Biography of Paris Hilton
Paris Whitney Hilton
born: 17-02-1981
birth place: New York, USA
The daughter of Richard Hilton and the actress Kathy Richards, Paris Whitney is the oldest of four children. Together with her three siblings, Nicky, Barron Hilton II and Conrad Hilton III, she is heir to the considerable Hilton fortune which has been built on a successful real estate and hotel business.
Acting is in Paris’s blood. Not only is her mother an actress, she is also the niece of two popular child stars of the 1970s, Kim Richards and Kyle Richards, who featured in the movie, Escape to Witch Mountain and TV shows as Little House On The Prairie and ER. Paris is also related to the famous Hungarian actress Zsa Zsa Gabor, who was married to Paris’s great grandfather, Conrad Hilton. She is also distantly related to the famous movie star Elizabeth Taylor, who was briefly married to Paris Hilton’s great uncle, Conrad Nicholson Hilton Jr.
Paris was born with the proverbial “silver spoon in her mouth”, and spent her childhood moving between five-star luxury homes. These included a suite at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Manhattan, New York, as well as mansions in exclusive Beverly Hills and the Hamptons. At present, she lives in a $10 million house in the Hollywood Hills which she shares with her sister. Paris attended her freshman year of high school at the Marywood-Palm Valley School in California, before continuing her studies at the Dwight School in New York.
Paris Hilton is no stranger to the limelight, and has been in the public eye since childhood. She began modeling as a child, initially at charitable functions. In 2000, she signed up with Donald Trump’s modeling agency, T Management. She also worked with other top agencies, including Ford Models Management in New York, and Model 1 Agency in London. She has fronted leading advertising campaigns such as Christian Dior and Tommy Hilfiger, and was soon christened “New York’s leading IT girl”.
Not content with her modeling career, Paris was anxious to make her debut in show business, with television likely to offer the best platform for her talents. In 2003, she teamed up with her long-time friend Nicole Richie to star in the 2003 Fox TV hit reality series, The Simple Life. For the purposes of the programme, the two girls tried their hand at a variety of blue-collar jobs, and started out by living with a family on their farm in rural Arkansas. The series showed the girls hanging out with the local boys, working at their manual jobs, and performing all sorts of menial everyday tasks, which were clearly at odds with their luxurious upbringing and lifestyle! The Simple Life was such a big hit that it was promptly followed by three more series, respectively subtitled: Road Trip, Interns and ‘Til Death Us Do Part.
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Biography of Shakira
Shakira
born: 02-02-1977
birth place: Barranquilla, Colombia
Born to parents of Colombian and Lebanese decent, Shakira Mebarak discovered her love of music at an early age. Penning her first song aged 8, she thrived on a healthy mix of both world music and bands as diverse as Led Zeppelin, the Beatles and Nirvana. One of her first songs was called ‘Tus Gafas Oscuras’ (Your Dark Glasses), about her father’s grief at the loss of his son in a car accident.
A regular on the local Colombian talent show circuit, Shakira got her lucky break after moving to Bogotá, initially with hopes of pursuing a career in modelling. Thanks to local theatre producer Monica Ariza, the talented young star-to-be was thrust under the nose of Sony Colombia executive, Ciro Vargas. Following a successful live showcase, Shakira was signed to the label and went on to release her fist album, ‘Magia’ in 1991. The album failed to grab attention on the international market, but did wonders for Shakira’s profile in her home country. A second album, ‘Peligro’, in 1993 left Shakira dissatisfied with the music industry and she returned home to take a role in the Colombian soap opera, ‘El Oasis’.
Shakira’s first English album, ‘Laundry Service’, released in 2001 was to be the catalyst that would launch the young star onto the international stage. Thanks to the collaborating talents of Gloria Estefan, the album went on to sell in excess of 13 million copies and spawned the monster hits ‘Whenever, Wherever’ and ‘Underneath Your Clothes’. The combination of strong Latin rhythms and Shakira’s unique voice made her instantly recognisable.
In 2002, Shakira set off on a world tour entitled ‘Tour of the Mongoose’. This unusually named show was based on the little known fact that a mongoose can defeat a cobra. Huge visuals to demonstrate this were even beamed onto screens to dazzle, and probably terrify, audiences.
Following this exhausting tour, Shakira took a break from recording leaving her record company to satisfy hungry fans with a remix collection ‘Laundry Service: Washed and Dried’ in 2002 and a live album, ‘Live & Off the Record’ in 2004.
