title: Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)

text: "Single Ladies" appeared at number six on the "Eye Weekly"s critics' list of the Best Singles of 2008, and at number six on About.com's Mark Edward Nero's list of the Best R&B Songs of 2008. On "The Village Voice"s year-end Pazz & Jop singles list, "Single Ladies" was ranked at numbers three and forty one in 2008 and 2009 respectively. Additionally, the Maurice Joshua Club Mix of the song was ranked at number 443 on the 2008 list. "Single Ladies" was named the best song of the 2000s decade by Black Entertainment Television (BET). Sarah Rodman, writing for "The Boston Globe", named "Single Ladies" the fourth most irresistible song of the decade, and stated, "[Beyoncé] combined leotards with crass engagement-bling baiting into one delicious sexy-yet-antiquated package. The video had the whole world dancing and waving along via YouTube." VH1 ranked "Single Ladies" at number sixteen on its list of The 100 Greatest Songs of the 2000s. In his book "Eating the Dinosaur" (2009), Chuck Klosterman wrote that "Single Ladies" is "arguably the first song overtly marketed toward urban bachelorette parties". Jody Rosen of "The New Yorker" credited the melodies that float and dart over the thump for creating a new sound in music that didn't exist in the world before Beyoncé. He further wrote, "If they sound 'normal' now, it's because Beyoncé, and her many followers, have retrained our ears."


title: Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)

text: "Single Ladies" has received a number of awards and nominations, including the Song of the Year, Best R&B Song and Best Female R&B Vocal Performance at the 52nd Grammy Awards. It also won the awards for Favorite Song at the 2009 Kids' Choice Awards, Song of the Year at the 2009 Soul Train Music Awards, and Best R&B Song at the 2009 Teen Choice Awards. The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) recognized "Single Ladies" as one of the most performed songs of 2009 at the 27th ASCAP Pop Music Awards. The song was nominated in the Best Song category at the 2009 NAACP Image Awards and in the English-language "Record of the Year" category at the 2009 Premios Oye! Awards. It was also nominated for Record of the Year at the 2009 Soul Train Music Awards, Viewer's Choice Award at the 2009 BET Awards, Best R&B/Urban Dance Track at the 2009 International Dance Music Awards, and World's Best Single at the 2010 World Music Awards.


title: Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)

text: "Single Ladies" debuted at number 72 on the US "Billboard" Hot 100 chart issue dated November 1, 2008. On December 6, 2008, it moved from number 28 to number two on the Hot 100 chart, as a result of its debut at number one on the Hot Digital Songs chart, selling 204,000 digital downloads. The song became Beyoncé's fifth solo single to top the Hot Digital Songs chart. "If I Were a Boy" charted at number three on the Hot 100 chart the same week, and thus Beyoncé became the seventh female in the US to have two songs in the top five positions of that particular chart. The following week "Single Ladies" climbed to number one on the Hot 100 chart, selling 228,000 downloads, and became Beyoncé's fifth solo single to top the chart. It tied her with Olivia Newton-John and Barbra Streisand at number six on the list of female artists with the most Hot 100 number one hits, as of 2010.


title: Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)

text: The song was at the top of the chart for four non-consecutive weeks, during the last of which digital downloads of "Single Ladies" increased by 157 percent to 382,000 units—its best week of digital sales. For the week ending January 15, 2009, the song moved to number one on the Hot 100 Airplay chart with 147.3 million listener impressions. It reached number one on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, where it remained for twelve consecutive weeks. "Single Ladies" topped the Pop Songs and the Hot Dance Club Play charts, and reached number two on the Pop 100 chart. The song has been certified quadruple-platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for sales of over 4,000,000 copies. It passed the 5 million sales mark in October 2012.


title: Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)

text: "Single Ladies" debuted at number 81 on the Canadian Hot 100 chart for the week ending November 29, 2008. On January 24, 2009, its ninth charting week, it moved to its peak spot at number two, and was subsequently certified double-platinum by the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) for sales of over 160,000 copies. The song peaked at number seven, and spent 112 weeks on the UK Singles Chart.


title: Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)

text: It topped the UK R&B Chart, where it succeeded the song's double A-side, "If I Were a Boy". On August 7, 2020, "Single Ladies" was certified double-platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) for sales of over 1,200,000 copies. As of November 2013, it has sold 704,000 copies in the UK. On the Irish Singles Chart, it reached number four and enjoyed twenty weeks of charting, while on the Japan Hot 100 chart it made its way to number 25. In Australia, the single attained a high point of number five on the ARIA Singles Chart, and received a nine-times platinum certification from the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) for sales of over 630,000 copies. It peaked at number two on the New Zealand Singles Chart, and was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand (RIANZ) for shipment of over 15,000 copies. "Single Ladies" appeared on several charts in mainland Europe, and peaked at number 20 on the European Hot 100 Singles chart. It reached the top 10 in the Netherlands, Italy and Spain, and the top 40 in both Belgian territories (Flanders and Wallonia), as well as in Hungary, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland. "Single Ladies" was 2009's seventh best-selling digital single with 6.1 million units sold worldwide.


title: Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)

text: The music video for "Single Ladies" was shot immediately after that of "If I Were a Boy", but it received less attention during production than the "higher-gloss, higher-profile video" for "If I Were a Boy". Both videos were shot in black-and-white in New York City and were directed by Jake Nava, with whom Beyoncé had worked on previous music videos including "Crazy in Love" and "Beautiful Liar". "Single Ladies" was choreographed by Frank Gatson Jr. and JaQuel Knight, and incorporates J-Setting choreography. The two music videos premiered on MTV's "Total Request Live" show on October 13, 2008 to reinforce the concept of conflicting personalities. The videos were released to other media outlets on the same date and subsequently included on Beyoncé's remix album with videography, "Above and Beyoncé", and the platinum edition of "I Am... Sasha Fierce".


title: Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)

text: Beyoncé told Simon Vozick-Levinson of "Entertainment Weekly" that the inspiration for the video was a 1969 Bob Fosse routine entitled "Mexican Breakfast" seen on "The Ed Sullivan Show", which featured Fosse's wife, Gwen Verdon, dancing with two other women. "Mexican Breakfast" had become an Internet viral sensation the previous summer after Unk's "Walk It Out" was dubbed over the original mix. Beyoncé wanted to attempt a similar dance and eventually, the choreography of "Single Ladies" was liberally adapted from "Mexican Breakfast":


title: Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)

text: I saw a video on YouTube. [The dancers] had a plain background and it was shot on the crane; it was 360 degrees, they could move around. And I said, 'This is genius.' We kept a lot of the Fosse choreography and added the down-south thing—it's called J-Setting, where one person does something and the next person follows. So it was a strange mixture ... It's like the most urban choreography, mixed with Fosse—very modern and very vintage.


title: Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)

text: Beyoncé wanted a simple music video; it was filmed with minimal alternative camera shots and cuts, and no changes to hairstyles, costumes and sets. According to JaQuel Knight, Beyoncé also wanted the video to feel "good and powerful" and include choreography that could be attempted by anybody. The day the video was shot, the song was divided into three parts. Nava deliberately used lengthy shots so that viewers "would connect with the human endeavor of Beyoncé's awe-inspiring dance", with all the changes in looks, angles, and lighting executed live on-camera because he wanted to keep the feel "very organic and un-gimmicky". The styling was inspired by a "Vogue" photo shoot. In the video Beyoncé wears a titanium roboglove designed by her long-time jeweler, Lorraine Schwartz, to complement her alter ego Sasha Fierce. The glove consists of several pieces, including a ring and a separate component that covers Beyoncé's upper arm. She first wore the roboglove on the red carpet at the MTV Europe Music Awards on November 8, 2008. The video shoot took around twelve hours. Many performances of the song were filmed without interruption, and edited together to give the impression that the final video was filmed in a single take.


title: Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)

text: In the video for "Single Ladies", emphasis is laid on Beyoncé's more aggressive and sensual side, her alter ego Sasha Fierce. It shows her in an asymmetrical leotard and high-heels, with two backup dancers, Ebony Williams and Ashley Everett. Beyoncé's mother, Tina Knowles, designed the high-cut leotards after seeing something similar in the American musical films "A Chorus Line" and "All That Jazz". The dance routine incorporates many styles, including jazz, tap, and hip hop, and is credited with popularizing J-Setting, a flamboyant lead and follow dance style prominent in many African American gay clubs across Atlanta and used by the all-female Prancing J-Settes dance troupe of Jackson State University.


title: Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)

text: The video features Beyoncé and her two companions dancing inside an infinity cove, which alternates between black and white and places the focus on the complex choreography. Throughout the video the women click their heels and shake their hips and legs. However, the main intention is to attract the viewers' attention toward their hands and ring fingers as they do the hand-twirl move. At one point during the video, the dancers run up to a wall, which, according to Frank Gatson Jr., pays homage to Shirley MacLaine's act in the 1969 film "Sweet Charity". Toward the end of the video, Beyoncé flashes her own wedding ring on her finger.


title: Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)

text: Although the video for "Single Ladies" was the cheapest and quickest of all her videos to produce, Beyoncé felt that it ended up being "the most iconic ... something special". It spawned a dance craze and inspired thousands of imitations all over the world, many of which were posted on YouTube. In an interview with MTV, Beyoncé expressed her appreciation of the public's response to the video, and stated that she had spent much time watching several of these parodies: "It's beautiful to feel you touch people and bring a song to life with a video." Nava also expressed his surprise at the positive reception of the video, and attributed its success to the video's understated, less-is-more approach. In an interview with Chandler Levack for "Eye Weekly", Toronto director Scott Cudmore stated that the Internet age has impacted the way music videos are made, as well as perceived by an audience. Although Cudmore believes that the music video as a medium is "disappearing ... from the mainstream public eye", he accredited "Single Ladies" with its resurgence, and stated that after the video appeared on the Internet, people began to "consciously look for music videos because of its art".


