Robyn Rihanna Fenty (born February 20, 1988), known by her stage name, Rihanna, is a Bajan singer. Her song Umbrella was one of the highest-selling songs of 2007 and her 3rd album Good Girl Gone Bad was critically acclaimed, helping propel her to superstar status. She has attained nine Billboard Hot 100 number ones thus far and is the second Bajan artist to win a Grammy Award. She is also a cultural ambassador for Barbados. Rihanna was born in Saint Michael, Barbados to Ronald Fenty, a warehouse supervisor, and Monica Fenty, an accountant. Her mother, a native of Guyana, is Afro-Guyanese and her father is Bajan and Irish. She is the oldest of three siblings; two younger brothers, Rorrey and Rajad Fenty. She began singing at around the age of seven. Her childhood was deeply affected by her father's addiction to crack cocaine and parent's rocky marriage, which ended when she was fourteen years old. Rihanna attended Charles F. Broome Memorial School, a primary school in Barbados, and then the Combermere School, where she formed a musical trio with two of her classmates at the age of fifteen. In 2004 she won the Miss Combermere Beauty Pageant. She was an army cadet in a sub-military programme that trained with the military of Barbados and Shontelle was her drill sergeant. At the age of 15, she formed a girl group with two of her classmates. In 2003, friends introduced Rihanna and her two bandmates to record producer Evan Rogers, who was vacationing in Barbados with his wife. The group auditioned for Rogers, who said that "the minute Rihanna walked into the room, it was like the other two girls didn't exist." While auditioning for Rogers, Rihanna sang Destiny's Child's cover of "Emotion". Over the next year, Rihanna and her mom shuttled back and forth to Rogers home in Stamford, Connecticut. Then, shortly after turning 16, she relocated in the United States and moved in with Rogers and his wife. Carl Sturken helped Rihanna record a four-song demo, which included the ballad "Last Time," a cover of Whitney Houston’s hit "For the Love of You" and what would become her first hit, "Pon de Replay" to send to various recording companies. It took a year to record the demos, because she was going to school and would only record during summer and Christmas school breaks. Rihanna's demo made its way to Def Jam, which invited her to audition for the label's then-president, Jay-Z, who quickly signed her. Rihanna broke into the recording industry in 2005 with the release of her debut album Music Of The Sun, which features the number 2 hit single "Pon de Replay". Less than a year later, Rihanna released A Girl Like Me and earned her first number-one single, "SOS", which sampled the popular 80s track "Tainted Love". "Unfaithful" was also released and was fairly successful. Rihanna released her third album, Good Girl Gone Bad, in June 2007. Prior to the release of the album, she spent the week of the Grammys writing songs for the album with Ne-Yo. She adopted a more sexual image while recording the album, eventually dying her hair black and cutting it short. Rihanna worked with Timbaland and Christopher "Tricky" Stewart, as well as previous musical collaborators such as Stargate, Carl Sturken and Evan Rogers to re-imagine her album compositions with uptempo dance tracks. Rihanna commented, "I want to keep people dancing but still be soulful at the same time. You feel different every album, and [at] this stage I feel like I want to do a lot of uptempo [songs]." The album topped the charts in countries like the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, Brazil, Russia and Ireland, and peaked at number two in the United States and Australia. Unlike previous work, the album featured a more dance-pop sound instead of the dancehall, reggae and ballad styles. The album received positive reviews by critics, becoming her most critically acclaimed album at that time compared to her previous efforts. It yielded eight hit singles - "Umbrella" "Shut Up and Drive", "Don't Stop The Music" "Hate That I Love You" "Rehab" "Disturbia" "Take A Bow" "If I Never See Your Face Again" - all singles reaching the top twenty on the Billboard Hot 100 — including the worldwide number-one hit "Umbrella," featuring Jay-Z. In addition to reaching number one in various countries, "Umbrella" was the number one single in the United Kingdom for ten consecutive weeks, making it the longest-running number-one single since Wet Wet Wet's single "Love Is All Around" spent fifteen weeks at the top in 1994. The song is listed number three on the 100 Best Songs of 2007 published by Rolling Stone magazine. In 2008, "Umbrella" earned Rihanna and Jay-Z a Grammy Award for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration in addition to receiving nominations for Record of the Year and Song of the Year. It managed to stay at number one in the United Kingdom for 10 weeks, the longest time spent by a female and in the 21st century, on this chart. "Umbrella" has also been recognised in various forms of accolades by the music press. The song is listed number three on the 100 Best Songs of 