Duff expanded her repertoire into pop music with the release of three RIAA certified Platinum albums and over thirteen million records sold worldwide as of February 2008.[1] Her first studio album, Metamorphosis (2003), was certified triple platinum and she followed it up with two more platinum albums, Hilary Duff (2004) and Most Wanted (2005). Duff had a musical comeback with the release of her third studio album, Dignity (2007), which was certified Gold in August 2007 [2] and spawned two Billboard Hot 100 number one singles, “With Love” and “Stranger”. In November 2008, she released another Greatest Hits compilation, Best of Hilary Duff with her third #1 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play single “Reach Out” .

Duff has also launched a clothing line, “Stuff by Hilary Duff”, and two exclusive perfume collections with Elizabeth Arden. Duff and her mother were listed as producers for the movie Material Girls. Duff is credited as executive producer for the upcoming independent film Greta.[3] As of July 2009[update], her upcoming films include starring roles in Greta, Stay Cool, Provinces of Night, The Story of Bonnie and Clyde.

Early life and career

Duff was born in Houston, Texas on September 28, 1987.She is the second child of Susan Colleen (née Cobb), a homemaker and a film producer, and husband Robert Erhard Duff, a partner in a chain of convenience stores, who resides at the family home in Houston to maintain the family’s convenience store business. She has an elder sister, Haylie Duff, who is also an actress/singer. Duff’s mother encouraged Hilary to take up acting classes alongside her elder sister, Haylie, which resulted in both girls winning roles in various local theater productions. At the ages of eight and six, respectively, the Duff sisters participated in the ballet, The Nutcracker Suite with Columbus BalletMet in San Antonio.[5] The siblings became more enthusiastic about the idea of choosing acting as a profession, and eventually relocated to California with their mother. Duff’s father stayed at the family home in Houston to take care of their business.After several years of auditions and meetings, the Duff sisters were cast in various television commercials.

Career

Early work

Duff’s early career was marked by playing minor roles, starting off with an uncredited appearance in Hallmark Entertainment’s western miniseries True Women in 1997. She also served as an uncredited extra, in writer-director Willard Carroll’s ensemble dramedy Playing by Heart in 1998. Her first major role was as a star of the 1998 film Casper Meets Wendy, a direct-to-video sequel to Casper in which she plays the young witch Wendy, who encounters the animated character Casper. The film was released to mostly unenthusiastic reviews.

In 1999, Duff appeared in a supporting role in the television film The Soul Collector, which was based on a Kathleen Kane novel. Duff won a Young Artist Award for “Best Performance in a TV Movie or Pilot (Supporting Young Actress)” for her role in the movie.

Duff’s first serious rise to fame came when she was cast as one of the children in the pilot episode of the NBC sitcom Daddio in 2000. Her co-star Michael Chiklis, stated, “After working with her the first day, I remember saying to my wife, ‘this young girl is going to be a movie star’. She was completely at ease with herself and comfortable in her own skin.”Duff was dropped from the cast of Daddio before it being aired, which made her reluctant to pursue her acting career further. However, her manager and mother urged her on, and a week later she successfully auditioned for the children’s television series Lizzie McGuire, where she portrayed the title role of a clumsy but an average middle school girl. The show focused on her growth into teenhood.

2001-2003

Lizzie McGuire, which first aired on the Disney Channel on January 12, 2001, was a ratings hit, drawing in 2.3 million viewers per episode.Her participation in the show led to her becoming highly popular among children between the ages of seven and fourteen,with critic Richard Huff of the New York Daily News calling her “a 2002 version of Annette Funicello”.After Duff fulfilled her 65 episode contract with Lizzie McGuire, Disney considered continuing the franchise further, through films and a prime-time television series to be broadcast on ABC. However, the plans failed because Duff’s representatives said she was not being paid enough for the proposed series. Duff also starred in the Disney Channel television film Cadet Kelly (2002), which became the network’s most watched program in its 19-year history.In the movie, she plays a free-spirited girl who enrolls in a military school and finds it hard to adjust to its strict and disciplined environment.

Duff’s first role in a theatrical motion picture was in Human Nature (2002), an independent film shot around the time of the start of Lizzie McGuire. It was first showcased at the Cannes and Sundance film festivals.The film, written by Charlie Kaufman and directed by Michel Gondry, follows a female naturalist, played by Patricia Arquette. Duff played the younger version of Arquette’s character. The same year, Duff recorded a cover version of Brooke McClymont’s “I Can’t Wait” for the Lizzie McGuire soundtrack, and “The Tiki Tiki Tiki Room” for the first DisneyMania compilation album. Her first album was Santa Claus Lane (2002), a collection of Christmas songs that included duets with her sister Haylie, Lil’ Romeo and Christina Milian. Accompanied by the Disney Channel-only single “Tell Me a Story (About the Night Before)”, it peaked at 154 on the U.S. Billboard 200 album chart and was certified gold.The track “Santa Claus Lane” was included on the soundtrack to The Santa Clause 2 and the single, “What Christmas Should Be”, was used in Cheaper by the Dozen. Duff sang several tracks for soundtrack to The Lizzie McGuire Movie, which included “I Can’t Wait” and “Why Not”, the latter peaking at # 14 in Australia. The soundtrack to The Lizzie McGuire Movie went platinum in 2003.

In 2003, Duff received her first major role in a feature film when she was cast alongside Frankie Muniz in Agent Cody Banks. The film received positive reviews and was successful enough to spawn a sequel, in which Duff did not participate. The same year, Duff reprised her role as Lizzie McGuire for The Lizzie McGuire Movie, which exceeded box office expectations, earning $42.6 million at the US box office[18] and $55 million worldwide.[19] It received mixed reviews, with certain critics calling it “an unabashed promotion of Duff’s image, just as Crossroads was for Spears”, while other reviews were generally positive and encouraging. Later that year, Duff played one of the 12 children of Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt in the family film Cheaper by the Dozen, which remains her highest grossing film to date.[24] She reprised her role in the sequel to the film called Cheaper by the Dozen 2 (2005), which failed to be as successful as the original film and was panned by critics.

Duff’s first full-length studio album, Metamorphosis (2003), reached number one on the U.S. and Canadian charts and had sold over 3.7 million copies by May 2005.[28] The lead single, “So Yesterday” (co-written and produced by The Matrix), was a top ten hit in several countries, its follow-up, the Laguna Beach theme song “Come Clean”, became Duff’s first top forty U.S. hit[30] and reached the top twenty in UK, Australia and New Zealand. The video was nominated in the category of Best Pop Video at the 2004 MTV Video Music Awards.The third single, “Little Voice”, was not released in the U.S. and was a minor hit in Canada and Australia. In late 2003, Duff embarked on her first concert tour, the Metamorphosis Tour, and later the Most Wanted Tour. Most shows scheduled in the major cities were completely sold out.

Duff also made several guest appearances in television shows; her first as a sick child in the medical drama Chicago Hope in March 2000. In a 2003 episode of George Lopez, she had a role as a makeup salesperson; she later reappeared in the show in 2005 as Kenzie, a feminist poet friend of the character Carmen (Masiela Lusha). In 2003, she acted opposite her sister Haylie in American Dreams, while in 2005, she played a classmate and idolizer of the title character of Joan of Arcadia.