title: Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)

text: The music video has won several awards and accolades. It was voted Best Dance Routine in the 2008 Popjustice Readers' Poll; and won Video of the Year becoming the first black and white music video since Don Henley's The Boys of Summer, Best Choreography, and Best Editing at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards. The song also won Best Video at the 2009 MTV Europe Music Awards, the 2009 MOBO Awards, and the 2009 BET Awards. The video has also received many nominations: Best Video in the 2009 Popjustice Readers Polls (placed 4th); nine (including the three that it won) in the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards; Best International Artist Video at the 2009 MuchMusic Video Awards (losing to Lady Gaga's "Poker Face"); Outstanding Music Video at the 2009 NAACP Image Awards; and two at the 2009 MTV Australia Awards for Best Video and Best Moves. The video was ranked at number four on BET's "Notarized: Top 100 Videos of 2008" countdown, and at number three on VH1's Top 40 Videos of 2009. The video was voted Best Music Video of the Decade by MUZU.TV It was voted fifth-best music video of the 2000s by readers of "Billboard" magazine. Claire Suddath of "Time" magazine included it in her 30 All-Time Best Music Videos, writing that "sometimes the best creations are also the simplest". In 2013, John Boone and Jennifer Cady of E! Online placed the video at number one on their list of Beyoncé's ten best music videos writing, "[It has] All of the sex appeal. Ever... Beyoncé doesn't need anything but an empty room in this one. It's all about the dancing. It's all about the leotard. It's all about the fierceness. And it's epic." The music video was certified platinum by CRIA for shipment of sales 10,000 units. In 2021, "Rolling Stone" named "Single Ladies" the 12th greatest music video of all time, while Slant Magazine named it the 36th.


title: Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)

text: "Single Ladies" was nominated for nine awards at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, ultimately winning three including Video of the Year. Its failure to win the Best Female Video category, which went to American country pop singer Taylor Swift's "You Belong with Me", sparked controversy during the ceremony. Swift's acceptance speech was interrupted by rapper Kanye West, who grabbed her microphone to declare the "Single Ladies" video as "one of the best videos of all time". Footage of Beyoncé in the audience looking shocked was then shown. When Beyoncé won the Video of the Year award later that night, she reminisced about when she won her first MTV award with her former group, Destiny's Child, and called the experience "one of the most exciting moments in [her] life". She then invited Swift on-stage to finish her speech and "have her moment".


title: Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)

text: Beyoncé first promoted "Single Ladies" in a concert organized by Power 105.1 radio in New York on October 29, 2008, and subsequently performed the song at various awards ceremonies, concerts and television shows, including "Saturday Night Live" ("SNL") on November 15, 2008. That night, Beyoncé was featured in a parody of the song's music video, where the two female backup dancers from the video were replaced by pop singer Justin Timberlake and "SNL" cast members Andy Samberg and Bobby Moynihan. On November 16, 2008, Beyoncé performed a medley of "If I Were a Boy", "Single Ladies", and "Crazy in Love" during the final episode of "Total Request Live". "Single Ladies" was also performed by Beyoncé on November 18, 2008, on "106 & Park", on November 25, 2008, on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" and on November 26, 2008, at Rockefeller Plaza on "The Today Show". She delivered a performance of "Single Ladies" with two male dancers on "The Tyra Banks Show" on January 9, 2009.


title: Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)

text: In July 2009, Beyoncé gave a concert at the Staples Center in Los Angeles where American actor Tom Cruise danced with her and her dancers as they performed the dance routine of "Single Ladies". At the MTV Video Music Awards on September 13, 2009, Beyoncé performed "Single Ladies" backed by "an army of single ladies" on stage. In a poll conducted by "Billboard" magazine, the performance was ranked as the seventh best in the history of MTV Video Music Awards. A critic wrote in the magazine: "The world gave a collective 'whoa' when Beyonce unleashed her 'Single Ladies' video, but to see those dance moves come to life at the 2009 VMAs was beyond eye-popping." Erika Ramirez of the same publication placed the performance at number two on her list of Beyoncé's five biggest TV performances. "Single Ladies" was included on the set lists of Beyoncé's I Am... Yours concerts and her I Am... World Tour. The song was subsequently included on Beyoncé's live albums "" (2009) and "I Am... World Tour" (2010). "Single Ladies" was later performed by Beyoncé in a pink fringe dress at a concert at Palais Nikaia in Nice, France, on June 20, 2011, and at the Glastonbury Festival on June 26, 2011. On July 1, 2011, Beyoncé gave a free concert on "Good Morning America" as part of its "Summer Concert Series", which included "Single Ladies". Backed by her all-female band and her backing singers The Mamas, Beyoncé performed "Single Ladies" in front of 3,500 people during the 4 Intimate Nights with Beyoncé revue at the Roseland Ballroom in New York, in August 2011. In May 2012, Beyoncé performed the song during her revue at Revel Atlantic City, a hotel. Ben Ratliff of "The New York Times" mentioned "Single Ladies" in the "almost continuous high point" of the concert. Rebecca Thomas of MTV News wrote that Beyoncé's dancing during "Single Ladies" reflected the female empowerment theme of the song. On February 3, 2013, Beyoncé performed the song along with her former bandmates from Destiny's Child during the Super Bowl XLVII halftime show. The song was added to the set list of her Mrs. Carter Show World Tour (2013). Beyoncé's performed "Single Ladies" at The Sound of Change Live concert on June 1, 2013, at Twickenham Stadium, London as part of the Chime for Change movement.


title: Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)

text: "Single Ladies" gained widespread popularity for its catchy hook and theme of female empowerment. Critics have compared the song to Aretha Franklin's "Respect" and Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive", prompted by their lyrics, which all promote female empowerment. The music video achieved fame for its intricate choreography and its deployment of jazz hands with a wrist twist. It has been credited with starting the "first major dance craze of both the new millennium and the Internet", triggering a number of parodies of the dance choreography. Billy Johnson of Yahoo! Music wrote that the video of "Single Ladies" was the top music-related viral hit of 2009. MTV News' James Montgomery wrote that "it appears like [the music video] was custom-made for the YouTube generation, which probably explains why making homages became a worldwide phenomenon." The video generated interest in J-Setting, the dance form that choreographer JaQuel Knight highlights in the video, and Beyoncé is credited with bringing the dance style to the mainstream.


title: Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)

text: In a radio interview on NPR's "All Things Considered", Knight shared his excitement that the popular video made people want to learn to dance. Trish Crawford from the "Toronto Star" observed how it has appealed to all age groups and genders, in contrast with the short-lived dance craze inspired by Soulja Boy two years before, which she considered "mainly a male hip-hop dance". Crawford mentioned, "Toddlers have tackled [the 'Single Ladies' dance]. [So have] recreation centre dance classes, sorority sisters in their dorm rooms, suburban teenagers in their basements and high school cheerleaders." In February 2009, Columbia Records announced the launch of a "Single Ladies" Dance Video Contest. Fans aged eighteen and older were invited to adhere precisely to the dance routine performed by Beyoncé and her two dancers in the original production. The winning video was included in her live album, "I Am... World Tour".


title: Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)

text: "Single Ladies" was first parodied in the November 15, 2008, episode of "SNL", which featured Beyoncé. She was initially reluctant to participate in the segment but agreed to after a visit from Timberlake in her dressing room. Beyoncé's choreographer, Frank Gatson Jr., expressed mixed emotions at the result, saying: "I was upset because I know that Justin's a great dancer and if he learned the choreography, he could do it really well... If they're making parodies [of our work] just like they make parodies of politicians and presidents, that means it must be big time. So in that respect, I have to take my hat off to them for doing it." Later, Joe Jonas of the pop rock band Jonas Brothers posted a video on their YouTube account where he imitated the dance in a black leotard and heels. In London, one hundred dancers wearing leotards similar to the one worn by Beyoncé performed the choreography on April 20, 2009, to promote Trident Unwrapped gum.


title: Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)

text: The music video inspired a legion of amateur imitators to post videos of themselves performing the choreography on YouTube. One of the most viewed viral videos is that of Shane Mercado, who appeared on "The Bonnie Hunt Show" in bikini bottoms to perform the choreography. His subsequent meeting with Beyoncé became a media event. Beyoncé has acknowledged the popularity of the videos on YouTube; during her concert tour, excerpts from many of the YouTube videos were played in the background while Beyoncé was performing the song. Cubby, who is an on-air personality for Charlotte, North Carolina's 96.1 The Beat AM, based his parody on the "SNL" one. His video lead to a meet and greet with Beyoncé and eventually, an opportunity to join her on stage at a show stop in Atlanta during her I Am... World Tour. Many videos featuring babies of different ages, imitating the dance choreography of "Single Ladies", have been uploaded on YouTube. A video showing Cory Elliott, a baby boy from New Zealand, performing the dance while watching Beyoncé on television, gained significant coverage from several media outlets. "Time" magazine's critic Dan Fletcher ranked it as the fourth best viral video of 2009 and wrote, "Young children love songs with good rhythm and repetition, and 'Single Ladies' certainly has both." However, when a video of seven-year-old girls performing choreography from "Single Ladies" at a dance competition in Los Angeles went viral on YouTube, it created a controversy and sparked outrage from many viewers, who felt the girls were sexualized by the suggestive dance moves.


title: Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)

text: In a video filmed by singer John Legend, US President Barack Obama appears with his wife Michelle performing part of the "Single Ladies" routine. He also briefly performed the hand-twirl move from the song's video at the Obama Inaugural Celebration. This video prompted an Obama look-alike, Iman Crosson, to do his own version of the "Single Ladies" choreography. Several other well-known personalities, including American environmentalist and politician Joe Nation and American actor Tom Hanks, have performed the dance. In the music video for "Dancin on Me" by DJ Webstar and Jim Jones, three females are featured in the background, imitating the "Single Ladies" dance. Jenna Ushkowitz, Chris Colfer and Heather Morris did the "Single Ladies" dance as part of the Glee Live tour in June 2011. The music minister at Geyer Springs First Baptist Church in Little Rock, Arkansas, thought it would be "an excellent idea" to attract interest in the church choir by using a remix of "Single Ladies" and having choir members dance to it. In the music video he made, the choir members sing, "All the singing ladies, all the singing fellas ... If you like the choir, then won't you come and sing in it." Cyndi Wilkerson, Music Ministry Assistant at Geyer Springs First Baptist Church, uploaded the video to YouTube on August 29, 2011. In April 2013, YouTube phenomenon Psy did the dance routine during a concert in Seoul while wearing a red leotard and red boots. A television advert for the South African cellular service Vodacom, used the song as a backdrop to an actor who was humorously mimicking Beyoncé's dancing, the advert quickly went viral and spawned several different variations.


