title: The Walking Dead: The Final Season

text: In portions of the game, the player will be required to react to quick time events in action-driven scenes, such as escaping from a "walker" (the name for zombies in the series). Failure to complete the events typically results in the death of Clementine or another key character, requiring the player to retry the event. "The Final Season" introduces more open-ended action sequences that give the player more control during the sequence.


title: The Walking Dead: The Final Season

text: "The Final Season" takes place roughly seven years after the events of the first one. It is set in the same continuity of the comic book series, and it is located in West Virginia, in a world where society has collapsed after a zombie outbreak. It once again stars Clementine (Melissa Hutchison), who is now an older teenager, after she has reunited with Alvin Jr., "AJ" (Tayla Parx), the son of , and her efforts to raise and protect him in the post-apocalyptic world, similarly to how her past guardian and caretaker Lee Everett (Dave Fennoy) once did with her.


title: The Walking Dead: The Final Season

text: Clementine and AJ join a group of teenage survivors inhabiting their former boarding school. They are led by Marlon (Ray Chase), and are made up by easygoing, carefree Louis (Sterling Sulieman), cynical yet caring Violet (Gideon Adlon), timid Tennessee, "Tenn" (Zaire Hampton), Willy (Justin Cowden), Omar (Keith Silverstein), Ruby (Ali Hillis), Aasim (Ritesh Rajan), Brody (Hedy Burress), and Mitch (Robbie Daymond).


title: The Walking Dead: The Final Season

text: The Delta is a faction of raiders who antagonize Clementine and the other children. Their members include Abel (Alex Fernandez), Minerva, "Minnie" (Cherami Leigh), one of Tenn's older sisters and Violet's ex-girlfriend, and Lilly (Nicki Rapp), a former member of Clementine's old survivor group from Macon, Georgia from the first season. Other characters in the game include James (Johnny Yong Bosch), a pacifistic ex-Whisperer, the children's pet dog Rosie, and Eddie (Brandon Bales), a character from the "400 Days" DLC add-on for the first season, who briefly appears in a flashback.


title: The Walking Dead: The Final Season

text: Shortly after the events of "", Clementine rescues AJ from McCarroll Ranch after it is attacked, and is forced to kill AJ's caretaker in self-defense. Years later, Clementine has continued to raise AJ, recalling the lessons Lee taught her. While scavenging for food, the two end up in a car crash from which they are saved by a group of abandoned teenagers, operating from the ruins of Ericson's Boarding School for Troubled Youth. While acclimating to living in the school, Clementine and AJ return to scavenging and encounter a man named Abel, who tries to rob them. After informing the others at the school of their encounter, Clementine finds the group's leader Marlon having a heated argument with another resident, Brody. Brody reveals to Clementine that Abel is part of a raider group that Marlon had traded resident twin sisters Minerva and Sophie to in exchange for safety and that he also intends to trade her and AJ should the raiders return. Marlon accidentally kills Brody out of rage for revealing this and tries to frame Clementine for her death to the rest of the children. Clementine convinces the others of Marlon's wrongdoings, but before anything else can be done, AJ kills him.


title: The Walking Dead: The Final Season

text: Clementine and AJ are evicted from the school. Outside, they run into Abel and another member of the raiders, Lilly, the woman who either left or was forced out of Lee's group during the first season. Lilly attempts to negotiate with Clementine to convince the other kids to join her group, but she refuses and escapes with AJ, which leads to AJ being wounded. The pair are saved by James, a former member of the Whisperers, who tells them the raiders are forcibly recruiting people for a war against a rival community. Clementine returns to Ericson for medical treatment for AJ and to warn them about the raiders. The children prepare the school grounds for an attack. Two weeks later, the raiders arrive and though they are pushed back, they manage to kidnap some of the children. The children learn from a dying Abel that the raiders have established camp in a nearby riverboat and with James' help, infiltrate the boat and plant a homemade bomb in its boiler before encountering Minerva, now a member of the raiders, who imprisons them with the others. Lilly confronts Clementine and reveals that Minerva killed Sophie when she tried to escape their group.


title: The Walking Dead: The Final Season

text: Clementine incapacitates Minerva, frees the children, and overpowers Lilly, who is then held at gunpoint by AJ. Clementine can tell him to kill or spare her; if spared, Lilly murders James. During the chaos, the bomb goes off and the ship explodes. Clementine and AJ escape the sinking boat as Lilly (if spared) flees on a raft while the other raiders are overwhelmed by walkers. If James is alive, he leaves the group after quarreling with Clementine over AJ killing Lilly, potentially aiding their escape, depending on choices. Clementine, AJ, and Tenn meet with either Louis or Violet, who leads them back to Ericson. After reaching a partially collapsed bridge, the group is attacked by a bitten, dying Minerva, who has led a horde of walkers to them. Clementine fights off Minerva, who slashes her ankle, and crosses the bridge with AJ. Louis or Violet try to make Tenn cross as well, but he is too stunned to move; if Clementine previously trusted AJ, putting the confidence in him to make hard decisions, he shoots Tenn to save Louis or Violet, otherwise, he will tell Louis or Violet to throw Tenn across the gap, thus saving him, but resulting in the other person getting devoured.


title: The Walking Dead: The Final Season

text: While escaping the horde, a walker bites Clementine's wounded leg. Clementine and AJ take shelter in James' barn, which is quickly surrounded by walkers. A weakened Clementine urges AJ to escape on his own by covering himself in walker guts, then asks him to either kill her or leave her to turn. Regardless of her request, AJ swings Minerva's axe at her. Some time later, it is revealed that AJ chose to amputate Clementine's leg, saving her life, and the two have finally found peace and a home at Ericson.


title: The Walking Dead: The Final Season

text: Announced during the July 2017 San Diego Comic Con, "The Walking Dead: The Final Season", was launched on August 14, 2018, for Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One, with plans for a Nintendo Switch version to launch later that year. Clementine returned as the lead character, voiced by Melissa Hutchison, as Telltale found that fans of the series were not pleased with how little interactivity there was with Clementine in "A New Frontier". Telltale wanted to have the final season call back to what fans had praised about the first season, and knew they needed to make Clementine the focus. With this direction, Telltale decided to make this the final season for "The Walking Dead" series so that they could create a satisfactory conclusion to Clementine's story arc. For this purpose, Telltale brought back Gary Whitta, the writer for the first season and "400 Days" content, to help close out Clementine's story.


title: The Walking Dead: The Final Season

text: The story followed from "A New Frontier" with Clementine having rescued AJ from the McCarroll Ranch, with an ellipsis a few years ahead, where AJ is now a young boy. Telltale had initially considered writing a version of Clementine that had become more jaded, but found this was far too different from the established version of the character, and reworked her to be more sympathetic.


title: The Walking Dead: The Final Season

text: The final season used the updated version of the Telltale Tool first introduced in "", along with improvements in the visual style to approach the style used in "The Walking Dead" comic. This included improved dynamic lightning, and a new rendering style Telltale called "Graphic Black" to enforce the comic book rendering style. Some scenes featured "unscripted" zombies who may attack Clementine if the player is not careful, creating new freeform combat sequences, while other parts of the game used quick-time events as from previous games.


title: The Walking Dead: The Final Season

text: Due to course-corrections made at Telltale in 2017, "The Walking Dead: The Final Season" was primarily the only game the company released that year, cutting down from twenty episodes across multiple games in 2017 to only this season's four in 2018. The game's executive producer Brodie Andersen said that "We know we ran a little hot in previous years and weren't able to fully deliver the experiences we may have wanted to, so that was important to focus on polished quality experience players love." Because of the reduced product schedule, Telltale was able to establish firm release dates for all four episodes in the season, a first for any of Telltale's episodic series. Andersen said that they were able to achieve this by starting from where they wanted "The Final Season" to end, and then building the narrative backward from that, establishing four clear episodes for the series to work towards. The game's story, with major plot points and milestones for all four episodes, were established early between creative director Kent Mudle, lead writer James Windeler, lead designer Mike Kirkbride, and seasoned writer Chris Rebbert, and which had little micromanagement from the new Telltale executives.


title: The Walking Dead: The Final Season

text: A free demo of the game, offering approximately the first twenty minutes of the first episode, meant to show off the new gameplay features added in this season, was released for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on July 31, 2018.


title: The Walking Dead: The Final Season

text: Despite the title "The Final Season", Telltale originally did not rule out a possible future for "The Walking Dead" games; creative director Kent Mudle said that "The Final Season" title represented the end of Clementine's journey from Telltale's view, but could revisit the franchise through other characters.


title: The Walking Dead: The Final Season

text: On September 21, 2018, Telltale announced they were undergoing a "majority studio closure", laying off nearly all staff and leaving only 25 to complete the studio's remaining obligations.


title: The Walking Dead: The Final Season

text: The news came as a shock to both developers and voice actors working on the project. The voice of Clementine, Melissa Hutchison, said that the cancellation was traumatic and she received the news in the midst of a recording session, which had to be cut short.


title: The Walking Dead: The Final Season

text: The state of "The Final Season" was unknown, though other planned studio projects were cancelled. The second episode was still released on September 25, 2018, while those within Telltale stated that they were halfway through completing the third episode with the news; they had cleared the narrative with Skybound and had done the first pass of voice work for the episode. Telltale stated on September 24, 2018, that the studio has been approached by "multiple potential partners" that want to help bring these two episodes to completion in some manner. Until they are able to figure out how the last two episodes will be played out, Telltale asked retailers and digital storefronts to pull sales of the game and the season pass.


title: The Walking Dead: The Final Season

text: At that time, Skybound Entertainment, the publishing company that Kirkman started to support licensing of "The Walking Dead" and other properties, were starting to explore a video game division, and had started a small Skybound Games division led by Ian Howe around five months before Telltale's closure. Skybound had already been working closely with Telltale prior to their first "The Walking Dead" season to help Telltale figure out the type of story they wanted to tell, inspired by the comic book's approach. This led to creating the video game series with a focus on a singular character, Clementine. In return, Skybound gained an appreciation of what interactive experiences and video games mean alongside all the other venues (comics, television, and so forth) they were exploring, and saw it as an essential element of their "Wheel of Awesome" to extend "The Walking Dead" and their other properties into other markets. The intent of Skybound Games was to work with third-party developers, rather than hosting its own development team.


