The headline is the text at the top of a newspaper article, indicating the nature of the article below it.

It is sometimes termed a news ''hed'', a deliberate misspelling that dates from production flow during hot type days, to notify the composing room that a written note from an editor concerned a headline and should not be set in type.and it is important too

Production of headlines

A headline's purpose is to quickly and briefly draw attention to the story. It is generally written by a copy editor, but may also be written by the writer, the page layout designer, or other editors. The most important story on the front page above the fold may have a larger headline if the story is unusually important. ''The New York Times'''s 21 July 1969 front page stated, for example, that "MEN WALK ON MOON", with the four words in gigantic size spread from the left to right edges of the page.

The film ''The Shipping News'' has an illustrative exchange between the protagonist, who is learning how to write for a local newspaper, and his publisher:

:Publisher: It's finding the center of your story, the beating heart of it, that's what makes a reporter. You have to start by making up some headlines. You know: short, punchy, dramatic headlines. Now, have a look, [''pointing at dark clouds gathering in the sky over the ocean''] what do you see? Tell me the headline. :Protagonist: HORIZON FILLS WITH DARK CLOUDS? :Publisher: IMMINENT STORM THREATENS VILLAGE. :Protagonist: But what if no storm comes? :Publisher: VILLAGE SPARED FROM DEADLY STORM.

In the United States, headline contests are sponsored by the American Copy Editors Society, the National Federation of Press Women, and many state press associations.

Unusual headlines

A number of newspapers use humour, puns, alliteration or other word play devices in their headlines. Equally, the need to keep headlines brief occasionally leads to unintentional double meanings, if not double entendres. For example, if the story is about the president of Iraq trying to acquire weapons, the headline might be IRAQI HEAD SEEKS ARMS, or if some agricultural legislation is defeated in the United States House of Representatives, the title could read FARMER BILL DIES IN HOUSE.

WALL ST. LAYS AN EGG - ''Variety'' on Black Monday (1929)

STICKS NIX HICK PIX - ''Variety'' writing that rural moviegoers preferred urban films (1935)

DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN - ''Chicago Tribune'' reporting the wrong election winner (1948)

FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD - ''New York Daily News'' reporting the denial of a federal bailout for bankrupt New York City (1975)

HEADLESS BODY IN TOPLESS BAR - ''New York Post'' on a local murder (1983)

SAM SLEEPS! - ''New York Post'' over a front-page picture of mass-murderer David Berkowitz ("Son of Sam") asleep in his jail cell. SICK TRANSIT'S GLORIOUS MONDAY - ''New York Daily News'' reporting a state transit bailout (1980)

GOTCHA! - The UK ''Sun'' on the torpedoing of the Argentine ship ''Belgrano'' and sinking of a gunboat during the Falklands War (1982)

GREAT SATAN SITS DOWN WITH THE AXIS OF EVIL - ''The Times'' (London) on US-Iran talks (2007) SUPER CALEY GO BALLISTIC CELTIC ARE ATROCIOUS - ''Sun'' on Inverness Caledonian Thistle beating Celtic in the Scottish Cup

While editor of ''The New Republic'', Michael Kinsley began a contest to find the most boring newspaper headline. According to him, no entry surpassed the one that had inspired him to create the contest: "WORTHWHILE CANADIAN INITIATIVE", over a column by ''The New York Times'' Flora Lewis.

See also

The lead paragraph

''Headlines'' (from ''The Tonight Show with Jay Leno'')

A-1 Headline, a 2004 Hong Kong film

Bus plunge, a type of news story, and accompanying headline

Further reading

Harold Evans ''News Headlines'' (Editing and Design : Book Three) Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd (February 1974) ISBN 0-434-90552-6 ISBN 978-0-434-90552-2

Fritz Spiegl ''What The Papers Didn't Mean to Say'' Scouse Press, Liverpool, 1965

References

External links

Front Page - The British Library Exhibition of famous newspaper headlines (2006)

Category:Journalism terminology

de:Schlagzeile fr:Chapeau (typographie) it:Titolo (giornalismo) mn:Гарчиг nl:Krantenkop ja:見出し pt:Manchete simple:Headline sv:Tidningsrubrik th:หัวเรื่อง zh:頭條新聞

honorific-suffix	MEP
constituency mp1	South East England
parliament1	European
term start1	14 July 1999
birth date	September 01, 1971
birth place	Lima, Peru
nationality	British
spouse	Sara Hannan
party	Conservative
children	2
alma mater	Oriel College, Oxford
profession	JournalistPolitician
religion	Christian
website	www.hannan.co.uk Conservative Party website
footnotes	}}

Daniel John Hannan (born 1 September 1971) is a British journalist, author and politician who is currently a Member of the European Parliament, representing South East England for the Conservative Party and the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) political group. He is also the Secretary-General of the Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists (AECR).

Hannan was first elected to the European Parliament at the 1999 election. He was expelled from the EPP–ED group in 2008, after which he sat with the Non-Inscrits. Hannan joined the ECR with his Conservative colleagues when it was formed in 2009 and became Secretary-General of its sister Europarty, the AECR. Hannan is a Eurosceptic and a Unionist, and he is strongly critical of European integration. He currently serves on the Committee on Legal Affairs and the delegation to the ACP–EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly.

Hannan is also a journalist, having written leaders and currently authoring a blog for ''The Daily Telegraph''. He has also published several books arguing for democratic reform.

Early life

Upbringing

Hannan was born on his parents' farm near Lima, Peru (the centre of one of Peru's largest and most modern poultry businesses; the family owned a cotton farm in Santa Cruz, Bolivia). Hannan's father served in Italy during the Second World War with the North Irish Horse. Hannan has indicated that his father's Irish Catholic origins made him more sensitive to issues related to Northern Ireland and The Troubles.

After spending his childhood in Peru, Hannan was educated at Marlborough College and by Oriel College, Oxford, where he studied Modern History. He speaks English, French and Spanish.

Early political career

Hannan was President of the Oxford University Conservative Association (OUCA) in 1992. When standing in OUCA's committee elections for Michaelmas 1991, his strongly Eurosceptic views prompted accusations of ''"xenophobia"'' in the Oxford student paper ''Cherwell'', prompting Hannan to threaten them with legal action. He also served as national vice-chairman of Conservative Students from 1992-3, and then chairman of Conservative Graduates from 1994. He had earlier established the Oxford Campaign for an Independent Britain, and on 12 September 1992 led a members' protest at a European financial summit held in Bath, which was widely televised and, he has since light-heartedly claimed, led to the withdrawal of the Pound Sterling from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism a few days later.

Through the CIB he became involved with the Bruges Group, and after he graduated he became, in 1994, director of a Eurosceptic political think-tank, the European Research Group. In 1996 he was hired by the ''Daily Telegraph'' as a leader-writer, and has since contributed to ''The Spectator'' and many other newspapers and magazines around the world. In 1997 he became an adviser and speechwriter to Michael Howard, then Shadow Foreign Secretary, and in 1998 he was given a place on the Conservative candidates' list for the following year's European Parliament election. He later became a speechwriter for party leader William Hague. In 1999 he stood down from his posts at the European Research Group and Conservative Graduates.

Member of the European Parliament

Hannan was first elected to the European Parliament in 1999, and was re-elected at the top of his party's list for the South East England constituency in 2004. In April 2008, Daniel Hannan was elected to the top position of the Conservative list for the 2009 European elections in the constituency of South East England, and in June 2009 he was re-elected to the European Parliament.

A year after his first election, Hannan courted controversy when he appeared to be using the Conservative Party's central office as headquarters for a campaign to persuade Danish voters to block the introduction of the European Single Currency; however, he was able to show that the campaign was actually being run from his Westminster flat.

In his first term, he served on the Committee on Fisheries and the Delegation for Relations with Afghanistan.

Opposition to the ICTY

Hannan has campaigned in the European Parliament for an end to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, describing it as "a disgusting travesty," and has praised the work of John Laughland, a supporter of Slobodan Milošević who "chronicles, in pitiless detail, how the judges crashed through a series of legal norms and conventions in their increasingly frantic attempts to secure a conviction", though Hannan has taken what he claims to be "the more conventional view that Milosevic was a calculating Commie who unleashed a series of calamities". Hannan claimed in 2007 a system where international law was used to regulate domestic matters would "create the opportunity for a dictatorship far worse than Milošević's", because the courts could try democratic leaders, even though they themselves had no democratic mandate.

Campaign against the Lisbon Treaty

Hannan opposed ratification of the Lisbon Treaty in the European Parliament, and was one of several MEPs who took part in a demonstration in the chamber after Parliament voted to endorse the Treaty. He has continued to speak against the Treaty, and in the manner of Cato the Elder's famous call, ''Carthago delenda est'', he ended every speech, whatever its subject, with a call for the Lisbon Treaty to be put to a referendum: "''Pactio Olisipiensis censenda est''".

Expulsion from the EPP-ED

Attempts by several MEPs to disrupt the work of the Parliament caused sufficient annoyance for a majority of Members to endorse a rule change giving the Speaker/President the discretion to limit the use of filibustering procedures where he "is convinced that these are manifestly intended to cause, and will result in, a prolonged and serious obstruction of the procedures of the House or the rights of other Members" (Rule 20, para 1). In the parliamentary session just before the new rule was to be presented by the President of the European Parliament Hans-Gert Pöttering, Hannan criticised what he termed a deviation from the rule of law. He continued speaking after his allocated time had ended by quoting Edmund Burke, but was interrupted mid-quote and had his microphone cut off by Luigi Cocilovo, one of the 14 Vice-Presidents. He then responded by damning, without vocal amplification, what he claimed were Parliament’s deviations from its own rules;

Pöttering is a German national and a member of the same political group (EPP-ED) as Hannan. Hannan's remarks were attacked by other MEPs from the EPP-ED. The head of EPP-ED, Joseph Daul, responded by initiating proceedings to expel Hannan immediately from their Group. Daniel Hannan left the EPP-ED on 19 February 2008. He sat, for the remainder of the five-year term as a Conservative without pan-European affiliation (''Non-Inscrit''). Following his 2009 re-election, he sits with the new eurosceptic European Conservatives and Reformists along with his Conservative Party colleagues.

YouTube hit

On 24 March 2009, after Gordon Brown had given a short speech to the European Parliament in Strasbourg in advance of the G20 London summit, Hannan followed up by delivering a 3-minute speech criticising in very strong terms the response by Gordon Brown to the global financial crisis. He finished the speech: }}

The final phrase, "the devalued Prime Minister of a devalued government", was a quote from a speech by Labour Party leader John Smith criticising then-Prime Minister John Major in 1992.

A video clip of the speech went viral on YouTube that evening, attracting more than 630,000 views in 24 hours. It became the 'most viewed today' YouTube video worldwide two consecutive days. Hannan was invited to appear on several shows on American cable news channels, including Fox News and MSNBC: he appeared on television program ''Hannity'' via video link at 9pm EST on the same day, and on the ''Glenn Beck Program'' the following day. He also appeared on ''Your World with Neil Cavuto'', where he stated he would have voted for Ron Paul in the 2008 presidential election had he been an American citizen. The main British television channels, particularly the BBC and ITV, gave the speech fairly limited coverage, for which they faced some criticism from Conservative MPs and "a handful of viewers"; Conservative MP Nigel Evans stated that their lack of coverage rendered YouTube the 'ultimate in public service broadcasting'. As of July 2010, there have been 2.7 million views of the clip. Nearly all of the hits are from the UK and US.

Political positions

Cameron administration

Hannan wrote in March 2011 criticizing anti-austerity protesters, stating that that they "have decided to indulge their penchant for empty, futile, self-righteous indignation." He remarked, "After “No Cuts!” the marchers’ favourite slogan was “Fairness!” Alright, then... How about being fair to our children, whom we have freighted with a debt unprecedented in peacetime?"

Electoral reform

Hannan argues in his writings and in the media (for example, during an appearance on Question Time on BBC television on 28 May 2009) for ballot initiatives (whereby electors can directly enact legislation as happens in Switzerland), a power of recall (whereby a sitting Member of Parliament can be forced to submit to re-election if enough of his local electorate support this), fixed term parliaments, local and national referendums, open primaries and the abolition of party lists.

Afghan and Iraq wars

Hannan supports the British efforts in the Afghanistan war after the September 11th attacks, pointing out that "more British subjects died in the Twin Towers than in any terrorist atrocity in our history – more than at Lockerbie or Omagh" (see Pan Am Flight 103 and Omagh bombing). He also supports a timetable for set military withdrawal from the country. He wrote in June 2010, "there comes a point when our presence is doing more harm than good, serving to destabilise Pakistan rather than to stabilise Afghanistan. We are reaching that point now."

He opposed the Invasion of Iraq undertaken by the Premiership of Tony Blair.

Drugs

Hannan is opposed to "victimless crimes" and is in favour of drug decriminalisation. "I’d start with cannabis, and if that worked I wouldn’t in principle be against decriminalising heroin.”

Commentary about the United States

Hannan describes himself as an Atlanticist with inherently positive views of the United States as well as other English-speaking nations. He endorsed then-Democratic candidate Barack Obama for President on 18 October 2008. He stated that a McCain presidency would mean an "imperial overstretch", particularly arguing that the U.S. should have been preparing to leave Iraq immediately. He labeled Obama's opponents as symbolic of "big federal budgets, protectionism, crony capitalism and, for that matter, the socialisation of failing banks."

