Akon is a Senegalese American R&B recording artist and songwriter.
According to Forbes, Akon grossed $21 million in 2010, $20 million in 2009 and $12 million in 2008. He rose to prominence in 2004 following the release of "Locked Up", the first single from his debut album Trouble. His second album, Konvicted, earned him a Grammy Award nomination of the single "Smack That". He has since founded two record labels, Konvict Muzik and Kon Live Distribution.
Akon often sings hooks for other artists and is currently credited with over 300 guest appearances and 45 Billboard Hot 100 songs. He has worked with numerous performers such as Michael Jackson, R. Kelly, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Quincy Jones, Eminem and Whitney Houston. He is the first solo artist to hold both the number one and two spots simultaneously on the Billboard Hot 100 charts twice. He has had six Grammy Awards nominations and has produced many hits for artists such as Lady Gaga, Colby O'Donis and Leona Lewis. Lady Gaga and T-Pain are two artists who were given their chance at fame by Akon. Akon is betting on his new signed artist Jeffree Star on being the next biggest pop star.
Rain is a South Korean pop and R&B singer, dancer, model, actor, businessman, and designer.
Rain's musical career includes seven albums (six Korean, one Japanese), 19 singles and numerous concert tours around the world. His acting career began in 2003, when he won the KBS Best New Actor award for his role in the drama Sang Doo! Let's Go To School. In 2004, Rain won the KBS Excellence in Acting award for his role in the drama Full House. After starring in A Love To Kill, he acted in his first Korean film, I'm a Cyborg, But That's OK (2006), which won the Alfred Bauer Prize at the Berlin International Film Festival. Rain has acted in the American films Speed Racer (2008) and Ninja Assassin (2009), the latter of which made him the first Korean to win an MTV award.
In 2007, Rain left the management of JYP Entertainment and started his own company, J. Tune Entertainment.
Maroon 5 is an American rock band from Los Angeles, California. While they were in high school, lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Adam Levine, keyboardist Jesse Carmichael, bass guitarist Mickey Madden, and drummer Ryan Dusick formed a garage band called Kara's Flowers and released one album in 1997. After a brief period they re-formed with guitarist James Valentine, and pursued a new direction as Maroon 5. The following year they released their debut album Songs About Jane, which contained four hit singles: "Harder to Breathe", "This Love", "She Will Be Loved" and "Sunday Morning"; it also enjoyed major chart success, going gold, platinum, and triple platinum in many countries around the world.
In support of Songs About Jane, Maroon 5 toured extensively throughout 2003–2005, during which time two live albums were released. The band won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 2005. Dusick left the band in September 2006, citing injuries sustained by constant touring, and was replaced by Matt Flynn. Maroon 5's second studio album It Won't Be Soon Before Long was released in 2007, with the singles "Makes Me Wonder", "Won't Go Home Without You" and "Wake Up Call". The band performed live in two tours between June and November 2007, during which time a compilation of previously unreleased songs, The B-Side Collection, was released. Some other popular songs were "Harder to Breathe" and "She Will Be Loved".
Two more live albums and a remix album were issued in 2008. Maroon 5's third studio album Hands All Over was released in the United States on September 21, 2010. Since debuting in 2002, the band has sold over 10 million albums in the United States and nearly 15 million worldwide.
In 2007 the band partnered with the climate change charity Global Cool and the NME to help combat global warming.
Alexander Rybak is a Norwegian singer-composer, violinist, pianist, writer, and actor. Representing Norway in the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow, Russia, Rybak won the contest with 387 points—the highest tally any country has achieved in the history of Eurovision—with "Fairytale", a song he wrote and composed. His debut album, Fairytales, charted in the top 20 in nine European countries, including a #1 position in Norway and Russia.
On January 30, 2010, Rybak performed one of his new singles, "Europe Skies", in national final, Euroviisut 2010, to select the 2010 Finnish entry at the Eurovision Song Contest 2010. On March 12, 2010, Alexander Rybak performed his Eurovision 2009 winning song "Fairytale" on UK TV show Eurovision: Your Country Needs You. In April 2010, Rybak released a new song, featuring Opptur, called "Fela Igjen". Alexander released his second album on June 14, 2010, called No Boundaries. It was not as successuful as his first album, so far it has peaked at number 7 in Norway, number 8 in Sweden and 32 in Finland. On January 7, 2011, Rybak was one of twelve contestant on the next Swedish season of the dancing show Let's dance also known as Dancing with the stars, in the show Rybak danced to win the competition against other Swedish celebrities. Rybak made it to the Top 4 before being voted off on March 11, having received the lowest scores from both juries and the voting public.
Lena is a German singer-songwriter. She represented Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 in Oslo, Norway, and won the contest with the song "Satellite". With her three entries from the German national final Unser Star für Oslo (Our Star for Oslo), Meyer-Landrut set an all-time chart record in her home country by debuting with three songs in the top five of the German singles chart. Both "Satellite" and her first album My Cassette Player debuted at number one in Germany, while the former has been certified double Platinum since, the album has been certified five times Gold for sales of over 500,000 units. Meyer-Landrut represented Germany, for the second consecutive time, in the Eurovision Song Contest at Düsseldorf in 2011 with the song "Taken by a Stranger".
Push Play was a pop rock band formed on Long Island, NY. The band consisted of CJ Baran (lead singer, rhythm guitar, keyboards), Steve Scarola (lead guitar, keyboards, backing vocals), Nick Deturris (bass) and Derek Ries (drums). The band had found success without a label by utilizing social networking and selling their albums on iTunes and other online music vendors.
Their lastest album Found was released on September 29, 2009.
In April 2010, CJ confirmed on the band's twitter that they have officially broken up because of irreconcilable differences.
