Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Who is Robin Charles Thicke?


Who is Robin Charles Thicke? The world knows hims as Robin Thicke, he is an American Grammy Award winning singer, songwriter, musician, composer, and occasional actor.

Robin was born March 10, 1977 and is the son of actor Alan Thicke and his first wife, Days of our Lives actress, Gloria Loring. They divorced when he was 7. Throughout his childhood, he would be exposed to music by Bruce Springsteen courtesy of his father, as well as Luther Vandross and Whitney Houston courtesy of his mother.[2]






In 2004 Thicke won his first Grammy award for his collaborations on Usher's 2004 release Confessions. As an artist, he recorded and performed solely under his surname, Thicke. He would continue to do so until 2005. On June 11, 2005, Thicke married actress Paula Patton,.[3]

In 2000, Robin, who simply went by his last name Thicke, went to work on material for his debut album, initially entitled Cherry Blue Skies. The album focused more on blue-eyed soul, than his pop-offerings for other artists.
In 2002, Robin Thicke released his debut single "When I Get You Alone". The track samples Walter Murphy's "A Fifth of Beethoven", which itself is a disco rendition of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. The music video for the song features an unshaven Thicke, with long, wild hair, as a courier racing through the streets of Manhattan on a bicycle. It received some rotation on MTV2 and BET's Rated Next and was spun moderately on urban radio. Globally, however, "When I Get You Alone" became a chart success when it peaked within the top 20 in Australia, Belgium, and Italy, and reached the top ten of the singles charts in New Zealand and the top three in the Netherlands. The tune was featured for the soundtrack of Agent Cody Banks.

The moderate success was enough to signal the release of the album, with its name changed to A Beautiful World. Despite the release of a second single, "Brand New Jones", the album received very little promotion, and debuted at a low number 152 on the Billboard 200, eventually selling 63,000 copies domestically.[4]

The song "When I Get You Alone" was performed by Guy Sebastian the eventual winner of Australian Idol 2003 during the competition. Runner-up Blake Lewis performed it during the 2007 season of American Idol when the top 3 chose a song to sing. Lewis has often put Robin Thicke in his list of musical influences in interviews and on the American Idol website.

In 2005, Thicke performed as a guest on the remix of Will Smith's song, "Switch". After being signed to The Neptunes label, Star Trak, he began working on his second album entitled The Evolution of Robin Thicke. The first single, "Wanna Love U Girl", featured producer Pharrell and experienced chart success on urban radio in the United Kingdom. For the video, Thicke changed his appearance, cutting off his trademark long hair. In 2006, a remix version of the song was filmed with rapper Busta Rhymes.





Nearly a year after the single was released, the album was released on October 3, 2006. The Evolution of Robin Thicke includes songs with Lil Wayne and Faith Evans (on "Got 2 Be Down"), as well as Pharrell. To promote the album Thicke toured with India.Arie, and then opened for John Legend in late 2006.







His second single, the ballad "Lost Without U" began getting a lot of radio airplay in Urban & Rhythmic stations towards the end of 2006 and early 2007. He also sang it on Oprah and American Idol. With the assistance of radio airplay the song became his breakout hit, reaching as high as number fourteen on the Billboard Hot 100, and number one on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, the first Caucasian male artist to top that chart since George Michael.[5] The singer performed this popular single on Good Morning America in June. He appears in the music video of this single with his wife, actress Paula Patton. The video is currently on Big Ten rotation on MTV, where it is also a Discover and Download artist. The song has also been remixed by Boston's Termanology.





















