Stevie Wonder

EARLY LIFE 

He was born Steveland Judkins in Saginaw, Michigan, on May 13, 1950. His mother later remarried and he was given the surname Morris.

Wonder rehearsing for a performance on Dutch TV in 1967

Steveland was born six weeks premature and was blinded soon after birth when too much oxygen was pumped into his incubator,

He enrolled at and attended the Michigan School for the Blind in Lansing in 1964, where he studied classical piano.

CAREER 

Stevie Wonder mastered piano, bass, drums and harmonica before hitting his teenage years.

In 1961 Wonder sang his own composition, "Lonely Boy" for Smokey Robinson of The Miracles. This earned him a contract with Motown.

At age 13, he became the youngest person to top Billboard's Hot 100, with "Fingertips (Part 2)" in 1963, recorded live in concert. The lyrics were stuff Stevie Wonder came up with to engage the crowd.  Part 1 of the song and the studio version are both instrumental.

In 1969, Motown gave Wonder complete control of his recordings. He was one of the first artists to write, produce, arrange, and perform his own songs.

He is the only artist to win the Grammy for album of the year for three consecutive LPs — 1973's Innervisions, 1974's, Fulfillingness' First Finale and 1976's Songs in the Key of Life.

Stevie Wonder’s 1977 hit "Sir Duke" was written in Duke Ellington's honor.

His 1981 song "Happy Birthday" helped establish Dr. Martin Luther King's birthday as a national holiday.

Hits he's written for other artists include "Tears of a Clown" for Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, "It's a Shame" for the Spinners, "Until You Come Back To Me (That's What I'm Gonna Do)" by Aretha Franklin, "Tell Me Something Good" for Rufus and "Let's Get Serious" for Jermaine Jackson.

Wonder won an Oscar for Best Song for "I Just Called to Say I Love You" from The Woman in Red soundtrack in 1985. The tune landed at the top of both the pop and R&B charts.

Throughout his career, Wonder has recorded for only one record label: Tamla, one of the Motown imprints.

Wonder in 2006. By Antonio Cruz/ABr - Agência Brasil., 

Wonder has performed at funerals for several friends including Michael Jackson in 2009 and Whitney Houston in 2012.

While on tour, Wonder goes through two to three harmonicas a week.

PERSONAL LIFE

Stevie Wonder has been married three times. His first wife was the soul and R&B singer Syreeta Wright who he wed on September 14, 1970; their marriage lasted 18 months.

Syreeta Wright 1973. Wikipedia

Wonder married Kai Millard Morris on September 1, 2001 but they divorced eleven years later.

Wonder tied the knot for the third time on the July 15-16, 2017 weekend, this time with his longtime girlfriend Tomeeka Bracy. Wonder's nine children from five different relationships served as their father and new stepmother's groomsmen and bridesmaids.

On 1976's Songs in the Key of Life, Wonder wrote "Isn't She Lovely" to celebrate the birth of their daughter Aisha on February 2, 1975. The splashing and protests are really her, recorded during a memorable moment between Stevie and his daughter. Now Aisha Morris is a backup singer, accompanying her father on tour.

In 1973 Stevie Wonder was the passenger in a vehicle taking him to a benefit concert in Durham, North Carolina. The car he was riding in was behind a logging truck, which stopped suddenly, The truck lost its load and a log struck Wonder in the forehead leaving him in a coma for 4 days, His friend, Ira Tucker, was the first to elicit a response from him when she sang "Higher Ground" in his ear.

Wonder was introduced to Transcendental Meditation through his marriage to Syreeta Wright.
Wonder became vegetarian, and later a vegan; he now travels with his own chef.

Sources Artistfacts, Newsok

Bruce Willis

EARLY LIFE 

He was born Walter Bruce Willis on March 19, 1955, in the town of Idar-Oberstein, West Germany.

Willis at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival

Bruce's father, David Willis, was an American soldier. His mother, Marlene, was German.

After being discharged from the military in 1957, Bruce's father took his family back to Carneys Point Township, New Jersey. His mom worked in a bank and his dad was a welder, master mechanic, and factory worker.

He had severe stuttering problems as a child. Bruce discovered the stutter disappeared while performing in a school play through the memorization of lines. While studying acting in college it was the combination of acting and speech therapy which helped him overcome his condition.

CAREER 

After graduating from high school in 1973, Willis was briefly employed as a security guard and a private investigator.

He studied drama for a couple of years at Montclair State University before dropping out and moving to New York City, where he worked as a bartender at the art bar Kamikaze on West 19th Street.

His first movie role was an extra in 1980's The First Deadly Sin. In the scene below, Willis is the second person to enter the diner. The tall one with the hat.