On 14 June 2010, Hannan took back his endorsement, which he called his "single most unpopular post" in his blogging career. He argued, "Any American reader who wants to know where Obamification will lead should spend a week with me in the European Parliament. I’m working in your future and, believe me, you won’t like it." He also accused the Obama administration of straining the special relationship between the U.S. and the U.K., particularly over the Falkland Islands.

Praise for Iceland's economic miracle

Hannan has been a regular visitor to Iceland for 15 years. His best man organised his stag night there to celebrate its refusal to join the European Union, and has declared Icelanders to be the sturdiest and most self-reliant people he knows. Hannan's critics have pointed to his extravagant praise for Iceland's economic miracle prior to the 2008 crash, in which he advocated that other countries should emulate the Icelandic model of minimal national and international regulation as their model. In an October 2004 piece for ''The Spectator'', entitled Blue-Eyed Sheikhs, Hannan wrote "For 70 years the Althing has been dominated by the splendidly named Independence Party, which has pursued the kind of Thatcherite agenda that is off limits to EU members ... Icelanders have no more desire to submit to international than to national regulation. That attitude has made them the happiest, freest and wealthiest people on earth. Long may they remain so". He also said "In the ten years that I have been travelling to Iceland, I have watched an economic miracle unfold there" and that "Today, Icelanders are absolutely rolling in it".

Hannan has responded to Iceland’s crisis by writing that the country "would be mad to join the EU"; if they'd adopted the euro, their currency would have been unable to fall to cushion the blow. He continues to praise "the enterprise of your people. You understand that independence is the natural condition of a free-standing citizenry." Iceland formally applied to join the EU in July 2009 after a narrow vote in the Icelandic parliament. On his blog Hannan reacted to the news of the Icelandic EU application by claiming again that Iceland would never join the EU and pointing out that so far it had only "voted to start discussing terms, not to accept them". After all the issue would at the end be decided by the people in a referendum and they would never accept membership.

In July 2010, Hannan wrote while on a visit in Iceland, "Reading the British press, you might have the impression that Iceland has collapsed... as in Mad Max." He wrote that, in contrast, "[l]ife there is better than in most EU states" and "[a]fter two decades of phenomenal growth, there has been a correction, and Icelanders are now living like Danes". Thus, he concluded that Iceland's status proved that other European nations did not have to bailout their banking systems to avoid economic chaos. In December the same year Hannan wrote on his blog that "[b]eing outside the euro, Iceland has been able to devalue, and is now exporting its way back to growth." Referring to a recent article in The Economist he wrote: "No less a Euro-integrationist organ than The Economist has now come round to the view that Iceland was spared Ireland’s fate for two reasons: it refused to bail out its banks, and it was outside the euro."

NHS criticism

In April 2009, he criticised supporters of the National Health Service, saying that those who claimed it was the greatest British invention were clearly forgetting about parliamentary democracy, penicillin, the discovery of DNA, the abolition of slavery, or common law. He also argued that the NHS has left Britain with low survival rates for cancers, strokes, high chances of becoming iller in hospital, and constant waiting lists. David Cameron, who had said that his priorities were "three letters: NHS", distanced himself from Hannan's remarks, saying that Hannan has "some rather eccentric points of view".

Writing in The Telegraph, Mr Hannan said of the media storm around his comments: ''On a visit to the US, I was asked by an interviewer whether I would recommend a British-style health-care model, paid for out of general taxation. I replied that all three parties were devoted to the NHS, and that it had public support (although I added that this was at least partly the result of the inaccurate belief that free health care for the poor is a unique attribute of the British system). But I didn't want to dissemble: I have for years argued that Britain would be better off with a Singapore-style system of personal health-care accounts. So I cautioned against nationalisation, citing international league tables on survival rates and waiting times.''

Also making the wider point that: "we seem to have lost the notion that a backbencher speaks for himself. I like David Cameron, and want him to be Prime Minister, not least so that Britain stops racking up debt. But the idea that I therefore agree with him on every issue is, when you think about it, silly."

Enoch Powell

It was reported in August 2009 that Hannan had praised the anti-immigrant Conservative politician Enoch Powell as "somebody who understood the importance of national democracy, who understood why you need to live in an independent country and what that meant, as well as being a free marketeer and a small-government Conservative."

However, he is also on record as saying "For what it’s worth, I think Enoch Powell was wrong on immigration. The civil unrest that he forecast, and that many feared in 1968, didn’t materialise. Britain assimilated a large population with an ease that few countries have matched. Being an immigrant myself, I have particular cause to be grateful for Britain’s understated cosmopolitanism."

''The Times''' associate editor Daniel Finkelstein said that "many immigrant families would find Dan's endorsement of Powell threatening and unpleasant, even though I am sure that was not his intent."

Writing in on The Telegraph website, Mr Hannan said: "I’m surprised that no one has picked up on the thing that I most admire about Enoch Powell, namely his tendency to ignore conventional wisdom and think things through from first principles. Like Rowan Williams, he always did his hearers the courtesy of addressing them as intelligent adults. Both men regularly got into trouble in consequence, either because they were genuinely misunderstood or because their detractors affected to misunderstand them. Neither responded by dumbing down. That, in politics, takes a special kind of integrity."

Publications

Daniel Hannan has been a leader writer for the ''Daily Telegraph'' since 1996. He has also written for various other newspapers, including ''The Wall Street Journal'', the German daily ''Die Welt'', the Swiss weekly ''Weltwoche'', ''The Sunday Telegraph'', ''The Catholic Herald'', ''Freedom Today'', the ''Brussels Journal'' and ''The Spectator''.

He is the author of ''Time for a Fresh Start in Europe'' (1993) ''A Guide to the Amsterdam Treaty'' (1997), ''The Euro: Bad for Business'' (1998), ''The Challenge of the East'' (1999), ''What if Britain Votes No?'' (2002), ''The Case for EFTA'' (2004), and ''The New Road to Serfdom: A Letter of Warning to America'' (2010) and contributed to ''Treason at Maastricht'' (1994), by Rodney Atkinson and Norris McWhirter.

He was the co-founder of Direct Democracy and co-author, along with 27 Conservative MPs elected in 2005, of ''Direct Democracy: An Agenda for a New Model Party'', which proposes the wholesale devolution of power and the direct election of decision-makers. These ideas were developed further in a series of six pamphlets, ''The Localist Papers'', serialised in ''The Daily Telegraph'' in 2007. In 2008, he published the book ''The Plan: Twelve Months to Renew Britain'' together with Douglas Carswell.

Awards and prizes

In 2009 he was awarded the Bastiat Prize for Online Journalism for his Telegraph blog.

References

External links

Daniel Hannan's Blog

Profile at European Parliament website

Video of his attack on Gordon Brown

Category:1971 births Category:Alumni of Oriel College, Oxford Category:British libertarians Category:Conservative Party (UK) MEPs Category:Critics of the European Union Category:Direct democracy activists Category:English people of Irish descent Category:Living people Category:Members of the European Parliament for English constituencies Category:Old Marlburians Category:People from Lima Category:Peruvian people of British descent Category:MEPs for the United Kingdom 1999–2004 Category:MEPs for the United Kingdom 2004–2009 Category:MEPs for the United Kingdom 2009–2014 Category:Bastiat Prize winners

de:Daniel Hannan es:Daniel Hannan fr:Daniel Hannan nl:Daniel Hannan pl:Daniel Hannan ro:Daniel Hannan sv:Daniel Hannan

{|

Ship image
Ship caption	''Benfold'' in the Andaman Sea }}

Ship country	US
Ship flag
Ship name	USS ''Benfold''
Ship namesake	USN Hospital Corpsman Edward Clyde Benfold
Ship operator
Ship ordered	16 January 1991
Ship builder	Ingalls Shipbuilding
Ship laid down	27 September 1993
Ship launched	9 November 1994
Ship commissioned	30 March 1996
Ship homeport	Naval Base San Diego
Ship motto	''Onward with Valor''
Ship nickname	Mighty Benfold
Ship status	Active in service as of 2009
Ship badge	}}

Ship class	Arleigh Burke class destroyer
Ship displacement
Ship length
Ship beam
Ship draft
Ship power	3 X Rolls Royce AG9130F (Allison 501-K34) (2.5 MW Each)
Ship propulsion
Ship speed
Ship range
Ship complement
Ship sensors
Ship ew
Ship armament
Ship aircraft	None Embarked
Ship aircraft facilities	1 Flight Deck accommodating all U.S. Military Helocopters except CH-53 Sea Stallions.
Ship notes	}}

|} The USS ''Benfold'' (DDG-65) is an Arleigh Burke class destroyer in the United States Navy. She was named for the USN Hospital Corpsman Edward Clyde Benfold. She is the first U.S. Navy ship bearing the name ''Benfold''.

Description

Built by the Ingalls Shipbuilding Corporation in Pascagoula, Mississippi, the ''Benfold'' is the 15th of 35 planned ''Arleigh Burke''-class guided missile destroyers. She joined the U.S. Pacific Fleet for service on 30 March 1996.

A US Navy guided-missile destroyer equipped with the AEGIS air-defense system and the Mark-41 Vertical Launch System for multiple types of guided missiles, the ''Benfold'' is capable of defensive and offensive operations against warplanes, anti-ship missiles, surface ships, submarines, and shore targets. In addition to her missiles, she carries one 5-inch rapid-fire naval gun for action against surface ships and for shore bombardment. She also carries anti-submarine torpedoes, and two Phalanx anti-missile guns. She has a flight deck for LAMPS III ''Seahawk'' helicopters and is capable of refueling and re-arming these helicopters, but she does not have a hangar for storing and maintaining helicopters.

Her former captain, Commander D. Michael Abrashoff, the commanding officer from 1997 to 1999, wrote the best-selling book ''It's Your Ship: Management Techniques from the Best Damn Ship in the Navy'' (Warner Business Books 2002), based upon his experiences aboard the warship.

Jihadist sailor

In 2001, a ''Benfold'' signalman, Paul Hall, who later changed his name to Hassan Abu-Jihaad, provided information on the ship's upcoming movements through the Strait of Hormuz to a London-based website that openly espoused terrorist attacks against the US. The ship was not attacked. Hall was honorably discharged in 2002. Abu-Jihaad was convicted in 2008 for disclosing classified information, including the information about ''Benfold'' and, in April 2009, was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Said US District Judge Mark Kravitz of the sentence, "I cannot really overstate the seriousness of this crime."

Gallery

Notes

References

External links

Official ship's site

Ex-Sailor Paul R. Hall Convicted for Spying Aboard Benfold. FBI Press Release

Category:1994 ships Category:Active destroyers of the United States Category:Arleigh Burke class destroyers Category:Ships built in Mississippi Category:United States Navy New Jersey-related ships Category:United States Navy vessels named after people from New Jersey

de:USS Benfold (DDG-65) ja:ベンフォールド (ミサイル駆逐艦) ru:USS Benfold (DDG-65) zh:本福尔德号驱逐舰

Name	Ann Coulter
Birth name	Ann Hart Coulter
Birth date	December 08, 1961
Birth place	New York City, U.S.
Height
Occupation	Author, columnist, political commentator
Years active	1996–present
Alma mater	Cornell University (B.A.)University of Michigan Law School (J.D.)
Website	anncoulter.com }}

Ann Hart Coulter (born December 8, 1961) is an American lawyer, conservative social and political commentator, author, and syndicated columnist. She frequently appears on television, radio, and as a speaker at public events and private events. Well-known for her conservative political opinions and the controversial ways in which she defends them, Coulter has described herself as a polemicist who likes to "stir up the pot" and does not "pretend to be impartial or balanced, as broadcasters do."

Early life

Ann Hart Coulter was born in New York City on December 8, 1961, to Nell Husbands (née Martin; a native of Paducah, Kentucky) and John Vincent Coulter (a native of Albany, New York). The family later moved to New Canaan, Connecticut, where Coulter and her two older brothers, James and John, were raised. She graduated from New Canaan High School in 1980.

While attending Cornell University, Coulter helped found ''The Cornell Review'', and was a member of the Delta Gamma national women's fraternity. She graduated ''cum laude'' from Cornell in 1984 with a B.A. in history, and received her J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School in 1988, where she achieved membership in the Order of the Coif and was an editor of the ''Michigan Law Review''. At Michigan, Coulter was president of the local chapter of the Federalist Society and was trained at the National Journalism Center.

Career

After law school, Coulter served as a law clerk, in Kansas City, for Pasco Bowman II of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. After a short time working in New York City in private practice, where she specialized in corporate law, Coulter left to work for the United States Senate Judiciary Committee after the Republican Party took control of Congress in 1994. She handled crime and immigration issues for Senator Spencer Abraham of Michigan and helped craft legislation designed to expedite the deportation of aliens convicted of felonies. She later became a litigator with the Center for Individual Rights.

In 1999 and 2000, Coulter considered running for Congress from Connecticut on the Libertarian Party ticket to serve as a spoiler in order to throw the seat to the Democratic candidate and see that Republican Congressman Christopher Shays failed to gain re-election, as a punishment for Shays' vote against Clinton's impeachment. The leadership of the Libertarian Party of Connecticut, after meeting with Coulter, declined to endorse her. As a result, her self-described "total sham, media-intensive, third-party Jesse Ventura campaign" did not take place.

