Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972),[1] better known by his stage name Eminem or his alter ego Slim Shady, is an American rapper, record producer, songwriter and actor

Eminem

Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972),[1] better known by his stage name Eminem or his alter ego Slim Shady, is an American rapper, record producer, songwriter and actor. Eminem's popularity brought his group project, D12, to mainstream recognition. As well as being a member of D12, Eminem is also one half of the Detroit hip hop duo Bad Meets Evil, with Royce da 5'9". Eminem is one of the best-selling artists in the world and is the best selling artist of the 2000s.[2] He has been listed and ranked as one of the greatest artists of all time by many magazines including the Rolling Stone magazine which has ranked him 82nd on its list of The 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.[3] The same magazine has declared him The King of Hip Hop.[4] Including his work with D12 and Bad Meets Evil, Eminem has achieved ten number one albums on the Billboard 200. He has also sold more than 33 million track downloads and 40.9 million albums in the United States alone,[5] and 86 million records worldwide to date.[6]

Eminem quickly gained popularity in 1999 with his major-label debut album, The Slim Shady LP. That first album, The Marshall Mathers LP and his third major album, The Eminem Show, all won Grammy Awards, making Eminem the first artist to win Best Rap Album for three consecutive LPs. The Marshall Mathers LP is also considered one of Eminem's best and most successful albums. Eminem then went on hiatus after touring in 2005. He released his first album since 2004's Encore, titled Relapse, on May 15, 2009. In 2010, Eminem released his seventh studio album Recovery, which was an international success. Recovery was also named the best selling album worldwide of 2010 joining The Eminem Show, which was the best seller of 2002. Eminem won Grammy Awards for both Relapse and Recovery, giving him a total of 13 Grammys in his career. Eminem has named Masta Ace, Big Daddy Kane, Newcleus, the Beastie Boys, Dr. Dre, Tupac Shakur, AZ, Nas, and Ice-T amongst others as his influences.

Eminem has opened other ventures since the beginning of his success. He founded his own record label, Shady Records with his manager Paul Rosenberg. He also has his own radio channel, Shade 45. Eminem began an acting career in 2002, when he starred in the hip hop drama film 8 Mile in which he won the Academy Award for Best Original Song, becoming the first rap artist ever to win the award.[7] He is also set to star in the 2013 films Shady Talez and Have Gun, Will Travel. He has also made cameo appearances in The Wash (2001), Funny People (2009) and television series Entourage.

Alla Pugacheva

Pugacheva was born to her mother Zinaida Arkhipovna Odegova and father Boris Mikhailovich Pugachev in Moscow, on 15 April 1949.[2] In 1956, she enrolled in music school №31, and attended the Ippolitov-Ivanov music college. She went on to study at school №496, finishing her studies there in 1964. She then studied in the choral-conducting department of the college. Pugacheva recorded her first track "Robot" in 1965, for a state radio morning programme.

Pugacheva finished college in 1966 and subsequently toured with the group Yunost' (Youth) in Western Siberia. The following year she began working as a piano accompanist at the State Circus Musical college. She provided the leading vocals to a number of bands, including Novy Elektron (New Electron), part of the Lipetsk State Philharmonic Society, in 1966, Moskvichi (Muscovites) in 1971, Oleg Lundstrem's band in 1972–73, and Vesyolye Rebyata (Merry Folks) in 1974-75. She also recorded songs throughout that period for numerous movies. In 1974, she came in 3rd place in the All-Union competition of musicians, which was somewhat of a disappointment for her. In 1975, she received the Grand Prix of the international contest "Golden Orpheus" performing the song "Harlequin". The Amiga label released her winning song as a single in East Germany. Subsequently in Bulgaria, the Balkanton label released the live recording of "Harlequin" from the festival as a single. One year later, Pugacheva returned to the "Golden Orpheus" to perform a concert outside the competition. The Balkanton released the live tracks as Pugacheva's first album Zolotoy Orfey 76. In that same year, Pugacheva recorded a number of songs for the musical drama-comedy The Irony of Fate as the singing voice of Nadja, the female protagonist.

