Shakira

Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll (born February 2, 1977), known professionally as Shakira (pronounced /ʃəˈkɪəɹə/, Spanish: [tʃaˈkiɾa] or [ʃaˈkiɾa]), is a Colombian singer, songwriter, musician, record producer, dancer, and philanthropist who emerged in the music scene of Colombia and Latin America in the early 1990s. Born and raised in Barranquilla, Colombia, Shakira revealed many of her talents in school as a live performer, demonstrating her vocal ability with rock and roll, Latin and Middle Eastern influences with her own original twist on belly dancing. Shakira is a native Spanish speaker and also speaks fluent English and Portuguese as well as some Italian, French and Arabic.

After commercial flops with local producers on her first two albums, and being little-known outside Colombia, Shakira decided to produce her own brand of music. In 1995 she released Pies Descalzos, which brought her great fame in Latin America and Spain, and her 1998 album ¿Dónde Están los Ladrones? was a critical success selling over 7 million copies worldwide. In 2001, aided by the worldwide success of her first English single "Whenever, Wherever" that became the best selling single of 2002, she broke through into the English-speaking world with the release of Laundry Service, which sold over 13 million copies worldwide. Four years later, Shakira released two album projects called Fijación Oral Vol. 1 and Oral Fixation Vol. 2. Both reinforced her success, particularly with the best selling song of the 2000s, "Hips Don't Lie".

In 1995, Shakira founded the Pies Descalzos Foundation. It is a Colombian charity with special schools for poor children all around Colombia. During her career, Shakira has performed at a large number of benefit concerts. Among the most famous are the Live 8 benefit concert in July 2005, the Live Earth concert, Hamburg where she headlined the show, as well as the "Clinton Global Initiative" created by former US President Bill Clinton. She was also invited to the Oval Office by President Barack Obama in February 2010 to discuss early childhood development.

She has won two Grammy Awards, seven Latin Grammy Awards, twelve Billboard Latin Music Awards and has been Golden Globe-nominated. She is also the highest-selling Colombian artist of all time, and the second most successful female Latin singer after Gloria Estefan, having sold over 50 million albums worldwide according to Sony Music Entertainment. Her U.S. album sales stand at 9.6 million.

In the fall of 2009, Shakira released her sixth album She Wolf worldwide. Shakira's "

Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)

", was chosen as the official song for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The song has received generally positive critical reception, and has become a worldwide smash hit and the biggest selling World Cup song of all time. On YouTube, the English version of the music video is the 3rd most watched video of all time with over 300 million views. Her seventh studio album, the bilingual Sale el Sol, was released October 2010 and has shipped over 4 million copies worldwide.

She was engaged to the son of the former President of Argentina, Antonio de la Rúa. Their relationship lasted almost 11 years and ended in August 2010. She is now dating Spanish footballer Gerard Piqué and confirmed their relationship in March 2011.

Michal Jackson

Judge hints jurors may see raw video of Michael Jackson's last days

MICHAEL JACKSON

• 

A 2009 handout photo shows Michael Jackson during a rehearsal, two days before his death.

Raw video of Michael Jackson's last days is not covered by laws protecting journalists from court subpoenas, making it likely that Sony will have to let lawyers use its video in their defense of Dr. Conrad Murray, a judge said Thursday.

Lawyers for Murray, who faces trial for involuntary manslaughter in the pop star's death, argued that the unseen rehearsal video could show that Jackson was ill and physically weak

.

Prosecutors contend that Jackson died from an overdose of a surgical anesthetic that Murray gave him to induce sleep.

Sony Pictures, which bought the video from Jackson's estate, is fighting the subpoena from Murray's lawyers for access to about 100 hours of video that was used to produce the "This Is It" documentary, released several months after the singer's June 25, 2009, death.

The judge has given the prosecution permission to show clips from the movie to jurors during the trial, which is scheduled to start in September, but the defense wants to use video left on the cutting room floor.

Since Sony was under a contractual obligation with the estate to not use anything that showed Jackson in "a negative light," the unused video may be helpful to the defense, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Michael P

astor said.

The judge gave Sony a week to work out technical details with the defense for a way they can view the raw video without the risk of it leaking.

Sony's lawyer said the public release of the raw video could hurt the studio's plans to use it in other productions, such as an anniversary edition of the documentary.

"If they become part of the public record as an exhibit, we have a whole different problem," Sony attorney Gary Bostwick said. "That would immediately become viral on TMZ or some other website."

Defense lawyers were ordered to narrow their subpoena request for the video, which Pastor called "remarkably over-broa

d."

Michael Jackson hired video photographers to record his rehearsals as he prepared for his comeback concerts in London, scheduled for July 2009. His estate later sold the video and documentary rights to Sony for about $80 million.

Jackson was pronounced dead by an emergency room doctor at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medi

cal Center. The Los Angeles County coroner ruled that his death was caused by an overdose of propofol, a powerful surgical anesthetic, in combination with "the contributory affects of the benzodiazepines."

Murray, who was hired as Jackson's personal doctor in the months leading up to the concert, was later charged with involuntary manslaughter in his death.

"Michael is not with us today because of an utterly inept, incompetent, reckless doctor, the defendant Conrad Murray," Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney David Walgren said in his final arguments at Murray's preliminary hearing in January.

Murray's lawyers suggested that a frustrated and sleepless Jackson may have self-ingested the fatal dose while the doctor was out of his bedroom.

The defense is hoping the raw video will show Jackson's weakness and frustration as the concert dates neared.