Coulter's career is highlighted by the publication of eight books, as well as the weekly syndicated newspaper column that she publishes. She is particularly known for her polemical style, who likes to "stir up the pot" and, unlike "broadcasters," does not "pretend to be impartial or balanced." She also makes numerous public appearances, speaking on television and radio talk shows, as well as on college campuses, receiving both praise and protest. In 2010, she made an estimated $500,000 on the speaking circuit, giving speeches on topics of modern conservatism, gay marriage, and what she perceives as liberal hypocrisy to adoring right-leaning audiences. During one appearance at the University of Arizona, a pie was thrown at her. Coulter has, on occasion, responded with insulting remarks towards hecklers and protestors who attend her speeches.

Books

Coulter is the author of eight books, all of which have appeared on ''New York Times'' Best Seller list, with a combined 3 million copies sold, as of May 2009.

Coulter's first book, ''High Crimes and Misdemeanors: The Case Against Bill Clinton'', was published by Regnery Publishing in 1998. The book details Coulter's case for the impeachment of President Bill Clinton.

Her second book, ''Slander: Liberal Lies About the American Right'', published by Crown Forum in 2002, became number one on ''The New York Times'' non-fiction best seller list. In ''Slander'', Coulter argues that President George W. Bush was given unfair negative media coverage. The factual accuracy of ''Slander'' was called into question by then-comedian and author, and now Democratic U.S. Senator from Minnesota, Al Franken. He also accused her of citing passages out of context. Others investigated these charges, and also raised questions about the book's accuracy and presentation of facts. Coulter responded to criticisms in a column called "Answering My Critics", where she wrote "the most devastating examples of my alleged 'lies' keep changing" and that some accusations of her factual inaccuracy are either outright wrong or really just "trivial" factual errors (e.g., referring to "endnotes" as "footnotes", or incorrectly identifying Evan Thomas' grandfather, Socialist Party presidential candidate Norman Thomas, as his father).

In her third book, ''Treason: Liberal Treachery from the Cold War to the War on Terrorism'', also published by Crown Forum, she reexamines the 60-year history of the Cold War—including the career of Senator Joseph McCarthy, the Whittaker Chambers–Alger Hiss affair, and Ronald Reagan’s challenge to Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down this wall"—and argues that liberals were wrong in their Cold War political analyses and policy decisions, and that McCarthy was correct about Soviet agents working for the U.S. government. She also argues that the correct identification of Annie Lee Moss, among others, as communists was misreported by that liberal media. ''Treason'' was published in 2003, and spent 13 weeks on the Best Seller list.

Crown Forum published a collection of Coulter's columns in 2004 as her fourth book, ''How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must): The World According to Ann Coulter''.

Coulter's fifth book, published by Crown Forum in 2006, is ''Godless: The Church of Liberalism''. In it, she argues, first, that liberalism rejects the idea of God and reviles people of faith, and second, that it bears all the attributes of a religion itself. ''Godless'' debuted at number one on ''The New York Times'' Best Seller list.

Coulter published ''If Democrats Had Any Brains, They'd Be Republicans'', in October 2007, and another, ''Guilty: Liberal "Victims" and Their Assault on America'', on January 6, 2009.

Her most recent book, ''Demonic: How the Liberal Mob Is Endangering America'', argues that liberals have mob-like characteristics. The book was released on June 7, 2011.

Columns

In the late 1990s, Coulter's weekly (biweekly from 1999–2000) syndicated column for Universal Press Syndicate began appearing. Her column is featured on six conservative websites: ''Human Events Online'', WorldNetDaily, Townhall.com, FrontPageMag, ''Jewish World Review'' and her own website. Her syndicator says, "Ann's client newspapers stick with her because she has a loyal fan base of conservative readers who look forward to reading her columns in their local newspapers."

In 1999, Coulter worked as a regular columnist for ''George'' magazine. Coulter also wrote exclusive weekly columns between 1998 and 2003 and with occasional columns thereafter for the conservative magazine ''Human Events''. In her columns for the magazine, she discusses judicial rulings, Constitutional issues, and legal matters affecting Congress and the executive branch.

In 2001, as a contributing editor and syndicated columnist for ''National Review Online'' (NRO), Coulter was asked by editors to make changes to a piece written after the September 11 attacks. On the national television show ''Politically Incorrect'', Coulter accused ''NRO'' of censorship and said that she was paid $5 per article. NRO dropped her column and terminated her editorship. Jonah Goldberg, editor-at-large of ''NRO'', said, "We did not 'fire' Ann for what she wrote... we ended the relationship because she behaved with a total lack of professionalism, friendship, and loyalty [concerning the editing disagreement]."

Coulter contracted with ''USA Today'' to cover the 2004 Democratic National Convention. She wrote one article that began, "Here at the Spawn of Satan convention in Boston..." and referred to some unspecified female attendees as "corn-fed, no make-up, natural fiber, no-bra needing, sandal-wearing, hirsute, somewhat fragrant hippie chick pie wagons." The newspaper declined to print the article citing an editing dispute over "basic weaknesses in clarity and readability that we found unacceptable." An explanatory article by the paper went on to say "Coulter told the online edition of ''Editor & Publisher'' magazine that '''USA Today'' doesn't like my "tone", humor, sarcasm, etc., which raises the intriguing question of why they hired me to write for them.'" ''USA Today'' replaced Coulter with Jonah Goldberg, and Coulter published it instead on her website.

In August 2005, the ''Arizona Daily Star'' dropped Coulter's syndicated column citing reader complaints that "Many readers find her shrill, bombastic and mean-spirited. And those are the words used by readers who identified themselves as conservatives."

In July 2006, some newspapers replaced Coulter's column with those of other conservative columnists following the publication of her fourth book, ''Godless: The Church of Liberalism.'' After the ''Augusta Chronicle'' dropped her column, newspaper editor Michael Ryan explained that "it came to the point where she was the issue rather than what she was writing about." Ryan also stated that "Pulling Ann Coulter's column hurts; she's one of the clearest thinkers around."

She has criticized former president George W. Bush's immigration proposals, saying they led to "amnesty". In one column, she claims that the current immigration system is set up to purposely reduce the percentage of whites in the population. In it, she said:

Overall, Coulter's columns are highly critical of liberals and Democrats. In one, she wrote:

Television and radio

Coulter made her first national media appearance in 1996 after she was hired by the then-fledgling network MSNBC as a legal correspondent. She was dismissed from the network at least twice. First, in February 1997, after she insulted the late Pamela Harriman (U.S. Ambassador to France), as the network was covering her memorial service. They missed her jousting and quickly rehired her, only to fire her eight months later after she tangled with a disabled Vietnam veteran on the air. Robert Muller, co-founder of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, asserted that, "in 90% of the cases that U.S. soldiers got blown up [in Vietnam]—Ann, are you listening—they were our own mines." (Muller was misquoting a 1969 Pentagon report that found that 90% of the components used in enemy mines came from U.S. duds and refuse). Coulter, who found Muller's statement laughable, averted her eyes and responded sarcastically, "No wonder you guys lost." It became an infamous—and oft-misreported—Coulter moment. The ''Washington Post'' and others turned the line into a more personal attack: "People like you caused us to lose that war." But her troubles with MSNBC only freed her to appear on CNN and Fox News, whose producers were often calling.

Howard Kurtz of the ''Washington Post'' made a point to respond to the ''Time'' article to explain that his widely quoted reporting of Coulter's reply to the veteran in an article he wrote had its origin in Coulter's own later recollection of the incident. Describing his previous story, Kurtz added, "I did note that, according to Coulter, the vet was appearing by satellite, and she didn't know he was disabled."

In an interview with Bob McKeown on the January 26, 2005, edition of ''The Fifth Estate'', Coulter came under criticism for her statement: "Canada used to be ... one of our most ... most loyal friends, and vice versa. I mean, Canada sent troops to Vietnam. Was Vietnam less containable and more of a threat than Saddam Hussein?" McKeown contradicted her with, "No, actually Canada did not send troops to Vietnam." On the February 18, 2005, edition of ''Washington Journal'', Coulter justified her statement by referring to the thousands of Canadians who served in the American armed forces during the Vietnam era, either because they volunteered or because they were living in the USA during the war years and got drafted. She said, "The Canadian Government didn't send troops ... but ... they came and fought with the Americans. So I was wrong. It turns out there were 10,000 Americans who happened to be born in Canada." (Between 5,000 and 20,000 Canadians fought in Vietnam itself, including approximately 80 who were killed.). John Cloud of ''Time'', writing about the incident a few months later, said "Canada [sent] noncombat troops to Indochina in the 1950s and again to Vietnam in 1972".

In 2005, Coulter appeared as one of a three-person judging panel in ''The Greatest American'', a four-part interactive television program for the Discovery Channel hosted by Matt Lauer. Starting with 100 nominees, each week, interactive viewer voting eliminated candidates. She voted for George Washington for the title of Greatest American ever.

Coulter has also made frequent guest appearances on many television and radio talk shows, including ''American Morning'', ''The Fifth Estate'', ''Glenn Beck Program'', ''The Mike Gallagher Show'', ''The O'Reilly Factor'', ''Real Time with Bill Maher'', ''Red Eye w/ Greg Gutfeld'', ''The Rush Limbaugh Show'', ''The Sean Hannity Show'', ''The Today Show'', ''Lou Dobbs Tonight'', ''Fox and Friends'', ''The Laura Ingraham Show'', ''The View'' and ''HARDtalk''.

Films

In 2004, Coulter appeared in three films. The first was ''Feeding the Beast'', a made-for-television documentary on the "24-Hour News Revolution". The other two films were ''FahrenHYPE 9/11'', a direct to video documentary intended to rebut Michael Moore's ''Fahrenheit 911'', and ''Is It True What They Say About Ann?'', a documentary on Coulter containing clips of interviews and speeches.

Personal life

Coulter has been engaged several times, but never married. She has dated ''Spin'' founder and publisher Bob Guccione, Jr., and conservative writer Dinesh D'Souza. In October 2007, she began dating Andrew Stein, the former president of the New York City Council, a liberal Democrat. When asked about the relationship, Stein told the paper, "She's attacked a lot of my friends, but what can I say, opposites attract!" On January 7, 2008, however, Stein told the ''New York Post'' that the relationship was over, citing irreconcilable differences.

Coulter owns a condominium in Manhattan and a house, bought in 2005, in Palm Beach, Florida. She votes in Palm Beach and is not registered to do so in New York. She is a fan of several jam bands, such as the Grateful Dead, the Dave Matthews Band, and Phish. Some of her favorite books include The Bible, ''Wuthering Heights'', ''Anna Karenina'', true crime stories about serial killers and anything by Dave Barry.

Religious views

Coulter says that she holds Christian beliefs, but has not declared her membership in any particular denomination; she has mentioned that her father was Catholic while her mother was not. At one public lecture she said: "I don't care about anything else: Christ died for my sins and nothing else matters." In a 2004 column, she summarized her view of Christianity: "Jesus' distinctive message was: People are sinful and need to be redeemed, and this is your lucky day because I'm here to redeem you even though you don't deserve it, and I have to get the crap kicked out of me to do it." She then mocked "the message of Jesus ... according to liberals," summarising it as "...something along the lines of 'be nice to people'," which, in turn, she said "is, in fact, one of the incidental tenets of Christianity".

Confronting some critics' views that her content and style of writing is un-Christian, Coulter has stated that "I'm a Christian first and a mean-spirited, bigoted conservative second, and don't you ever forget it." She has also said: "... Christianity fuels everything I write. Being a Christian means that I am called upon to do battle against lies, injustice, cruelty, hypocrisy—you know, all the virtues in the church of liberalism." In ''Godless: The Church of Liberalism'', as well as in personal appearances, Coulter characterized the theory of evolution as "bogus science", and contrasting her beliefs to what she called the left's "obsession with Darwinism and the Darwinian view of the world, which replaces sanctification of life with sanctification of sex and death."

On October 8, 2007, Coulter ignited yet more controversy when she was quoted as saying that Jews should be "perfected" into Christians. She was talking about Republicans with Donny Deutsch, a Jewish CNBC talk-show host, and implied that she considered Christianity a virtue. Deutsch asked her, "It would be better if we were all Christian?", to which Coulter replied "Yes". Deutsch asked her, "We should all be Christian?", and got the same response, with an invitation to come to church. Later on, Coulter said, "we just want Jews to be perfected, as they say", saying that this was what Christianity was, and she compared the New Testament to Federal Express. Further, Coulter said that Christians considered themselves to be perfected Jews. Deutsch implied that this was an anti-Semitic remark, but Coulter said she didn't consider it to be a hateful comment. See also section on comments about Jews on The Big Idea below.

Political activities and commentary

Ann Coulter has described herself as a "polemicist" who likes to "stir up the pot" and doesn't "pretend to be impartial or balanced, as broadcasters do". While her actual political activities in the past have included advising a plaintiff suing President Bill Clinton as well as considering a run for Congress, she mostly serves as a political pundit, sometimes starting controversy, ranging from rowdy uprisings at some of the colleges where she speaks to protracted discussions in the media. ''Time'' magazine's John Cloud once observed that Coulter, "likes to shock reporters by wondering aloud whether America might be better off if women lost the right to vote." This was in reference to a statement that she made: "It would be a much better country if women did not vote. That is simply a fact. In fact, in every presidential election since 1950—except Goldwater in '64—the Republican would have won, if only the men had voted." Similarly, in an October 2007 interview with the ''New York Observer,'' Coulter said:

Paula Jones – Bill Clinton case

Coulter first became a public figure shortly before becoming an unpaid legal advisor for the attorneys representing Paula Jones in her sexual harassment suit against President Bill Clinton. Coulter's friend George Conway had been asked to assist Jones' attorneys, and shortly afterward Coulter, who wrote a column about the Paula Jones case for ''Human Events'', was also asked to help; she began writing legal briefs for the case.