2004-2006

In January 2004, the second DisneyMania disc, DisneyMania 2, was released and featured a duet, “The Siamese Cat Song” with her sister. Another song, “Circle of Life”, featured Duff and other Disney Channel stars. Duff and her sister recorded a cover of The Go-Gos’ “Our Lips Are Sealed” for the soundtrack to A Cinderella Story, which also included two other songs by Duff. The video for “Our Lips Are Sealed” was popular on MTV’s Total Request Live, but the song failed to chart on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.

Duff’s second full-length album was the self-titled Hilary Duff in which she co-wrote some songs. She described the album as more “personal” and having a “rock feel” than Metamorphosis.It was released on her seventeenth birthday (in September 2004) and debuted at #2 in the U.S. and at #1 in Canada. The album sold over 1.5 million copies in the U.S. in eight months,but its only U.S. single, “Fly”, failed to chart on the Hot 100.”Fly” reached the top forty in Australia, where the album produced a second top forty single, “Someone’s Watching over Me”, which was the theme song of the film Raise Your Voice. Duff contributed the song “(I’ll Give) Anything but Up!” for the 2004 album Marlo Thomas & Friends: Thanks & Giving All Year Long (2004).

In 2004, Duff starred in the romantic comedy A Cinderella Story. Though the reviews were mostly negative, the film went on to become a moderate box office hit, and critics were impressed by Duff’s performance. A Cinderella Story earned $70,067,909 worldwide and was a commercial success.Later that year, she starred in the film Raise Your Voice, her first role in a drama film. While some critics praised Duff for appearing in a more mature and serious role than her previous films, the film itself was heavily panned.[41] Several reviews were indifferent towards her acting performance and were particularly harsh towards Duff’s vocals, with critics pointing out what appeared to be her digitally enhanced voice. The film received a lukewarm response at the box office, and is Duff’s least successful film commercially, with total theater receipts of $14 million.[46] The same year, Duff received her first Razzie nomination for worst actress for her roles in Raise Your Voice and A Cinderella Story.

In 2005, Duff starred in The Perfect Man in which she played the eldest daughter of a divorced woman (Heather Locklear). The film received mostly harsh reviews and did not live up to box office expectations, grossing $19,770,475 globally.In the same year, Duff was again nominated for a Razzie Award, for The Perfect Man and Cheaper by the Dozen 2.The 2006 satirical comedy Material Girls, in which she co-starred with her sister Haylie, was also not well received by critics, grossing only $16,907,561 worldwide. The film, directed by Martha Coolidge and co-produced by Madonna’s independent film production company Maverick Entertainment, starred the Duff sisters as wealthy siblings who must fight to reclaim their fortune following a scandal. Duff along with her sister Haylie, received two more nominations for Razzie awards for their role in the film.

Duff’s third album, Most Wanted (2005), comprised her favorite tracks from her previous two albums, remixes, and new songs inspired by pop-rock musicians such as The Killers and Muse. In an appearance on Total Request Live, Duff stated that it was not a greatest hits album, but that her label told her it was time to release a new album. She had more creative control over Most Wanted compared to her previous releases, co-writing the new material with producers Joel Madden and his brother, Benji, both members of Good Charlotte. The lead single, “Wake Up”, became Duff’s highest peaking single on the U.S. Hot 100 at the time,and its video received heavy rotation on MTV. The video for the second single, “Beat of My Heart”, was also popular, but the single itself did not chart in the U.S.The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and became her third number one debut in Canada. An Italy-only compilation, 4Ever, was released in 2006. Duff recorded new songs for her movie, Material Girls, which included a Timbaland-produced cover version of Madonna’s “Material Girl” with her sister.
Duff poses with a fan in Fayetteville, North Carolina, before her annual concert for military families.

By 2005, Duff appeared to have lost weight, leading the media to speculate that she had developed an eating disorder, though Duff denied this claim.[56] Duff was interviewed on the Australian current affair show Today Tonight and stated that she lost weight by leading a more active lifestyle. Later in 2006, an article on Digital Spy stated that Duff had slimmed down to a U.S. size zero because of media reports suggesting she had gained fifteen pounds. She later stated that she had been feeling the pressure to be thin, because she is perceived in the media to be either too fat or too thin. Duff called this “judgmental” and “mean”.

In June 2006, when asked about her then-boyfriend Joel Madden, a native of Waldorf, Maryland, in an interview with Elle, Duff replied, “He’s very real, like, he’s from a pretty ghetto place in Maryland… I like that”.Duff’s “ghetto” comments sparked a mixture of mild offense and bemusement from residents of the Waldorf area, as the suburban, mostly middle-class town did not fall into the traditional impoverished inner city concept of a ghetto.[60] Duff later claimed she was referring not to Waldorf, but actually a section of Baltimore where Madden lived briefly as a young adult.

In late 2006 Duff took legal action against an alleged stalker and his roommate.On November 3, 2006, Duff’s stalker, Maksim Miakovsky, was arrested for threatening to kill her. He was booked on charges of making criminal threats and stalking. According to legal papers filed by Duff, Miakovsky came to the U.S. “for the sole purpose of meeting and becoming romantically involved with Ms. Duff”. Miakovsky was being held on $200,000 bail at the Manhattan Beach jail. He was arraigned on November 7, 2006. On January 19, 2007, Miakovsky was sentenced to 117 days in jail and five years probation after pleading no contest to the charges.

2007-2008
Duff at the premiere of War, Inc. at the Tribeca Film Festival in April 2008

During her Still Most Wanted tour, she performed in Guadalajara, Mexico, where she filmed a brief appearance on the soap opera Rebelde. She was also the guest star on The Andy Milonakis Show for its third season premiere in 2007. In April 2008, Duff was offered the lead role of Annie Mills in the CW Network’s Beverly Hills, 90210 spinoff, but she turned it down because she was more interested in looking for projects outside the teen genre.She is also a model signed to IMG Models New York.
Hilary Duff at the MuchMusic Video Awards in 2007.

Duff co-wrote the material for her third studio album Dignity, along with Kara DioGuardi, who co-produced the album with Rhett Lawrence, Tim & Bob and Richard “Humpty” Vission. Duff stated that compared to her previous music, it is “more dancey” and makes use of more real instruments. She said, “I don’t know exactly how to explain what we’re doing, but it’s fun and funky and different, something new for me. It’s really cool”. She also described the album’s sound as “a little less pop-rock and more electronic-sounding”.

The first single, “Play with Fire”, became a minor club hit but failed to chart in the U.S.; the second single, “With Love”, was more successful, becoming Duff’s biggest U.S. Hot 100 hit and topping the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart.The music video for “With Love” was used as a commercial for Duff’s first fragrance, With Love… Hilary Duff, which was launched in September 2006; the video reached number one on Total Request Live. Initially slated for release in late 2006,[72] the album was released in April 2007 in North America and earlier elsewhere. It reached the top five in the U.S. and Canada, the top twenty in Australia and the top forty in the UK.The Dignity tour began in mid-2007. A third single, “Stranger”, was a number one U.S. club hit.