Having amassed a healthy collection of both English and Spanish songs, Shakira released both ‘Fijacion Oral, Vol. 1’ and ‘Oral Fixation, Vol. 2’ in 2005. Both albums performed well thanks to a string of awards, including the 2005 MTV ‘Best Female, and the phenomenally successful second single ‘Hips Don't Lie’ featuring Wyclef Jean. In 2006, the duo was invited to perform the song to millions of football fans at the 2006 World Cup.
2006 proved to be a hugely successful year for the young talent after she received 6 Latin Billboard Awards, making her the biggest winner of the night. She was also honoured at a United Nations ceremony thanks to her Pies Descalzos Foundation, a charity that helps to protect children from violence in Colombia.
On the personal front, Shakira began dating the son of the then president of Argentina, Antonio de la Rúa in 2000. The couple have since become engaged and Shakira has said that she plans on having two children.
As her career continues to soar, it appears that Shakira has taken up where Britney and Co. have left off in terms of worldwide teen appeal.
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Biography of Britney Jean Spears
Britney Jean Spears
born: 02-12-1981
birth place: Kentwood, Louisiana
For her relatively short nine years in the public spotlight, Britney Spears has managed to generate more controversy than your average celebrity manages in a lifetime.
From the outset, her sexually provocative image, aided by the slickest hit-making machine, has guaranteed non-stop headlines and constant media scrutiny.
It is all a long way from young Britney’s first televised performance on StarSearch in 1990. This led to the eight year-old Spears auditioning for Disney’s The Mickey Mouse Club. Initially she was deemed by producers as being “too young” but, undeterred, she finally made the cut, aged eleven and appeared singing, dancing, even rapping her way through 110 appearances, alongside fellow Mouseketeers Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguilera.
The show’s cancellation in 1994 left Britney’s future uncertain. Demo tapes led to an audition for Jive Records in which she performed 'Jesus Loves Me' and 'I Have Nothing' by Whitney Houston, to amazed record executives, who signed her instantly.
Appearing as the opening support for *NSYNC’s 1998 tour paled into insignificance with the release, in December 1998, of her first solo single, '…Baby One More Time', which achieved 9 million sales worldwide. Dressed in a provocative Catholic-schoolgirl outfit in the memorable video, the debate over sexual exploitation raged, spurring record sales.
A hugely successful first album was succeeded by the hit-laden 'Oops I did It Again', a skilful retread of the formula. However, Britney’s private life was beginning to capture as many headlines as her music career. Dating teen heartthrob Justin Timberlake, they made the perfect pop couple, until the relationship died three years later.
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Biography of Michael Jackson
born: 29-08-1958
birth place: Gary, Indiana
In the mid 1960s, Michael, along with his brothers Jackie, Tito, Jermaine and Marlon, were formed into ‘The Jackson 5’ by their father. The group began singing in local clubs and bars and were signed to Motown Records in 1969. The family moved to California and the first four singles released by the group, 'ABC', 'I Want You Back', 'The Love You Save' and 'I’ll Be There' all reached number 1 in the charts. Jackson and some of his siblings would later claim that their father was a strict disciplinarian in this period, and have alleged varying degrees of physical and mental abuse.
In 1976, the group left Motown and renamed themselves ‘The Jacksons’. Despite a flexible line-up, including brother Randy and younger sister Janet, and the growing solo career of Michael, the Jacksons released another six albums and toured all over the world until 1984.
In 1978, Michael appeared as the Scarecrow in the film version of the musical ‘The Wiz’, a soul adaptation of the Wizard of Oz story. Whilst the film was not a huge success, and the teenage Jackson complained bitterly about the effect of the heavy make-up on his adolescent acne, it was here that he met the film’s music producer – Quincy Jones.
Jones produced the first three solo albums for Michael. The first, 'Off the Wall' was a departure from the more traditional Motown sound of the Jacksons and, whilst it was a hit, both critically and commercially, it was not enough to separate the young singer from the family group entirely. The next album, 'Thriller', would change all that and more.
'Thriller' has become the best-selling album of all time, shifting well over 50 million copies to date. The videos that accompanied the singles released from the album set new standards for complexity, length, expense, spectacle and cinematic intent, that continued to be a feature of Michael's career. The first video, 'Billie Jean', became the first video by a black artist to be played on the young MTV network.
The 'Thriller' video was ambitious from the start. Hiring an established cinema director and using state-of-the-art make-up and special effects, the homage to horror films is widely acknowleged as one of the most influential of all time. The album went on the win Jackson seven Grammys in 1984, with the artist winning another for narrating 'The E.T. storybook'. The eight awards was a record only later matched by Carlos Santana
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