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|---|---|
| Native name | Београд |
| Other name | Beograd |
| Settlement type | City |
| Image shield | Coat of Arms Belgrade.png |
| Map caption | Location within Serbia |
| Coordinates region | RS |
| Subdivision type | Country |
| Subdivision name | |
| Subdivision type1 | District |
| Subdivision name1 | City of Belgrade |
| Subdivision type2 | Municipalities |
| Subdivision name2 | 17 |
| Leader title | Mayor |
| Leader name | Dragan Đilas (DS) |
| Leader title1 | Ruling parties |
| Leader name1 | DS/G17+/SPS-PUPS/LDP |
| Established title | Establishment: |
| Established date | 279 BC (Singidunum) |
| Area footnotes | |
| Area total km2 | 359.96 |
| Area metro km2 | 3222.68 |
| Population as of | 2009 |
| Population total | 1,213,000 |
| Population density km2 | 3283 |
| Population metro | 1,670,000|population_density_metro_km2 506 |
| Population blank1 title | Demonym |
| Timezone | CET |
| Utc offset | +1 |
| Timezone dst | CEST |
| Utc offset dst | +2 |
| Elevation footnotes | |
| Elevation m | 117 |
| Postal code type | Postal code |
| Postal code | 11000 |
| Area code | (+381) 11 |
| Website | www.beograd.rs |
| Blank name | Car plates |
| Blank info | BG }} |
Belgrade (, ) is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. The city proper has a population of 1.21 million people, while the official metropolitan area has about 1,67 million people. Its name in English translates to ''White city''.
One of the largest prehistoric cultures of Europe, the Vinča culture, prospered here in the 6th millennium BC. In antiquity, the area was held by Thraco-Dacians, and after 279 BC the Celts conquered the city, naming it ''Singidūn''. It was conquered during the reign of Augustus, and awarded city rights in the mid 2nd century. It was settled by the Slavs in the 520s, and changed hands several times before it become the capital of King Stephen Dragutin (1282–1316). In 1521 Belgrade was conquered by the Ottomans and became the seat of a Sanjak. It frequently passed from Ottoman to Habsburg rule, which saw the destruction of most of the city during the Austro-Turkish wars. Belgrade was again named the capital of Serbia in 1841. Northern Belgrade remained an Austrian outpost until the breakup of Austria-Hungary in 1918. As a strategic location, the city was battled over in 115 wars and razed to the ground 44 times. Belgrade was the capital of Yugoslavia from 1918 to 1989.
Belgrade has a special administrative status within Serbia. Its metropolitan territory is divided into 17 municipalities, each with its own local council. It covers 3.6% of Serbia's territory, and 15% of the country's population lives in the city.
Belgrade lies above sea level and is located at confluence of the Danube and Sava rivers, at coordinates 44°49'14" North, 20°27'44" East. The historical core of Belgrade, Kalemegdan, is on the right bank of the rivers. Since the 19th century, the city has been expanding to the south and east, after World War II, New Belgrade was built on the Sava's left bank, merging Belgrade with Zemun. Smaller, chiefly residential communities across the Danube, like Krnjača and Ovča, also merged with the city. The city has an urban area of , while together with its metropolitan area it covers . Throughout history, Belgrade has been a crossroads between the West and the Orient.
On the right bank of the Sava, central Belgrade has a hilly terrain, while the highest point of Belgrade proper is Torlak hill at . The mountains of Avala () and Kosmaj () lie south of the city. Across the Sava and Danube, the land is mostly flat, consisting of alluvial plains and loessial plateaus.
The Paleo-Balkan tribes of Thracians and Dacians were the masters of this area prior to Roman rule. Belgrade was inhabited by a Thraco-Dacian tribe ''Singi'', while after the Celtic invasion in 279 BC, the Scordisci took the city, naming it "Singidūn" (''dun'', fortress). In 34-33BC the Roman army under Silanus reached Belgrade. It became the romanized ''Singidunum'' in the 1st century AD. In the mid-2nd century, the city was proclaimed a municipium by the Roman authorities, evolving into a full fledged colonia (highest class Roman city) by the end of the century. Apart from the first Christian Emperor of Rome who was born on the territory in modern Serbia – Constantine I known as Constantine the Great ) – another early Roman Emperor was born in Singidunum: Flavius Iovianus (Jovian), the restorer of Christianity. Jovian reestablished Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire, ending the brief revival of traditional Roman religions under his predecessor Julian the Apostate. In 395 AD, the site passed to the Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire. Across the Sava from Singidunum was the Celtic city of Taurunum (Zemun), that through Roman and Byzantine times shared a common fate with its "twin brother" (the two cities were connected by a bridge).
In 442, the area was ravaged by Attila the Hun. In 471, it was taken by Theodoric the Great, who continued into Greece. As the Ostrogoths left for Italy, the Gepids took over the city. In 539 it was retaken by the Byzantines. In 577, some 100,000 Slavs poured into Thrace and Illyricum, pillaging cities and settling down. The Avars and Slavs under Bayan I had by 582 conquered the whole region. According to Byzantine chronicle ''De Administrando Imperio'', the White Serbs had during the rule of Heraclius (610-641) contacted the ''strategos'' of Belgrade, asking for lands; they received provinces in the west, towards the Adriatic, which they would rule as ''foederati''. When the Avars were finally destroyed in the 9th century by the Frankish Kingdom, it fell back to Byzantine rule, while Taurunum became part of the Frankish realm (renamed ''Malevilla''). At the same time (around 878), the first record of the name ''Beligrad'' appeared, during the rule of the First Bulgarian Empire. For about four centuries, the city remained a battleground between the Byzantine Empire, the Kingdom of Hungary and the First Bulgarian Empire. Basil II (976–1025) installed a garrison in Belgrade. The city hosted the armies of the First and the Second Crusade; while passing through during the Third Crusade, Frederick Barbarossa and his 190,000 crusaders saw Belgrade in ruins.
It became the capital of Stefan Dragutin, a rival-king who received it as a gift from his father-in-law, King Stephen V of Hungary. Under Dragutin from 1284, it became known as the Kingdom of Syrmia, and Dragutin is regarded as the first Serbian king to rule over Belgrade.
Following the Battle of Maritsa in 1371 and the Battle of Kosovo in 1389, the Serbian Empire began to crumble as the Ottoman Empire conquered its southern territory. The north resisted through the Serbian Despotate, which had Belgrade as its capital. The city flourished under Stefan Lazarević, son of Serbian prince Lazar Hrebeljanović. Lazarević built a castle with a citadel and towers, of which only the Despot's tower and west wall remain. He also refortified the city's ancient walls, allowing the Despotate to resist the Ottomans for almost 70 years. During this time, Belgrade was a haven for many Balkan peoples fleeing Ottoman rule, and is thought to have had a population of 40, 000 to 50,000 people.
In 1427, Stefan's successor Đurađ Branković had to return Belgrade to the Hungarians, and Smederevo became the new capital. During his reign, the Ottomans captured most of the Serbian Despotate, unsuccessfully besieging Belgrade first in 1440 and again in 1456. As it presented an obstacle to their further advance into Central Europe, over 100,000 Ottoman soldiers launched the 1456 Siege of Belgrade, in which the Christian army under Hungarian warlord John Hunyadi successfully defended the city from the Ottomans, wounding Sultan Mehmed II. This battle has been characterized as having "decided the fate of Christendom"; the ''noon bell'' ordered by Pope Callixtus III commemorates the victory throughout the Christian world to this day.
Occupied by the Habsburgs three times (1688–1690, 1717–1739, 1789–1791), headed by the Holy Roman Princes Maximilian of Bavaria and Eugene of Savoy, and field marshal Baron Ernst Gideon von Laudon respectively, Belgrade was quickly recaptured and substantially razed each time by the Ottomans. During this period, the city was affected by the two Great Serbian Migrations, in which hundreds of thousands of Serbs, led by their patriarchs, retreated together with the Austrians into the Habsburg Empire, settling in today's Vojvodina and Slavonia.
On 10 June 1868, Prince Mihailo was walking through the park of Košutnjak, near his country residence in the outskirts of Belgrade, with his wife Katarina and her mother, Princess Anka, when they were shot by assassins. Mihailo and Anka were both killed, and Katarina was wounded.
With the Principality's full independence in 1878, and its transformation into the Kingdom of Serbia in 1882, Belgrade once again became a key city in the Balkans, and developed rapidly. Nevertheless, conditions in Serbia as a whole remained those of an overwhelmingly agrarian country, even with the opening of a railway to Niš, Serbia's second city, and in 1900 the capital had only 70,000 inhabitants (at the time Serbia numbered 1,5 million). Yet by 1905 the population had grown to more than 80,000, and by the outbreak of World War I in 1914, it had surpassed the 100,000 citizens, not counting Zemun which then belonged to Austria-Hungary.
The first-ever projection of motion pictures in the Balkans and Central Europe was held in Belgrade, in June 1896 by Andre Carr, a representative of the Lumière brothers. He shot the first motion pictures of Belgrade in the next year; however, they have not been preserved.
Gavrilo Princip's assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914 triggered the start of World War I. Most of the subsequent Balkan offensives occurred near Belgrade. Austro-Hungarian monitors shelled Belgrade on July 29, 1914, and it was taken by the Austro-Hungarian Army under General Oskar Potiorek on November 30. On December 15, it was re-taken by Serbian troops under Marshal Radomir Putnik. After a prolonged battle which destroyed much of the city, between October 6 and October 9, 1915, Belgrade fell to German and Austro-Hungarian troops commanded by Field Marshal August von Mackensen on October 9, 1915. The city was liberated by Serbian and French troops on November 5, 1918, under the command of Marshal Louis Franchet d'Espérey of France and Crown Prince Alexander of Serbia. Decimated as the front-line city, for a while it was Subotica that was the largest city in the Kingdom; still, Belgrade grew rapidly, retrieving its position by the early 1920s.
After the war, Belgrade became the capital of the new ''Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes'', renamed the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1929. The Kingdom was split into banovinas, and Belgrade, together with Zemun and Pančevo, formed a separate administrative unit.
During this period, the city experienced faster growth and significant modernisation. Belgrade's population grew to 239,000 by 1931 (incorporating the town of Zemun, formerly in Austria-Hungary), and 320,000 by 1940. The population growth rate between 1921 and 1948 averaged 4.08% a year. In 1927, Belgrade's first airport opened, and in 1929, its first radio station began broadcasting. The Pančevo Bridge, which crosses the Danube, was opened in 1935.
On March 25, 1941, the government of regent Crown Prince Paul signed the Tripartite Pact, joining the Axis powers in an effort to stay out of the Second World War. This was immediately followed by mass protests in Belgrade and a military coup d'état led by Air Force commander General Dušan Simović, who proclaimed King Peter II to be of age to rule the realm. Consequently, the city was heavily bombed by the Luftwaffe on April 6, 1941, when up to 24,000 people were killed. Yugoslavia was then invaded by German, Italian, Hungarian, and Bulgarian forces, and suburbs as far east as Zemun, in the Belgrade metropolitan area, were incorporated into a Nazi state, the Independent State of Croatia. Belgrade became the seat of the Nedić regime, headed by General Milan Nedić.