In late 2005, the Duff sisters lent their voices to the computer animated comedy Foodfight!, which is to be distributed by Lions Gate Entertainment, but has an unscheduled release date. The director of the film, Larry Kasanoff, said that he was “absolutely thrilled to have the Duff sisters as part of the cast”. Duff also starred opposite John Cusack in War, Inc. which was released in theatres in Los Angeles and Manhattan, New York on May 23, 2008. Within a month of its release, it was expanded to several more theaters around the US.However, the film did not do well commercially, grossing only $580,862 domestically.

On September 7, 2007, Duff confirmed on Much On Demand, that she would be filming two independent films Greta, and What Goes Up. Both movies were filmed in late 2007 and are due to be released in 2009.In June 2008, Duff joined the cast of the Polish brothers comedy Stay Cool. She co-starred alongside Winona Ryder, Mark Polish, Sean Astin, Chevy Chase and Jon Cryer. In the film, she portrayed the character of Shasta O’Neil, described as a sexy high school senior. The movie was filmed during July and August 2008 in Santa Clarita, California, and the film is scheduled for release in 2009.

In January 2008, videos of Duff surfaced on YouTube, which showed her singing into her microphone at her concert in Mexico, but her voice was inaudible, leading viewers to believe that she was lip-syncing. Duff’s representative defended her saying, “She was not lip-synching. It was faulty equipment. There was no sound coming out, but she was singing”. He also added that Duff was not using her regular sound equipment, but instead was using locally provided equipment and that her microphone was inadvertently set on mute for the first few minutes of the performance.

In November 2008, Duff’s second greatest hits album, Best of Hilary Duff was releasedand the album’s first single “Reach Out” which samples Depeche Mode’s “Personal Jesus” was released in the previous month, the song became Duff’s third #1 dance hit.The Best of Hilary Duff album failed to achieve the level of success which Most Wanted had achieved; the album peaked at #125 on the charts.Duff thereafter announced that she would be leaving her record label Hollywood Records after six years of service. She later announced to MTV that she would begin work on her new album in December 2008.The same month, Duff signed a pact with NBC to star in a new series, thus signalling her return to the television medium. It was later announced that Duff will be the lead in a new Rob Morrow-produced half-hour comedy based on the true story of Kathleen Holtz, called Barely Legal.

2009-present

In January 2009, it was announced that she would star in an indie feature, The Story of Bonnie and Clyde, an adaptation of Bonnie & Clyde. In April 2009, Duff began filming Provinces of Night, which is based on a book by the same name written by William Gay. Duff plays Raven Halfacre, the teenage daughter of a promiscuous, alcoholic mother. Duff has also signed on for a seven episode-arc as Olivia Burke, a movie star who enrolls at NYU in search of a traditional college experience and ends up rooming with Vanessa (Jessica Szohr) in Gossip Girl.

Entrepreneurship

Duff launched her clothing line, “Stuff by Hilary Duff”, in March 2004, with clothes distributed through Target in the United States, Kmart in Australia, Zellers in Canada, and Edgars Stores in South Africa. The company, initially started as a clothing line, has expanded its business into furniture, fragrances, and jewelry, targeted at the teen and preteen crowd. In 2007, the Internet website Stardoll.com previewed Duff’s clothing line to customers by allowing them to dress up a paper doll on the website (which include Hilary Duff’s own doll) with the clothes.

In February 2009, Duff and DKNY Jeans announced their new design partnership and the launch of their collaborative apparel line. Duff co-designed a collection of special pieces with DKNY Jeans brand called “Femme” for DKNY Jeans. The clothing line will debut in fine department and specialty stores nationwide in August 2009.

Playmates Toys released a celebrity doll of her in 2004.In late 2006, Mattel released a Hilary Duff Barbie doll. As a fashion designer, she had designed clothes for Barbie dolls in the past[96] and with the release of her doll, she joined Reese Witherspoon, Beyonce Knowles and Lucille Ball who have their own celebrity-dolls.

In September 2006, Duff released her perfume, “With Love… Hilary Duff”, which was distributed by the Elizabeth Arden company. The perfume was initially sold only in Macy’s in the U.S. and soon it was being sold in other regions like Japan and Canada. In 2007, Duff announced that she will be releasing a summer version of the perfume titled, “Wrapped With Love”. It was released in January 2008, and a Spring Gift Set version was released in time for Valentine’s Day.

Duff and her pet dog Lola made an appearance in the Electronic Arts game The Sims 2: Pets, which was released on October 2006. In console versions of the game, Duff’s character visits public areas and allows the players to let their Sims socialize with her and Lola.[98] Animal rights’ organisation, “Animal welfare league” have criticised Duff and celebrities such as Paris Hilton and Jessica Simpson for displaying their dogs as fashion accessories rather than pets.

Personal life

In a June 2006 interview with Elle magazine, Duff was quoted as saying: “…(virginity) is definitely something I like about myself. It doesn’t mean I haven’t thought about sex, because everyone I know has had it and you want to fit in”. Duff later told MuchMusic that she did not say the quotes attributed to her in the article and that the subject was “definitely not something that I would talk about…” She denied the quotes again in a 2008 interview with Maxim magazine.

Duff is involved with various charities, is an animal rights enthusiast and a member of Kids with a Cause.[103] She also donated $250,000 to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina.[104] In 2005, she donated over 2.5 million meals to Hurricane Katrina victims in the south. In August 2006, Duff traveled to a New Orleans elementary school and worked with USA Harvest to distribute meals.She has also served on the Advisory Board of the “Audrey Hepburn Child Benefit Fund” and the Celebrity Council of “Kids with a Cause”. On October 8, 2008, Duff starred in a public service announcement for The Think Before You Speak Campaign by Ad Council and GLSEN, to prevent youth from using anti-LGBT vocabulary, such as the phrase “That’s so Gay”.

In 2005, Duff’s earnings were estimated to be $15 million and in December 2007, Duff was ranked at #7 in the Forbes “Top 20 Earners Under 25″, with an annual earnings of $12 million. In 2007, Duff was ranked at #23 in Maxim’s “Hot 100″ list.In 2008, Duff was ranked #7 for the US edition of FHM’s “100 Sexiest Women in the World”, while for the UK edition she ranked in at #8.

Duff has stated numerous times that she’s a strong animal rights supporter and has commented, when asked what she would be doing if she weren’t a celebrity, “I always wanted to be a veterinarian when I was younger, but then I figured out that animals actually die there, so that was not the job for me. Definitely something with kids or animals or something like that.”

Relationships

Duff appearing at MuchMusic in Canada on April 23, 2007 to promote her music.