title: Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)

text: "Single Ladies" has been used in various media including television shows, commercials and books. In the Best of 2009 issue of "People" magazine, Khloe, Kim, and Kourtney Kardashian were ranked at number nine on the magazine's list of "25 Most Intriguing People"; the photograph accompanying the article showed the three women in leotards mimicking the look from the "Single Ladies" video. The song has been included in many television shows, including "", "Cougar Town", and in two episodes in "Glee". In the United Kingdom, the video for "Single Ladies" was used for a 2009 television commercial for the new Doner kebab flavored Pot Noodle. In other media, issue 33 of comic book series "The Brave and the Bold" features a scene in which Wonder Woman, Zatanna, and Barbara Gordon sing a karaoke version of the song while at a club. A mash-up video of the theme of "Single Ladies" and "The Andy Griffith Show" circulated on the Internet in early 2010. It was produced by Party Ben at the end of 2008. In July 2010, the line "Put a Ring on It" was used by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS as the tagline for a female condom public awareness campaign in the US. The song appears in the Marvel Studios film "Doctor Strange". The song was featured in the 2016 rhythm game "Just Dance 2017".


title: Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)

text: Singers and bands of various genres have covered the song in their own style. British band Marmaduke Duke performed a cover version in April 2009 on BBC Radio 1's "Live Lounge" show. In October 2009, it was released on "Radio 1's Live Lounge – Volume 4", a compilation of "Live Lounge" recordings. Australian singer Stan Walker sang a jazzier version of the song on the seventh series of "Australian Idol" in October 2009. The same year, elementary school group PS22 chorus covered "Single Ladies" and "Halo" (2009) during "Billboard"s annual Women In Music luncheon held at The Pierre in New York City. In her short-lived Broadway revue "All About Me" in March 2010, Dame Edna Everage performed a version of the song with backup dancers Gregory Butler and Jon-Paul Mateo. It was also covered by Jeff Tweedy and British singer-songwriter Alan Pownall. According to Simon Vozick-Levinson of "Entertainment Weekly", Tweedy sang only a few bars; he gave "Single Ladies" an acoustic feel and recited the rest of the song's lyrics. He performed the hand movements that Beyoncé and her dancers do in the song's video. Pomplamoose, an American indie music duo consisting of Jack Conte and Nataly Dawn, recorded a cover of "Single Ladies" on video, which makes use of split screens to show Dawn on vocals and Conte playing the instruments. Inspired by the avant-garde Dogme 95 movement in cinema, Conte began to record songs on video as a quick way to create "organic and raw" music. They chose "Single Ladies" as they believed that it would help them grow their audience.


title: Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)

text: During a concert at New York's Madison Square Garden, Prince performed a mash-up of his 1984 songs "Pop Life" and "I Would Die 4 U", incorporating a sample of "Single Ladies". During her tour in Melbourne, Australia, on August 13, 2010, Katy Perry performed "Single Ladies" and attempted to emulate the choreography. British composer of classical music Mark-Anthony Turnage composed a setting of the song which he titled "Hammered Out". Describing it as his "most R&B work to date", Turnage told Tim Rutherford-Johnson of "The Guardian" that he was motivated to put the "Single Ladies" reference in his work by his young son, a fan of the song. The piece premiered at the BBC Proms on August 27, 2010. Sara Bareilles covered the song as part of "Billboard"s "Mashup Mondays" and performed it as part of her set list on the 2010 Lilith Fair Tour. As stated by a critic writing for the magazine, Bareilles put "a piano-pop" twist on "Single Ladies" and turned it "into a slow, jazzy track, complete with creeping bassline and vocal harmonies". American rock band A Rocket to the Moon covered "Single Ladies" and placed it on their EP, "The Rainy Day Sessions", which was released in October 2010.


title: Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)

text: On September 26, 2010, Kharizma sang their version of the song on the second series of "The X Factor Australia", and on May 31, 2011, Matthew Raymond-Barker sang the song live on the seventh prime of the second series of the "X Factor France". During the finale of the tenth season of "American Idol" on May 25, 2011, the lady contestants joined onstage to perform "Single Ladies" and attempted the dance moves from the song's video. The film "Sex and the City 2" features a performance of the song by American singer and actress Liza Minnelli. On October 18, 2011, Young Men Society sang "Single Ladies" on the third series of "The X Factor Australia", and on June 30, 2014, Holly Tapp sang the song on the third series of "The Voice Australia".


title: Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)

text: In 2008, female rapper Nicki Minaj released an unofficial remix of "Single Ladies" with two rap verses.


title: Cure (film)

text: The film was released to strong critical acclaim in Japan and internationally, with critics praising Kurosawa's direction as well as the visuals and atmosphere. In 2012, South Korean film director Bong Joon-ho listed the film as one of the greatest films of all time, citing it as having had a strong impact on his career. This is Kurosawa and lead actor Yakusho's first collaboration.


title: Cure (film)

text: Kenichi Takabe (Kōji Yakusho) is a police detective with a mentally unstable wife (Anna Nakagawa). Takabe investigates a series of bizarre murders in which each victim is killed in the same way, with a large "X" carved into their neck, but the perpetrator is different each time. In every case the murderers are caught close to the scene of the crime, and although they readily confess to committing the crimes, they never have a substantial motive and cannot explain what drove them to kill.


title: Cure (film)

text: Takabe, together with a psychologist named Sakuma (Tsuyoshi Ujiki), eventually determines that one man is the common thread among the murders, as each person he comes in contact with commits a killing shortly thereafter. The man, called Mamiya (Masato Hagiwara), appears to have extreme short-term memory loss; he seems constantly confused about what day it is, where he is, and what his name is. He claims to recall nothing of his past. Mamiya constantly counters Takabe's interrogation with evasive questions regarding Takabe's identity. This drives Takabe nearly insane as he gradually loses his initial calmness. The futility of the case starts to affect his psyche as he becomes more and more volatile, exploding into violent fits of anger.


title: Cure (film)

text: Takabe discovers that Mamiya used to be a student of psychology who researched mesmerism and hypnosis. He comes to realize that Mamiya has no memory problems, and is instead a master of hypnosis, capable of planting criminal suggestions in strangers' minds by exposing them to repetitive sounds, the motion of water, or the flame of a lighter.


title: Cure (film)

text: In an archive, Sakuma finds a videotape of a mysterious man, speculated to be the originator of Japanese mesmerism, and shows it to Takabe. The man is depicted hypnotizing a woman in the late 1800s. She had been under treatment for hysteria and was hypnotized by the man who gestured an "X" midair. The woman later killed her son in a manner similar to Mamiya's crimes. Sakuma believes the current crimes have a connection to the earlier events, describing Mamiya as a missionary of ceremonial murders. After showing the tape, Sakuma is revealed to have unconsciously drawn an X on his wall, and starts to experience hallucinations of Takabe menacingly cornering him. Several days later, the police discover Sakuma's body in his home, and conclude that he committed suicide. Meanwhile, Mamiya is jailed and charged with incitement to murder.


title: Cure (film)

text: Mamiya finds Takabe fascinating, possibly because he cannot force Takabe to kill. Takabe is tormented by visions of his wife dead, however, and the more he studies Mamiya, the more he feels that he might be losing his mind. The detective grows frustrated with his wife's helplessness and even expresses murderous intent towards her at one point. His wife's strange behavior and concerns about his own mental stability lead him to have her committed to a mental hospital.


title: Cure (film)

text: When Mamiya escapes, killing a policeman and a doctor in the process, Takabe tracks him to a deserted building in the wilderness and shoots him, but not before Mamiya, moments before dying, draws an X in the air with his finger in front of Takabe. Exploring the building, Takabe finds and listens to an old phonograph cylinder that contains a scratchy recording of a male voice repeating what seem to be cryptic hypnotic instructions.


title: Cure (film)

text: The next scene cuts to the mental hospital where Takabe has had his wife committed. A nurse hears a squeaking sound behind her and turns to see Takabe’s wife’s lifeless body in a wheelchair with an “X” carved into her neck.


title: Cure (film)

text: The film ends ambiguously at a restaurant where a waitress serves Takabe, then suddenly draws out a knife after speaking to the detective — suggesting that the phonograph’s hypnotic power continues to spread.


title: Cure (film)

text: "Cure" was released in 1997. It was later screened at the Toronto International Film Festival in 1999 as part of a career retrospective on Kurosawa. It received a wider release in the West in 2001. The film was released on home video for the first time in the UK as part of The Masters of Cinema Series on April 23, 2018.


title: Cure (film)

text: On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, "Cure" has a 93% approval rating based on 51 reviews, with an average score of 7.34/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Mesmerizing and psychologically intriguing." Tom Mes of Midnight Eye described the film as "a horror film in the purest sense of the word". Meanwhile, A. O. Scott of "The New York Times" noted that Kiyoshi Kurosawa "turns the thriller into a vehicle for gloomy social criticism." Scott Tobias of "The A.V. Club" said: "Kurosawa, a prolific genre stylist who specializes in low-key thrillers and horror films, undercuts the lurid material by keeping a chilly, almost clinical distance from the events and unfolding the story in elliptical pieces." For "Screen Slate", Stephanie Monohan wrote, "Arguably overshadowed by other films in the turn-of-the-century J-Horror canon like "Ringu" (1998) and "Audition" (1999), Cure lives on as one of the more powerful works of the era."


title: Cure (film)

text: Kurosawa, speaking about the success of "Cure", stated, "I watched a lot of American horror movies growing up, and I had wanted to make a movie in that genre for some years. Then the growth in popularity of genre films made it easier for me to get the project financed and produced. So, circumstance was the key factor to the success of "Cure", and it has continued to play an important role in my career ever since."


title: Steppenwolf (character)

text: Steppenwolf (German for "Steppe wolf") is a supervillain appearing in comic books published by DC Comics. Created by writer-artist Jack Kirby, the character is introduced in "New Gods" #7 (February 1972). A New God and military general from the planet Apokolips, Steppenwolf is the brother of Heggra and therefore the maternal uncle of Darkseid. He is commonly depicted as Darkseid's subordinate, commanding his nephew's army of Parademons in conflicts against Superman and the Justice League.


title: Steppenwolf (character)

text: The character is featured in the DC Extended Universe and made his live-action debut in the film "" with the use of computer-generated imagery, before being portrayed through motion capture by Ciarán Hinds in both the theatrical release and the director's cut of "Justice League".


title: Steppenwolf (character)

text: Steppenwolf is a New God who is the younger brother of Heggra (Darkseid's mother) and the uncle of Uxas (Darkseid). He is also a member of Darkseid's Elite. He leads the military forces of Apokolips and rides hounds bred for battle.


title: Steppenwolf (character)

text: Steppenwolf is one of the earliest survivors of Doomsday, the monster who once killed Superman. Two hundred forty-five thousand years ago, Steppenwolf takes an Apokoliptian shuttle with Darkseid, Master Mayhem and a small crew to the planet of Bylan 5. The planet holds delicate natural materials Apokolips needs for weaponry, material which would be destroyed in the event of an invasion. The forcible marriage of Darkseid to the planet's princess comes to an end when Doomsday attacks. Master Mayhem is swiftly torn apart. Darkseid ignores Steppenwolf's orders to use omega beams and engages the creature in hand-to-hand combat. Steppenwolf sees that the destruction that has been wrought has doomed the planet, and all who live on it. He teleports Darkseid out of harm's way, agreeing with Darkseid not to mention this to anyone. Doomsday escapes by stowing away on the Apokoliptian shuttle.


