the 1980 Bay Area Music Awards (where they played the notorious "Pull My Strings" for the only time), and headlined the 1983 Rock Against Reagan festival.
On May 7, 1994, punk rock fans who believed Biafra was a "sell out" attacked him at the 924 Gilman Street club in Berkeley, California. Biafra claims that he was attacked by a man nicknamed Cretin, who crashed into him while moshing. The crash injured Biafra's leg, causing an argument between the two men. During the argument, Cretin pushed Biafra to the floor and five or six friends of Cretin assaulted Biafra while he was down, yelling "Sellout rock star, kick him", and attempting to pull out his hair. Biafra was later hospitalized with serious injuries. The attack derailed Biafra's plans for both a Canadian spoken-word tour and an accompanying album, and the production of Pure Chewing Satisfaction was halted. However, Biafra returned to the Gilman club a few months after the incident to perform a spoken-word performance as an act of reconciliation with the club.
Biafra has been a prominent figure of the Californian punk scene and was one of the third generation members of the San Francisco punk community. Many later hardcore bands have cited the Dead Kennedys as a major influence. Hardcore punk author Steven Blush describes Biafra as hardcore's "biggest star" who was a "powerful presence whose political insurgence and rabid fandom made him the father figure of a burgeoning subculture [and an] inspirational force [who] could also be a real prick ... Biafra was a visionary, incendiary [performer]."
After the Dead Kennedys disbanded, Biafra's new songs were recorded with other bands, and he released only spoken word albums as solo projects. These collaborations had less popularity than Biafra's earlier work. However, his song "That's Progress", originally recorded with D.O.A. for the album Last Scream of the Missing Neighbors, received considerable exposure when it appeared on the album Rock Against Bush, Vol. 1.
Obscenity prosecution
In April 1986, police officers raided Biafra's house in response to complaints by the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC). In June 1986, L.A. deputy city attorney Michael Guarino, working under City Attorney James Hahn, brought Biafra to trial in Los Angeles for distributing "harmful material to minors" in the Dead Kennedys album Frankenchrist. However, the dispute was about neither the music nor the lyrics from the album, but rather the print of the H. R. Giger poster Landscape XX (Penis Landscape) included with the album.
Music author Reebee Garofalo argued that Biafra and Alternative Tentacles may have been targeted because the label was a "small, self-managed and self-supported company that could ill afford a protracted legal battle." Facing the possible sentence of a year in jail and a $2,000 fine, Biafra, Dirk Dirksen, and Suzanne Stefanac founded the No More Censorship Defense Fund, a benefit featuring several punk rock bands, to help pay for his legal fees, which neither he nor his record label could afford. The jury deadlocked 5 to 7 in favor of acquittal, prompting a mistrial; despite a motion to re-try the case, the judge ordered all charges dropped. The Dead Kennedys disbanded during the trial, in December 1986, due to the mounting legal costs; in the wake of their disbandment, Biafra made a career of his spoken word performances.
Biafra has a cameo role in the 1988 film Tapeheads. He plays an FBI agent who arrests the two protagonists (played by Tim Robbins and John Cusack). While arresting them his character asks "Remember what we did to Jello Biafra?" lampooning the obscenity prosecution.
On March 25, 2005, Biafra appeared on the U.S. radio program This American Life, "Episode 285: Know Your Enemy", which featured a phone call between Jello Biafra and Michael Guarino, the prosecutor in the Frankenchrist trial.
Lawsuit and reunion activities
In October 1998, three former members of the Dead Kennedys sued Biafra for nonpayment of royalties. The other members of Dead Kennedys alleged that Biafra, in his capacity as the head of Alternative Tentacles records, discovered an accounting error amounting to some $75,000 in unpaid royalties over almost a decade. Rather than informing his bandmates of this mistake, the suit alleged, Biafra knowingly concealed the information until a whistleblower employee at the record label notified the band.
According to Biafra, the suit resulted from his refusal to allow one of the band's most well-known singles, "Holiday in Cambodia", to be used in a commercial for Levi's Dockers; Biafra opposes Levi's because of his belief that they use unfair business practices and sweatshop labor. Biafra maintained that he had never denied them royalties, and that he himself had not even received royalties for re-releases of their albums or "posthumous" live albums which had been licensed to other labels by the Decay Music partnership. Decay Music denied this charge and have posted what they say are his cashed royalty checks, written to his legal name of Eric Boucher. Biafra also complained about the songwriting credits in new reissues and archival live albums of songs, alleging that he was the sole composer of songs that were wrongly credited to the entire band.
In May 2000, a jury found Biafra and Alternative Tentacles liable by not promptly informing his former bandmates of the accounting error and instead withholding the information during subsequent discussions and contractual negotiations. Biafra was ordered to pay $200,000, including $20,000 in punitive damages. After an appeal by Biafra's lawyers, in June 2003, the California Court of Appeals unanimously upheld all the conditions of the 2000 verdict against Biafra and Alternative Tentacles. Furthermore, the plaintiffs were awarded the rights to most of Dead Kennedys recorded works—which accounted for about half the sales for Alternative Tentacles. Now in control of the Dead Kennedys name, Biafra's former bandmates went on tour with a new lead vocalist.
Other bands
In the early 1980s, Biafra collaborated with musicians Christian Lunch and Adrian Borland (of The Sound) and Morgan Fisher (of Mott the Hoople) for the electropunk musical project The Witch Trials, releasing one self-titled EP in its lifetime.
In 1988, Biafra, with Al Jourgensen and Paul Barker of the band Ministry, and Jeff Ward, formed Lard. The band became yet another side project for Ministry, with Biafra providing vocals and lyrics. According to a March 2009 interview with Jourgensen, he and Biafra are working on a new Lard album, which is being recorded in Jourgensen's El Paso studio. Jourgensen also claimed in 2021 that Biafra was in works of a new Lard album. While working on the film Terminal City Ricochet in 1989, Biafra did a song for the film's soundtrack with D.O.A.. As a result, Biafra worked with D.O.A. on the album Last Scream of the Missing Neighbors. Biafra also worked with Nomeansno on the soundtrack, which led to their collaboration on the album The Sky Is Falling and I Want My Mommy the following year. Biafra also provided lyrics for the song "Biotech is Godzilla" for Sepultura's 1993 album Chaos A.D..
In 1999, Biafra and other members of the anti-globalization movement protested the WTO Meeting of 1999 in Seattle. Along with other prominent West Coast musicians, he formed the short-lived band the No WTO Combo to help promote the movement's cause. The band was originally scheduled to play during the protest, but the performance was canceled due to riots. The band performed a short set the following night at the Showbox in downtown Seattle (outside the designated area), along with the hiphop group Spearhead. No WTO Combo later released a CD of recordings from the concert, entitled Live from the Battle in Seattle.
As of late 2005, Biafra was performing with the band The Melvins under the name "Jello Biafra and the Melvins", though fans sometimes refer to them as "The Jelvins". Together they have released two albums, and worked on material for a third collaborative release, much of which was premiered live at two concerts at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco during an event called Biafra Five-O, commemorating Biafra's 50th birthday, the 30th anniversary of the founding of the Dead Kennedys, and the beginning of legalized same-sex marriage in California. Biafra was also working with a band known as Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine, which included Ralph Spight of Victims Family on guitar and Billy Gould of Faith No More on bass. This group debuted during Biafra Five-O.
In 2011, Biafra appeared in a singular concert event with an all-star cast of Southern musicians including members from Cowboy Mouth, Dash Rip Rock, Mojo Nixon and Down entitled, "Jello Biafra and the New Orleans Raunch & Soul All Stars" who performed an array of classic Soul covers to a packed house at the 12-Bar in New Orleans, Louisiana. He would later reunite with many of the same musicians during the Carnival season 2014 to revisit many of these classics at Siberia, New Orleans. A live album from the 2011 performance, Walk on Jindal's Splinters, and a companion single, Fannie May/Just a Little Bit, were released in 2015.
Alternative Tentacles
In June 1979, Biafra co-founded the record label Alternative Tentacles, with which the Dead Kennedys released their first single, "California über alles". The label was created to allow the band to release albums without having to deal with pressure from major labels to change their music, although the major labels were not willing to sign the band due to their songs being deemed too controversial. After dealing with Cherry Red in the UK and IRS Records in the US for their first album Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables, the band released all later albums, and later pressings of Fresh Fruit on Alternative Tentacles. The exception being live albums released after the band's break-up, which the other band members compiled from recordings in the band partnership's vaults without Biafra's input or endorsement.. Biafra has been the owner of the company since its founding, though he does not receive a salary for his position; Biafra has referred to his position in the company as "absentee thoughtlord".
Biafra is an ardent collector of unusual vinyl records of all kinds, from 1950s and 1960s ethno-pop recordings by the likes of Les Baxter and Esquivel to vanity pressings that have circulated regionally, to German crooner Heino (for whom he would later participate in the documentary Heino: Made In Germany); he cites his always growing collection as one of his biggest musical influences. In 1993 he gave an interview to RE/Search Publications for their second Incredibly Strange Music book focusing primarily on these records, and later participated in a two-part episode of Fuse TV's program Crate Diggers on the same subject. His interest in such recordings, often categorized as outsider music, led to his discovery of the prolific (and schizophrenic) singer/songwriter/artist Wesley Willis, whom he signed to Alternative Tentacles in 1994, preceding Willis' major label deal with American Recordings. His collection grew so large that on October 1, 2005, Biafra donated a portion of his collection to an annual yard sale co-promoted by Alternative Tentacles and held at their warehouse in Emeryville, California.
In 2006, along with Alternative Tentacles employee and The Frisk lead singer Jesse Luscious, Biafra began co-hosting The Alternative Tentacles Batcast, a downloadable podcast hosted by alternativetentacles.com. The show primarily focuses on interviews with artists and bands that are currently signed to the Alternative Tentacles label, although there are also occasional episodes where Biafra devoted the show to answering fan questions.
Spoken word
Biafra became a spoken word artist in January 1986 with a performance at University of California, Los Angeles. In his performance he combined humor with his political beliefs, much in the same way that he did with the lyrics to his songs. Despite his continued spoken word performances, he did not begin recording spoken word albums until after the disbanding of the Dead Kennedys.
His ninth spoken word album, In the Grip of Official Treason, was released in October 2006.
Biafra was also featured in the British band Pitchshifter's song As Seen on TV reciting the words of dystopian futuristic radio advertisements.
Politics
Biafra has resisted identifying with any particular political party or ideology, saying, "I don't label myself strictly an anarchist or a socialist or let alone a libertarian or something like that," In a 2012 interview, Biafra said "I'm very pro-tax as long as it goes for the right things. I don't mind paying more money as long as it's going to provide shelter for people sleeping in the street or getting the schools fixed back up, getting the infrastructure up to the standards of other countries, including a high speed rail system. I'm totally down with that."
Mayoral campaign
In the autumn of 1979, Biafra ran for mayor of San Francisco, using the Jell-O ad campaign catchphrase, "There's always room for Jello", as his campaign slogan. Having entered the race before creating a campaign platform, Biafra later wrote his platform on a napkin while attending a Pere Ubu concert where Dead Kennedys drummer Ted told Biafra, "Biafra, you have such a big mouth that you should run for Mayor." As he campaigned, Biafra wore campaign T-shirts from his opponent Quentin Kopp's previous campaign and at one point vacuumed leaves off the front lawn of another opponent, current U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, to mock her publicity stunt of sweeping streets in downtown San Francisco for a few hours. He also made a whistlestop campaign tour along the BART line. Supporters committed equally odd actions; two well known signs held by supporters said "If he doesn't win I'll kill myself" and "What if he does win?"
At the time, in San Francisco any individual could legally run for mayor if a petition was signed by 1500 people or if $1500 was paid. Biafra paid $900 and got signatures over time and eventually became a legal candidate, meaning he received statements put in voters' pamphlets and equal news coverage.
His platform included unconventional points such as forcing businessmen to wear clown suits within city limits, erecting statues of Dan White, who assassinated Mayor George Moscone and City Supervisor Harvey Milk in 1978, around the city and allowing the parks department to sell eggs and tomatoes with which people could pelt the statues, hiring workers who had lost their jobs due to a tax initiative to panhandle in wealthy neighborhoods (including Senator Dianne Feinstein's), and a citywide ban on cars. Biafra has expressed irritation that these parts of his platform attained such notoriety, preferring instead to be remembered for serious proposals such as legalizing squatting in vacant, tax-delinquent buildings and requiring police officers to run for election by the people of the neighborhoods they patrol.
He finished third out of a field of ten, receiving 3.79 percent of the vote (6,591 votes); the election ended in a runoff that did not involve him (Feinstein was declared the winner).
Presidential campaign
In 2000, the New York State Green Party drafted Biafra as a candidate for the Green Party presidential nomination, and a few supporters were elected to the party's nominating convention in Denver, Colorado. Biafra chose death row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal as his running mate. The party overwhelmingly chose Ralph Nader as the presidential candidate with 295 of the 319 delegate votes. Biafra received 10 votes.
Biafra, along with a camera crew (dubbed by Biafra as "The Camcorder Truth Jihad"), later reported for the Independent Media Center at the Republican and Democratic conventions.
Post-2000
After losing the 2000 nomination, Biafra became highly active in Nader's presidential campaign, as well as in 2004 and 2008. During the 2008 campaign Jello played at rallies and answered questions for journalists in support of Nader. When gay rights activists accused Nader of costing Al Gore the 2000 election, Biafra reminded them that Tipper Gore's Parents Music Resource Center wanted warning stickers on albums with content referencing homosexuality.
After Barack Obama won the general election, Biafra wrote an open letter making suggestions on how to run his term as president. Biafra criticized Obama during his term, stating that "Obama even won the award for best advertising campaign of 2008." Biafra dubbed Obama "Barackstar O'Bummer". Biafra refused to support Obama in 2012. Biafra has stated that he feels that Obama continued many of George W. Bush's policies, summarizing Obama's policies as containing "worse and worse laws against human rights and more and more illegal unconstitutional spying."
On September 18, 2015, it was announced that Biafra would be supporting Bernie Sanders in his campaign for the 2016 presidential election. He has strongly criticised the political position of Donald Trump, saying "how can people be so fucking stupid" on hearing the election result, and later adding "The last person we want with their finger on the nuclear button is somebody connected to this extreme Christianist doomsday cult."
On February 28, 2020, Jello announced that he would be supporting both Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders in the 2020 presidential election. “I personally like Warren slightly better than Bernie because: 1) She’s done her homework. Bernie too, but not to quite the same depth or degree. 2) Think about it — who really has a better chance of actually beating Trump, and helping flip Congress and state legislatures? It’s Elizabeth Warren, hands down.” He went on to say that he considered Joe Biden and Mike Bloomberg "almost as bad as Trump".
On April 12, 2020, Biafra expressed disappointment that Sanders had suspended his campaign for the 2020 Democratic nomination.
Boycott of Israel
In mid-2011 Jello Biafra and his band were scheduled to play at the Barby Club in Tel Aviv. They came under heavy pressure by the pro-Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, and finally decided to cancel the concert – after a debate which according to Biafra "deeply tore at the fabric of our band ... This whole controversy has been one of the most intense situations of my life – and I thrive on intense situations".
Biafra then decided to travel to Israel and the Palestinian Occupied Territories, at his own expense, and talk with Israeli and Palestinian activists as well as with fans disappointed at his cancellation. In the article stating his conclusions he wrote:
"I will not perform in Israel unless it is a pro-human rights, anti-occupation event, that does not violate the spirit of the boycott. Each musician, artist, etc. must decide this for themselves. I am staying away for now, but am also really creeped out by the attitudes of some of the hardliners and hope some day to find a way to contribute something positive here. I will not march or sign on with anyone who runs around calling people Zionazis and is more interested in making threats than making friends."
Personal life
Biafra married Theresa Soder, a.k.a. Ninotchka, lead singer of San Francisco-area punk band the Situations, on October 31, 1981. The wedding was conducted by Flipper vocalist/bassist Bruce Loose, who became a Universal Life Church minister just to conduct the ceremony, which took place in a graveyard. The wedding reception, which members of Flipper, Black Flag, and D.O.A. attended, was held at director Joe Rees' Target Video studios. The marriage ended in 1986. Biafra generally does not discuss his private life. He lives in San Francisco, California.
Selected discography
For a more complete list, see the Jello Biafra discography.
Dead Kennedys
1980 – Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables
1981 – In God We Trust, Inc.
1982 – Plastic Surgery Disasters
1985 – Frankenchrist
1986 – Bedtime for Democracy
1987 – Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death
Spoken word
1987 – No More Cocoons
1989 – High Priest of Harmful Matter: Tales From the Trial
1991 – I Blow Minds for a Living
1994 – Beyond the Valley of the Gift Police
1998 – If Evolution Is Outlawed, Only Outlaws Will Evolve
2000 – Become the Media
2002 – The Big Ka-Boom, Pt. 1
2002 – Machine Gun in the Clown's Hand
2006 – In the Grip of Official Treason
Lard
1989 – The Power of Lard
1990 – The Last Temptation of Reid
1997 – Pure Chewing Satisfaction
2000 – 70's Rock Must Die
Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine
2009 – The Audacity of Hype
2011 – Enhanced Methods of Questioning
2012 – SHOCK-U-PY
2013 – White People and the Damage Done
2020 – Tea Party Revenge Porn
Collaborations
Filmography
1977 – This Is America, Pt. 2
1981 – Urgh! A Music War
1983 – Anarchism in America
1986 – Lovedolls Superstar, directed by Dave Markey
1987 – Household Affairs, directed & filmed by Allen Ginsberg
1988 – Tapeheads, directed by Bill Fishman
1990 – Terminal City Ricochet
1991 – Highway 61, directed by Bruce McDonald
1994 – Skulhedface, directed by Melanie Mandl
1997 – Mary Jane's Not a Virgin Anymore, directed by Sarah Jacobson
1999 – The Widower
1999 – Virtue
2001 – Plaster Caster
2002 – Bikini Bandits, directed by Steve and Peter Grasse
2004 – Death and Texas
2004 – Punk: Attitude
2005 – We Jam Econo: The Story of the Minutemen
2006 – Punk's Not Dead, directed by Susan Dynner
2006 – Whose War?, directed by Donald Farmer
2007 – American Drug War: The Last White Hope, directed by Kevin Booth
2008 – Nerdcore Rising, directed by Negin Farsad
2009 – Open Your Mouth and Say Mr. Chi Pig, directed by Sean Patrick Shaul
2010 – A Man Within, directed by Yony Leyser
2011 – I Love You ... I Am the Porn Queen, short film directed by Ani Kyd
2014 – Heino: Made in Germany, directed by Oliver Schwabe
2014 – Portlandia, season 4, episode 4 – "Pull-Out King"
2018 – Bathtubs Over Broadway, directed by Dava Whisenant (as himself)
2018 – Boiled Angels: The Trial of Mike Diana, directed by Frank Henenlotter (narrator)
2019 – The Last Black Man in San Francisco, directed by Joe Talbot
Notes
References
External links
Jello Biafra on Alternative Tentacles
1958 births
Living people
20th-century American politicians
Candidates in the 2000 United States presidential election
Alternative Tentacles
Alternative Tentacles artists
American anti–Iraq War activists
American anti-war activists
American human rights activists
American male film actors
American people of Jewish descent
American punk rock singers
American satirists
American male singer-songwriters
American spoken word artists
Anti-consumerists
Anti-corporate activists
Anti-globalization activists
Boulder High School alumni
California Greens
Dead Kennedys members
Finance fraud
Green Party of the United States politicians
Hardcore punk musicians
Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine members
Lard (band) members
Male actors from Boulder, Colorado
Musicians from Boulder, Colorado
Pigface members
Pranksters
Teenage Time Killers members
Singer-songwriters from Colorado | false | [
"Graaff-Reinet Municipality v Van Ryneveld's Pass Irrigation Board is an important case in South African law. It was heard in the Appellate Division on March 6, 1950, with judgment handed down on March 21. The judges were Watermeyer CJ, Centlivres JA, Schreiner JA, Van Den Heever JA, and Murray AJA. The case was an appeal from a decision in the Cape Provincial Division by Steyn J and Searle J. The appellant's attorneys were Herold, Gie & Broadhead, Cape Town, and McIntyre & Watkeys, Bloemfontein. The respondent's attorneys were Mostert & Bosman, Cape Town, and Reitz, Barry & Berning, Bloemfontein.\n\nThe case concerned a claim or dispute as to water rights conferred in an agreement. The court considered whether it could act under section 102 of the General Law Amendment Act, and when a declaration of rights could be granted.\n\nThe case is still frequently cited for its definition of \"jurisdiction\" as \"the power or competence of a Court to hear and determine an issue between parties, and limitations may be put upon such power in relation to territory, subject matter, amount in dispute, parties etc.\"\n\nArguments\n\nAppellant \nAJ Smit, KC, argued that the subject-matter of the application was not a claim nor a dispute with regard to the right to use water. Even if the issues involved a dispute about the use of water, section 34 of the Irrigation Act did not, in his view, oust the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court in matters where there was only a claim for a declaration of rights and no claim for consequential relief. The Municipality could claim no consequential relief at the moment, he contended, since there was no infringement, at least not yet, of any right. In an application like the present one, for a declaration of rights without claiming relief, brought before the introduction of section 102 of the General Law Amendment Act, neither the Water Court nor the Supreme Court would have had jurisdiction in the matter. At common law, Smit continued, the Supreme Court did not have it, and the Water Court did not have it, since it was a creature of statute. The fact that it was only given the same right as the Supreme Court by the Magistrates' Courts Act, passed in 1944, showed that it did not have it previously. This meant, Smit claimed, that sections 32(a) and (b) did not include the right which was given in section 32(b)(bis) by section 5 of the Magistrates' Courts Act. Section 34, therefore, could not be said to cover such a right. With section 102 of the General Law Amendment Act, the Legislature had conferred jurisdiction on the Supreme Court to grant a declaration of rights where no consequential relief was claimed. This section, he observed, did not restrict its jurisdiction and did not exclude rights relating to water; nor did section 34 of the Irrigation Act at that time oust the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court\n\n because, if it had done so, then no Court would have had jurisdiction in matters as to water rights to grant a declaration of such rights, as the Water Court did not have it;\n because section 34 could at most only oust the Supreme Court's jurisdiction in a matter referred to therein in which the Water Court had jurisdiction; and\n because, since sections 32 (a) and (b) did not give the Water Court jurisdiction in a matter where a declaration of rights without consequential relief was claimed, it must be assumed that section 34 did not cover such a case at that time.\n\nIn 1944, the Water Court was granted powers similar to those contained in section 102 of the General Law Amendment Act.\n\nRespondent \nNJ Grobler, KC, noted that it was clear that the dispute was one as to water rights, and argued that from this it followed that the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court had been ousted by the provisions of section 34 of the Irrigation Act. The fact that the declaration of rights claimed did not include a claim for consequential relief was irrelevant, in Grobler's view. He observed that section 34 covered a claim such as the present one. Even, he continued, if the dispute could properly be regarded as one in regard to the manner in which admitted rights were to be exercised, it would, in this case, nevertheless amount to a dispute or claim as to water rights.\n\nThe dicta in De Wet v Deetlefs, which might, perhaps, be read to express a contrary view, were too widely stated for Grobler's liking, and did not apply, he argued, to a case such as the present; in any event, De Wet was clearly distinguishable from the present case.\n\nJudgment \nWatermeyer CJ found—and Centlivres JA, Schreiner JA, Van Den Heever JA and Murray AJA concurred—that section 102 of the General Law Amendment Act does not authorise the Supreme Court to hear and determine a claim or dispute as to water rights which has not reached the stage of actionable maturity: that is, the stage at which an infringement of the legal rights of one of the parties, which gives the other party a right to claim consequential relief, has taken place. The decision of the Cape Provincial Division, in Graaff-Reinet Municipality v van Ryneveld's Pass Irrigation Board, was thus confirmed.\n\nSee also \n Jurisdiction\n Civil procedure in South Africa\n\nReferences\n\nBooks \n Peté, S, et al. Civil Procedure: A Practical Guide. 2 ed. Oxford University Press, 2011.\n\nCase law \n Calitz v Lyle 1928 CPD 544.\n De Wet v Deetlefs 1928 AD 293.\n Geldenhuys & Neethling v Beuthin 1918 AD 426.\n Graaff-Reinet Municipality v Van Ryneveld's Pass Irrigation Board 1950 (2) SA 420 (A).\n Hough v Steenkamp 1946 CPD 446.\n MacGregor and Others v Beckenstrater 1949 (2) SA 137.\n Tweedegeluk Eiendoms Beperk v Howes and Others 1949 (3) SA 1220.\n Van Heerden and Others v Smit 1915 CPD 181.\n\nLegislation \n Act 26 of 1916\n General Law Amendment Act 46 of 1935.\n Irrigation Act 8 of 1912.\n Magistrates' Courts Act 30 of 1944.\n\nNotes \n\n1950 in South African law\n1950 in case law\nAppellate Division (South Africa) cases\nWater case law\nEastern Cape\nIrrigation in South Africa",
"A dispute board, dispute review board (DRB) or dispute adjudication board (DAB) is a forum for dispute resolution, typically comprising three independent and impartial persons selected by the contracting parties. The significant difference between Dispute Review Boards and most other Alternate Dispute Review techniques (and possibly the reason why or Dispute Review Boards have had such success in recent years) is that the Dispute Review Board is appointed at the commencement of a project before any disputes arise and, by undertaking regular visits to the site, is actively involved throughout the project (and possibly any agreed period thereafter).\n\nA Dispute Board becomes a part of the project administration and thereby can influence, during the contract period, the performance of the contracting parties. It has 'real-time' value. The idea behind a standing Dispute Resolution Board is that it may be called upon early in the evolution of any dispute which cannot be resolved by the parties and be asked to publish decisions or recommendations on how the matters in issue should be settled. It is usual (but not compulsory) that an opportunity remains for the matter to be referred to arbitration or to the courts if the Dispute Review Board's decision does not find acceptance by the parties. Thus a Dispute Resolution Board may be likened to the United Kingdom's adjudication process, either under statutory-compliant contracts or under the regime established by statute itself . What a Dispute Review Board does that United Kingdom statutory adjudication does not do is to provide a regular and continuing forum for discussion of difficult or contentious matters, to identify ways forward by acting in an informal capacity and to create valuable opportunities for the parties to avoid disputes by keeping proactive communication alive. Another aspect, which is less often discussed, is that by establishing a Dispute Board from the inception of the project the Dispute Board members become part of the project team and are thought of in a different fashion and because of their \"hands on\" approach can be trusted to be fair and impartial and their advice respected and taken more readily than would a third party or stranger to the project.\n\nThe terms Dispute Board or Dispute Review Board are generic terms and include (a) the Dispute Review Board (DRB) which is a device that originated in the USA and provides non-binding recommendations); (b) the Dispute Adjudication Board (DAB) which is a device emerging from the earlier USA model, but which provides a decision that has interim-binding force); and (c) the Combined Dispute Board (CDB), which is a hybrid of Dispute Review Boards and Dispute Adjudication Boards which was created by the International Chamber of Commerce in 2004. Various other terms have been used such as Dispute Settlement Panel, Dispute Mediation Board, Dispute Avoidance Panel and Dispute Conciliation Panel. Fundamentally these different varieties of Dispute Review devices are the same, each providing early adjudication based on the contractual bargain between the parties.\n\nA Dispute Review Board is a creature of contract; the parties establish and empower a Dispute Review Board with jurisdiction to hear and advise on the resolution of disputes. Within the United Kingdom it is entirely possible for the contracting parties to establish a Dispute Review Board to adjudicate construction contract disputes within the statutory requirement for adjudication . As yet, there are no statutory requirements for Dispute Review Boards to be established to adjudicate disputes under construction contracts.\n\nWhile the origins of Dispute Review Boards are found in the construction industry, their ambit is far wider than construction and Dispute Review Boards are now found in the financial services industry, the maritime industry, long-term concession projects, operational and maintenance contracts. The scope for Dispute Review Boards has been described as substantial. The emergence of the International Chamber of Commerce as an active supporter of Dispute Boards, as well as the Dispute Board Federation and the Dispute Resolution Board Foundation, makes it highly probable that dispute boards will be established in a range of industries that, until now, have not used adjudication to any great extent.\n\nCost savings\nSome studies have shown that the cost of a Dispute Board will result in even the most strenuous dispute being resolved and with an almost 99% success rate of dispute resolution without the need for either costly litigation or arbitration the savings are enormous. The reason this is significant is because the construction industry has a reputation for disputes and conflict. Anecdotal evidence from Australia, for example, indicates that 50% of all legal cost associated with construction is expended in connection with disputes. In almost 10% of projects, between 8% and 10% of the total project cost was legal cost. Not surprisingly, these projects have a high incidence of disputes. This expenditure, which globally represents an enormous sum each year, does not begin to take into account the hidden costs of disputes; the damage to reputations and commercial relationships, the cost of time spent by executive personnel, and the cost of lost opportunities. The situation is aggravated by the increased use of joint ventures both in consulting and in contracting. Such organisations are less autonomous and perhaps less able to negotiate settlements of their contractual problems.\n\nICC Rules\nThe International Chamber of Commerce recommends inclusion of a dispute review board clause in a major contract and provides a set of rules which can be used to ensure boards can operate in a predictable manner in avoiding or resolving disagreeements.\n\nReferences\n\nDispute resolution"
]
|
[
"Frenzal Rhomb",
"2005-2009: Jay and the Doctor and Forever Malcolm Young"
]
| C_31b6aef20b5e4ec5841e183fa3edbb37_0 | What happen in 2005 | 1 | What happen in 2005 with Frenzal Rhomb? | Frenzal Rhomb | Frenzal Rhomb's Whalley and McDougall worked as Jay and the Doctor on Triple J's breakfast show from January 2005 through to November 2007. Prior to their employment at Triple J, the group's music had been banned after they had earlier criticised the station on air for playing the "same 40 songs". In 2004, they were asked to perform occasional late night shifts and request segments, which developed into the breakfast show slot. Their format includes banter where they provide "quips, one-liners, slagging off each other, other bands, other breakfast announcers, listeners, Triple J, Australian Idol and St Ives. It's verbal ping pong but more discursive." The band released Forever Malcolm Young in October 2006 - the title is a conflated reference to the 2005 song "Forever Young" by Youth Group and the name of AC/DC's guitarist, Malcolm Young - which peaked in the top 40. It provided a minor radio hit with the title track. Some controversy was expressed over the profanity in the title and lyrics of "Johnny Ramone was in a Fucking Good Band, but He Was a Cunt" (see Johnny Ramone, Ramones). Whalley's attitude to profanity and obscenity is "I often get amazed how offended people get by language, especially in Australia when its nothing you wouldn't hear in your local office or schoolyard. But we do make a point of shaking things up". Australian rock music journalist Ed Nimmervoll described them "[their] history is littered with legendary stories, perhaps true, perhaps exaggerations, but stories which fuel and match their song and album titles. Their songs are often profane, likely to poke fun at someone including themselves, hint at a social conscience, and inside all the tough talk and body jokes be hopelessly romantic." National touring followed the album's release, along with the announcement that from November 2007 Whalley would be leaving both Frenzal Rhomb and his job at Triple J to go on a world trip with his girlfriend. Some later copies of Forever Malcolm Young contained a bonus DVD covering the band's tours from 2002 up until 2005. It is titled Sucking All Over the World. Gordy Forman plays in the Melbourne hardcore band Mindsnare. McDougall continued as The Doctor at Triple J, initially with Robbie Buck and Marieke Hardy; and, from January 2010, he has hosted the afternoon show Drive with The Doctor. By April 2009, Frenzal Rhomb were performing The Boys Are Back in Town tour with 1990s punk group Nancy Vandal as their support act. CANNOTANSWER | breakfast show from January 2005 through to November 2007. | Frenzal Rhomb are an Australian punk rock band that formed in 1992 in Sydney. Three of the group's albums have entered the top 20 on the ARIA Albums Chart: A Man's Not a Camel (1999), Hi-Vis High Tea (2017) and Smoko at the Pet Food Factory (2011). Hi-Vis High Tea reached 9th position in the charts. The group has supported Australian tours by The Offspring, Bad Religion, NOFX, and Blink-182. Frenzal Rhomb have also toured in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, South Africa, Israel and Taiwan. The band has undergone several line-up changes, with lead vocalist Jason Whalley serving as the band's sole constant member.
History
1992–1995: Formation to Coughing Up a Storm
Frenzal Rhomb formed in 1992 in the Sydney suburb of Newtown with Alexis 'Lex' Feltham on bass guitar and Jason Whalley on vocals. Feltham and Whalley had been school mates at St Ives High School in St Ives. Whalley had commenced a Bachelor of Arts course in philosophy at Sydney University when he formed Frenzal Rhomb as a punk rock band. The band was formed to take part in a battle of the bands and at that stage was not seen as a permanent project. The name is a reference to a band member's pet rat, who in turn was named for the Fresnel rhomb, which is a prism-like device invented by the 19th century French engineer Augustin-Jean Fresnel. By 1993, the group's line-up was Feltham, Whalley, Ben Costello on guitar and Karl Perske on drums. They played at the Sydney venue for the Big Day Out in January.
In March 1994, the band issued a seven-track EP, Dick Sandwich. Its cover had "a graphic drawing of the offending flaccid appendage draped over a sesame seed bun with lashings of bloody sauce." Posters with a similar image that advertised the group had them banned at some venues. National youth radio station Triple J criticised the group as being immature and told them to "grow up". The EP was described as having "good songs but it sounds like it was recorded under a doona" and had the group banned from some radio stations and retail outlets. One of its tracks, "I Wish I Was as Credible as Roger Climpson" (aka "Roger"), attracted attention of its subject, Roger Climpson – a Seven News anchor on TV – who posed with the group for a photo. The E.P also features fan favourites "Chemotherapy", and a cover of the TV series theme "Home And Away". The E.P featured an alternate cover depicting rabbits on the flipside of the liftout to appease record stores or people who may have been offended by the original artwork. In October of that year, they released a single, "Sorry About the Ruse", on their own label, How Much Did I Fucking Pay For This Records? The group were the local support act on the Australian leg of separate tours by United States punk rockers Bad Religion, The Offspring, and Blink-182.
In March 1995, Frenzal Rhomb released their first studio album, Coughing Up a Storm, on Shock Records' sub-label Shagpile Records. Perske was replaced by Nat Nykyruj on drums before the album appeared. The album features live fan favourite "Genius". In October 1997, it was retitled Once a Jolly Swagman Always a Jolly Swagman and issued with additional tracks by the US label Liberation Records. In mid-1995, the group supported NOFX on their national tour. Fat Mike, a member of NOFX, was also the owner of Fat Wreck Chords, and he signed the band to his label, which released the 4 Litres EP in the US.
1996–2000: Not So Tough Now to A Man's Not a Camel
In July 1996, Frenzal Rhomb released their second album, Not So Tough Now, which was produced by Tony Cohen (Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, TISM, Dave Graney), Kalju Tonuma (Nick Barker, The Mavis's) and Frenzal Rhomb. Just after its appearance, Costello was replaced by Lindsay McDougall on lead guitar and backing vocals – Costello left to attend university and become an animal rights activist. In November, the group issued a CD EP, Punch in the Face and, in January 1997, performed at Big Day Out. Late that year they toured the US supporting Blink-182.
In September 1997, their third LP, Meet the Family, was released, which reached the top 40 on the ARIA Albums Chart and became their first certified gold album by ARIA. It spawned three singles, "Mr Charisma" (June), "There's Your Dad" (September), and "Mum Changed the Locks" (April 1998). The latter title refers to McDougall telling his mother he was going out to a movie when leaving for an interstate tour and returning to find his key no longer opened the front door. Also in April, Gordon "Gordy" Forman replaced Nykyruj on drums, and they toured Australia with US ska band Blue Meanies. Frenzal Rhomb were the head-liners for the Australian leg of the 1998 Vans Warped Tour and they were recruited for the US edition. A 1998 version of Meet the Family contained a bonus disc, Mongrel, that was recorded live on this US leg.
In March 1999, they released their next album, A Man's Not a Camel, which was produced by Eddie Ashworth and was supported by a nationwide tour. As from November 2011, it remains Frenzal Rhomb's highest charting album, reaching No. 11. It spawned their highest charting single, "You Are Not My Friend" (August), which reached No. 49. Allmusic's album reviewer Mike DaRonco felt "the first two songs are great in that catchy, playful pop-punk sort of way, but the rest ... fall under the trap of having all their tracks sounding like one big, long song". The album also features fan favourites "We're Going Out Tonight" and "Never Had So Much Fun".
At the ARIA Music Awards of 1999 in October, the group performed "Never Had So Much Fun". In 2019 Dan Condon of Double J described this as one of "7 great performances from the history of the ARIA Awards." According to the band's website, US gigs were dropped after Whalley suffered a heart attack in late 1999 and the group spent the first few months of 2000 inactive. Whalley later denied that he had had a heart attack with "a lot of things on our Web site are greatly exaggerated. There was also a thing about my having trench rot, the World War I disease, but that's not true either".
2000–2003: Shut Your Mouth to Sans Souci
In November 2000, Frenzal Rhomb returned with the album Shut Your Mouth, released on Epic Records in Australia, an offshoot of Sony. RockZone's Samuel Barker liked some tracks as "a fine template for a pop punk album" however "the majority just falls into the same formula of most punk today. It's not bad, just overplayed". The album peaked in the top 40. After six months, Sony dropped the band in mid-2001 and they signed with Epitaph Records in Australia.
In April 2002, Feltham left the group, which provided many stories about why he left, including one that he was fired after thinking that the group should incorporate synth and keyboard work. The last song he recorded with the band was a cover of Midnight Oil's "The Dead Heart" for the 2001 tribute album Power & The Passion: A Tribute to Midnight Oil. After holding auditions in Sydney, Tom Crease was announced as the new bass guitarist.
In April 2003, the band released Sans Souci, which appeared in the top 50. Jo-Ann Greene of Allmusic liked the group's outlook: "they're not bitter, just snotty about it all, as all good punks should be. And Rhomb are four of the best ... their latest set of frenzied, funny, pitiless attacks upon an uncaring planet." The initial version of the album included a bonus DVD of five tracks with live footage and music videos.
2004: Political protest, Jackie O
During 2003, Frenzal Rhomb's McDougall organised Rock Against Howard, a compilation album, by various Australian musicians as a protest against incumbent Prime Minister John Howard's government. It was released in August 2004, before the October federal election, when Howard's coalition was re-elected.
In July 2004, radio station 2Day FM presenter Jackie O was to MC at the Bassinthegrass festival in Darwin. Jackie allegedly arrived late, causing Frenzal Rhomb to cut their setlist short by several songs. She attempted to speak with the audience. In protest, McDougall began playing AC/DC's "Thunderstruck" over her voice. Jackie was upset that she was unable to finish her announcement to the audience. Whalley later accused her and other music industry personalities of pushing original Australian bands aside to make way for short-term marketable acts such as Australian Idol and Popstars contestants.
Jackie and her co-presenter, Kyle Sandilands, called Whalley on air during their next breakfast show. Whalley apologised for offending Jackie, but stood by his claims regarding the music industry. The conversation became heated as Sandilands told Whalley "Your songs being played on this network or the Triple M network... it's just not going to happen now"; to which Whalley argued that Frenzal Rhomb were almost never played on the Austereo network anyway. During the conversation, Sandilands told Whalley that he was bitter and sad. When Whalley pointed out that Sandilands is in a position to promote new Australian music but doesn't, Sandilands countered that Frenzal Rhomb is not played on the network "because it's pretty much shit". While Sandilands agreed that shows like Popstars and Australian Idol are interested in making "a quick buck", he also asserted that he doesn't "care about Australian Idol or Popstars".
Sandilands argued that Whalley should not "pick fights with people that are female in the Northern Territory". Sandilands asserted that if he himself were present, "it would have been on for young and old". Whalley argued that gender was irrelevant to the issue, and in response to Sandilands' threat of violence asked Jackie if she was aware that her security guard had threatened a band technician with violence. Sandilands said he endorsed the threat of violence. Sandilands argued to Whalley that he has to "get over it" when Whalley recommended that radio DJs should promote original Australian music. In reply, Sandilands insinuated that Frenzal Rhomb, and bands in general, suffer from a lack of support because they are not "putting [their] stuff in front of the right people".
ABC Television's Media Watch covered the exchange and presenter David Marr raised concerns about the interview: "Kyle and Jackie O are also part of a new generation of radio thugs". Patrick Joyce, general manager of Austereo in Sydney, responded to Sandilands' threats of black listing and violence, "Music content is decided by the programming directors based on research of the market... Austereo does not approve of threats being made to anyone... We have fully canvassed these issues with Kyle".
2005–2009: Jay and the Doctor and Forever Malcolm Young
Frenzal Rhomb's Whalley and McDougall worked as Jay and the Doctor on Triple J's breakfast show from January 2005 through to November 2007. Prior to their employment at Triple J, the group's music had been banned after they had earlier criticised the station on air for playing the "same 40 songs". In 2004, they were asked to perform occasional late night shifts and request segments, which developed into the breakfast show slot. Their format includes banter where they provide "quips, one-liners, slagging off each other, other bands, other breakfast announcers, listeners, Triple J, Australian Idol and St Ives. It's verbal ping pong but more discursive."
The band released Forever Malcolm Young in October 2006 – the title is a conflated reference to the 2005 song "Forever Young" by Youth Group and the name of AC/DC's guitarist, Malcolm Young – which peaked in the top 40. It provided a minor radio hit with the title track. Some controversy was expressed over the profanity in the title and lyrics of "Johnny Ramone was in a Fucking Good Band, but He Was a Cunt" (see Johnny Ramone, Ramones). Whalley's attitude to profanity and obscenity is "I often get amazed how offended people get by language, especially in Australia when its nothing you wouldn't hear in your local office or schoolyard. But we do make a point of shaking things up". Australian rock music journalist Ed Nimmervoll described them "[their] history is littered with legendary stories, perhaps true, perhaps exaggerations, but stories which fuel and match their song and album titles. Their songs are often profane, likely to poke fun at someone including themselves, hint at a social conscience, and inside all the tough talk and body jokes be hopelessly romantic."
National touring followed the album's release, along with the announcement that from November 2007 Whalley would be leaving both Frenzal Rhomb and his job at Triple J to go on a world trip with his girlfriend. Some later copies of Forever Malcolm Young contained a bonus DVD covering the band's tours from 2002 up until 2005. It is titled Sucking All Over the World. Gordy Forman plays in the Melbourne hardcore band Mindsnare. McDougall continued as The Doctor at Triple J, initially with Robbie Buck and Marieke Hardy; and, from January 2010, he has hosted the afternoon show Drive with The Doctor. By April 2009, Frenzal Rhomb were performing The Boys Are Back in Town tour with 1990s punk group Nancy Vandal as their support act.
2010–2017: Smoko at the Pet Food Factory and We Lived Like Kings...
In December 2010, Frenzal Rhomb embarked on the No Sleep Til Festival which featured punk and metal bands: Megadeth, Descendents, NOFX, Gwar and Dropkick Murphys. Frenzal Rhomb played a new song entitled "Bird Attack". In Brisbane, on the last stop of the tour, Whalley and Crease joined Descendents on-stage with other bands' singers – Al Barr (Dropkick Murphys), Fat Mike (NOFX), Matt Skiba and Derek Grant (Alkaline Trio), and Jason Allen (Descendents' road manager) – to perform "Everything Sux".
Frenzal Rhomb recorded their next album, Smoko at the Pet Food Factory in Colorado with Bill Stevenson (drummer for Descendents) producing. It was released on 19 August 2011 on Shock Records, which peaked at No. 14. The group toured Australia with Teenage Bottlerocket in September in support of the album.
In June 2012, the album 'Not So Tough Now' was certified gold by the Australia Record Industry Association, 16 years after its release.
Lead singer Jay Whalley announced on 26 February 2013 that the group was forced to cancel its recent tour after surgeons discovered and removed a pig tapeworm egg from his brain.
Drummer Gordy Foreman broke his arm in multiple places after stage diving during a performance in Perth in 2015 and spent about 18 months recovering. The band continued to play live with Kye Smith (of Local Resident Failure) filling in on drums. Smith had previously paid tribute to Frenzal Rhomb as part of his "5 Minute Drum Chronology" series on YouTube.
To celebrate the band's 25th anniversary Frenzal Rhomb toured Australia in 2016. Fans were offered the opportunity to select songs in the set list by voting for their favourite songs on the band's Facebook page. The band also released a best-of album, entitled We Lived Like Kings, We Did Anything We Wanted, on 19 August.
2017–present: Hi-Vis High Tea
Frenzal Rhomb's ninth studio album, Hi-Vis High Tea, was released on 26 May 2017 on CD, LP (vinyl) and digital download. It was once again recorded in The Blasting Room by Bill Stevenson. The album's first single, "Cunt Act," was released on the same day; as well as a national run of dates with Totally Unicorn.
After 17 years, Tom Crease departed the band in mid-2019 due to ongoing hearing problems. He was replaced by Michael "Dal" Dallinger, formerly of Newcastle punk band Local Resident Failure – coincidentally, a band named after a Frenzal Rhomb song.
Controversy
The group has generated controversy for profanity in cover art, song titles and lyrics; for the behaviour of members, on and off stage.
In July 2004, radio 2Day FM hosts Jackie O and Kyle Sandilands (themselves no strangers to controversy) threatened the band with "black-listing" from the Austereo network after a festival performance in Darwin, Australia in a tit for tat. The band had played AC/DC's "Thunderstruck" over the top of Jackie O's effort to explain her late appearance to the audience as the delay caused a further cut into the band's set time.
Band members
Current members
Jason "Jay" Whalley – lead vocals, occasional rhythm guitar, keyboards, kazoo (1992–present)
Lindsay "The Doctor" McDougall – lead guitar, backing vocals (1996–present)
Gordon "Gordy" Forman – drums (1998–present; hiatus 2015–2016)
Michael "Dal" Dallinger (AKA Dal Failure) – bass guitar, backing vocals (2019–present)
Former members
Alexis "Lex" Feltham – bass guitar, backing vocals, guitar (1992–2002)
Ben Costello – guitar (1992–1996)
Bruce Braybrooke – drums (1992–1993)
Karl Perske – drums (1993–1995)
Nat Nykyruj – drums (1995–1998)
Tom Crease – bass guitar, backing vocals (2002–2019)
Former touring musicians
Kye Smith – drums (2015–2016, occasional fill-in gigs)
Timeline
Discography
Studio albums
Coughing up a Storm (1995)
Not So Tough Now (1996)
Meet the Family (1997)
A Man's Not a Camel (1999)
Shut Your Mouth (2000)
Sans Souci (2003)
Forever Malcolm Young (2006)
Smoko at the Pet Food Factory (2011)
Hi-Vis High Tea (2017)
References
General
Note: Archived [on-line] copy has limited functionality.
Specific
External links
Official Facebook
Fat Wreck Chords
Official website, 2001 archived by PANDORA on 29 August 2001.
Frenzal Rhomb's singer Jason Whalley and guitarist Lindsay McDougall perform at Big Day Out, Melbourne, Victoria, 2005. A photo by Martin Philbey at Digital Collections by National Library of Australia
Australian punk rock groups
Fat Wreck Chords artists
Epitaph Records artists
Musical groups established in 1992
Musical groups from Sydney | true | [
"Jackson Rogow (born October 5, 1991) is an American actor. He is best known for starring in the Cartoon Network live action series Dude, What Would Happen?\n\nCareer\nRogow was on Dude, What Would Happen on Cartoon Network until it was cancelled in 2011. Rogow was also on the Lego Top Secret Project after The Yoda Chronicles on Cartoon Network.\n\nPersonal life\nRogow resides in Bel Air, Los Angeles, California.\n\nFilmography\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n\nLiving people\n1991 births\nPeople from Kissimmee, Florida\nPeople from Bel Air, Los Angeles\nLos Angeles County High School for the Arts alumni\nAmerican male television actors",
"James P. Flynn (born February 5, 1934) is an American teamster and film actor. He was a reputed member of the famous Winter Hill Gang. He has been in films including Good Will Hunting, The Cider House Rules and What's the Worst That Could Happen?.\n\nBiography\nJames P. Flynn was born in Somerville, Massachusetts.\n\nIn 1982, Flynn was wrongly identified as a shooter in the murder of Winter Hill Gang mob associate Brian \"Balloonhead\" Halloran and attempted murder of Michael Donahue. He was tried and acquitted for the murder in 1986 after being framed by John Connolly and James J. Bulger.\n\nFlynn was a part of Boston's International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 25 labor union where he later ran the organization's movie production crew. He has also been the Teamster Union's transportation coordinator and transportation captain in the transportation department on numerous films, including The Departed, Fever Pitch and Jumanji.\n\nFlynn appeared in many films shot in the New England area. In show business he goes by the name 'James P. Flynn'. Flynn was cast as a judge in the Boston-based film Good Will Hunting in 1997. Later, he acted in the 1999 film The Cider House Rules and What's the Worst That Could Happen? in 2001. He was also a truck driver for movie production equipment during the filming of My Best Friend's Girl in 2008. Boston actor Tom Kemp remarked: \"[The film The Departed] wouldn't be a Boston movie without me, a Wahlberg, and Jimmy Flynn from the teamsters.\"\n\nFilmography\nGood Will Hunting (1997) as Judge George H. Malone\nThe Cider House Rules (1999) as Vernon\nWhat's the Worst That Could Happen? (2001) as the Fire Captain\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n\n1934 births\nLiving people\nMale actors from Boston\nWinter Hill Gang"
]
|
[
"Frenzal Rhomb",
"2005-2009: Jay and the Doctor and Forever Malcolm Young",
"What happen in 2005",
"breakfast show from January 2005 through to November 2007."
]
| C_31b6aef20b5e4ec5841e183fa3edbb37_0 | What was Jay and the Doctor | 2 | What was Jay and the Doctor on Frenzal Romb? | Frenzal Rhomb | Frenzal Rhomb's Whalley and McDougall worked as Jay and the Doctor on Triple J's breakfast show from January 2005 through to November 2007. Prior to their employment at Triple J, the group's music had been banned after they had earlier criticised the station on air for playing the "same 40 songs". In 2004, they were asked to perform occasional late night shifts and request segments, which developed into the breakfast show slot. Their format includes banter where they provide "quips, one-liners, slagging off each other, other bands, other breakfast announcers, listeners, Triple J, Australian Idol and St Ives. It's verbal ping pong but more discursive." The band released Forever Malcolm Young in October 2006 - the title is a conflated reference to the 2005 song "Forever Young" by Youth Group and the name of AC/DC's guitarist, Malcolm Young - which peaked in the top 40. It provided a minor radio hit with the title track. Some controversy was expressed over the profanity in the title and lyrics of "Johnny Ramone was in a Fucking Good Band, but He Was a Cunt" (see Johnny Ramone, Ramones). Whalley's attitude to profanity and obscenity is "I often get amazed how offended people get by language, especially in Australia when its nothing you wouldn't hear in your local office or schoolyard. But we do make a point of shaking things up". Australian rock music journalist Ed Nimmervoll described them "[their] history is littered with legendary stories, perhaps true, perhaps exaggerations, but stories which fuel and match their song and album titles. Their songs are often profane, likely to poke fun at someone including themselves, hint at a social conscience, and inside all the tough talk and body jokes be hopelessly romantic." National touring followed the album's release, along with the announcement that from November 2007 Whalley would be leaving both Frenzal Rhomb and his job at Triple J to go on a world trip with his girlfriend. Some later copies of Forever Malcolm Young contained a bonus DVD covering the band's tours from 2002 up until 2005. It is titled Sucking All Over the World. Gordy Forman plays in the Melbourne hardcore band Mindsnare. McDougall continued as The Doctor at Triple J, initially with Robbie Buck and Marieke Hardy; and, from January 2010, he has hosted the afternoon show Drive with The Doctor. By April 2009, Frenzal Rhomb were performing The Boys Are Back in Town tour with 1990s punk group Nancy Vandal as their support act. CANNOTANSWER | Frenzal Rhomb's Whalley and McDougall worked as Jay and the Doctor on Triple J's breakfast show | Frenzal Rhomb are an Australian punk rock band that formed in 1992 in Sydney. Three of the group's albums have entered the top 20 on the ARIA Albums Chart: A Man's Not a Camel (1999), Hi-Vis High Tea (2017) and Smoko at the Pet Food Factory (2011). Hi-Vis High Tea reached 9th position in the charts. The group has supported Australian tours by The Offspring, Bad Religion, NOFX, and Blink-182. Frenzal Rhomb have also toured in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, South Africa, Israel and Taiwan. The band has undergone several line-up changes, with lead vocalist Jason Whalley serving as the band's sole constant member.
History
1992–1995: Formation to Coughing Up a Storm
Frenzal Rhomb formed in 1992 in the Sydney suburb of Newtown with Alexis 'Lex' Feltham on bass guitar and Jason Whalley on vocals. Feltham and Whalley had been school mates at St Ives High School in St Ives. Whalley had commenced a Bachelor of Arts course in philosophy at Sydney University when he formed Frenzal Rhomb as a punk rock band. The band was formed to take part in a battle of the bands and at that stage was not seen as a permanent project. The name is a reference to a band member's pet rat, who in turn was named for the Fresnel rhomb, which is a prism-like device invented by the 19th century French engineer Augustin-Jean Fresnel. By 1993, the group's line-up was Feltham, Whalley, Ben Costello on guitar and Karl Perske on drums. They played at the Sydney venue for the Big Day Out in January.
In March 1994, the band issued a seven-track EP, Dick Sandwich. Its cover had "a graphic drawing of the offending flaccid appendage draped over a sesame seed bun with lashings of bloody sauce." Posters with a similar image that advertised the group had them banned at some venues. National youth radio station Triple J criticised the group as being immature and told them to "grow up". The EP was described as having "good songs but it sounds like it was recorded under a doona" and had the group banned from some radio stations and retail outlets. One of its tracks, "I Wish I Was as Credible as Roger Climpson" (aka "Roger"), attracted attention of its subject, Roger Climpson – a Seven News anchor on TV – who posed with the group for a photo. The E.P also features fan favourites "Chemotherapy", and a cover of the TV series theme "Home And Away". The E.P featured an alternate cover depicting rabbits on the flipside of the liftout to appease record stores or people who may have been offended by the original artwork. In October of that year, they released a single, "Sorry About the Ruse", on their own label, How Much Did I Fucking Pay For This Records? The group were the local support act on the Australian leg of separate tours by United States punk rockers Bad Religion, The Offspring, and Blink-182.
In March 1995, Frenzal Rhomb released their first studio album, Coughing Up a Storm, on Shock Records' sub-label Shagpile Records. Perske was replaced by Nat Nykyruj on drums before the album appeared. The album features live fan favourite "Genius". In October 1997, it was retitled Once a Jolly Swagman Always a Jolly Swagman and issued with additional tracks by the US label Liberation Records. In mid-1995, the group supported NOFX on their national tour. Fat Mike, a member of NOFX, was also the owner of Fat Wreck Chords, and he signed the band to his label, which released the 4 Litres EP in the US.
1996–2000: Not So Tough Now to A Man's Not a Camel
In July 1996, Frenzal Rhomb released their second album, Not So Tough Now, which was produced by Tony Cohen (Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, TISM, Dave Graney), Kalju Tonuma (Nick Barker, The Mavis's) and Frenzal Rhomb. Just after its appearance, Costello was replaced by Lindsay McDougall on lead guitar and backing vocals – Costello left to attend university and become an animal rights activist. In November, the group issued a CD EP, Punch in the Face and, in January 1997, performed at Big Day Out. Late that year they toured the US supporting Blink-182.
In September 1997, their third LP, Meet the Family, was released, which reached the top 40 on the ARIA Albums Chart and became their first certified gold album by ARIA. It spawned three singles, "Mr Charisma" (June), "There's Your Dad" (September), and "Mum Changed the Locks" (April 1998). The latter title refers to McDougall telling his mother he was going out to a movie when leaving for an interstate tour and returning to find his key no longer opened the front door. Also in April, Gordon "Gordy" Forman replaced Nykyruj on drums, and they toured Australia with US ska band Blue Meanies. Frenzal Rhomb were the head-liners for the Australian leg of the 1998 Vans Warped Tour and they were recruited for the US edition. A 1998 version of Meet the Family contained a bonus disc, Mongrel, that was recorded live on this US leg.
In March 1999, they released their next album, A Man's Not a Camel, which was produced by Eddie Ashworth and was supported by a nationwide tour. As from November 2011, it remains Frenzal Rhomb's highest charting album, reaching No. 11. It spawned their highest charting single, "You Are Not My Friend" (August), which reached No. 49. Allmusic's album reviewer Mike DaRonco felt "the first two songs are great in that catchy, playful pop-punk sort of way, but the rest ... fall under the trap of having all their tracks sounding like one big, long song". The album also features fan favourites "We're Going Out Tonight" and "Never Had So Much Fun".
At the ARIA Music Awards of 1999 in October, the group performed "Never Had So Much Fun". In 2019 Dan Condon of Double J described this as one of "7 great performances from the history of the ARIA Awards." According to the band's website, US gigs were dropped after Whalley suffered a heart attack in late 1999 and the group spent the first few months of 2000 inactive. Whalley later denied that he had had a heart attack with "a lot of things on our Web site are greatly exaggerated. There was also a thing about my having trench rot, the World War I disease, but that's not true either".
2000–2003: Shut Your Mouth to Sans Souci
In November 2000, Frenzal Rhomb returned with the album Shut Your Mouth, released on Epic Records in Australia, an offshoot of Sony. RockZone's Samuel Barker liked some tracks as "a fine template for a pop punk album" however "the majority just falls into the same formula of most punk today. It's not bad, just overplayed". The album peaked in the top 40. After six months, Sony dropped the band in mid-2001 and they signed with Epitaph Records in Australia.
In April 2002, Feltham left the group, which provided many stories about why he left, including one that he was fired after thinking that the group should incorporate synth and keyboard work. The last song he recorded with the band was a cover of Midnight Oil's "The Dead Heart" for the 2001 tribute album Power & The Passion: A Tribute to Midnight Oil. After holding auditions in Sydney, Tom Crease was announced as the new bass guitarist.
In April 2003, the band released Sans Souci, which appeared in the top 50. Jo-Ann Greene of Allmusic liked the group's outlook: "they're not bitter, just snotty about it all, as all good punks should be. And Rhomb are four of the best ... their latest set of frenzied, funny, pitiless attacks upon an uncaring planet." The initial version of the album included a bonus DVD of five tracks with live footage and music videos.
2004: Political protest, Jackie O
During 2003, Frenzal Rhomb's McDougall organised Rock Against Howard, a compilation album, by various Australian musicians as a protest against incumbent Prime Minister John Howard's government. It was released in August 2004, before the October federal election, when Howard's coalition was re-elected.
In July 2004, radio station 2Day FM presenter Jackie O was to MC at the Bassinthegrass festival in Darwin. Jackie allegedly arrived late, causing Frenzal Rhomb to cut their setlist short by several songs. She attempted to speak with the audience. In protest, McDougall began playing AC/DC's "Thunderstruck" over her voice. Jackie was upset that she was unable to finish her announcement to the audience. Whalley later accused her and other music industry personalities of pushing original Australian bands aside to make way for short-term marketable acts such as Australian Idol and Popstars contestants.
Jackie and her co-presenter, Kyle Sandilands, called Whalley on air during their next breakfast show. Whalley apologised for offending Jackie, but stood by his claims regarding the music industry. The conversation became heated as Sandilands told Whalley "Your songs being played on this network or the Triple M network... it's just not going to happen now"; to which Whalley argued that Frenzal Rhomb were almost never played on the Austereo network anyway. During the conversation, Sandilands told Whalley that he was bitter and sad. When Whalley pointed out that Sandilands is in a position to promote new Australian music but doesn't, Sandilands countered that Frenzal Rhomb is not played on the network "because it's pretty much shit". While Sandilands agreed that shows like Popstars and Australian Idol are interested in making "a quick buck", he also asserted that he doesn't "care about Australian Idol or Popstars".
Sandilands argued that Whalley should not "pick fights with people that are female in the Northern Territory". Sandilands asserted that if he himself were present, "it would have been on for young and old". Whalley argued that gender was irrelevant to the issue, and in response to Sandilands' threat of violence asked Jackie if she was aware that her security guard had threatened a band technician with violence. Sandilands said he endorsed the threat of violence. Sandilands argued to Whalley that he has to "get over it" when Whalley recommended that radio DJs should promote original Australian music. In reply, Sandilands insinuated that Frenzal Rhomb, and bands in general, suffer from a lack of support because they are not "putting [their] stuff in front of the right people".
ABC Television's Media Watch covered the exchange and presenter David Marr raised concerns about the interview: "Kyle and Jackie O are also part of a new generation of radio thugs". Patrick Joyce, general manager of Austereo in Sydney, responded to Sandilands' threats of black listing and violence, "Music content is decided by the programming directors based on research of the market... Austereo does not approve of threats being made to anyone... We have fully canvassed these issues with Kyle".
2005–2009: Jay and the Doctor and Forever Malcolm Young
Frenzal Rhomb's Whalley and McDougall worked as Jay and the Doctor on Triple J's breakfast show from January 2005 through to November 2007. Prior to their employment at Triple J, the group's music had been banned after they had earlier criticised the station on air for playing the "same 40 songs". In 2004, they were asked to perform occasional late night shifts and request segments, which developed into the breakfast show slot. Their format includes banter where they provide "quips, one-liners, slagging off each other, other bands, other breakfast announcers, listeners, Triple J, Australian Idol and St Ives. It's verbal ping pong but more discursive."
The band released Forever Malcolm Young in October 2006 – the title is a conflated reference to the 2005 song "Forever Young" by Youth Group and the name of AC/DC's guitarist, Malcolm Young – which peaked in the top 40. It provided a minor radio hit with the title track. Some controversy was expressed over the profanity in the title and lyrics of "Johnny Ramone was in a Fucking Good Band, but He Was a Cunt" (see Johnny Ramone, Ramones). Whalley's attitude to profanity and obscenity is "I often get amazed how offended people get by language, especially in Australia when its nothing you wouldn't hear in your local office or schoolyard. But we do make a point of shaking things up". Australian rock music journalist Ed Nimmervoll described them "[their] history is littered with legendary stories, perhaps true, perhaps exaggerations, but stories which fuel and match their song and album titles. Their songs are often profane, likely to poke fun at someone including themselves, hint at a social conscience, and inside all the tough talk and body jokes be hopelessly romantic."
National touring followed the album's release, along with the announcement that from November 2007 Whalley would be leaving both Frenzal Rhomb and his job at Triple J to go on a world trip with his girlfriend. Some later copies of Forever Malcolm Young contained a bonus DVD covering the band's tours from 2002 up until 2005. It is titled Sucking All Over the World. Gordy Forman plays in the Melbourne hardcore band Mindsnare. McDougall continued as The Doctor at Triple J, initially with Robbie Buck and Marieke Hardy; and, from January 2010, he has hosted the afternoon show Drive with The Doctor. By April 2009, Frenzal Rhomb were performing The Boys Are Back in Town tour with 1990s punk group Nancy Vandal as their support act.
2010–2017: Smoko at the Pet Food Factory and We Lived Like Kings...
In December 2010, Frenzal Rhomb embarked on the No Sleep Til Festival which featured punk and metal bands: Megadeth, Descendents, NOFX, Gwar and Dropkick Murphys. Frenzal Rhomb played a new song entitled "Bird Attack". In Brisbane, on the last stop of the tour, Whalley and Crease joined Descendents on-stage with other bands' singers – Al Barr (Dropkick Murphys), Fat Mike (NOFX), Matt Skiba and Derek Grant (Alkaline Trio), and Jason Allen (Descendents' road manager) – to perform "Everything Sux".
Frenzal Rhomb recorded their next album, Smoko at the Pet Food Factory in Colorado with Bill Stevenson (drummer for Descendents) producing. It was released on 19 August 2011 on Shock Records, which peaked at No. 14. The group toured Australia with Teenage Bottlerocket in September in support of the album.
In June 2012, the album 'Not So Tough Now' was certified gold by the Australia Record Industry Association, 16 years after its release.
Lead singer Jay Whalley announced on 26 February 2013 that the group was forced to cancel its recent tour after surgeons discovered and removed a pig tapeworm egg from his brain.
Drummer Gordy Foreman broke his arm in multiple places after stage diving during a performance in Perth in 2015 and spent about 18 months recovering. The band continued to play live with Kye Smith (of Local Resident Failure) filling in on drums. Smith had previously paid tribute to Frenzal Rhomb as part of his "5 Minute Drum Chronology" series on YouTube.
To celebrate the band's 25th anniversary Frenzal Rhomb toured Australia in 2016. Fans were offered the opportunity to select songs in the set list by voting for their favourite songs on the band's Facebook page. The band also released a best-of album, entitled We Lived Like Kings, We Did Anything We Wanted, on 19 August.
2017–present: Hi-Vis High Tea
Frenzal Rhomb's ninth studio album, Hi-Vis High Tea, was released on 26 May 2017 on CD, LP (vinyl) and digital download. It was once again recorded in The Blasting Room by Bill Stevenson. The album's first single, "Cunt Act," was released on the same day; as well as a national run of dates with Totally Unicorn.
After 17 years, Tom Crease departed the band in mid-2019 due to ongoing hearing problems. He was replaced by Michael "Dal" Dallinger, formerly of Newcastle punk band Local Resident Failure – coincidentally, a band named after a Frenzal Rhomb song.
Controversy
The group has generated controversy for profanity in cover art, song titles and lyrics; for the behaviour of members, on and off stage.
In July 2004, radio 2Day FM hosts Jackie O and Kyle Sandilands (themselves no strangers to controversy) threatened the band with "black-listing" from the Austereo network after a festival performance in Darwin, Australia in a tit for tat. The band had played AC/DC's "Thunderstruck" over the top of Jackie O's effort to explain her late appearance to the audience as the delay caused a further cut into the band's set time.
Band members
Current members
Jason "Jay" Whalley – lead vocals, occasional rhythm guitar, keyboards, kazoo (1992–present)
Lindsay "The Doctor" McDougall – lead guitar, backing vocals (1996–present)
Gordon "Gordy" Forman – drums (1998–present; hiatus 2015–2016)
Michael "Dal" Dallinger (AKA Dal Failure) – bass guitar, backing vocals (2019–present)
Former members
Alexis "Lex" Feltham – bass guitar, backing vocals, guitar (1992–2002)
Ben Costello – guitar (1992–1996)
Bruce Braybrooke – drums (1992–1993)
Karl Perske – drums (1993–1995)
Nat Nykyruj – drums (1995–1998)
Tom Crease – bass guitar, backing vocals (2002–2019)
Former touring musicians
Kye Smith – drums (2015–2016, occasional fill-in gigs)
Timeline
Discography
Studio albums
Coughing up a Storm (1995)
Not So Tough Now (1996)
Meet the Family (1997)
A Man's Not a Camel (1999)
Shut Your Mouth (2000)
Sans Souci (2003)
Forever Malcolm Young (2006)
Smoko at the Pet Food Factory (2011)
Hi-Vis High Tea (2017)
References
General
Note: Archived [on-line] copy has limited functionality.
Specific
External links
Official Facebook
Fat Wreck Chords
Official website, 2001 archived by PANDORA on 29 August 2001.
Frenzal Rhomb's singer Jason Whalley and guitarist Lindsay McDougall perform at Big Day Out, Melbourne, Victoria, 2005. A photo by Martin Philbey at Digital Collections by National Library of Australia
Australian punk rock groups
Fat Wreck Chords artists
Epitaph Records artists
Musical groups established in 1992
Musical groups from Sydney | true | [
"Jay and the Doctor are the on-air names of Australian radio duo Jason Whalley and Lindsay McDougall, on radio station Triple J.\n\nBest known as members of punk band Frenzal Rhomb, they performed occasional late-night shifts on Triple J until 2004. They temporarily replaced Chris Taylor and Craig Reucassel for six weeks in late 2004 while The Chaser Decides covered the federal election.\n\nOn 26 November 2004, Jay and the Doctor were announced as the hosts of the Breakfast Show in 2005. The announcement was highly built up by incumbent hosts Adam & Wil. Prior to their employment at the station, their music was banned for a time by Triple J after Frenzal Rhomb criticised the station on air for playing the \"same 40 songs\".\n\nMyf Warhurst joined Jay and the Doctor on breakfast in January 2007, to form Myf, Jay and the Doctor. Warhurst announced on 10 October 2007 that she would leave Triple J and co-host a new show with comedian Peter Helliar for Triple M Melbourne.\n\nJason \"Jay\" Whalley's last broadcast was on Friday, 23 November 2007. The Doctor continued to host the weekday breakfast shift program with Robbie Buck and Marieke Hardy Until the end of 2009. He then hosted the afternoon drive program from 3-5:30pm weekdays replacing Scott Dooley until late 2014.\n\nSegments\nSome of their on-air antics include the following segments:\n Happy Monday - Jay and The Doctor try to brighten up Monday mornings by playing an infuriating song repeatedly. On 29 August 2005, they initiated \"The Happiest Monday Ever\" prior to which they encouraged listeners to falsely appear sick in order to take the day off work and spend the morning listening to them broadcast from Jason's bed and other parts of his house. Special guests included \"The Iron Deficient Chef\" Suzy Spoon preparing a vegan breakfast.\n Agony Cox - An agony aunt section featuring Andrew Cox of the popular Melbourne indie band The Fauves, who helps give advice to selected listeners that call in with a personal problem that needs addressing.\n Dreamweaver- Listeners call up and describe recent dreams to Jason and he interprets them. Jason often parodies cold reading. At some point the segment became speedweaver, where Jason gives a short one or two sentence response before quickly moving onto the next caller. Then it became screamweaver, where Jason screams his response.\n The Friday F***wit- Jay and the doctor nominate a person, feeling, object or incident in the news that week who they think deserves particular recognition. To play up the humour, it is not always obvious and the reasoning may be quite strange. The award can not be received twice by the same person.\n Under the weather sessions- A well-known musician will teach Jay and the Doctor how to play one of their songs. Originally this was to play in the background of one of the weather readings, hence the name. Now the weather is often sung by the guest.\n\nSkits\n\nLike several other Triple J programs with comedic content, Jay and the Doctor produce short skits that are played during their program as well as at other times of day.\n\nSeries\n\n Battalion 666- An increasingly bizarre radio serial about \"HMS Beelzebub\", a fictitious ship of the Royal Navy staffed entirely of satanists. Most of the crew are also well-known celebrities. Their dialogue is made up of either (bad) impersonations from Jay or the Doctor (some examples are New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark, Corey Taylor from Slipknot, The Chemical Brothers and even fellow Triple J hosts John Safran and sometimes, Craig Reucassel), or repetitive samples of the celebrity's voice (some examples are Russell Crowe/\"Maximus\" and Billy Corgan and Jacki O stunt bum - reference to a rival broadcaster Jackie \"O\" (O'Neil)). The only regular character that is not a famous celebrity is \"The Cook\". Jay and the Doctor also appeared as themselves in the episode \"Did I Mention We Won A Logie?\". The series originated from the story that the Royal Navy would allow practising satanist crew members on board its ships and first aired during Jay and the Doctor's temporary Saturday afternoon program.\n Space Goat- A serial involving a goat in outer space. Parodies early-era sci-fi radio serials, by having a large starting and ending narration, with the 'actual' episode consisting of a single audio clip of a goat, roughly a second long. The goat sound never changes.\n Time Maniac- A serial involving an adventurer (played by fellow Triple J presenter Robbie Buck) who, due to a scientific mishap, perpetually travels to different time periods every five seconds. Every episode involves Time Maniac arriving at a turning point in history, but being thrown back through time just as he tries to mention future events.\n 7:30 Resort- A send-up of typically biased \"on-the-scene\" news reporting. This involves head anchor \"Jason Jay\" Whalley delivering the headlines poolside at a tropical resort, while on-the-scene reporter \"Radios\" The Doctor becomes involved with the situation in a comic manner.\n Musical Challenge- Claiming that they themselves prove that musicians should not talk, Jay and the Doctor propose an alternative method for interviewing musicians; by having them respond with their instruments.\n Gamblers Anonymous Help Line- A parody of a gamblers help line. Jason bullies the desperate callers into continuing gambling to win their money back.\n Flack- A parody of Triple J's current affairs program, Hack.\n Steve Tankerfield's Trafficking Report- A parody of traffic reports given from a helicopter, but reporting on drug trafficking.\n Swamp Donkey- A serial spun off from Space Goat that allows listeners to submit their own scripts using a predefined sound.\n\nOne-offs\n\n Interview and Interrogation - Following allegations by Mamdouh Habib of mistreatment while he was imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay, certain government ministers and intelligence officials were contradicting each other over whether he was interviewed or interrogated. Jay and the Doctor apply the same level of ambiguity to interviewing musical guests.\n Caring Through Swearing - Jay and the Doctor claim it is better to swear at a child than to hit them.\n Asia vs The rest of the world - Following the \"Asia vs The rest of the world\" charity cricket match, Jay and the Doctor propose a follow-up; \"Asia vs The rest of the world: The War!\" In the interest of humanity and charity.\n Tsuna-you Tsuna-me - A song by Jay and the Doctor about donations made to help the victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, claiming we do it \"so we can feel good about ourselves\". This song caused some controversy, at least on conservative talk-back radio stations .\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Jay and the Doctor program page on the ABC site. Includes selected highlights and pieces from the show which can be downloaded in MP3 format.\n\nTriple J announcers",
"\"What Happened to Us\" is a song by Australian recording artist Jessica Mauboy, featuring English recording artist Jay Sean. It was written by Sean, Josh Alexander, Billy Steinberg, Jeremy Skaller, Rob Larow, Khaled Rohaim and Israel Cruz. \"What Happened to Us\" was leaked online in October 2010, and was released on 10 March 2011, as the third single from Mauboy's second studio album, Get 'Em Girls (2010). The song received positive reviews from critics.\n\nA remix of \"What Happened to Us\" made by production team OFM, was released on 11 April 2011. A different version of the song which features Stan Walker, was released on 29 May 2011. \"What Happened to Us\" charted on the ARIA Singles Chart at number 14 and was certified platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA). An accompanying music video was directed by Mark Alston, and reminisces on a former relationship between Mauboy and Sean.\n\nProduction and release\n\n\"What Happened to Us\" was written by Josh Alexander, Billy Steinberg, Jeremy Skaller, Rob Larow, Khaled Rohaim, Israel Cruz and Jay Sean. It was produced by Skaller, Cruz, Rohaim and Bobby Bass. The song uses C, D, and B minor chords in the chorus. \"What Happened to Us\" was sent to contemporary hit radio in Australia on 14 February 2011. The cover art for the song was revealed on 22 February on Mauboy's official Facebook page. A CD release was available for purchase via her official website on 10 March, for one week only. It was released digitally the following day.\n\nReception\nMajhid Heath from ABC Online Indigenous called the song a \"Jordin Sparks-esque duet\", and wrote that it \"has a nice innocence to it that rings true to the experience of losing a first love.\" Chris Urankar from Nine to Five wrote that it as a \"mid-tempo duet ballad\" which signifies Mauboy's strength as a global player. On 21 March 2011, \"What Happened to Us\" debuted at number 30 on the ARIA Singles Chart, and peaked at number 14 the following week. The song was certified platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA), for selling 70,000 copies. \"What Happened to Us\" spent a total of ten weeks in the ARIA top fifty.\n\nMusic video\n\nBackground\nThe music video for the song was shot in the Elizabeth Bay House in Sydney on 26 November 2010. The video was shot during Sean's visit to Australia for the Summerbeatz tour. During an interview with The Daily Telegraph while on the set of the video, Sean said \"the song is sick! ... Jessica's voice is amazing and we're shooting [the video] in this ridiculously beautiful mansion overlooking the harbour.\" The video was directed by Mark Alston, who had previously directed the video for Mauboy's single \"Let Me Be Me\" (2009). It premiered on YouTube on 10 February 2011.\n\nSynopsis and reception\nThe video begins showing Mauboy who appears to be sitting on a yellow antique couch in a mansion, wearing a purple dress. As the video progresses, scenes of memories are displayed of Mauboy and her love interest, played by Sean, spending time there previously. It then cuts to the scenes where Sean appears in the main entrance room of the mansion. The final scene shows Mauboy outdoors in a gold dress, surrounded by green grass and trees. She is later joined by Sean who appears in a black suit and a white shirt, and together they sing the chorus of the song to each other. David Lim of Feed Limmy wrote that the video is \"easily the best thing our R&B princess has committed to film – ever\" and praised the \"mansion and wondrous interior décor\". He also commended Mauboy for choosing Australian talent to direct the video instead of American directors, which she had used for her previous two music videos. Since its release, the video has received over two million views on Vevo.\n\nLive performances\nMauboy performed \"What Happened to Us\" live for the first time during her YouTube Live Sessions program on 4 December 2010. She also appeared on Adam Hills in Gordon Street Tonight on 23 February 2011 for an interview and later performed the song. On 15 March 2011, Mauboy performed \"What Happened to Us\" on Sunrise. She also performed the song with Stan Walker during the Australian leg of Chris Brown's F.A.M.E. Tour in April 2011. Mauboy and Walker later performed \"What Happened to Us\" on Dancing with the Stars Australia on 29 May 2011. From November 2013 to February 2014, \"What Happened to Us\" was part of the set list of the To the End of the Earth Tour, Mauboy's second headlining tour of Australia, with Nathaniel Willemse singing Sean's part.\n\nTrack listing\n\nDigital download\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Jay Sean – 3:19\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Jay Sean (Sgt Slick Remix) – 6:33\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Jay Sean (Just Witness Remix) – 3:45\n\nCD single\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Jay Sean (Album Version) – 3:19\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Jay Sean (Sgt Slick Remix) – 6:33\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Jay Sean (OFM Remix) – 3:39\n\nDigital download – Remix\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Jay Sean (OFM Remix) – 3:38\n\nDigital download\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Stan Walker – 3:20\n\nPersonnel\nSongwriting – Josh Alexander, Billy Steinberg, Jeremy Skaller, Rob Larow, Khaled Rohaim, Israel Cruz, Jay Sean\nProduction – Jeremy Skaller, Bobby Bass\nAdditional production – Israel Cruz, Khaled Rohaim\nLead vocals – Jessica Mauboy, Jay Sean\nMixing – Phil Tan\nAdditional mixing – Damien Lewis\nMastering – Tom Coyne \nSource:\n\nCharts\n\nWeekly chart\n\nYear-end chart\n\nCertification\n\nRadio dates and release history\n\nReferences\n\n2010 songs\n2011 singles\nJessica Mauboy songs\nJay Sean songs\nSongs written by Billy Steinberg\nSongs written by Jay Sean\nSongs written by Josh Alexander\nSongs written by Israel Cruz\nVocal duets\nSony Music Australia singles\nSongs written by Khaled Rohaim"
]
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"breakfast show from January 2005 through to November 2007.",
"What was Jay and the Doctor",
"Frenzal Rhomb's Whalley and McDougall worked as Jay and the Doctor on Triple J's breakfast show"
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| C_31b6aef20b5e4ec5841e183fa3edbb37_0 | Are there any other interesting aspects about this article? | 3 | Are there any other interesting aspects about this article aside from Jay and the Doctor? | Frenzal Rhomb | Frenzal Rhomb's Whalley and McDougall worked as Jay and the Doctor on Triple J's breakfast show from January 2005 through to November 2007. Prior to their employment at Triple J, the group's music had been banned after they had earlier criticised the station on air for playing the "same 40 songs". In 2004, they were asked to perform occasional late night shifts and request segments, which developed into the breakfast show slot. Their format includes banter where they provide "quips, one-liners, slagging off each other, other bands, other breakfast announcers, listeners, Triple J, Australian Idol and St Ives. It's verbal ping pong but more discursive." The band released Forever Malcolm Young in October 2006 - the title is a conflated reference to the 2005 song "Forever Young" by Youth Group and the name of AC/DC's guitarist, Malcolm Young - which peaked in the top 40. It provided a minor radio hit with the title track. Some controversy was expressed over the profanity in the title and lyrics of "Johnny Ramone was in a Fucking Good Band, but He Was a Cunt" (see Johnny Ramone, Ramones). Whalley's attitude to profanity and obscenity is "I often get amazed how offended people get by language, especially in Australia when its nothing you wouldn't hear in your local office or schoolyard. But we do make a point of shaking things up". Australian rock music journalist Ed Nimmervoll described them "[their] history is littered with legendary stories, perhaps true, perhaps exaggerations, but stories which fuel and match their song and album titles. Their songs are often profane, likely to poke fun at someone including themselves, hint at a social conscience, and inside all the tough talk and body jokes be hopelessly romantic." National touring followed the album's release, along with the announcement that from November 2007 Whalley would be leaving both Frenzal Rhomb and his job at Triple J to go on a world trip with his girlfriend. Some later copies of Forever Malcolm Young contained a bonus DVD covering the band's tours from 2002 up until 2005. It is titled Sucking All Over the World. Gordy Forman plays in the Melbourne hardcore band Mindsnare. McDougall continued as The Doctor at Triple J, initially with Robbie Buck and Marieke Hardy; and, from January 2010, he has hosted the afternoon show Drive with The Doctor. By April 2009, Frenzal Rhomb were performing The Boys Are Back in Town tour with 1990s punk group Nancy Vandal as their support act. CANNOTANSWER | The band released Forever Malcolm Young | Frenzal Rhomb are an Australian punk rock band that formed in 1992 in Sydney. Three of the group's albums have entered the top 20 on the ARIA Albums Chart: A Man's Not a Camel (1999), Hi-Vis High Tea (2017) and Smoko at the Pet Food Factory (2011). Hi-Vis High Tea reached 9th position in the charts. The group has supported Australian tours by The Offspring, Bad Religion, NOFX, and Blink-182. Frenzal Rhomb have also toured in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, South Africa, Israel and Taiwan. The band has undergone several line-up changes, with lead vocalist Jason Whalley serving as the band's sole constant member.
History
1992–1995: Formation to Coughing Up a Storm
Frenzal Rhomb formed in 1992 in the Sydney suburb of Newtown with Alexis 'Lex' Feltham on bass guitar and Jason Whalley on vocals. Feltham and Whalley had been school mates at St Ives High School in St Ives. Whalley had commenced a Bachelor of Arts course in philosophy at Sydney University when he formed Frenzal Rhomb as a punk rock band. The band was formed to take part in a battle of the bands and at that stage was not seen as a permanent project. The name is a reference to a band member's pet rat, who in turn was named for the Fresnel rhomb, which is a prism-like device invented by the 19th century French engineer Augustin-Jean Fresnel. By 1993, the group's line-up was Feltham, Whalley, Ben Costello on guitar and Karl Perske on drums. They played at the Sydney venue for the Big Day Out in January.
In March 1994, the band issued a seven-track EP, Dick Sandwich. Its cover had "a graphic drawing of the offending flaccid appendage draped over a sesame seed bun with lashings of bloody sauce." Posters with a similar image that advertised the group had them banned at some venues. National youth radio station Triple J criticised the group as being immature and told them to "grow up". The EP was described as having "good songs but it sounds like it was recorded under a doona" and had the group banned from some radio stations and retail outlets. One of its tracks, "I Wish I Was as Credible as Roger Climpson" (aka "Roger"), attracted attention of its subject, Roger Climpson – a Seven News anchor on TV – who posed with the group for a photo. The E.P also features fan favourites "Chemotherapy", and a cover of the TV series theme "Home And Away". The E.P featured an alternate cover depicting rabbits on the flipside of the liftout to appease record stores or people who may have been offended by the original artwork. In October of that year, they released a single, "Sorry About the Ruse", on their own label, How Much Did I Fucking Pay For This Records? The group were the local support act on the Australian leg of separate tours by United States punk rockers Bad Religion, The Offspring, and Blink-182.
In March 1995, Frenzal Rhomb released their first studio album, Coughing Up a Storm, on Shock Records' sub-label Shagpile Records. Perske was replaced by Nat Nykyruj on drums before the album appeared. The album features live fan favourite "Genius". In October 1997, it was retitled Once a Jolly Swagman Always a Jolly Swagman and issued with additional tracks by the US label Liberation Records. In mid-1995, the group supported NOFX on their national tour. Fat Mike, a member of NOFX, was also the owner of Fat Wreck Chords, and he signed the band to his label, which released the 4 Litres EP in the US.
1996–2000: Not So Tough Now to A Man's Not a Camel
In July 1996, Frenzal Rhomb released their second album, Not So Tough Now, which was produced by Tony Cohen (Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, TISM, Dave Graney), Kalju Tonuma (Nick Barker, The Mavis's) and Frenzal Rhomb. Just after its appearance, Costello was replaced by Lindsay McDougall on lead guitar and backing vocals – Costello left to attend university and become an animal rights activist. In November, the group issued a CD EP, Punch in the Face and, in January 1997, performed at Big Day Out. Late that year they toured the US supporting Blink-182.
In September 1997, their third LP, Meet the Family, was released, which reached the top 40 on the ARIA Albums Chart and became their first certified gold album by ARIA. It spawned three singles, "Mr Charisma" (June), "There's Your Dad" (September), and "Mum Changed the Locks" (April 1998). The latter title refers to McDougall telling his mother he was going out to a movie when leaving for an interstate tour and returning to find his key no longer opened the front door. Also in April, Gordon "Gordy" Forman replaced Nykyruj on drums, and they toured Australia with US ska band Blue Meanies. Frenzal Rhomb were the head-liners for the Australian leg of the 1998 Vans Warped Tour and they were recruited for the US edition. A 1998 version of Meet the Family contained a bonus disc, Mongrel, that was recorded live on this US leg.
In March 1999, they released their next album, A Man's Not a Camel, which was produced by Eddie Ashworth and was supported by a nationwide tour. As from November 2011, it remains Frenzal Rhomb's highest charting album, reaching No. 11. It spawned their highest charting single, "You Are Not My Friend" (August), which reached No. 49. Allmusic's album reviewer Mike DaRonco felt "the first two songs are great in that catchy, playful pop-punk sort of way, but the rest ... fall under the trap of having all their tracks sounding like one big, long song". The album also features fan favourites "We're Going Out Tonight" and "Never Had So Much Fun".
At the ARIA Music Awards of 1999 in October, the group performed "Never Had So Much Fun". In 2019 Dan Condon of Double J described this as one of "7 great performances from the history of the ARIA Awards." According to the band's website, US gigs were dropped after Whalley suffered a heart attack in late 1999 and the group spent the first few months of 2000 inactive. Whalley later denied that he had had a heart attack with "a lot of things on our Web site are greatly exaggerated. There was also a thing about my having trench rot, the World War I disease, but that's not true either".
2000–2003: Shut Your Mouth to Sans Souci
In November 2000, Frenzal Rhomb returned with the album Shut Your Mouth, released on Epic Records in Australia, an offshoot of Sony. RockZone's Samuel Barker liked some tracks as "a fine template for a pop punk album" however "the majority just falls into the same formula of most punk today. It's not bad, just overplayed". The album peaked in the top 40. After six months, Sony dropped the band in mid-2001 and they signed with Epitaph Records in Australia.
In April 2002, Feltham left the group, which provided many stories about why he left, including one that he was fired after thinking that the group should incorporate synth and keyboard work. The last song he recorded with the band was a cover of Midnight Oil's "The Dead Heart" for the 2001 tribute album Power & The Passion: A Tribute to Midnight Oil. After holding auditions in Sydney, Tom Crease was announced as the new bass guitarist.
In April 2003, the band released Sans Souci, which appeared in the top 50. Jo-Ann Greene of Allmusic liked the group's outlook: "they're not bitter, just snotty about it all, as all good punks should be. And Rhomb are four of the best ... their latest set of frenzied, funny, pitiless attacks upon an uncaring planet." The initial version of the album included a bonus DVD of five tracks with live footage and music videos.
2004: Political protest, Jackie O
During 2003, Frenzal Rhomb's McDougall organised Rock Against Howard, a compilation album, by various Australian musicians as a protest against incumbent Prime Minister John Howard's government. It was released in August 2004, before the October federal election, when Howard's coalition was re-elected.
In July 2004, radio station 2Day FM presenter Jackie O was to MC at the Bassinthegrass festival in Darwin. Jackie allegedly arrived late, causing Frenzal Rhomb to cut their setlist short by several songs. She attempted to speak with the audience. In protest, McDougall began playing AC/DC's "Thunderstruck" over her voice. Jackie was upset that she was unable to finish her announcement to the audience. Whalley later accused her and other music industry personalities of pushing original Australian bands aside to make way for short-term marketable acts such as Australian Idol and Popstars contestants.
Jackie and her co-presenter, Kyle Sandilands, called Whalley on air during their next breakfast show. Whalley apologised for offending Jackie, but stood by his claims regarding the music industry. The conversation became heated as Sandilands told Whalley "Your songs being played on this network or the Triple M network... it's just not going to happen now"; to which Whalley argued that Frenzal Rhomb were almost never played on the Austereo network anyway. During the conversation, Sandilands told Whalley that he was bitter and sad. When Whalley pointed out that Sandilands is in a position to promote new Australian music but doesn't, Sandilands countered that Frenzal Rhomb is not played on the network "because it's pretty much shit". While Sandilands agreed that shows like Popstars and Australian Idol are interested in making "a quick buck", he also asserted that he doesn't "care about Australian Idol or Popstars".
Sandilands argued that Whalley should not "pick fights with people that are female in the Northern Territory". Sandilands asserted that if he himself were present, "it would have been on for young and old". Whalley argued that gender was irrelevant to the issue, and in response to Sandilands' threat of violence asked Jackie if she was aware that her security guard had threatened a band technician with violence. Sandilands said he endorsed the threat of violence. Sandilands argued to Whalley that he has to "get over it" when Whalley recommended that radio DJs should promote original Australian music. In reply, Sandilands insinuated that Frenzal Rhomb, and bands in general, suffer from a lack of support because they are not "putting [their] stuff in front of the right people".
ABC Television's Media Watch covered the exchange and presenter David Marr raised concerns about the interview: "Kyle and Jackie O are also part of a new generation of radio thugs". Patrick Joyce, general manager of Austereo in Sydney, responded to Sandilands' threats of black listing and violence, "Music content is decided by the programming directors based on research of the market... Austereo does not approve of threats being made to anyone... We have fully canvassed these issues with Kyle".
2005–2009: Jay and the Doctor and Forever Malcolm Young
Frenzal Rhomb's Whalley and McDougall worked as Jay and the Doctor on Triple J's breakfast show from January 2005 through to November 2007. Prior to their employment at Triple J, the group's music had been banned after they had earlier criticised the station on air for playing the "same 40 songs". In 2004, they were asked to perform occasional late night shifts and request segments, which developed into the breakfast show slot. Their format includes banter where they provide "quips, one-liners, slagging off each other, other bands, other breakfast announcers, listeners, Triple J, Australian Idol and St Ives. It's verbal ping pong but more discursive."
The band released Forever Malcolm Young in October 2006 – the title is a conflated reference to the 2005 song "Forever Young" by Youth Group and the name of AC/DC's guitarist, Malcolm Young – which peaked in the top 40. It provided a minor radio hit with the title track. Some controversy was expressed over the profanity in the title and lyrics of "Johnny Ramone was in a Fucking Good Band, but He Was a Cunt" (see Johnny Ramone, Ramones). Whalley's attitude to profanity and obscenity is "I often get amazed how offended people get by language, especially in Australia when its nothing you wouldn't hear in your local office or schoolyard. But we do make a point of shaking things up". Australian rock music journalist Ed Nimmervoll described them "[their] history is littered with legendary stories, perhaps true, perhaps exaggerations, but stories which fuel and match their song and album titles. Their songs are often profane, likely to poke fun at someone including themselves, hint at a social conscience, and inside all the tough talk and body jokes be hopelessly romantic."
National touring followed the album's release, along with the announcement that from November 2007 Whalley would be leaving both Frenzal Rhomb and his job at Triple J to go on a world trip with his girlfriend. Some later copies of Forever Malcolm Young contained a bonus DVD covering the band's tours from 2002 up until 2005. It is titled Sucking All Over the World. Gordy Forman plays in the Melbourne hardcore band Mindsnare. McDougall continued as The Doctor at Triple J, initially with Robbie Buck and Marieke Hardy; and, from January 2010, he has hosted the afternoon show Drive with The Doctor. By April 2009, Frenzal Rhomb were performing The Boys Are Back in Town tour with 1990s punk group Nancy Vandal as their support act.
2010–2017: Smoko at the Pet Food Factory and We Lived Like Kings...
In December 2010, Frenzal Rhomb embarked on the No Sleep Til Festival which featured punk and metal bands: Megadeth, Descendents, NOFX, Gwar and Dropkick Murphys. Frenzal Rhomb played a new song entitled "Bird Attack". In Brisbane, on the last stop of the tour, Whalley and Crease joined Descendents on-stage with other bands' singers – Al Barr (Dropkick Murphys), Fat Mike (NOFX), Matt Skiba and Derek Grant (Alkaline Trio), and Jason Allen (Descendents' road manager) – to perform "Everything Sux".
Frenzal Rhomb recorded their next album, Smoko at the Pet Food Factory in Colorado with Bill Stevenson (drummer for Descendents) producing. It was released on 19 August 2011 on Shock Records, which peaked at No. 14. The group toured Australia with Teenage Bottlerocket in September in support of the album.
In June 2012, the album 'Not So Tough Now' was certified gold by the Australia Record Industry Association, 16 years after its release.
Lead singer Jay Whalley announced on 26 February 2013 that the group was forced to cancel its recent tour after surgeons discovered and removed a pig tapeworm egg from his brain.
Drummer Gordy Foreman broke his arm in multiple places after stage diving during a performance in Perth in 2015 and spent about 18 months recovering. The band continued to play live with Kye Smith (of Local Resident Failure) filling in on drums. Smith had previously paid tribute to Frenzal Rhomb as part of his "5 Minute Drum Chronology" series on YouTube.
To celebrate the band's 25th anniversary Frenzal Rhomb toured Australia in 2016. Fans were offered the opportunity to select songs in the set list by voting for their favourite songs on the band's Facebook page. The band also released a best-of album, entitled We Lived Like Kings, We Did Anything We Wanted, on 19 August.
2017–present: Hi-Vis High Tea
Frenzal Rhomb's ninth studio album, Hi-Vis High Tea, was released on 26 May 2017 on CD, LP (vinyl) and digital download. It was once again recorded in The Blasting Room by Bill Stevenson. The album's first single, "Cunt Act," was released on the same day; as well as a national run of dates with Totally Unicorn.
After 17 years, Tom Crease departed the band in mid-2019 due to ongoing hearing problems. He was replaced by Michael "Dal" Dallinger, formerly of Newcastle punk band Local Resident Failure – coincidentally, a band named after a Frenzal Rhomb song.
Controversy
The group has generated controversy for profanity in cover art, song titles and lyrics; for the behaviour of members, on and off stage.
In July 2004, radio 2Day FM hosts Jackie O and Kyle Sandilands (themselves no strangers to controversy) threatened the band with "black-listing" from the Austereo network after a festival performance in Darwin, Australia in a tit for tat. The band had played AC/DC's "Thunderstruck" over the top of Jackie O's effort to explain her late appearance to the audience as the delay caused a further cut into the band's set time.
Band members
Current members
Jason "Jay" Whalley – lead vocals, occasional rhythm guitar, keyboards, kazoo (1992–present)
Lindsay "The Doctor" McDougall – lead guitar, backing vocals (1996–present)
Gordon "Gordy" Forman – drums (1998–present; hiatus 2015–2016)
Michael "Dal" Dallinger (AKA Dal Failure) – bass guitar, backing vocals (2019–present)
Former members
Alexis "Lex" Feltham – bass guitar, backing vocals, guitar (1992–2002)
Ben Costello – guitar (1992–1996)
Bruce Braybrooke – drums (1992–1993)
Karl Perske – drums (1993–1995)
Nat Nykyruj – drums (1995–1998)
Tom Crease – bass guitar, backing vocals (2002–2019)
Former touring musicians
Kye Smith – drums (2015–2016, occasional fill-in gigs)
Timeline
Discography
Studio albums
Coughing up a Storm (1995)
Not So Tough Now (1996)
Meet the Family (1997)
A Man's Not a Camel (1999)
Shut Your Mouth (2000)
Sans Souci (2003)
Forever Malcolm Young (2006)
Smoko at the Pet Food Factory (2011)
Hi-Vis High Tea (2017)
References
General
Note: Archived [on-line] copy has limited functionality.
Specific
External links
Official Facebook
Fat Wreck Chords
Official website, 2001 archived by PANDORA on 29 August 2001.
Frenzal Rhomb's singer Jason Whalley and guitarist Lindsay McDougall perform at Big Day Out, Melbourne, Victoria, 2005. A photo by Martin Philbey at Digital Collections by National Library of Australia
Australian punk rock groups
Fat Wreck Chords artists
Epitaph Records artists
Musical groups established in 1992
Musical groups from Sydney | true | [
"Přírodní park Třebíčsko (before Oblast klidu Třebíčsko) is a natural park near Třebíč in the Czech Republic. There are many interesting plants. The park was founded in 1983.\n\nKobylinec and Ptáčovský kopeček\n\nKobylinec is a natural monument situated ca 0,5 km from the village of Trnava.\nThe area of this monument is 0,44 ha. Pulsatilla grandis can be found here and in the Ptáčovský kopeček park near Ptáčov near Třebíč. Both monuments are very popular for tourists.\n\nPonds\n\nIn the natural park there are some interesting ponds such as Velký Bor, Malý Bor, Buršík near Přeckov and a brook Březinka. Dams on the brook are examples of European beaver activity.\n\nSyenitové skály near Pocoucov\n\nSyenitové skály (rocks of syenit) near Pocoucov is one of famed locations. There are interesting granite boulders. The area of the reservation is 0,77 ha.\n\nExternal links\nParts of this article or all article was translated from Czech. The original article is :cs:Přírodní park Třebíčsko.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nNature near the village Trnava which is there\n\nTřebíč\nParks in the Czech Republic\nTourist attractions in the Vysočina Region",
"Damn Interesting is an independent website founded by Alan Bellows in 2005. The website presents true stories from science, history, and psychology, primarily as long-form articles, often illustrated with original artwork. Works are written by various authors, and published at irregular intervals. The website openly rejects advertising, relying on reader and listener donations to cover operating costs.\n\nAs of October 2012, each article is also published as a podcast under the same name. In November 2019, a second podcast was launched under the title Damn Interesting Week, featuring unscripted commentary on an assortment of news articles featured on the website's \"Curated Links\" section that week. In mid-2020, a third podcast called Damn Interesting Curio Cabinet began highlighting the website's periodic short-form articles in the same radioplay format as the original podcast.\n\nIn July 2009, Damn Interesting published the print book Alien Hand Syndrome through Workman Publishing. It contains some favorites from the site and some exclusive content.\n\nAwards and recognition \nIn August 2007, PC Magazine named Damn Interesting one of the \"Top 100 Undiscovered Web Sites\".\nThe article \"The Zero-Armed Bandit\" by Alan Bellows won a 2015 Sidney Award from David Brooks in The New York Times.\nThe article \"Ghoulish Acts and Dastardly Deeds\" by Alan Bellows was cited as \"nonfiction journalism from 2017 that will stand the test of time\" by Conor Friedersdorf in The Atlantic.\nThe article \"Dupes and Duplicity\" by Jennifer Lee Noonan won a 2020 Sidney Award from David Brooks in the New York Times.\n\nAccusing The Dollop of plagiarism \n\nOn July 9, 2015, Bellows posted an open letter accusing The Dollop, a comedy podcast about history, of plagiarism due to their repeated use of verbatim text from Damn Interesting articles without permission or attribution. Dave Anthony, the writer of The Dollop, responded on reddit, admitting to using Damn Interesting content, but claiming that the use was protected by fair use, and that \"historical facts are not copyrightable.\" In an article about the controversy on Plagiarism Today, Jonathan Bailey concluded, \"Any way one looks at it, The Dollop failed its ethical obligations to all of the people, not just those writing for Damn Interesting, who put in the time, energy and expertise into writing the original content upon which their show is based.\"\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n Official website\n\n2005 podcast debuts"
]
|
[
"Frenzal Rhomb",
"2005-2009: Jay and the Doctor and Forever Malcolm Young",
"What happen in 2005",
"breakfast show from January 2005 through to November 2007.",
"What was Jay and the Doctor",
"Frenzal Rhomb's Whalley and McDougall worked as Jay and the Doctor on Triple J's breakfast show",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"The band released Forever Malcolm Young"
]
| C_31b6aef20b5e4ec5841e183fa3edbb37_0 | How did it do on the charts? | 4 | How did Forever Malcolm Young do on the charts? | Frenzal Rhomb | Frenzal Rhomb's Whalley and McDougall worked as Jay and the Doctor on Triple J's breakfast show from January 2005 through to November 2007. Prior to their employment at Triple J, the group's music had been banned after they had earlier criticised the station on air for playing the "same 40 songs". In 2004, they were asked to perform occasional late night shifts and request segments, which developed into the breakfast show slot. Their format includes banter where they provide "quips, one-liners, slagging off each other, other bands, other breakfast announcers, listeners, Triple J, Australian Idol and St Ives. It's verbal ping pong but more discursive." The band released Forever Malcolm Young in October 2006 - the title is a conflated reference to the 2005 song "Forever Young" by Youth Group and the name of AC/DC's guitarist, Malcolm Young - which peaked in the top 40. It provided a minor radio hit with the title track. Some controversy was expressed over the profanity in the title and lyrics of "Johnny Ramone was in a Fucking Good Band, but He Was a Cunt" (see Johnny Ramone, Ramones). Whalley's attitude to profanity and obscenity is "I often get amazed how offended people get by language, especially in Australia when its nothing you wouldn't hear in your local office or schoolyard. But we do make a point of shaking things up". Australian rock music journalist Ed Nimmervoll described them "[their] history is littered with legendary stories, perhaps true, perhaps exaggerations, but stories which fuel and match their song and album titles. Their songs are often profane, likely to poke fun at someone including themselves, hint at a social conscience, and inside all the tough talk and body jokes be hopelessly romantic." National touring followed the album's release, along with the announcement that from November 2007 Whalley would be leaving both Frenzal Rhomb and his job at Triple J to go on a world trip with his girlfriend. Some later copies of Forever Malcolm Young contained a bonus DVD covering the band's tours from 2002 up until 2005. It is titled Sucking All Over the World. Gordy Forman plays in the Melbourne hardcore band Mindsnare. McDougall continued as The Doctor at Triple J, initially with Robbie Buck and Marieke Hardy; and, from January 2010, he has hosted the afternoon show Drive with The Doctor. By April 2009, Frenzal Rhomb were performing The Boys Are Back in Town tour with 1990s punk group Nancy Vandal as their support act. CANNOTANSWER | peaked in the top 40. | Frenzal Rhomb are an Australian punk rock band that formed in 1992 in Sydney. Three of the group's albums have entered the top 20 on the ARIA Albums Chart: A Man's Not a Camel (1999), Hi-Vis High Tea (2017) and Smoko at the Pet Food Factory (2011). Hi-Vis High Tea reached 9th position in the charts. The group has supported Australian tours by The Offspring, Bad Religion, NOFX, and Blink-182. Frenzal Rhomb have also toured in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, South Africa, Israel and Taiwan. The band has undergone several line-up changes, with lead vocalist Jason Whalley serving as the band's sole constant member.
History
1992–1995: Formation to Coughing Up a Storm
Frenzal Rhomb formed in 1992 in the Sydney suburb of Newtown with Alexis 'Lex' Feltham on bass guitar and Jason Whalley on vocals. Feltham and Whalley had been school mates at St Ives High School in St Ives. Whalley had commenced a Bachelor of Arts course in philosophy at Sydney University when he formed Frenzal Rhomb as a punk rock band. The band was formed to take part in a battle of the bands and at that stage was not seen as a permanent project. The name is a reference to a band member's pet rat, who in turn was named for the Fresnel rhomb, which is a prism-like device invented by the 19th century French engineer Augustin-Jean Fresnel. By 1993, the group's line-up was Feltham, Whalley, Ben Costello on guitar and Karl Perske on drums. They played at the Sydney venue for the Big Day Out in January.
In March 1994, the band issued a seven-track EP, Dick Sandwich. Its cover had "a graphic drawing of the offending flaccid appendage draped over a sesame seed bun with lashings of bloody sauce." Posters with a similar image that advertised the group had them banned at some venues. National youth radio station Triple J criticised the group as being immature and told them to "grow up". The EP was described as having "good songs but it sounds like it was recorded under a doona" and had the group banned from some radio stations and retail outlets. One of its tracks, "I Wish I Was as Credible as Roger Climpson" (aka "Roger"), attracted attention of its subject, Roger Climpson – a Seven News anchor on TV – who posed with the group for a photo. The E.P also features fan favourites "Chemotherapy", and a cover of the TV series theme "Home And Away". The E.P featured an alternate cover depicting rabbits on the flipside of the liftout to appease record stores or people who may have been offended by the original artwork. In October of that year, they released a single, "Sorry About the Ruse", on their own label, How Much Did I Fucking Pay For This Records? The group were the local support act on the Australian leg of separate tours by United States punk rockers Bad Religion, The Offspring, and Blink-182.
In March 1995, Frenzal Rhomb released their first studio album, Coughing Up a Storm, on Shock Records' sub-label Shagpile Records. Perske was replaced by Nat Nykyruj on drums before the album appeared. The album features live fan favourite "Genius". In October 1997, it was retitled Once a Jolly Swagman Always a Jolly Swagman and issued with additional tracks by the US label Liberation Records. In mid-1995, the group supported NOFX on their national tour. Fat Mike, a member of NOFX, was also the owner of Fat Wreck Chords, and he signed the band to his label, which released the 4 Litres EP in the US.
1996–2000: Not So Tough Now to A Man's Not a Camel
In July 1996, Frenzal Rhomb released their second album, Not So Tough Now, which was produced by Tony Cohen (Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, TISM, Dave Graney), Kalju Tonuma (Nick Barker, The Mavis's) and Frenzal Rhomb. Just after its appearance, Costello was replaced by Lindsay McDougall on lead guitar and backing vocals – Costello left to attend university and become an animal rights activist. In November, the group issued a CD EP, Punch in the Face and, in January 1997, performed at Big Day Out. Late that year they toured the US supporting Blink-182.
In September 1997, their third LP, Meet the Family, was released, which reached the top 40 on the ARIA Albums Chart and became their first certified gold album by ARIA. It spawned three singles, "Mr Charisma" (June), "There's Your Dad" (September), and "Mum Changed the Locks" (April 1998). The latter title refers to McDougall telling his mother he was going out to a movie when leaving for an interstate tour and returning to find his key no longer opened the front door. Also in April, Gordon "Gordy" Forman replaced Nykyruj on drums, and they toured Australia with US ska band Blue Meanies. Frenzal Rhomb were the head-liners for the Australian leg of the 1998 Vans Warped Tour and they were recruited for the US edition. A 1998 version of Meet the Family contained a bonus disc, Mongrel, that was recorded live on this US leg.
In March 1999, they released their next album, A Man's Not a Camel, which was produced by Eddie Ashworth and was supported by a nationwide tour. As from November 2011, it remains Frenzal Rhomb's highest charting album, reaching No. 11. It spawned their highest charting single, "You Are Not My Friend" (August), which reached No. 49. Allmusic's album reviewer Mike DaRonco felt "the first two songs are great in that catchy, playful pop-punk sort of way, but the rest ... fall under the trap of having all their tracks sounding like one big, long song". The album also features fan favourites "We're Going Out Tonight" and "Never Had So Much Fun".
At the ARIA Music Awards of 1999 in October, the group performed "Never Had So Much Fun". In 2019 Dan Condon of Double J described this as one of "7 great performances from the history of the ARIA Awards." According to the band's website, US gigs were dropped after Whalley suffered a heart attack in late 1999 and the group spent the first few months of 2000 inactive. Whalley later denied that he had had a heart attack with "a lot of things on our Web site are greatly exaggerated. There was also a thing about my having trench rot, the World War I disease, but that's not true either".
2000–2003: Shut Your Mouth to Sans Souci
In November 2000, Frenzal Rhomb returned with the album Shut Your Mouth, released on Epic Records in Australia, an offshoot of Sony. RockZone's Samuel Barker liked some tracks as "a fine template for a pop punk album" however "the majority just falls into the same formula of most punk today. It's not bad, just overplayed". The album peaked in the top 40. After six months, Sony dropped the band in mid-2001 and they signed with Epitaph Records in Australia.
In April 2002, Feltham left the group, which provided many stories about why he left, including one that he was fired after thinking that the group should incorporate synth and keyboard work. The last song he recorded with the band was a cover of Midnight Oil's "The Dead Heart" for the 2001 tribute album Power & The Passion: A Tribute to Midnight Oil. After holding auditions in Sydney, Tom Crease was announced as the new bass guitarist.
In April 2003, the band released Sans Souci, which appeared in the top 50. Jo-Ann Greene of Allmusic liked the group's outlook: "they're not bitter, just snotty about it all, as all good punks should be. And Rhomb are four of the best ... their latest set of frenzied, funny, pitiless attacks upon an uncaring planet." The initial version of the album included a bonus DVD of five tracks with live footage and music videos.
2004: Political protest, Jackie O
During 2003, Frenzal Rhomb's McDougall organised Rock Against Howard, a compilation album, by various Australian musicians as a protest against incumbent Prime Minister John Howard's government. It was released in August 2004, before the October federal election, when Howard's coalition was re-elected.
In July 2004, radio station 2Day FM presenter Jackie O was to MC at the Bassinthegrass festival in Darwin. Jackie allegedly arrived late, causing Frenzal Rhomb to cut their setlist short by several songs. She attempted to speak with the audience. In protest, McDougall began playing AC/DC's "Thunderstruck" over her voice. Jackie was upset that she was unable to finish her announcement to the audience. Whalley later accused her and other music industry personalities of pushing original Australian bands aside to make way for short-term marketable acts such as Australian Idol and Popstars contestants.
Jackie and her co-presenter, Kyle Sandilands, called Whalley on air during their next breakfast show. Whalley apologised for offending Jackie, but stood by his claims regarding the music industry. The conversation became heated as Sandilands told Whalley "Your songs being played on this network or the Triple M network... it's just not going to happen now"; to which Whalley argued that Frenzal Rhomb were almost never played on the Austereo network anyway. During the conversation, Sandilands told Whalley that he was bitter and sad. When Whalley pointed out that Sandilands is in a position to promote new Australian music but doesn't, Sandilands countered that Frenzal Rhomb is not played on the network "because it's pretty much shit". While Sandilands agreed that shows like Popstars and Australian Idol are interested in making "a quick buck", he also asserted that he doesn't "care about Australian Idol or Popstars".
Sandilands argued that Whalley should not "pick fights with people that are female in the Northern Territory". Sandilands asserted that if he himself were present, "it would have been on for young and old". Whalley argued that gender was irrelevant to the issue, and in response to Sandilands' threat of violence asked Jackie if she was aware that her security guard had threatened a band technician with violence. Sandilands said he endorsed the threat of violence. Sandilands argued to Whalley that he has to "get over it" when Whalley recommended that radio DJs should promote original Australian music. In reply, Sandilands insinuated that Frenzal Rhomb, and bands in general, suffer from a lack of support because they are not "putting [their] stuff in front of the right people".
ABC Television's Media Watch covered the exchange and presenter David Marr raised concerns about the interview: "Kyle and Jackie O are also part of a new generation of radio thugs". Patrick Joyce, general manager of Austereo in Sydney, responded to Sandilands' threats of black listing and violence, "Music content is decided by the programming directors based on research of the market... Austereo does not approve of threats being made to anyone... We have fully canvassed these issues with Kyle".
2005–2009: Jay and the Doctor and Forever Malcolm Young
Frenzal Rhomb's Whalley and McDougall worked as Jay and the Doctor on Triple J's breakfast show from January 2005 through to November 2007. Prior to their employment at Triple J, the group's music had been banned after they had earlier criticised the station on air for playing the "same 40 songs". In 2004, they were asked to perform occasional late night shifts and request segments, which developed into the breakfast show slot. Their format includes banter where they provide "quips, one-liners, slagging off each other, other bands, other breakfast announcers, listeners, Triple J, Australian Idol and St Ives. It's verbal ping pong but more discursive."
The band released Forever Malcolm Young in October 2006 – the title is a conflated reference to the 2005 song "Forever Young" by Youth Group and the name of AC/DC's guitarist, Malcolm Young – which peaked in the top 40. It provided a minor radio hit with the title track. Some controversy was expressed over the profanity in the title and lyrics of "Johnny Ramone was in a Fucking Good Band, but He Was a Cunt" (see Johnny Ramone, Ramones). Whalley's attitude to profanity and obscenity is "I often get amazed how offended people get by language, especially in Australia when its nothing you wouldn't hear in your local office or schoolyard. But we do make a point of shaking things up". Australian rock music journalist Ed Nimmervoll described them "[their] history is littered with legendary stories, perhaps true, perhaps exaggerations, but stories which fuel and match their song and album titles. Their songs are often profane, likely to poke fun at someone including themselves, hint at a social conscience, and inside all the tough talk and body jokes be hopelessly romantic."
National touring followed the album's release, along with the announcement that from November 2007 Whalley would be leaving both Frenzal Rhomb and his job at Triple J to go on a world trip with his girlfriend. Some later copies of Forever Malcolm Young contained a bonus DVD covering the band's tours from 2002 up until 2005. It is titled Sucking All Over the World. Gordy Forman plays in the Melbourne hardcore band Mindsnare. McDougall continued as The Doctor at Triple J, initially with Robbie Buck and Marieke Hardy; and, from January 2010, he has hosted the afternoon show Drive with The Doctor. By April 2009, Frenzal Rhomb were performing The Boys Are Back in Town tour with 1990s punk group Nancy Vandal as their support act.
2010–2017: Smoko at the Pet Food Factory and We Lived Like Kings...
In December 2010, Frenzal Rhomb embarked on the No Sleep Til Festival which featured punk and metal bands: Megadeth, Descendents, NOFX, Gwar and Dropkick Murphys. Frenzal Rhomb played a new song entitled "Bird Attack". In Brisbane, on the last stop of the tour, Whalley and Crease joined Descendents on-stage with other bands' singers – Al Barr (Dropkick Murphys), Fat Mike (NOFX), Matt Skiba and Derek Grant (Alkaline Trio), and Jason Allen (Descendents' road manager) – to perform "Everything Sux".
Frenzal Rhomb recorded their next album, Smoko at the Pet Food Factory in Colorado with Bill Stevenson (drummer for Descendents) producing. It was released on 19 August 2011 on Shock Records, which peaked at No. 14. The group toured Australia with Teenage Bottlerocket in September in support of the album.
In June 2012, the album 'Not So Tough Now' was certified gold by the Australia Record Industry Association, 16 years after its release.
Lead singer Jay Whalley announced on 26 February 2013 that the group was forced to cancel its recent tour after surgeons discovered and removed a pig tapeworm egg from his brain.
Drummer Gordy Foreman broke his arm in multiple places after stage diving during a performance in Perth in 2015 and spent about 18 months recovering. The band continued to play live with Kye Smith (of Local Resident Failure) filling in on drums. Smith had previously paid tribute to Frenzal Rhomb as part of his "5 Minute Drum Chronology" series on YouTube.
To celebrate the band's 25th anniversary Frenzal Rhomb toured Australia in 2016. Fans were offered the opportunity to select songs in the set list by voting for their favourite songs on the band's Facebook page. The band also released a best-of album, entitled We Lived Like Kings, We Did Anything We Wanted, on 19 August.
2017–present: Hi-Vis High Tea
Frenzal Rhomb's ninth studio album, Hi-Vis High Tea, was released on 26 May 2017 on CD, LP (vinyl) and digital download. It was once again recorded in The Blasting Room by Bill Stevenson. The album's first single, "Cunt Act," was released on the same day; as well as a national run of dates with Totally Unicorn.
After 17 years, Tom Crease departed the band in mid-2019 due to ongoing hearing problems. He was replaced by Michael "Dal" Dallinger, formerly of Newcastle punk band Local Resident Failure – coincidentally, a band named after a Frenzal Rhomb song.
Controversy
The group has generated controversy for profanity in cover art, song titles and lyrics; for the behaviour of members, on and off stage.
In July 2004, radio 2Day FM hosts Jackie O and Kyle Sandilands (themselves no strangers to controversy) threatened the band with "black-listing" from the Austereo network after a festival performance in Darwin, Australia in a tit for tat. The band had played AC/DC's "Thunderstruck" over the top of Jackie O's effort to explain her late appearance to the audience as the delay caused a further cut into the band's set time.
Band members
Current members
Jason "Jay" Whalley – lead vocals, occasional rhythm guitar, keyboards, kazoo (1992–present)
Lindsay "The Doctor" McDougall – lead guitar, backing vocals (1996–present)
Gordon "Gordy" Forman – drums (1998–present; hiatus 2015–2016)
Michael "Dal" Dallinger (AKA Dal Failure) – bass guitar, backing vocals (2019–present)
Former members
Alexis "Lex" Feltham – bass guitar, backing vocals, guitar (1992–2002)
Ben Costello – guitar (1992–1996)
Bruce Braybrooke – drums (1992–1993)
Karl Perske – drums (1993–1995)
Nat Nykyruj – drums (1995–1998)
Tom Crease – bass guitar, backing vocals (2002–2019)
Former touring musicians
Kye Smith – drums (2015–2016, occasional fill-in gigs)
Timeline
Discography
Studio albums
Coughing up a Storm (1995)
Not So Tough Now (1996)
Meet the Family (1997)
A Man's Not a Camel (1999)
Shut Your Mouth (2000)
Sans Souci (2003)
Forever Malcolm Young (2006)
Smoko at the Pet Food Factory (2011)
Hi-Vis High Tea (2017)
References
General
Note: Archived [on-line] copy has limited functionality.
Specific
External links
Official Facebook
Fat Wreck Chords
Official website, 2001 archived by PANDORA on 29 August 2001.
Frenzal Rhomb's singer Jason Whalley and guitarist Lindsay McDougall perform at Big Day Out, Melbourne, Victoria, 2005. A photo by Martin Philbey at Digital Collections by National Library of Australia
Australian punk rock groups
Fat Wreck Chords artists
Epitaph Records artists
Musical groups established in 1992
Musical groups from Sydney | false | [
"This Is How We Do It is the debut studio album by Montell Jordan. The album peaked at #12 on the Billboard 200 and #4 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and was certified platinum. The album also featured the single \"This Is How We Do It\", which made it to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, #1 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks and #1 on the Rhythmic Top 40. Another single, \"Somethin' 4 da Honeyz\", peaked at #21 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #18 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks chart.\n\nTrack listing\n\nCharts\n\nWeekly charts\n\nYear-end charts\n\nReferences\n\nMontell Jordan albums\n1995 debut albums\nDef Jam Recordings albums",
"\"Roll On\" is a song by British girl group Mis-Teeq. Produced by Blacksmith, it was recorded for the band's debut album, Lickin' on Both Sides (2001). The song was released on a double A-single along with a cover version of Montell Jordan's \"This Is How We Do It\" on 17 June 2002, marking the album's final single. Upon its release, it became another top-10 success for the band on the UK Singles Chart, peaking at number seven.\n\nMusic video\nInstead of filming two separate music videos for the double A-side single, one music video was filmed combining both songs. The video opens with \"Roll On\", starting with a group of men playing basketball in a court. The three members of Mis-Teeq (Alesha Dixon, Su-Elise Nash and Sabrina Washington) arrive in a lowrider and watch the men play basketball, and occasionally join in. Then it changes to dusk and cuts to the single \"This Is How We Do It\". The music video was filmed in various parts of Los Angeles, California in the US.\n\nTrack listings\n\nUK CD single\n \"Roll On\" (Rishi Rich BhangraHop edit)\n \"This Is How We Do It\" (Rishi Rich Mayfair edit)\n \"Roll On\" / \"This Is How We Do It\" (video)\n\nUK cassette single\n \"Roll On\" (Rishi Rich BhangraHop edit)\n \"This Is How We Do It\" (Rishi Rich Mayfair edit)\n \"Roll On\" (Rishi Rich radio mix)\n\nEuropean CD single\n \"Roll On\" (Rishi Rich BhangraHop edit) – 3:45\n \"This Is How We Do It\" (Rishi Rich Mayfair edit) – 3:27\n\nAustralian CD single\n \"Roll On\" (Rishi Rich radio mix)\n \"This Is How We Do It\" (Rishi Rich Mayfair edit)\n \"Roll On\" (Blacksmith Olde Skool mix)\n \"This Is How We Do It\" (Mayfair club rub)\n \"Roll On\" (Rishi Rich club mix)\n\nCharts\nAll entries charted with \"This Is How We Do It\" except where noted.\n\nWeekly charts\n\nYear-end charts\n\nReferences\n\n2001 songs\n2002 singles\nMis-Teeq songs\nTelstar Records singles"
]
|
[
"Frenzal Rhomb",
"2005-2009: Jay and the Doctor and Forever Malcolm Young",
"What happen in 2005",
"breakfast show from January 2005 through to November 2007.",
"What was Jay and the Doctor",
"Frenzal Rhomb's Whalley and McDougall worked as Jay and the Doctor on Triple J's breakfast show",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"The band released Forever Malcolm Young",
"How did it do on the charts?",
"peaked in the top 40."
]
| C_31b6aef20b5e4ec5841e183fa3edbb37_0 | What else happen album wise | 5 | What else happened album wise aside from Forever Malcolm Young peaking in the top 40? | Frenzal Rhomb | Frenzal Rhomb's Whalley and McDougall worked as Jay and the Doctor on Triple J's breakfast show from January 2005 through to November 2007. Prior to their employment at Triple J, the group's music had been banned after they had earlier criticised the station on air for playing the "same 40 songs". In 2004, they were asked to perform occasional late night shifts and request segments, which developed into the breakfast show slot. Their format includes banter where they provide "quips, one-liners, slagging off each other, other bands, other breakfast announcers, listeners, Triple J, Australian Idol and St Ives. It's verbal ping pong but more discursive." The band released Forever Malcolm Young in October 2006 - the title is a conflated reference to the 2005 song "Forever Young" by Youth Group and the name of AC/DC's guitarist, Malcolm Young - which peaked in the top 40. It provided a minor radio hit with the title track. Some controversy was expressed over the profanity in the title and lyrics of "Johnny Ramone was in a Fucking Good Band, but He Was a Cunt" (see Johnny Ramone, Ramones). Whalley's attitude to profanity and obscenity is "I often get amazed how offended people get by language, especially in Australia when its nothing you wouldn't hear in your local office or schoolyard. But we do make a point of shaking things up". Australian rock music journalist Ed Nimmervoll described them "[their] history is littered with legendary stories, perhaps true, perhaps exaggerations, but stories which fuel and match their song and album titles. Their songs are often profane, likely to poke fun at someone including themselves, hint at a social conscience, and inside all the tough talk and body jokes be hopelessly romantic." National touring followed the album's release, along with the announcement that from November 2007 Whalley would be leaving both Frenzal Rhomb and his job at Triple J to go on a world trip with his girlfriend. Some later copies of Forever Malcolm Young contained a bonus DVD covering the band's tours from 2002 up until 2005. It is titled Sucking All Over the World. Gordy Forman plays in the Melbourne hardcore band Mindsnare. McDougall continued as The Doctor at Triple J, initially with Robbie Buck and Marieke Hardy; and, from January 2010, he has hosted the afternoon show Drive with The Doctor. By April 2009, Frenzal Rhomb were performing The Boys Are Back in Town tour with 1990s punk group Nancy Vandal as their support act. CANNOTANSWER | - the title is a conflated reference to the 2005 song "Forever Young | Frenzal Rhomb are an Australian punk rock band that formed in 1992 in Sydney. Three of the group's albums have entered the top 20 on the ARIA Albums Chart: A Man's Not a Camel (1999), Hi-Vis High Tea (2017) and Smoko at the Pet Food Factory (2011). Hi-Vis High Tea reached 9th position in the charts. The group has supported Australian tours by The Offspring, Bad Religion, NOFX, and Blink-182. Frenzal Rhomb have also toured in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, South Africa, Israel and Taiwan. The band has undergone several line-up changes, with lead vocalist Jason Whalley serving as the band's sole constant member.
History
1992–1995: Formation to Coughing Up a Storm
Frenzal Rhomb formed in 1992 in the Sydney suburb of Newtown with Alexis 'Lex' Feltham on bass guitar and Jason Whalley on vocals. Feltham and Whalley had been school mates at St Ives High School in St Ives. Whalley had commenced a Bachelor of Arts course in philosophy at Sydney University when he formed Frenzal Rhomb as a punk rock band. The band was formed to take part in a battle of the bands and at that stage was not seen as a permanent project. The name is a reference to a band member's pet rat, who in turn was named for the Fresnel rhomb, which is a prism-like device invented by the 19th century French engineer Augustin-Jean Fresnel. By 1993, the group's line-up was Feltham, Whalley, Ben Costello on guitar and Karl Perske on drums. They played at the Sydney venue for the Big Day Out in January.
In March 1994, the band issued a seven-track EP, Dick Sandwich. Its cover had "a graphic drawing of the offending flaccid appendage draped over a sesame seed bun with lashings of bloody sauce." Posters with a similar image that advertised the group had them banned at some venues. National youth radio station Triple J criticised the group as being immature and told them to "grow up". The EP was described as having "good songs but it sounds like it was recorded under a doona" and had the group banned from some radio stations and retail outlets. One of its tracks, "I Wish I Was as Credible as Roger Climpson" (aka "Roger"), attracted attention of its subject, Roger Climpson – a Seven News anchor on TV – who posed with the group for a photo. The E.P also features fan favourites "Chemotherapy", and a cover of the TV series theme "Home And Away". The E.P featured an alternate cover depicting rabbits on the flipside of the liftout to appease record stores or people who may have been offended by the original artwork. In October of that year, they released a single, "Sorry About the Ruse", on their own label, How Much Did I Fucking Pay For This Records? The group were the local support act on the Australian leg of separate tours by United States punk rockers Bad Religion, The Offspring, and Blink-182.
In March 1995, Frenzal Rhomb released their first studio album, Coughing Up a Storm, on Shock Records' sub-label Shagpile Records. Perske was replaced by Nat Nykyruj on drums before the album appeared. The album features live fan favourite "Genius". In October 1997, it was retitled Once a Jolly Swagman Always a Jolly Swagman and issued with additional tracks by the US label Liberation Records. In mid-1995, the group supported NOFX on their national tour. Fat Mike, a member of NOFX, was also the owner of Fat Wreck Chords, and he signed the band to his label, which released the 4 Litres EP in the US.
1996–2000: Not So Tough Now to A Man's Not a Camel
In July 1996, Frenzal Rhomb released their second album, Not So Tough Now, which was produced by Tony Cohen (Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, TISM, Dave Graney), Kalju Tonuma (Nick Barker, The Mavis's) and Frenzal Rhomb. Just after its appearance, Costello was replaced by Lindsay McDougall on lead guitar and backing vocals – Costello left to attend university and become an animal rights activist. In November, the group issued a CD EP, Punch in the Face and, in January 1997, performed at Big Day Out. Late that year they toured the US supporting Blink-182.
In September 1997, their third LP, Meet the Family, was released, which reached the top 40 on the ARIA Albums Chart and became their first certified gold album by ARIA. It spawned three singles, "Mr Charisma" (June), "There's Your Dad" (September), and "Mum Changed the Locks" (April 1998). The latter title refers to McDougall telling his mother he was going out to a movie when leaving for an interstate tour and returning to find his key no longer opened the front door. Also in April, Gordon "Gordy" Forman replaced Nykyruj on drums, and they toured Australia with US ska band Blue Meanies. Frenzal Rhomb were the head-liners for the Australian leg of the 1998 Vans Warped Tour and they were recruited for the US edition. A 1998 version of Meet the Family contained a bonus disc, Mongrel, that was recorded live on this US leg.
In March 1999, they released their next album, A Man's Not a Camel, which was produced by Eddie Ashworth and was supported by a nationwide tour. As from November 2011, it remains Frenzal Rhomb's highest charting album, reaching No. 11. It spawned their highest charting single, "You Are Not My Friend" (August), which reached No. 49. Allmusic's album reviewer Mike DaRonco felt "the first two songs are great in that catchy, playful pop-punk sort of way, but the rest ... fall under the trap of having all their tracks sounding like one big, long song". The album also features fan favourites "We're Going Out Tonight" and "Never Had So Much Fun".
At the ARIA Music Awards of 1999 in October, the group performed "Never Had So Much Fun". In 2019 Dan Condon of Double J described this as one of "7 great performances from the history of the ARIA Awards." According to the band's website, US gigs were dropped after Whalley suffered a heart attack in late 1999 and the group spent the first few months of 2000 inactive. Whalley later denied that he had had a heart attack with "a lot of things on our Web site are greatly exaggerated. There was also a thing about my having trench rot, the World War I disease, but that's not true either".
2000–2003: Shut Your Mouth to Sans Souci
In November 2000, Frenzal Rhomb returned with the album Shut Your Mouth, released on Epic Records in Australia, an offshoot of Sony. RockZone's Samuel Barker liked some tracks as "a fine template for a pop punk album" however "the majority just falls into the same formula of most punk today. It's not bad, just overplayed". The album peaked in the top 40. After six months, Sony dropped the band in mid-2001 and they signed with Epitaph Records in Australia.
In April 2002, Feltham left the group, which provided many stories about why he left, including one that he was fired after thinking that the group should incorporate synth and keyboard work. The last song he recorded with the band was a cover of Midnight Oil's "The Dead Heart" for the 2001 tribute album Power & The Passion: A Tribute to Midnight Oil. After holding auditions in Sydney, Tom Crease was announced as the new bass guitarist.
In April 2003, the band released Sans Souci, which appeared in the top 50. Jo-Ann Greene of Allmusic liked the group's outlook: "they're not bitter, just snotty about it all, as all good punks should be. And Rhomb are four of the best ... their latest set of frenzied, funny, pitiless attacks upon an uncaring planet." The initial version of the album included a bonus DVD of five tracks with live footage and music videos.
2004: Political protest, Jackie O
During 2003, Frenzal Rhomb's McDougall organised Rock Against Howard, a compilation album, by various Australian musicians as a protest against incumbent Prime Minister John Howard's government. It was released in August 2004, before the October federal election, when Howard's coalition was re-elected.
In July 2004, radio station 2Day FM presenter Jackie O was to MC at the Bassinthegrass festival in Darwin. Jackie allegedly arrived late, causing Frenzal Rhomb to cut their setlist short by several songs. She attempted to speak with the audience. In protest, McDougall began playing AC/DC's "Thunderstruck" over her voice. Jackie was upset that she was unable to finish her announcement to the audience. Whalley later accused her and other music industry personalities of pushing original Australian bands aside to make way for short-term marketable acts such as Australian Idol and Popstars contestants.
Jackie and her co-presenter, Kyle Sandilands, called Whalley on air during their next breakfast show. Whalley apologised for offending Jackie, but stood by his claims regarding the music industry. The conversation became heated as Sandilands told Whalley "Your songs being played on this network or the Triple M network... it's just not going to happen now"; to which Whalley argued that Frenzal Rhomb were almost never played on the Austereo network anyway. During the conversation, Sandilands told Whalley that he was bitter and sad. When Whalley pointed out that Sandilands is in a position to promote new Australian music but doesn't, Sandilands countered that Frenzal Rhomb is not played on the network "because it's pretty much shit". While Sandilands agreed that shows like Popstars and Australian Idol are interested in making "a quick buck", he also asserted that he doesn't "care about Australian Idol or Popstars".
Sandilands argued that Whalley should not "pick fights with people that are female in the Northern Territory". Sandilands asserted that if he himself were present, "it would have been on for young and old". Whalley argued that gender was irrelevant to the issue, and in response to Sandilands' threat of violence asked Jackie if she was aware that her security guard had threatened a band technician with violence. Sandilands said he endorsed the threat of violence. Sandilands argued to Whalley that he has to "get over it" when Whalley recommended that radio DJs should promote original Australian music. In reply, Sandilands insinuated that Frenzal Rhomb, and bands in general, suffer from a lack of support because they are not "putting [their] stuff in front of the right people".
ABC Television's Media Watch covered the exchange and presenter David Marr raised concerns about the interview: "Kyle and Jackie O are also part of a new generation of radio thugs". Patrick Joyce, general manager of Austereo in Sydney, responded to Sandilands' threats of black listing and violence, "Music content is decided by the programming directors based on research of the market... Austereo does not approve of threats being made to anyone... We have fully canvassed these issues with Kyle".
2005–2009: Jay and the Doctor and Forever Malcolm Young
Frenzal Rhomb's Whalley and McDougall worked as Jay and the Doctor on Triple J's breakfast show from January 2005 through to November 2007. Prior to their employment at Triple J, the group's music had been banned after they had earlier criticised the station on air for playing the "same 40 songs". In 2004, they were asked to perform occasional late night shifts and request segments, which developed into the breakfast show slot. Their format includes banter where they provide "quips, one-liners, slagging off each other, other bands, other breakfast announcers, listeners, Triple J, Australian Idol and St Ives. It's verbal ping pong but more discursive."
The band released Forever Malcolm Young in October 2006 – the title is a conflated reference to the 2005 song "Forever Young" by Youth Group and the name of AC/DC's guitarist, Malcolm Young – which peaked in the top 40. It provided a minor radio hit with the title track. Some controversy was expressed over the profanity in the title and lyrics of "Johnny Ramone was in a Fucking Good Band, but He Was a Cunt" (see Johnny Ramone, Ramones). Whalley's attitude to profanity and obscenity is "I often get amazed how offended people get by language, especially in Australia when its nothing you wouldn't hear in your local office or schoolyard. But we do make a point of shaking things up". Australian rock music journalist Ed Nimmervoll described them "[their] history is littered with legendary stories, perhaps true, perhaps exaggerations, but stories which fuel and match their song and album titles. Their songs are often profane, likely to poke fun at someone including themselves, hint at a social conscience, and inside all the tough talk and body jokes be hopelessly romantic."
National touring followed the album's release, along with the announcement that from November 2007 Whalley would be leaving both Frenzal Rhomb and his job at Triple J to go on a world trip with his girlfriend. Some later copies of Forever Malcolm Young contained a bonus DVD covering the band's tours from 2002 up until 2005. It is titled Sucking All Over the World. Gordy Forman plays in the Melbourne hardcore band Mindsnare. McDougall continued as The Doctor at Triple J, initially with Robbie Buck and Marieke Hardy; and, from January 2010, he has hosted the afternoon show Drive with The Doctor. By April 2009, Frenzal Rhomb were performing The Boys Are Back in Town tour with 1990s punk group Nancy Vandal as their support act.
2010–2017: Smoko at the Pet Food Factory and We Lived Like Kings...
In December 2010, Frenzal Rhomb embarked on the No Sleep Til Festival which featured punk and metal bands: Megadeth, Descendents, NOFX, Gwar and Dropkick Murphys. Frenzal Rhomb played a new song entitled "Bird Attack". In Brisbane, on the last stop of the tour, Whalley and Crease joined Descendents on-stage with other bands' singers – Al Barr (Dropkick Murphys), Fat Mike (NOFX), Matt Skiba and Derek Grant (Alkaline Trio), and Jason Allen (Descendents' road manager) – to perform "Everything Sux".
Frenzal Rhomb recorded their next album, Smoko at the Pet Food Factory in Colorado with Bill Stevenson (drummer for Descendents) producing. It was released on 19 August 2011 on Shock Records, which peaked at No. 14. The group toured Australia with Teenage Bottlerocket in September in support of the album.
In June 2012, the album 'Not So Tough Now' was certified gold by the Australia Record Industry Association, 16 years after its release.
Lead singer Jay Whalley announced on 26 February 2013 that the group was forced to cancel its recent tour after surgeons discovered and removed a pig tapeworm egg from his brain.
Drummer Gordy Foreman broke his arm in multiple places after stage diving during a performance in Perth in 2015 and spent about 18 months recovering. The band continued to play live with Kye Smith (of Local Resident Failure) filling in on drums. Smith had previously paid tribute to Frenzal Rhomb as part of his "5 Minute Drum Chronology" series on YouTube.
To celebrate the band's 25th anniversary Frenzal Rhomb toured Australia in 2016. Fans were offered the opportunity to select songs in the set list by voting for their favourite songs on the band's Facebook page. The band also released a best-of album, entitled We Lived Like Kings, We Did Anything We Wanted, on 19 August.
2017–present: Hi-Vis High Tea
Frenzal Rhomb's ninth studio album, Hi-Vis High Tea, was released on 26 May 2017 on CD, LP (vinyl) and digital download. It was once again recorded in The Blasting Room by Bill Stevenson. The album's first single, "Cunt Act," was released on the same day; as well as a national run of dates with Totally Unicorn.
After 17 years, Tom Crease departed the band in mid-2019 due to ongoing hearing problems. He was replaced by Michael "Dal" Dallinger, formerly of Newcastle punk band Local Resident Failure – coincidentally, a band named after a Frenzal Rhomb song.
Controversy
The group has generated controversy for profanity in cover art, song titles and lyrics; for the behaviour of members, on and off stage.
In July 2004, radio 2Day FM hosts Jackie O and Kyle Sandilands (themselves no strangers to controversy) threatened the band with "black-listing" from the Austereo network after a festival performance in Darwin, Australia in a tit for tat. The band had played AC/DC's "Thunderstruck" over the top of Jackie O's effort to explain her late appearance to the audience as the delay caused a further cut into the band's set time.
Band members
Current members
Jason "Jay" Whalley – lead vocals, occasional rhythm guitar, keyboards, kazoo (1992–present)
Lindsay "The Doctor" McDougall – lead guitar, backing vocals (1996–present)
Gordon "Gordy" Forman – drums (1998–present; hiatus 2015–2016)
Michael "Dal" Dallinger (AKA Dal Failure) – bass guitar, backing vocals (2019–present)
Former members
Alexis "Lex" Feltham – bass guitar, backing vocals, guitar (1992–2002)
Ben Costello – guitar (1992–1996)
Bruce Braybrooke – drums (1992–1993)
Karl Perske – drums (1993–1995)
Nat Nykyruj – drums (1995–1998)
Tom Crease – bass guitar, backing vocals (2002–2019)
Former touring musicians
Kye Smith – drums (2015–2016, occasional fill-in gigs)
Timeline
Discography
Studio albums
Coughing up a Storm (1995)
Not So Tough Now (1996)
Meet the Family (1997)
A Man's Not a Camel (1999)
Shut Your Mouth (2000)
Sans Souci (2003)
Forever Malcolm Young (2006)
Smoko at the Pet Food Factory (2011)
Hi-Vis High Tea (2017)
References
General
Note: Archived [on-line] copy has limited functionality.
Specific
External links
Official Facebook
Fat Wreck Chords
Official website, 2001 archived by PANDORA on 29 August 2001.
Frenzal Rhomb's singer Jason Whalley and guitarist Lindsay McDougall perform at Big Day Out, Melbourne, Victoria, 2005. A photo by Martin Philbey at Digital Collections by National Library of Australia
Australian punk rock groups
Fat Wreck Chords artists
Epitaph Records artists
Musical groups established in 1992
Musical groups from Sydney | false | [
"\"What Else Is There?\" is the third single from the Norwegian duo Röyksopp's second album The Understanding. It features the vocals of Karin Dreijer from the Swedish electronica duo The Knife. The album was released in the UK with the help of Astralwerks.\n\nThe single was used in an O2 television advertisement in the Czech Republic and in Slovakia during 2008. It was also used in the 2006 film Cashback and the 2007 film, Meet Bill. Trentemøller's remix of \"What Else is There?\" was featured in an episode of the HBO show Entourage.\n\nThe song was covered by extreme metal band Enslaved as a bonus track for their album E.\n\nThe song was listed as the 375th best song of the 2000s by Pitchfork Media.\n\nOfficial versions\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Album Version) – 5:17\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Radio Edit) – 3:38\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Jacques Lu Cont Radio Mix) – 3:46\n\"What Else Is There?\" (The Emperor Machine Vocal Version) – 8:03\n\"What Else Is There?\" (The Emperor Machine Dub Version) – 7:51\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Thin White Duke Mix) – 8:25\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Thin White Duke Edit) – 4:50\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Thin White Duke Remix) (Radio Edit) – 3:06\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Trentemøller Remix) – 7:42\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Vitalic Remix) – 5:14\n\nResponse\nThe single was officially released on 5 December 2005 in the UK. The single had a limited release on 21 November 2005 to promote the upcoming album. On the UK Singles Chart, it peaked at number 32, while on the UK Dance Chart, it reached number one.\n\nMusic video\nThe music video was directed by Martin de Thurah. It features Norwegian model Marianne Schröder who is shown lip-syncing Dreijer's voice. Schröder is depicted as a floating woman traveling across stormy landscapes and within empty houses. Dreijer makes a cameo appearance as a woman wearing an Elizabethan ruff while dining alone at a festive table.\n\nMovie spots\n\nThe song is also featured in the movie Meet Bill as characters played by Jessica Alba and Aaron Eckhart smoke marijuana while listening to it. It is also part of the end credits music of the film Cashback.\n\nCharts\n\nReferences\n\n2005 singles\nRöyksopp songs\nAstralwerks singles\nSongs written by Svein Berge\nSongs written by Torbjørn Brundtland\n2004 songs\nSongs written by Roger Greenaway\nSongs written by Olof Dreijer\nSongs written by Karin Dreijer",
"Cosa succederà alla ragazza (What will happen to the girl) is an album by the Italian singer-songwriter Lucio Battisti. It was released in October 1992 by Columbia Records.\n\nThe album was Italy's 57th best selling album in 1992.\n\nTrack listing \nAll lyrics written by Pasquale Panella, all music composed by Lucio Battisti.\n \"Cosa succederà alla ragazza\" (What Will Happen To The Girl?) – 5:00\n \"Tutte le pompe\" (All The Pumps) – 4:48\n \"Ecco i negozi\" (Here Are The Shops) – 5:03\n \"La metro eccetera\" (The Metro Etcetera) – 4:14\n \"I sacchi della posta\" (The Mail Bags) – 5:35\n \"Però il rinoceronte\" (However The Rhino) – 5:51\n \"Così gli dei sarebbero\" (So Gods Would Be) – 4:53\n \"Cosa farà di nuovo\" (What Will She Do Again) – 4:56\n\nReferences\n\n1992 albums\nLucio Battisti albums\nColumbia Records albums"
]
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"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"The band released Forever Malcolm Young",
"How did it do on the charts?",
"peaked in the top 40.",
"What else happen album wise",
"- the title is a conflated reference to the 2005 song \"Forever Young"
]
| C_31b6aef20b5e4ec5841e183fa3edbb37_0 | What else did you find interesting in this article? | 6 | What else did you find interesting in this article aside from Forever Young? | Frenzal Rhomb | Frenzal Rhomb's Whalley and McDougall worked as Jay and the Doctor on Triple J's breakfast show from January 2005 through to November 2007. Prior to their employment at Triple J, the group's music had been banned after they had earlier criticised the station on air for playing the "same 40 songs". In 2004, they were asked to perform occasional late night shifts and request segments, which developed into the breakfast show slot. Their format includes banter where they provide "quips, one-liners, slagging off each other, other bands, other breakfast announcers, listeners, Triple J, Australian Idol and St Ives. It's verbal ping pong but more discursive." The band released Forever Malcolm Young in October 2006 - the title is a conflated reference to the 2005 song "Forever Young" by Youth Group and the name of AC/DC's guitarist, Malcolm Young - which peaked in the top 40. It provided a minor radio hit with the title track. Some controversy was expressed over the profanity in the title and lyrics of "Johnny Ramone was in a Fucking Good Band, but He Was a Cunt" (see Johnny Ramone, Ramones). Whalley's attitude to profanity and obscenity is "I often get amazed how offended people get by language, especially in Australia when its nothing you wouldn't hear in your local office or schoolyard. But we do make a point of shaking things up". Australian rock music journalist Ed Nimmervoll described them "[their] history is littered with legendary stories, perhaps true, perhaps exaggerations, but stories which fuel and match their song and album titles. Their songs are often profane, likely to poke fun at someone including themselves, hint at a social conscience, and inside all the tough talk and body jokes be hopelessly romantic." National touring followed the album's release, along with the announcement that from November 2007 Whalley would be leaving both Frenzal Rhomb and his job at Triple J to go on a world trip with his girlfriend. Some later copies of Forever Malcolm Young contained a bonus DVD covering the band's tours from 2002 up until 2005. It is titled Sucking All Over the World. Gordy Forman plays in the Melbourne hardcore band Mindsnare. McDougall continued as The Doctor at Triple J, initially with Robbie Buck and Marieke Hardy; and, from January 2010, he has hosted the afternoon show Drive with The Doctor. By April 2009, Frenzal Rhomb were performing The Boys Are Back in Town tour with 1990s punk group Nancy Vandal as their support act. CANNOTANSWER | Australian rock music journalist Ed Nimmervoll described them "[their] history is littered with legendary stories, | Frenzal Rhomb are an Australian punk rock band that formed in 1992 in Sydney. Three of the group's albums have entered the top 20 on the ARIA Albums Chart: A Man's Not a Camel (1999), Hi-Vis High Tea (2017) and Smoko at the Pet Food Factory (2011). Hi-Vis High Tea reached 9th position in the charts. The group has supported Australian tours by The Offspring, Bad Religion, NOFX, and Blink-182. Frenzal Rhomb have also toured in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, South Africa, Israel and Taiwan. The band has undergone several line-up changes, with lead vocalist Jason Whalley serving as the band's sole constant member.
History
1992–1995: Formation to Coughing Up a Storm
Frenzal Rhomb formed in 1992 in the Sydney suburb of Newtown with Alexis 'Lex' Feltham on bass guitar and Jason Whalley on vocals. Feltham and Whalley had been school mates at St Ives High School in St Ives. Whalley had commenced a Bachelor of Arts course in philosophy at Sydney University when he formed Frenzal Rhomb as a punk rock band. The band was formed to take part in a battle of the bands and at that stage was not seen as a permanent project. The name is a reference to a band member's pet rat, who in turn was named for the Fresnel rhomb, which is a prism-like device invented by the 19th century French engineer Augustin-Jean Fresnel. By 1993, the group's line-up was Feltham, Whalley, Ben Costello on guitar and Karl Perske on drums. They played at the Sydney venue for the Big Day Out in January.
In March 1994, the band issued a seven-track EP, Dick Sandwich. Its cover had "a graphic drawing of the offending flaccid appendage draped over a sesame seed bun with lashings of bloody sauce." Posters with a similar image that advertised the group had them banned at some venues. National youth radio station Triple J criticised the group as being immature and told them to "grow up". The EP was described as having "good songs but it sounds like it was recorded under a doona" and had the group banned from some radio stations and retail outlets. One of its tracks, "I Wish I Was as Credible as Roger Climpson" (aka "Roger"), attracted attention of its subject, Roger Climpson – a Seven News anchor on TV – who posed with the group for a photo. The E.P also features fan favourites "Chemotherapy", and a cover of the TV series theme "Home And Away". The E.P featured an alternate cover depicting rabbits on the flipside of the liftout to appease record stores or people who may have been offended by the original artwork. In October of that year, they released a single, "Sorry About the Ruse", on their own label, How Much Did I Fucking Pay For This Records? The group were the local support act on the Australian leg of separate tours by United States punk rockers Bad Religion, The Offspring, and Blink-182.
In March 1995, Frenzal Rhomb released their first studio album, Coughing Up a Storm, on Shock Records' sub-label Shagpile Records. Perske was replaced by Nat Nykyruj on drums before the album appeared. The album features live fan favourite "Genius". In October 1997, it was retitled Once a Jolly Swagman Always a Jolly Swagman and issued with additional tracks by the US label Liberation Records. In mid-1995, the group supported NOFX on their national tour. Fat Mike, a member of NOFX, was also the owner of Fat Wreck Chords, and he signed the band to his label, which released the 4 Litres EP in the US.
1996–2000: Not So Tough Now to A Man's Not a Camel
In July 1996, Frenzal Rhomb released their second album, Not So Tough Now, which was produced by Tony Cohen (Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, TISM, Dave Graney), Kalju Tonuma (Nick Barker, The Mavis's) and Frenzal Rhomb. Just after its appearance, Costello was replaced by Lindsay McDougall on lead guitar and backing vocals – Costello left to attend university and become an animal rights activist. In November, the group issued a CD EP, Punch in the Face and, in January 1997, performed at Big Day Out. Late that year they toured the US supporting Blink-182.
In September 1997, their third LP, Meet the Family, was released, which reached the top 40 on the ARIA Albums Chart and became their first certified gold album by ARIA. It spawned three singles, "Mr Charisma" (June), "There's Your Dad" (September), and "Mum Changed the Locks" (April 1998). The latter title refers to McDougall telling his mother he was going out to a movie when leaving for an interstate tour and returning to find his key no longer opened the front door. Also in April, Gordon "Gordy" Forman replaced Nykyruj on drums, and they toured Australia with US ska band Blue Meanies. Frenzal Rhomb were the head-liners for the Australian leg of the 1998 Vans Warped Tour and they were recruited for the US edition. A 1998 version of Meet the Family contained a bonus disc, Mongrel, that was recorded live on this US leg.
In March 1999, they released their next album, A Man's Not a Camel, which was produced by Eddie Ashworth and was supported by a nationwide tour. As from November 2011, it remains Frenzal Rhomb's highest charting album, reaching No. 11. It spawned their highest charting single, "You Are Not My Friend" (August), which reached No. 49. Allmusic's album reviewer Mike DaRonco felt "the first two songs are great in that catchy, playful pop-punk sort of way, but the rest ... fall under the trap of having all their tracks sounding like one big, long song". The album also features fan favourites "We're Going Out Tonight" and "Never Had So Much Fun".
At the ARIA Music Awards of 1999 in October, the group performed "Never Had So Much Fun". In 2019 Dan Condon of Double J described this as one of "7 great performances from the history of the ARIA Awards." According to the band's website, US gigs were dropped after Whalley suffered a heart attack in late 1999 and the group spent the first few months of 2000 inactive. Whalley later denied that he had had a heart attack with "a lot of things on our Web site are greatly exaggerated. There was also a thing about my having trench rot, the World War I disease, but that's not true either".
2000–2003: Shut Your Mouth to Sans Souci
In November 2000, Frenzal Rhomb returned with the album Shut Your Mouth, released on Epic Records in Australia, an offshoot of Sony. RockZone's Samuel Barker liked some tracks as "a fine template for a pop punk album" however "the majority just falls into the same formula of most punk today. It's not bad, just overplayed". The album peaked in the top 40. After six months, Sony dropped the band in mid-2001 and they signed with Epitaph Records in Australia.
In April 2002, Feltham left the group, which provided many stories about why he left, including one that he was fired after thinking that the group should incorporate synth and keyboard work. The last song he recorded with the band was a cover of Midnight Oil's "The Dead Heart" for the 2001 tribute album Power & The Passion: A Tribute to Midnight Oil. After holding auditions in Sydney, Tom Crease was announced as the new bass guitarist.
In April 2003, the band released Sans Souci, which appeared in the top 50. Jo-Ann Greene of Allmusic liked the group's outlook: "they're not bitter, just snotty about it all, as all good punks should be. And Rhomb are four of the best ... their latest set of frenzied, funny, pitiless attacks upon an uncaring planet." The initial version of the album included a bonus DVD of five tracks with live footage and music videos.
2004: Political protest, Jackie O
During 2003, Frenzal Rhomb's McDougall organised Rock Against Howard, a compilation album, by various Australian musicians as a protest against incumbent Prime Minister John Howard's government. It was released in August 2004, before the October federal election, when Howard's coalition was re-elected.
In July 2004, radio station 2Day FM presenter Jackie O was to MC at the Bassinthegrass festival in Darwin. Jackie allegedly arrived late, causing Frenzal Rhomb to cut their setlist short by several songs. She attempted to speak with the audience. In protest, McDougall began playing AC/DC's "Thunderstruck" over her voice. Jackie was upset that she was unable to finish her announcement to the audience. Whalley later accused her and other music industry personalities of pushing original Australian bands aside to make way for short-term marketable acts such as Australian Idol and Popstars contestants.
Jackie and her co-presenter, Kyle Sandilands, called Whalley on air during their next breakfast show. Whalley apologised for offending Jackie, but stood by his claims regarding the music industry. The conversation became heated as Sandilands told Whalley "Your songs being played on this network or the Triple M network... it's just not going to happen now"; to which Whalley argued that Frenzal Rhomb were almost never played on the Austereo network anyway. During the conversation, Sandilands told Whalley that he was bitter and sad. When Whalley pointed out that Sandilands is in a position to promote new Australian music but doesn't, Sandilands countered that Frenzal Rhomb is not played on the network "because it's pretty much shit". While Sandilands agreed that shows like Popstars and Australian Idol are interested in making "a quick buck", he also asserted that he doesn't "care about Australian Idol or Popstars".
Sandilands argued that Whalley should not "pick fights with people that are female in the Northern Territory". Sandilands asserted that if he himself were present, "it would have been on for young and old". Whalley argued that gender was irrelevant to the issue, and in response to Sandilands' threat of violence asked Jackie if she was aware that her security guard had threatened a band technician with violence. Sandilands said he endorsed the threat of violence. Sandilands argued to Whalley that he has to "get over it" when Whalley recommended that radio DJs should promote original Australian music. In reply, Sandilands insinuated that Frenzal Rhomb, and bands in general, suffer from a lack of support because they are not "putting [their] stuff in front of the right people".
ABC Television's Media Watch covered the exchange and presenter David Marr raised concerns about the interview: "Kyle and Jackie O are also part of a new generation of radio thugs". Patrick Joyce, general manager of Austereo in Sydney, responded to Sandilands' threats of black listing and violence, "Music content is decided by the programming directors based on research of the market... Austereo does not approve of threats being made to anyone... We have fully canvassed these issues with Kyle".
2005–2009: Jay and the Doctor and Forever Malcolm Young
Frenzal Rhomb's Whalley and McDougall worked as Jay and the Doctor on Triple J's breakfast show from January 2005 through to November 2007. Prior to their employment at Triple J, the group's music had been banned after they had earlier criticised the station on air for playing the "same 40 songs". In 2004, they were asked to perform occasional late night shifts and request segments, which developed into the breakfast show slot. Their format includes banter where they provide "quips, one-liners, slagging off each other, other bands, other breakfast announcers, listeners, Triple J, Australian Idol and St Ives. It's verbal ping pong but more discursive."
The band released Forever Malcolm Young in October 2006 – the title is a conflated reference to the 2005 song "Forever Young" by Youth Group and the name of AC/DC's guitarist, Malcolm Young – which peaked in the top 40. It provided a minor radio hit with the title track. Some controversy was expressed over the profanity in the title and lyrics of "Johnny Ramone was in a Fucking Good Band, but He Was a Cunt" (see Johnny Ramone, Ramones). Whalley's attitude to profanity and obscenity is "I often get amazed how offended people get by language, especially in Australia when its nothing you wouldn't hear in your local office or schoolyard. But we do make a point of shaking things up". Australian rock music journalist Ed Nimmervoll described them "[their] history is littered with legendary stories, perhaps true, perhaps exaggerations, but stories which fuel and match their song and album titles. Their songs are often profane, likely to poke fun at someone including themselves, hint at a social conscience, and inside all the tough talk and body jokes be hopelessly romantic."
National touring followed the album's release, along with the announcement that from November 2007 Whalley would be leaving both Frenzal Rhomb and his job at Triple J to go on a world trip with his girlfriend. Some later copies of Forever Malcolm Young contained a bonus DVD covering the band's tours from 2002 up until 2005. It is titled Sucking All Over the World. Gordy Forman plays in the Melbourne hardcore band Mindsnare. McDougall continued as The Doctor at Triple J, initially with Robbie Buck and Marieke Hardy; and, from January 2010, he has hosted the afternoon show Drive with The Doctor. By April 2009, Frenzal Rhomb were performing The Boys Are Back in Town tour with 1990s punk group Nancy Vandal as their support act.
2010–2017: Smoko at the Pet Food Factory and We Lived Like Kings...
In December 2010, Frenzal Rhomb embarked on the No Sleep Til Festival which featured punk and metal bands: Megadeth, Descendents, NOFX, Gwar and Dropkick Murphys. Frenzal Rhomb played a new song entitled "Bird Attack". In Brisbane, on the last stop of the tour, Whalley and Crease joined Descendents on-stage with other bands' singers – Al Barr (Dropkick Murphys), Fat Mike (NOFX), Matt Skiba and Derek Grant (Alkaline Trio), and Jason Allen (Descendents' road manager) – to perform "Everything Sux".
Frenzal Rhomb recorded their next album, Smoko at the Pet Food Factory in Colorado with Bill Stevenson (drummer for Descendents) producing. It was released on 19 August 2011 on Shock Records, which peaked at No. 14. The group toured Australia with Teenage Bottlerocket in September in support of the album.
In June 2012, the album 'Not So Tough Now' was certified gold by the Australia Record Industry Association, 16 years after its release.
Lead singer Jay Whalley announced on 26 February 2013 that the group was forced to cancel its recent tour after surgeons discovered and removed a pig tapeworm egg from his brain.
Drummer Gordy Foreman broke his arm in multiple places after stage diving during a performance in Perth in 2015 and spent about 18 months recovering. The band continued to play live with Kye Smith (of Local Resident Failure) filling in on drums. Smith had previously paid tribute to Frenzal Rhomb as part of his "5 Minute Drum Chronology" series on YouTube.
To celebrate the band's 25th anniversary Frenzal Rhomb toured Australia in 2016. Fans were offered the opportunity to select songs in the set list by voting for their favourite songs on the band's Facebook page. The band also released a best-of album, entitled We Lived Like Kings, We Did Anything We Wanted, on 19 August.
2017–present: Hi-Vis High Tea
Frenzal Rhomb's ninth studio album, Hi-Vis High Tea, was released on 26 May 2017 on CD, LP (vinyl) and digital download. It was once again recorded in The Blasting Room by Bill Stevenson. The album's first single, "Cunt Act," was released on the same day; as well as a national run of dates with Totally Unicorn.
After 17 years, Tom Crease departed the band in mid-2019 due to ongoing hearing problems. He was replaced by Michael "Dal" Dallinger, formerly of Newcastle punk band Local Resident Failure – coincidentally, a band named after a Frenzal Rhomb song.
Controversy
The group has generated controversy for profanity in cover art, song titles and lyrics; for the behaviour of members, on and off stage.
In July 2004, radio 2Day FM hosts Jackie O and Kyle Sandilands (themselves no strangers to controversy) threatened the band with "black-listing" from the Austereo network after a festival performance in Darwin, Australia in a tit for tat. The band had played AC/DC's "Thunderstruck" over the top of Jackie O's effort to explain her late appearance to the audience as the delay caused a further cut into the band's set time.
Band members
Current members
Jason "Jay" Whalley – lead vocals, occasional rhythm guitar, keyboards, kazoo (1992–present)
Lindsay "The Doctor" McDougall – lead guitar, backing vocals (1996–present)
Gordon "Gordy" Forman – drums (1998–present; hiatus 2015–2016)
Michael "Dal" Dallinger (AKA Dal Failure) – bass guitar, backing vocals (2019–present)
Former members
Alexis "Lex" Feltham – bass guitar, backing vocals, guitar (1992–2002)
Ben Costello – guitar (1992–1996)
Bruce Braybrooke – drums (1992–1993)
Karl Perske – drums (1993–1995)
Nat Nykyruj – drums (1995–1998)
Tom Crease – bass guitar, backing vocals (2002–2019)
Former touring musicians
Kye Smith – drums (2015–2016, occasional fill-in gigs)
Timeline
Discography
Studio albums
Coughing up a Storm (1995)
Not So Tough Now (1996)
Meet the Family (1997)
A Man's Not a Camel (1999)
Shut Your Mouth (2000)
Sans Souci (2003)
Forever Malcolm Young (2006)
Smoko at the Pet Food Factory (2011)
Hi-Vis High Tea (2017)
References
General
Note: Archived [on-line] copy has limited functionality.
Specific
External links
Official Facebook
Fat Wreck Chords
Official website, 2001 archived by PANDORA on 29 August 2001.
Frenzal Rhomb's singer Jason Whalley and guitarist Lindsay McDougall perform at Big Day Out, Melbourne, Victoria, 2005. A photo by Martin Philbey at Digital Collections by National Library of Australia
Australian punk rock groups
Fat Wreck Chords artists
Epitaph Records artists
Musical groups established in 1992
Musical groups from Sydney | true | [
"a TEN Talk (originally 10Talk) is a short presentation on a topic of the speaker's choosing given at a BarCamp type conference. It derives from a TED Talk and originated at the 2012 RefreshCache v4 developer conference (now defunct) in Gilbert, Arizona during the open floor demo time with a description of \"Fast paced 10 minute presentations by the you and the other leaders among us.\" Since the term was still somewhat new at the time, a \"What is a Ten-Talk?\" page was created on the RefreshCache site with the following abbreviated description so potential Ten-Talk presenters would know exactly what was expected of them:\n \n A Ten-Talk is a fast-paced, ten minute POLISHED presentation on an interesting topic that you think will appeal to the Church IT / Web Developer audiences.\n \n Here are some examples of Ten-Talk topics:\n (1) Have you implemented something at your church that has been a radical success or epic failure? We can learn from either of these!\n (2) Do you have an inspirational message that can lead others to action? Even better if you can share how this message inspired you to action and then show us what you did.\n (3) Have you spent time researching and understanding something in the world of ministry software or Church IT? Maybe you are an expert in [redacted]. Present this to the Church IT Network /RefreshCache community and share what you know. Your research may help another church find the solution to a problem they are facing, or save them the trouble of doing all the research you just did by realizing it won't work for them.\n\nIt was later adopted at the national Church IT Round Table conference held in February 2013 in Phoenix, Arizona when the two events began to intermingle and used again in 2014 at the Peoria, Illinois event where it was re-described as \"10Talks (or TEN-Talks) are 10 minute, fast paced talks on a topic. These are perfect sessions for raising awareness about a topic, tool, or idea that you think your peers should know.\"\n\nIts use outside of CITRT conferences is thought to begin with the WLAN professionals summit in February 2014.\n\nReferences\n\nPresentation",
"Modron is an adventure for fantasy role-playing games published by Judges Guild in 1978.\n\nPlot summary\nModron is a scenario describing the village of Modron and a nearby underwater adventure, each with a large map. It includes both village and underwater encounters.\n\nModron is a water goddess whose city was somehow preserved in a battle between her worshippers and the worshippers of her rival god, Proteus. Proteus' people's homes were destroyed, but a new city was built on top of the ruins. Explorers in the city can find a myriad of wealth and adventures. Several characters are sketchily described for the players, if they choose to use them.\n\nPublication history\nModron was written by Bob Bledsaw and Gary Adams, and was published by Judges Guild in 1978 as a 16-page digest-sized book with a blue cover and two large maps. Judges Guild published a second edition in 1980.\n\nA listing of cumulative sales from 1981 shows that Modron sold over 15,000 units.\n\nReception\nElisabeth Barrington reviewed Modron in The Space Gamer No. 30. Barrington commented that \"The graphics on the maps are excellent. The ideas presented in the background are interesting and novel, to some extent. Clarity is the key word in this module. Whatever is described is organized and easy to read.\" However, she added \"BUT there is not much described. In each room or place the characters go, the DM must quickly invent a few things to flesh out the descriptions given in the booklet. There are people in the places, and a couple of items, and that is all that is given. No room descriptions, no special traps or interesting things that happen unless you make them up as you go along; just a person or monster and some items. There are some bad typos in the booklet, making things a little hard to figure out at times, but the great organization of the book makes up for that one little problem.\" Barrington concludes her review by saying, \"If you are the type of DM who wants the bare minimum provided for your campaign, this is for you. But you might find that [the price] is a little high to pay for descriptions of people. It is fun to play, and there are some new things to find, but I do not think it is worth the price.\"\n\nWilliam Fawcett reviewed Modron in The Dragon #44. Fawcett commented that \"This set is inexpensive and has some good expansions of ideas mentioned, but not detailed, in earlier Guild products. Modron could be easily included in a campaign that included nothing else from the Guild.\"\n\nReviews\n Different Worlds #8 (Jun 1980)\n\nReferences\n\nJudges Guild fantasy role-playing game adventures"
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"breakfast show from January 2005 through to November 2007.",
"What was Jay and the Doctor",
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"- the title is a conflated reference to the 2005 song \"Forever Young",
"What else did you find interesting in this article?",
"Australian rock music journalist Ed Nimmervoll described them \"[their] history is littered with legendary stories,"
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| C_31b6aef20b5e4ec5841e183fa3edbb37_0 | What else happen with Frenzal Rhomb | 7 | What else happen with Frenzal Rhomb aside from being described by Ed Nimmervoll? | Frenzal Rhomb | Frenzal Rhomb's Whalley and McDougall worked as Jay and the Doctor on Triple J's breakfast show from January 2005 through to November 2007. Prior to their employment at Triple J, the group's music had been banned after they had earlier criticised the station on air for playing the "same 40 songs". In 2004, they were asked to perform occasional late night shifts and request segments, which developed into the breakfast show slot. Their format includes banter where they provide "quips, one-liners, slagging off each other, other bands, other breakfast announcers, listeners, Triple J, Australian Idol and St Ives. It's verbal ping pong but more discursive." The band released Forever Malcolm Young in October 2006 - the title is a conflated reference to the 2005 song "Forever Young" by Youth Group and the name of AC/DC's guitarist, Malcolm Young - which peaked in the top 40. It provided a minor radio hit with the title track. Some controversy was expressed over the profanity in the title and lyrics of "Johnny Ramone was in a Fucking Good Band, but He Was a Cunt" (see Johnny Ramone, Ramones). Whalley's attitude to profanity and obscenity is "I often get amazed how offended people get by language, especially in Australia when its nothing you wouldn't hear in your local office or schoolyard. But we do make a point of shaking things up". Australian rock music journalist Ed Nimmervoll described them "[their] history is littered with legendary stories, perhaps true, perhaps exaggerations, but stories which fuel and match their song and album titles. Their songs are often profane, likely to poke fun at someone including themselves, hint at a social conscience, and inside all the tough talk and body jokes be hopelessly romantic." National touring followed the album's release, along with the announcement that from November 2007 Whalley would be leaving both Frenzal Rhomb and his job at Triple J to go on a world trip with his girlfriend. Some later copies of Forever Malcolm Young contained a bonus DVD covering the band's tours from 2002 up until 2005. It is titled Sucking All Over the World. Gordy Forman plays in the Melbourne hardcore band Mindsnare. McDougall continued as The Doctor at Triple J, initially with Robbie Buck and Marieke Hardy; and, from January 2010, he has hosted the afternoon show Drive with The Doctor. By April 2009, Frenzal Rhomb were performing The Boys Are Back in Town tour with 1990s punk group Nancy Vandal as their support act. CANNOTANSWER | National touring followed | Frenzal Rhomb are an Australian punk rock band that formed in 1992 in Sydney. Three of the group's albums have entered the top 20 on the ARIA Albums Chart: A Man's Not a Camel (1999), Hi-Vis High Tea (2017) and Smoko at the Pet Food Factory (2011). Hi-Vis High Tea reached 9th position in the charts. The group has supported Australian tours by The Offspring, Bad Religion, NOFX, and Blink-182. Frenzal Rhomb have also toured in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, South Africa, Israel and Taiwan. The band has undergone several line-up changes, with lead vocalist Jason Whalley serving as the band's sole constant member.
History
1992–1995: Formation to Coughing Up a Storm
Frenzal Rhomb formed in 1992 in the Sydney suburb of Newtown with Alexis 'Lex' Feltham on bass guitar and Jason Whalley on vocals. Feltham and Whalley had been school mates at St Ives High School in St Ives. Whalley had commenced a Bachelor of Arts course in philosophy at Sydney University when he formed Frenzal Rhomb as a punk rock band. The band was formed to take part in a battle of the bands and at that stage was not seen as a permanent project. The name is a reference to a band member's pet rat, who in turn was named for the Fresnel rhomb, which is a prism-like device invented by the 19th century French engineer Augustin-Jean Fresnel. By 1993, the group's line-up was Feltham, Whalley, Ben Costello on guitar and Karl Perske on drums. They played at the Sydney venue for the Big Day Out in January.
In March 1994, the band issued a seven-track EP, Dick Sandwich. Its cover had "a graphic drawing of the offending flaccid appendage draped over a sesame seed bun with lashings of bloody sauce." Posters with a similar image that advertised the group had them banned at some venues. National youth radio station Triple J criticised the group as being immature and told them to "grow up". The EP was described as having "good songs but it sounds like it was recorded under a doona" and had the group banned from some radio stations and retail outlets. One of its tracks, "I Wish I Was as Credible as Roger Climpson" (aka "Roger"), attracted attention of its subject, Roger Climpson – a Seven News anchor on TV – who posed with the group for a photo. The E.P also features fan favourites "Chemotherapy", and a cover of the TV series theme "Home And Away". The E.P featured an alternate cover depicting rabbits on the flipside of the liftout to appease record stores or people who may have been offended by the original artwork. In October of that year, they released a single, "Sorry About the Ruse", on their own label, How Much Did I Fucking Pay For This Records? The group were the local support act on the Australian leg of separate tours by United States punk rockers Bad Religion, The Offspring, and Blink-182.
In March 1995, Frenzal Rhomb released their first studio album, Coughing Up a Storm, on Shock Records' sub-label Shagpile Records. Perske was replaced by Nat Nykyruj on drums before the album appeared. The album features live fan favourite "Genius". In October 1997, it was retitled Once a Jolly Swagman Always a Jolly Swagman and issued with additional tracks by the US label Liberation Records. In mid-1995, the group supported NOFX on their national tour. Fat Mike, a member of NOFX, was also the owner of Fat Wreck Chords, and he signed the band to his label, which released the 4 Litres EP in the US.
1996–2000: Not So Tough Now to A Man's Not a Camel
In July 1996, Frenzal Rhomb released their second album, Not So Tough Now, which was produced by Tony Cohen (Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, TISM, Dave Graney), Kalju Tonuma (Nick Barker, The Mavis's) and Frenzal Rhomb. Just after its appearance, Costello was replaced by Lindsay McDougall on lead guitar and backing vocals – Costello left to attend university and become an animal rights activist. In November, the group issued a CD EP, Punch in the Face and, in January 1997, performed at Big Day Out. Late that year they toured the US supporting Blink-182.
In September 1997, their third LP, Meet the Family, was released, which reached the top 40 on the ARIA Albums Chart and became their first certified gold album by ARIA. It spawned three singles, "Mr Charisma" (June), "There's Your Dad" (September), and "Mum Changed the Locks" (April 1998). The latter title refers to McDougall telling his mother he was going out to a movie when leaving for an interstate tour and returning to find his key no longer opened the front door. Also in April, Gordon "Gordy" Forman replaced Nykyruj on drums, and they toured Australia with US ska band Blue Meanies. Frenzal Rhomb were the head-liners for the Australian leg of the 1998 Vans Warped Tour and they were recruited for the US edition. A 1998 version of Meet the Family contained a bonus disc, Mongrel, that was recorded live on this US leg.
In March 1999, they released their next album, A Man's Not a Camel, which was produced by Eddie Ashworth and was supported by a nationwide tour. As from November 2011, it remains Frenzal Rhomb's highest charting album, reaching No. 11. It spawned their highest charting single, "You Are Not My Friend" (August), which reached No. 49. Allmusic's album reviewer Mike DaRonco felt "the first two songs are great in that catchy, playful pop-punk sort of way, but the rest ... fall under the trap of having all their tracks sounding like one big, long song". The album also features fan favourites "We're Going Out Tonight" and "Never Had So Much Fun".
At the ARIA Music Awards of 1999 in October, the group performed "Never Had So Much Fun". In 2019 Dan Condon of Double J described this as one of "7 great performances from the history of the ARIA Awards." According to the band's website, US gigs were dropped after Whalley suffered a heart attack in late 1999 and the group spent the first few months of 2000 inactive. Whalley later denied that he had had a heart attack with "a lot of things on our Web site are greatly exaggerated. There was also a thing about my having trench rot, the World War I disease, but that's not true either".
2000–2003: Shut Your Mouth to Sans Souci
In November 2000, Frenzal Rhomb returned with the album Shut Your Mouth, released on Epic Records in Australia, an offshoot of Sony. RockZone's Samuel Barker liked some tracks as "a fine template for a pop punk album" however "the majority just falls into the same formula of most punk today. It's not bad, just overplayed". The album peaked in the top 40. After six months, Sony dropped the band in mid-2001 and they signed with Epitaph Records in Australia.
In April 2002, Feltham left the group, which provided many stories about why he left, including one that he was fired after thinking that the group should incorporate synth and keyboard work. The last song he recorded with the band was a cover of Midnight Oil's "The Dead Heart" for the 2001 tribute album Power & The Passion: A Tribute to Midnight Oil. After holding auditions in Sydney, Tom Crease was announced as the new bass guitarist.
In April 2003, the band released Sans Souci, which appeared in the top 50. Jo-Ann Greene of Allmusic liked the group's outlook: "they're not bitter, just snotty about it all, as all good punks should be. And Rhomb are four of the best ... their latest set of frenzied, funny, pitiless attacks upon an uncaring planet." The initial version of the album included a bonus DVD of five tracks with live footage and music videos.
2004: Political protest, Jackie O
During 2003, Frenzal Rhomb's McDougall organised Rock Against Howard, a compilation album, by various Australian musicians as a protest against incumbent Prime Minister John Howard's government. It was released in August 2004, before the October federal election, when Howard's coalition was re-elected.
In July 2004, radio station 2Day FM presenter Jackie O was to MC at the Bassinthegrass festival in Darwin. Jackie allegedly arrived late, causing Frenzal Rhomb to cut their setlist short by several songs. She attempted to speak with the audience. In protest, McDougall began playing AC/DC's "Thunderstruck" over her voice. Jackie was upset that she was unable to finish her announcement to the audience. Whalley later accused her and other music industry personalities of pushing original Australian bands aside to make way for short-term marketable acts such as Australian Idol and Popstars contestants.
Jackie and her co-presenter, Kyle Sandilands, called Whalley on air during their next breakfast show. Whalley apologised for offending Jackie, but stood by his claims regarding the music industry. The conversation became heated as Sandilands told Whalley "Your songs being played on this network or the Triple M network... it's just not going to happen now"; to which Whalley argued that Frenzal Rhomb were almost never played on the Austereo network anyway. During the conversation, Sandilands told Whalley that he was bitter and sad. When Whalley pointed out that Sandilands is in a position to promote new Australian music but doesn't, Sandilands countered that Frenzal Rhomb is not played on the network "because it's pretty much shit". While Sandilands agreed that shows like Popstars and Australian Idol are interested in making "a quick buck", he also asserted that he doesn't "care about Australian Idol or Popstars".
Sandilands argued that Whalley should not "pick fights with people that are female in the Northern Territory". Sandilands asserted that if he himself were present, "it would have been on for young and old". Whalley argued that gender was irrelevant to the issue, and in response to Sandilands' threat of violence asked Jackie if she was aware that her security guard had threatened a band technician with violence. Sandilands said he endorsed the threat of violence. Sandilands argued to Whalley that he has to "get over it" when Whalley recommended that radio DJs should promote original Australian music. In reply, Sandilands insinuated that Frenzal Rhomb, and bands in general, suffer from a lack of support because they are not "putting [their] stuff in front of the right people".
ABC Television's Media Watch covered the exchange and presenter David Marr raised concerns about the interview: "Kyle and Jackie O are also part of a new generation of radio thugs". Patrick Joyce, general manager of Austereo in Sydney, responded to Sandilands' threats of black listing and violence, "Music content is decided by the programming directors based on research of the market... Austereo does not approve of threats being made to anyone... We have fully canvassed these issues with Kyle".
2005–2009: Jay and the Doctor and Forever Malcolm Young
Frenzal Rhomb's Whalley and McDougall worked as Jay and the Doctor on Triple J's breakfast show from January 2005 through to November 2007. Prior to their employment at Triple J, the group's music had been banned after they had earlier criticised the station on air for playing the "same 40 songs". In 2004, they were asked to perform occasional late night shifts and request segments, which developed into the breakfast show slot. Their format includes banter where they provide "quips, one-liners, slagging off each other, other bands, other breakfast announcers, listeners, Triple J, Australian Idol and St Ives. It's verbal ping pong but more discursive."
The band released Forever Malcolm Young in October 2006 – the title is a conflated reference to the 2005 song "Forever Young" by Youth Group and the name of AC/DC's guitarist, Malcolm Young – which peaked in the top 40. It provided a minor radio hit with the title track. Some controversy was expressed over the profanity in the title and lyrics of "Johnny Ramone was in a Fucking Good Band, but He Was a Cunt" (see Johnny Ramone, Ramones). Whalley's attitude to profanity and obscenity is "I often get amazed how offended people get by language, especially in Australia when its nothing you wouldn't hear in your local office or schoolyard. But we do make a point of shaking things up". Australian rock music journalist Ed Nimmervoll described them "[their] history is littered with legendary stories, perhaps true, perhaps exaggerations, but stories which fuel and match their song and album titles. Their songs are often profane, likely to poke fun at someone including themselves, hint at a social conscience, and inside all the tough talk and body jokes be hopelessly romantic."
National touring followed the album's release, along with the announcement that from November 2007 Whalley would be leaving both Frenzal Rhomb and his job at Triple J to go on a world trip with his girlfriend. Some later copies of Forever Malcolm Young contained a bonus DVD covering the band's tours from 2002 up until 2005. It is titled Sucking All Over the World. Gordy Forman plays in the Melbourne hardcore band Mindsnare. McDougall continued as The Doctor at Triple J, initially with Robbie Buck and Marieke Hardy; and, from January 2010, he has hosted the afternoon show Drive with The Doctor. By April 2009, Frenzal Rhomb were performing The Boys Are Back in Town tour with 1990s punk group Nancy Vandal as their support act.
2010–2017: Smoko at the Pet Food Factory and We Lived Like Kings...
In December 2010, Frenzal Rhomb embarked on the No Sleep Til Festival which featured punk and metal bands: Megadeth, Descendents, NOFX, Gwar and Dropkick Murphys. Frenzal Rhomb played a new song entitled "Bird Attack". In Brisbane, on the last stop of the tour, Whalley and Crease joined Descendents on-stage with other bands' singers – Al Barr (Dropkick Murphys), Fat Mike (NOFX), Matt Skiba and Derek Grant (Alkaline Trio), and Jason Allen (Descendents' road manager) – to perform "Everything Sux".
Frenzal Rhomb recorded their next album, Smoko at the Pet Food Factory in Colorado with Bill Stevenson (drummer for Descendents) producing. It was released on 19 August 2011 on Shock Records, which peaked at No. 14. The group toured Australia with Teenage Bottlerocket in September in support of the album.
In June 2012, the album 'Not So Tough Now' was certified gold by the Australia Record Industry Association, 16 years after its release.
Lead singer Jay Whalley announced on 26 February 2013 that the group was forced to cancel its recent tour after surgeons discovered and removed a pig tapeworm egg from his brain.
Drummer Gordy Foreman broke his arm in multiple places after stage diving during a performance in Perth in 2015 and spent about 18 months recovering. The band continued to play live with Kye Smith (of Local Resident Failure) filling in on drums. Smith had previously paid tribute to Frenzal Rhomb as part of his "5 Minute Drum Chronology" series on YouTube.
To celebrate the band's 25th anniversary Frenzal Rhomb toured Australia in 2016. Fans were offered the opportunity to select songs in the set list by voting for their favourite songs on the band's Facebook page. The band also released a best-of album, entitled We Lived Like Kings, We Did Anything We Wanted, on 19 August.
2017–present: Hi-Vis High Tea
Frenzal Rhomb's ninth studio album, Hi-Vis High Tea, was released on 26 May 2017 on CD, LP (vinyl) and digital download. It was once again recorded in The Blasting Room by Bill Stevenson. The album's first single, "Cunt Act," was released on the same day; as well as a national run of dates with Totally Unicorn.
After 17 years, Tom Crease departed the band in mid-2019 due to ongoing hearing problems. He was replaced by Michael "Dal" Dallinger, formerly of Newcastle punk band Local Resident Failure – coincidentally, a band named after a Frenzal Rhomb song.
Controversy
The group has generated controversy for profanity in cover art, song titles and lyrics; for the behaviour of members, on and off stage.
In July 2004, radio 2Day FM hosts Jackie O and Kyle Sandilands (themselves no strangers to controversy) threatened the band with "black-listing" from the Austereo network after a festival performance in Darwin, Australia in a tit for tat. The band had played AC/DC's "Thunderstruck" over the top of Jackie O's effort to explain her late appearance to the audience as the delay caused a further cut into the band's set time.
Band members
Current members
Jason "Jay" Whalley – lead vocals, occasional rhythm guitar, keyboards, kazoo (1992–present)
Lindsay "The Doctor" McDougall – lead guitar, backing vocals (1996–present)
Gordon "Gordy" Forman – drums (1998–present; hiatus 2015–2016)
Michael "Dal" Dallinger (AKA Dal Failure) – bass guitar, backing vocals (2019–present)
Former members
Alexis "Lex" Feltham – bass guitar, backing vocals, guitar (1992–2002)
Ben Costello – guitar (1992–1996)
Bruce Braybrooke – drums (1992–1993)
Karl Perske – drums (1993–1995)
Nat Nykyruj – drums (1995–1998)
Tom Crease – bass guitar, backing vocals (2002–2019)
Former touring musicians
Kye Smith – drums (2015–2016, occasional fill-in gigs)
Timeline
Discography
Studio albums
Coughing up a Storm (1995)
Not So Tough Now (1996)
Meet the Family (1997)
A Man's Not a Camel (1999)
Shut Your Mouth (2000)
Sans Souci (2003)
Forever Malcolm Young (2006)
Smoko at the Pet Food Factory (2011)
Hi-Vis High Tea (2017)
References
General
Note: Archived [on-line] copy has limited functionality.
Specific
External links
Official Facebook
Fat Wreck Chords
Official website, 2001 archived by PANDORA on 29 August 2001.
Frenzal Rhomb's singer Jason Whalley and guitarist Lindsay McDougall perform at Big Day Out, Melbourne, Victoria, 2005. A photo by Martin Philbey at Digital Collections by National Library of Australia
Australian punk rock groups
Fat Wreck Chords artists
Epitaph Records artists
Musical groups established in 1992
Musical groups from Sydney | true | [
"Shut Your Mouth is the fifth studio album by Australian punk rock band Frenzal Rhomb, released on 20 November 2000. Originally scheduled to be released on 6 November, it was the first and last Frenzal Rhomb album to be issued in Australia on the Epic label which dropped the band less than six months later. It was released by Fat Wreck Chords around the world and re-issued by Epitaph/Shock Records in the band's native Australia with the U.S. track listing.\n\nFrenzal Rhomb have said many times that they will not play songs from Shut Your Mouth during shows, leading to some fans speculating that Lindsay sold the rights to play the songs live for a half eaten salad pita and a warm glass of sav blanc.\n\nTrack listing\n\nOriginal Epic/Sony Records Australian version\n\nThis version of the album came in a stickered sleeve and with a multimedia component with a 'My City Of Sydney' film clip (not available anywhere else) and an interview with the band members. There is a hidden song on Track 0, \"Baby Won't You Hold Me In Your Arm\". A longer version of this song later appeared on the For the Term of Their Unnatural Lives compilation record.\n\nThe version of \"Everything's Fucked\" on this release has the term \"racist cunt\" censored and replaced with animal noises.\n\nUS and re-released Australian version\n\nCharts\n\nReferences\n\n2000 albums\nFrenzal Rhomb albums\nEpic Records albums\nEpitaph Records albums\nFat Wreck Chords albums",
"Meet the Family is Frenzal Rhomb's third studio album. It was released in September 1997. The album was the first with Lindsay McDougall on guitar and the last with Nat Nykruj on drums.\n\nTrack listing\n\nCharts\n\nCertifications\n\nReferences\n\n1997 albums\nFrenzal Rhomb albums"
]
|
[
"Frenzal Rhomb",
"2005-2009: Jay and the Doctor and Forever Malcolm Young",
"What happen in 2005",
"breakfast show from January 2005 through to November 2007.",
"What was Jay and the Doctor",
"Frenzal Rhomb's Whalley and McDougall worked as Jay and the Doctor on Triple J's breakfast show",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"The band released Forever Malcolm Young",
"How did it do on the charts?",
"peaked in the top 40.",
"What else happen album wise",
"- the title is a conflated reference to the 2005 song \"Forever Young",
"What else did you find interesting in this article?",
"Australian rock music journalist Ed Nimmervoll described them \"[their] history is littered with legendary stories,",
"What else happen with Frenzal Rhomb",
"National touring followed"
]
| C_31b6aef20b5e4ec5841e183fa3edbb37_0 | When did the touring ending | 8 | When did Frenzal Rhomb's national touring end? | Frenzal Rhomb | Frenzal Rhomb's Whalley and McDougall worked as Jay and the Doctor on Triple J's breakfast show from January 2005 through to November 2007. Prior to their employment at Triple J, the group's music had been banned after they had earlier criticised the station on air for playing the "same 40 songs". In 2004, they were asked to perform occasional late night shifts and request segments, which developed into the breakfast show slot. Their format includes banter where they provide "quips, one-liners, slagging off each other, other bands, other breakfast announcers, listeners, Triple J, Australian Idol and St Ives. It's verbal ping pong but more discursive." The band released Forever Malcolm Young in October 2006 - the title is a conflated reference to the 2005 song "Forever Young" by Youth Group and the name of AC/DC's guitarist, Malcolm Young - which peaked in the top 40. It provided a minor radio hit with the title track. Some controversy was expressed over the profanity in the title and lyrics of "Johnny Ramone was in a Fucking Good Band, but He Was a Cunt" (see Johnny Ramone, Ramones). Whalley's attitude to profanity and obscenity is "I often get amazed how offended people get by language, especially in Australia when its nothing you wouldn't hear in your local office or schoolyard. But we do make a point of shaking things up". Australian rock music journalist Ed Nimmervoll described them "[their] history is littered with legendary stories, perhaps true, perhaps exaggerations, but stories which fuel and match their song and album titles. Their songs are often profane, likely to poke fun at someone including themselves, hint at a social conscience, and inside all the tough talk and body jokes be hopelessly romantic." National touring followed the album's release, along with the announcement that from November 2007 Whalley would be leaving both Frenzal Rhomb and his job at Triple J to go on a world trip with his girlfriend. Some later copies of Forever Malcolm Young contained a bonus DVD covering the band's tours from 2002 up until 2005. It is titled Sucking All Over the World. Gordy Forman plays in the Melbourne hardcore band Mindsnare. McDougall continued as The Doctor at Triple J, initially with Robbie Buck and Marieke Hardy; and, from January 2010, he has hosted the afternoon show Drive with The Doctor. By April 2009, Frenzal Rhomb were performing The Boys Are Back in Town tour with 1990s punk group Nancy Vandal as their support act. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Frenzal Rhomb are an Australian punk rock band that formed in 1992 in Sydney. Three of the group's albums have entered the top 20 on the ARIA Albums Chart: A Man's Not a Camel (1999), Hi-Vis High Tea (2017) and Smoko at the Pet Food Factory (2011). Hi-Vis High Tea reached 9th position in the charts. The group has supported Australian tours by The Offspring, Bad Religion, NOFX, and Blink-182. Frenzal Rhomb have also toured in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, South Africa, Israel and Taiwan. The band has undergone several line-up changes, with lead vocalist Jason Whalley serving as the band's sole constant member.
History
1992–1995: Formation to Coughing Up a Storm
Frenzal Rhomb formed in 1992 in the Sydney suburb of Newtown with Alexis 'Lex' Feltham on bass guitar and Jason Whalley on vocals. Feltham and Whalley had been school mates at St Ives High School in St Ives. Whalley had commenced a Bachelor of Arts course in philosophy at Sydney University when he formed Frenzal Rhomb as a punk rock band. The band was formed to take part in a battle of the bands and at that stage was not seen as a permanent project. The name is a reference to a band member's pet rat, who in turn was named for the Fresnel rhomb, which is a prism-like device invented by the 19th century French engineer Augustin-Jean Fresnel. By 1993, the group's line-up was Feltham, Whalley, Ben Costello on guitar and Karl Perske on drums. They played at the Sydney venue for the Big Day Out in January.
In March 1994, the band issued a seven-track EP, Dick Sandwich. Its cover had "a graphic drawing of the offending flaccid appendage draped over a sesame seed bun with lashings of bloody sauce." Posters with a similar image that advertised the group had them banned at some venues. National youth radio station Triple J criticised the group as being immature and told them to "grow up". The EP was described as having "good songs but it sounds like it was recorded under a doona" and had the group banned from some radio stations and retail outlets. One of its tracks, "I Wish I Was as Credible as Roger Climpson" (aka "Roger"), attracted attention of its subject, Roger Climpson – a Seven News anchor on TV – who posed with the group for a photo. The E.P also features fan favourites "Chemotherapy", and a cover of the TV series theme "Home And Away". The E.P featured an alternate cover depicting rabbits on the flipside of the liftout to appease record stores or people who may have been offended by the original artwork. In October of that year, they released a single, "Sorry About the Ruse", on their own label, How Much Did I Fucking Pay For This Records? The group were the local support act on the Australian leg of separate tours by United States punk rockers Bad Religion, The Offspring, and Blink-182.
In March 1995, Frenzal Rhomb released their first studio album, Coughing Up a Storm, on Shock Records' sub-label Shagpile Records. Perske was replaced by Nat Nykyruj on drums before the album appeared. The album features live fan favourite "Genius". In October 1997, it was retitled Once a Jolly Swagman Always a Jolly Swagman and issued with additional tracks by the US label Liberation Records. In mid-1995, the group supported NOFX on their national tour. Fat Mike, a member of NOFX, was also the owner of Fat Wreck Chords, and he signed the band to his label, which released the 4 Litres EP in the US.
1996–2000: Not So Tough Now to A Man's Not a Camel
In July 1996, Frenzal Rhomb released their second album, Not So Tough Now, which was produced by Tony Cohen (Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, TISM, Dave Graney), Kalju Tonuma (Nick Barker, The Mavis's) and Frenzal Rhomb. Just after its appearance, Costello was replaced by Lindsay McDougall on lead guitar and backing vocals – Costello left to attend university and become an animal rights activist. In November, the group issued a CD EP, Punch in the Face and, in January 1997, performed at Big Day Out. Late that year they toured the US supporting Blink-182.
In September 1997, their third LP, Meet the Family, was released, which reached the top 40 on the ARIA Albums Chart and became their first certified gold album by ARIA. It spawned three singles, "Mr Charisma" (June), "There's Your Dad" (September), and "Mum Changed the Locks" (April 1998). The latter title refers to McDougall telling his mother he was going out to a movie when leaving for an interstate tour and returning to find his key no longer opened the front door. Also in April, Gordon "Gordy" Forman replaced Nykyruj on drums, and they toured Australia with US ska band Blue Meanies. Frenzal Rhomb were the head-liners for the Australian leg of the 1998 Vans Warped Tour and they were recruited for the US edition. A 1998 version of Meet the Family contained a bonus disc, Mongrel, that was recorded live on this US leg.
In March 1999, they released their next album, A Man's Not a Camel, which was produced by Eddie Ashworth and was supported by a nationwide tour. As from November 2011, it remains Frenzal Rhomb's highest charting album, reaching No. 11. It spawned their highest charting single, "You Are Not My Friend" (August), which reached No. 49. Allmusic's album reviewer Mike DaRonco felt "the first two songs are great in that catchy, playful pop-punk sort of way, but the rest ... fall under the trap of having all their tracks sounding like one big, long song". The album also features fan favourites "We're Going Out Tonight" and "Never Had So Much Fun".
At the ARIA Music Awards of 1999 in October, the group performed "Never Had So Much Fun". In 2019 Dan Condon of Double J described this as one of "7 great performances from the history of the ARIA Awards." According to the band's website, US gigs were dropped after Whalley suffered a heart attack in late 1999 and the group spent the first few months of 2000 inactive. Whalley later denied that he had had a heart attack with "a lot of things on our Web site are greatly exaggerated. There was also a thing about my having trench rot, the World War I disease, but that's not true either".
2000–2003: Shut Your Mouth to Sans Souci
In November 2000, Frenzal Rhomb returned with the album Shut Your Mouth, released on Epic Records in Australia, an offshoot of Sony. RockZone's Samuel Barker liked some tracks as "a fine template for a pop punk album" however "the majority just falls into the same formula of most punk today. It's not bad, just overplayed". The album peaked in the top 40. After six months, Sony dropped the band in mid-2001 and they signed with Epitaph Records in Australia.
In April 2002, Feltham left the group, which provided many stories about why he left, including one that he was fired after thinking that the group should incorporate synth and keyboard work. The last song he recorded with the band was a cover of Midnight Oil's "The Dead Heart" for the 2001 tribute album Power & The Passion: A Tribute to Midnight Oil. After holding auditions in Sydney, Tom Crease was announced as the new bass guitarist.
In April 2003, the band released Sans Souci, which appeared in the top 50. Jo-Ann Greene of Allmusic liked the group's outlook: "they're not bitter, just snotty about it all, as all good punks should be. And Rhomb are four of the best ... their latest set of frenzied, funny, pitiless attacks upon an uncaring planet." The initial version of the album included a bonus DVD of five tracks with live footage and music videos.
2004: Political protest, Jackie O
During 2003, Frenzal Rhomb's McDougall organised Rock Against Howard, a compilation album, by various Australian musicians as a protest against incumbent Prime Minister John Howard's government. It was released in August 2004, before the October federal election, when Howard's coalition was re-elected.
In July 2004, radio station 2Day FM presenter Jackie O was to MC at the Bassinthegrass festival in Darwin. Jackie allegedly arrived late, causing Frenzal Rhomb to cut their setlist short by several songs. She attempted to speak with the audience. In protest, McDougall began playing AC/DC's "Thunderstruck" over her voice. Jackie was upset that she was unable to finish her announcement to the audience. Whalley later accused her and other music industry personalities of pushing original Australian bands aside to make way for short-term marketable acts such as Australian Idol and Popstars contestants.
Jackie and her co-presenter, Kyle Sandilands, called Whalley on air during their next breakfast show. Whalley apologised for offending Jackie, but stood by his claims regarding the music industry. The conversation became heated as Sandilands told Whalley "Your songs being played on this network or the Triple M network... it's just not going to happen now"; to which Whalley argued that Frenzal Rhomb were almost never played on the Austereo network anyway. During the conversation, Sandilands told Whalley that he was bitter and sad. When Whalley pointed out that Sandilands is in a position to promote new Australian music but doesn't, Sandilands countered that Frenzal Rhomb is not played on the network "because it's pretty much shit". While Sandilands agreed that shows like Popstars and Australian Idol are interested in making "a quick buck", he also asserted that he doesn't "care about Australian Idol or Popstars".
Sandilands argued that Whalley should not "pick fights with people that are female in the Northern Territory". Sandilands asserted that if he himself were present, "it would have been on for young and old". Whalley argued that gender was irrelevant to the issue, and in response to Sandilands' threat of violence asked Jackie if she was aware that her security guard had threatened a band technician with violence. Sandilands said he endorsed the threat of violence. Sandilands argued to Whalley that he has to "get over it" when Whalley recommended that radio DJs should promote original Australian music. In reply, Sandilands insinuated that Frenzal Rhomb, and bands in general, suffer from a lack of support because they are not "putting [their] stuff in front of the right people".
ABC Television's Media Watch covered the exchange and presenter David Marr raised concerns about the interview: "Kyle and Jackie O are also part of a new generation of radio thugs". Patrick Joyce, general manager of Austereo in Sydney, responded to Sandilands' threats of black listing and violence, "Music content is decided by the programming directors based on research of the market... Austereo does not approve of threats being made to anyone... We have fully canvassed these issues with Kyle".
2005–2009: Jay and the Doctor and Forever Malcolm Young
Frenzal Rhomb's Whalley and McDougall worked as Jay and the Doctor on Triple J's breakfast show from January 2005 through to November 2007. Prior to their employment at Triple J, the group's music had been banned after they had earlier criticised the station on air for playing the "same 40 songs". In 2004, they were asked to perform occasional late night shifts and request segments, which developed into the breakfast show slot. Their format includes banter where they provide "quips, one-liners, slagging off each other, other bands, other breakfast announcers, listeners, Triple J, Australian Idol and St Ives. It's verbal ping pong but more discursive."
The band released Forever Malcolm Young in October 2006 – the title is a conflated reference to the 2005 song "Forever Young" by Youth Group and the name of AC/DC's guitarist, Malcolm Young – which peaked in the top 40. It provided a minor radio hit with the title track. Some controversy was expressed over the profanity in the title and lyrics of "Johnny Ramone was in a Fucking Good Band, but He Was a Cunt" (see Johnny Ramone, Ramones). Whalley's attitude to profanity and obscenity is "I often get amazed how offended people get by language, especially in Australia when its nothing you wouldn't hear in your local office or schoolyard. But we do make a point of shaking things up". Australian rock music journalist Ed Nimmervoll described them "[their] history is littered with legendary stories, perhaps true, perhaps exaggerations, but stories which fuel and match their song and album titles. Their songs are often profane, likely to poke fun at someone including themselves, hint at a social conscience, and inside all the tough talk and body jokes be hopelessly romantic."
National touring followed the album's release, along with the announcement that from November 2007 Whalley would be leaving both Frenzal Rhomb and his job at Triple J to go on a world trip with his girlfriend. Some later copies of Forever Malcolm Young contained a bonus DVD covering the band's tours from 2002 up until 2005. It is titled Sucking All Over the World. Gordy Forman plays in the Melbourne hardcore band Mindsnare. McDougall continued as The Doctor at Triple J, initially with Robbie Buck and Marieke Hardy; and, from January 2010, he has hosted the afternoon show Drive with The Doctor. By April 2009, Frenzal Rhomb were performing The Boys Are Back in Town tour with 1990s punk group Nancy Vandal as their support act.
2010–2017: Smoko at the Pet Food Factory and We Lived Like Kings...
In December 2010, Frenzal Rhomb embarked on the No Sleep Til Festival which featured punk and metal bands: Megadeth, Descendents, NOFX, Gwar and Dropkick Murphys. Frenzal Rhomb played a new song entitled "Bird Attack". In Brisbane, on the last stop of the tour, Whalley and Crease joined Descendents on-stage with other bands' singers – Al Barr (Dropkick Murphys), Fat Mike (NOFX), Matt Skiba and Derek Grant (Alkaline Trio), and Jason Allen (Descendents' road manager) – to perform "Everything Sux".
Frenzal Rhomb recorded their next album, Smoko at the Pet Food Factory in Colorado with Bill Stevenson (drummer for Descendents) producing. It was released on 19 August 2011 on Shock Records, which peaked at No. 14. The group toured Australia with Teenage Bottlerocket in September in support of the album.
In June 2012, the album 'Not So Tough Now' was certified gold by the Australia Record Industry Association, 16 years after its release.
Lead singer Jay Whalley announced on 26 February 2013 that the group was forced to cancel its recent tour after surgeons discovered and removed a pig tapeworm egg from his brain.
Drummer Gordy Foreman broke his arm in multiple places after stage diving during a performance in Perth in 2015 and spent about 18 months recovering. The band continued to play live with Kye Smith (of Local Resident Failure) filling in on drums. Smith had previously paid tribute to Frenzal Rhomb as part of his "5 Minute Drum Chronology" series on YouTube.
To celebrate the band's 25th anniversary Frenzal Rhomb toured Australia in 2016. Fans were offered the opportunity to select songs in the set list by voting for their favourite songs on the band's Facebook page. The band also released a best-of album, entitled We Lived Like Kings, We Did Anything We Wanted, on 19 August.
2017–present: Hi-Vis High Tea
Frenzal Rhomb's ninth studio album, Hi-Vis High Tea, was released on 26 May 2017 on CD, LP (vinyl) and digital download. It was once again recorded in The Blasting Room by Bill Stevenson. The album's first single, "Cunt Act," was released on the same day; as well as a national run of dates with Totally Unicorn.
After 17 years, Tom Crease departed the band in mid-2019 due to ongoing hearing problems. He was replaced by Michael "Dal" Dallinger, formerly of Newcastle punk band Local Resident Failure – coincidentally, a band named after a Frenzal Rhomb song.
Controversy
The group has generated controversy for profanity in cover art, song titles and lyrics; for the behaviour of members, on and off stage.
In July 2004, radio 2Day FM hosts Jackie O and Kyle Sandilands (themselves no strangers to controversy) threatened the band with "black-listing" from the Austereo network after a festival performance in Darwin, Australia in a tit for tat. The band had played AC/DC's "Thunderstruck" over the top of Jackie O's effort to explain her late appearance to the audience as the delay caused a further cut into the band's set time.
Band members
Current members
Jason "Jay" Whalley – lead vocals, occasional rhythm guitar, keyboards, kazoo (1992–present)
Lindsay "The Doctor" McDougall – lead guitar, backing vocals (1996–present)
Gordon "Gordy" Forman – drums (1998–present; hiatus 2015–2016)
Michael "Dal" Dallinger (AKA Dal Failure) – bass guitar, backing vocals (2019–present)
Former members
Alexis "Lex" Feltham – bass guitar, backing vocals, guitar (1992–2002)
Ben Costello – guitar (1992–1996)
Bruce Braybrooke – drums (1992–1993)
Karl Perske – drums (1993–1995)
Nat Nykyruj – drums (1995–1998)
Tom Crease – bass guitar, backing vocals (2002–2019)
Former touring musicians
Kye Smith – drums (2015–2016, occasional fill-in gigs)
Timeline
Discography
Studio albums
Coughing up a Storm (1995)
Not So Tough Now (1996)
Meet the Family (1997)
A Man's Not a Camel (1999)
Shut Your Mouth (2000)
Sans Souci (2003)
Forever Malcolm Young (2006)
Smoko at the Pet Food Factory (2011)
Hi-Vis High Tea (2017)
References
General
Note: Archived [on-line] copy has limited functionality.
Specific
External links
Official Facebook
Fat Wreck Chords
Official website, 2001 archived by PANDORA on 29 August 2001.
Frenzal Rhomb's singer Jason Whalley and guitarist Lindsay McDougall perform at Big Day Out, Melbourne, Victoria, 2005. A photo by Martin Philbey at Digital Collections by National Library of Australia
Australian punk rock groups
Fat Wreck Chords artists
Epitaph Records artists
Musical groups established in 1992
Musical groups from Sydney | false | [
"Roy Henzell Oval is a cricket ground in Caloundra, Queensland, Australia. The first recorded match on the ground came in 1981 when Queensland Country played the touring West Indians. It held its only first-class match in 1993 when Queensland played the touring England A side, with the match ending in a draw. Three Youth One Day Internationals were played there in 2007 between Australia Under-19s and Pakistan Under-19.\n\nSee also\n\nList of sports venues named after individuals\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nRoy Henzell Oval at ESPNcricinfo\nRoy Henzell Oval at CricketArchive\n\nCricket grounds in Queensland\nSport in the Sunshine Coast, Queensland\nSports venues completed in 1981",
"Ek Park is a cricket ground in Kitwe, Zambia. The first recorded match on the ground came in 1957 when Northern Rhodesia played the touring Australians.\n\nThe ground later held its first first-class match in 1962 when Rhodesia played a touring International XI, resulting in a drawn match. The second first-class match held on the ground came later in 1962 when Rhodesia played the touring Commonwealth XI, with the match again ending in a draw. During this time, what is today Zambia was administered as part of Northern Rhodesia. These two matches mark the only time first-class cricket has been played anywhere in what is today Zambia.\n\nFollowing independence the ground has been used by the Zambia national cricket team, who played county opponents in the form of Gloucestershire, Glamorgan and Warwickshire at the ground in the 1970s, though the matches held no official status. Today, the ground is used by Nkana Cricket Club.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nEk Park, Kitwe at CricketArchive\n\nCricket grounds in Zambia\nKitwe\nBuildings and structures in Copperbelt Province\nSports venues completed in 1957\n1957 establishments in Northern Rhodesia"
]
|
[
"Frenzal Rhomb",
"2005-2009: Jay and the Doctor and Forever Malcolm Young",
"What happen in 2005",
"breakfast show from January 2005 through to November 2007.",
"What was Jay and the Doctor",
"Frenzal Rhomb's Whalley and McDougall worked as Jay and the Doctor on Triple J's breakfast show",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"The band released Forever Malcolm Young",
"How did it do on the charts?",
"peaked in the top 40.",
"What else happen album wise",
"- the title is a conflated reference to the 2005 song \"Forever Young",
"What else did you find interesting in this article?",
"Australian rock music journalist Ed Nimmervoll described them \"[their] history is littered with legendary stories,",
"What else happen with Frenzal Rhomb",
"National touring followed",
"When did the touring ending",
"I don't know."
]
| C_31b6aef20b5e4ec5841e183fa3edbb37_0 | What happen after their album release | 9 | What happened after Frenzal Rhomb's album release? | Frenzal Rhomb | Frenzal Rhomb's Whalley and McDougall worked as Jay and the Doctor on Triple J's breakfast show from January 2005 through to November 2007. Prior to their employment at Triple J, the group's music had been banned after they had earlier criticised the station on air for playing the "same 40 songs". In 2004, they were asked to perform occasional late night shifts and request segments, which developed into the breakfast show slot. Their format includes banter where they provide "quips, one-liners, slagging off each other, other bands, other breakfast announcers, listeners, Triple J, Australian Idol and St Ives. It's verbal ping pong but more discursive." The band released Forever Malcolm Young in October 2006 - the title is a conflated reference to the 2005 song "Forever Young" by Youth Group and the name of AC/DC's guitarist, Malcolm Young - which peaked in the top 40. It provided a minor radio hit with the title track. Some controversy was expressed over the profanity in the title and lyrics of "Johnny Ramone was in a Fucking Good Band, but He Was a Cunt" (see Johnny Ramone, Ramones). Whalley's attitude to profanity and obscenity is "I often get amazed how offended people get by language, especially in Australia when its nothing you wouldn't hear in your local office or schoolyard. But we do make a point of shaking things up". Australian rock music journalist Ed Nimmervoll described them "[their] history is littered with legendary stories, perhaps true, perhaps exaggerations, but stories which fuel and match their song and album titles. Their songs are often profane, likely to poke fun at someone including themselves, hint at a social conscience, and inside all the tough talk and body jokes be hopelessly romantic." National touring followed the album's release, along with the announcement that from November 2007 Whalley would be leaving both Frenzal Rhomb and his job at Triple J to go on a world trip with his girlfriend. Some later copies of Forever Malcolm Young contained a bonus DVD covering the band's tours from 2002 up until 2005. It is titled Sucking All Over the World. Gordy Forman plays in the Melbourne hardcore band Mindsnare. McDougall continued as The Doctor at Triple J, initially with Robbie Buck and Marieke Hardy; and, from January 2010, he has hosted the afternoon show Drive with The Doctor. By April 2009, Frenzal Rhomb were performing The Boys Are Back in Town tour with 1990s punk group Nancy Vandal as their support act. CANNOTANSWER | Whalley would be leaving both Frenzal Rhomb and his job at Triple J | Frenzal Rhomb are an Australian punk rock band that formed in 1992 in Sydney. Three of the group's albums have entered the top 20 on the ARIA Albums Chart: A Man's Not a Camel (1999), Hi-Vis High Tea (2017) and Smoko at the Pet Food Factory (2011). Hi-Vis High Tea reached 9th position in the charts. The group has supported Australian tours by The Offspring, Bad Religion, NOFX, and Blink-182. Frenzal Rhomb have also toured in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, South Africa, Israel and Taiwan. The band has undergone several line-up changes, with lead vocalist Jason Whalley serving as the band's sole constant member.
History
1992–1995: Formation to Coughing Up a Storm
Frenzal Rhomb formed in 1992 in the Sydney suburb of Newtown with Alexis 'Lex' Feltham on bass guitar and Jason Whalley on vocals. Feltham and Whalley had been school mates at St Ives High School in St Ives. Whalley had commenced a Bachelor of Arts course in philosophy at Sydney University when he formed Frenzal Rhomb as a punk rock band. The band was formed to take part in a battle of the bands and at that stage was not seen as a permanent project. The name is a reference to a band member's pet rat, who in turn was named for the Fresnel rhomb, which is a prism-like device invented by the 19th century French engineer Augustin-Jean Fresnel. By 1993, the group's line-up was Feltham, Whalley, Ben Costello on guitar and Karl Perske on drums. They played at the Sydney venue for the Big Day Out in January.
In March 1994, the band issued a seven-track EP, Dick Sandwich. Its cover had "a graphic drawing of the offending flaccid appendage draped over a sesame seed bun with lashings of bloody sauce." Posters with a similar image that advertised the group had them banned at some venues. National youth radio station Triple J criticised the group as being immature and told them to "grow up". The EP was described as having "good songs but it sounds like it was recorded under a doona" and had the group banned from some radio stations and retail outlets. One of its tracks, "I Wish I Was as Credible as Roger Climpson" (aka "Roger"), attracted attention of its subject, Roger Climpson – a Seven News anchor on TV – who posed with the group for a photo. The E.P also features fan favourites "Chemotherapy", and a cover of the TV series theme "Home And Away". The E.P featured an alternate cover depicting rabbits on the flipside of the liftout to appease record stores or people who may have been offended by the original artwork. In October of that year, they released a single, "Sorry About the Ruse", on their own label, How Much Did I Fucking Pay For This Records? The group were the local support act on the Australian leg of separate tours by United States punk rockers Bad Religion, The Offspring, and Blink-182.
In March 1995, Frenzal Rhomb released their first studio album, Coughing Up a Storm, on Shock Records' sub-label Shagpile Records. Perske was replaced by Nat Nykyruj on drums before the album appeared. The album features live fan favourite "Genius". In October 1997, it was retitled Once a Jolly Swagman Always a Jolly Swagman and issued with additional tracks by the US label Liberation Records. In mid-1995, the group supported NOFX on their national tour. Fat Mike, a member of NOFX, was also the owner of Fat Wreck Chords, and he signed the band to his label, which released the 4 Litres EP in the US.
1996–2000: Not So Tough Now to A Man's Not a Camel
In July 1996, Frenzal Rhomb released their second album, Not So Tough Now, which was produced by Tony Cohen (Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, TISM, Dave Graney), Kalju Tonuma (Nick Barker, The Mavis's) and Frenzal Rhomb. Just after its appearance, Costello was replaced by Lindsay McDougall on lead guitar and backing vocals – Costello left to attend university and become an animal rights activist. In November, the group issued a CD EP, Punch in the Face and, in January 1997, performed at Big Day Out. Late that year they toured the US supporting Blink-182.
In September 1997, their third LP, Meet the Family, was released, which reached the top 40 on the ARIA Albums Chart and became their first certified gold album by ARIA. It spawned three singles, "Mr Charisma" (June), "There's Your Dad" (September), and "Mum Changed the Locks" (April 1998). The latter title refers to McDougall telling his mother he was going out to a movie when leaving for an interstate tour and returning to find his key no longer opened the front door. Also in April, Gordon "Gordy" Forman replaced Nykyruj on drums, and they toured Australia with US ska band Blue Meanies. Frenzal Rhomb were the head-liners for the Australian leg of the 1998 Vans Warped Tour and they were recruited for the US edition. A 1998 version of Meet the Family contained a bonus disc, Mongrel, that was recorded live on this US leg.
In March 1999, they released their next album, A Man's Not a Camel, which was produced by Eddie Ashworth and was supported by a nationwide tour. As from November 2011, it remains Frenzal Rhomb's highest charting album, reaching No. 11. It spawned their highest charting single, "You Are Not My Friend" (August), which reached No. 49. Allmusic's album reviewer Mike DaRonco felt "the first two songs are great in that catchy, playful pop-punk sort of way, but the rest ... fall under the trap of having all their tracks sounding like one big, long song". The album also features fan favourites "We're Going Out Tonight" and "Never Had So Much Fun".
At the ARIA Music Awards of 1999 in October, the group performed "Never Had So Much Fun". In 2019 Dan Condon of Double J described this as one of "7 great performances from the history of the ARIA Awards." According to the band's website, US gigs were dropped after Whalley suffered a heart attack in late 1999 and the group spent the first few months of 2000 inactive. Whalley later denied that he had had a heart attack with "a lot of things on our Web site are greatly exaggerated. There was also a thing about my having trench rot, the World War I disease, but that's not true either".
2000–2003: Shut Your Mouth to Sans Souci
In November 2000, Frenzal Rhomb returned with the album Shut Your Mouth, released on Epic Records in Australia, an offshoot of Sony. RockZone's Samuel Barker liked some tracks as "a fine template for a pop punk album" however "the majority just falls into the same formula of most punk today. It's not bad, just overplayed". The album peaked in the top 40. After six months, Sony dropped the band in mid-2001 and they signed with Epitaph Records in Australia.
In April 2002, Feltham left the group, which provided many stories about why he left, including one that he was fired after thinking that the group should incorporate synth and keyboard work. The last song he recorded with the band was a cover of Midnight Oil's "The Dead Heart" for the 2001 tribute album Power & The Passion: A Tribute to Midnight Oil. After holding auditions in Sydney, Tom Crease was announced as the new bass guitarist.
In April 2003, the band released Sans Souci, which appeared in the top 50. Jo-Ann Greene of Allmusic liked the group's outlook: "they're not bitter, just snotty about it all, as all good punks should be. And Rhomb are four of the best ... their latest set of frenzied, funny, pitiless attacks upon an uncaring planet." The initial version of the album included a bonus DVD of five tracks with live footage and music videos.
2004: Political protest, Jackie O
During 2003, Frenzal Rhomb's McDougall organised Rock Against Howard, a compilation album, by various Australian musicians as a protest against incumbent Prime Minister John Howard's government. It was released in August 2004, before the October federal election, when Howard's coalition was re-elected.
In July 2004, radio station 2Day FM presenter Jackie O was to MC at the Bassinthegrass festival in Darwin. Jackie allegedly arrived late, causing Frenzal Rhomb to cut their setlist short by several songs. She attempted to speak with the audience. In protest, McDougall began playing AC/DC's "Thunderstruck" over her voice. Jackie was upset that she was unable to finish her announcement to the audience. Whalley later accused her and other music industry personalities of pushing original Australian bands aside to make way for short-term marketable acts such as Australian Idol and Popstars contestants.
Jackie and her co-presenter, Kyle Sandilands, called Whalley on air during their next breakfast show. Whalley apologised for offending Jackie, but stood by his claims regarding the music industry. The conversation became heated as Sandilands told Whalley "Your songs being played on this network or the Triple M network... it's just not going to happen now"; to which Whalley argued that Frenzal Rhomb were almost never played on the Austereo network anyway. During the conversation, Sandilands told Whalley that he was bitter and sad. When Whalley pointed out that Sandilands is in a position to promote new Australian music but doesn't, Sandilands countered that Frenzal Rhomb is not played on the network "because it's pretty much shit". While Sandilands agreed that shows like Popstars and Australian Idol are interested in making "a quick buck", he also asserted that he doesn't "care about Australian Idol or Popstars".
Sandilands argued that Whalley should not "pick fights with people that are female in the Northern Territory". Sandilands asserted that if he himself were present, "it would have been on for young and old". Whalley argued that gender was irrelevant to the issue, and in response to Sandilands' threat of violence asked Jackie if she was aware that her security guard had threatened a band technician with violence. Sandilands said he endorsed the threat of violence. Sandilands argued to Whalley that he has to "get over it" when Whalley recommended that radio DJs should promote original Australian music. In reply, Sandilands insinuated that Frenzal Rhomb, and bands in general, suffer from a lack of support because they are not "putting [their] stuff in front of the right people".
ABC Television's Media Watch covered the exchange and presenter David Marr raised concerns about the interview: "Kyle and Jackie O are also part of a new generation of radio thugs". Patrick Joyce, general manager of Austereo in Sydney, responded to Sandilands' threats of black listing and violence, "Music content is decided by the programming directors based on research of the market... Austereo does not approve of threats being made to anyone... We have fully canvassed these issues with Kyle".
2005–2009: Jay and the Doctor and Forever Malcolm Young
Frenzal Rhomb's Whalley and McDougall worked as Jay and the Doctor on Triple J's breakfast show from January 2005 through to November 2007. Prior to their employment at Triple J, the group's music had been banned after they had earlier criticised the station on air for playing the "same 40 songs". In 2004, they were asked to perform occasional late night shifts and request segments, which developed into the breakfast show slot. Their format includes banter where they provide "quips, one-liners, slagging off each other, other bands, other breakfast announcers, listeners, Triple J, Australian Idol and St Ives. It's verbal ping pong but more discursive."
The band released Forever Malcolm Young in October 2006 – the title is a conflated reference to the 2005 song "Forever Young" by Youth Group and the name of AC/DC's guitarist, Malcolm Young – which peaked in the top 40. It provided a minor radio hit with the title track. Some controversy was expressed over the profanity in the title and lyrics of "Johnny Ramone was in a Fucking Good Band, but He Was a Cunt" (see Johnny Ramone, Ramones). Whalley's attitude to profanity and obscenity is "I often get amazed how offended people get by language, especially in Australia when its nothing you wouldn't hear in your local office or schoolyard. But we do make a point of shaking things up". Australian rock music journalist Ed Nimmervoll described them "[their] history is littered with legendary stories, perhaps true, perhaps exaggerations, but stories which fuel and match their song and album titles. Their songs are often profane, likely to poke fun at someone including themselves, hint at a social conscience, and inside all the tough talk and body jokes be hopelessly romantic."
National touring followed the album's release, along with the announcement that from November 2007 Whalley would be leaving both Frenzal Rhomb and his job at Triple J to go on a world trip with his girlfriend. Some later copies of Forever Malcolm Young contained a bonus DVD covering the band's tours from 2002 up until 2005. It is titled Sucking All Over the World. Gordy Forman plays in the Melbourne hardcore band Mindsnare. McDougall continued as The Doctor at Triple J, initially with Robbie Buck and Marieke Hardy; and, from January 2010, he has hosted the afternoon show Drive with The Doctor. By April 2009, Frenzal Rhomb were performing The Boys Are Back in Town tour with 1990s punk group Nancy Vandal as their support act.
2010–2017: Smoko at the Pet Food Factory and We Lived Like Kings...
In December 2010, Frenzal Rhomb embarked on the No Sleep Til Festival which featured punk and metal bands: Megadeth, Descendents, NOFX, Gwar and Dropkick Murphys. Frenzal Rhomb played a new song entitled "Bird Attack". In Brisbane, on the last stop of the tour, Whalley and Crease joined Descendents on-stage with other bands' singers – Al Barr (Dropkick Murphys), Fat Mike (NOFX), Matt Skiba and Derek Grant (Alkaline Trio), and Jason Allen (Descendents' road manager) – to perform "Everything Sux".
Frenzal Rhomb recorded their next album, Smoko at the Pet Food Factory in Colorado with Bill Stevenson (drummer for Descendents) producing. It was released on 19 August 2011 on Shock Records, which peaked at No. 14. The group toured Australia with Teenage Bottlerocket in September in support of the album.
In June 2012, the album 'Not So Tough Now' was certified gold by the Australia Record Industry Association, 16 years after its release.
Lead singer Jay Whalley announced on 26 February 2013 that the group was forced to cancel its recent tour after surgeons discovered and removed a pig tapeworm egg from his brain.
Drummer Gordy Foreman broke his arm in multiple places after stage diving during a performance in Perth in 2015 and spent about 18 months recovering. The band continued to play live with Kye Smith (of Local Resident Failure) filling in on drums. Smith had previously paid tribute to Frenzal Rhomb as part of his "5 Minute Drum Chronology" series on YouTube.
To celebrate the band's 25th anniversary Frenzal Rhomb toured Australia in 2016. Fans were offered the opportunity to select songs in the set list by voting for their favourite songs on the band's Facebook page. The band also released a best-of album, entitled We Lived Like Kings, We Did Anything We Wanted, on 19 August.
2017–present: Hi-Vis High Tea
Frenzal Rhomb's ninth studio album, Hi-Vis High Tea, was released on 26 May 2017 on CD, LP (vinyl) and digital download. It was once again recorded in The Blasting Room by Bill Stevenson. The album's first single, "Cunt Act," was released on the same day; as well as a national run of dates with Totally Unicorn.
After 17 years, Tom Crease departed the band in mid-2019 due to ongoing hearing problems. He was replaced by Michael "Dal" Dallinger, formerly of Newcastle punk band Local Resident Failure – coincidentally, a band named after a Frenzal Rhomb song.
Controversy
The group has generated controversy for profanity in cover art, song titles and lyrics; for the behaviour of members, on and off stage.
In July 2004, radio 2Day FM hosts Jackie O and Kyle Sandilands (themselves no strangers to controversy) threatened the band with "black-listing" from the Austereo network after a festival performance in Darwin, Australia in a tit for tat. The band had played AC/DC's "Thunderstruck" over the top of Jackie O's effort to explain her late appearance to the audience as the delay caused a further cut into the band's set time.
Band members
Current members
Jason "Jay" Whalley – lead vocals, occasional rhythm guitar, keyboards, kazoo (1992–present)
Lindsay "The Doctor" McDougall – lead guitar, backing vocals (1996–present)
Gordon "Gordy" Forman – drums (1998–present; hiatus 2015–2016)
Michael "Dal" Dallinger (AKA Dal Failure) – bass guitar, backing vocals (2019–present)
Former members
Alexis "Lex" Feltham – bass guitar, backing vocals, guitar (1992–2002)
Ben Costello – guitar (1992–1996)
Bruce Braybrooke – drums (1992–1993)
Karl Perske – drums (1993–1995)
Nat Nykyruj – drums (1995–1998)
Tom Crease – bass guitar, backing vocals (2002–2019)
Former touring musicians
Kye Smith – drums (2015–2016, occasional fill-in gigs)
Timeline
Discography
Studio albums
Coughing up a Storm (1995)
Not So Tough Now (1996)
Meet the Family (1997)
A Man's Not a Camel (1999)
Shut Your Mouth (2000)
Sans Souci (2003)
Forever Malcolm Young (2006)
Smoko at the Pet Food Factory (2011)
Hi-Vis High Tea (2017)
References
General
Note: Archived [on-line] copy has limited functionality.
Specific
External links
Official Facebook
Fat Wreck Chords
Official website, 2001 archived by PANDORA on 29 August 2001.
Frenzal Rhomb's singer Jason Whalley and guitarist Lindsay McDougall perform at Big Day Out, Melbourne, Victoria, 2005. A photo by Martin Philbey at Digital Collections by National Library of Australia
Australian punk rock groups
Fat Wreck Chords artists
Epitaph Records artists
Musical groups established in 1992
Musical groups from Sydney | true | [
"Fireworks: The Singles 1997–2002 is a compilation album of singles from English band Embrace's first 3 albums.\n\nThe versions of \"Make It Last\" and \"I Wouldn't Wanna Happen to You\" are both the single versions and are different from those on the albums If You've Never Been and Drawn from Memory. It also features a (re-recorded) cover of Bob Dorrough's \"3 Is A Magic Number\", which was originally a B-side to \"I Wouldn't Wanna Happen to You\". \"The Good Will Out\", which is usually their encore at live performances, was released only on 7\" as a limited edition.\n\nThe album only reached #36, at a time in which the band's popularity was waning and record-label Hut had dropped them. The main intention of the album's release was that their record label had insisted they complete their four-album deal.\n\nTrack listings\n\nCD\n\"All You Good Good People\"\n\"You're Not Alone\"\n\"Come Back to What You Know\"\n\"Make It Last\" (single version)\n\"3 Is A Magic Number\"\n\"One Big Family\"\n\"My Weakness Is None of Your Business\"\n\"I Wouldn't Wanna Happen to You\" (single version)\n\"Save Me\" (edit)\n\"Hooligan\"\n\"The Good Will Out\"\n\"Wonder\"\n\"Fireworks\"\n\nDVD\n\"All You Good Good People\" (Fierce Panda version)\n\"The Last Gas\"\n\"One Big Family\"\n\"All You Good Good People\"\n\"Come Back to What You Know\"\n\"My Weakness Is None of Your Business\"\n\"Hooligan\"\n\"You're Not Alone\"\n\"Save Me\"\n\"I Wouldn't Wanna Happen to You\"\n\"Wonder\"\n\"Make It Last\"\n\"Higher Sights (live)\"\n\"All You Good Good People\" (US version)\n\nReferences\n\n2002 greatest hits albums\nEmbrace (English band) albums\n2002 video albums\nHut Records video albums\nMusic video compilation albums\nHut Records compilation albums\nVirgin Records compilation albums\nVirgin Records video albums",
"Love's Gonna Happen to Me is a studio album by American country artist Wynn Stewart. His backing band, \"The Tourists,\" received equal billing on the album release. It was released in November 1967 via Capitol Records and was produced by Ken Nelson. It was Stewart's third studio album in his career and was the second album release of 1967. The album's title track became a major hit in 1967 during the same period of the record's release.\n\nBackground and content\nLove's Gonna Happen to Me was recorded in 1967 at the Capitol Recording Studio, located in Hollywood, California. The album's recording sessions were produced by Ken Nelson. Nelson was Stewart's longtime producer with Capitol through the end of the decade. He had also worked with Stewart in the 1950s when he was first signed with the label (but was later dropped and then resigned years later). Love's Gonna Happen to Me contained a total of 12 tracks. Seven of these tracks were written by Stewart himself. Songs such as \"That's the Only Way to Cry,\" \"Daddy's Girl\" and \"Make Big Love\" were all self-composed. The track, \"Down Came the World\" was co-written by Waylon Jennings. Also included was a remake of \"Above and Beyond (The Call of Love),\" which he first recorded several years prior. Stewart's re-recording of his first Capitol hit, \"Waltz of the Angels,\" is also featured in the album's track listing.\n\nRelease and reception\n\nLove's Gonna Happen to Me was released in November 1967 on Capitol Records. It was Stewart's third studio album and second album release of the year. His backing band, The Tourists, received equal billing on the album. The album was issued as a Vinyl LP, containing six songs on each side of the record. Love's Gonna Happen to Me spent 11 weeks on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart and peaked at number 13 in March 1968. It was Stewart's second album to chart any Billboard survey. Although not a proper album review, Billboard magazine did give the album's sound reception in a 1967 article. In the article, writers commented that the style of Love's Gonna Happen to Me was \"individualistic\" compared to other performers. The album's title track was the only single release. It was issued as a single in October 1967. The song became a top ten hit in early 1968, reaching number seven on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart in January 1968. The song was Stewart's fourth top ten hit in his music career.\n\nTrack listing\n\nPersonnel\nAll credits are adapted from the liner notes of Love's Gonna Happen to Me.\n\nMusical personnel\n David Allen – drums\n Phil Baugh – guitar\n Jimmie Collins – steel guitar\n Tommy Collins – guitar\n George French – piano\n Harold Garrison – guitar\n Dennis Hromek – bass\n Roy Nichols – guitar\n Bob Pierce – piano\n Wynn Stewart – lead vocals\n Bobby Wayne – guitar\n\nTechnical personnel\n Dick Brown – cover photo\n Ken Nelson – producer\n\nChart performance\n\nRelease history\n\nReferences\n\n1967 albums\nAlbums produced by Ken Nelson (United States record producer)\nCapitol Records albums\nWynn Stewart albums\n\nAlbums recorded at Capitol Studios"
]
|
[
"Frenzal Rhomb",
"2005-2009: Jay and the Doctor and Forever Malcolm Young",
"What happen in 2005",
"breakfast show from January 2005 through to November 2007.",
"What was Jay and the Doctor",
"Frenzal Rhomb's Whalley and McDougall worked as Jay and the Doctor on Triple J's breakfast show",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"The band released Forever Malcolm Young",
"How did it do on the charts?",
"peaked in the top 40.",
"What else happen album wise",
"- the title is a conflated reference to the 2005 song \"Forever Young",
"What else did you find interesting in this article?",
"Australian rock music journalist Ed Nimmervoll described them \"[their] history is littered with legendary stories,",
"What else happen with Frenzal Rhomb",
"National touring followed",
"When did the touring ending",
"I don't know.",
"What happen after their album release",
"Whalley would be leaving both Frenzal Rhomb and his job at Triple J"
]
| C_31b6aef20b5e4ec5841e183fa3edbb37_0 | WHat else did Whalley do | 10 | WHat else did Whalley do besides leaving Frenzal Rhomb? | Frenzal Rhomb | Frenzal Rhomb's Whalley and McDougall worked as Jay and the Doctor on Triple J's breakfast show from January 2005 through to November 2007. Prior to their employment at Triple J, the group's music had been banned after they had earlier criticised the station on air for playing the "same 40 songs". In 2004, they were asked to perform occasional late night shifts and request segments, which developed into the breakfast show slot. Their format includes banter where they provide "quips, one-liners, slagging off each other, other bands, other breakfast announcers, listeners, Triple J, Australian Idol and St Ives. It's verbal ping pong but more discursive." The band released Forever Malcolm Young in October 2006 - the title is a conflated reference to the 2005 song "Forever Young" by Youth Group and the name of AC/DC's guitarist, Malcolm Young - which peaked in the top 40. It provided a minor radio hit with the title track. Some controversy was expressed over the profanity in the title and lyrics of "Johnny Ramone was in a Fucking Good Band, but He Was a Cunt" (see Johnny Ramone, Ramones). Whalley's attitude to profanity and obscenity is "I often get amazed how offended people get by language, especially in Australia when its nothing you wouldn't hear in your local office or schoolyard. But we do make a point of shaking things up". Australian rock music journalist Ed Nimmervoll described them "[their] history is littered with legendary stories, perhaps true, perhaps exaggerations, but stories which fuel and match their song and album titles. Their songs are often profane, likely to poke fun at someone including themselves, hint at a social conscience, and inside all the tough talk and body jokes be hopelessly romantic." National touring followed the album's release, along with the announcement that from November 2007 Whalley would be leaving both Frenzal Rhomb and his job at Triple J to go on a world trip with his girlfriend. Some later copies of Forever Malcolm Young contained a bonus DVD covering the band's tours from 2002 up until 2005. It is titled Sucking All Over the World. Gordy Forman plays in the Melbourne hardcore band Mindsnare. McDougall continued as The Doctor at Triple J, initially with Robbie Buck and Marieke Hardy; and, from January 2010, he has hosted the afternoon show Drive with The Doctor. By April 2009, Frenzal Rhomb were performing The Boys Are Back in Town tour with 1990s punk group Nancy Vandal as their support act. CANNOTANSWER | on a world trip with his girlfriend. | Frenzal Rhomb are an Australian punk rock band that formed in 1992 in Sydney. Three of the group's albums have entered the top 20 on the ARIA Albums Chart: A Man's Not a Camel (1999), Hi-Vis High Tea (2017) and Smoko at the Pet Food Factory (2011). Hi-Vis High Tea reached 9th position in the charts. The group has supported Australian tours by The Offspring, Bad Religion, NOFX, and Blink-182. Frenzal Rhomb have also toured in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, South Africa, Israel and Taiwan. The band has undergone several line-up changes, with lead vocalist Jason Whalley serving as the band's sole constant member.
History
1992–1995: Formation to Coughing Up a Storm
Frenzal Rhomb formed in 1992 in the Sydney suburb of Newtown with Alexis 'Lex' Feltham on bass guitar and Jason Whalley on vocals. Feltham and Whalley had been school mates at St Ives High School in St Ives. Whalley had commenced a Bachelor of Arts course in philosophy at Sydney University when he formed Frenzal Rhomb as a punk rock band. The band was formed to take part in a battle of the bands and at that stage was not seen as a permanent project. The name is a reference to a band member's pet rat, who in turn was named for the Fresnel rhomb, which is a prism-like device invented by the 19th century French engineer Augustin-Jean Fresnel. By 1993, the group's line-up was Feltham, Whalley, Ben Costello on guitar and Karl Perske on drums. They played at the Sydney venue for the Big Day Out in January.
In March 1994, the band issued a seven-track EP, Dick Sandwich. Its cover had "a graphic drawing of the offending flaccid appendage draped over a sesame seed bun with lashings of bloody sauce." Posters with a similar image that advertised the group had them banned at some venues. National youth radio station Triple J criticised the group as being immature and told them to "grow up". The EP was described as having "good songs but it sounds like it was recorded under a doona" and had the group banned from some radio stations and retail outlets. One of its tracks, "I Wish I Was as Credible as Roger Climpson" (aka "Roger"), attracted attention of its subject, Roger Climpson – a Seven News anchor on TV – who posed with the group for a photo. The E.P also features fan favourites "Chemotherapy", and a cover of the TV series theme "Home And Away". The E.P featured an alternate cover depicting rabbits on the flipside of the liftout to appease record stores or people who may have been offended by the original artwork. In October of that year, they released a single, "Sorry About the Ruse", on their own label, How Much Did I Fucking Pay For This Records? The group were the local support act on the Australian leg of separate tours by United States punk rockers Bad Religion, The Offspring, and Blink-182.
In March 1995, Frenzal Rhomb released their first studio album, Coughing Up a Storm, on Shock Records' sub-label Shagpile Records. Perske was replaced by Nat Nykyruj on drums before the album appeared. The album features live fan favourite "Genius". In October 1997, it was retitled Once a Jolly Swagman Always a Jolly Swagman and issued with additional tracks by the US label Liberation Records. In mid-1995, the group supported NOFX on their national tour. Fat Mike, a member of NOFX, was also the owner of Fat Wreck Chords, and he signed the band to his label, which released the 4 Litres EP in the US.
1996–2000: Not So Tough Now to A Man's Not a Camel
In July 1996, Frenzal Rhomb released their second album, Not So Tough Now, which was produced by Tony Cohen (Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, TISM, Dave Graney), Kalju Tonuma (Nick Barker, The Mavis's) and Frenzal Rhomb. Just after its appearance, Costello was replaced by Lindsay McDougall on lead guitar and backing vocals – Costello left to attend university and become an animal rights activist. In November, the group issued a CD EP, Punch in the Face and, in January 1997, performed at Big Day Out. Late that year they toured the US supporting Blink-182.
In September 1997, their third LP, Meet the Family, was released, which reached the top 40 on the ARIA Albums Chart and became their first certified gold album by ARIA. It spawned three singles, "Mr Charisma" (June), "There's Your Dad" (September), and "Mum Changed the Locks" (April 1998). The latter title refers to McDougall telling his mother he was going out to a movie when leaving for an interstate tour and returning to find his key no longer opened the front door. Also in April, Gordon "Gordy" Forman replaced Nykyruj on drums, and they toured Australia with US ska band Blue Meanies. Frenzal Rhomb were the head-liners for the Australian leg of the 1998 Vans Warped Tour and they were recruited for the US edition. A 1998 version of Meet the Family contained a bonus disc, Mongrel, that was recorded live on this US leg.
In March 1999, they released their next album, A Man's Not a Camel, which was produced by Eddie Ashworth and was supported by a nationwide tour. As from November 2011, it remains Frenzal Rhomb's highest charting album, reaching No. 11. It spawned their highest charting single, "You Are Not My Friend" (August), which reached No. 49. Allmusic's album reviewer Mike DaRonco felt "the first two songs are great in that catchy, playful pop-punk sort of way, but the rest ... fall under the trap of having all their tracks sounding like one big, long song". The album also features fan favourites "We're Going Out Tonight" and "Never Had So Much Fun".
At the ARIA Music Awards of 1999 in October, the group performed "Never Had So Much Fun". In 2019 Dan Condon of Double J described this as one of "7 great performances from the history of the ARIA Awards." According to the band's website, US gigs were dropped after Whalley suffered a heart attack in late 1999 and the group spent the first few months of 2000 inactive. Whalley later denied that he had had a heart attack with "a lot of things on our Web site are greatly exaggerated. There was also a thing about my having trench rot, the World War I disease, but that's not true either".
2000–2003: Shut Your Mouth to Sans Souci
In November 2000, Frenzal Rhomb returned with the album Shut Your Mouth, released on Epic Records in Australia, an offshoot of Sony. RockZone's Samuel Barker liked some tracks as "a fine template for a pop punk album" however "the majority just falls into the same formula of most punk today. It's not bad, just overplayed". The album peaked in the top 40. After six months, Sony dropped the band in mid-2001 and they signed with Epitaph Records in Australia.
In April 2002, Feltham left the group, which provided many stories about why he left, including one that he was fired after thinking that the group should incorporate synth and keyboard work. The last song he recorded with the band was a cover of Midnight Oil's "The Dead Heart" for the 2001 tribute album Power & The Passion: A Tribute to Midnight Oil. After holding auditions in Sydney, Tom Crease was announced as the new bass guitarist.
In April 2003, the band released Sans Souci, which appeared in the top 50. Jo-Ann Greene of Allmusic liked the group's outlook: "they're not bitter, just snotty about it all, as all good punks should be. And Rhomb are four of the best ... their latest set of frenzied, funny, pitiless attacks upon an uncaring planet." The initial version of the album included a bonus DVD of five tracks with live footage and music videos.
2004: Political protest, Jackie O
During 2003, Frenzal Rhomb's McDougall organised Rock Against Howard, a compilation album, by various Australian musicians as a protest against incumbent Prime Minister John Howard's government. It was released in August 2004, before the October federal election, when Howard's coalition was re-elected.
In July 2004, radio station 2Day FM presenter Jackie O was to MC at the Bassinthegrass festival in Darwin. Jackie allegedly arrived late, causing Frenzal Rhomb to cut their setlist short by several songs. She attempted to speak with the audience. In protest, McDougall began playing AC/DC's "Thunderstruck" over her voice. Jackie was upset that she was unable to finish her announcement to the audience. Whalley later accused her and other music industry personalities of pushing original Australian bands aside to make way for short-term marketable acts such as Australian Idol and Popstars contestants.
Jackie and her co-presenter, Kyle Sandilands, called Whalley on air during their next breakfast show. Whalley apologised for offending Jackie, but stood by his claims regarding the music industry. The conversation became heated as Sandilands told Whalley "Your songs being played on this network or the Triple M network... it's just not going to happen now"; to which Whalley argued that Frenzal Rhomb were almost never played on the Austereo network anyway. During the conversation, Sandilands told Whalley that he was bitter and sad. When Whalley pointed out that Sandilands is in a position to promote new Australian music but doesn't, Sandilands countered that Frenzal Rhomb is not played on the network "because it's pretty much shit". While Sandilands agreed that shows like Popstars and Australian Idol are interested in making "a quick buck", he also asserted that he doesn't "care about Australian Idol or Popstars".
Sandilands argued that Whalley should not "pick fights with people that are female in the Northern Territory". Sandilands asserted that if he himself were present, "it would have been on for young and old". Whalley argued that gender was irrelevant to the issue, and in response to Sandilands' threat of violence asked Jackie if she was aware that her security guard had threatened a band technician with violence. Sandilands said he endorsed the threat of violence. Sandilands argued to Whalley that he has to "get over it" when Whalley recommended that radio DJs should promote original Australian music. In reply, Sandilands insinuated that Frenzal Rhomb, and bands in general, suffer from a lack of support because they are not "putting [their] stuff in front of the right people".
ABC Television's Media Watch covered the exchange and presenter David Marr raised concerns about the interview: "Kyle and Jackie O are also part of a new generation of radio thugs". Patrick Joyce, general manager of Austereo in Sydney, responded to Sandilands' threats of black listing and violence, "Music content is decided by the programming directors based on research of the market... Austereo does not approve of threats being made to anyone... We have fully canvassed these issues with Kyle".
2005–2009: Jay and the Doctor and Forever Malcolm Young
Frenzal Rhomb's Whalley and McDougall worked as Jay and the Doctor on Triple J's breakfast show from January 2005 through to November 2007. Prior to their employment at Triple J, the group's music had been banned after they had earlier criticised the station on air for playing the "same 40 songs". In 2004, they were asked to perform occasional late night shifts and request segments, which developed into the breakfast show slot. Their format includes banter where they provide "quips, one-liners, slagging off each other, other bands, other breakfast announcers, listeners, Triple J, Australian Idol and St Ives. It's verbal ping pong but more discursive."
The band released Forever Malcolm Young in October 2006 – the title is a conflated reference to the 2005 song "Forever Young" by Youth Group and the name of AC/DC's guitarist, Malcolm Young – which peaked in the top 40. It provided a minor radio hit with the title track. Some controversy was expressed over the profanity in the title and lyrics of "Johnny Ramone was in a Fucking Good Band, but He Was a Cunt" (see Johnny Ramone, Ramones). Whalley's attitude to profanity and obscenity is "I often get amazed how offended people get by language, especially in Australia when its nothing you wouldn't hear in your local office or schoolyard. But we do make a point of shaking things up". Australian rock music journalist Ed Nimmervoll described them "[their] history is littered with legendary stories, perhaps true, perhaps exaggerations, but stories which fuel and match their song and album titles. Their songs are often profane, likely to poke fun at someone including themselves, hint at a social conscience, and inside all the tough talk and body jokes be hopelessly romantic."
National touring followed the album's release, along with the announcement that from November 2007 Whalley would be leaving both Frenzal Rhomb and his job at Triple J to go on a world trip with his girlfriend. Some later copies of Forever Malcolm Young contained a bonus DVD covering the band's tours from 2002 up until 2005. It is titled Sucking All Over the World. Gordy Forman plays in the Melbourne hardcore band Mindsnare. McDougall continued as The Doctor at Triple J, initially with Robbie Buck and Marieke Hardy; and, from January 2010, he has hosted the afternoon show Drive with The Doctor. By April 2009, Frenzal Rhomb were performing The Boys Are Back in Town tour with 1990s punk group Nancy Vandal as their support act.
2010–2017: Smoko at the Pet Food Factory and We Lived Like Kings...
In December 2010, Frenzal Rhomb embarked on the No Sleep Til Festival which featured punk and metal bands: Megadeth, Descendents, NOFX, Gwar and Dropkick Murphys. Frenzal Rhomb played a new song entitled "Bird Attack". In Brisbane, on the last stop of the tour, Whalley and Crease joined Descendents on-stage with other bands' singers – Al Barr (Dropkick Murphys), Fat Mike (NOFX), Matt Skiba and Derek Grant (Alkaline Trio), and Jason Allen (Descendents' road manager) – to perform "Everything Sux".
Frenzal Rhomb recorded their next album, Smoko at the Pet Food Factory in Colorado with Bill Stevenson (drummer for Descendents) producing. It was released on 19 August 2011 on Shock Records, which peaked at No. 14. The group toured Australia with Teenage Bottlerocket in September in support of the album.
In June 2012, the album 'Not So Tough Now' was certified gold by the Australia Record Industry Association, 16 years after its release.
Lead singer Jay Whalley announced on 26 February 2013 that the group was forced to cancel its recent tour after surgeons discovered and removed a pig tapeworm egg from his brain.
Drummer Gordy Foreman broke his arm in multiple places after stage diving during a performance in Perth in 2015 and spent about 18 months recovering. The band continued to play live with Kye Smith (of Local Resident Failure) filling in on drums. Smith had previously paid tribute to Frenzal Rhomb as part of his "5 Minute Drum Chronology" series on YouTube.
To celebrate the band's 25th anniversary Frenzal Rhomb toured Australia in 2016. Fans were offered the opportunity to select songs in the set list by voting for their favourite songs on the band's Facebook page. The band also released a best-of album, entitled We Lived Like Kings, We Did Anything We Wanted, on 19 August.
2017–present: Hi-Vis High Tea
Frenzal Rhomb's ninth studio album, Hi-Vis High Tea, was released on 26 May 2017 on CD, LP (vinyl) and digital download. It was once again recorded in The Blasting Room by Bill Stevenson. The album's first single, "Cunt Act," was released on the same day; as well as a national run of dates with Totally Unicorn.
After 17 years, Tom Crease departed the band in mid-2019 due to ongoing hearing problems. He was replaced by Michael "Dal" Dallinger, formerly of Newcastle punk band Local Resident Failure – coincidentally, a band named after a Frenzal Rhomb song.
Controversy
The group has generated controversy for profanity in cover art, song titles and lyrics; for the behaviour of members, on and off stage.
In July 2004, radio 2Day FM hosts Jackie O and Kyle Sandilands (themselves no strangers to controversy) threatened the band with "black-listing" from the Austereo network after a festival performance in Darwin, Australia in a tit for tat. The band had played AC/DC's "Thunderstruck" over the top of Jackie O's effort to explain her late appearance to the audience as the delay caused a further cut into the band's set time.
Band members
Current members
Jason "Jay" Whalley – lead vocals, occasional rhythm guitar, keyboards, kazoo (1992–present)
Lindsay "The Doctor" McDougall – lead guitar, backing vocals (1996–present)
Gordon "Gordy" Forman – drums (1998–present; hiatus 2015–2016)
Michael "Dal" Dallinger (AKA Dal Failure) – bass guitar, backing vocals (2019–present)
Former members
Alexis "Lex" Feltham – bass guitar, backing vocals, guitar (1992–2002)
Ben Costello – guitar (1992–1996)
Bruce Braybrooke – drums (1992–1993)
Karl Perske – drums (1993–1995)
Nat Nykyruj – drums (1995–1998)
Tom Crease – bass guitar, backing vocals (2002–2019)
Former touring musicians
Kye Smith – drums (2015–2016, occasional fill-in gigs)
Timeline
Discography
Studio albums
Coughing up a Storm (1995)
Not So Tough Now (1996)
Meet the Family (1997)
A Man's Not a Camel (1999)
Shut Your Mouth (2000)
Sans Souci (2003)
Forever Malcolm Young (2006)
Smoko at the Pet Food Factory (2011)
Hi-Vis High Tea (2017)
References
General
Note: Archived [on-line] copy has limited functionality.
Specific
External links
Official Facebook
Fat Wreck Chords
Official website, 2001 archived by PANDORA on 29 August 2001.
Frenzal Rhomb's singer Jason Whalley and guitarist Lindsay McDougall perform at Big Day Out, Melbourne, Victoria, 2005. A photo by Martin Philbey at Digital Collections by National Library of Australia
Australian punk rock groups
Fat Wreck Chords artists
Epitaph Records artists
Musical groups established in 1992
Musical groups from Sydney | true | [
"Edward Whalley-Tooker (15 January 1863 – 23 November 1940) was an English cricketer. He was a right-handed batsman and a slow underarm bowler. He was one of the last cricketers to use this bowling style. Whalley-Tooker played two first-class matches for Hampshire.\n\nWhalley-Tooker made his first-class debut against the local rivals Sussex in 1883. He made his final appearance for the club during the 1885 County season, once again against Sussex in what was to be the club's final season with first-class status until the 1895 County Championship.\n\nIn 1908 Whalley-Tooker played for Hambledon against an England XI in a commemorative match at the Broadhalfpenny Down ground, home to the original Hambledon Club. Hambledon won the match by five wickets. This was Whalley-Tooker's final first-class match.\n\nWhalley-Tooker was a descendant of a member of the original Hambledon club, which gave him a proud link to cricketing history. Following the match in 1908, he had reclaimed the Broadhalfpenny Down ground for farming land. Whalley-Tooker set about the task of securing its use for cricket once again, and in 1925 it was restored to host cricket matches. The possession of the land was given to Winchester College, with the college and Hambledon playing the first match there since its restoration. Whalley-Tooker led the Hambledon side to victory.\n\nWhalley-Tooker died in Hambledon, Hampshire on 23 November 1940.\n\nExternal links\nEdward Whalley-Tooker at Cricinfo\nEdward Whalley-Tooker at CricketArchive\n\n1863 births\n1940 deaths\nPeople from Wem\nPeople from Shropshire\nEnglish cricketers\nHampshire cricketers",
"Whalley can mean:\n\nPlaces\nWhalley, Lancashire, England, a village\nWhalley Abbey, a former Cistercian abbey\nWhalley railway station\nWhalley, Surrey, neighbourhood and city centre in the city of Surrey, British Columbia, Canada\nWhalley Range, Blackburn\nWhalley Range, Manchester\n\nPeople\nArthur Whalley (1886–1952), English footballer banned for life for match fixing\nBert Whalley (1913–1958), English footballer and coach\nBoff Whalley (born 1961), former lead guitarist of the band Chumbawamba\nDuncan Whalley (born 1979), English cricketer\nEdward Whalley (c. 1607–c. 1675), an English military leader during the English Civil War\nFred Whalley (1898–1976), English footballer\nGareth Whalley (born 1973), English-born footballer who qualifies to play for the Republic of Ireland\nGeorge Whalley (1915–1983), Canadian scholar, poet and naval officer, brother of Peter Whalley\nGeorge Hammond Whalley (1813–1878), British lawyer and politician\nGillian Whalley, New Zealand sonographer\nHampden Whalley (1851–?), British politician and soldier, son of George Hammond Whalley\nJ. Irving Whalley (1902–1980), American politician\nJoan Whalley (born 1927), Australian actress, teacher and artistic director\nJoan Whalley (footballer) (1921–1998), English female footballer\nJoanne Whalley (born 1961), English actress\nJohn Whalley (MP) (c. 1633–?), English Member of Parliament\n Kylan Whalley (born 2001) Aircraft Engineer \nLawrence Whalley (born c. 1921?), British psychologist and academic\nMichael Whalley (1953–2008), Republican member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives\nNorma Whalley, Australian-born actress on Broadway in 1899 and in film in the 1920s and 1930s\nÓscar Whalley (born 1994), Spanish footballer\nPaul E. S. Whalley (died 2019), British entomologist\nPeter Whalley (1921–2007), Canadian cartoonist and sculptor\nPeter Whalley (clergyman) (1722–1791), English clergyman, academic and schoolmaster\nRichard Whalley (died 1583) (1498–1583), English Member of Parliament\nRichard Whalley (died c. 1632), English Member of Parliament\nSamuel Whalley (1800–1883), British Radical politician\nSelwyn Whalley (1934–2008), English footballer\nShaun Whalley (born 1987), English footballer\n\nSee also\nWalley, a list of people with the surname\nWally (disambiguation)\nWhaley (disambiguation)"
]
|
[
"Frenzal Rhomb",
"2005-2009: Jay and the Doctor and Forever Malcolm Young",
"What happen in 2005",
"breakfast show from January 2005 through to November 2007.",
"What was Jay and the Doctor",
"Frenzal Rhomb's Whalley and McDougall worked as Jay and the Doctor on Triple J's breakfast show",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"The band released Forever Malcolm Young",
"How did it do on the charts?",
"peaked in the top 40.",
"What else happen album wise",
"- the title is a conflated reference to the 2005 song \"Forever Young",
"What else did you find interesting in this article?",
"Australian rock music journalist Ed Nimmervoll described them \"[their] history is littered with legendary stories,",
"What else happen with Frenzal Rhomb",
"National touring followed",
"When did the touring ending",
"I don't know.",
"What happen after their album release",
"Whalley would be leaving both Frenzal Rhomb and his job at Triple J",
"WHat else did Whalley do",
"on a world trip with his girlfriend."
]
| C_31b6aef20b5e4ec5841e183fa3edbb37_0 | What else happen that was good for the group | 11 | What else happened that was good for Frenzal Rhomb aside from Whalley leaving? | Frenzal Rhomb | Frenzal Rhomb's Whalley and McDougall worked as Jay and the Doctor on Triple J's breakfast show from January 2005 through to November 2007. Prior to their employment at Triple J, the group's music had been banned after they had earlier criticised the station on air for playing the "same 40 songs". In 2004, they were asked to perform occasional late night shifts and request segments, which developed into the breakfast show slot. Their format includes banter where they provide "quips, one-liners, slagging off each other, other bands, other breakfast announcers, listeners, Triple J, Australian Idol and St Ives. It's verbal ping pong but more discursive." The band released Forever Malcolm Young in October 2006 - the title is a conflated reference to the 2005 song "Forever Young" by Youth Group and the name of AC/DC's guitarist, Malcolm Young - which peaked in the top 40. It provided a minor radio hit with the title track. Some controversy was expressed over the profanity in the title and lyrics of "Johnny Ramone was in a Fucking Good Band, but He Was a Cunt" (see Johnny Ramone, Ramones). Whalley's attitude to profanity and obscenity is "I often get amazed how offended people get by language, especially in Australia when its nothing you wouldn't hear in your local office or schoolyard. But we do make a point of shaking things up". Australian rock music journalist Ed Nimmervoll described them "[their] history is littered with legendary stories, perhaps true, perhaps exaggerations, but stories which fuel and match their song and album titles. Their songs are often profane, likely to poke fun at someone including themselves, hint at a social conscience, and inside all the tough talk and body jokes be hopelessly romantic." National touring followed the album's release, along with the announcement that from November 2007 Whalley would be leaving both Frenzal Rhomb and his job at Triple J to go on a world trip with his girlfriend. Some later copies of Forever Malcolm Young contained a bonus DVD covering the band's tours from 2002 up until 2005. It is titled Sucking All Over the World. Gordy Forman plays in the Melbourne hardcore band Mindsnare. McDougall continued as The Doctor at Triple J, initially with Robbie Buck and Marieke Hardy; and, from January 2010, he has hosted the afternoon show Drive with The Doctor. By April 2009, Frenzal Rhomb were performing The Boys Are Back in Town tour with 1990s punk group Nancy Vandal as their support act. CANNOTANSWER | McDougall continued as The Doctor at Triple J, initially with Robbie Buck and Marieke Hardy; | Frenzal Rhomb are an Australian punk rock band that formed in 1992 in Sydney. Three of the group's albums have entered the top 20 on the ARIA Albums Chart: A Man's Not a Camel (1999), Hi-Vis High Tea (2017) and Smoko at the Pet Food Factory (2011). Hi-Vis High Tea reached 9th position in the charts. The group has supported Australian tours by The Offspring, Bad Religion, NOFX, and Blink-182. Frenzal Rhomb have also toured in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, South Africa, Israel and Taiwan. The band has undergone several line-up changes, with lead vocalist Jason Whalley serving as the band's sole constant member.
History
1992–1995: Formation to Coughing Up a Storm
Frenzal Rhomb formed in 1992 in the Sydney suburb of Newtown with Alexis 'Lex' Feltham on bass guitar and Jason Whalley on vocals. Feltham and Whalley had been school mates at St Ives High School in St Ives. Whalley had commenced a Bachelor of Arts course in philosophy at Sydney University when he formed Frenzal Rhomb as a punk rock band. The band was formed to take part in a battle of the bands and at that stage was not seen as a permanent project. The name is a reference to a band member's pet rat, who in turn was named for the Fresnel rhomb, which is a prism-like device invented by the 19th century French engineer Augustin-Jean Fresnel. By 1993, the group's line-up was Feltham, Whalley, Ben Costello on guitar and Karl Perske on drums. They played at the Sydney venue for the Big Day Out in January.
In March 1994, the band issued a seven-track EP, Dick Sandwich. Its cover had "a graphic drawing of the offending flaccid appendage draped over a sesame seed bun with lashings of bloody sauce." Posters with a similar image that advertised the group had them banned at some venues. National youth radio station Triple J criticised the group as being immature and told them to "grow up". The EP was described as having "good songs but it sounds like it was recorded under a doona" and had the group banned from some radio stations and retail outlets. One of its tracks, "I Wish I Was as Credible as Roger Climpson" (aka "Roger"), attracted attention of its subject, Roger Climpson – a Seven News anchor on TV – who posed with the group for a photo. The E.P also features fan favourites "Chemotherapy", and a cover of the TV series theme "Home And Away". The E.P featured an alternate cover depicting rabbits on the flipside of the liftout to appease record stores or people who may have been offended by the original artwork. In October of that year, they released a single, "Sorry About the Ruse", on their own label, How Much Did I Fucking Pay For This Records? The group were the local support act on the Australian leg of separate tours by United States punk rockers Bad Religion, The Offspring, and Blink-182.
In March 1995, Frenzal Rhomb released their first studio album, Coughing Up a Storm, on Shock Records' sub-label Shagpile Records. Perske was replaced by Nat Nykyruj on drums before the album appeared. The album features live fan favourite "Genius". In October 1997, it was retitled Once a Jolly Swagman Always a Jolly Swagman and issued with additional tracks by the US label Liberation Records. In mid-1995, the group supported NOFX on their national tour. Fat Mike, a member of NOFX, was also the owner of Fat Wreck Chords, and he signed the band to his label, which released the 4 Litres EP in the US.
1996–2000: Not So Tough Now to A Man's Not a Camel
In July 1996, Frenzal Rhomb released their second album, Not So Tough Now, which was produced by Tony Cohen (Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, TISM, Dave Graney), Kalju Tonuma (Nick Barker, The Mavis's) and Frenzal Rhomb. Just after its appearance, Costello was replaced by Lindsay McDougall on lead guitar and backing vocals – Costello left to attend university and become an animal rights activist. In November, the group issued a CD EP, Punch in the Face and, in January 1997, performed at Big Day Out. Late that year they toured the US supporting Blink-182.
In September 1997, their third LP, Meet the Family, was released, which reached the top 40 on the ARIA Albums Chart and became their first certified gold album by ARIA. It spawned three singles, "Mr Charisma" (June), "There's Your Dad" (September), and "Mum Changed the Locks" (April 1998). The latter title refers to McDougall telling his mother he was going out to a movie when leaving for an interstate tour and returning to find his key no longer opened the front door. Also in April, Gordon "Gordy" Forman replaced Nykyruj on drums, and they toured Australia with US ska band Blue Meanies. Frenzal Rhomb were the head-liners for the Australian leg of the 1998 Vans Warped Tour and they were recruited for the US edition. A 1998 version of Meet the Family contained a bonus disc, Mongrel, that was recorded live on this US leg.
In March 1999, they released their next album, A Man's Not a Camel, which was produced by Eddie Ashworth and was supported by a nationwide tour. As from November 2011, it remains Frenzal Rhomb's highest charting album, reaching No. 11. It spawned their highest charting single, "You Are Not My Friend" (August), which reached No. 49. Allmusic's album reviewer Mike DaRonco felt "the first two songs are great in that catchy, playful pop-punk sort of way, but the rest ... fall under the trap of having all their tracks sounding like one big, long song". The album also features fan favourites "We're Going Out Tonight" and "Never Had So Much Fun".
At the ARIA Music Awards of 1999 in October, the group performed "Never Had So Much Fun". In 2019 Dan Condon of Double J described this as one of "7 great performances from the history of the ARIA Awards." According to the band's website, US gigs were dropped after Whalley suffered a heart attack in late 1999 and the group spent the first few months of 2000 inactive. Whalley later denied that he had had a heart attack with "a lot of things on our Web site are greatly exaggerated. There was also a thing about my having trench rot, the World War I disease, but that's not true either".
2000–2003: Shut Your Mouth to Sans Souci
In November 2000, Frenzal Rhomb returned with the album Shut Your Mouth, released on Epic Records in Australia, an offshoot of Sony. RockZone's Samuel Barker liked some tracks as "a fine template for a pop punk album" however "the majority just falls into the same formula of most punk today. It's not bad, just overplayed". The album peaked in the top 40. After six months, Sony dropped the band in mid-2001 and they signed with Epitaph Records in Australia.
In April 2002, Feltham left the group, which provided many stories about why he left, including one that he was fired after thinking that the group should incorporate synth and keyboard work. The last song he recorded with the band was a cover of Midnight Oil's "The Dead Heart" for the 2001 tribute album Power & The Passion: A Tribute to Midnight Oil. After holding auditions in Sydney, Tom Crease was announced as the new bass guitarist.
In April 2003, the band released Sans Souci, which appeared in the top 50. Jo-Ann Greene of Allmusic liked the group's outlook: "they're not bitter, just snotty about it all, as all good punks should be. And Rhomb are four of the best ... their latest set of frenzied, funny, pitiless attacks upon an uncaring planet." The initial version of the album included a bonus DVD of five tracks with live footage and music videos.
2004: Political protest, Jackie O
During 2003, Frenzal Rhomb's McDougall organised Rock Against Howard, a compilation album, by various Australian musicians as a protest against incumbent Prime Minister John Howard's government. It was released in August 2004, before the October federal election, when Howard's coalition was re-elected.
In July 2004, radio station 2Day FM presenter Jackie O was to MC at the Bassinthegrass festival in Darwin. Jackie allegedly arrived late, causing Frenzal Rhomb to cut their setlist short by several songs. She attempted to speak with the audience. In protest, McDougall began playing AC/DC's "Thunderstruck" over her voice. Jackie was upset that she was unable to finish her announcement to the audience. Whalley later accused her and other music industry personalities of pushing original Australian bands aside to make way for short-term marketable acts such as Australian Idol and Popstars contestants.
Jackie and her co-presenter, Kyle Sandilands, called Whalley on air during their next breakfast show. Whalley apologised for offending Jackie, but stood by his claims regarding the music industry. The conversation became heated as Sandilands told Whalley "Your songs being played on this network or the Triple M network... it's just not going to happen now"; to which Whalley argued that Frenzal Rhomb were almost never played on the Austereo network anyway. During the conversation, Sandilands told Whalley that he was bitter and sad. When Whalley pointed out that Sandilands is in a position to promote new Australian music but doesn't, Sandilands countered that Frenzal Rhomb is not played on the network "because it's pretty much shit". While Sandilands agreed that shows like Popstars and Australian Idol are interested in making "a quick buck", he also asserted that he doesn't "care about Australian Idol or Popstars".
Sandilands argued that Whalley should not "pick fights with people that are female in the Northern Territory". Sandilands asserted that if he himself were present, "it would have been on for young and old". Whalley argued that gender was irrelevant to the issue, and in response to Sandilands' threat of violence asked Jackie if she was aware that her security guard had threatened a band technician with violence. Sandilands said he endorsed the threat of violence. Sandilands argued to Whalley that he has to "get over it" when Whalley recommended that radio DJs should promote original Australian music. In reply, Sandilands insinuated that Frenzal Rhomb, and bands in general, suffer from a lack of support because they are not "putting [their] stuff in front of the right people".
ABC Television's Media Watch covered the exchange and presenter David Marr raised concerns about the interview: "Kyle and Jackie O are also part of a new generation of radio thugs". Patrick Joyce, general manager of Austereo in Sydney, responded to Sandilands' threats of black listing and violence, "Music content is decided by the programming directors based on research of the market... Austereo does not approve of threats being made to anyone... We have fully canvassed these issues with Kyle".
2005–2009: Jay and the Doctor and Forever Malcolm Young
Frenzal Rhomb's Whalley and McDougall worked as Jay and the Doctor on Triple J's breakfast show from January 2005 through to November 2007. Prior to their employment at Triple J, the group's music had been banned after they had earlier criticised the station on air for playing the "same 40 songs". In 2004, they were asked to perform occasional late night shifts and request segments, which developed into the breakfast show slot. Their format includes banter where they provide "quips, one-liners, slagging off each other, other bands, other breakfast announcers, listeners, Triple J, Australian Idol and St Ives. It's verbal ping pong but more discursive."
The band released Forever Malcolm Young in October 2006 – the title is a conflated reference to the 2005 song "Forever Young" by Youth Group and the name of AC/DC's guitarist, Malcolm Young – which peaked in the top 40. It provided a minor radio hit with the title track. Some controversy was expressed over the profanity in the title and lyrics of "Johnny Ramone was in a Fucking Good Band, but He Was a Cunt" (see Johnny Ramone, Ramones). Whalley's attitude to profanity and obscenity is "I often get amazed how offended people get by language, especially in Australia when its nothing you wouldn't hear in your local office or schoolyard. But we do make a point of shaking things up". Australian rock music journalist Ed Nimmervoll described them "[their] history is littered with legendary stories, perhaps true, perhaps exaggerations, but stories which fuel and match their song and album titles. Their songs are often profane, likely to poke fun at someone including themselves, hint at a social conscience, and inside all the tough talk and body jokes be hopelessly romantic."
National touring followed the album's release, along with the announcement that from November 2007 Whalley would be leaving both Frenzal Rhomb and his job at Triple J to go on a world trip with his girlfriend. Some later copies of Forever Malcolm Young contained a bonus DVD covering the band's tours from 2002 up until 2005. It is titled Sucking All Over the World. Gordy Forman plays in the Melbourne hardcore band Mindsnare. McDougall continued as The Doctor at Triple J, initially with Robbie Buck and Marieke Hardy; and, from January 2010, he has hosted the afternoon show Drive with The Doctor. By April 2009, Frenzal Rhomb were performing The Boys Are Back in Town tour with 1990s punk group Nancy Vandal as their support act.
2010–2017: Smoko at the Pet Food Factory and We Lived Like Kings...
In December 2010, Frenzal Rhomb embarked on the No Sleep Til Festival which featured punk and metal bands: Megadeth, Descendents, NOFX, Gwar and Dropkick Murphys. Frenzal Rhomb played a new song entitled "Bird Attack". In Brisbane, on the last stop of the tour, Whalley and Crease joined Descendents on-stage with other bands' singers – Al Barr (Dropkick Murphys), Fat Mike (NOFX), Matt Skiba and Derek Grant (Alkaline Trio), and Jason Allen (Descendents' road manager) – to perform "Everything Sux".
Frenzal Rhomb recorded their next album, Smoko at the Pet Food Factory in Colorado with Bill Stevenson (drummer for Descendents) producing. It was released on 19 August 2011 on Shock Records, which peaked at No. 14. The group toured Australia with Teenage Bottlerocket in September in support of the album.
In June 2012, the album 'Not So Tough Now' was certified gold by the Australia Record Industry Association, 16 years after its release.
Lead singer Jay Whalley announced on 26 February 2013 that the group was forced to cancel its recent tour after surgeons discovered and removed a pig tapeworm egg from his brain.
Drummer Gordy Foreman broke his arm in multiple places after stage diving during a performance in Perth in 2015 and spent about 18 months recovering. The band continued to play live with Kye Smith (of Local Resident Failure) filling in on drums. Smith had previously paid tribute to Frenzal Rhomb as part of his "5 Minute Drum Chronology" series on YouTube.
To celebrate the band's 25th anniversary Frenzal Rhomb toured Australia in 2016. Fans were offered the opportunity to select songs in the set list by voting for their favourite songs on the band's Facebook page. The band also released a best-of album, entitled We Lived Like Kings, We Did Anything We Wanted, on 19 August.
2017–present: Hi-Vis High Tea
Frenzal Rhomb's ninth studio album, Hi-Vis High Tea, was released on 26 May 2017 on CD, LP (vinyl) and digital download. It was once again recorded in The Blasting Room by Bill Stevenson. The album's first single, "Cunt Act," was released on the same day; as well as a national run of dates with Totally Unicorn.
After 17 years, Tom Crease departed the band in mid-2019 due to ongoing hearing problems. He was replaced by Michael "Dal" Dallinger, formerly of Newcastle punk band Local Resident Failure – coincidentally, a band named after a Frenzal Rhomb song.
Controversy
The group has generated controversy for profanity in cover art, song titles and lyrics; for the behaviour of members, on and off stage.
In July 2004, radio 2Day FM hosts Jackie O and Kyle Sandilands (themselves no strangers to controversy) threatened the band with "black-listing" from the Austereo network after a festival performance in Darwin, Australia in a tit for tat. The band had played AC/DC's "Thunderstruck" over the top of Jackie O's effort to explain her late appearance to the audience as the delay caused a further cut into the band's set time.
Band members
Current members
Jason "Jay" Whalley – lead vocals, occasional rhythm guitar, keyboards, kazoo (1992–present)
Lindsay "The Doctor" McDougall – lead guitar, backing vocals (1996–present)
Gordon "Gordy" Forman – drums (1998–present; hiatus 2015–2016)
Michael "Dal" Dallinger (AKA Dal Failure) – bass guitar, backing vocals (2019–present)
Former members
Alexis "Lex" Feltham – bass guitar, backing vocals, guitar (1992–2002)
Ben Costello – guitar (1992–1996)
Bruce Braybrooke – drums (1992–1993)
Karl Perske – drums (1993–1995)
Nat Nykyruj – drums (1995–1998)
Tom Crease – bass guitar, backing vocals (2002–2019)
Former touring musicians
Kye Smith – drums (2015–2016, occasional fill-in gigs)
Timeline
Discography
Studio albums
Coughing up a Storm (1995)
Not So Tough Now (1996)
Meet the Family (1997)
A Man's Not a Camel (1999)
Shut Your Mouth (2000)
Sans Souci (2003)
Forever Malcolm Young (2006)
Smoko at the Pet Food Factory (2011)
Hi-Vis High Tea (2017)
References
General
Note: Archived [on-line] copy has limited functionality.
Specific
External links
Official Facebook
Fat Wreck Chords
Official website, 2001 archived by PANDORA on 29 August 2001.
Frenzal Rhomb's singer Jason Whalley and guitarist Lindsay McDougall perform at Big Day Out, Melbourne, Victoria, 2005. A photo by Martin Philbey at Digital Collections by National Library of Australia
Australian punk rock groups
Fat Wreck Chords artists
Epitaph Records artists
Musical groups established in 1992
Musical groups from Sydney | true | [
"James P. Flynn (born February 5, 1934) is an American teamster and film actor. He was a reputed member of the famous Winter Hill Gang. He has been in films including Good Will Hunting, The Cider House Rules and What's the Worst That Could Happen?.\n\nBiography\nJames P. Flynn was born in Somerville, Massachusetts.\n\nIn 1982, Flynn was wrongly identified as a shooter in the murder of Winter Hill Gang mob associate Brian \"Balloonhead\" Halloran and attempted murder of Michael Donahue. He was tried and acquitted for the murder in 1986 after being framed by John Connolly and James J. Bulger.\n\nFlynn was a part of Boston's International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 25 labor union where he later ran the organization's movie production crew. He has also been the Teamster Union's transportation coordinator and transportation captain in the transportation department on numerous films, including The Departed, Fever Pitch and Jumanji.\n\nFlynn appeared in many films shot in the New England area. In show business he goes by the name 'James P. Flynn'. Flynn was cast as a judge in the Boston-based film Good Will Hunting in 1997. Later, he acted in the 1999 film The Cider House Rules and What's the Worst That Could Happen? in 2001. He was also a truck driver for movie production equipment during the filming of My Best Friend's Girl in 2008. Boston actor Tom Kemp remarked: \"[The film The Departed] wouldn't be a Boston movie without me, a Wahlberg, and Jimmy Flynn from the teamsters.\"\n\nFilmography\nGood Will Hunting (1997) as Judge George H. Malone\nThe Cider House Rules (1999) as Vernon\nWhat's the Worst That Could Happen? (2001) as the Fire Captain\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n\n1934 births\nLiving people\nMale actors from Boston\nWinter Hill Gang",
"\"What It Ain't (Ghetto Enuff)\" is a song by American hip hop group Goodie Mob featuring American R&B girl group TLC. It was released in the spring of 2000 as the second single from Goodie Mob's third studio album, World Party (1999). The song peaked at number three on Billboards Bubbling Under R&B/Hip-Hop Singles chart. The song was rumored to have been recorded for TLC's FanMail album, but the label deadline of the album prevented it from being added to the album at the last minute.\n\nComposition\n\"For us, it was like a meet-and-greet that needed to happen for the folks who was from here,\" Big Gipp said.\n\nThe song was later added to their compilation Dirty South Classics (2003).\n\nMusic video\nThe video which was filmed in Atlanta in February 2000 and was directed by Dave Meyers and takes place in an arcade video game. The video (released on March 3, 2000) has all four members of the Goodie Mob teaming up with the three girls of TLC as they all find and take down an alien-type mutant with an alien slug inside of them. Khujo of Goodie Mob defeats the slug-possessed mutant and flushes it down the toilet, winning the game for the individual playing. This became the last video appearance of TLC member Lisa \"Left Eye\" Lopes as part of the group during her lifetime.\n\nTrack listings\nCD 1\n \"What It Ain't (Ghetto Enuff)\" — 4:25\n \"Shout\" — 3:57\n \"What It Ain't (Ghetto Enuff)\" — 5:13\n \"Get Rich To This\" — 4:20\n \"What It Ain't (Ghetto Enuff)\" — 5:13\n\nCD 2\n \"What It Ain't (Ghetto Enuff)\" — 4:25\n \"Shout\" — 3:57\n\nCharts\n\nReferences\n\n1999 songs\n2000 singles\nGoodie Mob songs\nLaFace Records singles\nSong recordings produced by Dallas Austin\nSongs written by Dallas Austin\nSongs written by Lisa Lopes\nTLC (group) songs"
]
|
[
"The Jay Leno Show",
"Dispute over timeslot"
]
| C_faa2e2423bbc407e89b705466c82df48_1 | What was the timeslot Jay Leno was in? | 1 | What was the timeslot Jay Leno was in? | The Jay Leno Show | In early January 2010, multiple media outlets reported that, following the 2010 Winter Olympics, The Jay Leno Show would be shortened to 30 minutes and begin airing weeknights at 11:35 pm ET, with Conan O'Brien and Jimmy Fallon's shows following it beginning at 12:05 am on March 1, 2010. On January 10, NBC Universal Television Entertainment Chairman Jeff Gaspin confirmed that The Jay Leno Show would indeed move to 11:35. Leno immediately accepted the return to 11:35 p.m., calling the move "all business." He had made it known in the press in November 2009 that he wished to return to his old timeslot; behind the scenes, Leno had privately indicated that he did not believe the 10:00 experiment would work. On the other hand, O'Brien's contract stipulated that the network could move the show back to 12:05 a.m. without penalty, a loophole put in primarily to accommodate sports preemptions, the network's traditional nightly Wimbledon tournament highlights show, and specials such as New Year's Eve with Carson Daly. O'Brien did not seriously respond for several days after the announcement, then drafted a press release explaining why he felt it was unfair to him, his staff, Fallon, and the legacy of The Tonight Show to move the show past midnight. He concluded by saying that he "cannot participate in what I honestly believe is [The Tonight Show's] destruction." O'Brien received an outpouring of celebrity and viewer support for rejecting the move, while Leno received heavy criticism. On January 21, O'Brien signed a $45 million deal allowing him to leave the network, and aired his final episode of Tonight on January 22; Leno returned as host of Tonight on March 1. CANNOTANSWER | 11:35 | The Jay Leno Show is a talk show created and hosted by Jay Leno. Premiering on NBC on September 14, 2009, the program aired on weeknights at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT through February 9, 2010. The program was modeled upon the format of a late night talk show—specifically, Jay Leno's incarnation of The Tonight Show, opening with a comedic monologue, followed by interviews with celebrity guests and other comedy segments. Sketches from The Tonight Show (including Headlines and Jaywalking) were carried over to The Jay Leno Show, along with new sketches.
The program was the result of a compromise by NBC Universal's then-CEO Jeff Zucker to keep Jay Leno with the company following his retirement from The Tonight Show and replacement with Conan O'Brien. The Jay Leno Show was also intended to provide NBC with an alternative to the high-cost scripted dramas aired by competing networks in its time slot; the network believed that the lower cost of production, in combination with product placement deals, meant that the program did not necessarily have to be highly viewed in order to turn a profit. NBC hoped to attract Leno's existing fans, as well as a larger primetime audience than that of his late-night program.
The Jay Leno Show was met with mixed reception from critics, who felt that the series had little differentiation from Leno's Tonight Show. Others were critical of NBC's decision to give up an hour of its weeknight lineup to Leno, due to the network's past success with dramas airing in the time slot, while one NBC affiliate (WHDH in Boston owned by Sunbeam Television, now independent) notably planned not to air the show at all, although this decision was retracted due to complaints by the network. Although viewership of The Jay Leno Show was initially on par with NBC's projections, by November, the program's ratings began to fall significantly. NBC's affiliates complained that the declining viewership of The Jay Leno Show also had a ripple effect on the viewership of their late local newscasts.
In an effort to address the concerns, NBC announced in January 2010 that it would, following the 2010 Winter Olympics, shorten The Jay Leno Show to a half-hour, and move it to 11:35 p.m—the timeslot that had been occupied by The Tonight Show for nearly 60 years, and bump Tonight to 12:05 a.m. The decision resulted in a major public conflict between the network and Conan O'Brien, who asserted that the move would damage the highly respected Tonight Show franchise, and that he would not participate in the program if it were moved to 12:05. Despite much support for O'Brien from both the public and media professionals alike, NBC maintained its plan to move Leno to 11:35.
On January 21, 2010, NBC reached a $45 million settlement with O'Brien in order to end his contract. The Jay Leno Show ended on February 9, 2010, after being on the air for only four months, with Entertainment Weekly calling the program television's "Biggest Bomb of All Time." Leno resumed his duties as host of The Tonight Show on March 1, 2010, for his second and final stint that lasted until his February 2014 succession by Jimmy Fallon.
History
NBC announced in 2004 that Jay Leno would leave The Tonight Show in 2009, with Conan O'Brien as his replacement. Leno—who wanted to avoid a repeat of the acrimonious transition when he inherited Tonight from Johnny Carson—said at the announcement, "You can do these things until they carry you out on a stretcher, or you can get out when you’re still doing good." He began to regret his decision to retire in 2007, and several networks and studios including ABC, Fox, Sony, and Tribune expressed interest in his services after leaving Tonight.
Jeff Zucker, then-President and CEO of NBCUniversal, sought to keep Leno from defecting to a competitor. Leno rejected several NBC offers for broadcast network daytime slots or subscription TV slots, a series of recurring specials, and a half-hour show at 8 pm five nights a week featuring Leno's Tonight monologue. The network had in 1981 considered moving The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson to 10 pm; Zucker, who in 2007 offered Oprah Winfrey an hour five nights a week at 8 pm, now offered Leno an hour five nights a week at 10 pm. Leno was announced on December 9, 2008.
At least one station, then-affiliate WHDH-TV in Boston, Massachusetts, stated that it would not carry the program, claiming that Leno would be detrimental to the station's 11 pm news and that it would instead launch a local news program in the time slot. NBC said that such plans would amount to a flagrant violation of the network contract—a claim which WHDH disputed—and said that it would immediately remove its programming from WHDH if the station followed through with the plan. WHDH backed down on April 13, 2009, and announced that it would air Leno instead of the proposed program.
Though Leno was the first to move the entire five-day-a-week late night talk show to prime time, he was not the first Tonight alumnus to move from late night to a prime time talk show. Steve Allen hosted Tonight Starring Steve Allen from 1954 to 1957; while still hosting that show, he began hosting the prime-time The Steve Allen Show in 1956 on NBC, and the latter show would run until 1960. Jack Paar, who hosted Tonight from 1957 to 1962, next hosted a weekly talk show known as The Jack Paar Program that ran until 1965, also on NBC.
In January 2010, several news outlets reported that The Jay Leno Show would be shortened to 30 minutes and begin airing weeknights at 11:35 pm ET, with Conan O'Brien and Jimmy Fallon's shows following it beginning at 12:05 am. The scheduling change would have been implemented on February 28 after the 2010 Winter Olympics (which preempted much of NBC's primetime and late-night lineup). Leno himself commented on the rumors during his January 7 monologue, joking that NBC stands for "Never Believe your Contract." According to Broadcasting & Cable, "most [NBC affiliates] are hopeful Jay—and Conan—sticks with NBC, and most, if not all, desperately want to see a change in terms of the lead-in they're getting to their lucrative late news; the affiliates "remain fiercely loyal to Leno and were quick to say the rookie program's struggles don't reflect the funnyman's work ethic or comedic chops. 'This isn't about Jay's popularity,' says WJAR Providence VP/General Manager Lisa Churchville. 'This is about having that kind of show at 10 p.m.'"
NBC announced plans to move Leno to 11:35 pm and The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien to 12:05 am. O'Brien refused to participate in the move and, on January 21, 2010, reached an agreement with NBC allowing him to leave the network. Lenos final episode aired on February 9, 2010 and Leno returned to Tonight as host on March 1, 2010.
Content
The Jay Leno Show aired weeknights at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT (9:00 p.m. CT/MT) from Studio 11 of the NBC Studios in Burbank, California with the following format:
After brief opening credits, a monologue of eight to 12 minutes.
One celebrity guest, two at the most. The "car-themed" set adjusted to allow guests to get off the couch and participate in antics.
Musical segments appeared only twice a week, in the middle of the show, and sometimes featured multiple acts performing together.
Comedy segments were reserved for the last 15 minutes of the show, the only portion of the show where Leno sometimes used a desk. Toward the end of the four-month run certain comedy segments such as "Headlines" were moved up to airing right after Jay's monologue, as opposed to being reserved for the end of the show. They include:
"Headlines" and "Jaywalking", both from Tonight.
The "advertiser-friendly 'Green Car Challenge'". Two to three times each week, celebrities drove an electric Ford Focus and tried to set records on a 1,100-foot dedicated outdoor track. The segment was based on the "Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car" segment on the British automotive series Top Gear, which Leno had previously appeared on.
"Ten at Ten", "in which celebs and other newsmakers . . . answer a rapid-fire series of ten 'ridiculous, celebrity-based questions.' The ten at ten guest would not be in the studio, but would instead appear via satellite from some other location. When the off-site location was in the Central or Mountain Time Zones, the skit would be changed to 9 at 9 (since these time zones have all programming one hour earlier in their local time than the coastal time zones), which was the same except there would only be nine questions."
Comic "correspondents" such as D. L. Hughley, Dan Finnerty, Mikey Day, Rachael Harris, and Jim Norton did pretaped segments.
One planned segment, "Stories Not Good Enough for the NBC Nightly News" (which would have featured then-NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams), was dropped from the show before it made it to air.
In addition to reserving comedy segments for the end, the network aired no commercials after the show and "urged local affiliates to do the same" so local news could start immediately, retaining as many Leno viewers as possible.
Recurring segments
"Headlines" (Monday): Humorous print items sent in by viewers. These real-life headlines are usually headlines with typographical errors, or unintentionally inappropriate items. The segment usually starts out with a fake, humorous headline during the introduction for the segment.
"Jaywalking": A pre-taped segment, "Jaywalking" is a play on the host's name and the illegal practice of jaywalking. Leno asks people questions about current news and other topics in public areas around Los Angeles (usually Hollywood Boulevard, Melrose Avenue or Universal Studios). Most responses are outrageously incorrect; for example, one person believed that Abraham Lincoln was the first president, and another could not identify a picture of Hillary Clinton. Sometimes the questions are of the "What color is the White House?" level, such as asking in what country the Panama Canal is located. Up to 15 people are interviewed in an hour or less for each segment, with about nine interviews used on the air. A similar format was used for the game show Street Smarts.
JMZ: A parody of TMZ, a segment in which they report on fake celebrity news with such guest stars as Chuck Liddell.
Ten@Ten: Jay interviews a celebrity via satellite by asking them 10 questions. Some editions have only used 9 questions, calling it the "Nine@Nine" as a reference to the central or mountain time zone.
Green Car Challenge: A segment in which celebrities go in a car and try to be the fastest in a track with obstacles. Tim Allen had the best record time; Rush Limbaugh had the record worst time (though he did so on purpose), and Leno never tried.
Photo Booth: A pre-taped segment in which someone goes in a Photo Booth and something is amiss.
Stuff We Found on eBay: Leno brought up some of the oddest stuff that he and members of the studio audience had supposedly found while searching on eBay.
Ross the Intern: Ross Mathews, an intern for the show, is sent to participate in special events. As part of a running gag, Leno started introducing Ross as his illegitimate son.
First show
Jerry Seinfeld was the celebrity guest on the debut episode. Jay-Z, Rihanna, and Kanye West performed "Run This Town", in which all three are featured. West sat down for a previously unplanned interview with Leno, discussing West's outburst at the MTV Video Music Awards the previous night. Dan Finnerty was the comic correspondent for the night, and the end of the show featured Headlines.
Reviews for the first show ranged from neutral to negative, with most critics stating that the show was, despite the changes, still very similar to Tonight. Metacritic scores it at 48 out of 100 based on 23 TV critic reviews, and viewers scoring it at a 4.0 out of 10. Media Life described the show as "underwhelming" and felt that Leno "failed to rise to the occasion." The Buffalo News called the show "a mess." The Associated Press noted that "it's not a good sign when the Bud Light commercial is funnier than the comedy show it interrupts," and that "at least Rosie Live took some chances." Jonah Krakow of IGN gave it a 5.5/10 saying that "show felt like they just picked from where they left off three months ago, and I'm not sure that's a good thing".
Final show
The final Jay Leno Show aired on February 9, 2010. The guests were Ashton Kutcher, Gabourey Sidibe and Bob Costas, with unannounced visits from Donald Trump and Kurt Warner. Following the monologue, there was a brief clip reel of highlights from the show's short tenure; otherwise, little mention was made about the fact that it was the final episode of the program. The last moments of the show featured the program's "10 at 10" segment, with its celebrity guest being Bob Costas. When Leno asked Costas how it felt to be the show's final guest, the sportscaster replied, "Kind of like being involved in the last game of a Clippers season, isn't it?" Directly following the interview with Costas, Leno thanked him, told the audience to stay tuned for their local news, and then abruptly went off-air.
Many media outlets criticized Leno's apparent lack of ceremony for the end of his program.New York Times article: "Without Fanfare, Leno’s Prime-Time Show Ends". Variety reported that the lack of fanfare was intentional, as NBC was attempting to rehab the reputation of Leno and The Tonight Show and did not desire to bring any further attention to Leno's transition back to Tonight. The Associated Press noted that the last few weeks of the program, including the final episode, were pervaded by "bad vibes." The Boston Globe wrote that Leno said farewell to his short-lived show "with all the momentousness of a guy taking out the trash." The episode received negative reviews from Entertainment Weekly, the Los Angeles Times, and The Wall Street Journal. By comparison, O'Brien's final Tonight Show was treated as a finale, with guests making reference to the show ending and guest Neil Young taking an ironic tone by performing "Long May You Run".
Impact
Financial
Leno had a contract for five years for the show. NBC reportedly had an option to cancel after two years, but had committed to at least one or two years regardless of ratings, although later chose to end the show after less than five months. He could have earned up to $30 million each year depending on ratings for Leno, compared to a $20 million annual salary during his last years at Tonight.
NBC expected to benefit by offering an inexpensive comedic alternative to the procedurals ("100% more comedy and 98% fewer murders!") and other one-hour dramas that typically air at 10 pm, and by offering new episodes 46 weeks each year versus 22.Itzkoff, Dave. "NBC’s ‘Jay Leno Show’ Promises 98 Percent Fewer Murders" The New York Times, 2009-05-04. While Leno was not necessarily expected to be competitive with the higher-rated scripted shows on ABC and CBS in its time slot, its projected cost of production was far lower and thus it was expected to be profitable to the network, and product integration intended to make the show "as DVR-proof as you can be on television in this era". Each airing of Leno cost about $350,000 to $400,000 versus up to $3 million for an hour-long drama, saving NBC $13 million each week without the network needing the show to beat its competitors. Those costs include the services of 22 writers, whom Leno called the "top 5% of the highest-paid . . . in the Guild."
McDonald's became the first buying advertiser for the program, tying in their "Million Dollar Roll" nightly in October 2009 promoting that year's version of McDonald's Monopoly.
Ratings
Leno did not expect his show to beat competing first-run episodes, but to do better than reruns, in part because topical jokes benefit from the "immediacy" of the time slot versus 11:30 pm. A television analyst predicted that Leno would finish in "a safe third place" every night. NBC research before the show's debut indicated that fans of Leno would watch Leno two to three times a week.
NBC saw a 1.5 rating for the show in the 18–49 demographic as "viable" and a 1.8 as a "home run". NBC told Leno that at a 1.5 rating, NBC makes $300 million a year. Tonight at 11:30 pm earned about a 1.3 to 1.5; the television audience at 10 pm is 40% larger than at 11:30 pm, and the network hoped Leno'''s audience would also grow. Industry observers have cited a range of ratings, from 1.7 to 2,"Sternberg calls the fall: 'FlashForward,' 'Community' hit; 'Rivers,' 'Forgotten' miss" The Hollywood Reporter, 2009-08-14. as being necessary for the show to succeed at 10 pm. By comparison, 2.5 is generally necessary for a 10 pm drama to succeed; those that earned a 1.7 or less during the 2008–2009 season were generally cancelled. NBC's prime-time dramas averaged about 2 during 2008–2009.
The first episode of The Jay Leno Show earned "fast national" estimates of 17.7 million viewers, an 11 Nielsen rating (5.1 among persons 18–49) and an 18 share, significantly above both his Tonight finale and the debut of The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien in all categories. By the second week and competing against season premieres, the audience fell to six million viewers, still on par with or exceeding NBC projections. As of November 1, 2009, The Jay Leno Show has averaged a 1.98 in the adults 18–49 ratings and 6.594 million viewers. During the week before Christmas, the ratings dropped to 1.4 during the week. Prior to the controversy regarding the move of the Jay Leno Show to 11:35 p.m., viewership bottomed out at 4.799 million viewers, although there was a slight bump as word of the controversy broke.
Though the show itself had been meeting the network's projections, it was severely detrimental to the ratings of the late local news on NBC affiliates. As originally feared by WHDH in Boston, several stations across the country saw what was known as the "Leno Effect", where the lower audience for Leno (as compared to NBC's scripted prime time offerings) translated directly into a domino effect of severe audience drops for late local news (on the order of 25–30%) and completely stunted NBC's past successful schedule hammocking strategies, effects that NBC had underestimated.
Dispute over timeslot
In early January 2010, multiple media outlets reported that, following the 2010 Winter Olympics, The Jay Leno Show would be shortened to 30 minutes and begin airing weeknights at 11:35 pm ET, with Conan O'Brien and Jimmy Fallon's shows following it beginning at 12:05 am on March 1, 2010. On January 10, NBC Universal Television Entertainment Chairman Jeff Gaspin confirmed that The Jay Leno Show would indeed move to 11:35.
Leno immediately accepted the return to 11:35 p.m., calling the move "all business." He had made it known in the press in November 2009 that he wished to return to his old timeslot; behind the scenes, Leno had privately indicated that he did not believe the 10:00 experiment would work. On the other hand, O'Brien's contract stipulated that the network could move the show back to 12:05 a.m. without penalty, a loophole put in primarily to accommodate sports preemptions, the network's traditional nightly Wimbledon tournament highlights show, and specials such as New Year's Eve with Carson Daly.
O'Brien did not seriously respond for several days after the announcement, then drafted a press release explaining why he felt it was unfair to him, his staff, Fallon, and the legacy of The Tonight Show to move the show past midnight. He concluded by saying that he "cannot participate in what I honestly believe is [The Tonight Shows] destruction."Huffington Post article: "Conan O'Brien Statement: I Will Not Follow Jay At 12:05". O'Brien received an outpouring of celebrity and viewer support for rejecting the move, while Leno received heavy criticism.Huffington Post article: "Patton Oswalt: Jay Leno Is Like Nixon, I Don't Like Him". On January 21, O'Brien signed a $45 million deal allowing him to leave the network, and aired his final episode of Tonight on January 22; Leno returned as host of Tonight on March 1.
Settlement
On January 19, 2010, multiple media outlets reported that O'Brien and NBC were close to signing a deal between $30 and $40 million for the host to walk away from the network.New York Post article: "NBC near deal to allow Conan to leave network". One apparent sticking point in the negotiations was the amount his staff and crew were to be paid for leaving the program.Chicago Sun Times article: "Conan negotiations stuck on staff, Triumph ". Reports also said that the contract could prohibit O'Brien from badmouthing NBC in any way, and that he may be able to return to television as early as September 2010.
On January 21, after two weeks of negotiations, it was announced that Conan O'Brien had signed a $45 million deal to leave NBC. The Wall Street Journal reports that O'Brien will receive about $32 million, with his staff receiving around $12 million. The contract contains a clause prohibiting O'Brien from making negative remarks about NBC for a certain amount of time; it does not, however, contain the previously rumored "mitigation clause," in which NBC would be able to keep some of the severance pay after O'Brien finds a new program. It also stipulates that he could have returned to television as early as September 1, 2010. The network confirmed that Leno would officially resume as host of The Tonight Show on March 1. TMZ reported that NBC would rerun episodes from O'Brien's time as host until the network began airing the Olympics on February 12.
O'Brien later reached a deal with cable network TBS to premiere a new late-night talk show, Conan.
Industry impact
NBC became the first large United States network to broadcast the same show every weekday during prime time since ABC's Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? marathons in 1999 and only the second since DuMont aired Captain Video and His Video Rangers from 1949 to 1955. More recently, the upstart MyNetwork TV had attempted, upon its launch in 2006, to air the same telenovelas every night of the week, a programming strategy that proved to be very unsuccessful. NBC's executives called the decision "a transformational moment in the history of broadcasting" and "in effect, launching five shows." An industry observer said that Leno, "in all my years, is the biggest risk a network has ever taken." According to former NBC president Fred Silverman, "If the Leno Show works, it will be the most significant thing to happen in broadcast television in the last decade."
Although NBC had not developed a new hit show at 10 pm in years, industry executives criticized the network for abandoning a history of airing quality dramas at that hour such as Hill Street Blues, St. Elsewhere, and ER, which made NBC "the gold standard for sophisticated programming . . . the No. 1 network for affluent and well-educated young viewers" during the 1980s and 1990s. In addition, critics predicted that the decision would hurt NBC by undermining a reputation built on successful scripted shows. Other networks believed NBC's decision created an opportunity, and planned their 2009–2010 schedules accordingly. For example, the show competed with The Mentalist, CSI: Miami, CSI: NY, and Numb3rs, four of television's most popular series, on CBS (the first of those four series was moved to 10:00 PM to directly compete with Leno's show, and significantly improved the ratings for that timeslot compared to its predecessor). Leno was also not easily sold overseas.
The January 29, 2010 issue of Entertainment Weekly listed the show at the top of a list of the 50 Biggest Bombs in television history. The comment made by the network executives about "launching five shows" was ultimately transformed into the joke that its removal was like "cancelling five shows." TV Guide similarly listed the show as the biggest blunder in television history in its November 1, 2010 edition.
Boycott by competing networks
Rival networks ABC and CBS had discouraged "their stars" from appearing on The Jay Leno Show in its primetime slot. Julia Louis-Dreyfus (The New Adventures of Old Christine) was the first CBS actor to appear on the show, on September 29, 2009; on that episode, she said "there was a little pressure, because as you know you are now on prime time", but that "Obviously, I committed to doing your show and we’re friends". This boycott did not affect The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien nor was it industry-wide. Other TV networks, like Fox, The CW, and HBO, were more encouraging. Hugh Laurie from the Fox TV show House was a guest on the September 25, 2009, telecast. House is produced by Universal Media Studios, a sister company to NBC through NBC Universal, and Fox does not offer any network programming in the 10 p.m. time slots, instead allowing most of its affiliates to go to local news.
In a Broadcasting & Cable interview published in early November 2009, Leno mentioned the boycott again, saying "I'm flattered; like ABC and CBS...none of their stars can appear on the show. What are you so afraid of if we're doing so terrible? It's all part of the game."
Labor union impact
John Wells, the president of the Writers Guild of America, West, and executive producer of prominent NBC shows ER and The West Wing, said, "I wish NBC and Jay Leno well; personally, he's a very nice guy, but I hope he falls flat on his face and we get five dramas back."
Website dispute
In 2004, Guadalupe Zambrano, a Texas real estate agent, registered the domain name thejaylenoshow.com to redirect to his real estate business. After the Leno announcement, Leno accused Zambrano of cybersquatting. Zambrano contended that he had owned the domain for five years, well before the announcement, thus precluding recovery. The UDRP proceedings ruled in favor of Leno, however, stating that Zambrano profited from the value of the Jay Leno trademark in bad faith.
International broadcasting
In Australia, The Comedy Channel on Pay TV aired the show on a same-day turn around Weeknights at 7.30pm AEST. Free-to-air channel 7Two also aired the program at 6.00pm usually on a 30-hour delay. It moved to middays on January 18, 2010 but ran until September 24, 2010 when 7TWO changed the format to a Best-of British oriented channel following the launch of sister HD channel 7mate.
In Canada, Citytv simulcast Leno with NBC during the 2009–2010 season, requesting simultaneous substitution where applicable.
In Portugal, SIC Mulher aired the show Monday and Tuesday at 00.30am.
In Israel, yes stars Comedy aired the show Sundays-Thursdays at 8.00pm.
In Finland, The Jay Leno Show aired on MTV3 MAX on weeknights; because of subtitling, the episodes were shown three days after their US broadcast.
In Sweden, The Jay Leno Show aired on Kanal 9 on weeknights. Episodes were broadcast one week after their original US airing.
Westwood One provided audio of the monologue as a short-form feature, under the title Last Night on The Jay Leno Show, to radio stations in the United States and Canada, replacing the discontinued Jimmy Kimmel Live!'' feature.
See also
List of television shows considered the worst
References
External links
2000s American late-night television series
2010s American late-night television series
2000s American variety television series
2010s American variety television series
2009 American television series debuts
2010 American television series endings
American television talk shows
Burbank, California
NBC original programming
Jay Leno
English-language television shows
Television shows filmed in California | true | [
"Headlines was a segment that aired weekly on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. It also aired on the prime-time spin-off The Jay Leno Show and will also be included in some form during Leno's upcoming tenure as host of You Bet Your Life. The segment usually aired on Monday nights. It was first seen in 1987, when Leno was still a guest host on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, and continued until Jay Leno left The Tonight Show in 2014; however, this segment reapearred on TV as part of a new version of the game show You Bet Your Life hosted by Leno in 2021. Viewers submitted newspaper headlines or other articles from all over the world, and the clippings contain either (but not limited to) a misspelled word, juxtaposed image or badly structured sentences that comically (and often in an unintentionally risqué way) completely change the meaning of what the writer intended.\n\nInfluence\nSince the early 1980s, David Letterman had been doing a similar segment called \"Small Town News\" (albeit on and off) on The David Letterman Show, Late Night with David Letterman and Late Show with David Letterman. Conan O'Brien parodied \"Headlines\" on Late Night with Conan O'Brien in a segment called Actual Items, which uses advertisements purposefully doctored by the show's prop and writing staffs. Jimmy Fallon includes an updated version called \"Screengrabs\" (which uses online media), on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.\n\nOn December 18, 2006, both Letterman and Leno included in their segments an item in The Dallas Morning News about Letterman, which included a photograph of Leno.\n\nIn January 2010, during the replacement of O'Brien as Tonight Show host, Letterman ran a fake promo (featuring former Tonight announcer Edd Hall) for the return of Leno to The Tonight Show, referring to \"Headlines\" as \"the bit [Leno] stole from Letterman's late-night show\".\n\nPublications\nLeno released several compilations of Headlines during the late 1980s and early 1990s:\nHeadlines: Real but Ridiculous Headlines from America's Newspapers\nMore Headlines\nHeadlines III: Not The Movie, Still The Book\nHeadlines IV: The Next Generation\nJay Leno's Police Blotter: Real-Life Crime Headlines\n\nWil B. Strange includes \"personal ads from the book 'Jay Leno's Headlines'\" in an issue of Campus Life.\n\nReferences\n\nHeadlines\nThe Tonight Show with Jay Leno\nTelevision series segments",
"Kevin Eubanks and the Tonight Show Band was the house band of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. It previously served as the house band of The Jay Leno Show and was the house band of the first incarnation of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno from 1995 to 2009 and then for the first few months of the second incarnation of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in 2010.\n\nThe band was active between 1995 and 2010, as Kevin Eubanks took over The Tonight Show Band for the departing Branford Marsalis in 1995. Eubanks had been a member of Marsalis's band since Leno's debut in 1992. Eubanks and the band moved, along with host Jay Leno, to The Jay Leno Show when it moved to prime time in 2009, performing under the title Kevin Eubanks and the Primetime Band. However, in February 2010, Eubanks announced that both he and the band would be leaving the show shortly after The Tonight Show with Jay Leno returned in March, Kevin Eubanks final appearance was on May 28, 2010. Rickey Minor replaced Eubanks beginning June 7, 2010, bringing with him his own band of musicians and forming Rickey Minor and The Tonight Show Band\n\nMembers\nLeader: Branford Marsalis (1992-1995), Kevin Eubanks (1995-2010)\nGuitar: Kevin Eubanks (1992-2010)\nSaxophone: Branford Marsalis (1992-1995) Ralph Moore\nTrumpet: Kye Palmer, Lee Thornburg, Chuck Findley, Sal Marquez\nTrombone: Matt Finders\nKeyboard: Gerry Etkins, Kenny Kirkland (1992-1998)\nBass: Derrick \"Dock\" Murdock, Robert Hurst, Stanley Sargent\nDrums: Marvin \"Smitty\" Smith, Jeff \"Tain\" Watts\nPercussion/Vocals: Vicki Randle (1992-2009)\n\nReferences\n\nThe Tonight Show Band members\nAmerican jazz ensembles from California\nRadio and television house bands\nMusical groups established in 1995"
]
|
[
"The Jay Leno Show",
"Dispute over timeslot",
"What was the timeslot Jay Leno was in?",
"11:35"
]
| C_faa2e2423bbc407e89b705466c82df48_1 | What other show was the dispute over? | 2 | What other show besides The Jay Leno Show was the dispute over? | The Jay Leno Show | In early January 2010, multiple media outlets reported that, following the 2010 Winter Olympics, The Jay Leno Show would be shortened to 30 minutes and begin airing weeknights at 11:35 pm ET, with Conan O'Brien and Jimmy Fallon's shows following it beginning at 12:05 am on March 1, 2010. On January 10, NBC Universal Television Entertainment Chairman Jeff Gaspin confirmed that The Jay Leno Show would indeed move to 11:35. Leno immediately accepted the return to 11:35 p.m., calling the move "all business." He had made it known in the press in November 2009 that he wished to return to his old timeslot; behind the scenes, Leno had privately indicated that he did not believe the 10:00 experiment would work. On the other hand, O'Brien's contract stipulated that the network could move the show back to 12:05 a.m. without penalty, a loophole put in primarily to accommodate sports preemptions, the network's traditional nightly Wimbledon tournament highlights show, and specials such as New Year's Eve with Carson Daly. O'Brien did not seriously respond for several days after the announcement, then drafted a press release explaining why he felt it was unfair to him, his staff, Fallon, and the legacy of The Tonight Show to move the show past midnight. He concluded by saying that he "cannot participate in what I honestly believe is [The Tonight Show's] destruction." O'Brien received an outpouring of celebrity and viewer support for rejecting the move, while Leno received heavy criticism. On January 21, O'Brien signed a $45 million deal allowing him to leave the network, and aired his final episode of Tonight on January 22; Leno returned as host of Tonight on March 1. CANNOTANSWER | Conan O'Brien | The Jay Leno Show is a talk show created and hosted by Jay Leno. Premiering on NBC on September 14, 2009, the program aired on weeknights at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT through February 9, 2010. The program was modeled upon the format of a late night talk show—specifically, Jay Leno's incarnation of The Tonight Show, opening with a comedic monologue, followed by interviews with celebrity guests and other comedy segments. Sketches from The Tonight Show (including Headlines and Jaywalking) were carried over to The Jay Leno Show, along with new sketches.