Duff began dating singer Aaron Carter in 2001. They met on the sets of Lizzie McGuire, during Carter’s guest appearance in a Christmas episode. The relationship lasted two years. It was reported that Carter left Duff for Lindsay Lohan, but soon broke up with Lohan and resumed dating Duff. Carter later stated that he also cheated on Duff with her best friend, and that Duff “got her heart broken” and he was “sorry” for his actions.On March 23, 2007, Claymation facsimiles of Duff and Lohan appeared on the celebrity wrestling series Celebrity Death Match episode “Where’s Lohan?”. Duff and Lindsay Lohan were later reported to have been involved in a “feud” with each other over their relationship with Carter. In 2007, Duff and Lohan had reconciled. Lohan attended the release party for Duff’s album Dignity and Duff told People magazine that she thought Lohan was “fun” and “a nice girl”.

Duff began dating Good Charlotte singer Joel Madden in 2004. After a long period of tabloid speculation, Duff’s mother Susan announced their relationship in a June 2005 interview for Seventeen magazine. Duff and Madden broke up in November 2006. The same year, Duff’s parents separated after 22 years of marriage, due to infidelity on the part of her father. She wrote about the pain caused by the separation in her songs “Stranger” and “Gypsy Woman”.

Duff began dating NHL player Mike Comrie in 2007. She frequently attends his games. Comrie bought Duff a Mercedes-Benz for her 20th birthday.

In the UK, the single was issued in a lavish gatefold sleeve, intended as a souvenir for UK fans who had attended the Wembley concerts (the live recording of “Take a Chance on Me” being from one of them). It was not a limited edition, however. The inner gatefold made use of the pyramid/mountain/iceberg designs similar to those used in the inner sleeve of Greatest Hits Vol. 2. The inner gatefold was effectively an advert for ABBA’s existing albums released in the UK, but the back cover featured a message from ABBA themselves regarding the Wembley concerts, together with their signatures. The front cover used the same live photo of ABBA as the worldwide release, but artwork and fonts were different. This was only Epic’s second picture sleeve for an ABBA single, and the company seemed keen to make up for its poor presentation (ie. yellow or orange company sleeves) used previously.

There is some speculation that “I Have a Dream” was never originally intended to be a single. There had already been three releases from the Voulez-Vous album, and the only other album to have four singles released from it was ABBA in 1975. Including “B” sides, “I Have A Dream” was in fact the 7th of the 10 tracks from Voulez-Vous to be issued on single in the UK. Also, the track was not included on Greatest Hits Vol. 2 released just weeks before. It is therefore speculated that this single was an extra release to cash in on both the Christmas sales and the 1979 tour. Furthermore, ABBA did not film a promotional video for the track, even though they had done for the Spanish version, “Estoy Soñando”. It was rare for ABBA not to film a video for an official single. The Spanish version was filmed in the Polar Music Studios on the same day as the “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!” video (and even featured ABBA wearing the same clothes). If “I Have a Dream” had been intended as a single at that point, then presumably they would have filmed that as well. As it stood, a live performance from the tour was used to promote the single, causing some confusion to record buyers who may have been disappointed to discover the studio-recorded version on the record itself.

The live version of “Take a Chance on Me” on the B-side was one of three mixes of the same recording to be issued. Released soon after the concerts, this version is thought to be the genuine recording. A very slightly extended version, featuring spoken introductions from the group, was used as the B-side in Australia. This extended version has recently been released internationally on the deluxe edition of The Album. Finally, a third mix was included on ABBA Live issued in 1986. This is considered the inferior version as it contains overdubs added at the time of release (and not by ABBA themselves).

Reception

“I Have a Dream” was a hit around the world, reaching number-one in Austria, Belgium, Switzerland and the Netherlands, and peaking at number 2 in the UK, where it was held off the top spot by Pink Floyd’s single “Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)”. “I Have a Dream” reached the top five in Ireland, South Africa and West Germany, and also became a number-one hit on the RPM magazine Adult Contemporary chart in Canada. The Spanish-language version of the song, “Estoy Soñando”, reached number 15 in Spain and was a Top Five single in both Argentina and Mexico.

“I Have a Dream” was not commercially released in the United States, but did become an airplay favorite on Easy Listening and Adult Contemporary radio stations[citation needed]. Country Gospel singer Cristy Lane’s cover of the song reached No.17 on the U.S. country singles chart in 1981.

* A recording by the dansband Streaplers, with lyrics in Swedish by Ingela Forsman, “Jag har en dröm”, was No.1 on the Swedish Svensktoppen radio chart for 17 weeks from May 31 - December 6, 1987.
* American country-gospel music singer, Cristy Lane recorded a cover of the song and released it as a single to the Billboard Country Chart, peaking at #17 in 1981.
* Greek singer Nana Mouskouri recorded a French cover of this song entitled “Chanter La Vie” for her 1983 album Quand on revient. She also recorded an English version, which was released as a single in 1986 and included on her 1990 album Alone.
* Local Hawaiian singers the Makaha Sons have covered this song on their 1994 album Ke Alaulau.
* U.S. indie music artist Stueym covered the song, which was available for download on the Internet.
* An electronica cover version by H-Hustler can be found on the 2001 compilation The Electronic Tribute To ABBA.
* Swiss chef/singer Dan Daniell recorded a cover as a duet with original ABBA member Anni-Frid Lyngstad for his album Lieber Gott.[1]
* Irish singer Daniel O’Donnell has covered the song for his 2004 double album Songs of Inspiration/I Believe.
* Irish folk music duo Foster & Allen have covered the song for their 2005 album Sing The Number 1’s.
* A duet version was recorded by German celebrity Barbara Schöneberger and American singer Sydney Youngblood for the German 2005 ABBA Mania compilation, which coincided with a TV special.
* Italian-American singer Al Martino included a cover of the song for his 2006 album Come Share The Wine.
* German AC/DC tribute band Riff Raff recorded a cover in AC/DC style for their 2006 album Rock ‘N’ Roll Mutation Vol. 1: Riff Raff Performs ABBA.
* A cover of the song was recorded by Connie Talbot for her debut album Over the Rainbow in 2007.
* The song was covered in a jazz/lounge music style by American group BNB on their 2008 album Bossa Mia: Songs of ABBA.[2]
* The song is featured in the Mamma Mia! musical as a recurring musical theme sung by the character of Sophie. It is also featured in the trailer for the film based on the musical. At the beginning of the musical, the context of the song is interpretted that Sophie dreams about her real father coming to the wedding when she sends the invitations, to her potential fathers, away. At the end of the musical, Sophie sings this song when her and Sky set off the Island to go around the world. The context of the song is used in this case as Sophie, now knowing what she really wants, hopes to achieve her dream as she goes around the world with Sky. The song is included on the 2008 Mamma Mia! movie soundtrack and is sung by actress Amanda Seyfried.
* This song was featured on The X Factor when covered by all of the auditionees from the last 5 years.

Westlife released a cover of “I Have a Dream” in December 1999, twenty years after ABBA’s original release. The song became the group’s fourth UK number 1 single. The release was a double-A-side single with “Seasons in the Sun” and became the UK’s Christmas number-one single of 1999, extending its peak into January 2000. So far, it occupies the 47th biggest Christmas number-one single in UK.

The song was the 26th best selling single of 1999 in the UK.

In 2001, as part of a UNICEF fund-raising campaign, the song was re-recorded with additional vocals by Indonesian child singer, Sinna Sherina Munaf.