title: Steppenwolf (character)

text: Most of Steppenwolf's appearances under the pen of Jack Kirby are in flashbacks. His debut, in "New Gods" #7, was a flashback story in which he helps Darkseid murder the wife of Darkseid's hated rival, Highfather. Highfather later tracks down and kills Steppenwolf in retaliation, and the murder reignites the war between the two sides. However, Steppenwolf appeared in the seemingly non-canon (despite Jack Kirby's involvement) "Super Powers" (1985) mini-series, and his entry in "Who's Who in the DC Universe" clarified that he had been resurrected by Apokoliptian technology.


title: Steppenwolf (character)

text: Steppenwolf appears when Mister Miracle (Scott Free) gains godlike powers over life and death. Steppenwolf torments him over his role in killing Scott's mother (or alleged mother figure as is claimed) and in return is physically tortured. Free ends up healing him, instead of killing him as he desires. He is sent away with Darkseid's legions.


title: Steppenwolf (character)

text: He is seen in "New Gods" (vol. 2) #6, with a new costume (a Kirby redesign for the figure's Super Powers action figure). Though considered a "mockery", Steppenwolf is given the job of running Darkseid's military forces. He is later seen fighting the Flash (Barry Allen) and the Justice League of America.


title: Steppenwolf (character)

text: In "Terror Titans" #2, Steppenwolf appears as a member of the board of the Dark Side Club. He is killed by Clock King, who was using the club for gladiator fights and cruel amusements.


title: Steppenwolf (character)

text: With "The New 52" reboot that followed the 2011 "Flashpoint" limited series, a new version of Earth-2 (home of the Justice Society of America) is introduced. In the continuity of that parallel world, Steppenwolf leads a massive invasion of the planet by Darkseid's parademons. Earth's heroes successfully repel the invaders, but that world's Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman are killed in battle. Five years later, Steppenwolf is apparently hiding on Earth-2, and there is a $300 million reward for him. He is eventually killed by Bizarro, whom Steppenwolf had employed as a soldier and indoctrinated into fighting for Apokolips.


title: Steppenwolf (character)

text: Steppenwolf also appears briefly in an issue of "Justice League" within "The New 52". He participates in the torture of Superman on the Prime Earth. Steppenwolf is seen as support for Darkseid when he moves to attack the Anti-Monitor.


title: Steppenwolf (character)

text: Steppenwolf is an immortal with vast superhuman strength, endurance and speed, capable of lifting about 10,000 tons and jumping huge distances easily. He has superhuman reflexes and a high degree of invulnerability, which increases with his battle armor and allows him to resist most physical and energetic attacks.


title: Steppenwolf (character)

text: He is an experienced military leader, having served as the head of Apokolips's armed forces, and when going into battle personally often commands units of the dog cavalry — warriors riding enormous dogs, known for the carnage and mass deaths he causes when he leads forces.


title: Steppenwolf (character)

text: Steppenwolf wields several weapons, including a cable-snare in which he can entrap opponents and from which he can fire lethal radion beams. His main weapon is his electro-axe. He is a master swordsman and a formidable hand-to-hand combatant forged in hundreds of battles.


title: Ronnie Lott

text: Ronald Mandel Lott (born May 8, 1959) is an American former professional football player who was a cornerback and safety in the National Football League (NFL) for 14 seasons during the 1980s and 1990s.


title: Ronnie Lott

text: Lott played college football for the University of Southern California (USC), and was honored as a consensus All-American. A first-round pick in the 1981 NFL Draft, he played for the San Francisco 49ers, Los Angeles Raiders, New York Jets, and Kansas City Chiefs of the NFL. Lott was elected into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2000, and is widely considered to be one of the best of all time at the safety position in NFL history and one of the best players in NFL history.


title: Ronnie Lott

text: Lott played for USC from 1977 to 1980. After sitting out his freshman season, Lott made the starting lineup and recorded 3 interceptions, assisting the team to a 12-1 record and #2 ranking in the nation. The 1978 season went even better. Lott recorded 3 interceptions again as a key member of an elite secondary that included future NFL players Jeff Fisher, Dennis Smith, Joey Browner, and Dennis Johnson. Together with an offense led by future hall of fame NFL players Marcus Allen and Anthony Munoz, and Heisman Trophy winner Charles White, he helped USC finish with a 11-0-1 record and a #1 ranking from the coaches poll, though they finished 2nd under the AP. In his senior season, Lott led the nation in interceptions (8), and return yards (166) earning himself consensus All-American honors as the team went 8-2-1 with a final ranking of #11.


title: Ronnie Lott

text: Lott was selected in the first round (8th overall) of the 1981 NFL Draft by the San Francisco 49ers. The level of skill demonstrated by the 6-foot, 203-pound standout was instantly recognized, and from the very beginning of training camp he had the job as the 49ers' starting left cornerback. In his rookie season in 1981, he recorded seven interceptions, helped the 49ers to win Super Bowl XVI, and also became only the second rookie in NFL history to return three interceptions for touchdowns. His outstanding play resulted in his finishing second for rookie of the year honors, behind New York Giants linebacker Lawrence Taylor.


title: Ronnie Lott

text: Lott switched to the safety position in 1985. He had the tip of his left pinky finger amputated after the 1985 season when it was crushed while tackling running back Timmy Newsome, and a bone graft surgery would not have allowed him to start the 1986 season. An injury sidelined him for the season's last two games in 1986, but he still led the league with a career-best 10 interceptions, while recording 77 tackles, three forced fumbles, and two quarterback sacks. In his 10 years with the 49ers, Lott helped them win eight division titles and four Super Bowls: XVI (1981 season), XIX (1984), XXIII (1988), and XXIV (1989). He is one of five players that were on all four 1980s 49ers Super Bowl wins. The other four are quarterback Joe Montana, linebacker Keena Turner, cornerback Eric Wright, and wide receiver Mike Wilson.


title: Ronnie Lott

text: After his career with San Francisco, Lott signed as a free agent in 1991 with the Los Angeles Raiders, and in 1993 with the New York Jets. In 1991, he led the league in interceptions (8) for a second time. Lott signed a free-agent deal with the Kansas City Chiefs in 1995, but was injured in the preseason. He returned to the 49ers in 1995, but the injuries he had suffered over the previous four seasons continued to plague him, and he announced his retirement before the season began. He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2000, his first year of eligibility, and was also named to the NFL's 75th Anniversary Team in 1994 and the 100th Anniversary Team in 2019.


title: Ronnie Lott

text: In his 14 NFL seasons, Lott recorded 8.5 sacks and 63 interceptions, which he returned for 730 yards and five touchdowns. He recovered 17 fumbles, returned them for 43 yards, and gained 113 yards on kickoff returns. Lott also played in 20 postseason games, recording nine interceptions, 89 tackles, one forced fumble, one fumble recovery, and two touchdowns. Additionally, he was named All-Pro eight times, All-NFC six times, and All-AFC once. Beyond statistics, Lott had an uncanny awareness of how a play was developing, which allowed him to break up passes and earn a reputation as one of the hardest and most efficient open-field tacklers in the history of the league.


title: Ronnie Lott

text: Lott turned to broadcasting following his retirement, serving as an analyst on "Fox NFL Sunday" in 1996 and 1997, and working on the network's game coverage in 1998. He is currently on a show called PAC-12 Playbook on the Pac-12 Network, an American sports-oriented digital cable and satellite television network. He also serves on the Board of Selectors of Jefferson Awards for Public Service.


title: Ronnie Lott

text: Lott was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico. His father served a career in the United States Air Force, retiring as a Senior master sergeant. He now lives in Cupertino, California, with his wife, Karen, and his children, Hailey, Isaiah, and Chloe. "USA Today" praised him as "one of the most successful athletes at making the transition to business." Along with former teammates Harris Barton and Joe Montana, Lott was a managing partner and a founder of HRJ Capital. Lott owns both Toyota and Mercedes-Benz car dealerships. He advises professional athletes who are making a transition to the business world. Lott is also the father of former Tampa Bay Buccaneers linebacker Ryan Nece. Lott's nephew Jacobi, played offensive line at Kansas before transferring to West Texas A&M.


title: Ronnie Lott

text: In 1991, Lott, along with Jill Lieber, wrote an autobiography, "Total Impact". Lott inspired the Lott IMPACT Trophy, which is given annually by the Pacific Club IMPACT Foundation to college football's Defensive IMPACT Player of the Year. The trophy was first awarded in 2004. Lott was the guest of honor at a CYO fundraiser at Sharon Heights Country Club in Menlo Park, CA in May 2012 where he discussed the importance of helping the community. Lott credits the late Coach Ben Parks as a central figure in the development of his vigorous philanthropic work. On February 17, 2015, he was appointed to the Board of Directors of GSV Capital Corporation, a publicly traded investment fund.


title: Samuel E. Wright

text: Samuel Ernest Wright (November 20, 1946 – May 24, 2021) was an American actor and singer. He was best known as the voice of Sebastian in Disney's "The Little Mermaid", for which he provided the lead vocals to "Under the Sea", which won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. He played Dizzy Gillespie in "Bird", the biographical film about Charlie Parker. Wright also played the part of Mufasa in the original cast of "The Lion King" on Broadway and voiced Kron the Iguanodon in Disney's 2000 CGI/live-action film "Dinosaur".


title: Samuel E. Wright

text: Wright was born on November 20, 1946, in Camden, South Carolina. Wright was a student at Camden High School, where he was involved with sports and the arts.


title: Samuel E. Wright

text: In 1968, Wright moved to New York City to pursue his acting career full time. Wright was nominated for a Tony Award in 1984 for Best Featured Actor in a Musical for his performance in "The Tap Dance Kid" and again in 1998 for Best Featured Actor in a Musical as the original lead actor for Mufasa in "The Lion King", the Broadway version of Disney's animated classic of the same name. Wright was chosen to play the Scarecrow in the 1995 Apollo Theater Revival of "The Wiz" alongside Whitney Houston, Keith David, and Cedric the Entertainer. Wright originated the part of "Sam" in "Over Here!" on Broadway (1974). In addition, on Broadway, Wright replaced Ben Vereen as the Leading Player in "Pippin" (1972). He originated the role of Mayor Joe Clark in "Mule Bone" (1991).


