Kerli Kõiv was born in Elva, Estonia. As a teen, she studied singing, dancing, acting, and piano. In 2002, she won Fizz Superstar, a singing competition of three Baltic countries. In 2004, she was the runner-up in that year's Eurolaul, a televised competition that determines the song that will represent Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest. She continued to perform and write songs, ultimately scoring an audition with L.A. Reid, who signed her to Island Def Jam Music Group in 2006. kerli has been nominated for three awards and won two.
nickelback Nickelback is a Grammy award nominated Canadian hard rock band from Hanna, Alberta, formed in 1995. Founded by members Chad Kroeger, Mike Kroeger, Ryan Peake and
then-drummer Brandon Kroeger. Nickelback is one of the most commercially successful Canadian groups, having sold 30 million records worldwide. Nickelback ranks as the 11th best selling music act of the 2000s, and places as the 2nd best selling foreign act in the US behind The Beatles for the 2000s. The band is now based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Its name originates from the nickel in change that band member Mike Kroeger gave customers at his Starbucks job; he would frequently say, "Here's your nickel back." The band is signed to EMI in Canada and Roadrunner Records for the rest of the world. In July 2008, the band signed with Live Nation for three touring and album cycles, with an option for a fourth cycle. The contract includes recordings, touring, merchandise and other rights.
Paramore is an American rock band that formed in Franklin, Tennessee in
2004. Members are Hayley Williams (lead vocals/keyboards), Josh Farro (lead guitar/backing vocals), Jeremy Davis (bass guitar), Zac Farro (drums), and Taylor York (rhythm guitar). The group released their debut album All We Know Is Falling in 2005, and their second album, Riot! in 2007, which was certified Platinum in the US and Gold in the UK, Ireland and New Zealand. Brand New Eyes, Paramore's third album, was released on September 29, 2009. Brand New Eyes is the band's highest charting album to date.[
Skillet is a Grammy-nominated Christian hard rock band originally formed in Memphis, Tennessee. The band consists of John Cooper (lead vocalist,
bassist), his wife Korey Cooper (rhythm guitarist, keyboardist, vocalist), Ben Kasica (lead guitarist), and the newest member Jen Ledger (drummer, vocalist). Skillet has released eight albums, two receiving Grammy nominations: Collide and Comatose.Over the past 13 years, Skillet has spanned many different genres, including hard rock, industrial rock, and symphonic rock. As of late 2009 they have sold 1.3 million albums.
Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972), better known by his 
stage name Eminem, is an American rapper, record producer, songwriter and actor. Eminem quickly gained popularity in 1999 with his major-label debut album The Slim Shady LP, which won a Grammy Award for Best Rap Album. The following album, The Marshall Mathers LP, became the fastest-selling hip hop album in history. It brought Eminem increased popularity, including his own record label, Shady Records, and brought his group project D12 to mainstream recognition.
The Marshall Mathers LP and his third album, The Eminem Show also won Grammy Awards, making Eminem the first artist to win Best Rap Album for three consecutive LP's. He then won the award again in 2010 for his album Relapse, giving him a total of 11 grammys in his career. In 2002, he won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for "Lose Yourself" from the film 8 Mile, in which he also played the lead. "Lose Yourself" would go on to become the longest running #1 hip-hop single. Eminem then went on hiatus after touring in 2005. He released his first album since 2004's Encore, titled Relapse, on May 15, 2009. Eminem is the best-selling artist of the decade, and has sold more than 80 million albums worldwide to date, making him one of the best-selling music artists in the world.[5] Eminem is also ranked as one of the 100 Greatest Artists of All-Time by Rolling Stone magazine. He was also named the Best Rapper Ever by Vibe magazine. Including his work with D12, Eminem has achieved eight #1 albums on the Billboard Top 200 and 12 number one singles worldwide. In December, 2009 Eminem was named the Artist of the Decade by Billboard Magazine. According to Billboard, Eminem has two of his albums among the top 5 highest selling albums of the 2000s.
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Tegan and Sara are a Canadian indie band led by identical twins Tegan Rain Quin and Sara Kiersten Quin (born September 19, 1980). Both Tegan and Sara play guitar and keyboard and write songs, most often separately. Whoever writes each song typically sings the melody for it. The band has released six studio albums since 1999, most recently Sainthood in 2009.
Miranda Taylor Cosgrove (born May 14, 1993) is an American film and television actress and pop rock recording artist. Cosgrove is best known for her roles as Megan Parker in Drake & Josh and as the title character in iCarly. Her career sprang forward at the age of three, mainly participating in television commercials. Cosgrove's film debut was in 2003, as Summer Hathaway in School of Rock. After years of small television appearances, Cosgrove was cast into the hit show Drake & Josh and later in iCarly. Following the success of iCarly, a soundtrack album was released in June 2008, in which she performed four songs. Cosgrove's debut album Sparks Fly was released on April 27, 2010; The Matrix, Dr. Luke, and Espionage worked with her on it.
Utada Hikaru (宇多田 ヒカル Utada Hikaru, born January 19, 1983), known by her stage name Utada (/uːˈtɑːdə/) in America and Europe, and as Hikki (ヒッキー, Hikkī?) in Japan, is a Japanese-American singer and songwriter, arranger, and record producer.
Since the release of her debut album First Love, which went on to become the best-selling album in Oricon history,Utada has had three of her Japanese studio albums in the list of Top 10 best-selling albums ever in Japan (#1, #4, #8) and six of her albums (including two English-language and one compilation) charting within the 275 Best-Selling Japanese albums list.Utada has had fourteen number-one singles on the Oricon Singles chart, with two notable record achievements for a female solo or group artist: five million-sellers and four in the Top 100 All-Time Best-selling Singles. Utada Hikaru has an estimated 50 million albums sold worldwide.
For her achievements, she was described by Time Magazine in 2001 as a "Diva On Campus," while attending Columbia University for a brief, career-break semester in 2001.In 2009, she was considered “the most influential artist of the decade,” in the Japanese landscape, by The Japan Times. In 2003, Utada was ranked #24 in the survey of Top 100 Japanese Pop Artists of All Time by HMV, #10 in HMV's Top 30 Best Japanese Singers of All Time in 2006.
Additionally, Utada made two theme song contributions to Square Enix and Disney's collaborative video game series Kingdom Hearts: "Simple and Clean" for Kingdom Hearts and "Passion" for Kingdom Hearts II (later re-recorded with new English lyrics as "Sanctuary" for the North American and European releases of the game). In 2007, her single "Flavor of Life" reached #2 in worldwide digital download yearly single chart with over 7.2 million downloads, and contributes to 12 million digital sales for her over the same year.[