The song has received a Platinum sales certification in the UK for over 600,000 copies sold.

Early life

Latifah was born and raised in Irvington, New Jersey, the daughter of Rita, a schoolteacher who worked at Irvington High School, and Lancelot Owens, a policeman.[2][3][4] Her parents divorced when Latifah was ten.[4] Latifah performed the number “Home” from the musical The Wiz in a high school play.[5] Her stage name, Latifah (لطيفة), meaning “delicate” and “sensitive” in Arabic, was given to her when she was eight by her cousin.[4] Latifah was raised in the Baptist church[6] and, while in high school, was a power forward on her basketball team.

Beginnings (1987-1988)

Latifah started her career beatboxing for the rap group Ladies Fresh. Latifah was one of the members of the original version of the Flavor Unit, which, at that time, was a crew of MC’s grouped around producer DJ Mark the 45 King. In 1988, DJ Mark the 45 King heard a demo version of Latifah’s single “Princess of the Posse” and gave the demo to Fab Five Freddy, who was the host of Yo! MTV Raps.

Rapping (1988-2000)

Freddy helped Latifah sign with Tommy Boy Records, which released Latifah’s first album All Hail the Queen in 1989, when she was nineteen.[4] That year, she appeared as Referee on the UK label Music of Life album “1989-The Hustlers Convention (live)”. In 1998, Co Produced by Ro Smith now CEO of Def Ro Inc. she released her fourth hip-hop album Order in the Court.

Singing (2003-2007)

After Order in the Court, Latifah shifted primarily to sung lyrics in soul music and jazz standards, which she had used sparingly in her previous hip-hop-oriented records. In 2004, she released the soul/jazz standards The Dana Owens Album. On July 11, 2007, Latifah sang at the famed Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles as the headlining act in a live jazz concert. Before a crowd of more than 12,400, she was backed by a 10-piece live orchestra and three backup vocalists, The Queen Latifah Orchestra. Latifah performed new arrangements of standards including “California Dreaming,” first made popular by ’60s icons The Mamas & the Papas. Later in 2007, Latifah released an album entitled Trav’lin’ Light. Jill Scott, Erykah Badu, Joe Sample, George Duke, Christian McBride, and Stevie Wonder made guest appearances. It was nominated for a Grammy in the “Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album” category.

In 2009, Latifah, along with the Jubilation Choir, recorded the title track on the album Oh Happy Day: An All-Star Music Celebration, covering the song the Edwin Hawkins Singers made popular in 1969.

Return to Hip-Hop (2008-present)

In 2008, Latifah was asked if she would make another hip-hop album. She was quoted saying the album was “already done” and it would be called “All Hail the Queen II”. It was rumored that the album would be named “The ‘L’ Word”. When asked about the rumor, she stated it was her attempt to “mess with people’s heads” refering to the rumors that she is lesbian.[11] On September 12, 2008, Rolling Stone reported that Queen Latifah is working on a new album entitled, “Persona”. The song “Cue the Rain” was released as the album’s lead single. This album will be, at least partially, produced by Dr. Dre. She will also work with Missy Elliott.

Film and television

From 1993 to 1998, Latifah had a starring role on Living Single, a FOX sitcom;[4] she also wrote and performed its theme music. She began her film career in supporting roles in the 1991 films House Party 2, Juice, and Jungle Fever. She had her own talk show, The Queen Latifah Show, from 1999 to 2001. She also had recurring roles during the second season (1991-1992) of the NBC hit The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. She made a guest role as herself on Hangin With Mr.Copper in 1993. Latifah appeared in the 1996 box-office hit, Set It Off and subsequently had a supporting role in the Holly Hunter film Living Out Loud (1998).[4] She played the role of Thelma in the 1999 movie adaptation of Jeffrey Deavers’ The Bone Collector, alongside Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie. Although she had already received some critical acclaim, she gained mainstream success after being cast as Matron “Mama” Morton in the Oscar-winning musical Chicago, the recipient of the Best Picture Oscar.[4] Latifah received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her role, but lost to co-star Catherine Zeta-Jones.[4] Latifah is one of two hip-hop artists to receive an Academy Award nomination in an acting category (Best Supporting Actress, Chicago, 2002). The other is Will Smith (Best Actor, Ali, 2001, and Best Actor, The Pursuit of Happyness, 2006).

In 2003, she starred with Steve Martin in the film Bringing Down the House, which was a major success at the box office.She also recorded a song “Do Your Thing” for the soundtrack. Since then, she has had both leading and supporting roles in a multitude of films that received varied critical and box office receptions, including films such as Scary Movie 3, Barbershop 2: Back in Business, Taxi, Kung Faux, Beauty Shop, and Hairspray. In early 2006, Latifah appeared in a romantic comedy/drama entitled Last Holiday.[4] Film critic Richard Roeper stated that “this is the Queen Latifah performance I’ve been waiting for ever since she broke into movies”.[13] Also in 2006, Latifah voiced Ellie, a friendly mammoth, in the animated film, Ice Age: The Meltdown (her first voice appearance in an animated film), and also appeared in the drama Stranger Than Fiction.

She has starred in two movie remakes (Taxi and Last Holiday), four sequels (House Party 2, Scary Movie 3, Barbershop 2: Back in Business and Ice Age: The Meltdown), one spinoff (Beauty Shop), two movies based on books (The Bone Collector, The Secret Life of Bees), and two screen adaptations of musicals (Chicago and Hairspray). [14] The summer of 2007 brought Latifah triple success in the big-screen version of the Broadway smash hit Hairspray, in which she acted, sang, and danced. The film rated highly with critics. It starred, among others, John Travolta (Grease), Michelle Pfeiffer (Stardust), Allison Janney (Juno), James Marsden (Enchanted) and Christopher Walken (Catch Me If You Can). Also in 2007, she portrayed an HIV-positive woman in the film Life Support, a role for which she garnered her first Golden Globe Award, Screen Actors Guild Award and an Emmy nomination. For her work, Queen Latifah received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, on January 4, 2006, located at 6915 Hollywood Blvd.

Latifah produced the 2007 film The Perfect Holiday. In addition to producing the film, Latifah starred alongside Terrence Howard, Morris Chestnut, Gabrielle Union, Charles Q. Murphy, Jill Marie Jones, and Faizon Love.[15] In 2008, Latifah appeared in the crime comedy Mad Money opposite Academy Award-winner Diane Keaton as well as Katie Holmes and Ted Danson. She appeared on Saturday Night Live on October 4, 2008, as moderator Gwen Ifill impersonator in a comedic sketch depicting the recent vice-presidential debate.In 2009, Latifah was a presenter at the 81st Academy Awards, presenting the segment honoring film professionals who had died during 2008 and singing “I’ll Be Seeing You” during the montage.

Products and endorsements

Latifah is a celebrity spokesperson for CoverGirl cosmetics, Curvation ladies underwear, Pizza Hut and Jenny Craig.[17] She represents her own line of cosmetics for women of color called the CoverGirl Queen Collection and has starred in several commercials for the line, as well as a commercial with fellow spokeswoman and singer Faith Hill.

