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Connie Talbot's Holiday Magic
''Connie Talbot's Holiday Magic'', also known as ''Connie Talbot's Christmas Magic'', is the third album by British child singer Connie Talbot. Released 13 October 2009 by AAO Music, it features rerecordings of songs from Talbot's previous album, ''Connie Talbot's Christmas Album'', as well as new tracks. The album was released after Talbot was named child ambassador for the Toys for Tots Campaign, and some of the proceeds from the album were given to the organisation. The album was marketed with a tour of the United States, a cross-marketing campaign with Boscov's, and a television special produced by WVIA, a DVD of which was later released for sale. Reviews of the album were mixed; while Talbot was called "sweet" and her range was praised, other reviewers considered the album to be "cloying" and "little more than a novelty act". Production In September 2009, it was announced that Talbot had been named child ambassador of the Marine Corps Toys for Tots Campaign, a charitabl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Connie Talbot
Connie Victoria Elizabeth Talbot (born 20 November 2000) is an English singer. In 2007, she was the runner-up of the first series of ''Britain's Got Talent''. She then signed with Rainbow Recording Company and released her debut album '' Over the Rainbow'' on 26 November 2007, which has sold over 250,000 copies worldwide and reached number one in three countries. Talbot's second album, '' Connie Talbot's Christmas Album'', was released on 24 November 2008, her third, '' Holiday Magic'', was released on 20 October 2009 and her fourth, '' Beautiful World'', was released on 26 November 2012. In 2019, she competed on '' Britain's Got Talent: The Champions'' and in 2020 competed on '' America's Got Talent: The Champions''. History ''Britain's Got Talent'' and Sony BMG Talbot initially auditioned for the first series of television reality show ''Britain's Got Talent'' for fun, but her confidence increased when Simon Cowell, whom she is said to have idolised, described her as "pure ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Minneapolis Star Tribune
The ''Star Tribune'' is the largest newspaper in Minnesota. It originated as the ''Minneapolis Tribune'' in 1867 and the competing ''Minneapolis Daily Star'' in 1920. During the 1930s and 1940s, Minneapolis's competing newspapers were consolidated, with the ''Tribune'' published in the morning and the ''Star'' in the evening. They merged in 1982, creating the ''Star and Tribune'', and it was renamed to ''Star Tribune'' in 1987. After a tumultuous period in which the newspaper was sold and re-sold and filed for bankruptcy protection in 2009, it was purchased by local businessman Glen Taylor in 2014. The ''Star Tribune'' serves Minneapolis and is distributed throughout the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area, the state of Minnesota and the Upper Midwest. It typically contains a mixture of national, international and local news, sports, business and lifestyle content. Journalists from the ''Star Tribune'' and its predecessor newspapers have won seven Pulitzer Prizes. Histor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Meredith Willson
Robert Reiniger Meredith Willson (May 18, 1902 – June 15, 1984) was an American flutist, composer, conductor, musical arranger, bandleader, playwright, and writer. He is perhaps best known for writing the book, music, and lyrics for the 1957 hit Broadway musical ''The Music Man'' and "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" (1951). Willson wrote three other Broadway musicals and composed symphonies and popular songs. He was twice nominated for Academy Awards for film scores. Early life Willson was born in Mason City, Iowa, to Rosalie Reiniger Willson and John David Willson. He had a brother two years his senior, John Cedrick, and a sister 12 years his senior, children's writer Dixie Willson. Willson attended Frank Damrosch's Institute of Musical Art (which later became the Juilliard School) in New York City. He married his high-school sweetheart, Elizabeth "Peggy" Wilson, on August 29, 1920; they were married for 26 years. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas
"It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" is a Christmas song written in 1951 by Meredith Willson. The song was originally titled "It's Beginning to Look Like Christmas". The song has been recorded by many artists, but was a hit for Perry Como and The Fontane Sisters with Mitchell Ayres & His Orchestra on September 18, 1951, and released on RCA Victor as 47-4314 (45 rpm) and 20-4314 (78 rpm). Bing Crosby recorded a version on October 1, 1951, which was also widely played. History Background and writing A popular belief in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, holds that Willson wrote the song while staying in Yarmouth's Grand Hotel. The song refers to a "tree in the Grand Hotel, one in the park as well..."; the park being Frost Park, directly across the road from the Grand Hotel, which still operates in a newer building on the same site as the old hotel. It also makes mention of the five and ten which was a store operating in Yarmouth at the time. It is also possible that the "Grand Hot ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Franz Xaver Gruber
Franz Xaver Gruber (25 November 1787 – 7 June 1863) was an Austrian primary school teacher, church organist and composer in the village of Lamprechtshausen, Arnsdorf, who is best known for composing the music to "Stille Nacht" ("Silent Night"). Life Gruber was born on 25 November 1787 in the village of Hochburg-Ach, Upper Austria, the son of linen weavers, Josef and Maria Gruber. His given name was recorded in the baptismal record as "Conrad Xavier," but this was later changed to "Franz Xaver". The Hochburger schoolteacher Andreas Peterlechner gave him music lessons. Gruber worked as a weaver until the age of 18, then trained to become a schoolteacher. He completed his music education studying with the church organist of Burghausen, Georg Hartdobler. In 1807 Gruber became a schoolteacher in Arnsdorf. He also became the church caretaker and organist. In 1808 he married a widow, Maria Elisabeth Fischinger Engelsberger. They had two children, both of whom died young. After th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joseph Mohr
Josephus Franciscus Mohr, sometimes spelled Josef (11 December 1792 – 4 December 1848) was an Austrian Roman Catholic priest and writer, who wrote the words to the Christmas carol "Silent Night." Early life and education Mohr was born in Salzburg on 11 December 1792, to an unmarried embroiderer, Anna Schoiberin, and Franz Mohr, a mercenary soldier and deserter, who abandoned Joseph's mother before the birth. The ancestors on his father's side came from the town of Mariapfarr in the mountainous Lungau region south of Salzburg, while his mother's family was from the salt-mining city of Hallein. At his baptism shortly after birth, the godfather was recorded as Joseph Wohlmuth, the last official executioner of Salzburg, who did not personally attend but had himself represented by one Franziska Zachin. As the parents were unmarried, Joseph received the name of his godfather, according to custom. Johann Nepomuk Hiernle, vicar and leader of music at Salzburg Cathedral, enabled Moh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Silent Night
"Silent Night" (german: "Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht", links=no, italic=no) is a popular Christmas carol, composed in 1818 by Franz Xaver Gruber to lyrics by Joseph Mohr in the small town of Oberndorf bei Salzburg, Austria. It was declared an intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO in 2011. The song was first recorded in 1905 and has remained a popular success, appearing in films and multiple successful recordings, as well as being quoted in other musical compositions. History "" was first performed on Christmas Eve 1818 at St Nicholas parish church in Oberndorf, a village in the Austrian Empire on the Salzach river in present-day Austria. A young Catholic priest, Father Joseph Mohr, had come to Oberndorf the year before. In the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars, he had written the poem "" in 1816 at Mariapfarr, the hometown of his father in the Salzburg Lungau region, where Joseph had worked as an assistant priest. The melody was composed by Franz Xaver Gruber, schoolmaster ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Irving Berlin
Irving Berlin (born Israel Beilin; yi, ישראל ביילין; May 11, 1888 – September 22, 1989) was a Russian-American composer, songwriter and lyricist. His music forms a large part of the Great American Songbook. Born in Imperial Russia, Berlin arrived in the United States at the age of five. He published his first song, "Marie from Sunny Italy", in 1907, receiving 33 cents for the publishing rights,Starr, Larry and Waterman, Christopher, American Popular Music: From Minstrelsy to MP3, Oxford University Press, 2009, pg. 64 and had his first major international hit, "Alexander's Ragtime Band", in 1911. He also was an owner of the Music Box Theatre on Broadway. For much of his career Berlin could not read sheet music, and was such a limited piano player that he could only play in the key of F-sharp; he used his custom piano equipped with a transposing lever when he needed to play in keys other than F-sharp. "Alexander's Ragtime Band" sparked an international dance craze ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