With album sales over 1.5 million copies sold domestically after the re-release as a Deluxe Edition (with three new bonus tracks) on February 13, 2007, The Evolution of Robin Thicke has become a commercial success in the United States. The album has currently peaked at number five on the Billboard 200 and number one on the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart [4], garnering Thicke his first R&B number one album of his career. In March 2007, The Evolution of Robin Thicke was certified Platinum by the RIAA. Thicke and his record label Interscope soon considered potential tracks to be released as the album's next and third single. Thicke's preference was the track "Can U Believe", which has since peaked at number fifteen on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and at number ninety-nine on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. [5] [6] On October 2, 2007 the track "Got 2 Be Down" was released as the album's fourth official single. The single, to date, has peaked at number sixty on Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks.[5]

In April 2007, Thicke co-wrote a song with Mexican-American singer Angela Via called "Wrong for You", a single from Via's forthcoming album. He also appeared on 50 Cent's album "Curtis" (released September 11, 2007) on a song called "Follow My Lead".
Thicke was the opening act for Beyoncé's U.S. tour in 2007, The Beyoncé Experience. [7] He performed during the North American leg of the tour only. He also performed a one off UK concert in London's Koko Arena on the 24th of September in 2007. He has also worked with Ashanti on her new album "The Declaration" released on June 3,2008.[6][7]
Thicke was enlisted by producer Polow da Don to play piano on the Usher track, "Love in This Club".[8] Thicke made a guest appearance on the Lil Wayne album Tha Carter III. The track is titled "Tie My Hands" and is also produced by Thicke himself. He also sang on "Shooter", from Lil Wayne's Tha Carter II.

Thicke released his third solo album, entitled Something Else, on September 30th, 2008,[9] and reached number three on the Billboard 200 charts. The first single from the album was "Magic" a further expansion of the sultry, classic R&B sound that powered his 2006 breakthrough, "The Evolution of Robin Thicke." The song was introduced on July 13, 2008 at the Miss Universe 2008 pageant. It was the background music for the 'Evening Wear' competition of the pageant. "Magic" also features in a television commercial in Europe for Samsung mobile phones. The album received four stars in People magazine, which deemed Thicke "the most soulful white guy on the planet."

Robin also wrote and produced the title track for the movie "Push" starring his wife Paula Patton. The film recently won at Sundance and was picked up by Liongate with the help of Oprah and Tyler Perry.
http://www.robinthicke.com/
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Who is Wayne Alphonso Brady?

Who is Wayne Alphonso Brady?[1] The world knows him as Wayne Brady, he is an Emmy Award-winning and Grammy Award-nominated American actor, singer, comedian and television personality, known for his work as a regular on the American version of the improvisational comedy television series Whose Line Is It Anyway?, and as the host of the daytime talk show The Wayne Brady Show. Currently, he is the host of FOX's Don't Forget the Lyrics!


Brady was born June 2, 1972, he graduate from Dr. Phillips High School in Orlando, Fl. Brady's career began as one of the improvisational theater performers in the British version of Whose Line Is It Anyway?, along with Ryan Stiles, Colin Mochrie, and host Clive Anderson, to which he became a regular on the American version, hosted by Drew Carey. In 2003, Brady won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety, Musical or Comedy Series for his work on the show, the only person to win the award for a television series, as opposed to a special, since Dana Carvey in 1993.








He went on to star in his own ABC variety show in 2001 called The Wayne Brady Show, which failed, and a daytime talk show of the same name in 2002, which lasted two seasons and won four Daytime Emmy Awards, two of which went to Brady for Outstanding Talk Show Host. Brady also guest-starred on The Drew Carey Show in 1999 and 2000 to take part in Drew Live and Drew Live II. On the show, Brady played several games taken from Whose Line Is It Anyway? for the two episodes with other characters.











In 2004, Brady joined the long-running Broadway revival of Chicago, playing the role of lawyer Billy Flynn. He also appeared briefly in the final episode of the 2004 season of the comedy Reno 911!. Additionally, Wayne guest starred on the Sci Fi Channel's hit series show Stargate SG-1 as the first-prime of the Goa'uld System Lord, Ares.
Brady wrote and sang the theme song for Disney's popular animated series The Weekenders. In 2005, he sang and recorded Jim Brickman's original Disney song "Beautiful" (a cover of All-4-One's 2002 hit "Beautiful As U") and its Christmas version.[2]
In 2006, Brady became the host of TV Land's That's What I'm Talking About, a talk show discussing the role of African-Americans in the entertainment industry From August 29 - September 29, 2006, Brady hosted the FOX show Celebrity Duets.












