Lissie - Bad Romance

 Elisabeth Corrin Maurus (born November 21, 1982), known as Lissie, is an American singer-songwriter. She released her debut EP, "Why You Runnin'", in November 2009. Her debut album, Catching a Tiger, was released in June 2010. Her second studio album, Back to Forever, was released in October 2013. Her first record as an independent artist, and third studio album, My Wild West, was released February 12, 2016 and went on to receive critical acclaim. Her fourth studio album Castles, was released worldwide on March 23, 2018. Her fifth studio album, Carving Canyons, was released September 16, 2022.

Lissie was born Elisabeth Corrin Maurus, the youngest of four children  and raised in Rock Island, Illinois. Her father is a physician and her mother, who is of Swedish ancestry, is an interior designer. She was interested in singing and music from an early age. She played the title role of the musical Annie at the age of nine. "In high school it seems like everyone has more drama than any other time in their life. So that was the time in my life where I really leaned on music as a way to stay sane," she said in an interview.

In her senior year of high school, she was expelled over what she described as "something stupid that I did, but it was sort of like the culmination of just a lot of negative things that had happened". She got her diploma at an alternative outreach center. She spent two years at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, during which time she would open for musicians who visited the city. She collaborated with DJ Harry of SCI Fidelity Records on the song "All My Life", which was featured on television shows House, The O.C., Veronica Mars and Wildfire. After spending a semester in Paris, she finished her studies to pursue a career in music. In 2007, she produced a four-song EP that received some airplay on KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic.

In early 2008, Lenny Kravitz invited her to be the opening act for his Love Revolution Tour, after a friend tipped him about her MySpace page. Later that year, "The Longest Road", a song she co-wrote with DJ Morgan Page reached No. 4 on Billboard's Hot Dance Club Songs chart. "We met under that idea that he was going to remix a song of mine ... But we decided to work on a new song together", she told the Quad-City Times. The Deadmau5 remix of the track was nominated for a Grammy in the "Best Remixed Recording, Non-Classical" category.

Her EP, Why You Runnin', produced by Bill Reynolds of Band of Horses, was released in November 2009 on Fat Possum. One of the songs, "Oh Mississippi" was co-written with Ed Harcourt, whom she met through a mutual friend. The EP was listed amongst Paste magazine's "Eight Most Auspicious Musical Debuts of 2009". In early 2010, she toured various venues in the United Kingdom supporting Ohio-born singer-songwriter Joshua Radin.

Lissie signed with Sony Music UK's Columbia Records. Her debut album, Catching a Tiger, was released on 21 June 2010. The album was recorded in Nashville in 2009 and produced by Jacquire King. The first single from the album, "In Sleep", was selected as Track of The Day by Q on 13 March 2010. A second single, "When I'm Alone," was released alongside the album; it would later be chosen by iTunes UK as their song of the year 2010.

In August 2010, her single "Cuckoo" was voted overwhelmingly to be the Record of the Week by listeners of expat radio station Heart FM Spain (www.heartfmspain.com), as a result of listener feedback, Lissie and the album "Catching A Tiger" was featured throughout the week of August 23 to 27. The single was also added to the "A" level playlist on BBC Radio 2 giving it around twenty plays a week on the UK's most popular station.^[21] The Cuckoo EP includes Lissie's live version of "Bad Romance" by Lady Gaga, which became popular online before being included on the release.

Lissie is featured on at least 4 tracks on Snow Patrol's album Fallen Empires, released in November 2011.

Her cover of Fleetwood Mac's 'Go Your Own Way' found prominence in early 2012, when it was used in a Twinings advert and in the film Safe Haven. The song was also used as a theme for the BBC Radio 4 reading of Iain Banks's Stonemouth, read by David Tennant. The song was also featured in the closing moments of the first-season finale for "Good Behavior" in 2017.

On 4 November 2015, she announced the released date for her new album, My Wild West, as 12 February 2016.

She performed her song 'Wild West' in Part 14 of the third season of Twin Peaks.

Culture Club - Starman

Culture Club es una banda británica de new romantic que fue muy popular a principios de los años 1980, liderada por Boy George (vocalista), quien se destacaba por su estética "glam" y sexualmente ambigua; Roy Hay (guitarra), Mike Craig (bajo) y Jon Moss (batería). El sonido de la banda se caracteriza por combinar new wave, pop y soul, con otros estilos como el reggae, calypso, salsa o country.