title: Samuel E. Wright

text: Wright played Enos' partner Officer Turk Adams in the TV series "Enos", the "Dukes of Hazzard" spin-off and portrayed jazz trumpeter and composer Dizzy Gillespie in Clint Eastwood film "Bird". He also played the part of Jericho on the short-lived Fox television program "Jonny Zero".


title: Samuel E. Wright

text: Wright performed and recorded several songs for the Walt Disney animated film "The Little Mermaid", as Sebastian the Crab, and is widely known for the songs "Under the Sea", and "Kiss the Girl". He voiced Sebastian in "The Little Mermaid" sequels and spin-offs, including "The Little Mermaid 2" and "", and recorded several albums in reggae style, among them — "". Wright also voiced Kron, the leader of the Iguanadon herd, in another Disney animation "Dinosaur".


title: Samuel E. Wright

text: He released a soul music single in 1973, "There's Something Funny Going On" backed with "Three Hundred Pounds of Hungry" on the Paramount Records label.


title: Samuel E. Wright

text: Wright met his wife Amanda Wright, a dance director, at a production of "Two Gentlemen of Verona" in London's West End. They married on June 14, 1974. Together they had three children: Keely, Dee, and Sam Jr.


title: Samuel E. Wright

text: Wright died from prostate cancer at his home in Walden, New York on May 24, 2021, aged 74. The cancer had been diagnosed three years earlier.


title: KBR (company)

text: KBR, Inc. (formerly Kellogg Brown & Root) is a U.S. based company operating in fields of science, technology and engineering. KBR works in various markets including aerospace, defense, industrial and intelligence. After Halliburton acquired Dresser Industries, KBR was created in 1998 when M.W. Kellogg merged with Halliburton's construction subsidiary, Brown & Root, to form Kellogg Brown & Root. In 2006, the company separated from Halliburton and completed an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange.


title: KBR (company)

text: In 1901, Morris Woodruff Kellogg founded The M. W. Kellogg Company in New York City. The company was incorporated in 1905 and its headquarters was moved to Jersey City, New Jersey. Initially Kellogg's main business was power plant construction and fabrication of power plant components, but the development of hammer forge welding techniques helped ready the company to move into refining as the petroleum industry developed. Kellogg was announced the number one construction company for years 1993 to 1995. This is mainly due to their work in the Dulles Greenway.


title: KBR (company)

text: Kellogg's entry into process engineering initially focused on the Fleming cracking process, but in the 1920s Kellogg partnered with The Texas Company (Texaco) and Standard Oil of Indiana to purchase the Cross thermal cracking process. Kellogg set up one of the first petroleum laboratories in the country in 1926 to commercialize and then license the technology. This led to Kellogg building some 130 units in the United States and abroad.


title: KBR (company)

text: In the 1930s and 1940s, Kellogg worked with leading refiners on various technologies. For the war effort, these developments led to the construction of six hydroreformer units, twenty fluid catalytic cracking units, and the only complete refinery built during World War II. Even bigger than the refining work was K-25, the gaseous diffusion plant at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, developed by Kellogg subsidiary the Kellex Corporation, built as part of the Manhattan Project. This period also included the development of the Benedict–Webb–Rubin (BWR) equation of state which has since become an industry mainstay and provided the basis for Kellogg's lead in cryogenics.


title: KBR (company)

text: The 1950s Kellogg technology expanded into steam pyrolysis, Orthoflow fluid catalytic cracking, phenol-from-cumene and coal-to-synthetic fuels technologies and the 1960s saw the growth in helium recovery, ethylene, and the development of Kellogg's ammonia process. Kellogg maintained New York offices at 225 Broadway in the Transportation Building until 1956 when it moved to 711 Third Avenue in Midtown.


title: KBR (company)

text: In 1970, Kellogg moved from New York City to Houston, Texas, and in 1975, they completed the move by relocating the research and development lab. The 1970s saw Kellogg become the first American contractor to receive contracts from China. Kellogg's international work expanded with the major ammonia complexes in China, Indonesia, and Mexico as well as LNG liquefaction plant in Algeria and two receiving terminals in the United States, the world's largest LPG plant in Kuwait and four fluid catalytic cracking units in Mexico. The 1980s saw continuation of global activity in LNG and ethylene with millisecond furnaces starting up in the United States.


title: KBR (company)

text: Kellogg underwent numerous acquisitions and name changes through until 1987, when it was acquired by Dresser Industries, a provider of integrated services and project management for the oil and gas industry. Ten years later, Halliburton acquired Dresser, and combined Kellogg with Brown & Root to create a new, larger subsidiary – Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR).


title: KBR (company)

text: Brown & Root was founded in Texas in 1919 by Herman Brown and Daniel Root, with money provided by Root (Brown's brother in law). Root soon died and Herman Brown's younger brother, George R. Brown, joined the company in 1922 (according to Robert A. Caro's "The Path to Power"). The company began its operations by building roads in Texas.


title: KBR (company)

text: One of its first large-scale projects, according to the book "Cadillac Desert", was building a dam on the Texas Colorado River near Austin during the Depression years. For assistance in federal payments, the company turned to the local Congressman, Lyndon Johnson. Brown & Root was the principal source of campaign funds after Johnson's initial run for Congress in 1937, in return for persuading the Bureau of Reclamation to change its rules against paying for a dam on land the federal government did not own, a decision that had to go all the way to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. After other very profitable construction projects for the federal government, Brown & Root gave massive sums of cash for Johnson's first run for the U.S. Senate in 1941.


title: KBR (company)

text: During World War II, Brown & Root built the Naval Air Station Corpus Christi and its subsidiary Brown Shipbuilding produced a series of warships for the U.S. government. In 1947 Brown & Root built one of the world's first offshore oil platforms.


title: KBR (company)

text: According to Tracy Kidder's book "Mountains Beyond Mountains", Brown & Root was a contractor in the Péligre Dam project. The project was designed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and financed by the Export-Import Bank of the United States.


title: KBR (company)

text: Following the death of Herman Brown, Halliburton Energy Services acquired Brown & Root in December 1962. According to Dan Briody, who wrote a book on the subject, the company became part of a consortium called RMK-BRJ that built about 85 percent of the infrastructure needed by the U.S. Armed Forces during the Vietnam War. In 1967, the Government Accounting Office alleged that Brown & Root had been unaccountable with public funds and allowed materials to be stolen. Donald Rumsfeld expressed concern that their contracts were not adequately audited. At this time, protesters derided Brown & Root as a symbol of war profiteering, dubbing the company "Burn & Loot".


title: KBR (company)

text: In 1989, Halliburton acquired another major engineering and construction contractor, C. F. Braun Inc., of Alhambra California, and merged it into Brown & Root. From 1995 to 2002, Halliburton KBR was awarded at least $2.5 billion to construct and run military bases, some in secret locations, as part of the U.S. Army's Logistics Civil Augmentation Program (LOGCAP).


title: KBR (company)

text: In September 2005, under a competitive bid contract it won in July 2005 to provide debris removal and other emergency work associated with natural disasters, KBR started assessment of the cleanup and reconstruction of Gulf Coast Marine and Navy facilities damaged in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The facilities include: Naval Station Pascagoula, Naval Station Gulfport, the John C. Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, two smaller U.S. Navy facilities in New Orleans, Louisiana, and others in the Gulf Coast region.


title: KBR (company)

text: Halliburton announced on April 5, 2007, that it had separated from KBR, which had been its contracting, engineering, and construction unit as a part of the company for 44 years. The move was prefaced by a statement registered with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission on April 15, 2006, stating that Halliburton planned to sell up to 20 percent of its KBR stock on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). On November 16, 2006, KBR shares were offered for the public in an initial public offering with shares priced at $17. The shares closed up more than 22 percent to $20.75 a share on the first trading day.


title: KBR (company)

text: On May 7, 2008, the company announced that it would acquire Birmingham, Alabama-based engineering and construction firm BE&K for $550 million.


title: KBR (company)

text: The company announced on November 7, 2017, that KBR secured a contract to provide astronaut medical support services for the European Space Agency's European Astronaut Center Space Medicine Office in Cologne, Germany.


title: KBR (company)

text: The company is heavily involved in mission support for several government agencies, including NASA, providing training and care for American astronauts.


title: KBR (company)

text: In April 2019, KBR's GICS code was reclassified as an IT consulting company by stock traders. MSCI, a New York private equity firm that manages how companies are classified on various stock exchanges, reclassified KBR as a company specializing in "IT Consulting & Other Services." KBR has made shift away from engineering and construction projects to government contracts that include information technology and other support services. KBR's government services sector accounted for more than 70 percent of the company's $4.9 billion revenue in 2018.


title: KBR (company)

text: In February 2018, KBR announced that it would acquire Stinger Ghaffarian Technologies, a provider of technological solutions as well as mission operations in the aerospace sector, for $355 million. The acquisition was completed April 25, 2018.


title: KBR (company)

text: In October 2020, KBR announced it had completed the acquisition of Centauri, LLC, a leading independent provider of space, directed energy, and other advanced technology solutions to the United States intelligence community and Department of Defense, from Arlington Capital Partners.


title: KBR (company)

text: In 2008, the firm announced that a new office facility would appear at the intersection of the Grand Parkway and Interstate 10 in unincorporated western Harris County, Texas, between Houston and Katy. The new complex would have been in close proximity to the Energy Corridor area of Houston. KBR planned to continue to have a corporate presence in Downtown Houston. In December KBR said that it would not continue with the plans due to a weakened economy.


title: KBR (company)

text: In January 2010 KBR announced plans to extend its lease and expand its presence in Downtown Houston. The downtown expansion replaced the Harris County plans. The new total of KBR leased space in downtown will be just over at completion.


title: KBR (company)

text: In 1996, Brown & Root was awarded a contract to support U.S. and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) troops as part of the SFOR operation in the Balkan region. This contract was extended to also include KFOR operations in Kosovo starting in 1999. Camp Bondsteel in Ferizaj, Kosovo, was constructed by the 94th Engineer Construction Battalion together with the private Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR) under the direction of the Army Corps of Engineers.


title: KBR (company)

text: KBR was awarded a $100 million contract in 2002 to build a new U.S. embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, from the U.S. State Department. KBR has also been awarded 15 Logistics Civil Augmentation Program (LOGCAP) task orders worth more than $216 million for work under Operation Enduring Freedom, the military name for operations in Afghanistan. These include establishing base camps at Kandahar and Bagram Air Base and training foreign troops from the Republic of Georgia.


