Muse are an English rock band from Teignmouth, Devon,
formed in 1994. The band consists of Matt Bellamy (lead vocals, guitar,
keyboards), Chris Wolstenholme (bass guitar, backing vocals), and
Dominic Howard (drums).
Muse released their debut album, Showbiz, in 1999, showcasing Bellamy's
falsetto and a melancholic alternative rock style. Their second album,
Origin of Symmetry (2001), incorporated wider instrumentation and
romantic classical influences and earned them a reputation for energetic
live performances. Absolution (2003) saw further classical influence,
with strings on tracks such as "Butterflies and Hurricanes", and was the
first of six consecutive UK number-one albums.
Black Holes and Revelations (2006) incorporated electronic and pop
elements, displayed in singles such as "Supermassive Black Hole", and
brought Muse wider international success. The Resistance (2009) and The
2nd Law (2012) explored themes of government oppression and civil
uprising and cemented Muse as one of the world's major stadium acts.
Rolling Stone stated the band possessed "stadium-crushing songs".
Topping the US Billboard 200, their seventh album, Drones (2015), was a
concept album about drone warfare and returned to a harder rock sound.
Their eighth album, Simulation Theory (2018), prominently featured
synthesisers and was influenced by science fiction and the simulation
hypothesis.
Muse have won numerous awards, including two Grammy Awards, two Brit
Awards, five MTV Europe Music Awards and eight NME Awards. In 2012 they
received the Ivor Novello Award for International Achievement from the
British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors. As of June 2016,
they have sold over 20 million albums worldwide.
Tout l'univers is the song that represented Switzerland
on the 2021 edition of Eurovision. It is performed by Gjon Muharremaj,
from Broc in the Canton of Fribourg, who has dedicated his heart and
soul to music since he was little.
The singer's story began when a
childhood rendition of Elvis Presley’s Can’t Help Falling In Love With
You moved his grandfather to tears. This provided the inspiration for
his stage name, Gjon’s Tears: “I want to use my music to move people in
all sorts of ways, whether it’s joy, sadness or melancholy.”
So impressed was his grandad that he decided to sign Gjon up to a TV
talent show in his ancestral home of Albania. This proved to be a smart
decision as, at the age of 12, Gjon finished third in Albania’s Got
Talent. The next year he went on to reach the semi-finals of
Switzerland’s Got Talent, and in 2019 he reached the same stage of The
Voice (France).
Off stage, Gjon enjoys reading poetry and is a
frequent visitor to theatres and museums. He also has a weakness for
antiques, thanks to many flea-market visits with his father, but music
has always been his number one passion.
The Stranger The Stranger is the fifth studio album by
American singer Billy Joel, released in September 1977 by Columbia
Records. It was the first of Joel's albums to be produced by Phil
Ramone, with whom he would go on to work for all of his albums up until
his 1986 album The Bridge.
The Stranger was released a year
following Joel's previous studio effort, Turnstiles, which had sold
modestly and peaked low on the US charts, prompting Columbia to consider
dropping Joel if his next release did not sell well. Joel wanted the
album to feature his newly formed touring band that had formed during
the production of Turnstiles, which consisted of drummer Liberty
DeVitto, bassist Doug Stegmeyer, and multi-instrumentalist
saxophonist/organist Richie Cannata. Seeking out a new producer, he
first turned to veteran Beatles producer George Martin before coming
across and settling on Ramone, whose name he had seen on albums by other
artists such as Paul Simon. Recording took place across the span of
three weeks, with DeVitto, Stegmeyer and Cannata being featured in
addition to other studio musicians filling in as guitarists on various
songs.
Spending six weeks at No. 2 on the US Billboard 200, The Stranger is
considered Joel's critical and commercial breakthrough. Four singles
were released in the US, all of which became top-40 hits on the
Billboard Hot 100 charts, including "Just the Way You Are" (#3), "Movin'
Out (Anthony's Song)", "She's Always a Woman" (both #17), and "Only the
Good Die Young" (#24). Other songs, such as "Scenes from an Italian
Restaurant" and "Vienna", have become staples of his career and are
frequently performed in his live shows. The album won two awards at the
1978 Grammy Awards, winning Record of the Year as well as Song of the
Year for "Just the Way You Are". It remains his best-selling
non-compilation album to date, and surpassed Simon & Garfunkel's Bridge
over Troubled Water to become Columbia's best-selling album release,
with more than 10 million units sold worldwide. Rolling Stone later
named it one of the 500 greatest albums of all time.