Tony Bennett    (3 Aug 1926)
née Anthony Dominick Benedetto

Award winning singer, a painter, variety show host, teen heart throb, romantic crooner for a more mature crowd, he's an artist for all, and for all times!

Tony Bennett was born in Astoria, Queens (NYC) to an Italian father.  "By age 10 the young Benedetto was already singing and performed at the opening of the Triborough Bridge. He attended New York's High School of Industrial Art where he studied music and painting (an interest he would always return to as an adult)."

"Bennett began his career as a crooner singing commercial pop tunes. His first big hit was "Because of You." "Bennett's recording of "Blue Velvet" was also very popular and attracted screaming teenage fans at concerts in the famed Paramount Theater in New York... and elsewhere."

"Tony Bennett has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame... was inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame in 1997... was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001.... received a lifetime achievement award from the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) in 2002", and "in 2002, Q magazine named Tony Bennett in their list of the "50 Bands To See Before You Die." "

Genre: Pop, Traditional Pop, Jazz, Easy Listening

Sources:  (1)

k.d. lang   (2 Nov 1961)
née Kathryn Dawn Lang

"Few singers command such perfection of pitch. Her voice, at once beautiful and unadorned and softened with a veil of smoke, invariably hits the middle of a note and remains there. She discreetly flaunted her technique, drawing out notes and shading them from sustained cries into softer, vibrato-laden murmurs. She balanced her commitment to the material with humor, projecting a twinkling merriment behind it all."¹ - a brilliant summation of kd lang's talent by Stephen Holden of the NY Times!

KD Lang is a  Grammy Award-winning Canadian [from Alberta] singer and songwriter who has wowed her audiences over the years with her songbird-like voice and the variability of the range of her music (rock, country, rockabilly, honky tonk, pop, blues).

She was drawn to initially drawn to country music out of a fascination with the music of Patsy Cline, formed a band which reinterpreted this style of music, and raised eyebrows (but got a fan following) with her tongue-in-cheek onstage performances.  In 1985, kd was named the Most Promising Female Vocalist by Juno and she made good on that award by earning 8 more Juno Awards in the years to come.

Other merits include: winning the Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance for her 1989 album, Absolute Torch and Twang; a #1 hit in Canada with the single "Full Moon of Love"; multi-million dollar sales of "Constant Craving" from the  album Ingénue in 1992 and the Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance; chosen  "Woman of the Year" by Chateleine magazine; ranking #33 on VH1's 100 Greatest Women in Rock & Roll in 1999 and #26 on CMT' 40 Greatest Women in Country Music in 2002 (one of only seven women

 to make both lists); winning a fourth Grammy Award in 2003 for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album for her collaboration with Tony Bennett, A Wonderful World; among others.

"In 2007 she will be partnering with Anne Murray on a re-make of Murray's hit "A Love Song," to be featured on Murray's CD Anne Murray Duets: Friends and Legends." "Anne Murray was Lang's childhood idol." "She is due to release an album of new material, Watershed in February 2008. It will be her first collection of original material since Invincible Summer in 2000."

Genre: Pop, Rock, Country

Sources:  (1)  (2)