Willis' breakthrough came in 1985 when he auditioned for the role of David Addison Jr. the co-lead in the television comedy drama series Moonlighting. Competing against 3,000 other actors, he won the part.

Willis is also a musician; he released his debut album, The Return of Bruno on Motown, in 1987.

The record included a cover version of The Staples Singers' "Respect Yourself", which was a #5 hit in the US. Willis was the first white male solo act to hit the Top 5 with a record on the Motown label, and only the second white male solo act - after R. Dean Taylor's "Indiana Wants Me" - to be so successful for the Motown Corporation.

Willis became one of Hollywood's biggest stars as a result of his role as Lt. John McClane in the Die Hard franchise (1988–2013). When Die Hard was first made, Willis was mostly known for TV. and his $5 million fee for the first film was seen as a huge risk. The movie ended up taking at least $140 million.

He was offered the role as Sam Wheat for Ghost (1990) but turned it down because he didn't think the film would work with the main character being dead most of the movie.

The Honda Civic that Butch (Bruce Willis) drove in Pulp Fiction was the same Honda Civic that Pam Grier later drove in Jackie Brown.

He was forced to sign a three picture deal with Disney after pulling out of The Broadway Brawler, a romantic comedy about a hockey player. The three movies Willis made were Armageddon, The Sixth Sense, and The Kid. The movies combined to gross an estimated $1.3 billion worldwide.

Bruce Willis was the first actor to ever "act" in a video game, when in 1998, he participated in the PlayStation game Apocalypse, No one before had ever done voice work along with having their movements digitally added to the game.

He only agreed to guest star on Friends after losing a bet with his The Whole Nine Yards co-star Mathew Perry. Willis played the father of Ross Geller's much-younger girlfriend on a three episode arc and won an Emmy in 2000 for his performance. He donated his acting fee to five charities.

Willis made his Broadway debut in the stage adaptation of Misery in 2015.

Willis' daughter Rumer announced on March 30, 2022 that he was retiring from acting after being diagnosed with aphasia.

PERSONAL LIFE 

He proposed to actress Demi Moore at Pink's Hot Dog Stand in Hollywood. They married on November 21, 1987.

Willis and Moore announced their separation on June 24, 1998 and they filed for divorce 28 months later.

Demi Moore in 2010. By David Shankbone

Willis married model Emma Heming in Turks and Caicos on March 21, 2009. The ceremony was not legally binding, so the couple wed again in a civil ceremony in Beverly Hills, six days later.

He has five daughters, three by his first marriage - Rumer, Tallulah and Scout, plus two  by his second marriage - Mabel and Evelyn.

He is a co-founder of the theme restaurant chain Planet Hollywood, along with fellow actors Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone.

While filming Die Hard, Willis got too close to a firing gun, which caused two-thirds partial hearing loss in his left ear.

Bruce Willis once bought 12,000 girl-scout cookies for military service members in the Middle East.

In 2003, Willis visited Iraq as part of the USO tour, singing to the troops with his group, The Accelerators.

Willis in Tikrit, Iraq, during his 2003 USO tour

He personally offered $1 million to any civilian who captured Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

The 42nd Golden Raspberry Awards, recognizing the “worst” in film for 2021, introduced a one-time category titled “Worst Performance by Bruce Willis in a 2021 Movie.” In an unusual move, all eight of Willis’s film performances released that year were simultaneously nominated, effectively creating a category devoted entirely to a single actor. The “award” ultimately went to his role in the science fiction film Cosmic Sin.

Within days of the winners being announced, Willis’s family made public that he had been diagnosed with aphasia, a language disorder that affects communication, and that he would be retiring from acting. In light of this revelation, the organizers of the Golden Raspberry Awards rescinded the Bruce Willis category and its associated “worst performance” dishonor, stating that it was inappropriate to satirize an actor’s work when a medical condition might have impaired his performances.

On March 30,  2022 Bruce Willis’ family announced that he would step away from acting after being diagnosed with aphasia. Just under a year later, his family said his “condition has progressed” to frontotemporal dementia.

Violinist

In 1555 the Italian musician Balthasar de Beaujoyeulx moved to Paris, where he became a servant at the court of Catherine de' Medici. At the time the violin was played in Italy but not in France. He became the first famous violinist when he introduced the instrument to the French court. Such was its popularity, the violin supplanted the lute as the stringed instrument of choice.

Roller-skates made their first recorded appearance at Carlisle House, London in 1760. Belgian inventor Joseph Merlin rolled into a party being held there while playing the violin wearing these first roller skates. It was not a successful introduction as the violinist crashed into a large mirror causing nearly a thousand dollars' worth of damage.

Mozart was a very fine violinist, though he often took the viola part when playing quartets. He composed five violin concertos for his own use.