Coulter later stated that she would come to mistrust the motives of Jones' head lawyer, Joseph Cammaratta, who by August or September 1997 was advising Jones that her case was weak and to settle, if a favorable settlement could be negotiated. From the onset, Jones had sought an apology from Clinton at least as eagerly as she sought a settlement. However, in a later interview Coulter recounted that she herself had believed that the case was strong, that Jones was telling the truth, that Clinton should be held publicly accountable for his misconduct, and that a settlement would give the impression that Jones was merely interested in extorting money from the President.

David Daley, who wrote the interview piece for the ''Hartford Courant'' recounted what followed:

In his book, Isikoff also reported Coulter as saying: "We were terrified that Jones would settle. It was contrary to our purpose of bringing down the President." After the book came out, Coulter clarified her stated motives, saying:

The case went to court after Jones broke with Coulter and her original legal team, and it was dismissed via summary judgment. The judge ruled that even if her allegations proved true, Jones did not show that she had suffered any damages, stating "...plaintiff has not demonstrated any tangible job detriment or adverse employment action for her refusal to submit to the governor's alleged advances. The president is therefore entitled to summary judgment on plaintiff's claim of quid pro quo sexual harassment". The ruling was appealed by Jones' lawyers. During the pendency of the appeal, Clinton settled with Jones for $850,000 ($151,000 after legal fees) in November 1998, in exchange for Jones' dismissal of the appeal. By then, the Jones lawsuit had led to the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal.

In October 2000, Jones revealed that she would pose for nude pictures in an adult magazine, saying she wanted to use the money to pay taxes and support her grade-school-aged children, in particular saying, "I'm wanting to put them through college and maybe set up a college fund." Coulter publicly denounced Jones, calling her "the trailer-park trash they said she was," (Coulter had earlier chastened Clinton supporters for calling Jones this name) after Clinton's former campaign strategist James Carville had made the widely reported remark, "Drag a $100 bill through a trailer park, and you'll never know what you'll find", and called Jones a "fraud, at least to the extent of pretending to be an honorable and moral person."

Coulter wrote: Jones claimed not to have been offered any help with a book deal of her own or any other additional financial help after the lawsuit.

2008 presidential campaign

Just as the 2008 presidential campaign was getting under way, Coulter drew criticism for statements she made at the 2007 Conservative Political Action Conference about presidential candidate John Edwards:

The comment was in reference to ''Grey's Anatomy'' star Isaiah Washington's use of the epithet and his subsequent mandatory "psychological assessment" imposed by ABC executives. It was widely interpreted as meaning that Coulter had called Edwards a "faggot", but Coulter has argued on a couple of occasions that she didn't actually do so, while simultaneously indicating she would not have been wrong to say it. Edwards responded on his website by characterizing Coulter's words as "un-American and indefensible" and asking readers to help him "raise $100,000 in 'Coulter Cash' this week to keep this campaign charging ahead and fight back against the politics of bigotry." He also called her a "she-devil", adding, "I should not have name-called. But the truth is – forget the names – people like Ann Coulter, they engage in hateful language." Coulter's words also drew condemnation from many prominent Republicans and Democrats, as well as groups such as the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD). Three advertisers (Verizon, Sallie Mae and Netbank) also pulled their advertisements from Coulter's website, and several newspapers dropped her column. Coulter responded in an e-mail to the ''New York Times'': "C’mon, it was a joke. I would never insult gays by suggesting that they are like John Edwards. That would be mean." On March 5, 2007, she appeared on ''Hannity and Colmes'' and said, "[f]aggot isn't offensive to gays; it has nothing to do with gays. It's a schoolyard taunt meaning 'wuss'". Gay rights advocates were not convinced. "Ann Coulter's use of this anti-gay slur is vile and unacceptable," said Neil G. Giuliano, president of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, "and the applause from her audience is an important reminder that Coulter's ugly brand of bigotry is at the root of the discriminatory policies being promoted at this gathering." A spokesman for Sen. John McCain, a Republican presidential candidate, called Coulter's comments "wildly inappropriate."

As the campaign waged on, she continued to insert her commentary regarding the candidates, both Democrats and Republicans. In a June 2007 interview, Coulter named Duncan Hunter as her choice for the 2008 Republican Presidential nomination, saying "my favorite candidate is [Rep.] Duncan Hunter [R-CA], and he is magnificent. The problem is most people say, "Who's Duncan Hunter?" He's a genuine war hero. He has one son, I think, in Iraq, one in Afghanistan. He is good on every single issue. He has been out front on building a wall. He did build a wall at San Diego. He's very good on—on the life issue. He's good on everything."

On January 16, Coulter began endorsing Governor Mitt Romney as her choice for the 2008 Republican nomination, saying he is "manifestly the best candidate" (contrasting Romney only with Republican candidates John McCain, Mike Huckabee, and Rudy Giuliani).

By contrast, Coulter was critical of eventual Republican nominee John McCain. On the January 31, 2008 broadcast of ''Hannity and Colmes'', Coulter claimed that, if McCain won the Republican nomination for president, she would support and campaign for Hillary Clinton, stating, "[Clinton] is more conservative than McCain."

In an April 2, 2008 column, she characterized Barack Obama's book ''Dreams From My Father'' as a "Dimestore ''Mein Kampf''." Coulter writes, "He says the reason black people keep to themselves is that it's 'easier than spending all your time mad or trying to guess whatever it was that white folks were thinking about you.' Here's a little inside scoop about white people: We're not thinking about you. Especially WASPs. We think everybody is inferior, and we are perfectly charming about it."

2010 Canadian university tour

In March 2010, Ann Coulter performed a speaking tour of three Canadian universities: The University of Western Ontario, the University of Ottawa and the University of Calgary. The tour was organized by the International Free Press Society.

A day before Coulter's speech at the University of Western Ontario, an e-mail to Coulter from Francois Houle, provost of the University of Ottawa, was leaked to the media. The e-mail warned that "promoting hatred against any identifiable group would not only be considered inappropriate, but could in fact lead to criminal charges." Coulter released a public statement claiming that by sending her the e-mail, Houle was promoting hatred against conservatives. During Coulter's speech at the University of Western Ontario, it was widely reported that she told a Muslim student to "take a camel", in response to the student's question about previous comments by Coulter that Muslims should not be allowed on airplanes.

On March 22, the University of Ottawa made international news when Coulter's speech was cancelled because of protesters (the number of which there are conflicting reports). Event organizers and her staff cited security concerns, but Alain Boucher of the Ottawa Police Service said the police were not undermanned; there were 10 officers visible at the scene "plus other resources" nearby. There was initially disagreement as to who cancelled the speech, but Boucher said Coulter's security team decided to call off the event: "We gave her options" – including, he said, to "find a bigger venue" – but "they opted to cancel ... It's not up to the Ottawa police to make that decision." Boucher said the crowd did not get way out of hand, and that there were no arrests. CTV News reported "It was a disaster in terms of just organization, which is probably one of the reasons why it was cancelled", citing the small number of students tasked with confirming who had signed up to attend Coulter's talk.

Event organizer and conservative activist Ezra Levant blamed the protest on the letter sent to Coulter by Houle. After the cancellation, Coulter called the University of Ottawa a "bush league", stating:

Legal and professional disputes

In September 2002, ''Washington Post'' columnist Lloyd Grove wrote a column titled, "Mystery of the Ages", raising questions about Coulter's actual date of birth. At the time, Coulter was insisting that she was not yet 40, despite media reports to the contrary. Attempting to resolve the discrepancy, Grove noted that Coulter had given her date of birth as December 8, 1961 when she first registered to vote in 1980 (the year of the Reagan-vs-Carter presidential election), in New Canaan, Connecticut, where the legal voting age is 18. He said that Coulter's Connecticut driver's license also listed her birth date as December 1961, but pointed out that a driver's license issued to her years later in Washington, D.C., gave her date of birth as December 1963. In her emailed reply to Grove's inquiry, Coulter maintained that she was 38 years old. In April 2005, ''Time'''s cover story on Coulter reported, "Coulter says she won't confirm the date 'for privacy reasons'—she's had several stalkers. 'And I'm a girl,' she adds."

Canadian troops in Vietnam

Coulter has been criticized for a statement she made on ''The Fifth Estate'', an investigative journalism program produced by CBC television. During an interview by host Bob McKeown, Coulter said, "Canada used to be...one of our most...most loyal friends, and vice versa. I mean, Canada sent troops to Vietnam. Was Vietnam less containable and more of a threat than Saddam Hussein?" McKeown contradicted her with, "No, actually Canada did not send troops to Vietnam." On the February 18, 2005 edition of ''Washington Journal'', Coulter justified her statement by referring to the thousands of Canadians who served in the American armed forces during the Vietnam era, either because they volunteered or because they were living in the USA during the war years and got drafted. (Between 5,000 and 20,000 Canadians fought in Vietnam itself, including approximately 80 who were killed.). John Cloud of ''Time'', writing a few months later, suggested that Coulter may have been right, on the basis that "Canada [sent] noncombat troops to Indochina in the 1950s and again to Vietnam in 1972". However, Coulter's initial assertion was that Canada sent troops into Vietnam in support of the American position; in this connection, FAIR countered that Cloud made "quite a stretch to prove that Coulter was correct."

Controversies and criticism

Coulter's polemics have sometimes started controversy, ranging from rowdy uprisings at some of the colleges where she speaks to protracted discussions in the media.

Comments about the ''New York Times''

Coulter has a long-running animosity toward the ''New York Times''. Her book ''Slander'' accuses the news media of unfairly criticizing conservatives, and cites the ''Times'' as a prime example.

In an interview with George Gurley of the ''New York Observer'' shortly after the publication of ''Slander'', it was mentioned that Coulter actually had friends and acquaintances who worked for the ''Times'', namely restaurant critic Frank Bruni and correspondent David E. Sanger. Later in the interview, she expressed amusement at her recollections of the ''Times''' gratuitousness in publishing two photos of George H. W. Bush throwing up at a diplomatic meeting in Japan, then said: "Is your tape recorder running? Turn it on! I got something to say...My only regret with Timothy McVeigh is he did not go to the ''New York Times'' Building." Gurley told her to be careful, to which she responded "You’re right, after 9/11 I shouldn’t say that".

By way of context, during an interview earlier in June 2002 with Katie Couric to promote the same book, Coulter expressed frustration about "constant mischaracterization" through being misquoted. "The idea that someone can go out and find one quote that will suddenly, you know, portray me—just dismiss her ideas, read no more, read no further, this person is crazy... is precisely what liberals do all the time".

When asked by John Hawkins through a pre-written set of interview questions if she regretted the statement, Coulter replied by saying: "Of course I regret it. I should have added, 'after everyone had left the building except the editors and reporters.'" Lee Salem, the president of Universal Press Syndicate, which distributes Coulter's column, later defended Coulter by characterizing her comments as satire.

The subject came up again when Coulter appeared on the Fox News program ''Hannity & Colmes''. Alan Colmes mentioned Salem's claim, and said to her that remarks like saying "Timothy McVeigh should have bombed ''The New York Times'' building" were "laughable happy satires, right?" He then said that Coulter was "actually a ''liberal'' who is doing this to mock and parody the way conservatives think." She replied, "Well, it's not working very well if that were my goal. No, I think the Timothy McVeigh line was merely prescient after ''The New York Times'' has leaped beyond—beyond nonsense straight into treason, last week". She was referring to a ''Times'' report that revealed classified information about an anti-terrorism program of the U.S. government involving surveillance of international financial transactions of persons suspected of having Al-Qaida links.

Comments on Islam, Arabs and terrorism

On September 14, 2001, three days after the 9-11 attacks (in which her friend Barbara Olson had been killed), Coulter wrote in her column:

Airports scrupulously apply the same laughably ineffective airport harassment to Suzy Chapstick as to Muslim hijackers. It is preposterous to assume every passenger is a potential crazed homicidal maniac. We know who the homicidal maniacs are. They are the ones cheering and dancing right now.

We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity. We weren't punctilious about locating and punishing only Hitler and his top officers. We carpet-bombed German cities; we killed civilians. That's war. And this is war.

Responding to this comment, Ibrahim Hooper of the Council on American-Islamic Relations remarked in the ''Chicago Sun Times'' that before September 11, Coulter "would have faced swift repudiation from her colleagues", but "now it's accepted as legitimate commentary."

David Horowitz, however, saw Coulter's words as irony:

I began running Coulter columns on Frontpagemag.com shortly after she came up with her most infamous line, which urged America to put jihadists to the sword and convert them to Christianity. Liberals were horrified; I was not. I thought to myself, this is a perfect send-up of what our Islamo-fascist enemies believe – that as infidels we should be put to the sword and converted to Islam. I regarded Coulter’s phillipic (sic) as a Swiftian commentary on liberal illusions of multi-cultural outreach to people who want to rip out our hearts.

