title: Edie Brickell

text: Brickell married singer-songwriter Paul Simon on May 30, 1992. It was her first marriage and Simon's third. Brickell was performing "What I Am" on NBC's "Saturday Night Live" on November 5, 1988, when she noticed Simon standing in front of the cameraman. "Even though I'd performed the song hundreds of times in clubs, he made me forget how the song went when I looked at him. We can show the kids the tape and say, 'Look, that's when we first laid eyes on each other.'" Brickell and Simon have three children: Adrian, Lulu, and Gabriel.


title: Iran Air Flight 655

text: Iran Air Flight 655 was a scheduled passenger flight from Tehran to Dubai via Bandar Abbas that was shot down on 3July 1988 by two SM-2MR surface-to-air missiles fired by the , a guided-missile cruiser of the United States Navy. The aircraft, an Airbus A300, was destroyed and all 290 people on board were killed. The jet was hit while flying over Iran's territorial waters in the Persian Gulf, along the flight's usual route, shortly after departing Bandar Abbas International Airport, the flight's stopover location. The attack occurred during the Iran–Iraq War, which had been continuing for nearly eight years. "Vincennes" had entered Iranian territory after one of its helicopters drew warning fire from Iranian speedboats operating within Iranian territorial limits.


title: Iran Air Flight 655

text: The reason for the downing has been disputed between the governments of the two countries. According to the U.S., the "Vincennes" crew had incorrectly identified the Airbus as an attacking F-14 Tomcat, a U.S.-made jet fighter that had been part of the Iranian Air Force inventory since the 1970s. While the F-14s had been supplied to Iran in an air-to-air configuration, the "Vincennes" crew had been briefed that the Iranian F-14s were equipped with air-to-ground ordnance. The US military asserts that the "Vincennes" had made ten attempts to contact the aircraft both on military and on civilian frequencies, but had received no response. According to Iran, the cruiser negligently shot down the aircraft, which was transmitting IFF squawks in Mode III, a signal that identified it as a civilian aircraft, and not Mode II as used by Iranian military aircraft. The event generated a great deal of criticism of the United States. Some analysts blamed the captain of "Vincennes", William C. Rogers III, for overly aggressive behavior in a tense and dangerous environment. In the days immediately following the incident, President Ronald Reagan issued a written diplomatic note to the Iranian government, expressing deep regret. When Reagan was directly asked if he considered the statement an apology, he replied, "Yes." However, the U.S. continued to insist that "Vincennes" was acting in "self-defense".


title: Iran Air Flight 655

text: In 1996, during the Clinton Administration, the governments of the U.S. and Iran reached a settlement at the International Court of Justice which included the statement "...the United States recognized the aerial incident of 3July 1988 as a terrible human tragedy and expressed deep regret over the loss of lives caused by the incident..." As part of the settlement, even though the U.S. government did not admit legal liability or formally apologize to Iran, it agreed to pay US$61.8 million on an "ex gratia" basis in compensation to the families of the Iranian victims. The shootdown was the deadliest aviation disaster involving an Airbus A300, as well as the deadliest aviation disaster in 1988. It was also the deadliest airliner shootdown incident until 2014, when Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down over Ukraine.


title: Iran Air Flight 655

text: In 1984, the to include air attacks against oil tankers and merchant shipping of neighboring countries, some of whom were providing aid to Iraq by shipping Iraqi oil. The Flight 655 incident occurred a year after the USS Stark incident, during which the Iraqi Air Force attacked the U.S. Navy guided missile frigate on 17 May 1987, killing 37 American sailors. U.S. naval forces had also exchanged gunfire with Iranian gunboats in late 1987, and the guided missile frigate had struck an Iranian sea mine in April 1988. Two months before the incident, the U.S. had engaged in Operation Praying Mantis, resulting in the sinkings of the Iranian frigate "Sahand", the Iranian fast attack craft "Joshan" and three Iranian speedboats. Also, the Iranian frigate "Sabalan" was crippled, two Iranian platforms were destroyed and an Iranian fighter was damaged. A total of at least 56 Iranian crew were killed, while the U.S. suffered the loss of only one helicopter, which crashed apparently by accident, and its two pilots were killed. Tensions were high in the Strait of Hormuz at the time of the incident with Flight 655.


title: Iran Air Flight 655

text: In response to the pattern of attacks on shipping, the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff issued a NOTAM on 8September 1987, warning all Persian Gulf countries that civilian aircraft must monitor the 121.5 MHz VHF International Air Distress or the 243.0 MHz UHF Military Air Distress frequencies and be prepared to identify themselves to U.S. Navy ships and state their intentions.


title: Iran Air Flight 655

text: On 29 April 1988, the U.S. expanded the scope of its navy's protection to all friendly neutral shipping in the Persian Gulf outside declared exclusion zones, which set the stage for the shootdown. At about the same time, "Vincennes" was rushed to the area on a short-notice deployment, as a result of high-level decisions, to compensate for the lack of AWACS coverage, which was hampering U.S. monitoring of the southern Persian Gulf. "Vincennes" was fitted with the then-new Aegis Combat System and under the command of Captain William C. Rogers III at the time of the shootdown.


title: Iran Air Flight 655

text: As the Strait of Hormuz at its narrowest is wide, in order to traverse the strait, ships must stay within sea lanes that pass through the territorial waters of Iran and Oman under the transit passage provisions of customary Law of the Sea. It is normal for ships, including warships, entering or leaving the Persian Gulf to transit Iranian territorial waters. During the Iran–Iraq War the Iranian forces frequently boarded and inspected neutral cargo ships in the Strait of Hormuz in search of contraband destined for Iraq. While legal under international law, these inspections added to the tensions in the area.


title: Iran Air Flight 655

text: The plane, an Airbus A300 (registered as ), was under the control of 37-year-old Captain Mohsen Rezaian (a veteran pilot with 7,000 hours of flight time), 31-year-old First Officer Kamran Teymouri, and 33-year-old Flight Engineer Mohammad Reza Amini. It left Bandar Abbas at 10:17 Iran time (UTC+03:30), 27 minutes after its scheduled departure time. It should have been a 28-minute flight. After takeoff, it was directed by the Bandar Abbas tower to turn on its transponder and proceed over the Persian Gulf. The flight was assigned routinely to commercial air corridor Amber 59, a -wide lane on a direct line to Dubai airport. The short distance made for a simple flight pattern: climb to , cruise, and descend into Dubai. The airliner was transmitting the correct transponder "squawk" code typical of a civilian aircraft and maintained radio contact in English with appropriate air traffic control facilities.


title: Iran Air Flight 655

text: On the morning of 3 July 1988, USS "Vincennes" was passing through the Strait of Hormuz returning from an escort duty. A helicopter deployed from the cruiser reportedly received small arms fire from Iranian patrol vessels as it observed from high altitude. "Vincennes" moved to engage the Iranian vessels, in the course of which they all violated Omani waters and left after being challenged and ordered to leave by a Royal Navy of Oman warship. "Vincennes" then pursued the Iranian gunboats, entering Iranian territorial waters. Two other U.S. Navy ships, and , were nearby. Admiral Crowe said the cruiser's helicopter was over international waters when the gunboats first fired upon it.


title: Iran Air Flight 655

text: Flight 655 was first detected by "Vincennes" immediately after takeoff when it received a short IFF Mode II, possibly leading the crew of "Vincennes" to believe the airliner was an Iranian F-14 Tomcat (capable of carrying unguided bombs since 1985) diving into an attack profile. Contrary to the accounts of various "Vincennes" crew members, the cruiser's Aegis Combat System recorded that the airliner was climbing at the time and its radio transmitter was squawking on only the Mode III civilian frequency, and not on the military Mode II.


title: Iran Air Flight 655

text: Since the USS "Stark" incident, all aircraft in the area had to monitor 121.5 MHz, the International Air Distress (IAD) radio frequency. A total of 10 attempts were made to warn the airliner, seven on the Military Air Distress (MAD) frequency, and three on the IAD frequency. There were no responses.


title: Iran Air Flight 655

text: At 10:24:22, after receiving no responses, "Vincennes" fired two SM-2MR surface-to-air missiles, one of which hit the airliner at 10:24:43. The plane disintegrated immediately and crashed into the water soon after. None of the 290 passengers and crew on board survived. The cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder were never found.


title: Iran Air Flight 655

text: At the time the missiles were launched, the "Vincennes" was located at , placing it within the twelve mile limit of Iranian territorial seas. The location of "Vincennes" in Iranian territorial waters at the time of the incident was admitted by the U.S. government in legal briefs and publicly by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral William J. Crowe, on "Nightline".


title: Iran Air Flight 655

text: According to the documents Iran submitted to the International Court of Justice, the aircraft was carrying 290 people: 274 passengers and a crew of 16. Of these 290, 254 were Iranian, 13 were Emiratis, 10 were Indians, six were Pakistanis, six were Yugoslavs and one was an Italian.


title: Iran Air Flight 655

text: Pentagon officials initially said "Vincennes" had shot down an Iranian F-14, but issued a retraction within hours and confirmed Iranian reports that the target was instead a civilian Airbus. According to the U.S. government, "Vincennes" mistakenly identified the airliner as an attacking military fighter and misidentified its flight profile as being similar to that of an F-14A Tomcat during an attack run; however, the cruiser's Aegis Combat System recorded the plane's flight plan as climbing (not descending as in an attack run) at the time of the incident. The flight had originated at Bandar Abbas which served both as a base for Iranian F-14 operations and as a hub for commercial flights. According to the same reports, "Vincennes" unsuccessfully tried to contact the approaching aircraft, seven times on the military emergency frequency and three times on the civilian emergency frequency. The civilian aircraft was not equipped to receive military frequencies and the messages on the civilian emergency channel could have been directed at any aircraft. More confusion arose as the hailed speed was the ground speed, while the pilot's instruments displayed airspeed, a difference.


title: Iran Air Flight 655

text: This was admitted in a report by Admiral William Fogarty, entitled "Formal Investigation into the Circumstances Surrounding the Downing of Iran Air Flight 655 on 3July 1988" (the "Fogarty report"). The Fogarty report stated, "The data from USS "Vincennes" tapes, information from USS "Sides" and reliable intelligence information, corroborate the fact that [Iran Air Flight 655] was on a normal commercial air flight plan profile, in the assigned airway, squawking Mode III 6760, on a continuous ascent in altitude from takeoff at Bandar Abbas to shoot-down."


title: Iran Air Flight 655

text: The Fogarty report also stated, "Iran must share the responsibility for the tragedy by hazarding one of their civilian airliners by allowing it to fly a relatively low altitude air route in close proximity to hostilities that had been ongoing."