The program was the result of a compromise by NBC Universal's then-CEO Jeff Zucker to keep Jay Leno with the company following his retirement from The Tonight Show and replacement with Conan O'Brien. The Jay Leno Show was also intended to provide NBC with an alternative to the high-cost scripted dramas aired by competing networks in its time slot; the network believed that the lower cost of production, in combination with product placement deals, meant that the program did not necessarily have to be highly viewed in order to turn a profit. NBC hoped to attract Leno's existing fans, as well as a larger primetime audience than that of his late-night program.
The Jay Leno Show was met with mixed reception from critics, who felt that the series had little differentiation from Leno's Tonight Show. Others were critical of NBC's decision to give up an hour of its weeknight lineup to Leno, due to the network's past success with dramas airing in the time slot, while one NBC affiliate (WHDH in Boston owned by Sunbeam Television, now independent) notably planned not to air the show at all, although this decision was retracted due to complaints by the network. Although viewership of The Jay Leno Show was initially on par with NBC's projections, by November, the program's ratings began to fall significantly. NBC's affiliates complained that the declining viewership of The Jay Leno Show also had a ripple effect on the viewership of their late local newscasts.
In an effort to address the concerns, NBC announced in January 2010 that it would, following the 2010 Winter Olympics, shorten The Jay Leno Show to a half-hour, and move it to 11:35 p.m—the timeslot that had been occupied by The Tonight Show for nearly 60 years, and bump Tonight to 12:05 a.m. The decision resulted in a major public conflict between the network and Conan O'Brien, who asserted that the move would damage the highly respected Tonight Show franchise, and that he would not participate in the program if it were moved to 12:05. Despite much support for O'Brien from both the public and media professionals alike, NBC maintained its plan to move Leno to 11:35.
On January 21, 2010, NBC reached a $45 million settlement with O'Brien in order to end his contract. The Jay Leno Show ended on February 9, 2010, after being on the air for only four months, with Entertainment Weekly calling the program television's "Biggest Bomb of All Time." Leno resumed his duties as host of The Tonight Show on March 1, 2010, for his second and final stint that lasted until his February 2014 succession by Jimmy Fallon.
History
NBC announced in 2004 that Jay Leno would leave The Tonight Show in 2009, with Conan O'Brien as his replacement. Leno—who wanted to avoid a repeat of the acrimonious transition when he inherited Tonight from Johnny Carson—said at the announcement, "You can do these things until they carry you out on a stretcher, or you can get out when you’re still doing good." He began to regret his decision to retire in 2007, and several networks and studios including ABC, Fox, Sony, and Tribune expressed interest in his services after leaving Tonight.
Jeff Zucker, then-President and CEO of NBCUniversal, sought to keep Leno from defecting to a competitor. Leno rejected several NBC offers for broadcast network daytime slots or subscription TV slots, a series of recurring specials, and a half-hour show at 8 pm five nights a week featuring Leno's Tonight monologue. The network had in 1981 considered moving The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson to 10 pm; Zucker, who in 2007 offered Oprah Winfrey an hour five nights a week at 8 pm, now offered Leno an hour five nights a week at 10 pm. Leno was announced on December 9, 2008.
At least one station, then-affiliate WHDH-TV in Boston, Massachusetts, stated that it would not carry the program, claiming that Leno would be detrimental to the station's 11 pm news and that it would instead launch a local news program in the time slot. NBC said that such plans would amount to a flagrant violation of the network contract—a claim which WHDH disputed—and said that it would immediately remove its programming from WHDH if the station followed through with the plan. WHDH backed down on April 13, 2009, and announced that it would air Leno instead of the proposed program.
Though Leno was the first to move the entire five-day-a-week late night talk show to prime time, he was not the first Tonight alumnus to move from late night to a prime time talk show. Steve Allen hosted Tonight Starring Steve Allen from 1954 to 1957; while still hosting that show, he began hosting the prime-time The Steve Allen Show in 1956 on NBC, and the latter show would run until 1960. Jack Paar, who hosted Tonight from 1957 to 1962, next hosted a weekly talk show known as The Jack Paar Program that ran until 1965, also on NBC.
In January 2010, several news outlets reported that The Jay Leno Show would be shortened to 30 minutes and begin airing weeknights at 11:35 pm ET, with Conan O'Brien and Jimmy Fallon's shows following it beginning at 12:05 am. The scheduling change would have been implemented on February 28 after the 2010 Winter Olympics (which preempted much of NBC's primetime and late-night lineup). Leno himself commented on the rumors during his January 7 monologue, joking that NBC stands for "Never Believe your Contract." According to Broadcasting & Cable, "most [NBC affiliates] are hopeful Jay—and Conan—sticks with NBC, and most, if not all, desperately want to see a change in terms of the lead-in they're getting to their lucrative late news; the affiliates "remain fiercely loyal to Leno and were quick to say the rookie program's struggles don't reflect the funnyman's work ethic or comedic chops. 'This isn't about Jay's popularity,' says WJAR Providence VP/General Manager Lisa Churchville. 'This is about having that kind of show at 10 p.m.'"
NBC announced plans to move Leno to 11:35 pm and The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien to 12:05 am. O'Brien refused to participate in the move and, on January 21, 2010, reached an agreement with NBC allowing him to leave the network. Lenos final episode aired on February 9, 2010 and Leno returned to Tonight as host on March 1, 2010.
Content
The Jay Leno Show aired weeknights at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT (9:00 p.m. CT/MT) from Studio 11 of the NBC Studios in Burbank, California with the following format:
After brief opening credits, a monologue of eight to 12 minutes.
One celebrity guest, two at the most. The "car-themed" set adjusted to allow guests to get off the couch and participate in antics.
Musical segments appeared only twice a week, in the middle of the show, and sometimes featured multiple acts performing together.
Comedy segments were reserved for the last 15 minutes of the show, the only portion of the show where Leno sometimes used a desk. Toward the end of the four-month run certain comedy segments such as "Headlines" were moved up to airing right after Jay's monologue, as opposed to being reserved for the end of the show. They include:
"Headlines" and "Jaywalking", both from Tonight.
The "advertiser-friendly 'Green Car Challenge'". Two to three times each week, celebrities drove an electric Ford Focus and tried to set records on a 1,100-foot dedicated outdoor track. The segment was based on the "Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car" segment on the British automotive series Top Gear, which Leno had previously appeared on.
"Ten at Ten", "in which celebs and other newsmakers . . . answer a rapid-fire series of ten 'ridiculous, celebrity-based questions.' The ten at ten guest would not be in the studio, but would instead appear via satellite from some other location. When the off-site location was in the Central or Mountain Time Zones, the skit would be changed to 9 at 9 (since these time zones have all programming one hour earlier in their local time than the coastal time zones), which was the same except there would only be nine questions."
Comic "correspondents" such as D. L. Hughley, Dan Finnerty, Mikey Day, Rachael Harris, and Jim Norton did pretaped segments.
One planned segment, "Stories Not Good Enough for the NBC Nightly News" (which would have featured then-NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams), was dropped from the show before it made it to air.
In addition to reserving comedy segments for the end, the network aired no commercials after the show and "urged local affiliates to do the same" so local news could start immediately, retaining as many Leno viewers as possible.
Recurring segments
"Headlines" (Monday): Humorous print items sent in by viewers. These real-life headlines are usually headlines with typographical errors, or unintentionally inappropriate items. The segment usually starts out with a fake, humorous headline during the introduction for the segment.
"Jaywalking": A pre-taped segment, "Jaywalking" is a play on the host's name and the illegal practice of jaywalking. Leno asks people questions about current news and other topics in public areas around Los Angeles (usually Hollywood Boulevard, Melrose Avenue or Universal Studios). Most responses are outrageously incorrect; for example, one person believed that Abraham Lincoln was the first president, and another could not identify a picture of Hillary Clinton. Sometimes the questions are of the "What color is the White House?" level, such as asking in what country the Panama Canal is located. Up to 15 people are interviewed in an hour or less for each segment, with about nine interviews used on the air. A similar format was used for the game show Street Smarts.
JMZ: A parody of TMZ, a segment in which they report on fake celebrity news with such guest stars as Chuck Liddell.
Ten@Ten: Jay interviews a celebrity via satellite by asking them 10 questions. Some editions have only used 9 questions, calling it the "Nine@Nine" as a reference to the central or mountain time zone.
Green Car Challenge: A segment in which celebrities go in a car and try to be the fastest in a track with obstacles. Tim Allen had the best record time; Rush Limbaugh had the record worst time (though he did so on purpose), and Leno never tried.
Photo Booth: A pre-taped segment in which someone goes in a Photo Booth and something is amiss.
Stuff We Found on eBay: Leno brought up some of the oddest stuff that he and members of the studio audience had supposedly found while searching on eBay.
Ross the Intern: Ross Mathews, an intern for the show, is sent to participate in special events. As part of a running gag, Leno started introducing Ross as his illegitimate son.
First show
Jerry Seinfeld was the celebrity guest on the debut episode. Jay-Z, Rihanna, and Kanye West performed "Run This Town", in which all three are featured. West sat down for a previously unplanned interview with Leno, discussing West's outburst at the MTV Video Music Awards the previous night. Dan Finnerty was the comic correspondent for the night, and the end of the show featured Headlines.
Reviews for the first show ranged from neutral to negative, with most critics stating that the show was, despite the changes, still very similar to Tonight. Metacritic scores it at 48 out of 100 based on 23 TV critic reviews, and viewers scoring it at a 4.0 out of 10. Media Life described the show as "underwhelming" and felt that Leno "failed to rise to the occasion." The Buffalo News called the show "a mess." The Associated Press noted that "it's not a good sign when the Bud Light commercial is funnier than the comedy show it interrupts," and that "at least Rosie Live took some chances." Jonah Krakow of IGN gave it a 5.5/10 saying that "show felt like they just picked from where they left off three months ago, and I'm not sure that's a good thing".
Final show
The final Jay Leno Show aired on February 9, 2010. The guests were Ashton Kutcher, Gabourey Sidibe and Bob Costas, with unannounced visits from Donald Trump and Kurt Warner. Following the monologue, there was a brief clip reel of highlights from the show's short tenure; otherwise, little mention was made about the fact that it was the final episode of the program. The last moments of the show featured the program's "10 at 10" segment, with its celebrity guest being Bob Costas. When Leno asked Costas how it felt to be the show's final guest, the sportscaster replied, "Kind of like being involved in the last game of a Clippers season, isn't it?" Directly following the interview with Costas, Leno thanked him, told the audience to stay tuned for their local news, and then abruptly went off-air.
Many media outlets criticized Leno's apparent lack of ceremony for the end of his program.New York Times article: "Without Fanfare, Leno’s Prime-Time Show Ends". Variety reported that the lack of fanfare was intentional, as NBC was attempting to rehab the reputation of Leno and The Tonight Show and did not desire to bring any further attention to Leno's transition back to Tonight. The Associated Press noted that the last few weeks of the program, including the final episode, were pervaded by "bad vibes." The Boston Globe wrote that Leno said farewell to his short-lived show "with all the momentousness of a guy taking out the trash." The episode received negative reviews from Entertainment Weekly, the Los Angeles Times, and The Wall Street Journal. By comparison, O'Brien's final Tonight Show was treated as a finale, with guests making reference to the show ending and guest Neil Young taking an ironic tone by performing "Long May You Run".
Impact
Financial
Leno had a contract for five years for the show. NBC reportedly had an option to cancel after two years, but had committed to at least one or two years regardless of ratings, although later chose to end the show after less than five months. He could have earned up to $30 million each year depending on ratings for Leno, compared to a $20 million annual salary during his last years at Tonight.
NBC expected to benefit by offering an inexpensive comedic alternative to the procedurals ("100% more comedy and 98% fewer murders!") and other one-hour dramas that typically air at 10 pm, and by offering new episodes 46 weeks each year versus 22.Itzkoff, Dave. "NBC’s ‘Jay Leno Show’ Promises 98 Percent Fewer Murders" The New York Times, 2009-05-04. While Leno was not necessarily expected to be competitive with the higher-rated scripted shows on ABC and CBS in its time slot, its projected cost of production was far lower and thus it was expected to be profitable to the network, and product integration intended to make the show "as DVR-proof as you can be on television in this era". Each airing of Leno cost about $350,000 to $400,000 versus up to $3 million for an hour-long drama, saving NBC $13 million each week without the network needing the show to beat its competitors. Those costs include the services of 22 writers, whom Leno called the "top 5% of the highest-paid . . . in the Guild."
McDonald's became the first buying advertiser for the program, tying in their "Million Dollar Roll" nightly in October 2009 promoting that year's version of McDonald's Monopoly.
Ratings
Leno did not expect his show to beat competing first-run episodes, but to do better than reruns, in part because topical jokes benefit from the "immediacy" of the time slot versus 11:30 pm. A television analyst predicted that Leno would finish in "a safe third place" every night. NBC research before the show's debut indicated that fans of Leno would watch Leno two to three times a week.
NBC saw a 1.5 rating for the show in the 18–49 demographic as "viable" and a 1.8 as a "home run". NBC told Leno that at a 1.5 rating, NBC makes $300 million a year. Tonight at 11:30 pm earned about a 1.3 to 1.5; the television audience at 10 pm is 40% larger than at 11:30 pm, and the network hoped Leno'''s audience would also grow. Industry observers have cited a range of ratings, from 1.7 to 2,"Sternberg calls the fall: 'FlashForward,' 'Community' hit; 'Rivers,' 'Forgotten' miss" The Hollywood Reporter, 2009-08-14. as being necessary for the show to succeed at 10 pm. By comparison, 2.5 is generally necessary for a 10 pm drama to succeed; those that earned a 1.7 or less during the 2008–2009 season were generally cancelled. NBC's prime-time dramas averaged about 2 during 2008–2009.
The first episode of The Jay Leno Show earned "fast national" estimates of 17.7 million viewers, an 11 Nielsen rating (5.1 among persons 18–49) and an 18 share, significantly above both his Tonight finale and the debut of The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien in all categories. By the second week and competing against season premieres, the audience fell to six million viewers, still on par with or exceeding NBC projections. As of November 1, 2009, The Jay Leno Show has averaged a 1.98 in the adults 18–49 ratings and 6.594 million viewers. During the week before Christmas, the ratings dropped to 1.4 during the week. Prior to the controversy regarding the move of the Jay Leno Show to 11:35 p.m., viewership bottomed out at 4.799 million viewers, although there was a slight bump as word of the controversy broke.
Though the show itself had been meeting the network's projections, it was severely detrimental to the ratings of the late local news on NBC affiliates. As originally feared by WHDH in Boston, several stations across the country saw what was known as the "Leno Effect", where the lower audience for Leno (as compared to NBC's scripted prime time offerings) translated directly into a domino effect of severe audience drops for late local news (on the order of 25–30%) and completely stunted NBC's past successful schedule hammocking strategies, effects that NBC had underestimated.
Dispute over timeslot
In early January 2010, multiple media outlets reported that, following the 2010 Winter Olympics, The Jay Leno Show would be shortened to 30 minutes and begin airing weeknights at 11:35 pm ET, with Conan O'Brien and Jimmy Fallon's shows following it beginning at 12:05 am on March 1, 2010. On January 10, NBC Universal Television Entertainment Chairman Jeff Gaspin confirmed that The Jay Leno Show would indeed move to 11:35.
Leno immediately accepted the return to 11:35 p.m., calling the move "all business." He had made it known in the press in November 2009 that he wished to return to his old timeslot; behind the scenes, Leno had privately indicated that he did not believe the 10:00 experiment would work. On the other hand, O'Brien's contract stipulated that the network could move the show back to 12:05 a.m. without penalty, a loophole put in primarily to accommodate sports preemptions, the network's traditional nightly Wimbledon tournament highlights show, and specials such as New Year's Eve with Carson Daly.
O'Brien did not seriously respond for several days after the announcement, then drafted a press release explaining why he felt it was unfair to him, his staff, Fallon, and the legacy of The Tonight Show to move the show past midnight. He concluded by saying that he "cannot participate in what I honestly believe is [The Tonight Shows] destruction."Huffington Post article: "Conan O'Brien Statement: I Will Not Follow Jay At 12:05". O'Brien received an outpouring of celebrity and viewer support for rejecting the move, while Leno received heavy criticism.Huffington Post article: "Patton Oswalt: Jay Leno Is Like Nixon, I Don't Like Him". On January 21, O'Brien signed a $45 million deal allowing him to leave the network, and aired his final episode of Tonight on January 22; Leno returned as host of Tonight on March 1.
Settlement
On January 19, 2010, multiple media outlets reported that O'Brien and NBC were close to signing a deal between $30 and $40 million for the host to walk away from the network.New York Post article: "NBC near deal to allow Conan to leave network". One apparent sticking point in the negotiations was the amount his staff and crew were to be paid for leaving the program.Chicago Sun Times article: "Conan negotiations stuck on staff, Triumph ". Reports also said that the contract could prohibit O'Brien from badmouthing NBC in any way, and that he may be able to return to television as early as September 2010.
On January 21, after two weeks of negotiations, it was announced that Conan O'Brien had signed a $45 million deal to leave NBC. The Wall Street Journal reports that O'Brien will receive about $32 million, with his staff receiving around $12 million. The contract contains a clause prohibiting O'Brien from making negative remarks about NBC for a certain amount of time; it does not, however, contain the previously rumored "mitigation clause," in which NBC would be able to keep some of the severance pay after O'Brien finds a new program. It also stipulates that he could have returned to television as early as September 1, 2010. The network confirmed that Leno would officially resume as host of The Tonight Show on March 1. TMZ reported that NBC would rerun episodes from O'Brien's time as host until the network began airing the Olympics on February 12.
O'Brien later reached a deal with cable network TBS to premiere a new late-night talk show, Conan.
Industry impact
NBC became the first large United States network to broadcast the same show every weekday during prime time since ABC's Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? marathons in 1999 and only the second since DuMont aired Captain Video and His Video Rangers from 1949 to 1955. More recently, the upstart MyNetwork TV had attempted, upon its launch in 2006, to air the same telenovelas every night of the week, a programming strategy that proved to be very unsuccessful. NBC's executives called the decision "a transformational moment in the history of broadcasting" and "in effect, launching five shows." An industry observer said that Leno, "in all my years, is the biggest risk a network has ever taken." According to former NBC president Fred Silverman, "If the Leno Show works, it will be the most significant thing to happen in broadcast television in the last decade."
Although NBC had not developed a new hit show at 10 pm in years, industry executives criticized the network for abandoning a history of airing quality dramas at that hour such as Hill Street Blues, St. Elsewhere, and ER, which made NBC "the gold standard for sophisticated programming . . . the No. 1 network for affluent and well-educated young viewers" during the 1980s and 1990s. In addition, critics predicted that the decision would hurt NBC by undermining a reputation built on successful scripted shows. Other networks believed NBC's decision created an opportunity, and planned their 2009–2010 schedules accordingly. For example, the show competed with The Mentalist, CSI: Miami, CSI: NY, and Numb3rs, four of television's most popular series, on CBS (the first of those four series was moved to 10:00 PM to directly compete with Leno's show, and significantly improved the ratings for that timeslot compared to its predecessor). Leno was also not easily sold overseas.
The January 29, 2010 issue of Entertainment Weekly listed the show at the top of a list of the 50 Biggest Bombs in television history. The comment made by the network executives about "launching five shows" was ultimately transformed into the joke that its removal was like "cancelling five shows." TV Guide similarly listed the show as the biggest blunder in television history in its November 1, 2010 edition.
Boycott by competing networks
Rival networks ABC and CBS had discouraged "their stars" from appearing on The Jay Leno Show in its primetime slot. Julia Louis-Dreyfus (The New Adventures of Old Christine) was the first CBS actor to appear on the show, on September 29, 2009; on that episode, she said "there was a little pressure, because as you know you are now on prime time", but that "Obviously, I committed to doing your show and we’re friends". This boycott did not affect The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien nor was it industry-wide. Other TV networks, like Fox, The CW, and HBO, were more encouraging. Hugh Laurie from the Fox TV show House was a guest on the September 25, 2009, telecast. House is produced by Universal Media Studios, a sister company to NBC through NBC Universal, and Fox does not offer any network programming in the 10 p.m. time slots, instead allowing most of its affiliates to go to local news.
In a Broadcasting & Cable interview published in early November 2009, Leno mentioned the boycott again, saying "I'm flattered; like ABC and CBS...none of their stars can appear on the show. What are you so afraid of if we're doing so terrible? It's all part of the game."
Labor union impact
John Wells, the president of the Writers Guild of America, West, and executive producer of prominent NBC shows ER and The West Wing, said, "I wish NBC and Jay Leno well; personally, he's a very nice guy, but I hope he falls flat on his face and we get five dramas back."
Website dispute
In 2004, Guadalupe Zambrano, a Texas real estate agent, registered the domain name thejaylenoshow.com to redirect to his real estate business. After the Leno announcement, Leno accused Zambrano of cybersquatting. Zambrano contended that he had owned the domain for five years, well before the announcement, thus precluding recovery. The UDRP proceedings ruled in favor of Leno, however, stating that Zambrano profited from the value of the Jay Leno trademark in bad faith.
International broadcasting
In Australia, The Comedy Channel on Pay TV aired the show on a same-day turn around Weeknights at 7.30pm AEST. Free-to-air channel 7Two also aired the program at 6.00pm usually on a 30-hour delay. It moved to middays on January 18, 2010 but ran until September 24, 2010 when 7TWO changed the format to a Best-of British oriented channel following the launch of sister HD channel 7mate.
In Canada, Citytv simulcast Leno with NBC during the 2009–2010 season, requesting simultaneous substitution where applicable.
In Portugal, SIC Mulher aired the show Monday and Tuesday at 00.30am.
In Israel, yes stars Comedy aired the show Sundays-Thursdays at 8.00pm.
In Finland, The Jay Leno Show aired on MTV3 MAX on weeknights; because of subtitling, the episodes were shown three days after their US broadcast.
In Sweden, The Jay Leno Show aired on Kanal 9 on weeknights. Episodes were broadcast one week after their original US airing.
Westwood One provided audio of the monologue as a short-form feature, under the title Last Night on The Jay Leno Show, to radio stations in the United States and Canada, replacing the discontinued Jimmy Kimmel Live!'' feature.
See also
List of television shows considered the worst
References
External links
2000s American late-night television series
2010s American late-night television series
2000s American variety television series
2010s American variety television series
2009 American television series debuts
2010 American television series endings
American television talk shows
Burbank, California
NBC original programming
Jay Leno
English-language television shows
Television shows filmed in California | true | [
"BBC v Hearn [1977] ICR 686 is a UK labour law case, concerning collective action and the scope of a \"trade dispute\" under what is now TULRCA 1992 section 244.\n\nFacts\nThe BBC wanted an injunction to restrain Hearn and the Association of Broadcasting Staff from stopping broadcast of the 1977 FA Cup Final. ABS objected to transmission unless the BBC agreed to not broadcast to South Africa.\n\nIn the High Court, Pain J held that the proposed action was in contemplation or furtherance of a trade dispute.\n\nJudgment\nLord Denning MR held that the injunction was to be granted, because it was not strictly a dispute over terms and conditions of work.\n\nSee also\n\nUK labour law\nHadmor Productions Ltd v Hamilton [1983] 1 AC 191 at 227, 233–234, approving Hearn\nRe P (a minor) [2003] UKHL 8\n\nNotes\n\nReferences\n\nUnited Kingdom labour case law",
"Churchill Kohlman (January 28, 1906 – May 25, 1983) was an American songwriter who wrote Johnnie Ray's 1951 hit, \"Cry\" while working in a Pittsburgh dry cleaning factory as the night watchman.\n\nRoyalties from \"Cry\" were the subject of a bitter legal dispute between Kohlman and Perry Alexander, owner of music publisher Mellow Music. Alexander was ordered by arbitrators to pay Kohlman $15,331.24 to settle the dispute in 1953.\n\nKohlman wrote hundreds of other songs, but none achieved the success of \"Cry\".\n\nChurchill had the following siblings: Homer Kohlman (1907–1985); and Alyse Kohlman Klaytor. After his success with \"Cry\", he was a correspondent for Prevue, a Chicago-based show-business magazine. He married Viola (1915–1995) and had the following children: Phyllis Kohlman O'Leary and Eleanor Kohlman Smith; and Carl Kohlman. He died under the name Charles Kohlman of a heart attack in 1983, at 77 years old, in the Point Breeze neighborhood of Pittsburgh. His grave is at Homewood Cemetery in Point Breeze.\n\nPopular culture\nThe Johnnie Ray version of \"Cry\" was used in the 1987 Ridley Scott film, Someone to Watch Over Me.\n\nOther versions\nRonnie Dove recorded the song in 1966, and his version was a Top 20 hit on the Hot 100 and Easy Listening charts. He performed the song on The Ed Sullivan Show the following year. \nKevin Coyne recorded a version of the song for his 1978 album Dynamite Daze.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nNew York Times obit\n\nSongwriters from Pennsylvania\nAfrican-American songwriters\nMusicians from Pittsburgh\n1906 births\n1983 deaths\nBurials at Homewood Cemetery\n20th-century American composers\n20th-century African-American musicians"
]
|
[
"The Jay Leno Show",
"Dispute over timeslot",
"What was the timeslot Jay Leno was in?",
"11:35",
"What other show was the dispute over?",
"Conan O'Brien"
]
| C_faa2e2423bbc407e89b705466c82df48_1 | When did the dispute happen? | 3 | When did the dispute over the timeslot happen? | The Jay Leno Show | In early January 2010, multiple media outlets reported that, following the 2010 Winter Olympics, The Jay Leno Show would be shortened to 30 minutes and begin airing weeknights at 11:35 pm ET, with Conan O'Brien and Jimmy Fallon's shows following it beginning at 12:05 am on March 1, 2010. On January 10, NBC Universal Television Entertainment Chairman Jeff Gaspin confirmed that The Jay Leno Show would indeed move to 11:35. Leno immediately accepted the return to 11:35 p.m., calling the move "all business." He had made it known in the press in November 2009 that he wished to return to his old timeslot; behind the scenes, Leno had privately indicated that he did not believe the 10:00 experiment would work. On the other hand, O'Brien's contract stipulated that the network could move the show back to 12:05 a.m. without penalty, a loophole put in primarily to accommodate sports preemptions, the network's traditional nightly Wimbledon tournament highlights show, and specials such as New Year's Eve with Carson Daly. O'Brien did not seriously respond for several days after the announcement, then drafted a press release explaining why he felt it was unfair to him, his staff, Fallon, and the legacy of The Tonight Show to move the show past midnight. He concluded by saying that he "cannot participate in what I honestly believe is [The Tonight Show's] destruction." O'Brien received an outpouring of celebrity and viewer support for rejecting the move, while Leno received heavy criticism. On January 21, O'Brien signed a $45 million deal allowing him to leave the network, and aired his final episode of Tonight on January 22; Leno returned as host of Tonight on March 1. CANNOTANSWER | 2010 | The Jay Leno Show is a talk show created and hosted by Jay Leno. Premiering on NBC on September 14, 2009, the program aired on weeknights at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT through February 9, 2010. The program was modeled upon the format of a late night talk show—specifically, Jay Leno's incarnation of The Tonight Show, opening with a comedic monologue, followed by interviews with celebrity guests and other comedy segments. Sketches from The Tonight Show (including Headlines and Jaywalking) were carried over to The Jay Leno Show, along with new sketches.
The program was the result of a compromise by NBC Universal's then-CEO Jeff Zucker to keep Jay Leno with the company following his retirement from The Tonight Show and replacement with Conan O'Brien. The Jay Leno Show was also intended to provide NBC with an alternative to the high-cost scripted dramas aired by competing networks in its time slot; the network believed that the lower cost of production, in combination with product placement deals, meant that the program did not necessarily have to be highly viewed in order to turn a profit. NBC hoped to attract Leno's existing fans, as well as a larger primetime audience than that of his late-night program.
The Jay Leno Show was met with mixed reception from critics, who felt that the series had little differentiation from Leno's Tonight Show. Others were critical of NBC's decision to give up an hour of its weeknight lineup to Leno, due to the network's past success with dramas airing in the time slot, while one NBC affiliate (WHDH in Boston owned by Sunbeam Television, now independent) notably planned not to air the show at all, although this decision was retracted due to complaints by the network. Although viewership of The Jay Leno Show was initially on par with NBC's projections, by November, the program's ratings began to fall significantly. NBC's affiliates complained that the declining viewership of The Jay Leno Show also had a ripple effect on the viewership of their late local newscasts.
In an effort to address the concerns, NBC announced in January 2010 that it would, following the 2010 Winter Olympics, shorten The Jay Leno Show to a half-hour, and move it to 11:35 p.m—the timeslot that had been occupied by The Tonight Show for nearly 60 years, and bump Tonight to 12:05 a.m. The decision resulted in a major public conflict between the network and Conan O'Brien, who asserted that the move would damage the highly respected Tonight Show franchise, and that he would not participate in the program if it were moved to 12:05. Despite much support for O'Brien from both the public and media professionals alike, NBC maintained its plan to move Leno to 11:35.
On January 21, 2010, NBC reached a $45 million settlement with O'Brien in order to end his contract. The Jay Leno Show ended on February 9, 2010, after being on the air for only four months, with Entertainment Weekly calling the program television's "Biggest Bomb of All Time." Leno resumed his duties as host of The Tonight Show on March 1, 2010, for his second and final stint that lasted until his February 2014 succession by Jimmy Fallon.
History
NBC announced in 2004 that Jay Leno would leave The Tonight Show in 2009, with Conan O'Brien as his replacement. Leno—who wanted to avoid a repeat of the acrimonious transition when he inherited Tonight from Johnny Carson—said at the announcement, "You can do these things until they carry you out on a stretcher, or you can get out when you’re still doing good." He began to regret his decision to retire in 2007, and several networks and studios including ABC, Fox, Sony, and Tribune expressed interest in his services after leaving Tonight.
Jeff Zucker, then-President and CEO of NBCUniversal, sought to keep Leno from defecting to a competitor. Leno rejected several NBC offers for broadcast network daytime slots or subscription TV slots, a series of recurring specials, and a half-hour show at 8 pm five nights a week featuring Leno's Tonight monologue. The network had in 1981 considered moving The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson to 10 pm; Zucker, who in 2007 offered Oprah Winfrey an hour five nights a week at 8 pm, now offered Leno an hour five nights a week at 10 pm. Leno was announced on December 9, 2008.
At least one station, then-affiliate WHDH-TV in Boston, Massachusetts, stated that it would not carry the program, claiming that Leno would be detrimental to the station's 11 pm news and that it would instead launch a local news program in the time slot. NBC said that such plans would amount to a flagrant violation of the network contract—a claim which WHDH disputed—and said that it would immediately remove its programming from WHDH if the station followed through with the plan. WHDH backed down on April 13, 2009, and announced that it would air Leno instead of the proposed program.
Though Leno was the first to move the entire five-day-a-week late night talk show to prime time, he was not the first Tonight alumnus to move from late night to a prime time talk show. Steve Allen hosted Tonight Starring Steve Allen from 1954 to 1957; while still hosting that show, he began hosting the prime-time The Steve Allen Show in 1956 on NBC, and the latter show would run until 1960. Jack Paar, who hosted Tonight from 1957 to 1962, next hosted a weekly talk show known as The Jack Paar Program that ran until 1965, also on NBC.
In January 2010, several news outlets reported that The Jay Leno Show would be shortened to 30 minutes and begin airing weeknights at 11:35 pm ET, with Conan O'Brien and Jimmy Fallon's shows following it beginning at 12:05 am. The scheduling change would have been implemented on February 28 after the 2010 Winter Olympics (which preempted much of NBC's primetime and late-night lineup). Leno himself commented on the rumors during his January 7 monologue, joking that NBC stands for "Never Believe your Contract." According to Broadcasting & Cable, "most [NBC affiliates] are hopeful Jay—and Conan—sticks with NBC, and most, if not all, desperately want to see a change in terms of the lead-in they're getting to their lucrative late news; the affiliates "remain fiercely loyal to Leno and were quick to say the rookie program's struggles don't reflect the funnyman's work ethic or comedic chops. 'This isn't about Jay's popularity,' says WJAR Providence VP/General Manager Lisa Churchville. 'This is about having that kind of show at 10 p.m.'"
NBC announced plans to move Leno to 11:35 pm and The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien to 12:05 am. O'Brien refused to participate in the move and, on January 21, 2010, reached an agreement with NBC allowing him to leave the network. Lenos final episode aired on February 9, 2010 and Leno returned to Tonight as host on March 1, 2010.
Content
The Jay Leno Show aired weeknights at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT (9:00 p.m. CT/MT) from Studio 11 of the NBC Studios in Burbank, California with the following format:
After brief opening credits, a monologue of eight to 12 minutes.
One celebrity guest, two at the most. The "car-themed" set adjusted to allow guests to get off the couch and participate in antics.
Musical segments appeared only twice a week, in the middle of the show, and sometimes featured multiple acts performing together.
Comedy segments were reserved for the last 15 minutes of the show, the only portion of the show where Leno sometimes used a desk. Toward the end of the four-month run certain comedy segments such as "Headlines" were moved up to airing right after Jay's monologue, as opposed to being reserved for the end of the show. They include:
"Headlines" and "Jaywalking", both from Tonight.
The "advertiser-friendly 'Green Car Challenge'". Two to three times each week, celebrities drove an electric Ford Focus and tried to set records on a 1,100-foot dedicated outdoor track. The segment was based on the "Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car" segment on the British automotive series Top Gear, which Leno had previously appeared on.
"Ten at Ten", "in which celebs and other newsmakers . . . answer a rapid-fire series of ten 'ridiculous, celebrity-based questions.' The ten at ten guest would not be in the studio, but would instead appear via satellite from some other location. When the off-site location was in the Central or Mountain Time Zones, the skit would be changed to 9 at 9 (since these time zones have all programming one hour earlier in their local time than the coastal time zones), which was the same except there would only be nine questions."
Comic "correspondents" such as D. L. Hughley, Dan Finnerty, Mikey Day, Rachael Harris, and Jim Norton did pretaped segments.
One planned segment, "Stories Not Good Enough for the NBC Nightly News" (which would have featured then-NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams), was dropped from the show before it made it to air.
In addition to reserving comedy segments for the end, the network aired no commercials after the show and "urged local affiliates to do the same" so local news could start immediately, retaining as many Leno viewers as possible.
Recurring segments
"Headlines" (Monday): Humorous print items sent in by viewers. These real-life headlines are usually headlines with typographical errors, or unintentionally inappropriate items. The segment usually starts out with a fake, humorous headline during the introduction for the segment.
"Jaywalking": A pre-taped segment, "Jaywalking" is a play on the host's name and the illegal practice of jaywalking. Leno asks people questions about current news and other topics in public areas around Los Angeles (usually Hollywood Boulevard, Melrose Avenue or Universal Studios). Most responses are outrageously incorrect; for example, one person believed that Abraham Lincoln was the first president, and another could not identify a picture of Hillary Clinton. Sometimes the questions are of the "What color is the White House?" level, such as asking in what country the Panama Canal is located. Up to 15 people are interviewed in an hour or less for each segment, with about nine interviews used on the air. A similar format was used for the game show Street Smarts.
JMZ: A parody of TMZ, a segment in which they report on fake celebrity news with such guest stars as Chuck Liddell.
Ten@Ten: Jay interviews a celebrity via satellite by asking them 10 questions. Some editions have only used 9 questions, calling it the "Nine@Nine" as a reference to the central or mountain time zone.
Green Car Challenge: A segment in which celebrities go in a car and try to be the fastest in a track with obstacles. Tim Allen had the best record time; Rush Limbaugh had the record worst time (though he did so on purpose), and Leno never tried.
Photo Booth: A pre-taped segment in which someone goes in a Photo Booth and something is amiss.
Stuff We Found on eBay: Leno brought up some of the oddest stuff that he and members of the studio audience had supposedly found while searching on eBay.
Ross the Intern: Ross Mathews, an intern for the show, is sent to participate in special events. As part of a running gag, Leno started introducing Ross as his illegitimate son.
First show
Jerry Seinfeld was the celebrity guest on the debut episode. Jay-Z, Rihanna, and Kanye West performed "Run This Town", in which all three are featured. West sat down for a previously unplanned interview with Leno, discussing West's outburst at the MTV Video Music Awards the previous night. Dan Finnerty was the comic correspondent for the night, and the end of the show featured Headlines.
Reviews for the first show ranged from neutral to negative, with most critics stating that the show was, despite the changes, still very similar to Tonight. Metacritic scores it at 48 out of 100 based on 23 TV critic reviews, and viewers scoring it at a 4.0 out of 10. Media Life described the show as "underwhelming" and felt that Leno "failed to rise to the occasion." The Buffalo News called the show "a mess." The Associated Press noted that "it's not a good sign when the Bud Light commercial is funnier than the comedy show it interrupts," and that "at least Rosie Live took some chances." Jonah Krakow of IGN gave it a 5.5/10 saying that "show felt like they just picked from where they left off three months ago, and I'm not sure that's a good thing".
Final show
The final Jay Leno Show aired on February 9, 2010. The guests were Ashton Kutcher, Gabourey Sidibe and Bob Costas, with unannounced visits from Donald Trump and Kurt Warner. Following the monologue, there was a brief clip reel of highlights from the show's short tenure; otherwise, little mention was made about the fact that it was the final episode of the program. The last moments of the show featured the program's "10 at 10" segment, with its celebrity guest being Bob Costas. When Leno asked Costas how it felt to be the show's final guest, the sportscaster replied, "Kind of like being involved in the last game of a Clippers season, isn't it?" Directly following the interview with Costas, Leno thanked him, told the audience to stay tuned for their local news, and then abruptly went off-air.
Many media outlets criticized Leno's apparent lack of ceremony for the end of his program.New York Times article: "Without Fanfare, Leno’s Prime-Time Show Ends". Variety reported that the lack of fanfare was intentional, as NBC was attempting to rehab the reputation of Leno and The Tonight Show and did not desire to bring any further attention to Leno's transition back to Tonight. The Associated Press noted that the last few weeks of the program, including the final episode, were pervaded by "bad vibes." The Boston Globe wrote that Leno said farewell to his short-lived show "with all the momentousness of a guy taking out the trash." The episode received negative reviews from Entertainment Weekly, the Los Angeles Times, and The Wall Street Journal. By comparison, O'Brien's final Tonight Show was treated as a finale, with guests making reference to the show ending and guest Neil Young taking an ironic tone by performing "Long May You Run".
Impact
Financial
Leno had a contract for five years for the show. NBC reportedly had an option to cancel after two years, but had committed to at least one or two years regardless of ratings, although later chose to end the show after less than five months. He could have earned up to $30 million each year depending on ratings for Leno, compared to a $20 million annual salary during his last years at Tonight.
NBC expected to benefit by offering an inexpensive comedic alternative to the procedurals ("100% more comedy and 98% fewer murders!") and other one-hour dramas that typically air at 10 pm, and by offering new episodes 46 weeks each year versus 22.Itzkoff, Dave. "NBC’s ‘Jay Leno Show’ Promises 98 Percent Fewer Murders" The New York Times, 2009-05-04. While Leno was not necessarily expected to be competitive with the higher-rated scripted shows on ABC and CBS in its time slot, its projected cost of production was far lower and thus it was expected to be profitable to the network, and product integration intended to make the show "as DVR-proof as you can be on television in this era". Each airing of Leno cost about $350,000 to $400,000 versus up to $3 million for an hour-long drama, saving NBC $13 million each week without the network needing the show to beat its competitors. Those costs include the services of 22 writers, whom Leno called the "top 5% of the highest-paid . . . in the Guild."
McDonald's became the first buying advertiser for the program, tying in their "Million Dollar Roll" nightly in October 2009 promoting that year's version of McDonald's Monopoly.
Ratings
Leno did not expect his show to beat competing first-run episodes, but to do better than reruns, in part because topical jokes benefit from the "immediacy" of the time slot versus 11:30 pm. A television analyst predicted that Leno would finish in "a safe third place" every night. NBC research before the show's debut indicated that fans of Leno would watch Leno two to three times a week.
NBC saw a 1.5 rating for the show in the 18–49 demographic as "viable" and a 1.8 as a "home run". NBC told Leno that at a 1.5 rating, NBC makes $300 million a year. Tonight at 11:30 pm earned about a 1.3 to 1.5; the television audience at 10 pm is 40% larger than at 11:30 pm, and the network hoped Leno'''s audience would also grow. Industry observers have cited a range of ratings, from 1.7 to 2,"Sternberg calls the fall: 'FlashForward,' 'Community' hit; 'Rivers,' 'Forgotten' miss" The Hollywood Reporter, 2009-08-14. as being necessary for the show to succeed at 10 pm. By comparison, 2.5 is generally necessary for a 10 pm drama to succeed; those that earned a 1.7 or less during the 2008–2009 season were generally cancelled. NBC's prime-time dramas averaged about 2 during 2008–2009.
The first episode of The Jay Leno Show earned "fast national" estimates of 17.7 million viewers, an 11 Nielsen rating (5.1 among persons 18–49) and an 18 share, significantly above both his Tonight finale and the debut of The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien in all categories. By the second week and competing against season premieres, the audience fell to six million viewers, still on par with or exceeding NBC projections. As of November 1, 2009, The Jay Leno Show has averaged a 1.98 in the adults 18–49 ratings and 6.594 million viewers. During the week before Christmas, the ratings dropped to 1.4 during the week. Prior to the controversy regarding the move of the Jay Leno Show to 11:35 p.m., viewership bottomed out at 4.799 million viewers, although there was a slight bump as word of the controversy broke.
Though the show itself had been meeting the network's projections, it was severely detrimental to the ratings of the late local news on NBC affiliates. As originally feared by WHDH in Boston, several stations across the country saw what was known as the "Leno Effect", where the lower audience for Leno (as compared to NBC's scripted prime time offerings) translated directly into a domino effect of severe audience drops for late local news (on the order of 25–30%) and completely stunted NBC's past successful schedule hammocking strategies, effects that NBC had underestimated.
Dispute over timeslot
In early January 2010, multiple media outlets reported that, following the 2010 Winter Olympics, The Jay Leno Show would be shortened to 30 minutes and begin airing weeknights at 11:35 pm ET, with Conan O'Brien and Jimmy Fallon's shows following it beginning at 12:05 am on March 1, 2010. On January 10, NBC Universal Television Entertainment Chairman Jeff Gaspin confirmed that The Jay Leno Show would indeed move to 11:35.
Leno immediately accepted the return to 11:35 p.m., calling the move "all business." He had made it known in the press in November 2009 that he wished to return to his old timeslot; behind the scenes, Leno had privately indicated that he did not believe the 10:00 experiment would work. On the other hand, O'Brien's contract stipulated that the network could move the show back to 12:05 a.m. without penalty, a loophole put in primarily to accommodate sports preemptions, the network's traditional nightly Wimbledon tournament highlights show, and specials such as New Year's Eve with Carson Daly.
O'Brien did not seriously respond for several days after the announcement, then drafted a press release explaining why he felt it was unfair to him, his staff, Fallon, and the legacy of The Tonight Show to move the show past midnight. He concluded by saying that he "cannot participate in what I honestly believe is [The Tonight Shows] destruction."Huffington Post article: "Conan O'Brien Statement: I Will Not Follow Jay At 12:05". O'Brien received an outpouring of celebrity and viewer support for rejecting the move, while Leno received heavy criticism.Huffington Post article: "Patton Oswalt: Jay Leno Is Like Nixon, I Don't Like Him". On January 21, O'Brien signed a $45 million deal allowing him to leave the network, and aired his final episode of Tonight on January 22; Leno returned as host of Tonight on March 1.
Settlement
On January 19, 2010, multiple media outlets reported that O'Brien and NBC were close to signing a deal between $30 and $40 million for the host to walk away from the network.New York Post article: "NBC near deal to allow Conan to leave network". One apparent sticking point in the negotiations was the amount his staff and crew were to be paid for leaving the program.Chicago Sun Times article: "Conan negotiations stuck on staff, Triumph ". Reports also said that the contract could prohibit O'Brien from badmouthing NBC in any way, and that he may be able to return to television as early as September 2010.
On January 21, after two weeks of negotiations, it was announced that Conan O'Brien had signed a $45 million deal to leave NBC. The Wall Street Journal reports that O'Brien will receive about $32 million, with his staff receiving around $12 million. The contract contains a clause prohibiting O'Brien from making negative remarks about NBC for a certain amount of time; it does not, however, contain the previously rumored "mitigation clause," in which NBC would be able to keep some of the severance pay after O'Brien finds a new program. It also stipulates that he could have returned to television as early as September 1, 2010. The network confirmed that Leno would officially resume as host of The Tonight Show on March 1. TMZ reported that NBC would rerun episodes from O'Brien's time as host until the network began airing the Olympics on February 12.
O'Brien later reached a deal with cable network TBS to premiere a new late-night talk show, Conan.
Industry impact
NBC became the first large United States network to broadcast the same show every weekday during prime time since ABC's Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? marathons in 1999 and only the second since DuMont aired Captain Video and His Video Rangers from 1949 to 1955. More recently, the upstart MyNetwork TV had attempted, upon its launch in 2006, to air the same telenovelas every night of the week, a programming strategy that proved to be very unsuccessful. NBC's executives called the decision "a transformational moment in the history of broadcasting" and "in effect, launching five shows." An industry observer said that Leno, "in all my years, is the biggest risk a network has ever taken." According to former NBC president Fred Silverman, "If the Leno Show works, it will be the most significant thing to happen in broadcast television in the last decade."
Although NBC had not developed a new hit show at 10 pm in years, industry executives criticized the network for abandoning a history of airing quality dramas at that hour such as Hill Street Blues, St. Elsewhere, and ER, which made NBC "the gold standard for sophisticated programming . . . the No. 1 network for affluent and well-educated young viewers" during the 1980s and 1990s. In addition, critics predicted that the decision would hurt NBC by undermining a reputation built on successful scripted shows. Other networks believed NBC's decision created an opportunity, and planned their 2009–2010 schedules accordingly. For example, the show competed with The Mentalist, CSI: Miami, CSI: NY, and Numb3rs, four of television's most popular series, on CBS (the first of those four series was moved to 10:00 PM to directly compete with Leno's show, and significantly improved the ratings for that timeslot compared to its predecessor). Leno was also not easily sold overseas.
The January 29, 2010 issue of Entertainment Weekly listed the show at the top of a list of the 50 Biggest Bombs in television history. The comment made by the network executives about "launching five shows" was ultimately transformed into the joke that its removal was like "cancelling five shows." TV Guide similarly listed the show as the biggest blunder in television history in its November 1, 2010 edition.
Boycott by competing networks
Rival networks ABC and CBS had discouraged "their stars" from appearing on The Jay Leno Show in its primetime slot. Julia Louis-Dreyfus (The New Adventures of Old Christine) was the first CBS actor to appear on the show, on September 29, 2009; on that episode, she said "there was a little pressure, because as you know you are now on prime time", but that "Obviously, I committed to doing your show and we’re friends". This boycott did not affect The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien nor was it industry-wide. Other TV networks, like Fox, The CW, and HBO, were more encouraging. Hugh Laurie from the Fox TV show House was a guest on the September 25, 2009, telecast. House is produced by Universal Media Studios, a sister company to NBC through NBC Universal, and Fox does not offer any network programming in the 10 p.m. time slots, instead allowing most of its affiliates to go to local news.
In a Broadcasting & Cable interview published in early November 2009, Leno mentioned the boycott again, saying "I'm flattered; like ABC and CBS...none of their stars can appear on the show. What are you so afraid of if we're doing so terrible? It's all part of the game."
Labor union impact
John Wells, the president of the Writers Guild of America, West, and executive producer of prominent NBC shows ER and The West Wing, said, "I wish NBC and Jay Leno well; personally, he's a very nice guy, but I hope he falls flat on his face and we get five dramas back."
Website dispute
In 2004, Guadalupe Zambrano, a Texas real estate agent, registered the domain name thejaylenoshow.com to redirect to his real estate business. After the Leno announcement, Leno accused Zambrano of cybersquatting. Zambrano contended that he had owned the domain for five years, well before the announcement, thus precluding recovery. The UDRP proceedings ruled in favor of Leno, however, stating that Zambrano profited from the value of the Jay Leno trademark in bad faith.
International broadcasting
In Australia, The Comedy Channel on Pay TV aired the show on a same-day turn around Weeknights at 7.30pm AEST. Free-to-air channel 7Two also aired the program at 6.00pm usually on a 30-hour delay. It moved to middays on January 18, 2010 but ran until September 24, 2010 when 7TWO changed the format to a Best-of British oriented channel following the launch of sister HD channel 7mate.
In Canada, Citytv simulcast Leno with NBC during the 2009–2010 season, requesting simultaneous substitution where applicable.
In Portugal, SIC Mulher aired the show Monday and Tuesday at 00.30am.
In Israel, yes stars Comedy aired the show Sundays-Thursdays at 8.00pm.
In Finland, The Jay Leno Show aired on MTV3 MAX on weeknights; because of subtitling, the episodes were shown three days after their US broadcast.
In Sweden, The Jay Leno Show aired on Kanal 9 on weeknights. Episodes were broadcast one week after their original US airing.
Westwood One provided audio of the monologue as a short-form feature, under the title Last Night on The Jay Leno Show, to radio stations in the United States and Canada, replacing the discontinued Jimmy Kimmel Live!'' feature.
See also
List of television shows considered the worst
References
External links
2000s American late-night television series
2010s American late-night television series
2000s American variety television series
2010s American variety television series
2009 American television series debuts
2010 American television series endings
American television talk shows
Burbank, California
NBC original programming
Jay Leno
English-language television shows
Television shows filmed in California | true | [
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"Anything Can Happen is a 1952 comedy-drama film.\n\nAnything Can Happen may also refer to:\n\n Anything Can Happen (album), by Leon Russell, 1994\n \"Anything Can Happen\", a 2019 song by Saint Jhn \n Edhuvum Nadakkum ('Anything Can Happen'), a season of the Tamil TV series Marmadesam\n \"Anything Can Happen in the Next Half Hour\", or \"Anything Can Happen\", a 2007 song by Enter Shikari\n Anything Can Happen in the Next Half Hour (EP), 2004\n\nSee also\n \"Anything Could Happen\", a 2012 song by Ellie Goulding \n Anything Might Happen, 1934 British crime film\n Special Effects: Anything Can Happen, a 1996 American documentary film\n \"Anything Can Happen on Halloween\", a song from the 1986 film The Worst Witch \n Anything Can Happen in the Theatre, a musical revue of works by Maury Yeston\n \"The Anything Can Happen Recurrence\", an episode of The Big Bang Theory (season 7)\n The Anupam Kher Show - Kucch Bhi Ho Sakta Hai ('The Anupam Kher Show — Anything Can Happen') an Indian TV show"
]
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"The Jay Leno Show",
"Dispute over timeslot",
"What was the timeslot Jay Leno was in?",
"11:35",
"What other show was the dispute over?",
"Conan O'Brien",
"When did the dispute happen?",
"2010"
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| C_faa2e2423bbc407e89b705466c82df48_1 | Why was there a dispute over the 11:35 time? | 4 | Why was there a dispute over the 11:35 time? | The Jay Leno Show | In early January 2010, multiple media outlets reported that, following the 2010 Winter Olympics, The Jay Leno Show would be shortened to 30 minutes and begin airing weeknights at 11:35 pm ET, with Conan O'Brien and Jimmy Fallon's shows following it beginning at 12:05 am on March 1, 2010. On January 10, NBC Universal Television Entertainment Chairman Jeff Gaspin confirmed that The Jay Leno Show would indeed move to 11:35. Leno immediately accepted the return to 11:35 p.m., calling the move "all business." He had made it known in the press in November 2009 that he wished to return to his old timeslot; behind the scenes, Leno had privately indicated that he did not believe the 10:00 experiment would work. On the other hand, O'Brien's contract stipulated that the network could move the show back to 12:05 a.m. without penalty, a loophole put in primarily to accommodate sports preemptions, the network's traditional nightly Wimbledon tournament highlights show, and specials such as New Year's Eve with Carson Daly. O'Brien did not seriously respond for several days after the announcement, then drafted a press release explaining why he felt it was unfair to him, his staff, Fallon, and the legacy of The Tonight Show to move the show past midnight. He concluded by saying that he "cannot participate in what I honestly believe is [The Tonight Show's] destruction." O'Brien received an outpouring of celebrity and viewer support for rejecting the move, while Leno received heavy criticism. On January 21, O'Brien signed a $45 million deal allowing him to leave the network, and aired his final episode of Tonight on January 22; Leno returned as host of Tonight on March 1. CANNOTANSWER | " He had made it known in the press in November 2009 that he wished to return to his old timeslot; | The Jay Leno Show is a talk show created and hosted by Jay Leno. Premiering on NBC on September 14, 2009, the program aired on weeknights at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT through February 9, 2010. The program was modeled upon the format of a late night talk show—specifically, Jay Leno's incarnation of The Tonight Show, opening with a comedic monologue, followed by interviews with celebrity guests and other comedy segments. Sketches from The Tonight Show (including Headlines and Jaywalking) were carried over to The Jay Leno Show, along with new sketches.
The program was the result of a compromise by NBC Universal's then-CEO Jeff Zucker to keep Jay Leno with the company following his retirement from The Tonight Show and replacement with Conan O'Brien. The Jay Leno Show was also intended to provide NBC with an alternative to the high-cost scripted dramas aired by competing networks in its time slot; the network believed that the lower cost of production, in combination with product placement deals, meant that the program did not necessarily have to be highly viewed in order to turn a profit. NBC hoped to attract Leno's existing fans, as well as a larger primetime audience than that of his late-night program.
The Jay Leno Show was met with mixed reception from critics, who felt that the series had little differentiation from Leno's Tonight Show. Others were critical of NBC's decision to give up an hour of its weeknight lineup to Leno, due to the network's past success with dramas airing in the time slot, while one NBC affiliate (WHDH in Boston owned by Sunbeam Television, now independent) notably planned not to air the show at all, although this decision was retracted due to complaints by the network. Although viewership of The Jay Leno Show was initially on par with NBC's projections, by November, the program's ratings began to fall significantly. NBC's affiliates complained that the declining viewership of The Jay Leno Show also had a ripple effect on the viewership of their late local newscasts.
In an effort to address the concerns, NBC announced in January 2010 that it would, following the 2010 Winter Olympics, shorten The Jay Leno Show to a half-hour, and move it to 11:35 p.m—the timeslot that had been occupied by The Tonight Show for nearly 60 years, and bump Tonight to 12:05 a.m. The decision resulted in a major public conflict between the network and Conan O'Brien, who asserted that the move would damage the highly respected Tonight Show franchise, and that he would not participate in the program if it were moved to 12:05. Despite much support for O'Brien from both the public and media professionals alike, NBC maintained its plan to move Leno to 11:35.
On January 21, 2010, NBC reached a $45 million settlement with O'Brien in order to end his contract. The Jay Leno Show ended on February 9, 2010, after being on the air for only four months, with Entertainment Weekly calling the program television's "Biggest Bomb of All Time." Leno resumed his duties as host of The Tonight Show on March 1, 2010, for his second and final stint that lasted until his February 2014 succession by Jimmy Fallon.
History
NBC announced in 2004 that Jay Leno would leave The Tonight Show in 2009, with Conan O'Brien as his replacement. Leno—who wanted to avoid a repeat of the acrimonious transition when he inherited Tonight from Johnny Carson—said at the announcement, "You can do these things until they carry you out on a stretcher, or you can get out when you’re still doing good." He began to regret his decision to retire in 2007, and several networks and studios including ABC, Fox, Sony, and Tribune expressed interest in his services after leaving Tonight.
Jeff Zucker, then-President and CEO of NBCUniversal, sought to keep Leno from defecting to a competitor. Leno rejected several NBC offers for broadcast network daytime slots or subscription TV slots, a series of recurring specials, and a half-hour show at 8 pm five nights a week featuring Leno's Tonight monologue. The network had in 1981 considered moving The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson to 10 pm; Zucker, who in 2007 offered Oprah Winfrey an hour five nights a week at 8 pm, now offered Leno an hour five nights a week at 10 pm. Leno was announced on December 9, 2008.
At least one station, then-affiliate WHDH-TV in Boston, Massachusetts, stated that it would not carry the program, claiming that Leno would be detrimental to the station's 11 pm news and that it would instead launch a local news program in the time slot. NBC said that such plans would amount to a flagrant violation of the network contract—a claim which WHDH disputed—and said that it would immediately remove its programming from WHDH if the station followed through with the plan. WHDH backed down on April 13, 2009, and announced that it would air Leno instead of the proposed program.
Though Leno was the first to move the entire five-day-a-week late night talk show to prime time, he was not the first Tonight alumnus to move from late night to a prime time talk show. Steve Allen hosted Tonight Starring Steve Allen from 1954 to 1957; while still hosting that show, he began hosting the prime-time The Steve Allen Show in 1956 on NBC, and the latter show would run until 1960. Jack Paar, who hosted Tonight from 1957 to 1962, next hosted a weekly talk show known as The Jack Paar Program that ran until 1965, also on NBC.
In January 2010, several news outlets reported that The Jay Leno Show would be shortened to 30 minutes and begin airing weeknights at 11:35 pm ET, with Conan O'Brien and Jimmy Fallon's shows following it beginning at 12:05 am. The scheduling change would have been implemented on February 28 after the 2010 Winter Olympics (which preempted much of NBC's primetime and late-night lineup). Leno himself commented on the rumors during his January 7 monologue, joking that NBC stands for "Never Believe your Contract." According to Broadcasting & Cable, "most [NBC affiliates] are hopeful Jay—and Conan—sticks with NBC, and most, if not all, desperately want to see a change in terms of the lead-in they're getting to their lucrative late news; the affiliates "remain fiercely loyal to Leno and were quick to say the rookie program's struggles don't reflect the funnyman's work ethic or comedic chops. 'This isn't about Jay's popularity,' says WJAR Providence VP/General Manager Lisa Churchville. 'This is about having that kind of show at 10 p.m.'"
NBC announced plans to move Leno to 11:35 pm and The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien to 12:05 am. O'Brien refused to participate in the move and, on January 21, 2010, reached an agreement with NBC allowing him to leave the network. Lenos final episode aired on February 9, 2010 and Leno returned to Tonight as host on March 1, 2010.
Content
The Jay Leno Show aired weeknights at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT (9:00 p.m. CT/MT) from Studio 11 of the NBC Studios in Burbank, California with the following format:
After brief opening credits, a monologue of eight to 12 minutes.
One celebrity guest, two at the most. The "car-themed" set adjusted to allow guests to get off the couch and participate in antics.
Musical segments appeared only twice a week, in the middle of the show, and sometimes featured multiple acts performing together.
Comedy segments were reserved for the last 15 minutes of the show, the only portion of the show where Leno sometimes used a desk. Toward the end of the four-month run certain comedy segments such as "Headlines" were moved up to airing right after Jay's monologue, as opposed to being reserved for the end of the show. They include:
"Headlines" and "Jaywalking", both from Tonight.
The "advertiser-friendly 'Green Car Challenge'". Two to three times each week, celebrities drove an electric Ford Focus and tried to set records on a 1,100-foot dedicated outdoor track. The segment was based on the "Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car" segment on the British automotive series Top Gear, which Leno had previously appeared on.
"Ten at Ten", "in which celebs and other newsmakers . . . answer a rapid-fire series of ten 'ridiculous, celebrity-based questions.' The ten at ten guest would not be in the studio, but would instead appear via satellite from some other location. When the off-site location was in the Central or Mountain Time Zones, the skit would be changed to 9 at 9 (since these time zones have all programming one hour earlier in their local time than the coastal time zones), which was the same except there would only be nine questions."
Comic "correspondents" such as D. L. Hughley, Dan Finnerty, Mikey Day, Rachael Harris, and Jim Norton did pretaped segments.
One planned segment, "Stories Not Good Enough for the NBC Nightly News" (which would have featured then-NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams), was dropped from the show before it made it to air.
In addition to reserving comedy segments for the end, the network aired no commercials after the show and "urged local affiliates to do the same" so local news could start immediately, retaining as many Leno viewers as possible.
Recurring segments
"Headlines" (Monday): Humorous print items sent in by viewers. These real-life headlines are usually headlines with typographical errors, or unintentionally inappropriate items. The segment usually starts out with a fake, humorous headline during the introduction for the segment.
"Jaywalking": A pre-taped segment, "Jaywalking" is a play on the host's name and the illegal practice of jaywalking. Leno asks people questions about current news and other topics in public areas around Los Angeles (usually Hollywood Boulevard, Melrose Avenue or Universal Studios). Most responses are outrageously incorrect; for example, one person believed that Abraham Lincoln was the first president, and another could not identify a picture of Hillary Clinton. Sometimes the questions are of the "What color is the White House?" level, such as asking in what country the Panama Canal is located. Up to 15 people are interviewed in an hour or less for each segment, with about nine interviews used on the air. A similar format was used for the game show Street Smarts.
JMZ: A parody of TMZ, a segment in which they report on fake celebrity news with such guest stars as Chuck Liddell.
Ten@Ten: Jay interviews a celebrity via satellite by asking them 10 questions. Some editions have only used 9 questions, calling it the "Nine@Nine" as a reference to the central or mountain time zone.
Green Car Challenge: A segment in which celebrities go in a car and try to be the fastest in a track with obstacles. Tim Allen had the best record time; Rush Limbaugh had the record worst time (though he did so on purpose), and Leno never tried.
Photo Booth: A pre-taped segment in which someone goes in a Photo Booth and something is amiss.
Stuff We Found on eBay: Leno brought up some of the oddest stuff that he and members of the studio audience had supposedly found while searching on eBay.
Ross the Intern: Ross Mathews, an intern for the show, is sent to participate in special events. As part of a running gag, Leno started introducing Ross as his illegitimate son.
First show
Jerry Seinfeld was the celebrity guest on the debut episode. Jay-Z, Rihanna, and Kanye West performed "Run This Town", in which all three are featured. West sat down for a previously unplanned interview with Leno, discussing West's outburst at the MTV Video Music Awards the previous night. Dan Finnerty was the comic correspondent for the night, and the end of the show featured Headlines.
Reviews for the first show ranged from neutral to negative, with most critics stating that the show was, despite the changes, still very similar to Tonight. Metacritic scores it at 48 out of 100 based on 23 TV critic reviews, and viewers scoring it at a 4.0 out of 10. Media Life described the show as "underwhelming" and felt that Leno "failed to rise to the occasion." The Buffalo News called the show "a mess." The Associated Press noted that "it's not a good sign when the Bud Light commercial is funnier than the comedy show it interrupts," and that "at least Rosie Live took some chances." Jonah Krakow of IGN gave it a 5.5/10 saying that "show felt like they just picked from where they left off three months ago, and I'm not sure that's a good thing".
Final show
The final Jay Leno Show aired on February 9, 2010. The guests were Ashton Kutcher, Gabourey Sidibe and Bob Costas, with unannounced visits from Donald Trump and Kurt Warner. Following the monologue, there was a brief clip reel of highlights from the show's short tenure; otherwise, little mention was made about the fact that it was the final episode of the program. The last moments of the show featured the program's "10 at 10" segment, with its celebrity guest being Bob Costas. When Leno asked Costas how it felt to be the show's final guest, the sportscaster replied, "Kind of like being involved in the last game of a Clippers season, isn't it?" Directly following the interview with Costas, Leno thanked him, told the audience to stay tuned for their local news, and then abruptly went off-air.
Many media outlets criticized Leno's apparent lack of ceremony for the end of his program.New York Times article: "Without Fanfare, Leno’s Prime-Time Show Ends". Variety reported that the lack of fanfare was intentional, as NBC was attempting to rehab the reputation of Leno and The Tonight Show and did not desire to bring any further attention to Leno's transition back to Tonight. The Associated Press noted that the last few weeks of the program, including the final episode, were pervaded by "bad vibes." The Boston Globe wrote that Leno said farewell to his short-lived show "with all the momentousness of a guy taking out the trash." The episode received negative reviews from Entertainment Weekly, the Los Angeles Times, and The Wall Street Journal. By comparison, O'Brien's final Tonight Show was treated as a finale, with guests making reference to the show ending and guest Neil Young taking an ironic tone by performing "Long May You Run".
Impact
Financial
Leno had a contract for five years for the show. NBC reportedly had an option to cancel after two years, but had committed to at least one or two years regardless of ratings, although later chose to end the show after less than five months. He could have earned up to $30 million each year depending on ratings for Leno, compared to a $20 million annual salary during his last years at Tonight.
NBC expected to benefit by offering an inexpensive comedic alternative to the procedurals ("100% more comedy and 98% fewer murders!") and other one-hour dramas that typically air at 10 pm, and by offering new episodes 46 weeks each year versus 22.Itzkoff, Dave. "NBC’s ‘Jay Leno Show’ Promises 98 Percent Fewer Murders" The New York Times, 2009-05-04. While Leno was not necessarily expected to be competitive with the higher-rated scripted shows on ABC and CBS in its time slot, its projected cost of production was far lower and thus it was expected to be profitable to the network, and product integration intended to make the show "as DVR-proof as you can be on television in this era". Each airing of Leno cost about $350,000 to $400,000 versus up to $3 million for an hour-long drama, saving NBC $13 million each week without the network needing the show to beat its competitors. Those costs include the services of 22 writers, whom Leno called the "top 5% of the highest-paid . . . in the Guild."
McDonald's became the first buying advertiser for the program, tying in their "Million Dollar Roll" nightly in October 2009 promoting that year's version of McDonald's Monopoly.
Ratings
Leno did not expect his show to beat competing first-run episodes, but to do better than reruns, in part because topical jokes benefit from the "immediacy" of the time slot versus 11:30 pm. A television analyst predicted that Leno would finish in "a safe third place" every night. NBC research before the show's debut indicated that fans of Leno would watch Leno two to three times a week.
NBC saw a 1.5 rating for the show in the 18–49 demographic as "viable" and a 1.8 as a "home run". NBC told Leno that at a 1.5 rating, NBC makes $300 million a year. Tonight at 11:30 pm earned about a 1.3 to 1.5; the television audience at 10 pm is 40% larger than at 11:30 pm, and the network hoped Leno'''s audience would also grow. Industry observers have cited a range of ratings, from 1.7 to 2,"Sternberg calls the fall: 'FlashForward,' 'Community' hit; 'Rivers,' 'Forgotten' miss" The Hollywood Reporter, 2009-08-14. as being necessary for the show to succeed at 10 pm. By comparison, 2.5 is generally necessary for a 10 pm drama to succeed; those that earned a 1.7 or less during the 2008–2009 season were generally cancelled. NBC's prime-time dramas averaged about 2 during 2008–2009.
The first episode of The Jay Leno Show earned "fast national" estimates of 17.7 million viewers, an 11 Nielsen rating (5.1 among persons 18–49) and an 18 share, significantly above both his Tonight finale and the debut of The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien in all categories. By the second week and competing against season premieres, the audience fell to six million viewers, still on par with or exceeding NBC projections. As of November 1, 2009, The Jay Leno Show has averaged a 1.98 in the adults 18–49 ratings and 6.594 million viewers. During the week before Christmas, the ratings dropped to 1.4 during the week. Prior to the controversy regarding the move of the Jay Leno Show to 11:35 p.m., viewership bottomed out at 4.799 million viewers, although there was a slight bump as word of the controversy broke.
Though the show itself had been meeting the network's projections, it was severely detrimental to the ratings of the late local news on NBC affiliates. As originally feared by WHDH in Boston, several stations across the country saw what was known as the "Leno Effect", where the lower audience for Leno (as compared to NBC's scripted prime time offerings) translated directly into a domino effect of severe audience drops for late local news (on the order of 25–30%) and completely stunted NBC's past successful schedule hammocking strategies, effects that NBC had underestimated.
Dispute over timeslot
In early January 2010, multiple media outlets reported that, following the 2010 Winter Olympics, The Jay Leno Show would be shortened to 30 minutes and begin airing weeknights at 11:35 pm ET, with Conan O'Brien and Jimmy Fallon's shows following it beginning at 12:05 am on March 1, 2010. On January 10, NBC Universal Television Entertainment Chairman Jeff Gaspin confirmed that The Jay Leno Show would indeed move to 11:35.
Leno immediately accepted the return to 11:35 p.m., calling the move "all business." He had made it known in the press in November 2009 that he wished to return to his old timeslot; behind the scenes, Leno had privately indicated that he did not believe the 10:00 experiment would work. On the other hand, O'Brien's contract stipulated that the network could move the show back to 12:05 a.m. without penalty, a loophole put in primarily to accommodate sports preemptions, the network's traditional nightly Wimbledon tournament highlights show, and specials such as New Year's Eve with Carson Daly.
O'Brien did not seriously respond for several days after the announcement, then drafted a press release explaining why he felt it was unfair to him, his staff, Fallon, and the legacy of The Tonight Show to move the show past midnight. He concluded by saying that he "cannot participate in what I honestly believe is [The Tonight Shows] destruction."Huffington Post article: "Conan O'Brien Statement: I Will Not Follow Jay At 12:05". O'Brien received an outpouring of celebrity and viewer support for rejecting the move, while Leno received heavy criticism.Huffington Post article: "Patton Oswalt: Jay Leno Is Like Nixon, I Don't Like Him". On January 21, O'Brien signed a $45 million deal allowing him to leave the network, and aired his final episode of Tonight on January 22; Leno returned as host of Tonight on March 1.
Settlement
On January 19, 2010, multiple media outlets reported that O'Brien and NBC were close to signing a deal between $30 and $40 million for the host to walk away from the network.New York Post article: "NBC near deal to allow Conan to leave network". One apparent sticking point in the negotiations was the amount his staff and crew were to be paid for leaving the program.Chicago Sun Times article: "Conan negotiations stuck on staff, Triumph ". Reports also said that the contract could prohibit O'Brien from badmouthing NBC in any way, and that he may be able to return to television as early as September 2010.
On January 21, after two weeks of negotiations, it was announced that Conan O'Brien had signed a $45 million deal to leave NBC. The Wall Street Journal reports that O'Brien will receive about $32 million, with his staff receiving around $12 million. The contract contains a clause prohibiting O'Brien from making negative remarks about NBC for a certain amount of time; it does not, however, contain the previously rumored "mitigation clause," in which NBC would be able to keep some of the severance pay after O'Brien finds a new program. It also stipulates that he could have returned to television as early as September 1, 2010. The network confirmed that Leno would officially resume as host of The Tonight Show on March 1. TMZ reported that NBC would rerun episodes from O'Brien's time as host until the network began airing the Olympics on February 12.
O'Brien later reached a deal with cable network TBS to premiere a new late-night talk show, Conan.
Industry impact
NBC became the first large United States network to broadcast the same show every weekday during prime time since ABC's Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? marathons in 1999 and only the second since DuMont aired Captain Video and His Video Rangers from 1949 to 1955. More recently, the upstart MyNetwork TV had attempted, upon its launch in 2006, to air the same telenovelas every night of the week, a programming strategy that proved to be very unsuccessful. NBC's executives called the decision "a transformational moment in the history of broadcasting" and "in effect, launching five shows." An industry observer said that Leno, "in all my years, is the biggest risk a network has ever taken." According to former NBC president Fred Silverman, "If the Leno Show works, it will be the most significant thing to happen in broadcast television in the last decade."
Although NBC had not developed a new hit show at 10 pm in years, industry executives criticized the network for abandoning a history of airing quality dramas at that hour such as Hill Street Blues, St. Elsewhere, and ER, which made NBC "the gold standard for sophisticated programming . . . the No. 1 network for affluent and well-educated young viewers" during the 1980s and 1990s. In addition, critics predicted that the decision would hurt NBC by undermining a reputation built on successful scripted shows. Other networks believed NBC's decision created an opportunity, and planned their 2009–2010 schedules accordingly. For example, the show competed with The Mentalist, CSI: Miami, CSI: NY, and Numb3rs, four of television's most popular series, on CBS (the first of those four series was moved to 10:00 PM to directly compete with Leno's show, and significantly improved the ratings for that timeslot compared to its predecessor). Leno was also not easily sold overseas.
The January 29, 2010 issue of Entertainment Weekly listed the show at the top of a list of the 50 Biggest Bombs in television history. The comment made by the network executives about "launching five shows" was ultimately transformed into the joke that its removal was like "cancelling five shows." TV Guide similarly listed the show as the biggest blunder in television history in its November 1, 2010 edition.
Boycott by competing networks
Rival networks ABC and CBS had discouraged "their stars" from appearing on The Jay Leno Show in its primetime slot. Julia Louis-Dreyfus (The New Adventures of Old Christine) was the first CBS actor to appear on the show, on September 29, 2009; on that episode, she said "there was a little pressure, because as you know you are now on prime time", but that "Obviously, I committed to doing your show and we’re friends". This boycott did not affect The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien nor was it industry-wide. Other TV networks, like Fox, The CW, and HBO, were more encouraging. Hugh Laurie from the Fox TV show House was a guest on the September 25, 2009, telecast. House is produced by Universal Media Studios, a sister company to NBC through NBC Universal, and Fox does not offer any network programming in the 10 p.m. time slots, instead allowing most of its affiliates to go to local news.
In a Broadcasting & Cable interview published in early November 2009, Leno mentioned the boycott again, saying "I'm flattered; like ABC and CBS...none of their stars can appear on the show. What are you so afraid of if we're doing so terrible? It's all part of the game."
Labor union impact
John Wells, the president of the Writers Guild of America, West, and executive producer of prominent NBC shows ER and The West Wing, said, "I wish NBC and Jay Leno well; personally, he's a very nice guy, but I hope he falls flat on his face and we get five dramas back."
Website dispute
In 2004, Guadalupe Zambrano, a Texas real estate agent, registered the domain name thejaylenoshow.com to redirect to his real estate business. After the Leno announcement, Leno accused Zambrano of cybersquatting. Zambrano contended that he had owned the domain for five years, well before the announcement, thus precluding recovery. The UDRP proceedings ruled in favor of Leno, however, stating that Zambrano profited from the value of the Jay Leno trademark in bad faith.
International broadcasting
In Australia, The Comedy Channel on Pay TV aired the show on a same-day turn around Weeknights at 7.30pm AEST. Free-to-air channel 7Two also aired the program at 6.00pm usually on a 30-hour delay. It moved to middays on January 18, 2010 but ran until September 24, 2010 when 7TWO changed the format to a Best-of British oriented channel following the launch of sister HD channel 7mate.
In Canada, Citytv simulcast Leno with NBC during the 2009–2010 season, requesting simultaneous substitution where applicable.
In Portugal, SIC Mulher aired the show Monday and Tuesday at 00.30am.
In Israel, yes stars Comedy aired the show Sundays-Thursdays at 8.00pm.
In Finland, The Jay Leno Show aired on MTV3 MAX on weeknights; because of subtitling, the episodes were shown three days after their US broadcast.
In Sweden, The Jay Leno Show aired on Kanal 9 on weeknights. Episodes were broadcast one week after their original US airing.
Westwood One provided audio of the monologue as a short-form feature, under the title Last Night on The Jay Leno Show, to radio stations in the United States and Canada, replacing the discontinued Jimmy Kimmel Live!'' feature.
See also
List of television shows considered the worst
References
External links
2000s American late-night television series
2010s American late-night television series
2000s American variety television series
2010s American variety television series
2009 American television series debuts
2010 American television series endings
American television talk shows
Burbank, California
NBC original programming
Jay Leno
English-language television shows
Television shows filmed in California | true | [
"The Wide Comb dispute was a landmark Australian industrial dispute. Australian sheep shearers, represented by the Australian Workers' Union, opposed the alteration of the Federal Pastoral Industry Award to allow the use of shearing equipment that used combs wider than 2.5 inches. Business and farming groups, such as the National Farmers Federation, supported the alteration of the award as they believed that the wider combs increased productivity.\n\nThe dispute culminated in a 10-week national strike by shearers in 1983 and was resolved by the decision of the Australian Conciliation and Arbitration Commission to allow the use of the wide comb shears.\n\nThe defeat of the AWU in the wide comb dispute has been widely cited as the cause of a decline in union membership and militancy amongst Australian shearers.\n\nThe historical background is covered in some detail in a book about industrial relations in Australian shearing through the twentieth century. The core problem had less to do with the traditional \"class war\" between shearers and the graziers, but arose from a longstanding cultural rift amongst shearers themselves. Union opposition to wide combs and the use of New Zealand shearers is also dramatised in Dennis McIntosh's 2008 novel Beaten by a blow: a shearer's story.\n\nMoneymaking \"gun\" shearers were only too happy to use wide combs, which had been introduced by New Zealand shearers in Western Australia from the late-1960s. On the other hand, the AWU feared it would lead to the erosion of terms and conditions that had been built into the Pastoral Award over many decades, and diehard unionists resented the cavalier attitude of the moneymakers to these regulations.\n\nAt heart it was about AWU control over woolsheds at shearing time. The restriction on wide combs was a union rule dating from 1910, and it had formally been incorporated into the Award in 1926. The rule had been around for so long that few people had a very clear idea about how it had come about or why it was regarded as so sacred by the unionists. Not long after the dispute ended, in 1987, one independent observer suggested that it was \"an argument about values\" and \"not about the facts\". AWU officials described wide combs as \"immoral and repulsive\".\n\nReferences \n\nLabour disputes in Australia\nAustralian sheep industry\n1983 labor disputes and strikes\nAgriculture and forestry strikes",
"The borders of Guatemala are the international borders which it shares with four nations:\n\nMexico\nHonduras\nBelize\nEl Salvador\n\nOver its history Guatemala has been the subject of a number of territorial disputes with its neighbours, stemming in large part from the absence of any definition of its borders prior to independence. Guatemala is situated in the central area of Central America. In more densely populated regions along the borders there are fences to prevent illegal immigration. Areas close to Guatemalan borders experience high rates of crime. The Central American area, notably the Guatemalan border area, is listed as one of the world's most dangerous places.\n\nGuatemala-Mexico Border\n\nFor nearly 60 years following Guatemalan independence the Guatemalan-Mexican border was the subject of a territorial dispute between the two countries. Particularly, Guatemala claimed Chiapas (especially Soconusco within that state). This dispute was settled in 1882 by an agreement between the two countries following negotiations in New York.\n\nIn 1958, a brief conflict erupted between the two countries as a result of illegal border crossings. The Guatemala-Mexico border is also an important way-station on the route for migrants fleeing Central America and heading towards the United States.\n\nGuatemala-Honduras Border\n\nThe Guatemala-Honduras border was the subject of a territorial dispute from Guatemalan independence. In 1930, an agreement was signed between the two countries in Washington to settle their dispute through arbitration. The dispute was finally settled through a unanimous award in 1933.\n\nGuatemala-Belize dispute\n\nBelize and Guatemala have had a long running border dispute, with Guatemala claiming all of Belize's territory.\n\nGuatemala-El Salvador border\n\nDuring the civil war in El Salvador, the Guatemalan government was primarily concerned with the risk of conflict and instability spilling over the border between the two countries. This was due to the flight of refugees from the conflict over the border into Guatemala.\n\nReferences\n\n \nGeography of Guatemala"
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"11:35",
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| C_faa2e2423bbc407e89b705466c82df48_1 | How did Conan react? | 5 | How did Conan react about the dispute over the 11:35 timeslot? | The Jay Leno Show | In early January 2010, multiple media outlets reported that, following the 2010 Winter Olympics, The Jay Leno Show would be shortened to 30 minutes and begin airing weeknights at 11:35 pm ET, with Conan O'Brien and Jimmy Fallon's shows following it beginning at 12:05 am on March 1, 2010. On January 10, NBC Universal Television Entertainment Chairman Jeff Gaspin confirmed that The Jay Leno Show would indeed move to 11:35. Leno immediately accepted the return to 11:35 p.m., calling the move "all business." He had made it known in the press in November 2009 that he wished to return to his old timeslot; behind the scenes, Leno had privately indicated that he did not believe the 10:00 experiment would work. On the other hand, O'Brien's contract stipulated that the network could move the show back to 12:05 a.m. without penalty, a loophole put in primarily to accommodate sports preemptions, the network's traditional nightly Wimbledon tournament highlights show, and specials such as New Year's Eve with Carson Daly. O'Brien did not seriously respond for several days after the announcement, then drafted a press release explaining why he felt it was unfair to him, his staff, Fallon, and the legacy of The Tonight Show to move the show past midnight. He concluded by saying that he "cannot participate in what I honestly believe is [The Tonight Show's] destruction." O'Brien received an outpouring of celebrity and viewer support for rejecting the move, while Leno received heavy criticism. On January 21, O'Brien signed a $45 million deal allowing him to leave the network, and aired his final episode of Tonight on January 22; Leno returned as host of Tonight on March 1. CANNOTANSWER | "cannot participate in what I honestly believe is [The Tonight Show's] destruction." | The Jay Leno Show is a talk show created and hosted by Jay Leno. Premiering on NBC on September 14, 2009, the program aired on weeknights at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT through February 9, 2010. The program was modeled upon the format of a late night talk show—specifically, Jay Leno's incarnation of The Tonight Show, opening with a comedic monologue, followed by interviews with celebrity guests and other comedy segments. Sketches from The Tonight Show (including Headlines and Jaywalking) were carried over to The Jay Leno Show, along with new sketches.
The program was the result of a compromise by NBC Universal's then-CEO Jeff Zucker to keep Jay Leno with the company following his retirement from The Tonight Show and replacement with Conan O'Brien. The Jay Leno Show was also intended to provide NBC with an alternative to the high-cost scripted dramas aired by competing networks in its time slot; the network believed that the lower cost of production, in combination with product placement deals, meant that the program did not necessarily have to be highly viewed in order to turn a profit. NBC hoped to attract Leno's existing fans, as well as a larger primetime audience than that of his late-night program.
The Jay Leno Show was met with mixed reception from critics, who felt that the series had little differentiation from Leno's Tonight Show. Others were critical of NBC's decision to give up an hour of its weeknight lineup to Leno, due to the network's past success with dramas airing in the time slot, while one NBC affiliate (WHDH in Boston owned by Sunbeam Television, now independent) notably planned not to air the show at all, although this decision was retracted due to complaints by the network. Although viewership of The Jay Leno Show was initially on par with NBC's projections, by November, the program's ratings began to fall significantly. NBC's affiliates complained that the declining viewership of The Jay Leno Show also had a ripple effect on the viewership of their late local newscasts.
In an effort to address the concerns, NBC announced in January 2010 that it would, following the 2010 Winter Olympics, shorten The Jay Leno Show to a half-hour, and move it to 11:35 p.m—the timeslot that had been occupied by The Tonight Show for nearly 60 years, and bump Tonight to 12:05 a.m. The decision resulted in a major public conflict between the network and Conan O'Brien, who asserted that the move would damage the highly respected Tonight Show franchise, and that he would not participate in the program if it were moved to 12:05. Despite much support for O'Brien from both the public and media professionals alike, NBC maintained its plan to move Leno to 11:35.
On January 21, 2010, NBC reached a $45 million settlement with O'Brien in order to end his contract. The Jay Leno Show ended on February 9, 2010, after being on the air for only four months, with Entertainment Weekly calling the program television's "Biggest Bomb of All Time." Leno resumed his duties as host of The Tonight Show on March 1, 2010, for his second and final stint that lasted until his February 2014 succession by Jimmy Fallon.
History
NBC announced in 2004 that Jay Leno would leave The Tonight Show in 2009, with Conan O'Brien as his replacement. Leno—who wanted to avoid a repeat of the acrimonious transition when he inherited Tonight from Johnny Carson—said at the announcement, "You can do these things until they carry you out on a stretcher, or you can get out when you’re still doing good." He began to regret his decision to retire in 2007, and several networks and studios including ABC, Fox, Sony, and Tribune expressed interest in his services after leaving Tonight.
Jeff Zucker, then-President and CEO of NBCUniversal, sought to keep Leno from defecting to a competitor. Leno rejected several NBC offers for broadcast network daytime slots or subscription TV slots, a series of recurring specials, and a half-hour show at 8 pm five nights a week featuring Leno's Tonight monologue. The network had in 1981 considered moving The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson to 10 pm; Zucker, who in 2007 offered Oprah Winfrey an hour five nights a week at 8 pm, now offered Leno an hour five nights a week at 10 pm. Leno was announced on December 9, 2008.
At least one station, then-affiliate WHDH-TV in Boston, Massachusetts, stated that it would not carry the program, claiming that Leno would be detrimental to the station's 11 pm news and that it would instead launch a local news program in the time slot. NBC said that such plans would amount to a flagrant violation of the network contract—a claim which WHDH disputed—and said that it would immediately remove its programming from WHDH if the station followed through with the plan. WHDH backed down on April 13, 2009, and announced that it would air Leno instead of the proposed program.
Though Leno was the first to move the entire five-day-a-week late night talk show to prime time, he was not the first Tonight alumnus to move from late night to a prime time talk show. Steve Allen hosted Tonight Starring Steve Allen from 1954 to 1957; while still hosting that show, he began hosting the prime-time The Steve Allen Show in 1956 on NBC, and the latter show would run until 1960. Jack Paar, who hosted Tonight from 1957 to 1962, next hosted a weekly talk show known as The Jack Paar Program that ran until 1965, also on NBC.
In January 2010, several news outlets reported that The Jay Leno Show would be shortened to 30 minutes and begin airing weeknights at 11:35 pm ET, with Conan O'Brien and Jimmy Fallon's shows following it beginning at 12:05 am. The scheduling change would have been implemented on February 28 after the 2010 Winter Olympics (which preempted much of NBC's primetime and late-night lineup). Leno himself commented on the rumors during his January 7 monologue, joking that NBC stands for "Never Believe your Contract." According to Broadcasting & Cable, "most [NBC affiliates] are hopeful Jay—and Conan—sticks with NBC, and most, if not all, desperately want to see a change in terms of the lead-in they're getting to their lucrative late news; the affiliates "remain fiercely loyal to Leno and were quick to say the rookie program's struggles don't reflect the funnyman's work ethic or comedic chops. 'This isn't about Jay's popularity,' says WJAR Providence VP/General Manager Lisa Churchville. 'This is about having that kind of show at 10 p.m.'"
NBC announced plans to move Leno to 11:35 pm and The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien to 12:05 am. O'Brien refused to participate in the move and, on January 21, 2010, reached an agreement with NBC allowing him to leave the network. Lenos final episode aired on February 9, 2010 and Leno returned to Tonight as host on March 1, 2010.
Content
The Jay Leno Show aired weeknights at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT (9:00 p.m. CT/MT) from Studio 11 of the NBC Studios in Burbank, California with the following format:
After brief opening credits, a monologue of eight to 12 minutes.
One celebrity guest, two at the most. The "car-themed" set adjusted to allow guests to get off the couch and participate in antics.
Musical segments appeared only twice a week, in the middle of the show, and sometimes featured multiple acts performing together.
Comedy segments were reserved for the last 15 minutes of the show, the only portion of the show where Leno sometimes used a desk. Toward the end of the four-month run certain comedy segments such as "Headlines" were moved up to airing right after Jay's monologue, as opposed to being reserved for the end of the show. They include:
"Headlines" and "Jaywalking", both from Tonight.
The "advertiser-friendly 'Green Car Challenge'". Two to three times each week, celebrities drove an electric Ford Focus and tried to set records on a 1,100-foot dedicated outdoor track. The segment was based on the "Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car" segment on the British automotive series Top Gear, which Leno had previously appeared on.
"Ten at Ten", "in which celebs and other newsmakers . . . answer a rapid-fire series of ten 'ridiculous, celebrity-based questions.' The ten at ten guest would not be in the studio, but would instead appear via satellite from some other location. When the off-site location was in the Central or Mountain Time Zones, the skit would be changed to 9 at 9 (since these time zones have all programming one hour earlier in their local time than the coastal time zones), which was the same except there would only be nine questions."
Comic "correspondents" such as D. L. Hughley, Dan Finnerty, Mikey Day, Rachael Harris, and Jim Norton did pretaped segments.
One planned segment, "Stories Not Good Enough for the NBC Nightly News" (which would have featured then-NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams), was dropped from the show before it made it to air.
In addition to reserving comedy segments for the end, the network aired no commercials after the show and "urged local affiliates to do the same" so local news could start immediately, retaining as many Leno viewers as possible.
Recurring segments
"Headlines" (Monday): Humorous print items sent in by viewers. These real-life headlines are usually headlines with typographical errors, or unintentionally inappropriate items. The segment usually starts out with a fake, humorous headline during the introduction for the segment.
"Jaywalking": A pre-taped segment, "Jaywalking" is a play on the host's name and the illegal practice of jaywalking. Leno asks people questions about current news and other topics in public areas around Los Angeles (usually Hollywood Boulevard, Melrose Avenue or Universal Studios). Most responses are outrageously incorrect; for example, one person believed that Abraham Lincoln was the first president, and another could not identify a picture of Hillary Clinton. Sometimes the questions are of the "What color is the White House?" level, such as asking in what country the Panama Canal is located. Up to 15 people are interviewed in an hour or less for each segment, with about nine interviews used on the air. A similar format was used for the game show Street Smarts.
JMZ: A parody of TMZ, a segment in which they report on fake celebrity news with such guest stars as Chuck Liddell.
Ten@Ten: Jay interviews a celebrity via satellite by asking them 10 questions. Some editions have only used 9 questions, calling it the "Nine@Nine" as a reference to the central or mountain time zone.
Green Car Challenge: A segment in which celebrities go in a car and try to be the fastest in a track with obstacles. Tim Allen had the best record time; Rush Limbaugh had the record worst time (though he did so on purpose), and Leno never tried.
Photo Booth: A pre-taped segment in which someone goes in a Photo Booth and something is amiss.
Stuff We Found on eBay: Leno brought up some of the oddest stuff that he and members of the studio audience had supposedly found while searching on eBay.
Ross the Intern: Ross Mathews, an intern for the show, is sent to participate in special events. As part of a running gag, Leno started introducing Ross as his illegitimate son.
First show
Jerry Seinfeld was the celebrity guest on the debut episode. Jay-Z, Rihanna, and Kanye West performed "Run This Town", in which all three are featured. West sat down for a previously unplanned interview with Leno, discussing West's outburst at the MTV Video Music Awards the previous night. Dan Finnerty was the comic correspondent for the night, and the end of the show featured Headlines.
Reviews for the first show ranged from neutral to negative, with most critics stating that the show was, despite the changes, still very similar to Tonight. Metacritic scores it at 48 out of 100 based on 23 TV critic reviews, and viewers scoring it at a 4.0 out of 10. Media Life described the show as "underwhelming" and felt that Leno "failed to rise to the occasion." The Buffalo News called the show "a mess." The Associated Press noted that "it's not a good sign when the Bud Light commercial is funnier than the comedy show it interrupts," and that "at least Rosie Live took some chances." Jonah Krakow of IGN gave it a 5.5/10 saying that "show felt like they just picked from where they left off three months ago, and I'm not sure that's a good thing".
Final show
The final Jay Leno Show aired on February 9, 2010. The guests were Ashton Kutcher, Gabourey Sidibe and Bob Costas, with unannounced visits from Donald Trump and Kurt Warner. Following the monologue, there was a brief clip reel of highlights from the show's short tenure; otherwise, little mention was made about the fact that it was the final episode of the program. The last moments of the show featured the program's "10 at 10" segment, with its celebrity guest being Bob Costas. When Leno asked Costas how it felt to be the show's final guest, the sportscaster replied, "Kind of like being involved in the last game of a Clippers season, isn't it?" Directly following the interview with Costas, Leno thanked him, told the audience to stay tuned for their local news, and then abruptly went off-air.
Many media outlets criticized Leno's apparent lack of ceremony for the end of his program.New York Times article: "Without Fanfare, Leno’s Prime-Time Show Ends". Variety reported that the lack of fanfare was intentional, as NBC was attempting to rehab the reputation of Leno and The Tonight Show and did not desire to bring any further attention to Leno's transition back to Tonight. The Associated Press noted that the last few weeks of the program, including the final episode, were pervaded by "bad vibes." The Boston Globe wrote that Leno said farewell to his short-lived show "with all the momentousness of a guy taking out the trash." The episode received negative reviews from Entertainment Weekly, the Los Angeles Times, and The Wall Street Journal. By comparison, O'Brien's final Tonight Show was treated as a finale, with guests making reference to the show ending and guest Neil Young taking an ironic tone by performing "Long May You Run".
Impact
Financial
Leno had a contract for five years for the show. NBC reportedly had an option to cancel after two years, but had committed to at least one or two years regardless of ratings, although later chose to end the show after less than five months. He could have earned up to $30 million each year depending on ratings for Leno, compared to a $20 million annual salary during his last years at Tonight.
NBC expected to benefit by offering an inexpensive comedic alternative to the procedurals ("100% more comedy and 98% fewer murders!") and other one-hour dramas that typically air at 10 pm, and by offering new episodes 46 weeks each year versus 22.Itzkoff, Dave. "NBC’s ‘Jay Leno Show’ Promises 98 Percent Fewer Murders" The New York Times, 2009-05-04. While Leno was not necessarily expected to be competitive with the higher-rated scripted shows on ABC and CBS in its time slot, its projected cost of production was far lower and thus it was expected to be profitable to the network, and product integration intended to make the show "as DVR-proof as you can be on television in this era". Each airing of Leno cost about $350,000 to $400,000 versus up to $3 million for an hour-long drama, saving NBC $13 million each week without the network needing the show to beat its competitors. Those costs include the services of 22 writers, whom Leno called the "top 5% of the highest-paid . . . in the Guild."
McDonald's became the first buying advertiser for the program, tying in their "Million Dollar Roll" nightly in October 2009 promoting that year's version of McDonald's Monopoly.
Ratings
Leno did not expect his show to beat competing first-run episodes, but to do better than reruns, in part because topical jokes benefit from the "immediacy" of the time slot versus 11:30 pm. A television analyst predicted that Leno would finish in "a safe third place" every night. NBC research before the show's debut indicated that fans of Leno would watch Leno two to three times a week.
NBC saw a 1.5 rating for the show in the 18–49 demographic as "viable" and a 1.8 as a "home run". NBC told Leno that at a 1.5 rating, NBC makes $300 million a year. Tonight at 11:30 pm earned about a 1.3 to 1.5; the television audience at 10 pm is 40% larger than at 11:30 pm, and the network hoped Leno'''s audience would also grow. Industry observers have cited a range of ratings, from 1.7 to 2,"Sternberg calls the fall: 'FlashForward,' 'Community' hit; 'Rivers,' 'Forgotten' miss" The Hollywood Reporter, 2009-08-14. as being necessary for the show to succeed at 10 pm. By comparison, 2.5 is generally necessary for a 10 pm drama to succeed; those that earned a 1.7 or less during the 2008–2009 season were generally cancelled. NBC's prime-time dramas averaged about 2 during 2008–2009.
The first episode of The Jay Leno Show earned "fast national" estimates of 17.7 million viewers, an 11 Nielsen rating (5.1 among persons 18–49) and an 18 share, significantly above both his Tonight finale and the debut of The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien in all categories. By the second week and competing against season premieres, the audience fell to six million viewers, still on par with or exceeding NBC projections. As of November 1, 2009, The Jay Leno Show has averaged a 1.98 in the adults 18–49 ratings and 6.594 million viewers. During the week before Christmas, the ratings dropped to 1.4 during the week. Prior to the controversy regarding the move of the Jay Leno Show to 11:35 p.m., viewership bottomed out at 4.799 million viewers, although there was a slight bump as word of the controversy broke.
Though the show itself had been meeting the network's projections, it was severely detrimental to the ratings of the late local news on NBC affiliates. As originally feared by WHDH in Boston, several stations across the country saw what was known as the "Leno Effect", where the lower audience for Leno (as compared to NBC's scripted prime time offerings) translated directly into a domino effect of severe audience drops for late local news (on the order of 25–30%) and completely stunted NBC's past successful schedule hammocking strategies, effects that NBC had underestimated.
Dispute over timeslot
In early January 2010, multiple media outlets reported that, following the 2010 Winter Olympics, The Jay Leno Show would be shortened to 30 minutes and begin airing weeknights at 11:35 pm ET, with Conan O'Brien and Jimmy Fallon's shows following it beginning at 12:05 am on March 1, 2010. On January 10, NBC Universal Television Entertainment Chairman Jeff Gaspin confirmed that The Jay Leno Show would indeed move to 11:35.
Leno immediately accepted the return to 11:35 p.m., calling the move "all business." He had made it known in the press in November 2009 that he wished to return to his old timeslot; behind the scenes, Leno had privately indicated that he did not believe the 10:00 experiment would work. On the other hand, O'Brien's contract stipulated that the network could move the show back to 12:05 a.m. without penalty, a loophole put in primarily to accommodate sports preemptions, the network's traditional nightly Wimbledon tournament highlights show, and specials such as New Year's Eve with Carson Daly.
O'Brien did not seriously respond for several days after the announcement, then drafted a press release explaining why he felt it was unfair to him, his staff, Fallon, and the legacy of The Tonight Show to move the show past midnight. He concluded by saying that he "cannot participate in what I honestly believe is [The Tonight Shows] destruction."Huffington Post article: "Conan O'Brien Statement: I Will Not Follow Jay At 12:05". O'Brien received an outpouring of celebrity and viewer support for rejecting the move, while Leno received heavy criticism.Huffington Post article: "Patton Oswalt: Jay Leno Is Like Nixon, I Don't Like Him". On January 21, O'Brien signed a $45 million deal allowing him to leave the network, and aired his final episode of Tonight on January 22; Leno returned as host of Tonight on March 1.
Settlement
On January 19, 2010, multiple media outlets reported that O'Brien and NBC were close to signing a deal between $30 and $40 million for the host to walk away from the network.New York Post article: "NBC near deal to allow Conan to leave network". One apparent sticking point in the negotiations was the amount his staff and crew were to be paid for leaving the program.Chicago Sun Times article: "Conan negotiations stuck on staff, Triumph ". Reports also said that the contract could prohibit O'Brien from badmouthing NBC in any way, and that he may be able to return to television as early as September 2010.
On January 21, after two weeks of negotiations, it was announced that Conan O'Brien had signed a $45 million deal to leave NBC. The Wall Street Journal reports that O'Brien will receive about $32 million, with his staff receiving around $12 million. The contract contains a clause prohibiting O'Brien from making negative remarks about NBC for a certain amount of time; it does not, however, contain the previously rumored "mitigation clause," in which NBC would be able to keep some of the severance pay after O'Brien finds a new program. It also stipulates that he could have returned to television as early as September 1, 2010. The network confirmed that Leno would officially resume as host of The Tonight Show on March 1. TMZ reported that NBC would rerun episodes from O'Brien's time as host until the network began airing the Olympics on February 12.
O'Brien later reached a deal with cable network TBS to premiere a new late-night talk show, Conan.
Industry impact
NBC became the first large United States network to broadcast the same show every weekday during prime time since ABC's Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? marathons in 1999 and only the second since DuMont aired Captain Video and His Video Rangers from 1949 to 1955. More recently, the upstart MyNetwork TV had attempted, upon its launch in 2006, to air the same telenovelas every night of the week, a programming strategy that proved to be very unsuccessful. NBC's executives called the decision "a transformational moment in the history of broadcasting" and "in effect, launching five shows." An industry observer said that Leno, "in all my years, is the biggest risk a network has ever taken." According to former NBC president Fred Silverman, "If the Leno Show works, it will be the most significant thing to happen in broadcast television in the last decade."
Although NBC had not developed a new hit show at 10 pm in years, industry executives criticized the network for abandoning a history of airing quality dramas at that hour such as Hill Street Blues, St. Elsewhere, and ER, which made NBC "the gold standard for sophisticated programming . . . the No. 1 network for affluent and well-educated young viewers" during the 1980s and 1990s. In addition, critics predicted that the decision would hurt NBC by undermining a reputation built on successful scripted shows. Other networks believed NBC's decision created an opportunity, and planned their 2009–2010 schedules accordingly. For example, the show competed with The Mentalist, CSI: Miami, CSI: NY, and Numb3rs, four of television's most popular series, on CBS (the first of those four series was moved to 10:00 PM to directly compete with Leno's show, and significantly improved the ratings for that timeslot compared to its predecessor). Leno was also not easily sold overseas.
The January 29, 2010 issue of Entertainment Weekly listed the show at the top of a list of the 50 Biggest Bombs in television history. The comment made by the network executives about "launching five shows" was ultimately transformed into the joke that its removal was like "cancelling five shows." TV Guide similarly listed the show as the biggest blunder in television history in its November 1, 2010 edition.
Boycott by competing networks
Rival networks ABC and CBS had discouraged "their stars" from appearing on The Jay Leno Show in its primetime slot. Julia Louis-Dreyfus (The New Adventures of Old Christine) was the first CBS actor to appear on the show, on September 29, 2009; on that episode, she said "there was a little pressure, because as you know you are now on prime time", but that "Obviously, I committed to doing your show and we’re friends". This boycott did not affect The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien nor was it industry-wide. Other TV networks, like Fox, The CW, and HBO, were more encouraging. Hugh Laurie from the Fox TV show House was a guest on the September 25, 2009, telecast. House is produced by Universal Media Studios, a sister company to NBC through NBC Universal, and Fox does not offer any network programming in the 10 p.m. time slots, instead allowing most of its affiliates to go to local news.
In a Broadcasting & Cable interview published in early November 2009, Leno mentioned the boycott again, saying "I'm flattered; like ABC and CBS...none of their stars can appear on the show. What are you so afraid of if we're doing so terrible? It's all part of the game."
Labor union impact
John Wells, the president of the Writers Guild of America, West, and executive producer of prominent NBC shows ER and The West Wing, said, "I wish NBC and Jay Leno well; personally, he's a very nice guy, but I hope he falls flat on his face and we get five dramas back."
Website dispute
In 2004, Guadalupe Zambrano, a Texas real estate agent, registered the domain name thejaylenoshow.com to redirect to his real estate business. After the Leno announcement, Leno accused Zambrano of cybersquatting. Zambrano contended that he had owned the domain for five years, well before the announcement, thus precluding recovery. The UDRP proceedings ruled in favor of Leno, however, stating that Zambrano profited from the value of the Jay Leno trademark in bad faith.
International broadcasting
In Australia, The Comedy Channel on Pay TV aired the show on a same-day turn around Weeknights at 7.30pm AEST. Free-to-air channel 7Two also aired the program at 6.00pm usually on a 30-hour delay. It moved to middays on January 18, 2010 but ran until September 24, 2010 when 7TWO changed the format to a Best-of British oriented channel following the launch of sister HD channel 7mate.
In Canada, Citytv simulcast Leno with NBC during the 2009–2010 season, requesting simultaneous substitution where applicable.
In Portugal, SIC Mulher aired the show Monday and Tuesday at 00.30am.
In Israel, yes stars Comedy aired the show Sundays-Thursdays at 8.00pm.
In Finland, The Jay Leno Show aired on MTV3 MAX on weeknights; because of subtitling, the episodes were shown three days after their US broadcast.
In Sweden, The Jay Leno Show aired on Kanal 9 on weeknights. Episodes were broadcast one week after their original US airing.
Westwood One provided audio of the monologue as a short-form feature, under the title Last Night on The Jay Leno Show, to radio stations in the United States and Canada, replacing the discontinued Jimmy Kimmel Live!'' feature.
See also
List of television shows considered the worst
References
External links
2000s American late-night television series
2010s American late-night television series
2000s American variety television series
2010s American variety television series
2009 American television series debuts
2010 American television series endings
American television talk shows
Burbank, California
NBC original programming
Jay Leno
English-language television shows
Television shows filmed in California | false | [
"Conan the Rogue is a fantasy novel written by John Maddox Roberts featuring Robert E. Howard's sword and sorcery hero Conan the Barbarian. It was first published in trade paperback by Tor Books in November 1991; a regular paperback edition followed from the same publisher in August 1992, and was reprinted in January 1999.\n\nPlot\nAfter quelling a revolt in Nemedia, Conan loses everything except for his sword while gambling at a tavern. A man follows Conan out of the tavern, before hiring him to obtain a mysterious and valuable relic. Outfitting himself with the initial payment, Conan travels to the city of Sicas in Aquilonia. Once renowned for its silver mines but now a den of iniquity, more travelers are said to leave Sicas \"by the river, floating\" than through the gates. Along the way, he rescues a woman searching for her missing sister, said to have gone into the same place.\n\nSicas turns out to be in the midst of a conflict between numerous contenders for control, most notably the king's corrupt servants, five different gangs, and a religious cult. Conan feels right at home, and plunges into the struggle. Various intrigues and betrayals follow in rapid succession, centering on the object he has been commissioned to recover, which is revealed to be a potent magical artifact. The rising tension in Sicas results in an all out major brawl near the middle of town between local gangs and various power players. In contrast to most of the players, Conan emerges from Sicas ahead of the game, passing by royal forces en route to restore order in the city. When questioned as to how he did it, he responds: \"That was a town of rogues, my friend, and I am the greatest rogue of all.\"\n\nAt the end, with some new comrades, Conan travels into Tarantia as he hears news of a civil war brewing in Aquilonia.\n\nReception\nDon D'Ammassa, writing of Roberts' Conan novels, noted that \"[a]lthough Roberts did not recreate Howard's character exactly, making him more intellectual and less inclined to solve every problem by hitting it with a sword, his evocation of the barbaric setting is superior to that of most of the other writers contributing to the series. Conan the Marauder (1987) and Conan the Rogue (1991) are the best of the set.\" Of this novel he writes \"[t]he plot is a conscious mashup of The Maltese Falcon and A Fistful of Dollars\" that \"works out ... in an amusing and interesting manner..\"\n\nWriting of some other Tor Conan novels, reviewer Harvey Ryan called Roberts \"the most consistently successful of its stable of authors,\" and \"the most consistently entertaining\" of them, showing \"deft ability with storytelling and action scenes, and a thankful tendency not to overplay his hand and try to ape Robert E. Howard's style.\"\n\nNotes\n\nReferences\nFantastic Fiction entry for Conan the Rogue\n\n1991 American novels\n1991 fantasy novels\nConan the Barbarian novels\nAmerican fantasy novels\nTor Books books",
"Conan and the Treasure of Python is a fantasy novel by American writer John Maddox Roberts, featuring Robert E. Howard's sword and sorcery hero Conan the Barbarian. It was first published in trade paperback by Tor Books in November 1993; a regular paperback edition followed from the same publisher in August 1994.\n\nPlot\nIn Asgalun, Conan is hired to lead a scouting party into Kush by a man whose brother has vanished while in search of a legendary treasure. Conan agrees with the proposal, though their project is almost derailed from the beginning in an attack by corsairs. In Kush, the expedition is joined by Goma, a mysterious native who serves as their guide. Various perils in their quest for the fabled treasure ensue, including a journey across an arid desert. Finally, Conan's party discover a secret kingdom and are imprisoned within the dungeon of an evil warlord. Soon, their guide reveals himself as the kingdom's rightful monarch. Goma explains how he was overthrown by a tyrant with the aid of a witch doctor. A battle must be won and a fearsome lake monster faced before all can be resolved.\n\nReception\nDon D'Ammassa, writing of Roberts' Conan novels, noted that \"[a]lthough Roberts did not recreate Howard's character exactly, making him more intellectual and less inclined to solve every problem by hitting it with a sword, his evocation of the barbaric setting is superior to that of most of the other writers contributing to the series.\" This novel, he writes, \"is a rewrite of Haggard's King Solomon's Mines with the characters shuffled around a bit but with essentially the same plot. ... It's an effective adaptation of a classic story although Conan seems considerably more laid back than usual – not surprising since he's Allan Quatermain.\"\n\nReviewer Ryan Harvey considered the book \"one of the most interesting of the Tor novels,\" and the writer \"the most consistently successful of its stable of authors,\" while also noting that \"this novel is literally King Solomon's Mines ... Roberts copies the exact plot of the classic H. Rider Haggard 1885 adventure novel and recasts it as a Conan story, with the legendary barbarian starring in the Allan Quatermain role.\"\n\nNotes\n\nReferences\nFantastic Fiction entry for Conan and the Treasure of Python\n\n1993 American novels\n1993 fantasy novels\nConan the Barbarian novels\nAmerican fantasy novels\nTor Books books"
]
|
[
"The Jay Leno Show",
"Dispute over timeslot",
"What was the timeslot Jay Leno was in?",
"11:35",
"What other show was the dispute over?",
"Conan O'Brien",
"When did the dispute happen?",
"2010",
"Why was there a dispute over the 11:35 time?",
"\" He had made it known in the press in November 2009 that he wished to return to his old timeslot;",
"How did Conan react?",
"\"cannot participate in what I honestly believe is [The Tonight Show's] destruction.\""
]
| C_faa2e2423bbc407e89b705466c82df48_1 | Did he get the old timeslot back? | 6 | Did Jay Leno get the old timeslot back? | The Jay Leno Show | In early January 2010, multiple media outlets reported that, following the 2010 Winter Olympics, The Jay Leno Show would be shortened to 30 minutes and begin airing weeknights at 11:35 pm ET, with Conan O'Brien and Jimmy Fallon's shows following it beginning at 12:05 am on March 1, 2010. On January 10, NBC Universal Television Entertainment Chairman Jeff Gaspin confirmed that The Jay Leno Show would indeed move to 11:35. Leno immediately accepted the return to 11:35 p.m., calling the move "all business." He had made it known in the press in November 2009 that he wished to return to his old timeslot; behind the scenes, Leno had privately indicated that he did not believe the 10:00 experiment would work. On the other hand, O'Brien's contract stipulated that the network could move the show back to 12:05 a.m. without penalty, a loophole put in primarily to accommodate sports preemptions, the network's traditional nightly Wimbledon tournament highlights show, and specials such as New Year's Eve with Carson Daly. O'Brien did not seriously respond for several days after the announcement, then drafted a press release explaining why he felt it was unfair to him, his staff, Fallon, and the legacy of The Tonight Show to move the show past midnight. He concluded by saying that he "cannot participate in what I honestly believe is [The Tonight Show's] destruction." O'Brien received an outpouring of celebrity and viewer support for rejecting the move, while Leno received heavy criticism. On January 21, O'Brien signed a $45 million deal allowing him to leave the network, and aired his final episode of Tonight on January 22; Leno returned as host of Tonight on March 1. CANNOTANSWER | criticism. On January 21, O'Brien signed a $45 million deal allowing him to leave the network, | The Jay Leno Show is a talk show created and hosted by Jay Leno. Premiering on NBC on September 14, 2009, the program aired on weeknights at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT through February 9, 2010. The program was modeled upon the format of a late night talk show—specifically, Jay Leno's incarnation of The Tonight Show, opening with a comedic monologue, followed by interviews with celebrity guests and other comedy segments. Sketches from The Tonight Show (including Headlines and Jaywalking) were carried over to The Jay Leno Show, along with new sketches.
The program was the result of a compromise by NBC Universal's then-CEO Jeff Zucker to keep Jay Leno with the company following his retirement from The Tonight Show and replacement with Conan O'Brien. The Jay Leno Show was also intended to provide NBC with an alternative to the high-cost scripted dramas aired by competing networks in its time slot; the network believed that the lower cost of production, in combination with product placement deals, meant that the program did not necessarily have to be highly viewed in order to turn a profit. NBC hoped to attract Leno's existing fans, as well as a larger primetime audience than that of his late-night program.
The Jay Leno Show was met with mixed reception from critics, who felt that the series had little differentiation from Leno's Tonight Show. Others were critical of NBC's decision to give up an hour of its weeknight lineup to Leno, due to the network's past success with dramas airing in the time slot, while one NBC affiliate (WHDH in Boston owned by Sunbeam Television, now independent) notably planned not to air the show at all, although this decision was retracted due to complaints by the network. Although viewership of The Jay Leno Show was initially on par with NBC's projections, by November, the program's ratings began to fall significantly. NBC's affiliates complained that the declining viewership of The Jay Leno Show also had a ripple effect on the viewership of their late local newscasts.
In an effort to address the concerns, NBC announced in January 2010 that it would, following the 2010 Winter Olympics, shorten The Jay Leno Show to a half-hour, and move it to 11:35 p.m—the timeslot that had been occupied by The Tonight Show for nearly 60 years, and bump Tonight to 12:05 a.m. The decision resulted in a major public conflict between the network and Conan O'Brien, who asserted that the move would damage the highly respected Tonight Show franchise, and that he would not participate in the program if it were moved to 12:05. Despite much support for O'Brien from both the public and media professionals alike, NBC maintained its plan to move Leno to 11:35.
On January 21, 2010, NBC reached a $45 million settlement with O'Brien in order to end his contract. The Jay Leno Show ended on February 9, 2010, after being on the air for only four months, with Entertainment Weekly calling the program television's "Biggest Bomb of All Time." Leno resumed his duties as host of The Tonight Show on March 1, 2010, for his second and final stint that lasted until his February 2014 succession by Jimmy Fallon.
History
NBC announced in 2004 that Jay Leno would leave The Tonight Show in 2009, with Conan O'Brien as his replacement. Leno—who wanted to avoid a repeat of the acrimonious transition when he inherited Tonight from Johnny Carson—said at the announcement, "You can do these things until they carry you out on a stretcher, or you can get out when you’re still doing good." He began to regret his decision to retire in 2007, and several networks and studios including ABC, Fox, Sony, and Tribune expressed interest in his services after leaving Tonight.
Jeff Zucker, then-President and CEO of NBCUniversal, sought to keep Leno from defecting to a competitor. Leno rejected several NBC offers for broadcast network daytime slots or subscription TV slots, a series of recurring specials, and a half-hour show at 8 pm five nights a week featuring Leno's Tonight monologue. The network had in 1981 considered moving The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson to 10 pm; Zucker, who in 2007 offered Oprah Winfrey an hour five nights a week at 8 pm, now offered Leno an hour five nights a week at 10 pm. Leno was announced on December 9, 2008.
At least one station, then-affiliate WHDH-TV in Boston, Massachusetts, stated that it would not carry the program, claiming that Leno would be detrimental to the station's 11 pm news and that it would instead launch a local news program in the time slot. NBC said that such plans would amount to a flagrant violation of the network contract—a claim which WHDH disputed—and said that it would immediately remove its programming from WHDH if the station followed through with the plan. WHDH backed down on April 13, 2009, and announced that it would air Leno instead of the proposed program.
Though Leno was the first to move the entire five-day-a-week late night talk show to prime time, he was not the first Tonight alumnus to move from late night to a prime time talk show. Steve Allen hosted Tonight Starring Steve Allen from 1954 to 1957; while still hosting that show, he began hosting the prime-time The Steve Allen Show in 1956 on NBC, and the latter show would run until 1960. Jack Paar, who hosted Tonight from 1957 to 1962, next hosted a weekly talk show known as The Jack Paar Program that ran until 1965, also on NBC.
In January 2010, several news outlets reported that The Jay Leno Show would be shortened to 30 minutes and begin airing weeknights at 11:35 pm ET, with Conan O'Brien and Jimmy Fallon's shows following it beginning at 12:05 am. The scheduling change would have been implemented on February 28 after the 2010 Winter Olympics (which preempted much of NBC's primetime and late-night lineup). Leno himself commented on the rumors during his January 7 monologue, joking that NBC stands for "Never Believe your Contract." According to Broadcasting & Cable, "most [NBC affiliates] are hopeful Jay—and Conan—sticks with NBC, and most, if not all, desperately want to see a change in terms of the lead-in they're getting to their lucrative late news; the affiliates "remain fiercely loyal to Leno and were quick to say the rookie program's struggles don't reflect the funnyman's work ethic or comedic chops. 'This isn't about Jay's popularity,' says WJAR Providence VP/General Manager Lisa Churchville. 'This is about having that kind of show at 10 p.m.'"
NBC announced plans to move Leno to 11:35 pm and The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien to 12:05 am. O'Brien refused to participate in the move and, on January 21, 2010, reached an agreement with NBC allowing him to leave the network. Lenos final episode aired on February 9, 2010 and Leno returned to Tonight as host on March 1, 2010.
Content
The Jay Leno Show aired weeknights at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT (9:00 p.m. CT/MT) from Studio 11 of the NBC Studios in Burbank, California with the following format:
After brief opening credits, a monologue of eight to 12 minutes.
One celebrity guest, two at the most. The "car-themed" set adjusted to allow guests to get off the couch and participate in antics.
Musical segments appeared only twice a week, in the middle of the show, and sometimes featured multiple acts performing together.
Comedy segments were reserved for the last 15 minutes of the show, the only portion of the show where Leno sometimes used a desk. Toward the end of the four-month run certain comedy segments such as "Headlines" were moved up to airing right after Jay's monologue, as opposed to being reserved for the end of the show. They include:
"Headlines" and "Jaywalking", both from Tonight.
The "advertiser-friendly 'Green Car Challenge'". Two to three times each week, celebrities drove an electric Ford Focus and tried to set records on a 1,100-foot dedicated outdoor track. The segment was based on the "Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car" segment on the British automotive series Top Gear, which Leno had previously appeared on.
"Ten at Ten", "in which celebs and other newsmakers . . . answer a rapid-fire series of ten 'ridiculous, celebrity-based questions.' The ten at ten guest would not be in the studio, but would instead appear via satellite from some other location. When the off-site location was in the Central or Mountain Time Zones, the skit would be changed to 9 at 9 (since these time zones have all programming one hour earlier in their local time than the coastal time zones), which was the same except there would only be nine questions."
Comic "correspondents" such as D. L. Hughley, Dan Finnerty, Mikey Day, Rachael Harris, and Jim Norton did pretaped segments.
One planned segment, "Stories Not Good Enough for the NBC Nightly News" (which would have featured then-NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams), was dropped from the show before it made it to air.
In addition to reserving comedy segments for the end, the network aired no commercials after the show and "urged local affiliates to do the same" so local news could start immediately, retaining as many Leno viewers as possible.
Recurring segments
"Headlines" (Monday): Humorous print items sent in by viewers. These real-life headlines are usually headlines with typographical errors, or unintentionally inappropriate items. The segment usually starts out with a fake, humorous headline during the introduction for the segment.
"Jaywalking": A pre-taped segment, "Jaywalking" is a play on the host's name and the illegal practice of jaywalking. Leno asks people questions about current news and other topics in public areas around Los Angeles (usually Hollywood Boulevard, Melrose Avenue or Universal Studios). Most responses are outrageously incorrect; for example, one person believed that Abraham Lincoln was the first president, and another could not identify a picture of Hillary Clinton. Sometimes the questions are of the "What color is the White House?" level, such as asking in what country the Panama Canal is located. Up to 15 people are interviewed in an hour or less for each segment, with about nine interviews used on the air. A similar format was used for the game show Street Smarts.
JMZ: A parody of TMZ, a segment in which they report on fake celebrity news with such guest stars as Chuck Liddell.
Ten@Ten: Jay interviews a celebrity via satellite by asking them 10 questions. Some editions have only used 9 questions, calling it the "Nine@Nine" as a reference to the central or mountain time zone.
Green Car Challenge: A segment in which celebrities go in a car and try to be the fastest in a track with obstacles. Tim Allen had the best record time; Rush Limbaugh had the record worst time (though he did so on purpose), and Leno never tried.
Photo Booth: A pre-taped segment in which someone goes in a Photo Booth and something is amiss.
Stuff We Found on eBay: Leno brought up some of the oddest stuff that he and members of the studio audience had supposedly found while searching on eBay.
Ross the Intern: Ross Mathews, an intern for the show, is sent to participate in special events. As part of a running gag, Leno started introducing Ross as his illegitimate son.
First show
Jerry Seinfeld was the celebrity guest on the debut episode. Jay-Z, Rihanna, and Kanye West performed "Run This Town", in which all three are featured. West sat down for a previously unplanned interview with Leno, discussing West's outburst at the MTV Video Music Awards the previous night. Dan Finnerty was the comic correspondent for the night, and the end of the show featured Headlines.
Reviews for the first show ranged from neutral to negative, with most critics stating that the show was, despite the changes, still very similar to Tonight. Metacritic scores it at 48 out of 100 based on 23 TV critic reviews, and viewers scoring it at a 4.0 out of 10. Media Life described the show as "underwhelming" and felt that Leno "failed to rise to the occasion." The Buffalo News called the show "a mess." The Associated Press noted that "it's not a good sign when the Bud Light commercial is funnier than the comedy show it interrupts," and that "at least Rosie Live took some chances." Jonah Krakow of IGN gave it a 5.5/10 saying that "show felt like they just picked from where they left off three months ago, and I'm not sure that's a good thing".
Final show
The final Jay Leno Show aired on February 9, 2010. The guests were Ashton Kutcher, Gabourey Sidibe and Bob Costas, with unannounced visits from Donald Trump and Kurt Warner. Following the monologue, there was a brief clip reel of highlights from the show's short tenure; otherwise, little mention was made about the fact that it was the final episode of the program. The last moments of the show featured the program's "10 at 10" segment, with its celebrity guest being Bob Costas. When Leno asked Costas how it felt to be the show's final guest, the sportscaster replied, "Kind of like being involved in the last game of a Clippers season, isn't it?" Directly following the interview with Costas, Leno thanked him, told the audience to stay tuned for their local news, and then abruptly went off-air.
Many media outlets criticized Leno's apparent lack of ceremony for the end of his program.New York Times article: "Without Fanfare, Leno’s Prime-Time Show Ends". Variety reported that the lack of fanfare was intentional, as NBC was attempting to rehab the reputation of Leno and The Tonight Show and did not desire to bring any further attention to Leno's transition back to Tonight. The Associated Press noted that the last few weeks of the program, including the final episode, were pervaded by "bad vibes." The Boston Globe wrote that Leno said farewell to his short-lived show "with all the momentousness of a guy taking out the trash." The episode received negative reviews from Entertainment Weekly, the Los Angeles Times, and The Wall Street Journal. By comparison, O'Brien's final Tonight Show was treated as a finale, with guests making reference to the show ending and guest Neil Young taking an ironic tone by performing "Long May You Run".
Impact
Financial
Leno had a contract for five years for the show. NBC reportedly had an option to cancel after two years, but had committed to at least one or two years regardless of ratings, although later chose to end the show after less than five months. He could have earned up to $30 million each year depending on ratings for Leno, compared to a $20 million annual salary during his last years at Tonight.
NBC expected to benefit by offering an inexpensive comedic alternative to the procedurals ("100% more comedy and 98% fewer murders!") and other one-hour dramas that typically air at 10 pm, and by offering new episodes 46 weeks each year versus 22.Itzkoff, Dave. "NBC’s ‘Jay Leno Show’ Promises 98 Percent Fewer Murders" The New York Times, 2009-05-04. While Leno was not necessarily expected to be competitive with the higher-rated scripted shows on ABC and CBS in its time slot, its projected cost of production was far lower and thus it was expected to be profitable to the network, and product integration intended to make the show "as DVR-proof as you can be on television in this era". Each airing of Leno cost about $350,000 to $400,000 versus up to $3 million for an hour-long drama, saving NBC $13 million each week without the network needing the show to beat its competitors. Those costs include the services of 22 writers, whom Leno called the "top 5% of the highest-paid . . . in the Guild."
McDonald's became the first buying advertiser for the program, tying in their "Million Dollar Roll" nightly in October 2009 promoting that year's version of McDonald's Monopoly.
Ratings
Leno did not expect his show to beat competing first-run episodes, but to do better than reruns, in part because topical jokes benefit from the "immediacy" of the time slot versus 11:30 pm. A television analyst predicted that Leno would finish in "a safe third place" every night. NBC research before the show's debut indicated that fans of Leno would watch Leno two to three times a week.
NBC saw a 1.5 rating for the show in the 18–49 demographic as "viable" and a 1.8 as a "home run". NBC told Leno that at a 1.5 rating, NBC makes $300 million a year. Tonight at 11:30 pm earned about a 1.3 to 1.5; the television audience at 10 pm is 40% larger than at 11:30 pm, and the network hoped Leno'''s audience would also grow. Industry observers have cited a range of ratings, from 1.7 to 2,"Sternberg calls the fall: 'FlashForward,' 'Community' hit; 'Rivers,' 'Forgotten' miss" The Hollywood Reporter, 2009-08-14. as being necessary for the show to succeed at 10 pm. By comparison, 2.5 is generally necessary for a 10 pm drama to succeed; those that earned a 1.7 or less during the 2008–2009 season were generally cancelled. NBC's prime-time dramas averaged about 2 during 2008–2009.
The first episode of The Jay Leno Show earned "fast national" estimates of 17.7 million viewers, an 11 Nielsen rating (5.1 among persons 18–49) and an 18 share, significantly above both his Tonight finale and the debut of The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien in all categories. By the second week and competing against season premieres, the audience fell to six million viewers, still on par with or exceeding NBC projections. As of November 1, 2009, The Jay Leno Show has averaged a 1.98 in the adults 18–49 ratings and 6.594 million viewers. During the week before Christmas, the ratings dropped to 1.4 during the week. Prior to the controversy regarding the move of the Jay Leno Show to 11:35 p.m., viewership bottomed out at 4.799 million viewers, although there was a slight bump as word of the controversy broke.
Though the show itself had been meeting the network's projections, it was severely detrimental to the ratings of the late local news on NBC affiliates. As originally feared by WHDH in Boston, several stations across the country saw what was known as the "Leno Effect", where the lower audience for Leno (as compared to NBC's scripted prime time offerings) translated directly into a domino effect of severe audience drops for late local news (on the order of 25–30%) and completely stunted NBC's past successful schedule hammocking strategies, effects that NBC had underestimated.
Dispute over timeslot
In early January 2010, multiple media outlets reported that, following the 2010 Winter Olympics, The Jay Leno Show would be shortened to 30 minutes and begin airing weeknights at 11:35 pm ET, with Conan O'Brien and Jimmy Fallon's shows following it beginning at 12:05 am on March 1, 2010. On January 10, NBC Universal Television Entertainment Chairman Jeff Gaspin confirmed that The Jay Leno Show would indeed move to 11:35.
Leno immediately accepted the return to 11:35 p.m., calling the move "all business." He had made it known in the press in November 2009 that he wished to return to his old timeslot; behind the scenes, Leno had privately indicated that he did not believe the 10:00 experiment would work. On the other hand, O'Brien's contract stipulated that the network could move the show back to 12:05 a.m. without penalty, a loophole put in primarily to accommodate sports preemptions, the network's traditional nightly Wimbledon tournament highlights show, and specials such as New Year's Eve with Carson Daly.
O'Brien did not seriously respond for several days after the announcement, then drafted a press release explaining why he felt it was unfair to him, his staff, Fallon, and the legacy of The Tonight Show to move the show past midnight. He concluded by saying that he "cannot participate in what I honestly believe is [The Tonight Shows] destruction."Huffington Post article: "Conan O'Brien Statement: I Will Not Follow Jay At 12:05". O'Brien received an outpouring of celebrity and viewer support for rejecting the move, while Leno received heavy criticism.Huffington Post article: "Patton Oswalt: Jay Leno Is Like Nixon, I Don't Like Him". On January 21, O'Brien signed a $45 million deal allowing him to leave the network, and aired his final episode of Tonight on January 22; Leno returned as host of Tonight on March 1.
Settlement
On January 19, 2010, multiple media outlets reported that O'Brien and NBC were close to signing a deal between $30 and $40 million for the host to walk away from the network.New York Post article: "NBC near deal to allow Conan to leave network". One apparent sticking point in the negotiations was the amount his staff and crew were to be paid for leaving the program.Chicago Sun Times article: "Conan negotiations stuck on staff, Triumph ". Reports also said that the contract could prohibit O'Brien from badmouthing NBC in any way, and that he may be able to return to television as early as September 2010.
On January 21, after two weeks of negotiations, it was announced that Conan O'Brien had signed a $45 million deal to leave NBC. The Wall Street Journal reports that O'Brien will receive about $32 million, with his staff receiving around $12 million. The contract contains a clause prohibiting O'Brien from making negative remarks about NBC for a certain amount of time; it does not, however, contain the previously rumored "mitigation clause," in which NBC would be able to keep some of the severance pay after O'Brien finds a new program. It also stipulates that he could have returned to television as early as September 1, 2010. The network confirmed that Leno would officially resume as host of The Tonight Show on March 1. TMZ reported that NBC would rerun episodes from O'Brien's time as host until the network began airing the Olympics on February 12.
O'Brien later reached a deal with cable network TBS to premiere a new late-night talk show, Conan.
Industry impact
NBC became the first large United States network to broadcast the same show every weekday during prime time since ABC's Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? marathons in 1999 and only the second since DuMont aired Captain Video and His Video Rangers from 1949 to 1955. More recently, the upstart MyNetwork TV had attempted, upon its launch in 2006, to air the same telenovelas every night of the week, a programming strategy that proved to be very unsuccessful. NBC's executives called the decision "a transformational moment in the history of broadcasting" and "in effect, launching five shows." An industry observer said that Leno, "in all my years, is the biggest risk a network has ever taken." According to former NBC president Fred Silverman, "If the Leno Show works, it will be the most significant thing to happen in broadcast television in the last decade."
Although NBC had not developed a new hit show at 10 pm in years, industry executives criticized the network for abandoning a history of airing quality dramas at that hour such as Hill Street Blues, St. Elsewhere, and ER, which made NBC "the gold standard for sophisticated programming . . . the No. 1 network for affluent and well-educated young viewers" during the 1980s and 1990s. In addition, critics predicted that the decision would hurt NBC by undermining a reputation built on successful scripted shows. Other networks believed NBC's decision created an opportunity, and planned their 2009–2010 schedules accordingly. For example, the show competed with The Mentalist, CSI: Miami, CSI: NY, and Numb3rs, four of television's most popular series, on CBS (the first of those four series was moved to 10:00 PM to directly compete with Leno's show, and significantly improved the ratings for that timeslot compared to its predecessor). Leno was also not easily sold overseas.
The January 29, 2010 issue of Entertainment Weekly listed the show at the top of a list of the 50 Biggest Bombs in television history. The comment made by the network executives about "launching five shows" was ultimately transformed into the joke that its removal was like "cancelling five shows." TV Guide similarly listed the show as the biggest blunder in television history in its November 1, 2010 edition.
Boycott by competing networks
Rival networks ABC and CBS had discouraged "their stars" from appearing on The Jay Leno Show in its primetime slot. Julia Louis-Dreyfus (The New Adventures of Old Christine) was the first CBS actor to appear on the show, on September 29, 2009; on that episode, she said "there was a little pressure, because as you know you are now on prime time", but that "Obviously, I committed to doing your show and we’re friends". This boycott did not affect The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien nor was it industry-wide. Other TV networks, like Fox, The CW, and HBO, were more encouraging. Hugh Laurie from the Fox TV show House was a guest on the September 25, 2009, telecast. House is produced by Universal Media Studios, a sister company to NBC through NBC Universal, and Fox does not offer any network programming in the 10 p.m. time slots, instead allowing most of its affiliates to go to local news.
In a Broadcasting & Cable interview published in early November 2009, Leno mentioned the boycott again, saying "I'm flattered; like ABC and CBS...none of their stars can appear on the show. What are you so afraid of if we're doing so terrible? It's all part of the game."
Labor union impact
John Wells, the president of the Writers Guild of America, West, and executive producer of prominent NBC shows ER and The West Wing, said, "I wish NBC and Jay Leno well; personally, he's a very nice guy, but I hope he falls flat on his face and we get five dramas back."
Website dispute
In 2004, Guadalupe Zambrano, a Texas real estate agent, registered the domain name thejaylenoshow.com to redirect to his real estate business. After the Leno announcement, Leno accused Zambrano of cybersquatting. Zambrano contended that he had owned the domain for five years, well before the announcement, thus precluding recovery. The UDRP proceedings ruled in favor of Leno, however, stating that Zambrano profited from the value of the Jay Leno trademark in bad faith.
International broadcasting
In Australia, The Comedy Channel on Pay TV aired the show on a same-day turn around Weeknights at 7.30pm AEST. Free-to-air channel 7Two also aired the program at 6.00pm usually on a 30-hour delay. It moved to middays on January 18, 2010 but ran until September 24, 2010 when 7TWO changed the format to a Best-of British oriented channel following the launch of sister HD channel 7mate.
In Canada, Citytv simulcast Leno with NBC during the 2009–2010 season, requesting simultaneous substitution where applicable.
In Portugal, SIC Mulher aired the show Monday and Tuesday at 00.30am.
In Israel, yes stars Comedy aired the show Sundays-Thursdays at 8.00pm.
In Finland, The Jay Leno Show aired on MTV3 MAX on weeknights; because of subtitling, the episodes were shown three days after their US broadcast.
In Sweden, The Jay Leno Show aired on Kanal 9 on weeknights. Episodes were broadcast one week after their original US airing.
Westwood One provided audio of the monologue as a short-form feature, under the title Last Night on The Jay Leno Show, to radio stations in the United States and Canada, replacing the discontinued Jimmy Kimmel Live!'' feature.
See also
List of television shows considered the worst
References
External links
2000s American late-night television series
2010s American late-night television series
2000s American variety television series
2010s American variety television series
2009 American television series debuts
2010 American television series endings
American television talk shows
Burbank, California
NBC original programming
Jay Leno
English-language television shows
Television shows filmed in California | false | [
"Bringing Sexy Back was an Australian weight loss reality television show that aired on the Seven Network on Tuesday nights at 7:30pm.\n\nShow details\nHosted by Sunrise presenter Samantha Armytage, each week the show features a transformation involving one everyday Australian hoping to get his or her lifestyle back by improving his or her self-image.\n\nThe show premiered on Tuesday, 12 August 2014 at 7:30pm, but could only manage a national audience of 654,000, placing it third in its timeslot. Following the death of Robin Williams' earlier that day, Network Ten hastily scheduled the film Mrs. Doubtfire in the same timeslot.\n\nOn Wednesday, 17 September, the Seven Network removed the show from its schedule due to its continuing low ratings to make way for a new season of Dancing with the Stars. With only two episodes remaining, they were eventually aired on 6 and 13 January 2015.\n\nThe program was syndicated to Foxtel channel Style Network in May 2016.\n\nReferences\n\nSeven Network original programming\nAustralian reality television series\n2014 Australian television series debuts\nEnglish-language television shows",
"SAS Australia: Who Dares Wins, also known as SAS Australia, is a reality quasi-military training television programme based on the original British version SAS: Who Dares Wins that is broadcast on Seven Network since 19 October 2020. Upon release of the first season, the show's name was changed to simply SAS Australia. The series features Ant Middleton as the chief instructor.\n\nCast\n\nCelebrity edition\n</onlyinclude>\n\nSeason 1 (2020)\nProduction began in March 2020 on location in Queenstown, New Zealand, however production was halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. They recommenced filming on a property on the outskirts of Berridale in the Snowy Mountains of New South Wales in Australia at GPS Coordinates . Production crew stayed locally in Jindabyne while filming.\n\nOlympian Jana Pittman was reported to be a contestant in the March 2020 production, but with her pregnancy in the intervening months, was replaced by former The Biggest Loser Australia trainer Shannan Ponton. Pittman subsequently appeared as a contestant in Season 2, six months after giving birth.\n\nFull list of confirmed celebrities:\n\nRatings\n\nSeason 2 (2021)\nIn October 2020, the series was renewed for a second season. The second season began airing on 13 September 2021.\n\nThe season was filmed in the Capertree Valley in NSW with the camp being constructed in the Glen Davies Ruins. The Ruins are the remains of the Oil Shale Ruins which began operation in 1938 and ceased operation in 1952. The Glen Davis Ruins are on private property, but is available to visitors on a Saturday at 2pm\n\nFull list of confirmed celebrities:\n\nRatings\n{{Australian television episode ratings\n| width = 99\n| fontsize = 95\n| generic = yes\n| backgroundcolour = #B60000\n\n| title1 = Ego\n| date1 = 13 September 2021\n| timeslot1 = Monday 7:30 pm\n| OVviewers1 = 647,000\n| OVrank1 = 10\n| CONviewers1 = \n| CONrank1 = \n| total1 = \n| ref1 = \n\n| title2 = Courage\n| date2 = 14 September 2021\n| timeslot2 = Tuesday 7:30 pm\n| OVviewers2 = 626,000\n| OVrank2 = 9\n| CONviewers2 = \n| CONrank2 = \n| total2 = \n| ref2 = \n\n| title3 = Control\n| date3 = 15 September 2021\n| timeslot3 = Wednesday 7:30 pm\n| OVviewers3 = 654,000\n| OVrank3 = 8\n| CONviewers3 = \n| CONrank3 = \n| total3 = \n| ref3 = \n\n| title4 = Aggression\n| date4 = 20 September 2021\n| timeslot4 = Monday 7:30 pm\n| OVviewers4 = 620,000\n| OVrank4 = 12\n| CONviewers4 = \n| CONrank4 = \n| total4 = \n| ref4 = \n\n| title5 = Leadership\n| date5 = 21 September 2021\n| timeslot5 = Tuesday 7:30pm\n| OVviewers5 = 586,000\n| OVrank5 = 11\n| CONviewers5 = \n| CONrank5 = \n| total5 = \n| ref5 = \n\n| title6 = Mindset\n| date6 = 22 September 2021\n| timeslot6 = Wednesday 7:30pm\n| OVviewers6 = 606,000\n| OVrank6 = 11\n| CONviewers6 = \n| CONrank6 = \n| total6 = \n| ref6 = \n\n| title7 = Fear\n| date7 = 27 September 2021\n| timeslot7 = Monday 7:30pm\n| OVviewers7 = 599,000\n| OVrank7 = 14\n| CONviewers7 = \n| CONrank7 = \n| total7 = \n| ref7 = \n\n| title8 = Confidence \n| date8 = 28 September 2021\n| timeslot8 = Tuesday 7:30pm\n| OVviewers8 = 592,000\n| OVrank8 = 10\n| CONviewers8 = \n| CONrank8 = \n| total8 = \n| ref8 = \n\n| title9 = Oppo\n| date9 = 29 September 2021\n| timeslot9 = Wednesday 7:30 pm\n| OVviewers9 = 643,000\n| OVrank9 = 8\n| CONviewers9 = \n| CONrank9 = \n| total9 = \n| ref9 = \n\n| title10 = Grit\n| date10 = 4 October 2021\n| timeslot10 = Monday 7:30 pm\n| OVviewers10 = 597,000\n| OVrank10 = 12\n| CONviewers10 = \n| CONrank10 = \n| total10 = \n| ref10 = \n\n| title11 = Pressure\n| date11 = 5 October 2021\n| timeslot11 = Tuesday 7:30 pm\n| OVviewers11 = 565,000\n| OVrank11 = 12\n| CONviewers11 = \n| CONrank11 = \n| total11 = \n| ref11 = \n\n| title12 = Drive\n| date12 = 11 October 2021\n| timeslot12 = Monday 7:30 pm\n| OVviewers12 = 585,000\n| OVrank12 = 12\n| CONviewers12 = \n| CONrank12 = \n| total12 = \n| ref12 = \n\n| title13 = Determination\n| date13 = 12 October 2021\n| timeslot13 = Tuesday 7:30 pm\n| OVviewers13 = 631,000\n| OVrank13 = 8\n| CONviewers13 = \n| CONrank13 = \n| total13 = \n| ref13 = \n\n| title14 = Debrief\n| date14 = 13 October 2021\n| timeslot14 = Wednesday 7:30 pm\n| OVviewers14 = 474,000\n| OVrank14 = 13\n| CONviewers14 = \n| CONrank14 = \n| total14 = \n| ref14 = <ref>\n\nSeason 3 (2022)\n\nThe third season began airing on 21 February 2022.\n\nFull list of celebrities were confirmed in October 2021:\n\nRatings\n\nCivilian edition\n\nSeason 1 (2021)\n\nIn March 2021, Seven commissioned a mini-series featuring civilian contestants in addition to the second main season. Titled SAS: Hell Week the mini-season was filmed back to back with the second celebrity season in the Blue Mountains.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n2020 Australian television series debuts\nAustralian reality television series\nEnglish-language television shows\nSeven Network original programming\nAustralian television series based on British television series\nTelevision productions suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic\nTelevision shows set in New South Wales"
]
|
[
"The Jay Leno Show",
"Dispute over timeslot",
"What was the timeslot Jay Leno was in?",
"11:35",
"What other show was the dispute over?",
"Conan O'Brien",
"When did the dispute happen?",
"2010",
"Why was there a dispute over the 11:35 time?",
"\" He had made it known in the press in November 2009 that he wished to return to his old timeslot;",
"How did Conan react?",
"\"cannot participate in what I honestly believe is [The Tonight Show's] destruction.\"",
"Did he get the old timeslot back?",
"criticism. On January 21, O'Brien signed a $45 million deal allowing him to leave the network,"
]
| C_faa2e2423bbc407e89b705466c82df48_1 | How were the ratings afterwards? | 7 | How were the ratings afterward the $45 million deal allowing Conan to leave the network? | The Jay Leno Show | In early January 2010, multiple media outlets reported that, following the 2010 Winter Olympics, The Jay Leno Show would be shortened to 30 minutes and begin airing weeknights at 11:35 pm ET, with Conan O'Brien and Jimmy Fallon's shows following it beginning at 12:05 am on March 1, 2010. On January 10, NBC Universal Television Entertainment Chairman Jeff Gaspin confirmed that The Jay Leno Show would indeed move to 11:35. Leno immediately accepted the return to 11:35 p.m., calling the move "all business." He had made it known in the press in November 2009 that he wished to return to his old timeslot; behind the scenes, Leno had privately indicated that he did not believe the 10:00 experiment would work. On the other hand, O'Brien's contract stipulated that the network could move the show back to 12:05 a.m. without penalty, a loophole put in primarily to accommodate sports preemptions, the network's traditional nightly Wimbledon tournament highlights show, and specials such as New Year's Eve with Carson Daly. O'Brien did not seriously respond for several days after the announcement, then drafted a press release explaining why he felt it was unfair to him, his staff, Fallon, and the legacy of The Tonight Show to move the show past midnight. He concluded by saying that he "cannot participate in what I honestly believe is [The Tonight Show's] destruction." O'Brien received an outpouring of celebrity and viewer support for rejecting the move, while Leno received heavy criticism. On January 21, O'Brien signed a $45 million deal allowing him to leave the network, and aired his final episode of Tonight on January 22; Leno returned as host of Tonight on March 1. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | The Jay Leno Show is a talk show created and hosted by Jay Leno. Premiering on NBC on September 14, 2009, the program aired on weeknights at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT through February 9, 2010. The program was modeled upon the format of a late night talk show—specifically, Jay Leno's incarnation of The Tonight Show, opening with a comedic monologue, followed by interviews with celebrity guests and other comedy segments. Sketches from The Tonight Show (including Headlines and Jaywalking) were carried over to The Jay Leno Show, along with new sketches.
The program was the result of a compromise by NBC Universal's then-CEO Jeff Zucker to keep Jay Leno with the company following his retirement from The Tonight Show and replacement with Conan O'Brien. The Jay Leno Show was also intended to provide NBC with an alternative to the high-cost scripted dramas aired by competing networks in its time slot; the network believed that the lower cost of production, in combination with product placement deals, meant that the program did not necessarily have to be highly viewed in order to turn a profit. NBC hoped to attract Leno's existing fans, as well as a larger primetime audience than that of his late-night program.
The Jay Leno Show was met with mixed reception from critics, who felt that the series had little differentiation from Leno's Tonight Show. Others were critical of NBC's decision to give up an hour of its weeknight lineup to Leno, due to the network's past success with dramas airing in the time slot, while one NBC affiliate (WHDH in Boston owned by Sunbeam Television, now independent) notably planned not to air the show at all, although this decision was retracted due to complaints by the network. Although viewership of The Jay Leno Show was initially on par with NBC's projections, by November, the program's ratings began to fall significantly. NBC's affiliates complained that the declining viewership of The Jay Leno Show also had a ripple effect on the viewership of their late local newscasts.
In an effort to address the concerns, NBC announced in January 2010 that it would, following the 2010 Winter Olympics, shorten The Jay Leno Show to a half-hour, and move it to 11:35 p.m—the timeslot that had been occupied by The Tonight Show for nearly 60 years, and bump Tonight to 12:05 a.m. The decision resulted in a major public conflict between the network and Conan O'Brien, who asserted that the move would damage the highly respected Tonight Show franchise, and that he would not participate in the program if it were moved to 12:05. Despite much support for O'Brien from both the public and media professionals alike, NBC maintained its plan to move Leno to 11:35.
On January 21, 2010, NBC reached a $45 million settlement with O'Brien in order to end his contract. The Jay Leno Show ended on February 9, 2010, after being on the air for only four months, with Entertainment Weekly calling the program television's "Biggest Bomb of All Time." Leno resumed his duties as host of The Tonight Show on March 1, 2010, for his second and final stint that lasted until his February 2014 succession by Jimmy Fallon.
History
NBC announced in 2004 that Jay Leno would leave The Tonight Show in 2009, with Conan O'Brien as his replacement. Leno—who wanted to avoid a repeat of the acrimonious transition when he inherited Tonight from Johnny Carson—said at the announcement, "You can do these things until they carry you out on a stretcher, or you can get out when you’re still doing good." He began to regret his decision to retire in 2007, and several networks and studios including ABC, Fox, Sony, and Tribune expressed interest in his services after leaving Tonight.
Jeff Zucker, then-President and CEO of NBCUniversal, sought to keep Leno from defecting to a competitor. Leno rejected several NBC offers for broadcast network daytime slots or subscription TV slots, a series of recurring specials, and a half-hour show at 8 pm five nights a week featuring Leno's Tonight monologue. The network had in 1981 considered moving The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson to 10 pm; Zucker, who in 2007 offered Oprah Winfrey an hour five nights a week at 8 pm, now offered Leno an hour five nights a week at 10 pm. Leno was announced on December 9, 2008.
At least one station, then-affiliate WHDH-TV in Boston, Massachusetts, stated that it would not carry the program, claiming that Leno would be detrimental to the station's 11 pm news and that it would instead launch a local news program in the time slot. NBC said that such plans would amount to a flagrant violation of the network contract—a claim which WHDH disputed—and said that it would immediately remove its programming from WHDH if the station followed through with the plan. WHDH backed down on April 13, 2009, and announced that it would air Leno instead of the proposed program.
Though Leno was the first to move the entire five-day-a-week late night talk show to prime time, he was not the first Tonight alumnus to move from late night to a prime time talk show. Steve Allen hosted Tonight Starring Steve Allen from 1954 to 1957; while still hosting that show, he began hosting the prime-time The Steve Allen Show in 1956 on NBC, and the latter show would run until 1960. Jack Paar, who hosted Tonight from 1957 to 1962, next hosted a weekly talk show known as The Jack Paar Program that ran until 1965, also on NBC.
In January 2010, several news outlets reported that The Jay Leno Show would be shortened to 30 minutes and begin airing weeknights at 11:35 pm ET, with Conan O'Brien and Jimmy Fallon's shows following it beginning at 12:05 am. The scheduling change would have been implemented on February 28 after the 2010 Winter Olympics (which preempted much of NBC's primetime and late-night lineup). Leno himself commented on the rumors during his January 7 monologue, joking that NBC stands for "Never Believe your Contract." According to Broadcasting & Cable, "most [NBC affiliates] are hopeful Jay—and Conan—sticks with NBC, and most, if not all, desperately want to see a change in terms of the lead-in they're getting to their lucrative late news; the affiliates "remain fiercely loyal to Leno and were quick to say the rookie program's struggles don't reflect the funnyman's work ethic or comedic chops. 'This isn't about Jay's popularity,' says WJAR Providence VP/General Manager Lisa Churchville. 'This is about having that kind of show at 10 p.m.'"
NBC announced plans to move Leno to 11:35 pm and The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien to 12:05 am. O'Brien refused to participate in the move and, on January 21, 2010, reached an agreement with NBC allowing him to leave the network. Lenos final episode aired on February 9, 2010 and Leno returned to Tonight as host on March 1, 2010.
Content
The Jay Leno Show aired weeknights at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT (9:00 p.m. CT/MT) from Studio 11 of the NBC Studios in Burbank, California with the following format:
After brief opening credits, a monologue of eight to 12 minutes.
One celebrity guest, two at the most. The "car-themed" set adjusted to allow guests to get off the couch and participate in antics.
Musical segments appeared only twice a week, in the middle of the show, and sometimes featured multiple acts performing together.
Comedy segments were reserved for the last 15 minutes of the show, the only portion of the show where Leno sometimes used a desk. Toward the end of the four-month run certain comedy segments such as "Headlines" were moved up to airing right after Jay's monologue, as opposed to being reserved for the end of the show. They include:
"Headlines" and "Jaywalking", both from Tonight.
The "advertiser-friendly 'Green Car Challenge'". Two to three times each week, celebrities drove an electric Ford Focus and tried to set records on a 1,100-foot dedicated outdoor track. The segment was based on the "Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car" segment on the British automotive series Top Gear, which Leno had previously appeared on.
"Ten at Ten", "in which celebs and other newsmakers . . . answer a rapid-fire series of ten 'ridiculous, celebrity-based questions.' The ten at ten guest would not be in the studio, but would instead appear via satellite from some other location. When the off-site location was in the Central or Mountain Time Zones, the skit would be changed to 9 at 9 (since these time zones have all programming one hour earlier in their local time than the coastal time zones), which was the same except there would only be nine questions."
Comic "correspondents" such as D. L. Hughley, Dan Finnerty, Mikey Day, Rachael Harris, and Jim Norton did pretaped segments.
One planned segment, "Stories Not Good Enough for the NBC Nightly News" (which would have featured then-NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams), was dropped from the show before it made it to air.
In addition to reserving comedy segments for the end, the network aired no commercials after the show and "urged local affiliates to do the same" so local news could start immediately, retaining as many Leno viewers as possible.
Recurring segments
"Headlines" (Monday): Humorous print items sent in by viewers. These real-life headlines are usually headlines with typographical errors, or unintentionally inappropriate items. The segment usually starts out with a fake, humorous headline during the introduction for the segment.
"Jaywalking": A pre-taped segment, "Jaywalking" is a play on the host's name and the illegal practice of jaywalking. Leno asks people questions about current news and other topics in public areas around Los Angeles (usually Hollywood Boulevard, Melrose Avenue or Universal Studios). Most responses are outrageously incorrect; for example, one person believed that Abraham Lincoln was the first president, and another could not identify a picture of Hillary Clinton. Sometimes the questions are of the "What color is the White House?" level, such as asking in what country the Panama Canal is located. Up to 15 people are interviewed in an hour or less for each segment, with about nine interviews used on the air. A similar format was used for the game show Street Smarts.
JMZ: A parody of TMZ, a segment in which they report on fake celebrity news with such guest stars as Chuck Liddell.
Ten@Ten: Jay interviews a celebrity via satellite by asking them 10 questions. Some editions have only used 9 questions, calling it the "Nine@Nine" as a reference to the central or mountain time zone.
Green Car Challenge: A segment in which celebrities go in a car and try to be the fastest in a track with obstacles. Tim Allen had the best record time; Rush Limbaugh had the record worst time (though he did so on purpose), and Leno never tried.
Photo Booth: A pre-taped segment in which someone goes in a Photo Booth and something is amiss.
Stuff We Found on eBay: Leno brought up some of the oddest stuff that he and members of the studio audience had supposedly found while searching on eBay.
Ross the Intern: Ross Mathews, an intern for the show, is sent to participate in special events. As part of a running gag, Leno started introducing Ross as his illegitimate son.
First show
Jerry Seinfeld was the celebrity guest on the debut episode. Jay-Z, Rihanna, and Kanye West performed "Run This Town", in which all three are featured. West sat down for a previously unplanned interview with Leno, discussing West's outburst at the MTV Video Music Awards the previous night. Dan Finnerty was the comic correspondent for the night, and the end of the show featured Headlines.
Reviews for the first show ranged from neutral to negative, with most critics stating that the show was, despite the changes, still very similar to Tonight. Metacritic scores it at 48 out of 100 based on 23 TV critic reviews, and viewers scoring it at a 4.0 out of 10. Media Life described the show as "underwhelming" and felt that Leno "failed to rise to the occasion." The Buffalo News called the show "a mess." The Associated Press noted that "it's not a good sign when the Bud Light commercial is funnier than the comedy show it interrupts," and that "at least Rosie Live took some chances." Jonah Krakow of IGN gave it a 5.5/10 saying that "show felt like they just picked from where they left off three months ago, and I'm not sure that's a good thing".
Final show
The final Jay Leno Show aired on February 9, 2010. The guests were Ashton Kutcher, Gabourey Sidibe and Bob Costas, with unannounced visits from Donald Trump and Kurt Warner. Following the monologue, there was a brief clip reel of highlights from the show's short tenure; otherwise, little mention was made about the fact that it was the final episode of the program. The last moments of the show featured the program's "10 at 10" segment, with its celebrity guest being Bob Costas. When Leno asked Costas how it felt to be the show's final guest, the sportscaster replied, "Kind of like being involved in the last game of a Clippers season, isn't it?" Directly following the interview with Costas, Leno thanked him, told the audience to stay tuned for their local news, and then abruptly went off-air.
Many media outlets criticized Leno's apparent lack of ceremony for the end of his program.New York Times article: "Without Fanfare, Leno’s Prime-Time Show Ends". Variety reported that the lack of fanfare was intentional, as NBC was attempting to rehab the reputation of Leno and The Tonight Show and did not desire to bring any further attention to Leno's transition back to Tonight. The Associated Press noted that the last few weeks of the program, including the final episode, were pervaded by "bad vibes." The Boston Globe wrote that Leno said farewell to his short-lived show "with all the momentousness of a guy taking out the trash." The episode received negative reviews from Entertainment Weekly, the Los Angeles Times, and The Wall Street Journal. By comparison, O'Brien's final Tonight Show was treated as a finale, with guests making reference to the show ending and guest Neil Young taking an ironic tone by performing "Long May You Run".
Impact
Financial
Leno had a contract for five years for the show. NBC reportedly had an option to cancel after two years, but had committed to at least one or two years regardless of ratings, although later chose to end the show after less than five months. He could have earned up to $30 million each year depending on ratings for Leno, compared to a $20 million annual salary during his last years at Tonight.
NBC expected to benefit by offering an inexpensive comedic alternative to the procedurals ("100% more comedy and 98% fewer murders!") and other one-hour dramas that typically air at 10 pm, and by offering new episodes 46 weeks each year versus 22.Itzkoff, Dave. "NBC’s ‘Jay Leno Show’ Promises 98 Percent Fewer Murders" The New York Times, 2009-05-04. While Leno was not necessarily expected to be competitive with the higher-rated scripted shows on ABC and CBS in its time slot, its projected cost of production was far lower and thus it was expected to be profitable to the network, and product integration intended to make the show "as DVR-proof as you can be on television in this era". Each airing of Leno cost about $350,000 to $400,000 versus up to $3 million for an hour-long drama, saving NBC $13 million each week without the network needing the show to beat its competitors. Those costs include the services of 22 writers, whom Leno called the "top 5% of the highest-paid . . . in the Guild."
McDonald's became the first buying advertiser for the program, tying in their "Million Dollar Roll" nightly in October 2009 promoting that year's version of McDonald's Monopoly.
Ratings
Leno did not expect his show to beat competing first-run episodes, but to do better than reruns, in part because topical jokes benefit from the "immediacy" of the time slot versus 11:30 pm. A television analyst predicted that Leno would finish in "a safe third place" every night. NBC research before the show's debut indicated that fans of Leno would watch Leno two to three times a week.
NBC saw a 1.5 rating for the show in the 18–49 demographic as "viable" and a 1.8 as a "home run". NBC told Leno that at a 1.5 rating, NBC makes $300 million a year. Tonight at 11:30 pm earned about a 1.3 to 1.5; the television audience at 10 pm is 40% larger than at 11:30 pm, and the network hoped Leno'''s audience would also grow. Industry observers have cited a range of ratings, from 1.7 to 2,"Sternberg calls the fall: 'FlashForward,' 'Community' hit; 'Rivers,' 'Forgotten' miss" The Hollywood Reporter, 2009-08-14. as being necessary for the show to succeed at 10 pm. By comparison, 2.5 is generally necessary for a 10 pm drama to succeed; those that earned a 1.7 or less during the 2008–2009 season were generally cancelled. NBC's prime-time dramas averaged about 2 during 2008–2009.
The first episode of The Jay Leno Show earned "fast national" estimates of 17.7 million viewers, an 11 Nielsen rating (5.1 among persons 18–49) and an 18 share, significantly above both his Tonight finale and the debut of The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien in all categories. By the second week and competing against season premieres, the audience fell to six million viewers, still on par with or exceeding NBC projections. As of November 1, 2009, The Jay Leno Show has averaged a 1.98 in the adults 18–49 ratings and 6.594 million viewers. During the week before Christmas, the ratings dropped to 1.4 during the week. Prior to the controversy regarding the move of the Jay Leno Show to 11:35 p.m., viewership bottomed out at 4.799 million viewers, although there was a slight bump as word of the controversy broke.
Though the show itself had been meeting the network's projections, it was severely detrimental to the ratings of the late local news on NBC affiliates. As originally feared by WHDH in Boston, several stations across the country saw what was known as the "Leno Effect", where the lower audience for Leno (as compared to NBC's scripted prime time offerings) translated directly into a domino effect of severe audience drops for late local news (on the order of 25–30%) and completely stunted NBC's past successful schedule hammocking strategies, effects that NBC had underestimated.
Dispute over timeslot
In early January 2010, multiple media outlets reported that, following the 2010 Winter Olympics, The Jay Leno Show would be shortened to 30 minutes and begin airing weeknights at 11:35 pm ET, with Conan O'Brien and Jimmy Fallon's shows following it beginning at 12:05 am on March 1, 2010. On January 10, NBC Universal Television Entertainment Chairman Jeff Gaspin confirmed that The Jay Leno Show would indeed move to 11:35.
Leno immediately accepted the return to 11:35 p.m., calling the move "all business." He had made it known in the press in November 2009 that he wished to return to his old timeslot; behind the scenes, Leno had privately indicated that he did not believe the 10:00 experiment would work. On the other hand, O'Brien's contract stipulated that the network could move the show back to 12:05 a.m. without penalty, a loophole put in primarily to accommodate sports preemptions, the network's traditional nightly Wimbledon tournament highlights show, and specials such as New Year's Eve with Carson Daly.
O'Brien did not seriously respond for several days after the announcement, then drafted a press release explaining why he felt it was unfair to him, his staff, Fallon, and the legacy of The Tonight Show to move the show past midnight. He concluded by saying that he "cannot participate in what I honestly believe is [The Tonight Shows] destruction."Huffington Post article: "Conan O'Brien Statement: I Will Not Follow Jay At 12:05". O'Brien received an outpouring of celebrity and viewer support for rejecting the move, while Leno received heavy criticism.Huffington Post article: "Patton Oswalt: Jay Leno Is Like Nixon, I Don't Like Him". On January 21, O'Brien signed a $45 million deal allowing him to leave the network, and aired his final episode of Tonight on January 22; Leno returned as host of Tonight on March 1.
Settlement
On January 19, 2010, multiple media outlets reported that O'Brien and NBC were close to signing a deal between $30 and $40 million for the host to walk away from the network.New York Post article: "NBC near deal to allow Conan to leave network". One apparent sticking point in the negotiations was the amount his staff and crew were to be paid for leaving the program.Chicago Sun Times article: "Conan negotiations stuck on staff, Triumph ". Reports also said that the contract could prohibit O'Brien from badmouthing NBC in any way, and that he may be able to return to television as early as September 2010.
On January 21, after two weeks of negotiations, it was announced that Conan O'Brien had signed a $45 million deal to leave NBC. The Wall Street Journal reports that O'Brien will receive about $32 million, with his staff receiving around $12 million. The contract contains a clause prohibiting O'Brien from making negative remarks about NBC for a certain amount of time; it does not, however, contain the previously rumored "mitigation clause," in which NBC would be able to keep some of the severance pay after O'Brien finds a new program. It also stipulates that he could have returned to television as early as September 1, 2010. The network confirmed that Leno would officially resume as host of The Tonight Show on March 1. TMZ reported that NBC would rerun episodes from O'Brien's time as host until the network began airing the Olympics on February 12.
O'Brien later reached a deal with cable network TBS to premiere a new late-night talk show, Conan.
Industry impact
NBC became the first large United States network to broadcast the same show every weekday during prime time since ABC's Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? marathons in 1999 and only the second since DuMont aired Captain Video and His Video Rangers from 1949 to 1955. More recently, the upstart MyNetwork TV had attempted, upon its launch in 2006, to air the same telenovelas every night of the week, a programming strategy that proved to be very unsuccessful. NBC's executives called the decision "a transformational moment in the history of broadcasting" and "in effect, launching five shows." An industry observer said that Leno, "in all my years, is the biggest risk a network has ever taken." According to former NBC president Fred Silverman, "If the Leno Show works, it will be the most significant thing to happen in broadcast television in the last decade."
Although NBC had not developed a new hit show at 10 pm in years, industry executives criticized the network for abandoning a history of airing quality dramas at that hour such as Hill Street Blues, St. Elsewhere, and ER, which made NBC "the gold standard for sophisticated programming . . . the No. 1 network for affluent and well-educated young viewers" during the 1980s and 1990s. In addition, critics predicted that the decision would hurt NBC by undermining a reputation built on successful scripted shows. Other networks believed NBC's decision created an opportunity, and planned their 2009–2010 schedules accordingly. For example, the show competed with The Mentalist, CSI: Miami, CSI: NY, and Numb3rs, four of television's most popular series, on CBS (the first of those four series was moved to 10:00 PM to directly compete with Leno's show, and significantly improved the ratings for that timeslot compared to its predecessor). Leno was also not easily sold overseas.
The January 29, 2010 issue of Entertainment Weekly listed the show at the top of a list of the 50 Biggest Bombs in television history. The comment made by the network executives about "launching five shows" was ultimately transformed into the joke that its removal was like "cancelling five shows." TV Guide similarly listed the show as the biggest blunder in television history in its November 1, 2010 edition.
Boycott by competing networks
Rival networks ABC and CBS had discouraged "their stars" from appearing on The Jay Leno Show in its primetime slot. Julia Louis-Dreyfus (The New Adventures of Old Christine) was the first CBS actor to appear on the show, on September 29, 2009; on that episode, she said "there was a little pressure, because as you know you are now on prime time", but that "Obviously, I committed to doing your show and we’re friends". This boycott did not affect The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien nor was it industry-wide. Other TV networks, like Fox, The CW, and HBO, were more encouraging. Hugh Laurie from the Fox TV show House was a guest on the September 25, 2009, telecast. House is produced by Universal Media Studios, a sister company to NBC through NBC Universal, and Fox does not offer any network programming in the 10 p.m. time slots, instead allowing most of its affiliates to go to local news.
In a Broadcasting & Cable interview published in early November 2009, Leno mentioned the boycott again, saying "I'm flattered; like ABC and CBS...none of their stars can appear on the show. What are you so afraid of if we're doing so terrible? It's all part of the game."
Labor union impact
John Wells, the president of the Writers Guild of America, West, and executive producer of prominent NBC shows ER and The West Wing, said, "I wish NBC and Jay Leno well; personally, he's a very nice guy, but I hope he falls flat on his face and we get five dramas back."
Website dispute
In 2004, Guadalupe Zambrano, a Texas real estate agent, registered the domain name thejaylenoshow.com to redirect to his real estate business. After the Leno announcement, Leno accused Zambrano of cybersquatting. Zambrano contended that he had owned the domain for five years, well before the announcement, thus precluding recovery. The UDRP proceedings ruled in favor of Leno, however, stating that Zambrano profited from the value of the Jay Leno trademark in bad faith.
International broadcasting
In Australia, The Comedy Channel on Pay TV aired the show on a same-day turn around Weeknights at 7.30pm AEST. Free-to-air channel 7Two also aired the program at 6.00pm usually on a 30-hour delay. It moved to middays on January 18, 2010 but ran until September 24, 2010 when 7TWO changed the format to a Best-of British oriented channel following the launch of sister HD channel 7mate.
In Canada, Citytv simulcast Leno with NBC during the 2009–2010 season, requesting simultaneous substitution where applicable.
In Portugal, SIC Mulher aired the show Monday and Tuesday at 00.30am.
In Israel, yes stars Comedy aired the show Sundays-Thursdays at 8.00pm.
In Finland, The Jay Leno Show aired on MTV3 MAX on weeknights; because of subtitling, the episodes were shown three days after their US broadcast.
In Sweden, The Jay Leno Show aired on Kanal 9 on weeknights. Episodes were broadcast one week after their original US airing.
Westwood One provided audio of the monologue as a short-form feature, under the title Last Night on The Jay Leno Show, to radio stations in the United States and Canada, replacing the discontinued Jimmy Kimmel Live!'' feature.
See also
List of television shows considered the worst
References
External links
2000s American late-night television series
2010s American late-night television series
2000s American variety television series
2010s American variety television series
2009 American television series debuts
2010 American television series endings
American television talk shows
Burbank, California
NBC original programming
Jay Leno
English-language television shows
Television shows filmed in California | false | [
"Show! Audio Jockey () was a South Korean variety show program on tvN starring Park Myeong-su, Sung Si-kyung, So Yoo-jin, Boom and 4 members from Monsta X (Wonho, Minhyuk, Yoo Ki-hyun and Lee Joo-heon). It aired on tvN starting on March 17, 2019, and aired its last episode on June 30, 2019. It was broadcast by tvN on Sundays at 18:10 (KST).\n\nCasts \n – Present.\n – Absent.\n\nSynopsis \nThis is a show where radio and television come together. In the show, there was a group of Audio Jockeys (AJs) who hosted individual radio programs. AJs hosted their programs in an open and movable studio. Listeners were able to listen through and tvN's official YouTube Channel during the actual recording of the show. \nA few days after the actual recording, the audio of the different programs hosted by the AJs was released. Afterwards, the radio show was also televised to enable the audience to watch how the AJs prepared behind the scenes and hosted their individual shows during the program itself.\n\nOn 7th and 8th recording, the concept changed to visual radio where listeners could watch live on YouTube what was happening at the recording location itself.\n\nSegments\n\nList of Episodes\n\nGuests\n\nPark Myeong-su's Easy Talent\n\nBoom Box\n\nSweet Salon\n\nSung Si-kyung by Your Side\n\nTrot Man and Woman\n\nItinerant Traveller\n\nSo So Kitchen\n\nPaldo Road Singer\n\nRatings \n\n Ratings listed below are the individual corner ratings of Show! Audio Jockey. (Note: Individual corner ratings do not include commercial time, which regular ratings include.)\n In the ratings below, the highest rating for the show will be in and the lowest rating for the show will be in each year.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n Official website \n Show! Audio Jockey Podbbang channel \n\nSouth Korean variety television shows\nSouth Korean television shows\n2019 South Korean television series debuts\nTVN (South Korean TV channel) original programming\nKorean-language television shows\n2019 South Korean television series endings",
"The C. E. Hooper Company was an American company which measured radio and television ratings during the \"Golden Age\" of radio. Founded in 1934 by Claude E. Hooper (1898–1954), the company provided information on the most popular radio shows of the era.\n\nClaude E. Hooper became well known for his radio audience measurement systems, Hooper Ratings or \"Hooperatings\". Before beginning work in radio measurement, Hooper was an auditor of magazine circulation. Hooper worked within the market research organization of Daniel Starch until 1934 when he left to start a research company with colleague Montgomery Clark, Clark-Hooper; in the fall of 1934 the company launched syndicated radio measurement services in 16 cities. Clark left the business in 1938 and Hooper continued the firm as C. E. Hooper, Inc.\n\nThe survey method employed by Hooper was designed with the help of George Gallup (see Gallup Poll), whose input Hooper later acknowledged as key. It differed from the method being used by the advertising industry service, the Cooperative Analysis of Broadcasting (CAB); in particular, Clark-Hooper's method involved contacting listeners during the shows being analyzed as opposed to the following day. In the industry, the method was dubbed \"telephone coincidence\"; it superseded CAB's earlier method (\"telephone recall\") as the industry standard, and Hooper's prevalence eventually led to the 1946 dissolution of CAB.\n\nIn 1948, as the radio networks began venturing into television, Hooper began measuring TV ratings as well. In February 1950, the company was bought by competitor A.C. Nielsen.\n\nMethod\n\nThe C. E. Hooper Company collected data using telephone surveys conducted across 36 cities, during the last 13 minutes of each quarter hour broadcast period. Respondents would be asked whether they were presently listening to the radio, and if they were, to identify the program and station they were listening to, and the program's sponsor. Using this data, biweekly ratings were compiled.\n\nCompared to the earlier Crossley ratings, Hooperatings had the advantage of not depending on respondents remembering what they had listened to earlier in the day. However, they still only sampled an urban rather than rural population. They also failed to account for the millions of households at the time which had a radio set but no telephone.\n\nIn popular culture\n\nDuring the late 1940s the catchphrase \"How's your Hooper?\" was a well-known allusion to the size of a series' audience.\n\nIn 1949, the Chagrin Valley Little Theater premiered a satire of contemporary radio by Everett Rhodes Castle titled \"How's Your Hooper?\".\n\nA George Price cartoon in the May 14, 1949 issue of The New Yorker depicts a speeding automobile with a radio antenna being overtaken by a Hooper employee in the sidecar of a motorcycle who is shouting \"We're from the Hooper Survey, sir. Do you have your radio on, and if so what program are you listening to?\"\n\nA 1947 radio skit has Henry Morgan and Arnold Stang sarcastically discussing each other's radio shows. Morgan says \" . . . by the way, how's your Hooper rating?\", to which Stang replies \"Wells, it's eh...ehh...aw, that rating doesn't mean a thing...\".\n\nSee also\nArbitron\nCrossley ratings\nNielsen ratings\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\"How Nielsen and Arbitron Became the Ratings Kings\" article in Transmitter (2001), newsletter of the American Library of Broadcasting\nHooper reports at American Radio History website\n Nye, Frank W. \"HOOP\" of HOOPERATINGS: The Man and His Work. Norwalk, Connecticut (1957), apparently privately printed, at American Radio History Website \n\nAudience measurement"
]
|
[
"The Jay Leno Show",
"Dispute over timeslot",
"What was the timeslot Jay Leno was in?",
"11:35",
"What other show was the dispute over?",
"Conan O'Brien",
"When did the dispute happen?",
"2010",
"Why was there a dispute over the 11:35 time?",
"\" He had made it known in the press in November 2009 that he wished to return to his old timeslot;",
"How did Conan react?",
"\"cannot participate in what I honestly believe is [The Tonight Show's] destruction.\"",
"Did he get the old timeslot back?",
"criticism. On January 21, O'Brien signed a $45 million deal allowing him to leave the network,",
"How were the ratings afterwards?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_faa2e2423bbc407e89b705466c82df48_1 | Did the Jay Leno show continue at the later time or was that cancelled too? | 8 | Did the Jay Leno show continue at the later time or was that cancelled too? | The Jay Leno Show | In early January 2010, multiple media outlets reported that, following the 2010 Winter Olympics, The Jay Leno Show would be shortened to 30 minutes and begin airing weeknights at 11:35 pm ET, with Conan O'Brien and Jimmy Fallon's shows following it beginning at 12:05 am on March 1, 2010. On January 10, NBC Universal Television Entertainment Chairman Jeff Gaspin confirmed that The Jay Leno Show would indeed move to 11:35. Leno immediately accepted the return to 11:35 p.m., calling the move "all business." He had made it known in the press in November 2009 that he wished to return to his old timeslot; behind the scenes, Leno had privately indicated that he did not believe the 10:00 experiment would work. On the other hand, O'Brien's contract stipulated that the network could move the show back to 12:05 a.m. without penalty, a loophole put in primarily to accommodate sports preemptions, the network's traditional nightly Wimbledon tournament highlights show, and specials such as New Year's Eve with Carson Daly. O'Brien did not seriously respond for several days after the announcement, then drafted a press release explaining why he felt it was unfair to him, his staff, Fallon, and the legacy of The Tonight Show to move the show past midnight. He concluded by saying that he "cannot participate in what I honestly believe is [The Tonight Show's] destruction." O'Brien received an outpouring of celebrity and viewer support for rejecting the move, while Leno received heavy criticism. On January 21, O'Brien signed a $45 million deal allowing him to leave the network, and aired his final episode of Tonight on January 22; Leno returned as host of Tonight on March 1. CANNOTANSWER | The Jay Leno Show would be shortened to 30 minutes and begin airing weeknights at 11:35 pm ET, | The Jay Leno Show is a talk show created and hosted by Jay Leno. Premiering on NBC on September 14, 2009, the program aired on weeknights at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT through February 9, 2010. The program was modeled upon the format of a late night talk show—specifically, Jay Leno's incarnation of The Tonight Show, opening with a comedic monologue, followed by interviews with celebrity guests and other comedy segments. Sketches from The Tonight Show (including Headlines and Jaywalking) were carried over to The Jay Leno Show, along with new sketches.
The program was the result of a compromise by NBC Universal's then-CEO Jeff Zucker to keep Jay Leno with the company following his retirement from The Tonight Show and replacement with Conan O'Brien. The Jay Leno Show was also intended to provide NBC with an alternative to the high-cost scripted dramas aired by competing networks in its time slot; the network believed that the lower cost of production, in combination with product placement deals, meant that the program did not necessarily have to be highly viewed in order to turn a profit. NBC hoped to attract Leno's existing fans, as well as a larger primetime audience than that of his late-night program.
The Jay Leno Show was met with mixed reception from critics, who felt that the series had little differentiation from Leno's Tonight Show. Others were critical of NBC's decision to give up an hour of its weeknight lineup to Leno, due to the network's past success with dramas airing in the time slot, while one NBC affiliate (WHDH in Boston owned by Sunbeam Television, now independent) notably planned not to air the show at all, although this decision was retracted due to complaints by the network. Although viewership of The Jay Leno Show was initially on par with NBC's projections, by November, the program's ratings began to fall significantly. NBC's affiliates complained that the declining viewership of The Jay Leno Show also had a ripple effect on the viewership of their late local newscasts.
In an effort to address the concerns, NBC announced in January 2010 that it would, following the 2010 Winter Olympics, shorten The Jay Leno Show to a half-hour, and move it to 11:35 p.m—the timeslot that had been occupied by The Tonight Show for nearly 60 years, and bump Tonight to 12:05 a.m. The decision resulted in a major public conflict between the network and Conan O'Brien, who asserted that the move would damage the highly respected Tonight Show franchise, and that he would not participate in the program if it were moved to 12:05. Despite much support for O'Brien from both the public and media professionals alike, NBC maintained its plan to move Leno to 11:35.
On January 21, 2010, NBC reached a $45 million settlement with O'Brien in order to end his contract. The Jay Leno Show ended on February 9, 2010, after being on the air for only four months, with Entertainment Weekly calling the program television's "Biggest Bomb of All Time." Leno resumed his duties as host of The Tonight Show on March 1, 2010, for his second and final stint that lasted until his February 2014 succession by Jimmy Fallon.
History
NBC announced in 2004 that Jay Leno would leave The Tonight Show in 2009, with Conan O'Brien as his replacement. Leno—who wanted to avoid a repeat of the acrimonious transition when he inherited Tonight from Johnny Carson—said at the announcement, "You can do these things until they carry you out on a stretcher, or you can get out when you’re still doing good." He began to regret his decision to retire in 2007, and several networks and studios including ABC, Fox, Sony, and Tribune expressed interest in his services after leaving Tonight.
Jeff Zucker, then-President and CEO of NBCUniversal, sought to keep Leno from defecting to a competitor. Leno rejected several NBC offers for broadcast network daytime slots or subscription TV slots, a series of recurring specials, and a half-hour show at 8 pm five nights a week featuring Leno's Tonight monologue. The network had in 1981 considered moving The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson to 10 pm; Zucker, who in 2007 offered Oprah Winfrey an hour five nights a week at 8 pm, now offered Leno an hour five nights a week at 10 pm. Leno was announced on December 9, 2008.
At least one station, then-affiliate WHDH-TV in Boston, Massachusetts, stated that it would not carry the program, claiming that Leno would be detrimental to the station's 11 pm news and that it would instead launch a local news program in the time slot. NBC said that such plans would amount to a flagrant violation of the network contract—a claim which WHDH disputed—and said that it would immediately remove its programming from WHDH if the station followed through with the plan. WHDH backed down on April 13, 2009, and announced that it would air Leno instead of the proposed program.
Though Leno was the first to move the entire five-day-a-week late night talk show to prime time, he was not the first Tonight alumnus to move from late night to a prime time talk show. Steve Allen hosted Tonight Starring Steve Allen from 1954 to 1957; while still hosting that show, he began hosting the prime-time The Steve Allen Show in 1956 on NBC, and the latter show would run until 1960. Jack Paar, who hosted Tonight from 1957 to 1962, next hosted a weekly talk show known as The Jack Paar Program that ran until 1965, also on NBC.
In January 2010, several news outlets reported that The Jay Leno Show would be shortened to 30 minutes and begin airing weeknights at 11:35 pm ET, with Conan O'Brien and Jimmy Fallon's shows following it beginning at 12:05 am. The scheduling change would have been implemented on February 28 after the 2010 Winter Olympics (which preempted much of NBC's primetime and late-night lineup). Leno himself commented on the rumors during his January 7 monologue, joking that NBC stands for "Never Believe your Contract." According to Broadcasting & Cable, "most [NBC affiliates] are hopeful Jay—and Conan—sticks with NBC, and most, if not all, desperately want to see a change in terms of the lead-in they're getting to their lucrative late news; the affiliates "remain fiercely loyal to Leno and were quick to say the rookie program's struggles don't reflect the funnyman's work ethic or comedic chops. 'This isn't about Jay's popularity,' says WJAR Providence VP/General Manager Lisa Churchville. 'This is about having that kind of show at 10 p.m.'"
NBC announced plans to move Leno to 11:35 pm and The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien to 12:05 am. O'Brien refused to participate in the move and, on January 21, 2010, reached an agreement with NBC allowing him to leave the network. Lenos final episode aired on February 9, 2010 and Leno returned to Tonight as host on March 1, 2010.
Content
The Jay Leno Show aired weeknights at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT (9:00 p.m. CT/MT) from Studio 11 of the NBC Studios in Burbank, California with the following format:
After brief opening credits, a monologue of eight to 12 minutes.
One celebrity guest, two at the most. The "car-themed" set adjusted to allow guests to get off the couch and participate in antics.
Musical segments appeared only twice a week, in the middle of the show, and sometimes featured multiple acts performing together.
Comedy segments were reserved for the last 15 minutes of the show, the only portion of the show where Leno sometimes used a desk. Toward the end of the four-month run certain comedy segments such as "Headlines" were moved up to airing right after Jay's monologue, as opposed to being reserved for the end of the show. They include:
"Headlines" and "Jaywalking", both from Tonight.
The "advertiser-friendly 'Green Car Challenge'". Two to three times each week, celebrities drove an electric Ford Focus and tried to set records on a 1,100-foot dedicated outdoor track. The segment was based on the "Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car" segment on the British automotive series Top Gear, which Leno had previously appeared on.
"Ten at Ten", "in which celebs and other newsmakers . . . answer a rapid-fire series of ten 'ridiculous, celebrity-based questions.' The ten at ten guest would not be in the studio, but would instead appear via satellite from some other location. When the off-site location was in the Central or Mountain Time Zones, the skit would be changed to 9 at 9 (since these time zones have all programming one hour earlier in their local time than the coastal time zones), which was the same except there would only be nine questions."
Comic "correspondents" such as D. L. Hughley, Dan Finnerty, Mikey Day, Rachael Harris, and Jim Norton did pretaped segments.
One planned segment, "Stories Not Good Enough for the NBC Nightly News" (which would have featured then-NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams), was dropped from the show before it made it to air.
In addition to reserving comedy segments for the end, the network aired no commercials after the show and "urged local affiliates to do the same" so local news could start immediately, retaining as many Leno viewers as possible.
Recurring segments
"Headlines" (Monday): Humorous print items sent in by viewers. These real-life headlines are usually headlines with typographical errors, or unintentionally inappropriate items. The segment usually starts out with a fake, humorous headline during the introduction for the segment.
"Jaywalking": A pre-taped segment, "Jaywalking" is a play on the host's name and the illegal practice of jaywalking. Leno asks people questions about current news and other topics in public areas around Los Angeles (usually Hollywood Boulevard, Melrose Avenue or Universal Studios). Most responses are outrageously incorrect; for example, one person believed that Abraham Lincoln was the first president, and another could not identify a picture of Hillary Clinton. Sometimes the questions are of the "What color is the White House?" level, such as asking in what country the Panama Canal is located. Up to 15 people are interviewed in an hour or less for each segment, with about nine interviews used on the air. A similar format was used for the game show Street Smarts.
JMZ: A parody of TMZ, a segment in which they report on fake celebrity news with such guest stars as Chuck Liddell.
Ten@Ten: Jay interviews a celebrity via satellite by asking them 10 questions. Some editions have only used 9 questions, calling it the "Nine@Nine" as a reference to the central or mountain time zone.
Green Car Challenge: A segment in which celebrities go in a car and try to be the fastest in a track with obstacles. Tim Allen had the best record time; Rush Limbaugh had the record worst time (though he did so on purpose), and Leno never tried.
Photo Booth: A pre-taped segment in which someone goes in a Photo Booth and something is amiss.
Stuff We Found on eBay: Leno brought up some of the oddest stuff that he and members of the studio audience had supposedly found while searching on eBay.
Ross the Intern: Ross Mathews, an intern for the show, is sent to participate in special events. As part of a running gag, Leno started introducing Ross as his illegitimate son.
First show
Jerry Seinfeld was the celebrity guest on the debut episode. Jay-Z, Rihanna, and Kanye West performed "Run This Town", in which all three are featured. West sat down for a previously unplanned interview with Leno, discussing West's outburst at the MTV Video Music Awards the previous night. Dan Finnerty was the comic correspondent for the night, and the end of the show featured Headlines.
Reviews for the first show ranged from neutral to negative, with most critics stating that the show was, despite the changes, still very similar to Tonight. Metacritic scores it at 48 out of 100 based on 23 TV critic reviews, and viewers scoring it at a 4.0 out of 10. Media Life described the show as "underwhelming" and felt that Leno "failed to rise to the occasion." The Buffalo News called the show "a mess." The Associated Press noted that "it's not a good sign when the Bud Light commercial is funnier than the comedy show it interrupts," and that "at least Rosie Live took some chances." Jonah Krakow of IGN gave it a 5.5/10 saying that "show felt like they just picked from where they left off three months ago, and I'm not sure that's a good thing".
Final show
The final Jay Leno Show aired on February 9, 2010. The guests were Ashton Kutcher, Gabourey Sidibe and Bob Costas, with unannounced visits from Donald Trump and Kurt Warner. Following the monologue, there was a brief clip reel of highlights from the show's short tenure; otherwise, little mention was made about the fact that it was the final episode of the program. The last moments of the show featured the program's "10 at 10" segment, with its celebrity guest being Bob Costas. When Leno asked Costas how it felt to be the show's final guest, the sportscaster replied, "Kind of like being involved in the last game of a Clippers season, isn't it?" Directly following the interview with Costas, Leno thanked him, told the audience to stay tuned for their local news, and then abruptly went off-air.
Many media outlets criticized Leno's apparent lack of ceremony for the end of his program.New York Times article: "Without Fanfare, Leno’s Prime-Time Show Ends". Variety reported that the lack of fanfare was intentional, as NBC was attempting to rehab the reputation of Leno and The Tonight Show and did not desire to bring any further attention to Leno's transition back to Tonight. The Associated Press noted that the last few weeks of the program, including the final episode, were pervaded by "bad vibes." The Boston Globe wrote that Leno said farewell to his short-lived show "with all the momentousness of a guy taking out the trash." The episode received negative reviews from Entertainment Weekly, the Los Angeles Times, and The Wall Street Journal. By comparison, O'Brien's final Tonight Show was treated as a finale, with guests making reference to the show ending and guest Neil Young taking an ironic tone by performing "Long May You Run".
Impact
Financial
Leno had a contract for five years for the show. NBC reportedly had an option to cancel after two years, but had committed to at least one or two years regardless of ratings, although later chose to end the show after less than five months. He could have earned up to $30 million each year depending on ratings for Leno, compared to a $20 million annual salary during his last years at Tonight.
NBC expected to benefit by offering an inexpensive comedic alternative to the procedurals ("100% more comedy and 98% fewer murders!") and other one-hour dramas that typically air at 10 pm, and by offering new episodes 46 weeks each year versus 22.Itzkoff, Dave. "NBC’s ‘Jay Leno Show’ Promises 98 Percent Fewer Murders" The New York Times, 2009-05-04. While Leno was not necessarily expected to be competitive with the higher-rated scripted shows on ABC and CBS in its time slot, its projected cost of production was far lower and thus it was expected to be profitable to the network, and product integration intended to make the show "as DVR-proof as you can be on television in this era". Each airing of Leno cost about $350,000 to $400,000 versus up to $3 million for an hour-long drama, saving NBC $13 million each week without the network needing the show to beat its competitors. Those costs include the services of 22 writers, whom Leno called the "top 5% of the highest-paid . . . in the Guild."
McDonald's became the first buying advertiser for the program, tying in their "Million Dollar Roll" nightly in October 2009 promoting that year's version of McDonald's Monopoly.
Ratings
Leno did not expect his show to beat competing first-run episodes, but to do better than reruns, in part because topical jokes benefit from the "immediacy" of the time slot versus 11:30 pm. A television analyst predicted that Leno would finish in "a safe third place" every night. NBC research before the show's debut indicated that fans of Leno would watch Leno two to three times a week.
NBC saw a 1.5 rating for the show in the 18–49 demographic as "viable" and a 1.8 as a "home run". NBC told Leno that at a 1.5 rating, NBC makes $300 million a year. Tonight at 11:30 pm earned about a 1.3 to 1.5; the television audience at 10 pm is 40% larger than at 11:30 pm, and the network hoped Leno'''s audience would also grow. Industry observers have cited a range of ratings, from 1.7 to 2,"Sternberg calls the fall: 'FlashForward,' 'Community' hit; 'Rivers,' 'Forgotten' miss" The Hollywood Reporter, 2009-08-14. as being necessary for the show to succeed at 10 pm. By comparison, 2.5 is generally necessary for a 10 pm drama to succeed; those that earned a 1.7 or less during the 2008–2009 season were generally cancelled. NBC's prime-time dramas averaged about 2 during 2008–2009.
The first episode of The Jay Leno Show earned "fast national" estimates of 17.7 million viewers, an 11 Nielsen rating (5.1 among persons 18–49) and an 18 share, significantly above both his Tonight finale and the debut of The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien in all categories. By the second week and competing against season premieres, the audience fell to six million viewers, still on par with or exceeding NBC projections. As of November 1, 2009, The Jay Leno Show has averaged a 1.98 in the adults 18–49 ratings and 6.594 million viewers. During the week before Christmas, the ratings dropped to 1.4 during the week. Prior to the controversy regarding the move of the Jay Leno Show to 11:35 p.m., viewership bottomed out at 4.799 million viewers, although there was a slight bump as word of the controversy broke.
Though the show itself had been meeting the network's projections, it was severely detrimental to the ratings of the late local news on NBC affiliates. As originally feared by WHDH in Boston, several stations across the country saw what was known as the "Leno Effect", where the lower audience for Leno (as compared to NBC's scripted prime time offerings) translated directly into a domino effect of severe audience drops for late local news (on the order of 25–30%) and completely stunted NBC's past successful schedule hammocking strategies, effects that NBC had underestimated.
Dispute over timeslot
In early January 2010, multiple media outlets reported that, following the 2010 Winter Olympics, The Jay Leno Show would be shortened to 30 minutes and begin airing weeknights at 11:35 pm ET, with Conan O'Brien and Jimmy Fallon's shows following it beginning at 12:05 am on March 1, 2010. On January 10, NBC Universal Television Entertainment Chairman Jeff Gaspin confirmed that The Jay Leno Show would indeed move to 11:35.
Leno immediately accepted the return to 11:35 p.m., calling the move "all business." He had made it known in the press in November 2009 that he wished to return to his old timeslot; behind the scenes, Leno had privately indicated that he did not believe the 10:00 experiment would work. On the other hand, O'Brien's contract stipulated that the network could move the show back to 12:05 a.m. without penalty, a loophole put in primarily to accommodate sports preemptions, the network's traditional nightly Wimbledon tournament highlights show, and specials such as New Year's Eve with Carson Daly.
O'Brien did not seriously respond for several days after the announcement, then drafted a press release explaining why he felt it was unfair to him, his staff, Fallon, and the legacy of The Tonight Show to move the show past midnight. He concluded by saying that he "cannot participate in what I honestly believe is [The Tonight Shows] destruction."Huffington Post article: "Conan O'Brien Statement: I Will Not Follow Jay At 12:05". O'Brien received an outpouring of celebrity and viewer support for rejecting the move, while Leno received heavy criticism.Huffington Post article: "Patton Oswalt: Jay Leno Is Like Nixon, I Don't Like Him". On January 21, O'Brien signed a $45 million deal allowing him to leave the network, and aired his final episode of Tonight on January 22; Leno returned as host of Tonight on March 1.
Settlement
On January 19, 2010, multiple media outlets reported that O'Brien and NBC were close to signing a deal between $30 and $40 million for the host to walk away from the network.New York Post article: "NBC near deal to allow Conan to leave network". One apparent sticking point in the negotiations was the amount his staff and crew were to be paid for leaving the program.Chicago Sun Times article: "Conan negotiations stuck on staff, Triumph ". Reports also said that the contract could prohibit O'Brien from badmouthing NBC in any way, and that he may be able to return to television as early as September 2010.
On January 21, after two weeks of negotiations, it was announced that Conan O'Brien had signed a $45 million deal to leave NBC. The Wall Street Journal reports that O'Brien will receive about $32 million, with his staff receiving around $12 million. The contract contains a clause prohibiting O'Brien from making negative remarks about NBC for a certain amount of time; it does not, however, contain the previously rumored "mitigation clause," in which NBC would be able to keep some of the severance pay after O'Brien finds a new program. It also stipulates that he could have returned to television as early as September 1, 2010. The network confirmed that Leno would officially resume as host of The Tonight Show on March 1. TMZ reported that NBC would rerun episodes from O'Brien's time as host until the network began airing the Olympics on February 12.
O'Brien later reached a deal with cable network TBS to premiere a new late-night talk show, Conan.
Industry impact
NBC became the first large United States network to broadcast the same show every weekday during prime time since ABC's Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? marathons in 1999 and only the second since DuMont aired Captain Video and His Video Rangers from 1949 to 1955. More recently, the upstart MyNetwork TV had attempted, upon its launch in 2006, to air the same telenovelas every night of the week, a programming strategy that proved to be very unsuccessful. NBC's executives called the decision "a transformational moment in the history of broadcasting" and "in effect, launching five shows." An industry observer said that Leno, "in all my years, is the biggest risk a network has ever taken." According to former NBC president Fred Silverman, "If the Leno Show works, it will be the most significant thing to happen in broadcast television in the last decade."
Although NBC had not developed a new hit show at 10 pm in years, industry executives criticized the network for abandoning a history of airing quality dramas at that hour such as Hill Street Blues, St. Elsewhere, and ER, which made NBC "the gold standard for sophisticated programming . . . the No. 1 network for affluent and well-educated young viewers" during the 1980s and 1990s. In addition, critics predicted that the decision would hurt NBC by undermining a reputation built on successful scripted shows. Other networks believed NBC's decision created an opportunity, and planned their 2009–2010 schedules accordingly. For example, the show competed with The Mentalist, CSI: Miami, CSI: NY, and Numb3rs, four of television's most popular series, on CBS (the first of those four series was moved to 10:00 PM to directly compete with Leno's show, and significantly improved the ratings for that timeslot compared to its predecessor). Leno was also not easily sold overseas.
The January 29, 2010 issue of Entertainment Weekly listed the show at the top of a list of the 50 Biggest Bombs in television history. The comment made by the network executives about "launching five shows" was ultimately transformed into the joke that its removal was like "cancelling five shows." TV Guide similarly listed the show as the biggest blunder in television history in its November 1, 2010 edition.
Boycott by competing networks
Rival networks ABC and CBS had discouraged "their stars" from appearing on The Jay Leno Show in its primetime slot. Julia Louis-Dreyfus (The New Adventures of Old Christine) was the first CBS actor to appear on the show, on September 29, 2009; on that episode, she said "there was a little pressure, because as you know you are now on prime time", but that "Obviously, I committed to doing your show and we’re friends". This boycott did not affect The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien nor was it industry-wide. Other TV networks, like Fox, The CW, and HBO, were more encouraging. Hugh Laurie from the Fox TV show House was a guest on the September 25, 2009, telecast. House is produced by Universal Media Studios, a sister company to NBC through NBC Universal, and Fox does not offer any network programming in the 10 p.m. time slots, instead allowing most of its affiliates to go to local news.
In a Broadcasting & Cable interview published in early November 2009, Leno mentioned the boycott again, saying "I'm flattered; like ABC and CBS...none of their stars can appear on the show. What are you so afraid of if we're doing so terrible? It's all part of the game."
Labor union impact
John Wells, the president of the Writers Guild of America, West, and executive producer of prominent NBC shows ER and The West Wing, said, "I wish NBC and Jay Leno well; personally, he's a very nice guy, but I hope he falls flat on his face and we get five dramas back."
Website dispute
In 2004, Guadalupe Zambrano, a Texas real estate agent, registered the domain name thejaylenoshow.com to redirect to his real estate business. After the Leno announcement, Leno accused Zambrano of cybersquatting. Zambrano contended that he had owned the domain for five years, well before the announcement, thus precluding recovery. The UDRP proceedings ruled in favor of Leno, however, stating that Zambrano profited from the value of the Jay Leno trademark in bad faith.
International broadcasting
In Australia, The Comedy Channel on Pay TV aired the show on a same-day turn around Weeknights at 7.30pm AEST. Free-to-air channel 7Two also aired the program at 6.00pm usually on a 30-hour delay. It moved to middays on January 18, 2010 but ran until September 24, 2010 when 7TWO changed the format to a Best-of British oriented channel following the launch of sister HD channel 7mate.
In Canada, Citytv simulcast Leno with NBC during the 2009–2010 season, requesting simultaneous substitution where applicable.
In Portugal, SIC Mulher aired the show Monday and Tuesday at 00.30am.
In Israel, yes stars Comedy aired the show Sundays-Thursdays at 8.00pm.
In Finland, The Jay Leno Show aired on MTV3 MAX on weeknights; because of subtitling, the episodes were shown three days after their US broadcast.
In Sweden, The Jay Leno Show aired on Kanal 9 on weeknights. Episodes were broadcast one week after their original US airing.
Westwood One provided audio of the monologue as a short-form feature, under the title Last Night on The Jay Leno Show, to radio stations in the United States and Canada, replacing the discontinued Jimmy Kimmel Live!'' feature.
See also
List of television shows considered the worst
References
External links
2000s American late-night television series
2010s American late-night television series
2000s American variety television series
2010s American variety television series
2009 American television series debuts
2010 American television series endings
American television talk shows
Burbank, California
NBC original programming
Jay Leno
English-language television shows
Television shows filmed in California | true | [
"The Tonight Show with Jay Leno is an American late-night talk show hosted by Jay Leno that first aired from May 25, 1992, to May 29, 2009, and resumed production on March 1, 2010, until its ending on February 6, 2014.\n\nThe fourth incarnation of the Tonight Show franchise debuted on May 25, 1992, three days after Johnny Carson's retirement as host of the program. The program originated from NBC Studios in Burbank, California, and was broadcast Monday through Friday at 11:35p.m. in the Eastern and Pacific time zones (10:35p.m. Central/Mountain time). Unlike Carson or his predecessor Jack Paar, Leno only once used a guest host, preferring to host the series in person.\n\nThe series, which followed the same basic format as that of its predecessors (an opening monologue followed by comedy routines, interviews and performances), ran until May 29, 2009, after which Leno was succeeded by Conan O'Brien. NBC signed Leno to a new deal for a nightly talk show in the 10:00 pm ET timeslot. The primetime series, titled The Jay Leno Show, debuted on September 14, 2009, following a similar format to the Leno incarnation of Tonight.\n\nNeither O'Brien's version of the program, which premiered June 1, 2009, nor The Jay Leno Show generated the ratings NBC had expected. The network decided to move a condensed 30-minute version of Leno's show to O'Brien's time slot, and O'Brien's Tonight Show a half-hour later. This decision met with opposition from O'Brien, whose stint on The Tonight Show ended January 22, 2010, after which he began his own talk show, Conan, on TBS. The Tonight Show with Jay Leno then began its second incarnation, the sixth of the franchise, on March 1, 2010. Leno left The Tonight Show for good on February 6, 2014, and on February 17, was succeeded by Late Night host Jimmy Fallon, at which time the series returned to New York for the first time since 1972.\n\nHistory\n\nSuccession from Carson \n\nJohnny Carson retired from The Tonight Show on May 22, 1992, and was replaced by Jay Leno. David Letterman wanted to move into the earlier time slot from his late night spot after The Tonight Show, and he was also considered by many as the natural successor (despite Leno having been Carson's permanent guest host for several years). Carson always favored Letterman; notably Carson, who had been interviewed by Letterman, made two appearances on Letterman's rival CBS show, made no mention of Leno during his final shows and regularly sent Letterman monologue jokes in his final years. With his heart set on the earlier time slot, Letterman left NBC in June 1993 and joined CBS that August. The Late Show with David Letterman, airing in the same slot, competed against The Tonight Show for the remainder of Leno's run. Leno would outdo Letterman in ratings for the majority of the show's run. Conan O'Brien slid into the late night time slot vacated by Letterman in September 1993.\n\nFirst end of Leno on Tonight \nOn September 27, 2004, the 50th anniversary of The Tonight Shows debut, NBC announced Leno would be succeeded by O'Brien, in 2009. Leno explained he did not want to see a repeat of the hard feelings and controversy that occurred when he was given the show over Letterman following Carson's retirement.\n\nIt was announced on July 21, 2008, that Leno would host his final episode of The Tonight Show on Friday, May 29, 2009, with O'Brien and James Taylor as his guests. O'Brien took over hosting duties commencing the following Monday, on June 1, 2009.\n\nOn December 9, 2008, it was announced Leno would be hosting a new nightly show in September 2009, which aired at 10 pm ET, during the network's prime time period. The Jay Leno Show ended after a short run on February 9, 2010.\n\nSecond incarnation \n\nOn January 7, 2010, multiple media outlets reported that effective March 1, 2010, The Jay Leno Show would move from the 10 pm (Eastern/Pacific Time) weeknight time slot to 11:35 pm and O'Brien's The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien would move from 11:35 pm to 12:05 am. On January 12, 2010, O'Brien publicly announced in an open letter that he intended to leave NBC if they moved The Tonight Show to 12:05 am ET/PT to accommodate moving The Jay Leno Show to 11:35 pm Eastern/10:35 pm Central, due to poor ratings. After several days of negotiations, O'Brien reached a settlement with NBC that allowed him to leave NBC and The Tonight Show on January 22, 2010.\n\nOn January 21, 2010, NBC announced Leno would return to The Tonight Show. Jay Leno began his second tenure on March 1, 2010, after the 2010 Winter Olympics. The show moved to Stage 11 in Burbank, the former home of The Jay Leno Show, with a similar set and theme song of The Jay Leno Show. Tonight Show bandleader Kevin Eubanks announced on April 12 he would be leaving The Tonight Show on May 28 after 18 years with Leno. Eubanks' replacement was former American Idol musical director Rickey Minor. Minor composed a new main theme when he took over.\n\nOn July 1, 2010, Variety reported that only six months into its second life, Leno's Tonight Show posted its lowest ratings since 1992. By September 2010, Leno's ratings in the adults 18-49 demographic had fallen below those of O'Brien when he had hosted The Tonight Show. NBC ratings specialist Tom Bierbaum commented that due to the host being out of late night television for a period of time and the subsequent 2010 Tonight Show conflict, Leno's ratings fall was \"not a surprise at all\". In October 2010, David Letterman beat Leno's program in the ratings, for the first time since Leno returned to hosting The Tonight Show. By May 2011, Leno's Tonight Show regained the lead and held it since then. However, by August 2012, the Los Angeles Times was reporting that The Tonight Show was in serious trouble for a number of reasons, most notably that NBC was losing money. While Leno offered to take a pay cut, at least 24 members of his staff were laid off. By March 2013, there were rumors that NBC would have Jimmy Fallon, who had been hosting Late Night since 2009 when he succeeded O'Brien, become the next host of The Tonight Show when Leno's current contract ended in 2014 and NBC would move the show back to New York for the first time in over 40 years. On May 13, 2013, during its fall \"upfronts\" presentation, NBC confirmed Fallon would take over as host of the Tonight Show beginning on February 17, 2014; Seth Meyers, in turn, would leave Saturday Night Live (where he was the anchor of Weekend Update) and take over Fallon's time slot.\n\nLeno's final Tonight Show aired on February 6, 2014. Per the terms on his deal with NBC, his staff was paid through September 2014. Leno wrapped up the night before the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, which began on February 7. Fallon took over the Tonight Show on February 17.\n\nLeno himself would later appear multiple times on Jimmy Fallon's version of Tonight, such as a June 15, 2016 appearance in which Leno not only appeared as a guest, he delivered part of that night's monologue, commenting on the 2016 American election campaign.\n(Leno came out to do the monologue after Fallon faked an injury.)\n\nProduction \nOn April 26, 1999, the show began broadcasting in HDTV 1080i, becoming the first American nightly talk show to be shot in high definition. The show was shot in 16:9 aspect ratio.\n\nFinances \nDuring the last year with Leno as host, The Tonight Show cost about $1.7 million a week to produce. With 45 weeks of annual production, that amounted to about $76.5 million, excluding the salaries for Leno and the show's \"top producers\".\n\nIn that same period, the show had been generating an estimated $30–$40 million a year in profit, down from the $150 million a year the franchise once made.\"\n\nFormat \nThe show follows an established six-piece format. After the announcer announces the opening credits for the show, the first segment is a ten-minute monologue by Leno, with jokes about current events and brief comedy sketches occasionally mixed in. The second segment is a full comedy sketch, such as a mini-documentary by a \"Tonight Show correspondent\" (e.g., Ross the Intern or Mikey Day), or a trademark of Leno's, such as Headlines.\n\nThe first guest appears, with the interview is divided into two segments, then followed by an interview with the second guest in the fifth segment. The sixth and final segment is typically a performance by a musical guest or stand-up comedian.\n\nImmediately following the last performance segment, Leno walks on camera to thank the performers, bid farewell to the audience and recommends watching Late Night which immediately follows The Tonight Show. As the closing credits roll on-screen, the closing theme, composed by bandleader Rickey Minor plays the show off the air.\n\nBandleader \nBranford Marsalis was the original bandleader of the show from 1992 to 1995, leaving the show after feeling displeased with his role on the show, what he called being an \"ass-kisser\". Kevin Eubanks, who was the guitarist in Marsalis' band, moved up to bandleader and remained with The Tonight Show and The Jay Leno Show until 2010, leaving the show for unclear \"personal\" reasons. Rickey Minor, former American Idol music director, replaced Eubanks.\n\nAnnouncer \nEdd Hall served as announcer on The Tonight Show from 1992 until 2004. Hall occasionally appeared in skits during the opening monologue. These skits often involved slapstick injury to Hall (by using a stunt double, dummy, or film clip), such as vehicles running him over in the studio parking lot. Unlike his predecessors on Tonight (i.e. McMahon with Carson, Hugh Downs with Jack Paar), Hall did not serve as a sidekick for Leno during his tenure on Leno's incarnation of The Tonight Show.\n\nHall was controversially replaced in 2004 by The Howard Stern Show staff member John Melendez in what many perceived as a thinly veiled attempt to attract a younger demographic and nonsensical considering his \"stuttering\" moniker. The hiring of Melendez, which was carried out by Leno without Stern's knowledge, prompted, a rift between Stern and Leno. Stern tiraded on his show for weeks on end, touting how Leno was \"ripping him off\", citing previously \"lifted\" material from his show such as \"Jaywalking\" ripping off Stern's \"homeless game\"; for example, stating \"To an 18- to 25-year-old male, Jay Leno is gay. He might as well put a dress on.\" Since the move to The Jay Leno Show, Melendez was replaced as announcer, but remained on the writing staff. Wally Wingert would be the only off-camera announcer for Leno's second Tonight tenure, carrying over his duties from The Jay Leno Show.\n\nRecurring segments\n\nNotable episodes\nOn May 25, 1992, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno debuted on NBC. The first show featured Leno's guests; Billy Crystal, Shanice, and Robert Krulwich.\nOn May 20, 1993, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno traveled to the Bull & Finch Pub in Boston, Massachusetts, to celebrate the final episode of Cheers. This is the first time that The Tonight Show with Jay Leno is taped on the road.\nOn May 8, 1994, health and fitness expert Iron Jay makes his first appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.\nOn May 9, 1994, Bobcat Goldthwait appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, where he set the guest chair on fire. Leno throws a cup of coffee, and tells Bobcat to sit down.\nOn August 22, 1994, Leno eulogized his father, who had recently died. After his monologue, Leno sat behind his desk and told the audience about his father's life and how his father had supported him in his career. Leno noted a moment when, upon Carson's disapproval at Leno being his successor, his father had encouraged him and told him to \"fight the good fight\". Leno ended the tribute saying, \"You know, it really is lonely at the top. You have no idea. But... we'll fight the good fight, Pop.\"\nOn July 10, 1995, Hugh Grant appeared in public for the first time after his arrest on lewd conduct charges the previous month. Leno famously asked him \"What the hell were you thinking?\" In response, Grant told Leno, \"I think you know in life what's a good thing to do and what's a bad thing, and I did a bad thing...and there you have it.\" The appearance was the first episode in which Leno beat CBS rival David Letterman.\nOn November 30, 1995, Howard Stern, who had made two highly rated appearances in 1992 and 1993, appeared with bikini-clad porn stars Nikki Tyler and Janine Lindemulder, attempting to show \"the Tonight Show's first lesbian kiss\" and encouraging Leno to spank one of them. Stern and the women remained during Siskel and Ebert's segment, where he began to suck one of their toes, to raucous applause and behavior from the crowd. Leno was visibly uncomfortable during both segments, repeatedly telling Stern \"it will all be edited out\", and hastily trying to interview Siskel & Ebert while the crowd went wild at Stern's antics. Leno ended the show early by walking off the air, which was edited out when it aired a few hours later, as revealed by Stern when he went on the air (on the Howard Stern Show) the following morning. Despite the situation, Leno called into the show that morning claiming Stern had \"gone beyond the acceptable standards\". Stern said Leno should not have \"been so uptight\" and he had a \"real\" reaction to the situation which was great. Stern recounted Leno had yelled at his producer Gary Dell'Abate saying Stern had \"'s-d' in his house\" and supposedly \"grabbed his crotch\" and yelled \"Pussy, Pussy, Pussy! That's all it is with Howard\" which Leno denied but agreed he had been angered by Stern.\nIn September 2000, with California in an energy crisis that forced blackouts, Leno did an episode in the dark using only candles and flashlights known as \"The Tonight Show Unplugged\".\nFollowing the September 11 attacks, The Tonight Show was off the air for about a week, as were most similar programs. The first post-9/11 episode began with a still image of an American flag and a subdued opening without the usual opening credits. Leno's monologue paid tribute to those who lost their lives and to firefighters, police and rescue workers across the US. Leno had questioned whether a show that regularly poked fun at the government could continue after the attacks, but in his monologue he explained that he also saw the show as a respite from the grim news of the world, akin to a cookie or glass of lemonade handed to a firefighter. He also told a story about himself as a 12-year-old Boy Scout, which Leno said he was not a very good at because of his dyslexia. His scoutmaster gave him the task of being the \"cheermaster\" of the troop, in which Leno told jokes to the troop to keep their spirits up. Senator John McCain and the musical group Crosby, Stills, and Nash were featured guests. Leno also organized an auction for a Harley-Davidson motorcycle signed by celebrities (he signed his name on-stage), with the proceeds going to 9/11 support organizations. For an extended period after the attack, a short clip of a large American flag waving was shown in between the announcement of the musical guest and Leno's introduction during the opening montage.\nOn May 12, 2003, Katie Couric hosted The Tonight Show for a day. Couric's guests on that night's show were Mike Myers, Simon Cowell, and Robbie Williams.\nOn August 6, 2003, actor Arnold Schwarzenegger appeared on The Tonight Show and confirmed he would be running against California governor Gray Davis for the 2003 California gubernatorial recall election. Schwarzenegger won the election on October 7.\nOn January 24, 2005, Leno had a special episode that paid tribute to Tonight Show predecessor Johnny Carson, who had died the day before. During the opening credits, the guests of that show were simply announced using pictures from when they were on Carson's Tonight Show, and the monologue simply gave condolence to Carson. There were no segments used; however, Leno played clips from The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson before commercials. All the guests were people who had worked with Carson, and had been on his show, including Ed McMahon, Drew Carey, Don Rickles, and Bob Newhart.\nOn July 20, 2006, as Colin Farrell was being interviewed by Leno, Farrell's stalker, Dessarae Bradford, evaded security, walked on stage as cameras were rolling, confronted Farrell, and threw her book on Leno's desk. In front of a silent, stunned audience, Farrell escorted her off the stage himself, told the camera crew to stop filming, and handed her over to security. As Bradford was led out of the studio, she shouted \"I'll see you in court!\" Farrell's response was simply, \"Darling, you're insane!\" Outside the studio, NBC security handed her to Burbank police, who eventually released her. While waiting to begin filming again, a shocked Leno sarcastically called for \"a round of applause for NBC security\" from the audience. After Farrell apologized to the audience, describing Bradford as \"my first stalker,\" the show then continued filming and the incident was edited out of the broadcast aired that night. Farrell later requested a restraining order in court against Bradford.\nOn July 24, 2007, the monologue was animated by Homer Simpson. Simpson gave a short monologue to the audience, and was \"kicked out\" by Leno. This sketch was to promote The Simpsons Movie.\nOn January 2, 2008, The Tonight Show (along with Jimmy Kimmel Live! and Late Night with Conan O'Brien) returned to air without writers, with the WGA still on strike. This was in response to the deal by David Letterman's production company Worldwide Pants and CBS Paramount Television with the WGA to allow Late Show with David Letterman and The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson to return with writers. Leno's guest that night, Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, was criticized for crossing the WGA picket line to appear on the show. Huckabee would go on to win the Iowa caucuses the very next day.\nOn June 13, 2008, Leno delivered the news of Tim Russert's death to his audience during his monologue, and set aside some time in it to remember his old colleague. Leno then stated that he would continue the show as normal afterwards.\nOn March 19, 2009, Barack Obama appeared on the show. This marked the first time that a sitting President of the United States appeared on a late night talk show. President Obama came under fire for a remark made about the Special Olympics, which he made in reference to Leno's congratulations to Obama's low bowling score.\nOn March 1, 2010, Leno made his return to The Tonight Show with a re-written version of The Jay Leno Show theme song and a renovated Stage 11. Leno's guests were Jamie Foxx, Olympic Gold medalist Lindsey Vonn, and musical guest Brad Paisley. Leno also did a segment searching for a new desk, an element which was not implemented into his primetime show.\n On November 18, 2010, former President George W. Bush made his first appearance on a late night talk show since leaving office.\nOn November 23, 2010, former bandleader Kevin Eubanks returned to promote his new album Zen Food.\nOn March 2, 2011, the 4,000th episode aired.\nOn February 21, 2013, Eubanks made a second guest appearance to promote his new album The Messenger and had a sit-down interview with Leno following the performance.\nOn December 11, 2013, Eubanks made a third guest appearance as a Meal or No Meal judge.\nOn February 6, 2014, Leno hosted his final show, which featured several pre-taped well-wishes (and humorous advice) from a variety of celebrities ranging from Steve Carell to President Barack Obama, who offered Leno an ambassadorship to Antarctica (\"Hope you have a warm coat, funnyman.\"). Appearing as Leno's final guests were Billy Crystal (Leno's first guest in 1992) and Garth Brooks. Crystal surprised Leno by leading an on-stage sing-along of \"So Long, Farewell\" from The Sound of Music, with lyrics for the occasion performed by special guests Jack Black, Kim Kardashian, Chris Paul, Sheryl Crow, Jim Parsons, Carol Burnett, and Oprah Winfrey; Brooks performed his touching song \"The Dance\" (at Leno's request) before closing out the show with the rousing \"Friends in Low Places.\" In closing \"the greatest 22 years of my life,\" Leno turned emotional in his final remarks, calling himself \"the luckiest guy in the world... I got to meet presidents, astronauts, and movie stars.\" Leno also thanked the audience as well as his staff, who \"became my family\" after the deaths of his parents and his brother early in his Tonight tenure.\n\nReception \nCritical reviews for the show were mixed, with a Metacritic score of 49 out of 100, based on 9 reviews. In a negative review, Robert Bianco of USA Today wrote; \"Monday's opening monologue, supposedly Leno's strong suit, was tired, lame and unfunny. In other words, typical of the real Leno, rather than the Leno of public-relations imagination.\"\n\nThe show was nominated for an Emmy Award in the Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series category ten times between 1993 and 2005. It won the award in 1995.\n\nRatings \nThe 10th Anniversary special, broadcast on April 30, 2002, drew in 11.888 million viewers.\n\nOn September 22, 2006, The Tonight Show led in ratings for the 11th consecutive season, with a nightly average of 5.7 million viewers – 31% of the total audience in that time slot – compared to 4.2 million viewers for Late Show with David Letterman, 3.4 million for Nightline and 1.6 million for Jimmy Kimmel Live!. Two events helped Leno gain and keep the lead: a new set brought Leno closer to the audience and Hugh Grant kept his July 10, 1995 scheduled appearance, despite having been arrested for seeing a prostitute, where Leno famously asked Grant, \"What the hell were you thinking?\" The final telecast of the first incarnation of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno had the show's highest overnight household rating for a Friday episode in the comedian's 17-year run as host of Tonight, averaging an 8.8 rating in metered-market households.\n\nFor at least six weeks following his return to The Tonight Show, Leno's program beat Letterman in the overall ratings each night, though with a reduced lead in comparison to his first tenure. By mid-2010, The Tonight Show was receiving its lowest ratings since 1992, an average of 4 million total viewers, though he remained ahead of Letterman, who experienced a coinciding decline in ratings. In September 2010, The Tonight Show posted its lowest numbers on record, with Leno averaging 3.8 million viewers. This was a 12% increase in total viewers over O'Brien at the same time the previous year, but still 23% below O'Brien in the coveted 18–49 demographic. For the first time in almost 15 years, the show slipped to second place in its time slot being consistently beaten by Nightline. In October 2010, Letterman beat Leno's program in the ratings, for the first time since Leno returned to hosting The Tonight Show.\n\nIn the May 2011 sweeps period, all of NBCs late night programming had increased viewership. The Tonight Show received a 15% increase in viewership compared with the first 36 weeks of last season. In that process, it outlasted rival late night talk shows Jimmy Kimmel Live! on ABC, as well as Late Show with David Letterman on CBS. Both of Leno's lead-in, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and Last Call with Carson Daly, also received increased viewership. For the season, in the 18–49 demographic, The Tonight Show had 4 million viewers, compared with Late Show, which had 3.5 million, and Jimmy Kimmel Live!, which had only 1.9 million. Nightline, though, still beat Leno in the May 2011 sweeps, with 4.4 million viewers.\n\nSeries High\n22.4 million (Cheers finale; May 20, 1993)\n16.1 million (debut; May 25, 1992)\n14.96 million (Seinfeld finale; May 14, 1998)\n14.64 million (series finale; February 6, 2014)\n11.9 million (first series finale; May 29, 2009) \n\nWeekly Highs\nMay 17, 1993: 9.08 million viewers\nFinale Week|2014: 8.289 million viewers\n\nThe Tonight Show in other countries\n\nAustralia \nThe show was telecast in Australia by The Comedy Channel before being discontinued in July 2010, shortly after Leno's reinstatement as the host of The Tonight Show. The channel had been airing versions by the various presenters under the title Late Night Legends. Currently, The Tonight Show is one of the few late-night television shows that cannot be viewed on Australian television. The only shows available are Late Show with David Letterman on Network Ten, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on The Comedy Channel, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson on Eleven and Conan on GEM.\n\nBrazil \nFrom 1991 to 2000 the cable channel Superstation showed both The Tonight Show and Late Show in daily bases, one week after airing in the United States. From 2011 the show was broadcast on Record News with Brazilian Portuguese subtitles at midnight (local time), two days after airing in United States.\n\nCanada \nCanadian viewers watched the show on CTV 2 and NBC.\n\nCNBC Asia \nFor many years, The Tonight Show episodes from the week ran back-to-back on Saturday and Sunday on CNBC Asia, available to Brunei, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand – but since October 2011, they have been replaced by Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.\n\nCNBC Europe \nCNBC Europe confirmed they would show The Tonight Show when Conan O'Brien took over from Jay Leno in June 2009. After Leno returned, they have been showing The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. From Monday April 19, 2010, until the show's conclusion under Leno, CNBC Europe aired the show on weeknights from 12.00 am CET in a one-hour format, with double bill re-runs on Saturdays/Sundays from 9:00pm-9:45 pm & 9:45pm-10:30 pm CET. The show aired on a one-day delay from original transmission in the US.\n\nFinland \nIn Finland, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno was broadcast by MTV3 MAX from Monday to Friday with a three-night delay.\n\nIndia \nThe show was originally broadcast on CNBC. Starting in 2006 it was telecast on Zee Café at local time 10:00pm with a one-night delay. It was later shifted to Zee Trends in 2011, which was subsequently discontinued after a short run. Now The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon is telecast on Comedy Central at 11:00pm every weekdays.\n\nIsrael \nIn Israel the show was aired during the 1990s on NBC Europe, which was included in Israeli cable (later called the \"Hot\" company), though this channel was pulled from cable in Israel towards the end of the 1990s. Soon after, the show began airing on the Israeli popular cable channel Hot 3 (then simply called \"Channel 3\") until 1999. Since 2000, the show is broadcast in the Israeli satellite company yes (which launched in that year) in various channels, the current being yes stars comedy.\n\nItaly \nIn Italy (with Italian subtitles) from 2003 to 2007 when RaiSat Extra cancelled the program.\n\nPhilippines \nIn the Philippines, channel ETC broadcast The Tonight Show from 2004 until 2007, when the show was turned over to sister channel JackTV and Talk TV.\n\nPortugal \nIn Portugal, the show was first shown on SIC Comedia until the channel was off the air by the end of 2006. The show was switched to SIC Mulher until Leno moved to prime-time. Sic Radical used to broadcast The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien following the demand from their target audience to O'Brien's humor, after Jimmy Fallon took over Late Night. The contract that both NBC and SIC had was not expired by the time The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien got cancelled, so the network received the rights to exhibit The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.\n\nSweden \nIn Sweden, Kanal 5 started airing The Tonight Show every night Monday to Friday with a one-week delay in 2000. In 2008, Kanal 5 chose to replace it with Jimmy Kimmel Live!, and moved The Tonight Show to their sister channel Kanal 9, with a rerun aired the next day on Kanal 5.\n\nTurkey \nThe Tonight Show with Jay Leno was broadcast by CNBC-e and e2 on weekdays at 00:00 with a one-night delay.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n \n \n \n\n \nLeno, Jay\nJay Leno\n1992 American television series debuts\n2009 American television series endings\n2010 American television series debuts\n2014 American television series endings\n1990s American late-night television series\n2000s American late-night television series\n2010s American late-night television series\n1990s American variety television series\n2000s American variety television series\n2010s American variety television series\nEnglish-language television shows\nNBC original programming\nPrimetime Emmy Award-winning television series\nCNBC Europe original programming\nTelevision series by Universal Television\nAmerican television series revived after cancellation\nTelevision shows filmed in California\nBurbank, California\nPrimetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety Series winners",
"James Douglas Muir Leno (; born April 28, 1950) is an American television host, comedian, and writer. After doing stand-up comedy for years, he became the host of NBC's The Tonight Show with Jay Leno from 1992 to 2009. Beginning in September 2009, he started a primetime talk show, The Jay Leno Show, which aired weeknights at 10:00pm ET, also on NBC. When it was canceled in January 2010 amid a timeslot and host controversy, Leno returned to hosting The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on March 1, 2010. He hosted his last episode of this second tenure on February 6, 2014. That year, he was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame. Since 2014, he has hosted Jay Leno's Garage, and the 2021 revival of You Bet Your Life.\n\nLeno writes a regular column in Popular Mechanics showcasing his car collection and giving automotive advice. He also writes occasional \"Motormouth\" articles for The Sunday Times.\n\nEarly life\nLeno was born April 28, 1950 in New Rochelle, New York. His homemaker mother, Catherine (née Muir; 1911–1993), was born in Greenock, Scotland, and came to the United States at age 11. His father, Angelo (1910–1994), was an insurance salesman born in New York to immigrants from Flumeri, Italy. Leno grew up in Andover, Massachusetts and graduated from Andover High School. He obtained a bachelor's degree in speech therapy from Emerson College, where he started a comedy club in 1973. His older brother, Patrick (May 12, 1940 – October 6, 2002), was a Vietnam War veteran who became an attorney.\n\nCareer\n\nEarly career\nLeno made his first appearance on The Tonight Show on March 2, 1977, performing a comedy routine. During the 1970s, he had minor roles in several television series and films, first in the 1976 episode \"J.J. in Trouble\" of Good Times, and the same year in the pilot of Holmes & Yo-Yo. After an uncredited appearance in the 1977 film Fun with Dick and Jane, he played more prominent roles in 1978 in American Hot Wax and Silver Bears. His other film and television appearances from that period include Almost Heaven (1978), \"Going Nowhere\" (1979) on One Day at a Time, Americathon (1979), Polyester (1981), \"The Wild One\" (1981) on Alice, and both \"Feminine Mistake\" (1979) and \"Do the Carmine\" (1983) on Laverne & Shirley. His only starring film role was the 1989 direct-to-video Collision Course, with Pat Morita. He also appeared numerous times on Late Night with David Letterman.\n\nHe also appeared on three weeks of the short-lived NBC game show Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour in 1983 and 1984.\n\nThe Tonight Show\n\nStarting in 1986, Leno was a regular substitute host for Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show. In 1992, he replaced Carson as host amid controversy with David Letterman, who had been hosting Late Night with David Letterman since 1982 (aired after The Tonight Show), and whom many—including Carson himself—expected to be Carson's successor. The story of this turbulent transition became the basis of a book and a movie. Leno continued to perform as a stand-up comedian throughout his Tonight Show tenure. In 1988, he received a contract extension with NBC itself.\n\nIn 2004, Leno signed a contract extension with NBC to retain him as host of The Tonight Show until 2009. Later in 2004, Conan O'Brien signed a contract with NBC to become the show's host in 2009, replacing Leno at that time.\n\nDuring the 2007–08 Writers Guild of America strike, Leno was accused of violating WGA guidelines by writing his own monologue for The Tonight Show. NBC and Leno claimed there were private meetings with the WGA where a secret agreement was reached allowing this, the WGA denied such meetings. Leno answered questions in front of the Writers Guild of America, West trial committee in February 2009 and June 2009, and when the WGAW published its list of strikebreakers on August 11, 2009, Leno was not on it.\n\nOn April 23, 2009, Leno checked himself into a hospital with an undisclosed illness. He was released the following day and returned to work on Monday, April 27. The two subsequently canceled Tonight Show episodes for April 23 and 24 were his first in 17 years as host. The illness was not initially disclosed, but Leno later told People magazine that it was for exhaustion.\n\nMichael Jackson trial\nDuring the 2005 trial of Michael Jackson over allegations of child molestation, Leno was one of a few celebrities who appeared as defense witnesses. In his testimony regarding a phone conversation with the accuser, Leno testified that he was not asked for any money and there did not appear to be any coaching—but the calls seemed unusual and scripted.\n\nAs a result, Leno was initially not allowed to tell jokes about Jackson or the case, which had been a fixture of The Tonight Shows opening monologue in particular. But he and his show's writers used a legal loophole by having Leno briefly step aside while stand-in comedians took the stage and told jokes about the trial. These stand-ins included Roseanne Barr, Drew Carey, Brad Garrett, and Dennis Miller. The gag order was challenged, and the court ruled that Leno could continue telling jokes about the trial as long as he did not discuss his testimony. Leno celebrated by devoting an entire monologue to Michael Jackson jokes.\n\nSuccession by Conan O'Brien; The Jay Leno Show\n\nBecause Leno's show continued to lead all late-night programming in the Nielsen ratings, the pending expiration of his contract led to speculation about whether he would become a late-night host for another network when his commitment to NBC expired. He left The Tonight Show on Friday, May 29, 2009, and Conan O'Brien took over on June 1, 2009.\n\nOn December 8, 2008, it was reported that Leno would remain on NBC and move to a new hour-long show at 10 p.m. Eastern Time (9 p.m. Central Time) five nights a week. It would follow a similar format to The Tonight Show, be filmed in the same studio, and retain many of Leno's most popular segments, while O'Brien continued to host The Tonight Show.\n\nLeno's new show, The Jay Leno Show, debuted on September 14, 2009. It was announced at the Television Critics Association summer press tour that it would feature one or two celebrities, occasional musical guests, and keep the popular \"Headlines\" segments, which would be near the end of the show. First guests included Jerry Seinfeld, Oprah Winfrey (via satellite), and a short sit-down with Kanye West discussing his controversy at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, which had occurred the night before.\n\nTimeslot conflict and return to The Tonight Show\n\nIn their new roles, neither O'Brien nor Leno succeeded in delivering the viewing audiences the network anticipated. On January 7, 2010, multiple media outlets reported that beginning March 1, 2010, Leno would move from his 10 p.m. weeknight time slot to 11:35 p.m., due to a combination of pressure from local affiliates, whose newscasts were suffering, and both Leno's and O'Brien's poor ratings. Leno's show would be shortened from an hour to 30 minutes. All NBC late night programming would also be preempted by the 2010 Winter Olympics between February 15 and 26, moving The Tonight Show to 12:05 a.m., the first post-midnight timeslot in its history. O'Brien's contract stipulated that NBC could move the show ahead to 12:05 a.m. without penalty (a clause included primarily to accommodate sports preemptions).\n\nOn January 10, NBC confirmed that they would move Leno out of primetime as of February 12 and move him to late-night as soon as possible. TMZ reported that O'Brien was given no advance notice of this change, and that NBC offered him two choices: an hour-long 12:05 am time slot, or the option to leave the network. On January 12, O'Brien issued a press release that he would not continue with Tonight if it moved to a 12:05 a.m. time slot, saying, \"I believe that delaying The Tonight Show into the next day to accommodate another comedy program will seriously damage what I consider to be the greatest franchise in the history of broadcasting. The Tonight Show at 12:05 simply isn't The Tonight Show.\"\n\nOn January 21, it was announced that NBC had struck a deal with O'Brien: He would leave The Tonight Show, receive a $33 million payout, and his staff of almost 200 would receive $12 million in the departure. His final episode aired on Friday, January 22, 2010. Leno returned as host of The Tonight Show following the 2010 Winter Olympics on March 1, 2010.\n\nOn July 1, 2010, Variety reported that total viewership for Leno's Tonight Show had dropped from 5 million to 4 million for the second quarter of 2010, compared to the same period in 2009. Although it represented the show's lowest second-quarter ratings since 1992, Tonight was still the most-watched late night program, ahead of ABC's Nightline (3.7 million) and Late Show with David Letterman (3.3 million).\n\nAnnouncement of successor\nOn April 3, 2013, NBC announced that Leno would leave The Tonight Show in spring 2014, with Jimmy Fallon as his designated successor.\n\nLeno's final show as the host of The Tonight Show was on February 6, 2014, with guests Billy Crystal (who was the first guest on the first version of Leno's show), musical guest Garth Brooks, and surprise guests Jack Black, Kim Kardashian, Jim Parsons, Sheryl Crow, Chris Paul, Carol Burnett and Oprah Winfrey.\n\nAfter The Tonight Show\n\nLeno has maintained an active schedule as a touring stand-up comedian, doing an average of 200 live performances a year in venues across the United States and Canada and at charity events and USO tours. He has also appeared on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and Late Night with Seth Meyers, and was a guest on the finale of The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. He appeared in a cameo role drilling and tormenting James Corden in a facetious boot camp for talk-show hosts on the premiere of The Late Late Show with James Corden. He declined an invitation to appear on Late Show with David Letterman despite speculation he would appear on the show's finale.\n\nLeno hosted a one-hour Jay Leno's Garage special on CNBC, and the show has aired as a primetime series on the cable channel since 2015.\n\nLeno also had a recurring role in the Tim Allen comedy series Last Man Standing since season 5, playing a mechanic, Joe Leonard, in a store operated by Allen's character, Mike Baxter.\n\nLeno has hosted the third revival of the game show You Bet Your Life since its premiere in fall 2021. It has been renewed for a second season.\n\nLeno also does voice acting, such as The Crimson Chin on The Fairly Odd Parents from 2001 to 2016 and Billy Beagle of Mickey and the Roadster Racers.\n\nPublic image\n\nCriticism\n\nLeno has faced heated criticism and some negative publicity for his perceived role in the 2010 Tonight Show conflict. Critics have cited a 2004 Tonight Show clip where Leno said he would allow O'Brien to take over without incident. At the time, Leno said he did not want O'Brien to leave for a competing network, adding, \"I'll be 59 when [the switch occurs]. That's five years from now. There's really only one person who could have done this into his 60s, and that was Johnny Carson; I think it's fair to say I'm no Johnny Carson.\" Leno also described The Tonight Show as a dynasty, saying, \"You hold it and hand it off to the next person. And I don't want to see all the fighting.\" At the end of the segment, he said, \"Conan, it's yours! See you in five years, buddy!\"\n\nRosie O'Donnell was among O'Brien's most vocal and vehement supporters, calling Leno a \"bully\" and his actions \"classless and kind of career-defining\". Bill Zehme, the co-author of Leno's autobiography Leading with My Chin, told the Los Angeles Times, \"The thing Leno should do is walk, period. He's got everything to lose in terms of public popularity by going back. People will look at him differently. He'll be viewed as the bad guy.\"\n\nIn 2009, Leno received minor criticism for asking rapper Kanye West how his recently deceased mother, Donda West, would have felt about the incident at the 2009 VMAs, causing West to begin crying live on air.\n\nHoward Stern has also been a harsh critic of Leno before and following his Tonight Show timeslot-change announcement; Stern appeared on Late Night with Conan O'Brien in 2006 and said he felt it was unlikely that Leno would ever willingly give up The Tonight Show. During the conflict, Stern made many negative remarks about Leno as a guest on Late Show with David Letterman.\n\nLeno has also been criticized for the perceived change in the content of his monologues from his previous stand-up material. Actor and comedian Patton Oswalt was among the celebrities who openly voiced disappointment with Leno, saying, \"Comedians who don't like Jay Leno now, and I'm one of them, we're not like, 'Jay Leno sucks'; it's that we're so hurt and disappointed that one of the best comedians of our generation ... willfully has shut the switch off.\"\n\nIn August 2020, Leno faced criticism for expressing support for Ellen DeGeneres despite a workplace investigation into toxic behavior and sexual misconduct and harassment claims against producers of The Ellen DeGeneres Show.\n\nSupport for Leno\nNBC Sports chairman and former Saturday Night Live producer Dick Ebersol spoke out against all who had criticized Leno, calling them \"chicken-hearted and gutless\". Jeff Gaspin, then chairman of NBC Universal Television Entertainment, also defended Leno, saying, \"This has definitely crossed the line. Jay Leno is the consummate professional and one of the hardest-working people in television. It's a shame that he's being pulled into this.\" Fellow comedians Paul Reiser, Jerry Seinfeld and Jim Norton (a frequent contributor to The Tonight Show) also voiced support for Leno.\n\nResponding to the mounting criticism, Leno said NBC had assured him that O'Brien was willing to accept the proposed arrangement and that they would not let either host out of his contract. He also said that the situation was \"all business\", and that all of the decisions were made by NBC. He appeared on the January 28, 2010 episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show in an attempt to repair some of the damage done to his public image.\n\nInfluences\nLeno's comedic influences include Johnny Carson, Robert Klein, Alan King, David Brenner, Mort Sahl, George Carlin, Don Rickles, Bob Newhart, and Rodney Dangerfield.\n\nDennis Miller and Jerry Seinfeld have credited Leno as their inspiration.\n\nPersonal life\n\nLeno has been married to Mavis Leno since 1980; they have no children. In 1993, during his first season as host of The Tonight Show, Leno's mother died at the age of 82; and the next year, his father died at 84. Leno's older brother, Patrick, a Vietnam veteran and graduate of Yale Law School, died of cancer in 2002 at the age of 62.\n\nLeno is known for his prominent jaw, which has been described as mandibular prognathism. In the book Leading with My Chin, he says he was aware of surgery that could reset his mandible, but that he did not wish to endure a prolonged healing period with his jaws wired shut.\n\nLeno is dyslexic. He claims to need only four or five hours of sleep each night. He does not consume alcohol, smoke, or gamble. He spends much of his free time visiting car collections and working in his private garage.\n\nLeno has claimed that he has not spent any of the money he earned from The Tonight Show, but lives off of his money from his stand-up routines. He reportedly earned $32 million in 2005. In 2014, he received an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Emerson College, where he also delivered the commencement speech.\n\nCharity\nIn 2001, he and his wife donated $100,000 to the Feminist Majority Foundation's campaign to stop gender apartheid in Afghanistan, to educate the public regarding the plight of women in Afghanistan under Taliban rule. Mavis Leno is on the board of the Feminist Majority.\n\nIn 2009, he donated $100,000 to a scholarship fund at Salem State College (now Salem State University) in honor of Lennie Sogoloff, who gave Leno his start at his jazz club, Lennie's-on-the-Turnpike.\n\nIn August 2012, Leno auctioned his Fiat 500, which was sold for $385,000 with all the proceeds going to a charity that helps wounded war veterans recover by providing them with temporary housing.\n\nLove Ride\nSince 1985, Leno has been the Grand Marshal for the Love Ride, a motorcycle charity event which since its founding in 1984 has raised nearly $14 million for charities benefiting muscular dystrophy research, Autism Speaks, and in 2001, the September 11 attacks recovery.\n\nVehicle collection\n\nLeno owns approximately 286 vehicles (169 cars and 117 motorbikes). He also has a website and a TV program called Jay Leno's Garage, which contains video clips and photos of his car collection in detail, as well as other vehicles of interest to him. Leno's Garage Manager is Bernard Juchli. Among his collection are two Doble steam cars, a sedan and a roadster that were owned by Howard Hughes, the fifth Duesenberg Model X known to survive, and one of nine remaining 1963 Chrysler Turbine Cars. The collection also includes three antique electric cars — the 1925 Baker Motor Vehicle is his wife Mavis' favorite car.\n\nHe has a regular column in Popular Mechanics which showcases his car collection and gives advice about various automotive topics, including restoration and unique models, such as his jet-powered motorcycle and solar-powered hybrid. Leno also writes occasional \"Motormouth\" articles for The Sunday Times, reviewing high-end sports cars and giving his humorous take on motoring matters.\n\nLeno opened his garage to Team Bondi, the company that developed the 2011 video game L.A. Noire, which is set in Los Angeles in the late-1940s. Leno's collection contains almost one hundred cars from this period, and allowed the team to recreate their images as accurately as possible.\n\nPolitics\nHosting the 2014 Genesis Prize award ceremony in Jerusalem, Leno made jokes mocking then-President Barack Obama and then-Secretary of State John Kerry, accusing Obama of \"trying to break\" the U.S.'s relationship with Israel.\n\nIn a 2015 interview with The Jerusalem Post, Leno said, \"I always considered Israel as not only the only democracy in the Middle East, I think it’s the purest, because every Israeli voter seems to have his own political party.\" He also added about Israel's relations with other Middle East countries: \"Israel is so efficient in defending itself and so good at it, that to the rest of the world it looks like bullying.\"\n\nFilmography\n\nAwards and nominations\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n Tonight Show with Jay Leno episodes\n Jay Leno's Garage (NBC)\n An interview with Jay Leno, Totalcar magazine\n The New York Times on Leno's affiliation with McPherson College\n Live performance videos from the Tonight Show\n \n\n \n \n\n \n \n\n \n1950 births\nLiving people\n20th-century American comedians\n20th-century American male actors\n21st-century American comedians\n21st-century American male actors\nAmerican car collectors\nAmerican male comedians\nAmerican male film actors\nAmerican male television actors\nAmerican male television writers\nAmerican male voice actors\nAmerican people of Italian descent\nAmerican people of Scottish descent\nAmerican stand-up comedians\nAmerican television writers\nAmerican YouTubers\nMale YouTubers\nBentley University alumni\nComedians from Massachusetts\nComedians from New York (state)\nEmerson College alumni\nLas Vegas shows\nLate night television talk show hosts\nMale actors from New Rochelle, New York\nMark Twain Prize recipients\nPeople from Andover, Massachusetts\nPeople with dyslexia\nPrimetime Emmy Award winners\nScreenwriters from Massachusetts\nScreenwriters from New York (state)\nTelevision personalities from New Rochelle, New York\nTelevision producers from New York (state)"
]
|
[
"The Jay Leno Show",
"Dispute over timeslot",
"What was the timeslot Jay Leno was in?",
"11:35",
"What other show was the dispute over?",
"Conan O'Brien",
"When did the dispute happen?",
"2010",
"Why was there a dispute over the 11:35 time?",
"\" He had made it known in the press in November 2009 that he wished to return to his old timeslot;",
"How did Conan react?",
"\"cannot participate in what I honestly believe is [The Tonight Show's] destruction.\"",
"Did he get the old timeslot back?",
"criticism. On January 21, O'Brien signed a $45 million deal allowing him to leave the network,",
"How were the ratings afterwards?",
"I don't know.",
"Did the Jay Leno show continue at the later time or was that cancelled too?",
"The Jay Leno Show would be shortened to 30 minutes and begin airing weeknights at 11:35 pm ET,"
]
| C_faa2e2423bbc407e89b705466c82df48_1 | Did Conan stay at the network? | 9 | Did Conan stay at the network? | The Jay Leno Show | In early January 2010, multiple media outlets reported that, following the 2010 Winter Olympics, The Jay Leno Show would be shortened to 30 minutes and begin airing weeknights at 11:35 pm ET, with Conan O'Brien and Jimmy Fallon's shows following it beginning at 12:05 am on March 1, 2010. On January 10, NBC Universal Television Entertainment Chairman Jeff Gaspin confirmed that The Jay Leno Show would indeed move to 11:35. Leno immediately accepted the return to 11:35 p.m., calling the move "all business." He had made it known in the press in November 2009 that he wished to return to his old timeslot; behind the scenes, Leno had privately indicated that he did not believe the 10:00 experiment would work. On the other hand, O'Brien's contract stipulated that the network could move the show back to 12:05 a.m. without penalty, a loophole put in primarily to accommodate sports preemptions, the network's traditional nightly Wimbledon tournament highlights show, and specials such as New Year's Eve with Carson Daly. O'Brien did not seriously respond for several days after the announcement, then drafted a press release explaining why he felt it was unfair to him, his staff, Fallon, and the legacy of The Tonight Show to move the show past midnight. He concluded by saying that he "cannot participate in what I honestly believe is [The Tonight Show's] destruction." O'Brien received an outpouring of celebrity and viewer support for rejecting the move, while Leno received heavy criticism. On January 21, O'Brien signed a $45 million deal allowing him to leave the network, and aired his final episode of Tonight on January 22; Leno returned as host of Tonight on March 1. CANNOTANSWER | O'Brien signed a $45 million deal allowing him to leave the network, | The Jay Leno Show is a talk show created and hosted by Jay Leno. Premiering on NBC on September 14, 2009, the program aired on weeknights at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT through February 9, 2010. The program was modeled upon the format of a late night talk show—specifically, Jay Leno's incarnation of The Tonight Show, opening with a comedic monologue, followed by interviews with celebrity guests and other comedy segments. Sketches from The Tonight Show (including Headlines and Jaywalking) were carried over to The Jay Leno Show, along with new sketches.
The program was the result of a compromise by NBC Universal's then-CEO Jeff Zucker to keep Jay Leno with the company following his retirement from The Tonight Show and replacement with Conan O'Brien. The Jay Leno Show was also intended to provide NBC with an alternative to the high-cost scripted dramas aired by competing networks in its time slot; the network believed that the lower cost of production, in combination with product placement deals, meant that the program did not necessarily have to be highly viewed in order to turn a profit. NBC hoped to attract Leno's existing fans, as well as a larger primetime audience than that of his late-night program.
The Jay Leno Show was met with mixed reception from critics, who felt that the series had little differentiation from Leno's Tonight Show. Others were critical of NBC's decision to give up an hour of its weeknight lineup to Leno, due to the network's past success with dramas airing in the time slot, while one NBC affiliate (WHDH in Boston owned by Sunbeam Television, now independent) notably planned not to air the show at all, although this decision was retracted due to complaints by the network. Although viewership of The Jay Leno Show was initially on par with NBC's projections, by November, the program's ratings began to fall significantly. NBC's affiliates complained that the declining viewership of The Jay Leno Show also had a ripple effect on the viewership of their late local newscasts.
In an effort to address the concerns, NBC announced in January 2010 that it would, following the 2010 Winter Olympics, shorten The Jay Leno Show to a half-hour, and move it to 11:35 p.m—the timeslot that had been occupied by The Tonight Show for nearly 60 years, and bump Tonight to 12:05 a.m. The decision resulted in a major public conflict between the network and Conan O'Brien, who asserted that the move would damage the highly respected Tonight Show franchise, and that he would not participate in the program if it were moved to 12:05. Despite much support for O'Brien from both the public and media professionals alike, NBC maintained its plan to move Leno to 11:35.
On January 21, 2010, NBC reached a $45 million settlement with O'Brien in order to end his contract. The Jay Leno Show ended on February 9, 2010, after being on the air for only four months, with Entertainment Weekly calling the program television's "Biggest Bomb of All Time." Leno resumed his duties as host of The Tonight Show on March 1, 2010, for his second and final stint that lasted until his February 2014 succession by Jimmy Fallon.
History
NBC announced in 2004 that Jay Leno would leave The Tonight Show in 2009, with Conan O'Brien as his replacement. Leno—who wanted to avoid a repeat of the acrimonious transition when he inherited Tonight from Johnny Carson—said at the announcement, "You can do these things until they carry you out on a stretcher, or you can get out when you’re still doing good." He began to regret his decision to retire in 2007, and several networks and studios including ABC, Fox, Sony, and Tribune expressed interest in his services after leaving Tonight.
Jeff Zucker, then-President and CEO of NBCUniversal, sought to keep Leno from defecting to a competitor. Leno rejected several NBC offers for broadcast network daytime slots or subscription TV slots, a series of recurring specials, and a half-hour show at 8 pm five nights a week featuring Leno's Tonight monologue. The network had in 1981 considered moving The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson to 10 pm; Zucker, who in 2007 offered Oprah Winfrey an hour five nights a week at 8 pm, now offered Leno an hour five nights a week at 10 pm. Leno was announced on December 9, 2008.
At least one station, then-affiliate WHDH-TV in Boston, Massachusetts, stated that it would not carry the program, claiming that Leno would be detrimental to the station's 11 pm news and that it would instead launch a local news program in the time slot. NBC said that such plans would amount to a flagrant violation of the network contract—a claim which WHDH disputed—and said that it would immediately remove its programming from WHDH if the station followed through with the plan. WHDH backed down on April 13, 2009, and announced that it would air Leno instead of the proposed program.
Though Leno was the first to move the entire five-day-a-week late night talk show to prime time, he was not the first Tonight alumnus to move from late night to a prime time talk show. Steve Allen hosted Tonight Starring Steve Allen from 1954 to 1957; while still hosting that show, he began hosting the prime-time The Steve Allen Show in 1956 on NBC, and the latter show would run until 1960. Jack Paar, who hosted Tonight from 1957 to 1962, next hosted a weekly talk show known as The Jack Paar Program that ran until 1965, also on NBC.
In January 2010, several news outlets reported that The Jay Leno Show would be shortened to 30 minutes and begin airing weeknights at 11:35 pm ET, with Conan O'Brien and Jimmy Fallon's shows following it beginning at 12:05 am. The scheduling change would have been implemented on February 28 after the 2010 Winter Olympics (which preempted much of NBC's primetime and late-night lineup). Leno himself commented on the rumors during his January 7 monologue, joking that NBC stands for "Never Believe your Contract." According to Broadcasting & Cable, "most [NBC affiliates] are hopeful Jay—and Conan—sticks with NBC, and most, if not all, desperately want to see a change in terms of the lead-in they're getting to their lucrative late news; the affiliates "remain fiercely loyal to Leno and were quick to say the rookie program's struggles don't reflect the funnyman's work ethic or comedic chops. 'This isn't about Jay's popularity,' says WJAR Providence VP/General Manager Lisa Churchville. 'This is about having that kind of show at 10 p.m.'"
NBC announced plans to move Leno to 11:35 pm and The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien to 12:05 am. O'Brien refused to participate in the move and, on January 21, 2010, reached an agreement with NBC allowing him to leave the network. Lenos final episode aired on February 9, 2010 and Leno returned to Tonight as host on March 1, 2010.
Content
The Jay Leno Show aired weeknights at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT (9:00 p.m. CT/MT) from Studio 11 of the NBC Studios in Burbank, California with the following format:
After brief opening credits, a monologue of eight to 12 minutes.
One celebrity guest, two at the most. The "car-themed" set adjusted to allow guests to get off the couch and participate in antics.
Musical segments appeared only twice a week, in the middle of the show, and sometimes featured multiple acts performing together.
Comedy segments were reserved for the last 15 minutes of the show, the only portion of the show where Leno sometimes used a desk. Toward the end of the four-month run certain comedy segments such as "Headlines" were moved up to airing right after Jay's monologue, as opposed to being reserved for the end of the show. They include:
"Headlines" and "Jaywalking", both from Tonight.
The "advertiser-friendly 'Green Car Challenge'". Two to three times each week, celebrities drove an electric Ford Focus and tried to set records on a 1,100-foot dedicated outdoor track. The segment was based on the "Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car" segment on the British automotive series Top Gear, which Leno had previously appeared on.
"Ten at Ten", "in which celebs and other newsmakers . . . answer a rapid-fire series of ten 'ridiculous, celebrity-based questions.' The ten at ten guest would not be in the studio, but would instead appear via satellite from some other location. When the off-site location was in the Central or Mountain Time Zones, the skit would be changed to 9 at 9 (since these time zones have all programming one hour earlier in their local time than the coastal time zones), which was the same except there would only be nine questions."
Comic "correspondents" such as D. L. Hughley, Dan Finnerty, Mikey Day, Rachael Harris, and Jim Norton did pretaped segments.
One planned segment, "Stories Not Good Enough for the NBC Nightly News" (which would have featured then-NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams), was dropped from the show before it made it to air.
In addition to reserving comedy segments for the end, the network aired no commercials after the show and "urged local affiliates to do the same" so local news could start immediately, retaining as many Leno viewers as possible.
Recurring segments
"Headlines" (Monday): Humorous print items sent in by viewers. These real-life headlines are usually headlines with typographical errors, or unintentionally inappropriate items. The segment usually starts out with a fake, humorous headline during the introduction for the segment.
"Jaywalking": A pre-taped segment, "Jaywalking" is a play on the host's name and the illegal practice of jaywalking. Leno asks people questions about current news and other topics in public areas around Los Angeles (usually Hollywood Boulevard, Melrose Avenue or Universal Studios). Most responses are outrageously incorrect; for example, one person believed that Abraham Lincoln was the first president, and another could not identify a picture of Hillary Clinton. Sometimes the questions are of the "What color is the White House?" level, such as asking in what country the Panama Canal is located. Up to 15 people are interviewed in an hour or less for each segment, with about nine interviews used on the air. A similar format was used for the game show Street Smarts.
JMZ: A parody of TMZ, a segment in which they report on fake celebrity news with such guest stars as Chuck Liddell.
Ten@Ten: Jay interviews a celebrity via satellite by asking them 10 questions. Some editions have only used 9 questions, calling it the "Nine@Nine" as a reference to the central or mountain time zone.
Green Car Challenge: A segment in which celebrities go in a car and try to be the fastest in a track with obstacles. Tim Allen had the best record time; Rush Limbaugh had the record worst time (though he did so on purpose), and Leno never tried.
Photo Booth: A pre-taped segment in which someone goes in a Photo Booth and something is amiss.
Stuff We Found on eBay: Leno brought up some of the oddest stuff that he and members of the studio audience had supposedly found while searching on eBay.
Ross the Intern: Ross Mathews, an intern for the show, is sent to participate in special events. As part of a running gag, Leno started introducing Ross as his illegitimate son.
First show
Jerry Seinfeld was the celebrity guest on the debut episode. Jay-Z, Rihanna, and Kanye West performed "Run This Town", in which all three are featured. West sat down for a previously unplanned interview with Leno, discussing West's outburst at the MTV Video Music Awards the previous night. Dan Finnerty was the comic correspondent for the night, and the end of the show featured Headlines.
Reviews for the first show ranged from neutral to negative, with most critics stating that the show was, despite the changes, still very similar to Tonight. Metacritic scores it at 48 out of 100 based on 23 TV critic reviews, and viewers scoring it at a 4.0 out of 10. Media Life described the show as "underwhelming" and felt that Leno "failed to rise to the occasion." The Buffalo News called the show "a mess." The Associated Press noted that "it's not a good sign when the Bud Light commercial is funnier than the comedy show it interrupts," and that "at least Rosie Live took some chances." Jonah Krakow of IGN gave it a 5.5/10 saying that "show felt like they just picked from where they left off three months ago, and I'm not sure that's a good thing".
Final show
The final Jay Leno Show aired on February 9, 2010. The guests were Ashton Kutcher, Gabourey Sidibe and Bob Costas, with unannounced visits from Donald Trump and Kurt Warner. Following the monologue, there was a brief clip reel of highlights from the show's short tenure; otherwise, little mention was made about the fact that it was the final episode of the program. The last moments of the show featured the program's "10 at 10" segment, with its celebrity guest being Bob Costas. When Leno asked Costas how it felt to be the show's final guest, the sportscaster replied, "Kind of like being involved in the last game of a Clippers season, isn't it?" Directly following the interview with Costas, Leno thanked him, told the audience to stay tuned for their local news, and then abruptly went off-air.
Many media outlets criticized Leno's apparent lack of ceremony for the end of his program.New York Times article: "Without Fanfare, Leno’s Prime-Time Show Ends". Variety reported that the lack of fanfare was intentional, as NBC was attempting to rehab the reputation of Leno and The Tonight Show and did not desire to bring any further attention to Leno's transition back to Tonight. The Associated Press noted that the last few weeks of the program, including the final episode, were pervaded by "bad vibes." The Boston Globe wrote that Leno said farewell to his short-lived show "with all the momentousness of a guy taking out the trash." The episode received negative reviews from Entertainment Weekly, the Los Angeles Times, and The Wall Street Journal. By comparison, O'Brien's final Tonight Show was treated as a finale, with guests making reference to the show ending and guest Neil Young taking an ironic tone by performing "Long May You Run".
Impact
Financial
Leno had a contract for five years for the show. NBC reportedly had an option to cancel after two years, but had committed to at least one or two years regardless of ratings, although later chose to end the show after less than five months. He could have earned up to $30 million each year depending on ratings for Leno, compared to a $20 million annual salary during his last years at Tonight.
NBC expected to benefit by offering an inexpensive comedic alternative to the procedurals ("100% more comedy and 98% fewer murders!") and other one-hour dramas that typically air at 10 pm, and by offering new episodes 46 weeks each year versus 22.Itzkoff, Dave. "NBC’s ‘Jay Leno Show’ Promises 98 Percent Fewer Murders" The New York Times, 2009-05-04. While Leno was not necessarily expected to be competitive with the higher-rated scripted shows on ABC and CBS in its time slot, its projected cost of production was far lower and thus it was expected to be profitable to the network, and product integration intended to make the show "as DVR-proof as you can be on television in this era". Each airing of Leno cost about $350,000 to $400,000 versus up to $3 million for an hour-long drama, saving NBC $13 million each week without the network needing the show to beat its competitors. Those costs include the services of 22 writers, whom Leno called the "top 5% of the highest-paid . . . in the Guild."
McDonald's became the first buying advertiser for the program, tying in their "Million Dollar Roll" nightly in October 2009 promoting that year's version of McDonald's Monopoly.
Ratings
Leno did not expect his show to beat competing first-run episodes, but to do better than reruns, in part because topical jokes benefit from the "immediacy" of the time slot versus 11:30 pm. A television analyst predicted that Leno would finish in "a safe third place" every night. NBC research before the show's debut indicated that fans of Leno would watch Leno two to three times a week.
NBC saw a 1.5 rating for the show in the 18–49 demographic as "viable" and a 1.8 as a "home run". NBC told Leno that at a 1.5 rating, NBC makes $300 million a year. Tonight at 11:30 pm earned about a 1.3 to 1.5; the television audience at 10 pm is 40% larger than at 11:30 pm, and the network hoped Leno'''s audience would also grow. Industry observers have cited a range of ratings, from 1.7 to 2,"Sternberg calls the fall: 'FlashForward,' 'Community' hit; 'Rivers,' 'Forgotten' miss" The Hollywood Reporter, 2009-08-14. as being necessary for the show to succeed at 10 pm. By comparison, 2.5 is generally necessary for a 10 pm drama to succeed; those that earned a 1.7 or less during the 2008–2009 season were generally cancelled. NBC's prime-time dramas averaged about 2 during 2008–2009.
The first episode of The Jay Leno Show earned "fast national" estimates of 17.7 million viewers, an 11 Nielsen rating (5.1 among persons 18–49) and an 18 share, significantly above both his Tonight finale and the debut of The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien in all categories. By the second week and competing against season premieres, the audience fell to six million viewers, still on par with or exceeding NBC projections. As of November 1, 2009, The Jay Leno Show has averaged a 1.98 in the adults 18–49 ratings and 6.594 million viewers. During the week before Christmas, the ratings dropped to 1.4 during the week. Prior to the controversy regarding the move of the Jay Leno Show to 11:35 p.m., viewership bottomed out at 4.799 million viewers, although there was a slight bump as word of the controversy broke.
Though the show itself had been meeting the network's projections, it was severely detrimental to the ratings of the late local news on NBC affiliates. As originally feared by WHDH in Boston, several stations across the country saw what was known as the "Leno Effect", where the lower audience for Leno (as compared to NBC's scripted prime time offerings) translated directly into a domino effect of severe audience drops for late local news (on the order of 25–30%) and completely stunted NBC's past successful schedule hammocking strategies, effects that NBC had underestimated.
Dispute over timeslot
In early January 2010, multiple media outlets reported that, following the 2010 Winter Olympics, The Jay Leno Show would be shortened to 30 minutes and begin airing weeknights at 11:35 pm ET, with Conan O'Brien and Jimmy Fallon's shows following it beginning at 12:05 am on March 1, 2010. On January 10, NBC Universal Television Entertainment Chairman Jeff Gaspin confirmed that The Jay Leno Show would indeed move to 11:35.
Leno immediately accepted the return to 11:35 p.m., calling the move "all business." He had made it known in the press in November 2009 that he wished to return to his old timeslot; behind the scenes, Leno had privately indicated that he did not believe the 10:00 experiment would work. On the other hand, O'Brien's contract stipulated that the network could move the show back to 12:05 a.m. without penalty, a loophole put in primarily to accommodate sports preemptions, the network's traditional nightly Wimbledon tournament highlights show, and specials such as New Year's Eve with Carson Daly.
O'Brien did not seriously respond for several days after the announcement, then drafted a press release explaining why he felt it was unfair to him, his staff, Fallon, and the legacy of The Tonight Show to move the show past midnight. He concluded by saying that he "cannot participate in what I honestly believe is [The Tonight Shows] destruction."Huffington Post article: "Conan O'Brien Statement: I Will Not Follow Jay At 12:05". O'Brien received an outpouring of celebrity and viewer support for rejecting the move, while Leno received heavy criticism.Huffington Post article: "Patton Oswalt: Jay Leno Is Like Nixon, I Don't Like Him". On January 21, O'Brien signed a $45 million deal allowing him to leave the network, and aired his final episode of Tonight on January 22; Leno returned as host of Tonight on March 1.
Settlement
On January 19, 2010, multiple media outlets reported that O'Brien and NBC were close to signing a deal between $30 and $40 million for the host to walk away from the network.New York Post article: "NBC near deal to allow Conan to leave network". One apparent sticking point in the negotiations was the amount his staff and crew were to be paid for leaving the program.Chicago Sun Times article: "Conan negotiations stuck on staff, Triumph ". Reports also said that the contract could prohibit O'Brien from badmouthing NBC in any way, and that he may be able to return to television as early as September 2010.
On January 21, after two weeks of negotiations, it was announced that Conan O'Brien had signed a $45 million deal to leave NBC. The Wall Street Journal reports that O'Brien will receive about $32 million, with his staff receiving around $12 million. The contract contains a clause prohibiting O'Brien from making negative remarks about NBC for a certain amount of time; it does not, however, contain the previously rumored "mitigation clause," in which NBC would be able to keep some of the severance pay after O'Brien finds a new program. It also stipulates that he could have returned to television as early as September 1, 2010. The network confirmed that Leno would officially resume as host of The Tonight Show on March 1. TMZ reported that NBC would rerun episodes from O'Brien's time as host until the network began airing the Olympics on February 12.
O'Brien later reached a deal with cable network TBS to premiere a new late-night talk show, Conan.
Industry impact
NBC became the first large United States network to broadcast the same show every weekday during prime time since ABC's Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? marathons in 1999 and only the second since DuMont aired Captain Video and His Video Rangers from 1949 to 1955. More recently, the upstart MyNetwork TV had attempted, upon its launch in 2006, to air the same telenovelas every night of the week, a programming strategy that proved to be very unsuccessful. NBC's executives called the decision "a transformational moment in the history of broadcasting" and "in effect, launching five shows." An industry observer said that Leno, "in all my years, is the biggest risk a network has ever taken." According to former NBC president Fred Silverman, "If the Leno Show works, it will be the most significant thing to happen in broadcast television in the last decade."
Although NBC had not developed a new hit show at 10 pm in years, industry executives criticized the network for abandoning a history of airing quality dramas at that hour such as Hill Street Blues, St. Elsewhere, and ER, which made NBC "the gold standard for sophisticated programming . . . the No. 1 network for affluent and well-educated young viewers" during the 1980s and 1990s. In addition, critics predicted that the decision would hurt NBC by undermining a reputation built on successful scripted shows. Other networks believed NBC's decision created an opportunity, and planned their 2009–2010 schedules accordingly. For example, the show competed with The Mentalist, CSI: Miami, CSI: NY, and Numb3rs, four of television's most popular series, on CBS (the first of those four series was moved to 10:00 PM to directly compete with Leno's show, and significantly improved the ratings for that timeslot compared to its predecessor). Leno was also not easily sold overseas.
The January 29, 2010 issue of Entertainment Weekly listed the show at the top of a list of the 50 Biggest Bombs in television history. The comment made by the network executives about "launching five shows" was ultimately transformed into the joke that its removal was like "cancelling five shows." TV Guide similarly listed the show as the biggest blunder in television history in its November 1, 2010 edition.
Boycott by competing networks
Rival networks ABC and CBS had discouraged "their stars" from appearing on The Jay Leno Show in its primetime slot. Julia Louis-Dreyfus (The New Adventures of Old Christine) was the first CBS actor to appear on the show, on September 29, 2009; on that episode, she said "there was a little pressure, because as you know you are now on prime time", but that "Obviously, I committed to doing your show and we’re friends". This boycott did not affect The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien nor was it industry-wide. Other TV networks, like Fox, The CW, and HBO, were more encouraging. Hugh Laurie from the Fox TV show House was a guest on the September 25, 2009, telecast. House is produced by Universal Media Studios, a sister company to NBC through NBC Universal, and Fox does not offer any network programming in the 10 p.m. time slots, instead allowing most of its affiliates to go to local news.
In a Broadcasting & Cable interview published in early November 2009, Leno mentioned the boycott again, saying "I'm flattered; like ABC and CBS...none of their stars can appear on the show. What are you so afraid of if we're doing so terrible? It's all part of the game."
Labor union impact
John Wells, the president of the Writers Guild of America, West, and executive producer of prominent NBC shows ER and The West Wing, said, "I wish NBC and Jay Leno well; personally, he's a very nice guy, but I hope he falls flat on his face and we get five dramas back."
Website dispute
In 2004, Guadalupe Zambrano, a Texas real estate agent, registered the domain name thejaylenoshow.com to redirect to his real estate business. After the Leno announcement, Leno accused Zambrano of cybersquatting. Zambrano contended that he had owned the domain for five years, well before the announcement, thus precluding recovery. The UDRP proceedings ruled in favor of Leno, however, stating that Zambrano profited from the value of the Jay Leno trademark in bad faith.
International broadcasting
In Australia, The Comedy Channel on Pay TV aired the show on a same-day turn around Weeknights at 7.30pm AEST. Free-to-air channel 7Two also aired the program at 6.00pm usually on a 30-hour delay. It moved to middays on January 18, 2010 but ran until September 24, 2010 when 7TWO changed the format to a Best-of British oriented channel following the launch of sister HD channel 7mate.
In Canada, Citytv simulcast Leno with NBC during the 2009–2010 season, requesting simultaneous substitution where applicable.
In Portugal, SIC Mulher aired the show Monday and Tuesday at 00.30am.
In Israel, yes stars Comedy aired the show Sundays-Thursdays at 8.00pm.
In Finland, The Jay Leno Show aired on MTV3 MAX on weeknights; because of subtitling, the episodes were shown three days after their US broadcast.
In Sweden, The Jay Leno Show aired on Kanal 9 on weeknights. Episodes were broadcast one week after their original US airing.
Westwood One provided audio of the monologue as a short-form feature, under the title Last Night on The Jay Leno Show, to radio stations in the United States and Canada, replacing the discontinued Jimmy Kimmel Live!'' feature.
See also
List of television shows considered the worst
References
External links
2000s American late-night television series
2010s American late-night television series
2000s American variety television series
2010s American variety television series
2009 American television series debuts
2010 American television series endings
American television talk shows
Burbank, California
NBC original programming
Jay Leno
English-language television shows
Television shows filmed in California | true | [
"Conan the Adventurer was a comic book series published by Marvel Comics for 14 issues from 1994 to 1995. Written by Roy Thomas and illustrated in most cases by Rafael Kayanan, it follows the travels of a young Conan the Barbarian, seeing the world for the first time. It was aimed at a younger audience than the earlier Conan books.\n\nNotes\n\nExternal links\nConan the Adventurer at Comicvine\nConan the Adventurer at the Marvel Database Project\nConan the Adventurer at Atomic Avenue\n\nConan the Barbarian comics",
"\"Shadows in the Moonlight\" is one of the original short stories starring the fictional sword and sorcery hero Conan the Cimmerian, written by American author Robert E. Howard and first published in Weird Tales magazine in April 1934. Howard originally named his story \"Iron Shadows in the Moon\". It's set in the pseudo-historical Hyborian Age and concerns Conan escaping to a remote island in the Vilayet Sea where he encounters the Red Brotherhood, a skulking creature, and mysterious iron statues.\n\nThe story was republished in the collections Conan the Barbarian (Gnome Press, 1954) and Conan the Freebooter (Lancer Books, 1968). It has more recently been published in the collections The Conan Chronicles Volume 1: The People of the Black Circle (Gollancz, 2000) and Conan of Cimmeria: Volume One (1932-1933) (Del Rey, 2003).\n\nPlot summary\nOlivia, having fled from her captivity in the city of Akif, is finally cornered near a marsh on the edge of the Vilayet Sea. Olivia's pursuer and former master is a sadistic rogue named Shah Amurath. Suddenly, before Amurath can lay his hands on Olivia, a figure rises from the reeds. The newcomer has witnessed all his friends betrayed and treacherously cut down to a man before escaping into the marshes. There, he has hidden out for so long he is nearly mad. The newcomer quickly kills Amurath, as he and Olivia climb aboard a raft while deciding to lie low for a while. Only then does the stranger identify himself: Conan the Cimmerian.\n\nThe couple sail towards a dark and apparently deserted island, where they spend the night sleeping near ancient ruins decorated with remarkably lifelike statues. Olivia has a bizarre dream where she witnesses a tribe of men being transformed into the statues by a vengeful god, and is convinced they will come to life in the moonlight. Conan is less than convinced by Olivia's fears; he's more concerned by whatever it is lurking in the jungle, lobbing giant boulders down at the two fugitives.\n\nEventually, a pirate ship arrives on the island. Leaving Olivia hidden in the foliage, Conan challenges their captain, an old rival. He slays the pirate captain, but is knocked unconscious by a stone from another pirate's sling. The pirates capture Conan and drag him to the ruins, where they discuss his fate, before passing out drunk. Meanwhile, Olivia narrowly escapes from a dark figure which pursues her close to the ruins.\n\nOlivia sneaks past the drunken pirates and frees Conan. Soon, Conan slays the dark figure pursuing Olivia, a giant ape, which had also been hurling the boulders at them. As Conan recovers from his battle with the ape, he hears the beginning of a horrific slaughter back at the ruins.\n\nThe two quickly head back to the deserted pirate ship. As Conan prepares the ship to sail, a band of bruised and bewildered pirates appear while asking for his aid in leaving the \"devil island\". Conan challenges the pirates and they accept him as their new captain. At the end, Olivia begs Conan to allow her to stay with him and he, laughing, accepts, saying he will make her into a \"Queen of the Blue Sea\".\n\nAdaptation\nThe story was adapted by Roy Thomas, John Buscema and Alfredo Alcala in Savage Sword of Conan #4 in 1974, then by Tim Truman and Tomás Giorello in Conan the Cimmerian #22-25 in 2010. The Marvel adaptation uses the title Iron Shadows In The Moon, and was reprinted in issue 13 of \"Conan Saga\" dated May 1988.\n\nExternal links\n\n \n Shadows in the Moonlight at Project Gutenberg\n Conan the Barbarian at AmratheLion.com\n Conan.com: The official website\n \n\n1934 short stories\nConan the Barbarian stories by Robert E. Howard\nHorror short stories\nFantasy short stories\nPulp stories\nWorks originally published in Weird Tales"
]
|
[
"Rem Koolhaas",
"European Flag proposal"
]
| C_246bb626bd9b4cc6a6ccb3cef92dc9f2_0 | what was proposed about the European Flag? | 1 | what was proposed about the European Flag? | Rem Koolhaas | Following the signing of Treaties of Nice in May 2001, which made Brussels the de facto capital of the European Union, the then President of the European Commission, Romano Prodi and the Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt invited Koolhaas to discuss the necessities and requirements of a European capital. During these talks and as an impetus for further discussion, Koolhaas and his think-tank AMO - an independent part of OMA - suggested the development of a visual language. This idea inspired a series of drawings and drafts, including the "Barcode". The barcode seeks to unite the flags of the EU member countries into a single, colourful symbol. In the current European flag, there is a fixed number of stars. In the barcode however, new Member States of the EU can be added without space constraints. Originally, the barcode displayed 15 EU countries. In 2004, the symbol was adapted to include the ten new Member States. Since the time of the first drafts of the barcode it has very rarely been officially used by commercial or political institutions. During the Austrian EU Presidency 2006, it was officially used for the first time. The logo was used for the EU information campaign, but was very negatively criticized. In addition to the initial uproar caused by the Estonian flag stripes being displayed incorrectly, the proposed flag failed to achieve its main objective as a symbol. Critics pointed the lack of capability to relate the signified (the mental concept, the European Union) with the signifier (the physical image, the stripes) as the major problem, as well as the presented justification for the order in which the color stripes were displayed (as every country in the EU should be regarded as equal in importance and priority). CANNOTANSWER | The barcode seeks to unite the flags of the EU member countries into a single, colourful symbol. | Remment Lucas Koolhaas (; born 17 November 1944) is a Dutch architect, architectural theorist, urbanist and Professor in Practice of Architecture and Urban Design at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. He is often cited as a representative of Deconstructivism and is the author of Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan.
He is seen by some as one of the truly significant architectural thinkers and urbanists of his generation, by others as a self-important iconoclast. In 2000, Rem Koolhaas won the Pritzker Prize. In 2008, Time put him in their top 100 of The World's Most Influential People. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2014.
Early life and career
Remment Koolhaas, usually abbreviated to Rem Koolhaas, was born on 17 November 1944 in Rotterdam, Netherlands, to Anton Koolhaas (1912–1992) and Selinde Pietertje Roosenburg (born 1920). His father was a novelist, critic, and screenwriter. Two documentary films by Bert Haanstra for which his father wrote the scenarios were nominated for an Academy Award for Documentary Feature, one won a Golden Bear for Short Film. His maternal grandfather, Dirk Roosenburg (1887–1962), was a modernist architect who worked for Hendrik Petrus Berlage, before opening his own practice. Rem Koolhaas has a brother, Thomas, and a sister, Annabel. His paternal cousin was the architect and urban planner Teun Koolhaas (1940–2007). The family lived consecutively in Rotterdam (until 1946), Amsterdam (1946–1952), Jakarta (1952–1955), and Amsterdam (from 1955).
His father strongly supported the Indonesian cause for autonomy from the colonial Dutch in his writing. When the war of independence was won, he was invited over to run a cultural programme for three years and the family moved to Jakarta in 1952. "It was a very important age for me," Koolhaas recalls "and I really lived as an Asian."
In 1969, Koolhaas co-wrote The White Slave, a Dutch film noir, and later wrote an unproduced script for American soft-porn king Russ Meyer.
He was a journalist in 1963 at age 19 for the Haagse Post before starting studies in architecture in 1968 at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London, followed, in 1972, by further studies with Oswald Mathias Ungers at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, followed by studies at the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies in New York City.
Koolhaas first came to public and critical attention with OMA (The Office for Metropolitan Architecture), the office he founded in 1975 together with architects Elia Zenghelis, Zoe Zenghelis and (Koolhaas's wife) Madelon Vriesendorp in London. They were later joined by one of Koolhaas's students, Zaha Hadid – who would soon go on to achieve success in her own right. An early work which would mark their difference from the then dominant postmodern classicism of the late 1970s, was their contribution to the Venice Biennale of 1980, curated by Italian architect Paolo Portoghesi, titled "Presence of the Past". Each architect had to design a stage-like "frontage" to a Potemkin-type internal street; the façades by , Frank Gehry and OMA were the only ones that did not employ Post-Modern architecture motifs or historical references.
Other early critically received (yet unbuilt) projects included the Parc de la Villette, Paris (1982) and the residence for the Prime Minister of Ireland (1979), as well as the Kunsthal in Rotterdam (1992). These schemes would attempt to put into practice many of the findings Koolhaas made in his book Delirious New York (1978), which was written while he was a visiting scholar at the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies in New York, directed by Peter Eisenman.
Architectural theory
Delirious New York
Koolhaas's book Delirious New York set the pace for his career. Koolhaas analyzes the "chance-like" nature of city life: "The City is an addictive machine from which there is no escape" "Rem Koolhaas...defined the city as a collection of 'red hot spots'." (Anna Klingmann). As Koolhaas himself has acknowledged, this approach had already been evident in the Japanese Metabolist Movement in the 1960s and early 1970s.
A key aspect of architecture that Koolhaas interrogates is the "Program": with the rise of modernism in the 20th century the "Program" became the key theme of architectural design. The notion of the Program involves "an act to edit function and human activities" as the pretext of architectural design: epitomised in the maxim form follows function, first popularised by architect Louis Sullivan at the beginning of the 20th century. The notion was first questioned in Delirious New York, in his analysis of high-rise architecture in Manhattan. An early design method derived from such thinking was "cross-programming", introducing unexpected functions in room programmes, such as running tracks in skyscrapers. More recently, Koolhaas unsuccessfully proposed the inclusion of hospital units for the homeless into the Seattle Public Library project (2003).
Project on the city
Koolhaas' next publications were a by-product of his position as professor at Harvard University, in the Design school's "Project on the City"; firstly the 720-page Mutations, followed by The Harvard Design School Guide to Shopping (2002) and The Great Leap Forward (2002).
All three books published student work analysing what others would regard as "non-cities", sprawling conglomerates such as Lagos in Nigeria, west Africa, which the authors argue are highly functional despite a lack of infrastructure. The authors also examine the influence of shopping habits and the recent rapid growth of cities in China. Critics of the books have criticised Koolhaas for being cynical, – as if Western capitalism and globalization demolish all cultural identity – highlighted in the notion expounded in the books that "In the end, there will be little else for us to do but shop". Perhaps such caustic cynicism can be read as a "realism" about the transformation of cultural life, where airports and even museums (due to finance problems) rely just as much on operating gift shops. It does, however, demonstrate one of the architect's characteristic devices for deflecting criticism: attack the client or subject of study after completing the work.
When it comes to transforming these observations into practice, Koolhaas mobilizes what he regards as the omnipotent forces of urbanism into unique design forms and connections organised along the lines of present-day society. Koolhaas continuously incorporates his observations of the contemporary city within his design activities: calling such a condition the ‘culture of congestion’. Again, shopping is examined for "intellectual comfort", whilst the unregulated taste and densification of Chinese cities is analysed according to "performance", a criterion involving variables with debatable credibility: density, newness, shape, size, money etc.
In 2003, Content, a 544-page magazine-style book designed by &&& Creative and published by Koolhaas, gives an overview of the last decade of OMA projects including his designs for the Prada shops, the Seattle Public Library, a plan to save Cambridge from Harvard by rechanneling the Charles River, Lagos' future as Earth's third-biggest city, as well as interviews with Martha Stewart and Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown.
Volume Magazine
In 2005, Rem Koolhaas co-founded Volume Magazine together with Mark Wigley and Ole Bouman. Volume Magazine – the collaborative project by Archis (Amsterdam), AMO and C-lab (Columbia University NY) – is a dynamic experimental think tank devoted to the process of spatial and cultural reflexivity. It goes beyond architecture's definition of ‘making buildings’ and reaches out for global views on architecture and design, broader attitudes to social structures, and creating environments to live in. The magazine stands for a journalism which detects and anticipates, is proactive and even pre-emptive – a journalism which uncovers potentialities, rather than covering done deals.
Buildings and projects
In the late nineties he worked on the design for the new headquarters for Universal.
Indeed, online marketing and propaganda has been a hallmark of OMA's rise in the current century. It has also led to pointed criticism, such as the critique by New York Magazine critic Justin Davidson, who found the 2020 Guggenheim exhibition Countryside, the Future "mildly amusing if it weren’t such terrible waste — of attention, of gallery square footage, of resources, talent, and expertise. Bored with being an architect and building things, Koolhaas lets his fingertips graze important topics, genuine insights, and actual lives. He treats them all as ironic bric-a-brac, meaningless souvenirs of his meanderings through a fragile world. How frustrating that the Guggenheim couldn’t force a little more intellectual rigor on this romp."
Architecture, fashion, and theatre
With his Prada projects, Koolhaas ventured into providing architecture for the fleeting world of fashion and with celebrity-studded cachet: not unlike Garnier's Opera, the central space of Koolhaas' Beverly Hills Prada store is occupied by a massive central staircase, ostensibly displaying select wares, but mainly the shoppers themselves. The notion of selling a brand rather than marketing clothes was further emphasised in the Prada store on Broadway in Manhattan, New York, which had previously been owned by the Guggenheim: the museum signs were not removed during the outfitting of the new store, as if emphasizing the premises as a cultural institution. The Broadway Prada store opened in December 2001, cost €32 million to build, and has 2,300 square meters of retail space.
21st Century Projects
Probably the most costly and celebrated OMA projects of the new century were the massive Central China Television Headquarters Building in Beijing, China, and the new building for the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, the equivalent of the NASDAQ in China.
In his design for the new CCTV Headquarters in Beijing (2009), Koolhaas did not opt for the stereotypical skyscraper, often used to symbolise and landmark such government enterprises; he patented a "horizontal skyscraper" in the U.S. The building, popularly called "The Big Pants" by Beijing residents, was designed as a series of volumes which attempt to tie together the numerous departments onto the nebulous site, but also introduce routes (again, the concept of cross-programming) for the general public through the site, allowing them some degree of access to the production procedure. An unfortunate incident that highlighted the folly of the circulation scheme (no effective fire egress for people on the upper floors), was the construction fire that nearly destroyed the building and a nearby hotel in 2009.
Personal life
Koolhaas was previously married to Madelon Vriesendorp, an artist who is the mother of his two children, Charlie, a photographer, and Tomas, a filmmaker. Koolhaas divorced Vriesendorp in 2012. He has known his current partner Petra Blaisse, an interior and landscape designer since 1986.
Selected projects
Villa dall’Ava, (Saint-Cloud, 1991)
Nexus World Housing (Fukuoka, 1991)
Kunsthal (Rotterdam, 1992)
Euralille (Lille, 1994)
Educatorium (Utrecht, 1995)
Maison à Bordeaux (Bordeaux, 1998)
Embassy of the Netherlands (Berlin, 2003)
McCormick Tribune Campus Center (Chicago, 2003)
Seoul National University Museum of Art (Seoul, 2005)
Seattle Central Library (Seattle, 2005)
Casa da Música (Porto, 2005)
Dee and Charles Wyly Theater (Dallas, 2009)
CCTV Headquarters, (Beijing, 2012)
De Rotterdam (Rotterdam, 2013)
Garage Museum of Contemporary Art (Moscow, 2014)
Qatar National Library (Doha, 2017)
Taipei Performing Arts Center (Taipei, 2022)
Bibliography
Project Japan. Metabolism Talks... (2011) (with Hans Ulrich Obrist)
Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan (1978)
S,M,L,XL (1995)
Serpentine Gallery: 24 Hour Interview Marathon (2007) Living Vivre Leben (1998)Content (2004)
Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2006''; Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, Köln, Germany 2008
Gallery
See also
Contemporary architecture
World Architecture Survey
List of architects
Koolhaas Houselife
References
External links
Office for Metropolitan Architecture
OMA official Facebook page (updated daily)
OMA official Vimeo channel
OMA portfolio on Archello.com
Rem Koolhaas at Harvard University
Urgency 2007: Rem Koolhaas and Peter Eisenman lectures, Canadian Centre for Architecture, June 8, 2007
Rem Koolhaas in conversation with Mirko Zardini and Giovanna Borasi, Rotterdam, August 26, 2015, for the exhibition The Other Architect, Canadian Centre for Architecture
On Starchitecture
Koolhaas at Harvard's Ecological Urbanism
Rem Koolhaas: A Kind of Architect (2008 Feature Documentary)
Rem Koolhaas lecture "Russia for Beginners" at Garage Museum of Contemporary Art: September 15th, 2014
Rem Koolhaas on Empty Canon
1944 births
20th-century Dutch architects
21st-century Dutch architects
Architectural theoreticians
Urban theorists
Deconstructivism
Postmodern architecture
Dutch non-fiction writers
Living people
Cornell University College of Architecture, Art, and Planning alumni
Harvard Graduate School of Design faculty
Dutch urban planners
Architects from Rotterdam
Pritzker Architecture Prize winners
Recipients of the Royal Gold Medal
Chevaliers of the Légion d'honneur
Recipients of the Praemium Imperiale
Alumni of the Architectural Association School of Architecture
Honorary Fellows of the American Institute of Architects | false | [
"The flag of Europe or the European flag is an official symbol used by the Council of Europe (CoE) – the regional organization representing Europe, as well as the European Union (EU), the union of 27 states. It consists of a circle of twelve five-pointed golden stars on a blue field.\n\nThe design was conceived in 1955, and officially adopted later that year by the Council of Europe as a symbol for the whole of Europe. The Council of Europe urged that it be adopted by other European organisations, and in 1985 the European Communities (EC) adopted it.\n\nThe EU also inherited the emblem's use when it was formed in 1993, being the successor organisation to the EC starting from 1 December 2009 (date of entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty). It has been in wide official use by the EC since the 1990s, but it has never been given official status in any of the EU's treaties. Its adoption as an official symbol of the EU was planned as part of the proposed 2004 European Constitution, which failed to be ratified in 2005.\n\nThe flag is used by different European organisations as well as by unified European sporting teams under the name of Team Europe.\n\nBlazon\nThe blazon given by the EU in 1996 describe the design as: \"On an azure field a circle of twelve golden mullets, their points not touching.\"\n\nSymbolism\nThe flag used is the Flag of Europe, which consists of a circle of twelve golden stars on a blue background. Originally designed in 1955 for the Council of Europe, the flag was adopted by the European Communities, the predecessors of the present European Union, in 1986. The Council of Europe gave the flag a symbolic description in the following terms, though the official symbolic description adopted by the EU omits the reference to the \"Western world\":<ref name=\"1996guide2\">{{cite web |language=fr |url=https://www.cvce.eu/en/obj/guide_graphique_relatif_a_l_embleme_europeen_1996-fr-93eedaa0-b431-4ca8-ac7b-113ca01c0395.html|title=Guide graphique relatif à l'emblème européen |year=1996 |page=3 |quote=Description symbolique: Sur le fond bleu du ciel, les étoiles figurant les peuples d'Europe forment un cercle en signe d'union. Elles sont au nombre invariable de douze, symbole de la perfection et de la plénitude...Description héraldique: Sur fond azur, un cercle composé de douze étoiles d'or à cinq rais, dont les pointes ne se touchent pas.}}</ref>\n\nOther symbolic interpretations have been offered based on the account of its design by Paul M. Levy. The five-pointed star is used on many national flags and represents aspiration and education. Their golden colour is that of the sun, which is said to symbolise glory and enlightenment.\n\nTheir arrangement in a circle represents the constellation of Corona Borealis and can be seen as a crown and the stability of government. The blue background resembles the sky and symbolises truth and the intellect. It is also the colour traditionally used to represent the Virgin Mary. In many paintings of the Virgin Mary as Stella Maris she is crowned with a circle of twelve stars.\n\nMarian interpretation\n\nIn 1987, following the adoption of the flag by the EC, Arsène Heitz (1908–1989), one of the designers who had submitted proposals for the flag's design, suggested a religious inspiration for it. He claimed that the circle of stars was based on the iconographic tradition of showing the Blessed Virgin Mary as the Woman of the Apocalypse, wearing a \"crown of twelve stars\".Carlo Curti Gialdino, I Simboli dell'Unione europea, Bandiera – Inno – Motto – Moneta – Giornata. Roma: Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato S.p.A., 2005. , pp. 80–85. Gialdino is here cited after a translation of the Italian text published by the Centre Virtuel de la Connaissance sur l'Europe (cvce.eu):\n\n<blockquote>Irrespective of the statements by Paul M. G. Levy and the recent reconstruction by Susan Hood, crediting Arsène Heitz with the original design still seems to me the soundest option. In particular, Arsène Heitz himself, in 1987, laid claim to his own role in designing the flag and to its religious inspiration when he said that 'the flag of Europe is the flag of Our Lady' [Magnificat magazine, 1987].\n\nSecondly, it is worth noting the testimony of Father Pierre Caillon, who refers to a meeting with Arsène Heitz. Caillon tells of having met the former Council of Europe employee by chance in August 1987 at Lisieux in front of the Carmelite monastery. It was Heitz who stopped him and declared \"I was the one who designed the European flag. I suddenly had the idea of putting the 12 stars of the Miraculous Medal of the Rue du Bac on a blue field. My proposal was adopted unanimously on 8 December 1955, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. I am telling you this, Father, because you are wearing the little blue cross of the Blue Army of Our Lady of Fatima\".\n\nHeitz also made a connection to the date of the flag's adoption, 8 December 1955, coinciding with the Catholic Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary.\n\nPaul M. G. Lévy, then Director of Information at the Council of Europe responsible for designing the flag, in a 1989 statement maintained that he had not been aware of any religious connotations.\n\nIn an interview given 26 February 1998, Lévy denied not only awareness of the \"Marian\" connection, but also denied that the final design of a circle of twelve stars was Heitz's. To the question \"Who really designed the flag?\" Lévy replied:\n\nI did, and I calculated the proportions to be used for the geometric design. Arsène Heitz, who was an employee in the mail service, put in all sorts of proposals, including the 15-star design. But he submitted too many designs. He wanted to do the European currencies with 15 stars in the corner. He wanted to do national flags incorporating the Council of Europe flag.\n\nCarlo Curti Gialdino (2005) has reconstructed the design process to the effect that Heitz's proposal contained varying numbers of stars, from which the version with twelve stars was chosen by the Committee of Ministers meeting at Deputy level in January 1955 as one out of two remaining candidate designs.\n\nLévy's 1998 interview apparently gave rise to a new variant of the \"Marian\" anecdote. An article published in in August 1998 alleged that it was Lévy himself who was inspired to introduce a \"Marian\" element as he walked past a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary.\n\nAn article posted in La Raison in February 2000 further connected the donation of a stained glass window for Strasbourg Cathedral by the Council of Europe on 21 October 1956. This window, a work by Parisian master Max Ingrand, shows a blessing Madonna underneath a circle of 12 stars on dark blue ground. The overall design of the Madonna is inspired by the banner of the cathedral's Congrégation Mariale des Hommes, and the twelve stars are found on the statue venerated by this congregation inside the cathedral (twelve is also the number of members of the congregation's council). The Regional Office for Cultural Affairs describe this stained glass window called \"Le vitrail de l'Europe de Max Ingrand\" (The Glass Window of Europe of Max Ingrand).\n\nAdoption and usage\nVexillological\nSpecifications\n\nAccording to graphical specifications published online by the Council of Europe in 2004, the flag is rectangular with 2:3 proportions: its fly (width) is one and a half times the length of its hoist (height). Twelve yellow stars are centred in a circle (the radius of which is a third of the length of the hoist) upon a blue background. All the stars are upright (one point straight up), have five points and are spaced equally, like the hour positions on the face of a clock. The diameter of each star is equal to one-ninth of the height of the hoist.\n\nThe colours are regulated in the 1996 guide by the EC, and equivalently in the 2004 guide by the Council of Europe. The base colour of the flag is defined as Pantone \"Reflex Blue\", while the golden stars are portrayed in Pantone \"Yellow\":\n\nThe 2013 logo of the Council of Europe has the colours:\n\nThe twelve-star \"flag of Europe\" was designed in 1950 and officially adopted by the Council of Europe in 1955. The same flag was adopted by the European Parliament in 1983. The European Council adopted it as an \"emblem\" for the European Communities in 1985. Its status in the European Communities was inherited by the European Union upon its formation in 1993. The proposal to adopt it as official flag of the European Union failed with the ratification of the European Constitution in 2005, and mention of all emblems suggesting statehood was removed from the Treaty of Lisbon of 2007, although sixteen member states signed a declaration supporting the continued use of the flag. In 2007, the European Parliament officially adopted the flag for its own use.\n\n1950–present: Council of Europe\n\nThe Council of Europe in 1950 appointed a committee to study the question of adopting a symbol.\nNumerous proposals were looked into.\n\nAmong the unsuccessful proposals was the flag of Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi's International Paneuropean Union, which he had himself recently adopted for the European Parliamentary Union.\nThe design was a blue field with a red cross inside an orange circle at the centre. \nKalergi was very committed to defending the cross as \"the great symbol of Europe's moral unity\", the Red Cross in particular being \"recognized by the whole world, by Christian and non-Christian nations[,] as a symbol of international charity and of the brotherhood of man\", but the proposal was rejected by Turkey (a member of the Council of Europe since 1949) on grounds of its religious associations in spite of Kalergi's suggestion of adding a crescent alongside the cross to overcome the Muslim objections.\n\nOther proposals included the flag was the European Movement, which had a large green E on a white background,\na design was based on the Olympic rings, eight silver rings on a blue background, rejected due to the rings' similarity with \"dial\", \"chain\" and \"zeros\", or a large yellow star on a blue background, rejected due to its similarity with the so-called Burnet flag and the flag of the Belgian Congo.\n\nThe Consultative Assembly narrowed their choice to two designs. One was by Salvador de Madariaga, the founder of the College of Europe, who suggested a constellation of stars on a blue background (positioned according to capital cities, with a large star for Strasbourg, the seat of the council). He had circulated his flag round many European capitals and the concept had found favour. \nThe second was a variant by Arsène Heitz, who worked for the council's postal service and had submitted dozens of designs, one of which was accepted by the Assembly. The design was similar to Salvador de Madariaga's, but rather than a constellation, the stars were arranged in a circle. Arsène Heitz was one of several people who proposed a circle of gold stars on a blue background. None of his proposals perfectly match the design that was adopted. Paul Levy claims that he was the one who designed the template for the flag, not Arsène Heitz.\nIn 1987, Heitz would claim that his inspiration had been the crown of twelve stars of the Woman of the Apocalypse, often found in Marian iconography (see below).\n\nOn 25 September 1953, the Consultative Assembly of the Council of Europe recommended that a blue flag with fifteen gold stars be adopted as an emblem for the organisation, the number fifteen reflecting the number of states of the Council of Europe. West Germany objected to the fifteen-star design, as one of the members was Saar Protectorate, and to have its own star would imply sovereignty for the region. The Committee of Ministers (the council's main decision making body) agreed with the Assembly that the flag should be a circle of stars, but opted for a fixed number of twelve stars, \"representing perfection and entirety\". The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on 25 October 1955 agreed to this. Paul M. G. Lévy drew up the exact design of the new flag. Officially adopted on 8 December 1955, the flag was unveiled at the Château de la Muette in Paris on 13 December 1955.\n\nFor the flag of the Council of Europe, many stylistic proposals were made in regards to colours and symbolism. These first proposals were made 19 January 1950 by Paul Levy in a letter to the Secretary-General. He proposed that the flag should contain a cross for several reasons. Firstly, the cross symbolizes roads crossing, and also represents the east, the west, the north, and the south with its arms. Furthermore, the cross appears in most of the European Council members' flags, and it is the oldest and most noble symbol in Europe. Moreover, the cross depicted Christianity. As far as the colours are concerned, he proposed them to be white and green, colours of the European Movement, which was of great significance since 1947. Green also depicted hope, and the green cross over a white background was a design that had not been used yet. Finally, Levy proposed that the arms of Strasbourg was an important element to be added as it represented where the council would be, and being located in the heart of the cross meant that the council was the point where the European roads met.\n\nShortly after this design considerations by Paul Levy, on 27 July 1950, Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi, president of the Pan-European movement wrote a memorandum which contained some rules that a flag for such union should follow. The rules he stated where:\n\n It should be a symbol of our common civilisation.\n It should present a European emblem.\n It should not provoke any national rivalry.\n It should represent tradition.\n It should be beautiful and dignified.\n\nAfter these statements, Coudenhove-Kalergi proposed that the Pan-European movement flag would be the perfect one to fit these criteria\n\n15 July 1951, the consultative assembly put forward a final memorandum on the European flag. The symbols proposed where the following\n\n A cross: Symbol of Christianity, Europe's crossroads, reminiscent of the crusades, and present in half of the member state's flags.\n An \"E\": Used by the European Movement.\n A white star in a circle: Symbol used in 1944–45 by the armies of liberation.\n Multiple stars: Each star could represent a member. They could be green on a white background, white stars on a red background, or silver stars for associate members, and golden stars for full members.\n Strasbourg's Coat of Arms: To symbolize the official seat of the Council of Europe.\n A sun: It would represent dawning hope.\n A triangle: It would represent culture.\n\nFurthermore, several colours were also proposed:\n\n Multi-coloured: It was proposed that the flag could contain all the colours the flags of the member states had.\n Green and White: These were the colours of the European Movement.\n Sky Blue: Symbol of peace and neutrality, as other colours were already used for other movements such as black for mourning, red for bolshevism, or green for Islam.\n\nIn the end, the flag of Europe was chosen to have 12 five-pointed golden stars in a circle over a blue background, probably inspired by the Pan-European flag and other designs such as Salvador de Madriaga's and Arsène Heitz's proposals.\n\n1983–present: From European Communities to European Union\n\nFollowing Expo 58 in Brussels, the flag caught on and the Council of Europe lobbied for other European organisations to adopt the flag as a sign of European unity. \nThe European Parliament took the initiative in seeking a flag to be adopted by the European Communities. Shortly after the first direct elections in 1979 a draft resolution was put forward on the issue. The resolution proposed that the Communities' flag should be that of the Council of Europe and it was adopted by the Parliament on 11 April 1983.\n\nThe June 1984 European Council (the Communities' leaders) summit in Fontainebleau stressed the importance of promoting a European image and identity to citizens and the world. The European Council appointed an ad hoc committee, named \"Committee for 'a People's Europe'\" (Adonnino Committee).\n\nThis committee submitted a substantial report, including wide-ranging suggestions, from organising a \"European lottery\" to campaigning for the introduction of local voting rights for foreign nationals throughout Europe. Under the header of \"strengthening of the Community's image and identity\", the Committee suggested the introduction of \"a flag and an emblem\", recommending a design based on the Council of Europe flag, but with the addition of \"a gold letter E\" in the center of the circle of stars. The European Council held in Milan on 28/29 June 1985 largely followed the recommendations of the Adonnino Committee. But as the adoption of a flag was strongly reminiscent of a national flag representing statehood and was extremely controversial with some member states (in particular the United Kingdom, as the proposed flag closely resembled the Queen's personal standard), the Council of Europe's \"flag of Europe\" design was adopted, without the letter E, only with the official status of a \"logo\". This compromise was widely disregarded from the beginning, and the \"European logo\", in spite of the explicit language of giving it the status of a \"logo\", was referred to as the \"Community flag\" or even \"European flag\" from the outset.\n\nThe Communities began to use the \"emblem\" as its de facto flag from 1986, raising it outside the Berlaymont building (the seat of the European Commission) for the first time on 29 May 1986.\n\nThe European Union, which was established by the Maastricht Treaty in 1992 to replace the European Communities and encompass its functions, has retained de facto use of the \"Community logo\" of the EC. Technically and officially, the \"European flag\" as used by the European Union remains not a \"flag\" but \"a Community 'logo' — or 'emblem' — [...] eligible to be reproduced on rectangular pieces of fabric\".\n\nIn 1997, the \"Central and Eastern Eurobarometer\" poll included a section intending to \"discover the level of public awareness of the European Union\" in what were then candidate countries in Central and Eastern Europe. Interviewees were shown \"a sticker of the European flag\" and asked to identify it. Responses considered correct were: the European Union, the European Community, the Common Market, and \"Europe in general\". 52% of those interviewed gave one of the correct answers, 15% gave a wrong answer (naming another institution, such as NATO or the United Nations), and 35% could or would not identify it.\n\nIn 2002, Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas designed a new flag, dubbed the \"barcode\", as it displayed the colours of the national flags of the EU member states in vertical stripes. It was never officially adopted by the EU or any organisation, but it was used as the logo of the Austrian EU Presidency in 2006.\n\nThe official status of the emblem as the flag of the European Union was to be formalised as part of the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe. However, as the proposed treaty failed ratification, the mention of all state-like emblems, including the flag, were not included in the replacement Treaty of Lisbon, which entered into force in 2009.\n\nInstead, a separate declaration by sixteen Member States was included in the final act of the Treaty of Lisbon stating that the flag, the anthem, the motto and the currency and Europe Day \"will for them continue as symbols to express the sense of community of the people in the European Union and their allegiance to it.\"\n\nIn reaction to the removal of the flag from the treaty, the European Parliament, which had supported the inclusion of such symbols, backed a proposal to use these symbols \"more often\" on behalf of the Parliament itself; Jo Leinen, MEP for Germany, suggested that the Parliament should take \"an avant-garde role\" in their use.\n\nIn September 2008, the Parliament's Committee on Constitutional Affairs proposed a formal change in the institution's rules of procedure to make \"better use of the symbols\". Specifically, the flag would be present in all meeting rooms (not just the hemicycle) and at all official events. The proposal was passed on 8 October 2008 by 503 votes to 96 (15 abstentions).\n\nIn 2015, a set of commemorative Euro coin was issued on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the emblem by the European Communities.\n\nIn April 2004, the European flag was flown on behalf of the European Space Agency, by Dutch astronaut André Kuipers while on board the International Space Station, in reference to the Framework Agreement establishing the legal basis for co-operation between the European Space Agency and the European Union.\n\nFollowing the 2004 Summer Olympics, President Romano Prodi expressed his hope \"to see the EU Member State teams in Beijing [viz., the 2008 games] carry the flag of the European Union alongside their own national flag as a symbol of our unity\".\nUse of the flag has also been reported as representing the European team at the Ryder Cup golf competition in the early 2000s, although most European participants preferred to use their own national flags.\n\nThe flag has been widely used by advocates of European integration since the late 1990s or early 2000s. It is often displayed in the context of Europe Day, on 9 May. \nOutside the EU, it was used in the context of several of the \"colour revolutions\" during the 2000s. In Belarus, it was used on protest marches alongside the banned former national flag and flags of opposition movements during the protests of 2004–2006. The flag was used widely in a 2007 pro-EU march in Minsk. Similar uses were reported from Moldova.\n\nIn Georgia, the flag has been on most government buildings since the coming to power of Mikheil Saakashvili (2007), who used it during his inauguration, stating: \"[the European] flag is Georgia's flag as well, as far as it embodies our civilisation, our culture, the essence of our history and perspective, and our vision for the future of Georgia.\"\n\nIt was used in 2008 by pro-western Serbian voters ahead of an election.\n\nThe flag became a symbol of European integration of Ukraine in the 2010s, particularly after Euromaidan. Ukraine is not a part of the EU but is a member of the Council of Europe. The flag is used by the Cabinet of Ukraine, Prime Minister of Ukraine, and MFA UA during official meetings. It was flown during the 2013 Euromaidan protests in Ukraine,\nand in 2016 by the pro-EU faction in the EU membership referendum campaigns in the United Kingdom.\n\nThe flag has also been adopted as a symbol for EU policies and expansionism by EU-sceptics. \nIn an early instance, Macedonian protesters burned \"the flag of the EU\" in the context of EU involvement in the 2001 insurgency in the Republic of Macedonia.\nIn the 2005 Islamic protests \nagainst the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons, the Danish flag was most frequently burned, but (as the cartoons were reprinted in many European countries), some protesters opted for burning \"the EU flag\" instead.\nProtesters during the Greek government-debt crisis of 2012 \"burned the EU flag and shouted 'EU out' \".\nBurning of the EU flag has been reported from other anti-EU rallies since.\n\nBy the 2010s, the association of the emblem with the EU had become so strong that the Council of Europe saw it necessary to design a new logo, to \"avoid confusion\", officially adopted in 2013.\n\nThe EU emblem (\"EU flag\") is depicted on the euro banknotes. Euro coins also display a circle of twelve stars on both the national and common sides.\n\nIt is also depicted on many driving licences and vehicle registration plates issued in the Union. Diplomatic missions of EU member states fly the EU flag alongside their national flag. In October 2000, the then-new British Embassy in Berlin sparked controversy between the UK and Germany and the EU when the embassy did not have a second external flagpole for the EU flag. After diplomatic negotiations, it was agreed that the outside flagpole would have the diplomatic Union Flag while inside the embassy, the EU flag would accompany the UK flag. Some member states' national airlines such as Lufthansa have the EU flag alongside their national flags on aircraft as part of their aircraft registration codes, but this is not an EU-mandated directive.\n\nA number of logos used by EU institutions, bodies and agencies are derived from the design and colours of the EU emblem.\n\nOther emblems make reference to the European flag, such as the EU organic food label that uses the twelve stars but reorders them into the shape of a leaf on a green background. The original logo of the European Broadcasting Union used the twelve stars on a blue background adding ray beams to connect the countries.\n\nThere was a proposal in 2003 to deface national civil ensigns with the EU emblem. The proposal was rejected by Parliament in 2004.\n\nThe flag is usually flown by the government of the country holding the rotating presidency Council of Ministers.\nIn 2009, Czech President Václav Klaus, a eurosceptic, refused to fly the flag from his castle. In response, Greenpeace projected an image of the flag onto the castle and attempted to fly the flag from the building themselves.\n\nExtraordinary flying of the flag is common on Europe Day, celebrated annually on 9 May. On Europe Day 2008, the flag was flown for the first time above the German Reichstag.\n\nThe flag has also been displayed in the context of EU military operations (EUFOR Althea).\n\nSixteen out of twenty-seven member states in 2007 signed the declaration recognising \"the flag with a circle of twelve golden stars on a blue background\" as representing \"the sense of community of the people in the European Union and their allegiance to it.\"\nIn 2017, president of France Emmanuel Macron signed a declaration endorsing the 2007 statement,\nso that, as of 2018, 17 out of 27 member states have recognised the emblem as a flag representing \"allegiance to the EU\":\nAustria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain.\n\nItaly has incorporated the EU flag into its flag code. According to an Italian law passed in 2000, it is mandatory for most public offices and buildings to hoist the European Flag alongside the Italian national flag (Law 22/1998 and Presidential Decree 121/2000). Outside official use, the flag may not be used for \"aims incompatible with European values\".\nThe 2000 Italian flag code expressly replaces the Italian flag with the European flag in precedence when dignitaries from other EU countries visit – for example the EU flag would be in the middle of a group of three flags rather than the Italian flag. In Germany, the federal flag code of 1996 is only concerned with the German flag, but some of the states have legislated additional provisions for the European flag, such as Bavaria in its flag regulation of 2001, which mandates that the European flag take the third order of precedence, after the federal and state flags, except on Europe Day, where it is to take the first order of precedence.\n\nIn Ireland\"Order for European Union Events The European Union Flag: The national flags in order of their name in their primary local language.\" \non occasions of \"European Union Events\" (for example, at a European Council meeting), where the European flag is flown alongside all national flags of member states, the national flags are placed in alphabetical order (according to their name in the main language of that state) with the European flag either at the head, or the far-right, of the order of flags.\n\nIn most member states, use of the EU flag is only de facto and not regulated by legislation, and as such subject to ad hoc revision. In national usage, national protocol usually demands the national flag takes precedence over the European flag (which is usually displayed to the right of the national flag from the observer's perspective). In November 2014, the speaker of the Hungarian Parliament László Kövér ordered the removal of the EU flag from the parliament building, following an incident in which a member of parliament had \"defenestrated\" two EU flags from a fourth story window. In November 2015, the newly elected Polish government under Beata Szydło removed the EU flag from government press conferences.\n\nDerivative designs\nThe design of the European flag has been used in a variation, such as that of the Council of Europe mentioned above, and also to a greater extent such as the flag of the Western European Union (WEU; now defunct), which uses the same colours and the stars but has a number of stars based on membership and in a semicircle rather than a circle. It is also defaced with the initials of the former Western European Union in two languages.\n\nThe European Parliament used its own flag from 1973, but never formally adopted it. It fell out of use with the adoption of the twelve-star flag by the Parliament in 1983. The flag followed the yellow and blue colour scheme however instead of twelve stars there were the letters EP and PE (initials of the European Parliament in the six community languages at the time) surrounded by a wreath. Sometime later, the Parliament chose to use a logo consisting of a stylised hemicycle and the EU flag at the bottom right.\n\nThe flag of Bosnia and Herzegovina, imposed by High Representative Carlos Westendorp, after the country's parliament failed to agree on a design, is reminiscent of the symbolism of the EU flag, using the same blue and yellow colours, and the stars, although of a different number and colour, are a direct reference to those of the European flag.\n\nLikewise, Kosovo uses blue, yellow and stars in its flag, which has been mocked as a \"none too subtle nod to the flag of the European Union, which is about to become Kosovo's new best friend as it takes over protector status from the United Nations\".\n\nThe flag of the Brussels-Capital Region (introduced in 2016) consists of a yellow iris with a white outline upon a blue background. Its colours are based on the colours of the Flag of Europe, because Brussels is considered the unofficial capital of the EU.\n\nHeraldry\n\nThe coat of arms of the Chairman of the European Union Military Committee (CEUMC), the highest-ranking officer within the EU's Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP), depicts the European emblem as a coat of arms, i.e. emblazoned on an escutcheon. In heraldic terms, the European flag is the banner of arms, i.e. the flag design derived from the coat of arms. In English blazon, the arms is On an azure field a circle of 12 golden mullets, their points not touching.\n\nSeveral EU publications related to the CSDP generally, and its prospective development as a defence arm, have also displayed the European emblem in this manner, albeit as a graphical design element rather than an official symbol.\n\nSee also\n Symbols of Europe#Flag\n Symbols of the European Union\n Mariolatry\n Novalis – Christendom or Europa'' ()\n European Fisheries Control Agency#Pennant\n\n Flags of the European Union's precursors\n Flag of the Western Union\n Flag of the Western European Union\n Flag of the European Coal and Steel Community\n\n Flags of other European unification movements\n Flag of the Paneuropean Union (adopted 1922)\n Hertenstein Cross of the federalist movements (used in 1946)\n Federalist flag of the European Movement (adopted 1948)\n\n Other continental flags\n Flag of the African Union\n Flag of the Eurasian Economic Union\n\nNotes\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n Council of Europe on the flag\n Council of Europe historical files on the flag\n EU's graphical specifications for the flag\n The symbols of the European Union: The flag of the Council Europe. Virtual Centre for Knowledge on Europe\n \n Memorandum on design and designer of European flag\n\nFlag\nFlags introduced in 1955\nFlags of Europe\nFlags of international organizations\nFlag",
"The federalist flag, also known as the Flag of the European Movement, is a flag commonly used by groups or individuals promoting European federalism, consisting of a large green \"E\" upon a white field. It was designed as the flag of the European Movement, but is no longer used by it.\n\nHistory\n\nThe flag first appeared at the Congress of Europe in 1948, which was organised by the International Committee of the Movements for European Unity; however, the colour of the E was red. The congress demonstrated the first divisions between unionists and federalists (those wanting a loose union and those wanting a United States of Europe). The congress led to the creation of the European Movement and, at its first meeting in Strasbourg in September of the same year, adopted the \"E\" flag but changed the colour red to green. It intended the flag to be a symbol of hope for peace and unity in Europe. It is unknown who authored the flag, though it is speculated that the man most likely to have proposed it was Duncan Sandys, British Conservative and the son-in-law of Winston Churchill, who was responsible for developing the British European Movement. The flag was first flown in London in 1949 at the European economic congress.\n\nThe Council of Europe was established in 1949 as a European forum, with a stated purpose of protecting democracy and human rights. It began its search for a European flag the following year; however, the Council chose not to adopt the green \"E\" flag, or any other previously used flags. In 1955 it adopted a circle of twelve yellow stars upon a blue background. The European Communities, later the European Union, also chose not to use the European Movement's flag, adopting the Council of Europe's flag in 1986 on the initiative of the European Parliament. As it was not adopted by any European governmental body, and with the Council and European Union's flag being more widely recognised, the European Movement's green \"E\" began to be confined to the more committed federalist supporters and organisations, such as the Union of European Federalists and the Young European Federalists (though the European Movement now uses a logo based on the twelve star flag).\n\nDesign\nThe flag is dominated by a green, elongated and rigid letter \"E\" upon a white background. Geometrically, the flag can be divided three ways across and five ways down, all of equal size; the \"E\" fills the top and bottom fifth, the left most third and one third in the third fifth from the top. The E hence fills two thirds of the area of the elongated flag.\n\nSymbolism\nToday, the flag no longer simply stands for European unity, but for the political struggle for a European federation. The flag has been commonly used by citizens, hoisting it at border crossings following the Second World War, in the 1970s calling for direct European elections, by over 100,000 protesters in Milan calling for the adoption of the Spinelli Treaty (which would have created a European federation but was not adopted) and likewise by tens of thousands supporting the European Constitution at the 2000 Nice European Council. This has given it a character, unlike the European Union flag, of signifying struggle, in the fight against nationalism and against unionists who agree with European unity but are not willing to accept a federation which the federalists describe as \"the self-evident consequences\".\n\nIndicating, there is a desire among federalists not to let the flag fall into disuse. It is not something that is in competition with the European Union's flag, which the federalists see as representing the status quo. Rather they desire the federalist flag to be used as a partisan flag by the federalists who desire \"a democratic and efficient Europe, a Europe capable of acting in the world and coping with the challenges of the 21st century, a Europe capable of defending and promoting beyond its frontiers the values of peace, humanism and progress, which constitute the common heritage of all European citizens.\" Furthermore, in its ideals of peace, progress, anti-nationalism and ending the division of mankind, it is also seen by some as transcending Europe's borders as a universal symbol of these values.\n\nSee also\n Flag of Europe (Council of Europe and European Union)\n Flag of the Western Union\n Flag of the Western European Union\n Flag of the European Coal and Steel Community\n European Movement\n Union of European Federalists (UEF)\n History of the European Union\n\nReferences\n\nEurofederalism\nActivism flags\nFlags introduced in 1948"
]
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[
"Rem Koolhaas",
"European Flag proposal",
"what was proposed about the European Flag?",
"The barcode seeks to unite the flags of the EU member countries into a single, colourful symbol."
