Miley Cyrus
Destiny Hope Cyrus, best known as Miley Cyrus, is an American actress, singer and songwriter, born in November 23, 1992, in Franklin, Tennessee. She stars as Miley Stewart/Hannah Montana in Disney series, Hannah Montana.
Miley Cyrus attended Heritage Middle School but she currently has a private tutor. She is the daughter of country singer Billy Ray Cyrus and Leticia Cyrus. Miley has an older half-sister, named Brandi, two older half-brothers, Trace and Christopher Cody, a younger brother, Braison, and a younger sister, Noah Lindsey Cyrus, who is also an actress.
Destiny Hope kept all the day smiling when she was younger, that is the reason for her nickname "Miley", which comes from "Smiley". She has many pets, like dogs, cats, chickens and horses.
Miley had her first TV appearance when she was 9, playing a guest role, in her father's TV series "Doc". Then, in 2003, she worked in Tim Burton's Big Fish. She also appeared in the music video for "If Heartaches Have Wings". At the age of 12, Miley was chosen for Hannah Montana due to her energetic and lively performance. She was seen as a person who loves every minute of life, with the everyday relatability of Hilary Duff and the stage presence of Shania Twain. Moreover, Miley had a cameo in High School Musical 2, where she danced next to the pool.
On October 24, 2006, Walt Disney Records released the Hannah Montana Sountrack, which includes eight songs she performed as Hannah Montana. In June 26, 2007, Miley released a double album called "Hannah Montana 2: Meet Miley Cyrus". The first disc was the second Hannah Montana soundtrack, while the other one was her debut album. It contains ten songs, from which Miley co-wrote eight.
Miley is good friends with Mitchell Musso, Emily Osment, Vanessa Hudgens and Ashley Tisdale.
Avril Lavigne
Unapologetically original. Unabashedly in your face. Avril Lavigne's 2002 debut Let Go gave young women a defiant voice and set it to music they could rock out to. Fourteen million albums and eight Grammy nominations later, the Canadian chanteuse returns with Under My Skin but if you're expecting a whole lot of the same, you've got another thing coming. This is not a girl who rests on her laurels.
Under My Skin opens with the dramatic tracks "Take Me Away" and "Together," which set the scene for the kick-ass guitars and radio-ready chorus of "Don't Tell Me," a song of willful female empowerment that picks up where "Complicated" left off. From there it's a one-two punch of three-chord guitar licks ("He Wasn't") and head-bopping optimism ("Who Knows") alongside swirling, brooding melodies ("Freak Out") and moody tracks ("Forgotten," "Nobody's Home") that reveal a darker side of Avril Lavigne.
"I grew up so much in the past two years," admits the Napanee, Ontario, native. "I've been through a lot, I've learned a lot, and experienced a lot both good and bad. These songs are about all of that, and each is very personal to me." Working with producers, Butch Walker (of the Marvelous 3), Raine Maida (of Our Lady Peace), Don Gilmore (Linkin Park, Pearl Jam), Avril co-wrote the dozen introspective songs on Under My Skin in near secrecy. "I'd just come off my world tour and got back to Toronto and was writing right away," the 19-year-old says. "I had no idea what I was going to do. No one did. People wondered if I'd run out of things to write about, but it was the opposite."
After a lunch date with fellow Canadian singer-songwriter Chantal Kreviazuk turned into a major chick-bonding session, Avril and Chantal sat down to write. The chemistry was ineffable. "We got together one night and all of a sudden we had a song," she says. "No one knew what I was up to, not my management, not my label." The duo got together the next night and wrote another song. "We did that for two weeks and wrote 12 songs." Momentum took over and by summer Avril was moving into Chantal and her husband Raine Maida's Malibu house to record. "I was only off my tour for a couple of weeks, and I was ready to record," Avril recalls.
The California air provided a needed escape from Avril's frantic life. "It was a great time for me, living out there, being out of the public eye, and having my independence. And my friendship with Chantal evolved into one of the best I've ever had." Chantal and Avril would spend all night in the studio perfecting the songs. During the day, Avril learned the city by driving to and from the studio and wherever she needed to be. No photos, no interviews, no pressure. Eventually they recorded most of the songs in Raine's studio, and those songs appear unaltered on Under My Skin. The rest of the tracks, co-written with her guitarist Evan Taubenfeld (and one track with former Evanescence guitarist Ben Moody), were cut just up the road. "I was involved in every aspect of making this record. I'm very hands-on," she says. "I knew how I wanted the drums, the guitar tones, and the structures to be. I understand the whole process so much better this time because I've been through it. I'm really picky with my sound."