Niccolo Paganini (October 27, 1782 – May 27, 1840), regarded by many people to be the greatest violin virtuoso ever, was so good that he was thought to be the son of the Devil or to have sold his soul for his talent. As a result, he was forced to publish his mother's letters to him in order to prove that he had human parents.

Portrait of young Paganini

Paganini was the fastest violinist ever. He was once recorded playing 12 notes per second.

When Franz Liszt attended a concert by Paganini in Paris, he was so awestruck by the violin virtuoso's skill, he became motivated to become the greatest pianist of his time.

In 1929 Otto E. Funk walked from New York City to San Francisco playing the violin for the whole journey.

An accomplished violinist, Albert Einstein played Bach and Mozart with feeling and insight and with an excellent sense of rhythm.

Einstein playing violin

Jack Benny (1894-1974) was a US comedian whose act featured him playing the violin badly for laughs. He'd learned the instrument as a child and when Benny performed his first serious concert, a critic wrote: "Last night Jack Benny played Mendelssohn, and Mendelssohn lost."

Larry Fine of the Three Stooges burned his arm with acid as a child. His parents gave him violin lessons to strengthen the damaged nerves. Fine became so proficient on the violin that his parents planned to send him to a European music conservatory but the plan was thwarted by World War I.

Yehudi Menuhin (1916-1999) was an American-born violinist, who adopted British nationality. He made his concerto debut in Berlin aged 13. Albert Einstein, who was in the audience, said with tears in his eyes: "The day of miracles is not over."

Leading concert violinist Joshua Bell, played for free, for 45 minutes, on a violin worth 3.5 million dollars at a subway station on January 12, 2007. Of the 1,097 people who passed by Bell, only seven stopped to listen him play, including a 3-year old boy, and only one person recognized him. The experiment was initiated by The Washington Post columnist Gene Weingarten.

Bell donned a baseball cap and played as an incognito busker at the Metro subway station L'Enfant Plaza in Washington, D.C. on January 12, 2007. T

The Guinness World Record for the fastest violinist is currently held by Ben Lee, who took 58. 515 seconds to perform Rimsky-Korsakov’s "Flight of the Bumblebee" at Norwood productions London, UK, on December 13, 2011.  Ben Lee, one half of electric string duo Fuse, has held the Guinness world record for fastest violinist several times.

The longest marathon playing the violin is 40 hours, 5 minutes, and 6 seconds, achieved by Ravi Chandulal Kotadiya from India. He performed this remarkable feat at the Swaminarayan Mandir in Vadtaldham, Gujarat, India, from May 2 to May 4, 2024, during which he played 1,513 songs.

U2

U2 was founded by 14-year-old drummer Larry Mullen Jr at Mount Temple Comprehensive School in Dublin, Ireland. He posted a note on his school's notice board, asking for musicians to start a group on September 25, 1976. There were seven boys who went to their first practice.

At first, the band was called "The Larry Mullen Band", but they later changed their name to "Feedback" after the awful noise they made in early rehearsals.

Feedback played their first gig for a paying audience at St. Fintan's High School in April 1977.

After becoming "The Hype" for a short period of time, the band finally changed their name to "U2" because of its ambiguity and open-ended interpretations.

The final line-up was lead singer Bono (born Paul Hewson), lead guitarist The Edge (born David Evans), bassist Adam Clayton, and drummer Larry Mullen Jr.

U2 in Glasgow 2015 (from left to right): the Edge, Bono, Mullen, Clayton. By U2start

The Edge's older brother, Dik Evans, was an early member of the group when they were still known as Feedback. He went on to form The Virgin Prunes.

David Evans' nickname of "The Edge" came about because of his chin.

The name Bono refers to a type of hearing aid and in Latin means "good voice".

Bono's mother, Iris Hewson, died when the singer was 14 after suffering a brain aneurysm at her own father's funeral. The U2 songs "I Will Follow", "Tomorrow" and "Iris (Hold Me Close)" all reference her passing.

Bono is almost never seen in public without sunglasses, as he suffers from glaucoma and is sensitive to light.

Bono is known for for his activism for social justice causes. For this, he was named Time Person of the Year in 2005.

Bono is the only person to be nominated for an Oscar, a Grammy, a Golden Globe, and the Nobel Peace Prize.

Bonoat Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. By Daniel Hazard 

Bono, The Edge and Mullen were involved in a Charismatic Christian group in Dublin called the "Shalom Fellowship" for a time in the early 1980s. They have retained their Christian faith and U2's lyrics are often embellished with Christian and spiritual imagery.

Adam Clayton has more ambiguous religious views, and has never shared his bandmates' Christian faith.

Before founding U2, Mullen was involved in a Dublin marching band called the Artane Boys Band (now known as the Artane Band), contributing to the martial beats common in the drummer's work, such as "Sunday Bloody Sunday".