title: Iran Air Flight 655

text: When questioned in a 2000 BBC documentary, the U.S. government stated in a written answer that they believed the incident may have been caused by a simultaneous psychological condition amongst the eighteen bridge crew of "Vincennes", called "scenario fulfillment", which is said to occur when persons are under pressure. In such a situation, the men will carry out a training scenario, believing it to be reality while ignoring sensory information that contradicts the scenario. In the case of this incident, the scenario was an attack by a lone military aircraft.


title: Iran Air Flight 655

text: According to the Iranian government, the shootdown was an intentionally performed and unlawful act. Even if there was a mistaken identification, which Iran never accepted, it argues that this constituted negligence and recklessness amounting to an international crime, not an accident.


title: Iran Air Flight 655

text: In particular, Iran expressed skepticism about claims of misidentification, noting that the cruiser's advanced Aegis radar correctly tracked the flight and its Mode III beacon; two other U.S. warships in the area, "Sides" and "Montgomery", also identified the aircraft as civilian; and the flight was well within a recognized international air corridor. It also noted that the crew of "Vincennes" were trained to handle simultaneous attacks by hundreds of enemy aircraft. Iran found it more plausible that "Vincennes" "hankered for an opportunity to show its stuff".


title: Iran Air Flight 655

text: According to Iran, the U.S. had previously issued a "Notice to Airmen" (NOTAM) warning aircraft that they were at risk of "defensive measures" if they had not been cleared from a regional airport and if they came within of a warship at an altitude of less than . Flight 655 had been cleared from a regional airport and was well outside those limits when it was attacked. Even if the plane had truly been an Iranian F-14, Iran argued that the U.S. would not have had the right to shoot it down, as it was flying within Iranian airspace and did not follow a path that could be considered an attack profile, nor did it illuminate "Vincennes" with radar. Prior to the incident, "Vincennes" had entered Iranian territorial waters, and was inside these waters when it launched its missiles. Even had the crew of Flight 655 made mistakes, the U.S. government would still remain responsible for the actions of "Vincennes"' crew, under international law.


title: Iran Air Flight 655

text: Iran pointed out that in the past "the United States has steadfastly condemned the shooting down of aircraft, whether civil or military, by the armed forces of another State" and cited El Al Flight 402, Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114 and Korean Air Lines Flight 007, among other incidents. Iran also noted that when Iraq attacked the USS "Stark", the U.S. found Iraq fully responsible on the grounds that the Iraqi pilot "knew or should have known" he was attacking a U.S. warship.


title: Iran Air Flight 655

text: In 1989, prior to the public exposure of "Vincennes"' position inside Iranian waters on "Nightline" by Admiral William Crowe, Professor Andreas Lowenfeld of the Editing Board of the American Journal of International Law criticized the official U.S. position (that the U.S. was not legally liable for the incident):


title: Iran Air Flight 655

text: Lowenfeld also pointed out that the amount of compensation paid for Iranian victims was one-tenth the amount demanded from Iraq for American dead aboard the USS "Stark".


title: Iran Air Flight 655

text: One legal scholar noted in the "Yale Journal of International Law", "The downing of Flight 655 should not be deemed lawful merely because the Vincennes' commanding officer reasonably mistook the situation as presenting an integrated surface and air attack. Reconceptualizing the incident as a mistake problem does not excuse the Vincennes from liability."


title: Iran Air Flight 655

text: In an article published in "Newsweek" magazine on 13 July 1992, John Barry and Roger Charles argued that Rogers behaved recklessly and without due care. The "Newsweek" article also accused the U.S. government of a cover-up, but on July 21 Admiral Crowe denied any knowledge. An analysis of the events by the International Strategic Studies Association described the deployment of an Aegis cruiser in the zone as irresponsible and felt that the value placed on Aegis cruisers by the U.S. Navy had played a major part in the setting of a low threshold for opening fire. "Vincennes" had been nicknamed ""RoboCruiser"" by crew members and other U.S. Navy ships, in reference to both its Aegis system and the supposed aggressive tendencies of its captain.


title: Iran Air Flight 655

text: The International Court of Justice case relating to the attack, "the Aerial Incident of July 3, 1988" (Islamic Republic of Iran v. United States of America), was dropped on 22 February 1996 following settlement and reparations by the United States.


title: Iran Air Flight 655

text: Three years after the incident, Admiral Crowe admitted on American television show "Nightline" that "Vincennes" was inside Iranian territorial waters when it launched the missiles. This contradicted earlier navy statements. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) report of December 1988 placed "Vincennes" well inside Iran's territorial waters.


title: Iran Air Flight 655

text: Commander David Carlson, commanding officer of USS "Sides", the warship stationed nearest to "Vincennes" at the time of the incident, is reported to have said that the destruction of the aircraft "marked the horrifying climax to Captain Rogers's aggressiveness, first seen four weeks ago". His comment referred to incidents on 2June, when Rogers had sailed "Vincennes" too close to an Iranian frigate undertaking a lawful search of a bulk carrier, launched a helicopter within of a small Iranian craft despite rules of engagement requiring a four-mile (6.4 km) separation, and opened fire on small Iranian military boats. Of those incidents, Carlson commented, "Why do you want an Aegis cruiser out there shooting up boats? It wasn't a smart thing to do." He also said that Iranian forces he had encountered in the area a month prior to the incident were "pointedly non-threatening" and professional. At the time of Rogers's announcement to higher command that he was going to shoot down the plane, Carlson is reported to have been thunderstruck: "I said to folks around me, 'Why, what the hell is he doing?' I went through the drill again. F-14. He's climbing. By now this damn thing is at 7,000 feet." Carlson thought "Vincennes" might have more information, and was unaware that Rogers had been wrongly informed that the plane was diving. Carlson is also reported to have written in the U.S. Naval Proceedings that he had "wondered aloud in disbelief" on hearing of "Vincennes"' intentions. In speculating on the "climate" that led up to the incident, Carlson said "Vincennes", shortly beforehand dubbed by officers aboard "Sides" as ""RoboCruiser"" for its aggressiveness, engaged in a pattern of aggressive behavior over the prior month because the crew of "Vincennes" "felt a need to prove the viability of Aegis in the Persian Gulf, and that they hankered for the opportunity to show their stuff."


title: Iran Air Flight 655

text: The official ICAO report stated that 10 attempts were made to contact Iran Air Flight 655: seven on military frequencies and three on commercial frequencies, addressed to an "unidentified Iranian aircraft" and giving its speed as , which was the ground speed of the aircraft their radar reported. Flight 655's crew, however, would have seen a speed of on their cockpit instruments, which was their indicated airspeed, possibly leading them to conclude that "Vincennes" was talking to another aircraft. Both "Sides" and "Vincennes" tried contacting Flight 655 on several civilian and military frequencies. International investigations concluded that Flight 655's crew assumed the three calls they received before the missiles struck must have been directed at an Iranian P-3 Orion (see below). The International Civil Aviation Organization said the flight crew should have been monitoring the civilian frequency. They also said "American warships in the gulf had no equipment that allowed them to monitor civilian air traffic control radio frequencies, and thus no means of hearing the many radio transmissions between Iran Air Flight 655 and air traffic controllers that would have identified the aircraft to the "Vincennes"' crew."


title: Iran Air Flight 655

text: In 1991, political scientist Robert Entman of George Washington University compared U.S. media coverage of the incident with the similar shootdown of Korean Air Lines Flight 007 by the Soviet Union five years earlier by studying material from "Time", "Newsweek", "The New York Times", "The Washington Post" and "CBS Evening News". According to Entman, framing techniques were used to frame the Korean Airlines incident as deliberate sabotage while framing the Iran Air incident as a tragic mistake, stating "the angle taken by the U.S. media emphasized the moral bankruptcy and guilt of the perpetrating nation. With Iran Air 655, the frame de-emphasised guilt and focused on the complex problems of operating military high technology." By "de-emphasizing the agency and the victims and by the choice of graphics and adjectives, the news stories about the U.S. downing of an Iranian plane called it a technical problem while the Soviet downing of a Korean jet was portrayed as a moral outrage." Entman included polling that appeared to show that the unbalanced coverage swayed public opinion against the Soviet Union and Iran. In July 2014, when Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down in Ukraine, some commentators noted the discrepancy of U.S. official position and media coverage of the two similar incidents.


title: Iran Air Flight 655

text: The event sparked an intense international controversy, with Iran condemning the attack. In mid-July 1988, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati asked the United Nations Security Council to condemn the United States saying the attack "could not have been a mistake" and was a "criminal act", a "massacre", and an "atrocity". George H. W. Bush, then-vice president of the United States in the Reagan administration, defended his country at the UN by arguing that the U.S. attack had been a wartime incident and the crew of "Vincennes" had acted appropriately to the situation. The Soviet Union asked the U.S. to withdraw from the area and supported efforts by the Security Council to end the Iran–Iraq War. Most of the remainder of the 13 delegates who spoke supported the U.S. position, saying one of the problems was that a 1987 resolution to end the Iran–Iraq war had been ignored. Following the debate, Security Council Resolution 616 was passed expressing "deep distress" over the U.S. attack and "profound regret" for the loss of human lives, and stressing the need to end the Iran–Iraq War as resolved in 1987.


title: Iran Air Flight 655

text: Inside Iran, this shootdown was perceived as a purposeful attack by United States, signalling that the U.S. was about to enter into a direct war against Iran on the side of Iraq.


title: Iran Air Flight 655

text: In February 1996, the U.S. agreed to pay Iran US$131.8 million in settlement to discontinue a case brought by Iran in 1989 against the U.S. in the International Court of Justice relating to this incident, together with other earlier claims before the Iran–United States Claims Tribunal. US$61.8 million of the claim was in compensation for the 248 Iranians killed in the shoot-down: $300,000 per wage-earning victim and $150,000 per non-wage-earner.


title: Iran Air Flight 655

text: The U.S. government issued notes of regret for the loss of human lives, but never formally apologized or acknowledged wrongdoing. On 5July 1988 President Ronald Reagan expressed regret; when directly asked if he considered the statement an apology, Reagan replied, "Yes." George H. W. Bush, the vice president of the United States at the time commented on a separate occasion, speaking to a group of Republican ethnic leaders (7 August 1988): "I will never apologize for the United States—I don't care what the facts are... I'm not an apologize-for-America kind of guy." The quote, although unrelated to the downing of the Iranian air liner and not in any official capacity, has been mistakenly attributed as such. Bush used the phrase frequently during the 1988 campaign and promised to "never apologize for the United States" months prior to the July 1988 shoot-down and as early as January 1988.