El grupo triunfó en los años 1980 con temas al mismo tiempo sensuales, alegres y creativos, siendo considerados un fenómeno de la música pop. En sus inicios, Boy George creó revuelo en sus apariciones por televisión, por sus maquillajes coloridos, ropa femenina y trenzas con las que se presentaba, mostrando un aspecto inequívocamente travestido. La banda destacó junto a otros grupos de new romantic como Duran Duran o Spandau Ballet.

Tras unos inicios un tanto frustrantes, con un sencillo publicado por Virgin Records con un éxito nulo, Culture Club publica, en septiembre de 1982, el sencillo Do You Really Want to Hurt Me, una seductora canción con ritmo reggae y que le valió para obtener cierto renombre y abrirse camino en el mundo de la música. Culture Club fue uno de los principales exponentes del estilo new romantic, mezcla de new wave y soul, que además combinó con reggae. El extravagante vocalista iba acompañado por Roy Hay (guitarra), Mike Craig (bajo) y Jon Moss (batería), quien previamente había tocado con The Damned.

En 1982 aparece el primer álbum de la banda titulado Kissing to Be Clever, con el cual consiguieron un tremendo éxito que fue repetido un año después con el álbum Colour by Numbers y el sencillo extraído Karma Chameleon, que obtenía el primer puesto en las listas británicas y estadounidenses.

En 1984, el grupo publica su tercer álbum, bajo el título de Waking Up with the House on Fire, el cual ingresó en las listas musicales de Estados Unidos en la posición número 2, del cual se extrajo el sencillo de gran éxito The War Song.

En 1985 aparecen noticias graves para el grupo, ya que el alma de la banda, Boy George, confiesa su adicción a las drogas y, principalmente, a la heroína. Este hecho hace que el trabajo en general de la banda resulte bastante irregular y su calidad descienda enormemente; no obstante lo anterior, el grupo publica el álbum From Luxury To Heartache, con el que intentan redimirse ante sus fans, algo que logran a medias. El disco permanece varias semanas en las listas, pero la sintonía de la banda con su público ya no es la misma.

Pocos días después de la publicación del álbum, el teclista Michael Rudetski, que co-escribió y tocó en la canción Sexuality del álbum From Luxury to Heartache, aparece muerto por sobredosis de heroína en la casa de George. Fue el golpe definitivo para la banda, del que no se supo sobreponer y terminó desapareciendo.

A partir de ese momento, Boy George continuó en solitario con una exitosa carrera como solista en un principio. No obstante, su adicción a los estupefacientes continuaba en aumento, llegando a ser detenido en alguna ocasión por posesión de drogas. En 2007 cumplió servicio comunitario por este motivo en Nueva York.

En 1998 la banda vuelve a reunirse para grabar el tema I Just Wanna Be Loved, que fue incluido en el disco doble para el canal de televisión VH1 Story Tellers/Greatest Moments; la misma canción fue incluida en el disco del grupo de 1999 Don´t mind if I do que contiene 15 temas.

En 2005 se editó el DVD recopilatorio Greatest Hits.

Además su canción Do You Really Want to Hurt Me fue incluida en la banda sonora de la película The day after tomorrow.

En 2010 Boy George declaró en una entrevista con la BBC que la banda podría volver a juntarse por su 30º aniversario para dar un espectáculo en vivo.​ En entrevistas concedidas poco antes de los conciertos brindados en Sídney y Dubái en 2011, el grupo confirmó que se habían propuesto grabar nuevo material. Sin embargo, posteriormente hubo rumores de que el proyecto fue dejado de lado por razones desconocidas.​ Boy George, sin embargo, mencionó en una entrevista con Danny Baker emitida por la BBC Radio 5 Live, el 31 de marzo de 2012, que el material tan esperado sería lanzado en 2013, aunque no mencionó una fecha para la futura gira.

Está postergado la edición del nuevo material en estudio titulado Tribes, el cual está producido por Martin Glover también conocido como Youth,​ quien ha trabajado con Paul McCartney, The Verve y Embrace y se supone saldrá bajo su propia discográfica Different Man Music por intermedio de Kobalt Label Services.³​⁴​

En 2018, la banda publica un nuevo álbum de estudio titulado "Life" luego de varios años de ausencia, pero el nombre de la banda cambia a "Boy George and Culture Club".

