- Mariah Carey
Mariah Carey (born March 27 1970) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, music video director and actress. Her debut was in 1990 under the guidance of Columbia Records executive Tommy Mottola and became the first recording act to have its first five singles top the U.S. "Billboard" Hot 100 chart. Following her marriage to Mottola in 1993, a series of hit records established her position as Columbia's highest-selling act. - Whitney Houston
Whitney Elizabeth Houston (born August 9, 1963) is an American pop and R&B singer, songwriter, actress, film producer, and former model. One of the most successful singers of all time, she has sold approximately 170 million albums and singles, and is ranked as the fourth best selling female artist is American music history according to the RIAA. She is well known for her vocal power, control, range and coloratura soprano voice. - Diana Ross
Diana Ross (born Diane Ernestine Earle Ross on March 26, 1944) is an American singer and actress, whose musical repertoire spans R&B, soul, disco, jazz, and pop. Ross first gained prominence as lead of the successful girl group The Supremes, before establishing a successful solo career in 1970. During the 1970s and 1980s, Ross became one of the most successful female artists of the rock era, also crossing over into film, television and Broadway. - Fred Bronson
Fredric M. Bronson is an American journalist, author and writer. He is best known for the weekly "Chart Beat" column in "Billboard magazine", and as the author of books related to "Billboard" charts. Born on January 10,1949 to Irving and Mildred Bronson and raised in California, Bronson showed an early aptitude for gauging the popularity of artists and songs. - Michael W. Smith
Michael Whitaker Smith (born October 7, 1957, to Paul and Barbara Smith in Kenova, West Virginia), often nicknamed "Smitty", is a Christian singer, songwriter, guitarist, and keyboardist. Since his first solo project in 1983, Smith has become one of the most popular artists in the Contemporary Christian music world, while also finding considerable success in the mainstream. - Perry Como
Pierino Ronald "Perry" Como (May 18 1912 - May 12 2001) was an American crooner. During a career spanning more than half a century he recorded exclusively for the RCA Victor label after signing with it in 1943. He sold millions of records for RCA and also pioneered a weekly musical variety television show, which set the standards for the genre and proved to be one of the most successful in television history. - Foxy Brown
Vocalist Foxy Brown was born in Jamaica as Jenniffer Esmerelda Hylton. Her first introduction to the reggae charts were via the Steely & Clevie-produced versions of 'Fast Car' and '(Sorry) Baby Can I Hold You Tonight', the latter even entering Billboard's Black Singles Chart. She has also made a hit together with Johnny P called 'If you Love Me'. Discography: * "Foxy", 1989, RAS Records * "My Kind of Girl", 1990, … - Buck Owens
Alvis Edgar "Buck" Owens, Jr. was an American singer and guitarist, with twenty number-one hits on the Billboard magazine country music charts. Both as a solo artist and with his band, the Buckaroos (so named by Merle Haggard, a former bandmate), Buck Owens pioneered what has come to be called the Bakersfield sound-a reference to Bakersfield, California, the city Owens called home and from which he drew inspiration for what he preferred to call "American Music". - Michael Bolton
Michael Bolotin (born February 26, 1953), better known as Michael Bolton, is an American singer-songwriter, known for his soft rock ballads and powerful singing vocals. His achievements include selling 53 million albums, eight top ten albums, two number one singles on the Billboard charts, and awards from both the American Music Awards and Grammy Awards. - Joan Jett
Joan Jett (born Joan Marie Larkin on September 22, 1958) is an American rock guitarist, singer, producer and actress. She is best known for her hit single "I Love Rock N' Roll," which was #1 on the Billboard charts from March 20 to May 8, 1982, … - Joel Whitburn
Joel Carver Whitburn (born November 29, 1939 in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin) is an American author and music historian. Whitburn founded Record Research Inc. in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, in 1970. Joel put together a team of researchers to examine in detail all of "Billboard"'s music and video charts. Record Research publishes reference books based on data from the various popular music charts and to date has published 86 books, … - Timothy White
Timothy White (January 25, 1952 - June 27, 2002) was a noted rock music journalist and editor. White began his journalism career as a writer for the Associated Press, but soon gravitated towards music writing. He was an editor for the rock magazine "Crawdaddy" in the late 1970s and a senior editor for "Rolling Stone" magazine in the early 1980s. He was editor-in-chief of "Billboard" from 1991 until his death at age 50 of a heart attack in 2002. - John Prine