title: The Walking Dead: The Final Season

text: When Telltale announced its closure, Skybound Entertainment saw the potential of using this to kickstart Skybound Games. According to Howe, Kirkman had said after Telltale contacted them about the news that that Skybound should just get Clementine's story finished as her character partially influenced how Skybound would expand its businesses. Howe traveled to meet with the 50-some developers that had been working on "The Final Season", and explained the situation, in that Skybound was interested in supporting the game through completion, and wanted the original Telltale team on board to support this, but could not promise any sustained job afterward and being upfront about what they did not know at that time. Finding that most of the Telltale team were eager to help finish out the game, Howe's team began to seek out the financial and other logistical support needed. They acquired the rights to the Telltale "The Walking Dead" games, and were able to negotiate with the landlord of the former Telltale offices to establish working space there as to minimize any disruption to the team members and not require them to relocate. Other Telltale members made personal sacrifices to make sure the game got done, and Skybound did as much as possible to support these members, and provided allowances for team members to continue to search for jobs following the game's completion. Not all of the Telltale team stayed on due to the lack of long-term job security or have had already accepted other job offers. Overall, it took about two months from Telltale's closure in September for Skybound to complete all the preparations and legal requirements to restart development.


title: The Walking Dead: The Final Season

text: According to Mudle, who stayed with the Telltale team in transitioning to Skybound, the final episode of the series was always meant to be treated as a closure to one era of Telltale as they were transitioning to a new engine with plans for new mechanics to break the mold of their adventure game approach; the last episode was to have included hints of these new mechanics. Following the studio closure, the final episode became more poignant, leaving some of those elements in but otherwise treating it as a tribute to Telltale's legacy. However, continuing the development at Skybound was aided by all the planning work they had done at Telltale, according to Mudle, making the transition less difficult.


title: The Walking Dead: The Final Season

text: Kirkman officially announced Skybound's involvement in finishing the "Final Season" during the 2018 New York Comic Con in October. Skybound announced in November 2018 that the former Telltale team, now named "Still Not Bitten Team", had restarted work on "The Final Season". Howe had anticipated that the third episode would be released before the end of 2018. Spanish and Portuguese voice dubbing for the remaining episodes was dropped for budgetary reasons.


title: The Walking Dead: The Final Season

text: Skybound also affirmed that they have gained the rights to sell the former "The Walking Dead" games, and will not require anyone that had already purchased a season pass for "The Final Season" to buy one again once the last two episodes are released. Users that had purchased the title before Telltale's closure on Steam or on GOG will receive the final episodes on those platforms, but otherwise, the season was moved to the Epic Games Store for all new purchasers. According to Skybound, Epic Games had helped with the season's completion following Telltale's closure, and thus Skybound felt it was necessary to offer the game through their platform. Skybound produced a physical release of "The Final Season" for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch on March 26, 2019; the season pass disc contains the first three episodes and granted access to download the remaining episode as it became available.


title: The Walking Dead: The Final Season

text: Following the completion of the major development, about 15 team members remained at Skybound to help support bug and console fixes. Skybound explored options of either keeping the remaining team aboard once they had completed all essential work or potentially spinning them off as a separate studio that would work with Skybound Games in the future.


title: The Walking Dead: The Final Season

text: On September 10, 2019, an official soundtrack album of Jared Emerson-Johnson's score to the game was released for digital download and on streaming services, with a special edition set of vinyl LPs due to be released shortly thereafter.


title: The Walking Dead: The Final Season

text: "The Walking Dead: The Final Season" received generally positive reviews, earning praise for its characterization, visuals, and upgraded gameplay mechanics, and is generally considered by critics and fans to be both an improvement over its predecessor and a return to form for the series.


title: The Walking Dead: The Final Season

text: Aggregating review website Metacritic gave the PC version 76/100 based on 28 reviews, the PlayStation 4 version 75/100 based on 14 reviews, the Xbox One version 72/100 based on 10 reviews, and the Nintendo Switch version 75/100 based on 6 reviews.


title: The Walking Dead: The Final Season

text: On Metacritic, the PC version of the episode has a rating of 69/100 based on 18 reviews, the PS4 version has a rating of 71/100 based on 7 reviews, the Xbox One version has a rating of 75/100 based on 4 reviews, the Nintendo Switch version has a rating of 70 based on 5 reviews.


title: The Walking Dead: The Final Season

text: On Metacritic, the PC version has a 74/100 average score based on 19 reviews, the PS4 version has a 78/100 average score based on 10 reviews, the Xbox One version has a 80/100 average score based on 4 reviews, and the Nintendo Switch version has a 80/100 average score based on 4 reviews.


title: The Walking Dead: The Final Season

text: On Metacritic, the PC version has a rating of 79/100 based on 14 reviews, the PS4 version has a rating of 75/100 based on 10 reviews, the Xbox One version has a rating of 85/100 based on 4 reviews, and the Nintendo Switch version has a rating of 83/100 based on 4 reviews.


title: The Walking Dead: The Final Season

text: The game was nominated for "Game, Franchise Adventure" and "Performance in a Drama" with Melissa Hutchison at the NAVGTR Awards, and for the GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Video Game featuring an LGBTQ character.


title: Lara Fabian

text: Lara Sophie Katy Crokaert (born January 9, 1970), better known as Lara Fabian, is a Belgian-Canadian pop singer and songwriter. She has sold over 20 million records worldwide as of 2021 and is one of the best-selling Belgian artists of all time.


title: Lara Fabian

text: She was born in Etterbeek, Brussels, to a Belgian father and a Sicilian mother. She lived the first part of her childhood in Sicily, Catania, speaking Italian as her first language. She moved to Quebec in 1991 and since 1995, she has held Canadian citizenship alongside her Belgian one. In 2003, she returned to Brussels to be close to her parents in Belgium and in 2015 lived in Walloon Brabant province in Belgium just outside Brussels. In 2017, she returned permanently to Montreal, Quebec, to be with her family.


title: Lara Fabian

text: Fabian is the only child of Pierre Crokaert, who is Flemish, and Maria Luisa Serio, a Sicilian. Fabian's parents recognized her talent early on and enrolled her in the Royal Conservatory of Brussels when she was eight years old; she studied there for 10 years.


title: Lara Fabian

text: She sings in eleven languages: French, English, Spanish, Italian, Flemish, German, Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Portuguese and Russian.


title: Lara Fabian

text: During the 1980s, Fabian entered a number of European competitions and won several prizes. She released her first single, "L'Aziza est en pleurs" / "Il y avait" in 1986.


title: Lara Fabian

text: In 1988, the RTL TV channel in Luxembourg invited Fabian to represent the country at the 33rd Eurovision Song Contest, held that year in Dublin, Ireland. The song was a composition by Jacques Cardona and Alain Garcia entitled "Croire" (Belief) which reached a respectable fourth place (while Celine Dion won the contest representing Switzerland). The single became a hit in Europe, selling nearly 500,000 copies.


title: Lara Fabian

text: In 1990, Fabian and musical collaborator Rick Allison moved to Montreal, Quebec, Canada to embark on a career in North America. They started their own music label and publishing company, Productions Clandestines.


title: Lara Fabian

text: In August 1991, her self-titled French-language debut album, "Lara Fabian", was released in Canada and sold over 100,000 copies. The album went gold in 1993, and platinum the following year. The success of upbeat dance-pop singles such as "Le jour où tu partira", "Les murs", and "Qui pense à l'amour" gave Fabian radio exposure. She received several nominations at the 1993 "ADISQ awards", and a poll published around that time voted her Québec's most promising singer.


title: Lara Fabian

text: Constant touring in Québec helped Fabian's 1994 album "Carpe diem" become her breakthrough album. The album went "Gold" three weeks after its release, and spawned three hit singles: "Tu t'en vas", "Si tu m'aimes", and "Leïla". The following year, the album went triple platinum.


title: Lara Fabian

text: Fabian received two Félix awards at the 1995 ADISQ gala: Best Show Of The Year and Best Female Singer Of The Year (a category that is voted for by the public).


title: Lara Fabian

text: In 1996, Walt Disney Studios hired Fabian as the voice of the character of Esmeralda in the Canadian French version of the animated feature "The Hunchback of Notre Dame". Disney also included "Que Dieu aide les exclus", Fabian's French version of the song "God Help The Outcasts", on the film's English soundtrack album alongside Bette Midler's version.


title: Lara Fabian

text: After the success of "Carpe diem", Fabian signed a contract with the French Polydor label for several albums and "Pure" was released in June 1997. "Pure" sold more than two million copies in France; the album went platinum in less than two weeks, and spawned several hit singles: "Tout", "Je t'aime", "Humana", each of which sold more than a million copies, and the anti-homophobia anthem "La Différence". The album won a Félix for Popular Album of the Year at the 1997 ADISQ gala and was nominated for two Juno Awards in the Best Selling French Album category, and for Fabian as Best Female Singer.


title: Lara Fabian

text: In February 1998, Fabian received the Discovery of the Year award during the Victoires de la Musique Gala. Also in 1998, Polydor released "Carpe diem" in Europe. In November 1998, she received the Félix Award for Artist with the Most Recognition Outside Quebec at the 'ADISQ Gala'. In December, she was named as Revelation of the Year by Paris Match, which put her on its cover to mark this occasion.


title: Lara Fabian

text: In March 1999, Fabian released her first live album, named "Live", which debuted at #1 on the French charts. This helped seal an international recording contract with Sony Music. In May 1999, Fabian was honoured at the "World Music Awards" in Monaco, where she received Best Selling Record for the Year 1998 for her album "Pure". In July 1999, with over six million records already sold across Europe, Polydor rereleased Fabian's self-titled debut album.


title: Lara Fabian

text: In the summer of 1999, Fabian recorded her first English-language album, "Lara Fabian", in New York and San Francisco for the Sony label. The songs were written and produced with Rick Allison and Dave Pickell, Walter Afanasieff, Glen Ballard and Patrick Leonard.


title: Lara Fabian

text: The album debuted at #1 on the Billboard 'Heatseekers' album chart, reached #1 on the French album chart and #2 on the Belgian album chart. For the Asian version of the album, Fabian collaborated with American-Taiwanese pop star Leehom Wang on the song "Light of My Life".


title: Lara Fabian

text: The dance-pop song "I Will Love Again", her first English single, reached #1 on the US "Billboard" Hot Dance Music/Club Play, and peaked #32 on the "Billboard" Hot 100, #10 Adult Contemporary, as well as appearing in several international charts. This included the UK Singles Chart, where it peaked at #63. The follow-up ballad, "Love By Grace", entered the Adult Contemporary chart, peaking at #24. In February 2001, "Love By Grace" became the theme song of the lead couple in the Brazilian soap opera "Laços de Família", broadcast by Rede Globo in Brazil and Portugal. For several weeks, the song was number 1 on most Brazilian and Portuguese radio stations. The third single, the dance-pop song "I Am Who I Am", remixed by Hex Hector, did not chart. In Europe, the single "Adagio" charted at #5 on the French singles chart and #3 on the Belgian singles chart.


title: Lara Fabian

text: During this period, Fabian recorded songs for several Hollywood motion picture soundtracks, including "The Dream Within" for the "" soundtrack, and "For Always" for the "AI:Artificial Intelligence" soundtrack, which contained both a solo version and a duet with Josh Groban.