Picking favorites out of her 12 hand-made babies is another matter. "They all mean so much to me, but I love ‘Together,’ which is all about being in a relationship and knowing it's not right. It's a song that basically says, it's not working out honey." A couple of other tracks mine dysfunctional relationships and have hooks as catchy as those on "Complicated" and real-life narratives (like "Sk8er Boi"), but what truly underscores Avril's growth are the more positive tracks, such as "Who Knows" and "Take Me Away." "I guess that's just the way that I am now," admits the former supposed attitude junkie. Deep, piano-driven tracks like "Together" and "Forgotten" reflect Avril's growth, maturity, and change since the release of Let Go. "I'm happy with what I'm doing and have faith that everything is going to work out for the best." She's also found a feminine side to offset her well-publicized tomboyishness. "I'm such a chick. I'm a hopeless romantic, and surprisingly old-fashioned," Avril laughs. "That's why I wrote a song about not giving it up to just any guy ["Don't Tell Me"]." Girly quirks aside, Avril's anxious to get the show on the road. "It feels so good to be singing new songs," she says. "I feel refreshed and I'm looking forward to the next thing."
Optimistic or melancholic, Avril's two-year wild-ride on the rock-star express has shaped her world view and taught her a whole lot about balance. "The songs on Under My Skin are definitely deeper than those on Let Go," she says, "But I still love a good pop song. I'm basically just a girl who likes to write, who likes to rock out, and who wants music to be a part of my life forever."
She's also just a girl with a bell-clear voice and the ability to bottle youthful anguish and enthusiasm into tidy, infectious songs. Avril Lavigne's Under My Skin is sure to get under yours.
Paramore
All We Know Is Falling, the debut release from Paramore on Fueled By Ramen, marks the arrival of a truly enthralling new rock band. Powered by buoyant melodies and powerful hooks, the Tennessee-based outfit's debut is made indelible by the irresistible force of singer Hayley Williams. The 16-year-old vocalist's earnest emotion and strikingly confident range and phrasing set Paramore apart from the pack, with the joyous noise of songs such as "My Heart" and "Here We Go Again" evincing a passionate positivism that can't help move every listener in its path.
Raised in Meridian, Mississippi, Hayley has been raising her voice for as long as she can remember - singing and writing songs for talent contests and local commercials. At 13, her family moved to Franklin, Tennessee, where she made friends with two brothers - guitarist Josh and drummer Zac Farro. It wasn't long before the two teenaged musicians invited Hayley to sing in their fledgling band.
The Farros helped open up Hayley's musical horizons, introducing the talented young singer to a new world of music, from classic rock bands such as U2 and the Cure to such modern outfits as Sparta and Failure.
"It was all so new for me," she says. "It really challenged me to use my voice in different ways. It was also good for me as a writer because I realized that lyrics didn't have to be simple pop stuff; they could be harder and deeper."
The band, which also now featured Hayley's next door neighbor Jason Bynum on rhythm guitar, adopted the moniker Paramore and started performing and recording almost immediately. They played at local gatherings and their school talent show, then quickly began performing at rock venues in and around Franklin. The combination of musical energy between brothers, Jason and Hayley's bold charisma earned them instant attention.
Paramore concentrated on the next phase of their musical journey, spending the summer and early fall in a Nashville studio cutting their first real demos. "It was great," Hayley says. "We've learned a lot since then. I think we'd probably do a lot of things very differently now. But it was a great experience and I'm grateful we had the opportunity."
With many labels anxious to sign them, the band decided to release their debut album through Fueled By Ramen. Huge fans of many of the label's artists like Fall Out Boy and The Academy Is..., Paramore felt there was no better label to release All We Know Is Falling. "Fueled By Ramen is an amazing label," Hayley says. "Some of our favorite bands are on Fueled by Ramen. We knew that they would know exactly how to carry out the vision for our band and music."