title: Iran Air Flight 655

text: The incident overshadowed Iran–United States relations for many years. The former CIA analyst Kenneth M. Pollack wrote: "The shoot-down of Iran Air Flight 655 was an accident, but that is not how it was seen in Tehran." Following the explosion of Pan Am Flight 103 five months later, the United States government initially blamed the PFLP-GC, a Palestinian militant group backed by Syria, with assumptions of assistance from Iran in retaliation for Flight 655. The distrust generated between the U.S. and Iran as a result of the downing of Iran Air Flight 655 was a challenge in the development of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), also known as the Iran Nuclear Deal, which was agreed to on 14 July 2015.


title: Iran Air Flight 655

text: Despite the mistakes made in the downing of the plane, the crew of USS "Vincennes" were awarded Combat Action Ribbons for completion of their tours in a combat zone. The air warfare coordinator on duty received the Navy Commendation Medal, but "The Washington Post" reported in 1990 that the awards were for his entire tour from 1984 to 1988 and for his actions relating to the surface engagement with Iranian gunboats. In 1990, Rogers was awarded the Legion of Merit "for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding service as commanding officer [...] from April 1987 to May 1989". The award was given for his service as the commanding officer of "Vincennes" from April 1987 to May 1989. The citation made no mention of the downing of Iran Air 655.


title: Iran Air Flight 655

text: The events of Flight 655 were featured in "Mistaken Identity", a season 3 (2005) episode of the Canadian TV series "Mayday" (called "Air Emergency" and "Air Disasters" in the U.S., and "Air Crash Investigation" in the UK).


title: Steven Bergwijn

text: Steven Charles Bergwijn (born 8 October 1997) is a Dutch professional footballer who plays as a winger for Eredivisie club Ajax and the Netherlands national team.


title: Steven Bergwijn

text: Bergwijn was born in Amsterdam to parents from Suriname. He started his career in the Ajax youth academy up to 2011, but due to a conflict with one of the trainers, chose to leave. He immediately signed to PSV, Bergwijn made his first-team debut for Jong PSV in the second division on 9 August 2014 against Achilles '29. He replaced Elvio van Overbeek after 77 minutes in a 2–0 home win.


title: Steven Bergwijn

text: At the end of the January 2020 transfer window Bergwijn signed a five-year contract with Tottenham Hotspur in a deal worth a reported £26.7 million. He scored his first goal for the club in his Premier League debut, a 2–0 victory against Manchester City, and was also named Man of the Match by Sky Sports. On 6 March 2020, Bergwijn suffered a sprain to his left ankle in the match against Burnley which might have sidelined him for the rest of the season, but due to the Premier League break caused by COVID-19, Bergwijn had time to recover and was able to return to the starting eleven, scoring against Manchester United in Tottenham's first post-break match.


title: Steven Bergwijn

text: On 19 January 2022, Bergwijn scored a brace against Leicester City in dramatic fashion, scoring both goals in injury time to give Spurs a 3–2 victory.


title: Steven Bergwijn

text: On 8 July 2022, Bergwijn returned to the Netherlands, signing a five-year contract with Ajax. The transfer fee paid to Tottenham Hotspur was of €31.25 million. This was the most expensive transfer in the history of the Eredivisie, breaking the record set when Ajax bought Sébastien Haller in 2021 (€22.5 million). On 14 August 2022, he scored a hat-trick in a 6–1 win over Groningen.


title: Steven Bergwijn

text: Bergwijn earned his first full international call up when Ronald Koeman named him in the Netherlands squad in October 2018. He made his debut as a starter on 13 October 2018 in a 3–0 2018–19 UEFA Nations League A victory over Germany.


title: Darren Hayes

text: Darren Stanley Hayes (born 8 May 1972) is an Australian singer and songwriter. He was the frontman and singer of the pop duo Savage Garden until their disbandment. Their 1997 album "Savage Garden" peaked at number 1 in Australia, number 2 in the United Kingdom and number 3 in the United States. It spawned the singles "I Want You", "To the Moon and Back", and Australian and US number 1 "Truly Madly Deeply". The duo followed the success of their debut album with "Affirmation" (1999), which provided additional hits such as US number 1 "I Knew I Loved You", and Australian number 3 "The Animal Song". Savage Garden parted ways in 2001.


title: Darren Hayes

text: Hayes released his first solo album "Spin" in 2002. The album sold two million copies worldwide, debuted at Number 2 in the UK and number 3 in Australia. It delivered the hit single "Insatiable". Hayes's second album, "The Tension and the Spark", was released in 2004. He parted ways with his record label Columbia Records in 2006 and started his own independent record label, Powdered Sugar, from which he would release his third and fourth solo albums, 2007's "This Delicate Thing We've Made" and 2011's "Secret Codes and Battleships".


title: Darren Hayes

text: After a decade-long hiatus, Hayes returned in 2022 with singles "Let's Try Being in Love", "Do You Remember?", "Poison Blood" and "All You Pretty Things", all taken from his fifth studio album, "Homosexual", which was released in October 2022. Hayes headlined the 2022 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade, and announced an Australian, UK and USA tour for 2023.


title: Darren Hayes

text: At school, Hayes was bullied and physically and verbally abused. He described himself as "a big-hearted, emotional, and excitable" teenager, with an obsession for "Star Wars" and "E.T". Hayes ' father was an alcoholic, and regularly subjected Hayes and his mother to violence.


title: Darren Hayes

text: In late 1987, he got the chance to see his hero Michael Jackson performing live in Brisbane as part of the Bad Tour. He credits this as encouraging him to pursue a career in entertainment. His other acknowledged influences are Stevie Nicks, Madonna, Peter Gabriel, Kate Bush, Annie Lennox, Prince and Marvin Gaye, and he has cited U2's "With or Without You" as the most touching song he has ever heard.


title: Darren Hayes

text: In 1993, Hayes answered an advertisement in a Brisbane music magazine, Time Off, placed by Daniel Jones, for a lead vocalist position in the band called Red Edge. Hayes was successful, despite his voice breaking in the audition, as he mentioned in an interview with Rosie O'Donnell. The cover band broke up in 1994 and Hayes formed a partnership with Jones, a duo band initially called Crush. However, another band in the UK already owned the rights to the name. Hayes and Jones submitted their first demo tape to record companies under the name Bliss, before they eventually changed their name to Savage Garden, a phrase used by Anne Rice to describe the world through the eyes of Lestat de Lioncourt in her novel "The Vampire Lestat". The Savage Garden is a vision of Earth in which the natural laws of the world govern over anything aesthetic or civil.


title: Darren Hayes

text: Savage Garden started recording their debut album in 1995 with producer Charles Fisher. Their first single, "I Want You", was released in 1996 and was the best selling single by an Australian artist that year. The second single, "To the Moon and Back", topped the Australian charts at the end of 1996. The third single, "Truly Madly Deeply", was their second number one and was the best-selling Australian single of 1997. Their debut album, "Savage Garden", was the best-selling album in Australia during 1997 and the duo won ten ARIA awards.


title: Darren Hayes

text: Hayes moved to New York City to promote Savage Garden internationally, while Daniel Jones stayed in Brisbane. The move proved to be successful, with "Truly Madly Deeply" going to the top of the American charts in 1998. The "Savage Garden" album sold seven million copies in the US on the back of this success.


title: Darren Hayes

text: In New York City, Hayes wrote "Affirmation". He had recently divorced his wife of several years. Parts of the album reflected the pain from the end of the relationship. "Affirmation" was released in 1999 and proved to be another hit, with lead single "I Knew I Loved You" going to number one in the United States, and the album selling six million copies worldwide by the end of 2000. The pair played the title track of the album at the closing ceremony of the 2000 Sydney Olympics.


title: Darren Hayes

text: Hayes moved to Sausalito in 2000. He became the public face of the duo, doing most of the media. Hayes announced that Savage Garden had broken up in October 2001 during a chat with an Australian journalist. Hayes thought the information would be saved for a later article; it was not. When confronted with this information during the early morning hours, before an unrelated interview, Jones denied the break-up of the band. However, it appears that Jones did not believe the reporter was accurately quoting Hayes and denied what he thought was yet another break-up rumour. Still, the fact that Jones took a back seat in all promotional activities for "Affirmation" seems indicative that Jones was not content to remain within Savage Garden as it had operated in the past. "Savage Garden" had sold over 23 million albums by that stage.


title: Darren Hayes

text: In 2005, manager of Savage Garden, John Woodruff confirmed that Jones had announced his intention of leaving Savage Garden prior to the promotion for "Affirmation". Woodruff criticised the media for their treatment of Hayes. The duo have never issued a united statement regarding the situation, yet Hayes has guaranteed that the group will "never, by any chance" reunite, adding in 2020, "Imagine if you had come out and survived a really dysfunctional and toxic relationship, and then for years later people would ask you to please get back in that relationship [...] "I once said I'd only do it if it cured cancer and that's still how I feel."


title: Darren Hayes

text: Hayes recorded his first solo album, "Spin", which was released in 2002. The album was produced by Walter Afanasieff, the producer of "Affirmation". "Spin" carried on in the same musical vein as Savage Garden, with a less soft rock sound and more edgy R&B vibe, although the first single "Insatiable" was a ballad, reaching Number 3 in Australia. Other singles "Strange Relationship", "Crush (1980 Me)" and "I Miss You" also performed well in charts. The album reached the Top 5 in Australia at Number 3, and in the UK at Number 2. It also reached the top ten in Denmark, Sweden and Finland. In the United States, the album failed to make the same impact as Savage Garden's previous releases, reaching Number 35 on "Billboard". It was later re-issued with a bonus disc consisting of some live and studio tracks.


title: Darren Hayes

text: Hayes spent two years working on his second solo album, "The Tension and the Spark". Other than the track "I Forgive You", which was produced with Madonna collaborator Marius De Vries, the entire album was produced by Hayes and Robert Conley (with whom he had previously toured and recorded "Crush (1980 Me)" for "Spin" and "Do You Believe" for Specificus). The album marked a bold change of direction for Hayes. Conley's production was almost entirely electronic, with acoustic instruments buried under walls of sequenced sounds. Although artistically this was a huge step forward and earned Hayes the strongest praise of his career, it alienated a large portion of his audience, who were expecting another album of radio-friendly pop songs. The first single, "Pop!ular", was released on 12 July 2004. This single reached Number One on the US Dance Charts, and fared well in the UK. Hayes's follow-up single, "Darkness", charted in the lower regions of the ARIA top 50 charts.