On November 27, 2006, Brady made a guest appearance on the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, playing James, the gay brother of Neil Patrick Harris's character Barney. His character conflicts with Barney due to his choice to marry and adopt a baby. Brady returned to the show in 2007 in the episode The Yips, in which he is shown to be indirectly responsible for Barney's current superconfident personality. He had also appeared as a guest star for the MTV show Nick Cannon's Wild 'N Out. Brady also helps with Adult Swim TV show Robot Chicken.
















Brady has also gone "north-of-the-border" and guest starred in Colin Mochrie's CBC comedy, Getting Along Famously. He has also appeared on the episode "You Don't Know Jack" on the television show Dirt and also guest starred on the show 30 Rock, where he played the role of Steven Black, Liz Lemon's date for The Source Awards. Steven and Liz's relationship quickly ended when they discovered they had nothing in common and Liz accidentally shot him in the buttocks.
Brady was the co-host of the short-lived VH1 show "Vinyl Justice" in 1998. In 2007, ABC Family premiered the movie called "The List" starring Wayne Brady. The List is about a man who proposes to his girlfriend. When she says no, he begins to make a list of qualities he believes his "Perfect Woman" should have.
Brady guest starred as Julius Rock's gifted younger brother, Louis, in the television series, Everybody Hates Chris. He currently hosts a singing game show called Don't Forget the Lyrics! on FOX. He also performs "Wayne Brady: Making it up" at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada four nights a week.[3][4] He was also on two episodes of Kevin Hill. Wayne's debut album was released on September 16, 2008. The song "A Change is Gonna Come", a cover of the popular 1964 single by Sam Cooke, earned Brady a Grammy nomination in the Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance category.[5]


Brady has successfully carved out a career and public image through his various family-friendly projects and roles, and because of this, he has also sometimes been the subject of mocking satire and claims that he acts "too white".

Show creator and star Dave Chappelle later called to apologize to Brady and offered him a guest spot on the show. In the episode, Brady is hired to host the series after Chappelle "quits" the series. Toward the end of the episode, Chappelle returns, and the two co-star in a flashback sequence (which parodies the 2001 film Training Day), in which Brady reveals himself to be a violent, sociopathic pimp who torments Chappelle when the two spend the night hanging out together. Among the acts of depravity Brady commits is a drive-by shooting, the murder of a police officer, and forcing Chappelle to smoke PCP.








As a joke from what Paul Mooney said, Wayne Brady himself says "I make Bryant Gumbel look like Malcolm X huh motherfucker?" right after a flashback of Paul Mooney saying it. Some of the lines from the sketch include Wayne Brady telling a prostitute who worked for him, "Is Wayne Brady gonna have to choke a bitch?", "This is not an option nigga, if you do not smoke this then we have a problem," (to Chappelle in reference to the PCP), "I don't give a fuck, they cancelled my show, and shit goes crazy!" (after murdering a police officer who pulled him over), and, later, "I'm Wayne Brady, bitch!" (after shooting Dave Chappelle in the leg), a reference to Chappelle's catch phrase for his impersonation of Rick James, "I'm Rick James, bitch!", both of which became oft-repeated memes.











Brady married his wife Mandie in 1999, but according to documents filed August 10, 2007, she filed for divorce from Wayne, citing irreconcilable differences.[6] The couple finalized their divorce on April 16, 2008. They have one child, Maile Masako Brady.
In 2007, Wayne became an official supporter of Ronald McDonald House Charities and is a member of their celebrity board, called the Friends of RMHC.[7] more

Who is Luigi "Geno" Auriemma?

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