title: Lara Fabian

text: "Nue" (Naked), Fabian's fourth French album, was released in the Fall of 2001 in both Québec and France. "Nue" is a documentation of her emotional ride in the years since success of the previous album. The album reached #1 in Belgium and #2 in France but had little impact in Québec. The album was also released in Portugal and reached the top 10 on the album charts during the Fall of 2001.


title: Lara Fabian

text: The first single, released in the summer of 2001, was the anthem "J'y crois encore" was a top 20 French hit. Other singles followed, including "Immortelle", "Aimer Déjà" and in 2002 "Tu es mon autre" (a duet with fellow Belgian, Maurane which was nominated for song of the year and reached the top 5 in France).


title: Lara Fabian

text: Also in 2001, she collaborated with David Foster and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra to record the Canadian national anthem, "O Canada", in an English version, a French version, and a bilingual (French/English) version, for a promotion of the Government of Canada.


title: Lara Fabian

text: In 2002, Fabian contributed to the "World Soccer Championship" CD release, with the song "World at Your Feet" written and produced by Gary Barlow.


title: Lara Fabian

text: Towards the end of 2002, Fabian released her second live album, "Live 2002", from her latest tour, together with a DVD showcasing concerts recorded in December 2001 in Belgium at the Forest National and at Le Zénith in Paris.


title: Lara Fabian

text: Her 2003 stint at the Casino de Paris every Monday night consisted of concerts to small audiences which were released as a live CD and DVD at the end of 2003, under the title "En toute intimité".


title: Lara Fabian

text: The project was commercially unsuccessful but critically praised. The more organic sound on the album is attributed to the work of French guitarist Jean-Félix Lalanne, and producers Desmond Child, Anders Bagge and the British team True North (composed of Take That singer Gary Barlow and Elliot John Kennedy). "Review My Kisses", written by Desmond Child, was first recorded by LeAnn Rimes in 2002 for her album "Twisted Angel".


title: Lara Fabian

text: The first single released for radio was "The Last Goodbye" in the US and a number of other countries (except France). In France, the song "No Big Deal" was the first single. Neither of the songs achieved success and the album was not promoted; and its release was cancelled in the United States.


title: Lara Fabian

text: In Brazil, the song "I Guess I Loved You" achieved moderate success when included on a soap opera entitled "Senhora do Destino" (Her own Destiny), a well-known Brazilian television series. The song also gained some popularity in Portugal, for the same reason, though it was never officially released or promoted.


title: Lara Fabian

text: In 2004, in the MGM film "De-Lovely", Fabian performed the numbers "Another Openin', Another Show" (with chorus) and "So in Love" (with Mario Frangoulis) from the Cole Porter musical "Kiss Me, Kate".


title: Lara Fabian

text: After a sabbatical in 2004, Fabian returned to the music scene spring of 2005 with her fifth French album, "9". The album is performed in a new style, with smoothness, serenity and joy, a departure from the deep, dramatic style of earlier recordings.


title: Lara Fabian

text: "9" yielded the hit single "La Lettre", a song co-written with her new partner, Jean-Félix Lalanne, with whom she produced the album's 11 tracks. Other singles released included "Ne lui parlez plus d'elle", "Un Ave Maria", "Il ne manquait que toi" and the gospel-infused "L'homme qui n'avait pas de maison".


title: Lara Fabian

text: In October 2006, Fabian released a CD and DVD of this associated tour, both titled "Un regard 9 Live" and recorded during the concert of March 29, 2006, at Le Zénith in Paris. The CD presents 15 live performances and a new song, "Aime", recorded in a studio in Montreal, Quebec.


title: Lara Fabian

text: In the meantime, the single "Un Cuore Malato" (with Gigi D'Alessio) reached the top of the Italian charts and #16 in France.


title: Lara Fabian

text: In Los Angeles, Fabian worked with Dave Stewart on a multilingual album, reputed to include songs in English, Spanish, French, Italian, and a few other languages. This album was planned for release in late 2008.


title: Lara Fabian

text: Also in 2007, Fabian was in Québec to perform a two night concert at the Olympia de Montreal. In October she was a surprise guest a concert Gigi D'Alessio gave in France at the Olympia in Paris. Soon after, her daughter was born.


title: Lara Fabian

text: A few months after her daughter's birth, Fabian carried out a tour of Ukraine, Russia and Greece. She also made a few TV appearances (such as 60th Anniversary of Israel where Fabian performed a Hebrew song and duetted with Israeli singer Noa).


title: Lara Fabian

text: During 2008, Fabian was in Belgium preparing to record a French album with pianist Mark Herskowitz. The album, "Toutes les femmes en moi", was partly recorded in Montreal, and was released in May 2009. The first single, Soleil, Soleil, is a cover of the Nana Mouskouri song. The second single was "Toutes les Femmes en moi", the only original song on the album.


title: Lara Fabian

text: Throughout the first half of 2010, Fabian embarked on a European tour of concerts, throughout France, Switzerland, and Belgium, incorporating the main repertoire of her last album "Toutes Les Femmes En Moi" along with some classic and fan favorites. She also performed again in Eastern Europe, with a more acoustic set (piano-voice), and included English recordings from the album Every Woman in Me.


title: Lara Fabian

text: In September 2010, she finally released her 2009 album "Toutes Les Femmes En Moi" in Québec. She also recorded the album "Nuit Magique" with Canadian singer Coral Egan.


title: Lara Fabian

text: Later in 2010, Fabian released a concept album in Russia and Ukraine called "Mademoiselle Zhivago" which has sold over 800.000 copies in Russia. It features 11 songs in different languages by Russian composer Igor Krutoy. It features stories about a woman who experiences several lives over the years and centuries. Eleven music videos, one each song, were combined to create a full-length film, produced and directed by Ukrainian film producer Alan Badoev. The album itself, containing a CD and a DVD, was first released in Ukraine in October 2010 and in Russia in November.


title: Lara Fabian

text: The whole set of songs composed by Fabian with Igor Krutoy is in English, French, Italian, Spanish, and Russian. She first introduced one of these songs in 2009 during the New Wave Festival in Latvia, performing "Demain n'existe pas". Later, in 2010, she returned to that same stage performing new songs from the already finalized project. She has been promoting this project in both countries both on television and by performing a series of concerts presenting the new songs live to the eastern European public. She has since established herself as a superstar in Russia and Ukraine. Fabian was a guest performer on the show of October 30 of the Ukrainian X Factor, singing "Mademoiselle Hyde" and "Demain N'Existe Pas", taken from the album and also her longtime classic "Adagio".


title: Lara Fabian

text: Fabian released her new album "Le Secret" on April 15, 2013, which consists of 17 brand new songs. On the same day of the album release she showcased her new songs at the Théâtre de Paris. Her first single is "Deux ils, Deux elles", released February 20, 2013. The song talks about the love between two men and two women, speaks about tolerance and acceptance of the LGBT community – just like her previous song "La Différence".


title: Lara Fabian

text: Planned tour dates in early 2014 were cancelled and recording delayed while Fabian recovered from ear damage. In August she released a duet with Turkish Artist Mustafa Ceceli. The title, "Make Me Yours Tonight" written by Anthony James and Yiorgos Bellapaisiotis was released as an EP in English and Turkish versions ("Al Götür Beni"), as well as in additional "acoustic" versions. Her first cooperation with Belgian-US management and production company Odacity , the single reached the position 1 in physical single sales in Turkey, and position 2 in digital sales. Several remix versions of "Make Me Yours Tonight" have been released in April 2015, as part of a new "Best of.." album entitled "Selection" (released in 23 countries, and as an EP (released worldwide). The EP reached position 12 in the Dance Album charts of iTunes France, and position 5 in the iTunes Album Charts in Turkey (album "Selection")


title: Lara Fabian

text: On December 14, 2014, during L'Arena, broadcast on the Italian channel Rai 1, presenter Massimo Giletti and guest Carlo Conti revealed the names of the new performers at the 65th Sanremo Music Festival. Fabian was announced as being one of the 20 singers in the "Big" (main) category. It was the second time she has appeared on the Ariston stage (since her guest featuring in 2007 with Gigi D'Alessio) and the first time as a solo competitor. In several interviews, she dedicated her performance to her mother. Fabian called the song she decided to submit "A hymn to lightness, to enthusiasm".


title: Lara Fabian

text: On the evening show on February 10, 2015, Fabian performed her new single "Voce" for the Italian market. It is to be included in a new greatest hits album, "Essential Lara Fabian," specifically released in the country by Warner Italy.


title: Lara Fabian

text: On the evening of February 12, 2015, a visibly moved Fabian sang on the same stage "Sto male", Ornella Vanoni's Italian version of her already popular rendition of "Je Suis Malade". This was the night of the Sanremo sub-competition for cover versions; she eventually lost to Nek and his "" formerly popularized by Mina.


title: Lara Fabian

text: On the evening of February 13 she performed "Voce", once more, before losing the entire competition. She was already pending since the premiere. An article in the local San Remo Festival publication, "Farewell to foreigners at Sanremo", written by Erika Cannoletta, maintained that a lack of meritocracy and obscure political issues backstage had contributed to the reasons that led to the elimination of the artist. Before this, the Italian audience and press were generally rather cold towards Fabian, especially in relation to her fame in the country. In a fairly scathing and controversial article titled ""Sanremo 2015, who is Lara Fabian? The international star whom nobody ever heard of"", writer and music critic Michele Monina (of Il Fatto Quotidiano) questioned the fame, career and quality of the singer, generating a heated debate on its comment section.


title: Lara Fabian

text: On February 15 she performed one last time on Domenica In, Rai 1, receiving a standing ovation. The singer will reprise her tour in support of her new release beginning from February 21, 2015, by performing at the Nokia Arena, Tel Aviv, Israel.


title: Lara Fabian

text: In November 2015, Lara released her 9th studio album, titled "Ma vie dans la tienne" ("My Life In Yours"), consisting of songs she co-wrote and co-composed with David Gategno and Elodie Hesme. The album, which was released under license by Warner Music France, included the singles "Quand je ne chante pas", "Ma vie dans la tienne", "L'oubli" and "Ton désir". The album was certified "Platinum" in France, Gold in Belgium, and has sold over 150,000 copies worldwide.


title: Lara Fabian

text: In 2016 Fabian began work on a new English album, her 13th studio album, planned for release in 2017 under the title "Camouflage", with a Swedish-American music production team . The album consists of 12 titles and was available for pre-order on August 4, 2017. A first single, "Growing Wings", was released on the same date. The second single of the album was "Choose What You Love Most (And Let It Kill You)." The Camouflage World Tour, produced by her new producer and manager Matt Ersin , started in Miami on February 2, 2018. She toured throughout the world, making 40 appearances, ending the tour in Paris, in June 2018. During the concert dates in Russia, producer Matt Ersin's refusal to exclude the track "La Différence", which depicts images of same-sex couples in the stage visuals, from the show, causes a legal quagmire with the Russian authorities.