title: Darren Hayes

text: One of his out-takes from the "Spin" sessions, "When You Say You Love Me", was recorded by Clay Aiken in 2003 for his "Measure of a Man" album. It was later covered by Human Nature, resulting in an Australian top 20 single in April 2004 off their "Walk The Tightrope" album, and was then re-recorded in 2008 featuring Hayes himself.


title: Darren Hayes

text: In 2005, Hayes recorded a track he wrote with Robert Conley called "So Beautiful", which was included on the Savage Garden greatest hits compilation, "". The compilation also includes a second track by Hayes called "California". Both of these tracks hark back to Hayes's early sound, although still retaining some of the electronic flourishes from "The Tension and the Spark".


title: Darren Hayes

text: On 9 July 2006, Hayes announced that he had parted ways with Columbia Records after ten years and 24 million album sales together.


title: Darren Hayes

text: The tour following this release saw Hayes play the iconic Sydney Opera House. The performance was recorded and released on a DVD entitled "A Big Night in with Darren Hayes".


title: Darren Hayes

text: Hayes finished recording his third solo album, "This Delicate Thing We've Made", in 2007. The album was a double-disc, with 25 tracks. Many of the tracks were co-written with Robert Conley, and a great deal of the album was written with and produced by Justin Shave, who played keyboards for part of Hayes's "Time Machine" tour. The album was released on 20 August 2007 on Hayes's own independent record label, Powdered Sugar, while the first single, "On the Verge of Something Wonderful", was released in Australia on 28 July 2007 and in the UK and online on 6 August 2007.


title: Darren Hayes

text: On 9 April 2007, Hayes released the album track "Who Would Have Thought" from "This Delicate Thing We've Made" as a teaser track on his official website, as well as his MySpace profile. This was accompanied by an animation for the song created by his partner, animator and director, Richard Cullen. Around April 2007, remixes of the album track "Step into the Light" were being played in clubs around the world. The album version of "Step into the Light" was released as a teaser on Hayes's official website and MySpace on 30 April 2007.


title: Darren Hayes

text: During the first half of 2007, Hayes performed selected songs from the album in The Time Machine World Tour small, exclusive gigs around the world. Tickets for several of these much sought after shows sold out in under ten minutes. In June 2007, Hayes embarked on a small tour of USA and Canada, stopping in New York, Toronto, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles, along with the band Temposhark. The shows were well received with very positive reviews.


title: Darren Hayes

text: On 30 June 2007, Hayes headlined the London Gay Pride at Trafalgar Square. He performed "I Want You" and "On the Verge of Something Wonderful", as well as a medley that included "Pop!ular".


title: Darren Hayes

text: In July 2007, Hayes announced The Time Machine Tour that would start out in the UK, and then move on to Hayes's home country Australia. On 29 July 2007, "On the Verge of Something Wonderful" was the most selected music video on The Box in the UK. On 20 August 2007, "This Delicate Thing We've Made" was released in the UK, America and Australia. 'The Time Machine Tour' included venues such as The Royal Albert Hall and the State Theatre in Sydney. His stage was again designed by Willie Williams and included a large bridge that could extend over the first few rows of seats. On the final night, at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre in Hayes's hometown of Brisbane, the performance was recorded in HD for a DVD release. The Time Machine Tour DVD came out in two editions: the special edition which was limited to 2000 copies and contained a four-panel, fold-out, gleaming white box, a thirty-two-page color booklet with 300 photos and notes from the artist, and the regular edition. The special edition DVD, which was only available from Hayes' website, was shipped to purchasers on 1 July, and the regular edition, which was available in shops, was released on 22 July.


title: Darren Hayes

text: Hayes did a mini tour in the US in November and December 2007, making appearances at Borders stores and performing two shows in New York City and Philadelphia.


title: Darren Hayes

text: On 18 December 2007, Hayes announced "The Side Two Tour". The show toured the UK in February 2008 and featured Hayes performing songs from "This Delicate Thing We've Made" that were not featured on "The Time Machine Tour", in a more intimate setting. In late 2008, the DVD "This Delicate Film We've Made" was announced. The DVD featured selected songs from the album, arranged in a new sequence, and set to visuals that told a loose, abstract animated narrative. The DVD entered the UK music DVD charts at Number 1.


title: Darren Hayes

text: On 19 April 2009, Hayes teased via Twitter that he was preparing another album. On 8 May, Hayes announced, via his MySpace page, that he and Robert Conley had produced an album together titled "We Are Smug". The ten-track album, with a fair amount of experimentation with both lyrics and music, was made available via a link from his MySpace page, and was made free to download to gauge acceptability of Hayes's shifting musical styles. The album is heavily electronic with some heavy beats. It also contains some explicit content. Both Hayes and Conley share vocal duties on this album.


title: Darren Hayes

text: Hayes signed to Sony ATV Music Publishing for a worldwide deal in August 2009. Emma Banks from CAA UK came on board October 2009 to represent Hayes for his touring plans around the new album.


title: Darren Hayes

text: Although the album was completed before the holidays in 2009, Hayes announced in early 2010 that he had more song ideas and he was going back into the studio, which delayed the album another year. Hayes completely finished his fourth solo album in mid-2010, working with top writer/producers from around the world and having the record mixed by Robert Orton.


title: Darren Hayes

text: Hayes also recorded a song for the Finn tribute album "He Will Have His Way", a cover of "Not Even Close". It was released on Halloween 2010.


title: Darren Hayes

text: On 17 April 2011, Hayes announced that he had signed a record deal with Mercury Records/Universal Music Australia and signed to EMI Services UK /Europe. He released his fourth studio album in October 2011. The first single titled "Talk Talk Talk" was announced in May and was released on 24 June. The single contains a cover version of Madonna's "Angel" as the B-side.


title: Darren Hayes

text: It was announced on 20 June, via Hayes's Facebook page, that his new album would be titled "Secret Codes and Battleships".


title: Darren Hayes

text: Hayes announced on Twitter on 22 July that he was shooting a second music video from the album. On 14 August, he revealed in a radio interview that "Black Out the Sun" will be the second single from "Secret Codes and Battleships". Since its release in the UK, BBC Radio 2 has selected the track to feature on their A list the week commencing 1 October 2011. He later confirmed, on Twitter, that this song will be the single for the UK and other international markets, while "Bloodstained Heart" would be the second single in Australia. Hayes played dates on "The Secret" Tour in the UK and Australia beginning on 15 October in Liverpool. Hayes tweeted, on 2 March 2012, that he would be shooting another music video the week after. He later confirmed the music video was being shot for "Stupid Mistake", which was released as the album's fourth single in May 2012.


title: Darren Hayes

text: Since 2013, Hayes stopped his music career and tried to build a stand-up comedy career. At the same time, he kept creating short singing videos in his social media accounts for his fans. In an 2022 interview with "Queerty", Hayes said that he had actually planned to retire at that point. In 2018 Hayes briefly returned on stage with one-off performance of two songs, including "I Knew I Loved You". In 2019, Hayes featured on Cub Sport's single "I Never Cried So Much in My Whole Life". He did not appear in the official video. In 2020 he recorded a new version of "Truly Madly Deeply" with slightly modified lyrics. The video of his studio performance was released on YouTube on 24 April.


title: Darren Hayes

text: On 26 January 2022, Hayes released the single, "Let's Try Being in Love". A music video for the song was released the same day, starring Hayes and featuring actor Scott Evans. The video was directed by Andrew Putschoegl. Referred to as a "queer anthem" by "NME", in promotional interviews, Hayes explained "I've been married to Richard [Cullen] for almost 17 years, [and] I'm in this really comfortable place in my life. But at the same time at mid-life I'm grieving the fact I never got to celebrate who I really was at the period of my life where I was most famous. I look at this world we live in now where someone like Lil Nas X can push forward his true self, full of pride and self-love and have the chance to be loved for who he truly is [...] A lot of the time I was my most famous, I was deeply sad." Less than 24 hours of release, "Let's Try Being in Love" debuted at number 96 on the Official UK Singles Download Chart Top 100 and at number 98 on the Official UK Singles Sales Chart Top 100. The single also peaked at number 9 on the Australian Independent singles chart. "I wanted to show I love the feminine in me, be proud of the gay me. There's a dance scene that is so passionate, everything's alive and thriving and blooming. That's how I feel in general about music. And that's a hugely sharp contrast to how I felt 10 years ago."


title: Darren Hayes

text: On 27 January 2022, Hayes announced he would be headlining the 2022 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade and would be performing on 5 March 2022. Hayes performed "The Animal Song", "I Want You", "Affirmation" plus, live for the very first time, "Let's Try Being in Love".


title: Darren Hayes

text: On 2 March 2022, Hayes announced the Do You Remember? Tour that would be performed in six Australian cities between January and February 2023 and would feature songs from his musical career as part of Savage Garden and as a solo artist. On 10 March 2022, Hayes released the single "Do You Remember?", following with the official video on 16 March 2022. In June 2022, Hayes released "Poison Blood", which details his life living with depression, and others affected by it. Hayes released the official "Poison Blood" music video on 26 June 2022, announcing UK Tour dates on the same day. A remix of "Let's Try Being in Love" was released on 15 July 2022, with production helmed by Louis La Roche. This was followed on 29 July by Roche's remix to "Do You Remember?".


title: Darren Hayes

text: On 18 August 2022, Hayes announced that "Homosexual", his fifth studio album, would be released that October. A fourth single, "All You Pretty Things", was released on 19 August 2022. When the album was released on 7 October 2022, Hayes said "My new album was born from a desire to rid myself of the grief I developed over the years I lost to shame growing up in a world where being gay was met with rejection and condemnation. I wanted to revisit my teenage years with the wisdom of a proud 50-year-old gay man and revisit my youthful memories and view them through this new peach-tinted lens of joy. I imagined an adolescence where I could be loved for who I truly am today. Through this music, my goal was to reclaim my happiness and reclaim my identity. That confidence gave me the courage to explore deep wounds in my life and explore old trauma from the perspective of an effervescent endless summer." "Homosexual" debuted at number 6 on the Australian Digital Albums and number 16 on the Australian Artist Albums Chart. The album debuted at number 82 on the UK Albums Chart, also placing on the UK Download and Album Sales charts, placing at numbers 3 and 13, respectively.


