Biography | Artist Actors Biography

Joni Mitchell, CC (born Roberta Joan Anderson on November 7, 1943, in Fort Macleod, Alberta), is a legendary Canadian musician and painter. Initially working in Toronto and western Canada, she was associated with the burgeoning folk music scene of the mid-1960s in New York City. Through the 1970s she expanded her horizons, predominantly to rock music and jazz, to become one of the most highly respected singer-songwriters of the late 20th century. Mitchell is also an accomplished artist; she has, through photography or painting, created the artwork for each of her albums, and she often describes herself as a “painter derailed by circumstance.”

Early life
A painter who had also dabbled in piano, guitar and ukulele since childhood, Mitchell took her surname from a brief marriage to folksinger Chuck Mitchell in 1965. She performed frequently in coffee houses and folk clubs and became well known for her unique style of song writing and her innovative guitar style. Personal and often self-consciously poetic, her songs were strengthened by her extraordinarily wide-ranging voice (with a range in pitch at one time covering over four octaves) and unique guitar playing, tuning the instrument in unorthodox manners to produce a distinctive rhythmic, driving sound. She has been a cigarette smoker since the age of nine, which may explain the unique texture to her voice, which was especially prominent in her later albums. She claims to have fallen in love with smoking directly upon taking her first puffs, stating that other children in her proximity who were also smoking, broke out in fits of coughing. She says it felt right to her from the very beginning.

Around the time when she left her home in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan she became pregnant and lost her virginity at the same time. Unable to raise a child so young in her life, and with no other alternatives, she was forced to give her daughter up for adoption. This remained a private part of her life during the bulk of her early/progressing career. While playing one night in a New York establishment, a young David Crosby witnessed her perform and was immediately stricken by her ability and her draw as an artist. He took her under his wing and as cited by Crosby himself, when making someone unaware aware of Mitchell’s allure, he would simply “roll them a joint”, and ask that they enjoy the experience.

Much of her initial acclaim was as a result of other artists covering her songs; her first songwriting credit to hit the charts, “Urge for Going”, was a success for country singer George Hamilton IV and for folk singer Tom Rush then many years later by the alternative Glassgow native band Travis - Mitchell’s own 1967 recording of the song was not released until the Hits compilation in 1996. Judy Collins had a top-ten hit in early 1968 with “Both Sides Now”, and British folk rock group Fairport Convention included “Chelsea Morning” and “I Don’t Know Where I Stand” on their debut album, recorded in late 1967, and the otherwise unreleased “Eastern Rain” on their second album the following year. The songs on her first two solo albums Joni Mitchell (Song to a Seagull) (1968) and Clouds (1969) were archetypes of the nascent singer-songwriter movement of the time.

By her third album, Ladies of the Canyon (1970), maturity brought a record infused with the spirit of California life (the canyon of the title is perhaps both Topanga Canyon and Laurel Canyon, Los Angeles) as well as containing her first major hit single, the environmental “Big Yellow Taxi” (about paving paradise to put up a parking lot), and her song “Woodstock”, about the music festival, which was later a hit for both Crosby, Stills and Nash and Matthews Southern Comfort. (Ironically, Mitchell did not even go to Woodstock, having cancelled her appearance at the festival on the advice of her manager for fear that she would miss a scheduled appearance on The Dick Cavett Show.) “For Free” is the first of Mitchell’s many songs that underscore the dichotomy between the benefits of her stardom and its costs, both in terms of its pressure and of the loss of privacy and freedom it entails.

Bijou Lily Phillips (b. April 1, 1980, Greenwich, Connecticut, USA) is an American actress, former model, and one-time pop-singer. She is the daughter of John Phillips of The Mamas and the Papas and his then-wife Genevieve Waite, a South African model. The name “Bijou”, which is French for “jewel,” was taken from the song “My Petit Bijou” by Lambert, Hendricks and Ross.

Phillips had a tumultuous childhood, and began modelling at an early age. She appeared on the cover of Interview when she was 13 and soon became the youngest Vogue cover model when she appeared on the Italian edition. By the age of 15 she was leading an adult life, living in her own apartment in Manhattan and subsisting on her modeling salary. During this time, she became a “wild child” of the New York City party scene, frequenting nightclubs such as Limelight and Spy Bar. Her older sister, Mackenzie, was sometimes seen accompanying Bijou to various fashion shows, playing the role of surrogate parent.

At the age of 17, she was granted a record deal with Almos Records and ended her modelling career; her debut album was titled I’d Rather Eat Glass, a sentiment that expressed her feelings about her former profession. Around the same time as the release of her album in 1999, she began acting in independent films. The following year, she posed nude for Playboy and appeared on the cover of the April, 2000 issue. As of 2005, Phillips continues to act while she records tracks for her second album.

In June 2004, Phillips assaulted Playboy Playmate Nicole Marie Lenz in a Los Angeles nightclub. The fight was broken up by actor Matthew Perry, who later testified on Lenz’ behalf. Phillips pleaded no contest to the criminal charges and Lenz has filed a civil suit. She dated actor Elijah Wood, singer Sean Lennon, and is currently involved with actor Danny Masterson from That 70’s Show.

Kanye Omari West(born June 8, 1977 in Atlanta, Georgia) is an American record producer and rapper based in Chicago, Illinois.

After attending a local art school and then Chicago State University, West dropped out and began working on his music career. Even while attending school, West produced for local acts. He gained some fame by producing hit singles for major Hip-Hop/R&B artists, including Alicia Keys, Jay-Z, and Ludacris. West himself worked on his solo album for a long period of time, having the release pushed back on multiple occasions. Due to his appearance and overall style, West struggled to find a way to get his own voice on record. Multiple record companies put him aside due to the fact that West is not a former ’street hustler’, and does not wear the orthodox hip-hop apparel and would therefore not be as marketable as an artist portraying the “typical image” of a rapper. A car crash on October 23, 2002 left his jaw fractured in three places. With his mouth still wired shut and only weeks after his accident, he recorded “Through The Wire”. “Through The Wire”, which sampled Chaka Khan’s classic track “Through The Fire”, would eventually become his lead single from The College Dropout, which was released on Roc-a-Fella Records in February 2004. A later single from the album, “Jesus Walks”, would become a major success, and later a staple of his benefit performances such as at the Live 8 concert, Philadelphia (with an all-Japanese-girls string section), and gather him still further mainstream exposure when it was aired frequently as the background music in trailers for the 2005 film Jarhead.

On August 30th, 2005, Kanye West released his second album Late Registration. The first two singles were “Diamonds (From Sierra Leone)” (which contained samples from Shirley Bassey’s “Diamonds Are Forever”) and “Gold Digger” featuring Jamie Foxx. The album went on to sell over 904,000 copies in its first week. West announced that his 3rd and 4th albums will be titled Graduation and A Good Ass Job, respectively.

West has collaborated with numerous artists, most notably with rapper Twista on songs such as “Overnight Celebrity” and “Slow Jamz” (also featuring Jamie Foxx) - the latter would reach #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart, becoming the first #1 hit for all artists involved. Kanye also features on Brandy’s single, “Talk About Our Love”. Others whom West has collaborated with include Jay-Z, Talib Kweli, Dilated Peoples, Mariah Carey, Miri Ben-Ari (whose violin arrangements featured heavily on The College Dropout), and John Legend (who also features on West’s first album, providing soulful background vocals). Kanye West is also credited with revitalizing and bringing new life into the careers of such rappers as Common and Twista.

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanye_West