WHalid Bešlić is a Bosnian folk singer and musician who has been performing professionally since 1979. Halid's singing career was one of the most successful in Yugoslavia, and continues today throughout the entire Balkan region.
WSteven Blier is an American pianist, recital accompanist, musicologist, and, since 1992, a faculty member in the Department of Vocal Artsat The Juilliard School. in New York City. He is the Artistic Director and Co-founder of the New York Festival of Song (NYFOS) with former Chief Executive and General Director of Caramoor, Michael Barrett. Blier was also a casting adviser at the New York City Opera and a regular performer at Wolf Trap and Caramoor. He has been active in encouraging young recitalists at summer programs, including the Wolf Trap Opera Company, the Steans Music Institute at Ravinia, the Santa Fe Opera, and the San Francisco Opera Center. He has written articles for Opera News and The Yale Review.
WJames Victor Chesnutt was an American singer-songwriter from Athens, Georgia. His first album, Little, was released in 1990, but his breakthrough to commercial success did not come until 1996 with the release of Sweet Relief II: Gravity of the Situation, a charity record of alternative artists covering his songs.
WMarika Gombitová is a Slovak singer-songwriter and musician. Once a member of Modus, Gombitová started to gain early acclaim as a former female vocalist of the group. Nevertheless, she gradually developed her public image as a solo artist, making own debut on short play in 1977. Subsequently, after topping the local music charts with "Študentská láska" (1978), her debut set entitled Dievča do dažďa (1979) saw its eventual results on OPUS Records. The album's lead "Vyznanie", earned several music awards; most notably at the 4th Intervision Song Contest held in Poland (1980). In years to come later, the love anthem was to be celebrated as "The Hit of the Century" (2007) in her country.
WBlaine Harrison is an English musician and songwriter best known as the lead vocalist of the indie rock band Mystery Jets.
WAnthony Frank Iommi is an English guitarist, songwriter and producer. He was lead guitarist and one of the four founding members of heavy metal band Black Sabbath, and was the band's primary composer and sole continuous member for nearly five decades. Iommi was ranked number 25 in Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".
WAlfredo Javaloyes López was a Spanish musician. His best known work is the military march El Abanico, composed in the year 1910.
WNick Knox was an American drummer for the psychobilly band The Cramps. He replaced Miriam Linna in 1977 and left in 1991. Knox was with The Cramps during the peak of their worldwide popularity when they toured Europe extensively in 1986 with the A Date with Elvis tour. He drafted in his cousin, Mike Metoff, during the preceding European tour in 1984. Knox was recognised as the drummer who brought a tightness to the Cramps sound, and stayed longer than any other drummer in the band. Before joining the Cramps, he was a member of protopunk band the electric eels.
WMonika Kuszyńska is a Polish singer and songwriter. She represented Poland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 with the song "In the Name of Love" and was previously the lead singer of the Polish pop rock band Varius Manx.
WLachi is a vocalist, songwriter, composer, producer, diversity advocate, voice actor and author based in New York City. Having released, cowritten or collaborated on numerous albums and singles, Lachi's music is often described as Pop, EDM, or Singer Songwriter.
WGaelynn Lea Tressler is an American folk singer, violinist, public speaker and disability advocate from Duluth, Minnesota. She won NPR's 2016 Tiny Desk Contest.
WJean Reinhardt, known to all by his Romani nickname Django, was a Belgian-born Romani-French jazz guitarist and composer. He was the first major jazz talent to emerge from Europe and remains the most significant.
WYuliya Olegovna Samoylova, sometimes credited as Yulia Samoilova or Julia Samoylova, is a Russian singer-songwriter. In early 2017, she was selected to represent Russia in the 2017 edition of the Eurovision Song Contest with the song "Flame Is Burning", but was subsequently banned from the contest's host country, Ukraine, due to violating Ukrainian law by entering Crimea through Russia in 2015, shortly after the region was annexed by Russia. In response to the ban, Russia ultimately withdrew from the contest. The following year, Samoylova was instead chosen to represent her country in the 2018 edition of the contest in Portugal. Performing "I Won't Break", she placed 15th out of 18 contestants in the second semi-final, failing to qualify for the grand final. "I Won't Break" was the first representation of Russia to not reach the final since the introduction of semi-finals in 2004.
WTimothy Charles Smith was an English singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and music video director, best known as the frontman of the cult English band Cardiacs, which he formed with his brother Jim Smith.
WPaul Stanley is an American singer, songwriter and painter, best known for being the co-founder, rhythm guitarist and co-lead vocalist of the rock band Kiss. He is the writer or co-writer of many of the band's highest-charting hits. Stanley established The Starchild character for his Kiss persona and is known for his distinctive, wide-ranging voice.
Wİbrahim Tatlıses is a Turkish folk singer and former actor. Since the 1970s he has been one of the best-known and most successful singers of the pop Arabesk style. Tatlıses has recorded 42 albums, including notable albums such as Ayağında Kundura and Selam Olsun and was the host of the highly popular television programme İbo Show. He was also a leading actor that appeared in several dozen films, and also has had many business ventures.
WWillie Junior Maxwell II, better known by his stage name Fetty Wap, is an American rapper, singer, and songwriter. He rose to prominence after his debut single "Trap Queen" reached number two on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart in May 2015. This helped Maxwell secure a record deal with 300 Entertainment, and eventually Atlantic Records. He subsequently released two Top 10 singles in the U.S., "679" and "My Way". Both were featured on Fetty Wap's eponymously titled debut album, released in September 2015 and peaking atop the U.S. Billboard 200 chart.
WRobert Wyatt is an English musician. A founding member of the influential Canterbury scene bands Soft Machine and Matching Mole, he was initially a kit drummer and singer before becoming paraplegic following an accidental fall from a window in 1973, which led him to abandon band work, explore other instruments, and begin a forty-year solo career.
WIannis Xenakis was a Greek-French composer, music theorist, architect, performance director and engineer. After 1947, he fled Greece, becoming a naturalized citizen of France. He is considered an important post-World War II composer whose works helped revolutionize 20th-century classical music. Xenakis pioneered the use of mathematical models in music such as applications of set theory, stochastic processes and game theory and was also an important influence on the development of electronic and computer music. He integrated music with architecture, designing music for pre-existing spaces, and designing spaces to be integrated with specific music compositions and performances.