title: Lara Fabian

text: In September 2018 Fabian announced the release of her new single, "Papillon". Written by Fabian, Moh Denebi and Sharon Vaughn. The single was released on October 5, 2018. It's the first single from her fourteenth album, also titled Papillon, released on February 8, 2019. To support the release of the album, Lara Fabian embarked upon the 50 World Tour with a concert in New York at the Beacon Theatre on September 16, 2019, before moving on to visit over 20 other locations across the USA, Russia and Europe. The tour celebrates her 50th birthday, three decades in the music industry and over 30 million copies sold of her 14 studio albums. In February 2019, Fabian separated from the management company Odacity and producer/manager Matt Ersin, who managed her career since 2015. Subsequently, she entrusted the coordination of the upcoming "50 World Tour" to the Romanian company "ICT Agency" (International Creative Talents). Payment issues between Fabian and ICT culminated in her cancelling of various concerts. The remaining dates of the tour were postponed following the escalation of the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Lara Fabian

text: On December 16, 2020, Lara Fabian discreetly unveiled a collection of 12 experimental musical tracks, the fruit of her introspection and her isolation during confinement. "Lockdown Sessions" came out in a limited edition without a label, and offers a unique journey of the singer accompanied again by Moh Denebi.


title: Lara Fabian

text: Fabian is a full lyric soprano with a vocal range that spans three octaves from C3 to A5 in live performances.


title: Lara Fabian

text: She is multilingual, in fact she speaks Italian, French, Spanish, Sicilian, English and Flemish. She has also sung in Azerbaijani, German, Greek, Hebrew, Portuguese, Russian, and Turkish.


title: Lara Fabian

text: Fabian has written for other artists such as French female singers Chimène Badi, Nolwenn Leroy and Myriam Abel. She also composed for Daniel Lévi and is said to be currently working with a former contestant from "Nouvelle Star 3", Roland. She has often praised the voice and talent of successful female singer Amel Bent, who was also a contestant on that show.


title: Lara Fabian

text: "Imaginer" was originally written in English, under the name 'Broken Vow', by Fabian and songwriter Walter Afanasieff. They rewrote the lyrics especially for Jackie Evancho, in French, for her album "Dream with Me". The original meaning of the song, about a sad love, is completely changed in the French version to describe a dream of a beautiful world without war or hunger.


title: Lara Fabian

text: Fabian was in a relationship with Rick Allison, with whom she wrote her greatest hits, for 14 years until their separation in March 2003.


title: Lara Fabian

text: Fabian was in a relationship with French director, producer, and composer beginning in 2006. They have a daughter together, born in 2007.


title: Thomas D'Alesandro Jr.

text: Thomas Ludwig John D'Alesandro Jr. (August 1, 1903 – August 23, 1987) was an American politician who served as the 39th mayor of Baltimore from 1947 to 1959. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously represented in the United States House of Representatives from 1939 until 1947. He was known for his own political prominence as well as that of his children and was the patriarch of the D'Alesandro political family, which included Thomas D'Alesandro III, the 43rd mayor of Baltimore; and Nancy Pelosi, the 52nd speaker of the United States House of Representatives, and the first woman to hold that office.


title: Thomas D'Alesandro Jr.

text: D'Alesandro was born in Baltimore on August 1, 1903. He was the son of Maria Antonia Petronilla (née Foppiani) and Tommaso F. D'Alessandro. His father was born in Montenerodomo, Abruzzo, Italy, and his mother was born in Baltimore, to parents from Genoa, Liguria, Italy. D'Alesandro attended Calvert Business College in Baltimore. Before beginning his political career, he worked as an insurance and real estate broker.


title: Thomas D'Alesandro Jr.

text: D'Alesandro served as a member of the Maryland State House of Delegates from 1926 to 1933. After serving in Annapolis, D'Alesandro was then appointed as General Deputy Collector of Internal Revenue, a post in which he served during 1933–1934. He then was elected to serve on the Baltimore City Council from 1935 to 1938.


title: Thomas D'Alesandro Jr.

text: D'Alesandro was then elected to the 76th Congress and to the four succeeding Congresses, serving from January 3, 1939, until he resigned on May 16, 1947. While in Congress, D'Alesandro strongly supported the Bergson Group, a "political action committee set up to challenge the Roosevelt Administration's policies on the Jewish refugee issue during the Holocaust, and later lobbied against British control of Palestine" despite his equally strong support for Roosevelt's other policies.


title: Thomas D'Alesandro Jr.

text: Following his service in Congress he was the Mayor of Baltimore for 12 years from May 1947 to May 1959. D'Alesandro served on the Federal Renegotiation Board from 1961-1969 after being appointed by President John F. Kennedy. On September 21, 1966, President Lyndon Baines Johnson's assistant Mildred Stegall requested a routine FBI name check on D'Alesandro. FBI records released on January 6, 2021 showed D'Alesandro had been the subject of a Special Inquiry investigation in March and April 1961 revealing numerous unsubstantiated allegations of association with criminals in Baltimore.


title: Thomas D'Alesandro Jr.

text: D'Alesandro was a strong contender for Governor of Maryland in 1954, but dropped out after being implicated in receiving undeclared money from Dominic Piracci, a parking garage owner convicted of fraud, conspiracy, and conspiracy to obstruct justice. Piracci was the father of Margie Piracci D'Alesandro, the wife of D'Alesandro's oldest son and namesake Thomas D'Alesandro III. Mayor D'Alesandro was later exonerated and never indicted.


title: Thomas D'Alesandro Jr.

text: After withdrawing, D'Alesandro tacitly supported University of Maryland President Curley Byrd, who lost, 54.5% to 45.5%, to Theodore McKeldin, the Republican incumbent and D'Alesandro's predecessor as Mayor of Baltimore.


title: Thomas D'Alesandro Jr.

text: In 1958, D'Alesandro ran for the United States Senate in a bid to defeat Republican incumbent J. Glenn Beall. D'Alesandro first had to spend money and time defeating perennial candidate/contractor George P. Mahoney in the Democratic primary. D'Alesandro then ran a strong campaign, losing to Beall in close election, the first time D'Alesandro had ever lost.


title: Thomas D'Alesandro Jr.

text: In 1959, D'Alesandro was defeated in a bid for another term for Mayor of Baltimore by J. Harold Grady.


title: Thomas D'Alesandro Jr.

text: In 2017, in an effort to counter D'Alesandro's daughter Nancy's efforts to remove statues of confederate figures from the halls of Congress, conservative commentators noted that in 1948, D'Alesandro dedicated the Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee Monument in his capacity as Mayor of Baltimore, along with the then-Governor of Maryland, William Preston Lane Jr. His son, Thomas D'Alesandro III, who later served as Mayor of Baltimore from 1967 to 1971, said about his father "His whole life was politics. He was not what you would call a flaming liberal, but he was a progressive."


title: Thomas D'Alesandro Jr.

text: D'Alesandro was married to Annunciata M. ("Nancy") Lombardi (1909-1995). Together, the couple had six children, five sons and a daughter:


title: Three Kingdoms of Korea

text: Samhan or the Three Kingdoms of Korea () refers to the three kingdoms of Goguryeo (고구려, 高句麗), Baekje (백제, 百濟), and Silla (신라, 新羅). Goguryeo was later known as Goryeo (고려, 高麗), from which the modern name "Korea" is derived. The Three Kingdoms period is defined as being from 57 BC to 668 AD (but there existed Gaya confederacy in the southern region of the Korean Peninsula and relatively large states like Okjeo, Buyeo, and Dongye in its northern part and Manchuria of modern China). The "Korean Three Kingdoms" (Goguryeo, Baekje and Silla) contributed to what would become Korea; and the Goguryeo, Baekje and Silla peoples became what we know as the Korean people.


title: Three Kingdoms of Korea

text: The Book of Sui (Volume 81) recorded: "The customs, laws and clothes of Goguryeo, Baekje and Silla are generally identical." The three kingdoms occupied the entire peninsula of Korea and roughly half of Manchuria, located mostly in present-day China, along with smaller parts from present-day Russia. The kingdoms of Baekje and Silla dominated the southern half of the Korean Peninsula and Tamna (Jeju Island), whereas Goguryeo controlled the Liaodong Peninsula, Manchuria and the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Baekje and Goguryeo shared founding myths which likely originated from Buyeo. Buddhism, which arrived in Korea in 3rd century AD from India via Tibet and China, became the state religion of all 3 constituents of the Three Kingdoms, starting with Gaya in 372 AD.


title: Three Kingdoms of Korea

text: In the 7th century, allied with China under the Tang dynasty, Silla unified the Korean Peninsula for the first time in Korean history, allowing for the first united Korean national identity. After the fall of Baekje and Goguryeo, the Tang dynasty established a short-lived military government to administer parts of the Korean Peninsula. However, as a result of the Silla–Tang War (≈670–676 AD), Silla (joined by Goguryeo and Baekje loyalists) expelled the Protectorate armies from the peninsula in 676 AD. The following period is known as the Unified Silla or Later Silla (668–935 AD). Silla was eventually divided into the Later Three Kingdoms and was ultimately annexed by the new Goguryeo revivalist state of Goryeo.


title: Three Kingdoms of Korea

text: Subsequently, Go of Balhae, a former Goguryeo general or chief of Sumo Mohe, founded Balhae in the former territory of Goguryeo after defeating the Tang dynasty at the Battle of Tianmenling.


title: Three Kingdoms of Korea

text: The predecessor period, before the development of the full-fledged kingdoms, is sometimes called Proto–Three Kingdoms period.


title: Three Kingdoms of Korea

text: Main primary sources for this period include "Samguk sagi" and "Samguk yusa" in Korea, and the "Eastern Barbarians" section (東夷傳) from the "Book of Wei" (魏書) of the "Records of the Three Kingdoms" in China.


title: Three Kingdoms of Korea

text: Beginning in the 7th century, the name "Samhan" became synonymous with the Three Kingdoms of Korea. The "Han" in the names of the Korean Empire, "Daehan Jeguk", and the Republic of Korea (South Korea), "Daehan Minguk" or "Hanguk", are named in reference to the Three Kingdoms of Korea, not the ancient confederacies in the southern Korean Peninsula.