title: Darren Hayes

text: In December 2014, Hayes announced a comedy podcast ""The He Said, He Said Show"". The podcast debuted on 10 February 2015. Rosie O'Donnell has appeared as a guest. The podcast ended its run at the end of the year. Hayes has co-hosted a comedic movie review podcast with writer and comedian Anthony Armentano called "We Paid To See This". Some of Hayes' sketch comedy can be found on his YouTube page including a Star Wars spoof documentary and several of his sketches he wrote and performed during his time studying at The Groundlings Theatre and School. On 13 March 2016 Hayes announced he had been writing an original musical with writer and comedian Johnny Menke. As of March 2022, the musical has yet to be publicly performed or recorded.


title: Darren Hayes

text: Hayes married his childhood sweetheart, makeup artist Colby Taylor, in 1994. They were still married when Savage Garden "skyrocketed to fame around the globe in the late 1990s." They separated in 1998 and were divorced in 2000. Much of the lyrics for the band's second album, "Affirmation", dealt with his divorce. He recorded "Affirmation" in San Francisco mid-1999 and eventually bought a house there. He also maintained a base in London since 2004. In 2013, Hayes moved to Los Angeles.


title: Darren Hayes

text: Hayes started coming out as gay to friends and the head of his label, Sony, in the early 2000s. He entered into a private marriage ceremony with his boyfriend of two years, Richard Cullen, on 23 July 2005 in London. On 19 June 2006, also in London, they entered into a formal civil partnership. Hayes and Cullen applied for a marriage licence in California, and were married on 15 July 2013, to show their support for those fighting for same-sex marriage. Hayes and Cullen live in the United States. Though public speculation about his sexual orientation had been present throughout his career, he kept his personal life private. He announced the event the day prior on his official website. Before the announcement, Cullen's name had appeared on the website as the designer of the cover for Hayes's single "So Beautiful". In a 2017 interview with "Attitude", Hayes commented, "I don't regret [publicly coming out] for a second. It wasn't that I was blacklisted, but it was that I became a 'niche' artist purely based on my sexuality. There was a kind of unintentionally patronizing view of me. No longer a sexual object, but more of someone you might take home to Mom [...] I was suddenly your gay uncle. That was frustrating. My sexuality was used as a descriptor, and if you think about it, that's nuts. No one says 'Openly heterosexual singer Adele.' "


title: Darren Hayes

text: Hayes is a "Star Wars" fan and has been since childhood. He also collects "Star Wars" memorabilia, and he even auditioned for a role in "". After "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure" got the license for his hit song "I Want You" to be used in the animated Part 4 "Diamond Is Unbreakable", he expressed his gratitude and also revealed that he is a fan of the series.


title: Luisana Lopilato

text: Luisana Loreley Lopilato de la Torre (born 18 May 1987) is an Argentine actress, model and former singer. She was a member of the pop-rock band Erreway from 2002 to 2004.


title: Luisana Lopilato

text: Lopilato was born to Eduardo Lopilato and Beatriz de la Torre. Her older siblings are actress and actor Darío. She is of Spanish and Italian heritage; her great-grandfather was an immigrant from Muro Lucano, province of Potenza. She grew up in an evangelical Christian family and has stated that she is a devout Christian.


title: Luisana Lopilato

text: Lopilato made her first guest appearance in the television series " Chiquititas " in 1997 at the age of 10 and then she made her debut in the television series "Mi familia es un dibujo" in 1998 at the age of 11, and continued working as a child model and starring in TV commercials, which is something she started at the age of 5. In 1999, she was chosen to play her first big role, Luisana Maza in "Chiquititas" at the age of 12, a popular television series created by Cris Morena. That role made Lopilato famous in her country.


title: Luisana Lopilato

text: Lopilato signed a contract with the Cris Morena Group, and released four "Chiquititas" soundtrack albums — "Chiqutitias Vol. 5" (1999), "Chiqutitias Vol. 6" (2000), "Chiquititas Vol. 7" (2001) and "Chiquititas: Rincón de Luz" (2001). She reprised her role of Luisana Maza in "Chiquititas, la historia", a mini–series broadcast in 2001, and "", a 2001 "Chiquititas" spin–off film. In 2000, she appeared in the film "Un Amor en Moises Ville".


title: Luisana Lopilato

text: In 2002, Lopilato was given the role of Mía Colucci in the 2002—03 television series "Rebelde Way", created by Cris Morena. She starred with Benjamín Rojas, Felipe Colombo and Camila Bordonaba, with whom she formed a pop rock band, Erreway. Erreway released three studio albums — "Señales" (2002), "Tiempo" (2003) and "Memoria" (2004) — which sold over 5 million copies. "Señales" and "Tiempo" earned Platinum certification in Argentina ("Señales" earned double Platinum) while "Memoria" earned Gold. Their 2004 film, "", was a box–office success.


title: Luisana Lopilato

text: It was confirmed that Lopilato would record a solo album and that she had signed with Universal Music Group.


title: Luisana Lopilato

text: After "Rebelde Way", she received several acting offers and signed with Pol-Ka Productions, with which she made two telenovelas, "Los Secretos de Papá" and "Los Pensionados". In 2005, Lopilato appeared in "Casados con Hijos", an Argentine version of "Married... with Children".


title: Luisana Lopilato

text: She portrayed Paola Argento, a character originally portrayed by Christina Applegate. She was nominated for a Martín Fierro Award for Best Supporting Actress. She once again worked with Cris Morena on "Alma Pirata".


title: Luisana Lopilato

text: In 2007, Lopilato was host of Los Premios MTV Latinoamérica, Latin MTV Awards, with the former Miss Colombia Valerie Domínguez. She was nominated for an ACE Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role onstage in "Arlequín", and appeared in the Martín Fierro Award-nominated television comedy "El Capo". "Gente" magazine named Lopilato "The Face of the Year". She starred with Rodrigo González and Sabrina Garciarena in the 2008 telenovela "Encandilados", made especially for cell-phones, and also starred in the theatre play "La Cenicienta" with Rodrigo Guirao Díaz.


title: Luisana Lopilato

text: From 2008 to 2009, she starred in the series "Atracción x4". In 2009, Lopilato starred opposite Nicolás Cabré and Gimena Accardi in the film "Papá por un Día". Her animated film, "Plumíferos", which was completed in 2008, was released in February 2010.


title: Luisana Lopilato

text: In June 2009, "FHM" magazine in Spain, ranked her 86 in its annual "Las 100 mujeres más sexys del mundo".


title: Luisana Lopilato

text: In 2010, Lopilato completed the Channel 13 TV series "Alguien que me quiera", in which she played Bianca Rivera, a sweet and sensitive young woman who struggled and suffered much for love. In November 2010, "FHM" in Spain ranked her 17th on its annual list "Las 100 mujeres más sexys del mundo".


title: Luisana Lopilato

text: In late 2010, Lopilato announced that she was planning to marry the Canadian singer Michael Bublé in April 2011. Having completed the recordings of "Alguien Que Me Quiera", Lopilato accompanied Bublé on his "Crazy Love" tour.


title: Luisana Lopilato

text: In 2011, Lopilato made her first film outside Argentina, the Spanish thriller "Predeterminados" (directed by Jordi Arencón), as "Vera". In June 2011, "FHM" in Spain ranked her 11th on the "Las 100 mujeres más sexys del mundo" list.


title: Luisana Lopilato

text: Lopilato joined the cast of the El Trece series "Lobo" as a villainess, opposite Ana Linares's character (Vanesa González). In 2012, she portrayed Silvia, one of the lead roles in the Italian miniseries "Una buona stagione" ("A good season") transmitted by RAI, which premiered during 2014.


title: Luisana Lopilato

text: In 2013, she played a young cancer victim in the second season of the Argentine remake of "In Treatment", "En terapia", starring Diego Peretti and broadcast by TV Publica. She was nominated for a Martin Fierro Award as Best Supporting Actress in a drama.


title: Luisana Lopilato

text: In 2014, Lopilato starred in the comedy film "Las Insoladas", directed by Gustavo Taretto (known for his previous film "Medianeras"). After the premiere in September, she announced her next film project, "Los que aman, odian", based on the book by Adolfo Bioy Casares and Silvina Ocampo.


title: Luisana Lopilato

text: In 2015, Lopilato returned to Argentinian TV in an episode of the mini-series "Variaciones Walsh" broadcast on public TV. She went to Hollywood acting in her first North American film entitled "Fair Market Value"; the cast included Tina Benko and Wendy Makkena. In the same year, she was invited to join "Tu Cara Me Suena", a talent show, as part of the jury.


title: Luisana Lopilato

text: Lopilato began her career as a singer in the TV series that launched her to fame, "Chiquititas". In 2000, she participated in the album with other actors from the series. The final part of the series was premiered in 2001. After "Chiquitita", the creator of the series, Cris Morena, rehired Lopilato for a new series called "Rebelde Way", from which emerged "Erreway", a pop group consisting of the four main actors of the series. Benjamín Rojas, Lopilato, Felipe Colombo and Camila Bordonaba were the actors chosen for the series and the group. They released three studio albums: "Señales" (2002), "Tiempo" (2003) and "Memoria" (2004).


title: Luisana Lopilato

text: Two years later, as the group dissolved, the series was sold to Spain and the success of its music lead to a fourth and fifth album, this time a compilation entitled, "El Disco de Rebelde Way" (2006) and "Erreway en Concierto" (2006), and a show in Israel in 2004.


title: Luisana Lopilato

text: In 2008 and 2009, Lopilato was in the series "Atracción x4", with her brother Darío Lopilato. The series generated another band which released two albums that received gold certification in Argentina.


title: Luisana Lopilato

text: Lopilato was the face of the underwear brand Promesse from 2006 to 2010. In 2014, she finished her work as the face of Ultimo. She appeared in several commercials in Argentina and Israel. She started modeling as a child model at the age of 7 and even before, she had done some TV commercials. She has worked for such brands as 47 Street, Nazaria Zapatos, Keff, John Foos, Ultimo , Axe, Motor Oil Underwear for Juniors, BlackBerry, Kukuloco, Rebelde Way underwear, Sugus Combinados, Pent Ten, Marcela Koury, Ona Saez Jeans, Ripley S. A, Promesse, Bubbaloo, Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Gottex, Vitamina, L'Oréal Elvive, Gillette and Alberto V5.


title: Luisana Lopilato

text: Lopilato became engaged to Canadian singer Michael Bublé in 2009, having appeared in his music video for "Haven't Met You Yet" which was written for her. She married Bublé on 31 March 2011, in her native Argentina, with a full ceremony in April. They have four children: a son born 27 August 2013, a son born 21 January 2016, a daughter born 26 July 2018, and another daughter born 19 August 2022. Their oldest son was diagnosed with liver cancer hepatoblastoma in 2016, but has since recovered. They live in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada.