Personal life

Raised in East Orange, New Jersey, she has been a resident of Colts Neck, New Jersey.[18] Latifah’s older brother Lancelot Jr. was killed in 1992 in an accident involving a motorcycle that Latifah had recently bought him.[4] Latifah still wears the key to the motorcycle around her neck,[4] which can be seen throughout her performance in her sitcom Living Single. She also dedicated Black Reign to him. In 1993, Latifah was the victim of a carjacking, which also resulted in the shooting of a friend. In 1996 she was arrested and charged with possession of marijuana and possession of a loaded handgun.In her 1999 autobiography, Ladies First: Revelations of a Strong Woman, Latifah discussed how her brother’s death led to a bout of depression and drug abuse, from which she later recovered.

In early 2003, Latifah had breast reduction surgery to relieve back pain. She also works out with a trainer and kickboxes.

Latifah appeared in advertisements in January 2009 for Jenny Craig chronicling her weight loss while on the diet. She was hired as the new spokesperson due to her 35 pound loss on the Jenny Craig program.

In the July 2009 issue of Essence Magazine, Latifah declared that she had been raped by a teenaged caretaker as a child.

Discography

Studio Albums

* 1989: All Hail the Queen
* 1991: Nature of a Sista
* 1993: Black Reign
* 1998: Order in the Court
* 2004: The Dana Owens Album
* 2007: Trav’lin’ Light
* 2009: Persona

Compilations

* 2002: She’s a Queen: A Collection of Hits

Green Day was originally part of the punk rock scene at 924 Gilman Street in Berkeley, California. Its early releases for independent record label Lookout! Records earned them a grassroots fanbase, some of whom felt alienated when the band signed to a major label.Nevertheless, its major label debut Dookie (1994) became a breakout success and eventually sold over 10 million copies in the U.S. and 15 million worldwide.As a result, Green Day was widely credited, alongside fellow California punk bands The Offspring and Rancid, with reviving mainstream interest in and popularizing punk rock in the United States.Green Day’s three follow-up albums, Insomniac, Nimrod and Warning did not achieve the massive success of Dookie, but they were still successful, reaching double platinum, double platinum, and gold status respectively.Green Day’s 2004 rock opera American Idiot reignited the band’s popularity with a younger generation, selling five million copies in the U.S.The band’s eighth studio album, 21st Century Breakdown, was released on May 15, 2009.

Green Day has sold over 22 million records in the United States.They have won three Grammy Awards; Best Alternative Album for Dookie, Best Rock Album for American Idiot, and Record of the Year for “Boulevard of Broken Dreams”.

Band history

Formation and Lookout years: 1987-1993

“Welcome to Paradise”
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Sample of “Welcome to Paradise” from Kerplunk This was before Green Day re-recorded the song for its major-label debut Dookie.
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In 1987, friends Billie Joe Armstrong and Mike Dirnt, 15 years old at the time, formed a band called Sweet Children. The first Sweet Children show took place on October 17, 1987, at Rod’s Hickory Pit in Vallejo, California where Armstrong’s mother was working. In 1988, Armstrong and Dirnt began working with former Isocracy drummer, John Kiffmeyer (also known as Al Sobrante). Kiffmeyer served as both the band’s drummer and business manager, handling the booking of shows and helping the band establish a fan base.

Larry Livermore, owner of Lookout! Records, saw the band play an early show and signed them to his label. In 1989 they recorded their first EP, 1,000 Hours. Before 1,000 Hours was released, the band dropped the name Sweet Children, according to Livermore this was done in order to avoid confusion with another local band Sweet Baby,The band adopted the name Green Day, allegedly due to their fondness of marijuana.

Lookout! would release Green Day’s first LP, 39/Smooth in early 1990. Green Day would record two EPs later that year: Slappy and Sweet Children, the latter of which included some older songs they had recorded for Minneapolis indie label Skene! Records. In 1991, Lookout! Records released 1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours, a compilation of the 39/Smooth, Slappy, and 1,000 Hours EPs. In late 1990, shortly after the band’s first nationwide tour, Sobrante left the East Bay area to attend college.[9] The Lookouts drummer Tré Cool began filling in as a temporary replacement, and when it became clear that Sobrante did not plan on committing to the band full time, Tré Cool’s position as Green Day’s drummer became permanent. The band went on tour for most of 1992 and 1993, and played a stretch of shows overseas in Europe. The band’s second full length album Kerplunk sold about 50,000 copies in the U.S.

Breakthrough success: 1994-1996

Kerplunk’s underground success led to a wave of interest coming from major record labels, and eventually they left Lookout! on friendly terms and signed with Reprise Records after attracting the attention of producer Rob Cavallo. Signing to Reprise caused many punk rock fans to regard Green Day as sellouts.Reflecting on the period, Armstrong told Spin magazine in 1999, “I couldn’t go back to the punk scene, whether we were the biggest success in the world or the biggest failure … The only thing I could do was get on my bike and go forward.” After signing with Reprise, the band went to work on recording its major label debut, Dookie.

“Longview”
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Sample of “Longview”, the first single from Dookie, which combined a memorable bass line with a guitar riff and drums introduced in the chorus.
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“Basket Case”
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Sample of “Basket Case”, the third single from Dookie, which was about Armstrong’s panic attacks.
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Released in February 1994, and recorded in 3 weeks, Dookie became a commercial success, helped by extensive MTV airplay for the videos of the songs “Longview”, “Basket Case”, and “When I Come Around”, all of which reached the number one position on the Modern Rock Tracks charts. That year, Green Day embarked on a nationwide tour with queercore band Pansy Division as its opening act. At a September 9, 1994 concert at Boston Esplanade, mayhem broke-out during the band’s set (cut short to seven songs) and by the end of the rampage, 100 people were injured and 45 arrested.[15] The band also joined the lineups of both the Lollapalooza festival and Woodstock 1994, where they started an infamous mud fight. During the concert, a security guard mistook bassist Mike Dirnt for a stage-invading fan and punched out some of his teeth. Viewed by millions via pay-per-view television, the Woodstock 1994 performance further aided Green Day’s growing publicity and recognition,[16] and helped push its album to eventual diamond status. In 1995, Dookie won the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Album and the band was nominated for 9 MTV Video Music Awards including Video of the Year.
The full fold-out artwork to Insomniac, entitled God Told Me to Skin You Alive.

In 1995, a new single for the Angus soundtrack was released, titled “J.A.R.”. The single went straight to number one on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart. The song was followed by the band’s new album, Insomniac, which was released in the fall of 1995. Insomniac was a much darker and heavier response by the band, compared to the poppier, more melodic Dookie.Insomniac opened to a warm critical reception, earning 4 out of 5 stars from Rolling Stone, which said “In punk, the good stuff actually unfolds and gains meaning as you listen without sacrificing any of its electric, haywire immediacy. And Green Day are as good as this stuff gets.” Insomniac used a piece of art by Winston Smith entitled God Told Me to Skin You Alive for its album cover. The singles released from Insomniac were “Geek Stink Breath”, “Brain Stew/Jaded”, “Walking Contradiction”, and “Stuck With Me”. Though the album did not approach the success of Dookie, it still sold two million copies in the United States. Insomniac won the band award nominations for Favorite Artist, Favorite Hard Rock Artist, and Favorite Alternative Artist at the 1996 American Music Awards, and the video for “Walking Contradiction” got the band a Grammy nomination for Best Video, Short Form, in addition to a Best Special Effects nomination at the MTV Video Music Awards.After that, the band abruptly cancelled a European tour, citing exhaustion.