]
| C_246bb626bd9b4cc6a6ccb3cef92dc9f2_0 | what kind of symbol? | 2 | what kind of single, colourful symbol? | Rem Koolhaas | Following the signing of Treaties of Nice in May 2001, which made Brussels the de facto capital of the European Union, the then President of the European Commission, Romano Prodi and the Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt invited Koolhaas to discuss the necessities and requirements of a European capital. During these talks and as an impetus for further discussion, Koolhaas and his think-tank AMO - an independent part of OMA - suggested the development of a visual language. This idea inspired a series of drawings and drafts, including the "Barcode". The barcode seeks to unite the flags of the EU member countries into a single, colourful symbol. In the current European flag, there is a fixed number of stars. In the barcode however, new Member States of the EU can be added without space constraints. Originally, the barcode displayed 15 EU countries. In 2004, the symbol was adapted to include the ten new Member States. Since the time of the first drafts of the barcode it has very rarely been officially used by commercial or political institutions. During the Austrian EU Presidency 2006, it was officially used for the first time. The logo was used for the EU information campaign, but was very negatively criticized. In addition to the initial uproar caused by the Estonian flag stripes being displayed incorrectly, the proposed flag failed to achieve its main objective as a symbol. Critics pointed the lack of capability to relate the signified (the mental concept, the European Union) with the signifier (the physical image, the stripes) as the major problem, as well as the presented justification for the order in which the color stripes were displayed (as every country in the EU should be regarded as equal in importance and priority). CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Remment Lucas Koolhaas (; born 17 November 1944) is a Dutch architect, architectural theorist, urbanist and Professor in Practice of Architecture and Urban Design at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. He is often cited as a representative of Deconstructivism and is the author of Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan.
He is seen by some as one of the truly significant architectural thinkers and urbanists of his generation, by others as a self-important iconoclast. In 2000, Rem Koolhaas won the Pritzker Prize. In 2008, Time put him in their top 100 of The World's Most Influential People. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2014.
Early life and career
Remment Koolhaas, usually abbreviated to Rem Koolhaas, was born on 17 November 1944 in Rotterdam, Netherlands, to Anton Koolhaas (1912–1992) and Selinde Pietertje Roosenburg (born 1920). His father was a novelist, critic, and screenwriter. Two documentary films by Bert Haanstra for which his father wrote the scenarios were nominated for an Academy Award for Documentary Feature, one won a Golden Bear for Short Film. His maternal grandfather, Dirk Roosenburg (1887–1962), was a modernist architect who worked for Hendrik Petrus Berlage, before opening his own practice. Rem Koolhaas has a brother, Thomas, and a sister, Annabel. His paternal cousin was the architect and urban planner Teun Koolhaas (1940–2007). The family lived consecutively in Rotterdam (until 1946), Amsterdam (1946–1952), Jakarta (1952–1955), and Amsterdam (from 1955).
His father strongly supported the Indonesian cause for autonomy from the colonial Dutch in his writing. When the war of independence was won, he was invited over to run a cultural programme for three years and the family moved to Jakarta in 1952. "It was a very important age for me," Koolhaas recalls "and I really lived as an Asian."
In 1969, Koolhaas co-wrote The White Slave, a Dutch film noir, and later wrote an unproduced script for American soft-porn king Russ Meyer.
He was a journalist in 1963 at age 19 for the Haagse Post before starting studies in architecture in 1968 at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London, followed, in 1972, by further studies with Oswald Mathias Ungers at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, followed by studies at the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies in New York City.
Koolhaas first came to public and critical attention with OMA (The Office for Metropolitan Architecture), the office he founded in 1975 together with architects Elia Zenghelis, Zoe Zenghelis and (Koolhaas's wife) Madelon Vriesendorp in London. They were later joined by one of Koolhaas's students, Zaha Hadid – who would soon go on to achieve success in her own right. An early work which would mark their difference from the then dominant postmodern classicism of the late 1970s, was their contribution to the Venice Biennale of 1980, curated by Italian architect Paolo Portoghesi, titled "Presence of the Past". Each architect had to design a stage-like "frontage" to a Potemkin-type internal street; the façades by , Frank Gehry and OMA were the only ones that did not employ Post-Modern architecture motifs or historical references.
Other early critically received (yet unbuilt) projects included the Parc de la Villette, Paris (1982) and the residence for the Prime Minister of Ireland (1979), as well as the Kunsthal in Rotterdam (1992). These schemes would attempt to put into practice many of the findings Koolhaas made in his book Delirious New York (1978), which was written while he was a visiting scholar at the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies in New York, directed by Peter Eisenman.
Architectural theory
Delirious New York
Koolhaas's book Delirious New York set the pace for his career. Koolhaas analyzes the "chance-like" nature of city life: "The City is an addictive machine from which there is no escape" "Rem Koolhaas...defined the city as a collection of 'red hot spots'." (Anna Klingmann). As Koolhaas himself has acknowledged, this approach had already been evident in the Japanese Metabolist Movement in the 1960s and early 1970s.
A key aspect of architecture that Koolhaas interrogates is the "Program": with the rise of modernism in the 20th century the "Program" became the key theme of architectural design. The notion of the Program involves "an act to edit function and human activities" as the pretext of architectural design: epitomised in the maxim form follows function, first popularised by architect Louis Sullivan at the beginning of the 20th century. The notion was first questioned in Delirious New York, in his analysis of high-rise architecture in Manhattan. An early design method derived from such thinking was "cross-programming", introducing unexpected functions in room programmes, such as running tracks in skyscrapers. More recently, Koolhaas unsuccessfully proposed the inclusion of hospital units for the homeless into the Seattle Public Library project (2003).
Project on the city
Koolhaas' next publications were a by-product of his position as professor at Harvard University, in the Design school's "Project on the City"; firstly the 720-page Mutations, followed by The Harvard Design School Guide to Shopping (2002) and The Great Leap Forward (2002).
All three books published student work analysing what others would regard as "non-cities", sprawling conglomerates such as Lagos in Nigeria, west Africa, which the authors argue are highly functional despite a lack of infrastructure. The authors also examine the influence of shopping habits and the recent rapid growth of cities in China. Critics of the books have criticised Koolhaas for being cynical, – as if Western capitalism and globalization demolish all cultural identity – highlighted in the notion expounded in the books that "In the end, there will be little else for us to do but shop". Perhaps such caustic cynicism can be read as a "realism" about the transformation of cultural life, where airports and even museums (due to finance problems) rely just as much on operating gift shops. It does, however, demonstrate one of the architect's characteristic devices for deflecting criticism: attack the client or subject of study after completing the work.
When it comes to transforming these observations into practice, Koolhaas mobilizes what he regards as the omnipotent forces of urbanism into unique design forms and connections organised along the lines of present-day society. Koolhaas continuously incorporates his observations of the contemporary city within his design activities: calling such a condition the ‘culture of congestion’. Again, shopping is examined for "intellectual comfort", whilst the unregulated taste and densification of Chinese cities is analysed according to "performance", a criterion involving variables with debatable credibility: density, newness, shape, size, money etc.
In 2003, Content, a 544-page magazine-style book designed by &&& Creative and published by Koolhaas, gives an overview of the last decade of OMA projects including his designs for the Prada shops, the Seattle Public Library, a plan to save Cambridge from Harvard by rechanneling the Charles River, Lagos' future as Earth's third-biggest city, as well as interviews with Martha Stewart and Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown.
Volume Magazine
In 2005, Rem Koolhaas co-founded Volume Magazine together with Mark Wigley and Ole Bouman. Volume Magazine – the collaborative project by Archis (Amsterdam), AMO and C-lab (Columbia University NY) – is a dynamic experimental think tank devoted to the process of spatial and cultural reflexivity. It goes beyond architecture's definition of ‘making buildings’ and reaches out for global views on architecture and design, broader attitudes to social structures, and creating environments to live in. The magazine stands for a journalism which detects and anticipates, is proactive and even pre-emptive – a journalism which uncovers potentialities, rather than covering done deals.
Buildings and projects
In the late nineties he worked on the design for the new headquarters for Universal.
Indeed, online marketing and propaganda has been a hallmark of OMA's rise in the current century. It has also led to pointed criticism, such as the critique by New York Magazine critic Justin Davidson, who found the 2020 Guggenheim exhibition Countryside, the Future "mildly amusing if it weren’t such terrible waste — of attention, of gallery square footage, of resources, talent, and expertise. Bored with being an architect and building things, Koolhaas lets his fingertips graze important topics, genuine insights, and actual lives. He treats them all as ironic bric-a-brac, meaningless souvenirs of his meanderings through a fragile world. How frustrating that the Guggenheim couldn’t force a little more intellectual rigor on this romp."
Architecture, fashion, and theatre
With his Prada projects, Koolhaas ventured into providing architecture for the fleeting world of fashion and with celebrity-studded cachet: not unlike Garnier's Opera, the central space of Koolhaas' Beverly Hills Prada store is occupied by a massive central staircase, ostensibly displaying select wares, but mainly the shoppers themselves. The notion of selling a brand rather than marketing clothes was further emphasised in the Prada store on Broadway in Manhattan, New York, which had previously been owned by the Guggenheim: the museum signs were not removed during the outfitting of the new store, as if emphasizing the premises as a cultural institution. The Broadway Prada store opened in December 2001, cost €32 million to build, and has 2,300 square meters of retail space.
21st Century Projects
Probably the most costly and celebrated OMA projects of the new century were the massive Central China Television Headquarters Building in Beijing, China, and the new building for the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, the equivalent of the NASDAQ in China.
In his design for the new CCTV Headquarters in Beijing (2009), Koolhaas did not opt for the stereotypical skyscraper, often used to symbolise and landmark such government enterprises; he patented a "horizontal skyscraper" in the U.S. The building, popularly called "The Big Pants" by Beijing residents, was designed as a series of volumes which attempt to tie together the numerous departments onto the nebulous site, but also introduce routes (again, the concept of cross-programming) for the general public through the site, allowing them some degree of access to the production procedure. An unfortunate incident that highlighted the folly of the circulation scheme (no effective fire egress for people on the upper floors), was the construction fire that nearly destroyed the building and a nearby hotel in 2009.
Personal life
Koolhaas was previously married to Madelon Vriesendorp, an artist who is the mother of his two children, Charlie, a photographer, and Tomas, a filmmaker. Koolhaas divorced Vriesendorp in 2012. He has known his current partner Petra Blaisse, an interior and landscape designer since 1986.
Selected projects
Villa dall’Ava, (Saint-Cloud, 1991)
Nexus World Housing (Fukuoka, 1991)
Kunsthal (Rotterdam, 1992)
Euralille (Lille, 1994)
Educatorium (Utrecht, 1995)
Maison à Bordeaux (Bordeaux, 1998)
Embassy of the Netherlands (Berlin, 2003)
McCormick Tribune Campus Center (Chicago, 2003)
Seoul National University Museum of Art (Seoul, 2005)
Seattle Central Library (Seattle, 2005)
Casa da Música (Porto, 2005)
Dee and Charles Wyly Theater (Dallas, 2009)
CCTV Headquarters, (Beijing, 2012)
De Rotterdam (Rotterdam, 2013)
Garage Museum of Contemporary Art (Moscow, 2014)
Qatar National Library (Doha, 2017)
Taipei Performing Arts Center (Taipei, 2022)
Bibliography
Project Japan. Metabolism Talks... (2011) (with Hans Ulrich Obrist)
Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan (1978)
S,M,L,XL (1995)
Serpentine Gallery: 24 Hour Interview Marathon (2007) Living Vivre Leben (1998)Content (2004)
Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2006''; Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, Köln, Germany 2008
Gallery
See also
Contemporary architecture
World Architecture Survey
List of architects
Koolhaas Houselife
References
External links
Office for Metropolitan Architecture
OMA official Facebook page (updated daily)
OMA official Vimeo channel
OMA portfolio on Archello.com
Rem Koolhaas at Harvard University
Urgency 2007: Rem Koolhaas and Peter Eisenman lectures, Canadian Centre for Architecture, June 8, 2007
Rem Koolhaas in conversation with Mirko Zardini and Giovanna Borasi, Rotterdam, August 26, 2015, for the exhibition The Other Architect, Canadian Centre for Architecture
On Starchitecture
Koolhaas at Harvard's Ecological Urbanism
Rem Koolhaas: A Kind of Architect (2008 Feature Documentary)
Rem Koolhaas lecture "Russia for Beginners" at Garage Museum of Contemporary Art: September 15th, 2014
Rem Koolhaas on Empty Canon
1944 births
20th-century Dutch architects
21st-century Dutch architects
Architectural theoreticians
Urban theorists
Deconstructivism
Postmodern architecture
Dutch non-fiction writers
Living people
Cornell University College of Architecture, Art, and Planning alumni
Harvard Graduate School of Design faculty
Dutch urban planners
Architects from Rotterdam
Pritzker Architecture Prize winners
Recipients of the Royal Gold Medal
Chevaliers of the Légion d'honneur
Recipients of the Praemium Imperiale
Alumni of the Architectural Association School of Architecture
Honorary Fellows of the American Institute of Architects | false | [
"\"What Kind of Fool\" is a 1981 vocal duet between Barbra Streisand and Barry Gibb.\n\nWhat Kind of Fool may also refer to:\n\n \"What Kind of Fool\" (Lionel Cartwright song), a 1991 song by Lionel Cartwright\n \"What Kind of Fool (Heard All That Before)\", a 1992 song performed by Kylie Minogue\n \"What Kind of Fool Am I?\", a 1962 song recorded by several artists\n \"What Kind of Fool (Do You Think I Am)\", a 1964 song by The Tamms\n \"What Kind of Fool Do You Think I Am\", a 1992 song by Lee Roy Parnell\n \"What Kind of Fool\", a 1988 single by All About Eve",
"What Kind of World may refer to:\n\n What Kind of World (The Cables album), 1970, or the title track\n What Kind of World (Brendan Benson album), 2012, or the title track\n \"What Kind of World\", a song by Saint Etienne from their 2017 album Home Counties"
]
|
[
"Rem Koolhaas",
"European Flag proposal",
"what was proposed about the European Flag?",
"The barcode seeks to unite the flags of the EU member countries into a single, colourful symbol.",
"what kind of symbol?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_246bb626bd9b4cc6a6ccb3cef92dc9f2_0 | why did they decide to unite the flags? | 3 | why did EU member countries decide to single, colourful symbol? | Rem Koolhaas | Following the signing of Treaties of Nice in May 2001, which made Brussels the de facto capital of the European Union, the then President of the European Commission, Romano Prodi and the Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt invited Koolhaas to discuss the necessities and requirements of a European capital. During these talks and as an impetus for further discussion, Koolhaas and his think-tank AMO - an independent part of OMA - suggested the development of a visual language. This idea inspired a series of drawings and drafts, including the "Barcode". The barcode seeks to unite the flags of the EU member countries into a single, colourful symbol. In the current European flag, there is a fixed number of stars. In the barcode however, new Member States of the EU can be added without space constraints. Originally, the barcode displayed 15 EU countries. In 2004, the symbol was adapted to include the ten new Member States. Since the time of the first drafts of the barcode it has very rarely been officially used by commercial or political institutions. During the Austrian EU Presidency 2006, it was officially used for the first time. The logo was used for the EU information campaign, but was very negatively criticized. In addition to the initial uproar caused by the Estonian flag stripes being displayed incorrectly, the proposed flag failed to achieve its main objective as a symbol. Critics pointed the lack of capability to relate the signified (the mental concept, the European Union) with the signifier (the physical image, the stripes) as the major problem, as well as the presented justification for the order in which the color stripes were displayed (as every country in the EU should be regarded as equal in importance and priority). CANNOTANSWER | Koolhaas and his think-tank AMO - an independent part of OMA - suggested the development of a visual language. | Remment Lucas Koolhaas (; born 17 November 1944) is a Dutch architect, architectural theorist, urbanist and Professor in Practice of Architecture and Urban Design at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. He is often cited as a representative of Deconstructivism and is the author of Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan.
He is seen by some as one of the truly significant architectural thinkers and urbanists of his generation, by others as a self-important iconoclast. In 2000, Rem Koolhaas won the Pritzker Prize. In 2008, Time put him in their top 100 of The World's Most Influential People. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2014.
Early life and career
Remment Koolhaas, usually abbreviated to Rem Koolhaas, was born on 17 November 1944 in Rotterdam, Netherlands, to Anton Koolhaas (1912–1992) and Selinde Pietertje Roosenburg (born 1920). His father was a novelist, critic, and screenwriter. Two documentary films by Bert Haanstra for which his father wrote the scenarios were nominated for an Academy Award for Documentary Feature, one won a Golden Bear for Short Film. His maternal grandfather, Dirk Roosenburg (1887–1962), was a modernist architect who worked for Hendrik Petrus Berlage, before opening his own practice. Rem Koolhaas has a brother, Thomas, and a sister, Annabel. His paternal cousin was the architect and urban planner Teun Koolhaas (1940–2007). The family lived consecutively in Rotterdam (until 1946), Amsterdam (1946–1952), Jakarta (1952–1955), and Amsterdam (from 1955).
His father strongly supported the Indonesian cause for autonomy from the colonial Dutch in his writing. When the war of independence was won, he was invited over to run a cultural programme for three years and the family moved to Jakarta in 1952. "It was a very important age for me," Koolhaas recalls "and I really lived as an Asian."
In 1969, Koolhaas co-wrote The White Slave, a Dutch film noir, and later wrote an unproduced script for American soft-porn king Russ Meyer.
He was a journalist in 1963 at age 19 for the Haagse Post before starting studies in architecture in 1968 at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London, followed, in 1972, by further studies with Oswald Mathias Ungers at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, followed by studies at the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies in New York City.
Koolhaas first came to public and critical attention with OMA (The Office for Metropolitan Architecture), the office he founded in 1975 together with architects Elia Zenghelis, Zoe Zenghelis and (Koolhaas's wife) Madelon Vriesendorp in London. They were later joined by one of Koolhaas's students, Zaha Hadid – who would soon go on to achieve success in her own right. An early work which would mark their difference from the then dominant postmodern classicism of the late 1970s, was their contribution to the Venice Biennale of 1980, curated by Italian architect Paolo Portoghesi, titled "Presence of the Past". Each architect had to design a stage-like "frontage" to a Potemkin-type internal street; the façades by , Frank Gehry and OMA were the only ones that did not employ Post-Modern architecture motifs or historical references.
Other early critically received (yet unbuilt) projects included the Parc de la Villette, Paris (1982) and the residence for the Prime Minister of Ireland (1979), as well as the Kunsthal in Rotterdam (1992). These schemes would attempt to put into practice many of the findings Koolhaas made in his book Delirious New York (1978), which was written while he was a visiting scholar at the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies in New York, directed by Peter Eisenman.
Architectural theory
Delirious New York
Koolhaas's book Delirious New York set the pace for his career. Koolhaas analyzes the "chance-like" nature of city life: "The City is an addictive machine from which there is no escape" "Rem Koolhaas...defined the city as a collection of 'red hot spots'." (Anna Klingmann). As Koolhaas himself has acknowledged, this approach had already been evident in the Japanese Metabolist Movement in the 1960s and early 1970s.
A key aspect of architecture that Koolhaas interrogates is the "Program": with the rise of modernism in the 20th century the "Program" became the key theme of architectural design. The notion of the Program involves "an act to edit function and human activities" as the pretext of architectural design: epitomised in the maxim form follows function, first popularised by architect Louis Sullivan at the beginning of the 20th century. The notion was first questioned in Delirious New York, in his analysis of high-rise architecture in Manhattan. An early design method derived from such thinking was "cross-programming", introducing unexpected functions in room programmes, such as running tracks in skyscrapers. More recently, Koolhaas unsuccessfully proposed the inclusion of hospital units for the homeless into the Seattle Public Library project (2003).
Project on the city
Koolhaas' next publications were a by-product of his position as professor at Harvard University, in the Design school's "Project on the City"; firstly the 720-page Mutations, followed by The Harvard Design School Guide to Shopping (2002) and The Great Leap Forward (2002).
All three books published student work analysing what others would regard as "non-cities", sprawling conglomerates such as Lagos in Nigeria, west Africa, which the authors argue are highly functional despite a lack of infrastructure. The authors also examine the influence of shopping habits and the recent rapid growth of cities in China. Critics of the books have criticised Koolhaas for being cynical, – as if Western capitalism and globalization demolish all cultural identity – highlighted in the notion expounded in the books that "In the end, there will be little else for us to do but shop". Perhaps such caustic cynicism can be read as a "realism" about the transformation of cultural life, where airports and even museums (due to finance problems) rely just as much on operating gift shops. It does, however, demonstrate one of the architect's characteristic devices for deflecting criticism: attack the client or subject of study after completing the work.
When it comes to transforming these observations into practice, Koolhaas mobilizes what he regards as the omnipotent forces of urbanism into unique design forms and connections organised along the lines of present-day society. Koolhaas continuously incorporates his observations of the contemporary city within his design activities: calling such a condition the ‘culture of congestion’. Again, shopping is examined for "intellectual comfort", whilst the unregulated taste and densification of Chinese cities is analysed according to "performance", a criterion involving variables with debatable credibility: density, newness, shape, size, money etc.
In 2003, Content, a 544-page magazine-style book designed by &&& Creative and published by Koolhaas, gives an overview of the last decade of OMA projects including his designs for the Prada shops, the Seattle Public Library, a plan to save Cambridge from Harvard by rechanneling the Charles River, Lagos' future as Earth's third-biggest city, as well as interviews with Martha Stewart and Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown.
Volume Magazine
In 2005, Rem Koolhaas co-founded Volume Magazine together with Mark Wigley and Ole Bouman. Volume Magazine – the collaborative project by Archis (Amsterdam), AMO and C-lab (Columbia University NY) – is a dynamic experimental think tank devoted to the process of spatial and cultural reflexivity. It goes beyond architecture's definition of ‘making buildings’ and reaches out for global views on architecture and design, broader attitudes to social structures, and creating environments to live in. The magazine stands for a journalism which detects and anticipates, is proactive and even pre-emptive – a journalism which uncovers potentialities, rather than covering done deals.
Buildings and projects
In the late nineties he worked on the design for the new headquarters for Universal.
Indeed, online marketing and propaganda has been a hallmark of OMA's rise in the current century. It has also led to pointed criticism, such as the critique by New York Magazine critic Justin Davidson, who found the 2020 Guggenheim exhibition Countryside, the Future "mildly amusing if it weren’t such terrible waste — of attention, of gallery square footage, of resources, talent, and expertise. Bored with being an architect and building things, Koolhaas lets his fingertips graze important topics, genuine insights, and actual lives. He treats them all as ironic bric-a-brac, meaningless souvenirs of his meanderings through a fragile world. How frustrating that the Guggenheim couldn’t force a little more intellectual rigor on this romp."
Architecture, fashion, and theatre
With his Prada projects, Koolhaas ventured into providing architecture for the fleeting world of fashion and with celebrity-studded cachet: not unlike Garnier's Opera, the central space of Koolhaas' Beverly Hills Prada store is occupied by a massive central staircase, ostensibly displaying select wares, but mainly the shoppers themselves. The notion of selling a brand rather than marketing clothes was further emphasised in the Prada store on Broadway in Manhattan, New York, which had previously been owned by the Guggenheim: the museum signs were not removed during the outfitting of the new store, as if emphasizing the premises as a cultural institution. The Broadway Prada store opened in December 2001, cost €32 million to build, and has 2,300 square meters of retail space.
21st Century Projects
Probably the most costly and celebrated OMA projects of the new century were the massive Central China Television Headquarters Building in Beijing, China, and the new building for the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, the equivalent of the NASDAQ in China.
In his design for the new CCTV Headquarters in Beijing (2009), Koolhaas did not opt for the stereotypical skyscraper, often used to symbolise and landmark such government enterprises; he patented a "horizontal skyscraper" in the U.S. The building, popularly called "The Big Pants" by Beijing residents, was designed as a series of volumes which attempt to tie together the numerous departments onto the nebulous site, but also introduce routes (again, the concept of cross-programming) for the general public through the site, allowing them some degree of access to the production procedure. An unfortunate incident that highlighted the folly of the circulation scheme (no effective fire egress for people on the upper floors), was the construction fire that nearly destroyed the building and a nearby hotel in 2009.
Personal life
Koolhaas was previously married to Madelon Vriesendorp, an artist who is the mother of his two children, Charlie, a photographer, and Tomas, a filmmaker. Koolhaas divorced Vriesendorp in 2012. He has known his current partner Petra Blaisse, an interior and landscape designer since 1986.
Selected projects
Villa dall’Ava, (Saint-Cloud, 1991)
Nexus World Housing (Fukuoka, 1991)
Kunsthal (Rotterdam, 1992)
Euralille (Lille, 1994)
Educatorium (Utrecht, 1995)
Maison à Bordeaux (Bordeaux, 1998)
Embassy of the Netherlands (Berlin, 2003)
McCormick Tribune Campus Center (Chicago, 2003)
Seoul National University Museum of Art (Seoul, 2005)
Seattle Central Library (Seattle, 2005)
Casa da Música (Porto, 2005)
Dee and Charles Wyly Theater (Dallas, 2009)
CCTV Headquarters, (Beijing, 2012)
De Rotterdam (Rotterdam, 2013)
Garage Museum of Contemporary Art (Moscow, 2014)
Qatar National Library (Doha, 2017)
Taipei Performing Arts Center (Taipei, 2022)
Bibliography
Project Japan. Metabolism Talks... (2011) (with Hans Ulrich Obrist)
Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan (1978)
S,M,L,XL (1995)
Serpentine Gallery: 24 Hour Interview Marathon (2007) Living Vivre Leben (1998)Content (2004)
Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2006''; Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, Köln, Germany 2008
Gallery
See also
Contemporary architecture
World Architecture Survey
List of architects
Koolhaas Houselife
References
External links
Office for Metropolitan Architecture
OMA official Facebook page (updated daily)
OMA official Vimeo channel
OMA portfolio on Archello.com
Rem Koolhaas at Harvard University
Urgency 2007: Rem Koolhaas and Peter Eisenman lectures, Canadian Centre for Architecture, June 8, 2007
Rem Koolhaas in conversation with Mirko Zardini and Giovanna Borasi, Rotterdam, August 26, 2015, for the exhibition The Other Architect, Canadian Centre for Architecture
On Starchitecture
Koolhaas at Harvard's Ecological Urbanism
Rem Koolhaas: A Kind of Architect (2008 Feature Documentary)
Rem Koolhaas lecture "Russia for Beginners" at Garage Museum of Contemporary Art: September 15th, 2014
Rem Koolhaas on Empty Canon
1944 births
20th-century Dutch architects
21st-century Dutch architects
Architectural theoreticians
Urban theorists
Deconstructivism
Postmodern architecture
Dutch non-fiction writers
Living people
Cornell University College of Architecture, Art, and Planning alumni
Harvard Graduate School of Design faculty
Dutch urban planners
Architects from Rotterdam
Pritzker Architecture Prize winners
Recipients of the Royal Gold Medal
Chevaliers of the Légion d'honneur
Recipients of the Praemium Imperiale
Alumni of the Architectural Association School of Architecture
Honorary Fellows of the American Institute of Architects | false | [
"The use of triangular corner flags in English football is a regular occurrence based upon traditional achievements. Tradition holds that only clubs that have won the FA Cup have the right to use triangular corner flags rather than the regular square ones. However this tradition has no basis in The Football Association's (FA) regulations and clubs are free to decide what shape of flags they use.\n\nHistory \nThe origin for the tradition is unknown; however, one possible explanation came that Cardiff City after winning the 1927 FA Cup Final adopted triangular corner flags to commemorate the victory as well as reminding their South Wales derby rivals Swansea City of this. From then on, it became an accepted tradition that only winners of the FA Cup would be entitled to use triangular corner flags. This theory was popularised in the 1997 film Twin Town. While a number of FA Cup-winning clubs including Arsenal and Aston Villa do use triangular corner flags, some such as Liverpool do not. Some clubs that have never won the FA Cup use triangular corner flags, such as AFC Wimbledon, though they view themselves as the successors of Wimbledon who did.\n\nThe tradition has no legal basis in the FA's regulations. Indeed, most clubs did not even make an order to start using triangular flags as it was often left up to the club's groundsmen who made the decision. Former English referee David Elleray in his capacity as the technical director of the International Football Association Board stated there is freedom with regard to how clubs chose to select their corner flags. However, newspapers have erroneously asserted that triangular corner flags are a right for FA Cup winners only. Likewise it is a common question in pub quizzes which incorrectly assert the tradition is a right.\n\nSee also\n\nList of common misconceptions#Sports\n\nReferences \n\nAssociation football culture\nUrban legends\nFootball in England",
"The flag of Åland () is a yellow or gold Nordic cross with another red cross inside on a blue background with the vertical bar shifted towards the hoist side. It is intended to resemble the Swedish flag defaced by a red cross symbolizing Finland. The flag was officially adopted as the flag of Åland in 1954 and first hoisted in Mariehamn on 3 April 1954. Prior to autonomy, an unofficial horizontal bicolour triband of blue-yellow-blue was in use until it was made illegal in 1935.\n\nHistory \nWhen Finland obtained independence from Russia in 1917, many Ålanders feared they would lose their Swedish culture and language which led to the native population starting a movement to unite with Sweden. This led to Finland, Sweden, and Russia appealing to the League of Nations, who decided in favor of Ålander autonomy. Starting in the early 1920s, Åland unofficially used a blue and yellow tricolor flag until it was banned in 1935 by the Finnish government. In 1952, new laws gave Åland the right to make its own flag and a proposed flag resembling the Swedish flag with a blue cross inside was rejected by the president. The final design ended up being the first proposed model with a red cross inside to represent Finland.\n\nColors\n\nGallery\n\nSee also\n Åland\n Åland's Autonomy Day\n Coat of arms of Åland\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n \nFlags of Åland Island\n\nFlags of Finland\nFlag\nNordic Cross flags\nÅland\nFlags introduced in 1954"
]
|
[
"Rem Koolhaas",
"European Flag proposal",
"what was proposed about the European Flag?",
"The barcode seeks to unite the flags of the EU member countries into a single, colourful symbol.",
"what kind of symbol?",
"I don't know.",
"why did they decide to unite the flags?",
"Koolhaas and his think-tank AMO - an independent part of OMA - suggested the development of a visual language."
]
| C_246bb626bd9b4cc6a6ccb3cef92dc9f2_0 | was there any opposition to doing this? | 4 | was there any opposition to the development of a visual language? | Rem Koolhaas | Following the signing of Treaties of Nice in May 2001, which made Brussels the de facto capital of the European Union, the then President of the European Commission, Romano Prodi and the Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt invited Koolhaas to discuss the necessities and requirements of a European capital. During these talks and as an impetus for further discussion, Koolhaas and his think-tank AMO - an independent part of OMA - suggested the development of a visual language. This idea inspired a series of drawings and drafts, including the "Barcode". The barcode seeks to unite the flags of the EU member countries into a single, colourful symbol. In the current European flag, there is a fixed number of stars. In the barcode however, new Member States of the EU can be added without space constraints. Originally, the barcode displayed 15 EU countries. In 2004, the symbol was adapted to include the ten new Member States. Since the time of the first drafts of the barcode it has very rarely been officially used by commercial or political institutions. During the Austrian EU Presidency 2006, it was officially used for the first time. The logo was used for the EU information campaign, but was very negatively criticized. In addition to the initial uproar caused by the Estonian flag stripes being displayed incorrectly, the proposed flag failed to achieve its main objective as a symbol. Critics pointed the lack of capability to relate the signified (the mental concept, the European Union) with the signifier (the physical image, the stripes) as the major problem, as well as the presented justification for the order in which the color stripes were displayed (as every country in the EU should be regarded as equal in importance and priority). CANNOTANSWER | The logo was used for the EU information campaign, but was very negatively criticized. | Remment Lucas Koolhaas (; born 17 November 1944) is a Dutch architect, architectural theorist, urbanist and Professor in Practice of Architecture and Urban Design at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. He is often cited as a representative of Deconstructivism and is the author of Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan.
He is seen by some as one of the truly significant architectural thinkers and urbanists of his generation, by others as a self-important iconoclast. In 2000, Rem Koolhaas won the Pritzker Prize. In 2008, Time put him in their top 100 of The World's Most Influential People. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2014.
Early life and career
Remment Koolhaas, usually abbreviated to Rem Koolhaas, was born on 17 November 1944 in Rotterdam, Netherlands, to Anton Koolhaas (1912–1992) and Selinde Pietertje Roosenburg (born 1920). His father was a novelist, critic, and screenwriter. Two documentary films by Bert Haanstra for which his father wrote the scenarios were nominated for an Academy Award for Documentary Feature, one won a Golden Bear for Short Film. His maternal grandfather, Dirk Roosenburg (1887–1962), was a modernist architect who worked for Hendrik Petrus Berlage, before opening his own practice. Rem Koolhaas has a brother, Thomas, and a sister, Annabel. His paternal cousin was the architect and urban planner Teun Koolhaas (1940–2007). The family lived consecutively in Rotterdam (until 1946), Amsterdam (1946–1952), Jakarta (1952–1955), and Amsterdam (from 1955).
His father strongly supported the Indonesian cause for autonomy from the colonial Dutch in his writing. When the war of independence was won, he was invited over to run a cultural programme for three years and the family moved to Jakarta in 1952. "It was a very important age for me," Koolhaas recalls "and I really lived as an Asian."
In 1969, Koolhaas co-wrote The White Slave, a Dutch film noir, and later wrote an unproduced script for American soft-porn king Russ Meyer.
He was a journalist in 1963 at age 19 for the Haagse Post before starting studies in architecture in 1968 at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London, followed, in 1972, by further studies with Oswald Mathias Ungers at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, followed by studies at the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies in New York City.
Koolhaas first came to public and critical attention with OMA (The Office for Metropolitan Architecture), the office he founded in 1975 together with architects Elia Zenghelis, Zoe Zenghelis and (Koolhaas's wife) Madelon Vriesendorp in London. They were later joined by one of Koolhaas's students, Zaha Hadid – who would soon go on to achieve success in her own right. An early work which would mark their difference from the then dominant postmodern classicism of the late 1970s, was their contribution to the Venice Biennale of 1980, curated by Italian architect Paolo Portoghesi, titled "Presence of the Past". Each architect had to design a stage-like "frontage" to a Potemkin-type internal street; the façades by , Frank Gehry and OMA were the only ones that did not employ Post-Modern architecture motifs or historical references.
Other early critically received (yet unbuilt) projects included the Parc de la Villette, Paris (1982) and the residence for the Prime Minister of Ireland (1979), as well as the Kunsthal in Rotterdam (1992). These schemes would attempt to put into practice many of the findings Koolhaas made in his book Delirious New York (1978), which was written while he was a visiting scholar at the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies in New York, directed by Peter Eisenman.
Architectural theory
Delirious New York
Koolhaas's book Delirious New York set the pace for his career. Koolhaas analyzes the "chance-like" nature of city life: "The City is an addictive machine from which there is no escape" "Rem Koolhaas...defined the city as a collection of 'red hot spots'." (Anna Klingmann). As Koolhaas himself has acknowledged, this approach had already been evident in the Japanese Metabolist Movement in the 1960s and early 1970s.
A key aspect of architecture that Koolhaas interrogates is the "Program": with the rise of modernism in the 20th century the "Program" became the key theme of architectural design. The notion of the Program involves "an act to edit function and human activities" as the pretext of architectural design: epitomised in the maxim form follows function, first popularised by architect Louis Sullivan at the beginning of the 20th century. The notion was first questioned in Delirious New York, in his analysis of high-rise architecture in Manhattan. An early design method derived from such thinking was "cross-programming", introducing unexpected functions in room programmes, such as running tracks in skyscrapers. More recently, Koolhaas unsuccessfully proposed the inclusion of hospital units for the homeless into the Seattle Public Library project (2003).
Project on the city
Koolhaas' next publications were a by-product of his position as professor at Harvard University, in the Design school's "Project on the City"; firstly the 720-page Mutations, followed by The Harvard Design School Guide to Shopping (2002) and The Great Leap Forward (2002).
All three books published student work analysing what others would regard as "non-cities", sprawling conglomerates such as Lagos in Nigeria, west Africa, which the authors argue are highly functional despite a lack of infrastructure. The authors also examine the influence of shopping habits and the recent rapid growth of cities in China. Critics of the books have criticised Koolhaas for being cynical, – as if Western capitalism and globalization demolish all cultural identity – highlighted in the notion expounded in the books that "In the end, there will be little else for us to do but shop". Perhaps such caustic cynicism can be read as a "realism" about the transformation of cultural life, where airports and even museums (due to finance problems) rely just as much on operating gift shops. It does, however, demonstrate one of the architect's characteristic devices for deflecting criticism: attack the client or subject of study after completing the work.
When it comes to transforming these observations into practice, Koolhaas mobilizes what he regards as the omnipotent forces of urbanism into unique design forms and connections organised along the lines of present-day society. Koolhaas continuously incorporates his observations of the contemporary city within his design activities: calling such a condition the ‘culture of congestion’. Again, shopping is examined for "intellectual comfort", whilst the unregulated taste and densification of Chinese cities is analysed according to "performance", a criterion involving variables with debatable credibility: density, newness, shape, size, money etc.
In 2003, Content, a 544-page magazine-style book designed by &&& Creative and published by Koolhaas, gives an overview of the last decade of OMA projects including his designs for the Prada shops, the Seattle Public Library, a plan to save Cambridge from Harvard by rechanneling the Charles River, Lagos' future as Earth's third-biggest city, as well as interviews with Martha Stewart and Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown.
Volume Magazine
In 2005, Rem Koolhaas co-founded Volume Magazine together with Mark Wigley and Ole Bouman. Volume Magazine – the collaborative project by Archis (Amsterdam), AMO and C-lab (Columbia University NY) – is a dynamic experimental think tank devoted to the process of spatial and cultural reflexivity. It goes beyond architecture's definition of ‘making buildings’ and reaches out for global views on architecture and design, broader attitudes to social structures, and creating environments to live in. The magazine stands for a journalism which detects and anticipates, is proactive and even pre-emptive – a journalism which uncovers potentialities, rather than covering done deals.
Buildings and projects
In the late nineties he worked on the design for the new headquarters for Universal.
Indeed, online marketing and propaganda has been a hallmark of OMA's rise in the current century. It has also led to pointed criticism, such as the critique by New York Magazine critic Justin Davidson, who found the 2020 Guggenheim exhibition Countryside, the Future "mildly amusing if it weren’t such terrible waste — of attention, of gallery square footage, of resources, talent, and expertise. Bored with being an architect and building things, Koolhaas lets his fingertips graze important topics, genuine insights, and actual lives. He treats them all as ironic bric-a-brac, meaningless souvenirs of his meanderings through a fragile world. How frustrating that the Guggenheim couldn’t force a little more intellectual rigor on this romp."
Architecture, fashion, and theatre
With his Prada projects, Koolhaas ventured into providing architecture for the fleeting world of fashion and with celebrity-studded cachet: not unlike Garnier's Opera, the central space of Koolhaas' Beverly Hills Prada store is occupied by a massive central staircase, ostensibly displaying select wares, but mainly the shoppers themselves. The notion of selling a brand rather than marketing clothes was further emphasised in the Prada store on Broadway in Manhattan, New York, which had previously been owned by the Guggenheim: the museum signs were not removed during the outfitting of the new store, as if emphasizing the premises as a cultural institution. The Broadway Prada store opened in December 2001, cost €32 million to build, and has 2,300 square meters of retail space.
21st Century Projects
Probably the most costly and celebrated OMA projects of the new century were the massive Central China Television Headquarters Building in Beijing, China, and the new building for the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, the equivalent of the NASDAQ in China.
In his design for the new CCTV Headquarters in Beijing (2009), Koolhaas did not opt for the stereotypical skyscraper, often used to symbolise and landmark such government enterprises; he patented a "horizontal skyscraper" in the U.S. The building, popularly called "The Big Pants" by Beijing residents, was designed as a series of volumes which attempt to tie together the numerous departments onto the nebulous site, but also introduce routes (again, the concept of cross-programming) for the general public through the site, allowing them some degree of access to the production procedure. An unfortunate incident that highlighted the folly of the circulation scheme (no effective fire egress for people on the upper floors), was the construction fire that nearly destroyed the building and a nearby hotel in 2009.
Personal life
Koolhaas was previously married to Madelon Vriesendorp, an artist who is the mother of his two children, Charlie, a photographer, and Tomas, a filmmaker. Koolhaas divorced Vriesendorp in 2012. He has known his current partner Petra Blaisse, an interior and landscape designer since 1986.
Selected projects
Villa dall’Ava, (Saint-Cloud, 1991)
Nexus World Housing (Fukuoka, 1991)
Kunsthal (Rotterdam, 1992)
Euralille (Lille, 1994)
Educatorium (Utrecht, 1995)
Maison à Bordeaux (Bordeaux, 1998)
Embassy of the Netherlands (Berlin, 2003)
McCormick Tribune Campus Center (Chicago, 2003)
Seoul National University Museum of Art (Seoul, 2005)
Seattle Central Library (Seattle, 2005)
Casa da Música (Porto, 2005)
Dee and Charles Wyly Theater (Dallas, 2009)
CCTV Headquarters, (Beijing, 2012)
De Rotterdam (Rotterdam, 2013)
Garage Museum of Contemporary Art (Moscow, 2014)
Qatar National Library (Doha, 2017)
Taipei Performing Arts Center (Taipei, 2022)
Bibliography
Project Japan. Metabolism Talks... (2011) (with Hans Ulrich Obrist)
Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan (1978)
S,M,L,XL (1995)
Serpentine Gallery: 24 Hour Interview Marathon (2007) Living Vivre Leben (1998)Content (2004)
Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2006''; Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, Köln, Germany 2008
Gallery
See also
Contemporary architecture
World Architecture Survey
List of architects
Koolhaas Houselife
References
External links
Office for Metropolitan Architecture
OMA official Facebook page (updated daily)
OMA official Vimeo channel
OMA portfolio on Archello.com
Rem Koolhaas at Harvard University
Urgency 2007: Rem Koolhaas and Peter Eisenman lectures, Canadian Centre for Architecture, June 8, 2007
Rem Koolhaas in conversation with Mirko Zardini and Giovanna Borasi, Rotterdam, August 26, 2015, for the exhibition The Other Architect, Canadian Centre for Architecture
On Starchitecture
Koolhaas at Harvard's Ecological Urbanism
Rem Koolhaas: A Kind of Architect (2008 Feature Documentary)
Rem Koolhaas lecture "Russia for Beginners" at Garage Museum of Contemporary Art: September 15th, 2014
Rem Koolhaas on Empty Canon
1944 births
20th-century Dutch architects
21st-century Dutch architects
Architectural theoreticians
Urban theorists
Deconstructivism
Postmodern architecture
Dutch non-fiction writers
Living people
Cornell University College of Architecture, Art, and Planning alumni
Harvard Graduate School of Design faculty
Dutch urban planners
Architects from Rotterdam
Pritzker Architecture Prize winners
Recipients of the Royal Gold Medal
Chevaliers of the Légion d'honneur
Recipients of the Praemium Imperiale
Alumni of the Architectural Association School of Architecture
Honorary Fellows of the American Institute of Architects | false | [
"C. T. Grero was a Ceylonese politician. He was mayor of Colombo from 1952 to 1953. \n\nElected to the Colombo Municipal Council from the Thimbirigasyaya Ward, he was to propose the name of the United National Party candidate for the post of Mayor, when the council gathered after the municipal election in 1952. The opposition in the council proposed Grero's name for Mayor and he was elected by a majority vote. This coined the term Doing a Grero.\n\nReferences\n\nMayors of Colombo\nPeople of British Ceylon\nSinhalese politicians\nYear of birth missing",
"The Opposition was a political grouping in Western Australia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In the Western Australian Parliament, there were initially no official parties, government being carried out by a loose coalition of members with similar interests. The pre-federation Legislative Assembly (1890–1901) had only one premier, John Forrest. Those members who supported him were generally referred to as the Pro-Forrest group whilst the majority of others were referred to as the Opposition.\n\nFor some years following federation, this continued, even though, at times the non Pro-Forrest group were in government, thus having the anomalous situation where the Opposition (Party) was in fact the Government.\n\nAs well as the Pro-Forrest and the Opposition members there were a small number (initially) who supported the emerging Labor Party as well as a few who considered themselves to be non aligned to any grouping, collectively referred to as Independents.\n\nIn the early post federation years, government in Western Australia was quite unstable in that all governments until 1906 were minority governments, relying on the support of sufficient independents, (along with a few that from time to time were persuaded to change \"sides\") to form an effective government. Thus it was in the immediate post-federation period 1901 - 1906, Western Australia had seven changes of government and Premier.\n\nIt was not until the Ministerial Party (a carry over from the Pro-Forrest group) led by Sir Newton Moore won the 1906 election that a Party was able to govern in its own right and complete a full term of office.\n\nPolitics of Western Australia"
]
|
[
"Rem Koolhaas",
"European Flag proposal",
"what was proposed about the European Flag?",
"The barcode seeks to unite the flags of the EU member countries into a single, colourful symbol.",
"what kind of symbol?",
"I don't know.",
"why did they decide to unite the flags?",
"Koolhaas and his think-tank AMO - an independent part of OMA - suggested the development of a visual language.",
"was there any opposition to doing this?",
"The logo was used for the EU information campaign, but was very negatively criticized."
]
| C_246bb626bd9b4cc6a6ccb3cef92dc9f2_0 | was the proposal successful? | 5 | was the development of a visual language successful? | Rem Koolhaas | Following the signing of Treaties of Nice in May 2001, which made Brussels the de facto capital of the European Union, the then President of the European Commission, Romano Prodi and the Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt invited Koolhaas to discuss the necessities and requirements of a European capital. During these talks and as an impetus for further discussion, Koolhaas and his think-tank AMO - an independent part of OMA - suggested the development of a visual language. This idea inspired a series of drawings and drafts, including the "Barcode". The barcode seeks to unite the flags of the EU member countries into a single, colourful symbol. In the current European flag, there is a fixed number of stars. In the barcode however, new Member States of the EU can be added without space constraints. Originally, the barcode displayed 15 EU countries. In 2004, the symbol was adapted to include the ten new Member States. Since the time of the first drafts of the barcode it has very rarely been officially used by commercial or political institutions. During the Austrian EU Presidency 2006, it was officially used for the first time. The logo was used for the EU information campaign, but was very negatively criticized. In addition to the initial uproar caused by the Estonian flag stripes being displayed incorrectly, the proposed flag failed to achieve its main objective as a symbol. Critics pointed the lack of capability to relate the signified (the mental concept, the European Union) with the signifier (the physical image, the stripes) as the major problem, as well as the presented justification for the order in which the color stripes were displayed (as every country in the EU should be regarded as equal in importance and priority). CANNOTANSWER | The logo was used for the EU information campaign, | Remment Lucas Koolhaas (; born 17 November 1944) is a Dutch architect, architectural theorist, urbanist and Professor in Practice of Architecture and Urban Design at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. He is often cited as a representative of Deconstructivism and is the author of Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan.
He is seen by some as one of the truly significant architectural thinkers and urbanists of his generation, by others as a self-important iconoclast. In 2000, Rem Koolhaas won the Pritzker Prize. In 2008, Time put him in their top 100 of The World's Most Influential People. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2014.
Early life and career
Remment Koolhaas, usually abbreviated to Rem Koolhaas, was born on 17 November 1944 in Rotterdam, Netherlands, to Anton Koolhaas (1912–1992) and Selinde Pietertje Roosenburg (born 1920). His father was a novelist, critic, and screenwriter. Two documentary films by Bert Haanstra for which his father wrote the scenarios were nominated for an Academy Award for Documentary Feature, one won a Golden Bear for Short Film. His maternal grandfather, Dirk Roosenburg (1887–1962), was a modernist architect who worked for Hendrik Petrus Berlage, before opening his own practice. Rem Koolhaas has a brother, Thomas, and a sister, Annabel. His paternal cousin was the architect and urban planner Teun Koolhaas (1940–2007). The family lived consecutively in Rotterdam (until 1946), Amsterdam (1946–1952), Jakarta (1952–1955), and Amsterdam (from 1955).
His father strongly supported the Indonesian cause for autonomy from the colonial Dutch in his writing. When the war of independence was won, he was invited over to run a cultural programme for three years and the family moved to Jakarta in 1952. "It was a very important age for me," Koolhaas recalls "and I really lived as an Asian."
In 1969, Koolhaas co-wrote The White Slave, a Dutch film noir, and later wrote an unproduced script for American soft-porn king Russ Meyer.
He was a journalist in 1963 at age 19 for the Haagse Post before starting studies in architecture in 1968 at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London, followed, in 1972, by further studies with Oswald Mathias Ungers at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, followed by studies at the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies in New York City.
Koolhaas first came to public and critical attention with OMA (The Office for Metropolitan Architecture), the office he founded in 1975 together with architects Elia Zenghelis, Zoe Zenghelis and (Koolhaas's wife) Madelon Vriesendorp in London. They were later joined by one of Koolhaas's students, Zaha Hadid – who would soon go on to achieve success in her own right. An early work which would mark their difference from the then dominant postmodern classicism of the late 1970s, was their contribution to the Venice Biennale of 1980, curated by Italian architect Paolo Portoghesi, titled "Presence of the Past". Each architect had to design a stage-like "frontage" to a Potemkin-type internal street; the façades by , Frank Gehry and OMA were the only ones that did not employ Post-Modern architecture motifs or historical references.
Other early critically received (yet unbuilt) projects included the Parc de la Villette, Paris (1982) and the residence for the Prime Minister of Ireland (1979), as well as the Kunsthal in Rotterdam (1992). These schemes would attempt to put into practice many of the findings Koolhaas made in his book Delirious New York (1978), which was written while he was a visiting scholar at the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies in New York, directed by Peter Eisenman.
Architectural theory
Delirious New York
Koolhaas's book Delirious New York set the pace for his career. Koolhaas analyzes the "chance-like" nature of city life: "The City is an addictive machine from which there is no escape" "Rem Koolhaas...defined the city as a collection of 'red hot spots'." (Anna Klingmann). As Koolhaas himself has acknowledged, this approach had already been evident in the Japanese Metabolist Movement in the 1960s and early 1970s.
A key aspect of architecture that Koolhaas interrogates is the "Program": with the rise of modernism in the 20th century the "Program" became the key theme of architectural design. The notion of the Program involves "an act to edit function and human activities" as the pretext of architectural design: epitomised in the maxim form follows function, first popularised by architect Louis Sullivan at the beginning of the 20th century. The notion was first questioned in Delirious New York, in his analysis of high-rise architecture in Manhattan. An early design method derived from such thinking was "cross-programming", introducing unexpected functions in room programmes, such as running tracks in skyscrapers. More recently, Koolhaas unsuccessfully proposed the inclusion of hospital units for the homeless into the Seattle Public Library project (2003).
Project on the city
Koolhaas' next publications were a by-product of his position as professor at Harvard University, in the Design school's "Project on the City"; firstly the 720-page Mutations, followed by The Harvard Design School Guide to Shopping (2002) and The Great Leap Forward (2002).
All three books published student work analysing what others would regard as "non-cities", sprawling conglomerates such as Lagos in Nigeria, west Africa, which the authors argue are highly functional despite a lack of infrastructure. The authors also examine the influence of shopping habits and the recent rapid growth of cities in China. Critics of the books have criticised Koolhaas for being cynical, – as if Western capitalism and globalization demolish all cultural identity – highlighted in the notion expounded in the books that "In the end, there will be little else for us to do but shop". Perhaps such caustic cynicism can be read as a "realism" about the transformation of cultural life, where airports and even museums (due to finance problems) rely just as much on operating gift shops. It does, however, demonstrate one of the architect's characteristic devices for deflecting criticism: attack the client or subject of study after completing the work.
When it comes to transforming these observations into practice, Koolhaas mobilizes what he regards as the omnipotent forces of urbanism into unique design forms and connections organised along the lines of present-day society. Koolhaas continuously incorporates his observations of the contemporary city within his design activities: calling such a condition the ‘culture of congestion’. Again, shopping is examined for "intellectual comfort", whilst the unregulated taste and densification of Chinese cities is analysed according to "performance", a criterion involving variables with debatable credibility: density, newness, shape, size, money etc.
In 2003, Content, a 544-page magazine-style book designed by &&& Creative and published by Koolhaas, gives an overview of the last decade of OMA projects including his designs for the Prada shops, the Seattle Public Library, a plan to save Cambridge from Harvard by rechanneling the Charles River, Lagos' future as Earth's third-biggest city, as well as interviews with Martha Stewart and Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown.
Volume Magazine
In 2005, Rem Koolhaas co-founded Volume Magazine together with Mark Wigley and Ole Bouman. Volume Magazine – the collaborative project by Archis (Amsterdam), AMO and C-lab (Columbia University NY) – is a dynamic experimental think tank devoted to the process of spatial and cultural reflexivity. It goes beyond architecture's definition of ‘making buildings’ and reaches out for global views on architecture and design, broader attitudes to social structures, and creating environments to live in. The magazine stands for a journalism which detects and anticipates, is proactive and even pre-emptive – a journalism which uncovers potentialities, rather than covering done deals.
Buildings and projects
In the late nineties he worked on the design for the new headquarters for Universal.
Indeed, online marketing and propaganda has been a hallmark of OMA's rise in the current century. It has also led to pointed criticism, such as the critique by New York Magazine critic Justin Davidson, who found the 2020 Guggenheim exhibition Countryside, the Future "mildly amusing if it weren’t such terrible waste — of attention, of gallery square footage, of resources, talent, and expertise. Bored with being an architect and building things, Koolhaas lets his fingertips graze important topics, genuine insights, and actual lives. He treats them all as ironic bric-a-brac, meaningless souvenirs of his meanderings through a fragile world. How frustrating that the Guggenheim couldn’t force a little more intellectual rigor on this romp."
Architecture, fashion, and theatre
With his Prada projects, Koolhaas ventured into providing architecture for the fleeting world of fashion and with celebrity-studded cachet: not unlike Garnier's Opera, the central space of Koolhaas' Beverly Hills Prada store is occupied by a massive central staircase, ostensibly displaying select wares, but mainly the shoppers themselves. The notion of selling a brand rather than marketing clothes was further emphasised in the Prada store on Broadway in Manhattan, New York, which had previously been owned by the Guggenheim: the museum signs were not removed during the outfitting of the new store, as if emphasizing the premises as a cultural institution. The Broadway Prada store opened in December 2001, cost €32 million to build, and has 2,300 square meters of retail space.
21st Century Projects
Probably the most costly and celebrated OMA projects of the new century were the massive Central China Television Headquarters Building in Beijing, China, and the new building for the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, the equivalent of the NASDAQ in China.
In his design for the new CCTV Headquarters in Beijing (2009), Koolhaas did not opt for the stereotypical skyscraper, often used to symbolise and landmark such government enterprises; he patented a "horizontal skyscraper" in the U.S. The building, popularly called "The Big Pants" by Beijing residents, was designed as a series of volumes which attempt to tie together the numerous departments onto the nebulous site, but also introduce routes (again, the concept of cross-programming) for the general public through the site, allowing them some degree of access to the production procedure. An unfortunate incident that highlighted the folly of the circulation scheme (no effective fire egress for people on the upper floors), was the construction fire that nearly destroyed the building and a nearby hotel in 2009.
Personal life
Koolhaas was previously married to Madelon Vriesendorp, an artist who is the mother of his two children, Charlie, a photographer, and Tomas, a filmmaker. Koolhaas divorced Vriesendorp in 2012. He has known his current partner Petra Blaisse, an interior and landscape designer since 1986.
Selected projects
Villa dall’Ava, (Saint-Cloud, 1991)
Nexus World Housing (Fukuoka, 1991)
Kunsthal (Rotterdam, 1992)
Euralille (Lille, 1994)
Educatorium (Utrecht, 1995)
Maison à Bordeaux (Bordeaux, 1998)
Embassy of the Netherlands (Berlin, 2003)
McCormick Tribune Campus Center (Chicago, 2003)
Seoul National University Museum of Art (Seoul, 2005)
Seattle Central Library (Seattle, 2005)
Casa da Música (Porto, 2005)
Dee and Charles Wyly Theater (Dallas, 2009)
CCTV Headquarters, (Beijing, 2012)
De Rotterdam (Rotterdam, 2013)
Garage Museum of Contemporary Art (Moscow, 2014)
Qatar National Library (Doha, 2017)
Taipei Performing Arts Center (Taipei, 2022)
Bibliography
Project Japan. Metabolism Talks... (2011) (with Hans Ulrich Obrist)
Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan (1978)
S,M,L,XL (1995)
Serpentine Gallery: 24 Hour Interview Marathon (2007) Living Vivre Leben (1998)Content (2004)
Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2006''; Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, Köln, Germany 2008
Gallery
See also
Contemporary architecture
World Architecture Survey
List of architects
Koolhaas Houselife
References
External links
Office for Metropolitan Architecture
OMA official Facebook page (updated daily)
OMA official Vimeo channel
OMA portfolio on Archello.com
Rem Koolhaas at Harvard University
Urgency 2007: Rem Koolhaas and Peter Eisenman lectures, Canadian Centre for Architecture, June 8, 2007
Rem Koolhaas in conversation with Mirko Zardini and Giovanna Borasi, Rotterdam, August 26, 2015, for the exhibition The Other Architect, Canadian Centre for Architecture
On Starchitecture
Koolhaas at Harvard's Ecological Urbanism
Rem Koolhaas: A Kind of Architect (2008 Feature Documentary)
Rem Koolhaas lecture "Russia for Beginners" at Garage Museum of Contemporary Art: September 15th, 2014
Rem Koolhaas on Empty Canon
1944 births
20th-century Dutch architects
21st-century Dutch architects
Architectural theoreticians
Urban theorists
Deconstructivism
Postmodern architecture
Dutch non-fiction writers
Living people
Cornell University College of Architecture, Art, and Planning alumni
Harvard Graduate School of Design faculty
Dutch urban planners
Architects from Rotterdam
Pritzker Architecture Prize winners
Recipients of the Royal Gold Medal
Chevaliers of the Légion d'honneur
Recipients of the Praemium Imperiale
Alumni of the Architectural Association School of Architecture
Honorary Fellows of the American Institute of Architects | false | [
"Three referendums were held simultaneously in Ireland on 7 June 2001, each on a proposed amendment of the Constitution of Ireland. Two of the measures were approved, while the third was rejected. The two successful amendments concerned the death penalty and the International Criminal Court.\n\nThe failed amendment concerned the Treaty of Nice. It has also been intended to submit a fourth proposal to a referendum, concerning the investigation of judges, but this amendment was not ultimately passed by the Oireachtas (parliament) and so was never put to a vote.\n\nTwenty-first Amendment\n\nThe Twenty-first Amendment introduced a constitutional ban on the death penalty and removed all references to capital punishment from the text. The proposal was approved.\n\nTwenty-second Amendment\n\nThe Twenty-second Amendment Bill proposed to establish a body for the investigation of judges and to amend the procedure for the removal of judges. It was not passed by the houses of the Oireachtas and therefore was not submitted to a referendum. It is a \"missing amendment\" of the Constitution of Ireland.\n\nTwenty-third Amendment\n\nThe Twenty-third Amendment permitted the state to ratify the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. The proposal was approved.\n\nTwenty-fourth Amendment\n\nThe Twenty-fourth Amendment Bill proposed that the state ratify the Nice Treaty of the European Union. The proposal was rejected.\n\nSee also\nConstitutional amendment\nPolitics of the Republic of Ireland\nHistory of the Republic of Ireland\n\nReferences\n\n2001 in international relations\n2001 in Irish law\n2001 in the European Union\n2001 referendums\nIreland 2001\nDeath penalty law\nJune 2001 events in Europe\nConstitutional 2001",
"A referendum on becoming a republic was held in the Gambia on 24 November 1965. If the referendum had passed, the post of president would have replaced Elizabeth II as head of state, and thus eliminated the post of Governor-General.\n\nThere were 154,626 registered voters for the referendum, with 93,484 valid votes cast. 65.85% of voters voted for the proposal, but failed to reach the two-thirds support required for the proposal to be accepted.\n\nA second referendum was held in 1970, which resulted in a successful \"yes\" vote. Prime Minister Dawda Jawara was elected president by the parliament, replacing Elizabeth II (represented by Farimang Mamadi Singateh) as head of state on 24 April 1970.\n\nResult\n\nReferences\n\n1965 referendums\n1965 in the Gambia\n1965\nRepublicanism in the Gambia\nThe Gambia and the Commonwealth of Nations\nConstitutional referendums\nMonarchy referendums\nNovember 1965 events in Africa"
]
|
[
"Rem Koolhaas",
"European Flag proposal",
"what was proposed about the European Flag?",
"The barcode seeks to unite the flags of the EU member countries into a single, colourful symbol.",
"what kind of symbol?",
"I don't know.",
"why did they decide to unite the flags?",
"Koolhaas and his think-tank AMO - an independent part of OMA - suggested the development of a visual language.",
"was there any opposition to doing this?",
"The logo was used for the EU information campaign, but was very negatively criticized.",
"was the proposal successful?",
"The logo was used for the EU information campaign,"
]
| C_246bb626bd9b4cc6a6ccb3cef92dc9f2_0 | when did all this happen? | 6 | when did EU information campaign happen? | Rem Koolhaas | Following the signing of Treaties of Nice in May 2001, which made Brussels the de facto capital of the European Union, the then President of the European Commission, Romano Prodi and the Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt invited Koolhaas to discuss the necessities and requirements of a European capital. During these talks and as an impetus for further discussion, Koolhaas and his think-tank AMO - an independent part of OMA - suggested the development of a visual language. This idea inspired a series of drawings and drafts, including the "Barcode". The barcode seeks to unite the flags of the EU member countries into a single, colourful symbol. In the current European flag, there is a fixed number of stars. In the barcode however, new Member States of the EU can be added without space constraints. Originally, the barcode displayed 15 EU countries. In 2004, the symbol was adapted to include the ten new Member States. Since the time of the first drafts of the barcode it has very rarely been officially used by commercial or political institutions. During the Austrian EU Presidency 2006, it was officially used for the first time. The logo was used for the EU information campaign, but was very negatively criticized. In addition to the initial uproar caused by the Estonian flag stripes being displayed incorrectly, the proposed flag failed to achieve its main objective as a symbol. Critics pointed the lack of capability to relate the signified (the mental concept, the European Union) with the signifier (the physical image, the stripes) as the major problem, as well as the presented justification for the order in which the color stripes were displayed (as every country in the EU should be regarded as equal in importance and priority). CANNOTANSWER | Following the signing of Treaties of Nice in May 2001, | Remment Lucas Koolhaas (; born 17 November 1944) is a Dutch architect, architectural theorist, urbanist and Professor in Practice of Architecture and Urban Design at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. He is often cited as a representative of Deconstructivism and is the author of Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan.
He is seen by some as one of the truly significant architectural thinkers and urbanists of his generation, by others as a self-important iconoclast. In 2000, Rem Koolhaas won the Pritzker Prize. In 2008, Time put him in their top 100 of The World's Most Influential People. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2014.
Early life and career
Remment Koolhaas, usually abbreviated to Rem Koolhaas, was born on 17 November 1944 in Rotterdam, Netherlands, to Anton Koolhaas (1912–1992) and Selinde Pietertje Roosenburg (born 1920). His father was a novelist, critic, and screenwriter. Two documentary films by Bert Haanstra for which his father wrote the scenarios were nominated for an Academy Award for Documentary Feature, one won a Golden Bear for Short Film. His maternal grandfather, Dirk Roosenburg (1887–1962), was a modernist architect who worked for Hendrik Petrus Berlage, before opening his own practice. Rem Koolhaas has a brother, Thomas, and a sister, Annabel. His paternal cousin was the architect and urban planner Teun Koolhaas (1940–2007). The family lived consecutively in Rotterdam (until 1946), Amsterdam (1946–1952), Jakarta (1952–1955), and Amsterdam (from 1955).
His father strongly supported the Indonesian cause for autonomy from the colonial Dutch in his writing. When the war of independence was won, he was invited over to run a cultural programme for three years and the family moved to Jakarta in 1952. "It was a very important age for me," Koolhaas recalls "and I really lived as an Asian."
In 1969, Koolhaas co-wrote The White Slave, a Dutch film noir, and later wrote an unproduced script for American soft-porn king Russ Meyer.
He was a journalist in 1963 at age 19 for the Haagse Post before starting studies in architecture in 1968 at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London, followed, in 1972, by further studies with Oswald Mathias Ungers at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, followed by studies at the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies in New York City.
Koolhaas first came to public and critical attention with OMA (The Office for Metropolitan Architecture), the office he founded in 1975 together with architects Elia Zenghelis, Zoe Zenghelis and (Koolhaas's wife) Madelon Vriesendorp in London. They were later joined by one of Koolhaas's students, Zaha Hadid – who would soon go on to achieve success in her own right. An early work which would mark their difference from the then dominant postmodern classicism of the late 1970s, was their contribution to the Venice Biennale of 1980, curated by Italian architect Paolo Portoghesi, titled "Presence of the Past". Each architect had to design a stage-like "frontage" to a Potemkin-type internal street; the façades by , Frank Gehry and OMA were the only ones that did not employ Post-Modern architecture motifs or historical references.
Other early critically received (yet unbuilt) projects included the Parc de la Villette, Paris (1982) and the residence for the Prime Minister of Ireland (1979), as well as the Kunsthal in Rotterdam (1992). These schemes would attempt to put into practice many of the findings Koolhaas made in his book Delirious New York (1978), which was written while he was a visiting scholar at the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies in New York, directed by Peter Eisenman.
Architectural theory
Delirious New York
Koolhaas's book Delirious New York set the pace for his career. Koolhaas analyzes the "chance-like" nature of city life: "The City is an addictive machine from which there is no escape" "Rem Koolhaas...defined the city as a collection of 'red hot spots'." (Anna Klingmann). As Koolhaas himself has acknowledged, this approach had already been evident in the Japanese Metabolist Movement in the 1960s and early 1970s.
A key aspect of architecture that Koolhaas interrogates is the "Program": with the rise of modernism in the 20th century the "Program" became the key theme of architectural design. The notion of the Program involves "an act to edit function and human activities" as the pretext of architectural design: epitomised in the maxim form follows function, first popularised by architect Louis Sullivan at the beginning of the 20th century. The notion was first questioned in Delirious New York, in his analysis of high-rise architecture in Manhattan. An early design method derived from such thinking was "cross-programming", introducing unexpected functions in room programmes, such as running tracks in skyscrapers. More recently, Koolhaas unsuccessfully proposed the inclusion of hospital units for the homeless into the Seattle Public Library project (2003).
Project on the city
Koolhaas' next publications were a by-product of his position as professor at Harvard University, in the Design school's "Project on the City"; firstly the 720-page Mutations, followed by The Harvard Design School Guide to Shopping (2002) and The Great Leap Forward (2002).
All three books published student work analysing what others would regard as "non-cities", sprawling conglomerates such as Lagos in Nigeria, west Africa, which the authors argue are highly functional despite a lack of infrastructure. The authors also examine the influence of shopping habits and the recent rapid growth of cities in China. Critics of the books have criticised Koolhaas for being cynical, – as if Western capitalism and globalization demolish all cultural identity – highlighted in the notion expounded in the books that "In the end, there will be little else for us to do but shop". Perhaps such caustic cynicism can be read as a "realism" about the transformation of cultural life, where airports and even museums (due to finance problems) rely just as much on operating gift shops. It does, however, demonstrate one of the architect's characteristic devices for deflecting criticism: attack the client or subject of study after completing the work.
When it comes to transforming these observations into practice, Koolhaas mobilizes what he regards as the omnipotent forces of urbanism into unique design forms and connections organised along the lines of present-day society. Koolhaas continuously incorporates his observations of the contemporary city within his design activities: calling such a condition the ‘culture of congestion’. Again, shopping is examined for "intellectual comfort", whilst the unregulated taste and densification of Chinese cities is analysed according to "performance", a criterion involving variables with debatable credibility: density, newness, shape, size, money etc.
In 2003, Content, a 544-page magazine-style book designed by &&& Creative and published by Koolhaas, gives an overview of the last decade of OMA projects including his designs for the Prada shops, the Seattle Public Library, a plan to save Cambridge from Harvard by rechanneling the Charles River, Lagos' future as Earth's third-biggest city, as well as interviews with Martha Stewart and Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown.
Volume Magazine
In 2005, Rem Koolhaas co-founded Volume Magazine together with Mark Wigley and Ole Bouman. Volume Magazine – the collaborative project by Archis (Amsterdam), AMO and C-lab (Columbia University NY) – is a dynamic experimental think tank devoted to the process of spatial and cultural reflexivity. It goes beyond architecture's definition of ‘making buildings’ and reaches out for global views on architecture and design, broader attitudes to social structures, and creating environments to live in. The magazine stands for a journalism which detects and anticipates, is proactive and even pre-emptive – a journalism which uncovers potentialities, rather than covering done deals.
Buildings and projects
In the late nineties he worked on the design for the new headquarters for Universal.
Indeed, online marketing and propaganda has been a hallmark of OMA's rise in the current century. It has also led to pointed criticism, such as the critique by New York Magazine critic Justin Davidson, who found the 2020 Guggenheim exhibition Countryside, the Future "mildly amusing if it weren’t such terrible waste — of attention, of gallery square footage, of resources, talent, and expertise. Bored with being an architect and building things, Koolhaas lets his fingertips graze important topics, genuine insights, and actual lives. He treats them all as ironic bric-a-brac, meaningless souvenirs of his meanderings through a fragile world. How frustrating that the Guggenheim couldn’t force a little more intellectual rigor on this romp."
Architecture, fashion, and theatre
With his Prada projects, Koolhaas ventured into providing architecture for the fleeting world of fashion and with celebrity-studded cachet: not unlike Garnier's Opera, the central space of Koolhaas' Beverly Hills Prada store is occupied by a massive central staircase, ostensibly displaying select wares, but mainly the shoppers themselves. The notion of selling a brand rather than marketing clothes was further emphasised in the Prada store on Broadway in Manhattan, New York, which had previously been owned by the Guggenheim: the museum signs were not removed during the outfitting of the new store, as if emphasizing the premises as a cultural institution. The Broadway Prada store opened in December 2001, cost €32 million to build, and has 2,300 square meters of retail space.
21st Century Projects
Probably the most costly and celebrated OMA projects of the new century were the massive Central China Television Headquarters Building in Beijing, China, and the new building for the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, the equivalent of the NASDAQ in China.
In his design for the new CCTV Headquarters in Beijing (2009), Koolhaas did not opt for the stereotypical skyscraper, often used to symbolise and landmark such government enterprises; he patented a "horizontal skyscraper" in the U.S. The building, popularly called "The Big Pants" by Beijing residents, was designed as a series of volumes which attempt to tie together the numerous departments onto the nebulous site, but also introduce routes (again, the concept of cross-programming) for the general public through the site, allowing them some degree of access to the production procedure. An unfortunate incident that highlighted the folly of the circulation scheme (no effective fire egress for people on the upper floors), was the construction fire that nearly destroyed the building and a nearby hotel in 2009.
Personal life
Koolhaas was previously married to Madelon Vriesendorp, an artist who is the mother of his two children, Charlie, a photographer, and Tomas, a filmmaker. Koolhaas divorced Vriesendorp in 2012. He has known his current partner Petra Blaisse, an interior and landscape designer since 1986.
Selected projects
Villa dall’Ava, (Saint-Cloud, 1991)
Nexus World Housing (Fukuoka, 1991)
Kunsthal (Rotterdam, 1992)
Euralille (Lille, 1994)
Educatorium (Utrecht, 1995)
Maison à Bordeaux (Bordeaux, 1998)
Embassy of the Netherlands (Berlin, 2003)
McCormick Tribune Campus Center (Chicago, 2003)
Seoul National University Museum of Art (Seoul, 2005)
Seattle Central Library (Seattle, 2005)
Casa da Música (Porto, 2005)
Dee and Charles Wyly Theater (Dallas, 2009)
CCTV Headquarters, (Beijing, 2012)
De Rotterdam (Rotterdam, 2013)
Garage Museum of Contemporary Art (Moscow, 2014)
Qatar National Library (Doha, 2017)
Taipei Performing Arts Center (Taipei, 2022)
Bibliography
Project Japan. Metabolism Talks... (2011) (with Hans Ulrich Obrist)
Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan (1978)
S,M,L,XL (1995)
Serpentine Gallery: 24 Hour Interview Marathon (2007) Living Vivre Leben (1998)Content (2004)
Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2006''; Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, Köln, Germany 2008
Gallery
See also
Contemporary architecture
World Architecture Survey
List of architects
Koolhaas Houselife
References
External links
Office for Metropolitan Architecture
OMA official Facebook page (updated daily)
OMA official Vimeo channel
OMA portfolio on Archello.com
Rem Koolhaas at Harvard University
Urgency 2007: Rem Koolhaas and Peter Eisenman lectures, Canadian Centre for Architecture, June 8, 2007
Rem Koolhaas in conversation with Mirko Zardini and Giovanna Borasi, Rotterdam, August 26, 2015, for the exhibition The Other Architect, Canadian Centre for Architecture
On Starchitecture
Koolhaas at Harvard's Ecological Urbanism
Rem Koolhaas: A Kind of Architect (2008 Feature Documentary)
Rem Koolhaas lecture "Russia for Beginners" at Garage Museum of Contemporary Art: September 15th, 2014
Rem Koolhaas on Empty Canon
1944 births
20th-century Dutch architects
21st-century Dutch architects
Architectural theoreticians
Urban theorists
Deconstructivism
Postmodern architecture
Dutch non-fiction writers
Living people
Cornell University College of Architecture, Art, and Planning alumni
Harvard Graduate School of Design faculty
Dutch urban planners
Architects from Rotterdam
Pritzker Architecture Prize winners
Recipients of the Royal Gold Medal
Chevaliers of the Légion d'honneur
Recipients of the Praemium Imperiale
Alumni of the Architectural Association School of Architecture
Honorary Fellows of the American Institute of Architects | false | [
"Retrospective determinism is the informal fallacy that because something happened under some circumstances, it was therefore bound to happen due to those circumstances; the term was coined by the French philosopher Henri Bergson. For example:\nWhen he declared himself dictator of the Roman Republic, Julius Caesar was bound to be assassinated.\nWere this an argument, it would give no rational grounds on which to conclude that Caesar's assassination was the only possible outcome, or even the most likely outcome under the circumstances. This type of fallacy can precede a hasty generalization: because something happened in given circumstances, it was not only bound to happen, but will in fact always happen given those circumstances. For example:\nCaesar was assassinated when he declared himself dictator. Sic semper tyrannis: this goes to show that all dictators will eventually be assassinated.\nNot only is this irrational, it is factually false.\n\nSee also\n Historian's fallacy\n Post hoc ergo propter hoc\n\nInformal fallacies",
"What Did You Think Was Going to Happen? is the debut studio album from Los Angeles band 2AM Club. It was released September 14, 2010 by RCA Records.\n\nCritical reception\n\nMatt Collar of AllMusic stated that with this album \"2AM Club reveal themselves as the best and brightest of the nu-eyed-soul set\".\n\nTrack listing\n\nOn May 31, the band released a song named \"Baseline\" that was a bonus track on What Did You Think Was Going to Happen? (sold on iTunes). It was advertised by them via Twitter, and was available for free download through a file sharing website, Hulk Share.\n\nCharts\n\nReferences\n\n2010 albums\nPop rock albums by American artists"
]
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[
"Seabiscuit",
"Early days"
]
| C_303ca31bb8cf4fb58148a4619ad9e551_1 | When did seabiscut get into racing? | 1 | When did Seabiscut get into racing? | Seabiscuit | Seabiscuit was foaled in Lexington, Kentucky, on May 23, 1933, from the mare Swing On and sire Hard Tack, a son of Man o' War. Seabiscuit was named for his father, as hardtack or "sea biscuit" is the name for a type of cracker eaten by sailors. The bay colt grew up on Claiborne Farm in Paris, Kentucky, where he was trained. He was undersized, knobby-kneed, and given to sleeping and eating for long periods. Initially, Seabiscuit was owned by the powerful Wheatley Stable and trained by "Sunny Jim" Fitzsimmons, who had taken Gallant Fox to the United States Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing. Fitzsimmons saw some potential in Seabiscuit but felt the horse was too lazy. Fitzsimmons devoted most of his time to training Omaha, who won the 1935 Triple Crown. Seabiscuit was relegated to a heavy schedule of smaller races. He failed to win his first 17 races, usually finishing back in the field. After that, Fitzsimmons did not spend much time on him, and the horse was sometimes the butt of stable jokes. Seabiscuit began to gain attention after winning two races at Narragansett Park and setting a new track record in the second - a Claiming Stakes race. As a two-year-old, Seabiscuit raced 35 times (a heavy racing schedule), coming in first five times and finishing second seven times. These included three claiming races, in which he could have been purchased for $2500, but he had no takers. While Seabiscuit had not lived up to his racing potential, he was not the poor performer Fitzsimmons had taken him for. His last two wins as a two-year-old came in minor stakes races. The next season, however, started with a similar pattern. The colt ran 12 times in less than four months, winning four times. One of those races was a cheap allowance race on the "sweltering afternoon of June 29", 1936, at Suffolk Downs. That is where trainer Tom Smith first laid eyes on Seabiscuit. His owners sold the horse to automobile entrepreneur Charles S. Howard for $8000 at Saratoga, in August. CANNOTANSWER | 1935 | Seabiscuit (May 23, 1933 – May 17, 1947) was a champion thoroughbred racehorse in the United States who became the top money-winning racehorse up to the 1940s. He beat the 1937 Triple-Crown winner, War Admiral, by 4 lengths in a two-horse special at Pimlico and was voted American Horse of the Year for 1938.
A small horse, at 15.2 hands high, Seabiscuit had an inauspicious start to his racing career, winning only a quarter of his first 40 races, but became an unlikely champion and a symbol of hope to many Americans during the Great Depression.
Seabiscuit has been the subject of numerous books and films, including Seabiscuit: the Lost Documentary (1939); the Shirley Temple film The Story of Seabiscuit (1949); a book, Seabiscuit: An American Legend (1999) by Laura Hillenbrand; and a film adaptation of Hillenbrand's book, Seabiscuit (2003), that was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.
Early days
Seabiscuit was foaled in Lexington, Kentucky, on May 23, 1933, from the mare Swing On and sire Hard Tack, a son of Man o' War. Seabiscuit was named for his father, as hardtack or "sea biscuit" is the name for a type of cracker eaten by sailors.
The bay colt grew up on Claiborne Farm in Paris, Kentucky, where he was trained. He was undersized, knobby-kneed, and given to sleeping and eating for long periods.
Initially, Seabiscuit was owned by the powerful Wheatley Stable and trained by "Sunny Jim" Fitzsimmons, who had taken Gallant Fox to the United States Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing. Fitzsimmons saw some potential in Seabiscuit but felt the horse was too lazy. Fitzsimmons devoted most of his time to training Omaha, who won the 1935 Triple Crown.
Seabiscuit was relegated to a heavy schedule of smaller races. He failed to win his first 17 races, usually finishing back in the field. After that, Fitzsimmons did not spend much time on him, and the horse was sometimes the butt of stable jokes. However, Seabiscuit began to gain attention after winning two races at Narragansett Park and setting a new track record in the second—Claiming Stakes race.
As a two-year-old, Seabiscuit raced 35 times (a heavy racing schedule), coming in first five times and finishing second seven times. These included three claiming races, in which he could have been purchased for $2,500, but he had no takers.
While Seabiscuit had not lived up to his racing potential, he was not the poor performer Fitzsimmons had taken him for. His last two wins as a two-year-old came in minor stakes races. The next season, started with a similar pattern. The colt ran 12 times in less than four months, winning four times. One of those races was a cheap allowance race on the "sweltering afternoon of June 29," 1936, at Suffolk Downs. That was where trainer Tom Smith first laid eyes on Seabiscuit. His owners sold the horse to automobile entrepreneur Charles S. Howard for $8,000 at Saratoga, in August.
1936/1937: The beginning of success
Howard assigned Seabiscuit to a new trainer, Tom Smith, who, with his unorthodox training methods, gradually brought Seabiscuit out of his lethargy. Smith paired the horse with Canadian jockey Red Pollard (1909–1981), who had experience racing in the West and in Mexico. On August 22, 1936, they raced Seabiscuit for the first time. Improvements came quickly, and in their remaining eight races in the East, Seabiscuit and Pollard won several times, including the Detroit Governor's Handicap (worth $5,600) and the Scarsdale Handicap ($7,300) at Empire City Race Track in Yonkers, New York.
In early November 1936, Howard and Smith shipped the horse to California by rail. His last two races of the year were at Bay Meadows racetrack in San Mateo, California. The first was the $2,700 Bay Bridge Handicap, run over . Despite starting badly and carrying the top weight of , Seabiscuit won by five lengths. At the World's Fair Handicap (Bay Meadows' most prestigious stakes race), Seabiscuit led throughout.
In 1937, the Santa Anita Handicap, California's most prestigious race, was worth over $125,000 ($ million in 2010) to the winner; it was known colloquially as "The Hundred Grander." In his first warm-up race at Santa Anita Park, Seabiscuit won easily. In his second race of 1937, the San Antonio Handicap, he suffered a setback after he was bumped at the start and then pushed wide; Seabiscuit came in fifth, losing to Rosemont.
The two met again in the Santa Anita Handicap a week later, where Rosemont won by a nose. The defeat was devastating to Smith and Howard and was widely attributed in the press to a jockey error. Pollard, who had not seen Rosemont over his shoulder until too late, was blind in one eye due to an accident during a training ride, a fact he had hidden throughout his career. A week after this defeat Seabiscuit won the San Juan Capistrano Handicap by seven lengths in track record time of 1:48 for the mile event.
Seabiscuit was rapidly becoming a favorite among California racing fans, and his fame spread as he won his next three races. With his successes, Howard decided to ship the horse east for its more prestigious racing circuit.
Seabiscuit's run of victories continued. Between June 26 and August 7, he ran five times, each time in a stakes race, and each time he won under steadily increasing handicap weights (imposts) of up to . For the third time, Seabiscuit faced off against Rosemont again, this time beating him by seven lengths. On September 11, Smith accepted an impost of for the Narragansett Special at Narragansett Park. On race day, the ground was slow and heavy, and unsuited to "the Biscuit", carrying the heaviest burden of his career. Smith wanted to scratch, but Howard overruled him. Never in the running, Seabiscuit finished third. His winning streak was snapped, but the season was not over; Seabiscuit won his next three races (one a dead heat) before finishing the year with a second-place at Pimlico.
In 1937, Seabiscuit won 11 of his 15 races and was the year's leading money winner in the United States. However, War Admiral, having won the Triple Crown that season, was voted the most prestigious honor, the American Horse of the Year Award.
Early five-year-old season
In 1938, as a five-year-old, Seabiscuit's success continued. On February 19, Pollard suffered a terrible fall while racing on Fair Knightess, another of Howard's horses. With half of Pollard's chest caved in by the weight of the fallen horse, Howard had to find a new jockey. After trying three, he settled on George Woolf, an already successful rider and old friend of Pollard's.
Woolf's first race aboard Seabiscuit was the Santa Anita Handicap, "The Hundred Grander" the horse had narrowly lost the previous year. Seabiscuit was drawn on the outside, and at the start was impeded by another horse, Count Atlas, angling out. The two were locked together for the first straight, and by the time Woolf disentangled his horse, they were six lengths off the pace. Seabiscuit worked his way to the lead but lost in a photo finish to the fast-closing Santa Anita Derby winner, Stagehand (owned by Maxwell Howard, not related to Charles), who had been assigned less than Seabiscuit.
Throughout 1937 and 1938, the media speculated about a match race between Seabiscuit and the seemingly invincible War Admiral (sired by Man o' War, Seabiscuit's grandsire). The two horses were scheduled to meet in three stakes races, but one or the other was scratched, usually due to Seabiscuit's dislike of heavy ground. After extensive negotiation, the owners organized a match race for May 1938 at Belmont, but Seabiscuit was scratched.
By June, Pollard had recovered, and on June 23, he agreed to work a young colt named Modern Youth. Spooked by something on the track, the horse broke rapidly through the stables and threw Pollard, shattering his leg and seemingly ending his career.
Howard arranged a match race for Seabiscuit against Ligaroti, a highly regarded horse owned by the Hollywood entertainer Bing Crosby and Howard's son, Lindsay, through Binglin Stable, in an event organized to promote Crosby's resort and Del Mar Racetrack in Del Mar, California. With Woolf aboard, Seabiscuit won that race, despite persistent fouling from Ligaroti's jockey. After three more outings and with only one win, he was scheduled to go head-to-head with War Admiral in the Pimlico Special in November, in Baltimore, Maryland.
Sent to race on the East Coast, on October 16, 1938, Seabiscuit ran second by two lengths in the Laurel Stakes to the filly Jacola, who set a new Laurel Park Racecourse record of 1:37.00 for one mile.
On November 1, 1938, Seabiscuit met War Admiral and jockey Charles Kurtsinger in what was dubbed the "Match of the Century." The event was run over at Pimlico Race Course. From the grandstands to the infield, the track was jammed with fans. Trains were run from all over the country to bring fans to the race, and the estimated 40,000 at the track were joined by 40 million listening on the radio. War Admiral was the favorite (1–4 with most bookmakers) and a nearly unanimous selection of the writers and tipsters, excluding a California contingent.
Head-to-head races favor fast starters, and War Admiral's speed from the gate was well known. Seabiscuit, on the other hand, was a pace stalker, skilled at holding with the pack before pulling ahead with late acceleration. From the scheduled walk-up start, few gave him a chance to lead War Admiral into the first turn. Smith knew these things and trained Seabiscuit to run against this type, using a starting bell and a whip to give the horse a Pavlovian burst of speed from the start.
When the bell rang, Seabiscuit broke in front, led by over a length after 20 seconds, and soon crossed over to the rail position. Halfway down the backstretch, War Admiral started to cut into the lead, gradually pulling level with Seabiscuit, then slightly ahead. Following advice he had received from Pollard, Woolf had eased up on Seabiscuit, allowing his horse to see his rival, then asked for more effort. Two hundred yards from the wire, Seabiscuit pulled away again and continued to extend his lead over the closing stretch, finally winning by four lengths despite War Admiral's running his best time for the distance.
As a result of his races that year, Seabiscuit was named American Horse of the Year for 1938, beating War Admiral by 698 points to 489 in a poll conducted by the Turf and Sport Digest magazine. Seabiscuit was the number one newsmaker of 1938. The only major prize that eluded him was the Santa Anita Handicap.
Injury and return
Seabiscuit was injured during a race. Woolf, who was riding him, said that he felt the horse stumble. The injury was not life-threatening, although many predicted Seabiscuit would never race again. The diagnosis was a ruptured suspensory ligament in the front left leg. With Seabiscuit out of action, Smith and Howard concentrated on their horse Kayak II, an Argentine stallion. In the spring of 1939, Seabiscuit covered seven of Howard's mares, all of which had healthy foals in spring of 1940. One, Fair Knightess's colt, died as a yearling.
Seabiscuit and a still-convalescing Pollard recovered together at Howard's ranch, with the help of Pollard's new wife Agnes, who had nursed him through his initial recovery. Slowly, both horse and rider learned to walk again (Pollard joked that they "had four good legs between" them). Poverty and his injury had brought Pollard to the edge of alcoholism. A local doctor broke and reset Pollard's leg to aid his recovery, and slowly Pollard regained the confidence to sit on a horse. Wearing a brace to stiffen his atrophied leg, he began to ride Seabiscuit again, first at a walk and later at a trot and canter. Howard was delighted at their improvement, as he longed for Seabiscuit to race again, but was extremely worried about Pollard, as his leg was still fragile.
Over the fall and winter of 1939, Seabiscuit's fitness seemed to improve by the day. By the end of the year, Smith was ready to return the horse to race training, with a collection of stable jockeys in the saddle. By the time of his comeback race, Pollard had cajoled Howard into allowing him the ride. After the horse was scratched due to soft going, the pair finally lined up at the start of the La Jolla Handicap at Santa Anita, on February 9, 1940. Seabiscuit was third, beaten by two lengths. By their third comeback race, Seabiscuit was back to his winning ways, running away from the field in the San Antonio Handicap to beat his erstwhile training partner, Kayak II, by two and a half lengths. Under , Seabiscuit equalled the track record for a mile and 1/16.
One race was left in the season. A week after the San Antonio, Seabiscuit and Kayak II both took the gate for the Santa Anita Handicap and its $121,000 prize. 78,000 paying spectators crammed the racetrack, most backing Seabiscuit. Pollard found his horse blocked almost from the start. Picking his way through the field, Seabiscuit briefly led. As they thundered down the back straight, Seabiscuit became trapped in third place, behind leader Whichcee and Wedding Call on the outside.
Trusting in his horse's acceleration, Pollard steered between the leaders and burst into the lead, taking the firm ground just off the rail. As Seabiscuit showed his old surge, Wedding Call and Whichcee faltered, and Pollard drove his horse on, taking "The Hundred Grander" by a length and a half from the fast-closing Kayak II under jockey Leon Haas. Pandemonium engulfed the course. Neither horse and rider, nor trainer and owner, could get through the crowd of well-wishers to the winner's enclosure for some time.
Retirement, later life, and offspring
On April 10, 1940, Seabiscuit's retirement from racing was officially announced. When he was retired to the Ridgewood Ranch near Willits, California, he was horse racing's all-time leading money winner. Put out to stud, Seabiscuit sired 108 foals, including two moderately successful racehorses: Sea Sovereign and Sea Swallow. Over 50,000 visitors went to Ridgewood Ranch to see Seabiscuit in the seven years before his death.
Death and interment
Seabiscuit died of a probable heart attack on May 17, 1947, in Willits, California, six days short of 14 years old. He is buried at Ridgewood Ranch in Mendocino County, California.
Legacy and honors
Awards and honorable distinctions
In 1958, Seabiscuit was voted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame.
In the Blood-Horse magazine List of the Top 100 U.S. Racehorses of the 20th Century (1999), Seabiscuit was ranked 25th. War Admiral was 13th, and Seabiscuit's grandsire and War Admiral's sire, Man o' War, placed 1st.
Portrayals in film and television
Documentaries
American Experience: "Seabiscuit" (April 21, 2003)) is a documentary episode that aired as Season 15, Episode 11 of the PBS American Experience series.
ESPN SportsCentury: "Seabiscuit" (November 17, 2003), Seabiscuit was featured on ESPN's SportsCentury Greatest Athletes series.
The True Story of Seabiscuit (July 27, 2003) is a 45-minute made-for-TV documentary directed by Craig Haffner, written by Martin Gillam, and containing interviews and footage with William H. Macy, Seabiscuit, and Tobey Maguire, that aired on the USA Network.
Seabiscuit: the Lost Documentary (1939) by Seabiscuit's owner Charles Howard. The film was directed by Manny Nathan, and written by Nathan and Hazel Merry Hawkins. It stars Martin Mason, Doc Bond, Charles Howard as himself and his wife, Marcella. It was colorized and released in 2003 by Legend Films to coincide with interest around the movie.
Seabiscuit: America's Legendary Racehorse (2003) directed and produced by Nick Krantz.
Fiction films
Stablemates (1938), starring Wallace Beery and Mickey Rooney. Film producer Harry Rapf arranged a deal whereby he could film the $50,000 Hollywood Gold Cup, and actual footage of Seabiscuit running in the race was used. The field is headed by Seabiscuit for the "straight" race in the film.
Porky and Teabiscuit (1939) is Warner Bros.' Porky Pig cartoon take on Seabiscuit's underdog story.
The Story of Seabiscuit (1949), starring Shirley Temple in her penultimate film, is a fictionalized account featuring Sea Sovereign in the title role. An otherwise undistinguished film, it did include actual footage of the 1938 match race against War Admiral and the 1940 Santa Anita Handicap.
Seabiscuit (2003), Universal Studios' adaptation of Laura Hillenbrand's bestselling 2001 book, was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture
The Making of Seabiscuit (December 16, 2003) is a documentary short directed by Laurent Bouzereau and starring Tobey Maguire, Jeff Bridges, Chris Cooper, and William Goldenberg, produced by DreamWorks SKG, Herzog Productions, Spyglass Entertainment, and Universal Studios, and distributed by Universal Studios Home Video.
Non-fiction books
Track writer B.K. Beckwith wrote Seabiscuit: The Saga of a Great Champion (1940), with a foreword by Grantland Rice, right after Seabiscuit's Santa Anita win and at the moment of the horse's retirement.
Ralph Moody wrote Come On, Seabiscuit! (1963), illustrated by Robert Riger, which was recently reprinted by the University of Nebraska Press.
Laura Hillenbrand's book Seabiscuit: An American Legend (2001) became a bestseller, and in 2003 it was adapted for film.
Postage stamp
In 2009, after an eight-year-long grassroots effort by Maggie Van Ostrand and Chuck Lustick, Seabiscuit was honored by the United States Postal Service with a stamp bearing his likeness. Thousands of signatures were obtained from all over the nation, and the final approval was given by Citizens Stamp Committee member Joan Mondale, wife of former Vice President Walter Mondale.
Statues
A statue of Seabiscuit (not life-sized) sits outside the main entrance of The Shops at Tanforan, a shopping mall built upon the former site of the Tanforan Racetrack. Seabiscuit was stabled there briefly in 1939, while preparing for his comeback.
In the 1940s, businessman and racehorse owner W. Arnold Hanger donated a statuette of Seabiscuit to the Keeneland library.
In 1941, a life-sized bronze statue of Seabiscuit by Frank Buchler, was installed at Santa Anita Park; it now stands in the walking ring at the track's "Seabiscuit Court"
On June 23, 2007, a statue of Seabiscuit was unveiled at Ridgewood Ranch.
In 1941, sculptor Hughlette "Tex" Wheeler cast two bronze statues from Seabiscuit: one stands at Santa Anita racetrack in Arcadia, CA; the other is in Saratoga Springs, outside the National Museum of Racing.
On July 17, 2010, a life-size statue of George Woolf and Seabiscuit was unveiled at the Remington Carriage Museum in Woolf's hometown of Cardston, Alberta. This coincided with the 100th anniversary of Woolf's birth, though not the actual date.
Pedigree
Notable races won
Seabiscuit ran 89 times at 16 different distances over the course of his career.
Brooklyn Handicap (1937)
San Antonio Handicap (1940)
Santa Anita Handicap (1940)
Notes
References
Further reading
Beckwith, B.K. (1940), Seabiscuit: The Saga of a Great Champion, with drawings by Howard Brodie, Wilfred Crowell, Inc., San Francisco.
Hillenbrand, Laura (2001), Seabiscuit: An American Legend.
Rasmussen, Zach (2013), Seabiscuit: An Unlikely Champion.
External links
Newsreel film of Seabiscuit v War Admiral
Seabiscuit Heritage Foundation. Livingston, Tracy (2005), retrieved June 26, 2005.
"Seabiscuit", Snopes.com (2005), retrieved June 18, 2015.
Seabiscuit, 1938 Horse of the Year
Seabiscuit, Hollywood film, 2003
The Story of Seabiscuit, Hollywood film, 1949
The Biscuit's pedigree
Quick online racing game, inc. The Biscuit
Article about the Seabiscuit-War Admiral match race
Youtube of the 1938 match race
Seabiscuit, an American Experience documentary film by Stephen Ives, shown on PBS
www.janiburon.com, website of author of Seabiscuit books
1933 racehorse births
1947 racehorse deaths
Racehorses bred in Kentucky
Racehorses trained in the United States
Horse racing track record setters
American Thoroughbred Horse of the Year
United States Thoroughbred Racing Hall of Fame inductees
Horse monuments
Thoroughbred family 5-j
Godolphin Arabian sire line | true | [
"The 2005 Ford 400 was a NASCAR Nextel Cup Series race held on November 20, 2005, at Homestead Miami Speedway in Homestead, Florida. Contested over 267 laps on the 1.5 miles (2.4 km) speedway, it was the 36th and final race of the 2005 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series season. Greg Biffle of Roush Racing won the race and Tony Stewart of Joe Gibbs Racing won the championship.\n\nBackground\nHomestead-Miami Speedway is a motor racing track located in Homestead, Florida. The track, which has several configurations, has promoted several series of racing, including NASCAR, the Verizon IndyCar Series, the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series, and the Championship Cup Series.\n\nSince 2002, Homestead-Miami Speedway has hosted the final race of the season in all three of NASCAR's series: the Sprint Cup Series, Xfinity Series, and the Camping World Truck Series. Ford Motor Company sponsors all three of the season-ending races; the races have the names Ford 400, Ford 300, and Ford 200, respectively, and the weekend is marketed as Ford Championship Weekend.\n\nEntry list\n\nQualifying \nCarl Edwards would win the pole with a 30.673, beating out Ryan Newman by 2 thousandths of a second. \n\nThere were numerous qualifying crashes throughout the day. The first would occur when during Carl Long's qualifying run, Long's car would get loose heading into Turn 1, causing his car to go into a tailspin. The car went up the track and eventually, the rear of the car hit the middle of the Turn 1-2 wall, severely damaging his car. Long would not get a qualifying time, and since the 80 car, owned by Hover Motorsports was not top 35 in owner's points, did not get a provisional and thus Long would not qualify. Morgan Shepherd would also suffer a spin on his warmup lap. Shepherd would pull into pit road, with his team scrambling to get back out on track. His car was not able to get out within the 5 minute clock Shepherd was forced to qualify in, classifying Shepherd as a Did Not Start (DNS). Shepherd would not qualify. The third accident of the day was when Michael Waltrip suffered a similar crash to Carl Long earlier in the day, totaling Waltrip's car. The rear of the car was extremely damaged, forcing Waltrip to take a provisional and to be in a backup car. The last accident of the day happened when Hamlin also entered into a tailspin and hit the Turn 1 wall, ironically with the crash being the same as both Long's and Waltrip's crashes. Although Hamlin had only competed in very select races that year, the No. 11 team was Top 35 in the points that year. Hamlin would take a provisional and start 42nd. Eerily, Hamlin's crash was about the same as the one as he had suffered in the Busch Series race he was qualifying for.\n\nRace\nGreg Biffle won the race and leading Roush Racing 1–2–3–4 finish, a feat not repeated until the 2021 Drydene 400 at Dover. Meanwhile, Carl Edwards, Greg Biffle, Tony Stewart, and Jimmie Johnson each had a mathematical chance to win the championship. However, Johnson crashed out at Lap 127 with a blown tire in Turn Three. Despite the fact that Edwards and Biffle finished upfront while Stewart finished 15th, Stewart still won the championship. The race was also the last for Rusty Wallace as he retired afterward, having competed in NASCAR Cup racing for 25 years.\n\nRace results\n\nRace statistics\n Time of race: 3:02:50\n Average Speed: \n Pole Speed: \n Cautions: 8 for 37 laps\n Margin of Victory: 0.017\n Lead changes: 21\n Percent of race run under caution: 13.9% \n Average green flag run: 25.6 laps\n\nReferences\n\nFord 400\nFord 400\nNASCAR races at Homestead-Miami Speedway",
"Tony Schmidt (born 9 May 1980 in Leipzig) is a German racing driver.\n\nCareer\n\nFormula Three\nSchmidt competed in German Formula Three from 1999 to 2001, establishing himself as a midfield runner. He also scored three podium finishes during these seasons, and competed in the Masters of Formula Three race twice.\n\nFormula 3000\nSchmidt competed in three seasons of Formula 3000 from 2002 to 2004, again as a midfield runner. Despite developing into a consistent points scorer, he did not get a drive in the GP2 Series which replaced F3000 for 2005.\n\nRacing record\n\nComplete International Formula 3000 results\n(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap.)\n\nReferences\n Tony Schmidt career statistics at driverdb.com, retrieved 11 November 2006.\n\n1980 births\nLiving people\nGerman Formula Three Championship drivers\nItalian Formula Three Championship drivers\nGerman racing drivers\nGerman Formula Renault 2.0 drivers\nInternational Formula 3000 drivers\nSportspeople from Leipzig\nRacing drivers from Saxony"
]
|
[
"Seabiscuit",
"Early days",
"When did seabiscut get into racing?",
"1935"
]
| C_303ca31bb8cf4fb58148a4619ad9e551_1 | Did he win his first races? | 2 | Did Seabiscut win his first races? | Seabiscuit | Seabiscuit was foaled in Lexington, Kentucky, on May 23, 1933, from the mare Swing On and sire Hard Tack, a son of Man o' War. Seabiscuit was named for his father, as hardtack or "sea biscuit" is the name for a type of cracker eaten by sailors. The bay colt grew up on Claiborne Farm in Paris, Kentucky, where he was trained. He was undersized, knobby-kneed, and given to sleeping and eating for long periods. Initially, Seabiscuit was owned by the powerful Wheatley Stable and trained by "Sunny Jim" Fitzsimmons, who had taken Gallant Fox to the United States Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing. Fitzsimmons saw some potential in Seabiscuit but felt the horse was too lazy. Fitzsimmons devoted most of his time to training Omaha, who won the 1935 Triple Crown. Seabiscuit was relegated to a heavy schedule of smaller races. He failed to win his first 17 races, usually finishing back in the field. After that, Fitzsimmons did not spend much time on him, and the horse was sometimes the butt of stable jokes. Seabiscuit began to gain attention after winning two races at Narragansett Park and setting a new track record in the second - a Claiming Stakes race. As a two-year-old, Seabiscuit raced 35 times (a heavy racing schedule), coming in first five times and finishing second seven times. These included three claiming races, in which he could have been purchased for $2500, but he had no takers. While Seabiscuit had not lived up to his racing potential, he was not the poor performer Fitzsimmons had taken him for. His last two wins as a two-year-old came in minor stakes races. The next season, however, started with a similar pattern. The colt ran 12 times in less than four months, winning four times. One of those races was a cheap allowance race on the "sweltering afternoon of June 29", 1936, at Suffolk Downs. That is where trainer Tom Smith first laid eyes on Seabiscuit. His owners sold the horse to automobile entrepreneur Charles S. Howard for $8000 at Saratoga, in August. CANNOTANSWER | He failed to win his first 17 races, | Seabiscuit (May 23, 1933 – May 17, 1947) was a champion thoroughbred racehorse in the United States who became the top money-winning racehorse up to the 1940s. He beat the 1937 Triple-Crown winner, War Admiral, by 4 lengths in a two-horse special at Pimlico and was voted American Horse of the Year for 1938.
A small horse, at 15.2 hands high, Seabiscuit had an inauspicious start to his racing career, winning only a quarter of his first 40 races, but became an unlikely champion and a symbol of hope to many Americans during the Great Depression.
Seabiscuit has been the subject of numerous books and films, including Seabiscuit: the Lost Documentary (1939); the Shirley Temple film The Story of Seabiscuit (1949); a book, Seabiscuit: An American Legend (1999) by Laura Hillenbrand; and a film adaptation of Hillenbrand's book, Seabiscuit (2003), that was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.
Early days
Seabiscuit was foaled in Lexington, Kentucky, on May 23, 1933, from the mare Swing On and sire Hard Tack, a son of Man o' War. Seabiscuit was named for his father, as hardtack or "sea biscuit" is the name for a type of cracker eaten by sailors.
The bay colt grew up on Claiborne Farm in Paris, Kentucky, where he was trained. He was undersized, knobby-kneed, and given to sleeping and eating for long periods.
Initially, Seabiscuit was owned by the powerful Wheatley Stable and trained by "Sunny Jim" Fitzsimmons, who had taken Gallant Fox to the United States Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing. Fitzsimmons saw some potential in Seabiscuit but felt the horse was too lazy. Fitzsimmons devoted most of his time to training Omaha, who won the 1935 Triple Crown.
Seabiscuit was relegated to a heavy schedule of smaller races. He failed to win his first 17 races, usually finishing back in the field. After that, Fitzsimmons did not spend much time on him, and the horse was sometimes the butt of stable jokes. However, Seabiscuit began to gain attention after winning two races at Narragansett Park and setting a new track record in the second—Claiming Stakes race.
As a two-year-old, Seabiscuit raced 35 times (a heavy racing schedule), coming in first five times and finishing second seven times. These included three claiming races, in which he could have been purchased for $2,500, but he had no takers.
While Seabiscuit had not lived up to his racing potential, he was not the poor performer Fitzsimmons had taken him for. His last two wins as a two-year-old came in minor stakes races. The next season, started with a similar pattern. The colt ran 12 times in less than four months, winning four times. One of those races was a cheap allowance race on the "sweltering afternoon of June 29," 1936, at Suffolk Downs. That was where trainer Tom Smith first laid eyes on Seabiscuit. His owners sold the horse to automobile entrepreneur Charles S. Howard for $8,000 at Saratoga, in August.
1936/1937: The beginning of success
Howard assigned Seabiscuit to a new trainer, Tom Smith, who, with his unorthodox training methods, gradually brought Seabiscuit out of his lethargy. Smith paired the horse with Canadian jockey Red Pollard (1909–1981), who had experience racing in the West and in Mexico. On August 22, 1936, they raced Seabiscuit for the first time. Improvements came quickly, and in their remaining eight races in the East, Seabiscuit and Pollard won several times, including the Detroit Governor's Handicap (worth $5,600) and the Scarsdale Handicap ($7,300) at Empire City Race Track in Yonkers, New York.
In early November 1936, Howard and Smith shipped the horse to California by rail. His last two races of the year were at Bay Meadows racetrack in San Mateo, California. The first was the $2,700 Bay Bridge Handicap, run over . Despite starting badly and carrying the top weight of , Seabiscuit won by five lengths. At the World's Fair Handicap (Bay Meadows' most prestigious stakes race), Seabiscuit led throughout.
In 1937, the Santa Anita Handicap, California's most prestigious race, was worth over $125,000 ($ million in 2010) to the winner; it was known colloquially as "The Hundred Grander." In his first warm-up race at Santa Anita Park, Seabiscuit won easily. In his second race of 1937, the San Antonio Handicap, he suffered a setback after he was bumped at the start and then pushed wide; Seabiscuit came in fifth, losing to Rosemont.
The two met again in the Santa Anita Handicap a week later, where Rosemont won by a nose. The defeat was devastating to Smith and Howard and was widely attributed in the press to a jockey error. Pollard, who had not seen Rosemont over his shoulder until too late, was blind in one eye due to an accident during a training ride, a fact he had hidden throughout his career. A week after this defeat Seabiscuit won the San Juan Capistrano Handicap by seven lengths in track record time of 1:48 for the mile event.
Seabiscuit was rapidly becoming a favorite among California racing fans, and his fame spread as he won his next three races. With his successes, Howard decided to ship the horse east for its more prestigious racing circuit.
Seabiscuit's run of victories continued. Between June 26 and August 7, he ran five times, each time in a stakes race, and each time he won under steadily increasing handicap weights (imposts) of up to . For the third time, Seabiscuit faced off against Rosemont again, this time beating him by seven lengths. On September 11, Smith accepted an impost of for the Narragansett Special at Narragansett Park. On race day, the ground was slow and heavy, and unsuited to "the Biscuit", carrying the heaviest burden of his career. Smith wanted to scratch, but Howard overruled him. Never in the running, Seabiscuit finished third. His winning streak was snapped, but the season was not over; Seabiscuit won his next three races (one a dead heat) before finishing the year with a second-place at Pimlico.
In 1937, Seabiscuit won 11 of his 15 races and was the year's leading money winner in the United States. However, War Admiral, having won the Triple Crown that season, was voted the most prestigious honor, the American Horse of the Year Award.
Early five-year-old season
In 1938, as a five-year-old, Seabiscuit's success continued. On February 19, Pollard suffered a terrible fall while racing on Fair Knightess, another of Howard's horses. With half of Pollard's chest caved in by the weight of the fallen horse, Howard had to find a new jockey. After trying three, he settled on George Woolf, an already successful rider and old friend of Pollard's.
Woolf's first race aboard Seabiscuit was the Santa Anita Handicap, "The Hundred Grander" the horse had narrowly lost the previous year. Seabiscuit was drawn on the outside, and at the start was impeded by another horse, Count Atlas, angling out. The two were locked together for the first straight, and by the time Woolf disentangled his horse, they were six lengths off the pace. Seabiscuit worked his way to the lead but lost in a photo finish to the fast-closing Santa Anita Derby winner, Stagehand (owned by Maxwell Howard, not related to Charles), who had been assigned less than Seabiscuit.
Throughout 1937 and 1938, the media speculated about a match race between Seabiscuit and the seemingly invincible War Admiral (sired by Man o' War, Seabiscuit's grandsire). The two horses were scheduled to meet in three stakes races, but one or the other was scratched, usually due to Seabiscuit's dislike of heavy ground. After extensive negotiation, the owners organized a match race for May 1938 at Belmont, but Seabiscuit was scratched.
By June, Pollard had recovered, and on June 23, he agreed to work a young colt named Modern Youth. Spooked by something on the track, the horse broke rapidly through the stables and threw Pollard, shattering his leg and seemingly ending his career.
Howard arranged a match race for Seabiscuit against Ligaroti, a highly regarded horse owned by the Hollywood entertainer Bing Crosby and Howard's son, Lindsay, through Binglin Stable, in an event organized to promote Crosby's resort and Del Mar Racetrack in Del Mar, California. With Woolf aboard, Seabiscuit won that race, despite persistent fouling from Ligaroti's jockey. After three more outings and with only one win, he was scheduled to go head-to-head with War Admiral in the Pimlico Special in November, in Baltimore, Maryland.
Sent to race on the East Coast, on October 16, 1938, Seabiscuit ran second by two lengths in the Laurel Stakes to the filly Jacola, who set a new Laurel Park Racecourse record of 1:37.00 for one mile.
On November 1, 1938, Seabiscuit met War Admiral and jockey Charles Kurtsinger in what was dubbed the "Match of the Century." The event was run over at Pimlico Race Course. From the grandstands to the infield, the track was jammed with fans. Trains were run from all over the country to bring fans to the race, and the estimated 40,000 at the track were joined by 40 million listening on the radio. War Admiral was the favorite (1–4 with most bookmakers) and a nearly unanimous selection of the writers and tipsters, excluding a California contingent.
Head-to-head races favor fast starters, and War Admiral's speed from the gate was well known. Seabiscuit, on the other hand, was a pace stalker, skilled at holding with the pack before pulling ahead with late acceleration. From the scheduled walk-up start, few gave him a chance to lead War Admiral into the first turn. Smith knew these things and trained Seabiscuit to run against this type, using a starting bell and a whip to give the horse a Pavlovian burst of speed from the start.
When the bell rang, Seabiscuit broke in front, led by over a length after 20 seconds, and soon crossed over to the rail position. Halfway down the backstretch, War Admiral started to cut into the lead, gradually pulling level with Seabiscuit, then slightly ahead. Following advice he had received from Pollard, Woolf had eased up on Seabiscuit, allowing his horse to see his rival, then asked for more effort. Two hundred yards from the wire, Seabiscuit pulled away again and continued to extend his lead over the closing stretch, finally winning by four lengths despite War Admiral's running his best time for the distance.
As a result of his races that year, Seabiscuit was named American Horse of the Year for 1938, beating War Admiral by 698 points to 489 in a poll conducted by the Turf and Sport Digest magazine. Seabiscuit was the number one newsmaker of 1938. The only major prize that eluded him was the Santa Anita Handicap.
Injury and return
Seabiscuit was injured during a race. Woolf, who was riding him, said that he felt the horse stumble. The injury was not life-threatening, although many predicted Seabiscuit would never race again. The diagnosis was a ruptured suspensory ligament in the front left leg. With Seabiscuit out of action, Smith and Howard concentrated on their horse Kayak II, an Argentine stallion. In the spring of 1939, Seabiscuit covered seven of Howard's mares, all of which had healthy foals in spring of 1940. One, Fair Knightess's colt, died as a yearling.
Seabiscuit and a still-convalescing Pollard recovered together at Howard's ranch, with the help of Pollard's new wife Agnes, who had nursed him through his initial recovery. Slowly, both horse and rider learned to walk again (Pollard joked that they "had four good legs between" them). Poverty and his injury had brought Pollard to the edge of alcoholism. A local doctor broke and reset Pollard's leg to aid his recovery, and slowly Pollard regained the confidence to sit on a horse. Wearing a brace to stiffen his atrophied leg, he began to ride Seabiscuit again, first at a walk and later at a trot and canter. Howard was delighted at their improvement, as he longed for Seabiscuit to race again, but was extremely worried about Pollard, as his leg was still fragile.
Over the fall and winter of 1939, Seabiscuit's fitness seemed to improve by the day. By the end of the year, Smith was ready to return the horse to race training, with a collection of stable jockeys in the saddle. By the time of his comeback race, Pollard had cajoled Howard into allowing him the ride. After the horse was scratched due to soft going, the pair finally lined up at the start of the La Jolla Handicap at Santa Anita, on February 9, 1940. Seabiscuit was third, beaten by two lengths. By their third comeback race, Seabiscuit was back to his winning ways, running away from the field in the San Antonio Handicap to beat his erstwhile training partner, Kayak II, by two and a half lengths. Under , Seabiscuit equalled the track record for a mile and 1/16.
One race was left in the season. A week after the San Antonio, Seabiscuit and Kayak II both took the gate for the Santa Anita Handicap and its $121,000 prize. 78,000 paying spectators crammed the racetrack, most backing Seabiscuit. Pollard found his horse blocked almost from the start. Picking his way through the field, Seabiscuit briefly led. As they thundered down the back straight, Seabiscuit became trapped in third place, behind leader Whichcee and Wedding Call on the outside.
Trusting in his horse's acceleration, Pollard steered between the leaders and burst into the lead, taking the firm ground just off the rail. As Seabiscuit showed his old surge, Wedding Call and Whichcee faltered, and Pollard drove his horse on, taking "The Hundred Grander" by a length and a half from the fast-closing Kayak II under jockey Leon Haas. Pandemonium engulfed the course. Neither horse and rider, nor trainer and owner, could get through the crowd of well-wishers to the winner's enclosure for some time.
Retirement, later life, and offspring
On April 10, 1940, Seabiscuit's retirement from racing was officially announced. When he was retired to the Ridgewood Ranch near Willits, California, he was horse racing's all-time leading money winner. Put out to stud, Seabiscuit sired 108 foals, including two moderately successful racehorses: Sea Sovereign and Sea Swallow. Over 50,000 visitors went to Ridgewood Ranch to see Seabiscuit in the seven years before his death.
Death and interment
Seabiscuit died of a probable heart attack on May 17, 1947, in Willits, California, six days short of 14 years old. He is buried at Ridgewood Ranch in Mendocino County, California.
Legacy and honors
Awards and honorable distinctions
In 1958, Seabiscuit was voted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame.
In the Blood-Horse magazine List of the Top 100 U.S. Racehorses of the 20th Century (1999), Seabiscuit was ranked 25th. War Admiral was 13th, and Seabiscuit's grandsire and War Admiral's sire, Man o' War, placed 1st.
Portrayals in film and television
Documentaries
American Experience: "Seabiscuit" (April 21, 2003)) is a documentary episode that aired as Season 15, Episode 11 of the PBS American Experience series.
ESPN SportsCentury: "Seabiscuit" (November 17, 2003), Seabiscuit was featured on ESPN's SportsCentury Greatest Athletes series.
The True Story of Seabiscuit (July 27, 2003) is a 45-minute made-for-TV documentary directed by Craig Haffner, written by Martin Gillam, and containing interviews and footage with William H. Macy, Seabiscuit, and Tobey Maguire, that aired on the USA Network.
Seabiscuit: the Lost Documentary (1939) by Seabiscuit's owner Charles Howard. The film was directed by Manny Nathan, and written by Nathan and Hazel Merry Hawkins. It stars Martin Mason, Doc Bond, Charles Howard as himself and his wife, Marcella. It was colorized and released in 2003 by Legend Films to coincide with interest around the movie.
Seabiscuit: America's Legendary Racehorse (2003) directed and produced by Nick Krantz.
Fiction films
Stablemates (1938), starring Wallace Beery and Mickey Rooney. Film producer Harry Rapf arranged a deal whereby he could film the $50,000 Hollywood Gold Cup, and actual footage of Seabiscuit running in the race was used. The field is headed by Seabiscuit for the "straight" race in the film.
Porky and Teabiscuit (1939) is Warner Bros.' Porky Pig cartoon take on Seabiscuit's underdog story.
The Story of Seabiscuit (1949), starring Shirley Temple in her penultimate film, is a fictionalized account featuring Sea Sovereign in the title role. An otherwise undistinguished film, it did include actual footage of the 1938 match race against War Admiral and the 1940 Santa Anita Handicap.
Seabiscuit (2003), Universal Studios' adaptation of Laura Hillenbrand's bestselling 2001 book, was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture
The Making of Seabiscuit (December 16, 2003) is a documentary short directed by Laurent Bouzereau and starring Tobey Maguire, Jeff Bridges, Chris Cooper, and William Goldenberg, produced by DreamWorks SKG, Herzog Productions, Spyglass Entertainment, and Universal Studios, and distributed by Universal Studios Home Video.
Non-fiction books
Track writer B.K. Beckwith wrote Seabiscuit: The Saga of a Great Champion (1940), with a foreword by Grantland Rice, right after Seabiscuit's Santa Anita win and at the moment of the horse's retirement.
Ralph Moody wrote Come On, Seabiscuit! (1963), illustrated by Robert Riger, which was recently reprinted by the University of Nebraska Press.
Laura Hillenbrand's book Seabiscuit: An American Legend (2001) became a bestseller, and in 2003 it was adapted for film.
Postage stamp
In 2009, after an eight-year-long grassroots effort by Maggie Van Ostrand and Chuck Lustick, Seabiscuit was honored by the United States Postal Service with a stamp bearing his likeness. Thousands of signatures were obtained from all over the nation, and the final approval was given by Citizens Stamp Committee member Joan Mondale, wife of former Vice President Walter Mondale.
Statues
A statue of Seabiscuit (not life-sized) sits outside the main entrance of The Shops at Tanforan, a shopping mall built upon the former site of the Tanforan Racetrack. Seabiscuit was stabled there briefly in 1939, while preparing for his comeback.
In the 1940s, businessman and racehorse owner W. Arnold Hanger donated a statuette of Seabiscuit to the Keeneland library.
In 1941, a life-sized bronze statue of Seabiscuit by Frank Buchler, was installed at Santa Anita Park; it now stands in the walking ring at the track's "Seabiscuit Court"
On June 23, 2007, a statue of Seabiscuit was unveiled at Ridgewood Ranch.
In 1941, sculptor Hughlette "Tex" Wheeler cast two bronze statues from Seabiscuit: one stands at Santa Anita racetrack in Arcadia, CA; the other is in Saratoga Springs, outside the National Museum of Racing.
On July 17, 2010, a life-size statue of George Woolf and Seabiscuit was unveiled at the Remington Carriage Museum in Woolf's hometown of Cardston, Alberta. This coincided with the 100th anniversary of Woolf's birth, though not the actual date.
Pedigree
Notable races won
Seabiscuit ran 89 times at 16 different distances over the course of his career.
Brooklyn Handicap (1937)
San Antonio Handicap (1940)
Santa Anita Handicap (1940)
Notes
References
Further reading
Beckwith, B.K. (1940), Seabiscuit: The Saga of a Great Champion, with drawings by Howard Brodie, Wilfred Crowell, Inc., San Francisco.
Hillenbrand, Laura (2001), Seabiscuit: An American Legend.
Rasmussen, Zach (2013), Seabiscuit: An Unlikely Champion.
External links
Newsreel film of Seabiscuit v War Admiral
Seabiscuit Heritage Foundation. Livingston, Tracy (2005), retrieved June 26, 2005.
"Seabiscuit", Snopes.com (2005), retrieved June 18, 2015.
Seabiscuit, 1938 Horse of the Year
Seabiscuit, Hollywood film, 2003
The Story of Seabiscuit, Hollywood film, 1949
The Biscuit's pedigree
Quick online racing game, inc. The Biscuit
Article about the Seabiscuit-War Admiral match race
Youtube of the 1938 match race
Seabiscuit, an American Experience documentary film by Stephen Ives, shown on PBS
www.janiburon.com, website of author of Seabiscuit books
1933 racehorse births
1947 racehorse deaths
Racehorses bred in Kentucky
Racehorses trained in the United States
Horse racing track record setters
American Thoroughbred Horse of the Year
United States Thoroughbred Racing Hall of Fame inductees
Horse monuments
Thoroughbred family 5-j
Godolphin Arabian sire line | true | [
"The 1954 Challenge Desgrange-Colombo was the seventh edition of the Challenge Desgrange-Colombo. It included eleven races: all the races form the 1953 edition were retained with no additions. Ferdinand Kübler won his third individual championship (although he did not win any of the races) while Belgium won the nations championship.\n\nRaces\n\nFinal standings\n\nRiders\n\nNations\n\nReferences\n\n \nChallenge Desgrange-Colombo\nChallenge Desgrange-Colombo",
"Karl Cordin (born 3 November 1948) is an Austrian former alpine skier who did only compete in Downhill Races; he competed in the 1972 Winter Olympics, becoming 7th silver medal at FIS Alpine World Ski Championships 1970 in downhill.\n\nBiography\nCording did win three World Cup races: on February 21, 1970, at Jackson Hole, on December 20th, 1970, at Val-d’Isère, and on December 18, 1973, at Zell am See; he did become five-times second and twice third too. He also could achieve the Downhill World Cup in 1969-70.\nHe won the silver medal in the FIS Alpine Skiing World Championships 1970 and became fourth in the FIS Alpine Skiing World Championships 1974; in both races he was overtaken by a racer with a higher number. In 1970, he was in lead (and it looked that he could gain the gold medal) - but Bernhard Russi did win. In 1974, he was on the way to win the bronze medal, but Willi Frommelt did catch it.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n\n1948 births\nLiving people\nAustrian male alpine skiers\nOlympic alpine skiers of Austria\nAlpine skiers at the 1972 Winter Olympics\nFIS Alpine Ski World Cup champions"
]
|
[
"Seabiscuit",
"Early days",
"When did seabiscut get into racing?",
"1935",
"Did he win his first races?",
"He failed to win his first 17 races,"
]
| C_303ca31bb8cf4fb58148a4619ad9e551_1 | When did Seabiscuit start winning races? | 3 | When did Seabiscuit start winning races? | Seabiscuit | Seabiscuit was foaled in Lexington, Kentucky, on May 23, 1933, from the mare Swing On and sire Hard Tack, a son of Man o' War. Seabiscuit was named for his father, as hardtack or "sea biscuit" is the name for a type of cracker eaten by sailors. The bay colt grew up on Claiborne Farm in Paris, Kentucky, where he was trained. He was undersized, knobby-kneed, and given to sleeping and eating for long periods. Initially, Seabiscuit was owned by the powerful Wheatley Stable and trained by "Sunny Jim" Fitzsimmons, who had taken Gallant Fox to the United States Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing. Fitzsimmons saw some potential in Seabiscuit but felt the horse was too lazy. Fitzsimmons devoted most of his time to training Omaha, who won the 1935 Triple Crown. Seabiscuit was relegated to a heavy schedule of smaller races. He failed to win his first 17 races, usually finishing back in the field. After that, Fitzsimmons did not spend much time on him, and the horse was sometimes the butt of stable jokes. Seabiscuit began to gain attention after winning two races at Narragansett Park and setting a new track record in the second - a Claiming Stakes race. As a two-year-old, Seabiscuit raced 35 times (a heavy racing schedule), coming in first five times and finishing second seven times. These included three claiming races, in which he could have been purchased for $2500, but he had no takers. While Seabiscuit had not lived up to his racing potential, he was not the poor performer Fitzsimmons had taken him for. His last two wins as a two-year-old came in minor stakes races. The next season, however, started with a similar pattern. The colt ran 12 times in less than four months, winning four times. One of those races was a cheap allowance race on the "sweltering afternoon of June 29", 1936, at Suffolk Downs. That is where trainer Tom Smith first laid eyes on Seabiscuit. His owners sold the horse to automobile entrepreneur Charles S. Howard for $8000 at Saratoga, in August. CANNOTANSWER | As a two-year-old, Seabiscuit raced 35 times (a heavy racing schedule), coming in first five times and finishing second seven times. | Seabiscuit (May 23, 1933 – May 17, 1947) was a champion thoroughbred racehorse in the United States who became the top money-winning racehorse up to the 1940s. He beat the 1937 Triple-Crown winner, War Admiral, by 4 lengths in a two-horse special at Pimlico and was voted American Horse of the Year for 1938.
A small horse, at 15.2 hands high, Seabiscuit had an inauspicious start to his racing career, winning only a quarter of his first 40 races, but became an unlikely champion and a symbol of hope to many Americans during the Great Depression.
Seabiscuit has been the subject of numerous books and films, including Seabiscuit: the Lost Documentary (1939); the Shirley Temple film The Story of Seabiscuit (1949); a book, Seabiscuit: An American Legend (1999) by Laura Hillenbrand; and a film adaptation of Hillenbrand's book, Seabiscuit (2003), that was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.
Early days
Seabiscuit was foaled in Lexington, Kentucky, on May 23, 1933, from the mare Swing On and sire Hard Tack, a son of Man o' War. Seabiscuit was named for his father, as hardtack or "sea biscuit" is the name for a type of cracker eaten by sailors.
The bay colt grew up on Claiborne Farm in Paris, Kentucky, where he was trained. He was undersized, knobby-kneed, and given to sleeping and eating for long periods.
Initially, Seabiscuit was owned by the powerful Wheatley Stable and trained by "Sunny Jim" Fitzsimmons, who had taken Gallant Fox to the United States Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing. Fitzsimmons saw some potential in Seabiscuit but felt the horse was too lazy. Fitzsimmons devoted most of his time to training Omaha, who won the 1935 Triple Crown.
Seabiscuit was relegated to a heavy schedule of smaller races. He failed to win his first 17 races, usually finishing back in the field. After that, Fitzsimmons did not spend much time on him, and the horse was sometimes the butt of stable jokes. However, Seabiscuit began to gain attention after winning two races at Narragansett Park and setting a new track record in the second—Claiming Stakes race.
As a two-year-old, Seabiscuit raced 35 times (a heavy racing schedule), coming in first five times and finishing second seven times. These included three claiming races, in which he could have been purchased for $2,500, but he had no takers.
While Seabiscuit had not lived up to his racing potential, he was not the poor performer Fitzsimmons had taken him for. His last two wins as a two-year-old came in minor stakes races. The next season, started with a similar pattern. The colt ran 12 times in less than four months, winning four times. One of those races was a cheap allowance race on the "sweltering afternoon of June 29," 1936, at Suffolk Downs. That was where trainer Tom Smith first laid eyes on Seabiscuit. His owners sold the horse to automobile entrepreneur Charles S. Howard for $8,000 at Saratoga, in August.
1936/1937: The beginning of success
Howard assigned Seabiscuit to a new trainer, Tom Smith, who, with his unorthodox training methods, gradually brought Seabiscuit out of his lethargy. Smith paired the horse with Canadian jockey Red Pollard (1909–1981), who had experience racing in the West and in Mexico. On August 22, 1936, they raced Seabiscuit for the first time. Improvements came quickly, and in their remaining eight races in the East, Seabiscuit and Pollard won several times, including the Detroit Governor's Handicap (worth $5,600) and the Scarsdale Handicap ($7,300) at Empire City Race Track in Yonkers, New York.
In early November 1936, Howard and Smith shipped the horse to California by rail. His last two races of the year were at Bay Meadows racetrack in San Mateo, California. The first was the $2,700 Bay Bridge Handicap, run over . Despite starting badly and carrying the top weight of , Seabiscuit won by five lengths. At the World's Fair Handicap (Bay Meadows' most prestigious stakes race), Seabiscuit led throughout.
In 1937, the Santa Anita Handicap, California's most prestigious race, was worth over $125,000 ($ million in 2010) to the winner; it was known colloquially as "The Hundred Grander." In his first warm-up race at Santa Anita Park, Seabiscuit won easily. In his second race of 1937, the San Antonio Handicap, he suffered a setback after he was bumped at the start and then pushed wide; Seabiscuit came in fifth, losing to Rosemont.
The two met again in the Santa Anita Handicap a week later, where Rosemont won by a nose. The defeat was devastating to Smith and Howard and was widely attributed in the press to a jockey error. Pollard, who had not seen Rosemont over his shoulder until too late, was blind in one eye due to an accident during a training ride, a fact he had hidden throughout his career. A week after this defeat Seabiscuit won the San Juan Capistrano Handicap by seven lengths in track record time of 1:48 for the mile event.
Seabiscuit was rapidly becoming a favorite among California racing fans, and his fame spread as he won his next three races. With his successes, Howard decided to ship the horse east for its more prestigious racing circuit.
Seabiscuit's run of victories continued. Between June 26 and August 7, he ran five times, each time in a stakes race, and each time he won under steadily increasing handicap weights (imposts) of up to . For the third time, Seabiscuit faced off against Rosemont again, this time beating him by seven lengths. On September 11, Smith accepted an impost of for the Narragansett Special at Narragansett Park. On race day, the ground was slow and heavy, and unsuited to "the Biscuit", carrying the heaviest burden of his career. Smith wanted to scratch, but Howard overruled him. Never in the running, Seabiscuit finished third. His winning streak was snapped, but the season was not over; Seabiscuit won his next three races (one a dead heat) before finishing the year with a second-place at Pimlico.
In 1937, Seabiscuit won 11 of his 15 races and was the year's leading money winner in the United States. However, War Admiral, having won the Triple Crown that season, was voted the most prestigious honor, the American Horse of the Year Award.
Early five-year-old season
In 1938, as a five-year-old, Seabiscuit's success continued. On February 19, Pollard suffered a terrible fall while racing on Fair Knightess, another of Howard's horses. With half of Pollard's chest caved in by the weight of the fallen horse, Howard had to find a new jockey. After trying three, he settled on George Woolf, an already successful rider and old friend of Pollard's.
Woolf's first race aboard Seabiscuit was the Santa Anita Handicap, "The Hundred Grander" the horse had narrowly lost the previous year. Seabiscuit was drawn on the outside, and at the start was impeded by another horse, Count Atlas, angling out. The two were locked together for the first straight, and by the time Woolf disentangled his horse, they were six lengths off the pace. Seabiscuit worked his way to the lead but lost in a photo finish to the fast-closing Santa Anita Derby winner, Stagehand (owned by Maxwell Howard, not related to Charles), who had been assigned less than Seabiscuit.
Throughout 1937 and 1938, the media speculated about a match race between Seabiscuit and the seemingly invincible War Admiral (sired by Man o' War, Seabiscuit's grandsire). The two horses were scheduled to meet in three stakes races, but one or the other was scratched, usually due to Seabiscuit's dislike of heavy ground. After extensive negotiation, the owners organized a match race for May 1938 at Belmont, but Seabiscuit was scratched.
By June, Pollard had recovered, and on June 23, he agreed to work a young colt named Modern Youth. Spooked by something on the track, the horse broke rapidly through the stables and threw Pollard, shattering his leg and seemingly ending his career.
Howard arranged a match race for Seabiscuit against Ligaroti, a highly regarded horse owned by the Hollywood entertainer Bing Crosby and Howard's son, Lindsay, through Binglin Stable, in an event organized to promote Crosby's resort and Del Mar Racetrack in Del Mar, California. With Woolf aboard, Seabiscuit won that race, despite persistent fouling from Ligaroti's jockey. After three more outings and with only one win, he was scheduled to go head-to-head with War Admiral in the Pimlico Special in November, in Baltimore, Maryland.
Sent to race on the East Coast, on October 16, 1938, Seabiscuit ran second by two lengths in the Laurel Stakes to the filly Jacola, who set a new Laurel Park Racecourse record of 1:37.00 for one mile.
On November 1, 1938, Seabiscuit met War Admiral and jockey Charles Kurtsinger in what was dubbed the "Match of the Century." The event was run over at Pimlico Race Course. From the grandstands to the infield, the track was jammed with fans. Trains were run from all over the country to bring fans to the race, and the estimated 40,000 at the track were joined by 40 million listening on the radio. War Admiral was the favorite (1–4 with most bookmakers) and a nearly unanimous selection of the writers and tipsters, excluding a California contingent.
Head-to-head races favor fast starters, and War Admiral's speed from the gate was well known. Seabiscuit, on the other hand, was a pace stalker, skilled at holding with the pack before pulling ahead with late acceleration. From the scheduled walk-up start, few gave him a chance to lead War Admiral into the first turn. Smith knew these things and trained Seabiscuit to run against this type, using a starting bell and a whip to give the horse a Pavlovian burst of speed from the start.
When the bell rang, Seabiscuit broke in front, led by over a length after 20 seconds, and soon crossed over to the rail position. Halfway down the backstretch, War Admiral started to cut into the lead, gradually pulling level with Seabiscuit, then slightly ahead. Following advice he had received from Pollard, Woolf had eased up on Seabiscuit, allowing his horse to see his rival, then asked for more effort. Two hundred yards from the wire, Seabiscuit pulled away again and continued to extend his lead over the closing stretch, finally winning by four lengths despite War Admiral's running his best time for the distance.
As a result of his races that year, Seabiscuit was named American Horse of the Year for 1938, beating War Admiral by 698 points to 489 in a poll conducted by the Turf and Sport Digest magazine. Seabiscuit was the number one newsmaker of 1938. The only major prize that eluded him was the Santa Anita Handicap.
Injury and return
Seabiscuit was injured during a race. Woolf, who was riding him, said that he felt the horse stumble. The injury was not life-threatening, although many predicted Seabiscuit would never race again. The diagnosis was a ruptured suspensory ligament in the front left leg. With Seabiscuit out of action, Smith and Howard concentrated on their horse Kayak II, an Argentine stallion. In the spring of 1939, Seabiscuit covered seven of Howard's mares, all of which had healthy foals in spring of 1940. One, Fair Knightess's colt, died as a yearling.
Seabiscuit and a still-convalescing Pollard recovered together at Howard's ranch, with the help of Pollard's new wife Agnes, who had nursed him through his initial recovery. Slowly, both horse and rider learned to walk again (Pollard joked that they "had four good legs between" them). Poverty and his injury had brought Pollard to the edge of alcoholism. A local doctor broke and reset Pollard's leg to aid his recovery, and slowly Pollard regained the confidence to sit on a horse. Wearing a brace to stiffen his atrophied leg, he began to ride Seabiscuit again, first at a walk and later at a trot and canter. Howard was delighted at their improvement, as he longed for Seabiscuit to race again, but was extremely worried about Pollard, as his leg was still fragile.
Over the fall and winter of 1939, Seabiscuit's fitness seemed to improve by the day. By the end of the year, Smith was ready to return the horse to race training, with a collection of stable jockeys in the saddle. By the time of his comeback race, Pollard had cajoled Howard into allowing him the ride. After the horse was scratched due to soft going, the pair finally lined up at the start of the La Jolla Handicap at Santa Anita, on February 9, 1940. Seabiscuit was third, beaten by two lengths. By their third comeback race, Seabiscuit was back to his winning ways, running away from the field in the San Antonio Handicap to beat his erstwhile training partner, Kayak II, by two and a half lengths. Under , Seabiscuit equalled the track record for a mile and 1/16.
One race was left in the season. A week after the San Antonio, Seabiscuit and Kayak II both took the gate for the Santa Anita Handicap and its $121,000 prize. 78,000 paying spectators crammed the racetrack, most backing Seabiscuit. Pollard found his horse blocked almost from the start. Picking his way through the field, Seabiscuit briefly led. As they thundered down the back straight, Seabiscuit became trapped in third place, behind leader Whichcee and Wedding Call on the outside.
Trusting in his horse's acceleration, Pollard steered between the leaders and burst into the lead, taking the firm ground just off the rail. As Seabiscuit showed his old surge, Wedding Call and Whichcee faltered, and Pollard drove his horse on, taking "The Hundred Grander" by a length and a half from the fast-closing Kayak II under jockey Leon Haas. Pandemonium engulfed the course. Neither horse and rider, nor trainer and owner, could get through the crowd of well-wishers to the winner's enclosure for some time.
Retirement, later life, and offspring
On April 10, 1940, Seabiscuit's retirement from racing was officially announced. When he was retired to the Ridgewood Ranch near Willits, California, he was horse racing's all-time leading money winner. Put out to stud, Seabiscuit sired 108 foals, including two moderately successful racehorses: Sea Sovereign and Sea Swallow. Over 50,000 visitors went to Ridgewood Ranch to see Seabiscuit in the seven years before his death.
Death and interment
Seabiscuit died of a probable heart attack on May 17, 1947, in Willits, California, six days short of 14 years old. He is buried at Ridgewood Ranch in Mendocino County, California.
Legacy and honors
Awards and honorable distinctions
In 1958, Seabiscuit was voted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame.
In the Blood-Horse magazine List of the Top 100 U.S. Racehorses of the 20th Century (1999), Seabiscuit was ranked 25th. War Admiral was 13th, and Seabiscuit's grandsire and War Admiral's sire, Man o' War, placed 1st.
Portrayals in film and television
Documentaries
American Experience: "Seabiscuit" (April 21, 2003)) is a documentary episode that aired as Season 15, Episode 11 of the PBS American Experience series.
ESPN SportsCentury: "Seabiscuit" (November 17, 2003), Seabiscuit was featured on ESPN's SportsCentury Greatest Athletes series.
The True Story of Seabiscuit (July 27, 2003) is a 45-minute made-for-TV documentary directed by Craig Haffner, written by Martin Gillam, and containing interviews and footage with William H. Macy, Seabiscuit, and Tobey Maguire, that aired on the USA Network.
Seabiscuit: the Lost Documentary (1939) by Seabiscuit's owner Charles Howard. The film was directed by Manny Nathan, and written by Nathan and Hazel Merry Hawkins. It stars Martin Mason, Doc Bond, Charles Howard as himself and his wife, Marcella. It was colorized and released in 2003 by Legend Films to coincide with interest around the movie.
Seabiscuit: America's Legendary Racehorse (2003) directed and produced by Nick Krantz.
Fiction films
Stablemates (1938), starring Wallace Beery and Mickey Rooney. Film producer Harry Rapf arranged a deal whereby he could film the $50,000 Hollywood Gold Cup, and actual footage of Seabiscuit running in the race was used. The field is headed by Seabiscuit for the "straight" race in the film.
Porky and Teabiscuit (1939) is Warner Bros.' Porky Pig cartoon take on Seabiscuit's underdog story.
The Story of Seabiscuit (1949), starring Shirley Temple in her penultimate film, is a fictionalized account featuring Sea Sovereign in the title role. An otherwise undistinguished film, it did include actual footage of the 1938 match race against War Admiral and the 1940 Santa Anita Handicap.
Seabiscuit (2003), Universal Studios' adaptation of Laura Hillenbrand's bestselling 2001 book, was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture
The Making of Seabiscuit (December 16, 2003) is a documentary short directed by Laurent Bouzereau and starring Tobey Maguire, Jeff Bridges, Chris Cooper, and William Goldenberg, produced by DreamWorks SKG, Herzog Productions, Spyglass Entertainment, and Universal Studios, and distributed by Universal Studios Home Video.
Non-fiction books
Track writer B.K. Beckwith wrote Seabiscuit: The Saga of a Great Champion (1940), with a foreword by Grantland Rice, right after Seabiscuit's Santa Anita win and at the moment of the horse's retirement.
Ralph Moody wrote Come On, Seabiscuit! (1963), illustrated by Robert Riger, which was recently reprinted by the University of Nebraska Press.
Laura Hillenbrand's book Seabiscuit: An American Legend (2001) became a bestseller, and in 2003 it was adapted for film.
Postage stamp
In 2009, after an eight-year-long grassroots effort by Maggie Van Ostrand and Chuck Lustick, Seabiscuit was honored by the United States Postal Service with a stamp bearing his likeness. Thousands of signatures were obtained from all over the nation, and the final approval was given by Citizens Stamp Committee member Joan Mondale, wife of former Vice President Walter Mondale.
Statues
A statue of Seabiscuit (not life-sized) sits outside the main entrance of The Shops at Tanforan, a shopping mall built upon the former site of the Tanforan Racetrack. Seabiscuit was stabled there briefly in 1939, while preparing for his comeback.
In the 1940s, businessman and racehorse owner W. Arnold Hanger donated a statuette of Seabiscuit to the Keeneland library.
In 1941, a life-sized bronze statue of Seabiscuit by Frank Buchler, was installed at Santa Anita Park; it now stands in the walking ring at the track's "Seabiscuit Court"
On June 23, 2007, a statue of Seabiscuit was unveiled at Ridgewood Ranch.
In 1941, sculptor Hughlette "Tex" Wheeler cast two bronze statues from Seabiscuit: one stands at Santa Anita racetrack in Arcadia, CA; the other is in Saratoga Springs, outside the National Museum of Racing.
On July 17, 2010, a life-size statue of George Woolf and Seabiscuit was unveiled at the Remington Carriage Museum in Woolf's hometown of Cardston, Alberta. This coincided with the 100th anniversary of Woolf's birth, though not the actual date.
Pedigree
Notable races won
Seabiscuit ran 89 times at 16 different distances over the course of his career.
Brooklyn Handicap (1937)
San Antonio Handicap (1940)
Santa Anita Handicap (1940)
Notes
References
Further reading
Beckwith, B.K. (1940), Seabiscuit: The Saga of a Great Champion, with drawings by Howard Brodie, Wilfred Crowell, Inc., San Francisco.
Hillenbrand, Laura (2001), Seabiscuit: An American Legend.
Rasmussen, Zach (2013), Seabiscuit: An Unlikely Champion.
External links
Newsreel film of Seabiscuit v War Admiral
Seabiscuit Heritage Foundation. Livingston, Tracy (2005), retrieved June 26, 2005.
"Seabiscuit", Snopes.com (2005), retrieved June 18, 2015.
Seabiscuit, 1938 Horse of the Year
Seabiscuit, Hollywood film, 2003
The Story of Seabiscuit, Hollywood film, 1949
The Biscuit's pedigree
Quick online racing game, inc. The Biscuit
Article about the Seabiscuit-War Admiral match race
Youtube of the 1938 match race
Seabiscuit, an American Experience documentary film by Stephen Ives, shown on PBS
www.janiburon.com, website of author of Seabiscuit books
1933 racehorse births
1947 racehorse deaths
Racehorses bred in Kentucky
Racehorses trained in the United States
Horse racing track record setters
American Thoroughbred Horse of the Year
United States Thoroughbred Racing Hall of Fame inductees
Horse monuments
Thoroughbred family 5-j
Godolphin Arabian sire line | true | [
"War Admiral (May 2, 1934 – October 30, 1959) was a champion American Thoroughbred racehorse who is the fourth winner of the American Triple Crown. He was also the 1937 Horse of the Year and well known as the rival of Seabiscuit in the 'Match Race of the Century' in 1938. War Admiral won 21 of his 26 starts with earnings of $273,240 and was the leading sire in North America for 1945. He was also an outstanding broodmare sire whose influence is still felt today in descendants such as Triple Crown winners American Pharoah and Justify.\n\nBackground\nWar Admiral raced as a homebred for Samuel D. Riddle, who also owned Man o' War. War Admiral was foaled at Faraway Farm in Lexington, the offspring of Man o' War and Brushup. Man o' War was widely regarded as the greatest American racehorse of his time, but Brushup never won a race. They were bred together six times, producing five undistinguished fillies and one Triple Crown winner.\n\nWar Admiral inherited his father's talent, but did not resemble him physically. At , or 15.3 he was smaller than Man o' War's height of 16.3 hands. War Admiral's dark brown coat was inherited from his dam, who also contributed to War Admiral's smaller size as she was under 15 hands. Because of his size, one of War Admiral's nicknames was The Mighty Atom. Others referred to him simply as The Admiral.\n\nMost sources say that War Admiral also inherited his sire's fiery temperament, which manifested chiefly in his reluctance to load in the starting gate. Away from the crowds though, he was more relaxed and given to taking long naps. His groom called him sweet, and his trainer, George Conway, found him more like his dam in terms of personality. Conway was in a position to know as he had been stable foreman to Louis Feustel while the latter trained Man o' War. Conway stayed with Riddle after Feustel's retirement, and trained several of Man o' War's most successful offspring. War Admiral's regular jockey was Charles Kurtsinger.\n\nRacing career\n\n1936: Two-year-old season\nAs a two-year-old in 1936, War Admiral won three of six races including the Great American Stakes and Eastern Shore Handicap. However, the star of this crop was then considered to be Pompoon, who defeated War Admiral in the National Stallion Stakes. War Admiral was rated at 121 pounds on the Experimental Free Handicap, seven pounds below two-year-old champion Pompoon and seventh overall.\n\n1937: Three-year-old season\nIn 1937, War Admiral started his three-year-old campaign by winning two races at Havre de Grace, including the Chesapeake Stakes. Riddle then made a fateful decision. In 1920, Man o' War was not entered in the Kentucky Derby as Riddle did not like racing outside of New York and Maryland, and also felt the distance of the Derby was too great for three-year-olds so early in the season. For War Admiral, Riddle made an exception and made the trip west to Churchill Downs in Louisville. War Admiral went off as the favorite, and, despite delaying the start for several minutes, won in wire-to-wire fashion with Pompoon lengths back in second. Neville Dunn, sports editor for the Lexington Herald, wrote, \"A little brown horse that takes after his mammy in size but runs like his daddy charged to victory in the 63rd Kentucky Derby… and he won so easily, so effortlessly, that 65,000 fans nudged one another in the ribs and said, 'I told you so! I told you that War Admiral could run like Man o' War.'\"\n\nThe Preakness Stakes was held just a week later. After again acting up at the start, War Admiral went to the lead early but had trouble negotiating the turns. Pompoon saved ground along the rail and closed alongside War Admiral as they exited the last turn. The two horses dueled down the stretch with War Admiral finally prevailing by a head.\n\nOn June 5, War Admiral faced six rivals in the Belmont Stakes, going off as the 4-5 favorite. He was particularly fractious at the start, repeatedly breaking through the barrier. After delaying the start for eight minutes, he stumbled leaving the gate. He quickly recovered his stride and won the race by three lengths with \"speed to spare\". His time of 2:28 tied the American Record for miles, while breaking Man o' War's track record by a fifth of a second. War Admiral thus became the fourth winner of the American Triple Crown. But the victory came at a price: War Admiral had struck the quarter of his right front fore-foot when stumbling at the gate, which left a gaping wound. During the race, his jockey did not notice that anything was amiss. But when led into the winner's circle, his connections found that his belly and legs were covered with blood.\n\nThe injury was severe enough to cause War Admiral to miss the summer racing season. He returned in October to win three more races, including the Washington Handicap and the inaugural Pimlico Special. All told, in 1937 War Admiral won eight of eight races including the Triple Crown. He was the unanimous selection as Champion 3-Year-Old, and also earned the title of Horse of the Year in a close battle with Seabiscuit, the Champion older horse.\n\n1938: Four-year-old season\nIn 1938, War Admiral won eight major races, including the Whitney Handicap and Jockey Club Gold Cup. He is linked forever with the year-older Seabiscuit, who was a grandson of Man o' War and the preeminent horse based in the western U.S. Seabiscuit's owner, Charles Howard, brought his horse across country to give Seabiscuit the chance to prove himself to the eastern racing establishment. Seabiscuit and War Admiral almost faced each other several times that summer but for one reason or another, they never met. Finally, a meeting was arranged for November 1, 1938, in the Pimlico Special in what was billed as The Match Race of the Century. Samuel Riddle asked that the race be run without a starting gate in light of War Admiral's problematic history. With War Admiral's early speed, he was widely seen to have a tactical advantage in a match race and went off as the favorite. However, Seabiscuit's trainer had secretly conditioned his horse to bolt at the sound of a starting bell, which resulted in Seabiscuit getting the all-important early lead. Seabiscuit won by four lengths and broke the track record.\n\nWar Admiral raced twice more, winning the Rhode Island Handicap in 1938 and a race at Hialeah in February 1939 before an injury prompted his retirement.\n\nStud career\nWar Admiral stood at Faraway Farm until 1958, when the executors of Riddle's estate sold the remaining portion of the farm. War Admiral was then moved to Hamburg Place, where he died in 1959.\n\nWar Admiral was the leading American sire in 1945 and the leading juvenile sire in 1948. Before his 1959 death, War Admiral sired 40 stakes winners. Major winners sired by War Admiral include champion Blue Peter, Bee Mac, Navy Page, Cold Command, and Admiral Vee. As a sire, War Admiral is perhaps best known for his success with daughters of La Troienne. This cross produced the champion filly and Horse of the Year Busher (ranked #40 in Blood-Horse magazine List of the Top 100 U.S. Racehorses of the 20th Century), as well as stakes winners Searching, Busanda and Mr. Busher.\n\nAlthough War Admiral's sire line no longer exists, he remains a significant influence in modern pedigrees due to his daughters. He was the Leading broodmare sire of 1962 and 1964. Descendants in the female line include the likes of Swaps, Buckpasser, and Numbered Account, as well as two Triple Crown winners, Seattle Slew and Affirmed. Other descendants of note include Dr. Fager, Alysheba, Cigar and Zenyatta. War Admiral's name appears eight times in the pedigree of the 2015 Triple Crown winner, American Pharoah.\n\nRace record\n\nAn asterisk before the odds means War Admiral was the post time favorite\n\nSource: Daily Racing Form Past Performances\n\nHonors and awards\nWar Admiral was elected to the Hall of Fame in the same year as arch-rival Seabiscuit. In The Blood-Horse ranking of the top 100 US thoroughbred champions of the 20th Century, War Admiral was ranked #13, with Seabiscuit as #25.\n\nIn 1937, Riddle commissioned equine artist Martin Stainforth to paint War Admiral's portrait, a version of which can be found in the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame.\n\nWar Admiral is buried alongside his sire at the foot of the Man o' War statue in the Kentucky Horse Park.\n\nIn popular culture\nThe 2003 movie Seabiscuit features the match race between Seabiscuit and War Admiral. The film portrays War Admiral at 18 hands even though War Admiral and Seabiscuit were about the same size with Seabiscuit standing at 15.2 hands and outweighing War Admiral\n\nPedigree\n\nSee also\n \n \n Hillenbrand, Laura. Seabiscuit: An American Legend, (2001), Random House\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n The War Admiral-Seabiscuit match at about.com\n War Admiral overview at Thoroughbred Times\n War Admiral biography at Thoroughbred Champions\n Article about the Seabiscuit-War Admiral match race\n\n1934 racehorse births\n1959 racehorse deaths\nRacehorses trained in the United States\nHorse racing track record setters\nRacehorses bred in Kentucky\nKentucky Derby winners\nTriple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing winners\nAmerican Thoroughbred Horse of the Year\nUnited States Thoroughbred Racing Hall of Fame inductees\nBelmont Stakes winners\nPreakness Stakes winners\nUnited States Champion Thoroughbred Sires\nAmerican Champion Thoroughbred broodmare sires\nThoroughbred family 11-g\nGodolphin Arabian sire line",
"Popcorn Deelites (April 19, 1998 – January 20, 2022) was an American thoroughbred race horse who is best known for his career in film.\n\nFoaled in 1998 by Afternoon Deelites out of Turquoise Gal (by Navajo), the gelding ran for six years as a low-level claimer, yet he did win 11 of his 58 starts and accumulated $56,880 in earnings.\n\nPopcorn Deelites' bloodline contains some great names: Damascus, Bold Ruler, Secretariat, Ack Ack, Sword Dancer, Buckpasser, Northern Dancer, and Gallant Man, all on his top line. From his dam he goes back to Bimelech, Black Toney, Johnstown, Count Fleet, and the \"blue hen\" mare La Troienne.\n\nMovies\nPopcorn Deelites also starred in the title role of the 2003 Oscar-nominated Seabiscuit. As Seabiscuit, he played alongside Jeff Bridges as Seabiscuit's owner Charles S. Howard, Tobey Maguire as jockey Red Pollard, Chris Cooper as trainer Tom Smith, Hall of Fame jockey Gary Stevens as the \"Ice Man\" George Woolf, and Hall of Famer Chris McCarron as Charles Kurtsinger, another Hall of Fame jockey.\n\nA blood bay with dark points like Seabiscuit, Popcorn Deelites was trained by Phoenix, Arizona-based Priscilla Leon and owned by David Hoffmans of Henderson, Nevada. In the movie, Popcorn's speciality was to play Seabiscuit breaking from the gate. Because of his natural speed as a sprinter (most of his races were 6 furlong events), he also played Seabiscuit in his races. Five other horses also played Seabiscuit, each one chosen for a special ability. One horse was cast especially to lie flat out and sleep.\n\nRetirement\nBefore being acquired by Old Friends, a horse rescue and retirement center founded by Michael Blowen in Georgetown, Kentucky, Popcorn was back running in claiming races at Colorado's Arapahoe Park. Blowen bought the horse for $1,500, and he lived at Old Friends with a number of retired racehorses. He died on January 20, 2022, at the age of 23.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Popcorn Deelites pedigree\n Rich in Dallas'pedigree\n Old Friends official site\n The Exceller Fund\n Our Mims Retirement Haven\n Ex-racehorse adoption\n Rescuing California racehorses\n E.P.O.N.A. The Equine Protection of North America, rescuing horses of all breeds\n\n1998 racehorse births\n2022 racehorse deaths\nThoroughbred family 23-b\nRacehorses bred in Kentucky\nRacehorses trained in the United States\nHorse actors\nHorses in film and television\nOld Friends Equine Retirement"
]
|
[
"Seabiscuit",
"Early days",
"When did seabiscut get into racing?",
"1935",
"Did he win his first races?",
"He failed to win his first 17 races,",
"When did Seabiscuit start winning races?",
"As a two-year-old, Seabiscuit raced 35 times (a heavy racing schedule), coming in first five times and finishing second seven times."
]
| C_303ca31bb8cf4fb58148a4619ad9e551_1 | Was he a well-known race horse? | 4 | Was Seabiscut a well-known race horse? | Seabiscuit | Seabiscuit was foaled in Lexington, Kentucky, on May 23, 1933, from the mare Swing On and sire Hard Tack, a son of Man o' War. Seabiscuit was named for his father, as hardtack or "sea biscuit" is the name for a type of cracker eaten by sailors. The bay colt grew up on Claiborne Farm in Paris, Kentucky, where he was trained. He was undersized, knobby-kneed, and given to sleeping and eating for long periods. Initially, Seabiscuit was owned by the powerful Wheatley Stable and trained by "Sunny Jim" Fitzsimmons, who had taken Gallant Fox to the United States Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing. Fitzsimmons saw some potential in Seabiscuit but felt the horse was too lazy. Fitzsimmons devoted most of his time to training Omaha, who won the 1935 Triple Crown. Seabiscuit was relegated to a heavy schedule of smaller races. He failed to win his first 17 races, usually finishing back in the field. After that, Fitzsimmons did not spend much time on him, and the horse was sometimes the butt of stable jokes. Seabiscuit began to gain attention after winning two races at Narragansett Park and setting a new track record in the second - a Claiming Stakes race. As a two-year-old, Seabiscuit raced 35 times (a heavy racing schedule), coming in first five times and finishing second seven times. These included three claiming races, in which he could have been purchased for $2500, but he had no takers. While Seabiscuit had not lived up to his racing potential, he was not the poor performer Fitzsimmons had taken him for. His last two wins as a two-year-old came in minor stakes races. The next season, however, started with a similar pattern. The colt ran 12 times in less than four months, winning four times. One of those races was a cheap allowance race on the "sweltering afternoon of June 29", 1936, at Suffolk Downs. That is where trainer Tom Smith first laid eyes on Seabiscuit. His owners sold the horse to automobile entrepreneur Charles S. Howard for $8000 at Saratoga, in August. CANNOTANSWER | While Seabiscuit had not lived up to his racing potential, he was not the poor performer Fitzsimmons had taken him for. | Seabiscuit (May 23, 1933 – May 17, 1947) was a champion thoroughbred racehorse in the United States who became the top money-winning racehorse up to the 1940s. He beat the 1937 Triple-Crown winner, War Admiral, by 4 lengths in a two-horse special at Pimlico and was voted American Horse of the Year for 1938.
A small horse, at 15.2 hands high, Seabiscuit had an inauspicious start to his racing career, winning only a quarter of his first 40 races, but became an unlikely champion and a symbol of hope to many Americans during the Great Depression.
Seabiscuit has been the subject of numerous books and films, including Seabiscuit: the Lost Documentary (1939); the Shirley Temple film The Story of Seabiscuit (1949); a book, Seabiscuit: An American Legend (1999) by Laura Hillenbrand; and a film adaptation of Hillenbrand's book, Seabiscuit (2003), that was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.
Early days
Seabiscuit was foaled in Lexington, Kentucky, on May 23, 1933, from the mare Swing On and sire Hard Tack, a son of Man o' War. Seabiscuit was named for his father, as hardtack or "sea biscuit" is the name for a type of cracker eaten by sailors.
The bay colt grew up on Claiborne Farm in Paris, Kentucky, where he was trained. He was undersized, knobby-kneed, and given to sleeping and eating for long periods.
Initially, Seabiscuit was owned by the powerful Wheatley Stable and trained by "Sunny Jim" Fitzsimmons, who had taken Gallant Fox to the United States Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing. Fitzsimmons saw some potential in Seabiscuit but felt the horse was too lazy. Fitzsimmons devoted most of his time to training Omaha, who won the 1935 Triple Crown.
Seabiscuit was relegated to a heavy schedule of smaller races. He failed to win his first 17 races, usually finishing back in the field. After that, Fitzsimmons did not spend much time on him, and the horse was sometimes the butt of stable jokes. However, Seabiscuit began to gain attention after winning two races at Narragansett Park and setting a new track record in the second—Claiming Stakes race.
As a two-year-old, Seabiscuit raced 35 times (a heavy racing schedule), coming in first five times and finishing second seven times. These included three claiming races, in which he could have been purchased for $2,500, but he had no takers.
While Seabiscuit had not lived up to his racing potential, he was not the poor performer Fitzsimmons had taken him for. His last two wins as a two-year-old came in minor stakes races. The next season, started with a similar pattern. The colt ran 12 times in less than four months, winning four times. One of those races was a cheap allowance race on the "sweltering afternoon of June 29," 1936, at Suffolk Downs. That was where trainer Tom Smith first laid eyes on Seabiscuit. His owners sold the horse to automobile entrepreneur Charles S. Howard for $8,000 at Saratoga, in August.
1936/1937: The beginning of success
Howard assigned Seabiscuit to a new trainer, Tom Smith, who, with his unorthodox training methods, gradually brought Seabiscuit out of his lethargy. Smith paired the horse with Canadian jockey Red Pollard (1909–1981), who had experience racing in the West and in Mexico. On August 22, 1936, they raced Seabiscuit for the first time. Improvements came quickly, and in their remaining eight races in the East, Seabiscuit and Pollard won several times, including the Detroit Governor's Handicap (worth $5,600) and the Scarsdale Handicap ($7,300) at Empire City Race Track in Yonkers, New York.
In early November 1936, Howard and Smith shipped the horse to California by rail. His last two races of the year were at Bay Meadows racetrack in San Mateo, California. The first was the $2,700 Bay Bridge Handicap, run over . Despite starting badly and carrying the top weight of , Seabiscuit won by five lengths. At the World's Fair Handicap (Bay Meadows' most prestigious stakes race), Seabiscuit led throughout.
In 1937, the Santa Anita Handicap, California's most prestigious race, was worth over $125,000 ($ million in 2010) to the winner; it was known colloquially as "The Hundred Grander." In his first warm-up race at Santa Anita Park, Seabiscuit won easily. In his second race of 1937, the San Antonio Handicap, he suffered a setback after he was bumped at the start and then pushed wide; Seabiscuit came in fifth, losing to Rosemont.
The two met again in the Santa Anita Handicap a week later, where Rosemont won by a nose. The defeat was devastating to Smith and Howard and was widely attributed in the press to a jockey error. Pollard, who had not seen Rosemont over his shoulder until too late, was blind in one eye due to an accident during a training ride, a fact he had hidden throughout his career. A week after this defeat Seabiscuit won the San Juan Capistrano Handicap by seven lengths in track record time of 1:48 for the mile event.
Seabiscuit was rapidly becoming a favorite among California racing fans, and his fame spread as he won his next three races. With his successes, Howard decided to ship the horse east for its more prestigious racing circuit.
Seabiscuit's run of victories continued. Between June 26 and August 7, he ran five times, each time in a stakes race, and each time he won under steadily increasing handicap weights (imposts) of up to . For the third time, Seabiscuit faced off against Rosemont again, this time beating him by seven lengths. On September 11, Smith accepted an impost of for the Narragansett Special at Narragansett Park. On race day, the ground was slow and heavy, and unsuited to "the Biscuit", carrying the heaviest burden of his career. Smith wanted to scratch, but Howard overruled him. Never in the running, Seabiscuit finished third. His winning streak was snapped, but the season was not over; Seabiscuit won his next three races (one a dead heat) before finishing the year with a second-place at Pimlico.
In 1937, Seabiscuit won 11 of his 15 races and was the year's leading money winner in the United States. However, War Admiral, having won the Triple Crown that season, was voted the most prestigious honor, the American Horse of the Year Award.
Early five-year-old season
In 1938, as a five-year-old, Seabiscuit's success continued. On February 19, Pollard suffered a terrible fall while racing on Fair Knightess, another of Howard's horses. With half of Pollard's chest caved in by the weight of the fallen horse, Howard had to find a new jockey. After trying three, he settled on George Woolf, an already successful rider and old friend of Pollard's.
Woolf's first race aboard Seabiscuit was the Santa Anita Handicap, "The Hundred Grander" the horse had narrowly lost the previous year. Seabiscuit was drawn on the outside, and at the start was impeded by another horse, Count Atlas, angling out. The two were locked together for the first straight, and by the time Woolf disentangled his horse, they were six lengths off the pace. Seabiscuit worked his way to the lead but lost in a photo finish to the fast-closing Santa Anita Derby winner, Stagehand (owned by Maxwell Howard, not related to Charles), who had been assigned less than Seabiscuit.
Throughout 1937 and 1938, the media speculated about a match race between Seabiscuit and the seemingly invincible War Admiral (sired by Man o' War, Seabiscuit's grandsire). The two horses were scheduled to meet in three stakes races, but one or the other was scratched, usually due to Seabiscuit's dislike of heavy ground. After extensive negotiation, the owners organized a match race for May 1938 at Belmont, but Seabiscuit was scratched.
By June, Pollard had recovered, and on June 23, he agreed to work a young colt named Modern Youth. Spooked by something on the track, the horse broke rapidly through the stables and threw Pollard, shattering his leg and seemingly ending his career.
Howard arranged a match race for Seabiscuit against Ligaroti, a highly regarded horse owned by the Hollywood entertainer Bing Crosby and Howard's son, Lindsay, through Binglin Stable, in an event organized to promote Crosby's resort and Del Mar Racetrack in Del Mar, California. With Woolf aboard, Seabiscuit won that race, despite persistent fouling from Ligaroti's jockey. After three more outings and with only one win, he was scheduled to go head-to-head with War Admiral in the Pimlico Special in November, in Baltimore, Maryland.
Sent to race on the East Coast, on October 16, 1938, Seabiscuit ran second by two lengths in the Laurel Stakes to the filly Jacola, who set a new Laurel Park Racecourse record of 1:37.00 for one mile.
On November 1, 1938, Seabiscuit met War Admiral and jockey Charles Kurtsinger in what was dubbed the "Match of the Century." The event was run over at Pimlico Race Course. From the grandstands to the infield, the track was jammed with fans. Trains were run from all over the country to bring fans to the race, and the estimated 40,000 at the track were joined by 40 million listening on the radio. War Admiral was the favorite (1–4 with most bookmakers) and a nearly unanimous selection of the writers and tipsters, excluding a California contingent.
Head-to-head races favor fast starters, and War Admiral's speed from the gate was well known. Seabiscuit, on the other hand, was a pace stalker, skilled at holding with the pack before pulling ahead with late acceleration. From the scheduled walk-up start, few gave him a chance to lead War Admiral into the first turn. Smith knew these things and trained Seabiscuit to run against this type, using a starting bell and a whip to give the horse a Pavlovian burst of speed from the start.
When the bell rang, Seabiscuit broke in front, led by over a length after 20 seconds, and soon crossed over to the rail position. Halfway down the backstretch, War Admiral started to cut into the lead, gradually pulling level with Seabiscuit, then slightly ahead. Following advice he had received from Pollard, Woolf had eased up on Seabiscuit, allowing his horse to see his rival, then asked for more effort. Two hundred yards from the wire, Seabiscuit pulled away again and continued to extend his lead over the closing stretch, finally winning by four lengths despite War Admiral's running his best time for the distance.
As a result of his races that year, Seabiscuit was named American Horse of the Year for 1938, beating War Admiral by 698 points to 489 in a poll conducted by the Turf and Sport Digest magazine. Seabiscuit was the number one newsmaker of 1938. The only major prize that eluded him was the Santa Anita Handicap.
Injury and return
Seabiscuit was injured during a race. Woolf, who was riding him, said that he felt the horse stumble. The injury was not life-threatening, although many predicted Seabiscuit would never race again. The diagnosis was a ruptured suspensory ligament in the front left leg. With Seabiscuit out of action, Smith and Howard concentrated on their horse Kayak II, an Argentine stallion. In the spring of 1939, Seabiscuit covered seven of Howard's mares, all of which had healthy foals in spring of 1940. One, Fair Knightess's colt, died as a yearling.
Seabiscuit and a still-convalescing Pollard recovered together at Howard's ranch, with the help of Pollard's new wife Agnes, who had nursed him through his initial recovery. Slowly, both horse and rider learned to walk again (Pollard joked that they "had four good legs between" them). Poverty and his injury had brought Pollard to the edge of alcoholism. A local doctor broke and reset Pollard's leg to aid his recovery, and slowly Pollard regained the confidence to sit on a horse. Wearing a brace to stiffen his atrophied leg, he began to ride Seabiscuit again, first at a walk and later at a trot and canter. Howard was delighted at their improvement, as he longed for Seabiscuit to race again, but was extremely worried about Pollard, as his leg was still fragile.
Over the fall and winter of 1939, Seabiscuit's fitness seemed to improve by the day. By the end of the year, Smith was ready to return the horse to race training, with a collection of stable jockeys in the saddle. By the time of his comeback race, Pollard had cajoled Howard into allowing him the ride. After the horse was scratched due to soft going, the pair finally lined up at the start of the La Jolla Handicap at Santa Anita, on February 9, 1940. Seabiscuit was third, beaten by two lengths. By their third comeback race, Seabiscuit was back to his winning ways, running away from the field in the San Antonio Handicap to beat his erstwhile training partner, Kayak II, by two and a half lengths. Under , Seabiscuit equalled the track record for a mile and 1/16.
One race was left in the season. A week after the San Antonio, Seabiscuit and Kayak II both took the gate for the Santa Anita Handicap and its $121,000 prize. 78,000 paying spectators crammed the racetrack, most backing Seabiscuit. Pollard found his horse blocked almost from the start. Picking his way through the field, Seabiscuit briefly led. As they thundered down the back straight, Seabiscuit became trapped in third place, behind leader Whichcee and Wedding Call on the outside.
Trusting in his horse's acceleration, Pollard steered between the leaders and burst into the lead, taking the firm ground just off the rail. As Seabiscuit showed his old surge, Wedding Call and Whichcee faltered, and Pollard drove his horse on, taking "The Hundred Grander" by a length and a half from the fast-closing Kayak II under jockey Leon Haas. Pandemonium engulfed the course. Neither horse and rider, nor trainer and owner, could get through the crowd of well-wishers to the winner's enclosure for some time.
Retirement, later life, and offspring
On April 10, 1940, Seabiscuit's retirement from racing was officially announced. When he was retired to the Ridgewood Ranch near Willits, California, he was horse racing's all-time leading money winner. Put out to stud, Seabiscuit sired 108 foals, including two moderately successful racehorses: Sea Sovereign and Sea Swallow. Over 50,000 visitors went to Ridgewood Ranch to see Seabiscuit in the seven years before his death.
Death and interment
Seabiscuit died of a probable heart attack on May 17, 1947, in Willits, California, six days short of 14 years old. He is buried at Ridgewood Ranch in Mendocino County, California.
Legacy and honors
Awards and honorable distinctions
In 1958, Seabiscuit was voted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame.
In the Blood-Horse magazine List of the Top 100 U.S. Racehorses of the 20th Century (1999), Seabiscuit was ranked 25th. War Admiral was 13th, and Seabiscuit's grandsire and War Admiral's sire, Man o' War, placed 1st.
Portrayals in film and television
Documentaries
American Experience: "Seabiscuit" (April 21, 2003)) is a documentary episode that aired as Season 15, Episode 11 of the PBS American Experience series.
ESPN SportsCentury: "Seabiscuit" (November 17, 2003), Seabiscuit was featured on ESPN's SportsCentury Greatest Athletes series.
The True Story of Seabiscuit (July 27, 2003) is a 45-minute made-for-TV documentary directed by Craig Haffner, written by Martin Gillam, and containing interviews and footage with William H. Macy, Seabiscuit, and Tobey Maguire, that aired on the USA Network.
Seabiscuit: the Lost Documentary (1939) by Seabiscuit's owner Charles Howard. The film was directed by Manny Nathan, and written by Nathan and Hazel Merry Hawkins. It stars Martin Mason, Doc Bond, Charles Howard as himself and his wife, Marcella. It was colorized and released in 2003 by Legend Films to coincide with interest around the movie.
Seabiscuit: America's Legendary Racehorse (2003) directed and produced by Nick Krantz.
Fiction films
Stablemates (1938), starring Wallace Beery and Mickey Rooney. Film producer Harry Rapf arranged a deal whereby he could film the $50,000 Hollywood Gold Cup, and actual footage of Seabiscuit running in the race was used. The field is headed by Seabiscuit for the "straight" race in the film.
Porky and Teabiscuit (1939) is Warner Bros.' Porky Pig cartoon take on Seabiscuit's underdog story.
The Story of Seabiscuit (1949), starring Shirley Temple in her penultimate film, is a fictionalized account featuring Sea Sovereign in the title role. An otherwise undistinguished film, it did include actual footage of the 1938 match race against War Admiral and the 1940 Santa Anita Handicap.
Seabiscuit (2003), Universal Studios' adaptation of Laura Hillenbrand's bestselling 2001 book, was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture
The Making of Seabiscuit (December 16, 2003) is a documentary short directed by Laurent Bouzereau and starring Tobey Maguire, Jeff Bridges, Chris Cooper, and William Goldenberg, produced by DreamWorks SKG, Herzog Productions, Spyglass Entertainment, and Universal Studios, and distributed by Universal Studios Home Video.
Non-fiction books
Track writer B.K. Beckwith wrote Seabiscuit: The Saga of a Great Champion (1940), with a foreword by Grantland Rice, right after Seabiscuit's Santa Anita win and at the moment of the horse's retirement.
Ralph Moody wrote Come On, Seabiscuit! (1963), illustrated by Robert Riger, which was recently reprinted by the University of Nebraska Press.
Laura Hillenbrand's book Seabiscuit: An American Legend (2001) became a bestseller, and in 2003 it was adapted for film.
Postage stamp
In 2009, after an eight-year-long grassroots effort by Maggie Van Ostrand and Chuck Lustick, Seabiscuit was honored by the United States Postal Service with a stamp bearing his likeness. Thousands of signatures were obtained from all over the nation, and the final approval was given by Citizens Stamp Committee member Joan Mondale, wife of former Vice President Walter Mondale.
Statues
A statue of Seabiscuit (not life-sized) sits outside the main entrance of The Shops at Tanforan, a shopping mall built upon the former site of the Tanforan Racetrack. Seabiscuit was stabled there briefly in 1939, while preparing for his comeback.
In the 1940s, businessman and racehorse owner W. Arnold Hanger donated a statuette of Seabiscuit to the Keeneland library.
In 1941, a life-sized bronze statue of Seabiscuit by Frank Buchler, was installed at Santa Anita Park; it now stands in the walking ring at the track's "Seabiscuit Court"
On June 23, 2007, a statue of Seabiscuit was unveiled at Ridgewood Ranch.
In 1941, sculptor Hughlette "Tex" Wheeler cast two bronze statues from Seabiscuit: one stands at Santa Anita racetrack in Arcadia, CA; the other is in Saratoga Springs, outside the National Museum of Racing.
On July 17, 2010, a life-size statue of George Woolf and Seabiscuit was unveiled at the Remington Carriage Museum in Woolf's hometown of Cardston, Alberta. This coincided with the 100th anniversary of Woolf's birth, though not the actual date.
Pedigree
Notable races won
Seabiscuit ran 89 times at 16 different distances over the course of his career.
Brooklyn Handicap (1937)
San Antonio Handicap (1940)
Santa Anita Handicap (1940)
Notes
References
Further reading
Beckwith, B.K. (1940), Seabiscuit: The Saga of a Great Champion, with drawings by Howard Brodie, Wilfred Crowell, Inc., San Francisco.
Hillenbrand, Laura (2001), Seabiscuit: An American Legend.
Rasmussen, Zach (2013), Seabiscuit: An Unlikely Champion.
External links
Newsreel film of Seabiscuit v War Admiral
Seabiscuit Heritage Foundation. Livingston, Tracy (2005), retrieved June 26, 2005.
"Seabiscuit", Snopes.com (2005), retrieved June 18, 2015.
Seabiscuit, 1938 Horse of the Year
Seabiscuit, Hollywood film, 2003
The Story of Seabiscuit, Hollywood film, 1949
The Biscuit's pedigree
Quick online racing game, inc. The Biscuit
Article about the Seabiscuit-War Admiral match race
Youtube of the 1938 match race
Seabiscuit, an American Experience documentary film by Stephen Ives, shown on PBS
www.janiburon.com, website of author of Seabiscuit books
1933 racehorse births
1947 racehorse deaths
Racehorses bred in Kentucky
Racehorses trained in the United States
Horse racing track record setters
American Thoroughbred Horse of the Year
United States Thoroughbred Racing Hall of Fame inductees
Horse monuments
Thoroughbred family 5-j
Godolphin Arabian sire line | true | [
"The Takeyoriwake Sho (in Japanese: 建依別賞), is a race for three-year-old and up fillies in the Kochi Horse Racing Association.\n\nRace Details\n\nThe race was established in 1977 and the first edition of the race was held in 1978. It was known as the \"Kenyoku Betsu Special \", but changed its name in 1989.\n\nThe original race 1,600 meters long but was then shortened to 1,400 meters in 1985.\n\nWinners since 2014\n\nPast Winners\n\nPast winners include:\n\nSee also\n Horse racing in Japan\n List of Japanese flat horse races\n\nReferences\n\nHorse races in Japan",
"Alicia Thornton or Alicia Meynel (1780s – 1800s) was a British horsewoman. She has been called the \"first female jockey\" after she took part in a horse race at what is now York Racecourse in Knavesmire in 1804.\n\nLife\nThornton's father may have made watches in Norwich or have owned land in Essex and nothing is known of her mother. She came to notice in 1804 when she challenged a man to a horse race. Some called her Alice Meynell but others Alice Thornton as it was said she was married to Colonel Thomas Thornton and he was keen on sports, horses and gambling. Others referred to her as Colonel Thonton's lady. She challenged her sister's partner (brother-in-law) and neighbour Captain Flint to a horse race. Her husband offered her his horse and placed a bet on her victory. The prize was said to be either 500 guineas or 1,500 guineas. Thornton later said he believed it was 500 guineas and he had only claimed the 1,500 figure to attract a crowd.\n\nShe was a skilled horsewoman as she rode with the hounds when they were hunting. She rode side saddle but her expertise was known to her friends.\n\nThe meeting took place on 25 August 1804 with her \"\" and Flint rode his horse \"\". She has been called the \"first female jockey\" after she took part in a horse race at what is now York Racecourse in Knavesmire.\n\nIt was said that was 100,000 people watching as she held the lead for most of the four mile race. Captain Flint eventually won the race but she won the backing of the crowd with her spirited performance, attire and demeanor.\n\nReferences\n\n1780s births\n1800s deaths\nBritish female jockeys"
]
|
[
"Seabiscuit",
"Early days",
"When did seabiscut get into racing?",
"1935",
"Did he win his first races?",
"He failed to win his first 17 races,",
"When did Seabiscuit start winning races?",
"As a two-year-old, Seabiscuit raced 35 times (a heavy racing schedule), coming in first five times and finishing second seven times.",
"Was he a well-known race horse?",
"While Seabiscuit had not lived up to his racing potential, he was not the poor performer Fitzsimmons had taken him for."
]
| C_303ca31bb8cf4fb58148a4619ad9e551_1 | What are some other interesting aspects of this article? | 5 | What are some other interesting aspects of an article on Seabiscuit? | Seabiscuit | Seabiscuit was foaled in Lexington, Kentucky, on May 23, 1933, from the mare Swing On and sire Hard Tack, a son of Man o' War. Seabiscuit was named for his father, as hardtack or "sea biscuit" is the name for a type of cracker eaten by sailors. The bay colt grew up on Claiborne Farm in Paris, Kentucky, where he was trained. He was undersized, knobby-kneed, and given to sleeping and eating for long periods. Initially, Seabiscuit was owned by the powerful Wheatley Stable and trained by "Sunny Jim" Fitzsimmons, who had taken Gallant Fox to the United States Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing. Fitzsimmons saw some potential in Seabiscuit but felt the horse was too lazy. Fitzsimmons devoted most of his time to training Omaha, who won the 1935 Triple Crown. Seabiscuit was relegated to a heavy schedule of smaller races. He failed to win his first 17 races, usually finishing back in the field. After that, Fitzsimmons did not spend much time on him, and the horse was sometimes the butt of stable jokes. Seabiscuit began to gain attention after winning two races at Narragansett Park and setting a new track record in the second - a Claiming Stakes race. As a two-year-old, Seabiscuit raced 35 times (a heavy racing schedule), coming in first five times and finishing second seven times. These included three claiming races, in which he could have been purchased for $2500, but he had no takers. While Seabiscuit had not lived up to his racing potential, he was not the poor performer Fitzsimmons had taken him for. His last two wins as a two-year-old came in minor stakes races. The next season, however, started with a similar pattern. The colt ran 12 times in less than four months, winning four times. One of those races was a cheap allowance race on the "sweltering afternoon of June 29", 1936, at Suffolk Downs. That is where trainer Tom Smith first laid eyes on Seabiscuit. His owners sold the horse to automobile entrepreneur Charles S. Howard for $8000 at Saratoga, in August. CANNOTANSWER | The next season, however, started with a similar pattern. The colt ran 12 times in less than four months, winning four times. | Seabiscuit (May 23, 1933 – May 17, 1947) was a champion thoroughbred racehorse in the United States who became the top money-winning racehorse up to the 1940s. He beat the 1937 Triple-Crown winner, War Admiral, by 4 lengths in a two-horse special at Pimlico and was voted American Horse of the Year for 1938.
A small horse, at 15.2 hands high, Seabiscuit had an inauspicious start to his racing career, winning only a quarter of his first 40 races, but became an unlikely champion and a symbol of hope to many Americans during the Great Depression.
Seabiscuit has been the subject of numerous books and films, including Seabiscuit: the Lost Documentary (1939); the Shirley Temple film The Story of Seabiscuit (1949); a book, Seabiscuit: An American Legend (1999) by Laura Hillenbrand; and a film adaptation of Hillenbrand's book, Seabiscuit (2003), that was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.
Early days
Seabiscuit was foaled in Lexington, Kentucky, on May 23, 1933, from the mare Swing On and sire Hard Tack, a son of Man o' War. Seabiscuit was named for his father, as hardtack or "sea biscuit" is the name for a type of cracker eaten by sailors.
The bay colt grew up on Claiborne Farm in Paris, Kentucky, where he was trained. He was undersized, knobby-kneed, and given to sleeping and eating for long periods.
Initially, Seabiscuit was owned by the powerful Wheatley Stable and trained by "Sunny Jim" Fitzsimmons, who had taken Gallant Fox to the United States Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing. Fitzsimmons saw some potential in Seabiscuit but felt the horse was too lazy. Fitzsimmons devoted most of his time to training Omaha, who won the 1935 Triple Crown.
Seabiscuit was relegated to a heavy schedule of smaller races. He failed to win his first 17 races, usually finishing back in the field. After that, Fitzsimmons did not spend much time on him, and the horse was sometimes the butt of stable jokes. However, Seabiscuit began to gain attention after winning two races at Narragansett Park and setting a new track record in the second—Claiming Stakes race.
As a two-year-old, Seabiscuit raced 35 times (a heavy racing schedule), coming in first five times and finishing second seven times. These included three claiming races, in which he could have been purchased for $2,500, but he had no takers.
While Seabiscuit had not lived up to his racing potential, he was not the poor performer Fitzsimmons had taken him for. His last two wins as a two-year-old came in minor stakes races. The next season, started with a similar pattern. The colt ran 12 times in less than four months, winning four times. One of those races was a cheap allowance race on the "sweltering afternoon of June 29," 1936, at Suffolk Downs. That was where trainer Tom Smith first laid eyes on Seabiscuit. His owners sold the horse to automobile entrepreneur Charles S. Howard for $8,000 at Saratoga, in August.
1936/1937: The beginning of success
Howard assigned Seabiscuit to a new trainer, Tom Smith, who, with his unorthodox training methods, gradually brought Seabiscuit out of his lethargy. Smith paired the horse with Canadian jockey Red Pollard (1909–1981), who had experience racing in the West and in Mexico. On August 22, 1936, they raced Seabiscuit for the first time. Improvements came quickly, and in their remaining eight races in the East, Seabiscuit and Pollard won several times, including the Detroit Governor's Handicap (worth $5,600) and the Scarsdale Handicap ($7,300) at Empire City Race Track in Yonkers, New York.
In early November 1936, Howard and Smith shipped the horse to California by rail. His last two races of the year were at Bay Meadows racetrack in San Mateo, California. The first was the $2,700 Bay Bridge Handicap, run over . Despite starting badly and carrying the top weight of , Seabiscuit won by five lengths. At the World's Fair Handicap (Bay Meadows' most prestigious stakes race), Seabiscuit led throughout.
In 1937, the Santa Anita Handicap, California's most prestigious race, was worth over $125,000 ($ million in 2010) to the winner; it was known colloquially as "The Hundred Grander." In his first warm-up race at Santa Anita Park, Seabiscuit won easily. In his second race of 1937, the San Antonio Handicap, he suffered a setback after he was bumped at the start and then pushed wide; Seabiscuit came in fifth, losing to Rosemont.
The two met again in the Santa Anita Handicap a week later, where Rosemont won by a nose. The defeat was devastating to Smith and Howard and was widely attributed in the press to a jockey error. Pollard, who had not seen Rosemont over his shoulder until too late, was blind in one eye due to an accident during a training ride, a fact he had hidden throughout his career. A week after this defeat Seabiscuit won the San Juan Capistrano Handicap by seven lengths in track record time of 1:48 for the mile event.
Seabiscuit was rapidly becoming a favorite among California racing fans, and his fame spread as he won his next three races. With his successes, Howard decided to ship the horse east for its more prestigious racing circuit.
Seabiscuit's run of victories continued. Between June 26 and August 7, he ran five times, each time in a stakes race, and each time he won under steadily increasing handicap weights (imposts) of up to . For the third time, Seabiscuit faced off against Rosemont again, this time beating him by seven lengths. On September 11, Smith accepted an impost of for the Narragansett Special at Narragansett Park. On race day, the ground was slow and heavy, and unsuited to "the Biscuit", carrying the heaviest burden of his career. Smith wanted to scratch, but Howard overruled him. Never in the running, Seabiscuit finished third. His winning streak was snapped, but the season was not over; Seabiscuit won his next three races (one a dead heat) before finishing the year with a second-place at Pimlico.
In 1937, Seabiscuit won 11 of his 15 races and was the year's leading money winner in the United States. However, War Admiral, having won the Triple Crown that season, was voted the most prestigious honor, the American Horse of the Year Award.
Early five-year-old season
In 1938, as a five-year-old, Seabiscuit's success continued. On February 19, Pollard suffered a terrible fall while racing on Fair Knightess, another of Howard's horses. With half of Pollard's chest caved in by the weight of the fallen horse, Howard had to find a new jockey. After trying three, he settled on George Woolf, an already successful rider and old friend of Pollard's.
Woolf's first race aboard Seabiscuit was the Santa Anita Handicap, "The Hundred Grander" the horse had narrowly lost the previous year. Seabiscuit was drawn on the outside, and at the start was impeded by another horse, Count Atlas, angling out. The two were locked together for the first straight, and by the time Woolf disentangled his horse, they were six lengths off the pace. Seabiscuit worked his way to the lead but lost in a photo finish to the fast-closing Santa Anita Derby winner, Stagehand (owned by Maxwell Howard, not related to Charles), who had been assigned less than Seabiscuit.
Throughout 1937 and 1938, the media speculated about a match race between Seabiscuit and the seemingly invincible War Admiral (sired by Man o' War, Seabiscuit's grandsire). The two horses were scheduled to meet in three stakes races, but one or the other was scratched, usually due to Seabiscuit's dislike of heavy ground. After extensive negotiation, the owners organized a match race for May 1938 at Belmont, but Seabiscuit was scratched.
By June, Pollard had recovered, and on June 23, he agreed to work a young colt named Modern Youth. Spooked by something on the track, the horse broke rapidly through the stables and threw Pollard, shattering his leg and seemingly ending his career.
Howard arranged a match race for Seabiscuit against Ligaroti, a highly regarded horse owned by the Hollywood entertainer Bing Crosby and Howard's son, Lindsay, through Binglin Stable, in an event organized to promote Crosby's resort and Del Mar Racetrack in Del Mar, California. With Woolf aboard, Seabiscuit won that race, despite persistent fouling from Ligaroti's jockey. After three more outings and with only one win, he was scheduled to go head-to-head with War Admiral in the Pimlico Special in November, in Baltimore, Maryland.
Sent to race on the East Coast, on October 16, 1938, Seabiscuit ran second by two lengths in the Laurel Stakes to the filly Jacola, who set a new Laurel Park Racecourse record of 1:37.00 for one mile.
On November 1, 1938, Seabiscuit met War Admiral and jockey Charles Kurtsinger in what was dubbed the "Match of the Century." The event was run over at Pimlico Race Course. From the grandstands to the infield, the track was jammed with fans. Trains were run from all over the country to bring fans to the race, and the estimated 40,000 at the track were joined by 40 million listening on the radio. War Admiral was the favorite (1–4 with most bookmakers) and a nearly unanimous selection of the writers and tipsters, excluding a California contingent.
Head-to-head races favor fast starters, and War Admiral's speed from the gate was well known. Seabiscuit, on the other hand, was a pace stalker, skilled at holding with the pack before pulling ahead with late acceleration. From the scheduled walk-up start, few gave him a chance to lead War Admiral into the first turn. Smith knew these things and trained Seabiscuit to run against this type, using a starting bell and a whip to give the horse a Pavlovian burst of speed from the start.
When the bell rang, Seabiscuit broke in front, led by over a length after 20 seconds, and soon crossed over to the rail position. Halfway down the backstretch, War Admiral started to cut into the lead, gradually pulling level with Seabiscuit, then slightly ahead. Following advice he had received from Pollard, Woolf had eased up on Seabiscuit, allowing his horse to see his rival, then asked for more effort. Two hundred yards from the wire, Seabiscuit pulled away again and continued to extend his lead over the closing stretch, finally winning by four lengths despite War Admiral's running his best time for the distance.
As a result of his races that year, Seabiscuit was named American Horse of the Year for 1938, beating War Admiral by 698 points to 489 in a poll conducted by the Turf and Sport Digest magazine. Seabiscuit was the number one newsmaker of 1938. The only major prize that eluded him was the Santa Anita Handicap.
Injury and return
Seabiscuit was injured during a race. Woolf, who was riding him, said that he felt the horse stumble. The injury was not life-threatening, although many predicted Seabiscuit would never race again. The diagnosis was a ruptured suspensory ligament in the front left leg. With Seabiscuit out of action, Smith and Howard concentrated on their horse Kayak II, an Argentine stallion. In the spring of 1939, Seabiscuit covered seven of Howard's mares, all of which had healthy foals in spring of 1940. One, Fair Knightess's colt, died as a yearling.
Seabiscuit and a still-convalescing Pollard recovered together at Howard's ranch, with the help of Pollard's new wife Agnes, who had nursed him through his initial recovery. Slowly, both horse and rider learned to walk again (Pollard joked that they "had four good legs between" them). Poverty and his injury had brought Pollard to the edge of alcoholism. A local doctor broke and reset Pollard's leg to aid his recovery, and slowly Pollard regained the confidence to sit on a horse. Wearing a brace to stiffen his atrophied leg, he began to ride Seabiscuit again, first at a walk and later at a trot and canter. Howard was delighted at their improvement, as he longed for Seabiscuit to race again, but was extremely worried about Pollard, as his leg was still fragile.
Over the fall and winter of 1939, Seabiscuit's fitness seemed to improve by the day. By the end of the year, Smith was ready to return the horse to race training, with a collection of stable jockeys in the saddle. By the time of his comeback race, Pollard had cajoled Howard into allowing him the ride. After the horse was scratched due to soft going, the pair finally lined up at the start of the La Jolla Handicap at Santa Anita, on February 9, 1940. Seabiscuit was third, beaten by two lengths. By their third comeback race, Seabiscuit was back to his winning ways, running away from the field in the San Antonio Handicap to beat his erstwhile training partner, Kayak II, by two and a half lengths. Under , Seabiscuit equalled the track record for a mile and 1/16.
One race was left in the season. A week after the San Antonio, Seabiscuit and Kayak II both took the gate for the Santa Anita Handicap and its $121,000 prize. 78,000 paying spectators crammed the racetrack, most backing Seabiscuit. Pollard found his horse blocked almost from the start. Picking his way through the field, Seabiscuit briefly led. As they thundered down the back straight, Seabiscuit became trapped in third place, behind leader Whichcee and Wedding Call on the outside.
Trusting in his horse's acceleration, Pollard steered between the leaders and burst into the lead, taking the firm ground just off the rail. As Seabiscuit showed his old surge, Wedding Call and Whichcee faltered, and Pollard drove his horse on, taking "The Hundred Grander" by a length and a half from the fast-closing Kayak II under jockey Leon Haas. Pandemonium engulfed the course. Neither horse and rider, nor trainer and owner, could get through the crowd of well-wishers to the winner's enclosure for some time.
Retirement, later life, and offspring
On April 10, 1940, Seabiscuit's retirement from racing was officially announced. When he was retired to the Ridgewood Ranch near Willits, California, he was horse racing's all-time leading money winner. Put out to stud, Seabiscuit sired 108 foals, including two moderately successful racehorses: Sea Sovereign and Sea Swallow. Over 50,000 visitors went to Ridgewood Ranch to see Seabiscuit in the seven years before his death.
Death and interment
Seabiscuit died of a probable heart attack on May 17, 1947, in Willits, California, six days short of 14 years old. He is buried at Ridgewood Ranch in Mendocino County, California.
Legacy and honors
Awards and honorable distinctions
In 1958, Seabiscuit was voted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame.
In the Blood-Horse magazine List of the Top 100 U.S. Racehorses of the 20th Century (1999), Seabiscuit was ranked 25th. War Admiral was 13th, and Seabiscuit's grandsire and War Admiral's sire, Man o' War, placed 1st.
Portrayals in film and television
Documentaries
American Experience: "Seabiscuit" (April 21, 2003)) is a documentary episode that aired as Season 15, Episode 11 of the PBS American Experience series.
ESPN SportsCentury: "Seabiscuit" (November 17, 2003), Seabiscuit was featured on ESPN's SportsCentury Greatest Athletes series.
The True Story of Seabiscuit (July 27, 2003) is a 45-minute made-for-TV documentary directed by Craig Haffner, written by Martin Gillam, and containing interviews and footage with William H. Macy, Seabiscuit, and Tobey Maguire, that aired on the USA Network.
Seabiscuit: the Lost Documentary (1939) by Seabiscuit's owner Charles Howard. The film was directed by Manny Nathan, and written by Nathan and Hazel Merry Hawkins. It stars Martin Mason, Doc Bond, Charles Howard as himself and his wife, Marcella. It was colorized and released in 2003 by Legend Films to coincide with interest around the movie.
Seabiscuit: America's Legendary Racehorse (2003) directed and produced by Nick Krantz.
Fiction films
Stablemates (1938), starring Wallace Beery and Mickey Rooney. Film producer Harry Rapf arranged a deal whereby he could film the $50,000 Hollywood Gold Cup, and actual footage of Seabiscuit running in the race was used. The field is headed by Seabiscuit for the "straight" race in the film.
Porky and Teabiscuit (1939) is Warner Bros.' Porky Pig cartoon take on Seabiscuit's underdog story.
The Story of Seabiscuit (1949), starring Shirley Temple in her penultimate film, is a fictionalized account featuring Sea Sovereign in the title role. An otherwise undistinguished film, it did include actual footage of the 1938 match race against War Admiral and the 1940 Santa Anita Handicap.
Seabiscuit (2003), Universal Studios' adaptation of Laura Hillenbrand's bestselling 2001 book, was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture
The Making of Seabiscuit (December 16, 2003) is a documentary short directed by Laurent Bouzereau and starring Tobey Maguire, Jeff Bridges, Chris Cooper, and William Goldenberg, produced by DreamWorks SKG, Herzog Productions, Spyglass Entertainment, and Universal Studios, and distributed by Universal Studios Home Video.
Non-fiction books
Track writer B.K. Beckwith wrote Seabiscuit: The Saga of a Great Champion (1940), with a foreword by Grantland Rice, right after Seabiscuit's Santa Anita win and at the moment of the horse's retirement.
Ralph Moody wrote Come On, Seabiscuit! (1963), illustrated by Robert Riger, which was recently reprinted by the University of Nebraska Press.
Laura Hillenbrand's book Seabiscuit: An American Legend (2001) became a bestseller, and in 2003 it was adapted for film.
Postage stamp
In 2009, after an eight-year-long grassroots effort by Maggie Van Ostrand and Chuck Lustick, Seabiscuit was honored by the United States Postal Service with a stamp bearing his likeness. Thousands of signatures were obtained from all over the nation, and the final approval was given by Citizens Stamp Committee member Joan Mondale, wife of former Vice President Walter Mondale.
Statues
A statue of Seabiscuit (not life-sized) sits outside the main entrance of The Shops at Tanforan, a shopping mall built upon the former site of the Tanforan Racetrack. Seabiscuit was stabled there briefly in 1939, while preparing for his comeback.
In the 1940s, businessman and racehorse owner W. Arnold Hanger donated a statuette of Seabiscuit to the Keeneland library.
In 1941, a life-sized bronze statue of Seabiscuit by Frank Buchler, was installed at Santa Anita Park; it now stands in the walking ring at the track's "Seabiscuit Court"
On June 23, 2007, a statue of Seabiscuit was unveiled at Ridgewood Ranch.
In 1941, sculptor Hughlette "Tex" Wheeler cast two bronze statues from Seabiscuit: one stands at Santa Anita racetrack in Arcadia, CA; the other is in Saratoga Springs, outside the National Museum of Racing.
On July 17, 2010, a life-size statue of George Woolf and Seabiscuit was unveiled at the Remington Carriage Museum in Woolf's hometown of Cardston, Alberta. This coincided with the 100th anniversary of Woolf's birth, though not the actual date.
Pedigree
Notable races won
Seabiscuit ran 89 times at 16 different distances over the course of his career.
Brooklyn Handicap (1937)
San Antonio Handicap (1940)
Santa Anita Handicap (1940)
Notes
References
Further reading
Beckwith, B.K. (1940), Seabiscuit: The Saga of a Great Champion, with drawings by Howard Brodie, Wilfred Crowell, Inc., San Francisco.
Hillenbrand, Laura (2001), Seabiscuit: An American Legend.
Rasmussen, Zach (2013), Seabiscuit: An Unlikely Champion.
External links
Newsreel film of Seabiscuit v War Admiral
Seabiscuit Heritage Foundation. Livingston, Tracy (2005), retrieved June 26, 2005.
"Seabiscuit", Snopes.com (2005), retrieved June 18, 2015.
Seabiscuit, 1938 Horse of the Year
Seabiscuit, Hollywood film, 2003
The Story of Seabiscuit, Hollywood film, 1949
The Biscuit's pedigree
Quick online racing game, inc. The Biscuit
Article about the Seabiscuit-War Admiral match race
Youtube of the 1938 match race
Seabiscuit, an American Experience documentary film by Stephen Ives, shown on PBS
www.janiburon.com, website of author of Seabiscuit books
1933 racehorse births
1947 racehorse deaths
Racehorses bred in Kentucky
Racehorses trained in the United States
Horse racing track record setters
American Thoroughbred Horse of the Year
United States Thoroughbred Racing Hall of Fame inductees
Horse monuments
Thoroughbred family 5-j
Godolphin Arabian sire line | false | [
"Přírodní park Třebíčsko (before Oblast klidu Třebíčsko) is a natural park near Třebíč in the Czech Republic. There are many interesting plants. The park was founded in 1983.\n\nKobylinec and Ptáčovský kopeček\n\nKobylinec is a natural monument situated ca 0,5 km from the village of Trnava.\nThe area of this monument is 0,44 ha. Pulsatilla grandis can be found here and in the Ptáčovský kopeček park near Ptáčov near Třebíč. Both monuments are very popular for tourists.\n\nPonds\n\nIn the natural park there are some interesting ponds such as Velký Bor, Malý Bor, Buršík near Přeckov and a brook Březinka. Dams on the brook are examples of European beaver activity.\n\nSyenitové skály near Pocoucov\n\nSyenitové skály (rocks of syenit) near Pocoucov is one of famed locations. There are interesting granite boulders. The area of the reservation is 0,77 ha.\n\nExternal links\nParts of this article or all article was translated from Czech. The original article is :cs:Přírodní park Třebíčsko.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nNature near the village Trnava which is there\n\nTřebíč\nParks in the Czech Republic\nTourist attractions in the Vysočina Region",
"Towards Artsakh () is an Armenian Entertainment television program. The series premiered on Armenia 1 on September 21, 2014.\nEach series of the TV program presents some area of life of today's hospitable Artsakh and reveals its most interesting aspects. What is Artsakh famous for? What has remained in the shadow up today? The program covers these questions as well as refers to the interests of young people and concerns of the older generation. \nArtsakh's legends and true stories are presented through the eyes of eyewitnesses.\n\nExternal links\n\n \n Towards Artsakh on Armenia 1\n\nArmenian-language television shows\nNonlinear narrative television series\nArmenia 1 television shows\nNagorno-Karabakh\n2010s Armenian television series"
]
|
[
"Seabiscuit",
"Early days",
"When did seabiscut get into racing?",
"1935",
"Did he win his first races?",
"He failed to win his first 17 races,",
"When did Seabiscuit start winning races?",
"As a two-year-old, Seabiscuit raced 35 times (a heavy racing schedule), coming in first five times and finishing second seven times.",
"Was he a well-known race horse?",
"While Seabiscuit had not lived up to his racing potential, he was not the poor performer Fitzsimmons had taken him for.",
"What are some other interesting aspects of this article?",
"The next season, however, started with a similar pattern. The colt ran 12 times in less than four months, winning four times."
]
| C_303ca31bb8cf4fb58148a4619ad9e551_1 | How did seabiscuit do the next season? | 6 | How did seabiscuit do the next season? | Seabiscuit | Seabiscuit was foaled in Lexington, Kentucky, on May 23, 1933, from the mare Swing On and sire Hard Tack, a son of Man o' War. Seabiscuit was named for his father, as hardtack or "sea biscuit" is the name for a type of cracker eaten by sailors. The bay colt grew up on Claiborne Farm in Paris, Kentucky, where he was trained. He was undersized, knobby-kneed, and given to sleeping and eating for long periods. Initially, Seabiscuit was owned by the powerful Wheatley Stable and trained by "Sunny Jim" Fitzsimmons, who had taken Gallant Fox to the United States Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing. Fitzsimmons saw some potential in Seabiscuit but felt the horse was too lazy. Fitzsimmons devoted most of his time to training Omaha, who won the 1935 Triple Crown. Seabiscuit was relegated to a heavy schedule of smaller races. He failed to win his first 17 races, usually finishing back in the field. After that, Fitzsimmons did not spend much time on him, and the horse was sometimes the butt of stable jokes. Seabiscuit began to gain attention after winning two races at Narragansett Park and setting a new track record in the second - a Claiming Stakes race. As a two-year-old, Seabiscuit raced 35 times (a heavy racing schedule), coming in first five times and finishing second seven times. These included three claiming races, in which he could have been purchased for $2500, but he had no takers. While Seabiscuit had not lived up to his racing potential, he was not the poor performer Fitzsimmons had taken him for. His last two wins as a two-year-old came in minor stakes races. The next season, however, started with a similar pattern. The colt ran 12 times in less than four months, winning four times. One of those races was a cheap allowance race on the "sweltering afternoon of June 29", 1936, at Suffolk Downs. That is where trainer Tom Smith first laid eyes on Seabiscuit. His owners sold the horse to automobile entrepreneur Charles S. Howard for $8000 at Saratoga, in August. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Seabiscuit (May 23, 1933 – May 17, 1947) was a champion thoroughbred racehorse in the United States who became the top money-winning racehorse up to the 1940s. He beat the 1937 Triple-Crown winner, War Admiral, by 4 lengths in a two-horse special at Pimlico and was voted American Horse of the Year for 1938.
A small horse, at 15.2 hands high, Seabiscuit had an inauspicious start to his racing career, winning only a quarter of his first 40 races, but became an unlikely champion and a symbol of hope to many Americans during the Great Depression.
Seabiscuit has been the subject of numerous books and films, including Seabiscuit: the Lost Documentary (1939); the Shirley Temple film The Story of Seabiscuit (1949); a book, Seabiscuit: An American Legend (1999) by Laura Hillenbrand; and a film adaptation of Hillenbrand's book, Seabiscuit (2003), that was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.
Early days
Seabiscuit was foaled in Lexington, Kentucky, on May 23, 1933, from the mare Swing On and sire Hard Tack, a son of Man o' War. Seabiscuit was named for his father, as hardtack or "sea biscuit" is the name for a type of cracker eaten by sailors.
The bay colt grew up on Claiborne Farm in Paris, Kentucky, where he was trained. He was undersized, knobby-kneed, and given to sleeping and eating for long periods.
Initially, Seabiscuit was owned by the powerful Wheatley Stable and trained by "Sunny Jim" Fitzsimmons, who had taken Gallant Fox to the United States Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing. Fitzsimmons saw some potential in Seabiscuit but felt the horse was too lazy. Fitzsimmons devoted most of his time to training Omaha, who won the 1935 Triple Crown.
Seabiscuit was relegated to a heavy schedule of smaller races. He failed to win his first 17 races, usually finishing back in the field. After that, Fitzsimmons did not spend much time on him, and the horse was sometimes the butt of stable jokes. However, Seabiscuit began to gain attention after winning two races at Narragansett Park and setting a new track record in the second—Claiming Stakes race.
As a two-year-old, Seabiscuit raced 35 times (a heavy racing schedule), coming in first five times and finishing second seven times. These included three claiming races, in which he could have been purchased for $2,500, but he had no takers.
While Seabiscuit had not lived up to his racing potential, he was not the poor performer Fitzsimmons had taken him for. His last two wins as a two-year-old came in minor stakes races. The next season, started with a similar pattern. The colt ran 12 times in less than four months, winning four times. One of those races was a cheap allowance race on the "sweltering afternoon of June 29," 1936, at Suffolk Downs. That was where trainer Tom Smith first laid eyes on Seabiscuit. His owners sold the horse to automobile entrepreneur Charles S. Howard for $8,000 at Saratoga, in August.
1936/1937: The beginning of success
Howard assigned Seabiscuit to a new trainer, Tom Smith, who, with his unorthodox training methods, gradually brought Seabiscuit out of his lethargy. Smith paired the horse with Canadian jockey Red Pollard (1909–1981), who had experience racing in the West and in Mexico. On August 22, 1936, they raced Seabiscuit for the first time. Improvements came quickly, and in their remaining eight races in the East, Seabiscuit and Pollard won several times, including the Detroit Governor's Handicap (worth $5,600) and the Scarsdale Handicap ($7,300) at Empire City Race Track in Yonkers, New York.
In early November 1936, Howard and Smith shipped the horse to California by rail. His last two races of the year were at Bay Meadows racetrack in San Mateo, California. The first was the $2,700 Bay Bridge Handicap, run over . Despite starting badly and carrying the top weight of , Seabiscuit won by five lengths. At the World's Fair Handicap (Bay Meadows' most prestigious stakes race), Seabiscuit led throughout.
In 1937, the Santa Anita Handicap, California's most prestigious race, was worth over $125,000 ($ million in 2010) to the winner; it was known colloquially as "The Hundred Grander." In his first warm-up race at Santa Anita Park, Seabiscuit won easily. In his second race of 1937, the San Antonio Handicap, he suffered a setback after he was bumped at the start and then pushed wide; Seabiscuit came in fifth, losing to Rosemont.
The two met again in the Santa Anita Handicap a week later, where Rosemont won by a nose. The defeat was devastating to Smith and Howard and was widely attributed in the press to a jockey error. Pollard, who had not seen Rosemont over his shoulder until too late, was blind in one eye due to an accident during a training ride, a fact he had hidden throughout his career. A week after this defeat Seabiscuit won the San Juan Capistrano Handicap by seven lengths in track record time of 1:48 for the mile event.
Seabiscuit was rapidly becoming a favorite among California racing fans, and his fame spread as he won his next three races. With his successes, Howard decided to ship the horse east for its more prestigious racing circuit.
Seabiscuit's run of victories continued. Between June 26 and August 7, he ran five times, each time in a stakes race, and each time he won under steadily increasing handicap weights (imposts) of up to . For the third time, Seabiscuit faced off against Rosemont again, this time beating him by seven lengths. On September 11, Smith accepted an impost of for the Narragansett Special at Narragansett Park. On race day, the ground was slow and heavy, and unsuited to "the Biscuit", carrying the heaviest burden of his career. Smith wanted to scratch, but Howard overruled him. Never in the running, Seabiscuit finished third. His winning streak was snapped, but the season was not over; Seabiscuit won his next three races (one a dead heat) before finishing the year with a second-place at Pimlico.
In 1937, Seabiscuit won 11 of his 15 races and was the year's leading money winner in the United States. However, War Admiral, having won the Triple Crown that season, was voted the most prestigious honor, the American Horse of the Year Award.
Early five-year-old season
In 1938, as a five-year-old, Seabiscuit's success continued. On February 19, Pollard suffered a terrible fall while racing on Fair Knightess, another of Howard's horses. With half of Pollard's chest caved in by the weight of the fallen horse, Howard had to find a new jockey. After trying three, he settled on George Woolf, an already successful rider and old friend of Pollard's.
Woolf's first race aboard Seabiscuit was the Santa Anita Handicap, "The Hundred Grander" the horse had narrowly lost the previous year. Seabiscuit was drawn on the outside, and at the start was impeded by another horse, Count Atlas, angling out. The two were locked together for the first straight, and by the time Woolf disentangled his horse, they were six lengths off the pace. Seabiscuit worked his way to the lead but lost in a photo finish to the fast-closing Santa Anita Derby winner, Stagehand (owned by Maxwell Howard, not related to Charles), who had been assigned less than Seabiscuit.
Throughout 1937 and 1938, the media speculated about a match race between Seabiscuit and the seemingly invincible War Admiral (sired by Man o' War, Seabiscuit's grandsire). The two horses were scheduled to meet in three stakes races, but one or the other was scratched, usually due to Seabiscuit's dislike of heavy ground. After extensive negotiation, the owners organized a match race for May 1938 at Belmont, but Seabiscuit was scratched.
By June, Pollard had recovered, and on June 23, he agreed to work a young colt named Modern Youth. Spooked by something on the track, the horse broke rapidly through the stables and threw Pollard, shattering his leg and seemingly ending his career.
Howard arranged a match race for Seabiscuit against Ligaroti, a highly regarded horse owned by the Hollywood entertainer Bing Crosby and Howard's son, Lindsay, through Binglin Stable, in an event organized to promote Crosby's resort and Del Mar Racetrack in Del Mar, California. With Woolf aboard, Seabiscuit won that race, despite persistent fouling from Ligaroti's jockey. After three more outings and with only one win, he was scheduled to go head-to-head with War Admiral in the Pimlico Special in November, in Baltimore, Maryland.
Sent to race on the East Coast, on October 16, 1938, Seabiscuit ran second by two lengths in the Laurel Stakes to the filly Jacola, who set a new Laurel Park Racecourse record of 1:37.00 for one mile.
On November 1, 1938, Seabiscuit met War Admiral and jockey Charles Kurtsinger in what was dubbed the "Match of the Century." The event was run over at Pimlico Race Course. From the grandstands to the infield, the track was jammed with fans. Trains were run from all over the country to bring fans to the race, and the estimated 40,000 at the track were joined by 40 million listening on the radio. War Admiral was the favorite (1–4 with most bookmakers) and a nearly unanimous selection of the writers and tipsters, excluding a California contingent.
Head-to-head races favor fast starters, and War Admiral's speed from the gate was well known. Seabiscuit, on the other hand, was a pace stalker, skilled at holding with the pack before pulling ahead with late acceleration. From the scheduled walk-up start, few gave him a chance to lead War Admiral into the first turn. Smith knew these things and trained Seabiscuit to run against this type, using a starting bell and a whip to give the horse a Pavlovian burst of speed from the start.
When the bell rang, Seabiscuit broke in front, led by over a length after 20 seconds, and soon crossed over to the rail position. Halfway down the backstretch, War Admiral started to cut into the lead, gradually pulling level with Seabiscuit, then slightly ahead. Following advice he had received from Pollard, Woolf had eased up on Seabiscuit, allowing his horse to see his rival, then asked for more effort. Two hundred yards from the wire, Seabiscuit pulled away again and continued to extend his lead over the closing stretch, finally winning by four lengths despite War Admiral's running his best time for the distance.
As a result of his races that year, Seabiscuit was named American Horse of the Year for 1938, beating War Admiral by 698 points to 489 in a poll conducted by the Turf and Sport Digest magazine. Seabiscuit was the number one newsmaker of 1938. The only major prize that eluded him was the Santa Anita Handicap.
Injury and return
Seabiscuit was injured during a race. Woolf, who was riding him, said that he felt the horse stumble. The injury was not life-threatening, although many predicted Seabiscuit would never race again. The diagnosis was a ruptured suspensory ligament in the front left leg. With Seabiscuit out of action, Smith and Howard concentrated on their horse Kayak II, an Argentine stallion. In the spring of 1939, Seabiscuit covered seven of Howard's mares, all of which had healthy foals in spring of 1940. One, Fair Knightess's colt, died as a yearling.
Seabiscuit and a still-convalescing Pollard recovered together at Howard's ranch, with the help of Pollard's new wife Agnes, who had nursed him through his initial recovery. Slowly, both horse and rider learned to walk again (Pollard joked that they "had four good legs between" them). Poverty and his injury had brought Pollard to the edge of alcoholism. A local doctor broke and reset Pollard's leg to aid his recovery, and slowly Pollard regained the confidence to sit on a horse. Wearing a brace to stiffen his atrophied leg, he began to ride Seabiscuit again, first at a walk and later at a trot and canter. Howard was delighted at their improvement, as he longed for Seabiscuit to race again, but was extremely worried about Pollard, as his leg was still fragile.
Over the fall and winter of 1939, Seabiscuit's fitness seemed to improve by the day. By the end of the year, Smith was ready to return the horse to race training, with a collection of stable jockeys in the saddle. By the time of his comeback race, Pollard had cajoled Howard into allowing him the ride. After the horse was scratched due to soft going, the pair finally lined up at the start of the La Jolla Handicap at Santa Anita, on February 9, 1940. Seabiscuit was third, beaten by two lengths. By their third comeback race, Seabiscuit was back to his winning ways, running away from the field in the San Antonio Handicap to beat his erstwhile training partner, Kayak II, by two and a half lengths. Under , Seabiscuit equalled the track record for a mile and 1/16.
One race was left in the season. A week after the San Antonio, Seabiscuit and Kayak II both took the gate for the Santa Anita Handicap and its $121,000 prize. 78,000 paying spectators crammed the racetrack, most backing Seabiscuit. Pollard found his horse blocked almost from the start. Picking his way through the field, Seabiscuit briefly led. As they thundered down the back straight, Seabiscuit became trapped in third place, behind leader Whichcee and Wedding Call on the outside.
Trusting in his horse's acceleration, Pollard steered between the leaders and burst into the lead, taking the firm ground just off the rail. As Seabiscuit showed his old surge, Wedding Call and Whichcee faltered, and Pollard drove his horse on, taking "The Hundred Grander" by a length and a half from the fast-closing Kayak II under jockey Leon Haas. Pandemonium engulfed the course. Neither horse and rider, nor trainer and owner, could get through the crowd of well-wishers to the winner's enclosure for some time.
Retirement, later life, and offspring
On April 10, 1940, Seabiscuit's retirement from racing was officially announced. When he was retired to the Ridgewood Ranch near Willits, California, he was horse racing's all-time leading money winner. Put out to stud, Seabiscuit sired 108 foals, including two moderately successful racehorses: Sea Sovereign and Sea Swallow. Over 50,000 visitors went to Ridgewood Ranch to see Seabiscuit in the seven years before his death.
Death and interment
Seabiscuit died of a probable heart attack on May 17, 1947, in Willits, California, six days short of 14 years old. He is buried at Ridgewood Ranch in Mendocino County, California.
Legacy and honors
Awards and honorable distinctions
In 1958, Seabiscuit was voted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame.
In the Blood-Horse magazine List of the Top 100 U.S. Racehorses of the 20th Century (1999), Seabiscuit was ranked 25th. War Admiral was 13th, and Seabiscuit's grandsire and War Admiral's sire, Man o' War, placed 1st.
Portrayals in film and television
Documentaries
American Experience: "Seabiscuit" (April 21, 2003)) is a documentary episode that aired as Season 15, Episode 11 of the PBS American Experience series.
ESPN SportsCentury: "Seabiscuit" (November 17, 2003), Seabiscuit was featured on ESPN's SportsCentury Greatest Athletes series.
The True Story of Seabiscuit (July 27, 2003) is a 45-minute made-for-TV documentary directed by Craig Haffner, written by Martin Gillam, and containing interviews and footage with William H. Macy, Seabiscuit, and Tobey Maguire, that aired on the USA Network.
Seabiscuit: the Lost Documentary (1939) by Seabiscuit's owner Charles Howard. The film was directed by Manny Nathan, and written by Nathan and Hazel Merry Hawkins. It stars Martin Mason, Doc Bond, Charles Howard as himself and his wife, Marcella. It was colorized and released in 2003 by Legend Films to coincide with interest around the movie.
Seabiscuit: America's Legendary Racehorse (2003) directed and produced by Nick Krantz.
Fiction films
Stablemates (1938), starring Wallace Beery and Mickey Rooney. Film producer Harry Rapf arranged a deal whereby he could film the $50,000 Hollywood Gold Cup, and actual footage of Seabiscuit running in the race was used. The field is headed by Seabiscuit for the "straight" race in the film.
Porky and Teabiscuit (1939) is Warner Bros.' Porky Pig cartoon take on Seabiscuit's underdog story.
The Story of Seabiscuit (1949), starring Shirley Temple in her penultimate film, is a fictionalized account featuring Sea Sovereign in the title role. An otherwise undistinguished film, it did include actual footage of the 1938 match race against War Admiral and the 1940 Santa Anita Handicap.
Seabiscuit (2003), Universal Studios' adaptation of Laura Hillenbrand's bestselling 2001 book, was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture
The Making of Seabiscuit (December 16, 2003) is a documentary short directed by Laurent Bouzereau and starring Tobey Maguire, Jeff Bridges, Chris Cooper, and William Goldenberg, produced by DreamWorks SKG, Herzog Productions, Spyglass Entertainment, and Universal Studios, and distributed by Universal Studios Home Video.
Non-fiction books
Track writer B.K. Beckwith wrote Seabiscuit: The Saga of a Great Champion (1940), with a foreword by Grantland Rice, right after Seabiscuit's Santa Anita win and at the moment of the horse's retirement.
Ralph Moody wrote Come On, Seabiscuit! (1963), illustrated by Robert Riger, which was recently reprinted by the University of Nebraska Press.
Laura Hillenbrand's book Seabiscuit: An American Legend (2001) became a bestseller, and in 2003 it was adapted for film.
Postage stamp
In 2009, after an eight-year-long grassroots effort by Maggie Van Ostrand and Chuck Lustick, Seabiscuit was honored by the United States Postal Service with a stamp bearing his likeness. Thousands of signatures were obtained from all over the nation, and the final approval was given by Citizens Stamp Committee member Joan Mondale, wife of former Vice President Walter Mondale.
Statues
A statue of Seabiscuit (not life-sized) sits outside the main entrance of The Shops at Tanforan, a shopping mall built upon the former site of the Tanforan Racetrack. Seabiscuit was stabled there briefly in 1939, while preparing for his comeback.
In the 1940s, businessman and racehorse owner W. Arnold Hanger donated a statuette of Seabiscuit to the Keeneland library.
In 1941, a life-sized bronze statue of Seabiscuit by Frank Buchler, was installed at Santa Anita Park; it now stands in the walking ring at the track's "Seabiscuit Court"
On June 23, 2007, a statue of Seabiscuit was unveiled at Ridgewood Ranch.
In 1941, sculptor Hughlette "Tex" Wheeler cast two bronze statues from Seabiscuit: one stands at Santa Anita racetrack in Arcadia, CA; the other is in Saratoga Springs, outside the National Museum of Racing.
On July 17, 2010, a life-size statue of George Woolf and Seabiscuit was unveiled at the Remington Carriage Museum in Woolf's hometown of Cardston, Alberta. This coincided with the 100th anniversary of Woolf's birth, though not the actual date.
Pedigree
Notable races won
Seabiscuit ran 89 times at 16 different distances over the course of his career.
Brooklyn Handicap (1937)
San Antonio Handicap (1940)
Santa Anita Handicap (1940)
Notes
References
Further reading
Beckwith, B.K. (1940), Seabiscuit: The Saga of a Great Champion, with drawings by Howard Brodie, Wilfred Crowell, Inc., San Francisco.
Hillenbrand, Laura (2001), Seabiscuit: An American Legend.
Rasmussen, Zach (2013), Seabiscuit: An Unlikely Champion.
External links
Newsreel film of Seabiscuit v War Admiral
Seabiscuit Heritage Foundation. Livingston, Tracy (2005), retrieved June 26, 2005.
"Seabiscuit", Snopes.com (2005), retrieved June 18, 2015.
Seabiscuit, 1938 Horse of the Year
Seabiscuit, Hollywood film, 2003
The Story of Seabiscuit, Hollywood film, 1949
The Biscuit's pedigree
Quick online racing game, inc. The Biscuit
Article about the Seabiscuit-War Admiral match race
Youtube of the 1938 match race
Seabiscuit, an American Experience documentary film by Stephen Ives, shown on PBS
www.janiburon.com, website of author of Seabiscuit books
1933 racehorse births
1947 racehorse deaths
Racehorses bred in Kentucky
Racehorses trained in the United States
Horse racing track record setters
American Thoroughbred Horse of the Year
United States Thoroughbred Racing Hall of Fame inductees
Horse monuments
Thoroughbred family 5-j
Godolphin Arabian sire line | false | [
"Seabiscuit (May 23, 1933 – May 17, 1947) was a champion thoroughbred racehorse in the United States who became the top money-winning racehorse up to the 1940s. He beat the 1937 Triple-Crown winner, War Admiral, by 4 lengths in a two-horse special at Pimlico and was voted American Horse of the Year for 1938.\n\nA small horse, at 15.2 hands high, Seabiscuit had an inauspicious start to his racing career, winning only a quarter of his first 40 races, but became an unlikely champion and a symbol of hope to many Americans during the Great Depression.\n\nSeabiscuit has been the subject of numerous books and films, including Seabiscuit: the Lost Documentary (1939); the Shirley Temple film The Story of Seabiscuit (1949); a book, Seabiscuit: An American Legend (1999) by Laura Hillenbrand; and a film adaptation of Hillenbrand's book, Seabiscuit (2003), that was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.\n\nEarly days\n\nSeabiscuit was foaled in Lexington, Kentucky, on May 23, 1933, from the mare Swing On and sire Hard Tack, a son of Man o' War. Seabiscuit was named for his father, as hardtack or \"sea biscuit\" is the name for a type of cracker eaten by sailors.\n\nThe bay colt grew up on Claiborne Farm in Paris, Kentucky, where he was trained. He was undersized, knobby-kneed, and given to sleeping and eating for long periods.\n\nInitially, Seabiscuit was owned by the powerful Wheatley Stable and trained by \"Sunny Jim\" Fitzsimmons, who had taken Gallant Fox to the United States Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing. Fitzsimmons saw some potential in Seabiscuit but felt the horse was too lazy. Fitzsimmons devoted most of his time to training Omaha, who won the 1935 Triple Crown.\n\nSeabiscuit was relegated to a heavy schedule of smaller races. He failed to win his first 17 races, usually finishing back in the field. After that, Fitzsimmons did not spend much time on him, and the horse was sometimes the butt of stable jokes. However, Seabiscuit began to gain attention after winning two races at Narragansett Park and setting a new track record in the second—Claiming Stakes race. \n\nAs a two-year-old, Seabiscuit raced 35 times (a heavy racing schedule), coming in first five times and finishing second seven times. These included three claiming races, in which he could have been purchased for $2,500, but he had no takers.\n\nWhile Seabiscuit had not lived up to his racing potential, he was not the poor performer Fitzsimmons had taken him for. His last two wins as a two-year-old came in minor stakes races. The next season, started with a similar pattern. The colt ran 12 times in less than four months, winning four times. One of those races was a cheap allowance race on the \"sweltering afternoon of June 29,\" 1936, at Suffolk Downs. That was where trainer Tom Smith first laid eyes on Seabiscuit. His owners sold the horse to automobile entrepreneur Charles S. Howard for $8,000 at Saratoga, in August.\n\n1936/1937: The beginning of success \n\nHoward assigned Seabiscuit to a new trainer, Tom Smith, who, with his unorthodox training methods, gradually brought Seabiscuit out of his lethargy. Smith paired the horse with Canadian jockey Red Pollard (1909–1981), who had experience racing in the West and in Mexico. On August 22, 1936, they raced Seabiscuit for the first time. Improvements came quickly, and in their remaining eight races in the East, Seabiscuit and Pollard won several times, including the Detroit Governor's Handicap (worth $5,600) and the Scarsdale Handicap ($7,300) at Empire City Race Track in Yonkers, New York.\n\nIn early November 1936, Howard and Smith shipped the horse to California by rail. His last two races of the year were at Bay Meadows racetrack in San Mateo, California. The first was the $2,700 Bay Bridge Handicap, run over . Despite starting badly and carrying the top weight of , Seabiscuit won by five lengths. At the World's Fair Handicap (Bay Meadows' most prestigious stakes race), Seabiscuit led throughout.\n\nIn 1937, the Santa Anita Handicap, California's most prestigious race, was worth over $125,000 ($ million in 2010) to the winner; it was known colloquially as \"The Hundred Grander.\" In his first warm-up race at Santa Anita Park, Seabiscuit won easily. In his second race of 1937, the San Antonio Handicap, he suffered a setback after he was bumped at the start and then pushed wide; Seabiscuit came in fifth, losing to Rosemont.\n\nThe two met again in the Santa Anita Handicap a week later, where Rosemont won by a nose. The defeat was devastating to Smith and Howard and was widely attributed in the press to a jockey error. Pollard, who had not seen Rosemont over his shoulder until too late, was blind in one eye due to an accident during a training ride, a fact he had hidden throughout his career. A week after this defeat Seabiscuit won the San Juan Capistrano Handicap by seven lengths in track record time of 1:48 for the mile event.\n\nSeabiscuit was rapidly becoming a favorite among California racing fans, and his fame spread as he won his next three races. With his successes, Howard decided to ship the horse east for its more prestigious racing circuit.\n\nSeabiscuit's run of victories continued. Between June 26 and August 7, he ran five times, each time in a stakes race, and each time he won under steadily increasing handicap weights (imposts) of up to . For the third time, Seabiscuit faced off against Rosemont again, this time beating him by seven lengths. On September 11, Smith accepted an impost of for the Narragansett Special at Narragansett Park. On race day, the ground was slow and heavy, and unsuited to \"the Biscuit\", carrying the heaviest burden of his career. Smith wanted to scratch, but Howard overruled him. Never in the running, Seabiscuit finished third. His winning streak was snapped, but the season was not over; Seabiscuit won his next three races (one a dead heat) before finishing the year with a second-place at Pimlico.\n\nIn 1937, Seabiscuit won 11 of his 15 races and was the year's leading money winner in the United States. However, War Admiral, having won the Triple Crown that season, was voted the most prestigious honor, the American Horse of the Year Award.\n\nEarly five-year-old season\n\nIn 1938, as a five-year-old, Seabiscuit's success continued. On February 19, Pollard suffered a terrible fall while racing on Fair Knightess, another of Howard's horses. With half of Pollard's chest caved in by the weight of the fallen horse, Howard had to find a new jockey. After trying three, he settled on George Woolf, an already successful rider and old friend of Pollard's.\n\nWoolf's first race aboard Seabiscuit was the Santa Anita Handicap, \"The Hundred Grander\" the horse had narrowly lost the previous year. Seabiscuit was drawn on the outside, and at the start was impeded by another horse, Count Atlas, angling out. The two were locked together for the first straight, and by the time Woolf disentangled his horse, they were six lengths off the pace. Seabiscuit worked his way to the lead but lost in a photo finish to the fast-closing Santa Anita Derby winner, Stagehand (owned by Maxwell Howard, not related to Charles), who had been assigned less than Seabiscuit.\n\nThroughout 1937 and 1938, the media speculated about a match race between Seabiscuit and the seemingly invincible War Admiral (sired by Man o' War, Seabiscuit's grandsire). The two horses were scheduled to meet in three stakes races, but one or the other was scratched, usually due to Seabiscuit's dislike of heavy ground. After extensive negotiation, the owners organized a match race for May 1938 at Belmont, but Seabiscuit was scratched.\n\nBy June, Pollard had recovered, and on June 23, he agreed to work a young colt named Modern Youth. Spooked by something on the track, the horse broke rapidly through the stables and threw Pollard, shattering his leg and seemingly ending his career.\n\nHoward arranged a match race for Seabiscuit against Ligaroti, a highly regarded horse owned by the Hollywood entertainer Bing Crosby and Howard's son, Lindsay, through Binglin Stable, in an event organized to promote Crosby's resort and Del Mar Racetrack in Del Mar, California. With Woolf aboard, Seabiscuit won that race, despite persistent fouling from Ligaroti's jockey. After three more outings and with only one win, he was scheduled to go head-to-head with War Admiral in the Pimlico Special in November, in Baltimore, Maryland.\n\nSent to race on the East Coast, on October 16, 1938, Seabiscuit ran second by two lengths in the Laurel Stakes to the filly Jacola, who set a new Laurel Park Racecourse record of 1:37.00 for one mile.\n\nOn November 1, 1938, Seabiscuit met War Admiral and jockey Charles Kurtsinger in what was dubbed the \"Match of the Century.\" The event was run over at Pimlico Race Course. From the grandstands to the infield, the track was jammed with fans. Trains were run from all over the country to bring fans to the race, and the estimated 40,000 at the track were joined by 40 million listening on the radio. War Admiral was the favorite (1–4 with most bookmakers) and a nearly unanimous selection of the writers and tipsters, excluding a California contingent.\n\nHead-to-head races favor fast starters, and War Admiral's speed from the gate was well known. Seabiscuit, on the other hand, was a pace stalker, skilled at holding with the pack before pulling ahead with late acceleration. From the scheduled walk-up start, few gave him a chance to lead War Admiral into the first turn. Smith knew these things and trained Seabiscuit to run against this type, using a starting bell and a whip to give the horse a Pavlovian burst of speed from the start.\n\nWhen the bell rang, Seabiscuit broke in front, led by over a length after 20 seconds, and soon crossed over to the rail position. Halfway down the backstretch, War Admiral started to cut into the lead, gradually pulling level with Seabiscuit, then slightly ahead. Following advice he had received from Pollard, Woolf had eased up on Seabiscuit, allowing his horse to see his rival, then asked for more effort. Two hundred yards from the wire, Seabiscuit pulled away again and continued to extend his lead over the closing stretch, finally winning by four lengths despite War Admiral's running his best time for the distance.\n\nAs a result of his races that year, Seabiscuit was named American Horse of the Year for 1938, beating War Admiral by 698 points to 489 in a poll conducted by the Turf and Sport Digest magazine. Seabiscuit was the number one newsmaker of 1938. The only major prize that eluded him was the Santa Anita Handicap.\n\nInjury and return\nSeabiscuit was injured during a race. Woolf, who was riding him, said that he felt the horse stumble. The injury was not life-threatening, although many predicted Seabiscuit would never race again. The diagnosis was a ruptured suspensory ligament in the front left leg. With Seabiscuit out of action, Smith and Howard concentrated on their horse Kayak II, an Argentine stallion. In the spring of 1939, Seabiscuit covered seven of Howard's mares, all of which had healthy foals in spring of 1940. One, Fair Knightess's colt, died as a yearling.\n\nSeabiscuit and a still-convalescing Pollard recovered together at Howard's ranch, with the help of Pollard's new wife Agnes, who had nursed him through his initial recovery. Slowly, both horse and rider learned to walk again (Pollard joked that they \"had four good legs between\" them). Poverty and his injury had brought Pollard to the edge of alcoholism. A local doctor broke and reset Pollard's leg to aid his recovery, and slowly Pollard regained the confidence to sit on a horse. Wearing a brace to stiffen his atrophied leg, he began to ride Seabiscuit again, first at a walk and later at a trot and canter. Howard was delighted at their improvement, as he longed for Seabiscuit to race again, but was extremely worried about Pollard, as his leg was still fragile.\n\nOver the fall and winter of 1939, Seabiscuit's fitness seemed to improve by the day. By the end of the year, Smith was ready to return the horse to race training, with a collection of stable jockeys in the saddle. By the time of his comeback race, Pollard had cajoled Howard into allowing him the ride. After the horse was scratched due to soft going, the pair finally lined up at the start of the La Jolla Handicap at Santa Anita, on February 9, 1940. Seabiscuit was third, beaten by two lengths. By their third comeback race, Seabiscuit was back to his winning ways, running away from the field in the San Antonio Handicap to beat his erstwhile training partner, Kayak II, by two and a half lengths. Under , Seabiscuit equalled the track record for a mile and 1/16.\n\nOne race was left in the season. A week after the San Antonio, Seabiscuit and Kayak II both took the gate for the Santa Anita Handicap and its $121,000 prize. 78,000 paying spectators crammed the racetrack, most backing Seabiscuit. Pollard found his horse blocked almost from the start. Picking his way through the field, Seabiscuit briefly led. As they thundered down the back straight, Seabiscuit became trapped in third place, behind leader Whichcee and Wedding Call on the outside.\n\nTrusting in his horse's acceleration, Pollard steered between the leaders and burst into the lead, taking the firm ground just off the rail. As Seabiscuit showed his old surge, Wedding Call and Whichcee faltered, and Pollard drove his horse on, taking \"The Hundred Grander\" by a length and a half from the fast-closing Kayak II under jockey Leon Haas. Pandemonium engulfed the course. Neither horse and rider, nor trainer and owner, could get through the crowd of well-wishers to the winner's enclosure for some time.\n\nRetirement, later life, and offspring\nOn April 10, 1940, Seabiscuit's retirement from racing was officially announced. When he was retired to the Ridgewood Ranch near Willits, California, he was horse racing's all-time leading money winner. Put out to stud, Seabiscuit sired 108 foals, including two moderately successful racehorses: Sea Sovereign and Sea Swallow. Over 50,000 visitors went to Ridgewood Ranch to see Seabiscuit in the seven years before his death.\n\nDeath and interment\nSeabiscuit died of a probable heart attack on May 17, 1947, in Willits, California, six days short of 14 years old. He is buried at Ridgewood Ranch in Mendocino County, California.\n\nLegacy and honors\n\nAwards and honorable distinctions\n In 1958, Seabiscuit was voted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame.\n In the Blood-Horse magazine List of the Top 100 U.S. Racehorses of the 20th Century (1999), Seabiscuit was ranked 25th. War Admiral was 13th, and Seabiscuit's grandsire and War Admiral's sire, Man o' War, placed 1st.\n\nPortrayals in film and television\n\nDocumentaries\n American Experience: \"Seabiscuit\" (April 21, 2003)) is a documentary episode that aired as Season 15, Episode 11 of the PBS American Experience series.\nESPN SportsCentury: \"Seabiscuit\" (November 17, 2003), Seabiscuit was featured on ESPN's SportsCentury Greatest Athletes series.\n The True Story of Seabiscuit (July 27, 2003) is a 45-minute made-for-TV documentary directed by Craig Haffner, written by Martin Gillam, and containing interviews and footage with William H. Macy, Seabiscuit, and Tobey Maguire, that aired on the USA Network.\n Seabiscuit: the Lost Documentary (1939) by Seabiscuit's owner Charles Howard. The film was directed by Manny Nathan, and written by Nathan and Hazel Merry Hawkins. It stars Martin Mason, Doc Bond, Charles Howard as himself and his wife, Marcella. It was colorized and released in 2003 by Legend Films to coincide with interest around the movie.\n Seabiscuit: America's Legendary Racehorse (2003) directed and produced by Nick Krantz.\n\nFiction films\n Stablemates (1938), starring Wallace Beery and Mickey Rooney. Film producer Harry Rapf arranged a deal whereby he could film the $50,000 Hollywood Gold Cup, and actual footage of Seabiscuit running in the race was used. The field is headed by Seabiscuit for the \"straight\" race in the film.\n Porky and Teabiscuit (1939) is Warner Bros.' Porky Pig cartoon take on Seabiscuit's underdog story.\n The Story of Seabiscuit (1949), starring Shirley Temple in her penultimate film, is a fictionalized account featuring Sea Sovereign in the title role. An otherwise undistinguished film, it did include actual footage of the 1938 match race against War Admiral and the 1940 Santa Anita Handicap.\n Seabiscuit (2003), Universal Studios' adaptation of Laura Hillenbrand's bestselling 2001 book, was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture\n The Making of Seabiscuit (December 16, 2003) is a documentary short directed by Laurent Bouzereau and starring Tobey Maguire, Jeff Bridges, Chris Cooper, and William Goldenberg, produced by DreamWorks SKG, Herzog Productions, Spyglass Entertainment, and Universal Studios, and distributed by Universal Studios Home Video.\n\nNon-fiction books\nTrack writer B.K. Beckwith wrote Seabiscuit: The Saga of a Great Champion (1940), with a foreword by Grantland Rice, right after Seabiscuit's Santa Anita win and at the moment of the horse's retirement.\nRalph Moody wrote Come On, Seabiscuit! (1963), illustrated by Robert Riger, which was recently reprinted by the University of Nebraska Press.\nLaura Hillenbrand's book Seabiscuit: An American Legend (2001) became a bestseller, and in 2003 it was adapted for film.\n\nPostage stamp\nIn 2009, after an eight-year-long grassroots effort by Maggie Van Ostrand and Chuck Lustick, Seabiscuit was honored by the United States Postal Service with a stamp bearing his likeness. Thousands of signatures were obtained from all over the nation, and the final approval was given by Citizens Stamp Committee member Joan Mondale, wife of former Vice President Walter Mondale.\n\nStatues\n A statue of Seabiscuit (not life-sized) sits outside the main entrance of The Shops at Tanforan, a shopping mall built upon the former site of the Tanforan Racetrack. Seabiscuit was stabled there briefly in 1939, while preparing for his comeback.\n In the 1940s, businessman and racehorse owner W. Arnold Hanger donated a statuette of Seabiscuit to the Keeneland library.\n In 1941, a life-sized bronze statue of Seabiscuit by Frank Buchler, was installed at Santa Anita Park; it now stands in the walking ring at the track's \"Seabiscuit Court\"\n On June 23, 2007, a statue of Seabiscuit was unveiled at Ridgewood Ranch.\n In 1941, sculptor Hughlette \"Tex\" Wheeler cast two bronze statues from Seabiscuit: one stands at Santa Anita racetrack in Arcadia, CA; the other is in Saratoga Springs, outside the National Museum of Racing.\n On July 17, 2010, a life-size statue of George Woolf and Seabiscuit was unveiled at the Remington Carriage Museum in Woolf's hometown of Cardston, Alberta. This coincided with the 100th anniversary of Woolf's birth, though not the actual date.\n\nPedigree\n\nNotable races won\n\nSeabiscuit ran 89 times at 16 different distances over the course of his career.\nBrooklyn Handicap (1937)\nSan Antonio Handicap (1940)\nSanta Anita Handicap (1940)\n\nNotes\n\nReferences\n\nFurther reading\n\n Beckwith, B.K. (1940), Seabiscuit: The Saga of a Great Champion, with drawings by Howard Brodie, Wilfred Crowell, Inc., San Francisco.\n Hillenbrand, Laura (2001), Seabiscuit: An American Legend.\n Rasmussen, Zach (2013), Seabiscuit: An Unlikely Champion.\n\nExternal links\n Newsreel film of Seabiscuit v War Admiral\n Seabiscuit Heritage Foundation. Livingston, Tracy (2005), retrieved June 26, 2005.\n \"Seabiscuit\", Snopes.com (2005), retrieved June 18, 2015.\n Seabiscuit, 1938 Horse of the Year\n Seabiscuit, Hollywood film, 2003\n The Story of Seabiscuit, Hollywood film, 1949\n The Biscuit's pedigree\n Quick online racing game, inc. The Biscuit\n Article about the Seabiscuit-War Admiral match race\n Youtube of the 1938 match race\n Seabiscuit, an American Experience documentary film by Stephen Ives, shown on PBS\n www.janiburon.com, website of author of Seabiscuit books\n\n1933 racehorse births\n1947 racehorse deaths\nRacehorses bred in Kentucky\nRacehorses trained in the United States\nHorse racing track record setters\nAmerican Thoroughbred Horse of the Year\nUnited States Thoroughbred Racing Hall of Fame inductees\nHorse monuments\nThoroughbred family 5-j\nGodolphin Arabian sire line",
"The Story of Seabiscuit is a 1949 American drama film directed by David Butler and starring Shirley Temple and Barry Fitzgerald in a semi-fictionalized account of racehorse Seabiscuit, the top money winner up to the 1940s. The screenplay was written by John Taintor Foote, uses the actual racehorse names, but changed the names of people involved.\n\nThough shot in Technicolor, the film incorporates actual black-and-white footage of Seabiscuit in races, including the 1940 Santa Anita Handicap and the 1938 match race against rival War Admiral, which is still considered by many to be the greatest horse race of all time.\n\nPlot\nThe film is a fictionalized account of the career of the 1930s racehorse Seabiscuit (1933–1947), with a subplot involving the romance between the niece (Temple) of a horse trainer (Fitzgerald) and a jockey (Lon McCallister).\n\nCast\n Shirley Temple as Margaret O'Hara\n Barry Fitzgerald as trainer Sean O'Hara\n co-starring Lon McCallister as jockey Ted Knowles\n with Rosemary DeCamp as Mrs. Charles S. Howard\n Donald MacBride as George Carson\n Pierre Watkin as Charles S. Howard\n William Forrest as Thomas Milford\n\nProduction notes\nIn July 1940 David Butler was taking technicolor footage of Seabiscuit for a film called Blood Will Tell for RKO. This included footage of Seabiscuit's win at Santa Anita against Kayak after Seabiscuit had recovered from a ruptured suspensory ligament. The cast was to include Lucille Ball, Edna May Oliver and Leon Errol. Dick Powell was going to play the lead then John Wayne; the title was changed to True to Form. Wayne fell out and Randolph Scott and James Craig were considered for the film. Eventually it was not made.\n\nButler was friends with Charles Howard. A common friend, Phil Hall, told Butler that Howard was ill and would love to see a film made out of Seabiscuit. Butler approached Jack Warner, who was a horse owner, and pitched the project, saying Barry Fitzgerald would be ideal for the role of Tom Smith the trainer.\n\nIn August 1947 Warner Bros announced they had done a deal with C. S. Howard, owner of the horse, to make The Story of Seabiscuit. Butler would direct in color from a scenario which included material from Howard. Butler got John Traintor Foote, who wrote the horse riding film Kentucky, to write the script. In November the studio said Foote had written a script and that Barry Fitzgerald would play the lead alongside Geraldine Brooks, with William Jacobs to produce and filming to begin in December.\n\nHowever filming was delayed and Brooks dropped out. In March 1949, Shirley Temple and Lon McAllister were signed to co star alongside Fitzgerald, and the title was Always Sweethearts. The same month Warners completed a deal with RKO worth a reported $25,000 for the 10,000 feet of color footage of Seabiscuit shot in 1940.\n\nFilming started in April 1949. Temple was coached in an Irish accent by Arthur Shields. The role of Seabiscuit was played by two of his children, Sea Sovereign and Sea Gamble.\n\nThe bulk of the film was shot at Northridge Farms, a development established by Barbara Stanwyck and her then agent Zeppo Marx, then sold to a syndicate. According to one report the Farm is \"used pretty generally when Hollywood is trying to look like the blue grass country of Kentucky.\" It was also shot at Santa Anita, Burns Park and Burns Ranch in Woodland Hills.\n\nThe part of the film where Seabiscuit races War Admiral was shown in black and white because Butler could only source black and white news footage of that race.\n\nButler says a copy of the finished film was sent to Howard in Hawaii. \"He was very sick there, but he got a big kick out of it\", said Butler. \"That was one of the nicest things that ever happened to him.\"\n\nThe film's title was changed from Always Sweethearts to The Story of Seabiscuit.\n\nReception\n\nBox office\nAccording to Butler \"the picture caught on. In Europe it did the best business of any Warner picture that year. We had all the things in it that happened in Seabiscuit's life. The picture runs on television all the time. It didn't cost much to make – about $700,000 – and it made a fortune.\"\n\nCritical\nThe New York Times reviewer panned the film, stating, \"the odds are that Seabiscuit's screen saga will prove an also-ran\" and characterizing the subplot as \"one of the season's dullest romances\". AMC critic Christopher Null agreed, writing, \"The only actual reason to watch this film ... is the black and white footage of Seabiscuit's actual races\".\n\nSee also\n Shirley Temple filmography\n\nReferences\n\nNotes\n\nExternal links\n \n \n \n \n \n\n1949 films\nAmerican films\nFilms about horses\nFilms directed by David Butler\nAmerican horse racing films\n1949 romantic drama films\nFilms scored by David Buttolph\nFilms set in Kentucky\nFilms set in California\nAmerican romantic drama films\nWarner Bros. films"
]
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"Alberto Fujimori",
"Early years"
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| C_a96d11cc9e744f69a1bfa1af50e556ad_1 | Where was Fujimori born? | 1 | Where was Alberto Fujimori born? | Alberto Fujimori | Fujimori obtained his early education at the Colegio Nuestra Senora de la Merced and La Rectora. Fujimori's parents were Buddhists, but he was baptised and raised as a Roman Catholic. While he spoke mainly Japanese at home, Fujimori also learned to become a proficient Spanish speaker during his years at school. In 1956, Fujimori graduated from La gran unidad escolar Alfonso Ugarte in Lima. He went on to undergraduate studies at the Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina in 1957, graduating in 1961 first in his class as an agricultural engineer. The following year he lectured on mathematics at the university. In 1964 he went to study physics at the University of Strasbourg in France. On a Ford scholarship, Fujimori also attended the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in the United States, where he obtained his master's degree in mathematics in 1969. In 1974, he married Susana Higuchi, also Japanese-Peruvian. They had four children, including a daughter, Keiko, who followed her father into politics. In recognition of his academic achievements, the sciences faculty of the Universidad Nacional Agraria offered Fujimori the deanship and in 1984 appointed him to the rectorship of the university, which he held until 1989. In 1987, Fujimori also became president of the National Commission of Peruvian University Rectors (Asamblea Nacional de Rectores), a position which he has held twice. He also hosted a TV show called "Concertando" from 1988 to 1989, on Peru's state-owned network, Channel 7. Fujimori won the 1990 presidential election as a dark horse candidate under the banner of Cambio 90 ("cambio" means "change") beating world-renowned writer Mario Vargas Llosa in a surprising upset. He capitalized on profound disenchantment with outgoing president Alan Garcia and the American Popular Revolutionary Alliance party (APRA). He exploited popular distrust of Vargas Llosa's identification with the existing Peruvian political establishment, and uncertainty about his plans for neoliberal economic reforms. During the campaign, Fujimori was nicknamed El Chino, which roughly translates to "Chinaman"; it is common for people of any East Asian descent to be called chino in Peru, as elsewhere in Latin America, both derogatively and affectionately. Although he is of Japanese heritage, Fujimori has suggested that he was always gladdened by the term, which he perceived as a term of affection. With his election victory, he became just the second person of East Asian descent to become head of government of a Latin American nation, after Fulgencio Batista of Cuba and the third of East Asian descent to govern a South American state, after Arthur Chung of Guyana and Henk Chin A Sen of Suriname (each of whom had served as head of state, rather than head of government). CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Alberto Kenya Fujimori Inomoto ( or ; , born 28 July 1938) is a Peruvian former engineer who led the nation as the President of Peru from 28 July 1990 until his downfall on 22 November 2000. Frequently described as a dictator, he remains a controversial figure in Peruvian politics; his government is credited with the creation of Fujimorism, defeating the Shining Path insurgency and restoring Peru's macroeconomic stability, though Fujimori ended his presidency by fleeing Peru for Japan amid a major scandal involving corruption and human rights abuses. Even amid his prosecution in 2008 for crimes against humanity relating to his presidency, two-thirds of Peruvians polled voiced approval for his leadership in that period.
A Peruvian of Japanese descent, Fujimori took refuge in Japan when faced with charges of corruption in 2000. On arriving in Japan, he attempted to resign his presidency via fax, but his resignation was rejected by Congress, which preferred to remove him from office by the process of impeachment by a 62-9 vote. Wanted in Peru on charges of corruption and human rights abuses, Fujimori maintained a self-imposed exile until his arrest while visiting Chile in November 2005. He was extradited to face criminal charges in Peru on 22 September 2007. In December 2007, Fujimori was convicted of ordering an illegal search and seizure and was sentenced to six years imprisonment. The Supreme Court upheld the decision upon his appeal. In April 2009, Fujimori was convicted of human rights violations and sentenced to 25 years imprisonment for his role in kidnappings and murders by the Grupo Colina death squad during his government's battle against leftist guerrillas in the 1990s. The verdict, delivered by a three-judge panel, marked the first time that an elected head of state has been extradited to his home country, tried, and convicted of human rights violations. Fujimori was specifically found guilty of murder, bodily harm and two cases of kidnapping.
In July 2009, Fujimori was sentenced to seven and a half years imprisonment for embezzlement after he admitted to giving $15 million from the Peruvian treasury to his intelligence service chief, Vladimiro Montesinos. Two months later, he pleaded guilty in a fourth trial to bribery and received an additional six-year term. Transparency International considered the money embezzled by Fujimori to be the seventh-most for a head of government active within 1984–2004. Under Peruvian law, all the sentences must run concurrently; thus, the maximum length of imprisonment remained 25 years.
In December 2017, President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski granted the 79-year-old Fujimori a humanitarian pardon. The pardon was overturned by Peru's Supreme Court on 3 October 2018 and Fujimori was ordered back to prison. On 23 January 2019, Fujimori was sent back to prison to complete his sentence with his pardon formally being annulled three weeks later on 13 February 2019.
Early life, education and early career
According to government records, Fujimori was born on 28 July 1938, in Miraflores, a district of Lima. His parents, Naoichi Fujimori (original surname Minami, adopted by a childless relative; 1897–1971) and Mutsue Inomoto Fujimori (1913–2009), were natives of Kumamoto, Japan, who migrated to Peru in 1934.
In July 1997, the news magazine Caretas alleged that Fujimori was born in Japan, in his father's hometown of Kawachi, Kumamoto Prefecture. Because Peru's constitution requires the president to have been born in Peru, this would have made Fujimori ineligible to be president. The magazine, which had been sued for libel by Vladimiro Montesinos seven years earlier, reported that Fujimori's birth and baptismal certificates might have been altered. Caretas also alleged that Fujimori's mother declared having two children when she entered Peru; Fujimori is the second of four children. Caretas contentions were hotly contested in the Peruvian media; the magazine Sí, for instance, described the allegations as "pathetic" and "a dark page for [Peruvian] journalism". Latin American scholars Cynthia McClintock and Fabián Vallas note that the issue appeared to have died down among Peruvians after the Japanese government announced in 2000 that "Fujimori's parents had registered his birth in the Japanese consulate in Lima". The Japanese government determined that he was also a Japanese citizen because of his parents' registration in the koseki.
Fujimori obtained his early education at the Colegio Nuestra Señora de la Merced and La Rectora School. Fujimori's parents were Buddhists, but he was baptized and raised Roman Catholic. While he spoke mainly Japanese at home, Fujimori also learned to become a proficient Spanish speaker during his years at school. In 1956, Fujimori graduated from La gran unidad escolar Alfonso Ugarte in Lima.
He went on to undergraduate studies at the Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina in 1957, graduating in 1961 first in his class as an agricultural engineer. The following year he lectured on mathematics at the university. In 1964 he went to study physics at the University of Strasbourg in France. On a Ford scholarship, Fujimori also attended the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee in the United States, where he obtained his master's degree in mathematics in 1969.
In 1974, he married Susana Higuchi, also Japanese-Peruvian. They had four children, including a daughter, Keiko, and a son, Kenji, who would later follow their father into politics.
In recognition of his academic achievements, the sciences faculty of the National Agrarian University offered Fujimori the deanship and in 1984 appointed him to the rectorship of the university, which he held until 1989. In 1987, Fujimori also became president of the National Commission of Peruvian University Rectors (Asamblea Nacional de Rectores), a position which he has held twice. He also hosted a TV show called "Concertando" from 1988 to 1989, on Peru's state-owned network, Channel 7.
Fujimori won the 1990 presidential election as a dark horse candidate under the banner of Cambio 90 ("cambio" means "change") defeating world-renowned writer Mario Vargas Llosa in a surprising upset. He capitalized on profound disenchantment with outgoing president Alan García and the American Popular Revolutionary Alliance party (APRA). He exploited popular distrust of Vargas Llosa's identification with the existing Peruvian political establishment, and uncertainty about his plans for neoliberal economic reforms.
During the campaign, Fujimori was nicknamed El Chino, which roughly translates to "Chinaman"; it is common for people of any East Asian descent to be called chino in Peru, as elsewhere in Spanish Latin America, both derogatively and affectionately. Although he is of Japanese heritage, Fujimori has suggested that he was always gladdened by the term, which he perceived as a term of affection. With his election victory, he became just the second person of East Asian descent to become leader of a Latin American nation, after Fulgencio Batista (varied descent) of Cuba and the third of East Asian descent to govern a South American state, after Arthur Chung of Guyana and Henk Chin A Sen of Suriname.
Presidency
First term
During his first term in office, Fujimori enacted wide-ranging neoliberal reforms, known as Fujishock. During the presidency of Alan García, the economy had entered a period of hyperinflation and the political system was in crisis due to the country's internal conflict, leaving Peru in "economic and political chaos". It was Fujimori's stated objective to pacify the nation and restore economic balance. This program bore little resemblance to his campaign platform and was in fact more drastic than anything Vargas Llosa had proposed. Nonetheless, the Fujishock succeeded in restoring Peru to the global economy, though not without immediate social cost.
Fujimori's initiative relaxed private sector price controls, drastically reduced government subsidies and government employment, eliminated all exchange controls, and also reduced restrictions on investment, imports, and capital. Tariffs were radically simplified, the minimum wage was immediately quadrupled, and the government established a $400 million poverty relief fund. The latter seemed to anticipate the economic agony to come: the price of electricity quintupled, water prices rose eightfold, and gasoline prices 3,000%.
However, many do not attribute the Fujishock to Fujimori. In the 1980s, the IMF created a plan for South American economies called the Washington Consensus. The document, written by John Williamson in 1990, consists of ten measures that would lead to a healthy economic policy. Under pressure from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Peruvian government was to follow the guidelines set by the international finance community. The ten points were fiscal discipline, the reordering of public expenditure, tax reform (broadening), the liberalization of interest rates, the establishment of a competitive exchange rate, trade liberalization, liberalization of foreign direct investment, privatization, deregulation of barrier entry, exit, safety regulations, governed prices, and the establishment of property rights for the informal sector.
The IMF was content with Peru's measures, and guaranteed loan funding for Peru. Inflation rapidly began to fall and foreign investment capital flooded in. The privatization campaign involved selling off of hundreds of state-owned enterprises, and replacing the country's troubled currency, the inti, with the Nuevo Sol. The Fujishock restored macroeconomic stability to the economy and triggered a considerable long-term economic upturn in the mid-1990s. In 1994, the Peruvian economy grew at a rate of 13%, faster than any other economy in the world.
Constitutional crisis
During Fujimori's first term in office, APRA and Vargas Llosa's party, the FREDEMO, remained in control of both chambers of Congress, the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, hampering the enactment of economic reform. Fujimori also had difficulty combatting the Maoist Shining Path () guerrilla organization due largely to what he perceived as intransigence and obstructionism in Congress. By March 1992, the Congress met with the approval of only 17% of the electorate, according to one poll; the president's approval stood at 42%, in the same poll.
In response to the political deadlock, Fujimori, with the support of the military, on 5 April 1992, carried out a self-coup, also known as the autogolpe (auto-coup) or Fujigolpe (Fuji-coup) in Peru. He shut down Congress, suspended the constitution, and purged the judiciary.
According to numerous polls, the coup was welcomed by the public as evidenced by favorable public opinion in several independent polls; in fact, public approval of the Fujimori administration jumped significantly in the wake of the coup. Fujimori often cited this public support in defending the coup, which he characterized as "not a negation of real democracy, but on the contrary… a search for an authentic transformation to assure a legitimate and effective democracy." Fujimori believed that Peruvian democracy had been nothing more than "a deceptive formality – a façade". He claimed the coup was necessary in order to break with the deeply entrenched special interests that were hindering him from rescuing Peru from the chaotic state in which García had left it.
Fujimori's coup was immediately met with near-unanimous condemnation from the international community. The Organization of American States denounced the coup and demanded a return to "representative democracy", despite Fujimori's claim that the coup represented a "popular uprising". Foreign ministers of OAS member states reiterated this condemnation of the autogolpe. They proposed an urgent effort to promote the reestablishment of "the democratic institutional order" in Peru. Negotiations between the OAS, the government, and opposition groups led Alberto Fujimori initially to propose a referendum to ratify the auto-coup, but the OAS rejected this. Fujimori then proposed scheduling elections for a Democratic Constituent Congress (CCD), which would draft a new constitution to be ratified by a national referendum. Despite a lack of consensus among political forces in Peru regarding this proposal, an ad hoc OAS meeting of ministers nevertheless endorsed this scenario in mid-May. Elections for the Democratic Constituent Congress were held on 22 November 1992.
Various states individually condemned the coup. Venezuela broke off diplomatic relations, and Argentina withdrew its ambassador. Chile joined Argentina in requesting Peru's suspension from the Organization of American States. International lenders delayed planned or projected loans, and the United States, Germany and Spain suspended all non-humanitarian aid to Peru. The coup appeared to threaten the reinsertion strategy for economic recovery, and complicated the process of clearing Peru's arrears with the International Monetary Fund.
Peruvian–U.S. relations earlier in Fujimori's presidency had been dominated by questions of coca eradication and Fujimori's initial reluctance to sign an accord to increase his military's eradication efforts in the lowlands. Fujimori's autogolpe became a major obstacle to relations, as the United States immediately suspended all military and economic aid, with exceptions for counter-narcotic and humanitarian funds. Two weeks after the self-coup, however, the George H.W. Bush administration changed its position and officially recognized Fujimori as the legitimate leader of Peru, partly because he was willing to implement economic austerity measures, but also because of his adamant opposition to the Shining Path.
Authoritarian period
With FREDEMO dissolved and APRA leader Alan García exiled to Colombia, Fujimori sought to legitimize his position. He called elections for a Democratic Constitutional Congress, to serve as a legislature and as a constituent assembly. The APRA and Popular Action attempted a boycott of this election, but the Christian People’s Party (PPC, not to be confused with PCP, Partido Comunista del Peru, or "Peruvian Communist Party") and many left-leaning parties participated in this election. Fujimori supporters won a majority of the seats in this body, and drafted a new constitution in 1993. In a referendum, the coup and the Constitution of 1993 were approved by a narrow margin of less than five percent.
On 13 November 1993, General Jaime Salinas led a failed military coup. Salinas asserted that his intentions were to turn Fujimori over to be tried for violating the Peruvian constitution.
In 1994, Fujimori separated from his wife Susana Higuchi in a noisy, public divorce. He formally stripped her of the title First Lady in August 1994, appointing their eldest daughter as First Lady in her stead. Higuchi publicly denounced Fujimori as a "tyrant" and claimed that his administration was corrupt. They formally divorced in 1995.
In Fujimori's first term of office, over 3,000 Peruvians were killed in political murders.
Second term
The 1993 Constitution allowed Fujimori to run for a second term, and in April 1995, at the height of his popularity, Fujimori easily won reelection with almost two-thirds of the vote. His major opponent, former UN Secretary-General Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, won only 21 percent of the vote. Fujimori's supporters won comfortable majority in the newly unicameral Congress. One of the first acts of the new congress was to declare an amnesty for all members of the Peruvian military or police accused or convicted of human rights abuses between 1980 and 1995.
During his second term, Fujimori along with Ecuadorian President Sixto Durán Ballén, signed a peace agreement with Ecuador over a border dispute that had simmered for more than a century. The treaty allowed the two countries to obtain international funds for developing the border region. Fujimori also settled some issues with Chile, Peru's southern neighbor, which had been unresolved since the 1929 Treaty of Lima.
The 1995 election was the turning point in Fujimori's career. Peruvians began to be more concerned about freedom of speech and the press. However, before he was sworn in for a second term, Fujimori stripped two universities of their autonomy and reshuffled the national electoral board. This led his opponents to call him "Chinochet," a reference to his previous nickname and to Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. Modeling his rule after Pinochet, Fujimori reportedly enjoyed this nickname.
According to a poll by the Peruvian Research and Marketing Company conducted in 1997, 40.6% of Lima residents considered President Fujimori an authoritarian.
In addition to the fate of democracy under Fujimori, Peruvians were becoming increasingly interested in the myriad allegations of criminality that involved Fujimori and his chief of the National Intelligence Service (SIN), Vladimiro Montesinos. Using SIN, Fujimori gained control of the majority of the armed forces, with Financial Times stating that "[i]n no other country in Latin America did a president have so much control over the armed forces".
A 2002 report by Health Minister Fernando Carbone later suggested that Fujimori was involved in the forced sterilizations of up to 300,000 indigenous women between 1996 and 2000, as part of a population control program. A 2004 World Bank publication said that in this period Montesinos' abuse of the power Fujimori granted him "led to a steady and systematic undermining of the rule of law".
Third term
The 1993 constitution limited a presidency to two terms. Shortly after Fujimori began his second term, his supporters in Congress passed a law of "authentic interpretation" which effectively allowed him to run for another term in 2000. A 1998 effort to repeal this law by referendum failed. In late 1999, Fujimori announced that he would run for a third term. Peruvian electoral bodies, which were politically sympathetic to Fujimori, accepted his argument that the two-term restriction did not apply to him, as it was enacted while he was already in office.<ref>Clifford Krauss, Peru's Chief to Seek 3rd Term, Capping a Long Legal Battle, 'New York Times, 28 December 1999. Retrieved 26 September 2006.</ref>
Exit polls showed Fujimori fell short of the 50% required to avoid an electoral runoff, but the first official results showed him with 49.6% of the vote, just short of outright victory. Eventually, Fujimori was credited with 49.89%—20,000 votes short of avoiding a runoff. Despite reports of numerous irregularities, the international observers recognized an adjusted victory of Fujimori. His primary opponent, Alejandro Toledo, called for his supporters to spoil their ballots in the runoff by writing "No to fraud!" on them (voting is mandatory in Peru). International observers pulled out of the country after Fujimori refused to delay the runoff.
In the runoff, Fujimori won with 51.1% of the total votes. While votes for Toledo declined from 37.0% of the total votes cast in the first round to 17.7% of the votes in the second round, invalid votes jumped from 8.1% of the total votes cast in the first round to 31.1% of total votes in the second round. The large percentage of invalid votes in this election suggests that many Peruvians took Toledo's advice and spoiled their ballots.
Although Fujimori won the runoff with only a bare majority (but 3/4 valid votes), rumors of irregularities led most of the international community to shun his third swearing-in on 28 July. For the next seven weeks, there were daily demonstrations in front of the presidential palace. As a conciliatory gesture, Fujimori appointed former opposition candidate Federico Salas as prime minister. However, opposition parties in Congress refused to support this move, and Toledo campaigned vigorously to have the election annulled. At this point, a corruption scandal involving Vladimiro Montesinos broke out, and exploded into full force on the evening of 14 September 2000, when the cable television station Canal N broadcast footage of Montesinos apparently bribing opposition congressman Alberto Kouri for defecting to Fujimori's Peru 2000 party. The video was presented by Fernando Olivera, leader of the FIM (Independent Moralizing Front), who purchased it from one of Montesinos's closest allies (nicknamed by the Peruvian press El Patriota).
Fujimori's support virtually collapsed, and a few days later he announced in a nationwide address that he would shut down the SIN and call new elections, in which he would not be a candidate. On 10 November, Fujimori won approval from Congress to hold elections on 8 April 2001. On 13 November, Fujimori left Peru for a visit to Brunei to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. On 16 November, Valentín Paniagua took over as president of Congress after the pro-Fujimori leadership lost a vote of confidence. On 17 November, Fujimori traveled from Brunei to Tokyo, where he submitted his presidential resignation via fax. Congress refused to accept his resignation, instead voting 62–9 to remove Fujimori from office on the grounds that he was "permanently morally disabled."
On 19 November, government ministers presented their resignations en bloc. Because Fujimori's first vice president, Francisco Tudela, who had broken with Fujimori and resigned a few days earlier, his successor second vice president Ricardo Márquez Flores came to claim the presidency. Congress, however, refused to recognize him, as he was an ardent Fujimori loyalist; Márquez resigned two days later. Paniagua was next in line, and became interim president to oversee the April 2001 elections.
Counterterrorism efforts
When Fujimori came to power, much of Peru was dominated by the Maoist insurgent group Sendero Luminoso ("Shining Path"), and the Marxist–Leninist group Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA). In 1989, 25% of Peru's district and provincial councils opted not to hold elections, owing to a persistent campaign of assassination, over the course of which over 100 officials had been killed by the Shining Path in that year alone. That same year, more than one-third of Peru's courts lacked a justice of the peace due to Shining Path intimidation. Labor union leaders and military officials were also assassinated throughout the 1980s.
By the early 1990s, some parts of the country were under the control of the insurgents, in territories known as "zonas liberadas" ("liberated zones"), where inhabitants lived under the rule of these groups and paid them taxes. When the Shining Path arrived in Lima, it organized "paros armados" ("armed strikes"), which were enforced by killings and other forms of violence. The leadership of the Shining Path largely consisted of university students and teachers. Two previous governments, those of Fernando Belaúnde Terry and Alan García, at first neglected the threat posed by the Shining Path, then launched an unsuccessful military campaign to eradicate it, undermining public faith in the state and precipitating an exodus of elites.
By 1992, Shining Path guerrilla attacks had claimed an estimated 20,000 lives over preceding 12 years. On 16 July 1992, the Tarata Bombing, in which several car bombs exploded in Lima's wealthiest district, killed over 40 people; the bombings were characterized by one commentator as an "offensive to challenge President Albert Fujimori." The bombing at Tarata was followed up with a "weeklong wave of car bombings ... Bombs hit banks, hotels, schools, restaurants, police stations and shops ... [G]uerrillas bombed two rail bridges from the Andes, cutting off some of Peru's largest copper mines from coastal ports."
Fujimori has been credited by many Peruvians with ending the fifteen-year insurgency of the Shining Path. As part of his anti-insurgency efforts, Fujimori granted the military broad powers to arrest suspected insurgents and try them in secret military courts with few legal rights. This measure has often been criticized for compromising the fundamental democratic and human right to an open trial wherein the accused faces the accuser. Fujimori contended that these measures were both justified and also necessary. Members of the judiciary were too afraid to charge the alleged insurgents, and judges and prosecutors had very legitimate fears of reprisals against them or their families. At the same time, Fujimori's government armed rural Peruvians, organizing them into groups known as "rondas campesinas" ("peasant patrols").
Insurgent activity was in decline by the end of 1992, and Fujimori took credit for this abatement, claiming that his campaign had largely eliminated the insurgent threat. After the 1992 auto-coup, the intelligence work of the DINCOTE (National Counter-Terrorism Directorate) led to the capture of the leaders from MRTA and the Shining Path, including notorious Shining Path leader Abimael Guzmán. Guzmán's capture was a political coup for Fujimori, who used it to great effect in the press; in an interview with documentarian Ellen Perry, Fujimori even notes that he specially ordered Guzmán's prison jumpsuit to be white with black stripes, to enhance the image of his capture in the media.
Critics charge that to achieve the defeat of the Shining Path, the Peruvian military engaged in widespread human rights abuses, and that the majority of the victims were poor highland countryside inhabitants caught in a crossfire between the military and insurgents. The final report of the Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission, published on 28 August 2003, brought out that Peruvian armed forces were also guilty of destroying villages and murdering countryside inhabitants whom they suspected of supporting insurgents.
The Japanese embassy hostage crisis began on 17 December 1996, when fourteen MRTA militants seized the residence of the Japanese ambassador in Lima during a party, taking hostage some four hundred diplomats, government officials, and other dignitaries. The action was partly in protest of prison conditions in Peru. During the four-month standoff, the Emerretistas gradually freed all but 72 of their hostages. The government rejected the militants' demand to release imprisoned MRTA members and secretly prepared an elaborate plan to storm the residence, while stalling by negotiating with the hostage-takers.
On 22 April 1997, a team of military commandos, codenamed "Chavín de Huantar", raided the building. One hostage, two military commandos, and all 14 MRTA insurgents were killed in the operation. Images of President Fujimori at the ambassador's residence during and after the military operation, surrounded by soldiers and liberated dignitaries, and walking among the corpses of the insurgents, were widely televised. The conclusion of the four-month-long standoff was used by Fujimori and his supporters to bolster his image as tough on terrorism.
Human rights violations
Several organizations criticized Fujimori's methods against the Shining Path and the MRTA. Amnesty International said "the widespread and systematic nature of human rights violations committed during the government of former head of state Albert Fujimori (1990–2000) in Peru constitute crimes against humanity under international law." Fujimori's alleged association with death squads is currently being studied by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, after the court accepted the case of "Cantuta vs Perú".
The 1991 Barrios Altos massacre by members of the death squad Grupo Colina, made up solely of members of the Peruvian armed forces, was one of the crimes that Peru cited in its request to Japan for his extradition in 2003.
Reportedly following socioeconomic objectives calling for the "total extermination" of "culturally backward and economically impoverished groups" determined by the Peruvian military in Plan Verde, from 1996 to 2000, the Fujimori government oversaw a massive forced sterilization campaign known as the National Program for Reproductive Health and Family Planning (PNSRPF). According to Back and Zavala, the plan was an example of ethnic cleansing as it targeted indigenous and rural women. The United Nations and other international aid agencies supported this campaign. USAID provided funding and training until it was exposed by objections by churches and human rights groups. The Nippon Foundation, headed by Ayako Sono, a Japanese novelist and personal friend of Fujimori, supported as well.Peru Plans a Hot Line to Battle Forced-Sterilizations The ZENET LIMA, Peru, 2 September 2001 Over 215,000 people, mostly women, entirely indigenous, were forced or threatened into sterilization and 16,547 men were forced to undergo vasectomies during these years, most of them without a proper anesthetist, in contrast to 80,385 sterilizations and 2,795 vasectomies over the previous three years.
The success of the military operation in the Japanese embassy hostage crisis was tainted by subsequent allegations that at least three and possibly eight of the insurgents were summarily executed by the commandos after surrendering. In 2002, the case was taken up by public prosecutors, but the Peruvian Supreme Court ruled that the military tribunals had jurisdiction. A military court later absolved them of guilt, and the "Chavín de Huantar" soldiers led the 2004 military parade. In response, in 2003 MRTA family members lodged a complaint with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) accusing the Peruvian state of human rights violations, namely that the MRTA insurgents had been denied the "right to life, the right to judicial guarantees and the right to judicial protection". The IACHR accepted the case and is currently studying it.Peruvian Minister of Justice Maria Zavala has stated that this verdict by the IACHR supports the Peruvian government's extradition of Fujimori from Chile. Though the IACHR verdict does not directly implicate Fujimori, it does fault the Peruvian government for its complicity in the 1992 Cantuta University killings.
Resignation, arrest, and trial
Alberto Fujimori left Peru in November 2000 to attend a regional summit in Brunei. He then traveled on to Japan. Once there, he announced plans to remain in the country and faxed his resignation letter to Congress.
After Congress rejected Fujimori's faxed resignation, they relieved Fujimori of his duties as president and banned him from Peruvian politics for a decade. He remained in self-imposed exile in Japan, where he resided with his friend, the famous Catholic novelist Ayako Sono. Several senior Japanese politicians have supported Fujimori, partly because of his decisive action in ending the 1996-97 Japanese embassy crisis.
Alejandro Toledo, who assumed the Peruvian presidency in 2001, spearheaded the criminal case against Fujimori. He arranged meetings with the Supreme Court, tax authorities, and other powers in Peru to "coordinate the joint efforts to bring the criminal Fujimori from Japan." His vehemence in this matter at times compromised Peruvian law: forcing the judiciary and legislative system to keep guilty sentences without hearing Fujimori's defense; not providing Fujimori with representation when Fujimori was tried in absentia; and expelling pro-Fujimori congressmen from the parliament without proof of the accusations against those congressmen. These expulsions were later reversed by the judiciary.
The Peruvian Congress authorized charges against Fujimori in August 2001. Fujimori was alleged to be a coauthor, along with Vladimiro Montesinos, of the death-squad killings at Barrios Altos in 1991 and La Cantuta in 1992, respectively. At the behest of Peruvian authorities, Interpol issued an arrest order for Fujimori on charges that included murder, kidnapping, and crimes against humanity.
Meanwhile, the Peruvian government found that Japan was not amenable to the extradition of Fujimori; a protracted diplomatic debate ensued, when Japan showed itself unwilling to accede to the extradition request. Fujimori had been granted Japanese citizenship after his arrival in the country, and the Japanese government maintained that Japanese citizens would not be extradited.
In September 2003, Congressman Dora Dávila, joined by Minister of Health Luis Soari, denounced Fujimori and several of his ministers for crimes against humanity, for allegedly having overseen forced sterilizations during his regime. In November, Congress approved an investigation of Fujimori's involvement in the airdrop of Kalashnikov rifles into the Colombian jungle in 1999 and 2000 for guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Fujimori maintained he had no knowledge of the arms-trading, and blamed Montesinos. By approving the charges, Congress lifted the immunity granted to Fujimori as a former president, so that he could be criminally charged and prosecuted.
Congress also voted to support charges against Fujimori for the detention and disappearance of 67 students from the central Andean city of Huancayo and the disappearance of several residents from the northern coastal town of Chimbote during the 1990s. It also approved charges that Fujimori mismanaged millions of dollars from Japanese charities, suggesting that the millions of dollars in his bank account were far too much to have been accumulated legally.
In 2004, the Special Prosecutor established to investigate Fujimori released a report alleging that the Fujimori administration had obtained US$2 billion though graft. Most of this money came from Vladimiro Montesinos' web of corruption. The Special Prosecutor's figure of two billion dollars is considerably higher than the one arrived at by Transparency International, an NGO that studies corruption. Transparency International listed Fujimori as having embezzled an estimated US$600 million, which would rank seventh in the list of money embezzled by heads of government active within 1984–2004., 25 March 2004, Laksamana.Net, Jakarta.
Fujimori dismissed the judicial proceedings underway against him as "politically motivated", citing Toledo's involvement. Fujimori established a new political party in Peru, Sí Cumple, working from Japan. He hoped to participate in the 2006 presidential elections, but in February 2004, the Constitutional Court dismissed this possibility, because the ex-president was specifically barred by Congress from holding any office for ten years. Fujimori saw the decision as unconstitutional, as did his supporters such as ex-congressmembers Luz Salgado, Martha Chávez and Fernán Altuve, who argued it was a "political" maneuver and that the only body with the authority to determine the matter was the Jurado Nacional de Elecciones (JNE). Valentín Paniagua disagreed, suggesting that the Constitutional Court finding was binding and that "no further debate is possible".Salgado: JNE debe ser quien defina postulación de Fujimori, Noticias on terra.com.peru, 21 February 2005 credited to Expreso. Retrieved 26 September 2006.
Fujimori's Sí Cumple (roughly translated, "He Keeps His Word") received more than 10% in many country-level polls, contending with APRA for the second place slot, but did not participate in the 2006 elections after its participation in the Alliance for the Future (initially thought as Alliance Sí Cumple) had not been allowed.
By March 2005, it appeared that Peru had all but abandoned its efforts to extradite Fujimori from Japan. In September of that year, Fujimori obtained a new Peruvian passport in Tokyo and announced his intention to run in the upcoming 2006 national election. He arrived in Chile in November 2005, but hours after his arrival there he was arrested. Peru then requested his extradition.
While under house arrest in Chile, Fujimori announced plans to run in Japan's Upper House elections in July 2007 for the far-right People's New Party. Fujimori was extradited from Chile to Peru in September 2007.
On 7 April 2009, a three-judge panel convicted Fujimori on charges of human rights abuses, declaring that the "charges against him have been proven beyond all reasonable doubt". The panel found him guilty of ordering the Grupo Colina death squad to commit the November 1991 Barrios Altos massacre and the July 1992 La Cantuta Massacre, which resulted in the deaths of 25 people, as well as for taking part in the kidnappings of Peruvian opposition journalist Gustavo Gorriti and businessman Samuel Dyer. Fujimori's conviction is the only instance of a democratically elected head of state being tried and convicted of human rights abuses in his own country. Later on 7 April, the court sentenced Fujimori to 25 years in prison. Likewise, the Court found him guilty of aggravated kidnapping, under the aggravating circumstance of cruel treatment, to the detriment of journalist Gustavo Gorriti and businessman Samuel Dyer Ampudia. The Special Criminal Chamber determined that the sentence had expired on February 10, 2032. On January 2, 2010, the sentence to 25 years in prison for human rights violations was confirmed.
Further trials
He faced a third trial in July 2009 over allegations that he illegally gave $15 million in state funds to Vladimiro Montesinos, former head of the National Intelligence Service, during the two months prior to his fall from power. Fujimori admitted paying the money to Montesinos but claimed that he had later paid back the money to the state. On 20 July, the court found him guilty of embezzlement and sentenced him to a further seven and a half years in prison.
A fourth trial took place in September 2009 in Lima. Fujimori was accused of using Montesinos to bribe and tap the phones of journalists, businessmen and opposition politicians – evidence of which led to the collapse of his government in 2000. Fujimori admitted the charges but claimed that the charges were made to damage his daughter's presidential election campaign. The prosecution asked the court to sentence Fujimori to eight years imprisonment with a fine of $1.6 million plus $1 million in compensation to ten people whose phones were bugged. Fujimori pleaded guilty and was sentenced to six years' imprisonment on 30 September 2009. Under Peruvian law, all prison sentences run concurrently.
On May 3, 2016, the Constitutional Court of Peru rejected the nullity of Alberto Fujimori's conviction. Alberto Fujimori will continue to be sentenced for 25 years, which was imposed on him for responsibility in the Barrios Altos and La Cantuta massacres.
Pardon requests
Press reports in late 2012 indicated that Fujimori was suffering from tongue cancer and other medical problems. His family asked President Ollanta Humala for a pardon. President Humala rejected a pardon in 2013, saying that Fujimori's condition was not serious enough to warrant it. In July 2016, with three days left in his term, President Humala said that there was insufficient time to evaluate a second request to pardon Fujimori, leaving the decision to his successor Pedro Pablo Kuczynski. On 24 December 2017, President Kuczynski pardoned him on health grounds. Kuczynski's office stated that the hospitalized 79-year-old Fujimori had a "progressive, degenerative and incurable disease". The pardon kicked off at least two days of protests and led at least three congressmen to resign from Kuczynski's party. A spokesman for Popular Force alleged there was a pact that, in exchange for the pardon, Popular Force members helped Kuczynski fight ongoing impeachment proceedings.
On February 20, 2018, the National Criminal Chamber ruled that it did not apply the resolution that granted Fujimori the right of grace for humanitarian reasons. Therefore, the former president had to face the process for the Pativilca Case with a simple appearance.
On 3 October 2018, the Peruvian Supreme Court reversed Fujimori's pardon and ordered his return to prison. He was rushed to a hospital and returned to prison on 23 January 2019. His pardon was formally annulled on 13 February 2019.
Legacy
Economic achievements
Fujimori is credited by many Peruvians for bringing stability to the country after the violence and hyperinflation of the García years. While it is generally agreed that the "Fujishock" brought short/middle-term macroeconomic stability, the long-term social impact of Fujimori's free market economic policies is still hotly debated.
Neoliberal reforms under Fujimori took place in three distinct phases: an initial "orthodox" phase (1990–92) in which technocrats dominated the reform agenda; a "pragmatic" phase (1993–98) that saw the growing influence of business elites over government priorities; and a final "watered-down" phase (1999–2000) dominated by a clique of personal loyalists and their clientelist policies that aimed to secure Fujimori a third term as president. Business was a big winner of the reforms, with its influence increasing significantly within both the state and society.
High growth during Fujimori's first term petered out during his second term. "El Niño" phenomena had a tremendous impact on the Peruvian economy during the late 1990s. Nevertheless, total GDP growth between 1992 and 2001, inclusive, was 44.60%, that is, 3.76% per annum; total GDP per capita growth between 1991 and 2001, inclusive, was 30.78%, that is, 2.47% per annum. Also, studies by INEI, the national statistics bureau show that the number of Peruvians living in poverty increased dramatically (from 41.6% to more than 70%) during Alan García's term, but decreased greatly (from more than 70% to 54%) during Fujimori's term. Furthermore, FAO reported Peru reduced undernourishment by about 29% from 1990–92 to 1997–99.
Peru was reintegrated into the global economic system, and began to attract foreign investment. The mass selloff of state-owned enterprises led to improvements in some service industries, notably local telephone, mobile telephone, and internet services, respectively. For example, before privatization, a consumer or business had to wait up to 10 years to get a local telephone line installed by the state-run telephone company at a cost of $607 for a residential line.Peru after Privatization: Are Telephone Consumers Better Off? . Máximo Torero, Enrique Schroth, and Alberto Pascó-Font. Retrieved 4 October 2006. A couple of years after privatization, the wait was reduced to just a few days. Peru's Physical land based telephone network had a dramatic increase in telephone penetration from 2.9% in 1993 to 5.9% in 1996 and 6.2% in 2000, and a dramatic decrease in the wait for a telephone line. Average wait went from 70 months in 1993 (before privatization) to two months in 1996 (after privatization). Privatization also generated foreign investment in export-oriented activities such as mining and energy extraction, notably the Camisea gas project and the copper and zinc extraction projects at Antamina.
Criticism
Fujimori has been described as a "dictator".Charles D. Kenney, 2004 Fujimori's Coup and the Breakdown of Democracy in Latin America (Helen Kellogg Institute for International Studies) University of Notre Dame Press His government was permeated by a network of corruption organized by his associate Montesinos.Catherine M. Conaghan 2005 Fujimori's Peru: Deception in the Public Sphere (Pitt Latin American Series) University of Pittsburgh Press Fujimori's style of government has also been described as "populist authoritarianism". Numerous governments and human rights organizations such as Amnesty International, welcomed the extradition of Fujimori to face human rights charges. As early as 1991, Fujimori had himself vocally denounced what he called "pseudo-human rights organizations" such as Amnesty International and Americas Watch, for allegedly failing to criticize the insurgencies targeting civilian populations throughout Peru against which his government was struggling.
Some analysts state that some of the GDP growth during the Fujimori years actually reflects a greater rate of extraction of nonrenewable resources by transnational companies; these companies were attracted by Fujimori by means of near-zero royalties, and, by the same fact, little of the extracted wealth has stayed in the country."Peru: Public consultation says NO to mining in Tambogrande", pp.14–15 in WRM Bulletin # 59, June 2002 (World Rainforest Movement, English edition). Accessible online as Rich Text Format (RTF) document. Retrieved 26 September 2006."Investing in Destruction: The Impacts of a WTO Investment Agreement on Extractive Industries in Developing Countries", Oxfam America Briefing Paper, June 2003. Retrieved 27 September 2006. Peru's mining legislation, they claim, has served as a role model for other countries that wish to become more mining-friendly.
Fujimori's privatization program also remains shrouded in controversy and opposed by many Peruvians. A congressional investigation in 2002, led by socialist opposition congressman Javier Diez Canseco, stated that of the US$9 billion raised through the privatizations of hundreds of state-owned enterprises, only a small fraction of this income ever benefited the Peruvian people.
The sole instance of organized labor's success in impeding reforms, namely the teacher's union resistance to education reform, was based on traditional methods of organization and resistance: strikes and street demonstrations.
In the 2004 Global Corruption Report, Fujimori made into the list of the World's Most Corrupt Leaders. He was listed seventh and he was said to have amassed $600 million, but despite years of incarceration and investigation, none of these supposed stolen funds have ever been located in any bank account anywhere in the world.
Support
Fujimori did have support within Peru. The Universidad de Lima March 2003 poll, taken while he was in Japan, found a 41% approval rating for his administration. A poll conducted in March 2005 by the Instituto de Desarrollo e Investigación de Ciencias Económicas (IDICE) indicated that 12.1% of the respondents intended to vote for Fujimori in the 2006 presidential election. A poll conducted on 25 November 2005, by the Universidad de Lima indicated a high approval (45.6%) rating of the Fujimori period between 1990 and 2000, attributed to his counterinsurgency efforts (53%). An article from La Razon, a Peruvian newspaper, stated in 2003 that: "Fujimori is only guilty of one big crime and it is that of having been successful in a country of failed politicians, creators of debt, builders of mirages, and downright opportunistic."
According to a more recent Universidad de Lima survey, Fujimori still retains public support, ranking fifth in personal popularity among other political figures. Popular approval for his decade-long presidency (1990–2000) has reportedly grown (from 31.5% in 2002 to 49.5% in May 2007). Despite accusations of corruption and human rights violations, nearly half of the individuals interviewed in the survey approved of Fujimori's presidential regime. In a 2007 Universidad de Lima survey of 600 Peruvians in Lima and the port of Callao, 82.6% agreed that the former president should be extradited from Chile to stand trial in Peru.
The Lima-based newspaper Perú 21 ran an editorial noting that even though the Universidad de Lima poll results indicate that four out of every five interviewees believe that Fujimori is guilty of some of the charges against him, he still enjoys at least 30% of popular support and enough approval to restart a political career.
In the 2006 congressional elections, his daughter Keiko was elected to the congress with the highest vote count. She came in second place in the 2011 Peruvian presidential election with 23.2% of the vote, and lost the June runoff against Ollanta Humala. She again ran for President in the 2016 election, narrowly losing the runoff to Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, and again in the 2021 election, losing the runoff to Pedro Castillo.