title: KBR (company)

text: KBR has also been actively involved in the development of works in Cuba. Most notably sections of the U.S. Naval base in Guantanamo, completed in 2006. Camp 6, the newest facility built for detainees at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, is designed after a maximum-security penitentiary in the U.S.


title: KBR (company)

text: In the 2000s, KBR employed more American private contractors and had a larger contract with the U.S. government than any other firm in Iraq. The company's roughly 14,000 U.S. employees in Iraq provide logistical support to the U.S. military. Some U.S. Marines revived the Vietnam-era nickname 'Burn & Loot' as a name for the company during the Iraq War.


title: KBR (company)

text: In November 2012, a dozen Oregon National Guard soldiers sued KBR for knowingly exposing them to hexavalent chromium, and were awarded more than $85 million; the soldiers were providing security to civilian workers at the Qarmat Ali water facility in 2003.


title: KBR (company)

text: In January 2019, a case brought against KBR by hundreds of veterans, who claimed the company's practice of burning trash near barracks had sickened them, was refused by the supreme court, which let stand a lower court's ruling against the veterans.


title: KBR (company)

text: In 2021, NASA awarded KBR and Aerodyne Industries a $531 million contract for systems engineering at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight center in Maryland. KBR also houses the low pressure chamber designed to test the high altitude flying of the new X-59 research aircraft being designed by NASA.


title: KBR (company)

text: Scientists and engineers working for KBR also contributed to the development and deployment of the James Webb Space Telescope, which launched in 2022, as part of various Mechanical Integration Services and Technology contracts.


title: KBR (company)

text: KBR engages third party lobbyists to represent the company in jurisdiction where they have business interests. For example, in South Australia, KBR is represented by lobbying firm MCM Strategic Communications.


title: KBR (company)

text: In June 2008, Charles M. Smith, the senior civilian Defense Department official overseeing the government's multibillion-dollar contract with KBR during the early stages of the war in Iraq said he was forced out of his job in 2004 for refusing to approve $1 billion in questionable charges by KBR. Smith refused to approve the payments because Army auditors determined that KBR lacked credible records to support more than $1 billion in spending. Smith stated, "They had a gigantic amount of costs they couldn't justify." He said that following this action he was suddenly dismissed and according to one "New York Times" source "his successors — after taking the unusual step of hiring an outside contractor to consider KBR's claims — approved most of the payments he had tried to block."


title: KBR (company)

text: In March 2008, "The Boston Globe" reported that KBR had avoided paying hundreds of millions of dollars in federal Medicare and Social Security taxes by hiring workers through shell companies based in the tax haven of the Cayman Islands. More than 21,000 people working for KBR in Iraq – including about 10,500 Americans – are listed as employees of two companies, Service Employees International Inc., and Overseas Administrative Services, which exist on the island only in computer files in an office. KBR admitted that the companies were set up "in order to allow us to reduce certain tax obligations of the company and its employees". But KBR does claim the workers as its own with regards to the legal immunity extended to employers working in Iraq.


title: KBR (company)

text: On February 6, 2009, the Justice Department announced KBR had been charged with paying "tens of millions of dollars" in bribes to Nigerian officials in order to win government contracts, in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). A 22-page document filed in a Houston federal court alleged massive bribes in connection with the construction of a natural gas plant on Bonny Island requiring $7.5bn USD. KBR officials had no comment. KBR pleaded guilty and was ordered to pay $402m USD in criminal fines, nearly all of which was covered by Halliburton. KBR and Halliburton also paid $177m USD in disgorgement of profits to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) due a civil complaint filed by the SEC relating to the FCPA charges.


title: KBR (company)

text: Former CEO Albert Jackson Stanley, who ran KBR when it was a subsidiary to Halliburton, was sentenced to 30 months in prison via plea agreement.


title: KBR (company)

text: The Army's actions came under fire from California Congressman Henry Waxman, who, along with Michigan Congressman John Dingell, asked the General Accounting Office to investigate whether the U.S. Agency for International Development and The Pentagon were circumventing government contracting procedures and favoring companies with ties to the Bush administration. They also accused KBR of inflating prices for importing gasoline into Iraq. In June 2003, the Army announced that it would replace KBR's oil-infrastructure contract with two public-bid contracts worth a maximum total of $1 billion, to be awarded in October. However, the Army announced in October it would expand the contract ceiling to $2 billion and the solicitation period to December. As of October 16, 2003, KBR had performed nearly $1.6 billion worth of work. In the meantime, KBR has subcontracted with two companies to work on the project: Boots & Coots, an oil field emergency response firm that Halliburton works in partnership with (CEO Jerry L. Winchester was a former Halliburton manager) and Wild Well Control. Both firms are based in Texas.


title: KBR (company)

text: KBR's maintenance work in Iraq has been criticized after reports of soldiers electrocuted from faulty wiring. Specifically, KBR has been charged by the Army for improper installation of electrical units in bathrooms throughout U.S. bases. CNN reported that an Army Special Forces soldier, Staff Sergeant Ryan Maseth, died by electrocution in his shower stall on January 2, 2008. Army documents showed that KBR inspected the building and found serious electrical problems a full 11 months before his death. KBR noted "several safety issues concerning the improper grounding of electrical devices". But KBR's contract did not cover "fixing potential hazards;" It covered repairing items only after they broke down. Maseth's family has sued KBR. In January 2009, the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command investigator assigned to the case recommended that Maseth's official cause of death should be changed from "accidental" to "negligent homicide". KBR supervisors were blamed for failing to ensure electrical and plumbing work were performed by qualified employees, and for failure to inspect the work. In late January 2009, the Defense Contract Management Agency handed down a "Level III Corrective Action Request" to KBR. This is disseminated after a contractor is found being in a state of "serious noncompliance", and is one step from suspending or terminating a contract. In 2011, KBR defended the lawsuit by claiming that Iraqi, not American, law should apply in determining a verdict. Despite these issues, KBR was awarded a $35 million contract for major electrical work in 2009.


title: KBR (company)

text: As of June 9, 2008, 81 American and foreign KBR employees and subcontractors have been killed, and more than 380 have been wounded by hostile action while performing services under the company's government contracts in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait. Family members of injured or killed employees have sued the company in relation to the 2004 Iraq KBR convoy ambush.


title: KBR (company)

text: Jamie Leigh Jones testified at a Congressional hearing that she had been gang-raped by as many as seven coworkers in Iraq in 2005 when she was an employee of KBR (a subsidiary of Halliburton at the time), and then falsely imprisoned in a shipping container for 24 hours without food or drink.


title: KBR (company)

text: Under questioning, Jones denied ever having claimed to have been gang-raped, even though her extensive media appearances say otherwise.


title: KBR (company)

text: Jones and her lawyers said that 38 women have contacted her reporting similar experiences while working as contractors in Iraq, Kuwait, and other countries. On September 15, 2009, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Jones, in a 2–1 ruling, and found that her alleged injuries were not, in fact, in any way related to her employment and thus, not covered by the contract. On July 8, 2011, a jury in the Southern District of Texas federal court in Houston found against Jones and cleared KBR of any wrongdoing.


title: KBR (company)

text: Jamie Leigh Jones's case led Senator Al Franken to propose an amendment to the defense appropriations bill, which was passed in October 2009, to allow employees of firms with government contracts access to the courts. Jones's case received an unfavorable verdict and her alleged fabrication caused a subsequent media scandal.


title: KBR (company)

text: Mary Beth Kineston, an Ohio truck driver, alleged she was sexually harassed and groped by several KBR employees, and was later fired after reporting to the company the threats and harassment endured by female employees.


title: KBR (company)

text: Jo Frederiksen, another female employee, filed a lawsuit against the company for allegedly being "inappropriately touched, stalked, intimidated and verbally harassed" during her time with the firm in 2003. According to Frederiksen, after she complained to the firm she was moved to an even more hostile location while some of her abusers were promoted. The lawsuit claimed "women are second-rate citizens provided for the pleasure of men" at the firm. Frederiksen also alleged a lack of oversight to "rampant illicit criminal behavior" related to prostitution and human trafficking by other KBR employees.


title: KBR (company)

text: On August 28, 2008, defense contractor KBR, Inc. and a Jordanian subcontractor were accused of human trafficking in a federal lawsuit filed in Los Angeles. The suit alleged that 13 Nepali men were recruited by Daoud & Partners to work in hotels and restaurants in Jordan, but upon arrival all 13 men had their passports seized by the contractor and were sent to Iraq to work on the Al Asad Airbase. Twelve of the employees were abducted when their unprotected convoy was attacked by a group calling itself the Army of Ansar al-Sunna, while en route to the base. Shortly thereafter, a video was released of one of the men being beheaded and the other 11 shot. The remaining employee, Buddi Prasad Gurung, claims to have been held against his will for 15 months, during which time he was forced to work at the base. Reuters quoted attorney Matthew Handley as saying, "It doesn't appear that any of them knew they were going to Iraq." KBR made no public comment on the lawsuit, but released a statement which stated in part that it, "in no way condones or tolerates unethical or illegal behavior".


title: KBR (company)

text: More than 20 federal lawsuits naming KBR and seeking class-action status were filed in late 2008 and 2009 over the practice of operating "burn pits" at U.S. bases in both Iraq and Afghanistan and thus exposing soldiers to smoke containing dioxin, asbestos, and other harmful substances. The pits are said to include "every type of waste imaginable", with items such as "tires, lithium batteries, Styrofoam, paper, wood, rubber, petroleum-oil-lubricating products, metals, hydraulic fluids, munitions boxes, medical waste, biohazard materials (including human corpses), medical supplies (including those used during smallpox inoculations), paints, solvents, asbestos insulation, items containing pesticides, polyvinyl chloride pipes, animal carcasses, dangerous chemicals, and hundreds of thousands of plastic water bottles". A company statement responding to the allegations said that "at the sites where KBR provides burn pit services, the company does so ... in accordance with the relevant provisions" of its contracts as well as "operational guidelines approved by the Army".


title: KBR (company)

text: In the UK in April 2019, Kellogg Brown & Root was suspended from the UK Government's Prompt Payment Code for failing to pay suppliers on time.


title: KBR (company)

text: On September 16, 2022, the Department of Migrant Workers Secretary, Susan Ople, confirmed a "Washington Post" report that 800 Filipino workers are stranded at a remote US military base on Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean due to an employment dispute with their employer which is KBR.


title: Michael Parker (courtier)

text: Lieutenant-Commander John Michael Avison Parker, (23 June 1920 – 29 December 2001) was an Australian who served as an officer of the Royal Navy (RN) during World War II, and was Private Secretary to Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, from 1947 to 1957.


