Today's birthdays:
Lady Gaga, 38.
Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, known professionally as Lady Gaga, is an American singer, songwriter and actress. She is known for reinventing her image and showcasing versatility in entertainment. Gaga started performing as a teenager by singing at open mic nights and acting in school plays. She studied Collaborative Arts Project 21 before leaving to pursue a music career. After a contract cancellation by Def Jam Recordings, Gaga worked as a songwriter for Sony/ATV Music Publishing. In 2007, she signed with Interscope Records and KonLive Distribution. Her breakthrough came the following year with her debut studio album, The Fame, and its singles "Just Dance" and "Poker Face". The album was later reissued along with The Fame Monster (2009), which yielded the successful singles "Bad Romance", "Alejandro" and "Telephone".
Gaga's five succeeding albums all debuted atop the US Billboard 200. Her second full-length album, Born This Way (2011), explored electronic rock and techno-pop and sold more than one million copies in its first week. The title track became the fastest-selling song on the iTunes Store, with over one million downloads in less than a week. Following her EDM-influenced third album, Artpop (2013), and its lead single "Applause", she released the jazz album Cheek to Cheek (2014) with Tony Bennett, and the soft rock album Joanne (2016). She ventured into acting, winning awards for her leading roles in the miniseries American Horror Story: Hotel (2015–2016) and the musical film A Star Is Born (2018). Her contributions to the latter's soundtrack, which spawned the chart-topping single "Shallow", made her the first woman to win an Academy Award, BAFTA Award, Golden Globe Award and Grammy Award in one year. Gaga returned to dance-pop with her sixth studio album, Chromatica (2020), which yielded the number-one single "Rain on Me". In 2021, she released her second and final collaborative album with Bennett, Love for Sale, and also starred in the biopic House of Gucci.
Having sold an estimated 170 million records, Gaga is one of the world's best-selling music artists and the only female artist to achieve four singles each selling at least 10 million copies globally. Her accolades include 13 Grammy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, 18 MTV Video Music Awards, awards from the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Council of Fashion Designers of America, and recognition as Billboard's Artist of the Year (2010) and Woman of the Year (2015). She has also been included in several Forbes's power rankings and ranked fourth on VH1's Greatest Women in Music (2012). Time named Gaga one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2010 and 2019 and placed her on their All-Time 100 Fashion Icons list. Gaga's philanthropy and activism focus on mental health awareness and LGBT rights; she has her own non-profit organization, the Born This Way Foundation, which supports the wellness of young people. Her business ventures include Haus Labs, a vegan cosmetics brand launched in 2019.
Reba McEntire, 69.
Reba Nell McEntire , is an American country music singer and actress. Dubbed "the Queen of Country", she has sold more than 75 million records worldwide. Since the 1970s, McEntire has placed over 100 singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, 25 of which reached the number one spot.
An actress in films and television, McEntire starred in the television series Reba, which aired for six seasons. She also owns several businesses, including a restaurant and a clothing line.
One of four children, McEntire was born and raised in Oklahoma. With her mother's help, she and her siblings formed the Singing McEntires, which played at local events and recorded for a small label. McEntire later enrolled at Southeastern Oklahoma State University and studied to become a public school teacher. She also continued to occasionally perform and was heard singing at a rodeo event by country performer Red Steagall. Drawn to her singing voice, Steagall helped McEntire secure a country music recording contract with PolyGram/Mercury Records in 1975. She relocated to Nashville, Tennessee, with her mother that year.
Over the next several years, PolyGram/Mercury released a series of McEntire's albums and singles, which amounted to little success. In the early 1980s, McEntire's music gained more momentum through several top ten country songs, including "(You Lift Me) Up to Heaven", "I'm Not That Lonely Yet", and her first number one "Can't Even Get the Blues". Yet McEntire became increasingly unhappy with her career trajectory and signed with MCA Records in 1984. Her second MCA album titled My Kind of Country (1984) became her breakout release, spawning two number one Billboard country singles and pointed toward a more traditional musical style. Through the 1980s, McEntire released seven more studio albums and had ten more number one country hits. Her number one singles included "One Promise Too Late", "The Last One to Know", and the Grammy Award-winning "Whoever's in New England".