2007, published by the music magazine Rolling Stone. Time magazine also listed the song number three on their Top 10 Songs of 2007. The song is listed number one on Entertainment Weekly magazine's list of the 10 Best Singles of 2007, while topping the magazine's poll for the best single of 2007. Blender magazine awarded the song Song of the Year in their Readers' Poll 2007. The music press has considered "Umbrella" as 2007's Song of the Summer, while The New York Times writer Kelefa Sanneh regarded it as "arguably 2007's signature slow jam". Rihanna is finishing up recording of her upcoming fourth album, which is slated for a late-Fall release. Play.com has confirmed that the album will be released on November 23, 2009 whereas Amazon.co.uk has said that the album will be released November 16, 2009. She will be in the studio with Tricky, The Dream, Stargate, Ne-Yo and SRP in the coming weeks. In August 2009, Rihanna collaborated with Jay-Z and Kanye West on "Run This Town." The song has so far peaked at number three on Billboard Hot 100 and also reached the top ten in five other countries. Rihanna has also been working on her fourth studio album. She appeared on the cover of Vogue Italia for the September 2009 Issue. The shoot was influenced by Rihanna's hair, which she had cut for the shoot into a mohawk-like style. The style of the shoot was Extreme Couture and very dark, and in one shot she appeared semi-nude. Rihanna performed "Run This Town" along with Jay-Z and West for the "Answer the Call" concert at Madison Square Garden in September 2009, making it her first musical performance since the altercation with Brown. The trio also performed "Run This Town," on the premiere of The Jay Leno Show on September 14, 2009. Rated R (2009) was released in the wake of a physical altercation with romantic interest Chris Brown, who pled guilty to felony assault. The album's lead single, "Russian Roulette" -- written with Ne-Yo -- was one of the year's most controversial singles. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License and may also be available under the GNU FDL.

Peter Gene Hernandez (born October 8, 1985 in Waikiki, Hawaii), better known by his stage name Bruno Mars, is a Filipino-Puerto Rican American singer-songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist signed to Atlantic Records. He is most well known for his hit Just The Way You Are, which went #1 in 9 countries in 2010. He is also known for singing/co-writing the hooks for the #1 hit Nothin' On You by B.o.B, and Billionaire by Travie McCoy; he also co-wrote the international hits Right Round by Flo Rida and Wavin' Flag by K'NAAN. After the success of the songs he featured on, Mars released his debut EP, It’s Better If You Don’t Understand, in May 2010. He then released his debut album, Doo-Wops & Hooligans, on October 5th, which features special guest appearances from B.o.B, Cee-Lo Green, and Damian Marley. The lead single, Just the Way You Are, was released on July 19, 2010. The second single off the album, Grenade, was released on September 2010 as a promotional single but was eventually shifted to official second single. Bruno Mars was born and raised in the Waikiki neighborhood of Honolulu, Hawaii by parents Pete and Bernadette "Bernie" Hernandez, of Puerto Rican and Filipino descent. Hernandez was one of six children and came from a musical family giving him a diverse mix of reggae, rock, hip hop, and R&B. From a young age, he was impersonating and performing songs by artists such as Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley, The Isley Brothers, and The Temptations. In 1990, Hernandez was featured in MidWeek as "Little Elvis", going on to have a cameo in Honeymoon in Vegas in 1992. "I watch the best. I'm a big fan of Elvis. I'm a big fan of 1950s Elvis when he would go on stage and scare people because he was a force and girls would go nuts! You can say the same thing for Prince or The Police. It's just guys who know that people are here to see a show, so I watch those guys and I love studying them because I'm a fan," he stated. In 2010 he said, "Growing up in Hawaii made me the man I am. I used to do a lot of shows in Hawaii with my father's band. Everybody in my family sings, everyone plays instruments. My uncle's an incredible guitar player, my dad's an incredible percussionist, my brother's a great drummer, he actually plays in our band. I've just been surrounded by it." He attended President Theodore Roosevelt High School, graduating in 2003 at the age of seventeen, and shortly after moved to Los Angeles, California to pursue a musical career. Before becoming a successful solo artist, Hernandez was an acknowledged music producer, writing songs for Alexandra Burke, Travie McCoy, Adam Levine, Brandy, and Sean Kingston, as well as Flo Rida's international hit "Right Round". He also co-wrote the Sugababes' hit song "Get Sexy" and provided backing vocals on their album Sweet 7. His first musical appearance as a singer was in Far East Movement's second studio album Animal, featured on the track "3D". He reached prominence as a solo artist after