title: Michael Parker (courtier)

text: Parker was born in Melbourne on 23 June 1920. The son of Captain C. A. Parker, he was educated at Xavier College, Melbourne.


title: Michael Parker (courtier)

text: Parker served in the Royal Australian Navy, and then the Royal Navy, between 1938 and 1947, reaching the rank of lieutenant-commander. He fought at the Battle of Narvik, and later was First Lieutenant of in 1942, then of in the 27th Destroyer Flotilla of the British Pacific Fleet.


title: Michael Parker (courtier)

text: Parker first met the then Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark in 1942, when Philip was assigned to the destroyer HMS "Wallace" as a sub-lieutenant. They became close friends. In 1947, when Philip was created Duke of Edinburgh in the Peerage of the United Kingdom, Parker joined the Household of the Duke of Edinburgh as Private Secretary, initially on a part-time basis. He also became Equerry to the Duke and the Duchess of Edinburgh (who later, in 1952, became The Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland). The Duke brought Parker into the "Thursday Club," an exclusive weekly luncheon group.


title: Michael Parker (courtier)

text: In 1952, Parker was in Kenya with the royal couple and broke the news initially to the Duke, who then told his wife, of King George VI's death. Parker became full-time Private Secretary to the Duke. Parker was created Member of the Royal Victorian Order (MVO) in 1953, and Commander (CVO) in 1957. He accompanied the Duke on his 1956 five-month world tour aboard HMY "Britannia".


title: Michael Parker (courtier)

text: Parker's divorce in 1958, reported on extensively in the media, forced him to resign as the Duke's Private Secretary. He was succeeded in that role by James Orr. Parker remained in contact with the Duke until the end of his life. Parker worked for aircraft builder Lockheed Corporation and advertising agency Leo Burnett Worldwide. He returned to live in Australia in the late 1960s. He became chairman of Australian Dredging and General Services, and was a director of Sperry Australia.


title: Michael Parker (courtier)

text: In the 1996 Australia Day Honours, he was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for "service to education, particularly through the Plain English Speaking Award Scheme, and to the community".


title: Michael Parker (courtier)

text: Parker married Eileen Allan in 1942, with whom he had a son and a daughter. The marriage was dissolved in 1958. Eileen wrote a 1982 book called "Step Aside for Royalty" in which she claimed her husband and the Duke of Edinburgh used the pseudonyms Murgatroyd and Winterbottom to "gallivant out of the palace". Parker denied the claim.


title: Michael Parker (courtier)

text: In 1962 Parker married Carol Serena, daughter of Sir Ivo Wilfrid Home Thompson, 2nd Baronet. They had a daughter and son; the marriage was dissolved. In 1976, he married Jean Ramsay, who died in 2001.


title: One of the Boys

text: One of the Boys is the second studio album by American singer Katy Perry. It was released on June 17, 2008, by Capitol Records. She collaborated with producers Greg Wells, Dr. Luke, Dave Stewart, Max Martin, and Ted Bruner among others, on the album, and wrote all of its songs with assistance of other producers and writers. However, the title track, "Thinking of You", and "Mannequin" were all written by Perry alone. The EP "Ur So Gay", containing the song of the same name, was released in 2007 to generate interest in the singer and the album.


title: One of the Boys

text: "One of the Boys" is Perry's first album under the stage name Katy Perry, following her debut "Katy Hudson" (2001), which was released under her real name on Red Hill Records. It received mixed reception from critics, with some deeming it as being filled with "potential hits" and others criticizing the material they perceived to be weak. Commercially, it debuted at number nine on the US "Billboard" 200, selling over 47,000 copies in its first week of sales, and also peaked within the top-ten charts in Austria, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Mexico, Norway, and Switzerland. "One of the Boys" earned Perry two Grammy Award nominations, and has sold 7 million copies worldwide, being her third highest-selling album to date. It has been certified triple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America.


title: One of the Boys

text: The album's lead single "I Kissed a Girl" became Perry's first "Billboard" Hot 100 number-one single; the second single "Hot n Cold" reached number three in the United States, while topping the charts in Germany, Canada, the Netherlands, and Austria. The third single "Thinking of You" reached the top-thirty in the US, while the final single "Waking Up in Vegas" became a top-ten hit. To further promote the album, Perry embarked on three concert tours: the 2008 Warped Tour, her first solo world tour, the Hello Katy Tour, and served as an opening act in No Doubt's 2009 Summer Tour.


title: One of the Boys

text: Perry's change in record label, and adoption of a pseudonymous surname accompanied a shift from the Christian rock of her debut album "Katy Hudson". The singer stated that she had been working on the album since she was eighteen years old. During the making of the album, Perry was dropped from two record labels and went through two shelved albums, one meant for an early 2005 release and another meant for a late 2007 release. The planned 2007 release was titled "Fingerprints," with many of the material that was planned to be on "Fingerprints" making it onto "One of the Boys." Some of the material on "Fingerprints" that did not make it on "One of the Boys" were given to other artists, such as "I Do Not Hook Up" and "Long Shot" to Kelly Clarkson, "Breakout" to Miley Cyrus and "Rock God" and "That's More Like It" to Selena Gomez & the Scene.


title: One of the Boys

text: During this time, Perry had written close to a hundred songs. Perry collaborated with producers Greg Wells, Dr. Luke, Dave Stewart, and Max Martin among others on the album. Perry co-wrote every song on the album as well as writing three of the songs herself.


title: One of the Boys

text: Once signed to Capitol, label head Jason Flom started work on a new album by convincing Dr. Luke to go back into the studio with Perry, with the two having already worked together on the abandoned Columbia sessions. Together with Max Martin they wrote and cut "I Kissed a Girl" and "Hot n Cold". Perry then collaborated again with Greg Wells, who she had also worked with on the Columbia album, creating the songs "Ur So Gay" and "Mannequin". According to Perry's A&R Chris Anokute they ended up with five new songs and then chose six of the songs from the shelved Columbia album to compile "One of the Boys". When talking about the songs on the album Perry said that she released the single "Ur So Gay" as an introduction to the album:


title: One of the Boys

text: Although Perry's musical style and way of composing ironic and bawdy songs has been heavily compared to the style of singers Avril Lavigne and Lily Allen, the singer was influenced by Queen and Freddie Mercury in particular. All songs on the album were written by Perry, assisted by musicians Greg Wells, Max Martin, Dr. Luke, Cathy Dennis, Desmond Child, Andreas Carlsson, Sam Hollander, Dave Katz, S*A*M and Sluggo, Ted Bruner, Scott Cutler, Anne Preven, Dave Stewart, and Glen Ballard. The album includes several tracks that tell stories — a balance of sad songs and happier tunes. About these opposites, she said, "I think people can appreciate a songwriter who shows different sides... I've put everything into [this album] and I feel like it's my baby." Its primary sound is a pop rock, soft rock, pop-punk, and power pop one.


title: One of the Boys

text: The opening track is the title track "One of the Boys", where Perry express that she does not want to "be one of the boys of her love interest", describing the song, Charles A. Hohman from "PopMatters" noted that "she used to belch the alphabet and tape down her tits, but one summer, the tomboy lifestyle just didn't hold her interest, so she started 'studying Lolita religiously' and noticing guys noticing her." The second track is the lead single "I Kissed a Girl" generated some controversy, dealing with the subject of lesbianism. The song was inspired by actress Scarlett Johansson. Musically, it is a pop rock track. It contains influences of new wave and runs through a throbbing beat and an organic instrumental thump, according to About.com's Bill Lamb. The track features instrumentation provided by drums, guitars and bass. The song sparked controversy for its homosexual themes. The album's third song is "Waking Up In Vegas". The song deals with trips with friends to Las Vegas. "Thinking of You" is the first ballad of the album. It is a downtempo pop rock song, as the singer reflects on settling for the second best: "You said move on, where do I go?"/"I guess second best, it is all I will know", she sings. Reviewing the song, editor "CT" from "Billboard" described it as "a mid-'90s No Doubt pop/rock palette".


title: One of the Boys

text: The fifth track is "Mannequin". "Ur So Gay" was composed as a tool of revenge by the singer on her ex-boyfriend, where Perry satirizes his exaggerated emo style and metrosexual attitude. It is a trip hop track with a moderate tempo. In the seventh track "Hot n Cold", Perry discusses the theme of uncertainty and the ups and downs of relationships. It is a synthpop song which utilizes guitars and synthesizers. "If You Can Afford Me" cops a mixed message about female materialism. Sal Cinquemani from "Slant Magazine" compared the song with Madonna's song "Material Girl" (1984). "Lost" and "I'm Still Breathing" are both ballads, in the latter, she sings: "I leave the gas on/Walk the alleys in the dark", the verse use a metaphor for a dying relationship.


title: One of the Boys

text: The album was first released on June 17, 2008. It was released in separate editions: the standard edition, the Australian Tour edition, which contains the standard CD plus a bonus CD (which was also released as a separate EP on the Australian iTunes Store) containing an acoustic version of "Thinking of You" and remixes, the special edition, which is packaged in a digipak and contains four bonus tracks, and the Japanese re-issue. The European, Japanese, and iTunes editions of the album all contain bonus tracks.


title: One of the Boys

text: Upon its release, the singer has been heavily criticized for her song, "Ur So Gay", considered by the site The New Gay to be homophobic. The author of the publication added, "It's time to Katy Perry to stop talking nonsense" because "the song trots out a number of tired gay stereotypes to condemn one of Perry's ex-boyfriends and includes a paradoxical chorus". Jane Czyzselska from "The Guardian" commented that "Perry's song is a rather sweet, refreshing antidote to the avalanche of overtly sexualized boy-grinds-girl songs." She promoted the song in Portugal, and it was not very well received by the public. Her first single, "I Kissed a Girl", became a worldwide controversy. Despite the context, Perry mentioned several times that she does not define herself as heterosexual. She has been strongly criticized by the LGBT community, who believe that the singer used music to make money and not on behalf of homosexuals, and by critics who claimed that music leads the girls to be lesbian. The song was criticized by the local headquarters of the evangelical Havens Corners Church, which has set the following sentence in its garden in September 2008: "I kissed a girl and liked it. So I went to hell." To promote the album Perry embarked on three tours: the Warped Tour 2008, her first solo world tour, the Hello Katy Tour, with 89 shows performed, and No Doubt's Summer Tour 2009 as its opening act.