Middle era and fall in popularity: 1997-2002

After taking a break in 1996, Green Day began to work on a new album in 1997. From the outset, both the band and Cavallo agreed that the album had to be different from its previous records.[22] The result was Nimrod, an experimental deviation from the band’s standard pop-punk brand of music. The new album was released in October 1997. It provided a variety of music, from pop-punk, surf rock, and ska, to an acoustic ballad. Nimrod entered the charts at number 10. The success of “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)” won the band an MTV Video Award for Best Alternative Video for the song’s video, which depicted people undergoing major changes in their lives while Billie Joe Armstrong strummed his acoustic guitar.[23] The song was also used in the second “clip show” episode of Seinfeld and on two episodes of ER. The other singles released from Nimrod were “Nice Guys Finish Last”, “Hitchin’ a Ride” and “Redundant”. The band made a guest appearance in an episode of King of the Hill entitled “The Man Who Shot Cane Skretteberg”, which aired in 1997.

In 2000, Green Day released Warning, a step further in the style that they had hinted at with Nimrod. Critics’ reviews of the album were varied. Allmusic gave it 4.5/5 saying “Warning may not be an innovative record per se, but it’s tremendously satisfying.”[25] Rolling Stone was more critical, giving it 3/5, and saying “Warning… invites the question: Who wants to listen to songs of faith, hope and social commentary from what used to be snot-core’s biggest-selling band?”Though it produced the hit “Minority” and a smaller hit with “Warning”, some observers were coming to the conclusion that the band was losing relevance,and a decline in popularity followed. While all of Green Day’s past albums had reached a status of at least double platinum, Warning was only certified gold.

At the 2001 California Music Awards, Green Day won all eight awards that they were nominated for. They won the awards for Outstanding Album (Warning), Outstanding Punk Rock/Ska Album (Warning), Outstanding Group, Outstanding Male Vocalist, Outstanding Bassist, Outstanding Drummer, Outstanding Songwriter and Outstanding Artist.

The release of a Greatest Hits compilation, International Superhits!, and an assemblage of B-sides, Shenanigans, followed Warning. International Superhits and its companion collection of music videos, International Supervideos!, sold reasonably well, going platinum in the U.S. Shenanigans contained some of the band’s b-sides, including “Espionage” which was featured in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me and was nominated for a Grammy for Best Rock Instrumental Performance.

In the spring of 2002, Green Day co-headlined the Pop Disaster Tour with Blink-182. Despite the co-headlining title, Green Day would play each show before Blink-182, who at the time were experiencing more success. The tour was documented on the DVD Riding In Vans With Boys.

American Idiot and renewed success: 2003-2006
Spectators watch Green Day from the grass slopes at the National Bowl.

In the summer of 2003 the band went into a studio to write and record new material for a new album, tentatively titled Cigarettes and Valentines.[28] After completing 20 tracks, the master tapes were stolen from the studio. The band chose not to try to re-create the stolen album, but instead started over. By the end of 2003[when?], Green Day collaborated with Iggy Pop on two tracks for his album Skull Ring. On February 1, 2004 a new song, a cover of “I Fought the Law” made its debut on a commercial for iTunes during NFL Super Bowl XXXVIII. The band underwent serious “band therapy,” engaging in several long talks to work out the members’ differences after accusations from Dirnt and Cool that Armstrong was “the band’s Nazi”and a show-off bent on taking the limelight from the other band members.

The resulting 2004 album, American Idiot, debuted at number one on the Billboard charts, the band’s first ever album to top the chart, backed by the success of the album’s first single, “American Idiot.” The album was billed as a “punk rock opera” which follows the journey of the fictitious “Jesus of Suburbia”. American Idiot won the 2005 Grammy for “Best Rock Album” and the band swept the 2005 MTV music awards, winning a total of seven of the eight awards they were nominated for, including the coveted Viewer’s Choice Award.

Through 2005, the band toured in support of the album with about 150 dates - the longest tour in its career - visiting Japan, Australia, South America and the United Kingdom, where they drew a crowd of 130,000 people over a span of two days. While touring for American Idiot, they filmed and recorded the two concerts at the Milton Keynes National Bowl in England, which was voted ‘The Best Show On Earth’ in a Kerrang! Magazine Poll.

These recordings were released as a live CD and DVD called Bullet in a Bible on November 15, 2005. This CD/DVD featured hits from American Idiot as well as a few songs from all its previous albums, except “Kerplunk” and “1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours”. The DVD featured behind-the-scenes footage of the band, and showed how the band prepared to put on the show. The final shows of its 2005 world tour were in Sydney, Australia, and Melbourne, Australia, on December 14 and 17 respectively. On January 10, 2006 the band was awarded with a People’s Choice Award for favorite group.
Green Day live in Germany during the American Idiot tour.

On August 1, 2005, Green Day announced that that it had rescinded the master rights to its pre-Dookie material from Lookout! Records, citing a continuing breach of contract regarding unpaid royalties, a complaint shared with other Lookout! bands. The pre-Dookie material, which remained out of print for about a year, was reissued by the band’s current label, Reprise, on January 9, 2007.

In 2006, Green Day won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year for “Boulevard of Broken Dreams”which spent 16 weeks at the number one position of Billboard’s Modern Rock Tracks, a record it shared along with Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Scar Tissue” and Staind’s “It’s Been Awhile,” (the record has been since been beaten by Foo Fighters’ 2007 hit “The Pretender” which reigned at the top spot for 18 weeks).

Brandon Flowers of The Killers went on record in 2007 claiming that Green Day’s politically driven concept album American Idiot displays “calculated Anti-Americanism.” He explained that he has problems with the album content itself and also the fact that the band’s live DVD, Bullet in a Bible, was filmed in England. The taping of the concert, featured on Bullet in a Bible, shows thousands of Europeans singing along to “American Idiot.” Stating that he felt Green Day’s DVD is a bit of a stunt, he said, “I just thought it was really cheap. To go to a place like England or Germany and sing that song - those kids aren’t taking it the same way that he meant it. And he (Billie Joe Armstrong) knew it.”

Foxboro Hot Tubs and 21st Century Breakdown: 2007-present
Green Day performing during a secret show at Webster Hall on May 18, 2009

Green Day engaged in several other smaller projects in the time following the hype of American Idiot. Green Day released a new album under the band name Foxboro Hot Tubs entitled Stop Drop and Roll!!!.