being featured on and co-writing B.o.B's "Nothin' on You" and Travie McCoy's "Billionaire"; both songs peaked within the top ten of many charts worldwide. He said of them, "I think those songs weren't meant to be full-sung songs. If I'd sung all of "Nothin' on You", it might've sounded like some '90s R&B." Following this success, Mars released his debut extended play (EP), titled It's Better If You Don't Understand, on May 11, 2010. The EP peaked at the ninety-ninth position on the Billboard 200 and produced one single: "The Other Side", featuring rappers Cee Lo Green and B.o.B. He performed a medley of "Nothin' on You" and "Airplanes" with B.o.B and Hayley Williams at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards on September 12, 2010. He opened for Maroon 5 on the fall leg of the Hands All Over Tour which began on October 6, 2010. Mars also co-headlined with Travie McCoy on a European tour that started on October 18, 2010. On September 19, 2010, Mars was arrested in Las Vegas for possession of cocaine. He claims "he has never used drugs before" and his decision was "foolish". He has been nominated for seven 2011 Grammy Awards. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License and may also be available under the GNU FDL.

Michael Stevenson (born November 19, 1989 in Compton, California), better known by his stage name Tyga, is an American hip hop artist signed to Lil Wayne's Young Money Entertainment and Decaydance. He is the cousin of Travis McCoy, lead vocalist of the group Gym Class Heroes. In 2006 he released his first mixtape, Young on Probation, and released his debut studio album, No Introduction, in 2008. He has since released a further eight mixtapes, with the latest being Well Done 2, released in the summer of 2011. His second album, Careless World is scheduled for November of 2011. His song "Diamond Life" was featured on the Madden NFL 09 soundtrack, and was also included in the Need for Speed Undercover soundtrack. He is of Jamaican and Vietnamese Descent User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License and may also be available under the GNU FDL.

Katy Perry (born Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson on 25 October 1984) is a singer/songwriter from Santa Barbara, California, United States. Since the release of her 2007 debut single "Ur So Gay", Perry has released two albums - 2008's "One of the Boys" and 2010's "Teenage Dream" - and has had six Billboard Hot 100 #1 hit singles. Under the name Katy Hudson, she released a self-titled gospel album in 2001, which was unsuccessful. She later recorded an album with production team The Matrix and completed the majority of a solo album from 2004–05, the later of which was never released. After signing with Capitol Music Group in 2007, her fourth record label in seven years, she adopted the stage name Katy Perry and released her first Internet single "Ur So Gay" that November, which garnered public attention but failed to chart. She rose to fame with the release of her second single "I Kissed a Girl" in 2008, which went on to top international charts. Perry's first mainstream studio album One of the Boys followed later that year and subsequently became the 33rd-best selling album worldwide of 2008. It was accredited platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America, while "I Kissed a Girl" and her second single "Hot n Cold" both received multi-platinum certifications. Her second studio album Teenage Dream was released in August 2010 and debuted at number one on the Billboard 200. The album includes five Billboard chart-toppers "California Gurls", "Teenage Dream", "Firework", and "E.T." and "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)", making Teenage Dream only the second album - after Michael Jackson's Bad - to have five songs reach #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. With "E.T." at number one on the chart of May 12, 2011, Perry became the first artist in history to spend 52 consecutive weeks in the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100. Perry was credited as a guest judge on the seventh series of British television show The X Factor, has released a fragrance called "Purr", and voices Smurfette in the 2011 film The Smurfs. Perry had a long relationship with Travie McCoy; she married Russell Brand on October 23, 2010. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License and may also be available under the GNU FDL.

A collaboration between American hip hop artists JAY-Z and Kanye West. Their album “Watch The Throne” was released digitally on August 8th, while the physical CD was released in stores on the 12th. The first single from the album, H•A•M, was released on January 11th, 2011, and the second single, "Otis (feat. Otis Redding)", was released on July 20th, 2011. Mind you: the Watch The Throne album was released under Jay-Z & Kanye West, NOT The Throne, according to the official site and also the official download given to preorderers, Amazon, iTunes, etc. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License and may also be available under the GNU FDL.