But, according to my parents, I started singing at the age of one year old. My parents also told me that I danced to every music that was played on the radio, and the sound of music calms and put me to sleep. Every Sunday morning, my parents always play gospel music before going to church. My aunt sings in choir, each time she goes to choir practice, she takes me along with her and makes me watch her rehearse what she will sing on Sunday for the church service. I started singing in the choir when I was ten years old.
Biography.com.) Maya Angelou's five-volume autobiography commenced with I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings in 1970. The memoirs chronicle different eras of her life and were met with critical and popular success. Later books include All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes (1986)
During his time in jail, Berry joined a Gospel group and practiced his songwriting abilities. (Gulla 32) . After his release Berry began to get serious about his guitar playing, however he still often worked as a carpenter, took a few manufacturing jobs and trained as a hairdresser. He married Themetta Suggs, purchased their first home in St. Louis, he continued to play popular nightclubs in the area looking for his break. Berry’s friend Ira Harris taught him new guitar techniques that became the basis for the Chuck Berry sound.
Whitney Elizabeth Houston, born on 9th August 1963, in Newark, New jersey. The daughter of gospel star Cissy Houston, and the goddaughter of soul legend diva Aretha Franklin. She started her first singing experience in the choir at her church, The New Hope Baptist Church in Newark. After graduating, she continued to model and sing, backing up Lou Rawls and Chaka Khan. When she was 19, Whitney Houston was discovered in a nightclub by the renowned Clive Davis of Arista Records, who signed her immediately and took the helm of her career as she navigated from gospel to pop stardom.
She began her recording career in 1960, and achieved immediate success. Her first three albums, Joan Baez, Joan Baez, Vol. 2, and Joan Baez in Concert all achieved gold record status, and stayed on the charts of hit albums for two years. [2] Baez has had a popular hit song with "Diamonds & Rust" and hit covers of Phil Ochs's "There but for Fortune" and The Band's "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down". Other songs associated with Baez include "Farewell, Angelina", "Love Is Just a Four-Letter Word", "Joe Hill", "Sweet Sir Galahad" and "We Shall Overcome".
When Holiday's mother, Sadie Fagan, moved to New York in search of a better job, Billie eventually went with her. She made her true singing debut in obscure Harlem nightclubs and borrowed her professional name “Billie Holiday” from screen star Billie Dove.” (Wilson, 1958) Although she never underwent any technical training and never even learned how to read sheet music, Holiday quickly became an active participant in what was then, one of the most vibrant jazz scenes in the country. Holiday would move from one club to another, working for tips. She would sometimes sing with the accompaniment of a house piano player while other times she would work as part of a group of performers. At the age of 18 and after gaining more experience than most adult musicians can claim, Holiday was spotted by John Hammond and cut her first record as part of a studio group led by Benny Goodman, who was then just on the verge of public notoriety.
Hard work really does pay off Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, better known by her stage name Lady Gaga has worked hard for her fame. When she was younger than five years old she was playing piano and she started writing songs when she was just 14 years old. She had been playing in clubs in New York and writing songs for the likes of Britney Spears until she was discovered. Since then, she hasn't stopped and she proves that hard work pays off - her debut album 'The Fame' went DIAMOND, meaning it sold over 10,000,000 million copies; she's won numerous awards, including two Grammy awards and three Brit awards. She's performed for Barack Obama and the Queen of England.
(Source 3) the source further explains that Coretta Scott King continued to play a critical role in many of the civil rights campaigns of the 1950s and 1960s, performing in freedom concerts that related to the history of the civil rights movement. On the 2nd February 2013 the film Betty Shabazz and Coretta Scott King came out and the film ‘goes beyond their advocacy works and humanizes these valiant women’ (Source 4) the movie tells a bigger story that these woman stood together and turned their tragedies into triumphs and shows how both woman used their faith, family and friendships to advocate justice on behalf of woman, children, the poor and oppressed. They stood together and changed the world. (Source 4) furthermore proving how these woman played a major role, in bringing social change to African Americans just as their
Maya Angelou was originally born as Marguerite Johnson in St. Louis, Missouri, on April 4, 1928. She spent the majority of her childhood in St. Louis as well as Stamps, Arkansas. Today, Angelou is a renowned for many accomplishments including an author, poet, historian, songwriter, playwright, dancer, stage and screen producer, director, performer, singer, and civil rights activist. She is best known for her autobiographical works I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), Gather Together in My Name (1974), Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas (1976), The Heart of a Woman (1981), and All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes (1986). Angelou’s poetry includes A Brave and Startling Truth (Random House, 1995), The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou (1994), Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now (1993), Now Sheba Sings the Song (1987), I Shall Not Be Moved (1990), Shaker, Why Don't You Sing?
Florence Ballard Born in Mississippi, Florence Ballard's family relocated to Detroit during her childhood so that her father could find work in the city's then still-thriving auto industry. It was he, an amateur musician, that first instigated his daughter's interest in performing, teaching her various songs while providing accompaniment on the guitar. Florence continued developing her vocal skills through the choir and music classes provided by her school, and by her early teens her abilities had become well-established throughout the neighborhood of the Brewster Housing Project where her family resided. It was two of these neighbors, Eddie Kendricks and Paul Williams of a male vocal group called The Primes (which would later