The 2019 Maharashtra Legislative Assembly election was held on 21 October 2019 to elect all 288 members of the state's Legislative Assembly. After a 61.4% turnout in the election, the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Shiv Sena (SHS) won a majority. Following differences over the government formation, the alliance was dissolved, precipitating a political crisis. Since a council of ministers had not been formed after no party could manage to form the government, President's rule was imposed in the state.


title: 2019 Maharashtra Legislative Assembly election

text: On 23 November 2019, Devendra Fadnavis was sworn in as the Chief Minister and Ajit Pawar was sworn in as Deputy Chief Minister. However both of them resigned on 26 November 2019 before the floor test and on 28 November 2019, Shiv Sena, NCP, and Congress formed the government under a new alliance Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), with Uddhav Thackeray as the Chief Minister. Subsequently, Uddhav Thackeray had to resign due to the Shiv Sena being split which was led by Eknath Shinde. Eknath Shinde is currently the Chief Minister with a BJP-Shiv Sena alliance with BJP's Devendra Fadnavis as the deputy Chief Minister.


text: The results were out on 21 October 2019 with the Sena-BJP Alliance getting majority, enough to form the government. However, Shiv Sena and BJP had a fall out which compelled Shiv Sena to form an alliance with the opposition, ending their alliance. The new alliance, named Maha Vikas Aghadi, consists of Congress, Shiv Sena and NCP forming the Government


text: Pre-election alliance of National Democratic Alliance (NDA) was formed between Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Shiv Sena (SHS). Later, however, SHS left NDA and formed Three-Party Alliance Government Maha Vikas Aghadi seeing inability to share power with each other.


text: Pre-election alliance of United Progressive Alliance (UPA) was formed with Indian National Congress (INC) and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). INC filled nominations on 145 seats and NCP on 123. Other parties that supported the UPA alliance were Raju Shetti-led Swabhimani Shetkari Saghtana (4 seats), the Peasants and Workers Party (6 seats), Samajwadi Party (3 seats), Bahujan Vikas Aghadi (3 seats) and Ravi Rana-led Swabhiman Sanghatana (1 seat). The opposition finalised common nominee of 2 seats of Mankhatao and Kothrud constituency. Peoples Republican Party (3 seats) and Bahujan Republican Socialist Party (2 seats) will be fielding their candidates on the symbols of INC and NCP. The Samajwadi Party later rescinded its support for the alliance, to contest for 7 seats separately instead. Shiv Sena later joined UPA after leaving NDA.


text: Various prominent parties in the Maharashtra's political scenario did not join hands with either of the two alliances. This includes Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi that will be contesting all 288 seats. All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen will be contesting from 44 seats, mostly from Muslim predominant constituencies. Maharashtra Navnirman Sena will be contesting from 103 seats.


text: On 30 September 2019, The Bharatiya Janata Party and the Shiv Sena announced that they have finalised their Seat sharing agreements with each other and agreed to fight under the banner of Maha Yuti Alliance. Few days before, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had visited Matoshree (Uddhav Thackeray's Home) and met Uddhav Thackeray for the same.


text: In order to expand the party's image and to improve its vote share within the state as well as in the Alliance, the Shiv Sena started Jan Aashirwad Yatra headed by party's youth icon and Yuva Sena Chief Aaditya Thackeray. Under this, Aditya Thackeray with his party cadres travelled city-to-city, village-to-village convincing people to vote in favour of his party and the Alliance.


text: On par with the Jan Aashirwad Yatra, Aaditya Thackeray interacted with youth community across the state under the Aditya Samwad, there he addressed questions related common problems faced by today's generation and provided solutions for them. Aditya Samwad was promoted and supported by Indian Political Strategist Prashant Kishor and his company I-PAC.


text: The BJP launched the Maha- Janadesh Yatra headed by then incumbent CM and BJP Leader Devendra Fadnavis, State President Chandrakant Patil and Union Minister Rajnath Singh. Under the Yatra, the BJP hoped to approach more constituencies and voters.


text: On 16 September 2019, the Indian National Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party sealed their deal for seat sharing arrangements for the elections, both the parties contested on 125 Seats and kept 38 seats for Independents/Smaller Parties, This comes after the INC-NCP lost many heavyweight leaders joining BJP-Sena.


text: The NCP flagged off the Shiv Swarajya Yatra from Shivneri, headed by Chief Sharad Pawar, Ajit Pawar and State President Jayant Patil, the Party hoped that it would reach maximum people that would help them to raise strong Anti-Incumbency. The campaign by the Nationalist Congress Party was seen as a try-hard campaign against the mighty Sena-BJP Alliance, which proved correct making the BJP-Sena losing vast constituencies against the Congress-NCP.


text: The NCP also managed to revive the itself by successfully gaining their stronghold Western Maharashtra back from the Sena-BJP Alliance, the lone-NCP was seen as the main and unexpected competitor against the Sena-BJP.


text: The Sena-BJP though managed to form the government for the second term, but lost core-ministers and constituencies to the NCP.


text: The INC flagged off the Pol Khol Yatra headed by senior state party leaders like Ashok Chavan, State President Balasaheb Thorat and Madhya Pradesh CM Kamal Nath.


text: The Pol Khol Yatra was intended to expose the ruling Maha Yuti Government's failures and claims. The Yatra only little but helped the party in securing fate in Maharashtra.


text: Subsequent to the election, pre-polling and exit polling in all cases but one (India Today-Axis exit poll), was seen to have significantly over-estimated the vote share and seat projections to the ruling right-wing NDA coalition.


text: After declaration of election result on 24 October 2019, Shiv Sena declined to support BJP for the government formation demanding rotational Chief Ministers of both parties for 2.5 years each, which was promised by BJP during elections and withdrew from Maha-Yuti Alliance. As no political party was able to prove the majority in the assembly, the President's rule was imposed in the state following recommendation by the Governor on 12 November 2019.


text: Ultimately, the combination of largest legislative party BJP and a faction of the NCP agreed to form a grand coalition with Devendra Fadnavis returning as Chief Minister. Ajit Pawar of NCP was sworn in as Deputy Chief Minister. But the NCP national leadership had rebuffed this move and announced that it will not support BJP. On Tue, 26 Nov, Devendra Fadnavis resigned at a press conference in Mumbai.


title: Village

text: A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Though villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighborhoods. Villages are normally permanent, with fixed dwellings; however, transient villages can occur. Further, the dwellings of a village are fairly close to one another, not scattered broadly over the landscape, as a dispersed settlement. In the past, villages were a usual form of community for societies that practice subsistence agriculture, and also for some non-agricultural societies. In Great Britain, a hamlet earned the right to be called a village when it built a church. In many cultures, towns and cities were few, with only a small proportion of the population living in them. The Industrial Revolution attracted people in larger numbers to work in mills and factories; the concentration of people caused many villages to grow into towns and cities. This also enabled specialization of labor and crafts, and development of many trades. The trend of urbanization continues, though not always in connection with industrialization. Historically homes were situated together for sociability and defiance, and land surrounding the living quarters was farmed. Traditional fishing villages were based on artisan fishing and located adjacent to fishing grounds.


title: Village

text: In toponomastic terminology, names of individual villages are called "Comonyms" (from Ancient Greek κώμη / village and ὄνυμα / name, [cf. ὄνομα]).


title: Village

text: In Afghanistan, the village, or "deh" (Dari/Pashto: ده) is the mid-size settlement type in Afghan society, trumping the hamlet or "qala" (Dari: قلعه, Pashto: کلي), though smaller than the town, or "shār" (Dari: شهر, Pashto: ښار). In contrast to the "qala", the "deh" is generally a bigger settlement which includes a commercial area, while the yet larger "shār" includes governmental buildings and services such as schools of higher education, basic health care, police stations etc.


title: Village

text: ""The soul of India lives in its villages,"" declared Mahatma Gandhi at the beginning of 20th century. According to the 2011 census of India, 69% of Indians (around 833 million people) live in 640,867 different villages. The size of these villages varies considerably. 236,004 Indian villages have a population of fewer than 500, while 3,976 villages have a population of 10,000+. Most of the villages have their own temple, mosque, or church, depending on the local religious following.


title: Village

text: The majority of Pakistanis live in rural areas. According to the 2017 census about 64% of Pakistanis live in rural areas. Most rural areas in Pakistan tend to be near cities, and are peri-urban areas, This is due to the definition of a rural area in Pakistan being an area that does not come within an urban boundary. Village is called dehair or gaaon in Urdu. Pakistani village life is marked by kinship and exchange relations.


title: Village

text: Auyl () is a Kazakh word meaning "village" in Kazakhstan. According to the 2009 census of Kazakhstan, 42.7% of Kazakhstani citizens (7.5 million people) live in 8172 different villages. To refer to this concept along with the word "auyl" often used the Slavic word "selo" in Northern Kazakhstan.


title: Village

text: In the Republic of China (Taiwan), villages are divisions under townships or county-administered cities. The village is called a "tsuen" or "cūn" (村) under a rural township (鄉) and a "li" (里) under an urban township (鎮) or a county-controlled city. See also Li (unit).


title: Village

text: In Brunei, villages are officially the third- and lowest-level subdivisions of Brunei below districts and mukims. A village is locally known by the Malay word (also spelt as ). They may be villages in the traditional or anthropological sense but may also comprise delineated residential settlements, both rural and urban. The community of a village is headed by a village head (). Communal infrastructure for the villagers may include a primary school, a religious school providing or Islamic religious primary education which is compulsory for the Muslim pupils in the country, a mosque, and a community centre ( or ).


title: Village

text: In Indonesia, depending on the principles they are administered, villages are called "Kampung" or "Desa" (officially "kelurahan"). A ""Desa"" (a term that derives from a Sanskrit word meaning "country" that is found in the name "Bangladesh"="bangla" and "desh/desha") is administered according to traditions and customary law ("adat"), while a "kelurahan" is administered along more "modern" principles. "Desa" are generally located in rural areas while "kelurahan" are generally urban subdivisions. A village head is respectively called "kepala desa" or "lurah". Both are elected by the local community. A "desa" or "kelurahan" is the subdivision of a "kecamatan" (subdistrict), in turn the subdivision of a "kabupaten" (district) or "kota" (city).