After having seen Paramore perform only once, Fueled By Ramen's founder John Janick knew he had to sign the band. "I seldom find a band that I feel compelled to work with after just one encounter" John says. "I knew that I had to put out the Paramore record after I met the band. Their talent, sincerity and dedication exceed that of many bands."
In March 2005, Paramore temporarily relocated to sunny Orlando, Florida for a couple of months. With extensive touring obligations in their immediate future, the band felt they needed to fully hone in on all aspects of their musical life before recording All We Know Is Falling.
"We wanted to get away from the distractions of home and just practice, write songs, record and do shows - all the things that a band does," Hayley says.
Josh adds, "We missed home a lot. But it was awesome to be able to wake up and devote ourselves one hundred percent to playing our music."
While in Florida, Paramore began sessions for their much-anticipated first full-length collection, working with producers James Wisner (Dashboard Confessional, Further Seems Forever, Underoath) and Mike Green (Yellowcard, The Black Maria). The band also enlisted bassist John Hembree to fill in a deserted position and round out the line-up. They recorded new tracks such as "Emergency" and "Pressure" which display a musical enthusiasm and lyrical depth well beyond the band's relatively young ages. In addition to her open-hearted vocal style, Williams has worked hard to expose her life and emotions in her songs.
"I always try to write from personal experience," she says. "At first what I was writing was kind of metaphorical, but now I've been trying to be more straightforward. It's all about things that have happened to me or to the people that I love."
Paramore has won praise for their live performances, which have included dates alongside Less Than Jake, Anberlin and Copeland, as well as high profile performances on The Fueled By Ramen & Friends Tour, the Taste of Chaos Tour and the Bamboozle Festival. With this summer's Vans Warped Tour on the horizon, more enthralled Paramore fans will most certainly follow.
Says Josh, "We love making music together. We have the best time on stage, we feel so alive when we're playing. We're excited to have the world hear our songs and we hope they like what they hear. We can't wait to get out there more and have people see what this band is all about."
Enrique Iglesias
At the dawn of the new millennium, Enrique Iglesias was the best-selling Latin recording artist in the world. The son of multi-million-selling singer Julio Iglesias, Enrique was born in Madrid, Spain, where he lived with his mother, his brother Julio, and his sister Chabeli. In 1982, his mother sent them to live in Miami with their father. While there, Enrique was exposed to three different cultures and musical influences: Hispanic, European, and American. Iglesias' own career started when he was still attending Gulliver Private School, a very prestigious school in Miami. He made his singing debut in a production of +Hello, Dolly, after which he began practicing his singing without his parents knowing. After a year studying business at the University of Miami, he decided to follow his passion for music. In 1995, he sang in person for his soon-to-be manager, who at Iglesias' insistence of not wanting to use his family name, first shopped his demos as an unknown Central American singer named Enrique Martinez. It wasn't until he earned a record deal with Fonovisa that Enrique told his father and mother of his aspirations. Then he flew to Toronto, where no one knew him and he could concentrate just on music, to record for five months. That first album, Enrique Iglesias (1995), sold more than a million copies in three months (it earned him his first gold record in Portugal in a mere seven days) and to date has sold more than six million worldwide. The second album, Vivir (1997), enjoyed global sales of more than five million discs and launched his first world tour, backed by sidemen for Elton John, Bruce Springsteen, and Billy Joel. In a mere three years, Iglesias had sold more than 17 million Spanish-language albums, more than anyone else during that period. (The U.S. was his biggest market.) He also won the 1996 Grammy for Best Latin Performer, 1996's Billboard Artist of the Year, Billboard's Album of the Year for Vivir, two American Music Awards, a World Music Award, eight Premio Lo Nuestro awards, two ACE Performer of the Year awards, and ASCAP prizes for Best Composer of 1996 and 1997, in addition to countless accolades around the world. With 1998's Cosas del Amor, Iglesias moved to more mature content; his earlier material had been written when he was 17 years old. Then came Enrique, his first Interscope album and first in English. It achieved gold or platinum status in 32 countries and brought his global album sales to a total of more than 23 million. In 2001 he released the follow-up, Escape. Iglesias alternated Spanish- and English-language albums during the next two years, first offering the ballad collection Quizás in 2002, then the mainstream English record 7 in 2003. Four years later the single "Do You Know (The Ping Pong Song)" announced the coming of his 2007 album Insomniac. Ed Nimmervoll, All Music Guide