The lyrics of U2's song "New Year's Day" refer to the movement for solidarity lead by Lech Walesa in Poland. After it was recorded, Poland announced they would abolish martial law, coincidentally, on New Year's Day, 1983.

U2 performing at the US Festival in May 1983. By James LaMantia

U2 released The Joshua Tree which features the singles "Where The Streets Have No Name", and "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" on March 9, 1987. The album became the fastest selling in UK history and the first to sell over a million CDs,

The line "One life, with each other, sisters, brothers" from U2's "One" was voted the UK's favourite song lyric in a 2006 poll by music channel VH1.

The U2 360° Tour staged in support of the group's 2009 album No Line on the Horizon generated $736 million via 7.2m global ticket sales between 2009 and 2011. This broke the record for the highest-grossing concert tour of all time.

They have won 22 Grammy Awards, more than any other band.

U2 have clocked up 19 #1 singles in their native Ireland, six more than any other act.

Larry Mullen Jr has dyscalculia, a learning difficulty that affects the ability to understand numbers and perform arithmetic. In an interview with Times Radio, Mullen Jr. explained how this condition sheds light on his struggles with counting along to music, often leading to the “pained” expression fans might notice during performances. “I’ve always known there’s something not quite right with the way I deal with numbers,” he admitted. “I’m numerically challenged. I recently discovered I have dyscalculia, which is a sub-version of dyslexia. So I can’t count, I can’t add.”

He likened counting bars in music to an almost insurmountable task. “I am pained because I’m trying to count the bars,” he said. “It’s like climbing Everest. I had to find ways of managing it.”

Source Artistfacts

Taylor Swift

EARLY LIFE 

Taylor Alison Swift was born on December 13, 1989 to Scott, a financial adviser, and Andrea, a former mutual fund marketing executive. 

She was named after musician James Taylor. Swift's mother believed that a gender-neutral name would help forge a business career.

Swift performing on The Red Tour in March 2013. By Jana Zills

She grew up on a Christmas tree farm. Taylor told Rolling Stone her job was "picking the praying mantis pods off of the trees so the bugs wouldn't hatch inside people's houses."

Taylor Swift's maternal grandmother, Marjorie Finlay, was a professional opera singer, and inspired Taylor to become a singer.

Taylor Swift first picked up a guitar, aged ten, when a computer repair man and local musician Ronnie Cremer showed her how to play three chords.

When Taylor was 12, she devoted an entire summer to writing a 350-page novel, which remains unpublished.

Taylor began writing songs regularly and used it as an outlet to help her with her pain from not fitting in at school. She was a victim of bullying, and spent her time writing songs to express her emotions. One of the first tunes Taylor wrote was "The Outside."

Taylor's family relocated to Nashville, Tennessee when she was 14 so that she could pursue a career in country music. She attended Hendersonville High School, but after two years transferred to the Aaron Academy, a Christian high school, which also offers a home schooling program and graduated a year early in July 2008.

MUSIC CAREER

After performing at Nashville's songwriters' venue, The Bluebird Café, Taylor caught the attention of Scott Borchetta, who signed her to his newly formed record label, Big Machine Records. She released her debut single, "Tim McGraw," on June 19, 2006. The song reached number 40 on the Hot 100.

Covet art Big Machine Records. Wikipedia

On September 1, 2006, Taylor Swift made her debut on the Grand Ole Opry. Wearing a white sundress and sporting her natural curls, the 16-year-old sang "Tim McGraw" on the Opry stage.

Taylor released her self-titled debut album in 2007 at the age of 17. The record topped the country chart for 24 non-consecutive weeks. 

As a result of its success Swift became the first female solo artist to write or co-write every song on a platinum-selling debut album. 

When "Our Song" reached #1 on the country chart week ending December 22, 2007, Swift who had just turned 18, became the youngest performer ever to write and sing a chart-topping country single. 

Taylor wrote the song "The Best Day" an ode to her mom as a surprise Christmas present for her. She had to drop the song from her setlist as Andrea would burst into tears backstage every time she heard it.

Swift performing at Yahoo! headquarters in Sunnyvale, California in 2007. By Brian Cantoni.

Her first number-one song on the US Billboard Hot 100 was "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together", the lead single from Swift's fourth album Red.

In 2014, Taylor Swift accidentally released 8 seconds of white noise on iTunes for $1.29. It immediately reached #1 in Canada before being removed.

The music video for "Look What You Made Me Do" was viewed 43.2 million times in its first 24 hours on Vevo following its debut during the 2017 MTV Video Music Awards. In doing so it overtook the previous record holder, Adele's "Hello," which racked up 27 million views in its first day on the platform. The clip similarly usurped Psy's 24-hour YouTube record set by the Korean star's "Gentleman," which had 36 million views in a single day back in 2013.