During the summer and fall of 1941, in reprisal for guerrilla attacks, Germans carried out several massacres on Belgrade citizens; in particular, members of the Jewish community were subject to mass shootings at the order of General Franz Böhme, the German Military Governor of Serbia. Böhme rigorously enforced the rule that for every German killed, 100 Serbs or Jews would be shot. The resistance movement in Belgrade was led by Major Žarko Todorović from 1941 to his arrest in 1943.
Just like Rotterdam, which was devastated twice, by both German and Allied bombing, Belgrade was bombed once more during World War II, this time by the Allies on April 16, 1944, killing about 1,100 people. This bombing fell on the Orthodox Christian Easter. Most of the city remained under German occupation until October 20, 1944, when it was liberated by the Red Army and the Communist Yugoslav Partisans. On November 29, 1945, Marshal Josip Broz Tito proclaimed the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia in Belgrade (later to be renamed to Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia on April 7, 1963). The communist takeover resulted in an estimated 70,000 deaths across Serbia, up to 10% of which occurred in Belgrade. Higher estimates from the former secret police place the victim count of political persecutions in Belgrade at 10,000.
NATO bombing (during the Kosovo War in 1999) caused substantial damage to the city. Among the sites bombed were the buildings of several ministries, the RTS building, which killed 16 technicians, several hospitals, the Jugoslavija Hotel, the Central Committee building, the Avala TV Tower, and the Chinese embassy.
After the elections in 2000, Belgrade was the site of major street protests, with over half a million people on the streets. These demonstrations resulted in the ousting of president Milošević.
| Name | Notes |
| Singidūn(o)- | Named by the Celtic tribe of the Scordisci; ''dun |
| Romans conquered the city and Romanized the Celtic name of Singidūn (in turn derived from [[Paleo-Balkan languages of earlier rulers) | |
| Beograd, Београд | Slavic name first recorded in 878 as ''Beligrad'' in a letter of Pope John VIII to Boris of Bulgaria which translates to "White city/fortress". |
| Alba Graeca | "Alba" is Latin for "White" and "Graeca" is the possessive "Greek" |
| Alba Bulgarica | Latin name during the period of Bulgarian rule over the city |
| Griechisch-Weißenburg | |
| Castelbianco | |
| Nandoralba, Nándorfehérvár, Lándorfejérvár | In Kingdom of Hungary |
| Veligradh(i)on or Velegradha/Βελέγραδα | [[Byzantine Empire |
| Dar Al [[Jihad | Arabic name during Ottoman empire. |
| Prinz-Eugenstadt |
Belgrade is a separate territorial unit in Serbia, with its own autonomous city authority. The current mayor is Dragan Đilas of the Democratic Party. The first mayor to be democratically elected after World War II was Zoran Đinđić, in 1996.
The City Assembly of Belgrade has 110 councilors who are elected on four-year terms. The current majority parties are the same as in the Parliament of Serbia (Democratic Party-G17 Plus and Socialist Party of Serbia-Party of United Pensioners of Serbia with the support of Liberal Democratic Party), and in similar proportions, with the Serbian Radical Party and the Democratic Party of Serbia-New Serbia in opposition.
As the capital city, Belgrade also hosts the National Assembly of Serbia, the Government of Serbia and its agencies, and 64 foreign embassies.
Most of the municipalities are situated on the southern side of the Danube and Sava rivers, in the Šumadija region. Three municipalities (Zemun, Novi Beograd, and Surčin) are on the northern bank of the Sava, in the Syrmia region, and the municipality of Palilula, spanning the Danube, is in both the Šumadija and Banat regions.
| style="background: #efefef; border-bottom: 2px solid gray;" | Name | Area (km²) | Population (1991) | Population (2002) |
| Barajevo | 213 | style="text-align:right;">style="text-align:right;"| 24,641 | ||
| Čukarica | style="text-align:right;"156 || | 150,257 | 168,508 | |
| Grocka | style="text-align:right;"289 || | 65,735 | 75,466 | |
| Lazarevac | style="text-align:right;"384 || | 57,848 | 58,511 | |
| Mladenovac | style="text-align:right;"339 || | 54,517 | 52,490 | |
| Novi Beograd | style="text-align:right;"41 || | 218,633 | 217,773 | |
| Obrenovac | style="text-align:right;"411 || | 67,654 | 70,975 | |
| Palilula (Belgrade) | Palilula | style="text-align:right;"451 || | 150,208 | 155,902 |
| Rakovica, Belgrade | Rakovica | style="text-align:right;"31 || | 96,300 | 99,000 |
| Savski Venac | style="text-align:right;"14 || | 45,961 | 42,505 | |
| Sopot, Serbia | Sopot | style="text-align:right;"271 || | 19,977 | 20,390 |
| Stari Grad, Belgrade | Stari Grad | style="text-align:right;"5 || | 68,552 | 55,543 |
| Surčin | style="text-align:right;"285 || | 52,000 | 54,000 | |
| Voždovac | style="text-align:right;"148 || | 156,373 | 151,768 | |
| Vračar | style="text-align:right;"3 || | 67,438 | 58,386 | |
| Zemun | style="text-align:right;"154 || | 176,158 | 136,645 | |
| Zvezdara | style="text-align:right;"32 || | 135,694 | 132,621 | |
| TOTAL | style="text-align:right;"3227 || | 1,552,151 | 1,576,124 | |
According to the 2002 census, the main population groups according to nationality in Belgrade are: Serbs (1,417,187), Yugoslavs (22,161), Montenegrins (21,190), Roma (19,191), Croats (10,381), Macedonians (8,372), and Muslims by nationality (4,617).
As of August 2, 2008, the city's Institute for Informatics and Statistics has registered 1,542,773 eligible voters, which confirms that Belgrade's population has risen dramatically since the 2002 Census, as the number of the registered voters has almost surpassed the entire population of the city six years before. The official estimate for the end of 2007 (according to the City's Institute for Informatics and Statistics) was 1,630,000, while the number of registered citizens altogether tops at 1,710,000.
Belgrade is home to many ethnicities from all over the former Yugoslavia. Many people came to the city as economic migrants from smaller towns and the countryside, while hundreds of thousands arrived as refugees from Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo, as a result of the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s. Between 10,000 and 20,000 Chinese are estimated to live in Belgrade; they began immigrating in the mid-1990s. Block 70 in New Belgrade is known colloquially as the Chinese quarter. Many Middle Easterners, mainly from Syria, Iran, Jordan and Iraq, arrived in order to pursue their studies during the 1970s and 1980s, and have remained and started families in the city. Afghani and Iraqi Kurdish refugees are among some of the recent arrivals from the Middle East.
Although there are several historic religious communities in Belgrade, the religious makeup of the city is relatively homogenous. The Serbian Orthodox community is by far the largest, with 1,429,170 adherents. There are also 20,366 Muslims, 16,305 Roman Catholics, and 3,796 Protestants. There used to be a significant Jewish community, but following the Nazi occupation, and many Jews' subsequent emigration, their numbers have fallen to a mere 415.
Belgrade is the financial centre of Serbia, and is home to the country's National Bank. Many notable companies are based in Belgrade, including Jat Airways, Telekom Srbija, Telenor Serbia, Delta Holding, Elektroprivreda Srbije, Komercijalna banka, Ikarbus, regional centers for AXA, Société Générale, Asus, Intel, Motorola, MTV Adria, Kraft Foods, Carlsberg, Microsoft, OMV, Unilever, Zepter, Japan Tobacco, P&G, and many others. Stocks are traded at the Belgrade Stock Exchange.
New Belgrade is the main business district in the city. The troubled political and economic transition during the 1990s left Belgrade, like the rest of the country, severely affected by an internationally imposed trade embargo. The hyperinflation of the Yugoslav dinar, the highest inflation ever recorded in the world, decimated the city's economy. Serbia overcame the problems of inflation in the mid 1990s, and Belgrade has been growing strongly ever since. As of 2009, over 40% of Serbia's GDP is generated by the city(GDP per capita is $18 204 in terms of PPP), which also has 31,4% of Serbia's employed population. The average monthly Net pay is 46.500 RSD (€505, $760). According to the Eurostat methodology, and contrasting sharply to the Balkan region, 53% of the city's households own a computer. According to the same survey, 39.1% of Belgrade's households have an internet connection; these figures are above those of the regional capitals such as Sofia, Bucharest and Athens.
Belgrade hosts many annual cultural events, including FEST (Belgrade Film Festival), BITEF (Belgrade Theatre Festival), BELEF (Belgrade Summer Festival), BEMUS (Belgrade Music Festival), Belgrade Book Fair, and the Belgrade Beer Festival. The Nobel prize winning author Ivo Andrić wrote his most famous work, The Bridge on the Drina, in Belgrade. Other prominent Belgrade authors include Branislav Nušić, Miloš Crnjanski, Borislav Pekić, Milorad Pavić and Meša Selimović. Most of Serbia's film industry is based in Belgrade; the 1995 Palme d'Or winning ''Underground'', directed by Emir Kusturica, was produced in the city.
The city was one of the main centres of the Yugoslav New Wave in the 1980s: VIS Idoli, Ekatarina Velika, Šarlo Akrobata and Električni Orgazam were all from Belgrade. Other notable Belgrade rock acts include Riblja Čorba, Bajaga i Instruktori and Partibrejkers. Today, it is the centre of the Serbian hip hop scene, with acts such as Beogradski Sindikat, Škabo, Marčelo, and most of the Bassivity Music stable hailing from or living in the city. There are numerous theatres, the most prominent of which are National Theatre, Theatre on Terazije, Yugoslav Drama Theatre, Zvezdara Theatre, and Atelier 212. The Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts is also based in Belgrade, as well as the National Library of Serbia. Other major libraries include the Belgrade City Library and the Belgrade University Library. Belgrade's two opera houses are: National Theatre and Madlenianum Opera House.
There are many foreign cultural institutions in Belgrade including the Spanish Instituto Cervantes, German Goethe-Institut and French Centre Culturel Français which are all located in the central pedestrian Knez Mihailova Street. Other cultural centres in Belgrade are American Corner, Austrian Cultural Forum, British Council, Chinese Confucius Institute, Canadian Cultural Center, Hellenic Foundation for Culture, Italian Istituto Italiano di Cultura, Culture Center of Islamic Republic of Iran, Azerbaijani Culture Center and Russian Center for Science and Culture.
Following the victory of Serbia's representative Marija Šerifović at the Eurovision Song Contest 2007, Belgrade hosted the Eurovision Song Contest 2008.