The Woman Who Sings

Pugacheva went on to work on the musical film Zhenshchina, kotoraya poyot (The Woman Who Sings) in cooperation with the band Ritm (Rhythm) in 1977. She played the leading lady, a famous pop singer who sacrifices her personal life for her career. The soundtrack, which was co-written by Pugacheva and composed of pop songs, culminated with the dramatic title ballad "Zhenshchina, kotoraya poyot". The Soviet audience, regarding the film as autobiographical,[3] brought the soundtrack to reach record audience of the year in 1979, as it was bought by 55 million people.[4] The soundtrack was first released in 1977 as part of the double album Zerkalo dushi (Mirror of the Soul), which was a collection of her songs from 1975–77. The Victor label released a collection album called Alla Pugacheva in the same year in Japan. In 1978, performing the song "Vsyo mogut koroli" ("Kings Can Do Anything"), Pugacheva received the Amber Nightingale prize at the Sopot International Song Festival, which at the time meant automatically winning the Grand Prix of the Intervision Song Contest.[5] In 1980, the Kansan label of Finland released her above listed works as a compilation album titled Huipulla (At the Top). Tonbandausnahmenkompanie Bayer GmbH did the same in West Germany releasing Alla Pugachova.

50 Cent

Early life

Curtis Jackson III grew up in the South Jamaica neighborhood of Queens, in New York City. He grew up without a father and was raised by his mother, Sabrina, who gave birth to him at the age of fifteen.

Sabrina, a cocaine dealer, raised Jackson until the age of twelve, when she was killed in 1988. Twenty-seven at the time, she became unconscious after someone drugged her drink. She was then left for dead after the gas in her apartment was turned on and the windows shut closed.[9][10]

After her death, Jackson moved into his grandparents' house with his eight aunts and uncles.[11][12][13] He recalls, "My grandmother told me, 'Your mother's not coming home. She's not gonna come back to pick you up. You're gonna stay with us now.' That's when I started adjusting to the streets a little bit".[14]

Jackson began boxing around the age of eleven.

At fourteen, a neighbor opened a boxing gym for local kids.

"When I wasn't killing time in school, I was sparring in the gym or selling crack on the strip", he recalled.[15] In the mid 1980s, he competed in the Junior Olympics as an amateur boxer. He recounts, "I was competitive in the ring and hip-hop is competitive too... I think rappers condition themselves like boxers, so they all kind of feel like they're the champ".[16] At the age of twelve, Jackson began dealing narcotics when his grandparents thought he was at after-school programs.[17] He also took guns and drug money to school. In the tenth grade, he was caught by metal detectors at Andrew Jackson High School. He later stated, "I was embarrassed that I got arrested like that... After I got arrested I stopped hiding it. I was telling my grandmother [openly], 'I sell drugs.'"[14]

Following time spent in a correctional boot camp, Jackson adopted the nickname "50 Cent" as a metaphor for "change".[18] The name was derived from Kelvin Martin, a 1980s Brooklyn robber known as "50 Cent". Jackson chose the name "because it says everything I want it to say. I'm the same kind of person 50 Cent was. I provide for myself by any means".[19]

Enrique Iglesias

Enrique Iglesias (born Enrique Miguel Iglesias Preysler; May 8, 1975) is a Spaniard singer-songwriter popular in both the Latin American market and the Hispanic American market in the United States. Within five years of beginning his musical career in the 1990s, he became the biggest seller of Spanish-language albums of that decade. He made his crossover into the mainstream English language market before the turn of the millennium, signing a multi-album deal with Universal Music Group for an unprecedented US$50,000,000, with Universal Music Latino to release his Spanish albums and Interscope to release English albums. In 2010, he parted with Interscope and signed with another Universal Music Group label, Universal Republic.

Iglesias has sold over 100 million records worldwide, making him one of the best selling Spanish language artists of all time.[1]

Iglesias has had five Billboard Hot 100 top five singles, including two number-ones, and holds the record for producing 22 number-one Spanish-language singles on the Billboard's Hot Latin Tracks.[2] He has also had ten number-one songs on Billboard's Dance charts, more than any other single male artist. Altogether, Iglesias has amassed 55 number-one hits on the various Billboard charts. Billboard has called him The King of Latin Pop and The King of Dance. Billboard also named Enrique the number two Latin artist of the years 1986–2011 (Luis Miguel taking the first spot).[3]

Early life

Iglesias was born in Madrid, Spain,[4] and is the third and youngest child of singer Julio Iglesias and socialite and magazine journalist Isabel Preysler. His mother is a Spanish Filipino[5][6] and his father is of Spanish ancestry from Galicia.[7][8] His parents' marriage was annulled in 1979.

In 1986, Iglesias' grandfather, Dr. Julio Iglesias Puga, was kidnapped by the armed Basque separatist group ETA. For their safety, Enrique and his brother, Julio Iglesias, Jr., were sent to live with their father in Miami.[9] He also lived in Belgrade, Serbia, for one year with his mother.[10] As his father's career kept him on the road, the young Iglesias was raised by the family nanny. He attended Gulliver Preparatory School[11] and went on to study business at the University of Miami.[12]