Taylor Swift is the first artist in history to release six albums that sold more than one million copies in their opening week in the United States.

Swift made her primetime television acting debut on CBS's CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, March 5, 2009 episode "Turn, Turn, Turn" as Haley Jones. She made her movie acting debut in the romantic comedy Valentine's Day, where she played Felicia. 

Among the phrases she has trademarked are "this sick beat," "party like it's 1989," and "Nice to meet you. Where you been?"

In a poll that was carried out across the US between February 8 and February 12, 2024, nearly one-fifth of Americans said they believed that Taylor Swift is part of a covert operation for the Pentagon. It followed  Fox News broadcast segment that claimed the pop star was secretly working with the government. The Pentagon denied rumours that Taylor Swift was a political “asset”, and a spokesperson said that, when it came to the theory, they were “going to shake it off.” 

Swift entered the Forbes World's Billionaires List for the first time in April 2024. 

Released in October 2025, Taylor Swift's The Life of a Showgirl set the new record for traditional album sales (physical and digital copies) in one week with 3.479 million copies, surpassing Adele's 25 (3.378 million).

PERSONAL LIFE 

Because she was born on December 13, 1989, Taylor has a Christmas-themed birthday party every year.

Swift at the 2010 Time 100 Gala, where she was honored. By David Shankbone

Taylor's best friend is Abigail Anderson, with whom she's been friends since their freshman year in high school. She sings about their friendship on the song "Fifteen."

Swift has two cats of the Scottish Fold breed, called Meredith and Olivia. Meredith is named after Ellen Pompeo's character on Grey's Anatomy and Olivia after Mariska Hargitay's Lieutenant, now sergeant, in Law and Order: Special Victims Unit. Meredith can be seen when she was a kitten in a wallpaper picture on Swift's work computer during the video for "Ours" and Olivia featured in a Diet Coke ad, which was soundtracked by Swift's song "How You Get The Girl." Swift also has a Ragdoll cat, Benjamin Button, named after the character from the movie of the same name.

A triskaidekaphobic is somebody who fears the number 13, but Taylor Swift is the opposite; she loves the numeral, so much so that she paints a '13' on her hand before every show she does. It also influences such matters as how many times she sings certain phrases.

Swift was born on December 13 and she turned 13 on Friday 13th. She moved to Nashville when she was 13 and her first album went gold in 13 weeks. In 2009 she commented that every time she'd won an award she was sat in the 13th row, seat, section, or in "Row M, which is the 13th letter "Basically," she's been known to reflect, "whenever a 13 comes up in my life, it's a good thing."

Source NME, Some of this entry was originally written by myself for Artistfacts

Barbra Streisand

EARLY LIFE

She was born Barbara Joan Streisand to Jewish parents on April 24, 1942 in Brooklyn, New York. 

Barbara changed her name to Barbra when she was 18-years-old as she wanted to be unique, but didn't want to change her name completely.

1966 promotional photo of Barbra Streisand

Her mother Diana (born Ida Rosen) had been a soprano singer as a teenager and considered a career in music, but later became a school secretary.

Her father was a high school teacher, who died of a cerebral hemorrhage when Barbra was just fifteen months old.

Diana Streisand worked as a low-paid bookkeeper while bringing up Barbara and her older brother. They struggled financially until Barbra's mom remarried in 1949.

Barbra attended Bais Yakov School in Brooklyn, New York as a child.

While a student at Brooklyn's Erasmus Hall High School, Barbra had an unrequited crush on a schoolmate who also would achieve international renown - chess genius Bobby Fischer.

At Erasmus Hall High School. she sang in the school choir alongside Neil Diamond. The pair teamed up again in 1978 for the smash hit "You Don't Bring Me Flowers".

CAREER

Barbra Streisand made her Broadway debut aged 19 on March 22, 1962 in the musical I Can Get It For You Wholesale. Streisand played the role of Miss Marmelstein in the production, which ran for 300 performances at the Sam S. Shubert Theatre in New York City. Her performance in the musical was widely praised, and she won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical for her work.

Barbra Streisand, c. 1962.

In 1970 Barbra Streisand became the first person ever to receive a Grammy, an Emmy, an Academy Award, and a Tony. She won her first Grammy in 1963, her first Emmy in 1965, her first Oscar in 1968, and her one Tony, an honorary "Star of the Decade" Tony Award, in 1970.

Streisand is still the only artist ever to receive an Oscar, Tony, Emmy and Grammy plus record a number one single and album.

With the release of Yentl in 1983, Streisand became the first woman to write, produce, direct, and star in a major studio movie.