One day after the attacks (before the culprits had been identified and when death toll estimates were higher than they later became), Coulter asserted that only Muslims could have been behind the attacks:

Not all Muslims may be terrorists, but all terrorists are Muslims – at least all terrorists capable of assembling a murderous plot against America that leaves 7,000 people dead in under two hours.

Coulter has been highly critical of the U.S. Department of Transportation and especially its then-secretary Norman Mineta. Her many criticisms include their refusal to use racial profiling as a component of airport screening. After a group of Muslims were expelled from a US Airways flight when other passengers expressed worries, sparking a call for Muslims to boycott the airline because of the ejection from a flight of six imams, Coulter wrote:

If only we could get Muslims to boycott all airlines, we could dispense with airport security altogether.

Coulter also cited the 2002 Senate testimony of FBI whistleblower Coleen Rowley, who was acclaimed for condemning her superiors for refusing to authorize a search warrant for 9-11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui when he refused to consent to a search of his computer. They knew that he was a Muslim in flight school who had overstayed his visa, and the French Intelligence Service had confirmed his affiliations with radical fundamentalist Islamic groups. Coulter said she agreed that probable cause existed in the case, but that refusing consent, being in flight school and overstaying a visa shouldn't constitute grounds for a search. Citing a poll which found that 98 percent of Muslims between the ages of 20 to 45 said they would not fight for Britain in the war in Afghanistan, and that 48 percent said they would fight for Osama bin Laden, she asserted "any Muslim who has attended a mosque in Europe – certainly in England, where Moussaoui lived – has had 'affiliations with radical fundamentalist Islamic groups'", so that she parsed Rowley's position as meaning that "'probable cause' existed to search Moussaoui's computer because he was a Muslim who had lived in England." Because "FBI headquarters...refused to engage in racial profiling" they failed to uncover the 9-11 plot, Coulter asserted. "The FBI allowed thousands of Americans to be slaughtered on the altar of political correctness. What more do liberals want?"

Coulter wrote in another column that she had reviewed the civil rights lawsuits against certain airlines to determine which airlines had subjected Arabs to the most "egregious discrimination" so that she could fly only that airline. She also said that the airline should be bragging instead of denying any of the charges of discrimination brought against them. In an interview with the ''The Guardian'' she quipped, "I think airlines ought to start advertising: 'We have the most civil rights lawsuits brought against us by Arabs.'" When the interviewer replied by asking what Muslims would do for travel, she responded, "They could use flying carpets."

One comment that drew criticism from the blogosphere, as well as fellow conservatives, was made during a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference in February 2006, where she said, referring to the prospect of a nuclear-equipped Iran, "What if they start having one of these bipolar episodes with nuclear weapons? I think our motto should be, post-9-11: raghead talks tough, raghead faces consequences." Coulter had previously written a nearly identical passage in her syndicated column: "...I believe our motto should be after 9/11: Jihad monkey talks tough; jihad monkey takes the consequences. Sorry, I realize that's offensive. How about 'camel jockey'? What? Now what'd I say? Boy, you tent merchants sure are touchy. Grow up, would you?"

In October 2007, Coulter made more controversial remarks about Arabs, in this case Iraqis, when she stated, in an interview with the ''New York Observer''

We’ve killed about 20,000 of them, of terrorists, of militants, of Al Qaeda members, and they’ve gotten a little over 3,000 of ours. That is where the war is being fought, in Iraq, that is where we are fighting Al Qaeda. Sorry we have to use your country, Iraqis, but you let Saddam come to power, ''ha-ha'', and we ''are'' going to instill democracy in your country.

In a May 2007 article looking back at the life of the recently deceased evangelical Reverend Jerry Falwell, Coulter commented on Falwell's statement after the 9/11 attacks that "pagans", abortionists, feminists, and gays and lesbians, among others, helped make the attacks happen. In her article, Coulter stated that she disagreed with Falwell's statement, "because Falwell neglected to specifically include Teddy Kennedy and 'the Reverend' Barry Lynn."

In October 2007, Coulter participated in David Horowitz' "Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week", remarking in a speech at the University of Southern California, "The fact of Islamo-Fascism is indisputable," she said. "I find it tedious to detail the savagery of the enemy . . . I want to kill them. Why don't Democrats?"

2007 John Edwards controversy

The next year, Coulter drew criticism for statements she made at the 2007 Conservative Political Action Conference about presidential candidate John Edwards. Coulter said:

I was going to have a few comments on the other Democratic presidential candidate, John Edwards, but it turns out that you have to go into rehab if you use the word 'faggot,' so I'm – so, kind of at an impasse, can't really talk about Edwards, so I think I'll just conclude here and take your questions.

This was an allusion to ''Grey's Anatomy'' star Isaiah Washington's use of the epithet and his subsequent mandatory "psychological assessment" imposed by ABC executives. This comment was widely interpreted as meaning that Coulter had called Edwards a "faggot", but Coulter has argued on a couple of occasions that she didn't actually do so, while simultaneously indicating she would not have been wrong to say it.

The audience laughed, but Edwards responded on his website by characterizing Coulter's words as "un-American and indefensible" and asking readers to help him "raise $100,000 in 'Coulter Cash' this week to keep this campaign charging ahead and fight back against the politics of bigotry." Coulter's words also drew condemnation from many prominent Republicans, Democrats, and Libertarians, as well as groups such as the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD). Coulter responded in an e-mail to the ''New York Times'': "C’mon, it was a joke. I would never insult gays by suggesting that they are like John Edwards. That would be mean." She also posted a response on her website: "I'm so ashamed, I can't stop laughing!"

On March 5, 2007, Coulter appeared on ''Hannity and Colmes'' and said, "[f]aggot isn't offensive to gays; it has nothing to do with gays. It's a schoolyard taunt meaning 'wuss'".

In response to this issue, three advertisers (Verizon, Sallie Mae and Netbank) pulled their advertisements from Coulter's website, and several newspapers dropped Coulter's column.

Responding to the controversy, Coulter said:

Just for the record, I've never attempted to revise, or extend, nor have I apologized and the attempts to silence me have made me even more money…Those newspapers pay me about 25 cents per month, but I picked up a LOT of speeches...Attempts to censor me have really backfired.

She also said, "I wasn't saying it on TV. I was saying it at a right-wing political convention with 7,000 college Republicans. I didn't put it on TV." The CPAC convention was, in fact, broadcast on C-SPAN. In an interview with Glenn Beck, she said, "Sarah Silverman uses the word, and, oh, liberals don't mind it when she uses it."

This controversy revived an earlier dispute originating from a 2003 column where Coulter disparaged Democratic Presidential candidates who mention family tragedies in their campaign speeches—including Edwards, who, she stated, talks frequently about the death of his son Wade in a traffic accident.

In a June 25, 2007 appearance on ''Good Morning America'', Coulter said: "But about the same time, you know, Bill Maher was not joking and saying he wished Dick Cheney had been killed in a terrorist attack – so I've learned my lesson: If I'm going to say anything about John Edwards in the future, I'll just wish he had been killed in a terrorist assassination plot."

The next day, on MSNBC’s ''Hardball with Chris Matthews'', Coulter received a phone call from Elizabeth Edwards, John Edwards’ wife, asking her to stop the personal attacks and to stick to discussing the issues. Coulter responded, saying that the Edwards campaign was "raising money off it" and denied "saying anything about him [Edwards], actually, either time." Mrs. Edwards also confronted Coulter for writing that they had a bumper sticker on their car saying "Ask me about my dead son" in reference to the death of their son Wade. Coulter responded by characterizing Edwards' call as an attempt to silence her and by attacking Edwards for his activities as a trial lawyer.

Coulter refused to apologize, and explained her response to Mrs. Edwards in a subsequent column: "Edwards is...the trial lawyer who pretended in court to channel the spirit of a handicapped fetus in front of illiterate jurors to scam tens of millions of dollars off of innocent doctors...Apparently every time Edwards began a story about his dead son with 'I've never told anyone this before,' everyone on the campaign could lip-sync the story with him... If you want points for not using your son's death politically, don't you have to take down all those 'Ask me about my son's death in a horrific car accident' bumper stickers? Edwards is like a politician who keeps announcing that he will not use his opponent's criminal record for partisan political advantage... As a commentator, I bring facts like these to the attention of the American people in a lively way."

John Edwards responded by calling her a "she-devil." He immediately added, "I should not have name-called. But the truth is – forget the names – people like Ann Coulter, they engage in hateful language."

Disenfranchisement of women

''Time'' magazine's John Cloud observes that Coulter "likes to shock reporters by wondering aloud whether America might be better off if women lost the right to vote." For example, in a May 2003 interview with ''The Guardian'', Coulter said:

Again, in an October 2007 interview with the ''New York Observer,'' Coulter said:

Comments about Jews on ''The Big Idea''

During an interview with Donny Deutsch on his CNBC program ''The Big Idea'' (October 8, 2007), Coulter stated that the United States is a Christian nation and suggested Christians viewed themselves as "perfected Jews". Deutsch, a practicing Jew, told Coulter he found the comments personally offensive and anti-semitic; Coulter replied that she could not understand his reaction.

DEUTSCH: You said—your exact words were, "Jews need to be perfected." Those are the words out of your mouth. COULTER: No, I'm saying that's what a Christian is. DEUTSCH: But that's what you said—don't you see how hateful, how anti-Semitic— COULTER: No! DEUTSCH: How do you not see? You're an educated woman. How do you not see that? COULTER: That isn't hateful at all. DEUTSCH: But that's even a scarier thought. OK— COULTER: No, no, no, no, no. I don't want you being offended by this. This is what Christians consider themselves, because our testament is the continuation of your testament. You know that. So we think Jews go to heaven. I mean [Jerry] Falwell himself said that, but you have to follow laws. Ours is "Christ died for our sins." We consider ourselves perfected Christians. For me to say that for you to become a Christian is to become a perfected Christian[''sic''] is not offensive at all.

In an interview published in ''Adweek'' three days after the interview, Deutsch noted that when he challenged her comments, Coulter appeared "to back off" and "seemed a little upset", adding, "I think she got frightened that maybe she had crossed a line, that this was maybe a faux pas of great proportions. I mean, did it show ignorance? Anti-Semitism? It wasn't just one of those silly things."

Dennis Prager, a conservative talk show host, commented that although, as a practicing Jew, he obviously did not agree with Coulter's comments, they were not anti-Semitic. He noted that: "There is nothing in what Ann Coulter said to a Jewish interviewer on CNBC that indicates she hates Jews or wishes them ill, or does damage to the Jewish people or the Jewish state. And if none of those criteria is present, how can someone be labeled anti-Semitic?" Conservative activist David Horowitz's reaction was similar: "If you don't accompany this belief by burning Jews who refuse to become perfected at the stake why would any Jew have a problem?... Why do some Jews think that Christians should not really believe what they believe while it's okay for Jews to really believe they are God's Chosen People? I don't get it."

In response to Coulter's comments on the show, the Anti-Defamation League issued a statement saying it "strongly condemns Ann Coulter for her anti-Semitic comment", and that to "espouse the idea that Judaism needs to be replaced with Christianity and that each individual Jew is somehow deficient and needs to be 'perfected,' is rank Christian supersessionism and has been rejected by the Catholic Church and the vast majority of mainstream Christian denominations." The American Jewish Committee issued a statement asserting that "Ms. Coulter's assertion that Jews are somehow religiously imperfect smacks of the most odious anti-Jewish sentiment." The National Jewish Democratic Council, self identified as "the national voice of Jewish Democrats", called on media outlets to stop inviting Coulter as a guest commentator/pundit."

Ionizing radiation as "cancer vaccine"

On March 16, 2011, discussing the Fukushima I nuclear accidents, Coulter, citing research into radiation hormesis, wrote that there was "burgeoning evidence that excess radiation operates as a sort of cancer vaccine.". Her comments were criticized by figures across the political spectrum, from Fox News's Bill O'Reilly, who told Coulter "You have to be responsible . . . [In] something like this, you gotta get the folks out of there, and you have to report worst-case scenarios" to MSNBC's Ed Schulz, who stated that "You would laugh at her if she wasn't making light of a terrible tragedy."

Bibliography

References

External links

Official Web Site

Biography at Notable Names Database

Column archives

Ann Coulter column archive for ''Human Events'' articles at BNet Find Articles with advanced search (1998–2007)

Ann Coulter column archive at ''Human Events'' (2002–present)

Ann Coulter column archive at ''National Review'' (2000–2001)

Ann Coulter column archive at uExpress.com (1999–present) [select headline archive]

Category:1961 births Category:Living people Category:American political pundits Category:American political writers Category:American columnists Category:American anti-communists Category:Conservatism in the United States Category:Cornell University alumni Category:Federalist Society members Category:Intelligent design advocates Category:Lewinsky scandal figures Category:People from Fairfield County, Connecticut Category:National Review people Category:University of Michigan Law School alumni Category:Human Events people Category:Commentators

ar:آن كولتر ca:Ann Coulter de:Ann Coulter et:Ann Coulter es:Ann Coulter eo:Ann Coulter fa:ان کولتر fr:Ann Coulter id:Ann Coulter he:אן קולטר nl:Ann Coulter ja:アン・コールター no:Ann Coulter pl:Ann Coulter pt:Ann Coulter simple:Ann Coulter sh:Ann Coulter fi:Ann Coulter sv:Ann Coulter tr:Ann Coulter uk:Енн Колтер yi:ען קאלטער

Name	Sir Elton JohnCBE
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Reginald Kenneth Dwight
Birth date	March 25, 1947
Birth place	Pinner, Middlesex, England
Instrument
Occupation	Musician, singer-songwriter, record producer, composer
Years active	1964–68 (Bluesology)1969–present (Solo)
Genre
Label	DJM, Uni, MCA, Geffen, Rocket/Island, Universal, Interscope, Mercury, UMG
Associated acts	Bernie Taupin, Tim Rice, John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Kiki Dee, Billy Joel, George Michael, Eminem, Gladys Knight, Stevie Wonder, Dionne Warwick,Neil Sedaka
Website	}}

Sir Elton Hercules John, CBE (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight on 25 March 1947) is an English rock singer-songwriter, composer, pianist and occasional actor. He has worked with lyricist Bernie Taupin as his songwriter partner since 1967; they have collaborated on more than 30 albums to date.