See also
Judiciary reform in Peru under Alberto Fujimori
History of Peru
Peruvian internal conflict
Japanese Peruvians
List of presidents of Peru
Politics of Peru
Peruvian national election, 2006
Vladimiro Montesinos
References
Further reading
H.W. Wilson Company, Current Biography Yearbook, Volume 57, H.W. Wilson, 1996
External links
Biography and tenure by CIDOB Foundation
The Fall of Fujimori on POV at PBS'', 2006
State of Fear a documentary of Peru's war on terror based on the findings of the Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission
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"On 24 December 2017, the President of Peru, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, pardoned jailed ex-president Alberto Fujimori. Because the pardon was granted on Christmas Eve, it became known as the \"indulto de Navidad\" (\"Christmas pardon\").\n\nIn 2009, Fujimori had been convicted of human rights violations and sentenced to 25 years in prison for his role in killings and kidnappings by the Grupo Colina death squad during his government's battle against Shining Path leftist guerrillas in the 1990s. The verdict marked the first time that an elected head of state has been extradited to his home country, tried, and convicted of human rights violations. Fujimori was specifically found guilty of murder, bodily harm, and two cases of kidnapping. The pardon was granted after Fujimori had completed 10 years of imprisonment in Lima.\n\nThe pardon sparked massive protests across Peru, even during Christmas Eve and Christmas Day celebrations, which are holidays in the country. Protestors accused Kuczynski of corruption, claiming that the pardon was payback for the support of Fujimori's son, Kenji Fujimori, which had been central to Kuczynski's success in surviving an impeachment vote days earlier.\n\nOn 3 October 2018, Fujimori's pardon was reversed by Peru's Supreme Court and he was ordered to return to prison. He was rushed to a hospital and entered prison on 23 January 2019.\n\nBackground\n\nLegal situation \nAccording to Peruvian law, the president has the power to grant a humanitarian pardon when the condemned person presents a terminal illness; an advanced, incurable, degenerative illness where prison conditions put the person's life, health, or integrity at risk; or a chronic, degenerative, mental illness where prison conditions put the person's life, health or integrity at risk.\n\nFujimori's criminal trial and convictions\n\nAlberto Fujimori was President of Peru between 1990 and 2000 in the period of the so-called Fujimorato. While still president, Fujimori fled the country and took refuge in Japan when faced with charges of corruption in 2000. On arriving in Japan he attempted to resign his presidency via fax, but his resignation was rejected by the Congress of the Republic, which removed him from office by the process of impeachment. Wanted in Peru on charges of corruption and human rights abuses, Fujimori maintained a self-imposed exile until his arrest while visiting Chile in November 2005. He was extradited to face criminal charges in Peru in September 2007. In 2009, he was sentenced to 25 years for homicide for ordering the Barrios Altos and La Cantuta massacres. He was also sentenced for other crimes such as corruption.\n\nOther accusations against Fujimori include the mass sterilization of 231,774 indigenous people in rural Peru as a result of the National Population Program.\n\nPrevious pardon request\nPress reports in late 2012 indicated that Fujimori was suffering from tongue cancer and other medical problems. His family petitioned then-president Ollanta Humala for a pardon. President Humala rejected a pardon in June 2013, saying that Fujimori's condition was not serious enough to warrant it. In July 2016, with three days left in his term, President Humala said that there was insufficient time to evaluate a second request to pardon Fujimori, leaving the decision to his successor Pedro Pablo Kuczynski.\n\nImpeachment of Pedro Pablo Kuczynski\n\nIn December 2017, Kuczynski faced impeachment proceedings for his connection to the international corruption scandal surrounding the Brazilian firm Odebrecht. The impeachment request was presented by left-wing party Broad Front (headed by a former priest and environmental activist called Marco Arana). Fujimori's daughter Keiko was the most outspoken supporter of the impeachment proceedings against Kuczynski, who had defeated her the year before in a tightly contested presidential election. Kuczynski survived the impeachment vote on 21 December, largely due to the support of Fujimori's son Kenji.\n\nPardon\nOn 11 December 2017 Fujimori requested a pardon for humanitarian reasons. A medical board composed of Juan Postigo, Víctor Sánchez and Guido Hernández recommended pardoning the former President due to a \"progressive, degenerative and incurable disease\". On 23 December, Fujimori was transferred from the Diroes prison to a clinic. On 24 December, the Press Office of the Presidential Office announced the pardon of Alberto Fujimori through a press release.\n\nThe same day, Kuczynski signed R.S. No. 281-2017-JUS., granting Fujimori \"pardon and right of grace for humanitarian reasons within the Barbadillo Penitentiary Establishment\".\n\nReactions\nOn 25 December, in the face of protests against the pardon, Kuczysnki released a message to the nation, asking people to not \"get carried away by hate\" nor to allow the former President to \"die in prison\". In a video broadcast on his social media, Fujimori apologized to those who were \"defrauded by [his] government\" and thanked Kuczynski.\n\nThere was widespread criticism in Peru that the pardon was motivated less by clemency than a desire to reward Fujimori's son Kenji for his role in helping Kuczynski survive the impeachment vote against him the week before the pardon. Thousands of protesters took to the streets in Lima on 26 December. The Peruvian non-profit law office Legal Defense Institute denounced the pardon as political and illegal and vowed to appeal it to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR). The Peruvian human rights organization Association for Human Rights (APRODEH) and the international organization Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL) released a statement on 27 December asking the IACHR to intervene.\n\nAmerigo Incalcaterra, the South America representative for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, categorically rejected the pardon, stating that \"Not putting victims at the center of this decision derails the progress the Peruvian state has made on truth, justice, memory and reparations\",\n\nBefore the pardon was announced, Human Rights Watch had condemned the possibility of a pardon, calling it \"a slap in the face to victims of atrocities in Peru and a major setback for the rule of law in the country\"; and Amnesty International said that the pardon would violate Peru's obligations under international law and undermine the fight against impunity.\n\nThe days following the pardon saw the resignation of various members of Kuczynski's Peruvians for Change party, including the Minister of Culture, three members of Congress, and eight appointed officials. Facing a second impeachment process, Kuczynski himself resigned in March 2018.\n\nReversal of pardon \nFollowing appeals by victims of Fujimori's decisions, Peru's Supreme Court reversed his pardon on 3 October 2018. Fujimori was ordered back to prison. The court found that the pardon lacked legal foundation, as one of the reasons given for Fujimori's pardon was a terminal illness, but he did not suffer from one. Furthermore, it found that \"the pardon was unlawful because Fujimori's crimes are considered crimes against humanity, and therefore can't be pardoned under Peruvian and international law\". Fujimori's attorney said he would appeal the decision.\n\nOn the day the reversal was announced, Fujimori was transported by ambulance to a private clinic to be treated for a heart condition. He gave an interview there one day later, saying that a return to prison would kill him.\n\nDays later, on 11 October 2018, the Congress of Peruwhose members are mainly Fujimoristapproved a bill allowing older adults to be released from prison and be placed on electronic monitoring, a move that was seen as benefiting Fujimori.\n\nIn January 2019, a court-appointed panel found that Fujimori was healthy enough to return to prison, and he was forced back to prison on 23 January 2019. The Supreme Court rejected an appeal by Fujimori's lawyers on 13 February 2019, confirming the earlier decision that Fujimori must serve the remaining 13 years of his sentence in prison.\n\nPossible future pardon \nFujimori's daughter, Keiko Fujimori, unsuccessfully ran for president in the 2021 Peruvian general election. She had announced in January 2021 that she would pardon her father should she get elected. She ultimately lost the election in the second round to Pedro Castillo, who has vowed to not consider pardoning Fujimori while in office.\n\nSee also \n 2017–2021 Peruvian political crisis\n\nReferences\n\n2017 in Peru\n2017 in politics\nDecember 2017 events in South America\nFujimori\nPolitical history of Peru",
"Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori was arrested, tried, and convicted for a number of crimes related to corruption and human rights abuses that occurred during his government. Fujimori was president from 1990 to 2000. His presidency ended when he fled the country in the midst of a scandal involving corruption and human rights violations.\n\nWanted in Peru, Fujimori maintained a self-imposed exile until his arrest while visiting Chile in November 2005. He was extradited to face criminal charges in Peru in September 2007.\n\nIn December 2007, Fujimori was convicted of ordering an illegal search and seizure, and was sentenced to six years in prison. The Peruvian Supreme Court upheld the decision upon his appeal. In April 2009 Fujimori was convicted of human rights violations and sentenced to 25 years in prison for his role in killings and kidnappings by the Grupo Colina death squad during his government's battle against leftist guerrillas in the 1990s.\n\nThe verdict, delivered by a three-judge panel, marked the first time that an elected head of state has been extradited to his home country, tried, and convicted of human rights violations. Fujimori was specifically found guilty of murder, bodily harm, and two cases of kidnapping. In July 2009 Fujimori was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison for embezzlement after he admitted to giving $15 million from the Peruvian treasury to his intelligence service chief, Vladimiro Montesinos. Two months later he pled guilty in a fourth trial to bribery and received an additional six-year term. Under Peruvian law all the sentences must run concurrently, with a maximum length of imprisonment of 25 years.\n\nOn 24 December 2017, President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski pardoned him on health grounds. The pardon was overturned by the Peruvian Supreme Court in October 2018.\n\nExile in Japan\nAfter Fujimori fled to Japan, the government of Peru requested his extradition. Because Japan recognizes Fujimori as a Japanese citizen rather than a Peruvian citizen due to the Master Nationality Rule, and because Japan refuses to extradite its citizens to other countries, Fujimori was not extradited from Japan.\n\nArrest in Chile\nOn 6 November 2005, Alberto Fujimori unexpectedly arrived in Santiago, Chile, on a private aircraft, having flown via Tijuana from Tokyo. His flight had passed through Peruvian airspace on its path from Mexico to Chile. There were numerous firings over alleged negligence in the handling of the Fujimori flight to Chile. As investigations continued, two Chilean and four Mexican immigration officers were dismissed for failing to notify superiors of Fujimori's stop at the time of his arrival. Colonel Carlos Medel, head of Interpol in Lima, was also fired for negligence, apparently having ordered his staff to switch off the 24-hour Interpol warning system at the time of the overflight.\n\nMexican officials suggested Fujimori was not arrested in Mexico because there was no judicial order for his arrest. Peruvian president Alejandro Toledo, after learning of the arrival of Fujimori in Chile, called for an \"urgent meeting\" in the governmental palace. Toledo called Chile's foreign minister, Ignacio Walker, and requested the detention of Fujimori. A few hours later, Fujimori was detained on an arrest warrant issued by a Chilean judge, who was told by Chile's Supreme Court to consider Lima's request for Fujimori's pre-trial detention, as part of the extradition process.\n\nFujimori was then transferred to the School of Investigations, Chile's Investigative Police academy, where he spent the night. Notified of the reasons for his arrest, Fujimori petitioned for provisional freedom during the extradition proceedings, but his petition was denied. Later in the day, he was transferred to the School of Gendarmerie, a training academy for corrections officers, where he was detained until May 2006.\n\nExtradition proceedings\nThe decision whether or not to extradite Fujimori was delegated by the Chilean government to the Supreme Court, following precedent dating to a 1932 extradition treaty between the two nations. Chilean law suggests that in addition to the terms of the treaty, extradition requests must also be based on whether there is sufficient evidence against the accused – not necessarily enough to convict him of the charges, but sufficient to justify (from a Chilean legal point of view) the indictments the accused faces. This meant that Peruvian prosecutors had to demonstrate that the crimes for which Fujimori has been charged in Peru were just as severe in Chile.\n\nPeru, which had sixty days to issue an extradition request, sent a high-level delegation led by Interior Minister Rómulo Pizarro and a top prosecutor. The government of Japan asked for \"fair treatment\" for Fujimori.\n\nOn 18 May 2006 Fujimori was granted bail (set at US$2,830) by the Chilean Supreme Court and was released from detention and whisked away to a house rented for him by his family in the Las Condes neighborhood of Santiago. According to Fujii Takahiko, one of the Japanese financiers who had been covering some of Fujimori's expenses, \"Fujimori [calmly waited] for the decision of the Chilean Supreme Court because he [had] the assurance that he [would] not be extradited.\" It was reported that Fujii covered the cost of renting the house, while a cadre of businessmen and Japanese friends covered his living expenses. Fujii, a car exporter by trade, reported that Fujimori had largely forgotten his knowledge of the Japanese language.,\n Because he was granted provisional freedom, Fujimori was not allowed to leave Chile. There were fears among some Peruvians that he could have escaped from the country.\n\nFujimori arrived at a time of tense relations between Chile and Peru, after Peru's Congress passed a law the previous week in an attempt to reclaim sea territory from Chile. Chilean foreign minister, Ignacio Walker, said Fujimori's action demonstrated \"a very imprudent, very irresponsible attitude, considering this is the most difficult week we have had with Peru in the last decade\". In a media statement, Fujimori said that he would stay in Chile temporarily while launching his candidacy for Peruvian president in the April 2006 elections.\n\nThe government of Peru sent a number of extradition requests to Chile concerning Fujimori. It requested his extradition to stand trial for murder in the cases of the Barrios Altos massacre and the La Cantuta massacre, both carried out by Grupo Colina. It also requested his extradition for kidnapping Samuel Dyer and Gustavo Gorriti, both of whom were abducted by Peruvian Army personnel during Fujimori's self-coup and brought to the basements of the Intelligence Service.\n\nAdditionally, he was charged with usurpation of powers and abuse of authority for ordering the illegal search and seizure of a house owned by Vladimiro Montesinos' wife; illicit association to commit a crime, embezzlement, and inserting false statements in a public document for paying Montesinos US$15 million; illicit association to commit a crime and active corruption of authorities for paying congressmen to switch parties and inform on the opposition parties; telephonic interference or eavesdropping, illicit association to commit a crime, and embezzlement for authorizing the illegal wiretapping of opposition figure's phones; and illicit association to commit a crime, embezzlement, and usurpation of powers for engaging in a fraudulent purchase of tractors from China and bribing newspapers and television stations with state money in order to obtain favorable news coverage.\n \nSubsequently, the Chilean judge overseeing the extradition proceedings refused to accept new evidence regarding the 10 corruption and two human rights charges, which, according to the BBC News' Dan Collyns, \"would have prolonged the case by several months\". On 22 November 2006, the Peruvian government issued a new arrest warrant for Fujimori, alleging that he ordered the death of 20 members of Sendero Luminoso in 1992. Fujimori denied the charge.\n\nOn 11 January 2007 Chile's Supreme Court rejected a motion for an additional investigation filed by lawyers representing Fujimori. The new ruling coincided with the Peruvian government's anger over a recent Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) ruling that found Peru guilty of crimes committed during former president's regime. The Peruvian government expressed fresh concern that Fujimori might try to escape from Chile. Although Fujimori was on parole, with stipulations banning him from leaving Chile, at the end of January 2007 he traveled to a beach resort aboard a private airplane.\n\nOn 1 February 2007 Reuters reported that the Peruvian government's final report on Fujimori's extradition included additional evidence supporting the former president's links to human rights abuses. In the words of Carlos Briceno, Peru's special corruption prosecutor, \"We've practically finished the report, in which there is irrefutable proof [against Fujimori]\". For his part, Fujimori denied the human rights and embezzlement charges.\n\nPedro Fujimori\nOn 8 February 2007 the Peruvian government filed a formal request with the United States for the extradition of Fujimori's younger brother, Pedro Fujimori. According to the head of the Peruvian Justice Ministry's Unit for Extraditions, Omar Chehade, Pedro Fujimori was charged with corruption associated with reception of illegal donations for an NGO, Apenkai, founded at the outset of Fujimori's first term in office. Chehade reported to Reuters that Pedro Fujimori oversaw Japanese donations to the Peruvian government, and that he allegedly siphoned off as much as US$30 million into his own personal bank accounts in the United States. A spokesperson for the Fujimorista party, Congressman Carlos Raffo, denied the charges calling them unsubstantiated, and noted that there are no signs of corruption on the part of Pedro Fujimori.\n\nChilean judge rejects Fujimori extradition\nOn 20 July 2007 the Chilean Supreme Court judge Orlando Álvarez, ruled that he had not found any evidence linking former president Alberto Fujimori with all the corruption cases and alleged human rights violations of which the Toledo congress had accused him. Judge Álvarez stated that all the accusations were based on hearsay; \"he [Fujimori] was supposed to know those criminal acts\".\n\nThe opinion was immediately appealed to the Supreme Court.\n\nChilean Supreme Court grants Fujimori extradition\nThe Chilean Supreme Court granted Fujimori's extradition to Peru on 21 September 2007, on 7 of 13 charges. The Barrios Altos massacre and La Cantuta massacre related charges were accepted unanimously, while four other corruption-related charges were passed by a majority of votes. One corruption charge was passed unanimously.\n\nOn the same day, Peruvian police sent an airplane to receive Fujimori. The plane (with Peru's General Director of National Police, David Rodriguez, four Interpol officers and physicians) arrived in Santiago on the morning of 22 September. The following day, the plane returned to Lima's Las Palmas air force base with Fujimori on board. He was flown by helicopter to a police base, to be held in detention until a permanent facility was prepared.\n\nFirst conviction\nFujimori confessed that he had ordered a warrantless search of Vladimiro Montesinos's wife's apartment, and on 11 December 2007, the Peruvian court sentenced him to six years in prison and fined him 400,000 soles (135,000 U.S. dollars) for abuse of powers in ordering this search, which took place shortly before he left office.\n\nOn 10 April 2008, the Supreme Court of Peru upheld Fujimori's sentence of six years in the case.\n\nPeruvian general elections\nMartha Chávez was Sí Cumple'''s presidential candidate in the April 9, 2006 general election (under the Alianza por el Futuro banner). Fujimori's daughter, Keiko Fujimori was a congressional candidate representing the same alliance. While Chávez got 7.43% of the first-round vote (placed 4th) for presidency and was eliminated, Keiko Fujimori received the highest vote for any single candidate (with 602,869 votes) and took one of Sí Cumple's 13 seats in the new Congress.\n\nSome of Sí Cumple's members have occupied powerful positions in congress, such as Luisa María Cuculiza, who was first elected to Congress in 2006; Rolando Souza, who was formerly\nAlberto Fujimori's lawyer and later appointed to the Constitutional Court; and Santiago Fujimori, who was president of the Energy Committee. Keiko Fujimori, was president of the Peruvian-Chilean Friendship Commission.\n\nJapanese politics\nIn June 2007, Fujimori announced his candidacy for the House of Councillors, the upper house of the Diet of Japan, under the banner of the People's New Party, a minor party with only eight lawmakers. Still under house arrest in Chile at the time, Fujimori's initial campaign statements were conveyed by party head Shizuka Kamei. Japan's government had determined in 2000 that Fujimori holds Japanese citizenship. The Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications issued a statement in response, pointing out that there is no law banning participation in an election by someone under house arrest in a foreign country.\n\nThe announcement sparked speculation that Fujimori's candidacy was a maneuver to win diplomatic immunity as an elected official and avoid trial in Peru. Chilean President Michelle Bachelet said her country's Supreme Court would not be influenced by the move and would soon decide whether to grant an extradition request to return Fujimori to Peru.\n\nOn 11 July 2007, Chile's Supreme Court turned down the Peruvian government's request that Fujimori be extradited there to face charges of human rights violations; however he remained under house arrest in Chile and it was unclear whether he would be permitted to depart for Japan. Though much of the Japanese public have a favorable view of Fujimori due to his role in the resolution of the 1997 Japanese embassy hostage crisis, members of the Democratic Party of Japan and the Japanese Communist Party questioned his commitment to Japan and accused him of using the election to avoid justice in Peru.\n\nJapan indicated on 5 July 2007 that it had no plans to ask Chile to allow Alberto Fujimori to return for that month's upper house elections. The leader of the People's New Party had urged Japan's Foreign Minister to take up the issue with the government of Chile. Fujimori ultimately lost the election.\n\nConviction for human rights abuses\nOn 7 April 2009, a three-judge panel of Peru's Supreme Court convicted Fujimori on charges of human rights abuses, declaring that the \"charges against him have been proven beyond all reasonable doubt\". The panel found him guilty of ordering the Grupo Colina death squad to execute the November 1991 Barrios Altos massacre and the July 1992 La Cantuta massacre, which resulted in the deaths of 25 people, and for taking part in the kidnappings of Peruvian journalist Gustavo Gorriti and businessman Samuel Dyer. Fujimori's conviction marked the first time in history that a democratically elected president had been tried and found guilty of human rights abuses in his own country. Fujimori was already serving a six-year prison sentence for his December 2007 conviction on abuse of power charges. The trial for Fujimori's human rights abuses lasted 15 months, and was postponed on multiple occasions due to his ill health. Later on 7 April, the court sentenced Fujimori to 25 years in prison.\n\nRonald Gamarra Herrera, Executive Secretary of National Coordinator for Human Rights of Peru and one of the lawyers representing the civil parties –the families of the Barrios Altos and La Cantuta victims– said to the press that \"there has not been hate, or revenge, or cruelty in Fujimori's trial. What there has been is justice. We are not happy for the pain of a man, nor of what tragedy his family is going through. But yes it is comforting to know that justice has been served and that the victims, after so many years, can rest in peace\".\n\nThe Financial Times claimed that international observers had \"hailed the trial as a model of due process even before the verdict was read out\". Michael Reed of the International Center for Transitional Justice stated that, \"Throughout 15 months the whole Peruvian people have been actively living this process. This social engagement is important … the decision will in fact demonstrate polarisation. The issue is how the Peruvian state and Peruvian society deal with that polarization towards the future.\" Maria McFarland, a Senior Researcher for Human Rights Watch, noted that the verdict was \"absolutely the right decision ... [and] well grounded in all the evidence\" and that the special court would \"go down in history as a model of what we want to see in terms of rule of law and justice and progress in Latin America. So much has always been focused on the power of the executive and the president and the strong man; now suddenly the judiciary is having a say.\"\n\nAfter Fujimori's conviction had been announced, riots broke out in the streets. In the Ate District, approximately twenty police officers had to break up a fight between members of Fujimori's political party and a group from the local Peru's Workers Confederation (CTP). It was believed that the riot broke out when about fifty CTP members went to the police station and provoked a fight with some 300 Fujimori supporters. Outside the court, relatives of victims clashed with Fujimori supporters; the fights were broken up by riot police.Correo'', a right-wing newspaper in Lima, published a poll on 9 April claiming that 59.4% was against Fujimori's conviction, with rejection of the sentence reaching 68.3% among the lower classes. Nevertheless, the poll doesn't clarify if those interviewed considered Fujimori innocent or if they considered him guilty but did't approve of the sentence itself.\n\nPardon\n\nOn 24 December 2017, President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski pardoned Fujimori and seven other prisoners on health grounds. Fujimori had been rushed to the hospital days earlier for low blood pressure and an abnormal heart rhythm, and Kuczynski had been saved from impeachment less than a week earlier, largely due to the support of Fujimori's son Kenji. Fujimori's daughter Keiko had led the impeachment proceedings against Kuczynski, who had defeated her the year before in a tightly contested presidential election. The \"Christmas pardon\", as it became known in Spanish, was met with angry protests and at least two resignations from members of Kuczynski's party. The Peruvian non-profit law office Legal Defense Institute denounced the pardon as political and illegal and vowed to appeal it to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.\n\nThe Supreme Court of Peru overturned the pardon in October 2018, calling it unlawful.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nAPRODEH. The trial of Alberto Fujimori.\nFujimori on Trial :: Fujimori procesado\n\nCorruption in Peru\nTrials in Peru\nHistory of Peru\n2005 in Chile\n2009 in Peru\nFujimorism"
]
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[
"Alberto Fujimori",
"Early years",
"Where was Fujimori born?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_a96d11cc9e744f69a1bfa1af50e556ad_1 | Where did he go to school? | 2 | Where did Alberto Fujimori go to school? | Alberto Fujimori | Fujimori obtained his early education at the Colegio Nuestra Senora de la Merced and La Rectora. Fujimori's parents were Buddhists, but he was baptised and raised as a Roman Catholic. While he spoke mainly Japanese at home, Fujimori also learned to become a proficient Spanish speaker during his years at school. In 1956, Fujimori graduated from La gran unidad escolar Alfonso Ugarte in Lima. He went on to undergraduate studies at the Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina in 1957, graduating in 1961 first in his class as an agricultural engineer. The following year he lectured on mathematics at the university. In 1964 he went to study physics at the University of Strasbourg in France. On a Ford scholarship, Fujimori also attended the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in the United States, where he obtained his master's degree in mathematics in 1969. In 1974, he married Susana Higuchi, also Japanese-Peruvian. They had four children, including a daughter, Keiko, who followed her father into politics. In recognition of his academic achievements, the sciences faculty of the Universidad Nacional Agraria offered Fujimori the deanship and in 1984 appointed him to the rectorship of the university, which he held until 1989. In 1987, Fujimori also became president of the National Commission of Peruvian University Rectors (Asamblea Nacional de Rectores), a position which he has held twice. He also hosted a TV show called "Concertando" from 1988 to 1989, on Peru's state-owned network, Channel 7. Fujimori won the 1990 presidential election as a dark horse candidate under the banner of Cambio 90 ("cambio" means "change") beating world-renowned writer Mario Vargas Llosa in a surprising upset. He capitalized on profound disenchantment with outgoing president Alan Garcia and the American Popular Revolutionary Alliance party (APRA). He exploited popular distrust of Vargas Llosa's identification with the existing Peruvian political establishment, and uncertainty about his plans for neoliberal economic reforms. During the campaign, Fujimori was nicknamed El Chino, which roughly translates to "Chinaman"; it is common for people of any East Asian descent to be called chino in Peru, as elsewhere in Latin America, both derogatively and affectionately. Although he is of Japanese heritage, Fujimori has suggested that he was always gladdened by the term, which he perceived as a term of affection. With his election victory, he became just the second person of East Asian descent to become head of government of a Latin American nation, after Fulgencio Batista of Cuba and the third of East Asian descent to govern a South American state, after Arthur Chung of Guyana and Henk Chin A Sen of Suriname (each of whom had served as head of state, rather than head of government). CANNOTANSWER | Fujimori obtained his early education at the Colegio Nuestra Senora de la Merced and La Rectora. | Alberto Kenya Fujimori Inomoto ( or ; , born 28 July 1938) is a Peruvian former engineer who led the nation as the President of Peru from 28 July 1990 until his downfall on 22 November 2000. Frequently described as a dictator, he remains a controversial figure in Peruvian politics; his government is credited with the creation of Fujimorism, defeating the Shining Path insurgency and restoring Peru's macroeconomic stability, though Fujimori ended his presidency by fleeing Peru for Japan amid a major scandal involving corruption and human rights abuses. Even amid his prosecution in 2008 for crimes against humanity relating to his presidency, two-thirds of Peruvians polled voiced approval for his leadership in that period.
A Peruvian of Japanese descent, Fujimori took refuge in Japan when faced with charges of corruption in 2000. On arriving in Japan, he attempted to resign his presidency via fax, but his resignation was rejected by Congress, which preferred to remove him from office by the process of impeachment by a 62-9 vote. Wanted in Peru on charges of corruption and human rights abuses, Fujimori maintained a self-imposed exile until his arrest while visiting Chile in November 2005. He was extradited to face criminal charges in Peru on 22 September 2007. In December 2007, Fujimori was convicted of ordering an illegal search and seizure and was sentenced to six years imprisonment. The Supreme Court upheld the decision upon his appeal. In April 2009, Fujimori was convicted of human rights violations and sentenced to 25 years imprisonment for his role in kidnappings and murders by the Grupo Colina death squad during his government's battle against leftist guerrillas in the 1990s. The verdict, delivered by a three-judge panel, marked the first time that an elected head of state has been extradited to his home country, tried, and convicted of human rights violations. Fujimori was specifically found guilty of murder, bodily harm and two cases of kidnapping.
In July 2009, Fujimori was sentenced to seven and a half years imprisonment for embezzlement after he admitted to giving $15 million from the Peruvian treasury to his intelligence service chief, Vladimiro Montesinos. Two months later, he pleaded guilty in a fourth trial to bribery and received an additional six-year term. Transparency International considered the money embezzled by Fujimori to be the seventh-most for a head of government active within 1984–2004. Under Peruvian law, all the sentences must run concurrently; thus, the maximum length of imprisonment remained 25 years.
In December 2017, President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski granted the 79-year-old Fujimori a humanitarian pardon. The pardon was overturned by Peru's Supreme Court on 3 October 2018 and Fujimori was ordered back to prison. On 23 January 2019, Fujimori was sent back to prison to complete his sentence with his pardon formally being annulled three weeks later on 13 February 2019.
Early life, education and early career
According to government records, Fujimori was born on 28 July 1938, in Miraflores, a district of Lima. His parents, Naoichi Fujimori (original surname Minami, adopted by a childless relative; 1897–1971) and Mutsue Inomoto Fujimori (1913–2009), were natives of Kumamoto, Japan, who migrated to Peru in 1934.
In July 1997, the news magazine Caretas alleged that Fujimori was born in Japan, in his father's hometown of Kawachi, Kumamoto Prefecture. Because Peru's constitution requires the president to have been born in Peru, this would have made Fujimori ineligible to be president. The magazine, which had been sued for libel by Vladimiro Montesinos seven years earlier, reported that Fujimori's birth and baptismal certificates might have been altered. Caretas also alleged that Fujimori's mother declared having two children when she entered Peru; Fujimori is the second of four children. Caretas contentions were hotly contested in the Peruvian media; the magazine Sí, for instance, described the allegations as "pathetic" and "a dark page for [Peruvian] journalism". Latin American scholars Cynthia McClintock and Fabián Vallas note that the issue appeared to have died down among Peruvians after the Japanese government announced in 2000 that "Fujimori's parents had registered his birth in the Japanese consulate in Lima". The Japanese government determined that he was also a Japanese citizen because of his parents' registration in the koseki.
Fujimori obtained his early education at the Colegio Nuestra Señora de la Merced and La Rectora School. Fujimori's parents were Buddhists, but he was baptized and raised Roman Catholic. While he spoke mainly Japanese at home, Fujimori also learned to become a proficient Spanish speaker during his years at school. In 1956, Fujimori graduated from La gran unidad escolar Alfonso Ugarte in Lima.
He went on to undergraduate studies at the Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina in 1957, graduating in 1961 first in his class as an agricultural engineer. The following year he lectured on mathematics at the university. In 1964 he went to study physics at the University of Strasbourg in France. On a Ford scholarship, Fujimori also attended the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee in the United States, where he obtained his master's degree in mathematics in 1969.
In 1974, he married Susana Higuchi, also Japanese-Peruvian. They had four children, including a daughter, Keiko, and a son, Kenji, who would later follow their father into politics.
In recognition of his academic achievements, the sciences faculty of the National Agrarian University offered Fujimori the deanship and in 1984 appointed him to the rectorship of the university, which he held until 1989. In 1987, Fujimori also became president of the National Commission of Peruvian University Rectors (Asamblea Nacional de Rectores), a position which he has held twice. He also hosted a TV show called "Concertando" from 1988 to 1989, on Peru's state-owned network, Channel 7.
Fujimori won the 1990 presidential election as a dark horse candidate under the banner of Cambio 90 ("cambio" means "change") defeating world-renowned writer Mario Vargas Llosa in a surprising upset. He capitalized on profound disenchantment with outgoing president Alan García and the American Popular Revolutionary Alliance party (APRA). He exploited popular distrust of Vargas Llosa's identification with the existing Peruvian political establishment, and uncertainty about his plans for neoliberal economic reforms.
During the campaign, Fujimori was nicknamed El Chino, which roughly translates to "Chinaman"; it is common for people of any East Asian descent to be called chino in Peru, as elsewhere in Spanish Latin America, both derogatively and affectionately. Although he is of Japanese heritage, Fujimori has suggested that he was always gladdened by the term, which he perceived as a term of affection. With his election victory, he became just the second person of East Asian descent to become leader of a Latin American nation, after Fulgencio Batista (varied descent) of Cuba and the third of East Asian descent to govern a South American state, after Arthur Chung of Guyana and Henk Chin A Sen of Suriname.
Presidency
First term
During his first term in office, Fujimori enacted wide-ranging neoliberal reforms, known as Fujishock. During the presidency of Alan García, the economy had entered a period of hyperinflation and the political system was in crisis due to the country's internal conflict, leaving Peru in "economic and political chaos". It was Fujimori's stated objective to pacify the nation and restore economic balance. This program bore little resemblance to his campaign platform and was in fact more drastic than anything Vargas Llosa had proposed. Nonetheless, the Fujishock succeeded in restoring Peru to the global economy, though not without immediate social cost.
Fujimori's initiative relaxed private sector price controls, drastically reduced government subsidies and government employment, eliminated all exchange controls, and also reduced restrictions on investment, imports, and capital. Tariffs were radically simplified, the minimum wage was immediately quadrupled, and the government established a $400 million poverty relief fund. The latter seemed to anticipate the economic agony to come: the price of electricity quintupled, water prices rose eightfold, and gasoline prices 3,000%.
However, many do not attribute the Fujishock to Fujimori. In the 1980s, the IMF created a plan for South American economies called the Washington Consensus. The document, written by John Williamson in 1990, consists of ten measures that would lead to a healthy economic policy. Under pressure from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Peruvian government was to follow the guidelines set by the international finance community. The ten points were fiscal discipline, the reordering of public expenditure, tax reform (broadening), the liberalization of interest rates, the establishment of a competitive exchange rate, trade liberalization, liberalization of foreign direct investment, privatization, deregulation of barrier entry, exit, safety regulations, governed prices, and the establishment of property rights for the informal sector.
The IMF was content with Peru's measures, and guaranteed loan funding for Peru. Inflation rapidly began to fall and foreign investment capital flooded in. The privatization campaign involved selling off of hundreds of state-owned enterprises, and replacing the country's troubled currency, the inti, with the Nuevo Sol. The Fujishock restored macroeconomic stability to the economy and triggered a considerable long-term economic upturn in the mid-1990s. In 1994, the Peruvian economy grew at a rate of 13%, faster than any other economy in the world.
Constitutional crisis
During Fujimori's first term in office, APRA and Vargas Llosa's party, the FREDEMO, remained in control of both chambers of Congress, the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, hampering the enactment of economic reform. Fujimori also had difficulty combatting the Maoist Shining Path () guerrilla organization due largely to what he perceived as intransigence and obstructionism in Congress. By March 1992, the Congress met with the approval of only 17% of the electorate, according to one poll; the president's approval stood at 42%, in the same poll.
In response to the political deadlock, Fujimori, with the support of the military, on 5 April 1992, carried out a self-coup, also known as the autogolpe (auto-coup) or Fujigolpe (Fuji-coup) in Peru. He shut down Congress, suspended the constitution, and purged the judiciary.
According to numerous polls, the coup was welcomed by the public as evidenced by favorable public opinion in several independent polls; in fact, public approval of the Fujimori administration jumped significantly in the wake of the coup. Fujimori often cited this public support in defending the coup, which he characterized as "not a negation of real democracy, but on the contrary… a search for an authentic transformation to assure a legitimate and effective democracy." Fujimori believed that Peruvian democracy had been nothing more than "a deceptive formality – a façade". He claimed the coup was necessary in order to break with the deeply entrenched special interests that were hindering him from rescuing Peru from the chaotic state in which García had left it.
Fujimori's coup was immediately met with near-unanimous condemnation from the international community. The Organization of American States denounced the coup and demanded a return to "representative democracy", despite Fujimori's claim that the coup represented a "popular uprising". Foreign ministers of OAS member states reiterated this condemnation of the autogolpe. They proposed an urgent effort to promote the reestablishment of "the democratic institutional order" in Peru. Negotiations between the OAS, the government, and opposition groups led Alberto Fujimori initially to propose a referendum to ratify the auto-coup, but the OAS rejected this. Fujimori then proposed scheduling elections for a Democratic Constituent Congress (CCD), which would draft a new constitution to be ratified by a national referendum. Despite a lack of consensus among political forces in Peru regarding this proposal, an ad hoc OAS meeting of ministers nevertheless endorsed this scenario in mid-May. Elections for the Democratic Constituent Congress were held on 22 November 1992.
Various states individually condemned the coup. Venezuela broke off diplomatic relations, and Argentina withdrew its ambassador. Chile joined Argentina in requesting Peru's suspension from the Organization of American States. International lenders delayed planned or projected loans, and the United States, Germany and Spain suspended all non-humanitarian aid to Peru. The coup appeared to threaten the reinsertion strategy for economic recovery, and complicated the process of clearing Peru's arrears with the International Monetary Fund.
Peruvian–U.S. relations earlier in Fujimori's presidency had been dominated by questions of coca eradication and Fujimori's initial reluctance to sign an accord to increase his military's eradication efforts in the lowlands. Fujimori's autogolpe became a major obstacle to relations, as the United States immediately suspended all military and economic aid, with exceptions for counter-narcotic and humanitarian funds. Two weeks after the self-coup, however, the George H.W. Bush administration changed its position and officially recognized Fujimori as the legitimate leader of Peru, partly because he was willing to implement economic austerity measures, but also because of his adamant opposition to the Shining Path.
Authoritarian period
With FREDEMO dissolved and APRA leader Alan García exiled to Colombia, Fujimori sought to legitimize his position. He called elections for a Democratic Constitutional Congress, to serve as a legislature and as a constituent assembly. The APRA and Popular Action attempted a boycott of this election, but the Christian People’s Party (PPC, not to be confused with PCP, Partido Comunista del Peru, or "Peruvian Communist Party") and many left-leaning parties participated in this election. Fujimori supporters won a majority of the seats in this body, and drafted a new constitution in 1993. In a referendum, the coup and the Constitution of 1993 were approved by a narrow margin of less than five percent.
On 13 November 1993, General Jaime Salinas led a failed military coup. Salinas asserted that his intentions were to turn Fujimori over to be tried for violating the Peruvian constitution.
In 1994, Fujimori separated from his wife Susana Higuchi in a noisy, public divorce. He formally stripped her of the title First Lady in August 1994, appointing their eldest daughter as First Lady in her stead. Higuchi publicly denounced Fujimori as a "tyrant" and claimed that his administration was corrupt. They formally divorced in 1995.
In Fujimori's first term of office, over 3,000 Peruvians were killed in political murders.
Second term
The 1993 Constitution allowed Fujimori to run for a second term, and in April 1995, at the height of his popularity, Fujimori easily won reelection with almost two-thirds of the vote. His major opponent, former UN Secretary-General Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, won only 21 percent of the vote. Fujimori's supporters won comfortable majority in the newly unicameral Congress. One of the first acts of the new congress was to declare an amnesty for all members of the Peruvian military or police accused or convicted of human rights abuses between 1980 and 1995.
During his second term, Fujimori along with Ecuadorian President Sixto Durán Ballén, signed a peace agreement with Ecuador over a border dispute that had simmered for more than a century. The treaty allowed the two countries to obtain international funds for developing the border region. Fujimori also settled some issues with Chile, Peru's southern neighbor, which had been unresolved since the 1929 Treaty of Lima.
The 1995 election was the turning point in Fujimori's career. Peruvians began to be more concerned about freedom of speech and the press. However, before he was sworn in for a second term, Fujimori stripped two universities of their autonomy and reshuffled the national electoral board. This led his opponents to call him "Chinochet," a reference to his previous nickname and to Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. Modeling his rule after Pinochet, Fujimori reportedly enjoyed this nickname.
According to a poll by the Peruvian Research and Marketing Company conducted in 1997, 40.6% of Lima residents considered President Fujimori an authoritarian.
In addition to the fate of democracy under Fujimori, Peruvians were becoming increasingly interested in the myriad allegations of criminality that involved Fujimori and his chief of the National Intelligence Service (SIN), Vladimiro Montesinos. Using SIN, Fujimori gained control of the majority of the armed forces, with Financial Times stating that "[i]n no other country in Latin America did a president have so much control over the armed forces".
A 2002 report by Health Minister Fernando Carbone later suggested that Fujimori was involved in the forced sterilizations of up to 300,000 indigenous women between 1996 and 2000, as part of a population control program. A 2004 World Bank publication said that in this period Montesinos' abuse of the power Fujimori granted him "led to a steady and systematic undermining of the rule of law".
Third term
The 1993 constitution limited a presidency to two terms. Shortly after Fujimori began his second term, his supporters in Congress passed a law of "authentic interpretation" which effectively allowed him to run for another term in 2000. A 1998 effort to repeal this law by referendum failed. In late 1999, Fujimori announced that he would run for a third term. Peruvian electoral bodies, which were politically sympathetic to Fujimori, accepted his argument that the two-term restriction did not apply to him, as it was enacted while he was already in office.<ref>Clifford Krauss, Peru's Chief to Seek 3rd Term, Capping a Long Legal Battle, 'New York Times, 28 December 1999. Retrieved 26 September 2006.</ref>
Exit polls showed Fujimori fell short of the 50% required to avoid an electoral runoff, but the first official results showed him with 49.6% of the vote, just short of outright victory. Eventually, Fujimori was credited with 49.89%—20,000 votes short of avoiding a runoff. Despite reports of numerous irregularities, the international observers recognized an adjusted victory of Fujimori. His primary opponent, Alejandro Toledo, called for his supporters to spoil their ballots in the runoff by writing "No to fraud!" on them (voting is mandatory in Peru). International observers pulled out of the country after Fujimori refused to delay the runoff.
In the runoff, Fujimori won with 51.1% of the total votes. While votes for Toledo declined from 37.0% of the total votes cast in the first round to 17.7% of the votes in the second round, invalid votes jumped from 8.1% of the total votes cast in the first round to 31.1% of total votes in the second round. The large percentage of invalid votes in this election suggests that many Peruvians took Toledo's advice and spoiled their ballots.
Although Fujimori won the runoff with only a bare majority (but 3/4 valid votes), rumors of irregularities led most of the international community to shun his third swearing-in on 28 July. For the next seven weeks, there were daily demonstrations in front of the presidential palace. As a conciliatory gesture, Fujimori appointed former opposition candidate Federico Salas as prime minister. However, opposition parties in Congress refused to support this move, and Toledo campaigned vigorously to have the election annulled. At this point, a corruption scandal involving Vladimiro Montesinos broke out, and exploded into full force on the evening of 14 September 2000, when the cable television station Canal N broadcast footage of Montesinos apparently bribing opposition congressman Alberto Kouri for defecting to Fujimori's Peru 2000 party. The video was presented by Fernando Olivera, leader of the FIM (Independent Moralizing Front), who purchased it from one of Montesinos's closest allies (nicknamed by the Peruvian press El Patriota).
Fujimori's support virtually collapsed, and a few days later he announced in a nationwide address that he would shut down the SIN and call new elections, in which he would not be a candidate. On 10 November, Fujimori won approval from Congress to hold elections on 8 April 2001. On 13 November, Fujimori left Peru for a visit to Brunei to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. On 16 November, Valentín Paniagua took over as president of Congress after the pro-Fujimori leadership lost a vote of confidence. On 17 November, Fujimori traveled from Brunei to Tokyo, where he submitted his presidential resignation via fax. Congress refused to accept his resignation, instead voting 62–9 to remove Fujimori from office on the grounds that he was "permanently morally disabled."
On 19 November, government ministers presented their resignations en bloc. Because Fujimori's first vice president, Francisco Tudela, who had broken with Fujimori and resigned a few days earlier, his successor second vice president Ricardo Márquez Flores came to claim the presidency. Congress, however, refused to recognize him, as he was an ardent Fujimori loyalist; Márquez resigned two days later. Paniagua was next in line, and became interim president to oversee the April 2001 elections.
Counterterrorism efforts
When Fujimori came to power, much of Peru was dominated by the Maoist insurgent group Sendero Luminoso ("Shining Path"), and the Marxist–Leninist group Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA). In 1989, 25% of Peru's district and provincial councils opted not to hold elections, owing to a persistent campaign of assassination, over the course of which over 100 officials had been killed by the Shining Path in that year alone. That same year, more than one-third of Peru's courts lacked a justice of the peace due to Shining Path intimidation. Labor union leaders and military officials were also assassinated throughout the 1980s.
By the early 1990s, some parts of the country were under the control of the insurgents, in territories known as "zonas liberadas" ("liberated zones"), where inhabitants lived under the rule of these groups and paid them taxes. When the Shining Path arrived in Lima, it organized "paros armados" ("armed strikes"), which were enforced by killings and other forms of violence. The leadership of the Shining Path largely consisted of university students and teachers. Two previous governments, those of Fernando Belaúnde Terry and Alan García, at first neglected the threat posed by the Shining Path, then launched an unsuccessful military campaign to eradicate it, undermining public faith in the state and precipitating an exodus of elites.
By 1992, Shining Path guerrilla attacks had claimed an estimated 20,000 lives over preceding 12 years. On 16 July 1992, the Tarata Bombing, in which several car bombs exploded in Lima's wealthiest district, killed over 40 people; the bombings were characterized by one commentator as an "offensive to challenge President Albert Fujimori." The bombing at Tarata was followed up with a "weeklong wave of car bombings ... Bombs hit banks, hotels, schools, restaurants, police stations and shops ... [G]uerrillas bombed two rail bridges from the Andes, cutting off some of Peru's largest copper mines from coastal ports."
Fujimori has been credited by many Peruvians with ending the fifteen-year insurgency of the Shining Path. As part of his anti-insurgency efforts, Fujimori granted the military broad powers to arrest suspected insurgents and try them in secret military courts with few legal rights. This measure has often been criticized for compromising the fundamental democratic and human right to an open trial wherein the accused faces the accuser. Fujimori contended that these measures were both justified and also necessary. Members of the judiciary were too afraid to charge the alleged insurgents, and judges and prosecutors had very legitimate fears of reprisals against them or their families. At the same time, Fujimori's government armed rural Peruvians, organizing them into groups known as "rondas campesinas" ("peasant patrols").
Insurgent activity was in decline by the end of 1992, and Fujimori took credit for this abatement, claiming that his campaign had largely eliminated the insurgent threat. After the 1992 auto-coup, the intelligence work of the DINCOTE (National Counter-Terrorism Directorate) led to the capture of the leaders from MRTA and the Shining Path, including notorious Shining Path leader Abimael Guzmán. Guzmán's capture was a political coup for Fujimori, who used it to great effect in the press; in an interview with documentarian Ellen Perry, Fujimori even notes that he specially ordered Guzmán's prison jumpsuit to be white with black stripes, to enhance the image of his capture in the media.
Critics charge that to achieve the defeat of the Shining Path, the Peruvian military engaged in widespread human rights abuses, and that the majority of the victims were poor highland countryside inhabitants caught in a crossfire between the military and insurgents. The final report of the Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission, published on 28 August 2003, brought out that Peruvian armed forces were also guilty of destroying villages and murdering countryside inhabitants whom they suspected of supporting insurgents.
The Japanese embassy hostage crisis began on 17 December 1996, when fourteen MRTA militants seized the residence of the Japanese ambassador in Lima during a party, taking hostage some four hundred diplomats, government officials, and other dignitaries. The action was partly in protest of prison conditions in Peru. During the four-month standoff, the Emerretistas gradually freed all but 72 of their hostages. The government rejected the militants' demand to release imprisoned MRTA members and secretly prepared an elaborate plan to storm the residence, while stalling by negotiating with the hostage-takers.
On 22 April 1997, a team of military commandos, codenamed "Chavín de Huantar", raided the building. One hostage, two military commandos, and all 14 MRTA insurgents were killed in the operation. Images of President Fujimori at the ambassador's residence during and after the military operation, surrounded by soldiers and liberated dignitaries, and walking among the corpses of the insurgents, were widely televised. The conclusion of the four-month-long standoff was used by Fujimori and his supporters to bolster his image as tough on terrorism.
Human rights violations
Several organizations criticized Fujimori's methods against the Shining Path and the MRTA. Amnesty International said "the widespread and systematic nature of human rights violations committed during the government of former head of state Albert Fujimori (1990–2000) in Peru constitute crimes against humanity under international law." Fujimori's alleged association with death squads is currently being studied by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, after the court accepted the case of "Cantuta vs Perú".
The 1991 Barrios Altos massacre by members of the death squad Grupo Colina, made up solely of members of the Peruvian armed forces, was one of the crimes that Peru cited in its request to Japan for his extradition in 2003.
Reportedly following socioeconomic objectives calling for the "total extermination" of "culturally backward and economically impoverished groups" determined by the Peruvian military in Plan Verde, from 1996 to 2000, the Fujimori government oversaw a massive forced sterilization campaign known as the National Program for Reproductive Health and Family Planning (PNSRPF). According to Back and Zavala, the plan was an example of ethnic cleansing as it targeted indigenous and rural women. The United Nations and other international aid agencies supported this campaign. USAID provided funding and training until it was exposed by objections by churches and human rights groups. The Nippon Foundation, headed by Ayako Sono, a Japanese novelist and personal friend of Fujimori, supported as well.Peru Plans a Hot Line to Battle Forced-Sterilizations The ZENET LIMA, Peru, 2 September 2001 Over 215,000 people, mostly women, entirely indigenous, were forced or threatened into sterilization and 16,547 men were forced to undergo vasectomies during these years, most of them without a proper anesthetist, in contrast to 80,385 sterilizations and 2,795 vasectomies over the previous three years.
The success of the military operation in the Japanese embassy hostage crisis was tainted by subsequent allegations that at least three and possibly eight of the insurgents were summarily executed by the commandos after surrendering. In 2002, the case was taken up by public prosecutors, but the Peruvian Supreme Court ruled that the military tribunals had jurisdiction. A military court later absolved them of guilt, and the "Chavín de Huantar" soldiers led the 2004 military parade. In response, in 2003 MRTA family members lodged a complaint with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) accusing the Peruvian state of human rights violations, namely that the MRTA insurgents had been denied the "right to life, the right to judicial guarantees and the right to judicial protection". The IACHR accepted the case and is currently studying it.Peruvian Minister of Justice Maria Zavala has stated that this verdict by the IACHR supports the Peruvian government's extradition of Fujimori from Chile. Though the IACHR verdict does not directly implicate Fujimori, it does fault the Peruvian government for its complicity in the 1992 Cantuta University killings.
Resignation, arrest, and trial
Alberto Fujimori left Peru in November 2000 to attend a regional summit in Brunei. He then traveled on to Japan. Once there, he announced plans to remain in the country and faxed his resignation letter to Congress.
After Congress rejected Fujimori's faxed resignation, they relieved Fujimori of his duties as president and banned him from Peruvian politics for a decade. He remained in self-imposed exile in Japan, where he resided with his friend, the famous Catholic novelist Ayako Sono. Several senior Japanese politicians have supported Fujimori, partly because of his decisive action in ending the 1996-97 Japanese embassy crisis.
Alejandro Toledo, who assumed the Peruvian presidency in 2001, spearheaded the criminal case against Fujimori. He arranged meetings with the Supreme Court, tax authorities, and other powers in Peru to "coordinate the joint efforts to bring the criminal Fujimori from Japan." His vehemence in this matter at times compromised Peruvian law: forcing the judiciary and legislative system to keep guilty sentences without hearing Fujimori's defense; not providing Fujimori with representation when Fujimori was tried in absentia; and expelling pro-Fujimori congressmen from the parliament without proof of the accusations against those congressmen. These expulsions were later reversed by the judiciary.
The Peruvian Congress authorized charges against Fujimori in August 2001. Fujimori was alleged to be a coauthor, along with Vladimiro Montesinos, of the death-squad killings at Barrios Altos in 1991 and La Cantuta in 1992, respectively. At the behest of Peruvian authorities, Interpol issued an arrest order for Fujimori on charges that included murder, kidnapping, and crimes against humanity.
Meanwhile, the Peruvian government found that Japan was not amenable to the extradition of Fujimori; a protracted diplomatic debate ensued, when Japan showed itself unwilling to accede to the extradition request. Fujimori had been granted Japanese citizenship after his arrival in the country, and the Japanese government maintained that Japanese citizens would not be extradited.
In September 2003, Congressman Dora Dávila, joined by Minister of Health Luis Soari, denounced Fujimori and several of his ministers for crimes against humanity, for allegedly having overseen forced sterilizations during his regime. In November, Congress approved an investigation of Fujimori's involvement in the airdrop of Kalashnikov rifles into the Colombian jungle in 1999 and 2000 for guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Fujimori maintained he had no knowledge of the arms-trading, and blamed Montesinos. By approving the charges, Congress lifted the immunity granted to Fujimori as a former president, so that he could be criminally charged and prosecuted.
Congress also voted to support charges against Fujimori for the detention and disappearance of 67 students from the central Andean city of Huancayo and the disappearance of several residents from the northern coastal town of Chimbote during the 1990s. It also approved charges that Fujimori mismanaged millions of dollars from Japanese charities, suggesting that the millions of dollars in his bank account were far too much to have been accumulated legally.
In 2004, the Special Prosecutor established to investigate Fujimori released a report alleging that the Fujimori administration had obtained US$2 billion though graft. Most of this money came from Vladimiro Montesinos' web of corruption. The Special Prosecutor's figure of two billion dollars is considerably higher than the one arrived at by Transparency International, an NGO that studies corruption. Transparency International listed Fujimori as having embezzled an estimated US$600 million, which would rank seventh in the list of money embezzled by heads of government active within 1984–2004., 25 March 2004, Laksamana.Net, Jakarta.
Fujimori dismissed the judicial proceedings underway against him as "politically motivated", citing Toledo's involvement. Fujimori established a new political party in Peru, Sí Cumple, working from Japan. He hoped to participate in the 2006 presidential elections, but in February 2004, the Constitutional Court dismissed this possibility, because the ex-president was specifically barred by Congress from holding any office for ten years. Fujimori saw the decision as unconstitutional, as did his supporters such as ex-congressmembers Luz Salgado, Martha Chávez and Fernán Altuve, who argued it was a "political" maneuver and that the only body with the authority to determine the matter was the Jurado Nacional de Elecciones (JNE). Valentín Paniagua disagreed, suggesting that the Constitutional Court finding was binding and that "no further debate is possible".Salgado: JNE debe ser quien defina postulación de Fujimori, Noticias on terra.com.peru, 21 February 2005 credited to Expreso. Retrieved 26 September 2006.
Fujimori's Sí Cumple (roughly translated, "He Keeps His Word") received more than 10% in many country-level polls, contending with APRA for the second place slot, but did not participate in the 2006 elections after its participation in the Alliance for the Future (initially thought as Alliance Sí Cumple) had not been allowed.
By March 2005, it appeared that Peru had all but abandoned its efforts to extradite Fujimori from Japan. In September of that year, Fujimori obtained a new Peruvian passport in Tokyo and announced his intention to run in the upcoming 2006 national election. He arrived in Chile in November 2005, but hours after his arrival there he was arrested. Peru then requested his extradition.
While under house arrest in Chile, Fujimori announced plans to run in Japan's Upper House elections in July 2007 for the far-right People's New Party. Fujimori was extradited from Chile to Peru in September 2007.
On 7 April 2009, a three-judge panel convicted Fujimori on charges of human rights abuses, declaring that the "charges against him have been proven beyond all reasonable doubt". The panel found him guilty of ordering the Grupo Colina death squad to commit the November 1991 Barrios Altos massacre and the July 1992 La Cantuta Massacre, which resulted in the deaths of 25 people, as well as for taking part in the kidnappings of Peruvian opposition journalist Gustavo Gorriti and businessman Samuel Dyer. Fujimori's conviction is the only instance of a democratically elected head of state being tried and convicted of human rights abuses in his own country. Later on 7 April, the court sentenced Fujimori to 25 years in prison. Likewise, the Court found him guilty of aggravated kidnapping, under the aggravating circumstance of cruel treatment, to the detriment of journalist Gustavo Gorriti and businessman Samuel Dyer Ampudia. The Special Criminal Chamber determined that the sentence had expired on February 10, 2032. On January 2, 2010, the sentence to 25 years in prison for human rights violations was confirmed.
Further trials
He faced a third trial in July 2009 over allegations that he illegally gave $15 million in state funds to Vladimiro Montesinos, former head of the National Intelligence Service, during the two months prior to his fall from power. Fujimori admitted paying the money to Montesinos but claimed that he had later paid back the money to the state. On 20 July, the court found him guilty of embezzlement and sentenced him to a further seven and a half years in prison.
A fourth trial took place in September 2009 in Lima. Fujimori was accused of using Montesinos to bribe and tap the phones of journalists, businessmen and opposition politicians – evidence of which led to the collapse of his government in 2000. Fujimori admitted the charges but claimed that the charges were made to damage his daughter's presidential election campaign. The prosecution asked the court to sentence Fujimori to eight years imprisonment with a fine of $1.6 million plus $1 million in compensation to ten people whose phones were bugged. Fujimori pleaded guilty and was sentenced to six years' imprisonment on 30 September 2009. Under Peruvian law, all prison sentences run concurrently.
On May 3, 2016, the Constitutional Court of Peru rejected the nullity of Alberto Fujimori's conviction. Alberto Fujimori will continue to be sentenced for 25 years, which was imposed on him for responsibility in the Barrios Altos and La Cantuta massacres.
Pardon requests
Press reports in late 2012 indicated that Fujimori was suffering from tongue cancer and other medical problems. His family asked President Ollanta Humala for a pardon. President Humala rejected a pardon in 2013, saying that Fujimori's condition was not serious enough to warrant it. In July 2016, with three days left in his term, President Humala said that there was insufficient time to evaluate a second request to pardon Fujimori, leaving the decision to his successor Pedro Pablo Kuczynski. On 24 December 2017, President Kuczynski pardoned him on health grounds. Kuczynski's office stated that the hospitalized 79-year-old Fujimori had a "progressive, degenerative and incurable disease". The pardon kicked off at least two days of protests and led at least three congressmen to resign from Kuczynski's party. A spokesman for Popular Force alleged there was a pact that, in exchange for the pardon, Popular Force members helped Kuczynski fight ongoing impeachment proceedings.
On February 20, 2018, the National Criminal Chamber ruled that it did not apply the resolution that granted Fujimori the right of grace for humanitarian reasons. Therefore, the former president had to face the process for the Pativilca Case with a simple appearance.
On 3 October 2018, the Peruvian Supreme Court reversed Fujimori's pardon and ordered his return to prison. He was rushed to a hospital and returned to prison on 23 January 2019. His pardon was formally annulled on 13 February 2019.
Legacy
Economic achievements
Fujimori is credited by many Peruvians for bringing stability to the country after the violence and hyperinflation of the García years. While it is generally agreed that the "Fujishock" brought short/middle-term macroeconomic stability, the long-term social impact of Fujimori's free market economic policies is still hotly debated.
Neoliberal reforms under Fujimori took place in three distinct phases: an initial "orthodox" phase (1990–92) in which technocrats dominated the reform agenda; a "pragmatic" phase (1993–98) that saw the growing influence of business elites over government priorities; and a final "watered-down" phase (1999–2000) dominated by a clique of personal loyalists and their clientelist policies that aimed to secure Fujimori a third term as president. Business was a big winner of the reforms, with its influence increasing significantly within both the state and society.
High growth during Fujimori's first term petered out during his second term. "El Niño" phenomena had a tremendous impact on the Peruvian economy during the late 1990s. Nevertheless, total GDP growth between 1992 and 2001, inclusive, was 44.60%, that is, 3.76% per annum; total GDP per capita growth between 1991 and 2001, inclusive, was 30.78%, that is, 2.47% per annum. Also, studies by INEI, the national statistics bureau show that the number of Peruvians living in poverty increased dramatically (from 41.6% to more than 70%) during Alan García's term, but decreased greatly (from more than 70% to 54%) during Fujimori's term. Furthermore, FAO reported Peru reduced undernourishment by about 29% from 1990–92 to 1997–99.
Peru was reintegrated into the global economic system, and began to attract foreign investment. The mass selloff of state-owned enterprises led to improvements in some service industries, notably local telephone, mobile telephone, and internet services, respectively. For example, before privatization, a consumer or business had to wait up to 10 years to get a local telephone line installed by the state-run telephone company at a cost of $607 for a residential line.Peru after Privatization: Are Telephone Consumers Better Off? . Máximo Torero, Enrique Schroth, and Alberto Pascó-Font. Retrieved 4 October 2006. A couple of years after privatization, the wait was reduced to just a few days. Peru's Physical land based telephone network had a dramatic increase in telephone penetration from 2.9% in 1993 to 5.9% in 1996 and 6.2% in 2000, and a dramatic decrease in the wait for a telephone line. Average wait went from 70 months in 1993 (before privatization) to two months in 1996 (after privatization). Privatization also generated foreign investment in export-oriented activities such as mining and energy extraction, notably the Camisea gas project and the copper and zinc extraction projects at Antamina.
Criticism
Fujimori has been described as a "dictator".Charles D. Kenney, 2004 Fujimori's Coup and the Breakdown of Democracy in Latin America (Helen Kellogg Institute for International Studies) University of Notre Dame Press His government was permeated by a network of corruption organized by his associate Montesinos.Catherine M. Conaghan 2005 Fujimori's Peru: Deception in the Public Sphere (Pitt Latin American Series) University of Pittsburgh Press Fujimori's style of government has also been described as "populist authoritarianism". Numerous governments and human rights organizations such as Amnesty International, welcomed the extradition of Fujimori to face human rights charges. As early as 1991, Fujimori had himself vocally denounced what he called "pseudo-human rights organizations" such as Amnesty International and Americas Watch, for allegedly failing to criticize the insurgencies targeting civilian populations throughout Peru against which his government was struggling.
Some analysts state that some of the GDP growth during the Fujimori years actually reflects a greater rate of extraction of nonrenewable resources by transnational companies; these companies were attracted by Fujimori by means of near-zero royalties, and, by the same fact, little of the extracted wealth has stayed in the country."Peru: Public consultation says NO to mining in Tambogrande", pp.14–15 in WRM Bulletin # 59, June 2002 (World Rainforest Movement, English edition). Accessible online as Rich Text Format (RTF) document. Retrieved 26 September 2006."Investing in Destruction: The Impacts of a WTO Investment Agreement on Extractive Industries in Developing Countries", Oxfam America Briefing Paper, June 2003. Retrieved 27 September 2006. Peru's mining legislation, they claim, has served as a role model for other countries that wish to become more mining-friendly.
Fujimori's privatization program also remains shrouded in controversy and opposed by many Peruvians. A congressional investigation in 2002, led by socialist opposition congressman Javier Diez Canseco, stated that of the US$9 billion raised through the privatizations of hundreds of state-owned enterprises, only a small fraction of this income ever benefited the Peruvian people.
The sole instance of organized labor's success in impeding reforms, namely the teacher's union resistance to education reform, was based on traditional methods of organization and resistance: strikes and street demonstrations.
In the 2004 Global Corruption Report, Fujimori made into the list of the World's Most Corrupt Leaders. He was listed seventh and he was said to have amassed $600 million, but despite years of incarceration and investigation, none of these supposed stolen funds have ever been located in any bank account anywhere in the world.
Support
Fujimori did have support within Peru. The Universidad de Lima March 2003 poll, taken while he was in Japan, found a 41% approval rating for his administration. A poll conducted in March 2005 by the Instituto de Desarrollo e Investigación de Ciencias Económicas (IDICE) indicated that 12.1% of the respondents intended to vote for Fujimori in the 2006 presidential election. A poll conducted on 25 November 2005, by the Universidad de Lima indicated a high approval (45.6%) rating of the Fujimori period between 1990 and 2000, attributed to his counterinsurgency efforts (53%). An article from La Razon, a Peruvian newspaper, stated in 2003 that: "Fujimori is only guilty of one big crime and it is that of having been successful in a country of failed politicians, creators of debt, builders of mirages, and downright opportunistic."
According to a more recent Universidad de Lima survey, Fujimori still retains public support, ranking fifth in personal popularity among other political figures. Popular approval for his decade-long presidency (1990–2000) has reportedly grown (from 31.5% in 2002 to 49.5% in May 2007). Despite accusations of corruption and human rights violations, nearly half of the individuals interviewed in the survey approved of Fujimori's presidential regime. In a 2007 Universidad de Lima survey of 600 Peruvians in Lima and the port of Callao, 82.6% agreed that the former president should be extradited from Chile to stand trial in Peru.
The Lima-based newspaper Perú 21 ran an editorial noting that even though the Universidad de Lima poll results indicate that four out of every five interviewees believe that Fujimori is guilty of some of the charges against him, he still enjoys at least 30% of popular support and enough approval to restart a political career.
In the 2006 congressional elections, his daughter Keiko was elected to the congress with the highest vote count. She came in second place in the 2011 Peruvian presidential election with 23.2% of the vote, and lost the June runoff against Ollanta Humala. She again ran for President in the 2016 election, narrowly losing the runoff to Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, and again in the 2021 election, losing the runoff to Pedro Castillo.
See also
Judiciary reform in Peru under Alberto Fujimori
History of Peru
Peruvian internal conflict
Japanese Peruvians
List of presidents of Peru
Politics of Peru
Peruvian national election, 2006
Vladimiro Montesinos
References
Further reading
H.W. Wilson Company, Current Biography Yearbook, Volume 57, H.W. Wilson, 1996
External links
Biography and tenure by CIDOB Foundation
The Fall of Fujimori on POV at PBS'', 2006
State of Fear a documentary of Peru's war on terror based on the findings of the Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission
|-
1938 births
20th-century Peruvian politicians
21st-century Peruvian politicians
Agricultural engineers
Agriculturalists
Alberto
Fujimorista politicians
Genocide perpetrators
Politicide perpetrators
Heads of government who were later imprisoned
Impeached presidents removed from office
Leaders who took power by coup
Living people
People barred from public office
People convicted of bribery
People convicted of murder by Peru
People extradited from Chile
People extradited to Peru
Politicians from Lima
People's New Party politicians
Peruvian academic administrators
Peruvian anti-communists
20th-century Peruvian engineers
Peruvian expatriates in Japan
Peruvian people convicted of murder
Peruvian politicians convicted of crimes
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Peruvian prisoners and detainees
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Prisoners and detainees of Peru
Recipients of the Order of the Star of Romania
Rectors of universities in Peru
National Agrarian University alumni
University of Strasbourg alumni
University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee alumni | false | [
"Where Did We Go Wrong may refer to:\n \"Where Did We Go Wrong\" (Dondria song), 2010\n \"Where Did We Go Wrong\" (Toni Braxton and Babyface song), 2013\n \"Where Did We Go Wrong\", a song by Petula Clark from the album My Love\n \"Where Did We Go Wrong\", a song by Diana Ross from the album Ross\n \"Where Did We Go Wrong\", a 1980 song by Frankie Valli",
"California Concordia College existed in Oakland, California, United States from 1906 until 1973.\n\nAmong the presidents of California Concordia College was Johann Theodore Gotthold Brohm Jr.\n\nCalifornia Concordia College and the Academy of California College were located at 2365 Camden Street, Oakland, California. Some of the school buildings still exist at this location, but older buildings that housed the earlier classrooms and later the dormitories are gone. The site is now the location of the Spectrum Center Camden Campus, a provider of special education services.\n\nThe \"Academy\" was the official name for the high school. California Concordia was a six-year institution patterned after the German gymnasium. This provided four years of high school, plus two years of junior college. Years in the school took their names from Latin numbers and referred to the years to go before graduation. The classes were named:\n\n Sexta - 6 years to go; high school freshman\n Qunita - 5 years to go; high school sophomore\n Quarta - 4 years to go; high school junior\n Tertia - 3 years to go; high school senior\n Secunda - 2 years to go; college freshman\n Prima - 1 year to go; college sophomore\n\nThose in Sexta were usually hazed in a mild way by upperclassmen. In addition, those in Sexta were required to do a certain amount of clean-up work around the school, such as picking up trash.\n\nMost students, even high school freshmen, lived in dormitories. High school students were supervised by \"proctors\" (selected high school seniors in Tertia). High school students were required to study for two hours each night in their study rooms from 7:00 to 9:00 pm. Students could not leave their rooms for any reason without permission. This requirement came as quite a shock to those in Sexta (freshmen) on their first night, when they were caught and scolded by a proctor when they left their study room to go to the bathroom without permission. Seniors (those in Tertia) were allowed one night off where they did not need to be in their study hall.\n\nFrom 9:00 to 9:30 pm all students gathered for a chapel service. From 9:30 to 10 pm, high school students were free to roam, and sometimes went to the local Lucky Supermarket to purchase snacks. All high school students were required to be in bed with lights out by 10:00 pm. There were generally five students in each dormitory room. The room had two sections: a bedroom area and (across the hallway) another room for studying. Four beds, including at least one bunk bed, were in the bedroom, and four or five desks were in the study room\n\nA few interesting words used by Concordia students were \"fink\" and \"rack.\" To \"fink\" meant to \"sing like a canary\" or \"squeal.\" A student who finked told everything he knew about a misbehavior committed by another student. \"Rack\" was actually an official term used by proctors and administrators who lived on campus in the dormitories with students. When students misbehaved they were racked (punished). Proctors held a meeting once a week and decided which students, if any, deserved to be racked. If a student were racked, he might be forbidden from leaving the campus grounds, even during normal free time School hours were from 7:30 am to 3:30 pm. After 3:30 pm and until 7:00 pm, students could normally explore the local area surrounding the school, for example, to go to a local store to buy a snack. However, if a student were racked for the week, he could not do so.\n\nProctors made their rounds in the morning to make sure beds were made and inspected rooms in the evening to ensure that students were in bed by 10:00 pm. Often after the proctors left a room at night, the room lights would go back on and students enjoyed studying their National Geographic magazines. Student might be racked if they failed to make their beds or did not make them neatly enough.\n\nAlthough California Concordia College no longer exists, it does receive some recognition by Concordia University Irvine. This is also the location of its old academic records.\n\nSources\n\nExternal links \n Photos of old campus\n\nEducational institutions disestablished in 1973\nDefunct private universities and colleges in California\nEducational institutions established in 1906\n1906 establishments in California\n1973 disestablishments in California\nUniversities and colleges affiliated with the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod"
]
|
[
"Alberto Fujimori",
"Early years",
"Where was Fujimori born?",
"I don't know.",
"Where did he go to school?",
"Fujimori obtained his early education at the Colegio Nuestra Senora de la Merced and La Rectora."
]
| C_a96d11cc9e744f69a1bfa1af50e556ad_1 | Who were his parents? | 3 | Who were Alberto Fujimori's parents? | Alberto Fujimori | Fujimori obtained his early education at the Colegio Nuestra Senora de la Merced and La Rectora. Fujimori's parents were Buddhists, but he was baptised and raised as a Roman Catholic. While he spoke mainly Japanese at home, Fujimori also learned to become a proficient Spanish speaker during his years at school. In 1956, Fujimori graduated from La gran unidad escolar Alfonso Ugarte in Lima. He went on to undergraduate studies at the Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina in 1957, graduating in 1961 first in his class as an agricultural engineer. The following year he lectured on mathematics at the university. In 1964 he went to study physics at the University of Strasbourg in France. On a Ford scholarship, Fujimori also attended the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in the United States, where he obtained his master's degree in mathematics in 1969. In 1974, he married Susana Higuchi, also Japanese-Peruvian. They had four children, including a daughter, Keiko, who followed her father into politics. In recognition of his academic achievements, the sciences faculty of the Universidad Nacional Agraria offered Fujimori the deanship and in 1984 appointed him to the rectorship of the university, which he held until 1989. In 1987, Fujimori also became president of the National Commission of Peruvian University Rectors (Asamblea Nacional de Rectores), a position which he has held twice. He also hosted a TV show called "Concertando" from 1988 to 1989, on Peru's state-owned network, Channel 7. Fujimori won the 1990 presidential election as a dark horse candidate under the banner of Cambio 90 ("cambio" means "change") beating world-renowned writer Mario Vargas Llosa in a surprising upset. He capitalized on profound disenchantment with outgoing president Alan Garcia and the American Popular Revolutionary Alliance party (APRA). He exploited popular distrust of Vargas Llosa's identification with the existing Peruvian political establishment, and uncertainty about his plans for neoliberal economic reforms. During the campaign, Fujimori was nicknamed El Chino, which roughly translates to "Chinaman"; it is common for people of any East Asian descent to be called chino in Peru, as elsewhere in Latin America, both derogatively and affectionately. Although he is of Japanese heritage, Fujimori has suggested that he was always gladdened by the term, which he perceived as a term of affection. With his election victory, he became just the second person of East Asian descent to become head of government of a Latin American nation, after Fulgencio Batista of Cuba and the third of East Asian descent to govern a South American state, after Arthur Chung of Guyana and Henk Chin A Sen of Suriname (each of whom had served as head of state, rather than head of government). CANNOTANSWER | Fujimori's parents were Buddhists, but he was baptised and raised as a Roman Catholic. | Alberto Kenya Fujimori Inomoto ( or ; , born 28 July 1938) is a Peruvian former engineer who led the nation as the President of Peru from 28 July 1990 until his downfall on 22 November 2000. Frequently described as a dictator, he remains a controversial figure in Peruvian politics; his government is credited with the creation of Fujimorism, defeating the Shining Path insurgency and restoring Peru's macroeconomic stability, though Fujimori ended his presidency by fleeing Peru for Japan amid a major scandal involving corruption and human rights abuses. Even amid his prosecution in 2008 for crimes against humanity relating to his presidency, two-thirds of Peruvians polled voiced approval for his leadership in that period.
A Peruvian of Japanese descent, Fujimori took refuge in Japan when faced with charges of corruption in 2000. On arriving in Japan, he attempted to resign his presidency via fax, but his resignation was rejected by Congress, which preferred to remove him from office by the process of impeachment by a 62-9 vote. Wanted in Peru on charges of corruption and human rights abuses, Fujimori maintained a self-imposed exile until his arrest while visiting Chile in November 2005. He was extradited to face criminal charges in Peru on 22 September 2007. In December 2007, Fujimori was convicted of ordering an illegal search and seizure and was sentenced to six years imprisonment. The Supreme Court upheld the decision upon his appeal. In April 2009, Fujimori was convicted of human rights violations and sentenced to 25 years imprisonment for his role in kidnappings and murders by the Grupo Colina death squad during his government's battle against leftist guerrillas in the 1990s. The verdict, delivered by a three-judge panel, marked the first time that an elected head of state has been extradited to his home country, tried, and convicted of human rights violations. Fujimori was specifically found guilty of murder, bodily harm and two cases of kidnapping.
In July 2009, Fujimori was sentenced to seven and a half years imprisonment for embezzlement after he admitted to giving $15 million from the Peruvian treasury to his intelligence service chief, Vladimiro Montesinos. Two months later, he pleaded guilty in a fourth trial to bribery and received an additional six-year term. Transparency International considered the money embezzled by Fujimori to be the seventh-most for a head of government active within 1984–2004. Under Peruvian law, all the sentences must run concurrently; thus, the maximum length of imprisonment remained 25 years.
In December 2017, President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski granted the 79-year-old Fujimori a humanitarian pardon. The pardon was overturned by Peru's Supreme Court on 3 October 2018 and Fujimori was ordered back to prison. On 23 January 2019, Fujimori was sent back to prison to complete his sentence with his pardon formally being annulled three weeks later on 13 February 2019.
Early life, education and early career
According to government records, Fujimori was born on 28 July 1938, in Miraflores, a district of Lima. His parents, Naoichi Fujimori (original surname Minami, adopted by a childless relative; 1897–1971) and Mutsue Inomoto Fujimori (1913–2009), were natives of Kumamoto, Japan, who migrated to Peru in 1934.
In July 1997, the news magazine Caretas alleged that Fujimori was born in Japan, in his father's hometown of Kawachi, Kumamoto Prefecture. Because Peru's constitution requires the president to have been born in Peru, this would have made Fujimori ineligible to be president. The magazine, which had been sued for libel by Vladimiro Montesinos seven years earlier, reported that Fujimori's birth and baptismal certificates might have been altered. Caretas also alleged that Fujimori's mother declared having two children when she entered Peru; Fujimori is the second of four children. Caretas contentions were hotly contested in the Peruvian media; the magazine Sí, for instance, described the allegations as "pathetic" and "a dark page for [Peruvian] journalism". Latin American scholars Cynthia McClintock and Fabián Vallas note that the issue appeared to have died down among Peruvians after the Japanese government announced in 2000 that "Fujimori's parents had registered his birth in the Japanese consulate in Lima". The Japanese government determined that he was also a Japanese citizen because of his parents' registration in the koseki.
Fujimori obtained his early education at the Colegio Nuestra Señora de la Merced and La Rectora School. Fujimori's parents were Buddhists, but he was baptized and raised Roman Catholic. While he spoke mainly Japanese at home, Fujimori also learned to become a proficient Spanish speaker during his years at school. In 1956, Fujimori graduated from La gran unidad escolar Alfonso Ugarte in Lima.
He went on to undergraduate studies at the Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina in 1957, graduating in 1961 first in his class as an agricultural engineer. The following year he lectured on mathematics at the university. In 1964 he went to study physics at the University of Strasbourg in France. On a Ford scholarship, Fujimori also attended the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee in the United States, where he obtained his master's degree in mathematics in 1969.
In 1974, he married Susana Higuchi, also Japanese-Peruvian. They had four children, including a daughter, Keiko, and a son, Kenji, who would later follow their father into politics.
In recognition of his academic achievements, the sciences faculty of the National Agrarian University offered Fujimori the deanship and in 1984 appointed him to the rectorship of the university, which he held until 1989. In 1987, Fujimori also became president of the National Commission of Peruvian University Rectors (Asamblea Nacional de Rectores), a position which he has held twice. He also hosted a TV show called "Concertando" from 1988 to 1989, on Peru's state-owned network, Channel 7.
Fujimori won the 1990 presidential election as a dark horse candidate under the banner of Cambio 90 ("cambio" means "change") defeating world-renowned writer Mario Vargas Llosa in a surprising upset. He capitalized on profound disenchantment with outgoing president Alan García and the American Popular Revolutionary Alliance party (APRA). He exploited popular distrust of Vargas Llosa's identification with the existing Peruvian political establishment, and uncertainty about his plans for neoliberal economic reforms.
During the campaign, Fujimori was nicknamed El Chino, which roughly translates to "Chinaman"; it is common for people of any East Asian descent to be called chino in Peru, as elsewhere in Spanish Latin America, both derogatively and affectionately. Although he is of Japanese heritage, Fujimori has suggested that he was always gladdened by the term, which he perceived as a term of affection. With his election victory, he became just the second person of East Asian descent to become leader of a Latin American nation, after Fulgencio Batista (varied descent) of Cuba and the third of East Asian descent to govern a South American state, after Arthur Chung of Guyana and Henk Chin A Sen of Suriname.
Presidency
First term
During his first term in office, Fujimori enacted wide-ranging neoliberal reforms, known as Fujishock. During the presidency of Alan García, the economy had entered a period of hyperinflation and the political system was in crisis due to the country's internal conflict, leaving Peru in "economic and political chaos". It was Fujimori's stated objective to pacify the nation and restore economic balance. This program bore little resemblance to his campaign platform and was in fact more drastic than anything Vargas Llosa had proposed. Nonetheless, the Fujishock succeeded in restoring Peru to the global economy, though not without immediate social cost.
Fujimori's initiative relaxed private sector price controls, drastically reduced government subsidies and government employment, eliminated all exchange controls, and also reduced restrictions on investment, imports, and capital. Tariffs were radically simplified, the minimum wage was immediately quadrupled, and the government established a $400 million poverty relief fund. The latter seemed to anticipate the economic agony to come: the price of electricity quintupled, water prices rose eightfold, and gasoline prices 3,000%.
However, many do not attribute the Fujishock to Fujimori. In the 1980s, the IMF created a plan for South American economies called the Washington Consensus. The document, written by John Williamson in 1990, consists of ten measures that would lead to a healthy economic policy. Under pressure from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Peruvian government was to follow the guidelines set by the international finance community. The ten points were fiscal discipline, the reordering of public expenditure, tax reform (broadening), the liberalization of interest rates, the establishment of a competitive exchange rate, trade liberalization, liberalization of foreign direct investment, privatization, deregulation of barrier entry, exit, safety regulations, governed prices, and the establishment of property rights for the informal sector.
The IMF was content with Peru's measures, and guaranteed loan funding for Peru. Inflation rapidly began to fall and foreign investment capital flooded in. The privatization campaign involved selling off of hundreds of state-owned enterprises, and replacing the country's troubled currency, the inti, with the Nuevo Sol. The Fujishock restored macroeconomic stability to the economy and triggered a considerable long-term economic upturn in the mid-1990s. In 1994, the Peruvian economy grew at a rate of 13%, faster than any other economy in the world.
Constitutional crisis
During Fujimori's first term in office, APRA and Vargas Llosa's party, the FREDEMO, remained in control of both chambers of Congress, the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, hampering the enactment of economic reform. Fujimori also had difficulty combatting the Maoist Shining Path () guerrilla organization due largely to what he perceived as intransigence and obstructionism in Congress. By March 1992, the Congress met with the approval of only 17% of the electorate, according to one poll; the president's approval stood at 42%, in the same poll.
In response to the political deadlock, Fujimori, with the support of the military, on 5 April 1992, carried out a self-coup, also known as the autogolpe (auto-coup) or Fujigolpe (Fuji-coup) in Peru. He shut down Congress, suspended the constitution, and purged the judiciary.
According to numerous polls, the coup was welcomed by the public as evidenced by favorable public opinion in several independent polls; in fact, public approval of the Fujimori administration jumped significantly in the wake of the coup. Fujimori often cited this public support in defending the coup, which he characterized as "not a negation of real democracy, but on the contrary… a search for an authentic transformation to assure a legitimate and effective democracy." Fujimori believed that Peruvian democracy had been nothing more than "a deceptive formality – a façade". He claimed the coup was necessary in order to break with the deeply entrenched special interests that were hindering him from rescuing Peru from the chaotic state in which García had left it.
Fujimori's coup was immediately met with near-unanimous condemnation from the international community. The Organization of American States denounced the coup and demanded a return to "representative democracy", despite Fujimori's claim that the coup represented a "popular uprising". Foreign ministers of OAS member states reiterated this condemnation of the autogolpe. They proposed an urgent effort to promote the reestablishment of "the democratic institutional order" in Peru. Negotiations between the OAS, the government, and opposition groups led Alberto Fujimori initially to propose a referendum to ratify the auto-coup, but the OAS rejected this. Fujimori then proposed scheduling elections for a Democratic Constituent Congress (CCD), which would draft a new constitution to be ratified by a national referendum. Despite a lack of consensus among political forces in Peru regarding this proposal, an ad hoc OAS meeting of ministers nevertheless endorsed this scenario in mid-May. Elections for the Democratic Constituent Congress were held on 22 November 1992.
Various states individually condemned the coup. Venezuela broke off diplomatic relations, and Argentina withdrew its ambassador. Chile joined Argentina in requesting Peru's suspension from the Organization of American States. International lenders delayed planned or projected loans, and the United States, Germany and Spain suspended all non-humanitarian aid to Peru. The coup appeared to threaten the reinsertion strategy for economic recovery, and complicated the process of clearing Peru's arrears with the International Monetary Fund.
Peruvian–U.S. relations earlier in Fujimori's presidency had been dominated by questions of coca eradication and Fujimori's initial reluctance to sign an accord to increase his military's eradication efforts in the lowlands. Fujimori's autogolpe became a major obstacle to relations, as the United States immediately suspended all military and economic aid, with exceptions for counter-narcotic and humanitarian funds. Two weeks after the self-coup, however, the George H.W. Bush administration changed its position and officially recognized Fujimori as the legitimate leader of Peru, partly because he was willing to implement economic austerity measures, but also because of his adamant opposition to the Shining Path.
Authoritarian period
With FREDEMO dissolved and APRA leader Alan García exiled to Colombia, Fujimori sought to legitimize his position. He called elections for a Democratic Constitutional Congress, to serve as a legislature and as a constituent assembly. The APRA and Popular Action attempted a boycott of this election, but the Christian People’s Party (PPC, not to be confused with PCP, Partido Comunista del Peru, or "Peruvian Communist Party") and many left-leaning parties participated in this election. Fujimori supporters won a majority of the seats in this body, and drafted a new constitution in 1993. In a referendum, the coup and the Constitution of 1993 were approved by a narrow margin of less than five percent.
On 13 November 1993, General Jaime Salinas led a failed military coup. Salinas asserted that his intentions were to turn Fujimori over to be tried for violating the Peruvian constitution.
In 1994, Fujimori separated from his wife Susana Higuchi in a noisy, public divorce. He formally stripped her of the title First Lady in August 1994, appointing their eldest daughter as First Lady in her stead. Higuchi publicly denounced Fujimori as a "tyrant" and claimed that his administration was corrupt. They formally divorced in 1995.
In Fujimori's first term of office, over 3,000 Peruvians were killed in political murders.
Second term
The 1993 Constitution allowed Fujimori to run for a second term, and in April 1995, at the height of his popularity, Fujimori easily won reelection with almost two-thirds of the vote. His major opponent, former UN Secretary-General Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, won only 21 percent of the vote. Fujimori's supporters won comfortable majority in the newly unicameral Congress. One of the first acts of the new congress was to declare an amnesty for all members of the Peruvian military or police accused or convicted of human rights abuses between 1980 and 1995.
During his second term, Fujimori along with Ecuadorian President Sixto Durán Ballén, signed a peace agreement with Ecuador over a border dispute that had simmered for more than a century. The treaty allowed the two countries to obtain international funds for developing the border region. Fujimori also settled some issues with Chile, Peru's southern neighbor, which had been unresolved since the 1929 Treaty of Lima.
The 1995 election was the turning point in Fujimori's career. Peruvians began to be more concerned about freedom of speech and the press. However, before he was sworn in for a second term, Fujimori stripped two universities of their autonomy and reshuffled the national electoral board. This led his opponents to call him "Chinochet," a reference to his previous nickname and to Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. Modeling his rule after Pinochet, Fujimori reportedly enjoyed this nickname.
According to a poll by the Peruvian Research and Marketing Company conducted in 1997, 40.6% of Lima residents considered President Fujimori an authoritarian.
In addition to the fate of democracy under Fujimori, Peruvians were becoming increasingly interested in the myriad allegations of criminality that involved Fujimori and his chief of the National Intelligence Service (SIN), Vladimiro Montesinos. Using SIN, Fujimori gained control of the majority of the armed forces, with Financial Times stating that "[i]n no other country in Latin America did a president have so much control over the armed forces".
A 2002 report by Health Minister Fernando Carbone later suggested that Fujimori was involved in the forced sterilizations of up to 300,000 indigenous women between 1996 and 2000, as part of a population control program. A 2004 World Bank publication said that in this period Montesinos' abuse of the power Fujimori granted him "led to a steady and systematic undermining of the rule of law".
Third term
The 1993 constitution limited a presidency to two terms. Shortly after Fujimori began his second term, his supporters in Congress passed a law of "authentic interpretation" which effectively allowed him to run for another term in 2000. A 1998 effort to repeal this law by referendum failed. In late 1999, Fujimori announced that he would run for a third term. Peruvian electoral bodies, which were politically sympathetic to Fujimori, accepted his argument that the two-term restriction did not apply to him, as it was enacted while he was already in office.<ref>Clifford Krauss, Peru's Chief to Seek 3rd Term, Capping a Long Legal Battle, 'New York Times, 28 December 1999. Retrieved 26 September 2006.</ref>
Exit polls showed Fujimori fell short of the 50% required to avoid an electoral runoff, but the first official results showed him with 49.6% of the vote, just short of outright victory. Eventually, Fujimori was credited with 49.89%—20,000 votes short of avoiding a runoff. Despite reports of numerous irregularities, the international observers recognized an adjusted victory of Fujimori. His primary opponent, Alejandro Toledo, called for his supporters to spoil their ballots in the runoff by writing "No to fraud!" on them (voting is mandatory in Peru). International observers pulled out of the country after Fujimori refused to delay the runoff.
In the runoff, Fujimori won with 51.1% of the total votes. While votes for Toledo declined from 37.0% of the total votes cast in the first round to 17.7% of the votes in the second round, invalid votes jumped from 8.1% of the total votes cast in the first round to 31.1% of total votes in the second round. The large percentage of invalid votes in this election suggests that many Peruvians took Toledo's advice and spoiled their ballots.
Although Fujimori won the runoff with only a bare majority (but 3/4 valid votes), rumors of irregularities led most of the international community to shun his third swearing-in on 28 July. For the next seven weeks, there were daily demonstrations in front of the presidential palace. As a conciliatory gesture, Fujimori appointed former opposition candidate Federico Salas as prime minister. However, opposition parties in Congress refused to support this move, and Toledo campaigned vigorously to have the election annulled. At this point, a corruption scandal involving Vladimiro Montesinos broke out, and exploded into full force on the evening of 14 September 2000, when the cable television station Canal N broadcast footage of Montesinos apparently bribing opposition congressman Alberto Kouri for defecting to Fujimori's Peru 2000 party. The video was presented by Fernando Olivera, leader of the FIM (Independent Moralizing Front), who purchased it from one of Montesinos's closest allies (nicknamed by the Peruvian press El Patriota).
Fujimori's support virtually collapsed, and a few days later he announced in a nationwide address that he would shut down the SIN and call new elections, in which he would not be a candidate. On 10 November, Fujimori won approval from Congress to hold elections on 8 April 2001. On 13 November, Fujimori left Peru for a visit to Brunei to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. On 16 November, Valentín Paniagua took over as president of Congress after the pro-Fujimori leadership lost a vote of confidence. On 17 November, Fujimori traveled from Brunei to Tokyo, where he submitted his presidential resignation via fax. Congress refused to accept his resignation, instead voting 62–9 to remove Fujimori from office on the grounds that he was "permanently morally disabled."
On 19 November, government ministers presented their resignations en bloc. Because Fujimori's first vice president, Francisco Tudela, who had broken with Fujimori and resigned a few days earlier, his successor second vice president Ricardo Márquez Flores came to claim the presidency. Congress, however, refused to recognize him, as he was an ardent Fujimori loyalist; Márquez resigned two days later. Paniagua was next in line, and became interim president to oversee the April 2001 elections.
Counterterrorism efforts
When Fujimori came to power, much of Peru was dominated by the Maoist insurgent group Sendero Luminoso ("Shining Path"), and the Marxist–Leninist group Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA). In 1989, 25% of Peru's district and provincial councils opted not to hold elections, owing to a persistent campaign of assassination, over the course of which over 100 officials had been killed by the Shining Path in that year alone. That same year, more than one-third of Peru's courts lacked a justice of the peace due to Shining Path intimidation. Labor union leaders and military officials were also assassinated throughout the 1980s.
By the early 1990s, some parts of the country were under the control of the insurgents, in territories known as "zonas liberadas" ("liberated zones"), where inhabitants lived under the rule of these groups and paid them taxes. When the Shining Path arrived in Lima, it organized "paros armados" ("armed strikes"), which were enforced by killings and other forms of violence. The leadership of the Shining Path largely consisted of university students and teachers. Two previous governments, those of Fernando Belaúnde Terry and Alan García, at first neglected the threat posed by the Shining Path, then launched an unsuccessful military campaign to eradicate it, undermining public faith in the state and precipitating an exodus of elites.
By 1992, Shining Path guerrilla attacks had claimed an estimated 20,000 lives over preceding 12 years. On 16 July 1992, the Tarata Bombing, in which several car bombs exploded in Lima's wealthiest district, killed over 40 people; the bombings were characterized by one commentator as an "offensive to challenge President Albert Fujimori." The bombing at Tarata was followed up with a "weeklong wave of car bombings ... Bombs hit banks, hotels, schools, restaurants, police stations and shops ... [G]uerrillas bombed two rail bridges from the Andes, cutting off some of Peru's largest copper mines from coastal ports."
Fujimori has been credited by many Peruvians with ending the fifteen-year insurgency of the Shining Path. As part of his anti-insurgency efforts, Fujimori granted the military broad powers to arrest suspected insurgents and try them in secret military courts with few legal rights. This measure has often been criticized for compromising the fundamental democratic and human right to an open trial wherein the accused faces the accuser. Fujimori contended that these measures were both justified and also necessary. Members of the judiciary were too afraid to charge the alleged insurgents, and judges and prosecutors had very legitimate fears of reprisals against them or their families. At the same time, Fujimori's government armed rural Peruvians, organizing them into groups known as "rondas campesinas" ("peasant patrols").
Insurgent activity was in decline by the end of 1992, and Fujimori took credit for this abatement, claiming that his campaign had largely eliminated the insurgent threat. After the 1992 auto-coup, the intelligence work of the DINCOTE (National Counter-Terrorism Directorate) led to the capture of the leaders from MRTA and the Shining Path, including notorious Shining Path leader Abimael Guzmán. Guzmán's capture was a political coup for Fujimori, who used it to great effect in the press; in an interview with documentarian Ellen Perry, Fujimori even notes that he specially ordered Guzmán's prison jumpsuit to be white with black stripes, to enhance the image of his capture in the media.
Critics charge that to achieve the defeat of the Shining Path, the Peruvian military engaged in widespread human rights abuses, and that the majority of the victims were poor highland countryside inhabitants caught in a crossfire between the military and insurgents. The final report of the Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission, published on 28 August 2003, brought out that Peruvian armed forces were also guilty of destroying villages and murdering countryside inhabitants whom they suspected of supporting insurgents.
The Japanese embassy hostage crisis began on 17 December 1996, when fourteen MRTA militants seized the residence of the Japanese ambassador in Lima during a party, taking hostage some four hundred diplomats, government officials, and other dignitaries. The action was partly in protest of prison conditions in Peru. During the four-month standoff, the Emerretistas gradually freed all but 72 of their hostages. The government rejected the militants' demand to release imprisoned MRTA members and secretly prepared an elaborate plan to storm the residence, while stalling by negotiating with the hostage-takers.
On 22 April 1997, a team of military commandos, codenamed "Chavín de Huantar", raided the building. One hostage, two military commandos, and all 14 MRTA insurgents were killed in the operation. Images of President Fujimori at the ambassador's residence during and after the military operation, surrounded by soldiers and liberated dignitaries, and walking among the corpses of the insurgents, were widely televised. The conclusion of the four-month-long standoff was used by Fujimori and his supporters to bolster his image as tough on terrorism.
Human rights violations
Several organizations criticized Fujimori's methods against the Shining Path and the MRTA. Amnesty International said "the widespread and systematic nature of human rights violations committed during the government of former head of state Albert Fujimori (1990–2000) in Peru constitute crimes against humanity under international law." Fujimori's alleged association with death squads is currently being studied by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, after the court accepted the case of "Cantuta vs Perú".
The 1991 Barrios Altos massacre by members of the death squad Grupo Colina, made up solely of members of the Peruvian armed forces, was one of the crimes that Peru cited in its request to Japan for his extradition in 2003.
Reportedly following socioeconomic objectives calling for the "total extermination" of "culturally backward and economically impoverished groups" determined by the Peruvian military in Plan Verde, from 1996 to 2000, the Fujimori government oversaw a massive forced sterilization campaign known as the National Program for Reproductive Health and Family Planning (PNSRPF). According to Back and Zavala, the plan was an example of ethnic cleansing as it targeted indigenous and rural women. The United Nations and other international aid agencies supported this campaign. USAID provided funding and training until it was exposed by objections by churches and human rights groups. The Nippon Foundation, headed by Ayako Sono, a Japanese novelist and personal friend of Fujimori, supported as well.Peru Plans a Hot Line to Battle Forced-Sterilizations The ZENET LIMA, Peru, 2 September 2001 Over 215,000 people, mostly women, entirely indigenous, were forced or threatened into sterilization and 16,547 men were forced to undergo vasectomies during these years, most of them without a proper anesthetist, in contrast to 80,385 sterilizations and 2,795 vasectomies over the previous three years.
The success of the military operation in the Japanese embassy hostage crisis was tainted by subsequent allegations that at least three and possibly eight of the insurgents were summarily executed by the commandos after surrendering. In 2002, the case was taken up by public prosecutors, but the Peruvian Supreme Court ruled that the military tribunals had jurisdiction. A military court later absolved them of guilt, and the "Chavín de Huantar" soldiers led the 2004 military parade. In response, in 2003 MRTA family members lodged a complaint with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) accusing the Peruvian state of human rights violations, namely that the MRTA insurgents had been denied the "right to life, the right to judicial guarantees and the right to judicial protection". The IACHR accepted the case and is currently studying it.Peruvian Minister of Justice Maria Zavala has stated that this verdict by the IACHR supports the Peruvian government's extradition of Fujimori from Chile. Though the IACHR verdict does not directly implicate Fujimori, it does fault the Peruvian government for its complicity in the 1992 Cantuta University killings.
Resignation, arrest, and trial
Alberto Fujimori left Peru in November 2000 to attend a regional summit in Brunei. He then traveled on to Japan. Once there, he announced plans to remain in the country and faxed his resignation letter to Congress.
After Congress rejected Fujimori's faxed resignation, they relieved Fujimori of his duties as president and banned him from Peruvian politics for a decade. He remained in self-imposed exile in Japan, where he resided with his friend, the famous Catholic novelist Ayako Sono. Several senior Japanese politicians have supported Fujimori, partly because of his decisive action in ending the 1996-97 Japanese embassy crisis.
Alejandro Toledo, who assumed the Peruvian presidency in 2001, spearheaded the criminal case against Fujimori. He arranged meetings with the Supreme Court, tax authorities, and other powers in Peru to "coordinate the joint efforts to bring the criminal Fujimori from Japan." His vehemence in this matter at times compromised Peruvian law: forcing the judiciary and legislative system to keep guilty sentences without hearing Fujimori's defense; not providing Fujimori with representation when Fujimori was tried in absentia; and expelling pro-Fujimori congressmen from the parliament without proof of the accusations against those congressmen. These expulsions were later reversed by the judiciary.
The Peruvian Congress authorized charges against Fujimori in August 2001. Fujimori was alleged to be a coauthor, along with Vladimiro Montesinos, of the death-squad killings at Barrios Altos in 1991 and La Cantuta in 1992, respectively. At the behest of Peruvian authorities, Interpol issued an arrest order for Fujimori on charges that included murder, kidnapping, and crimes against humanity.
Meanwhile, the Peruvian government found that Japan was not amenable to the extradition of Fujimori; a protracted diplomatic debate ensued, when Japan showed itself unwilling to accede to the extradition request. Fujimori had been granted Japanese citizenship after his arrival in the country, and the Japanese government maintained that Japanese citizens would not be extradited.
In September 2003, Congressman Dora Dávila, joined by Minister of Health Luis Soari, denounced Fujimori and several of his ministers for crimes against humanity, for allegedly having overseen forced sterilizations during his regime. In November, Congress approved an investigation of Fujimori's involvement in the airdrop of Kalashnikov rifles into the Colombian jungle in 1999 and 2000 for guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Fujimori maintained he had no knowledge of the arms-trading, and blamed Montesinos. By approving the charges, Congress lifted the immunity granted to Fujimori as a former president, so that he could be criminally charged and prosecuted.
Congress also voted to support charges against Fujimori for the detention and disappearance of 67 students from the central Andean city of Huancayo and the disappearance of several residents from the northern coastal town of Chimbote during the 1990s. It also approved charges that Fujimori mismanaged millions of dollars from Japanese charities, suggesting that the millions of dollars in his bank account were far too much to have been accumulated legally.
In 2004, the Special Prosecutor established to investigate Fujimori released a report alleging that the Fujimori administration had obtained US$2 billion though graft. Most of this money came from Vladimiro Montesinos' web of corruption. The Special Prosecutor's figure of two billion dollars is considerably higher than the one arrived at by Transparency International, an NGO that studies corruption. Transparency International listed Fujimori as having embezzled an estimated US$600 million, which would rank seventh in the list of money embezzled by heads of government active within 1984–2004., 25 March 2004, Laksamana.Net, Jakarta.
Fujimori dismissed the judicial proceedings underway against him as "politically motivated", citing Toledo's involvement. Fujimori established a new political party in Peru, Sí Cumple, working from Japan. He hoped to participate in the 2006 presidential elections, but in February 2004, the Constitutional Court dismissed this possibility, because the ex-president was specifically barred by Congress from holding any office for ten years. Fujimori saw the decision as unconstitutional, as did his supporters such as ex-congressmembers Luz Salgado, Martha Chávez and Fernán Altuve, who argued it was a "political" maneuver and that the only body with the authority to determine the matter was the Jurado Nacional de Elecciones (JNE). Valentín Paniagua disagreed, suggesting that the Constitutional Court finding was binding and that "no further debate is possible".Salgado: JNE debe ser quien defina postulación de Fujimori, Noticias on terra.com.peru, 21 February 2005 credited to Expreso. Retrieved 26 September 2006.
Fujimori's Sí Cumple (roughly translated, "He Keeps His Word") received more than 10% in many country-level polls, contending with APRA for the second place slot, but did not participate in the 2006 elections after its participation in the Alliance for the Future (initially thought as Alliance Sí Cumple) had not been allowed.
By March 2005, it appeared that Peru had all but abandoned its efforts to extradite Fujimori from Japan. In September of that year, Fujimori obtained a new Peruvian passport in Tokyo and announced his intention to run in the upcoming 2006 national election. He arrived in Chile in November 2005, but hours after his arrival there he was arrested. Peru then requested his extradition.
While under house arrest in Chile, Fujimori announced plans to run in Japan's Upper House elections in July 2007 for the far-right People's New Party. Fujimori was extradited from Chile to Peru in September 2007.
On 7 April 2009, a three-judge panel convicted Fujimori on charges of human rights abuses, declaring that the "charges against him have been proven beyond all reasonable doubt". The panel found him guilty of ordering the Grupo Colina death squad to commit the November 1991 Barrios Altos massacre and the July 1992 La Cantuta Massacre, which resulted in the deaths of 25 people, as well as for taking part in the kidnappings of Peruvian opposition journalist Gustavo Gorriti and businessman Samuel Dyer. Fujimori's conviction is the only instance of a democratically elected head of state being tried and convicted of human rights abuses in his own country. Later on 7 April, the court sentenced Fujimori to 25 years in prison. Likewise, the Court found him guilty of aggravated kidnapping, under the aggravating circumstance of cruel treatment, to the detriment of journalist Gustavo Gorriti and businessman Samuel Dyer Ampudia. The Special Criminal Chamber determined that the sentence had expired on February 10, 2032. On January 2, 2010, the sentence to 25 years in prison for human rights violations was confirmed.
Further trials
He faced a third trial in July 2009 over allegations that he illegally gave $15 million in state funds to Vladimiro Montesinos, former head of the National Intelligence Service, during the two months prior to his fall from power. Fujimori admitted paying the money to Montesinos but claimed that he had later paid back the money to the state. On 20 July, the court found him guilty of embezzlement and sentenced him to a further seven and a half years in prison.
A fourth trial took place in September 2009 in Lima. Fujimori was accused of using Montesinos to bribe and tap the phones of journalists, businessmen and opposition politicians – evidence of which led to the collapse of his government in 2000. Fujimori admitted the charges but claimed that the charges were made to damage his daughter's presidential election campaign. The prosecution asked the court to sentence Fujimori to eight years imprisonment with a fine of $1.6 million plus $1 million in compensation to ten people whose phones were bugged. Fujimori pleaded guilty and was sentenced to six years' imprisonment on 30 September 2009. Under Peruvian law, all prison sentences run concurrently.
On May 3, 2016, the Constitutional Court of Peru rejected the nullity of Alberto Fujimori's conviction. Alberto Fujimori will continue to be sentenced for 25 years, which was imposed on him for responsibility in the Barrios Altos and La Cantuta massacres.
Pardon requests
Press reports in late 2012 indicated that Fujimori was suffering from tongue cancer and other medical problems. His family asked President Ollanta Humala for a pardon. President Humala rejected a pardon in 2013, saying that Fujimori's condition was not serious enough to warrant it. In July 2016, with three days left in his term, President Humala said that there was insufficient time to evaluate a second request to pardon Fujimori, leaving the decision to his successor Pedro Pablo Kuczynski. On 24 December 2017, President Kuczynski pardoned him on health grounds. Kuczynski's office stated that the hospitalized 79-year-old Fujimori had a "progressive, degenerative and incurable disease". The pardon kicked off at least two days of protests and led at least three congressmen to resign from Kuczynski's party. A spokesman for Popular Force alleged there was a pact that, in exchange for the pardon, Popular Force members helped Kuczynski fight ongoing impeachment proceedings.
On February 20, 2018, the National Criminal Chamber ruled that it did not apply the resolution that granted Fujimori the right of grace for humanitarian reasons. Therefore, the former president had to face the process for the Pativilca Case with a simple appearance.
On 3 October 2018, the Peruvian Supreme Court reversed Fujimori's pardon and ordered his return to prison. He was rushed to a hospital and returned to prison on 23 January 2019. His pardon was formally annulled on 13 February 2019.
Legacy
Economic achievements
Fujimori is credited by many Peruvians for bringing stability to the country after the violence and hyperinflation of the García years. While it is generally agreed that the "Fujishock" brought short/middle-term macroeconomic stability, the long-term social impact of Fujimori's free market economic policies is still hotly debated.
Neoliberal reforms under Fujimori took place in three distinct phases: an initial "orthodox" phase (1990–92) in which technocrats dominated the reform agenda; a "pragmatic" phase (1993–98) that saw the growing influence of business elites over government priorities; and a final "watered-down" phase (1999–2000) dominated by a clique of personal loyalists and their clientelist policies that aimed to secure Fujimori a third term as president. Business was a big winner of the reforms, with its influence increasing significantly within both the state and society.
High growth during Fujimori's first term petered out during his second term. "El Niño" phenomena had a tremendous impact on the Peruvian economy during the late 1990s. Nevertheless, total GDP growth between 1992 and 2001, inclusive, was 44.60%, that is, 3.76% per annum; total GDP per capita growth between 1991 and 2001, inclusive, was 30.78%, that is, 2.47% per annum. Also, studies by INEI, the national statistics bureau show that the number of Peruvians living in poverty increased dramatically (from 41.6% to more than 70%) during Alan García's term, but decreased greatly (from more than 70% to 54%) during Fujimori's term. Furthermore, FAO reported Peru reduced undernourishment by about 29% from 1990–92 to 1997–99.
Peru was reintegrated into the global economic system, and began to attract foreign investment. The mass selloff of state-owned enterprises led to improvements in some service industries, notably local telephone, mobile telephone, and internet services, respectively. For example, before privatization, a consumer or business had to wait up to 10 years to get a local telephone line installed by the state-run telephone company at a cost of $607 for a residential line.Peru after Privatization: Are Telephone Consumers Better Off? . Máximo Torero, Enrique Schroth, and Alberto Pascó-Font. Retrieved 4 October 2006. A couple of years after privatization, the wait was reduced to just a few days. Peru's Physical land based telephone network had a dramatic increase in telephone penetration from 2.9% in 1993 to 5.9% in 1996 and 6.2% in 2000, and a dramatic decrease in the wait for a telephone line. Average wait went from 70 months in 1993 (before privatization) to two months in 1996 (after privatization). Privatization also generated foreign investment in export-oriented activities such as mining and energy extraction, notably the Camisea gas project and the copper and zinc extraction projects at Antamina.
Criticism
Fujimori has been described as a "dictator".Charles D. Kenney, 2004 Fujimori's Coup and the Breakdown of Democracy in Latin America (Helen Kellogg Institute for International Studies) University of Notre Dame Press His government was permeated by a network of corruption organized by his associate Montesinos.Catherine M. Conaghan 2005 Fujimori's Peru: Deception in the Public Sphere (Pitt Latin American Series) University of Pittsburgh Press Fujimori's style of government has also been described as "populist authoritarianism". Numerous governments and human rights organizations such as Amnesty International, welcomed the extradition of Fujimori to face human rights charges. As early as 1991, Fujimori had himself vocally denounced what he called "pseudo-human rights organizations" such as Amnesty International and Americas Watch, for allegedly failing to criticize the insurgencies targeting civilian populations throughout Peru against which his government was struggling.
Some analysts state that some of the GDP growth during the Fujimori years actually reflects a greater rate of extraction of nonrenewable resources by transnational companies; these companies were attracted by Fujimori by means of near-zero royalties, and, by the same fact, little of the extracted wealth has stayed in the country."Peru: Public consultation says NO to mining in Tambogrande", pp.14–15 in WRM Bulletin # 59, June 2002 (World Rainforest Movement, English edition). Accessible online as Rich Text Format (RTF) document. Retrieved 26 September 2006."Investing in Destruction: The Impacts of a WTO Investment Agreement on Extractive Industries in Developing Countries", Oxfam America Briefing Paper, June 2003. Retrieved 27 September 2006. Peru's mining legislation, they claim, has served as a role model for other countries that wish to become more mining-friendly.
Fujimori's privatization program also remains shrouded in controversy and opposed by many Peruvians. A congressional investigation in 2002, led by socialist opposition congressman Javier Diez Canseco, stated that of the US$9 billion raised through the privatizations of hundreds of state-owned enterprises, only a small fraction of this income ever benefited the Peruvian people.
The sole instance of organized labor's success in impeding reforms, namely the teacher's union resistance to education reform, was based on traditional methods of organization and resistance: strikes and street demonstrations.
In the 2004 Global Corruption Report, Fujimori made into the list of the World's Most Corrupt Leaders. He was listed seventh and he was said to have amassed $600 million, but despite years of incarceration and investigation, none of these supposed stolen funds have ever been located in any bank account anywhere in the world.
Support
Fujimori did have support within Peru. The Universidad de Lima March 2003 poll, taken while he was in Japan, found a 41% approval rating for his administration. A poll conducted in March 2005 by the Instituto de Desarrollo e Investigación de Ciencias Económicas (IDICE) indicated that 12.1% of the respondents intended to vote for Fujimori in the 2006 presidential election. A poll conducted on 25 November 2005, by the Universidad de Lima indicated a high approval (45.6%) rating of the Fujimori period between 1990 and 2000, attributed to his counterinsurgency efforts (53%). An article from La Razon, a Peruvian newspaper, stated in 2003 that: "Fujimori is only guilty of one big crime and it is that of having been successful in a country of failed politicians, creators of debt, builders of mirages, and downright opportunistic."
According to a more recent Universidad de Lima survey, Fujimori still retains public support, ranking fifth in personal popularity among other political figures. Popular approval for his decade-long presidency (1990–2000) has reportedly grown (from 31.5% in 2002 to 49.5% in May 2007). Despite accusations of corruption and human rights violations, nearly half of the individuals interviewed in the survey approved of Fujimori's presidential regime. In a 2007 Universidad de Lima survey of 600 Peruvians in Lima and the port of Callao, 82.6% agreed that the former president should be extradited from Chile to stand trial in Peru.
The Lima-based newspaper Perú 21 ran an editorial noting that even though the Universidad de Lima poll results indicate that four out of every five interviewees believe that Fujimori is guilty of some of the charges against him, he still enjoys at least 30% of popular support and enough approval to restart a political career.
In the 2006 congressional elections, his daughter Keiko was elected to the congress with the highest vote count. She came in second place in the 2011 Peruvian presidential election with 23.2% of the vote, and lost the June runoff against Ollanta Humala. She again ran for President in the 2016 election, narrowly losing the runoff to Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, and again in the 2021 election, losing the runoff to Pedro Castillo.
See also
Judiciary reform in Peru under Alberto Fujimori
History of Peru
Peruvian internal conflict
Japanese Peruvians
List of presidents of Peru
Politics of Peru
Peruvian national election, 2006
Vladimiro Montesinos
References
Further reading
H.W. Wilson Company, Current Biography Yearbook, Volume 57, H.W. Wilson, 1996
External links
Biography and tenure by CIDOB Foundation
The Fall of Fujimori on POV at PBS'', 2006
State of Fear a documentary of Peru's war on terror based on the findings of the Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission
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1938 births
20th-century Peruvian politicians
21st-century Peruvian politicians
Agricultural engineers
Agriculturalists
Alberto
Fujimorista politicians
Genocide perpetrators
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Heads of government who were later imprisoned
Impeached presidents removed from office
Leaders who took power by coup
Living people
People barred from public office
People convicted of bribery
People convicted of murder by Peru
People extradited from Chile
People extradited to Peru
Politicians from Lima
People's New Party politicians
Peruvian academic administrators
Peruvian anti-communists
20th-century Peruvian engineers
Peruvian expatriates in Japan
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Peruvian politicians of Japanese descent
Peruvian prisoners and detainees
Peruvian Roman Catholics
Peruvian television presenters
Politicians convicted of murder
Presidents of Peru
20th-century criminals
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University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee alumni | false | [
"The Extraordinary Tale of Nicholas Pierce is a 2011 adventure novel written by Alexander DeLuca. It follows the journey of a university teacher Nicholas Pierce, who suffers from obsessive compulsive disorder as he searches for his biological parents, traveling across states in the United States of America. He travels with a friend, who is an eccentric barista in a cafe in upstate New York, named Sergei Tarasov.\n\nPlot\nNicholas Pierce suffers from OCD. He is also missing the memory of the first five years of his life. Raised by adoptive parents, one day he receives a mysterious box from an \"Uncle Nathan\". Curious, he sets off on a journey to find his biological parents with a Russian friend, Sergei Tarasov. On the trip, they meet several people, face money problems and different challenges. They also pick up a hitchhiker, Jessica, who later turns out to be a criminal.\n\nFinally, Nicholas finds his grandparents, who direct him to his biological parents. When he meets them, he finds out that his vaguely registered biological 'parents' were actually neighbors of his real parents who had died in an accident. The mysterious box that he had received is destroyed. He finds out that it contained photographs from his early life.\n\n2011 American novels\nNovels about obsessive–compulsive disorder",
"Bomba and the Jungle Girl is a 1952 adventure film directed by Ford Beebe and starring Johnny Sheffield. It is the eighth film (of 12) in the Bomba, the Jungle Boy film series.\n\nPlot\nBomba decides to find out who his parents were. He starts with Cody Casson's diary and follows the trail to a native village. An ancient blind woman tells him his parents, along the village's true ruler, were murdered by the current chieftain and his daughter. With the aid of an inspector and his daughter, Bomba battles the usurpers in the cave where his parents were buried.\n\nCast\nJohnny Sheffield\nKaren Sharpe\nWalter Sande\nSuzette Harbin\nMartin Wilkins\nMorris Buchanan\nLeonard Mudie\nDon Blackman.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n1952 films\nAmerican films\nAmerican adventure films\nFilms directed by Ford Beebe\nFilms produced by Walter Mirisch\nMonogram Pictures films\n1952 adventure films\nAmerican black-and-white films"
]
|
[
"Alberto Fujimori",
"Early years",
"Where was Fujimori born?",
"I don't know.",
"Where did he go to school?",
"Fujimori obtained his early education at the Colegio Nuestra Senora de la Merced and La Rectora.",
"Who were his parents?",
"Fujimori's parents were Buddhists, but he was baptised and raised as a Roman Catholic."
]
| C_a96d11cc9e744f69a1bfa1af50e556ad_1 | Did Fujimori ever move or relocate? | 4 | Did Alberto Fujimori ever move or relocate? | Alberto Fujimori | Fujimori obtained his early education at the Colegio Nuestra Senora de la Merced and La Rectora. Fujimori's parents were Buddhists, but he was baptised and raised as a Roman Catholic. While he spoke mainly Japanese at home, Fujimori also learned to become a proficient Spanish speaker during his years at school. In 1956, Fujimori graduated from La gran unidad escolar Alfonso Ugarte in Lima. He went on to undergraduate studies at the Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina in 1957, graduating in 1961 first in his class as an agricultural engineer. The following year he lectured on mathematics at the university. In 1964 he went to study physics at the University of Strasbourg in France. On a Ford scholarship, Fujimori also attended the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in the United States, where he obtained his master's degree in mathematics in 1969. In 1974, he married Susana Higuchi, also Japanese-Peruvian. They had four children, including a daughter, Keiko, who followed her father into politics. In recognition of his academic achievements, the sciences faculty of the Universidad Nacional Agraria offered Fujimori the deanship and in 1984 appointed him to the rectorship of the university, which he held until 1989. In 1987, Fujimori also became president of the National Commission of Peruvian University Rectors (Asamblea Nacional de Rectores), a position which he has held twice. He also hosted a TV show called "Concertando" from 1988 to 1989, on Peru's state-owned network, Channel 7. Fujimori won the 1990 presidential election as a dark horse candidate under the banner of Cambio 90 ("cambio" means "change") beating world-renowned writer Mario Vargas Llosa in a surprising upset. He capitalized on profound disenchantment with outgoing president Alan Garcia and the American Popular Revolutionary Alliance party (APRA). He exploited popular distrust of Vargas Llosa's identification with the existing Peruvian political establishment, and uncertainty about his plans for neoliberal economic reforms. During the campaign, Fujimori was nicknamed El Chino, which roughly translates to "Chinaman"; it is common for people of any East Asian descent to be called chino in Peru, as elsewhere in Latin America, both derogatively and affectionately. Although he is of Japanese heritage, Fujimori has suggested that he was always gladdened by the term, which he perceived as a term of affection. With his election victory, he became just the second person of East Asian descent to become head of government of a Latin American nation, after Fulgencio Batista of Cuba and the third of East Asian descent to govern a South American state, after Arthur Chung of Guyana and Henk Chin A Sen of Suriname (each of whom had served as head of state, rather than head of government). CANNOTANSWER | In 1964 he went to study physics at the University of Strasbourg in France. | Alberto Kenya Fujimori Inomoto ( or ; , born 28 July 1938) is a Peruvian former engineer who led the nation as the President of Peru from 28 July 1990 until his downfall on 22 November 2000. Frequently described as a dictator, he remains a controversial figure in Peruvian politics; his government is credited with the creation of Fujimorism, defeating the Shining Path insurgency and restoring Peru's macroeconomic stability, though Fujimori ended his presidency by fleeing Peru for Japan amid a major scandal involving corruption and human rights abuses. Even amid his prosecution in 2008 for crimes against humanity relating to his presidency, two-thirds of Peruvians polled voiced approval for his leadership in that period.
A Peruvian of Japanese descent, Fujimori took refuge in Japan when faced with charges of corruption in 2000. On arriving in Japan, he attempted to resign his presidency via fax, but his resignation was rejected by Congress, which preferred to remove him from office by the process of impeachment by a 62-9 vote. Wanted in Peru on charges of corruption and human rights abuses, Fujimori maintained a self-imposed exile until his arrest while visiting Chile in November 2005. He was extradited to face criminal charges in Peru on 22 September 2007. In December 2007, Fujimori was convicted of ordering an illegal search and seizure and was sentenced to six years imprisonment. The Supreme Court upheld the decision upon his appeal. In April 2009, Fujimori was convicted of human rights violations and sentenced to 25 years imprisonment for his role in kidnappings and murders by the Grupo Colina death squad during his government's battle against leftist guerrillas in the 1990s. The verdict, delivered by a three-judge panel, marked the first time that an elected head of state has been extradited to his home country, tried, and convicted of human rights violations. Fujimori was specifically found guilty of murder, bodily harm and two cases of kidnapping.
In July 2009, Fujimori was sentenced to seven and a half years imprisonment for embezzlement after he admitted to giving $15 million from the Peruvian treasury to his intelligence service chief, Vladimiro Montesinos. Two months later, he pleaded guilty in a fourth trial to bribery and received an additional six-year term. Transparency International considered the money embezzled by Fujimori to be the seventh-most for a head of government active within 1984–2004. Under Peruvian law, all the sentences must run concurrently; thus, the maximum length of imprisonment remained 25 years.
In December 2017, President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski granted the 79-year-old Fujimori a humanitarian pardon. The pardon was overturned by Peru's Supreme Court on 3 October 2018 and Fujimori was ordered back to prison. On 23 January 2019, Fujimori was sent back to prison to complete his sentence with his pardon formally being annulled three weeks later on 13 February 2019.
Early life, education and early career
According to government records, Fujimori was born on 28 July 1938, in Miraflores, a district of Lima. His parents, Naoichi Fujimori (original surname Minami, adopted by a childless relative; 1897–1971) and Mutsue Inomoto Fujimori (1913–2009), were natives of Kumamoto, Japan, who migrated to Peru in 1934.
In July 1997, the news magazine Caretas alleged that Fujimori was born in Japan, in his father's hometown of Kawachi, Kumamoto Prefecture. Because Peru's constitution requires the president to have been born in Peru, this would have made Fujimori ineligible to be president. The magazine, which had been sued for libel by Vladimiro Montesinos seven years earlier, reported that Fujimori's birth and baptismal certificates might have been altered. Caretas also alleged that Fujimori's mother declared having two children when she entered Peru; Fujimori is the second of four children. Caretas contentions were hotly contested in the Peruvian media; the magazine Sí, for instance, described the allegations as "pathetic" and "a dark page for [Peruvian] journalism". Latin American scholars Cynthia McClintock and Fabián Vallas note that the issue appeared to have died down among Peruvians after the Japanese government announced in 2000 that "Fujimori's parents had registered his birth in the Japanese consulate in Lima". The Japanese government determined that he was also a Japanese citizen because of his parents' registration in the koseki.
Fujimori obtained his early education at the Colegio Nuestra Señora de la Merced and La Rectora School. Fujimori's parents were Buddhists, but he was baptized and raised Roman Catholic. While he spoke mainly Japanese at home, Fujimori also learned to become a proficient Spanish speaker during his years at school. In 1956, Fujimori graduated from La gran unidad escolar Alfonso Ugarte in Lima.
He went on to undergraduate studies at the Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina in 1957, graduating in 1961 first in his class as an agricultural engineer. The following year he lectured on mathematics at the university. In 1964 he went to study physics at the University of Strasbourg in France. On a Ford scholarship, Fujimori also attended the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee in the United States, where he obtained his master's degree in mathematics in 1969.
In 1974, he married Susana Higuchi, also Japanese-Peruvian. They had four children, including a daughter, Keiko, and a son, Kenji, who would later follow their father into politics.
In recognition of his academic achievements, the sciences faculty of the National Agrarian University offered Fujimori the deanship and in 1984 appointed him to the rectorship of the university, which he held until 1989. In 1987, Fujimori also became president of the National Commission of Peruvian University Rectors (Asamblea Nacional de Rectores), a position which he has held twice. He also hosted a TV show called "Concertando" from 1988 to 1989, on Peru's state-owned network, Channel 7.
Fujimori won the 1990 presidential election as a dark horse candidate under the banner of Cambio 90 ("cambio" means "change") defeating world-renowned writer Mario Vargas Llosa in a surprising upset. He capitalized on profound disenchantment with outgoing president Alan García and the American Popular Revolutionary Alliance party (APRA). He exploited popular distrust of Vargas Llosa's identification with the existing Peruvian political establishment, and uncertainty about his plans for neoliberal economic reforms.
During the campaign, Fujimori was nicknamed El Chino, which roughly translates to "Chinaman"; it is common for people of any East Asian descent to be called chino in Peru, as elsewhere in Spanish Latin America, both derogatively and affectionately. Although he is of Japanese heritage, Fujimori has suggested that he was always gladdened by the term, which he perceived as a term of affection. With his election victory, he became just the second person of East Asian descent to become leader of a Latin American nation, after Fulgencio Batista (varied descent) of Cuba and the third of East Asian descent to govern a South American state, after Arthur Chung of Guyana and Henk Chin A Sen of Suriname.
Presidency
First term
During his first term in office, Fujimori enacted wide-ranging neoliberal reforms, known as Fujishock. During the presidency of Alan García, the economy had entered a period of hyperinflation and the political system was in crisis due to the country's internal conflict, leaving Peru in "economic and political chaos". It was Fujimori's stated objective to pacify the nation and restore economic balance. This program bore little resemblance to his campaign platform and was in fact more drastic than anything Vargas Llosa had proposed. Nonetheless, the Fujishock succeeded in restoring Peru to the global economy, though not without immediate social cost.
Fujimori's initiative relaxed private sector price controls, drastically reduced government subsidies and government employment, eliminated all exchange controls, and also reduced restrictions on investment, imports, and capital. Tariffs were radically simplified, the minimum wage was immediately quadrupled, and the government established a $400 million poverty relief fund. The latter seemed to anticipate the economic agony to come: the price of electricity quintupled, water prices rose eightfold, and gasoline prices 3,000%.
However, many do not attribute the Fujishock to Fujimori. In the 1980s, the IMF created a plan for South American economies called the Washington Consensus. The document, written by John Williamson in 1990, consists of ten measures that would lead to a healthy economic policy. Under pressure from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Peruvian government was to follow the guidelines set by the international finance community. The ten points were fiscal discipline, the reordering of public expenditure, tax reform (broadening), the liberalization of interest rates, the establishment of a competitive exchange rate, trade liberalization, liberalization of foreign direct investment, privatization, deregulation of barrier entry, exit, safety regulations, governed prices, and the establishment of property rights for the informal sector.
The IMF was content with Peru's measures, and guaranteed loan funding for Peru. Inflation rapidly began to fall and foreign investment capital flooded in. The privatization campaign involved selling off of hundreds of state-owned enterprises, and replacing the country's troubled currency, the inti, with the Nuevo Sol. The Fujishock restored macroeconomic stability to the economy and triggered a considerable long-term economic upturn in the mid-1990s. In 1994, the Peruvian economy grew at a rate of 13%, faster than any other economy in the world.
Constitutional crisis
During Fujimori's first term in office, APRA and Vargas Llosa's party, the FREDEMO, remained in control of both chambers of Congress, the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, hampering the enactment of economic reform. Fujimori also had difficulty combatting the Maoist Shining Path () guerrilla organization due largely to what he perceived as intransigence and obstructionism in Congress. By March 1992, the Congress met with the approval of only 17% of the electorate, according to one poll; the president's approval stood at 42%, in the same poll.
In response to the political deadlock, Fujimori, with the support of the military, on 5 April 1992, carried out a self-coup, also known as the autogolpe (auto-coup) or Fujigolpe (Fuji-coup) in Peru. He shut down Congress, suspended the constitution, and purged the judiciary.
According to numerous polls, the coup was welcomed by the public as evidenced by favorable public opinion in several independent polls; in fact, public approval of the Fujimori administration jumped significantly in the wake of the coup. Fujimori often cited this public support in defending the coup, which he characterized as "not a negation of real democracy, but on the contrary… a search for an authentic transformation to assure a legitimate and effective democracy." Fujimori believed that Peruvian democracy had been nothing more than "a deceptive formality – a façade". He claimed the coup was necessary in order to break with the deeply entrenched special interests that were hindering him from rescuing Peru from the chaotic state in which García had left it.
Fujimori's coup was immediately met with near-unanimous condemnation from the international community. The Organization of American States denounced the coup and demanded a return to "representative democracy", despite Fujimori's claim that the coup represented a "popular uprising". Foreign ministers of OAS member states reiterated this condemnation of the autogolpe. They proposed an urgent effort to promote the reestablishment of "the democratic institutional order" in Peru. Negotiations between the OAS, the government, and opposition groups led Alberto Fujimori initially to propose a referendum to ratify the auto-coup, but the OAS rejected this. Fujimori then proposed scheduling elections for a Democratic Constituent Congress (CCD), which would draft a new constitution to be ratified by a national referendum. Despite a lack of consensus among political forces in Peru regarding this proposal, an ad hoc OAS meeting of ministers nevertheless endorsed this scenario in mid-May. Elections for the Democratic Constituent Congress were held on 22 November 1992.
Various states individually condemned the coup. Venezuela broke off diplomatic relations, and Argentina withdrew its ambassador. Chile joined Argentina in requesting Peru's suspension from the Organization of American States. International lenders delayed planned or projected loans, and the United States, Germany and Spain suspended all non-humanitarian aid to Peru. The coup appeared to threaten the reinsertion strategy for economic recovery, and complicated the process of clearing Peru's arrears with the International Monetary Fund.
Peruvian–U.S. relations earlier in Fujimori's presidency had been dominated by questions of coca eradication and Fujimori's initial reluctance to sign an accord to increase his military's eradication efforts in the lowlands. Fujimori's autogolpe became a major obstacle to relations, as the United States immediately suspended all military and economic aid, with exceptions for counter-narcotic and humanitarian funds. Two weeks after the self-coup, however, the George H.W. Bush administration changed its position and officially recognized Fujimori as the legitimate leader of Peru, partly because he was willing to implement economic austerity measures, but also because of his adamant opposition to the Shining Path.
Authoritarian period
With FREDEMO dissolved and APRA leader Alan García exiled to Colombia, Fujimori sought to legitimize his position. He called elections for a Democratic Constitutional Congress, to serve as a legislature and as a constituent assembly. The APRA and Popular Action attempted a boycott of this election, but the Christian People’s Party (PPC, not to be confused with PCP, Partido Comunista del Peru, or "Peruvian Communist Party") and many left-leaning parties participated in this election. Fujimori supporters won a majority of the seats in this body, and drafted a new constitution in 1993. In a referendum, the coup and the Constitution of 1993 were approved by a narrow margin of less than five percent.
On 13 November 1993, General Jaime Salinas led a failed military coup. Salinas asserted that his intentions were to turn Fujimori over to be tried for violating the Peruvian constitution.
In 1994, Fujimori separated from his wife Susana Higuchi in a noisy, public divorce. He formally stripped her of the title First Lady in August 1994, appointing their eldest daughter as First Lady in her stead. Higuchi publicly denounced Fujimori as a "tyrant" and claimed that his administration was corrupt. They formally divorced in 1995.
In Fujimori's first term of office, over 3,000 Peruvians were killed in political murders.
Second term
The 1993 Constitution allowed Fujimori to run for a second term, and in April 1995, at the height of his popularity, Fujimori easily won reelection with almost two-thirds of the vote. His major opponent, former UN Secretary-General Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, won only 21 percent of the vote. Fujimori's supporters won comfortable majority in the newly unicameral Congress. One of the first acts of the new congress was to declare an amnesty for all members of the Peruvian military or police accused or convicted of human rights abuses between 1980 and 1995.
During his second term, Fujimori along with Ecuadorian President Sixto Durán Ballén, signed a peace agreement with Ecuador over a border dispute that had simmered for more than a century. The treaty allowed the two countries to obtain international funds for developing the border region. Fujimori also settled some issues with Chile, Peru's southern neighbor, which had been unresolved since the 1929 Treaty of Lima.
The 1995 election was the turning point in Fujimori's career. Peruvians began to be more concerned about freedom of speech and the press. However, before he was sworn in for a second term, Fujimori stripped two universities of their autonomy and reshuffled the national electoral board. This led his opponents to call him "Chinochet," a reference to his previous nickname and to Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. Modeling his rule after Pinochet, Fujimori reportedly enjoyed this nickname.
According to a poll by the Peruvian Research and Marketing Company conducted in 1997, 40.6% of Lima residents considered President Fujimori an authoritarian.
In addition to the fate of democracy under Fujimori, Peruvians were becoming increasingly interested in the myriad allegations of criminality that involved Fujimori and his chief of the National Intelligence Service (SIN), Vladimiro Montesinos. Using SIN, Fujimori gained control of the majority of the armed forces, with Financial Times stating that "[i]n no other country in Latin America did a president have so much control over the armed forces".
A 2002 report by Health Minister Fernando Carbone later suggested that Fujimori was involved in the forced sterilizations of up to 300,000 indigenous women between 1996 and 2000, as part of a population control program. A 2004 World Bank publication said that in this period Montesinos' abuse of the power Fujimori granted him "led to a steady and systematic undermining of the rule of law".
Third term
The 1993 constitution limited a presidency to two terms. Shortly after Fujimori began his second term, his supporters in Congress passed a law of "authentic interpretation" which effectively allowed him to run for another term in 2000. A 1998 effort to repeal this law by referendum failed. In late 1999, Fujimori announced that he would run for a third term. Peruvian electoral bodies, which were politically sympathetic to Fujimori, accepted his argument that the two-term restriction did not apply to him, as it was enacted while he was already in office.<ref>Clifford Krauss, Peru's Chief to Seek 3rd Term, Capping a Long Legal Battle, 'New York Times, 28 December 1999. Retrieved 26 September 2006.</ref>
Exit polls showed Fujimori fell short of the 50% required to avoid an electoral runoff, but the first official results showed him with 49.6% of the vote, just short of outright victory. Eventually, Fujimori was credited with 49.89%—20,000 votes short of avoiding a runoff. Despite reports of numerous irregularities, the international observers recognized an adjusted victory of Fujimori. His primary opponent, Alejandro Toledo, called for his supporters to spoil their ballots in the runoff by writing "No to fraud!" on them (voting is mandatory in Peru). International observers pulled out of the country after Fujimori refused to delay the runoff.
In the runoff, Fujimori won with 51.1% of the total votes. While votes for Toledo declined from 37.0% of the total votes cast in the first round to 17.7% of the votes in the second round, invalid votes jumped from 8.1% of the total votes cast in the first round to 31.1% of total votes in the second round. The large percentage of invalid votes in this election suggests that many Peruvians took Toledo's advice and spoiled their ballots.
Although Fujimori won the runoff with only a bare majority (but 3/4 valid votes), rumors of irregularities led most of the international community to shun his third swearing-in on 28 July. For the next seven weeks, there were daily demonstrations in front of the presidential palace. As a conciliatory gesture, Fujimori appointed former opposition candidate Federico Salas as prime minister. However, opposition parties in Congress refused to support this move, and Toledo campaigned vigorously to have the election annulled. At this point, a corruption scandal involving Vladimiro Montesinos broke out, and exploded into full force on the evening of 14 September 2000, when the cable television station Canal N broadcast footage of Montesinos apparently bribing opposition congressman Alberto Kouri for defecting to Fujimori's Peru 2000 party. The video was presented by Fernando Olivera, leader of the FIM (Independent Moralizing Front), who purchased it from one of Montesinos's closest allies (nicknamed by the Peruvian press El Patriota).
Fujimori's support virtually collapsed, and a few days later he announced in a nationwide address that he would shut down the SIN and call new elections, in which he would not be a candidate. On 10 November, Fujimori won approval from Congress to hold elections on 8 April 2001. On 13 November, Fujimori left Peru for a visit to Brunei to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. On 16 November, Valentín Paniagua took over as president of Congress after the pro-Fujimori leadership lost a vote of confidence. On 17 November, Fujimori traveled from Brunei to Tokyo, where he submitted his presidential resignation via fax. Congress refused to accept his resignation, instead voting 62–9 to remove Fujimori from office on the grounds that he was "permanently morally disabled."
On 19 November, government ministers presented their resignations en bloc. Because Fujimori's first vice president, Francisco Tudela, who had broken with Fujimori and resigned a few days earlier, his successor second vice president Ricardo Márquez Flores came to claim the presidency. Congress, however, refused to recognize him, as he was an ardent Fujimori loyalist; Márquez resigned two days later. Paniagua was next in line, and became interim president to oversee the April 2001 elections.
Counterterrorism efforts
When Fujimori came to power, much of Peru was dominated by the Maoist insurgent group Sendero Luminoso ("Shining Path"), and the Marxist–Leninist group Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA). In 1989, 25% of Peru's district and provincial councils opted not to hold elections, owing to a persistent campaign of assassination, over the course of which over 100 officials had been killed by the Shining Path in that year alone. That same year, more than one-third of Peru's courts lacked a justice of the peace due to Shining Path intimidation. Labor union leaders and military officials were also assassinated throughout the 1980s.
By the early 1990s, some parts of the country were under the control of the insurgents, in territories known as "zonas liberadas" ("liberated zones"), where inhabitants lived under the rule of these groups and paid them taxes. When the Shining Path arrived in Lima, it organized "paros armados" ("armed strikes"), which were enforced by killings and other forms of violence. The leadership of the Shining Path largely consisted of university students and teachers. Two previous governments, those of Fernando Belaúnde Terry and Alan García, at first neglected the threat posed by the Shining Path, then launched an unsuccessful military campaign to eradicate it, undermining public faith in the state and precipitating an exodus of elites.
By 1992, Shining Path guerrilla attacks had claimed an estimated 20,000 lives over preceding 12 years. On 16 July 1992, the Tarata Bombing, in which several car bombs exploded in Lima's wealthiest district, killed over 40 people; the bombings were characterized by one commentator as an "offensive to challenge President Albert Fujimori." The bombing at Tarata was followed up with a "weeklong wave of car bombings ... Bombs hit banks, hotels, schools, restaurants, police stations and shops ... [G]uerrillas bombed two rail bridges from the Andes, cutting off some of Peru's largest copper mines from coastal ports."
Fujimori has been credited by many Peruvians with ending the fifteen-year insurgency of the Shining Path. As part of his anti-insurgency efforts, Fujimori granted the military broad powers to arrest suspected insurgents and try them in secret military courts with few legal rights. This measure has often been criticized for compromising the fundamental democratic and human right to an open trial wherein the accused faces the accuser. Fujimori contended that these measures were both justified and also necessary. Members of the judiciary were too afraid to charge the alleged insurgents, and judges and prosecutors had very legitimate fears of reprisals against them or their families. At the same time, Fujimori's government armed rural Peruvians, organizing them into groups known as "rondas campesinas" ("peasant patrols").
Insurgent activity was in decline by the end of 1992, and Fujimori took credit for this abatement, claiming that his campaign had largely eliminated the insurgent threat. After the 1992 auto-coup, the intelligence work of the DINCOTE (National Counter-Terrorism Directorate) led to the capture of the leaders from MRTA and the Shining Path, including notorious Shining Path leader Abimael Guzmán. Guzmán's capture was a political coup for Fujimori, who used it to great effect in the press; in an interview with documentarian Ellen Perry, Fujimori even notes that he specially ordered Guzmán's prison jumpsuit to be white with black stripes, to enhance the image of his capture in the media.
Critics charge that to achieve the defeat of the Shining Path, the Peruvian military engaged in widespread human rights abuses, and that the majority of the victims were poor highland countryside inhabitants caught in a crossfire between the military and insurgents. The final report of the Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission, published on 28 August 2003, brought out that Peruvian armed forces were also guilty of destroying villages and murdering countryside inhabitants whom they suspected of supporting insurgents.
The Japanese embassy hostage crisis began on 17 December 1996, when fourteen MRTA militants seized the residence of the Japanese ambassador in Lima during a party, taking hostage some four hundred diplomats, government officials, and other dignitaries. The action was partly in protest of prison conditions in Peru. During the four-month standoff, the Emerretistas gradually freed all but 72 of their hostages. The government rejected the militants' demand to release imprisoned MRTA members and secretly prepared an elaborate plan to storm the residence, while stalling by negotiating with the hostage-takers.
On 22 April 1997, a team of military commandos, codenamed "Chavín de Huantar", raided the building. One hostage, two military commandos, and all 14 MRTA insurgents were killed in the operation. Images of President Fujimori at the ambassador's residence during and after the military operation, surrounded by soldiers and liberated dignitaries, and walking among the corpses of the insurgents, were widely televised. The conclusion of the four-month-long standoff was used by Fujimori and his supporters to bolster his image as tough on terrorism.
Human rights violations
Several organizations criticized Fujimori's methods against the Shining Path and the MRTA. Amnesty International said "the widespread and systematic nature of human rights violations committed during the government of former head of state Albert Fujimori (1990–2000) in Peru constitute crimes against humanity under international law." Fujimori's alleged association with death squads is currently being studied by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, after the court accepted the case of "Cantuta vs Perú".
The 1991 Barrios Altos massacre by members of the death squad Grupo Colina, made up solely of members of the Peruvian armed forces, was one of the crimes that Peru cited in its request to Japan for his extradition in 2003.
Reportedly following socioeconomic objectives calling for the "total extermination" of "culturally backward and economically impoverished groups" determined by the Peruvian military in Plan Verde, from 1996 to 2000, the Fujimori government oversaw a massive forced sterilization campaign known as the National Program for Reproductive Health and Family Planning (PNSRPF). According to Back and Zavala, the plan was an example of ethnic cleansing as it targeted indigenous and rural women. The United Nations and other international aid agencies supported this campaign. USAID provided funding and training until it was exposed by objections by churches and human rights groups. The Nippon Foundation, headed by Ayako Sono, a Japanese novelist and personal friend of Fujimori, supported as well.Peru Plans a Hot Line to Battle Forced-Sterilizations The ZENET LIMA, Peru, 2 September 2001 Over 215,000 people, mostly women, entirely indigenous, were forced or threatened into sterilization and 16,547 men were forced to undergo vasectomies during these years, most of them without a proper anesthetist, in contrast to 80,385 sterilizations and 2,795 vasectomies over the previous three years.
The success of the military operation in the Japanese embassy hostage crisis was tainted by subsequent allegations that at least three and possibly eight of the insurgents were summarily executed by the commandos after surrendering. In 2002, the case was taken up by public prosecutors, but the Peruvian Supreme Court ruled that the military tribunals had jurisdiction. A military court later absolved them of guilt, and the "Chavín de Huantar" soldiers led the 2004 military parade. In response, in 2003 MRTA family members lodged a complaint with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) accusing the Peruvian state of human rights violations, namely that the MRTA insurgents had been denied the "right to life, the right to judicial guarantees and the right to judicial protection". The IACHR accepted the case and is currently studying it.Peruvian Minister of Justice Maria Zavala has stated that this verdict by the IACHR supports the Peruvian government's extradition of Fujimori from Chile. Though the IACHR verdict does not directly implicate Fujimori, it does fault the Peruvian government for its complicity in the 1992 Cantuta University killings.
Resignation, arrest, and trial
Alberto Fujimori left Peru in November 2000 to attend a regional summit in Brunei. He then traveled on to Japan. Once there, he announced plans to remain in the country and faxed his resignation letter to Congress.
After Congress rejected Fujimori's faxed resignation, they relieved Fujimori of his duties as president and banned him from Peruvian politics for a decade. He remained in self-imposed exile in Japan, where he resided with his friend, the famous Catholic novelist Ayako Sono. Several senior Japanese politicians have supported Fujimori, partly because of his decisive action in ending the 1996-97 Japanese embassy crisis.
Alejandro Toledo, who assumed the Peruvian presidency in 2001, spearheaded the criminal case against Fujimori. He arranged meetings with the Supreme Court, tax authorities, and other powers in Peru to "coordinate the joint efforts to bring the criminal Fujimori from Japan." His vehemence in this matter at times compromised Peruvian law: forcing the judiciary and legislative system to keep guilty sentences without hearing Fujimori's defense; not providing Fujimori with representation when Fujimori was tried in absentia; and expelling pro-Fujimori congressmen from the parliament without proof of the accusations against those congressmen. These expulsions were later reversed by the judiciary.
The Peruvian Congress authorized charges against Fujimori in August 2001. Fujimori was alleged to be a coauthor, along with Vladimiro Montesinos, of the death-squad killings at Barrios Altos in 1991 and La Cantuta in 1992, respectively. At the behest of Peruvian authorities, Interpol issued an arrest order for Fujimori on charges that included murder, kidnapping, and crimes against humanity.
Meanwhile, the Peruvian government found that Japan was not amenable to the extradition of Fujimori; a protracted diplomatic debate ensued, when Japan showed itself unwilling to accede to the extradition request. Fujimori had been granted Japanese citizenship after his arrival in the country, and the Japanese government maintained that Japanese citizens would not be extradited.
In September 2003, Congressman Dora Dávila, joined by Minister of Health Luis Soari, denounced Fujimori and several of his ministers for crimes against humanity, for allegedly having overseen forced sterilizations during his regime. In November, Congress approved an investigation of Fujimori's involvement in the airdrop of Kalashnikov rifles into the Colombian jungle in 1999 and 2000 for guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Fujimori maintained he had no knowledge of the arms-trading, and blamed Montesinos. By approving the charges, Congress lifted the immunity granted to Fujimori as a former president, so that he could be criminally charged and prosecuted.
Congress also voted to support charges against Fujimori for the detention and disappearance of 67 students from the central Andean city of Huancayo and the disappearance of several residents from the northern coastal town of Chimbote during the 1990s. It also approved charges that Fujimori mismanaged millions of dollars from Japanese charities, suggesting that the millions of dollars in his bank account were far too much to have been accumulated legally.
In 2004, the Special Prosecutor established to investigate Fujimori released a report alleging that the Fujimori administration had obtained US$2 billion though graft. Most of this money came from Vladimiro Montesinos' web of corruption. The Special Prosecutor's figure of two billion dollars is considerably higher than the one arrived at by Transparency International, an NGO that studies corruption. Transparency International listed Fujimori as having embezzled an estimated US$600 million, which would rank seventh in the list of money embezzled by heads of government active within 1984–2004., 25 March 2004, Laksamana.Net, Jakarta.
Fujimori dismissed the judicial proceedings underway against him as "politically motivated", citing Toledo's involvement. Fujimori established a new political party in Peru, Sí Cumple, working from Japan. He hoped to participate in the 2006 presidential elections, but in February 2004, the Constitutional Court dismissed this possibility, because the ex-president was specifically barred by Congress from holding any office for ten years. Fujimori saw the decision as unconstitutional, as did his supporters such as ex-congressmembers Luz Salgado, Martha Chávez and Fernán Altuve, who argued it was a "political" maneuver and that the only body with the authority to determine the matter was the Jurado Nacional de Elecciones (JNE). Valentín Paniagua disagreed, suggesting that the Constitutional Court finding was binding and that "no further debate is possible".Salgado: JNE debe ser quien defina postulación de Fujimori, Noticias on terra.com.peru, 21 February 2005 credited to Expreso. Retrieved 26 September 2006.
Fujimori's Sí Cumple (roughly translated, "He Keeps His Word") received more than 10% in many country-level polls, contending with APRA for the second place slot, but did not participate in the 2006 elections after its participation in the Alliance for the Future (initially thought as Alliance Sí Cumple) had not been allowed.
By March 2005, it appeared that Peru had all but abandoned its efforts to extradite Fujimori from Japan. In September of that year, Fujimori obtained a new Peruvian passport in Tokyo and announced his intention to run in the upcoming 2006 national election. He arrived in Chile in November 2005, but hours after his arrival there he was arrested. Peru then requested his extradition.
While under house arrest in Chile, Fujimori announced plans to run in Japan's Upper House elections in July 2007 for the far-right People's New Party. Fujimori was extradited from Chile to Peru in September 2007.
On 7 April 2009, a three-judge panel convicted Fujimori on charges of human rights abuses, declaring that the "charges against him have been proven beyond all reasonable doubt". The panel found him guilty of ordering the Grupo Colina death squad to commit the November 1991 Barrios Altos massacre and the July 1992 La Cantuta Massacre, which resulted in the deaths of 25 people, as well as for taking part in the kidnappings of Peruvian opposition journalist Gustavo Gorriti and businessman Samuel Dyer. Fujimori's conviction is the only instance of a democratically elected head of state being tried and convicted of human rights abuses in his own country. Later on 7 April, the court sentenced Fujimori to 25 years in prison. Likewise, the Court found him guilty of aggravated kidnapping, under the aggravating circumstance of cruel treatment, to the detriment of journalist Gustavo Gorriti and businessman Samuel Dyer Ampudia. The Special Criminal Chamber determined that the sentence had expired on February 10, 2032. On January 2, 2010, the sentence to 25 years in prison for human rights violations was confirmed.
Further trials
He faced a third trial in July 2009 over allegations that he illegally gave $15 million in state funds to Vladimiro Montesinos, former head of the National Intelligence Service, during the two months prior to his fall from power. Fujimori admitted paying the money to Montesinos but claimed that he had later paid back the money to the state. On 20 July, the court found him guilty of embezzlement and sentenced him to a further seven and a half years in prison.
A fourth trial took place in September 2009 in Lima. Fujimori was accused of using Montesinos to bribe and tap the phones of journalists, businessmen and opposition politicians – evidence of which led to the collapse of his government in 2000. Fujimori admitted the charges but claimed that the charges were made to damage his daughter's presidential election campaign. The prosecution asked the court to sentence Fujimori to eight years imprisonment with a fine of $1.6 million plus $1 million in compensation to ten people whose phones were bugged. Fujimori pleaded guilty and was sentenced to six years' imprisonment on 30 September 2009. Under Peruvian law, all prison sentences run concurrently.
On May 3, 2016, the Constitutional Court of Peru rejected the nullity of Alberto Fujimori's conviction. Alberto Fujimori will continue to be sentenced for 25 years, which was imposed on him for responsibility in the Barrios Altos and La Cantuta massacres.
Pardon requests
Press reports in late 2012 indicated that Fujimori was suffering from tongue cancer and other medical problems. His family asked President Ollanta Humala for a pardon. President Humala rejected a pardon in 2013, saying that Fujimori's condition was not serious enough to warrant it. In July 2016, with three days left in his term, President Humala said that there was insufficient time to evaluate a second request to pardon Fujimori, leaving the decision to his successor Pedro Pablo Kuczynski. On 24 December 2017, President Kuczynski pardoned him on health grounds. Kuczynski's office stated that the hospitalized 79-year-old Fujimori had a "progressive, degenerative and incurable disease". The pardon kicked off at least two days of protests and led at least three congressmen to resign from Kuczynski's party. A spokesman for Popular Force alleged there was a pact that, in exchange for the pardon, Popular Force members helped Kuczynski fight ongoing impeachment proceedings.
On February 20, 2018, the National Criminal Chamber ruled that it did not apply the resolution that granted Fujimori the right of grace for humanitarian reasons. Therefore, the former president had to face the process for the Pativilca Case with a simple appearance.
On 3 October 2018, the Peruvian Supreme Court reversed Fujimori's pardon and ordered his return to prison. He was rushed to a hospital and returned to prison on 23 January 2019. His pardon was formally annulled on 13 February 2019.
Legacy
Economic achievements
Fujimori is credited by many Peruvians for bringing stability to the country after the violence and hyperinflation of the García years. While it is generally agreed that the "Fujishock" brought short/middle-term macroeconomic stability, the long-term social impact of Fujimori's free market economic policies is still hotly debated.
Neoliberal reforms under Fujimori took place in three distinct phases: an initial "orthodox" phase (1990–92) in which technocrats dominated the reform agenda; a "pragmatic" phase (1993–98) that saw the growing influence of business elites over government priorities; and a final "watered-down" phase (1999–2000) dominated by a clique of personal loyalists and their clientelist policies that aimed to secure Fujimori a third term as president. Business was a big winner of the reforms, with its influence increasing significantly within both the state and society.
High growth during Fujimori's first term petered out during his second term. "El Niño" phenomena had a tremendous impact on the Peruvian economy during the late 1990s. Nevertheless, total GDP growth between 1992 and 2001, inclusive, was 44.60%, that is, 3.76% per annum; total GDP per capita growth between 1991 and 2001, inclusive, was 30.78%, that is, 2.47% per annum. Also, studies by INEI, the national statistics bureau show that the number of Peruvians living in poverty increased dramatically (from 41.6% to more than 70%) during Alan García's term, but decreased greatly (from more than 70% to 54%) during Fujimori's term. Furthermore, FAO reported Peru reduced undernourishment by about 29% from 1990–92 to 1997–99.
Peru was reintegrated into the global economic system, and began to attract foreign investment. The mass selloff of state-owned enterprises led to improvements in some service industries, notably local telephone, mobile telephone, and internet services, respectively. For example, before privatization, a consumer or business had to wait up to 10 years to get a local telephone line installed by the state-run telephone company at a cost of $607 for a residential line.Peru after Privatization: Are Telephone Consumers Better Off? . Máximo Torero, Enrique Schroth, and Alberto Pascó-Font. Retrieved 4 October 2006. A couple of years after privatization, the wait was reduced to just a few days. Peru's Physical land based telephone network had a dramatic increase in telephone penetration from 2.9% in 1993 to 5.9% in 1996 and 6.2% in 2000, and a dramatic decrease in the wait for a telephone line. Average wait went from 70 months in 1993 (before privatization) to two months in 1996 (after privatization). Privatization also generated foreign investment in export-oriented activities such as mining and energy extraction, notably the Camisea gas project and the copper and zinc extraction projects at Antamina.
Criticism
Fujimori has been described as a "dictator".Charles D. Kenney, 2004 Fujimori's Coup and the Breakdown of Democracy in Latin America (Helen Kellogg Institute for International Studies) University of Notre Dame Press His government was permeated by a network of corruption organized by his associate Montesinos.Catherine M. Conaghan 2005 Fujimori's Peru: Deception in the Public Sphere (Pitt Latin American Series) University of Pittsburgh Press Fujimori's style of government has also been described as "populist authoritarianism". Numerous governments and human rights organizations such as Amnesty International, welcomed the extradition of Fujimori to face human rights charges. As early as 1991, Fujimori had himself vocally denounced what he called "pseudo-human rights organizations" such as Amnesty International and Americas Watch, for allegedly failing to criticize the insurgencies targeting civilian populations throughout Peru against which his government was struggling.
Some analysts state that some of the GDP growth during the Fujimori years actually reflects a greater rate of extraction of nonrenewable resources by transnational companies; these companies were attracted by Fujimori by means of near-zero royalties, and, by the same fact, little of the extracted wealth has stayed in the country."Peru: Public consultation says NO to mining in Tambogrande", pp.14–15 in WRM Bulletin # 59, June 2002 (World Rainforest Movement, English edition). Accessible online as Rich Text Format (RTF) document. Retrieved 26 September 2006."Investing in Destruction: The Impacts of a WTO Investment Agreement on Extractive Industries in Developing Countries", Oxfam America Briefing Paper, June 2003. Retrieved 27 September 2006. Peru's mining legislation, they claim, has served as a role model for other countries that wish to become more mining-friendly.
Fujimori's privatization program also remains shrouded in controversy and opposed by many Peruvians. A congressional investigation in 2002, led by socialist opposition congressman Javier Diez Canseco, stated that of the US$9 billion raised through the privatizations of hundreds of state-owned enterprises, only a small fraction of this income ever benefited the Peruvian people.
The sole instance of organized labor's success in impeding reforms, namely the teacher's union resistance to education reform, was based on traditional methods of organization and resistance: strikes and street demonstrations.
In the 2004 Global Corruption Report, Fujimori made into the list of the World's Most Corrupt Leaders. He was listed seventh and he was said to have amassed $600 million, but despite years of incarceration and investigation, none of these supposed stolen funds have ever been located in any bank account anywhere in the world.
Support
Fujimori did have support within Peru. The Universidad de Lima March 2003 poll, taken while he was in Japan, found a 41% approval rating for his administration. A poll conducted in March 2005 by the Instituto de Desarrollo e Investigación de Ciencias Económicas (IDICE) indicated that 12.1% of the respondents intended to vote for Fujimori in the 2006 presidential election. A poll conducted on 25 November 2005, by the Universidad de Lima indicated a high approval (45.6%) rating of the Fujimori period between 1990 and 2000, attributed to his counterinsurgency efforts (53%). An article from La Razon, a Peruvian newspaper, stated in 2003 that: "Fujimori is only guilty of one big crime and it is that of having been successful in a country of failed politicians, creators of debt, builders of mirages, and downright opportunistic."
According to a more recent Universidad de Lima survey, Fujimori still retains public support, ranking fifth in personal popularity among other political figures. Popular approval for his decade-long presidency (1990–2000) has reportedly grown (from 31.5% in 2002 to 49.5% in May 2007). Despite accusations of corruption and human rights violations, nearly half of the individuals interviewed in the survey approved of Fujimori's presidential regime. In a 2007 Universidad de Lima survey of 600 Peruvians in Lima and the port of Callao, 82.6% agreed that the former president should be extradited from Chile to stand trial in Peru.
The Lima-based newspaper Perú 21 ran an editorial noting that even though the Universidad de Lima poll results indicate that four out of every five interviewees believe that Fujimori is guilty of some of the charges against him, he still enjoys at least 30% of popular support and enough approval to restart a political career.
In the 2006 congressional elections, his daughter Keiko was elected to the congress with the highest vote count. She came in second place in the 2011 Peruvian presidential election with 23.2% of the vote, and lost the June runoff against Ollanta Humala. She again ran for President in the 2016 election, narrowly losing the runoff to Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, and again in the 2021 election, losing the runoff to Pedro Castillo.
See also
Judiciary reform in Peru under Alberto Fujimori
History of Peru
Peruvian internal conflict
Japanese Peruvians
List of presidents of Peru
Politics of Peru
Peruvian national election, 2006
Vladimiro Montesinos
References
Further reading
H.W. Wilson Company, Current Biography Yearbook, Volume 57, H.W. Wilson, 1996
External links
Biography and tenure by CIDOB Foundation
The Fall of Fujimori on POV at PBS'', 2006
State of Fear a documentary of Peru's war on terror based on the findings of the Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission
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University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee alumni | true | [
"The 1992 Peruvian self-coup d'état, also known as the Fujimorazo, was a self-coup performed during a constitutional crisis that occurred in Peru after President Alberto Fujimori dissolved the Congress of Peru as well as the judiciary of Peru and assumed full legislative and judicial powers. With the collaboration of the military, the Fujimori government subsequently began to implement objectives of Plan Verde following the coup.\n\nBackground\nUnder the military government of Juan Velasco Alvarado, Peru's debt increased greatly due to excessive borrowing and the 1970s energy crisis. The economic policy of President Alan García distanced Peru from international markets further, resulting in lower foreign investment in the country. Under García, Peru experienced hyperinflation and increased confrontations with the guerrilla group Shining Path, leading the country towards high levels of instability.\n\nPlan Verde \n\nIn October 1989, Plan Verde, a clandestine military operation, was developed by the armed forces of Peru during the internal conflict in Peru; it involved the genocide of impoverished and indigenous Peruvians, the control or censorship of media in the nation and the establishment of a neoliberal economy in Peru. Initially a coup d'état was included in the plan, though this was opposed by Anthony C. E. Quainton, the United States Ambassador to Peru. Military planners also decided against the coup as they expected a neoliberal candidate to be elected in the 1990 Peruvian general election. Rendón writes that the United States supported Fujimori because of his relationship with Vladimiro Montesinos, a former Peruvian intelligence officer who was charged with spying on the Peruvian military for the Central Intelligence Agency. Summarizing alleged support for Fujimori's candidacy from the United States, Rendón writes, \"If Vargas Llosa with liberal democracy was very polarizing and a danger to American interests in the region, Fujimori with authoritarianism was very consensual and more in line with American interests in Peru and the region\".\n\nAccording to Peruvian sociologist and political analyst Fernando Rospigliosi, Peru's business elites held relationships with the military planners, with Rospigliosi writing that businesses \"probably provided the economic ideas which [the military] agreed with, the necessity of a liberal economic program as well as the installment of an authoritarian government which would impose order\". Rospigliosi also states that \"an understanding was established between Fujimori, Montesinos and some of the military officers\" involved in Plan Verde prior to Fujimori's inauguration. After taking office, Fujimori abandoned the economic platform he promoted during his electoral campaign, adopting more aggressive neoliberal policies than those espoused by his competitor in the election. Fujimori would go on to adopt many of the policies outlined in Plan Verde. With the compliance of Fujimori, plans for a coup as designed in Plan Verde were prepared over a two-year period prior to April 1992.\n\nNeoliberal economic proposals \nHernando de Soto – who with the assistance and funding of the Atlas Network created the Institute for Liberty and Democracy (ILD), one of the first neoliberal organizations in Latin America – served informally as Fujimori's \"personal representative\" for the first three years of the his government and recommended a \"shock\" to Peru's economy, stating \"This society is collapsing, without a doubt, ... But the problems here are so entrenched that you have to have a collapse before you can implement fundamental changes in the political system\". De Soto convinced Fujimori to travel to New York City in a meeting organized by the Peruvian Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, secretary general of the United Nations, where they met with the heads of the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the Inter-American Development Bank, who convinced Fujimori to follow the guidelines for economic policy set by the international financial institutions. The policies included a 300 percent tax increase, unregulated prices and privatizing two-hundred and fifty state-owned entities.\n\nCongressional disputes \nThrough Fujimori's first two years in office, congress – which consisted mainly of opposition parties – granted Fujimori legislative power on fifteen separate occasions, which allowed him to enact 158 laws. However, congress resisted Fujimori's efforts to adopt policies advocated by the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, especially austerity measures.\n\nIn response, Fujimori mounted an auto-coup (, sometimes Fuji-coup or fujigolpe) on Sunday, April 5, 1992.\n\nSelf-coup d'état\nOn the night of Sunday April, 5, 1992, Fujimori appeared on television and announced that he was \"temporarily dissolving\" the Congress of the Republic and \"reorganizing\" the Judicial Branch of the government. He then ordered the Peruvian Army to drive a tank to the steps of Congress to shut it down. When a group of senators attempted to hold session, tear gas was deployed against them.\n\nThat same night, the military was sent to detain prominent members of the political opposition. Fujimori was convicted in 2009 for the kidnapping of journalist Gustavo Gorriti and businessman Samuel Dyer, both of whom were detained by the military on the night of the self coup.\n\nOne of the most criticized moves that Fujimori took was the attempt to arrest former president Alan García, in order to have him face numerous trials. Also contributing to the coup was Fujimori's desire to remove García, who was serving as a Senator, as a political rival and potential future presidential candidate. However, García managed to escape arrest and sought political asylum in Colombia.\n\nResults\nFujimori issued Decree Law 25418, which dissolved the Congress, gave the Executive Branch all legislative powers, suspended much of the Constitution, and gave the president the power to enact various reforms, such as the \"application of drastic punishments\" towards \"terrorists\". Fujimori called for elections of a new congress that was later named the Democratic Constitutional Congress (Congreso Constituyente Democrático); Fujimori later received a majority in this new congress, which later drafted the 1993 Constitution. Fujimori also set about curtailing the independence of the judiciary and constitutional rights with a declaration of a state of emergency and curfews, as well as enacting controversial \"severe emergency laws\" to deal with terrorism.\n\nThe Prime Minister, Alfonso de Los Heros, and the Minister of Agriculture resigned while the rest of ministers supported the de facto government. Máximo San Román, then the first vice president of the republic, did not support the coup. He was not in the country at the time of the coup, and he was not informed about this move.\n\nThe legislative branch responded by activating the constitutional clauses that allow the Congress to remove the president from office. Fujimori was removed and Máximo San Román was formally sworn into the presidency. Prominent politicians supported this move: former President Fernando Belaúnde Terry and most of the Acción Popular Party supported San Román, while former FREDEMO presidential candidate Mario Vargas Llosa called for a civil insurgency to overthrow Fujimori. However, neither the military nor the big majority of the people ever supported San Román, and he never became the de facto president.\n\nReactions\n\nDomestic\nFollowing the coup, Peruvian newspapers, radio and television stations were occupied by the military beginning at 10:30pm on 5 April and remained for forty hours until 7 April, limiting initial response from domestic media. During the period, only the Fujimori government was granted to communicate with the public and all newspapers were printed under military observation and contained similar content; every publication was ordered to not include the word \"coup\". \n\nThe only poll allowed to be published following the coup was presented by APOYO Opinión y Mercado, with Rendón writing that the Fujimori government \"had the information monopoly and the company APOYO the monopoly of measuring the effects of this information monopoly on the citizenry\". The APOYO poll stated that of respondents, 71% supported the dissolution of congress and 89% supported the restructuring of the judiciary, with the government and media promptly promoting the results to the public. David Wood of the University of Sheffield described the poll as an example of \"semantic shepherding\" while Rendón wrote that \"APOYO was dedicated to doing the surveys that the regime would use in its favor, to legitimize itself politically\". In the years after releasing the poll, director of APOYO Felipe Ortiz de Zevallos would continue to defend Fujimori and would be involved with his government's programs.\n\nAccording to of Manuel D'Ornellas of Expreso in 1994, the military's oversight of the media was only momentary due to international condemnation Fujimori received. Another group of military officers led by General Jaime Salinas Sedó attempted to overthrow Fujimori on 13 November.\n\nInternational\nInternational reactions to the auto-coup were different: International financial organizations delayed planned or projected loans, and the United States government suspended all aid to Peru other than humanitarian assistance, as did Germany and Spain. Venezuela broke off diplomatic relations, and Argentina withdrew its ambassador. Chile joined Argentina in requesting that Peru be suspended from the Organization of American States. The coup appeared to threaten the economic recovery strategy of reinsertion, and complicated the process of clearing arrears with the International Monetary Fund.\n\nEven before the coup, relations with the United States had been strained because of Fujimori's reluctance to sign an accord that would increase U.S. and Peruvian military efforts in eradicating coca fields. Although Fujimori eventually signed the accord in May 1991, in order to get desperately needed aid, the disagreements did little to enhance bilateral relations. The Peruvians saw drugs as primarily a U.S. problem and the least of their concerns, given the economic crisis, Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso, or S.L.) guerrillas, and an outbreak of cholera, which further isolated Peru because of a resulting ban on food imports.\n\nHowever, two weeks after the auto-coup, the Bush administration changed their position and officially recognized Fujimori as the legitimate leader of Peru. The Organization of American States and the U.S. agreed that Fujimori's coup may have been extreme, but they did not want to see Peru return to the deteriorating state that it had been in before. In fact, the coup came not long after the U.S. government and media had launched a media offensive against the Shining Path rural guerrilla movement. On March 12, 1992, Undersecretary of State for Latin American Affairs Bernard Aronson told the US Congress: \"The international community and respected human rights organizations must focus the spotlight of world attention on the threat which Sendero poses... Latin America has seen violence and terror, but none like Sendero's... and make no mistake, if Sendero were to take power, we would see... genocide.\" Given Washington's concerns, long-term repercussions of the auto-coup turned out to be modest.\n\nPunishment of those responsible\nOn November 26, 2007, ten former government officials were sentenced by the Supreme Court of Peru for their role in the coup. Fujimori's Minister of the Interior, Juan Briones Dávila, was sentenced to ten years imprisonment. Former fujimorista congressmen Jaime Yoshiyama, Carlos Boloña, Absalón Vásquez, Víctor Joy Way, Óscar de la Puente Raygada, Jaime Sobero, Alfredo Ross Antezana, Víctor Paredes Guerra, and Augusto Antoniolli Vásquez were all also sentenced for various crimes such as rebellion and kidnapping.\n\nReferences\n\nPeru\nConstitutional Crisis\nPeruvian Constitutional Crisis\nMilitary history of Peru\nPolitical history of Peru\nPeru\nPeru",
"On 24 December 2017, the President of Peru, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, pardoned jailed ex-president Alberto Fujimori. Because the pardon was granted on Christmas Eve, it became known as the \"indulto de Navidad\" (\"Christmas pardon\").\n\nIn 2009, Fujimori had been convicted of human rights violations and sentenced to 25 years in prison for his role in killings and kidnappings by the Grupo Colina death squad during his government's battle against Shining Path leftist guerrillas in the 1990s. The verdict marked the first time that an elected head of state has been extradited to his home country, tried, and convicted of human rights violations. Fujimori was specifically found guilty of murder, bodily harm, and two cases of kidnapping. The pardon was granted after Fujimori had completed 10 years of imprisonment in Lima.\n\nThe pardon sparked massive protests across Peru, even during Christmas Eve and Christmas Day celebrations, which are holidays in the country. Protestors accused Kuczynski of corruption, claiming that the pardon was payback for the support of Fujimori's son, Kenji Fujimori, which had been central to Kuczynski's success in surviving an impeachment vote days earlier.\n\nOn 3 October 2018, Fujimori's pardon was reversed by Peru's Supreme Court and he was ordered to return to prison. He was rushed to a hospital and entered prison on 23 January 2019.\n\nBackground\n\nLegal situation \nAccording to Peruvian law, the president has the power to grant a humanitarian pardon when the condemned person presents a terminal illness; an advanced, incurable, degenerative illness where prison conditions put the person's life, health, or integrity at risk; or a chronic, degenerative, mental illness where prison conditions put the person's life, health or integrity at risk.\n\nFujimori's criminal trial and convictions\n\nAlberto Fujimori was President of Peru between 1990 and 2000 in the period of the so-called Fujimorato. While still president, Fujimori fled the country and took refuge in Japan when faced with charges of corruption in 2000. On arriving in Japan he attempted to resign his presidency via fax, but his resignation was rejected by the Congress of the Republic, which removed him from office by the process of impeachment. Wanted in Peru on charges of corruption and human rights abuses, Fujimori maintained a self-imposed exile until his arrest while visiting Chile in November 2005. He was extradited to face criminal charges in Peru in September 2007. In 2009, he was sentenced to 25 years for homicide for ordering the Barrios Altos and La Cantuta massacres. He was also sentenced for other crimes such as corruption.\n\nOther accusations against Fujimori include the mass sterilization of 231,774 indigenous people in rural Peru as a result of the National Population Program.\n\nPrevious pardon request\nPress reports in late 2012 indicated that Fujimori was suffering from tongue cancer and other medical problems. His family petitioned then-president Ollanta Humala for a pardon. President Humala rejected a pardon in June 2013, saying that Fujimori's condition was not serious enough to warrant it. In July 2016, with three days left in his term, President Humala said that there was insufficient time to evaluate a second request to pardon Fujimori, leaving the decision to his successor Pedro Pablo Kuczynski.\n\nImpeachment of Pedro Pablo Kuczynski\n\nIn December 2017, Kuczynski faced impeachment proceedings for his connection to the international corruption scandal surrounding the Brazilian firm Odebrecht. The impeachment request was presented by left-wing party Broad Front (headed by a former priest and environmental activist called Marco Arana). Fujimori's daughter Keiko was the most outspoken supporter of the impeachment proceedings against Kuczynski, who had defeated her the year before in a tightly contested presidential election. Kuczynski survived the impeachment vote on 21 December, largely due to the support of Fujimori's son Kenji.\n\nPardon\nOn 11 December 2017 Fujimori requested a pardon for humanitarian reasons. A medical board composed of Juan Postigo, Víctor Sánchez and Guido Hernández recommended pardoning the former President due to a \"progressive, degenerative and incurable disease\". On 23 December, Fujimori was transferred from the Diroes prison to a clinic. On 24 December, the Press Office of the Presidential Office announced the pardon of Alberto Fujimori through a press release.\n\nThe same day, Kuczynski signed R.S. No. 281-2017-JUS., granting Fujimori \"pardon and right of grace for humanitarian reasons within the Barbadillo Penitentiary Establishment\".\n\nReactions\nOn 25 December, in the face of protests against the pardon, Kuczysnki released a message to the nation, asking people to not \"get carried away by hate\" nor to allow the former President to \"die in prison\". In a video broadcast on his social media, Fujimori apologized to those who were \"defrauded by [his] government\" and thanked Kuczynski.\n\nThere was widespread criticism in Peru that the pardon was motivated less by clemency than a desire to reward Fujimori's son Kenji for his role in helping Kuczynski survive the impeachment vote against him the week before the pardon. Thousands of protesters took to the streets in Lima on 26 December. The Peruvian non-profit law office Legal Defense Institute denounced the pardon as political and illegal and vowed to appeal it to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR). The Peruvian human rights organization Association for Human Rights (APRODEH) and the international organization Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL) released a statement on 27 December asking the IACHR to intervene.\n\nAmerigo Incalcaterra, the South America representative for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, categorically rejected the pardon, stating that \"Not putting victims at the center of this decision derails the progress the Peruvian state has made on truth, justice, memory and reparations\",\n\nBefore the pardon was announced, Human Rights Watch had condemned the possibility of a pardon, calling it \"a slap in the face to victims of atrocities in Peru and a major setback for the rule of law in the country\"; and Amnesty International said that the pardon would violate Peru's obligations under international law and undermine the fight against impunity.\n\nThe days following the pardon saw the resignation of various members of Kuczynski's Peruvians for Change party, including the Minister of Culture, three members of Congress, and eight appointed officials. Facing a second impeachment process, Kuczynski himself resigned in March 2018.\n\nReversal of pardon \nFollowing appeals by victims of Fujimori's decisions, Peru's Supreme Court reversed his pardon on 3 October 2018. Fujimori was ordered back to prison. The court found that the pardon lacked legal foundation, as one of the reasons given for Fujimori's pardon was a terminal illness, but he did not suffer from one. Furthermore, it found that \"the pardon was unlawful because Fujimori's crimes are considered crimes against humanity, and therefore can't be pardoned under Peruvian and international law\". Fujimori's attorney said he would appeal the decision.\n\nOn the day the reversal was announced, Fujimori was transported by ambulance to a private clinic to be treated for a heart condition. He gave an interview there one day later, saying that a return to prison would kill him.\n\nDays later, on 11 October 2018, the Congress of Peruwhose members are mainly Fujimoristapproved a bill allowing older adults to be released from prison and be placed on electronic monitoring, a move that was seen as benefiting Fujimori.\n\nIn January 2019, a court-appointed panel found that Fujimori was healthy enough to return to prison, and he was forced back to prison on 23 January 2019. The Supreme Court rejected an appeal by Fujimori's lawyers on 13 February 2019, confirming the earlier decision that Fujimori must serve the remaining 13 years of his sentence in prison.\n\nPossible future pardon \nFujimori's daughter, Keiko Fujimori, unsuccessfully ran for president in the 2021 Peruvian general election. She had announced in January 2021 that she would pardon her father should she get elected. She ultimately lost the election in the second round to Pedro Castillo, who has vowed to not consider pardoning Fujimori while in office.\n\nSee also \n 2017–2021 Peruvian political crisis\n\nReferences\n\n2017 in Peru\n2017 in politics\nDecember 2017 events in South America\nFujimori\nPolitical history of Peru"
]
|
[
"Peter Tatchell",
"Gay Liberation Front"
]
| C_acbda4b802ac4f2b87c8606e402bada5_1 | What was Tatchell's role in the Gay Liberation Front? | 1 | What was Peter Tatchell's role in the Gay Liberation Front? | Peter Tatchell | To avoid conscription into the Australian Army, Tatchell moved to London in 1971. He had accepted being gay in 1969, and in London became a leading member of the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) until its 1974 collapse. During this time Tatchell was prominent in organising sit-ins at pubs that refused to serve "poofs" and protests against police harassment and the medical classification of homosexuality as an illness. With others he helped organise Britain's first Gay Pride march in 1972. In 1973, he attended the 10th World Youth Festival in East Berlin on GLF's behalf. His actions triggered opposition within and between different groups of national delegates including the Communist Party of Great Britain and National Union of Students. He was banned from conferences, had his leaflets confiscated and burned, was interrogated by the secret police (the Stasi) and threatened and assaulted by other delegates, mostly communists. Tatchell later claimed that this was the first time gay liberation politics were publicly disseminated and discussed in a communist country, although he noted that, in terms of decriminalisation and the age of consent, gay men had greater rights in East Germany at the time than in Britain and much of the West. Describing his time in the Gay Liberation Front, he wrote in The Guardian that: [The] GLF was a glorious, enthusiastic and often chaotic mix of anarchists, hippies, leftwingers, feminists, liberals and counter-culturalists. Despite our differences, we shared a radical idealism - a dream of what the world could and should be - free from not just homophobia but the whole sex-shame culture, which oppressed straights as much as LGBTs. We were sexual liberationists and social revolutionaries, out to turn the world upside down. [...] GLF's main aim was never equality within the status quo. [...] GLF's strategy for queer emancipation was to change society's values and norms, rather than adapt to them. We sought a cultural revolution to overturn centuries of male heterosexual domination and thereby free both queers and women. [...] Forty years on, GLF's gender agenda has been partly won. [...] Girlish boys and boyish girls don't get victimised as much as in times past. LGBT kids often now come out at the age of 12 or 14. While many are bullied, many others are not. The acceptance of sexual and gender diversity is increasing. CANNOTANSWER | in London became a leading member of the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) | Peter Gary Tatchell (born 25 January 1952) is a British human rights campaigner, originally from Australia, best known for his work with LGBT social movements.
Tatchell was selected as the Labour Party's parliamentary candidate for Bermondsey in 1981. He was then denounced by party leader Michael Foot for ostensibly supporting extra-parliamentary action against the Thatcher government. Labour subsequently allowed him to stand in the Bermondsey by-election in February 1983, in which the party lost the seat to the Liberals. In the 1990s he campaigned for LGBT rights through the direct action group OutRage!, which he co-founded. He has worked on various campaigns, such as Stop Murder Music against music lyrics allegedly inciting violence against LGBT people and writes and broadcasts on various human rights and social justice issues. He attempted a citizen's arrest of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe in 1999 and again in 2001.
In April 2004, he joined the Green Party of England and Wales and in 2007 was selected as prospective parliamentary candidate in the constituency of Oxford East, but in December 2009 he stood down due to brain damage he says was caused by a bus accident as well as damage sustained during various protests. Since 2011, he has been the Director of the Peter Tatchell Foundation.
Early life
Tatchell was born in Melbourne, Australia. His father was a lathe operator and his mother worked in a biscuit factory. His parents divorced when he was four and his mother remarried soon afterwards.
Since the family finances were strained by medical bills, he had to leave school at 16 in 1968. He started work as a sign-writer and window-dresser in department stores. Tatchell claims to have incorporated the theatricality of these displays into his activism.
Raised as a Christian, Tatchell says that he "ditched [his] faith a long time ago" and is an atheist. It is widely reported that Tatchell is a vegan; however, Tatchell himself only states that he eats no meat, but does eat eggs, cheese, and, according to Richard Fairbrass, wild salmon, meaning Tatchell is a pescatarian.
He became interested in outdoor adventurous activities such as surfing and mountain climbing. Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Any Questions about how insurance and legal risks were making British teachers reluctant to take pupils on outdoor adventures, he said outdoor activities helped him develop the courage to take political risks in adult life.
Campaigns in Australia
Tatchell's political activity began at Mount Waverley Secondary College, where in 1967 he launched campaigns in support of Australia's Aboriginal people. Tatchell was elected secretary of the school's Student Representative Council. In his final year in 1968, as school captain, he took the lead in setting up a scholarship scheme for Aboriginal people and led a campaign for Aboriginal land rights. These activities led the headmaster to claim he had been manipulated by communists.
Prompted by the impending hanging of Ronald Ryan in 1967, Tatchell went round his local area painting slogans against the hanging, a fact he did not reveal until nearly 30 years later. Ryan was accused of killing a prison warder while escaping from Pentridge Prison in Coburg, Victoria. Tatchell claimed, unsuccessfully, that the trajectory of the bullet through the warder's body probably made it impossible that Ryan could have fired the fatal shot.
In 1968, Tatchell began campaigning against the American and Australian involvement in the Vietnam War, in his view a war of aggression in support of a "brutal and corrupt dictatorship" responsible for torture and executions. The Victoria state government and Melbourne city council attempted to suppress the anti-Vietnam War campaign by banning street leafleting and taking police action against anti-war demonstrations.
In 2004, he proposed the renaming of Australian capital cities with their Aboriginal place names.
Gay Liberation Front
To avoid conscription into the Australian Army, Tatchell moved to London in 1971. He had opened up about being gay in 1969, and in London became a leading member of the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) until its 1974 collapse. During this time Tatchell was prominent in organising sit-ins at pubs that refused to serve "poofs" and protests against police harassment and the medical classification of homosexuality as an illness. With others he helped organise Britain's first Gay Pride march in 1972.
In 1973, he attended the 10th World Youth Festival in East Berlin on GLF's behalf. His plans to protest at the festival were not well received by either the British delegation or the GDR hosts, however he was eventually allowed to give a speech at Humboldt University. His lecture was subject to various disruptions, it ended in his denunciation as a "troublemaker" by a member of the audience. The following day, Tatchell attempted to hand out leaflets at a concert, an official of the Free German Youth objected and encouraged fellow concert-goers to destroy the leaflets. Tatchell intended to carry a placard advocating gay rights at the closing rally of the festival, the British delegation incorrectly translated the placard to read "East Germany persecutes homosexuals", this was put to a vote and the majority decided the placard was not acceptable. Yet, in defiance of the collective decision, Tatchell carried the placard anyway and was then beaten. The placard was torn in half.
Tatchell later claimed that this was the first time gay liberation politics were publicly disseminated and discussed in a communist country, although he noted that, in terms of decriminalisation and the age of consent, gay men had greater rights in East Germany at the time than much of the West.
Describing his time in the Gay Liberation Front, he wrote in The Guardian that:
Tatchell collaborated with public artist Martin Firrell to mark the 50th anniversary of the GLF in 2020. The artist's Still Revolting series drew on Tatchell's personal recollections of the GLF, quoting Tatchell's 1973 placard 'Homosexuals Are Revolting' created by Tatchell for London Gay Pride. The artist's addition of the word 'still' reflects the truth that homosexuality is still regarded as intolerable by some and many LGBT+ people around the world are still struggling for acceptance, security and equality.
Graduation
After taking A levels at evening classes, he attended the Polytechnic of North London (PNL), now part of London Metropolitan University, where he obtained a 2:1 BSc (Hons) in sociology.
At PNL he was a member of the National Union of Students Gay Rights Campaign. On graduating he became a freelance journalist specialising in foreign stories, during which he publicised the Indonesian annexation of West Papua and child labour on British-owned tea farms in Malawi.
Political activity
Tatchell popularised the phrase "sexual apartheid" to describe the separate laws that long existed for gays and heterosexuals.
Labour candidate for Bermondsey
In 1978, Tatchell joined the Labour Party and moved to a council flat in Bermondsey, south-east London. At the Bermondsey Constituency Labour Party's (CLP) AGM in February 1980, the left group won control and Tatchell was elected Secretary. When the sitting Labour Member of Parliament (MP), Bob Mellish, retired in 1981, Tatchell was selected as his successor, despite Arthur Latham, a former MP and former Chairman of the Tribune Group, being considered the favourite. While Militant was cited as the reason for Tatchell's selection, Tatchell disagrees and ascribes his selection to the support of the "older, 'born and bred' working class; the younger professional and intellectual members swung behind Latham".
In an article for a left-wing magazine, Tatchell urged the Labour Party to support direct action campaigning to challenge the Margaret Thatcher-led Tory government, stating "we must look to new more militant forms of extra-parliamentary opposition which involve mass popular participation and challenge the government's right to rule". Social Democratic Party MP James Wellbeloved, arguing the article was anti-Parliamentary, quoted it at Prime Minister's Questions in November 1981. Foot denounced Tatchell, stating that he would not be endorsed as a candidate and a vote at the Labour Party National Executive Committee denied Tatchell's endorsement. However, the Bermondsey Labour Party continued to support him and it was eventually agreed that when the selection was rerun, Tatchell would be eligible, and he duly won. When Mellish resigned from Parliament and triggered a by-election, Tatchell's candidacy was endorsed, and the ensuing campaign was regarded as one of the most homophobic in modern British history.
Tatchell was assaulted in the street, had his flat attacked, and had a death threat and a live bullet put through his letterbox in the night. Although the Bermondsey seat had long been a Labour stronghold, the Liberal candidate, Simon Hughes, won the election. During the campaign, Liberal canvassers were accused of stirring up homophobia on the doorsteps. Male Liberal workers campaigned wearing lapel badges with the words, "I've been kissed by Peter Tatchell" following the suggestion that he was attempting to hide his sexuality; this campaign was criticised by Roy Hattersley at a Labour news conference. One of Hughes' campaign leaflets claimed the election was "a straight choice" between Liberal and Labour. Hughes has since apologised for what may have been seen as an inadvertent slur and later came out as bisexual in 2006.
Democratic Defence
Tatchell published the book Democratic Defence in 1985. In it, he outlined his suggestions for a defence policy for the United Kingdom after it underwent nuclear disarmament. Tatchell argued that the British military was still organised on an imperialist strategy of basing troops abroad rather than on a strategy of defending Britain itself against foreign attacks.
Citing the difficulties that the British army was facing in Northern Ireland, he argued that their current methods had proven ineffective against guerrilla warfare, along with arguing for troops to be allowed to join trade unions and political parties, and to end strict adherence to "petty regulations". He praised the Second World War-era British Home Guard as an example of a "citizens' army", as well as the armed forces of Sweden, Switzerland and Yugoslavia as positive examples.
In the book, Tatchell also argued for a British withdrawal from NATO and for the establishment of a European Self-Defence Organisation, independent of both the United States, whom he felt that Europe had become too dependent on their military protection, and the Soviet Union, which he condemned for their invasions of Czechoslovakia and of Afghanistan, as well its internal repression. He quoted with approval Enoch Powell's argument that the threat from the Soviet Union to the UK was exaggerated.
The book was reviewed by the Times Literary Supplement in May 1985.
Green issues
In February 2000 Tatchell resigned from Labour, citing the treatment of Ken Livingstone during the nomination of a candidate for Mayor of London, and of similar cases in the Scottish and Welsh elections, as evidence that the party "no longer has any mechanism for democratic involvement and transformation". He fought unsuccessfully for a seat on the London Assembly as an Independent candidate within the Green Left grouping, in support of Livingstone.
On 7 April 2004 he joined the Green Party of England and Wales but did not envisage standing for election. However, in 2007, he became the party's parliamentary candidate for Oxford East. In 16 December 2009, he withdrew as a candidate claiming brain damage he says was caused by a bus accident as well as damage inflicted by Mugabe's bodyguards when Tatchell attempted to arrest him in 2001 in Brussels, and by neo-Nazis in Moscow.
Tatchell opposes nuclear power; instead he advocates concentrated solar power.
In Tribune, he pointed out the adverse effects of climate change: "By 2050, if climate change proceeds unchecked, England will no longer be a green and pleasant land. In between periods of prolonged scorching drought, we are likely to suffer widespread flooding."
For many years, he supported a green–red alliance. More recently, he helped launch the Green Left grouping within the Green Party. He urged links between trade unions and the Greens. On 27 April 2010, he urged Green Party supporters to vote for Liberal Democrats in constituencies where they had an incumbent MP or a strong chance of winning.
In August 2021, Tatchell endorsed Tamsin Omond and Amelia Womack in the 2021 Green Party of England and Wales leadership election.
Iraq War
Tatchell opposed the war in Iraq, and its subsequent occupation. For nearly three decades he had previously supported the Iraqi Left Opposition, helping them remove the government of Saddam Hussein because of the gross violations of human rights that Hussein had committed against democrats, left-wingers, trade unionists, Shia Muslims and the Kurdish people, and because under Saddam's dictatorship there were no opportunities for peaceful, democratic change. He advocated military and financial aid to opponents of the Saddam government, suggesting that anti-Saddam organisations be given "tanks, helicopter gun-ships, fighter planes, heavy artillery and anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles". While opposing western intervention, he advocated regime change from within in countries such as Saudi Arabia, Iran and Syria.
Tatchell has written that on 12 March 2003 he ambushed Tony Blair's motorcade in an anti-Iraq war protest. He forced Blair's limousine to stop, and then unfolded a banner that read "Arm the Kurds! Topple Saddam". He added that in terms of the political struggle within Britain (as opposed to struggles against absolute tyrants like Hitler and Saddam, where violent resistance can be the lesser of two evils): "I remain committed to the Gandhian principle of non-violence". After the war he signed the 'Unite Against Terror' declaration, arguing that "the pseudo-left reveals its shameless hypocrisy and its wholesale abandonment of humanitarian values" by supporting resistance and insurgent groups in Iraq that resort to indiscriminate terrorism, killing innocent civilians.
In 2003, Tatchell said he supported giving "massive material aid" to Iraqi opposition groups, including the "Shi'ite Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq" (SCIRI), to bring down Saddam. But in 2006 Tatchell noted that SCIRI had become markedly more fundamentalist and was endorsing violent attacks on anyone who did not conform to its increasingly harsh interpretation of Islam. He claimed that SCIRI, the leading force in Baghdad's ruling coalition, wanted to establish an Iranian-style religious dictatorship, with a goal of clerical fascism, and had engaged in "terrorisation of gay Iraqis", as well as terrorising Sunni Muslims, left-wingers, unveiled women and people who listen to western pop music or wear jeans or shorts.
In September 2014, Tatchell advocated arming the Kurdistan Workers' Party to fight against ISIS, and argued that the US and EU had been wrong to designate it as a terrorist organisation.
Syrian civil war
A previous supporter of the Stop the War Coalition, Tatchell and many other public personalities expressed concern with the coalition's allegedly unduly favourable view of Bashar al-Assad's government in Syria, and has called for the Labour leader and former Stop the War Chair Jeremy Corbyn not to attend the Coalition's Christmas fundraiser 2015. In December 2016, Tatchell and others disrupted Corbyn's speech on human rights on the basis that the Labour leader had responded insufficiently to the bombing of Aleppo and urged him to condemn Russian military intervention in Syria.
Balochistan
Since 2006, he expressed concern for the Baloch people facing military operations in their homeland, Balochistan in Pakistan. From 2007 to 2009, he campaigned in defence of two UK-based Baloch Muslim human rights activists, Hyrbyair Marri and Faiz Baluch, accused of terrorism charges and tried in London. Both men were acquitted in 2009. He alleged collusion by the U.S. and British governments in regards to the suppression of the Balochs, including arms sales to Pakistan, which he says were used to bomb and attack Baloch towns and villages.
Activities in Moscow
In May 2006 Tatchell attended the first Moscow Pride Festival. He appears in the documentary Moscow Pride '06 featuring this event.
In May 2007 Tatchell returned to Moscow to support Moscow Pride and to voice his opposition to a ban on the march, staying at the flat of an American diplomat. On 27 May 2007, Tatchell and other gay rights activists were attacked. He was punched in the face and nearly knocked unconscious, while other demonstrators were beaten, kicked and assaulted. A German MP, Volker Beck, and a European Parliament deputy from Italy, Marco Cappato, were also punched before being arrested and questioned by police. Tatchell later said "I'm not deterred one iota from coming back to protest in Moscow." On his release, Tatchell made a report on the incident to the American Embassy.
On 16 May 2009, the day of the final of the Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow, Russian gay rights activists staged a protest in Moscow in defiance of the city's mayor, Yuri Luzkhov, who had long banned gay demonstrations and denounced them as "satanic". Tatchell was among 32 campaigners arrested when they shouted slogans and unfurled banners.
NUS politics
On 14 February 2015, Tatchell was one of a number of signatories to a letter criticising the trend in the British National Union of Students to apply a No Platform policy to feminists who criticised the sex industry or challenged demands made by certain groups of trans people. In particular, the letter cited the denial of a platform to Kate Smurthwaite at Goldsmith's College and to Germaine Greer at the University of Cambridge.
Tatchell received death threats after signing the letter. He later stated that he would have worded the letter differently to clarify that he supported the human rights of trans people and sex workers, but that he had signed the letter nonetheless because he believed in the message of free speech on campuses. He said that the initial draft that he signed contained the sentence "Some of us have disagreements with the views expressed [by feminist critics of trans people]", and that he was "not happy" that this was cut out of the final letter.
On 13 February 2016, Fran Cowling, the national LGBT representative for the NUS, refused to share a platform with Tatchell at Canterbury Christ Church University to discuss the topic of "re-radicalising queers". Cowling said that Tatchell supported speakers who are "openly transphobic and incite violence" against transgender people, and also that Tatchell had used "racist language". Tatchell responded that no evidence could be produced to support either claim, and that Cowling had never consulted the NUS membership before deciding to make pronouncements on their behalf, and said "This sorry, sad saga is symptomatic of the decline of free and open debate on some university campuses. There is a witch-hunting, accusatory atmosphere. Allegations are made without evidence to back them – or worse, they are made citing false, trumped-up evidence."
Campaigns
OutRage!
Tatchell took part in many gay rights campaigns over issues such as Section 28. Following the murder of actor Michael Boothe on 10 May 1990, Tatchell was one of thirty people to attend the inaugural meeting of the radical gay rights non-violent direct action group OutRage! – although he was not a co-founder – and has remained a leading member. The group fuses theatrical performance styles with queer protest. As the most prominent OutRage! member, Tatchell is sometimes assumed to be the leader of the group, though he has never claimed this, saying he is one among equals.
In 1991, a small group of OutRage! members covertly formed a separate group to engage in a campaign of outing public figures who were homophobic in public but gay in private. The group took the name FROCS (Faggots Rooting Out Closeted Sexuality). Tatchell was the group's go-between with the press, forwarding their news statements to his media contacts. Considerable publicity and public debate followed FROCS's threat to out 200 leading public personalities from the world of politics, religion, business and sport. With Tatchell's assistance, members of FROCS eventually called a press conference to tell the world that their campaign was a hoax intended to demonstrate the hypocrisy of those newspapers that had condemned the campaign despite having themselves outed celebrities and politicians.
Some OutRage! activities were highly controversial. In 1994, it unveiled placards inviting ten Church of England bishops to "tell the truth" about what Outrage! alleged was their homosexuality and accusing them of condemning homosexuality in public while leading secret gay lives. Shortly afterwards the group wrote to twenty UK MPs, condemning their alleged support for anti-gay laws and claiming they would out them if the MPs did not stop what they described as attacks on the gay community. The MP Sir James Kilfedder, one such opponent of gay equality, who had received one of the letters, died two months later of a sudden heart attack on the day one of the Belfast newspapers planned to out him. In a comment in The Independent in October 2003, Tatchell claimed the OutRage! action against the bishops was his greatest mistake because he failed to anticipate that the media and the church would treat it as an invasion of privacy.
On 12 April 1998, Tatchell led an OutRage! protest, which disrupted the Easter sermon by George Carey, the Archbishop of Canterbury, with Tatchell mounting the pulpit to denounce what he claimed was Carey's opposition to legal equality for lesbian and gay people. The protest garnered media coverage and led to Tatchell's prosecution under the little-used Ecclesiastical Courts Jurisdiction Act 1860 (formerly part of the Brawling Act 1551), which prohibits any form of disruption or protest in a church. Tatchell failed in his attempt to summon Carey as a witness and was convicted. The judge fined him the trivial sum of £18.60, which commentators theorised was a wry allusion to the year of the statute used to convict him.
The LGBT press dubbed him "Saint Peter Tatchell" following further OutRage! campaigns involving religion.
A number of African LGBTI leaders signed a statement condemning the involvement of Tatchell and OutRage! in African issues, which led Tatchell to respond that he favoured working with the radical LGBTI groups in Africa rather than the more conservative (according to him) leaders who had signed the statement. Tatchell and OutRage! published a refutation of the allegations.
OutRage!'s protest against Chief Rabbi Immanuel Jakobovits, who supported the idea of genetic engineering to eliminate homosexuality, led to accusations that Tatchell was antisemitic, following OutRage!'s leaflets citing the similarity of Jakobovits ideas for the eradication of homosexuality to those of Heinrich Himmler were distributed outside the Western and Marble Arch Synagogue on the Rosh Hashanah in September 1993.
Rabbi Dame Julia Neuberger, who had campaigned for gay rights, said "Drawing a comparison between Lord Jakobovits and Himmler is offensive, racist and [...] makes OutRage appear antisemitic". She stated that the action and leaflet would "alienate Jews who are sympathetic to gay rights".
Stop Murder Music campaign
Tatchell argues that a number of Afro-Caribbean artists produce music that glorifies murder of homosexual men, and incites violence against homosexuals. He argued that British laws against incitement to violence were not being enforced on foreign artists performing in the UK. He also organised protests outside the concerts of singers whose lyrics he says incite violence, mainly Jamaican dancehall and ragga artists who he says glorify violence toward lesbians and gay men, including murder. Tatchell's campaign began in 1992 when Buju Banton's song "Boom bye-bye" was released. He has picketed the MOBO Awards ceremony to protest at their inviting performers of what he terms "murder music".
Tatchell argues that murder is not legal in Jamaica, and glorification of murder is not a legitimate form of Afro-Caribbean culture. In response Tatchell received death threats and was labelled racist. He defended himself by noting that the campaign was at the behest of the Jamaican gay rights group J-Flag, and the UK-based Black Gay Men's Advisory Group, with which he works closely. He pointed to what he described as his life's work campaigning against racism and apartheid and stated that his campaigns against "murder music" and state-sanctioned homophobic violence in Jamaica were endorsed by black Jamaican gay rights activists such as Jamaican Forum for Lesbians, All-Sexuals and Gays (J-FLAG), and by many straight human rights activists in Jamaica (male homosexuality remains illegal in Jamaica). The campaign has had positive effects with seven of eight original murder music singers signing the Reggae Compassion Act, which says that signatories will not "make statements or perform songs" that incite hatred or violence.
Members of the Rastafari movement accused Tatchell of racism and extremism, saying, "He has gone over way over the top. It's simply racist to put Hitler and Sizzla in the same bracket and just shows how far he is prepared to go." Tatchell denies equating Sizzla with Hitler.
Age of consent laws and Paedophile Information Exchange
In 1996, Tatchell led an OutRage! campaign to reduce the age of consent in the UK to 14 years, to adjust for studies that showed nearly half of all young people had their first sexual experiences prior to 16 years old, regardless of sexuality. He stated that he wished to exempt these people from being "treated as criminals by the law," and that the campaign claimed there should be no prosecution if the difference in ages of the sexual partners was no more than three years, provided that these youths are given a more comprehensive sex education at a younger date.
He was quoted in the OutRage!'s press release as saying "Young people have a right to accept or reject sex, according to what they feel is appropriate for them".
Tatchell has since reiterated that he does not condone adults having sex with children. On his personal website, under the subsection Age of Consent, he writes:
On 10 March 2008, in the Irish Independent, he repeated his call for a lower age of consent to end the criminalisation of young people engaged in consenting sex and to remove the legal obstacles to upfront sex education, condom provision and safer sex advice. In 1998 and 2008, he supported relaxation of the then strict laws against pornography, arguing that pornography can have some social benefits, and he has criticised what he calls the body-shame phobia against nudism, suggesting that nudity may be natural and healthy for society.
In 2006, he opposed the appointment of Ruth Kelly as Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government as Kelly had not supported equal treatment of lesbians and gay men in any parliamentary votes. Tatchell said "her appointment suggests the government does not take lesbian and gay rights seriously", adding "Tony Blair would never appoint someone to a race-equality post who had a lukewarm record of opposing racism".
Paedophile Information Exchange
Tatchell has written an obituary in The Independent for Paedophile Information Exchange founder Ian Dunn, as well as an essay for a pro-paedophile activist and Paedophile Information Exchange member Warren Middleton in the book "Betrayal of Youth (BOY)". The actor and activist, John Connors described Tatchell as a "paedophile apologist" and other critics (such as the British National Party) have suggested that he is personally pro-paedophile, which he strongly denies – stating that:
In July 2021, in an article by Hayley Dixon, Melanie Newman and Julie Bindel for the Daily Telegraph, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/07/27/peter-tatchell-children-have-sexual-desires-early-age/ it emerged that a positive review attributed to Peter Tatchell of the same pro-paedophila book - Betrayal of Youth: Radical Perspectives on Childhood Sexuality, Intergenerational Sex and the Social Oppression of Children and Young People - appeared in the June 1987 edition of 7 Days, the newsletter of the Communist Party of Great Britain.
He also comments on an interview he conducted in the late 1990s on the subject of paedophilia and child prostitution, in which he interviewed a 14-year-old boy (under the pseudonym "Lee") who had had sex with older men, in some cases for money. In this interview, Tatchell makes various counterarguments against Lee's point of view, such as: "How can a young child understand sex and give meaningful consent?", "Perhaps your friends were particularly mature for their age. Most young people are not so sophisticated about sex", "Many people worry that the power imbalance in a relationship between a youth and an adult means the younger person can be easily manipulated and exploited", "Many people fear that making sex easier for under-age teenagers will expose them to dangers like HIV. Isn't that a legitimate worry?".
In 1997 Tatchell wrote a letter to The Guardian, defending an academic book about "boy-love", calling the work "courageous", before writing:
On Tatchell's personal website he clarifies,
My Guardian letter cited examples of youths in Papuan tribes and some of my friends who, when they were under 16, had sex with adults (over 18s), but who do not feel they were harmed. I was not endorsing their viewpoint but merely stating that they had a different perspective from the mainstream opinion about inter-generational sex. They have every right for their perspective to be heard."
Following the publication of a photo of Tatchell alongside the Irish Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Roderic O'Gorman, on Twitter, at a Pride event, O'Gorman issued a statement outlining that the apparent views in Tatchell's letter - written 23 years ago, when O'Gorman was just 15 - were "abhorrent" to him, and his appreciation that Tatchell clarified his own position.
Civil partnerships
Tatchell has pledged his support for opposite-sex couples to be allowed to have civil partnerships, stating that some opposite-sex couples dislike the "sexist, homophobic history of [the institution of] marriage", and allowing them into civil partnerships "is simply a matter of equality".
Writing for PinkNews, he said:
Foreign politics
Imperialism
While still at school, Tatchell campaigned in favour of better treatment of, and full human rights for, Aboriginal Australians. He has opined that Australian cities should be renamed with their original Aboriginal place names. For example, he wants the Tasmanian capital Hobart to be renamed Nibberluna, arguing that this would be a fitting tribute to Australia's Aboriginal heritage, which he claims has been discarded and disrespected for too long.
Tatchell participated in the mass Vietnam Moratorium protests in Melbourne in 1970. The same year, Tatchell founded and was elected secretary of the inter-denominational anti-war movement, Christians for Peace. Later, upon moving to London in 1971, he was active in solidarity work with the independence movements in Mozambique, and Guinea-Bissau.
In 2002, he brought an unsuccessful legal action in Bow Street Magistrate's Court for the arrest of the former U.S. Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, on charges of war crimes in Vietnam and Cambodia.
Zimbabwe
Part of Tatchell's political activism and journalism in the 1970s involved the Rhodesian Bush War, in which he supported the black nationalist movement, including the Zimbabwe African National Union and its military wing. Mugabe's denunciation of male homosexuality in 1995 led Tatchell to help organise a protest for LGBT rights in Zimbabwe outside the Zimbabwe High Commission in London.
Two years later, he passed through police security disguised as a TV cameraman to quiz Mugabe during the "Africa at 40" conference at Methodist Central Hall, Westminster. Mugabe told him that allegations of human rights abuses were grossly exaggerated; he became agitated when Tatchell told him that he was gay. Mugabe's minders summoned Special Branch guards, who ejected Tatchell. On 26 October 1997 a letter from Tatchell to The Observer argued that the United Kingdom should suspend aid to Zimbabwe because of its violence against LGBT people.
Tatchell researched the Gukurahundi attacks in Matabeleland in the 1980s, when the Zimbabwean Fifth Brigade attacked supporters of the Zimbabwe African Peoples Union. He became convinced that Mugabe had broken international human rights law during the attack, which is estimated to have involved the massacre of around 20,000 civilians. Then in 1999, journalists Mark Chavunduka and Ray Choto were tortured by the Zimbabwe Army. The arrest of Augusto Pinochet in London seemed to him a precedent that human rights violations could be pursued against a head of state, thanks to the principle of universal jurisdiction. On 30 October 1999 Tatchell and three other OutRage! activists approached Mugabe's car in a London street and attempted to perform a citizen's arrest. Tatchell opened the car door and grabbed Mugabe. He then called the police. The four OutRage! activists were arrested, on charges including criminal damage, assault and breach of the peace; charges were dropped on the opening day of their trial. Mugabe responded by describing Tatchell and his OutRage! colleagues as "gay gangsters", a slogan frequently repeated by his supporters, and claimed they had been sent by the United Kingdom government.
On 5 March 2001, when Mugabe visited Brussels, Tatchell again attacked him. Mugabe's bodyguards were seen knocking him to the floor. Later that day, Tatchell was briefly knocked unconscious by Mugabe's bodyguards and was left with permanent damage to his right eye. The protest drew worldwide headlines, as Mugabe was highly unpopular in the Western world for his land redistribution policy. Tatchell's actions were praised by Zimbabwean activists and many of the newspapers that had previously denounced him.
Tatchell ultimately failed in his attempt to secure an international arrest warrant against Mugabe on torture charges. The magistrate argued that Mugabe had immunity from prosecution as a serving head of state.
In late 2003, Tatchell acted as a press spokesman for the launch of the Zimbabwe Freedom Movement (ZFM), which claimed to be a clandestine group within Zimbabwe committed to overthrowing the Mugabe government by force. The civic action support group Sokwanele urged Tatchell to check his sources, speculating that it might have been by the Zimbabwe government to justify violent action. This speculation proved to be unfounded. The Mugabe regime dismissed the ZFM as a hoax. However, two Central Intelligence Organization members were spotted and turned away from the ZFM launch, as shown in the film "Peter Tatchell: Just who does he think he is?" by Max Barber.
South Africa
Following a protest against the ANC, Tatchell described himself as a long-time anti-apartheid activist, in an essay for the book 'sex and politics in South Africa', he claimed that his lobbying of the ANC in 1987 contributed to it renouncing homophobia and making its first public commitment to lesbian and gay human rights and that in 1989 and 1990, he helped persuade the ANC to include a ban on anti-gay discrimination in the post-apartheid constitution (claiming he assisted in drafting model clauses for the ANC)
After Tatchell was named as one of the UK's most "hate filled bigots" in the 'Desi Express' newspaper, Aaron Saeed, Muslim Affairs spokesperson for the gay human rights group OutRage!, claimed that Tatchell was involved in the anti-apartheid movement for over 20 years.
Gaza and the West Bank
In May 2004, he and a dozen other lesbians and gay men from OutRage! and the Queer Youth Alliance joined a London demonstration organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign. Their placards read "Israel: stop persecuting Palestine! Palestine: stop persecuting queers!". Tatchell claims that others present accused him of being a Mossad agent sent to disrupt the march, of being a racist or a Zionist, a supporter of Ariel Sharon or an agent of the Central Intelligence Agency or MI5. Tatchell has written a number of articles in The Guardian on the issue.
2008 Olympics
In April 2008, Tatchell attempted to disrupt the procession of the Olympic torch though London. As a protest against China's human rights record he stood in front of the bus carrying the torch along Oxford Street while carrying a placard calling on Beijing to "Free Tibet, Free Hu Jia" (the name of a recently jailed human rights activist). Tatchell was taken away by police but was not charged. In an interview Tatchell called on the world to boycott the opening ceremony of the Olympics, or to take other visible action.
Iran
Tatchell is a critic of Iran's criminal code, which has parts based on sharia and prescribes punishments for zina offenses, including consensual sexual relations between same-sex partners.
In 2005, Iran executed two teenagers, Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni, aged 16 and 18, accused of raping a 13-year-old boy at knifepoint. Tatchell argued that Iran has a history of arresting political activists on false charges and extracting false confessions from death penalty convicts, and declared that he believed the original crime was consensual sex between the two, which is illegal in Iran. Tatchell reiterated his long-standing view that Iran is an "Islamo-fascist state". He argued that information from Iranian exile groups with contacts inside Iran was that the teenagers were a secret gay party before they were arrested.
International human rights groups Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch preferred campaigners to focus on Iran violating the Convention on the Rights of the Child (which forbids the execution of juveniles) rather than the weak allegation of consensual sex.
Faisal Alam, founder of American Gay Muslim group Al-Fatiha, argued in the magazine Queer that Iran was condemned before the facts were certain.
Russia
Tatchell has written articles condemning the Russian LGBT propaganda law. In 2014 Tatchell protested Valery Gergiev's support for Vladimir Putin.
Tatchell protested the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi over the gay rights stance of Russia, comparing the event to the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.
Tatchell was arrested at the Moscow Pride parade in 2011 amid a spate of anti-gay violence by neo-Nazis.
In February 2007, the Mayor of Moscow, Yury Luzhkov, visited London mayor Ken Livingstone for an annual meeting that also involved the Mayors of Berlin and Paris, with the mayor of Beijing present as well. Nikolay Alexeyev, one of the organizers of the Moscow gay pride parade, joined Tatchell in protesting the visit. A notice of the protest quoted Talgat Tadzhuddin saying that the Moscow pride marchers should be flogged.
Livingstone asserted that he supports gay rights, and said "In Moscow the Russian Orthodox church, the chief rabbi and the grand Mufti all supported the ban on the Gay Pride march with the main role, due to its great weight in society, being played by the Orthodox church. The attempt of Mr Tatchell to focus attention on the role of the grand Mufti in Moscow, in the face of numerous attacks on gay rights in Eastern Europe, which overwhelmingly come from right-wing Christian and secular currents, is a clear example of an Islamophobic campaign."
Tatchell retorted that Livingstone's remarks were "dishonest, despicable nonsense", adding "The Grand Mufti was not singled out". He further said the Mayor had brought his "office into disrepute" and "has revealed himself to be a person without principles, honesty or integrity."
Israel
Following the vote by the Knesset, the Israeli legislature, in 2007 in favour of bills to ban lesbian and gay pride parades in Jerusalem, the Lesbian and Gay Coalition Against Racism criticised Tatchell, saying:
Tatchell issued a statement opposing any boycott of Israel as a result of this.
In a 2009 article for The Guardian Tatchell condemned what he described as "disproportionate" and "reckless" attacks by the Israeli military on Gaza, but also argued that Western liberals and progressives should not support Hamas which he described as an Islamist group that represses Palestinians and is "potentially as much of a threat to Palestinian freedom as Israel is today."
Anglican and Catholic churches
Tatchell criticised the Catholic Church and Pope Benedict XVI, whom he described as "the ideological inheritor of Nazi homophobia". "He'd like to eradicate homosexuality, but since he can't put LGBT people in physical concentration camps, is doing his best to put them in psychological concentration camps."
Channel 4 indicated in June 2010 that Tatchell would be the presenter of a documentary film examining "the current Pope's teachings throughout the world". The plans sparked criticism from some prominent British Catholics including Conservative politician Ann Widdecombe, who accused Channel 4 of trying to "stir up controversy". Tatchell asserted that the documentary "will not be an anti-Catholic programme".
On 15 September 2010, Tatchell, along with 54 other public figures, signed an open letter, published in The Guardian, stating their opposition to Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the United Kingdom.
With respect to Anglicanism, he stated that "it's very sad to see a good man like the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, going to such extraordinary lengths to appease homophobes within the Anglican Communion".
In 2017 Tatchell praised the Church of England's new 'Valuing all God's Children' scheme for schools, which seeks to stop homophobic and transphobic bullying.
Multiculturalism
Tatchell has occasionally been moderately critical of multiculturalism. In 2010 he gave a speech to the Libertarian Alliance at the National Liberal Club arguing that the British people are increasingly "fragmented according to their different and sometimes competing identities, values, and traditions. These differences are prioritised over shared experiences and interests. Our common needs and the universalities of human rights are downplayed in favour of religious and racial particularities."
Free speech
In 2006, during the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy, Tatchell spoke at a 25 March 2006 rally called the Freedom of Expression Rally.
At the rally, Tatchell argued for the "disestablishment of the Church of England and the freedom to insult the Queen, Prime Minister and Archbishop of Canterbury." Tatchell said that the far-left is "Mired in the immoral morass of cultural relativism, they no longer endorse Enlightenment values and universal human rights. Their support for free speech is now qualified by so many ifs and buts. When push comes to shove, it is more or less worthless."
In 2007, he wrote a Guardian opinion piece, arguing that "The best way to tackle prejudice is by presenting facts and using reasoned arguments, to break down ignorance and ill-will." In 2016, Tatchell made threats to free speech in Britain the topic of his British Humanist Association annual conference lecture. Speaking with reference to a number of censorship controversies in the 2010s, he said that "the recent trend against freedom of speech means that we must fight the battles of the Enlightenment all over again."
However, in 2018 Tatchell voiced his support for Mark Meechan's conviction under section 127 of the Communications Act 2003 for posting a "grossly offensive" video on YouTube.
Islam
Tatchell is critical of Islam, and first wrote about its presence in Britain in 1995. In 1995, he wrote that "although not all Muslims are anti-gay, significant numbers are violently homophobic [...] homophobic Muslim voters may be able to influence the outcome of elections in 20 or more marginal constituencies." He is critical of the UK government's All-Party Parliamentary Group definition of Islamophobia, suggesting that he tries "to avoid the term", that Muslimness is a vague and subjective term, and that the Islamophobia term is a "a de facto threat to free speech and liberal values" and "virtue-signalling".
Tatchell has described the entire Sharia, which is the moral code that Muslims try to live by, as "a clerical form of fascism" and was the keynote speaker at a 2005 protest at the Canadian High Commission, demanding that Ontario's arbitration law, which permitted religious arbitration in civil cases for Jews and Christians, not be extended to Muslims.
In 2017, Tatchell wrote to the organisers of Pride in London to defend the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain. In response to calls by the East London Mosque for CEMB to apologise for placards alleging the mosque "incites murder of LGBTs", Tatchell stated "East London Mosque has refused all dialogue with LGBT community. It refuses to meet LGBT Muslims. I have asked them 11 times since 2015".
Tatchell has previously condemned Islamophobia, saying "any form of prejudice, hatred, discrimination or violence against Muslims is wrong. Full stop". He described the Qur'an as "rather mild in its condemnation of homosexuality".
He points out that much of his prison and asylum casework involves supporting Muslim prisoners and asylum seekers—heterosexual as well as LGBT. In 2006, he helped stop the abuse of Muslim prisoners at a Norwich jail and helped secure parole for other Muslim detainees. Half his asylum cases are, he reports, male and female Muslim refugees. Two of his highest-profile campaigns involved Muslim victims—Mohamed S, who was framed by men who first tried to kill him and then jailed him for eight years, and Sid Saeed, who brought a racism and homophobic harassment case against Deutsche Bank.
Tatchell chose Malcolm X as his specialist subject when appearing on Celebrity Mastermind, explaining that he considered him an inspiration and hero (his other inspirations are Mahatma Gandhi, Sylvia Pankhurst and Martin Luther King Jr.). However, his endorsement of Bruce Perry's biography, in an article calling for black gay role models, led to criticism. due to Perry's claim that Malcolm X had male lovers in his youth.
In February 2010, Women Against Fundamentalism defended Tatchell against allegations of Islamophobia and endorsed his right to challenge all religious fundamentalism: "WAF supports the right of Peter Tatchell and numerous other gay activists to oppose the legitimisation of fundamentalists and other right wing forces on university campuses, by the Left and by the government in its Preventing Violent Extremism strategy and numerous other programmes and platforms".
Muslim Council of Britain
Tatchell had described the Muslim Council of Britain as being "anti-gay", asking how can "they expect to win respect for their community, if at the same time as demanding action against Islamophobia, they themselves demand the legal enforcement of homophobia?". He noted that the MCB had joined forces with the "rightwing Christian Institute" to oppose every gay law reform from 1997 to 2006. In January 2006, the MCB Chairman Iqbal Sacranie said that homosexuals are immoral, harmful and diseased on BBC Radio 4.
Tatchell argued that "Both the Muslim and gay communities suffer prejudice and discrimination. We should stand together to fight Islamophobia and homophobia". Tatchell subsequently criticised Unite Against Fascism for inviting Sacranie to share its platforms, describing him as a "homophobic hate-mongerer."
When the MCB boycotted Holocaust Memorial Day, partly because it was "not sufficiently inclusive", Tatchell wrote that "the only thing that is consistent about the MCB is its opposition to the human rights of lesbians and gay men".
Muslims and gay rights
In 2006, Tatchell wrote an opinion column in The Guardian arguing that Muslims deliberately conflate offence with violence, in an effort to suppress Muslim reformers in Britain. He argued that Islamist groups like Hizb ut-Tahrir in Britain see "any criticism of Islam is an insult and that all such insults are unacceptable" in order to suppress the "free exchange of ideas". The Muslim gay rights organisation IMAAN criticised Tatchell, saying, "OutRage! doesn't understand our cultural and religious sensitivities. Often, the way they word and phrase their press releases can and does antagonise Muslims. Much as we’ve invited them to meetings so we can talk about the best way to tackle Muslim LGBT issues, they insist on doing things their way."
In the book "Out of Place: Interrogating Silences in Queerness/Raciality", in a chapter called "Gay Imperialism: Gender and Sexuality Discourse in the 'War on Terror'", Jin Haritaworn, Tamsila Tauqir and Esra Erdem wrote, "rather than help, politics such as Tatchell's have worsened the situation for the majority of queer Muslims. It has become increasingly difficult for groups such as the Safra Project, who are forced into the frontline of the artificially constructed gay v. Muslim divide, to contest sexual oppression in Muslim communities. The more homophobia is constructed as belonging to Islam, the more anti-homophobic talk will be viewed as a white, even racist, phenomenon, and the harder it will be to increase tolerance and understanding among straight Muslims [...] The dialogue which Safra and other queer Muslim groups have long sought over this is more often than not ignored or disregarded, and white gay activists such as Tatchell have proved indifferent to the fact that the mud which they sling onto Muslim communities lands on queer Muslims themselves."
Despite previously attending a "rally for free expression", where the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons were celebrated, Tatchell sued the small publisher Raw Nerve Books, who issued an apology, and replaced links to the book on their site with that apology, but were later forced to shut down. The Monthly Review described this as censorship, adding, "the violent suppression of "Gay Imperialism" and the book in which it appeared also works as a warning to the authors, editors, and other critics and potential critics of Tatchell to better keep their mouths shut."
Yusuf al-Qaradawi
In July 2004, then-Mayor of London Ken Livingstone invited Yusuf al-Qaradawi to attend a talk called "A woman's right to choose" about the wearing of the hijab. Livingstone had read positive coverage of Qaradawi in The Guardian and The Sun.
In October 2004, 2,500 Muslim academics from 23 countries condemned Qaradawi, and accused him of giving "Islam a bad name and foster[ing] hatred among civilizations" and "providing a religious cover for terrorism".
Tatchell argued that Qaradawi expresses liberal positions to deceive the Western press and politicians, while being "rightwing, misogynist, anti-semitic and homophobic", using his books and fatwas to advocate female genital mutilation, blame for rape victims who dress immodestly, and the execution of apostates, homosexuals, and women who have sex outside marriage.
Livingstone issued a 2005 dossier praising Qaradawi as a moderate, based on positive press coverage he had received previously. Livingstone pronounced that Tatchell has "a long history of Islamophobia", and asserted that he is in a "de facto alliance with the American neo-cons and Israeli intelligence services." Tatchell strenuously denied the accusations, pointing out that he has never said any of the things that Livingstone accused him of saying. Livingstone continued to describe Qaradawi as "one of the leading progressive voices in the Muslim world" in 2010, after having been denied entry to the UK for his extremist views.
Two years after condemning Tatchell, Livingstone stated he "probably shouldn't" have called Tatchell an "Islamophobe".
Adam Yosef
In December 2005, Respect Party activist Adam Yosef came under criticism for an article in Desi Xpress opposing registered civil partnerships. He asserted that Tatchell needed "a good slap in the face" and his "queer campaign army" should "pack their bent bags and head back to Australia". Desi Xpress staff expressed regret to Tatchell and gave him a right of reply, while Yosef apologised and retracted his article, claiming the "slap in the face" remark was a "figure of speech" and the remark about Australia was not racist. Yosef later backed Tatchell's 2009 election campaign.
Secondary issues
Environmental issues
For over 20 years, Tatchell has written and campaigned about environmental problems including global warming and resource depletion, pointing out that they often have a disproportionately negative impact on developing countries. In the late 1980s, he was co-organiser of the Green and Socialist Conferences, which sought to ally reds and greens. He championed energy conservation and renewable energy; in particular tidal, wave and concentrated solar power. On 24 May 2009, he appeared on the BBC Daily Politics programme to oppose the Elephant and Castle regeneration scheme, which he said would bring few benefits to local working-class people. However, most of his campaigning continues to be in the areas of human rights and "queer emancipation".
In August 2008 Tatchell wrote about speculative theories concerning possible atmospheric oxygen depletion compared to prehistoric levels, and called for further investigation to test such claims and, if proven, their long-term consequences.
Animal rights
Tatchell is an active supporter of animal rights, saying "human rights and animal rights are two aspects of the same struggle against injustice", and that he advocates for a "claim to be spared suffering and offered inalienable rights" for both humans and animals.
Cornwall
Tatchell campaigned on the issue of the constitutional status of Cornwall. In November 2008, The Guardian carried an article by him entitled Self-rule for Cornwall, in which he said:
This article received the largest number of comments to any Guardian article, according to This is Cornwall. Over 1,500 comments were made, and while some comments were supportive, Tatchell found himself "shocked and disgusted" by the anti-Cornish sentiment shown by many commenters.
Columnist and other pursuits
Tatchell has written numerous articles in newspapers and magazines related to his various campaigns. He was highly critical of the media coverage of the Admiral Duncan pub bombing, claiming than the homophobic attitudes of news outlets had helped fuel the attack, and that the press concerned themselves almost exclusively with the one heterosexual victim, rather than the two other deaths and the dozens of maimed patrons, saying that:
In 1987 Tatchell appeared on the second programme of the first series of After Dark, a discussion on press ethics with, among others, Tony Blackburn, Victoria Gillick, Johnny Edgecombe and a Private Eye journalist.
On 5 August 1995 Tatchell was interviewed at length by Andrew Neil on his one-on-one interview show Is This Your Life?, made by Open Media for Channel 4.
, he has been an Ambassador for the penal reform group, Make Justice Work.
In 2011, he became the Director of the Peter Tatchell Foundation.
Tatchell is a patron of Humanists UK, an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society and a committed secularist, saying, "As an atheist, secularist and humanist I believe that reason, science and ethics – not religious superstition – are the best way to understand the world and promote human rights and welfare."
He contributes to The Jeremy Vine Show on BBC Radio 2.
Awards
In 2006, New Statesman readers voted him sixth on their list of "Heroes of our time".
In 2009, he racked up multiple awards. He was named Campaigner of the Year in The Observer Ethical Awards, London Citizen of Sanctuary Award, Shaheed Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti Award (for reporting the Balochistan national liberation struggle), Evening Standard 1000 Most Influential Londoners (winning again in 2011), Liberal Voice of the Year and a Blue Plaque in recognition of his more than 40 years of human rights campaigning.
In 2010 he won Total Politics Top 50 Political Influencers. A diary journalist reported rumours that he had been recommended for the award of a life peerage in the British New Year Honours. He was said to have turned it down.
In 2012, the National Secular Society awarded Tatchell Secularist of the Year, in recognition of his lifelong commitment to the defence of human rights against religious fundamentalism.
On 21 September 2012, he was awarded a Lifetime Achievement award at the UK's first National Diversity Awards. Alongside Misha B, Jody Cundy, Peter Norfolk and others he was a patron for 2013 National Diversity Awards.
In January 2014, Tatchell was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Laws by De Montfort University.
Legacy
The Peter Tatchell Papers are held at the London School of Economics in the Hall Carpenter Archive. Supplementary papers are housed at the British Library. The papers can be accessed through the British Library catalogue.
Peter Tatchell Foundation
The Peter Tatchell Foundation (PTF) is a non-profit, nonpartisan organisation based in the United Kingdom which "seeks to promote and protect the human rights of individuals, communities and nations, in the UK and internationally, in accordance with established national and international human rights law" and its stated aims and objectives are "to raise awareness, understanding, protection and implementation of human rights, in the UK and worldwide". Tatchell started the Foundation as a company in 2011, which gained charitable status in 2018. The organisation was named after Tatchell to honour his 50+ years of globally campaigning for human rights. The charity's celebrity patrons include Sir Ian McKellen and Paul O'Grady.
The organisation works with a variety of human rights issues globally, such as homophobia, transphobia, sexism, gender inequality, racism, political freedom, censorship, religious discrimination, unjust detention, freedom of association, capital punishment, asylum and refugees, trade union rights, self-determination of oppressed peoples, torture, genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and poverty.
In 2012 the foundation gained funding from The Funding Network for three projects: "Casework & Advice", including adding an "Advice" section to its website; "Equal Love", campaigning on same-sex marriage and opposite-sex civil partnerships; and "Olympic Equality Initiative", working against sexism and homophobia in the Olympic movement.
Bibliography
See also
Capital Gay
Hall–Carpenter Archives
LGBT Network
List of LGBT rights activists
List of peace activists
References
Sources
External links
Peter Tatchell Foundation
Contributor page at The Guardian
Interview with The Third Estate.
Archived WAF statement on Tatchell
Catalogue of the Tatchell papers held at LSE Archives
1952 births
Living people
Activists from Melbourne
HIV/AIDS activists
Alumni of the University of North London
Anti–Vietnam War activists
Australian atheists
Australian human rights activists
Australian emigrants to England
Australian socialists
British atheists
British social commentators
British humanists
British human rights activists
British republicans
British secularists
Critics of the Catholic Church
British socialists
Gay politicians
Green Party of England and Wales parliamentary candidates
Labour Party (UK) parliamentary candidates
LGBT politicians from Australia
LGBT rights activists from Australia
Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom
People with traumatic brain injuries | true | [
"On 9 September 1971 the UK Gay Liberation Front (GLF) undertook an action to disrupt the launch of the Church-based morality campaign Nationwide Festival of Light at the Methodist Central Hall, Westminster. A number of well-known British figures were involved in the disrupted rally, and the action involved the use of \"radical drag\" drawing on the Stonewall riots and subsequent GLF actions in the US. Peter Tatchell, gay human rights campaigner, was involved in the action which was one of a series which influenced the development of gay activism in the UK, received media attention at the time, and is still discussed by some of those involved.\n\nBackground\nThe Gay Liberation Front in the UK was formed in 1970 in response to the formation of the GLF in the US, which was established after the Stonewall riots in 1969. Prior to the formation of GLF in the UK, the Campaign for Homosexual Equality (CHE) had been the primary focus for the campaign for gay rights; CHE focused on lobbying government for specific legal reforms, while GLF campaigned for systemic changes in society that would lead to wider acceptance of lesbian and gay people. GLF existed for four years in the UK, and this action was one of the best known and controversial actions they undertook, one which featured in the national news at the time. Public figures involved at the time still describe their experience today. This was period when lesbian and gay people were shifting from an approach that was apologetic to one of pride. In 1971 the UK GLF published its Manifesto and held a series of high-profile direct actions, including the one at the Festival of Light.\n\nThe Festival of Light included several notable people of that time, such as Cliff Richard, Mary Whitehouse, Malcolm Muggeridge and Lord Longford. It was an organisation which lobbied the UK Government and held public rallies to show support for their lobbying. Muggeridge and Whitehouse identified certain liberalisations in law, and public acceptance of certain phenomena, as moral evil; examples are extra-marital sex, pornography in films, sex on TV, legalisation of abortion, and openly-gay individuals.\n\nActivism as theatre\n\nDrawing on the gay tradition of camp, GLF developed a new style of political campaigning, \"protest as performance\", where the claim for human rights was projected through creativity, using imagination, daring and wit, rather than marches and rallies. These actions were called \"zaps\", intended to reduce the rallies to a farcical shambles. The Festival of Light was the most notable of these. One of those who embraced this style of activism was Bette Bourne, the message of gay liberation being couched in comedy, song, tap routines and make-up. \"We were finding a new way of doing drag that wasn't offensive to women, that wasn't about false tits and distasteful jokes. We saw ourselves as a new type of man. We could wear frocks and make-up and be silly and funny, but we had a serious message, too.\" This began a tradition of drag continued through the work of performers like David Hoyle down, a style of drag, separate from the aggressive form of \"female impersonation\". Another figure who was involved in the disruption was Martin Corbett, who walked into the basement of Westminster Central Hall, ordered the staff to leave with an assumed authority, and plunged the Festival into darkness by disconnecting the electrical and broadcasting cables.\n\nPeter Tatchell described the Festival of Light as being against the \"moral darkness\" of \"pornography, homosexuality and abortion.\" The GLF counter-protest was code-named \"Operation Rupert' after the subversive 'Rupert Bear' cartoon in OZ magazine. He attended the Festival action as part of the GLF Youth Group. \"When Malcolm Muggeridge, speaking out about homosexuals, declared: 'I don't like them.' The feeling was mutual,\" the group he was part of staged a \"kiss-in\" in the upper balcony of the hall. \"Mice were released into the audience; lesbian couples stood up and passionately embraced. A dozen GLF nuns in immaculate blue and white habits charged the platform shouting gay liberation slogans, and a GLF bishop began preaching an impromptu sermon which urged people to 'keep on sinning.\n\nRadical Drag\nThe theme known as \"radical drag\" was a central element to the Festival of Light and subsequent GLF actions. In response to ideas about the 'wrong-sex', gay people distanced themselves from stereotypes of effeminate gay men and butch lesbians, in a way in which gay people were supposed to appear like anybody else. Within the Gay Liberation Movement there was also a deeper questioning of the validity of gender roles. The philosophy underlying radical drag rejected the concepts of masculinity and femininity, which correlated to ideas of dominance and submission. The idea of men who are really women, or of 'real men' dissolves in this deconstruction. In dissociating from the stigma of effeminacy in order to gain acceptance in heterosexual society, gay men tacitly supported the rigidity of gender roles, a definition of men from which they were excluded because of their sexuality. Gay men were complicit in the oppression of the effeminate gay men who adopted that stereotype, often denouncing the camp queens and diesel dykes who had 'come out' and born the brunt of homophobia before those who were more discreet themselves felt comfortable enough to come out. In 1974, to counteract this, the GLF stated that it had developed \"a strong section of opinion which claims that the only way for gay people to come out that will make any real impact on the gender role definitions which underlie gay oppression is by adopting a life-style and appearance that explicitly reject the masculine/feminine distinction and all that it implies.\"\n\nSubsequent campaigns and other actions\nThe work of GLF in this and other actions and demonstrations helped inspire more people towards open activism. Following the style of campaign and public demonstration, CHE changed its own style of campaigning, and interest in GLF waned. After the demise of GLF, Peter Tatchell went on to form OutRage!, which still performs strategic actions in which individuals, organisations and countries identified as homophobic are openly confronted in provocative ways, such as at the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest.\n\nOther actions and acts of civil disobedience confronting discrimination and homophobia at the time included a picket at Pan Books in protest at the publication of a book by David Reuben, which claimed that gay men were obsessed with the anal insertion of vegetables, freedom rides and sit-ins at pubs that refused to serve 'poofs' and 'dykes', the occupation of Coutts Bank because of their holding the Maudsley Hospital account (where aversion therapy was still being practiced in the early 1970s) and the confrontation of Professor Hans Eysenck during a lecture in which he advocated electric-shock and aversion therapy to \"cure\" homosexuality. Tatchell talks of this time, \"As well as being politics with fun, this activism helped banish our internalised shame, repairing much of the damage that homophobia had done to us. Through GLF, we became happier, more confident queers, unafraid to challenge even the most powerful homophobes.\"\n\nSee also\n\n Gay liberation\n Socialism and LGBT rights\n Gay Activists Alliance\n USA GLF: N. A. Diaman, Brenda Howard, Sylvia Rivera\n London GLF: Bob Mellors, Peter Tatchell\n Hall–Carpenter Archives\n List of LGBT rights organizations\n Nationwide Festival of Light\n\nReferences and further reading\n Material relating to the Festival of Light, [1971–1975], mainly concerning the disinformation campaign by the GLF, is held at the Hall–Carpenter Archives.\n\nFootnotes\n\n1971 in LGBT history\nLGBT history in the United Kingdom\nLGBT civil rights demonstrations\n1971 in the United Kingdom",
"Gay Liberation Front (GLF) was the name of a number of gay liberation groups, the first of which was formed in New York City in 1969, immediately after the Stonewall riots.\n\nUnited States\n\nThe United States Gay Liberation Front (GLF) was formed in the aftermath of the Stonewall Riots. The riots are considered by many to be the prime catalyst for the gay liberation movement and the modern fight for LGBT rights in the United States.\n\nOn 28 June 1969 in Greenwich Village, New York, the New York City police raided the Stonewall Inn, a well known gay bar, located on Christopher Street. Police raids of the Stonewall, and other lesbian and gay bars, were a routine practice at the time, with regular payoffs to dirty cops and organized crime figures an expected part of staying in business. The Stonewall Inn was made up of two former horse stables which had been renovated into one building in 1930. Like all gay bars of the era, it was subject to countless police raids, as LGBT activities and fraternization were still largely illegal. But this time, when the police began arresting patrons, the customers began pelting them with coins, and later, bottles and rocks. The lesbian and gay crowd also freed staff members who had been put into police vans, and the outnumbered officers retreated inside the bar. Soon, the Tactical Patrol Force (TPF), originally trained to deal with war protests, were called in to control the mob, which was now using a parking meter as a battering ram. As the patrol force advanced, the crowd did not disperse, but instead doubled back and re-formed behind the riot police, throwing rocks, shouting \"Gay Power!\", dancing, and taunting their opposition. For the next several nights, the crowd would return in ever increasing numbers, handing out leaflets and rallying themselves. Soon the word \"Stonewall\" came to represent fighting for equality in the gay community. And in commemoration, Gay Pride marches are held every year on the anniversary of the riots.\n\nIn early July 1969, due in large part to the Stonewall riots in June of that year, discussions in the gay community led to the formation of the Gay Liberation Front. According to scholar Henry Abelove, it was named GLF \"in a provocative allusion to the Algerian National Liberation Front and the Vietnamese National Liberation Front.\" One of the GLF's first acts was to organize a march to continue the momentum of the Stonewall uprising, and to demand an end to the persecution of homosexuals. The GLF had a broad political platform, denouncing racism and declaring support for various Third World struggles and the Black Panther Party. They took an anti-capitalist stance and attacked the nuclear family and traditional gender roles.\n\nOn October 31, 1969, sixty members of the GLF, the Committee for Homosexual Freedom (CHF), and the Gay Guerilla Theatre group staged a protest outside the offices of the San Francisco Examiner in response to a series of news articles disparaging people in San Francisco's gay bars and clubs. The peaceful protest against the Examiner turned tumultuous and was later called \"Friday of the Purple Hand\" and \"Bloody Friday of the Purple Hand\". Examiner employees \"dumped a barrel of printers' ink on the crowd from the roof of the newspaper building\", according to glbtq.com. Some reports state that it was a barrel of ink poured from the roof of the building. The protesters \"used the ink to scrawl slogans on the building walls\" and slap purple hand prints \"throughout downtown [San Francisco]\" resulting in \"one of the most visible demonstrations of gay power\" according to the Bay Area Reporter. According to Larry LittleJohn, then president of Society for Individual Rights, \"At that point, the tactical squad arrived – not to get the employees who dumped the ink, but to arrest the demonstrators. Somebody could have been hurt if that ink had gotten into their eyes, but the police were knocking people to the ground.\" The accounts of police brutality include women being thrown to the ground and protesters' teeth being knocked out. Inspired by Black Hand extortion methods of Camorra gangsters and the Mafia, some gay and lesbian activists attempted to institute \"purple hand\" as a warning to stop anti-gay attacks, but with little success. In Turkey, the LGBT rights organization MorEl Eskişehir LGBTT Oluşumu (Purple Hand Eskişehir LGBT Formation), also bears the name of this symbol.\n\nIn 1970, several GLF women, such as Martha Shelley, Lois Hart, Karla Jay, and Michela Griffo went on to form the Lavender Menace, a lesbian activist organization.\n\nIn 1970, the drag queen caucus of the GLF, including Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, formed the group Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR), which focused on providing support for gay prisoners, housing for homeless gay youth and street people, especially other young \"street queens\".\n\nIn 1970 \"The U.S. Mission\" had a permit to use a campground in the Sequoia National Forest. Once it was learned that the group was sponsored by the GLF, the Sequoia National Forest supervisor cancelled the permit, and the campground was closed for the period.\n\nUnited Kingdom\n\nThe UK Gay Liberation Front existed between 1970–1973.\n\nIts first meeting was held in the basement of the London School of Economics on 13 October 1970. Bob Mellors and Aubrey Walter had seen the effect of the GLF in the United States and created a parallel movement based on revolutionary politics.\n\nBy 1971, the UK GLF was recognized as a political movement in the national press, holding weekly meetings of 200 to 300 people. The GLF Manifesto was published, and a series of high-profile direct actions, were carried out, such as the disruption of the launch of the Church-based morality campaign, Festival of Light.\n\nThe disruption of the opening of the 1971 Festival of Light was the best organised GLF action. The first meeting of the Festival of Light was organised by Mary Whitehouse at Methodist Central Hall. Amongst GLF members taking part in this protest were the \"Radical Feminists\", a group of gender non-conforming males in drag, who invaded and spontaneously kissed each other; others released mice, sounded horns, and unveiled banners, and a contingent dressed as workmen obtained access to the basement and shut off the lights.\n\nEaster 1972 saw the Gay Lib annual conference held in the Guild of Students building at the University of Birmingham.\n\nBy 1974, internal disagreements had led to the movement's splintering. Organizations that spun off from the movement included the London Lesbian and Gay Switchboard, Gay News, and Icebreakers. The GLF Information Service continued for a few further years providing gay related resources. GLF branches had been set up in some provincial British towns (e.g., Birmingham, Bradford, Bristol, Leeds, and Leicester) and some survived for a few years longer. The Leicester Gay Liberation Front founded by Jeff Martin was noted for its involvement in the setting up of the local \"Gayline\", which is still active today and has received funding from the National Lottery. They also carried out a high-profile campaign against the local paper, the Leicester Mercury, which refused to advertise Gayline's services at the time.\n\nThe papers of the GLF are among the Hall-Carpenter Archives at the London School of Economics.\n\nSeveral members of the GLF, including Peter Tatchell, continued campaigning beyond the 1970s under the organisation of OutRage!, which was founded in 1990 and dissolved in 2011, using similar tactics to the GLF (such as \"zaps\" and performance protest) to attract a significant level of media interest and controversy. It was at this point that a divide emerged within the gay activist movement, mainly due to a difference in ideologies, after which a number of groups including Organization for Lesbian and Gay Alliance (OLGA), the Lesbian Avengers, Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, Dykes And Faggots Together (DAFT), Queer Nation, Stonewall (which focused on lobbying tactics) and OutRage! co-existed.\n\nThese groups were very influential following the HIV/AIDS pandemic of the 1980s and 1990s and the violence against lesbians and gay men that followed.\n\nCanada \nThe first gay liberation groups identifying with the Gay Liberation Front movement in Canada were in Montreal, Quebec. The Front de libération homosexual (FLH) was formed in November 1970, in response to a call for organised activist groups in the city by the publication Mainmise. Another factor in the group's formation was police actions against gay establishments in the city after the suspension of civil liberties by Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau in the fall of 1970. This group was short-lived; they were disbanded after over forty members were charged for failure to procure a liquor license at one of the group's events in 1972.\n\nA Vancouver, British Columbia group calling itself the Vancouver Gay Liberation Front emerged in 1971, mostly out of meetings from a local commune, called Pink Cheeks. The group gained support from The Georgia Straight, a left-leaning newspaper, and opened a drop-in centre and published a newsletter. The group struggled to maintain a core group of members, and competition from other local groups, such as the Canadian Gay Activists Alliance (CGAA) and the Gay Alliance Toward Equality (GATE), soon led to its demise.\n\nSee also\n\n Gay Activists Alliance\n Gay Left, UK gay collective and journal\n Hall-Carpenter archives\n List of LGBT rights organizations\n Notable members of the GLF in London: Sam Green, Angela Mason, Mary Susan McIntosh, Bob Mellors, Peter Tatchell, Alan Wakeman\n Notable members of the GLF in the USA: Arthur Bell, Arthur Evans, Tom Brougham, N. A. Diaman, Jim Fouratt, Harry Hay, Brenda Howard, Karla Jay, Marsha P. Johnson, Charles Pitts, Sylvia Rivera, Martha Shelley, Jim Toy, Dan C. Tsang, Allen Young\n OutRage!\n Socialism and LGBT rights\n Stonewall riots\n Stonewall UK\n\nFootnotes\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Gay Liberation Front - first newspaper, photos\n Gay Liberation Front - DC, 1970-1972\n Leicester Gay Liberation Front\n Photographs of New York GLF meetings, actions and members by Diana Davies at the New York Public Library Digital Collections \n Resources on the Politics of Homosexuality in the UK from a socialist perspective\n Then and now\n\nOrganizations established in 1969\n1969 establishments in New York City\n \nLGBT political advocacy groups in the United States\nHistory of LGBT civil rights in the United States\nDefunct LGBT organizations based in New York City\nLGBT history in the United Kingdom\nLGBT history in Canada\n1969 in LGBT history\nFar-left politics in the United States\nArticles containing video clips\nLGBT political advocacy groups in Canada\nLGBT political advocacy groups in the United Kingdom"
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"Peter Tatchell",
"Gay Liberation Front",
"What was Tatchell's role in the Gay Liberation Front?",
"in London became a leading member of the Gay Liberation Front (GLF)"
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| C_acbda4b802ac4f2b87c8606e402bada5_1 | What did he do within the group? | 2 | What did Peter Tatchell do within the Gay Liberation Front group? | Peter Tatchell | To avoid conscription into the Australian Army, Tatchell moved to London in 1971. He had accepted being gay in 1969, and in London became a leading member of the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) until its 1974 collapse. During this time Tatchell was prominent in organising sit-ins at pubs that refused to serve "poofs" and protests against police harassment and the medical classification of homosexuality as an illness. With others he helped organise Britain's first Gay Pride march in 1972. In 1973, he attended the 10th World Youth Festival in East Berlin on GLF's behalf. His actions triggered opposition within and between different groups of national delegates including the Communist Party of Great Britain and National Union of Students. He was banned from conferences, had his leaflets confiscated and burned, was interrogated by the secret police (the Stasi) and threatened and assaulted by other delegates, mostly communists. Tatchell later claimed that this was the first time gay liberation politics were publicly disseminated and discussed in a communist country, although he noted that, in terms of decriminalisation and the age of consent, gay men had greater rights in East Germany at the time than in Britain and much of the West. Describing his time in the Gay Liberation Front, he wrote in The Guardian that: [The] GLF was a glorious, enthusiastic and often chaotic mix of anarchists, hippies, leftwingers, feminists, liberals and counter-culturalists. Despite our differences, we shared a radical idealism - a dream of what the world could and should be - free from not just homophobia but the whole sex-shame culture, which oppressed straights as much as LGBTs. We were sexual liberationists and social revolutionaries, out to turn the world upside down. [...] GLF's main aim was never equality within the status quo. [...] GLF's strategy for queer emancipation was to change society's values and norms, rather than adapt to them. We sought a cultural revolution to overturn centuries of male heterosexual domination and thereby free both queers and women. [...] Forty years on, GLF's gender agenda has been partly won. [...] Girlish boys and boyish girls don't get victimised as much as in times past. LGBT kids often now come out at the age of 12 or 14. While many are bullied, many others are not. The acceptance of sexual and gender diversity is increasing. CANNOTANSWER | During this time Tatchell was prominent in organising sit-ins at pubs that refused to serve "poofs" and protests against police harassment | Peter Gary Tatchell (born 25 January 1952) is a British human rights campaigner, originally from Australia, best known for his work with LGBT social movements.
Tatchell was selected as the Labour Party's parliamentary candidate for Bermondsey in 1981. He was then denounced by party leader Michael Foot for ostensibly supporting extra-parliamentary action against the Thatcher government. Labour subsequently allowed him to stand in the Bermondsey by-election in February 1983, in which the party lost the seat to the Liberals. In the 1990s he campaigned for LGBT rights through the direct action group OutRage!, which he co-founded. He has worked on various campaigns, such as Stop Murder Music against music lyrics allegedly inciting violence against LGBT people and writes and broadcasts on various human rights and social justice issues. He attempted a citizen's arrest of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe in 1999 and again in 2001.
In April 2004, he joined the Green Party of England and Wales and in 2007 was selected as prospective parliamentary candidate in the constituency of Oxford East, but in December 2009 he stood down due to brain damage he says was caused by a bus accident as well as damage sustained during various protests. Since 2011, he has been the Director of the Peter Tatchell Foundation.
Early life
Tatchell was born in Melbourne, Australia. His father was a lathe operator and his mother worked in a biscuit factory. His parents divorced when he was four and his mother remarried soon afterwards.
Since the family finances were strained by medical bills, he had to leave school at 16 in 1968. He started work as a sign-writer and window-dresser in department stores. Tatchell claims to have incorporated the theatricality of these displays into his activism.
Raised as a Christian, Tatchell says that he "ditched [his] faith a long time ago" and is an atheist. It is widely reported that Tatchell is a vegan; however, Tatchell himself only states that he eats no meat, but does eat eggs, cheese, and, according to Richard Fairbrass, wild salmon, meaning Tatchell is a pescatarian.
He became interested in outdoor adventurous activities such as surfing and mountain climbing. Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Any Questions about how insurance and legal risks were making British teachers reluctant to take pupils on outdoor adventures, he said outdoor activities helped him develop the courage to take political risks in adult life.
Campaigns in Australia
Tatchell's political activity began at Mount Waverley Secondary College, where in 1967 he launched campaigns in support of Australia's Aboriginal people. Tatchell was elected secretary of the school's Student Representative Council. In his final year in 1968, as school captain, he took the lead in setting up a scholarship scheme for Aboriginal people and led a campaign for Aboriginal land rights. These activities led the headmaster to claim he had been manipulated by communists.
Prompted by the impending hanging of Ronald Ryan in 1967, Tatchell went round his local area painting slogans against the hanging, a fact he did not reveal until nearly 30 years later. Ryan was accused of killing a prison warder while escaping from Pentridge Prison in Coburg, Victoria. Tatchell claimed, unsuccessfully, that the trajectory of the bullet through the warder's body probably made it impossible that Ryan could have fired the fatal shot.
In 1968, Tatchell began campaigning against the American and Australian involvement in the Vietnam War, in his view a war of aggression in support of a "brutal and corrupt dictatorship" responsible for torture and executions. The Victoria state government and Melbourne city council attempted to suppress the anti-Vietnam War campaign by banning street leafleting and taking police action against anti-war demonstrations.
In 2004, he proposed the renaming of Australian capital cities with their Aboriginal place names.
Gay Liberation Front
To avoid conscription into the Australian Army, Tatchell moved to London in 1971. He had opened up about being gay in 1969, and in London became a leading member of the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) until its 1974 collapse. During this time Tatchell was prominent in organising sit-ins at pubs that refused to serve "poofs" and protests against police harassment and the medical classification of homosexuality as an illness. With others he helped organise Britain's first Gay Pride march in 1972.
In 1973, he attended the 10th World Youth Festival in East Berlin on GLF's behalf. His plans to protest at the festival were not well received by either the British delegation or the GDR hosts, however he was eventually allowed to give a speech at Humboldt University. His lecture was subject to various disruptions, it ended in his denunciation as a "troublemaker" by a member of the audience. The following day, Tatchell attempted to hand out leaflets at a concert, an official of the Free German Youth objected and encouraged fellow concert-goers to destroy the leaflets. Tatchell intended to carry a placard advocating gay rights at the closing rally of the festival, the British delegation incorrectly translated the placard to read "East Germany persecutes homosexuals", this was put to a vote and the majority decided the placard was not acceptable. Yet, in defiance of the collective decision, Tatchell carried the placard anyway and was then beaten. The placard was torn in half.
Tatchell later claimed that this was the first time gay liberation politics were publicly disseminated and discussed in a communist country, although he noted that, in terms of decriminalisation and the age of consent, gay men had greater rights in East Germany at the time than much of the West.
Describing his time in the Gay Liberation Front, he wrote in The Guardian that:
Tatchell collaborated with public artist Martin Firrell to mark the 50th anniversary of the GLF in 2020. The artist's Still Revolting series drew on Tatchell's personal recollections of the GLF, quoting Tatchell's 1973 placard 'Homosexuals Are Revolting' created by Tatchell for London Gay Pride. The artist's addition of the word 'still' reflects the truth that homosexuality is still regarded as intolerable by some and many LGBT+ people around the world are still struggling for acceptance, security and equality.
Graduation
After taking A levels at evening classes, he attended the Polytechnic of North London (PNL), now part of London Metropolitan University, where he obtained a 2:1 BSc (Hons) in sociology.
At PNL he was a member of the National Union of Students Gay Rights Campaign. On graduating he became a freelance journalist specialising in foreign stories, during which he publicised the Indonesian annexation of West Papua and child labour on British-owned tea farms in Malawi.
Political activity
Tatchell popularised the phrase "sexual apartheid" to describe the separate laws that long existed for gays and heterosexuals.
Labour candidate for Bermondsey
In 1978, Tatchell joined the Labour Party and moved to a council flat in Bermondsey, south-east London. At the Bermondsey Constituency Labour Party's (CLP) AGM in February 1980, the left group won control and Tatchell was elected Secretary. When the sitting Labour Member of Parliament (MP), Bob Mellish, retired in 1981, Tatchell was selected as his successor, despite Arthur Latham, a former MP and former Chairman of the Tribune Group, being considered the favourite. While Militant was cited as the reason for Tatchell's selection, Tatchell disagrees and ascribes his selection to the support of the "older, 'born and bred' working class; the younger professional and intellectual members swung behind Latham".
In an article for a left-wing magazine, Tatchell urged the Labour Party to support direct action campaigning to challenge the Margaret Thatcher-led Tory government, stating "we must look to new more militant forms of extra-parliamentary opposition which involve mass popular participation and challenge the government's right to rule". Social Democratic Party MP James Wellbeloved, arguing the article was anti-Parliamentary, quoted it at Prime Minister's Questions in November 1981. Foot denounced Tatchell, stating that he would not be endorsed as a candidate and a vote at the Labour Party National Executive Committee denied Tatchell's endorsement. However, the Bermondsey Labour Party continued to support him and it was eventually agreed that when the selection was rerun, Tatchell would be eligible, and he duly won. When Mellish resigned from Parliament and triggered a by-election, Tatchell's candidacy was endorsed, and the ensuing campaign was regarded as one of the most homophobic in modern British history.
Tatchell was assaulted in the street, had his flat attacked, and had a death threat and a live bullet put through his letterbox in the night. Although the Bermondsey seat had long been a Labour stronghold, the Liberal candidate, Simon Hughes, won the election. During the campaign, Liberal canvassers were accused of stirring up homophobia on the doorsteps. Male Liberal workers campaigned wearing lapel badges with the words, "I've been kissed by Peter Tatchell" following the suggestion that he was attempting to hide his sexuality; this campaign was criticised by Roy Hattersley at a Labour news conference. One of Hughes' campaign leaflets claimed the election was "a straight choice" between Liberal and Labour. Hughes has since apologised for what may have been seen as an inadvertent slur and later came out as bisexual in 2006.
Democratic Defence
Tatchell published the book Democratic Defence in 1985. In it, he outlined his suggestions for a defence policy for the United Kingdom after it underwent nuclear disarmament. Tatchell argued that the British military was still organised on an imperialist strategy of basing troops abroad rather than on a strategy of defending Britain itself against foreign attacks.
Citing the difficulties that the British army was facing in Northern Ireland, he argued that their current methods had proven ineffective against guerrilla warfare, along with arguing for troops to be allowed to join trade unions and political parties, and to end strict adherence to "petty regulations". He praised the Second World War-era British Home Guard as an example of a "citizens' army", as well as the armed forces of Sweden, Switzerland and Yugoslavia as positive examples.
In the book, Tatchell also argued for a British withdrawal from NATO and for the establishment of a European Self-Defence Organisation, independent of both the United States, whom he felt that Europe had become too dependent on their military protection, and the Soviet Union, which he condemned for their invasions of Czechoslovakia and of Afghanistan, as well its internal repression. He quoted with approval Enoch Powell's argument that the threat from the Soviet Union to the UK was exaggerated.
The book was reviewed by the Times Literary Supplement in May 1985.
Green issues
In February 2000 Tatchell resigned from Labour, citing the treatment of Ken Livingstone during the nomination of a candidate for Mayor of London, and of similar cases in the Scottish and Welsh elections, as evidence that the party "no longer has any mechanism for democratic involvement and transformation". He fought unsuccessfully for a seat on the London Assembly as an Independent candidate within the Green Left grouping, in support of Livingstone.
On 7 April 2004 he joined the Green Party of England and Wales but did not envisage standing for election. However, in 2007, he became the party's parliamentary candidate for Oxford East. In 16 December 2009, he withdrew as a candidate claiming brain damage he says was caused by a bus accident as well as damage inflicted by Mugabe's bodyguards when Tatchell attempted to arrest him in 2001 in Brussels, and by neo-Nazis in Moscow.
Tatchell opposes nuclear power; instead he advocates concentrated solar power.
In Tribune, he pointed out the adverse effects of climate change: "By 2050, if climate change proceeds unchecked, England will no longer be a green and pleasant land. In between periods of prolonged scorching drought, we are likely to suffer widespread flooding."
For many years, he supported a green–red alliance. More recently, he helped launch the Green Left grouping within the Green Party. He urged links between trade unions and the Greens. On 27 April 2010, he urged Green Party supporters to vote for Liberal Democrats in constituencies where they had an incumbent MP or a strong chance of winning.
In August 2021, Tatchell endorsed Tamsin Omond and Amelia Womack in the 2021 Green Party of England and Wales leadership election.
Iraq War
Tatchell opposed the war in Iraq, and its subsequent occupation. For nearly three decades he had previously supported the Iraqi Left Opposition, helping them remove the government of Saddam Hussein because of the gross violations of human rights that Hussein had committed against democrats, left-wingers, trade unionists, Shia Muslims and the Kurdish people, and because under Saddam's dictatorship there were no opportunities for peaceful, democratic change. He advocated military and financial aid to opponents of the Saddam government, suggesting that anti-Saddam organisations be given "tanks, helicopter gun-ships, fighter planes, heavy artillery and anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles". While opposing western intervention, he advocated regime change from within in countries such as Saudi Arabia, Iran and Syria.
Tatchell has written that on 12 March 2003 he ambushed Tony Blair's motorcade in an anti-Iraq war protest. He forced Blair's limousine to stop, and then unfolded a banner that read "Arm the Kurds! Topple Saddam". He added that in terms of the political struggle within Britain (as opposed to struggles against absolute tyrants like Hitler and Saddam, where violent resistance can be the lesser of two evils): "I remain committed to the Gandhian principle of non-violence". After the war he signed the 'Unite Against Terror' declaration, arguing that "the pseudo-left reveals its shameless hypocrisy and its wholesale abandonment of humanitarian values" by supporting resistance and insurgent groups in Iraq that resort to indiscriminate terrorism, killing innocent civilians.
In 2003, Tatchell said he supported giving "massive material aid" to Iraqi opposition groups, including the "Shi'ite Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq" (SCIRI), to bring down Saddam. But in 2006 Tatchell noted that SCIRI had become markedly more fundamentalist and was endorsing violent attacks on anyone who did not conform to its increasingly harsh interpretation of Islam. He claimed that SCIRI, the leading force in Baghdad's ruling coalition, wanted to establish an Iranian-style religious dictatorship, with a goal of clerical fascism, and had engaged in "terrorisation of gay Iraqis", as well as terrorising Sunni Muslims, left-wingers, unveiled women and people who listen to western pop music or wear jeans or shorts.
In September 2014, Tatchell advocated arming the Kurdistan Workers' Party to fight against ISIS, and argued that the US and EU had been wrong to designate it as a terrorist organisation.
Syrian civil war
A previous supporter of the Stop the War Coalition, Tatchell and many other public personalities expressed concern with the coalition's allegedly unduly favourable view of Bashar al-Assad's government in Syria, and has called for the Labour leader and former Stop the War Chair Jeremy Corbyn not to attend the Coalition's Christmas fundraiser 2015. In December 2016, Tatchell and others disrupted Corbyn's speech on human rights on the basis that the Labour leader had responded insufficiently to the bombing of Aleppo and urged him to condemn Russian military intervention in Syria.
Balochistan
Since 2006, he expressed concern for the Baloch people facing military operations in their homeland, Balochistan in Pakistan. From 2007 to 2009, he campaigned in defence of two UK-based Baloch Muslim human rights activists, Hyrbyair Marri and Faiz Baluch, accused of terrorism charges and tried in London. Both men were acquitted in 2009. He alleged collusion by the U.S. and British governments in regards to the suppression of the Balochs, including arms sales to Pakistan, which he says were used to bomb and attack Baloch towns and villages.
Activities in Moscow
In May 2006 Tatchell attended the first Moscow Pride Festival. He appears in the documentary Moscow Pride '06 featuring this event.
In May 2007 Tatchell returned to Moscow to support Moscow Pride and to voice his opposition to a ban on the march, staying at the flat of an American diplomat. On 27 May 2007, Tatchell and other gay rights activists were attacked. He was punched in the face and nearly knocked unconscious, while other demonstrators were beaten, kicked and assaulted. A German MP, Volker Beck, and a European Parliament deputy from Italy, Marco Cappato, were also punched before being arrested and questioned by police. Tatchell later said "I'm not deterred one iota from coming back to protest in Moscow." On his release, Tatchell made a report on the incident to the American Embassy.
On 16 May 2009, the day of the final of the Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow, Russian gay rights activists staged a protest in Moscow in defiance of the city's mayor, Yuri Luzkhov, who had long banned gay demonstrations and denounced them as "satanic". Tatchell was among 32 campaigners arrested when they shouted slogans and unfurled banners.
NUS politics
On 14 February 2015, Tatchell was one of a number of signatories to a letter criticising the trend in the British National Union of Students to apply a No Platform policy to feminists who criticised the sex industry or challenged demands made by certain groups of trans people. In particular, the letter cited the denial of a platform to Kate Smurthwaite at Goldsmith's College and to Germaine Greer at the University of Cambridge.
Tatchell received death threats after signing the letter. He later stated that he would have worded the letter differently to clarify that he supported the human rights of trans people and sex workers, but that he had signed the letter nonetheless because he believed in the message of free speech on campuses. He said that the initial draft that he signed contained the sentence "Some of us have disagreements with the views expressed [by feminist critics of trans people]", and that he was "not happy" that this was cut out of the final letter.
On 13 February 2016, Fran Cowling, the national LGBT representative for the NUS, refused to share a platform with Tatchell at Canterbury Christ Church University to discuss the topic of "re-radicalising queers". Cowling said that Tatchell supported speakers who are "openly transphobic and incite violence" against transgender people, and also that Tatchell had used "racist language". Tatchell responded that no evidence could be produced to support either claim, and that Cowling had never consulted the NUS membership before deciding to make pronouncements on their behalf, and said "This sorry, sad saga is symptomatic of the decline of free and open debate on some university campuses. There is a witch-hunting, accusatory atmosphere. Allegations are made without evidence to back them – or worse, they are made citing false, trumped-up evidence."
Campaigns
OutRage!
Tatchell took part in many gay rights campaigns over issues such as Section 28. Following the murder of actor Michael Boothe on 10 May 1990, Tatchell was one of thirty people to attend the inaugural meeting of the radical gay rights non-violent direct action group OutRage! – although he was not a co-founder – and has remained a leading member. The group fuses theatrical performance styles with queer protest. As the most prominent OutRage! member, Tatchell is sometimes assumed to be the leader of the group, though he has never claimed this, saying he is one among equals.
In 1991, a small group of OutRage! members covertly formed a separate group to engage in a campaign of outing public figures who were homophobic in public but gay in private. The group took the name FROCS (Faggots Rooting Out Closeted Sexuality). Tatchell was the group's go-between with the press, forwarding their news statements to his media contacts. Considerable publicity and public debate followed FROCS's threat to out 200 leading public personalities from the world of politics, religion, business and sport. With Tatchell's assistance, members of FROCS eventually called a press conference to tell the world that their campaign was a hoax intended to demonstrate the hypocrisy of those newspapers that had condemned the campaign despite having themselves outed celebrities and politicians.
Some OutRage! activities were highly controversial. In 1994, it unveiled placards inviting ten Church of England bishops to "tell the truth" about what Outrage! alleged was their homosexuality and accusing them of condemning homosexuality in public while leading secret gay lives. Shortly afterwards the group wrote to twenty UK MPs, condemning their alleged support for anti-gay laws and claiming they would out them if the MPs did not stop what they described as attacks on the gay community. The MP Sir James Kilfedder, one such opponent of gay equality, who had received one of the letters, died two months later of a sudden heart attack on the day one of the Belfast newspapers planned to out him. In a comment in The Independent in October 2003, Tatchell claimed the OutRage! action against the bishops was his greatest mistake because he failed to anticipate that the media and the church would treat it as an invasion of privacy.
On 12 April 1998, Tatchell led an OutRage! protest, which disrupted the Easter sermon by George Carey, the Archbishop of Canterbury, with Tatchell mounting the pulpit to denounce what he claimed was Carey's opposition to legal equality for lesbian and gay people. The protest garnered media coverage and led to Tatchell's prosecution under the little-used Ecclesiastical Courts Jurisdiction Act 1860 (formerly part of the Brawling Act 1551), which prohibits any form of disruption or protest in a church. Tatchell failed in his attempt to summon Carey as a witness and was convicted. The judge fined him the trivial sum of £18.60, which commentators theorised was a wry allusion to the year of the statute used to convict him.
The LGBT press dubbed him "Saint Peter Tatchell" following further OutRage! campaigns involving religion.
A number of African LGBTI leaders signed a statement condemning the involvement of Tatchell and OutRage! in African issues, which led Tatchell to respond that he favoured working with the radical LGBTI groups in Africa rather than the more conservative (according to him) leaders who had signed the statement. Tatchell and OutRage! published a refutation of the allegations.
OutRage!'s protest against Chief Rabbi Immanuel Jakobovits, who supported the idea of genetic engineering to eliminate homosexuality, led to accusations that Tatchell was antisemitic, following OutRage!'s leaflets citing the similarity of Jakobovits ideas for the eradication of homosexuality to those of Heinrich Himmler were distributed outside the Western and Marble Arch Synagogue on the Rosh Hashanah in September 1993.
Rabbi Dame Julia Neuberger, who had campaigned for gay rights, said "Drawing a comparison between Lord Jakobovits and Himmler is offensive, racist and [...] makes OutRage appear antisemitic". She stated that the action and leaflet would "alienate Jews who are sympathetic to gay rights".
Stop Murder Music campaign
Tatchell argues that a number of Afro-Caribbean artists produce music that glorifies murder of homosexual men, and incites violence against homosexuals. He argued that British laws against incitement to violence were not being enforced on foreign artists performing in the UK. He also organised protests outside the concerts of singers whose lyrics he says incite violence, mainly Jamaican dancehall and ragga artists who he says glorify violence toward lesbians and gay men, including murder. Tatchell's campaign began in 1992 when Buju Banton's song "Boom bye-bye" was released. He has picketed the MOBO Awards ceremony to protest at their inviting performers of what he terms "murder music".
Tatchell argues that murder is not legal in Jamaica, and glorification of murder is not a legitimate form of Afro-Caribbean culture. In response Tatchell received death threats and was labelled racist. He defended himself by noting that the campaign was at the behest of the Jamaican gay rights group J-Flag, and the UK-based Black Gay Men's Advisory Group, with which he works closely. He pointed to what he described as his life's work campaigning against racism and apartheid and stated that his campaigns against "murder music" and state-sanctioned homophobic violence in Jamaica were endorsed by black Jamaican gay rights activists such as Jamaican Forum for Lesbians, All-Sexuals and Gays (J-FLAG), and by many straight human rights activists in Jamaica (male homosexuality remains illegal in Jamaica). The campaign has had positive effects with seven of eight original murder music singers signing the Reggae Compassion Act, which says that signatories will not "make statements or perform songs" that incite hatred or violence.
Members of the Rastafari movement accused Tatchell of racism and extremism, saying, "He has gone over way over the top. It's simply racist to put Hitler and Sizzla in the same bracket and just shows how far he is prepared to go." Tatchell denies equating Sizzla with Hitler.
Age of consent laws and Paedophile Information Exchange
In 1996, Tatchell led an OutRage! campaign to reduce the age of consent in the UK to 14 years, to adjust for studies that showed nearly half of all young people had their first sexual experiences prior to 16 years old, regardless of sexuality. He stated that he wished to exempt these people from being "treated as criminals by the law," and that the campaign claimed there should be no prosecution if the difference in ages of the sexual partners was no more than three years, provided that these youths are given a more comprehensive sex education at a younger date.
He was quoted in the OutRage!'s press release as saying "Young people have a right to accept or reject sex, according to what they feel is appropriate for them".
Tatchell has since reiterated that he does not condone adults having sex with children. On his personal website, under the subsection Age of Consent, he writes:
On 10 March 2008, in the Irish Independent, he repeated his call for a lower age of consent to end the criminalisation of young people engaged in consenting sex and to remove the legal obstacles to upfront sex education, condom provision and safer sex advice. In 1998 and 2008, he supported relaxation of the then strict laws against pornography, arguing that pornography can have some social benefits, and he has criticised what he calls the body-shame phobia against nudism, suggesting that nudity may be natural and healthy for society.
In 2006, he opposed the appointment of Ruth Kelly as Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government as Kelly had not supported equal treatment of lesbians and gay men in any parliamentary votes. Tatchell said "her appointment suggests the government does not take lesbian and gay rights seriously", adding "Tony Blair would never appoint someone to a race-equality post who had a lukewarm record of opposing racism".
Paedophile Information Exchange
Tatchell has written an obituary in The Independent for Paedophile Information Exchange founder Ian Dunn, as well as an essay for a pro-paedophile activist and Paedophile Information Exchange member Warren Middleton in the book "Betrayal of Youth (BOY)". The actor and activist, John Connors described Tatchell as a "paedophile apologist" and other critics (such as the British National Party) have suggested that he is personally pro-paedophile, which he strongly denies – stating that:
In July 2021, in an article by Hayley Dixon, Melanie Newman and Julie Bindel for the Daily Telegraph, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/07/27/peter-tatchell-children-have-sexual-desires-early-age/ it emerged that a positive review attributed to Peter Tatchell of the same pro-paedophila book - Betrayal of Youth: Radical Perspectives on Childhood Sexuality, Intergenerational Sex and the Social Oppression of Children and Young People - appeared in the June 1987 edition of 7 Days, the newsletter of the Communist Party of Great Britain.
He also comments on an interview he conducted in the late 1990s on the subject of paedophilia and child prostitution, in which he interviewed a 14-year-old boy (under the pseudonym "Lee") who had had sex with older men, in some cases for money. In this interview, Tatchell makes various counterarguments against Lee's point of view, such as: "How can a young child understand sex and give meaningful consent?", "Perhaps your friends were particularly mature for their age. Most young people are not so sophisticated about sex", "Many people worry that the power imbalance in a relationship between a youth and an adult means the younger person can be easily manipulated and exploited", "Many people fear that making sex easier for under-age teenagers will expose them to dangers like HIV. Isn't that a legitimate worry?".
In 1997 Tatchell wrote a letter to The Guardian, defending an academic book about "boy-love", calling the work "courageous", before writing:
On Tatchell's personal website he clarifies,
My Guardian letter cited examples of youths in Papuan tribes and some of my friends who, when they were under 16, had sex with adults (over 18s), but who do not feel they were harmed. I was not endorsing their viewpoint but merely stating that they had a different perspective from the mainstream opinion about inter-generational sex. They have every right for their perspective to be heard."
Following the publication of a photo of Tatchell alongside the Irish Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Roderic O'Gorman, on Twitter, at a Pride event, O'Gorman issued a statement outlining that the apparent views in Tatchell's letter - written 23 years ago, when O'Gorman was just 15 - were "abhorrent" to him, and his appreciation that Tatchell clarified his own position.
Civil partnerships
Tatchell has pledged his support for opposite-sex couples to be allowed to have civil partnerships, stating that some opposite-sex couples dislike the "sexist, homophobic history of [the institution of] marriage", and allowing them into civil partnerships "is simply a matter of equality".
Writing for PinkNews, he said:
Foreign politics
Imperialism
While still at school, Tatchell campaigned in favour of better treatment of, and full human rights for, Aboriginal Australians. He has opined that Australian cities should be renamed with their original Aboriginal place names. For example, he wants the Tasmanian capital Hobart to be renamed Nibberluna, arguing that this would be a fitting tribute to Australia's Aboriginal heritage, which he claims has been discarded and disrespected for too long.
Tatchell participated in the mass Vietnam Moratorium protests in Melbourne in 1970. The same year, Tatchell founded and was elected secretary of the inter-denominational anti-war movement, Christians for Peace. Later, upon moving to London in 1971, he was active in solidarity work with the independence movements in Mozambique, and Guinea-Bissau.
In 2002, he brought an unsuccessful legal action in Bow Street Magistrate's Court for the arrest of the former U.S. Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, on charges of war crimes in Vietnam and Cambodia.
Zimbabwe
Part of Tatchell's political activism and journalism in the 1970s involved the Rhodesian Bush War, in which he supported the black nationalist movement, including the Zimbabwe African National Union and its military wing. Mugabe's denunciation of male homosexuality in 1995 led Tatchell to help organise a protest for LGBT rights in Zimbabwe outside the Zimbabwe High Commission in London.
Two years later, he passed through police security disguised as a TV cameraman to quiz Mugabe during the "Africa at 40" conference at Methodist Central Hall, Westminster. Mugabe told him that allegations of human rights abuses were grossly exaggerated; he became agitated when Tatchell told him that he was gay. Mugabe's minders summoned Special Branch guards, who ejected Tatchell. On 26 October 1997 a letter from Tatchell to The Observer argued that the United Kingdom should suspend aid to Zimbabwe because of its violence against LGBT people.
Tatchell researched the Gukurahundi attacks in Matabeleland in the 1980s, when the Zimbabwean Fifth Brigade attacked supporters of the Zimbabwe African Peoples Union. He became convinced that Mugabe had broken international human rights law during the attack, which is estimated to have involved the massacre of around 20,000 civilians. Then in 1999, journalists Mark Chavunduka and Ray Choto were tortured by the Zimbabwe Army. The arrest of Augusto Pinochet in London seemed to him a precedent that human rights violations could be pursued against a head of state, thanks to the principle of universal jurisdiction. On 30 October 1999 Tatchell and three other OutRage! activists approached Mugabe's car in a London street and attempted to perform a citizen's arrest. Tatchell opened the car door and grabbed Mugabe. He then called the police. The four OutRage! activists were arrested, on charges including criminal damage, assault and breach of the peace; charges were dropped on the opening day of their trial. Mugabe responded by describing Tatchell and his OutRage! colleagues as "gay gangsters", a slogan frequently repeated by his supporters, and claimed they had been sent by the United Kingdom government.
On 5 March 2001, when Mugabe visited Brussels, Tatchell again attacked him. Mugabe's bodyguards were seen knocking him to the floor. Later that day, Tatchell was briefly knocked unconscious by Mugabe's bodyguards and was left with permanent damage to his right eye. The protest drew worldwide headlines, as Mugabe was highly unpopular in the Western world for his land redistribution policy. Tatchell's actions were praised by Zimbabwean activists and many of the newspapers that had previously denounced him.
Tatchell ultimately failed in his attempt to secure an international arrest warrant against Mugabe on torture charges. The magistrate argued that Mugabe had immunity from prosecution as a serving head of state.
In late 2003, Tatchell acted as a press spokesman for the launch of the Zimbabwe Freedom Movement (ZFM), which claimed to be a clandestine group within Zimbabwe committed to overthrowing the Mugabe government by force. The civic action support group Sokwanele urged Tatchell to check his sources, speculating that it might have been by the Zimbabwe government to justify violent action. This speculation proved to be unfounded. The Mugabe regime dismissed the ZFM as a hoax. However, two Central Intelligence Organization members were spotted and turned away from the ZFM launch, as shown in the film "Peter Tatchell: Just who does he think he is?" by Max Barber.
South Africa
Following a protest against the ANC, Tatchell described himself as a long-time anti-apartheid activist, in an essay for the book 'sex and politics in South Africa', he claimed that his lobbying of the ANC in 1987 contributed to it renouncing homophobia and making its first public commitment to lesbian and gay human rights and that in 1989 and 1990, he helped persuade the ANC to include a ban on anti-gay discrimination in the post-apartheid constitution (claiming he assisted in drafting model clauses for the ANC)
After Tatchell was named as one of the UK's most "hate filled bigots" in the 'Desi Express' newspaper, Aaron Saeed, Muslim Affairs spokesperson for the gay human rights group OutRage!, claimed that Tatchell was involved in the anti-apartheid movement for over 20 years.
Gaza and the West Bank
In May 2004, he and a dozen other lesbians and gay men from OutRage! and the Queer Youth Alliance joined a London demonstration organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign. Their placards read "Israel: stop persecuting Palestine! Palestine: stop persecuting queers!". Tatchell claims that others present accused him of being a Mossad agent sent to disrupt the march, of being a racist or a Zionist, a supporter of Ariel Sharon or an agent of the Central Intelligence Agency or MI5. Tatchell has written a number of articles in The Guardian on the issue.
2008 Olympics
In April 2008, Tatchell attempted to disrupt the procession of the Olympic torch though London. As a protest against China's human rights record he stood in front of the bus carrying the torch along Oxford Street while carrying a placard calling on Beijing to "Free Tibet, Free Hu Jia" (the name of a recently jailed human rights activist). Tatchell was taken away by police but was not charged. In an interview Tatchell called on the world to boycott the opening ceremony of the Olympics, or to take other visible action.
Iran
Tatchell is a critic of Iran's criminal code, which has parts based on sharia and prescribes punishments for zina offenses, including consensual sexual relations between same-sex partners.
In 2005, Iran executed two teenagers, Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni, aged 16 and 18, accused of raping a 13-year-old boy at knifepoint. Tatchell argued that Iran has a history of arresting political activists on false charges and extracting false confessions from death penalty convicts, and declared that he believed the original crime was consensual sex between the two, which is illegal in Iran. Tatchell reiterated his long-standing view that Iran is an "Islamo-fascist state". He argued that information from Iranian exile groups with contacts inside Iran was that the teenagers were a secret gay party before they were arrested.
International human rights groups Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch preferred campaigners to focus on Iran violating the Convention on the Rights of the Child (which forbids the execution of juveniles) rather than the weak allegation of consensual sex.
Faisal Alam, founder of American Gay Muslim group Al-Fatiha, argued in the magazine Queer that Iran was condemned before the facts were certain.
Russia
Tatchell has written articles condemning the Russian LGBT propaganda law. In 2014 Tatchell protested Valery Gergiev's support for Vladimir Putin.
Tatchell protested the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi over the gay rights stance of Russia, comparing the event to the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.
Tatchell was arrested at the Moscow Pride parade in 2011 amid a spate of anti-gay violence by neo-Nazis.
In February 2007, the Mayor of Moscow, Yury Luzhkov, visited London mayor Ken Livingstone for an annual meeting that also involved the Mayors of Berlin and Paris, with the mayor of Beijing present as well. Nikolay Alexeyev, one of the organizers of the Moscow gay pride parade, joined Tatchell in protesting the visit. A notice of the protest quoted Talgat Tadzhuddin saying that the Moscow pride marchers should be flogged.
Livingstone asserted that he supports gay rights, and said "In Moscow the Russian Orthodox church, the chief rabbi and the grand Mufti all supported the ban on the Gay Pride march with the main role, due to its great weight in society, being played by the Orthodox church. The attempt of Mr Tatchell to focus attention on the role of the grand Mufti in Moscow, in the face of numerous attacks on gay rights in Eastern Europe, which overwhelmingly come from right-wing Christian and secular currents, is a clear example of an Islamophobic campaign."
Tatchell retorted that Livingstone's remarks were "dishonest, despicable nonsense", adding "The Grand Mufti was not singled out". He further said the Mayor had brought his "office into disrepute" and "has revealed himself to be a person without principles, honesty or integrity."
Israel
Following the vote by the Knesset, the Israeli legislature, in 2007 in favour of bills to ban lesbian and gay pride parades in Jerusalem, the Lesbian and Gay Coalition Against Racism criticised Tatchell, saying:
Tatchell issued a statement opposing any boycott of Israel as a result of this.
In a 2009 article for The Guardian Tatchell condemned what he described as "disproportionate" and "reckless" attacks by the Israeli military on Gaza, but also argued that Western liberals and progressives should not support Hamas which he described as an Islamist group that represses Palestinians and is "potentially as much of a threat to Palestinian freedom as Israel is today."
Anglican and Catholic churches
Tatchell criticised the Catholic Church and Pope Benedict XVI, whom he described as "the ideological inheritor of Nazi homophobia". "He'd like to eradicate homosexuality, but since he can't put LGBT people in physical concentration camps, is doing his best to put them in psychological concentration camps."
Channel 4 indicated in June 2010 that Tatchell would be the presenter of a documentary film examining "the current Pope's teachings throughout the world". The plans sparked criticism from some prominent British Catholics including Conservative politician Ann Widdecombe, who accused Channel 4 of trying to "stir up controversy". Tatchell asserted that the documentary "will not be an anti-Catholic programme".
On 15 September 2010, Tatchell, along with 54 other public figures, signed an open letter, published in The Guardian, stating their opposition to Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the United Kingdom.
With respect to Anglicanism, he stated that "it's very sad to see a good man like the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, going to such extraordinary lengths to appease homophobes within the Anglican Communion".
In 2017 Tatchell praised the Church of England's new 'Valuing all God's Children' scheme for schools, which seeks to stop homophobic and transphobic bullying.
Multiculturalism
Tatchell has occasionally been moderately critical of multiculturalism. In 2010 he gave a speech to the Libertarian Alliance at the National Liberal Club arguing that the British people are increasingly "fragmented according to their different and sometimes competing identities, values, and traditions. These differences are prioritised over shared experiences and interests. Our common needs and the universalities of human rights are downplayed in favour of religious and racial particularities."
Free speech
In 2006, during the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy, Tatchell spoke at a 25 March 2006 rally called the Freedom of Expression Rally.
At the rally, Tatchell argued for the "disestablishment of the Church of England and the freedom to insult the Queen, Prime Minister and Archbishop of Canterbury." Tatchell said that the far-left is "Mired in the immoral morass of cultural relativism, they no longer endorse Enlightenment values and universal human rights. Their support for free speech is now qualified by so many ifs and buts. When push comes to shove, it is more or less worthless."
In 2007, he wrote a Guardian opinion piece, arguing that "The best way to tackle prejudice is by presenting facts and using reasoned arguments, to break down ignorance and ill-will." In 2016, Tatchell made threats to free speech in Britain the topic of his British Humanist Association annual conference lecture. Speaking with reference to a number of censorship controversies in the 2010s, he said that "the recent trend against freedom of speech means that we must fight the battles of the Enlightenment all over again."
However, in 2018 Tatchell voiced his support for Mark Meechan's conviction under section 127 of the Communications Act 2003 for posting a "grossly offensive" video on YouTube.
Islam
Tatchell is critical of Islam, and first wrote about its presence in Britain in 1995. In 1995, he wrote that "although not all Muslims are anti-gay, significant numbers are violently homophobic [...] homophobic Muslim voters may be able to influence the outcome of elections in 20 or more marginal constituencies." He is critical of the UK government's All-Party Parliamentary Group definition of Islamophobia, suggesting that he tries "to avoid the term", that Muslimness is a vague and subjective term, and that the Islamophobia term is a "a de facto threat to free speech and liberal values" and "virtue-signalling".
Tatchell has described the entire Sharia, which is the moral code that Muslims try to live by, as "a clerical form of fascism" and was the keynote speaker at a 2005 protest at the Canadian High Commission, demanding that Ontario's arbitration law, which permitted religious arbitration in civil cases for Jews and Christians, not be extended to Muslims.
In 2017, Tatchell wrote to the organisers of Pride in London to defend the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain. In response to calls by the East London Mosque for CEMB to apologise for placards alleging the mosque "incites murder of LGBTs", Tatchell stated "East London Mosque has refused all dialogue with LGBT community. It refuses to meet LGBT Muslims. I have asked them 11 times since 2015".
Tatchell has previously condemned Islamophobia, saying "any form of prejudice, hatred, discrimination or violence against Muslims is wrong. Full stop". He described the Qur'an as "rather mild in its condemnation of homosexuality".
He points out that much of his prison and asylum casework involves supporting Muslim prisoners and asylum seekers—heterosexual as well as LGBT. In 2006, he helped stop the abuse of Muslim prisoners at a Norwich jail and helped secure parole for other Muslim detainees. Half his asylum cases are, he reports, male and female Muslim refugees. Two of his highest-profile campaigns involved Muslim victims—Mohamed S, who was framed by men who first tried to kill him and then jailed him for eight years, and Sid Saeed, who brought a racism and homophobic harassment case against Deutsche Bank.
Tatchell chose Malcolm X as his specialist subject when appearing on Celebrity Mastermind, explaining that he considered him an inspiration and hero (his other inspirations are Mahatma Gandhi, Sylvia Pankhurst and Martin Luther King Jr.). However, his endorsement of Bruce Perry's biography, in an article calling for black gay role models, led to criticism. due to Perry's claim that Malcolm X had male lovers in his youth.
In February 2010, Women Against Fundamentalism defended Tatchell against allegations of Islamophobia and endorsed his right to challenge all religious fundamentalism: "WAF supports the right of Peter Tatchell and numerous other gay activists to oppose the legitimisation of fundamentalists and other right wing forces on university campuses, by the Left and by the government in its Preventing Violent Extremism strategy and numerous other programmes and platforms".
Muslim Council of Britain
Tatchell had described the Muslim Council of Britain as being "anti-gay", asking how can "they expect to win respect for their community, if at the same time as demanding action against Islamophobia, they themselves demand the legal enforcement of homophobia?". He noted that the MCB had joined forces with the "rightwing Christian Institute" to oppose every gay law reform from 1997 to 2006. In January 2006, the MCB Chairman Iqbal Sacranie said that homosexuals are immoral, harmful and diseased on BBC Radio 4.
Tatchell argued that "Both the Muslim and gay communities suffer prejudice and discrimination. We should stand together to fight Islamophobia and homophobia". Tatchell subsequently criticised Unite Against Fascism for inviting Sacranie to share its platforms, describing him as a "homophobic hate-mongerer."
When the MCB boycotted Holocaust Memorial Day, partly because it was "not sufficiently inclusive", Tatchell wrote that "the only thing that is consistent about the MCB is its opposition to the human rights of lesbians and gay men".
Muslims and gay rights
In 2006, Tatchell wrote an opinion column in The Guardian arguing that Muslims deliberately conflate offence with violence, in an effort to suppress Muslim reformers in Britain. He argued that Islamist groups like Hizb ut-Tahrir in Britain see "any criticism of Islam is an insult and that all such insults are unacceptable" in order to suppress the "free exchange of ideas". The Muslim gay rights organisation IMAAN criticised Tatchell, saying, "OutRage! doesn't understand our cultural and religious sensitivities. Often, the way they word and phrase their press releases can and does antagonise Muslims. Much as we’ve invited them to meetings so we can talk about the best way to tackle Muslim LGBT issues, they insist on doing things their way."
In the book "Out of Place: Interrogating Silences in Queerness/Raciality", in a chapter called "Gay Imperialism: Gender and Sexuality Discourse in the 'War on Terror'", Jin Haritaworn, Tamsila Tauqir and Esra Erdem wrote, "rather than help, politics such as Tatchell's have worsened the situation for the majority of queer Muslims. It has become increasingly difficult for groups such as the Safra Project, who are forced into the frontline of the artificially constructed gay v. Muslim divide, to contest sexual oppression in Muslim communities. The more homophobia is constructed as belonging to Islam, the more anti-homophobic talk will be viewed as a white, even racist, phenomenon, and the harder it will be to increase tolerance and understanding among straight Muslims [...] The dialogue which Safra and other queer Muslim groups have long sought over this is more often than not ignored or disregarded, and white gay activists such as Tatchell have proved indifferent to the fact that the mud which they sling onto Muslim communities lands on queer Muslims themselves."
Despite previously attending a "rally for free expression", where the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons were celebrated, Tatchell sued the small publisher Raw Nerve Books, who issued an apology, and replaced links to the book on their site with that apology, but were later forced to shut down. The Monthly Review described this as censorship, adding, "the violent suppression of "Gay Imperialism" and the book in which it appeared also works as a warning to the authors, editors, and other critics and potential critics of Tatchell to better keep their mouths shut."
Yusuf al-Qaradawi
In July 2004, then-Mayor of London Ken Livingstone invited Yusuf al-Qaradawi to attend a talk called "A woman's right to choose" about the wearing of the hijab. Livingstone had read positive coverage of Qaradawi in The Guardian and The Sun.
In October 2004, 2,500 Muslim academics from 23 countries condemned Qaradawi, and accused him of giving "Islam a bad name and foster[ing] hatred among civilizations" and "providing a religious cover for terrorism".
Tatchell argued that Qaradawi expresses liberal positions to deceive the Western press and politicians, while being "rightwing, misogynist, anti-semitic and homophobic", using his books and fatwas to advocate female genital mutilation, blame for rape victims who dress immodestly, and the execution of apostates, homosexuals, and women who have sex outside marriage.
Livingstone issued a 2005 dossier praising Qaradawi as a moderate, based on positive press coverage he had received previously. Livingstone pronounced that Tatchell has "a long history of Islamophobia", and asserted that he is in a "de facto alliance with the American neo-cons and Israeli intelligence services." Tatchell strenuously denied the accusations, pointing out that he has never said any of the things that Livingstone accused him of saying. Livingstone continued to describe Qaradawi as "one of the leading progressive voices in the Muslim world" in 2010, after having been denied entry to the UK for his extremist views.
Two years after condemning Tatchell, Livingstone stated he "probably shouldn't" have called Tatchell an "Islamophobe".
Adam Yosef
In December 2005, Respect Party activist Adam Yosef came under criticism for an article in Desi Xpress opposing registered civil partnerships. He asserted that Tatchell needed "a good slap in the face" and his "queer campaign army" should "pack their bent bags and head back to Australia". Desi Xpress staff expressed regret to Tatchell and gave him a right of reply, while Yosef apologised and retracted his article, claiming the "slap in the face" remark was a "figure of speech" and the remark about Australia was not racist. Yosef later backed Tatchell's 2009 election campaign.
Secondary issues
Environmental issues
For over 20 years, Tatchell has written and campaigned about environmental problems including global warming and resource depletion, pointing out that they often have a disproportionately negative impact on developing countries. In the late 1980s, he was co-organiser of the Green and Socialist Conferences, which sought to ally reds and greens. He championed energy conservation and renewable energy; in particular tidal, wave and concentrated solar power. On 24 May 2009, he appeared on the BBC Daily Politics programme to oppose the Elephant and Castle regeneration scheme, which he said would bring few benefits to local working-class people. However, most of his campaigning continues to be in the areas of human rights and "queer emancipation".
In August 2008 Tatchell wrote about speculative theories concerning possible atmospheric oxygen depletion compared to prehistoric levels, and called for further investigation to test such claims and, if proven, their long-term consequences.
Animal rights
Tatchell is an active supporter of animal rights, saying "human rights and animal rights are two aspects of the same struggle against injustice", and that he advocates for a "claim to be spared suffering and offered inalienable rights" for both humans and animals.
Cornwall
Tatchell campaigned on the issue of the constitutional status of Cornwall. In November 2008, The Guardian carried an article by him entitled Self-rule for Cornwall, in which he said:
This article received the largest number of comments to any Guardian article, according to This is Cornwall. Over 1,500 comments were made, and while some comments were supportive, Tatchell found himself "shocked and disgusted" by the anti-Cornish sentiment shown by many commenters.
Columnist and other pursuits
Tatchell has written numerous articles in newspapers and magazines related to his various campaigns. He was highly critical of the media coverage of the Admiral Duncan pub bombing, claiming than the homophobic attitudes of news outlets had helped fuel the attack, and that the press concerned themselves almost exclusively with the one heterosexual victim, rather than the two other deaths and the dozens of maimed patrons, saying that:
In 1987 Tatchell appeared on the second programme of the first series of After Dark, a discussion on press ethics with, among others, Tony Blackburn, Victoria Gillick, Johnny Edgecombe and a Private Eye journalist.
On 5 August 1995 Tatchell was interviewed at length by Andrew Neil on his one-on-one interview show Is This Your Life?, made by Open Media for Channel 4.
, he has been an Ambassador for the penal reform group, Make Justice Work.
In 2011, he became the Director of the Peter Tatchell Foundation.
Tatchell is a patron of Humanists UK, an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society and a committed secularist, saying, "As an atheist, secularist and humanist I believe that reason, science and ethics – not religious superstition – are the best way to understand the world and promote human rights and welfare."
He contributes to The Jeremy Vine Show on BBC Radio 2.
Awards
In 2006, New Statesman readers voted him sixth on their list of "Heroes of our time".
In 2009, he racked up multiple awards. He was named Campaigner of the Year in The Observer Ethical Awards, London Citizen of Sanctuary Award, Shaheed Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti Award (for reporting the Balochistan national liberation struggle), Evening Standard 1000 Most Influential Londoners (winning again in 2011), Liberal Voice of the Year and a Blue Plaque in recognition of his more than 40 years of human rights campaigning.
In 2010 he won Total Politics Top 50 Political Influencers. A diary journalist reported rumours that he had been recommended for the award of a life peerage in the British New Year Honours. He was said to have turned it down.
In 2012, the National Secular Society awarded Tatchell Secularist of the Year, in recognition of his lifelong commitment to the defence of human rights against religious fundamentalism.
On 21 September 2012, he was awarded a Lifetime Achievement award at the UK's first National Diversity Awards. Alongside Misha B, Jody Cundy, Peter Norfolk and others he was a patron for 2013 National Diversity Awards.
In January 2014, Tatchell was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Laws by De Montfort University.
Legacy
The Peter Tatchell Papers are held at the London School of Economics in the Hall Carpenter Archive. Supplementary papers are housed at the British Library. The papers can be accessed through the British Library catalogue.
Peter Tatchell Foundation
The Peter Tatchell Foundation (PTF) is a non-profit, nonpartisan organisation based in the United Kingdom which "seeks to promote and protect the human rights of individuals, communities and nations, in the UK and internationally, in accordance with established national and international human rights law" and its stated aims and objectives are "to raise awareness, understanding, protection and implementation of human rights, in the UK and worldwide". Tatchell started the Foundation as a company in 2011, which gained charitable status in 2018. The organisation was named after Tatchell to honour his 50+ years of globally campaigning for human rights. The charity's celebrity patrons include Sir Ian McKellen and Paul O'Grady.
The organisation works with a variety of human rights issues globally, such as homophobia, transphobia, sexism, gender inequality, racism, political freedom, censorship, religious discrimination, unjust detention, freedom of association, capital punishment, asylum and refugees, trade union rights, self-determination of oppressed peoples, torture, genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and poverty.
In 2012 the foundation gained funding from The Funding Network for three projects: "Casework & Advice", including adding an "Advice" section to its website; "Equal Love", campaigning on same-sex marriage and opposite-sex civil partnerships; and "Olympic Equality Initiative", working against sexism and homophobia in the Olympic movement.
Bibliography
See also
Capital Gay
Hall–Carpenter Archives
LGBT Network
List of LGBT rights activists
List of peace activists
References
Sources
External links
Peter Tatchell Foundation
Contributor page at The Guardian
Interview with The Third Estate.
Archived WAF statement on Tatchell
Catalogue of the Tatchell papers held at LSE Archives
1952 births
Living people
Activists from Melbourne
HIV/AIDS activists
Alumni of the University of North London
Anti–Vietnam War activists
Australian atheists
Australian human rights activists
Australian emigrants to England
Australian socialists
British atheists
British social commentators
British humanists
British human rights activists
British republicans
British secularists
Critics of the Catholic Church
British socialists
Gay politicians
Green Party of England and Wales parliamentary candidates
Labour Party (UK) parliamentary candidates
LGBT politicians from Australia
LGBT rights activists from Australia
Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom
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"\"What Did I Do to You?\" is a song recorded by British singer Lisa Stansfield for her 1989 album, Affection. It was written by Stansfield, Ian Devaney and Andy Morris, and produced by Devaney and Morris. The song was released as the fourth European single on 30 April 1990. It included three previously unreleased songs written by Stansfield, Devaney and Morris: \"My Apple Heart,\" \"Lay Me Down\" and \"Something's Happenin'.\" \"What Did I Do to You?\" was remixed by Mark Saunders and by the Grammy Award-winning American house music DJ and producer, David Morales. The single became a top forty hit in the European countries reaching number eighteen in Finland, number twenty in Ireland and number twenty-five in the United Kingdom. \"What Did I Do to You?\" was also released in Japan.\n\nIn 2014, the remixes of \"What Did I Do to You?\" were included on the deluxe 2CD + DVD re-release of Affection and on People Hold On ... The Remix Anthology. They were also featured on The Collection 1989–2003 box set (2014), including previously unreleased Red Zone Mix by David Morales.\n\nCritical reception\nThe song received positive reviews from music critics. Matthew Hocter from Albumism viewed it as a \"upbeat offering\". David Giles from Music Week said it is \"beautifully performed\" by Stansfield. A reviewer from Reading Eagle wrote that \"What Did I Do to You?\" \"would be right at home on the \"Saturday Night Fever\" soundtrack.\"\n\nMusic video\nA music video was produced to promote the single, directed by Philip Richardson, who had previously directed the videos for \"All Around the World\" and \"Live Together\". It features Stansfield with her kiss curls, dressed in a white outfit and performing with her band on a stage in front of a jumping audience. The video was later published on Stansfield's official YouTube channel in November 2009. It has amassed more than 1,6 million views as of October 2021.\n\nTrack listings\n\n European/UK 7\" single\n\"What Did I Do to You?\" (Mark Saunders Remix Edit) – 4:20\n\"Something's Happenin'\" – 3:59\n\n European/UK/Japanese CD single\n\"What Did I Do to You?\" (Mark Saunders Remix Edit) – 4:20\n\"My Apple Heart\" – 5:19\n\"Lay Me Down\" – 4:17\n\"Something's Happenin'\" – 3:59\n\n UK 10\" single\n\"What Did I Do to You?\" (Mark Saunders Remix) – 5:52\n\"My Apple Heart\" – 5:19\n\"Lay Me Down\" – 4:17\n\"Something's Happenin'\" – 3:59\n\n European/UK 12\" single\n\"What Did I Do to You?\" (Morales Mix) – 7:59\n\"My Apple Heart\" – 4:22\n\"Lay Me Down\" – 3:19\n\"Something's Happenin'\" – 3:15\n\n UK 12\" promotional single\n\"What Did I Do to You?\" (Morales Mix) – 7:59\n\"What Did I Do to You?\" (Anti Poll Tax Dub) – 6:31\n\n Other remixes\n\"What Did I Do to You?\" (Red Zone Mix) – 7:45\n\nCharts\n\nReferences\n\nLisa Stansfield songs\n1990 singles\nSongs written by Lisa Stansfield\n1989 songs\nArista Records singles\nSongs written by Ian Devaney\nSongs written by Andy Morris (musician)",
"Follow Me! is a series of television programmes produced by Bayerischer Rundfunk and the BBC in the late 1970s to provide a crash course in the English language. It became popular in many overseas countries as a first introduction to English; in 1983, one hundred million people watched the show in China alone, featuring Kathy Flower.\n\nThe British actor Francis Matthews hosted and narrated the series.\n\nThe course consists of sixty lessons. Each lesson lasts from 12 to 15 minutes and covers a specific lexis. The lessons follow a consistent group of actors, with the relationships between their characters developing during the course.\n\nFollow Me! actors\n Francis Matthews\n Raymond Mason\n David Savile\n Ian Bamforth\n Keith Alexander\n Diane Mercer\n Jane Argyle\n Diana King\n Veronica Leigh\n Elaine Wells\n Danielle Cohn\n Lashawnda Bell\n\nEpisodes \n \"What's your name\"\n \"How are you\"\n \"Can you help me\"\n \"Left, right, straight ahead\"\n \"Where are they\"\n \"What's the time\"\n \"What's this What's that\"\n \"I like it very much\"\n \"Have you got any wine\"\n \"What are they doing\"\n \"Can I have your name, please\"\n \"What does she look like\"\n \"No smoking\"\n \"It's on the first floor\"\n \"Where's he gone\"\n \"Going away\"\n \"Buying things\"\n \"Why do you like it\"\n \"What do you need\"\n \"I sometimes work late\"\n \"Welcome to Britain\"\n \"Who's that\"\n \"What would you like to do\"\n \"How can I get there?\"\n \"Where is it\"\n \"What's the date\"\n \"Whose is it\"\n \"I enjoy it\"\n \"How many and how much\"\n \"What have you done\"\n \"Haven't we met before\"\n \"What did you say\"\n \"Please stop\"\n \"How can I get to Brightly\"\n \"Where can I get it\"\n \"There's a concert on Wednesday\"\n \"What's it like\"\n \"What do you think of him\"\n \"I need someone\"\n \"What were you doing\"\n \"What do you do\"\n \"What do you know about him\"\n \"You shouldn't do that\"\n \"I hope you enjoy your holiday\"\n \"Where can I see a football match\"\n \"When will it be ready\"\n \"Where did you go\"\n \"I think it's awful\"\n \"A room with a view\"\n \"You'll be ill\"\n \"I don't believe in strikes\"\n \"They look tired\"\n \"Would you like to\"\n \"Holiday plans\"\n \"The second shelf on the left\"\n \"When you are ready\"\n \"Tell them about Britain\"\n \"I liked everything\"\n \"Classical or modern\"\n \"Finale\"\n\nReferences \n\n BBC article about the series in China\n\nExternal links \n Follow Me – Beginner level \n Follow Me – Elementary level\n Follow Me – Intermediate level\n Follow Me – Advanced level\n\nAdult education television series\nEnglish-language education television programming"
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"During this time Tatchell was prominent in organising sit-ins at pubs that refused to serve \"poofs\" and protests against police harassment"
]
| C_acbda4b802ac4f2b87c8606e402bada5_1 | What other events did he participate in? | 3 | Other than organising sit-ins at pubs that refused to serve "poofs" and protests against police harassment, what other events did Peter Tatchell participate in? | Peter Tatchell | To avoid conscription into the Australian Army, Tatchell moved to London in 1971. He had accepted being gay in 1969, and in London became a leading member of the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) until its 1974 collapse. During this time Tatchell was prominent in organising sit-ins at pubs that refused to serve "poofs" and protests against police harassment and the medical classification of homosexuality as an illness. With others he helped organise Britain's first Gay Pride march in 1972. In 1973, he attended the 10th World Youth Festival in East Berlin on GLF's behalf. His actions triggered opposition within and between different groups of national delegates including the Communist Party of Great Britain and National Union of Students. He was banned from conferences, had his leaflets confiscated and burned, was interrogated by the secret police (the Stasi) and threatened and assaulted by other delegates, mostly communists. Tatchell later claimed that this was the first time gay liberation politics were publicly disseminated and discussed in a communist country, although he noted that, in terms of decriminalisation and the age of consent, gay men had greater rights in East Germany at the time than in Britain and much of the West. Describing his time in the Gay Liberation Front, he wrote in The Guardian that: [The] GLF was a glorious, enthusiastic and often chaotic mix of anarchists, hippies, leftwingers, feminists, liberals and counter-culturalists. Despite our differences, we shared a radical idealism - a dream of what the world could and should be - free from not just homophobia but the whole sex-shame culture, which oppressed straights as much as LGBTs. We were sexual liberationists and social revolutionaries, out to turn the world upside down. [...] GLF's main aim was never equality within the status quo. [...] GLF's strategy for queer emancipation was to change society's values and norms, rather than adapt to them. We sought a cultural revolution to overturn centuries of male heterosexual domination and thereby free both queers and women. [...] Forty years on, GLF's gender agenda has been partly won. [...] Girlish boys and boyish girls don't get victimised as much as in times past. LGBT kids often now come out at the age of 12 or 14. While many are bullied, many others are not. The acceptance of sexual and gender diversity is increasing. CANNOTANSWER | With others he helped organise Britain's first Gay Pride march in 1972. | Peter Gary Tatchell (born 25 January 1952) is a British human rights campaigner, originally from Australia, best known for his work with LGBT social movements.
Tatchell was selected as the Labour Party's parliamentary candidate for Bermondsey in 1981. He was then denounced by party leader Michael Foot for ostensibly supporting extra-parliamentary action against the Thatcher government. Labour subsequently allowed him to stand in the Bermondsey by-election in February 1983, in which the party lost the seat to the Liberals. In the 1990s he campaigned for LGBT rights through the direct action group OutRage!, which he co-founded. He has worked on various campaigns, such as Stop Murder Music against music lyrics allegedly inciting violence against LGBT people and writes and broadcasts on various human rights and social justice issues. He attempted a citizen's arrest of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe in 1999 and again in 2001.
In April 2004, he joined the Green Party of England and Wales and in 2007 was selected as prospective parliamentary candidate in the constituency of Oxford East, but in December 2009 he stood down due to brain damage he says was caused by a bus accident as well as damage sustained during various protests. Since 2011, he has been the Director of the Peter Tatchell Foundation.
Early life
Tatchell was born in Melbourne, Australia. His father was a lathe operator and his mother worked in a biscuit factory. His parents divorced when he was four and his mother remarried soon afterwards.
Since the family finances were strained by medical bills, he had to leave school at 16 in 1968. He started work as a sign-writer and window-dresser in department stores. Tatchell claims to have incorporated the theatricality of these displays into his activism.
Raised as a Christian, Tatchell says that he "ditched [his] faith a long time ago" and is an atheist. It is widely reported that Tatchell is a vegan; however, Tatchell himself only states that he eats no meat, but does eat eggs, cheese, and, according to Richard Fairbrass, wild salmon, meaning Tatchell is a pescatarian.
He became interested in outdoor adventurous activities such as surfing and mountain climbing. Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Any Questions about how insurance and legal risks were making British teachers reluctant to take pupils on outdoor adventures, he said outdoor activities helped him develop the courage to take political risks in adult life.
Campaigns in Australia
Tatchell's political activity began at Mount Waverley Secondary College, where in 1967 he launched campaigns in support of Australia's Aboriginal people. Tatchell was elected secretary of the school's Student Representative Council. In his final year in 1968, as school captain, he took the lead in setting up a scholarship scheme for Aboriginal people and led a campaign for Aboriginal land rights. These activities led the headmaster to claim he had been manipulated by communists.
Prompted by the impending hanging of Ronald Ryan in 1967, Tatchell went round his local area painting slogans against the hanging, a fact he did not reveal until nearly 30 years later. Ryan was accused of killing a prison warder while escaping from Pentridge Prison in Coburg, Victoria. Tatchell claimed, unsuccessfully, that the trajectory of the bullet through the warder's body probably made it impossible that Ryan could have fired the fatal shot.
In 1968, Tatchell began campaigning against the American and Australian involvement in the Vietnam War, in his view a war of aggression in support of a "brutal and corrupt dictatorship" responsible for torture and executions. The Victoria state government and Melbourne city council attempted to suppress the anti-Vietnam War campaign by banning street leafleting and taking police action against anti-war demonstrations.
In 2004, he proposed the renaming of Australian capital cities with their Aboriginal place names.
Gay Liberation Front
To avoid conscription into the Australian Army, Tatchell moved to London in 1971. He had opened up about being gay in 1969, and in London became a leading member of the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) until its 1974 collapse. During this time Tatchell was prominent in organising sit-ins at pubs that refused to serve "poofs" and protests against police harassment and the medical classification of homosexuality as an illness. With others he helped organise Britain's first Gay Pride march in 1972.
In 1973, he attended the 10th World Youth Festival in East Berlin on GLF's behalf. His plans to protest at the festival were not well received by either the British delegation or the GDR hosts, however he was eventually allowed to give a speech at Humboldt University. His lecture was subject to various disruptions, it ended in his denunciation as a "troublemaker" by a member of the audience. The following day, Tatchell attempted to hand out leaflets at a concert, an official of the Free German Youth objected and encouraged fellow concert-goers to destroy the leaflets. Tatchell intended to carry a placard advocating gay rights at the closing rally of the festival, the British delegation incorrectly translated the placard to read "East Germany persecutes homosexuals", this was put to a vote and the majority decided the placard was not acceptable. Yet, in defiance of the collective decision, Tatchell carried the placard anyway and was then beaten. The placard was torn in half.
Tatchell later claimed that this was the first time gay liberation politics were publicly disseminated and discussed in a communist country, although he noted that, in terms of decriminalisation and the age of consent, gay men had greater rights in East Germany at the time than much of the West.
Describing his time in the Gay Liberation Front, he wrote in The Guardian that:
Tatchell collaborated with public artist Martin Firrell to mark the 50th anniversary of the GLF in 2020. The artist's Still Revolting series drew on Tatchell's personal recollections of the GLF, quoting Tatchell's 1973 placard 'Homosexuals Are Revolting' created by Tatchell for London Gay Pride. The artist's addition of the word 'still' reflects the truth that homosexuality is still regarded as intolerable by some and many LGBT+ people around the world are still struggling for acceptance, security and equality.
Graduation
After taking A levels at evening classes, he attended the Polytechnic of North London (PNL), now part of London Metropolitan University, where he obtained a 2:1 BSc (Hons) in sociology.
At PNL he was a member of the National Union of Students Gay Rights Campaign. On graduating he became a freelance journalist specialising in foreign stories, during which he publicised the Indonesian annexation of West Papua and child labour on British-owned tea farms in Malawi.
Political activity
Tatchell popularised the phrase "sexual apartheid" to describe the separate laws that long existed for gays and heterosexuals.
Labour candidate for Bermondsey
In 1978, Tatchell joined the Labour Party and moved to a council flat in Bermondsey, south-east London. At the Bermondsey Constituency Labour Party's (CLP) AGM in February 1980, the left group won control and Tatchell was elected Secretary. When the sitting Labour Member of Parliament (MP), Bob Mellish, retired in 1981, Tatchell was selected as his successor, despite Arthur Latham, a former MP and former Chairman of the Tribune Group, being considered the favourite. While Militant was cited as the reason for Tatchell's selection, Tatchell disagrees and ascribes his selection to the support of the "older, 'born and bred' working class; the younger professional and intellectual members swung behind Latham".
In an article for a left-wing magazine, Tatchell urged the Labour Party to support direct action campaigning to challenge the Margaret Thatcher-led Tory government, stating "we must look to new more militant forms of extra-parliamentary opposition which involve mass popular participation and challenge the government's right to rule". Social Democratic Party MP James Wellbeloved, arguing the article was anti-Parliamentary, quoted it at Prime Minister's Questions in November 1981. Foot denounced Tatchell, stating that he would not be endorsed as a candidate and a vote at the Labour Party National Executive Committee denied Tatchell's endorsement. However, the Bermondsey Labour Party continued to support him and it was eventually agreed that when the selection was rerun, Tatchell would be eligible, and he duly won. When Mellish resigned from Parliament and triggered a by-election, Tatchell's candidacy was endorsed, and the ensuing campaign was regarded as one of the most homophobic in modern British history.