On New Year's Eve 1993, Barbra Streisand embarked on her first ever full tour. The tour consisted of 26 shows and ended in Anaheim, California in July 1994. Although she had sung concerts this was her first tour after a 28 year bout of stage fright.

Barbra: The Concert was broadcast on HBO August 21, 1994 and received a television audience of 11.2 million viewers, becoming the highest-rated musical event in HBO’s history.

When in 1999 the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) announced the biggest-selling artists of the century in the United States, it was revealed that Barbra Streisand was the best-selling female solo act of the 20th century.

When Barbra Streisand's 2014 long player Partners topped the Billboard 200, she created US chart history by becoming the first artist to score number one albums in every decade from the 1960s to the 2010s. 

PERSONAL LIFE 

Streisand has been married twice. Her first husband was actor Elliott Gould, to whom she was married from 1963 until 1971. They had one child, Jason Gould, who appeared as her on-screen son in The Prince of Tides.

Streisand with husband Elliott Gould and son Jason (1967)

Her second husband is actor James Brolin, whom she married on July 1, 1998

Both of Streisand's husbands, Elliott Gould and James Brolin, starred in Capricorn One (1977).

A photograph of Barbra Streisand's Malibu, California home was taken in 2003 by aerial photographer Kenneth Adelman for the California Coastal Records Project. 

Streisand's attempts to suppress the photograph led to the unintended consequence of publicizing it much more widely; before the singing star filed her lawsuit, the image had been downloaded only six times, whereas in the month after the lawsuit afterwards more than 420,000 people visited the site. The term "Streisand effect" evolved from the controversy and has been used to describe subsequent cases of the phenomenon.

The image of Streisand's Malibu house By Copyright (C) 2002 Kenneth & Gabrielle Adelman

Barbra Streisand had her dead dog Sammie cloned twice and both pets now have different personalities than the original.

Leaked documents from a U.S. tour revealed that Streisand demanded 120 luxury towels and a sprinkling of rose petals in the toilet bowl at every show.

She founded the Streisand Foundation in 1986 to support social and political causes.

Bruce Springsteen

Bruce Springsteen was born at Monmouth Medical Center in Long Branch, New Jersey on September 23, 1949.

Bruce Springsteen performing at Roskilde Festival 2012. Photo credit: Bill Ebbesen.

His father, Douglas Frederick Springsteen, worked as a bus driver, among other vocations, although he was mostly unemployed. His mother, Adele Ann (née Zirilli), a legal secretary, was the main bread winner.

His younger sister Pamela was once an actress but left the profession to become a photographer. She took photos for the Human Touch and Lucky Town albums.

Bruce spent his childhood and high school years in Freehold Borough, New Jersey.

His mother took out a loan to buy him a $60 guitar at 16.

Springsteen was called up to serve in Vietnam, but failed his physical examination having suffered a concussion in a motorcycle accident when he was 17. This together with his "crazy" behavior at induction and not writing anything in tests resulted in him being disqualified from serving in uniform.

Bruce Springsteen's first car was, a 1957 Chevy Bel-Air. "In '70s New Jersey, the car was still a powerful image," Springsteen wrote in his book Songs. "That summer I bought my first set of wheels for $2,000. It was a '57 Chevy with dual, four-barrel carbs, a Hurst on the floor and orange flames spread across the hood."

In his Born to Run autobiography, Springsteen wrote about the strict discipline he received at a Catholic school and how it disenchanted him from his faith for many years. He explained that it wasn't until years later when he "came to ruefully and bemusedly understand that once you're a Catholic you're always a Catholic."
"I don't participate in my religion but I know somewhere - deep inside - I'm still on the team," he added.

Springsteen also stated in Born To Run that he has "a personal relationship with Jesus. I believe in his power to save, love... but not to damn".

Bruce Springsteen has never had a job besides making and playing music.

Springsteen has done most of his records with the E Street Band, which was formed in October 1972. The band took the name from a street in Belmar, New Jersey where the mother of a founding member lived.

Before fame, Bruce Springsteen acquired his nickname "The Boss" because he took on the task of collecting the band's nightly pay from their club gigs and distributing it amongst his bandmates. Springsteen is not fond of this nickname, due to his dislike of bosses, but has tacitly accepted it.

Springsteen and the E Street Band, 1977

Bruce Springsteen released his debut album Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. on January 5, 1973. Recorded in a single week the LP only sold about 25,000 copies in the first year of its release. 

Springsteen hated his 1975 album Born to Run. "I thought it was the worst piece of garbage I'd ever heard," he told one interviewer. The Boss was so unhappy when he first heard the record that he threw it into a hotel swimming pool.

Springsteen appeared on the covers of both Time and Newsweek on October 27, 1975, becoming the first entertainer to do so.