The most prominent museum in Belgrade is the National Museum, founded in 1844; it houses a collection of more than 400,000 exhibits, (over 5600 paintings and 8400 drawings and prints) including many foreign masterpieces and the famous Miroslavljevo Jevanđelje (Miroslav's Gospel). The Ethnographic Museum, established in 1901, contains more than 150,000 items showcasing the rural and urban culture of the Balkans, particularly the countries of the former Yugoslavia. The Museum of Contemporary Art has a collection of around 35,000 works of art including Andy Warhol, Joan Miró, Ivan Meštrović and others since 1900. The Military Museum houses a wide range of more than 25,000 military exhibits dating as far back as to the Roman period, as well as parts of a F-117 stealth aircraft shot down by Serbian army. The Museum of Aviation in Belgrade has more than 200 aircraft, of which about 50 are on display, and a few of which are the only surviving examples of their type, such as the Fiat G.50. This museum also displays parts of shot down US and NATO aircraft, such as the F117 and F16 The Nikola Tesla Museum, founded in 1952, preserves the personal items of Nikola Tesla, the inventor after whom the Tesla unit was named. It holds around 160,000 original documents and around 5,700 other items. The last of the major Belgrade museums is the Museum of Vuk and Dositej, which showcases the lives, work and legacy of Vuk Stefanović Karadžić and Dositej Obradović, the 19th century reformer of the Serbian literary language and the first Serbian Minister of Education, respectively. Belgrade also houses the Museum of African Art, founded in 1977, which has the large collection of art from West Africa.
With around 95,000 copies of national and international films, the Yugoslav Film Archive is the largest in the region and amongst the 10 largest archives in the world. The institution also operates the Museum of Yugoslav Film Archive, with movie theatre and exhibition hall. The archive's long-standing storage problems were finally solved in 2007, when a new modern depository was opened.
The Belgrade Museum will move into a new building in Nemanjina Street, downtown. The Museum has interesting exhibits such as the Belgrade Gospel (1503), full plate armour from the Battle of Kosovo, and various paintings and graphics. In 2011 construction will start on a new Museum of Science and Technology.
Belgrade has wildly varying architecture, from the centre of Zemun, typical of a Central European town, to the more modern architecture and spacious layout of New Belgrade. The oldest architecture is found in Kalemegdan park. Outside of Kalemegdan, the oldest buildings date only from the 18th century, due to its geographic position and frequent wars and destructions. The oldest public structure in Belgrade is a nondescript Turkish turbe, while the oldest house is a modest clay house on Dorćol, from late 18th century. Western influence began in the 19th century, when the city completely transformed from an oriental town to the contemporary architecture of the time, with influences from neoclassicism, romanticism and academic art. Serbian architects took over the development from the foreign builders in the late 19th century, producing the National Theatre, Old Palace, Cathedral Church and later, in the early 20th century, the National Assembly and National Museum, influenced by art nouveau. Elements of Neo-Byzantine architecture are present in buildings such as Vuk's Foundation, old Post Office in Kosovska street, and sacral architecture, such as St. Mark's Church (based on the Gračanica monastery), and the Temple of Saint Sava.
During the period of Communist rule, much housing was built quickly and cheaply to house the huge influx of people from the countryside following World War II, sometimes resulting in the brutalist architecture of the blokovi (blocks) of New Belgrade; a socrealism trend briefly ruled, resulting in buildings like the Trade Union Hall. However, in the mid-1950s, the modernist trends took over, and still dominate the Belgrade architecture.
The historic areas and buildings of Belgrade are among the city's premier attractions. They include Skadarlija, the National Museum and adjacent National Theatre, Zemun, Nikola Pašić Square, Terazije, Students' Square, the Kalemegdan Fortress, Knez Mihailova Street, the Parliament, the Church of Saint Sava, and the Old Palace. On top of this, there are many parks, monuments, museums, cafés, restaurants and shops on both sides of the river. The hilltop Avala Monument offers views over the city. Josip Broz Tito's mausoleum, called Kuća Cveća (''The House of Flowers''), and the nearby Topčider and Košutnjak parks are also popular, especially among visitors from the former Yugoslavia.
Beli Dvor or 'White Palace', house of royal family Karađorđević, is open for visitors. The palace has many valuable artworks, including Rembrandt, Nicolas Poussin, and Franz Xaver Winterhalter.
Ada Ciganlija is a former island on the Sava river, and Belgrade's biggest sports and recreational complex. Today it is connected with the right bank of the Sava via two causeways, creating an artificial lake. It is the most popular destination for Belgraders during the city's hot summers. There are 7 kilometres of long beaches and sports facilities for various sports including golf, football, basketball, volleyball, rugby union, baseball, and tennis. During summer there are between 200,000 and 300,000 bathers daily. Clubs work 24 hours a day, organising live music and overnight beach parties.
Extreme sports are available, such as bungee jumping, water skiing and paintballing. There are numerous tracks on the island, where it is possible to ride a bike, go for a walk or go jogging. Apart from Ada, Belgrade has total of 16 islands on the rivers, many still unused. Among them, the Great War Island at the confluence of Sava, stands out as an oasis of unshattered wildlife (especially birds). These areas, along with nearby Small War Island, are protected by the city's government as a nature preserve.
Belgrade has a reputation for offering a vibrant nightlife, and many clubs that are open until dawn can be found throughout the city. The most recognizable nightlife features of Belgrade are the barges (''splavovi'') spread along the banks of the Sava and Danube Rivers.
Many weekend visitors—particularly from Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia—prefer Belgrade nightlife to that of their own capitals, due to a perceived friendly atmosphere, great clubs and bars, cheap drinks, the lack of language difficulties, and the lack of restrictive night life regulation.
Famous alternative clubs include Akademija and the famed KST (''Klub Studenata Tehnike'') located in the basement of the University of Belgrade Faculty of Electrical Engineering. One of the most famous sites for alternative cultural happenings in the city is the SKC (Student Cultural Centre), located right across from Belgrade's highrise landmark, the Beograđanka. Concerts featuring famous local and foreign bands are often held at the centre. SKC is also the site of various art exhibitions, as well as public debates and discussions.
A more traditional Serbian nightlife experience, accompanied by traditional music known as ''Starogradska'' (roughly translated as ''Old Town Music''), typical of northern Serbia's urban environments, is most prominent in Skadarlija, the city's old bohemian neighbourhood where the poets and artists of Belgrade gathered in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Skadar Street (the centre of Skadarlija) and the surrounding neighbourhood are lined with some of Belgrade's best and oldest traditional restaurants (called kafanas in Serbian), which date back to that period. At one end of the neighbourhood stands Belgrade's oldest beer brewery, founded in the first half of the 19th century. One of the city's oldest kafanas is the Znak pitanja.
The Times reported that Europe's best nightlife can be found in buzzing Belgrade. In the Lonely Planet "1000 Ultimate Experiences" guide of 2009, Belgrade was placed at the 1st spot among the top 10 party cities in the world.
There are around a thousand sports facilities in Belgrade, many of which are capable of serving all levels of sporting events. Belgrade has hosted several relatively major sporting events recently, including Eurobasket 2005, the 2005 European Volleyball Championship, the 2006 European Water Polo Championship, and the European Youth Olympic Festival 2007. Belgrade was the host city of the 2009 Summer Universiade chosen over the cities of Monterrey and Poznań.
The city launched two unsuccessful candidate bids to organise the Summer Olympic: for the 1992 Summer Olympics Belgrade was eliminated in the third round of International Olympic Committee voting, with the games going to Barcelona. The 1996 Summer Olympics ultimately went to Atlanta.
The city is home to Serbia's two biggest and most successful football clubs, Red Star Belgrade and FK Partizan. Red Star won the 1991 UEFA Champions League (''European Cup''). The two major stadiums in Belgrade are the ''Marakana'' (Red Star Stadium) and the Partizan Stadium. The rivalry between Red Star and Partizan is one of the most famous capital derbies in Europe and has become known as the Eternal derby. The Belgrade Arena is used for various sporting events such as Basketball, volleyball and Davis Cup, and in May 2008 it was the venue of Eurovision Song Contest 2008. Along with Pionir Hall for KK Partizan and KK Crvena zvezda while the Tašmajdan Sports Centre is used for swimming competitions and water polo matches.
In recent years, Belgrade has also given rise to several world class tennis players such as Ana Ivanović, Jelena Janković and Novak Đoković. Ivanović and Đoković are the first female and male Serbian players, respectively, to win Grand Slam singles titles. The Serbian national team won the 2010 Davis Cup, beating the French team in the finals played in the Belgrade Arena.
Belgrade is the most important media hub in Serbia. The city is home to the main headquarters of the national broadcaster Radio Television Serbia - RTS, which is a public service broadcaster. The most popular commercial broadcaster is RTV Pink, a Serbian media multinational, known for its popular entertainment programs. The most popular commercial "alternative" broadcaster is B92, another media company, which has its own TV station, radio station, and music and book publishing arms, as well as the most popular website on the Serbian internet. Other TV stations broadcasting from Belgrade include Fox Televizija, Avala, Košava, and others which only cover the greater Belgrade municipal area, such as Studio B. Numerous specialised channels are also available: SOS channel (sport), Metropolis (music), Art TV (art), Cinemania (film), and Happy TV (children's programs).
High-circulation daily newspapers published in Belgrade include ''Politika'', ''Blic'', ''Večernje novosti'', ''Press'', ''Kurir'' and ''Danas''. There are 2 sporting dailies, ''Sportski žurnal'' and ''Sport'', and one economic daily, ''Privredni pregled''. A new free distribution daily, ''24 sata'', was founded in the autumn of 2006.
Belgrade has two state universities and several private institutions of higher education. The University of Belgrade, founded in 1808 as the "Great School", is the oldest institution of higher learning in Serbia and all of the Balkans. Having developed with the city in the 19th century, quite a few University buildings are a constituent part of Belgrade’s architecture and cultural heritage. With enrollment of nearly 90,000 students, the University is one of the Europe's largest.
There are also 195 primary (elementary) schools and 85 secondary schools. Of the primary schools, there are 162 regular, 14 special, 15 art and 4 adult schools. The secondary school system has 51 vocational schools, 21 gymnasiums, 8 art schools and 5 special schools. The 230,000 pupils are managed by 22,000 employees in over 500 buildings, covering around 1,100,000 m².
Belgrade has an extensive public transport system based on buses (118 urban lines and more than 300 suburban lines), trams (12 lines), and trolleybuses (8 lines). It is run by GSP Beograd and SP Lasta, in cooperation with private companies on various bus routes. Belgrade also has a commuter rail network, Beovoz, now run by the city government. The main railway station connects Belgrade with other European capitals and many towns in Serbia. Travel by coach is also popular, and the capital is well-served with daily connections to every town in the country.
The city is placed along the pan-European corridors X and VII. The motorway system provides for easy access to Novi Sad and Budapest, the capital of Hungary, in the north; Niš to the south; and Zagreb, to the west. Situated at the confluence of two major rivers, the Danube and the Sava, Belgrade has 7 bridges—the two main ones are Branko's bridge and Gazela, both of which connect the core of the city to New Belgrade. With the city's expansion and a substantial increase in the number of vehicles, congestion has become a major problem; this is expected to be alleviated by the construction of a bypass connecting the E70 and E75 highways. Further, an "inner magistral semi-ring" is planned, including a new Ada Bridge across the Sava river, which is expected to ease commuting within the city and unload the Gazela and Branko's bridge.