Tatchell was assaulted in the street, had his flat attacked, and had a death threat and a live bullet put through his letterbox in the night. Although the Bermondsey seat had long been a Labour stronghold, the Liberal candidate, Simon Hughes, won the election. During the campaign, Liberal canvassers were accused of stirring up homophobia on the doorsteps. Male Liberal workers campaigned wearing lapel badges with the words, "I've been kissed by Peter Tatchell" following the suggestion that he was attempting to hide his sexuality; this campaign was criticised by Roy Hattersley at a Labour news conference. One of Hughes' campaign leaflets claimed the election was "a straight choice" between Liberal and Labour. Hughes has since apologised for what may have been seen as an inadvertent slur and later came out as bisexual in 2006.
Democratic Defence
Tatchell published the book Democratic Defence in 1985. In it, he outlined his suggestions for a defence policy for the United Kingdom after it underwent nuclear disarmament. Tatchell argued that the British military was still organised on an imperialist strategy of basing troops abroad rather than on a strategy of defending Britain itself against foreign attacks.
Citing the difficulties that the British army was facing in Northern Ireland, he argued that their current methods had proven ineffective against guerrilla warfare, along with arguing for troops to be allowed to join trade unions and political parties, and to end strict adherence to "petty regulations". He praised the Second World War-era British Home Guard as an example of a "citizens' army", as well as the armed forces of Sweden, Switzerland and Yugoslavia as positive examples.
In the book, Tatchell also argued for a British withdrawal from NATO and for the establishment of a European Self-Defence Organisation, independent of both the United States, whom he felt that Europe had become too dependent on their military protection, and the Soviet Union, which he condemned for their invasions of Czechoslovakia and of Afghanistan, as well its internal repression. He quoted with approval Enoch Powell's argument that the threat from the Soviet Union to the UK was exaggerated.
The book was reviewed by the Times Literary Supplement in May 1985.
Green issues
In February 2000 Tatchell resigned from Labour, citing the treatment of Ken Livingstone during the nomination of a candidate for Mayor of London, and of similar cases in the Scottish and Welsh elections, as evidence that the party "no longer has any mechanism for democratic involvement and transformation". He fought unsuccessfully for a seat on the London Assembly as an Independent candidate within the Green Left grouping, in support of Livingstone.
On 7 April 2004 he joined the Green Party of England and Wales but did not envisage standing for election. However, in 2007, he became the party's parliamentary candidate for Oxford East. In 16 December 2009, he withdrew as a candidate claiming brain damage he says was caused by a bus accident as well as damage inflicted by Mugabe's bodyguards when Tatchell attempted to arrest him in 2001 in Brussels, and by neo-Nazis in Moscow.
Tatchell opposes nuclear power; instead he advocates concentrated solar power.
In Tribune, he pointed out the adverse effects of climate change: "By 2050, if climate change proceeds unchecked, England will no longer be a green and pleasant land. In between periods of prolonged scorching drought, we are likely to suffer widespread flooding."
For many years, he supported a green–red alliance. More recently, he helped launch the Green Left grouping within the Green Party. He urged links between trade unions and the Greens. On 27 April 2010, he urged Green Party supporters to vote for Liberal Democrats in constituencies where they had an incumbent MP or a strong chance of winning.
In August 2021, Tatchell endorsed Tamsin Omond and Amelia Womack in the 2021 Green Party of England and Wales leadership election.
Iraq War
Tatchell opposed the war in Iraq, and its subsequent occupation. For nearly three decades he had previously supported the Iraqi Left Opposition, helping them remove the government of Saddam Hussein because of the gross violations of human rights that Hussein had committed against democrats, left-wingers, trade unionists, Shia Muslims and the Kurdish people, and because under Saddam's dictatorship there were no opportunities for peaceful, democratic change. He advocated military and financial aid to opponents of the Saddam government, suggesting that anti-Saddam organisations be given "tanks, helicopter gun-ships, fighter planes, heavy artillery and anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles". While opposing western intervention, he advocated regime change from within in countries such as Saudi Arabia, Iran and Syria.
Tatchell has written that on 12 March 2003 he ambushed Tony Blair's motorcade in an anti-Iraq war protest. He forced Blair's limousine to stop, and then unfolded a banner that read "Arm the Kurds! Topple Saddam". He added that in terms of the political struggle within Britain (as opposed to struggles against absolute tyrants like Hitler and Saddam, where violent resistance can be the lesser of two evils): "I remain committed to the Gandhian principle of non-violence". After the war he signed the 'Unite Against Terror' declaration, arguing that "the pseudo-left reveals its shameless hypocrisy and its wholesale abandonment of humanitarian values" by supporting resistance and insurgent groups in Iraq that resort to indiscriminate terrorism, killing innocent civilians.
In 2003, Tatchell said he supported giving "massive material aid" to Iraqi opposition groups, including the "Shi'ite Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq" (SCIRI), to bring down Saddam. But in 2006 Tatchell noted that SCIRI had become markedly more fundamentalist and was endorsing violent attacks on anyone who did not conform to its increasingly harsh interpretation of Islam. He claimed that SCIRI, the leading force in Baghdad's ruling coalition, wanted to establish an Iranian-style religious dictatorship, with a goal of clerical fascism, and had engaged in "terrorisation of gay Iraqis", as well as terrorising Sunni Muslims, left-wingers, unveiled women and people who listen to western pop music or wear jeans or shorts.
In September 2014, Tatchell advocated arming the Kurdistan Workers' Party to fight against ISIS, and argued that the US and EU had been wrong to designate it as a terrorist organisation.
Syrian civil war
A previous supporter of the Stop the War Coalition, Tatchell and many other public personalities expressed concern with the coalition's allegedly unduly favourable view of Bashar al-Assad's government in Syria, and has called for the Labour leader and former Stop the War Chair Jeremy Corbyn not to attend the Coalition's Christmas fundraiser 2015. In December 2016, Tatchell and others disrupted Corbyn's speech on human rights on the basis that the Labour leader had responded insufficiently to the bombing of Aleppo and urged him to condemn Russian military intervention in Syria.
Balochistan
Since 2006, he expressed concern for the Baloch people facing military operations in their homeland, Balochistan in Pakistan. From 2007 to 2009, he campaigned in defence of two UK-based Baloch Muslim human rights activists, Hyrbyair Marri and Faiz Baluch, accused of terrorism charges and tried in London. Both men were acquitted in 2009. He alleged collusion by the U.S. and British governments in regards to the suppression of the Balochs, including arms sales to Pakistan, which he says were used to bomb and attack Baloch towns and villages.
Activities in Moscow
In May 2006 Tatchell attended the first Moscow Pride Festival. He appears in the documentary Moscow Pride '06 featuring this event.
In May 2007 Tatchell returned to Moscow to support Moscow Pride and to voice his opposition to a ban on the march, staying at the flat of an American diplomat. On 27 May 2007, Tatchell and other gay rights activists were attacked. He was punched in the face and nearly knocked unconscious, while other demonstrators were beaten, kicked and assaulted. A German MP, Volker Beck, and a European Parliament deputy from Italy, Marco Cappato, were also punched before being arrested and questioned by police. Tatchell later said "I'm not deterred one iota from coming back to protest in Moscow." On his release, Tatchell made a report on the incident to the American Embassy.
On 16 May 2009, the day of the final of the Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow, Russian gay rights activists staged a protest in Moscow in defiance of the city's mayor, Yuri Luzkhov, who had long banned gay demonstrations and denounced them as "satanic". Tatchell was among 32 campaigners arrested when they shouted slogans and unfurled banners.
NUS politics
On 14 February 2015, Tatchell was one of a number of signatories to a letter criticising the trend in the British National Union of Students to apply a No Platform policy to feminists who criticised the sex industry or challenged demands made by certain groups of trans people. In particular, the letter cited the denial of a platform to Kate Smurthwaite at Goldsmith's College and to Germaine Greer at the University of Cambridge.
Tatchell received death threats after signing the letter. He later stated that he would have worded the letter differently to clarify that he supported the human rights of trans people and sex workers, but that he had signed the letter nonetheless because he believed in the message of free speech on campuses. He said that the initial draft that he signed contained the sentence "Some of us have disagreements with the views expressed [by feminist critics of trans people]", and that he was "not happy" that this was cut out of the final letter.
On 13 February 2016, Fran Cowling, the national LGBT representative for the NUS, refused to share a platform with Tatchell at Canterbury Christ Church University to discuss the topic of "re-radicalising queers". Cowling said that Tatchell supported speakers who are "openly transphobic and incite violence" against transgender people, and also that Tatchell had used "racist language". Tatchell responded that no evidence could be produced to support either claim, and that Cowling had never consulted the NUS membership before deciding to make pronouncements on their behalf, and said "This sorry, sad saga is symptomatic of the decline of free and open debate on some university campuses. There is a witch-hunting, accusatory atmosphere. Allegations are made without evidence to back them – or worse, they are made citing false, trumped-up evidence."
Campaigns
OutRage!
Tatchell took part in many gay rights campaigns over issues such as Section 28. Following the murder of actor Michael Boothe on 10 May 1990, Tatchell was one of thirty people to attend the inaugural meeting of the radical gay rights non-violent direct action group OutRage! – although he was not a co-founder – and has remained a leading member. The group fuses theatrical performance styles with queer protest. As the most prominent OutRage! member, Tatchell is sometimes assumed to be the leader of the group, though he has never claimed this, saying he is one among equals.
In 1991, a small group of OutRage! members covertly formed a separate group to engage in a campaign of outing public figures who were homophobic in public but gay in private. The group took the name FROCS (Faggots Rooting Out Closeted Sexuality). Tatchell was the group's go-between with the press, forwarding their news statements to his media contacts. Considerable publicity and public debate followed FROCS's threat to out 200 leading public personalities from the world of politics, religion, business and sport. With Tatchell's assistance, members of FROCS eventually called a press conference to tell the world that their campaign was a hoax intended to demonstrate the hypocrisy of those newspapers that had condemned the campaign despite having themselves outed celebrities and politicians.
Some OutRage! activities were highly controversial. In 1994, it unveiled placards inviting ten Church of England bishops to "tell the truth" about what Outrage! alleged was their homosexuality and accusing them of condemning homosexuality in public while leading secret gay lives. Shortly afterwards the group wrote to twenty UK MPs, condemning their alleged support for anti-gay laws and claiming they would out them if the MPs did not stop what they described as attacks on the gay community. The MP Sir James Kilfedder, one such opponent of gay equality, who had received one of the letters, died two months later of a sudden heart attack on the day one of the Belfast newspapers planned to out him. In a comment in The Independent in October 2003, Tatchell claimed the OutRage! action against the bishops was his greatest mistake because he failed to anticipate that the media and the church would treat it as an invasion of privacy.
On 12 April 1998, Tatchell led an OutRage! protest, which disrupted the Easter sermon by George Carey, the Archbishop of Canterbury, with Tatchell mounting the pulpit to denounce what he claimed was Carey's opposition to legal equality for lesbian and gay people. The protest garnered media coverage and led to Tatchell's prosecution under the little-used Ecclesiastical Courts Jurisdiction Act 1860 (formerly part of the Brawling Act 1551), which prohibits any form of disruption or protest in a church. Tatchell failed in his attempt to summon Carey as a witness and was convicted. The judge fined him the trivial sum of £18.60, which commentators theorised was a wry allusion to the year of the statute used to convict him.
The LGBT press dubbed him "Saint Peter Tatchell" following further OutRage! campaigns involving religion.
A number of African LGBTI leaders signed a statement condemning the involvement of Tatchell and OutRage! in African issues, which led Tatchell to respond that he favoured working with the radical LGBTI groups in Africa rather than the more conservative (according to him) leaders who had signed the statement. Tatchell and OutRage! published a refutation of the allegations.
OutRage!'s protest against Chief Rabbi Immanuel Jakobovits, who supported the idea of genetic engineering to eliminate homosexuality, led to accusations that Tatchell was antisemitic, following OutRage!'s leaflets citing the similarity of Jakobovits ideas for the eradication of homosexuality to those of Heinrich Himmler were distributed outside the Western and Marble Arch Synagogue on the Rosh Hashanah in September 1993.
Rabbi Dame Julia Neuberger, who had campaigned for gay rights, said "Drawing a comparison between Lord Jakobovits and Himmler is offensive, racist and [...] makes OutRage appear antisemitic". She stated that the action and leaflet would "alienate Jews who are sympathetic to gay rights".
Stop Murder Music campaign
Tatchell argues that a number of Afro-Caribbean artists produce music that glorifies murder of homosexual men, and incites violence against homosexuals. He argued that British laws against incitement to violence were not being enforced on foreign artists performing in the UK. He also organised protests outside the concerts of singers whose lyrics he says incite violence, mainly Jamaican dancehall and ragga artists who he says glorify violence toward lesbians and gay men, including murder. Tatchell's campaign began in 1992 when Buju Banton's song "Boom bye-bye" was released. He has picketed the MOBO Awards ceremony to protest at their inviting performers of what he terms "murder music".
Tatchell argues that murder is not legal in Jamaica, and glorification of murder is not a legitimate form of Afro-Caribbean culture. In response Tatchell received death threats and was labelled racist. He defended himself by noting that the campaign was at the behest of the Jamaican gay rights group J-Flag, and the UK-based Black Gay Men's Advisory Group, with which he works closely. He pointed to what he described as his life's work campaigning against racism and apartheid and stated that his campaigns against "murder music" and state-sanctioned homophobic violence in Jamaica were endorsed by black Jamaican gay rights activists such as Jamaican Forum for Lesbians, All-Sexuals and Gays (J-FLAG), and by many straight human rights activists in Jamaica (male homosexuality remains illegal in Jamaica). The campaign has had positive effects with seven of eight original murder music singers signing the Reggae Compassion Act, which says that signatories will not "make statements or perform songs" that incite hatred or violence.
Members of the Rastafari movement accused Tatchell of racism and extremism, saying, "He has gone over way over the top. It's simply racist to put Hitler and Sizzla in the same bracket and just shows how far he is prepared to go." Tatchell denies equating Sizzla with Hitler.
Age of consent laws and Paedophile Information Exchange
In 1996, Tatchell led an OutRage! campaign to reduce the age of consent in the UK to 14 years, to adjust for studies that showed nearly half of all young people had their first sexual experiences prior to 16 years old, regardless of sexuality. He stated that he wished to exempt these people from being "treated as criminals by the law," and that the campaign claimed there should be no prosecution if the difference in ages of the sexual partners was no more than three years, provided that these youths are given a more comprehensive sex education at a younger date.
He was quoted in the OutRage!'s press release as saying "Young people have a right to accept or reject sex, according to what they feel is appropriate for them".
Tatchell has since reiterated that he does not condone adults having sex with children. On his personal website, under the subsection Age of Consent, he writes:
On 10 March 2008, in the Irish Independent, he repeated his call for a lower age of consent to end the criminalisation of young people engaged in consenting sex and to remove the legal obstacles to upfront sex education, condom provision and safer sex advice. In 1998 and 2008, he supported relaxation of the then strict laws against pornography, arguing that pornography can have some social benefits, and he has criticised what he calls the body-shame phobia against nudism, suggesting that nudity may be natural and healthy for society.
In 2006, he opposed the appointment of Ruth Kelly as Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government as Kelly had not supported equal treatment of lesbians and gay men in any parliamentary votes. Tatchell said "her appointment suggests the government does not take lesbian and gay rights seriously", adding "Tony Blair would never appoint someone to a race-equality post who had a lukewarm record of opposing racism".
Paedophile Information Exchange
Tatchell has written an obituary in The Independent for Paedophile Information Exchange founder Ian Dunn, as well as an essay for a pro-paedophile activist and Paedophile Information Exchange member Warren Middleton in the book "Betrayal of Youth (BOY)". The actor and activist, John Connors described Tatchell as a "paedophile apologist" and other critics (such as the British National Party) have suggested that he is personally pro-paedophile, which he strongly denies – stating that:
In July 2021, in an article by Hayley Dixon, Melanie Newman and Julie Bindel for the Daily Telegraph, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/07/27/peter-tatchell-children-have-sexual-desires-early-age/ it emerged that a positive review attributed to Peter Tatchell of the same pro-paedophila book - Betrayal of Youth: Radical Perspectives on Childhood Sexuality, Intergenerational Sex and the Social Oppression of Children and Young People - appeared in the June 1987 edition of 7 Days, the newsletter of the Communist Party of Great Britain.
He also comments on an interview he conducted in the late 1990s on the subject of paedophilia and child prostitution, in which he interviewed a 14-year-old boy (under the pseudonym "Lee") who had had sex with older men, in some cases for money. In this interview, Tatchell makes various counterarguments against Lee's point of view, such as: "How can a young child understand sex and give meaningful consent?", "Perhaps your friends were particularly mature for their age. Most young people are not so sophisticated about sex", "Many people worry that the power imbalance in a relationship between a youth and an adult means the younger person can be easily manipulated and exploited", "Many people fear that making sex easier for under-age teenagers will expose them to dangers like HIV. Isn't that a legitimate worry?".
In 1997 Tatchell wrote a letter to The Guardian, defending an academic book about "boy-love", calling the work "courageous", before writing:
On Tatchell's personal website he clarifies,
My Guardian letter cited examples of youths in Papuan tribes and some of my friends who, when they were under 16, had sex with adults (over 18s), but who do not feel they were harmed. I was not endorsing their viewpoint but merely stating that they had a different perspective from the mainstream opinion about inter-generational sex. They have every right for their perspective to be heard."
Following the publication of a photo of Tatchell alongside the Irish Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Roderic O'Gorman, on Twitter, at a Pride event, O'Gorman issued a statement outlining that the apparent views in Tatchell's letter - written 23 years ago, when O'Gorman was just 15 - were "abhorrent" to him, and his appreciation that Tatchell clarified his own position.
Civil partnerships
Tatchell has pledged his support for opposite-sex couples to be allowed to have civil partnerships, stating that some opposite-sex couples dislike the "sexist, homophobic history of [the institution of] marriage", and allowing them into civil partnerships "is simply a matter of equality".
Writing for PinkNews, he said:
Foreign politics
Imperialism
While still at school, Tatchell campaigned in favour of better treatment of, and full human rights for, Aboriginal Australians. He has opined that Australian cities should be renamed with their original Aboriginal place names. For example, he wants the Tasmanian capital Hobart to be renamed Nibberluna, arguing that this would be a fitting tribute to Australia's Aboriginal heritage, which he claims has been discarded and disrespected for too long.
Tatchell participated in the mass Vietnam Moratorium protests in Melbourne in 1970. The same year, Tatchell founded and was elected secretary of the inter-denominational anti-war movement, Christians for Peace. Later, upon moving to London in 1971, he was active in solidarity work with the independence movements in Mozambique, and Guinea-Bissau.
In 2002, he brought an unsuccessful legal action in Bow Street Magistrate's Court for the arrest of the former U.S. Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, on charges of war crimes in Vietnam and Cambodia.
Zimbabwe
Part of Tatchell's political activism and journalism in the 1970s involved the Rhodesian Bush War, in which he supported the black nationalist movement, including the Zimbabwe African National Union and its military wing. Mugabe's denunciation of male homosexuality in 1995 led Tatchell to help organise a protest for LGBT rights in Zimbabwe outside the Zimbabwe High Commission in London.
Two years later, he passed through police security disguised as a TV cameraman to quiz Mugabe during the "Africa at 40" conference at Methodist Central Hall, Westminster. Mugabe told him that allegations of human rights abuses were grossly exaggerated; he became agitated when Tatchell told him that he was gay. Mugabe's minders summoned Special Branch guards, who ejected Tatchell. On 26 October 1997 a letter from Tatchell to The Observer argued that the United Kingdom should suspend aid to Zimbabwe because of its violence against LGBT people.
Tatchell researched the Gukurahundi attacks in Matabeleland in the 1980s, when the Zimbabwean Fifth Brigade attacked supporters of the Zimbabwe African Peoples Union. He became convinced that Mugabe had broken international human rights law during the attack, which is estimated to have involved the massacre of around 20,000 civilians. Then in 1999, journalists Mark Chavunduka and Ray Choto were tortured by the Zimbabwe Army. The arrest of Augusto Pinochet in London seemed to him a precedent that human rights violations could be pursued against a head of state, thanks to the principle of universal jurisdiction. On 30 October 1999 Tatchell and three other OutRage! activists approached Mugabe's car in a London street and attempted to perform a citizen's arrest. Tatchell opened the car door and grabbed Mugabe. He then called the police. The four OutRage! activists were arrested, on charges including criminal damage, assault and breach of the peace; charges were dropped on the opening day of their trial. Mugabe responded by describing Tatchell and his OutRage! colleagues as "gay gangsters", a slogan frequently repeated by his supporters, and claimed they had been sent by the United Kingdom government.
On 5 March 2001, when Mugabe visited Brussels, Tatchell again attacked him. Mugabe's bodyguards were seen knocking him to the floor. Later that day, Tatchell was briefly knocked unconscious by Mugabe's bodyguards and was left with permanent damage to his right eye. The protest drew worldwide headlines, as Mugabe was highly unpopular in the Western world for his land redistribution policy. Tatchell's actions were praised by Zimbabwean activists and many of the newspapers that had previously denounced him.
Tatchell ultimately failed in his attempt to secure an international arrest warrant against Mugabe on torture charges. The magistrate argued that Mugabe had immunity from prosecution as a serving head of state.
In late 2003, Tatchell acted as a press spokesman for the launch of the Zimbabwe Freedom Movement (ZFM), which claimed to be a clandestine group within Zimbabwe committed to overthrowing the Mugabe government by force. The civic action support group Sokwanele urged Tatchell to check his sources, speculating that it might have been by the Zimbabwe government to justify violent action. This speculation proved to be unfounded. The Mugabe regime dismissed the ZFM as a hoax. However, two Central Intelligence Organization members were spotted and turned away from the ZFM launch, as shown in the film "Peter Tatchell: Just who does he think he is?" by Max Barber.
South Africa
Following a protest against the ANC, Tatchell described himself as a long-time anti-apartheid activist, in an essay for the book 'sex and politics in South Africa', he claimed that his lobbying of the ANC in 1987 contributed to it renouncing homophobia and making its first public commitment to lesbian and gay human rights and that in 1989 and 1990, he helped persuade the ANC to include a ban on anti-gay discrimination in the post-apartheid constitution (claiming he assisted in drafting model clauses for the ANC)
After Tatchell was named as one of the UK's most "hate filled bigots" in the 'Desi Express' newspaper, Aaron Saeed, Muslim Affairs spokesperson for the gay human rights group OutRage!, claimed that Tatchell was involved in the anti-apartheid movement for over 20 years.
Gaza and the West Bank
In May 2004, he and a dozen other lesbians and gay men from OutRage! and the Queer Youth Alliance joined a London demonstration organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign. Their placards read "Israel: stop persecuting Palestine! Palestine: stop persecuting queers!". Tatchell claims that others present accused him of being a Mossad agent sent to disrupt the march, of being a racist or a Zionist, a supporter of Ariel Sharon or an agent of the Central Intelligence Agency or MI5. Tatchell has written a number of articles in The Guardian on the issue.
2008 Olympics
In April 2008, Tatchell attempted to disrupt the procession of the Olympic torch though London. As a protest against China's human rights record he stood in front of the bus carrying the torch along Oxford Street while carrying a placard calling on Beijing to "Free Tibet, Free Hu Jia" (the name of a recently jailed human rights activist). Tatchell was taken away by police but was not charged. In an interview Tatchell called on the world to boycott the opening ceremony of the Olympics, or to take other visible action.
Iran
Tatchell is a critic of Iran's criminal code, which has parts based on sharia and prescribes punishments for zina offenses, including consensual sexual relations between same-sex partners.
In 2005, Iran executed two teenagers, Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni, aged 16 and 18, accused of raping a 13-year-old boy at knifepoint. Tatchell argued that Iran has a history of arresting political activists on false charges and extracting false confessions from death penalty convicts, and declared that he believed the original crime was consensual sex between the two, which is illegal in Iran. Tatchell reiterated his long-standing view that Iran is an "Islamo-fascist state". He argued that information from Iranian exile groups with contacts inside Iran was that the teenagers were a secret gay party before they were arrested.
International human rights groups Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch preferred campaigners to focus on Iran violating the Convention on the Rights of the Child (which forbids the execution of juveniles) rather than the weak allegation of consensual sex.
Faisal Alam, founder of American Gay Muslim group Al-Fatiha, argued in the magazine Queer that Iran was condemned before the facts were certain.
Russia
Tatchell has written articles condemning the Russian LGBT propaganda law. In 2014 Tatchell protested Valery Gergiev's support for Vladimir Putin.
Tatchell protested the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi over the gay rights stance of Russia, comparing the event to the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.
Tatchell was arrested at the Moscow Pride parade in 2011 amid a spate of anti-gay violence by neo-Nazis.
In February 2007, the Mayor of Moscow, Yury Luzhkov, visited London mayor Ken Livingstone for an annual meeting that also involved the Mayors of Berlin and Paris, with the mayor of Beijing present as well. Nikolay Alexeyev, one of the organizers of the Moscow gay pride parade, joined Tatchell in protesting the visit. A notice of the protest quoted Talgat Tadzhuddin saying that the Moscow pride marchers should be flogged.
Livingstone asserted that he supports gay rights, and said "In Moscow the Russian Orthodox church, the chief rabbi and the grand Mufti all supported the ban on the Gay Pride march with the main role, due to its great weight in society, being played by the Orthodox church. The attempt of Mr Tatchell to focus attention on the role of the grand Mufti in Moscow, in the face of numerous attacks on gay rights in Eastern Europe, which overwhelmingly come from right-wing Christian and secular currents, is a clear example of an Islamophobic campaign."
Tatchell retorted that Livingstone's remarks were "dishonest, despicable nonsense", adding "The Grand Mufti was not singled out". He further said the Mayor had brought his "office into disrepute" and "has revealed himself to be a person without principles, honesty or integrity."
Israel
Following the vote by the Knesset, the Israeli legislature, in 2007 in favour of bills to ban lesbian and gay pride parades in Jerusalem, the Lesbian and Gay Coalition Against Racism criticised Tatchell, saying:
Tatchell issued a statement opposing any boycott of Israel as a result of this.
In a 2009 article for The Guardian Tatchell condemned what he described as "disproportionate" and "reckless" attacks by the Israeli military on Gaza, but also argued that Western liberals and progressives should not support Hamas which he described as an Islamist group that represses Palestinians and is "potentially as much of a threat to Palestinian freedom as Israel is today."
Anglican and Catholic churches
Tatchell criticised the Catholic Church and Pope Benedict XVI, whom he described as "the ideological inheritor of Nazi homophobia". "He'd like to eradicate homosexuality, but since he can't put LGBT people in physical concentration camps, is doing his best to put them in psychological concentration camps."
Channel 4 indicated in June 2010 that Tatchell would be the presenter of a documentary film examining "the current Pope's teachings throughout the world". The plans sparked criticism from some prominent British Catholics including Conservative politician Ann Widdecombe, who accused Channel 4 of trying to "stir up controversy". Tatchell asserted that the documentary "will not be an anti-Catholic programme".
On 15 September 2010, Tatchell, along with 54 other public figures, signed an open letter, published in The Guardian, stating their opposition to Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the United Kingdom.
With respect to Anglicanism, he stated that "it's very sad to see a good man like the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, going to such extraordinary lengths to appease homophobes within the Anglican Communion".
In 2017 Tatchell praised the Church of England's new 'Valuing all God's Children' scheme for schools, which seeks to stop homophobic and transphobic bullying.
Multiculturalism
Tatchell has occasionally been moderately critical of multiculturalism. In 2010 he gave a speech to the Libertarian Alliance at the National Liberal Club arguing that the British people are increasingly "fragmented according to their different and sometimes competing identities, values, and traditions. These differences are prioritised over shared experiences and interests. Our common needs and the universalities of human rights are downplayed in favour of religious and racial particularities."
Free speech
In 2006, during the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy, Tatchell spoke at a 25 March 2006 rally called the Freedom of Expression Rally.
At the rally, Tatchell argued for the "disestablishment of the Church of England and the freedom to insult the Queen, Prime Minister and Archbishop of Canterbury." Tatchell said that the far-left is "Mired in the immoral morass of cultural relativism, they no longer endorse Enlightenment values and universal human rights. Their support for free speech is now qualified by so many ifs and buts. When push comes to shove, it is more or less worthless."
In 2007, he wrote a Guardian opinion piece, arguing that "The best way to tackle prejudice is by presenting facts and using reasoned arguments, to break down ignorance and ill-will." In 2016, Tatchell made threats to free speech in Britain the topic of his British Humanist Association annual conference lecture. Speaking with reference to a number of censorship controversies in the 2010s, he said that "the recent trend against freedom of speech means that we must fight the battles of the Enlightenment all over again."
However, in 2018 Tatchell voiced his support for Mark Meechan's conviction under section 127 of the Communications Act 2003 for posting a "grossly offensive" video on YouTube.
Islam
Tatchell is critical of Islam, and first wrote about its presence in Britain in 1995. In 1995, he wrote that "although not all Muslims are anti-gay, significant numbers are violently homophobic [...] homophobic Muslim voters may be able to influence the outcome of elections in 20 or more marginal constituencies." He is critical of the UK government's All-Party Parliamentary Group definition of Islamophobia, suggesting that he tries "to avoid the term", that Muslimness is a vague and subjective term, and that the Islamophobia term is a "a de facto threat to free speech and liberal values" and "virtue-signalling".
Tatchell has described the entire Sharia, which is the moral code that Muslims try to live by, as "a clerical form of fascism" and was the keynote speaker at a 2005 protest at the Canadian High Commission, demanding that Ontario's arbitration law, which permitted religious arbitration in civil cases for Jews and Christians, not be extended to Muslims.
In 2017, Tatchell wrote to the organisers of Pride in London to defend the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain. In response to calls by the East London Mosque for CEMB to apologise for placards alleging the mosque "incites murder of LGBTs", Tatchell stated "East London Mosque has refused all dialogue with LGBT community. It refuses to meet LGBT Muslims. I have asked them 11 times since 2015".
Tatchell has previously condemned Islamophobia, saying "any form of prejudice, hatred, discrimination or violence against Muslims is wrong. Full stop". He described the Qur'an as "rather mild in its condemnation of homosexuality".
He points out that much of his prison and asylum casework involves supporting Muslim prisoners and asylum seekers—heterosexual as well as LGBT. In 2006, he helped stop the abuse of Muslim prisoners at a Norwich jail and helped secure parole for other Muslim detainees. Half his asylum cases are, he reports, male and female Muslim refugees. Two of his highest-profile campaigns involved Muslim victims—Mohamed S, who was framed by men who first tried to kill him and then jailed him for eight years, and Sid Saeed, who brought a racism and homophobic harassment case against Deutsche Bank.
Tatchell chose Malcolm X as his specialist subject when appearing on Celebrity Mastermind, explaining that he considered him an inspiration and hero (his other inspirations are Mahatma Gandhi, Sylvia Pankhurst and Martin Luther King Jr.). However, his endorsement of Bruce Perry's biography, in an article calling for black gay role models, led to criticism. due to Perry's claim that Malcolm X had male lovers in his youth.
In February 2010, Women Against Fundamentalism defended Tatchell against allegations of Islamophobia and endorsed his right to challenge all religious fundamentalism: "WAF supports the right of Peter Tatchell and numerous other gay activists to oppose the legitimisation of fundamentalists and other right wing forces on university campuses, by the Left and by the government in its Preventing Violent Extremism strategy and numerous other programmes and platforms".
Muslim Council of Britain
Tatchell had described the Muslim Council of Britain as being "anti-gay", asking how can "they expect to win respect for their community, if at the same time as demanding action against Islamophobia, they themselves demand the legal enforcement of homophobia?". He noted that the MCB had joined forces with the "rightwing Christian Institute" to oppose every gay law reform from 1997 to 2006. In January 2006, the MCB Chairman Iqbal Sacranie said that homosexuals are immoral, harmful and diseased on BBC Radio 4.
Tatchell argued that "Both the Muslim and gay communities suffer prejudice and discrimination. We should stand together to fight Islamophobia and homophobia". Tatchell subsequently criticised Unite Against Fascism for inviting Sacranie to share its platforms, describing him as a "homophobic hate-mongerer."
When the MCB boycotted Holocaust Memorial Day, partly because it was "not sufficiently inclusive", Tatchell wrote that "the only thing that is consistent about the MCB is its opposition to the human rights of lesbians and gay men".
Muslims and gay rights
In 2006, Tatchell wrote an opinion column in The Guardian arguing that Muslims deliberately conflate offence with violence, in an effort to suppress Muslim reformers in Britain. He argued that Islamist groups like Hizb ut-Tahrir in Britain see "any criticism of Islam is an insult and that all such insults are unacceptable" in order to suppress the "free exchange of ideas". The Muslim gay rights organisation IMAAN criticised Tatchell, saying, "OutRage! doesn't understand our cultural and religious sensitivities. Often, the way they word and phrase their press releases can and does antagonise Muslims. Much as we’ve invited them to meetings so we can talk about the best way to tackle Muslim LGBT issues, they insist on doing things their way."
In the book "Out of Place: Interrogating Silences in Queerness/Raciality", in a chapter called "Gay Imperialism: Gender and Sexuality Discourse in the 'War on Terror'", Jin Haritaworn, Tamsila Tauqir and Esra Erdem wrote, "rather than help, politics such as Tatchell's have worsened the situation for the majority of queer Muslims. It has become increasingly difficult for groups such as the Safra Project, who are forced into the frontline of the artificially constructed gay v. Muslim divide, to contest sexual oppression in Muslim communities. The more homophobia is constructed as belonging to Islam, the more anti-homophobic talk will be viewed as a white, even racist, phenomenon, and the harder it will be to increase tolerance and understanding among straight Muslims [...] The dialogue which Safra and other queer Muslim groups have long sought over this is more often than not ignored or disregarded, and white gay activists such as Tatchell have proved indifferent to the fact that the mud which they sling onto Muslim communities lands on queer Muslims themselves."
Despite previously attending a "rally for free expression", where the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons were celebrated, Tatchell sued the small publisher Raw Nerve Books, who issued an apology, and replaced links to the book on their site with that apology, but were later forced to shut down. The Monthly Review described this as censorship, adding, "the violent suppression of "Gay Imperialism" and the book in which it appeared also works as a warning to the authors, editors, and other critics and potential critics of Tatchell to better keep their mouths shut."
Yusuf al-Qaradawi
In July 2004, then-Mayor of London Ken Livingstone invited Yusuf al-Qaradawi to attend a talk called "A woman's right to choose" about the wearing of the hijab. Livingstone had read positive coverage of Qaradawi in The Guardian and The Sun.
In October 2004, 2,500 Muslim academics from 23 countries condemned Qaradawi, and accused him of giving "Islam a bad name and foster[ing] hatred among civilizations" and "providing a religious cover for terrorism".
Tatchell argued that Qaradawi expresses liberal positions to deceive the Western press and politicians, while being "rightwing, misogynist, anti-semitic and homophobic", using his books and fatwas to advocate female genital mutilation, blame for rape victims who dress immodestly, and the execution of apostates, homosexuals, and women who have sex outside marriage.
Livingstone issued a 2005 dossier praising Qaradawi as a moderate, based on positive press coverage he had received previously. Livingstone pronounced that Tatchell has "a long history of Islamophobia", and asserted that he is in a "de facto alliance with the American neo-cons and Israeli intelligence services." Tatchell strenuously denied the accusations, pointing out that he has never said any of the things that Livingstone accused him of saying. Livingstone continued to describe Qaradawi as "one of the leading progressive voices in the Muslim world" in 2010, after having been denied entry to the UK for his extremist views.
Two years after condemning Tatchell, Livingstone stated he "probably shouldn't" have called Tatchell an "Islamophobe".
Adam Yosef
In December 2005, Respect Party activist Adam Yosef came under criticism for an article in Desi Xpress opposing registered civil partnerships. He asserted that Tatchell needed "a good slap in the face" and his "queer campaign army" should "pack their bent bags and head back to Australia". Desi Xpress staff expressed regret to Tatchell and gave him a right of reply, while Yosef apologised and retracted his article, claiming the "slap in the face" remark was a "figure of speech" and the remark about Australia was not racist. Yosef later backed Tatchell's 2009 election campaign.
Secondary issues
Environmental issues
For over 20 years, Tatchell has written and campaigned about environmental problems including global warming and resource depletion, pointing out that they often have a disproportionately negative impact on developing countries. In the late 1980s, he was co-organiser of the Green and Socialist Conferences, which sought to ally reds and greens. He championed energy conservation and renewable energy; in particular tidal, wave and concentrated solar power. On 24 May 2009, he appeared on the BBC Daily Politics programme to oppose the Elephant and Castle regeneration scheme, which he said would bring few benefits to local working-class people. However, most of his campaigning continues to be in the areas of human rights and "queer emancipation".
In August 2008 Tatchell wrote about speculative theories concerning possible atmospheric oxygen depletion compared to prehistoric levels, and called for further investigation to test such claims and, if proven, their long-term consequences.
Animal rights
Tatchell is an active supporter of animal rights, saying "human rights and animal rights are two aspects of the same struggle against injustice", and that he advocates for a "claim to be spared suffering and offered inalienable rights" for both humans and animals.
Cornwall
Tatchell campaigned on the issue of the constitutional status of Cornwall. In November 2008, The Guardian carried an article by him entitled Self-rule for Cornwall, in which he said:
This article received the largest number of comments to any Guardian article, according to This is Cornwall. Over 1,500 comments were made, and while some comments were supportive, Tatchell found himself "shocked and disgusted" by the anti-Cornish sentiment shown by many commenters.
Columnist and other pursuits
Tatchell has written numerous articles in newspapers and magazines related to his various campaigns. He was highly critical of the media coverage of the Admiral Duncan pub bombing, claiming than the homophobic attitudes of news outlets had helped fuel the attack, and that the press concerned themselves almost exclusively with the one heterosexual victim, rather than the two other deaths and the dozens of maimed patrons, saying that:
In 1987 Tatchell appeared on the second programme of the first series of After Dark, a discussion on press ethics with, among others, Tony Blackburn, Victoria Gillick, Johnny Edgecombe and a Private Eye journalist.
On 5 August 1995 Tatchell was interviewed at length by Andrew Neil on his one-on-one interview show Is This Your Life?, made by Open Media for Channel 4.
, he has been an Ambassador for the penal reform group, Make Justice Work.
In 2011, he became the Director of the Peter Tatchell Foundation.
Tatchell is a patron of Humanists UK, an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society and a committed secularist, saying, "As an atheist, secularist and humanist I believe that reason, science and ethics – not religious superstition – are the best way to understand the world and promote human rights and welfare."
He contributes to The Jeremy Vine Show on BBC Radio 2.
Awards
In 2006, New Statesman readers voted him sixth on their list of "Heroes of our time".
In 2009, he racked up multiple awards. He was named Campaigner of the Year in The Observer Ethical Awards, London Citizen of Sanctuary Award, Shaheed Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti Award (for reporting the Balochistan national liberation struggle), Evening Standard 1000 Most Influential Londoners (winning again in 2011), Liberal Voice of the Year and a Blue Plaque in recognition of his more than 40 years of human rights campaigning.
In 2010 he won Total Politics Top 50 Political Influencers. A diary journalist reported rumours that he had been recommended for the award of a life peerage in the British New Year Honours. He was said to have turned it down.
In 2012, the National Secular Society awarded Tatchell Secularist of the Year, in recognition of his lifelong commitment to the defence of human rights against religious fundamentalism.
On 21 September 2012, he was awarded a Lifetime Achievement award at the UK's first National Diversity Awards. Alongside Misha B, Jody Cundy, Peter Norfolk and others he was a patron for 2013 National Diversity Awards.
In January 2014, Tatchell was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Laws by De Montfort University.
Legacy
The Peter Tatchell Papers are held at the London School of Economics in the Hall Carpenter Archive. Supplementary papers are housed at the British Library. The papers can be accessed through the British Library catalogue.
Peter Tatchell Foundation
The Peter Tatchell Foundation (PTF) is a non-profit, nonpartisan organisation based in the United Kingdom which "seeks to promote and protect the human rights of individuals, communities and nations, in the UK and internationally, in accordance with established national and international human rights law" and its stated aims and objectives are "to raise awareness, understanding, protection and implementation of human rights, in the UK and worldwide". Tatchell started the Foundation as a company in 2011, which gained charitable status in 2018. The organisation was named after Tatchell to honour his 50+ years of globally campaigning for human rights. The charity's celebrity patrons include Sir Ian McKellen and Paul O'Grady.
The organisation works with a variety of human rights issues globally, such as homophobia, transphobia, sexism, gender inequality, racism, political freedom, censorship, religious discrimination, unjust detention, freedom of association, capital punishment, asylum and refugees, trade union rights, self-determination of oppressed peoples, torture, genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and poverty.
In 2012 the foundation gained funding from The Funding Network for three projects: "Casework & Advice", including adding an "Advice" section to its website; "Equal Love", campaigning on same-sex marriage and opposite-sex civil partnerships; and "Olympic Equality Initiative", working against sexism and homophobia in the Olympic movement.
Bibliography
See also
Capital Gay
Hall–Carpenter Archives
LGBT Network
List of LGBT rights activists
List of peace activists
References
Sources
External links
Peter Tatchell Foundation
Contributor page at The Guardian
Interview with The Third Estate.
Archived WAF statement on Tatchell
Catalogue of the Tatchell papers held at LSE Archives
1952 births
Living people
Activists from Melbourne
HIV/AIDS activists
Alumni of the University of North London
Anti–Vietnam War activists
Australian atheists
Australian human rights activists
Australian emigrants to England
Australian socialists
British atheists
British social commentators
British humanists
British human rights activists
British republicans
British secularists
Critics of the Catholic Church
British socialists
Gay politicians
Green Party of England and Wales parliamentary candidates
Labour Party (UK) parliamentary candidates
LGBT politicians from Australia
LGBT rights activists from Australia
Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom
People with traumatic brain injuries | true | [
"Stanislav lndruch (6 October 1899 – 2 February 1974) was a Czech gymnast who competed for Czechoslovakia in the 1920 Summer Olympics and in the 1924 Summer Olympics.\n\nIn 1920 he was a member of the Czechoslovak gymnastic team which finished fourth in the team competition. Four years later at the 1924 Summer Olympics he participated in the following events:\n\n Parallel bars - 18th place\n Horizontal bar - 19th place\n Team all-around - did not finish\n Individual all-around - did not finish\n\nHe was one of two competitors which did not participate in all events giving Czechoslovakia no result in the team contest (the other was Josef Kos).\n\nReferences\n\n1899 births\n1974 deaths\nCzech male artistic gymnasts\nCzechoslovak male artistic gymnasts\nOlympic gymnasts of Czechoslovakia\nGymnasts at the 1920 Summer Olympics\nGymnasts at the 1924 Summer Olympics",
"The 2014 PBA All-Star Weekend was the annual all-star weekend of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA)'s 2013–14 season. The events were held at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay.\n\nFriday events\n\nObstacle Challenge\nTime in seconds.\n\nGold represent the current champion.\nTerrence Romeo did not participate in this event.\nMark Barroca won in this year's Obstacle Challenge.\n\nThree-point Shootout\n\nGold represent the current champion.\nLA Tenorio replaced Mac Baracael, who did not participate in this event.\nJohn Wilson replaced James Yap, who did not participate in this event.\nMark Macapagal won in this event, making this his fourth title.\n\nSlamdunk Contest\n\nGold represents the current champion.\nAlex Nuyles replaced Arwind Santos in this event.\nJustin Melton and Rey Guevarra are co-champions for this event.\nThe scores in the parentheses were for the first round.\n\nGreats vs. Stalwarts\n\nRosters\n\n Vergel Meneses was unable to participate. \n Jason Webb was unable to participate. \n Jervy Cruz was unable to participate. \n Bal David was unable to participate. \n Vergel Meneses was unable to participate due to injury. \n Topex Robinson was Terrence Romeo's replacement. \n Justin Melton was Jervy Cruz's replacement.\n\nGame\n\nRey Guevarra was named the MVP for this game.\n\nSunday events\n\nGilas Pilipinas vs. PBA All-Stars\n\nRoster\n\nGame\n\nGary David was named the All Star Game MVP.\n\nReferences\n\nSee also\n2013–14 PBA season\nPhilippine Basketball Association\nPhilippine Basketball Association All-Star Weekend\n\n2014\n2013–14 PBA season\nPhilippines men's national basketball team games"
]
|
[
"Peter Tatchell",
"Gay Liberation Front",
"What was Tatchell's role in the Gay Liberation Front?",
"in London became a leading member of the Gay Liberation Front (GLF)",
"What did he do within the group?",
"During this time Tatchell was prominent in organising sit-ins at pubs that refused to serve \"poofs\" and protests against police harassment",
"What other events did he participate in?",
"With others he helped organise Britain's first Gay Pride march in 1972."
]
| C_acbda4b802ac4f2b87c8606e402bada5_1 | Who else worked with him in the GLF? | 4 | Aside from others who helped organize Britain's first Gay Pride march in 1972, who else worked with Peter Tatchell in the Gay Liberation Front? | Peter Tatchell | To avoid conscription into the Australian Army, Tatchell moved to London in 1971. He had accepted being gay in 1969, and in London became a leading member of the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) until its 1974 collapse. During this time Tatchell was prominent in organising sit-ins at pubs that refused to serve "poofs" and protests against police harassment and the medical classification of homosexuality as an illness. With others he helped organise Britain's first Gay Pride march in 1972. In 1973, he attended the 10th World Youth Festival in East Berlin on GLF's behalf. His actions triggered opposition within and between different groups of national delegates including the Communist Party of Great Britain and National Union of Students. He was banned from conferences, had his leaflets confiscated and burned, was interrogated by the secret police (the Stasi) and threatened and assaulted by other delegates, mostly communists. Tatchell later claimed that this was the first time gay liberation politics were publicly disseminated and discussed in a communist country, although he noted that, in terms of decriminalisation and the age of consent, gay men had greater rights in East Germany at the time than in Britain and much of the West. Describing his time in the Gay Liberation Front, he wrote in The Guardian that: [The] GLF was a glorious, enthusiastic and often chaotic mix of anarchists, hippies, leftwingers, feminists, liberals and counter-culturalists. Despite our differences, we shared a radical idealism - a dream of what the world could and should be - free from not just homophobia but the whole sex-shame culture, which oppressed straights as much as LGBTs. We were sexual liberationists and social revolutionaries, out to turn the world upside down. [...] GLF's main aim was never equality within the status quo. [...] GLF's strategy for queer emancipation was to change society's values and norms, rather than adapt to them. We sought a cultural revolution to overturn centuries of male heterosexual domination and thereby free both queers and women. [...] Forty years on, GLF's gender agenda has been partly won. [...] Girlish boys and boyish girls don't get victimised as much as in times past. LGBT kids often now come out at the age of 12 or 14. While many are bullied, many others are not. The acceptance of sexual and gender diversity is increasing. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Peter Gary Tatchell (born 25 January 1952) is a British human rights campaigner, originally from Australia, best known for his work with LGBT social movements.
Tatchell was selected as the Labour Party's parliamentary candidate for Bermondsey in 1981. He was then denounced by party leader Michael Foot for ostensibly supporting extra-parliamentary action against the Thatcher government. Labour subsequently allowed him to stand in the Bermondsey by-election in February 1983, in which the party lost the seat to the Liberals. In the 1990s he campaigned for LGBT rights through the direct action group OutRage!, which he co-founded. He has worked on various campaigns, such as Stop Murder Music against music lyrics allegedly inciting violence against LGBT people and writes and broadcasts on various human rights and social justice issues. He attempted a citizen's arrest of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe in 1999 and again in 2001.
In April 2004, he joined the Green Party of England and Wales and in 2007 was selected as prospective parliamentary candidate in the constituency of Oxford East, but in December 2009 he stood down due to brain damage he says was caused by a bus accident as well as damage sustained during various protests. Since 2011, he has been the Director of the Peter Tatchell Foundation.
Early life
Tatchell was born in Melbourne, Australia. His father was a lathe operator and his mother worked in a biscuit factory. His parents divorced when he was four and his mother remarried soon afterwards.
Since the family finances were strained by medical bills, he had to leave school at 16 in 1968. He started work as a sign-writer and window-dresser in department stores. Tatchell claims to have incorporated the theatricality of these displays into his activism.
Raised as a Christian, Tatchell says that he "ditched [his] faith a long time ago" and is an atheist. It is widely reported that Tatchell is a vegan; however, Tatchell himself only states that he eats no meat, but does eat eggs, cheese, and, according to Richard Fairbrass, wild salmon, meaning Tatchell is a pescatarian.
He became interested in outdoor adventurous activities such as surfing and mountain climbing. Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Any Questions about how insurance and legal risks were making British teachers reluctant to take pupils on outdoor adventures, he said outdoor activities helped him develop the courage to take political risks in adult life.
Campaigns in Australia
Tatchell's political activity began at Mount Waverley Secondary College, where in 1967 he launched campaigns in support of Australia's Aboriginal people. Tatchell was elected secretary of the school's Student Representative Council. In his final year in 1968, as school captain, he took the lead in setting up a scholarship scheme for Aboriginal people and led a campaign for Aboriginal land rights. These activities led the headmaster to claim he had been manipulated by communists.
Prompted by the impending hanging of Ronald Ryan in 1967, Tatchell went round his local area painting slogans against the hanging, a fact he did not reveal until nearly 30 years later. Ryan was accused of killing a prison warder while escaping from Pentridge Prison in Coburg, Victoria. Tatchell claimed, unsuccessfully, that the trajectory of the bullet through the warder's body probably made it impossible that Ryan could have fired the fatal shot.
In 1968, Tatchell began campaigning against the American and Australian involvement in the Vietnam War, in his view a war of aggression in support of a "brutal and corrupt dictatorship" responsible for torture and executions. The Victoria state government and Melbourne city council attempted to suppress the anti-Vietnam War campaign by banning street leafleting and taking police action against anti-war demonstrations.
In 2004, he proposed the renaming of Australian capital cities with their Aboriginal place names.
Gay Liberation Front
To avoid conscription into the Australian Army, Tatchell moved to London in 1971. He had opened up about being gay in 1969, and in London became a leading member of the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) until its 1974 collapse. During this time Tatchell was prominent in organising sit-ins at pubs that refused to serve "poofs" and protests against police harassment and the medical classification of homosexuality as an illness. With others he helped organise Britain's first Gay Pride march in 1972.
In 1973, he attended the 10th World Youth Festival in East Berlin on GLF's behalf. His plans to protest at the festival were not well received by either the British delegation or the GDR hosts, however he was eventually allowed to give a speech at Humboldt University. His lecture was subject to various disruptions, it ended in his denunciation as a "troublemaker" by a member of the audience. The following day, Tatchell attempted to hand out leaflets at a concert, an official of the Free German Youth objected and encouraged fellow concert-goers to destroy the leaflets. Tatchell intended to carry a placard advocating gay rights at the closing rally of the festival, the British delegation incorrectly translated the placard to read "East Germany persecutes homosexuals", this was put to a vote and the majority decided the placard was not acceptable. Yet, in defiance of the collective decision, Tatchell carried the placard anyway and was then beaten. The placard was torn in half.
Tatchell later claimed that this was the first time gay liberation politics were publicly disseminated and discussed in a communist country, although he noted that, in terms of decriminalisation and the age of consent, gay men had greater rights in East Germany at the time than much of the West.
Describing his time in the Gay Liberation Front, he wrote in The Guardian that:
Tatchell collaborated with public artist Martin Firrell to mark the 50th anniversary of the GLF in 2020. The artist's Still Revolting series drew on Tatchell's personal recollections of the GLF, quoting Tatchell's 1973 placard 'Homosexuals Are Revolting' created by Tatchell for London Gay Pride. The artist's addition of the word 'still' reflects the truth that homosexuality is still regarded as intolerable by some and many LGBT+ people around the world are still struggling for acceptance, security and equality.
Graduation
After taking A levels at evening classes, he attended the Polytechnic of North London (PNL), now part of London Metropolitan University, where he obtained a 2:1 BSc (Hons) in sociology.
At PNL he was a member of the National Union of Students Gay Rights Campaign. On graduating he became a freelance journalist specialising in foreign stories, during which he publicised the Indonesian annexation of West Papua and child labour on British-owned tea farms in Malawi.
Political activity
Tatchell popularised the phrase "sexual apartheid" to describe the separate laws that long existed for gays and heterosexuals.
Labour candidate for Bermondsey
In 1978, Tatchell joined the Labour Party and moved to a council flat in Bermondsey, south-east London. At the Bermondsey Constituency Labour Party's (CLP) AGM in February 1980, the left group won control and Tatchell was elected Secretary. When the sitting Labour Member of Parliament (MP), Bob Mellish, retired in 1981, Tatchell was selected as his successor, despite Arthur Latham, a former MP and former Chairman of the Tribune Group, being considered the favourite. While Militant was cited as the reason for Tatchell's selection, Tatchell disagrees and ascribes his selection to the support of the "older, 'born and bred' working class; the younger professional and intellectual members swung behind Latham".
In an article for a left-wing magazine, Tatchell urged the Labour Party to support direct action campaigning to challenge the Margaret Thatcher-led Tory government, stating "we must look to new more militant forms of extra-parliamentary opposition which involve mass popular participation and challenge the government's right to rule". Social Democratic Party MP James Wellbeloved, arguing the article was anti-Parliamentary, quoted it at Prime Minister's Questions in November 1981. Foot denounced Tatchell, stating that he would not be endorsed as a candidate and a vote at the Labour Party National Executive Committee denied Tatchell's endorsement. However, the Bermondsey Labour Party continued to support him and it was eventually agreed that when the selection was rerun, Tatchell would be eligible, and he duly won. When Mellish resigned from Parliament and triggered a by-election, Tatchell's candidacy was endorsed, and the ensuing campaign was regarded as one of the most homophobic in modern British history.
Tatchell was assaulted in the street, had his flat attacked, and had a death threat and a live bullet put through his letterbox in the night. Although the Bermondsey seat had long been a Labour stronghold, the Liberal candidate, Simon Hughes, won the election. During the campaign, Liberal canvassers were accused of stirring up homophobia on the doorsteps. Male Liberal workers campaigned wearing lapel badges with the words, "I've been kissed by Peter Tatchell" following the suggestion that he was attempting to hide his sexuality; this campaign was criticised by Roy Hattersley at a Labour news conference. One of Hughes' campaign leaflets claimed the election was "a straight choice" between Liberal and Labour. Hughes has since apologised for what may have been seen as an inadvertent slur and later came out as bisexual in 2006.
Democratic Defence
Tatchell published the book Democratic Defence in 1985. In it, he outlined his suggestions for a defence policy for the United Kingdom after it underwent nuclear disarmament. Tatchell argued that the British military was still organised on an imperialist strategy of basing troops abroad rather than on a strategy of defending Britain itself against foreign attacks.
Citing the difficulties that the British army was facing in Northern Ireland, he argued that their current methods had proven ineffective against guerrilla warfare, along with arguing for troops to be allowed to join trade unions and political parties, and to end strict adherence to "petty regulations". He praised the Second World War-era British Home Guard as an example of a "citizens' army", as well as the armed forces of Sweden, Switzerland and Yugoslavia as positive examples.
In the book, Tatchell also argued for a British withdrawal from NATO and for the establishment of a European Self-Defence Organisation, independent of both the United States, whom he felt that Europe had become too dependent on their military protection, and the Soviet Union, which he condemned for their invasions of Czechoslovakia and of Afghanistan, as well its internal repression. He quoted with approval Enoch Powell's argument that the threat from the Soviet Union to the UK was exaggerated.
The book was reviewed by the Times Literary Supplement in May 1985.
Green issues
In February 2000 Tatchell resigned from Labour, citing the treatment of Ken Livingstone during the nomination of a candidate for Mayor of London, and of similar cases in the Scottish and Welsh elections, as evidence that the party "no longer has any mechanism for democratic involvement and transformation". He fought unsuccessfully for a seat on the London Assembly as an Independent candidate within the Green Left grouping, in support of Livingstone.
On 7 April 2004 he joined the Green Party of England and Wales but did not envisage standing for election. However, in 2007, he became the party's parliamentary candidate for Oxford East. In 16 December 2009, he withdrew as a candidate claiming brain damage he says was caused by a bus accident as well as damage inflicted by Mugabe's bodyguards when Tatchell attempted to arrest him in 2001 in Brussels, and by neo-Nazis in Moscow.
Tatchell opposes nuclear power; instead he advocates concentrated solar power.
In Tribune, he pointed out the adverse effects of climate change: "By 2050, if climate change proceeds unchecked, England will no longer be a green and pleasant land. In between periods of prolonged scorching drought, we are likely to suffer widespread flooding."
For many years, he supported a green–red alliance. More recently, he helped launch the Green Left grouping within the Green Party. He urged links between trade unions and the Greens. On 27 April 2010, he urged Green Party supporters to vote for Liberal Democrats in constituencies where they had an incumbent MP or a strong chance of winning.
In August 2021, Tatchell endorsed Tamsin Omond and Amelia Womack in the 2021 Green Party of England and Wales leadership election.
Iraq War
Tatchell opposed the war in Iraq, and its subsequent occupation. For nearly three decades he had previously supported the Iraqi Left Opposition, helping them remove the government of Saddam Hussein because of the gross violations of human rights that Hussein had committed against democrats, left-wingers, trade unionists, Shia Muslims and the Kurdish people, and because under Saddam's dictatorship there were no opportunities for peaceful, democratic change. He advocated military and financial aid to opponents of the Saddam government, suggesting that anti-Saddam organisations be given "tanks, helicopter gun-ships, fighter planes, heavy artillery and anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles". While opposing western intervention, he advocated regime change from within in countries such as Saudi Arabia, Iran and Syria.
Tatchell has written that on 12 March 2003 he ambushed Tony Blair's motorcade in an anti-Iraq war protest. He forced Blair's limousine to stop, and then unfolded a banner that read "Arm the Kurds! Topple Saddam". He added that in terms of the political struggle within Britain (as opposed to struggles against absolute tyrants like Hitler and Saddam, where violent resistance can be the lesser of two evils): "I remain committed to the Gandhian principle of non-violence". After the war he signed the 'Unite Against Terror' declaration, arguing that "the pseudo-left reveals its shameless hypocrisy and its wholesale abandonment of humanitarian values" by supporting resistance and insurgent groups in Iraq that resort to indiscriminate terrorism, killing innocent civilians.
In 2003, Tatchell said he supported giving "massive material aid" to Iraqi opposition groups, including the "Shi'ite Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq" (SCIRI), to bring down Saddam. But in 2006 Tatchell noted that SCIRI had become markedly more fundamentalist and was endorsing violent attacks on anyone who did not conform to its increasingly harsh interpretation of Islam. He claimed that SCIRI, the leading force in Baghdad's ruling coalition, wanted to establish an Iranian-style religious dictatorship, with a goal of clerical fascism, and had engaged in "terrorisation of gay Iraqis", as well as terrorising Sunni Muslims, left-wingers, unveiled women and people who listen to western pop music or wear jeans or shorts.
In September 2014, Tatchell advocated arming the Kurdistan Workers' Party to fight against ISIS, and argued that the US and EU had been wrong to designate it as a terrorist organisation.
Syrian civil war
A previous supporter of the Stop the War Coalition, Tatchell and many other public personalities expressed concern with the coalition's allegedly unduly favourable view of Bashar al-Assad's government in Syria, and has called for the Labour leader and former Stop the War Chair Jeremy Corbyn not to attend the Coalition's Christmas fundraiser 2015. In December 2016, Tatchell and others disrupted Corbyn's speech on human rights on the basis that the Labour leader had responded insufficiently to the bombing of Aleppo and urged him to condemn Russian military intervention in Syria.
Balochistan
Since 2006, he expressed concern for the Baloch people facing military operations in their homeland, Balochistan in Pakistan. From 2007 to 2009, he campaigned in defence of two UK-based Baloch Muslim human rights activists, Hyrbyair Marri and Faiz Baluch, accused of terrorism charges and tried in London. Both men were acquitted in 2009. He alleged collusion by the U.S. and British governments in regards to the suppression of the Balochs, including arms sales to Pakistan, which he says were used to bomb and attack Baloch towns and villages.
Activities in Moscow
In May 2006 Tatchell attended the first Moscow Pride Festival. He appears in the documentary Moscow Pride '06 featuring this event.
In May 2007 Tatchell returned to Moscow to support Moscow Pride and to voice his opposition to a ban on the march, staying at the flat of an American diplomat. On 27 May 2007, Tatchell and other gay rights activists were attacked. He was punched in the face and nearly knocked unconscious, while other demonstrators were beaten, kicked and assaulted. A German MP, Volker Beck, and a European Parliament deputy from Italy, Marco Cappato, were also punched before being arrested and questioned by police. Tatchell later said "I'm not deterred one iota from coming back to protest in Moscow." On his release, Tatchell made a report on the incident to the American Embassy.
On 16 May 2009, the day of the final of the Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow, Russian gay rights activists staged a protest in Moscow in defiance of the city's mayor, Yuri Luzkhov, who had long banned gay demonstrations and denounced them as "satanic". Tatchell was among 32 campaigners arrested when they shouted slogans and unfurled banners.
NUS politics
On 14 February 2015, Tatchell was one of a number of signatories to a letter criticising the trend in the British National Union of Students to apply a No Platform policy to feminists who criticised the sex industry or challenged demands made by certain groups of trans people. In particular, the letter cited the denial of a platform to Kate Smurthwaite at Goldsmith's College and to Germaine Greer at the University of Cambridge.
Tatchell received death threats after signing the letter. He later stated that he would have worded the letter differently to clarify that he supported the human rights of trans people and sex workers, but that he had signed the letter nonetheless because he believed in the message of free speech on campuses. He said that the initial draft that he signed contained the sentence "Some of us have disagreements with the views expressed [by feminist critics of trans people]", and that he was "not happy" that this was cut out of the final letter.
On 13 February 2016, Fran Cowling, the national LGBT representative for the NUS, refused to share a platform with Tatchell at Canterbury Christ Church University to discuss the topic of "re-radicalising queers". Cowling said that Tatchell supported speakers who are "openly transphobic and incite violence" against transgender people, and also that Tatchell had used "racist language". Tatchell responded that no evidence could be produced to support either claim, and that Cowling had never consulted the NUS membership before deciding to make pronouncements on their behalf, and said "This sorry, sad saga is symptomatic of the decline of free and open debate on some university campuses. There is a witch-hunting, accusatory atmosphere. Allegations are made without evidence to back them – or worse, they are made citing false, trumped-up evidence."
Campaigns
OutRage!
Tatchell took part in many gay rights campaigns over issues such as Section 28. Following the murder of actor Michael Boothe on 10 May 1990, Tatchell was one of thirty people to attend the inaugural meeting of the radical gay rights non-violent direct action group OutRage! – although he was not a co-founder – and has remained a leading member. The group fuses theatrical performance styles with queer protest. As the most prominent OutRage! member, Tatchell is sometimes assumed to be the leader of the group, though he has never claimed this, saying he is one among equals.
In 1991, a small group of OutRage! members covertly formed a separate group to engage in a campaign of outing public figures who were homophobic in public but gay in private. The group took the name FROCS (Faggots Rooting Out Closeted Sexuality). Tatchell was the group's go-between with the press, forwarding their news statements to his media contacts. Considerable publicity and public debate followed FROCS's threat to out 200 leading public personalities from the world of politics, religion, business and sport. With Tatchell's assistance, members of FROCS eventually called a press conference to tell the world that their campaign was a hoax intended to demonstrate the hypocrisy of those newspapers that had condemned the campaign despite having themselves outed celebrities and politicians.
Some OutRage! activities were highly controversial. In 1994, it unveiled placards inviting ten Church of England bishops to "tell the truth" about what Outrage! alleged was their homosexuality and accusing them of condemning homosexuality in public while leading secret gay lives. Shortly afterwards the group wrote to twenty UK MPs, condemning their alleged support for anti-gay laws and claiming they would out them if the MPs did not stop what they described as attacks on the gay community. The MP Sir James Kilfedder, one such opponent of gay equality, who had received one of the letters, died two months later of a sudden heart attack on the day one of the Belfast newspapers planned to out him. In a comment in The Independent in October 2003, Tatchell claimed the OutRage! action against the bishops was his greatest mistake because he failed to anticipate that the media and the church would treat it as an invasion of privacy.
On 12 April 1998, Tatchell led an OutRage! protest, which disrupted the Easter sermon by George Carey, the Archbishop of Canterbury, with Tatchell mounting the pulpit to denounce what he claimed was Carey's opposition to legal equality for lesbian and gay people. The protest garnered media coverage and led to Tatchell's prosecution under the little-used Ecclesiastical Courts Jurisdiction Act 1860 (formerly part of the Brawling Act 1551), which prohibits any form of disruption or protest in a church. Tatchell failed in his attempt to summon Carey as a witness and was convicted. The judge fined him the trivial sum of £18.60, which commentators theorised was a wry allusion to the year of the statute used to convict him.
The LGBT press dubbed him "Saint Peter Tatchell" following further OutRage! campaigns involving religion.
A number of African LGBTI leaders signed a statement condemning the involvement of Tatchell and OutRage! in African issues, which led Tatchell to respond that he favoured working with the radical LGBTI groups in Africa rather than the more conservative (according to him) leaders who had signed the statement. Tatchell and OutRage! published a refutation of the allegations.
OutRage!'s protest against Chief Rabbi Immanuel Jakobovits, who supported the idea of genetic engineering to eliminate homosexuality, led to accusations that Tatchell was antisemitic, following OutRage!'s leaflets citing the similarity of Jakobovits ideas for the eradication of homosexuality to those of Heinrich Himmler were distributed outside the Western and Marble Arch Synagogue on the Rosh Hashanah in September 1993.
Rabbi Dame Julia Neuberger, who had campaigned for gay rights, said "Drawing a comparison between Lord Jakobovits and Himmler is offensive, racist and [...] makes OutRage appear antisemitic". She stated that the action and leaflet would "alienate Jews who are sympathetic to gay rights".
Stop Murder Music campaign
Tatchell argues that a number of Afro-Caribbean artists produce music that glorifies murder of homosexual men, and incites violence against homosexuals. He argued that British laws against incitement to violence were not being enforced on foreign artists performing in the UK. He also organised protests outside the concerts of singers whose lyrics he says incite violence, mainly Jamaican dancehall and ragga artists who he says glorify violence toward lesbians and gay men, including murder. Tatchell's campaign began in 1992 when Buju Banton's song "Boom bye-bye" was released. He has picketed the MOBO Awards ceremony to protest at their inviting performers of what he terms "murder music".
Tatchell argues that murder is not legal in Jamaica, and glorification of murder is not a legitimate form of Afro-Caribbean culture. In response Tatchell received death threats and was labelled racist. He defended himself by noting that the campaign was at the behest of the Jamaican gay rights group J-Flag, and the UK-based Black Gay Men's Advisory Group, with which he works closely. He pointed to what he described as his life's work campaigning against racism and apartheid and stated that his campaigns against "murder music" and state-sanctioned homophobic violence in Jamaica were endorsed by black Jamaican gay rights activists such as Jamaican Forum for Lesbians, All-Sexuals and Gays (J-FLAG), and by many straight human rights activists in Jamaica (male homosexuality remains illegal in Jamaica). The campaign has had positive effects with seven of eight original murder music singers signing the Reggae Compassion Act, which says that signatories will not "make statements or perform songs" that incite hatred or violence.
Members of the Rastafari movement accused Tatchell of racism and extremism, saying, "He has gone over way over the top. It's simply racist to put Hitler and Sizzla in the same bracket and just shows how far he is prepared to go." Tatchell denies equating Sizzla with Hitler.
Age of consent laws and Paedophile Information Exchange
In 1996, Tatchell led an OutRage! campaign to reduce the age of consent in the UK to 14 years, to adjust for studies that showed nearly half of all young people had their first sexual experiences prior to 16 years old, regardless of sexuality. He stated that he wished to exempt these people from being "treated as criminals by the law," and that the campaign claimed there should be no prosecution if the difference in ages of the sexual partners was no more than three years, provided that these youths are given a more comprehensive sex education at a younger date.
He was quoted in the OutRage!'s press release as saying "Young people have a right to accept or reject sex, according to what they feel is appropriate for them".
Tatchell has since reiterated that he does not condone adults having sex with children. On his personal website, under the subsection Age of Consent, he writes:
On 10 March 2008, in the Irish Independent, he repeated his call for a lower age of consent to end the criminalisation of young people engaged in consenting sex and to remove the legal obstacles to upfront sex education, condom provision and safer sex advice. In 1998 and 2008, he supported relaxation of the then strict laws against pornography, arguing that pornography can have some social benefits, and he has criticised what he calls the body-shame phobia against nudism, suggesting that nudity may be natural and healthy for society.
In 2006, he opposed the appointment of Ruth Kelly as Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government as Kelly had not supported equal treatment of lesbians and gay men in any parliamentary votes. Tatchell said "her appointment suggests the government does not take lesbian and gay rights seriously", adding "Tony Blair would never appoint someone to a race-equality post who had a lukewarm record of opposing racism".
Paedophile Information Exchange
Tatchell has written an obituary in The Independent for Paedophile Information Exchange founder Ian Dunn, as well as an essay for a pro-paedophile activist and Paedophile Information Exchange member Warren Middleton in the book "Betrayal of Youth (BOY)". The actor and activist, John Connors described Tatchell as a "paedophile apologist" and other critics (such as the British National Party) have suggested that he is personally pro-paedophile, which he strongly denies – stating that:
In July 2021, in an article by Hayley Dixon, Melanie Newman and Julie Bindel for the Daily Telegraph, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/07/27/peter-tatchell-children-have-sexual-desires-early-age/ it emerged that a positive review attributed to Peter Tatchell of the same pro-paedophila book - Betrayal of Youth: Radical Perspectives on Childhood Sexuality, Intergenerational Sex and the Social Oppression of Children and Young People - appeared in the June 1987 edition of 7 Days, the newsletter of the Communist Party of Great Britain.
He also comments on an interview he conducted in the late 1990s on the subject of paedophilia and child prostitution, in which he interviewed a 14-year-old boy (under the pseudonym "Lee") who had had sex with older men, in some cases for money. In this interview, Tatchell makes various counterarguments against Lee's point of view, such as: "How can a young child understand sex and give meaningful consent?", "Perhaps your friends were particularly mature for their age. Most young people are not so sophisticated about sex", "Many people worry that the power imbalance in a relationship between a youth and an adult means the younger person can be easily manipulated and exploited", "Many people fear that making sex easier for under-age teenagers will expose them to dangers like HIV. Isn't that a legitimate worry?".
In 1997 Tatchell wrote a letter to The Guardian, defending an academic book about "boy-love", calling the work "courageous", before writing:
On Tatchell's personal website he clarifies,
My Guardian letter cited examples of youths in Papuan tribes and some of my friends who, when they were under 16, had sex with adults (over 18s), but who do not feel they were harmed. I was not endorsing their viewpoint but merely stating that they had a different perspective from the mainstream opinion about inter-generational sex. They have every right for their perspective to be heard."
Following the publication of a photo of Tatchell alongside the Irish Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Roderic O'Gorman, on Twitter, at a Pride event, O'Gorman issued a statement outlining that the apparent views in Tatchell's letter - written 23 years ago, when O'Gorman was just 15 - were "abhorrent" to him, and his appreciation that Tatchell clarified his own position.
Civil partnerships
Tatchell has pledged his support for opposite-sex couples to be allowed to have civil partnerships, stating that some opposite-sex couples dislike the "sexist, homophobic history of [the institution of] marriage", and allowing them into civil partnerships "is simply a matter of equality".
Writing for PinkNews, he said:
Foreign politics
Imperialism
While still at school, Tatchell campaigned in favour of better treatment of, and full human rights for, Aboriginal Australians. He has opined that Australian cities should be renamed with their original Aboriginal place names. For example, he wants the Tasmanian capital Hobart to be renamed Nibberluna, arguing that this would be a fitting tribute to Australia's Aboriginal heritage, which he claims has been discarded and disrespected for too long.
Tatchell participated in the mass Vietnam Moratorium protests in Melbourne in 1970. The same year, Tatchell founded and was elected secretary of the inter-denominational anti-war movement, Christians for Peace. Later, upon moving to London in 1971, he was active in solidarity work with the independence movements in Mozambique, and Guinea-Bissau.
In 2002, he brought an unsuccessful legal action in Bow Street Magistrate's Court for the arrest of the former U.S. Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, on charges of war crimes in Vietnam and Cambodia.
Zimbabwe
Part of Tatchell's political activism and journalism in the 1970s involved the Rhodesian Bush War, in which he supported the black nationalist movement, including the Zimbabwe African National Union and its military wing. Mugabe's denunciation of male homosexuality in 1995 led Tatchell to help organise a protest for LGBT rights in Zimbabwe outside the Zimbabwe High Commission in London.
Two years later, he passed through police security disguised as a TV cameraman to quiz Mugabe during the "Africa at 40" conference at Methodist Central Hall, Westminster. Mugabe told him that allegations of human rights abuses were grossly exaggerated; he became agitated when Tatchell told him that he was gay. Mugabe's minders summoned Special Branch guards, who ejected Tatchell. On 26 October 1997 a letter from Tatchell to The Observer argued that the United Kingdom should suspend aid to Zimbabwe because of its violence against LGBT people.
Tatchell researched the Gukurahundi attacks in Matabeleland in the 1980s, when the Zimbabwean Fifth Brigade attacked supporters of the Zimbabwe African Peoples Union. He became convinced that Mugabe had broken international human rights law during the attack, which is estimated to have involved the massacre of around 20,000 civilians. Then in 1999, journalists Mark Chavunduka and Ray Choto were tortured by the Zimbabwe Army. The arrest of Augusto Pinochet in London seemed to him a precedent that human rights violations could be pursued against a head of state, thanks to the principle of universal jurisdiction. On 30 October 1999 Tatchell and three other OutRage! activists approached Mugabe's car in a London street and attempted to perform a citizen's arrest. Tatchell opened the car door and grabbed Mugabe. He then called the police. The four OutRage! activists were arrested, on charges including criminal damage, assault and breach of the peace; charges were dropped on the opening day of their trial. Mugabe responded by describing Tatchell and his OutRage! colleagues as "gay gangsters", a slogan frequently repeated by his supporters, and claimed they had been sent by the United Kingdom government.
On 5 March 2001, when Mugabe visited Brussels, Tatchell again attacked him. Mugabe's bodyguards were seen knocking him to the floor. Later that day, Tatchell was briefly knocked unconscious by Mugabe's bodyguards and was left with permanent damage to his right eye. The protest drew worldwide headlines, as Mugabe was highly unpopular in the Western world for his land redistribution policy. Tatchell's actions were praised by Zimbabwean activists and many of the newspapers that had previously denounced him.
Tatchell ultimately failed in his attempt to secure an international arrest warrant against Mugabe on torture charges. The magistrate argued that Mugabe had immunity from prosecution as a serving head of state.
In late 2003, Tatchell acted as a press spokesman for the launch of the Zimbabwe Freedom Movement (ZFM), which claimed to be a clandestine group within Zimbabwe committed to overthrowing the Mugabe government by force. The civic action support group Sokwanele urged Tatchell to check his sources, speculating that it might have been by the Zimbabwe government to justify violent action. This speculation proved to be unfounded. The Mugabe regime dismissed the ZFM as a hoax. However, two Central Intelligence Organization members were spotted and turned away from the ZFM launch, as shown in the film "Peter Tatchell: Just who does he think he is?" by Max Barber.
South Africa
Following a protest against the ANC, Tatchell described himself as a long-time anti-apartheid activist, in an essay for the book 'sex and politics in South Africa', he claimed that his lobbying of the ANC in 1987 contributed to it renouncing homophobia and making its first public commitment to lesbian and gay human rights and that in 1989 and 1990, he helped persuade the ANC to include a ban on anti-gay discrimination in the post-apartheid constitution (claiming he assisted in drafting model clauses for the ANC)
After Tatchell was named as one of the UK's most "hate filled bigots" in the 'Desi Express' newspaper, Aaron Saeed, Muslim Affairs spokesperson for the gay human rights group OutRage!, claimed that Tatchell was involved in the anti-apartheid movement for over 20 years.
Gaza and the West Bank
In May 2004, he and a dozen other lesbians and gay men from OutRage! and the Queer Youth Alliance joined a London demonstration organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign. Their placards read "Israel: stop persecuting Palestine! Palestine: stop persecuting queers!". Tatchell claims that others present accused him of being a Mossad agent sent to disrupt the march, of being a racist or a Zionist, a supporter of Ariel Sharon or an agent of the Central Intelligence Agency or MI5. Tatchell has written a number of articles in The Guardian on the issue.
2008 Olympics
In April 2008, Tatchell attempted to disrupt the procession of the Olympic torch though London. As a protest against China's human rights record he stood in front of the bus carrying the torch along Oxford Street while carrying a placard calling on Beijing to "Free Tibet, Free Hu Jia" (the name of a recently jailed human rights activist). Tatchell was taken away by police but was not charged. In an interview Tatchell called on the world to boycott the opening ceremony of the Olympics, or to take other visible action.
Iran
Tatchell is a critic of Iran's criminal code, which has parts based on sharia and prescribes punishments for zina offenses, including consensual sexual relations between same-sex partners.
In 2005, Iran executed two teenagers, Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni, aged 16 and 18, accused of raping a 13-year-old boy at knifepoint. Tatchell argued that Iran has a history of arresting political activists on false charges and extracting false confessions from death penalty convicts, and declared that he believed the original crime was consensual sex between the two, which is illegal in Iran. Tatchell reiterated his long-standing view that Iran is an "Islamo-fascist state". He argued that information from Iranian exile groups with contacts inside Iran was that the teenagers were a secret gay party before they were arrested.
International human rights groups Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch preferred campaigners to focus on Iran violating the Convention on the Rights of the Child (which forbids the execution of juveniles) rather than the weak allegation of consensual sex.
Faisal Alam, founder of American Gay Muslim group Al-Fatiha, argued in the magazine Queer that Iran was condemned before the facts were certain.
Russia
Tatchell has written articles condemning the Russian LGBT propaganda law. In 2014 Tatchell protested Valery Gergiev's support for Vladimir Putin.
Tatchell protested the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi over the gay rights stance of Russia, comparing the event to the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.
Tatchell was arrested at the Moscow Pride parade in 2011 amid a spate of anti-gay violence by neo-Nazis.
In February 2007, the Mayor of Moscow, Yury Luzhkov, visited London mayor Ken Livingstone for an annual meeting that also involved the Mayors of Berlin and Paris, with the mayor of Beijing present as well. Nikolay Alexeyev, one of the organizers of the Moscow gay pride parade, joined Tatchell in protesting the visit. A notice of the protest quoted Talgat Tadzhuddin saying that the Moscow pride marchers should be flogged.
Livingstone asserted that he supports gay rights, and said "In Moscow the Russian Orthodox church, the chief rabbi and the grand Mufti all supported the ban on the Gay Pride march with the main role, due to its great weight in society, being played by the Orthodox church. The attempt of Mr Tatchell to focus attention on the role of the grand Mufti in Moscow, in the face of numerous attacks on gay rights in Eastern Europe, which overwhelmingly come from right-wing Christian and secular currents, is a clear example of an Islamophobic campaign."
Tatchell retorted that Livingstone's remarks were "dishonest, despicable nonsense", adding "The Grand Mufti was not singled out". He further said the Mayor had brought his "office into disrepute" and "has revealed himself to be a person without principles, honesty or integrity."
Israel
Following the vote by the Knesset, the Israeli legislature, in 2007 in favour of bills to ban lesbian and gay pride parades in Jerusalem, the Lesbian and Gay Coalition Against Racism criticised Tatchell, saying:
Tatchell issued a statement opposing any boycott of Israel as a result of this.
In a 2009 article for The Guardian Tatchell condemned what he described as "disproportionate" and "reckless" attacks by the Israeli military on Gaza, but also argued that Western liberals and progressives should not support Hamas which he described as an Islamist group that represses Palestinians and is "potentially as much of a threat to Palestinian freedom as Israel is today."
Anglican and Catholic churches
Tatchell criticised the Catholic Church and Pope Benedict XVI, whom he described as "the ideological inheritor of Nazi homophobia". "He'd like to eradicate homosexuality, but since he can't put LGBT people in physical concentration camps, is doing his best to put them in psychological concentration camps."
Channel 4 indicated in June 2010 that Tatchell would be the presenter of a documentary film examining "the current Pope's teachings throughout the world". The plans sparked criticism from some prominent British Catholics including Conservative politician Ann Widdecombe, who accused Channel 4 of trying to "stir up controversy". Tatchell asserted that the documentary "will not be an anti-Catholic programme".
On 15 September 2010, Tatchell, along with 54 other public figures, signed an open letter, published in The Guardian, stating their opposition to Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the United Kingdom.
With respect to Anglicanism, he stated that "it's very sad to see a good man like the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, going to such extraordinary lengths to appease homophobes within the Anglican Communion".
In 2017 Tatchell praised the Church of England's new 'Valuing all God's Children' scheme for schools, which seeks to stop homophobic and transphobic bullying.
Multiculturalism
Tatchell has occasionally been moderately critical of multiculturalism. In 2010 he gave a speech to the Libertarian Alliance at the National Liberal Club arguing that the British people are increasingly "fragmented according to their different and sometimes competing identities, values, and traditions. These differences are prioritised over shared experiences and interests. Our common needs and the universalities of human rights are downplayed in favour of religious and racial particularities."
Free speech
In 2006, during the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy, Tatchell spoke at a 25 March 2006 rally called the Freedom of Expression Rally.
At the rally, Tatchell argued for the "disestablishment of the Church of England and the freedom to insult the Queen, Prime Minister and Archbishop of Canterbury." Tatchell said that the far-left is "Mired in the immoral morass of cultural relativism, they no longer endorse Enlightenment values and universal human rights. Their support for free speech is now qualified by so many ifs and buts. When push comes to shove, it is more or less worthless."
In 2007, he wrote a Guardian opinion piece, arguing that "The best way to tackle prejudice is by presenting facts and using reasoned arguments, to break down ignorance and ill-will." In 2016, Tatchell made threats to free speech in Britain the topic of his British Humanist Association annual conference lecture. Speaking with reference to a number of censorship controversies in the 2010s, he said that "the recent trend against freedom of speech means that we must fight the battles of the Enlightenment all over again."
However, in 2018 Tatchell voiced his support for Mark Meechan's conviction under section 127 of the Communications Act 2003 for posting a "grossly offensive" video on YouTube.
Islam
Tatchell is critical of Islam, and first wrote about its presence in Britain in 1995. In 1995, he wrote that "although not all Muslims are anti-gay, significant numbers are violently homophobic [...] homophobic Muslim voters may be able to influence the outcome of elections in 20 or more marginal constituencies." He is critical of the UK government's All-Party Parliamentary Group definition of Islamophobia, suggesting that he tries "to avoid the term", that Muslimness is a vague and subjective term, and that the Islamophobia term is a "a de facto threat to free speech and liberal values" and "virtue-signalling".
Tatchell has described the entire Sharia, which is the moral code that Muslims try to live by, as "a clerical form of fascism" and was the keynote speaker at a 2005 protest at the Canadian High Commission, demanding that Ontario's arbitration law, which permitted religious arbitration in civil cases for Jews and Christians, not be extended to Muslims.
In 2017, Tatchell wrote to the organisers of Pride in London to defend the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain. In response to calls by the East London Mosque for CEMB to apologise for placards alleging the mosque "incites murder of LGBTs", Tatchell stated "East London Mosque has refused all dialogue with LGBT community. It refuses to meet LGBT Muslims. I have asked them 11 times since 2015".
Tatchell has previously condemned Islamophobia, saying "any form of prejudice, hatred, discrimination or violence against Muslims is wrong. Full stop". He described the Qur'an as "rather mild in its condemnation of homosexuality".
He points out that much of his prison and asylum casework involves supporting Muslim prisoners and asylum seekers—heterosexual as well as LGBT. In 2006, he helped stop the abuse of Muslim prisoners at a Norwich jail and helped secure parole for other Muslim detainees. Half his asylum cases are, he reports, male and female Muslim refugees. Two of his highest-profile campaigns involved Muslim victims—Mohamed S, who was framed by men who first tried to kill him and then jailed him for eight years, and Sid Saeed, who brought a racism and homophobic harassment case against Deutsche Bank.
Tatchell chose Malcolm X as his specialist subject when appearing on Celebrity Mastermind, explaining that he considered him an inspiration and hero (his other inspirations are Mahatma Gandhi, Sylvia Pankhurst and Martin Luther King Jr.). However, his endorsement of Bruce Perry's biography, in an article calling for black gay role models, led to criticism. due to Perry's claim that Malcolm X had male lovers in his youth.
In February 2010, Women Against Fundamentalism defended Tatchell against allegations of Islamophobia and endorsed his right to challenge all religious fundamentalism: "WAF supports the right of Peter Tatchell and numerous other gay activists to oppose the legitimisation of fundamentalists and other right wing forces on university campuses, by the Left and by the government in its Preventing Violent Extremism strategy and numerous other programmes and platforms".
Muslim Council of Britain
Tatchell had described the Muslim Council of Britain as being "anti-gay", asking how can "they expect to win respect for their community, if at the same time as demanding action against Islamophobia, they themselves demand the legal enforcement of homophobia?". He noted that the MCB had joined forces with the "rightwing Christian Institute" to oppose every gay law reform from 1997 to 2006. In January 2006, the MCB Chairman Iqbal Sacranie said that homosexuals are immoral, harmful and diseased on BBC Radio 4.
Tatchell argued that "Both the Muslim and gay communities suffer prejudice and discrimination. We should stand together to fight Islamophobia and homophobia". Tatchell subsequently criticised Unite Against Fascism for inviting Sacranie to share its platforms, describing him as a "homophobic hate-mongerer."
When the MCB boycotted Holocaust Memorial Day, partly because it was "not sufficiently inclusive", Tatchell wrote that "the only thing that is consistent about the MCB is its opposition to the human rights of lesbians and gay men".
Muslims and gay rights
In 2006, Tatchell wrote an opinion column in The Guardian arguing that Muslims deliberately conflate offence with violence, in an effort to suppress Muslim reformers in Britain. He argued that Islamist groups like Hizb ut-Tahrir in Britain see "any criticism of Islam is an insult and that all such insults are unacceptable" in order to suppress the "free exchange of ideas". The Muslim gay rights organisation IMAAN criticised Tatchell, saying, "OutRage! doesn't understand our cultural and religious sensitivities. Often, the way they word and phrase their press releases can and does antagonise Muslims. Much as we’ve invited them to meetings so we can talk about the best way to tackle Muslim LGBT issues, they insist on doing things their way."
In the book "Out of Place: Interrogating Silences in Queerness/Raciality", in a chapter called "Gay Imperialism: Gender and Sexuality Discourse in the 'War on Terror'", Jin Haritaworn, Tamsila Tauqir and Esra Erdem wrote, "rather than help, politics such as Tatchell's have worsened the situation for the majority of queer Muslims. It has become increasingly difficult for groups such as the Safra Project, who are forced into the frontline of the artificially constructed gay v. Muslim divide, to contest sexual oppression in Muslim communities. The more homophobia is constructed as belonging to Islam, the more anti-homophobic talk will be viewed as a white, even racist, phenomenon, and the harder it will be to increase tolerance and understanding among straight Muslims [...] The dialogue which Safra and other queer Muslim groups have long sought over this is more often than not ignored or disregarded, and white gay activists such as Tatchell have proved indifferent to the fact that the mud which they sling onto Muslim communities lands on queer Muslims themselves."
Despite previously attending a "rally for free expression", where the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons were celebrated, Tatchell sued the small publisher Raw Nerve Books, who issued an apology, and replaced links to the book on their site with that apology, but were later forced to shut down. The Monthly Review described this as censorship, adding, "the violent suppression of "Gay Imperialism" and the book in which it appeared also works as a warning to the authors, editors, and other critics and potential critics of Tatchell to better keep their mouths shut."
Yusuf al-Qaradawi
In July 2004, then-Mayor of London Ken Livingstone invited Yusuf al-Qaradawi to attend a talk called "A woman's right to choose" about the wearing of the hijab. Livingstone had read positive coverage of Qaradawi in The Guardian and The Sun.
In October 2004, 2,500 Muslim academics from 23 countries condemned Qaradawi, and accused him of giving "Islam a bad name and foster[ing] hatred among civilizations" and "providing a religious cover for terrorism".
Tatchell argued that Qaradawi expresses liberal positions to deceive the Western press and politicians, while being "rightwing, misogynist, anti-semitic and homophobic", using his books and fatwas to advocate female genital mutilation, blame for rape victims who dress immodestly, and the execution of apostates, homosexuals, and women who have sex outside marriage.
Livingstone issued a 2005 dossier praising Qaradawi as a moderate, based on positive press coverage he had received previously. Livingstone pronounced that Tatchell has "a long history of Islamophobia", and asserted that he is in a "de facto alliance with the American neo-cons and Israeli intelligence services." Tatchell strenuously denied the accusations, pointing out that he has never said any of the things that Livingstone accused him of saying. Livingstone continued to describe Qaradawi as "one of the leading progressive voices in the Muslim world" in 2010, after having been denied entry to the UK for his extremist views.
Two years after condemning Tatchell, Livingstone stated he "probably shouldn't" have called Tatchell an "Islamophobe".
Adam Yosef
In December 2005, Respect Party activist Adam Yosef came under criticism for an article in Desi Xpress opposing registered civil partnerships. He asserted that Tatchell needed "a good slap in the face" and his "queer campaign army" should "pack their bent bags and head back to Australia". Desi Xpress staff expressed regret to Tatchell and gave him a right of reply, while Yosef apologised and retracted his article, claiming the "slap in the face" remark was a "figure of speech" and the remark about Australia was not racist. Yosef later backed Tatchell's 2009 election campaign.
Secondary issues
Environmental issues
For over 20 years, Tatchell has written and campaigned about environmental problems including global warming and resource depletion, pointing out that they often have a disproportionately negative impact on developing countries. In the late 1980s, he was co-organiser of the Green and Socialist Conferences, which sought to ally reds and greens. He championed energy conservation and renewable energy; in particular tidal, wave and concentrated solar power. On 24 May 2009, he appeared on the BBC Daily Politics programme to oppose the Elephant and Castle regeneration scheme, which he said would bring few benefits to local working-class people. However, most of his campaigning continues to be in the areas of human rights and "queer emancipation".
In August 2008 Tatchell wrote about speculative theories concerning possible atmospheric oxygen depletion compared to prehistoric levels, and called for further investigation to test such claims and, if proven, their long-term consequences.
Animal rights
Tatchell is an active supporter of animal rights, saying "human rights and animal rights are two aspects of the same struggle against injustice", and that he advocates for a "claim to be spared suffering and offered inalienable rights" for both humans and animals.
Cornwall
Tatchell campaigned on the issue of the constitutional status of Cornwall. In November 2008, The Guardian carried an article by him entitled Self-rule for Cornwall, in which he said:
This article received the largest number of comments to any Guardian article, according to This is Cornwall. Over 1,500 comments were made, and while some comments were supportive, Tatchell found himself "shocked and disgusted" by the anti-Cornish sentiment shown by many commenters.
Columnist and other pursuits
Tatchell has written numerous articles in newspapers and magazines related to his various campaigns. He was highly critical of the media coverage of the Admiral Duncan pub bombing, claiming than the homophobic attitudes of news outlets had helped fuel the attack, and that the press concerned themselves almost exclusively with the one heterosexual victim, rather than the two other deaths and the dozens of maimed patrons, saying that:
In 1987 Tatchell appeared on the second programme of the first series of After Dark, a discussion on press ethics with, among others, Tony Blackburn, Victoria Gillick, Johnny Edgecombe and a Private Eye journalist.
On 5 August 1995 Tatchell was interviewed at length by Andrew Neil on his one-on-one interview show Is This Your Life?, made by Open Media for Channel 4.
, he has been an Ambassador for the penal reform group, Make Justice Work.
In 2011, he became the Director of the Peter Tatchell Foundation.
Tatchell is a patron of Humanists UK, an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society and a committed secularist, saying, "As an atheist, secularist and humanist I believe that reason, science and ethics – not religious superstition – are the best way to understand the world and promote human rights and welfare."
He contributes to The Jeremy Vine Show on BBC Radio 2.
Awards
In 2006, New Statesman readers voted him sixth on their list of "Heroes of our time".
In 2009, he racked up multiple awards. He was named Campaigner of the Year in The Observer Ethical Awards, London Citizen of Sanctuary Award, Shaheed Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti Award (for reporting the Balochistan national liberation struggle), Evening Standard 1000 Most Influential Londoners (winning again in 2011), Liberal Voice of the Year and a Blue Plaque in recognition of his more than 40 years of human rights campaigning.
In 2010 he won Total Politics Top 50 Political Influencers. A diary journalist reported rumours that he had been recommended for the award of a life peerage in the British New Year Honours. He was said to have turned it down.
In 2012, the National Secular Society awarded Tatchell Secularist of the Year, in recognition of his lifelong commitment to the defence of human rights against religious fundamentalism.
On 21 September 2012, he was awarded a Lifetime Achievement award at the UK's first National Diversity Awards. Alongside Misha B, Jody Cundy, Peter Norfolk and others he was a patron for 2013 National Diversity Awards.
In January 2014, Tatchell was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Laws by De Montfort University.
Legacy
The Peter Tatchell Papers are held at the London School of Economics in the Hall Carpenter Archive. Supplementary papers are housed at the British Library. The papers can be accessed through the British Library catalogue.
Peter Tatchell Foundation
The Peter Tatchell Foundation (PTF) is a non-profit, nonpartisan organisation based in the United Kingdom which "seeks to promote and protect the human rights of individuals, communities and nations, in the UK and internationally, in accordance with established national and international human rights law" and its stated aims and objectives are "to raise awareness, understanding, protection and implementation of human rights, in the UK and worldwide". Tatchell started the Foundation as a company in 2011, which gained charitable status in 2018. The organisation was named after Tatchell to honour his 50+ years of globally campaigning for human rights. The charity's celebrity patrons include Sir Ian McKellen and Paul O'Grady.
The organisation works with a variety of human rights issues globally, such as homophobia, transphobia, sexism, gender inequality, racism, political freedom, censorship, religious discrimination, unjust detention, freedom of association, capital punishment, asylum and refugees, trade union rights, self-determination of oppressed peoples, torture, genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and poverty.
In 2012 the foundation gained funding from The Funding Network for three projects: "Casework & Advice", including adding an "Advice" section to its website; "Equal Love", campaigning on same-sex marriage and opposite-sex civil partnerships; and "Olympic Equality Initiative", working against sexism and homophobia in the Olympic movement.
Bibliography
See also
Capital Gay
Hall–Carpenter Archives
LGBT Network
List of LGBT rights activists
List of peace activists
References
Sources
External links
Peter Tatchell Foundation
Contributor page at The Guardian
Interview with The Third Estate.
Archived WAF statement on Tatchell
Catalogue of the Tatchell papers held at LSE Archives
1952 births
Living people
Activists from Melbourne
HIV/AIDS activists
Alumni of the University of North London
Anti–Vietnam War activists
Australian atheists
Australian human rights activists
Australian emigrants to England
Australian socialists
British atheists
British social commentators
British humanists
British human rights activists
British republicans
British secularists
Critics of the Catholic Church
British socialists
Gay politicians
Green Party of England and Wales parliamentary candidates
Labour Party (UK) parliamentary candidates
LGBT politicians from Australia
LGBT rights activists from Australia
Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom
People with traumatic brain injuries | false | [
"On 9 September 1971 the UK Gay Liberation Front (GLF) undertook an action to disrupt the launch of the Church-based morality campaign Nationwide Festival of Light at the Methodist Central Hall, Westminster. A number of well-known British figures were involved in the disrupted rally, and the action involved the use of \"radical drag\" drawing on the Stonewall riots and subsequent GLF actions in the US. Peter Tatchell, gay human rights campaigner, was involved in the action which was one of a series which influenced the development of gay activism in the UK, received media attention at the time, and is still discussed by some of those involved.\n\nBackground\nThe Gay Liberation Front in the UK was formed in 1970 in response to the formation of the GLF in the US, which was established after the Stonewall riots in 1969. Prior to the formation of GLF in the UK, the Campaign for Homosexual Equality (CHE) had been the primary focus for the campaign for gay rights; CHE focused on lobbying government for specific legal reforms, while GLF campaigned for systemic changes in society that would lead to wider acceptance of lesbian and gay people. GLF existed for four years in the UK, and this action was one of the best known and controversial actions they undertook, one which featured in the national news at the time. Public figures involved at the time still describe their experience today. This was period when lesbian and gay people were shifting from an approach that was apologetic to one of pride. In 1971 the UK GLF published its Manifesto and held a series of high-profile direct actions, including the one at the Festival of Light.\n\nThe Festival of Light included several notable people of that time, such as Cliff Richard, Mary Whitehouse, Malcolm Muggeridge and Lord Longford. It was an organisation which lobbied the UK Government and held public rallies to show support for their lobbying. Muggeridge and Whitehouse identified certain liberalisations in law, and public acceptance of certain phenomena, as moral evil; examples are extra-marital sex, pornography in films, sex on TV, legalisation of abortion, and openly-gay individuals.\n\nActivism as theatre\n\nDrawing on the gay tradition of camp, GLF developed a new style of political campaigning, \"protest as performance\", where the claim for human rights was projected through creativity, using imagination, daring and wit, rather than marches and rallies. These actions were called \"zaps\", intended to reduce the rallies to a farcical shambles. The Festival of Light was the most notable of these. One of those who embraced this style of activism was Bette Bourne, the message of gay liberation being couched in comedy, song, tap routines and make-up. \"We were finding a new way of doing drag that wasn't offensive to women, that wasn't about false tits and distasteful jokes. We saw ourselves as a new type of man. We could wear frocks and make-up and be silly and funny, but we had a serious message, too.\" This began a tradition of drag continued through the work of performers like David Hoyle down, a style of drag, separate from the aggressive form of \"female impersonation\". Another figure who was involved in the disruption was Martin Corbett, who walked into the basement of Westminster Central Hall, ordered the staff to leave with an assumed authority, and plunged the Festival into darkness by disconnecting the electrical and broadcasting cables.\n\nPeter Tatchell described the Festival of Light as being against the \"moral darkness\" of \"pornography, homosexuality and abortion.\" The GLF counter-protest was code-named \"Operation Rupert' after the subversive 'Rupert Bear' cartoon in OZ magazine. He attended the Festival action as part of the GLF Youth Group. \"When Malcolm Muggeridge, speaking out about homosexuals, declared: 'I don't like them.' The feeling was mutual,\" the group he was part of staged a \"kiss-in\" in the upper balcony of the hall. \"Mice were released into the audience; lesbian couples stood up and passionately embraced. A dozen GLF nuns in immaculate blue and white habits charged the platform shouting gay liberation slogans, and a GLF bishop began preaching an impromptu sermon which urged people to 'keep on sinning.\n\nRadical Drag\nThe theme known as \"radical drag\" was a central element to the Festival of Light and subsequent GLF actions. In response to ideas about the 'wrong-sex', gay people distanced themselves from stereotypes of effeminate gay men and butch lesbians, in a way in which gay people were supposed to appear like anybody else. Within the Gay Liberation Movement there was also a deeper questioning of the validity of gender roles. The philosophy underlying radical drag rejected the concepts of masculinity and femininity, which correlated to ideas of dominance and submission. The idea of men who are really women, or of 'real men' dissolves in this deconstruction. In dissociating from the stigma of effeminacy in order to gain acceptance in heterosexual society, gay men tacitly supported the rigidity of gender roles, a definition of men from which they were excluded because of their sexuality. Gay men were complicit in the oppression of the effeminate gay men who adopted that stereotype, often denouncing the camp queens and diesel dykes who had 'come out' and born the brunt of homophobia before those who were more discreet themselves felt comfortable enough to come out. In 1974, to counteract this, the GLF stated that it had developed \"a strong section of opinion which claims that the only way for gay people to come out that will make any real impact on the gender role definitions which underlie gay oppression is by adopting a life-style and appearance that explicitly reject the masculine/feminine distinction and all that it implies.\"\n\nSubsequent campaigns and other actions\nThe work of GLF in this and other actions and demonstrations helped inspire more people towards open activism. Following the style of campaign and public demonstration, CHE changed its own style of campaigning, and interest in GLF waned. After the demise of GLF, Peter Tatchell went on to form OutRage!, which still performs strategic actions in which individuals, organisations and countries identified as homophobic are openly confronted in provocative ways, such as at the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest.\n\nOther actions and acts of civil disobedience confronting discrimination and homophobia at the time included a picket at Pan Books in protest at the publication of a book by David Reuben, which claimed that gay men were obsessed with the anal insertion of vegetables, freedom rides and sit-ins at pubs that refused to serve 'poofs' and 'dykes', the occupation of Coutts Bank because of their holding the Maudsley Hospital account (where aversion therapy was still being practiced in the early 1970s) and the confrontation of Professor Hans Eysenck during a lecture in which he advocated electric-shock and aversion therapy to \"cure\" homosexuality. Tatchell talks of this time, \"As well as being politics with fun, this activism helped banish our internalised shame, repairing much of the damage that homophobia had done to us. Through GLF, we became happier, more confident queers, unafraid to challenge even the most powerful homophobes.\"\n\nSee also\n\n Gay liberation\n Socialism and LGBT rights\n Gay Activists Alliance\n USA GLF: N. A. Diaman, Brenda Howard, Sylvia Rivera\n London GLF: Bob Mellors, Peter Tatchell\n Hall–Carpenter Archives\n List of LGBT rights organizations\n Nationwide Festival of Light\n\nReferences and further reading\n Material relating to the Festival of Light, [1971–1975], mainly concerning the disinformation campaign by the GLF, is held at the Hall–Carpenter Archives.\n\nFootnotes\n\n1971 in LGBT history\nLGBT history in the United Kingdom\nLGBT civil rights demonstrations\n1971 in the United Kingdom",
"Urban Vermin is a Canadian animated television series produced by Decode Entertainment for YTV. The series was broadcast for a single season of 26 episodes, airing from October 8, 2007 to August 30, 2008.\n\nPremise\nUrban Vermin is a story about two raccoon brothers that were once best friends until Ken decided to assemble an army of rats to help him seize control of all the garbage on their block. Then Abe decides to strike back against his evil brother and assembles his own team of resistance fighters to help him free the block from Ken's reign. Abe's team is called the GLF (Garbage Liberation Front) while Ken's army is simply called TRA (The Rat Army).\n\nCharacters\n\nMain heroes\n Abe (voiced by Gabe Plener) – Abe is a male raccoon, the leader of the GLF, and one of the main protagonists. Abe wears a lime green shirt, dark green camouflage pants, and a green hat with a pair of goggles. He is adventurous, brave, and a huge fan of Manchego cheese. He possesses boundless energy, a mind for keen strategy, tons of fortitude, and an endless supply of goodwill towards all verminkind. His trademarks are his trusty antenna staff, his trusty tape measure, his unexplainable fear of ladybugs, and his die-hard belief in truth, justice and the vermin way. Abe does not always practice what he preaches, but will usually admit to making a mistake. He loves pulling pranks on Ken. He loves molten chocolate cake. Abe hates his birthday (because he shares one with his younger brother, Ken.). He gets excited about secret planning tables, secret missions, and secret banana peels. Abe is the leader of the GLF, which operates out of a master control center hidden deep inside a backyard tree. There is enough garbage in the alleys to share if Ken does not succeed in hoarding it all. A fierce rivalry with Abe's brother Ken has always existed and always kept them at odds. There was even a time when Abe was the rebellious teen and Ken the goody goody mama's boy; however, Abe is now the good guy while Ken is the control freak evil dictator who rules the block with an iron paw.\n Coco (voiced by Alyson Court) – Coco is a female flying squirrel, the mechanic of the GLF, and another main protagonist. Prior to the series, Coco worked for Ken, but switched to Abe's side to use her genius for good instead. She graduated top of her class at Vermin High Rocket Scientist School. Her thesis project was inventing a time machine that could travel half a second into the past; it was brilliant but useless. She worked at a comic shop and developed an obsession with science fiction. Around this time she also found an abandoned shed full of spare parts and started inventing amazing, brilliantly useful things. Ken offered Coco a contract, so she moved into the ice cream truck and took it from there. Within a year she could see the error of her ways; every citizen in the block was utterly miserable. Now she works for Abe. She shares a clubhouse with three smelly boys. Like any other team, they complement each other but can also get under each other's skin. And Coco's stubbornness is pretty legendary. She is aware that Nigel has a crush on her, but she denies liking him back. She took ten years of accordion lessons, which is revealed in \"Raiders of the Lost Kazoo\".\n Nigel (voiced by Dwayne Hill) – Nigel is a male mole, the muscle of the GLF and another main protagonist. Nigel has the strength of ten ordinary vermin, he's a talented tunneler, and, also, blind as a mole. Nigel was the second member of the GLF after its founder, Abe. Abe tried to go it alone, got ambushed by a rat patrol, and Nigel jumped in to save him. Nigel is so blind that he actually thought he was saving a beautiful damsel in distress at the time. But fate was sealed. Nigel's sense of loyalty, happy-go-lucky-ness, and clumsiness knows no bounds. He loves to tell long-winded stories and jokes that are not funny—though he thinks they are. Nigel grew up in a big family of funny moles. Most are quite gifted when it comes to comedic timing. But Nigel grew up in the shadow of his siblings. He became a student of comedy. He knows a lot about the craft; he is just not funny himself. Throughout the series, it is shown he has a huge crush on Coco, but is too shy to tell her.\n Madman (voiced by Joseph Motiki) – Madman has an ability to think in ways most other vermin never could. This is both a source of weakness and an enormous strength, which is an asset to the team. Despite his ridiculous ideas mentioned in a variety of voices and personas, he occasionally says exactly the right thing at the right time and comes up with the only solution to a problem too big for anyone else to comprehend. Madman joined the GLF by ripping down all the recruitment posters so he was sure to be the only one to join up. He actually thought they were tasty and ended up eating them all by accident. Before that he was a skunk born in Stinkton who wandered away one day and got adopted by a family of 2 Legs.\n\nAllies\nChuck – He is a chipmunk. He wants to join the GLF. Madman is Chuck's idol. He failed in training but he can join the GLF.\nTeDe (TD) – He is a skunk and leader of the Stink Club.\nWinston – He is a skunk from Stinkton, Madman's real hometown. He is Madman's twin brother.\nBiffy – He is a mole and Nigel's nephew. He sports a red mohawk and wears a green outfit, including a green vest, green camouflage pants, and a red shirt.\nHans Flix – He is a Marmot and lives with his mother.\nJuanita – She is a raccoon and the mayor of the Block. She has a soft spot for Abe. Madman has a huge crush on her.\nJP – He is an informant of the GLF and Ken's Rat Army. He lives in shadows. He does not choose sides.\nNero – Nero is a scientifically enhanced cybernetic chihuahua. Zitzy decided to enhance him, to make him better, stronger, faster, but he is on GLF's side. He first appeared in \"Dog of War\".\n\nVillains\n\nMain\n Ken (voiced by Scott McCord) – Ken is Abe's brother and the main antagonist. Ken was born to be a dictator. Spoiled rotten as a kid by his mother, he simply could never live in a world where he could not continue his spoiled rotten lifestyle. His brother growing up was Abe, who was not as spoiled, because raccoons always spoil the youngest—it is a tradition. He currently rules the Block, controlling as much of the garbage as he can. Only the GLF keep him from absolute control on a daily basis. Ken's closest confidante is a pink flamingo scepter named Penelope. They can often be found dining and dancing together in the throne room. Ken is petty, egomaniacal, lazy, cruel, greedy, jealous, vain, and cheats at hopscotch. He operates out of an old ice cream truck he refers to as the Lair or the Evil Pizzeria of Doom. \n No-Neck (voiced by Yannick Bisson) – No-Neck is a dirty rat serving as the Colonel of the Rat Army. Although he runs a tight ship, he likes playing the harp, collecting cocktail umbrellas, and singing karaoke.\n Zitzy (voiced by Adam Reid) – Zitzy is a Team Tryanny's Resident Evil Scientist. Zitzy is a possum. He faints a lot, even when he is just frustrated. He was just a possum with diabolical dreams and a scientific calculator when the Empire was at the feet of Ken and Coco. When she left, he lied on his resume and got the job. He has never, ever been able to measure up to Coco. He steals all her ideas from all the blueprints she left behind, but it is hard to replicate them without making something blow up. But the reason he lied on his resume in the first place is because he knows he is a genius, light years ahead of his time, and he just knows that the world of evil doing is nothing without him.\n\nMinor\n Fake Mommy – She is a thief. She tricks Ken and Abe. She stole Ken and Abe's items.\n Kim Jong Shrill – He works for Ken's army, but he betrays Ken and tries to kill him and No-Neck. He hates dirt and microbes. His name is a pun on Kim Jong-il.\n\nGadgets and items\nAlleycat: Alleycat is GLF's toy car and war machine.\nKrusher: Krusher is Ken's extreme monster truck.\nB.A.G. 3000: B.A.G. 3000 is a dangerous weapon created by Coco. The weapon's effect is laughing. But the last one is most dangerous. So Coco was thrown last one. Zitzy takes plans for the B.A.G. 3000 and makes it. Zitzy's B.A.G. 3000 was destroyed by Madman.\nRobotic Juanita: Created by Zitzy. Ken needs it because he wants become the Block's new mayor.\nDirty Donut Machine: Created by Zitzy. It makes dirty donuts. Dirty donut's effect is zombify vermin.\nSpace-Time Continuum Harp: Created by Coco. The effect is to briefly stun vermin at the talent show just long enough for the GLF to swoop in and steal the shrimp ring. Coco makes a mistake; she opens a hole in the space-time continuum. Coco and Nigel are doomed to repeat the same mission.\nKazoo of Doom: Used by Tabba in the past at the war. Effect of the kazoo is of controlling rats.\n\nBroadcast\nJetix Europe acquired Urban Vermin for broadcast in Europe, with Buena Vista International Television as the distributor.\n\nHome media\nThe home video distributor KaBoom! Entertainment have brought the rights to the show with Nelvana distributed by the company. Peace Arch Entertainment released two DVDs in 2008 and they are titled Arms Race and Battle of the Brothers. Each release uses the English and French tracks. Every release contains three episodes.\n\nReception\nThe Globe and Mail praised the look of the series, stating that the \"computer-generated animation is crisp and visually compelling\".\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nOfficial website\nUrban Vermin at Jetix (United Kingdom and Ireland)\n''Urban Vermin\"\" at Jetix (Russia)\nUrban Vermin at Jetix (Romania)\n\n2000s Canadian animated television series\n2007 Canadian television series debuts\n2008 Canadian television series endings\nCanadian children's animated action television series\nTelevision series by DHX Media\nYTV (Canadian TV channel) original programming\nJetix original programming\nCanadian computer-animated television series\nTelevision series about raccoons\nAnimated television series about squirrels"
]
|
[
"Peter Tatchell",
"Gay Liberation Front",
"What was Tatchell's role in the Gay Liberation Front?",
"in London became a leading member of the Gay Liberation Front (GLF)",
"What did he do within the group?",
"During this time Tatchell was prominent in organising sit-ins at pubs that refused to serve \"poofs\" and protests against police harassment",
"What other events did he participate in?",
"With others he helped organise Britain's first Gay Pride march in 1972.",
"Who else worked with him in the GLF?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_acbda4b802ac4f2b87c8606e402bada5_1 | How long was he a member of the GLF? | 5 | How long was Peter Tatchell a member of the Gay Liberation Front? | Peter Tatchell | To avoid conscription into the Australian Army, Tatchell moved to London in 1971. He had accepted being gay in 1969, and in London became a leading member of the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) until its 1974 collapse. During this time Tatchell was prominent in organising sit-ins at pubs that refused to serve "poofs" and protests against police harassment and the medical classification of homosexuality as an illness. With others he helped organise Britain's first Gay Pride march in 1972. In 1973, he attended the 10th World Youth Festival in East Berlin on GLF's behalf. His actions triggered opposition within and between different groups of national delegates including the Communist Party of Great Britain and National Union of Students. He was banned from conferences, had his leaflets confiscated and burned, was interrogated by the secret police (the Stasi) and threatened and assaulted by other delegates, mostly communists. Tatchell later claimed that this was the first time gay liberation politics were publicly disseminated and discussed in a communist country, although he noted that, in terms of decriminalisation and the age of consent, gay men had greater rights in East Germany at the time than in Britain and much of the West. Describing his time in the Gay Liberation Front, he wrote in The Guardian that: [The] GLF was a glorious, enthusiastic and often chaotic mix of anarchists, hippies, leftwingers, feminists, liberals and counter-culturalists. Despite our differences, we shared a radical idealism - a dream of what the world could and should be - free from not just homophobia but the whole sex-shame culture, which oppressed straights as much as LGBTs. We were sexual liberationists and social revolutionaries, out to turn the world upside down. [...] GLF's main aim was never equality within the status quo. [...] GLF's strategy for queer emancipation was to change society's values and norms, rather than adapt to them. We sought a cultural revolution to overturn centuries of male heterosexual domination and thereby free both queers and women. [...] Forty years on, GLF's gender agenda has been partly won. [...] Girlish boys and boyish girls don't get victimised as much as in times past. LGBT kids often now come out at the age of 12 or 14. While many are bullied, many others are not. The acceptance of sexual and gender diversity is increasing. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Peter Gary Tatchell (born 25 January 1952) is a British human rights campaigner, originally from Australia, best known for his work with LGBT social movements.
Tatchell was selected as the Labour Party's parliamentary candidate for Bermondsey in 1981. He was then denounced by party leader Michael Foot for ostensibly supporting extra-parliamentary action against the Thatcher government. Labour subsequently allowed him to stand in the Bermondsey by-election in February 1983, in which the party lost the seat to the Liberals. In the 1990s he campaigned for LGBT rights through the direct action group OutRage!, which he co-founded. He has worked on various campaigns, such as Stop Murder Music against music lyrics allegedly inciting violence against LGBT people and writes and broadcasts on various human rights and social justice issues. He attempted a citizen's arrest of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe in 1999 and again in 2001.
In April 2004, he joined the Green Party of England and Wales and in 2007 was selected as prospective parliamentary candidate in the constituency of Oxford East, but in December 2009 he stood down due to brain damage he says was caused by a bus accident as well as damage sustained during various protests. Since 2011, he has been the Director of the Peter Tatchell Foundation.
Early life
Tatchell was born in Melbourne, Australia. His father was a lathe operator and his mother worked in a biscuit factory. His parents divorced when he was four and his mother remarried soon afterwards.
Since the family finances were strained by medical bills, he had to leave school at 16 in 1968. He started work as a sign-writer and window-dresser in department stores. Tatchell claims to have incorporated the theatricality of these displays into his activism.
Raised as a Christian, Tatchell says that he "ditched [his] faith a long time ago" and is an atheist. It is widely reported that Tatchell is a vegan; however, Tatchell himself only states that he eats no meat, but does eat eggs, cheese, and, according to Richard Fairbrass, wild salmon, meaning Tatchell is a pescatarian.
He became interested in outdoor adventurous activities such as surfing and mountain climbing. Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Any Questions about how insurance and legal risks were making British teachers reluctant to take pupils on outdoor adventures, he said outdoor activities helped him develop the courage to take political risks in adult life.
Campaigns in Australia
Tatchell's political activity began at Mount Waverley Secondary College, where in 1967 he launched campaigns in support of Australia's Aboriginal people. Tatchell was elected secretary of the school's Student Representative Council. In his final year in 1968, as school captain, he took the lead in setting up a scholarship scheme for Aboriginal people and led a campaign for Aboriginal land rights. These activities led the headmaster to claim he had been manipulated by communists.
Prompted by the impending hanging of Ronald Ryan in 1967, Tatchell went round his local area painting slogans against the hanging, a fact he did not reveal until nearly 30 years later. Ryan was accused of killing a prison warder while escaping from Pentridge Prison in Coburg, Victoria. Tatchell claimed, unsuccessfully, that the trajectory of the bullet through the warder's body probably made it impossible that Ryan could have fired the fatal shot.
In 1968, Tatchell began campaigning against the American and Australian involvement in the Vietnam War, in his view a war of aggression in support of a "brutal and corrupt dictatorship" responsible for torture and executions. The Victoria state government and Melbourne city council attempted to suppress the anti-Vietnam War campaign by banning street leafleting and taking police action against anti-war demonstrations.
In 2004, he proposed the renaming of Australian capital cities with their Aboriginal place names.
Gay Liberation Front
To avoid conscription into the Australian Army, Tatchell moved to London in 1971. He had opened up about being gay in 1969, and in London became a leading member of the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) until its 1974 collapse. During this time Tatchell was prominent in organising sit-ins at pubs that refused to serve "poofs" and protests against police harassment and the medical classification of homosexuality as an illness. With others he helped organise Britain's first Gay Pride march in 1972.
In 1973, he attended the 10th World Youth Festival in East Berlin on GLF's behalf. His plans to protest at the festival were not well received by either the British delegation or the GDR hosts, however he was eventually allowed to give a speech at Humboldt University. His lecture was subject to various disruptions, it ended in his denunciation as a "troublemaker" by a member of the audience. The following day, Tatchell attempted to hand out leaflets at a concert, an official of the Free German Youth objected and encouraged fellow concert-goers to destroy the leaflets. Tatchell intended to carry a placard advocating gay rights at the closing rally of the festival, the British delegation incorrectly translated the placard to read "East Germany persecutes homosexuals", this was put to a vote and the majority decided the placard was not acceptable. Yet, in defiance of the collective decision, Tatchell carried the placard anyway and was then beaten. The placard was torn in half.
Tatchell later claimed that this was the first time gay liberation politics were publicly disseminated and discussed in a communist country, although he noted that, in terms of decriminalisation and the age of consent, gay men had greater rights in East Germany at the time than much of the West.
Describing his time in the Gay Liberation Front, he wrote in The Guardian that:
Tatchell collaborated with public artist Martin Firrell to mark the 50th anniversary of the GLF in 2020. The artist's Still Revolting series drew on Tatchell's personal recollections of the GLF, quoting Tatchell's 1973 placard 'Homosexuals Are Revolting' created by Tatchell for London Gay Pride. The artist's addition of the word 'still' reflects the truth that homosexuality is still regarded as intolerable by some and many LGBT+ people around the world are still struggling for acceptance, security and equality.
Graduation
After taking A levels at evening classes, he attended the Polytechnic of North London (PNL), now part of London Metropolitan University, where he obtained a 2:1 BSc (Hons) in sociology.
At PNL he was a member of the National Union of Students Gay Rights Campaign. On graduating he became a freelance journalist specialising in foreign stories, during which he publicised the Indonesian annexation of West Papua and child labour on British-owned tea farms in Malawi.
Political activity
Tatchell popularised the phrase "sexual apartheid" to describe the separate laws that long existed for gays and heterosexuals.
Labour candidate for Bermondsey
In 1978, Tatchell joined the Labour Party and moved to a council flat in Bermondsey, south-east London. At the Bermondsey Constituency Labour Party's (CLP) AGM in February 1980, the left group won control and Tatchell was elected Secretary. When the sitting Labour Member of Parliament (MP), Bob Mellish, retired in 1981, Tatchell was selected as his successor, despite Arthur Latham, a former MP and former Chairman of the Tribune Group, being considered the favourite. While Militant was cited as the reason for Tatchell's selection, Tatchell disagrees and ascribes his selection to the support of the "older, 'born and bred' working class; the younger professional and intellectual members swung behind Latham".
In an article for a left-wing magazine, Tatchell urged the Labour Party to support direct action campaigning to challenge the Margaret Thatcher-led Tory government, stating "we must look to new more militant forms of extra-parliamentary opposition which involve mass popular participation and challenge the government's right to rule". Social Democratic Party MP James Wellbeloved, arguing the article was anti-Parliamentary, quoted it at Prime Minister's Questions in November 1981. Foot denounced Tatchell, stating that he would not be endorsed as a candidate and a vote at the Labour Party National Executive Committee denied Tatchell's endorsement. However, the Bermondsey Labour Party continued to support him and it was eventually agreed that when the selection was rerun, Tatchell would be eligible, and he duly won. When Mellish resigned from Parliament and triggered a by-election, Tatchell's candidacy was endorsed, and the ensuing campaign was regarded as one of the most homophobic in modern British history.
Tatchell was assaulted in the street, had his flat attacked, and had a death threat and a live bullet put through his letterbox in the night. Although the Bermondsey seat had long been a Labour stronghold, the Liberal candidate, Simon Hughes, won the election. During the campaign, Liberal canvassers were accused of stirring up homophobia on the doorsteps. Male Liberal workers campaigned wearing lapel badges with the words, "I've been kissed by Peter Tatchell" following the suggestion that he was attempting to hide his sexuality; this campaign was criticised by Roy Hattersley at a Labour news conference. One of Hughes' campaign leaflets claimed the election was "a straight choice" between Liberal and Labour. Hughes has since apologised for what may have been seen as an inadvertent slur and later came out as bisexual in 2006.
Democratic Defence
Tatchell published the book Democratic Defence in 1985. In it, he outlined his suggestions for a defence policy for the United Kingdom after it underwent nuclear disarmament. Tatchell argued that the British military was still organised on an imperialist strategy of basing troops abroad rather than on a strategy of defending Britain itself against foreign attacks.
Citing the difficulties that the British army was facing in Northern Ireland, he argued that their current methods had proven ineffective against guerrilla warfare, along with arguing for troops to be allowed to join trade unions and political parties, and to end strict adherence to "petty regulations". He praised the Second World War-era British Home Guard as an example of a "citizens' army", as well as the armed forces of Sweden, Switzerland and Yugoslavia as positive examples.
In the book, Tatchell also argued for a British withdrawal from NATO and for the establishment of a European Self-Defence Organisation, independent of both the United States, whom he felt that Europe had become too dependent on their military protection, and the Soviet Union, which he condemned for their invasions of Czechoslovakia and of Afghanistan, as well its internal repression. He quoted with approval Enoch Powell's argument that the threat from the Soviet Union to the UK was exaggerated.
The book was reviewed by the Times Literary Supplement in May 1985.
Green issues
In February 2000 Tatchell resigned from Labour, citing the treatment of Ken Livingstone during the nomination of a candidate for Mayor of London, and of similar cases in the Scottish and Welsh elections, as evidence that the party "no longer has any mechanism for democratic involvement and transformation". He fought unsuccessfully for a seat on the London Assembly as an Independent candidate within the Green Left grouping, in support of Livingstone.
On 7 April 2004 he joined the Green Party of England and Wales but did not envisage standing for election. However, in 2007, he became the party's parliamentary candidate for Oxford East. In 16 December 2009, he withdrew as a candidate claiming brain damage he says was caused by a bus accident as well as damage inflicted by Mugabe's bodyguards when Tatchell attempted to arrest him in 2001 in Brussels, and by neo-Nazis in Moscow.
Tatchell opposes nuclear power; instead he advocates concentrated solar power.
In Tribune, he pointed out the adverse effects of climate change: "By 2050, if climate change proceeds unchecked, England will no longer be a green and pleasant land. In between periods of prolonged scorching drought, we are likely to suffer widespread flooding."
For many years, he supported a green–red alliance. More recently, he helped launch the Green Left grouping within the Green Party. He urged links between trade unions and the Greens. On 27 April 2010, he urged Green Party supporters to vote for Liberal Democrats in constituencies where they had an incumbent MP or a strong chance of winning.
In August 2021, Tatchell endorsed Tamsin Omond and Amelia Womack in the 2021 Green Party of England and Wales leadership election.
Iraq War
Tatchell opposed the war in Iraq, and its subsequent occupation. For nearly three decades he had previously supported the Iraqi Left Opposition, helping them remove the government of Saddam Hussein because of the gross violations of human rights that Hussein had committed against democrats, left-wingers, trade unionists, Shia Muslims and the Kurdish people, and because under Saddam's dictatorship there were no opportunities for peaceful, democratic change. He advocated military and financial aid to opponents of the Saddam government, suggesting that anti-Saddam organisations be given "tanks, helicopter gun-ships, fighter planes, heavy artillery and anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles". While opposing western intervention, he advocated regime change from within in countries such as Saudi Arabia, Iran and Syria.
Tatchell has written that on 12 March 2003 he ambushed Tony Blair's motorcade in an anti-Iraq war protest. He forced Blair's limousine to stop, and then unfolded a banner that read "Arm the Kurds! Topple Saddam". He added that in terms of the political struggle within Britain (as opposed to struggles against absolute tyrants like Hitler and Saddam, where violent resistance can be the lesser of two evils): "I remain committed to the Gandhian principle of non-violence". After the war he signed the 'Unite Against Terror' declaration, arguing that "the pseudo-left reveals its shameless hypocrisy and its wholesale abandonment of humanitarian values" by supporting resistance and insurgent groups in Iraq that resort to indiscriminate terrorism, killing innocent civilians.
In 2003, Tatchell said he supported giving "massive material aid" to Iraqi opposition groups, including the "Shi'ite Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq" (SCIRI), to bring down Saddam. But in 2006 Tatchell noted that SCIRI had become markedly more fundamentalist and was endorsing violent attacks on anyone who did not conform to its increasingly harsh interpretation of Islam. He claimed that SCIRI, the leading force in Baghdad's ruling coalition, wanted to establish an Iranian-style religious dictatorship, with a goal of clerical fascism, and had engaged in "terrorisation of gay Iraqis", as well as terrorising Sunni Muslims, left-wingers, unveiled women and people who listen to western pop music or wear jeans or shorts.
In September 2014, Tatchell advocated arming the Kurdistan Workers' Party to fight against ISIS, and argued that the US and EU had been wrong to designate it as a terrorist organisation.
Syrian civil war
A previous supporter of the Stop the War Coalition, Tatchell and many other public personalities expressed concern with the coalition's allegedly unduly favourable view of Bashar al-Assad's government in Syria, and has called for the Labour leader and former Stop the War Chair Jeremy Corbyn not to attend the Coalition's Christmas fundraiser 2015. In December 2016, Tatchell and others disrupted Corbyn's speech on human rights on the basis that the Labour leader had responded insufficiently to the bombing of Aleppo and urged him to condemn Russian military intervention in Syria.
Balochistan
Since 2006, he expressed concern for the Baloch people facing military operations in their homeland, Balochistan in Pakistan. From 2007 to 2009, he campaigned in defence of two UK-based Baloch Muslim human rights activists, Hyrbyair Marri and Faiz Baluch, accused of terrorism charges and tried in London. Both men were acquitted in 2009. He alleged collusion by the U.S. and British governments in regards to the suppression of the Balochs, including arms sales to Pakistan, which he says were used to bomb and attack Baloch towns and villages.
Activities in Moscow
In May 2006 Tatchell attended the first Moscow Pride Festival. He appears in the documentary Moscow Pride '06 featuring this event.
In May 2007 Tatchell returned to Moscow to support Moscow Pride and to voice his opposition to a ban on the march, staying at the flat of an American diplomat. On 27 May 2007, Tatchell and other gay rights activists were attacked. He was punched in the face and nearly knocked unconscious, while other demonstrators were beaten, kicked and assaulted. A German MP, Volker Beck, and a European Parliament deputy from Italy, Marco Cappato, were also punched before being arrested and questioned by police. Tatchell later said "I'm not deterred one iota from coming back to protest in Moscow." On his release, Tatchell made a report on the incident to the American Embassy.
On 16 May 2009, the day of the final of the Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow, Russian gay rights activists staged a protest in Moscow in defiance of the city's mayor, Yuri Luzkhov, who had long banned gay demonstrations and denounced them as "satanic". Tatchell was among 32 campaigners arrested when they shouted slogans and unfurled banners.
NUS politics
On 14 February 2015, Tatchell was one of a number of signatories to a letter criticising the trend in the British National Union of Students to apply a No Platform policy to feminists who criticised the sex industry or challenged demands made by certain groups of trans people. In particular, the letter cited the denial of a platform to Kate Smurthwaite at Goldsmith's College and to Germaine Greer at the University of Cambridge.
Tatchell received death threats after signing the letter. He later stated that he would have worded the letter differently to clarify that he supported the human rights of trans people and sex workers, but that he had signed the letter nonetheless because he believed in the message of free speech on campuses. He said that the initial draft that he signed contained the sentence "Some of us have disagreements with the views expressed [by feminist critics of trans people]", and that he was "not happy" that this was cut out of the final letter.
On 13 February 2016, Fran Cowling, the national LGBT representative for the NUS, refused to share a platform with Tatchell at Canterbury Christ Church University to discuss the topic of "re-radicalising queers". Cowling said that Tatchell supported speakers who are "openly transphobic and incite violence" against transgender people, and also that Tatchell had used "racist language". Tatchell responded that no evidence could be produced to support either claim, and that Cowling had never consulted the NUS membership before deciding to make pronouncements on their behalf, and said "This sorry, sad saga is symptomatic of the decline of free and open debate on some university campuses. There is a witch-hunting, accusatory atmosphere. Allegations are made without evidence to back them – or worse, they are made citing false, trumped-up evidence."
Campaigns
OutRage!
Tatchell took part in many gay rights campaigns over issues such as Section 28. Following the murder of actor Michael Boothe on 10 May 1990, Tatchell was one of thirty people to attend the inaugural meeting of the radical gay rights non-violent direct action group OutRage! – although he was not a co-founder – and has remained a leading member. The group fuses theatrical performance styles with queer protest. As the most prominent OutRage! member, Tatchell is sometimes assumed to be the leader of the group, though he has never claimed this, saying he is one among equals.
In 1991, a small group of OutRage! members covertly formed a separate group to engage in a campaign of outing public figures who were homophobic in public but gay in private. The group took the name FROCS (Faggots Rooting Out Closeted Sexuality). Tatchell was the group's go-between with the press, forwarding their news statements to his media contacts. Considerable publicity and public debate followed FROCS's threat to out 200 leading public personalities from the world of politics, religion, business and sport. With Tatchell's assistance, members of FROCS eventually called a press conference to tell the world that their campaign was a hoax intended to demonstrate the hypocrisy of those newspapers that had condemned the campaign despite having themselves outed celebrities and politicians.
Some OutRage! activities were highly controversial. In 1994, it unveiled placards inviting ten Church of England bishops to "tell the truth" about what Outrage! alleged was their homosexuality and accusing them of condemning homosexuality in public while leading secret gay lives. Shortly afterwards the group wrote to twenty UK MPs, condemning their alleged support for anti-gay laws and claiming they would out them if the MPs did not stop what they described as attacks on the gay community. The MP Sir James Kilfedder, one such opponent of gay equality, who had received one of the letters, died two months later of a sudden heart attack on the day one of the Belfast newspapers planned to out him. In a comment in The Independent in October 2003, Tatchell claimed the OutRage! action against the bishops was his greatest mistake because he failed to anticipate that the media and the church would treat it as an invasion of privacy.
On 12 April 1998, Tatchell led an OutRage! protest, which disrupted the Easter sermon by George Carey, the Archbishop of Canterbury, with Tatchell mounting the pulpit to denounce what he claimed was Carey's opposition to legal equality for lesbian and gay people. The protest garnered media coverage and led to Tatchell's prosecution under the little-used Ecclesiastical Courts Jurisdiction Act 1860 (formerly part of the Brawling Act 1551), which prohibits any form of disruption or protest in a church. Tatchell failed in his attempt to summon Carey as a witness and was convicted. The judge fined him the trivial sum of £18.60, which commentators theorised was a wry allusion to the year of the statute used to convict him.
The LGBT press dubbed him "Saint Peter Tatchell" following further OutRage! campaigns involving religion.
A number of African LGBTI leaders signed a statement condemning the involvement of Tatchell and OutRage! in African issues, which led Tatchell to respond that he favoured working with the radical LGBTI groups in Africa rather than the more conservative (according to him) leaders who had signed the statement. Tatchell and OutRage! published a refutation of the allegations.
OutRage!'s protest against Chief Rabbi Immanuel Jakobovits, who supported the idea of genetic engineering to eliminate homosexuality, led to accusations that Tatchell was antisemitic, following OutRage!'s leaflets citing the similarity of Jakobovits ideas for the eradication of homosexuality to those of Heinrich Himmler were distributed outside the Western and Marble Arch Synagogue on the Rosh Hashanah in September 1993.
Rabbi Dame Julia Neuberger, who had campaigned for gay rights, said "Drawing a comparison between Lord Jakobovits and Himmler is offensive, racist and [...] makes OutRage appear antisemitic". She stated that the action and leaflet would "alienate Jews who are sympathetic to gay rights".
Stop Murder Music campaign
Tatchell argues that a number of Afro-Caribbean artists produce music that glorifies murder of homosexual men, and incites violence against homosexuals. He argued that British laws against incitement to violence were not being enforced on foreign artists performing in the UK. He also organised protests outside the concerts of singers whose lyrics he says incite violence, mainly Jamaican dancehall and ragga artists who he says glorify violence toward lesbians and gay men, including murder. Tatchell's campaign began in 1992 when Buju Banton's song "Boom bye-bye" was released. He has picketed the MOBO Awards ceremony to protest at their inviting performers of what he terms "murder music".
Tatchell argues that murder is not legal in Jamaica, and glorification of murder is not a legitimate form of Afro-Caribbean culture. In response Tatchell received death threats and was labelled racist. He defended himself by noting that the campaign was at the behest of the Jamaican gay rights group J-Flag, and the UK-based Black Gay Men's Advisory Group, with which he works closely. He pointed to what he described as his life's work campaigning against racism and apartheid and stated that his campaigns against "murder music" and state-sanctioned homophobic violence in Jamaica were endorsed by black Jamaican gay rights activists such as Jamaican Forum for Lesbians, All-Sexuals and Gays (J-FLAG), and by many straight human rights activists in Jamaica (male homosexuality remains illegal in Jamaica). The campaign has had positive effects with seven of eight original murder music singers signing the Reggae Compassion Act, which says that signatories will not "make statements or perform songs" that incite hatred or violence.
Members of the Rastafari movement accused Tatchell of racism and extremism, saying, "He has gone over way over the top. It's simply racist to put Hitler and Sizzla in the same bracket and just shows how far he is prepared to go." Tatchell denies equating Sizzla with Hitler.
Age of consent laws and Paedophile Information Exchange
In 1996, Tatchell led an OutRage! campaign to reduce the age of consent in the UK to 14 years, to adjust for studies that showed nearly half of all young people had their first sexual experiences prior to 16 years old, regardless of sexuality. He stated that he wished to exempt these people from being "treated as criminals by the law," and that the campaign claimed there should be no prosecution if the difference in ages of the sexual partners was no more than three years, provided that these youths are given a more comprehensive sex education at a younger date.
He was quoted in the OutRage!'s press release as saying "Young people have a right to accept or reject sex, according to what they feel is appropriate for them".
Tatchell has since reiterated that he does not condone adults having sex with children. On his personal website, under the subsection Age of Consent, he writes:
On 10 March 2008, in the Irish Independent, he repeated his call for a lower age of consent to end the criminalisation of young people engaged in consenting sex and to remove the legal obstacles to upfront sex education, condom provision and safer sex advice. In 1998 and 2008, he supported relaxation of the then strict laws against pornography, arguing that pornography can have some social benefits, and he has criticised what he calls the body-shame phobia against nudism, suggesting that nudity may be natural and healthy for society.
In 2006, he opposed the appointment of Ruth Kelly as Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government as Kelly had not supported equal treatment of lesbians and gay men in any parliamentary votes. Tatchell said "her appointment suggests the government does not take lesbian and gay rights seriously", adding "Tony Blair would never appoint someone to a race-equality post who had a lukewarm record of opposing racism".
Paedophile Information Exchange
Tatchell has written an obituary in The Independent for Paedophile Information Exchange founder Ian Dunn, as well as an essay for a pro-paedophile activist and Paedophile Information Exchange member Warren Middleton in the book "Betrayal of Youth (BOY)". The actor and activist, John Connors described Tatchell as a "paedophile apologist" and other critics (such as the British National Party) have suggested that he is personally pro-paedophile, which he strongly denies – stating that:
In July 2021, in an article by Hayley Dixon, Melanie Newman and Julie Bindel for the Daily Telegraph, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/07/27/peter-tatchell-children-have-sexual-desires-early-age/ it emerged that a positive review attributed to Peter Tatchell of the same pro-paedophila book - Betrayal of Youth: Radical Perspectives on Childhood Sexuality, Intergenerational Sex and the Social Oppression of Children and Young People - appeared in the June 1987 edition of 7 Days, the newsletter of the Communist Party of Great Britain.
He also comments on an interview he conducted in the late 1990s on the subject of paedophilia and child prostitution, in which he interviewed a 14-year-old boy (under the pseudonym "Lee") who had had sex with older men, in some cases for money. In this interview, Tatchell makes various counterarguments against Lee's point of view, such as: "How can a young child understand sex and give meaningful consent?", "Perhaps your friends were particularly mature for their age. Most young people are not so sophisticated about sex", "Many people worry that the power imbalance in a relationship between a youth and an adult means the younger person can be easily manipulated and exploited", "Many people fear that making sex easier for under-age teenagers will expose them to dangers like HIV. Isn't that a legitimate worry?".
In 1997 Tatchell wrote a letter to The Guardian, defending an academic book about "boy-love", calling the work "courageous", before writing:
On Tatchell's personal website he clarifies,
My Guardian letter cited examples of youths in Papuan tribes and some of my friends who, when they were under 16, had sex with adults (over 18s), but who do not feel they were harmed. I was not endorsing their viewpoint but merely stating that they had a different perspective from the mainstream opinion about inter-generational sex. They have every right for their perspective to be heard."
Following the publication of a photo of Tatchell alongside the Irish Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Roderic O'Gorman, on Twitter, at a Pride event, O'Gorman issued a statement outlining that the apparent views in Tatchell's letter - written 23 years ago, when O'Gorman was just 15 - were "abhorrent" to him, and his appreciation that Tatchell clarified his own position.
Civil partnerships
Tatchell has pledged his support for opposite-sex couples to be allowed to have civil partnerships, stating that some opposite-sex couples dislike the "sexist, homophobic history of [the institution of] marriage", and allowing them into civil partnerships "is simply a matter of equality".
Writing for PinkNews, he said:
Foreign politics
Imperialism
While still at school, Tatchell campaigned in favour of better treatment of, and full human rights for, Aboriginal Australians. He has opined that Australian cities should be renamed with their original Aboriginal place names. For example, he wants the Tasmanian capital Hobart to be renamed Nibberluna, arguing that this would be a fitting tribute to Australia's Aboriginal heritage, which he claims has been discarded and disrespected for too long.
Tatchell participated in the mass Vietnam Moratorium protests in Melbourne in 1970. The same year, Tatchell founded and was elected secretary of the inter-denominational anti-war movement, Christians for Peace. Later, upon moving to London in 1971, he was active in solidarity work with the independence movements in Mozambique, and Guinea-Bissau.
In 2002, he brought an unsuccessful legal action in Bow Street Magistrate's Court for the arrest of the former U.S. Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, on charges of war crimes in Vietnam and Cambodia.
Zimbabwe
Part of Tatchell's political activism and journalism in the 1970s involved the Rhodesian Bush War, in which he supported the black nationalist movement, including the Zimbabwe African National Union and its military wing. Mugabe's denunciation of male homosexuality in 1995 led Tatchell to help organise a protest for LGBT rights in Zimbabwe outside the Zimbabwe High Commission in London.
Two years later, he passed through police security disguised as a TV cameraman to quiz Mugabe during the "Africa at 40" conference at Methodist Central Hall, Westminster. Mugabe told him that allegations of human rights abuses were grossly exaggerated; he became agitated when Tatchell told him that he was gay. Mugabe's minders summoned Special Branch guards, who ejected Tatchell. On 26 October 1997 a letter from Tatchell to The Observer argued that the United Kingdom should suspend aid to Zimbabwe because of its violence against LGBT people.
Tatchell researched the Gukurahundi attacks in Matabeleland in the 1980s, when the Zimbabwean Fifth Brigade attacked supporters of the Zimbabwe African Peoples Union. He became convinced that Mugabe had broken international human rights law during the attack, which is estimated to have involved the massacre of around 20,000 civilians. Then in 1999, journalists Mark Chavunduka and Ray Choto were tortured by the Zimbabwe Army. The arrest of Augusto Pinochet in London seemed to him a precedent that human rights violations could be pursued against a head of state, thanks to the principle of universal jurisdiction. On 30 October 1999 Tatchell and three other OutRage! activists approached Mugabe's car in a London street and attempted to perform a citizen's arrest. Tatchell opened the car door and grabbed Mugabe. He then called the police. The four OutRage! activists were arrested, on charges including criminal damage, assault and breach of the peace; charges were dropped on the opening day of their trial. Mugabe responded by describing Tatchell and his OutRage! colleagues as "gay gangsters", a slogan frequently repeated by his supporters, and claimed they had been sent by the United Kingdom government.
On 5 March 2001, when Mugabe visited Brussels, Tatchell again attacked him. Mugabe's bodyguards were seen knocking him to the floor. Later that day, Tatchell was briefly knocked unconscious by Mugabe's bodyguards and was left with permanent damage to his right eye. The protest drew worldwide headlines, as Mugabe was highly unpopular in the Western world for his land redistribution policy. Tatchell's actions were praised by Zimbabwean activists and many of the newspapers that had previously denounced him.
Tatchell ultimately failed in his attempt to secure an international arrest warrant against Mugabe on torture charges. The magistrate argued that Mugabe had immunity from prosecution as a serving head of state.
In late 2003, Tatchell acted as a press spokesman for the launch of the Zimbabwe Freedom Movement (ZFM), which claimed to be a clandestine group within Zimbabwe committed to overthrowing the Mugabe government by force. The civic action support group Sokwanele urged Tatchell to check his sources, speculating that it might have been by the Zimbabwe government to justify violent action. This speculation proved to be unfounded. The Mugabe regime dismissed the ZFM as a hoax. However, two Central Intelligence Organization members were spotted and turned away from the ZFM launch, as shown in the film "Peter Tatchell: Just who does he think he is?" by Max Barber.
South Africa
Following a protest against the ANC, Tatchell described himself as a long-time anti-apartheid activist, in an essay for the book 'sex and politics in South Africa', he claimed that his lobbying of the ANC in 1987 contributed to it renouncing homophobia and making its first public commitment to lesbian and gay human rights and that in 1989 and 1990, he helped persuade the ANC to include a ban on anti-gay discrimination in the post-apartheid constitution (claiming he assisted in drafting model clauses for the ANC)
After Tatchell was named as one of the UK's most "hate filled bigots" in the 'Desi Express' newspaper, Aaron Saeed, Muslim Affairs spokesperson for the gay human rights group OutRage!, claimed that Tatchell was involved in the anti-apartheid movement for over 20 years.
Gaza and the West Bank
In May 2004, he and a dozen other lesbians and gay men from OutRage! and the Queer Youth Alliance joined a London demonstration organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign. Their placards read "Israel: stop persecuting Palestine! Palestine: stop persecuting queers!". Tatchell claims that others present accused him of being a Mossad agent sent to disrupt the march, of being a racist or a Zionist, a supporter of Ariel Sharon or an agent of the Central Intelligence Agency or MI5. Tatchell has written a number of articles in The Guardian on the issue.
2008 Olympics
In April 2008, Tatchell attempted to disrupt the procession of the Olympic torch though London. As a protest against China's human rights record he stood in front of the bus carrying the torch along Oxford Street while carrying a placard calling on Beijing to "Free Tibet, Free Hu Jia" (the name of a recently jailed human rights activist). Tatchell was taken away by police but was not charged. In an interview Tatchell called on the world to boycott the opening ceremony of the Olympics, or to take other visible action.
Iran
Tatchell is a critic of Iran's criminal code, which has parts based on sharia and prescribes punishments for zina offenses, including consensual sexual relations between same-sex partners.
In 2005, Iran executed two teenagers, Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni, aged 16 and 18, accused of raping a 13-year-old boy at knifepoint. Tatchell argued that Iran has a history of arresting political activists on false charges and extracting false confessions from death penalty convicts, and declared that he believed the original crime was consensual sex between the two, which is illegal in Iran. Tatchell reiterated his long-standing view that Iran is an "Islamo-fascist state". He argued that information from Iranian exile groups with contacts inside Iran was that the teenagers were a secret gay party before they were arrested.
International human rights groups Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch preferred campaigners to focus on Iran violating the Convention on the Rights of the Child (which forbids the execution of juveniles) rather than the weak allegation of consensual sex.
Faisal Alam, founder of American Gay Muslim group Al-Fatiha, argued in the magazine Queer that Iran was condemned before the facts were certain.
Russia
Tatchell has written articles condemning the Russian LGBT propaganda law. In 2014 Tatchell protested Valery Gergiev's support for Vladimir Putin.
Tatchell protested the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi over the gay rights stance of Russia, comparing the event to the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.
Tatchell was arrested at the Moscow Pride parade in 2011 amid a spate of anti-gay violence by neo-Nazis.
In February 2007, the Mayor of Moscow, Yury Luzhkov, visited London mayor Ken Livingstone for an annual meeting that also involved the Mayors of Berlin and Paris, with the mayor of Beijing present as well. Nikolay Alexeyev, one of the organizers of the Moscow gay pride parade, joined Tatchell in protesting the visit. A notice of the protest quoted Talgat Tadzhuddin saying that the Moscow pride marchers should be flogged.
Livingstone asserted that he supports gay rights, and said "In Moscow the Russian Orthodox church, the chief rabbi and the grand Mufti all supported the ban on the Gay Pride march with the main role, due to its great weight in society, being played by the Orthodox church. The attempt of Mr Tatchell to focus attention on the role of the grand Mufti in Moscow, in the face of numerous attacks on gay rights in Eastern Europe, which overwhelmingly come from right-wing Christian and secular currents, is a clear example of an Islamophobic campaign."
Tatchell retorted that Livingstone's remarks were "dishonest, despicable nonsense", adding "The Grand Mufti was not singled out". He further said the Mayor had brought his "office into disrepute" and "has revealed himself to be a person without principles, honesty or integrity."
Israel
Following the vote by the Knesset, the Israeli legislature, in 2007 in favour of bills to ban lesbian and gay pride parades in Jerusalem, the Lesbian and Gay Coalition Against Racism criticised Tatchell, saying:
Tatchell issued a statement opposing any boycott of Israel as a result of this.
In a 2009 article for The Guardian Tatchell condemned what he described as "disproportionate" and "reckless" attacks by the Israeli military on Gaza, but also argued that Western liberals and progressives should not support Hamas which he described as an Islamist group that represses Palestinians and is "potentially as much of a threat to Palestinian freedom as Israel is today."
Anglican and Catholic churches
Tatchell criticised the Catholic Church and Pope Benedict XVI, whom he described as "the ideological inheritor of Nazi homophobia". "He'd like to eradicate homosexuality, but since he can't put LGBT people in physical concentration camps, is doing his best to put them in psychological concentration camps."
Channel 4 indicated in June 2010 that Tatchell would be the presenter of a documentary film examining "the current Pope's teachings throughout the world". The plans sparked criticism from some prominent British Catholics including Conservative politician Ann Widdecombe, who accused Channel 4 of trying to "stir up controversy". Tatchell asserted that the documentary "will not be an anti-Catholic programme".
On 15 September 2010, Tatchell, along with 54 other public figures, signed an open letter, published in The Guardian, stating their opposition to Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the United Kingdom.
With respect to Anglicanism, he stated that "it's very sad to see a good man like the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, going to such extraordinary lengths to appease homophobes within the Anglican Communion".
In 2017 Tatchell praised the Church of England's new 'Valuing all God's Children' scheme for schools, which seeks to stop homophobic and transphobic bullying.
Multiculturalism
Tatchell has occasionally been moderately critical of multiculturalism. In 2010 he gave a speech to the Libertarian Alliance at the National Liberal Club arguing that the British people are increasingly "fragmented according to their different and sometimes competing identities, values, and traditions. These differences are prioritised over shared experiences and interests. Our common needs and the universalities of human rights are downplayed in favour of religious and racial particularities."
Free speech
In 2006, during the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy, Tatchell spoke at a 25 March 2006 rally called the Freedom of Expression Rally.
At the rally, Tatchell argued for the "disestablishment of the Church of England and the freedom to insult the Queen, Prime Minister and Archbishop of Canterbury." Tatchell said that the far-left is "Mired in the immoral morass of cultural relativism, they no longer endorse Enlightenment values and universal human rights. Their support for free speech is now qualified by so many ifs and buts. When push comes to shove, it is more or less worthless."
In 2007, he wrote a Guardian opinion piece, arguing that "The best way to tackle prejudice is by presenting facts and using reasoned arguments, to break down ignorance and ill-will." In 2016, Tatchell made threats to free speech in Britain the topic of his British Humanist Association annual conference lecture. Speaking with reference to a number of censorship controversies in the 2010s, he said that "the recent trend against freedom of speech means that we must fight the battles of the Enlightenment all over again."
However, in 2018 Tatchell voiced his support for Mark Meechan's conviction under section 127 of the Communications Act 2003 for posting a "grossly offensive" video on YouTube.
Islam
Tatchell is critical of Islam, and first wrote about its presence in Britain in 1995. In 1995, he wrote that "although not all Muslims are anti-gay, significant numbers are violently homophobic [...] homophobic Muslim voters may be able to influence the outcome of elections in 20 or more marginal constituencies." He is critical of the UK government's All-Party Parliamentary Group definition of Islamophobia, suggesting that he tries "to avoid the term", that Muslimness is a vague and subjective term, and that the Islamophobia term is a "a de facto threat to free speech and liberal values" and "virtue-signalling".
Tatchell has described the entire Sharia, which is the moral code that Muslims try to live by, as "a clerical form of fascism" and was the keynote speaker at a 2005 protest at the Canadian High Commission, demanding that Ontario's arbitration law, which permitted religious arbitration in civil cases for Jews and Christians, not be extended to Muslims.
In 2017, Tatchell wrote to the organisers of Pride in London to defend the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain. In response to calls by the East London Mosque for CEMB to apologise for placards alleging the mosque "incites murder of LGBTs", Tatchell stated "East London Mosque has refused all dialogue with LGBT community. It refuses to meet LGBT Muslims. I have asked them 11 times since 2015".
Tatchell has previously condemned Islamophobia, saying "any form of prejudice, hatred, discrimination or violence against Muslims is wrong. Full stop". He described the Qur'an as "rather mild in its condemnation of homosexuality".
He points out that much of his prison and asylum casework involves supporting Muslim prisoners and asylum seekers—heterosexual as well as LGBT. In 2006, he helped stop the abuse of Muslim prisoners at a Norwich jail and helped secure parole for other Muslim detainees. Half his asylum cases are, he reports, male and female Muslim refugees. Two of his highest-profile campaigns involved Muslim victims—Mohamed S, who was framed by men who first tried to kill him and then jailed him for eight years, and Sid Saeed, who brought a racism and homophobic harassment case against Deutsche Bank.
Tatchell chose Malcolm X as his specialist subject when appearing on Celebrity Mastermind, explaining that he considered him an inspiration and hero (his other inspirations are Mahatma Gandhi, Sylvia Pankhurst and Martin Luther King Jr.). However, his endorsement of Bruce Perry's biography, in an article calling for black gay role models, led to criticism. due to Perry's claim that Malcolm X had male lovers in his youth.
In February 2010, Women Against Fundamentalism defended Tatchell against allegations of Islamophobia and endorsed his right to challenge all religious fundamentalism: "WAF supports the right of Peter Tatchell and numerous other gay activists to oppose the legitimisation of fundamentalists and other right wing forces on university campuses, by the Left and by the government in its Preventing Violent Extremism strategy and numerous other programmes and platforms".
Muslim Council of Britain
Tatchell had described the Muslim Council of Britain as being "anti-gay", asking how can "they expect to win respect for their community, if at the same time as demanding action against Islamophobia, they themselves demand the legal enforcement of homophobia?". He noted that the MCB had joined forces with the "rightwing Christian Institute" to oppose every gay law reform from 1997 to 2006. In January 2006, the MCB Chairman Iqbal Sacranie said that homosexuals are immoral, harmful and diseased on BBC Radio 4.
Tatchell argued that "Both the Muslim and gay communities suffer prejudice and discrimination. We should stand together to fight Islamophobia and homophobia". Tatchell subsequently criticised Unite Against Fascism for inviting Sacranie to share its platforms, describing him as a "homophobic hate-mongerer."
When the MCB boycotted Holocaust Memorial Day, partly because it was "not sufficiently inclusive", Tatchell wrote that "the only thing that is consistent about the MCB is its opposition to the human rights of lesbians and gay men".
Muslims and gay rights
In 2006, Tatchell wrote an opinion column in The Guardian arguing that Muslims deliberately conflate offence with violence, in an effort to suppress Muslim reformers in Britain. He argued that Islamist groups like Hizb ut-Tahrir in Britain see "any criticism of Islam is an insult and that all such insults are unacceptable" in order to suppress the "free exchange of ideas". The Muslim gay rights organisation IMAAN criticised Tatchell, saying, "OutRage! doesn't understand our cultural and religious sensitivities. Often, the way they word and phrase their press releases can and does antagonise Muslims. Much as we’ve invited them to meetings so we can talk about the best way to tackle Muslim LGBT issues, they insist on doing things their way."
In the book "Out of Place: Interrogating Silences in Queerness/Raciality", in a chapter called "Gay Imperialism: Gender and Sexuality Discourse in the 'War on Terror'", Jin Haritaworn, Tamsila Tauqir and Esra Erdem wrote, "rather than help, politics such as Tatchell's have worsened the situation for the majority of queer Muslims. It has become increasingly difficult for groups such as the Safra Project, who are forced into the frontline of the artificially constructed gay v. Muslim divide, to contest sexual oppression in Muslim communities. The more homophobia is constructed as belonging to Islam, the more anti-homophobic talk will be viewed as a white, even racist, phenomenon, and the harder it will be to increase tolerance and understanding among straight Muslims [...] The dialogue which Safra and other queer Muslim groups have long sought over this is more often than not ignored or disregarded, and white gay activists such as Tatchell have proved indifferent to the fact that the mud which they sling onto Muslim communities lands on queer Muslims themselves."
Despite previously attending a "rally for free expression", where the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons were celebrated, Tatchell sued the small publisher Raw Nerve Books, who issued an apology, and replaced links to the book on their site with that apology, but were later forced to shut down. The Monthly Review described this as censorship, adding, "the violent suppression of "Gay Imperialism" and the book in which it appeared also works as a warning to the authors, editors, and other critics and potential critics of Tatchell to better keep their mouths shut."
Yusuf al-Qaradawi
In July 2004, then-Mayor of London Ken Livingstone invited Yusuf al-Qaradawi to attend a talk called "A woman's right to choose" about the wearing of the hijab. Livingstone had read positive coverage of Qaradawi in The Guardian and The Sun.
In October 2004, 2,500 Muslim academics from 23 countries condemned Qaradawi, and accused him of giving "Islam a bad name and foster[ing] hatred among civilizations" and "providing a religious cover for terrorism".
Tatchell argued that Qaradawi expresses liberal positions to deceive the Western press and politicians, while being "rightwing, misogynist, anti-semitic and homophobic", using his books and fatwas to advocate female genital mutilation, blame for rape victims who dress immodestly, and the execution of apostates, homosexuals, and women who have sex outside marriage.
Livingstone issued a 2005 dossier praising Qaradawi as a moderate, based on positive press coverage he had received previously. Livingstone pronounced that Tatchell has "a long history of Islamophobia", and asserted that he is in a "de facto alliance with the American neo-cons and Israeli intelligence services." Tatchell strenuously denied the accusations, pointing out that he has never said any of the things that Livingstone accused him of saying. Livingstone continued to describe Qaradawi as "one of the leading progressive voices in the Muslim world" in 2010, after having been denied entry to the UK for his extremist views.
Two years after condemning Tatchell, Livingstone stated he "probably shouldn't" have called Tatchell an "Islamophobe".
Adam Yosef
In December 2005, Respect Party activist Adam Yosef came under criticism for an article in Desi Xpress opposing registered civil partnerships. He asserted that Tatchell needed "a good slap in the face" and his "queer campaign army" should "pack their bent bags and head back to Australia". Desi Xpress staff expressed regret to Tatchell and gave him a right of reply, while Yosef apologised and retracted his article, claiming the "slap in the face" remark was a "figure of speech" and the remark about Australia was not racist. Yosef later backed Tatchell's 2009 election campaign.
Secondary issues
Environmental issues
For over 20 years, Tatchell has written and campaigned about environmental problems including global warming and resource depletion, pointing out that they often have a disproportionately negative impact on developing countries. In the late 1980s, he was co-organiser of the Green and Socialist Conferences, which sought to ally reds and greens. He championed energy conservation and renewable energy; in particular tidal, wave and concentrated solar power. On 24 May 2009, he appeared on the BBC Daily Politics programme to oppose the Elephant and Castle regeneration scheme, which he said would bring few benefits to local working-class people. However, most of his campaigning continues to be in the areas of human rights and "queer emancipation".
In August 2008 Tatchell wrote about speculative theories concerning possible atmospheric oxygen depletion compared to prehistoric levels, and called for further investigation to test such claims and, if proven, their long-term consequences.
Animal rights
Tatchell is an active supporter of animal rights, saying "human rights and animal rights are two aspects of the same struggle against injustice", and that he advocates for a "claim to be spared suffering and offered inalienable rights" for both humans and animals.
Cornwall
Tatchell campaigned on the issue of the constitutional status of Cornwall. In November 2008, The Guardian carried an article by him entitled Self-rule for Cornwall, in which he said:
This article received the largest number of comments to any Guardian article, according to This is Cornwall. Over 1,500 comments were made, and while some comments were supportive, Tatchell found himself "shocked and disgusted" by the anti-Cornish sentiment shown by many commenters.
Columnist and other pursuits
Tatchell has written numerous articles in newspapers and magazines related to his various campaigns. He was highly critical of the media coverage of the Admiral Duncan pub bombing, claiming than the homophobic attitudes of news outlets had helped fuel the attack, and that the press concerned themselves almost exclusively with the one heterosexual victim, rather than the two other deaths and the dozens of maimed patrons, saying that:
In 1987 Tatchell appeared on the second programme of the first series of After Dark, a discussion on press ethics with, among others, Tony Blackburn, Victoria Gillick, Johnny Edgecombe and a Private Eye journalist.
On 5 August 1995 Tatchell was interviewed at length by Andrew Neil on his one-on-one interview show Is This Your Life?, made by Open Media for Channel 4.
, he has been an Ambassador for the penal reform group, Make Justice Work.
In 2011, he became the Director of the Peter Tatchell Foundation.
Tatchell is a patron of Humanists UK, an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society and a committed secularist, saying, "As an atheist, secularist and humanist I believe that reason, science and ethics – not religious superstition – are the best way to understand the world and promote human rights and welfare."
He contributes to The Jeremy Vine Show on BBC Radio 2.
Awards
In 2006, New Statesman readers voted him sixth on their list of "Heroes of our time".
In 2009, he racked up multiple awards. He was named Campaigner of the Year in The Observer Ethical Awards, London Citizen of Sanctuary Award, Shaheed Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti Award (for reporting the Balochistan national liberation struggle), Evening Standard 1000 Most Influential Londoners (winning again in 2011), Liberal Voice of the Year and a Blue Plaque in recognition of his more than 40 years of human rights campaigning.
In 2010 he won Total Politics Top 50 Political Influencers. A diary journalist reported rumours that he had been recommended for the award of a life peerage in the British New Year Honours. He was said to have turned it down.
In 2012, the National Secular Society awarded Tatchell Secularist of the Year, in recognition of his lifelong commitment to the defence of human rights against religious fundamentalism.
On 21 September 2012, he was awarded a Lifetime Achievement award at the UK's first National Diversity Awards. Alongside Misha B, Jody Cundy, Peter Norfolk and others he was a patron for 2013 National Diversity Awards.
In January 2014, Tatchell was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Laws by De Montfort University.
Legacy
The Peter Tatchell Papers are held at the London School of Economics in the Hall Carpenter Archive. Supplementary papers are housed at the British Library. The papers can be accessed through the British Library catalogue.
Peter Tatchell Foundation
The Peter Tatchell Foundation (PTF) is a non-profit, nonpartisan organisation based in the United Kingdom which "seeks to promote and protect the human rights of individuals, communities and nations, in the UK and internationally, in accordance with established national and international human rights law" and its stated aims and objectives are "to raise awareness, understanding, protection and implementation of human rights, in the UK and worldwide". Tatchell started the Foundation as a company in 2011, which gained charitable status in 2018. The organisation was named after Tatchell to honour his 50+ years of globally campaigning for human rights. The charity's celebrity patrons include Sir Ian McKellen and Paul O'Grady.
The organisation works with a variety of human rights issues globally, such as homophobia, transphobia, sexism, gender inequality, racism, political freedom, censorship, religious discrimination, unjust detention, freedom of association, capital punishment, asylum and refugees, trade union rights, self-determination of oppressed peoples, torture, genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and poverty.
In 2012 the foundation gained funding from The Funding Network for three projects: "Casework & Advice", including adding an "Advice" section to its website; "Equal Love", campaigning on same-sex marriage and opposite-sex civil partnerships; and "Olympic Equality Initiative", working against sexism and homophobia in the Olympic movement.
Bibliography
See also
Capital Gay
Hall–Carpenter Archives
LGBT Network
List of LGBT rights activists
List of peace activists
References
Sources
External links
Peter Tatchell Foundation
Contributor page at The Guardian
Interview with The Third Estate.
Archived WAF statement on Tatchell
Catalogue of the Tatchell papers held at LSE Archives
1952 births
Living people
Activists from Melbourne
HIV/AIDS activists
Alumni of the University of North London
Anti–Vietnam War activists
Australian atheists
Australian human rights activists
Australian emigrants to England
Australian socialists
British atheists
British social commentators
British humanists
British human rights activists
British republicans
British secularists
Critics of the Catholic Church
British socialists
Gay politicians
Green Party of England and Wales parliamentary candidates
Labour Party (UK) parliamentary candidates
LGBT politicians from Australia
LGBT rights activists from Australia
Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom
People with traumatic brain injuries | false | [
"On 9 September 1971 the UK Gay Liberation Front (GLF) undertook an action to disrupt the launch of the Church-based morality campaign Nationwide Festival of Light at the Methodist Central Hall, Westminster. A number of well-known British figures were involved in the disrupted rally, and the action involved the use of \"radical drag\" drawing on the Stonewall riots and subsequent GLF actions in the US. Peter Tatchell, gay human rights campaigner, was involved in the action which was one of a series which influenced the development of gay activism in the UK, received media attention at the time, and is still discussed by some of those involved.\n\nBackground\nThe Gay Liberation Front in the UK was formed in 1970 in response to the formation of the GLF in the US, which was established after the Stonewall riots in 1969. Prior to the formation of GLF in the UK, the Campaign for Homosexual Equality (CHE) had been the primary focus for the campaign for gay rights; CHE focused on lobbying government for specific legal reforms, while GLF campaigned for systemic changes in society that would lead to wider acceptance of lesbian and gay people. GLF existed for four years in the UK, and this action was one of the best known and controversial actions they undertook, one which featured in the national news at the time. Public figures involved at the time still describe their experience today. This was period when lesbian and gay people were shifting from an approach that was apologetic to one of pride. In 1971 the UK GLF published its Manifesto and held a series of high-profile direct actions, including the one at the Festival of Light.\n\nThe Festival of Light included several notable people of that time, such as Cliff Richard, Mary Whitehouse, Malcolm Muggeridge and Lord Longford. It was an organisation which lobbied the UK Government and held public rallies to show support for their lobbying. Muggeridge and Whitehouse identified certain liberalisations in law, and public acceptance of certain phenomena, as moral evil; examples are extra-marital sex, pornography in films, sex on TV, legalisation of abortion, and openly-gay individuals.\n\nActivism as theatre\n\nDrawing on the gay tradition of camp, GLF developed a new style of political campaigning, \"protest as performance\", where the claim for human rights was projected through creativity, using imagination, daring and wit, rather than marches and rallies. These actions were called \"zaps\", intended to reduce the rallies to a farcical shambles. The Festival of Light was the most notable of these. One of those who embraced this style of activism was Bette Bourne, the message of gay liberation being couched in comedy, song, tap routines and make-up. \"We were finding a new way of doing drag that wasn't offensive to women, that wasn't about false tits and distasteful jokes. We saw ourselves as a new type of man. We could wear frocks and make-up and be silly and funny, but we had a serious message, too.\" This began a tradition of drag continued through the work of performers like David Hoyle down, a style of drag, separate from the aggressive form of \"female impersonation\". Another figure who was involved in the disruption was Martin Corbett, who walked into the basement of Westminster Central Hall, ordered the staff to leave with an assumed authority, and plunged the Festival into darkness by disconnecting the electrical and broadcasting cables.\n\nPeter Tatchell described the Festival of Light as being against the \"moral darkness\" of \"pornography, homosexuality and abortion.\" The GLF counter-protest was code-named \"Operation Rupert' after the subversive 'Rupert Bear' cartoon in OZ magazine. He attended the Festival action as part of the GLF Youth Group. \"When Malcolm Muggeridge, speaking out about homosexuals, declared: 'I don't like them.' The feeling was mutual,\" the group he was part of staged a \"kiss-in\" in the upper balcony of the hall. \"Mice were released into the audience; lesbian couples stood up and passionately embraced. A dozen GLF nuns in immaculate blue and white habits charged the platform shouting gay liberation slogans, and a GLF bishop began preaching an impromptu sermon which urged people to 'keep on sinning.\n\nRadical Drag\nThe theme known as \"radical drag\" was a central element to the Festival of Light and subsequent GLF actions. In response to ideas about the 'wrong-sex', gay people distanced themselves from stereotypes of effeminate gay men and butch lesbians, in a way in which gay people were supposed to appear like anybody else. Within the Gay Liberation Movement there was also a deeper questioning of the validity of gender roles. The philosophy underlying radical drag rejected the concepts of masculinity and femininity, which correlated to ideas of dominance and submission. The idea of men who are really women, or of 'real men' dissolves in this deconstruction. In dissociating from the stigma of effeminacy in order to gain acceptance in heterosexual society, gay men tacitly supported the rigidity of gender roles, a definition of men from which they were excluded because of their sexuality. Gay men were complicit in the oppression of the effeminate gay men who adopted that stereotype, often denouncing the camp queens and diesel dykes who had 'come out' and born the brunt of homophobia before those who were more discreet themselves felt comfortable enough to come out. In 1974, to counteract this, the GLF stated that it had developed \"a strong section of opinion which claims that the only way for gay people to come out that will make any real impact on the gender role definitions which underlie gay oppression is by adopting a life-style and appearance that explicitly reject the masculine/feminine distinction and all that it implies.\"\n\nSubsequent campaigns and other actions\nThe work of GLF in this and other actions and demonstrations helped inspire more people towards open activism. Following the style of campaign and public demonstration, CHE changed its own style of campaigning, and interest in GLF waned. After the demise of GLF, Peter Tatchell went on to form OutRage!, which still performs strategic actions in which individuals, organisations and countries identified as homophobic are openly confronted in provocative ways, such as at the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest.\n\nOther actions and acts of civil disobedience confronting discrimination and homophobia at the time included a picket at Pan Books in protest at the publication of a book by David Reuben, which claimed that gay men were obsessed with the anal insertion of vegetables, freedom rides and sit-ins at pubs that refused to serve 'poofs' and 'dykes', the occupation of Coutts Bank because of their holding the Maudsley Hospital account (where aversion therapy was still being practiced in the early 1970s) and the confrontation of Professor Hans Eysenck during a lecture in which he advocated electric-shock and aversion therapy to \"cure\" homosexuality. Tatchell talks of this time, \"As well as being politics with fun, this activism helped banish our internalised shame, repairing much of the damage that homophobia had done to us. Through GLF, we became happier, more confident queers, unafraid to challenge even the most powerful homophobes.\"\n\nSee also\n\n Gay liberation\n Socialism and LGBT rights\n Gay Activists Alliance\n USA GLF: N. A. Diaman, Brenda Howard, Sylvia Rivera\n London GLF: Bob Mellors, Peter Tatchell\n Hall–Carpenter Archives\n List of LGBT rights organizations\n Nationwide Festival of Light\n\nReferences and further reading\n Material relating to the Festival of Light, [1971–1975], mainly concerning the disinformation campaign by the GLF, is held at the Hall–Carpenter Archives.\n\nFootnotes\n\n1971 in LGBT history\nLGBT history in the United Kingdom\nLGBT civil rights demonstrations\n1971 in the United Kingdom",
"The Global Landscapes Forum (GLF) is a multi-stakeholder forum dedicated to promoting the landscape approach.\n\nOverview \nThe GLF is the largest platform on sustainable land use. Since 2013, over 4,400 organizations and 190,000 people have taken part in Forum events in person and online. It is led by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR).\n\nHistory \nThe inaugural GLF event took place alongside to 2013 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 19) in Warsaw, Poland. It heralded the merger of Forest Day and Agriculture and Rural Development Day, reflecting a scientific climate that favored breaking down research silos and utilizing an integrated landscape approach. The first four major GLF events were held annually on the sidelines of the United Nations Climate Change Conference.\n\nFollowing a major funding injection from the German government, the GLF moved to establish a secretariat in Bonn, Germany. This is part of an effort on the part of the German government and the city of Bonn to establish a \"sustainability cluster\" in the city.\n\nPartners \n\nCIFOR serves as the implementing organization of the GLF, and the current coordinating partners are the World Bank, and the United Nations Environment Programme.\n\nAs of 2017, the host country partners are the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB) and Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).\n\nEvents\n\nPredecessor Events \nFollowing a move towards more integrated landscape approaches in both the forestry and agriculture sides of the research for development sphere, the Global Landscapes Forum was born out of a merger of Forest Day and Agriculture and Rural Development Day (ARDD), which had been annual side events at the United Nations Climate Change conference (COP) since 2007 and 2009, respectively.\n\nForest Day \n\nForest Day was an annual COP side event co-organized by CIFOR and the Collaborative Partnership on Forests, since the 2007 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP13) in Bali, Indonesia.\n\nAs of 2012, by resolution of the United Nations General Assembly on November 28, 2012, Forest Day became the International Day of Forests. Thus the sixth and final Forest Day was held on the sidelines of the 2012 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP18) in Doha, Qatar.\n\nAgriculture and Rural Development Day \n\nAgriculture and Rural Development Day (ARDD) was an annual COP side event. The first event took place as a side event at the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP15) in Copenhagen, Denmark.\n\nThe fifth and final ARDD, called Agriculture, Landscapes, and Livelihoods Day 5 (ALL-5), took place alongside Forest Day on the sidelines of the COP18.\n\nAnnual Events \nThe first major GLF event took place in Warsaw, Poland during the 2013 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP19).\n\nThe second major GLF event was held alongside the 2014 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP20) from December 6–7, 2014. There were 1700 attendees and 95 organizations in attendance.\n\nThis event saw the launch of the Youth in Landscapes initiative.\n\nThe third major GLF event was held alongside the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP21), December 5–6, 2015. There were 3200 attendees from 135 countries, including 19 Ministers and Heads of State, and 148 organizations. Notably, 200 indigenous peoples’ representatives were sponsored to attend the 2015 Forum, and 45% of those in attendance were female.\n\nInitiatives launched at this event include:\nAFR100\nBlue Carbon Initiative\nIndonesian National Carbon Accounting System (INCAS)\nBelantara Foundation\nDanone's New Climate Policy\n\nThe fourth major GLF event was held alongside the 2016 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP22), November 16, 2016. During this event, the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB) and Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) announced a major injection of core funding to support the development of the GLF for the next five years.\n\nInitiatives launched at this event include:\n Climate Resilience through Sweetpotato (CReSP) \n Tropical Forest Alliance 2020 (TFA 2020) African Palm Oil Initiative(APOI)\n Global Peatlands Initiative\n Earth Innovation Institute Produce and Protect Platform\n Five Great Forests Initiative\n Atlas of Deforestation and Industrial Plantations in Borneo\n\nFollowing the major injection of funding from the German government during the Marrakesh event, the GLF moved to establish a more permanent presence in Bonn, Germany. While the 2017 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP23) was held in Bonn the same year from November 6–17, 2017, the Global Landscapes Forum event took place just over a month later on December 19–20, 2017. This marked the first year that the GLF existed as its own entity and not as a COP side event. For the first time, the Wangari Maathai Forest Champion Award was presented at the GLF.\n\nThematic Events \nThe first Investment Case event took place on June 10–11, 2015 at the Royal Society in London, United Kingdom. It was an invitation-only symposium with 220 attendees from the finance sector. It was coordinated by the European Investment Bank, UN Environment, the World Bank, and the Program on Forests (PROFOR). Sessions were hosted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), Unilever, and the Climate Bonds Initiative.\n\nThe roadmap from this event were presented at a land use side event 14th World Forestry Congress (WFC XIV) in Durban, South Africa, the theme of which was Forests and People: Investing in a Sustainable Future.\n\nOther key outcomes were presented to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Standing Committee on Finance (SCF) workplan for 2015.\n\nNational and Policy Dialogues \nRiau, Indonesia 2017: Laws and Best Practices for Reducing Fire and Haze\n\nThe AFR100 initiative was launched at the GLF in Paris, 2015, and is also supported by the German government. Thus the GLF supported the Second Annual Partnership Conference in 2017, which brought together 23 partner countries, restoration champions, and technical partners such as the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD Agency), and World Vision.\n\nOrganized with CIFOR, this policy dialogue workshop looked at gender-responsive Forest and Landscape Restoration.\n\nControversies\n\nExternal links \n Global Landscapes Forum\n Landscape News\n\nSee also \n United Nations Climate Change Conference\n\nReferences \n\nInternational organizations\nInternational conferences\nOrganisations based in Bonn\nOrganizations established in 2013"
]
|
[
"Peter Tatchell",
"Gay Liberation Front",
"What was Tatchell's role in the Gay Liberation Front?",
"in London became a leading member of the Gay Liberation Front (GLF)",
"What did he do within the group?",
"During this time Tatchell was prominent in organising sit-ins at pubs that refused to serve \"poofs\" and protests against police harassment",
"What other events did he participate in?",
"With others he helped organise Britain's first Gay Pride march in 1972.",
"Who else worked with him in the GLF?",
"I don't know.",
"How long was he a member of the GLF?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_acbda4b802ac4f2b87c8606e402bada5_1 | What gay rights did he advocate for? | 6 | What gay rights did Peter Tatchell advocate for? | Peter Tatchell | To avoid conscription into the Australian Army, Tatchell moved to London in 1971. He had accepted being gay in 1969, and in London became a leading member of the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) until its 1974 collapse. During this time Tatchell was prominent in organising sit-ins at pubs that refused to serve "poofs" and protests against police harassment and the medical classification of homosexuality as an illness. With others he helped organise Britain's first Gay Pride march in 1972. In 1973, he attended the 10th World Youth Festival in East Berlin on GLF's behalf. His actions triggered opposition within and between different groups of national delegates including the Communist Party of Great Britain and National Union of Students. He was banned from conferences, had his leaflets confiscated and burned, was interrogated by the secret police (the Stasi) and threatened and assaulted by other delegates, mostly communists. Tatchell later claimed that this was the first time gay liberation politics were publicly disseminated and discussed in a communist country, although he noted that, in terms of decriminalisation and the age of consent, gay men had greater rights in East Germany at the time than in Britain and much of the West. Describing his time in the Gay Liberation Front, he wrote in The Guardian that: [The] GLF was a glorious, enthusiastic and often chaotic mix of anarchists, hippies, leftwingers, feminists, liberals and counter-culturalists. Despite our differences, we shared a radical idealism - a dream of what the world could and should be - free from not just homophobia but the whole sex-shame culture, which oppressed straights as much as LGBTs. We were sexual liberationists and social revolutionaries, out to turn the world upside down. [...] GLF's main aim was never equality within the status quo. [...] GLF's strategy for queer emancipation was to change society's values and norms, rather than adapt to them. We sought a cultural revolution to overturn centuries of male heterosexual domination and thereby free both queers and women. [...] Forty years on, GLF's gender agenda has been partly won. [...] Girlish boys and boyish girls don't get victimised as much as in times past. LGBT kids often now come out at the age of 12 or 14. While many are bullied, many others are not. The acceptance of sexual and gender diversity is increasing. CANNOTANSWER | We were sexual liberationists and social revolutionaries, out to turn the world upside down. [...] GLF's main aim was never equality within the status quo. | Peter Gary Tatchell (born 25 January 1952) is a British human rights campaigner, originally from Australia, best known for his work with LGBT social movements.
Tatchell was selected as the Labour Party's parliamentary candidate for Bermondsey in 1981. He was then denounced by party leader Michael Foot for ostensibly supporting extra-parliamentary action against the Thatcher government. Labour subsequently allowed him to stand in the Bermondsey by-election in February 1983, in which the party lost the seat to the Liberals. In the 1990s he campaigned for LGBT rights through the direct action group OutRage!, which he co-founded. He has worked on various campaigns, such as Stop Murder Music against music lyrics allegedly inciting violence against LGBT people and writes and broadcasts on various human rights and social justice issues. He attempted a citizen's arrest of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe in 1999 and again in 2001.
In April 2004, he joined the Green Party of England and Wales and in 2007 was selected as prospective parliamentary candidate in the constituency of Oxford East, but in December 2009 he stood down due to brain damage he says was caused by a bus accident as well as damage sustained during various protests. Since 2011, he has been the Director of the Peter Tatchell Foundation.
Early life
Tatchell was born in Melbourne, Australia. His father was a lathe operator and his mother worked in a biscuit factory. His parents divorced when he was four and his mother remarried soon afterwards.
Since the family finances were strained by medical bills, he had to leave school at 16 in 1968. He started work as a sign-writer and window-dresser in department stores. Tatchell claims to have incorporated the theatricality of these displays into his activism.
Raised as a Christian, Tatchell says that he "ditched [his] faith a long time ago" and is an atheist. It is widely reported that Tatchell is a vegan; however, Tatchell himself only states that he eats no meat, but does eat eggs, cheese, and, according to Richard Fairbrass, wild salmon, meaning Tatchell is a pescatarian.
He became interested in outdoor adventurous activities such as surfing and mountain climbing. Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Any Questions about how insurance and legal risks were making British teachers reluctant to take pupils on outdoor adventures, he said outdoor activities helped him develop the courage to take political risks in adult life.
Campaigns in Australia
Tatchell's political activity began at Mount Waverley Secondary College, where in 1967 he launched campaigns in support of Australia's Aboriginal people. Tatchell was elected secretary of the school's Student Representative Council. In his final year in 1968, as school captain, he took the lead in setting up a scholarship scheme for Aboriginal people and led a campaign for Aboriginal land rights. These activities led the headmaster to claim he had been manipulated by communists.
Prompted by the impending hanging of Ronald Ryan in 1967, Tatchell went round his local area painting slogans against the hanging, a fact he did not reveal until nearly 30 years later. Ryan was accused of killing a prison warder while escaping from Pentridge Prison in Coburg, Victoria. Tatchell claimed, unsuccessfully, that the trajectory of the bullet through the warder's body probably made it impossible that Ryan could have fired the fatal shot.
In 1968, Tatchell began campaigning against the American and Australian involvement in the Vietnam War, in his view a war of aggression in support of a "brutal and corrupt dictatorship" responsible for torture and executions. The Victoria state government and Melbourne city council attempted to suppress the anti-Vietnam War campaign by banning street leafleting and taking police action against anti-war demonstrations.
In 2004, he proposed the renaming of Australian capital cities with their Aboriginal place names.
Gay Liberation Front
To avoid conscription into the Australian Army, Tatchell moved to London in 1971. He had opened up about being gay in 1969, and in London became a leading member of the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) until its 1974 collapse. During this time Tatchell was prominent in organising sit-ins at pubs that refused to serve "poofs" and protests against police harassment and the medical classification of homosexuality as an illness. With others he helped organise Britain's first Gay Pride march in 1972.
In 1973, he attended the 10th World Youth Festival in East Berlin on GLF's behalf. His plans to protest at the festival were not well received by either the British delegation or the GDR hosts, however he was eventually allowed to give a speech at Humboldt University. His lecture was subject to various disruptions, it ended in his denunciation as a "troublemaker" by a member of the audience. The following day, Tatchell attempted to hand out leaflets at a concert, an official of the Free German Youth objected and encouraged fellow concert-goers to destroy the leaflets. Tatchell intended to carry a placard advocating gay rights at the closing rally of the festival, the British delegation incorrectly translated the placard to read "East Germany persecutes homosexuals", this was put to a vote and the majority decided the placard was not acceptable. Yet, in defiance of the collective decision, Tatchell carried the placard anyway and was then beaten. The placard was torn in half.
Tatchell later claimed that this was the first time gay liberation politics were publicly disseminated and discussed in a communist country, although he noted that, in terms of decriminalisation and the age of consent, gay men had greater rights in East Germany at the time than much of the West.
Describing his time in the Gay Liberation Front, he wrote in The Guardian that:
Tatchell collaborated with public artist Martin Firrell to mark the 50th anniversary of the GLF in 2020. The artist's Still Revolting series drew on Tatchell's personal recollections of the GLF, quoting Tatchell's 1973 placard 'Homosexuals Are Revolting' created by Tatchell for London Gay Pride. The artist's addition of the word 'still' reflects the truth that homosexuality is still regarded as intolerable by some and many LGBT+ people around the world are still struggling for acceptance, security and equality.
Graduation
After taking A levels at evening classes, he attended the Polytechnic of North London (PNL), now part of London Metropolitan University, where he obtained a 2:1 BSc (Hons) in sociology.
At PNL he was a member of the National Union of Students Gay Rights Campaign. On graduating he became a freelance journalist specialising in foreign stories, during which he publicised the Indonesian annexation of West Papua and child labour on British-owned tea farms in Malawi.
Political activity
Tatchell popularised the phrase "sexual apartheid" to describe the separate laws that long existed for gays and heterosexuals.
Labour candidate for Bermondsey
In 1978, Tatchell joined the Labour Party and moved to a council flat in Bermondsey, south-east London. At the Bermondsey Constituency Labour Party's (CLP) AGM in February 1980, the left group won control and Tatchell was elected Secretary. When the sitting Labour Member of Parliament (MP), Bob Mellish, retired in 1981, Tatchell was selected as his successor, despite Arthur Latham, a former MP and former Chairman of the Tribune Group, being considered the favourite. While Militant was cited as the reason for Tatchell's selection, Tatchell disagrees and ascribes his selection to the support of the "older, 'born and bred' working class; the younger professional and intellectual members swung behind Latham".
In an article for a left-wing magazine, Tatchell urged the Labour Party to support direct action campaigning to challenge the Margaret Thatcher-led Tory government, stating "we must look to new more militant forms of extra-parliamentary opposition which involve mass popular participation and challenge the government's right to rule". Social Democratic Party MP James Wellbeloved, arguing the article was anti-Parliamentary, quoted it at Prime Minister's Questions in November 1981. Foot denounced Tatchell, stating that he would not be endorsed as a candidate and a vote at the Labour Party National Executive Committee denied Tatchell's endorsement. However, the Bermondsey Labour Party continued to support him and it was eventually agreed that when the selection was rerun, Tatchell would be eligible, and he duly won. When Mellish resigned from Parliament and triggered a by-election, Tatchell's candidacy was endorsed, and the ensuing campaign was regarded as one of the most homophobic in modern British history.
Tatchell was assaulted in the street, had his flat attacked, and had a death threat and a live bullet put through his letterbox in the night. Although the Bermondsey seat had long been a Labour stronghold, the Liberal candidate, Simon Hughes, won the election. During the campaign, Liberal canvassers were accused of stirring up homophobia on the doorsteps. Male Liberal workers campaigned wearing lapel badges with the words, "I've been kissed by Peter Tatchell" following the suggestion that he was attempting to hide his sexuality; this campaign was criticised by Roy Hattersley at a Labour news conference. One of Hughes' campaign leaflets claimed the election was "a straight choice" between Liberal and Labour. Hughes has since apologised for what may have been seen as an inadvertent slur and later came out as bisexual in 2006.
Democratic Defence
Tatchell published the book Democratic Defence in 1985. In it, he outlined his suggestions for a defence policy for the United Kingdom after it underwent nuclear disarmament. Tatchell argued that the British military was still organised on an imperialist strategy of basing troops abroad rather than on a strategy of defending Britain itself against foreign attacks.
Citing the difficulties that the British army was facing in Northern Ireland, he argued that their current methods had proven ineffective against guerrilla warfare, along with arguing for troops to be allowed to join trade unions and political parties, and to end strict adherence to "petty regulations". He praised the Second World War-era British Home Guard as an example of a "citizens' army", as well as the armed forces of Sweden, Switzerland and Yugoslavia as positive examples.
In the book, Tatchell also argued for a British withdrawal from NATO and for the establishment of a European Self-Defence Organisation, independent of both the United States, whom he felt that Europe had become too dependent on their military protection, and the Soviet Union, which he condemned for their invasions of Czechoslovakia and of Afghanistan, as well its internal repression. He quoted with approval Enoch Powell's argument that the threat from the Soviet Union to the UK was exaggerated.
The book was reviewed by the Times Literary Supplement in May 1985.
Green issues
In February 2000 Tatchell resigned from Labour, citing the treatment of Ken Livingstone during the nomination of a candidate for Mayor of London, and of similar cases in the Scottish and Welsh elections, as evidence that the party "no longer has any mechanism for democratic involvement and transformation". He fought unsuccessfully for a seat on the London Assembly as an Independent candidate within the Green Left grouping, in support of Livingstone.
On 7 April 2004 he joined the Green Party of England and Wales but did not envisage standing for election. However, in 2007, he became the party's parliamentary candidate for Oxford East. In 16 December 2009, he withdrew as a candidate claiming brain damage he says was caused by a bus accident as well as damage inflicted by Mugabe's bodyguards when Tatchell attempted to arrest him in 2001 in Brussels, and by neo-Nazis in Moscow.
Tatchell opposes nuclear power; instead he advocates concentrated solar power.
In Tribune, he pointed out the adverse effects of climate change: "By 2050, if climate change proceeds unchecked, England will no longer be a green and pleasant land. In between periods of prolonged scorching drought, we are likely to suffer widespread flooding."
For many years, he supported a green–red alliance. More recently, he helped launch the Green Left grouping within the Green Party. He urged links between trade unions and the Greens. On 27 April 2010, he urged Green Party supporters to vote for Liberal Democrats in constituencies where they had an incumbent MP or a strong chance of winning.
In August 2021, Tatchell endorsed Tamsin Omond and Amelia Womack in the 2021 Green Party of England and Wales leadership election.
Iraq War
Tatchell opposed the war in Iraq, and its subsequent occupation. For nearly three decades he had previously supported the Iraqi Left Opposition, helping them remove the government of Saddam Hussein because of the gross violations of human rights that Hussein had committed against democrats, left-wingers, trade unionists, Shia Muslims and the Kurdish people, and because under Saddam's dictatorship there were no opportunities for peaceful, democratic change. He advocated military and financial aid to opponents of the Saddam government, suggesting that anti-Saddam organisations be given "tanks, helicopter gun-ships, fighter planes, heavy artillery and anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles". While opposing western intervention, he advocated regime change from within in countries such as Saudi Arabia, Iran and Syria.
Tatchell has written that on 12 March 2003 he ambushed Tony Blair's motorcade in an anti-Iraq war protest. He forced Blair's limousine to stop, and then unfolded a banner that read "Arm the Kurds! Topple Saddam". He added that in terms of the political struggle within Britain (as opposed to struggles against absolute tyrants like Hitler and Saddam, where violent resistance can be the lesser of two evils): "I remain committed to the Gandhian principle of non-violence". After the war he signed the 'Unite Against Terror' declaration, arguing that "the pseudo-left reveals its shameless hypocrisy and its wholesale abandonment of humanitarian values" by supporting resistance and insurgent groups in Iraq that resort to indiscriminate terrorism, killing innocent civilians.
In 2003, Tatchell said he supported giving "massive material aid" to Iraqi opposition groups, including the "Shi'ite Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq" (SCIRI), to bring down Saddam. But in 2006 Tatchell noted that SCIRI had become markedly more fundamentalist and was endorsing violent attacks on anyone who did not conform to its increasingly harsh interpretation of Islam. He claimed that SCIRI, the leading force in Baghdad's ruling coalition, wanted to establish an Iranian-style religious dictatorship, with a goal of clerical fascism, and had engaged in "terrorisation of gay Iraqis", as well as terrorising Sunni Muslims, left-wingers, unveiled women and people who listen to western pop music or wear jeans or shorts.
In September 2014, Tatchell advocated arming the Kurdistan Workers' Party to fight against ISIS, and argued that the US and EU had been wrong to designate it as a terrorist organisation.
Syrian civil war
A previous supporter of the Stop the War Coalition, Tatchell and many other public personalities expressed concern with the coalition's allegedly unduly favourable view of Bashar al-Assad's government in Syria, and has called for the Labour leader and former Stop the War Chair Jeremy Corbyn not to attend the Coalition's Christmas fundraiser 2015. In December 2016, Tatchell and others disrupted Corbyn's speech on human rights on the basis that the Labour leader had responded insufficiently to the bombing of Aleppo and urged him to condemn Russian military intervention in Syria.
Balochistan
Since 2006, he expressed concern for the Baloch people facing military operations in their homeland, Balochistan in Pakistan. From 2007 to 2009, he campaigned in defence of two UK-based Baloch Muslim human rights activists, Hyrbyair Marri and Faiz Baluch, accused of terrorism charges and tried in London. Both men were acquitted in 2009. He alleged collusion by the U.S. and British governments in regards to the suppression of the Balochs, including arms sales to Pakistan, which he says were used to bomb and attack Baloch towns and villages.
Activities in Moscow
In May 2006 Tatchell attended the first Moscow Pride Festival. He appears in the documentary Moscow Pride '06 featuring this event.
In May 2007 Tatchell returned to Moscow to support Moscow Pride and to voice his opposition to a ban on the march, staying at the flat of an American diplomat. On 27 May 2007, Tatchell and other gay rights activists were attacked. He was punched in the face and nearly knocked unconscious, while other demonstrators were beaten, kicked and assaulted. A German MP, Volker Beck, and a European Parliament deputy from Italy, Marco Cappato, were also punched before being arrested and questioned by police. Tatchell later said "I'm not deterred one iota from coming back to protest in Moscow." On his release, Tatchell made a report on the incident to the American Embassy.
On 16 May 2009, the day of the final of the Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow, Russian gay rights activists staged a protest in Moscow in defiance of the city's mayor, Yuri Luzkhov, who had long banned gay demonstrations and denounced them as "satanic". Tatchell was among 32 campaigners arrested when they shouted slogans and unfurled banners.
NUS politics
On 14 February 2015, Tatchell was one of a number of signatories to a letter criticising the trend in the British National Union of Students to apply a No Platform policy to feminists who criticised the sex industry or challenged demands made by certain groups of trans people. In particular, the letter cited the denial of a platform to Kate Smurthwaite at Goldsmith's College and to Germaine Greer at the University of Cambridge.
Tatchell received death threats after signing the letter. He later stated that he would have worded the letter differently to clarify that he supported the human rights of trans people and sex workers, but that he had signed the letter nonetheless because he believed in the message of free speech on campuses. He said that the initial draft that he signed contained the sentence "Some of us have disagreements with the views expressed [by feminist critics of trans people]", and that he was "not happy" that this was cut out of the final letter.
On 13 February 2016, Fran Cowling, the national LGBT representative for the NUS, refused to share a platform with Tatchell at Canterbury Christ Church University to discuss the topic of "re-radicalising queers". Cowling said that Tatchell supported speakers who are "openly transphobic and incite violence" against transgender people, and also that Tatchell had used "racist language". Tatchell responded that no evidence could be produced to support either claim, and that Cowling had never consulted the NUS membership before deciding to make pronouncements on their behalf, and said "This sorry, sad saga is symptomatic of the decline of free and open debate on some university campuses. There is a witch-hunting, accusatory atmosphere. Allegations are made without evidence to back them – or worse, they are made citing false, trumped-up evidence."
Campaigns
OutRage!
Tatchell took part in many gay rights campaigns over issues such as Section 28. Following the murder of actor Michael Boothe on 10 May 1990, Tatchell was one of thirty people to attend the inaugural meeting of the radical gay rights non-violent direct action group OutRage! – although he was not a co-founder – and has remained a leading member. The group fuses theatrical performance styles with queer protest. As the most prominent OutRage! member, Tatchell is sometimes assumed to be the leader of the group, though he has never claimed this, saying he is one among equals.
In 1991, a small group of OutRage! members covertly formed a separate group to engage in a campaign of outing public figures who were homophobic in public but gay in private. The group took the name FROCS (Faggots Rooting Out Closeted Sexuality). Tatchell was the group's go-between with the press, forwarding their news statements to his media contacts. Considerable publicity and public debate followed FROCS's threat to out 200 leading public personalities from the world of politics, religion, business and sport. With Tatchell's assistance, members of FROCS eventually called a press conference to tell the world that their campaign was a hoax intended to demonstrate the hypocrisy of those newspapers that had condemned the campaign despite having themselves outed celebrities and politicians.
Some OutRage! activities were highly controversial. In 1994, it unveiled placards inviting ten Church of England bishops to "tell the truth" about what Outrage! alleged was their homosexuality and accusing them of condemning homosexuality in public while leading secret gay lives. Shortly afterwards the group wrote to twenty UK MPs, condemning their alleged support for anti-gay laws and claiming they would out them if the MPs did not stop what they described as attacks on the gay community. The MP Sir James Kilfedder, one such opponent of gay equality, who had received one of the letters, died two months later of a sudden heart attack on the day one of the Belfast newspapers planned to out him. In a comment in The Independent in October 2003, Tatchell claimed the OutRage! action against the bishops was his greatest mistake because he failed to anticipate that the media and the church would treat it as an invasion of privacy.
On 12 April 1998, Tatchell led an OutRage! protest, which disrupted the Easter sermon by George Carey, the Archbishop of Canterbury, with Tatchell mounting the pulpit to denounce what he claimed was Carey's opposition to legal equality for lesbian and gay people. The protest garnered media coverage and led to Tatchell's prosecution under the little-used Ecclesiastical Courts Jurisdiction Act 1860 (formerly part of the Brawling Act 1551), which prohibits any form of disruption or protest in a church. Tatchell failed in his attempt to summon Carey as a witness and was convicted. The judge fined him the trivial sum of £18.60, which commentators theorised was a wry allusion to the year of the statute used to convict him.
The LGBT press dubbed him "Saint Peter Tatchell" following further OutRage! campaigns involving religion.
A number of African LGBTI leaders signed a statement condemning the involvement of Tatchell and OutRage! in African issues, which led Tatchell to respond that he favoured working with the radical LGBTI groups in Africa rather than the more conservative (according to him) leaders who had signed the statement. Tatchell and OutRage! published a refutation of the allegations.
OutRage!'s protest against Chief Rabbi Immanuel Jakobovits, who supported the idea of genetic engineering to eliminate homosexuality, led to accusations that Tatchell was antisemitic, following OutRage!'s leaflets citing the similarity of Jakobovits ideas for the eradication of homosexuality to those of Heinrich Himmler were distributed outside the Western and Marble Arch Synagogue on the Rosh Hashanah in September 1993.
Rabbi Dame Julia Neuberger, who had campaigned for gay rights, said "Drawing a comparison between Lord Jakobovits and Himmler is offensive, racist and [...] makes OutRage appear antisemitic". She stated that the action and leaflet would "alienate Jews who are sympathetic to gay rights".
Stop Murder Music campaign
Tatchell argues that a number of Afro-Caribbean artists produce music that glorifies murder of homosexual men, and incites violence against homosexuals. He argued that British laws against incitement to violence were not being enforced on foreign artists performing in the UK. He also organised protests outside the concerts of singers whose lyrics he says incite violence, mainly Jamaican dancehall and ragga artists who he says glorify violence toward lesbians and gay men, including murder. Tatchell's campaign began in 1992 when Buju Banton's song "Boom bye-bye" was released. He has picketed the MOBO Awards ceremony to protest at their inviting performers of what he terms "murder music".
Tatchell argues that murder is not legal in Jamaica, and glorification of murder is not a legitimate form of Afro-Caribbean culture. In response Tatchell received death threats and was labelled racist. He defended himself by noting that the campaign was at the behest of the Jamaican gay rights group J-Flag, and the UK-based Black Gay Men's Advisory Group, with which he works closely. He pointed to what he described as his life's work campaigning against racism and apartheid and stated that his campaigns against "murder music" and state-sanctioned homophobic violence in Jamaica were endorsed by black Jamaican gay rights activists such as Jamaican Forum for Lesbians, All-Sexuals and Gays (J-FLAG), and by many straight human rights activists in Jamaica (male homosexuality remains illegal in Jamaica). The campaign has had positive effects with seven of eight original murder music singers signing the Reggae Compassion Act, which says that signatories will not "make statements or perform songs" that incite hatred or violence.
Members of the Rastafari movement accused Tatchell of racism and extremism, saying, "He has gone over way over the top. It's simply racist to put Hitler and Sizzla in the same bracket and just shows how far he is prepared to go." Tatchell denies equating Sizzla with Hitler.
Age of consent laws and Paedophile Information Exchange
In 1996, Tatchell led an OutRage! campaign to reduce the age of consent in the UK to 14 years, to adjust for studies that showed nearly half of all young people had their first sexual experiences prior to 16 years old, regardless of sexuality. He stated that he wished to exempt these people from being "treated as criminals by the law," and that the campaign claimed there should be no prosecution if the difference in ages of the sexual partners was no more than three years, provided that these youths are given a more comprehensive sex education at a younger date.
He was quoted in the OutRage!'s press release as saying "Young people have a right to accept or reject sex, according to what they feel is appropriate for them".
Tatchell has since reiterated that he does not condone adults having sex with children. On his personal website, under the subsection Age of Consent, he writes:
On 10 March 2008, in the Irish Independent, he repeated his call for a lower age of consent to end the criminalisation of young people engaged in consenting sex and to remove the legal obstacles to upfront sex education, condom provision and safer sex advice. In 1998 and 2008, he supported relaxation of the then strict laws against pornography, arguing that pornography can have some social benefits, and he has criticised what he calls the body-shame phobia against nudism, suggesting that nudity may be natural and healthy for society.
In 2006, he opposed the appointment of Ruth Kelly as Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government as Kelly had not supported equal treatment of lesbians and gay men in any parliamentary votes. Tatchell said "her appointment suggests the government does not take lesbian and gay rights seriously", adding "Tony Blair would never appoint someone to a race-equality post who had a lukewarm record of opposing racism".
Paedophile Information Exchange
Tatchell has written an obituary in The Independent for Paedophile Information Exchange founder Ian Dunn, as well as an essay for a pro-paedophile activist and Paedophile Information Exchange member Warren Middleton in the book "Betrayal of Youth (BOY)". The actor and activist, John Connors described Tatchell as a "paedophile apologist" and other critics (such as the British National Party) have suggested that he is personally pro-paedophile, which he strongly denies – stating that:
In July 2021, in an article by Hayley Dixon, Melanie Newman and Julie Bindel for the Daily Telegraph, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/07/27/peter-tatchell-children-have-sexual-desires-early-age/ it emerged that a positive review attributed to Peter Tatchell of the same pro-paedophila book - Betrayal of Youth: Radical Perspectives on Childhood Sexuality, Intergenerational Sex and the Social Oppression of Children and Young People - appeared in the June 1987 edition of 7 Days, the newsletter of the Communist Party of Great Britain.
He also comments on an interview he conducted in the late 1990s on the subject of paedophilia and child prostitution, in which he interviewed a 14-year-old boy (under the pseudonym "Lee") who had had sex with older men, in some cases for money. In this interview, Tatchell makes various counterarguments against Lee's point of view, such as: "How can a young child understand sex and give meaningful consent?", "Perhaps your friends were particularly mature for their age. Most young people are not so sophisticated about sex", "Many people worry that the power imbalance in a relationship between a youth and an adult means the younger person can be easily manipulated and exploited", "Many people fear that making sex easier for under-age teenagers will expose them to dangers like HIV. Isn't that a legitimate worry?".
In 1997 Tatchell wrote a letter to The Guardian, defending an academic book about "boy-love", calling the work "courageous", before writing:
On Tatchell's personal website he clarifies,
My Guardian letter cited examples of youths in Papuan tribes and some of my friends who, when they were under 16, had sex with adults (over 18s), but who do not feel they were harmed. I was not endorsing their viewpoint but merely stating that they had a different perspective from the mainstream opinion about inter-generational sex. They have every right for their perspective to be heard."
Following the publication of a photo of Tatchell alongside the Irish Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Roderic O'Gorman, on Twitter, at a Pride event, O'Gorman issued a statement outlining that the apparent views in Tatchell's letter - written 23 years ago, when O'Gorman was just 15 - were "abhorrent" to him, and his appreciation that Tatchell clarified his own position.
Civil partnerships
Tatchell has pledged his support for opposite-sex couples to be allowed to have civil partnerships, stating that some opposite-sex couples dislike the "sexist, homophobic history of [the institution of] marriage", and allowing them into civil partnerships "is simply a matter of equality".
Writing for PinkNews, he said:
Foreign politics
Imperialism
While still at school, Tatchell campaigned in favour of better treatment of, and full human rights for, Aboriginal Australians. He has opined that Australian cities should be renamed with their original Aboriginal place names. For example, he wants the Tasmanian capital Hobart to be renamed Nibberluna, arguing that this would be a fitting tribute to Australia's Aboriginal heritage, which he claims has been discarded and disrespected for too long.
Tatchell participated in the mass Vietnam Moratorium protests in Melbourne in 1970. The same year, Tatchell founded and was elected secretary of the inter-denominational anti-war movement, Christians for Peace. Later, upon moving to London in 1971, he was active in solidarity work with the independence movements in Mozambique, and Guinea-Bissau.
In 2002, he brought an unsuccessful legal action in Bow Street Magistrate's Court for the arrest of the former U.S. Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, on charges of war crimes in Vietnam and Cambodia.
Zimbabwe
Part of Tatchell's political activism and journalism in the 1970s involved the Rhodesian Bush War, in which he supported the black nationalist movement, including the Zimbabwe African National Union and its military wing. Mugabe's denunciation of male homosexuality in 1995 led Tatchell to help organise a protest for LGBT rights in Zimbabwe outside the Zimbabwe High Commission in London.
Two years later, he passed through police security disguised as a TV cameraman to quiz Mugabe during the "Africa at 40" conference at Methodist Central Hall, Westminster. Mugabe told him that allegations of human rights abuses were grossly exaggerated; he became agitated when Tatchell told him that he was gay. Mugabe's minders summoned Special Branch guards, who ejected Tatchell. On 26 October 1997 a letter from Tatchell to The Observer argued that the United Kingdom should suspend aid to Zimbabwe because of its violence against LGBT people.
Tatchell researched the Gukurahundi attacks in Matabeleland in the 1980s, when the Zimbabwean Fifth Brigade attacked supporters of the Zimbabwe African Peoples Union. He became convinced that Mugabe had broken international human rights law during the attack, which is estimated to have involved the massacre of around 20,000 civilians. Then in 1999, journalists Mark Chavunduka and Ray Choto were tortured by the Zimbabwe Army. The arrest of Augusto Pinochet in London seemed to him a precedent that human rights violations could be pursued against a head of state, thanks to the principle of universal jurisdiction. On 30 October 1999 Tatchell and three other OutRage! activists approached Mugabe's car in a London street and attempted to perform a citizen's arrest. Tatchell opened the car door and grabbed Mugabe. He then called the police. The four OutRage! activists were arrested, on charges including criminal damage, assault and breach of the peace; charges were dropped on the opening day of their trial. Mugabe responded by describing Tatchell and his OutRage! colleagues as "gay gangsters", a slogan frequently repeated by his supporters, and claimed they had been sent by the United Kingdom government.
On 5 March 2001, when Mugabe visited Brussels, Tatchell again attacked him. Mugabe's bodyguards were seen knocking him to the floor. Later that day, Tatchell was briefly knocked unconscious by Mugabe's bodyguards and was left with permanent damage to his right eye. The protest drew worldwide headlines, as Mugabe was highly unpopular in the Western world for his land redistribution policy. Tatchell's actions were praised by Zimbabwean activists and many of the newspapers that had previously denounced him.
Tatchell ultimately failed in his attempt to secure an international arrest warrant against Mugabe on torture charges. The magistrate argued that Mugabe had immunity from prosecution as a serving head of state.
In late 2003, Tatchell acted as a press spokesman for the launch of the Zimbabwe Freedom Movement (ZFM), which claimed to be a clandestine group within Zimbabwe committed to overthrowing the Mugabe government by force. The civic action support group Sokwanele urged Tatchell to check his sources, speculating that it might have been by the Zimbabwe government to justify violent action. This speculation proved to be unfounded. The Mugabe regime dismissed the ZFM as a hoax. However, two Central Intelligence Organization members were spotted and turned away from the ZFM launch, as shown in the film "Peter Tatchell: Just who does he think he is?" by Max Barber.
South Africa
Following a protest against the ANC, Tatchell described himself as a long-time anti-apartheid activist, in an essay for the book 'sex and politics in South Africa', he claimed that his lobbying of the ANC in 1987 contributed to it renouncing homophobia and making its first public commitment to lesbian and gay human rights and that in 1989 and 1990, he helped persuade the ANC to include a ban on anti-gay discrimination in the post-apartheid constitution (claiming he assisted in drafting model clauses for the ANC)
After Tatchell was named as one of the UK's most "hate filled bigots" in the 'Desi Express' newspaper, Aaron Saeed, Muslim Affairs spokesperson for the gay human rights group OutRage!, claimed that Tatchell was involved in the anti-apartheid movement for over 20 years.
Gaza and the West Bank
In May 2004, he and a dozen other lesbians and gay men from OutRage! and the Queer Youth Alliance joined a London demonstration organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign. Their placards read "Israel: stop persecuting Palestine! Palestine: stop persecuting queers!". Tatchell claims that others present accused him of being a Mossad agent sent to disrupt the march, of being a racist or a Zionist, a supporter of Ariel Sharon or an agent of the Central Intelligence Agency or MI5. Tatchell has written a number of articles in The Guardian on the issue.
2008 Olympics
In April 2008, Tatchell attempted to disrupt the procession of the Olympic torch though London. As a protest against China's human rights record he stood in front of the bus carrying the torch along Oxford Street while carrying a placard calling on Beijing to "Free Tibet, Free Hu Jia" (the name of a recently jailed human rights activist). Tatchell was taken away by police but was not charged. In an interview Tatchell called on the world to boycott the opening ceremony of the Olympics, or to take other visible action.
Iran
Tatchell is a critic of Iran's criminal code, which has parts based on sharia and prescribes punishments for zina offenses, including consensual sexual relations between same-sex partners.
In 2005, Iran executed two teenagers, Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni, aged 16 and 18, accused of raping a 13-year-old boy at knifepoint. Tatchell argued that Iran has a history of arresting political activists on false charges and extracting false confessions from death penalty convicts, and declared that he believed the original crime was consensual sex between the two, which is illegal in Iran. Tatchell reiterated his long-standing view that Iran is an "Islamo-fascist state". He argued that information from Iranian exile groups with contacts inside Iran was that the teenagers were a secret gay party before they were arrested.
International human rights groups Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch preferred campaigners to focus on Iran violating the Convention on the Rights of the Child (which forbids the execution of juveniles) rather than the weak allegation of consensual sex.
Faisal Alam, founder of American Gay Muslim group Al-Fatiha, argued in the magazine Queer that Iran was condemned before the facts were certain.
Russia
Tatchell has written articles condemning the Russian LGBT propaganda law. In 2014 Tatchell protested Valery Gergiev's support for Vladimir Putin.
Tatchell protested the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi over the gay rights stance of Russia, comparing the event to the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.
Tatchell was arrested at the Moscow Pride parade in 2011 amid a spate of anti-gay violence by neo-Nazis.
In February 2007, the Mayor of Moscow, Yury Luzhkov, visited London mayor Ken Livingstone for an annual meeting that also involved the Mayors of Berlin and Paris, with the mayor of Beijing present as well. Nikolay Alexeyev, one of the organizers of the Moscow gay pride parade, joined Tatchell in protesting the visit. A notice of the protest quoted Talgat Tadzhuddin saying that the Moscow pride marchers should be flogged.
Livingstone asserted that he supports gay rights, and said "In Moscow the Russian Orthodox church, the chief rabbi and the grand Mufti all supported the ban on the Gay Pride march with the main role, due to its great weight in society, being played by the Orthodox church. The attempt of Mr Tatchell to focus attention on the role of the grand Mufti in Moscow, in the face of numerous attacks on gay rights in Eastern Europe, which overwhelmingly come from right-wing Christian and secular currents, is a clear example of an Islamophobic campaign."
Tatchell retorted that Livingstone's remarks were "dishonest, despicable nonsense", adding "The Grand Mufti was not singled out". He further said the Mayor had brought his "office into disrepute" and "has revealed himself to be a person without principles, honesty or integrity."
Israel
Following the vote by the Knesset, the Israeli legislature, in 2007 in favour of bills to ban lesbian and gay pride parades in Jerusalem, the Lesbian and Gay Coalition Against Racism criticised Tatchell, saying:
Tatchell issued a statement opposing any boycott of Israel as a result of this.
In a 2009 article for The Guardian Tatchell condemned what he described as "disproportionate" and "reckless" attacks by the Israeli military on Gaza, but also argued that Western liberals and progressives should not support Hamas which he described as an Islamist group that represses Palestinians and is "potentially as much of a threat to Palestinian freedom as Israel is today."
Anglican and Catholic churches
Tatchell criticised the Catholic Church and Pope Benedict XVI, whom he described as "the ideological inheritor of Nazi homophobia". "He'd like to eradicate homosexuality, but since he can't put LGBT people in physical concentration camps, is doing his best to put them in psychological concentration camps."
Channel 4 indicated in June 2010 that Tatchell would be the presenter of a documentary film examining "the current Pope's teachings throughout the world". The plans sparked criticism from some prominent British Catholics including Conservative politician Ann Widdecombe, who accused Channel 4 of trying to "stir up controversy". Tatchell asserted that the documentary "will not be an anti-Catholic programme".
On 15 September 2010, Tatchell, along with 54 other public figures, signed an open letter, published in The Guardian, stating their opposition to Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the United Kingdom.
With respect to Anglicanism, he stated that "it's very sad to see a good man like the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, going to such extraordinary lengths to appease homophobes within the Anglican Communion".
In 2017 Tatchell praised the Church of England's new 'Valuing all God's Children' scheme for schools, which seeks to stop homophobic and transphobic bullying.
Multiculturalism
Tatchell has occasionally been moderately critical of multiculturalism. In 2010 he gave a speech to the Libertarian Alliance at the National Liberal Club arguing that the British people are increasingly "fragmented according to their different and sometimes competing identities, values, and traditions. These differences are prioritised over shared experiences and interests. Our common needs and the universalities of human rights are downplayed in favour of religious and racial particularities."
Free speech
In 2006, during the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy, Tatchell spoke at a 25 March 2006 rally called the Freedom of Expression Rally.
At the rally, Tatchell argued for the "disestablishment of the Church of England and the freedom to insult the Queen, Prime Minister and Archbishop of Canterbury." Tatchell said that the far-left is "Mired in the immoral morass of cultural relativism, they no longer endorse Enlightenment values and universal human rights. Their support for free speech is now qualified by so many ifs and buts. When push comes to shove, it is more or less worthless."
In 2007, he wrote a Guardian opinion piece, arguing that "The best way to tackle prejudice is by presenting facts and using reasoned arguments, to break down ignorance and ill-will." In 2016, Tatchell made threats to free speech in Britain the topic of his British Humanist Association annual conference lecture. Speaking with reference to a number of censorship controversies in the 2010s, he said that "the recent trend against freedom of speech means that we must fight the battles of the Enlightenment all over again."
However, in 2018 Tatchell voiced his support for Mark Meechan's conviction under section 127 of the Communications Act 2003 for posting a "grossly offensive" video on YouTube.
Islam
Tatchell is critical of Islam, and first wrote about its presence in Britain in 1995. In 1995, he wrote that "although not all Muslims are anti-gay, significant numbers are violently homophobic [...] homophobic Muslim voters may be able to influence the outcome of elections in 20 or more marginal constituencies." He is critical of the UK government's All-Party Parliamentary Group definition of Islamophobia, suggesting that he tries "to avoid the term", that Muslimness is a vague and subjective term, and that the Islamophobia term is a "a de facto threat to free speech and liberal values" and "virtue-signalling".
Tatchell has described the entire Sharia, which is the moral code that Muslims try to live by, as "a clerical form of fascism" and was the keynote speaker at a 2005 protest at the Canadian High Commission, demanding that Ontario's arbitration law, which permitted religious arbitration in civil cases for Jews and Christians, not be extended to Muslims.
In 2017, Tatchell wrote to the organisers of Pride in London to defend the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain. In response to calls by the East London Mosque for CEMB to apologise for placards alleging the mosque "incites murder of LGBTs", Tatchell stated "East London Mosque has refused all dialogue with LGBT community. It refuses to meet LGBT Muslims. I have asked them 11 times since 2015".
Tatchell has previously condemned Islamophobia, saying "any form of prejudice, hatred, discrimination or violence against Muslims is wrong. Full stop". He described the Qur'an as "rather mild in its condemnation of homosexuality".
He points out that much of his prison and asylum casework involves supporting Muslim prisoners and asylum seekers—heterosexual as well as LGBT. In 2006, he helped stop the abuse of Muslim prisoners at a Norwich jail and helped secure parole for other Muslim detainees. Half his asylum cases are, he reports, male and female Muslim refugees. Two of his highest-profile campaigns involved Muslim victims—Mohamed S, who was framed by men who first tried to kill him and then jailed him for eight years, and Sid Saeed, who brought a racism and homophobic harassment case against Deutsche Bank.
Tatchell chose Malcolm X as his specialist subject when appearing on Celebrity Mastermind, explaining that he considered him an inspiration and hero (his other inspirations are Mahatma Gandhi, Sylvia Pankhurst and Martin Luther King Jr.). However, his endorsement of Bruce Perry's biography, in an article calling for black gay role models, led to criticism. due to Perry's claim that Malcolm X had male lovers in his youth.
In February 2010, Women Against Fundamentalism defended Tatchell against allegations of Islamophobia and endorsed his right to challenge all religious fundamentalism: "WAF supports the right of Peter Tatchell and numerous other gay activists to oppose the legitimisation of fundamentalists and other right wing forces on university campuses, by the Left and by the government in its Preventing Violent Extremism strategy and numerous other programmes and platforms".
Muslim Council of Britain
Tatchell had described the Muslim Council of Britain as being "anti-gay", asking how can "they expect to win respect for their community, if at the same time as demanding action against Islamophobia, they themselves demand the legal enforcement of homophobia?". He noted that the MCB had joined forces with the "rightwing Christian Institute" to oppose every gay law reform from 1997 to 2006. In January 2006, the MCB Chairman Iqbal Sacranie said that homosexuals are immoral, harmful and diseased on BBC Radio 4.
Tatchell argued that "Both the Muslim and gay communities suffer prejudice and discrimination. We should stand together to fight Islamophobia and homophobia". Tatchell subsequently criticised Unite Against Fascism for inviting Sacranie to share its platforms, describing him as a "homophobic hate-mongerer."
When the MCB boycotted Holocaust Memorial Day, partly because it was "not sufficiently inclusive", Tatchell wrote that "the only thing that is consistent about the MCB is its opposition to the human rights of lesbians and gay men".
Muslims and gay rights
In 2006, Tatchell wrote an opinion column in The Guardian arguing that Muslims deliberately conflate offence with violence, in an effort to suppress Muslim reformers in Britain. He argued that Islamist groups like Hizb ut-Tahrir in Britain see "any criticism of Islam is an insult and that all such insults are unacceptable" in order to suppress the "free exchange of ideas". The Muslim gay rights organisation IMAAN criticised Tatchell, saying, "OutRage! doesn't understand our cultural and religious sensitivities. Often, the way they word and phrase their press releases can and does antagonise Muslims. Much as we’ve invited them to meetings so we can talk about the best way to tackle Muslim LGBT issues, they insist on doing things their way."
In the book "Out of Place: Interrogating Silences in Queerness/Raciality", in a chapter called "Gay Imperialism: Gender and Sexuality Discourse in the 'War on Terror'", Jin Haritaworn, Tamsila Tauqir and Esra Erdem wrote, "rather than help, politics such as Tatchell's have worsened the situation for the majority of queer Muslims. It has become increasingly difficult for groups such as the Safra Project, who are forced into the frontline of the artificially constructed gay v. Muslim divide, to contest sexual oppression in Muslim communities. The more homophobia is constructed as belonging to Islam, the more anti-homophobic talk will be viewed as a white, even racist, phenomenon, and the harder it will be to increase tolerance and understanding among straight Muslims [...] The dialogue which Safra and other queer Muslim groups have long sought over this is more often than not ignored or disregarded, and white gay activists such as Tatchell have proved indifferent to the fact that the mud which they sling onto Muslim communities lands on queer Muslims themselves."
Despite previously attending a "rally for free expression", where the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons were celebrated, Tatchell sued the small publisher Raw Nerve Books, who issued an apology, and replaced links to the book on their site with that apology, but were later forced to shut down. The Monthly Review described this as censorship, adding, "the violent suppression of "Gay Imperialism" and the book in which it appeared also works as a warning to the authors, editors, and other critics and potential critics of Tatchell to better keep their mouths shut."
Yusuf al-Qaradawi
In July 2004, then-Mayor of London Ken Livingstone invited Yusuf al-Qaradawi to attend a talk called "A woman's right to choose" about the wearing of the hijab. Livingstone had read positive coverage of Qaradawi in The Guardian and The Sun.
In October 2004, 2,500 Muslim academics from 23 countries condemned Qaradawi, and accused him of giving "Islam a bad name and foster[ing] hatred among civilizations" and "providing a religious cover for terrorism".
Tatchell argued that Qaradawi expresses liberal positions to deceive the Western press and politicians, while being "rightwing, misogynist, anti-semitic and homophobic", using his books and fatwas to advocate female genital mutilation, blame for rape victims who dress immodestly, and the execution of apostates, homosexuals, and women who have sex outside marriage.
Livingstone issued a 2005 dossier praising Qaradawi as a moderate, based on positive press coverage he had received previously. Livingstone pronounced that Tatchell has "a long history of Islamophobia", and asserted that he is in a "de facto alliance with the American neo-cons and Israeli intelligence services." Tatchell strenuously denied the accusations, pointing out that he has never said any of the things that Livingstone accused him of saying. Livingstone continued to describe Qaradawi as "one of the leading progressive voices in the Muslim world" in 2010, after having been denied entry to the UK for his extremist views.
Two years after condemning Tatchell, Livingstone stated he "probably shouldn't" have called Tatchell an "Islamophobe".
Adam Yosef
In December 2005, Respect Party activist Adam Yosef came under criticism for an article in Desi Xpress opposing registered civil partnerships. He asserted that Tatchell needed "a good slap in the face" and his "queer campaign army" should "pack their bent bags and head back to Australia". Desi Xpress staff expressed regret to Tatchell and gave him a right of reply, while Yosef apologised and retracted his article, claiming the "slap in the face" remark was a "figure of speech" and the remark about Australia was not racist. Yosef later backed Tatchell's 2009 election campaign.
Secondary issues
Environmental issues
For over 20 years, Tatchell has written and campaigned about environmental problems including global warming and resource depletion, pointing out that they often have a disproportionately negative impact on developing countries. In the late 1980s, he was co-organiser of the Green and Socialist Conferences, which sought to ally reds and greens. He championed energy conservation and renewable energy; in particular tidal, wave and concentrated solar power. On 24 May 2009, he appeared on the BBC Daily Politics programme to oppose the Elephant and Castle regeneration scheme, which he said would bring few benefits to local working-class people. However, most of his campaigning continues to be in the areas of human rights and "queer emancipation".
In August 2008 Tatchell wrote about speculative theories concerning possible atmospheric oxygen depletion compared to prehistoric levels, and called for further investigation to test such claims and, if proven, their long-term consequences.
Animal rights
Tatchell is an active supporter of animal rights, saying "human rights and animal rights are two aspects of the same struggle against injustice", and that he advocates for a "claim to be spared suffering and offered inalienable rights" for both humans and animals.
Cornwall
Tatchell campaigned on the issue of the constitutional status of Cornwall. In November 2008, The Guardian carried an article by him entitled Self-rule for Cornwall, in which he said:
This article received the largest number of comments to any Guardian article, according to This is Cornwall. Over 1,500 comments were made, and while some comments were supportive, Tatchell found himself "shocked and disgusted" by the anti-Cornish sentiment shown by many commenters.
Columnist and other pursuits
Tatchell has written numerous articles in newspapers and magazines related to his various campaigns. He was highly critical of the media coverage of the Admiral Duncan pub bombing, claiming than the homophobic attitudes of news outlets had helped fuel the attack, and that the press concerned themselves almost exclusively with the one heterosexual victim, rather than the two other deaths and the dozens of maimed patrons, saying that:
In 1987 Tatchell appeared on the second programme of the first series of After Dark, a discussion on press ethics with, among others, Tony Blackburn, Victoria Gillick, Johnny Edgecombe and a Private Eye journalist.
On 5 August 1995 Tatchell was interviewed at length by Andrew Neil on his one-on-one interview show Is This Your Life?, made by Open Media for Channel 4.
, he has been an Ambassador for the penal reform group, Make Justice Work.
In 2011, he became the Director of the Peter Tatchell Foundation.
Tatchell is a patron of Humanists UK, an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society and a committed secularist, saying, "As an atheist, secularist and humanist I believe that reason, science and ethics – not religious superstition – are the best way to understand the world and promote human rights and welfare."
He contributes to The Jeremy Vine Show on BBC Radio 2.
Awards
In 2006, New Statesman readers voted him sixth on their list of "Heroes of our time".
In 2009, he racked up multiple awards. He was named Campaigner of the Year in The Observer Ethical Awards, London Citizen of Sanctuary Award, Shaheed Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti Award (for reporting the Balochistan national liberation struggle), Evening Standard 1000 Most Influential Londoners (winning again in 2011), Liberal Voice of the Year and a Blue Plaque in recognition of his more than 40 years of human rights campaigning.
In 2010 he won Total Politics Top 50 Political Influencers. A diary journalist reported rumours that he had been recommended for the award of a life peerage in the British New Year Honours. He was said to have turned it down.
In 2012, the National Secular Society awarded Tatchell Secularist of the Year, in recognition of his lifelong commitment to the defence of human rights against religious fundamentalism.
On 21 September 2012, he was awarded a Lifetime Achievement award at the UK's first National Diversity Awards. Alongside Misha B, Jody Cundy, Peter Norfolk and others he was a patron for 2013 National Diversity Awards.
In January 2014, Tatchell was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Laws by De Montfort University.
Legacy
The Peter Tatchell Papers are held at the London School of Economics in the Hall Carpenter Archive. Supplementary papers are housed at the British Library. The papers can be accessed through the British Library catalogue.
Peter Tatchell Foundation
The Peter Tatchell Foundation (PTF) is a non-profit, nonpartisan organisation based in the United Kingdom which "seeks to promote and protect the human rights of individuals, communities and nations, in the UK and internationally, in accordance with established national and international human rights law" and its stated aims and objectives are "to raise awareness, understanding, protection and implementation of human rights, in the UK and worldwide". Tatchell started the Foundation as a company in 2011, which gained charitable status in 2018. The organisation was named after Tatchell to honour his 50+ years of globally campaigning for human rights. The charity's celebrity patrons include Sir Ian McKellen and Paul O'Grady.
The organisation works with a variety of human rights issues globally, such as homophobia, transphobia, sexism, gender inequality, racism, political freedom, censorship, religious discrimination, unjust detention, freedom of association, capital punishment, asylum and refugees, trade union rights, self-determination of oppressed peoples, torture, genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and poverty.
In 2012 the foundation gained funding from The Funding Network for three projects: "Casework & Advice", including adding an "Advice" section to its website; "Equal Love", campaigning on same-sex marriage and opposite-sex civil partnerships; and "Olympic Equality Initiative", working against sexism and homophobia in the Olympic movement.
Bibliography
See also
Capital Gay
Hall–Carpenter Archives
LGBT Network
List of LGBT rights activists
List of peace activists
References
Sources
External links
Peter Tatchell Foundation
Contributor page at The Guardian
Interview with The Third Estate.
Archived WAF statement on Tatchell
Catalogue of the Tatchell papers held at LSE Archives
1952 births
Living people
Activists from Melbourne
HIV/AIDS activists
Alumni of the University of North London
Anti–Vietnam War activists
Australian atheists
Australian human rights activists
Australian emigrants to England
Australian socialists
British atheists
British social commentators
British humanists
British human rights activists
British republicans
British secularists
Critics of the Catholic Church
British socialists
Gay politicians
Green Party of England and Wales parliamentary candidates
Labour Party (UK) parliamentary candidates
LGBT politicians from Australia
LGBT rights activists from Australia
Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom
People with traumatic brain injuries | false | [
"David P. Brill (1955–1979) was a Boston-based gay rights activist and investigative journalist.\n\nBrill studied political science at the University of Massachusetts Boston. He was one of the nation's first investigative journalists for the gay press, and for more than six years served as chief investigative reporter and political commentator for the weekly Gay Community News, chronicling issues relevant to the lives of gay people. He was also a correspondent for Boston Magazine and the California-based gay interest magazine The Advocate. He sought to make city and state government, the media, and especially the police, more responsive to the needs of gay men and lesbians; through his special concern with the subject of violence against gays, he initially brought this issue to the eye of law enforcement officials and the public. He was also a member of the Homophile Union of Boston and Gay Legislation and lobbied for a better understanding of gay people and laws to protect their civil rights.\n\nIn his roles as political writer and gay rights advocate, Brill came to know well Boston Police Lt. William J. Bratton, who credited Brill for \"liberalizing police attitudes towards gays by opening up a relationship with the police. Prior to writing a story, he'd always come to us for our side. There was a trust established between David and the command staff here at headquarters.\" Bratton (who went on to be Superintendent in Chief of the Boston Police Department, Commissioner of the New York City Police Department and Chief of Police of the Los Angeles Police Department) mentioned Brill in his 1998 book, The Turnaround: How America's Top Cop Reversed the Crime Epidemic.\n\nReferences \n\n1955 births\n1979 deaths\nLGBT writers from the United States\nLGBT rights activists from the United States\nLGBT journalists from the United States\n20th-century American non-fiction writers\n20th-century LGBT people",
"Gerard P. Donelan (born 1949), known primarily as just Donelan (), is an openly gay cartoonist. Part of the first wave of LGBT cartoonists, he drew \"It's a Gay Life\", a regular single-panel cartoon feature in The Advocate, for 15 years.\n\nPersonal life \nDonelan was born in Jamaica Plain, a neighborhood in Boston, but grew up in Plymouth, Massachusetts, the son of advertising artist Paul Donelan. He graduated from Plymouth Carver Regional High School in 1967. He studied art at Southeastern Massachusetts Technological Institute but did not finish a degree, and went to work in retail.\n\nHe met and began dating Christopher McKenna in May 1979. The couple chose to wait to be married until same-sex marriage was legalized nationally in 2015. After spending most of their lives together living in San Francisco, the couple eventually moved back to Donelan's hometown of Plymouth, Massachusetts after his mother Teresa passed away in 2004.\n\nCareer \nIn 1977, disappointed that Joe Johnson's pioneering gay comic strips Miss Thing and Big Dick had ended their run in The Advocate, Donelan submitted 29 cartoons to the publication, which turned into a long-running series of his own. \"It's a Gay Life\" gently lampooned the gay \"clone\" culture of the time, also known as the Castro clone, focusing primarily on young and middle-aged gay men in their everyday lives. He continued to work in retail while producing the series, which also yielded two paperback reprints: Drawing on the Gay Experience (1987) and Donelan's Back (1988).\n\nFor eight years Donelan also created sexually explicit comics in color for Advocate Men, later retitled Men, which was an erotica sister publication of The Advocate. His work has appeared in Frontiers, Gunner, Gay Comix (including one front cover), and Meatmen (including two front covers and several back covers).\n\nDonelan's art was produced in seven countries, including South Korea, and in five languages, including Dutch and Korean. His work has appeared on t-shirts, rubber stamps, and in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. He has illustrated calendars and greeting cards as well.\n\nDonelan created cartoons, pamphlets, and posters to educate the gay community about the importance of safe sex practices and the threat of AIDS. He did this work for the NAMES Project, which worked to honor victims of AIDS and AIDS-related diseases in an enormous patchwork quilt.\n\nIn May 2015, he was a featured panelist at the first Queers & Comics conference, as one of the \"Pioneers of Queer Men's Comics\".\n\nContributions \n\n \"Donelan\" from Strip AIDS U.S.A.\n\"The Quilt\" from Strip AIDS U.S.A.\ncover of Gay Comix #7 (color credit to Robert Triptow)\n\"Night Moves\" from Gay Comix #7\n\"The Discussion Group\" from Gay Comix #7\n\"A Donelan Look at Women\" from Gay Comix #10\n\"A Donelan Look at Men\" from Gay Comix #10\n\"Blip...\" from Gay Comix #25\nuntitled from No Straight Lines: Four Decades of Queer Comics\nuntitled from Meatmen #1\n\"Interrupted Transmission\" from Meatmen #2\nback cover from Meatmen #2\n\"It's a Gay Life\" from The Advocate (active strip from 1977-1992)\n\nQuotes\n\nFrom the first Queers & Comics conference, on the panel for Pioneers of Queer Men's Comics \n\n“I always try to talk to younger gay people, to tell them what happened before … I think it’s important that we all understand what everybody else did before us so that they can appreciate what they have now.”\n\nFrom Wicked Local article/interview with Emily Clark \n\n(speaking on the push for equality and acceptance) “We’re still not there, because not everybody agrees that you have a right to be who you are. We’re still the outliers – not part of the heterosexual community that everyone thinks is normal.”\n\nFrom the Preface of Drawing on the Gay Experience \n\n\"I loved recognizing little bits of real life in the black and white blocks of the daily papers. Hasn't everyone at one time had the urge to cut out a cartoon because 'That's me!'? That's what I wanted to do with my cartoons for the gay community. I wanted to do what Joe Johnson's 'Miss Thing' in the early days of The ADVOCATE had done for me when I was first coming out. I wanted some fairy to see one of my cartoons, say, 'That's me!' and realize that there are others who do what 'I' do, feel as 'I' feel. I wanted to help show other gay people that 'we' have a validity, a sense of humor and a sense of community. Why cartoons connect me to real life, I don't know. But I hope my cartoons connect my readers to our gay life in a positive way.\"\n\nSee also \n\n LGBT themes in comics\nList of comics creators\nList of American comics creators\n\nReferences\n\n1949 births\nLiving people\nAmerican cartoonists\nArtists from Boston\nLGBT artists from the United States\nLGBT comics creators\nLGBT people from Massachusetts\n21st-century LGBT people"
]
|
[
"Peter Tatchell",
"Gay Liberation Front",
"What was Tatchell's role in the Gay Liberation Front?",
"in London became a leading member of the Gay Liberation Front (GLF)",
"What did he do within the group?",
"During this time Tatchell was prominent in organising sit-ins at pubs that refused to serve \"poofs\" and protests against police harassment",
"What other events did he participate in?",
"With others he helped organise Britain's first Gay Pride march in 1972.",
"Who else worked with him in the GLF?",
"I don't know.",
"How long was he a member of the GLF?",
"I don't know.",
"What gay rights did he advocate for?",
"We were sexual liberationists and social revolutionaries, out to turn the world upside down. [...] GLF's main aim was never equality within the status quo."
]
| C_acbda4b802ac4f2b87c8606e402bada5_1 | were they able to raise gay awareness? | 7 | Were Peter Tatchell and the Gay Liberation Front able to raise gay awareness? | Peter Tatchell | To avoid conscription into the Australian Army, Tatchell moved to London in 1971. He had accepted being gay in 1969, and in London became a leading member of the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) until its 1974 collapse. During this time Tatchell was prominent in organising sit-ins at pubs that refused to serve "poofs" and protests against police harassment and the medical classification of homosexuality as an illness. With others he helped organise Britain's first Gay Pride march in 1972. In 1973, he attended the 10th World Youth Festival in East Berlin on GLF's behalf. His actions triggered opposition within and between different groups of national delegates including the Communist Party of Great Britain and National Union of Students. He was banned from conferences, had his leaflets confiscated and burned, was interrogated by the secret police (the Stasi) and threatened and assaulted by other delegates, mostly communists. Tatchell later claimed that this was the first time gay liberation politics were publicly disseminated and discussed in a communist country, although he noted that, in terms of decriminalisation and the age of consent, gay men had greater rights in East Germany at the time than in Britain and much of the West. Describing his time in the Gay Liberation Front, he wrote in The Guardian that: [The] GLF was a glorious, enthusiastic and often chaotic mix of anarchists, hippies, leftwingers, feminists, liberals and counter-culturalists. Despite our differences, we shared a radical idealism - a dream of what the world could and should be - free from not just homophobia but the whole sex-shame culture, which oppressed straights as much as LGBTs. We were sexual liberationists and social revolutionaries, out to turn the world upside down. [...] GLF's main aim was never equality within the status quo. [...] GLF's strategy for queer emancipation was to change society's values and norms, rather than adapt to them. We sought a cultural revolution to overturn centuries of male heterosexual domination and thereby free both queers and women. [...] Forty years on, GLF's gender agenda has been partly won. [...] Girlish boys and boyish girls don't get victimised as much as in times past. LGBT kids often now come out at the age of 12 or 14. While many are bullied, many others are not. The acceptance of sexual and gender diversity is increasing. CANNOTANSWER | While many are bullied, many others are not. The acceptance of sexual and gender diversity is increasing. | Peter Gary Tatchell (born 25 January 1952) is a British human rights campaigner, originally from Australia, best known for his work with LGBT social movements.
Tatchell was selected as the Labour Party's parliamentary candidate for Bermondsey in 1981. He was then denounced by party leader Michael Foot for ostensibly supporting extra-parliamentary action against the Thatcher government. Labour subsequently allowed him to stand in the Bermondsey by-election in February 1983, in which the party lost the seat to the Liberals. In the 1990s he campaigned for LGBT rights through the direct action group OutRage!, which he co-founded. He has worked on various campaigns, such as Stop Murder Music against music lyrics allegedly inciting violence against LGBT people and writes and broadcasts on various human rights and social justice issues. He attempted a citizen's arrest of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe in 1999 and again in 2001.
In April 2004, he joined the Green Party of England and Wales and in 2007 was selected as prospective parliamentary candidate in the constituency of Oxford East, but in December 2009 he stood down due to brain damage he says was caused by a bus accident as well as damage sustained during various protests. Since 2011, he has been the Director of the Peter Tatchell Foundation.
Early life
Tatchell was born in Melbourne, Australia. His father was a lathe operator and his mother worked in a biscuit factory. His parents divorced when he was four and his mother remarried soon afterwards.
Since the family finances were strained by medical bills, he had to leave school at 16 in 1968. He started work as a sign-writer and window-dresser in department stores. Tatchell claims to have incorporated the theatricality of these displays into his activism.
Raised as a Christian, Tatchell says that he "ditched [his] faith a long time ago" and is an atheist. It is widely reported that Tatchell is a vegan; however, Tatchell himself only states that he eats no meat, but does eat eggs, cheese, and, according to Richard Fairbrass, wild salmon, meaning Tatchell is a pescatarian.
He became interested in outdoor adventurous activities such as surfing and mountain climbing. Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Any Questions about how insurance and legal risks were making British teachers reluctant to take pupils on outdoor adventures, he said outdoor activities helped him develop the courage to take political risks in adult life.
Campaigns in Australia
Tatchell's political activity began at Mount Waverley Secondary College, where in 1967 he launched campaigns in support of Australia's Aboriginal people. Tatchell was elected secretary of the school's Student Representative Council. In his final year in 1968, as school captain, he took the lead in setting up a scholarship scheme for Aboriginal people and led a campaign for Aboriginal land rights. These activities led the headmaster to claim he had been manipulated by communists.
Prompted by the impending hanging of Ronald Ryan in 1967, Tatchell went round his local area painting slogans against the hanging, a fact he did not reveal until nearly 30 years later. Ryan was accused of killing a prison warder while escaping from Pentridge Prison in Coburg, Victoria. Tatchell claimed, unsuccessfully, that the trajectory of the bullet through the warder's body probably made it impossible that Ryan could have fired the fatal shot.
In 1968, Tatchell began campaigning against the American and Australian involvement in the Vietnam War, in his view a war of aggression in support of a "brutal and corrupt dictatorship" responsible for torture and executions. The Victoria state government and Melbourne city council attempted to suppress the anti-Vietnam War campaign by banning street leafleting and taking police action against anti-war demonstrations.
In 2004, he proposed the renaming of Australian capital cities with their Aboriginal place names.
Gay Liberation Front
To avoid conscription into the Australian Army, Tatchell moved to London in 1971. He had opened up about being gay in 1969, and in London became a leading member of the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) until its 1974 collapse. During this time Tatchell was prominent in organising sit-ins at pubs that refused to serve "poofs" and protests against police harassment and the medical classification of homosexuality as an illness. With others he helped organise Britain's first Gay Pride march in 1972.
In 1973, he attended the 10th World Youth Festival in East Berlin on GLF's behalf. His plans to protest at the festival were not well received by either the British delegation or the GDR hosts, however he was eventually allowed to give a speech at Humboldt University. His lecture was subject to various disruptions, it ended in his denunciation as a "troublemaker" by a member of the audience. The following day, Tatchell attempted to hand out leaflets at a concert, an official of the Free German Youth objected and encouraged fellow concert-goers to destroy the leaflets. Tatchell intended to carry a placard advocating gay rights at the closing rally of the festival, the British delegation incorrectly translated the placard to read "East Germany persecutes homosexuals", this was put to a vote and the majority decided the placard was not acceptable. Yet, in defiance of the collective decision, Tatchell carried the placard anyway and was then beaten. The placard was torn in half.
Tatchell later claimed that this was the first time gay liberation politics were publicly disseminated and discussed in a communist country, although he noted that, in terms of decriminalisation and the age of consent, gay men had greater rights in East Germany at the time than much of the West.
Describing his time in the Gay Liberation Front, he wrote in The Guardian that:
Tatchell collaborated with public artist Martin Firrell to mark the 50th anniversary of the GLF in 2020. The artist's Still Revolting series drew on Tatchell's personal recollections of the GLF, quoting Tatchell's 1973 placard 'Homosexuals Are Revolting' created by Tatchell for London Gay Pride. The artist's addition of the word 'still' reflects the truth that homosexuality is still regarded as intolerable by some and many LGBT+ people around the world are still struggling for acceptance, security and equality.
Graduation
After taking A levels at evening classes, he attended the Polytechnic of North London (PNL), now part of London Metropolitan University, where he obtained a 2:1 BSc (Hons) in sociology.
At PNL he was a member of the National Union of Students Gay Rights Campaign. On graduating he became a freelance journalist specialising in foreign stories, during which he publicised the Indonesian annexation of West Papua and child labour on British-owned tea farms in Malawi.
Political activity
Tatchell popularised the phrase "sexual apartheid" to describe the separate laws that long existed for gays and heterosexuals.
Labour candidate for Bermondsey
In 1978, Tatchell joined the Labour Party and moved to a council flat in Bermondsey, south-east London. At the Bermondsey Constituency Labour Party's (CLP) AGM in February 1980, the left group won control and Tatchell was elected Secretary. When the sitting Labour Member of Parliament (MP), Bob Mellish, retired in 1981, Tatchell was selected as his successor, despite Arthur Latham, a former MP and former Chairman of the Tribune Group, being considered the favourite. While Militant was cited as the reason for Tatchell's selection, Tatchell disagrees and ascribes his selection to the support of the "older, 'born and bred' working class; the younger professional and intellectual members swung behind Latham".
In an article for a left-wing magazine, Tatchell urged the Labour Party to support direct action campaigning to challenge the Margaret Thatcher-led Tory government, stating "we must look to new more militant forms of extra-parliamentary opposition which involve mass popular participation and challenge the government's right to rule". Social Democratic Party MP James Wellbeloved, arguing the article was anti-Parliamentary, quoted it at Prime Minister's Questions in November 1981. Foot denounced Tatchell, stating that he would not be endorsed as a candidate and a vote at the Labour Party National Executive Committee denied Tatchell's endorsement. However, the Bermondsey Labour Party continued to support him and it was eventually agreed that when the selection was rerun, Tatchell would be eligible, and he duly won. When Mellish resigned from Parliament and triggered a by-election, Tatchell's candidacy was endorsed, and the ensuing campaign was regarded as one of the most homophobic in modern British history.
Tatchell was assaulted in the street, had his flat attacked, and had a death threat and a live bullet put through his letterbox in the night. Although the Bermondsey seat had long been a Labour stronghold, the Liberal candidate, Simon Hughes, won the election. During the campaign, Liberal canvassers were accused of stirring up homophobia on the doorsteps. Male Liberal workers campaigned wearing lapel badges with the words, "I've been kissed by Peter Tatchell" following the suggestion that he was attempting to hide his sexuality; this campaign was criticised by Roy Hattersley at a Labour news conference. One of Hughes' campaign leaflets claimed the election was "a straight choice" between Liberal and Labour. Hughes has since apologised for what may have been seen as an inadvertent slur and later came out as bisexual in 2006.
Democratic Defence
Tatchell published the book Democratic Defence in 1985. In it, he outlined his suggestions for a defence policy for the United Kingdom after it underwent nuclear disarmament. Tatchell argued that the British military was still organised on an imperialist strategy of basing troops abroad rather than on a strategy of defending Britain itself against foreign attacks.
Citing the difficulties that the British army was facing in Northern Ireland, he argued that their current methods had proven ineffective against guerrilla warfare, along with arguing for troops to be allowed to join trade unions and political parties, and to end strict adherence to "petty regulations". He praised the Second World War-era British Home Guard as an example of a "citizens' army", as well as the armed forces of Sweden, Switzerland and Yugoslavia as positive examples.
In the book, Tatchell also argued for a British withdrawal from NATO and for the establishment of a European Self-Defence Organisation, independent of both the United States, whom he felt that Europe had become too dependent on their military protection, and the Soviet Union, which he condemned for their invasions of Czechoslovakia and of Afghanistan, as well its internal repression. He quoted with approval Enoch Powell's argument that the threat from the Soviet Union to the UK was exaggerated.
The book was reviewed by the Times Literary Supplement in May 1985.
Green issues
In February 2000 Tatchell resigned from Labour, citing the treatment of Ken Livingstone during the nomination of a candidate for Mayor of London, and of similar cases in the Scottish and Welsh elections, as evidence that the party "no longer has any mechanism for democratic involvement and transformation". He fought unsuccessfully for a seat on the London Assembly as an Independent candidate within the Green Left grouping, in support of Livingstone.
On 7 April 2004 he joined the Green Party of England and Wales but did not envisage standing for election. However, in 2007, he became the party's parliamentary candidate for Oxford East. In 16 December 2009, he withdrew as a candidate claiming brain damage he says was caused by a bus accident as well as damage inflicted by Mugabe's bodyguards when Tatchell attempted to arrest him in 2001 in Brussels, and by neo-Nazis in Moscow.
Tatchell opposes nuclear power; instead he advocates concentrated solar power.
In Tribune, he pointed out the adverse effects of climate change: "By 2050, if climate change proceeds unchecked, England will no longer be a green and pleasant land. In between periods of prolonged scorching drought, we are likely to suffer widespread flooding."
For many years, he supported a green–red alliance. More recently, he helped launch the Green Left grouping within the Green Party. He urged links between trade unions and the Greens. On 27 April 2010, he urged Green Party supporters to vote for Liberal Democrats in constituencies where they had an incumbent MP or a strong chance of winning.
In August 2021, Tatchell endorsed Tamsin Omond and Amelia Womack in the 2021 Green Party of England and Wales leadership election.
Iraq War
Tatchell opposed the war in Iraq, and its subsequent occupation. For nearly three decades he had previously supported the Iraqi Left Opposition, helping them remove the government of Saddam Hussein because of the gross violations of human rights that Hussein had committed against democrats, left-wingers, trade unionists, Shia Muslims and the Kurdish people, and because under Saddam's dictatorship there were no opportunities for peaceful, democratic change. He advocated military and financial aid to opponents of the Saddam government, suggesting that anti-Saddam organisations be given "tanks, helicopter gun-ships, fighter planes, heavy artillery and anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles". While opposing western intervention, he advocated regime change from within in countries such as Saudi Arabia, Iran and Syria.
Tatchell has written that on 12 March 2003 he ambushed Tony Blair's motorcade in an anti-Iraq war protest. He forced Blair's limousine to stop, and then unfolded a banner that read "Arm the Kurds! Topple Saddam". He added that in terms of the political struggle within Britain (as opposed to struggles against absolute tyrants like Hitler and Saddam, where violent resistance can be the lesser of two evils): "I remain committed to the Gandhian principle of non-violence". After the war he signed the 'Unite Against Terror' declaration, arguing that "the pseudo-left reveals its shameless hypocrisy and its wholesale abandonment of humanitarian values" by supporting resistance and insurgent groups in Iraq that resort to indiscriminate terrorism, killing innocent civilians.
In 2003, Tatchell said he supported giving "massive material aid" to Iraqi opposition groups, including the "Shi'ite Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq" (SCIRI), to bring down Saddam. But in 2006 Tatchell noted that SCIRI had become markedly more fundamentalist and was endorsing violent attacks on anyone who did not conform to its increasingly harsh interpretation of Islam. He claimed that SCIRI, the leading force in Baghdad's ruling coalition, wanted to establish an Iranian-style religious dictatorship, with a goal of clerical fascism, and had engaged in "terrorisation of gay Iraqis", as well as terrorising Sunni Muslims, left-wingers, unveiled women and people who listen to western pop music or wear jeans or shorts.
In September 2014, Tatchell advocated arming the Kurdistan Workers' Party to fight against ISIS, and argued that the US and EU had been wrong to designate it as a terrorist organisation.
Syrian civil war
A previous supporter of the Stop the War Coalition, Tatchell and many other public personalities expressed concern with the coalition's allegedly unduly favourable view of Bashar al-Assad's government in Syria, and has called for the Labour leader and former Stop the War Chair Jeremy Corbyn not to attend the Coalition's Christmas fundraiser 2015. In December 2016, Tatchell and others disrupted Corbyn's speech on human rights on the basis that the Labour leader had responded insufficiently to the bombing of Aleppo and urged him to condemn Russian military intervention in Syria.
Balochistan
Since 2006, he expressed concern for the Baloch people facing military operations in their homeland, Balochistan in Pakistan. From 2007 to 2009, he campaigned in defence of two UK-based Baloch Muslim human rights activists, Hyrbyair Marri and Faiz Baluch, accused of terrorism charges and tried in London. Both men were acquitted in 2009. He alleged collusion by the U.S. and British governments in regards to the suppression of the Balochs, including arms sales to Pakistan, which he says were used to bomb and attack Baloch towns and villages.
Activities in Moscow
In May 2006 Tatchell attended the first Moscow Pride Festival. He appears in the documentary Moscow Pride '06 featuring this event.
In May 2007 Tatchell returned to Moscow to support Moscow Pride and to voice his opposition to a ban on the march, staying at the flat of an American diplomat. On 27 May 2007, Tatchell and other gay rights activists were attacked. He was punched in the face and nearly knocked unconscious, while other demonstrators were beaten, kicked and assaulted. A German MP, Volker Beck, and a European Parliament deputy from Italy, Marco Cappato, were also punched before being arrested and questioned by police. Tatchell later said "I'm not deterred one iota from coming back to protest in Moscow." On his release, Tatchell made a report on the incident to the American Embassy.
On 16 May 2009, the day of the final of the Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow, Russian gay rights activists staged a protest in Moscow in defiance of the city's mayor, Yuri Luzkhov, who had long banned gay demonstrations and denounced them as "satanic". Tatchell was among 32 campaigners arrested when they shouted slogans and unfurled banners.
NUS politics
On 14 February 2015, Tatchell was one of a number of signatories to a letter criticising the trend in the British National Union of Students to apply a No Platform policy to feminists who criticised the sex industry or challenged demands made by certain groups of trans people. In particular, the letter cited the denial of a platform to Kate Smurthwaite at Goldsmith's College and to Germaine Greer at the University of Cambridge.
Tatchell received death threats after signing the letter. He later stated that he would have worded the letter differently to clarify that he supported the human rights of trans people and sex workers, but that he had signed the letter nonetheless because he believed in the message of free speech on campuses. He said that the initial draft that he signed contained the sentence "Some of us have disagreements with the views expressed [by feminist critics of trans people]", and that he was "not happy" that this was cut out of the final letter.
On 13 February 2016, Fran Cowling, the national LGBT representative for the NUS, refused to share a platform with Tatchell at Canterbury Christ Church University to discuss the topic of "re-radicalising queers". Cowling said that Tatchell supported speakers who are "openly transphobic and incite violence" against transgender people, and also that Tatchell had used "racist language". Tatchell responded that no evidence could be produced to support either claim, and that Cowling had never consulted the NUS membership before deciding to make pronouncements on their behalf, and said "This sorry, sad saga is symptomatic of the decline of free and open debate on some university campuses. There is a witch-hunting, accusatory atmosphere. Allegations are made without evidence to back them – or worse, they are made citing false, trumped-up evidence."
Campaigns
OutRage!
Tatchell took part in many gay rights campaigns over issues such as Section 28. Following the murder of actor Michael Boothe on 10 May 1990, Tatchell was one of thirty people to attend the inaugural meeting of the radical gay rights non-violent direct action group OutRage! – although he was not a co-founder – and has remained a leading member. The group fuses theatrical performance styles with queer protest. As the most prominent OutRage! member, Tatchell is sometimes assumed to be the leader of the group, though he has never claimed this, saying he is one among equals.
In 1991, a small group of OutRage! members covertly formed a separate group to engage in a campaign of outing public figures who were homophobic in public but gay in private. The group took the name FROCS (Faggots Rooting Out Closeted Sexuality). Tatchell was the group's go-between with the press, forwarding their news statements to his media contacts. Considerable publicity and public debate followed FROCS's threat to out 200 leading public personalities from the world of politics, religion, business and sport. With Tatchell's assistance, members of FROCS eventually called a press conference to tell the world that their campaign was a hoax intended to demonstrate the hypocrisy of those newspapers that had condemned the campaign despite having themselves outed celebrities and politicians.
Some OutRage! activities were highly controversial. In 1994, it unveiled placards inviting ten Church of England bishops to "tell the truth" about what Outrage! alleged was their homosexuality and accusing them of condemning homosexuality in public while leading secret gay lives. Shortly afterwards the group wrote to twenty UK MPs, condemning their alleged support for anti-gay laws and claiming they would out them if the MPs did not stop what they described as attacks on the gay community. The MP Sir James Kilfedder, one such opponent of gay equality, who had received one of the letters, died two months later of a sudden heart attack on the day one of the Belfast newspapers planned to out him. In a comment in The Independent in October 2003, Tatchell claimed the OutRage! action against the bishops was his greatest mistake because he failed to anticipate that the media and the church would treat it as an invasion of privacy.
On 12 April 1998, Tatchell led an OutRage! protest, which disrupted the Easter sermon by George Carey, the Archbishop of Canterbury, with Tatchell mounting the pulpit to denounce what he claimed was Carey's opposition to legal equality for lesbian and gay people. The protest garnered media coverage and led to Tatchell's prosecution under the little-used Ecclesiastical Courts Jurisdiction Act 1860 (formerly part of the Brawling Act 1551), which prohibits any form of disruption or protest in a church. Tatchell failed in his attempt to summon Carey as a witness and was convicted. The judge fined him the trivial sum of £18.60, which commentators theorised was a wry allusion to the year of the statute used to convict him.
The LGBT press dubbed him "Saint Peter Tatchell" following further OutRage! campaigns involving religion.
A number of African LGBTI leaders signed a statement condemning the involvement of Tatchell and OutRage! in African issues, which led Tatchell to respond that he favoured working with the radical LGBTI groups in Africa rather than the more conservative (according to him) leaders who had signed the statement. Tatchell and OutRage! published a refutation of the allegations.
OutRage!'s protest against Chief Rabbi Immanuel Jakobovits, who supported the idea of genetic engineering to eliminate homosexuality, led to accusations that Tatchell was antisemitic, following OutRage!'s leaflets citing the similarity of Jakobovits ideas for the eradication of homosexuality to those of Heinrich Himmler were distributed outside the Western and Marble Arch Synagogue on the Rosh Hashanah in September 1993.
Rabbi Dame Julia Neuberger, who had campaigned for gay rights, said "Drawing a comparison between Lord Jakobovits and Himmler is offensive, racist and [...] makes OutRage appear antisemitic". She stated that the action and leaflet would "alienate Jews who are sympathetic to gay rights".
Stop Murder Music campaign
Tatchell argues that a number of Afro-Caribbean artists produce music that glorifies murder of homosexual men, and incites violence against homosexuals. He argued that British laws against incitement to violence were not being enforced on foreign artists performing in the UK. He also organised protests outside the concerts of singers whose lyrics he says incite violence, mainly Jamaican dancehall and ragga artists who he says glorify violence toward lesbians and gay men, including murder. Tatchell's campaign began in 1992 when Buju Banton's song "Boom bye-bye" was released. He has picketed the MOBO Awards ceremony to protest at their inviting performers of what he terms "murder music".
Tatchell argues that murder is not legal in Jamaica, and glorification of murder is not a legitimate form of Afro-Caribbean culture. In response Tatchell received death threats and was labelled racist. He defended himself by noting that the campaign was at the behest of the Jamaican gay rights group J-Flag, and the UK-based Black Gay Men's Advisory Group, with which he works closely. He pointed to what he described as his life's work campaigning against racism and apartheid and stated that his campaigns against "murder music" and state-sanctioned homophobic violence in Jamaica were endorsed by black Jamaican gay rights activists such as Jamaican Forum for Lesbians, All-Sexuals and Gays (J-FLAG), and by many straight human rights activists in Jamaica (male homosexuality remains illegal in Jamaica). The campaign has had positive effects with seven of eight original murder music singers signing the Reggae Compassion Act, which says that signatories will not "make statements or perform songs" that incite hatred or violence.
Members of the Rastafari movement accused Tatchell of racism and extremism, saying, "He has gone over way over the top. It's simply racist to put Hitler and Sizzla in the same bracket and just shows how far he is prepared to go." Tatchell denies equating Sizzla with Hitler.
Age of consent laws and Paedophile Information Exchange
In 1996, Tatchell led an OutRage! campaign to reduce the age of consent in the UK to 14 years, to adjust for studies that showed nearly half of all young people had their first sexual experiences prior to 16 years old, regardless of sexuality. He stated that he wished to exempt these people from being "treated as criminals by the law," and that the campaign claimed there should be no prosecution if the difference in ages of the sexual partners was no more than three years, provided that these youths are given a more comprehensive sex education at a younger date.
He was quoted in the OutRage!'s press release as saying "Young people have a right to accept or reject sex, according to what they feel is appropriate for them".
Tatchell has since reiterated that he does not condone adults having sex with children. On his personal website, under the subsection Age of Consent, he writes:
On 10 March 2008, in the Irish Independent, he repeated his call for a lower age of consent to end the criminalisation of young people engaged in consenting sex and to remove the legal obstacles to upfront sex education, condom provision and safer sex advice. In 1998 and 2008, he supported relaxation of the then strict laws against pornography, arguing that pornography can have some social benefits, and he has criticised what he calls the body-shame phobia against nudism, suggesting that nudity may be natural and healthy for society.
In 2006, he opposed the appointment of Ruth Kelly as Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government as Kelly had not supported equal treatment of lesbians and gay men in any parliamentary votes. Tatchell said "her appointment suggests the government does not take lesbian and gay rights seriously", adding "Tony Blair would never appoint someone to a race-equality post who had a lukewarm record of opposing racism".
Paedophile Information Exchange
Tatchell has written an obituary in The Independent for Paedophile Information Exchange founder Ian Dunn, as well as an essay for a pro-paedophile activist and Paedophile Information Exchange member Warren Middleton in the book "Betrayal of Youth (BOY)". The actor and activist, John Connors described Tatchell as a "paedophile apologist" and other critics (such as the British National Party) have suggested that he is personally pro-paedophile, which he strongly denies – stating that:
In July 2021, in an article by Hayley Dixon, Melanie Newman and Julie Bindel for the Daily Telegraph, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/07/27/peter-tatchell-children-have-sexual-desires-early-age/ it emerged that a positive review attributed to Peter Tatchell of the same pro-paedophila book - Betrayal of Youth: Radical Perspectives on Childhood Sexuality, Intergenerational Sex and the Social Oppression of Children and Young People - appeared in the June 1987 edition of 7 Days, the newsletter of the Communist Party of Great Britain.
He also comments on an interview he conducted in the late 1990s on the subject of paedophilia and child prostitution, in which he interviewed a 14-year-old boy (under the pseudonym "Lee") who had had sex with older men, in some cases for money. In this interview, Tatchell makes various counterarguments against Lee's point of view, such as: "How can a young child understand sex and give meaningful consent?", "Perhaps your friends were particularly mature for their age. Most young people are not so sophisticated about sex", "Many people worry that the power imbalance in a relationship between a youth and an adult means the younger person can be easily manipulated and exploited", "Many people fear that making sex easier for under-age teenagers will expose them to dangers like HIV. Isn't that a legitimate worry?".
In 1997 Tatchell wrote a letter to The Guardian, defending an academic book about "boy-love", calling the work "courageous", before writing:
On Tatchell's personal website he clarifies,
My Guardian letter cited examples of youths in Papuan tribes and some of my friends who, when they were under 16, had sex with adults (over 18s), but who do not feel they were harmed. I was not endorsing their viewpoint but merely stating that they had a different perspective from the mainstream opinion about inter-generational sex. They have every right for their perspective to be heard."
Following the publication of a photo of Tatchell alongside the Irish Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Roderic O'Gorman, on Twitter, at a Pride event, O'Gorman issued a statement outlining that the apparent views in Tatchell's letter - written 23 years ago, when O'Gorman was just 15 - were "abhorrent" to him, and his appreciation that Tatchell clarified his own position.
Civil partnerships
Tatchell has pledged his support for opposite-sex couples to be allowed to have civil partnerships, stating that some opposite-sex couples dislike the "sexist, homophobic history of [the institution of] marriage", and allowing them into civil partnerships "is simply a matter of equality".
Writing for PinkNews, he said:
Foreign politics
Imperialism
While still at school, Tatchell campaigned in favour of better treatment of, and full human rights for, Aboriginal Australians. He has opined that Australian cities should be renamed with their original Aboriginal place names. For example, he wants the Tasmanian capital Hobart to be renamed Nibberluna, arguing that this would be a fitting tribute to Australia's Aboriginal heritage, which he claims has been discarded and disrespected for too long.
Tatchell participated in the mass Vietnam Moratorium protests in Melbourne in 1970. The same year, Tatchell founded and was elected secretary of the inter-denominational anti-war movement, Christians for Peace. Later, upon moving to London in 1971, he was active in solidarity work with the independence movements in Mozambique, and Guinea-Bissau.
In 2002, he brought an unsuccessful legal action in Bow Street Magistrate's Court for the arrest of the former U.S. Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, on charges of war crimes in Vietnam and Cambodia.
Zimbabwe
Part of Tatchell's political activism and journalism in the 1970s involved the Rhodesian Bush War, in which he supported the black nationalist movement, including the Zimbabwe African National Union and its military wing. Mugabe's denunciation of male homosexuality in 1995 led Tatchell to help organise a protest for LGBT rights in Zimbabwe outside the Zimbabwe High Commission in London.
Two years later, he passed through police security disguised as a TV cameraman to quiz Mugabe during the "Africa at 40" conference at Methodist Central Hall, Westminster. Mugabe told him that allegations of human rights abuses were grossly exaggerated; he became agitated when Tatchell told him that he was gay. Mugabe's minders summoned Special Branch guards, who ejected Tatchell. On 26 October 1997 a letter from Tatchell to The Observer argued that the United Kingdom should suspend aid to Zimbabwe because of its violence against LGBT people.
Tatchell researched the Gukurahundi attacks in Matabeleland in the 1980s, when the Zimbabwean Fifth Brigade attacked supporters of the Zimbabwe African Peoples Union. He became convinced that Mugabe had broken international human rights law during the attack, which is estimated to have involved the massacre of around 20,000 civilians. Then in 1999, journalists Mark Chavunduka and Ray Choto were tortured by the Zimbabwe Army. The arrest of Augusto Pinochet in London seemed to him a precedent that human rights violations could be pursued against a head of state, thanks to the principle of universal jurisdiction. On 30 October 1999 Tatchell and three other OutRage! activists approached Mugabe's car in a London street and attempted to perform a citizen's arrest. Tatchell opened the car door and grabbed Mugabe. He then called the police. The four OutRage! activists were arrested, on charges including criminal damage, assault and breach of the peace; charges were dropped on the opening day of their trial. Mugabe responded by describing Tatchell and his OutRage! colleagues as "gay gangsters", a slogan frequently repeated by his supporters, and claimed they had been sent by the United Kingdom government.
On 5 March 2001, when Mugabe visited Brussels, Tatchell again attacked him. Mugabe's bodyguards were seen knocking him to the floor. Later that day, Tatchell was briefly knocked unconscious by Mugabe's bodyguards and was left with permanent damage to his right eye. The protest drew worldwide headlines, as Mugabe was highly unpopular in the Western world for his land redistribution policy. Tatchell's actions were praised by Zimbabwean activists and many of the newspapers that had previously denounced him.
Tatchell ultimately failed in his attempt to secure an international arrest warrant against Mugabe on torture charges. The magistrate argued that Mugabe had immunity from prosecution as a serving head of state.
In late 2003, Tatchell acted as a press spokesman for the launch of the Zimbabwe Freedom Movement (ZFM), which claimed to be a clandestine group within Zimbabwe committed to overthrowing the Mugabe government by force. The civic action support group Sokwanele urged Tatchell to check his sources, speculating that it might have been by the Zimbabwe government to justify violent action. This speculation proved to be unfounded. The Mugabe regime dismissed the ZFM as a hoax. However, two Central Intelligence Organization members were spotted and turned away from the ZFM launch, as shown in the film "Peter Tatchell: Just who does he think he is?" by Max Barber.
South Africa
Following a protest against the ANC, Tatchell described himself as a long-time anti-apartheid activist, in an essay for the book 'sex and politics in South Africa', he claimed that his lobbying of the ANC in 1987 contributed to it renouncing homophobia and making its first public commitment to lesbian and gay human rights and that in 1989 and 1990, he helped persuade the ANC to include a ban on anti-gay discrimination in the post-apartheid constitution (claiming he assisted in drafting model clauses for the ANC)
After Tatchell was named as one of the UK's most "hate filled bigots" in the 'Desi Express' newspaper, Aaron Saeed, Muslim Affairs spokesperson for the gay human rights group OutRage!, claimed that Tatchell was involved in the anti-apartheid movement for over 20 years.
Gaza and the West Bank
In May 2004, he and a dozen other lesbians and gay men from OutRage! and the Queer Youth Alliance joined a London demonstration organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign. Their placards read "Israel: stop persecuting Palestine! Palestine: stop persecuting queers!". Tatchell claims that others present accused him of being a Mossad agent sent to disrupt the march, of being a racist or a Zionist, a supporter of Ariel Sharon or an agent of the Central Intelligence Agency or MI5. Tatchell has written a number of articles in The Guardian on the issue.
2008 Olympics
In April 2008, Tatchell attempted to disrupt the procession of the Olympic torch though London. As a protest against China's human rights record he stood in front of the bus carrying the torch along Oxford Street while carrying a placard calling on Beijing to "Free Tibet, Free Hu Jia" (the name of a recently jailed human rights activist). Tatchell was taken away by police but was not charged. In an interview Tatchell called on the world to boycott the opening ceremony of the Olympics, or to take other visible action.
Iran
Tatchell is a critic of Iran's criminal code, which has parts based on sharia and prescribes punishments for zina offenses, including consensual sexual relations between same-sex partners.
In 2005, Iran executed two teenagers, Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni, aged 16 and 18, accused of raping a 13-year-old boy at knifepoint. Tatchell argued that Iran has a history of arresting political activists on false charges and extracting false confessions from death penalty convicts, and declared that he believed the original crime was consensual sex between the two, which is illegal in Iran. Tatchell reiterated his long-standing view that Iran is an "Islamo-fascist state". He argued that information from Iranian exile groups with contacts inside Iran was that the teenagers were a secret gay party before they were arrested.
International human rights groups Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch preferred campaigners to focus on Iran violating the Convention on the Rights of the Child (which forbids the execution of juveniles) rather than the weak allegation of consensual sex.
Faisal Alam, founder of American Gay Muslim group Al-Fatiha, argued in the magazine Queer that Iran was condemned before the facts were certain.
Russia
Tatchell has written articles condemning the Russian LGBT propaganda law. In 2014 Tatchell protested Valery Gergiev's support for Vladimir Putin.
Tatchell protested the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi over the gay rights stance of Russia, comparing the event to the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.
Tatchell was arrested at the Moscow Pride parade in 2011 amid a spate of anti-gay violence by neo-Nazis.
In February 2007, the Mayor of Moscow, Yury Luzhkov, visited London mayor Ken Livingstone for an annual meeting that also involved the Mayors of Berlin and Paris, with the mayor of Beijing present as well. Nikolay Alexeyev, one of the organizers of the Moscow gay pride parade, joined Tatchell in protesting the visit. A notice of the protest quoted Talgat Tadzhuddin saying that the Moscow pride marchers should be flogged.
Livingstone asserted that he supports gay rights, and said "In Moscow the Russian Orthodox church, the chief rabbi and the grand Mufti all supported the ban on the Gay Pride march with the main role, due to its great weight in society, being played by the Orthodox church. The attempt of Mr Tatchell to focus attention on the role of the grand Mufti in Moscow, in the face of numerous attacks on gay rights in Eastern Europe, which overwhelmingly come from right-wing Christian and secular currents, is a clear example of an Islamophobic campaign."
Tatchell retorted that Livingstone's remarks were "dishonest, despicable nonsense", adding "The Grand Mufti was not singled out". He further said the Mayor had brought his "office into disrepute" and "has revealed himself to be a person without principles, honesty or integrity."
Israel
Following the vote by the Knesset, the Israeli legislature, in 2007 in favour of bills to ban lesbian and gay pride parades in Jerusalem, the Lesbian and Gay Coalition Against Racism criticised Tatchell, saying:
Tatchell issued a statement opposing any boycott of Israel as a result of this.
In a 2009 article for The Guardian Tatchell condemned what he described as "disproportionate" and "reckless" attacks by the Israeli military on Gaza, but also argued that Western liberals and progressives should not support Hamas which he described as an Islamist group that represses Palestinians and is "potentially as much of a threat to Palestinian freedom as Israel is today."
Anglican and Catholic churches
Tatchell criticised the Catholic Church and Pope Benedict XVI, whom he described as "the ideological inheritor of Nazi homophobia". "He'd like to eradicate homosexuality, but since he can't put LGBT people in physical concentration camps, is doing his best to put them in psychological concentration camps."
Channel 4 indicated in June 2010 that Tatchell would be the presenter of a documentary film examining "the current Pope's teachings throughout the world". The plans sparked criticism from some prominent British Catholics including Conservative politician Ann Widdecombe, who accused Channel 4 of trying to "stir up controversy". Tatchell asserted that the documentary "will not be an anti-Catholic programme".
On 15 September 2010, Tatchell, along with 54 other public figures, signed an open letter, published in The Guardian, stating their opposition to Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the United Kingdom.
With respect to Anglicanism, he stated that "it's very sad to see a good man like the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, going to such extraordinary lengths to appease homophobes within the Anglican Communion".
In 2017 Tatchell praised the Church of England's new 'Valuing all God's Children' scheme for schools, which seeks to stop homophobic and transphobic bullying.
Multiculturalism
Tatchell has occasionally been moderately critical of multiculturalism. In 2010 he gave a speech to the Libertarian Alliance at the National Liberal Club arguing that the British people are increasingly "fragmented according to their different and sometimes competing identities, values, and traditions. These differences are prioritised over shared experiences and interests. Our common needs and the universalities of human rights are downplayed in favour of religious and racial particularities."
Free speech
In 2006, during the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy, Tatchell spoke at a 25 March 2006 rally called the Freedom of Expression Rally.
At the rally, Tatchell argued for the "disestablishment of the Church of England and the freedom to insult the Queen, Prime Minister and Archbishop of Canterbury." Tatchell said that the far-left is "Mired in the immoral morass of cultural relativism, they no longer endorse Enlightenment values and universal human rights. Their support for free speech is now qualified by so many ifs and buts. When push comes to shove, it is more or less worthless."
In 2007, he wrote a Guardian opinion piece, arguing that "The best way to tackle prejudice is by presenting facts and using reasoned arguments, to break down ignorance and ill-will." In 2016, Tatchell made threats to free speech in Britain the topic of his British Humanist Association annual conference lecture. Speaking with reference to a number of censorship controversies in the 2010s, he said that "the recent trend against freedom of speech means that we must fight the battles of the Enlightenment all over again."
However, in 2018 Tatchell voiced his support for Mark Meechan's conviction under section 127 of the Communications Act 2003 for posting a "grossly offensive" video on YouTube.
Islam
Tatchell is critical of Islam, and first wrote about its presence in Britain in 1995. In 1995, he wrote that "although not all Muslims are anti-gay, significant numbers are violently homophobic [...] homophobic Muslim voters may be able to influence the outcome of elections in 20 or more marginal constituencies." He is critical of the UK government's All-Party Parliamentary Group definition of Islamophobia, suggesting that he tries "to avoid the term", that Muslimness is a vague and subjective term, and that the Islamophobia term is a "a de facto threat to free speech and liberal values" and "virtue-signalling".
Tatchell has described the entire Sharia, which is the moral code that Muslims try to live by, as "a clerical form of fascism" and was the keynote speaker at a 2005 protest at the Canadian High Commission, demanding that Ontario's arbitration law, which permitted religious arbitration in civil cases for Jews and Christians, not be extended to Muslims.
In 2017, Tatchell wrote to the organisers of Pride in London to defend the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain. In response to calls by the East London Mosque for CEMB to apologise for placards alleging the mosque "incites murder of LGBTs", Tatchell stated "East London Mosque has refused all dialogue with LGBT community. It refuses to meet LGBT Muslims. I have asked them 11 times since 2015".
Tatchell has previously condemned Islamophobia, saying "any form of prejudice, hatred, discrimination or violence against Muslims is wrong. Full stop". He described the Qur'an as "rather mild in its condemnation of homosexuality".
He points out that much of his prison and asylum casework involves supporting Muslim prisoners and asylum seekers—heterosexual as well as LGBT. In 2006, he helped stop the abuse of Muslim prisoners at a Norwich jail and helped secure parole for other Muslim detainees. Half his asylum cases are, he reports, male and female Muslim refugees. Two of his highest-profile campaigns involved Muslim victims—Mohamed S, who was framed by men who first tried to kill him and then jailed him for eight years, and Sid Saeed, who brought a racism and homophobic harassment case against Deutsche Bank.
Tatchell chose Malcolm X as his specialist subject when appearing on Celebrity Mastermind, explaining that he considered him an inspiration and hero (his other inspirations are Mahatma Gandhi, Sylvia Pankhurst and Martin Luther King Jr.). However, his endorsement of Bruce Perry's biography, in an article calling for black gay role models, led to criticism. due to Perry's claim that Malcolm X had male lovers in his youth.
In February 2010, Women Against Fundamentalism defended Tatchell against allegations of Islamophobia and endorsed his right to challenge all religious fundamentalism: "WAF supports the right of Peter Tatchell and numerous other gay activists to oppose the legitimisation of fundamentalists and other right wing forces on university campuses, by the Left and by the government in its Preventing Violent Extremism strategy and numerous other programmes and platforms".
Muslim Council of Britain
Tatchell had described the Muslim Council of Britain as being "anti-gay", asking how can "they expect to win respect for their community, if at the same time as demanding action against Islamophobia, they themselves demand the legal enforcement of homophobia?". He noted that the MCB had joined forces with the "rightwing Christian Institute" to oppose every gay law reform from 1997 to 2006. In January 2006, the MCB Chairman Iqbal Sacranie said that homosexuals are immoral, harmful and diseased on BBC Radio 4.
Tatchell argued that "Both the Muslim and gay communities suffer prejudice and discrimination. We should stand together to fight Islamophobia and homophobia". Tatchell subsequently criticised Unite Against Fascism for inviting Sacranie to share its platforms, describing him as a "homophobic hate-mongerer."
When the MCB boycotted Holocaust Memorial Day, partly because it was "not sufficiently inclusive", Tatchell wrote that "the only thing that is consistent about the MCB is its opposition to the human rights of lesbians and gay men".
Muslims and gay rights
In 2006, Tatchell wrote an opinion column in The Guardian arguing that Muslims deliberately conflate offence with violence, in an effort to suppress Muslim reformers in Britain. He argued that Islamist groups like Hizb ut-Tahrir in Britain see "any criticism of Islam is an insult and that all such insults are unacceptable" in order to suppress the "free exchange of ideas". The Muslim gay rights organisation IMAAN criticised Tatchell, saying, "OutRage! doesn't understand our cultural and religious sensitivities. Often, the way they word and phrase their press releases can and does antagonise Muslims. Much as we’ve invited them to meetings so we can talk about the best way to tackle Muslim LGBT issues, they insist on doing things their way."
In the book "Out of Place: Interrogating Silences in Queerness/Raciality", in a chapter called "Gay Imperialism: Gender and Sexuality Discourse in the 'War on Terror'", Jin Haritaworn, Tamsila Tauqir and Esra Erdem wrote, "rather than help, politics such as Tatchell's have worsened the situation for the majority of queer Muslims. It has become increasingly difficult for groups such as the Safra Project, who are forced into the frontline of the artificially constructed gay v. Muslim divide, to contest sexual oppression in Muslim communities. The more homophobia is constructed as belonging to Islam, the more anti-homophobic talk will be viewed as a white, even racist, phenomenon, and the harder it will be to increase tolerance and understanding among straight Muslims [...] The dialogue which Safra and other queer Muslim groups have long sought over this is more often than not ignored or disregarded, and white gay activists such as Tatchell have proved indifferent to the fact that the mud which they sling onto Muslim communities lands on queer Muslims themselves."
Despite previously attending a "rally for free expression", where the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons were celebrated, Tatchell sued the small publisher Raw Nerve Books, who issued an apology, and replaced links to the book on their site with that apology, but were later forced to shut down. The Monthly Review described this as censorship, adding, "the violent suppression of "Gay Imperialism" and the book in which it appeared also works as a warning to the authors, editors, and other critics and potential critics of Tatchell to better keep their mouths shut."
Yusuf al-Qaradawi
In July 2004, then-Mayor of London Ken Livingstone invited Yusuf al-Qaradawi to attend a talk called "A woman's right to choose" about the wearing of the hijab. Livingstone had read positive coverage of Qaradawi in The Guardian and The Sun.
In October 2004, 2,500 Muslim academics from 23 countries condemned Qaradawi, and accused him of giving "Islam a bad name and foster[ing] hatred among civilizations" and "providing a religious cover for terrorism".
Tatchell argued that Qaradawi expresses liberal positions to deceive the Western press and politicians, while being "rightwing, misogynist, anti-semitic and homophobic", using his books and fatwas to advocate female genital mutilation, blame for rape victims who dress immodestly, and the execution of apostates, homosexuals, and women who have sex outside marriage.
Livingstone issued a 2005 dossier praising Qaradawi as a moderate, based on positive press coverage he had received previously. Livingstone pronounced that Tatchell has "a long history of Islamophobia", and asserted that he is in a "de facto alliance with the American neo-cons and Israeli intelligence services." Tatchell strenuously denied the accusations, pointing out that he has never said any of the things that Livingstone accused him of saying. Livingstone continued to describe Qaradawi as "one of the leading progressive voices in the Muslim world" in 2010, after having been denied entry to the UK for his extremist views.
Two years after condemning Tatchell, Livingstone stated he "probably shouldn't" have called Tatchell an "Islamophobe".
Adam Yosef
In December 2005, Respect Party activist Adam Yosef came under criticism for an article in Desi Xpress opposing registered civil partnerships. He asserted that Tatchell needed "a good slap in the face" and his "queer campaign army" should "pack their bent bags and head back to Australia". Desi Xpress staff expressed regret to Tatchell and gave him a right of reply, while Yosef apologised and retracted his article, claiming the "slap in the face" remark was a "figure of speech" and the remark about Australia was not racist. Yosef later backed Tatchell's 2009 election campaign.
Secondary issues
Environmental issues
For over 20 years, Tatchell has written and campaigned about environmental problems including global warming and resource depletion, pointing out that they often have a disproportionately negative impact on developing countries. In the late 1980s, he was co-organiser of the Green and Socialist Conferences, which sought to ally reds and greens. He championed energy conservation and renewable energy; in particular tidal, wave and concentrated solar power. On 24 May 2009, he appeared on the BBC Daily Politics programme to oppose the Elephant and Castle regeneration scheme, which he said would bring few benefits to local working-class people. However, most of his campaigning continues to be in the areas of human rights and "queer emancipation".
In August 2008 Tatchell wrote about speculative theories concerning possible atmospheric oxygen depletion compared to prehistoric levels, and called for further investigation to test such claims and, if proven, their long-term consequences.
Animal rights
Tatchell is an active supporter of animal rights, saying "human rights and animal rights are two aspects of the same struggle against injustice", and that he advocates for a "claim to be spared suffering and offered inalienable rights" for both humans and animals.
Cornwall
Tatchell campaigned on the issue of the constitutional status of Cornwall. In November 2008, The Guardian carried an article by him entitled Self-rule for Cornwall, in which he said:
This article received the largest number of comments to any Guardian article, according to This is Cornwall. Over 1,500 comments were made, and while some comments were supportive, Tatchell found himself "shocked and disgusted" by the anti-Cornish sentiment shown by many commenters.
Columnist and other pursuits
Tatchell has written numerous articles in newspapers and magazines related to his various campaigns. He was highly critical of the media coverage of the Admiral Duncan pub bombing, claiming than the homophobic attitudes of news outlets had helped fuel the attack, and that the press concerned themselves almost exclusively with the one heterosexual victim, rather than the two other deaths and the dozens of maimed patrons, saying that:
In 1987 Tatchell appeared on the second programme of the first series of After Dark, a discussion on press ethics with, among others, Tony Blackburn, Victoria Gillick, Johnny Edgecombe and a Private Eye journalist.
On 5 August 1995 Tatchell was interviewed at length by Andrew Neil on his one-on-one interview show Is This Your Life?, made by Open Media for Channel 4.
, he has been an Ambassador for the penal reform group, Make Justice Work.
In 2011, he became the Director of the Peter Tatchell Foundation.
Tatchell is a patron of Humanists UK, an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society and a committed secularist, saying, "As an atheist, secularist and humanist I believe that reason, science and ethics – not religious superstition – are the best way to understand the world and promote human rights and welfare."
He contributes to The Jeremy Vine Show on BBC Radio 2.
Awards
In 2006, New Statesman readers voted him sixth on their list of "Heroes of our time".
In 2009, he racked up multiple awards. He was named Campaigner of the Year in The Observer Ethical Awards, London Citizen of Sanctuary Award, Shaheed Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti Award (for reporting the Balochistan national liberation struggle), Evening Standard 1000 Most Influential Londoners (winning again in 2011), Liberal Voice of the Year and a Blue Plaque in recognition of his more than 40 years of human rights campaigning.
In 2010 he won Total Politics Top 50 Political Influencers. A diary journalist reported rumours that he had been recommended for the award of a life peerage in the British New Year Honours. He was said to have turned it down.
In 2012, the National Secular Society awarded Tatchell Secularist of the Year, in recognition of his lifelong commitment to the defence of human rights against religious fundamentalism.
On 21 September 2012, he was awarded a Lifetime Achievement award at the UK's first National Diversity Awards. Alongside Misha B, Jody Cundy, Peter Norfolk and others he was a patron for 2013 National Diversity Awards.
In January 2014, Tatchell was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Laws by De Montfort University.
Legacy
The Peter Tatchell Papers are held at the London School of Economics in the Hall Carpenter Archive. Supplementary papers are housed at the British Library. The papers can be accessed through the British Library catalogue.
Peter Tatchell Foundation
The Peter Tatchell Foundation (PTF) is a non-profit, nonpartisan organisation based in the United Kingdom which "seeks to promote and protect the human rights of individuals, communities and nations, in the UK and internationally, in accordance with established national and international human rights law" and its stated aims and objectives are "to raise awareness, understanding, protection and implementation of human rights, in the UK and worldwide". Tatchell started the Foundation as a company in 2011, which gained charitable status in 2018. The organisation was named after Tatchell to honour his 50+ years of globally campaigning for human rights. The charity's celebrity patrons include Sir Ian McKellen and Paul O'Grady.
The organisation works with a variety of human rights issues globally, such as homophobia, transphobia, sexism, gender inequality, racism, political freedom, censorship, religious discrimination, unjust detention, freedom of association, capital punishment, asylum and refugees, trade union rights, self-determination of oppressed peoples, torture, genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and poverty.
In 2012 the foundation gained funding from The Funding Network for three projects: "Casework & Advice", including adding an "Advice" section to its website; "Equal Love", campaigning on same-sex marriage and opposite-sex civil partnerships; and "Olympic Equality Initiative", working against sexism and homophobia in the Olympic movement.
Bibliography
See also
Capital Gay
Hall–Carpenter Archives
LGBT Network
List of LGBT rights activists
List of peace activists
References
Sources
External links
Peter Tatchell Foundation
Contributor page at The Guardian
Interview with The Third Estate.
Archived WAF statement on Tatchell
Catalogue of the Tatchell papers held at LSE Archives
1952 births
Living people
Activists from Melbourne
HIV/AIDS activists
Alumni of the University of North London
Anti–Vietnam War activists
Australian atheists
Australian human rights activists
Australian emigrants to England
Australian socialists
British atheists
British social commentators
British humanists
British human rights activists
British republicans
British secularists
Critics of the Catholic Church
British socialists
Gay politicians
Green Party of England and Wales parliamentary candidates
Labour Party (UK) parliamentary candidates
LGBT politicians from Australia
LGBT rights activists from Australia
Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom
People with traumatic brain injuries | false | [
"Cheer, Dorothy, Cheer! is a non-profit organization based in Minneapolis, Minnesota (United States). The organization was founded by three gay men in 2002 to promote diversity, raise HIV/AIDS awareness, and raise money for other non-profit organizations.\n\nThe performance group has grown to include six performers: Shayne, Carlos, Nate, David, Dennis and Marc. The group members perform in cheerleader costumes with each costume highlighted by one of the colors of the Rainbow Flag—red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. The routines are highly choreographed numbers in the style of female competitive cheerleaders or dancelines, generally set to campy or iconically gay musical numbers (such as Britney Spears songs) and often interspersed with quotes from The Wizard of Oz and other movies. The group frequently performs at gay and AIDS related events in the upper Midwestern United States. A portion of funds raised at performances are donated to organizations \"that promote gay, lesbian and transgender diversity as well as AIDS awareness\" with a primary recipient being Park House, an HIV day-clinic.\n\nWhile the men wear costumes styled after typical female cheerleader outfits (including miniskirt and pom-pons), they are not female impersonators or drag queens. They make no effort to hide the fact that they are male (several wear goatees or other facial hair).\n\nIn addition to campy dance and musical performances referencing gay icons at events from Milwaukee's Pridefest to the Twin Cities Pride Parade the troupe also hosts community events including emceeing trans and genderqueer events, headlining the National Coming Out Week\nAnnual Gender-Bender Drag Show at Minnesota State University and the Minnesota Red Ribbon Ride AIDS fundraiser.\n\nIn 2007 Cheer, Dorothy, Cheer! registered as a non-profit organization and received a Lavender Pride Award for \"bringing laughter and awareness about issues of HIV and diversity.\"\n\nSee also \n\n Gender bender\n Queer\n Righteously Outrageous Twirling Corps\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Cheer, Dorothy, Cheer! — official website\n Cheer, Dorthy, Cheer! videos on YouTube\n\nAmerican cheerleading organizations\nLGBT organizations in the United States\nNon-profit organizations based in Minnesota\nPerforming groups established in 2002\n2002 establishments in Minnesota",
"Broken Rainbow was a British LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) charity intended to help raise awareness and combat same-sex domestic violence and abuse. It was formed in 2004 and went into liquidation in June 2016.\n\nBroken Rainbow was formed in response to the lack of aid for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people who experience domestic violence and abuse in the UK. With funding from the Nationwide Foundation and the Home Office, they operated the only UK LGBT domestic violence helpline. They also raised awareness of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans issues surrounding domestic violence in the UK and lobbied members of Parliament.\n\nFollowing the organization's financial collapse in 2016, BuzzFeed reported that it went under as a result of financial mismanagement, including as a result of lavish spending by CEO Jo Harvey Barringer. Its hotline continues to be funded by the Home Office and is now operated by the anti-hate-crime LGBT charity Galop.\n\nReferences\n\n2004 establishments in the United Kingdom\nDefunct LGBT organisations in the United Kingdom\nLGBT charities\nOrganizations established in 2004\nOrganizations disestablished in 2016\n2016 disestablishments in the United Kingdom"
]
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"Grand Tour success"
]
| C_4d76750d2ad749f795c41f586247ee31_0 | What were their successes? | 1 | What were cyclist Sean Kelly successes? | Sean Kelly (cyclist) | Kelly returned in April to the 1988 Vuelta a Espana which started on the rugged mountainous island of Tenerife where his team struggled in the second stage, losing the influential rider Thomas Wegmuller to dysentery and losing further time in the time-trial around Las Palmas. However, on the Spanish mainland, Kelly concentrated on winning sprint time bonuses, battling with sprinter Jorge Dominguez, the BH teammate of leader, Laudelino Cubino. After regaining a minute in four days, the race reached the mountains where Kelly relied on help from Robert Millar of team Fagor-MBK to stay within two minutes of Cubino after the mountain trial to Alto Oviedo. He then finished fourth behind stage-winner Fabio Parra and Anselmo Fuerte on stage 13 to the ski-station at Cerler, cutting a minute and a half into Cubino's lead. From this stage, Fuerte had moved into second overall and later took the jersey from Cubino on the 16th stage to Albacete when the leader got caught on the wrong side of a split caused by cross-winds. Kelly maintained the gap between himself and Fuerte and started the time trial on the second last day 21 seconds behind. Confident that he could overhaul the leader, he "put it in a big gear and gave it everything". He took the leader's amarillo jersey, beating Fuerte by almost two minutes. The following day Kelly won his only grand tour, over West German Raimund Dietzen and also won the points competition. After his Vuelta win Kelly returned to Carrick-on-Suir where a parade was held in his honour. CANNOTANSWER | 1988 Vuelta a Espana | John James 'Sean' Kelly (born 24 May 1956) is an Irish former professional road bicycle racer, one of the most successful road cyclists of the 1980s, and one of the finest classics riders of all time. From turning professional in 1977 until his retirement in 1994, he won nine monument classics, and 193 professional races in total. He won Paris–Nice seven years in a row and the first UCI Road World Cup in 1989. He won one Grand Tour, the 1988 Vuelta a España, won 4 green jerseys in the Tour de France and had multiple wins in the Giro di Lombardia, Milan–San Remo, Paris–Roubaix and Liège–Bastogne–Liège, as well as three runners-up placings in the only 'Monument' he failed to win, the Tour of Flanders. Other victories include the Critérium International, Grand Prix des Nations and shorter stage races including the Tour de Suisse, Tour of the Basque Country and Volta a Catalunya.
Kelly twice won bronze medals (1982, 1989) in the World Road Race Championships and finished 5th in 1987, the year compatriot Stephen Roche won gold. Kelly was first to be ranked No.1 when the FICP rankings were introduced in March 1984, a position he held for a record five years. By total career ranking points, Kelly is the second best cyclist of all time after Eddy Merckx. In the 1984 season, Kelly achieved 33 victories.
Early life and amateur career
Kelly is the second son of Jack (John) and Nellie Kelly, a farming family in Curraghduff in County Waterford. He was born at Belleville Maternity Home in Waterford city on 21 May 1956. He was named John James Kelly after his father and then, to avoid confusion at home, referred to as Sean. Seán is the Irish form of John.
For eight years he attended Crehana National School, County Waterford to which he travelled with his older brother, Joe. Fellow pupils recall a boy who retreated into silence because, they thought, he felt intellectually outclassed. His education ended at 13 when he left school to help on the farm after his father went to hospital in Waterford with an ulcer. At 16 he began work as a bricklayer.
Kelly began cycling after his brother had started riding to school in September 1969. Joe rode and won local races and on 4 August 1970 Sean rode his own first race, at Kennedy Terrace in Carrickbeg, County Waterford, part of Carrick-on-Suir. The race was an eight-mile (13 km) handicap, which meant the weaker riders started first and the best last. Kelly set off three minutes before the backmarkers. He was still three minutes ahead when the course turned for home after four miles (6 km) and more than three minutes in the lead when he crossed the line. At 16 he won the national junior championship at Banbridge, County Down.
Kelly won the national championship again in 1973, then took a senior licence before the normal qualifying age of 18 and won the Shay Elliot Memorial race in 1974 and again in 1975 and stages in the Tour of Ireland of 1975.
Kelly and two other Irish riders, Pat and Kieron McQuaid, went to South Africa to ride the Rapport Tour stage-race in preparation for the 1976 Olympic Games. They and others rode under false names because of an international ban on athletes competing in South Africa, as a protest against apartheid. The three Irish were suspended from racing for six months. They were racing again when the International Olympic Committee banned them from the Olympics for life.
Unable to ride in Canada, Kelly rode the 1976 Tour of Britain and then went to Metz, in France, after a London enthusiast, Johnny Morris, had arranged an invitation. Velo Club de Metz offered him £25 a week, free accommodation and four francs a kilometre for every race he won. Kelly won 18 of the 25 races he started in France and won the amateur Giro di Lombardia in Italy.
The win in Italy impressed two French team managers, Jean de Gribaldy and Cyrille Guimard. De Gribaldy went to Ireland unannounced to discuss a contract with the Flandria professional team. He did not know where Kelly lived and was not sure he would recognise him, so he took with him another cyclist, to point out Kelly, and translate. Kelly was out driving a tractor and de Gribaldy set out again in the taxi that had brought him from Dublin, hoping to find Kelly as he drove home. They found him and went to Kelly's stepbrother's house. De Gribaldy offered £4,000 a year plus bonuses, and a week later Kelly asked for £6,000, and got it. He signed for de Gribaldy, with misgivings about going back on his promise to return to VC de Metz; the club had offered him better terms than before.
Kelly left for France in January 1977 and lived for two years at 18 place de la Révolution in Besançon, de Gribaldy's home town. He shared with four teammates.
Professional career
Early years
Kelly's first professional race was the Étoile de Bessèges. It started on 7 February 1977 and lasted six days. Kelly came 10th on the first day. The Flandria team was in two parts: the strongest riders, such as the world champion Freddy Maertens, were in the main section, based in Belgium. Kelly rode with the second section, based more in France because Flandria wanted to sell more of its mopeds, scooters and bicycles there. The strongest riders in both camps came together for big races. Kelly was recruited as a domestique for Maertens in the main team for year's Paris–Nice – shortly afterwards he won his first race, the opening stage of the Tour de Romandie. In 1978, he started in the Tour de France, in which he also won a stage.
Kelly stayed with de Gribaldy for 1977 and 1978. Then in 1978 Michel Pollentier was disqualified from the Tour de France after cheating a drugs test on the afternoon that he took the race lead. He left the team at the end of the season and started his own, with a new backer, Splendor. Both Maertens and Pollentier wanted Kelly. Pollentier and Splendor offered Kelly more and made him a team leader. But Splendor was new and logistic problems became obvious. The bikes were in poor state – enough that Splendor decided not to ride Paris–Roubaix – and the manager, Robert Lauwers, was replaced. Kelly rose above it and rode for himself. The writer Robin Magowan said: Some people can do business on the committee system; others find that life is only fun when you are running the show. In Kelly's case it was to mean working for the collection of underpaid has-beens that de Gribaldy habitually assembled. But a smaller, less pretentious team can have its advantages for a rider of Kelly's sort. When you don't have to compete for a team's loyalty you can concentrate on winning races, and that's exactly what Kelly proceeded to do.
In time the team improved. Kelly received few offers from elsewhere and Splendor matched those he did get. He was paid about £30,000 plus bonuses in his last season with Splendor. But strengthening the team had included bringing in another sprinter, Eddy Planckaert, and Kelly's role as a foreigner in the team was unclear. He heard that de Gribaldy was starting a new team and the two were reunited in 1982 at Sem-France Loire.
Stage successes
By now Kelly had a reputation as a sprinter who could not win stage races, although he did finish fourth in the 1980 Vuelta a España. De Gribaldy employed him as unambiguous team leader, someone he believed could win stage races and not just stages. To this end, de Gribaldy encouraged Kelly to lose weight, convincing the latter that he could target the overall win at Paris–Nice: Kelly won the "Race to the Sun" and four of its stages. On the last of those, a time-trial to the col d'Eze, he beat Gilbert Duclos-Lassalle and pushed him out of the lead. Years later Kelly admitted that his countryman Roche's emergence during his neo-pro season in 1981, during which he had also won Paris-Nice, was one of the factors which motivated him to adjust his focus to becoming more of an all-round rider. However, the spring classics season proved a disappointment, with Kelly's best result being a 12th place in Paris–Roubaix after suffering multiple punctures. Despite that, that season he went on to win another of objectives set by de Gribaldy: the points classification of the Tour de France, where he took five second places on flat stages before winning a reduced bunch sprint in Pau after climbing the Col d'Aubisque. His points total was nearly three times that of the points classification runner-up, the yellow jersey winner Bernard Hinault. He finished third in the world championship in England - the first worlds medal for an Irish rider since Shay Elliott's silver in 1962 - and at the end of the year married his girlfriend, Linda Grant, the daughter of a local cycling club official. Carrick-on-Suir named the town square "the Sean Kelly Square" in tribute to his achievements in the 1982 Tour de France and his bronze medal at the championship The following year Kelly again won Paris–Nice and then the Critérium International and the Tour de Suisse as well as the points classification in the Tour de France the second time in a row.
Kelly confirmed his potential in autumn 1983. A leading group of 18 entered Como in the Giro di Lombardia after a battle over the Intelvi and Schignano passes. Kelly won the sprint by the narrowest margin, less than half a wheel separating the first four, against cycling greats including Francesco Moser, Adri van der Poel, Hennie Kuiper and world champion Greg LeMond.
Kelly dominated the following spring. He won Paris–Nice for the third successive time beating Roche as well as the Tour de France winner, Bernard Hinault who was returning after a knee injury. Kelly finished second in Milan–San Remo and the Tour of Flanders, but was unbeatable in Paris–Roubaix and Liège–Bastogne–Liège. The day after Paris–Roubaix, the French daily sports paper, L'Équipe, pictured Kelly cycling the cobbles with mud on his face and had the heading Insatiable Kelly! referring to his appetite for winning that spring He won all three stages in the Critérium International: the bunch sprint on stage 1, a solo victory in the mountain stage and beating Roche in the final time trial. Kelly achieved 33 victories in 1984. He was becoming a contender in the grand tours, as seen by finishing fifth in the Tour de France. This may have caused him to lose his grip on the points classification in that year's Tour. Kelly was wearing it as the Tour was finishing on the Champs-Élysées but lost it in the bunch finish to the Belgian, Frank Hoste, who finished ahead of Kelly gaining points to take the jersey off Kelly's shoulders.
He won Paris–Nice in 1985, again beating Roche. He also took three stage wins at the Vuelta a España, but suffered a frustrating spring classics season, taking a third place at Paris-Roubaix and fourth at Liège–Bastogne–Liège, but losing out on wins through poor tactical decisions, such as at Milan-San Remo where he and rival Eric Vanderaerden marked each other out of contention. He won the points classification for the third time and finished fourth in the 1985 Tour de France, where his rivalry with Vanderaerden boiled over at the finish of the sixth stage in Reims: the latter veered to prevent Kelly from coming past in the final sprint, leading Kelly to push Vanderarden, and the Belgian pulling the Irishman's jersey in response. The race saw him battle for the last step on the GC podium with Stephen Roche: although Roche finished the tour in third, the duo's performances saw interest in the race expanding gradually in the Irish press. Kelly won the first Nissan International Classic beating Van Der Poel. At the end of the season, he won the Giro di Lombardia.
He won Milan–San Remo in 1986 after winning Paris–Nice. In Milan-San Remo, Kelly was being marked closely by Vanderaerden in the closing stages of the race. Mario Beccia attacked on the race's final climb of the Poggio di San Remo and was followed by Greg LeMond. In order to shake Vanderaerden, Kelly feigned a mechanical problem before sprinting away to join the lead group, and drove hard on the front to prevent Niki Rüttimann, LeMond's team-mate, who had followed Kelly, from linking up with the front group: Kelly won the three-up sprint at the finish. He also took stage wins at the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, Critérium International and Three Days of De Panne. He finished second in the Tour of Flanders and won Paris–Roubaix again. According to his autobiography Hunger, Kelly gave his support to Van der Poel in the latter's bid to win Flanders in exchange for the Dutchman's help in the French cobbled classic. In Flanders, Kelly rode on the front of the leading four man group in the closing stages of the race, which also included Van der Poel, Jean-Philippe Vandenbrande and Steve Bauer: regarding the final sprint, Kelly wrote that "I started my sprint early, and I knew Van der Poel was probably in my wheel as well, but I certainly gave it 100 per cent". After Flanders, he flew to Spain to race the Tour of the Basque Country, which he won, before flying north to compete in Paris-Roubaix. Roles were reversed as Kelly followed Van der Poel in latching onto an attack from Ferdi Van Den Haute on a late cobbled secteur to form another four-man group along with Rudy Dhaenens. Van Den Haute attacked again a kilometre from the race finish - which was located away from Roubaix Velodrome for the first time since 1943 - and once again Van der Poel led Kelly out in the sprint, enabling the latter to cross the line first. To date, Kelly is one of only three riders to win the double of Milan-San Remo and Paris-Roubaix in the same year, along with Cyrille van Hauwaert in 1908 and John Degenkolb in 2015. Kelly was engaged in an intense racing schedule, even by contemporary standards, having competed 34 times from the beginning of the season to 1986. He later explained this as partly due to the influence of Jean de Gribaldy, who reasoned that he might as well race if he was going to have to train on his bike if he didn't compete, and because of new sponsor Kas, a Spanish soft drink manufacturer, who were primarily concerned with success in Spain, and uninterested in winning the classics, meaning Kelly had to compete in both types of races. He finished on a podium in a grand tour for the first time when he finished third in the 1986 Vuelta a España, winning two stages along the way. Kelly missed the 1986 Tour de France due to a serious crash in the last stage of Tour de Suisse. He returned to Ireland and won the Nissan Classic again. His second win in the Nissan came after a duel with Steve Bauer, who took the yellow jersey after Kelly crashed numerous times. Kelly went into the final stage three seconds behind Bauer and took the jersey when he finished third on the stage and won bonus seconds. Kelly took more than 30 victories in total across the 1986 season.
Kelly won Paris–Nice in 1987 on the last day after Roche, the leader, punctured. Later, leading the Vuelta a España with three days to go, he retired with an extremely painful saddle sore. His bad luck continued in the Tour de France, retiring after a crash tore ligaments in his shoulder. After the World Championship, in which he finished fifth behind Roche, Kelly returned to Ireland to win the Nissan for the third consecutive time.
Kelly won his seventh Paris–Nice in spring 1988, a record. He won Gent–Wevelgem several weeks later.