When Bruce Springsteen went to a Ramones show, he met Joey Ramone, who asked him to write a song for them. Springsteen wrote "Hungry Heart" for the group that night but decided to keep it on the advice of his producer and manager, Jon Landau. Released as a single on October 21, 1980, it became Bruce Springsteen's first Top 10 hit as a performer.

Bruce Springsteen released the album Born In The USA on June 4, 1984. The album produced a record-tying string of seven Top 10 singles in the USA and was the best-selling LP of 1985. It proved to be the best-selling record of Springsteen's career.

Cover art for Born in the U.S.A Wikipedia

Bruce Springsteen's "Born In The U.S.A." isn't a song about American pride, but a shameful look at how America treated its Vietnam War vets.

Chrysler once offered Bruce Springsteen $12 million to use "Born in the U.S.A." in an advertising campaign. Springsteen turned them down and has still never let his music be used to sell products.

Bruce Springsteen won an Oscar in 1994 for the song "Streets of Philadelphia" from the Tom Hanks movie Philadelphia.

Bruce Springsteen signed 9-year-old Xabi Glovsky's late note after he came to a 2016 concert at the Los Angeles Sports Arena. Xabi had held up a sign saying he's be late to school tomorrow. The note read, “Dear Ms. Jackson, Xabi has been out very late rocking & rolling. Please excuse him if he is tardy.”

On November 22, 2016, Springsteen was presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom award by Barack Obama. The award is the highest honor for a civilian to receive.

Springsteen receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom 

Springsteen has sold more than 140 million records worldwide, but has never had a #1 single in the U.S. or Britain.

Despite his discomfort with the trappings of wealth, Springsteen has amassed a substantial fortune —which Forbes conservatively estimated in July 2024 to be worth $1.1 billion

Sources Artistfacts, Forbes

Will Smith

Willard Smith was born on September 25, 1968 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Caroline (Bright), a school board administrator, and Willard Carroll Smith, Sr. a refrigeration engineer.

Will Smith at the 2016 San Diego Comic-Con International. By Gage Skidmore

Prior to his role as Will Smith in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Will Smith enjoyed a successful career as a rapper under the pseudonym, "The Fresh Prince" as part of a duo with his friend Jeffrey "DJ Jazzy Jeff" Townes. Together, the duo had several platinum-selling albums and singles in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

The pair met in 1985 when Townes, who was performing at a party a few doors down from Smith's home, needed a hype man, as his normal guy hadn't shown up. Smith, who was only 17 years old at this point, happily filled in. Their first single was "Girls Ain't Nothing Back Trouble."

Smith was admitted to a pre-engineering summer program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology but did not attend college as DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince were starting to gain fame.

During a speech made by Will Smith, at the MTV Music Awards, he stated that he didn’t need to swear to sell his records. He explained he doesn't curse is his raps because when he was 12, his grandma found his profanity-laced notebook and got mad with him inspiring him to be a "clean" rapper.

He became an actor when he starred on the television show The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air as Will Smith, a teenager from Philadelphia sent to live with his rich relatives in Southern California.

Will Smith was about to declare bankruptcy until he was picked to star in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. He had to pay the IRS 70% of his salary over the first three seasons. 

Jazzy Jeff played the popular recurring character Jazz in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, whose trademark was to be physically kicked out of the house.

Will Smith would memorize the entire script then mumble other peoples' lines while they were being said during Season 1 of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

He has appeared in many movies including Independence Day, Men in Black, Wild Wild West, Ali, The Pursuit of Happyness, I Am Legend, and Suicide Squad.

His 1997 track "Men in Black" from the film of the sane name led the UK singles chart in the summer of 1997.

Will Smith turned down the role of Neo in The Matrix. Instead, he took the lead role in Wild Wild West.

In 1999 Smith topped the US singles chart with "Wild Wild West," the theme song of the film off the same name. Despite its pop success, the song was criticized for both sampling Stevie Wonder's song "I Wish" and for its incongruity with the western it serves as the theme song. The track won the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst "Original" Song of 1999.

Smith became the first Hip-Hop artist to be nominated for an Academy Award when got chosen for playing the title role in the movie Ali.

Will Smith is the only actor to have eight consecutive films gross over $100 million in the domestic box office and eleven consecutive films gross over $150 million internationally.

Smith at the Emmy Awards in 1993. By photo by Alan Light,

Will Smith trained so hard for I, Robot that he could bench 385 lb – or about 175kg.

He met wife actress Jada Pinkett when she auditioned for the role of his girlfriend on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. (The role went to Nia Long.)

They married in 1997. Will Smith proposed to Jada while they were laying in bed. He rolled over and said "Wassup? You wanna marry me?"

They have had two children Jaden and Willow. At the age of 11, Jaden Smith starred in The Karate Kid taking the role made famous by Ralph Macchio in the original classic 1984 movie.