title: Three Kingdoms of Korea

text: According to the "Samguk sagi" and "Samguk yusa", Silla implemented a national policy, "Samhan Unification" (), to integrate Baekje and Goguryeo refugees. In 1982, a memorial stone dating back to 686 was discovered in Cheongju with an inscription: "The Three Han were unified and the domain was expanded." During the Later Silla period, the concepts of Samhan as the ancient confederacies and the Three Kingdoms of Korea were merged. In a letter to an imperial tutor of the Tang dynasty, Choe Chiwon equated Byeonhan to Baekje, Jinhan to Silla, and Mahan to Goguryeo. By the Goryeo period, Samhan became a common name to refer to all of Korea. In his Ten Mandates to his descendants, Wang Geon declared that he had unified the Three Han (Samhan), referring to the Three Kingdoms of Korea. Samhan continued to be a common name for Korea during the Joseon period and was widely referenced in the Annals of the Joseon Dynasty.


title: Three Kingdoms of Korea

text: In China, the Three Kingdoms of Korea were collectively called Samhan since the beginning of the 7th century. The use of the name Samhan to indicate the Three Kingdoms of Korea was widespread in the Tang dynasty. Goguryeo was alternately called Mahan by the Tang dynasty, as evidenced by a Tang document that called Goguryeo generals "Mahan leaders" () in 645. In 651, Emperor Gaozong of Tang sent a message to the king of Baekje referring to the Three Kingdoms of Korea as Samhan. Epitaphs of the Tang dynasty, including those belonging to Baekje, Goguryeo, and Silla refugees and migrants, called the Three Kingdoms of Korea "Samhan", especially Goguryeo. For example, the epitaph of Go Hyeon (), a Tang dynasty general of Goguryeo origin who died in 690, calls him a "Liaodong Samhan man" (). The History of Liao equates Byeonhan to Silla, Jinhan to Buyeo, and Mahan to Goguryeo.


title: Three Kingdoms of Korea

text: The name "Three Kingdoms" was used in the titles of the Korean histories "Samguk sagi" (12th century) and "Samguk yusa" (13th century), and should not be confused with the Three Kingdoms of China.


title: Three Kingdoms of Korea

text: The Three Kingdoms were founded after the fall of Wiman Joseon, and gradually conquered and absorbed various other small states and confederacies. After the fall of Gojoseon, the Han dynasty established four commanderies in the northwestern Korean Peninsula and present Liaoning. Three fell quickly to the Samhan, and the last was destroyed by Goguryeo in 313.


title: Three Kingdoms of Korea

text: The nascent precursors of Baekje and Silla expanded within the web of statelets during the Proto Three Kingdoms Period, and Goguryeo conquered neighboring state like Buyeo in Manchuria and chiefdoms in Okjeo, Dongye which occupied the northeastern Korean peninsula. The three polities made the transition from walled-town state to full-fledged state-level societies between 1st – 3rd century AD.


title: Three Kingdoms of Korea

text: All three kingdoms shared a similar culture and language. Their original religions appear to have been shamanistic, but they were increasingly influenced by Chinese culture, particularly Confucianism and Taoism. In the 4th century, Buddhism was introduced to the peninsula and spread rapidly, briefly becoming the official religion of all three kingdoms.


title: Three Kingdoms of Korea

text: Goguryeo emerged on the north and south banks of the Yalu (Amrok) River, in the wake of Gojoseon's fall. The first mention of Goguryeo in Chinese records dates from 75 BC in reference to a commandery established by the Chinese Han dynasty, although even earlier mentions of "Guri" (구리) may be of the same state. Evidence indicates Goguryeo was the most advanced, and likely the first established, of the three kingdoms.


title: Three Kingdoms of Korea

text: Goguryeo, eventually the largest of the three kingdoms, had several capitals in alternation: two capitals in the upper Yalu area, and later Nangrang ("Lelang" in Chinese) which is now part of Pyongyang. At the beginning, the state was located on the border with China; it gradually expanded into Manchuria and destroyed the Chinese Lelang commandery in 313. The cultural influence of the Chinese continued as Buddhism was adopted as the official religion in 372.


title: Three Kingdoms of Korea

text: Goguryeo was a highly militaristic state; it was a powerful empire and one of the great powers in East Asia. The state was at its zenith in the fifth century, during the rule of King Gwanggaeto the Great and his son King Jangsu, and particularly during their campaign in Manchuria. For the next century or so, Goguryeo was the dominant nation in Manchuria and the Northern Korean peninsula. Goguryeo eventually occupied the Liaodong Plains in Manchuria and today's Seoul area. Gwanggaeto achieved a loose unification of the Three Kingdoms of Korea.


title: Three Kingdoms of Korea

text: Goguryeo controlled not only Koreans but also Tungusic tribes in Manchuria. After the establishment of the Sui Dynasty and later the Tang Dynasty in China, the kingdom continued to take aggressive actions against China, Silla, and Baekje attacks until it was conquered by allied Silla–Tang forces in 668. Most of its territory was absorbed by Tang Dynasty of China and the territory of Baekje was absorbed by Silla.


title: Three Kingdoms of Korea

text: Baekje was founded as a member of the Mahan confederacy. Two sons of the founder of Goguryeo are recorded to have fled a succession conflict, to establish Baekje around the present Seoul area.


title: Three Kingdoms of Korea

text: Baekje absorbed or conquered other Mahan chiefdoms and, at its peak in the 4th century, controlled most of the western Korean peninsula. Buddhism was introduced to Baekje in 384 from Goguryeo, which Baekje welcomed.


title: Three Kingdoms of Korea

text: Baekje was a great maritime power; its nautical skill, which made it the Phoenicia of East Asia, was instrumental in the dissemination of Buddhism throughout East Asia and continental culture to Japan. Baekje played a fundamental role in transmitting cultural and material developments to ancient Japan, including Chinese written characters, Chinese and Korean literature, technologies such as ferrous metallurgy and ceramics, architectural styles, sericulture and Buddhism.


title: Three Kingdoms of Korea

text: Baekje exerted its political influence on Tamna, a kingdom that ruled Jejudo. Baekje maintained a close relationship with and extracted tribute from Tamna. Baekje's religious and artistic culture influenced Goguryeo and Silla.


title: Three Kingdoms of Korea

text: Baekje was once a great military power on the Korean Peninsula, especially during the time of Geunchogo, but was critically defeated by Gwanggaeto and declined.


title: Three Kingdoms of Korea

text: In the late 5th century, under attack from Goguryeo, the capital of Baekje was moved south to Ungjin (present-day Gongju) and later further south to Sabi (present-day Buyeo). Baekje was conquered by Silla-Tang alliance in 660, submitting the Unified Silla.


title: Three Kingdoms of Korea

text: According to Korean records, in 57 BC, Seorabeol (or Saro, later Silla) in the southeast of the peninsula unified and expanded the confederation of city-states known as Jinhan. Although "Samguk Sagi" records that Silla was the earliest-founded of the three kingdoms, other written and archaeological records indicate that Silla was likely the last of the three to establish a centralized government.


title: Three Kingdoms of Korea

text: Silla was the smallest and weakest of the Three Kingdoms of Korea, but it used cunning diplomatic means to make opportunistic pacts and alliances with the more powerful Korean kingdoms, and eventually Tang China, to its great advantage.


title: Three Kingdoms of Korea

text: Renamed from Saro to Silla in 503, the kingdom annexed the Gaya confederacy (which in turn had absorbed Byeonhan earlier) in the first half of the 6th century. Goguryeo and Baekje responded by forming an alliance. To cope with invasions from Goguryeo and Baekje, Silla deepened its relations with the Tang Dynasty, with her newly gained access to the Yellow Sea making direct contact with the Tang possible. After the conquest of Goguryeo and Baekje with her Tang allies, the Silla kingdom drove the Tang forces out of the peninsula and occupied the lands south of Pyongyang.


title: Three Kingdoms of Korea

text: The capital of Silla was Seorabeol (now Gyeongju; "Seorabeol", "서라벌", is hypothesized to have been the ancient Korean term for "capital"). Buddhism became the official religion in 528. The remaining material culture from the kingdom of Silla including unique gold metalwork shows influence from the northern nomadic steppes, differentiating it from the culture of Goguryeo and Baekje where Chinese influence was more pronounced.


title: Three Kingdoms of Korea

text: Centuries after Buddhism originated in India, the Mahayana Buddhism arrived in China through the Silk Route in 1st century CE via Tibet, then to Korean peninsula in 3rd century during the Three Kingdoms Period from where it transmitted to Japan. In Korea, it was adopted by the state religion by 3 constituent polities of the Three Kingdoms Period, first by the Goguryeo ruling tribe of Geumgwan Gaya in 372 CE, by the Silla in 528 CE, and by the Baekje in 552 CE.


title: Three Kingdoms of Korea

text: Allied with China under the Tang dynasty, Silla conquered Goguryeo in 668, after having already conquered Gaya in 562 and Baekje in 660, thus ushering in the North-South states period with Later Silla to the south and Balhae to the north, when Dae Jo-young, a former Goguryeo military officer, revolted against Tang Chinese rule and began reconquering former Goguryeo territories.


title: Three Kingdoms of Korea

text: Archaeologists use theoretical guidelines derived from anthropology, ethnology, analogy, and ethnohistory to the concept of what defines a state-level society. This is different from the concept of state ("guk" or Sino ko: 國, walled-town state, etc.) in the discipline of Korean History.


title: Three Kingdoms of Korea

text: In anthropological archaeology the presence of urban centres (especially capitals), monumental architecture, craft specialization and standardization of production, ostentatious burials, writing or recording systems, bureaucracy, demonstrated political control of geographical areas that are usually larger in area than a single river valley, etc. make up some of these correlates that define states. Among the archaeology sites dating to the Three Kingdoms of Korea, hundreds of cemeteries with thousands of burials have been excavated. The vast majority of archaeological evidence of the Three Kingdoms Period of Korea consists of burials, but since the 1990s there has been a great increase in the archaeological excavations of ancient industrial production sites, roads, palace grounds and elite precincts, ceremonial sites, commoner households, and fortresses due to the boom in salvage archaeology in South Korea.


title: Three Kingdoms of Korea

text: Rhee and Choi hypothesize that a mix of internal developments and external factors lead to the emergence of state-level societies in Korea. A number of archaeologists including Kang demonstrate the role of frequent warfare in the development of peninsular states.


title: Three Kingdoms of Korea

text: Some individual correlates of complex societies are found in the chiefdoms of Korea that date back to c. 700 BC (e.g. see Igeum-dong, Songguk-ri). However, the best evidence from the archaeological record in Korea indicates that states formed between 300 BC and 300/400 AD. However, archaeologists are not prepared to suggest that this means there were states in the BC era. The correlates of state-level societies did not develop as a package, but rather in spurts and starts and at various points in time. It was some time between 100–400 AD that individual correlates of state societies had developed to a sufficient number and scale that state-level societies can be confidently identified using archaeological data.