The Port of Belgrade is on the Danube, and allows the city to receive goods by river. The city is also served by Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport (IATA: BEG), 12 kilometres west of the city centre, near Surčin. At its peak in 1986, almost 3 million passengers travelled through the airport, though that number dwindled to a trickle in the 1990s. Following renewed growth in 2000, the number of passengers reached approximately 2 million in 2004 and 2005, while during the 2008 the figure peaked at over 2,6 million passengers.
Beovoz is the suburban/commuter railway network that provides mass-transit services in the city, similar to Paris's RER and Toronto's GO Transit. The main usage of today's system is to connect the suburbs with the city centre. Beovoz is operated by Serbian Railways. Belgrade suburban railway system connects suburbs and nearby cities to the west, north and south of the city. It began operation in 1992 and currently has 5 lines with 41 stations divided in two zones.
Belgrade was one of the last big European capitals, and cities with over a million people, to have no metro/subway or other rapid transit system. Construction has been started twice before but was postponed. The Belgrade Metro is considered to be the third most important project in the country, after work on roads and railways. The two projects of highest priority are the Belgrade bypass and Pan-European corridor X. However, the Belgrade Cityrail (S-Bahn) by was opened in 2010 as the first phase of the metro, and includes two underground stations that were built for an earlier abandoned metro project.
| ! Country | ! City | ! Year |
| 2010 | ||
| Coventry | 1957 | |
| Chicago | 2005 | |
| Lahore | 2007 | |
| Ljubljana | 2010 | |
| Tel Aviv | 1990 | |
| Vienna | 2003 |
Some of the city's municipalities are also twinned to small cities or districts of other big cities, for details see their respective articles.
Other similar forms of cooperation and city friendship:
| ! Country | ! City | ! Date | ! Form |
| Athens | 1966 | Agreement on Friendship and Cooperation | |
| Banja Luka | 2005 | Agreement on Cooperation | |
| Beijing | 1980 | Agreement on Cooperation | |
| Berlin | 1978 | Agreement on Friendship and Cooperation | |
| Düsseldorf | 2004 | Agreement on Cooperation | |
| Kiev | 2002 | Agreement on Cooperation | |
| Madrid | 2001 | Agreement on Cooperation | |
| Milan | 2000 | Memorandum of Agreement, City to City Programme | |
| Moscow | 2002 | Programme of Cooperation | |
| Rome | 1971 | Agreement on Friendship and Cooperation | |
| Shenzhen | 2009 | Agreement on Cooperation | |
| Skopje | June, 2006 | Agreement on Cooperation | |
| Havana | Agreement on Friendship |
Belgrade has received various domestic and international honours, including the French Légion d'honneur (proclaimed December 21, 1920; Belgrade is one of four cities outside France, alongside Liège, Luxembourg and Volgograd, to receive this honour), the Czechoslovak War Cross (awarded October 8, 1925), the Yugoslavian Karađorđe's Star with Swords (awarded May 18, 1939) and the SFR Yugoslavian Order of the National Hero (proclaimed on October 20, 1974, the 30th anniversary of the overthrow of Nazi German occupation during World War II). All of these decorations were received for the war efforts during the World War I and World War II. In 2006, ''Financial Times''' magazine ''Foreign Direct Investment'' awarded Belgrade the title of ''City of the Future of Southern Europe''. In 2008, the Globalization and World Cities Study Group and Network (GaWC), based at the geography department of Loughborough University, published their roster of leading world cities. Belgrade is in the fourth category out of five on this list, being listed in the group of the cities with a "high sufficiency" world presence.
Category:Belgrade Category:Capitals in Europe Category:Districts of Serbia Category:Metropolitan areas of Serbia Category:Statistical regions of Serbia Category:Port cities in Serbia Category:Ancient cities in Serbia Category:Populated places established in the 3rd century BC Category:Populated places on the Danube Category:Šumadija
ace:Belgrade af:Belgrado am:በልግራድ ar:بلغراد an:Belgrado roa-rup:Biligrad frp:Bèlgrade ast:Belgráu az:Belqrad bn:বেলগ্রেড zh-min-nan:Belgrade be:Горад Бялград be-x-old:Бялград bo:བེལ་གེ་རེ་ཌི། bs:Beograd br:Beograd bg:Белград ca:Belgrad cv:Белград cs:Bělehrad cy:Beograd da:Beograd de:Belgrad dsb:Běłogrod et:Belgrad el:Βελιγράδι es:Belgrado eo:Beogrado ext:Belgradu eu:Belgrad fa:بلگراد hif:Belgrade fo:Beograd fr:Belgrade fy:Belgrado ga:Béalgrád gv:Belgraaid gd:Belgrade gl:Belgrado - Београд ko:베오그라드 hy:Բելգրադ hi:बेलग्रेड hsb:Běłohród hr:Beograd io:Belgrade id:Beograd ie:Beograd os:Белград is:Belgrad it:Belgrado he:בלגרד jv:Beograd ka:ბელგრადი sw:Belgrad kv:Белград ht:Bèlgrad ku:Belgrad lad:Belogrado la:Belgradum lv:Belgrada lb:Belgrad lt:Belgradas lij:Belgraddo li:Belgrado ln:Belgrad lmo:Belgrad hu:Belgrád mk:Белград ml:ബെൽഗ്രേഡ് mt:Belgrad mi:Belgrade mr:बेलग्रेड ms:Belgrade mn:Белград na:Belgrad nl:Belgrado ja:ベオグラード no:Beograd nn:Beograd nov:Beograd oc:Belgrad pnb:بلغراد pap:Belgrado pms:Belgrad nds:Belgrad pl:Belgrad pt:Belgrado crh:Belgrad ty:Beograd ro:Belgrad qu:Beograd ru:Белград sah:Белград se:Belgrad sm:Belgrade sc:Belgrado sco:Belgrade sq:Beogradi scn:Belgradu simple:Belgrade sk:Belehrad cu:Бѣлъ Градъ · Срьбїи sl:Beograd ckb:بێلگراد sr:Београд sh:Beograd fi:Belgrad sv:Belgrad tl:Belgrade ta:பெல்கிறேட் tt:Белград th:เบลเกรด tg:Белград tr:Belgrad udm:Белград uk:Белград ur:بلغراد ug:بېلگراد vec:Belgrado vi:Beograd vo:Beograd war:Belgrade wo:Belgrad wuu:贝尔格莱德 yi:בעלגראד yo:Belgrade zh-yue:貝爾格萊德 diq:Belgrad zh:贝尔格莱德This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
| name | Amy Winehouse |
|---|---|
| alt | Amy Winehouse at the Eurockéennes festival in France (2007) |
| background | solo_singer |
| birth name | Amy Jade Winehouse |
| birth date | September 14, 1983 |
| birth place | Southgate, London, UK |
| death date | July 23, 2011 |
| death place | Camden, London, UK |
| genre | Soul, R&B, jazz |
| instrument | Vocals, guitar |
| occupation | Singer, songwriter |
| years active | 1998–2011 |
| label | Island, Lioness, Universal Republic (U.S.) |
| website | }} |
On 14 February 2007, she won a BRIT Award for Best British Female Artist; she had also been nominated for Best British Album. She won the Ivor Novello Award three times, one in 2004 for Best Contemporary Song (musically and lyrically) for "Stronger Than Me", one in 2007 for Best Contemporary Song for "Rehab", and one in 2008 for Best Song Musically and Lyrically for "Love Is a Losing Game", among other distinctions. The album is the biggest seller of the 2000s in the United Kingdom. Winehouse is credited as an influence in the rise in popularity of female musicians and soul music, and also for revitalising British music.
Winehouse was found dead on 23 July 2011, at her home in London. Police have said that the cause of her death is "as yet unexplained" and that the death was "non-suspicious". Winehouse's family and friends attended her funeral on 26 July 2011. In August 2011 her album ''Back to Black'' became the UK's best selling album of the 21st century.
When Winehouse was nine years old, her grandmother, Cynthia, suggested she attend the Susi Earnshaw Theatre School for further training. At age ten, Winehouse founded a short-lived rap group called Sweet 'n' Sour with childhood friend Juliette Ashby. She stayed at the Earnshaw school for four years before seeking full-time training at Sylvia Young Theatre School, but was allegedly expelled at 14 for "not applying herself" and for piercing her nose. (Sylvia Young herself has denied this – "She changed schools at 15 – I've heard it said she was expelled; she wasn't. I'd never have expelled Amy.") With other children from the Sylvia Young School, she appeared in an episode of ''The Fast Show'' in 1997. She later attended The Mount School, Mill Hill, the BRIT School in Selhurst, Croydon, Southgate School and Ashmole School.
Beese introduced Winehouse to his boss, Nick Gatfield, and the Island head shared his enthusiasm in signing the young artist. Winehouse was signed to Island/Universal as rival interest in Winehouse had started to build, with representatives at EMI and Virgin also starting to make moves. Beese told ''HitQuarters'' that he felt the reason behind the excitement over an artist who was an atypical pop star for the time was due to a backlash against reality TV music shows with audiences becoming starved for genuine young talent.
Winehouse's greatest love was 1960s girl groups. Her stylist Alex Foden borrowed her "instantly recognisable" beehive hairdo (a weave) and she borrowed her Cleopatra makeup from The Ronettes. Her imitation was so successful, the ''Village Voice'' reports: "Ronnie Spector—who, it could be argued, all but invented Winehouse's style in the first place when she took the stage at the Brooklyn Fox Theater with her fellow Ronettes more than 40 years ago—was so taken aback at a picture of Winehouse in the ''New York Post'' that she exclaimed, "I don't know her, I never met her, and when I saw that pic, I thought, 'That's me!' But then I found out, no, it's Amy! I didn't have on my glasses."
''The New York Times'' reporter, Guy Trebay, discussed the multiplicity of influences on Winehouse's style. Trebay notes: "her stylish husband, Blake Fielder-Civil, may have influenced her look." Additionally, Trebay observes: :She was a 5-foot-3 almanac of visual reference, most famously to Ronnie Spector of the Ronettes, but also to the white British soul singer Mari Wilson, less famous for her sound than her beehive; to the punk god Johnny Thunders...; to the fierce council-house chicks... (see: Dior and Chanel runways, 2007 and 2008); to the rat-combed biker molls photographed by the Swiss photographer Karlheinz Weinberger in the 1960s; to a lineage of bad girls extending from Cleopatra to Louise Brooks’s Lulu to Salt-n-Pepa, irresistible man traps who always seem to come to the same unfortunate end.
The album entered the upper levels of the UK album chart in 2004 when it was nominated for BRIT Awards in the categories of "British Female Solo Artist" and "British Urban Act". It went on to achieve platinum sales. Later in 2004, she won the Ivor Novello (songwriting) Award for Best Contemporary Song, alongside Salaam Remi, with her contribution to the first single, "Stronger Than Me". The album also made the short list for the 2004 Mercury Music Prize. In the same year, she performed at the Glastonbury Festival, the V Festival, the Montreal International Jazz Festival (7 July 2004, at the Club Soda), and on the Jazzworld stage. After the release of the album, Winehouse commented that she was "only 80 percent behind [the] album" because of the inclusion by her record label of certain songs and mixes she disliked. Additional singles from the album were "Take the Box", "In My Bed"/"You Sent Me Flying" and "Pumps"/"Help Yourself".