2009, in Oslo: Smith with wife Jada and children Jaden and Willow. By Harrywad

Willow Smith made her acting debut at the age of 6, starring alongside her father in 2007's I Am Legend. Her film credits also include voice-over work for the animated feature Madagascar 2.

Willow had a worldwide hit aged nine with "Whip My Hair."

In 2018, Jada Pinkett Smith was diagnosed with alopecia and later shaved her hair off due to the condition. During the 94th Academy Awards on March 27, 2022, Smith walked onstage and slapped presenter Chris Rock after the comedian joked about his wife Jada Pinkett Smith's shaved head with a reference to the movie G.I. Jane.

Will Smith can solve a Rubik's Cube puzzle in less than a minute. He also speaks fluent Spanish and is a keen fencer.

Will Smith took took part in the 2022 expedition in the Ecuadorian Amazon which helped discover the northern green anaconda.

Singer

A singer is someone who produces musical sounds with their voice and augments regular speech by the use of sustained tonality, rhythm, and a variety of vocal techniques. Some people do it as a job (professional singer), others may sing without being paid (amateur singer).

Greek tragedy had its beginnings in choral performances, in which a group of men danced and sang lyric hymns in honor of the god Dionysus.

Mask of Dionysus stored at the Louvre.

The chorus originally consisted of fifty members, but some later playwrights changed the size. Aeschylus likely lowered the number to twelve, and Sophocles raised it again to fifteen.

Saint Celila is the patroness of musicians. A 2nd century Christian Roman maiden of patrician birth, she was compelled to marry a young pagan, Valerian, despite a vow of celibacy. It is written that while the profane music was played at Saint Cecilia's wedding she was "singing in her heart a hymn of love for Jesus, her true spouse" hence her association with music-making.

Umayyad Caliph Yazid bin Abd al-Malik or Yazid II died in Damascus on January 26, 724. He is said to have pined away from grief following the death of his favorite singing girl and passed away the following week.

When he was working for the Duke of Milan, one of Leonardo Da Vinci's responsibilities was playing the lute and  singing to him.

The first professional female singers in Europe for several centuries appeared in England in 1631 for a production of Chloridia, a court masque produced by Ben Jonson and Inigo Jones.

Scottish singer and comedian Sir Harry Lauder (August 4, 1870 – February 26, 1950) was the highest-paid performer in the world in the 1910.  He rose from being a coal miner singing in occasional town concerts to commanding over £12,000 per night. He was the first British artist to sell a million records. Among his most popular songs were "Roamin' in the Gloamin", "The End of the Road" and, a particularly big hit for him, "I Love a Lassie".

Before the advent of the microphone, popular singers like Al Jolson had to be able to "belt" out a song so that the person in the very last row could hear. as did opera singers, which made for a very loud vocal style.

Al Jolson

The invention of the electric microphone enabled a soft, intimate vocal tone to be amplified and projected into a large hall, thus making possible the art of crooners such as Bing Crosby and torch singers such as Morgana King.

The crooners were a new breed of entertainer who could now softly "croon" into the microphone. It was the aural equivalent of a movie close-up. Al Bowlly, Gene Austin and Art Gillham are often credited as inventors of the crooning style, but Rudy Vallée became far more popular, beginning in 1928.

Rudy Vallée on The Fleischmann's Yeast Hour in 1933. 

Ethel Waters became the first African-American singer to perform on television on June 14, 1939 when she appeared in an NBC variety show. Waters was also the first African-American woman to be given equal billing with white stars in Broadway shows, and to play leading roles in Hollywood films.

Waters circa 1945.

When Singer-Songwriter Woody Guthrie recorded The Dust Bowl Ballads in 1940, he became the first in the American singer-songwriter tradition. Guthrie had become a welcome figure in the hobo and migrant camps of the Great Depression of the 1930s. He was close to the struggles of the common people, and became a musical spokesman for working people in his songs.

Tony Bennett first started singing as "Joe Bari" but Bob Hope told him it was a "phony name" so he changed it to Tony Bennett.

Elvis Presley received a 'C' in his 8th grade music class. His teacher told him he "had no aptitude for singing."

At the age of 10, Jackie Evancho became the youngest singer in history to go platinum with her O Holy Night album in 2010.

A record for the longest sustained vocal note was set by American singer Richard Fink IV in Las Vegas on November 17, 2019. The note was sustained for 2 minutes 1.07 seconds above the required decibel threshold breaking the previous record of 1 minute 52 seconds set by Turkish singer Alpaslan Durmuş in 2016.

Asha Bhosle is an Indian singer best known as a playback singer in Hindi cinema. In 2011, she was officially acknowledged by the Guinness Book of World Records as the most recorded artist in music history.