title: Three Kingdoms of Korea

text: Lee Sung-Joo analyzed variability in many of the elite cemeteries of the territories of Silla and Gaya polities and found that as late as the 2nd century there was intra-cemetery variation in the distribution of prestige grave goods, but there was an absence of hierarchical differences on a regional scale between cemeteries. Near the end of the 2nd century AD, interior space in elite burials increased in size, and wooden chamber burial construction techniques were increasingly used by elites. In the 3rd century, a pattern developed in which single elite cemeteries that were the highest in status compared to all the other cemeteries were built. Such cemeteries were established at high elevations along ridgelines and on hilltops. Furthermore, the uppermost elite were buried in large-scale tombs established at the highest point of a given cemetery. Cemeteries with 'uppermost elite' mounded burials such as Okseong-ri, Yangdong-ri, Daeseong-dong, and Bokcheon-dong display this pattern.


title: Three Kingdoms of Korea

text: Lee Sung-Joo proposed that, in addition to the development of regional political hierarchies as seen through analysis of burials, variation in types of pottery production gradually disappeared and full-time specialization was the only recognizable kind of pottery production from the end of the 4th century A.D. At the same time the production centers for pottery became highly centralized and vessels became standardized.


title: Three Kingdoms of Korea

text: Centralisation and elite control of production is demonstrated by the results of the archaeological excavations at Songok-dong and Mulcheon-ni in Gyeongju. These sites are part of what was an interconnected and sprawling ancient industrial complex on the northeast outskirts of the Silla capital. Songok-dong and Mulcheon-ri are an example of the large-scale of specialized factory-style production in the Three Kingdoms and Unified Silla Periods. The site was excavated in the late 1990s, and archaeologists found the remains of many production features such as pottery kilns, roof-tile kilns, charcoal kilns, as well as the remains of buildings and workshops associated with production.


title: Three Kingdoms of Korea

text: Since the establishment of Goguryeo, its early history is well attested archaeologically: The first and second capital cities, Jolbon and Gungnae city, are located in and around today's Ji'an, Jilin. In 2004, the site was designated as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Since 1976, continuing archaeological excavations concentrated in the southeastern part of modern Gyeongju have revealed parts of the so-called "Silla Wanggyeong" (Silla royal capital). A number of excavations over the years have revealed temples such as Hwangnyongsa, Bunhwangsa, Heungryunsa, and 30 other sites. Signs of Baekje's capitals have also been excavated at the Mongchon Fortress and the Pungnap Fortress in Seoul.


title: Ransom (1996 film)

text: Ransom is a 1996 American action thriller film directed by Ron Howard from a screenplay by Richard Price and Alexander Ignon. The film stars Mel Gibson, Rene Russo, Gary Sinise, Delroy Lindo, Lili Taylor, Brawley Nolte, Liev Schreiber, Donnie Wahlberg and Evan Handler. Gibson was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor. The film was the 5th highest-grossing film of 1996 in the United States. The original story came from a 1954 episode of "The United States Steel Hour" titled "Fearful Decision". In 1956, it was adapted by Cyril Hume and Richard Maibaum into the feature film, "Ransom!", starring Glenn Ford, Donna Reed, and Leslie Nielsen.


title: Ransom (1996 film)

text: While multi-billionaire Tom Mullen and his wife Kate attend a science fair, their son Sean is kidnapped. Sean is taken to an apartment by Maris Conner, a caterer working for the Mullens, along with brothers Clark and Cubby Barnes, as well as tech expert Miles Roberts. NYPD Detective Jimmy Shaker is Maris' boyfriend and the mastermind behind the kidnapping. The kidnappers send Tom and Kate an e-mail demanding $2 million. Tom calls the FBI, who begin operating from his New York City penthouse under Special Agent Lonnie Hawkins. In private, Tom voices his belief that a union machinist, Jackie Brown, who is in prison following one of Mullen's business scandals, may be behind it. They visit Brown in prison, but he denies any involvement.


title: Ransom (1996 film)

text: Tom agrees to the FBI's plan for delivering the ransom. Receiving a phone call from Shaker, who electronically disguises his voice, Tom follows his instructions. He meets Cubby in a New Jersey quarry but refuses to hand over the money when Cubby fails to give him Shaker's promised directions. A fight ensues and the FBI intervene and shoot Cubby, who dies before revealing Sean's location; Tom begins to realize there is no guarantee Sean will be returned alive. Shaker later arranges another drop off, but although Tom initially agrees to take the money alone at first, he instead appears on television and offers the ransom as a bounty on the kidnappers, promising to withdraw the bounty and drop all charges if the kidnappers return Sean alive and unharmed.


title: Ransom (1996 film)

text: Despite Kate and Agent Hawkins' pleadings, Tom sticks to his plan, believing it is the best chance for Sean's return. Shaker lures Kate to a meeting where he assaults her and presents Sean's blood-stained t-shirt as a warning to pay the ransom or Sean will die, but Tom responds by doubling the bounty to $4 million. Shaker calls Tom and gives him one final warning to pay the ransom, but Tom still refuses, and Shaker fires a gunshot after Tom hears Sean scream for help, leading Tom and Kate to believe Sean is dead. Clark and Miles attempt to abandon the plan and flee, but Shaker calls in the NYPD to request backup and kills both Clark and Miles while making it look like Miles shot first and kills Maris after she shoots him in the arm from behind. The NYPD arrive and find Shaker with a badly beaten Sean, believing Shaker found and rescued Sean. Hawkins informs Tom and Kate, and they are reunited with Sean while Shaker is hospitalized.


title: Ransom (1996 film)

text: Shaker arrives at Tom's penthouse to claim the reward. He intends to immediately leave the country before his connection to Maris is discovered. Sean, however, recognizes Shaker's voice as the kidnapper, causing Tom to notice his son's frightened reaction. Realizing his cover is blown, Shaker plans to kill everyone in the apartment, but Tom persuades him to accompany him to the bank to gain the money and leave peacefully. Shaker attempts to force Tom to wire the money from the house via phone, but Tom stands his ground and warns him that whether he receives his money or not, Shaker will be exposed and hunted citywide. Shaker reluctantly agrees to go to bank, threatening to rekidnap and execute Sean should Tom attempt any double-crossing. On the way, however, Tom discreetly alerts Hawkins, and the police and FBI converge on Tom and Shaker outside the bank. As soon as Tom and Shaker exit the bank, two police officers attempt to detain Shaker, but Shaker shoots them. Tom knocks Shaker to the ground and the two struggle. Tom picks up Shaker's dropped gun and points at him. Hawkins and other police officers demand that Tom drop the gun and walk away. In desperation, Shaker draws another gun, but is shot dead by Tom and Hawkins. Tom finally drops the gun and police rush in to arrest Tom, but Hawkins orders them to stand down, and Tom leaves the scene with Kate.


title: Ransom (1996 film)

text: "Ransom" has a 74% rating from Rotten Tomatoes based on 74 reviews, with its consensus stating: "Directed with propulsive intensity by Ron Howard, "Ransom" is a fiery thriller packed with hot-blooded performances and jolting twists." Metacritic gave the film a score of 60 based on 21 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Ransom (1996 film)

text: Critic Roger Ebert gave the film three stars out of four and wrote, "Gibson gives an interesting performance, showing a man trying to think his way out of a crisis, and Sinise makes a good foil: Here are two smart men playing a game with deadly stakes."


title: 2018–19 Liverpool F.C. season

text: The 2018–19 season was Liverpool Football Club's 127th season in existence, their 57th consecutive season in the top flight of English football and 27th consecutive season in the Premier League. Liverpool also competed in the FA Cup, EFL Cup and UEFA Champions League. The season covered the period from 1 July 2018 to 30 June 2019.


title: 2018–19 Liverpool F.C. season

text: Liverpool finished the league season as runners-up to Manchester City, to whom they suffered their only league defeat, scoring 97 points, the then third-highest total in the history of the English top division and the most points scored by a team without winning the title. They remained unbeaten at home in the league for the second season in a row and matched the club record of 30 league wins in a season. In the UEFA Champions League, Liverpool reached the final for the second consecutive year after producing an improbable 4–0 comeback win over Barcelona to overturn their 3–0 first leg advantage. In the final, Liverpool defeated Tottenham Hotspur 2–0 to secure the club's sixth win in the competition. However, success eluded Liverpool in domestic cup competitions as they exited both the FA Cup and EFL Cup in the third round.


title: 2018–19 Liverpool F.C. season

text: Liverpool's 2018–19 pre-season kicked off with its second signing (the first being Naby Keïta, a deal finalised the previous season) of the campaign with the transfer of Brazilian midfielder Fabinho from French club AS Monaco, a deal which became official on 1 July.


title: 2018–19 Liverpool F.C. season

text: Liverpool seemed set for their third signing when the media confirmed that Liverpool had reached a deal with French club Lyon for their captain, Nabil Fekir. However, the club, while confirming negotiations were ongoing, announced that Fekir would be remaining at Lyon.


title: 2018–19 Liverpool F.C. season

text: The first match of the pre-season took place on 7 July when the Reds visited Chester. Two goals from Harry Wilson in the first half followed by five goals in the second half, from James Milner from the spot, Daniel Sturridge, Ryan Kent, Danny Ings, then another goal from Sturridge to give Liverpool a 0–7 victory.


title: 2018–19 Liverpool F.C. season

text: The club moved along to 10 July and a visit to Merseyside counterparts Tranmere Rovers. Rafael Camacho, Sheyi Ojo and Adam Lallana all scored in the first half to give the Reds a 0–3 lead. Tranmere fired back with goals from Jonny Smith scoring a rebound after a hard free kick Loris Karius could not hold on to, then Amadou Soukouna tacked on a late second, but Liverpool held on and won 2–3.


title: 2018–19 Liverpool F.C. season

text: On 13 July, Liverpool formally announced their third signing of the summer — Swiss winger Xherdan Shaqiri from Stoke City, signing him for £13 million, his reported release clause.


title: 2018–19 Liverpool F.C. season

text: The following day, on 14 July, Bury was able to deny Liverpool a victory with a 0–0 draw at Gigg Lane. Sturridge, Ojo and Dominic Solanke all had attempts cleared from the goal line.


title: 2018–19 Liverpool F.C. season

text: On 19 July, Liverpool confirmed their fourth signing of the summer in Alisson for a £56 million transfer fee, making him the most expensive goalkeeper in history at the time of purchase. That same day, Liverpool defeated Blackburn Rovers 0–2 with two second-half goals from Sturridge and Lazar Marković.


title: 2018–19 Liverpool F.C. season

text: Liverpool then participated in the International Champions Cup in the United States, first heading to Charlotte's Bank of America Stadium on 22 July to play Borussia Dortmund. Virgil van Dijk opened scoring in the first half to give the Reds a 1–0 lead at halftime, but Dortmund stormed back with two goals from American Christian Pulisic and a late penalty kick from Jacob Bruun Larsen to give Dortmund the 1–3 victory.