White Christmas (song)
"White Christmas" is an Irving Berlin song reminiscing about an old-fashioned Christmas setting. The song was written by Berlin for the 1942 musical film ''Holiday Inn''. The composition won the Academy Award for Best Original Song at the 15th Academy Awards. Since its release, "White Christmas" has been covered by many artists, the version sung by Bing Crosby being the world's best-selling single (in terms of sales of physical media) with estimated sales in excess of 50 million copies worldwide. When the figures for other versions of the song are added to Crosby's, sales of the song exceed 100 million. History Origin Accounts vary as to when and where Berlin wrote the song. One story is that he wrote it in 1940, in warm La Quinta, California, while staying at the La Quinta Hotel, a frequent Hollywood retreat also favored by writer-director-producer Frank Capra, although the Arizona Biltmore also claims the song was written there. He often stayed up all night writing. One ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ralph Blane
Ralph Blane (July 26, 1914 – November 13, 1995) was an American composer, lyricist, and performer. Life and career Blane was born Ralph Uriah Hunsecker in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. He attended Tulsa Central High School. He studied singing with Estelle Liebling in New York City. He began his career as a radio singer for NBC in the 1930s before turning to Broadway, where he was featured in ''New Faces of 1936'' (1936), ''Hooray for What!'' (1937), and ''Louisiana Purchase'' (1940). In 1940 he formed a vocal quartet ("The Martins") with his friend Hugh Martin which performed on radio and in nightclubs. Martin and Blane formed a songwriting partnership. Together they wrote music and lyrics to '' Best Foot Forward'' (1941) and ''Three Wishes for Jamie'' (1952). The duo penned many American standards for the stage and MGM musicals. The team's best-known songs include " The Boy Next Door", "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" and "The Trolley Song", all written for the 1944 film m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hugh Martin
Hugh Martin (August 11, 1914 – March 11, 2011) was an American musical theater and film composer, arranger, vocal coach, and playwright. He was best known for his score for the 1944 MGM musical ''Meet Me in St. Louis'', in which Judy Garland sang three Martin songs, "The Boy Next Door (song), The Boy Next Door," "The Trolley Song," and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas." The last of these has become a Christmas season standard in the United States and around the English-speaking world. Martin became a close friend of Garland and was her accompanist at many of her concert performances in the 1950s, including her appearances at the Palace Theater (Broadway), Palace Theater. Early life Martin was born in Birmingham, Alabama, the son of Ellie Gordon (Robinson) and Hugh Martin Sr., an architect. He attended Birmingham-Southern College where he studied music. He was a member of the Beta Beta Chapter of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity. Career Martin wrote the music, and in so ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
"Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" is a song written in 1943 by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane and introduced by Judy Garland in the 1944 MGM musical ''Meet Me in St. Louis''. Frank Sinatra later recorded a version with modified lyrics. In 2007, ASCAP ranked it the third most performed Christmas song during the preceding five years that had been written by ASCAP members. In 2004 it finished at No. 76 in AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs rankings of the top tunes in American cinema. ''Meet Me in St. Louis'' The song was written in 1943 for the then-upcoming film ''Meet Me in St. Louis'', for which MGM had hired Martin and Blane to write several songs. Martin was vacationing in a house in the neighborhood of Southside in Birmingham, Alabama that his father Hugh Martin had designed for his mother as a honeymoon cottage, located just down the street from his birthplace, and which later became the home of Martin and his family in 1923. The song first appeared in a scene in which a fa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