The Hyannis Sound - I'm So Excited

 The Hyannis Sound is a professional a cappella singing group, composed of 10 young men from around the United States who convene each summer on Cape Cod, Massachusetts in the greater New England area.

Every summer, members of the Hyannis Sound live in a house together on Cape Cod, and perform at various venues across the Cape. The group performs at various self-produced weekly shows, parties, restaurants, backyard gatherings, cobblestone streets, and stadiums. Hyannis Sound's repertoire changes each summer, but always consists of a variety of popular songs derived from many eras and genres. Over the past 28 years, Hyannis Sound has received critical acclai from the Recorded A Cappella Review Board, been awarded by the Contemporary A Cappella Society numerous times, and established themselves as a staple of Cape Cod's music and social community.

In 2020 during the global COVID-19 pandemic, Hyannis Sound went viral on the popular video-sharing app TikTok and quickly became one of the most followed vocal groups on the app. They have since partnered with brands like Nerds and were featured in Glamour magazine's You Sang My Song series featuring Alicia Keys after their cover of "Fallin'" achieved over 12 million views on TikTok.

Hyannis Sound was founded in 1994 by Townsend Belisle. Encouraged by the success of the Vineyard Sound, which he founded and produced, Townsend decided to put together a similar group on Cape Cod. The group rented a house in Hyannis to live together. Starting small, the group made a name for itself by singing wherever they could. After years of performances, the group began to establish itself as a notable entertainment group on the Cape.

Since its inception, the group has enjoyed more and more public notice, and now holds four weekly concerts within an area extending from Falmouth to Chatham. The group is also established as a non-profit corporation in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

In 2020, the global COVID-19 pandemic threatened the continuity of the group. As a vocal performance group, it seemed almost impossible that the group could reprise the structure of their past summers. However, the nine members of Hyannis Sound 2020 managed to successfully travel to Cape Cod, quarantine together in their home and launch a virtual concert series. Throughout the summer, their following rose exponentially, becoming one of the most followed a cappella groups, achieving almost 700,000 followers across Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.

To date, the Sound has recorded fifteen albums. Their first, Live, All-Natural A Cappella was a recording of their final 1994 concert. This was followed by Talk About It in 1996, On the Beach in 1999, 110 in 2001, Aged Ten Years and Cape Standard Time in 2003, Route 6 in 2005, Shirt, Tie, Khaki in 2007, On the Clock in 2009, High Tide in 2011, Over the Bridge in 2013, H2O in 2015, and Boys of Summer in 2017. Always / Sometimes (2019) caps off the collection, containing songs performed by the group in the summers of 2017 and 2018. In 2003, the group also began a practice of releasing an annual Bootleg, a live CD every year (recorded mid-summer from one show and released at their final show of the summer).

Hyannis Sound has performed the National Anthem at Fenway Park as well as various Cape Cod League games, and have been featured in publications including The Boston Globe, Glamour, Cape Cod Magazine, Cape Cod Times, and Martha Stewart Weddings.

On August 1, 2020, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, political strife, and rising racial tensions across the U.S, Hyannis Sound released a recording and video of "O-o-h Child" by the Five Stairsteps featuring over 60 alumni, including members from the group's founding iteration.

Mary-Chapin Carpenter - The Bug

Mary Chapin Carpenter (born February 21, 1958) is an American rock, folk, and country music singer-songwriter. Carpenter spent several years singing in Washington, D.C. clubs before signing in the late 1980s with Columbia Records, who marketed her as a country singer. Carpenter's first album, 1987's Hometown Girl, did not produce any charting singles, although 1989's State of the Heart and 1990's Shooting Straight in the Dark each produced four Top 20 hits on the Billboard country singles charts.

Carpenter's most successful album to date remains 1992's Come On Come On, which yielded seven charting country singles and was certified quadruple platinum in the US for sales exceeding four million copies. She followed it with Stones in the Road (1994) and A Place in the World (1996), which both featured hit singles. In the 2000s, Carpenter's albums departed both thematically and musically from her early work, becoming less radio-friendly and more focused on societal and political issues. In 2007, she released The Calling. She followed that with The Age of Miracles (2010), Ashes and Roses (2012), the orchestral album, Songs from the Movie (2014), The Things That We Are Made Of (2016), and Sometimes Just the Sky (2018). Carpenter's latest album, titled The Dirt and the Stars, was released in 2020.