title: One of the Boys

text: The album's lead single, "I Kissed a Girl" was released in late April and subsequently soared up the charts. "I Kissed a Girl" was a commercial success. It topped the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart, becoming the 1000th chart-topper of the rock era. The song has since become a major worldwide hit, and along with the United States, it has topped the charts in more than twenty countries, including Australia, Canada, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. The second single, "Hot n Cold", made it onto the chart after the album came out due to digital downloads. It was released as a single in early September, and peaked at number three on the US charts, making it Perry's second consecutive top five single. On November 14, the song became Perry's first number one on radio airplay. It is officially one of the ten best-selling digitally downloaded songs of all time after its initial run.


title: One of the Boys

text: "Thinking of You", the penultimate single, was originally planned to be the first single from the album, but was scrapped for "I Kissed a Girl" due to latter song's surge in popularity. "Thinking of You" received a video in late April 2008, but the video was removed from YouTube and replaced by a new video after the single was re-released as the third international single from the album. Perry shot the second video with director Melina Matsoukas in the first week of December 2008. The video for the single was released on December 23, 2008. The track peaked at number twenty-nine on the "Billboard" Hot 100 on the week of February 12, 2009 where it remained for the next two weeks before declining to number thirty-one in its seventh week on the chart. "Waking Up in Vegas" is the fourth and final single from the album. It went for radio adds on April 21, 2009, in the US. It was released to Australian radio on March 23, 2009, where it became the fourth most added song in its release week. Perry performed it on "American Idol" in May, resulting in a surge of sales for the song. The music video was shot by Joseph Kahn during March 2009 in Las Vegas and officially premiered on the iTunes Store in the US, and Australia on April 28, 2009. It peaked at number nine on the "Billboard" Hot 100, becoming the third top-ten single from the album.


title: One of the Boys

text: The album received generally mixed reviews from critics. On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has received a score of 47, citing "mixed or average reviews". A highly positive review came from Kerri Mason of "Billboard", who felt it was "packed with potential hits." "Blender" argued, "Perry's creative-writing-class punch lines don't always justify her self-congratulatory drag-queen tone. But she hiccups quirkily enough, and myriad big-name producers (from Dr. Luke to Glen Ballard) keep the new-wave synth hooks hopping." Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic initially gave the album two out of five stars, remarking it "sinks to crass, craven depths that turn "One of the Boys" into a grotesque emblem of all the wretched excesses of this decade"; however, the rating was eventually upgraded to 3 and a 1/2 out of 5. "Uncut" wrote, "Gwen Stefani should be nervous", while Sal Cinquemani of "Slant Magazine" criticized Perry's vocal performances, and compared the title track to "No Doubt's 'Just a Girl' sans personality and conviction". Alex Miller of "NME" discouraged music consumers with "even a passing interest in actually enjoying a record" from buying it.


title: One of the Boys

text: Robert Christgau gave the album a in his Consumer Guide review, citing "I Kissed a Girl" and "One of the Boys" as highlights while writing, "She stopped taping her 'suckers' down, and kissing her girlfriend was just an experiment, but trumpeting her vulnerability she's as loud and laddish as a hockey fan".


title: One of the Boys

text: "One of the Boys" debuted at number nine on the US "Billboard" 200, with 47,000 copies sold in the first-week released. The album has sold 1,730,000 copies in the United States as of August 2020 and has been certified triple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The album has been on the chart for ninety- two weeks. In Canada, the album debuted at number ten, and peaked at number six, It has since been certified double platinum by Music Canada.


title: One of the Boys

text: In the United Kingdom, the album peaked at number eleven on the UK Albums Chart, and has sold 718,000 copies as of April 2020. It has since been certified 2× Platinum by the British Phonographic Industry. In Australia, it debuted at number eleven, and has been certified platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA), denoting over 70,000 copies sold. In New Zealand, the album debuted and peaked at number seventeen. It has since been certified Gold, shipping over 7,500 copies. "One of the Boys" has sold 7 million copies worldwide as of August 2010.


title: Supriya Sule

text: Supriya Sule (; born 30 June 1969) is an Indian politician from the Nationalist Congress Party and currently a Member of Parliament (MP) in the 17th Lok Sabha representing Baramati. She previously served as an MP in the 15th and 16th Lok Sabhas.


title: Supriya Sule

text: In 2011, she launched a statewide campaign against female foeticide. Recently, she has been honored with Mumbai Women of the Decade Achievers Award by All Ladies League for social service.


title: Supriya Sule

text: Sule was born to Indian politician and Nationalist Congress Party founder Sharad Pawar and his wife Pratibha Pawar on 30 June 1969 in Pune. She was educated at Jai Hind College in Mumbai, earning a B.Sc. degree in microbiology.


title: Supriya Sule

text: Sule was elected to the Rajya Sabha in the September 2006 intake from Maharashtra and is a trustee of the Nehru Centre in Mumbai.


title: Supriya Sule

text: She led the state level campaign against female foeticide. The campaign included padayatras, college events, competitions etc.


title: Supriya Sule

text: In 2012, under the leadership of Sule, the wing named Rashtravadi Yuvati Congress was formed to give platform to young girls in politics. For past several months, several rallies have been organised all over Maharashtra which focused on female fetus abortion, dowry system and women empowerment in general.


title: Supriya Sule

text: Sule is known for her exemplary parliamentary engagement as a member of the Lok Sabha, with her emerging as one of the Best Performers In Lok Sabha on multiple occasions.


title: Supriya Sule

text: In April 2010, Sule denied allegations of financial links between her family and the Indian Premier League (IPL), when reports on IPL irregularities in its ownership and functioning surfaced and led India's Minister of State for External Affairs to resign. However, there were reports that her husband owned (via a power of attorney from his father) 10% of a firm that had exclusive multi-year broadcasting rights for IPL matches.


title: Supriya Sule

text: In June 2010, "The Economic Times", India's largest business newspaper, reported that Sharad Pawar and Supriya Sule owned 16.22 percent of a firm that had bid for the Pune franchise of IPL. She had previously stated, "I say with full conviction that my husband or my family has nothing to do with these issues (the IPL bids) ... We always stay miles away from it. Yes, we are avid cricket watchers, my husband, my kids, my family, all, and that's where the buck stops." When challenged on this, she said she was just a minority shareholder and cannot be responsible for the firm's actions.


title: Supriya Sule

text: She married Sadanand Bhalchandra Sule on 4 March 1991. They have one son - Vijay and one daughter - Revati.


title: Supriya Sule

text: Sadanand Sule is son of Bhalchandra Sule (former Managing Director of Mahindra and Mahindra) and his wife Shashi Bhatt (badminton player). Shashi was the daughter of M. D. Bhatt, an Indian Civil Service officer who served as the Chief Secretary of Bombay State. Shashi died of cancer in the year 1964 while Sadanand was two years old. Bhalchandra Sule later married Anne. Bhalchandra died in 2003. After the 2019 Maharashtra Legislative Assembly election, when the coalition government of Maha Vikas Aghadi was formed in Maharashtra, rumours surfaced on internet which claimed that Sadanand's mother was "Sudha Sule", who was claimed to be the sister of Bal Thackeray.


title: Supriya Sule

text: After marriage, she spent some time in California, where she studied water pollution at UC Berkeley. Subsequently, she moved to Indonesia and Singapore and then returned to Mumbai.


title: Arthur's Seat

text: Arthur's Seat (, ) is an ancient volcano which is the main peak of the group of hills in Edinburgh, Scotland, which form most of Holyrood Park, described by Robert Louis Stevenson as "a hill for magnitude, a mountain in virtue of its bold design". It is situated just to the east of the city centre, about to the east of Edinburgh Castle. The hill rises above the city to a height of , provides excellent panoramic views of the city and beyond, is relatively easy to climb, and is popular for hillwalking. Though it can be climbed from almost any direction, the easiest and simplest ascent is from the east, where a grassy slope rises above Dunsapie Loch. At a spur of the hill, Salisbury Crags has historically been a rock climbing venue with routes of various degrees of difficulty. Until recently rock climbing was restricted to the South Quarry, but access is currently banned altogether by Historic Environment Scotland.


title: Arthur's Seat

text: It is sometimes said that its name is derived from legends pertaining to King Arthur, such as the reference in "Y Gododdin". Some support for this may be provided by several other hilltop and mountaintop features in Britain which bear the same or similar names, such as the peak of Ben Arthur (The Cobbler) in the western highlands, sometimes known as Arthur's Seat, and Arthur's Chair on the ridge called Stone Arthur in the English Lake District. There is no traditional Scottish Gaelic name for Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh, but William Maitland proposed that the name was a corruption of "Àrd-na-Said", implying the "Height of Arrows", which over the years became Arthur's Seat (perhaps via "Archer's Seat"). Alternatively, John Milne's proposed etymology of "Àrd-thir Suidhe" meaning "place on high ground" uncomfortably requires the transposition of the name elements.


title: Arthur's Seat

text: Arthur's Seat is the largest of the three parts of the Arthur's Seat Volcano site of special scientific interest (the other parts being Calton Hill and the Castle Rock) which is designated to protect its important geology (see below), grassland habitats and uncommon plant and animal species.


title: Arthur's Seat

text: Like the rock on which Edinburgh Castle is built, it was formed by volcanic system of early Carboniferous age (lava samples have been dated at 341 to 335 million years old), which was eroded by a glacier moving from west to east during the Quaternary (approximately the last two million years), exposing rocky crags to the west and leaving a tail of material swept to the east. This is how the Salisbury Crags formed and became basalt cliffs between Arthur's Seat and the city centre. From some angles, Arthur's Seat resembles a lion couchant. Two of the several extinct vents make up the 'Lion's Head' and the 'Lion's Haunch'.


title: Arthur's Seat

text: Arthur's Seat and the Salisbury Crags adjoining it helped form the ideas of modern geology as it is currently understood. It was in these areas that James Hutton observed that the deposition of the sedimentary and formation of the igneous rocks must have occurred at different ages and in different ways than the thinking of that time said they did. It is possible to see a particular area known as Hutton's Section in the Salisbury Crags where the magma forced its way through the sedimentary rocks above it to form the dolerite sills that can be seen in the Section.


title: Arthur's Seat

text: The hill bears a strong resemblance to the Cavehill in Belfast in terms of its geology and proximity to a major urban site.


title: Arthur's Seat

text: Hill fort defences are visible round the main massif of Arthur's Seat at Dunsapie Hill and above Samson's Ribs, in the latter cases certainly of prehistoric date. These forts are likely to have been centres of power of the Votadini, who were the subject of the poem "Y Gododdin", which is thought to have been written about 600 AD.