title: Village

text: The same general concept applies all over Indonesia. However, there is some variation among the vast numbers of Austronesian ethnic groups. For instance, in Bali villages have been created by grouping traditional hamlets or "banjar", which constitute the basis of Balinese social life. In the Minangkabau area in West Sumatra province, traditional villages are called "nagari" (a term deriving from another Sanskrit word meaning "city", which can be found in the name like "Srinagar"="sri" and "nagar/nagari"). In some areas such as Tanah Toraja, elders take turns watching over the village at a command post. As a general rule, "desa" and "kelurahan" are groupings of hamlets ("kampung" in Indonesian, "dusun" in the Javanese language, "banjar" in Bali). a "kampung" is defined today as a village in Brunei and Indonesia.


title: Village

text: "Kampung" is a term used in Malaysia, (sometimes spelling "kampong" or "kompong" in the English language) for "a Malay hamlet or village in a Malay-speaking country". In Malaysia, a "kampung" is determined as a locality with 10,000 or fewer people. Since historical times, every Malay village came under the leadership of a "penghulu" (village chief), who has the power to hear civil matters in his village (see Courts of Malaysia for more details).


title: Village

text: A Malay village typically contains a ""masjid"" (mosque) or ""surau"", paddy fields and Malay houses on stilts. Malay and Indonesian villagers practice the culture of helping one another as a community, which is better known as "joint bearing of burdens" ("gotong royong"). They are family-oriented (especially the concept of respecting one's family [particularly the parents and elders]), courtesy and practice belief in God (""Tuhan"") as paramount to everything else. It is common to see a cemetery near the mosque. All Muslims in the Malay or Indonesian village want to be prayed for, and to receive Allah's blessings in the afterlife. In Sarawak and East Kalimantan, some villages are called 'long', primarily inhabited by the Orang Ulu.


title: Village

text: Malaysian "kampung" were once aplenty in Singapore but there are almost no remaining "kampung" villages; the very few to have survived until today are mostly on outlying islands surrounding mainland Singapore, such as Pulau Ubin. Mainland Singapore used to have many "kampung" villages but modern developments and rapid urbanisation works have seen them bulldozed away; Kampong Lorong Buangkok is the last surviving village on the country's mainland.


title: Village

text: The term "kampung", sometimes spelled "kampong", is one of many Malay words to have entered common usage in Malaysia and Singapore. Locally, the term is frequently used to refer to either one's hometown or a rural village, depending on the intended context.


title: Village

text: In urban areas of the Philippines, the term "village" most commonly refers to private subdivisions, especially gated communities. These villages emerged in the mid-20th century and were initially the domain of elite urban dwellers. Those are common in major cities in the country and their residents have a wide range of income levels.


title: Village

text: Such villages may or may not correspond to a barangay (the country's basic unit of government, also glossed as village), or be privately administered. Barangays correspond more to precolonial villages; the chairman (formerly the village datu) now settles administrative, intrapersonal, and political matters or polices the area though with much less authority and respect than in Indonesia or Malaysia.


title: Village

text: Village, or "làng", is a basis of Vietnam society. Vietnam's village is the typical symbol of Asian agricultural production. Vietnam's village typically contains: a village gate, "lũy tre" (bamboo hedges), "đình làng" (communal house) where "thành hoàng" (tutelary god) is worshiped, a common well, "đồng lúa" (rice field), "chùa" (temple) and houses of all families in the village. All the people in Vietnam's villages usually have a blood relationship. They are farmers who grow rice and have the same traditional handicraft. Vietnam's villages have an important role in society (Vietnamese saying: "Custom rules the law" -"Phép vua thua lệ làng" [literally: the king's law yields to village customs]). It is common for Vietnamese villagers to prefer to be buried in their village upon death.


title: Village

text: "Selo" (Cyrillic: село; ) is a Slavic word meaning "village" in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, North Macedonia, Russia, Serbia, and Ukraine. For example, there are numerous "sela" (plural of "selo") called "Novo Selo" ("New Village") in Bulgaria, Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia, and North Macedonia.


title: Village

text: Another Slavic word for a village is "ves" (; ; ; ; ). In Slovenia, the word "selo" is used for very small villages (fewer than 100 people) and in dialects; the Slovene word "vas" is used all over Slovenia. In Russia, the word "ves" is archaic, but remains in idioms and locality names, such as Vesyegonsk.


title: Village

text: The most commonly used word for village in Slovak is "dedina" (dialectical also "dzedzina"). The word's etymology may be (or may not be) rooted in the verb "dediť" ("to inherit"), referencing the inheriting of whole villages or properties within villages by noblemen or wealthy landowners. Another etymology could be related to the Sanskrit word "deśá" (देश) similar to the Afghan "deh", Bengal "desh" and Indonesian "desa". The term "ves" appears in settlement names (mostly villages, but also some towns that evolved over time from villages). The dialect term for village in east Slovakia is also "valal" (or "valala"). "Dedina" is unrelated to the rarer east Slavic term "derevna", which refers to a village with wooden ("derevo") housing.


title: Village

text: In Bulgaria, the different types of "sela" vary from a small selo of 5 to 30 families to one of several thousand people. According to a 2002 census, in that year there were 2,385,000 Bulgarian citizens living in settlements classified as "villages". A 2004 Human Settlement Profile on Bulgaria conducted by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs stated that:


title: Village

text: The most intensive is the migration "city – city". Approximately 46% of all migrated people have changed their residence from one city to another. The share of the migration processes "village – city" is significantly less – 23% and "city – village" – 20%. The migration "village – village" in 2002 is 11%.


title: Village

text: the state of the environment in the small towns and villages is good apart from the low level of infrastructure.


title: Village

text: In Bulgaria, it is popular to visit villages for the atmosphere, culture, crafts, hospitality of the people and the surrounding nature. This is called "selski turizam" (), meaning "village tourism".


title: Village

text: In Russia, as of the 2010 Census, 26.3% of the country's population lives in rural localities; down from 26.7% recorded in the 2002 Census. Multiple types of rural localities exist, but the two most common are "derevnya" () and "selo" (). Historically, the formal indication of status was religious: a city ("gorod", ) had a cathedral, a "selo" had a church, while a "derevnya" had neither.


title: Village

text: The lowest administrative unit of the Russian Empire, a "volost", or its Soviet or modern Russian successor, a "selsoviet", was typically headquartered in a "selo" and embraced a few neighboring villages.


title: Village

text: In the 1960s–1970s, the depopulation of the smaller villages was driven by the central planners' drive in order to get the farm workers out of smaller, "prospectless" hamlets and into the collective or state farms' main villages or even larger towns and cities, with more amenities.


title: Village

text: Most Russian rural residents are involved in agricultural work, and it is very common for villagers to produce their own food. As prosperous urbanites purchase village houses for their second homes, Russian villages sometimes are transformed into dacha settlements, used mostly for seasonal residence.


title: Village

text: The historically Cossack regions of Southern Russia and parts of Ukraine, with their fertile soil and absence of serfdom, had a rather different pattern of settlement from central and northern Russia. While peasants of central Russia lived in a village around the lord's manor, a Cossack family often lived on its own farm, called "khutor". A number of such "khutors" plus a central village made up the administrative unit with a center in a "stanitsa" (; ). Such "stanitsas", often with a few thousand residents, were usually larger than a typical "selo" in central Russia.


title: Village

text: In Ukraine, a village, (), pronounced locally as "selo" (), is considered the lowest administrative unit. Villages are under the jurisdiction of a hromada administration.


title: Village

text: There is, however, another smaller type of settlement which is designated in Ukrainian as a "selyshche" (). This type of community is generally referred to in English as a "settlement". In comparison with an urban-type settlement, Ukrainian legislation does not have a concrete definition or a criterion to differentiate such settlements from villages. They represent a type of a small rural locality that might have once been a "khutir", a fisherman's settlement, or a dacha. Sometimes, the term ""selyshche"" is also used in a more general way to refer to adjacent settlements near a bigger city including urban-type settlements ("selyshche miskoho typu") or villages. However, ambiguity is often avoided in connection with urbanized settlements by referring to them using the three-letter abbreviation "smt" instead.


title: Village

text: The "khutir" () and "stanytsia" () are not part of the administrative division any longer, primarily due to collectivization. "Khutirs" were very small rural localities consisting of just few housing units and were sort of individual farms. They became really popular during the Stolypin reform in the early 20th century. During the collectivization, however, residents of such settlements were usually declared to be kulaks and had all their property confiscated and distributed to others (nationalized) without any compensation. The "stanitsa" likewise has not survived as an administrative term. The "stanitsa" was a type of a collective community that could include one or more settlements such as villages, "khutirs", and others. Today, "stanitsa"-type formations have only survived in Kuban (Russian Federation) where Ukrainians were resettled during the time of the Russian Empire.


title: Village

text: An independent association named "Les Plus Beaux Villages de France", was created in 1982 to promote assets of small and picturesque French villages of quality heritage. As of March 2021, 159 villages in France have been listed in "The Most Beautiful Villages of France".


title: Village

text: In Germany a "Dorf" (village) usually consists of at least a few houses but can have up to a few thousand inhabitants. Larger villages can also be referred to as a "Flecken" or "Markt" depending on the region. Smaller villages usually do not have their own government. Instead, they are part () of the municipality of a nearby town.


title: Village

text: In Italy, villages are spread throughout the country. No legal definition of village exists in Italian law; nonetheless, a settlement inhabited by less than 2000 people is usually described as "village". More often, Italian villages that are a part of a municipality are called "frazione", whereas the village that hosts the municipal seat is called "paese" (town) or "capoluogo".


title: Village

text: In Spain, a village ("pueblo") refers to a small population unit, smaller than a town ("villa" [an archaic term that survives only in official uses, such as the official name of Spain's capital, "la Villa de Madrid"]) and a city ("ciudad"), typically located in a rural environment. While commonly it is the smallest administrative unit ("municipio"), it is possible for a village to be legally composed of smaller population units in its territory. There is not a clear-cut distinction between villages, towns and cities in Spain, since they had been traditionally categorized according to their religious importance and their relationship with surrounding population units.


title: Village

text: Villages are more usual in the northern and central regions, Azores Islands and in the Alentejo. Most of them have a church and a "Casa do Povo" (people's house), where the village's summer "romarias" or religious festivities are usually held. Summer is also when many villages are host to a range of folk festivals and fairs, taking advantage of the fact that many of the locals who reside abroad tend to come back to their native village for the holidays.


title: Village

text: In the flood-prone districts of the Netherlands, particularly in the northern provinces of Friesland and Groningen, villages were traditionally built on low man-made hills called terpen before the introduction of regional dyke-systems. In modern days, the term "dorp" (lit. "village") is usually applied to settlements no larger than 20,000, though there's no official law regarding status of settlements in the Netherlands.