Carpenter has won five Grammy Awards and is the only artist to have won four consecutive Grammy Awards for Best Female Country Vocal Performance, which she received from 1992 to 1995. She has sold more than 12 million records worldwide. On October 7, 2012, Carpenter was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Carpenter has performed on television shows such as Late Night with David Letterman and Austin City Limits and on radio shows such as The Diane Rehm Show. She also tours frequently, returning to Washington almost every summer to perform at Wolf Trap.

Marc Jordan - Walk On The Wild Side

 Marc Wallace Jordan (born March 6, 1948) is an American-born Canadian singer-songwriter, record producer, session musician, and actor. Covering a wide variety of genres, he has written songs for a number of well-known artists, including Diana Ross, Rod Stewart, Cher, Bette Midler, Chicago, and Josh Groban. He was named best producer with Steven MacKinnon at the Juno Awards in 1994 for "Waiting for a Miracle" from Reckless Valentine. In early 2014, Jordan was named Chair of Slaight Family Music Lab at Norman Jewison's Canadian Film Centre.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Canadian singer Charles Jordan, Marc Jordan grew up in a musical household in Toronto after his father returned to Canada. He studied film at Brock University but soon turned to music, coming to public attention as a guitarist for Bobby Vee.

With the Canadian division of CBS Records, Jordan released some singles in 1974, which included "It's a Fine Line", "New York Kids", "Original Sin"). They were not very successful themselves, but they impressed American music producer Gary Katz, and in 1977 Jordan reached a U.S. deal with Warner Bros. Records.^[1] This period with Warner spawned the Canadian hit songs "Marina del Rey" and "Survival" from the record Mannequin; a second record produced by Jay Graydon called Blue Desert was released in 1979, and is regarded as a classic of the West Coast Sound of the period.

In the 1980s, Jordan was signed to RCA for two records. Paul De Villiers produced the first, Talking Through Pictures, and Kim Bullard the second, called C.O.W.. In 1988, Jordan sang and co-wrote the theme song to the hit Australian movie Boulevard of Broken Dreams which was nominated for an AFI Award for Best Film. In 1989, he and Jay Gruska received a Genie Award nomination for Best Original Song for "Shadow Dance", a song they wrote for the film Shadow Dancing.^[2]

In 1994, Jordan won a Juno Award for "Producer of the Year" (along with co-producer Steven MacKinnon) for "Waiting for a Miracle" from his Reckless Valentine album.

After independently releasing the critically acclaimed recordings Reckless Valentine and Cool Jam Black Earth, he was signed to Blue Note/EMI Canada in 1999, and followed up with two more jazz-oriented CDs, This Is How Men Cry and Make Believe Ballroom.

In 2014 the Canadian Film Centre appointed Jordan as the Musical Director of its Slaight Family Music Lab.^[3]

During the summer of 2016, Jordan was performing with singers Murray McLauchlan, Cindy Church and Ian Thomas in the group Lunch At Allen's, in a number of towns and small cities in Ontario, Canada.^[4] He is married to fellow singer-songwriter Amy Sky. They live in Toronto and have a cottage in Muskoka with their two children, Ezra and Zoe. Jordan and Sky are both national UNICEF Goodwill Ambassadors for Canada.

Jordan made his acting debut in Michael McGowan's 2010 sports musical Score: A Hockey Musical, where he plays Edgar Gordon, a pacifist father who along with his wife (Olivia Newton-John) have a 17-year-old son who has a talent for hockey.

First released in Canada by Blue Note/EMI on October 25, 1999, This is How Men Cry contains six tracks written by Jordan: "This Is How Men Cry," "Charlie Parker Loves Me" (covered by Rod Stewart on his album Human, released February 6, 2001), "Slow Bombing the World," "I Must Have Left My Heart," "Let's Get Lost," and "London in the Rain". There are an additional three covers: Willie Nelson's '"Crazy," Elvis Costello's "Almost Blue," and Mann Curtis's "Let it be Me." The lead track, "This is How Men Cry," is a poem about how men communicate, or more often how they don't.