title: 2018–19 Liverpool F.C. season

text: Up next, on 26 July, was a trip to MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, where Liverpool took on Manchester City. Leroy Sané opened the scoring in the 57th minute, but it was substitutes Sadio Mané and Mohamed Salah, coming back from their time off following the 2018 FIFA World Cup, to give Liverpool the 1–2 victory over the Premier League rivals.


title: 2018–19 Liverpool F.C. season

text: Finally was the trip to Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor and a crowd of over 100,000 people on 29 July against rivals Manchester United. Liverpool first saw a penalty converted by Mané, only for an immediate response from an Andreas Pereira free kick. In the second half, goals from Sturridge, Ojo (from the penalty spot) and newest signing Xherdan Shaqiri's bicycle kick on his debut gave Liverpool the 1–4 win.


title: 2018–19 Liverpool F.C. season

text: On 4 August, Liverpool travelled to Ireland to defeat Napoli 5–0 with goals in the first half from Milner and Georginio Wijnaldum, then in the second half from Salah, Sturridge and Alberto Moreno.


title: 2018–19 Liverpool F.C. season

text: Liverpool's final pre-season fixture was on 7 August in a rare preseason match at Anfield as hosts to Torino. Liverpool opened the scoring with goals from Roberto Firmino and Wijnaldum each scoring. Andrea Belotti answered with a header before the half, but Sturridge responded with another goal to a strong pre-season to give Liverpool the 3–1 victory in their final pre-season match.


title: 2018–19 Liverpool F.C. season

text: Liverpool's opening Premier League fixture was at Anfield against West Ham United on 12 August. The Reds took a 2–0 half-time lead with goals from Salah and Mané, before the latter scored a seemingly offside goal to make it 3–0. In the final few minutes, Sturridge scored Liverpool's fourth and final goal with his first touch of the game, only 24 seconds after replacing Salah. The 4–0 win put Liverpool in first position of the league table for the first time since November 2016. The scoreline also meant that Liverpool became just the second club in Premier League history to score four or more goals in four consecutive games against a single opponent.


title: 2018–19 Liverpool F.C. season

text: Liverpool's first away game of the league season was at Selhurst Park against Crystal Palace on 20 August. Initially, the game was an even contest before Liverpool were awarded a late first half penalty following a foul by former Liverpool player Mamadou Sakho on Salah. James Milner converted the penalty to give Liverpool the 0–1 lead at the half. The second half was equally even for the most part. However, at the very end, Palace defender Aaron Wan-Bissaka received a red card to give Liverpool a one-man advantage. Mané then scored a late second in stoppage time to eventually give Liverpool a 0–2 win.


title: 2018–19 Liverpool F.C. season

text: Liverpool's final fixture of the month saw the team return to Anfield to take on Brighton & Hove Albion on 25 August. The visitors' resistance was broken in the 23rd minute when Salah put the Reds ahead 1–0 and the game went on to finish with no further changes to the scoreline. The win saw Liverpool take the maximum nine points from the first three league fixtures for the first time since the 2013–14 season.


title: 2018–19 Liverpool F.C. season

text: Liverpool's next fixture was on 1 September against Leicester City. Liverpool took an early lead through a goal from Mané, which was then followed by Firmino's first goal of the season. His late first-half header to give the Reds a comfortable 2–0 lead at half-time. This was followed by a howler from goalkeeper Alisson, attempting to dribble the ball only to lose it to Kelechi Iheanacho, with Rachid Ghezzal then scoring into the empty net. Liverpool managed to survive the opposition's continued pressing and record a 2–1 win to maintain their 100% record start to the season. Liverpool's next fixture, which came after the international break, was on 15 September, away at Tottenham Hotspur, a team they had not beaten away from home since the 2014–15 season. The Reds took the lead in the 39th minute, with Wijnaldum scoring his first Premier League away goal for Liverpool. Firmino scored his second goal of the season to put the Reds 2–0 up. A late goal from Erik Lamela added drama to the match, but Liverpool held on to secure their fifth league win of the season and maintain their 100% record to the start of the season, with the result also meaning that this was the club's best start to a season since 1990. Also, the match was marked by Firmino's eye injury, sustained in a clash with Jan Vertonghen.


title: 2018–19 Liverpool F.C. season

text: Liverpool's first UEFA Champions League match of the season was against Paris Saint Germain, the French champions, on 18 September. The Reds took the lead through a header from Sturridge, followed by a penalty from Milner, before Thomas Meunier scored to slightly decrease the margin to 2–1 at half-time. Teenager Kylian Mbappé scored in the last few minutes to make it 2–2 as he took advantage off a mistake from Salah. Firmino, who came on as a substitute just minutes before the equalizing goal, scored in the last few seconds of the game to win it 3–2 and open Liverpool's continental campaign with a win.


title: 2018–19 Liverpool F.C. season

text: Liverpool's next game was against on 22 September, against Southampton. Liverpool took the lead through an own goal from Wesley Hoedt in the early minutes of the game, followed by a goal from Joël Matip just ten minutes after, with the Reds' third goal falling in the last minute of the first-half, with Shaqiri hitting the bar from a free-kick and Salah slotting in the goal, to win the game 3–0 for the Reds, as Liverpool won a seventh straight game in all competitions from the start of a season for the first time in 28 years.


title: 2018–19 Liverpool F.C. season

text: Liverpool's next fixture was up against Chelsea on 26 September, in the Carabao Cup third round. The Reds initially took the lead through a goal from Sturridge, only for Emerson Palmieri to score the equaliser in the last ten minutes of the match, which was followed by Eden Hazard scoring a stunning goal in the final minutes of the match to give Chelsea the win and end Liverpool's unbeaten start to the season.


title: 2018–19 Liverpool F.C. season

text: Three days later, on 29 September, the Reds once again played against Chelsea in the Premier League. A goal from Eden Hazard once again gave Chelsea the lead at half-time before Sturridge scored a magnificent late goal to share the points for both sides.


title: 2018–19 Liverpool F.C. season

text: The Reds' next match was against Napoli in the Champions League at the Stadio San Paolo on 3 October. Liverpool struggled throughout the game, particularly in attack, where they failed to register a single shot on target for the first time since 2006. A goal from Lorenzo Insigne in the 90th minute finally would break the deadlock after Liverpool's defense stopped several chances. Following the defeat, manager Jürgen Klopp stated that the Reds "only had themselves to blame" for the loss.


title: 2018–19 Liverpool F.C. season

text: Their final game before the international was against league champions Manchester City on 7 October, with plenty of hype ahead of the game. However, the match would eventually finish goalless as both teams' defences earned praise. The highlight of the match was Riyad Mahrez missing a penalty in the last few minutes of the game after Virgil van Dijk fouled Leroy Sané, with Mahrez skying the ball over the crossbar to mark a 0–0 draw. During the international break, the Reds would suffer several injury problems to key players, including Salah, Mané, Van Dijk and Keïta, though only the latter would be out for an extended period.


title: 2018–19 Liverpool F.C. season

text: The Reds' first match following the international break was against Huddersfield Town on 20 October, and a third meeting between close friends Klopp and David Wagner. The Reds went ahead following Salah's strike in first half, as the game also marked the introduction of Fabinho, who made his Premier League debut after coming as a substitute in the 69th minute. Huddersfield has several attempts but were unable to score as Liverpool were able to hold on and win 1–0.


title: 2018–19 Liverpool F.C. season

text: Liverpool's next match was a midweek Champions League fixture against Red Star Belgrade on 24 October. Following an initially close opening, the Reds went ahead through Roberto Firmino's goal in the 20th minute, which was followed by Salah's goal at the stroke of half-time. Salah scored his second goal from the penalty spot, which was his 50th goal for the club in all competition. Mané, after missing a penalty, scored to give Liverpool a 4–0 win, with the result, along with a 2–2 draw between Napoli and Paris Saint-Germain in the other group fixture, moving the Reds to top of their Champions League group.


title: 2018–19 Liverpool F.C. season

text: Liverpool's next fixture was against Cardiff City on 27 October. The Reds went ahead with a goal from Salah in the tenth minute, but afterwards were unable to break Cardiff's defence before Mané scored to make it to 2–0 in the 66th minute, only for Callum Paterson to score in the 77th minute. Afterwards, Shaqiri scored his first goal for the club to make it 3–1, with Mané scoring three minutes later to make it 4–1 and temporarily move the Reds to the top of the table.


title: 2018–19 Liverpool F.C. season

text: The Reds' next match was against Arsenal on 3 November. In a very close match, Milner scored his 50th Premier League goal to open a 1–0 lead for Liverpool in the 61st minute, following an error from goalkeeper Bernd Leno, though Alexandre Lacazette scored a late equaliser after he had taken the ball away from Alisson as the two sides shared a 1–1 draw.


title: 2018–19 Liverpool F.C. season

text: Three days later, Liverpool played against Red Star Belgrade in the Champions League, with the Reds suffering a shock 2–0 defeat after two early goals from Milan Pavkov, with the defeat severely threatening Liverpool's qualification hopes.


title: 2018–19 Liverpool F.C. season

text: The Reds' next fixture was against Fulham on 11 November. Following an unexpectedly close first-half, Salah scored just 14 seconds after Fulham scored a goal that was controversially considered offside. Shaqiri scored his second goal for the club in the second half as the Reds won 2–0 and temporarily return to the top of the league table.


title: 2018–19 Liverpool F.C. season

text: Following the international break, Liverpool's next game was against Watford at Vicarage Road on 24 November. The Hornets scored inside the second minute, but Gerard Deulofeu's goal was flagged offside. After an initially close first half, Salah opened the scoring for Liverpool, which was then followed by a free-kick goal from Trent Alexander-Arnold, who scored his first goal of the season. In the last few minutes of game time, captain Jordan Henderson was sent off following a foul on Étienne Capoue, which resulted in his second yellow card and dismissal. A late header from Firmino was then enough to give Liverpool a 3–0 away win.


title: 2018–19 Liverpool F.C. season

text: The final match of the month for Liverpool was an away trip to Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League group stages. The hosts went ahead through a goal from Juan Bernat followed by a goal from Neymar to double the lead for the hosts. Despite a penalty from Milner, the Reds were unable to score an equalizer and left Parc des Princes without any points. The defeat would mean that Liverpool had to win either 1–0 or by two goals against Napoli in their final match to progress to the knockout stages of the competition.


title: 2018–19 Liverpool F.C. season

text: In the last month of the calendar year, Liverpool played against city rivals Everton on 2 December. In a very tight and close game, several attempts on goal were made by both teams, with Alisson saving a header from André Gomes and Joe Gomez clearing the rebound and a shot from Gylfi Sigurðsson. In the final seconds of the game, Divock Origi scored his first goal for the club since May 2017, following a bizarre error from goalkeeper Jordan Pickford, to seal a dramatic 1–0 win for the Reds and extend Everton's winless run against Liverpool to 18 games.