Grand Tour success
Kelly returned in April to the 1988 Vuelta a España which started on the rugged mountainous island of Tenerife where his team struggled in the second stage, losing the influential rider Thomas Wegmüller to dysentery and losing further time in the time-trial around Las Palmas. However, on the Spanish mainland, Kelly concentrated on winning sprint time bonuses, battling with sprinter Jorge Dominguez, the BH teammate of leader, Laudelino Cubino.
After regaining a minute in four days, the race reached the mountains where Kelly relied on help from Robert Millar of team Fagor-MBK to stay within two minutes of Cubino after the mountain trial to Alto Oviedo. He then finished fourth behind stage-winner Fabio Parra and Anselmo Fuerte on stage 13 to the ski-station at Cerler, cutting a minute and a half into Cubino's lead. From this stage, Fuerte had moved into second overall and later took the jersey from Cubino on the 16th stage to Albacete when the leader got caught on the wrong side of a split caused by cross-winds.
Kelly maintained the gap between himself and Fuerte and started the time trial on the second last day 21 seconds behind. Confident that he could overhaul the leader, he "put it in a big gear and gave it everything". He took the leader's amarillo jersey, beating Fuerte by almost two minutes. The following day Kelly won his only grand tour, over West German Raimund Dietzen and also won the points competition. After his Vuelta win Kelly returned to Carrick-on-Suir where a parade was held in his honour.
Twilight of his career
Kelly finished 46th in the Tour de France just over an hour behind Pedro Delgado. He was no longer a contender for overall victory after this and said he'd never win the Tour de France. Kelly finished third behind the German, Rolf Gölz, in the Nissan Classic that year
Kelly finished third in the sprint at the rainy world road championship of 1989 at Chambéry, France, behind Dimitri Konyshev and Greg Lemond. Lemond won his second rainbow jersey as world champion.
Kelly switched to the Dutch PDM team and stayed there three years until the end of 1991. The following year he won Liège–Bastogne–Liège, the points classification in the Tour de France, and the inaugural UCI Road World Cup championship.
Kelly won the Tour de Suisse in 1990. In March 1991, he broke a collarbone, then pulled out of the 1991 Tour de France and then while Kelly was competing the Tour of Galicia in August, his brother Joe was killed in a race near Carrick-on-Suir. He came back to win his fourth Nissan Classic by four seconds over Sean Yates and then went to and won the classic at the end of the season, the Giro di Lombardia.
Kelly won the Giro di Lombardia for a third time in 1991 but started 1992 regarded as past his prime. He moved to Festina and prepared for Milan–San Remo. Race favourite Moreno Argentin attacked from the leading group on the final climb, the Poggio. He broke clear after several attempts and reached the top eight seconds before the rest. It seemed he was on his way to a solo victory as the peloton descended the Poggio, where Maurizio Fondriest led, marked by Argentin's teammate Rolf Sørensen. Kelly was behind these two in third position. Kelly attacked with three kilometres of descending left. Sorensen could not hold his acceleration and Kelly got away. He caught Argentin with a kilometre to go. Both stalled, the chasers closing fast, Argentin gesturing to Kelly to take the front. Kelly stayed on Argentin's wheel. The two moved again, preparing for a sprint; Kelly launched himself and in the final 200m came past Argentin to win his final classic.
In 1992, Kelly travelled to Colombia for the Clásico RCN, where he won the second stage. His PDM teammate, Martin Earley, pushed him into second place at the 1993 Irish road championship.
Kelly's last year as a professional was 1994, when he rode for Catavana. He returned to Carrick-on-Suir at the end of the season to ride the annual Hamper race. That was Kelly's last race as a professional. Eddy Merckx, Laurent Fignon, Bernard Hinault, Roger De Vlaeminck, Claude Criquielion, Stephen Roche, Martin Earley, Acacio Da Silva and Paul Kimmage were among 1,200 cyclists present. The President of Ireland, Mary Robinson, attended a civic presentation to Kelly the day before the race. Kelly won in a sprint against Roche. Kelly won this race again six years later.
Legacy and riding style
Kelly's career is remarkable in that it spanned the eras of several legends of the Tour de France, from Eddy Merckx through to Miguel Indurain. His first Tour was also the first for Bernard Hinault and the two battled in the sprint of stage 15. Greg LeMond and Laurent Fignon emerged in the early eighties and challenged Kelly in the classics as well as in the Tour, and Kelly witnessed the rise of Miguel Indurain and the early career of Lance Armstrong. Kelly's career coincided with Stephen Roche as well as classics specialists including Francesco Moser, Claude Criquielion, Moreno Argentin and Eric Vanderaerden. Evidence of Kelly's dominance can be seen from his three victories in the season-long Super Prestige Pernod International competition (predecessor to the World Cup). Kelly competed throughout the season, from Paris–Nice in March to the Giro di Lombardia in October, winning both in 1983 and 1985.
Robin Magowan said:
"It is customary to talk of Kelly as quintessentially an Irish rider. For my part, though, I think it helps to place Kelly better as a cyclist to see him as the last of the Flemish riders. This is usually a title associated with the post-war rider, Briek Schotte who has become appropriately enough the man in day-to-day charge of the de Gribaldy teams. As exemplified by Schotte it stood for a certain type of mentality, willing to suffer, narrowly focussed, and hard, hard, hard. Kelly had all this in him from his Irish small-farm background: the outside loo; the dogs that have to be chained before you can step from your car; the one career possible, as a bricklayer on a construction site, stretching away and away into the grey mists. On the positive side, along with the self-reliance, came a physical strength that even by peasant standards is impressive. In a profession of iron wills, there is no one harder."
While some sprinters remain sheltered in the peloton until the final few hundred metres, Kelly could instigate breaks and climb well, proving this by winning the Vuelta a España in 1988, as well as winning a stage of Paris-Nice on the climb of Mont Ventoux. His victories in Paris–Roubaix (1984, 1986) showed his ability in poor weather and on pavé sections, while he could stay with the climbing specialists in the mountains in the Tour de France. He was also a formidable descender, clocking a career top race speed of 124 km/h, while descending from Col de Joux Plane to Morzine on stage 19 of the Tour in 1984. He finished fourth in the Tour in 1985 and won the points classification in 1982, 1983, 1985, and 1989, the first to win four times, a feat he repeated in the Vuelta a España. Kelly won five stages in the Tour de France and 16 in the Vuelta a España.
Doping
Kelly failed drug tests twice during his career. After the 1984 edition of Paris–Brussels, in which he had finished third, cycling authorities stated that a urine sample supplied by Kelly had tested positive for pemoline (Stimul), a result which was repeated with the testing of a B sample. The Royal Belgian Cycling League sentenced Kelly to a three-month suspended ban and a fine. Kelly denied taking any banned substances: in an interview at the time with David Walsh, he claimed that there were "irregularities at the testing centre that day ... the medical control at Paris-Brussels was very badly organised and lots of people were in the room who had no right to be there ... in all this confusion something must have gone wrong". In his autobiography Hunger, Kelly stated that Irish Cycling Federation official Karl McCarthy, who acted as a witness on Kelly's behalf at the second test as he was unable to attend due to racing commitments, told him that the B sample was "tiny" and below the amount required for the test. In his book Breaking the Chain, Kelly's former soigneur Willy Voet claimed that Kelly had been ill with bronchitis in the week before the race and had taken ephedrine to treat it: to avoid a positive test, Voet wrote that Kelly had carried a container in his shorts filled with urine supplied by one of the team's mechanics to doping control, and that the Stimul detected in the sample had been taken by the mechanic to help him stay awake while driving the team's truck.
Kelly's second positive test occurred at the 1988 Tour of the Basque Country, where he tested positive for codeine. Having finished third in the overall classification, he received a ten-minute penalty that dropped him down the order. Kelly explained this as being the result of a worsening cough he had developed during the race: he said that between the end of the final stage and attending doping control he took a swig from a bottle of cough medicine, to which he attributed the presence of codeine in his urine sample.
Post-cycling career
Kelly is a commentator for the English-language services of Eurosport and has established and is involved in the Sean Kelly Cycling Academy in Belgium. In 2006 he launched Ireland's first professional team, the Sean Kelly Team, composed of young Irish and Belgian riders based at the Sean Kelly Cycling Academy in Merchtem, Belgium. He has a cycling clothing company which supplies clubs and companies, and which also organises corporate cycling events in Ireland and throughout Europe. He rides long-distance charity cycling tours with Blazing Saddles, a charity raising money for the blind and partially sighted. Such tours have included a journey across America by bike in 2000. He also participates in charity cycling endurance events in Scotland (notably with the Braveheart Cycling Fund), England, France and Ireland. Sean Kelly regularly cycles with SportActive cycling holidays in Mallorca.
The inaugural Sean Kelly Tour of Waterford was held on 19 August 2007.
Kelly was one of the 910 participants. The second was on 24 August 2008. Kelly was one of the 2,048. The 2009 tour went ahead on 30 August 2009. It attracted over 3,400 participants. On 29 August 2010, 3708 cyclists took part in the Tour. In 2011 the attendance ballooned to over 8,000 over the two days and events. This ran annually until 2017. In 2018, the organisers of The Sean Kelly Tour of Waterford completed a review and decided not to run the event and to look at other cycling initiatives in and around Waterford.
In November 2013, at Dublin City University, Sean Kelly was awarded with an Honorary Doctorate in Philosophy in recognition of his
contribution to Irish sport.
Personality
Fellow pupils at Kelly's school [see above] felt Kelly fell silent because he felt intellectually outclassed. The lack of words continued even after Kelly had proved himself one of the best racing cyclists of his era. The writer Robin Magowan said:
"On the bench, swivelling his body away as you approach, chary of words when not downright hostile, Sean Kelly remains for a journalist the hardest of the great riders to fathom. In an age when most of his brethren rate themselves, and are paid, according to the amount of publicity inches they have gleaned in a season, this farmer's son ... remains very much the exception, closed, withdrawn, and extremely suspicious. Yet one has only to look at him joking with Stephen Roche, or know the respect with which he is held by the peloton, to see that he gets along very well without us."
Coverage
Kelly is the subject of several books, including a biography Kelly in 1986 and A Man For All Seasons by David Walsh in 1991.
Sean Kelly published his autobiography Hunger in 2013.
Career achievements
Major results
1972
1st Road race, National Junior Road Championships
1973
1st Road race, National Junior Road Championships
1975
Tour of Ireland
1st Mountains classification
1st Stages 5, 6 & 7
1st Stage 7 Milk Race
1976
1st Overall Cinturón a Mallorca
1st Piccolo Giro di Lombardia
1st Stage 6 Milk Race
1977
1st Stage 1 Tour de Romandie
1st Stage 4 Étoile des Espoirs
1978
1st Stage 6 Tour de France
Setmana Catalana de Ciclismo
1st Stage 1a (TTT) & 1b
1st Stage 3 Tour Méditerranéen
1st Stage 5a Étoile des Espoirs
1979
Vuelta a España
1st Stages 1 & 8a
1st GP de Cannes
9th Road race, UCI Road World Championships
10th Omloop Het Volk
1980
1st Overall Three Days of De Panne
1st Stage 2
Tour de France
1st Stages 19 & 21
1st Stage 3a Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré
1st Stage 4 Ronde van Nederland
2nd E3 Prijs Vlaanderen
2nd De Brabantse Pijl
2nd Tour du Haut Var
3rd Amstel Gold Race
3rd Omloop Het Volk
3rd Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne
4th Overall Vuelta a España
1st Points classification
1st Sprints classification
1st Stages 1, 2, 14, 17 19 & 21
4th Milan–San Remo
1981
1st Stage 15 Tour de France
1st Stage 2 Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré
1st Stage 5a Ronde van Nederland
1st Stage 3 Tour of Belgium
1st Stage 1 Tour of Luxembourg
2nd Overall Four Days of Dunkirk
1st Stage 2
4th La Flèche Wallonne
5th Rund um den Henninger Turm
6th Amstel Gold Race
7th De Brabantse Pijl
8th Tour of Flanders
9th Züri–Metzgete
1982
1st Overall Paris–Nice
1st Stages 3, 5, 7a & 7b (ITT)
Etoile des Espoirs
1st Stages 1, 2 & 3
Tour de l'Aude
1st Stages 1 & 2
1st Tour du Haut Var
1st Stage 2 Grand Prix du Midi Libre
1st Stage 3 Critérium International
Tour de France
1st Points classification
1st Intermediate Sprints classification
1st Stage 12
3rd Road race, UCI Road World Championships
3rd Omloop Het Volk
3rd Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne
3rd Rund um den Henninger Turm
4th Amstel Gold Race
6th GP Ouest–France
8th La Flèche Wallonne
10th Liège–Bastogne–Liège
1983
1st Overall Paris–Nice
1st Stages 3a, 4 & 7b (ITT)
1st Overall Tour de Suisse
1st Points classification
1st Stages 3 & 5b (ITT)
1st Overall Critérium International
1st Stage 3
1st Giro di Lombardia
1st Grand Prix d'Isbergues
1st Stage 4 Etoile des Espoirs
1st Stage 2 Paris–Bourges
2nd Overall Super Prestige Pernod International
2nd Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne
2nd Giro del Piemonte
5th Milan–San Remo
6th Trofeo Baracchi
7th Overall Tour de France
1st Points classification
1st Intermediate Sprints classification
8th Road race, UCI Road World Championships
1984
1st Overall Paris–Nice
1st Stages 2 & 7b (ITT)
1st Overall Volta a Catalunya
1st Points classification
1st Mountains classification
1st Stages 1, 4a, 4b & 7a (ITT)
1st Overall Tour of the Basque Country
1st Stages 1, 3 & 5b (ITT)
1st Overall Critérium International
1st Stages 1, 2 & 3 (ITT)
1st Overall Super Prestige Pernod International
1st Paris–Roubaix
1st Liège–Bastogne–Liège
1st Paris–Tours
1st GP Ouest–France
1st Critérium des As
1st Paris–Bourges
2nd Tour of Flanders
2nd Milan–San Remo
2nd Grand Prix des Nations
3rd Rund um den Henninger Turm
4th Overall Tour de Suisse
1st Points classification
1st Stage 1
4th Overall Tour du Limousin
1st Stages 1b, 2 & 4
5th Overall Tour de France
1985
1st Overall Paris–Nice
1st Overall Nissan Classic
1st Stages 1 & 3a (ITT)
Tour of the Basque Country
1st Stages 3 & 5b (ITT)
1st Overall Super Prestige Pernod International
1st Giro di Lombardia
1st Critérium des As
1st Stage 3 Ronde van Nederland
2nd Overall Volta a Catalunya
1st Stage 2
2nd Overall Three Days of De Panne
3rd Overall Critérium International
1st Stage 1
3rd Overall Vuelta Ciclista a la Communidad Valenciana
1st Stage 5
3rd Paris–Roubaix
4th Overall Tour de France
1st Points classification
4th Overall Tour de Suisse
4th Liège–Bastogne–Liège
6th Overall Tour of the Basque Country
7th Milan–San Remo
7th Gent–Wevelgem
9th Overall Vuelta a España
1st Points classification
1st Stages 2, 10 & 15
1986
1st Overall Paris–Nice
1st Prologue, Stages 3 & 7b (ITT)
1st Overall Volta a Catalunya
1st Points classification
1st Stage 7 (ITT)
1st Overall Tour of the Basque Country
1st Stages 3, 5a & 5b
1st Overall Nissan Classic
Vuelta Ciclista a la Communidad Valenciana
1st Stages 1 & 3
1st Overall Super Prestige Pernod International
1st Milan–San Remo
1st Paris–Roubaix
1st Grand Prix des Nations
1st Critérium des As
1st Stage 4a Vuelta a Aragón
1st Stage 4 Tour du Limousin
2nd Overall Critérium International
1st Stages 1 & 3 (ITT)
2nd Overall Three Days of De Panne
1st Stage 1b (ITT)
2nd Overall Paris–Bourges
1st Stage 2
2nd Tour of Flanders
2nd Giro di Lombardia
2nd GP Ouest–France
2nd Brussels Cycling Classic
3rd Overall Vuelta a España
1st Points classification
1st Combination classification
1st Stages 10 & 13
5th La Flèche Wallonne
5th Road race, UCI Road World Championships
6th Paris–Tours
1987
1st Overall Paris–Nice
1st Stage 3
1st Overall Tour of the Basque Country
1st Points classification
1st Mountains classification
1st Stages 4 & 5b (ITT)
1st Overall Critérium International
1st Stages 2 & 3 (ITT)
1st Overall Nissan Classic
Vuelta a España
1st Stages 1 & 3
Held after Stages 1–4
1st Stage 7 Vuelta Ciclista a la Communidad Valenciana
2nd Overall Three Days of De Panne
1st Stage 1b (ITT)
2nd Overall Super Prestige Pernod International
2nd Tour of Flanders
3rd Dwars door België
4th Milan–San Remo
4th Brussels Cycling Classic
4th Grand Prix des Nations
5th Overall Volta a Catalunya
1st Points classification
1st Prologue & Stage 1
5th Road race, UCI Road World Championships
10th GP Ouest–France
1988
1st Overall Vuelta a España
1st Points classification
1st Combination classification
1st Stages 10 & 19 (ITT)
1st Overall Paris–Nice
1st Stage 6b (ITT)
1st Overall Setmana Catalana de Ciclisme
1st Points classification
1st Stage 4b (ITT)
Tour du Limousin
1st Stages 2b & 3
1st Gent–Wevelgem
1st Stage 4 Tour of the Basque Country
2nd Tour du Haut Var
2nd Grand Prix de Fourmies
3rd Overall Kellogg's Tour
3rd Paris–Tours
4th Tour of Flanders
5th Milan–San Remo
5th Liège–Bastogne–Liège
7th Omloop Het Volk
1989
1st UCI Road World Cup
1st Liège–Bastogne–Liège
1st Stage 4 Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré
1st Mountains classification Nissan Classic
2nd Omloop Het Volk
3rd Road race, UCI Road World Championships
3rd Wincanton Classic
3rd Trofeo Baracchi
5th Milan–San Remo
7th Overall Tirreno–Adriatico
7th Paris–Tours
9th Overall Tour de France
1st Points classification
1st Intermediate sprints classification
1990
1st Overall Tour de Suisse
1st Stage 4 (ITT)
3rd UCI Road World Cup
3rd Clásica de San Sebastián
5th Road race, UCI Road World Championships
6th Overall Tirreno–Adriatico
8th Overall Critérium International
8th Paris–Tours
8th Trofeo Luis Puig
9th Overall Volta a Catalunya
10th Giro di Lombardia
1991
1st Overall Nissan Classic
1st Giro di Lombardia
4th Milano–Torino
4th Trofeo Luis Puig
1992
1st Milan–San Remo
1st Trofeo Luis Puig
1st Stage 7 Tour de Suisse
1st Stage 4 Vuelta Ciclista a la Communidad Valenciana
1st Stage 2 Clásico RCN
4th Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne
1993
2nd Road race, National Road Championships
4th Paris–Tours
1994
10th Overall Route du Sud
General classification results timeline
Classics results timeline
Footnotes
External links
1956 births
Living people
Sportspeople from County Waterford
Irish male cyclists
Irish Tour de France stage winners
Irish expatriate sportspeople in Belgium
Sports commentators
Vuelta a España winners
Irish Vuelta a España stage winners
Cycling announcers
Tour de Suisse stage winners
RTÉ Sports Person of the Year winners
Super Prestige Pernod winners
UCI Road World Rankings winners
UCI Road World Cup winners | false | [
"3Deep were a soul-pop music boy band composed of American actors Eddie Cibrian (Sunset Beach, Third Watch) and Joshua Morrow (The Young and the Restless), and Canadian singer CJ Huyer.\n\nTheir success was mostly in Canada, Europe and Asia as their record label did not release their debut album in the United States.\n\nTheir first album Yes Yes Yes...No No No was released in 1999 and featured their biggest hit single \"Into You\", a top-10 hit on the Canadian charts. Their second album Can't Get Over You was released in 2001. Among the artists they collaborated with were Michie Mee on a track from their first album and with Howie Dorough on a track from their second.\n\nAlthough 3Deep were largely unknown in the US (despite Cibrian and Morrow's acting successes), they were one of the more successful Canadian boy bands of the era, with a sizeable young female fan base. Upon the release of their debut album, Cibrian and Morrow had already a built-in following due to their successes on US television.\n\nIn addition to touring, the group performed at events such as Ottawa's Winterlude and appeared on the Juno Awards and at MuchMusic studios.\n\nDiscography\n\nStudio albums\n\nSingles\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n 2001 News Article on 3Deep\n\nAmerican boy bands\nAmerican musical trios\nMusical groups established in 1998\nMusical groups disestablished in 2001",
"Jake Hamilton & the Sound is a Christian praise & worship band from Rancho Cucamonga, California started in 2013. In 2014, the band released their debut studio album with Fuel Music entitled Beautiful Rider that has seen commercial successes and positive criticism.\n\nMusic\nThe band is on the Fuel Music label, and released their first studio album on January 21, 2014 entitled, Beautiful Rider, which saw commercial successes and positive criticism.\n\nStudio work\nThe band released their first studio album Beautiful Rider on January 21, 2013, and it saw success on the Billboard Christian Albums and Heatseekers Albums charts at Nos. 27 and 13 respectively.\n\nMembers\n Jake Hamilton (Guitar & vocals)\n Brian Campbell (Bass) \n Marc Ford (Guitar)\n Dustin Lau (Keysboard)\n Seth Thomas (Drum)\n\nDiscography\n\nStudio albums\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n\nMusical groups from California"
]
|
[
"Sean Kelly (cyclist)",
"Grand Tour success",
"What were their successes?",
"1988 Vuelta a Espana"
]
| C_4d76750d2ad749f795c41f586247ee31_0 | What was Vuelta a Espana? | 2 | What was Vuelta a Espana that Sean Kelly cycled? | Sean Kelly (cyclist) | Kelly returned in April to the 1988 Vuelta a Espana which started on the rugged mountainous island of Tenerife where his team struggled in the second stage, losing the influential rider Thomas Wegmuller to dysentery and losing further time in the time-trial around Las Palmas. However, on the Spanish mainland, Kelly concentrated on winning sprint time bonuses, battling with sprinter Jorge Dominguez, the BH teammate of leader, Laudelino Cubino. After regaining a minute in four days, the race reached the mountains where Kelly relied on help from Robert Millar of team Fagor-MBK to stay within two minutes of Cubino after the mountain trial to Alto Oviedo. He then finished fourth behind stage-winner Fabio Parra and Anselmo Fuerte on stage 13 to the ski-station at Cerler, cutting a minute and a half into Cubino's lead. From this stage, Fuerte had moved into second overall and later took the jersey from Cubino on the 16th stage to Albacete when the leader got caught on the wrong side of a split caused by cross-winds. Kelly maintained the gap between himself and Fuerte and started the time trial on the second last day 21 seconds behind. Confident that he could overhaul the leader, he "put it in a big gear and gave it everything". He took the leader's amarillo jersey, beating Fuerte by almost two minutes. The following day Kelly won his only grand tour, over West German Raimund Dietzen and also won the points competition. After his Vuelta win Kelly returned to Carrick-on-Suir where a parade was held in his honour. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | John James 'Sean' Kelly (born 24 May 1956) is an Irish former professional road bicycle racer, one of the most successful road cyclists of the 1980s, and one of the finest classics riders of all time. From turning professional in 1977 until his retirement in 1994, he won nine monument classics, and 193 professional races in total. He won Paris–Nice seven years in a row and the first UCI Road World Cup in 1989. He won one Grand Tour, the 1988 Vuelta a España, won 4 green jerseys in the Tour de France and had multiple wins in the Giro di Lombardia, Milan–San Remo, Paris–Roubaix and Liège–Bastogne–Liège, as well as three runners-up placings in the only 'Monument' he failed to win, the Tour of Flanders. Other victories include the Critérium International, Grand Prix des Nations and shorter stage races including the Tour de Suisse, Tour of the Basque Country and Volta a Catalunya.
Kelly twice won bronze medals (1982, 1989) in the World Road Race Championships and finished 5th in 1987, the year compatriot Stephen Roche won gold. Kelly was first to be ranked No.1 when the FICP rankings were introduced in March 1984, a position he held for a record five years. By total career ranking points, Kelly is the second best cyclist of all time after Eddy Merckx. In the 1984 season, Kelly achieved 33 victories.
Early life and amateur career
Kelly is the second son of Jack (John) and Nellie Kelly, a farming family in Curraghduff in County Waterford. He was born at Belleville Maternity Home in Waterford city on 21 May 1956. He was named John James Kelly after his father and then, to avoid confusion at home, referred to as Sean. Seán is the Irish form of John.
For eight years he attended Crehana National School, County Waterford to which he travelled with his older brother, Joe. Fellow pupils recall a boy who retreated into silence because, they thought, he felt intellectually outclassed. His education ended at 13 when he left school to help on the farm after his father went to hospital in Waterford with an ulcer. At 16 he began work as a bricklayer.
Kelly began cycling after his brother had started riding to school in September 1969. Joe rode and won local races and on 4 August 1970 Sean rode his own first race, at Kennedy Terrace in Carrickbeg, County Waterford, part of Carrick-on-Suir. The race was an eight-mile (13 km) handicap, which meant the weaker riders started first and the best last. Kelly set off three minutes before the backmarkers. He was still three minutes ahead when the course turned for home after four miles (6 km) and more than three minutes in the lead when he crossed the line. At 16 he won the national junior championship at Banbridge, County Down.
Kelly won the national championship again in 1973, then took a senior licence before the normal qualifying age of 18 and won the Shay Elliot Memorial race in 1974 and again in 1975 and stages in the Tour of Ireland of 1975.
Kelly and two other Irish riders, Pat and Kieron McQuaid, went to South Africa to ride the Rapport Tour stage-race in preparation for the 1976 Olympic Games. They and others rode under false names because of an international ban on athletes competing in South Africa, as a protest against apartheid. The three Irish were suspended from racing for six months. They were racing again when the International Olympic Committee banned them from the Olympics for life.
Unable to ride in Canada, Kelly rode the 1976 Tour of Britain and then went to Metz, in France, after a London enthusiast, Johnny Morris, had arranged an invitation. Velo Club de Metz offered him £25 a week, free accommodation and four francs a kilometre for every race he won. Kelly won 18 of the 25 races he started in France and won the amateur Giro di Lombardia in Italy.
The win in Italy impressed two French team managers, Jean de Gribaldy and Cyrille Guimard. De Gribaldy went to Ireland unannounced to discuss a contract with the Flandria professional team. He did not know where Kelly lived and was not sure he would recognise him, so he took with him another cyclist, to point out Kelly, and translate. Kelly was out driving a tractor and de Gribaldy set out again in the taxi that had brought him from Dublin, hoping to find Kelly as he drove home. They found him and went to Kelly's stepbrother's house. De Gribaldy offered £4,000 a year plus bonuses, and a week later Kelly asked for £6,000, and got it. He signed for de Gribaldy, with misgivings about going back on his promise to return to VC de Metz; the club had offered him better terms than before.
Kelly left for France in January 1977 and lived for two years at 18 place de la Révolution in Besançon, de Gribaldy's home town. He shared with four teammates.
Professional career
Early years
Kelly's first professional race was the Étoile de Bessèges. It started on 7 February 1977 and lasted six days. Kelly came 10th on the first day. The Flandria team was in two parts: the strongest riders, such as the world champion Freddy Maertens, were in the main section, based in Belgium. Kelly rode with the second section, based more in France because Flandria wanted to sell more of its mopeds, scooters and bicycles there. The strongest riders in both camps came together for big races. Kelly was recruited as a domestique for Maertens in the main team for year's Paris–Nice – shortly afterwards he won his first race, the opening stage of the Tour de Romandie. In 1978, he started in the Tour de France, in which he also won a stage.
Kelly stayed with de Gribaldy for 1977 and 1978. Then in 1978 Michel Pollentier was disqualified from the Tour de France after cheating a drugs test on the afternoon that he took the race lead. He left the team at the end of the season and started his own, with a new backer, Splendor. Both Maertens and Pollentier wanted Kelly. Pollentier and Splendor offered Kelly more and made him a team leader. But Splendor was new and logistic problems became obvious. The bikes were in poor state – enough that Splendor decided not to ride Paris–Roubaix – and the manager, Robert Lauwers, was replaced. Kelly rose above it and rode for himself. The writer Robin Magowan said: Some people can do business on the committee system; others find that life is only fun when you are running the show. In Kelly's case it was to mean working for the collection of underpaid has-beens that de Gribaldy habitually assembled. But a smaller, less pretentious team can have its advantages for a rider of Kelly's sort. When you don't have to compete for a team's loyalty you can concentrate on winning races, and that's exactly what Kelly proceeded to do.
In time the team improved. Kelly received few offers from elsewhere and Splendor matched those he did get. He was paid about £30,000 plus bonuses in his last season with Splendor. But strengthening the team had included bringing in another sprinter, Eddy Planckaert, and Kelly's role as a foreigner in the team was unclear. He heard that de Gribaldy was starting a new team and the two were reunited in 1982 at Sem-France Loire.
Stage successes
By now Kelly had a reputation as a sprinter who could not win stage races, although he did finish fourth in the 1980 Vuelta a España. De Gribaldy employed him as unambiguous team leader, someone he believed could win stage races and not just stages. To this end, de Gribaldy encouraged Kelly to lose weight, convincing the latter that he could target the overall win at Paris–Nice: Kelly won the "Race to the Sun" and four of its stages. On the last of those, a time-trial to the col d'Eze, he beat Gilbert Duclos-Lassalle and pushed him out of the lead. Years later Kelly admitted that his countryman Roche's emergence during his neo-pro season in 1981, during which he had also won Paris-Nice, was one of the factors which motivated him to adjust his focus to becoming more of an all-round rider. However, the spring classics season proved a disappointment, with Kelly's best result being a 12th place in Paris–Roubaix after suffering multiple punctures. Despite that, that season he went on to win another of objectives set by de Gribaldy: the points classification of the Tour de France, where he took five second places on flat stages before winning a reduced bunch sprint in Pau after climbing the Col d'Aubisque. His points total was nearly three times that of the points classification runner-up, the yellow jersey winner Bernard Hinault. He finished third in the world championship in England - the first worlds medal for an Irish rider since Shay Elliott's silver in 1962 - and at the end of the year married his girlfriend, Linda Grant, the daughter of a local cycling club official. Carrick-on-Suir named the town square "the Sean Kelly Square" in tribute to his achievements in the 1982 Tour de France and his bronze medal at the championship The following year Kelly again won Paris–Nice and then the Critérium International and the Tour de Suisse as well as the points classification in the Tour de France the second time in a row.
Kelly confirmed his potential in autumn 1983. A leading group of 18 entered Como in the Giro di Lombardia after a battle over the Intelvi and Schignano passes. Kelly won the sprint by the narrowest margin, less than half a wheel separating the first four, against cycling greats including Francesco Moser, Adri van der Poel, Hennie Kuiper and world champion Greg LeMond.
Kelly dominated the following spring. He won Paris–Nice for the third successive time beating Roche as well as the Tour de France winner, Bernard Hinault who was returning after a knee injury. Kelly finished second in Milan–San Remo and the Tour of Flanders, but was unbeatable in Paris–Roubaix and Liège–Bastogne–Liège. The day after Paris–Roubaix, the French daily sports paper, L'Équipe, pictured Kelly cycling the cobbles with mud on his face and had the heading Insatiable Kelly! referring to his appetite for winning that spring He won all three stages in the Critérium International: the bunch sprint on stage 1, a solo victory in the mountain stage and beating Roche in the final time trial. Kelly achieved 33 victories in 1984. He was becoming a contender in the grand tours, as seen by finishing fifth in the Tour de France. This may have caused him to lose his grip on the points classification in that year's Tour. Kelly was wearing it as the Tour was finishing on the Champs-Élysées but lost it in the bunch finish to the Belgian, Frank Hoste, who finished ahead of Kelly gaining points to take the jersey off Kelly's shoulders.
He won Paris–Nice in 1985, again beating Roche. He also took three stage wins at the Vuelta a España, but suffered a frustrating spring classics season, taking a third place at Paris-Roubaix and fourth at Liège–Bastogne–Liège, but losing out on wins through poor tactical decisions, such as at Milan-San Remo where he and rival Eric Vanderaerden marked each other out of contention. He won the points classification for the third time and finished fourth in the 1985 Tour de France, where his rivalry with Vanderaerden boiled over at the finish of the sixth stage in Reims: the latter veered to prevent Kelly from coming past in the final sprint, leading Kelly to push Vanderarden, and the Belgian pulling the Irishman's jersey in response. The race saw him battle for the last step on the GC podium with Stephen Roche: although Roche finished the tour in third, the duo's performances saw interest in the race expanding gradually in the Irish press. Kelly won the first Nissan International Classic beating Van Der Poel. At the end of the season, he won the Giro di Lombardia.
He won Milan–San Remo in 1986 after winning Paris–Nice. In Milan-San Remo, Kelly was being marked closely by Vanderaerden in the closing stages of the race. Mario Beccia attacked on the race's final climb of the Poggio di San Remo and was followed by Greg LeMond. In order to shake Vanderaerden, Kelly feigned a mechanical problem before sprinting away to join the lead group, and drove hard on the front to prevent Niki Rüttimann, LeMond's team-mate, who had followed Kelly, from linking up with the front group: Kelly won the three-up sprint at the finish. He also took stage wins at the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, Critérium International and Three Days of De Panne. He finished second in the Tour of Flanders and won Paris–Roubaix again. According to his autobiography Hunger, Kelly gave his support to Van der Poel in the latter's bid to win Flanders in exchange for the Dutchman's help in the French cobbled classic. In Flanders, Kelly rode on the front of the leading four man group in the closing stages of the race, which also included Van der Poel, Jean-Philippe Vandenbrande and Steve Bauer: regarding the final sprint, Kelly wrote that "I started my sprint early, and I knew Van der Poel was probably in my wheel as well, but I certainly gave it 100 per cent". After Flanders, he flew to Spain to race the Tour of the Basque Country, which he won, before flying north to compete in Paris-Roubaix. Roles were reversed as Kelly followed Van der Poel in latching onto an attack from Ferdi Van Den Haute on a late cobbled secteur to form another four-man group along with Rudy Dhaenens. Van Den Haute attacked again a kilometre from the race finish - which was located away from Roubaix Velodrome for the first time since 1943 - and once again Van der Poel led Kelly out in the sprint, enabling the latter to cross the line first. To date, Kelly is one of only three riders to win the double of Milan-San Remo and Paris-Roubaix in the same year, along with Cyrille van Hauwaert in 1908 and John Degenkolb in 2015. Kelly was engaged in an intense racing schedule, even by contemporary standards, having competed 34 times from the beginning of the season to 1986. He later explained this as partly due to the influence of Jean de Gribaldy, who reasoned that he might as well race if he was going to have to train on his bike if he didn't compete, and because of new sponsor Kas, a Spanish soft drink manufacturer, who were primarily concerned with success in Spain, and uninterested in winning the classics, meaning Kelly had to compete in both types of races. He finished on a podium in a grand tour for the first time when he finished third in the 1986 Vuelta a España, winning two stages along the way. Kelly missed the 1986 Tour de France due to a serious crash in the last stage of Tour de Suisse. He returned to Ireland and won the Nissan Classic again. His second win in the Nissan came after a duel with Steve Bauer, who took the yellow jersey after Kelly crashed numerous times. Kelly went into the final stage three seconds behind Bauer and took the jersey when he finished third on the stage and won bonus seconds. Kelly took more than 30 victories in total across the 1986 season.
Kelly won Paris–Nice in 1987 on the last day after Roche, the leader, punctured. Later, leading the Vuelta a España with three days to go, he retired with an extremely painful saddle sore. His bad luck continued in the Tour de France, retiring after a crash tore ligaments in his shoulder. After the World Championship, in which he finished fifth behind Roche, Kelly returned to Ireland to win the Nissan for the third consecutive time.
Kelly won his seventh Paris–Nice in spring 1988, a record. He won Gent–Wevelgem several weeks later.
Grand Tour success
Kelly returned in April to the 1988 Vuelta a España which started on the rugged mountainous island of Tenerife where his team struggled in the second stage, losing the influential rider Thomas Wegmüller to dysentery and losing further time in the time-trial around Las Palmas. However, on the Spanish mainland, Kelly concentrated on winning sprint time bonuses, battling with sprinter Jorge Dominguez, the BH teammate of leader, Laudelino Cubino.
After regaining a minute in four days, the race reached the mountains where Kelly relied on help from Robert Millar of team Fagor-MBK to stay within two minutes of Cubino after the mountain trial to Alto Oviedo. He then finished fourth behind stage-winner Fabio Parra and Anselmo Fuerte on stage 13 to the ski-station at Cerler, cutting a minute and a half into Cubino's lead. From this stage, Fuerte had moved into second overall and later took the jersey from Cubino on the 16th stage to Albacete when the leader got caught on the wrong side of a split caused by cross-winds.
Kelly maintained the gap between himself and Fuerte and started the time trial on the second last day 21 seconds behind. Confident that he could overhaul the leader, he "put it in a big gear and gave it everything". He took the leader's amarillo jersey, beating Fuerte by almost two minutes. The following day Kelly won his only grand tour, over West German Raimund Dietzen and also won the points competition. After his Vuelta win Kelly returned to Carrick-on-Suir where a parade was held in his honour.
Twilight of his career
Kelly finished 46th in the Tour de France just over an hour behind Pedro Delgado. He was no longer a contender for overall victory after this and said he'd never win the Tour de France. Kelly finished third behind the German, Rolf Gölz, in the Nissan Classic that year
Kelly finished third in the sprint at the rainy world road championship of 1989 at Chambéry, France, behind Dimitri Konyshev and Greg Lemond. Lemond won his second rainbow jersey as world champion.
Kelly switched to the Dutch PDM team and stayed there three years until the end of 1991. The following year he won Liège–Bastogne–Liège, the points classification in the Tour de France, and the inaugural UCI Road World Cup championship.
Kelly won the Tour de Suisse in 1990. In March 1991, he broke a collarbone, then pulled out of the 1991 Tour de France and then while Kelly was competing the Tour of Galicia in August, his brother Joe was killed in a race near Carrick-on-Suir. He came back to win his fourth Nissan Classic by four seconds over Sean Yates and then went to and won the classic at the end of the season, the Giro di Lombardia.
Kelly won the Giro di Lombardia for a third time in 1991 but started 1992 regarded as past his prime. He moved to Festina and prepared for Milan–San Remo. Race favourite Moreno Argentin attacked from the leading group on the final climb, the Poggio. He broke clear after several attempts and reached the top eight seconds before the rest. It seemed he was on his way to a solo victory as the peloton descended the Poggio, where Maurizio Fondriest led, marked by Argentin's teammate Rolf Sørensen. Kelly was behind these two in third position. Kelly attacked with three kilometres of descending left. Sorensen could not hold his acceleration and Kelly got away. He caught Argentin with a kilometre to go. Both stalled, the chasers closing fast, Argentin gesturing to Kelly to take the front. Kelly stayed on Argentin's wheel. The two moved again, preparing for a sprint; Kelly launched himself and in the final 200m came past Argentin to win his final classic.
In 1992, Kelly travelled to Colombia for the Clásico RCN, where he won the second stage. His PDM teammate, Martin Earley, pushed him into second place at the 1993 Irish road championship.
Kelly's last year as a professional was 1994, when he rode for Catavana. He returned to Carrick-on-Suir at the end of the season to ride the annual Hamper race. That was Kelly's last race as a professional. Eddy Merckx, Laurent Fignon, Bernard Hinault, Roger De Vlaeminck, Claude Criquielion, Stephen Roche, Martin Earley, Acacio Da Silva and Paul Kimmage were among 1,200 cyclists present. The President of Ireland, Mary Robinson, attended a civic presentation to Kelly the day before the race. Kelly won in a sprint against Roche. Kelly won this race again six years later.
Legacy and riding style
Kelly's career is remarkable in that it spanned the eras of several legends of the Tour de France, from Eddy Merckx through to Miguel Indurain. His first Tour was also the first for Bernard Hinault and the two battled in the sprint of stage 15. Greg LeMond and Laurent Fignon emerged in the early eighties and challenged Kelly in the classics as well as in the Tour, and Kelly witnessed the rise of Miguel Indurain and the early career of Lance Armstrong. Kelly's career coincided with Stephen Roche as well as classics specialists including Francesco Moser, Claude Criquielion, Moreno Argentin and Eric Vanderaerden. Evidence of Kelly's dominance can be seen from his three victories in the season-long Super Prestige Pernod International competition (predecessor to the World Cup). Kelly competed throughout the season, from Paris–Nice in March to the Giro di Lombardia in October, winning both in 1983 and 1985.
Robin Magowan said:
"It is customary to talk of Kelly as quintessentially an Irish rider. For my part, though, I think it helps to place Kelly better as a cyclist to see him as the last of the Flemish riders. This is usually a title associated with the post-war rider, Briek Schotte who has become appropriately enough the man in day-to-day charge of the de Gribaldy teams. As exemplified by Schotte it stood for a certain type of mentality, willing to suffer, narrowly focussed, and hard, hard, hard. Kelly had all this in him from his Irish small-farm background: the outside loo; the dogs that have to be chained before you can step from your car; the one career possible, as a bricklayer on a construction site, stretching away and away into the grey mists. On the positive side, along with the self-reliance, came a physical strength that even by peasant standards is impressive. In a profession of iron wills, there is no one harder."
While some sprinters remain sheltered in the peloton until the final few hundred metres, Kelly could instigate breaks and climb well, proving this by winning the Vuelta a España in 1988, as well as winning a stage of Paris-Nice on the climb of Mont Ventoux. His victories in Paris–Roubaix (1984, 1986) showed his ability in poor weather and on pavé sections, while he could stay with the climbing specialists in the mountains in the Tour de France. He was also a formidable descender, clocking a career top race speed of 124 km/h, while descending from Col de Joux Plane to Morzine on stage 19 of the Tour in 1984. He finished fourth in the Tour in 1985 and won the points classification in 1982, 1983, 1985, and 1989, the first to win four times, a feat he repeated in the Vuelta a España. Kelly won five stages in the Tour de France and 16 in the Vuelta a España.
Doping
Kelly failed drug tests twice during his career. After the 1984 edition of Paris–Brussels, in which he had finished third, cycling authorities stated that a urine sample supplied by Kelly had tested positive for pemoline (Stimul), a result which was repeated with the testing of a B sample. The Royal Belgian Cycling League sentenced Kelly to a three-month suspended ban and a fine. Kelly denied taking any banned substances: in an interview at the time with David Walsh, he claimed that there were "irregularities at the testing centre that day ... the medical control at Paris-Brussels was very badly organised and lots of people were in the room who had no right to be there ... in all this confusion something must have gone wrong". In his autobiography Hunger, Kelly stated that Irish Cycling Federation official Karl McCarthy, who acted as a witness on Kelly's behalf at the second test as he was unable to attend due to racing commitments, told him that the B sample was "tiny" and below the amount required for the test. In his book Breaking the Chain, Kelly's former soigneur Willy Voet claimed that Kelly had been ill with bronchitis in the week before the race and had taken ephedrine to treat it: to avoid a positive test, Voet wrote that Kelly had carried a container in his shorts filled with urine supplied by one of the team's mechanics to doping control, and that the Stimul detected in the sample had been taken by the mechanic to help him stay awake while driving the team's truck.
Kelly's second positive test occurred at the 1988 Tour of the Basque Country, where he tested positive for codeine. Having finished third in the overall classification, he received a ten-minute penalty that dropped him down the order. Kelly explained this as being the result of a worsening cough he had developed during the race: he said that between the end of the final stage and attending doping control he took a swig from a bottle of cough medicine, to which he attributed the presence of codeine in his urine sample.
Post-cycling career
Kelly is a commentator for the English-language services of Eurosport and has established and is involved in the Sean Kelly Cycling Academy in Belgium. In 2006 he launched Ireland's first professional team, the Sean Kelly Team, composed of young Irish and Belgian riders based at the Sean Kelly Cycling Academy in Merchtem, Belgium. He has a cycling clothing company which supplies clubs and companies, and which also organises corporate cycling events in Ireland and throughout Europe. He rides long-distance charity cycling tours with Blazing Saddles, a charity raising money for the blind and partially sighted. Such tours have included a journey across America by bike in 2000. He also participates in charity cycling endurance events in Scotland (notably with the Braveheart Cycling Fund), England, France and Ireland. Sean Kelly regularly cycles with SportActive cycling holidays in Mallorca.
The inaugural Sean Kelly Tour of Waterford was held on 19 August 2007.
Kelly was one of the 910 participants. The second was on 24 August 2008. Kelly was one of the 2,048. The 2009 tour went ahead on 30 August 2009. It attracted over 3,400 participants. On 29 August 2010, 3708 cyclists took part in the Tour. In 2011 the attendance ballooned to over 8,000 over the two days and events. This ran annually until 2017. In 2018, the organisers of The Sean Kelly Tour of Waterford completed a review and decided not to run the event and to look at other cycling initiatives in and around Waterford.
In November 2013, at Dublin City University, Sean Kelly was awarded with an Honorary Doctorate in Philosophy in recognition of his
contribution to Irish sport.
Personality
Fellow pupils at Kelly's school [see above] felt Kelly fell silent because he felt intellectually outclassed. The lack of words continued even after Kelly had proved himself one of the best racing cyclists of his era. The writer Robin Magowan said:
"On the bench, swivelling his body away as you approach, chary of words when not downright hostile, Sean Kelly remains for a journalist the hardest of the great riders to fathom. In an age when most of his brethren rate themselves, and are paid, according to the amount of publicity inches they have gleaned in a season, this farmer's son ... remains very much the exception, closed, withdrawn, and extremely suspicious. Yet one has only to look at him joking with Stephen Roche, or know the respect with which he is held by the peloton, to see that he gets along very well without us."
Coverage
Kelly is the subject of several books, including a biography Kelly in 1986 and A Man For All Seasons by David Walsh in 1991.
Sean Kelly published his autobiography Hunger in 2013.
Career achievements
Major results
1972
1st Road race, National Junior Road Championships
1973
1st Road race, National Junior Road Championships
1975
Tour of Ireland
1st Mountains classification
1st Stages 5, 6 & 7
1st Stage 7 Milk Race
1976
1st Overall Cinturón a Mallorca
1st Piccolo Giro di Lombardia
1st Stage 6 Milk Race
1977
1st Stage 1 Tour de Romandie
1st Stage 4 Étoile des Espoirs
1978
1st Stage 6 Tour de France
Setmana Catalana de Ciclismo
1st Stage 1a (TTT) & 1b
1st Stage 3 Tour Méditerranéen
1st Stage 5a Étoile des Espoirs
1979
Vuelta a España
1st Stages 1 & 8a
1st GP de Cannes
9th Road race, UCI Road World Championships
10th Omloop Het Volk
1980
1st Overall Three Days of De Panne
1st Stage 2
Tour de France
1st Stages 19 & 21
1st Stage 3a Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré
1st Stage 4 Ronde van Nederland
2nd E3 Prijs Vlaanderen
2nd De Brabantse Pijl
2nd Tour du Haut Var
3rd Amstel Gold Race
3rd Omloop Het Volk
3rd Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne
4th Overall Vuelta a España
1st Points classification
1st Sprints classification
1st Stages 1, 2, 14, 17 19 & 21
4th Milan–San Remo
1981
1st Stage 15 Tour de France
1st Stage 2 Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré
1st Stage 5a Ronde van Nederland
1st Stage 3 Tour of Belgium
1st Stage 1 Tour of Luxembourg
2nd Overall Four Days of Dunkirk
1st Stage 2
4th La Flèche Wallonne
5th Rund um den Henninger Turm
6th Amstel Gold Race
7th De Brabantse Pijl
8th Tour of Flanders
9th Züri–Metzgete
1982
1st Overall Paris–Nice
1st Stages 3, 5, 7a & 7b (ITT)
Etoile des Espoirs
1st Stages 1, 2 & 3
Tour de l'Aude
1st Stages 1 & 2
1st Tour du Haut Var
1st Stage 2 Grand Prix du Midi Libre
1st Stage 3 Critérium International
Tour de France
1st Points classification
1st Intermediate Sprints classification
1st Stage 12
3rd Road race, UCI Road World Championships
3rd Omloop Het Volk
3rd Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne
3rd Rund um den Henninger Turm
4th Amstel Gold Race
6th GP Ouest–France
8th La Flèche Wallonne
10th Liège–Bastogne–Liège
1983
1st Overall Paris–Nice
1st Stages 3a, 4 & 7b (ITT)
1st Overall Tour de Suisse
1st Points classification
1st Stages 3 & 5b (ITT)
1st Overall Critérium International
1st Stage 3
1st Giro di Lombardia
1st Grand Prix d'Isbergues
1st Stage 4 Etoile des Espoirs
1st Stage 2 Paris–Bourges
2nd Overall Super Prestige Pernod International
2nd Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne
2nd Giro del Piemonte
5th Milan–San Remo
6th Trofeo Baracchi
7th Overall Tour de France
1st Points classification
1st Intermediate Sprints classification
8th Road race, UCI Road World Championships
1984
1st Overall Paris–Nice
1st Stages 2 & 7b (ITT)
1st Overall Volta a Catalunya
1st Points classification
1st Mountains classification
1st Stages 1, 4a, 4b & 7a (ITT)
1st Overall Tour of the Basque Country
1st Stages 1, 3 & 5b (ITT)
1st Overall Critérium International
1st Stages 1, 2 & 3 (ITT)
1st Overall Super Prestige Pernod International
1st Paris–Roubaix
1st Liège–Bastogne–Liège
1st Paris–Tours
1st GP Ouest–France
1st Critérium des As
1st Paris–Bourges
2nd Tour of Flanders
2nd Milan–San Remo
2nd Grand Prix des Nations
3rd Rund um den Henninger Turm
4th Overall Tour de Suisse
1st Points classification
1st Stage 1
4th Overall Tour du Limousin
1st Stages 1b, 2 & 4
5th Overall Tour de France
1985
1st Overall Paris–Nice
1st Overall Nissan Classic
1st Stages 1 & 3a (ITT)
Tour of the Basque Country
1st Stages 3 & 5b (ITT)
1st Overall Super Prestige Pernod International
1st Giro di Lombardia
1st Critérium des As
1st Stage 3 Ronde van Nederland
2nd Overall Volta a Catalunya
1st Stage 2
2nd Overall Three Days of De Panne
3rd Overall Critérium International
1st Stage 1
3rd Overall Vuelta Ciclista a la Communidad Valenciana
1st Stage 5
3rd Paris–Roubaix
4th Overall Tour de France
1st Points classification
4th Overall Tour de Suisse
4th Liège–Bastogne–Liège
6th Overall Tour of the Basque Country
7th Milan–San Remo
7th Gent–Wevelgem
9th Overall Vuelta a España
1st Points classification
1st Stages 2, 10 & 15
1986
1st Overall Paris–Nice
1st Prologue, Stages 3 & 7b (ITT)
1st Overall Volta a Catalunya
1st Points classification
1st Stage 7 (ITT)
1st Overall Tour of the Basque Country
1st Stages 3, 5a & 5b
1st Overall Nissan Classic
Vuelta Ciclista a la Communidad Valenciana
1st Stages 1 & 3
1st Overall Super Prestige Pernod International
1st Milan–San Remo
1st Paris–Roubaix
1st Grand Prix des Nations
1st Critérium des As
1st Stage 4a Vuelta a Aragón
1st Stage 4 Tour du Limousin
2nd Overall Critérium International
1st Stages 1 & 3 (ITT)
2nd Overall Three Days of De Panne
1st Stage 1b (ITT)
2nd Overall Paris–Bourges
1st Stage 2
2nd Tour of Flanders
2nd Giro di Lombardia
2nd GP Ouest–France
2nd Brussels Cycling Classic
3rd Overall Vuelta a España
1st Points classification
1st Combination classification
1st Stages 10 & 13
5th La Flèche Wallonne
5th Road race, UCI Road World Championships
6th Paris–Tours
1987
1st Overall Paris–Nice
1st Stage 3
1st Overall Tour of the Basque Country
1st Points classification
1st Mountains classification
1st Stages 4 & 5b (ITT)
1st Overall Critérium International
1st Stages 2 & 3 (ITT)
1st Overall Nissan Classic
Vuelta a España
1st Stages 1 & 3
Held after Stages 1–4
1st Stage 7 Vuelta Ciclista a la Communidad Valenciana
2nd Overall Three Days of De Panne
1st Stage 1b (ITT)
2nd Overall Super Prestige Pernod International
2nd Tour of Flanders
3rd Dwars door België
4th Milan–San Remo
4th Brussels Cycling Classic
4th Grand Prix des Nations
5th Overall Volta a Catalunya
1st Points classification
1st Prologue & Stage 1
5th Road race, UCI Road World Championships
10th GP Ouest–France
1988
1st Overall Vuelta a España
1st Points classification
1st Combination classification
1st Stages 10 & 19 (ITT)
1st Overall Paris–Nice
1st Stage 6b (ITT)
1st Overall Setmana Catalana de Ciclisme
1st Points classification
1st Stage 4b (ITT)
Tour du Limousin
1st Stages 2b & 3
1st Gent–Wevelgem
1st Stage 4 Tour of the Basque Country
2nd Tour du Haut Var
2nd Grand Prix de Fourmies
3rd Overall Kellogg's Tour
3rd Paris–Tours
4th Tour of Flanders
5th Milan–San Remo
5th Liège–Bastogne–Liège
7th Omloop Het Volk
1989
1st UCI Road World Cup
1st Liège–Bastogne–Liège
1st Stage 4 Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré
1st Mountains classification Nissan Classic
2nd Omloop Het Volk
3rd Road race, UCI Road World Championships
3rd Wincanton Classic
3rd Trofeo Baracchi
5th Milan–San Remo
7th Overall Tirreno–Adriatico
7th Paris–Tours
9th Overall Tour de France
1st Points classification
1st Intermediate sprints classification
1990
1st Overall Tour de Suisse
1st Stage 4 (ITT)
3rd UCI Road World Cup
3rd Clásica de San Sebastián
5th Road race, UCI Road World Championships
6th Overall Tirreno–Adriatico
8th Overall Critérium International
8th Paris–Tours
8th Trofeo Luis Puig
9th Overall Volta a Catalunya
10th Giro di Lombardia
1991
1st Overall Nissan Classic
1st Giro di Lombardia
4th Milano–Torino
4th Trofeo Luis Puig
1992
1st Milan–San Remo
1st Trofeo Luis Puig
1st Stage 7 Tour de Suisse
1st Stage 4 Vuelta Ciclista a la Communidad Valenciana
1st Stage 2 Clásico RCN
4th Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne
1993
2nd Road race, National Road Championships
4th Paris–Tours
1994
10th Overall Route du Sud
General classification results timeline
Classics results timeline
Footnotes
External links
1956 births
Living people
Sportspeople from County Waterford
Irish male cyclists
Irish Tour de France stage winners
Irish expatriate sportspeople in Belgium
Sports commentators
Vuelta a España winners
Irish Vuelta a España stage winners
Cycling announcers
Tour de Suisse stage winners
RTÉ Sports Person of the Year winners
Super Prestige Pernod winners
UCI Road World Rankings winners
UCI Road World Cup winners | false | [
"José Recio Ariza (born January 24, 1957 in Fernán Núñez) is a Spanish former professional road racing cyclist. He won five stages at Vuelta a España and several Spanish stage races like Volta a Catalunya, Setmana Catalana de Ciclisme and Vuelta a Burgos.\n\nRecio turned professional in 1980, and started in the Vuelta a Espana. This was not a success; he dropped out soon, stopped riding, and became a bricklayer for one year. In 1982, he returned as a professional rider, started the Vuelta again, and won a stage. 1983 also was good, as he won the Volta a Catalunya. In 1984, he was one of the leaders of his team in the Vuelta a Espana, and won a stage, finishing in the top ten overall.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\nLiving people\nSpanish male cyclists\n1957 births\nSpanish Vuelta a España stage winners\nDoping cases in cycling\nPeople from the Province of Córdoba (Spain)",
"Vitalicio Seguros () was a Spanish professional road bicycle racing cycling team active between 1998 and 2000. It helped launch the careers of triple world champion Óscar Freire, 2001 Vuelta a España winner Ángel Casero and Tour de France yellow jersey wearer Igor González de Galdeano.\n\nThe team was started by manager in 1998 with funding from Assicurazioni Generali, who wished to promote their Catalan brand and made a three-year commitment.\n\nMajor wins\n1998\n Stage 3 Vuelta a Aragon, Serguei Smetanine\n Stages 1 & 2 Vuelta Ciclista a La Rioja, Serguei Smetanine\n Stage 3 Vuelta Ciclista a La Rioja, Juan Carlos Dominguez\n Stage 4 Vuelta Asturias, Santiago Blanco\n Road Race Championships, Angel Luis Casero\n Stage 1 Vuelta a Castilla y Leon, Oscar Freire\n Overall Volta Ciclista a Catalunya, Hernan Buenahora\n Stages 6 & 7\n Stage 1 Tour of Galicia, Serguei Smetanine\n Stages 13, 15 & 20 Vuelta a Espana, Andrei Zintchenko\n Trofeo Manacor, Elio Aggiano\n1999\n Stage 5 Tirreno-Adriatico, Igor Gonzalez De Galdeano\n Overall Vuelta a Aragon, Juan Carlos Dominguez\n Stage 3\n Overall Vuelta Ciclista a La Rioja, Juan Carlos Dominguez\n Stage 1, Serguei Smetanine\n Stage 3, Juan Carlos Dominguez\n Overall Vuelta Asturias\n Stage 1, Álvaro González\n Road Race Championships, Angel Luis Casero\n Prologue & Stage 3 Volta Ciclista a Catalunya, Angel Luis Casero\n Stage 3 Vuelta a Castilla y Leon, Elio Aggiano\n Stage 3 Vuelta a Burgos, Serguei Smetanine\n Prologue & Stage 12 Vuelta a Espana, Igor Gonzalez De Galdeano\n Subida al Naranco, Santiago Blanco\n Overall Escalada a Montjuich, Andrei Zintchenko\n Stage 1a\n World Road Race championships, Oscar Freire\n2000\n Stage 4 Vuelta a Andalucia Ruta Ciclista Del Sol, Santiago Blanco\n Overall Vuelta Ciclista a la Rioja, Miguel Angel Martin Perdiguero\n Stage 4 \n Prologue Giro d'Italia, Jan Hruska\n Stage 11 Giro d'Italia, Victor Hugo Peña\n Stage 17 Giro d'Italia, Álvaro González\n Stage 20 Giro d'Italia, Jan Hruska\n Road Race Championships, Álvaro González de Galdeano\n Stage 9 Volta a Portugal, Pedro Horrillo\n Stage 5 Tour of Galicia, Ivan Ramiro Parra\n Stage 14 Vuelta a Espana, Álvaro González\n\nDefunct cycling teams based in Spain\nCycling teams established in 1998\nCycling teams disestablished in 2000"
]
|
[
"Sean Kelly (cyclist)",
"Grand Tour success",
"What were their successes?",
"1988 Vuelta a Espana",
"What was Vuelta a Espana?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_4d76750d2ad749f795c41f586247ee31_0 | What else did the achieve? | 3 | What else did Sean Kelly achieve other than the Vuelta a Espana? | Sean Kelly (cyclist) | Kelly returned in April to the 1988 Vuelta a Espana which started on the rugged mountainous island of Tenerife where his team struggled in the second stage, losing the influential rider Thomas Wegmuller to dysentery and losing further time in the time-trial around Las Palmas. However, on the Spanish mainland, Kelly concentrated on winning sprint time bonuses, battling with sprinter Jorge Dominguez, the BH teammate of leader, Laudelino Cubino. After regaining a minute in four days, the race reached the mountains where Kelly relied on help from Robert Millar of team Fagor-MBK to stay within two minutes of Cubino after the mountain trial to Alto Oviedo. He then finished fourth behind stage-winner Fabio Parra and Anselmo Fuerte on stage 13 to the ski-station at Cerler, cutting a minute and a half into Cubino's lead. From this stage, Fuerte had moved into second overall and later took the jersey from Cubino on the 16th stage to Albacete when the leader got caught on the wrong side of a split caused by cross-winds. Kelly maintained the gap between himself and Fuerte and started the time trial on the second last day 21 seconds behind. Confident that he could overhaul the leader, he "put it in a big gear and gave it everything". He took the leader's amarillo jersey, beating Fuerte by almost two minutes. The following day Kelly won his only grand tour, over West German Raimund Dietzen and also won the points competition. After his Vuelta win Kelly returned to Carrick-on-Suir where a parade was held in his honour. CANNOTANSWER | Kelly won his only grand tour, over West German Raimund Dietzen | John James 'Sean' Kelly (born 24 May 1956) is an Irish former professional road bicycle racer, one of the most successful road cyclists of the 1980s, and one of the finest classics riders of all time. From turning professional in 1977 until his retirement in 1994, he won nine monument classics, and 193 professional races in total. He won Paris–Nice seven years in a row and the first UCI Road World Cup in 1989. He won one Grand Tour, the 1988 Vuelta a España, won 4 green jerseys in the Tour de France and had multiple wins in the Giro di Lombardia, Milan–San Remo, Paris–Roubaix and Liège–Bastogne–Liège, as well as three runners-up placings in the only 'Monument' he failed to win, the Tour of Flanders. Other victories include the Critérium International, Grand Prix des Nations and shorter stage races including the Tour de Suisse, Tour of the Basque Country and Volta a Catalunya.
Kelly twice won bronze medals (1982, 1989) in the World Road Race Championships and finished 5th in 1987, the year compatriot Stephen Roche won gold. Kelly was first to be ranked No.1 when the FICP rankings were introduced in March 1984, a position he held for a record five years. By total career ranking points, Kelly is the second best cyclist of all time after Eddy Merckx. In the 1984 season, Kelly achieved 33 victories.
Early life and amateur career
Kelly is the second son of Jack (John) and Nellie Kelly, a farming family in Curraghduff in County Waterford. He was born at Belleville Maternity Home in Waterford city on 21 May 1956. He was named John James Kelly after his father and then, to avoid confusion at home, referred to as Sean. Seán is the Irish form of John.
For eight years he attended Crehana National School, County Waterford to which he travelled with his older brother, Joe. Fellow pupils recall a boy who retreated into silence because, they thought, he felt intellectually outclassed. His education ended at 13 when he left school to help on the farm after his father went to hospital in Waterford with an ulcer. At 16 he began work as a bricklayer.
Kelly began cycling after his brother had started riding to school in September 1969. Joe rode and won local races and on 4 August 1970 Sean rode his own first race, at Kennedy Terrace in Carrickbeg, County Waterford, part of Carrick-on-Suir. The race was an eight-mile (13 km) handicap, which meant the weaker riders started first and the best last. Kelly set off three minutes before the backmarkers. He was still three minutes ahead when the course turned for home after four miles (6 km) and more than three minutes in the lead when he crossed the line. At 16 he won the national junior championship at Banbridge, County Down.
Kelly won the national championship again in 1973, then took a senior licence before the normal qualifying age of 18 and won the Shay Elliot Memorial race in 1974 and again in 1975 and stages in the Tour of Ireland of 1975.
Kelly and two other Irish riders, Pat and Kieron McQuaid, went to South Africa to ride the Rapport Tour stage-race in preparation for the 1976 Olympic Games. They and others rode under false names because of an international ban on athletes competing in South Africa, as a protest against apartheid. The three Irish were suspended from racing for six months. They were racing again when the International Olympic Committee banned them from the Olympics for life.
Unable to ride in Canada, Kelly rode the 1976 Tour of Britain and then went to Metz, in France, after a London enthusiast, Johnny Morris, had arranged an invitation. Velo Club de Metz offered him £25 a week, free accommodation and four francs a kilometre for every race he won. Kelly won 18 of the 25 races he started in France and won the amateur Giro di Lombardia in Italy.
The win in Italy impressed two French team managers, Jean de Gribaldy and Cyrille Guimard. De Gribaldy went to Ireland unannounced to discuss a contract with the Flandria professional team. He did not know where Kelly lived and was not sure he would recognise him, so he took with him another cyclist, to point out Kelly, and translate. Kelly was out driving a tractor and de Gribaldy set out again in the taxi that had brought him from Dublin, hoping to find Kelly as he drove home. They found him and went to Kelly's stepbrother's house. De Gribaldy offered £4,000 a year plus bonuses, and a week later Kelly asked for £6,000, and got it. He signed for de Gribaldy, with misgivings about going back on his promise to return to VC de Metz; the club had offered him better terms than before.
Kelly left for France in January 1977 and lived for two years at 18 place de la Révolution in Besançon, de Gribaldy's home town. He shared with four teammates.
Professional career
Early years
Kelly's first professional race was the Étoile de Bessèges. It started on 7 February 1977 and lasted six days. Kelly came 10th on the first day. The Flandria team was in two parts: the strongest riders, such as the world champion Freddy Maertens, were in the main section, based in Belgium. Kelly rode with the second section, based more in France because Flandria wanted to sell more of its mopeds, scooters and bicycles there. The strongest riders in both camps came together for big races. Kelly was recruited as a domestique for Maertens in the main team for year's Paris–Nice – shortly afterwards he won his first race, the opening stage of the Tour de Romandie. In 1978, he started in the Tour de France, in which he also won a stage.
Kelly stayed with de Gribaldy for 1977 and 1978. Then in 1978 Michel Pollentier was disqualified from the Tour de France after cheating a drugs test on the afternoon that he took the race lead. He left the team at the end of the season and started his own, with a new backer, Splendor. Both Maertens and Pollentier wanted Kelly. Pollentier and Splendor offered Kelly more and made him a team leader. But Splendor was new and logistic problems became obvious. The bikes were in poor state – enough that Splendor decided not to ride Paris–Roubaix – and the manager, Robert Lauwers, was replaced. Kelly rose above it and rode for himself. The writer Robin Magowan said: Some people can do business on the committee system; others find that life is only fun when you are running the show. In Kelly's case it was to mean working for the collection of underpaid has-beens that de Gribaldy habitually assembled. But a smaller, less pretentious team can have its advantages for a rider of Kelly's sort. When you don't have to compete for a team's loyalty you can concentrate on winning races, and that's exactly what Kelly proceeded to do.
In time the team improved. Kelly received few offers from elsewhere and Splendor matched those he did get. He was paid about £30,000 plus bonuses in his last season with Splendor. But strengthening the team had included bringing in another sprinter, Eddy Planckaert, and Kelly's role as a foreigner in the team was unclear. He heard that de Gribaldy was starting a new team and the two were reunited in 1982 at Sem-France Loire.
Stage successes
By now Kelly had a reputation as a sprinter who could not win stage races, although he did finish fourth in the 1980 Vuelta a España. De Gribaldy employed him as unambiguous team leader, someone he believed could win stage races and not just stages. To this end, de Gribaldy encouraged Kelly to lose weight, convincing the latter that he could target the overall win at Paris–Nice: Kelly won the "Race to the Sun" and four of its stages. On the last of those, a time-trial to the col d'Eze, he beat Gilbert Duclos-Lassalle and pushed him out of the lead. Years later Kelly admitted that his countryman Roche's emergence during his neo-pro season in 1981, during which he had also won Paris-Nice, was one of the factors which motivated him to adjust his focus to becoming more of an all-round rider. However, the spring classics season proved a disappointment, with Kelly's best result being a 12th place in Paris–Roubaix after suffering multiple punctures. Despite that, that season he went on to win another of objectives set by de Gribaldy: the points classification of the Tour de France, where he took five second places on flat stages before winning a reduced bunch sprint in Pau after climbing the Col d'Aubisque. His points total was nearly three times that of the points classification runner-up, the yellow jersey winner Bernard Hinault. He finished third in the world championship in England - the first worlds medal for an Irish rider since Shay Elliott's silver in 1962 - and at the end of the year married his girlfriend, Linda Grant, the daughter of a local cycling club official. Carrick-on-Suir named the town square "the Sean Kelly Square" in tribute to his achievements in the 1982 Tour de France and his bronze medal at the championship The following year Kelly again won Paris–Nice and then the Critérium International and the Tour de Suisse as well as the points classification in the Tour de France the second time in a row.
Kelly confirmed his potential in autumn 1983. A leading group of 18 entered Como in the Giro di Lombardia after a battle over the Intelvi and Schignano passes. Kelly won the sprint by the narrowest margin, less than half a wheel separating the first four, against cycling greats including Francesco Moser, Adri van der Poel, Hennie Kuiper and world champion Greg LeMond.
Kelly dominated the following spring. He won Paris–Nice for the third successive time beating Roche as well as the Tour de France winner, Bernard Hinault who was returning after a knee injury. Kelly finished second in Milan–San Remo and the Tour of Flanders, but was unbeatable in Paris–Roubaix and Liège–Bastogne–Liège. The day after Paris–Roubaix, the French daily sports paper, L'Équipe, pictured Kelly cycling the cobbles with mud on his face and had the heading Insatiable Kelly! referring to his appetite for winning that spring He won all three stages in the Critérium International: the bunch sprint on stage 1, a solo victory in the mountain stage and beating Roche in the final time trial. Kelly achieved 33 victories in 1984. He was becoming a contender in the grand tours, as seen by finishing fifth in the Tour de France. This may have caused him to lose his grip on the points classification in that year's Tour. Kelly was wearing it as the Tour was finishing on the Champs-Élysées but lost it in the bunch finish to the Belgian, Frank Hoste, who finished ahead of Kelly gaining points to take the jersey off Kelly's shoulders.
He won Paris–Nice in 1985, again beating Roche. He also took three stage wins at the Vuelta a España, but suffered a frustrating spring classics season, taking a third place at Paris-Roubaix and fourth at Liège–Bastogne–Liège, but losing out on wins through poor tactical decisions, such as at Milan-San Remo where he and rival Eric Vanderaerden marked each other out of contention. He won the points classification for the third time and finished fourth in the 1985 Tour de France, where his rivalry with Vanderaerden boiled over at the finish of the sixth stage in Reims: the latter veered to prevent Kelly from coming past in the final sprint, leading Kelly to push Vanderarden, and the Belgian pulling the Irishman's jersey in response. The race saw him battle for the last step on the GC podium with Stephen Roche: although Roche finished the tour in third, the duo's performances saw interest in the race expanding gradually in the Irish press. Kelly won the first Nissan International Classic beating Van Der Poel. At the end of the season, he won the Giro di Lombardia.
He won Milan–San Remo in 1986 after winning Paris–Nice. In Milan-San Remo, Kelly was being marked closely by Vanderaerden in the closing stages of the race. Mario Beccia attacked on the race's final climb of the Poggio di San Remo and was followed by Greg LeMond. In order to shake Vanderaerden, Kelly feigned a mechanical problem before sprinting away to join the lead group, and drove hard on the front to prevent Niki Rüttimann, LeMond's team-mate, who had followed Kelly, from linking up with the front group: Kelly won the three-up sprint at the finish. He also took stage wins at the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, Critérium International and Three Days of De Panne. He finished second in the Tour of Flanders and won Paris–Roubaix again. According to his autobiography Hunger, Kelly gave his support to Van der Poel in the latter's bid to win Flanders in exchange for the Dutchman's help in the French cobbled classic. In Flanders, Kelly rode on the front of the leading four man group in the closing stages of the race, which also included Van der Poel, Jean-Philippe Vandenbrande and Steve Bauer: regarding the final sprint, Kelly wrote that "I started my sprint early, and I knew Van der Poel was probably in my wheel as well, but I certainly gave it 100 per cent". After Flanders, he flew to Spain to race the Tour of the Basque Country, which he won, before flying north to compete in Paris-Roubaix. Roles were reversed as Kelly followed Van der Poel in latching onto an attack from Ferdi Van Den Haute on a late cobbled secteur to form another four-man group along with Rudy Dhaenens. Van Den Haute attacked again a kilometre from the race finish - which was located away from Roubaix Velodrome for the first time since 1943 - and once again Van der Poel led Kelly out in the sprint, enabling the latter to cross the line first. To date, Kelly is one of only three riders to win the double of Milan-San Remo and Paris-Roubaix in the same year, along with Cyrille van Hauwaert in 1908 and John Degenkolb in 2015. Kelly was engaged in an intense racing schedule, even by contemporary standards, having competed 34 times from the beginning of the season to 1986. He later explained this as partly due to the influence of Jean de Gribaldy, who reasoned that he might as well race if he was going to have to train on his bike if he didn't compete, and because of new sponsor Kas, a Spanish soft drink manufacturer, who were primarily concerned with success in Spain, and uninterested in winning the classics, meaning Kelly had to compete in both types of races. He finished on a podium in a grand tour for the first time when he finished third in the 1986 Vuelta a España, winning two stages along the way. Kelly missed the 1986 Tour de France due to a serious crash in the last stage of Tour de Suisse. He returned to Ireland and won the Nissan Classic again. His second win in the Nissan came after a duel with Steve Bauer, who took the yellow jersey after Kelly crashed numerous times. Kelly went into the final stage three seconds behind Bauer and took the jersey when he finished third on the stage and won bonus seconds. Kelly took more than 30 victories in total across the 1986 season.
Kelly won Paris–Nice in 1987 on the last day after Roche, the leader, punctured. Later, leading the Vuelta a España with three days to go, he retired with an extremely painful saddle sore. His bad luck continued in the Tour de France, retiring after a crash tore ligaments in his shoulder. After the World Championship, in which he finished fifth behind Roche, Kelly returned to Ireland to win the Nissan for the third consecutive time.
Kelly won his seventh Paris–Nice in spring 1988, a record. He won Gent–Wevelgem several weeks later.
Grand Tour success
Kelly returned in April to the 1988 Vuelta a España which started on the rugged mountainous island of Tenerife where his team struggled in the second stage, losing the influential rider Thomas Wegmüller to dysentery and losing further time in the time-trial around Las Palmas. However, on the Spanish mainland, Kelly concentrated on winning sprint time bonuses, battling with sprinter Jorge Dominguez, the BH teammate of leader, Laudelino Cubino.
After regaining a minute in four days, the race reached the mountains where Kelly relied on help from Robert Millar of team Fagor-MBK to stay within two minutes of Cubino after the mountain trial to Alto Oviedo. He then finished fourth behind stage-winner Fabio Parra and Anselmo Fuerte on stage 13 to the ski-station at Cerler, cutting a minute and a half into Cubino's lead. From this stage, Fuerte had moved into second overall and later took the jersey from Cubino on the 16th stage to Albacete when the leader got caught on the wrong side of a split caused by cross-winds.
Kelly maintained the gap between himself and Fuerte and started the time trial on the second last day 21 seconds behind. Confident that he could overhaul the leader, he "put it in a big gear and gave it everything". He took the leader's amarillo jersey, beating Fuerte by almost two minutes. The following day Kelly won his only grand tour, over West German Raimund Dietzen and also won the points competition. After his Vuelta win Kelly returned to Carrick-on-Suir where a parade was held in his honour.
Twilight of his career
Kelly finished 46th in the Tour de France just over an hour behind Pedro Delgado. He was no longer a contender for overall victory after this and said he'd never win the Tour de France. Kelly finished third behind the German, Rolf Gölz, in the Nissan Classic that year
Kelly finished third in the sprint at the rainy world road championship of 1989 at Chambéry, France, behind Dimitri Konyshev and Greg Lemond. Lemond won his second rainbow jersey as world champion.
Kelly switched to the Dutch PDM team and stayed there three years until the end of 1991. The following year he won Liège–Bastogne–Liège, the points classification in the Tour de France, and the inaugural UCI Road World Cup championship.
Kelly won the Tour de Suisse in 1990. In March 1991, he broke a collarbone, then pulled out of the 1991 Tour de France and then while Kelly was competing the Tour of Galicia in August, his brother Joe was killed in a race near Carrick-on-Suir. He came back to win his fourth Nissan Classic by four seconds over Sean Yates and then went to and won the classic at the end of the season, the Giro di Lombardia.
Kelly won the Giro di Lombardia for a third time in 1991 but started 1992 regarded as past his prime. He moved to Festina and prepared for Milan–San Remo. Race favourite Moreno Argentin attacked from the leading group on the final climb, the Poggio. He broke clear after several attempts and reached the top eight seconds before the rest. It seemed he was on his way to a solo victory as the peloton descended the Poggio, where Maurizio Fondriest led, marked by Argentin's teammate Rolf Sørensen. Kelly was behind these two in third position. Kelly attacked with three kilometres of descending left. Sorensen could not hold his acceleration and Kelly got away. He caught Argentin with a kilometre to go. Both stalled, the chasers closing fast, Argentin gesturing to Kelly to take the front. Kelly stayed on Argentin's wheel. The two moved again, preparing for a sprint; Kelly launched himself and in the final 200m came past Argentin to win his final classic.
In 1992, Kelly travelled to Colombia for the Clásico RCN, where he won the second stage. His PDM teammate, Martin Earley, pushed him into second place at the 1993 Irish road championship.
Kelly's last year as a professional was 1994, when he rode for Catavana. He returned to Carrick-on-Suir at the end of the season to ride the annual Hamper race. That was Kelly's last race as a professional. Eddy Merckx, Laurent Fignon, Bernard Hinault, Roger De Vlaeminck, Claude Criquielion, Stephen Roche, Martin Earley, Acacio Da Silva and Paul Kimmage were among 1,200 cyclists present. The President of Ireland, Mary Robinson, attended a civic presentation to Kelly the day before the race. Kelly won in a sprint against Roche. Kelly won this race again six years later.
Legacy and riding style
Kelly's career is remarkable in that it spanned the eras of several legends of the Tour de France, from Eddy Merckx through to Miguel Indurain. His first Tour was also the first for Bernard Hinault and the two battled in the sprint of stage 15. Greg LeMond and Laurent Fignon emerged in the early eighties and challenged Kelly in the classics as well as in the Tour, and Kelly witnessed the rise of Miguel Indurain and the early career of Lance Armstrong. Kelly's career coincided with Stephen Roche as well as classics specialists including Francesco Moser, Claude Criquielion, Moreno Argentin and Eric Vanderaerden. Evidence of Kelly's dominance can be seen from his three victories in the season-long Super Prestige Pernod International competition (predecessor to the World Cup). Kelly competed throughout the season, from Paris–Nice in March to the Giro di Lombardia in October, winning both in 1983 and 1985.
Robin Magowan said:
"It is customary to talk of Kelly as quintessentially an Irish rider. For my part, though, I think it helps to place Kelly better as a cyclist to see him as the last of the Flemish riders. This is usually a title associated with the post-war rider, Briek Schotte who has become appropriately enough the man in day-to-day charge of the de Gribaldy teams. As exemplified by Schotte it stood for a certain type of mentality, willing to suffer, narrowly focussed, and hard, hard, hard. Kelly had all this in him from his Irish small-farm background: the outside loo; the dogs that have to be chained before you can step from your car; the one career possible, as a bricklayer on a construction site, stretching away and away into the grey mists. On the positive side, along with the self-reliance, came a physical strength that even by peasant standards is impressive. In a profession of iron wills, there is no one harder."
While some sprinters remain sheltered in the peloton until the final few hundred metres, Kelly could instigate breaks and climb well, proving this by winning the Vuelta a España in 1988, as well as winning a stage of Paris-Nice on the climb of Mont Ventoux. His victories in Paris–Roubaix (1984, 1986) showed his ability in poor weather and on pavé sections, while he could stay with the climbing specialists in the mountains in the Tour de France. He was also a formidable descender, clocking a career top race speed of 124 km/h, while descending from Col de Joux Plane to Morzine on stage 19 of the Tour in 1984. He finished fourth in the Tour in 1985 and won the points classification in 1982, 1983, 1985, and 1989, the first to win four times, a feat he repeated in the Vuelta a España. Kelly won five stages in the Tour de France and 16 in the Vuelta a España.
Doping
Kelly failed drug tests twice during his career. After the 1984 edition of Paris–Brussels, in which he had finished third, cycling authorities stated that a urine sample supplied by Kelly had tested positive for pemoline (Stimul), a result which was repeated with the testing of a B sample. The Royal Belgian Cycling League sentenced Kelly to a three-month suspended ban and a fine. Kelly denied taking any banned substances: in an interview at the time with David Walsh, he claimed that there were "irregularities at the testing centre that day ... the medical control at Paris-Brussels was very badly organised and lots of people were in the room who had no right to be there ... in all this confusion something must have gone wrong". In his autobiography Hunger, Kelly stated that Irish Cycling Federation official Karl McCarthy, who acted as a witness on Kelly's behalf at the second test as he was unable to attend due to racing commitments, told him that the B sample was "tiny" and below the amount required for the test. In his book Breaking the Chain, Kelly's former soigneur Willy Voet claimed that Kelly had been ill with bronchitis in the week before the race and had taken ephedrine to treat it: to avoid a positive test, Voet wrote that Kelly had carried a container in his shorts filled with urine supplied by one of the team's mechanics to doping control, and that the Stimul detected in the sample had been taken by the mechanic to help him stay awake while driving the team's truck.
Kelly's second positive test occurred at the 1988 Tour of the Basque Country, where he tested positive for codeine. Having finished third in the overall classification, he received a ten-minute penalty that dropped him down the order. Kelly explained this as being the result of a worsening cough he had developed during the race: he said that between the end of the final stage and attending doping control he took a swig from a bottle of cough medicine, to which he attributed the presence of codeine in his urine sample.
Post-cycling career
Kelly is a commentator for the English-language services of Eurosport and has established and is involved in the Sean Kelly Cycling Academy in Belgium. In 2006 he launched Ireland's first professional team, the Sean Kelly Team, composed of young Irish and Belgian riders based at the Sean Kelly Cycling Academy in Merchtem, Belgium. He has a cycling clothing company which supplies clubs and companies, and which also organises corporate cycling events in Ireland and throughout Europe. He rides long-distance charity cycling tours with Blazing Saddles, a charity raising money for the blind and partially sighted. Such tours have included a journey across America by bike in 2000. He also participates in charity cycling endurance events in Scotland (notably with the Braveheart Cycling Fund), England, France and Ireland. Sean Kelly regularly cycles with SportActive cycling holidays in Mallorca.
The inaugural Sean Kelly Tour of Waterford was held on 19 August 2007.
Kelly was one of the 910 participants. The second was on 24 August 2008. Kelly was one of the 2,048. The 2009 tour went ahead on 30 August 2009. It attracted over 3,400 participants. On 29 August 2010, 3708 cyclists took part in the Tour. In 2011 the attendance ballooned to over 8,000 over the two days and events. This ran annually until 2017. In 2018, the organisers of The Sean Kelly Tour of Waterford completed a review and decided not to run the event and to look at other cycling initiatives in and around Waterford.
In November 2013, at Dublin City University, Sean Kelly was awarded with an Honorary Doctorate in Philosophy in recognition of his
contribution to Irish sport.
Personality
Fellow pupils at Kelly's school [see above] felt Kelly fell silent because he felt intellectually outclassed. The lack of words continued even after Kelly had proved himself one of the best racing cyclists of his era. The writer Robin Magowan said:
"On the bench, swivelling his body away as you approach, chary of words when not downright hostile, Sean Kelly remains for a journalist the hardest of the great riders to fathom. In an age when most of his brethren rate themselves, and are paid, according to the amount of publicity inches they have gleaned in a season, this farmer's son ... remains very much the exception, closed, withdrawn, and extremely suspicious. Yet one has only to look at him joking with Stephen Roche, or know the respect with which he is held by the peloton, to see that he gets along very well without us."
Coverage
Kelly is the subject of several books, including a biography Kelly in 1986 and A Man For All Seasons by David Walsh in 1991.
Sean Kelly published his autobiography Hunger in 2013.
Career achievements
Major results
1972
1st Road race, National Junior Road Championships
1973
1st Road race, National Junior Road Championships
1975
Tour of Ireland
1st Mountains classification
1st Stages 5, 6 & 7
1st Stage 7 Milk Race
1976
1st Overall Cinturón a Mallorca
1st Piccolo Giro di Lombardia
1st Stage 6 Milk Race
1977
1st Stage 1 Tour de Romandie
1st Stage 4 Étoile des Espoirs
1978
1st Stage 6 Tour de France
Setmana Catalana de Ciclismo
1st Stage 1a (TTT) & 1b
1st Stage 3 Tour Méditerranéen
1st Stage 5a Étoile des Espoirs
1979
Vuelta a España
1st Stages 1 & 8a
1st GP de Cannes
9th Road race, UCI Road World Championships
10th Omloop Het Volk
1980
1st Overall Three Days of De Panne
1st Stage 2
Tour de France
1st Stages 19 & 21
1st Stage 3a Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré
1st Stage 4 Ronde van Nederland
2nd E3 Prijs Vlaanderen
2nd De Brabantse Pijl
2nd Tour du Haut Var
3rd Amstel Gold Race
3rd Omloop Het Volk
3rd Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne
4th Overall Vuelta a España
1st Points classification
1st Sprints classification
1st Stages 1, 2, 14, 17 19 & 21
4th Milan–San Remo
1981
1st Stage 15 Tour de France
1st Stage 2 Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré
1st Stage 5a Ronde van Nederland
1st Stage 3 Tour of Belgium
1st Stage 1 Tour of Luxembourg
2nd Overall Four Days of Dunkirk
1st Stage 2
4th La Flèche Wallonne
5th Rund um den Henninger Turm
6th Amstel Gold Race
7th De Brabantse Pijl
8th Tour of Flanders
9th Züri–Metzgete
1982
1st Overall Paris–Nice
1st Stages 3, 5, 7a & 7b (ITT)
Etoile des Espoirs
1st Stages 1, 2 & 3
Tour de l'Aude
1st Stages 1 & 2
1st Tour du Haut Var
1st Stage 2 Grand Prix du Midi Libre
1st Stage 3 Critérium International
Tour de France
1st Points classification
1st Intermediate Sprints classification
1st Stage 12
3rd Road race, UCI Road World Championships
3rd Omloop Het Volk
3rd Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne
3rd Rund um den Henninger Turm
4th Amstel Gold Race
6th GP Ouest–France
8th La Flèche Wallonne
10th Liège–Bastogne–Liège
1983
1st Overall Paris–Nice
1st Stages 3a, 4 & 7b (ITT)
1st Overall Tour de Suisse
1st Points classification
1st Stages 3 & 5b (ITT)
1st Overall Critérium International
1st Stage 3
1st Giro di Lombardia
1st Grand Prix d'Isbergues
1st Stage 4 Etoile des Espoirs
1st Stage 2 Paris–Bourges
2nd Overall Super Prestige Pernod International
2nd Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne
2nd Giro del Piemonte
5th Milan–San Remo
6th Trofeo Baracchi
7th Overall Tour de France
1st Points classification
1st Intermediate Sprints classification
8th Road race, UCI Road World Championships
1984
1st Overall Paris–Nice
1st Stages 2 & 7b (ITT)
1st Overall Volta a Catalunya
1st Points classification
1st Mountains classification
1st Stages 1, 4a, 4b & 7a (ITT)
1st Overall Tour of the Basque Country
1st Stages 1, 3 & 5b (ITT)
1st Overall Critérium International
1st Stages 1, 2 & 3 (ITT)
1st Overall Super Prestige Pernod International
1st Paris–Roubaix
1st Liège–Bastogne–Liège
1st Paris–Tours
1st GP Ouest–France
1st Critérium des As
1st Paris–Bourges
2nd Tour of Flanders
2nd Milan–San Remo
2nd Grand Prix des Nations
3rd Rund um den Henninger Turm
4th Overall Tour de Suisse
1st Points classification
1st Stage 1
4th Overall Tour du Limousin
1st Stages 1b, 2 & 4
5th Overall Tour de France
1985
1st Overall Paris–Nice
1st Overall Nissan Classic
1st Stages 1 & 3a (ITT)
Tour of the Basque Country
1st Stages 3 & 5b (ITT)
1st Overall Super Prestige Pernod International
1st Giro di Lombardia
1st Critérium des As
1st Stage 3 Ronde van Nederland
2nd Overall Volta a Catalunya
1st Stage 2
2nd Overall Three Days of De Panne
3rd Overall Critérium International
1st Stage 1
3rd Overall Vuelta Ciclista a la Communidad Valenciana
1st Stage 5
3rd Paris–Roubaix
4th Overall Tour de France
1st Points classification
4th Overall Tour de Suisse
4th Liège–Bastogne–Liège
6th Overall Tour of the Basque Country
7th Milan–San Remo
7th Gent–Wevelgem
9th Overall Vuelta a España
1st Points classification
1st Stages 2, 10 & 15
1986
1st Overall Paris–Nice
1st Prologue, Stages 3 & 7b (ITT)
1st Overall Volta a Catalunya
1st Points classification
1st Stage 7 (ITT)
1st Overall Tour of the Basque Country
1st Stages 3, 5a & 5b
1st Overall Nissan Classic
Vuelta Ciclista a la Communidad Valenciana
1st Stages 1 & 3
1st Overall Super Prestige Pernod International
1st Milan–San Remo
1st Paris–Roubaix
1st Grand Prix des Nations
1st Critérium des As
1st Stage 4a Vuelta a Aragón
1st Stage 4 Tour du Limousin
2nd Overall Critérium International
1st Stages 1 & 3 (ITT)
2nd Overall Three Days of De Panne
1st Stage 1b (ITT)
2nd Overall Paris–Bourges
1st Stage 2
2nd Tour of Flanders
2nd Giro di Lombardia
2nd GP Ouest–France
2nd Brussels Cycling Classic
3rd Overall Vuelta a España
1st Points classification
1st Combination classification
1st Stages 10 & 13
5th La Flèche Wallonne
5th Road race, UCI Road World Championships
6th Paris–Tours
1987
1st Overall Paris–Nice
1st Stage 3
1st Overall Tour of the Basque Country
1st Points classification
1st Mountains classification
1st Stages 4 & 5b (ITT)
1st Overall Critérium International
1st Stages 2 & 3 (ITT)
1st Overall Nissan Classic
Vuelta a España
1st Stages 1 & 3
Held after Stages 1–4
1st Stage 7 Vuelta Ciclista a la Communidad Valenciana
2nd Overall Three Days of De Panne
1st Stage 1b (ITT)
2nd Overall Super Prestige Pernod International
2nd Tour of Flanders
3rd Dwars door België
4th Milan–San Remo
4th Brussels Cycling Classic
4th Grand Prix des Nations
5th Overall Volta a Catalunya
1st Points classification
1st Prologue & Stage 1
5th Road race, UCI Road World Championships
10th GP Ouest–France
1988
1st Overall Vuelta a España
1st Points classification
1st Combination classification
1st Stages 10 & 19 (ITT)
1st Overall Paris–Nice
1st Stage 6b (ITT)
1st Overall Setmana Catalana de Ciclisme
1st Points classification
1st Stage 4b (ITT)
Tour du Limousin
1st Stages 2b & 3
1st Gent–Wevelgem
1st Stage 4 Tour of the Basque Country
2nd Tour du Haut Var
2nd Grand Prix de Fourmies
3rd Overall Kellogg's Tour
3rd Paris–Tours
4th Tour of Flanders
5th Milan–San Remo
5th Liège–Bastogne–Liège
7th Omloop Het Volk
1989
1st UCI Road World Cup
1st Liège–Bastogne–Liège
1st Stage 4 Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré
1st Mountains classification Nissan Classic
2nd Omloop Het Volk
3rd Road race, UCI Road World Championships
3rd Wincanton Classic
3rd Trofeo Baracchi
5th Milan–San Remo
7th Overall Tirreno–Adriatico
7th Paris–Tours
9th Overall Tour de France
1st Points classification
1st Intermediate sprints classification
1990
1st Overall Tour de Suisse
1st Stage 4 (ITT)
3rd UCI Road World Cup
3rd Clásica de San Sebastián
5th Road race, UCI Road World Championships
6th Overall Tirreno–Adriatico
8th Overall Critérium International
8th Paris–Tours
8th Trofeo Luis Puig
9th Overall Volta a Catalunya
10th Giro di Lombardia
1991
1st Overall Nissan Classic
1st Giro di Lombardia
4th Milano–Torino
4th Trofeo Luis Puig
1992
1st Milan–San Remo
1st Trofeo Luis Puig
1st Stage 7 Tour de Suisse
1st Stage 4 Vuelta Ciclista a la Communidad Valenciana
1st Stage 2 Clásico RCN
4th Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne
1993
2nd Road race, National Road Championships
4th Paris–Tours
1994
10th Overall Route du Sud
General classification results timeline
Classics results timeline
Footnotes
External links
1956 births
Living people
Sportspeople from County Waterford
Irish male cyclists
Irish Tour de France stage winners
Irish expatriate sportspeople in Belgium
Sports commentators
Vuelta a España winners
Irish Vuelta a España stage winners
Cycling announcers
Tour de Suisse stage winners
RTÉ Sports Person of the Year winners
Super Prestige Pernod winners
UCI Road World Rankings winners
UCI Road World Cup winners | true | [
"SOARA (Situation, Objective, Action, Results, Aftermath) is a job interview technique developed by Hagymas Laszlo, Professor of Language at the University of Munich, and Alexander Botos, Chief Curator at the National Institute of Economic and Social Research. It is similar to the Situation, Task, Action, Result technique. In many interviews, SOARA is used as a structure for clarifying information relating to a recent challenge.\n\nDetails\n\n Situation: The interviewer wants you to present a recent challenge and situation you found yourself in.\n Objective: What did you have to achieve? The interviewer will be looking to see what you were trying to achieve from the situation.\n Action: What did you do? The interviewer will be looking for information on what you did, why you did it and what were the alternatives.\n Results: What was the outcome of your actions? What did you achieve through your actions and did you meet your objectives.\n Aftermath: What did you learn from this experience and have you used this learning since?\n\nJob interview",
"The situation, task, action, result (STAR) format is a technique used by interviewers to gather all the relevant information about a specific capability that the job requires. \n\n Situation: The interviewer wants you to present a recent challenging situation in which you found yourself.\n Task: What were you required to achieve? The interviewer will be looking to see what you were trying to achieve from the situation. Some performance development methods use “Target” rather than “Task”. Job interview candidates who describe a “Target” they set themselves instead of an externally imposed “Task” emphasize their own intrinsic motivation to perform and to develop their performance.\n Action: What did you do? The interviewer will be looking for information on what you did, why you did it and what the alternatives were.\n Results: What was the outcome of your actions? What did you achieve through your actions? Did you meet your objectives? What did you learn from this experience? Have you used this learning since?\n\nThe STAR technique is similar to the SOARA technique.\n\nThe STAR technique is also often complemented with an additional R on the end STARR or STAR(R) with the last R resembling reflection. This R aims to gather insight and interviewee's ability to learn and iterate. Whereas the STAR reveals how and what kind of result on an objective was achieved, the STARR with the additional R helps the interviewer to understand what the interviewee learned from the experience and how they would assimilate experiences. The interviewee can define what they would do (differently, the same, or better) next time being posed with a situation.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nThe ‘STAR’ technique to answer behavioral interview questions\nThe STAR method explained\n\nJob interview"
]
|
[
"Sean Kelly (cyclist)",
"Grand Tour success",
"What were their successes?",
"1988 Vuelta a Espana",
"What was Vuelta a Espana?",
"I don't know.",
"What else did the achieve?",
"Kelly won his only grand tour, over West German Raimund Dietzen"
]
| C_4d76750d2ad749f795c41f586247ee31_0 | How did the grand tour go? | 4 | How did the grand tour go for Sean Kelly? | Sean Kelly (cyclist) | Kelly returned in April to the 1988 Vuelta a Espana which started on the rugged mountainous island of Tenerife where his team struggled in the second stage, losing the influential rider Thomas Wegmuller to dysentery and losing further time in the time-trial around Las Palmas. However, on the Spanish mainland, Kelly concentrated on winning sprint time bonuses, battling with sprinter Jorge Dominguez, the BH teammate of leader, Laudelino Cubino. After regaining a minute in four days, the race reached the mountains where Kelly relied on help from Robert Millar of team Fagor-MBK to stay within two minutes of Cubino after the mountain trial to Alto Oviedo. He then finished fourth behind stage-winner Fabio Parra and Anselmo Fuerte on stage 13 to the ski-station at Cerler, cutting a minute and a half into Cubino's lead. From this stage, Fuerte had moved into second overall and later took the jersey from Cubino on the 16th stage to Albacete when the leader got caught on the wrong side of a split caused by cross-winds. Kelly maintained the gap between himself and Fuerte and started the time trial on the second last day 21 seconds behind. Confident that he could overhaul the leader, he "put it in a big gear and gave it everything". He took the leader's amarillo jersey, beating Fuerte by almost two minutes. The following day Kelly won his only grand tour, over West German Raimund Dietzen and also won the points competition. After his Vuelta win Kelly returned to Carrick-on-Suir where a parade was held in his honour. CANNOTANSWER | After his Vuelta win Kelly returned to Carrick-on-Suir where a parade was held in his honour. | John James 'Sean' Kelly (born 24 May 1956) is an Irish former professional road bicycle racer, one of the most successful road cyclists of the 1980s, and one of the finest classics riders of all time. From turning professional in 1977 until his retirement in 1994, he won nine monument classics, and 193 professional races in total. He won Paris–Nice seven years in a row and the first UCI Road World Cup in 1989. He won one Grand Tour, the 1988 Vuelta a España, won 4 green jerseys in the Tour de France and had multiple wins in the Giro di Lombardia, Milan–San Remo, Paris–Roubaix and Liège–Bastogne–Liège, as well as three runners-up placings in the only 'Monument' he failed to win, the Tour of Flanders. Other victories include the Critérium International, Grand Prix des Nations and shorter stage races including the Tour de Suisse, Tour of the Basque Country and Volta a Catalunya.
Kelly twice won bronze medals (1982, 1989) in the World Road Race Championships and finished 5th in 1987, the year compatriot Stephen Roche won gold. Kelly was first to be ranked No.1 when the FICP rankings were introduced in March 1984, a position he held for a record five years. By total career ranking points, Kelly is the second best cyclist of all time after Eddy Merckx. In the 1984 season, Kelly achieved 33 victories.
Early life and amateur career
Kelly is the second son of Jack (John) and Nellie Kelly, a farming family in Curraghduff in County Waterford. He was born at Belleville Maternity Home in Waterford city on 21 May 1956. He was named John James Kelly after his father and then, to avoid confusion at home, referred to as Sean. Seán is the Irish form of John.
For eight years he attended Crehana National School, County Waterford to which he travelled with his older brother, Joe. Fellow pupils recall a boy who retreated into silence because, they thought, he felt intellectually outclassed. His education ended at 13 when he left school to help on the farm after his father went to hospital in Waterford with an ulcer. At 16 he began work as a bricklayer.
Kelly began cycling after his brother had started riding to school in September 1969. Joe rode and won local races and on 4 August 1970 Sean rode his own first race, at Kennedy Terrace in Carrickbeg, County Waterford, part of Carrick-on-Suir. The race was an eight-mile (13 km) handicap, which meant the weaker riders started first and the best last. Kelly set off three minutes before the backmarkers. He was still three minutes ahead when the course turned for home after four miles (6 km) and more than three minutes in the lead when he crossed the line. At 16 he won the national junior championship at Banbridge, County Down.
Kelly won the national championship again in 1973, then took a senior licence before the normal qualifying age of 18 and won the Shay Elliot Memorial race in 1974 and again in 1975 and stages in the Tour of Ireland of 1975.
Kelly and two other Irish riders, Pat and Kieron McQuaid, went to South Africa to ride the Rapport Tour stage-race in preparation for the 1976 Olympic Games. They and others rode under false names because of an international ban on athletes competing in South Africa, as a protest against apartheid. The three Irish were suspended from racing for six months. They were racing again when the International Olympic Committee banned them from the Olympics for life.
Unable to ride in Canada, Kelly rode the 1976 Tour of Britain and then went to Metz, in France, after a London enthusiast, Johnny Morris, had arranged an invitation. Velo Club de Metz offered him £25 a week, free accommodation and four francs a kilometre for every race he won. Kelly won 18 of the 25 races he started in France and won the amateur Giro di Lombardia in Italy.
The win in Italy impressed two French team managers, Jean de Gribaldy and Cyrille Guimard. De Gribaldy went to Ireland unannounced to discuss a contract with the Flandria professional team. He did not know where Kelly lived and was not sure he would recognise him, so he took with him another cyclist, to point out Kelly, and translate. Kelly was out driving a tractor and de Gribaldy set out again in the taxi that had brought him from Dublin, hoping to find Kelly as he drove home. They found him and went to Kelly's stepbrother's house. De Gribaldy offered £4,000 a year plus bonuses, and a week later Kelly asked for £6,000, and got it. He signed for de Gribaldy, with misgivings about going back on his promise to return to VC de Metz; the club had offered him better terms than before.
Kelly left for France in January 1977 and lived for two years at 18 place de la Révolution in Besançon, de Gribaldy's home town. He shared with four teammates.
Professional career
Early years
Kelly's first professional race was the Étoile de Bessèges. It started on 7 February 1977 and lasted six days. Kelly came 10th on the first day. The Flandria team was in two parts: the strongest riders, such as the world champion Freddy Maertens, were in the main section, based in Belgium. Kelly rode with the second section, based more in France because Flandria wanted to sell more of its mopeds, scooters and bicycles there. The strongest riders in both camps came together for big races. Kelly was recruited as a domestique for Maertens in the main team for year's Paris–Nice – shortly afterwards he won his first race, the opening stage of the Tour de Romandie. In 1978, he started in the Tour de France, in which he also won a stage.
Kelly stayed with de Gribaldy for 1977 and 1978. Then in 1978 Michel Pollentier was disqualified from the Tour de France after cheating a drugs test on the afternoon that he took the race lead. He left the team at the end of the season and started his own, with a new backer, Splendor. Both Maertens and Pollentier wanted Kelly. Pollentier and Splendor offered Kelly more and made him a team leader. But Splendor was new and logistic problems became obvious. The bikes were in poor state – enough that Splendor decided not to ride Paris–Roubaix – and the manager, Robert Lauwers, was replaced. Kelly rose above it and rode for himself. The writer Robin Magowan said: Some people can do business on the committee system; others find that life is only fun when you are running the show. In Kelly's case it was to mean working for the collection of underpaid has-beens that de Gribaldy habitually assembled. But a smaller, less pretentious team can have its advantages for a rider of Kelly's sort. When you don't have to compete for a team's loyalty you can concentrate on winning races, and that's exactly what Kelly proceeded to do.
In time the team improved. Kelly received few offers from elsewhere and Splendor matched those he did get. He was paid about £30,000 plus bonuses in his last season with Splendor. But strengthening the team had included bringing in another sprinter, Eddy Planckaert, and Kelly's role as a foreigner in the team was unclear. He heard that de Gribaldy was starting a new team and the two were reunited in 1982 at Sem-France Loire.
Stage successes
By now Kelly had a reputation as a sprinter who could not win stage races, although he did finish fourth in the 1980 Vuelta a España. De Gribaldy employed him as unambiguous team leader, someone he believed could win stage races and not just stages. To this end, de Gribaldy encouraged Kelly to lose weight, convincing the latter that he could target the overall win at Paris–Nice: Kelly won the "Race to the Sun" and four of its stages. On the last of those, a time-trial to the col d'Eze, he beat Gilbert Duclos-Lassalle and pushed him out of the lead. Years later Kelly admitted that his countryman Roche's emergence during his neo-pro season in 1981, during which he had also won Paris-Nice, was one of the factors which motivated him to adjust his focus to becoming more of an all-round rider. However, the spring classics season proved a disappointment, with Kelly's best result being a 12th place in Paris–Roubaix after suffering multiple punctures. Despite that, that season he went on to win another of objectives set by de Gribaldy: the points classification of the Tour de France, where he took five second places on flat stages before winning a reduced bunch sprint in Pau after climbing the Col d'Aubisque. His points total was nearly three times that of the points classification runner-up, the yellow jersey winner Bernard Hinault. He finished third in the world championship in England - the first worlds medal for an Irish rider since Shay Elliott's silver in 1962 - and at the end of the year married his girlfriend, Linda Grant, the daughter of a local cycling club official. Carrick-on-Suir named the town square "the Sean Kelly Square" in tribute to his achievements in the 1982 Tour de France and his bronze medal at the championship The following year Kelly again won Paris–Nice and then the Critérium International and the Tour de Suisse as well as the points classification in the Tour de France the second time in a row.
Kelly confirmed his potential in autumn 1983. A leading group of 18 entered Como in the Giro di Lombardia after a battle over the Intelvi and Schignano passes. Kelly won the sprint by the narrowest margin, less than half a wheel separating the first four, against cycling greats including Francesco Moser, Adri van der Poel, Hennie Kuiper and world champion Greg LeMond.
Kelly dominated the following spring. He won Paris–Nice for the third successive time beating Roche as well as the Tour de France winner, Bernard Hinault who was returning after a knee injury. Kelly finished second in Milan–San Remo and the Tour of Flanders, but was unbeatable in Paris–Roubaix and Liège–Bastogne–Liège. The day after Paris–Roubaix, the French daily sports paper, L'Équipe, pictured Kelly cycling the cobbles with mud on his face and had the heading Insatiable Kelly! referring to his appetite for winning that spring He won all three stages in the Critérium International: the bunch sprint on stage 1, a solo victory in the mountain stage and beating Roche in the final time trial. Kelly achieved 33 victories in 1984. He was becoming a contender in the grand tours, as seen by finishing fifth in the Tour de France. This may have caused him to lose his grip on the points classification in that year's Tour. Kelly was wearing it as the Tour was finishing on the Champs-Élysées but lost it in the bunch finish to the Belgian, Frank Hoste, who finished ahead of Kelly gaining points to take the jersey off Kelly's shoulders.
He won Paris–Nice in 1985, again beating Roche. He also took three stage wins at the Vuelta a España, but suffered a frustrating spring classics season, taking a third place at Paris-Roubaix and fourth at Liège–Bastogne–Liège, but losing out on wins through poor tactical decisions, such as at Milan-San Remo where he and rival Eric Vanderaerden marked each other out of contention. He won the points classification for the third time and finished fourth in the 1985 Tour de France, where his rivalry with Vanderaerden boiled over at the finish of the sixth stage in Reims: the latter veered to prevent Kelly from coming past in the final sprint, leading Kelly to push Vanderarden, and the Belgian pulling the Irishman's jersey in response. The race saw him battle for the last step on the GC podium with Stephen Roche: although Roche finished the tour in third, the duo's performances saw interest in the race expanding gradually in the Irish press. Kelly won the first Nissan International Classic beating Van Der Poel. At the end of the season, he won the Giro di Lombardia.
He won Milan–San Remo in 1986 after winning Paris–Nice. In Milan-San Remo, Kelly was being marked closely by Vanderaerden in the closing stages of the race. Mario Beccia attacked on the race's final climb of the Poggio di San Remo and was followed by Greg LeMond. In order to shake Vanderaerden, Kelly feigned a mechanical problem before sprinting away to join the lead group, and drove hard on the front to prevent Niki Rüttimann, LeMond's team-mate, who had followed Kelly, from linking up with the front group: Kelly won the three-up sprint at the finish. He also took stage wins at the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, Critérium International and Three Days of De Panne. He finished second in the Tour of Flanders and won Paris–Roubaix again. According to his autobiography Hunger, Kelly gave his support to Van der Poel in the latter's bid to win Flanders in exchange for the Dutchman's help in the French cobbled classic. In Flanders, Kelly rode on the front of the leading four man group in the closing stages of the race, which also included Van der Poel, Jean-Philippe Vandenbrande and Steve Bauer: regarding the final sprint, Kelly wrote that "I started my sprint early, and I knew Van der Poel was probably in my wheel as well, but I certainly gave it 100 per cent". After Flanders, he flew to Spain to race the Tour of the Basque Country, which he won, before flying north to compete in Paris-Roubaix. Roles were reversed as Kelly followed Van der Poel in latching onto an attack from Ferdi Van Den Haute on a late cobbled secteur to form another four-man group along with Rudy Dhaenens. Van Den Haute attacked again a kilometre from the race finish - which was located away from Roubaix Velodrome for the first time since 1943 - and once again Van der Poel led Kelly out in the sprint, enabling the latter to cross the line first. To date, Kelly is one of only three riders to win the double of Milan-San Remo and Paris-Roubaix in the same year, along with Cyrille van Hauwaert in 1908 and John Degenkolb in 2015. Kelly was engaged in an intense racing schedule, even by contemporary standards, having competed 34 times from the beginning of the season to 1986. He later explained this as partly due to the influence of Jean de Gribaldy, who reasoned that he might as well race if he was going to have to train on his bike if he didn't compete, and because of new sponsor Kas, a Spanish soft drink manufacturer, who were primarily concerned with success in Spain, and uninterested in winning the classics, meaning Kelly had to compete in both types of races. He finished on a podium in a grand tour for the first time when he finished third in the 1986 Vuelta a España, winning two stages along the way. Kelly missed the 1986 Tour de France due to a serious crash in the last stage of Tour de Suisse. He returned to Ireland and won the Nissan Classic again. His second win in the Nissan came after a duel with Steve Bauer, who took the yellow jersey after Kelly crashed numerous times. Kelly went into the final stage three seconds behind Bauer and took the jersey when he finished third on the stage and won bonus seconds. Kelly took more than 30 victories in total across the 1986 season.
Kelly won Paris–Nice in 1987 on the last day after Roche, the leader, punctured. Later, leading the Vuelta a España with three days to go, he retired with an extremely painful saddle sore. His bad luck continued in the Tour de France, retiring after a crash tore ligaments in his shoulder. After the World Championship, in which he finished fifth behind Roche, Kelly returned to Ireland to win the Nissan for the third consecutive time.
Kelly won his seventh Paris–Nice in spring 1988, a record. He won Gent–Wevelgem several weeks later.
Grand Tour success
Kelly returned in April to the 1988 Vuelta a España which started on the rugged mountainous island of Tenerife where his team struggled in the second stage, losing the influential rider Thomas Wegmüller to dysentery and losing further time in the time-trial around Las Palmas. However, on the Spanish mainland, Kelly concentrated on winning sprint time bonuses, battling with sprinter Jorge Dominguez, the BH teammate of leader, Laudelino Cubino.
After regaining a minute in four days, the race reached the mountains where Kelly relied on help from Robert Millar of team Fagor-MBK to stay within two minutes of Cubino after the mountain trial to Alto Oviedo. He then finished fourth behind stage-winner Fabio Parra and Anselmo Fuerte on stage 13 to the ski-station at Cerler, cutting a minute and a half into Cubino's lead. From this stage, Fuerte had moved into second overall and later took the jersey from Cubino on the 16th stage to Albacete when the leader got caught on the wrong side of a split caused by cross-winds.
Kelly maintained the gap between himself and Fuerte and started the time trial on the second last day 21 seconds behind. Confident that he could overhaul the leader, he "put it in a big gear and gave it everything". He took the leader's amarillo jersey, beating Fuerte by almost two minutes. The following day Kelly won his only grand tour, over West German Raimund Dietzen and also won the points competition. After his Vuelta win Kelly returned to Carrick-on-Suir where a parade was held in his honour.
Twilight of his career
Kelly finished 46th in the Tour de France just over an hour behind Pedro Delgado. He was no longer a contender for overall victory after this and said he'd never win the Tour de France. Kelly finished third behind the German, Rolf Gölz, in the Nissan Classic that year
Kelly finished third in the sprint at the rainy world road championship of 1989 at Chambéry, France, behind Dimitri Konyshev and Greg Lemond. Lemond won his second rainbow jersey as world champion.
Kelly switched to the Dutch PDM team and stayed there three years until the end of 1991. The following year he won Liège–Bastogne–Liège, the points classification in the Tour de France, and the inaugural UCI Road World Cup championship.
Kelly won the Tour de Suisse in 1990. In March 1991, he broke a collarbone, then pulled out of the 1991 Tour de France and then while Kelly was competing the Tour of Galicia in August, his brother Joe was killed in a race near Carrick-on-Suir. He came back to win his fourth Nissan Classic by four seconds over Sean Yates and then went to and won the classic at the end of the season, the Giro di Lombardia.
Kelly won the Giro di Lombardia for a third time in 1991 but started 1992 regarded as past his prime. He moved to Festina and prepared for Milan–San Remo. Race favourite Moreno Argentin attacked from the leading group on the final climb, the Poggio. He broke clear after several attempts and reached the top eight seconds before the rest. It seemed he was on his way to a solo victory as the peloton descended the Poggio, where Maurizio Fondriest led, marked by Argentin's teammate Rolf Sørensen. Kelly was behind these two in third position. Kelly attacked with three kilometres of descending left. Sorensen could not hold his acceleration and Kelly got away. He caught Argentin with a kilometre to go. Both stalled, the chasers closing fast, Argentin gesturing to Kelly to take the front. Kelly stayed on Argentin's wheel. The two moved again, preparing for a sprint; Kelly launched himself and in the final 200m came past Argentin to win his final classic.
In 1992, Kelly travelled to Colombia for the Clásico RCN, where he won the second stage. His PDM teammate, Martin Earley, pushed him into second place at the 1993 Irish road championship.
Kelly's last year as a professional was 1994, when he rode for Catavana. He returned to Carrick-on-Suir at the end of the season to ride the annual Hamper race. That was Kelly's last race as a professional. Eddy Merckx, Laurent Fignon, Bernard Hinault, Roger De Vlaeminck, Claude Criquielion, Stephen Roche, Martin Earley, Acacio Da Silva and Paul Kimmage were among 1,200 cyclists present. The President of Ireland, Mary Robinson, attended a civic presentation to Kelly the day before the race. Kelly won in a sprint against Roche. Kelly won this race again six years later.
Legacy and riding style
Kelly's career is remarkable in that it spanned the eras of several legends of the Tour de France, from Eddy Merckx through to Miguel Indurain. His first Tour was also the first for Bernard Hinault and the two battled in the sprint of stage 15. Greg LeMond and Laurent Fignon emerged in the early eighties and challenged Kelly in the classics as well as in the Tour, and Kelly witnessed the rise of Miguel Indurain and the early career of Lance Armstrong. Kelly's career coincided with Stephen Roche as well as classics specialists including Francesco Moser, Claude Criquielion, Moreno Argentin and Eric Vanderaerden. Evidence of Kelly's dominance can be seen from his three victories in the season-long Super Prestige Pernod International competition (predecessor to the World Cup). Kelly competed throughout the season, from Paris–Nice in March to the Giro di Lombardia in October, winning both in 1983 and 1985.
Robin Magowan said:
"It is customary to talk of Kelly as quintessentially an Irish rider. For my part, though, I think it helps to place Kelly better as a cyclist to see him as the last of the Flemish riders. This is usually a title associated with the post-war rider, Briek Schotte who has become appropriately enough the man in day-to-day charge of the de Gribaldy teams. As exemplified by Schotte it stood for a certain type of mentality, willing to suffer, narrowly focussed, and hard, hard, hard. Kelly had all this in him from his Irish small-farm background: the outside loo; the dogs that have to be chained before you can step from your car; the one career possible, as a bricklayer on a construction site, stretching away and away into the grey mists. On the positive side, along with the self-reliance, came a physical strength that even by peasant standards is impressive. In a profession of iron wills, there is no one harder."
While some sprinters remain sheltered in the peloton until the final few hundred metres, Kelly could instigate breaks and climb well, proving this by winning the Vuelta a España in 1988, as well as winning a stage of Paris-Nice on the climb of Mont Ventoux. His victories in Paris–Roubaix (1984, 1986) showed his ability in poor weather and on pavé sections, while he could stay with the climbing specialists in the mountains in the Tour de France. He was also a formidable descender, clocking a career top race speed of 124 km/h, while descending from Col de Joux Plane to Morzine on stage 19 of the Tour in 1984. He finished fourth in the Tour in 1985 and won the points classification in 1982, 1983, 1985, and 1989, the first to win four times, a feat he repeated in the Vuelta a España. Kelly won five stages in the Tour de France and 16 in the Vuelta a España.
Doping
Kelly failed drug tests twice during his career. After the 1984 edition of Paris–Brussels, in which he had finished third, cycling authorities stated that a urine sample supplied by Kelly had tested positive for pemoline (Stimul), a result which was repeated with the testing of a B sample. The Royal Belgian Cycling League sentenced Kelly to a three-month suspended ban and a fine. Kelly denied taking any banned substances: in an interview at the time with David Walsh, he claimed that there were "irregularities at the testing centre that day ... the medical control at Paris-Brussels was very badly organised and lots of people were in the room who had no right to be there ... in all this confusion something must have gone wrong". In his autobiography Hunger, Kelly stated that Irish Cycling Federation official Karl McCarthy, who acted as a witness on Kelly's behalf at the second test as he was unable to attend due to racing commitments, told him that the B sample was "tiny" and below the amount required for the test. In his book Breaking the Chain, Kelly's former soigneur Willy Voet claimed that Kelly had been ill with bronchitis in the week before the race and had taken ephedrine to treat it: to avoid a positive test, Voet wrote that Kelly had carried a container in his shorts filled with urine supplied by one of the team's mechanics to doping control, and that the Stimul detected in the sample had been taken by the mechanic to help him stay awake while driving the team's truck.
Kelly's second positive test occurred at the 1988 Tour of the Basque Country, where he tested positive for codeine. Having finished third in the overall classification, he received a ten-minute penalty that dropped him down the order. Kelly explained this as being the result of a worsening cough he had developed during the race: he said that between the end of the final stage and attending doping control he took a swig from a bottle of cough medicine, to which he attributed the presence of codeine in his urine sample.
Post-cycling career
Kelly is a commentator for the English-language services of Eurosport and has established and is involved in the Sean Kelly Cycling Academy in Belgium. In 2006 he launched Ireland's first professional team, the Sean Kelly Team, composed of young Irish and Belgian riders based at the Sean Kelly Cycling Academy in Merchtem, Belgium. He has a cycling clothing company which supplies clubs and companies, and which also organises corporate cycling events in Ireland and throughout Europe. He rides long-distance charity cycling tours with Blazing Saddles, a charity raising money for the blind and partially sighted. Such tours have included a journey across America by bike in 2000. He also participates in charity cycling endurance events in Scotland (notably with the Braveheart Cycling Fund), England, France and Ireland. Sean Kelly regularly cycles with SportActive cycling holidays in Mallorca.
The inaugural Sean Kelly Tour of Waterford was held on 19 August 2007.
Kelly was one of the 910 participants. The second was on 24 August 2008. Kelly was one of the 2,048. The 2009 tour went ahead on 30 August 2009. It attracted over 3,400 participants. On 29 August 2010, 3708 cyclists took part in the Tour. In 2011 the attendance ballooned to over 8,000 over the two days and events. This ran annually until 2017. In 2018, the organisers of The Sean Kelly Tour of Waterford completed a review and decided not to run the event and to look at other cycling initiatives in and around Waterford.
In November 2013, at Dublin City University, Sean Kelly was awarded with an Honorary Doctorate in Philosophy in recognition of his
contribution to Irish sport.
Personality
Fellow pupils at Kelly's school [see above] felt Kelly fell silent because he felt intellectually outclassed. The lack of words continued even after Kelly had proved himself one of the best racing cyclists of his era. The writer Robin Magowan said:
"On the bench, swivelling his body away as you approach, chary of words when not downright hostile, Sean Kelly remains for a journalist the hardest of the great riders to fathom. In an age when most of his brethren rate themselves, and are paid, according to the amount of publicity inches they have gleaned in a season, this farmer's son ... remains very much the exception, closed, withdrawn, and extremely suspicious. Yet one has only to look at him joking with Stephen Roche, or know the respect with which he is held by the peloton, to see that he gets along very well without us."
Coverage
Kelly is the subject of several books, including a biography Kelly in 1986 and A Man For All Seasons by David Walsh in 1991.
Sean Kelly published his autobiography Hunger in 2013.
Career achievements
Major results
1972
1st Road race, National Junior Road Championships
1973
1st Road race, National Junior Road Championships
1975
Tour of Ireland
1st Mountains classification
1st Stages 5, 6 & 7
1st Stage 7 Milk Race
1976
1st Overall Cinturón a Mallorca
1st Piccolo Giro di Lombardia
1st Stage 6 Milk Race
1977
1st Stage 1 Tour de Romandie
1st Stage 4 Étoile des Espoirs
1978
1st Stage 6 Tour de France
Setmana Catalana de Ciclismo
1st Stage 1a (TTT) & 1b
1st Stage 3 Tour Méditerranéen
1st Stage 5a Étoile des Espoirs
1979
Vuelta a España
1st Stages 1 & 8a
1st GP de Cannes
9th Road race, UCI Road World Championships
10th Omloop Het Volk
1980
1st Overall Three Days of De Panne
1st Stage 2
Tour de France
1st Stages 19 & 21
1st Stage 3a Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré
1st Stage 4 Ronde van Nederland
2nd E3 Prijs Vlaanderen
2nd De Brabantse Pijl
2nd Tour du Haut Var
3rd Amstel Gold Race
3rd Omloop Het Volk
3rd Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne
4th Overall Vuelta a España
1st Points classification
1st Sprints classification
1st Stages 1, 2, 14, 17 19 & 21
4th Milan–San Remo
1981
1st Stage 15 Tour de France
1st Stage 2 Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré
1st Stage 5a Ronde van Nederland
1st Stage 3 Tour of Belgium
1st Stage 1 Tour of Luxembourg
2nd Overall Four Days of Dunkirk
1st Stage 2
4th La Flèche Wallonne
5th Rund um den Henninger Turm
6th Amstel Gold Race
7th De Brabantse Pijl
8th Tour of Flanders
9th Züri–Metzgete
1982
1st Overall Paris–Nice
1st Stages 3, 5, 7a & 7b (ITT)
Etoile des Espoirs
1st Stages 1, 2 & 3
Tour de l'Aude
1st Stages 1 & 2
1st Tour du Haut Var
1st Stage 2 Grand Prix du Midi Libre
1st Stage 3 Critérium International
Tour de France
1st Points classification
1st Intermediate Sprints classification
1st Stage 12
3rd Road race, UCI Road World Championships
3rd Omloop Het Volk
3rd Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne
3rd Rund um den Henninger Turm
4th Amstel Gold Race
6th GP Ouest–France
8th La Flèche Wallonne
10th Liège–Bastogne–Liège
1983
1st Overall Paris–Nice
1st Stages 3a, 4 & 7b (ITT)
1st Overall Tour de Suisse
1st Points classification
1st Stages 3 & 5b (ITT)
1st Overall Critérium International
1st Stage 3
1st Giro di Lombardia
1st Grand Prix d'Isbergues
1st Stage 4 Etoile des Espoirs
1st Stage 2 Paris–Bourges
2nd Overall Super Prestige Pernod International
2nd Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne
2nd Giro del Piemonte
5th Milan–San Remo
6th Trofeo Baracchi
7th Overall Tour de France
1st Points classification
1st Intermediate Sprints classification
8th Road race, UCI Road World Championships
1984
1st Overall Paris–Nice
1st Stages 2 & 7b (ITT)
1st Overall Volta a Catalunya
1st Points classification
1st Mountains classification
1st Stages 1, 4a, 4b & 7a (ITT)
1st Overall Tour of the Basque Country
1st Stages 1, 3 & 5b (ITT)
1st Overall Critérium International
1st Stages 1, 2 & 3 (ITT)
1st Overall Super Prestige Pernod International
1st Paris–Roubaix
1st Liège–Bastogne–Liège
1st Paris–Tours
1st GP Ouest–France
1st Critérium des As
1st Paris–Bourges
2nd Tour of Flanders
2nd Milan–San Remo
2nd Grand Prix des Nations
3rd Rund um den Henninger Turm
4th Overall Tour de Suisse
1st Points classification
1st Stage 1
4th Overall Tour du Limousin
1st Stages 1b, 2 & 4
5th Overall Tour de France
1985
1st Overall Paris–Nice
1st Overall Nissan Classic
1st Stages 1 & 3a (ITT)
Tour of the Basque Country
1st Stages 3 & 5b (ITT)
1st Overall Super Prestige Pernod International
1st Giro di Lombardia
1st Critérium des As
1st Stage 3 Ronde van Nederland
2nd Overall Volta a Catalunya
1st Stage 2
2nd Overall Three Days of De Panne
3rd Overall Critérium International
1st Stage 1
3rd Overall Vuelta Ciclista a la Communidad Valenciana
1st Stage 5
3rd Paris–Roubaix
4th Overall Tour de France
1st Points classification
4th Overall Tour de Suisse
4th Liège–Bastogne–Liège
6th Overall Tour of the Basque Country
7th Milan–San Remo
7th Gent–Wevelgem
9th Overall Vuelta a España
1st Points classification
1st Stages 2, 10 & 15
1986
1st Overall Paris–Nice
1st Prologue, Stages 3 & 7b (ITT)
1st Overall Volta a Catalunya
1st Points classification
1st Stage 7 (ITT)
1st Overall Tour of the Basque Country
1st Stages 3, 5a & 5b
1st Overall Nissan Classic
Vuelta Ciclista a la Communidad Valenciana
1st Stages 1 & 3
1st Overall Super Prestige Pernod International
1st Milan–San Remo
1st Paris–Roubaix
1st Grand Prix des Nations
1st Critérium des As
1st Stage 4a Vuelta a Aragón
1st Stage 4 Tour du Limousin
2nd Overall Critérium International
1st Stages 1 & 3 (ITT)
2nd Overall Three Days of De Panne
1st Stage 1b (ITT)
2nd Overall Paris–Bourges
1st Stage 2
2nd Tour of Flanders
2nd Giro di Lombardia
2nd GP Ouest–France
2nd Brussels Cycling Classic
3rd Overall Vuelta a España
1st Points classification
1st Combination classification
1st Stages 10 & 13
5th La Flèche Wallonne
5th Road race, UCI Road World Championships
6th Paris–Tours
1987
1st Overall Paris–Nice
1st Stage 3
1st Overall Tour of the Basque Country
1st Points classification
1st Mountains classification
1st Stages 4 & 5b (ITT)
1st Overall Critérium International
1st Stages 2 & 3 (ITT)
1st Overall Nissan Classic
Vuelta a España
1st Stages 1 & 3
Held after Stages 1–4
1st Stage 7 Vuelta Ciclista a la Communidad Valenciana
2nd Overall Three Days of De Panne
1st Stage 1b (ITT)
2nd Overall Super Prestige Pernod International
2nd Tour of Flanders
3rd Dwars door België
4th Milan–San Remo
4th Brussels Cycling Classic
4th Grand Prix des Nations
5th Overall Volta a Catalunya
1st Points classification
1st Prologue & Stage 1
5th Road race, UCI Road World Championships
10th GP Ouest–France
1988
1st Overall Vuelta a España
1st Points classification
1st Combination classification
1st Stages 10 & 19 (ITT)
1st Overall Paris–Nice
1st Stage 6b (ITT)
1st Overall Setmana Catalana de Ciclisme
1st Points classification
1st Stage 4b (ITT)
Tour du Limousin
1st Stages 2b & 3
1st Gent–Wevelgem
1st Stage 4 Tour of the Basque Country
2nd Tour du Haut Var
2nd Grand Prix de Fourmies
3rd Overall Kellogg's Tour
3rd Paris–Tours
4th Tour of Flanders
5th Milan–San Remo
5th Liège–Bastogne–Liège
7th Omloop Het Volk
1989
1st UCI Road World Cup
1st Liège–Bastogne–Liège
1st Stage 4 Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré
1st Mountains classification Nissan Classic
2nd Omloop Het Volk
3rd Road race, UCI Road World Championships
3rd Wincanton Classic
3rd Trofeo Baracchi
5th Milan–San Remo
7th Overall Tirreno–Adriatico
7th Paris–Tours
9th Overall Tour de France
1st Points classification
1st Intermediate sprints classification
1990
1st Overall Tour de Suisse
1st Stage 4 (ITT)
3rd UCI Road World Cup
3rd Clásica de San Sebastián
5th Road race, UCI Road World Championships
6th Overall Tirreno–Adriatico
8th Overall Critérium International
8th Paris–Tours
8th Trofeo Luis Puig
9th Overall Volta a Catalunya
10th Giro di Lombardia
1991
1st Overall Nissan Classic
1st Giro di Lombardia
4th Milano–Torino
4th Trofeo Luis Puig
1992
1st Milan–San Remo
1st Trofeo Luis Puig
1st Stage 7 Tour de Suisse
1st Stage 4 Vuelta Ciclista a la Communidad Valenciana
1st Stage 2 Clásico RCN
4th Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne
1993
2nd Road race, National Road Championships
4th Paris–Tours
1994
10th Overall Route du Sud
General classification results timeline
Classics results timeline
Footnotes
External links
1956 births
Living people
Sportspeople from County Waterford
Irish male cyclists
Irish Tour de France stage winners
Irish expatriate sportspeople in Belgium
Sports commentators
Vuelta a España winners
Irish Vuelta a España stage winners
Cycling announcers
Tour de Suisse stage winners
RTÉ Sports Person of the Year winners
Super Prestige Pernod winners
UCI Road World Rankings winners
UCI Road World Cup winners | true | [
"Paul Jesson (born 14 January 1955) is a retired New Zealand professional racing cyclist. Jesson became the first New Zealander to win a stage at a grand tour when he won Stage 10 of the 1980 Vuelta a España. \n\nJesson's first professional race for Splendor was the 1979 Tour de France. This occurred because his team did not have enough riders to start.\n\nIn the prologue of the 1980 Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré Jesson hit a parked car resulting in a serious crash. He was admitted to hospital where he was unconscious for a week and had his leg amputated below the knee. Although the injury ended his professional racing career he did go on to win medals at the Paralympics\n\nMajor results\nSources:\n1976\n 1st Overall Tour of Southland\n 1st Overall Ster Van Henegouwen\n1st Stage 7\n1977\n 2nd Overall Tour of Southland\n1978\n 1st Overall Tour of Southland\n 2nd Overall Tour de Wallonie\n 2nd Overall Tour de Liège\n1979\n 4th Omloop van de Vlaamse Scheldeboorden\n1980\n 1st Stage 10 Vuelta a España\n 2nd \n 3rd Nokere Koerse\n1998\n 1st 4000m Paralympic Pursuit World Championship\n 1st 18km Time trial Paralympic World Championship\n2004\n 3rd Summer Paralympics Road race/Time trial\n\nGrand Tour results\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n1955 births\nLiving people\nNew Zealand male cyclists\nNew Zealand Vuelta a España stage winners\nCyclists at the 2004 Summer Paralympics\nMedalists at the 2004 Summer Paralympics\nParalympic medalists in cycling\nParalympic bronze medalists for New Zealand\nParalympic cyclists of New Zealand",
"Reid Duke is an American Magic: The Gathering player from Sugar Loaf, New York. He won the Magic: The Gathering Online Championship in 2011. His best finishes include three Pro Tour Top 8s, at Pro Tour Journey Into Nyx, Pro Tour Eldritch Moon, and Pro Tour Rivals of Ixalan, a runner-up finish at the 2013 World Championships, and wins at Grand Prix Nashville 2012, Grand Prix Miami 2013, Grand Prix Portland 2014, Grand Prix Oakland 2016, Grand Prix Louisville 2017, and Grand Prix Cleveland.\n\nMagic: The Gathering career \nCommonly referred to as \"The gentleman of the Magic world\", Reid Duke started playing in 1995, at age five, with his brother Ian Duke, who is now a member of the Magic: The Gathering R&D team at Wizards of the Coast. For a time, he was primarily a Magic: The Gathering Online player, but made the transition to in-person competitive play. He qualified for Pro Tour Amsterdam 2010 via rating, and won a Magic Online Championship Series (MOCS) event to qualify for the 2010 Magic Online World Championship, where he finished 5th, as well as the 2010 Magic: The Gathering World Championships in Chiba, Japan. Although his finishes in his first Pro Tours were unspectacular, he has not missed a Pro Tour since Amsterdam 2010.\n\nDuke first experienced success at paper Magic in 2011, when he reached the top eight of two Grand Prix events: Grand Prix Providence, where he finished fourth, and Grand Prix Montreal, where he finished fifth. He also won another MOCS event to requalify him for the Magic Online Championship, this year held in San Francisco concurrently with the 2011 World Championships. Duke ended up winning the event, defeating Florian Pils in the final. This qualified him for the inaugural Players Championship event (later renamed the Magic World Championship). At Pro Tour Dark Ascension in Honolulu, Duke finished in the money at a Pro Tour for the first time, placing 38th. From here, he would go on to finish in the money in eight consecutive Pro Tours. He also won his first Grand Prix when he defeated Todd Anderson in the final of Grand Prix Nashville. He has since 2012 been a part of the team now known as 'The Pantheon', alongside players such as Jon Finkel, Kai Budde and Gabriel Nassif.\n\nThe 2012 Magic Players Championship did not go well for Duke; he finished the event with a 2–10 record, taking last place. Following this failure, Duke made it his mission to redeem himself by qualifying for next year's event and putting up a better performance, even going so far as to write down the mistakes he made in the tournament. Thanks to three Grand Prix top eight finishes, in Charleston, San Antonio and Quebec City, as well as stellar performance on the Pro Tour, he succeeded in requalifying for the World Championship when he finished 9th at Pro Tour Dragon's Maze in San Diego. He finished the 2012–13 season on 52 Pro Points, which was also sufficient for Platinum membership in the Pro Players Club.\n\nDuke started the 2013–14 season well, winning his second Grand Prix, at GP Miami. Duke went on to dominate the Swiss rounds of the 2013 World Championship, finishing in first place before the knockout rounds. Duke faced Josh Utter-Leyton in the semifinals, defeating him 3–2. He was considered a substantial favorite against his final opponent, Shahar Shenhar, and did indeed take a 2–0 lead in the best-of-five match, but Shenhar came all the way back to beat Duke 3–2 in an upset. Duke thus took second place in the event. He put up three more Grand Prix top eight finishes during the season, in Detroit, Barcelona and Philadelphia, before finally posting a top eight performance at a Pro Tour. At Pro Tour Journey into Nyx in Atlanta, Duke finished fifth, losing in the quarterfinals to Yuuki Ichikawa. At this point, he was in position to win the 2013–14 Player of the Year title, but ultimately this was won by Jérémy Dezani. He was also overtaken by teammate Owen Turtenwald for captainship of the United States national team at the 2014 World Magic Cup when the latter made the top eight of the final event of the season, Pro Tour Magic 2015.\n\nThe 2014–15 season started really well for Duke, with him and his teammates Owen Turtenwald and William Jensen winning the very first Grand Prix of the season, Grand Prix Portland. At the 2014 World Championships, however, Duke posted a modest 14th-place finish, and his Pro Tour results throughout the season were average. He managed to reach two Grand Prix top eights, in Singapore and Montreal, towards the end of the season to retain Platinum status, but he did not qualify for the 2015 World Championships. In February 2015, Duke almost won a MOCS event for the third time, but lost in the final.\n\nIn 2019, Duke was elected into the Magic: The Gathering Hall of Fame.\n\nAchievements\n\nPersonal life\n\nReid Duke is the brother of Ian Duke who is a developer at Wizards of the Coast.\n\nReferences\n\nAmerican Magic: The Gathering players\nLiving people\n1989 births"
]
|
[
"Sean Kelly (cyclist)",
"Grand Tour success",
"What were their successes?",
"1988 Vuelta a Espana",
"What was Vuelta a Espana?",
"I don't know.",
"What else did the achieve?",
"Kelly won his only grand tour, over West German Raimund Dietzen",
"How did the grand tour go?",
"After his Vuelta win Kelly returned to Carrick-on-Suir where a parade was held in his honour."
]
| C_4d76750d2ad749f795c41f586247ee31_0 | Is there any other interesting aspects about this article? | 5 | Are there any other interesting aspects about Sean Kelly other than the parade held in his honor? | Sean Kelly (cyclist) | Kelly returned in April to the 1988 Vuelta a Espana which started on the rugged mountainous island of Tenerife where his team struggled in the second stage, losing the influential rider Thomas Wegmuller to dysentery and losing further time in the time-trial around Las Palmas. However, on the Spanish mainland, Kelly concentrated on winning sprint time bonuses, battling with sprinter Jorge Dominguez, the BH teammate of leader, Laudelino Cubino. After regaining a minute in four days, the race reached the mountains where Kelly relied on help from Robert Millar of team Fagor-MBK to stay within two minutes of Cubino after the mountain trial to Alto Oviedo. He then finished fourth behind stage-winner Fabio Parra and Anselmo Fuerte on stage 13 to the ski-station at Cerler, cutting a minute and a half into Cubino's lead. From this stage, Fuerte had moved into second overall and later took the jersey from Cubino on the 16th stage to Albacete when the leader got caught on the wrong side of a split caused by cross-winds. Kelly maintained the gap between himself and Fuerte and started the time trial on the second last day 21 seconds behind. Confident that he could overhaul the leader, he "put it in a big gear and gave it everything". He took the leader's amarillo jersey, beating Fuerte by almost two minutes. The following day Kelly won his only grand tour, over West German Raimund Dietzen and also won the points competition. After his Vuelta win Kelly returned to Carrick-on-Suir where a parade was held in his honour. CANNOTANSWER | on the Spanish mainland, Kelly concentrated on winning sprint time bonuses, | John James 'Sean' Kelly (born 24 May 1956) is an Irish former professional road bicycle racer, one of the most successful road cyclists of the 1980s, and one of the finest classics riders of all time. From turning professional in 1977 until his retirement in 1994, he won nine monument classics, and 193 professional races in total. He won Paris–Nice seven years in a row and the first UCI Road World Cup in 1989. He won one Grand Tour, the 1988 Vuelta a España, won 4 green jerseys in the Tour de France and had multiple wins in the Giro di Lombardia, Milan–San Remo, Paris–Roubaix and Liège–Bastogne–Liège, as well as three runners-up placings in the only 'Monument' he failed to win, the Tour of Flanders. Other victories include the Critérium International, Grand Prix des Nations and shorter stage races including the Tour de Suisse, Tour of the Basque Country and Volta a Catalunya.
Kelly twice won bronze medals (1982, 1989) in the World Road Race Championships and finished 5th in 1987, the year compatriot Stephen Roche won gold. Kelly was first to be ranked No.1 when the FICP rankings were introduced in March 1984, a position he held for a record five years. By total career ranking points, Kelly is the second best cyclist of all time after Eddy Merckx. In the 1984 season, Kelly achieved 33 victories.
Early life and amateur career
Kelly is the second son of Jack (John) and Nellie Kelly, a farming family in Curraghduff in County Waterford. He was born at Belleville Maternity Home in Waterford city on 21 May 1956. He was named John James Kelly after his father and then, to avoid confusion at home, referred to as Sean. Seán is the Irish form of John.
For eight years he attended Crehana National School, County Waterford to which he travelled with his older brother, Joe. Fellow pupils recall a boy who retreated into silence because, they thought, he felt intellectually outclassed. His education ended at 13 when he left school to help on the farm after his father went to hospital in Waterford with an ulcer. At 16 he began work as a bricklayer.
Kelly began cycling after his brother had started riding to school in September 1969. Joe rode and won local races and on 4 August 1970 Sean rode his own first race, at Kennedy Terrace in Carrickbeg, County Waterford, part of Carrick-on-Suir. The race was an eight-mile (13 km) handicap, which meant the weaker riders started first and the best last. Kelly set off three minutes before the backmarkers. He was still three minutes ahead when the course turned for home after four miles (6 km) and more than three minutes in the lead when he crossed the line. At 16 he won the national junior championship at Banbridge, County Down.
Kelly won the national championship again in 1973, then took a senior licence before the normal qualifying age of 18 and won the Shay Elliot Memorial race in 1974 and again in 1975 and stages in the Tour of Ireland of 1975.
Kelly and two other Irish riders, Pat and Kieron McQuaid, went to South Africa to ride the Rapport Tour stage-race in preparation for the 1976 Olympic Games. They and others rode under false names because of an international ban on athletes competing in South Africa, as a protest against apartheid. The three Irish were suspended from racing for six months. They were racing again when the International Olympic Committee banned them from the Olympics for life.
Unable to ride in Canada, Kelly rode the 1976 Tour of Britain and then went to Metz, in France, after a London enthusiast, Johnny Morris, had arranged an invitation. Velo Club de Metz offered him £25 a week, free accommodation and four francs a kilometre for every race he won. Kelly won 18 of the 25 races he started in France and won the amateur Giro di Lombardia in Italy.
The win in Italy impressed two French team managers, Jean de Gribaldy and Cyrille Guimard. De Gribaldy went to Ireland unannounced to discuss a contract with the Flandria professional team. He did not know where Kelly lived and was not sure he would recognise him, so he took with him another cyclist, to point out Kelly, and translate. Kelly was out driving a tractor and de Gribaldy set out again in the taxi that had brought him from Dublin, hoping to find Kelly as he drove home. They found him and went to Kelly's stepbrother's house. De Gribaldy offered £4,000 a year plus bonuses, and a week later Kelly asked for £6,000, and got it. He signed for de Gribaldy, with misgivings about going back on his promise to return to VC de Metz; the club had offered him better terms than before.
Kelly left for France in January 1977 and lived for two years at 18 place de la Révolution in Besançon, de Gribaldy's home town. He shared with four teammates.
Professional career
Early years
Kelly's first professional race was the Étoile de Bessèges. It started on 7 February 1977 and lasted six days. Kelly came 10th on the first day. The Flandria team was in two parts: the strongest riders, such as the world champion Freddy Maertens, were in the main section, based in Belgium. Kelly rode with the second section, based more in France because Flandria wanted to sell more of its mopeds, scooters and bicycles there. The strongest riders in both camps came together for big races. Kelly was recruited as a domestique for Maertens in the main team for year's Paris–Nice – shortly afterwards he won his first race, the opening stage of the Tour de Romandie. In 1978, he started in the Tour de France, in which he also won a stage.
Kelly stayed with de Gribaldy for 1977 and 1978. Then in 1978 Michel Pollentier was disqualified from the Tour de France after cheating a drugs test on the afternoon that he took the race lead. He left the team at the end of the season and started his own, with a new backer, Splendor. Both Maertens and Pollentier wanted Kelly. Pollentier and Splendor offered Kelly more and made him a team leader. But Splendor was new and logistic problems became obvious. The bikes were in poor state – enough that Splendor decided not to ride Paris–Roubaix – and the manager, Robert Lauwers, was replaced. Kelly rose above it and rode for himself. The writer Robin Magowan said: Some people can do business on the committee system; others find that life is only fun when you are running the show. In Kelly's case it was to mean working for the collection of underpaid has-beens that de Gribaldy habitually assembled. But a smaller, less pretentious team can have its advantages for a rider of Kelly's sort. When you don't have to compete for a team's loyalty you can concentrate on winning races, and that's exactly what Kelly proceeded to do.
In time the team improved. Kelly received few offers from elsewhere and Splendor matched those he did get. He was paid about £30,000 plus bonuses in his last season with Splendor. But strengthening the team had included bringing in another sprinter, Eddy Planckaert, and Kelly's role as a foreigner in the team was unclear. He heard that de Gribaldy was starting a new team and the two were reunited in 1982 at Sem-France Loire.
Stage successes
By now Kelly had a reputation as a sprinter who could not win stage races, although he did finish fourth in the 1980 Vuelta a España. De Gribaldy employed him as unambiguous team leader, someone he believed could win stage races and not just stages. To this end, de Gribaldy encouraged Kelly to lose weight, convincing the latter that he could target the overall win at Paris–Nice: Kelly won the "Race to the Sun" and four of its stages. On the last of those, a time-trial to the col d'Eze, he beat Gilbert Duclos-Lassalle and pushed him out of the lead. Years later Kelly admitted that his countryman Roche's emergence during his neo-pro season in 1981, during which he had also won Paris-Nice, was one of the factors which motivated him to adjust his focus to becoming more of an all-round rider. However, the spring classics season proved a disappointment, with Kelly's best result being a 12th place in Paris–Roubaix after suffering multiple punctures. Despite that, that season he went on to win another of objectives set by de Gribaldy: the points classification of the Tour de France, where he took five second places on flat stages before winning a reduced bunch sprint in Pau after climbing the Col d'Aubisque. His points total was nearly three times that of the points classification runner-up, the yellow jersey winner Bernard Hinault. He finished third in the world championship in England - the first worlds medal for an Irish rider since Shay Elliott's silver in 1962 - and at the end of the year married his girlfriend, Linda Grant, the daughter of a local cycling club official. Carrick-on-Suir named the town square "the Sean Kelly Square" in tribute to his achievements in the 1982 Tour de France and his bronze medal at the championship The following year Kelly again won Paris–Nice and then the Critérium International and the Tour de Suisse as well as the points classification in the Tour de France the second time in a row.
Kelly confirmed his potential in autumn 1983. A leading group of 18 entered Como in the Giro di Lombardia after a battle over the Intelvi and Schignano passes. Kelly won the sprint by the narrowest margin, less than half a wheel separating the first four, against cycling greats including Francesco Moser, Adri van der Poel, Hennie Kuiper and world champion Greg LeMond.
Kelly dominated the following spring. He won Paris–Nice for the third successive time beating Roche as well as the Tour de France winner, Bernard Hinault who was returning after a knee injury. Kelly finished second in Milan–San Remo and the Tour of Flanders, but was unbeatable in Paris–Roubaix and Liège–Bastogne–Liège. The day after Paris–Roubaix, the French daily sports paper, L'Équipe, pictured Kelly cycling the cobbles with mud on his face and had the heading Insatiable Kelly! referring to his appetite for winning that spring He won all three stages in the Critérium International: the bunch sprint on stage 1, a solo victory in the mountain stage and beating Roche in the final time trial. Kelly achieved 33 victories in 1984. He was becoming a contender in the grand tours, as seen by finishing fifth in the Tour de France. This may have caused him to lose his grip on the points classification in that year's Tour. Kelly was wearing it as the Tour was finishing on the Champs-Élysées but lost it in the bunch finish to the Belgian, Frank Hoste, who finished ahead of Kelly gaining points to take the jersey off Kelly's shoulders.
He won Paris–Nice in 1985, again beating Roche. He also took three stage wins at the Vuelta a España, but suffered a frustrating spring classics season, taking a third place at Paris-Roubaix and fourth at Liège–Bastogne–Liège, but losing out on wins through poor tactical decisions, such as at Milan-San Remo where he and rival Eric Vanderaerden marked each other out of contention. He won the points classification for the third time and finished fourth in the 1985 Tour de France, where his rivalry with Vanderaerden boiled over at the finish of the sixth stage in Reims: the latter veered to prevent Kelly from coming past in the final sprint, leading Kelly to push Vanderarden, and the Belgian pulling the Irishman's jersey in response. The race saw him battle for the last step on the GC podium with Stephen Roche: although Roche finished the tour in third, the duo's performances saw interest in the race expanding gradually in the Irish press. Kelly won the first Nissan International Classic beating Van Der Poel. At the end of the season, he won the Giro di Lombardia.
He won Milan–San Remo in 1986 after winning Paris–Nice. In Milan-San Remo, Kelly was being marked closely by Vanderaerden in the closing stages of the race. Mario Beccia attacked on the race's final climb of the Poggio di San Remo and was followed by Greg LeMond. In order to shake Vanderaerden, Kelly feigned a mechanical problem before sprinting away to join the lead group, and drove hard on the front to prevent Niki Rüttimann, LeMond's team-mate, who had followed Kelly, from linking up with the front group: Kelly won the three-up sprint at the finish. He also took stage wins at the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, Critérium International and Three Days of De Panne. He finished second in the Tour of Flanders and won Paris–Roubaix again. According to his autobiography Hunger, Kelly gave his support to Van der Poel in the latter's bid to win Flanders in exchange for the Dutchman's help in the French cobbled classic. In Flanders, Kelly rode on the front of the leading four man group in the closing stages of the race, which also included Van der Poel, Jean-Philippe Vandenbrande and Steve Bauer: regarding the final sprint, Kelly wrote that "I started my sprint early, and I knew Van der Poel was probably in my wheel as well, but I certainly gave it 100 per cent". After Flanders, he flew to Spain to race the Tour of the Basque Country, which he won, before flying north to compete in Paris-Roubaix. Roles were reversed as Kelly followed Van der Poel in latching onto an attack from Ferdi Van Den Haute on a late cobbled secteur to form another four-man group along with Rudy Dhaenens. Van Den Haute attacked again a kilometre from the race finish - which was located away from Roubaix Velodrome for the first time since 1943 - and once again Van der Poel led Kelly out in the sprint, enabling the latter to cross the line first. To date, Kelly is one of only three riders to win the double of Milan-San Remo and Paris-Roubaix in the same year, along with Cyrille van Hauwaert in 1908 and John Degenkolb in 2015. Kelly was engaged in an intense racing schedule, even by contemporary standards, having competed 34 times from the beginning of the season to 1986. He later explained this as partly due to the influence of Jean de Gribaldy, who reasoned that he might as well race if he was going to have to train on his bike if he didn't compete, and because of new sponsor Kas, a Spanish soft drink manufacturer, who were primarily concerned with success in Spain, and uninterested in winning the classics, meaning Kelly had to compete in both types of races. He finished on a podium in a grand tour for the first time when he finished third in the 1986 Vuelta a España, winning two stages along the way. Kelly missed the 1986 Tour de France due to a serious crash in the last stage of Tour de Suisse. He returned to Ireland and won the Nissan Classic again. His second win in the Nissan came after a duel with Steve Bauer, who took the yellow jersey after Kelly crashed numerous times. Kelly went into the final stage three seconds behind Bauer and took the jersey when he finished third on the stage and won bonus seconds. Kelly took more than 30 victories in total across the 1986 season.
Kelly won Paris–Nice in 1987 on the last day after Roche, the leader, punctured. Later, leading the Vuelta a España with three days to go, he retired with an extremely painful saddle sore. His bad luck continued in the Tour de France, retiring after a crash tore ligaments in his shoulder. After the World Championship, in which he finished fifth behind Roche, Kelly returned to Ireland to win the Nissan for the third consecutive time.
Kelly won his seventh Paris–Nice in spring 1988, a record. He won Gent–Wevelgem several weeks later.
Grand Tour success
Kelly returned in April to the 1988 Vuelta a España which started on the rugged mountainous island of Tenerife where his team struggled in the second stage, losing the influential rider Thomas Wegmüller to dysentery and losing further time in the time-trial around Las Palmas. However, on the Spanish mainland, Kelly concentrated on winning sprint time bonuses, battling with sprinter Jorge Dominguez, the BH teammate of leader, Laudelino Cubino.
After regaining a minute in four days, the race reached the mountains where Kelly relied on help from Robert Millar of team Fagor-MBK to stay within two minutes of Cubino after the mountain trial to Alto Oviedo. He then finished fourth behind stage-winner Fabio Parra and Anselmo Fuerte on stage 13 to the ski-station at Cerler, cutting a minute and a half into Cubino's lead. From this stage, Fuerte had moved into second overall and later took the jersey from Cubino on the 16th stage to Albacete when the leader got caught on the wrong side of a split caused by cross-winds.
Kelly maintained the gap between himself and Fuerte and started the time trial on the second last day 21 seconds behind. Confident that he could overhaul the leader, he "put it in a big gear and gave it everything". He took the leader's amarillo jersey, beating Fuerte by almost two minutes. The following day Kelly won his only grand tour, over West German Raimund Dietzen and also won the points competition. After his Vuelta win Kelly returned to Carrick-on-Suir where a parade was held in his honour.
Twilight of his career
Kelly finished 46th in the Tour de France just over an hour behind Pedro Delgado. He was no longer a contender for overall victory after this and said he'd never win the Tour de France. Kelly finished third behind the German, Rolf Gölz, in the Nissan Classic that year
Kelly finished third in the sprint at the rainy world road championship of 1989 at Chambéry, France, behind Dimitri Konyshev and Greg Lemond. Lemond won his second rainbow jersey as world champion.
Kelly switched to the Dutch PDM team and stayed there three years until the end of 1991. The following year he won Liège–Bastogne–Liège, the points classification in the Tour de France, and the inaugural UCI Road World Cup championship.
Kelly won the Tour de Suisse in 1990. In March 1991, he broke a collarbone, then pulled out of the 1991 Tour de France and then while Kelly was competing the Tour of Galicia in August, his brother Joe was killed in a race near Carrick-on-Suir. He came back to win his fourth Nissan Classic by four seconds over Sean Yates and then went to and won the classic at the end of the season, the Giro di Lombardia.
Kelly won the Giro di Lombardia for a third time in 1991 but started 1992 regarded as past his prime. He moved to Festina and prepared for Milan–San Remo. Race favourite Moreno Argentin attacked from the leading group on the final climb, the Poggio. He broke clear after several attempts and reached the top eight seconds before the rest. It seemed he was on his way to a solo victory as the peloton descended the Poggio, where Maurizio Fondriest led, marked by Argentin's teammate Rolf Sørensen. Kelly was behind these two in third position. Kelly attacked with three kilometres of descending left. Sorensen could not hold his acceleration and Kelly got away. He caught Argentin with a kilometre to go. Both stalled, the chasers closing fast, Argentin gesturing to Kelly to take the front. Kelly stayed on Argentin's wheel. The two moved again, preparing for a sprint; Kelly launched himself and in the final 200m came past Argentin to win his final classic.
In 1992, Kelly travelled to Colombia for the Clásico RCN, where he won the second stage. His PDM teammate, Martin Earley, pushed him into second place at the 1993 Irish road championship.
Kelly's last year as a professional was 1994, when he rode for Catavana. He returned to Carrick-on-Suir at the end of the season to ride the annual Hamper race. That was Kelly's last race as a professional. Eddy Merckx, Laurent Fignon, Bernard Hinault, Roger De Vlaeminck, Claude Criquielion, Stephen Roche, Martin Earley, Acacio Da Silva and Paul Kimmage were among 1,200 cyclists present. The President of Ireland, Mary Robinson, attended a civic presentation to Kelly the day before the race. Kelly won in a sprint against Roche. Kelly won this race again six years later.
Legacy and riding style
Kelly's career is remarkable in that it spanned the eras of several legends of the Tour de France, from Eddy Merckx through to Miguel Indurain. His first Tour was also the first for Bernard Hinault and the two battled in the sprint of stage 15. Greg LeMond and Laurent Fignon emerged in the early eighties and challenged Kelly in the classics as well as in the Tour, and Kelly witnessed the rise of Miguel Indurain and the early career of Lance Armstrong. Kelly's career coincided with Stephen Roche as well as classics specialists including Francesco Moser, Claude Criquielion, Moreno Argentin and Eric Vanderaerden. Evidence of Kelly's dominance can be seen from his three victories in the season-long Super Prestige Pernod International competition (predecessor to the World Cup). Kelly competed throughout the season, from Paris–Nice in March to the Giro di Lombardia in October, winning both in 1983 and 1985.
Robin Magowan said:
"It is customary to talk of Kelly as quintessentially an Irish rider. For my part, though, I think it helps to place Kelly better as a cyclist to see him as the last of the Flemish riders. This is usually a title associated with the post-war rider, Briek Schotte who has become appropriately enough the man in day-to-day charge of the de Gribaldy teams. As exemplified by Schotte it stood for a certain type of mentality, willing to suffer, narrowly focussed, and hard, hard, hard. Kelly had all this in him from his Irish small-farm background: the outside loo; the dogs that have to be chained before you can step from your car; the one career possible, as a bricklayer on a construction site, stretching away and away into the grey mists. On the positive side, along with the self-reliance, came a physical strength that even by peasant standards is impressive. In a profession of iron wills, there is no one harder."
While some sprinters remain sheltered in the peloton until the final few hundred metres, Kelly could instigate breaks and climb well, proving this by winning the Vuelta a España in 1988, as well as winning a stage of Paris-Nice on the climb of Mont Ventoux. His victories in Paris–Roubaix (1984, 1986) showed his ability in poor weather and on pavé sections, while he could stay with the climbing specialists in the mountains in the Tour de France. He was also a formidable descender, clocking a career top race speed of 124 km/h, while descending from Col de Joux Plane to Morzine on stage 19 of the Tour in 1984. He finished fourth in the Tour in 1985 and won the points classification in 1982, 1983, 1985, and 1989, the first to win four times, a feat he repeated in the Vuelta a España. Kelly won five stages in the Tour de France and 16 in the Vuelta a España.
Doping
Kelly failed drug tests twice during his career. After the 1984 edition of Paris–Brussels, in which he had finished third, cycling authorities stated that a urine sample supplied by Kelly had tested positive for pemoline (Stimul), a result which was repeated with the testing of a B sample. The Royal Belgian Cycling League sentenced Kelly to a three-month suspended ban and a fine. Kelly denied taking any banned substances: in an interview at the time with David Walsh, he claimed that there were "irregularities at the testing centre that day ... the medical control at Paris-Brussels was very badly organised and lots of people were in the room who had no right to be there ... in all this confusion something must have gone wrong". In his autobiography Hunger, Kelly stated that Irish Cycling Federation official Karl McCarthy, who acted as a witness on Kelly's behalf at the second test as he was unable to attend due to racing commitments, told him that the B sample was "tiny" and below the amount required for the test. In his book Breaking the Chain, Kelly's former soigneur Willy Voet claimed that Kelly had been ill with bronchitis in the week before the race and had taken ephedrine to treat it: to avoid a positive test, Voet wrote that Kelly had carried a container in his shorts filled with urine supplied by one of the team's mechanics to doping control, and that the Stimul detected in the sample had been taken by the mechanic to help him stay awake while driving the team's truck.
Kelly's second positive test occurred at the 1988 Tour of the Basque Country, where he tested positive for codeine. Having finished third in the overall classification, he received a ten-minute penalty that dropped him down the order. Kelly explained this as being the result of a worsening cough he had developed during the race: he said that between the end of the final stage and attending doping control he took a swig from a bottle of cough medicine, to which he attributed the presence of codeine in his urine sample.
Post-cycling career
Kelly is a commentator for the English-language services of Eurosport and has established and is involved in the Sean Kelly Cycling Academy in Belgium. In 2006 he launched Ireland's first professional team, the Sean Kelly Team, composed of young Irish and Belgian riders based at the Sean Kelly Cycling Academy in Merchtem, Belgium. He has a cycling clothing company which supplies clubs and companies, and which also organises corporate cycling events in Ireland and throughout Europe. He rides long-distance charity cycling tours with Blazing Saddles, a charity raising money for the blind and partially sighted. Such tours have included a journey across America by bike in 2000. He also participates in charity cycling endurance events in Scotland (notably with the Braveheart Cycling Fund), England, France and Ireland. Sean Kelly regularly cycles with SportActive cycling holidays in Mallorca.
The inaugural Sean Kelly Tour of Waterford was held on 19 August 2007.
Kelly was one of the 910 participants. The second was on 24 August 2008. Kelly was one of the 2,048. The 2009 tour went ahead on 30 August 2009. It attracted over 3,400 participants. On 29 August 2010, 3708 cyclists took part in the Tour. In 2011 the attendance ballooned to over 8,000 over the two days and events. This ran annually until 2017. In 2018, the organisers of The Sean Kelly Tour of Waterford completed a review and decided not to run the event and to look at other cycling initiatives in and around Waterford.
In November 2013, at Dublin City University, Sean Kelly was awarded with an Honorary Doctorate in Philosophy in recognition of his
contribution to Irish sport.
Personality
Fellow pupils at Kelly's school [see above] felt Kelly fell silent because he felt intellectually outclassed. The lack of words continued even after Kelly had proved himself one of the best racing cyclists of his era. The writer Robin Magowan said:
"On the bench, swivelling his body away as you approach, chary of words when not downright hostile, Sean Kelly remains for a journalist the hardest of the great riders to fathom. In an age when most of his brethren rate themselves, and are paid, according to the amount of publicity inches they have gleaned in a season, this farmer's son ... remains very much the exception, closed, withdrawn, and extremely suspicious. Yet one has only to look at him joking with Stephen Roche, or know the respect with which he is held by the peloton, to see that he gets along very well without us."
Coverage
Kelly is the subject of several books, including a biography Kelly in 1986 and A Man For All Seasons by David Walsh in 1991.
Sean Kelly published his autobiography Hunger in 2013.
Career achievements
Major results
1972
1st Road race, National Junior Road Championships
1973
1st Road race, National Junior Road Championships
1975
Tour of Ireland
1st Mountains classification
1st Stages 5, 6 & 7
1st Stage 7 Milk Race
1976
1st Overall Cinturón a Mallorca
1st Piccolo Giro di Lombardia
1st Stage 6 Milk Race
1977
1st Stage 1 Tour de Romandie
1st Stage 4 Étoile des Espoirs
1978
1st Stage 6 Tour de France
Setmana Catalana de Ciclismo
1st Stage 1a (TTT) & 1b
1st Stage 3 Tour Méditerranéen
1st Stage 5a Étoile des Espoirs
1979
Vuelta a España
1st Stages 1 & 8a
1st GP de Cannes
9th Road race, UCI Road World Championships
10th Omloop Het Volk
1980
1st Overall Three Days of De Panne
1st Stage 2
Tour de France
1st Stages 19 & 21
1st Stage 3a Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré
1st Stage 4 Ronde van Nederland
2nd E3 Prijs Vlaanderen
2nd De Brabantse Pijl
2nd Tour du Haut Var
3rd Amstel Gold Race
3rd Omloop Het Volk
3rd Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne
4th Overall Vuelta a España
1st Points classification
1st Sprints classification
1st Stages 1, 2, 14, 17 19 & 21
4th Milan–San Remo
1981
1st Stage 15 Tour de France
1st Stage 2 Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré
1st Stage 5a Ronde van Nederland
1st Stage 3 Tour of Belgium
1st Stage 1 Tour of Luxembourg
2nd Overall Four Days of Dunkirk
1st Stage 2
4th La Flèche Wallonne
5th Rund um den Henninger Turm
6th Amstel Gold Race
7th De Brabantse Pijl
8th Tour of Flanders
9th Züri–Metzgete
1982
1st Overall Paris–Nice
1st Stages 3, 5, 7a & 7b (ITT)
Etoile des Espoirs
1st Stages 1, 2 & 3
Tour de l'Aude
1st Stages 1 & 2
1st Tour du Haut Var
1st Stage 2 Grand Prix du Midi Libre
1st Stage 3 Critérium International
Tour de France
1st Points classification
1st Intermediate Sprints classification
1st Stage 12
3rd Road race, UCI Road World Championships
3rd Omloop Het Volk
3rd Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne
3rd Rund um den Henninger Turm
4th Amstel Gold Race
6th GP Ouest–France
8th La Flèche Wallonne
10th Liège–Bastogne–Liège
1983
1st Overall Paris–Nice
1st Stages 3a, 4 & 7b (ITT)
1st Overall Tour de Suisse
1st Points classification
1st Stages 3 & 5b (ITT)
1st Overall Critérium International
1st Stage 3
1st Giro di Lombardia
1st Grand Prix d'Isbergues
1st Stage 4 Etoile des Espoirs
1st Stage 2 Paris–Bourges
2nd Overall Super Prestige Pernod International
2nd Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne
2nd Giro del Piemonte
5th Milan–San Remo
6th Trofeo Baracchi
7th Overall Tour de France
1st Points classification
1st Intermediate Sprints classification
8th Road race, UCI Road World Championships
1984
1st Overall Paris–Nice
1st Stages 2 & 7b (ITT)
1st Overall Volta a Catalunya
1st Points classification
1st Mountains classification
1st Stages 1, 4a, 4b & 7a (ITT)
1st Overall Tour of the Basque Country
1st Stages 1, 3 & 5b (ITT)
1st Overall Critérium International
1st Stages 1, 2 & 3 (ITT)
1st Overall Super Prestige Pernod International
1st Paris–Roubaix
1st Liège–Bastogne–Liège
1st Paris–Tours
1st GP Ouest–France
1st Critérium des As
1st Paris–Bourges
2nd Tour of Flanders
2nd Milan–San Remo
2nd Grand Prix des Nations
3rd Rund um den Henninger Turm
4th Overall Tour de Suisse
1st Points classification
1st Stage 1
4th Overall Tour du Limousin
1st Stages 1b, 2 & 4
5th Overall Tour de France
1985
1st Overall Paris–Nice
1st Overall Nissan Classic
1st Stages 1 & 3a (ITT)
Tour of the Basque Country
1st Stages 3 & 5b (ITT)
1st Overall Super Prestige Pernod International
1st Giro di Lombardia
1st Critérium des As
1st Stage 3 Ronde van Nederland
2nd Overall Volta a Catalunya
1st Stage 2
2nd Overall Three Days of De Panne
3rd Overall Critérium International
1st Stage 1
3rd Overall Vuelta Ciclista a la Communidad Valenciana
1st Stage 5
3rd Paris–Roubaix
4th Overall Tour de France
1st Points classification
4th Overall Tour de Suisse
4th Liège–Bastogne–Liège
6th Overall Tour of the Basque Country
7th Milan–San Remo
7th Gent–Wevelgem
9th Overall Vuelta a España
1st Points classification
1st Stages 2, 10 & 15
1986
1st Overall Paris–Nice
1st Prologue, Stages 3 & 7b (ITT)
1st Overall Volta a Catalunya
1st Points classification
1st Stage 7 (ITT)
1st Overall Tour of the Basque Country
1st Stages 3, 5a & 5b
1st Overall Nissan Classic
Vuelta Ciclista a la Communidad Valenciana
1st Stages 1 & 3
1st Overall Super Prestige Pernod International
1st Milan–San Remo
1st Paris–Roubaix
1st Grand Prix des Nations
1st Critérium des As
1st Stage 4a Vuelta a Aragón
1st Stage 4 Tour du Limousin
2nd Overall Critérium International
1st Stages 1 & 3 (ITT)
2nd Overall Three Days of De Panne
1st Stage 1b (ITT)
2nd Overall Paris–Bourges
1st Stage 2
2nd Tour of Flanders
2nd Giro di Lombardia
2nd GP Ouest–France
2nd Brussels Cycling Classic
3rd Overall Vuelta a España
1st Points classification
1st Combination classification
1st Stages 10 & 13
5th La Flèche Wallonne
5th Road race, UCI Road World Championships
6th Paris–Tours
1987
1st Overall Paris–Nice
1st Stage 3
1st Overall Tour of the Basque Country
1st Points classification
1st Mountains classification
1st Stages 4 & 5b (ITT)
1st Overall Critérium International
1st Stages 2 & 3 (ITT)
1st Overall Nissan Classic
Vuelta a España
1st Stages 1 & 3
Held after Stages 1–4
1st Stage 7 Vuelta Ciclista a la Communidad Valenciana
2nd Overall Three Days of De Panne
1st Stage 1b (ITT)
2nd Overall Super Prestige Pernod International
2nd Tour of Flanders
3rd Dwars door België
4th Milan–San Remo
4th Brussels Cycling Classic
4th Grand Prix des Nations
5th Overall Volta a Catalunya
1st Points classification
1st Prologue & Stage 1
5th Road race, UCI Road World Championships
10th GP Ouest–France
1988
1st Overall Vuelta a España
1st Points classification
1st Combination classification
1st Stages 10 & 19 (ITT)
1st Overall Paris–Nice
1st Stage 6b (ITT)
1st Overall Setmana Catalana de Ciclisme
1st Points classification
1st Stage 4b (ITT)
Tour du Limousin
1st Stages 2b & 3
1st Gent–Wevelgem
1st Stage 4 Tour of the Basque Country
2nd Tour du Haut Var
2nd Grand Prix de Fourmies
3rd Overall Kellogg's Tour
3rd Paris–Tours
4th Tour of Flanders
5th Milan–San Remo
5th Liège–Bastogne–Liège
7th Omloop Het Volk
1989
1st UCI Road World Cup
1st Liège–Bastogne–Liège
1st Stage 4 Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré
1st Mountains classification Nissan Classic
2nd Omloop Het Volk
3rd Road race, UCI Road World Championships
3rd Wincanton Classic
3rd Trofeo Baracchi
5th Milan–San Remo
7th Overall Tirreno–Adriatico
7th Paris–Tours
9th Overall Tour de France
1st Points classification
1st Intermediate sprints classification
1990
1st Overall Tour de Suisse
1st Stage 4 (ITT)
3rd UCI Road World Cup
3rd Clásica de San Sebastián
5th Road race, UCI Road World Championships
6th Overall Tirreno–Adriatico
8th Overall Critérium International
8th Paris–Tours
8th Trofeo Luis Puig
9th Overall Volta a Catalunya
10th Giro di Lombardia
1991
1st Overall Nissan Classic
1st Giro di Lombardia
4th Milano–Torino
4th Trofeo Luis Puig
1992
1st Milan–San Remo
1st Trofeo Luis Puig
1st Stage 7 Tour de Suisse
1st Stage 4 Vuelta Ciclista a la Communidad Valenciana
1st Stage 2 Clásico RCN
4th Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne
1993
2nd Road race, National Road Championships
4th Paris–Tours
1994
10th Overall Route du Sud
General classification results timeline
Classics results timeline
Footnotes
External links
1956 births
Living people
Sportspeople from County Waterford
Irish male cyclists
Irish Tour de France stage winners
Irish expatriate sportspeople in Belgium
Sports commentators
Vuelta a España winners
Irish Vuelta a España stage winners
Cycling announcers
Tour de Suisse stage winners
RTÉ Sports Person of the Year winners
Super Prestige Pernod winners
UCI Road World Rankings winners
UCI Road World Cup winners | true | [
"Přírodní park Třebíčsko (before Oblast klidu Třebíčsko) is a natural park near Třebíč in the Czech Republic. There are many interesting plants. The park was founded in 1983.\n\nKobylinec and Ptáčovský kopeček\n\nKobylinec is a natural monument situated ca 0,5 km from the village of Trnava.\nThe area of this monument is 0,44 ha. Pulsatilla grandis can be found here and in the Ptáčovský kopeček park near Ptáčov near Třebíč. Both monuments are very popular for tourists.\n\nPonds\n\nIn the natural park there are some interesting ponds such as Velký Bor, Malý Bor, Buršík near Přeckov and a brook Březinka. Dams on the brook are examples of European beaver activity.\n\nSyenitové skály near Pocoucov\n\nSyenitové skály (rocks of syenit) near Pocoucov is one of famed locations. There are interesting granite boulders. The area of the reservation is 0,77 ha.\n\nExternal links\nParts of this article or all article was translated from Czech. The original article is :cs:Přírodní park Třebíčsko.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nNature near the village Trnava which is there\n\nTřebíč\nParks in the Czech Republic\nTourist attractions in the Vysočina Region",
"Interesting Times: The Secret of My Success is a 2002 Chinese documentary film by director Duan Jinchuan about China's contemporary politics of democracy and the realities of the one child policy. The director shows how this policy is being implemented in Fanshen, a rural village in Northeast China.\n\nThis film is part of the 2002 series 'Interesting Times' showing different aspects of modern life in China:\nThe secret of my success - shows how Chinese politics are implemented in the countryside.\nThe war of love Directors: Duan Jinchuan & Jiang Yue - is a portrait of a marriage broker.\nXiao’s long march Director: Wu Gong - about the People's Liberation Army.\nThis happy life Director: Jiang Yue - aims to define the concept of political education in China.\n\nAwards\nIDFA Award for best Mid-Length Documentary (2002)\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n Interesting times: the secrets of my success documentary online\n\nChinese documentary films\n2002 films\n2002 documentary films\nChinese films\nOne-child policy"
]
|
[
"Sean Kelly (cyclist)",
"Grand Tour success",
"What were their successes?",
"1988 Vuelta a Espana",
"What was Vuelta a Espana?",
"I don't know.",
"What else did the achieve?",
"Kelly won his only grand tour, over West German Raimund Dietzen",
"How did the grand tour go?",
"After his Vuelta win Kelly returned to Carrick-on-Suir where a parade was held in his honour.",
"Is there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"on the Spanish mainland, Kelly concentrated on winning sprint time bonuses,"
]
| C_4d76750d2ad749f795c41f586247ee31_0 | Why did he do this? | 6 | Why did Sean Kelly concentrate on winning sprint time bonuses? | Sean Kelly (cyclist) | Kelly returned in April to the 1988 Vuelta a Espana which started on the rugged mountainous island of Tenerife where his team struggled in the second stage, losing the influential rider Thomas Wegmuller to dysentery and losing further time in the time-trial around Las Palmas. However, on the Spanish mainland, Kelly concentrated on winning sprint time bonuses, battling with sprinter Jorge Dominguez, the BH teammate of leader, Laudelino Cubino. After regaining a minute in four days, the race reached the mountains where Kelly relied on help from Robert Millar of team Fagor-MBK to stay within two minutes of Cubino after the mountain trial to Alto Oviedo. He then finished fourth behind stage-winner Fabio Parra and Anselmo Fuerte on stage 13 to the ski-station at Cerler, cutting a minute and a half into Cubino's lead. From this stage, Fuerte had moved into second overall and later took the jersey from Cubino on the 16th stage to Albacete when the leader got caught on the wrong side of a split caused by cross-winds. Kelly maintained the gap between himself and Fuerte and started the time trial on the second last day 21 seconds behind. Confident that he could overhaul the leader, he "put it in a big gear and gave it everything". He took the leader's amarillo jersey, beating Fuerte by almost two minutes. The following day Kelly won his only grand tour, over West German Raimund Dietzen and also won the points competition. After his Vuelta win Kelly returned to Carrick-on-Suir where a parade was held in his honour. CANNOTANSWER | on the rugged mountainous island of Tenerife where his team struggled in the second stage, | John James 'Sean' Kelly (born 24 May 1956) is an Irish former professional road bicycle racer, one of the most successful road cyclists of the 1980s, and one of the finest classics riders of all time. From turning professional in 1977 until his retirement in 1994, he won nine monument classics, and 193 professional races in total. He won Paris–Nice seven years in a row and the first UCI Road World Cup in 1989. He won one Grand Tour, the 1988 Vuelta a España, won 4 green jerseys in the Tour de France and had multiple wins in the Giro di Lombardia, Milan–San Remo, Paris–Roubaix and Liège–Bastogne–Liège, as well as three runners-up placings in the only 'Monument' he failed to win, the Tour of Flanders. Other victories include the Critérium International, Grand Prix des Nations and shorter stage races including the Tour de Suisse, Tour of the Basque Country and Volta a Catalunya.
Kelly twice won bronze medals (1982, 1989) in the World Road Race Championships and finished 5th in 1987, the year compatriot Stephen Roche won gold. Kelly was first to be ranked No.1 when the FICP rankings were introduced in March 1984, a position he held for a record five years. By total career ranking points, Kelly is the second best cyclist of all time after Eddy Merckx. In the 1984 season, Kelly achieved 33 victories.
Early life and amateur career
Kelly is the second son of Jack (John) and Nellie Kelly, a farming family in Curraghduff in County Waterford. He was born at Belleville Maternity Home in Waterford city on 21 May 1956. He was named John James Kelly after his father and then, to avoid confusion at home, referred to as Sean. Seán is the Irish form of John.
For eight years he attended Crehana National School, County Waterford to which he travelled with his older brother, Joe. Fellow pupils recall a boy who retreated into silence because, they thought, he felt intellectually outclassed. His education ended at 13 when he left school to help on the farm after his father went to hospital in Waterford with an ulcer. At 16 he began work as a bricklayer.
Kelly began cycling after his brother had started riding to school in September 1969. Joe rode and won local races and on 4 August 1970 Sean rode his own first race, at Kennedy Terrace in Carrickbeg, County Waterford, part of Carrick-on-Suir. The race was an eight-mile (13 km) handicap, which meant the weaker riders started first and the best last. Kelly set off three minutes before the backmarkers. He was still three minutes ahead when the course turned for home after four miles (6 km) and more than three minutes in the lead when he crossed the line. At 16 he won the national junior championship at Banbridge, County Down.
Kelly won the national championship again in 1973, then took a senior licence before the normal qualifying age of 18 and won the Shay Elliot Memorial race in 1974 and again in 1975 and stages in the Tour of Ireland of 1975.
Kelly and two other Irish riders, Pat and Kieron McQuaid, went to South Africa to ride the Rapport Tour stage-race in preparation for the 1976 Olympic Games. They and others rode under false names because of an international ban on athletes competing in South Africa, as a protest against apartheid. The three Irish were suspended from racing for six months. They were racing again when the International Olympic Committee banned them from the Olympics for life.
Unable to ride in Canada, Kelly rode the 1976 Tour of Britain and then went to Metz, in France, after a London enthusiast, Johnny Morris, had arranged an invitation. Velo Club de Metz offered him £25 a week, free accommodation and four francs a kilometre for every race he won. Kelly won 18 of the 25 races he started in France and won the amateur Giro di Lombardia in Italy.
The win in Italy impressed two French team managers, Jean de Gribaldy and Cyrille Guimard. De Gribaldy went to Ireland unannounced to discuss a contract with the Flandria professional team. He did not know where Kelly lived and was not sure he would recognise him, so he took with him another cyclist, to point out Kelly, and translate. Kelly was out driving a tractor and de Gribaldy set out again in the taxi that had brought him from Dublin, hoping to find Kelly as he drove home. They found him and went to Kelly's stepbrother's house. De Gribaldy offered £4,000 a year plus bonuses, and a week later Kelly asked for £6,000, and got it. He signed for de Gribaldy, with misgivings about going back on his promise to return to VC de Metz; the club had offered him better terms than before.
Kelly left for France in January 1977 and lived for two years at 18 place de la Révolution in Besançon, de Gribaldy's home town. He shared with four teammates.
Professional career
Early years
Kelly's first professional race was the Étoile de Bessèges. It started on 7 February 1977 and lasted six days. Kelly came 10th on the first day. The Flandria team was in two parts: the strongest riders, such as the world champion Freddy Maertens, were in the main section, based in Belgium. Kelly rode with the second section, based more in France because Flandria wanted to sell more of its mopeds, scooters and bicycles there. The strongest riders in both camps came together for big races. Kelly was recruited as a domestique for Maertens in the main team for year's Paris–Nice – shortly afterwards he won his first race, the opening stage of the Tour de Romandie. In 1978, he started in the Tour de France, in which he also won a stage.
Kelly stayed with de Gribaldy for 1977 and 1978. Then in 1978 Michel Pollentier was disqualified from the Tour de France after cheating a drugs test on the afternoon that he took the race lead. He left the team at the end of the season and started his own, with a new backer, Splendor. Both Maertens and Pollentier wanted Kelly. Pollentier and Splendor offered Kelly more and made him a team leader. But Splendor was new and logistic problems became obvious. The bikes were in poor state – enough that Splendor decided not to ride Paris–Roubaix – and the manager, Robert Lauwers, was replaced. Kelly rose above it and rode for himself. The writer Robin Magowan said: Some people can do business on the committee system; others find that life is only fun when you are running the show. In Kelly's case it was to mean working for the collection of underpaid has-beens that de Gribaldy habitually assembled. But a smaller, less pretentious team can have its advantages for a rider of Kelly's sort. When you don't have to compete for a team's loyalty you can concentrate on winning races, and that's exactly what Kelly proceeded to do.
In time the team improved. Kelly received few offers from elsewhere and Splendor matched those he did get. He was paid about £30,000 plus bonuses in his last season with Splendor. But strengthening the team had included bringing in another sprinter, Eddy Planckaert, and Kelly's role as a foreigner in the team was unclear. He heard that de Gribaldy was starting a new team and the two were reunited in 1982 at Sem-France Loire.
Stage successes
By now Kelly had a reputation as a sprinter who could not win stage races, although he did finish fourth in the 1980 Vuelta a España. De Gribaldy employed him as unambiguous team leader, someone he believed could win stage races and not just stages. To this end, de Gribaldy encouraged Kelly to lose weight, convincing the latter that he could target the overall win at Paris–Nice: Kelly won the "Race to the Sun" and four of its stages. On the last of those, a time-trial to the col d'Eze, he beat Gilbert Duclos-Lassalle and pushed him out of the lead. Years later Kelly admitted that his countryman Roche's emergence during his neo-pro season in 1981, during which he had also won Paris-Nice, was one of the factors which motivated him to adjust his focus to becoming more of an all-round rider. However, the spring classics season proved a disappointment, with Kelly's best result being a 12th place in Paris–Roubaix after suffering multiple punctures. Despite that, that season he went on to win another of objectives set by de Gribaldy: the points classification of the Tour de France, where he took five second places on flat stages before winning a reduced bunch sprint in Pau after climbing the Col d'Aubisque. His points total was nearly three times that of the points classification runner-up, the yellow jersey winner Bernard Hinault. He finished third in the world championship in England - the first worlds medal for an Irish rider since Shay Elliott's silver in 1962 - and at the end of the year married his girlfriend, Linda Grant, the daughter of a local cycling club official. Carrick-on-Suir named the town square "the Sean Kelly Square" in tribute to his achievements in the 1982 Tour de France and his bronze medal at the championship The following year Kelly again won Paris–Nice and then the Critérium International and the Tour de Suisse as well as the points classification in the Tour de France the second time in a row.
Kelly confirmed his potential in autumn 1983. A leading group of 18 entered Como in the Giro di Lombardia after a battle over the Intelvi and Schignano passes. Kelly won the sprint by the narrowest margin, less than half a wheel separating the first four, against cycling greats including Francesco Moser, Adri van der Poel, Hennie Kuiper and world champion Greg LeMond.
Kelly dominated the following spring. He won Paris–Nice for the third successive time beating Roche as well as the Tour de France winner, Bernard Hinault who was returning after a knee injury. Kelly finished second in Milan–San Remo and the Tour of Flanders, but was unbeatable in Paris–Roubaix and Liège–Bastogne–Liège. The day after Paris–Roubaix, the French daily sports paper, L'Équipe, pictured Kelly cycling the cobbles with mud on his face and had the heading Insatiable Kelly! referring to his appetite for winning that spring He won all three stages in the Critérium International: the bunch sprint on stage 1, a solo victory in the mountain stage and beating Roche in the final time trial. Kelly achieved 33 victories in 1984. He was becoming a contender in the grand tours, as seen by finishing fifth in the Tour de France. This may have caused him to lose his grip on the points classification in that year's Tour. Kelly was wearing it as the Tour was finishing on the Champs-Élysées but lost it in the bunch finish to the Belgian, Frank Hoste, who finished ahead of Kelly gaining points to take the jersey off Kelly's shoulders.
He won Paris–Nice in 1985, again beating Roche. He also took three stage wins at the Vuelta a España, but suffered a frustrating spring classics season, taking a third place at Paris-Roubaix and fourth at Liège–Bastogne–Liège, but losing out on wins through poor tactical decisions, such as at Milan-San Remo where he and rival Eric Vanderaerden marked each other out of contention. He won the points classification for the third time and finished fourth in the 1985 Tour de France, where his rivalry with Vanderaerden boiled over at the finish of the sixth stage in Reims: the latter veered to prevent Kelly from coming past in the final sprint, leading Kelly to push Vanderarden, and the Belgian pulling the Irishman's jersey in response. The race saw him battle for the last step on the GC podium with Stephen Roche: although Roche finished the tour in third, the duo's performances saw interest in the race expanding gradually in the Irish press. Kelly won the first Nissan International Classic beating Van Der Poel. At the end of the season, he won the Giro di Lombardia.
He won Milan–San Remo in 1986 after winning Paris–Nice. In Milan-San Remo, Kelly was being marked closely by Vanderaerden in the closing stages of the race. Mario Beccia attacked on the race's final climb of the Poggio di San Remo and was followed by Greg LeMond. In order to shake Vanderaerden, Kelly feigned a mechanical problem before sprinting away to join the lead group, and drove hard on the front to prevent Niki Rüttimann, LeMond's team-mate, who had followed Kelly, from linking up with the front group: Kelly won the three-up sprint at the finish. He also took stage wins at the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, Critérium International and Three Days of De Panne. He finished second in the Tour of Flanders and won Paris–Roubaix again. According to his autobiography Hunger, Kelly gave his support to Van der Poel in the latter's bid to win Flanders in exchange for the Dutchman's help in the French cobbled classic. In Flanders, Kelly rode on the front of the leading four man group in the closing stages of the race, which also included Van der Poel, Jean-Philippe Vandenbrande and Steve Bauer: regarding the final sprint, Kelly wrote that "I started my sprint early, and I knew Van der Poel was probably in my wheel as well, but I certainly gave it 100 per cent". After Flanders, he flew to Spain to race the Tour of the Basque Country, which he won, before flying north to compete in Paris-Roubaix. Roles were reversed as Kelly followed Van der Poel in latching onto an attack from Ferdi Van Den Haute on a late cobbled secteur to form another four-man group along with Rudy Dhaenens. Van Den Haute attacked again a kilometre from the race finish - which was located away from Roubaix Velodrome for the first time since 1943 - and once again Van der Poel led Kelly out in the sprint, enabling the latter to cross the line first. To date, Kelly is one of only three riders to win the double of Milan-San Remo and Paris-Roubaix in the same year, along with Cyrille van Hauwaert in 1908 and John Degenkolb in 2015. Kelly was engaged in an intense racing schedule, even by contemporary standards, having competed 34 times from the beginning of the season to 1986. He later explained this as partly due to the influence of Jean de Gribaldy, who reasoned that he might as well race if he was going to have to train on his bike if he didn't compete, and because of new sponsor Kas, a Spanish soft drink manufacturer, who were primarily concerned with success in Spain, and uninterested in winning the classics, meaning Kelly had to compete in both types of races. He finished on a podium in a grand tour for the first time when he finished third in the 1986 Vuelta a España, winning two stages along the way. Kelly missed the 1986 Tour de France due to a serious crash in the last stage of Tour de Suisse. He returned to Ireland and won the Nissan Classic again. His second win in the Nissan came after a duel with Steve Bauer, who took the yellow jersey after Kelly crashed numerous times. Kelly went into the final stage three seconds behind Bauer and took the jersey when he finished third on the stage and won bonus seconds. Kelly took more than 30 victories in total across the 1986 season.
Kelly won Paris–Nice in 1987 on the last day after Roche, the leader, punctured. Later, leading the Vuelta a España with three days to go, he retired with an extremely painful saddle sore. His bad luck continued in the Tour de France, retiring after a crash tore ligaments in his shoulder. After the World Championship, in which he finished fifth behind Roche, Kelly returned to Ireland to win the Nissan for the third consecutive time.
Kelly won his seventh Paris–Nice in spring 1988, a record. He won Gent–Wevelgem several weeks later.
Grand Tour success
Kelly returned in April to the 1988 Vuelta a España which started on the rugged mountainous island of Tenerife where his team struggled in the second stage, losing the influential rider Thomas Wegmüller to dysentery and losing further time in the time-trial around Las Palmas. However, on the Spanish mainland, Kelly concentrated on winning sprint time bonuses, battling with sprinter Jorge Dominguez, the BH teammate of leader, Laudelino Cubino.
After regaining a minute in four days, the race reached the mountains where Kelly relied on help from Robert Millar of team Fagor-MBK to stay within two minutes of Cubino after the mountain trial to Alto Oviedo. He then finished fourth behind stage-winner Fabio Parra and Anselmo Fuerte on stage 13 to the ski-station at Cerler, cutting a minute and a half into Cubino's lead. From this stage, Fuerte had moved into second overall and later took the jersey from Cubino on the 16th stage to Albacete when the leader got caught on the wrong side of a split caused by cross-winds.
Kelly maintained the gap between himself and Fuerte and started the time trial on the second last day 21 seconds behind. Confident that he could overhaul the leader, he "put it in a big gear and gave it everything". He took the leader's amarillo jersey, beating Fuerte by almost two minutes. The following day Kelly won his only grand tour, over West German Raimund Dietzen and also won the points competition. After his Vuelta win Kelly returned to Carrick-on-Suir where a parade was held in his honour.
Twilight of his career
Kelly finished 46th in the Tour de France just over an hour behind Pedro Delgado. He was no longer a contender for overall victory after this and said he'd never win the Tour de France. Kelly finished third behind the German, Rolf Gölz, in the Nissan Classic that year
Kelly finished third in the sprint at the rainy world road championship of 1989 at Chambéry, France, behind Dimitri Konyshev and Greg Lemond. Lemond won his second rainbow jersey as world champion.
Kelly switched to the Dutch PDM team and stayed there three years until the end of 1991. The following year he won Liège–Bastogne–Liège, the points classification in the Tour de France, and the inaugural UCI Road World Cup championship.
Kelly won the Tour de Suisse in 1990. In March 1991, he broke a collarbone, then pulled out of the 1991 Tour de France and then while Kelly was competing the Tour of Galicia in August, his brother Joe was killed in a race near Carrick-on-Suir. He came back to win his fourth Nissan Classic by four seconds over Sean Yates and then went to and won the classic at the end of the season, the Giro di Lombardia.
Kelly won the Giro di Lombardia for a third time in 1991 but started 1992 regarded as past his prime. He moved to Festina and prepared for Milan–San Remo. Race favourite Moreno Argentin attacked from the leading group on the final climb, the Poggio. He broke clear after several attempts and reached the top eight seconds before the rest. It seemed he was on his way to a solo victory as the peloton descended the Poggio, where Maurizio Fondriest led, marked by Argentin's teammate Rolf Sørensen. Kelly was behind these two in third position. Kelly attacked with three kilometres of descending left. Sorensen could not hold his acceleration and Kelly got away. He caught Argentin with a kilometre to go. Both stalled, the chasers closing fast, Argentin gesturing to Kelly to take the front. Kelly stayed on Argentin's wheel. The two moved again, preparing for a sprint; Kelly launched himself and in the final 200m came past Argentin to win his final classic.
In 1992, Kelly travelled to Colombia for the Clásico RCN, where he won the second stage. His PDM teammate, Martin Earley, pushed him into second place at the 1993 Irish road championship.
Kelly's last year as a professional was 1994, when he rode for Catavana. He returned to Carrick-on-Suir at the end of the season to ride the annual Hamper race. That was Kelly's last race as a professional. Eddy Merckx, Laurent Fignon, Bernard Hinault, Roger De Vlaeminck, Claude Criquielion, Stephen Roche, Martin Earley, Acacio Da Silva and Paul Kimmage were among 1,200 cyclists present. The President of Ireland, Mary Robinson, attended a civic presentation to Kelly the day before the race. Kelly won in a sprint against Roche. Kelly won this race again six years later.
Legacy and riding style
Kelly's career is remarkable in that it spanned the eras of several legends of the Tour de France, from Eddy Merckx through to Miguel Indurain. His first Tour was also the first for Bernard Hinault and the two battled in the sprint of stage 15. Greg LeMond and Laurent Fignon emerged in the early eighties and challenged Kelly in the classics as well as in the Tour, and Kelly witnessed the rise of Miguel Indurain and the early career of Lance Armstrong. Kelly's career coincided with Stephen Roche as well as classics specialists including Francesco Moser, Claude Criquielion, Moreno Argentin and Eric Vanderaerden. Evidence of Kelly's dominance can be seen from his three victories in the season-long Super Prestige Pernod International competition (predecessor to the World Cup). Kelly competed throughout the season, from Paris–Nice in March to the Giro di Lombardia in October, winning both in 1983 and 1985.
Robin Magowan said:
"It is customary to talk of Kelly as quintessentially an Irish rider. For my part, though, I think it helps to place Kelly better as a cyclist to see him as the last of the Flemish riders. This is usually a title associated with the post-war rider, Briek Schotte who has become appropriately enough the man in day-to-day charge of the de Gribaldy teams. As exemplified by Schotte it stood for a certain type of mentality, willing to suffer, narrowly focussed, and hard, hard, hard. Kelly had all this in him from his Irish small-farm background: the outside loo; the dogs that have to be chained before you can step from your car; the one career possible, as a bricklayer on a construction site, stretching away and away into the grey mists. On the positive side, along with the self-reliance, came a physical strength that even by peasant standards is impressive. In a profession of iron wills, there is no one harder."
While some sprinters remain sheltered in the peloton until the final few hundred metres, Kelly could instigate breaks and climb well, proving this by winning the Vuelta a España in 1988, as well as winning a stage of Paris-Nice on the climb of Mont Ventoux. His victories in Paris–Roubaix (1984, 1986) showed his ability in poor weather and on pavé sections, while he could stay with the climbing specialists in the mountains in the Tour de France. He was also a formidable descender, clocking a career top race speed of 124 km/h, while descending from Col de Joux Plane to Morzine on stage 19 of the Tour in 1984. He finished fourth in the Tour in 1985 and won the points classification in 1982, 1983, 1985, and 1989, the first to win four times, a feat he repeated in the Vuelta a España. Kelly won five stages in the Tour de France and 16 in the Vuelta a España.
Doping
Kelly failed drug tests twice during his career. After the 1984 edition of Paris–Brussels, in which he had finished third, cycling authorities stated that a urine sample supplied by Kelly had tested positive for pemoline (Stimul), a result which was repeated with the testing of a B sample. The Royal Belgian Cycling League sentenced Kelly to a three-month suspended ban and a fine. Kelly denied taking any banned substances: in an interview at the time with David Walsh, he claimed that there were "irregularities at the testing centre that day ... the medical control at Paris-Brussels was very badly organised and lots of people were in the room who had no right to be there ... in all this confusion something must have gone wrong". In his autobiography Hunger, Kelly stated that Irish Cycling Federation official Karl McCarthy, who acted as a witness on Kelly's behalf at the second test as he was unable to attend due to racing commitments, told him that the B sample was "tiny" and below the amount required for the test. In his book Breaking the Chain, Kelly's former soigneur Willy Voet claimed that Kelly had been ill with bronchitis in the week before the race and had taken ephedrine to treat it: to avoid a positive test, Voet wrote that Kelly had carried a container in his shorts filled with urine supplied by one of the team's mechanics to doping control, and that the Stimul detected in the sample had been taken by the mechanic to help him stay awake while driving the team's truck.
Kelly's second positive test occurred at the 1988 Tour of the Basque Country, where he tested positive for codeine. Having finished third in the overall classification, he received a ten-minute penalty that dropped him down the order. Kelly explained this as being the result of a worsening cough he had developed during the race: he said that between the end of the final stage and attending doping control he took a swig from a bottle of cough medicine, to which he attributed the presence of codeine in his urine sample.
Post-cycling career
Kelly is a commentator for the English-language services of Eurosport and has established and is involved in the Sean Kelly Cycling Academy in Belgium. In 2006 he launched Ireland's first professional team, the Sean Kelly Team, composed of young Irish and Belgian riders based at the Sean Kelly Cycling Academy in Merchtem, Belgium. He has a cycling clothing company which supplies clubs and companies, and which also organises corporate cycling events in Ireland and throughout Europe. He rides long-distance charity cycling tours with Blazing Saddles, a charity raising money for the blind and partially sighted. Such tours have included a journey across America by bike in 2000. He also participates in charity cycling endurance events in Scotland (notably with the Braveheart Cycling Fund), England, France and Ireland. Sean Kelly regularly cycles with SportActive cycling holidays in Mallorca.
The inaugural Sean Kelly Tour of Waterford was held on 19 August 2007.
Kelly was one of the 910 participants. The second was on 24 August 2008. Kelly was one of the 2,048. The 2009 tour went ahead on 30 August 2009. It attracted over 3,400 participants. On 29 August 2010, 3708 cyclists took part in the Tour. In 2011 the attendance ballooned to over 8,000 over the two days and events. This ran annually until 2017. In 2018, the organisers of The Sean Kelly Tour of Waterford completed a review and decided not to run the event and to look at other cycling initiatives in and around Waterford.
In November 2013, at Dublin City University, Sean Kelly was awarded with an Honorary Doctorate in Philosophy in recognition of his
contribution to Irish sport.
Personality
Fellow pupils at Kelly's school [see above] felt Kelly fell silent because he felt intellectually outclassed. The lack of words continued even after Kelly had proved himself one of the best racing cyclists of his era. The writer Robin Magowan said:
"On the bench, swivelling his body away as you approach, chary of words when not downright hostile, Sean Kelly remains for a journalist the hardest of the great riders to fathom. In an age when most of his brethren rate themselves, and are paid, according to the amount of publicity inches they have gleaned in a season, this farmer's son ... remains very much the exception, closed, withdrawn, and extremely suspicious. Yet one has only to look at him joking with Stephen Roche, or know the respect with which he is held by the peloton, to see that he gets along very well without us."
Coverage
Kelly is the subject of several books, including a biography Kelly in 1986 and A Man For All Seasons by David Walsh in 1991.
Sean Kelly published his autobiography Hunger in 2013.
Career achievements
Major results
1972
1st Road race, National Junior Road Championships
1973
1st Road race, National Junior Road Championships
1975
Tour of Ireland
1st Mountains classification
1st Stages 5, 6 & 7
1st Stage 7 Milk Race
1976
1st Overall Cinturón a Mallorca
1st Piccolo Giro di Lombardia
1st Stage 6 Milk Race
1977
1st Stage 1 Tour de Romandie
1st Stage 4 Étoile des Espoirs
1978
1st Stage 6 Tour de France
Setmana Catalana de Ciclismo
1st Stage 1a (TTT) & 1b
1st Stage 3 Tour Méditerranéen
1st Stage 5a Étoile des Espoirs
1979
Vuelta a España
1st Stages 1 & 8a
1st GP de Cannes
9th Road race, UCI Road World Championships
10th Omloop Het Volk
1980
1st Overall Three Days of De Panne
1st Stage 2
Tour de France
1st Stages 19 & 21
1st Stage 3a Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré
1st Stage 4 Ronde van Nederland
2nd E3 Prijs Vlaanderen
2nd De Brabantse Pijl
2nd Tour du Haut Var
3rd Amstel Gold Race
3rd Omloop Het Volk
3rd Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne
4th Overall Vuelta a España
1st Points classification
1st Sprints classification
1st Stages 1, 2, 14, 17 19 & 21
4th Milan–San Remo
1981
1st Stage 15 Tour de France
1st Stage 2 Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré
1st Stage 5a Ronde van Nederland
1st Stage 3 Tour of Belgium
1st Stage 1 Tour of Luxembourg
2nd Overall Four Days of Dunkirk
1st Stage 2
4th La Flèche Wallonne
5th Rund um den Henninger Turm
6th Amstel Gold Race
7th De Brabantse Pijl
8th Tour of Flanders
9th Züri–Metzgete
1982
1st Overall Paris–Nice
1st Stages 3, 5, 7a & 7b (ITT)
Etoile des Espoirs
1st Stages 1, 2 & 3
Tour de l'Aude
1st Stages 1 & 2
1st Tour du Haut Var
1st Stage 2 Grand Prix du Midi Libre
1st Stage 3 Critérium International
Tour de France
1st Points classification
1st Intermediate Sprints classification
1st Stage 12
3rd Road race, UCI Road World Championships
3rd Omloop Het Volk
3rd Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne
3rd Rund um den Henninger Turm
4th Amstel Gold Race
6th GP Ouest–France
8th La Flèche Wallonne
10th Liège–Bastogne–Liège
1983
1st Overall Paris–Nice
1st Stages 3a, 4 & 7b (ITT)
1st Overall Tour de Suisse
1st Points classification
1st Stages 3 & 5b (ITT)
1st Overall Critérium International
1st Stage 3
1st Giro di Lombardia
1st Grand Prix d'Isbergues
1st Stage 4 Etoile des Espoirs
1st Stage 2 Paris–Bourges
2nd Overall Super Prestige Pernod International
2nd Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne
2nd Giro del Piemonte
5th Milan–San Remo
6th Trofeo Baracchi
7th Overall Tour de France
1st Points classification
1st Intermediate Sprints classification
8th Road race, UCI Road World Championships
1984
1st Overall Paris–Nice
1st Stages 2 & 7b (ITT)
1st Overall Volta a Catalunya
1st Points classification
1st Mountains classification
1st Stages 1, 4a, 4b & 7a (ITT)
1st Overall Tour of the Basque Country
1st Stages 1, 3 & 5b (ITT)
1st Overall Critérium International
1st Stages 1, 2 & 3 (ITT)
1st Overall Super Prestige Pernod International
1st Paris–Roubaix
1st Liège–Bastogne–Liège
1st Paris–Tours
1st GP Ouest–France
1st Critérium des As
1st Paris–Bourges
2nd Tour of Flanders
2nd Milan–San Remo
2nd Grand Prix des Nations
3rd Rund um den Henninger Turm
4th Overall Tour de Suisse
1st Points classification
1st Stage 1
4th Overall Tour du Limousin
1st Stages 1b, 2 & 4
5th Overall Tour de France
1985
1st Overall Paris–Nice
1st Overall Nissan Classic
1st Stages 1 & 3a (ITT)
Tour of the Basque Country
1st Stages 3 & 5b (ITT)
1st Overall Super Prestige Pernod International
1st Giro di Lombardia
1st Critérium des As
1st Stage 3 Ronde van Nederland
2nd Overall Volta a Catalunya
1st Stage 2
2nd Overall Three Days of De Panne
3rd Overall Critérium International
1st Stage 1
3rd Overall Vuelta Ciclista a la Communidad Valenciana
1st Stage 5
3rd Paris–Roubaix
4th Overall Tour de France
1st Points classification
4th Overall Tour de Suisse
4th Liège–Bastogne–Liège
6th Overall Tour of the Basque Country
7th Milan–San Remo
7th Gent–Wevelgem
9th Overall Vuelta a España
1st Points classification
1st Stages 2, 10 & 15
1986
1st Overall Paris–Nice
1st Prologue, Stages 3 & 7b (ITT)
1st Overall Volta a Catalunya
1st Points classification
1st Stage 7 (ITT)
1st Overall Tour of the Basque Country
1st Stages 3, 5a & 5b
1st Overall Nissan Classic
Vuelta Ciclista a la Communidad Valenciana
1st Stages 1 & 3
1st Overall Super Prestige Pernod International
1st Milan–San Remo
1st Paris–Roubaix
1st Grand Prix des Nations
1st Critérium des As
1st Stage 4a Vuelta a Aragón
1st Stage 4 Tour du Limousin
2nd Overall Critérium International
1st Stages 1 & 3 (ITT)
2nd Overall Three Days of De Panne
1st Stage 1b (ITT)
2nd Overall Paris–Bourges
1st Stage 2
2nd Tour of Flanders
2nd Giro di Lombardia
2nd GP Ouest–France
2nd Brussels Cycling Classic
3rd Overall Vuelta a España
1st Points classification
1st Combination classification
1st Stages 10 & 13
5th La Flèche Wallonne
5th Road race, UCI Road World Championships
6th Paris–Tours
1987
1st Overall Paris–Nice
1st Stage 3
1st Overall Tour of the Basque Country
1st Points classification
1st Mountains classification
1st Stages 4 & 5b (ITT)
1st Overall Critérium International
1st Stages 2 & 3 (ITT)
1st Overall Nissan Classic
Vuelta a España
1st Stages 1 & 3
Held after Stages 1–4
1st Stage 7 Vuelta Ciclista a la Communidad Valenciana
2nd Overall Three Days of De Panne
1st Stage 1b (ITT)
2nd Overall Super Prestige Pernod International
2nd Tour of Flanders
3rd Dwars door België
4th Milan–San Remo
4th Brussels Cycling Classic
4th Grand Prix des Nations
5th Overall Volta a Catalunya
1st Points classification
1st Prologue & Stage 1
5th Road race, UCI Road World Championships
10th GP Ouest–France
1988
1st Overall Vuelta a España
1st Points classification
1st Combination classification
1st Stages 10 & 19 (ITT)
1st Overall Paris–Nice
1st Stage 6b (ITT)
1st Overall Setmana Catalana de Ciclisme
1st Points classification
1st Stage 4b (ITT)
Tour du Limousin
1st Stages 2b & 3
1st Gent–Wevelgem
1st Stage 4 Tour of the Basque Country
2nd Tour du Haut Var
2nd Grand Prix de Fourmies
3rd Overall Kellogg's Tour
3rd Paris–Tours
4th Tour of Flanders
5th Milan–San Remo
5th Liège–Bastogne–Liège
7th Omloop Het Volk
1989
1st UCI Road World Cup
1st Liège–Bastogne–Liège
1st Stage 4 Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré
1st Mountains classification Nissan Classic
2nd Omloop Het Volk
3rd Road race, UCI Road World Championships
3rd Wincanton Classic
3rd Trofeo Baracchi
5th Milan–San Remo
7th Overall Tirreno–Adriatico
7th Paris–Tours
9th Overall Tour de France
1st Points classification
1st Intermediate sprints classification
1990
1st Overall Tour de Suisse
1st Stage 4 (ITT)
3rd UCI Road World Cup
3rd Clásica de San Sebastián
5th Road race, UCI Road World Championships
6th Overall Tirreno–Adriatico
8th Overall Critérium International
8th Paris–Tours
8th Trofeo Luis Puig
9th Overall Volta a Catalunya
10th Giro di Lombardia
1991
1st Overall Nissan Classic
1st Giro di Lombardia
4th Milano–Torino
4th Trofeo Luis Puig
1992
1st Milan–San Remo
1st Trofeo Luis Puig
1st Stage 7 Tour de Suisse
1st Stage 4 Vuelta Ciclista a la Communidad Valenciana
1st Stage 2 Clásico RCN
4th Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne
1993
2nd Road race, National Road Championships
4th Paris–Tours
1994
10th Overall Route du Sud
General classification results timeline
Classics results timeline
Footnotes
External links
1956 births
Living people
Sportspeople from County Waterford
Irish male cyclists
Irish Tour de France stage winners
Irish expatriate sportspeople in Belgium
Sports commentators
Vuelta a España winners
Irish Vuelta a España stage winners
Cycling announcers
Tour de Suisse stage winners
RTÉ Sports Person of the Year winners
Super Prestige Pernod winners
UCI Road World Rankings winners
UCI Road World Cup winners | true | [
"\"Llangollen Market\" is a song from early 19th century Wales. It is known to have been performed at an eisteddfod at Llangollen in 1858.\n\nThe text of the song survives in a manuscript held by the National Museum of Wales, which came into the possession of singer Mary Davies, a co-founder of the Welsh Folk-Song Society.\n\nThe song tells the tale of a young man from the Llangollen area going off to war and leaving behind his broken-hearted girlfriend. Originally written in English, the song has been translated into Welsh and recorded by several artists such as Siân James, Siobhan Owen, Calennig and Siwsann George.\n\nLyrics\nIt’s far beyond the mountains that look so distant here,\nTo fight his country’s battles, last Mayday went my dear;\nAh, well shall I remember with bitter sighs the day,\nWhy, Owen, did you leave me? At home why did I stay?\n\nAh, cruel was my father that did my flight restrain,\nAnd I was cruel-hearted that did at home remain,\nWith you, my love, contented, I’d journey far away;\nWhy, Owen, did you leave me? At home why did I stay?\n\nWhile thinking of my Owen, my eyes with tears do fill,\nAnd then my mother chides me because my wheel stands still,\nBut how can I think of spinning when my Owen’s far away;\nWhy, Owen, did you leave me? At home why did I stay?\n\nTo market at Llangollen each morning do I go,\nBut how to strike a bargain no longer do I know;\nMy father chides at evening, my mother all the day;\nWhy, Owen, did you leave me, at home why did I stay?\n\nOh, would it please kind heaven to shield my love from harm,\nTo clasp him to my bosom would every care disarm,\nBut alas, I fear, 'tis distant - that happy, happy day;\nWhy, Owen, did you leave me, at home why did stay?\n\nReferences\n\nWelsh folk songs",
"Imponderables is a series of eleven books written by David Feldman and published by Harper Collins. The books examine, investigate, and explain common, yet puzzling phenomena. Examples include \"Why do your eyes hurt when you are tired?\", \"Why do judges wear black robes?\", and \"Why do you rarely see purple Christmas lights?\", among many others. The word \"imponderable\" is used to describe such mysteries of everyday life. The books are effectively a frequently asked questions list for people who wonder why and how the world works as it does.\n\nThe first book in this series, Imponderables: The Solution to the Mysteries of Everyday Life, was illustrated by Kas Schwan and was published in 1986.\n\nThe series \nThe books in the series (each named after an imponderable covered in the book) are:\nImponderables (1986, reissued as Why Don't Cats Like to Swim? in 2004), Harper, \nWhy Do Clocks Run Clockwise? (1987), Harper, \nWhen Do Fish Sleep? (1989), Harper, \nWhy Do Dogs Have Wet Noses? (1990), HarperCollins, \nDo Penguins Have Knees? (1991), Harper, \nWhen Did Wild Poodles Roam the Earth? (1992, reissued as Are Lobsters Ambidextrous? in 2005), Harper, \nHow Does Aspirin Find a Headache? (1993), Harper, \nWhat Are Hyenas Laughing At, Anyway? (1995), Berkley, \nHow Do Astronauts Scratch an Itch? (1996), Berkley, \nDo Elephants Jump? (2004), HarperCollins, \nWhy Do Pirates Love Parrots? (2006), Harper, \n\nThe books feature additional chapters on Frustables, which are defined as imponderables that are uniquely frustrating because they lack a clear answer. Some of the recurring frustables are:\n\nWhy do you so often see one shoe lying along the side of the road?\nWhy do the English drive on the left and most other countries on the right?\nWhy do American women shave their armpits?\nWhy do doctors have such messy handwriting?\n\nFeldman also wrote an offshoot book dealing solely with mysteries of the English language, titled Who Put the Butter in Butterfly? (1989), HarperCollins, .\n\nThe term \"Imponderables\" is a trademark.\n\nSee also \nThe Answer Man\nStraight Dope, a newspaper column based on a similar premise\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \nImponderables website\n\nPublications established in 1986\nTrivia books\nSeries of books\nHarperCollins books"
]
|
[
"John F. Kennedy Jr.",
"Mother's remarriage"
]
| C_5eafb25cd66a42ffa7d27f8c4a69c2ce_0 | Who did his mom get married to? | 1 | Who did John F. Kennedy Jr.'s mom get married to? | John F. Kennedy Jr. | After President Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, Mrs. Kennedy moved her family to a luxury apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, where John Kennedy, Jr. grew up. In 1967, his mother took him and Caroline on a six-week "sentimental journey" to Ireland, where they met President Eamon de Valera and visited the Kennedy ancestral home in Dunganstown. After his uncle Robert was assassinated in 1968, his mother took him and his sister out of the United States, saying: "If they're killing Kennedys, then my children are targets ... I want to get out of this country." The same year, she married Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis, and the family went to live on his private island of Skorpios. Kennedy is said to have considered his stepfather "a joke". In 1971, Kennedy returned to the White House with his mother and sister for the first time since the assassination. President Richard Nixon's daughters gave Kennedy a tour that included his old bedroom, and Nixon showed him the Resolute desk under which his father had let him play. When Onassis died in 1975, he left Kennedy $25,000, though Jacqueline was able to renegotiate the will, and acquired $20 million for herself and her children. In 1976, Kennedy and his cousin visited an earthquake disaster zone at Rabinal in Guatemala, helping with heavy building work and distributing food. The local priest said that they "ate what the people of Rabinal ate and dressed in Guatemalan clothes and slept in tents like most of the earthquake victims", adding that the two "did more for their country's image" in Guatemala "than a roomful of ambassadors". On his sixteenth birthday, Kennedy's Secret Service protection ended. He spent the summer of 1978 working as a wrangler in Wyoming. Before attending Brown University, Kennedy accompanied his mother to Africa. On a pioneering course, he rescued his group, which had gotten lost for two days without food or water, and won points for leadership. In 1979, the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum was dedicated, and Kennedy made his first major speech, reciting Stephen Spender's poem "I Think Continually of Those Who Were Truly Great". CANNOTANSWER | she married Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis, | John Fitzgerald Kennedy Jr. (November 25, 1960 – July 16, 1999), often referred to as John-John or JFK Jr., was an American lawyer, journalist, and magazine publisher. He was a son of U.S. president John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, and a younger brother of Caroline Kennedy. Three days before his third birthday, his father was assassinated.
From his childhood years at the White House, Kennedy was heavily covered by media, and later became a popular social figure in Manhattan. Trained as a lawyer, he worked as a New York City assistant district attorney for almost four years. In 1995, Kennedy launched George magazine, using his political and celebrity status to publicize it. He died in a plane crash in 1999 at the age of 38.
Early life
John Fitzgerald Kennedy Jr. was born at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital on November 25, 1960, two weeks after his father, Massachusetts senator John F. Kennedy, was elected president. His father took office exactly eight weeks after John Jr. was born. His parents had a stillborn daughter named Arabella four years before John Jr.'s birth. John Jr. had an older sister, Caroline, and a younger brother, Patrick, who died two days after his premature birth in 1963. His putative nickname, "John-John", came from a reporter who misheard JFK calling him "John" twice in quick succession; the name was not used by his family.
John Jr. lived in the White House during the first three years of his life and remained in the public spotlight as a young adult. His father was assassinated on November 22, 1963, and the state funeral was held three days later on John Jr.'s third birthday. At his mother's prompting, John Jr. saluted the flag-draped casket as it was carried out from St. Matthew's Cathedral. NBC News vice-president Julian Goodman called the video of the salute "the most impressive...shot in the history of television," which was set up by NBC Director Charles Jones, who was working for the press pool. Lyndon B. Johnson wrote his first letter as president to John Jr. and told him that he "can always be proud" of his father. Stan Stearns, who took an iconic photograph of the salute, served as chief White House photographer during the Johnson administration. Over the years, Stearns showed Johnson the image as it was a symbol of what Johnson said in his letter to John Jr. The family continued with their plans for a birthday party to demonstrate that the Kennedys would go on despite the death of the president.
After President Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, Jacqueline Kennedy moved her family briefly to the Georgetown area of Washington, and then to a luxury apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, where John Jr. grew up. In 1967, his mother took him and Caroline on a six-week "sentimental journey" to Ireland, where they met President Éamon de Valera and visited the Kennedy ancestral home in Dunganstown.
Mother's remarriage
After JFK's brother Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1968, Jackie took Caroline and John Jr. out of the United States, saying: "If they're killing Kennedys, then my children are targets ... I want to get out of this country." The same year, she married Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis, and the family went to live on his private island of Skorpios. Kennedy is said to have considered his stepfather "a joke".
In 1971, Kennedy returned to the White House with his mother and sister for the first time since the assassination. President Richard Nixon's daughters gave Kennedy a tour that included his old bedroom, and Nixon showed him the Resolute desk under which his father had let him play.
Education
Kennedy attended private schools in Manhattan, starting at Saint David's School and moving to Collegiate School, which he attended from third through tenth grade. He completed his education at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. After graduating, he accompanied his mother on a trip to Africa. He rescued his group while on a pioneering course, which had gotten lost for two days without food or water.
In 1976, Kennedy and his cousin visited an earthquake disaster zone at Rabinal in Guatemala, helping with heavy building work and distributing food. The local priest said that they "ate what the people of Rabinal ate and dressed in Guatemalan clothes and slept in tents like most of the earthquake victims," adding that the two "did more for their country's image" in Guatemala "than a roomful of ambassadors." On his sixteenth birthday, Kennedy's Secret Service protection ended and he spent the summer of 1978 working as a wrangler in Wyoming. In 1979, the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston was dedicated, and Kennedy made his first major speech, reciting Stephen Spender's poem "I Think Continually of Those Who Were Truly Great."
Kennedy attended Brown University, where he majored in American studies. There, he co-founded a student discussion group that focused on contemporary issues such as apartheid in South Africa, gun control, and civil rights. Visiting South Africa during a summer break, he was appalled by apartheid, and arranged for U.N. ambassador Andrew Young to speak about the topic at Brown. By his junior year at Brown, he had moved off campus to live with several other students in a shared house, and spent time at Xenon, a club owned by Howard Stein. Kennedy was initiated into Phi Psi, a local social fraternity that had been the Rhode Island Alpha Chapter of national Phi Kappa Psi fraternity until 1978.
In January 1983, Kennedy's Massachusetts driver's license was suspended after he received more than three speeding summonses in a twelve-month period, and failed to appear at a hearing. The family's lawyer explained he most likely "became immersed in exams and just forgot the date of the hearing." He graduated that same year with a bachelor's degree in American studies, and then took a break, traveling to India and spending some time at the University of Delhi where he did his post graduation work and he met Mother Teresa. He also worked with some of the Kennedy special interest projects, including the East Harlem School at Exodus House and Reaching Up.
Career
After the 1984 Democratic Convention in San Francisco, Kennedy returned to New York and earned $20,000 a year in a position at the Office of Business Development, where his boss reflected that he worked "in the same crummy cubbyhole as everybody else. I heaped on the work and was always pleased." From 1984 to 1986, he worked for the New York City Office of Business Development and served as deputy director of the 42nd Street Development Corporation in 1986, conducting negotiations with developers and city agencies. In 1988, he became a summer associate at Manatt, Phelps, Rothenberg & Phillips, a Los Angeles law firm with strong connections to the Democratic Party. There, Kennedy worked for Charlie Manatt, his uncle Ted Kennedy's law school roommate.
From 1989, Kennedy headed Reaching Up, a nonprofit group which provided educational and other opportunities for workers who helped people with disabilities. William Ebenstein, executive director of Reaching Up, said, "He was always concerned with the working poor, and his family always had an interest in helping them."
In 1989, Kennedy earned a J.D. degree from the New York University School of Law. He then failed the New York bar exam twice, before passing on his third try in July 1990. After failing the exam for a second time, Kennedy vowed that he would take it continuously until he was ninety-five years old or passed. If he had failed a third time, he would have been ineligible to serve as a prosecutor in the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, where he worked for the next four years. On August 29, 1991, Kennedy won his first case as a prosecutor.
In the summer of 1992, he worked as a journalist and was commissioned by The New York Times to write an article about his kayaking expedition to the Åland archipelago, where he saved one of his friends from the water when his kayak capsized. He then considered creating a magazine with his friend, public-relations magnate Michael J. Berman—a plan which his mother thought too risky. In his 2000 book The Day John Died, Christopher Andersen wrote that Jacqueline had also worried that her son would die in a plane crash, and asked her longtime companion Maurice Tempelsman "to do whatever it took to keep John from becoming a pilot".
Acting
Meanwhile, Kennedy had done a bit of acting, which was one of his passions (he had appeared in many plays while at Brown). He expressed interest in acting as a career, but his mother strongly disapproved of it, considering it an unsuitable profession. On August 4, 1985, Kennedy made his New York acting debut in front of an invitation-only audience at the Irish Theater on Manhattan's West Side. Executive director of the Irish Arts Center, Nye Heron, said that Kennedy was "one of the best young actors I've seen in years". Kennedy's director, Robin Saex, stated, "He has an earnestness that just shines through." Kennedy's largest acting role was playing a fictionalized version of himself in the eighth-season episode of the sitcom Murphy Brown, called "Altered States". In this episode, Kennedy visits Brown at her office, in order to promote a magazine he is publishing.
George magazine
In 1995, Kennedy and Michael Berman founded George, a glossy, politics-as-lifestyle and fashion monthly, with Kennedy controlling 50 percent of the shares. Kennedy officially launched the magazine at a news conference in Manhattan on September 8 and joked that he had not seen so many reporters in one place since he failed his first bar exam.
Each issue of the magazine contained an editor's column and interviews written by Kennedy, who believed they could make politics "accessible by covering it in an entertaining and compelling way" which would allow "popular interest and involvement" to follow. Kennedy did interviews with Louis Farrakhan, Billy Graham, Garth Brooks, and others.
The first issue was criticized for its image of Cindy Crawford posing as George Washington in a powdered wig and ruffled shirt. In defense of the cover, Kennedy stated that "political magazines should look like Mirabella."
In July 1997, Vanity Fair had published a profile of New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, claiming that the mayor was sleeping with his press secretary (which both parties denied). Although tempted to follow up on this story, Kennedy decided against it.
The same month, Kennedy wrote about meeting Mother Teresa, declaring that the "three days I spent in her presence was the strongest evidence this struggling Catholic has ever had that God exists."
The September 1997 issue of George centered on temptation, and featured two of Kennedy's cousins, Michael LeMoyne Kennedy and Joseph P. Kennedy II. Michael had been accused of having an affair with his children's underaged babysitter, while Joe had been accused by his ex-wife of having bullied her. John declared that both his cousins had become "poster boys for bad behavior"—believed to be the first time a member of the Kennedy family had publicly attacked another Kennedy. He said he was trying to show that press coverage of the pair was unfair, due to them being Kennedys. But Joe paraphrased John's father by stating, "Ask not what you can do for your cousin, but what you can do for his magazine."
Decline
By early 1997, Kennedy and Berman found themselves locked in a power struggle, which led to screaming matches, slammed doors, and even one physical altercation. Eventually Berman sold his share of the company, and Kennedy took on Berman's responsibilities himself. Though the magazine had already begun to decline in popularity before Berman left, his departure was followed by a rapid drop in sales.
David Pecker, CEO of Hachette Filipacchi Magazines who were partners in George, said the decline was because Kennedy refused to "take risks as an editor, despite the fact that he was an extraordinary risk taker in other areas of his life." Pecker said, "He understood that the target audience for George was the eighteen-to-thirty-four-year-old demographic, yet he would routinely turn down interviews that would appeal to this age group, like Princess Diana or John Gotti Jr., to interview subjects like Dan Rostenkowski or Võ Nguyên Giáp."
Shortly before his death, Kennedy had been planning a series of online chats with the 2000 presidential candidates. Microsoft was to provide the technology and pay for it while receiving advertising in George. After his death, the magazine was bought out by Hachette, but folded in early 2001.
Later life
Family activity
Kennedy addressed the 1988 Democratic National Convention in Atlanta, introducing his uncle, Senator Ted Kennedy. He invoked his father's inaugural address, calling "a generation to public service", and received a two-minute standing ovation. Republican consultant Richard Viguerie said he did not remember a word of the speech, but remembered "a good delivery" and added, "I think it was a plus for the Democrats and the boy. He is strikingly handsome."
Kennedy participated in his cousin Patrick J. Kennedy's campaign for a seat in the Rhode Island House of Representatives by visiting the district. He sat outside the polling booth and had his picture taken with "would-be" voters. The polaroid ploy worked so well in the campaign that Patrick J. Kennedy used it again in 1994.
Kennedy also campaigned in Boston for his uncle's re-election to the U.S. Senate against challenger Mitt Romney in 1994. "He always created a stir when he arrived in Massachusetts," remarked Senator Kennedy.
Relationships
While attending Brown University, Kennedy met Sally Munro, whom he dated for six years, and they visited India in 1983. While he was a student at Brown, he also met socialite Brooke Shields, with whom he was later linked.
Kennedy also dated models Cindy Crawford and Julie Baker, as well as actress Sarah Jessica Parker, who said she enjoyed dating Kennedy but realized he "was a public domain kind of a guy." Parker claimed to have no idea what "real fame" was until dating Kennedy and felt that she should "apologize for dating him" since it became the "defining factor in the person" she was.
Kennedy had known actress Daryl Hannah since their two families had vacationed together in St. Maarten in the early '80s. After meeting again at the wedding of his aunt Lee Radziwill in 1988, they dated for five and a half years, though their relationship was complicated by her feelings for singer Jackson Browne, with whom she had lived for a time.
Also during this time, Kennedy dated Christina Haag. They had known each other as children, and she also attended Brown University.
Marriage
After his relationship with Daryl Hannah ended, Kennedy cohabitated with Carolyn Bessette, who worked in the fashion industry. They were engaged for a year, though Kennedy consistently denied reports of this. On September 21, 1996, they married in a private ceremony on Cumberland Island, Georgia, where his sister, Caroline, was matron of honor and his cousin Anthony Radziwill was best man.
The next day, Kennedy's cousin Patrick revealed that the pair had married. When they returned to their Manhattan home, a mass of reporters was on the doorstep. One of them asked Kennedy if he had enjoyed his honeymoon, to which he responded: "Very much." He added "Getting married is a big adjustment for us, and for a private citizen like Carolyn even more so. I ask you to give her all the privacy and room you can."
But Carolyn was, in fact, badly disoriented by the constant attention from the paparazzi. The couple was permanently on show, both at fashionable Manhattan events, and on their travels to visit celebrities such as Mariuccia Mandelli and Gianni Versace. She also complained to her friend, journalist Jonathan Soroff, that she could not get a job without being accused of exploiting her fame.
In June 2019, Billy Noonan, a longtime friend of John F. Kennedy Jr., released a video tape of the secret wedding that had taken place on the remote island.
Piloting
Kennedy took flying lessons at the Flight Safety Academy in Vero Beach, Florida. In April 1998, he received his pilot's license, which he had aspired to since he was a child.
The death of his cousin Michael in a skiing accident prompted John to take a hiatus from his piloting lessons for three months. His sister Caroline hoped this would be permanent, but when he resumed, she did little to stop him.
Death
On July 16, 1999, Kennedy departed from Essex County Airport in Fairfield, New Jersey, at the controls of his Piper Saratoga light aircraft. He was traveling with his wife Carolyn and sister-in-law Lauren Bessette to attend the wedding of his cousin Rory Kennedy at Hyannis Port, Massachusetts. He had purchased the plane on April 28, 1999, from Air Bound Aviation. Carolyn and Lauren were passengers sitting in the second row of seats. Kennedy had checked in with the control tower at the Martha's Vineyard Airport, but the plane was reported missing after it failed to arrive on schedule.
Officials were not hopeful about finding survivors after aircraft debris and a black suitcase belonging to Bessette were recovered from the Atlantic Ocean. President Bill Clinton gave his support to the Kennedy family during the search for the three missing passengers.
On July 18, a Coast Guard admiral declared an end to hope that Kennedy, his wife and her sister could be found alive. On July 19, the fragments of Kennedy's plane were found by the ship NOAAS Rude using side-scan sonar. The next day, Navy divers descended into the water. The divers found part of the shattered plane strewn over a broad area of seabed below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean. The search ended in the late afternoon of July 21, when the three bodies were recovered from the ocean floor by Navy divers and taken by motorcade to the county medical examiner's office. The discovery was made from high-resolution images of the ocean bottom. Divers found Carolyn's and Lauren's bodies near the twisted and broken fuselage while Kennedy's body was still strapped into the pilot's seat. Admiral Richard M. Larrabee of the Coast Guard said that all three bodies were "near and under" the fuselage, still strapped in.
On the evening of July 21, the bodies were autopsied at the county medical examiner's office; the findings revealed that the crash victims had died upon impact. At the same time, the Kennedy and Bessette families announced their plans for memorial services. On July 21, the three bodies were taken from Hyannis to Duxbury, Massachusetts, where they were cremated in the Mayflower Cemetery crematorium. Ted Kennedy favored a public service for John, while Caroline Kennedy insisted on family privacy. On the morning of July 22, their ashes were scattered at sea from the Navy destroyer off the coast of Martha's Vineyard.
A memorial service was held for Kennedy on July 23, 1999, at the Church of St. Thomas More, which was a parish that Kennedy had often attended with his mother and sister. The invitation-only service was attended by hundreds of mourners, including President Bill Clinton, who presented the family with photo albums of John and Carolyn on their visit to the White House from the previous year. Other guests at the church were Ted Kennedy, Arnold Schwarzenegger with Maria Shriver, John Kerry, Lee Radziwill, Maurice Tempelsman and Muhammad Ali.
Kennedy's last will and testament stipulated that his personal belongings, property, and holdings were to be "evenly distributed" among his sister Caroline Kennedy's three children, who were among fourteen beneficiaries in his will.
Legacy
In 2000, Reaching Up, the organization which Kennedy founded in 1989, joined with The City University of New York to establish the John F. Kennedy Jr. Institute. In 2003, the ARCO Forum at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government was renamed to the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum of Public Affairs. An active participant in Forum events, Kennedy had been a member of the Senior Advisory Committee of Harvard's Institute of Politics for fifteen years. Kennedy's paternal uncle, Ted, said the renaming symbolically linked Kennedy and his father while his sister, Caroline, stated the renaming represented his love of discussing politics.
On the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy Jr.'s father in 2013, the New York Daily News re-ran the famous photograph of the three-year-old John F. Kennedy Jr. saluting his father's coffin during the funeral procession. Photographer Dan Farrell, who took the photo, called it "the saddest thing I've ever seen in my whole life".
See also
Kennedy curse
America's Prince: The John F. Kennedy Jr. Story
References
Works cited
External links
FBI file on John F. Kennedy Jr.
1960 births
1999 deaths
20th-century American lawyers
Accidental deaths in Massachusetts
American magazine founders
American magazine publishers (people)
American socialites
Aviators from New York (state)
Aviators killed in aviation accidents or incidents in the United States
Bouvier family
Brown University alumni
Burials at sea
Children of presidents of the United States
Collegiate School (New York) alumni
Kennedy family
New York (state) lawyers
New York County Assistant District Attorneys
New York University School of Law alumni
People from the Upper East Side
Phillips Academy alumni
Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1999
Writers from Manhattan
Writers from Washington, D.C. | true | [
"Mom Rinker's Rock is a scenic outlook in Fairmount Park along the Wissahickon Creek in the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located on a ridge on the eastern side of the park just a little north of the Walnut Lane Bridge, close by the statue dedicated to Toleration.\n\nThe name of the outlook is derived from legendary stories about an event that supposedly occurred during or after the American Revolutionary War Battle of Germantown; the stories tell of American spies taking advantage of the rugged terrain of the Wissahickon valley to retrieve information from an informant named Molly Rinker (nicknamed \"Mom Rinker\"), who allegedly perched atop a rock overlooking the valley to drop balls of yarn which contained messages about British troop movements during the occupation of Philadelphia. Other stories speak of a witch named Mom Rinkle who had little to do with the Revolutionary War. History allows that the American General John Armstrong, compelled by the rough terrain to abandon a cannon in the valley, did express his contempt for the \"horrendous hills of the Wissahickon\" over which Mom Rinker's Rock stands today.\n\nHere on May 15, 1847, the evening of a new moon, the American novelist, journalist, playwright, social activist, and labour organizer George Lippard was married to his frail young wife. Years afterward in 1883, a statue dedicated to Toleration was erected, a marble statue of a man in simple Quaker clothing; the nine-foot eight-inch statue has but the single word “Toleration” carved into its four-foot three-inch base. The statue was created by late 19th-century sculptor Herman Kirn, and brought to the site by landowner John Welsh, reported to have purchased the statue at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. Welsh, a former Fairmount Park Commissioner and U.S. Ambassador to Britain, donated his land to the Park prior to his death in 1886.\n\nExternal links\n1871 map of Fairmount and Wissahickon Park locating Mom Rickle's Rock\n1876 map of Fairmount and Wissahickon Park locating Mom Rinkle's Rock\nphotos of the statue Toleration atop Mom Rinker's Rock\n\nFairmount Park\nNorthwest Philadelphia",
"Punk Love is a 2006 independent film focusing on a romance between two people haunted by abuse and addiction. Punk Love was directed and written by Nick Lyon, and stars Chad Lindberg and Emma Bing.\n\nPlot\nRaped by her step-father, Sarah with her boyfriend, Spike, run away to Portland by trying to convince her step-uncle to give them money by showing him pictures of him drug dealing. Their plan failed and her step-uncle tries to kill both of them but Sarah gets away to find his secret stash of money she found three years ago. They settle in a motel room where bass-player Spike finds a band audition ad in the newspaper. On the way walking to the audition, Spike and Sarah get into a fight, leaving Sarah waiting in the rain on the side of the road. A cab driver offers Sarah a free ride home, saying its dangerous especially for little girls to be alone at this time of night. Eventually, she gets into the front seat of the car. The cab driver seems nice at first and asked a few questions but Sarah, tired and annoyed, tells him to stop and just drop her off. The cab driver drives to a deserted area under the bridge, then beats and rapes her. Spike comes back to the motel room to find Sarah naked and highly beaten under the shower. \n\nSpike, nervously waiting, asks the nurse if he could see Sarah. The nurse says no due to regulations until her parents come. He sneaks into her room and comforts her as she sleeps. The same nurse walks in tells him to leave. He pitifully says she is my girlfriend and shrugs. After kissing her forehead he leaves and he falls asleep in the hallway. He wakes up to cops, one of them being Sarah's step-uncle, cuffing him for statutory rape while Sarah's parents behind them. The jury gives him one last chance to accept the consequences and admit to guilt. Spike attacks Sarah's dad screaming, you destroyed her and this is your fault while four cops try to hold him down. He remains not guilty and is sent to jail for a year. Sarah's step-dad walks in the room to find Sarah cutting herself. He feels up and down her leg telling her to stop making her mom worry and be a good girl. She repeatedly tells him to get out. She wakes up to find Spike knocking at her window. They kiss and Spike tells her to pack her stuff but hears Sarah's step dad walking towards her room. Spike hides until he hears Sarah screaming get off of me then bangs at the window telling him to get off. Sarah's dad eventually gets on top of Spike and starts choking him. Sarah shoots her step-dad in front of her mom. She eventually tells her mom that he has been molesting her. Spike and Sarah steal his car until they reach Portland under the bridge where they beat his car. \n\nThey get more money and stay the night at a fancy hotel. They get married. They run out of money and try to find more ways to get money but fail. They walk to Spike's home to tell his mother goodbye forever. They plan on going to California. They walk until they find shelter at an abandoned motel. Sarah's mom visits Spike's mom and they talk. Sarah's mom and ex-step-uncle finally find where Spike and Sarah are staying. They struggle but keep running though Sarah's mom and ex-step-uncle are literally going 1 mph right behind them. The couple quickly escape with them following behind. They run towards the bridge where they are surround by cops and Sarah's mom. Spike tells her he loves her then both put their hands in the air. Spike is shot directly in the chest by Sarah's ex-step-uncle. Sarah quickly runs to Spike. Sarah's mom realizes what true love is with Sarah's ex-step-uncle in shock. Sarah walks toward the edge of the bridge and jumps.\n\nCast\nChad Lindberg as Spike\nEmma Bing as Sarah\nMax Perlich as Officer Lawson\n\nRelease history\nThe film premiered at the 2006 Cinequest Film Festival followed by the Cannes Film Market on May 16, 2007 and the Drake International Film Festival on June 25, 2007.\n\nNotes and references\n\nExternal links\n\nhttps://web.archive.org/web/20120807063755/http://www.punk-love.com/SYNOPSIS.html\n\n2006 films\nAmerican films\nEnglish-language films\nAmerican independent films\nTeensploitation"
]
|
[
"John F. Kennedy Jr.",
"Mother's remarriage",
"Who did his mom get married to?",
"she married Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis,"
]
| C_5eafb25cd66a42ffa7d27f8c4a69c2ce_0 | When did his mom get remarried? | 2 | When did John F. Kennedy Jr.'s mom get remarried? | John F. Kennedy Jr. | After President Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, Mrs. Kennedy moved her family to a luxury apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, where John Kennedy, Jr. grew up. In 1967, his mother took him and Caroline on a six-week "sentimental journey" to Ireland, where they met President Eamon de Valera and visited the Kennedy ancestral home in Dunganstown. After his uncle Robert was assassinated in 1968, his mother took him and his sister out of the United States, saying: "If they're killing Kennedys, then my children are targets ... I want to get out of this country." The same year, she married Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis, and the family went to live on his private island of Skorpios. Kennedy is said to have considered his stepfather "a joke". In 1971, Kennedy returned to the White House with his mother and sister for the first time since the assassination. President Richard Nixon's daughters gave Kennedy a tour that included his old bedroom, and Nixon showed him the Resolute desk under which his father had let him play. When Onassis died in 1975, he left Kennedy $25,000, though Jacqueline was able to renegotiate the will, and acquired $20 million for herself and her children. In 1976, Kennedy and his cousin visited an earthquake disaster zone at Rabinal in Guatemala, helping with heavy building work and distributing food. The local priest said that they "ate what the people of Rabinal ate and dressed in Guatemalan clothes and slept in tents like most of the earthquake victims", adding that the two "did more for their country's image" in Guatemala "than a roomful of ambassadors". On his sixteenth birthday, Kennedy's Secret Service protection ended. He spent the summer of 1978 working as a wrangler in Wyoming. Before attending Brown University, Kennedy accompanied his mother to Africa. On a pioneering course, he rescued his group, which had gotten lost for two days without food or water, and won points for leadership. In 1979, the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum was dedicated, and Kennedy made his first major speech, reciting Stephen Spender's poem "I Think Continually of Those Who Were Truly Great". CANNOTANSWER | After his uncle Robert was assassinated in 1968, | John Fitzgerald Kennedy Jr. (November 25, 1960 – July 16, 1999), often referred to as John-John or JFK Jr., was an American lawyer, journalist, and magazine publisher. He was a son of U.S. president John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, and a younger brother of Caroline Kennedy. Three days before his third birthday, his father was assassinated.
From his childhood years at the White House, Kennedy was heavily covered by media, and later became a popular social figure in Manhattan. Trained as a lawyer, he worked as a New York City assistant district attorney for almost four years. In 1995, Kennedy launched George magazine, using his political and celebrity status to publicize it. He died in a plane crash in 1999 at the age of 38.
Early life
John Fitzgerald Kennedy Jr. was born at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital on November 25, 1960, two weeks after his father, Massachusetts senator John F. Kennedy, was elected president. His father took office exactly eight weeks after John Jr. was born. His parents had a stillborn daughter named Arabella four years before John Jr.'s birth. John Jr. had an older sister, Caroline, and a younger brother, Patrick, who died two days after his premature birth in 1963. His putative nickname, "John-John", came from a reporter who misheard JFK calling him "John" twice in quick succession; the name was not used by his family.
John Jr. lived in the White House during the first three years of his life and remained in the public spotlight as a young adult. His father was assassinated on November 22, 1963, and the state funeral was held three days later on John Jr.'s third birthday. At his mother's prompting, John Jr. saluted the flag-draped casket as it was carried out from St. Matthew's Cathedral. NBC News vice-president Julian Goodman called the video of the salute "the most impressive...shot in the history of television," which was set up by NBC Director Charles Jones, who was working for the press pool. Lyndon B. Johnson wrote his first letter as president to John Jr. and told him that he "can always be proud" of his father. Stan Stearns, who took an iconic photograph of the salute, served as chief White House photographer during the Johnson administration. Over the years, Stearns showed Johnson the image as it was a symbol of what Johnson said in his letter to John Jr. The family continued with their plans for a birthday party to demonstrate that the Kennedys would go on despite the death of the president.
After President Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, Jacqueline Kennedy moved her family briefly to the Georgetown area of Washington, and then to a luxury apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, where John Jr. grew up. In 1967, his mother took him and Caroline on a six-week "sentimental journey" to Ireland, where they met President Éamon de Valera and visited the Kennedy ancestral home in Dunganstown.
Mother's remarriage
After JFK's brother Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1968, Jackie took Caroline and John Jr. out of the United States, saying: "If they're killing Kennedys, then my children are targets ... I want to get out of this country." The same year, she married Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis, and the family went to live on his private island of Skorpios. Kennedy is said to have considered his stepfather "a joke".
In 1971, Kennedy returned to the White House with his mother and sister for the first time since the assassination. President Richard Nixon's daughters gave Kennedy a tour that included his old bedroom, and Nixon showed him the Resolute desk under which his father had let him play.
Education
Kennedy attended private schools in Manhattan, starting at Saint David's School and moving to Collegiate School, which he attended from third through tenth grade. He completed his education at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. After graduating, he accompanied his mother on a trip to Africa. He rescued his group while on a pioneering course, which had gotten lost for two days without food or water.
In 1976, Kennedy and his cousin visited an earthquake disaster zone at Rabinal in Guatemala, helping with heavy building work and distributing food. The local priest said that they "ate what the people of Rabinal ate and dressed in Guatemalan clothes and slept in tents like most of the earthquake victims," adding that the two "did more for their country's image" in Guatemala "than a roomful of ambassadors." On his sixteenth birthday, Kennedy's Secret Service protection ended and he spent the summer of 1978 working as a wrangler in Wyoming. In 1979, the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston was dedicated, and Kennedy made his first major speech, reciting Stephen Spender's poem "I Think Continually of Those Who Were Truly Great."
Kennedy attended Brown University, where he majored in American studies. There, he co-founded a student discussion group that focused on contemporary issues such as apartheid in South Africa, gun control, and civil rights. Visiting South Africa during a summer break, he was appalled by apartheid, and arranged for U.N. ambassador Andrew Young to speak about the topic at Brown. By his junior year at Brown, he had moved off campus to live with several other students in a shared house, and spent time at Xenon, a club owned by Howard Stein. Kennedy was initiated into Phi Psi, a local social fraternity that had been the Rhode Island Alpha Chapter of national Phi Kappa Psi fraternity until 1978.
In January 1983, Kennedy's Massachusetts driver's license was suspended after he received more than three speeding summonses in a twelve-month period, and failed to appear at a hearing. The family's lawyer explained he most likely "became immersed in exams and just forgot the date of the hearing." He graduated that same year with a bachelor's degree in American studies, and then took a break, traveling to India and spending some time at the University of Delhi where he did his post graduation work and he met Mother Teresa. He also worked with some of the Kennedy special interest projects, including the East Harlem School at Exodus House and Reaching Up.
Career
After the 1984 Democratic Convention in San Francisco, Kennedy returned to New York and earned $20,000 a year in a position at the Office of Business Development, where his boss reflected that he worked "in the same crummy cubbyhole as everybody else. I heaped on the work and was always pleased." From 1984 to 1986, he worked for the New York City Office of Business Development and served as deputy director of the 42nd Street Development Corporation in 1986, conducting negotiations with developers and city agencies. In 1988, he became a summer associate at Manatt, Phelps, Rothenberg & Phillips, a Los Angeles law firm with strong connections to the Democratic Party. There, Kennedy worked for Charlie Manatt, his uncle Ted Kennedy's law school roommate.
From 1989, Kennedy headed Reaching Up, a nonprofit group which provided educational and other opportunities for workers who helped people with disabilities. William Ebenstein, executive director of Reaching Up, said, "He was always concerned with the working poor, and his family always had an interest in helping them."
In 1989, Kennedy earned a J.D. degree from the New York University School of Law. He then failed the New York bar exam twice, before passing on his third try in July 1990. After failing the exam for a second time, Kennedy vowed that he would take it continuously until he was ninety-five years old or passed. If he had failed a third time, he would have been ineligible to serve as a prosecutor in the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, where he worked for the next four years. On August 29, 1991, Kennedy won his first case as a prosecutor.
In the summer of 1992, he worked as a journalist and was commissioned by The New York Times to write an article about his kayaking expedition to the Åland archipelago, where he saved one of his friends from the water when his kayak capsized. He then considered creating a magazine with his friend, public-relations magnate Michael J. Berman—a plan which his mother thought too risky. In his 2000 book The Day John Died, Christopher Andersen wrote that Jacqueline had also worried that her son would die in a plane crash, and asked her longtime companion Maurice Tempelsman "to do whatever it took to keep John from becoming a pilot".
Acting
Meanwhile, Kennedy had done a bit of acting, which was one of his passions (he had appeared in many plays while at Brown). He expressed interest in acting as a career, but his mother strongly disapproved of it, considering it an unsuitable profession. On August 4, 1985, Kennedy made his New York acting debut in front of an invitation-only audience at the Irish Theater on Manhattan's West Side. Executive director of the Irish Arts Center, Nye Heron, said that Kennedy was "one of the best young actors I've seen in years". Kennedy's director, Robin Saex, stated, "He has an earnestness that just shines through." Kennedy's largest acting role was playing a fictionalized version of himself in the eighth-season episode of the sitcom Murphy Brown, called "Altered States". In this episode, Kennedy visits Brown at her office, in order to promote a magazine he is publishing.
George magazine
In 1995, Kennedy and Michael Berman founded George, a glossy, politics-as-lifestyle and fashion monthly, with Kennedy controlling 50 percent of the shares. Kennedy officially launched the magazine at a news conference in Manhattan on September 8 and joked that he had not seen so many reporters in one place since he failed his first bar exam.
Each issue of the magazine contained an editor's column and interviews written by Kennedy, who believed they could make politics "accessible by covering it in an entertaining and compelling way" which would allow "popular interest and involvement" to follow. Kennedy did interviews with Louis Farrakhan, Billy Graham, Garth Brooks, and others.
The first issue was criticized for its image of Cindy Crawford posing as George Washington in a powdered wig and ruffled shirt. In defense of the cover, Kennedy stated that "political magazines should look like Mirabella."
In July 1997, Vanity Fair had published a profile of New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, claiming that the mayor was sleeping with his press secretary (which both parties denied). Although tempted to follow up on this story, Kennedy decided against it.
The same month, Kennedy wrote about meeting Mother Teresa, declaring that the "three days I spent in her presence was the strongest evidence this struggling Catholic has ever had that God exists."
The September 1997 issue of George centered on temptation, and featured two of Kennedy's cousins, Michael LeMoyne Kennedy and Joseph P. Kennedy II. Michael had been accused of having an affair with his children's underaged babysitter, while Joe had been accused by his ex-wife of having bullied her. John declared that both his cousins had become "poster boys for bad behavior"—believed to be the first time a member of the Kennedy family had publicly attacked another Kennedy. He said he was trying to show that press coverage of the pair was unfair, due to them being Kennedys. But Joe paraphrased John's father by stating, "Ask not what you can do for your cousin, but what you can do for his magazine."
Decline
By early 1997, Kennedy and Berman found themselves locked in a power struggle, which led to screaming matches, slammed doors, and even one physical altercation. Eventually Berman sold his share of the company, and Kennedy took on Berman's responsibilities himself. Though the magazine had already begun to decline in popularity before Berman left, his departure was followed by a rapid drop in sales.
David Pecker, CEO of Hachette Filipacchi Magazines who were partners in George, said the decline was because Kennedy refused to "take risks as an editor, despite the fact that he was an extraordinary risk taker in other areas of his life." Pecker said, "He understood that the target audience for George was the eighteen-to-thirty-four-year-old demographic, yet he would routinely turn down interviews that would appeal to this age group, like Princess Diana or John Gotti Jr., to interview subjects like Dan Rostenkowski or Võ Nguyên Giáp."
Shortly before his death, Kennedy had been planning a series of online chats with the 2000 presidential candidates. Microsoft was to provide the technology and pay for it while receiving advertising in George. After his death, the magazine was bought out by Hachette, but folded in early 2001.
Later life
Family activity
Kennedy addressed the 1988 Democratic National Convention in Atlanta, introducing his uncle, Senator Ted Kennedy. He invoked his father's inaugural address, calling "a generation to public service", and received a two-minute standing ovation. Republican consultant Richard Viguerie said he did not remember a word of the speech, but remembered "a good delivery" and added, "I think it was a plus for the Democrats and the boy. He is strikingly handsome."
Kennedy participated in his cousin Patrick J. Kennedy's campaign for a seat in the Rhode Island House of Representatives by visiting the district. He sat outside the polling booth and had his picture taken with "would-be" voters. The polaroid ploy worked so well in the campaign that Patrick J. Kennedy used it again in 1994.
Kennedy also campaigned in Boston for his uncle's re-election to the U.S. Senate against challenger Mitt Romney in 1994. "He always created a stir when he arrived in Massachusetts," remarked Senator Kennedy.
Relationships
While attending Brown University, Kennedy met Sally Munro, whom he dated for six years, and they visited India in 1983. While he was a student at Brown, he also met socialite Brooke Shields, with whom he was later linked.
Kennedy also dated models Cindy Crawford and Julie Baker, as well as actress Sarah Jessica Parker, who said she enjoyed dating Kennedy but realized he "was a public domain kind of a guy." Parker claimed to have no idea what "real fame" was until dating Kennedy and felt that she should "apologize for dating him" since it became the "defining factor in the person" she was.
Kennedy had known actress Daryl Hannah since their two families had vacationed together in St. Maarten in the early '80s. After meeting again at the wedding of his aunt Lee Radziwill in 1988, they dated for five and a half years, though their relationship was complicated by her feelings for singer Jackson Browne, with whom she had lived for a time.
Also during this time, Kennedy dated Christina Haag. They had known each other as children, and she also attended Brown University.
Marriage
After his relationship with Daryl Hannah ended, Kennedy cohabitated with Carolyn Bessette, who worked in the fashion industry. They were engaged for a year, though Kennedy consistently denied reports of this. On September 21, 1996, they married in a private ceremony on Cumberland Island, Georgia, where his sister, Caroline, was matron of honor and his cousin Anthony Radziwill was best man.
The next day, Kennedy's cousin Patrick revealed that the pair had married. When they returned to their Manhattan home, a mass of reporters was on the doorstep. One of them asked Kennedy if he had enjoyed his honeymoon, to which he responded: "Very much." He added "Getting married is a big adjustment for us, and for a private citizen like Carolyn even more so. I ask you to give her all the privacy and room you can."
But Carolyn was, in fact, badly disoriented by the constant attention from the paparazzi. The couple was permanently on show, both at fashionable Manhattan events, and on their travels to visit celebrities such as Mariuccia Mandelli and Gianni Versace. She also complained to her friend, journalist Jonathan Soroff, that she could not get a job without being accused of exploiting her fame.
In June 2019, Billy Noonan, a longtime friend of John F. Kennedy Jr., released a video tape of the secret wedding that had taken place on the remote island.
Piloting
Kennedy took flying lessons at the Flight Safety Academy in Vero Beach, Florida. In April 1998, he received his pilot's license, which he had aspired to since he was a child.
The death of his cousin Michael in a skiing accident prompted John to take a hiatus from his piloting lessons for three months. His sister Caroline hoped this would be permanent, but when he resumed, she did little to stop him.
Death
On July 16, 1999, Kennedy departed from Essex County Airport in Fairfield, New Jersey, at the controls of his Piper Saratoga light aircraft. He was traveling with his wife Carolyn and sister-in-law Lauren Bessette to attend the wedding of his cousin Rory Kennedy at Hyannis Port, Massachusetts. He had purchased the plane on April 28, 1999, from Air Bound Aviation. Carolyn and Lauren were passengers sitting in the second row of seats. Kennedy had checked in with the control tower at the Martha's Vineyard Airport, but the plane was reported missing after it failed to arrive on schedule.
Officials were not hopeful about finding survivors after aircraft debris and a black suitcase belonging to Bessette were recovered from the Atlantic Ocean. President Bill Clinton gave his support to the Kennedy family during the search for the three missing passengers.
On July 18, a Coast Guard admiral declared an end to hope that Kennedy, his wife and her sister could be found alive. On July 19, the fragments of Kennedy's plane were found by the ship NOAAS Rude using side-scan sonar. The next day, Navy divers descended into the water. The divers found part of the shattered plane strewn over a broad area of seabed below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean. The search ended in the late afternoon of July 21, when the three bodies were recovered from the ocean floor by Navy divers and taken by motorcade to the county medical examiner's office. The discovery was made from high-resolution images of the ocean bottom. Divers found Carolyn's and Lauren's bodies near the twisted and broken fuselage while Kennedy's body was still strapped into the pilot's seat. Admiral Richard M. Larrabee of the Coast Guard said that all three bodies were "near and under" the fuselage, still strapped in.
On the evening of July 21, the bodies were autopsied at the county medical examiner's office; the findings revealed that the crash victims had died upon impact. At the same time, the Kennedy and Bessette families announced their plans for memorial services. On July 21, the three bodies were taken from Hyannis to Duxbury, Massachusetts, where they were cremated in the Mayflower Cemetery crematorium. Ted Kennedy favored a public service for John, while Caroline Kennedy insisted on family privacy. On the morning of July 22, their ashes were scattered at sea from the Navy destroyer off the coast of Martha's Vineyard.
A memorial service was held for Kennedy on July 23, 1999, at the Church of St. Thomas More, which was a parish that Kennedy had often attended with his mother and sister. The invitation-only service was attended by hundreds of mourners, including President Bill Clinton, who presented the family with photo albums of John and Carolyn on their visit to the White House from the previous year. Other guests at the church were Ted Kennedy, Arnold Schwarzenegger with Maria Shriver, John Kerry, Lee Radziwill, Maurice Tempelsman and Muhammad Ali.
Kennedy's last will and testament stipulated that his personal belongings, property, and holdings were to be "evenly distributed" among his sister Caroline Kennedy's three children, who were among fourteen beneficiaries in his will.
Legacy
In 2000, Reaching Up, the organization which Kennedy founded in 1989, joined with The City University of New York to establish the John F. Kennedy Jr. Institute. In 2003, the ARCO Forum at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government was renamed to the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum of Public Affairs. An active participant in Forum events, Kennedy had been a member of the Senior Advisory Committee of Harvard's Institute of Politics for fifteen years. Kennedy's paternal uncle, Ted, said the renaming symbolically linked Kennedy and his father while his sister, Caroline, stated the renaming represented his love of discussing politics.
On the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy Jr.'s father in 2013, the New York Daily News re-ran the famous photograph of the three-year-old John F. Kennedy Jr. saluting his father's coffin during the funeral procession. Photographer Dan Farrell, who took the photo, called it "the saddest thing I've ever seen in my whole life".
See also
Kennedy curse
America's Prince: The John F. Kennedy Jr. Story
References
Works cited
External links
FBI file on John F. Kennedy Jr.
1960 births
1999 deaths
20th-century American lawyers
Accidental deaths in Massachusetts
American magazine founders
American magazine publishers (people)
American socialites
Aviators from New York (state)
Aviators killed in aviation accidents or incidents in the United States
Bouvier family
Brown University alumni
Burials at sea
Children of presidents of the United States
Collegiate School (New York) alumni
Kennedy family
New York (state) lawyers
New York County Assistant District Attorneys
New York University School of Law alumni
People from the Upper East Side
Phillips Academy alumni
Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1999
Writers from Manhattan
Writers from Washington, D.C. | false | [
"Mom, Dad and Her (also called Just Breathe) is a 2008 television film directed by Anne Wheeler starring Melora Hardin and Paul McGillion. It was filmed in Fort Langley, Langley Township, British Columbia, Canada.\n\nPlot\nA bitter teen (Sydney), from a broken home, is sent to live with her remarried father (Ben), who hopes to make amends with his daughter as he moves on with his new wife (Emma) and baby. At first Sydney lashes out, feeling abandoned yet again. Sydney misses her boyfriend, her city life and doesn't get on with her dad or stepmom. She unexpectedly finds herself connecting with her new stepmother, who is nervously expecting her first child. Slowly she starts to settle in as she makes friends with Jess, a local girl whose mother died of cancer. However, it is the relationship with her stepmother, and the birth of the new baby that finally heals the wounds left by her parents’ bitter divorce.\n\nCast\nMelora Hardin as Emma\nPaul McGillion as Ben\nBrittney Wilson as Sydney\nSarah Deakins as Lynn\nTantoo Cardinal as Heather\nJesse Moss as Zach\nKyla Hazelwood as Jess\nAnna Amoroso as Tara\nDorla Bell as Robin\nPaul Bae as Resident\nTom Heaton as Norman\nPale Christian Thomas as Bartender (as Thomas Pale)\nLossen Chambers as Admissions Clerk\nMonica Mustelier as Nurse\nPatricia Mayen-Salazar as Woman\nDean Hinchey as Priest\n\nExternal links\n\nMom, Dad and Her at TV Guide\nMom, Dad and Her at myLifetime.com\nNY Times Overview\n\nCanadian television films\nCanadian films\n2008 television films\n2008 films\nLifetime (TV network) films\nAmerican films\nFilms directed by Anne Wheeler",
"Mind's Eye is a 1999 dialogue format novel written by Paul Fleischman. It was named an American Library Association Best Books for Young Adults.\n\nPlot summary\nThe main character, Courtney, is a very unlucky girl. Her father walked out on her mom and her when she was little. Adding to that, her mom remarried a real jerk. To make matters worse, her mom died leaving Courtney alone with her stepfather. To put the icing on the cake, a riding accident paralyzes her. Finally, to put the cherry on the icing, she is sent to a nursing home. There she meets an old lady named Elva, and another named May, who suffers from Alzheimer's. She repeats what she says three times. For Example: \"I think my dance dance dance lessons were cancelled\". Elva made a promise to go to Italy to her husband before he died, and since she is too weak to go, she is backed into a corner. She had to take an imaginary trip. She procrastinated and now is unable to do it on her own since she cannot use her eyes to see the maps of Italy. But now, Courtney can help her. They go on a mind's eye trip and finish it. In the end, Elva passes away.\n\nReferences\n\n1999 American novels\nAmerican children's novels\n1999 children's books"
]
|
[
"John F. Kennedy Jr.",
"Mother's remarriage",
"Who did his mom get married to?",
"she married Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis,",
"When did his mom get remarried?",
"After his uncle Robert was assassinated in 1968,"
]
| C_5eafb25cd66a42ffa7d27f8c4a69c2ce_0 | How did John react the new marriage? | 3 | How did John react to the new marriage of his mother to Aristotle Onassis? | John F. Kennedy Jr. | After President Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, Mrs. Kennedy moved her family to a luxury apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, where John Kennedy, Jr. grew up. In 1967, his mother took him and Caroline on a six-week "sentimental journey" to Ireland, where they met President Eamon de Valera and visited the Kennedy ancestral home in Dunganstown. After his uncle Robert was assassinated in 1968, his mother took him and his sister out of the United States, saying: "If they're killing Kennedys, then my children are targets ... I want to get out of this country." The same year, she married Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis, and the family went to live on his private island of Skorpios. Kennedy is said to have considered his stepfather "a joke". In 1971, Kennedy returned to the White House with his mother and sister for the first time since the assassination. President Richard Nixon's daughters gave Kennedy a tour that included his old bedroom, and Nixon showed him the Resolute desk under which his father had let him play. When Onassis died in 1975, he left Kennedy $25,000, though Jacqueline was able to renegotiate the will, and acquired $20 million for herself and her children. In 1976, Kennedy and his cousin visited an earthquake disaster zone at Rabinal in Guatemala, helping with heavy building work and distributing food. The local priest said that they "ate what the people of Rabinal ate and dressed in Guatemalan clothes and slept in tents like most of the earthquake victims", adding that the two "did more for their country's image" in Guatemala "than a roomful of ambassadors". On his sixteenth birthday, Kennedy's Secret Service protection ended. He spent the summer of 1978 working as a wrangler in Wyoming. Before attending Brown University, Kennedy accompanied his mother to Africa. On a pioneering course, he rescued his group, which had gotten lost for two days without food or water, and won points for leadership. In 1979, the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum was dedicated, and Kennedy made his first major speech, reciting Stephen Spender's poem "I Think Continually of Those Who Were Truly Great". CANNOTANSWER | Kennedy is said to have considered his stepfather "a joke". | John Fitzgerald Kennedy Jr. (November 25, 1960 – July 16, 1999), often referred to as John-John or JFK Jr., was an American lawyer, journalist, and magazine publisher. He was a son of U.S. president John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, and a younger brother of Caroline Kennedy. Three days before his third birthday, his father was assassinated.
From his childhood years at the White House, Kennedy was heavily covered by media, and later became a popular social figure in Manhattan. Trained as a lawyer, he worked as a New York City assistant district attorney for almost four years. In 1995, Kennedy launched George magazine, using his political and celebrity status to publicize it. He died in a plane crash in 1999 at the age of 38.
Early life
John Fitzgerald Kennedy Jr. was born at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital on November 25, 1960, two weeks after his father, Massachusetts senator John F. Kennedy, was elected president. His father took office exactly eight weeks after John Jr. was born. His parents had a stillborn daughter named Arabella four years before John Jr.'s birth. John Jr. had an older sister, Caroline, and a younger brother, Patrick, who died two days after his premature birth in 1963. His putative nickname, "John-John", came from a reporter who misheard JFK calling him "John" twice in quick succession; the name was not used by his family.
John Jr. lived in the White House during the first three years of his life and remained in the public spotlight as a young adult. His father was assassinated on November 22, 1963, and the state funeral was held three days later on John Jr.'s third birthday. At his mother's prompting, John Jr. saluted the flag-draped casket as it was carried out from St. Matthew's Cathedral. NBC News vice-president Julian Goodman called the video of the salute "the most impressive...shot in the history of television," which was set up by NBC Director Charles Jones, who was working for the press pool. Lyndon B. Johnson wrote his first letter as president to John Jr. and told him that he "can always be proud" of his father. Stan Stearns, who took an iconic photograph of the salute, served as chief White House photographer during the Johnson administration. Over the years, Stearns showed Johnson the image as it was a symbol of what Johnson said in his letter to John Jr. The family continued with their plans for a birthday party to demonstrate that the Kennedys would go on despite the death of the president.
After President Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, Jacqueline Kennedy moved her family briefly to the Georgetown area of Washington, and then to a luxury apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, where John Jr. grew up. In 1967, his mother took him and Caroline on a six-week "sentimental journey" to Ireland, where they met President Éamon de Valera and visited the Kennedy ancestral home in Dunganstown.
Mother's remarriage
After JFK's brother Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1968, Jackie took Caroline and John Jr. out of the United States, saying: "If they're killing Kennedys, then my children are targets ... I want to get out of this country." The same year, she married Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis, and the family went to live on his private island of Skorpios. Kennedy is said to have considered his stepfather "a joke".
In 1971, Kennedy returned to the White House with his mother and sister for the first time since the assassination. President Richard Nixon's daughters gave Kennedy a tour that included his old bedroom, and Nixon showed him the Resolute desk under which his father had let him play.
Education
Kennedy attended private schools in Manhattan, starting at Saint David's School and moving to Collegiate School, which he attended from third through tenth grade. He completed his education at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. After graduating, he accompanied his mother on a trip to Africa. He rescued his group while on a pioneering course, which had gotten lost for two days without food or water.
In 1976, Kennedy and his cousin visited an earthquake disaster zone at Rabinal in Guatemala, helping with heavy building work and distributing food. The local priest said that they "ate what the people of Rabinal ate and dressed in Guatemalan clothes and slept in tents like most of the earthquake victims," adding that the two "did more for their country's image" in Guatemala "than a roomful of ambassadors." On his sixteenth birthday, Kennedy's Secret Service protection ended and he spent the summer of 1978 working as a wrangler in Wyoming. In 1979, the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston was dedicated, and Kennedy made his first major speech, reciting Stephen Spender's poem "I Think Continually of Those Who Were Truly Great."
Kennedy attended Brown University, where he majored in American studies. There, he co-founded a student discussion group that focused on contemporary issues such as apartheid in South Africa, gun control, and civil rights. Visiting South Africa during a summer break, he was appalled by apartheid, and arranged for U.N. ambassador Andrew Young to speak about the topic at Brown. By his junior year at Brown, he had moved off campus to live with several other students in a shared house, and spent time at Xenon, a club owned by Howard Stein. Kennedy was initiated into Phi Psi, a local social fraternity that had been the Rhode Island Alpha Chapter of national Phi Kappa Psi fraternity until 1978.
In January 1983, Kennedy's Massachusetts driver's license was suspended after he received more than three speeding summonses in a twelve-month period, and failed to appear at a hearing. The family's lawyer explained he most likely "became immersed in exams and just forgot the date of the hearing." He graduated that same year with a bachelor's degree in American studies, and then took a break, traveling to India and spending some time at the University of Delhi where he did his post graduation work and he met Mother Teresa. He also worked with some of the Kennedy special interest projects, including the East Harlem School at Exodus House and Reaching Up.
Career
After the 1984 Democratic Convention in San Francisco, Kennedy returned to New York and earned $20,000 a year in a position at the Office of Business Development, where his boss reflected that he worked "in the same crummy cubbyhole as everybody else. I heaped on the work and was always pleased." From 1984 to 1986, he worked for the New York City Office of Business Development and served as deputy director of the 42nd Street Development Corporation in 1986, conducting negotiations with developers and city agencies. In 1988, he became a summer associate at Manatt, Phelps, Rothenberg & Phillips, a Los Angeles law firm with strong connections to the Democratic Party. There, Kennedy worked for Charlie Manatt, his uncle Ted Kennedy's law school roommate.
From 1989, Kennedy headed Reaching Up, a nonprofit group which provided educational and other opportunities for workers who helped people with disabilities. William Ebenstein, executive director of Reaching Up, said, "He was always concerned with the working poor, and his family always had an interest in helping them."
In 1989, Kennedy earned a J.D. degree from the New York University School of Law. He then failed the New York bar exam twice, before passing on his third try in July 1990. After failing the exam for a second time, Kennedy vowed that he would take it continuously until he was ninety-five years old or passed. If he had failed a third time, he would have been ineligible to serve as a prosecutor in the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, where he worked for the next four years. On August 29, 1991, Kennedy won his first case as a prosecutor.
In the summer of 1992, he worked as a journalist and was commissioned by The New York Times to write an article about his kayaking expedition to the Åland archipelago, where he saved one of his friends from the water when his kayak capsized. He then considered creating a magazine with his friend, public-relations magnate Michael J. Berman—a plan which his mother thought too risky. In his 2000 book The Day John Died, Christopher Andersen wrote that Jacqueline had also worried that her son would die in a plane crash, and asked her longtime companion Maurice Tempelsman "to do whatever it took to keep John from becoming a pilot".
Acting
Meanwhile, Kennedy had done a bit of acting, which was one of his passions (he had appeared in many plays while at Brown). He expressed interest in acting as a career, but his mother strongly disapproved of it, considering it an unsuitable profession. On August 4, 1985, Kennedy made his New York acting debut in front of an invitation-only audience at the Irish Theater on Manhattan's West Side. Executive director of the Irish Arts Center, Nye Heron, said that Kennedy was "one of the best young actors I've seen in years". Kennedy's director, Robin Saex, stated, "He has an earnestness that just shines through." Kennedy's largest acting role was playing a fictionalized version of himself in the eighth-season episode of the sitcom Murphy Brown, called "Altered States". In this episode, Kennedy visits Brown at her office, in order to promote a magazine he is publishing.
George magazine
In 1995, Kennedy and Michael Berman founded George, a glossy, politics-as-lifestyle and fashion monthly, with Kennedy controlling 50 percent of the shares. Kennedy officially launched the magazine at a news conference in Manhattan on September 8 and joked that he had not seen so many reporters in one place since he failed his first bar exam.
Each issue of the magazine contained an editor's column and interviews written by Kennedy, who believed they could make politics "accessible by covering it in an entertaining and compelling way" which would allow "popular interest and involvement" to follow. Kennedy did interviews with Louis Farrakhan, Billy Graham, Garth Brooks, and others.
The first issue was criticized for its image of Cindy Crawford posing as George Washington in a powdered wig and ruffled shirt. In defense of the cover, Kennedy stated that "political magazines should look like Mirabella."
In July 1997, Vanity Fair had published a profile of New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, claiming that the mayor was sleeping with his press secretary (which both parties denied). Although tempted to follow up on this story, Kennedy decided against it.
The same month, Kennedy wrote about meeting Mother Teresa, declaring that the "three days I spent in her presence was the strongest evidence this struggling Catholic has ever had that God exists."
The September 1997 issue of George centered on temptation, and featured two of Kennedy's cousins, Michael LeMoyne Kennedy and Joseph P. Kennedy II. Michael had been accused of having an affair with his children's underaged babysitter, while Joe had been accused by his ex-wife of having bullied her. John declared that both his cousins had become "poster boys for bad behavior"—believed to be the first time a member of the Kennedy family had publicly attacked another Kennedy. He said he was trying to show that press coverage of the pair was unfair, due to them being Kennedys. But Joe paraphrased John's father by stating, "Ask not what you can do for your cousin, but what you can do for his magazine."
Decline
By early 1997, Kennedy and Berman found themselves locked in a power struggle, which led to screaming matches, slammed doors, and even one physical altercation. Eventually Berman sold his share of the company, and Kennedy took on Berman's responsibilities himself. Though the magazine had already begun to decline in popularity before Berman left, his departure was followed by a rapid drop in sales.
David Pecker, CEO of Hachette Filipacchi Magazines who were partners in George, said the decline was because Kennedy refused to "take risks as an editor, despite the fact that he was an extraordinary risk taker in other areas of his life." Pecker said, "He understood that the target audience for George was the eighteen-to-thirty-four-year-old demographic, yet he would routinely turn down interviews that would appeal to this age group, like Princess Diana or John Gotti Jr., to interview subjects like Dan Rostenkowski or Võ Nguyên Giáp."
Shortly before his death, Kennedy had been planning a series of online chats with the 2000 presidential candidates. Microsoft was to provide the technology and pay for it while receiving advertising in George. After his death, the magazine was bought out by Hachette, but folded in early 2001.
Later life
Family activity
Kennedy addressed the 1988 Democratic National Convention in Atlanta, introducing his uncle, Senator Ted Kennedy. He invoked his father's inaugural address, calling "a generation to public service", and received a two-minute standing ovation. Republican consultant Richard Viguerie said he did not remember a word of the speech, but remembered "a good delivery" and added, "I think it was a plus for the Democrats and the boy. He is strikingly handsome."
Kennedy participated in his cousin Patrick J. Kennedy's campaign for a seat in the Rhode Island House of Representatives by visiting the district. He sat outside the polling booth and had his picture taken with "would-be" voters. The polaroid ploy worked so well in the campaign that Patrick J. Kennedy used it again in 1994.
Kennedy also campaigned in Boston for his uncle's re-election to the U.S. Senate against challenger Mitt Romney in 1994. "He always created a stir when he arrived in Massachusetts," remarked Senator Kennedy.
Relationships
While attending Brown University, Kennedy met Sally Munro, whom he dated for six years, and they visited India in 1983. While he was a student at Brown, he also met socialite Brooke Shields, with whom he was later linked.
Kennedy also dated models Cindy Crawford and Julie Baker, as well as actress Sarah Jessica Parker, who said she enjoyed dating Kennedy but realized he "was a public domain kind of a guy." Parker claimed to have no idea what "real fame" was until dating Kennedy and felt that she should "apologize for dating him" since it became the "defining factor in the person" she was.
Kennedy had known actress Daryl Hannah since their two families had vacationed together in St. Maarten in the early '80s. After meeting again at the wedding of his aunt Lee Radziwill in 1988, they dated for five and a half years, though their relationship was complicated by her feelings for singer Jackson Browne, with whom she had lived for a time.
Also during this time, Kennedy dated Christina Haag. They had known each other as children, and she also attended Brown University.
Marriage
After his relationship with Daryl Hannah ended, Kennedy cohabitated with Carolyn Bessette, who worked in the fashion industry. They were engaged for a year, though Kennedy consistently denied reports of this. On September 21, 1996, they married in a private ceremony on Cumberland Island, Georgia, where his sister, Caroline, was matron of honor and his cousin Anthony Radziwill was best man.
The next day, Kennedy's cousin Patrick revealed that the pair had married. When they returned to their Manhattan home, a mass of reporters was on the doorstep. One of them asked Kennedy if he had enjoyed his honeymoon, to which he responded: "Very much." He added "Getting married is a big adjustment for us, and for a private citizen like Carolyn even more so. I ask you to give her all the privacy and room you can."
But Carolyn was, in fact, badly disoriented by the constant attention from the paparazzi. The couple was permanently on show, both at fashionable Manhattan events, and on their travels to visit celebrities such as Mariuccia Mandelli and Gianni Versace. She also complained to her friend, journalist Jonathan Soroff, that she could not get a job without being accused of exploiting her fame.
In June 2019, Billy Noonan, a longtime friend of John F. Kennedy Jr., released a video tape of the secret wedding that had taken place on the remote island.
Piloting
Kennedy took flying lessons at the Flight Safety Academy in Vero Beach, Florida. In April 1998, he received his pilot's license, which he had aspired to since he was a child.
The death of his cousin Michael in a skiing accident prompted John to take a hiatus from his piloting lessons for three months. His sister Caroline hoped this would be permanent, but when he resumed, she did little to stop him.
Death
On July 16, 1999, Kennedy departed from Essex County Airport in Fairfield, New Jersey, at the controls of his Piper Saratoga light aircraft. He was traveling with his wife Carolyn and sister-in-law Lauren Bessette to attend the wedding of his cousin Rory Kennedy at Hyannis Port, Massachusetts. He had purchased the plane on April 28, 1999, from Air Bound Aviation. Carolyn and Lauren were passengers sitting in the second row of seats. Kennedy had checked in with the control tower at the Martha's Vineyard Airport, but the plane was reported missing after it failed to arrive on schedule.
Officials were not hopeful about finding survivors after aircraft debris and a black suitcase belonging to Bessette were recovered from the Atlantic Ocean. President Bill Clinton gave his support to the Kennedy family during the search for the three missing passengers.
On July 18, a Coast Guard admiral declared an end to hope that Kennedy, his wife and her sister could be found alive. On July 19, the fragments of Kennedy's plane were found by the ship NOAAS Rude using side-scan sonar. The next day, Navy divers descended into the water. The divers found part of the shattered plane strewn over a broad area of seabed below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean. The search ended in the late afternoon of July 21, when the three bodies were recovered from the ocean floor by Navy divers and taken by motorcade to the county medical examiner's office. The discovery was made from high-resolution images of the ocean bottom. Divers found Carolyn's and Lauren's bodies near the twisted and broken fuselage while Kennedy's body was still strapped into the pilot's seat. Admiral Richard M. Larrabee of the Coast Guard said that all three bodies were "near and under" the fuselage, still strapped in.
On the evening of July 21, the bodies were autopsied at the county medical examiner's office; the findings revealed that the crash victims had died upon impact. At the same time, the Kennedy and Bessette families announced their plans for memorial services. On July 21, the three bodies were taken from Hyannis to Duxbury, Massachusetts, where they were cremated in the Mayflower Cemetery crematorium. Ted Kennedy favored a public service for John, while Caroline Kennedy insisted on family privacy. On the morning of July 22, their ashes were scattered at sea from the Navy destroyer off the coast of Martha's Vineyard.
A memorial service was held for Kennedy on July 23, 1999, at the Church of St. Thomas More, which was a parish that Kennedy had often attended with his mother and sister. The invitation-only service was attended by hundreds of mourners, including President Bill Clinton, who presented the family with photo albums of John and Carolyn on their visit to the White House from the previous year. Other guests at the church were Ted Kennedy, Arnold Schwarzenegger with Maria Shriver, John Kerry, Lee Radziwill, Maurice Tempelsman and Muhammad Ali.
Kennedy's last will and testament stipulated that his personal belongings, property, and holdings were to be "evenly distributed" among his sister Caroline Kennedy's three children, who were among fourteen beneficiaries in his will.
Legacy
In 2000, Reaching Up, the organization which Kennedy founded in 1989, joined with The City University of New York to establish the John F. Kennedy Jr. Institute. In 2003, the ARCO Forum at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government was renamed to the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum of Public Affairs. An active participant in Forum events, Kennedy had been a member of the Senior Advisory Committee of Harvard's Institute of Politics for fifteen years. Kennedy's paternal uncle, Ted, said the renaming symbolically linked Kennedy and his father while his sister, Caroline, stated the renaming represented his love of discussing politics.
On the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy Jr.'s father in 2013, the New York Daily News re-ran the famous photograph of the three-year-old John F. Kennedy Jr. saluting his father's coffin during the funeral procession. Photographer Dan Farrell, who took the photo, called it "the saddest thing I've ever seen in my whole life".
See also
Kennedy curse
America's Prince: The John F. Kennedy Jr. Story
References
Works cited
External links
FBI file on John F. Kennedy Jr.
1960 births
1999 deaths
20th-century American lawyers
Accidental deaths in Massachusetts
American magazine founders
American magazine publishers (people)
American socialites
Aviators from New York (state)
Aviators killed in aviation accidents or incidents in the United States
Bouvier family
Brown University alumni
Burials at sea
Children of presidents of the United States
Collegiate School (New York) alumni
Kennedy family
New York (state) lawyers
New York County Assistant District Attorneys
New York University School of Law alumni
People from the Upper East Side
Phillips Academy alumni
Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1999
Writers from Manhattan
Writers from Washington, D.C. | true | [
"React is a media franchise used by the Fine Brothers consisting of several online series centering on a group of individuals reacting to viral videos, trends, video games, film trailers, or music videos. The franchise was launched with the YouTube debut of Kids React in October 2010, and then grew to encompass four more series uploaded on the Fine Brothers' primary YouTube channel, a separate YouTube channel with various reaction-related content, as well as a television series titled React to That.\n\nIn 2016, the duo announced React World, a program and channel in which they would license the format of their React shows to creators, which led to widespread negative reception from viewers and fellow content creators, as well as confusion about what their format is. This eventually lead to the Fine Brothers removing all videos related to React World, essentially pulling the plug on the React World program.\n\nYouTube series\n\nKids React\nBenny and Rafi Fine launched a series titled Kids React on October 16, 2010, the first video being \"Kids React to Viral Videos (Double Rainbow, Obama Fail, Twin Rabbits, Snickers Halloween)\". The Kids React series features The Fine Brothers (and one of the staff members since 2016), off-camera, showing kids ages 4–14 (7-13 as of September 2016, 7-11 as of October 2016) several viral videos or popular YouTubers and having the kids react to the videos.\n\nThe most popular Kids React episode to date is “Kids React to Gay Marriage\", with over 40.2 million views as of September 2, 2018. The popularity of Kids React made it possible for the online series to win a special Emmy Award at the 39th Daytime Emmy Awards in 2012. The Emmy Award, that was given in cooperation with AOL, was awarded to the Fine Brothers for \"Best Viral Video Series\". After their Emmy win, the brothers explained, \"Not a lot has changed [after winning the Emmy] other than realizing that there are shows on YouTube like React that can get similar if not better viewership than mainstream entertainment can.\"\n\nVideos and YouTube stars that have been reacted to by the kids include Smosh (who later reacted to the kids' reactions), planking and President Obama addressing the death of Osama bin Laden, among several other topics. Kids React has been compared to Kids Say the Darndest Things. In October 2012, the kids of the show were shown videos of the 2012 U.S. Presidential debates. Kids React won the Streamy Award for Best Non-Fiction or Reality Series in 2013.\n\nTeens React\nDue to the popularity of Kids React, The Fine Brothers spawned a spin-off dubbed Teens React on November 17, 2011 with \"TEENS REACT TO TWILIGHT\". The show has a similar premise to Kids React, however the younger stars are replaced with high school teenagers aged 14-18, some of whom have aged out of the Kids React series. Due to this, the Fine Brothers are able to show more mature and less \"kid-friendly\" videos such as videos on topics like Toddlers & Tiaras, Rick Perry's Strong commercial, Amanda Todd's death, and the 2012 U.S. Presidential debates. Other viral videos and YouTube stars that have been reacted to include Salad Fingers, the Overly Attached Girlfriend, \"Gangnam Style\", The Hunger Games trailer, Shane Dawson, and One Direction, among other topics. Later on, The Fine Brothers launched a series titled Teens React: Gaming consisting videos of teenagers reacting to popular games such as Mario Kart 64, Flappy Bird, Rocket League, and Five Nights at Freddy’s. Teens React launched the career of Lia Marie Johnson, it also featured some \"famous\" 'reactors' as guest stars, including Lisa Cimorelli, Amy Cimorelli, Lucas Cruikshank (who later appears in YouTubers React), Alex Steele, Jake Short, and Maisie Williams.\n\nElders React\nElders React was debuted in 2012 and it included seniors over the age of 55. In 2021, it became a subseries for Adults React.\n\nYouTubers React\nYouTubers React was debuted in 2012 and it included famous YouTubers. On November 2020, it is retitled Creators React due to the success of other social medias and is currently airing its one-off episodes as of June 2021.\n\nAdults React\nOn May 30, 2015, the Fine Brothers announced Adults React, which premiered on July 16 later that year. It consists of people ages 20 to 55, including former stars of Teens React that have aged out of the series. Depending on the video or topic, Adults React will be specific of which type of adults are going to be reacting, such as parents or college kids.\n\nParents React\n\nThe first episode of Parents React premiered on August 6, 2015 with “Parents React to Don’t Stay At School”. This series involves parents reacting to stuff that kids were getting into.\n\nCollege Kids React\nThe first episode of College Kids React premiered on June 23, 2016 with \"College Kids React to The 1975\". This series includes stars who have aged out of Teens React along with new stars, as well as stars that have not yet aged out of Teens React but have begun college. The content of College Kids React is similar to the content found in Teens React but more mature.\n\nOne-off episodes\nIn April 2014, as an April Fools joke, the Fine Brothers teamed up with Friskies and released Cats React, which went viral. In July 2016 they released another part of Cats React.\n\nIn August 2014, they released Celebrities React to Viral Videos, and now re-released yearly.\n\nIn April 2018, in another April Fools joke, they released \"Teens React to Nothing\" where they showed the teenagers on a blank screen. The following year, they released a sequel, \"nothing reacts to teens react to nothing.\", which featured the original video being played in an empty studio.\n\nReact YouTube channel\nAfter creating four individual successful React series on their primary YouTube channel, the Fine Brothers launched a separate YouTube channel in 2014, for reaction-related content, simply dubbed \"React\". With the intent of running programming five days a week, the channel launched with five series: React Gaming (a Let's Play-style series with real youths from their primary React series), Advice (a series featuring real youths respond to questions from viewers), React Remix (musical remixes of past React footage), People Vs. Foods (originally Kids Vs. Food until 2016) (a series featuring Reactors taste-test \"Weird\" or international foods), and Lyric Breakdown (a series in which Reactors break down the meaning of various songs). The channel launched with a teenage-focused playthrough of Goat Simulator.\nFrom September 18th 2020 to May 31st 2021, the React YouTube channel was retitled to \"REPLAY\", following the renaming of the main FBE channel to \"REACT\" in the wake of FBE's distancing from Benny and Rafi Fine as a consequence of the scandal in Summer 2020 that led to many reactors leaving the channel.\nOn June 1st 2021, REPLAY is retitled \"PEOPLE VS FOOD\" and moved all the non-food videos to REACT.\n\nReact to That\nIn early 2014, it was announced that the Fine Brothers made a deal with NCredible Entertainment, a production studio founded by Nick Cannon to develop a television series for Nickelodeon. The series, dubbed React to That, was \"entirely re-envisioned for television,\" as the reactors \"not only watch and respond to viral videos, but pop out of the reaction room and into showdowns where the clips come to life as each reactor is confronted with a challenge based on the video they just watched.\" Following the announcement of the series, Benny Fine explained, \"All these viewers now watching are also pioneering what it is to be a viewer of content. They follow us through all of our different endeavors, all our different series, and now will have the opportunity to follow us to another medium.\" Nickelodeon ordered 13 episodes to be produced, but only 12 were made and aired.\n\nReact World\n\nBackground\nIn July 2015, the Fine Brothers filed for trademark protection on \"React\" with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The trademark was filed for \"Entertainment services, namely, providing an ongoing series of programs and webisodes via the internet in the field of observing and interviewing various groups of people.\" The USPTO approved for a 30-day opposition period which was set to begin on February 2, 2016; if no parties filed an opposition to the Fines' trademark request, it would have proceeded through the process. The brothers had recently filed for and been granted trademark registrations for \"Elders React\" and \"Teens React\" in 2013 as well as \"Kids React\" in 2012.\n\nAnnouncement details\nOn January 26, 2016, the Fines announced that they would be launching React World, a way to grant content creators the license to create their own versions of the React shows. Specifically, the Fine Brothers explained they were going to license the format of their React shows. A Variety report detailed that React World would \"aggregate videos in a channel to launch later this year to promote, support and feature fan-produced programming based on their shows.\" The brothers' company, Fine Brothers Entertainment (FBE) explained they would be working with YouTube and ChannelMeter on the launch of React World. FBE also expressed they would be able to monetize React-style videos uploaded under their license. On monetization, Digital Trends detailed \"Although licenses are free, React World creators must agree to share 20 percent of AdSense revenue and 30 percent of premium brand deals with FBE.\" Additionally, the Fines explained they would provide ongoing production guidance, creative guidelines, format bibles, and other resources, as well as promotional and technical support to those creators who participated with the brothers on React World.\n\nReception\nAlthough YouTube's VP on content partnerships, Kelly Merryman, originally proclaimed \"This is brand-building in the YouTube age — rising media companies building their brands through collaborations with creators around the world,\" the Fine Brothers were met with overwhelmingly negative reception to their React World announcement. BBC News reported that \"critics of the Fine Brothers have expressed concern they may use the trademarks to stifle competition,\" and quoted one YouTuber who detailed \"People don't trust them because a few years ago when Ellen DeGeneres did a similar video—not that similar, it didn't have the same format or branding—they claimed it was their format.\" Viewers and fellow content creators alike condemned the Fines for their announcement, with The Daily Dot reporting, \"Backlash poured in on Reddit and social media, and other YouTubers posted their own reactions and parodies of the enthusiastically corporate React World announcement video.\" The backlash led to a dramatic drop in subscribers, with upwards of 675,000 accounts collectively unsubscribing from the React and Fine Bros Entertainment channels as well as recent videos getting many dislikes in protest as of February 22, 2016. Mashable described that one Reddit post \"ignited a thread of haters, defenders and overall discussion about whether what Fine Brothers Entertainment is doing is fair.\" Ryan Morrison, a gamer, lawyer and Reddit user, declared that he would file a legal challenge to the Fine Brothers' trademark request on \"React\", writing \"These guys didn’t come up with the idea of filming funny reactions from kids. And they certainly don’t own an entire genre of YouTube videos. It wasn’t their idea, and it’s not theirs to own or police.\"\n\nThough there was an overwhelmingly negative response to the React World announcement, other personalities expressed milder opinions; Internet personality Hank Green wrote \"This could actually be a very cool project if it could be divorced from the idea of two very powerful creators attempting to control a very popular YouTube video format. Franchising one of YouTube's biggest shows? Yeah, I’d love to see how that goes.\" New York reporter Jay Hathaway wrote \"The trademark and React World are dead. And that's a shame, because it was an interesting idea that suffered from tone-deaf execution.\"\n\nResponses and discontinuation by the Fine Brothers\nAfter seeing the initial backlash from their announcement, The Fine Brothers posted comments on various social media websites including Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, and the comment section of their YouTube announcement video. On Facebook the Fines wrote, \"We do not own the idea or copyright for reaction videos overall, nor did we ever say we did. You don’t need anyone’s permission to make these kinds of videos, and we’re not coming after anyone\", adding \"We are in no way claiming reaction content in general is our intellectual property. This is purely a voluntary program for people wanting direct support from us, and we continue to be so excited to work with all of you who may want to participate\". They additionally tweeted \"We're not saying we hold a copyright on reaction videos overall, no one can. We're licensing our specific shows, like TV has done for years\". The brothers also explained they would \"not be trying to take revenue from other types of reaction videos, and will not be copyright-striking\". However, other YouTubers have reported multiple copyright related video takedowns. The Guardian also reported that unrelated channels featuring diverse groups of people reacting to videos were also removed after takedown requests from the Fine Brothers; the \"Seniors React\" video was noted to be released prior to the Fines launching their Elders React series. The Fines also posted an update video in response to what they described as \"confusion and negative response\" to React World, in which they try to clear up confusion on what their format encompasses, as well as inviting viewers to e-mail them about any further questions.\n\nUltimately, the Fine Brothers removed all React World videos, and posted a statement on Medium, declaring they have filed the paperwork to rescind all their \"React\" trademarks and applications, will discontinue the React World program, and will release all past Content ID claims. In their post, the brothers expressed \"It makes perfect sense for people to distrust our motives here, but we are confident that our actions will speak louder than these words moving forward\". Reaction to this Medium post was negative on Reddit, where users were reported commenting they would not forgive the Fine Brothers.\n\nAccolades\n\nReferences\n\nCitations\n\nSources\n\nFootnotes\n\nSee also \n Reaction video\n\n2010 web series debuts\nFullscreen (company) channels\nFullscreen Media franchises\nYouTube original programming",
"\"React\" is a song by American hip hop group Onyx. It was released on June 2, 1998 by JMJ Records, Rush Associated Labels and Def Jam as the third single from Onyx's third album, Shut 'Em Down. The song featured Onyx affiliates X1, Bonifucco and Still Livin' and a then unknown 50 Cent in his first official appearance on a song.\n\nProduced by Bud'da, React was successful on the R&B and rap charts, peaking at 62 on the US Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks and 44 on the US Hot Rap Singles.\n\nAllmusic highlighted the song itself when they reviewed the album.\n\nBackground\n50 Cent mentioned Jam Master Jay as the man who put him on a song, during his book From Pieces to Weight: Once Upon a Time in Southside, Queens:\n\"...Jam Master Jay got me on a song called \"React\". At the time we did a song, no one expected it to be a single. They just put me on the song as a favor to Jay because I was the new nigga in his camp.\n\nMusic video\n\"React\" was the first music video directed by Director X; and it premiered on \"Rap City\" aired on BET on June 13, 1998. The video concept called for rappers to be hockey players. 50 Cent spoke on his appearance in the video \"React\" when asked about the last time he went ice-skating.\"...It actually was the Onyx video. I had to learn for the video. I didn't know why. I was like 'What the—?' I asked them to put me in the box. Like an actual [penalty box]\".\n\nThe video can be found on the 2008's DVD Onyx: 15 Years Of Videos, History And Violence.\n\nControversy\nThe beef between Onyx and 50 Cent started on Def Jam's \"Survival Of The Illest\" concert at the legendary world-famous Apollo Theater. The concert was held on July 18, 1998. During performing the song \"React\" rapper Scarred 4 Life (also known as Clay Da Raider) performed 50 Cent's verse. Later, 50 would diss Sticky Fingaz on a number of mixtapes, including 50's underground hit \"How To Rob\". Then he would fight with Fredro at the rehearsal for the 2003 VIBE Awards. In a 2008 interview for AllHipHop Fredro Starr made a comment about 50 Cent:\"...50 is a smart businessman and at the end of the day we gave him respect. We put him on records when we was at the top of the game. He didn't even have a car. We gave him respect on the strength of Jam Master Jay. What did we get in return? Someone talking slick on mixtapes? Swinging on n****s?\"\n\nReleases\n\n12\" vinyl single track listing\nA-Side:\n\"React\" (Radio Edit) - 4:25 (Featuring 50 Cent, Bonifucco, Still Livin, X1 [Uncredited])\n\"Broke Willies\" (Radio Edit) - 4:08 (Featuring X1 [Uncredited])\n\"Shut 'Em Down\" (Remix)- 4:07 (Featuring Big Pun, Noreaga)\n\nB-Side:\n\"React\" (TV track)- 4:26\n\"Broke Willies\" (TV Track) - 4:09\n\"Shut 'Em Down\" (Remix) (TV Track) - 4:07\n\nCD promo single track listing\n\"React\" (Radio Edit)- 4:26 (Featuring 50 Cent, Bonifucco, Still Livin, X1 [Uncredited])\n\"Broke Willies\" (Radio Edit)- 4:11 (Featuring X1 [Uncredited])\n\"Shut 'Em Down (Remix)\" (Radio Edit)- 4:02 (Featuring Big Pun, Noreaga)\n\nNotes\n The single version of \"Broke Willies\" is very different in music from the album version.\n\nSamples\n\"Eastside Connection\" by Frisco Disco\n\nNotes\n LL Cool J is the first rap artist who used the same sample in his 1985 song \"You'll Rock\" (Remix) produced by Rick Rubin.\n\nPersonnel \n Onyx - performer, vocals, co-producer (\"Broke Willies\")\n Fredro Starr - performer, vocals\n Sticky Fingaz - performer, vocals\n Sonny Seeza - performer, vocals\n Bud'da - producer (\"React\")\n Keith Horne - producer (\"Broke Willies\")\n Don Elliot - engineer (\"Broke Willies\")\n Self - producer (\"Shut 'Em Down (Remix)\")\n Ken \"DURO\" Ifill - engineer, mixing\n DJ LS One - engineer, mixing, scratches\n Patrick Viala - remixing (\"Shut 'Em Down (Remix)\")\n Tony Black - mixing, remixing (\"Shut 'Em Down (Remix)\")\n Tom Coyne - mastering\n\nCharts\n\nWeekly charts\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nReact at Discogs\nReact at RapGenius\n\n1998 singles\nJMJ Records singles\n50 Cent songs\nOnyx (group) songs\nSongs written by 50 Cent\nMusic videos directed by Director X\nPosse cuts"
]
|
[
"John F. Kennedy Jr.",
"Mother's remarriage",
"Who did his mom get married to?",
"she married Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis,",
"When did his mom get remarried?",
"After his uncle Robert was assassinated in 1968,",
"How did John react the new marriage?",
"Kennedy is said to have considered his stepfather \"a joke\"."
]
| C_5eafb25cd66a42ffa7d27f8c4a69c2ce_0 | Why did he think he was a joke? | 4 | Why did JFK Jr think his stepfather, Aristotle Onassis, was a joke? | John F. Kennedy Jr. | After President Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, Mrs. Kennedy moved her family to a luxury apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, where John Kennedy, Jr. grew up. In 1967, his mother took him and Caroline on a six-week "sentimental journey" to Ireland, where they met President Eamon de Valera and visited the Kennedy ancestral home in Dunganstown. After his uncle Robert was assassinated in 1968, his mother took him and his sister out of the United States, saying: "If they're killing Kennedys, then my children are targets ... I want to get out of this country." The same year, she married Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis, and the family went to live on his private island of Skorpios. Kennedy is said to have considered his stepfather "a joke". In 1971, Kennedy returned to the White House with his mother and sister for the first time since the assassination. President Richard Nixon's daughters gave Kennedy a tour that included his old bedroom, and Nixon showed him the Resolute desk under which his father had let him play. When Onassis died in 1975, he left Kennedy $25,000, though Jacqueline was able to renegotiate the will, and acquired $20 million for herself and her children. In 1976, Kennedy and his cousin visited an earthquake disaster zone at Rabinal in Guatemala, helping with heavy building work and distributing food. The local priest said that they "ate what the people of Rabinal ate and dressed in Guatemalan clothes and slept in tents like most of the earthquake victims", adding that the two "did more for their country's image" in Guatemala "than a roomful of ambassadors". On his sixteenth birthday, Kennedy's Secret Service protection ended. He spent the summer of 1978 working as a wrangler in Wyoming. Before attending Brown University, Kennedy accompanied his mother to Africa. On a pioneering course, he rescued his group, which had gotten lost for two days without food or water, and won points for leadership. In 1979, the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum was dedicated, and Kennedy made his first major speech, reciting Stephen Spender's poem "I Think Continually of Those Who Were Truly Great". CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | John Fitzgerald Kennedy Jr. (November 25, 1960 – July 16, 1999), often referred to as John-John or JFK Jr., was an American lawyer, journalist, and magazine publisher. He was a son of U.S. president John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, and a younger brother of Caroline Kennedy. Three days before his third birthday, his father was assassinated.
From his childhood years at the White House, Kennedy was heavily covered by media, and later became a popular social figure in Manhattan. Trained as a lawyer, he worked as a New York City assistant district attorney for almost four years. In 1995, Kennedy launched George magazine, using his political and celebrity status to publicize it. He died in a plane crash in 1999 at the age of 38.
Early life
John Fitzgerald Kennedy Jr. was born at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital on November 25, 1960, two weeks after his father, Massachusetts senator John F. Kennedy, was elected president. His father took office exactly eight weeks after John Jr. was born. His parents had a stillborn daughter named Arabella four years before John Jr.'s birth. John Jr. had an older sister, Caroline, and a younger brother, Patrick, who died two days after his premature birth in 1963. His putative nickname, "John-John", came from a reporter who misheard JFK calling him "John" twice in quick succession; the name was not used by his family.
John Jr. lived in the White House during the first three years of his life and remained in the public spotlight as a young adult. His father was assassinated on November 22, 1963, and the state funeral was held three days later on John Jr.'s third birthday. At his mother's prompting, John Jr. saluted the flag-draped casket as it was carried out from St. Matthew's Cathedral. NBC News vice-president Julian Goodman called the video of the salute "the most impressive...shot in the history of television," which was set up by NBC Director Charles Jones, who was working for the press pool. Lyndon B. Johnson wrote his first letter as president to John Jr. and told him that he "can always be proud" of his father. Stan Stearns, who took an iconic photograph of the salute, served as chief White House photographer during the Johnson administration. Over the years, Stearns showed Johnson the image as it was a symbol of what Johnson said in his letter to John Jr. The family continued with their plans for a birthday party to demonstrate that the Kennedys would go on despite the death of the president.
After President Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, Jacqueline Kennedy moved her family briefly to the Georgetown area of Washington, and then to a luxury apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, where John Jr. grew up. In 1967, his mother took him and Caroline on a six-week "sentimental journey" to Ireland, where they met President Éamon de Valera and visited the Kennedy ancestral home in Dunganstown.
Mother's remarriage
After JFK's brother Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1968, Jackie took Caroline and John Jr. out of the United States, saying: "If they're killing Kennedys, then my children are targets ... I want to get out of this country." The same year, she married Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis, and the family went to live on his private island of Skorpios. Kennedy is said to have considered his stepfather "a joke".
In 1971, Kennedy returned to the White House with his mother and sister for the first time since the assassination. President Richard Nixon's daughters gave Kennedy a tour that included his old bedroom, and Nixon showed him the Resolute desk under which his father had let him play.
Education
Kennedy attended private schools in Manhattan, starting at Saint David's School and moving to Collegiate School, which he attended from third through tenth grade. He completed his education at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. After graduating, he accompanied his mother on a trip to Africa. He rescued his group while on a pioneering course, which had gotten lost for two days without food or water.
In 1976, Kennedy and his cousin visited an earthquake disaster zone at Rabinal in Guatemala, helping with heavy building work and distributing food. The local priest said that they "ate what the people of Rabinal ate and dressed in Guatemalan clothes and slept in tents like most of the earthquake victims," adding that the two "did more for their country's image" in Guatemala "than a roomful of ambassadors." On his sixteenth birthday, Kennedy's Secret Service protection ended and he spent the summer of 1978 working as a wrangler in Wyoming. In 1979, the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston was dedicated, and Kennedy made his first major speech, reciting Stephen Spender's poem "I Think Continually of Those Who Were Truly Great."
Kennedy attended Brown University, where he majored in American studies. There, he co-founded a student discussion group that focused on contemporary issues such as apartheid in South Africa, gun control, and civil rights. Visiting South Africa during a summer break, he was appalled by apartheid, and arranged for U.N. ambassador Andrew Young to speak about the topic at Brown. By his junior year at Brown, he had moved off campus to live with several other students in a shared house, and spent time at Xenon, a club owned by Howard Stein. Kennedy was initiated into Phi Psi, a local social fraternity that had been the Rhode Island Alpha Chapter of national Phi Kappa Psi fraternity until 1978.
In January 1983, Kennedy's Massachusetts driver's license was suspended after he received more than three speeding summonses in a twelve-month period, and failed to appear at a hearing. The family's lawyer explained he most likely "became immersed in exams and just forgot the date of the hearing." He graduated that same year with a bachelor's degree in American studies, and then took a break, traveling to India and spending some time at the University of Delhi where he did his post graduation work and he met Mother Teresa. He also worked with some of the Kennedy special interest projects, including the East Harlem School at Exodus House and Reaching Up.
Career
After the 1984 Democratic Convention in San Francisco, Kennedy returned to New York and earned $20,000 a year in a position at the Office of Business Development, where his boss reflected that he worked "in the same crummy cubbyhole as everybody else. I heaped on the work and was always pleased." From 1984 to 1986, he worked for the New York City Office of Business Development and served as deputy director of the 42nd Street Development Corporation in 1986, conducting negotiations with developers and city agencies. In 1988, he became a summer associate at Manatt, Phelps, Rothenberg & Phillips, a Los Angeles law firm with strong connections to the Democratic Party. There, Kennedy worked for Charlie Manatt, his uncle Ted Kennedy's law school roommate.
From 1989, Kennedy headed Reaching Up, a nonprofit group which provided educational and other opportunities for workers who helped people with disabilities. William Ebenstein, executive director of Reaching Up, said, "He was always concerned with the working poor, and his family always had an interest in helping them."
In 1989, Kennedy earned a J.D. degree from the New York University School of Law. He then failed the New York bar exam twice, before passing on his third try in July 1990. After failing the exam for a second time, Kennedy vowed that he would take it continuously until he was ninety-five years old or passed. If he had failed a third time, he would have been ineligible to serve as a prosecutor in the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, where he worked for the next four years. On August 29, 1991, Kennedy won his first case as a prosecutor.
In the summer of 1992, he worked as a journalist and was commissioned by The New York Times to write an article about his kayaking expedition to the Åland archipelago, where he saved one of his friends from the water when his kayak capsized. He then considered creating a magazine with his friend, public-relations magnate Michael J. Berman—a plan which his mother thought too risky. In his 2000 book The Day John Died, Christopher Andersen wrote that Jacqueline had also worried that her son would die in a plane crash, and asked her longtime companion Maurice Tempelsman "to do whatever it took to keep John from becoming a pilot".
Acting
Meanwhile, Kennedy had done a bit of acting, which was one of his passions (he had appeared in many plays while at Brown). He expressed interest in acting as a career, but his mother strongly disapproved of it, considering it an unsuitable profession. On August 4, 1985, Kennedy made his New York acting debut in front of an invitation-only audience at the Irish Theater on Manhattan's West Side. Executive director of the Irish Arts Center, Nye Heron, said that Kennedy was "one of the best young actors I've seen in years". Kennedy's director, Robin Saex, stated, "He has an earnestness that just shines through." Kennedy's largest acting role was playing a fictionalized version of himself in the eighth-season episode of the sitcom Murphy Brown, called "Altered States". In this episode, Kennedy visits Brown at her office, in order to promote a magazine he is publishing.