In his four-decade career John has sold more than 250 million records, making him one of the most successful artists of all time. His single "Candle in the Wind 1997" has sold over 33 million copies worldwide, and is the best selling single in ''Billboard'' history. He has more than 50 Top 40 hits, including seven consecutive No. 1 US albums, 56 Top 40 singles, 16 Top 10, four No. 2 hits, and nine No. 1 hits. He has won six Grammy Awards, four Brit Awards, an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award and a Tony Award. In 2004, ''Rolling Stone'' ranked him Number 49 on its list of the 100 greatest artists of all time.

John was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. Having been named a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1996, John received a knighthood from HM Queen Elizabeth II for "services to music and charitable services" in 1998.

He has been heavily involved in the fight against AIDS since the late 1980s. In 1992, he established the Elton John AIDS Foundation and a year later began hosting the annual Academy Award Party, which has since become one of the most high-profile Oscar parties in the Hollywood film industry. Since its inception, the foundation has raised over $200 million.

John entered into a civil partnership with David Furnish on 21 December 2005 and continues to be a champion for LGBT social movements. In 2008, ''Billboard'' magazine ranked him as the most successful male solo artist on "The Billboard Hot 100 Top All-Time Artists" (third overall, behind only The Beatles and Madonna).

Life and career

Early life

John was born Reginald Kenneth Dwight on 25 March 1947, the eldest child of Stanley and only child of Sheila Eileen Dwight (née Harris) and was raised in Pinner, Middlesex in a council house of his maternal grandparents. His parents did not marry until he was 6 years old, when the family moved to a nearby semi-detached house. He was educated at Pinner Wood Junior School, Reddiford School and Pinner County Grammar School, until age 17, when he left just prior to his A Level examinations to pursue a career in the music industry.

When John began to seriously consider a career in music, his father, who served as a Flight Lieutenant in the Royal Air Force, tried to steer him toward a more conventional career, such as banking. John has stated that his wild stage costumes and performances were his way of letting go after such a restrictive childhood. Both of John's parents were musically inclined, his father having been a trumpet player with the Bob Millar Band, a semi-professional big band that played at military dances. The Dwights were keen record buyers, exposing John to the popular singers and musicians of the day, and John remembers being immediately hooked on rock and roll when his mother brought home records by Elvis Presley and Bill Haley & His Comets in 1956.

John started playing the piano at the age of 3, and within a year, his mother heard him picking out Winifred Atwell's "The Skater's Waltz" by ear. After performing at parties and family gatherings, at the age of 7 he took up formal piano lessons. He showed musical aptitude at school, including the ability to compose melodies, and gained some notoriety by playing like Jerry Lee Lewis at school functions. At the age of 11, he won a junior scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music. According to one of his instructors, John promptly played back, like a "gramophone record", a four-page piece by Handel that he heard for the first time.

For the next five years he attended Saturday classes at the Academy in central London, and has stated that he enjoyed playing Chopin and Bach and singing in the choir during Saturday classes, but that he was not otherwise a diligent classical student. "I kind of resented going to the Academy", he says. "I was one of those children who could just about get away without practicing and still pass, scrape through the grades." He even claims that he would sometimes skip classes and just ride around on the Tube. However, several instructors have testified that he was a "model student", and during the last few years he was taking lessons from a private tutor in addition to his classes at the Academy.

John's mother, though also strict with her son, was more vivacious than her husband, and something of a free spirit. With Stanley Dwight uninterested in his son and often physically absent, John was raised primarily by his mother and maternal grandmother. When his father was home, the Dwights would have terrible arguments that greatly distressed their son. When John was 14, they divorced. His mother then married a local painter, Fred Farebrother, a caring and supportive stepfather whom John affectionately referred to as "Derf", his first name in reverse. They moved into flat No. 1A in an eight-unit apartment building called Frome Court, not far from both previous homes. It was there that John would write the songs that would launch his career as a rock star; he would live there until he had four albums simultaneously in the American Top 40.

Pub pianist to staff songwriter (1962–1969)

At the age of 15, with the help of his mother and stepfather, Reginald Dwight became a weekend pianist at a nearby pub, the Northwood Hills Hotel, playing Thursday to Sunday nights for £35 a week and tips. Known simply as "Reggie", he played a range of popular standards, including songs by Jim Reeves and Ray Charles, as well as songs he had written himself. A stint with a short-lived group called the Corvettes rounded out his time.

In 1964, Dwight and his friends formed a band called Bluesology. By day, he ran errands for a music publishing company; he divided his nights between solo gigs at a London hotel bar and working with Bluesology. By the mid-1960s, Bluesology was backing touring American soul and R&B musicians like The Isley Brothers, Major Lance, Billy Stewart, Doris Troy and Patti LaBelle and The Bluebelles. In 1966, the band became musician Long John Baldry's supporting band and played 16 times at The Marquee Club.

After failing lead vocalist auditions for King Crimson and Gentle Giant, Dwight answered an advertisement in the ''New Musical Express'' placed by Ray Williams, then the A&R manager for Liberty Records. At their first meeting, Williams gave Dwight a stack of lyrics written by Bernie Taupin, who had answered the same ad. Dwight wrote music for the lyrics, and then mailed it to Taupin, beginning a partnership that {{as of |2010 |alt=still continues }}. In 1967, what would become the first Elton John/Bernie Taupin song, "Scarecrow", was recorded; when the two first met, six months later, Dwight was going by the name "Elton John", in homage to Bluesology saxophonist ''Elton'' Dean and Long ''John'' Baldry.

The team of John and Taupin joined Dick James's DJM Records as staff songwriters in 1968, and over the next two years wrote material for various artists, like Roger Cook and Lulu. Taupin would write a batch of lyrics in under an hour and give it to John, who would write music for them in half an hour, disposing of the lyrics if he couldn't come up with anything quickly. For two years, they wrote easy-listening tunes for James to peddle to singers. Their early output included a contender for the British entry for the Eurovision Song Contest in 1969, for Lulu, called "Can't Go On (Living Without You)". It came sixth of six songs. In 1969, John provided piano for Roger Hodgson on his first released recording, the single "Mr. Boyd" by Argosy, a quartet that was completed by Caleb Quaye and Nigel Olsson.

During this period, John was also a session musician for other artists including playing piano on The Hollies' "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother" and singing backing vocals for The Scaffold.

Debut album to ''Goodbye Yellow Brick Road'' (1969–1973)

On the advice of music publisher Steve Brown, John and Taupin started writing more complex songs for John to record for DJM. The first was the single "I've Been Loving You" (1968), produced by Caleb Quaye, former Bluesology guitarist. In 1969, with Quaye, drummer Roger Pope, and bassist Tony Murray, John recorded another single, "Lady Samantha", and an album, ''Empty Sky''.

For their follow-up album, ''Elton John'', John and Taupin enlisted Gus Dudgeon as producer and Paul Buckmaster as musical arranger. ''Elton John'' was released in April 1970 on DJM Records/Pye Records in the UK and Uni Records in the USA, and established the formula for subsequent albums; gospel-chorded rockers and poignant ballads. The first single from the album, "Border Song", made into the US Top 100, peaking at Number 92. The second single "Your Song" made the US Top Ten, peaking at number eight and becoming John's first hit single as a singer. The album soon became his first hit album, reaching number four on the Billboard 200 album chart.

Backed by ex-Spencer Davis Group drummer Nigel Olsson and bassist Dee Murray, John's first American concert took place at The Troubadour in Los Angeles in August 1970, and was a success.

The concept album ''Tumbleweed Connection'' was released in October 1970, and reached the Top Ten on the Billboard 200. The live album ''17-11-70'' (''11-17-70'' in the US) was recorded at a live show aired from A&R Studios on WABC-FM in New York City. Sales of the live album were heavily hit in the US when an east coast bootlegger released the performance several weeks before the official album, including all 60 minutes of the aircast, not just the 40 minutes selected by Dick James Music. John and Taupin then wrote the soundtrack to the obscure film ''Friends'' and then the album ''Madman Across the Water'', the latter reaching the Top Ten and producing the hit "Levon", while the soundtrack album produced the hit "Friends". In 1972, Davey Johnstone joined the Elton John Band on guitar and backing vocals. The band released ''Honky Chateau'', which became John's first American number 1 album, spending five weeks at the top of the charts and spawning the hit singles "Rocket Man (I Think It's Going To Be A Long, Long Time)" (which is often compared to David Bowie's "Space Oddity") and "Honky Cat".

The pop album ''Don't Shoot Me I'm Only the Piano Player'' came out at the start of 1973, and produced the hits "Crocodile Rock" and "Daniel"; the former became his first US Billboard Hot 100 number one hit. Both the album and "Crocodile Rock" were the first album and single, respectively on the consolidated MCA Records label in the USA, replacing MCA's other labels including Uni.

''Goodbye Yellow Brick Road'' gained instant critical acclaim and topped the chart on both sides of the Atlantic, remaining at Number 1 for two months. It also temporarily established John as a glam rock star. It contained the number 1 hit "Bennie and the Jets", along with the popular and praised "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road", "Candle in the Wind", "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting", "Funeral For A Friend/Love Lies Bleeding" and "Grey Seal" (originally recorded and released in 1970 as the B-side to the UK-only single, "Rock and Roll Madonna"). There is also a VHS and DVD as part of the Classic Albums series, discussing the making, recording, and popularity of "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" through concert and home video footage including interviews.

Rocket Records to ''21 at 33'' (1974–1979)

John formed his own MCA-distributed label Rocket Records and signed acts to it – notably Neil Sedaka ("Bad Blood", on which he sang background vocals) and Kiki Dee – in which he took a personal interest. Instead of releasing his own records on Rocket, he opted for $8 million offered by MCA. When the contract was signed in 1974, MCA reportedly took out a $25 million insurance policy on John's life.

In 1974 a collaboration with John Lennon took place, resulting in Elton John covering The Beatles' "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" and Lennon's "One Day at a Time", and in return Elton John and band being featured on Lennon's "Whatever Gets You thru the Night". In what would be Lennon's last live performance, the pair performed these two number 1 hits along with the Beatles classic "I Saw Her Standing There" at Madison Square Garden. Lennon made the rare stage appearance to keep the promise he made that he would appear on stage with Elton if "Whatever Gets You Thru The Night" became a number 1 single.

''Caribou'' was released in 1974, and although it reached number 1, it was widely considered a lesser quality album. Reportedly recorded in a scant two weeks between live appearances, it featured "The Bitch Is Back" and the lushly orchestrated "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me". Pete Townshend of The Who asked John to play a character called the "Local Lad" in the film of the rock opera ''Tommy'', and to perform the song "Pinball Wizard". Drawing on power chords, John's version was recorded and used for the movie release in 1975 and the single came out in 1976 (1975 in the US). The song charted at number 7 in England. Bally subsequently released a "Captain Fantastic" pinball machine featuring an illustration of John in his movie guise.

In the 1975 autobiographical album ''Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy'', John revealed his previously ambiguous personality, with Taupin's lyrics describing their early days as struggling songwriters and musicians in London. The lyrics and accompanying photo booklet are infused with a specific sense of place and time that is otherwise rare in John's music. "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" was the hit single from this album and captured an early turning point in John's life.

The album's release signalled the end of the Elton John Band, as an unhappy and overworked John dismissed Olsson and Murray, two people who had contributed much of the band's signature sound and who had helped build his live following since the beginning. Johnstone and Ray Cooper were retained, Quaye and Roger Pope returned, and the new bassist was Kenny Passarelli; this rhythm section provided a heavier-sounding backbeat. James Newton-Howard joined to arrange in the studio and to play keyboards. John introduced the lineup before a crowd of 75,000 in London's Wembley Stadium. The rock-oriented ''Rock of the Westies'' entered the US albums chart at number 1 like ''Captain Fantastic'', a previously unattained feat. Elton John's stage wardrobe now included ostrich feathers, $5,000 spectacles that spelled his name in lights, and dressing up like the Statue of Liberty, Donald Duck, or Mozart, among others, at his concerts.

To celebrate five years since he first appeared at the venue, in 1975 John played a two-night, four-show stand at The Troubadour. With seating limited to under 500 per show, the chance to purchase tickets was determined by a postcard lottery, with each winner allowed two tickets. Everyone who attended the performances received a hardbound "yearbook" of the band's history. That year he also played piano on Kevin Ayers' ''Sweet Deceiver'', and was among the first and few white artists to appear on the black music series ''Soul Train'' on American television. On August 9, 1975, John was named the outstanding rock personality of the year at the first annual Rock Music Awards at ceremonies held in Santa Monica, California.