title: Village

text: A village in the UK is a compact settlement of houses, smaller in size than a town, and generally based on agriculture or, in some areas, mining (such as Ouston, County Durham), quarrying or sea fishing. They are very similar to those in Ireland.


title: Village

text: The major factors in the type of settlement are: location of water sources, organisation of agriculture and landholding, and likelihood of flooding. For example, in areas such as the Lincolnshire Wolds, the villages are often found along the spring line halfway down the hillsides, and originate as spring line settlements, with the original open field systems around the village. In northern Scotland, most villages are planned to a grid pattern located on or close to major roads, whereas in areas such as the Forest of Arden, woodland clearances produced small hamlets around village greens. Because of the topography of the Clent Hills the north Worcestershire village of Clent is an example of a village with no centre but instead consists of series of hamlets scattered on and around the Hills.


title: Village

text: Some villages have disappeared (for example, deserted medieval villages), sometimes leaving behind a church or manor house and sometimes nothing but bumps in the fields. Some show archaeological evidence of settlement at three or four different layers, each distinct from the previous one. Clearances may have been to accommodate sheep or game estates, or enclosure, or may have resulted from depopulation, such as after the Black Death or following a move of the inhabitants to more prosperous districts. Other villages have grown and merged and often form hubs within the general mass of suburbia—such as Hampstead, London and Didsbury in Manchester. Many villages are now predominantly dormitory locations and have suffered the loss of shops, churches and other facilities.


title: Village

text: For many British people, the village represents an ideal of Great Britain. Seen as being far from the bustle of modern life, it is represented as quiet and harmonious, if a little inward-looking. This concept of an unspoilt Arcadia is present in many popular representations of the village such as the radio serial "The Archers" or the best kept village competitions.


title: Village

text: Many villages in South Yorkshire, North Nottinghamshire, North East Derbyshire, County Durham, South Wales and Northumberland are known as pit villages. These (such as Murton, County Durham) grew from hamlets when the sinking of a colliery in the early 20th century resulted in a rapid growth in their population and the colliery owners built new housing, shops, pubs and churches. Some pit villages outgrew nearby towns by area and population; for example, Rossington in South Yorkshire came to have over four times more people than the nearby town of Bawtry. Some pit villages grew to become towns; for example, Maltby in South Yorkshire grew from 600 people in the 19th century to over 17,000 in 2007. Maltby was constructed under the auspices of the Sheepbridge Coal and Iron Company and included ample open spaces and provision for gardens.


title: Village

text: In the UK, the main historical distinction between a hamlet and a village was that the latter had a church, and so usually was the centre of worship for an ecclesiastical parish. However, some civil parishes may contain more than one village. The typical village had a pub or inn, shops, and a blacksmith. But many of these facilities are now gone, and many villages are dormitories for commuters. The population of such settlements ranges from a few hundred people to around five thousand. A village is distinguished from a town in that:


title: Village

text: Like France, villages in Lebanon are usually located in remote mountainous areas. The majority of villages in Lebanon retain their Aramaic names or are derivative of the Aramaic names, and this is because Aramaic was still in use in Mount Lebanon up to the 18th century.


title: Village

text: Many of the Lebanese villages are a part of districts, these districts are known as "kadaa" which includes the districts of Baabda (Baabda), Aley (Aley), Matn (Jdeideh), Keserwan (Jounieh), Chouf (Beiteddine), Jbeil (Byblos), Tripoli (Tripoli), Zgharta (Zgharta / Ehden), Bsharri (Bsharri), Batroun (Batroun), Koura (Amioun), Miniyeh-Danniyeh (Minyeh / Sir Ed-Danniyeh), Zahle (Zahle), Rashaya (Rashaya), Western Beqaa (Jebjennine / Saghbine), Sidon (Sidon), Jezzine (Jezzine), Tyre (Tyre), Nabatiyeh (Nabatiyeh), Marjeyoun (Marjeyoun), Hasbaya (Hasbaya), Bint Jbeil (Bint Jbeil), Baalbek (Baalbek), and Hermel (Hermel).


title: Village

text: The district of Danniyeh consists of thirty-six small villages, which includes Almrah, Kfirchlan, Kfirhbab, Hakel al Azimah, Siir, Bakhoun, Miryata, Assoun, Sfiiri, Kharnoub, Katteen, Kfirhabou, Zghartegrein, Ein Qibil.


title: Village

text: Danniyeh (known also as Addinniyeh, Al Dinniyeh, Al Danniyeh, Arabic: سير الضنية) is a region located in Miniyeh-Danniyeh District in the North Governorate of Lebanon. The region lies east of Tripoli, extends north as far as Akkar District, south to Bsharri District and Zgharta District and as far east as Baalbek and Hermel. Dinniyeh has an excellent ecological environment filled with woodlands, orchards and groves. Several villages are located in this mountainous area, the largest town being Sir Al Dinniyeh.


title: Village

text: An example of a typical mountainous Lebanese village in Dannieh would be Hakel al Azimah which is a small village that belongs to the district of Danniyeh, situated between Bakhoun and Assoun's boundaries. It is in the centre of the valleys that lie between the Arbeen Mountains and the Khanzouh.


title: Village

text: Syria contains a large number of villages that vary in size and importance, including the ancient, historical and religious villages, such as Ma'loula, Sednaya, and Brad (Mar Maroun's time). The diversity of the Syrian environments creates significant differences between the Syrian villages in terms of the economic activity and the method of adoption. Villages in the south of Syria (Hauran, Jabal al-Druze), the north-east (the Syrian island) and the Orontes River basin depend mostly on agriculture, mainly grain, vegetables, and fruits. Villages in the region of Damascus and Aleppo depend on trading. Some other villages, such as Marmarita depend heavily on tourist activity.


title: Village

text: Mediterranean cities in Syria, such as Tartus and Latakia have similar types of villages. Mainly, villages were built in very good sites which had the fundamentals of the rural life, like water. An example of a Mediterranean Syrian village in Tartus would be al-Annazah, which is a small village that belongs to the area of al-Sauda. The area of al-Sauda is called a "nahiya".


title: Village

text: Communities on Pacific islands were historically called villages by English speakers who traveled and settled in the area. Some communities such as several Villages of Guam continue to be called villages despite having large populations that can exceed 40,000 residents.


title: Village

text: The traditional Māori village was the pā, a fortified hill-top settlement. Tree-fern logs and flax were the main building materials. As in Australia (see below) the term is now used mainly in respect of shopping or other planned areas.


title: Village

text: The term village often is used in reference to small planned communities such as retirement communities or shopping districts, and tourist areas such as ski resorts. Small rural communities are usually known as townships. Larger settlements are known as towns.


title: Village

text: Usually set in remote mountainous areas, some also cater to winter sports or tourism. See Uspallata, La Cumbrecita, Villa Traful and La Cumbre.


title: Village

text: In various areas villages can still be found in Guyana. While many are now towns, there are several areas on river banks, and communities off central roads that are still locally considered villages.


title: Village

text: Village or "villa" is one of the three levels at which the government classifies urbanizations or "localidades", a "villa" is highest rank than a "pueblo" which is the lowest unit and lower than a city or "ciudad", which is the highest rank. Note that this organization is more related with notability than size, since there is no official criteria to determine the level of urbanization. Every urbanization is a "pueblo" unless is elevated by decree to the next category. Historically this was a faculty of the executive power but more recently this faculty was transferred to the legislative. However colloquial speech still refers as "pueblo" to most "villas" and even cities and many names preceded by the word "villa" could represent other standard, such as "Villa del Cerro" or "Villa Serrana".


title: Village

text: In contrast to the Old World, the concept of village in Canada and the United States today is largely disconnected from its rural and communal origins. The situation is different in Mexico because of its large bulk of indigenous population living in traditional villages.


title: Village

text: In twenty U.S. states, the term "village" refers to a specific form of incorporated municipal government, similar to a city but with less authority and geographic scope. However, this is a generality; in many states, there are villages that are an order of magnitude larger than the smallest cities in the state. The distinction is not necessarily based on population, but on the relative powers granted to the different types of municipalities and correspondingly, different obligations to provide specific services to residents.


title: Village

text: In some states such as New York and Michigan, a village is an incorporated municipality, within a single town or civil township. In some cases, the village may be coterminous with the town or township, in which case the two may have a consolidated government. There are also villages that span the boundaries of more than one town or township; some villages may straddle county borders.


title: Village

text: There is no population limit to villages in New York. Hempstead, the largest village, has 55,000 residents; making it more populous than some of the state's cities. However; villages in the state may not exceed five square miles (13 km) in area. Michigan and Illinois also have no set population limit for villages and there are many villages that are larger than cities in those states. The village of Schaumburg, Illinois had 78,723 residents as of the 2020 census. A village also has no written figure against how small a population can be, with the United States' smallest incorporated village being Dering Harbor, NY, with a population of just over 10.


title: Village

text: In Michigan, a village is always legally part of a township. Villages can incorporate land in multiple townships and even multiple counties. The largest village in the state is Beverly Hills in Southfield Township which had a population of 10,267 people as of the 2010 census.


title: Village

text: In the state of Wisconsin, a village is always legally separate from the towns that it has been incorporated from. The largest village is Menomonee Falls, which has over 32,000 residents. In Pennsylvania law, the term borough is used to refer to the same type of entity. 80% of Pennsylvania's 956 boroughs have populations of less than 5,000 but about thirty have populations of over 10,000 with State College having more than 40,000 residents.


title: Village

text: In Ohio villages are often legally part of the township from which they were incorporated, although exceptions such as Hiram exist, in which the village is separate from the township. They have no area limitations, but become cities if they grow a population of more than 5,000.


title: Village

text: In Maryland, a locality designated "Village of ..." may be either an incorporated town or a special tax district. An example of the latter is the Village of Friendship Heights.


title: Village

text: In many states, the term "village" is used to refer to a relatively small unincorporated community, similar to a hamlet in New York state. This informal usage may be found even in states that have villages as an incorporated municipality, although such usage might be considered incorrect and confusing.


title: Village

text: In most New England states, a "village" is a center of population or trade, including the town center, in an otherwise sparsely developed town or city — for instance, the village of Hyannis in the town of Barnstable, Massachusetts. However, in Vermont and Connecticut, both incorporated and unincorporated villages exist.


title: Village

text: In the North, villages were under traditional rulers long before the Jihad of Shaikh Uthman Bin Fodio and after the Holy War. At that time Traditional rulers used to have absolute power in their administrative regions.