Michal Jackson Official Website

Justin Bieber

Justin Bieber
Background information
Birth name	Justin Drew Bieber
Born	March 1, 1994 (age 17)
Origin	Stratford, Ontario, Canada
Genres	Pop,
Occupations	Singer-songwriter, musician, actor
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, piano, percussion, trumpet
Years active	2009–present
Labels	Island, RBMG
Associated acts	Usher
Website	justinbiebermusic.com

Justin Drew Bieber (pronounced /ˈbiːbɚ/ bee-bər, born March 1, 1994) is a Canadian pop/R&B singer-songwriter and actor. Bieber was discovered in 2008 by Scooter Braun, who happened to come across Bieber's videos on YouTube and later became his manager. Braun arranged for him to meet with Usher in Atlanta, Georgia, and Bieber was soon signed to Raymond Braun Media Group (RBMG), a joint venture between Braun and Usher, and then to a recording contract with Island Records offered by L.A. Reid. His debut single, "One Time", released worldwide in 2009, peaked in the top ten in Canada and charted in the top thirty in several international markets. His debut release, My World, followed on November 17, 2009, and was eventually certified platinum in the United States. He became the first artist to have seven songs from a debut album chart on the Billboard Hot 100.

Bieber's first full studio release, My World 2.0, was released on March 23, 2010 and has since received similar success; it debuted at number one and within the top ten of several countries, and was certified platinum in the United States. It was preceded by the worldwide top-ten single, "Baby," in January 2010. The music video of "Baby" is currently ranked as the most viewed and most discussed YouTube video, and was the most disliked until being overtaken by Rebecca Black's song Friday. Bieber followed-up the release of his debut album with his first headlining tour, the My World Tour, the remix albums My Worlds Acoustic and Never Say Never – The Remixes, and the 3D biopic-concert film Justin Bieber: Never Say Never – which had an opening weekend gross that nearly matched the record for the biggest opening weekend for a concert-film.

Bieber has been nominated and awarded numerous accolades over the past few years, winning Artist of the Year at the 2010 American Music Awards, and being nominated for Best New Artist and Best Pop Vocal Album at the 53rd Grammy Awards, among others. Bieber is considered a teen idol, and has been subject to acclaim from fans, as well as criticism and controversy from matters concerning his popularity and image.

Justin Bieber In People

Lady GaGa

Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta (born March 28, 1986), better known by her stage name Lady Gaga, is an American pop

singer-songwriter. After performing in the rock music scene of New York City's Lower East Side in 2003 and later enrolling at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, she soon signed with Streamline Records, an imprint of Interscope Records. During her early time at Interscope, she worked as a songwriter for fellow label artists and captured the attention of recording artist Akon, who recognized her vocal abilities, and signed her to his own label, Kon Live Distribution.

Gaga came to prominence following the release of her debut studio album The Fame (2008), which was a critical and commercial success and achieved international popularity with the singles "Just Dance" and "Poker Face". The album reached number one on the record charts of six countries, topp

ed the Billboard Dance/Electronic Albums chart while simultaneously peaking at number two on the Billboard 200 chart in the

United S

tates and accomplished positions within the top ten worldwide. Achieving similar worldwide success, The Fame Monster (2009), its follow-up, produced a further two global chart-topping singles "Bad Romance" and "Telephone" and allowed her to embark on her second global concert tour, The Monster Ball Tour, just months after having finished her first, The Fame Ball Tour. Her second studio album Born This Way, released in May 2011, topped the charts in all major musical markets, after the arrival of its eponymous lead single "Born This Way", which achieved the number-one spot in countries worldwide and was the fastest-selling single in iTunes history, selling one million copies in five days.^[3]

Inspired by glam rock artists like David Bowie, Elton John and Queen, as well as pop singers such as

Madonna and Michael Jackson, Gaga is well-recognized for her outré sense of style in fashion, in performance and in her music videos. Her contributions to the music industry have garnered her numerous achievements including five Grammy Awards, among twelve nominations; two Guinness World Records;[4] and the estimated sale of 15 million albums and 51 million singles worldwide.^[5][6] Billboard named her the Artist of the Year in 2010,^[7] ranking her as the 73rd Artist of the 2000s decade.^[8] Gaga has been included in Time magazine's annual Time 100 list of the most influential people in the world as well as being listed in a number of Forbes' annual lists^[

^9] including the 100 most powerful and influential celebrities in the world and attained the number one spot on their annual list of the 100 most powerful celebrities

Lady GaGa risked the wrath of frosty Vogue magazine boss Anna Wintour after accidentally cursing at her via text message

when the renowned editor told her she had won a prestigious fashion prize.

The pop superstar picked up the Fashion Icon prize at the Annual Council of Fashion Designers of America Awards in New

York on Monday, and was left red-faced at the bash when her Thierry Mugler gown slipped and revealed her bare breasts.

But the Poker Face hitmaker revealed that wasn't her only embarrassment of the night - she'd labelled Wintour a "b**ch" when she mistook a text from the fashion leader to be one from her pal.

Gaga explains, "She (Wintour) sent me a text message, and it said, 'We're so excited to tell you you won the CFDA fashion icon award.' And I actually thought it was Anna Treblin, who was one of my very close friends and (my stylist) Nicola's assistant, who I go out and have drinks with all the time. I have a couple (of) Annas in my phone, so my reply was, 'Yes, b**ch, we did it'."Quite quickly I got a reply that said, 'How lovely, and we will all be waiting to see what you will wear.' And then I thought, 'Well won't you be helping me choose what I will wear?' And then I said, 'Oh! It's Anna Wintour.'"