World of faces

Famous people all over the world

Category Archive: Music and dance

Rudolph Valentino – romantic idol

Rudolph Valentino – romantic idol

Rudolph Valentino – romantic idol

Rudolph Valentino was a famous Italian-American actor, one of the most popular stars of the 1920s. He became one of the great romantic idols of Hollywood’s silent movie era.
His full name is Rodolfo Alfonso Raffaelo Pierre Filibert di Valentina d’Antonguolla Guglielmi. Valentino was born on May 6, 1895, in Castellaneta, Italy. His father served as a cavalry officer in the Royal Italian Army, and worked as a veterinarian and mason.
Valentino received a diploma from the Royal Academy of Agriculture.
When he was 17 years old he left Italy for Paris. After the death of the father Valentino moved to New York. Valentino worked as a landscape gardener, a dishwasher and waiter in a restaurant, a taxi driver.
Later he began working as a nightclub dancer and tango partner at a number of dance halls and cabarets.
In 1914 Valentino was cast in his first film. His screen debut was in My Official Wife.
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Dido – Dido Armstrong

Dido - Dido Armstrong

Dido – Dido Armstrong

Dido is a British pop singer.
Dido Armstrong was born in London on December 25, 1971. She was christened Florian Cloud De Bounevialle Armstrong. Her mother Claire is a poet literary agent, and her father William Armstrong is a publisher. The girl was nicknamed Dido after African warrior queen. As a child Dido enjoyed reading and playing tennis. At the age of six she was accepted into prestigious Guildhall School of Music in London. 10-year-old girl could play the piano, violin and recorder. She liked football and even was going to be the first girl in Arsenal.
In her teenage years Dido toured the UK with a classical ensemble. She also worked as a waitress at a cafe.
At the age of 16 she fell in love with the music of a jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald and began singing with several bands in and around London. It was her brother Rollo who helped her start the music career. In 1995 Rollo formed a band and Dido appeared on the debut album. The band was Faithless, and they sold five million records.
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Alexander Rybak – bright singer

Alexander Rybak – bright singer

Alexander Rybak – bright singer

Alexander Rybak is a Norwegian singer, composer, violinist, pianist, writer, and actor. In the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow he represented Norway and took the first prize. For the contest he wrote and composed the song Fairytale. The song was performed together with the modern folk dance company Frikar.
Alexander Igorovich Rybak was born on May 13, 1986 in Minsk, Soviet Union. When he was 9 years old, he and his family moved to Norway. At the age of five, Rybak began to play the piano. His parents are musicians – Natallia Valiantsinauna Rybak, a classical pianist, and Ihar Aliaksandravich Rybak, a well-known classical violinist.
At the age of 10 he entered the Barratt Due Institute of Music in Oslo.
In 2004, Rybak was awarded the Anders Jahre Culture Prize.
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Janis Joplin – great blues singer

Janis Joplin - great blues singer

Janis Joplin – great blues singer

Janis Joplin was a great blues singer of the 1960s. She was rock & roll’s first female superstar, first goddess of rock. Her career was brief and magnificent. She often is associated with Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison, a trio of dynamic performers who all died within a year of each other between September 1970 and July 1971.
Janis Lyn Joplin was born on January 19, 1943 in Port Arthur, Texas. Her father, Seth Joplin, worked at Texaco refinery. Her mother, Dorothy Joplin, was a teacher. Her parents felt an interest in literature and arts. Janis had a brother, Michael, and a sister, Laura. Janis had a happy childhood.
As a teenager, she felt like an ugly duckling because she didn’t fit any standard of beauty. Janis was crazy about jazz and blues. She was also fond of painting. Her favorite singers were Bessie Smith, Leadbelly and Odetta. Their influence was so strong that she decided to learn music.
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Evanescence – American rock band

Evanescence - American rock band

Evanescence – American rock band

Evanescence is an American rock band. It was founded by Amy Lee and Ben Moody in 1996. They met at a summer camp when she was 13 and he was 14. At first they didn’t even notice each other, but one evening Ben caught Amy playing the piano and singing. Soon they became friends and started to write songs together.
They chose a name for their group – Evanescence. It means “to disappear like vapour”.
They drew inspiration from goth, electronica and movie soundtracks. As a result a new style was created. Amy Lee called it Dark epic rock.
Their first single Bring me to life was included in the soundtrack for the blockbuster movie Daredevil and became a global hit. In 2002, Evanescence signed a contract with the popular label Wind-up Records. The band has achieved great popularity in early 2003 with the release of the album Fallen. At the Grammy Award of 2004, they won two Grammy Awards for Best New Artist and Best Hard Rock Performance. In 2004, they released their first live album Evanescence Anywhere but Home. In 2006, the second studio album, The Open Door was released.
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Victoria Louise Lott – Pixie Lott

Victoria Louise Lott - Pixie Lott

Victoria Louise Lott – Pixie Lott

Pixie Lott (her real name is Victoria Louise Lott) is a British singer-songwriter, dancer and actress.
She was born on January 12, 1991 in Bromley, south-east London. When Victoria was 13 years old her family moved to Brentwood, Essex.
When the little girl was born, her mother called her Victoria. But very soon she nicknamed her Pixie. ‘My mum nicknamed me Pixie as I was like a little fairy. My sister and brother who were one and two years old always called me Pixie and thought that was my name!”
At a very early age Victoria got interested in music. Her parents always had music playing loud around the house. At the age of 14 the girl began writing and recording demos.
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John Lennon – great English musician

John Lennon – great English musician

John Lennon – great English musician

John Lennon had unique talent, success, love and, above all, universal approval. He was one of the most iconic people on the planet in the 1960s and 1970s. John Winston Lennon (October 9, 1940, Liverpool – December 8, 1980, New York) was an English musician, poet, and songwriter. Lennon was a founder of The Beatles, the most important and influential group in the history of rock ‘n’ roll music.
There is a very special place in New York’s Central Park called Strawberry Fields – after the title of the Beatles song ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’.
When John Lennon was alive, it was his favourite place in Central Park. It’s close to the Dakota building where he had lived with his wife Yoko Ono and where he was murdered by a crazy fan, Mark Chapman on the 8th of December, 1980.
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