In an interview with Kerrang!, Billie Joe revealed that 2008 would “be a fair estimate of the release date of their new untitled eighth studio album for Green Day.”In an interview with Carson Daly, Garbage lead singer Shirley Manson revealed that Butch Vig would be producing Green Day’s forthcoming album.The span of nearly five years between American Idiot and 21st Century Breakdown was the longest gap between studio albums in Green Day’s career. The band had been working on new material since January 2006. By October 2007, Armstrong had 45 songs written, but the band showed no further signs of progress until October 2008, when a video of the group recording with producer Butch Vig in the studio was posted on YouTube. Two videos showing the band in the studio were posted on YouTube. In the tour section of the band’s official website, the message “World Tour coming soon!” is shown.The writing and recording process, spanning three years and four recording studios, was finally finished in April 2009.

The new album is titled 21st Century Breakdown and was released worldwide on May 15, 2009. It has received rave reviews from the likes of Nirvana’s Krist Novoselic.[44] The album had mainly positive reception from critics, getting an average rating between 4 and 5 stars. After the release, the album hit #1 in fourteen different countries, hitting Gold or Platinum in each. 21st Century Breakdown achieved Green Day’s best chart performance to date. The band started playing shows in California in April and early May. It was their first live show in about 3 years. Green Day will be going on a world tour starting with North America in July, 2009 and continuing around the world throughout the rest of 2009.
Musical style and influences

Green Day’s sound is often compared to first wave punk bands such as the Ramones, The Clash, Sex Pistols, The Jam, and the Buzzcocks.[21][46] The majority of their song catalog is composed of distorted guitar, fast, manic drums, and relatively high-treble bass. Most of their songs are fast-paced and under four minutes. Billie Joe Armstrong has mentioned that some of his biggest influences are seminal alternative rock bands Hüsker Dü and The Replacements, and that their influence is particularly noted in the band’s chord changes in songs.In fact, Green Day has covered Hüsker Dü’s “Don’t Want to Know If You Are Lonely” as a b-side for the “Warning” single, and the character “Mr. Whirly” in their song “Misery” is a reference to the Replacements song of the same name.[47] Among other influences, Green Day have also cited Queen, proto-punks The Who, and power pop pioneers Cheap Trick.[49] Armstrong’s lyrics commonly describe alienation, (”Jesus of Suburbia”, “Boulevard of Broken Dreams”, “Road to Acceptance”, “Disappearing Boy”, “Castaway”) hysteria (”Basket Case”, “Panic Song”), girls (”She”, “80″ “Only of You”,”Maria” “She’s a Rebel”), growing up (”Longview” and “Welcome to Paradise”), and the effects of doing drugs (”Geek Stink Breath”, “Green Day”). The Ramones had similar lyrical themes such as hysteria (”Anxiety”, “Psycho Therapy”), alienation (”Outsider”, “Something To Believe In”), girls (”I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend”, “Sheena Is a Punk Rocker”), and drugs (”Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue”, “Chinese Rocks”). Green Day has covered Ramones songs several times, including recording “Outsider” for the tribute album We’re a Happy Family, and performing “Blitzkrieg Bop” and “Teenage Lobotomy” when the Ramones were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002.

Beginning with the release of Dookie, and the subsequent explosion of MTV airplay it received, Green Day has received considerable criticism from who see the punk genre as a social movement independent of corporate sponsorship. With the release of American Idiot and the subsequent draw of many new fans[who?], much of this criticism has been revived.

One of the more contentious issues is genre labeling. In reaction to both the style of music and the background of the band, many[weasel words] fans and musicians have taken heavy objection to the use of the term “punk” when applied to Green Day. This is evidenced by the following comments issued by John Lydon (Johnny Rotten), former front man of both the 1970s punk band the Sex Pistols and the 1980s post-punk, Public Image Ltd.:

So there we are fending off all that and it pisses me off that years later a wank outfit like Green Day hop in and nick all that and attach it to themselves. They didn’t earn their wings to do that and if they were true punk they wouldn’t look anything like they do.

Noel Gallagher has also complained about the band, claiming that they ripped off “Wonderwall” in their song “Boulevard of Broken Dreams”.

Ever since 1991, some members of the band have branched out past Green Day and have started other projects with other musicians. Notable related projects of Green Day include Billie Joe Armstrong’s Pinhead Gunpowder (which also features Green Day’s live backup guitarist Jason White), The Frustrators in which Mike Dirnt plays bass, and The Network, in which all three members of Green Day play under fake stage names.[51] Billie Joe Armstrong has also confirmed that the main members of Green Day are in the band Foxboro Hot Tubs. A Foxboro Hot Tubs album titled Stop Drop and Roll!!! was released on 2008-05-20.

In September 2006, Green Day teamed up with U2 and producer Rick Rubin to record a cover of the song “The Saints Are Coming”, originally recorded by The Skids, with an accompanying video. The song is to benefit Music Rising, an organization to help raise money for musicians’ instruments lost during Hurricane Katrina, and to bring awareness on the eve of the one year anniversary of the disaster.

“Working Class Hero”
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“Working Class Hero”, a cover of a John Lennon song, was released on the Instant Karma CD.
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In December 2006, Green Day and NRDC opened a web site in partnership to raise awareness on America’s dependency on oil.

Green Day released a cover of the John Lennon song “Working Class Hero”, that was featured on the album Instant Karma: The Amnesty International Campaign to Save Darfur. The band performed the song on the season finale of American Idol. The song was nominated for a Grammy in 2008, but lost to The White Stripes’ “Icky Thump”.

That summer, the band appeared in a cameo role in The Simpsons Movie, where they perform the show’s theme song. Their version was released as a single on July 24, 2007.

Band members

Current

* Billie Joe Armstrong - lead vocals, lead & rhythm guitars (1987-present)
* Mike Dirnt - bass, backing vocals (1987-present)
* Tré Cool - drums, percussion, backing vocals (1990-present)

with

* Jason White - lead & rhythm guitars, backing vocals (1999-present)
* Jason Freese - keyboards, piano, acoustic guitar, trombone, saxophone, accordion, backing vocals (2003-present)
* Jeff Matika - rhythm guitar, backing vocals (2009-present)

Former

* John Kiffmeyer - drums, percussion, backing vocals (1987-1990)

Former touring musicians

* Gabrial McNair - trombone, tenor saxophone (1999-2001)
* Timmy Chunks - rhythm guitar (1997-1999)[56]
* Garth Schultz - trombone, trumpet (1997-1999)
* Kurt Lohmiller - trumpet, timpani, percussion, vocals (1999-2004)
* Ronnie Blake - trumpet, timpani, percussion, backing vocals (2004-2005)
* Mike Pelino - rhythm guitar, backing vocals (2004-2005)[57]

Session

* Gabrial McNair - trombone on Nimrod (1997)
* Gary Meek - saxophone on Warning (2000)
* Jason Freese - saxophone on American Idiot (2004) and piano on 21st Century Breakdown (2009)
* Petra Haden - violin on Nimrod (1997)
* Rob Cavallo - piano on American Idiot (2004)
* Stephen Bradley - trumpet on Nimrod (1997) and Warning (2000)

Discography
Main article: Green Day discography

* 39/Smooth (1990)
* Kerplunk (1992)
* Dookie (1994)
* Insomniac (1995)
* Nimrod (1997)
* Warning (2000)
* American Idiot (2004)
* 21st Century Breakdown (2009)