George magazine
In 1995, Kennedy and Michael Berman founded George, a glossy, politics-as-lifestyle and fashion monthly, with Kennedy controlling 50 percent of the shares. Kennedy officially launched the magazine at a news conference in Manhattan on September 8 and joked that he had not seen so many reporters in one place since he failed his first bar exam.
Each issue of the magazine contained an editor's column and interviews written by Kennedy, who believed they could make politics "accessible by covering it in an entertaining and compelling way" which would allow "popular interest and involvement" to follow. Kennedy did interviews with Louis Farrakhan, Billy Graham, Garth Brooks, and others.
The first issue was criticized for its image of Cindy Crawford posing as George Washington in a powdered wig and ruffled shirt. In defense of the cover, Kennedy stated that "political magazines should look like Mirabella."
In July 1997, Vanity Fair had published a profile of New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, claiming that the mayor was sleeping with his press secretary (which both parties denied). Although tempted to follow up on this story, Kennedy decided against it.
The same month, Kennedy wrote about meeting Mother Teresa, declaring that the "three days I spent in her presence was the strongest evidence this struggling Catholic has ever had that God exists."
The September 1997 issue of George centered on temptation, and featured two of Kennedy's cousins, Michael LeMoyne Kennedy and Joseph P. Kennedy II. Michael had been accused of having an affair with his children's underaged babysitter, while Joe had been accused by his ex-wife of having bullied her. John declared that both his cousins had become "poster boys for bad behavior"—believed to be the first time a member of the Kennedy family had publicly attacked another Kennedy. He said he was trying to show that press coverage of the pair was unfair, due to them being Kennedys. But Joe paraphrased John's father by stating, "Ask not what you can do for your cousin, but what you can do for his magazine."
Decline
By early 1997, Kennedy and Berman found themselves locked in a power struggle, which led to screaming matches, slammed doors, and even one physical altercation. Eventually Berman sold his share of the company, and Kennedy took on Berman's responsibilities himself. Though the magazine had already begun to decline in popularity before Berman left, his departure was followed by a rapid drop in sales.
David Pecker, CEO of Hachette Filipacchi Magazines who were partners in George, said the decline was because Kennedy refused to "take risks as an editor, despite the fact that he was an extraordinary risk taker in other areas of his life." Pecker said, "He understood that the target audience for George was the eighteen-to-thirty-four-year-old demographic, yet he would routinely turn down interviews that would appeal to this age group, like Princess Diana or John Gotti Jr., to interview subjects like Dan Rostenkowski or Võ Nguyên Giáp."
Shortly before his death, Kennedy had been planning a series of online chats with the 2000 presidential candidates. Microsoft was to provide the technology and pay for it while receiving advertising in George. After his death, the magazine was bought out by Hachette, but folded in early 2001.
Later life
Family activity
Kennedy addressed the 1988 Democratic National Convention in Atlanta, introducing his uncle, Senator Ted Kennedy. He invoked his father's inaugural address, calling "a generation to public service", and received a two-minute standing ovation. Republican consultant Richard Viguerie said he did not remember a word of the speech, but remembered "a good delivery" and added, "I think it was a plus for the Democrats and the boy. He is strikingly handsome."
Kennedy participated in his cousin Patrick J. Kennedy's campaign for a seat in the Rhode Island House of Representatives by visiting the district. He sat outside the polling booth and had his picture taken with "would-be" voters. The polaroid ploy worked so well in the campaign that Patrick J. Kennedy used it again in 1994.
Kennedy also campaigned in Boston for his uncle's re-election to the U.S. Senate against challenger Mitt Romney in 1994. "He always created a stir when he arrived in Massachusetts," remarked Senator Kennedy.
Relationships
While attending Brown University, Kennedy met Sally Munro, whom he dated for six years, and they visited India in 1983. While he was a student at Brown, he also met socialite Brooke Shields, with whom he was later linked.
Kennedy also dated models Cindy Crawford and Julie Baker, as well as actress Sarah Jessica Parker, who said she enjoyed dating Kennedy but realized he "was a public domain kind of a guy." Parker claimed to have no idea what "real fame" was until dating Kennedy and felt that she should "apologize for dating him" since it became the "defining factor in the person" she was.
Kennedy had known actress Daryl Hannah since their two families had vacationed together in St. Maarten in the early '80s. After meeting again at the wedding of his aunt Lee Radziwill in 1988, they dated for five and a half years, though their relationship was complicated by her feelings for singer Jackson Browne, with whom she had lived for a time.
Also during this time, Kennedy dated Christina Haag. They had known each other as children, and she also attended Brown University.
Marriage
After his relationship with Daryl Hannah ended, Kennedy cohabitated with Carolyn Bessette, who worked in the fashion industry. They were engaged for a year, though Kennedy consistently denied reports of this. On September 21, 1996, they married in a private ceremony on Cumberland Island, Georgia, where his sister, Caroline, was matron of honor and his cousin Anthony Radziwill was best man.
The next day, Kennedy's cousin Patrick revealed that the pair had married. When they returned to their Manhattan home, a mass of reporters was on the doorstep. One of them asked Kennedy if he had enjoyed his honeymoon, to which he responded: "Very much." He added "Getting married is a big adjustment for us, and for a private citizen like Carolyn even more so. I ask you to give her all the privacy and room you can."
But Carolyn was, in fact, badly disoriented by the constant attention from the paparazzi. The couple was permanently on show, both at fashionable Manhattan events, and on their travels to visit celebrities such as Mariuccia Mandelli and Gianni Versace. She also complained to her friend, journalist Jonathan Soroff, that she could not get a job without being accused of exploiting her fame.
In June 2019, Billy Noonan, a longtime friend of John F. Kennedy Jr., released a video tape of the secret wedding that had taken place on the remote island.
Piloting
Kennedy took flying lessons at the Flight Safety Academy in Vero Beach, Florida. In April 1998, he received his pilot's license, which he had aspired to since he was a child.
The death of his cousin Michael in a skiing accident prompted John to take a hiatus from his piloting lessons for three months. His sister Caroline hoped this would be permanent, but when he resumed, she did little to stop him.
Death
On July 16, 1999, Kennedy departed from Essex County Airport in Fairfield, New Jersey, at the controls of his Piper Saratoga light aircraft. He was traveling with his wife Carolyn and sister-in-law Lauren Bessette to attend the wedding of his cousin Rory Kennedy at Hyannis Port, Massachusetts. He had purchased the plane on April 28, 1999, from Air Bound Aviation. Carolyn and Lauren were passengers sitting in the second row of seats. Kennedy had checked in with the control tower at the Martha's Vineyard Airport, but the plane was reported missing after it failed to arrive on schedule.
Officials were not hopeful about finding survivors after aircraft debris and a black suitcase belonging to Bessette were recovered from the Atlantic Ocean. President Bill Clinton gave his support to the Kennedy family during the search for the three missing passengers.
On July 18, a Coast Guard admiral declared an end to hope that Kennedy, his wife and her sister could be found alive. On July 19, the fragments of Kennedy's plane were found by the ship NOAAS Rude using side-scan sonar. The next day, Navy divers descended into the water. The divers found part of the shattered plane strewn over a broad area of seabed below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean. The search ended in the late afternoon of July 21, when the three bodies were recovered from the ocean floor by Navy divers and taken by motorcade to the county medical examiner's office. The discovery was made from high-resolution images of the ocean bottom. Divers found Carolyn's and Lauren's bodies near the twisted and broken fuselage while Kennedy's body was still strapped into the pilot's seat. Admiral Richard M. Larrabee of the Coast Guard said that all three bodies were "near and under" the fuselage, still strapped in.
On the evening of July 21, the bodies were autopsied at the county medical examiner's office; the findings revealed that the crash victims had died upon impact. At the same time, the Kennedy and Bessette families announced their plans for memorial services. On July 21, the three bodies were taken from Hyannis to Duxbury, Massachusetts, where they were cremated in the Mayflower Cemetery crematorium. Ted Kennedy favored a public service for John, while Caroline Kennedy insisted on family privacy. On the morning of July 22, their ashes were scattered at sea from the Navy destroyer off the coast of Martha's Vineyard.
A memorial service was held for Kennedy on July 23, 1999, at the Church of St. Thomas More, which was a parish that Kennedy had often attended with his mother and sister. The invitation-only service was attended by hundreds of mourners, including President Bill Clinton, who presented the family with photo albums of John and Carolyn on their visit to the White House from the previous year. Other guests at the church were Ted Kennedy, Arnold Schwarzenegger with Maria Shriver, John Kerry, Lee Radziwill, Maurice Tempelsman and Muhammad Ali.
Kennedy's last will and testament stipulated that his personal belongings, property, and holdings were to be "evenly distributed" among his sister Caroline Kennedy's three children, who were among fourteen beneficiaries in his will.
Legacy
In 2000, Reaching Up, the organization which Kennedy founded in 1989, joined with The City University of New York to establish the John F. Kennedy Jr. Institute. In 2003, the ARCO Forum at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government was renamed to the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum of Public Affairs. An active participant in Forum events, Kennedy had been a member of the Senior Advisory Committee of Harvard's Institute of Politics for fifteen years. Kennedy's paternal uncle, Ted, said the renaming symbolically linked Kennedy and his father while his sister, Caroline, stated the renaming represented his love of discussing politics.
On the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy Jr.'s father in 2013, the New York Daily News re-ran the famous photograph of the three-year-old John F. Kennedy Jr. saluting his father's coffin during the funeral procession. Photographer Dan Farrell, who took the photo, called it "the saddest thing I've ever seen in my whole life".
See also
Kennedy curse
America's Prince: The John F. Kennedy Jr. Story
References
Works cited
External links
FBI file on John F. Kennedy Jr.
1960 births
1999 deaths
20th-century American lawyers
Accidental deaths in Massachusetts
American magazine founders
American magazine publishers (people)
American socialites
Aviators from New York (state)
Aviators killed in aviation accidents or incidents in the United States
Bouvier family
Brown University alumni
Burials at sea
Children of presidents of the United States
Collegiate School (New York) alumni
Kennedy family
New York (state) lawyers
New York County Assistant District Attorneys
New York University School of Law alumni
People from the Upper East Side
Phillips Academy alumni
Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1999
Writers from Manhattan
Writers from Washington, D.C. | false | [
"\"Why did the chicken cross the road?\" is a common riddle joke, with the answer being \"To get to the other side\". It is commonly seen as an example of anti-humor, in that the curious setup of the joke leads the listener to expect a traditional punchline, but they are instead given a simple statement of fact. Some also see the phrase \"other side\" as the afterlife, suggesting that it is not anti-humor. \"Why did the chicken cross the road?\" has become iconic as an exemplary generic joke to which most people know the answer, and has been repeated and changed numerous times over the course of history.\n\nHistory \n\nThe riddle appeared in an 1847 edition of The Knickerbocker, a New York City monthly magazine:\n\nThere are 'quips and quillets' which seem actual conundrums, but yet are none. Of such is this: 'Why does a chicken cross the street?['] Are you 'out of town?' Do you 'give it up?' Well, then: 'Because it wants to get on the other side!'\n\nAccording to music critic Gary Giddins in the Ken Burns documentary Jazz, the joke was spread through the United States, to large cities and small towns, by minstrel shows beginning in the 1840s as one of the first national jokes, which endures as a part of American culture to this day. \n\nIn the 1890s, a pun variant version appeared in the magazine Potter's American Monthly:\nWhy should not a chicken cross the road?\nIt would be a fowl proceeding.\n\nVariations \n\nThere are many riddles that assume a familiarity with this well-known riddle and its answer. For example, an alternate punchline can be used for the riddle, such as \"it was too far to walk around\". One class of variations enlists a creature other than the chicken to cross the road, in order to refer back to the original riddle. For example, a duck (or turkey) crosses \"because it was the chicken's day off,\" and a dinosaur crosses \"because chickens didn't exist yet.\" Some variants are both puns and references to the original, such as \"Why did the duck cross the road?\" \"To prove he's no chicken\".\n\nOther variations replace side with another word often to form a pun. Some examples are:\n 'Why did the chicken cross the road? To get to the idiot's house'. Knock knock',\n\n 'Who's there?' \n\n 'The chicken'\n\n\"Why did the chicken cross the playground? To get to the other slide\"\n\n\"Why did the chewing gum cross the road? It was stuck to the chicken's foot\"\n\n\"Why did the whale cross the ocean? To get to the other tide.\"\n\nA mathematical version asks, \"Why did the chicken cross the Möbius strip?\" \"To get to the same side.\"\n\nAs with the lightbulb joke, variants on these themes are widespread.\n\nReferences\n\nFurther reading \n Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: \n\nJoke cycles\nChickens\n1840s neologisms\nQuotations from literature\nRiddles\nWorks originally published in The Knickerbocker",
"Joke Master Jr.: For Ages 3–12 is an album by American comedian, comedy writer and radio personality Jackie Martling. The album was released on November 7, 2006 in both CD and MP3 formats on the Oglio Records label.\n\nDescription \nThe MP3 format contains nine \"Lots of Fun\" tracks, each of them playing eleven jokes for a grand total of 99. The jokes are for children ages three to twelve years.\n\nBackground \nIn 1979, Martling issued his debut LP, What Did You Expect? He released two more albums, 1980's Goin' Ape! and 1981's Normal People Are People You Don't Know That Well. Martling sent all three records to fledgling New York City disk jockey Howard Stern. By 1986, he was a full-time member of Stern's show, later becoming the program's head writer. Martling maintained a steady schedule of live dates while working with Stern, recording Sgt. Pecker, F Jackie, and The Very Best of Jackie Martling's Talking Joke Book Cassettes, Vol. 1. Joke Master Jr. is the ninth CD in Martling's comedic career.\n\nIn 2006, Martling had successfully launched the Joke Master Jr. series of handheld joke machines by selling approximately 50,000 units through mainstream retailers across the country. As Martling explains, recording tracks for the Joke Master Jr. and Gross Master Jr. CDs was a natural extension of his creative effort:\n\nI made a kids talking joke machine, with my voice sped up for \"the chipmunk effect,\" and I think the kids will go nuts for it. A CD with the jokes was a logical next step. ...I know and love jokes of all kinds. Many of the jokes on these two CDs are the classic jokes we all eventually learned as kids. But the jokes on these CDs are the end product of an exhaustive search that includes all of them and then some.\n\nNotes \n\n2006 albums\nJackie Martling albums\nOglio Records albums\n2000s comedy albums\nChildren's albums"
]
|
[
"John F. Kennedy Jr.",
"Mother's remarriage",
"Who did his mom get married to?",
"she married Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis,",
"When did his mom get remarried?",
"After his uncle Robert was assassinated in 1968,",
"How did John react the new marriage?",
"Kennedy is said to have considered his stepfather \"a joke\".",
"Why did he think he was a joke?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_5eafb25cd66a42ffa7d27f8c4a69c2ce_0 | What did other people think of his mother's remarriage? | 5 | What did people other than JFK Jr think of his mother's remarriage to Aristotle Onassis? | John F. Kennedy Jr. | After President Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, Mrs. Kennedy moved her family to a luxury apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, where John Kennedy, Jr. grew up. In 1967, his mother took him and Caroline on a six-week "sentimental journey" to Ireland, where they met President Eamon de Valera and visited the Kennedy ancestral home in Dunganstown. After his uncle Robert was assassinated in 1968, his mother took him and his sister out of the United States, saying: "If they're killing Kennedys, then my children are targets ... I want to get out of this country." The same year, she married Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis, and the family went to live on his private island of Skorpios. Kennedy is said to have considered his stepfather "a joke". In 1971, Kennedy returned to the White House with his mother and sister for the first time since the assassination. President Richard Nixon's daughters gave Kennedy a tour that included his old bedroom, and Nixon showed him the Resolute desk under which his father had let him play. When Onassis died in 1975, he left Kennedy $25,000, though Jacqueline was able to renegotiate the will, and acquired $20 million for herself and her children. In 1976, Kennedy and his cousin visited an earthquake disaster zone at Rabinal in Guatemala, helping with heavy building work and distributing food. The local priest said that they "ate what the people of Rabinal ate and dressed in Guatemalan clothes and slept in tents like most of the earthquake victims", adding that the two "did more for their country's image" in Guatemala "than a roomful of ambassadors". On his sixteenth birthday, Kennedy's Secret Service protection ended. He spent the summer of 1978 working as a wrangler in Wyoming. Before attending Brown University, Kennedy accompanied his mother to Africa. On a pioneering course, he rescued his group, which had gotten lost for two days without food or water, and won points for leadership. In 1979, the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum was dedicated, and Kennedy made his first major speech, reciting Stephen Spender's poem "I Think Continually of Those Who Were Truly Great". CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | John Fitzgerald Kennedy Jr. (November 25, 1960 – July 16, 1999), often referred to as John-John or JFK Jr., was an American lawyer, journalist, and magazine publisher. He was a son of U.S. president John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, and a younger brother of Caroline Kennedy. Three days before his third birthday, his father was assassinated.
From his childhood years at the White House, Kennedy was heavily covered by media, and later became a popular social figure in Manhattan. Trained as a lawyer, he worked as a New York City assistant district attorney for almost four years. In 1995, Kennedy launched George magazine, using his political and celebrity status to publicize it. He died in a plane crash in 1999 at the age of 38.
Early life
John Fitzgerald Kennedy Jr. was born at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital on November 25, 1960, two weeks after his father, Massachusetts senator John F. Kennedy, was elected president. His father took office exactly eight weeks after John Jr. was born. His parents had a stillborn daughter named Arabella four years before John Jr.'s birth. John Jr. had an older sister, Caroline, and a younger brother, Patrick, who died two days after his premature birth in 1963. His putative nickname, "John-John", came from a reporter who misheard JFK calling him "John" twice in quick succession; the name was not used by his family.
John Jr. lived in the White House during the first three years of his life and remained in the public spotlight as a young adult. His father was assassinated on November 22, 1963, and the state funeral was held three days later on John Jr.'s third birthday. At his mother's prompting, John Jr. saluted the flag-draped casket as it was carried out from St. Matthew's Cathedral. NBC News vice-president Julian Goodman called the video of the salute "the most impressive...shot in the history of television," which was set up by NBC Director Charles Jones, who was working for the press pool. Lyndon B. Johnson wrote his first letter as president to John Jr. and told him that he "can always be proud" of his father. Stan Stearns, who took an iconic photograph of the salute, served as chief White House photographer during the Johnson administration. Over the years, Stearns showed Johnson the image as it was a symbol of what Johnson said in his letter to John Jr. The family continued with their plans for a birthday party to demonstrate that the Kennedys would go on despite the death of the president.
After President Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, Jacqueline Kennedy moved her family briefly to the Georgetown area of Washington, and then to a luxury apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, where John Jr. grew up. In 1967, his mother took him and Caroline on a six-week "sentimental journey" to Ireland, where they met President Éamon de Valera and visited the Kennedy ancestral home in Dunganstown.
Mother's remarriage
After JFK's brother Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1968, Jackie took Caroline and John Jr. out of the United States, saying: "If they're killing Kennedys, then my children are targets ... I want to get out of this country." The same year, she married Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis, and the family went to live on his private island of Skorpios. Kennedy is said to have considered his stepfather "a joke".
In 1971, Kennedy returned to the White House with his mother and sister for the first time since the assassination. President Richard Nixon's daughters gave Kennedy a tour that included his old bedroom, and Nixon showed him the Resolute desk under which his father had let him play.
Education
Kennedy attended private schools in Manhattan, starting at Saint David's School and moving to Collegiate School, which he attended from third through tenth grade. He completed his education at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. After graduating, he accompanied his mother on a trip to Africa. He rescued his group while on a pioneering course, which had gotten lost for two days without food or water.
In 1976, Kennedy and his cousin visited an earthquake disaster zone at Rabinal in Guatemala, helping with heavy building work and distributing food. The local priest said that they "ate what the people of Rabinal ate and dressed in Guatemalan clothes and slept in tents like most of the earthquake victims," adding that the two "did more for their country's image" in Guatemala "than a roomful of ambassadors." On his sixteenth birthday, Kennedy's Secret Service protection ended and he spent the summer of 1978 working as a wrangler in Wyoming. In 1979, the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston was dedicated, and Kennedy made his first major speech, reciting Stephen Spender's poem "I Think Continually of Those Who Were Truly Great."
Kennedy attended Brown University, where he majored in American studies. There, he co-founded a student discussion group that focused on contemporary issues such as apartheid in South Africa, gun control, and civil rights. Visiting South Africa during a summer break, he was appalled by apartheid, and arranged for U.N. ambassador Andrew Young to speak about the topic at Brown. By his junior year at Brown, he had moved off campus to live with several other students in a shared house, and spent time at Xenon, a club owned by Howard Stein. Kennedy was initiated into Phi Psi, a local social fraternity that had been the Rhode Island Alpha Chapter of national Phi Kappa Psi fraternity until 1978.
In January 1983, Kennedy's Massachusetts driver's license was suspended after he received more than three speeding summonses in a twelve-month period, and failed to appear at a hearing. The family's lawyer explained he most likely "became immersed in exams and just forgot the date of the hearing." He graduated that same year with a bachelor's degree in American studies, and then took a break, traveling to India and spending some time at the University of Delhi where he did his post graduation work and he met Mother Teresa. He also worked with some of the Kennedy special interest projects, including the East Harlem School at Exodus House and Reaching Up.
Career
After the 1984 Democratic Convention in San Francisco, Kennedy returned to New York and earned $20,000 a year in a position at the Office of Business Development, where his boss reflected that he worked "in the same crummy cubbyhole as everybody else. I heaped on the work and was always pleased." From 1984 to 1986, he worked for the New York City Office of Business Development and served as deputy director of the 42nd Street Development Corporation in 1986, conducting negotiations with developers and city agencies. In 1988, he became a summer associate at Manatt, Phelps, Rothenberg & Phillips, a Los Angeles law firm with strong connections to the Democratic Party. There, Kennedy worked for Charlie Manatt, his uncle Ted Kennedy's law school roommate.
From 1989, Kennedy headed Reaching Up, a nonprofit group which provided educational and other opportunities for workers who helped people with disabilities. William Ebenstein, executive director of Reaching Up, said, "He was always concerned with the working poor, and his family always had an interest in helping them."
In 1989, Kennedy earned a J.D. degree from the New York University School of Law. He then failed the New York bar exam twice, before passing on his third try in July 1990. After failing the exam for a second time, Kennedy vowed that he would take it continuously until he was ninety-five years old or passed. If he had failed a third time, he would have been ineligible to serve as a prosecutor in the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, where he worked for the next four years. On August 29, 1991, Kennedy won his first case as a prosecutor.
In the summer of 1992, he worked as a journalist and was commissioned by The New York Times to write an article about his kayaking expedition to the Åland archipelago, where he saved one of his friends from the water when his kayak capsized. He then considered creating a magazine with his friend, public-relations magnate Michael J. Berman—a plan which his mother thought too risky. In his 2000 book The Day John Died, Christopher Andersen wrote that Jacqueline had also worried that her son would die in a plane crash, and asked her longtime companion Maurice Tempelsman "to do whatever it took to keep John from becoming a pilot".
Acting
Meanwhile, Kennedy had done a bit of acting, which was one of his passions (he had appeared in many plays while at Brown). He expressed interest in acting as a career, but his mother strongly disapproved of it, considering it an unsuitable profession. On August 4, 1985, Kennedy made his New York acting debut in front of an invitation-only audience at the Irish Theater on Manhattan's West Side. Executive director of the Irish Arts Center, Nye Heron, said that Kennedy was "one of the best young actors I've seen in years". Kennedy's director, Robin Saex, stated, "He has an earnestness that just shines through." Kennedy's largest acting role was playing a fictionalized version of himself in the eighth-season episode of the sitcom Murphy Brown, called "Altered States". In this episode, Kennedy visits Brown at her office, in order to promote a magazine he is publishing.
George magazine
In 1995, Kennedy and Michael Berman founded George, a glossy, politics-as-lifestyle and fashion monthly, with Kennedy controlling 50 percent of the shares. Kennedy officially launched the magazine at a news conference in Manhattan on September 8 and joked that he had not seen so many reporters in one place since he failed his first bar exam.
Each issue of the magazine contained an editor's column and interviews written by Kennedy, who believed they could make politics "accessible by covering it in an entertaining and compelling way" which would allow "popular interest and involvement" to follow. Kennedy did interviews with Louis Farrakhan, Billy Graham, Garth Brooks, and others.
The first issue was criticized for its image of Cindy Crawford posing as George Washington in a powdered wig and ruffled shirt. In defense of the cover, Kennedy stated that "political magazines should look like Mirabella."
In July 1997, Vanity Fair had published a profile of New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, claiming that the mayor was sleeping with his press secretary (which both parties denied). Although tempted to follow up on this story, Kennedy decided against it.
The same month, Kennedy wrote about meeting Mother Teresa, declaring that the "three days I spent in her presence was the strongest evidence this struggling Catholic has ever had that God exists."
The September 1997 issue of George centered on temptation, and featured two of Kennedy's cousins, Michael LeMoyne Kennedy and Joseph P. Kennedy II. Michael had been accused of having an affair with his children's underaged babysitter, while Joe had been accused by his ex-wife of having bullied her. John declared that both his cousins had become "poster boys for bad behavior"—believed to be the first time a member of the Kennedy family had publicly attacked another Kennedy. He said he was trying to show that press coverage of the pair was unfair, due to them being Kennedys. But Joe paraphrased John's father by stating, "Ask not what you can do for your cousin, but what you can do for his magazine."
Decline
By early 1997, Kennedy and Berman found themselves locked in a power struggle, which led to screaming matches, slammed doors, and even one physical altercation. Eventually Berman sold his share of the company, and Kennedy took on Berman's responsibilities himself. Though the magazine had already begun to decline in popularity before Berman left, his departure was followed by a rapid drop in sales.
David Pecker, CEO of Hachette Filipacchi Magazines who were partners in George, said the decline was because Kennedy refused to "take risks as an editor, despite the fact that he was an extraordinary risk taker in other areas of his life." Pecker said, "He understood that the target audience for George was the eighteen-to-thirty-four-year-old demographic, yet he would routinely turn down interviews that would appeal to this age group, like Princess Diana or John Gotti Jr., to interview subjects like Dan Rostenkowski or Võ Nguyên Giáp."
Shortly before his death, Kennedy had been planning a series of online chats with the 2000 presidential candidates. Microsoft was to provide the technology and pay for it while receiving advertising in George. After his death, the magazine was bought out by Hachette, but folded in early 2001.
Later life
Family activity
Kennedy addressed the 1988 Democratic National Convention in Atlanta, introducing his uncle, Senator Ted Kennedy. He invoked his father's inaugural address, calling "a generation to public service", and received a two-minute standing ovation. Republican consultant Richard Viguerie said he did not remember a word of the speech, but remembered "a good delivery" and added, "I think it was a plus for the Democrats and the boy. He is strikingly handsome."
Kennedy participated in his cousin Patrick J. Kennedy's campaign for a seat in the Rhode Island House of Representatives by visiting the district. He sat outside the polling booth and had his picture taken with "would-be" voters. The polaroid ploy worked so well in the campaign that Patrick J. Kennedy used it again in 1994.
Kennedy also campaigned in Boston for his uncle's re-election to the U.S. Senate against challenger Mitt Romney in 1994. "He always created a stir when he arrived in Massachusetts," remarked Senator Kennedy.
Relationships
While attending Brown University, Kennedy met Sally Munro, whom he dated for six years, and they visited India in 1983. While he was a student at Brown, he also met socialite Brooke Shields, with whom he was later linked.
Kennedy also dated models Cindy Crawford and Julie Baker, as well as actress Sarah Jessica Parker, who said she enjoyed dating Kennedy but realized he "was a public domain kind of a guy." Parker claimed to have no idea what "real fame" was until dating Kennedy and felt that she should "apologize for dating him" since it became the "defining factor in the person" she was.
Kennedy had known actress Daryl Hannah since their two families had vacationed together in St. Maarten in the early '80s. After meeting again at the wedding of his aunt Lee Radziwill in 1988, they dated for five and a half years, though their relationship was complicated by her feelings for singer Jackson Browne, with whom she had lived for a time.
Also during this time, Kennedy dated Christina Haag. They had known each other as children, and she also attended Brown University.
Marriage
After his relationship with Daryl Hannah ended, Kennedy cohabitated with Carolyn Bessette, who worked in the fashion industry. They were engaged for a year, though Kennedy consistently denied reports of this. On September 21, 1996, they married in a private ceremony on Cumberland Island, Georgia, where his sister, Caroline, was matron of honor and his cousin Anthony Radziwill was best man.
The next day, Kennedy's cousin Patrick revealed that the pair had married. When they returned to their Manhattan home, a mass of reporters was on the doorstep. One of them asked Kennedy if he had enjoyed his honeymoon, to which he responded: "Very much." He added "Getting married is a big adjustment for us, and for a private citizen like Carolyn even more so. I ask you to give her all the privacy and room you can."
But Carolyn was, in fact, badly disoriented by the constant attention from the paparazzi. The couple was permanently on show, both at fashionable Manhattan events, and on their travels to visit celebrities such as Mariuccia Mandelli and Gianni Versace. She also complained to her friend, journalist Jonathan Soroff, that she could not get a job without being accused of exploiting her fame.
In June 2019, Billy Noonan, a longtime friend of John F. Kennedy Jr., released a video tape of the secret wedding that had taken place on the remote island.
Piloting
Kennedy took flying lessons at the Flight Safety Academy in Vero Beach, Florida. In April 1998, he received his pilot's license, which he had aspired to since he was a child.
The death of his cousin Michael in a skiing accident prompted John to take a hiatus from his piloting lessons for three months. His sister Caroline hoped this would be permanent, but when he resumed, she did little to stop him.
Death
On July 16, 1999, Kennedy departed from Essex County Airport in Fairfield, New Jersey, at the controls of his Piper Saratoga light aircraft. He was traveling with his wife Carolyn and sister-in-law Lauren Bessette to attend the wedding of his cousin Rory Kennedy at Hyannis Port, Massachusetts. He had purchased the plane on April 28, 1999, from Air Bound Aviation. Carolyn and Lauren were passengers sitting in the second row of seats. Kennedy had checked in with the control tower at the Martha's Vineyard Airport, but the plane was reported missing after it failed to arrive on schedule.
Officials were not hopeful about finding survivors after aircraft debris and a black suitcase belonging to Bessette were recovered from the Atlantic Ocean. President Bill Clinton gave his support to the Kennedy family during the search for the three missing passengers.
On July 18, a Coast Guard admiral declared an end to hope that Kennedy, his wife and her sister could be found alive. On July 19, the fragments of Kennedy's plane were found by the ship NOAAS Rude using side-scan sonar. The next day, Navy divers descended into the water. The divers found part of the shattered plane strewn over a broad area of seabed below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean. The search ended in the late afternoon of July 21, when the three bodies were recovered from the ocean floor by Navy divers and taken by motorcade to the county medical examiner's office. The discovery was made from high-resolution images of the ocean bottom. Divers found Carolyn's and Lauren's bodies near the twisted and broken fuselage while Kennedy's body was still strapped into the pilot's seat. Admiral Richard M. Larrabee of the Coast Guard said that all three bodies were "near and under" the fuselage, still strapped in.
On the evening of July 21, the bodies were autopsied at the county medical examiner's office; the findings revealed that the crash victims had died upon impact. At the same time, the Kennedy and Bessette families announced their plans for memorial services. On July 21, the three bodies were taken from Hyannis to Duxbury, Massachusetts, where they were cremated in the Mayflower Cemetery crematorium. Ted Kennedy favored a public service for John, while Caroline Kennedy insisted on family privacy. On the morning of July 22, their ashes were scattered at sea from the Navy destroyer off the coast of Martha's Vineyard.
A memorial service was held for Kennedy on July 23, 1999, at the Church of St. Thomas More, which was a parish that Kennedy had often attended with his mother and sister. The invitation-only service was attended by hundreds of mourners, including President Bill Clinton, who presented the family with photo albums of John and Carolyn on their visit to the White House from the previous year. Other guests at the church were Ted Kennedy, Arnold Schwarzenegger with Maria Shriver, John Kerry, Lee Radziwill, Maurice Tempelsman and Muhammad Ali.
Kennedy's last will and testament stipulated that his personal belongings, property, and holdings were to be "evenly distributed" among his sister Caroline Kennedy's three children, who were among fourteen beneficiaries in his will.
Legacy
In 2000, Reaching Up, the organization which Kennedy founded in 1989, joined with The City University of New York to establish the John F. Kennedy Jr. Institute. In 2003, the ARCO Forum at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government was renamed to the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum of Public Affairs. An active participant in Forum events, Kennedy had been a member of the Senior Advisory Committee of Harvard's Institute of Politics for fifteen years. Kennedy's paternal uncle, Ted, said the renaming symbolically linked Kennedy and his father while his sister, Caroline, stated the renaming represented his love of discussing politics.
On the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy Jr.'s father in 2013, the New York Daily News re-ran the famous photograph of the three-year-old John F. Kennedy Jr. saluting his father's coffin during the funeral procession. Photographer Dan Farrell, who took the photo, called it "the saddest thing I've ever seen in my whole life".
See also
Kennedy curse
America's Prince: The John F. Kennedy Jr. Story
References
Works cited
External links
FBI file on John F. Kennedy Jr.
1960 births
1999 deaths
20th-century American lawyers
Accidental deaths in Massachusetts
American magazine founders
American magazine publishers (people)
American socialites
Aviators from New York (state)
Aviators killed in aviation accidents or incidents in the United States
Bouvier family
Brown University alumni
Burials at sea
Children of presidents of the United States
Collegiate School (New York) alumni
Kennedy family
New York (state) lawyers
New York County Assistant District Attorneys
New York University School of Law alumni
People from the Upper East Side
Phillips Academy alumni
Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1999
Writers from Manhattan
Writers from Washington, D.C. | false | [
"Nari Pratishtha (; ) ( Dignity of Woman) is an 1882 essay, published in 1884, by Manilal Dwivedi written in Gujarati which discusses the status of women in Hindu tradition. This essay is considered to be Manilal's most important work. With its publication, Manilal became one of the major Indian social thinkers of his time. It remains central to Manilal's ideas on social reform. All his other writings on the women's questions and the social reform movement use this text as a referent\n\nManilal, in his discussion of the place of women in Hindu tradition, adhered to the traditional view in some regards, and opposed widow marriages. This position generated considerable controversy.\n\nBackground\n\nManilal had joined the Gujarati Social Union, a club for Gujarati graduates in Bombay, in 1882. Shortly after, during a meeting of the Union, the topic of widow remarriage was debated for an hour. The consensus of members was in favour of allowing widow remarriage, given their high level of education. However, Manilal voiced his disagreement. He analysed the subject in the light of the Hindu view of life in detail and argued with close logic against permitting widow remarriage.\n\nThe topic was discussed at length in a series of debates over the next month. These proved inconclusive, since no consensus over the issue emerged. Manilal noted in his diary that two people were won over to his point of view during this period. It was this extended debate which spurred him to examine various aspects of widow remarriage. The result of his meditations was encapsulated in his lengthy article Nari Pratishtha, which was not immediately published.\n\nIn 1884 Manilal was still resident in Bombay and was spurred to publish the essay after he came across and studied a copy of Auguste Comte's System of Positive Polity. In this work he found ideas similar to his own regarding women, and having absorbed Comte's views on the nature and role of women, he published his essay in the weekly magazine Gujarati the same year, in eight installments. With the addition of a further section written shortly afterwards, this was issued in book form in October 1885. In this Manilal stated that it was written while his attitude was influenced by Auguste Comte's positivism and Tennyson's Princess.\n\nThe essay was later published in the collection Manilal Na Tran Lekho (English: Manlial's Three Articles), edited by Dhirubhai Thaker and published by Gujarat Vidhya Sabha in 1954.\n\nSummary\nThe essay deals with the status of woman in Hindu tradition. The author deployed a number of stylistic techniques including rhetoric and polemic to reinforce his arguments. Manilal's thoughts on woman, marriage and family, as laid down in Nari Pratistha, can be summarised as:\n\n Men and women are two parts of an integral whole. Woman represents the left half, which according to Hindu scriptures is tender and weak. They are neither superior nor inferior, just different.\n Men and women should have separate spheres of work. This is because women have menstrual cycles. Employment outside the home should therefore be left to men. This is necessary in order to protect the purity of women.\n Women are more capable of love, affection and of being dutiful; three elements which Manilal deemed indispensable at a religious level if one is to achieve a sense of unity with the Supreme Being (Adwaita).\n Love is possible only between the opposite sexes because a woman will never compete with a man. A man should teach simple ethics to his woman.\n Women's education should focus on training them in love and duty. However, this orientation should not exclude them from also being taught languages, mathematics, science, history and similar topics, which ought to be objects of study for women. At the same time Manilal held that contemporary education was counterproductive because it did not respect caste differences and taught women English as well as a variety of social graces he considered to be superficial.\n At the time of marriage a woman should be 16 years old and a man 25 years old.\n A couple joined in love is undivided by death. With this premise, Manilal had to conclude that widow remarriage was sinful. Ideally, even a man should not remarry, but given women's superior capacity for love and affection, the obligation on them not to remarry was obligatory.\n\nReception and criticism\n\nNari Pratishtha is considered by critics to be Manilal's major work, and it made him one of the major social thinkers of his time. Nari Pratishtha remains central to Manilal's ideas on social reform. All his other writings on the women's questions and the social reform movement use this text as a referent.\n\nAfter its 1885 publication, a critical review of Nari Pratishtha appeared in the January–March, 1887 issue of the Gujarati language magazine Buddhiprakash. The anonymous reviewer criticized Manilal, mainly on two grounds: firstly, that it is not sinful to remarry; and secondly, that the argument that love forecloses the possibility of remarriage is invalid.\n\nManilal responded to this criticism in the first issue of Bharatibhushan, a magazine edited by Balashankar Kantharia, writing that he had not suggested that widow remarriage is \"sinful\". He had, he claimed, suggested that a woman who is bound by love could find the idea of remarriage 'sin-like'. Explaining the difference between the two, he argued that those who are not bound by love may not find the idea of remarriage 'sin-like'. He stated that his tract was written for people who wished to understand the true meaning of marriage. Those who did not wish to do so, may well marry again. He had no objection to their doing so.\n\nReferences\n\nSources\n\nExternal links\n \n Manilal's response to the critical review of Nari Pratishtha\n\nWorks by Manilal Dwivedi\n1882 essays\nGujarati-language books\nWorks originally published in Indian magazines",
"Remarriage is a marriage that takes place after a previous marital union has ended, as through divorce or widowhood.\nSome individuals are more likely to remarry than others; the likelihood can differ based on previous relationship status (e.g. divorced vs. widowed), level of interest in establishing a new romantic relationship, gender, culture, and age among other factors. Those who choose not to remarry may prefer alternative arrangements like cohabitation or living apart together.\nRemarriage also provides mental and physical health benefits. However, although remarried individuals tend to have better health than individuals who do not repartner, they still generally have worse health than individuals who have remained continuously married. Remarriage is addressed differently in various religions and denominations of those religions. Someone who repeatedly remarries is referred to as a serial wedder.\n\nRemarriage following divorce or separation\nAs of 1995, depending on individual and contextual factors, up to 50% of couples in the USA ended their first marriage in divorce or permanent separation (i.e. the couple is not officially divorced but they no longer live together or share assets). Couples typically end their marriage because they are unhappy during the partnership; however, while these couples give up hope for their partner, this does not mean they give up on the institution of marriage. The majority of people who have divorced (close to 80%) go on to marry again. On average, they remarry just under 4 years after divorcing; younger adults tend to remarry more quickly than older adults. For women, just over half remarry in less than 5 years, and by 10 years after a divorce 75% have remarried.\n\nPeople may be eager to remarry because they do not see themselves as responsible for the previous marriage ending. Generally, they are more likely to believe their partner's behaviors caused the divorce, and minimize the influence of their own actions. Therefore, they remain optimistic that a new partnership will lead to better results.\n\nAccording to data analyzed by USA Today in 2013, remarriage rates in the United States have dropped by 40 percent over the last 20 years.\n\nNumerous religions and sects forbid, or formerly forbade, remarriage after divorce. Some still do, although in many countries the percentage of the populace that adhere to them has been shrinking for more than half a century. Old-fashioned terms for second marriage that date to the earlier era of more widespread censure include deuterogamy and digamy, but the terms second marriage or remarriage are more readily understood.\n\nFactors influencing likelihood of remarriage\nMany factors influence the likelihood of remarrying after a divorce. Based on the 2006 census, men remarry more often than women. Remarriage rates also differ by ethnicity; remarriage is most common among white women, while black women have the lowest probability of marrying again. Age is another determining factor; women who are older than 25 at the time of divorce are less likely to remarry than women who are younger at the time of marital dissolution. Having children is associated with higher rates of remarriage for men and women. Remarriage also differs by community setting. Women from urban areas or areas with a greater proportion of women who never married are less likely to marry again. Some environmental factors do not affect all ethnicities: only non-white women from communities with high unemployment and poverty have reduced likelihood of remarriage.\n\nSome women enter cohabiting relationships after a divorce instead of remarrying. This pattern of cohabiting after a divorce is more likely for white than black women, for women without religious affiliation, with few or no children, and who live in more economically stable communities.\n\nOutcomes of remarriage\nOn the whole, remarriages are associated with greater socioeconomic security and life satisfaction compared to remaining divorced or separated. People who remarry tend to have better adjustment to their divorce, reporting more positive evaluations of their lives compared to divorced individuals who remain single. While divorced couples have a higher risk of developing a wide range of physical and mental health problems, remarrying may attenuate, but not eliminate, some of these health risks.\nSecond Marriages: Triumph of decision over hope?\nIt is often assumed that second marriages are riskier than first marriages - “The triumph of hope over experience” as popularised by Samuel Johnson in 1791. A new analysis of data commissioned from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) challenges this assumption. In fact, second marriages overall do consistently better than first marriages. Where one or both spouses are marrying for the second time, couples marrying today face an estimated 31% risk of divorce during their lifetime, compared to an estimated 45% risk of divorce amongst couples where both spouses are marrying for the first time.\nHowever, second marriages do not always fare any better than the first. Again the rates of divorce and separation vary based on demographic and social factors. Second marriage disruptions are more likely for Black women and for women in communities that are less economically well off. Conversely, rates of divorce decline as age at the time of second marriage increases. Also, women who enter their second marriage with no children are generally more likely to sustain their marriages.\n\nVulnerabilities to second marriages\nThere are several reasons why second marriages can be more vulnerable to disruption. Partners bring the same personal qualities to their subsequent marriage as they had during the first, but some of these qualities may have contributed to the first marriage’s problems. People who have divorced and remarried multiple times tend to be relatively impulsive and nonconformist. In second marriages, partners also often have to deal with additional complications that do not exist in first marriages, like combining families. Remarriages involving stepchildren have a greater rate of dissolution than those without.\n\nRemarriage following widowhood\n\nAs of the 2006 census, 32% of the U.S. population over age 65 was widowed. Most people successfully adjust after losing a partner; research on bereavement patterns finds the most frequent outcome is resilience. Even so, remarriage rates among older widowers are fairly low, and even lower among older widows. However, looking at rates of remarriage vastly underestimates interest in new romantic relationships.\n\nDifferences in desire to repartner\nMen and women not only have different remarriage rates, but they also differ in their desire to repartner (to establish a new romantic relationship). A year and a half after the death of a spouse, 15% of widows and 37% of widowers ages 65 and older were interested in dating. Differences in desire to repartner may stem from the different benefits men and women receive in and outside of a marriage.\n\nThe most frequent reasons older adults give for remaining without a partner after losing a spouse are gender-specific. While the common myth is \"women grieve, men replace,\" research does not support this pattern. Rather, widows are more likely to report that they are reluctant to give up newfound freedom and independence. Many widows perceive a sense of liberation no longer having to take care of another person, and value this more than additional companionship. Widowers, on the other hand, tend to report that they have not repartnered because they are concerned about being undesirable partners due to older age and ill health.\n\nSome studies have found that women who are not interested in a new relationship have explicitly decided to remain unpartnered. In contrast, men were more likely to report that they would not rule out the possibility but had not encountered a suitable relationship yet. Interviews indicate that widowers are more prepared than widows to take a chance on a new relationship.\n\nAmong widows, social support appears to promote interest in new intimate partnerships. Widows with confidants are more interested in repartnering than those without close friends. However, for men this pattern may be reversed. While overall widowers are more interested in remarriage than widows, only the men with low or average levels of support from friends are any more likely than women to report desire to remarry in the future. When widowers have high levels of social support from friends, they have equivalent levels of interest as widows. This suggests that men may be more motivated to repartner if they do not have as much social support as they would like. Women on the other hand tend to have more diverse sources of social support within their social networks.\n\nAlthough the gender differences in desire to repartner are most well documented,\nyounger age and greater unhappiness also predict increased interest in remarriage.\n\nLikelihood to repartner\nMen are more likely to repartner after losing their spouse; more than 60% of men but less than 20% of women are involved in a new romance or remarried within about two years of being widowed. Interest in repartnering is only one factor in determining the likelihood that a widow or widower will establish a new romantic relationship. Davidson (2002) describes a framework which proposes three primary intervening conditions affecting likelihood of repartnering following widowhood: availability of partners, the feasibility of a relationship, and desirability of companionship.\n\nThere are frequent gender differences in availability, desirability, and feasibility of new relationships. Availability of partners is a greater constraint for older widows; there are far fewer partners available for older women than older men, given that women tend to live longer and men tend to prefer younger partners. As detailed in the previous section, older widowers also typically have greater desire to repartner than widows.\n\nStudies have identified many other factors that increase or decrease the likelihood of successfully repartnering following widowhood. Most of these factors fit within Davidson’s framework. For widows, younger age is associated with greater probability of repartnering; younger women typically have more available potential partners. For widowers, new romance is predicted by greater income and education. In Davidson's model, feasibility of a relationship is affected by age, health, and financial resources; being younger, healthier, and having financial resources makes one a more attractive partner.\n\nOutcomes of remarriage\nWidowed older adults show high increases in loneliness, but expanding their social network or repartnering can attenuate this loneliness. Dating and remarriage following widowhood appear to be both fairly common and highly adaptive responses. Surviving spouses who remarry within about 1–5 years of being widowed have more positive outcomes (e.g. greater wellbeing, greater life satisfaction, and less depression) than widows and widowers who have not remarried. Further research has shown this reduced depression in repartnered compared to single widows and widowers is due to the remarried individuals’ greater socioeconomic resources. For example, compared to widows who do not remarry, remarried widows tend to report higher household incomes and are less likely to report anxiety about financial matters.\n\nRemarriage and religion\n\nChristianity\n\nIn Christianity, widows and widowers are free to remarry with a Christian person, as taught in , which states \"The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth; but if her husband be dead, she is at liberty to be married to whom she will; only in the Lord.\"\n\nRegarding divorce and remarriage in Christianity, the Gospel of Mark records Jesus' teaching \"Whosoever shall put away his wife, and marry another, committeth adultery against her. And if a woman shall put away her husband, and be married to another, she committeth adultery.\" states that adulterers \"shall not inherit the kingdom of God\". The Shepherd of Hermas, an early Christian work on the subject, teaches that while fornication is the only reason that divorce can ever be permitted, remarriage with another person is forbidden to allow repentance and reconciliation of the husband and wife (those who refuse to forgive and receive their spouse are guilty of a grave sin). \n\nMost Christian Churches strongly discourage divorce though the way divorce and remarriage is addressed varies by denomination; for example, the Reformed Church in America permits divorce and remarriage, while connexions such as the Evangelical Methodist Church Conference forbid divorce except in the case of fornication and do not allow for remarriage of divorced persons in any circumstance.\n\nIslam\n\nIn Islam, the remarriage of widows and widowers is permitted, with Muhammad—the founder of Islam—marrying nine widows.\n\nAlternatives to remarriage in later life\nRemarriage is not always the goal or ideal arrangement for divorced and widowed adults. Especially among older adults, there is a growing acceptance and interest in alternative romantic commitments like cohabitation or Living Apart Together (LAT). While for younger adults cohabitation is typically a precursor to marriage, older adults have additional reasons why they may not want to remarry and cohabiting may be the ideal partnership. For some, remarriage inspires feelings of disloyalty, and adult children can discourage remarriage based on concerns about inheritance. Many older women are interested in companionship but may want to avoid long-term obligations and are hesitant to give up their new independence. However, an arrangement called Living Apart Together (LAT) offers an appealing alternative; it is a form of intimate ongoing companionship that allows each partner to maintain autonomy and independent households.\n\nGeneral physical and mental health benefits of remarriage\nHealth is influenced both by current marital status and marital transition history. Marriage confers mental and physical health advantages, but remarried individuals who have been widowed or divorced continue to be disadvantaged compared to continuously married individuals.\n\nMental health benefits\nMarriage has been shown to impart significant mental health benefits and remarriage seems to be protective as well. Overall, people who remarry have lower levels of depressive symptoms compared to others who have lost a partner (through widowhood, divorce, or separation) and remain single. Remarriage seems to be especially beneficial for men, who have lower levels of depressive symptoms than remarried women.\n\nHowever, the health benefits of remarriage do not appear to be as strong as those for continuous marriage. Several studies have found that the mental and physical health benefits of remarriage do not fully balance out the negative effects of a previous marital disruption. Compared to the strong advantage of being continuously married, the mental health benefits are progressively weaker the more previous marriages a person has had. Although men seem to benefit as much from remarriage as being continuously married, remarried women have weaker mental health benefits.\n\nThe mental health differences between remarried women and unpartnered women appear to be due to differences in economic resources and social support. Findings also indicate that the mental health benefit of marriage for women is primarily driven by the fact that married women tend to be physically healthier than cohabiting and unpartnered women. There may be a selection effect whereby healthy women are more likely to remarry, and subsequently, based on their greater physical health, experience less depression. On the other hand, even when controlling for economic resources, social support, and health, married men experience fewer depressive symptoms compared to cohabiting or unpartnered men. This is likely because depression symptoms in married men are so low.\n\nPhysical health benefits\nThe physical health benefits of marriage are well documented, but marital disruptions have been shown to negatively affect health. Remarriage can attenuate but not completely eliminate the negative health effects of a marital disruption. Among currently married persons, those who have previously been divorced or widowed have worse health than those who have been continuously married. Research has not found any difference in physical health between persons with only one compared to multiple marital disruptions. The lingering negative health effects of marital disruption include increased risk for chronic conditions (e.g. diabetes and heart disease) and mobility limitations (e.g. difficulty walking a block or climbing stairs). However, it is also important to consider that it is difficult to determine causality; it is possible that a person’s health determines their likelihood of marrying and experiencing a disruption. In fact, it is possible that there are effects in both directions.\n\nSee also\n\n List of people who remarried the same spouse\n Widow conservation\n Deceased Wife's Sister's Marriage Act 1907 - UK law barred remarriage to a deceased wife's sister until the passage of this act.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Divorce and also Remarriage in the Early Church by Dean Taylor\n\n \nWidowhood\nDivorce\nDemography\nMarriage and religion"
]
|
[
"John F. Kennedy Jr.",
"Mother's remarriage",
"Who did his mom get married to?",
"she married Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis,",
"When did his mom get remarried?",
"After his uncle Robert was assassinated in 1968,",
"How did John react the new marriage?",
"Kennedy is said to have considered his stepfather \"a joke\".",
"Why did he think he was a joke?",
"I don't know.",
"What did other people think of his mother's remarriage?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_5eafb25cd66a42ffa7d27f8c4a69c2ce_0 | What else was notable about the remarriage? | 6 | What else was notable about the remarriage other than that JFK Jr thought that Aristotle Onassis was "a joke"? | John F. Kennedy Jr. | After President Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, Mrs. Kennedy moved her family to a luxury apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, where John Kennedy, Jr. grew up. In 1967, his mother took him and Caroline on a six-week "sentimental journey" to Ireland, where they met President Eamon de Valera and visited the Kennedy ancestral home in Dunganstown. After his uncle Robert was assassinated in 1968, his mother took him and his sister out of the United States, saying: "If they're killing Kennedys, then my children are targets ... I want to get out of this country." The same year, she married Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis, and the family went to live on his private island of Skorpios. Kennedy is said to have considered his stepfather "a joke". In 1971, Kennedy returned to the White House with his mother and sister for the first time since the assassination. President Richard Nixon's daughters gave Kennedy a tour that included his old bedroom, and Nixon showed him the Resolute desk under which his father had let him play. When Onassis died in 1975, he left Kennedy $25,000, though Jacqueline was able to renegotiate the will, and acquired $20 million for herself and her children. In 1976, Kennedy and his cousin visited an earthquake disaster zone at Rabinal in Guatemala, helping with heavy building work and distributing food. The local priest said that they "ate what the people of Rabinal ate and dressed in Guatemalan clothes and slept in tents like most of the earthquake victims", adding that the two "did more for their country's image" in Guatemala "than a roomful of ambassadors". On his sixteenth birthday, Kennedy's Secret Service protection ended. He spent the summer of 1978 working as a wrangler in Wyoming. Before attending Brown University, Kennedy accompanied his mother to Africa. On a pioneering course, he rescued his group, which had gotten lost for two days without food or water, and won points for leadership. In 1979, the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum was dedicated, and Kennedy made his first major speech, reciting Stephen Spender's poem "I Think Continually of Those Who Were Truly Great". CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | John Fitzgerald Kennedy Jr. (November 25, 1960 – July 16, 1999), often referred to as John-John or JFK Jr., was an American lawyer, journalist, and magazine publisher. He was a son of U.S. president John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, and a younger brother of Caroline Kennedy. Three days before his third birthday, his father was assassinated.
From his childhood years at the White House, Kennedy was heavily covered by media, and later became a popular social figure in Manhattan. Trained as a lawyer, he worked as a New York City assistant district attorney for almost four years. In 1995, Kennedy launched George magazine, using his political and celebrity status to publicize it. He died in a plane crash in 1999 at the age of 38.
Early life
John Fitzgerald Kennedy Jr. was born at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital on November 25, 1960, two weeks after his father, Massachusetts senator John F. Kennedy, was elected president. His father took office exactly eight weeks after John Jr. was born. His parents had a stillborn daughter named Arabella four years before John Jr.'s birth. John Jr. had an older sister, Caroline, and a younger brother, Patrick, who died two days after his premature birth in 1963. His putative nickname, "John-John", came from a reporter who misheard JFK calling him "John" twice in quick succession; the name was not used by his family.
John Jr. lived in the White House during the first three years of his life and remained in the public spotlight as a young adult. His father was assassinated on November 22, 1963, and the state funeral was held three days later on John Jr.'s third birthday. At his mother's prompting, John Jr. saluted the flag-draped casket as it was carried out from St. Matthew's Cathedral. NBC News vice-president Julian Goodman called the video of the salute "the most impressive...shot in the history of television," which was set up by NBC Director Charles Jones, who was working for the press pool. Lyndon B. Johnson wrote his first letter as president to John Jr. and told him that he "can always be proud" of his father. Stan Stearns, who took an iconic photograph of the salute, served as chief White House photographer during the Johnson administration. Over the years, Stearns showed Johnson the image as it was a symbol of what Johnson said in his letter to John Jr. The family continued with their plans for a birthday party to demonstrate that the Kennedys would go on despite the death of the president.
After President Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, Jacqueline Kennedy moved her family briefly to the Georgetown area of Washington, and then to a luxury apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, where John Jr. grew up. In 1967, his mother took him and Caroline on a six-week "sentimental journey" to Ireland, where they met President Éamon de Valera and visited the Kennedy ancestral home in Dunganstown.
Mother's remarriage
After JFK's brother Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1968, Jackie took Caroline and John Jr. out of the United States, saying: "If they're killing Kennedys, then my children are targets ... I want to get out of this country." The same year, she married Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis, and the family went to live on his private island of Skorpios. Kennedy is said to have considered his stepfather "a joke".
In 1971, Kennedy returned to the White House with his mother and sister for the first time since the assassination. President Richard Nixon's daughters gave Kennedy a tour that included his old bedroom, and Nixon showed him the Resolute desk under which his father had let him play.
Education
Kennedy attended private schools in Manhattan, starting at Saint David's School and moving to Collegiate School, which he attended from third through tenth grade. He completed his education at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. After graduating, he accompanied his mother on a trip to Africa. He rescued his group while on a pioneering course, which had gotten lost for two days without food or water.
In 1976, Kennedy and his cousin visited an earthquake disaster zone at Rabinal in Guatemala, helping with heavy building work and distributing food. The local priest said that they "ate what the people of Rabinal ate and dressed in Guatemalan clothes and slept in tents like most of the earthquake victims," adding that the two "did more for their country's image" in Guatemala "than a roomful of ambassadors." On his sixteenth birthday, Kennedy's Secret Service protection ended and he spent the summer of 1978 working as a wrangler in Wyoming. In 1979, the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston was dedicated, and Kennedy made his first major speech, reciting Stephen Spender's poem "I Think Continually of Those Who Were Truly Great."
Kennedy attended Brown University, where he majored in American studies. There, he co-founded a student discussion group that focused on contemporary issues such as apartheid in South Africa, gun control, and civil rights. Visiting South Africa during a summer break, he was appalled by apartheid, and arranged for U.N. ambassador Andrew Young to speak about the topic at Brown. By his junior year at Brown, he had moved off campus to live with several other students in a shared house, and spent time at Xenon, a club owned by Howard Stein. Kennedy was initiated into Phi Psi, a local social fraternity that had been the Rhode Island Alpha Chapter of national Phi Kappa Psi fraternity until 1978.
In January 1983, Kennedy's Massachusetts driver's license was suspended after he received more than three speeding summonses in a twelve-month period, and failed to appear at a hearing. The family's lawyer explained he most likely "became immersed in exams and just forgot the date of the hearing." He graduated that same year with a bachelor's degree in American studies, and then took a break, traveling to India and spending some time at the University of Delhi where he did his post graduation work and he met Mother Teresa. He also worked with some of the Kennedy special interest projects, including the East Harlem School at Exodus House and Reaching Up.
Career
After the 1984 Democratic Convention in San Francisco, Kennedy returned to New York and earned $20,000 a year in a position at the Office of Business Development, where his boss reflected that he worked "in the same crummy cubbyhole as everybody else. I heaped on the work and was always pleased." From 1984 to 1986, he worked for the New York City Office of Business Development and served as deputy director of the 42nd Street Development Corporation in 1986, conducting negotiations with developers and city agencies. In 1988, he became a summer associate at Manatt, Phelps, Rothenberg & Phillips, a Los Angeles law firm with strong connections to the Democratic Party. There, Kennedy worked for Charlie Manatt, his uncle Ted Kennedy's law school roommate.
From 1989, Kennedy headed Reaching Up, a nonprofit group which provided educational and other opportunities for workers who helped people with disabilities. William Ebenstein, executive director of Reaching Up, said, "He was always concerned with the working poor, and his family always had an interest in helping them."
In 1989, Kennedy earned a J.D. degree from the New York University School of Law. He then failed the New York bar exam twice, before passing on his third try in July 1990. After failing the exam for a second time, Kennedy vowed that he would take it continuously until he was ninety-five years old or passed. If he had failed a third time, he would have been ineligible to serve as a prosecutor in the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, where he worked for the next four years. On August 29, 1991, Kennedy won his first case as a prosecutor.
In the summer of 1992, he worked as a journalist and was commissioned by The New York Times to write an article about his kayaking expedition to the Åland archipelago, where he saved one of his friends from the water when his kayak capsized. He then considered creating a magazine with his friend, public-relations magnate Michael J. Berman—a plan which his mother thought too risky. In his 2000 book The Day John Died, Christopher Andersen wrote that Jacqueline had also worried that her son would die in a plane crash, and asked her longtime companion Maurice Tempelsman "to do whatever it took to keep John from becoming a pilot".
Acting
Meanwhile, Kennedy had done a bit of acting, which was one of his passions (he had appeared in many plays while at Brown). He expressed interest in acting as a career, but his mother strongly disapproved of it, considering it an unsuitable profession. On August 4, 1985, Kennedy made his New York acting debut in front of an invitation-only audience at the Irish Theater on Manhattan's West Side. Executive director of the Irish Arts Center, Nye Heron, said that Kennedy was "one of the best young actors I've seen in years". Kennedy's director, Robin Saex, stated, "He has an earnestness that just shines through." Kennedy's largest acting role was playing a fictionalized version of himself in the eighth-season episode of the sitcom Murphy Brown, called "Altered States". In this episode, Kennedy visits Brown at her office, in order to promote a magazine he is publishing.
George magazine
In 1995, Kennedy and Michael Berman founded George, a glossy, politics-as-lifestyle and fashion monthly, with Kennedy controlling 50 percent of the shares. Kennedy officially launched the magazine at a news conference in Manhattan on September 8 and joked that he had not seen so many reporters in one place since he failed his first bar exam.
Each issue of the magazine contained an editor's column and interviews written by Kennedy, who believed they could make politics "accessible by covering it in an entertaining and compelling way" which would allow "popular interest and involvement" to follow. Kennedy did interviews with Louis Farrakhan, Billy Graham, Garth Brooks, and others.
The first issue was criticized for its image of Cindy Crawford posing as George Washington in a powdered wig and ruffled shirt. In defense of the cover, Kennedy stated that "political magazines should look like Mirabella."
In July 1997, Vanity Fair had published a profile of New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, claiming that the mayor was sleeping with his press secretary (which both parties denied). Although tempted to follow up on this story, Kennedy decided against it.
The same month, Kennedy wrote about meeting Mother Teresa, declaring that the "three days I spent in her presence was the strongest evidence this struggling Catholic has ever had that God exists."
The September 1997 issue of George centered on temptation, and featured two of Kennedy's cousins, Michael LeMoyne Kennedy and Joseph P. Kennedy II. Michael had been accused of having an affair with his children's underaged babysitter, while Joe had been accused by his ex-wife of having bullied her. John declared that both his cousins had become "poster boys for bad behavior"—believed to be the first time a member of the Kennedy family had publicly attacked another Kennedy. He said he was trying to show that press coverage of the pair was unfair, due to them being Kennedys. But Joe paraphrased John's father by stating, "Ask not what you can do for your cousin, but what you can do for his magazine."
Decline
By early 1997, Kennedy and Berman found themselves locked in a power struggle, which led to screaming matches, slammed doors, and even one physical altercation. Eventually Berman sold his share of the company, and Kennedy took on Berman's responsibilities himself. Though the magazine had already begun to decline in popularity before Berman left, his departure was followed by a rapid drop in sales.
David Pecker, CEO of Hachette Filipacchi Magazines who were partners in George, said the decline was because Kennedy refused to "take risks as an editor, despite the fact that he was an extraordinary risk taker in other areas of his life." Pecker said, "He understood that the target audience for George was the eighteen-to-thirty-four-year-old demographic, yet he would routinely turn down interviews that would appeal to this age group, like Princess Diana or John Gotti Jr., to interview subjects like Dan Rostenkowski or Võ Nguyên Giáp."
Shortly before his death, Kennedy had been planning a series of online chats with the 2000 presidential candidates. Microsoft was to provide the technology and pay for it while receiving advertising in George. After his death, the magazine was bought out by Hachette, but folded in early 2001.
Later life
Family activity
Kennedy addressed the 1988 Democratic National Convention in Atlanta, introducing his uncle, Senator Ted Kennedy. He invoked his father's inaugural address, calling "a generation to public service", and received a two-minute standing ovation. Republican consultant Richard Viguerie said he did not remember a word of the speech, but remembered "a good delivery" and added, "I think it was a plus for the Democrats and the boy. He is strikingly handsome."
Kennedy participated in his cousin Patrick J. Kennedy's campaign for a seat in the Rhode Island House of Representatives by visiting the district. He sat outside the polling booth and had his picture taken with "would-be" voters. The polaroid ploy worked so well in the campaign that Patrick J. Kennedy used it again in 1994.
Kennedy also campaigned in Boston for his uncle's re-election to the U.S. Senate against challenger Mitt Romney in 1994. "He always created a stir when he arrived in Massachusetts," remarked Senator Kennedy.
Relationships
While attending Brown University, Kennedy met Sally Munro, whom he dated for six years, and they visited India in 1983. While he was a student at Brown, he also met socialite Brooke Shields, with whom he was later linked.
Kennedy also dated models Cindy Crawford and Julie Baker, as well as actress Sarah Jessica Parker, who said she enjoyed dating Kennedy but realized he "was a public domain kind of a guy." Parker claimed to have no idea what "real fame" was until dating Kennedy and felt that she should "apologize for dating him" since it became the "defining factor in the person" she was.
Kennedy had known actress Daryl Hannah since their two families had vacationed together in St. Maarten in the early '80s. After meeting again at the wedding of his aunt Lee Radziwill in 1988, they dated for five and a half years, though their relationship was complicated by her feelings for singer Jackson Browne, with whom she had lived for a time.
Also during this time, Kennedy dated Christina Haag. They had known each other as children, and she also attended Brown University.
Marriage
After his relationship with Daryl Hannah ended, Kennedy cohabitated with Carolyn Bessette, who worked in the fashion industry. They were engaged for a year, though Kennedy consistently denied reports of this. On September 21, 1996, they married in a private ceremony on Cumberland Island, Georgia, where his sister, Caroline, was matron of honor and his cousin Anthony Radziwill was best man.
The next day, Kennedy's cousin Patrick revealed that the pair had married. When they returned to their Manhattan home, a mass of reporters was on the doorstep. One of them asked Kennedy if he had enjoyed his honeymoon, to which he responded: "Very much." He added "Getting married is a big adjustment for us, and for a private citizen like Carolyn even more so. I ask you to give her all the privacy and room you can."
But Carolyn was, in fact, badly disoriented by the constant attention from the paparazzi. The couple was permanently on show, both at fashionable Manhattan events, and on their travels to visit celebrities such as Mariuccia Mandelli and Gianni Versace. She also complained to her friend, journalist Jonathan Soroff, that she could not get a job without being accused of exploiting her fame.
In June 2019, Billy Noonan, a longtime friend of John F. Kennedy Jr., released a video tape of the secret wedding that had taken place on the remote island.
Piloting
Kennedy took flying lessons at the Flight Safety Academy in Vero Beach, Florida. In April 1998, he received his pilot's license, which he had aspired to since he was a child.
The death of his cousin Michael in a skiing accident prompted John to take a hiatus from his piloting lessons for three months. His sister Caroline hoped this would be permanent, but when he resumed, she did little to stop him.
Death
On July 16, 1999, Kennedy departed from Essex County Airport in Fairfield, New Jersey, at the controls of his Piper Saratoga light aircraft. He was traveling with his wife Carolyn and sister-in-law Lauren Bessette to attend the wedding of his cousin Rory Kennedy at Hyannis Port, Massachusetts. He had purchased the plane on April 28, 1999, from Air Bound Aviation. Carolyn and Lauren were passengers sitting in the second row of seats. Kennedy had checked in with the control tower at the Martha's Vineyard Airport, but the plane was reported missing after it failed to arrive on schedule.
Officials were not hopeful about finding survivors after aircraft debris and a black suitcase belonging to Bessette were recovered from the Atlantic Ocean. President Bill Clinton gave his support to the Kennedy family during the search for the three missing passengers.
On July 18, a Coast Guard admiral declared an end to hope that Kennedy, his wife and her sister could be found alive. On July 19, the fragments of Kennedy's plane were found by the ship NOAAS Rude using side-scan sonar. The next day, Navy divers descended into the water. The divers found part of the shattered plane strewn over a broad area of seabed below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean. The search ended in the late afternoon of July 21, when the three bodies were recovered from the ocean floor by Navy divers and taken by motorcade to the county medical examiner's office. The discovery was made from high-resolution images of the ocean bottom. Divers found Carolyn's and Lauren's bodies near the twisted and broken fuselage while Kennedy's body was still strapped into the pilot's seat. Admiral Richard M. Larrabee of the Coast Guard said that all three bodies were "near and under" the fuselage, still strapped in.
On the evening of July 21, the bodies were autopsied at the county medical examiner's office; the findings revealed that the crash victims had died upon impact. At the same time, the Kennedy and Bessette families announced their plans for memorial services. On July 21, the three bodies were taken from Hyannis to Duxbury, Massachusetts, where they were cremated in the Mayflower Cemetery crematorium. Ted Kennedy favored a public service for John, while Caroline Kennedy insisted on family privacy. On the morning of July 22, their ashes were scattered at sea from the Navy destroyer off the coast of Martha's Vineyard.
A memorial service was held for Kennedy on July 23, 1999, at the Church of St. Thomas More, which was a parish that Kennedy had often attended with his mother and sister. The invitation-only service was attended by hundreds of mourners, including President Bill Clinton, who presented the family with photo albums of John and Carolyn on their visit to the White House from the previous year. Other guests at the church were Ted Kennedy, Arnold Schwarzenegger with Maria Shriver, John Kerry, Lee Radziwill, Maurice Tempelsman and Muhammad Ali.
Kennedy's last will and testament stipulated that his personal belongings, property, and holdings were to be "evenly distributed" among his sister Caroline Kennedy's three children, who were among fourteen beneficiaries in his will.
Legacy
In 2000, Reaching Up, the organization which Kennedy founded in 1989, joined with The City University of New York to establish the John F. Kennedy Jr. Institute. In 2003, the ARCO Forum at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government was renamed to the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum of Public Affairs. An active participant in Forum events, Kennedy had been a member of the Senior Advisory Committee of Harvard's Institute of Politics for fifteen years. Kennedy's paternal uncle, Ted, said the renaming symbolically linked Kennedy and his father while his sister, Caroline, stated the renaming represented his love of discussing politics.
On the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy Jr.'s father in 2013, the New York Daily News re-ran the famous photograph of the three-year-old John F. Kennedy Jr. saluting his father's coffin during the funeral procession. Photographer Dan Farrell, who took the photo, called it "the saddest thing I've ever seen in my whole life".
See also
Kennedy curse
America's Prince: The John F. Kennedy Jr. Story
References
Works cited
External links
FBI file on John F. Kennedy Jr.
1960 births
1999 deaths
20th-century American lawyers
Accidental deaths in Massachusetts
American magazine founders
American magazine publishers (people)
American socialites
Aviators from New York (state)
Aviators killed in aviation accidents or incidents in the United States
Bouvier family
Brown University alumni
Burials at sea
Children of presidents of the United States
Collegiate School (New York) alumni
Kennedy family
New York (state) lawyers
New York County Assistant District Attorneys
New York University School of Law alumni
People from the Upper East Side
Phillips Academy alumni
Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1999
Writers from Manhattan
Writers from Washington, D.C. | false | [
"Nalvaravu () is a 1964 Indian Tamil-language film directed by the duo Charlie–Maniam, produced by K. N. Natarajan and written by V. Lakshmanan. The film stars R. Muthuraman, Pushpalatha and E. V. Saroja. It was released on 5 March 1964.\n\nPlot\n\nCast \n R. Muthuraman\n Ravichandran\n Pushpalatha\n E. V. Saroja\n Rajasree\n\nProduction \nNalvaravu was directed by the duo Charlie–Maniam, produced by K. N. Natarajan under S. V. Movies, and written by V. Lakshmanan. The final cut measured .\n\nThemes \nThe film deals primarily with divorce and remarriage.\n\nSoundtrack \nThe soundtrack was composed by T. Chalapathi Rao.\n\nRelease and reception \nNalvaravu was released on 5 March 1964. The critic from The Indian Express said, \"Rarely does one come across a movie which is bad in all aspects.\" T. M. Ramachandran of Sport and Pastime said the film provides \"nothing but boredom for the cinegoers\".\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n \n\nFilms about divorce\nFilms about remarriage\nFilms scored by T. Chalapathi Rao\nIndian drama films\nIndian films",
"\"What Else Is There?\" is the third single from the Norwegian duo Röyksopp's second album The Understanding. It features the vocals of Karin Dreijer from the Swedish electronica duo The Knife. The album was released in the UK with the help of Astralwerks.\n\nThe single was used in an O2 television advertisement in the Czech Republic and in Slovakia during 2008. It was also used in the 2006 film Cashback and the 2007 film, Meet Bill. Trentemøller's remix of \"What Else is There?\" was featured in an episode of the HBO show Entourage.\n\nThe song was covered by extreme metal band Enslaved as a bonus track for their album E.\n\nThe song was listed as the 375th best song of the 2000s by Pitchfork Media.\n\nOfficial versions\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Album Version) – 5:17\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Radio Edit) – 3:38\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Jacques Lu Cont Radio Mix) – 3:46\n\"What Else Is There?\" (The Emperor Machine Vocal Version) – 8:03\n\"What Else Is There?\" (The Emperor Machine Dub Version) – 7:51\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Thin White Duke Mix) – 8:25\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Thin White Duke Edit) – 4:50\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Thin White Duke Remix) (Radio Edit) – 3:06\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Trentemøller Remix) – 7:42\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Vitalic Remix) – 5:14\n\nResponse\nThe single was officially released on 5 December 2005 in the UK. The single had a limited release on 21 November 2005 to promote the upcoming album. On the UK Singles Chart, it peaked at number 32, while on the UK Dance Chart, it reached number one.\n\nMusic video\nThe music video was directed by Martin de Thurah. It features Norwegian model Marianne Schröder who is shown lip-syncing Dreijer's voice. Schröder is depicted as a floating woman traveling across stormy landscapes and within empty houses. Dreijer makes a cameo appearance as a woman wearing an Elizabethan ruff while dining alone at a festive table.\n\nMovie spots\n\nThe song is also featured in the movie Meet Bill as characters played by Jessica Alba and Aaron Eckhart smoke marijuana while listening to it. It is also part of the end credits music of the film Cashback.\n\nCharts\n\nReferences\n\n2005 singles\nRöyksopp songs\nAstralwerks singles\nSongs written by Svein Berge\nSongs written by Torbjørn Brundtland\n2004 songs\nSongs written by Roger Greenaway\nSongs written by Olof Dreijer\nSongs written by Karin Dreijer"
]
|
[
"Ai (singer)",
"1981-2000: Early life, SX4"
]
| C_c0ffd310ba134e19ae6a9fb0c7cbd0c3_1 | Where was Ai born? | 1 | Where was the singer Ai born? | Ai (singer) | Ai was born in Los Angeles in 1981. Her father was Japanese and her mother was half Italian-American and half Japanese. She moved to Kagoshima in Japan when she was 4, and went to elementary school and junior high school in Japan. Ai was motivated to become a singer in her early teens, after singing at a cousin's wedding, having many people ask her if she wanted to be a professional singer, and hearing a gospel performance at the First African Methodist Episcopal Church of Los Angeles in 1993. After graduating from junior high school in Japan, Ai returned to Los Angeles for high school, enrolling at Glendale High School, however found high school difficult due to never formally studying English. After making it through the audition process, she switched to the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, majoring in ballet. She became a member of the school's gospel choir. In 1998, she performed in a gospel choir at a Mary J. Blige concert at the Universal Amphitheatre, performing of "A Dream." In the same year, she appeared as a dancer in the music video for Janet Jackson's song "Go Deep." In 1999, she joined an Asian girl group called SX4, who were produced by George Brown of Kool & the Gang. Ai was a member of the group for two years, and later in 1999 the group were offered a record label deal. While on her summer holiday in Kagoshima, she performed Monica's "For You I Will" on a local radio station, which led to her being scouted by BMG Japan. She decided to take the offer, and after leaving SX4 and graduating from high school in June 2000, moved to Tokyo and debuted as a musician later in 2000. CANNOTANSWER | Los Angeles | , known mononymously as Ai (, stylized as AI or A.I. ), is a Japanese-American singer-songwriter, rapper, record producer, spokeswoman, and actress.
After being discovered by BMG Japan in 2000, she released her debut album, My Name is Ai (2001). Signing to Def Jam Records Japan in 2003, Ai became the first woman signed to the label. She released two studio albums under the label, Original Ai (2003) and 2004 Ai. With the release of her third studio album, Ai rose to mainstream prominence in Japan. Signing to Island Records in 2005, Ai released her fourth studio album, Mic-a-Holic Ai (2005). Its second single "Story" became one of the biggest singles of the 2000s in Japan, peaking at number 8 on the Japanese Oricon singles chart, and was the sixth single in history to receive a triple million digital certification by the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ).
Ai's fifth studio album, What's Goin' On Ai (2006), featured the top-ten singles "Believe" and "I Wanna Know", the latter receiving a Gold certification from the RIAJ. Her sixth studio album, Don't Stop Ai (2007) saw similar success, which received a Gold certification. In 2009, she released her seventh studio album, Viva Ai, which charted in the top ten of the Japanese Oricon albums chart. Ai's compilation album, Best Ai (2009), became her first number one album and was certified Platinum. In 2010, she released her eighth studio album, The Last Ai, which marked her last release under Island Records.
In 2011, Ai left Universal Music Group and signed a global publishing deal with EMI. Her Gold certified ninth studio album Independent (2012) served as her international debut and first release under EMI Music Japan. To promote the album, Ai toured in Japan and her hometown, Los Angeles, California. Her tenth studio album Moriagaro (2013) marked her first release under EMI Records Japan following EMI Music Japan's absorption into Universal Music Japan as a sublabel. Her fourth compilation album, The Best (2015) peaked at number 3 on the Oricon Albums chart and number 2 on the Billboard Japan Hot Albums chart, later being certified Gold by the RIAJ. Its successor, The Feat. Best (2016) charted within the top 30 of both the Japan Hot Albums and Oricon Albums chart.
Ai's eleventh studio album, Wa to Yo (2017) experimented with traditional Japanese and electronic sounds. Its second single, "Kira Kira" was nominated for the Grand Prix award and won the Excellent Works Award at the 59th Japan Records Awards. Her sixth compilation album Kansha!!!!! - Thank You for 20 Years New and Best (2019) was issued to celebrate her twenty years in the music industry. Further celebrating her twenty year anniversary, Ai released the extended plays It's All Me, Vol. 1 (2020) and It's All Me, Vol. 2 (2021). In December 2021, Ai announced her twelfth studio album, Dream. The album is set for release in February 2022.
Early life and education
Ai was born in Los Angeles in 1981. Her father is Japanese and her mother is American of Italian and Native Okinawan descent. She moved to Kagoshima in Japan when she was 4, and went to elementary school and junior high school in Japan.
Ai was motivated to become a singer in her early teens, after singing at a cousin's wedding, having many people ask her if she wanted to be a professional singer, and hearing a gospel performance at the First African Methodist Episcopal Church of Los Angeles in 1993. After graduating from junior high school in Japan, Ai returned to Los Angeles for high school, enrolling at Glendale High School, however found high school difficult due to never formally studying English. After making it through the audition process, she switched to the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, majoring in ballet. She became a member of the school's gospel choir. In 1998, she performed in a gospel choir at a Mary J. Blige concert at the Universal Amphitheatre, performing of "A Dream." In the same year, she appeared as a dancer in the music video for Janet Jackson's song "Go Deep."
Career
1999–2004: SX4, BMG Japan, move to Universal
In 1999, she joined an Asian girl group called SX4, who were produced by George Brown of Kool & the Gang. Ai was a member of the group for two years, and later in 1999 the group were offered a record label deal. While on her summer holiday in Kagoshima, she performed Monica's "For You I Will" on a local radio station, which led to her being scouted by BMG Japan. She decided to take the offer, and after leaving SX4 and graduating from high school in June 2000, moved to Tokyo and debuted as a musician later in 2000.
Ai debuted under BMG Japan with the single "Cry, Just Cry" in November 2000. Between then and November 2001, she released three singles, culminating in her debut album, My Name Is Ai. However, the releases were not very commercially successful, and the album debuted at number 86.
In 2002 she moved to Def Jam Japan as the first female artist signed to the label. Ai has said that she felt more at home under Def Jam, as many of her co-workers shared her musical tastes. Her first album under the label in 2003 Original Ai debuted at 15 on Oricon'''s album charts, and her second, 2004 Ai, debuted at number three. In 2004, she won the Space Shower Music Video Awards' award for Best R&B Video, with her song "Thank U."
After moving to Def Jam, Ai increasingly began collaborating with musicians, especially Japanese hip-hop and rap artists (though under BMG Japan, Ai had collaborated with Mao Denda, and Soul'd Out rapper Diggy-Mo'). She was featured as a rapper on the Suite Chic single "Uh Uh,,,,,", a collaboration between Namie Amuro, Verbal of M-Flo, and music producer Ryōsuke Imai in 2003. Other musicians Ai collaborated with in this period were Afra, Boy-Ken, Joe Budden, Dabo, Deli, Double, Heartsdales, Ken Hirai, M-Flo, Sphere of Influence and Zeebra. Ai's collaborations featured her either as a rapper or a singer.
2005–2010: "Story", rise in fame
In 2005, Ai released the ballad single "Story", which became the biggest hit of her career. It was a sleeper hit, charting for 20 weeks in the top 30 in 2005 and 2006, however went on to sell over three million ringtones, one million cellphone downloads, and 270,000 physical copies. Ai later performed "Story" at the prestigious 56th NHK Kōhaku Uta Gassen New Years music concert. Her next studio album, Mic-a-holic Ai, was the best selling album of her career, being certified double platinum by the RIAJ.
Ai's first single of 2006, the ballad "Believe", was also a success: it debuted at number two, and sold more than one million ringtones. The song was used as the theme song of the Kenji Sakaguchi starring medical drama, Team Medical Dragon. Her next two albums, What's Goin' On Ai (2006) and Don't Stop Ai (2007) were also greatly commercially successful, being certified platinum and gold respectively.
In 2009, Ai released her greatest hits album, Best Ai. It was the first number one record of her career. In 2010, Ai collaborated with many artists such as Namie Amuro, Miliyah Kato, Chaka Khan and Boyz II Men on her 10th anniversary album, The Last Ai.
To the end of Ai's career with Universal, her album sales began to decrease. Viva Ai (2009) debuted at number 10, and The Last Ai (2010) at 14 (despite her gold hit from the album, "Fake" featuring Namie Amuro).
2011–2016: Independent, Moriagaro and The Best
In June 2011, Ai signed with EMI Music Japan. She collaborated with The Jacksons on December 13 and 14, 2011, at the Michael Jackson Tribute Live tribute concerts held in Tokyo. She performed the vocals in the third act for Michael Jackson's songs. She also performed and released the theme song for the event, "Letter in the Sky" featuring the Jacksons. In November 2011, Ai released the song "Happiness", a collaboration with Coca-Cola for their winter 2011 campaign. The song was a hit, being certified gold in two different mediums. The song revitalized the sales of her ninth studio album, Independent, which has sold more than 60,000 copies. Independent was Ai's first album to be released internationally outside of Asia.
On April 1, 2013, EMI Music Japan was completely merged into Universal Music Japan as a sublabel by the name of EMI Records Japan as a result of Universal Music's purchase of EMI in September 2012. Ai's tenth studio album, Moriagaro, was released in July 2013, serving as her first release under EMI Japan, although was not released outside of Asia.
A previously unreleased English version of Ai's single "Story" was featured in the Japanese dub of the Disney film Big Hero 6 in October 2014.
In November 2015, Ai released a compilation album, The Best, to celebrate fifteen years in the music industry. The compilation album was reissued in mid-2016. A third compilation release of tracks with featured artists titled The Feat. Best was issued in November 2016.
2017–present: Wa to Yo, twenty-year anniversary and Dream
Ai teased her eleventh studio album, Wa to Yo on social media in April 2017. Wanting to "convey the goodness of Japan" to the rest of the world and "the goodness of the overseas to Japanese people", Ai collaborated with several producers, artists and songwriters from both Japan and the west. The lead single "Justice Will Prevail at Last" was released in May 2017. Wa to Yo was released in June 2017 and was her second international album release outside of Asia. The album was reissued in October 2017, titled Wa to Yo to. The album peaked at number 11 on the Oricon weekly chart.
In early 2019, Ai traveled to her hometown, Los Angeles, California, to record new material to celebrate twenty years in the music industry and for the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics. Her fourth compilation album, Kansha!!!!! - Thank You for 20 Years New and Best, was released in November 2019, serving as her first international compilation release. Ai's extended play, It's All Me, Vol. 1 was planned to be released on the start of the 2020 Olympics, but instead was released on July 8, 2020 after the event was postponed to summer 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The lead single of It's All Me, Vol. 1, "Summer Magic" was her first single to be released internationally. Its Japanese version was included in an advertisement for the Amazon Echo. In November 2020, "Not So Different" was released digitally as the lead single for Ai's extended play, It's All Me, Vol. 2. In December 2020, Ai partnered with One Young World and released a special music video of the song in support of the project. A remix of "Not So Different" featuring Japanese rapper Awich was released on December 11, 2020 as a promotional single. The second single, "Hope" was released on January 30, 2021 with its music video premiering the same day. Ai partnered with deleteC, a non-profit organization in Japan aiming to support cancer treatment. It's All Me, Vol. 2 later was released in February 2021. In March 2021, EMI released a compilation EP of songs by Ai titled Self Selection "Hip Hop". In June 2021, Ai's previous releases with her former label, Universal Sigma, were made available internationally for digital streaming.
On June 28, 2021, Ai released "The Moment" featuring Japanese rapper Yellow Bucks. On the same day, she performed the song with Yellow Bucks and DJ Ryow on CDTV, a Japanese TV channel by TBS. In August 2021, she released a single featuring Dachi Miura, titled "In the Middle". In September 2021, Ai announced her next single, "Aldebaran". The song serves as the theme song for the NHK television drama, Come Come Everbody. Upon its release in November, it became her first charting single on the Billboard Japan Hot 100 since her 2017 single, "Kira Kira". The song debuted and peaked at number 37 on the chart. On the Oricon charts, "Aldebaran" peaked at number 4 on the Daily Digital Singles Chart and number 6 on the weekly Digital Singles Chart. Ai performed "Aldebaran" at the 72nd NHK Kōhaku Uta Gassen on December 31, 2021, her fourth appearance on the show. In December 2021, Ai announced her twelfth studio album on social media, titled Dream. The nine-track album is set for release in February 2022.
Other ventures
In April 2011, Ai presented a music documentary, Ai Miss Michael Jackson: King of Pop no Kiseki, that was recorded for Music On! TV. In the documentary, she traveled to the United States and interviewed members of the Jackson family in their home.
For the American musical comedy Glee's season two episode Britney/Brittany, Ai dubbed the voice of Britney Spears in the Japanese release.
Products and endorsements
As is standard for Japanese musicians, Ai has featured as a spokesman, or has her music featured, for many products. Ai's songs have been used as TV commercial songs, drama theme songs, film theme songs and TV show ending theme songs.
Ai has worked on four major Coca-Cola TV commercial campaigns, two featuring her own songs ("You Are My Star" (2009), "Happiness" (2011)) and two featuring collaborations (K'naan's "Wavin' Flag" (2009), Namie Amuro's "Wonder Woman" (2011)). She has also been featured in two Audio-Technica campaigns (using "My Friend (Live Version)" and "I'll Remember You", a campaign for Japan Airlines ("Brand New Day") and Pepsi Nex with "I Wanna Know."
Ai's most high-profile work for a TV drama was the theme song for 2006's primetime drama Team Medical Dragon, "Believe", which was one of her greatest hits, selling over one million ringtones. Ai also sung the theme song for the drama's second series, "One." Ai also worked on the theme song for the 2010 primetime drama Keishichō Keizoku Sōsahan, "Nemurenai Machi." Other program theme songs include the Japanese theme song for the American drama Heroes ("Taisetsu na Mono"), and the 15th ending theme for the children's animation Crayon Shin-chan, "Crayon Beats"). In 2005, Ai's song "Alive (English Version)" was used as an insert song for the South Korean drama Delightful Girl Choon-Hyang.
Many of Ai's songs have been used in films. Her "Story" song was remade (also with its English version) for Disney's box office Big Hero 6 in 2014. She performed the theme song for Departures (2008), the winner of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2009. She has also sung the theme songs for Crayon Shin-chan: The Legend Called Buri Buri 3 Minutes Charge (2005), Pray (2005), Lalapipo (2009) and Berserk Golden Age Arc I: The Egg of the High King (2012). Her music has been featured on the soundtracks of TKO Hiphop (2005), the musical film Memories of Matsuko (2006), in which Ai cameoed to perform the song, and Heat Island (2007).
Personal life
On March 6, 2013, Ai announced her engagement to Hiro, the leader and vocalist of the rock band Kaikigesshoku. The pair had been dating for 10 years, and wed in January 2014. On August 28, 2015, Ai gave birth to her first child, a baby girl. On July 24, 2018, it was revealed Ai was pregnant with her second child. Her second child, a boy, was born on December 29, 2018.
In 2019, outdoor advertisements for Ai's single, "Summer Magic" were displayed at Shinjuku Station. The advertisement displayed a search result of her name, which showed top results for artificial intelligence (AI), while a cut off photo of Ai herself appeared on the bottom of the search result. On Twitter, Ai revealed her distaste of artificial intelligence being the top results when searching her name mononymously on search engines.
Controversy
In 2012, Ai was part of a controversy regarding the murder of Nicola Furlong. Reports from The Japan Times and Irish Independent stated James Blackston and Richard Hinds were working for Ai as performers for her Independent Tour 2012. On May 21, a day after the tour performance in Sendai, Blackston was at a dance school within the city teaching dance moves for a number of Ai songs to students. Regarding allegations of a connection to the crime, Ai and her representative team declined to make an official statement.
Discography
My Name Is Ai (2001)
Original Ai (2003)
2004 Ai (2004)
Mic-a-holic Ai (2005)
What's Goin' On Ai (2006)
Don't Stop Ai (2007)
Viva Ai (2009)
The Last Ai (2010)
Independent (2012)
Moriagaro (2013)
Wa to Yo (2017)Dream'' (2022)
Awards and nominations
References
External links
Official website
Ai on Twitter
Ai on Instagram
Ai on YouTube
1981 births
Living people
21st-century American women singers
21st-century American singers
21st-century Japanese women singers
21st-century American actresses
21st-century women rappers
21st-century Japanese singers
21st-century American rappers
21st-century Japanese actresses
People from Los Angeles
Singers from Los Angeles
Songwriters from California
People from Kagoshima
Musicians from Kagoshima Prefecture
Los Angeles County High School for the Arts alumni
Actresses from Los Angeles
American people of Italian descent
Japanese people of American descent
Japanese people of Italian descent
American musicians of Japanese descent
American women songwriters
American women pop singers
Japanese women pop singers
American hip hop singers
Japanese hip hop singers
American contemporary R&B singers
Record producers from Los Angeles
Japanese rhythm and blues singers
English-language singers from Japan
Bertelsmann Music Group artists
RCA Records artists
Universal Music Group artists
Universal Music Japan artists
Def Jam Recordings artists
Island Records artists
EMI Music Japan artists
EMI Records artists
American expatriates in Japan
Citizens of Japan through descent
Japanese women singer-songwriters
American women singer-songwriters
American rappers of Asian descent
American women rappers
Japanese rappers
Pop rappers
Women hip hop record producers
American hip hop record producers
American women record producers
Japanese women record producers
Spokespersons | true | [
"Ai (born in 1976, estimated) is a female western chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes verus), currently living at the Primate Research Institute of Kyoto University (acronym KUPRI). She is the first subject of the Ai project, a research program started in 1978 by Kiyoko Murofushi and Tetsuro Matsuzawa which is aimed at understanding chimpanzee cognition through computer interface experiments.\n\nBiography \nAi was born in 1976 (estimated), in the Guinean Forests of West Africa. Born wild, Ai was soon taken into captivity and sold to KUPRI in 1977 by an animal trader (this type of sale became illegal in 1980 with Japan's ratification of CITES). She was the first subject of KUPRI’s chimpanzee project, which was intended to become Japan’s first ape-language study in the vein of earlier ape-language studies. Ai was joined at KUPRI the following year by two more chimpanzees, Akira and Mari. In 2000, Ai gave birth to a son, Ayumu.\n\nAi Project \nMatsuzawa has written that the difference between the Ai Project and earlier ape-language studies is that he was less interested in seeing if Ai and the other chimpanzees were capable of learning some degree of human language than trying to understand how chimpanzees perceive their surroundings. To study this, the research team created a unique keyboard through which Ai and the other chimpanzees at KUPRI could interact with a computer –– the computer was used to standardize the studies and reduce variation that might be introduced by human researchers, and because the mechanism could be easily used in comparative studies on humans. With this method, researchers have studied Ai’s memory, number-learning, and perception of color. Matsuzawa wrote that Ai was “the first chimpanzee who learned to use Arabic numerals to represent numbers,” and her ordering of different shades and hues of Munsell color chips was similar to human orderings.\n\nGroup and living quarters \nIn 2000, not long after the birth of three chimpanzees, Ai's group numbered 15; in 2010, there were 14 members. This is similar to the size of some small chimpanzee groups in the wild, where in some places with stable food supplies group size hovers at around 20 chimpanzees. Matsuzawa has attempted to blend elements of laboratory and field research, and KUPRI has an outdoor complex for the chimpanzees called the Ape Research Annex, built in 1995, with an 8-meter tall tower, a river, and trees.\n\nAfter Ai gave birth to her son, Ayumu, in 2000, they were placed in a “twin booth” where Ayumu could live with Ai in one booth but also be exposed to the researcher in the other booth every day, making the researcher an integral part of Ayumu’s life and studying him in front of Ai, with her implicit approval. Matsuzawa wrote that:Two almost identical booths are placed side by side. There is a door between the two booths that can alternately be opened to connect the two areas, closed to separate the two individuals, or positioned half-open to allow the young chimpanzee to crawl from one area to the other while preventing the mother chimpanzee from entering the neighboring booth.This method allowed the research team to consistently track Ayumu's development without interfering excessively with the mother-offspring relationship.\n\nArt \nAi loves to paint and draw –– she started drawing at a young age –– and is often brought art materials for free-drawing or painting. She creates art as an end in itself, without a food reward. In 2013 she made a painting that was given to the president of Kyoto University; later, in honor of the 40th anniversary of her arrival at KUPRI, this painting was made into a silk scarf and given as a gift to Jane Goodall.\n\nSee also \n Primate Research Institute\n Great ape language\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Ai's \n\n1976 animal births\nApes from language studies\nIndividual chimpanzees\nIndividual animals in Japan",
"Ikhtiyar al-Din Ai-Taq was an influential amir in western Khurasan following the decline of the Seljuks, and the ruler of Gurgan and Dihistan from 1161 until 1165.\n\nCareer\n\nAi-Taq had originally been one of the Seljuk sultan Sanjar's ghulams. When Sanjar was captured by rebellious Ghuzz bands in 1153, Ai-Taq built up an army and quickly established his influence in the western regions of Sanjar's empire.\n\nAi-Taq had not been the only individual to take advantage of Sanjar's overthrow. In Nishapur another of Sanjar's former ghulams, Mu'ayyid al-Din Ai-Aba, had taken power and had gained control of a significant portion of Khurasan. Relations between Ai-Taq and Ai-Aba quickly soured and by 1158 warfare had broken out among them. Ai-Taq received military assistance from Shah Ghazi Rustam, the Bavandid ruler of Tabaristan. Despite this, his forces were defeated by Ai-Aba and Sultan Mahmud Khan and he was forced to flee to Tabaristan. In the end he was compelled to sue for peace and had to pay off his opponents.\n\nIn around 1160 Ai-Taq was attacked by a force of Ghuzz under their chief Yaghmur. Despite Bavandid support, he was defeated and was forced to flee. He made his way to Khwarezm, where the Khwarezmshah Il-Arslan supplied him with assistance. This enabled him to establish himself in Gurgan and Dihistan, where he acknowledged the suzerainty of Il-Arslan. Unfortunately for him, however, he eventually lost the support of the shah, and a Khwarezmid army expelled him from Dihistan in 1165.\n\nNotes\n\nReferences\n\"Al-E Bavand.\" Encyclopaedia Iranica Online. Encyclopædia Iranica. 2 February 2008. <http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/al-e-bavand>\n\n\"Il-Arslan, Abu'l-Fath.\" Encyclopaedia Iranica Online. 2004. Encyclopædia Iranica. 2 February 2008. <http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/il-arslan>\n\nTurkic rulers\nEmirs\n12th-century rulers in Asia\nHistory of Khorasan\nGhilman"
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| C_c0ffd310ba134e19ae6a9fb0c7cbd0c3_1 | When did she first show interest in music? | 2 | When did Ai first show interest in music? | Ai (singer) | Ai was born in Los Angeles in 1981. Her father was Japanese and her mother was half Italian-American and half Japanese. She moved to Kagoshima in Japan when she was 4, and went to elementary school and junior high school in Japan. Ai was motivated to become a singer in her early teens, after singing at a cousin's wedding, having many people ask her if she wanted to be a professional singer, and hearing a gospel performance at the First African Methodist Episcopal Church of Los Angeles in 1993. After graduating from junior high school in Japan, Ai returned to Los Angeles for high school, enrolling at Glendale High School, however found high school difficult due to never formally studying English. After making it through the audition process, she switched to the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, majoring in ballet. She became a member of the school's gospel choir. In 1998, she performed in a gospel choir at a Mary J. Blige concert at the Universal Amphitheatre, performing of "A Dream." In the same year, she appeared as a dancer in the music video for Janet Jackson's song "Go Deep." In 1999, she joined an Asian girl group called SX4, who were produced by George Brown of Kool & the Gang. Ai was a member of the group for two years, and later in 1999 the group were offered a record label deal. While on her summer holiday in Kagoshima, she performed Monica's "For You I Will" on a local radio station, which led to her being scouted by BMG Japan. She decided to take the offer, and after leaving SX4 and graduating from high school in June 2000, moved to Tokyo and debuted as a musician later in 2000. CANNOTANSWER | early teens, | , known mononymously as Ai (, stylized as AI or A.I. ), is a Japanese-American singer-songwriter, rapper, record producer, spokeswoman, and actress.
After being discovered by BMG Japan in 2000, she released her debut album, My Name is Ai (2001). Signing to Def Jam Records Japan in 2003, Ai became the first woman signed to the label. She released two studio albums under the label, Original Ai (2003) and 2004 Ai. With the release of her third studio album, Ai rose to mainstream prominence in Japan. Signing to Island Records in 2005, Ai released her fourth studio album, Mic-a-Holic Ai (2005). Its second single "Story" became one of the biggest singles of the 2000s in Japan, peaking at number 8 on the Japanese Oricon singles chart, and was the sixth single in history to receive a triple million digital certification by the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ).
Ai's fifth studio album, What's Goin' On Ai (2006), featured the top-ten singles "Believe" and "I Wanna Know", the latter receiving a Gold certification from the RIAJ. Her sixth studio album, Don't Stop Ai (2007) saw similar success, which received a Gold certification. In 2009, she released her seventh studio album, Viva Ai, which charted in the top ten of the Japanese Oricon albums chart. Ai's compilation album, Best Ai (2009), became her first number one album and was certified Platinum. In 2010, she released her eighth studio album, The Last Ai, which marked her last release under Island Records.
In 2011, Ai left Universal Music Group and signed a global publishing deal with EMI. Her Gold certified ninth studio album Independent (2012) served as her international debut and first release under EMI Music Japan. To promote the album, Ai toured in Japan and her hometown, Los Angeles, California. Her tenth studio album Moriagaro (2013) marked her first release under EMI Records Japan following EMI Music Japan's absorption into Universal Music Japan as a sublabel. Her fourth compilation album, The Best (2015) peaked at number 3 on the Oricon Albums chart and number 2 on the Billboard Japan Hot Albums chart, later being certified Gold by the RIAJ. Its successor, The Feat. Best (2016) charted within the top 30 of both the Japan Hot Albums and Oricon Albums chart.
Ai's eleventh studio album, Wa to Yo (2017) experimented with traditional Japanese and electronic sounds. Its second single, "Kira Kira" was nominated for the Grand Prix award and won the Excellent Works Award at the 59th Japan Records Awards. Her sixth compilation album Kansha!!!!! - Thank You for 20 Years New and Best (2019) was issued to celebrate her twenty years in the music industry. Further celebrating her twenty year anniversary, Ai released the extended plays It's All Me, Vol. 1 (2020) and It's All Me, Vol. 2 (2021). In December 2021, Ai announced her twelfth studio album, Dream. The album is set for release in February 2022.
Early life and education
Ai was born in Los Angeles in 1981. Her father is Japanese and her mother is American of Italian and Native Okinawan descent. She moved to Kagoshima in Japan when she was 4, and went to elementary school and junior high school in Japan.
Ai was motivated to become a singer in her early teens, after singing at a cousin's wedding, having many people ask her if she wanted to be a professional singer, and hearing a gospel performance at the First African Methodist Episcopal Church of Los Angeles in 1993. After graduating from junior high school in Japan, Ai returned to Los Angeles for high school, enrolling at Glendale High School, however found high school difficult due to never formally studying English. After making it through the audition process, she switched to the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, majoring in ballet. She became a member of the school's gospel choir. In 1998, she performed in a gospel choir at a Mary J. Blige concert at the Universal Amphitheatre, performing of "A Dream." In the same year, she appeared as a dancer in the music video for Janet Jackson's song "Go Deep."
Career
1999–2004: SX4, BMG Japan, move to Universal
In 1999, she joined an Asian girl group called SX4, who were produced by George Brown of Kool & the Gang. Ai was a member of the group for two years, and later in 1999 the group were offered a record label deal. While on her summer holiday in Kagoshima, she performed Monica's "For You I Will" on a local radio station, which led to her being scouted by BMG Japan. She decided to take the offer, and after leaving SX4 and graduating from high school in June 2000, moved to Tokyo and debuted as a musician later in 2000.
Ai debuted under BMG Japan with the single "Cry, Just Cry" in November 2000. Between then and November 2001, she released three singles, culminating in her debut album, My Name Is Ai. However, the releases were not very commercially successful, and the album debuted at number 86.
In 2002 she moved to Def Jam Japan as the first female artist signed to the label. Ai has said that she felt more at home under Def Jam, as many of her co-workers shared her musical tastes. Her first album under the label in 2003 Original Ai debuted at 15 on Oricon'''s album charts, and her second, 2004 Ai, debuted at number three. In 2004, she won the Space Shower Music Video Awards' award for Best R&B Video, with her song "Thank U."
After moving to Def Jam, Ai increasingly began collaborating with musicians, especially Japanese hip-hop and rap artists (though under BMG Japan, Ai had collaborated with Mao Denda, and Soul'd Out rapper Diggy-Mo'). She was featured as a rapper on the Suite Chic single "Uh Uh,,,,,", a collaboration between Namie Amuro, Verbal of M-Flo, and music producer Ryōsuke Imai in 2003. Other musicians Ai collaborated with in this period were Afra, Boy-Ken, Joe Budden, Dabo, Deli, Double, Heartsdales, Ken Hirai, M-Flo, Sphere of Influence and Zeebra. Ai's collaborations featured her either as a rapper or a singer.
2005–2010: "Story", rise in fame
In 2005, Ai released the ballad single "Story", which became the biggest hit of her career. It was a sleeper hit, charting for 20 weeks in the top 30 in 2005 and 2006, however went on to sell over three million ringtones, one million cellphone downloads, and 270,000 physical copies. Ai later performed "Story" at the prestigious 56th NHK Kōhaku Uta Gassen New Years music concert. Her next studio album, Mic-a-holic Ai, was the best selling album of her career, being certified double platinum by the RIAJ.
Ai's first single of 2006, the ballad "Believe", was also a success: it debuted at number two, and sold more than one million ringtones. The song was used as the theme song of the Kenji Sakaguchi starring medical drama, Team Medical Dragon. Her next two albums, What's Goin' On Ai (2006) and Don't Stop Ai (2007) were also greatly commercially successful, being certified platinum and gold respectively.
In 2009, Ai released her greatest hits album, Best Ai. It was the first number one record of her career. In 2010, Ai collaborated with many artists such as Namie Amuro, Miliyah Kato, Chaka Khan and Boyz II Men on her 10th anniversary album, The Last Ai.
To the end of Ai's career with Universal, her album sales began to decrease. Viva Ai (2009) debuted at number 10, and The Last Ai (2010) at 14 (despite her gold hit from the album, "Fake" featuring Namie Amuro).
2011–2016: Independent, Moriagaro and The Best
In June 2011, Ai signed with EMI Music Japan. She collaborated with The Jacksons on December 13 and 14, 2011, at the Michael Jackson Tribute Live tribute concerts held in Tokyo. She performed the vocals in the third act for Michael Jackson's songs. She also performed and released the theme song for the event, "Letter in the Sky" featuring the Jacksons. In November 2011, Ai released the song "Happiness", a collaboration with Coca-Cola for their winter 2011 campaign. The song was a hit, being certified gold in two different mediums. The song revitalized the sales of her ninth studio album, Independent, which has sold more than 60,000 copies. Independent was Ai's first album to be released internationally outside of Asia.
On April 1, 2013, EMI Music Japan was completely merged into Universal Music Japan as a sublabel by the name of EMI Records Japan as a result of Universal Music's purchase of EMI in September 2012. Ai's tenth studio album, Moriagaro, was released in July 2013, serving as her first release under EMI Japan, although was not released outside of Asia.
A previously unreleased English version of Ai's single "Story" was featured in the Japanese dub of the Disney film Big Hero 6 in October 2014.
In November 2015, Ai released a compilation album, The Best, to celebrate fifteen years in the music industry. The compilation album was reissued in mid-2016. A third compilation release of tracks with featured artists titled The Feat. Best was issued in November 2016.
2017–present: Wa to Yo, twenty-year anniversary and Dream
Ai teased her eleventh studio album, Wa to Yo on social media in April 2017. Wanting to "convey the goodness of Japan" to the rest of the world and "the goodness of the overseas to Japanese people", Ai collaborated with several producers, artists and songwriters from both Japan and the west. The lead single "Justice Will Prevail at Last" was released in May 2017. Wa to Yo was released in June 2017 and was her second international album release outside of Asia. The album was reissued in October 2017, titled Wa to Yo to. The album peaked at number 11 on the Oricon weekly chart.
In early 2019, Ai traveled to her hometown, Los Angeles, California, to record new material to celebrate twenty years in the music industry and for the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics. Her fourth compilation album, Kansha!!!!! - Thank You for 20 Years New and Best, was released in November 2019, serving as her first international compilation release. Ai's extended play, It's All Me, Vol. 1 was planned to be released on the start of the 2020 Olympics, but instead was released on July 8, 2020 after the event was postponed to summer 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The lead single of It's All Me, Vol. 1, "Summer Magic" was her first single to be released internationally. Its Japanese version was included in an advertisement for the Amazon Echo. In November 2020, "Not So Different" was released digitally as the lead single for Ai's extended play, It's All Me, Vol. 2. In December 2020, Ai partnered with One Young World and released a special music video of the song in support of the project. A remix of "Not So Different" featuring Japanese rapper Awich was released on December 11, 2020 as a promotional single. The second single, "Hope" was released on January 30, 2021 with its music video premiering the same day. Ai partnered with deleteC, a non-profit organization in Japan aiming to support cancer treatment. It's All Me, Vol. 2 later was released in February 2021. In March 2021, EMI released a compilation EP of songs by Ai titled Self Selection "Hip Hop". In June 2021, Ai's previous releases with her former label, Universal Sigma, were made available internationally for digital streaming.
On June 28, 2021, Ai released "The Moment" featuring Japanese rapper Yellow Bucks. On the same day, she performed the song with Yellow Bucks and DJ Ryow on CDTV, a Japanese TV channel by TBS. In August 2021, she released a single featuring Dachi Miura, titled "In the Middle". In September 2021, Ai announced her next single, "Aldebaran". The song serves as the theme song for the NHK television drama, Come Come Everbody. Upon its release in November, it became her first charting single on the Billboard Japan Hot 100 since her 2017 single, "Kira Kira". The song debuted and peaked at number 37 on the chart. On the Oricon charts, "Aldebaran" peaked at number 4 on the Daily Digital Singles Chart and number 6 on the weekly Digital Singles Chart. Ai performed "Aldebaran" at the 72nd NHK Kōhaku Uta Gassen on December 31, 2021, her fourth appearance on the show. In December 2021, Ai announced her twelfth studio album on social media, titled Dream. The nine-track album is set for release in February 2022.
Other ventures
In April 2011, Ai presented a music documentary, Ai Miss Michael Jackson: King of Pop no Kiseki, that was recorded for Music On! TV. In the documentary, she traveled to the United States and interviewed members of the Jackson family in their home.
For the American musical comedy Glee's season two episode Britney/Brittany, Ai dubbed the voice of Britney Spears in the Japanese release.
Products and endorsements
As is standard for Japanese musicians, Ai has featured as a spokesman, or has her music featured, for many products. Ai's songs have been used as TV commercial songs, drama theme songs, film theme songs and TV show ending theme songs.
Ai has worked on four major Coca-Cola TV commercial campaigns, two featuring her own songs ("You Are My Star" (2009), "Happiness" (2011)) and two featuring collaborations (K'naan's "Wavin' Flag" (2009), Namie Amuro's "Wonder Woman" (2011)). She has also been featured in two Audio-Technica campaigns (using "My Friend (Live Version)" and "I'll Remember You", a campaign for Japan Airlines ("Brand New Day") and Pepsi Nex with "I Wanna Know."
Ai's most high-profile work for a TV drama was the theme song for 2006's primetime drama Team Medical Dragon, "Believe", which was one of her greatest hits, selling over one million ringtones. Ai also sung the theme song for the drama's second series, "One." Ai also worked on the theme song for the 2010 primetime drama Keishichō Keizoku Sōsahan, "Nemurenai Machi." Other program theme songs include the Japanese theme song for the American drama Heroes ("Taisetsu na Mono"), and the 15th ending theme for the children's animation Crayon Shin-chan, "Crayon Beats"). In 2005, Ai's song "Alive (English Version)" was used as an insert song for the South Korean drama Delightful Girl Choon-Hyang.
Many of Ai's songs have been used in films. Her "Story" song was remade (also with its English version) for Disney's box office Big Hero 6 in 2014. She performed the theme song for Departures (2008), the winner of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2009. She has also sung the theme songs for Crayon Shin-chan: The Legend Called Buri Buri 3 Minutes Charge (2005), Pray (2005), Lalapipo (2009) and Berserk Golden Age Arc I: The Egg of the High King (2012). Her music has been featured on the soundtracks of TKO Hiphop (2005), the musical film Memories of Matsuko (2006), in which Ai cameoed to perform the song, and Heat Island (2007).
Personal life
On March 6, 2013, Ai announced her engagement to Hiro, the leader and vocalist of the rock band Kaikigesshoku. The pair had been dating for 10 years, and wed in January 2014. On August 28, 2015, Ai gave birth to her first child, a baby girl. On July 24, 2018, it was revealed Ai was pregnant with her second child. Her second child, a boy, was born on December 29, 2018.
In 2019, outdoor advertisements for Ai's single, "Summer Magic" were displayed at Shinjuku Station. The advertisement displayed a search result of her name, which showed top results for artificial intelligence (AI), while a cut off photo of Ai herself appeared on the bottom of the search result. On Twitter, Ai revealed her distaste of artificial intelligence being the top results when searching her name mononymously on search engines.
Controversy
In 2012, Ai was part of a controversy regarding the murder of Nicola Furlong. Reports from The Japan Times and Irish Independent stated James Blackston and Richard Hinds were working for Ai as performers for her Independent Tour 2012. On May 21, a day after the tour performance in Sendai, Blackston was at a dance school within the city teaching dance moves for a number of Ai songs to students. Regarding allegations of a connection to the crime, Ai and her representative team declined to make an official statement.
Discography
My Name Is Ai (2001)
Original Ai (2003)
2004 Ai (2004)
Mic-a-holic Ai (2005)
What's Goin' On Ai (2006)
Don't Stop Ai (2007)
Viva Ai (2009)
The Last Ai (2010)
Independent (2012)
Moriagaro (2013)
Wa to Yo (2017)Dream'' (2022)
Awards and nominations
References
External links
Official website
Ai on Twitter
Ai on Instagram
Ai on YouTube
1981 births
Living people
21st-century American women singers
21st-century American singers
21st-century Japanese women singers
21st-century American actresses
21st-century women rappers
21st-century Japanese singers
21st-century American rappers
21st-century Japanese actresses
People from Los Angeles
Singers from Los Angeles
Songwriters from California
People from Kagoshima
Musicians from Kagoshima Prefecture
Los Angeles County High School for the Arts alumni
Actresses from Los Angeles
American people of Italian descent
Japanese people of American descent
Japanese people of Italian descent
American musicians of Japanese descent
American women songwriters
American women pop singers
Japanese women pop singers
American hip hop singers
Japanese hip hop singers
American contemporary R&B singers
Record producers from Los Angeles
Japanese rhythm and blues singers
English-language singers from Japan
Bertelsmann Music Group artists
RCA Records artists
Universal Music Group artists
Universal Music Japan artists
Def Jam Recordings artists
Island Records artists
EMI Music Japan artists
EMI Records artists
American expatriates in Japan
Citizens of Japan through descent
Japanese women singer-songwriters
American women singer-songwriters
American rappers of Asian descent
American women rappers
Japanese rappers
Pop rappers
Women hip hop record producers
American hip hop record producers
American women record producers
Japanese women record producers
Spokespersons | true | [
"Silvia Olari (born July 17, 1988) is an Italian pop, rock, soul and R&B singer. She made her debut under Warner Music after she participated in the famous Italian talent show Amici di Maria De Filippi in 2008.\n\nCareer\n\nEarly life\nSilvia Olari was born in Parma on July 17, 1988 and lives in Fornovo di Taro, a little town near that city, with her parents. When she was only 8 years old she began to study classic piano under Jolanda Degli Innocenti at the music school Il Podio in Noceto (Parma). A year later, in the same school, under Daniela Galli she began to study modern singing. When she was 12 she took part in different provincial and regional events, getting great scores. When she was 14 she began to study lyric technique and singing, and continued for another year and half studying modern singing with her teacher Michela Ollari. In 2002 she changed direction in her musical career, combining together her singing and piano. When she was 17 she studied singing with Stefania Rava.\n\nIn 2002 she started to perform away from Parma and reached the semi-final of Festival di Napoli and Accademia di Sanremo. Between 2004 and 2006 she took part in important competitions in the north of Italy, coming first in Una voce per Sanremo in 2005, and again at the following year's Il Cantaestate in Mantova. In 2007 she won first prize at the City Voices in Nozza di Vestone (Brescia), and thanks to this event she attended the Luca Pitteri's singing stage. She took second place at Controfestival in Castelleone (Cremona), won the Publisher song section of 2005's Live Song Festival in Traversetolo (Parma) and in 2007 the critics' prize.\n\nAmici di Maria De Filippi 2007\nShe progressed in the summer of 2007 through the casting stages of the Italian talent show Amici di Maria De Filippi, but at the first show on Canale 5, failed to be admitted.\n\nIn November 2007 she participated in the Marcafestival in Treviso, where she was placed third. In December she won the Festivalmare in Forte dei Marmi (Lucca), while in February she took part in the Festival di Ghedi, where she attended a stage with Gatto Panceri. At the end of the show she classified got second place with the song Georgia on my mind, and she won a scholarship for the Hope Music School of Rome.\n\nAmici di Maria De Filippi 2008\nOn October 4, 2008, Silvia Olari again passed all the auditions for the talent show Amici di Maria De Filippi, and at her first public introduction was described as \"a unique talent that no one can miss\". From the first period on the show she had three songs included in the show's cd compilation album \"Scialla\". On January 4 she progressed to the next section of the show where all the participants challenged for first place. Unexpectately, Silvia was eliminated on February 18. Despite some critics of the show and one of the show's teacher, Luca Jurman, asking for her readmission, the other participants did not accept this, even though the public had previously expressed in her favour.\n\nTo the present\nAfter her departure from the Amici di Maria De Filippi, she obtained a recording contract with Warner Music Italy, that had already expressed interest when she still was in the show. Her self-titled first album \"Silvia Olari\" was released on April 10, 2009. It contained 7 tracks, with two of them having been previously released on the \"Scialla\" compilation album. The first single from her album, Fino all'Anima, was written by Nek and arranged by Luca Jurman. Jurman also collaborated as musician and arranger for all the cd. In 2009, the debut album was certified silver by the Federation of the Italian Music Industry with sales of over fifteen thousand albums.\n\nDiscography\n\nAlbums\n\nSingles\n\nCompilations \n 2009 – Scialla (with other contestants of Amici)\n\nVideography\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Official Site Silvia Olari\n\n1988 births\nLiving people\nItalian pop singers\nEnglish-language singers from Italy\n21st-century Italian singers\n21st-century Italian women singers",
"Verity Sharp (born 1970) is a television and radio presenter from England.\n\nEarly life\nSharp grew up in Somerset. After studying at Dartington College of Arts, she read music at the University of York and studied composition. During these years, she did some acting, performed music, and studied languages, including French.\n\nPresenting career\nSharp moved to London after graduating in 1992, and began working for Radio 3 in 1993, the year she had planned to start a post-graduate degree at the Guildhall School of Music. She trained as a producer, and from 1997 regularly produced and presented Pebble Mill's Music Machine, a 15-minute music programme primarily intended for children. A year later, she was hosting the contemporary music show Hear And Now.\n\nIn 2001, the eclectic late-night music programme Late Junction, which she presents in alternation with Fiona Talkington and Max Reinhardt, won her the Silver Sony Radio Academy Award for Music Broadcaster of the Year – a \"very proud moment for the team after three years of very hard work\". On 21 March 2013, at the end of that evening's edition of programme, she formally announced that she was to cease being one of its regular presenters in order to pursue \"a few more musical dreams\". She has since become a regular presenter again. Since autumn 2019 when it moved to a single weekly show, she has alternated presentation duties with Jennifer Lucy Allan.\n\nShe is also one of the presenters of The Culture Show on BBC2, and also presents Slow Radio on BBC Sounds.\n\nMusic interest\nIt was from her student years that she acquired a taste for non-Western music. Although her training was in classical cello she later took up the fiddle and turned to traditional music. In 2013, she narrated the BBC Four documentary How to Be a World Music Star: Buena Vista, Bhundu Boys and Beyond.\n\nHaving interviewed them while presenting a Culture Show special in 2008, she admitted to retaining a fondness for the thrash metal band Metallica she had as a teenager.\n\nReferences\n\n1970 births\nAlumni of the University of York\nBBC Radio 3 presenters\nBritish radio presenters\nLiving people"
]
|
[
"Ai (singer)",
"1981-2000: Early life, SX4",
"Where was Ai born?",
"Los Angeles",
"When did she first show interest in music?",
"early teens,"
]
| C_c0ffd310ba134e19ae6a9fb0c7cbd0c3_1 | what kind of music did she perform as a teenager? | 3 | What kind of music did Ai perform as a teenager? | Ai (singer) | Ai was born in Los Angeles in 1981. Her father was Japanese and her mother was half Italian-American and half Japanese. She moved to Kagoshima in Japan when she was 4, and went to elementary school and junior high school in Japan. Ai was motivated to become a singer in her early teens, after singing at a cousin's wedding, having many people ask her if she wanted to be a professional singer, and hearing a gospel performance at the First African Methodist Episcopal Church of Los Angeles in 1993. After graduating from junior high school in Japan, Ai returned to Los Angeles for high school, enrolling at Glendale High School, however found high school difficult due to never formally studying English. After making it through the audition process, she switched to the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, majoring in ballet. She became a member of the school's gospel choir. In 1998, she performed in a gospel choir at a Mary J. Blige concert at the Universal Amphitheatre, performing of "A Dream." In the same year, she appeared as a dancer in the music video for Janet Jackson's song "Go Deep." In 1999, she joined an Asian girl group called SX4, who were produced by George Brown of Kool & the Gang. Ai was a member of the group for two years, and later in 1999 the group were offered a record label deal. While on her summer holiday in Kagoshima, she performed Monica's "For You I Will" on a local radio station, which led to her being scouted by BMG Japan. She decided to take the offer, and after leaving SX4 and graduating from high school in June 2000, moved to Tokyo and debuted as a musician later in 2000. CANNOTANSWER | gospel choir | , known mononymously as Ai (, stylized as AI or A.I. ), is a Japanese-American singer-songwriter, rapper, record producer, spokeswoman, and actress.
After being discovered by BMG Japan in 2000, she released her debut album, My Name is Ai (2001). Signing to Def Jam Records Japan in 2003, Ai became the first woman signed to the label. She released two studio albums under the label, Original Ai (2003) and 2004 Ai. With the release of her third studio album, Ai rose to mainstream prominence in Japan. Signing to Island Records in 2005, Ai released her fourth studio album, Mic-a-Holic Ai (2005). Its second single "Story" became one of the biggest singles of the 2000s in Japan, peaking at number 8 on the Japanese Oricon singles chart, and was the sixth single in history to receive a triple million digital certification by the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ).
Ai's fifth studio album, What's Goin' On Ai (2006), featured the top-ten singles "Believe" and "I Wanna Know", the latter receiving a Gold certification from the RIAJ. Her sixth studio album, Don't Stop Ai (2007) saw similar success, which received a Gold certification. In 2009, she released her seventh studio album, Viva Ai, which charted in the top ten of the Japanese Oricon albums chart. Ai's compilation album, Best Ai (2009), became her first number one album and was certified Platinum. In 2010, she released her eighth studio album, The Last Ai, which marked her last release under Island Records.
In 2011, Ai left Universal Music Group and signed a global publishing deal with EMI. Her Gold certified ninth studio album Independent (2012) served as her international debut and first release under EMI Music Japan. To promote the album, Ai toured in Japan and her hometown, Los Angeles, California. Her tenth studio album Moriagaro (2013) marked her first release under EMI Records Japan following EMI Music Japan's absorption into Universal Music Japan as a sublabel. Her fourth compilation album, The Best (2015) peaked at number 3 on the Oricon Albums chart and number 2 on the Billboard Japan Hot Albums chart, later being certified Gold by the RIAJ. Its successor, The Feat. Best (2016) charted within the top 30 of both the Japan Hot Albums and Oricon Albums chart.
Ai's eleventh studio album, Wa to Yo (2017) experimented with traditional Japanese and electronic sounds. Its second single, "Kira Kira" was nominated for the Grand Prix award and won the Excellent Works Award at the 59th Japan Records Awards. Her sixth compilation album Kansha!!!!! - Thank You for 20 Years New and Best (2019) was issued to celebrate her twenty years in the music industry. Further celebrating her twenty year anniversary, Ai released the extended plays It's All Me, Vol. 1 (2020) and It's All Me, Vol. 2 (2021). In December 2021, Ai announced her twelfth studio album, Dream. The album is set for release in February 2022.
Early life and education
Ai was born in Los Angeles in 1981. Her father is Japanese and her mother is American of Italian and Native Okinawan descent. She moved to Kagoshima in Japan when she was 4, and went to elementary school and junior high school in Japan.
Ai was motivated to become a singer in her early teens, after singing at a cousin's wedding, having many people ask her if she wanted to be a professional singer, and hearing a gospel performance at the First African Methodist Episcopal Church of Los Angeles in 1993. After graduating from junior high school in Japan, Ai returned to Los Angeles for high school, enrolling at Glendale High School, however found high school difficult due to never formally studying English. After making it through the audition process, she switched to the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, majoring in ballet. She became a member of the school's gospel choir. In 1998, she performed in a gospel choir at a Mary J. Blige concert at the Universal Amphitheatre, performing of "A Dream." In the same year, she appeared as a dancer in the music video for Janet Jackson's song "Go Deep."
Career
1999–2004: SX4, BMG Japan, move to Universal
In 1999, she joined an Asian girl group called SX4, who were produced by George Brown of Kool & the Gang. Ai was a member of the group for two years, and later in 1999 the group were offered a record label deal. While on her summer holiday in Kagoshima, she performed Monica's "For You I Will" on a local radio station, which led to her being scouted by BMG Japan. She decided to take the offer, and after leaving SX4 and graduating from high school in June 2000, moved to Tokyo and debuted as a musician later in 2000.
Ai debuted under BMG Japan with the single "Cry, Just Cry" in November 2000. Between then and November 2001, she released three singles, culminating in her debut album, My Name Is Ai. However, the releases were not very commercially successful, and the album debuted at number 86.
In 2002 she moved to Def Jam Japan as the first female artist signed to the label. Ai has said that she felt more at home under Def Jam, as many of her co-workers shared her musical tastes. Her first album under the label in 2003 Original Ai debuted at 15 on Oricon'''s album charts, and her second, 2004 Ai, debuted at number three. In 2004, she won the Space Shower Music Video Awards' award for Best R&B Video, with her song "Thank U."
After moving to Def Jam, Ai increasingly began collaborating with musicians, especially Japanese hip-hop and rap artists (though under BMG Japan, Ai had collaborated with Mao Denda, and Soul'd Out rapper Diggy-Mo'). She was featured as a rapper on the Suite Chic single "Uh Uh,,,,,", a collaboration between Namie Amuro, Verbal of M-Flo, and music producer Ryōsuke Imai in 2003. Other musicians Ai collaborated with in this period were Afra, Boy-Ken, Joe Budden, Dabo, Deli, Double, Heartsdales, Ken Hirai, M-Flo, Sphere of Influence and Zeebra. Ai's collaborations featured her either as a rapper or a singer.
2005–2010: "Story", rise in fame
In 2005, Ai released the ballad single "Story", which became the biggest hit of her career. It was a sleeper hit, charting for 20 weeks in the top 30 in 2005 and 2006, however went on to sell over three million ringtones, one million cellphone downloads, and 270,000 physical copies. Ai later performed "Story" at the prestigious 56th NHK Kōhaku Uta Gassen New Years music concert. Her next studio album, Mic-a-holic Ai, was the best selling album of her career, being certified double platinum by the RIAJ.
Ai's first single of 2006, the ballad "Believe", was also a success: it debuted at number two, and sold more than one million ringtones. The song was used as the theme song of the Kenji Sakaguchi starring medical drama, Team Medical Dragon. Her next two albums, What's Goin' On Ai (2006) and Don't Stop Ai (2007) were also greatly commercially successful, being certified platinum and gold respectively.
In 2009, Ai released her greatest hits album, Best Ai. It was the first number one record of her career. In 2010, Ai collaborated with many artists such as Namie Amuro, Miliyah Kato, Chaka Khan and Boyz II Men on her 10th anniversary album, The Last Ai.
To the end of Ai's career with Universal, her album sales began to decrease. Viva Ai (2009) debuted at number 10, and The Last Ai (2010) at 14 (despite her gold hit from the album, "Fake" featuring Namie Amuro).
2011–2016: Independent, Moriagaro and The Best
In June 2011, Ai signed with EMI Music Japan. She collaborated with The Jacksons on December 13 and 14, 2011, at the Michael Jackson Tribute Live tribute concerts held in Tokyo. She performed the vocals in the third act for Michael Jackson's songs. She also performed and released the theme song for the event, "Letter in the Sky" featuring the Jacksons. In November 2011, Ai released the song "Happiness", a collaboration with Coca-Cola for their winter 2011 campaign. The song was a hit, being certified gold in two different mediums. The song revitalized the sales of her ninth studio album, Independent, which has sold more than 60,000 copies. Independent was Ai's first album to be released internationally outside of Asia.
On April 1, 2013, EMI Music Japan was completely merged into Universal Music Japan as a sublabel by the name of EMI Records Japan as a result of Universal Music's purchase of EMI in September 2012. Ai's tenth studio album, Moriagaro, was released in July 2013, serving as her first release under EMI Japan, although was not released outside of Asia.
A previously unreleased English version of Ai's single "Story" was featured in the Japanese dub of the Disney film Big Hero 6 in October 2014.
In November 2015, Ai released a compilation album, The Best, to celebrate fifteen years in the music industry. The compilation album was reissued in mid-2016. A third compilation release of tracks with featured artists titled The Feat. Best was issued in November 2016.
2017–present: Wa to Yo, twenty-year anniversary and Dream
Ai teased her eleventh studio album, Wa to Yo on social media in April 2017. Wanting to "convey the goodness of Japan" to the rest of the world and "the goodness of the overseas to Japanese people", Ai collaborated with several producers, artists and songwriters from both Japan and the west. The lead single "Justice Will Prevail at Last" was released in May 2017. Wa to Yo was released in June 2017 and was her second international album release outside of Asia. The album was reissued in October 2017, titled Wa to Yo to. The album peaked at number 11 on the Oricon weekly chart.
In early 2019, Ai traveled to her hometown, Los Angeles, California, to record new material to celebrate twenty years in the music industry and for the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics. Her fourth compilation album, Kansha!!!!! - Thank You for 20 Years New and Best, was released in November 2019, serving as her first international compilation release. Ai's extended play, It's All Me, Vol. 1 was planned to be released on the start of the 2020 Olympics, but instead was released on July 8, 2020 after the event was postponed to summer 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The lead single of It's All Me, Vol. 1, "Summer Magic" was her first single to be released internationally. Its Japanese version was included in an advertisement for the Amazon Echo. In November 2020, "Not So Different" was released digitally as the lead single for Ai's extended play, It's All Me, Vol. 2. In December 2020, Ai partnered with One Young World and released a special music video of the song in support of the project. A remix of "Not So Different" featuring Japanese rapper Awich was released on December 11, 2020 as a promotional single. The second single, "Hope" was released on January 30, 2021 with its music video premiering the same day. Ai partnered with deleteC, a non-profit organization in Japan aiming to support cancer treatment. It's All Me, Vol. 2 later was released in February 2021. In March 2021, EMI released a compilation EP of songs by Ai titled Self Selection "Hip Hop". In June 2021, Ai's previous releases with her former label, Universal Sigma, were made available internationally for digital streaming.
On June 28, 2021, Ai released "The Moment" featuring Japanese rapper Yellow Bucks. On the same day, she performed the song with Yellow Bucks and DJ Ryow on CDTV, a Japanese TV channel by TBS. In August 2021, she released a single featuring Dachi Miura, titled "In the Middle". In September 2021, Ai announced her next single, "Aldebaran". The song serves as the theme song for the NHK television drama, Come Come Everbody. Upon its release in November, it became her first charting single on the Billboard Japan Hot 100 since her 2017 single, "Kira Kira". The song debuted and peaked at number 37 on the chart. On the Oricon charts, "Aldebaran" peaked at number 4 on the Daily Digital Singles Chart and number 6 on the weekly Digital Singles Chart. Ai performed "Aldebaran" at the 72nd NHK Kōhaku Uta Gassen on December 31, 2021, her fourth appearance on the show. In December 2021, Ai announced her twelfth studio album on social media, titled Dream. The nine-track album is set for release in February 2022.
Other ventures
In April 2011, Ai presented a music documentary, Ai Miss Michael Jackson: King of Pop no Kiseki, that was recorded for Music On! TV. In the documentary, she traveled to the United States and interviewed members of the Jackson family in their home.
For the American musical comedy Glee's season two episode Britney/Brittany, Ai dubbed the voice of Britney Spears in the Japanese release.
Products and endorsements
As is standard for Japanese musicians, Ai has featured as a spokesman, or has her music featured, for many products. Ai's songs have been used as TV commercial songs, drama theme songs, film theme songs and TV show ending theme songs.
Ai has worked on four major Coca-Cola TV commercial campaigns, two featuring her own songs ("You Are My Star" (2009), "Happiness" (2011)) and two featuring collaborations (K'naan's "Wavin' Flag" (2009), Namie Amuro's "Wonder Woman" (2011)). She has also been featured in two Audio-Technica campaigns (using "My Friend (Live Version)" and "I'll Remember You", a campaign for Japan Airlines ("Brand New Day") and Pepsi Nex with "I Wanna Know."
Ai's most high-profile work for a TV drama was the theme song for 2006's primetime drama Team Medical Dragon, "Believe", which was one of her greatest hits, selling over one million ringtones. Ai also sung the theme song for the drama's second series, "One." Ai also worked on the theme song for the 2010 primetime drama Keishichō Keizoku Sōsahan, "Nemurenai Machi." Other program theme songs include the Japanese theme song for the American drama Heroes ("Taisetsu na Mono"), and the 15th ending theme for the children's animation Crayon Shin-chan, "Crayon Beats"). In 2005, Ai's song "Alive (English Version)" was used as an insert song for the South Korean drama Delightful Girl Choon-Hyang.
Many of Ai's songs have been used in films. Her "Story" song was remade (also with its English version) for Disney's box office Big Hero 6 in 2014. She performed the theme song for Departures (2008), the winner of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2009. She has also sung the theme songs for Crayon Shin-chan: The Legend Called Buri Buri 3 Minutes Charge (2005), Pray (2005), Lalapipo (2009) and Berserk Golden Age Arc I: The Egg of the High King (2012). Her music has been featured on the soundtracks of TKO Hiphop (2005), the musical film Memories of Matsuko (2006), in which Ai cameoed to perform the song, and Heat Island (2007).
Personal life
On March 6, 2013, Ai announced her engagement to Hiro, the leader and vocalist of the rock band Kaikigesshoku. The pair had been dating for 10 years, and wed in January 2014. On August 28, 2015, Ai gave birth to her first child, a baby girl. On July 24, 2018, it was revealed Ai was pregnant with her second child. Her second child, a boy, was born on December 29, 2018.
In 2019, outdoor advertisements for Ai's single, "Summer Magic" were displayed at Shinjuku Station. The advertisement displayed a search result of her name, which showed top results for artificial intelligence (AI), while a cut off photo of Ai herself appeared on the bottom of the search result. On Twitter, Ai revealed her distaste of artificial intelligence being the top results when searching her name mononymously on search engines.
Controversy
In 2012, Ai was part of a controversy regarding the murder of Nicola Furlong. Reports from The Japan Times and Irish Independent stated James Blackston and Richard Hinds were working for Ai as performers for her Independent Tour 2012. On May 21, a day after the tour performance in Sendai, Blackston was at a dance school within the city teaching dance moves for a number of Ai songs to students. Regarding allegations of a connection to the crime, Ai and her representative team declined to make an official statement.
Discography
My Name Is Ai (2001)
Original Ai (2003)
2004 Ai (2004)
Mic-a-holic Ai (2005)
What's Goin' On Ai (2006)
Don't Stop Ai (2007)
Viva Ai (2009)
The Last Ai (2010)
Independent (2012)
Moriagaro (2013)
Wa to Yo (2017)Dream'' (2022)
Awards and nominations
References
External links
Official website
Ai on Twitter
Ai on Instagram
Ai on YouTube
1981 births
Living people
21st-century American women singers
21st-century American singers
21st-century Japanese women singers
21st-century American actresses
21st-century women rappers
21st-century Japanese singers
21st-century American rappers
21st-century Japanese actresses
People from Los Angeles
Singers from Los Angeles
Songwriters from California
People from Kagoshima
Musicians from Kagoshima Prefecture
Los Angeles County High School for the Arts alumni
Actresses from Los Angeles
American people of Italian descent
Japanese people of American descent
Japanese people of Italian descent
American musicians of Japanese descent
American women songwriters
American women pop singers
Japanese women pop singers
American hip hop singers
Japanese hip hop singers
American contemporary R&B singers
Record producers from Los Angeles
Japanese rhythm and blues singers
English-language singers from Japan
Bertelsmann Music Group artists
RCA Records artists
Universal Music Group artists
Universal Music Japan artists
Def Jam Recordings artists
Island Records artists
EMI Music Japan artists
EMI Records artists
American expatriates in Japan
Citizens of Japan through descent
Japanese women singer-songwriters
American women singer-songwriters
American rappers of Asian descent
American women rappers
Japanese rappers
Pop rappers
Women hip hop record producers
American hip hop record producers
American women record producers
Japanese women record producers
Spokespersons | true | [
"Shu Ying (; born 1989) is a Chinese musician, singer-songwriter, writer and composer. She is a multi-instrumentalist and primarily plays guitar and keyboard.\n\nCareer\nIn 2012, she formed an electronic dance band named Quadruple Cherry as vocalist, guitarist and composer, with members from Little Wizard's former guitarist Wang Kai as drummer and guitarist Wang Xiaoyu of a latter shoegazing band called City Flanker. On April 1, 2013, Quadruple Cherry released an EP with two singles. \"Complexion\" from this EP was also released by Xing Wai Xing records in the compilation album Wu Cheng Ji , this album was rewarded as the best compilation album of 2014 Chinese Music Media Awards.\n\nIn 2014, she joined Undress For Success as keyboardist, a project from former Battle Cattle bassist Laurent. In 2015, she started to work on solo project with the help from Laurent as producer. After releasing several digital singles by herself, she released a solo EP produced by Laurent, Are You Still A Teenager?, with five new tracks. This EP is recorded in Juju's recording studio located in Lane 1639 Huashan Lu. Shu Ying recorded vocal and guitar, Laurent did the drums. Her EP is described as “What a gem, full of anxious aggression and a volatile attitude that weavers between yearning and confrontational, between sarcastic and pungent it's a stellar addition to the artist's catalog, one that may remind some of 90s alt rockers such as PJ Harvey and Liz Phair.”\n\nIn the summer of 2017, Shu Ying made a trip to Netherlands and started a one-week recording session with producer Idan Altman. She released her full-length album Girl's Girl's World under Waving Cat Records on October 20, 2017. Neocha described as 'Shu Ying inhabits her own radiantly untamed melodies amidst the loud, discordant, confused noise of twenty-first-century Shanghai. With songs full of attitude and vulnerability, disclosure, and distance, her music is an exciting presence on the Chinese indie music scene.' It was listed as top 25 albums released of year 2017 in China by The Beijinger, described as ''the snappy, profoundly catchy, emotionally rich LP Girl’s Girl’s World. It’s rock and roll streamlined with a clear ear for what’s makes a chorus pop, with lyrics that are on the mark, and more importantly, a voice that stings with emotional honesty and pulpy aplomb.'' The music video of Hardly Spoken Girl was listed as 7 stellar music videos from around the globe by YabYum Music + Arts in 2017 issue. \n\nSince the late of 2019, she relocated to Europe. In 2020, she released a new album named Felt inspired by her recent experiment in jazz and eletronica while keeping her acid folk roots.\n\nDiscography \n Are You Still A Teenager? (2015)\n Girl's Girl's World (2017)\n Felt (2020)\n\nReferences\n\n1989 births\nLiving people\nChinese women singer-songwriters\nChinese composers\n21st-century Chinese writers\n21st-century Chinese women singers\n21st-century Chinese musicians",
"\"What Kind of Fool (Heard All That Before)\" is a song recorded by Australian recording artist Kylie Minogue, released as the lead single from her first greatest hits album Greatest Hits (1992). The song was written by Mike Stock, Minogue and Pete Waterman, and produced by Stock and Waterman.\n\nIt was Minogue's last original single to be released from the record label PWL, as although \"Celebration\" was released as the last single, it was a cover version, not an original single. The single was released on 10 August 1992 as a CD single and had received positive reception from music critics, many praising it as a good last single from PWL. The song peaked at number seventeen and fourteen in Australia and the United Kingdom, respectively.\n\nBackground\nThe song was taken from Minogue's first compilation album Greatest Hits as the first single and last original single to be released by her label PWL, but her second single from the album, \"Celebration\", was taken as the last single. The song was written by Stock and Waterman, as well as Minogue contributing in the lyrics and was produced by Stock and Waterman.\n\nThe cover featured Minogue photographed by close friend Katrina Jebb whilst on holiday in early 1992.\n\nReception\n\nCritical response\nThe song received generally mixed reviews from music critics. Some compared the song with \"I Should Be So Lucky\" and \"Better the Devil You Know\", but many suggested the song was regressive in comparison to Minogue's more mature work from the previous two years. Music Week commented, \"Typically bright and breezy, it is however a little slight of melody and hooks when compared to some ofher previous work – but that won't stop it from continuing her unbroken sequence of Top 20 hits.\" Tom Doyle from Smash Hits called it a \"tweety dance anthem\".\n \nMinogue admitted in an interview with the Australian Sunday Telegraph in October 2008, that she was not fond of the song: \"There's plenty I've cringed about,\" she says. \"There's one track I really didn't like called 'What Kind of Fool'. But I realised you can run, but you can't hide, so I embraced 'I Should Be So Lucky' and the rest of them.\" It also became one of Minogue's least performed tracks. It made its debut, as a short sample only on her 2005 tour Showgirl: The Greatest Hits Tour, and again in sample form on her North American Tour 2009. Minogue has also performed a chorus of the song on impromptu occasions during her 2012 Anti Tour and 2014's Kiss Me Once Tour.\n\nChart performance\nThe song did not receive great commercial attention, although became a moderate hit in the UK and Australia where it debuted at number thirty-seven (after five weeks it climbed and peaked at number seventeen.) The song debuted at number sixteen on the UK Singles Chart. later climbing to number fourteen where it peaked, staying in the charts for five weeks.\nThe song debuted at number twenty-two on the Irish Singles Chart, but became unsuccessful, falling off the charts after two weeks.\n\nMusic video\nThe music video features Minogue sunbathing in front of a blanket, while a male actor is behind it with a rose. It later showed the male and Minogue having an argument in a bedroom. In the bridge, it shows Minogue in a blue plaid dress dancing under a spotlight. She later teases her lover and dances atop a table. The music video later ends with Minogue kissing him and she walks out the room, while the man sits on a chair left alone. The song's reception itself became one of Minogue's least successful singles to date. The single's video recreated scenes made famous by Brigitte Bardot in the 1956 film And God Created Woman. The song was featured on MTV Classics channel in 2011 and was listed at number thirty-four on Evolution of... Kylie Minogue.\n\nFormats and track listings\nThese are the formats and track listings of major single releases of \"What Kind of Fool (Heard All That Before)\".\n\nCD single\n \"What Kind of Fool (Heard All That Before)\"\n \"What Kind of Fool (Heard All That Before)\" [No Tech No Logical Remix]\n \"What Kind of Fool (Heard All That Before)\" [Tech No Logical Remix]\n \"Things Can Only Get Better\" [Original 7\" Mix]\n\n7\" vinyl\n \"What Kind of Fool (Heard All That Before)\"\n \"Things Can Only Get Better\" [Original 7\" Mix]\n\n12\" vinyl\n \"What Kind of Fool (Heard All That Before)\" [No Tech No Logical Remix]\n \"What Kind of Fool (Heard All That Before)\" [Tech No Logical Remix]\n \"Things Can Only Get Better\" [Original 12\" Mix]\n\nCassette single\n \"What Kind of Fool (Heard All That Before)\"\n \"Things Can Only Get Better\" [Original 7\" Mix]\n\nDigital EP \n \"What Kind of Fool (Heard All That Before)\"\n \"What Kind of Fool (Heard All That Before)\" [No Tech No Logical Remix]\n \"What Kind of Fool (Heard All That Before)\" [Tech No Logical Remix]\n \"What Kind of Fool (Heard All That Before)\" [12\" Master Mix]\n \"What Kind of Fool (Heard All That Before)\" [Instrumental]\n \"What Kind of Fool (Heard All That Before)\" [Backing Track]\n \"Things Can Only Get Better\" [Original 7\" Mix]\n \"Things Can Only Get Better\" [Original 12\" Mix]\n \"Things Can Only Get Better\" [Original Instrumental]\n \"Things Can Only Get Better\" [Original Backing Track]\n\nLive performances\nMinogue performed the song on the following concert tours:\n Showgirl: The Greatest Hits Tour (excerpt during \"Smiley Kylie Medley\")\n Showgirl: The Homecoming Tour (excerpt during \"Everything Taboo Medley\")\n For You, for Me (excerpt during \"Everything Taboo Medley\")\n\nCharts\n\nReferences\n\n1992 singles\n1992 songs\nKylie Minogue songs\nPete Waterman Entertainment singles\nSongs written by Kylie Minogue\nSongs written by Mike Stock (musician)\nSongs written by Pete Waterman"
]
|
[
"Ai (singer)",
"1981-2000: Early life, SX4",
"Where was Ai born?",
"Los Angeles",
"When did she first show interest in music?",
"early teens,",
"what kind of music did she perform as a teenager?",
"gospel choir"
]
| C_c0ffd310ba134e19ae6a9fb0c7cbd0c3_1 | was she raised in a religious environment? | 4 | Was the singer Ai raised in a religious environment? | Ai (singer) | Ai was born in Los Angeles in 1981. Her father was Japanese and her mother was half Italian-American and half Japanese. She moved to Kagoshima in Japan when she was 4, and went to elementary school and junior high school in Japan. Ai was motivated to become a singer in her early teens, after singing at a cousin's wedding, having many people ask her if she wanted to be a professional singer, and hearing a gospel performance at the First African Methodist Episcopal Church of Los Angeles in 1993. After graduating from junior high school in Japan, Ai returned to Los Angeles for high school, enrolling at Glendale High School, however found high school difficult due to never formally studying English. After making it through the audition process, she switched to the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, majoring in ballet. She became a member of the school's gospel choir. In 1998, she performed in a gospel choir at a Mary J. Blige concert at the Universal Amphitheatre, performing of "A Dream." In the same year, she appeared as a dancer in the music video for Janet Jackson's song "Go Deep." In 1999, she joined an Asian girl group called SX4, who were produced by George Brown of Kool & the Gang. Ai was a member of the group for two years, and later in 1999 the group were offered a record label deal. While on her summer holiday in Kagoshima, she performed Monica's "For You I Will" on a local radio station, which led to her being scouted by BMG Japan. She decided to take the offer, and after leaving SX4 and graduating from high school in June 2000, moved to Tokyo and debuted as a musician later in 2000. CANNOTANSWER | Methodist Episcopal Church of Los Angeles | , known mononymously as Ai (, stylized as AI or A.I. ), is a Japanese-American singer-songwriter, rapper, record producer, spokeswoman, and actress.
After being discovered by BMG Japan in 2000, she released her debut album, My Name is Ai (2001). Signing to Def Jam Records Japan in 2003, Ai became the first woman signed to the label. She released two studio albums under the label, Original Ai (2003) and 2004 Ai. With the release of her third studio album, Ai rose to mainstream prominence in Japan. Signing to Island Records in 2005, Ai released her fourth studio album, Mic-a-Holic Ai (2005). Its second single "Story" became one of the biggest singles of the 2000s in Japan, peaking at number 8 on the Japanese Oricon singles chart, and was the sixth single in history to receive a triple million digital certification by the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ).
Ai's fifth studio album, What's Goin' On Ai (2006), featured the top-ten singles "Believe" and "I Wanna Know", the latter receiving a Gold certification from the RIAJ. Her sixth studio album, Don't Stop Ai (2007) saw similar success, which received a Gold certification. In 2009, she released her seventh studio album, Viva Ai, which charted in the top ten of the Japanese Oricon albums chart. Ai's compilation album, Best Ai (2009), became her first number one album and was certified Platinum. In 2010, she released her eighth studio album, The Last Ai, which marked her last release under Island Records.
In 2011, Ai left Universal Music Group and signed a global publishing deal with EMI. Her Gold certified ninth studio album Independent (2012) served as her international debut and first release under EMI Music Japan. To promote the album, Ai toured in Japan and her hometown, Los Angeles, California. Her tenth studio album Moriagaro (2013) marked her first release under EMI Records Japan following EMI Music Japan's absorption into Universal Music Japan as a sublabel. Her fourth compilation album, The Best (2015) peaked at number 3 on the Oricon Albums chart and number 2 on the Billboard Japan Hot Albums chart, later being certified Gold by the RIAJ. Its successor, The Feat. Best (2016) charted within the top 30 of both the Japan Hot Albums and Oricon Albums chart.
Ai's eleventh studio album, Wa to Yo (2017) experimented with traditional Japanese and electronic sounds. Its second single, "Kira Kira" was nominated for the Grand Prix award and won the Excellent Works Award at the 59th Japan Records Awards. Her sixth compilation album Kansha!!!!! - Thank You for 20 Years New and Best (2019) was issued to celebrate her twenty years in the music industry. Further celebrating her twenty year anniversary, Ai released the extended plays It's All Me, Vol. 1 (2020) and It's All Me, Vol. 2 (2021). In December 2021, Ai announced her twelfth studio album, Dream. The album is set for release in February 2022.
Early life and education
Ai was born in Los Angeles in 1981. Her father is Japanese and her mother is American of Italian and Native Okinawan descent. She moved to Kagoshima in Japan when she was 4, and went to elementary school and junior high school in Japan.
Ai was motivated to become a singer in her early teens, after singing at a cousin's wedding, having many people ask her if she wanted to be a professional singer, and hearing a gospel performance at the First African Methodist Episcopal Church of Los Angeles in 1993. After graduating from junior high school in Japan, Ai returned to Los Angeles for high school, enrolling at Glendale High School, however found high school difficult due to never formally studying English. After making it through the audition process, she switched to the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, majoring in ballet. She became a member of the school's gospel choir. In 1998, she performed in a gospel choir at a Mary J. Blige concert at the Universal Amphitheatre, performing of "A Dream." In the same year, she appeared as a dancer in the music video for Janet Jackson's song "Go Deep."
Career
1999–2004: SX4, BMG Japan, move to Universal
In 1999, she joined an Asian girl group called SX4, who were produced by George Brown of Kool & the Gang. Ai was a member of the group for two years, and later in 1999 the group were offered a record label deal. While on her summer holiday in Kagoshima, she performed Monica's "For You I Will" on a local radio station, which led to her being scouted by BMG Japan. She decided to take the offer, and after leaving SX4 and graduating from high school in June 2000, moved to Tokyo and debuted as a musician later in 2000.
Ai debuted under BMG Japan with the single "Cry, Just Cry" in November 2000. Between then and November 2001, she released three singles, culminating in her debut album, My Name Is Ai. However, the releases were not very commercially successful, and the album debuted at number 86.
In 2002 she moved to Def Jam Japan as the first female artist signed to the label. Ai has said that she felt more at home under Def Jam, as many of her co-workers shared her musical tastes. Her first album under the label in 2003 Original Ai debuted at 15 on Oricon'''s album charts, and her second, 2004 Ai, debuted at number three. In 2004, she won the Space Shower Music Video Awards' award for Best R&B Video, with her song "Thank U."
After moving to Def Jam, Ai increasingly began collaborating with musicians, especially Japanese hip-hop and rap artists (though under BMG Japan, Ai had collaborated with Mao Denda, and Soul'd Out rapper Diggy-Mo'). She was featured as a rapper on the Suite Chic single "Uh Uh,,,,,", a collaboration between Namie Amuro, Verbal of M-Flo, and music producer Ryōsuke Imai in 2003. Other musicians Ai collaborated with in this period were Afra, Boy-Ken, Joe Budden, Dabo, Deli, Double, Heartsdales, Ken Hirai, M-Flo, Sphere of Influence and Zeebra. Ai's collaborations featured her either as a rapper or a singer.
2005–2010: "Story", rise in fame
In 2005, Ai released the ballad single "Story", which became the biggest hit of her career. It was a sleeper hit, charting for 20 weeks in the top 30 in 2005 and 2006, however went on to sell over three million ringtones, one million cellphone downloads, and 270,000 physical copies. Ai later performed "Story" at the prestigious 56th NHK Kōhaku Uta Gassen New Years music concert. Her next studio album, Mic-a-holic Ai, was the best selling album of her career, being certified double platinum by the RIAJ.
Ai's first single of 2006, the ballad "Believe", was also a success: it debuted at number two, and sold more than one million ringtones. The song was used as the theme song of the Kenji Sakaguchi starring medical drama, Team Medical Dragon. Her next two albums, What's Goin' On Ai (2006) and Don't Stop Ai (2007) were also greatly commercially successful, being certified platinum and gold respectively.
In 2009, Ai released her greatest hits album, Best Ai. It was the first number one record of her career. In 2010, Ai collaborated with many artists such as Namie Amuro, Miliyah Kato, Chaka Khan and Boyz II Men on her 10th anniversary album, The Last Ai.
To the end of Ai's career with Universal, her album sales began to decrease. Viva Ai (2009) debuted at number 10, and The Last Ai (2010) at 14 (despite her gold hit from the album, "Fake" featuring Namie Amuro).
2011–2016: Independent, Moriagaro and The Best
In June 2011, Ai signed with EMI Music Japan. She collaborated with The Jacksons on December 13 and 14, 2011, at the Michael Jackson Tribute Live tribute concerts held in Tokyo. She performed the vocals in the third act for Michael Jackson's songs. She also performed and released the theme song for the event, "Letter in the Sky" featuring the Jacksons. In November 2011, Ai released the song "Happiness", a collaboration with Coca-Cola for their winter 2011 campaign. The song was a hit, being certified gold in two different mediums. The song revitalized the sales of her ninth studio album, Independent, which has sold more than 60,000 copies. Independent was Ai's first album to be released internationally outside of Asia.
On April 1, 2013, EMI Music Japan was completely merged into Universal Music Japan as a sublabel by the name of EMI Records Japan as a result of Universal Music's purchase of EMI in September 2012. Ai's tenth studio album, Moriagaro, was released in July 2013, serving as her first release under EMI Japan, although was not released outside of Asia.
A previously unreleased English version of Ai's single "Story" was featured in the Japanese dub of the Disney film Big Hero 6 in October 2014.
In November 2015, Ai released a compilation album, The Best, to celebrate fifteen years in the music industry. The compilation album was reissued in mid-2016. A third compilation release of tracks with featured artists titled The Feat. Best was issued in November 2016.
2017–present: Wa to Yo, twenty-year anniversary and Dream
Ai teased her eleventh studio album, Wa to Yo on social media in April 2017. Wanting to "convey the goodness of Japan" to the rest of the world and "the goodness of the overseas to Japanese people", Ai collaborated with several producers, artists and songwriters from both Japan and the west. The lead single "Justice Will Prevail at Last" was released in May 2017. Wa to Yo was released in June 2017 and was her second international album release outside of Asia. The album was reissued in October 2017, titled Wa to Yo to. The album peaked at number 11 on the Oricon weekly chart.
In early 2019, Ai traveled to her hometown, Los Angeles, California, to record new material to celebrate twenty years in the music industry and for the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics. Her fourth compilation album, Kansha!!!!! - Thank You for 20 Years New and Best, was released in November 2019, serving as her first international compilation release. Ai's extended play, It's All Me, Vol. 1 was planned to be released on the start of the 2020 Olympics, but instead was released on July 8, 2020 after the event was postponed to summer 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The lead single of It's All Me, Vol. 1, "Summer Magic" was her first single to be released internationally. Its Japanese version was included in an advertisement for the Amazon Echo. In November 2020, "Not So Different" was released digitally as the lead single for Ai's extended play, It's All Me, Vol. 2. In December 2020, Ai partnered with One Young World and released a special music video of the song in support of the project. A remix of "Not So Different" featuring Japanese rapper Awich was released on December 11, 2020 as a promotional single. The second single, "Hope" was released on January 30, 2021 with its music video premiering the same day. Ai partnered with deleteC, a non-profit organization in Japan aiming to support cancer treatment. It's All Me, Vol. 2 later was released in February 2021. In March 2021, EMI released a compilation EP of songs by Ai titled Self Selection "Hip Hop". In June 2021, Ai's previous releases with her former label, Universal Sigma, were made available internationally for digital streaming.
On June 28, 2021, Ai released "The Moment" featuring Japanese rapper Yellow Bucks. On the same day, she performed the song with Yellow Bucks and DJ Ryow on CDTV, a Japanese TV channel by TBS. In August 2021, she released a single featuring Dachi Miura, titled "In the Middle". In September 2021, Ai announced her next single, "Aldebaran". The song serves as the theme song for the NHK television drama, Come Come Everbody. Upon its release in November, it became her first charting single on the Billboard Japan Hot 100 since her 2017 single, "Kira Kira". The song debuted and peaked at number 37 on the chart. On the Oricon charts, "Aldebaran" peaked at number 4 on the Daily Digital Singles Chart and number 6 on the weekly Digital Singles Chart. Ai performed "Aldebaran" at the 72nd NHK Kōhaku Uta Gassen on December 31, 2021, her fourth appearance on the show. In December 2021, Ai announced her twelfth studio album on social media, titled Dream. The nine-track album is set for release in February 2022.
Other ventures
In April 2011, Ai presented a music documentary, Ai Miss Michael Jackson: King of Pop no Kiseki, that was recorded for Music On! TV. In the documentary, she traveled to the United States and interviewed members of the Jackson family in their home.
For the American musical comedy Glee's season two episode Britney/Brittany, Ai dubbed the voice of Britney Spears in the Japanese release.
Products and endorsements
As is standard for Japanese musicians, Ai has featured as a spokesman, or has her music featured, for many products. Ai's songs have been used as TV commercial songs, drama theme songs, film theme songs and TV show ending theme songs.
Ai has worked on four major Coca-Cola TV commercial campaigns, two featuring her own songs ("You Are My Star" (2009), "Happiness" (2011)) and two featuring collaborations (K'naan's "Wavin' Flag" (2009), Namie Amuro's "Wonder Woman" (2011)). She has also been featured in two Audio-Technica campaigns (using "My Friend (Live Version)" and "I'll Remember You", a campaign for Japan Airlines ("Brand New Day") and Pepsi Nex with "I Wanna Know."
Ai's most high-profile work for a TV drama was the theme song for 2006's primetime drama Team Medical Dragon, "Believe", which was one of her greatest hits, selling over one million ringtones. Ai also sung the theme song for the drama's second series, "One." Ai also worked on the theme song for the 2010 primetime drama Keishichō Keizoku Sōsahan, "Nemurenai Machi." Other program theme songs include the Japanese theme song for the American drama Heroes ("Taisetsu na Mono"), and the 15th ending theme for the children's animation Crayon Shin-chan, "Crayon Beats"). In 2005, Ai's song "Alive (English Version)" was used as an insert song for the South Korean drama Delightful Girl Choon-Hyang.
Many of Ai's songs have been used in films. Her "Story" song was remade (also with its English version) for Disney's box office Big Hero 6 in 2014. She performed the theme song for Departures (2008), the winner of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2009. She has also sung the theme songs for Crayon Shin-chan: The Legend Called Buri Buri 3 Minutes Charge (2005), Pray (2005), Lalapipo (2009) and Berserk Golden Age Arc I: The Egg of the High King (2012). Her music has been featured on the soundtracks of TKO Hiphop (2005), the musical film Memories of Matsuko (2006), in which Ai cameoed to perform the song, and Heat Island (2007).
Personal life
On March 6, 2013, Ai announced her engagement to Hiro, the leader and vocalist of the rock band Kaikigesshoku. The pair had been dating for 10 years, and wed in January 2014. On August 28, 2015, Ai gave birth to her first child, a baby girl. On July 24, 2018, it was revealed Ai was pregnant with her second child. Her second child, a boy, was born on December 29, 2018.
In 2019, outdoor advertisements for Ai's single, "Summer Magic" were displayed at Shinjuku Station. The advertisement displayed a search result of her name, which showed top results for artificial intelligence (AI), while a cut off photo of Ai herself appeared on the bottom of the search result. On Twitter, Ai revealed her distaste of artificial intelligence being the top results when searching her name mononymously on search engines.
Controversy
In 2012, Ai was part of a controversy regarding the murder of Nicola Furlong. Reports from The Japan Times and Irish Independent stated James Blackston and Richard Hinds were working for Ai as performers for her Independent Tour 2012. On May 21, a day after the tour performance in Sendai, Blackston was at a dance school within the city teaching dance moves for a number of Ai songs to students. Regarding allegations of a connection to the crime, Ai and her representative team declined to make an official statement.
Discography
My Name Is Ai (2001)
Original Ai (2003)
2004 Ai (2004)
Mic-a-holic Ai (2005)
What's Goin' On Ai (2006)
Don't Stop Ai (2007)
Viva Ai (2009)
The Last Ai (2010)
Independent (2012)
Moriagaro (2013)
Wa to Yo (2017)Dream'' (2022)
Awards and nominations
References
External links
Official website
Ai on Twitter
Ai on Instagram
Ai on YouTube
1981 births
Living people
21st-century American women singers
21st-century American singers
21st-century Japanese women singers
21st-century American actresses
21st-century women rappers
21st-century Japanese singers
21st-century American rappers
21st-century Japanese actresses
People from Los Angeles
Singers from Los Angeles
Songwriters from California
People from Kagoshima
Musicians from Kagoshima Prefecture
Los Angeles County High School for the Arts alumni
Actresses from Los Angeles
American people of Italian descent
Japanese people of American descent
Japanese people of Italian descent
American musicians of Japanese descent
American women songwriters
American women pop singers
Japanese women pop singers
American hip hop singers
Japanese hip hop singers
American contemporary R&B singers
Record producers from Los Angeles
Japanese rhythm and blues singers
English-language singers from Japan
Bertelsmann Music Group artists
RCA Records artists
Universal Music Group artists
Universal Music Japan artists
Def Jam Recordings artists
Island Records artists
EMI Music Japan artists
EMI Records artists
American expatriates in Japan
Citizens of Japan through descent
Japanese women singer-songwriters
American women singer-songwriters
American rappers of Asian descent
American women rappers
Japanese rappers
Pop rappers
Women hip hop record producers
American hip hop record producers
American women record producers
Japanese women record producers
Spokespersons | true | [
"Anna of Greater Poland (; b. 1253 – d. aft. 26 June 1295), was a Greater Poland princess member of the House of Piast and abbess at Owińska.\n\nShe was the third daughter (twin with Euphemia) of Przemysł I, Duke of Greater Poland and Poznań, by his wife Elisabeth, daughter of Henry II the Pious, Duke of Wrocław. She named after her maternal grandmother, Anna of Bohemia.\n\nLife\nDuke Przemysł I died in 1257, leaving four minor daughters and a five months pregnant wife. Anna and her siblings were raised by their mother, and after her death in 1265, their paternal uncle Bolesław the Pious took their guardianship. She was raised in a religious environment, which certainly took a great impact in her life: her mother Elisabeth spent her childhood in the monastery of Trzebnica, where she was strongly influenced by her grandmother, the later St. Hedwig of Andechs; in addition, she grew up in the court of her uncle Duke Bolesław and his wife, Jolenta of Hungary, who are deeply devoted.\n\nBefore 1280 entered in the Cistercian monastery in Owińska as a nun. During the 1290s (certainly before 1298), she served as an abbess in her community.\n\nIt's unknown the exact date of Anna's death. Certainly she died after the coronation of his brother Przemysł II as King of Poland on 26 June 1295, because the Obituary of Lubiąż mentions Anna and her sister Eufrozynie as the sisters of the Polish King. Probably the day of her death was on 19 May, because on that day a mass was offered for the repose of her soul in the monastery of Lubiaz. She was buried in the monastery in Owińska.\n\nReferences\n\nBibliography\n K. Jasiński, Genealogia Piastów wielkopolskich. Potomstwo Władysława Odonica, [in:] Kronika Miasta Poznania, vol. II, 1995, pp. 51–52.\n K. Ożóg, Anna [in:] Piastowie. Leksykon biograficzny, Wydawnictwo Literackie, Kraków 1999, p. 153.\n\n1253 births\n1290s deaths\nPiast dynasty\nPeople from Greater Poland\n13th-century Polish people\n13th-century Polish women",
"Lale Gül (Amsterdam, 3 November, 1997) is a Dutch writer of Turkish descent.\n\nGül was raised in a strict islamic-religious family in Amsterdam-West. During the week she would attend regular school, and during the weekend she would visit an islamic school in the Milli Görüş community. She studies Dutch literature at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam.\n\nIn 2021 she published and gained national attention with her autobiographical debut novel Ik ga leven (English: I'm going to live) in which she critically and humorously distances herself from her strict religious upbringing.\n\nAfter publication, she was threatened by people from the Dutch-islamic community. Also within her own family, the book was not well received. Although she initially indicated to remain living at her parental home, she decided shortly after that this was no longer an option.\n\nShe was awarded the NS Publieksprijs for the novel in November 2021.\n\nReferences \n\n1997 births\nLiving people\nDutch women writers\nWikipedia requested images of artists\nFormer Muslim critics of Islam\nFormer Muslims turned agnostics or atheists\nDutch critics of Islam\nDutch people of Turkish descent"
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"Where was Ai born?",
"Los Angeles",
"When did she first show interest in music?",
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"gospel choir",
"was she raised in a religious environment?",
"Methodist Episcopal Church of Los Angeles"
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| C_c0ffd310ba134e19ae6a9fb0c7cbd0c3_1 | when did she change from gospel music to other kinds of music? | 5 | When did Ai change from gospel music to other kinds of music? | Ai (singer) | Ai was born in Los Angeles in 1981. Her father was Japanese and her mother was half Italian-American and half Japanese. She moved to Kagoshima in Japan when she was 4, and went to elementary school and junior high school in Japan. Ai was motivated to become a singer in her early teens, after singing at a cousin's wedding, having many people ask her if she wanted to be a professional singer, and hearing a gospel performance at the First African Methodist Episcopal Church of Los Angeles in 1993. After graduating from junior high school in Japan, Ai returned to Los Angeles for high school, enrolling at Glendale High School, however found high school difficult due to never formally studying English. After making it through the audition process, she switched to the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, majoring in ballet. She became a member of the school's gospel choir. In 1998, she performed in a gospel choir at a Mary J. Blige concert at the Universal Amphitheatre, performing of "A Dream." In the same year, she appeared as a dancer in the music video for Janet Jackson's song "Go Deep." In 1999, she joined an Asian girl group called SX4, who were produced by George Brown of Kool & the Gang. Ai was a member of the group for two years, and later in 1999 the group were offered a record label deal. While on her summer holiday in Kagoshima, she performed Monica's "For You I Will" on a local radio station, which led to her being scouted by BMG Japan. She decided to take the offer, and after leaving SX4 and graduating from high school in June 2000, moved to Tokyo and debuted as a musician later in 2000. CANNOTANSWER | In 1999, | , known mononymously as Ai (, stylized as AI or A.I. ), is a Japanese-American singer-songwriter, rapper, record producer, spokeswoman, and actress.
After being discovered by BMG Japan in 2000, she released her debut album, My Name is Ai (2001). Signing to Def Jam Records Japan in 2003, Ai became the first woman signed to the label. She released two studio albums under the label, Original Ai (2003) and 2004 Ai. With the release of her third studio album, Ai rose to mainstream prominence in Japan. Signing to Island Records in 2005, Ai released her fourth studio album, Mic-a-Holic Ai (2005). Its second single "Story" became one of the biggest singles of the 2000s in Japan, peaking at number 8 on the Japanese Oricon singles chart, and was the sixth single in history to receive a triple million digital certification by the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ).
Ai's fifth studio album, What's Goin' On Ai (2006), featured the top-ten singles "Believe" and "I Wanna Know", the latter receiving a Gold certification from the RIAJ. Her sixth studio album, Don't Stop Ai (2007) saw similar success, which received a Gold certification. In 2009, she released her seventh studio album, Viva Ai, which charted in the top ten of the Japanese Oricon albums chart. Ai's compilation album, Best Ai (2009), became her first number one album and was certified Platinum. In 2010, she released her eighth studio album, The Last Ai, which marked her last release under Island Records.
In 2011, Ai left Universal Music Group and signed a global publishing deal with EMI. Her Gold certified ninth studio album Independent (2012) served as her international debut and first release under EMI Music Japan. To promote the album, Ai toured in Japan and her hometown, Los Angeles, California. Her tenth studio album Moriagaro (2013) marked her first release under EMI Records Japan following EMI Music Japan's absorption into Universal Music Japan as a sublabel. Her fourth compilation album, The Best (2015) peaked at number 3 on the Oricon Albums chart and number 2 on the Billboard Japan Hot Albums chart, later being certified Gold by the RIAJ. Its successor, The Feat. Best (2016) charted within the top 30 of both the Japan Hot Albums and Oricon Albums chart.
Ai's eleventh studio album, Wa to Yo (2017) experimented with traditional Japanese and electronic sounds. Its second single, "Kira Kira" was nominated for the Grand Prix award and won the Excellent Works Award at the 59th Japan Records Awards. Her sixth compilation album Kansha!!!!! - Thank You for 20 Years New and Best (2019) was issued to celebrate her twenty years in the music industry. Further celebrating her twenty year anniversary, Ai released the extended plays It's All Me, Vol. 1 (2020) and It's All Me, Vol. 2 (2021). In December 2021, Ai announced her twelfth studio album, Dream. The album is set for release in February 2022.
Early life and education
Ai was born in Los Angeles in 1981. Her father is Japanese and her mother is American of Italian and Native Okinawan descent. She moved to Kagoshima in Japan when she was 4, and went to elementary school and junior high school in Japan.
Ai was motivated to become a singer in her early teens, after singing at a cousin's wedding, having many people ask her if she wanted to be a professional singer, and hearing a gospel performance at the First African Methodist Episcopal Church of Los Angeles in 1993. After graduating from junior high school in Japan, Ai returned to Los Angeles for high school, enrolling at Glendale High School, however found high school difficult due to never formally studying English. After making it through the audition process, she switched to the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, majoring in ballet. She became a member of the school's gospel choir. In 1998, she performed in a gospel choir at a Mary J. Blige concert at the Universal Amphitheatre, performing of "A Dream." In the same year, she appeared as a dancer in the music video for Janet Jackson's song "Go Deep."
Career
1999–2004: SX4, BMG Japan, move to Universal
In 1999, she joined an Asian girl group called SX4, who were produced by George Brown of Kool & the Gang. Ai was a member of the group for two years, and later in 1999 the group were offered a record label deal. While on her summer holiday in Kagoshima, she performed Monica's "For You I Will" on a local radio station, which led to her being scouted by BMG Japan. She decided to take the offer, and after leaving SX4 and graduating from high school in June 2000, moved to Tokyo and debuted as a musician later in 2000.
Ai debuted under BMG Japan with the single "Cry, Just Cry" in November 2000. Between then and November 2001, she released three singles, culminating in her debut album, My Name Is Ai. However, the releases were not very commercially successful, and the album debuted at number 86.
In 2002 she moved to Def Jam Japan as the first female artist signed to the label. Ai has said that she felt more at home under Def Jam, as many of her co-workers shared her musical tastes. Her first album under the label in 2003 Original Ai debuted at 15 on Oricon'''s album charts, and her second, 2004 Ai, debuted at number three. In 2004, she won the Space Shower Music Video Awards' award for Best R&B Video, with her song "Thank U."
After moving to Def Jam, Ai increasingly began collaborating with musicians, especially Japanese hip-hop and rap artists (though under BMG Japan, Ai had collaborated with Mao Denda, and Soul'd Out rapper Diggy-Mo'). She was featured as a rapper on the Suite Chic single "Uh Uh,,,,,", a collaboration between Namie Amuro, Verbal of M-Flo, and music producer Ryōsuke Imai in 2003. Other musicians Ai collaborated with in this period were Afra, Boy-Ken, Joe Budden, Dabo, Deli, Double, Heartsdales, Ken Hirai, M-Flo, Sphere of Influence and Zeebra. Ai's collaborations featured her either as a rapper or a singer.
2005–2010: "Story", rise in fame
In 2005, Ai released the ballad single "Story", which became the biggest hit of her career. It was a sleeper hit, charting for 20 weeks in the top 30 in 2005 and 2006, however went on to sell over three million ringtones, one million cellphone downloads, and 270,000 physical copies. Ai later performed "Story" at the prestigious 56th NHK Kōhaku Uta Gassen New Years music concert. Her next studio album, Mic-a-holic Ai, was the best selling album of her career, being certified double platinum by the RIAJ.
Ai's first single of 2006, the ballad "Believe", was also a success: it debuted at number two, and sold more than one million ringtones. The song was used as the theme song of the Kenji Sakaguchi starring medical drama, Team Medical Dragon. Her next two albums, What's Goin' On Ai (2006) and Don't Stop Ai (2007) were also greatly commercially successful, being certified platinum and gold respectively.
In 2009, Ai released her greatest hits album, Best Ai. It was the first number one record of her career. In 2010, Ai collaborated with many artists such as Namie Amuro, Miliyah Kato, Chaka Khan and Boyz II Men on her 10th anniversary album, The Last Ai.
To the end of Ai's career with Universal, her album sales began to decrease. Viva Ai (2009) debuted at number 10, and The Last Ai (2010) at 14 (despite her gold hit from the album, "Fake" featuring Namie Amuro).
2011–2016: Independent, Moriagaro and The Best
In June 2011, Ai signed with EMI Music Japan. She collaborated with The Jacksons on December 13 and 14, 2011, at the Michael Jackson Tribute Live tribute concerts held in Tokyo. She performed the vocals in the third act for Michael Jackson's songs. She also performed and released the theme song for the event, "Letter in the Sky" featuring the Jacksons. In November 2011, Ai released the song "Happiness", a collaboration with Coca-Cola for their winter 2011 campaign. The song was a hit, being certified gold in two different mediums. The song revitalized the sales of her ninth studio album, Independent, which has sold more than 60,000 copies. Independent was Ai's first album to be released internationally outside of Asia.
On April 1, 2013, EMI Music Japan was completely merged into Universal Music Japan as a sublabel by the name of EMI Records Japan as a result of Universal Music's purchase of EMI in September 2012. Ai's tenth studio album, Moriagaro, was released in July 2013, serving as her first release under EMI Japan, although was not released outside of Asia.
A previously unreleased English version of Ai's single "Story" was featured in the Japanese dub of the Disney film Big Hero 6 in October 2014.
In November 2015, Ai released a compilation album, The Best, to celebrate fifteen years in the music industry. The compilation album was reissued in mid-2016. A third compilation release of tracks with featured artists titled The Feat. Best was issued in November 2016.
2017–present: Wa to Yo, twenty-year anniversary and Dream
Ai teased her eleventh studio album, Wa to Yo on social media in April 2017. Wanting to "convey the goodness of Japan" to the rest of the world and "the goodness of the overseas to Japanese people", Ai collaborated with several producers, artists and songwriters from both Japan and the west. The lead single "Justice Will Prevail at Last" was released in May 2017. Wa to Yo was released in June 2017 and was her second international album release outside of Asia. The album was reissued in October 2017, titled Wa to Yo to. The album peaked at number 11 on the Oricon weekly chart.
In early 2019, Ai traveled to her hometown, Los Angeles, California, to record new material to celebrate twenty years in the music industry and for the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics. Her fourth compilation album, Kansha!!!!! - Thank You for 20 Years New and Best, was released in November 2019, serving as her first international compilation release. Ai's extended play, It's All Me, Vol. 1 was planned to be released on the start of the 2020 Olympics, but instead was released on July 8, 2020 after the event was postponed to summer 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The lead single of It's All Me, Vol. 1, "Summer Magic" was her first single to be released internationally. Its Japanese version was included in an advertisement for the Amazon Echo. In November 2020, "Not So Different" was released digitally as the lead single for Ai's extended play, It's All Me, Vol. 2. In December 2020, Ai partnered with One Young World and released a special music video of the song in support of the project. A remix of "Not So Different" featuring Japanese rapper Awich was released on December 11, 2020 as a promotional single. The second single, "Hope" was released on January 30, 2021 with its music video premiering the same day. Ai partnered with deleteC, a non-profit organization in Japan aiming to support cancer treatment. It's All Me, Vol. 2 later was released in February 2021. In March 2021, EMI released a compilation EP of songs by Ai titled Self Selection "Hip Hop". In June 2021, Ai's previous releases with her former label, Universal Sigma, were made available internationally for digital streaming.
On June 28, 2021, Ai released "The Moment" featuring Japanese rapper Yellow Bucks. On the same day, she performed the song with Yellow Bucks and DJ Ryow on CDTV, a Japanese TV channel by TBS. In August 2021, she released a single featuring Dachi Miura, titled "In the Middle". In September 2021, Ai announced her next single, "Aldebaran". The song serves as the theme song for the NHK television drama, Come Come Everbody. Upon its release in November, it became her first charting single on the Billboard Japan Hot 100 since her 2017 single, "Kira Kira". The song debuted and peaked at number 37 on the chart. On the Oricon charts, "Aldebaran" peaked at number 4 on the Daily Digital Singles Chart and number 6 on the weekly Digital Singles Chart. Ai performed "Aldebaran" at the 72nd NHK Kōhaku Uta Gassen on December 31, 2021, her fourth appearance on the show. In December 2021, Ai announced her twelfth studio album on social media, titled Dream. The nine-track album is set for release in February 2022.
Other ventures
In April 2011, Ai presented a music documentary, Ai Miss Michael Jackson: King of Pop no Kiseki, that was recorded for Music On! TV. In the documentary, she traveled to the United States and interviewed members of the Jackson family in their home.
For the American musical comedy Glee's season two episode Britney/Brittany, Ai dubbed the voice of Britney Spears in the Japanese release.
Products and endorsements
As is standard for Japanese musicians, Ai has featured as a spokesman, or has her music featured, for many products. Ai's songs have been used as TV commercial songs, drama theme songs, film theme songs and TV show ending theme songs.
Ai has worked on four major Coca-Cola TV commercial campaigns, two featuring her own songs ("You Are My Star" (2009), "Happiness" (2011)) and two featuring collaborations (K'naan's "Wavin' Flag" (2009), Namie Amuro's "Wonder Woman" (2011)). She has also been featured in two Audio-Technica campaigns (using "My Friend (Live Version)" and "I'll Remember You", a campaign for Japan Airlines ("Brand New Day") and Pepsi Nex with "I Wanna Know."
Ai's most high-profile work for a TV drama was the theme song for 2006's primetime drama Team Medical Dragon, "Believe", which was one of her greatest hits, selling over one million ringtones. Ai also sung the theme song for the drama's second series, "One." Ai also worked on the theme song for the 2010 primetime drama Keishichō Keizoku Sōsahan, "Nemurenai Machi." Other program theme songs include the Japanese theme song for the American drama Heroes ("Taisetsu na Mono"), and the 15th ending theme for the children's animation Crayon Shin-chan, "Crayon Beats"). In 2005, Ai's song "Alive (English Version)" was used as an insert song for the South Korean drama Delightful Girl Choon-Hyang.
Many of Ai's songs have been used in films. Her "Story" song was remade (also with its English version) for Disney's box office Big Hero 6 in 2014. She performed the theme song for Departures (2008), the winner of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2009. She has also sung the theme songs for Crayon Shin-chan: The Legend Called Buri Buri 3 Minutes Charge (2005), Pray (2005), Lalapipo (2009) and Berserk Golden Age Arc I: The Egg of the High King (2012). Her music has been featured on the soundtracks of TKO Hiphop (2005), the musical film Memories of Matsuko (2006), in which Ai cameoed to perform the song, and Heat Island (2007).
Personal life
On March 6, 2013, Ai announced her engagement to Hiro, the leader and vocalist of the rock band Kaikigesshoku. The pair had been dating for 10 years, and wed in January 2014. On August 28, 2015, Ai gave birth to her first child, a baby girl. On July 24, 2018, it was revealed Ai was pregnant with her second child. Her second child, a boy, was born on December 29, 2018.
In 2019, outdoor advertisements for Ai's single, "Summer Magic" were displayed at Shinjuku Station. The advertisement displayed a search result of her name, which showed top results for artificial intelligence (AI), while a cut off photo of Ai herself appeared on the bottom of the search result. On Twitter, Ai revealed her distaste of artificial intelligence being the top results when searching her name mononymously on search engines.
Controversy
In 2012, Ai was part of a controversy regarding the murder of Nicola Furlong. Reports from The Japan Times and Irish Independent stated James Blackston and Richard Hinds were working for Ai as performers for her Independent Tour 2012. On May 21, a day after the tour performance in Sendai, Blackston was at a dance school within the city teaching dance moves for a number of Ai songs to students. Regarding allegations of a connection to the crime, Ai and her representative team declined to make an official statement.
Discography
My Name Is Ai (2001)
Original Ai (2003)
2004 Ai (2004)
Mic-a-holic Ai (2005)
What's Goin' On Ai (2006)
Don't Stop Ai (2007)
Viva Ai (2009)
The Last Ai (2010)
Independent (2012)
Moriagaro (2013)
Wa to Yo (2017)Dream'' (2022)
Awards and nominations
References
External links
Official website
Ai on Twitter
Ai on Instagram
Ai on YouTube
1981 births
Living people
21st-century American women singers
21st-century American singers
21st-century Japanese women singers
21st-century American actresses
21st-century women rappers
21st-century Japanese singers
21st-century American rappers
21st-century Japanese actresses
People from Los Angeles
Singers from Los Angeles
Songwriters from California
People from Kagoshima
Musicians from Kagoshima Prefecture
Los Angeles County High School for the Arts alumni
Actresses from Los Angeles
American people of Italian descent
Japanese people of American descent
Japanese people of Italian descent
American musicians of Japanese descent
American women songwriters
American women pop singers
Japanese women pop singers
American hip hop singers
Japanese hip hop singers
American contemporary R&B singers
Record producers from Los Angeles
Japanese rhythm and blues singers
English-language singers from Japan
Bertelsmann Music Group artists
RCA Records artists
Universal Music Group artists
Universal Music Japan artists
Def Jam Recordings artists
Island Records artists
EMI Music Japan artists
EMI Records artists
American expatriates in Japan
Citizens of Japan through descent
Japanese women singer-songwriters
American women singer-songwriters
American rappers of Asian descent
American women rappers
Japanese rappers
Pop rappers
Women hip hop record producers
American hip hop record producers
American women record producers
Japanese women record producers
Spokespersons | true | [
"Ohemaa Mercy is a Ghanaian contemporary gospel singer with several awards to her name.\n\nEarly life and education\n\nMercy Amoah popularly known as Ohemaa Mercy was born in Weija, Accra to Fantis parents, Mr and Mrs Amoah, from Abakrapa and Elmina respectively. She lived most of her young life in Koforidua. Ohemaa Mercy undertook her primary education at St. Peter's Anglican Primary School, Koforidua and secondary education at Ghana Secondary School. She continued to the S.D.A Teachers Training College, Asokore, Koforidua where she obtained her Teachers Certificate ‘A'.\n\nVision\n\nOhemaa Mercy entered the Ghana gospel music industry in 2004. Her goals were:\nTo encourage and to bring hope to the down-hearted through music and her personal life.\nTo evangelize through her songs.\nTo change the mindset of citizens that there is hope for everyone and there is hope for Ghana and Africa.\nTo provide support for the poor in the society through her foundation.\nTo support music excellence among gospel artists in Ghana and to inspire the youth of Africa.\nTo help reform prison inmates through prison ministry.\n\nMusic career\nOhemaa Mercy released her first album in the latter part of November 2004. Entitled Adamfo Papa, the album enjoyed massive airplay after its release, which brought Ohemaa into the limelight. She won seven nominations for the 2006 Ghana Music Awards but did not win any of the awards. She later won the Discovery of the year for the Gospel Music Awards the same year.\n\nIn 2007, the gospel minister released her second album, Edin Jesus. Ohemaa Mercy sold 875,000 copies six months after releasing the second album making it the best-selling album of the year.\n\nThe Edin Jesus album gave Ohemaa Mercy 10 nominations for the 2008 Ghana Music Awards. This was the highest number of nominations so far in the history of the awards scheme. At the event she managed to take home three awards: Gospel Artiste of the Year, Album of the Year and Gospel Album of The Year. In the same year she won a Grand Medal During the National Honours Award from the ex-President of Ghana, John Kufuor.\n\nIn 2010–11 Ohemaa released her third album, Wobeye Kese, which again was the highest selling album and topped all the major chat shows in the country. Four months after its release this album again won her four nominations at the 2014 Ghana Music Awards.\n\nShe won the Gospel Artiste of the year and in Canada the same year was Gospel Artiste of the Year-Canada. She was nominated the Best Female Artiste West Africa the same year for the Africa Gospel Music awards in London.\n\nOhemaa Mercy has performed on major platforms with electrifying performances that have earned her a huge fun base, not only for the love of her music but also for her stage performances. Ohemaa has sharedthe stage with renowned international artistes such as Andrae Crouch, Israel Houton, Don Moen, Darwin Hobbs, Juanita Bynum, Kirk Franklin, Fred Hammond, to mention a few. With her latest album Aforebo, Ohemaa Mercy has six successful albums to her credit.\n\nStudio albums\n\nMajor singles\n\n \"Aseda\" (Thanksgiving)\n \"We Praise Your Name\"\n \"Yesu Mogya\" (The Blood of Jesus)\n \"Woafiri Mu\"(You Have Escaped It)\n \"Ɔbɛyɛ Ama Wo\"(He Will Do It For You)\n \"Biribi Bɛsi\"(Something Will Happen)\n\"Ote Me Mu\"\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nOHEMAA MERCY on Facebook\nOHEMAA MERCY on Twitter\nOHEMAA MERCY on website\n\nLiving people\n1977 births\nPeople from Accra\nPeople from Koforidua\nGospel music\nGhanaian Christians\n21st-century Ghanaian women singers\n21st-century Ghanaian singers",
"Traditional black gospel is music that is written to express either personal or a communal belief regarding African American Christian life, as well as (in terms of the varying music styles) to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music. It is a form of Christian music and a subgenre of Black gospel music.\n\nLike other forms of music, the creation, performance, significance, and even the definition of gospel music varies according to culture and social context. It is composed and performed for many purposes, ranging from aesthetic pleasure, religious or ceremonial purposes, or as an entertainment product for the marketplace. However, a common theme as with most Christian music is praise, worship or thanks to God and Christ.\n\nTraditional gospel music was popular in the mid-20th century. It is the primary source for urban contemporary gospel and Christian hip hop, which rose in popularity during the late 20th century and early 21st century.\n\nOrigins and development\nThe origins of gospel music are during American slavery, when enslaved Africans were introduced to the Christian religion and converted in large numbers. Remnants of different African cultures were combined with Western Christianity, with one result being the emergence of the spiritual. Jubilee songs and sorrow songs were two type of spirituals that emerged during the 18th and 19th centuries.\n\nSome spirituals were also used to pass on hidden messages; for example, when Harriet Tubman was nearby, slaves would sing \"Go Down, Moses\" to signify that a 'deliverer' was nearby. At this time, the term \"gospel songs\" referred to evangelical hymns sung by Protestant (Congregational and Methodist) Christians, especially those with a missionary theme. Gospel composers included writers like Ira D. Sankey and Mason Lowry, and Charles B. Tindell. Hymns, Protestant gospel songs, and spirituals make up the basic source of modern black gospel.\n\n The Library of Congress has recordings of Negro Spirituals\n1. https://www.loc.gov/item/jukebox-11026/ Song - Go down Moses\n\n2. https://www.loc.gov/item/jukebox-68748/ Song - Deep river\n\n3. https://www.loc.gov/item/jukebox-67451/ Song - Golden slippers\n\n4. https://www.loc.gov/item/jukebox-187640/ Song - Steal away\n\n The Library of Congress has recordings of African Americans singing Black Gospel\n1. https://www.loc.gov/item/ftvbib000061/ Song - Oh Jonah\n\n2. https://www.loc.gov/item/ftvbib000059/ Song - We Are Americans, Praise the Lord\n\n3. https://www.loc.gov/item/ftvbib000114/ Song - Lead Me to That Rock\n\n4. https://www.loc.gov/item/ftvbib000050/ Song - Death Come a-Knockin\n\nOriginal music (1920s–1940s)\nWhat most African Americans would identify today as \"gospel\" began in the early 20th century. The gospel music that Thomas A. Dorsey, Sallie Martin, Willie Mae Ford Smith and other pioneers popularized had its roots in the blues as well as in the more freewheeling forms of religious devotion of \"Sanctified\" or \"Holiness\" churches — sometimes called \"holy rollers\" by other denominations — who encouraged individual church members to \"testify,\" speaking or singing spontaneously about their faith and experience of the Holy Ghost and \"Getting Happy,\" sometimes while dancing in celebration. In the 1920s Sanctified artists, such as Arizona Dranes, many of whom were also traveling preachers, started making records in a style that melded traditional religious themes with barrelhouse, blues and boogie-woogie techniques and brought jazz instruments, such as drums and horns, into the church.\n\nThomas Dorsey stretched the boundaries in his day to create great gospel music, choirs, and quartets. Talented vocalists have been singing these songs far beyond Dorsey's expectations.\n\nDorsey, who had once composed for and played piano behind blues giants Tampa Red, Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith, worked hard to develop this new music, organizing an annual convention for gospel artists, touring with Martin to sell sheet music and gradually overcoming the resistance of more conservative churches to what many of them considered sinful, worldly music. Combining the sixteen bar structure and blues modes and rhythms with religious lyrics, Dorsey's compositions opened up possibilities for innovative singers such as Sister Rosetta Tharpe to apply their very individual talents to his songs, while inspiring church members to \"shout\" — either to call out catch phrases or to add musical lines of their own in response to the singers.\n\nThis looser style affected other black religious musical styles as well. The most popular groups in the 1930s were male quartets or small groups such as The Golden Gate Quartet, who sang, usually unaccompanied, in jubilee style, mixing careful harmonies, melodious singing, playful syncopation and sophisticated arrangements to produce a fresh, experimental style far removed from the more somber hymn-singing. These groups also absorbed popular sounds from pop groups such as The Mills Brothers and produced songs that mixed conventional religious themes, humor and social and political commentary. They began to show more and more influence from gospel as they incorporated the new music into their repertoire.\n\nIn the 1930s gospel music of the civil rights movement was referred to as the black gospel period because this was the most prosperous era for gospel music. The message of many of the civil rights activists was supported by the message gospel music was putting forth.\n\nGolden age (1940s–1950s)\nThe new gospel music composed by Dorsey and others proved very important among quartets, who began turning in a new direction. Groups such as the Dixie Hummingbirds, Pilgrim Travelers, Soul Stirrers, Swan Silvertones, Sensational Nightingales and Five Blind Boys of Mississippi introduced even more stylistic freedom to the close harmonies of jubilee style, adding ad libs and using repeated short phrases in the background to maintain a rhythmic base for the innovations of the lead singers. Melodically, gospel songs from this era were more diatonic and conjunct. As \"the spirit leads the vocalist\" the melodies would become more chromatic and disjunct, evoking pure spiritual emotion that was congruent with the accompanying body or musicians.\n\nIndividual singers also stood out more as jubilee turned to \"hard gospel\" and as soloists began to shout more and more, often in falsettos anchored by a prominent bass. Quartet singers combined both individual virtuoso performances and innovative harmonic and rhythmic invention — what Ira Tucker Sr. and Paul Owens of the Hummingbirds called \"trickeration\" — that amplified both the emotional and musical intensity of their songs.\n\nBy the 1940s, gospel music had expanded to members of all denominations prompting black gospel artists to begin tours and becoming full-time musicians. In this venture Sister Rosetta Tharpe became a pioneer, initially selling millions of records with her ability to drive audiences into hysteria by sliding and bending her pitch as well as accompanying herself on steel guitar. In contrast, Mahalia Jackson used her dusky contralto voice to develop her gospel ballads as well as favouring a more joyful approach to singing the gospel. W. Herbert Brewster wrote \"Move on Up a Little Higher\" Jackson's first hit.\n\nAt the same time that quartet groups were reaching their zenith in the 1940s and 1950s, a number of women singers were achieving stardom. Some, such as Mahalia Jackson and Bessie Griffin, were primarily soloists, while others, such as Clara Ward, Albertina Walker, The Caravans, The Davis Sisters and Dorothy Love Coates, sang in small groups. While some groups, such as The Ward Singers, employed the sort of theatrics and daring group dynamics that male quartet groups used, for the most part women gospel singers relied instead on overpowering technique and dramatic personal witness to establish themselves.\n\nRoberta Martin in Chicago stood apart from other women gospel singers in many respects. She led groups that featured both men and women singers, employed an understated style that did not stress individual virtuosity, and sponsored a number of individual artists, such as James Cleveland, who went on to change the face of gospel in the decades that followed.\n\nThe 1960s–1980s \nGospel started to break way from the traditional church setting, choirs, and just singing hymns. There were more solo artists that emerged during these decades, and during this period marked the end of the heyday of traditional gospel, making way for contemporary gospel.\n\nInfluence\nGospel artists, who had been influenced by pop music trends for years, had a major influence on early rhythm and blues artists, particularly the \"bird groups\" such as the Orioles, the Ravens and the Flamingos, who applied gospel quartets' a cappella techniques to pop songs in the late 1940s and throughout the 1950s. These groups based their music on sounds they had been singing in church and were now releasing gospel-styled reworking of songs for a secular audience. The influence of gospel was apparent in new versions of pop standards or new songs in a pop style.\nElvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard were rock 'n' roll pioneers with a religious background. Like other artists, these pioneers were stylistically influenced by gospel and it contributed to their music. Elvis was successful in performing his gospel favorites, \"Why me Lord,\" How Great Thou Art, and \"You'll never walk alone.\" For all of his success as a rock 'n' roll singer, he only received awards for his gospel recordings.\n\nIndividual gospel artists, such as Sam Cooke, a former member of the Soul Stirrers, and secular artists who borrowed heavily from gospel, such as Ray Charles, James Brown, James Booker and Jackie Wilson, had an even greater impact later in the 1950s, helping to create soul music by bringing even more gospel inspired harmonies and traditions from rhythm and blues.\nMany of the most prominent soul artists, such as Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Wilson Pickett and Al Green, had roots in the church and gospel music and brought with them much of the vocal styles of artists such as Clara Ward and Julius Cheeks. The underlying virtues of soul/R&B music taken from gospel, is the direct emotional delivery, truth to a spirit and the feeling within a song transmitted to the listener. During the 1970s, artists like Edwin Hawkins with the 1969 hit \"Oh Happy Day\", and Andraé Crouch's hit \"Take me Back\" were big inspirations on gospel music and crossover successes. Both Hawkins and Crouch incorporated secular music styles into gospel, shaping modern contemporary christian music today.\n\nSecular songwriters often appropriated gospel songs, such as the Pilgrim Travelers' song \"I've Got A New Home,\" or the Doc Pomus song Ray Charles turned into a hit \"Lonely Avenue,\" or \"Stand By Me,\" which Ben E. King and Leiber and Stoller adapted from a well-known gospel song, or Marvin Gaye's \"Can I Get a Witness,\" which reworks traditional gospel catchphrases. In other cases secular musicians did the opposite, attaching phrases and titles from the gospel tradition to secular songs to create soul hits such as \"Come See About Me\" for The Supremes and \"99½ Won't Do\" for Wilson Pickett.\n\nWhen roots music (which including spirituals) became popular in the 1960s and 1970s, a combination of the powerful rhythm and timbres found in spirituals and \"hard gospel\" combined with the instrumentation and lyrical content of R&B and country contributed to various forms of rock music.\n\nSee also \n\nList of gospel musicians\n\nGeneral:\n Black church\nSoul music\nR&B\nrock 'n' roll\n\nReferences\n\nRelevant literature\nMarovich, Robert. 2015. A City Called Heaven: Chicago and the Birth of Gospel Music. Champaign, Illinois: University of Illinois Press.\nMcNeil, W.K. 2010. Encyclopedia of American Gospel Music. New York: Routledge.\nZolten, Jerry. 2003. Great God A'Mighty! The Dixie Hummingbirds: Celebrating the Rise of Soul Gospel Music. New York City, New York: Oxford University Press.\n\nExternal links\n\nShall We Gather at the River, a collection of African American Christian music; made available for public use by the State Archives of Florida\n,Black Gospel Music Restoration Project, Baylor University's catalog and collection of music from the black gospel music tradition\n\nGospel music genres\nAfrican-American Christianity\nAfrican-American music\n\nsh:Urbani suvremeni gospel"
]
|
[
"Ai (singer)",
"1981-2000: Early life, SX4",
"Where was Ai born?",
"Los Angeles",
"When did she first show interest in music?",
"early teens,",
"what kind of music did she perform as a teenager?",
"gospel choir",
"was she raised in a religious environment?",
"Methodist Episcopal Church of Los Angeles",
"when did she change from gospel music to other kinds of music?",
"In 1999,"
]
| C_c0ffd310ba134e19ae6a9fb0c7cbd0c3_1 | what happened in 1999? | 6 | What happened in 1999 to cause Ai to change from gospel music to other kinds? | Ai (singer) | Ai was born in Los Angeles in 1981. Her father was Japanese and her mother was half Italian-American and half Japanese. She moved to Kagoshima in Japan when she was 4, and went to elementary school and junior high school in Japan. Ai was motivated to become a singer in her early teens, after singing at a cousin's wedding, having many people ask her if she wanted to be a professional singer, and hearing a gospel performance at the First African Methodist Episcopal Church of Los Angeles in 1993. After graduating from junior high school in Japan, Ai returned to Los Angeles for high school, enrolling at Glendale High School, however found high school difficult due to never formally studying English. After making it through the audition process, she switched to the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, majoring in ballet. She became a member of the school's gospel choir. In 1998, she performed in a gospel choir at a Mary J. Blige concert at the Universal Amphitheatre, performing of "A Dream." In the same year, she appeared as a dancer in the music video for Janet Jackson's song "Go Deep." In 1999, she joined an Asian girl group called SX4, who were produced by George Brown of Kool & the Gang. Ai was a member of the group for two years, and later in 1999 the group were offered a record label deal. While on her summer holiday in Kagoshima, she performed Monica's "For You I Will" on a local radio station, which led to her being scouted by BMG Japan. She decided to take the offer, and after leaving SX4 and graduating from high school in June 2000, moved to Tokyo and debuted as a musician later in 2000. CANNOTANSWER | she joined an Asian girl group | , known mononymously as Ai (, stylized as AI or A.I. ), is a Japanese-American singer-songwriter, rapper, record producer, spokeswoman, and actress.
After being discovered by BMG Japan in 2000, she released her debut album, My Name is Ai (2001). Signing to Def Jam Records Japan in 2003, Ai became the first woman signed to the label. She released two studio albums under the label, Original Ai (2003) and 2004 Ai. With the release of her third studio album, Ai rose to mainstream prominence in Japan. Signing to Island Records in 2005, Ai released her fourth studio album, Mic-a-Holic Ai (2005). Its second single "Story" became one of the biggest singles of the 2000s in Japan, peaking at number 8 on the Japanese Oricon singles chart, and was the sixth single in history to receive a triple million digital certification by the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ).
Ai's fifth studio album, What's Goin' On Ai (2006), featured the top-ten singles "Believe" and "I Wanna Know", the latter receiving a Gold certification from the RIAJ. Her sixth studio album, Don't Stop Ai (2007) saw similar success, which received a Gold certification. In 2009, she released her seventh studio album, Viva Ai, which charted in the top ten of the Japanese Oricon albums chart. Ai's compilation album, Best Ai (2009), became her first number one album and was certified Platinum. In 2010, she released her eighth studio album, The Last Ai, which marked her last release under Island Records.
In 2011, Ai left Universal Music Group and signed a global publishing deal with EMI. Her Gold certified ninth studio album Independent (2012) served as her international debut and first release under EMI Music Japan. To promote the album, Ai toured in Japan and her hometown, Los Angeles, California. Her tenth studio album Moriagaro (2013) marked her first release under EMI Records Japan following EMI Music Japan's absorption into Universal Music Japan as a sublabel. Her fourth compilation album, The Best (2015) peaked at number 3 on the Oricon Albums chart and number 2 on the Billboard Japan Hot Albums chart, later being certified Gold by the RIAJ. Its successor, The Feat. Best (2016) charted within the top 30 of both the Japan Hot Albums and Oricon Albums chart.
Ai's eleventh studio album, Wa to Yo (2017) experimented with traditional Japanese and electronic sounds. Its second single, "Kira Kira" was nominated for the Grand Prix award and won the Excellent Works Award at the 59th Japan Records Awards. Her sixth compilation album Kansha!!!!! - Thank You for 20 Years New and Best (2019) was issued to celebrate her twenty years in the music industry. Further celebrating her twenty year anniversary, Ai released the extended plays It's All Me, Vol. 1 (2020) and It's All Me, Vol. 2 (2021). In December 2021, Ai announced her twelfth studio album, Dream. The album is set for release in February 2022.
Early life and education
Ai was born in Los Angeles in 1981. Her father is Japanese and her mother is American of Italian and Native Okinawan descent. She moved to Kagoshima in Japan when she was 4, and went to elementary school and junior high school in Japan.
Ai was motivated to become a singer in her early teens, after singing at a cousin's wedding, having many people ask her if she wanted to be a professional singer, and hearing a gospel performance at the First African Methodist Episcopal Church of Los Angeles in 1993. After graduating from junior high school in Japan, Ai returned to Los Angeles for high school, enrolling at Glendale High School, however found high school difficult due to never formally studying English. After making it through the audition process, she switched to the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, majoring in ballet. She became a member of the school's gospel choir. In 1998, she performed in a gospel choir at a Mary J. Blige concert at the Universal Amphitheatre, performing of "A Dream." In the same year, she appeared as a dancer in the music video for Janet Jackson's song "Go Deep."
Career
1999–2004: SX4, BMG Japan, move to Universal
In 1999, she joined an Asian girl group called SX4, who were produced by George Brown of Kool & the Gang. Ai was a member of the group for two years, and later in 1999 the group were offered a record label deal. While on her summer holiday in Kagoshima, she performed Monica's "For You I Will" on a local radio station, which led to her being scouted by BMG Japan. She decided to take the offer, and after leaving SX4 and graduating from high school in June 2000, moved to Tokyo and debuted as a musician later in 2000.
Ai debuted under BMG Japan with the single "Cry, Just Cry" in November 2000. Between then and November 2001, she released three singles, culminating in her debut album, My Name Is Ai. However, the releases were not very commercially successful, and the album debuted at number 86.
In 2002 she moved to Def Jam Japan as the first female artist signed to the label. Ai has said that she felt more at home under Def Jam, as many of her co-workers shared her musical tastes. Her first album under the label in 2003 Original Ai debuted at 15 on Oricon'''s album charts, and her second, 2004 Ai, debuted at number three. In 2004, she won the Space Shower Music Video Awards' award for Best R&B Video, with her song "Thank U."
After moving to Def Jam, Ai increasingly began collaborating with musicians, especially Japanese hip-hop and rap artists (though under BMG Japan, Ai had collaborated with Mao Denda, and Soul'd Out rapper Diggy-Mo'). She was featured as a rapper on the Suite Chic single "Uh Uh,,,,,", a collaboration between Namie Amuro, Verbal of M-Flo, and music producer Ryōsuke Imai in 2003. Other musicians Ai collaborated with in this period were Afra, Boy-Ken, Joe Budden, Dabo, Deli, Double, Heartsdales, Ken Hirai, M-Flo, Sphere of Influence and Zeebra. Ai's collaborations featured her either as a rapper or a singer.
2005–2010: "Story", rise in fame
In 2005, Ai released the ballad single "Story", which became the biggest hit of her career. It was a sleeper hit, charting for 20 weeks in the top 30 in 2005 and 2006, however went on to sell over three million ringtones, one million cellphone downloads, and 270,000 physical copies. Ai later performed "Story" at the prestigious 56th NHK Kōhaku Uta Gassen New Years music concert. Her next studio album, Mic-a-holic Ai, was the best selling album of her career, being certified double platinum by the RIAJ.
Ai's first single of 2006, the ballad "Believe", was also a success: it debuted at number two, and sold more than one million ringtones. The song was used as the theme song of the Kenji Sakaguchi starring medical drama, Team Medical Dragon. Her next two albums, What's Goin' On Ai (2006) and Don't Stop Ai (2007) were also greatly commercially successful, being certified platinum and gold respectively.
In 2009, Ai released her greatest hits album, Best Ai. It was the first number one record of her career. In 2010, Ai collaborated with many artists such as Namie Amuro, Miliyah Kato, Chaka Khan and Boyz II Men on her 10th anniversary album, The Last Ai.
To the end of Ai's career with Universal, her album sales began to decrease. Viva Ai (2009) debuted at number 10, and The Last Ai (2010) at 14 (despite her gold hit from the album, "Fake" featuring Namie Amuro).
2011–2016: Independent, Moriagaro and The Best
In June 2011, Ai signed with EMI Music Japan. She collaborated with The Jacksons on December 13 and 14, 2011, at the Michael Jackson Tribute Live tribute concerts held in Tokyo. She performed the vocals in the third act for Michael Jackson's songs. She also performed and released the theme song for the event, "Letter in the Sky" featuring the Jacksons. In November 2011, Ai released the song "Happiness", a collaboration with Coca-Cola for their winter 2011 campaign. The song was a hit, being certified gold in two different mediums. The song revitalized the sales of her ninth studio album, Independent, which has sold more than 60,000 copies. Independent was Ai's first album to be released internationally outside of Asia.
On April 1, 2013, EMI Music Japan was completely merged into Universal Music Japan as a sublabel by the name of EMI Records Japan as a result of Universal Music's purchase of EMI in September 2012. Ai's tenth studio album, Moriagaro, was released in July 2013, serving as her first release under EMI Japan, although was not released outside of Asia.
A previously unreleased English version of Ai's single "Story" was featured in the Japanese dub of the Disney film Big Hero 6 in October 2014.
In November 2015, Ai released a compilation album, The Best, to celebrate fifteen years in the music industry. The compilation album was reissued in mid-2016. A third compilation release of tracks with featured artists titled The Feat. Best was issued in November 2016.
2017–present: Wa to Yo, twenty-year anniversary and Dream
Ai teased her eleventh studio album, Wa to Yo on social media in April 2017. Wanting to "convey the goodness of Japan" to the rest of the world and "the goodness of the overseas to Japanese people", Ai collaborated with several producers, artists and songwriters from both Japan and the west. The lead single "Justice Will Prevail at Last" was released in May 2017. Wa to Yo was released in June 2017 and was her second international album release outside of Asia. The album was reissued in October 2017, titled Wa to Yo to. The album peaked at number 11 on the Oricon weekly chart.
In early 2019, Ai traveled to her hometown, Los Angeles, California, to record new material to celebrate twenty years in the music industry and for the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics. Her fourth compilation album, Kansha!!!!! - Thank You for 20 Years New and Best, was released in November 2019, serving as her first international compilation release. Ai's extended play, It's All Me, Vol. 1 was planned to be released on the start of the 2020 Olympics, but instead was released on July 8, 2020 after the event was postponed to summer 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The lead single of It's All Me, Vol. 1, "Summer Magic" was her first single to be released internationally. Its Japanese version was included in an advertisement for the Amazon Echo. In November 2020, "Not So Different" was released digitally as the lead single for Ai's extended play, It's All Me, Vol. 2. In December 2020, Ai partnered with One Young World and released a special music video of the song in support of the project. A remix of "Not So Different" featuring Japanese rapper Awich was released on December 11, 2020 as a promotional single. The second single, "Hope" was released on January 30, 2021 with its music video premiering the same day. Ai partnered with deleteC, a non-profit organization in Japan aiming to support cancer treatment. It's All Me, Vol. 2 later was released in February 2021. In March 2021, EMI released a compilation EP of songs by Ai titled Self Selection "Hip Hop". In June 2021, Ai's previous releases with her former label, Universal Sigma, were made available internationally for digital streaming.
On June 28, 2021, Ai released "The Moment" featuring Japanese rapper Yellow Bucks. On the same day, she performed the song with Yellow Bucks and DJ Ryow on CDTV, a Japanese TV channel by TBS. In August 2021, she released a single featuring Dachi Miura, titled "In the Middle". In September 2021, Ai announced her next single, "Aldebaran". The song serves as the theme song for the NHK television drama, Come Come Everbody. Upon its release in November, it became her first charting single on the Billboard Japan Hot 100 since her 2017 single, "Kira Kira". The song debuted and peaked at number 37 on the chart. On the Oricon charts, "Aldebaran" peaked at number 4 on the Daily Digital Singles Chart and number 6 on the weekly Digital Singles Chart. Ai performed "Aldebaran" at the 72nd NHK Kōhaku Uta Gassen on December 31, 2021, her fourth appearance on the show. In December 2021, Ai announced her twelfth studio album on social media, titled Dream. The nine-track album is set for release in February 2022.
Other ventures
In April 2011, Ai presented a music documentary, Ai Miss Michael Jackson: King of Pop no Kiseki, that was recorded for Music On! TV. In the documentary, she traveled to the United States and interviewed members of the Jackson family in their home.
For the American musical comedy Glee's season two episode Britney/Brittany, Ai dubbed the voice of Britney Spears in the Japanese release.
Products and endorsements
As is standard for Japanese musicians, Ai has featured as a spokesman, or has her music featured, for many products. Ai's songs have been used as TV commercial songs, drama theme songs, film theme songs and TV show ending theme songs.
Ai has worked on four major Coca-Cola TV commercial campaigns, two featuring her own songs ("You Are My Star" (2009), "Happiness" (2011)) and two featuring collaborations (K'naan's "Wavin' Flag" (2009), Namie Amuro's "Wonder Woman" (2011)). She has also been featured in two Audio-Technica campaigns (using "My Friend (Live Version)" and "I'll Remember You", a campaign for Japan Airlines ("Brand New Day") and Pepsi Nex with "I Wanna Know."
Ai's most high-profile work for a TV drama was the theme song for 2006's primetime drama Team Medical Dragon, "Believe", which was one of her greatest hits, selling over one million ringtones. Ai also sung the theme song for the drama's second series, "One." Ai also worked on the theme song for the 2010 primetime drama Keishichō Keizoku Sōsahan, "Nemurenai Machi." Other program theme songs include the Japanese theme song for the American drama Heroes ("Taisetsu na Mono"), and the 15th ending theme for the children's animation Crayon Shin-chan, "Crayon Beats"). In 2005, Ai's song "Alive (English Version)" was used as an insert song for the South Korean drama Delightful Girl Choon-Hyang.
Many of Ai's songs have been used in films. Her "Story" song was remade (also with its English version) for Disney's box office Big Hero 6 in 2014. She performed the theme song for Departures (2008), the winner of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2009. She has also sung the theme songs for Crayon Shin-chan: The Legend Called Buri Buri 3 Minutes Charge (2005), Pray (2005), Lalapipo (2009) and Berserk Golden Age Arc I: The Egg of the High King (2012). Her music has been featured on the soundtracks of TKO Hiphop (2005), the musical film Memories of Matsuko (2006), in which Ai cameoed to perform the song, and Heat Island (2007).
Personal life
On March 6, 2013, Ai announced her engagement to Hiro, the leader and vocalist of the rock band Kaikigesshoku. The pair had been dating for 10 years, and wed in January 2014. On August 28, 2015, Ai gave birth to her first child, a baby girl. On July 24, 2018, it was revealed Ai was pregnant with her second child. Her second child, a boy, was born on December 29, 2018.
In 2019, outdoor advertisements for Ai's single, "Summer Magic" were displayed at Shinjuku Station. The advertisement displayed a search result of her name, which showed top results for artificial intelligence (AI), while a cut off photo of Ai herself appeared on the bottom of the search result. On Twitter, Ai revealed her distaste of artificial intelligence being the top results when searching her name mononymously on search engines.
Controversy
In 2012, Ai was part of a controversy regarding the murder of Nicola Furlong. Reports from The Japan Times and Irish Independent stated James Blackston and Richard Hinds were working for Ai as performers for her Independent Tour 2012. On May 21, a day after the tour performance in Sendai, Blackston was at a dance school within the city teaching dance moves for a number of Ai songs to students. Regarding allegations of a connection to the crime, Ai and her representative team declined to make an official statement.
Discography
My Name Is Ai (2001)
Original Ai (2003)
2004 Ai (2004)
Mic-a-holic Ai (2005)
What's Goin' On Ai (2006)
Don't Stop Ai (2007)
Viva Ai (2009)
The Last Ai (2010)
Independent (2012)
Moriagaro (2013)
Wa to Yo (2017)Dream'' (2022)
Awards and nominations
References
External links
Official website
Ai on Twitter
Ai on Instagram
Ai on YouTube
1981 births
Living people
21st-century American women singers
21st-century American singers
21st-century Japanese women singers
21st-century American actresses
21st-century women rappers
21st-century Japanese singers
21st-century American rappers
21st-century Japanese actresses
People from Los Angeles
Singers from Los Angeles
Songwriters from California
People from Kagoshima
Musicians from Kagoshima Prefecture
Los Angeles County High School for the Arts alumni
Actresses from Los Angeles
American people of Italian descent
Japanese people of American descent
Japanese people of Italian descent
American musicians of Japanese descent
American women songwriters
American women pop singers
Japanese women pop singers
American hip hop singers
Japanese hip hop singers
American contemporary R&B singers
Record producers from Los Angeles
Japanese rhythm and blues singers
English-language singers from Japan
Bertelsmann Music Group artists
RCA Records artists
Universal Music Group artists
Universal Music Japan artists
Def Jam Recordings artists
Island Records artists
EMI Music Japan artists
EMI Records artists
American expatriates in Japan
Citizens of Japan through descent
Japanese women singer-songwriters
American women singer-songwriters
American rappers of Asian descent
American women rappers
Japanese rappers
Pop rappers
Women hip hop record producers
American hip hop record producers
American women record producers
Japanese women record producers
Spokespersons | true | [
"Don Juan Manuel's Tales of Count Lucanor, in Spanish Libro de los ejemplos del conde Lucanor y de Patronio (Book of the Examples of Count Lucanor and of Patronio), also commonly known as El Conde Lucanor, Libro de Patronio, or Libro de los ejemplos (original Old Castilian: Libro de los enxiemplos del Conde Lucanor et de Patronio), is one of the earliest works of prose in Castilian Spanish. It was first written in 1335.\n\nThe book is divided into four parts. The first and most well-known part is a series of 51 short stories (some no more than a page or two) drawn from various sources, such as Aesop and other classical writers, and Arabic folktales.\n\nTales of Count Lucanor was first printed in 1575 when it was published at Seville under the auspices of Argote de Molina. It was again printed at Madrid in 1642, after which it lay forgotten for nearly two centuries.\n\nPurpose and structure\n\nA didactic, moralistic purpose, which would color so much of the Spanish literature to follow (see Novela picaresca), is the mark of this book. Count Lucanor engages in conversation with his advisor Patronio, putting to him a problem (\"Some man has made me a proposition...\" or \"I fear that such and such person intends to...\") and asking for advice. Patronio responds always with the greatest humility, claiming not to wish to offer advice to so illustrious a person as the Count, but offering to tell him a story of which the Count's problem reminds him. (Thus, the stories are \"examples\" [ejemplos] of wise action.) At the end he advises the Count to do as the protagonist of his story did.\n\nEach chapter ends in more or less the same way, with slight variations on: \"And this pleased the Count greatly and he did just so, and found it well. And Don Johán (Juan) saw that this example was very good, and had it written in this book, and composed the following verses.\" A rhymed couplet closes, giving the moral of the story.\n\nOrigin of stories and influence on later literature\nMany of the stories written in the book are the first examples written in a modern European language of various stories, which many other writers would use in the proceeding centuries. Many of the stories he included were themselves derived from other stories, coming from western and Arab sources.\n\nShakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew has the basic elements of Tale 35, \"What Happened to a Young Man Who Married a Strong and Ill-tempered Woman\".\n\nTale 32, \"What Happened to the King and the Tricksters Who Made Cloth\" tells the story that Hans Christian Andersen made popular as The Emperor's New Clothes.\n\nStory 7, \"What Happened to a Woman Named Truhana\", a version of Aesop's The Milkmaid and Her Pail, was claimed by Max Müller to originate in the Hindu cycle Panchatantra.\n\nTale 2, \"What happened to a good Man and his Son, leading a beast to market,\" is the familiar fable The miller, his son and the donkey.\n\nIn 2016, Baroque Decay released a game under the name \"The Count Lucanor\". As well as some protagonists' names, certain events from the books inspired past events in the game.\n\nThe stories\n\nThe book opens with a prologue which introduces the characters of the Count and Patronio. The titles in the following list are those given in Keller and Keating's 1977 translation into English. James York's 1868 translation into English gives a significantly different ordering of the stories and omits the fifty-first.\n\n What Happened to a King and His Favorite \n What Happened to a Good Man and His Son \n How King Richard of England Leapt into the Sea against the Moors\n What a Genoese Said to His Soul When He Was about to Die \n What Happened to a Fox and a Crow Who Had a Piece of Cheese in His Beak\n How the Swallow Warned the Other Birds When She Saw Flax Being Sown \n What Happened to a Woman Named Truhana \n What Happened to a Man Whose Liver Had to Be Washed \n What Happened to Two Horses Which Were Thrown to the Lion \n What Happened to a Man Who on Account of Poverty and Lack of Other Food Was Eating Bitter Lentils \n What Happened to a Dean of Santiago de Compostela and Don Yllán, the Grand Master of Toledo\n What Happened to the Fox and the Rooster \n What Happened to a Man Who Was Hunting Partridges \n The Miracle of Saint Dominick When He Preached against the Usurer \n What Happened to Lorenzo Suárez at the Siege of Seville \n The Reply that count Fernán González Gave to His Relative Núño Laynes \n What Happened to a Very Hungry Man Who Was Half-heartedly Invited to Dinner \n What Happened to Pero Meléndez de Valdés When He Broke His Leg \n What Happened to the Crows and the Owls \n What Happened to a King for Whom a Man Promised to Perform Alchemy \n What Happened to a Young King and a Philosopher to Whom his Father Commended Him \n What Happened to the Lion and the Bull \n How the Ants Provide for Themselves \n What Happened to the King Who Wanted to Test His Three Sons \n What Happened to the Count of Provence and How He Was Freed from Prison by the Advice of Saladin\n What Happened to the Tree of Lies \n What Happened to an Emperor and to Don Alvarfáñez Minaya and Their Wives \n What Happened in Granada to Don Lorenzo Suárez Gallinato When He Beheaded the Renegade Chaplain \n What Happened to a Fox Who Lay down in the Street to Play Dead \n What Happened to King Abenabet of Seville and Ramayquía His Wife \n How a Cardinal Judged between the Canons of Paris and the Friars Minor \n What Happened to the King and the Tricksters Who Made Cloth \n What Happened to Don Juan Manuel's Saker Falcon and an Eagle and a Heron \n What Happened to a Blind Man Who Was Leading Another \n What Happened to a Young Man Who Married a Strong and Ill-tempered Woman\n What Happened to a Merchant When He Found His Son and His Wife Sleeping Together \n What Happened to Count Fernán González with His Men after He Had Won the Battle of Hacinas \n What Happened to a Man Who Was Loaded down with Precious Stones and Drowned in the River \n What Happened to a Man and a Swallow and a Sparrow \n Why the Seneschal of Carcassonne Lost His Soul \n What Happened to a King of Córdova Named Al-Haquem \n What Happened to a Woman of Sham Piety \n What Happened to Good and Evil and the Wise Man and the Madman \n What Happened to Don Pero Núñez the Loyal, to Don Ruy González de Zavallos, and to Don Gutier Roiz de Blaguiello with Don Rodrigo the Generous \n What Happened to a Man Who Became the Devil's Friend and Vassal \n What Happened to a Philosopher who by Accident Went down a Street Where Prostitutes Lived \n What Befell a Moor and His Sister Who Pretended That She Was Timid \n What Happened to a Man Who Tested His Friends \n What Happened to the Man Whom They Cast out Naked on an Island When They Took away from Him the Kingdom He Ruled \n What Happened to Saladin and a Lady, the Wife of a Knight Who Was His Vassal \n What Happened to a Christian King Who Was Very Powerful and Haughty\n\nReferences\n\nNotes\n\nBibliography\n\n Sturm, Harlan\n\n Wacks, David\n\nExternal links\n\nThe Internet Archive provides free access to the 1868 translation by James York.\nJSTOR has the to the 1977 translation by Keller and Keating.\nSelections in English and Spanish (pedagogical edition) with introduction, notes, and bibliography in Open Iberia/América (open access teaching anthology)\n\n14th-century books\nSpanish literature\n1335 books",
"\"What Happened to Us\" is a song by Australian recording artist Jessica Mauboy, featuring English recording artist Jay Sean. It was written by Sean, Josh Alexander, Billy Steinberg, Jeremy Skaller, Rob Larow, Khaled Rohaim and Israel Cruz. \"What Happened to Us\" was leaked online in October 2010, and was released on 10 March 2011, as the third single from Mauboy's second studio album, Get 'Em Girls (2010). The song received positive reviews from critics.\n\nA remix of \"What Happened to Us\" made by production team OFM, was released on 11 April 2011. A different version of the song which features Stan Walker, was released on 29 May 2011. \"What Happened to Us\" charted on the ARIA Singles Chart at number 14 and was certified platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA). An accompanying music video was directed by Mark Alston, and reminisces on a former relationship between Mauboy and Sean.\n\nProduction and release\n\n\"What Happened to Us\" was written by Josh Alexander, Billy Steinberg, Jeremy Skaller, Rob Larow, Khaled Rohaim, Israel Cruz and Jay Sean. It was produced by Skaller, Cruz, Rohaim and Bobby Bass. The song uses C, D, and B minor chords in the chorus. \"What Happened to Us\" was sent to contemporary hit radio in Australia on 14 February 2011. The cover art for the song was revealed on 22 February on Mauboy's official Facebook page. A CD release was available for purchase via her official website on 10 March, for one week only. It was released digitally the following day.\n\nReception\nMajhid Heath from ABC Online Indigenous called the song a \"Jordin Sparks-esque duet\", and wrote that it \"has a nice innocence to it that rings true to the experience of losing a first love.\" Chris Urankar from Nine to Five wrote that it as a \"mid-tempo duet ballad\" which signifies Mauboy's strength as a global player. On 21 March 2011, \"What Happened to Us\" debuted at number 30 on the ARIA Singles Chart, and peaked at number 14 the following week. The song was certified platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA), for selling 70,000 copies. \"What Happened to Us\" spent a total of ten weeks in the ARIA top fifty.\n\nMusic video\n\nBackground\nThe music video for the song was shot in the Elizabeth Bay House in Sydney on 26 November 2010. The video was shot during Sean's visit to Australia for the Summerbeatz tour. During an interview with The Daily Telegraph while on the set of the video, Sean said \"the song is sick! ... Jessica's voice is amazing and we're shooting [the video] in this ridiculously beautiful mansion overlooking the harbour.\" The video was directed by Mark Alston, who had previously directed the video for Mauboy's single \"Let Me Be Me\" (2009). It premiered on YouTube on 10 February 2011.\n\nSynopsis and reception\nThe video begins showing Mauboy who appears to be sitting on a yellow antique couch in a mansion, wearing a purple dress. As the video progresses, scenes of memories are displayed of Mauboy and her love interest, played by Sean, spending time there previously. It then cuts to the scenes where Sean appears in the main entrance room of the mansion. The final scene shows Mauboy outdoors in a gold dress, surrounded by green grass and trees. She is later joined by Sean who appears in a black suit and a white shirt, and together they sing the chorus of the song to each other. David Lim of Feed Limmy wrote that the video is \"easily the best thing our R&B princess has committed to film – ever\" and praised the \"mansion and wondrous interior décor\". He also commended Mauboy for choosing Australian talent to direct the video instead of American directors, which she had used for her previous two music videos. Since its release, the video has received over two million views on Vevo.\n\nLive performances\nMauboy performed \"What Happened to Us\" live for the first time during her YouTube Live Sessions program on 4 December 2010. She also appeared on Adam Hills in Gordon Street Tonight on 23 February 2011 for an interview and later performed the song. On 15 March 2011, Mauboy performed \"What Happened to Us\" on Sunrise. She also performed the song with Stan Walker during the Australian leg of Chris Brown's F.A.M.E. Tour in April 2011. Mauboy and Walker later performed \"What Happened to Us\" on Dancing with the Stars Australia on 29 May 2011. From November 2013 to February 2014, \"What Happened to Us\" was part of the set list of the To the End of the Earth Tour, Mauboy's second headlining tour of Australia, with Nathaniel Willemse singing Sean's part.\n\nTrack listing\n\nDigital download\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Jay Sean – 3:19\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Jay Sean (Sgt Slick Remix) – 6:33\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Jay Sean (Just Witness Remix) – 3:45\n\nCD single\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Jay Sean (Album Version) – 3:19\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Jay Sean (Sgt Slick Remix) – 6:33\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Jay Sean (OFM Remix) – 3:39\n\nDigital download – Remix\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Jay Sean (OFM Remix) – 3:38\n\nDigital download\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Stan Walker – 3:20\n\nPersonnel\nSongwriting – Josh Alexander, Billy Steinberg, Jeremy Skaller, Rob Larow, Khaled Rohaim, Israel Cruz, Jay Sean\nProduction – Jeremy Skaller, Bobby Bass\nAdditional production – Israel Cruz, Khaled Rohaim\nLead vocals – Jessica Mauboy, Jay Sean\nMixing – Phil Tan\nAdditional mixing – Damien Lewis\nMastering – Tom Coyne \nSource:\n\nCharts\n\nWeekly chart\n\nYear-end chart\n\nCertification\n\nRadio dates and release history\n\nReferences\n\n2010 songs\n2011 singles\nJessica Mauboy songs\nJay Sean songs\nSongs written by Billy Steinberg\nSongs written by Jay Sean\nSongs written by Josh Alexander\nSongs written by Israel Cruz\nVocal duets\nSony Music Australia singles\nSongs written by Khaled Rohaim"
]
|
[
"Bernard Lewis",
"Academic career"
]
| C_49bcb0b5cef543eaad8de30f9d6da37b_1 | Where did Bernard Lewis go to school? | 1 | Where did Bernard Lewis go to school? | Bernard Lewis | In 1936, Lewis graduated from the School of Oriental Studies (now School of Oriental and African Studies, SOAS) at the University of London with a BA in history with special reference to the Near and Middle East. He earned his PhD three years later, also from SOAS, specializing in the history of Islam. Lewis also studied law, going part of the way toward becoming a solicitor, but returned to study Middle Eastern history. He undertook post-graduate studies at the University of Paris, where he studied with the orientalist Louis Massignon and earned the "Diplome des Etudes Semitiques" in 1937. He returned to SOAS in 1938 as an assistant lecturer in Islamic History. During the Second World War, Lewis served in the British Army in the Royal Armoured Corps and as a Corporal in the Intelligence Corps in 1940-41 before being seconded to the Foreign Office. After the war, he returned to SOAS. In 1949, at the age of 33, he was appointed to the new chair in Near and Middle Eastern History. In 1974, aged 57, Lewis accepted a joint position at Princeton University and the Institute for Advanced Study, also located in Princeton, New Jersey. The terms of his appointment were such that Lewis taught only one semester per year, and being free from administrative responsibilities, he could devote more time to research than previously. Consequently, Lewis's arrival at Princeton marked the beginning of the most prolific period in his research career during which he published numerous books and articles based on previously accumulated materials. After retiring from Princeton in 1986, Lewis served at Cornell University until 1990. In 1966, Lewis was a founding member of the learned society, Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA), but in 2007 he broke away and founded Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa (ASMEA) to challenge MESA, which the New York Sun noted as "dominated by academics who have been critical of Israel and of America's role in the Middle East." The organization was formed as an academic society dedicated to promoting high standards of research and teaching in Middle Eastern and African studies and other related fields, with Lewis as Chairman of its academic council. In 1990, the National Endowment for the Humanities selected Lewis for the Jefferson Lecture, the U.S. federal government's highest honor for achievement in the humanities. His lecture, entitled "Western Civilization: A View from the East", was revised and reprinted in The Atlantic Monthly under the title "The Roots of Muslim Rage." His 2007 Irving Kristol Lecture, given to the American Enterprise Institute, was published as Europe and Islam. CANNOTANSWER | School of Oriental Studies | Bernard Lewis, (31 May 1916 – 19 May 2018) was a British American historian specialized in Oriental studies. He was also known as a public intellectual and political commentator. Lewis was the Cleveland E. Dodge Professor Emeritus of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University. Lewis's expertise was in the history of Islam and the interaction between Islam and the West.
Lewis served as a soldier in the British Army in the Royal Armoured Corps and Intelligence Corps during the Second World War before being seconded to the Foreign Office. After the war, he returned to the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London and was appointed to the new chair in Near and Middle Eastern history.
In 2007 Lewis was called "the West's leading interpreter of the Middle East". Others have argued Lewis's approach is essentialist and generalizing to the Muslim world, as well as his tendency to restate hypotheses that were challenged by more recent research. On a political level, Lewis is accused by his detractors with having revived the image of the cultural inferiority of Islam and of emphasizing the dangers of jihad. His advice was frequently sought by neoconservative policymakers, including the Bush administration. However, his active support of the Iraq War and neoconservative ideals have since come under scrutiny.
Lewis was also notable for his public debates with Edward Said, who accused Lewis and other orientalists of misrepresenting Islam and serving the purposes of Western imperialist domination, to which Lewis responded by defending Orientalism as a facet of humanism and accusing Said of politicizing the subject. Furthermore, Lewis notoriously denied the Armenian genocide. He argued that the deaths of the mass killings resulted from a struggle between two nationalistic movements, claiming that there is no proof of intent by the Ottoman government to exterminate the Armenian nation.
Family and personal life
Bernard Lewis was born on 31 May 1916 to middle-class British Jewish parents, Harry Lewis and the former Jane Levy, in Stoke Newington, London. He became interested in languages and history while preparing for his bar mitzvah. In 1947 he married Ruth Hélène Oppenhejm, with whom he had a daughter and a son. Their marriage was dissolved in 1974. Lewis became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1982.
Academic career
In 1936, Lewis graduated from the School of Oriental Studies (now School of Oriental and African Studies, SOAS) at the University of London with a BA in history with special reference to the Near and Middle East. He earned his PhD three years later, also from SOAS, specializing in the history of Islam. Lewis also studied law, going part of the way toward becoming a solicitor, but returned to study Middle Eastern history. He undertook post-graduate studies at the University of Paris, where he studied with the orientalist Louis Massignon and earned the "Diplôme des Études Sémitiques" in 1937. He returned to SOAS in 1938 as an assistant lecturer in Islamic History.
During the Second World War, Lewis served in the British Army in the Royal Armoured Corps and as a Corporal in the Intelligence Corps in 1940–41 before being seconded to the Foreign Office. After the war, he returned to SOAS, where he would remain for the next 25 years. In 1949, at the age of 33, he was appointed to the new chair in Near and Middle Eastern History. In 1963, Lewis was granted fellowship of the British Academy.
In 1974, aged 57, Lewis accepted a joint position at Princeton University and the Institute for Advanced Study, also located in Princeton, New Jersey. The terms of his appointment were such that Lewis taught only one semester per year, and being free from administrative responsibilities, he could devote more time to research than previously. Consequently, Lewis's arrival at Princeton marked the beginning of the most prolific period in his research career during which he published numerous books and articles based on previously accumulated materials. After retiring from Princeton in 1986, Lewis served at Cornell University until 1990.
In 1966, Lewis was a founding member of the learned society, Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA), but in 2007 he broke away and founded Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa (ASMEA) to challenge MESA, which the New York Sun noted as "dominated by academics who have been critical of Israel and of America's role in the Middle East". The organization was formed as an academic society dedicated to promoting high standards of research and teaching in Middle Eastern and African studies and other related fields, with Lewis as Chairman of its academic council.
In 1990, the National Endowment for the Humanities selected Lewis for the Jefferson Lecture, the U.S. federal government's highest honor for achievement in the humanities. His lecture, entitled "Western Civilization: A View from the East", was revised and reprinted in The Atlantic Monthly under the title "The Roots of Muslim Rage." His 2007 Irving Kristol Lecture, given to the American Enterprise Institute, was published as Europe and Islam.
Research
Lewis's influence extends beyond academia to the general public. He began his research career with the study of medieval Arab, especially Syrian, history. His first article, dedicated to professional guilds of medieval Islam, had been widely regarded as the most authoritative work on the subject for about thirty years. However, after the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, scholars of Jewish origin found it more and more difficult to conduct archival and field research in Arab countries, where they were suspected of espionage. Therefore, Lewis switched to the study of the Ottoman Empire, while continuing to research Arab history through the Ottoman archives which had only recently been opened to Western researchers. A series of articles that Lewis published over the next several years revolutionized the history of the Middle East by giving a broad picture of Islamic society, including its government, economy, and demographics.
Lewis argued that the Middle East is currently backward and its decline was a largely self-inflicted condition resulting from both culture and religion, as opposed to the post-colonialist view which posits the problems of the region as economic and political maldevelopment mainly due to the 19th-century European colonization. In his 1982 work Muslim Discovery of Europe, Lewis argues that Muslim societies could not keep pace with the West and that "Crusader successes were due in no small part to Muslim weakness." Further, he suggested that as early as the 11th century Islamic societies were decaying, primarily the byproduct of internal problems like "cultural arrogance," which was a barrier to creative borrowing, rather than external pressures like the Crusades.
In the wake of Soviet and Arab attempts to delegitimize Israel as a racist country, Lewis wrote a study of anti-Semitism, Semites and Anti-Semites (1986). In other works he argued Arab rage against Israel was disproportionate to other tragedies or injustices in the Muslim world, such as the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and control of Muslim-majority land in Central Asia, the bloody and destructive fighting during the Hama uprising in Syria (1982), the Algerian Civil War (1992–1998), and the Iran–Iraq War (1980–1988).
In addition to his scholarly works, Lewis wrote several influential books accessible to the general public: The Arabs in History (1950), The Middle East and the West (1964), and The Middle East (1995). In the wake of the 11 September 2001 attacks, the interest in Lewis's work surged, especially his 1990 essay The Roots of Muslim Rage. Three of his books were published after 9/11: What Went Wrong? (written before the attacks), which explored the reasons of the Muslim world's apprehension of (and sometimes outright hostility to) modernization; The Crisis of Islam; and Islam: The Religion and the People.
Abraham Udovitch described him as "certainly the most eminent and respected historian of the Arab world, of the Islamic world, of the Middle East and beyond".
Armenian genocide
The first two editions of Lewis's The Emergence of Modern Turkey (1961 and 1968) describe the Armenian genocide as "the terrible holocaust of 1915, when a million and a half Armenians perished". In later editions, this text is altered to "the terrible slaughter of 1915, when, according to estimates, more than a million Armenians perished, as well as an unknown number of Turks". In this passage, Lewis argues that the deaths were the result of a struggle for the same land between two competing nationalist movements.
The change in Lewis's textual description of the Armenian genocide and his signing of the petition against the Congressional resolution was controversial among some Armenian historians as well as journalists, who suggested that Lewis was engaging in historical revisionism to serve his own political and personal interests.
Lewis called the label "genocide" the "Armenian version of this history" in a November 1993 interview with Le Monde, for which he faced a civil proceeding in a French court. In a subsequent exchange on the pages of Le Monde, Lewis wrote that while "terrible atrocities" did occur, "there exists no serious proof of a decision and of a plan of the Ottoman government aiming to exterminate the Armenian nation". He was ordered to pay one franc as damages for his statements on the Armenian genocide in Ottoman Turkey. Three other court cases against Bernard Lewis failed in the Paris tribunal, including one filed by the Armenian National Committee of France and two filed by Jacques Trémollet de Villers.
Lewis's views on the Armenian genocide were criticized by a number of historians and sociologists, among them Alain Finkielkraut, Yves Ternon, Richard G. Hovannisian, Robert Melson, and Pierre Vidal-Naquet.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Finkelstein|first1=Norman G.|title=The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering|date=2003|publisher=Verso|location=London|isbn=978-1859844885|page=69}}</ref>
Lewis has argued for his denial stance that:
Lewis has been labelled a "genocide denier" by Stephen Zunes, Israel Charny, David B. MacDonald and the Armenian National Committee of America. Israeli historian Yair Auron suggested that "Lewis' stature provided a lofty cover for the Turkish national agenda of obfuscating academic research on the Armenian Genocide". Israel Charny wrote that Lewis's "seemingly scholarly concern ... of Armenians constituting a threat to the Turks as a rebellious force who together with the Russians threatened the Ottoman Empire, and the insistence that only a policy of deportations was executed, barely conceal the fact that the organized deportations constituted systematic mass murder". Charny compares the "logical structures" employed by Lewis in his denial of the genocide to those employed by Ernst Nolte in his Holocaust negationism.
Views and influence on contemporary politics
In the mid-1960s, Lewis emerged as a commentator on the issues of the modern Middle East and his analysis of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and the rise of militant Islam brought him publicity and aroused significant controversy. American historian Joel Beinin has called him "perhaps the most articulate and learned Zionist advocate in the North American Middle East academic community". Lewis's policy advice has particular weight thanks to this scholarly authority. U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney remarked "in this new century, his wisdom is sought daily by policymakers, diplomats, fellow academics, and the news media".
A harsh critic of the Soviet Union, Lewis continued the liberal tradition in Islamic historical studies. Although his early Marxist views had a bearing on his first book The Origins of Ismailism, Lewis subsequently discarded Marxism. His later works are a reaction against the left-wing current of Third-worldism which came to be a significant current in Middle Eastern studies.
During his career Lewis developed ties with governments around the world: during her time as Prime Minister of Israel, Golda Meir assigned Lewis's articles as reading to her cabinet members, and during the Presidency of George W. Bush, he advised administration members including Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Bush himself. He was also close to King Hussein of Jordan and his brother, Prince Hassan bin Talal. He also had ties to the regime of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran, the Turkish military dictatorship led by Kenan Evren, and the Egyptian government of Anwar Sadat: he acted as a go-between between the Sadat administration and Israel in 1971 when he relayed a message to the Israeli government regarding the possibility of a peace agreement at the request of Sadat's spokesman Tahasin Bashir.
Lewis advocated closer Western ties with Israel and Turkey, which he saw as especially important in light of the extension of the Soviet influence in the Middle East. Modern Turkey holds a special place in Lewis's view of the region due to the country's efforts to become a part of the West. He was an Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Turkish Studies, an honor which is given "on the basis of generally recognized scholarly distinction and ... long and devoted service to the field of Turkish Studies."
Lewis views Christendom and Islam as civilizations that have been in perpetual collision since the advent of Islam in the 7th century. In his essay The Roots of Muslim Rage (1990), he argued that the struggle between the West and Islam was gathering strength. According to one source, this essay (and Lewis's 1990 Jefferson Lecture on which the article was based) first introduced the term "Islamic fundamentalism" to North America. This essay has been credited with coining the phrase "clash of civilizations", which received prominence in the eponymous book by Samuel Huntington. However, another source indicates that Lewis first used the phrase "clash of civilizations" at a 1957 meeting in Washington where it was recorded in the transcript.
In 1998, Lewis read in a London-based newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabi a declaration of war on the United States by Osama bin Laden. In his essay "A License to Kill", Lewis indicated he considered bin Laden's language as the "ideology of jihad" and warned that bin Laden would be a danger to the West. The essay was published after the Clinton administration and the US intelligence community had begun its hunt for bin Laden in Sudan and then in Afghanistan.
Jihad
Lewis writes of jihad as a distinct religious obligation, but suggests that it is a pity that people engaging in terrorist activities are not more aware of their own religion:The fanatical warrior offering his victims the choice of the Koran or the sword is not only untrue, it is impossible. The alleged choice - conversion or death - is also, with rare and atypical exceptions, untrue. Muslim tolerance of unbelievers and misbelievers was far better than anything available in Christendom until the rise of secularism in the 17th century.
Muslim fighters are commanded not to kill women, children, or the aged unless they attack first; not to torture or otherwise ill-treat prisoners; to give fair warnings of the opening of hostilities or their resumption after a truce; and to honor agreements. At no time did the classical jurists offer any approval or legitimacy to what we nowdays call terrorism. Nor indeed is there any evidence of the use of terrorism as it is practiced nowadays.
The emergence of the by now widespread terrorism practice of suicide bombing is a development of the 20th century. It has no antecedents in Islamic history, and no justification in the terms of Islamic theology, law, or tradition.As'ad AbuKhalil, has criticized this view and stated: "Methodologically, [Lewis] insists that terrorism by individual Muslims should be considered Islamic terrorism, while terrorism by individual Jews or Christians is never considered Jewish or Christian terrorism."
He also criticised Lewis's understanding of Osama bin Laden, seeing Lewis's interpretation of bin Laden "as some kind of influential Muslim theologian" along the lines of classical theologians like Al-Ghazali, rather than "the terrorist fanatic that he is". AbuKhalil has also criticized the place of Islam in Lewis's worldview more generally, arguing that the most prominent feature of his work was its "theologocentrism" (borrowing a term from Maxime Rodinson) - that Lewis interprets all aspects of behavior among Muslims solely through the lens of Islamic theology, subsuming the study of Muslim peoples, their languages, the geographical areas where Muslims predominate, Islamic governments, the governments of Arab countries and Sharia under the label of "Islam".
Debates with Edward Said
Lewis was known for his literary debates with Edward Said, the Palestinian American literary theorist whose aim was to deconstruct what he called Orientalist scholarship. Said, who was a professor at Columbia University, characterized Lewis's work as a prime example of Orientalism in his 1978 book Orientalism and in his later book Covering Islam: How the Media and the Experts Determine How We See the Rest of the World (1981). Said asserted that the field of Orientalism was political intellectualism bent on self-affirmation rather than objective study, a form of racism, and a tool of imperialist domination. He further questioned the scientific neutrality of some leading Middle East scholars, including Lewis, on the Arab World. In an interview with Al-Ahram weekly, Said suggested that Lewis's knowledge of the Middle East was so biased that it could not be taken seriously and claimed "Bernard Lewis hasn't set foot in the Middle East, in the Arab world, for at least 40 years. He knows something about Turkey, I'm told, but he knows nothing about the Arab world." Said considered that Lewis treats Islam as a monolithic entity without the nuance of its plurality, internal dynamics, and historical complexities, and accused him of "demagogy and downright ignorance". In Covering Islam, Said argued that "Lewis simply cannot deal with the diversity of Muslim, much less human life, because it is closed to him as something foreign, radically different, and other," and he criticised Lewis's "inability to grant that the Islamic peoples are entitled to their own cultural, political, and historical practices, free from Lewis's calculated attempt to show that because they are not Western... they can't be good."
Rejecting the view that Western scholarship was biased against the Middle East, Lewis responded that Orientalism developed as a facet of European humanism, independently of the past European imperial expansion. He noted the French and English pursued the study of Islam in the 16th and 17th centuries, yet not in an organized way, but long before they had any control or hope of control in the Middle East; and that much of Orientalist study did nothing to advance the cause of imperialism. In his 1993 book Islam and the West, Lewis wrote "What imperial purpose was served by deciphering the ancient Egyptian language, for example, and then restoring to the Egyptians knowledge of and pride in their forgotten, ancient past?"
Furthermore, Lewis accused Said of politicizing the scientific study of the Middle East (and Arabic studies in particular); neglecting to critique the scholarly findings of the Orientalists; and giving "free rein" to his biases.
Stance on the Iraq War
In 2002, Lewis wrote an article for The Wall Street Journal regarding the buildup to the Iraq War entitled "Time for Toppling", where he stated his opinion that "a regime change may well be dangerous, but sometimes the dangers of inaction are greater than those of action". In 2007, Jacob Weisberg described Lewis as "perhaps the most significant intellectual influence behind the invasion of Iraq". Michael Hirsh attributed to Lewis the view that regime change in Iraq would provide a jolt that would "modernize the Middle East" and suggested that Lewis's allegedly 'orientalist' theories about "what went wrong" in the Middle East, and other writings, formed the intellectual basis of the push towards war in Iraq. Hirsch reported that Lewis had told him in an interview that he viewed the 11 September attacks as "the opening salvo of the final battle" between Western and Islamic civilisations: Lewis believed that a forceful response was necessary. In the run up to the Iraq War, he met with Vice President Dick Cheney several times: Hirsch quoted an unnamed official who was present at a number of these meetings, who summarised Lewis's view of Iraq as "Get on with it. Don't dither". Brent Scowcroft quoted Lewis as stating that he believed "that one of the things you’ve got to do to Arabs is hit them between the eyes with a big stick. They respect power". As'ad AbuKhalil has claimed that Lewis assured Cheney that American troops would be welcomed by Iraqis and Arabs, relying on the opinion of his colleague Fouad Ajami. Hirsch also drew parallels between the Bush administration's plans for post-invasion Iraq and Lewis's views, in particular his admiration for Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's secularist and Westernising reforms in the new Republic of Turkey which emerged from the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.
Writing in 2008, Lewis did not advocate imposing freedom and democracy on Islamic nations. "There are things you can't impose. Freedom, for example. Or democracy. Democracy is a very strong medicine which has to be administered to the patient in small, gradually increasing doses. Otherwise, you risk killing the patient. In the main, the Muslims have to do it themselves."
Ian Buruma, writing for The New Yorker in an article subtitled "The two Minds of Bernard Lewis", finds Lewis's stance on the war difficult to reconcile with Lewis's past statements cautioning democracy enforcement in the world at large. Buruma ultimately rejects suggestions by his peers that Lewis promotes war with Iraq to safeguard Israel, but instead concludes "perhaps he loves it [the Arab world] too much":
Hamid Dabashi, writing on 28 May 2018, in an article subtitled "On Bernard Lewis and 'his extraordinary capacity for getting everything wrong'", asked: "Just imagine: What sort of a person would spend a lifetime studying people he loathes? It is quite a bizarre proposition. But there you have it: the late Bernard Lewis did precisely that." Similarly, Richard Bulliet described Lewis as "...a person who does not like the people he is purporting to have expertise about...he doesn’t respect them, he considers them to be good and worthy only to the degree they follow a Western path". According to As'ad AbuKhalil, "Lewis has poisoned the Middle East academic field more than any other Orientalist and his influence has been both academic and political. But there is a new generation of Middle East experts in the West who now see clearly the political agenda of Bernard Lewis. It was fully exposed in the Bush years."
Alleged nuclear threat from Iran
In 2006, Lewis wrote that Iran had been working on a nuclear weapon for fifteen years. In August 2006, in an article about whether the world can rely on the concept of mutual assured destruction as a deterrent in its dealings with Iran, Lewis wrote in The Wall Street Journal about the significance of 22 August 2006 in the Islamic calendar. The Iranian president had indicated he would respond by that date to U.S. demands regarding Iran's development of nuclear power. Lewis wrote that the date corresponded to the 27th day of the month of Rajab of the year 1427, the day Muslims commemorate the night flight of Muhammad from Jerusalem to heaven and back. Lewis wrote that it would be "an appropriate date for the apocalyptic ending of Israel and, if necessary, of the world". According to Lewis, mutual assured destruction is not an effective deterrent in the case of Iran, because of what Lewis describes as the Iranian leadership's "apocalyptic worldview" and the "suicide or martyrdom complex that plagues parts of the Islamic world today". Lewis's article received significant press coverage. However, the day passed without any incident.
Death
Bernard Lewis died on 19 May 2018 at the age of 101, at an assisted-living care facility in Voorhees Township, New Jersey, twelve days before his 102nd birthday.
He is buried in Trumpeldor Cemetery in Tel Aviv.
Bibliography
Awards and honors
1963: Elected as a Fellow of the British Academy
1978: The Harvey Prize, from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, for "his profound insight into the life and mores of the peoples of the Middle East through his writings"
1983: Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
1990: Selected for the Jefferson Lecture by the National Endowment for the Humanities
1996: Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in General Nonfiction, for The Middle East (Scribner)
1999: National Jewish Book Award in the Israel category for The Multiple Identities of the Middle East 2002: The Thomas Jefferson Medal, awarded by the American Philosophical Society
2002: Atatürk International Peace Prize on grounds that he contributed extensively to history scholarship with his accurate analysis of Turkey’s and in particular of Atatürk’s positive impact on Middle Eastern history.
2004: Golden Plate Award from the American Academy of Achievement
2006: National Humanities Medal, from the National Endowment for the Humanities
2007: Irving Kristol Award, from the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
2007: The Scholar-Statesman Award from The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
See also
Bernard Lewis bibliography
List of Princeton University people
References
External links
Lewis's page at Princeton University
Revered and Reviled – Lewis's profile on Moment Magazine''
The Legacy and Fallacies of Bernard Lewis by As`ad AbuKhalil
1916 births
2018 deaths
20th-century American historians
20th-century British historians
20th-century British writers
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Alumni of SOAS University of London
American centenarians
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American people of English-Jewish descent
Deniers of the Armenian genocide
British Army personnel of World War II
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Jewish American historians
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People from Stoke Newington
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Historians of the Middle East
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Middle Eastern studies scholars
Burials at Trumpeldor Cemetery
21st-century American Jews | true | [
"Bernard Lewis (1916–2018) is a British-American historian.\n\nBernard Lewis may also refer to:\nBernard Lewis (entrepreneur) (born 1926), founder of the River Island retail chain\nBernard Lewis (critic) (1870–1956), South African art critic\nBernie Lewis (born 1945), Welsh footballer\nBernard Lewis (scientist) (1899–1993), English engineer\nBernard Lewis (rugby league) (born 1997), rugby player",
"Charity is a 1996 spy novel by Len Deighton. It is the final novel in the final trilogy about Bernard Samson, a middle-aged and somewhat jaded intelligence officer working for the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6). Charity is part of the Faith, Hope and Charity trilogy, being preceded by Faith and Hope. This trilogy is preceded by the Game, Set and Match and the Hook, Line and Sinker trilogies. Deighton's novel Winter (1987) is a prequel to the nine novels, covering the years 1900–1945 and providing the backstory to some of the characters.\n\nPlot summary\nBernard is still working for Frank Harrington in Berlin where he hardly ever gets to see his wife and children whom he hardly knows anymore. While crossing Poland Bernard is captured by Polish intelligence and is severely beaten for shooting their men while retrieving George Kosinski in Hope. Meanwhile, George is being interrogated in London but he has revealed no useful information and is now threatening to destroy Bernard and Fiona's careers. Bernard is using his position in Berlin to investigate Tessa's death which results in Silas Gaunt confessing to hiring Thurkettle to fake Fiona's death but he denies knowing anything about using Tessa and tells Bernard to back off.\n\nBernard has had enough, and contacts The Swede to organise to fly him, his children and hopefully Gloria out of the country to begin a new life. The Swede is drunk and erratic and tells Bernard that on the night of Tessa's death he was hired to fly Jay Prettyman from Berlin to London and was carrying a locked box that Prettyman would need. Prettyman never showed up but his ex-wife did and took the box.\n\nBernard tracks down the dying Prettyman who confesses that he hired Thurkettle but found him dead at the meeting place and drove back to West Berlin and that his ex-wife is now demanding money for the return of the box. Prettyman says the operations was all a waste of time anyway because the ruse never fooled the KGB. Bernard finds Thurkettle's hastily buried body and a gun Werner was asked to give Prettyman at the meeting place. Werner steals the box from Prettyman's ex-wife and in retaliation she shoots and wounds Werner at his grand house warming party.\n\nThe Swede is murdered by the Russians and Gloria tells Bernard that his plan to abduct his children was stupid and that they are best off where they are, in boarding school which provides them with much needed stability. Bernard realises there is no future for him and Gloria and that she is now seeing Bret.\n\nBret holds an inquiry in to Tessa's murder and announces Silas was solely responsible and no longer has any connection to the Department. The Department ordered Dicky to bring Tessa to Berlin. Silas blackmailed Prettyman into hiring Thurkettle to kill Tessa and then killing him. The box was a bomb designed to blow up The Swede's plane removing the last loose ends. Bernard suspected this but said nothing hoping to flush out who else was in on the plan but is forced to step in when he discovers Bret has ordered Frank's assistant to break into the box.\n\nBret tells Bernard that both he and the Department owe him and that he will do his best to try to give Frank's job, and a pension to Bernard when Frank retires. Bret tells Bernard he is being stupid and that Fiona really loves him and not her job. Bernard say he has asked Fiona to join him in Berlin and hopes that his children can go to school in Berlin just like he did.\n\nReferences\n\n1996 British novels\nBernard Samson novels\nNovels set in Berlin"
]
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[
"Bernard Lewis",
"Academic career",
"Where did Bernard Lewis go to school?",
"School of Oriental Studies"
]
| C_49bcb0b5cef543eaad8de30f9d6da37b_1 | Where was this located? | 2 | Where was the School of Oriental Studies that Bernard Lewis attended located? | Bernard Lewis | In 1936, Lewis graduated from the School of Oriental Studies (now School of Oriental and African Studies, SOAS) at the University of London with a BA in history with special reference to the Near and Middle East. He earned his PhD three years later, also from SOAS, specializing in the history of Islam. Lewis also studied law, going part of the way toward becoming a solicitor, but returned to study Middle Eastern history. He undertook post-graduate studies at the University of Paris, where he studied with the orientalist Louis Massignon and earned the "Diplome des Etudes Semitiques" in 1937. He returned to SOAS in 1938 as an assistant lecturer in Islamic History. During the Second World War, Lewis served in the British Army in the Royal Armoured Corps and as a Corporal in the Intelligence Corps in 1940-41 before being seconded to the Foreign Office. After the war, he returned to SOAS. In 1949, at the age of 33, he was appointed to the new chair in Near and Middle Eastern History. In 1974, aged 57, Lewis accepted a joint position at Princeton University and the Institute for Advanced Study, also located in Princeton, New Jersey. The terms of his appointment were such that Lewis taught only one semester per year, and being free from administrative responsibilities, he could devote more time to research than previously. Consequently, Lewis's arrival at Princeton marked the beginning of the most prolific period in his research career during which he published numerous books and articles based on previously accumulated materials. After retiring from Princeton in 1986, Lewis served at Cornell University until 1990. In 1966, Lewis was a founding member of the learned society, Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA), but in 2007 he broke away and founded Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa (ASMEA) to challenge MESA, which the New York Sun noted as "dominated by academics who have been critical of Israel and of America's role in the Middle East." The organization was formed as an academic society dedicated to promoting high standards of research and teaching in Middle Eastern and African studies and other related fields, with Lewis as Chairman of its academic council. In 1990, the National Endowment for the Humanities selected Lewis for the Jefferson Lecture, the U.S. federal government's highest honor for achievement in the humanities. His lecture, entitled "Western Civilization: A View from the East", was revised and reprinted in The Atlantic Monthly under the title "The Roots of Muslim Rage." His 2007 Irving Kristol Lecture, given to the American Enterprise Institute, was published as Europe and Islam. CANNOTANSWER | University of London | Bernard Lewis, (31 May 1916 – 19 May 2018) was a British American historian specialized in Oriental studies. He was also known as a public intellectual and political commentator. Lewis was the Cleveland E. Dodge Professor Emeritus of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University. Lewis's expertise was in the history of Islam and the interaction between Islam and the West.
Lewis served as a soldier in the British Army in the Royal Armoured Corps and Intelligence Corps during the Second World War before being seconded to the Foreign Office. After the war, he returned to the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London and was appointed to the new chair in Near and Middle Eastern history.
In 2007 Lewis was called "the West's leading interpreter of the Middle East". Others have argued Lewis's approach is essentialist and generalizing to the Muslim world, as well as his tendency to restate hypotheses that were challenged by more recent research. On a political level, Lewis is accused by his detractors with having revived the image of the cultural inferiority of Islam and of emphasizing the dangers of jihad. His advice was frequently sought by neoconservative policymakers, including the Bush administration. However, his active support of the Iraq War and neoconservative ideals have since come under scrutiny.
Lewis was also notable for his public debates with Edward Said, who accused Lewis and other orientalists of misrepresenting Islam and serving the purposes of Western imperialist domination, to which Lewis responded by defending Orientalism as a facet of humanism and accusing Said of politicizing the subject. Furthermore, Lewis notoriously denied the Armenian genocide. He argued that the deaths of the mass killings resulted from a struggle between two nationalistic movements, claiming that there is no proof of intent by the Ottoman government to exterminate the Armenian nation.
Family and personal life
Bernard Lewis was born on 31 May 1916 to middle-class British Jewish parents, Harry Lewis and the former Jane Levy, in Stoke Newington, London. He became interested in languages and history while preparing for his bar mitzvah. In 1947 he married Ruth Hélène Oppenhejm, with whom he had a daughter and a son. Their marriage was dissolved in 1974. Lewis became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1982.
Academic career
In 1936, Lewis graduated from the School of Oriental Studies (now School of Oriental and African Studies, SOAS) at the University of London with a BA in history with special reference to the Near and Middle East. He earned his PhD three years later, also from SOAS, specializing in the history of Islam. Lewis also studied law, going part of the way toward becoming a solicitor, but returned to study Middle Eastern history. He undertook post-graduate studies at the University of Paris, where he studied with the orientalist Louis Massignon and earned the "Diplôme des Études Sémitiques" in 1937. He returned to SOAS in 1938 as an assistant lecturer in Islamic History.
During the Second World War, Lewis served in the British Army in the Royal Armoured Corps and as a Corporal in the Intelligence Corps in 1940–41 before being seconded to the Foreign Office. After the war, he returned to SOAS, where he would remain for the next 25 years. In 1949, at the age of 33, he was appointed to the new chair in Near and Middle Eastern History. In 1963, Lewis was granted fellowship of the British Academy.
In 1974, aged 57, Lewis accepted a joint position at Princeton University and the Institute for Advanced Study, also located in Princeton, New Jersey. The terms of his appointment were such that Lewis taught only one semester per year, and being free from administrative responsibilities, he could devote more time to research than previously. Consequently, Lewis's arrival at Princeton marked the beginning of the most prolific period in his research career during which he published numerous books and articles based on previously accumulated materials. After retiring from Princeton in 1986, Lewis served at Cornell University until 1990.
In 1966, Lewis was a founding member of the learned society, Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA), but in 2007 he broke away and founded Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa (ASMEA) to challenge MESA, which the New York Sun noted as "dominated by academics who have been critical of Israel and of America's role in the Middle East". The organization was formed as an academic society dedicated to promoting high standards of research and teaching in Middle Eastern and African studies and other related fields, with Lewis as Chairman of its academic council.
In 1990, the National Endowment for the Humanities selected Lewis for the Jefferson Lecture, the U.S. federal government's highest honor for achievement in the humanities. His lecture, entitled "Western Civilization: A View from the East", was revised and reprinted in The Atlantic Monthly under the title "The Roots of Muslim Rage." His 2007 Irving Kristol Lecture, given to the American Enterprise Institute, was published as Europe and Islam.
Research
Lewis's influence extends beyond academia to the general public. He began his research career with the study of medieval Arab, especially Syrian, history. His first article, dedicated to professional guilds of medieval Islam, had been widely regarded as the most authoritative work on the subject for about thirty years. However, after the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, scholars of Jewish origin found it more and more difficult to conduct archival and field research in Arab countries, where they were suspected of espionage. Therefore, Lewis switched to the study of the Ottoman Empire, while continuing to research Arab history through the Ottoman archives which had only recently been opened to Western researchers. A series of articles that Lewis published over the next several years revolutionized the history of the Middle East by giving a broad picture of Islamic society, including its government, economy, and demographics.
Lewis argued that the Middle East is currently backward and its decline was a largely self-inflicted condition resulting from both culture and religion, as opposed to the post-colonialist view which posits the problems of the region as economic and political maldevelopment mainly due to the 19th-century European colonization. In his 1982 work Muslim Discovery of Europe, Lewis argues that Muslim societies could not keep pace with the West and that "Crusader successes were due in no small part to Muslim weakness." Further, he suggested that as early as the 11th century Islamic societies were decaying, primarily the byproduct of internal problems like "cultural arrogance," which was a barrier to creative borrowing, rather than external pressures like the Crusades.
In the wake of Soviet and Arab attempts to delegitimize Israel as a racist country, Lewis wrote a study of anti-Semitism, Semites and Anti-Semites (1986). In other works he argued Arab rage against Israel was disproportionate to other tragedies or injustices in the Muslim world, such as the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and control of Muslim-majority land in Central Asia, the bloody and destructive fighting during the Hama uprising in Syria (1982), the Algerian Civil War (1992–1998), and the Iran–Iraq War (1980–1988).
In addition to his scholarly works, Lewis wrote several influential books accessible to the general public: The Arabs in History (1950), The Middle East and the West (1964), and The Middle East (1995). In the wake of the 11 September 2001 attacks, the interest in Lewis's work surged, especially his 1990 essay The Roots of Muslim Rage. Three of his books were published after 9/11: What Went Wrong? (written before the attacks), which explored the reasons of the Muslim world's apprehension of (and sometimes outright hostility to) modernization; The Crisis of Islam; and Islam: The Religion and the People.
Abraham Udovitch described him as "certainly the most eminent and respected historian of the Arab world, of the Islamic world, of the Middle East and beyond".
Armenian genocide
The first two editions of Lewis's The Emergence of Modern Turkey (1961 and 1968) describe the Armenian genocide as "the terrible holocaust of 1915, when a million and a half Armenians perished". In later editions, this text is altered to "the terrible slaughter of 1915, when, according to estimates, more than a million Armenians perished, as well as an unknown number of Turks". In this passage, Lewis argues that the deaths were the result of a struggle for the same land between two competing nationalist movements.
The change in Lewis's textual description of the Armenian genocide and his signing of the petition against the Congressional resolution was controversial among some Armenian historians as well as journalists, who suggested that Lewis was engaging in historical revisionism to serve his own political and personal interests.
Lewis called the label "genocide" the "Armenian version of this history" in a November 1993 interview with Le Monde, for which he faced a civil proceeding in a French court. In a subsequent exchange on the pages of Le Monde, Lewis wrote that while "terrible atrocities" did occur, "there exists no serious proof of a decision and of a plan of the Ottoman government aiming to exterminate the Armenian nation". He was ordered to pay one franc as damages for his statements on the Armenian genocide in Ottoman Turkey. Three other court cases against Bernard Lewis failed in the Paris tribunal, including one filed by the Armenian National Committee of France and two filed by Jacques Trémollet de Villers.
Lewis's views on the Armenian genocide were criticized by a number of historians and sociologists, among them Alain Finkielkraut, Yves Ternon, Richard G. Hovannisian, Robert Melson, and Pierre Vidal-Naquet.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Finkelstein|first1=Norman G.|title=The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering|date=2003|publisher=Verso|location=London|isbn=978-1859844885|page=69}}</ref>
Lewis has argued for his denial stance that:
Lewis has been labelled a "genocide denier" by Stephen Zunes, Israel Charny, David B. MacDonald and the Armenian National Committee of America. Israeli historian Yair Auron suggested that "Lewis' stature provided a lofty cover for the Turkish national agenda of obfuscating academic research on the Armenian Genocide". Israel Charny wrote that Lewis's "seemingly scholarly concern ... of Armenians constituting a threat to the Turks as a rebellious force who together with the Russians threatened the Ottoman Empire, and the insistence that only a policy of deportations was executed, barely conceal the fact that the organized deportations constituted systematic mass murder". Charny compares the "logical structures" employed by Lewis in his denial of the genocide to those employed by Ernst Nolte in his Holocaust negationism.
Views and influence on contemporary politics
In the mid-1960s, Lewis emerged as a commentator on the issues of the modern Middle East and his analysis of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and the rise of militant Islam brought him publicity and aroused significant controversy. American historian Joel Beinin has called him "perhaps the most articulate and learned Zionist advocate in the North American Middle East academic community". Lewis's policy advice has particular weight thanks to this scholarly authority. U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney remarked "in this new century, his wisdom is sought daily by policymakers, diplomats, fellow academics, and the news media".
A harsh critic of the Soviet Union, Lewis continued the liberal tradition in Islamic historical studies. Although his early Marxist views had a bearing on his first book The Origins of Ismailism, Lewis subsequently discarded Marxism. His later works are a reaction against the left-wing current of Third-worldism which came to be a significant current in Middle Eastern studies.
During his career Lewis developed ties with governments around the world: during her time as Prime Minister of Israel, Golda Meir assigned Lewis's articles as reading to her cabinet members, and during the Presidency of George W. Bush, he advised administration members including Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Bush himself. He was also close to King Hussein of Jordan and his brother, Prince Hassan bin Talal. He also had ties to the regime of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran, the Turkish military dictatorship led by Kenan Evren, and the Egyptian government of Anwar Sadat: he acted as a go-between between the Sadat administration and Israel in 1971 when he relayed a message to the Israeli government regarding the possibility of a peace agreement at the request of Sadat's spokesman Tahasin Bashir.
Lewis advocated closer Western ties with Israel and Turkey, which he saw as especially important in light of the extension of the Soviet influence in the Middle East. Modern Turkey holds a special place in Lewis's view of the region due to the country's efforts to become a part of the West. He was an Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Turkish Studies, an honor which is given "on the basis of generally recognized scholarly distinction and ... long and devoted service to the field of Turkish Studies."
Lewis views Christendom and Islam as civilizations that have been in perpetual collision since the advent of Islam in the 7th century. In his essay The Roots of Muslim Rage (1990), he argued that the struggle between the West and Islam was gathering strength. According to one source, this essay (and Lewis's 1990 Jefferson Lecture on which the article was based) first introduced the term "Islamic fundamentalism" to North America. This essay has been credited with coining the phrase "clash of civilizations", which received prominence in the eponymous book by Samuel Huntington. However, another source indicates that Lewis first used the phrase "clash of civilizations" at a 1957 meeting in Washington where it was recorded in the transcript.
In 1998, Lewis read in a London-based newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabi a declaration of war on the United States by Osama bin Laden. In his essay "A License to Kill", Lewis indicated he considered bin Laden's language as the "ideology of jihad" and warned that bin Laden would be a danger to the West. The essay was published after the Clinton administration and the US intelligence community had begun its hunt for bin Laden in Sudan and then in Afghanistan.
Jihad
Lewis writes of jihad as a distinct religious obligation, but suggests that it is a pity that people engaging in terrorist activities are not more aware of their own religion:The fanatical warrior offering his victims the choice of the Koran or the sword is not only untrue, it is impossible. The alleged choice - conversion or death - is also, with rare and atypical exceptions, untrue. Muslim tolerance of unbelievers and misbelievers was far better than anything available in Christendom until the rise of secularism in the 17th century.
Muslim fighters are commanded not to kill women, children, or the aged unless they attack first; not to torture or otherwise ill-treat prisoners; to give fair warnings of the opening of hostilities or their resumption after a truce; and to honor agreements. At no time did the classical jurists offer any approval or legitimacy to what we nowdays call terrorism. Nor indeed is there any evidence of the use of terrorism as it is practiced nowadays.
The emergence of the by now widespread terrorism practice of suicide bombing is a development of the 20th century. It has no antecedents in Islamic history, and no justification in the terms of Islamic theology, law, or tradition.As'ad AbuKhalil, has criticized this view and stated: "Methodologically, [Lewis] insists that terrorism by individual Muslims should be considered Islamic terrorism, while terrorism by individual Jews or Christians is never considered Jewish or Christian terrorism."
He also criticised Lewis's understanding of Osama bin Laden, seeing Lewis's interpretation of bin Laden "as some kind of influential Muslim theologian" along the lines of classical theologians like Al-Ghazali, rather than "the terrorist fanatic that he is". AbuKhalil has also criticized the place of Islam in Lewis's worldview more generally, arguing that the most prominent feature of his work was its "theologocentrism" (borrowing a term from Maxime Rodinson) - that Lewis interprets all aspects of behavior among Muslims solely through the lens of Islamic theology, subsuming the study of Muslim peoples, their languages, the geographical areas where Muslims predominate, Islamic governments, the governments of Arab countries and Sharia under the label of "Islam".
Debates with Edward Said
Lewis was known for his literary debates with Edward Said, the Palestinian American literary theorist whose aim was to deconstruct what he called Orientalist scholarship. Said, who was a professor at Columbia University, characterized Lewis's work as a prime example of Orientalism in his 1978 book Orientalism and in his later book Covering Islam: How the Media and the Experts Determine How We See the Rest of the World (1981). Said asserted that the field of Orientalism was political intellectualism bent on self-affirmation rather than objective study, a form of racism, and a tool of imperialist domination. He further questioned the scientific neutrality of some leading Middle East scholars, including Lewis, on the Arab World. In an interview with Al-Ahram weekly, Said suggested that Lewis's knowledge of the Middle East was so biased that it could not be taken seriously and claimed "Bernard Lewis hasn't set foot in the Middle East, in the Arab world, for at least 40 years. He knows something about Turkey, I'm told, but he knows nothing about the Arab world." Said considered that Lewis treats Islam as a monolithic entity without the nuance of its plurality, internal dynamics, and historical complexities, and accused him of "demagogy and downright ignorance". In Covering Islam, Said argued that "Lewis simply cannot deal with the diversity of Muslim, much less human life, because it is closed to him as something foreign, radically different, and other," and he criticised Lewis's "inability to grant that the Islamic peoples are entitled to their own cultural, political, and historical practices, free from Lewis's calculated attempt to show that because they are not Western... they can't be good."
Rejecting the view that Western scholarship was biased against the Middle East, Lewis responded that Orientalism developed as a facet of European humanism, independently of the past European imperial expansion. He noted the French and English pursued the study of Islam in the 16th and 17th centuries, yet not in an organized way, but long before they had any control or hope of control in the Middle East; and that much of Orientalist study did nothing to advance the cause of imperialism. In his 1993 book Islam and the West, Lewis wrote "What imperial purpose was served by deciphering the ancient Egyptian language, for example, and then restoring to the Egyptians knowledge of and pride in their forgotten, ancient past?"
Furthermore, Lewis accused Said of politicizing the scientific study of the Middle East (and Arabic studies in particular); neglecting to critique the scholarly findings of the Orientalists; and giving "free rein" to his biases.
Stance on the Iraq War
In 2002, Lewis wrote an article for The Wall Street Journal regarding the buildup to the Iraq War entitled "Time for Toppling", where he stated his opinion that "a regime change may well be dangerous, but sometimes the dangers of inaction are greater than those of action". In 2007, Jacob Weisberg described Lewis as "perhaps the most significant intellectual influence behind the invasion of Iraq". Michael Hirsh attributed to Lewis the view that regime change in Iraq would provide a jolt that would "modernize the Middle East" and suggested that Lewis's allegedly 'orientalist' theories about "what went wrong" in the Middle East, and other writings, formed the intellectual basis of the push towards war in Iraq. Hirsch reported that Lewis had told him in an interview that he viewed the 11 September attacks as "the opening salvo of the final battle" between Western and Islamic civilisations: Lewis believed that a forceful response was necessary. In the run up to the Iraq War, he met with Vice President Dick Cheney several times: Hirsch quoted an unnamed official who was present at a number of these meetings, who summarised Lewis's view of Iraq as "Get on with it. Don't dither". Brent Scowcroft quoted Lewis as stating that he believed "that one of the things you’ve got to do to Arabs is hit them between the eyes with a big stick. They respect power". As'ad AbuKhalil has claimed that Lewis assured Cheney that American troops would be welcomed by Iraqis and Arabs, relying on the opinion of his colleague Fouad Ajami. Hirsch also drew parallels between the Bush administration's plans for post-invasion Iraq and Lewis's views, in particular his admiration for Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's secularist and Westernising reforms in the new Republic of Turkey which emerged from the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.
Writing in 2008, Lewis did not advocate imposing freedom and democracy on Islamic nations. "There are things you can't impose. Freedom, for example. Or democracy. Democracy is a very strong medicine which has to be administered to the patient in small, gradually increasing doses. Otherwise, you risk killing the patient. In the main, the Muslims have to do it themselves."
Ian Buruma, writing for The New Yorker in an article subtitled "The two Minds of Bernard Lewis", finds Lewis's stance on the war difficult to reconcile with Lewis's past statements cautioning democracy enforcement in the world at large. Buruma ultimately rejects suggestions by his peers that Lewis promotes war with Iraq to safeguard Israel, but instead concludes "perhaps he loves it [the Arab world] too much":
Hamid Dabashi, writing on 28 May 2018, in an article subtitled "On Bernard Lewis and 'his extraordinary capacity for getting everything wrong'", asked: "Just imagine: What sort of a person would spend a lifetime studying people he loathes? It is quite a bizarre proposition. But there you have it: the late Bernard Lewis did precisely that." Similarly, Richard Bulliet described Lewis as "...a person who does not like the people he is purporting to have expertise about...he doesn’t respect them, he considers them to be good and worthy only to the degree they follow a Western path". According to As'ad AbuKhalil, "Lewis has poisoned the Middle East academic field more than any other Orientalist and his influence has been both academic and political. But there is a new generation of Middle East experts in the West who now see clearly the political agenda of Bernard Lewis. It was fully exposed in the Bush years."
Alleged nuclear threat from Iran
In 2006, Lewis wrote that Iran had been working on a nuclear weapon for fifteen years. In August 2006, in an article about whether the world can rely on the concept of mutual assured destruction as a deterrent in its dealings with Iran, Lewis wrote in The Wall Street Journal about the significance of 22 August 2006 in the Islamic calendar. The Iranian president had indicated he would respond by that date to U.S. demands regarding Iran's development of nuclear power. Lewis wrote that the date corresponded to the 27th day of the month of Rajab of the year 1427, the day Muslims commemorate the night flight of Muhammad from Jerusalem to heaven and back. Lewis wrote that it would be "an appropriate date for the apocalyptic ending of Israel and, if necessary, of the world". According to Lewis, mutual assured destruction is not an effective deterrent in the case of Iran, because of what Lewis describes as the Iranian leadership's "apocalyptic worldview" and the "suicide or martyrdom complex that plagues parts of the Islamic world today". Lewis's article received significant press coverage. However, the day passed without any incident.
Death
Bernard Lewis died on 19 May 2018 at the age of 101, at an assisted-living care facility in Voorhees Township, New Jersey, twelve days before his 102nd birthday.
He is buried in Trumpeldor Cemetery in Tel Aviv.
Bibliography
Awards and honors
1963: Elected as a Fellow of the British Academy
1978: The Harvey Prize, from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, for "his profound insight into the life and mores of the peoples of the Middle East through his writings"
1983: Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
1990: Selected for the Jefferson Lecture by the National Endowment for the Humanities
1996: Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in General Nonfiction, for The Middle East (Scribner)
1999: National Jewish Book Award in the Israel category for The Multiple Identities of the Middle East 2002: The Thomas Jefferson Medal, awarded by the American Philosophical Society
2002: Atatürk International Peace Prize on grounds that he contributed extensively to history scholarship with his accurate analysis of Turkey’s and in particular of Atatürk’s positive impact on Middle Eastern history.
2004: Golden Plate Award from the American Academy of Achievement
2006: National Humanities Medal, from the National Endowment for the Humanities
2007: Irving Kristol Award, from the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
2007: The Scholar-Statesman Award from The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
See also
Bernard Lewis bibliography
List of Princeton University people
References
External links
Lewis's page at Princeton University
Revered and Reviled – Lewis's profile on Moment Magazine''
The Legacy and Fallacies of Bernard Lewis by As`ad AbuKhalil
1916 births
2018 deaths
20th-century American historians
20th-century British historians
20th-century British writers
21st-century American historians
21st-century American male writers
21st-century British historians
21st-century British writers
Academics of SOAS University of London
Alumni of SOAS University of London
American centenarians
American historians
American male non-fiction writers
American people of English-Jewish descent
Deniers of the Armenian genocide
British Army personnel of World War II
English centenarians
British emigrants to the United States
English historians
English Jews
Fellows of the British Academy
Historians of Islam
Historians of the Ottoman Empire
Honorary members of the Turkish Academy of Sciences
Institute for Advanced Study visiting scholars
Intelligence Corps soldiers
Islam and antisemitism
Islam and politics
Jewish American historians
Jewish scholars
Jewish scholars of Islam
Men centenarians
Middle Eastern studies in the United States
National Humanities Medal recipients
Neoconservatism
People from Stoke Newington
British political commentators
Princeton University faculty
Royal Armoured Corps soldiers
Scholars of antisemitism
University of Paris alumni
Cornell University faculty
Foreign Policy Research Institute
Historians of the Middle East
Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs
Middle Eastern studies scholars
Burials at Trumpeldor Cemetery
21st-century American Jews | true | [
"Standesamt Wongrowitz was a civil registration district (Standesamt) located in Kreis Wongrowitz, province of Posen of the German Empire (1871–1918). This Standesamt was located in and administered the town of Wongrowitz as well as the nearby communities of:\n\nSee also\n Wągrowiec (general article about the town where the Standesamt was located)\n\nExternal links \n Municipal site\n\nGerman Empire\nKingdom of Prussia",
"Gwin is an unincorporated community located in Holmes County, Mississippi. Gwin is located on U.S. Highway 49E, south of Tchula.\n\nThe town was once an important station on the Illinois Central Railroad.\n\nRailway history\n\nGwin was the crew change point for all freight trains traveling between New Orleans and Memphis, and a hotel for train crews was located there. South of the town was a switching yard with six tracks, as well as a wye-junction where the track branched into a line which traveled east to Durant. Before electrical refrigeration was available for railcars, a large icing facility was located in Gwin, where ice was loading onto trains carrying perishable goods. In 1986, the railway moved its crew change point to McComb.\n\nReferences\n\nUnincorporated communities in Holmes County, Mississippi\nUnincorporated communities in Mississippi"
]
|
[
"Bernard Lewis",
"Academic career",
"Where did Bernard Lewis go to school?",
"School of Oriental Studies",
"Where was this located?",
"University of London"
]
| C_49bcb0b5cef543eaad8de30f9d6da37b_1 | Are there any other interesting aspects about this article? | 3 | Are there any other interesting aspects about this article other than where Bernard Lewis went to school? | Bernard Lewis | In 1936, Lewis graduated from the School of Oriental Studies (now School of Oriental and African Studies, SOAS) at the University of London with a BA in history with special reference to the Near and Middle East. He earned his PhD three years later, also from SOAS, specializing in the history of Islam. Lewis also studied law, going part of the way toward becoming a solicitor, but returned to study Middle Eastern history. He undertook post-graduate studies at the University of Paris, where he studied with the orientalist Louis Massignon and earned the "Diplome des Etudes Semitiques" in 1937. He returned to SOAS in 1938 as an assistant lecturer in Islamic History. During the Second World War, Lewis served in the British Army in the Royal Armoured Corps and as a Corporal in the Intelligence Corps in 1940-41 before being seconded to the Foreign Office. After the war, he returned to SOAS. In 1949, at the age of 33, he was appointed to the new chair in Near and Middle Eastern History. In 1974, aged 57, Lewis accepted a joint position at Princeton University and the Institute for Advanced Study, also located in Princeton, New Jersey. The terms of his appointment were such that Lewis taught only one semester per year, and being free from administrative responsibilities, he could devote more time to research than previously. Consequently, Lewis's arrival at Princeton marked the beginning of the most prolific period in his research career during which he published numerous books and articles based on previously accumulated materials. After retiring from Princeton in 1986, Lewis served at Cornell University until 1990. In 1966, Lewis was a founding member of the learned society, Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA), but in 2007 he broke away and founded Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa (ASMEA) to challenge MESA, which the New York Sun noted as "dominated by academics who have been critical of Israel and of America's role in the Middle East." The organization was formed as an academic society dedicated to promoting high standards of research and teaching in Middle Eastern and African studies and other related fields, with Lewis as Chairman of its academic council. In 1990, the National Endowment for the Humanities selected Lewis for the Jefferson Lecture, the U.S. federal government's highest honor for achievement in the humanities. His lecture, entitled "Western Civilization: A View from the East", was revised and reprinted in The Atlantic Monthly under the title "The Roots of Muslim Rage." His 2007 Irving Kristol Lecture, given to the American Enterprise Institute, was published as Europe and Islam. CANNOTANSWER | During the Second World War, Lewis served in the British Army in the Royal Armoured Corps and as a Corporal in the Intelligence Corps in 1940-41 | Bernard Lewis, (31 May 1916 – 19 May 2018) was a British American historian specialized in Oriental studies. He was also known as a public intellectual and political commentator. Lewis was the Cleveland E. Dodge Professor Emeritus of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University. Lewis's expertise was in the history of Islam and the interaction between Islam and the West.
Lewis served as a soldier in the British Army in the Royal Armoured Corps and Intelligence Corps during the Second World War before being seconded to the Foreign Office. After the war, he returned to the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London and was appointed to the new chair in Near and Middle Eastern history.
In 2007 Lewis was called "the West's leading interpreter of the Middle East". Others have argued Lewis's approach is essentialist and generalizing to the Muslim world, as well as his tendency to restate hypotheses that were challenged by more recent research. On a political level, Lewis is accused by his detractors with having revived the image of the cultural inferiority of Islam and of emphasizing the dangers of jihad. His advice was frequently sought by neoconservative policymakers, including the Bush administration. However, his active support of the Iraq War and neoconservative ideals have since come under scrutiny.
Lewis was also notable for his public debates with Edward Said, who accused Lewis and other orientalists of misrepresenting Islam and serving the purposes of Western imperialist domination, to which Lewis responded by defending Orientalism as a facet of humanism and accusing Said of politicizing the subject. Furthermore, Lewis notoriously denied the Armenian genocide. He argued that the deaths of the mass killings resulted from a struggle between two nationalistic movements, claiming that there is no proof of intent by the Ottoman government to exterminate the Armenian nation.
Family and personal life
Bernard Lewis was born on 31 May 1916 to middle-class British Jewish parents, Harry Lewis and the former Jane Levy, in Stoke Newington, London. He became interested in languages and history while preparing for his bar mitzvah. In 1947 he married Ruth Hélène Oppenhejm, with whom he had a daughter and a son. Their marriage was dissolved in 1974. Lewis became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1982.
Academic career
In 1936, Lewis graduated from the School of Oriental Studies (now School of Oriental and African Studies, SOAS) at the University of London with a BA in history with special reference to the Near and Middle East. He earned his PhD three years later, also from SOAS, specializing in the history of Islam. Lewis also studied law, going part of the way toward becoming a solicitor, but returned to study Middle Eastern history. He undertook post-graduate studies at the University of Paris, where he studied with the orientalist Louis Massignon and earned the "Diplôme des Études Sémitiques" in 1937. He returned to SOAS in 1938 as an assistant lecturer in Islamic History.
During the Second World War, Lewis served in the British Army in the Royal Armoured Corps and as a Corporal in the Intelligence Corps in 1940–41 before being seconded to the Foreign Office. After the war, he returned to SOAS, where he would remain for the next 25 years. In 1949, at the age of 33, he was appointed to the new chair in Near and Middle Eastern History. In 1963, Lewis was granted fellowship of the British Academy.
In 1974, aged 57, Lewis accepted a joint position at Princeton University and the Institute for Advanced Study, also located in Princeton, New Jersey. The terms of his appointment were such that Lewis taught only one semester per year, and being free from administrative responsibilities, he could devote more time to research than previously. Consequently, Lewis's arrival at Princeton marked the beginning of the most prolific period in his research career during which he published numerous books and articles based on previously accumulated materials. After retiring from Princeton in 1986, Lewis served at Cornell University until 1990.
In 1966, Lewis was a founding member of the learned society, Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA), but in 2007 he broke away and founded Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa (ASMEA) to challenge MESA, which the New York Sun noted as "dominated by academics who have been critical of Israel and of America's role in the Middle East". The organization was formed as an academic society dedicated to promoting high standards of research and teaching in Middle Eastern and African studies and other related fields, with Lewis as Chairman of its academic council.
In 1990, the National Endowment for the Humanities selected Lewis for the Jefferson Lecture, the U.S. federal government's highest honor for achievement in the humanities. His lecture, entitled "Western Civilization: A View from the East", was revised and reprinted in The Atlantic Monthly under the title "The Roots of Muslim Rage." His 2007 Irving Kristol Lecture, given to the American Enterprise Institute, was published as Europe and Islam.
Research
Lewis's influence extends beyond academia to the general public. He began his research career with the study of medieval Arab, especially Syrian, history. His first article, dedicated to professional guilds of medieval Islam, had been widely regarded as the most authoritative work on the subject for about thirty years. However, after the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, scholars of Jewish origin found it more and more difficult to conduct archival and field research in Arab countries, where they were suspected of espionage. Therefore, Lewis switched to the study of the Ottoman Empire, while continuing to research Arab history through the Ottoman archives which had only recently been opened to Western researchers. A series of articles that Lewis published over the next several years revolutionized the history of the Middle East by giving a broad picture of Islamic society, including its government, economy, and demographics.
Lewis argued that the Middle East is currently backward and its decline was a largely self-inflicted condition resulting from both culture and religion, as opposed to the post-colonialist view which posits the problems of the region as economic and political maldevelopment mainly due to the 19th-century European colonization. In his 1982 work Muslim Discovery of Europe, Lewis argues that Muslim societies could not keep pace with the West and that "Crusader successes were due in no small part to Muslim weakness." Further, he suggested that as early as the 11th century Islamic societies were decaying, primarily the byproduct of internal problems like "cultural arrogance," which was a barrier to creative borrowing, rather than external pressures like the Crusades.
In the wake of Soviet and Arab attempts to delegitimize Israel as a racist country, Lewis wrote a study of anti-Semitism, Semites and Anti-Semites (1986). In other works he argued Arab rage against Israel was disproportionate to other tragedies or injustices in the Muslim world, such as the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and control of Muslim-majority land in Central Asia, the bloody and destructive fighting during the Hama uprising in Syria (1982), the Algerian Civil War (1992–1998), and the Iran–Iraq War (1980–1988).
In addition to his scholarly works, Lewis wrote several influential books accessible to the general public: The Arabs in History (1950), The Middle East and the West (1964), and The Middle East (1995). In the wake of the 11 September 2001 attacks, the interest in Lewis's work surged, especially his 1990 essay The Roots of Muslim Rage. Three of his books were published after 9/11: What Went Wrong? (written before the attacks), which explored the reasons of the Muslim world's apprehension of (and sometimes outright hostility to) modernization; The Crisis of Islam; and Islam: The Religion and the People.
Abraham Udovitch described him as "certainly the most eminent and respected historian of the Arab world, of the Islamic world, of the Middle East and beyond".
Armenian genocide
The first two editions of Lewis's The Emergence of Modern Turkey (1961 and 1968) describe the Armenian genocide as "the terrible holocaust of 1915, when a million and a half Armenians perished". In later editions, this text is altered to "the terrible slaughter of 1915, when, according to estimates, more than a million Armenians perished, as well as an unknown number of Turks". In this passage, Lewis argues that the deaths were the result of a struggle for the same land between two competing nationalist movements.
The change in Lewis's textual description of the Armenian genocide and his signing of the petition against the Congressional resolution was controversial among some Armenian historians as well as journalists, who suggested that Lewis was engaging in historical revisionism to serve his own political and personal interests.
Lewis called the label "genocide" the "Armenian version of this history" in a November 1993 interview with Le Monde, for which he faced a civil proceeding in a French court. In a subsequent exchange on the pages of Le Monde, Lewis wrote that while "terrible atrocities" did occur, "there exists no serious proof of a decision and of a plan of the Ottoman government aiming to exterminate the Armenian nation". He was ordered to pay one franc as damages for his statements on the Armenian genocide in Ottoman Turkey. Three other court cases against Bernard Lewis failed in the Paris tribunal, including one filed by the Armenian National Committee of France and two filed by Jacques Trémollet de Villers.
Lewis's views on the Armenian genocide were criticized by a number of historians and sociologists, among them Alain Finkielkraut, Yves Ternon, Richard G. Hovannisian, Robert Melson, and Pierre Vidal-Naquet.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Finkelstein|first1=Norman G.|title=The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering|date=2003|publisher=Verso|location=London|isbn=978-1859844885|page=69}}</ref>
Lewis has argued for his denial stance that:
Lewis has been labelled a "genocide denier" by Stephen Zunes, Israel Charny, David B. MacDonald and the Armenian National Committee of America. Israeli historian Yair Auron suggested that "Lewis' stature provided a lofty cover for the Turkish national agenda of obfuscating academic research on the Armenian Genocide". Israel Charny wrote that Lewis's "seemingly scholarly concern ... of Armenians constituting a threat to the Turks as a rebellious force who together with the Russians threatened the Ottoman Empire, and the insistence that only a policy of deportations was executed, barely conceal the fact that the organized deportations constituted systematic mass murder". Charny compares the "logical structures" employed by Lewis in his denial of the genocide to those employed by Ernst Nolte in his Holocaust negationism.
Views and influence on contemporary politics
In the mid-1960s, Lewis emerged as a commentator on the issues of the modern Middle East and his analysis of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and the rise of militant Islam brought him publicity and aroused significant controversy. American historian Joel Beinin has called him "perhaps the most articulate and learned Zionist advocate in the North American Middle East academic community". Lewis's policy advice has particular weight thanks to this scholarly authority. U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney remarked "in this new century, his wisdom is sought daily by policymakers, diplomats, fellow academics, and the news media".
A harsh critic of the Soviet Union, Lewis continued the liberal tradition in Islamic historical studies. Although his early Marxist views had a bearing on his first book The Origins of Ismailism, Lewis subsequently discarded Marxism. His later works are a reaction against the left-wing current of Third-worldism which came to be a significant current in Middle Eastern studies.
During his career Lewis developed ties with governments around the world: during her time as Prime Minister of Israel, Golda Meir assigned Lewis's articles as reading to her cabinet members, and during the Presidency of George W. Bush, he advised administration members including Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Bush himself. He was also close to King Hussein of Jordan and his brother, Prince Hassan bin Talal. He also had ties to the regime of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran, the Turkish military dictatorship led by Kenan Evren, and the Egyptian government of Anwar Sadat: he acted as a go-between between the Sadat administration and Israel in 1971 when he relayed a message to the Israeli government regarding the possibility of a peace agreement at the request of Sadat's spokesman Tahasin Bashir.
Lewis advocated closer Western ties with Israel and Turkey, which he saw as especially important in light of the extension of the Soviet influence in the Middle East. Modern Turkey holds a special place in Lewis's view of the region due to the country's efforts to become a part of the West. He was an Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Turkish Studies, an honor which is given "on the basis of generally recognized scholarly distinction and ... long and devoted service to the field of Turkish Studies."
Lewis views Christendom and Islam as civilizations that have been in perpetual collision since the advent of Islam in the 7th century. In his essay The Roots of Muslim Rage (1990), he argued that the struggle between the West and Islam was gathering strength. According to one source, this essay (and Lewis's 1990 Jefferson Lecture on which the article was based) first introduced the term "Islamic fundamentalism" to North America. This essay has been credited with coining the phrase "clash of civilizations", which received prominence in the eponymous book by Samuel Huntington. However, another source indicates that Lewis first used the phrase "clash of civilizations" at a 1957 meeting in Washington where it was recorded in the transcript.
In 1998, Lewis read in a London-based newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabi a declaration of war on the United States by Osama bin Laden. In his essay "A License to Kill", Lewis indicated he considered bin Laden's language as the "ideology of jihad" and warned that bin Laden would be a danger to the West. The essay was published after the Clinton administration and the US intelligence community had begun its hunt for bin Laden in Sudan and then in Afghanistan.
Jihad
Lewis writes of jihad as a distinct religious obligation, but suggests that it is a pity that people engaging in terrorist activities are not more aware of their own religion:The fanatical warrior offering his victims the choice of the Koran or the sword is not only untrue, it is impossible. The alleged choice - conversion or death - is also, with rare and atypical exceptions, untrue. Muslim tolerance of unbelievers and misbelievers was far better than anything available in Christendom until the rise of secularism in the 17th century.
Muslim fighters are commanded not to kill women, children, or the aged unless they attack first; not to torture or otherwise ill-treat prisoners; to give fair warnings of the opening of hostilities or their resumption after a truce; and to honor agreements. At no time did the classical jurists offer any approval or legitimacy to what we nowdays call terrorism. Nor indeed is there any evidence of the use of terrorism as it is practiced nowadays.
The emergence of the by now widespread terrorism practice of suicide bombing is a development of the 20th century. It has no antecedents in Islamic history, and no justification in the terms of Islamic theology, law, or tradition.As'ad AbuKhalil, has criticized this view and stated: "Methodologically, [Lewis] insists that terrorism by individual Muslims should be considered Islamic terrorism, while terrorism by individual Jews or Christians is never considered Jewish or Christian terrorism."
He also criticised Lewis's understanding of Osama bin Laden, seeing Lewis's interpretation of bin Laden "as some kind of influential Muslim theologian" along the lines of classical theologians like Al-Ghazali, rather than "the terrorist fanatic that he is". AbuKhalil has also criticized the place of Islam in Lewis's worldview more generally, arguing that the most prominent feature of his work was its "theologocentrism" (borrowing a term from Maxime Rodinson) - that Lewis interprets all aspects of behavior among Muslims solely through the lens of Islamic theology, subsuming the study of Muslim peoples, their languages, the geographical areas where Muslims predominate, Islamic governments, the governments of Arab countries and Sharia under the label of "Islam".
Debates with Edward Said
Lewis was known for his literary debates with Edward Said, the Palestinian American literary theorist whose aim was to deconstruct what he called Orientalist scholarship. Said, who was a professor at Columbia University, characterized Lewis's work as a prime example of Orientalism in his 1978 book Orientalism and in his later book Covering Islam: How the Media and the Experts Determine How We See the Rest of the World (1981). Said asserted that the field of Orientalism was political intellectualism bent on self-affirmation rather than objective study, a form of racism, and a tool of imperialist domination. He further questioned the scientific neutrality of some leading Middle East scholars, including Lewis, on the Arab World. In an interview with Al-Ahram weekly, Said suggested that Lewis's knowledge of the Middle East was so biased that it could not be taken seriously and claimed "Bernard Lewis hasn't set foot in the Middle East, in the Arab world, for at least 40 years. He knows something about Turkey, I'm told, but he knows nothing about the Arab world." Said considered that Lewis treats Islam as a monolithic entity without the nuance of its plurality, internal dynamics, and historical complexities, and accused him of "demagogy and downright ignorance". In Covering Islam, Said argued that "Lewis simply cannot deal with the diversity of Muslim, much less human life, because it is closed to him as something foreign, radically different, and other," and he criticised Lewis's "inability to grant that the Islamic peoples are entitled to their own cultural, political, and historical practices, free from Lewis's calculated attempt to show that because they are not Western... they can't be good."
Rejecting the view that Western scholarship was biased against the Middle East, Lewis responded that Orientalism developed as a facet of European humanism, independently of the past European imperial expansion. He noted the French and English pursued the study of Islam in the 16th and 17th centuries, yet not in an organized way, but long before they had any control or hope of control in the Middle East; and that much of Orientalist study did nothing to advance the cause of imperialism. In his 1993 book Islam and the West, Lewis wrote "What imperial purpose was served by deciphering the ancient Egyptian language, for example, and then restoring to the Egyptians knowledge of and pride in their forgotten, ancient past?"
Furthermore, Lewis accused Said of politicizing the scientific study of the Middle East (and Arabic studies in particular); neglecting to critique the scholarly findings of the Orientalists; and giving "free rein" to his biases.
Stance on the Iraq War
In 2002, Lewis wrote an article for The Wall Street Journal regarding the buildup to the Iraq War entitled "Time for Toppling", where he stated his opinion that "a regime change may well be dangerous, but sometimes the dangers of inaction are greater than those of action". In 2007, Jacob Weisberg described Lewis as "perhaps the most significant intellectual influence behind the invasion of Iraq". Michael Hirsh attributed to Lewis the view that regime change in Iraq would provide a jolt that would "modernize the Middle East" and suggested that Lewis's allegedly 'orientalist' theories about "what went wrong" in the Middle East, and other writings, formed the intellectual basis of the push towards war in Iraq. Hirsch reported that Lewis had told him in an interview that he viewed the 11 September attacks as "the opening salvo of the final battle" between Western and Islamic civilisations: Lewis believed that a forceful response was necessary. In the run up to the Iraq War, he met with Vice President Dick Cheney several times: Hirsch quoted an unnamed official who was present at a number of these meetings, who summarised Lewis's view of Iraq as "Get on with it. Don't dither". Brent Scowcroft quoted Lewis as stating that he believed "that one of the things you’ve got to do to Arabs is hit them between the eyes with a big stick. They respect power". As'ad AbuKhalil has claimed that Lewis assured Cheney that American troops would be welcomed by Iraqis and Arabs, relying on the opinion of his colleague Fouad Ajami. Hirsch also drew parallels between the Bush administration's plans for post-invasion Iraq and Lewis's views, in particular his admiration for Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's secularist and Westernising reforms in the new Republic of Turkey which emerged from the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.
Writing in 2008, Lewis did not advocate imposing freedom and democracy on Islamic nations. "There are things you can't impose. Freedom, for example. Or democracy. Democracy is a very strong medicine which has to be administered to the patient in small, gradually increasing doses. Otherwise, you risk killing the patient. In the main, the Muslims have to do it themselves."
Ian Buruma, writing for The New Yorker in an article subtitled "The two Minds of Bernard Lewis", finds Lewis's stance on the war difficult to reconcile with Lewis's past statements cautioning democracy enforcement in the world at large. Buruma ultimately rejects suggestions by his peers that Lewis promotes war with Iraq to safeguard Israel, but instead concludes "perhaps he loves it [the Arab world] too much":
Hamid Dabashi, writing on 28 May 2018, in an article subtitled "On Bernard Lewis and 'his extraordinary capacity for getting everything wrong'", asked: "Just imagine: What sort of a person would spend a lifetime studying people he loathes? It is quite a bizarre proposition. But there you have it: the late Bernard Lewis did precisely that." Similarly, Richard Bulliet described Lewis as "...a person who does not like the people he is purporting to have expertise about...he doesn’t respect them, he considers them to be good and worthy only to the degree they follow a Western path". According to As'ad AbuKhalil, "Lewis has poisoned the Middle East academic field more than any other Orientalist and his influence has been both academic and political. But there is a new generation of Middle East experts in the West who now see clearly the political agenda of Bernard Lewis. It was fully exposed in the Bush years."
Alleged nuclear threat from Iran
In 2006, Lewis wrote that Iran had been working on a nuclear weapon for fifteen years. In August 2006, in an article about whether the world can rely on the concept of mutual assured destruction as a deterrent in its dealings with Iran, Lewis wrote in The Wall Street Journal about the significance of 22 August 2006 in the Islamic calendar. The Iranian president had indicated he would respond by that date to U.S. demands regarding Iran's development of nuclear power. Lewis wrote that the date corresponded to the 27th day of the month of Rajab of the year 1427, the day Muslims commemorate the night flight of Muhammad from Jerusalem to heaven and back. Lewis wrote that it would be "an appropriate date for the apocalyptic ending of Israel and, if necessary, of the world". According to Lewis, mutual assured destruction is not an effective deterrent in the case of Iran, because of what Lewis describes as the Iranian leadership's "apocalyptic worldview" and the "suicide or martyrdom complex that plagues parts of the Islamic world today". Lewis's article received significant press coverage. However, the day passed without any incident.
Death
Bernard Lewis died on 19 May 2018 at the age of 101, at an assisted-living care facility in Voorhees Township, New Jersey, twelve days before his 102nd birthday.
He is buried in Trumpeldor Cemetery in Tel Aviv.
Bibliography
Awards and honors
1963: Elected as a Fellow of the British Academy
1978: The Harvey Prize, from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, for "his profound insight into the life and mores of the peoples of the Middle East through his writings"
1983: Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
1990: Selected for the Jefferson Lecture by the National Endowment for the Humanities
1996: Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in General Nonfiction, for The Middle East (Scribner)
1999: National Jewish Book Award in the Israel category for The Multiple Identities of the Middle East 2002: The Thomas Jefferson Medal, awarded by the American Philosophical Society
2002: Atatürk International Peace Prize on grounds that he contributed extensively to history scholarship with his accurate analysis of Turkey’s and in particular of Atatürk’s positive impact on Middle Eastern history.