John Prine (born October 10, 1946, in Maywood, Illinois) is an American country/folk singer-songwriter who has achieved widespread critical (and some commercial) success since the early 1970s. Prine is the son of William Prine and Verna Hamm. His grandfather had played guitar with Merle Travis, and Prine himself started playing guitar at age 14. He was a postman for five years and served in the Army before beginning his musical career in Chicago. - Chuck Taylor
Chuck Taylor has covered radio and the entertainment industry for the past 20 years, and has worked at Billboard since October 1995. At Billboard, he has worked as Senior Editor/Talent, Senior Writer, Radio Editor and columnist of AirWaves, and Managing Editor of Top 40/AC for Billboard Radio Monitor, senior editor/features and AC format editor for Radio & Records, and Billboard’s Single Reviews Editor. Taylor has written page 1 profiles on artists that span the decades, … - Madonna
Madonna Louise Ciccone Ritchie (born August 16 1958), better known as Madonna, is an American dance-pop singer-songwriter, record and film producer, dancer, actress, author and fashion icon. She is noted for her ambitious music videos and stage performances as well as using political, sexual, and religious themes in her work. In 2000, The Guinness World Records listed Madonna as the most successful female recording artist of all time, … - Gloria Gaynor
Gloria Gaynor (born Gloria Fowles September 7, 1949) is an American singer, best-known for the disco era hits "I Will Survive" (Hot 100 #1, 1979), "Never Can Say Goodbye" (Hot 100 #9, 1974), and "I Am What I Am" (Hot 100 #82, 1983). She was born in Newark, New Jersey. - Jim Brickman
Jim Brickman (born November 20, 1961) is an American composer and contemporary pianist. Brickman is known for his original solo piano compositions, which are classified as new age music. However, he is as well known for his original love songs and performing them with vocalists such as Anne Cochran, Hillary Scott, Martina McBride, Michael W. Smith, Michelle Wright and others. - Tracy Lawrence
Tracy Lawrence (born 27 January 1968) is an American country singer-songwriter. - Fantasia Barrino
Fantasia Monique Barrino (born June 30 1984), or simply Fantasia, is a Grammy nominated, award-winning, American pop, R&B, soul singer and Broadway actress who rose to fame as the winner of the third season of the television series "American Idol" in 2004. Her first album, "Free Yourself", was a commercial success, earning her three Grammy nominations and selling over 2.1 million copies. - Hank Thompson
Hank Thompson (born September 3, 1925 in Waco, Texas) is a country music entertainer whose career has spanned seven decades and who has sold over 60 million records worldwide. Thompson's musical style, characterized as Honky Tonk Swing, is a mixture of big-band instrumentation, fiddle and steel guitar that supports his distinctive, gravelly baritone vocals on songs he often writes himself. - Smokie Norful
Rev. W.R. "Smokie" Norful, Jr. is an American gospel singer and pianist, best known for his 2002 album "I Need You Now" and his 2004 release, "Nothing Without You," which won a Grammy for Best Contemporary Soul Gospel Album in 2005. Norful, a minister who is also the son of an African Methodist Episcopal Church minister, was born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas but grew up in Muskogee, Oklahoma, deeply involved in his father's church. - Charley Pride
Charley Frank Pride (born March 18, 1938) is a country music artist. During his career, he has had thirty-six number-one hits on the "Billboard" Hot Country Songs charts. - Celia Cruz
Celia Cruz was a three-time Grammy Award and four-time Latin Grammy winning Afro-Cuban-American salsa singer who spent most of her career living in New Jersey, and working in the United States and several Latin American countries. Cruz was one of the most successful Cuban performers of the 20th century, with twenty-three gold albums to her name and has earned the moniker "La guarachera de Cuba". - Michael Bublé
Michael Steven Bublé is a critically acclaimed Grammy-nominated, multiple Juno Award-winning Canadian crooner, big band singer and actor. While achieving modest chart success in the United States, his 2003 self-titled album has reached the top ten in Canada, the UK and Australia. In 2004, a live album and video called "Come Fly with Me" was listed on the Billboard music video charts and reached Australia's top 40 album charts. - Bobby Vee
Bobby Vee (born April 30 1943) is an American pop music singer. Born Robert Thomas Velline in Fargo, North Dakota, United States, his 1961 summer release "Take Good Care of My Baby" went to No.1 on the Billboard U.S. and number 3 on the UK singles chart (according to EveryHit.com). Known primarily as a performer of Brill Building pop material, he went on to record a string of international hits in the 1960s, including "Devil or Angel", … - Roy Rogers
Roy Rogers (born July 28, 1950, Redding, California) is a highly acclaimed American slide guitarist and music producer from Northern California. He was named after the singing cowboy, Roy Rogers. Rogers plays a variety guitar styles related to the Delta blues, but is most often recognized for his slide work. In the 1980's Rogers was a member of John Lee Hooker's Coast to Coast Band. Rogers produced and/or played on several of Hooker's best-known albums, … - Jody Watley