title: 2018–19 Liverpool F.C. season

text: In the midweek fixture on 5 December, the Reds played away against Burnley. The hosts took a surprise lead through Jack Cork after Alisson was unable to gather the ball following a Burnley corner. Liverpool would soon hit the equalizer through a superb low finish from Milner and soon after substitute Firmino scored with his first touch to overturn the result in Liverpool's favour, with Shaqiri scoring in added time just moments following a save from Alisson to seal a 3–1 win. The victory meant that Liverpool were unbeaten in their first 15 league games, the club's best ever league start in history.


title: 2018–19 Liverpool F.C. season

text: In the weekend fixture of 8 December, Liverpool won 4–0 against Bournemouth with a hat-trick from Salah and an own goal from Steve Cook, to move top of the league table. The game was also marked by Milner making his 500th Premier League appearance.


title: 2018–19 Liverpool F.C. season

text: The club's next game was a crucial tie against Napoli in their Champions League group fixture. Liverpool went ahead with a goal from Salah, which was followed by the hosts missing several clear attempts. In injury time, Arkadiusz Milik had a chance to equalize from eight yards away from goal, but his shot was denied by Alisson, who made a crucial save as Liverpool won 1–0 and qualify for the knockout phase.


title: 2018–19 Liverpool F.C. season

text: In the next fixture on 16 December, Liverpool hosted fierce rivals Manchester United, who were in poor form but did not taste defeat against the Reds since March 2014. In the end, Liverpool emerged victorious. The hosts went ahead through a volley goal from Mané, before Jesse Lingard equalized following an error from goalkeeper Alisson. Substitute Shaqiri then scored twice in seven minutes to confirm a 3–1 victory for the Reds.


title: 2018–19 Liverpool F.C. season

text: The following fixture was on 21 December, an away fixture against Wolverhampton Wanderers, resulting in a 2–0 win for the visitors. Salah scored the opening goal following a cross from Fabinho, with the Egyptian then assisting Van Dijk's goal, with the Dutchman scoring his first league goal for Liverpool. The result guaranteed that, regardless of other results, Liverpool would be top of the Premier League on Christmas Day, with Manchester City's unexpected home loss to Crystal Palace ensuring the Reds would be four points clear.


title: 2018–19 Liverpool F.C. season

text: The traditional Boxing Day fixture saw Liverpool host Newcastle United and former manager Rafael Benítez. The hosts went ahead through a wonderful strike from Dejan Lovren, which was followed by a second-half penalty from Salah after the Egyptian was fouled by Paul Dummett, before Shaqiri's strike wrapped up the three points, with substitute Fabinho scoring his first goal for the club to complete a 4–0 victory. The result, coupled with other favourable results in the league, ensured that the Reds would go into their final game of 2018 six points clear, and would be top on New Year's Day.


title: 2018–19 Liverpool F.C. season

text: Liverpool's final game of 2018 saw the Reds again at Anfield, this time hosting Arsenal just 56 days after the reverse fixture at the Emirates. Despite falling behind in the 11th minute to a goal from Gunners academy graduate Ainsley Maitland-Niles, a frantic spell just a couple of minutes later saw Liverpool go 2–1 up thanks to a Firmino brace, with Mané extending the lead in the 32nd minute and Salah again scoring from the penalty spot in the dying minutes of added time. Only one goal was scored in the second half, just after the hour mark, with Firmino completing his first ever Liverpool hat-trick from the penalty spot. With Tottenham Hotspur having lost 3–1 at home to Wolves in the earlier kick-off, the result saw the Reds go nine points clear at the top of the table, albeit the gap being then reduced to seven points by Manchester City's victory at Southampton the following day, with the club not only extending their unbeaten run in the league to 21 games, but also successfully going unbeaten at Anfield in the league in 2018, as well as equalling the record set by Rafael Benítez's team in 2008–09 of going unbeaten at Anfield in the league for 31 games.


title: 2018–19 Liverpool F.C. season

text: Liverpool kicked off the new calendar year with a daunting trip to the Etihad to face Manchester City, knowing full well a win could see their lead extended to ten points. In a tight first half, Liverpool were denied the lead after a goal-line clearance by City defender John Stones, confirmed by goal-line technology before City captain Vincent Kompany controversially avoided a red card for a studs-up challenge on Salah, with Sergio Agüero opening the scoring for the champions in the 40th minute. Liverpool pulled themselves level in the second half, Firmino scoring after the hour mark, but Sané won the game for City just under ten minutes later. The defeat ended Liverpool's unbeaten start to the season and pulled City firmly back into the title race.


title: 2018–19 Liverpool F.C. season

text: This match turned out to be Liverpool's only Premier League defeat in the 2018–19 season and in the 2019 calendar year.


title: 2018–19 Liverpool F.C. season

text: The following fixture was again away at Wolves, this time in the 3rd round of the FA Cup. With the title challenge firmly on his mind, Klopp made nine changes to the team, with only Milner and Lovren keeping their places from the defeat at City, giving first-team debuts to academy graduates Curtis Jones and Rafa Camacho and starting Fabinho at centre-back alongside Dejan Lovren. However, barely five minutes into the game, Lovren was substituted off with a hamstring injury. His substitute, Ki-Jana Hoever (who had been signed for the academy in the summer), became the youngest-ever Liverpool player to debut for the first-team, at age 16. Wolves opened up the scoring on the 38th minute with Raúl Jiménez firing in on the counter. Much like at the Etihad, Liverpool pulled themselves level in the second half with Origi scoring in the 51st minute. However, Rúben Neves fired the home-side back ahead four minutes later with a terrific 31-yard shot. The West Midlands side could have even scored more, with Hoever making a fantastic last-ditch tackle to stop Jiménez closing in on goal with 15 minutes left. The result saw Liverpool eliminated from the Cup in the 3rd round for the first time since 2011 and eliminated by Wolves for the second time in three seasons.


title: 2018–19 Liverpool F.C. season

text: Despite these results, there were positives for the club in the opening weeks of the month, with both Klopp and Van Dijk earning the Premier League Manager and Player of the Month awards, respectively, for December. Liverpool won all seven league games to go from second to first, while Van Dijk became the first league defender to win the award since 2013.


title: 2018–19 Liverpool F.C. season

text: The Red's next league fixture was away at Brighton & Hove Albion, the Reds hoping to put the two previous defeats behind them. After a goal-less first half that saw the Reds fail to find a way past a stubborn Seagulls defence, a third Salah penalty in four league games in the 50th minute put the Reds ahead, a scoreline that stayed the same until full-time, sending Liverpool seven points clear at the top until the 14th at least.


title: 2018–19 Liverpool F.C. season

text: For the next game, Liverpool welcomed former manager Roy Hodgson and Crystal Palace to Anfield — the Reds aware that victory could see them again go seven points clear of City, but also aware that Palace had won three of their five previous league visits and had also won at City just four weeks previously. The game remained even until just after the half-hour mark when Palace forward Andros Townsend controversially scored with the Eagles' first shot on goal, barely a few seconds after he escaped being penalised for a hand-ball in the Palace penalty area. Going one goal down into half-time, Liverpool came flying out in the second half with Salah scoring his 15th league goal of the season not even one minute into the half, with Firmino firing the home side into the lead just seven minutes later. However, Palace proved they were not down and out with James Tomkins pulling his side level just after the hour mark, only for Liverpool to restore their lead in the 78th minute through Salah. A second bookable offence for Milner saw the Reds down to ten men and their lead under threat before Mané scored in added time to put the game beyond Palace. Max Meyer's first Palace goal proved to be too late as Liverpool secured their 19th league win of the season and extended their unbeaten home league run to 32 matches, the longest since going over 60 home league matches unbeaten between 1978 and 1980 in the former First Division.


title: 2018–19 Liverpool F.C. season

text: The Reds' next game came ten days later as a result of the FA Cup fourth round being played on the weekend of 26–27 January, with Leicester City welcomed to Anfield. Aware that Manchester City had lost the previous day at Newcastle United, Liverpool had the chance to extend their lead at the top of the table once again but were ultimately frustrated by a resilient Foxes side. Mané put the Reds ahead in the third minute only for Harry Maguire to head in an equalizer on the stroke of half-time just minutes after avoiding being sent off for being the last man on Mané. No goals were scored in the second half, with Leicester lucky to avoid conceding a penalty when Keïta was hauled down in the area.


title: 2018–19 Liverpool F.C. season

text: Liverpool's first game of the month came against West Ham United at the Olympic Stadium and finished in a second successive 1–1 draw, with Michail Antonio scoring just before the 30-minute mark to cancel-out another Mané opener. This allowed Manchester City to go top of the league on goal difference with wins against Arsenal and Liverpool's archrivals Everton.


title: 2018–19 Liverpool F.C. season

text: The Reds then bounced back with what ultimately proved to be an easy 3–0 win over Bournemouth at Anfield, with Mané and Wijnaldum scoring within ten minutes of each other in the first half and Salah adding the final goal just minutes after the start of the second half. With his goal, Salah became the first player since Luis Suárez to score at least 20 goals in successive seasons.


title: 2018–19 Liverpool F.C. season

text: Ten days later, the Reds welcomed German giants Bayern Munich to Anfield for the first leg of the last-16 Champions League knockout stage. The match finished 0–0 with both sides having chances but ultimately seeing the German champions resort to damage limitation for the last half-hour with Liverpool more likely to score.


title: 2018–19 Liverpool F.C. season

text: Liverpool's next match was away at Old Trafford to face rivals Manchester United, who had enjoyed an incredible resurgence under Norwegian interim manager Ole Gunnar Solskjær following his appointment after the club's loss at Anfield in December. The game finished 0–0, the Reds having put in a poor performance against a United side that made all three substitutions in the space of 25 minutes in the first half and lucky to avoid a late loss, as a Joël Matip own goal was disallowed.


title: 2018–19 Liverpool F.C. season

text: With scrutiny increasing both on and off the pitch for their next match, a home match against Watford, Liverpool secured their largest victory of the season with a 5–0 win over the Hornets. Mané extended his impressive run of goals with a brace in the first half before Origi scored shortly after the hour mark to put the game beyond Watford. Van Dijk scored a late brace to keep the Reds one point clear of Manchester City and increase their goal difference.


title: 2018–19 Liverpool F.C. season

text: On 3 March, Liverpool played out a goalless draw at Everton at Goodison Park. The Reds tested Toffies goalkeeper Jordan Pickford several times in the half but ultimately failed to really bring a good save out of him. With City having won at Bournemouth the previous day, the Reds lost their lead at the top of the table.