The album spawned a number of singles. The first single released from the album was the Ronson-produced "Rehab". The song reached the top ten in the UK and the US. ''Time'' magazine named "Rehab" the Best Song of 2007. Writer Josh Tyrangiel praised Winehouse for her confidence, saying, "What she is is mouthy, funny, sultry, and quite possibly crazy" and "It's impossible not to be seduced by her originality. Combine it with production by Mark Ronson that references four decades worth of soul music without once ripping it off, and you've got the best song of 2007." The album's second single and lead single in the US, "You Know I'm No Good", was released in January 2007 with a remix featuring rap vocals by Ghostface Killah. It ultimately reached number 18 on the UK singles chart. The title track, "Back to Black", was released in the UK in April 2007 and peaked at number 25, but was more successful across mainland Europe. "Tears Dry on Their Own", "Love Is a Losing Game" and "Just Friends" were also released as singles, but failed to achieve the same level of success.
A deluxe edition of ''Back to Black'' was also released on 5 November 2007 in the UK. The bonus disc features B-sides, rare, and live tracks, as well as "Valerie". Winehouse's debut DVD ''I Told You I Was Trouble: Live in London'' was released the same day in the UK and 13 November in the US. It includes a live set recorded at London's Shepherds Bush Empire and a 50-minute documentary charting the singer's career over the previous four years. ''Frank'' was released in the United States on 20 November 2007 to positive reviews. The album debuted at number 61 on the Billboard 200 chart.
In addition to her own album, she collaborated with other artists on singles. Winehouse was a vocalist on the song "Valerie" on Ronson's solo album ''Version''. The song peaked at number two in the UK, upon its October single release. The song was nominated for a 2008 Brit Award for "Best British Single". Her work with ex-Sugababe Mutya Buena, "B Boy Baby", was released on 17 December 2007. It served as the fourth single from Buena's solo debut album, ''Real Girl''.
thumb|left|Performing at Eurockéennes in Belfort, Territoire de Belfort, France on 29 June 2007 A special deluxe edition of ''Back to Black'' topped the UK album charts on 2 March 2008. The original edition of the album resided at the number 30 position, in its 68th week on the charts, while "Frank" charted at number 35. By 12 March, the album had sold a total of 2,467,575 copies, 318,350 of those in the previous 10 weeks, putting the album on the UK's top 10 best-selling albums of the 21st century for the first time. On 7 April, ''Back to Black'' was residing at the top position on the pan-European charts for the sixth consecutive and thirteenth aggregate week. ''Back to Black'' was the world's seventh biggest selling album for 2008. These sales helped keep Universal Music's recorded music division from dropping to levels experienced by the overall music market.
At the 2008 Ivor Novello Awards, Winehouse became the first artist to receive two nominations for the top award, best song, musically and lyrically. She won the award for "Love Is a Losing Game" and was nominated for "You Know I'm No Good". "Rehab", a Novello winner for best contemporary song in 2006, also received a 2008 nomination for best-selling British song. Winehouse was nominated for a MTV Europe Award in the ''Act of The Year'' category. ''Amy Winehouse – The Girl Done Good: A Documentary Review'', a 78-minute DVD, was released on 14 April 2008. The documentary features interviews with those who knew her at a young age, helped her gain success, jazz music experts, as well as music and pop culture specialists. A clip of Winehouse's music was included in the "Roots and Influences" area that looked at connections between different artists at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Annex NYC, which opened in December 2008. One thread started with Billie Holiday continued with Aretha Franklin, Mary J. Blige and finished with Winehouse. In a poll of United States residents conducted for VisitBritain by Harris Interactive that was released in March 2009, one fifth of those polled indicated they had listened to Winehouse's music during the previous year. Winehouse performed with Rhythms del Mundo on their cover of the Sam Cooke song "Cupid" for an ''Artists Project Earth'' benefit album that was released on 13 July 2009.
On the week of July 26, after Winehouse's death, ''Frank'', ''Back To Black'', and the ''Back To Black'' EP re-entered the ''Billboard'' 200 at number 57, number 9, and number 152 respectively with the album climbing to number 4 the following week. ''Back To Black'' also topped the ''Billboard'' Digital Albums chart on the same week and was the second best seller at iTunes. "Rehab" re-entered and topped the ''Billboard'' Digital Songs chart as well, selling up to 38,000 more digital downloads. As of August 2011 "Back to Black" was the best selling album in the United Kingdom in the 21st Century.
During her 2009 stay in Saint Lucia, Winehouse worked on new music with producer Salaam Remi. Island claimed that a new album would be due in 2010; Island co-president Darcus Beese said, "I've heard a couple of song demos that have absolutely floored me". In July 2010 Winehouse was quoted as saying her next album would be released no later than January 2011, saying "It’s going to be very much the same as my second album, where there's a lot of jukebox stuff and songs that are... just jukebox, really." Mark Ronson said in July 2010 that he had not started to record the album.
American singer Tony Bennett recorded a song with Winehouse for his forthcoming album, ''Duets II'', which is scheduled for release on 20 September 2011. Following her death Winehouse's spokesperson said the singer left behind “plenty” of material but no discussions had taken place in regards to releasing it. It is uncertain how far along she had gotten in the recording process. The proceeds from the single will go to a charity set up in Winehouse's name.
The release of ''Back to Black'' and the emergence of Lily Allen has been credited by ''The Sunday Times'' as directly creating the market for the media proclaimed "the year of the women" in 2009 which has seen five female artists nominated for the Mercury Prize. After the album was released, record companies sought out female artists with a similar sound and fearless and experimental female musicians in general. Adele and Duffy were the second wave of artists with a sound similar to Winehouse's. A third wave of female musicians that has emerged since the album was released are led by VV Brown, Florence and the Machine, La Roux and Little Boots. In February 2010, rapper Jay-Z credited Winehouse with revitalising British music, saying, "There's a strong push coming out of London right now, which is great. It's been coming ever since I guess Amy (Winehouse). I mean always, but I think Amy, this resurgence was ushered in by Amy." In March 2011 the ''New York Daily News'' ran an article attributing the continuing wave of British female artists that have been successful in the United States to Winehouse and her absence. ''Spin'' magazine music editor Charles Aaron was quoted as saying "Amy Winehouse was the Nirvana moment for all these women," "They can all be traced back to her in terms of attitude, musical styles or fashion". According to Keith Caulfield, chart manager for ''Billboard'', "Because of Amy, or the lack thereof, the marketplace was able to get singers like Adele and Duffy," "Now those ladies have brought on the new ones, like Eliza Doolittle, Rumer and Ellie."
Winehouse's tour, however, did not go as well. In November 2007, the opening night of a 17-date tour was marred by booing and walkouts at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham. A music critic for the ''Birmingham Mail'' said it was "one of the saddest nights of my life...I saw a supremely talented artist reduced to tears, stumbling around the stage and, unforgivably, swearing at the audience." Other concerts ended similarly, with, for example, fans at her Hammersmith Apollo performance saying that she "looked highly intoxicated throughout", until she announced on 27 November 2007, that her performances and public appearances were cancelled for the remainder of 2007, citing doctor advice to take a complete rest. A statement issued by concert promoter Live Nation blamed "the rigours involved in touring and the intense emotional strain that Amy has been under in recent weeks" for the decision.
On 20 February 2008, Winehouse performed at the 2008 BRIT Awards, performing "Valerie" with Mark Ronson, followed by "Love Is a Losing Game". She urged the crowd to "make some noise for my Blake." In Paris, she performed what was described as a "well-executed 40 minute" set at the opening of a Fendi boutique. Although her father, manager and various members of her touring team reportedly tried to dissuade her, Winehouse performed at the Rock in Rio Lisboa festival in Portugal in May 2008. Although the set was plagued by a late arrival and problems with her voice, the crowd warmed to her. In addition to her own material she performed two Specials covers. Winehouse performed at Nelson Mandela's 90th Birthday Party concert at London's Hyde Park on the 27 June, and the next day at the Glastonbury Festival. On 12 July at the Oxegen Festival she performed a well-received 50 minute set which was followed the next day by a 14 song set at T in the Park. On 16 August she played at the Staffordshire leg of the V Festival, and the following day played the Chelmsford leg of the festival. Organizers said that Winehouse attracted the biggest crowds of the festival. Audience reaction was reported as mixed. On 6 September she was the headliner at Bestival. She performed what was described as a polished set which ended with her storming off the stage. Her hour late arrival caused her set to be cut off at the halfway point due to a curfew.
In May 2009, Winehouse returned to performing at a jazz festival in Saint Lucia amid torrential downpours and technical difficulties. During her hour long set it was reported she was unsteady on her feet and had trouble remembering lyrics. She apologised to the crowd for being "bored" and ended her set by walking off the stage in the middle of a song. To a cheering crowd on 23 August at the V festival, Winehouse sang with The Specials on their songs "You're Wondering Now" and "Ghost Town".
In July 2010, she performed "Valerie" with Mark Ronson at a movie premiere. She sang lead but forgot some of the song's lyrics. In October Winehouse performed a four song set to promote her fashion line. In December 2010 Winehouse played a 40 minute concert at a Russian oligarch's party in Moscow. Guests included other Russian tycoons and Russian show business stars. The tycoon hand picked the songs she played.
During January 2011, she played five dates in Brazil, with opening acts of Janelle Monáe and Mayer Hawthorne. On 11 February 2011, Winehouse cut short a performance in Dubai following booing from the audience. Winehouse was reported to be tired, distracted and "tipsy" during the performance.
On 18 June 2011, Winehouse started her 12-leg 2011 European tour in Belgrade. Local media described her performance as a scandal and disaster, and she was booed off the stage due to her apparently being too drunk to perform. It was reported that she was unable to remember the city she was in, the lyrics of her songs or – when trying to introduce them – the names of the members of her band. The local press also claimed that Winehouse was forced to perform by her bodyguards, who didn't allow her to leave the stage when she tried to do so. She then pulled out of performances in Istanbul and Athens which had been scheduled for the following week. On 21 June it was announced that she had cancelled all shows of her European tour and would be given "as long as it takes" to sort herself out.
Winehouse's last public appearance took place at Camden's Roundhouse, London on 20 July 2011, when she made a surprise guest appearance on stage to support her goddaughter, Dionne Bromfield, who was singing "Mama Said" with The Wanted.
In January 2009, Winehouse announced that she was launching her own record label. The first act on her Lioness Records is Winehouse's 13-year-old goddaughter, Dionne Bromfield. Her first album, featuring covers of classic soul records, was released on 12 October 2009. Winehouse is the backing singer on several tracks on the album and she performed backing vocals for Bromfield on the television programme ''Strictly Come Dancing'' on 10 October.
Winehouse and her family are the subject of a 2009 documentary shot by Daphne Barak titled ''Saving Amy''.
Winehouse entered into a joint venture in 2009 with EMI to launch a range of wrapping paper and gift cards containing song lyrics from her album ''Back to Black''.