2004: Golden Plate Award from the American Academy of Achievement
2006: National Humanities Medal, from the National Endowment for the Humanities
2007: Irving Kristol Award, from the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
2007: The Scholar-Statesman Award from The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
See also
Bernard Lewis bibliography
List of Princeton University people
References
External links
Lewis's page at Princeton University
Revered and Reviled – Lewis's profile on Moment Magazine''
The Legacy and Fallacies of Bernard Lewis by As`ad AbuKhalil
1916 births
2018 deaths
20th-century American historians
20th-century British historians
20th-century British writers
21st-century American historians
21st-century American male writers
21st-century British historians
21st-century British writers
Academics of SOAS University of London
Alumni of SOAS University of London
American centenarians
American historians
American male non-fiction writers
American people of English-Jewish descent
Deniers of the Armenian genocide
British Army personnel of World War II
English centenarians
British emigrants to the United States
English historians
English Jews
Fellows of the British Academy
Historians of Islam
Historians of the Ottoman Empire
Honorary members of the Turkish Academy of Sciences
Institute for Advanced Study visiting scholars
Intelligence Corps soldiers
Islam and antisemitism
Islam and politics
Jewish American historians
Jewish scholars
Jewish scholars of Islam
Men centenarians
Middle Eastern studies in the United States
National Humanities Medal recipients
Neoconservatism
People from Stoke Newington
British political commentators
Princeton University faculty
Royal Armoured Corps soldiers
Scholars of antisemitism
University of Paris alumni
Cornell University faculty
Foreign Policy Research Institute
Historians of the Middle East
Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs
Middle Eastern studies scholars
Burials at Trumpeldor Cemetery
21st-century American Jews | false | [
"Přírodní park Třebíčsko (before Oblast klidu Třebíčsko) is a natural park near Třebíč in the Czech Republic. There are many interesting plants. The park was founded in 1983.\n\nKobylinec and Ptáčovský kopeček\n\nKobylinec is a natural monument situated ca 0,5 km from the village of Trnava.\nThe area of this monument is 0,44 ha. Pulsatilla grandis can be found here and in the Ptáčovský kopeček park near Ptáčov near Třebíč. Both monuments are very popular for tourists.\n\nPonds\n\nIn the natural park there are some interesting ponds such as Velký Bor, Malý Bor, Buršík near Přeckov and a brook Březinka. Dams on the brook are examples of European beaver activity.\n\nSyenitové skály near Pocoucov\n\nSyenitové skály (rocks of syenit) near Pocoucov is one of famed locations. There are interesting granite boulders. The area of the reservation is 0,77 ha.\n\nExternal links\nParts of this article or all article was translated from Czech. The original article is :cs:Přírodní park Třebíčsko.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nNature near the village Trnava which is there\n\nTřebíč\nParks in the Czech Republic\nTourist attractions in the Vysočina Region",
"Damn Interesting is an independent website founded by Alan Bellows in 2005. The website presents true stories from science, history, and psychology, primarily as long-form articles, often illustrated with original artwork. Works are written by various authors, and published at irregular intervals. The website openly rejects advertising, relying on reader and listener donations to cover operating costs.\n\nAs of October 2012, each article is also published as a podcast under the same name. In November 2019, a second podcast was launched under the title Damn Interesting Week, featuring unscripted commentary on an assortment of news articles featured on the website's \"Curated Links\" section that week. In mid-2020, a third podcast called Damn Interesting Curio Cabinet began highlighting the website's periodic short-form articles in the same radioplay format as the original podcast.\n\nIn July 2009, Damn Interesting published the print book Alien Hand Syndrome through Workman Publishing. It contains some favorites from the site and some exclusive content.\n\nAwards and recognition \nIn August 2007, PC Magazine named Damn Interesting one of the \"Top 100 Undiscovered Web Sites\".\nThe article \"The Zero-Armed Bandit\" by Alan Bellows won a 2015 Sidney Award from David Brooks in The New York Times.\nThe article \"Ghoulish Acts and Dastardly Deeds\" by Alan Bellows was cited as \"nonfiction journalism from 2017 that will stand the test of time\" by Conor Friedersdorf in The Atlantic.\nThe article \"Dupes and Duplicity\" by Jennifer Lee Noonan won a 2020 Sidney Award from David Brooks in the New York Times.\n\nAccusing The Dollop of plagiarism \n\nOn July 9, 2015, Bellows posted an open letter accusing The Dollop, a comedy podcast about history, of plagiarism due to their repeated use of verbatim text from Damn Interesting articles without permission or attribution. Dave Anthony, the writer of The Dollop, responded on reddit, admitting to using Damn Interesting content, but claiming that the use was protected by fair use, and that \"historical facts are not copyrightable.\" In an article about the controversy on Plagiarism Today, Jonathan Bailey concluded, \"Any way one looks at it, The Dollop failed its ethical obligations to all of the people, not just those writing for Damn Interesting, who put in the time, energy and expertise into writing the original content upon which their show is based.\"\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n Official website\n\n2005 podcast debuts"
]
|
[
"Bernard Lewis",
"Academic career",
"Where did Bernard Lewis go to school?",
"School of Oriental Studies",
"Where was this located?",
"University of London",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"During the Second World War, Lewis served in the British Army in the Royal Armoured Corps and as a Corporal in the Intelligence Corps in 1940-41"
]
| C_49bcb0b5cef543eaad8de30f9d6da37b_1 | Was he injured during this? | 4 | Was Bernard Lewis injured during the Second World War? | Bernard Lewis | In 1936, Lewis graduated from the School of Oriental Studies (now School of Oriental and African Studies, SOAS) at the University of London with a BA in history with special reference to the Near and Middle East. He earned his PhD three years later, also from SOAS, specializing in the history of Islam. Lewis also studied law, going part of the way toward becoming a solicitor, but returned to study Middle Eastern history. He undertook post-graduate studies at the University of Paris, where he studied with the orientalist Louis Massignon and earned the "Diplome des Etudes Semitiques" in 1937. He returned to SOAS in 1938 as an assistant lecturer in Islamic History. During the Second World War, Lewis served in the British Army in the Royal Armoured Corps and as a Corporal in the Intelligence Corps in 1940-41 before being seconded to the Foreign Office. After the war, he returned to SOAS. In 1949, at the age of 33, he was appointed to the new chair in Near and Middle Eastern History. In 1974, aged 57, Lewis accepted a joint position at Princeton University and the Institute for Advanced Study, also located in Princeton, New Jersey. The terms of his appointment were such that Lewis taught only one semester per year, and being free from administrative responsibilities, he could devote more time to research than previously. Consequently, Lewis's arrival at Princeton marked the beginning of the most prolific period in his research career during which he published numerous books and articles based on previously accumulated materials. After retiring from Princeton in 1986, Lewis served at Cornell University until 1990. In 1966, Lewis was a founding member of the learned society, Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA), but in 2007 he broke away and founded Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa (ASMEA) to challenge MESA, which the New York Sun noted as "dominated by academics who have been critical of Israel and of America's role in the Middle East." The organization was formed as an academic society dedicated to promoting high standards of research and teaching in Middle Eastern and African studies and other related fields, with Lewis as Chairman of its academic council. In 1990, the National Endowment for the Humanities selected Lewis for the Jefferson Lecture, the U.S. federal government's highest honor for achievement in the humanities. His lecture, entitled "Western Civilization: A View from the East", was revised and reprinted in The Atlantic Monthly under the title "The Roots of Muslim Rage." His 2007 Irving Kristol Lecture, given to the American Enterprise Institute, was published as Europe and Islam. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Bernard Lewis, (31 May 1916 – 19 May 2018) was a British American historian specialized in Oriental studies. He was also known as a public intellectual and political commentator. Lewis was the Cleveland E. Dodge Professor Emeritus of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University. Lewis's expertise was in the history of Islam and the interaction between Islam and the West.
Lewis served as a soldier in the British Army in the Royal Armoured Corps and Intelligence Corps during the Second World War before being seconded to the Foreign Office. After the war, he returned to the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London and was appointed to the new chair in Near and Middle Eastern history.
In 2007 Lewis was called "the West's leading interpreter of the Middle East". Others have argued Lewis's approach is essentialist and generalizing to the Muslim world, as well as his tendency to restate hypotheses that were challenged by more recent research. On a political level, Lewis is accused by his detractors with having revived the image of the cultural inferiority of Islam and of emphasizing the dangers of jihad. His advice was frequently sought by neoconservative policymakers, including the Bush administration. However, his active support of the Iraq War and neoconservative ideals have since come under scrutiny.
Lewis was also notable for his public debates with Edward Said, who accused Lewis and other orientalists of misrepresenting Islam and serving the purposes of Western imperialist domination, to which Lewis responded by defending Orientalism as a facet of humanism and accusing Said of politicizing the subject. Furthermore, Lewis notoriously denied the Armenian genocide. He argued that the deaths of the mass killings resulted from a struggle between two nationalistic movements, claiming that there is no proof of intent by the Ottoman government to exterminate the Armenian nation.
Family and personal life
Bernard Lewis was born on 31 May 1916 to middle-class British Jewish parents, Harry Lewis and the former Jane Levy, in Stoke Newington, London. He became interested in languages and history while preparing for his bar mitzvah. In 1947 he married Ruth Hélène Oppenhejm, with whom he had a daughter and a son. Their marriage was dissolved in 1974. Lewis became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1982.
Academic career
In 1936, Lewis graduated from the School of Oriental Studies (now School of Oriental and African Studies, SOAS) at the University of London with a BA in history with special reference to the Near and Middle East. He earned his PhD three years later, also from SOAS, specializing in the history of Islam. Lewis also studied law, going part of the way toward becoming a solicitor, but returned to study Middle Eastern history. He undertook post-graduate studies at the University of Paris, where he studied with the orientalist Louis Massignon and earned the "Diplôme des Études Sémitiques" in 1937. He returned to SOAS in 1938 as an assistant lecturer in Islamic History.
During the Second World War, Lewis served in the British Army in the Royal Armoured Corps and as a Corporal in the Intelligence Corps in 1940–41 before being seconded to the Foreign Office. After the war, he returned to SOAS, where he would remain for the next 25 years. In 1949, at the age of 33, he was appointed to the new chair in Near and Middle Eastern History. In 1963, Lewis was granted fellowship of the British Academy.
In 1974, aged 57, Lewis accepted a joint position at Princeton University and the Institute for Advanced Study, also located in Princeton, New Jersey. The terms of his appointment were such that Lewis taught only one semester per year, and being free from administrative responsibilities, he could devote more time to research than previously. Consequently, Lewis's arrival at Princeton marked the beginning of the most prolific period in his research career during which he published numerous books and articles based on previously accumulated materials. After retiring from Princeton in 1986, Lewis served at Cornell University until 1990.
In 1966, Lewis was a founding member of the learned society, Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA), but in 2007 he broke away and founded Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa (ASMEA) to challenge MESA, which the New York Sun noted as "dominated by academics who have been critical of Israel and of America's role in the Middle East". The organization was formed as an academic society dedicated to promoting high standards of research and teaching in Middle Eastern and African studies and other related fields, with Lewis as Chairman of its academic council.
In 1990, the National Endowment for the Humanities selected Lewis for the Jefferson Lecture, the U.S. federal government's highest honor for achievement in the humanities. His lecture, entitled "Western Civilization: A View from the East", was revised and reprinted in The Atlantic Monthly under the title "The Roots of Muslim Rage." His 2007 Irving Kristol Lecture, given to the American Enterprise Institute, was published as Europe and Islam.
Research
Lewis's influence extends beyond academia to the general public. He began his research career with the study of medieval Arab, especially Syrian, history. His first article, dedicated to professional guilds of medieval Islam, had been widely regarded as the most authoritative work on the subject for about thirty years. However, after the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, scholars of Jewish origin found it more and more difficult to conduct archival and field research in Arab countries, where they were suspected of espionage. Therefore, Lewis switched to the study of the Ottoman Empire, while continuing to research Arab history through the Ottoman archives which had only recently been opened to Western researchers. A series of articles that Lewis published over the next several years revolutionized the history of the Middle East by giving a broad picture of Islamic society, including its government, economy, and demographics.
Lewis argued that the Middle East is currently backward and its decline was a largely self-inflicted condition resulting from both culture and religion, as opposed to the post-colonialist view which posits the problems of the region as economic and political maldevelopment mainly due to the 19th-century European colonization. In his 1982 work Muslim Discovery of Europe, Lewis argues that Muslim societies could not keep pace with the West and that "Crusader successes were due in no small part to Muslim weakness." Further, he suggested that as early as the 11th century Islamic societies were decaying, primarily the byproduct of internal problems like "cultural arrogance," which was a barrier to creative borrowing, rather than external pressures like the Crusades.
In the wake of Soviet and Arab attempts to delegitimize Israel as a racist country, Lewis wrote a study of anti-Semitism, Semites and Anti-Semites (1986). In other works he argued Arab rage against Israel was disproportionate to other tragedies or injustices in the Muslim world, such as the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and control of Muslim-majority land in Central Asia, the bloody and destructive fighting during the Hama uprising in Syria (1982), the Algerian Civil War (1992–1998), and the Iran–Iraq War (1980–1988).
In addition to his scholarly works, Lewis wrote several influential books accessible to the general public: The Arabs in History (1950), The Middle East and the West (1964), and The Middle East (1995). In the wake of the 11 September 2001 attacks, the interest in Lewis's work surged, especially his 1990 essay The Roots of Muslim Rage. Three of his books were published after 9/11: What Went Wrong? (written before the attacks), which explored the reasons of the Muslim world's apprehension of (and sometimes outright hostility to) modernization; The Crisis of Islam; and Islam: The Religion and the People.
Abraham Udovitch described him as "certainly the most eminent and respected historian of the Arab world, of the Islamic world, of the Middle East and beyond".
Armenian genocide
The first two editions of Lewis's The Emergence of Modern Turkey (1961 and 1968) describe the Armenian genocide as "the terrible holocaust of 1915, when a million and a half Armenians perished". In later editions, this text is altered to "the terrible slaughter of 1915, when, according to estimates, more than a million Armenians perished, as well as an unknown number of Turks". In this passage, Lewis argues that the deaths were the result of a struggle for the same land between two competing nationalist movements.
The change in Lewis's textual description of the Armenian genocide and his signing of the petition against the Congressional resolution was controversial among some Armenian historians as well as journalists, who suggested that Lewis was engaging in historical revisionism to serve his own political and personal interests.
Lewis called the label "genocide" the "Armenian version of this history" in a November 1993 interview with Le Monde, for which he faced a civil proceeding in a French court. In a subsequent exchange on the pages of Le Monde, Lewis wrote that while "terrible atrocities" did occur, "there exists no serious proof of a decision and of a plan of the Ottoman government aiming to exterminate the Armenian nation". He was ordered to pay one franc as damages for his statements on the Armenian genocide in Ottoman Turkey. Three other court cases against Bernard Lewis failed in the Paris tribunal, including one filed by the Armenian National Committee of France and two filed by Jacques Trémollet de Villers.
Lewis's views on the Armenian genocide were criticized by a number of historians and sociologists, among them Alain Finkielkraut, Yves Ternon, Richard G. Hovannisian, Robert Melson, and Pierre Vidal-Naquet.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Finkelstein|first1=Norman G.|title=The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering|date=2003|publisher=Verso|location=London|isbn=978-1859844885|page=69}}</ref>
Lewis has argued for his denial stance that:
Lewis has been labelled a "genocide denier" by Stephen Zunes, Israel Charny, David B. MacDonald and the Armenian National Committee of America. Israeli historian Yair Auron suggested that "Lewis' stature provided a lofty cover for the Turkish national agenda of obfuscating academic research on the Armenian Genocide". Israel Charny wrote that Lewis's "seemingly scholarly concern ... of Armenians constituting a threat to the Turks as a rebellious force who together with the Russians threatened the Ottoman Empire, and the insistence that only a policy of deportations was executed, barely conceal the fact that the organized deportations constituted systematic mass murder". Charny compares the "logical structures" employed by Lewis in his denial of the genocide to those employed by Ernst Nolte in his Holocaust negationism.
Views and influence on contemporary politics
In the mid-1960s, Lewis emerged as a commentator on the issues of the modern Middle East and his analysis of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and the rise of militant Islam brought him publicity and aroused significant controversy. American historian Joel Beinin has called him "perhaps the most articulate and learned Zionist advocate in the North American Middle East academic community". Lewis's policy advice has particular weight thanks to this scholarly authority. U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney remarked "in this new century, his wisdom is sought daily by policymakers, diplomats, fellow academics, and the news media".
A harsh critic of the Soviet Union, Lewis continued the liberal tradition in Islamic historical studies. Although his early Marxist views had a bearing on his first book The Origins of Ismailism, Lewis subsequently discarded Marxism. His later works are a reaction against the left-wing current of Third-worldism which came to be a significant current in Middle Eastern studies.
During his career Lewis developed ties with governments around the world: during her time as Prime Minister of Israel, Golda Meir assigned Lewis's articles as reading to her cabinet members, and during the Presidency of George W. Bush, he advised administration members including Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Bush himself. He was also close to King Hussein of Jordan and his brother, Prince Hassan bin Talal. He also had ties to the regime of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran, the Turkish military dictatorship led by Kenan Evren, and the Egyptian government of Anwar Sadat: he acted as a go-between between the Sadat administration and Israel in 1971 when he relayed a message to the Israeli government regarding the possibility of a peace agreement at the request of Sadat's spokesman Tahasin Bashir.
Lewis advocated closer Western ties with Israel and Turkey, which he saw as especially important in light of the extension of the Soviet influence in the Middle East. Modern Turkey holds a special place in Lewis's view of the region due to the country's efforts to become a part of the West. He was an Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Turkish Studies, an honor which is given "on the basis of generally recognized scholarly distinction and ... long and devoted service to the field of Turkish Studies."
Lewis views Christendom and Islam as civilizations that have been in perpetual collision since the advent of Islam in the 7th century. In his essay The Roots of Muslim Rage (1990), he argued that the struggle between the West and Islam was gathering strength. According to one source, this essay (and Lewis's 1990 Jefferson Lecture on which the article was based) first introduced the term "Islamic fundamentalism" to North America. This essay has been credited with coining the phrase "clash of civilizations", which received prominence in the eponymous book by Samuel Huntington. However, another source indicates that Lewis first used the phrase "clash of civilizations" at a 1957 meeting in Washington where it was recorded in the transcript.
In 1998, Lewis read in a London-based newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabi a declaration of war on the United States by Osama bin Laden. In his essay "A License to Kill", Lewis indicated he considered bin Laden's language as the "ideology of jihad" and warned that bin Laden would be a danger to the West. The essay was published after the Clinton administration and the US intelligence community had begun its hunt for bin Laden in Sudan and then in Afghanistan.
Jihad
Lewis writes of jihad as a distinct religious obligation, but suggests that it is a pity that people engaging in terrorist activities are not more aware of their own religion:The fanatical warrior offering his victims the choice of the Koran or the sword is not only untrue, it is impossible. The alleged choice - conversion or death - is also, with rare and atypical exceptions, untrue. Muslim tolerance of unbelievers and misbelievers was far better than anything available in Christendom until the rise of secularism in the 17th century.
Muslim fighters are commanded not to kill women, children, or the aged unless they attack first; not to torture or otherwise ill-treat prisoners; to give fair warnings of the opening of hostilities or their resumption after a truce; and to honor agreements. At no time did the classical jurists offer any approval or legitimacy to what we nowdays call terrorism. Nor indeed is there any evidence of the use of terrorism as it is practiced nowadays.
The emergence of the by now widespread terrorism practice of suicide bombing is a development of the 20th century. It has no antecedents in Islamic history, and no justification in the terms of Islamic theology, law, or tradition.As'ad AbuKhalil, has criticized this view and stated: "Methodologically, [Lewis] insists that terrorism by individual Muslims should be considered Islamic terrorism, while terrorism by individual Jews or Christians is never considered Jewish or Christian terrorism."
He also criticised Lewis's understanding of Osama bin Laden, seeing Lewis's interpretation of bin Laden "as some kind of influential Muslim theologian" along the lines of classical theologians like Al-Ghazali, rather than "the terrorist fanatic that he is". AbuKhalil has also criticized the place of Islam in Lewis's worldview more generally, arguing that the most prominent feature of his work was its "theologocentrism" (borrowing a term from Maxime Rodinson) - that Lewis interprets all aspects of behavior among Muslims solely through the lens of Islamic theology, subsuming the study of Muslim peoples, their languages, the geographical areas where Muslims predominate, Islamic governments, the governments of Arab countries and Sharia under the label of "Islam".
Debates with Edward Said
Lewis was known for his literary debates with Edward Said, the Palestinian American literary theorist whose aim was to deconstruct what he called Orientalist scholarship. Said, who was a professor at Columbia University, characterized Lewis's work as a prime example of Orientalism in his 1978 book Orientalism and in his later book Covering Islam: How the Media and the Experts Determine How We See the Rest of the World (1981). Said asserted that the field of Orientalism was political intellectualism bent on self-affirmation rather than objective study, a form of racism, and a tool of imperialist domination. He further questioned the scientific neutrality of some leading Middle East scholars, including Lewis, on the Arab World. In an interview with Al-Ahram weekly, Said suggested that Lewis's knowledge of the Middle East was so biased that it could not be taken seriously and claimed "Bernard Lewis hasn't set foot in the Middle East, in the Arab world, for at least 40 years. He knows something about Turkey, I'm told, but he knows nothing about the Arab world." Said considered that Lewis treats Islam as a monolithic entity without the nuance of its plurality, internal dynamics, and historical complexities, and accused him of "demagogy and downright ignorance". In Covering Islam, Said argued that "Lewis simply cannot deal with the diversity of Muslim, much less human life, because it is closed to him as something foreign, radically different, and other," and he criticised Lewis's "inability to grant that the Islamic peoples are entitled to their own cultural, political, and historical practices, free from Lewis's calculated attempt to show that because they are not Western... they can't be good."
Rejecting the view that Western scholarship was biased against the Middle East, Lewis responded that Orientalism developed as a facet of European humanism, independently of the past European imperial expansion. He noted the French and English pursued the study of Islam in the 16th and 17th centuries, yet not in an organized way, but long before they had any control or hope of control in the Middle East; and that much of Orientalist study did nothing to advance the cause of imperialism. In his 1993 book Islam and the West, Lewis wrote "What imperial purpose was served by deciphering the ancient Egyptian language, for example, and then restoring to the Egyptians knowledge of and pride in their forgotten, ancient past?"
Furthermore, Lewis accused Said of politicizing the scientific study of the Middle East (and Arabic studies in particular); neglecting to critique the scholarly findings of the Orientalists; and giving "free rein" to his biases.
Stance on the Iraq War
In 2002, Lewis wrote an article for The Wall Street Journal regarding the buildup to the Iraq War entitled "Time for Toppling", where he stated his opinion that "a regime change may well be dangerous, but sometimes the dangers of inaction are greater than those of action". In 2007, Jacob Weisberg described Lewis as "perhaps the most significant intellectual influence behind the invasion of Iraq". Michael Hirsh attributed to Lewis the view that regime change in Iraq would provide a jolt that would "modernize the Middle East" and suggested that Lewis's allegedly 'orientalist' theories about "what went wrong" in the Middle East, and other writings, formed the intellectual basis of the push towards war in Iraq. Hirsch reported that Lewis had told him in an interview that he viewed the 11 September attacks as "the opening salvo of the final battle" between Western and Islamic civilisations: Lewis believed that a forceful response was necessary. In the run up to the Iraq War, he met with Vice President Dick Cheney several times: Hirsch quoted an unnamed official who was present at a number of these meetings, who summarised Lewis's view of Iraq as "Get on with it. Don't dither". Brent Scowcroft quoted Lewis as stating that he believed "that one of the things you’ve got to do to Arabs is hit them between the eyes with a big stick. They respect power". As'ad AbuKhalil has claimed that Lewis assured Cheney that American troops would be welcomed by Iraqis and Arabs, relying on the opinion of his colleague Fouad Ajami. Hirsch also drew parallels between the Bush administration's plans for post-invasion Iraq and Lewis's views, in particular his admiration for Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's secularist and Westernising reforms in the new Republic of Turkey which emerged from the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.
Writing in 2008, Lewis did not advocate imposing freedom and democracy on Islamic nations. "There are things you can't impose. Freedom, for example. Or democracy. Democracy is a very strong medicine which has to be administered to the patient in small, gradually increasing doses. Otherwise, you risk killing the patient. In the main, the Muslims have to do it themselves."
Ian Buruma, writing for The New Yorker in an article subtitled "The two Minds of Bernard Lewis", finds Lewis's stance on the war difficult to reconcile with Lewis's past statements cautioning democracy enforcement in the world at large. Buruma ultimately rejects suggestions by his peers that Lewis promotes war with Iraq to safeguard Israel, but instead concludes "perhaps he loves it [the Arab world] too much":
Hamid Dabashi, writing on 28 May 2018, in an article subtitled "On Bernard Lewis and 'his extraordinary capacity for getting everything wrong'", asked: "Just imagine: What sort of a person would spend a lifetime studying people he loathes? It is quite a bizarre proposition. But there you have it: the late Bernard Lewis did precisely that." Similarly, Richard Bulliet described Lewis as "...a person who does not like the people he is purporting to have expertise about...he doesn’t respect them, he considers them to be good and worthy only to the degree they follow a Western path". According to As'ad AbuKhalil, "Lewis has poisoned the Middle East academic field more than any other Orientalist and his influence has been both academic and political. But there is a new generation of Middle East experts in the West who now see clearly the political agenda of Bernard Lewis. It was fully exposed in the Bush years."
Alleged nuclear threat from Iran
In 2006, Lewis wrote that Iran had been working on a nuclear weapon for fifteen years. In August 2006, in an article about whether the world can rely on the concept of mutual assured destruction as a deterrent in its dealings with Iran, Lewis wrote in The Wall Street Journal about the significance of 22 August 2006 in the Islamic calendar. The Iranian president had indicated he would respond by that date to U.S. demands regarding Iran's development of nuclear power. Lewis wrote that the date corresponded to the 27th day of the month of Rajab of the year 1427, the day Muslims commemorate the night flight of Muhammad from Jerusalem to heaven and back. Lewis wrote that it would be "an appropriate date for the apocalyptic ending of Israel and, if necessary, of the world". According to Lewis, mutual assured destruction is not an effective deterrent in the case of Iran, because of what Lewis describes as the Iranian leadership's "apocalyptic worldview" and the "suicide or martyrdom complex that plagues parts of the Islamic world today". Lewis's article received significant press coverage. However, the day passed without any incident.
Death
Bernard Lewis died on 19 May 2018 at the age of 101, at an assisted-living care facility in Voorhees Township, New Jersey, twelve days before his 102nd birthday.
He is buried in Trumpeldor Cemetery in Tel Aviv.
Bibliography
Awards and honors
1963: Elected as a Fellow of the British Academy
1978: The Harvey Prize, from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, for "his profound insight into the life and mores of the peoples of the Middle East through his writings"
1983: Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
1990: Selected for the Jefferson Lecture by the National Endowment for the Humanities
1996: Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in General Nonfiction, for The Middle East (Scribner)
1999: National Jewish Book Award in the Israel category for The Multiple Identities of the Middle East 2002: The Thomas Jefferson Medal, awarded by the American Philosophical Society
2002: Atatürk International Peace Prize on grounds that he contributed extensively to history scholarship with his accurate analysis of Turkey’s and in particular of Atatürk’s positive impact on Middle Eastern history.
2004: Golden Plate Award from the American Academy of Achievement
2006: National Humanities Medal, from the National Endowment for the Humanities
2007: Irving Kristol Award, from the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
2007: The Scholar-Statesman Award from The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
See also
Bernard Lewis bibliography
List of Princeton University people
References
External links
Lewis's page at Princeton University
Revered and Reviled – Lewis's profile on Moment Magazine''
The Legacy and Fallacies of Bernard Lewis by As`ad AbuKhalil
1916 births
2018 deaths
20th-century American historians
20th-century British historians
20th-century British writers
21st-century American historians
21st-century American male writers
21st-century British historians
21st-century British writers
Academics of SOAS University of London
Alumni of SOAS University of London
American centenarians
American historians
American male non-fiction writers
American people of English-Jewish descent
Deniers of the Armenian genocide
British Army personnel of World War II
English centenarians
British emigrants to the United States
English historians
English Jews
Fellows of the British Academy
Historians of Islam
Historians of the Ottoman Empire
Honorary members of the Turkish Academy of Sciences
Institute for Advanced Study visiting scholars
Intelligence Corps soldiers
Islam and antisemitism
Islam and politics
Jewish American historians
Jewish scholars
Jewish scholars of Islam
Men centenarians
Middle Eastern studies in the United States
National Humanities Medal recipients
Neoconservatism
People from Stoke Newington
British political commentators
Princeton University faculty
Royal Armoured Corps soldiers
Scholars of antisemitism
University of Paris alumni
Cornell University faculty
Foreign Policy Research Institute
Historians of the Middle East
Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs
Middle Eastern studies scholars
Burials at Trumpeldor Cemetery
21st-century American Jews | false | [
"Jamarco Jones (born June 4, 1996) is an American football offensive tackle for the Seattle Seahawks of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for Ohio State. He started his final 27 games at Ohio State at left tackle.\n\nProfessional career\n\nJones was drafted by the Seattle Seahawks in the fifth round, 168th overall, of the 2018 NFL Draft. He was placed on injured reserve on September 1, 2018.\n\nOn October 3, 2019, Jones replaced right guard D.J. Fluker who was injured during a Thursday Night Football game against the Los Angeles Rams. Prior to this point Jones had never played the guard position before. The Seahawks defeated the Rams 30-29. On December 19, 2020, Jones was placed on injured reserve.\n\nOn November 27, 2021, Jones was placed on injured reserve. He was activated on January 1, 2022.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Ohio State Buckeyes bio\nSeattle Seahawks bio\n\n1996 births\nLiving people\nAmerican football offensive tackles\nOhio State Buckeyes football players\nPlayers of American football from Chicago\nSeattle Seahawks players",
"Quentin Poling (born August 17, 1994) is an American football linebacker who is a free agent. He played college football at Ohio.\n\nEarly years\nPoling attended Elida High School in Elida, Ohio.\n\nCollege career\nPoling played college football at Ohio University. He was a team captain and a first-team All-MAC selection. In his Senior year, Poling became Ohio University's all-time leader in both Solo Tackles (219) and Tackles for Loss (45).\n\nProfessional career\n\nMiami Dolphins\nPoling was drafted by the Miami Dolphins in the seventh round, 227th overall, of the 2018 NFL Draft. He was waived on September 1, 2018 and was signed to the practice squad the next day. He signed a reserve/future contract with the Dolphins on January 1, 2019. He was waived/injured by the during final roster cuts on August 31, 2019, and reverted to the team's injured reserve list after clearing waivers on September 1. He was waived from injured reserve with an injury settlement on September 4.\n\nOakland Raiders\nOn September 25, 2019, Poling was signed to the Oakland Raiders practice squad. He was promoted to the active roster on November 7, 2019, but was waived two days later and re-signed to the practice squad. He was released on December 4, 2019.\n\nAtlanta Falcons\nOn December 10, 2019, Poling was signed to the Atlanta Falcons practice squad. His practice squad contract with the team expired on January 6, 2020.\n\nLas Vegas Raiders\nOn February 6, 2020, Poling was signed by the Las Vegas Raiders. He was waived on May 5, 2020.\n\nMinnesota Vikings\nPoling was signed by the Minnesota Vikings on August 8, 2020. He was waived/injured on August 17, 2020, and subsequently reverted to the team's injured reserve list the next day. He was waived on September 2, 2020.\n\nNew Orleans Saints\nOn May 16, 2021, Poling signed with the New Orleans Saints. He was waived/injured on August 13, 2021 and placed on injured reserve. He was waived on August 21.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nOhio Bobcats bio\n\n1994 births\nLiving people\nPeople from Allen County, Ohio\nPlayers of American football from Ohio\nAmerican football linebackers\nOhio Bobcats football players\nMiami Dolphins players\nOakland Raiders players\nAtlanta Falcons players\nLas Vegas Raiders players\nMinnesota Vikings players\nNew Orleans Saints players"
]
|
[
"Bernard Lewis",
"Academic career",
"Where did Bernard Lewis go to school?",
"School of Oriental Studies",
"Where was this located?",
"University of London",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"During the Second World War, Lewis served in the British Army in the Royal Armoured Corps and as a Corporal in the Intelligence Corps in 1940-41",
"Was he injured during this?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_49bcb0b5cef543eaad8de30f9d6da37b_1 | While in school did he study multiple things? | 5 | While in school did Bernard Lewis study multiple things? | Bernard Lewis | In 1936, Lewis graduated from the School of Oriental Studies (now School of Oriental and African Studies, SOAS) at the University of London with a BA in history with special reference to the Near and Middle East. He earned his PhD three years later, also from SOAS, specializing in the history of Islam. Lewis also studied law, going part of the way toward becoming a solicitor, but returned to study Middle Eastern history. He undertook post-graduate studies at the University of Paris, where he studied with the orientalist Louis Massignon and earned the "Diplome des Etudes Semitiques" in 1937. He returned to SOAS in 1938 as an assistant lecturer in Islamic History. During the Second World War, Lewis served in the British Army in the Royal Armoured Corps and as a Corporal in the Intelligence Corps in 1940-41 before being seconded to the Foreign Office. After the war, he returned to SOAS. In 1949, at the age of 33, he was appointed to the new chair in Near and Middle Eastern History. In 1974, aged 57, Lewis accepted a joint position at Princeton University and the Institute for Advanced Study, also located in Princeton, New Jersey. The terms of his appointment were such that Lewis taught only one semester per year, and being free from administrative responsibilities, he could devote more time to research than previously. Consequently, Lewis's arrival at Princeton marked the beginning of the most prolific period in his research career during which he published numerous books and articles based on previously accumulated materials. After retiring from Princeton in 1986, Lewis served at Cornell University until 1990. In 1966, Lewis was a founding member of the learned society, Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA), but in 2007 he broke away and founded Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa (ASMEA) to challenge MESA, which the New York Sun noted as "dominated by academics who have been critical of Israel and of America's role in the Middle East." The organization was formed as an academic society dedicated to promoting high standards of research and teaching in Middle Eastern and African studies and other related fields, with Lewis as Chairman of its academic council. In 1990, the National Endowment for the Humanities selected Lewis for the Jefferson Lecture, the U.S. federal government's highest honor for achievement in the humanities. His lecture, entitled "Western Civilization: A View from the East", was revised and reprinted in The Atlantic Monthly under the title "The Roots of Muslim Rage." His 2007 Irving Kristol Lecture, given to the American Enterprise Institute, was published as Europe and Islam. CANNOTANSWER | After retiring from Princeton in 1986, Lewis served at Cornell University until 1990. | Bernard Lewis, (31 May 1916 – 19 May 2018) was a British American historian specialized in Oriental studies. He was also known as a public intellectual and political commentator. Lewis was the Cleveland E. Dodge Professor Emeritus of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University. Lewis's expertise was in the history of Islam and the interaction between Islam and the West.
Lewis served as a soldier in the British Army in the Royal Armoured Corps and Intelligence Corps during the Second World War before being seconded to the Foreign Office. After the war, he returned to the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London and was appointed to the new chair in Near and Middle Eastern history.
In 2007 Lewis was called "the West's leading interpreter of the Middle East". Others have argued Lewis's approach is essentialist and generalizing to the Muslim world, as well as his tendency to restate hypotheses that were challenged by more recent research. On a political level, Lewis is accused by his detractors with having revived the image of the cultural inferiority of Islam and of emphasizing the dangers of jihad. His advice was frequently sought by neoconservative policymakers, including the Bush administration. However, his active support of the Iraq War and neoconservative ideals have since come under scrutiny.
Lewis was also notable for his public debates with Edward Said, who accused Lewis and other orientalists of misrepresenting Islam and serving the purposes of Western imperialist domination, to which Lewis responded by defending Orientalism as a facet of humanism and accusing Said of politicizing the subject. Furthermore, Lewis notoriously denied the Armenian genocide. He argued that the deaths of the mass killings resulted from a struggle between two nationalistic movements, claiming that there is no proof of intent by the Ottoman government to exterminate the Armenian nation.
Family and personal life
Bernard Lewis was born on 31 May 1916 to middle-class British Jewish parents, Harry Lewis and the former Jane Levy, in Stoke Newington, London. He became interested in languages and history while preparing for his bar mitzvah. In 1947 he married Ruth Hélène Oppenhejm, with whom he had a daughter and a son. Their marriage was dissolved in 1974. Lewis became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1982.
Academic career
In 1936, Lewis graduated from the School of Oriental Studies (now School of Oriental and African Studies, SOAS) at the University of London with a BA in history with special reference to the Near and Middle East. He earned his PhD three years later, also from SOAS, specializing in the history of Islam. Lewis also studied law, going part of the way toward becoming a solicitor, but returned to study Middle Eastern history. He undertook post-graduate studies at the University of Paris, where he studied with the orientalist Louis Massignon and earned the "Diplôme des Études Sémitiques" in 1937. He returned to SOAS in 1938 as an assistant lecturer in Islamic History.
During the Second World War, Lewis served in the British Army in the Royal Armoured Corps and as a Corporal in the Intelligence Corps in 1940–41 before being seconded to the Foreign Office. After the war, he returned to SOAS, where he would remain for the next 25 years. In 1949, at the age of 33, he was appointed to the new chair in Near and Middle Eastern History. In 1963, Lewis was granted fellowship of the British Academy.
In 1974, aged 57, Lewis accepted a joint position at Princeton University and the Institute for Advanced Study, also located in Princeton, New Jersey. The terms of his appointment were such that Lewis taught only one semester per year, and being free from administrative responsibilities, he could devote more time to research than previously. Consequently, Lewis's arrival at Princeton marked the beginning of the most prolific period in his research career during which he published numerous books and articles based on previously accumulated materials. After retiring from Princeton in 1986, Lewis served at Cornell University until 1990.
In 1966, Lewis was a founding member of the learned society, Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA), but in 2007 he broke away and founded Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa (ASMEA) to challenge MESA, which the New York Sun noted as "dominated by academics who have been critical of Israel and of America's role in the Middle East". The organization was formed as an academic society dedicated to promoting high standards of research and teaching in Middle Eastern and African studies and other related fields, with Lewis as Chairman of its academic council.
In 1990, the National Endowment for the Humanities selected Lewis for the Jefferson Lecture, the U.S. federal government's highest honor for achievement in the humanities. His lecture, entitled "Western Civilization: A View from the East", was revised and reprinted in The Atlantic Monthly under the title "The Roots of Muslim Rage." His 2007 Irving Kristol Lecture, given to the American Enterprise Institute, was published as Europe and Islam.
Research
Lewis's influence extends beyond academia to the general public. He began his research career with the study of medieval Arab, especially Syrian, history. His first article, dedicated to professional guilds of medieval Islam, had been widely regarded as the most authoritative work on the subject for about thirty years. However, after the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, scholars of Jewish origin found it more and more difficult to conduct archival and field research in Arab countries, where they were suspected of espionage. Therefore, Lewis switched to the study of the Ottoman Empire, while continuing to research Arab history through the Ottoman archives which had only recently been opened to Western researchers. A series of articles that Lewis published over the next several years revolutionized the history of the Middle East by giving a broad picture of Islamic society, including its government, economy, and demographics.
Lewis argued that the Middle East is currently backward and its decline was a largely self-inflicted condition resulting from both culture and religion, as opposed to the post-colonialist view which posits the problems of the region as economic and political maldevelopment mainly due to the 19th-century European colonization. In his 1982 work Muslim Discovery of Europe, Lewis argues that Muslim societies could not keep pace with the West and that "Crusader successes were due in no small part to Muslim weakness." Further, he suggested that as early as the 11th century Islamic societies were decaying, primarily the byproduct of internal problems like "cultural arrogance," which was a barrier to creative borrowing, rather than external pressures like the Crusades.
In the wake of Soviet and Arab attempts to delegitimize Israel as a racist country, Lewis wrote a study of anti-Semitism, Semites and Anti-Semites (1986). In other works he argued Arab rage against Israel was disproportionate to other tragedies or injustices in the Muslim world, such as the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and control of Muslim-majority land in Central Asia, the bloody and destructive fighting during the Hama uprising in Syria (1982), the Algerian Civil War (1992–1998), and the Iran–Iraq War (1980–1988).
In addition to his scholarly works, Lewis wrote several influential books accessible to the general public: The Arabs in History (1950), The Middle East and the West (1964), and The Middle East (1995). In the wake of the 11 September 2001 attacks, the interest in Lewis's work surged, especially his 1990 essay The Roots of Muslim Rage. Three of his books were published after 9/11: What Went Wrong? (written before the attacks), which explored the reasons of the Muslim world's apprehension of (and sometimes outright hostility to) modernization; The Crisis of Islam; and Islam: The Religion and the People.
Abraham Udovitch described him as "certainly the most eminent and respected historian of the Arab world, of the Islamic world, of the Middle East and beyond".
Armenian genocide
The first two editions of Lewis's The Emergence of Modern Turkey (1961 and 1968) describe the Armenian genocide as "the terrible holocaust of 1915, when a million and a half Armenians perished". In later editions, this text is altered to "the terrible slaughter of 1915, when, according to estimates, more than a million Armenians perished, as well as an unknown number of Turks". In this passage, Lewis argues that the deaths were the result of a struggle for the same land between two competing nationalist movements.
The change in Lewis's textual description of the Armenian genocide and his signing of the petition against the Congressional resolution was controversial among some Armenian historians as well as journalists, who suggested that Lewis was engaging in historical revisionism to serve his own political and personal interests.
Lewis called the label "genocide" the "Armenian version of this history" in a November 1993 interview with Le Monde, for which he faced a civil proceeding in a French court. In a subsequent exchange on the pages of Le Monde, Lewis wrote that while "terrible atrocities" did occur, "there exists no serious proof of a decision and of a plan of the Ottoman government aiming to exterminate the Armenian nation". He was ordered to pay one franc as damages for his statements on the Armenian genocide in Ottoman Turkey. Three other court cases against Bernard Lewis failed in the Paris tribunal, including one filed by the Armenian National Committee of France and two filed by Jacques Trémollet de Villers.
Lewis's views on the Armenian genocide were criticized by a number of historians and sociologists, among them Alain Finkielkraut, Yves Ternon, Richard G. Hovannisian, Robert Melson, and Pierre Vidal-Naquet.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Finkelstein|first1=Norman G.|title=The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering|date=2003|publisher=Verso|location=London|isbn=978-1859844885|page=69}}</ref>
Lewis has argued for his denial stance that:
Lewis has been labelled a "genocide denier" by Stephen Zunes, Israel Charny, David B. MacDonald and the Armenian National Committee of America. Israeli historian Yair Auron suggested that "Lewis' stature provided a lofty cover for the Turkish national agenda of obfuscating academic research on the Armenian Genocide". Israel Charny wrote that Lewis's "seemingly scholarly concern ... of Armenians constituting a threat to the Turks as a rebellious force who together with the Russians threatened the Ottoman Empire, and the insistence that only a policy of deportations was executed, barely conceal the fact that the organized deportations constituted systematic mass murder". Charny compares the "logical structures" employed by Lewis in his denial of the genocide to those employed by Ernst Nolte in his Holocaust negationism.
Views and influence on contemporary politics
In the mid-1960s, Lewis emerged as a commentator on the issues of the modern Middle East and his analysis of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and the rise of militant Islam brought him publicity and aroused significant controversy. American historian Joel Beinin has called him "perhaps the most articulate and learned Zionist advocate in the North American Middle East academic community". Lewis's policy advice has particular weight thanks to this scholarly authority. U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney remarked "in this new century, his wisdom is sought daily by policymakers, diplomats, fellow academics, and the news media".
A harsh critic of the Soviet Union, Lewis continued the liberal tradition in Islamic historical studies. Although his early Marxist views had a bearing on his first book The Origins of Ismailism, Lewis subsequently discarded Marxism. His later works are a reaction against the left-wing current of Third-worldism which came to be a significant current in Middle Eastern studies.
During his career Lewis developed ties with governments around the world: during her time as Prime Minister of Israel, Golda Meir assigned Lewis's articles as reading to her cabinet members, and during the Presidency of George W. Bush, he advised administration members including Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Bush himself. He was also close to King Hussein of Jordan and his brother, Prince Hassan bin Talal. He also had ties to the regime of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran, the Turkish military dictatorship led by Kenan Evren, and the Egyptian government of Anwar Sadat: he acted as a go-between between the Sadat administration and Israel in 1971 when he relayed a message to the Israeli government regarding the possibility of a peace agreement at the request of Sadat's spokesman Tahasin Bashir.
Lewis advocated closer Western ties with Israel and Turkey, which he saw as especially important in light of the extension of the Soviet influence in the Middle East. Modern Turkey holds a special place in Lewis's view of the region due to the country's efforts to become a part of the West. He was an Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Turkish Studies, an honor which is given "on the basis of generally recognized scholarly distinction and ... long and devoted service to the field of Turkish Studies."
Lewis views Christendom and Islam as civilizations that have been in perpetual collision since the advent of Islam in the 7th century. In his essay The Roots of Muslim Rage (1990), he argued that the struggle between the West and Islam was gathering strength. According to one source, this essay (and Lewis's 1990 Jefferson Lecture on which the article was based) first introduced the term "Islamic fundamentalism" to North America. This essay has been credited with coining the phrase "clash of civilizations", which received prominence in the eponymous book by Samuel Huntington. However, another source indicates that Lewis first used the phrase "clash of civilizations" at a 1957 meeting in Washington where it was recorded in the transcript.
In 1998, Lewis read in a London-based newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabi a declaration of war on the United States by Osama bin Laden. In his essay "A License to Kill", Lewis indicated he considered bin Laden's language as the "ideology of jihad" and warned that bin Laden would be a danger to the West. The essay was published after the Clinton administration and the US intelligence community had begun its hunt for bin Laden in Sudan and then in Afghanistan.
Jihad
Lewis writes of jihad as a distinct religious obligation, but suggests that it is a pity that people engaging in terrorist activities are not more aware of their own religion:The fanatical warrior offering his victims the choice of the Koran or the sword is not only untrue, it is impossible. The alleged choice - conversion or death - is also, with rare and atypical exceptions, untrue. Muslim tolerance of unbelievers and misbelievers was far better than anything available in Christendom until the rise of secularism in the 17th century.
Muslim fighters are commanded not to kill women, children, or the aged unless they attack first; not to torture or otherwise ill-treat prisoners; to give fair warnings of the opening of hostilities or their resumption after a truce; and to honor agreements. At no time did the classical jurists offer any approval or legitimacy to what we nowdays call terrorism. Nor indeed is there any evidence of the use of terrorism as it is practiced nowadays.
The emergence of the by now widespread terrorism practice of suicide bombing is a development of the 20th century. It has no antecedents in Islamic history, and no justification in the terms of Islamic theology, law, or tradition.As'ad AbuKhalil, has criticized this view and stated: "Methodologically, [Lewis] insists that terrorism by individual Muslims should be considered Islamic terrorism, while terrorism by individual Jews or Christians is never considered Jewish or Christian terrorism."
He also criticised Lewis's understanding of Osama bin Laden, seeing Lewis's interpretation of bin Laden "as some kind of influential Muslim theologian" along the lines of classical theologians like Al-Ghazali, rather than "the terrorist fanatic that he is". AbuKhalil has also criticized the place of Islam in Lewis's worldview more generally, arguing that the most prominent feature of his work was its "theologocentrism" (borrowing a term from Maxime Rodinson) - that Lewis interprets all aspects of behavior among Muslims solely through the lens of Islamic theology, subsuming the study of Muslim peoples, their languages, the geographical areas where Muslims predominate, Islamic governments, the governments of Arab countries and Sharia under the label of "Islam".
Debates with Edward Said
Lewis was known for his literary debates with Edward Said, the Palestinian American literary theorist whose aim was to deconstruct what he called Orientalist scholarship. Said, who was a professor at Columbia University, characterized Lewis's work as a prime example of Orientalism in his 1978 book Orientalism and in his later book Covering Islam: How the Media and the Experts Determine How We See the Rest of the World (1981). Said asserted that the field of Orientalism was political intellectualism bent on self-affirmation rather than objective study, a form of racism, and a tool of imperialist domination. He further questioned the scientific neutrality of some leading Middle East scholars, including Lewis, on the Arab World. In an interview with Al-Ahram weekly, Said suggested that Lewis's knowledge of the Middle East was so biased that it could not be taken seriously and claimed "Bernard Lewis hasn't set foot in the Middle East, in the Arab world, for at least 40 years. He knows something about Turkey, I'm told, but he knows nothing about the Arab world." Said considered that Lewis treats Islam as a monolithic entity without the nuance of its plurality, internal dynamics, and historical complexities, and accused him of "demagogy and downright ignorance". In Covering Islam, Said argued that "Lewis simply cannot deal with the diversity of Muslim, much less human life, because it is closed to him as something foreign, radically different, and other," and he criticised Lewis's "inability to grant that the Islamic peoples are entitled to their own cultural, political, and historical practices, free from Lewis's calculated attempt to show that because they are not Western... they can't be good."
Rejecting the view that Western scholarship was biased against the Middle East, Lewis responded that Orientalism developed as a facet of European humanism, independently of the past European imperial expansion. He noted the French and English pursued the study of Islam in the 16th and 17th centuries, yet not in an organized way, but long before they had any control or hope of control in the Middle East; and that much of Orientalist study did nothing to advance the cause of imperialism. In his 1993 book Islam and the West, Lewis wrote "What imperial purpose was served by deciphering the ancient Egyptian language, for example, and then restoring to the Egyptians knowledge of and pride in their forgotten, ancient past?"
Furthermore, Lewis accused Said of politicizing the scientific study of the Middle East (and Arabic studies in particular); neglecting to critique the scholarly findings of the Orientalists; and giving "free rein" to his biases.
Stance on the Iraq War
In 2002, Lewis wrote an article for The Wall Street Journal regarding the buildup to the Iraq War entitled "Time for Toppling", where he stated his opinion that "a regime change may well be dangerous, but sometimes the dangers of inaction are greater than those of action". In 2007, Jacob Weisberg described Lewis as "perhaps the most significant intellectual influence behind the invasion of Iraq". Michael Hirsh attributed to Lewis the view that regime change in Iraq would provide a jolt that would "modernize the Middle East" and suggested that Lewis's allegedly 'orientalist' theories about "what went wrong" in the Middle East, and other writings, formed the intellectual basis of the push towards war in Iraq. Hirsch reported that Lewis had told him in an interview that he viewed the 11 September attacks as "the opening salvo of the final battle" between Western and Islamic civilisations: Lewis believed that a forceful response was necessary. In the run up to the Iraq War, he met with Vice President Dick Cheney several times: Hirsch quoted an unnamed official who was present at a number of these meetings, who summarised Lewis's view of Iraq as "Get on with it. Don't dither". Brent Scowcroft quoted Lewis as stating that he believed "that one of the things you’ve got to do to Arabs is hit them between the eyes with a big stick. They respect power". As'ad AbuKhalil has claimed that Lewis assured Cheney that American troops would be welcomed by Iraqis and Arabs, relying on the opinion of his colleague Fouad Ajami. Hirsch also drew parallels between the Bush administration's plans for post-invasion Iraq and Lewis's views, in particular his admiration for Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's secularist and Westernising reforms in the new Republic of Turkey which emerged from the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.
Writing in 2008, Lewis did not advocate imposing freedom and democracy on Islamic nations. "There are things you can't impose. Freedom, for example. Or democracy. Democracy is a very strong medicine which has to be administered to the patient in small, gradually increasing doses. Otherwise, you risk killing the patient. In the main, the Muslims have to do it themselves."
Ian Buruma, writing for The New Yorker in an article subtitled "The two Minds of Bernard Lewis", finds Lewis's stance on the war difficult to reconcile with Lewis's past statements cautioning democracy enforcement in the world at large. Buruma ultimately rejects suggestions by his peers that Lewis promotes war with Iraq to safeguard Israel, but instead concludes "perhaps he loves it [the Arab world] too much":
Hamid Dabashi, writing on 28 May 2018, in an article subtitled "On Bernard Lewis and 'his extraordinary capacity for getting everything wrong'", asked: "Just imagine: What sort of a person would spend a lifetime studying people he loathes? It is quite a bizarre proposition. But there you have it: the late Bernard Lewis did precisely that." Similarly, Richard Bulliet described Lewis as "...a person who does not like the people he is purporting to have expertise about...he doesn’t respect them, he considers them to be good and worthy only to the degree they follow a Western path". According to As'ad AbuKhalil, "Lewis has poisoned the Middle East academic field more than any other Orientalist and his influence has been both academic and political. But there is a new generation of Middle East experts in the West who now see clearly the political agenda of Bernard Lewis. It was fully exposed in the Bush years."
Alleged nuclear threat from Iran
In 2006, Lewis wrote that Iran had been working on a nuclear weapon for fifteen years. In August 2006, in an article about whether the world can rely on the concept of mutual assured destruction as a deterrent in its dealings with Iran, Lewis wrote in The Wall Street Journal about the significance of 22 August 2006 in the Islamic calendar. The Iranian president had indicated he would respond by that date to U.S. demands regarding Iran's development of nuclear power. Lewis wrote that the date corresponded to the 27th day of the month of Rajab of the year 1427, the day Muslims commemorate the night flight of Muhammad from Jerusalem to heaven and back. Lewis wrote that it would be "an appropriate date for the apocalyptic ending of Israel and, if necessary, of the world". According to Lewis, mutual assured destruction is not an effective deterrent in the case of Iran, because of what Lewis describes as the Iranian leadership's "apocalyptic worldview" and the "suicide or martyrdom complex that plagues parts of the Islamic world today". Lewis's article received significant press coverage. However, the day passed without any incident.
Death
Bernard Lewis died on 19 May 2018 at the age of 101, at an assisted-living care facility in Voorhees Township, New Jersey, twelve days before his 102nd birthday.
He is buried in Trumpeldor Cemetery in Tel Aviv.
Bibliography
Awards and honors
1963: Elected as a Fellow of the British Academy
1978: The Harvey Prize, from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, for "his profound insight into the life and mores of the peoples of the Middle East through his writings"
1983: Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
1990: Selected for the Jefferson Lecture by the National Endowment for the Humanities
1996: Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in General Nonfiction, for The Middle East (Scribner)
1999: National Jewish Book Award in the Israel category for The Multiple Identities of the Middle East 2002: The Thomas Jefferson Medal, awarded by the American Philosophical Society
2002: Atatürk International Peace Prize on grounds that he contributed extensively to history scholarship with his accurate analysis of Turkey’s and in particular of Atatürk’s positive impact on Middle Eastern history.
2004: Golden Plate Award from the American Academy of Achievement
2006: National Humanities Medal, from the National Endowment for the Humanities
2007: Irving Kristol Award, from the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
2007: The Scholar-Statesman Award from The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
See also
Bernard Lewis bibliography
List of Princeton University people
References
External links
Lewis's page at Princeton University
Revered and Reviled – Lewis's profile on Moment Magazine''
The Legacy and Fallacies of Bernard Lewis by As`ad AbuKhalil
1916 births
2018 deaths
20th-century American historians
20th-century British historians
20th-century British writers
21st-century American historians
21st-century American male writers
21st-century British historians
21st-century British writers
Academics of SOAS University of London
Alumni of SOAS University of London
American centenarians
American historians
American male non-fiction writers
American people of English-Jewish descent
Deniers of the Armenian genocide
British Army personnel of World War II
English centenarians
British emigrants to the United States
English historians
English Jews
Fellows of the British Academy
Historians of Islam
Historians of the Ottoman Empire
Honorary members of the Turkish Academy of Sciences
Institute for Advanced Study visiting scholars
Intelligence Corps soldiers
Islam and antisemitism
Islam and politics
Jewish American historians
Jewish scholars
Jewish scholars of Islam
Men centenarians
Middle Eastern studies in the United States
National Humanities Medal recipients
Neoconservatism
People from Stoke Newington
British political commentators
Princeton University faculty
Royal Armoured Corps soldiers
Scholars of antisemitism
University of Paris alumni
Cornell University faculty
Foreign Policy Research Institute
Historians of the Middle East
Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs
Middle Eastern studies scholars
Burials at Trumpeldor Cemetery
21st-century American Jews | true | [
"Study hall, known as private study or structured study in the United Kingdom, is a term for a place to have a study time during the school day where students are assigned to study when they are not scheduled for an academic class. They are most commonly found in high schools and some middle schools, especially in the United States. In colleges, such a place may be called a student lounge. It is not to be confused with studying in a hallway.\n\nDescription\n\nStudy halls generally have assigned rooms and are monitored by teachers or teacher's aides, who often encourage students to use this time to complete homework, catch up on missing assignments, or study for tests or quizzes. Sometimes, students also use study halls to converse, make phone calls, text messages, play video games, or otherwise socialize or pursue non-academic topics, though this is sometimes discouraged or forbidden. Periods in which such things are allowed are occasionally differentiated from study halls by the name \"free period\". Some students even eat lunch during a study hall due to long lines and short lunch periods at their schools.\n\nStudy halls are often used by students to visit with teachers, who have a \"prep period\", in order to discuss work or assignments. A study hall can be a period to utilize school resources or otherwise request teacher assistance in any subject not understood by the student.\n\nAcademics, such as school principal Jeff Gilbert, feel that study hall is an inefficient allocation of time which is often underutilized, but others say it is a positive addition to a regular schedule because it creates a good environment for completing homework or large projects.\n\nHistory \nIn 1835, At Maynooth College, the corridors were so cold in the winter that Study-hall, was preferred by student's even with their strict silence policy.\n\nThe term library-study hall was first used in the University of Chicago and it was the first one in the United States. \n\nIn 1910, education psychologist Charles Hubbard Judd set up a study hall in the school library of the University of Chicago Laboratory High School.\n\nApproximately one thousands volumes started in a class room on September 1910. \n\nA professionally trainer librarian resigned in disappointed because she had lots of work; supervising the students and maintaining the library in place.\n\nMiss Hannah Logasa had visited the Laboratory High School library on September 1914. In her twenty-six years as a librarian she did many things to fulfill Dr. Judd's dream. \n\nA 1938 examination by Hannah Logasa on the use of study hall concluded that students did not use the time for studying, and that the primary purpose of the period was to permit school administrators to carry out a more orderly organized school day.\n\nA 1966 study reported that students who spent additional time at home working on homework achieved higher grades than students who spent more time in study hall.\n\nReferences\n\nEducational facilities\nCurricula",
"Leonard Nelson Hubbard (1958/1959 – December 16, 2021), also known simply as Hub, was an American musician who was best known for being the bass guitarist for The Roots, a Philadelphia band, from 1992 to 2007. He played on all of their records until his departure from the group, including 1999's Things Fall Apart and 2004's The Tipping Point. He was known for always having a chew stick in his mouth, both on and off the stage. Hubbard studied at Settlement Music School during his youth in Philadelphia, then went on to study classical upright bass at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.\n\nHub played his last show with The Roots on June 7, 2008, at the first annual Roots Picnic.\n\nHub lived in West Philadelphia. He was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2007, and died from the disease at Lankenau Medical Center in Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania, on December 16, 2021, at the age of 62.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n \n\n1950s births\n2021 deaths\n20th-century American bass guitarists\n21st-century American bass guitarists\nAmerican male bass guitarists\nAmerican male guitarists\nCarnegie Mellon University College of Fine Arts alumni\nDeaths from cancer in Pennsylvania\nDeaths from multiple myeloma\nGuitarists from Philadelphia\nThe Roots members"
]
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[
"Bernard Lewis",
"Academic career",
"Where did Bernard Lewis go to school?",
"School of Oriental Studies",
"Where was this located?",
"University of London",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"During the Second World War, Lewis served in the British Army in the Royal Armoured Corps and as a Corporal in the Intelligence Corps in 1940-41",
"Was he injured during this?",
"I don't know.",
"While in school did he study multiple things?",
"After retiring from Princeton in 1986, Lewis served at Cornell University until 1990."
]
| C_49bcb0b5cef543eaad8de30f9d6da37b_1 | What did he do serving there? | 6 | What did Bernard Lewis do serving at Cornell University? | Bernard Lewis | In 1936, Lewis graduated from the School of Oriental Studies (now School of Oriental and African Studies, SOAS) at the University of London with a BA in history with special reference to the Near and Middle East. He earned his PhD three years later, also from SOAS, specializing in the history of Islam. Lewis also studied law, going part of the way toward becoming a solicitor, but returned to study Middle Eastern history. He undertook post-graduate studies at the University of Paris, where he studied with the orientalist Louis Massignon and earned the "Diplome des Etudes Semitiques" in 1937. He returned to SOAS in 1938 as an assistant lecturer in Islamic History. During the Second World War, Lewis served in the British Army in the Royal Armoured Corps and as a Corporal in the Intelligence Corps in 1940-41 before being seconded to the Foreign Office. After the war, he returned to SOAS. In 1949, at the age of 33, he was appointed to the new chair in Near and Middle Eastern History. In 1974, aged 57, Lewis accepted a joint position at Princeton University and the Institute for Advanced Study, also located in Princeton, New Jersey. The terms of his appointment were such that Lewis taught only one semester per year, and being free from administrative responsibilities, he could devote more time to research than previously. Consequently, Lewis's arrival at Princeton marked the beginning of the most prolific period in his research career during which he published numerous books and articles based on previously accumulated materials. After retiring from Princeton in 1986, Lewis served at Cornell University until 1990. In 1966, Lewis was a founding member of the learned society, Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA), but in 2007 he broke away and founded Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa (ASMEA) to challenge MESA, which the New York Sun noted as "dominated by academics who have been critical of Israel and of America's role in the Middle East." The organization was formed as an academic society dedicated to promoting high standards of research and teaching in Middle Eastern and African studies and other related fields, with Lewis as Chairman of its academic council. In 1990, the National Endowment for the Humanities selected Lewis for the Jefferson Lecture, the U.S. federal government's highest honor for achievement in the humanities. His lecture, entitled "Western Civilization: A View from the East", was revised and reprinted in The Atlantic Monthly under the title "The Roots of Muslim Rage." His 2007 Irving Kristol Lecture, given to the American Enterprise Institute, was published as Europe and Islam. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Bernard Lewis, (31 May 1916 – 19 May 2018) was a British American historian specialized in Oriental studies. He was also known as a public intellectual and political commentator. Lewis was the Cleveland E. Dodge Professor Emeritus of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University. Lewis's expertise was in the history of Islam and the interaction between Islam and the West.
Lewis served as a soldier in the British Army in the Royal Armoured Corps and Intelligence Corps during the Second World War before being seconded to the Foreign Office. After the war, he returned to the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London and was appointed to the new chair in Near and Middle Eastern history.
In 2007 Lewis was called "the West's leading interpreter of the Middle East". Others have argued Lewis's approach is essentialist and generalizing to the Muslim world, as well as his tendency to restate hypotheses that were challenged by more recent research. On a political level, Lewis is accused by his detractors with having revived the image of the cultural inferiority of Islam and of emphasizing the dangers of jihad. His advice was frequently sought by neoconservative policymakers, including the Bush administration. However, his active support of the Iraq War and neoconservative ideals have since come under scrutiny.
Lewis was also notable for his public debates with Edward Said, who accused Lewis and other orientalists of misrepresenting Islam and serving the purposes of Western imperialist domination, to which Lewis responded by defending Orientalism as a facet of humanism and accusing Said of politicizing the subject. Furthermore, Lewis notoriously denied the Armenian genocide. He argued that the deaths of the mass killings resulted from a struggle between two nationalistic movements, claiming that there is no proof of intent by the Ottoman government to exterminate the Armenian nation.
Family and personal life
Bernard Lewis was born on 31 May 1916 to middle-class British Jewish parents, Harry Lewis and the former Jane Levy, in Stoke Newington, London. He became interested in languages and history while preparing for his bar mitzvah. In 1947 he married Ruth Hélène Oppenhejm, with whom he had a daughter and a son. Their marriage was dissolved in 1974. Lewis became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1982.
Academic career
In 1936, Lewis graduated from the School of Oriental Studies (now School of Oriental and African Studies, SOAS) at the University of London with a BA in history with special reference to the Near and Middle East. He earned his PhD three years later, also from SOAS, specializing in the history of Islam. Lewis also studied law, going part of the way toward becoming a solicitor, but returned to study Middle Eastern history. He undertook post-graduate studies at the University of Paris, where he studied with the orientalist Louis Massignon and earned the "Diplôme des Études Sémitiques" in 1937. He returned to SOAS in 1938 as an assistant lecturer in Islamic History.
During the Second World War, Lewis served in the British Army in the Royal Armoured Corps and as a Corporal in the Intelligence Corps in 1940–41 before being seconded to the Foreign Office. After the war, he returned to SOAS, where he would remain for the next 25 years. In 1949, at the age of 33, he was appointed to the new chair in Near and Middle Eastern History. In 1963, Lewis was granted fellowship of the British Academy.
In 1974, aged 57, Lewis accepted a joint position at Princeton University and the Institute for Advanced Study, also located in Princeton, New Jersey. The terms of his appointment were such that Lewis taught only one semester per year, and being free from administrative responsibilities, he could devote more time to research than previously. Consequently, Lewis's arrival at Princeton marked the beginning of the most prolific period in his research career during which he published numerous books and articles based on previously accumulated materials. After retiring from Princeton in 1986, Lewis served at Cornell University until 1990.
In 1966, Lewis was a founding member of the learned society, Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA), but in 2007 he broke away and founded Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa (ASMEA) to challenge MESA, which the New York Sun noted as "dominated by academics who have been critical of Israel and of America's role in the Middle East". The organization was formed as an academic society dedicated to promoting high standards of research and teaching in Middle Eastern and African studies and other related fields, with Lewis as Chairman of its academic council.
In 1990, the National Endowment for the Humanities selected Lewis for the Jefferson Lecture, the U.S. federal government's highest honor for achievement in the humanities. His lecture, entitled "Western Civilization: A View from the East", was revised and reprinted in The Atlantic Monthly under the title "The Roots of Muslim Rage." His 2007 Irving Kristol Lecture, given to the American Enterprise Institute, was published as Europe and Islam.
Research
Lewis's influence extends beyond academia to the general public. He began his research career with the study of medieval Arab, especially Syrian, history. His first article, dedicated to professional guilds of medieval Islam, had been widely regarded as the most authoritative work on the subject for about thirty years. However, after the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, scholars of Jewish origin found it more and more difficult to conduct archival and field research in Arab countries, where they were suspected of espionage. Therefore, Lewis switched to the study of the Ottoman Empire, while continuing to research Arab history through the Ottoman archives which had only recently been opened to Western researchers. A series of articles that Lewis published over the next several years revolutionized the history of the Middle East by giving a broad picture of Islamic society, including its government, economy, and demographics.
Lewis argued that the Middle East is currently backward and its decline was a largely self-inflicted condition resulting from both culture and religion, as opposed to the post-colonialist view which posits the problems of the region as economic and political maldevelopment mainly due to the 19th-century European colonization. In his 1982 work Muslim Discovery of Europe, Lewis argues that Muslim societies could not keep pace with the West and that "Crusader successes were due in no small part to Muslim weakness." Further, he suggested that as early as the 11th century Islamic societies were decaying, primarily the byproduct of internal problems like "cultural arrogance," which was a barrier to creative borrowing, rather than external pressures like the Crusades.
In the wake of Soviet and Arab attempts to delegitimize Israel as a racist country, Lewis wrote a study of anti-Semitism, Semites and Anti-Semites (1986). In other works he argued Arab rage against Israel was disproportionate to other tragedies or injustices in the Muslim world, such as the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and control of Muslim-majority land in Central Asia, the bloody and destructive fighting during the Hama uprising in Syria (1982), the Algerian Civil War (1992–1998), and the Iran–Iraq War (1980–1988).
In addition to his scholarly works, Lewis wrote several influential books accessible to the general public: The Arabs in History (1950), The Middle East and the West (1964), and The Middle East (1995). In the wake of the 11 September 2001 attacks, the interest in Lewis's work surged, especially his 1990 essay The Roots of Muslim Rage. Three of his books were published after 9/11: What Went Wrong? (written before the attacks), which explored the reasons of the Muslim world's apprehension of (and sometimes outright hostility to) modernization; The Crisis of Islam; and Islam: The Religion and the People.
Abraham Udovitch described him as "certainly the most eminent and respected historian of the Arab world, of the Islamic world, of the Middle East and beyond".
Armenian genocide
The first two editions of Lewis's The Emergence of Modern Turkey (1961 and 1968) describe the Armenian genocide as "the terrible holocaust of 1915, when a million and a half Armenians perished". In later editions, this text is altered to "the terrible slaughter of 1915, when, according to estimates, more than a million Armenians perished, as well as an unknown number of Turks". In this passage, Lewis argues that the deaths were the result of a struggle for the same land between two competing nationalist movements.
The change in Lewis's textual description of the Armenian genocide and his signing of the petition against the Congressional resolution was controversial among some Armenian historians as well as journalists, who suggested that Lewis was engaging in historical revisionism to serve his own political and personal interests.
Lewis called the label "genocide" the "Armenian version of this history" in a November 1993 interview with Le Monde, for which he faced a civil proceeding in a French court. In a subsequent exchange on the pages of Le Monde, Lewis wrote that while "terrible atrocities" did occur, "there exists no serious proof of a decision and of a plan of the Ottoman government aiming to exterminate the Armenian nation". He was ordered to pay one franc as damages for his statements on the Armenian genocide in Ottoman Turkey. Three other court cases against Bernard Lewis failed in the Paris tribunal, including one filed by the Armenian National Committee of France and two filed by Jacques Trémollet de Villers.
Lewis's views on the Armenian genocide were criticized by a number of historians and sociologists, among them Alain Finkielkraut, Yves Ternon, Richard G. Hovannisian, Robert Melson, and Pierre Vidal-Naquet.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Finkelstein|first1=Norman G.|title=The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering|date=2003|publisher=Verso|location=London|isbn=978-1859844885|page=69}}</ref>
Lewis has argued for his denial stance that:
Lewis has been labelled a "genocide denier" by Stephen Zunes, Israel Charny, David B. MacDonald and the Armenian National Committee of America. Israeli historian Yair Auron suggested that "Lewis' stature provided a lofty cover for the Turkish national agenda of obfuscating academic research on the Armenian Genocide". Israel Charny wrote that Lewis's "seemingly scholarly concern ... of Armenians constituting a threat to the Turks as a rebellious force who together with the Russians threatened the Ottoman Empire, and the insistence that only a policy of deportations was executed, barely conceal the fact that the organized deportations constituted systematic mass murder". Charny compares the "logical structures" employed by Lewis in his denial of the genocide to those employed by Ernst Nolte in his Holocaust negationism.
Views and influence on contemporary politics
In the mid-1960s, Lewis emerged as a commentator on the issues of the modern Middle East and his analysis of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and the rise of militant Islam brought him publicity and aroused significant controversy. American historian Joel Beinin has called him "perhaps the most articulate and learned Zionist advocate in the North American Middle East academic community". Lewis's policy advice has particular weight thanks to this scholarly authority. U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney remarked "in this new century, his wisdom is sought daily by policymakers, diplomats, fellow academics, and the news media".
A harsh critic of the Soviet Union, Lewis continued the liberal tradition in Islamic historical studies. Although his early Marxist views had a bearing on his first book The Origins of Ismailism, Lewis subsequently discarded Marxism. His later works are a reaction against the left-wing current of Third-worldism which came to be a significant current in Middle Eastern studies.
During his career Lewis developed ties with governments around the world: during her time as Prime Minister of Israel, Golda Meir assigned Lewis's articles as reading to her cabinet members, and during the Presidency of George W. Bush, he advised administration members including Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Bush himself. He was also close to King Hussein of Jordan and his brother, Prince Hassan bin Talal. He also had ties to the regime of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran, the Turkish military dictatorship led by Kenan Evren, and the Egyptian government of Anwar Sadat: he acted as a go-between between the Sadat administration and Israel in 1971 when he relayed a message to the Israeli government regarding the possibility of a peace agreement at the request of Sadat's spokesman Tahasin Bashir.
Lewis advocated closer Western ties with Israel and Turkey, which he saw as especially important in light of the extension of the Soviet influence in the Middle East. Modern Turkey holds a special place in Lewis's view of the region due to the country's efforts to become a part of the West. He was an Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Turkish Studies, an honor which is given "on the basis of generally recognized scholarly distinction and ... long and devoted service to the field of Turkish Studies."
Lewis views Christendom and Islam as civilizations that have been in perpetual collision since the advent of Islam in the 7th century. In his essay The Roots of Muslim Rage (1990), he argued that the struggle between the West and Islam was gathering strength. According to one source, this essay (and Lewis's 1990 Jefferson Lecture on which the article was based) first introduced the term "Islamic fundamentalism" to North America. This essay has been credited with coining the phrase "clash of civilizations", which received prominence in the eponymous book by Samuel Huntington. However, another source indicates that Lewis first used the phrase "clash of civilizations" at a 1957 meeting in Washington where it was recorded in the transcript.
In 1998, Lewis read in a London-based newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabi a declaration of war on the United States by Osama bin Laden. In his essay "A License to Kill", Lewis indicated he considered bin Laden's language as the "ideology of jihad" and warned that bin Laden would be a danger to the West. The essay was published after the Clinton administration and the US intelligence community had begun its hunt for bin Laden in Sudan and then in Afghanistan.
Jihad
Lewis writes of jihad as a distinct religious obligation, but suggests that it is a pity that people engaging in terrorist activities are not more aware of their own religion:The fanatical warrior offering his victims the choice of the Koran or the sword is not only untrue, it is impossible. The alleged choice - conversion or death - is also, with rare and atypical exceptions, untrue. Muslim tolerance of unbelievers and misbelievers was far better than anything available in Christendom until the rise of secularism in the 17th century.
Muslim fighters are commanded not to kill women, children, or the aged unless they attack first; not to torture or otherwise ill-treat prisoners; to give fair warnings of the opening of hostilities or their resumption after a truce; and to honor agreements. At no time did the classical jurists offer any approval or legitimacy to what we nowdays call terrorism. Nor indeed is there any evidence of the use of terrorism as it is practiced nowadays.
The emergence of the by now widespread terrorism practice of suicide bombing is a development of the 20th century. It has no antecedents in Islamic history, and no justification in the terms of Islamic theology, law, or tradition.As'ad AbuKhalil, has criticized this view and stated: "Methodologically, [Lewis] insists that terrorism by individual Muslims should be considered Islamic terrorism, while terrorism by individual Jews or Christians is never considered Jewish or Christian terrorism."
He also criticised Lewis's understanding of Osama bin Laden, seeing Lewis's interpretation of bin Laden "as some kind of influential Muslim theologian" along the lines of classical theologians like Al-Ghazali, rather than "the terrorist fanatic that he is". AbuKhalil has also criticized the place of Islam in Lewis's worldview more generally, arguing that the most prominent feature of his work was its "theologocentrism" (borrowing a term from Maxime Rodinson) - that Lewis interprets all aspects of behavior among Muslims solely through the lens of Islamic theology, subsuming the study of Muslim peoples, their languages, the geographical areas where Muslims predominate, Islamic governments, the governments of Arab countries and Sharia under the label of "Islam".
Debates with Edward Said
Lewis was known for his literary debates with Edward Said, the Palestinian American literary theorist whose aim was to deconstruct what he called Orientalist scholarship. Said, who was a professor at Columbia University, characterized Lewis's work as a prime example of Orientalism in his 1978 book Orientalism and in his later book Covering Islam: How the Media and the Experts Determine How We See the Rest of the World (1981). Said asserted that the field of Orientalism was political intellectualism bent on self-affirmation rather than objective study, a form of racism, and a tool of imperialist domination. He further questioned the scientific neutrality of some leading Middle East scholars, including Lewis, on the Arab World. In an interview with Al-Ahram weekly, Said suggested that Lewis's knowledge of the Middle East was so biased that it could not be taken seriously and claimed "Bernard Lewis hasn't set foot in the Middle East, in the Arab world, for at least 40 years. He knows something about Turkey, I'm told, but he knows nothing about the Arab world." Said considered that Lewis treats Islam as a monolithic entity without the nuance of its plurality, internal dynamics, and historical complexities, and accused him of "demagogy and downright ignorance". In Covering Islam, Said argued that "Lewis simply cannot deal with the diversity of Muslim, much less human life, because it is closed to him as something foreign, radically different, and other," and he criticised Lewis's "inability to grant that the Islamic peoples are entitled to their own cultural, political, and historical practices, free from Lewis's calculated attempt to show that because they are not Western... they can't be good."
Rejecting the view that Western scholarship was biased against the Middle East, Lewis responded that Orientalism developed as a facet of European humanism, independently of the past European imperial expansion. He noted the French and English pursued the study of Islam in the 16th and 17th centuries, yet not in an organized way, but long before they had any control or hope of control in the Middle East; and that much of Orientalist study did nothing to advance the cause of imperialism. In his 1993 book Islam and the West, Lewis wrote "What imperial purpose was served by deciphering the ancient Egyptian language, for example, and then restoring to the Egyptians knowledge of and pride in their forgotten, ancient past?"
Furthermore, Lewis accused Said of politicizing the scientific study of the Middle East (and Arabic studies in particular); neglecting to critique the scholarly findings of the Orientalists; and giving "free rein" to his biases.
Stance on the Iraq War
In 2002, Lewis wrote an article for The Wall Street Journal regarding the buildup to the Iraq War entitled "Time for Toppling", where he stated his opinion that "a regime change may well be dangerous, but sometimes the dangers of inaction are greater than those of action". In 2007, Jacob Weisberg described Lewis as "perhaps the most significant intellectual influence behind the invasion of Iraq". Michael Hirsh attributed to Lewis the view that regime change in Iraq would provide a jolt that would "modernize the Middle East" and suggested that Lewis's allegedly 'orientalist' theories about "what went wrong" in the Middle East, and other writings, formed the intellectual basis of the push towards war in Iraq. Hirsch reported that Lewis had told him in an interview that he viewed the 11 September attacks as "the opening salvo of the final battle" between Western and Islamic civilisations: Lewis believed that a forceful response was necessary. In the run up to the Iraq War, he met with Vice President Dick Cheney several times: Hirsch quoted an unnamed official who was present at a number of these meetings, who summarised Lewis's view of Iraq as "Get on with it. Don't dither". Brent Scowcroft quoted Lewis as stating that he believed "that one of the things you’ve got to do to Arabs is hit them between the eyes with a big stick. They respect power". As'ad AbuKhalil has claimed that Lewis assured Cheney that American troops would be welcomed by Iraqis and Arabs, relying on the opinion of his colleague Fouad Ajami. Hirsch also drew parallels between the Bush administration's plans for post-invasion Iraq and Lewis's views, in particular his admiration for Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's secularist and Westernising reforms in the new Republic of Turkey which emerged from the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.
Writing in 2008, Lewis did not advocate imposing freedom and democracy on Islamic nations. "There are things you can't impose. Freedom, for example. Or democracy. Democracy is a very strong medicine which has to be administered to the patient in small, gradually increasing doses. Otherwise, you risk killing the patient. In the main, the Muslims have to do it themselves."
Ian Buruma, writing for The New Yorker in an article subtitled "The two Minds of Bernard Lewis", finds Lewis's stance on the war difficult to reconcile with Lewis's past statements cautioning democracy enforcement in the world at large. Buruma ultimately rejects suggestions by his peers that Lewis promotes war with Iraq to safeguard Israel, but instead concludes "perhaps he loves it [the Arab world] too much":
Hamid Dabashi, writing on 28 May 2018, in an article subtitled "On Bernard Lewis and 'his extraordinary capacity for getting everything wrong'", asked: "Just imagine: What sort of a person would spend a lifetime studying people he loathes? It is quite a bizarre proposition. But there you have it: the late Bernard Lewis did precisely that." Similarly, Richard Bulliet described Lewis as "...a person who does not like the people he is purporting to have expertise about...he doesn’t respect them, he considers them to be good and worthy only to the degree they follow a Western path". According to As'ad AbuKhalil, "Lewis has poisoned the Middle East academic field more than any other Orientalist and his influence has been both academic and political. But there is a new generation of Middle East experts in the West who now see clearly the political agenda of Bernard Lewis. It was fully exposed in the Bush years."
Alleged nuclear threat from Iran
In 2006, Lewis wrote that Iran had been working on a nuclear weapon for fifteen years. In August 2006, in an article about whether the world can rely on the concept of mutual assured destruction as a deterrent in its dealings with Iran, Lewis wrote in The Wall Street Journal about the significance of 22 August 2006 in the Islamic calendar. The Iranian president had indicated he would respond by that date to U.S. demands regarding Iran's development of nuclear power. Lewis wrote that the date corresponded to the 27th day of the month of Rajab of the year 1427, the day Muslims commemorate the night flight of Muhammad from Jerusalem to heaven and back. Lewis wrote that it would be "an appropriate date for the apocalyptic ending of Israel and, if necessary, of the world". According to Lewis, mutual assured destruction is not an effective deterrent in the case of Iran, because of what Lewis describes as the Iranian leadership's "apocalyptic worldview" and the "suicide or martyrdom complex that plagues parts of the Islamic world today". Lewis's article received significant press coverage. However, the day passed without any incident.
Death
Bernard Lewis died on 19 May 2018 at the age of 101, at an assisted-living care facility in Voorhees Township, New Jersey, twelve days before his 102nd birthday.
He is buried in Trumpeldor Cemetery in Tel Aviv.
Bibliography
Awards and honors
1963: Elected as a Fellow of the British Academy
1978: The Harvey Prize, from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, for "his profound insight into the life and mores of the peoples of the Middle East through his writings"
1983: Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
1990: Selected for the Jefferson Lecture by the National Endowment for the Humanities
1996: Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in General Nonfiction, for The Middle East (Scribner)
1999: National Jewish Book Award in the Israel category for The Multiple Identities of the Middle East 2002: The Thomas Jefferson Medal, awarded by the American Philosophical Society
2002: Atatürk International Peace Prize on grounds that he contributed extensively to history scholarship with his accurate analysis of Turkey’s and in particular of Atatürk’s positive impact on Middle Eastern history.
2004: Golden Plate Award from the American Academy of Achievement
2006: National Humanities Medal, from the National Endowment for the Humanities
2007: Irving Kristol Award, from the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
2007: The Scholar-Statesman Award from The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
See also
Bernard Lewis bibliography
List of Princeton University people
References
External links
Lewis's page at Princeton University
Revered and Reviled – Lewis's profile on Moment Magazine''
The Legacy and Fallacies of Bernard Lewis by As`ad AbuKhalil
1916 births
2018 deaths
20th-century American historians
20th-century British historians
20th-century British writers
21st-century American historians
21st-century American male writers
21st-century British historians
21st-century British writers
Academics of SOAS University of London
Alumni of SOAS University of London
American centenarians
American historians
American male non-fiction writers
American people of English-Jewish descent
Deniers of the Armenian genocide
British Army personnel of World War II
English centenarians
British emigrants to the United States
English historians
English Jews
Fellows of the British Academy
Historians of Islam
Historians of the Ottoman Empire
Honorary members of the Turkish Academy of Sciences
Institute for Advanced Study visiting scholars
Intelligence Corps soldiers
Islam and antisemitism
Islam and politics
Jewish American historians
Jewish scholars
Jewish scholars of Islam
Men centenarians
Middle Eastern studies in the United States
National Humanities Medal recipients
Neoconservatism
People from Stoke Newington
British political commentators
Princeton University faculty
Royal Armoured Corps soldiers
Scholars of antisemitism
University of Paris alumni
Cornell University faculty
Foreign Policy Research Institute
Historians of the Middle East
Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs
Middle Eastern studies scholars
Burials at Trumpeldor Cemetery
21st-century American Jews | false | [
"\"What Did I Do to You?\" is a song recorded by British singer Lisa Stansfield for her 1989 album, Affection. It was written by Stansfield, Ian Devaney and Andy Morris, and produced by Devaney and Morris. The song was released as the fourth European single on 30 April 1990. It included three previously unreleased songs written by Stansfield, Devaney and Morris: \"My Apple Heart,\" \"Lay Me Down\" and \"Something's Happenin'.\" \"What Did I Do to You?\" was remixed by Mark Saunders and by the Grammy Award-winning American house music DJ and producer, David Morales. The single became a top forty hit in the European countries reaching number eighteen in Finland, number twenty in Ireland and number twenty-five in the United Kingdom. \"What Did I Do to You?\" was also released in Japan.\n\nIn 2014, the remixes of \"What Did I Do to You?\" were included on the deluxe 2CD + DVD re-release of Affection and on People Hold On ... The Remix Anthology. They were also featured on The Collection 1989–2003 box set (2014), including previously unreleased Red Zone Mix by David Morales.\n\nCritical reception\nThe song received positive reviews from music critics. Matthew Hocter from Albumism viewed it as a \"upbeat offering\". David Giles from Music Week said it is \"beautifully performed\" by Stansfield. A reviewer from Reading Eagle wrote that \"What Did I Do to You?\" \"would be right at home on the \"Saturday Night Fever\" soundtrack.\"\n\nMusic video\nA music video was produced to promote the single, directed by Philip Richardson, who had previously directed the videos for \"All Around the World\" and \"Live Together\". It features Stansfield with her kiss curls, dressed in a white outfit and performing with her band on a stage in front of a jumping audience. The video was later published on Stansfield's official YouTube channel in November 2009. It has amassed more than 1,6 million views as of October 2021.\n\nTrack listings\n\n European/UK 7\" single\n\"What Did I Do to You?\" (Mark Saunders Remix Edit) – 4:20\n\"Something's Happenin'\" – 3:59\n\n European/UK/Japanese CD single\n\"What Did I Do to You?\" (Mark Saunders Remix Edit) – 4:20\n\"My Apple Heart\" – 5:19\n\"Lay Me Down\" – 4:17\n\"Something's Happenin'\" – 3:59\n\n UK 10\" single\n\"What Did I Do to You?\" (Mark Saunders Remix) – 5:52\n\"My Apple Heart\" – 5:19\n\"Lay Me Down\" – 4:17\n\"Something's Happenin'\" – 3:59\n\n European/UK 12\" single\n\"What Did I Do to You?\" (Morales Mix) – 7:59\n\"My Apple Heart\" – 4:22\n\"Lay Me Down\" – 3:19\n\"Something's Happenin'\" – 3:15\n\n UK 12\" promotional single\n\"What Did I Do to You?\" (Morales Mix) – 7:59\n\"What Did I Do to You?\" (Anti Poll Tax Dub) – 6:31\n\n Other remixes\n\"What Did I Do to You?\" (Red Zone Mix) – 7:45\n\nCharts\n\nReferences\n\nLisa Stansfield songs\n1990 singles\nSongs written by Lisa Stansfield\n1989 songs\nArista Records singles\nSongs written by Ian Devaney\nSongs written by Andy Morris (musician)",
"Follow Me! is a series of television programmes produced by Bayerischer Rundfunk and the BBC in the late 1970s to provide a crash course in the English language. It became popular in many overseas countries as a first introduction to English; in 1983, one hundred million people watched the show in China alone, featuring Kathy Flower.\n\nThe British actor Francis Matthews hosted and narrated the series.\n\nThe course consists of sixty lessons. Each lesson lasts from 12 to 15 minutes and covers a specific lexis. The lessons follow a consistent group of actors, with the relationships between their characters developing during the course.\n\nFollow Me! actors\n Francis Matthews\n Raymond Mason\n David Savile\n Ian Bamforth\n Keith Alexander\n Diane Mercer\n Jane Argyle\n Diana King\n Veronica Leigh\n Elaine Wells\n Danielle Cohn\n Lashawnda Bell\n\nEpisodes \n \"What's your name\"\n \"How are you\"\n \"Can you help me\"\n \"Left, right, straight ahead\"\n \"Where are they\"\n \"What's the time\"\n \"What's this What's that\"\n \"I like it very much\"\n \"Have you got any wine\"\n \"What are they doing\"\n \"Can I have your name, please\"\n \"What does she look like\"\n \"No smoking\"\n \"It's on the first floor\"\n \"Where's he gone\"\n \"Going away\"\n \"Buying things\"\n \"Why do you like it\"\n \"What do you need\"\n \"I sometimes work late\"\n \"Welcome to Britain\"\n \"Who's that\"\n \"What would you like to do\"\n \"How can I get there?\"\n \"Where is it\"\n \"What's the date\"\n \"Whose is it\"\n \"I enjoy it\"\n \"How many and how much\"\n \"What have you done\"\n \"Haven't we met before\"\n \"What did you say\"\n \"Please stop\"\n \"How can I get to Brightly\"\n \"Where can I get it\"\n \"There's a concert on Wednesday\"\n \"What's it like\"\n \"What do you think of him\"\n \"I need someone\"\n \"What were you doing\"\n \"What do you do\"\n \"What do you know about him\"\n \"You shouldn't do that\"\n \"I hope you enjoy your holiday\"\n \"Where can I see a football match\"\n \"When will it be ready\"\n \"Where did you go\"\n \"I think it's awful\"\n \"A room with a view\"\n \"You'll be ill\"\n \"I don't believe in strikes\"\n \"They look tired\"\n \"Would you like to\"\n \"Holiday plans\"\n \"The second shelf on the left\"\n \"When you are ready\"\n \"Tell them about Britain\"\n \"I liked everything\"\n \"Classical or modern\"\n \"Finale\"\n\nReferences \n\n BBC article about the series in China\n\nExternal links \n Follow Me – Beginner level \n Follow Me – Elementary level\n Follow Me – Intermediate level\n Follow Me – Advanced level\n\nAdult education television series\nEnglish-language education television programming"
]
|
[
"Bernard Lewis",
"Academic career",
"Where did Bernard Lewis go to school?",
"School of Oriental Studies",
"Where was this located?",
"University of London",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"During the Second World War, Lewis served in the British Army in the Royal Armoured Corps and as a Corporal in the Intelligence Corps in 1940-41",
"Was he injured during this?",
"I don't know.",
"While in school did he study multiple things?",
"After retiring from Princeton in 1986, Lewis served at Cornell University until 1990.",
"What did he do serving there?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_49bcb0b5cef543eaad8de30f9d6da37b_1 | Where did he work after that? | 7 | Where did Bernard Lewis work after serving at Cornell University? | Bernard Lewis | In 1936, Lewis graduated from the School of Oriental Studies (now School of Oriental and African Studies, SOAS) at the University of London with a BA in history with special reference to the Near and Middle East. He earned his PhD three years later, also from SOAS, specializing in the history of Islam. Lewis also studied law, going part of the way toward becoming a solicitor, but returned to study Middle Eastern history. He undertook post-graduate studies at the University of Paris, where he studied with the orientalist Louis Massignon and earned the "Diplome des Etudes Semitiques" in 1937. He returned to SOAS in 1938 as an assistant lecturer in Islamic History. During the Second World War, Lewis served in the British Army in the Royal Armoured Corps and as a Corporal in the Intelligence Corps in 1940-41 before being seconded to the Foreign Office. After the war, he returned to SOAS. In 1949, at the age of 33, he was appointed to the new chair in Near and Middle Eastern History. In 1974, aged 57, Lewis accepted a joint position at Princeton University and the Institute for Advanced Study, also located in Princeton, New Jersey. The terms of his appointment were such that Lewis taught only one semester per year, and being free from administrative responsibilities, he could devote more time to research than previously. Consequently, Lewis's arrival at Princeton marked the beginning of the most prolific period in his research career during which he published numerous books and articles based on previously accumulated materials. After retiring from Princeton in 1986, Lewis served at Cornell University until 1990. In 1966, Lewis was a founding member of the learned society, Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA), but in 2007 he broke away and founded Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa (ASMEA) to challenge MESA, which the New York Sun noted as "dominated by academics who have been critical of Israel and of America's role in the Middle East." The organization was formed as an academic society dedicated to promoting high standards of research and teaching in Middle Eastern and African studies and other related fields, with Lewis as Chairman of its academic council. In 1990, the National Endowment for the Humanities selected Lewis for the Jefferson Lecture, the U.S. federal government's highest honor for achievement in the humanities. His lecture, entitled "Western Civilization: A View from the East", was revised and reprinted in The Atlantic Monthly under the title "The Roots of Muslim Rage." His 2007 Irving Kristol Lecture, given to the American Enterprise Institute, was published as Europe and Islam. CANNOTANSWER | In 1990, the National Endowment for the Humanities selected Lewis for the Jefferson Lecture, the U.S. federal government's highest honor for achievement in the humanities. | Bernard Lewis, (31 May 1916 – 19 May 2018) was a British American historian specialized in Oriental studies. He was also known as a public intellectual and political commentator. Lewis was the Cleveland E. Dodge Professor Emeritus of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University. Lewis's expertise was in the history of Islam and the interaction between Islam and the West.
Lewis served as a soldier in the British Army in the Royal Armoured Corps and Intelligence Corps during the Second World War before being seconded to the Foreign Office. After the war, he returned to the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London and was appointed to the new chair in Near and Middle Eastern history.
In 2007 Lewis was called "the West's leading interpreter of the Middle East". Others have argued Lewis's approach is essentialist and generalizing to the Muslim world, as well as his tendency to restate hypotheses that were challenged by more recent research. On a political level, Lewis is accused by his detractors with having revived the image of the cultural inferiority of Islam and of emphasizing the dangers of jihad. His advice was frequently sought by neoconservative policymakers, including the Bush administration. However, his active support of the Iraq War and neoconservative ideals have since come under scrutiny.
Lewis was also notable for his public debates with Edward Said, who accused Lewis and other orientalists of misrepresenting Islam and serving the purposes of Western imperialist domination, to which Lewis responded by defending Orientalism as a facet of humanism and accusing Said of politicizing the subject. Furthermore, Lewis notoriously denied the Armenian genocide. He argued that the deaths of the mass killings resulted from a struggle between two nationalistic movements, claiming that there is no proof of intent by the Ottoman government to exterminate the Armenian nation.
Family and personal life
Bernard Lewis was born on 31 May 1916 to middle-class British Jewish parents, Harry Lewis and the former Jane Levy, in Stoke Newington, London. He became interested in languages and history while preparing for his bar mitzvah. In 1947 he married Ruth Hélène Oppenhejm, with whom he had a daughter and a son. Their marriage was dissolved in 1974. Lewis became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1982.
Academic career
In 1936, Lewis graduated from the School of Oriental Studies (now School of Oriental and African Studies, SOAS) at the University of London with a BA in history with special reference to the Near and Middle East. He earned his PhD three years later, also from SOAS, specializing in the history of Islam. Lewis also studied law, going part of the way toward becoming a solicitor, but returned to study Middle Eastern history. He undertook post-graduate studies at the University of Paris, where he studied with the orientalist Louis Massignon and earned the "Diplôme des Études Sémitiques" in 1937. He returned to SOAS in 1938 as an assistant lecturer in Islamic History.
During the Second World War, Lewis served in the British Army in the Royal Armoured Corps and as a Corporal in the Intelligence Corps in 1940–41 before being seconded to the Foreign Office. After the war, he returned to SOAS, where he would remain for the next 25 years. In 1949, at the age of 33, he was appointed to the new chair in Near and Middle Eastern History. In 1963, Lewis was granted fellowship of the British Academy.
In 1974, aged 57, Lewis accepted a joint position at Princeton University and the Institute for Advanced Study, also located in Princeton, New Jersey. The terms of his appointment were such that Lewis taught only one semester per year, and being free from administrative responsibilities, he could devote more time to research than previously. Consequently, Lewis's arrival at Princeton marked the beginning of the most prolific period in his research career during which he published numerous books and articles based on previously accumulated materials. After retiring from Princeton in 1986, Lewis served at Cornell University until 1990.
In 1966, Lewis was a founding member of the learned society, Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA), but in 2007 he broke away and founded Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa (ASMEA) to challenge MESA, which the New York Sun noted as "dominated by academics who have been critical of Israel and of America's role in the Middle East". The organization was formed as an academic society dedicated to promoting high standards of research and teaching in Middle Eastern and African studies and other related fields, with Lewis as Chairman of its academic council.
In 1990, the National Endowment for the Humanities selected Lewis for the Jefferson Lecture, the U.S. federal government's highest honor for achievement in the humanities. His lecture, entitled "Western Civilization: A View from the East", was revised and reprinted in The Atlantic Monthly under the title "The Roots of Muslim Rage." His 2007 Irving Kristol Lecture, given to the American Enterprise Institute, was published as Europe and Islam.
Research
Lewis's influence extends beyond academia to the general public. He began his research career with the study of medieval Arab, especially Syrian, history. His first article, dedicated to professional guilds of medieval Islam, had been widely regarded as the most authoritative work on the subject for about thirty years. However, after the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, scholars of Jewish origin found it more and more difficult to conduct archival and field research in Arab countries, where they were suspected of espionage. Therefore, Lewis switched to the study of the Ottoman Empire, while continuing to research Arab history through the Ottoman archives which had only recently been opened to Western researchers. A series of articles that Lewis published over the next several years revolutionized the history of the Middle East by giving a broad picture of Islamic society, including its government, economy, and demographics.
Lewis argued that the Middle East is currently backward and its decline was a largely self-inflicted condition resulting from both culture and religion, as opposed to the post-colonialist view which posits the problems of the region as economic and political maldevelopment mainly due to the 19th-century European colonization. In his 1982 work Muslim Discovery of Europe, Lewis argues that Muslim societies could not keep pace with the West and that "Crusader successes were due in no small part to Muslim weakness." Further, he suggested that as early as the 11th century Islamic societies were decaying, primarily the byproduct of internal problems like "cultural arrogance," which was a barrier to creative borrowing, rather than external pressures like the Crusades.
In the wake of Soviet and Arab attempts to delegitimize Israel as a racist country, Lewis wrote a study of anti-Semitism, Semites and Anti-Semites (1986). In other works he argued Arab rage against Israel was disproportionate to other tragedies or injustices in the Muslim world, such as the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and control of Muslim-majority land in Central Asia, the bloody and destructive fighting during the Hama uprising in Syria (1982), the Algerian Civil War (1992–1998), and the Iran–Iraq War (1980–1988).
In addition to his scholarly works, Lewis wrote several influential books accessible to the general public: The Arabs in History (1950), The Middle East and the West (1964), and The Middle East (1995). In the wake of the 11 September 2001 attacks, the interest in Lewis's work surged, especially his 1990 essay The Roots of Muslim Rage. Three of his books were published after 9/11: What Went Wrong? (written before the attacks), which explored the reasons of the Muslim world's apprehension of (and sometimes outright hostility to) modernization; The Crisis of Islam; and Islam: The Religion and the People.
Abraham Udovitch described him as "certainly the most eminent and respected historian of the Arab world, of the Islamic world, of the Middle East and beyond".
Armenian genocide
The first two editions of Lewis's The Emergence of Modern Turkey (1961 and 1968) describe the Armenian genocide as "the terrible holocaust of 1915, when a million and a half Armenians perished". In later editions, this text is altered to "the terrible slaughter of 1915, when, according to estimates, more than a million Armenians perished, as well as an unknown number of Turks". In this passage, Lewis argues that the deaths were the result of a struggle for the same land between two competing nationalist movements.
The change in Lewis's textual description of the Armenian genocide and his signing of the petition against the Congressional resolution was controversial among some Armenian historians as well as journalists, who suggested that Lewis was engaging in historical revisionism to serve his own political and personal interests.
Lewis called the label "genocide" the "Armenian version of this history" in a November 1993 interview with Le Monde, for which he faced a civil proceeding in a French court. In a subsequent exchange on the pages of Le Monde, Lewis wrote that while "terrible atrocities" did occur, "there exists no serious proof of a decision and of a plan of the Ottoman government aiming to exterminate the Armenian nation". He was ordered to pay one franc as damages for his statements on the Armenian genocide in Ottoman Turkey. Three other court cases against Bernard Lewis failed in the Paris tribunal, including one filed by the Armenian National Committee of France and two filed by Jacques Trémollet de Villers.
Lewis's views on the Armenian genocide were criticized by a number of historians and sociologists, among them Alain Finkielkraut, Yves Ternon, Richard G. Hovannisian, Robert Melson, and Pierre Vidal-Naquet.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Finkelstein|first1=Norman G.|title=The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering|date=2003|publisher=Verso|location=London|isbn=978-1859844885|page=69}}</ref>
Lewis has argued for his denial stance that:
Lewis has been labelled a "genocide denier" by Stephen Zunes, Israel Charny, David B. MacDonald and the Armenian National Committee of America. Israeli historian Yair Auron suggested that "Lewis' stature provided a lofty cover for the Turkish national agenda of obfuscating academic research on the Armenian Genocide". Israel Charny wrote that Lewis's "seemingly scholarly concern ... of Armenians constituting a threat to the Turks as a rebellious force who together with the Russians threatened the Ottoman Empire, and the insistence that only a policy of deportations was executed, barely conceal the fact that the organized deportations constituted systematic mass murder". Charny compares the "logical structures" employed by Lewis in his denial of the genocide to those employed by Ernst Nolte in his Holocaust negationism.
Views and influence on contemporary politics
In the mid-1960s, Lewis emerged as a commentator on the issues of the modern Middle East and his analysis of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and the rise of militant Islam brought him publicity and aroused significant controversy. American historian Joel Beinin has called him "perhaps the most articulate and learned Zionist advocate in the North American Middle East academic community". Lewis's policy advice has particular weight thanks to this scholarly authority. U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney remarked "in this new century, his wisdom is sought daily by policymakers, diplomats, fellow academics, and the news media".
A harsh critic of the Soviet Union, Lewis continued the liberal tradition in Islamic historical studies. Although his early Marxist views had a bearing on his first book The Origins of Ismailism, Lewis subsequently discarded Marxism. His later works are a reaction against the left-wing current of Third-worldism which came to be a significant current in Middle Eastern studies.
During his career Lewis developed ties with governments around the world: during her time as Prime Minister of Israel, Golda Meir assigned Lewis's articles as reading to her cabinet members, and during the Presidency of George W. Bush, he advised administration members including Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Bush himself. He was also close to King Hussein of Jordan and his brother, Prince Hassan bin Talal. He also had ties to the regime of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran, the Turkish military dictatorship led by Kenan Evren, and the Egyptian government of Anwar Sadat: he acted as a go-between between the Sadat administration and Israel in 1971 when he relayed a message to the Israeli government regarding the possibility of a peace agreement at the request of Sadat's spokesman Tahasin Bashir.
Lewis advocated closer Western ties with Israel and Turkey, which he saw as especially important in light of the extension of the Soviet influence in the Middle East. Modern Turkey holds a special place in Lewis's view of the region due to the country's efforts to become a part of the West. He was an Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Turkish Studies, an honor which is given "on the basis of generally recognized scholarly distinction and ... long and devoted service to the field of Turkish Studies."
Lewis views Christendom and Islam as civilizations that have been in perpetual collision since the advent of Islam in the 7th century. In his essay The Roots of Muslim Rage (1990), he argued that the struggle between the West and Islam was gathering strength. According to one source, this essay (and Lewis's 1990 Jefferson Lecture on which the article was based) first introduced the term "Islamic fundamentalism" to North America. This essay has been credited with coining the phrase "clash of civilizations", which received prominence in the eponymous book by Samuel Huntington. However, another source indicates that Lewis first used the phrase "clash of civilizations" at a 1957 meeting in Washington where it was recorded in the transcript.
In 1998, Lewis read in a London-based newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabi a declaration of war on the United States by Osama bin Laden. In his essay "A License to Kill", Lewis indicated he considered bin Laden's language as the "ideology of jihad" and warned that bin Laden would be a danger to the West. The essay was published after the Clinton administration and the US intelligence community had begun its hunt for bin Laden in Sudan and then in Afghanistan.
Jihad
Lewis writes of jihad as a distinct religious obligation, but suggests that it is a pity that people engaging in terrorist activities are not more aware of their own religion:The fanatical warrior offering his victims the choice of the Koran or the sword is not only untrue, it is impossible. The alleged choice - conversion or death - is also, with rare and atypical exceptions, untrue. Muslim tolerance of unbelievers and misbelievers was far better than anything available in Christendom until the rise of secularism in the 17th century.
Muslim fighters are commanded not to kill women, children, or the aged unless they attack first; not to torture or otherwise ill-treat prisoners; to give fair warnings of the opening of hostilities or their resumption after a truce; and to honor agreements. At no time did the classical jurists offer any approval or legitimacy to what we nowdays call terrorism. Nor indeed is there any evidence of the use of terrorism as it is practiced nowadays.
The emergence of the by now widespread terrorism practice of suicide bombing is a development of the 20th century. It has no antecedents in Islamic history, and no justification in the terms of Islamic theology, law, or tradition.As'ad AbuKhalil, has criticized this view and stated: "Methodologically, [Lewis] insists that terrorism by individual Muslims should be considered Islamic terrorism, while terrorism by individual Jews or Christians is never considered Jewish or Christian terrorism."
He also criticised Lewis's understanding of Osama bin Laden, seeing Lewis's interpretation of bin Laden "as some kind of influential Muslim theologian" along the lines of classical theologians like Al-Ghazali, rather than "the terrorist fanatic that he is". AbuKhalil has also criticized the place of Islam in Lewis's worldview more generally, arguing that the most prominent feature of his work was its "theologocentrism" (borrowing a term from Maxime Rodinson) - that Lewis interprets all aspects of behavior among Muslims solely through the lens of Islamic theology, subsuming the study of Muslim peoples, their languages, the geographical areas where Muslims predominate, Islamic governments, the governments of Arab countries and Sharia under the label of "Islam".
Debates with Edward Said
Lewis was known for his literary debates with Edward Said, the Palestinian American literary theorist whose aim was to deconstruct what he called Orientalist scholarship. Said, who was a professor at Columbia University, characterized Lewis's work as a prime example of Orientalism in his 1978 book Orientalism and in his later book Covering Islam: How the Media and the Experts Determine How We See the Rest of the World (1981). Said asserted that the field of Orientalism was political intellectualism bent on self-affirmation rather than objective study, a form of racism, and a tool of imperialist domination. He further questioned the scientific neutrality of some leading Middle East scholars, including Lewis, on the Arab World. In an interview with Al-Ahram weekly, Said suggested that Lewis's knowledge of the Middle East was so biased that it could not be taken seriously and claimed "Bernard Lewis hasn't set foot in the Middle East, in the Arab world, for at least 40 years. He knows something about Turkey, I'm told, but he knows nothing about the Arab world." Said considered that Lewis treats Islam as a monolithic entity without the nuance of its plurality, internal dynamics, and historical complexities, and accused him of "demagogy and downright ignorance". In Covering Islam, Said argued that "Lewis simply cannot deal with the diversity of Muslim, much less human life, because it is closed to him as something foreign, radically different, and other," and he criticised Lewis's "inability to grant that the Islamic peoples are entitled to their own cultural, political, and historical practices, free from Lewis's calculated attempt to show that because they are not Western... they can't be good."
Rejecting the view that Western scholarship was biased against the Middle East, Lewis responded that Orientalism developed as a facet of European humanism, independently of the past European imperial expansion. He noted the French and English pursued the study of Islam in the 16th and 17th centuries, yet not in an organized way, but long before they had any control or hope of control in the Middle East; and that much of Orientalist study did nothing to advance the cause of imperialism. In his 1993 book Islam and the West, Lewis wrote "What imperial purpose was served by deciphering the ancient Egyptian language, for example, and then restoring to the Egyptians knowledge of and pride in their forgotten, ancient past?"
Furthermore, Lewis accused Said of politicizing the scientific study of the Middle East (and Arabic studies in particular); neglecting to critique the scholarly findings of the Orientalists; and giving "free rein" to his biases.
Stance on the Iraq War
In 2002, Lewis wrote an article for The Wall Street Journal regarding the buildup to the Iraq War entitled "Time for Toppling", where he stated his opinion that "a regime change may well be dangerous, but sometimes the dangers of inaction are greater than those of action". In 2007, Jacob Weisberg described Lewis as "perhaps the most significant intellectual influence behind the invasion of Iraq". Michael Hirsh attributed to Lewis the view that regime change in Iraq would provide a jolt that would "modernize the Middle East" and suggested that Lewis's allegedly 'orientalist' theories about "what went wrong" in the Middle East, and other writings, formed the intellectual basis of the push towards war in Iraq. Hirsch reported that Lewis had told him in an interview that he viewed the 11 September attacks as "the opening salvo of the final battle" between Western and Islamic civilisations: Lewis believed that a forceful response was necessary. In the run up to the Iraq War, he met with Vice President Dick Cheney several times: Hirsch quoted an unnamed official who was present at a number of these meetings, who summarised Lewis's view of Iraq as "Get on with it. Don't dither". Brent Scowcroft quoted Lewis as stating that he believed "that one of the things you’ve got to do to Arabs is hit them between the eyes with a big stick. They respect power". As'ad AbuKhalil has claimed that Lewis assured Cheney that American troops would be welcomed by Iraqis and Arabs, relying on the opinion of his colleague Fouad Ajami. Hirsch also drew parallels between the Bush administration's plans for post-invasion Iraq and Lewis's views, in particular his admiration for Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's secularist and Westernising reforms in the new Republic of Turkey which emerged from the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.
Writing in 2008, Lewis did not advocate imposing freedom and democracy on Islamic nations. "There are things you can't impose. Freedom, for example. Or democracy. Democracy is a very strong medicine which has to be administered to the patient in small, gradually increasing doses. Otherwise, you risk killing the patient. In the main, the Muslims have to do it themselves."
Ian Buruma, writing for The New Yorker in an article subtitled "The two Minds of Bernard Lewis", finds Lewis's stance on the war difficult to reconcile with Lewis's past statements cautioning democracy enforcement in the world at large. Buruma ultimately rejects suggestions by his peers that Lewis promotes war with Iraq to safeguard Israel, but instead concludes "perhaps he loves it [the Arab world] too much":
Hamid Dabashi, writing on 28 May 2018, in an article subtitled "On Bernard Lewis and 'his extraordinary capacity for getting everything wrong'", asked: "Just imagine: What sort of a person would spend a lifetime studying people he loathes? It is quite a bizarre proposition. But there you have it: the late Bernard Lewis did precisely that." Similarly, Richard Bulliet described Lewis as "...a person who does not like the people he is purporting to have expertise about...he doesn’t respect them, he considers them to be good and worthy only to the degree they follow a Western path". According to As'ad AbuKhalil, "Lewis has poisoned the Middle East academic field more than any other Orientalist and his influence has been both academic and political. But there is a new generation of Middle East experts in the West who now see clearly the political agenda of Bernard Lewis. It was fully exposed in the Bush years."
Alleged nuclear threat from Iran
In 2006, Lewis wrote that Iran had been working on a nuclear weapon for fifteen years. In August 2006, in an article about whether the world can rely on the concept of mutual assured destruction as a deterrent in its dealings with Iran, Lewis wrote in The Wall Street Journal about the significance of 22 August 2006 in the Islamic calendar. The Iranian president had indicated he would respond by that date to U.S. demands regarding Iran's development of nuclear power. Lewis wrote that the date corresponded to the 27th day of the month of Rajab of the year 1427, the day Muslims commemorate the night flight of Muhammad from Jerusalem to heaven and back. Lewis wrote that it would be "an appropriate date for the apocalyptic ending of Israel and, if necessary, of the world". According to Lewis, mutual assured destruction is not an effective deterrent in the case of Iran, because of what Lewis describes as the Iranian leadership's "apocalyptic worldview" and the "suicide or martyrdom complex that plagues parts of the Islamic world today". Lewis's article received significant press coverage. However, the day passed without any incident.
Death
Bernard Lewis died on 19 May 2018 at the age of 101, at an assisted-living care facility in Voorhees Township, New Jersey, twelve days before his 102nd birthday.
He is buried in Trumpeldor Cemetery in Tel Aviv.
Bibliography
Awards and honors
1963: Elected as a Fellow of the British Academy
1978: The Harvey Prize, from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, for "his profound insight into the life and mores of the peoples of the Middle East through his writings"
1983: Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
1990: Selected for the Jefferson Lecture by the National Endowment for the Humanities
1996: Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in General Nonfiction, for The Middle East (Scribner)
1999: National Jewish Book Award in the Israel category for The Multiple Identities of the Middle East 2002: The Thomas Jefferson Medal, awarded by the American Philosophical Society
2002: Atatürk International Peace Prize on grounds that he contributed extensively to history scholarship with his accurate analysis of Turkey’s and in particular of Atatürk’s positive impact on Middle Eastern history.
2004: Golden Plate Award from the American Academy of Achievement
2006: National Humanities Medal, from the National Endowment for the Humanities
2007: Irving Kristol Award, from the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
2007: The Scholar-Statesman Award from The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
See also
Bernard Lewis bibliography
List of Princeton University people
References
External links
Lewis's page at Princeton University
Revered and Reviled – Lewis's profile on Moment Magazine''
The Legacy and Fallacies of Bernard Lewis by As`ad AbuKhalil
1916 births
2018 deaths
20th-century American historians
20th-century British historians
20th-century British writers
21st-century American historians
21st-century American male writers
21st-century British historians
21st-century British writers
Academics of SOAS University of London
Alumni of SOAS University of London
American centenarians
American historians
American male non-fiction writers
American people of English-Jewish descent
Deniers of the Armenian genocide
British Army personnel of World War II
English centenarians
British emigrants to the United States
English historians
English Jews
Fellows of the British Academy
Historians of Islam
Historians of the Ottoman Empire
Honorary members of the Turkish Academy of Sciences
Institute for Advanced Study visiting scholars
Intelligence Corps soldiers
Islam and antisemitism
Islam and politics
Jewish American historians
Jewish scholars
Jewish scholars of Islam
Men centenarians
Middle Eastern studies in the United States
National Humanities Medal recipients
Neoconservatism
People from Stoke Newington
British political commentators
Princeton University faculty
Royal Armoured Corps soldiers
Scholars of antisemitism
University of Paris alumni
Cornell University faculty
Foreign Policy Research Institute
Historians of the Middle East
Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs
Middle Eastern studies scholars
Burials at Trumpeldor Cemetery
21st-century American Jews | true | [
"Knut Guttormsen (1830—1900) was a Norwegian builder and architect. He is most famous for the many churches he built and renovated.\n\nKnut Guttormsen was married to Sara Sofie Andersdtter Haugaskjæret and together they had five children: Sofus Emil Guttormsen, Richard Gotfred Guttormsen, Olav Guttormsen, Karl Guttormsen, and Olaf Marinius Guttormsen.\n\nKnut Guttormsen was born on the homestead Sigurdstøyl in Morgedal in Telemark county. He was confirmed at the Kviteseid Church in 1845. The same year he traveled to Christiania where an older half-brother had settled earlier. He became a stonemason, bricklayer, and builder. He helped build a bridge over Sarpsfossen in Sarpsborg. While in Sarpsborg, he met Sofie Andersdatter Haugaskjæret from Time in Østfold. For a time he also did work on the Gamle Aker Church.\n\nThe family moved to Trondheim in the 1860s where he received several large construction assignments. Eventually, Knut Guttormsen was appointed construction manager for the restoration work at Nidaros Cathedral. He also did work on many churches including Åfjord Church, Rissa Church, Melhus Church, and Ytterøy Church.\n\nReferences\n\n1830 births\n1900 deaths\n\nNorwegian architects",
"Peter John Frank (6 May 1934 - 14 November 2013) was a professor of Russian politics in the Department of Government at the University of Essex and a media commentator on Russian affairs.\n \nHe was born in Whitby, Yorkshire and after leaving school in 1950 did national service in the Army where he learnt the Russian language. He then trained as a teacher and did post-graduate work at the University of Leeds, before becoming a lecturer at the University of Essex in 1968. He was known for his television appearances on Channel 4 News as an expert on the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. He also contributed to BBC News 24, BBC World Service, BBC Radio Five Live and independent radio stations.\n\nAfter his retirement as a professor he was a Professorial Research Fellow at the University of Essex and wrote a biography of Joseph Richard Bagshawe, the founding secretary of the Staithes group of painters.\n\nWork \n The Soviet Communist Party Ronald J. Hill, Peter Frank. Boston : Allen & Unwin, 1986.\n Yorkshire Fisherfolk: A Social history of the Yorkshire inshore fishing community by Peter Frank, Phillimore & Co. Ltd., 2002, \nSea Painter: The Life and Work of J.R. Bagshawe, Marine Artist by Peter Frank, Phillimore & Co. Ltd., 2010,\n\nReferences\n\n1934 births\n2013 deaths\nAcademics of the University of Essex\nBritish political scientists\nPeople from Whitby"
]
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[
"Bernard Lewis",
"Academic career",
"Where did Bernard Lewis go to school?",
"School of Oriental Studies",
"Where was this located?",
"University of London",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"During the Second World War, Lewis served in the British Army in the Royal Armoured Corps and as a Corporal in the Intelligence Corps in 1940-41",
"Was he injured during this?",
"I don't know.",
"While in school did he study multiple things?",
"After retiring from Princeton in 1986, Lewis served at Cornell University until 1990.",
"What did he do serving there?",
"I don't know.",
"Where did he work after that?",
"In 1990, the National Endowment for the Humanities selected Lewis for the Jefferson Lecture, the U.S. federal government's highest honor for achievement in the humanities."
]
| C_49bcb0b5cef543eaad8de30f9d6da37b_1 | Did he receive any other honors? | 8 | Did Bernard Lewis receive any other honors aside from the Jefferson Lecture? | Bernard Lewis | In 1936, Lewis graduated from the School of Oriental Studies (now School of Oriental and African Studies, SOAS) at the University of London with a BA in history with special reference to the Near and Middle East. He earned his PhD three years later, also from SOAS, specializing in the history of Islam. Lewis also studied law, going part of the way toward becoming a solicitor, but returned to study Middle Eastern history. He undertook post-graduate studies at the University of Paris, where he studied with the orientalist Louis Massignon and earned the "Diplome des Etudes Semitiques" in 1937. He returned to SOAS in 1938 as an assistant lecturer in Islamic History. During the Second World War, Lewis served in the British Army in the Royal Armoured Corps and as a Corporal in the Intelligence Corps in 1940-41 before being seconded to the Foreign Office. After the war, he returned to SOAS. In 1949, at the age of 33, he was appointed to the new chair in Near and Middle Eastern History. In 1974, aged 57, Lewis accepted a joint position at Princeton University and the Institute for Advanced Study, also located in Princeton, New Jersey. The terms of his appointment were such that Lewis taught only one semester per year, and being free from administrative responsibilities, he could devote more time to research than previously. Consequently, Lewis's arrival at Princeton marked the beginning of the most prolific period in his research career during which he published numerous books and articles based on previously accumulated materials. After retiring from Princeton in 1986, Lewis served at Cornell University until 1990. In 1966, Lewis was a founding member of the learned society, Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA), but in 2007 he broke away and founded Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa (ASMEA) to challenge MESA, which the New York Sun noted as "dominated by academics who have been critical of Israel and of America's role in the Middle East." The organization was formed as an academic society dedicated to promoting high standards of research and teaching in Middle Eastern and African studies and other related fields, with Lewis as Chairman of its academic council. In 1990, the National Endowment for the Humanities selected Lewis for the Jefferson Lecture, the U.S. federal government's highest honor for achievement in the humanities. His lecture, entitled "Western Civilization: A View from the East", was revised and reprinted in The Atlantic Monthly under the title "The Roots of Muslim Rage." His 2007 Irving Kristol Lecture, given to the American Enterprise Institute, was published as Europe and Islam. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Bernard Lewis, (31 May 1916 – 19 May 2018) was a British American historian specialized in Oriental studies. He was also known as a public intellectual and political commentator. Lewis was the Cleveland E. Dodge Professor Emeritus of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University. Lewis's expertise was in the history of Islam and the interaction between Islam and the West.
Lewis served as a soldier in the British Army in the Royal Armoured Corps and Intelligence Corps during the Second World War before being seconded to the Foreign Office. After the war, he returned to the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London and was appointed to the new chair in Near and Middle Eastern history.
In 2007 Lewis was called "the West's leading interpreter of the Middle East". Others have argued Lewis's approach is essentialist and generalizing to the Muslim world, as well as his tendency to restate hypotheses that were challenged by more recent research. On a political level, Lewis is accused by his detractors with having revived the image of the cultural inferiority of Islam and of emphasizing the dangers of jihad. His advice was frequently sought by neoconservative policymakers, including the Bush administration. However, his active support of the Iraq War and neoconservative ideals have since come under scrutiny.
Lewis was also notable for his public debates with Edward Said, who accused Lewis and other orientalists of misrepresenting Islam and serving the purposes of Western imperialist domination, to which Lewis responded by defending Orientalism as a facet of humanism and accusing Said of politicizing the subject. Furthermore, Lewis notoriously denied the Armenian genocide. He argued that the deaths of the mass killings resulted from a struggle between two nationalistic movements, claiming that there is no proof of intent by the Ottoman government to exterminate the Armenian nation.
Family and personal life
Bernard Lewis was born on 31 May 1916 to middle-class British Jewish parents, Harry Lewis and the former Jane Levy, in Stoke Newington, London. He became interested in languages and history while preparing for his bar mitzvah. In 1947 he married Ruth Hélène Oppenhejm, with whom he had a daughter and a son. Their marriage was dissolved in 1974. Lewis became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1982.
Academic career
In 1936, Lewis graduated from the School of Oriental Studies (now School of Oriental and African Studies, SOAS) at the University of London with a BA in history with special reference to the Near and Middle East. He earned his PhD three years later, also from SOAS, specializing in the history of Islam. Lewis also studied law, going part of the way toward becoming a solicitor, but returned to study Middle Eastern history. He undertook post-graduate studies at the University of Paris, where he studied with the orientalist Louis Massignon and earned the "Diplôme des Études Sémitiques" in 1937. He returned to SOAS in 1938 as an assistant lecturer in Islamic History.
During the Second World War, Lewis served in the British Army in the Royal Armoured Corps and as a Corporal in the Intelligence Corps in 1940–41 before being seconded to the Foreign Office. After the war, he returned to SOAS, where he would remain for the next 25 years. In 1949, at the age of 33, he was appointed to the new chair in Near and Middle Eastern History. In 1963, Lewis was granted fellowship of the British Academy.
In 1974, aged 57, Lewis accepted a joint position at Princeton University and the Institute for Advanced Study, also located in Princeton, New Jersey. The terms of his appointment were such that Lewis taught only one semester per year, and being free from administrative responsibilities, he could devote more time to research than previously. Consequently, Lewis's arrival at Princeton marked the beginning of the most prolific period in his research career during which he published numerous books and articles based on previously accumulated materials. After retiring from Princeton in 1986, Lewis served at Cornell University until 1990.
In 1966, Lewis was a founding member of the learned society, Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA), but in 2007 he broke away and founded Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa (ASMEA) to challenge MESA, which the New York Sun noted as "dominated by academics who have been critical of Israel and of America's role in the Middle East". The organization was formed as an academic society dedicated to promoting high standards of research and teaching in Middle Eastern and African studies and other related fields, with Lewis as Chairman of its academic council.
In 1990, the National Endowment for the Humanities selected Lewis for the Jefferson Lecture, the U.S. federal government's highest honor for achievement in the humanities. His lecture, entitled "Western Civilization: A View from the East", was revised and reprinted in The Atlantic Monthly under the title "The Roots of Muslim Rage." His 2007 Irving Kristol Lecture, given to the American Enterprise Institute, was published as Europe and Islam.
Research
Lewis's influence extends beyond academia to the general public. He began his research career with the study of medieval Arab, especially Syrian, history. His first article, dedicated to professional guilds of medieval Islam, had been widely regarded as the most authoritative work on the subject for about thirty years. However, after the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, scholars of Jewish origin found it more and more difficult to conduct archival and field research in Arab countries, where they were suspected of espionage. Therefore, Lewis switched to the study of the Ottoman Empire, while continuing to research Arab history through the Ottoman archives which had only recently been opened to Western researchers. A series of articles that Lewis published over the next several years revolutionized the history of the Middle East by giving a broad picture of Islamic society, including its government, economy, and demographics.
Lewis argued that the Middle East is currently backward and its decline was a largely self-inflicted condition resulting from both culture and religion, as opposed to the post-colonialist view which posits the problems of the region as economic and political maldevelopment mainly due to the 19th-century European colonization. In his 1982 work Muslim Discovery of Europe, Lewis argues that Muslim societies could not keep pace with the West and that "Crusader successes were due in no small part to Muslim weakness." Further, he suggested that as early as the 11th century Islamic societies were decaying, primarily the byproduct of internal problems like "cultural arrogance," which was a barrier to creative borrowing, rather than external pressures like the Crusades.
In the wake of Soviet and Arab attempts to delegitimize Israel as a racist country, Lewis wrote a study of anti-Semitism, Semites and Anti-Semites (1986). In other works he argued Arab rage against Israel was disproportionate to other tragedies or injustices in the Muslim world, such as the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and control of Muslim-majority land in Central Asia, the bloody and destructive fighting during the Hama uprising in Syria (1982), the Algerian Civil War (1992–1998), and the Iran–Iraq War (1980–1988).
In addition to his scholarly works, Lewis wrote several influential books accessible to the general public: The Arabs in History (1950), The Middle East and the West (1964), and The Middle East (1995). In the wake of the 11 September 2001 attacks, the interest in Lewis's work surged, especially his 1990 essay The Roots of Muslim Rage. Three of his books were published after 9/11: What Went Wrong? (written before the attacks), which explored the reasons of the Muslim world's apprehension of (and sometimes outright hostility to) modernization; The Crisis of Islam; and Islam: The Religion and the People.
Abraham Udovitch described him as "certainly the most eminent and respected historian of the Arab world, of the Islamic world, of the Middle East and beyond".
Armenian genocide
The first two editions of Lewis's The Emergence of Modern Turkey (1961 and 1968) describe the Armenian genocide as "the terrible holocaust of 1915, when a million and a half Armenians perished". In later editions, this text is altered to "the terrible slaughter of 1915, when, according to estimates, more than a million Armenians perished, as well as an unknown number of Turks". In this passage, Lewis argues that the deaths were the result of a struggle for the same land between two competing nationalist movements.
The change in Lewis's textual description of the Armenian genocide and his signing of the petition against the Congressional resolution was controversial among some Armenian historians as well as journalists, who suggested that Lewis was engaging in historical revisionism to serve his own political and personal interests.
Lewis called the label "genocide" the "Armenian version of this history" in a November 1993 interview with Le Monde, for which he faced a civil proceeding in a French court. In a subsequent exchange on the pages of Le Monde, Lewis wrote that while "terrible atrocities" did occur, "there exists no serious proof of a decision and of a plan of the Ottoman government aiming to exterminate the Armenian nation". He was ordered to pay one franc as damages for his statements on the Armenian genocide in Ottoman Turkey. Three other court cases against Bernard Lewis failed in the Paris tribunal, including one filed by the Armenian National Committee of France and two filed by Jacques Trémollet de Villers.
Lewis's views on the Armenian genocide were criticized by a number of historians and sociologists, among them Alain Finkielkraut, Yves Ternon, Richard G. Hovannisian, Robert Melson, and Pierre Vidal-Naquet.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Finkelstein|first1=Norman G.|title=The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering|date=2003|publisher=Verso|location=London|isbn=978-1859844885|page=69}}</ref>
Lewis has argued for his denial stance that:
Lewis has been labelled a "genocide denier" by Stephen Zunes, Israel Charny, David B. MacDonald and the Armenian National Committee of America. Israeli historian Yair Auron suggested that "Lewis' stature provided a lofty cover for the Turkish national agenda of obfuscating academic research on the Armenian Genocide". Israel Charny wrote that Lewis's "seemingly scholarly concern ... of Armenians constituting a threat to the Turks as a rebellious force who together with the Russians threatened the Ottoman Empire, and the insistence that only a policy of deportations was executed, barely conceal the fact that the organized deportations constituted systematic mass murder". Charny compares the "logical structures" employed by Lewis in his denial of the genocide to those employed by Ernst Nolte in his Holocaust negationism.
Views and influence on contemporary politics
In the mid-1960s, Lewis emerged as a commentator on the issues of the modern Middle East and his analysis of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and the rise of militant Islam brought him publicity and aroused significant controversy. American historian Joel Beinin has called him "perhaps the most articulate and learned Zionist advocate in the North American Middle East academic community". Lewis's policy advice has particular weight thanks to this scholarly authority. U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney remarked "in this new century, his wisdom is sought daily by policymakers, diplomats, fellow academics, and the news media".
A harsh critic of the Soviet Union, Lewis continued the liberal tradition in Islamic historical studies. Although his early Marxist views had a bearing on his first book The Origins of Ismailism, Lewis subsequently discarded Marxism. His later works are a reaction against the left-wing current of Third-worldism which came to be a significant current in Middle Eastern studies.
During his career Lewis developed ties with governments around the world: during her time as Prime Minister of Israel, Golda Meir assigned Lewis's articles as reading to her cabinet members, and during the Presidency of George W. Bush, he advised administration members including Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Bush himself. He was also close to King Hussein of Jordan and his brother, Prince Hassan bin Talal. He also had ties to the regime of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran, the Turkish military dictatorship led by Kenan Evren, and the Egyptian government of Anwar Sadat: he acted as a go-between between the Sadat administration and Israel in 1971 when he relayed a message to the Israeli government regarding the possibility of a peace agreement at the request of Sadat's spokesman Tahasin Bashir.
Lewis advocated closer Western ties with Israel and Turkey, which he saw as especially important in light of the extension of the Soviet influence in the Middle East. Modern Turkey holds a special place in Lewis's view of the region due to the country's efforts to become a part of the West. He was an Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Turkish Studies, an honor which is given "on the basis of generally recognized scholarly distinction and ... long and devoted service to the field of Turkish Studies."
Lewis views Christendom and Islam as civilizations that have been in perpetual collision since the advent of Islam in the 7th century. In his essay The Roots of Muslim Rage (1990), he argued that the struggle between the West and Islam was gathering strength. According to one source, this essay (and Lewis's 1990 Jefferson Lecture on which the article was based) first introduced the term "Islamic fundamentalism" to North America. This essay has been credited with coining the phrase "clash of civilizations", which received prominence in the eponymous book by Samuel Huntington. However, another source indicates that Lewis first used the phrase "clash of civilizations" at a 1957 meeting in Washington where it was recorded in the transcript.
In 1998, Lewis read in a London-based newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabi a declaration of war on the United States by Osama bin Laden. In his essay "A License to Kill", Lewis indicated he considered bin Laden's language as the "ideology of jihad" and warned that bin Laden would be a danger to the West. The essay was published after the Clinton administration and the US intelligence community had begun its hunt for bin Laden in Sudan and then in Afghanistan.
Jihad
Lewis writes of jihad as a distinct religious obligation, but suggests that it is a pity that people engaging in terrorist activities are not more aware of their own religion:The fanatical warrior offering his victims the choice of the Koran or the sword is not only untrue, it is impossible. The alleged choice - conversion or death - is also, with rare and atypical exceptions, untrue. Muslim tolerance of unbelievers and misbelievers was far better than anything available in Christendom until the rise of secularism in the 17th century.
Muslim fighters are commanded not to kill women, children, or the aged unless they attack first; not to torture or otherwise ill-treat prisoners; to give fair warnings of the opening of hostilities or their resumption after a truce; and to honor agreements. At no time did the classical jurists offer any approval or legitimacy to what we nowdays call terrorism. Nor indeed is there any evidence of the use of terrorism as it is practiced nowadays.
The emergence of the by now widespread terrorism practice of suicide bombing is a development of the 20th century. It has no antecedents in Islamic history, and no justification in the terms of Islamic theology, law, or tradition.As'ad AbuKhalil, has criticized this view and stated: "Methodologically, [Lewis] insists that terrorism by individual Muslims should be considered Islamic terrorism, while terrorism by individual Jews or Christians is never considered Jewish or Christian terrorism."
He also criticised Lewis's understanding of Osama bin Laden, seeing Lewis's interpretation of bin Laden "as some kind of influential Muslim theologian" along the lines of classical theologians like Al-Ghazali, rather than "the terrorist fanatic that he is". AbuKhalil has also criticized the place of Islam in Lewis's worldview more generally, arguing that the most prominent feature of his work was its "theologocentrism" (borrowing a term from Maxime Rodinson) - that Lewis interprets all aspects of behavior among Muslims solely through the lens of Islamic theology, subsuming the study of Muslim peoples, their languages, the geographical areas where Muslims predominate, Islamic governments, the governments of Arab countries and Sharia under the label of "Islam".
Debates with Edward Said
Lewis was known for his literary debates with Edward Said, the Palestinian American literary theorist whose aim was to deconstruct what he called Orientalist scholarship. Said, who was a professor at Columbia University, characterized Lewis's work as a prime example of Orientalism in his 1978 book Orientalism and in his later book Covering Islam: How the Media and the Experts Determine How We See the Rest of the World (1981). Said asserted that the field of Orientalism was political intellectualism bent on self-affirmation rather than objective study, a form of racism, and a tool of imperialist domination. He further questioned the scientific neutrality of some leading Middle East scholars, including Lewis, on the Arab World. In an interview with Al-Ahram weekly, Said suggested that Lewis's knowledge of the Middle East was so biased that it could not be taken seriously and claimed "Bernard Lewis hasn't set foot in the Middle East, in the Arab world, for at least 40 years. He knows something about Turkey, I'm told, but he knows nothing about the Arab world." Said considered that Lewis treats Islam as a monolithic entity without the nuance of its plurality, internal dynamics, and historical complexities, and accused him of "demagogy and downright ignorance". In Covering Islam, Said argued that "Lewis simply cannot deal with the diversity of Muslim, much less human life, because it is closed to him as something foreign, radically different, and other," and he criticised Lewis's "inability to grant that the Islamic peoples are entitled to their own cultural, political, and historical practices, free from Lewis's calculated attempt to show that because they are not Western... they can't be good."
Rejecting the view that Western scholarship was biased against the Middle East, Lewis responded that Orientalism developed as a facet of European humanism, independently of the past European imperial expansion. He noted the French and English pursued the study of Islam in the 16th and 17th centuries, yet not in an organized way, but long before they had any control or hope of control in the Middle East; and that much of Orientalist study did nothing to advance the cause of imperialism. In his 1993 book Islam and the West, Lewis wrote "What imperial purpose was served by deciphering the ancient Egyptian language, for example, and then restoring to the Egyptians knowledge of and pride in their forgotten, ancient past?"
Furthermore, Lewis accused Said of politicizing the scientific study of the Middle East (and Arabic studies in particular); neglecting to critique the scholarly findings of the Orientalists; and giving "free rein" to his biases.
Stance on the Iraq War
In 2002, Lewis wrote an article for The Wall Street Journal regarding the buildup to the Iraq War entitled "Time for Toppling", where he stated his opinion that "a regime change may well be dangerous, but sometimes the dangers of inaction are greater than those of action". In 2007, Jacob Weisberg described Lewis as "perhaps the most significant intellectual influence behind the invasion of Iraq". Michael Hirsh attributed to Lewis the view that regime change in Iraq would provide a jolt that would "modernize the Middle East" and suggested that Lewis's allegedly 'orientalist' theories about "what went wrong" in the Middle East, and other writings, formed the intellectual basis of the push towards war in Iraq. Hirsch reported that Lewis had told him in an interview that he viewed the 11 September attacks as "the opening salvo of the final battle" between Western and Islamic civilisations: Lewis believed that a forceful response was necessary. In the run up to the Iraq War, he met with Vice President Dick Cheney several times: Hirsch quoted an unnamed official who was present at a number of these meetings, who summarised Lewis's view of Iraq as "Get on with it. Don't dither". Brent Scowcroft quoted Lewis as stating that he believed "that one of the things you’ve got to do to Arabs is hit them between the eyes with a big stick. They respect power". As'ad AbuKhalil has claimed that Lewis assured Cheney that American troops would be welcomed by Iraqis and Arabs, relying on the opinion of his colleague Fouad Ajami. Hirsch also drew parallels between the Bush administration's plans for post-invasion Iraq and Lewis's views, in particular his admiration for Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's secularist and Westernising reforms in the new Republic of Turkey which emerged from the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.
Writing in 2008, Lewis did not advocate imposing freedom and democracy on Islamic nations. "There are things you can't impose. Freedom, for example. Or democracy. Democracy is a very strong medicine which has to be administered to the patient in small, gradually increasing doses. Otherwise, you risk killing the patient. In the main, the Muslims have to do it themselves."
Ian Buruma, writing for The New Yorker in an article subtitled "The two Minds of Bernard Lewis", finds Lewis's stance on the war difficult to reconcile with Lewis's past statements cautioning democracy enforcement in the world at large. Buruma ultimately rejects suggestions by his peers that Lewis promotes war with Iraq to safeguard Israel, but instead concludes "perhaps he loves it [the Arab world] too much":
Hamid Dabashi, writing on 28 May 2018, in an article subtitled "On Bernard Lewis and 'his extraordinary capacity for getting everything wrong'", asked: "Just imagine: What sort of a person would spend a lifetime studying people he loathes? It is quite a bizarre proposition. But there you have it: the late Bernard Lewis did precisely that." Similarly, Richard Bulliet described Lewis as "...a person who does not like the people he is purporting to have expertise about...he doesn’t respect them, he considers them to be good and worthy only to the degree they follow a Western path". According to As'ad AbuKhalil, "Lewis has poisoned the Middle East academic field more than any other Orientalist and his influence has been both academic and political. But there is a new generation of Middle East experts in the West who now see clearly the political agenda of Bernard Lewis. It was fully exposed in the Bush years."
Alleged nuclear threat from Iran
In 2006, Lewis wrote that Iran had been working on a nuclear weapon for fifteen years. In August 2006, in an article about whether the world can rely on the concept of mutual assured destruction as a deterrent in its dealings with Iran, Lewis wrote in The Wall Street Journal about the significance of 22 August 2006 in the Islamic calendar. The Iranian president had indicated he would respond by that date to U.S. demands regarding Iran's development of nuclear power. Lewis wrote that the date corresponded to the 27th day of the month of Rajab of the year 1427, the day Muslims commemorate the night flight of Muhammad from Jerusalem to heaven and back. Lewis wrote that it would be "an appropriate date for the apocalyptic ending of Israel and, if necessary, of the world". According to Lewis, mutual assured destruction is not an effective deterrent in the case of Iran, because of what Lewis describes as the Iranian leadership's "apocalyptic worldview" and the "suicide or martyrdom complex that plagues parts of the Islamic world today". Lewis's article received significant press coverage. However, the day passed without any incident.
Death
Bernard Lewis died on 19 May 2018 at the age of 101, at an assisted-living care facility in Voorhees Township, New Jersey, twelve days before his 102nd birthday.
He is buried in Trumpeldor Cemetery in Tel Aviv.
Bibliography
Awards and honors
1963: Elected as a Fellow of the British Academy
1978: The Harvey Prize, from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, for "his profound insight into the life and mores of the peoples of the Middle East through his writings"
1983: Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
1990: Selected for the Jefferson Lecture by the National Endowment for the Humanities
1996: Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in General Nonfiction, for The Middle East (Scribner)
1999: National Jewish Book Award in the Israel category for The Multiple Identities of the Middle East 2002: The Thomas Jefferson Medal, awarded by the American Philosophical Society
2002: Atatürk International Peace Prize on grounds that he contributed extensively to history scholarship with his accurate analysis of Turkey’s and in particular of Atatürk’s positive impact on Middle Eastern history.
2004: Golden Plate Award from the American Academy of Achievement
2006: National Humanities Medal, from the National Endowment for the Humanities
2007: Irving Kristol Award, from the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
2007: The Scholar-Statesman Award from The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
See also
Bernard Lewis bibliography
List of Princeton University people
References
External links
Lewis's page at Princeton University
Revered and Reviled – Lewis's profile on Moment Magazine''
The Legacy and Fallacies of Bernard Lewis by As`ad AbuKhalil
1916 births
2018 deaths
20th-century American historians
20th-century British historians
20th-century British writers
21st-century American historians
21st-century American male writers
21st-century British historians
21st-century British writers
Academics of SOAS University of London
Alumni of SOAS University of London
American centenarians
American historians
American male non-fiction writers
American people of English-Jewish descent
Deniers of the Armenian genocide
British Army personnel of World War II
English centenarians
British emigrants to the United States
English historians
English Jews
Fellows of the British Academy
Historians of Islam
Historians of the Ottoman Empire
Honorary members of the Turkish Academy of Sciences
Institute for Advanced Study visiting scholars
Intelligence Corps soldiers
Islam and antisemitism
Islam and politics
Jewish American historians
Jewish scholars
Jewish scholars of Islam
Men centenarians
Middle Eastern studies in the United States
National Humanities Medal recipients
Neoconservatism
People from Stoke Newington
British political commentators
Princeton University faculty
Royal Armoured Corps soldiers
Scholars of antisemitism
University of Paris alumni
Cornell University faculty
Foreign Policy Research Institute
Historians of the Middle East
Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs
Middle Eastern studies scholars
Burials at Trumpeldor Cemetery
21st-century American Jews | false | [
"The 1925 Oklahoma Sooners football team was an American football team that represented the University of Oklahoma as a member of the Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) during the 1925 college football season. In its 21st year under head coach Bennie Owen, the team compiled a 4–3–1 record (3–3–1 against MVC opponents), finished in sixth place in the conference, and outscored its opponents by a total of 93 to 44. The team played its home games at Memorial Stadium in Norman, Oklahoma.\n\nNo Sooners were recognized as All-Americans, nor did any Sooner receive all-conference honors.\n\nSchedule\n\nReferences\n\nOklahoma\nOklahoma Sooners football seasons\nOklahoma Sooners football",
"Anthony Gleeson was a dual player from Tralee, County Kerry. He played at full back for most of his career. Gleeson was unlucky not to have won any senior honors with Kerry, he missed out on the Munster Championship win in 1991 and despite playing in the first round in 1996 did not play another game and therefore did not receive a Munster medal. He did win a Munster Under 21 Championship in 1988. He also played underage hurling with Kerry in the late 80's, he was captain of the team in 1987 when they won the Leinster Minor B Championship. He gave up hurling at a young age to focus on football. He also played with the Kerry Vocational Schools team in the late 80's winning 2 All-Ireland Vocational Schools Championships in 1986 and 1987.\n\nAt club level he played football with John Mitchels. He had little success with the club failing to win a County Championship, he did however played in the 1989 final when John Mitchels were beaten by Laune Rangers. He played hurling with Austin Stacks and won a County Minor Championship with them in 1986. He also played with Dublin club St Vincents.\n\nReferences\n http://www.terracetalk.com/kerry-football/player/101/Anthony-Gleeson\n https://web.archive.org/web/20111009064219/http://munster.gaa.ie/history/u21f_teams/\n\n \n\nYear of birth missing (living people)\nLiving people\nDual players\nJohn Mitchels (Kerry) Gaelic footballers\nSt Vincents (Dublin) Gaelic footballers\nAustin Stacks hurlers\nKerry inter-county hurlers"
]
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[
"Matt Bomer",
"2005-2009: Transition to film and breakthrough with White Collar"
]
| C_d8ba5bc8901940788b7d10fcb5eb1fc3_0 | Name his film? | 1 | Name of Matt Bomer's film? | Matt Bomer | His screen debut occurred in the 2005 starring in the Robert Schwentke-directed German-American mystery-thriller Flightplan, opposite Jodie Foster. Bomer's character was a flight attendant. The film grossed $223.3 million dollars worldwide, becoming the seventeenth highest grossing film of the year and Bomer's most lucrative film so far. The film received mixed reviews, although the cast was chosen. In the slasher film The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006), the film's story takes place four years before the timeline of the 2003 film, directed by Jonathan Liebesman, Bomer portrayed Eric, a Vietnam War veteran who is driving across Texas to re-enlist after his brother is drafted. The brothers run afoul of Sheriff Hoyt and are taken captive by the Hewitt family. The film, cast, direction and screenplay were criticized by critics. Writing to Rolling Stones, Peter Travers said: "putridly written, directed and acted." The remake was in second place at the box office of American theaters in its first weekend of opening with $18.5 million. The film grossed $51.8 million worldwide. Acted in his first television film Amy Coyne (2006), where he plays Case. The film tells the story of a young woman who after her father's death inherits her sports agency. His first leading role was in the series Traveler (2007), along with Logan Marshall-Green, Aaron Stanford and Viola Davis, a short-lived midseason replacement television series which premiered on ABC on May 30, 2007, the series tells the story of two graduate students, become suspected of terrorism after a skateboarding race inside a museum. It was broadcast only one season of Traveler, the series was canceled in the middle of the fourth episode and received mixed criticism from television critics. He had a supporting role in the NBC action-comedy-spy-drama Chuck (2007-09), created by Josh Schwartz and Chris Fedak. The series is about an "average computer-whiz-next-door" named Chuck Bartowski (played by Zachary Levi), who receives an encoded e-mail from an old college friend now working for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). His character Bryce Larkin, was also a CIA agent, the series in its first season had very positive critics. In 2007, Bomer took on the role of Ernest Hemingway in a Williamstown Theatre Festival production of Crispin Whittell's play Villa America in Massachusetts, starring with Jennifer Mudge and Nate Corddry. 2009 marked a significant turning point in Bomer's career. Starring as the a con artist Neal Caffrey in the police procedural--drama series White Collar, he was part of an ensemble cast that included Tim DeKay, Willie Garson and Tiffani Thiessen and created by Jeff Eastin. White Collar premiered on August 23, 2009 on USA Network and was watched by more than 5.40 million people. His performance and that of the cast were praised; Mary McNamara of the Los Angeles Times wrote: "terrific acting, crackling dialogue and geek-hip crime are not the only things that make this the most electric drama to premiere this fall." She also praised the performance of the two leads together saying they "are so easy" and "perfect together". He won a People's Choice Award at the 2015 ceremony. In addition, Bomer produced 19 episodes of White Collar along with DeKay. CANNOTANSWER | Flightplan, | Matthew Staton Bomer (born October 11, 1977) is an American actor. He is the recipient of accolades such as a Golden Globe Award, a Critics' Choice Television Award, and a Primetime Emmy Award nomination.
In 2000, he made his television debut on the long-running soap opera All My Children. Bomer graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. Soon after, he had a contract role on Guiding Light, as well as appearing on primetime shows, including Tru Calling.
In 2005, Bomer made his film debut in the mystery-thriller Flightplan, then in 2007 gained recognition with his recurring role in the NBC television series Chuck. 2009 saw Bomer then land the lead role of con-artist and thief Neal Caffrey in the USA Network series White Collar with the series lasting to 2014. He has featured in supporting roles in the 2011 science fiction thriller In Time, the 2012 comedy-drama Magic Mike and its 2015 sequel, the 2014 supernatural-drama Winter's Tale, and the 2016 neo-noir film The Nice Guys. In 2015, he won a Golden Globe Award and received a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for playing a closeted writer of The New York Times in the drama television film The Normal Heart about the rise of the HIV-AIDS crisis in New York City. Bomer made a guest appearance on the fourth season of FX's horror anthology series American Horror Story. He was later upgraded to the main cast during the fifth season. In 2017 he received praise for his performances in the drama films Walking Out, Anything, and the 2018 comedy-drama Papi Chulo. He portrays Larry Trainor in the DC Universe series Doom Patrol, which premiered in 2019.
On stage, Bomer starred in the Dustin Lance Black play 8 on Broadway, and at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles as Jeff Zarrillo, a plaintiff in the federal case that overturned California's Proposition 8. In 2018 he starred in revival of the Mart Crowley play The Boys in the Band on Broadway playing Donald; he reprised his role for the 2020 film of the same name.
Early life and education
Matthew Staton Bomer was born in Webster Groves, Missouri, to Elizabeth Macy (née Staton) and John O'Neill Bomer IV. His father, a Dallas Cowboys draft pick, played for the team from 1972 to 1974. Matt Bomer has a sister, Megan Bomer, and a brother, Neill Bomer, who is an engineer. Bomer credits his own parents for being understanding when they sensed their young child was a little different from other kids. "I've always had an active imagination," says Bomer. He is a distant cousin to American singer Justin Timberlake. Bomer's family is of English, Welsh, Scottish, Irish, Swiss-German and French descent.
Bomer was raised in Spring, Texas, and attended Klein High School; he was a classmate of Lee Pace and Lynn Collins. In high school, Bomer followed in his dad's footsteps. He played wide receiver and defensive back for his school's football team before deciding to concentrate on acting.
At age 17, he made his professional stage debut as Young Collector in a production of Tennessee Williams A Streetcar Named Desire staged by the Alley Theatre in downtown Houston. He also appeared in a 1998 production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the Utah Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City, Utah. Speaking about his first role in a production, Bomer said:
I started acting professionally when I was 17. I quit the team and did a production of A Streetcar Named Desire at the Alley Theatre in Houston. I used to drive down at the end of the school day, do the show, do my homework during intermission and drive an hour back to Spring to go to school the next day.
Bomer attended Carnegie Mellon University with fellow actor Joe Manganiello and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 2001. In 1999, Bomer worked as a bartender while spending a year living in Galway, Ireland.
Career
2000–2004: Early roles
Shortly after graduating from Carnegie Mellon University, Bomer moved to New York City, where he worked in theater and got his first role on television. His television debut came in 2000 on the ABC network, when he played Ian Kipling on the 1970s drama soap opera All My Children. Two years later he made a guest appearance in the mystery fantasy series Relic Hunter (2002).
In 2001, he landed a contract role on the soap opera Guiding Light. He played Ben Reade, a character connected to several core families on the show. When Bomer left the show in 2003, his exit was controversial; Ben was suddenly revealed to be a male prostitute and serial killer. He received a Gold Derby Awards for Younger Actor – Daytime Drama for his performance in the series. Years later in 2015, Bomer talked about his participation in the series, he said: "I told them to just throw the kitchen sink at me, and they did."
His next role was in the supernatural drama series Tru Calling (2003–2004). Starring alongside Eliza Dushku, Bomer starred as Luc Johnston the love interest of the protagonist of the series played by Dushku, in the first season. In 2003, Bomer returned to theatre to star in a Powerhouse Theater production of Paul Weitz's play Roullete in New York. A year later, he appeared in the episode Bellport in the primetime TV show of North Shore.
2005–2009: Transition to film and breakthrough with White Collar
His screen debut occurred in the 2005 starring in the Robert Schwentke directed mystery thriller Flightplan, opposite Jodie Foster. Bomer's character was a flight attendant. The film grossed $223.3 million worldwide, becoming the seventeenth highest-grossing film of the year and Bomer's most lucrative film so far. In the slasher film The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006), Bomer portrayed Eric, a Vietnam War veteran who is driving across Texas to re-enlist after his brother is drafted.
He acted in his first television film Amy Coyne (2006); he plays the role of Case. The film tells the story of a young woman who inherits her father's sports agency. His first leading role was in the series Traveler (2007), along with Logan Marshall-Green, Aaron Stanford and Viola Davis, a short-lived midseason replacement television series which premiered on ABC on May 30, 2007, the series tells the story of two graduate students, become suspected of terrorism after a skateboarding race inside a museum. The series was canceled after eight episodes.
He had a supporting role in the NBC action-comedy spy-drama Chuck (2007–09). The series is about an "average computer-whiz-next-door" named Chuck Bartowski (played by Zachary Levi), who receives an encoded e-mail from Bomer's character, Bryce Larkin, an old college friend now working for the CIA. In 2007, Bomer took on the role of Ernest Hemingway in a Williamstown Theatre Festival production of Crispin Whittell's play Villa America in Massachusetts, starring in it with Jennifer Mudge and Nate Corddry.
2009 marked a significant turning point in Bomer's career as he starred as the con artist Neal Caffrey in the police procedural drama series White Collar. He was part of an ensemble cast that included Tim DeKay, Willie Garson, and Tiffani Thiessen. White Collar premiered on August 23, 2009, on USA Network and was watched by more than 5.40 million people. His performance as well as the rest of the cast were praised; Mary McNamara of the Los Angeles Times wrote: "terrific acting, crackling dialogue and geek-hip crime are not the only things that make this the most electric drama to premiere this fall." She also liked the performance of the two leads together saying they "are so easy" and "perfect together". He won a People's Choice Award at the 2015 ceremony. Additionally Bomer produced 19 episodes of White Collar along with DeKay.
2010–2015: Recognition
2010 began with Bomer invited to sing with actress and Tony Award winning singer Kelli O'Hara at the Kennedy Center Honors. In September 2011, Bomer starred in Dustin Lance Black's play, 8, a staged re-enactment of the federal trial that overturned California's Proposition 8. Bomer starred as Jeff Zarrillo. The production was directed by actor Joe Mantello and presented at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre in New York City. In March 2012, he was featured in the Wilshire Ebell Theatre production as well.
In 2011, Bomer was cast as a 105-year-old man in Andrew Niccol's science fiction thriller film In Time, starring alongside Justin Timberlake. On April 10, 2012, Bomer made a guest appearance in the third season of the television series Glee, playing Blaine's older brother, Cooper Anderson, a Hollywood commercials actor who comes to Lima for a visit, and while in town gives an acting masterclass to New Directions. His performance on Glee received critical acclaim; critic Emily VanDerWerff of The A.V. Club described his performance as "absolutely fantastic." Crystal Bell of the Huffington Post called his appearance "perfectly cast" and Bomer as one of her favorite guest stars. For this performance on 'Glee', he won a Gold Derby award in the category of Best Comedy Guest Actor.
For his next film, Bomer starred opposite Channing Tatum in Steven Soderbergh's comedy drama Magic Mike (2012). He studied with a group called Hollywood Men in Los Angeles to prepare for the role. The film premiered as the closing film for the 2012 Los Angeles Film Festival on June 24, 2012. Magic Mike was a critical success and his performance was praised. Sara Stewart of the New York Post noted that; "Matt Bomer is also in fine form as a dancer, Ken, whose signature performance plays off his doll-like face." Bomer and Tatum were nominated for the MTV Movie & TV Awards at the 2013 ceremony in Best Musical Moment category.
Bomer made two appearances in 2013, the first as a guest performer on the NBC sitcom The New Normal, portraying the role Monty, ex-boyfriend of the protagonist of the series Bryan Collins played by Andrew Rannells. The second was to voice Superman in the direct to video Superman: Unbound, based on the 2008 comic book story "Superman: Brainiac" by Geoff Johns. His voiceover assured him an invitation to the Behind the Voice Actors Awards in 2013.
In 2014, Bomer appeared in five projects. His first two releases, Winter's Tale, and Space Station 76, were commercially unsuccessful.
The first film, a romantic and supernatural fantasy drama film, was written and directed by Akiva Goldsman, and based on Mark Helprin's novel Winter's Tale. Bomer plays the young father of Colin Farrell's character. Winter's Tale received negative reviews. His second release of the year was in the black space fiction comedy Space Station 76 by Jack Plotnick, alongside Liv Tyler and Patrick Wilson. James Rocchi of The Wrap said; "all the performers are game" and the performance of Bomer; "as a melancholy engineer with a prosthetic hand that looks like a Nintendo Power Glove".
Bomer's next project involved Ryan Murphy casting him opposite Mark Ruffalo, Jim Parsons and Julia Roberts in the drama romance film The Normal Heart (2014). Based on Larry Kramer's play of the same name, it featured Bomer as an closeted writer of The New York Times and love interest of Ruffalo's character. The film shows the rise of the HIV-AIDS crisis in New York City between 1981 and 1984, as seen through the eyes of writer/activist Ned Weeks (Ruffalo), the founder of a prominent HIV advocacy group. The production of The Normal Heart stopped for a few months while he was on a diet. Bomer's performance was praised by a reviewer for The Hollywood Reporter, who considered his acting as the highlight of the production. Matthew Gilbert of The Boston Globe noticed that Bomer is: "quite simply, devastating in this movie, his beauty adding resonance because it begins to fade so suddenly, as his cheeks protrude and lesions gather." Gilbert also lauded the chemistry between Bomer and Ruffalo saying that: "is among the movie's strengths, too, as it provides the core of love and compassion amid all the acrimony." Bomer received his first Golden Globe Award in the Best Supporting Actor category and his first Primetime Emmy Awards nomination.
After narrating the documentary Hunted: The War Against Gays in Russia, following LGBT people in Russia. later that year, Bomer was cast by Murphy in "Pink Cupcakes", an episode in the fourth season of American Horror Story. His participation was described by Lauren Piester of E! Online as "one of the show's most shocking moments". Bomer's first release of 2015 was Magic Mike XXL, a sequel to the popular 2012 film, again featuring Channing Tatum and Joe Manganiello. Magic Mike XXL grossed $122 million worldwide. Reviewing the film for Rolling Stones, Peter Travers noted that; "the movie is just a rambling, loosey-goosey road trip, with Bomer and Manganiello getting extra time to shine." He also sang two songs for the film's soundtrack: "Heaven" and "Untitled (How Does It Feel)". After Bomer's participation in American Horror Story: Freak Show; Murphy put him in the main cast of the fifth season, American Horror Story: Hotel. Bomer plays the son of Iris (Kathy Bates) and the lover of the Countess (Lady Gaga).
2016–present: Professional expansion, independent films and Broadway
Bomer appeared in two films in 2016. He played for the first time a villain in the movie The Nice Guys, as a psycho killer named John Boy. Directed by Shane Black, starring Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe. Gosling and Bomer were at the premiere of the film at the Cannes Film Festival in 2016. The Nice Guys generated positive reviews and enjoyed moderate box office success. His next role was as Matthew Cullen in Antoine Fuqua's Western action film The Magnificent Seven, playing the farmer husband of Haley Bennett's character. The film received mixed reviews from critics, although the cast and action sequences were praised, and grossed $162.4 million worldwide. He was cast as Monroe Stahr, the lead in Billy Ray's 2016 series The Last Tycoon, loosely based on the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel of the same name, along with actors Kelsey Grammer, Lily Collins, and Dominique McElligott.
In 2017, he starred in Alex & Andrew Smith's drama Walking Out, as an estranged father to a 14-year-old son (played by Josh Wiggins). He said that he related to the character "in a really profound way.” Walking Out was screened in the U.S. Dramatic Competition section of the 2017 Sundance Film Festival and was released on October 6, 2017. Justin Chang of Los Angeles Times noted that he "steps confidently into the boots of a rugged, know-it-all mountain man whose idea of tough love can turn unexpectedly toward tenderness around a flickering campfire." David Ehrlich of IndieWire stated that Bomer fortunately plays against his "pretty boy type so convincingly that you might forget where you’ve even seen him before", concluding that Bomer "gives a commanding performance in a movie that fails to realize how evocative he is, the Smiths defaulting to flashbacks that show us less about cowboys and gender codes than we can glean from the wild look in its lead actor’s face. The Village Voice included his performance in the film in a list of the 17 Most Overlooked Performances of 2017.
Timothy McNeil's drama Anything marked Bomer's final film release of 2017 and McNeil making his feature directorial debut. Bomer was cast as Freda Von Rhenburg, a transgender sex worker who lives in Los Angeles and begins a relationship with her neighbor, Early Landry (played by John Carroll Lynch). Anything is based on McNeil’s play of the same name. He has received some criticism from the transgender community for the casting of a cisgender man, to play a transgender woman. Jon Frosch of The Hollywood Reporter felt that Bomer: "gives a performance of real warmth and delicacy," saying that: "rather than play Freda as a force of nature or a collection of mannerisms—the typical default modes of actors playing trans women—Bomer renders her fully dimensional: an unpredictable tangle of impulses, by turns defensive and tender." Anything had its release at the Los Angeles Film Festival on June 17, 2017.
In 2018, Bomer began working on his directorial debut on series The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story. Written by Tom Rob Smith and starring Jon Jon Briones and Darren Criss, in the roles of father and son, respectively, the episode that Bomer directs is titled "Creator/Destroyer". The episode was watched by more than 1 million people. Bomer had other opportunities to direct before but always wanted to wait for the optimum chance to immerse himself in a project. He read 3,000 pages of books on directing. He found a part in a 2018 revival of the Mart Crowley play The Boys in the Band, which was staged at Booth Theatre and marked his Broadway debut. Directed by Joe Mantello, it tells the story a group of gay men who gather for a birthday party in New York City. Theater critic Michael Sommers noted that "Matt Bomer tends to fade in the glare of flashier personalities, but he lends the character a watchful quality as one of those deferential souls who is content to observe others." The play won a Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play. Bomer's first film in 2018 was Bill Oliver's science fiction film Jonathan. His role was that of a detective who appears in only one scene of the film. Jonathan had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 21, 2018.
Two of Bomer's films in 2018 premiered at the 43rd Toronto International Film Festivalthe comedy drama Papi Chulo and the drama Viper Club. In the former, Bomer plays Sean, a local network television weather forecaster. A reviewer for Screen Daily argued that Bomer is "terrific" and concluded that "while he may not yet have the name recognition to act as a key selling point for this film, it’s the kind of performance which gets noticed". In Viper Club, Bomer played Sam, a journalist who helps Helen (played by Susan Sarandon), to save her son who was kidnapped by a group of terrorists. He had a guest starring role on the NBC series Will & Grace (2018–2019) and he also appeared as Negative Man in the DC Universe superhero series, Doom Patrol (2019).
In 2020, Bomer began acting in the USA Network anthology series The Sinner as one of the stars.
In the media
BuddyTV ranked him first on its list of "TV's Sexiest Men of 2011" and third in 2012. In June 2013, Bomer was ranked at no. 2 on Logos Hot 100 list, which is based on the votes of readers of the AfterEllen.com and TheBacklot.com. Bomer was the list's highest ranked man and second only to Jennifer Lawrence.
Personal life
Bomer married publicist Simon Halls in 2011;
the marriage became public through the media only in 2014. In an interview discussing his marriage, Bomer said that his marriage to Halls was a very small event in New York City: "It was very chill and very small–just our closest and dear ones. There is a security, a validity. It's just a feeling, I think–something about saying vows in front of the people around you who love and support you. I think it was good for our family." The couple has three children conceived through surrogacy: Kit Halls (b. 2005), and then twin brothers, Walker and Henry Halls (b. 2008).
Bomer publicly came out as gay in 2012, when he thanked Halls and their children during an acceptance speech for his Steve Chase Humanitarian Award. Also in 2012, Bomer was given an Inspiration Award for his work at the GLSEN Awards. He is an LGBT rights activist.
In 2018, Bomer campaigned for Democratic candidate Beto O'Rourke in the U.S. Senate election in Texas.
Bomer has been practicing Transcendental Meditation since his early 20s; in 2013 he spoke of his support for the work of the David Lynch Foundation.
Filmography
According to the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes and box-office website The Numbers, Bomer's most critically and commercially successful films include Flightplan (2005), In Time (2011), Magic Mike (2012), Superman: Unbound (2013), The Normal Heart (2014), Magic Mike XXL (2015), The Magnificent Seven (2016), The Nice Guys (2016) and Walking Out (2017). Among his stage roles, he has appeared in a Broadway revival of The Boys In The Band (2018).
Throughout his career, Bomer has already won and been nominated for several awards, notably his Golden Globe Awards nomination for Best Supporting Actor-Series, Miniseries or Television Film, winning the prize in 2015, an indication to the Primetime Emmy Awards of Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie and the Critics' Choice Television Awards for Best Supporting Actor in a Movie/Miniseries in 2014, winning the award that year.
Discography
Awards and nominations
See also
LGBT culture in New York City
List of LGBT people from New York City
References
External links
Gay actors
1977 births
20th-century American male actors
21st-century American male actors
American male film actors
American male soap opera actors
American male stage actors
American male television actors
American male voice actors
Best Supporting Actor Golden Globe (television) winners
Carnegie Mellon University College of Fine Arts alumni
American gay actors
LGBT rights activists from the United States
LGBT people from Missouri
LGBT people from Texas
Living people
Male actors from Texas
People from Spring, Texas
People from St. Louis County, Missouri
Klein High School alumni | true | [
"The Man Who Changed His Name may refer to: \n The Man Who Changed His Name (play), a 1928 mystery play by Edgar Wallace\n The Man Who Changed His Name (1928 film), a silent film adaptation\n The Man Who Changed His Name (1934 film), a sound film adaptation",
"Vennelakanti Rajeswara Prasad (30 November 1957 – 5 January 2021) was an Indian lyricist and writer known for his work in Telugu cinema. He wrote over 2000 film songs, and was awarded Andhra Pradesh State Nandi Award for Best Lyricist in 2000.\n\nCareer \nVennelakanti was inclined towards Harikathas, and began writing from a young age. Initially, he worked as a banker and wrote his first film song for Krishnam Raju-starrer Sriramachandrudu.\n\nHe was also known for his works as dubbing script writer and contributing lyrics for Tamil films, dubbed into Telugu language.\n\nFilmography\nLyricist\n1988: Murali Krishnudu\n1991: Aditya 369\n1993: One By Two \n1994: Gharana Alludu \n1994: Theerpu\n1995: Gharana Bullodu\n1995: Criminal \n1996: Shri Krishnarjuna Vijayam\n1999: Samarasimha Reddy \n1999: Seenu \n1999: Premãnurãgam (Dubbed Version of Hindi film Hum Saath-Saath Hain) \n2001: Bhalevadivi Basu\n2001: Cheppalani Vundhi \n2002: Takkari Donga\n2006: Pellaina Kothalo \n2009: Mitrudu\n2010: Aawara(kaarthi) \n2011: Vastadu Naa Raju\n2011: Raaj \n2020: Penguin \n\nDialogue writer\nPremãnurãgam (1999) (Dubbed Version of Hindi film Hum Saath-Saath Hain)\nPanchathantiram (2002) (dubbed version of Tamil film of same name)\nMagic Magic 3D (2003) (dubbed version of Tamil film of same name)\nPrema Chadhurangam (2004) (dubbed version of Tamil film Chellame)\nMonalisa (2004) (dubbed version of Kannada film of same name)\nPothuraju (2004) (dubbed version of Tamil film Virumaandi)\nMumbai Xpress (2005) (dubbed version of Tamil film of same name)\nDasavathaaram (2008) (dubbed version of Tamil film of same name)\nSaroja (2008) (dubbed version of Tamil film of same name)\nManmadha Baanam (2010) (dubbed version of Tamil film Manmadhan Ambu)\nPrema Khaidi (2011) (dubbed version of Tamil film Mynaa)\n\nPersonal life and death\nHis elder son Shashank Vennelakanti works as dialogue writer for dubbed films. His younger son, Rakendu Mouli, also started his career as a lyricist and singer for several dubbing films. His first 'direct' film was Andala Rakshasi, in which he wrote two songs and rendered his voice for one. He made his debut as a lead actor with Moodu Mukkallo Cheppalante.\n\nHe died on 5 January 2021 in Chennai after suffering from cardiac arrest.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n Entry at movies.dosthana.com\n\n1957 births\n2021 deaths\nTelugu-language lyricists\nIndian lyricists\nNandi Award winners"
]
|
[
"Matt Bomer",
"2005-2009: Transition to film and breakthrough with White Collar",
"Name his film?",
"Flightplan,"
]
| C_d8ba5bc8901940788b7d10fcb5eb1fc3_0 | What was the movie about? | 2 | What was Matt Bomer's movie about? | Matt Bomer | His screen debut occurred in the 2005 starring in the Robert Schwentke-directed German-American mystery-thriller Flightplan, opposite Jodie Foster. Bomer's character was a flight attendant. The film grossed $223.3 million dollars worldwide, becoming the seventeenth highest grossing film of the year and Bomer's most lucrative film so far. The film received mixed reviews, although the cast was chosen. In the slasher film The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006), the film's story takes place four years before the timeline of the 2003 film, directed by Jonathan Liebesman, Bomer portrayed Eric, a Vietnam War veteran who is driving across Texas to re-enlist after his brother is drafted. The brothers run afoul of Sheriff Hoyt and are taken captive by the Hewitt family. The film, cast, direction and screenplay were criticized by critics. Writing to Rolling Stones, Peter Travers said: "putridly written, directed and acted." The remake was in second place at the box office of American theaters in its first weekend of opening with $18.5 million. The film grossed $51.8 million worldwide. Acted in his first television film Amy Coyne (2006), where he plays Case. The film tells the story of a young woman who after her father's death inherits her sports agency. His first leading role was in the series Traveler (2007), along with Logan Marshall-Green, Aaron Stanford and Viola Davis, a short-lived midseason replacement television series which premiered on ABC on May 30, 2007, the series tells the story of two graduate students, become suspected of terrorism after a skateboarding race inside a museum. It was broadcast only one season of Traveler, the series was canceled in the middle of the fourth episode and received mixed criticism from television critics. He had a supporting role in the NBC action-comedy-spy-drama Chuck (2007-09), created by Josh Schwartz and Chris Fedak. The series is about an "average computer-whiz-next-door" named Chuck Bartowski (played by Zachary Levi), who receives an encoded e-mail from an old college friend now working for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). His character Bryce Larkin, was also a CIA agent, the series in its first season had very positive critics. In 2007, Bomer took on the role of Ernest Hemingway in a Williamstown Theatre Festival production of Crispin Whittell's play Villa America in Massachusetts, starring with Jennifer Mudge and Nate Corddry. 2009 marked a significant turning point in Bomer's career. Starring as the a con artist Neal Caffrey in the police procedural--drama series White Collar, he was part of an ensemble cast that included Tim DeKay, Willie Garson and Tiffani Thiessen and created by Jeff Eastin. White Collar premiered on August 23, 2009 on USA Network and was watched by more than 5.40 million people. His performance and that of the cast were praised; Mary McNamara of the Los Angeles Times wrote: "terrific acting, crackling dialogue and geek-hip crime are not the only things that make this the most electric drama to premiere this fall." She also praised the performance of the two leads together saying they "are so easy" and "perfect together". He won a People's Choice Award at the 2015 ceremony. In addition, Bomer produced 19 episodes of White Collar along with DeKay. CANNOTANSWER | Bomer's character was a flight attendant. | Matthew Staton Bomer (born October 11, 1977) is an American actor. He is the recipient of accolades such as a Golden Globe Award, a Critics' Choice Television Award, and a Primetime Emmy Award nomination.
In 2000, he made his television debut on the long-running soap opera All My Children. Bomer graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. Soon after, he had a contract role on Guiding Light, as well as appearing on primetime shows, including Tru Calling.
In 2005, Bomer made his film debut in the mystery-thriller Flightplan, then in 2007 gained recognition with his recurring role in the NBC television series Chuck. 2009 saw Bomer then land the lead role of con-artist and thief Neal Caffrey in the USA Network series White Collar with the series lasting to 2014. He has featured in supporting roles in the 2011 science fiction thriller In Time, the 2012 comedy-drama Magic Mike and its 2015 sequel, the 2014 supernatural-drama Winter's Tale, and the 2016 neo-noir film The Nice Guys. In 2015, he won a Golden Globe Award and received a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for playing a closeted writer of The New York Times in the drama television film The Normal Heart about the rise of the HIV-AIDS crisis in New York City. Bomer made a guest appearance on the fourth season of FX's horror anthology series American Horror Story. He was later upgraded to the main cast during the fifth season. In 2017 he received praise for his performances in the drama films Walking Out, Anything, and the 2018 comedy-drama Papi Chulo. He portrays Larry Trainor in the DC Universe series Doom Patrol, which premiered in 2019.
On stage, Bomer starred in the Dustin Lance Black play 8 on Broadway, and at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles as Jeff Zarrillo, a plaintiff in the federal case that overturned California's Proposition 8. In 2018 he starred in revival of the Mart Crowley play The Boys in the Band on Broadway playing Donald; he reprised his role for the 2020 film of the same name.
Early life and education
Matthew Staton Bomer was born in Webster Groves, Missouri, to Elizabeth Macy (née Staton) and John O'Neill Bomer IV. His father, a Dallas Cowboys draft pick, played for the team from 1972 to 1974. Matt Bomer has a sister, Megan Bomer, and a brother, Neill Bomer, who is an engineer. Bomer credits his own parents for being understanding when they sensed their young child was a little different from other kids. "I've always had an active imagination," says Bomer. He is a distant cousin to American singer Justin Timberlake. Bomer's family is of English, Welsh, Scottish, Irish, Swiss-German and French descent.
Bomer was raised in Spring, Texas, and attended Klein High School; he was a classmate of Lee Pace and Lynn Collins. In high school, Bomer followed in his dad's footsteps. He played wide receiver and defensive back for his school's football team before deciding to concentrate on acting.
At age 17, he made his professional stage debut as Young Collector in a production of Tennessee Williams A Streetcar Named Desire staged by the Alley Theatre in downtown Houston. He also appeared in a 1998 production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the Utah Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City, Utah. Speaking about his first role in a production, Bomer said:
I started acting professionally when I was 17. I quit the team and did a production of A Streetcar Named Desire at the Alley Theatre in Houston. I used to drive down at the end of the school day, do the show, do my homework during intermission and drive an hour back to Spring to go to school the next day.
Bomer attended Carnegie Mellon University with fellow actor Joe Manganiello and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 2001. In 1999, Bomer worked as a bartender while spending a year living in Galway, Ireland.
Career
2000–2004: Early roles
Shortly after graduating from Carnegie Mellon University, Bomer moved to New York City, where he worked in theater and got his first role on television. His television debut came in 2000 on the ABC network, when he played Ian Kipling on the 1970s drama soap opera All My Children. Two years later he made a guest appearance in the mystery fantasy series Relic Hunter (2002).
In 2001, he landed a contract role on the soap opera Guiding Light. He played Ben Reade, a character connected to several core families on the show. When Bomer left the show in 2003, his exit was controversial; Ben was suddenly revealed to be a male prostitute and serial killer. He received a Gold Derby Awards for Younger Actor – Daytime Drama for his performance in the series. Years later in 2015, Bomer talked about his participation in the series, he said: "I told them to just throw the kitchen sink at me, and they did."
His next role was in the supernatural drama series Tru Calling (2003–2004). Starring alongside Eliza Dushku, Bomer starred as Luc Johnston the love interest of the protagonist of the series played by Dushku, in the first season. In 2003, Bomer returned to theatre to star in a Powerhouse Theater production of Paul Weitz's play Roullete in New York. A year later, he appeared in the episode Bellport in the primetime TV show of North Shore.
2005–2009: Transition to film and breakthrough with White Collar
His screen debut occurred in the 2005 starring in the Robert Schwentke directed mystery thriller Flightplan, opposite Jodie Foster. Bomer's character was a flight attendant. The film grossed $223.3 million worldwide, becoming the seventeenth highest-grossing film of the year and Bomer's most lucrative film so far. In the slasher film The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006), Bomer portrayed Eric, a Vietnam War veteran who is driving across Texas to re-enlist after his brother is drafted.
He acted in his first television film Amy Coyne (2006); he plays the role of Case. The film tells the story of a young woman who inherits her father's sports agency. His first leading role was in the series Traveler (2007), along with Logan Marshall-Green, Aaron Stanford and Viola Davis, a short-lived midseason replacement television series which premiered on ABC on May 30, 2007, the series tells the story of two graduate students, become suspected of terrorism after a skateboarding race inside a museum. The series was canceled after eight episodes.
He had a supporting role in the NBC action-comedy spy-drama Chuck (2007–09). The series is about an "average computer-whiz-next-door" named Chuck Bartowski (played by Zachary Levi), who receives an encoded e-mail from Bomer's character, Bryce Larkin, an old college friend now working for the CIA. In 2007, Bomer took on the role of Ernest Hemingway in a Williamstown Theatre Festival production of Crispin Whittell's play Villa America in Massachusetts, starring in it with Jennifer Mudge and Nate Corddry.
2009 marked a significant turning point in Bomer's career as he starred as the con artist Neal Caffrey in the police procedural drama series White Collar. He was part of an ensemble cast that included Tim DeKay, Willie Garson, and Tiffani Thiessen. White Collar premiered on August 23, 2009, on USA Network and was watched by more than 5.40 million people. His performance as well as the rest of the cast were praised; Mary McNamara of the Los Angeles Times wrote: "terrific acting, crackling dialogue and geek-hip crime are not the only things that make this the most electric drama to premiere this fall." She also liked the performance of the two leads together saying they "are so easy" and "perfect together". He won a People's Choice Award at the 2015 ceremony. Additionally Bomer produced 19 episodes of White Collar along with DeKay.
2010–2015: Recognition
2010 began with Bomer invited to sing with actress and Tony Award winning singer Kelli O'Hara at the Kennedy Center Honors. In September 2011, Bomer starred in Dustin Lance Black's play, 8, a staged re-enactment of the federal trial that overturned California's Proposition 8. Bomer starred as Jeff Zarrillo. The production was directed by actor Joe Mantello and presented at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre in New York City. In March 2012, he was featured in the Wilshire Ebell Theatre production as well.
In 2011, Bomer was cast as a 105-year-old man in Andrew Niccol's science fiction thriller film In Time, starring alongside Justin Timberlake. On April 10, 2012, Bomer made a guest appearance in the third season of the television series Glee, playing Blaine's older brother, Cooper Anderson, a Hollywood commercials actor who comes to Lima for a visit, and while in town gives an acting masterclass to New Directions. His performance on Glee received critical acclaim; critic Emily VanDerWerff of The A.V. Club described his performance as "absolutely fantastic." Crystal Bell of the Huffington Post called his appearance "perfectly cast" and Bomer as one of her favorite guest stars. For this performance on 'Glee', he won a Gold Derby award in the category of Best Comedy Guest Actor.
For his next film, Bomer starred opposite Channing Tatum in Steven Soderbergh's comedy drama Magic Mike (2012). He studied with a group called Hollywood Men in Los Angeles to prepare for the role. The film premiered as the closing film for the 2012 Los Angeles Film Festival on June 24, 2012. Magic Mike was a critical success and his performance was praised. Sara Stewart of the New York Post noted that; "Matt Bomer is also in fine form as a dancer, Ken, whose signature performance plays off his doll-like face." Bomer and Tatum were nominated for the MTV Movie & TV Awards at the 2013 ceremony in Best Musical Moment category.
Bomer made two appearances in 2013, the first as a guest performer on the NBC sitcom The New Normal, portraying the role Monty, ex-boyfriend of the protagonist of the series Bryan Collins played by Andrew Rannells. The second was to voice Superman in the direct to video Superman: Unbound, based on the 2008 comic book story "Superman: Brainiac" by Geoff Johns. His voiceover assured him an invitation to the Behind the Voice Actors Awards in 2013.
In 2014, Bomer appeared in five projects. His first two releases, Winter's Tale, and Space Station 76, were commercially unsuccessful.
The first film, a romantic and supernatural fantasy drama film, was written and directed by Akiva Goldsman, and based on Mark Helprin's novel Winter's Tale. Bomer plays the young father of Colin Farrell's character. Winter's Tale received negative reviews. His second release of the year was in the black space fiction comedy Space Station 76 by Jack Plotnick, alongside Liv Tyler and Patrick Wilson. James Rocchi of The Wrap said; "all the performers are game" and the performance of Bomer; "as a melancholy engineer with a prosthetic hand that looks like a Nintendo Power Glove".
Bomer's next project involved Ryan Murphy casting him opposite Mark Ruffalo, Jim Parsons and Julia Roberts in the drama romance film The Normal Heart (2014). Based on Larry Kramer's play of the same name, it featured Bomer as an closeted writer of The New York Times and love interest of Ruffalo's character. The film shows the rise of the HIV-AIDS crisis in New York City between 1981 and 1984, as seen through the eyes of writer/activist Ned Weeks (Ruffalo), the founder of a prominent HIV advocacy group. The production of The Normal Heart stopped for a few months while he was on a diet. Bomer's performance was praised by a reviewer for The Hollywood Reporter, who considered his acting as the highlight of the production. Matthew Gilbert of The Boston Globe noticed that Bomer is: "quite simply, devastating in this movie, his beauty adding resonance because it begins to fade so suddenly, as his cheeks protrude and lesions gather." Gilbert also lauded the chemistry between Bomer and Ruffalo saying that: "is among the movie's strengths, too, as it provides the core of love and compassion amid all the acrimony." Bomer received his first Golden Globe Award in the Best Supporting Actor category and his first Primetime Emmy Awards nomination.
After narrating the documentary Hunted: The War Against Gays in Russia, following LGBT people in Russia. later that year, Bomer was cast by Murphy in "Pink Cupcakes", an episode in the fourth season of American Horror Story. His participation was described by Lauren Piester of E! Online as "one of the show's most shocking moments". Bomer's first release of 2015 was Magic Mike XXL, a sequel to the popular 2012 film, again featuring Channing Tatum and Joe Manganiello. Magic Mike XXL grossed $122 million worldwide. Reviewing the film for Rolling Stones, Peter Travers noted that; "the movie is just a rambling, loosey-goosey road trip, with Bomer and Manganiello getting extra time to shine." He also sang two songs for the film's soundtrack: "Heaven" and "Untitled (How Does It Feel)". After Bomer's participation in American Horror Story: Freak Show; Murphy put him in the main cast of the fifth season, American Horror Story: Hotel. Bomer plays the son of Iris (Kathy Bates) and the lover of the Countess (Lady Gaga).
2016–present: Professional expansion, independent films and Broadway
Bomer appeared in two films in 2016. He played for the first time a villain in the movie The Nice Guys, as a psycho killer named John Boy. Directed by Shane Black, starring Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe. Gosling and Bomer were at the premiere of the film at the Cannes Film Festival in 2016. The Nice Guys generated positive reviews and enjoyed moderate box office success. His next role was as Matthew Cullen in Antoine Fuqua's Western action film The Magnificent Seven, playing the farmer husband of Haley Bennett's character. The film received mixed reviews from critics, although the cast and action sequences were praised, and grossed $162.4 million worldwide. He was cast as Monroe Stahr, the lead in Billy Ray's 2016 series The Last Tycoon, loosely based on the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel of the same name, along with actors Kelsey Grammer, Lily Collins, and Dominique McElligott.
In 2017, he starred in Alex & Andrew Smith's drama Walking Out, as an estranged father to a 14-year-old son (played by Josh Wiggins). He said that he related to the character "in a really profound way.” Walking Out was screened in the U.S. Dramatic Competition section of the 2017 Sundance Film Festival and was released on October 6, 2017. Justin Chang of Los Angeles Times noted that he "steps confidently into the boots of a rugged, know-it-all mountain man whose idea of tough love can turn unexpectedly toward tenderness around a flickering campfire." David Ehrlich of IndieWire stated that Bomer fortunately plays against his "pretty boy type so convincingly that you might forget where you’ve even seen him before", concluding that Bomer "gives a commanding performance in a movie that fails to realize how evocative he is, the Smiths defaulting to flashbacks that show us less about cowboys and gender codes than we can glean from the wild look in its lead actor’s face. The Village Voice included his performance in the film in a list of the 17 Most Overlooked Performances of 2017.
Timothy McNeil's drama Anything marked Bomer's final film release of 2017 and McNeil making his feature directorial debut. Bomer was cast as Freda Von Rhenburg, a transgender sex worker who lives in Los Angeles and begins a relationship with her neighbor, Early Landry (played by John Carroll Lynch). Anything is based on McNeil’s play of the same name. He has received some criticism from the transgender community for the casting of a cisgender man, to play a transgender woman. Jon Frosch of The Hollywood Reporter felt that Bomer: "gives a performance of real warmth and delicacy," saying that: "rather than play Freda as a force of nature or a collection of mannerisms—the typical default modes of actors playing trans women—Bomer renders her fully dimensional: an unpredictable tangle of impulses, by turns defensive and tender." Anything had its release at the Los Angeles Film Festival on June 17, 2017.
In 2018, Bomer began working on his directorial debut on series The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story. Written by Tom Rob Smith and starring Jon Jon Briones and Darren Criss, in the roles of father and son, respectively, the episode that Bomer directs is titled "Creator/Destroyer". The episode was watched by more than 1 million people. Bomer had other opportunities to direct before but always wanted to wait for the optimum chance to immerse himself in a project. He read 3,000 pages of books on directing. He found a part in a 2018 revival of the Mart Crowley play The Boys in the Band, which was staged at Booth Theatre and marked his Broadway debut. Directed by Joe Mantello, it tells the story a group of gay men who gather for a birthday party in New York City. Theater critic Michael Sommers noted that "Matt Bomer tends to fade in the glare of flashier personalities, but he lends the character a watchful quality as one of those deferential souls who is content to observe others." The play won a Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play. Bomer's first film in 2018 was Bill Oliver's science fiction film Jonathan. His role was that of a detective who appears in only one scene of the film. Jonathan had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 21, 2018.
Two of Bomer's films in 2018 premiered at the 43rd Toronto International Film Festivalthe comedy drama Papi Chulo and the drama Viper Club. In the former, Bomer plays Sean, a local network television weather forecaster. A reviewer for Screen Daily argued that Bomer is "terrific" and concluded that "while he may not yet have the name recognition to act as a key selling point for this film, it’s the kind of performance which gets noticed". In Viper Club, Bomer played Sam, a journalist who helps Helen (played by Susan Sarandon), to save her son who was kidnapped by a group of terrorists. He had a guest starring role on the NBC series Will & Grace (2018–2019) and he also appeared as Negative Man in the DC Universe superhero series, Doom Patrol (2019).
In 2020, Bomer began acting in the USA Network anthology series The Sinner as one of the stars.
In the media
BuddyTV ranked him first on its list of "TV's Sexiest Men of 2011" and third in 2012. In June 2013, Bomer was ranked at no. 2 on Logos Hot 100 list, which is based on the votes of readers of the AfterEllen.com and TheBacklot.com. Bomer was the list's highest ranked man and second only to Jennifer Lawrence.
Personal life
Bomer married publicist Simon Halls in 2011;
the marriage became public through the media only in 2014. In an interview discussing his marriage, Bomer said that his marriage to Halls was a very small event in New York City: "It was very chill and very small–just our closest and dear ones. There is a security, a validity. It's just a feeling, I think–something about saying vows in front of the people around you who love and support you. I think it was good for our family." The couple has three children conceived through surrogacy: Kit Halls (b. 2005), and then twin brothers, Walker and Henry Halls (b. 2008).
Bomer publicly came out as gay in 2012, when he thanked Halls and their children during an acceptance speech for his Steve Chase Humanitarian Award. Also in 2012, Bomer was given an Inspiration Award for his work at the GLSEN Awards. He is an LGBT rights activist.
In 2018, Bomer campaigned for Democratic candidate Beto O'Rourke in the U.S. Senate election in Texas.
Bomer has been practicing Transcendental Meditation since his early 20s; in 2013 he spoke of his support for the work of the David Lynch Foundation.
Filmography
According to the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes and box-office website The Numbers, Bomer's most critically and commercially successful films include Flightplan (2005), In Time (2011), Magic Mike (2012), Superman: Unbound (2013), The Normal Heart (2014), Magic Mike XXL (2015), The Magnificent Seven (2016), The Nice Guys (2016) and Walking Out (2017). Among his stage roles, he has appeared in a Broadway revival of The Boys In The Band (2018).
Throughout his career, Bomer has already won and been nominated for several awards, notably his Golden Globe Awards nomination for Best Supporting Actor-Series, Miniseries or Television Film, winning the prize in 2015, an indication to the Primetime Emmy Awards of Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie and the Critics' Choice Television Awards for Best Supporting Actor in a Movie/Miniseries in 2014, winning the award that year.
Discography
Awards and nominations
See also
LGBT culture in New York City
List of LGBT people from New York City
References
External links
Gay actors
1977 births
20th-century American male actors
21st-century American male actors
American male film actors
American male soap opera actors
American male stage actors
American male television actors
American male voice actors
Best Supporting Actor Golden Globe (television) winners
Carnegie Mellon University College of Fine Arts alumni
American gay actors
LGBT rights activists from the United States
LGBT people from Missouri
LGBT people from Texas
Living people
Male actors from Texas
People from Spring, Texas
People from St. Louis County, Missouri
Klein High School alumni | true | [
"Black Starlet is a 1974 film.\n\nPlot summary\n\nIntroduction\nA young woman decides she no longer wants to work as a street walker in Chicago, now she wants to follow her dreams as an actress in Hollywood. The main cast members are Clara/Carla Brown – Juanita Brown, Brisco – Eric Mason, Ben – Rockne Tarkington, Skully – Damu King, Joyce – Diane Holden, Phil – Noah Keen, and Sam – Al Lewis. The writers are Daniel Cady and Howard Ostroff. The movie was filmed in Hollywood.\n\nPlot\nThe protagonist, Clara, starts out as a prostitute but is a young aspiring actress at heart. After saving up some money, she leavesher pimp boyfriend behind and moves to Hollywood. After some initial struggles, being robbed and pursued by lustful men, she finally makes it to Hollywood. While looking for work, Clara met a good friend named Joyce. Joyce taught Clara all the ins and outs about Hollywood, even introducing her to her manager. Although during Clara's time as an actress she was raped, Clara did not let that stop her. She soon became a well-known actress/writer.\n\nBackground\nOne of the reasons this movie wasn't your typical 1970s person top pick is that it was a low-budget movie, according to the \"Every 70s Movie\" article. Since the movie was set at a low budget this meant that the actors and actresses wouldn't be too great. As stated in the \"Every 70s Movie\" article, \"Yet Black Starlet meets and nearly exceeds the very low expectations set by its subject matter and title.\" Everyone in that time period just knew it was going to be a terrible movie because no one wanted to give up more funds for it forcing the producers to find casts willing to work for a very low wage. According to \"Every 70s Movie\", \"What makes Black Starlet more or less palatable are the moments wedged between exploitation-flick extremes.\"\n\nSocial norms\nIn the 1970s, it was a time when everyone was fighting for equality, African Americans, women, gays, and lesbians. The book Bucks and a Black Movie Boom stated that during the 1970s \"Very few films attempted to explore a black woman's tensions or aspirations or to examine the dynamics of sexual politics within the black community.\" Women were and still are experiencing sexual abuse. To further the fight for equality even if the industry felt no one would be interested in hearing about a black woman's struggle. Women were constantly put down about their acting talent but that was all put to rest when the movie Sparkle was introduced. It too was a low budget film that everyone thought would not take off anywhere, but soon became an appealing movie.\n\nWomanism\nThe fight for women's rights: the 1970s was a time when women were campaigning women's rights. In 1972, Congress approved the Equal Rights Amendment. This amendment states “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.” This was a time where women opened abortion clinics and rape centers. According to the book Bucks and a Black Movie Boom, \"It was the 1970s, that slick trendy, and contradictory era that led opened with politics and social issues very much on the minds of most Americans.\" The 1970s was an era for Black women to show that they were more than just a stereotype, they could act as well. In the book it discusses, \"What with the Black Nationalist movement, the youth movement, and the rising tide of feminism, the 1970s looked as if it, like the 1960s, would be propelled along by political activism. The movies gave Blacks a way to express their feelings without backlash. With this being said the 1970s era was different, different how? Bucks and a Black Movie Boom states that \"Then, too, while the 1970s opened with films with some political heat, the age closed with movies that were increasingly more escapist.\" In this era, Blacks were looking for a movie that shed light to America's racial conflicts and issues such as actors who showed power, who showed they weren't afraid of standing up for what was right. The 1970s is explained to be, \"No other period in black movie history, however, has been quite so energetic or important as the frenetic 1970s,\" as described in the book Bucks and a Black Movie Boom. This era, was like no other time era. It was a moment for anyone, blacks included, to rise above the pre-existing weak stereotypes.\n\nDiscussion of context\nThe soundtrack to the movie is soulful music coming from Joe Hinton and Dee Irvin. Songs include “Up is Down”, “Hollywood Faces”, “Fire Sign”, and “Go on and Find Your Star”.\n\nConclusion\nAs far as information about the main characters, there is not much information about Juanita Brown and Rockne Tarkington died in 2015. It is said that Tarkington has appeared in many movies. As for Brown, she has appeared in a few movies as stated in the article \"Every 70s Movie\". Yet nothing else has appeared about the actress. This film is listed as a blaxploitation film on Wikipedia.\n\nReferences\n\nSources\n\nExternal links\n Black Starlet (1974) [FULL MOVIE] | Itinerant Blog\n Black Starlet (1974) directed by Chris Munger • Reviews, film + cast • Letterboxd\n\n1974 films\nBlaxploitation films",
"I Told You So is a 1970 Ghanaian movie. The movie portrays Ghanaians and their way of life in a satirical style. It also gives insight into the life of a young lady who did not take the advice of her father when about to marry a man, she did not know anything about the man she was going to marry, but rather took her mother's and uncle's advice because of the wealth and power the man has.\n\nThe young lady later finds out that the man she is supposed to marry was an armed robber. She was unhappy of the whole incident. When her dad ask what had happened, she replied that the man she was supposed to marry is an armed robber; her father ended by saying \"I told you so\".\n\nCast\nBobe Cole\nMargret Quainoo (Araba Stamp)\nKweku Crankson (Osuo Abrobor)\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n I TOLD YOU SO GHANAIAN MOVIE\n\n1970 films\nGhanaian films"
]
|
[
"Matt Bomer",
"2005-2009: Transition to film and breakthrough with White Collar",
"Name his film?",
"Flightplan,",
"What was the movie about?",
"Bomer's character was a flight attendant."
]
| C_d8ba5bc8901940788b7d10fcb5eb1fc3_0 | Did the movie get any awards or notice? | 3 | Did the movie "Flightplan" get any awards or notice? | Matt Bomer | His screen debut occurred in the 2005 starring in the Robert Schwentke-directed German-American mystery-thriller Flightplan, opposite Jodie Foster. Bomer's character was a flight attendant. The film grossed $223.3 million dollars worldwide, becoming the seventeenth highest grossing film of the year and Bomer's most lucrative film so far. The film received mixed reviews, although the cast was chosen. In the slasher film The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006), the film's story takes place four years before the timeline of the 2003 film, directed by Jonathan Liebesman, Bomer portrayed Eric, a Vietnam War veteran who is driving across Texas to re-enlist after his brother is drafted. The brothers run afoul of Sheriff Hoyt and are taken captive by the Hewitt family. The film, cast, direction and screenplay were criticized by critics. Writing to Rolling Stones, Peter Travers said: "putridly written, directed and acted." The remake was in second place at the box office of American theaters in its first weekend of opening with $18.5 million. The film grossed $51.8 million worldwide. Acted in his first television film Amy Coyne (2006), where he plays Case. The film tells the story of a young woman who after her father's death inherits her sports agency. His first leading role was in the series Traveler (2007), along with Logan Marshall-Green, Aaron Stanford and Viola Davis, a short-lived midseason replacement television series which premiered on ABC on May 30, 2007, the series tells the story of two graduate students, become suspected of terrorism after a skateboarding race inside a museum. It was broadcast only one season of Traveler, the series was canceled in the middle of the fourth episode and received mixed criticism from television critics. He had a supporting role in the NBC action-comedy-spy-drama Chuck (2007-09), created by Josh Schwartz and Chris Fedak. The series is about an "average computer-whiz-next-door" named Chuck Bartowski (played by Zachary Levi), who receives an encoded e-mail from an old college friend now working for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). His character Bryce Larkin, was also a CIA agent, the series in its first season had very positive critics. In 2007, Bomer took on the role of Ernest Hemingway in a Williamstown Theatre Festival production of Crispin Whittell's play Villa America in Massachusetts, starring with Jennifer Mudge and Nate Corddry. 2009 marked a significant turning point in Bomer's career. Starring as the a con artist Neal Caffrey in the police procedural--drama series White Collar, he was part of an ensemble cast that included Tim DeKay, Willie Garson and Tiffani Thiessen and created by Jeff Eastin. White Collar premiered on August 23, 2009 on USA Network and was watched by more than 5.40 million people. His performance and that of the cast were praised; Mary McNamara of the Los Angeles Times wrote: "terrific acting, crackling dialogue and geek-hip crime are not the only things that make this the most electric drama to premiere this fall." She also praised the performance of the two leads together saying they "are so easy" and "perfect together". He won a People's Choice Award at the 2015 ceremony. In addition, Bomer produced 19 episodes of White Collar along with DeKay. CANNOTANSWER | The film grossed $223.3 million dollars worldwide, becoming the seventeenth highest grossing film of the year | Matthew Staton Bomer (born October 11, 1977) is an American actor. He is the recipient of accolades such as a Golden Globe Award, a Critics' Choice Television Award, and a Primetime Emmy Award nomination.
In 2000, he made his television debut on the long-running soap opera All My Children. Bomer graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. Soon after, he had a contract role on Guiding Light, as well as appearing on primetime shows, including Tru Calling.
In 2005, Bomer made his film debut in the mystery-thriller Flightplan, then in 2007 gained recognition with his recurring role in the NBC television series Chuck. 2009 saw Bomer then land the lead role of con-artist and thief Neal Caffrey in the USA Network series White Collar with the series lasting to 2014. He has featured in supporting roles in the 2011 science fiction thriller In Time, the 2012 comedy-drama Magic Mike and its 2015 sequel, the 2014 supernatural-drama Winter's Tale, and the 2016 neo-noir film The Nice Guys. In 2015, he won a Golden Globe Award and received a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for playing a closeted writer of The New York Times in the drama television film The Normal Heart about the rise of the HIV-AIDS crisis in New York City. Bomer made a guest appearance on the fourth season of FX's horror anthology series American Horror Story. He was later upgraded to the main cast during the fifth season. In 2017 he received praise for his performances in the drama films Walking Out, Anything, and the 2018 comedy-drama Papi Chulo. He portrays Larry Trainor in the DC Universe series Doom Patrol, which premiered in 2019.
On stage, Bomer starred in the Dustin Lance Black play 8 on Broadway, and at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles as Jeff Zarrillo, a plaintiff in the federal case that overturned California's Proposition 8. In 2018 he starred in revival of the Mart Crowley play The Boys in the Band on Broadway playing Donald; he reprised his role for the 2020 film of the same name.
Early life and education
Matthew Staton Bomer was born in Webster Groves, Missouri, to Elizabeth Macy (née Staton) and John O'Neill Bomer IV. His father, a Dallas Cowboys draft pick, played for the team from 1972 to 1974. Matt Bomer has a sister, Megan Bomer, and a brother, Neill Bomer, who is an engineer. Bomer credits his own parents for being understanding when they sensed their young child was a little different from other kids. "I've always had an active imagination," says Bomer. He is a distant cousin to American singer Justin Timberlake. Bomer's family is of English, Welsh, Scottish, Irish, Swiss-German and French descent.
Bomer was raised in Spring, Texas, and attended Klein High School; he was a classmate of Lee Pace and Lynn Collins. In high school, Bomer followed in his dad's footsteps. He played wide receiver and defensive back for his school's football team before deciding to concentrate on acting.
At age 17, he made his professional stage debut as Young Collector in a production of Tennessee Williams A Streetcar Named Desire staged by the Alley Theatre in downtown Houston. He also appeared in a 1998 production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the Utah Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City, Utah. Speaking about his first role in a production, Bomer said:
I started acting professionally when I was 17. I quit the team and did a production of A Streetcar Named Desire at the Alley Theatre in Houston. I used to drive down at the end of the school day, do the show, do my homework during intermission and drive an hour back to Spring to go to school the next day.
Bomer attended Carnegie Mellon University with fellow actor Joe Manganiello and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 2001. In 1999, Bomer worked as a bartender while spending a year living in Galway, Ireland.
Career
2000–2004: Early roles
Shortly after graduating from Carnegie Mellon University, Bomer moved to New York City, where he worked in theater and got his first role on television. His television debut came in 2000 on the ABC network, when he played Ian Kipling on the 1970s drama soap opera All My Children. Two years later he made a guest appearance in the mystery fantasy series Relic Hunter (2002).
In 2001, he landed a contract role on the soap opera Guiding Light. He played Ben Reade, a character connected to several core families on the show. When Bomer left the show in 2003, his exit was controversial; Ben was suddenly revealed to be a male prostitute and serial killer. He received a Gold Derby Awards for Younger Actor – Daytime Drama for his performance in the series. Years later in 2015, Bomer talked about his participation in the series, he said: "I told them to just throw the kitchen sink at me, and they did."
His next role was in the supernatural drama series Tru Calling (2003–2004). Starring alongside Eliza Dushku, Bomer starred as Luc Johnston the love interest of the protagonist of the series played by Dushku, in the first season. In 2003, Bomer returned to theatre to star in a Powerhouse Theater production of Paul Weitz's play Roullete in New York. A year later, he appeared in the episode Bellport in the primetime TV show of North Shore.
2005–2009: Transition to film and breakthrough with White Collar
His screen debut occurred in the 2005 starring in the Robert Schwentke directed mystery thriller Flightplan, opposite Jodie Foster. Bomer's character was a flight attendant. The film grossed $223.3 million worldwide, becoming the seventeenth highest-grossing film of the year and Bomer's most lucrative film so far. In the slasher film The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006), Bomer portrayed Eric, a Vietnam War veteran who is driving across Texas to re-enlist after his brother is drafted.
He acted in his first television film Amy Coyne (2006); he plays the role of Case. The film tells the story of a young woman who inherits her father's sports agency. His first leading role was in the series Traveler (2007), along with Logan Marshall-Green, Aaron Stanford and Viola Davis, a short-lived midseason replacement television series which premiered on ABC on May 30, 2007, the series tells the story of two graduate students, become suspected of terrorism after a skateboarding race inside a museum. The series was canceled after eight episodes.
He had a supporting role in the NBC action-comedy spy-drama Chuck (2007–09). The series is about an "average computer-whiz-next-door" named Chuck Bartowski (played by Zachary Levi), who receives an encoded e-mail from Bomer's character, Bryce Larkin, an old college friend now working for the CIA. In 2007, Bomer took on the role of Ernest Hemingway in a Williamstown Theatre Festival production of Crispin Whittell's play Villa America in Massachusetts, starring in it with Jennifer Mudge and Nate Corddry.
2009 marked a significant turning point in Bomer's career as he starred as the con artist Neal Caffrey in the police procedural drama series White Collar. He was part of an ensemble cast that included Tim DeKay, Willie Garson, and Tiffani Thiessen. White Collar premiered on August 23, 2009, on USA Network and was watched by more than 5.40 million people. His performance as well as the rest of the cast were praised; Mary McNamara of the Los Angeles Times wrote: "terrific acting, crackling dialogue and geek-hip crime are not the only things that make this the most electric drama to premiere this fall." She also liked the performance of the two leads together saying they "are so easy" and "perfect together". He won a People's Choice Award at the 2015 ceremony. Additionally Bomer produced 19 episodes of White Collar along with DeKay.
2010–2015: Recognition
2010 began with Bomer invited to sing with actress and Tony Award winning singer Kelli O'Hara at the Kennedy Center Honors. In September 2011, Bomer starred in Dustin Lance Black's play, 8, a staged re-enactment of the federal trial that overturned California's Proposition 8. Bomer starred as Jeff Zarrillo. The production was directed by actor Joe Mantello and presented at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre in New York City. In March 2012, he was featured in the Wilshire Ebell Theatre production as well.
In 2011, Bomer was cast as a 105-year-old man in Andrew Niccol's science fiction thriller film In Time, starring alongside Justin Timberlake. On April 10, 2012, Bomer made a guest appearance in the third season of the television series Glee, playing Blaine's older brother, Cooper Anderson, a Hollywood commercials actor who comes to Lima for a visit, and while in town gives an acting masterclass to New Directions. His performance on Glee received critical acclaim; critic Emily VanDerWerff of The A.V. Club described his performance as "absolutely fantastic." Crystal Bell of the Huffington Post called his appearance "perfectly cast" and Bomer as one of her favorite guest stars. For this performance on 'Glee', he won a Gold Derby award in the category of Best Comedy Guest Actor.
For his next film, Bomer starred opposite Channing Tatum in Steven Soderbergh's comedy drama Magic Mike (2012). He studied with a group called Hollywood Men in Los Angeles to prepare for the role. The film premiered as the closing film for the 2012 Los Angeles Film Festival on June 24, 2012. Magic Mike was a critical success and his performance was praised. Sara Stewart of the New York Post noted that; "Matt Bomer is also in fine form as a dancer, Ken, whose signature performance plays off his doll-like face." Bomer and Tatum were nominated for the MTV Movie & TV Awards at the 2013 ceremony in Best Musical Moment category.
Bomer made two appearances in 2013, the first as a guest performer on the NBC sitcom The New Normal, portraying the role Monty, ex-boyfriend of the protagonist of the series Bryan Collins played by Andrew Rannells. The second was to voice Superman in the direct to video Superman: Unbound, based on the 2008 comic book story "Superman: Brainiac" by Geoff Johns. His voiceover assured him an invitation to the Behind the Voice Actors Awards in 2013.
In 2014, Bomer appeared in five projects. His first two releases, Winter's Tale, and Space Station 76, were commercially unsuccessful.
The first film, a romantic and supernatural fantasy drama film, was written and directed by Akiva Goldsman, and based on Mark Helprin's novel Winter's Tale. Bomer plays the young father of Colin Farrell's character. Winter's Tale received negative reviews. His second release of the year was in the black space fiction comedy Space Station 76 by Jack Plotnick, alongside Liv Tyler and Patrick Wilson. James Rocchi of The Wrap said; "all the performers are game" and the performance of Bomer; "as a melancholy engineer with a prosthetic hand that looks like a Nintendo Power Glove".
Bomer's next project involved Ryan Murphy casting him opposite Mark Ruffalo, Jim Parsons and Julia Roberts in the drama romance film The Normal Heart (2014). Based on Larry Kramer's play of the same name, it featured Bomer as an closeted writer of The New York Times and love interest of Ruffalo's character. The film shows the rise of the HIV-AIDS crisis in New York City between 1981 and 1984, as seen through the eyes of writer/activist Ned Weeks (Ruffalo), the founder of a prominent HIV advocacy group. The production of The Normal Heart stopped for a few months while he was on a diet. Bomer's performance was praised by a reviewer for The Hollywood Reporter, who considered his acting as the highlight of the production. Matthew Gilbert of The Boston Globe noticed that Bomer is: "quite simply, devastating in this movie, his beauty adding resonance because it begins to fade so suddenly, as his cheeks protrude and lesions gather." Gilbert also lauded the chemistry between Bomer and Ruffalo saying that: "is among the movie's strengths, too, as it provides the core of love and compassion amid all the acrimony." Bomer received his first Golden Globe Award in the Best Supporting Actor category and his first Primetime Emmy Awards nomination.
After narrating the documentary Hunted: The War Against Gays in Russia, following LGBT people in Russia. later that year, Bomer was cast by Murphy in "Pink Cupcakes", an episode in the fourth season of American Horror Story. His participation was described by Lauren Piester of E! Online as "one of the show's most shocking moments". Bomer's first release of 2015 was Magic Mike XXL, a sequel to the popular 2012 film, again featuring Channing Tatum and Joe Manganiello. Magic Mike XXL grossed $122 million worldwide. Reviewing the film for Rolling Stones, Peter Travers noted that; "the movie is just a rambling, loosey-goosey road trip, with Bomer and Manganiello getting extra time to shine." He also sang two songs for the film's soundtrack: "Heaven" and "Untitled (How Does It Feel)". After Bomer's participation in American Horror Story: Freak Show; Murphy put him in the main cast of the fifth season, American Horror Story: Hotel. Bomer plays the son of Iris (Kathy Bates) and the lover of the Countess (Lady Gaga).
2016–present: Professional expansion, independent films and Broadway
Bomer appeared in two films in 2016. He played for the first time a villain in the movie The Nice Guys, as a psycho killer named John Boy. Directed by Shane Black, starring Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe. Gosling and Bomer were at the premiere of the film at the Cannes Film Festival in 2016. The Nice Guys generated positive reviews and enjoyed moderate box office success. His next role was as Matthew Cullen in Antoine Fuqua's Western action film The Magnificent Seven, playing the farmer husband of Haley Bennett's character. The film received mixed reviews from critics, although the cast and action sequences were praised, and grossed $162.4 million worldwide. He was cast as Monroe Stahr, the lead in Billy Ray's 2016 series The Last Tycoon, loosely based on the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel of the same name, along with actors Kelsey Grammer, Lily Collins, and Dominique McElligott.
In 2017, he starred in Alex & Andrew Smith's drama Walking Out, as an estranged father to a 14-year-old son (played by Josh Wiggins). He said that he related to the character "in a really profound way.” Walking Out was screened in the U.S. Dramatic Competition section of the 2017 Sundance Film Festival and was released on October 6, 2017. Justin Chang of Los Angeles Times noted that he "steps confidently into the boots of a rugged, know-it-all mountain man whose idea of tough love can turn unexpectedly toward tenderness around a flickering campfire." David Ehrlich of IndieWire stated that Bomer fortunately plays against his "pretty boy type so convincingly that you might forget where you’ve even seen him before", concluding that Bomer "gives a commanding performance in a movie that fails to realize how evocative he is, the Smiths defaulting to flashbacks that show us less about cowboys and gender codes than we can glean from the wild look in its lead actor’s face. The Village Voice included his performance in the film in a list of the 17 Most Overlooked Performances of 2017.
Timothy McNeil's drama Anything marked Bomer's final film release of 2017 and McNeil making his feature directorial debut. Bomer was cast as Freda Von Rhenburg, a transgender sex worker who lives in Los Angeles and begins a relationship with her neighbor, Early Landry (played by John Carroll Lynch). Anything is based on McNeil’s play of the same name. He has received some criticism from the transgender community for the casting of a cisgender man, to play a transgender woman. Jon Frosch of The Hollywood Reporter felt that Bomer: "gives a performance of real warmth and delicacy," saying that: "rather than play Freda as a force of nature or a collection of mannerisms—the typical default modes of actors playing trans women—Bomer renders her fully dimensional: an unpredictable tangle of impulses, by turns defensive and tender." Anything had its release at the Los Angeles Film Festival on June 17, 2017.
In 2018, Bomer began working on his directorial debut on series The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story. Written by Tom Rob Smith and starring Jon Jon Briones and Darren Criss, in the roles of father and son, respectively, the episode that Bomer directs is titled "Creator/Destroyer". The episode was watched by more than 1 million people. Bomer had other opportunities to direct before but always wanted to wait for the optimum chance to immerse himself in a project. He read 3,000 pages of books on directing. He found a part in a 2018 revival of the Mart Crowley play The Boys in the Band, which was staged at Booth Theatre and marked his Broadway debut. Directed by Joe Mantello, it tells the story a group of gay men who gather for a birthday party in New York City. Theater critic Michael Sommers noted that "Matt Bomer tends to fade in the glare of flashier personalities, but he lends the character a watchful quality as one of those deferential souls who is content to observe others." The play won a Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play. Bomer's first film in 2018 was Bill Oliver's science fiction film Jonathan. His role was that of a detective who appears in only one scene of the film. Jonathan had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 21, 2018.
Two of Bomer's films in 2018 premiered at the 43rd Toronto International Film Festivalthe comedy drama Papi Chulo and the drama Viper Club. In the former, Bomer plays Sean, a local network television weather forecaster. A reviewer for Screen Daily argued that Bomer is "terrific" and concluded that "while he may not yet have the name recognition to act as a key selling point for this film, it’s the kind of performance which gets noticed". In Viper Club, Bomer played Sam, a journalist who helps Helen (played by Susan Sarandon), to save her son who was kidnapped by a group of terrorists. He had a guest starring role on the NBC series Will & Grace (2018–2019) and he also appeared as Negative Man in the DC Universe superhero series, Doom Patrol (2019).
In 2020, Bomer began acting in the USA Network anthology series The Sinner as one of the stars.
In the media
BuddyTV ranked him first on its list of "TV's Sexiest Men of 2011" and third in 2012. In June 2013, Bomer was ranked at no. 2 on Logos Hot 100 list, which is based on the votes of readers of the AfterEllen.com and TheBacklot.com. Bomer was the list's highest ranked man and second only to Jennifer Lawrence.
Personal life
Bomer married publicist Simon Halls in 2011;
the marriage became public through the media only in 2014. In an interview discussing his marriage, Bomer said that his marriage to Halls was a very small event in New York City: "It was very chill and very small–just our closest and dear ones. There is a security, a validity. It's just a feeling, I think–something about saying vows in front of the people around you who love and support you. I think it was good for our family." The couple has three children conceived through surrogacy: Kit Halls (b. 2005), and then twin brothers, Walker and Henry Halls (b. 2008).
Bomer publicly came out as gay in 2012, when he thanked Halls and their children during an acceptance speech for his Steve Chase Humanitarian Award. Also in 2012, Bomer was given an Inspiration Award for his work at the GLSEN Awards. He is an LGBT rights activist.
In 2018, Bomer campaigned for Democratic candidate Beto O'Rourke in the U.S. Senate election in Texas.
Bomer has been practicing Transcendental Meditation since his early 20s; in 2013 he spoke of his support for the work of the David Lynch Foundation.
Filmography
According to the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes and box-office website The Numbers, Bomer's most critically and commercially successful films include Flightplan (2005), In Time (2011), Magic Mike (2012), Superman: Unbound (2013), The Normal Heart (2014), Magic Mike XXL (2015), The Magnificent Seven (2016), The Nice Guys (2016) and Walking Out (2017). Among his stage roles, he has appeared in a Broadway revival of The Boys In The Band (2018).
Throughout his career, Bomer has already won and been nominated for several awards, notably his Golden Globe Awards nomination for Best Supporting Actor-Series, Miniseries or Television Film, winning the prize in 2015, an indication to the Primetime Emmy Awards of Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie and the Critics' Choice Television Awards for Best Supporting Actor in a Movie/Miniseries in 2014, winning the award that year.
Discography
Awards and nominations
See also
LGBT culture in New York City
List of LGBT people from New York City
References
External links
Gay actors
1977 births
20th-century American male actors
21st-century American male actors
American male film actors
American male soap opera actors
American male stage actors
American male television actors
American male voice actors
Best Supporting Actor Golden Globe (television) winners
Carnegie Mellon University College of Fine Arts alumni
American gay actors
LGBT rights activists from the United States
LGBT people from Missouri
LGBT people from Texas
Living people
Male actors from Texas
People from Spring, Texas
People from St. Louis County, Missouri
Klein High School alumni | false | [
"The Maria Clara Awards is the first formal film industry award-giving body of the Philippines. It was established in 1950 by a group of writers from the Manila Times Publishing, Co., which included National Artist Dr. Alejandro Roces, regarded as the Father of the Maria Clara Awards. It was the initial answer of the Philippines to Hollywood's Academy Awards, an institution for recognizing talents in the Filipino movie industry.\n\nHistory\nAfter World War II ended, the two pre-war movie studios, LVN and Sampaguita Pictures, resumed their movie production and were later joined by two other movie studios, Premiere Productions and Lebran International, to form the \"Big Four\" studios who held the brightest stars and top artisans of Philippine movies in the 1950s and 1960s.\n\n1950\nThe first formal Filipino answer to the Oscars was formed by Manila Times Publishing, Co. To make a statuette which would be given out to the best of the best, National Artist Guillermo Tolentino was asked to sculpt the bronze Maria Clara Award, which bore the likeness of Maria Clara, one of the characters in Jose Rizal's Noli Me Tangere.\n\n1952\nDue to various reactions about the voting procedures of the Maria Claras (various factions have pointed out that the Maria Claras were voted on mostly by movie columnists), a group of movie writers, Atty. Flavio G. Macaso (who became the first president of FAMAS), future FAMAS president Vic Generoso, future FAMAS winner Mario Mijares Lopez, Paulo Dizon, Amado Yasoma and Eddie Infante established what would become as the second oldest film industry award-giving body in Asia, the Filipino Academy of Movie Arts and Sciences or FAMAS. With the creation of FAMAS, the Maria Claras folded up.\n\n2006\nMaria Clara Award's descendant, the FAMAS Awards, is undergoing a leadership crisis and registration revocation from the Securities and Exchange Commission. The latter did not allow for the FAMAS to hold any of their major functions, which included an awards night. To go around the ruling of the SEC, FAMAS President Jimmy Tiu, with the support of Dr. Alejandro Roces, held the Maria Clara Awards on October 13, 2006 as a temporary replacement for the FAMAS Awards until the issues on leadership and with the SEC can be settled. The Maria Clara Awards held in 2006 was numbered 55th to correspond with the two Maria Clara Awards presentations in 1951 and 1952 and fifty-three FAMAS Awards presentations from 1953-2005.\n\nThe 55th Maria Clara Awards, the first Maria Clara Awards in 54 years (and the first defunct awards ever resurrected in Philippine film awards history), was held on October 13, 2006 at the Golden Fortune Restaurant in Manila. A low-key event which was attended by Film Academy of the Philippines Director-General and FAMAS nominee Leo Martinez and National Commission for the Culture and the Arts Executive Director Cecille Guidote-Alvarez, among others, most of the winners were not present during the awards due to short notice (invitations were handed out three days before the awards).\n\nList of previous winners\nThe following are incomplete lists of winners on the first two Maria Clara Awards, the forerunner of FAMAS Awards, and the 2006 Awards:\n\nFirst Maria Clara Awards (1950)\n\nSecond Maria Clara Awards (1951)\n\n55th Maria Clara Awards (2006)\n\nReferences\n\nMaria Clara Awards",
"Unclaimed, released as On the Farm in some international markets, is a Canadian TV film starring Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers, Sara Canning, Patrick Gallagher, Kevin McNulty, Tantoo Cardinal, and Sarah Strange. It is a dramatic narrative adapted from journalist Stevie Cameron's 2010 book of the same name, examining the years leading to serial killer Robert Pickton's arrest and the court proceedings before his conviction.\n\nPlot\nNikki Taylor (Elle-Maija Tailfeathers), a resident of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, struggles to get out of the cycle of addiction and sex work to get back to her son. She notices the disappearance of an alarming number of women as she fights to get off the streets. She teams up with social worker Elaine (Sarah Strange) and police officer Sinead McLeod (Sara Canning) to investigate. They face a slow-moving police department until the media takes notice and it becomes a national story.\n\nCast\n Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers as Nikki Taylor\n Sarah Strange as Elaine\n Sara Canning as Sinead McLeod\n Patrick Gallagher\n Kevin McNulty\n Tantoo Cardinal\n\nAwards \nThe film won the awards for Best Television Movie, Best Screenwriting in a Television Movie, and Best Casting in a Television Movie at the 2016 Leo Awards. It was also nominated for Best Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Picture Editing, Best Musical Score, Best Make-Up, Best Supporting Performance - Female (Sara Canning), and Best Lead Performance - Female (Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers).\n\nAt the 5th Canadian Screen Awards in 2017, Tailfeathers won the award for Best Actress in a Television Film or Miniseries.\n\nReception \nThe narrative has been noted for its refusal to put the serial killer as the main character. Francois Marchand of The Vancouver Sun notes: \"A more sensational retelling of the story would be about Pickton, but On The Farm is clearly not about the character portrayed briefly by actor Ben Cotton, who doesn’t have a single line of dialogue and is simply credited as 'The Farmer.'”\n\nThe Globe and Mail television critic John Doyle writes: \"The Pickton character barely appears and the attention is, rightly, on the addicts and sex workers and the handful of cops who understood from the start that the matter of missing women deserved serious scrutiny.\"\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n \n \n\nCanadian films\nFilms directed by Rachel Talalay\nFilms shot in Vancouver\nCanadian television films\n2016 television films\n2016 films"
]
|
[
"Matt Bomer",
"2005-2009: Transition to film and breakthrough with White Collar",
"Name his film?",
"Flightplan,",
"What was the movie about?",
"Bomer's character was a flight attendant.",
"Did the movie get any awards or notice?",
"The film grossed $223.3 million dollars worldwide, becoming the seventeenth highest grossing film of the year"
]
| C_d8ba5bc8901940788b7d10fcb5eb1fc3_0 | What else did he play in | 4 | What other movies did Matt Bomer play in other than "Flightplan"? | Matt Bomer | His screen debut occurred in the 2005 starring in the Robert Schwentke-directed German-American mystery-thriller Flightplan, opposite Jodie Foster. Bomer's character was a flight attendant. The film grossed $223.3 million dollars worldwide, becoming the seventeenth highest grossing film of the year and Bomer's most lucrative film so far. The film received mixed reviews, although the cast was chosen. In the slasher film The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006), the film's story takes place four years before the timeline of the 2003 film, directed by Jonathan Liebesman, Bomer portrayed Eric, a Vietnam War veteran who is driving across Texas to re-enlist after his brother is drafted. The brothers run afoul of Sheriff Hoyt and are taken captive by the Hewitt family. The film, cast, direction and screenplay were criticized by critics. Writing to Rolling Stones, Peter Travers said: "putridly written, directed and acted." The remake was in second place at the box office of American theaters in its first weekend of opening with $18.5 million. The film grossed $51.8 million worldwide. Acted in his first television film Amy Coyne (2006), where he plays Case. The film tells the story of a young woman who after her father's death inherits her sports agency. His first leading role was in the series Traveler (2007), along with Logan Marshall-Green, Aaron Stanford and Viola Davis, a short-lived midseason replacement television series which premiered on ABC on May 30, 2007, the series tells the story of two graduate students, become suspected of terrorism after a skateboarding race inside a museum. It was broadcast only one season of Traveler, the series was canceled in the middle of the fourth episode and received mixed criticism from television critics. He had a supporting role in the NBC action-comedy-spy-drama Chuck (2007-09), created by Josh Schwartz and Chris Fedak. The series is about an "average computer-whiz-next-door" named Chuck Bartowski (played by Zachary Levi), who receives an encoded e-mail from an old college friend now working for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). His character Bryce Larkin, was also a CIA agent, the series in its first season had very positive critics. In 2007, Bomer took on the role of Ernest Hemingway in a Williamstown Theatre Festival production of Crispin Whittell's play Villa America in Massachusetts, starring with Jennifer Mudge and Nate Corddry. 2009 marked a significant turning point in Bomer's career. Starring as the a con artist Neal Caffrey in the police procedural--drama series White Collar, he was part of an ensemble cast that included Tim DeKay, Willie Garson and Tiffani Thiessen and created by Jeff Eastin. White Collar premiered on August 23, 2009 on USA Network and was watched by more than 5.40 million people. His performance and that of the cast were praised; Mary McNamara of the Los Angeles Times wrote: "terrific acting, crackling dialogue and geek-hip crime are not the only things that make this the most electric drama to premiere this fall." She also praised the performance of the two leads together saying they "are so easy" and "perfect together". He won a People's Choice Award at the 2015 ceremony. In addition, Bomer produced 19 episodes of White Collar along with DeKay. CANNOTANSWER | Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006), | Matthew Staton Bomer (born October 11, 1977) is an American actor. He is the recipient of accolades such as a Golden Globe Award, a Critics' Choice Television Award, and a Primetime Emmy Award nomination.
In 2000, he made his television debut on the long-running soap opera All My Children. Bomer graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. Soon after, he had a contract role on Guiding Light, as well as appearing on primetime shows, including Tru Calling.
In 2005, Bomer made his film debut in the mystery-thriller Flightplan, then in 2007 gained recognition with his recurring role in the NBC television series Chuck. 2009 saw Bomer then land the lead role of con-artist and thief Neal Caffrey in the USA Network series White Collar with the series lasting to 2014. He has featured in supporting roles in the 2011 science fiction thriller In Time, the 2012 comedy-drama Magic Mike and its 2015 sequel, the 2014 supernatural-drama Winter's Tale, and the 2016 neo-noir film The Nice Guys. In 2015, he won a Golden Globe Award and received a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for playing a closeted writer of The New York Times in the drama television film The Normal Heart about the rise of the HIV-AIDS crisis in New York City. Bomer made a guest appearance on the fourth season of FX's horror anthology series American Horror Story. He was later upgraded to the main cast during the fifth season. In 2017 he received praise for his performances in the drama films Walking Out, Anything, and the 2018 comedy-drama Papi Chulo. He portrays Larry Trainor in the DC Universe series Doom Patrol, which premiered in 2019.
On stage, Bomer starred in the Dustin Lance Black play 8 on Broadway, and at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles as Jeff Zarrillo, a plaintiff in the federal case that overturned California's Proposition 8. In 2018 he starred in revival of the Mart Crowley play The Boys in the Band on Broadway playing Donald; he reprised his role for the 2020 film of the same name.
Early life and education
Matthew Staton Bomer was born in Webster Groves, Missouri, to Elizabeth Macy (née Staton) and John O'Neill Bomer IV. His father, a Dallas Cowboys draft pick, played for the team from 1972 to 1974. Matt Bomer has a sister, Megan Bomer, and a brother, Neill Bomer, who is an engineer. Bomer credits his own parents for being understanding when they sensed their young child was a little different from other kids. "I've always had an active imagination," says Bomer. He is a distant cousin to American singer Justin Timberlake. Bomer's family is of English, Welsh, Scottish, Irish, Swiss-German and French descent.
Bomer was raised in Spring, Texas, and attended Klein High School; he was a classmate of Lee Pace and Lynn Collins. In high school, Bomer followed in his dad's footsteps. He played wide receiver and defensive back for his school's football team before deciding to concentrate on acting.
At age 17, he made his professional stage debut as Young Collector in a production of Tennessee Williams A Streetcar Named Desire staged by the Alley Theatre in downtown Houston. He also appeared in a 1998 production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the Utah Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City, Utah. Speaking about his first role in a production, Bomer said:
I started acting professionally when I was 17. I quit the team and did a production of A Streetcar Named Desire at the Alley Theatre in Houston. I used to drive down at the end of the school day, do the show, do my homework during intermission and drive an hour back to Spring to go to school the next day.
Bomer attended Carnegie Mellon University with fellow actor Joe Manganiello and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 2001. In 1999, Bomer worked as a bartender while spending a year living in Galway, Ireland.
Career
2000–2004: Early roles
Shortly after graduating from Carnegie Mellon University, Bomer moved to New York City, where he worked in theater and got his first role on television. His television debut came in 2000 on the ABC network, when he played Ian Kipling on the 1970s drama soap opera All My Children. Two years later he made a guest appearance in the mystery fantasy series Relic Hunter (2002).
In 2001, he landed a contract role on the soap opera Guiding Light. He played Ben Reade, a character connected to several core families on the show. When Bomer left the show in 2003, his exit was controversial; Ben was suddenly revealed to be a male prostitute and serial killer. He received a Gold Derby Awards for Younger Actor – Daytime Drama for his performance in the series. Years later in 2015, Bomer talked about his participation in the series, he said: "I told them to just throw the kitchen sink at me, and they did."
His next role was in the supernatural drama series Tru Calling (2003–2004). Starring alongside Eliza Dushku, Bomer starred as Luc Johnston the love interest of the protagonist of the series played by Dushku, in the first season. In 2003, Bomer returned to theatre to star in a Powerhouse Theater production of Paul Weitz's play Roullete in New York. A year later, he appeared in the episode Bellport in the primetime TV show of North Shore.
2005–2009: Transition to film and breakthrough with White Collar
His screen debut occurred in the 2005 starring in the Robert Schwentke directed mystery thriller Flightplan, opposite Jodie Foster. Bomer's character was a flight attendant. The film grossed $223.3 million worldwide, becoming the seventeenth highest-grossing film of the year and Bomer's most lucrative film so far. In the slasher film The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006), Bomer portrayed Eric, a Vietnam War veteran who is driving across Texas to re-enlist after his brother is drafted.
He acted in his first television film Amy Coyne (2006); he plays the role of Case. The film tells the story of a young woman who inherits her father's sports agency. His first leading role was in the series Traveler (2007), along with Logan Marshall-Green, Aaron Stanford and Viola Davis, a short-lived midseason replacement television series which premiered on ABC on May 30, 2007, the series tells the story of two graduate students, become suspected of terrorism after a skateboarding race inside a museum. The series was canceled after eight episodes.
He had a supporting role in the NBC action-comedy spy-drama Chuck (2007–09). The series is about an "average computer-whiz-next-door" named Chuck Bartowski (played by Zachary Levi), who receives an encoded e-mail from Bomer's character, Bryce Larkin, an old college friend now working for the CIA. In 2007, Bomer took on the role of Ernest Hemingway in a Williamstown Theatre Festival production of Crispin Whittell's play Villa America in Massachusetts, starring in it with Jennifer Mudge and Nate Corddry.
2009 marked a significant turning point in Bomer's career as he starred as the con artist Neal Caffrey in the police procedural drama series White Collar. He was part of an ensemble cast that included Tim DeKay, Willie Garson, and Tiffani Thiessen. White Collar premiered on August 23, 2009, on USA Network and was watched by more than 5.40 million people. His performance as well as the rest of the cast were praised; Mary McNamara of the Los Angeles Times wrote: "terrific acting, crackling dialogue and geek-hip crime are not the only things that make this the most electric drama to premiere this fall." She also liked the performance of the two leads together saying they "are so easy" and "perfect together". He won a People's Choice Award at the 2015 ceremony. Additionally Bomer produced 19 episodes of White Collar along with DeKay.
2010–2015: Recognition
2010 began with Bomer invited to sing with actress and Tony Award winning singer Kelli O'Hara at the Kennedy Center Honors. In September 2011, Bomer starred in Dustin Lance Black's play, 8, a staged re-enactment of the federal trial that overturned California's Proposition 8. Bomer starred as Jeff Zarrillo. The production was directed by actor Joe Mantello and presented at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre in New York City. In March 2012, he was featured in the Wilshire Ebell Theatre production as well.
In 2011, Bomer was cast as a 105-year-old man in Andrew Niccol's science fiction thriller film In Time, starring alongside Justin Timberlake. On April 10, 2012, Bomer made a guest appearance in the third season of the television series Glee, playing Blaine's older brother, Cooper Anderson, a Hollywood commercials actor who comes to Lima for a visit, and while in town gives an acting masterclass to New Directions. His performance on Glee received critical acclaim; critic Emily VanDerWerff of The A.V. Club described his performance as "absolutely fantastic." Crystal Bell of the Huffington Post called his appearance "perfectly cast" and Bomer as one of her favorite guest stars. For this performance on 'Glee', he won a Gold Derby award in the category of Best Comedy Guest Actor.
For his next film, Bomer starred opposite Channing Tatum in Steven Soderbergh's comedy drama Magic Mike (2012). He studied with a group called Hollywood Men in Los Angeles to prepare for the role. The film premiered as the closing film for the 2012 Los Angeles Film Festival on June 24, 2012. Magic Mike was a critical success and his performance was praised. Sara Stewart of the New York Post noted that; "Matt Bomer is also in fine form as a dancer, Ken, whose signature performance plays off his doll-like face." Bomer and Tatum were nominated for the MTV Movie & TV Awards at the 2013 ceremony in Best Musical Moment category.
Bomer made two appearances in 2013, the first as a guest performer on the NBC sitcom The New Normal, portraying the role Monty, ex-boyfriend of the protagonist of the series Bryan Collins played by Andrew Rannells. The second was to voice Superman in the direct to video Superman: Unbound, based on the 2008 comic book story "Superman: Brainiac" by Geoff Johns. His voiceover assured him an invitation to the Behind the Voice Actors Awards in 2013.
In 2014, Bomer appeared in five projects. His first two releases, Winter's Tale, and Space Station 76, were commercially unsuccessful.
The first film, a romantic and supernatural fantasy drama film, was written and directed by Akiva Goldsman, and based on Mark Helprin's novel Winter's Tale. Bomer plays the young father of Colin Farrell's character. Winter's Tale received negative reviews. His second release of the year was in the black space fiction comedy Space Station 76 by Jack Plotnick, alongside Liv Tyler and Patrick Wilson. James Rocchi of The Wrap said; "all the performers are game" and the performance of Bomer; "as a melancholy engineer with a prosthetic hand that looks like a Nintendo Power Glove".
Bomer's next project involved Ryan Murphy casting him opposite Mark Ruffalo, Jim Parsons and Julia Roberts in the drama romance film The Normal Heart (2014). Based on Larry Kramer's play of the same name, it featured Bomer as an closeted writer of The New York Times and love interest of Ruffalo's character. The film shows the rise of the HIV-AIDS crisis in New York City between 1981 and 1984, as seen through the eyes of writer/activist Ned Weeks (Ruffalo), the founder of a prominent HIV advocacy group. The production of The Normal Heart stopped for a few months while he was on a diet. Bomer's performance was praised by a reviewer for The Hollywood Reporter, who considered his acting as the highlight of the production. Matthew Gilbert of The Boston Globe noticed that Bomer is: "quite simply, devastating in this movie, his beauty adding resonance because it begins to fade so suddenly, as his cheeks protrude and lesions gather." Gilbert also lauded the chemistry between Bomer and Ruffalo saying that: "is among the movie's strengths, too, as it provides the core of love and compassion amid all the acrimony." Bomer received his first Golden Globe Award in the Best Supporting Actor category and his first Primetime Emmy Awards nomination.
After narrating the documentary Hunted: The War Against Gays in Russia, following LGBT people in Russia. later that year, Bomer was cast by Murphy in "Pink Cupcakes", an episode in the fourth season of American Horror Story. His participation was described by Lauren Piester of E! Online as "one of the show's most shocking moments". Bomer's first release of 2015 was Magic Mike XXL, a sequel to the popular 2012 film, again featuring Channing Tatum and Joe Manganiello. Magic Mike XXL grossed $122 million worldwide. Reviewing the film for Rolling Stones, Peter Travers noted that; "the movie is just a rambling, loosey-goosey road trip, with Bomer and Manganiello getting extra time to shine." He also sang two songs for the film's soundtrack: "Heaven" and "Untitled (How Does It Feel)". After Bomer's participation in American Horror Story: Freak Show; Murphy put him in the main cast of the fifth season, American Horror Story: Hotel. Bomer plays the son of Iris (Kathy Bates) and the lover of the Countess (Lady Gaga).
2016–present: Professional expansion, independent films and Broadway
Bomer appeared in two films in 2016. He played for the first time a villain in the movie The Nice Guys, as a psycho killer named John Boy. Directed by Shane Black, starring Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe. Gosling and Bomer were at the premiere of the film at the Cannes Film Festival in 2016. The Nice Guys generated positive reviews and enjoyed moderate box office success. His next role was as Matthew Cullen in Antoine Fuqua's Western action film The Magnificent Seven, playing the farmer husband of Haley Bennett's character. The film received mixed reviews from critics, although the cast and action sequences were praised, and grossed $162.4 million worldwide. He was cast as Monroe Stahr, the lead in Billy Ray's 2016 series The Last Tycoon, loosely based on the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel of the same name, along with actors Kelsey Grammer, Lily Collins, and Dominique McElligott.
In 2017, he starred in Alex & Andrew Smith's drama Walking Out, as an estranged father to a 14-year-old son (played by Josh Wiggins). He said that he related to the character "in a really profound way.” Walking Out was screened in the U.S. Dramatic Competition section of the 2017 Sundance Film Festival and was released on October 6, 2017. Justin Chang of Los Angeles Times noted that he "steps confidently into the boots of a rugged, know-it-all mountain man whose idea of tough love can turn unexpectedly toward tenderness around a flickering campfire." David Ehrlich of IndieWire stated that Bomer fortunately plays against his "pretty boy type so convincingly that you might forget where you’ve even seen him before", concluding that Bomer "gives a commanding performance in a movie that fails to realize how evocative he is, the Smiths defaulting to flashbacks that show us less about cowboys and gender codes than we can glean from the wild look in its lead actor’s face. The Village Voice included his performance in the film in a list of the 17 Most Overlooked Performances of 2017.
Timothy McNeil's drama Anything marked Bomer's final film release of 2017 and McNeil making his feature directorial debut. Bomer was cast as Freda Von Rhenburg, a transgender sex worker who lives in Los Angeles and begins a relationship with her neighbor, Early Landry (played by John Carroll Lynch). Anything is based on McNeil’s play of the same name. He has received some criticism from the transgender community for the casting of a cisgender man, to play a transgender woman. Jon Frosch of The Hollywood Reporter felt that Bomer: "gives a performance of real warmth and delicacy," saying that: "rather than play Freda as a force of nature or a collection of mannerisms—the typical default modes of actors playing trans women—Bomer renders her fully dimensional: an unpredictable tangle of impulses, by turns defensive and tender." Anything had its release at the Los Angeles Film Festival on June 17, 2017.
In 2018, Bomer began working on his directorial debut on series The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story. Written by Tom Rob Smith and starring Jon Jon Briones and Darren Criss, in the roles of father and son, respectively, the episode that Bomer directs is titled "Creator/Destroyer". The episode was watched by more than 1 million people. Bomer had other opportunities to direct before but always wanted to wait for the optimum chance to immerse himself in a project. He read 3,000 pages of books on directing. He found a part in a 2018 revival of the Mart Crowley play The Boys in the Band, which was staged at Booth Theatre and marked his Broadway debut. Directed by Joe Mantello, it tells the story a group of gay men who gather for a birthday party in New York City. Theater critic Michael Sommers noted that "Matt Bomer tends to fade in the glare of flashier personalities, but he lends the character a watchful quality as one of those deferential souls who is content to observe others." The play won a Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play. Bomer's first film in 2018 was Bill Oliver's science fiction film Jonathan. His role was that of a detective who appears in only one scene of the film. Jonathan had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 21, 2018.
Two of Bomer's films in 2018 premiered at the 43rd Toronto International Film Festivalthe comedy drama Papi Chulo and the drama Viper Club. In the former, Bomer plays Sean, a local network television weather forecaster. A reviewer for Screen Daily argued that Bomer is "terrific" and concluded that "while he may not yet have the name recognition to act as a key selling point for this film, it’s the kind of performance which gets noticed". In Viper Club, Bomer played Sam, a journalist who helps Helen (played by Susan Sarandon), to save her son who was kidnapped by a group of terrorists. He had a guest starring role on the NBC series Will & Grace (2018–2019) and he also appeared as Negative Man in the DC Universe superhero series, Doom Patrol (2019).
In 2020, Bomer began acting in the USA Network anthology series The Sinner as one of the stars.
In the media
BuddyTV ranked him first on its list of "TV's Sexiest Men of 2011" and third in 2012. In June 2013, Bomer was ranked at no. 2 on Logos Hot 100 list, which is based on the votes of readers of the AfterEllen.com and TheBacklot.com. Bomer was the list's highest ranked man and second only to Jennifer Lawrence.
Personal life
Bomer married publicist Simon Halls in 2011;
the marriage became public through the media only in 2014. In an interview discussing his marriage, Bomer said that his marriage to Halls was a very small event in New York City: "It was very chill and very small–just our closest and dear ones. There is a security, a validity. It's just a feeling, I think–something about saying vows in front of the people around you who love and support you. I think it was good for our family." The couple has three children conceived through surrogacy: Kit Halls (b. 2005), and then twin brothers, Walker and Henry Halls (b. 2008).
Bomer publicly came out as gay in 2012, when he thanked Halls and their children during an acceptance speech for his Steve Chase Humanitarian Award. Also in 2012, Bomer was given an Inspiration Award for his work at the GLSEN Awards. He is an LGBT rights activist.
In 2018, Bomer campaigned for Democratic candidate Beto O'Rourke in the U.S. Senate election in Texas.
Bomer has been practicing Transcendental Meditation since his early 20s; in 2013 he spoke of his support for the work of the David Lynch Foundation.
Filmography
According to the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes and box-office website The Numbers, Bomer's most critically and commercially successful films include Flightplan (2005), In Time (2011), Magic Mike (2012), Superman: Unbound (2013), The Normal Heart (2014), Magic Mike XXL (2015), The Magnificent Seven (2016), The Nice Guys (2016) and Walking Out (2017). Among his stage roles, he has appeared in a Broadway revival of The Boys In The Band (2018).
Throughout his career, Bomer has already won and been nominated for several awards, notably his Golden Globe Awards nomination for Best Supporting Actor-Series, Miniseries or Television Film, winning the prize in 2015, an indication to the Primetime Emmy Awards of Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie and the Critics' Choice Television Awards for Best Supporting Actor in a Movie/Miniseries in 2014, winning the award that year.
Discography
Awards and nominations
See also
LGBT culture in New York City
List of LGBT people from New York City
References
External links
Gay actors
1977 births
20th-century American male actors
21st-century American male actors
American male film actors
American male soap opera actors
American male stage actors
American male television actors
American male voice actors
Best Supporting Actor Golden Globe (television) winners
Carnegie Mellon University College of Fine Arts alumni
American gay actors
LGBT rights activists from the United States
LGBT people from Missouri
LGBT people from Texas
Living people
Male actors from Texas
People from Spring, Texas
People from St. Louis County, Missouri
Klein High School alumni | true | [
"Robert Else (17 November 1876 – 16 September 1955) was an English first-class cricketer who played for Derbyshire in 1901 and 1903.\n\nElse was born at Lea, Holloway, Derbyshire, the son of John Else and his wife Henrietta Lowe. His father was a bobbin maker and in 1881 they were all living with his grandparents at the Old Hat Factory in Wirksworth. Else made his debut for Derbyshire in May 1901 against Surrey, when his scores were 1 and 2. He played again that season against the South Africans when he opened the batting scoring a duck in the first innings and surviving the whole of the second innings for 6 not out. He did not play again until July 1903 when against London County he took a wicket and made his top score of 28. He played his last two matches in 1903 and made little impression in them.\n\nElse was a left-hand batsman and played ten innings in five first-class matches with an average of 7.3 and a top score of 28. He bowled fifteen overs and took 1 first-class wicket for 61 runs in total.\n\nElse died at Broomhill, Sheffield, Yorkshire at the age of 78.\n\nReferences\n\n1876 births\n1955 deaths\nDerbyshire cricketers\nEnglish cricketers\nPeople from Dethick, Lea and Holloway",
"Fredrick Else (31 March 193320 July 2015) was an English footballer, who played as a goalkeeper. Else gained over 600 professional appearances in his career playing for three clubs, Preston North End, Blackburn Rovers and Barrow.\n\nClub career\nElse was born in Golborne near Wigan on 31 March 1933. Whilst on national service in the north-east he played for amateur club Axwell Park Colliery Welfare in the Derwent Valley League. He attracted the attention of Football League teams and signed as a junior for Preston North End in 1951, and as a professional in 1953. He made his debut for Preston against Manchester City in 1954, but was restricted to 14 appearances over his first three seasons. He eventually became first choice, displacing George Thompson, and played 238 times for North End. During this time Preston's most successful season came in 1957–58, when the club finished as runners up in Division One.\n\nThe 1960–61 season ended in relegation for Preston and Else was sold to neighbours Blackburn Rovers for £20,000. Else became a first choice for Blackburn straight away and played 221 times for the club. A collarbone injury in 1964–65 resulted in a period out of the game, though Else returned to regain the goalkeeper's jersey at Blackburn. Nonetheless the team were relegated the following season and Else was released. During the summer of 1966 Else signed with Barrow of the Fourth Division. Else became part of Barrow's most successful team, with the side winning promotion to the Third Division in his first season there. Else was Barrow's first choice keeper for the entire period that they were in the third division, and played 148 league matches for the club. He retired from football after Barrow's relegation in 1970 following a leg infection. His final season included a brief stint as caretaker manager at Barrow.\n\nHonours\n Football League Division One Runner-up 1957–1958\n Football League Division Four Promotion 1966–1967\n\nInternational career\nElse has been described by fans of the clubs that he played for as one of the best English goalkeepers never to win a full international cap. He did, however, make one appearance for the England B team in 1957 against Scotland B, as well as participating in a Football Association touring side of 1961.\n\nPersonal life and death\nElse met his wife Marjorie in 1949 in Douglas on the Isle of Man. They married when Else was 22 and Marjorie 20, on 29 October 1955, a Saturday morning. The wedding was held in Marjorie's home town of Blackpool and the date was chosen so that the couple could marry in the morning and Else could then travel either to Deepdale, to play for Preston North End's reserve team, or to Bloomfield Road where Preston's first team was due to be playing Blackpool F.C. In the event Else was selected for the reserves and the couple had to travel by bus to Preston.\n\nAfter retiring from football, Else remained in Barrow-in-Furness, becoming a geography and maths teacher at a local secondary school. He retired from teaching in 1999 and moved to Cyprus, though still attended some Barrow matches. Else died in Barrow-in-Furness on 20 July 2015, aged 82.\n\nReferences\n\n2015 deaths\n1933 births\nBarrow A.F.C. managers\nBarrow A.F.C. players\nBlackburn Rovers F.C. players\nPreston North End F.C. players\nPeople from Golborne\nEnglish footballers\nAssociation football goalkeepers\nSchoolteachers from Cumbria\nEnglish Football League players\nEngland B international footballers\nEnglish football managers"
]
|
[
"Matt Bomer",
"2005-2009: Transition to film and breakthrough with White Collar",
"Name his film?",
"Flightplan,",
"What was the movie about?",
"Bomer's character was a flight attendant.",
"Did the movie get any awards or notice?",
"The film grossed $223.3 million dollars worldwide, becoming the seventeenth highest grossing film of the year",
"What else did he play in",
"Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006),"
]
| C_d8ba5bc8901940788b7d10fcb5eb1fc3_0 | What was his role in the texas chainsaw | 5 | What was Matt Bomer's role in the texas chainsaw? | Matt Bomer | His screen debut occurred in the 2005 starring in the Robert Schwentke-directed German-American mystery-thriller Flightplan, opposite Jodie Foster. Bomer's character was a flight attendant. The film grossed $223.3 million dollars worldwide, becoming the seventeenth highest grossing film of the year and Bomer's most lucrative film so far. The film received mixed reviews, although the cast was chosen. In the slasher film The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006), the film's story takes place four years before the timeline of the 2003 film, directed by Jonathan Liebesman, Bomer portrayed Eric, a Vietnam War veteran who is driving across Texas to re-enlist after his brother is drafted. The brothers run afoul of Sheriff Hoyt and are taken captive by the Hewitt family. The film, cast, direction and screenplay were criticized by critics. Writing to Rolling Stones, Peter Travers said: "putridly written, directed and acted." The remake was in second place at the box office of American theaters in its first weekend of opening with $18.5 million. The film grossed $51.8 million worldwide. Acted in his first television film Amy Coyne (2006), where he plays Case. The film tells the story of a young woman who after her father's death inherits her sports agency. His first leading role was in the series Traveler (2007), along with Logan Marshall-Green, Aaron Stanford and Viola Davis, a short-lived midseason replacement television series which premiered on ABC on May 30, 2007, the series tells the story of two graduate students, become suspected of terrorism after a skateboarding race inside a museum. It was broadcast only one season of Traveler, the series was canceled in the middle of the fourth episode and received mixed criticism from television critics. He had a supporting role in the NBC action-comedy-spy-drama Chuck (2007-09), created by Josh Schwartz and Chris Fedak. The series is about an "average computer-whiz-next-door" named Chuck Bartowski (played by Zachary Levi), who receives an encoded e-mail from an old college friend now working for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). His character Bryce Larkin, was also a CIA agent, the series in its first season had very positive critics. In 2007, Bomer took on the role of Ernest Hemingway in a Williamstown Theatre Festival production of Crispin Whittell's play Villa America in Massachusetts, starring with Jennifer Mudge and Nate Corddry. 2009 marked a significant turning point in Bomer's career. Starring as the a con artist Neal Caffrey in the police procedural--drama series White Collar, he was part of an ensemble cast that included Tim DeKay, Willie Garson and Tiffani Thiessen and created by Jeff Eastin. White Collar premiered on August 23, 2009 on USA Network and was watched by more than 5.40 million people. His performance and that of the cast were praised; Mary McNamara of the Los Angeles Times wrote: "terrific acting, crackling dialogue and geek-hip crime are not the only things that make this the most electric drama to premiere this fall." She also praised the performance of the two leads together saying they "are so easy" and "perfect together". He won a People's Choice Award at the 2015 ceremony. In addition, Bomer produced 19 episodes of White Collar along with DeKay. CANNOTANSWER | Eric, a Vietnam War veteran who is driving across Texas to re-enlist after his brother is drafted. | Matthew Staton Bomer (born October 11, 1977) is an American actor. He is the recipient of accolades such as a Golden Globe Award, a Critics' Choice Television Award, and a Primetime Emmy Award nomination.
In 2000, he made his television debut on the long-running soap opera All My Children. Bomer graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. Soon after, he had a contract role on Guiding Light, as well as appearing on primetime shows, including Tru Calling.
In 2005, Bomer made his film debut in the mystery-thriller Flightplan, then in 2007 gained recognition with his recurring role in the NBC television series Chuck. 2009 saw Bomer then land the lead role of con-artist and thief Neal Caffrey in the USA Network series White Collar with the series lasting to 2014. He has featured in supporting roles in the 2011 science fiction thriller In Time, the 2012 comedy-drama Magic Mike and its 2015 sequel, the 2014 supernatural-drama Winter's Tale, and the 2016 neo-noir film The Nice Guys. In 2015, he won a Golden Globe Award and received a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for playing a closeted writer of The New York Times in the drama television film The Normal Heart about the rise of the HIV-AIDS crisis in New York City. Bomer made a guest appearance on the fourth season of FX's horror anthology series American Horror Story. He was later upgraded to the main cast during the fifth season. In 2017 he received praise for his performances in the drama films Walking Out, Anything, and the 2018 comedy-drama Papi Chulo. He portrays Larry Trainor in the DC Universe series Doom Patrol, which premiered in 2019.
On stage, Bomer starred in the Dustin Lance Black play 8 on Broadway, and at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles as Jeff Zarrillo, a plaintiff in the federal case that overturned California's Proposition 8. In 2018 he starred in revival of the Mart Crowley play The Boys in the Band on Broadway playing Donald; he reprised his role for the 2020 film of the same name.
Early life and education
Matthew Staton Bomer was born in Webster Groves, Missouri, to Elizabeth Macy (née Staton) and John O'Neill Bomer IV. His father, a Dallas Cowboys draft pick, played for the team from 1972 to 1974. Matt Bomer has a sister, Megan Bomer, and a brother, Neill Bomer, who is an engineer. Bomer credits his own parents for being understanding when they sensed their young child was a little different from other kids. "I've always had an active imagination," says Bomer. He is a distant cousin to American singer Justin Timberlake. Bomer's family is of English, Welsh, Scottish, Irish, Swiss-German and French descent.
Bomer was raised in Spring, Texas, and attended Klein High School; he was a classmate of Lee Pace and Lynn Collins. In high school, Bomer followed in his dad's footsteps. He played wide receiver and defensive back for his school's football team before deciding to concentrate on acting.
At age 17, he made his professional stage debut as Young Collector in a production of Tennessee Williams A Streetcar Named Desire staged by the Alley Theatre in downtown Houston. He also appeared in a 1998 production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the Utah Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City, Utah. Speaking about his first role in a production, Bomer said:
I started acting professionally when I was 17. I quit the team and did a production of A Streetcar Named Desire at the Alley Theatre in Houston. I used to drive down at the end of the school day, do the show, do my homework during intermission and drive an hour back to Spring to go to school the next day.
Bomer attended Carnegie Mellon University with fellow actor Joe Manganiello and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 2001. In 1999, Bomer worked as a bartender while spending a year living in Galway, Ireland.
Career
2000–2004: Early roles
Shortly after graduating from Carnegie Mellon University, Bomer moved to New York City, where he worked in theater and got his first role on television. His television debut came in 2000 on the ABC network, when he played Ian Kipling on the 1970s drama soap opera All My Children. Two years later he made a guest appearance in the mystery fantasy series Relic Hunter (2002).
In 2001, he landed a contract role on the soap opera Guiding Light. He played Ben Reade, a character connected to several core families on the show. When Bomer left the show in 2003, his exit was controversial; Ben was suddenly revealed to be a male prostitute and serial killer. He received a Gold Derby Awards for Younger Actor – Daytime Drama for his performance in the series. Years later in 2015, Bomer talked about his participation in the series, he said: "I told them to just throw the kitchen sink at me, and they did."
His next role was in the supernatural drama series Tru Calling (2003–2004). Starring alongside Eliza Dushku, Bomer starred as Luc Johnston the love interest of the protagonist of the series played by Dushku, in the first season. In 2003, Bomer returned to theatre to star in a Powerhouse Theater production of Paul Weitz's play Roullete in New York. A year later, he appeared in the episode Bellport in the primetime TV show of North Shore.
2005–2009: Transition to film and breakthrough with White Collar
His screen debut occurred in the 2005 starring in the Robert Schwentke directed mystery thriller Flightplan, opposite Jodie Foster. Bomer's character was a flight attendant. The film grossed $223.3 million worldwide, becoming the seventeenth highest-grossing film of the year and Bomer's most lucrative film so far. In the slasher film The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006), Bomer portrayed Eric, a Vietnam War veteran who is driving across Texas to re-enlist after his brother is drafted.
He acted in his first television film Amy Coyne (2006); he plays the role of Case. The film tells the story of a young woman who inherits her father's sports agency. His first leading role was in the series Traveler (2007), along with Logan Marshall-Green, Aaron Stanford and Viola Davis, a short-lived midseason replacement television series which premiered on ABC on May 30, 2007, the series tells the story of two graduate students, become suspected of terrorism after a skateboarding race inside a museum. The series was canceled after eight episodes.
He had a supporting role in the NBC action-comedy spy-drama Chuck (2007–09). The series is about an "average computer-whiz-next-door" named Chuck Bartowski (played by Zachary Levi), who receives an encoded e-mail from Bomer's character, Bryce Larkin, an old college friend now working for the CIA. In 2007, Bomer took on the role of Ernest Hemingway in a Williamstown Theatre Festival production of Crispin Whittell's play Villa America in Massachusetts, starring in it with Jennifer Mudge and Nate Corddry.
2009 marked a significant turning point in Bomer's career as he starred as the con artist Neal Caffrey in the police procedural drama series White Collar. He was part of an ensemble cast that included Tim DeKay, Willie Garson, and Tiffani Thiessen. White Collar premiered on August 23, 2009, on USA Network and was watched by more than 5.40 million people. His performance as well as the rest of the cast were praised; Mary McNamara of the Los Angeles Times wrote: "terrific acting, crackling dialogue and geek-hip crime are not the only things that make this the most electric drama to premiere this fall." She also liked the performance of the two leads together saying they "are so easy" and "perfect together". He won a People's Choice Award at the 2015 ceremony. Additionally Bomer produced 19 episodes of White Collar along with DeKay.
2010–2015: Recognition
2010 began with Bomer invited to sing with actress and Tony Award winning singer Kelli O'Hara at the Kennedy Center Honors. In September 2011, Bomer starred in Dustin Lance Black's play, 8, a staged re-enactment of the federal trial that overturned California's Proposition 8. Bomer starred as Jeff Zarrillo. The production was directed by actor Joe Mantello and presented at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre in New York City. In March 2012, he was featured in the Wilshire Ebell Theatre production as well.
In 2011, Bomer was cast as a 105-year-old man in Andrew Niccol's science fiction thriller film In Time, starring alongside Justin Timberlake. On April 10, 2012, Bomer made a guest appearance in the third season of the television series Glee, playing Blaine's older brother, Cooper Anderson, a Hollywood commercials actor who comes to Lima for a visit, and while in town gives an acting masterclass to New Directions. His performance on Glee received critical acclaim; critic Emily VanDerWerff of The A.V. Club described his performance as "absolutely fantastic." Crystal Bell of the Huffington Post called his appearance "perfectly cast" and Bomer as one of her favorite guest stars. For this performance on 'Glee', he won a Gold Derby award in the category of Best Comedy Guest Actor.
For his next film, Bomer starred opposite Channing Tatum in Steven Soderbergh's comedy drama Magic Mike (2012). He studied with a group called Hollywood Men in Los Angeles to prepare for the role. The film premiered as the closing film for the 2012 Los Angeles Film Festival on June 24, 2012. Magic Mike was a critical success and his performance was praised. Sara Stewart of the New York Post noted that; "Matt Bomer is also in fine form as a dancer, Ken, whose signature performance plays off his doll-like face." Bomer and Tatum were nominated for the MTV Movie & TV Awards at the 2013 ceremony in Best Musical Moment category.
Bomer made two appearances in 2013, the first as a guest performer on the NBC sitcom The New Normal, portraying the role Monty, ex-boyfriend of the protagonist of the series Bryan Collins played by Andrew Rannells. The second was to voice Superman in the direct to video Superman: Unbound, based on the 2008 comic book story "Superman: Brainiac" by Geoff Johns. His voiceover assured him an invitation to the Behind the Voice Actors Awards in 2013.
In 2014, Bomer appeared in five projects. His first two releases, Winter's Tale, and Space Station 76, were commercially unsuccessful.
The first film, a romantic and supernatural fantasy drama film, was written and directed by Akiva Goldsman, and based on Mark Helprin's novel Winter's Tale. Bomer plays the young father of Colin Farrell's character. Winter's Tale received negative reviews. His second release of the year was in the black space fiction comedy Space Station 76 by Jack Plotnick, alongside Liv Tyler and Patrick Wilson. James Rocchi of The Wrap said; "all the performers are game" and the performance of Bomer; "as a melancholy engineer with a prosthetic hand that looks like a Nintendo Power Glove".
Bomer's next project involved Ryan Murphy casting him opposite Mark Ruffalo, Jim Parsons and Julia Roberts in the drama romance film The Normal Heart (2014). Based on Larry Kramer's play of the same name, it featured Bomer as an closeted writer of The New York Times and love interest of Ruffalo's character. The film shows the rise of the HIV-AIDS crisis in New York City between 1981 and 1984, as seen through the eyes of writer/activist Ned Weeks (Ruffalo), the founder of a prominent HIV advocacy group. The production of The Normal Heart stopped for a few months while he was on a diet. Bomer's performance was praised by a reviewer for The Hollywood Reporter, who considered his acting as the highlight of the production. Matthew Gilbert of The Boston Globe noticed that Bomer is: "quite simply, devastating in this movie, his beauty adding resonance because it begins to fade so suddenly, as his cheeks protrude and lesions gather." Gilbert also lauded the chemistry between Bomer and Ruffalo saying that: "is among the movie's strengths, too, as it provides the core of love and compassion amid all the acrimony." Bomer received his first Golden Globe Award in the Best Supporting Actor category and his first Primetime Emmy Awards nomination.
After narrating the documentary Hunted: The War Against Gays in Russia, following LGBT people in Russia. later that year, Bomer was cast by Murphy in "Pink Cupcakes", an episode in the fourth season of American Horror Story. His participation was described by Lauren Piester of E! Online as "one of the show's most shocking moments". Bomer's first release of 2015 was Magic Mike XXL, a sequel to the popular 2012 film, again featuring Channing Tatum and Joe Manganiello. Magic Mike XXL grossed $122 million worldwide. Reviewing the film for Rolling Stones, Peter Travers noted that; "the movie is just a rambling, loosey-goosey road trip, with Bomer and Manganiello getting extra time to shine." He also sang two songs for the film's soundtrack: "Heaven" and "Untitled (How Does It Feel)". After Bomer's participation in American Horror Story: Freak Show; Murphy put him in the main cast of the fifth season, American Horror Story: Hotel. Bomer plays the son of Iris (Kathy Bates) and the lover of the Countess (Lady Gaga).
2016–present: Professional expansion, independent films and Broadway
Bomer appeared in two films in 2016. He played for the first time a villain in the movie The Nice Guys, as a psycho killer named John Boy. Directed by Shane Black, starring Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe. Gosling and Bomer were at the premiere of the film at the Cannes Film Festival in 2016. The Nice Guys generated positive reviews and enjoyed moderate box office success. His next role was as Matthew Cullen in Antoine Fuqua's Western action film The Magnificent Seven, playing the farmer husband of Haley Bennett's character. The film received mixed reviews from critics, although the cast and action sequences were praised, and grossed $162.4 million worldwide. He was cast as Monroe Stahr, the lead in Billy Ray's 2016 series The Last Tycoon, loosely based on the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel of the same name, along with actors Kelsey Grammer, Lily Collins, and Dominique McElligott.
In 2017, he starred in Alex & Andrew Smith's drama Walking Out, as an estranged father to a 14-year-old son (played by Josh Wiggins). He said that he related to the character "in a really profound way.” Walking Out was screened in the U.S. Dramatic Competition section of the 2017 Sundance Film Festival and was released on October 6, 2017. Justin Chang of Los Angeles Times noted that he "steps confidently into the boots of a rugged, know-it-all mountain man whose idea of tough love can turn unexpectedly toward tenderness around a flickering campfire." David Ehrlich of IndieWire stated that Bomer fortunately plays against his "pretty boy type so convincingly that you might forget where you’ve even seen him before", concluding that Bomer "gives a commanding performance in a movie that fails to realize how evocative he is, the Smiths defaulting to flashbacks that show us less about cowboys and gender codes than we can glean from the wild look in its lead actor’s face. The Village Voice included his performance in the film in a list of the 17 Most Overlooked Performances of 2017.
Timothy McNeil's drama Anything marked Bomer's final film release of 2017 and McNeil making his feature directorial debut. Bomer was cast as Freda Von Rhenburg, a transgender sex worker who lives in Los Angeles and begins a relationship with her neighbor, Early Landry (played by John Carroll Lynch). Anything is based on McNeil’s play of the same name. He has received some criticism from the transgender community for the casting of a cisgender man, to play a transgender woman. Jon Frosch of The Hollywood Reporter felt that Bomer: "gives a performance of real warmth and delicacy," saying that: "rather than play Freda as a force of nature or a collection of mannerisms—the typical default modes of actors playing trans women—Bomer renders her fully dimensional: an unpredictable tangle of impulses, by turns defensive and tender." Anything had its release at the Los Angeles Film Festival on June 17, 2017.
In 2018, Bomer began working on his directorial debut on series The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story. Written by Tom Rob Smith and starring Jon Jon Briones and Darren Criss, in the roles of father and son, respectively, the episode that Bomer directs is titled "Creator/Destroyer". The episode was watched by more than 1 million people. Bomer had other opportunities to direct before but always wanted to wait for the optimum chance to immerse himself in a project. He read 3,000 pages of books on directing. He found a part in a 2018 revival of the Mart Crowley play The Boys in the Band, which was staged at Booth Theatre and marked his Broadway debut. Directed by Joe Mantello, it tells the story a group of gay men who gather for a birthday party in New York City. Theater critic Michael Sommers noted that "Matt Bomer tends to fade in the glare of flashier personalities, but he lends the character a watchful quality as one of those deferential souls who is content to observe others." The play won a Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play. Bomer's first film in 2018 was Bill Oliver's science fiction film Jonathan. His role was that of a detective who appears in only one scene of the film. Jonathan had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 21, 2018.
Two of Bomer's films in 2018 premiered at the 43rd Toronto International Film Festivalthe comedy drama Papi Chulo and the drama Viper Club. In the former, Bomer plays Sean, a local network television weather forecaster. A reviewer for Screen Daily argued that Bomer is "terrific" and concluded that "while he may not yet have the name recognition to act as a key selling point for this film, it’s the kind of performance which gets noticed". In Viper Club, Bomer played Sam, a journalist who helps Helen (played by Susan Sarandon), to save her son who was kidnapped by a group of terrorists. He had a guest starring role on the NBC series Will & Grace (2018–2019) and he also appeared as Negative Man in the DC Universe superhero series, Doom Patrol (2019).
In 2020, Bomer began acting in the USA Network anthology series The Sinner as one of the stars.
In the media
BuddyTV ranked him first on its list of "TV's Sexiest Men of 2011" and third in 2012. In June 2013, Bomer was ranked at no. 2 on Logos Hot 100 list, which is based on the votes of readers of the AfterEllen.com and TheBacklot.com. Bomer was the list's highest ranked man and second only to Jennifer Lawrence.
Personal life
Bomer married publicist Simon Halls in 2011;
the marriage became public through the media only in 2014. In an interview discussing his marriage, Bomer said that his marriage to Halls was a very small event in New York City: "It was very chill and very small–just our closest and dear ones. There is a security, a validity. It's just a feeling, I think–something about saying vows in front of the people around you who love and support you. I think it was good for our family." The couple has three children conceived through surrogacy: Kit Halls (b. 2005), and then twin brothers, Walker and Henry Halls (b. 2008).
Bomer publicly came out as gay in 2012, when he thanked Halls and their children during an acceptance speech for his Steve Chase Humanitarian Award. Also in 2012, Bomer was given an Inspiration Award for his work at the GLSEN Awards. He is an LGBT rights activist.
In 2018, Bomer campaigned for Democratic candidate Beto O'Rourke in the U.S. Senate election in Texas.
Bomer has been practicing Transcendental Meditation since his early 20s; in 2013 he spoke of his support for the work of the David Lynch Foundation.
Filmography
According to the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes and box-office website The Numbers, Bomer's most critically and commercially successful films include Flightplan (2005), In Time (2011), Magic Mike (2012), Superman: Unbound (2013), The Normal Heart (2014), Magic Mike XXL (2015), The Magnificent Seven (2016), The Nice Guys (2016) and Walking Out (2017). Among his stage roles, he has appeared in a Broadway revival of The Boys In The Band (2018).
Throughout his career, Bomer has already won and been nominated for several awards, notably his Golden Globe Awards nomination for Best Supporting Actor-Series, Miniseries or Television Film, winning the prize in 2015, an indication to the Primetime Emmy Awards of Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie and the Critics' Choice Television Awards for Best Supporting Actor in a Movie/Miniseries in 2014, winning the award that year.
Discography
Awards and nominations
See also
LGBT culture in New York City
List of LGBT people from New York City
References
External links
Gay actors
1977 births
20th-century American male actors
21st-century American male actors
American male film actors
American male soap opera actors
American male stage actors
American male television actors
American male voice actors
Best Supporting Actor Golden Globe (television) winners
Carnegie Mellon University College of Fine Arts alumni
American gay actors
LGBT rights activists from the United States
LGBT people from Missouri
LGBT people from Texas
Living people
Male actors from Texas
People from Spring, Texas
People from St. Louis County, Missouri
Klein High School alumni | true | [
"Marilyn Burns (born Mary Lynn Ann Burns; May 7, 1949 – August 5, 2014) was an American actress. While in college, Burns made her film debut as a tour guide in Robert Altman's experimental comedy film Brewster McCloud (1970), followed by minor appearances in low-budget independent films where her scenes were ultimately deleted such as Sidney Lumet's drama film Lovin' Molly (1974).\n\nBurns was known for her collaborations with filmmaker Tobe Hooper, having appeared in two of his films. In 1974, she found box-office success with her leading role as Sally Hardesty in Hooper's exploitation horror film The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), a role she later reprised in Kim Henkel's sequel Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation (1994).\n\nHer other film roles include Faye in another Hooper film entitled Eaten Alive (1977), Dorothy Grim in Future-Kill (1985), and Verna Carson in Texas Chainsaw 3D (2013). She is also known for portraying Linda Kasabian in the television miniseries Helter Skelter (1976).\n\nLife and career\nBurns was born in Erie, Pennsylvania, and raised in Houston, Texas. In seventh grade, she appeared in a musical production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. In 1970, she made her first film appearance in Robert Altman's comedy film Brewster McCloud (1970). Burns attended the University of Texas at Austin, and graduated from there with a degree in drama in 1971. Burns was cast in Lovin' Molly (1974), but was replaced by Susan Sarandon. Burns stayed on as a stand-in for Sarandon and Blythe Danner.\n\nShe also had a small role in George Roy Hill's period drama The Great Waldo Pepper (1975), where she helped cast some of the film's extras.\n\nIn Tobe Hooper's The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), in her first lead role, Burns portrayed the heroine Sally Hardesty, a teenager who travels with her brother and some friends to the cemetery where her grandfather is buried to investigate reports of grave vandalism, and then encounters an insane, cannibalistic family including the chainsaw-wielding Leatherface. The film was a massive hit, becoming one of the most successful independent films ever at the time.\n\nIn 1976, Burns had a role in the television miniseries Helter Skelter about the real-life trial of Charles Manson and his \"family\". In the series, she played Linda Kasabian, a member of the Manson family who was granted immunity in exchange for her testimony against the defendants. The miniseries was nominated for three Emmy Awards. Recalling her memories of working on Helter Skelter, Burns said: \"It was a great experience, but nobody really wanted to touch it [due to the subject matter]. It was like, 'Who wants to be in that picture? Who's actually gonna do that picture?'\" Her next role was Faye in the horror film Eaten Alive, which was helmed by director Tobe Hooper. She starred alongside Robert Englund.\n\nBurns subsequently starred in the films Kiss Daddy Goodbye (1981) and Future-Kill (1985). In 1994, Burns briefly reprised her role as Sally Hardesty in the sequel Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation (1994). Burns also made a cameo appearance as Verna Carson in the sequel Texas Chainsaw 3D, which was released on January 4, 2013. Aside from these roles and occasional appearances at horror conventions, Burns lived a relatively quiet life out of the spotlight in the Houston area during her later years.\n\nDeath\nBurns died in her sleep at the age of 65 on August 5, 2014. She was found in her Houston home by her brother Bill; her cause of death was not specified.\n\nFilmography\n\nFilm\n\nTelevision\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n \n \n Lady of the Chainsaw: An Interview with Marilyn Burns - The Terror Trap - January 2004\n\n1949 births\n2014 deaths\nActresses from Houston\nAmerican film actresses\nAmerican stage actresses\nAmerican television actresses\n20th-century American actresses\n21st-century American actresses\nMoody College of Communication alumni",
"The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is an American horror franchise consisting of nine slasher films, comics, and a video game adaptation of the original film. The franchise focuses on the cannibalistic spree killer Leatherface and his family, who terrorize unsuspecting visitors to their territories in the desolate Texas countryside, typically killing and subsequently cooking them. The original film was released in 1974, directed by Tobe Hooper and written by Hooper and Kim Henkel. Hooper and Henkel were involved in three of the later films.\n\nThe film series has grossed over $252 million at the worldwide box office.\n\nFilms\n\nOverview\n\nThe Texas Chain Saw Massacre, released in 1974, written and directed by Tobe Hooper, was the first and most successful entry in the series. It is considered to be the first of the 1970s slasher films, and originated a great many of the clichés seen in countless later low-budget slashers. Its plot concerns a family of cannibals living in rural Texas, who abduct customers from their gas station. The film's most notable character, Leatherface, is one of the most well-known villains in cinema history, notable for his masks made of human skin, his blood-soaked butcher's apron and the chainsaw he wields. Although the film is marketed as a true story, it does not depict actual events, and is instead (as with the film Psycho) inspired by notorious killer Ed Gein, who acted alone and did not use a chainsaw. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986) is set 13 years after the events of the first film. Although it managed to recoup its relatively small budget, the film was not considered a financial success. Since its initial release, however, it has developed a cult following of its own. Unlike its predecessor, which combined minimal gore with a documentary-style nature, the sequel is a comedic horror film, filled with black humor and various gore effects created by make-up maestro Tom Savini. The film features an appearance by novelist Kinky Friedman as well as film critic Joe Bob Briggs. Briggs' cameo appearance was originally cut in editing, but was restored for the director's cut version of the film when it was released on DVD.\n\nLeatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III is a 1990 follow-up to the previous two films. It stars Kate Hodge, Ken Foree, and Viggo Mortensen and was directed by Jeff Burr. At the time, this was considered to be the first of several sequels in the series to be produced by New Line Cinema. However, it was not a commercial success, and New Line had no further involvement in the series. Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation (1995) is the fourth and final film in the original series. Though it was shelved by Columbia Pictures after initial screenings, the film was released in 1997 after stars Renée Zellweger and Matthew McConaughey gained notoriety.\n\nThe 2003 remake, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, directed by Marcus Nispel, written by Scott Kosar and produced by Michael Bay, is based on the events of the first film, however, for the most part, it follows a different storyline. A major difference between the two films, for example, is that rather than picking up Leatherface's psychotic hitchhiker brother, the group instead come upon a traumatized survivor who shoots herself in their van. The film gives Leatherface's background, a real name (Thomas Brown Hewitt), as well as a possible reason for his wearing masks, namely a skin disease which has caused his nose to rot away. The remake received a mixed critical response upon release, but was financially successful enough to lead to a prequel, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006), which takes place in 1969. Directed by Jonathan Liebesman, written by Sheldon Turner and produced by Michael Bay, it explores the roots of Leatherface's family and delves into their past. Leatherface's first mask is featured, as well as the first murder he commits using a chainsaw. It grossed less than its predecessor and has received a largely negative reception from film critics.\n\nThe seventh film, Texas Chainsaw 3D (2013), is a direct sequel to the original 1974 film, and makes no reference to the events of the other sequels. The film was directed by John Luessenhop, and written by Adam Marcus, Kirsten Elms, and Debra Sullivan. Texas Chainsaw follows a young girl named Heather, who is travelling to Texas with her friends to collect an inheritance from her deceased grandmother, whom she had never met. There, Heather discovers that she is part of the Sawyer family, who were killed by the townspeople following the events of the 1974 film, as well as a cousin of Leatherface. According to Seth M. Sherwood, writer of the prequel Leatherface (2017), the eighth film is part of a continuity that consists of Leatherface, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), and Texas Chainsaw 3D.\n\nFollowing the release of Leatherface, the producers had the rights to make five more Texas Chainsaw Massacre films. In April 2015, producer Christa Campbell stated that the fate of the potential films would largely depend on the financial reception and perceived fan reactions regarding the 2017 prequel. Campbell clarified in December 2017 that Lionsgate and Millennium Films had lost the franchise rights due to the time it took to release it.\n\nIn August 2018, it was reported that Legendary Entertainment was pursuing the rights with interest in developing television and film projects. The following year on September 19 it was revealed that Fede Álvarez will produce the next film. In November 2019, Deadline Hollywood reported that newcomer Chris Thomas Devlin will write the reboot.\n\nIn February 2020, brothers Ryan and Andy Tohill were hired to direct the next installment. The film's plot will focus on Leatherface who is now 60 years old and it will take place 48 years after the events of the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre. The story will revolve around two sisters: Melody and Dreama. Melody is a \"25-year old San Francisco moneymaker who drags her younger teenage sister with her to Texas on a business trip, out of fear of leaving her alone in the city\". The younger sister, Dreama, is an amateur photographer, a wheelchair user who is \"presumably disabled\". On August 24, the Tohill brothers were fired a week into filming and were replaced with David Blue Garcia. By March 2021, production on the film was said to be completed, according to Álvarez.\n\nOn April 15, 2021, the film was revealed to be titled Texas Chainsaw Massacre and was confirmed to have an R-Rating. Mark Burnham has been cast as Leatherface, replacing the late Gunnar Hansen, while Olwen Fouéré will play Sally Hardesty, replacing the late Marilyn Burns. The screenplay was written by Chris Thomas Devlin. The film will star Elsie Fisher along with Sarah Yarkin, Moe Dunford and Alice Krige. Also joining the cast will be Jacob Latimore, Nell Hudson, Jessica Allain, Sam Douglas, William Hope, and Jolyon Coy. In August 2021, it was announced that the film would skip a theatrical release and was instead released direct to Netflix, on February 18, 2022.\n\nRecurring cast and characters\n\nList indicator(s)\n This table only shows characters that have appeared in three or more films in the series.\n A dark grey cell indicates that the character was not in the film or that the character's presence in the film has yet to be announced.\n An indicates an appearance through archival footage or stills.\n A indicates a cameo role.\n A indicates an appearance not included in the theatrical cut.\n A indicates a role as a stunt performer.\n An indicates an unmasked role.\n A indicates a voice-only role.\n A indicates a younger version of the character.\n\nReception\n\nWhen comparing The Texas Chainsaw Massacre to the other top-grossing horror film series – A Nightmare on Elm Street, Child's Play, Friday the 13th, Halloween, the Hannibal Lecter series, Psycho, Saw, and Scream – and adjusting for the 2011 inflation, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is the eighth highest grossing horror film series in the United States, with a combined gross of $304.6 million, only outperforming the Child's Play film series with approximately $203 million. The series is led by Friday the 13th at $687.1 million, A Nightmare on Elm Street with $592.8 million, the Hannibal Lecter film series with $588.7 million, Halloween with $557.5 million, Saw with $457.4 million, Scream with $442.9 million, and the Psycho film series, with $376.3 million.\n\nOther media\n\nBooks\n\nComics\n\nSeveral comic books based on The Texas Chainsaw Massacre films were published in 1991 by Northstar Comics entitled Leatherface. They were licensed as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre to Avatar Press for use in new comic book stories, the first of which was published in 2005. In 2006, Avatar Press lost the license to DC Comics imprint, Wildstorm, which has published new stories based on the films. However, in June 2007, Wildstorm changed a number of horror comics, including The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, from monthly issues to specials and miniseries.\n\nThe series of comics featured none of the main characters seen in the original film (Topps Comics Jason vs. Leatherface series is exempt) with the exception of Leatherface, however, the 1991 \"Leatherface\" miniseries was loosely based on the third Texas Chainsaw Massacre film. The writer of the miniseries, Mort Castle said, \"The series was very loosely based on Texas Chainsaw Massacre III. I worked from the original script by David Schow and the heavily edited theatrical release of director Jeff Burr, but had more or less free rein to write the story the way it should have been told. The first issue sold 30,000 copies.\" Kirk Jarvinen drew the illustrations for the first issue, and Guy Burwell finished the rest of the series. The comics, not having the same censorship restrictions from the MPAA, featured much more gore than the finished film. The ending, as well as the fates of several characters, were also altered. An adaptation of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre was planned by Northstar Comics, but never came to fruition.\n\nVideo games\nIn 1982, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, a mass-market video game adaptation of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre was released for the Atari 2600 by Wizard Video. In the game, the player assumes the role of Leatherface, and attempts to murder trespassers while avoiding obstacles such as fences and cow skulls. As one of the first horror-themed video games, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre caused controversy when it was released due to the violent nature of the video game and sold poorly as many video game stores refused to carry it. Wizard Video's other commercial release, Halloween, had a slightly better reception, however, the limited number of copies sold has made both games highly valued items among Atari collectors.\n\nIn December 2021, it was announced at The Game Awards that a new game, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, based around the original film will be released by Gun Media, the company behind Friday the 13th: The Game.\n\nAll American Massacre\nIn 1998, filming began for All American Massacre, an installment which would have served as both a sequel and prequel to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2. The film was initially conceived as a 15-minute short, but was expanded to a 60-minute feature. It was directed by William Hooper, son of Tobe Hooper. Bill Moseley reprised his role as the character Chop Top, who would have been revealed to have survived the events of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 and been in a Texas psychiatric hospital for a number of years. The plot of the film would have centered on Chop Top detailing his past in an interview with a news crew, before carrying out a new series of murders. A trailer for All American Massacre was released on the internet, but the film itself was never released.\n\nCultural impact\n\nThe Texas Chainsaw Massacre content has been featured in the video games Mortal Kombat X, Dead by Daylight, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Call of Duty: Warzone'' respectively.\n\nReferences\n\nFurther reading\n\nExternal links\n\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n \nTexas Chain Saw Massacre\nHorror film franchises\nAmerican film series\nFilm series introduced in 1974\nFilms adapted into comics\nSplatterpunk"
]
|
[
"Matt Bomer",
"2005-2009: Transition to film and breakthrough with White Collar",
"Name his film?",
"Flightplan,",
"What was the movie about?",
"Bomer's character was a flight attendant.",
"Did the movie get any awards or notice?",
"The film grossed $223.3 million dollars worldwide, becoming the seventeenth highest grossing film of the year",
"What else did he play in",
"Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006),",
"What was his role in the texas chainsaw",
"Eric, a Vietnam War veteran who is driving across Texas to re-enlist after his brother is drafted."
]
| C_d8ba5bc8901940788b7d10fcb5eb1fc3_0 | Did he do anything good? | 6 | Did Matt Bomer do anything good? | Matt Bomer | His screen debut occurred in the 2005 starring in the Robert Schwentke-directed German-American mystery-thriller Flightplan, opposite Jodie Foster. Bomer's character was a flight attendant. The film grossed $223.3 million dollars worldwide, becoming the seventeenth highest grossing film of the year and Bomer's most lucrative film so far. The film received mixed reviews, although the cast was chosen. In the slasher film The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006), the film's story takes place four years before the timeline of the 2003 film, directed by Jonathan Liebesman, Bomer portrayed Eric, a Vietnam War veteran who is driving across Texas to re-enlist after his brother is drafted. The brothers run afoul of Sheriff Hoyt and are taken captive by the Hewitt family. The film, cast, direction and screenplay were criticized by critics. Writing to Rolling Stones, Peter Travers said: "putridly written, directed and acted." The remake was in second place at the box office of American theaters in its first weekend of opening with $18.5 million. The film grossed $51.8 million worldwide. Acted in his first television film Amy Coyne (2006), where he plays Case. The film tells the story of a young woman who after her father's death inherits her sports agency. His first leading role was in the series Traveler (2007), along with Logan Marshall-Green, Aaron Stanford and Viola Davis, a short-lived midseason replacement television series which premiered on ABC on May 30, 2007, the series tells the story of two graduate students, become suspected of terrorism after a skateboarding race inside a museum. It was broadcast only one season of Traveler, the series was canceled in the middle of the fourth episode and received mixed criticism from television critics. He had a supporting role in the NBC action-comedy-spy-drama Chuck (2007-09), created by Josh Schwartz and Chris Fedak. The series is about an "average computer-whiz-next-door" named Chuck Bartowski (played by Zachary Levi), who receives an encoded e-mail from an old college friend now working for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). His character Bryce Larkin, was also a CIA agent, the series in its first season had very positive critics. In 2007, Bomer took on the role of Ernest Hemingway in a Williamstown Theatre Festival production of Crispin Whittell's play Villa America in Massachusetts, starring with Jennifer Mudge and Nate Corddry. 2009 marked a significant turning point in Bomer's career. Starring as the a con artist Neal Caffrey in the police procedural--drama series White Collar, he was part of an ensemble cast that included Tim DeKay, Willie Garson and Tiffani Thiessen and created by Jeff Eastin. White Collar premiered on August 23, 2009 on USA Network and was watched by more than 5.40 million people. His performance and that of the cast were praised; Mary McNamara of the Los Angeles Times wrote: "terrific acting, crackling dialogue and geek-hip crime are not the only things that make this the most electric drama to premiere this fall." She also praised the performance of the two leads together saying they "are so easy" and "perfect together". He won a People's Choice Award at the 2015 ceremony. In addition, Bomer produced 19 episodes of White Collar along with DeKay. CANNOTANSWER | Starring as the a con artist Neal Caffrey in the police procedural--drama series White Collar, | Matthew Staton Bomer (born October 11, 1977) is an American actor. He is the recipient of accolades such as a Golden Globe Award, a Critics' Choice Television Award, and a Primetime Emmy Award nomination.
In 2000, he made his television debut on the long-running soap opera All My Children. Bomer graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. Soon after, he had a contract role on Guiding Light, as well as appearing on primetime shows, including Tru Calling.
In 2005, Bomer made his film debut in the mystery-thriller Flightplan, then in 2007 gained recognition with his recurring role in the NBC television series Chuck. 2009 saw Bomer then land the lead role of con-artist and thief Neal Caffrey in the USA Network series White Collar with the series lasting to 2014. He has featured in supporting roles in the 2011 science fiction thriller In Time, the 2012 comedy-drama Magic Mike and its 2015 sequel, the 2014 supernatural-drama Winter's Tale, and the 2016 neo-noir film The Nice Guys. In 2015, he won a Golden Globe Award and received a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for playing a closeted writer of The New York Times in the drama television film The Normal Heart about the rise of the HIV-AIDS crisis in New York City. Bomer made a guest appearance on the fourth season of FX's horror anthology series American Horror Story. He was later upgraded to the main cast during the fifth season. In 2017 he received praise for his performances in the drama films Walking Out, Anything, and the 2018 comedy-drama Papi Chulo. He portrays Larry Trainor in the DC Universe series Doom Patrol, which premiered in 2019.
On stage, Bomer starred in the Dustin Lance Black play 8 on Broadway, and at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles as Jeff Zarrillo, a plaintiff in the federal case that overturned California's Proposition 8. In 2018 he starred in revival of the Mart Crowley play The Boys in the Band on Broadway playing Donald; he reprised his role for the 2020 film of the same name.
Early life and education
Matthew Staton Bomer was born in Webster Groves, Missouri, to Elizabeth Macy (née Staton) and John O'Neill Bomer IV. His father, a Dallas Cowboys draft pick, played for the team from 1972 to 1974. Matt Bomer has a sister, Megan Bomer, and a brother, Neill Bomer, who is an engineer. Bomer credits his own parents for being understanding when they sensed their young child was a little different from other kids. "I've always had an active imagination," says Bomer. He is a distant cousin to American singer Justin Timberlake. Bomer's family is of English, Welsh, Scottish, Irish, Swiss-German and French descent.
Bomer was raised in Spring, Texas, and attended Klein High School; he was a classmate of Lee Pace and Lynn Collins. In high school, Bomer followed in his dad's footsteps. He played wide receiver and defensive back for his school's football team before deciding to concentrate on acting.
At age 17, he made his professional stage debut as Young Collector in a production of Tennessee Williams A Streetcar Named Desire staged by the Alley Theatre in downtown Houston. He also appeared in a 1998 production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the Utah Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City, Utah. Speaking about his first role in a production, Bomer said:
I started acting professionally when I was 17. I quit the team and did a production of A Streetcar Named Desire at the Alley Theatre in Houston. I used to drive down at the end of the school day, do the show, do my homework during intermission and drive an hour back to Spring to go to school the next day.
Bomer attended Carnegie Mellon University with fellow actor Joe Manganiello and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 2001. In 1999, Bomer worked as a bartender while spending a year living in Galway, Ireland.
Career
2000–2004: Early roles
Shortly after graduating from Carnegie Mellon University, Bomer moved to New York City, where he worked in theater and got his first role on television. His television debut came in 2000 on the ABC network, when he played Ian Kipling on the 1970s drama soap opera All My Children. Two years later he made a guest appearance in the mystery fantasy series Relic Hunter (2002).
In 2001, he landed a contract role on the soap opera Guiding Light. He played Ben Reade, a character connected to several core families on the show. When Bomer left the show in 2003, his exit was controversial; Ben was suddenly revealed to be a male prostitute and serial killer. He received a Gold Derby Awards for Younger Actor – Daytime Drama for his performance in the series. Years later in 2015, Bomer talked about his participation in the series, he said: "I told them to just throw the kitchen sink at me, and they did."
His next role was in the supernatural drama series Tru Calling (2003–2004). Starring alongside Eliza Dushku, Bomer starred as Luc Johnston the love interest of the protagonist of the series played by Dushku, in the first season. In 2003, Bomer returned to theatre to star in a Powerhouse Theater production of Paul Weitz's play Roullete in New York. A year later, he appeared in the episode Bellport in the primetime TV show of North Shore.
2005–2009: Transition to film and breakthrough with White Collar
His screen debut occurred in the 2005 starring in the Robert Schwentke directed mystery thriller Flightplan, opposite Jodie Foster. Bomer's character was a flight attendant. The film grossed $223.3 million worldwide, becoming the seventeenth highest-grossing film of the year and Bomer's most lucrative film so far. In the slasher film The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006), Bomer portrayed Eric, a Vietnam War veteran who is driving across Texas to re-enlist after his brother is drafted.
He acted in his first television film Amy Coyne (2006); he plays the role of Case. The film tells the story of a young woman who inherits her father's sports agency. His first leading role was in the series Traveler (2007), along with Logan Marshall-Green, Aaron Stanford and Viola Davis, a short-lived midseason replacement television series which premiered on ABC on May 30, 2007, the series tells the story of two graduate students, become suspected of terrorism after a skateboarding race inside a museum. The series was canceled after eight episodes.
He had a supporting role in the NBC action-comedy spy-drama Chuck (2007–09). The series is about an "average computer-whiz-next-door" named Chuck Bartowski (played by Zachary Levi), who receives an encoded e-mail from Bomer's character, Bryce Larkin, an old college friend now working for the CIA. In 2007, Bomer took on the role of Ernest Hemingway in a Williamstown Theatre Festival production of Crispin Whittell's play Villa America in Massachusetts, starring in it with Jennifer Mudge and Nate Corddry.
2009 marked a significant turning point in Bomer's career as he starred as the con artist Neal Caffrey in the police procedural drama series White Collar. He was part of an ensemble cast that included Tim DeKay, Willie Garson, and Tiffani Thiessen. White Collar premiered on August 23, 2009, on USA Network and was watched by more than 5.40 million people. His performance as well as the rest of the cast were praised; Mary McNamara of the Los Angeles Times wrote: "terrific acting, crackling dialogue and geek-hip crime are not the only things that make this the most electric drama to premiere this fall." She also liked the performance of the two leads together saying they "are so easy" and "perfect together". He won a People's Choice Award at the 2015 ceremony. Additionally Bomer produced 19 episodes of White Collar along with DeKay.
2010–2015: Recognition
2010 began with Bomer invited to sing with actress and Tony Award winning singer Kelli O'Hara at the Kennedy Center Honors. In September 2011, Bomer starred in Dustin Lance Black's play, 8, a staged re-enactment of the federal trial that overturned California's Proposition 8. Bomer starred as Jeff Zarrillo. The production was directed by actor Joe Mantello and presented at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre in New York City. In March 2012, he was featured in the Wilshire Ebell Theatre production as well.
In 2011, Bomer was cast as a 105-year-old man in Andrew Niccol's science fiction thriller film In Time, starring alongside Justin Timberlake. On April 10, 2012, Bomer made a guest appearance in the third season of the television series Glee, playing Blaine's older brother, Cooper Anderson, a Hollywood commercials actor who comes to Lima for a visit, and while in town gives an acting masterclass to New Directions. His performance on Glee received critical acclaim; critic Emily VanDerWerff of The A.V. Club described his performance as "absolutely fantastic." Crystal Bell of the Huffington Post called his appearance "perfectly cast" and Bomer as one of her favorite guest stars. For this performance on 'Glee', he won a Gold Derby award in the category of Best Comedy Guest Actor.
For his next film, Bomer starred opposite Channing Tatum in Steven Soderbergh's comedy drama Magic Mike (2012). He studied with a group called Hollywood Men in Los Angeles to prepare for the role. The film premiered as the closing film for the 2012 Los Angeles Film Festival on June 24, 2012. Magic Mike was a critical success and his performance was praised. Sara Stewart of the New York Post noted that; "Matt Bomer is also in fine form as a dancer, Ken, whose signature performance plays off his doll-like face." Bomer and Tatum were nominated for the MTV Movie & TV Awards at the 2013 ceremony in Best Musical Moment category.
Bomer made two appearances in 2013, the first as a guest performer on the NBC sitcom The New Normal, portraying the role Monty, ex-boyfriend of the protagonist of the series Bryan Collins played by Andrew Rannells. The second was to voice Superman in the direct to video Superman: Unbound, based on the 2008 comic book story "Superman: Brainiac" by Geoff Johns. His voiceover assured him an invitation to the Behind the Voice Actors Awards in 2013.
In 2014, Bomer appeared in five projects. His first two releases, Winter's Tale, and Space Station 76, were commercially unsuccessful.
The first film, a romantic and supernatural fantasy drama film, was written and directed by Akiva Goldsman, and based on Mark Helprin's novel Winter's Tale. Bomer plays the young father of Colin Farrell's character. Winter's Tale received negative reviews. His second release of the year was in the black space fiction comedy Space Station 76 by Jack Plotnick, alongside Liv Tyler and Patrick Wilson. James Rocchi of The Wrap said; "all the performers are game" and the performance of Bomer; "as a melancholy engineer with a prosthetic hand that looks like a Nintendo Power Glove".
Bomer's next project involved Ryan Murphy casting him opposite Mark Ruffalo, Jim Parsons and Julia Roberts in the drama romance film The Normal Heart (2014). Based on Larry Kramer's play of the same name, it featured Bomer as an closeted writer of The New York Times and love interest of Ruffalo's character. The film shows the rise of the HIV-AIDS crisis in New York City between 1981 and 1984, as seen through the eyes of writer/activist Ned Weeks (Ruffalo), the founder of a prominent HIV advocacy group. The production of The Normal Heart stopped for a few months while he was on a diet. Bomer's performance was praised by a reviewer for The Hollywood Reporter, who considered his acting as the highlight of the production. Matthew Gilbert of The Boston Globe noticed that Bomer is: "quite simply, devastating in this movie, his beauty adding resonance because it begins to fade so suddenly, as his cheeks protrude and lesions gather." Gilbert also lauded the chemistry between Bomer and Ruffalo saying that: "is among the movie's strengths, too, as it provides the core of love and compassion amid all the acrimony." Bomer received his first Golden Globe Award in the Best Supporting Actor category and his first Primetime Emmy Awards nomination.
After narrating the documentary Hunted: The War Against Gays in Russia, following LGBT people in Russia. later that year, Bomer was cast by Murphy in "Pink Cupcakes", an episode in the fourth season of American Horror Story. His participation was described by Lauren Piester of E! Online as "one of the show's most shocking moments". Bomer's first release of 2015 was Magic Mike XXL, a sequel to the popular 2012 film, again featuring Channing Tatum and Joe Manganiello. Magic Mike XXL grossed $122 million worldwide. Reviewing the film for Rolling Stones, Peter Travers noted that; "the movie is just a rambling, loosey-goosey road trip, with Bomer and Manganiello getting extra time to shine." He also sang two songs for the film's soundtrack: "Heaven" and "Untitled (How Does It Feel)". After Bomer's participation in American Horror Story: Freak Show; Murphy put him in the main cast of the fifth season, American Horror Story: Hotel. Bomer plays the son of Iris (Kathy Bates) and the lover of the Countess (Lady Gaga).
2016–present: Professional expansion, independent films and Broadway
Bomer appeared in two films in 2016. He played for the first time a villain in the movie The Nice Guys, as a psycho killer named John Boy. Directed by Shane Black, starring Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe. Gosling and Bomer were at the premiere of the film at the Cannes Film Festival in 2016. The Nice Guys generated positive reviews and enjoyed moderate box office success. His next role was as Matthew Cullen in Antoine Fuqua's Western action film The Magnificent Seven, playing the farmer husband of Haley Bennett's character. The film received mixed reviews from critics, although the cast and action sequences were praised, and grossed $162.4 million worldwide. He was cast as Monroe Stahr, the lead in Billy Ray's 2016 series The Last Tycoon, loosely based on the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel of the same name, along with actors Kelsey Grammer, Lily Collins, and Dominique McElligott.
In 2017, he starred in Alex & Andrew Smith's drama Walking Out, as an estranged father to a 14-year-old son (played by Josh Wiggins). He said that he related to the character "in a really profound way.” Walking Out was screened in the U.S. Dramatic Competition section of the 2017 Sundance Film Festival and was released on October 6, 2017. Justin Chang of Los Angeles Times noted that he "steps confidently into the boots of a rugged, know-it-all mountain man whose idea of tough love can turn unexpectedly toward tenderness around a flickering campfire." David Ehrlich of IndieWire stated that Bomer fortunately plays against his "pretty boy type so convincingly that you might forget where you’ve even seen him before", concluding that Bomer "gives a commanding performance in a movie that fails to realize how evocative he is, the Smiths defaulting to flashbacks that show us less about cowboys and gender codes than we can glean from the wild look in its lead actor’s face. The Village Voice included his performance in the film in a list of the 17 Most Overlooked Performances of 2017.
Timothy McNeil's drama Anything marked Bomer's final film release of 2017 and McNeil making his feature directorial debut. Bomer was cast as Freda Von Rhenburg, a transgender sex worker who lives in Los Angeles and begins a relationship with her neighbor, Early Landry (played by John Carroll Lynch). Anything is based on McNeil’s play of the same name. He has received some criticism from the transgender community for the casting of a cisgender man, to play a transgender woman. Jon Frosch of The Hollywood Reporter felt that Bomer: "gives a performance of real warmth and delicacy," saying that: "rather than play Freda as a force of nature or a collection of mannerisms—the typical default modes of actors playing trans women—Bomer renders her fully dimensional: an unpredictable tangle of impulses, by turns defensive and tender." Anything had its release at the Los Angeles Film Festival on June 17, 2017.
In 2018, Bomer began working on his directorial debut on series The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story. Written by Tom Rob Smith and starring Jon Jon Briones and Darren Criss, in the roles of father and son, respectively, the episode that Bomer directs is titled "Creator/Destroyer". The episode was watched by more than 1 million people. Bomer had other opportunities to direct before but always wanted to wait for the optimum chance to immerse himself in a project. He read 3,000 pages of books on directing. He found a part in a 2018 revival of the Mart Crowley play The Boys in the Band, which was staged at Booth Theatre and marked his Broadway debut. Directed by Joe Mantello, it tells the story a group of gay men who gather for a birthday party in New York City. Theater critic Michael Sommers noted that "Matt Bomer tends to fade in the glare of flashier personalities, but he lends the character a watchful quality as one of those deferential souls who is content to observe others." The play won a Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play. Bomer's first film in 2018 was Bill Oliver's science fiction film Jonathan. His role was that of a detective who appears in only one scene of the film. Jonathan had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 21, 2018.
Two of Bomer's films in 2018 premiered at the 43rd Toronto International Film Festivalthe comedy drama Papi Chulo and the drama Viper Club. In the former, Bomer plays Sean, a local network television weather forecaster. A reviewer for Screen Daily argued that Bomer is "terrific" and concluded that "while he may not yet have the name recognition to act as a key selling point for this film, it’s the kind of performance which gets noticed". In Viper Club, Bomer played Sam, a journalist who helps Helen (played by Susan Sarandon), to save her son who was kidnapped by a group of terrorists. He had a guest starring role on the NBC series Will & Grace (2018–2019) and he also appeared as Negative Man in the DC Universe superhero series, Doom Patrol (2019).
In 2020, Bomer began acting in the USA Network anthology series The Sinner as one of the stars.
In the media
BuddyTV ranked him first on its list of "TV's Sexiest Men of 2011" and third in 2012. In June 2013, Bomer was ranked at no. 2 on Logos Hot 100 list, which is based on the votes of readers of the AfterEllen.com and TheBacklot.com. Bomer was the list's highest ranked man and second only to Jennifer Lawrence.
Personal life
Bomer married publicist Simon Halls in 2011;
the marriage became public through the media only in 2014. In an interview discussing his marriage, Bomer said that his marriage to Halls was a very small event in New York City: "It was very chill and very small–just our closest and dear ones. There is a security, a validity. It's just a feeling, I think–something about saying vows in front of the people around you who love and support you. I think it was good for our family." The couple has three children conceived through surrogacy: Kit Halls (b. 2005), and then twin brothers, Walker and Henry Halls (b. 2008).
Bomer publicly came out as gay in 2012, when he thanked Halls and their children during an acceptance speech for his Steve Chase Humanitarian Award. Also in 2012, Bomer was given an Inspiration Award for his work at the GLSEN Awards. He is an LGBT rights activist.
In 2018, Bomer campaigned for Democratic candidate Beto O'Rourke in the U.S. Senate election in Texas.
Bomer has been practicing Transcendental Meditation since his early 20s; in 2013 he spoke of his support for the work of the David Lynch Foundation.
Filmography
According to the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes and box-office website The Numbers, Bomer's most critically and commercially successful films include Flightplan (2005), In Time (2011), Magic Mike (2012), Superman: Unbound (2013), The Normal Heart (2014), Magic Mike XXL (2015), The Magnificent Seven (2016), The Nice Guys (2016) and Walking Out (2017). Among his stage roles, he has appeared in a Broadway revival of The Boys In The Band (2018).
Throughout his career, Bomer has already won and been nominated for several awards, notably his Golden Globe Awards nomination for Best Supporting Actor-Series, Miniseries or Television Film, winning the prize in 2015, an indication to the Primetime Emmy Awards of Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie and the Critics' Choice Television Awards for Best Supporting Actor in a Movie/Miniseries in 2014, winning the award that year.
Discography
Awards and nominations
See also
LGBT culture in New York City
List of LGBT people from New York City
References
External links
Gay actors
1977 births
20th-century American male actors
21st-century American male actors
American male film actors
American male soap opera actors
American male stage actors
American male television actors
American male voice actors
Best Supporting Actor Golden Globe (television) winners
Carnegie Mellon University College of Fine Arts alumni
American gay actors
LGBT rights activists from the United States
LGBT people from Missouri
LGBT people from Texas
Living people
Male actors from Texas
People from Spring, Texas
People from St. Louis County, Missouri
Klein High School alumni | false | [
"\"All You Have to Do\" is a single by American female pop group Boy Krazy, written and produced by Mike Stock and Pete Waterman. Lead vocals were performed by group member Johnna Cummings, with additional lead vocals in the chorus by Josselyne Jones.\n\nReleased in February 1992, this was Boy Krazy's first single as a quartet, after Renee Veneziale left the band in 1991. The song was not a hit for the group, only peaking at #91 in the UK singles chart. The fact that this single was only released on vinyl and not as a CD single may have hindered a bigger success, as the British public were switching to a CD format at the time. The song was later included on the group's debut album in 1993.\n\nThe B-side to this single was \"Good Times with Bad Boys\" which was released as a single on its own in 1993.\n\nIn August 2009, the single was released through iTunes as a digital EP, including never released remixes of the song and other album tracks.\n\nCharts\n\nFormats and track listings \n\n7\" Single\nAll You Have To Do \nGood Times With Bad Boys\n\n12\" Single\nAll You Have To Do (12\" Version)\nGood Times With Bad Boys\nAll You Have To Do (Instrumental)\n\niTunes EP\nAll You Have To Do\nAll You Have To Do (Extended Version)\nAll You Have To Do (Instrumental)\nAll You Have To Do (Backing Track) *\nDon't Wanna Let You Go *\nDon't Wanna Let You Go (Instrumental) *\nWho Could Ask For Anything More? (Original Version) *\nWho Could Ask For Anything More? (Original Instrumental) *\nWho Could Ask For Anything More? (Original Backing Track) *\nWho Could Ask For Anything More? (Album Instrumental) *\nWho Could Ask For Anything More? (Album Backing Track) *\n\n1992 singles\nSongs written by Pete Waterman\nSongs written by Mike Stock (musician)\n1992 songs\nPolyGram singles\nNext Plateau Entertainment singles",
"Ciamik is a colloquial Indonesian word derived from Chinese (Hokkien). It means \"extraordinarily good\". It originally referred to a person, but now is used to describe just about anything that is good. The original phrase in Hokkien language is \"Cia ha mi?\", which means literally \"What did you eat?\" or \"What have you been eating?\".\n\nUsage examples:\n\"That was a great serve. Cia ha mi this morning?\". \"You look so fresh. Cia ha mi?\"\n\nLater Chinese generations and native Indonesians who do not speak Hokkien eventually corrupt the phrase to become \"ciami\". Influenced by Javanese, it gained the silent \"k\" ending over time resulting the phrase to be pronounced as \"ciami' \" with a glottal stop.\n\nIndonesian words and phrases"
]
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