In 1991, McEntire lost eight of her band members in a plane crash in San Diego, California. The experience led to McEntire's critically acclaimed album For My Broken Heart, which is her highest-selling album to date. She followed it with several commercially successful albums during the 1990s, including Read My Mind (1994), What If It's You (1996), and If You See Him (1998). These albums featured the number one country singles "The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter", "How Was I to Know", and a duet with Brooks and Dunn called "If You See Him/If You See Her". McEntire's acting career began in January 1990 when she made her film debut in Tremors. In 2001, she played the role of Annie Oakley in the Broadway musical Annie Get Your Gun. The same year, The WB launched the TV series Reba, in which she starred. More recently, she has guest-starred on Young Sheldon as June Ballard. Since 2023, McEntire has been featured as a coach on The Voice.
On this day today:
1964 - The Beatles become the first Rock Stars displayed in Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum in London. They later use their wax versions on the cover of the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album.
1964 - Radio Caroline, the UK's first all-day English-language "pirate" radio station, begins broadcasting from the Fredericia, a former Danish ferry, in the North Sea.
1967 - Van Morrison records "Brown Eyed Girl."
1969 - EMF frontman James Atkins is born in Birmingham, England.
1969 - Joe Cocker plays his first live gig in the US.
1972 - Elvis Presley records "Burning Love" and "Fool."
1973 - Led Zeppelin releases Houses Of The Holy.
1975 - At an Elvis Presley concert at the Hilton in Las Vegas, Barbra Streisand goes backstage and offers Elvis the lead role in her upcoming film A Star Is Born. Elvis is interested, but on the advice of his manager Colonel Parker, he demands too much money and top billing, so Kris Kristofferson is chosen for the role instead.
1976 - Genesis began their first North American tour since Peter Gabriel left the band, appearing in Buffalo, New York, with Phil Collins taking over as lead singer.
1979 - The day after they are married, Eric Clapton sings "Wonderful Tonight" to his new wife Pattie at his concert in Tucson, Arizona. He wrote the song about her while waiting for her to get ready to go out.
1981 - Blondie's "Rapture" hits #1 on the Hot 100, becoming the first chart-topper with a rap.
1985 - Four-year-old Alicia Cook makes her acting debut on the "Slumber Party" episode of The Cosby Show. She'll become famous as Alicia Keys.
1990 - The Go-Go's reunite for a show at the The Whisky a Go Go to benefit the California Environmental Protection Initiative. It goes so well, they launch a tour later in the year.
1991 - The funeral is held for Eric Clapton's son Conor, who was 4 years old when he fell to his death out an open window. Clapton's song "Tears In Heaven" is about Conor.
1992 - INXS, Crowded House and other Australian acts play the "Concert For Life" benefit at Centennial Park in Sydney to help continue the work of Victor Chang, a leader in heart research who was murdered in 1991. The crowd is estimated at 100,000; no alcohol is allowed (a rarity at an Australian concert) because the park must be protected.
1992 - Over a $100,000 (£58,800) worth of damage was caused at The Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre, California, when Ozzy Osbourne invited the first two rows of the audience on stage. Several others took up the offer and the band was forced to exit the stage.
1996 - Phil Collins leaves Genesis on good terms, stating he will concentrate on "Movies, some Jazz projects, and of course my solo career."
2005 - After playing a warm-up date the night before at the Los Angeles Sports Arena, U2 kicked off their Vertigo tour at the iPay One Center in San Diego, California. The 131 date world tour would see the band playing in North America, Europe, South America and Japan. By the time it finished, the Vertigo Tour had sold 4,619,021 tickets, grossing $389 million; the second-highest figure ever for a world tour.
2014 - Tickets for Kate Bush first live shows in 35 years sold out in less than 15 minutes. The Before the Dawn concerts, which were booked to take place this August and September, marked the singer's first return to the stage since The Tour Of Life in 1979. Demand was so high that the singer's own website, as well as some ticket-selling sites, crashed as people tried to log on.
2020 - The 12-hour "Twitch Aid" concert raises nearly $3 million to help those affected by the coronavirus pandemic. Over 70 quarantined performers take part from their homes, including John Legend, Rita Ora, Cole Swindell, Garth Brooks and Diplo.