On 8 January 2010, a television documentary, ''My Daughter Amy'', aired on Channel 4.
''Saving Amy'' was released as a paperback book in January 2010.
Winehouse collaborated on a 17 piece fashion collection with the Fred Perry label. It was released for sale in October 2010. According to Fred Perry's marketing director "We had three major design meetings where she was closely involved in product style selection and the application of fabric, colour and styling details,” and gave "crucial input on proportion, colour and fit”. The collection consists of "vintage-inspired looks including Capri pants, a bowling dress, a trench coat, pencil skirts, a longline argyle sweater and a pink-and-black checkerboard-printed collared shirt". At the behest her family three forthcoming collections up to and including autumn/winter 2012 that she had designed prior to her death will be released.
She married Fielder-Civil (born August 1978), a former video production assistant, on 18 May 2007, in Miami Beach, Florida. Fielder-Civil was a "dropout" of Bourne Grammar School, who moved to London at aged 16 from his native Lincolnshire. In a June 2007 interview, Winehouse admitted she was sometimes violent towards him when she had been drinking, stating "if he says one thing I don't like then I'll chin him". In August 2007, they were photographed, bloodied and bruised, in the streets of London after an alleged fight, although she contended her injuries were self-inflicted. Equality campaigner Glenn Sacks criticised Winehouse for "bragging" about abusing her husband, noting how a male abuser would have been "locked up, stigmatised, and vilified".
Winehouse's parents and in-laws publicly reported their numerous concerns, citing fears that the two might commit suicide, with Fielder-Civil's father encouraging fans to boycott her music. Fielder-Civil was quoted in a British tabloid as saying he introduced her to crack cocaine and heroin. During a visit with Mitch Winehouse at the prison in July 2008, Fielder-Civil reportedly said that they would cut themselves to ease the pain of withdrawal.
From 21 July 2008 to 25 February 2009, Fielder-Civil was imprisoned following his guilty plea on charges of trying to pervert the course of justice as well as a charge of grievous bodily harm with intent. The incident, in July 2007, involved an assault on a pub landlord that resulted in a broken cheek. According to the prosecution the landlord accepted £200,000 as part of a deal to "effectively throw the [court] case and not turn up". The prosecution testified that the money used to pay off the landlord belonged to Winehouse, but that Winehouse pulled out of a meeting with the men involved in the plot, because she had to attend an awards ceremony.
Winehouse was spotted with aspiring actor Josh Bowman on holiday in Saint Lucia in early January 2009, saying she was "in love again, and I don't need drugs." She commented that the "whole marriage was based on doing drugs" and that "for the time being I've just forgotten I'm even married." On 12 January, Winehouse's spokesman confirmed that "papers have been received" for what Fielder-Civil's solicitor has said are divorce proceedings based on a claim of adultery. On 25 February, Blake Fielder-Civil was quoted as saying that he planned to continue divorce proceedings to give himself a drug-free fresh start. In March, Winehouse was quoted in a magazine as saying, "I still love Blake and I want him to move into my new house with me – that was my plan all along ... I won't let him divorce me. He's the male version of me and we're perfect for each other." Uncontested, the divorce was granted on 16 July 2009 and became final on 28 August 2009. Upon his request Fielder-Civil received no money in the settlement. She is believed to have been dating director Reg Traviss shortly before her death.
Winehouse told a magazine that the drugs were to blame for her hospitalisation and that "I really thought that it was over for me then." Soon after, Winehouse's father commented that when he had made public statements regarding her problems, he was using the media because it seemed the only way to get through to her. In an interview with ''The Album Chart Show'' on British television, Winehouse said she was manic depressive and not alcoholic, adding that that sounded like "an alcoholic in denial". A U.S. reporter writes that Winehouse was a "victim of mental illness in a society that doesn't understand or respond to mental illness with great effectiveness".
On 2 December 2007, images of the singer outside her home in the early morning hours, barefoot and wearing only a bra and jeans, appeared on the internet and in tabloid newspapers. In a statement, her spokesman blamed paparazzi harassment for the incident. The spokesman reported that the singer was in a physician-supervised programme and was channelling her difficulties by writing a lot of music. The British tabloid ''The Sun'' posted a video of a woman, alleged to be Winehouse, apparently smoking crack cocaine and speaking of having taken ecstasy and valium. Winehouse's father moved in with her, and Island Records, her record label, announced the abandonment of plans for an American promotion campaign on her behalf. In late January 2008, Winehouse reportedly entered a rehabilitation facility for a two-week treatment program.
On 23 January 2008, the video was passed on to the Metropolitan Police, who questioned her on 5 February. No charges were brought. On 26 March 2008, Winehouse's spokesman said she was "doing well" and denied a published report in a British tabloid that consideration was being given to having her return to rehab. Her record company reportedly believed that her recovery remained fragile. By late April 2008, her erratic behaviour, including an allegation of assault, caused fear that her drug rehabilitation efforts have been unsuccessful, leading to efforts by Winehouse's father and manager to seek assistance in having her sectioned. Her dishevelled appearance during and after a scheduled club night in September sparked new rumours of a relapse. Photographers were quoted as saying she appeared to have cuts on her legs and arms.
In an interview released in June 2009, Winehouse's father said the singer was in a drug replacement programme. He said she was gradually recovering but that heavy drinking was causing "slight backward steps". A documentary shot early in 2009 shows Winehouse apparently intoxicated according to a newspaper report. Pictures published by a magazine in July 2009 upon her return to the United Kingdom from her extended stay in Saint Lucia appeared to show that Winehouse had gained weight and that her complexion was improved. In an October 2010 interview, Winehouse said she had been drug-free for three years, saying "I literally woke up one day and was like, 'I don’t want to do this any more.'”
Winehouse entered the Priory Clinic on 25 May 2011, where she stayed for one week.
In October 2007, Winehouse and her then-husband were arrested in Bergen, Norway for possession of seven grams of marijuana. The couple were later released and fined 3850 kroner (around £350). Winehouse first appealed the fines, claiming she was "duped" into confessing, but later dropped the appeal.
On 26 April 2008, Winehouse was cautioned after she admitted to police she slapped a 38 year-old man in the face, a "common assault" offence. She voluntarily turned herself in and was held overnight. Police said, at her arrival she was "in no fit state" to be interviewed. Winehouse was arrested on 7 May 2008 on suspicion of possessing drugs after a video of her apparently smoking crack cocaine was passed to the police in January, but was released on bail a few hours later because they could not confirm, from the video, what she was smoking. The Crown Prosecution Service considered charging her with possessing a controlled drug and allowing her premises to be used for the supply by others of a controlled drug, but she was cleared when the service could not establish that the substance in the video was a controlled drug. In reaction to the decision, former police commander John O’Connor said it is an "absolute scandal that nothing could be done" about Winehouse "cocking a snook at the law". Some members of Parliament also reacted negatively. Two London residents were subsequently charged with conspiracy to supply cocaine and ecstasy to Winehouse. One of the pair was sentenced to two years in prison on 13 December 2008, while the other received a two-year community order.
On 5 March 2009, Winehouse was arrested and charged with common assault following a claim by a woman that Winehouse hit her in the eye at a September 2008 Prince's Trust charity ball. At the same time, she was reported to have spat at the English socialite Pippa Middleton and to have headbutted a photographer. Winehouse's spokesperson announced the singer cancelled a scheduled United States Coachella Festival appearance in "light of current legal issues". Swearing in under her legal name of Amy Jade Civil, Winehouse appeared in court on 17 March to enter her plea of not guilty. On 23 July her assault trial began with prosecutor Lyall Thompson charging that Winehouse acted with "deliberate and unjustifiable violence" while appearing to be under the influence of alcohol or another substance. The woman, Sharene Flash, testified that Winehouse "punched me forcefully in my right eye. She used a fist, her right one.” Winehouse testified that she did not punch Flash, but tried to push Flash away from her because she was scared of Flash. Winehouse cited her worry that Flash would sell her story to a tabloid, Flash's height advantage, and Flash's "rude" behaviour as reasons for her fear of Flash. On the 24 July, District Judge Timothy Workman ruled that Winehouse was not guilty of the charge. Workman cited the facts that all but two of the witnesses were intoxicated at the time of the incident and that medical evidence did not show "the sort of injury that often occurs when there is a forceful punch to the eye".
On 19 December 2009, Winehouse was arrested again on charges of common assault, plus another charge of public order offence. Winehouse assaulted the front-of-house manager of the Milton Keynes Theatre after he asked her to move from her seat. On 20 January 2010, she admitted common assault and disorderly behaviour. She was given a two-year conditional discharge and ordered to pay £85 court costs and £100 compensation to the man she attacked.
Winehouse was released from The London Clinic 24 hours after returning from a temporary leave to perform at Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday and at a concert in Glastonbury, and continued receiving treatment as an outpatient. In July, 2008 Winehouse stated that she had been diagnosed with "some areas of emphysema" and said she is getting herself together by "eating loads of healthy food, sleeping loads, playing my guitar, making music and writing letters to my husband every day". She also kept a vertical tanning bed in her apartment. Winehouse began precautionary testing on her lungs and chest on 25 October 2008 at the London Clinic for what was reported as a chest infection. Winehouse was in and out of the facility and was granted permission to set her own schedule regarding home leave. She returned to the hospital on 23 November 2008 for a reported reaction to her medication.
Winehouse's record label, Universal Republic, released a statement that read in part: "We are deeply saddened at the sudden loss of such a gifted musician, artist and performer." Many musical artists have since paid tribute to Winehouse including U2, Lady Gaga, Nicki Minaj, Rihanna, George Michael, Adele, Kelly Clarkson, and Courtney Love.
Family and friends attended Winehouse's funeral on 26 July 2011 at Edgwarebury Lane cemetery in north London. Her mother and father, Janis and Mitch Winehouse, close friend Kelly Osbourne, producer Mark Ronson and her boyfriend Reg Traviss were among those in attendance at the private service led by Rabbi Frank Hellner. Her father delivered the eulogy, saying "Goodnight, my angel, sleep tight. Mummy and Daddy love you ever so much." Carole King's "So Far Away" closed the service with mourners singing along. She was later cremated at Golders Green Crematorium. The family planned to sit a two-day shiva. Winehouse's parents intend to set up a foundation in her name, to help those affected by drug addiction.
A post mortem was carried out on 25 July. The results were inconclusive and no cause of death could be established. The coroner stated that a "Section 20" postmortem had been done on Winehouse, which implies that the coroner believes "there is reasonable cause to suspect that a person has died a violent or unnatural death or in any other way which would require an inquest." An inquest was adjourned until 26 October, and results of further toxicology tests took about four weeks.
On August 23, the Winehouse family released a short statement about the results of toxicology tests returned to them by authorities: there were "no illegal drugs" and "alcohol was present" in Winehouse's system at the time of her death, but a cause of death still could not be determined. The statement concluded, "The family would like to thank the police and coroner for their continuing thorough investigations and for keeping them informed throughout the process. They await the outcome of the inquest in October."