In 1976, the live album ''Here and There'' was released in May, followed by the ''Blue Moves'' album in October, which contained the single "Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word". His biggest success in 1976 was "Don't Go Breaking My Heart", a duet with Kiki Dee that topped both the American and British charts. Finally, in an interview with ''Rolling Stone'' that year entitled "Elton's Frank Talk", John stated that he was bisexual.

Besides being the most commercially successful period, 1970–1976 is also held in the most regard critically. Within only a three year span, between 1972 and 1975 John saw seven consecutive albums reach Number 1 in the charts, which had not been accomplished before. Of the six Elton John albums to make the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time in ''Rolling Stone'''in 2003, all are from this period, with ''Goodbye Yellow Brick Road'' ranked highest at number 91; similarly, the three Elton John albums given five stars by Allmusic (''Tumbleweed Connection'', ''Honky Château'', and ''Captain Fantastic'') are all from this period too.

During the same period, John made a guest appearance on the popular ''Morecambe and Wise Show'' on the BBC. The two comics spent the episode pointing him in the direction of everywhere except the stage in order to prevent him singing.

In November 1977 John announced he was retiring from performing; Taupin began collaborating with others. Now only producing one album a year, John issued ''A Single Man'' in 1978, employing a new lyricist, Gary Osborne; the album produced no singles that made the Top 20 in the US but the two singles from the album released in the UK, Part-Time Love and Song for Guy, both made the Top 20 in the UK with the latter reaching the Top 5. In 1979, accompanied by Ray Cooper, John became one of the first Western solo artists to tour the Soviet Union (as well as one of the first in Israel), then mounted a two-man comeback tour of the US in small halls. John returned to the singles chart with "Mama Can't Buy You Love" (number 9, 1979), a song originally rejected in 1977 by MCA before being released, recorded in 1977 with Philadelphia soul producer Thom Bell. Elton reported that Thom Bell was the first person to give him voice lessons; Bell encouraged John to sing in a lower register. A disco-influenced album, ''Victim of Love'', was poorly received. In 1979, John and Taupin reunited, though they did not collaborate on a full album until 1983's ''Too Low For Zero''. ''21 at 33'', released the following year, was a significant career boost, aided by his biggest hit in four years, "Little Jeannie" (number 3 US), although the lyrics were written by Gary Osborne.

The 80s:''The Fox'' to ''Sleeping with the Past'' (1981–1989)

His 1981 album, ''The Fox'', was recorded in part during the same sessions as ''21 at 33'', and also included collaborations with Tom Robinson and Judie Tzuke. On 13 September 1980, John, with Olsson and Murray back in the Elton John Band, performed a free concert to an estimated 400,000 fans on The Great Lawn in Central Park in New York City. His 1982 hit "Empty Garden (Hey Hey Johnny)", came from his ''Jump Up!'' album, his second under a new US recording contract with Geffen Records.

He married his close friend and sound engineer, Renate Blauel on Valentine's Day 1984 - the marriage lasted three years. The Biography Channel Special detailed the loss of Elton's voice in 1986 while on tour in Australia. Shortly thereafter he underwent throat surgery, which permanently altered his voice. Several non-cancerous polyps were removed from his vocal cords, resulting in a change in his singing voice. In 1987 he won a libel case against ''The Sun'' which published allegations of sex with rent boys.

With original band members Johnstone, Murray and Olsson together again, John was able to return to the charts with the 1983 hit album ''Too Low for Zero'', which included "I'm Still Standing" and "I Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues", the latter of which featured Stevie Wonder on harmonica and reached number 4 in the US, giving John his biggest hit there since "Little Jeannie". He placed hits in the US Top Ten throughout the 1980s – "Little Jeannie" (number 3, 1980), "Sad Songs (Say So Much)" (number 5, 1984), "Nikita" boosted by a mini-movie pop video directed by Ken Russell (number 7, 1986), a live orchestral version of "Candle in the Wind" (number 6, 1987), and "I Don't Wanna Go On With You Like That" (number 2, 1988). His highest-charting single was a collaboration with Dionne Warwick, Gladys Knight, and Stevie Wonder on "That's What Friends Are For" (number 1, 1985); credited as Dionne and Friends, the song raised funds for AIDS research. His albums continued to sell, but of the six released in the latter half of the 1980s, only ''Reg Strikes Back'' (number 16, 1988) placed in the Top 20 in the United States.

In 1985, Elton John was one of the many performers at Live Aid held at Wembley Stadium. John played "Bennie and the Jets" and "Rocket Man"; then "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" with Kiki Dee for the first time in years; and introduced his friend George Michael, still then of Wham!, to sing "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me". He enlisted Michael to sing backing vocals on his single "Wrap Her Up", and also recruited teen idol Nik Kershaw as an instrumentalist on "Nikita". John also recorded material with Millie Jackson in 1985. In 1986, he played the piano on two tracks on the heavy metal band Saxon's album ''Rock the Nations''.

In 1988, he performed five sold-out shows at New York's Madison Square Garden, giving him 26 for his career. Netting over $20 million, 2,000 items of John's memorabilia were auctioned off at Sotheby's in London.

The 90s: "Sacrifice" to ''Aida'' (1990–1999)

In 1990, John finally achieved his first UK number one hit on his own, with "Sacrifice" (coupled with "Healing Hands") from the previous year's album ''Sleeping with the Past''; it would stay at the top spot for six weeks. The following year, John's "Basque" won the Grammy for Best Instrumental, and a guest concert appearance he had made on George Michael's cover of "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" was released as a single and topped the charts in both the US and UK. At the 1991 Brit Awards in London, Elton John won the award for Best British Male.

In 1992 he released the US number 8 album ''The One'', featuring the hit song "The One". John and Taupin then signed a music publishing deal with Warner/Chappell Music for an estimated $39 million over 12 years, giving them the largest cash advance in music publishing history. In April 1992, John appeared at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert at Wembley Stadium, performing "The Show Must Go On" with the remaining members of Queen, and "Bohemian Rhapsody" with Axl Rose of Guns N' Roses and Queen. In September, John performed "The One" at the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards, and also closed the ceremony performing "November Rain" with Guns N' Roses. The following year, he released ''Duets'', a collaboration with 15 artists including Tammy Wynette and RuPaul. This also included a new collaboration with Kiki Dee, entitled "True Love", which reached the Top 10 of the UK charts.

Along with Tim Rice, Elton John wrote the songs for the 1994 Disney animated film ''The Lion King'', which became the 3rd highest-grossing animated feature of all time. At the 67th Academy Awards ceremony, ''The Lion King'' provided three of the five nominees for the Academy Award for Best Song, which John won with "Can You Feel the Love Tonight". Both that and "Circle of Life" became hit songs for John. "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" would also win Elton John the Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance at the 37th Grammy Awards. After the release of the ''The Lion King'' soundtrack, the album remained at the top of ''Billboard'''s charts for nine weeks. On 10 November 1999, the RIAA certified ''The Lion King'' "Diamond" for selling 15 million copies.

In 1995 John released ''Made in England'' (number 3, 1995), which featured the single "Believe". John performed "Believe" at the 1995 Brit Awards, and picked up the prize for Outstanding Contribution to Music. A compilation called ''Love Songs'' was released in 1996.

Early in 1997 John held a 50th birthday party, costumed as Louis XIV, for 500 friends. John also performed with the surviving members of Queen in Paris at the opening night (17 January 1997) of ''Le Presbytère N'a Rien Perdu De Son Charme Ni Le Jardin De Son Éclat'', a work by French ballet legend Maurice Béjart which draws upon AIDS and the deaths of Freddie Mercury and the company's principal dancer Jorge Donn. Later in 1997, two close friends died: designer Gianni Versace was murdered; Diana, Princess of Wales died in a Paris car crash on 31 August. In early September, John contacted his writing partner Bernie Taupin, asking him to revise the lyrics of his 1973 song "Candle in the Wind" to honour Diana, and Taupin rewrote the song accordingly. On 6 September 1997, John performed "Candle in the Wind 1997" at the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales in Westminster Abbey. The song became the fastest, and biggest-selling single of all time, eventually selling over 33 million copies worldwide. The best-selling single in UK Chart history, it sold 4.86 million copies in the UK. The best-selling single in ''Billboard'' history, and the only single ever certified Diamond in the United States, the single sold over 11 million copies in the U.S. The song proceeds of approximately £55 million were donated to the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund. It would win John the Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance at the 40th Grammy Awards ceremony in 1998. John has publicly performed "Candle in the Wind 1997" only once, at Diana's funeral, vowing never to perform it again unless asked by Diana's sons.

In the musical theatre world, in addition to a 1998 adaptation of ''The Lion King'' for Broadway, John also composed music for a Disney production of ''Aida'' in 1999 with lyricist Tim Rice, for which they received the Tony Award for Best Original Score at the 54th Tony Awards, and the Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album at the 43rd Grammy Awards. The musical was given its world premiere in the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta. It went on to Chicago and eventually Broadway. He also released a live compilation album called ''Elton John One Night Only - The Greatest Hits'' from the show he did at Madison Square Garden in New York City that same year.

2000 to present

In 2000, John and Tim Rice teamed again to create songs for DreamWorks' animated film ''The Road to El Dorado''. In August 2003, John scored his fifth UK number one single when "Are You Ready for Love" topped the UK Charts. Returning again to musical theatre, John composed music for a West End Theatre production of ''Billy Elliot the Musical'' in 2005 with playwright Lee Hall. John's only theatrical project with Bernie Taupin so far is ''Lestat: The Musical'', based on the Anne Rice vampire novels. However it was slammed by the critics and closed in May 2006 after 39 performances.

John was named a Disney Legend for his numerous outstanding contributions to Disney's films and theatrical works on 9 October 2006, by The Walt Disney Company. In 2006 he told ''Rolling Stone'' magazine that he plans for his next record to be in the R&B/hip-hop genre. "I want to work with Pharrell {Williams}, Timbaland, Snoop {Dogg}, Kanye {West}, Eminem and just see what happens."

In March 2007 he performed at Madison Square Garden for a record breaking 60th time for his 60th birthday, the concert was broadcast live and a DVD recording was released as ''Elton 60 - Live at Madison Square Garden''; a greatest-hits compilation CD, ''Rocket Man – Number Ones'', was released in 17 different versions worldwide, including a CD/DVD combo; and his back catalogue - almost 500 songs from 32 albums - became available for legal download.

On 1 July 2007, Elton John appeared at the Concert for Diana held at Wembley Stadium in London, in honour of Diana, Princess of Wales, on what would have been her 46th birthday. John opened the concert with "Your Song", and then closed the concert with his second performance, with "Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting", "Tiny Dancer", and "Are You Ready For Love".

In a September 2008 interview with ''GQ'' magazine, John said: "I’m going on the road again with Billy Joel again next year," referring to "Face to Face," a series of concerts featuring both musicians. The tour began in March and will continue for at least two more years.

In October 2003, John announced that he had signed an exclusive agreement to perform 75 shows over three years at Caesars Palace on the Las Vegas Strip. The show, entitled ''The Red Piano'', was a multimedia concert featuring massive props and video montages created by David LaChapelle. Effectively, he and Celine Dion share performances at Caesars Palace throughout the year - while one performs, one rests. The first of these shows took place on 13 February 2004. On 21 June 2008, he performed his 200th show in Caesars Palace. A DVD/CD package of ''The Red Piano'' was released through Best Buy in November 2008. A two year global tour was sandwiched between commitments in Las Vegas, Nevada, some of the venues of which were new to John. The Red Piano Tour closed in Las Vegas in April 2009.

Elton John performed a piano duet with Lady Gaga at the 52nd Grammy Awards. On 6 June 2010, John performed at the fourth wedding of conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh for a reported US$1 million fee. Eleven days later, and 17 years to the day after his last previous performance in Israel, he performed at the Ramat Gan Stadium; this was significant because of other then-recent cancellations by other performers in the fallout surrounding an Israeli raid on Gaza Flotilla the month before. In his introduction to that concert, Elton John noted he and other musicians should not "cherry-pick our conscience", in reference to Elvis Costello, who was to have performed in Israel two weeks after Elton did, but cancelled in the wake of the aforementioned raid, citing his [Costello's] conscience.

John's latest studio album is entitled ''The Union'' and was released on 19 October 2010. John says his collaboration with American singer-songwriter and sideman Leon Russell marks a new chapter in his recording career, saying: "I don't have to make pop records any more."

Elton John began his new show "The Million Dollar Piano" at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace, Las Vegas on 28 September 2011. John will be performing the show at Caesars for the next three years. John performed his 3000th concert on Saturday 8 October 2011 at Caesars. In 2011, John performed vocals on ''Snowed in at Wheeler Street'' with Kate Bush for her ''50 Words for Snow'' album.

Artistry

Songwriting

John has written with his song-writing partner Bernie Taupin since 1967 when he answered an advertisement for talent placed in the popular UK music publication, ''New Musical Express'', by Liberty records A&R man Ray Williams. The pair have collaborated on more than 30 albums to date.

The 1991 film documentary ''Two Rooms'' described the writing style that John and Taupin use, which involves Taupin writing the lyrics on his own, and John then putting them to music, with the two never in the same room during the process. Taupin would write a set of lyrics, then mail them to John, wherever he was in the world, who would then lay down the music, arrange it, and record.