Jody Watley (born Chicago, Illinois on January 30, 1959) is an American pop singer/songwriter, producer and label owner. To date, Jody Watley has sold over 20 million albums and singles worldwide. Along with Janet Jackson and Madonna, ranks as one of MTV Video Music Awards most nominated female artists ever, with ten nominations. She won the 1988 Grammy Award for Best New Artist. She ranks as the #144 most successful R&B artist of all time according to Billboard Magazine. - Deborah Gibson
Deborah Ann "Debbie" Gibson (born August 31, 1970), is an American singer-songwriter who was a teen pop icon. Her popularity with her dedicated fanbase remains today. At age seventeen (and ten months), Gibson was the youngest person to write, produce, and perform a Billboard Hot 100 #1 hit single (in the U.S.) with her song "Foolish Beat". - Chris Cox
Chris Cox is a dance music producer, remixer, and DJ and has worked on over 400 records. He has had a total of 40 Billboard dance chart number ones as part of the hitmaking remix team Thunderpuss, and others with Pusaka and as a solo artist. He was nominated for a Grammy in 2004 for his production work with Cher. He has remixed records for Janet Jackson, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Madonna, Michelle Branch, Stacie Orrico, Hilary Duff, Mylene Farmer, Donna Summer, … - Seymour Stein
Seymour Stein (born 1942 in Brooklyn, New York) is an entrepreneur in the music industry who has been a part of the business since getting his first job as a clerk for Billboard Magazine in 1958. - Billy Dean
Billy Dean (born April 2, 1962 in Quincy, Florida) is an American country music singer and songwriter. Dean first became known to fans in the early 1990s with his appearance on "Star Search." He later earned a recording contract with Capitol Records and rose to national stardom with a string of Top 10 hits on Billboard magazine's country singles chart. His debut song, 1991's "Only Here For a Little While," rose into the Top 5, while the follow up, … - Sundance
Sundance is a female hip-house rapper from Chicago, Illinois. She was the featured performer on Fast Eddie's 1989 number one Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play hit "Git On Up." - Lynn Anderson
Lynn Rene Anderson (born September 26, 1947) is a Grammy Award-winning, American country music singer. She was a consistent hit maker during the 1970s, but is perhaps best known for her 1970 crossover hit, "(I Never Promised You a) Rose Garden", which topped the country and pop charts around the world. Her sophisticated image and Countrypolitan sound helped her to become one of the first female country artists to achieve mass crossover appeal. - Nicolette Larson
Nicolette Larson was an American singer best known for her cover version of Neil Young's "Lotta Love", which peaked at #8 on Billboard Magazine's Hot 100 chart in February 1979, as well as hitting #1 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart. Larson sang backing vocals on the Van Halen song "Could This Be Magic?" and on Neil Young's recording of Ian Tyson's "Four Strong Winds". She also sang secondary vocals on the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's hit "Make A Little Magic". - Duke
Duke, whose real name is Mark Adams, is a male dance vocalist/songwriter/composer/producer who was born and raised in England. His vocal range can go to a high-pitched falsetto to deep soul, which is why he is considered by many to be the wonderboy of white soul. He had two top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart: His deep house version of "So In Love With You," which was his biggest hit, reaching #1 in 1997, … - Vic Damone
Vic Damone (born June 12, 1928 in Brooklyn, New York) is an Italian American singer. He was born Vito Rocco Farinola. - Bobby Rydell
Bobby Rydell (born Robert Louis Ridarelli, April 26, 1942 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American teen idol from the early 1960s era of Rock and Roll. - Roy Brown
Roy Brown (10 September 1925 - 25 May 1981) was a blues musician who brought a soul singing style (from gospel music) to the emerging genre of rock and roll. Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, Brown started as a gospel singer. His mother was an accomplished singer and organist in church. After a move to Los Angeles, California some time in the 1940s, and a brief period spent as a professional boxer in the welterweight category, … - Nelson George
Nelson George (b. September 1, 1957) is an African American author, music and culture critic, journalist, and filmmaker. He has been nominated twice for the National Book Critics Circle Award. He attended St. John's University, after which he served as a music editor for Billboard magazine from 1982 to 1989. While there, George published two books; "Where Did Our Love Go: The Rise and Fall of the Motown Sound" in 1986, … - Chris Young
Christopher Alan Young (born June 12, 1985 in Murfreesboro, Tennessee) is an American singer and songwriter, specializing in neotraditional country music. On May 2, 2006, Young was declared the winner of Season 4 of the country music reality television singing competition "Nashville Star". On June 10, 2006 Young appeared on the Grand Ole Opry and performed the single "Drinkin' Me Lonely." His debut album was released October 3, 2006, …
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