She's only 24 with six Grammy nods, crashing headfirst into success and despair, with a codependent husband in jail, exhibitionist parents with questionable judgement, and the paparazzi documenting her emotional and physical distress. Meanwhile, a haute designer Karl Lagerfeld appropriates her dishevelled style and eating issues to market to the elite while proclaiming her the new Bardot.
By 2008, her continued drug problems threatened her career. Even as Nick Gatfield, the president of Island Records, toyed with the idea of releasing Winehouse "to deal with her problems", he remarked on her talent, saying, "It’s a reflection of her status [in the U.S.] that when you flick through the TV coverage [of the Grammys] it’s her image they use." Post-Grammys, some questioned whether Winehouse should have been honoured with the awards given her recent personal and drug problems, including Natalie Cole, who introduced Winehouse at the ceremony. Cole (who battled her own substance-abuse problems while winning a Grammy for Best New Artist in 1975) remarked, "I think the girl is talented, gifted, but it's not right for her to be able to have her cake and eat it too. She needs to get herself together." In an opinion newspaper commentary, Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, said that the alleged drug habits of Winehouse and other celebrities send a bad message "to others who are vulnerable to addiction" and undermine the efforts of other celebrities trying to raise awareness of problems in Africa, now that more cocaine used in Europe passes through Africa. Winehouse's spokesperson called Costa a "ludicrous man" and noted that "Amy has never given a quote about drugs or flaunted it in any way. She's had some problems and is trying to get better. The U.N. should get its own house in order." Following Winehouse's death William Bennett a former director of the United States Office of National Drug Control Policy criticised the Grammy Awards nominating committee along similar lines. Graeme Pearson, the former head of Scotland's drug enforcement agency, criticised Winehouse and Kate Moss for making going to rehab a badge of honour, thus giving the false impression that quitting drugs is easy, because many cannot afford to go to clinics.
Winehouse became a staple in popularity polls. The 2008 NME Awards nominated Winehouse in the categories of "Villain of the Year", "Best Solo Artist", and "Best Music DVD"; Winehouse won for "Worst Dressed Performer". In its third annual list, ''Glamour'' magazine named Winehouse the third worst dressed British Woman. Winehouse was ranked number two on Richard Blackwell's 48th annual "Ten Worst Dressed Women" list, behind Victoria Beckham. In an April 2008 poll conducted by Sky News, Winehouse was named the second greatest "ultimate heroine" by the UK population at large, topping the voting for that category of those polled under 25 years old. Psychologist Donna Dawson commented that the results demonstrate women like Winehouse who have "a certain sense of vulnerability or have had to fight against some adversity in their lives” receive recognition. Winehouse was voted the second most hated personality in the United Kingdom in a poll conducted one month later by ''Marketing'' magazine.
June 2008 brought a report that Winehouse, singing a disparaging chant about blacks, the disabled, and homosexuals, and containing racial epithets about Pakistanis and Indians, was taped by her husband Fielder-Civil, despite assurances to her that he was not filming. Winehouse denied allegations that she was a racist, saying "I don't want to play anything down, but I'm the least racist person going." Winehouse added that the film was taken during "really, really happy times." Speaking at a discussion entitled ''Winehouse or White House?: Do we go too big on showbiz news?'' Jeff Zycinski, head of BBC Radio Scotland, said the BBC and media in general were complicit in the destruction of celebrities like Winehouse. He said that public interest in the singer's lifestyle does not make her lifestyle newsworthy. Rod McKenzie editor of the BBC Radio One program ''Newsbeat'' replied that "If you play [Amy Winehouse's] music to a certain demographic, those same people want to know what's happening in her private life. If you don't cover it, you're insulting young license fee payers." The British artist M.I.A., credited with paving the way for Winehouse and Lily Allen to emerge during her absence, was quoted in ''The Guardian'' in 2007 as saying she found Winehouse "really interesting" continuing "I once saw her in the street and she was really out of it, so I guess she is really living it out. I think Amy's thing is feeling really weird about what she does and dealing with that." British singer and songwriter Lily Allen was quoted in a Scottish newspaper as saying
I know Amy Winehouse very well. And she is very different to what people portray her as being. Yes, she does get out of her mind on drugs sometimes, but she is also a very clever, intelligent, witty, funny person who can hold it together. You just don't see that side.
Among the awards and recognitions for ''Frank'', Winehouse earned an Ivor Novello Award for Best Contemporary Song ("Stronger Than Me"), a BRIT Award nomination for Best Female Solo Artist, and an inclusion in Robert Dimery's 2006 book, ''1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die''. ''Back to Black'' produced numerous nominations, including two from the BRIT Awards (Best Female Solo Artist and Best British Album), six from the Grammy Awards (including five wins), four from the Ivor Novello Awards, four from the MTV Europe Music Awards, three from the MTV Video Music Awards, three from the World Music Awards, and one each from the Mercury Prize (Album of the Year) and MOBO Awards (Best UK Female). During her career, Winehouse received 23 awards from 60 nominations.
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| name | Nick Cave |
|---|---|
| background | solo_singer |
| born | September 22, 1957Warracknabeal, Victoria, Australia |
| instrument | Guitar, piano, keyboards, vocals |
| genre | Post-punk, alternative rock, garage rock |
| occupation | Singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, writer, actor |
| years active | 1973–present |
| label | Mute |
| associated acts | Boys Next Door, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Grinderman, The Birthday Party |
| notable instruments | }} |
He is best known for his work as a frontman of the critically acclaimed rock band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, established in 1984, a group known for its eclectic influences and musical styles. Before that, he had fronted the group The Birthday Party in the early 1980s, a band renowned for its highly dark, challenging lyrics and violent sound influenced by free jazz, blues, and post-punk. In 2006, he formed the garage rock band Grinderman that released its debut the following year. Cave's music is generally characterised by emotional intensity, a wide variety of influences, and lyrical obsessions with "religion, death, love, America, and violence."
Upon Cave's induction into the ARIA Hall of Fame, ARIA Awards committee chairman Ed St John said, “Nick Cave has enjoyed—and continues to enjoy—one of the most extraordinary careers in the annals of popular music. He is an Australian artist like Sidney Nolan is an Australian artist—beyond comparison, beyond genre, beyond dispute."
Raised as an Anglican, Cave sang in the boys choir at Wangaratta Cathedral. He grew to detest the attitudes of small-town Australia, and he was often in trouble with the local school authorities, so his parents sent him to boarding school at Melbourne's Caulfield Grammar School in 1970. Cave joined the school choir under choirmaster Norman Kaye, and also benefited from having a piano in his home. The following year he became a "day boy" when his family moved to Murrumbeena, a suburb of Melbourne. Cave was 19 when his father was killed in a car accident; at the moment he was informed of this, his mother Dawn Cave was bailing him out of a St Kilda police station for a charge of burglary. Cave would later recall that his father "died at a point in my life when I was most confused", and "the loss of my father created in my life a vacuum, a space in which my words began to float and collect and find their purpose".
After his secondary schooling, Cave studied painting (Fine Art) at the Caulfield Institute of Technology (now Monash University, Caulfield Campus) in 1976, but dropped out in 1977 to pursue music. He also began using heroin around this time. On 28 March 2008, he received an honorary Doctor of Laws from this university.
In 1973, Cave met Mick Harvey (guitar), Phill Calvert (drums), John Cochivera (guitar), Brett Purcell (bass), and Chris Coyne (saxophone); fellow students at Caulfield Grammar. They founded a band with Cave as singer. Their repertoire consisted of proto-punk cover versions of songs by Lou Reed, David Bowie, Alice Cooper, Roxy Music and Alex Harvey, among others. Later, the line-up slimmed down to four members including Cave's friend Tracy Pew on bass. In 1977, after leaving school, they adopted the name The Boys Next Door and began playing predominantly original material. Guitarist and songwriter Rowland S. Howard joined the band in 1978, expanding to five members.
From 1977 until their dissolution in 1984 (by which time they were known as The Birthday Party) the band explored various styles. They were a part of Melbourne's post-punk music scene in the late 1970s, playing hundreds of live shows in Australia before changing their name to the Birthday Party in 1980 and moving to London, then West Berlin. Cave's Australian girlfriend and muse Anita Lane accompanied them to London. The band were notorious for their provocative live performances which featured Cave shrieking, bellowing and throwing himself about the stage, backed up by harsh pounding rock music laced with guitar feedback. At that time, Cave became a regular member of a gothic club in London called The Batcave.
After establishing a cult following in Europe and Australia, The Birthday Party disbanded in 1984. Howard and Cave found it difficult to continue working together and both were rather worn down from alcohol and drug use.
Critics Stephen Thomas Erlewine and Steve Huey write, "With the Bad Seeds, Cave continued to explore his obsessions with religion, death, love, America, and violence with a bizarre, sometimes self-consciously eclectic hybrid of blues, gospel, rock, and arty post-punk, although in a more subdued fashion than his work with the Birthday Party". Pitchfork Media calls the group one of rock's "most enduring, redoubtable" bands, with an accomplished discography.
Cave and the band curated an edition of the famous All Tomorrow's Parties music festival, the first in Australia, throughout the country in January 2009.
In addition to his performances with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Cave has, since the 1990s, performed live 'solo' tours with himself on piano/vocals, Warren Ellis on violin/accordion and various others on bass and drums. The current trio are Bad Seeds' Martyn P. Casey, Jim Sclavunos and Ellis (nicknamed the ''Mini-Seeds''). In 2006, this line-up, now including Cave on electric guitar, continued his 'solo' tours performing Bad Seeds material.
In the same year three other Bad Seeds, Mick Harvey, Thomas Wydler and James Johnston, undertook Harvey's first 'solo' tours of Europe and Australia performing material from his own albums. Melbourne double bassist Rosie Westbrook completed the quartet.
An album of new material by Cave's 'solo' quartet, now named Grinderman, was released in March 2007.
Nick Cave 'solo' and Grinderman both played at the All Tomorrow's Parties music festival in April 2007. This was Grinderman's first public performance. Bobby Gillespie from Primal Scream accompanied Grinderman on backing vocals and percussion.
Another early fan of Cave's was German director Wim Wenders, who lists Cave, along with Lou Reed and Portishead, as among his favorites. Two of Cave's songs were featured in his 1987 film ''Wings of Desire''. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds also make a cameo appearance in this film. Two more songs were included in Wenders' 1993 sequel ''Faraway, So Close!'', including the title track. The soundtrack for Wenders' 1991 film ''Until the End of the World'' features Cave's "(I'll Love You) Till the End of the World." His most recent production, ''Palermo Shooting'', also contains a Nick Cave song, as does his 2003 documentary ''The Soul of a Man''.
Cave's songs have also appeared in a number of Hollywood blockbusters and major TV shows. For instance, his "There is a Light" appears on the 1995 soundtrack for ''Batman Forever'', and "Red Right Hand" appeared in a number of films and TV shows, including ''The X-Files'', ''Dumb & Dumber''; ''Scream'', its sequels ''Scream 2'' and ''3'', and ''Hellboy'' (performed by Pete Yorn). In ''Scream 3'', the song was given a reworking with Cave writing new lyrics and adding an orchestra to the arrangement of the track. This version appears on The Bad Seeds B-Sides and Rarities album. The song "People Ain't No Good" was featured in the animated movie ''Shrek 2'', as well as in one of the episodes of the television series ''The L Word''. Cave also sang a cover of The Beatles' "Let It Be," for the 2001 film ''I Am Sam''.