Music style

John's voice was once classed as tenor, it is now baritone. His piano playing is influenced by classical and gospel music. He used Paul Buckmaster to arrange the music on his studio albums during the 1970s.

Personal life

Family

In the late 1960s, John was engaged to be married to his first lover, secretary Linda Woodrow, who is mentioned in the song "Someone Saved My Life Tonight". He married German recording engineer Renate Blauel on 14 February 1984, in Darling Point, Sydney, with speculation that the marriage was a cover for his homosexuality. John had come out as bisexual in a 1976 interview with ''Rolling Stone'', but after his divorce from Blauel in 1988 he told the magazine that he was "comfortable" being gay.

In 1993, John began a relationship with David Furnish, a former advertising executive and now filmmaker. John and Furnish entered a civil partnership on 21 December 2005. They held a low-key ceremony at the Windsor Guildhall, followed by a lavish party at their Berkshire mansion, thought to have cost £1 million. Their son, Zachary Jackson Levon Furnish-John, was born to a surrogate mother on 25 December 2010 in California. John and Furnish chose Lady Gaga, magazine editor Ingrid Sischy, and Sichy's partner Sandy Brant as Zachary's godmothers.

In September 2009, John announced his intention to adopt a 14-month-old boy, Lev, from an AIDS orphanage in Ukraine, but he was denied due to his age and marital status. Furnish stated they would continue to financially support Lev and his brother and would campaign for a change in Ukrainian law. John has ten known godchildren, including Sean Lennon, David and Victoria Beckham's sons Brooklyn and Romeo, Elizabeth Hurley's son Damian Charles, and the daughter of Seymour Stein.

Wealth

In April 2009, the Sunday Times Rich List estimated John's wealth to be £175 million (US$265 million), and ranked him as the 322nd richest person in Britain. John was estimated to have a fortune of £195 million in the ''Sunday Times Rich List'' of 2011, making him one of the 10 richest people in the British music industry. Aside from his main home "Woodside" in Old Windsor, Berkshire, John owns residences in Atlanta, Nice, London's Holland Park, and Venice. John is an art collector, and is believed to have one of the largest private photography collections in the world.

In 2000, John admitted to spending £30 million in just under two years—an average of £1.5 million a month. Between January 1996 and September 1997, he spent more than £9.6m on property and £293,000 on flowers. In June 2001 John sold 20 of his cars at Christie's, saying he didn't get the chance to drive them because he was out of the country so often. The sale, which included a 1993 Jaguar XJ220, the most expensive at £234,750, and several Ferraris, Rolls-Royces, and Bentleys, raised nearly £2 million. In 2003, John sold the contents of his Holland Park home—expected to fetch £800,000 at Sotheby's—in a bid to create more room for his collection of contemporary art which includes many works of art by Young British Artists such as Sam Taylor-Wood and Tracy Emin. Every year since 2004, John has opened a shop called "Elton's Closet" in which he sells his second-hand clothes.

Other

Throughout his career, John has battled addictions to alcohol and cocaine. By 1975, the pressures of stardom had begun to take a serious toll on him. During "Elton Week" in Los Angeles that year, John suffered a drug overdose. He also battled the eating disorder bulimia. In a CNN interview with Larry King in 2002, King asked if John knew of Diana, Princess of Wales' eating disorder. John replied, "Yes, I did. We were both bulimic."

A longtime tennis enthusiast, John wrote the song "Philadelphia Freedom" in tribute to long-time friend Billie Jean King and her World Team Tennis franchise of the same name. John and King also co-host an annual pro-am event to benefit AIDS charities, most notably John's own Elton John AIDS Foundation, for which King is a chairwoman. John, who maintains a part-time residence in Atlanta, Georgia, became a fan of the Atlanta Braves baseball team when he moved there in 1991.

Watford Football Club

John became chairman and director of Watford Football Club in 1976, appointing Graham Taylor as manager and investing large sums of money as the club rose three divisions into the First Division. The pinnacle of the club's success was finishing runners up in the First Division and reaching the FA Cup Final a year later. He sold the club to Jack Petchey in 1987, but remained their life-long president. In 1997 he re-purchased the club from Petchey and once again became chairman. He stepped down in 2002 when the club needed a full-time chairman although he continued as president of the club. Although no longer the majority shareholder, he still holds a significant financial interest. In June 2005 he held a concert at Watford's Vicarage Road ground, donating the funds to the club, and another concert in May 2010. For a time he was also a part-owner of the Los Angeles Aztecs of the North American Soccer League.

AIDS Foundation

John has been associated with AIDS charities since the deaths of his friends Ryan White and Freddie Mercury, raising large amounts of money and using his public profile to raise awareness of the disease. For example, in 1986 he joined with Dionne Warwick, Gladys Knight, and Stevie Wonder to record the single "That's What Friends Are For", with all profits being donated to the American Foundation for AIDS Research. The song won John and the others the Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal (as well as Song of the Year for its writers, Burt Bacharach and Carole Bayer Sager). In April 1990, John performed "Skyline Pigeon" at the funeral of White, a teenage haemophiliac he had befriended.

John founded the Elton John AIDS Foundation in 1992 as a charity to fund programmes for HIV/AIDS prevention, for the elimination of prejudice and discrimination against HIV/AIDS-affected individuals, and for providing services to people living with or at risk of contracting HIV/AIDS. This cause continues to be one of his personal passions. In early 2006, John donated the smaller of two bright-red Yamaha pianos from his Las Vegas, Nevada show to auction on eBay to raise public awareness and funds for the foundation.

To raise money for his AIDS charity, John hosts annually a glamorous White Tie & Tiara Ball, to which many famous celebrities are invited. On 28 June 2007, the 9th annual White Tie & Tiara Ball took place. The menu consisted of a truffle soufflé followed by Surf and Turf (filet mignon with Maine lobster tail) and a giant Knickerbocker glory ice cream. An auction followed the dinner held by Stephen Fry. A Rolls Royce ‘Phantom’ drophead coupe and a piece of Tracey Emin's artwork both raised £800,000 for the charity fund, with the total amount raised reaching £3.5 million. Later on in the event, John sang "Delilah" with Tom Jones and "Big Spender" with Shirley Bassey. Tickets for the Ball cost £1,000 a head. The event raised £4.6 million for his AIDS Foundation in 2006.

Activism

On 1 April 2010, John joined Cyndi Lauper in the launch of her ''Give a Damn campaign'' to bring a wider awareness of discrimination of the LGBT community as part of her True Colors Fund. In the advertisement, John states: "Imagine walking down the street and wondering if this is the day you'll get beaten up, or even killed, simply because of who you are". The campaign is to bring straight people to stand up with the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered community and stop the discrimination. Other names included in the campaign are Whoopi Goldberg, Jason Mraz, Judith Light, Cynthia Nixon, Kim Kardashian, Clay Aiken, Sharon Osbourne, Kelly Osbourne, and Anna Paquin.

He is an occasional columnist in the ''Guardian''.

Honours and awards

John was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility in 1994. He and Bernie Taupin had previously been inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1992. John was made a Commander of The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1995. For his charitable work, John was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II on 24 February 1998. In October 1975, John became the 1,662nd person to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

John received an Honorary Doctorate of Music (Hon DMus) from the University of London in 2002.

He became a recipient of a Kennedy Center Honor in 2004, and a Disney Legends Award in 2006. In 2010, Elton John was awarded with the PRS for Music Heritage Award, which was erected, on The Namaste Lounge Pub in Watford, where Elton performed his first ever gig.

Music awards include the Academy Award for Best Original Song for "Can You Feel The Love Tonight" from The Lion King (award shared with Tim Rice); the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song in 1994 for "Can You Feel The Love Tonight" from The Lion King (award shared with Tim Rice); and the Tony Award for Best Original Score in 2000 for Elton John and Tim Rice's Aida (award shared with Tim Rice)

John has six Grammy Awards:

1987: Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal for "That's What Friends Are For", performed by Dionne Warwick & Friends (award shared with Dionne Warwick, Gladys Knight & Stevie Wonder)

1991: Best Instrumental Composition for "Basque", performed by James Galway

1994: Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for "Can You Feel The Love Tonight"

1997: Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for "Candle In The Wind" 1997

1999: Grammy Legend Award

2001: Best Musical Show Album for ''Elton John & Tim Rice's Aida'' (award shared with Guy Babylon, Paul Bogaev & Chris Montan (producers), Tim Rice (lyricist) and the original Broadway cast with Heather Headley, Adam Pascal, and Sherie Rene Scott)

Elton John Band

Since 1970, John has been the pianist and lead singer, as well as writer of music of the Elton John Band. The band had multiple line-up changes. Bernie Taupin has been the band's lyricist during their classic era and also to this day. In addition, Davey Johnstone, Nigel Olsson, and Ray Cooper are the only returning members of the band's original line-up since 1970 (Olsson), and 1972 (Johnstone and Cooper). Ray Cooper is on and off with the Elton John Band because he is working with other musicians as a session and road-tour percussionist. Furthermore, Elton John has also used a number of session musicians in the time of his career.

Discography

;Studio albums

''Empty Sky'' (1969)

''Elton John'' (1970)

''Tumbleweed Connection'' (1970)

''Madman Across the Water'' (1971)

''Honky Château'' (1972)

''Don't Shoot Me I'm Only the Piano Player'' (1973)

''Goodbye Yellow Brick Road'' (1973)

''Caribou'' (1974)

''Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy'' (1975)

''Rock of the Westies'' (1975)

''Blue Moves'' (1976)

''A Single Man'' (1978)

''Victim of Love'' (1979)

''21 at 33'' (1980)

''The Fox'' (1981)

''Jump Up!'' (1982)

''Too Low for Zero'' (1983)

''Breaking Hearts'' (1984)

''Ice on Fire'' (1985)

''Leather Jackets'' (1986)

''Reg Strikes Back'' (1988)

''Sleeping with the Past'' (1989)

''The One'' (1992)

''Duets'' (1993)

''Made in England'' (1995)

''The Big Picture'' (1997)

''Songs from the West Coast'' (2001)

''Peachtree Road'' (2004)

''The Captain & the Kid'' (2006)

''The Union (with Leon Russell)'' (2010)

''TBA'' (2012)

;Soundtracks, scores & theatre albums

''Friends'' (1971)

''The Lion King'' (1994)

''Aida'' (1998)

''The Muse'' (1999)

''The Road to El Dorado (soundtrack)'' (2000)

''Billy Elliot'' (2005)

''Lestat'' (2005)

''Gnomeo & Juliet'' (2011)

;Films

''Elton John: Me, Myself & I'' (2007) autobiography as himself

''The Country Bears'', US (2002) as himself

''Spice World'', UK (1997) as himself

''Tommy'', UK (1975) as Pinball Wizard

''Born to Boogie'', US playing as himself with Marc Bolan and Ringo Starr

References

;Bibliography

''Elton John: A Visual Documentary'', Nigel Goodall, Omnibus Press, 1993 ISBN 0711930783

''His Song: The Musical Journey of Elton John'', Elizabeth Rosenthal, Billboard Books, 2001, ISBN 0823088928

External links

Elton John's official website

Commentary by Elton John (''The Guardian'')

Category:1947 births Category:AIDS activists Category:Alumni of the Royal Academy of Music Category:Best Song Academy Award winning songwriters Category:Brit Award winners Category:British rhythm and blues boom musicians Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Category:English football chairmen and investors Category:English-language singers Category:English musical theatre composers Category:English pop pianists Category:English rock pianists Category:English singer-songwriters Category:English tenors Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Ivor Novello Award winners Category:Kennedy Center honorees Category:Knights Bachelor Category:LGBT composers Category:LGBT musicians from the United Kingdom Category:LGBT people from England Category:Living people Category:Musicians from London Category:People from Old Windsor Category:People from Pinner Category:People self-identifying as alcoholics Category:Religious skeptics Category:Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Category:Rocket Records artists Category:Silver Clef Awards winners Category:Singers from London Category:Songwriters Hall of Fame inductees Category:Watford F.C. directors Category:MusiCares Person of the Year Category:Grammy Legend Award

als:Elton John ar:إلتون جون an:Elton John az:Elton Con bn:এলটন জন be:Элтан Джон be-x-old:Элтан Джон bg:Елтън Джон ca:Elton John cs:Elton John cy:Elton John da:Elton John de:Elton John et:Elton John el:Έλτον Τζων es:Elton John eo:Elton John fa:التون جان fo:Elton John fr:Elton John ga:Elton John gl:Elton John ko:엘튼 존 hr:Elton John io:Elton John id:Elton John is:Elton John it:Elton John he:אלטון ג'ון jv:Elton John ka:ელტონ ჯონი kk:Элтон Джон sw:Elton John lv:Eltons Džons lt:Elton John hu:Elton John mk:Елтон Џон mrj:Элтон Джон nl:Elton John ja:エルトン・ジョン no:Elton John nn:Elton John oc:Elton John pl:Elton John pt:Elton John ro:Elton John ru:Элтон Джон simple:Elton John sk:Elton John sl:Elton John sr:Елтон Џон sh:Elton John fi:Elton John sv:Elton John th:เอลตัน จอห์น tr:Elton John uk:Елтон Джон vi:Elton John zh:埃爾頓·約翰