Original material written for movie productions includes the song "To Be By Your Side," for the soundtrack of the 2001 French documentary ''Le Peuple Migrateur'' (called ''Winged Migration'' in the US). Cave composed the soundtrack for the 2005 film ''The Proposition'' with fellow Australian and Bad Seed Warren Ellis. Cave and Ellis once again collaborated on the music for the 2007 film ''The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford''. Also in 2007, Cave and Ellis wrote the soundtrack for the feature documentary ''The English Surgeon''. The duo also provided original music for ''The Road'' in 2009 and the soundtrack for the audiobook of Cave's novel ''The Death of Bunny Munro''.
Most recently, his song "Up Jumped the Devil" was featured in the Remedy-developed 2010 video game Alan Wake.
Cave's song "O Children" was featured in the 2010 movie, though not in the official soundtrack, of ''Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1.''
In 2000, one of Cave's heroes, Johnny Cash, covered Cave's "The Mercy Seat" on the album ''American III: Solitary Man'', seemingly repaying Cave for the compliment he paid by covering Cash's "The Singer" (originally "The Folk Singer") on his ''Kicking Against the Pricks'' album. Cave was then invited to be one of many rock and country artists to contribute to the liner notes of the retrospective ''The Essential Johnny Cash'' CD, released to coincide with Cash's 70th birthday. Subsequently, Cave cut a duet with Cash on a version of Hank Williams' "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" for Cash's ''American IV: The Man Comes Around'' album (2002). A similar duet, the American folk song "Cindy", was released posthumously on the "Johnny Cash: Unearthed" boxset. Cave's song "Let the Bells Ring" is a posthumous tribute to Cash. Cave has also covered the song "Wanted Man" which is best known as performed by Johnny Cash but is a Bob Dylan composition.
In 2004, Cave gave a hand to Marianne Faithfull on the album, ''Before the Poison''. He co-wrote and produced three songs ("Crazy Love", "There is a Ghost" and "Desperanto"), and the Bad Seeds are featured on all of them. He is also featured on "The Crane Wife" (originally by The Decemberists), on Faithfull's 2008 album, ''Easy Come, Easy Go''.
Cave collaborated with the band Current 93 on their album ''All the Pretty Little Horses'', where he sings the title track, a lullaby. For his 1996 album ''Murder Ballads'', Cave recorded "Where The Wild Roses Grow" with Kylie Minogue, and "Henry Lee" with P.J. Harvey.
Cave also took part in the "X-Files" compilation CD with some other artists, where he reads parts from the Bible combined with own texts, like "Time Jesum...", he outed himself as a fan of the series some years ago, but since he does not watch much TV, it was one of the only things he watched. He collaborated on the 2003 single "Bring It On", with Chris Bailey, formerly of the Australian punk group, The Saints. Cave contributed vocals to the song "Sweet Rosyanne", on the 2006 album ''Catch That Train!'' from Dan Zanes & Friends, a children's music group.
As proof of his interest in scripture, so evident in his lyrics and his prose writing, Cave wrote the foreword to a Canongate publication of the ''Gospel according to Mark'', published in the UK in 1998. The American edition of the same book (published by Grove Press) contains a foreword by the noted American writer Barry Hannah.
Cave and Ellis composed scores for a production by the Icelandic theatre company Vesturport of ''Woyzeck'' by Georg Büchner, performed at the Barbican Theatre in the Barbican Arts Centre in London in 2005, and a stage adaptation of Franz Kafka's ''The Metamorphosis'' at the Lyric Hammersmith in London in 2006.
Cave is a contributor to the 2009 rock biography on The Triffids ''Vagabond Holes: David McComb and the Triffids'', edited by Australian academics Niall Lucy and Chris Coughran.
Cave appeared in the 2005 homage to Leonard Cohen, ''Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man'', in which he performed "I'm Your Man" solo, and "Suzanne" with Julie Christensen and Perla Batalla. He also appeared in the 2007 film adaptation of Ron Hansen's novel ''The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford'', where he sings a song about Jesse James. Cave and Warren Ellis are credited for the film's soundtrack.
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds are also featured in Wim Wenders' 1987 film ''Wings of Desire''.
Displaying a keen interest in other aspects of film, Cave wrote the screenplay for ''The Proposition'', a film set in the colonial Australian Outback. Directed by John Hillcoat and filmed in Queensland in 2004, it premiered in October 2005 and has since been released worldwide to critical acclaim. The movie reviewer for British newspaper ''The Independent'' called it "peerless," "a star-studded and uncompromisingly violent outlaw film." It even features on a website promoting tourism to the area. The generally ambient soundtrack was recorded by Cave and Warren Ellis.
At the request of friend Russell Crowe, Cave wrote a script for a proposed sequel to ''Gladiator'' which was rejected by the studio.
His interest in the work of Edward Gorey led to his participation in the BBC Radio 3 programme, guest+host=ghost, featuring Peter Blegvad and the radiophonic sound of the Langham Research Centre.
Cave has also lent his voice in narrating an award winning animated film called ''The Cat Piano''. It was directed by Eddie White and Ari Gibson (of The People's Republic Of Animation), produced by Jessica Brentnall and has music by Benjamin Speed.
Cave wrote the screenplay for ''The Wettest County in the World''. He has also completed the script for a new film titled ''Death of a Ladies' Man'' and will rewrite the script of ''The Crow'' remake.
After completing his debut novel ''And the Ass Saw the Angel'', Cave left West Berlin shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall and moved to São Paulo, Brazil, where he met Brazilian journalist Viviane Carneiro. The two have a son, Luke (b. 10 May 1991), but never married. Cave's son Jethro (born in 1991) lives with his mother, Beau Lazenby, in Australia and has a career in modelling.
Cave briefly dated PJ Harvey during the mid 1990s. The love affair and their break-up inspired him to write the album ''The Boatman's Call''.
He met British model Susie Bick in 1997. A cover star of the Damned's 1985 album ''Phantasmagoria'' and a Vivienne Westwood model, she gave up her job when they married in summer 1999. They have twin sons, Arthur and Earl (born in 2000). Cave and Bick lived for some time on a houseboat near Hove. They currently live in Brighton and Hove, England.
Cave performed "Into My Arms" at the televised funeral of Michael Hutchence, but refused to play in front of the cameras. Cave is godfather of Hutchence's only child, Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily.
In the past, Cave identified as a Christian. In his recorded lectures on music and songwriting, he has claimed that any true love song is a song for God and has ascribed the mellowing of his music to a shift in focus from the Old to the New Testaments. He does not belong to a particular denomination and has distanced himself from "religion as being an American thing, in which the name of God has been hijacked". In an interview in ''The Guardian'' in 2009, he said: "Do I personally believe in a personal God? No." He elaborated in a recent ''Los Angeles Times'' article: "I'm not religious, and I'm not a Christian, but I do reserve the right to believe in the possibility of a god. It's kind of defending the indefensible, though; I'm critical of what religions are becoming, the more destructive they're becoming. But I think as an artist, particularly, it's a necessary part of what I do, that there is some divine element going on within my songs.".
Category:1957 births Category:Alternative rock musicians Category:ARIA Award winners Category:ARIA Hall of Fame inductees Category:Australian male singers Category:Australian novelists Category:Australian songwriters Category:People educated at Caulfield Grammar School Category:Gothic rock musicians Category:Living people Category:People from Wangaratta Category:Australian expatriates in the United Kingdom Category:Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds members Category:People from Brighton and Hove (district) Category:Post-punk musicians
af:Nick Cave bs:Nick Cave ca:Nick Cave cs:Nick Cave da:Nick Cave de:Nick Cave et:Nick Cave el:Νικ Κέιβ es:Nick Cave eo:Nick Cave eu:Nick Cave fa:نیک کیو fr:Nick Cave gl:Nick Cave hr:Nick Cave it:Nick Cave he:ניק קייב ka:ნიკ კეივი lt:Nick Cave hu:Nick Cave nl:Nick Cave ja:ニック・ケイヴ no:Nick Cave nn:Nick Cave pl:Nick Cave pt:Nick Cave ru:Кейв, Ник sk:Nick Cave sh:Nick Cave fi:Nick Cave sv:Nick Cave tr:Nick Cave uk:Нік КейвThis text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
| name | Dustin the Turkey |
|---|---|
| background | solo_singer |
| born | 13 November 1989 |
| origin | Dublin, Ireland |
| nationality | Irish |
| occupation | Singer, TV presenter |
| years active | 1989–present |
| website | }} |
Dustin the Turkey is a puppet, "television presenter" and star of RTÉ television's ''The Den'' since 1989. A "turkey vulture" with a strong Dublin accent, Dustin is voiced by John Morrison, brother of Ciaran Morrison who was one of the creators of Zig and Zag. Dustin first appeared on ''The Den'' with Zig and Zag in 1990, but remained with the show after their 1994 departure to Channel 4. He also outlasted four human co-hosts, all of whom moved to radio, Ian Dempsey, Ray D'Arcy, Damien McCaul and Francis Boylan Jr. Dustin's achievements include a musical career with chart-topping singles. Dustin won the public vote to represent Ireland at the Eurovision Song Contest 2008 with the song ''Irelande Douze Pointe'' but failed to progress past the first semi-final stage. In 2008 he made an appearance on ITV talent contest X factor's extra show.
These albums have featured backing vocals from many Irish stars including Bob Geldof, Boyzone and the late Joe Dolan. Many of his songs are parodies of either folk songs or well known chart hits from across the decades. He made the news in Britain in December 1996 when he was number one in Ireland with his songs "Christmas Tree" and "Rat Trap" (a cover version of The Boomtown Rats song which he sang with Bob Geldof, and made fun of him throughout), when in just about every other country the Christmas number one spot went to the Spice Girls with their song "2 Become 1".
Dustin performed his song in the first semi-final on 20 May and "brought down the house". Dustin failed to progress beyond the Eurovision semi-final.
He is a UNICEF ambassador.
Dustin has been an Ambassador for UNICEF Ireland since late 2009 and visited the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa, where he found out at firsthand the impact of HIV/AIDS on communities and children and ways that UNICEF is working to help very young children cope.
Dustin was also the subject of the documentary Dustin: 20 Years a Pluckin'.
Category:Irish television personalities Category:Puppets Category:Irish Eurovision Song Contest entrants Category:Eurovision Song Contest entrants of 2008 Category:Fictional flightless birds
de:Dustin the Turkey et:Dustin the Turkey es:El pavo Dustin ga:Dustin Turcaí it:Dustin the Turkey he:דסטין תרנגול ההודו nl:Dustin the Turkey pl:Dustin the Turkey pt:Dustin the Turkey ru:Dustin the Turkey fi:Dustin the Turkey sv:Dustin the Turkey tr:Hindi DustinThis text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
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