The Red Hot Chili Peppers are one of the most ground breaking and successful global bands in music history. They combine rock and funk and create an explosive stage show. They have sold more than 80 million albums worldwide, including selling over 16 million albums on an album like Californication (1999) alone. They tour globally to a fairly incomparable level, being one of the only bands to have sold out 3 nights at London’s Hyde Park. They have won 6 Grammy Awards, 3 Brit Awards and they have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame. They have achieved the most Number 1 singles at alternative radio and they have a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame.
This is the band that set the benchmark for power driven ballads throughout their initial period of activity between 1973 and 1987. Driven by the founding and consistent band member Neal Schon, (previously of the band Santana) they released 11 albums during this period. They achieved nineteen top 40 singles in the US, 6 of which were top ten and nearly 50 million albums sold in the US alone.
Their commercial success reached amazing new heights with the addition of vocalist Steve Perry for the 1978 album Infinity, and when Jonathan Cain joined the band for the Escape album of 1981 album, which features the legendary emotive anthem Don’t Stop Believin’, the band catapulted themselves to the very top tier of global success and an arena touring phenomenon. Great musicianship, heartfelt stories, passionate delivery make Journey a band carved into history as one of the true greats.
Richie Sambora and his band Bon Jovi built a really strong base in the early 80’s, but it was the band’s third album Slippery When Wet, released in August 1986 which spent 8 weeks at Number 1 in the US and was the best-selling album of 1987 which helped the band achieve much more widespread success and global recognition. It features many of Bon Jovi’s best known songs Wanted Dead or Alive, You Give Love A Bad Name and it also features arguably the bands signature song Livin’ On A Prayer, which has been cited as one of the most recognisable songs in the world.
The next album, New Jersey, charted at Number 1 and produced five Top Ten US hits and gave the band their first Number 1 album in the UK. The Keep The Faith album came in 1992 featuring the big Bon Jovi hits Keep The Faith and In These Arms, followed by the 1995 album These Days. This release enjoyed particularly strong success in the UK, hitting the Number 1 spot, staying there for four weeks and produced four Top Ten singles there. The band released the album Crush in 2000. The album was nominated for Best Rock Album at the Grammys as well as being nominated for Best Rock Performance with Vocal for the Sambora written It’s My Life song.
Major congratulations must go to Sambora who, alongside his band members from Bon Jovi, was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame in 2018 as well as receiving the Special International Award at the Ivor Novello Awards with Apple Music in September 2021.
McDaid weaves an excellent fine line between being a writing partner, a song composer and a band member. His first main role was as the singer and songwriter in the band Vega 4 before later joining Snow Patrol as guitarist, pianist and vocalist. Alongside these roles, McDaid established himself as a writing partner for a wide range of artists in a variety of genres. Everything from Paul Van Dyk to Robbie Williams, to rapper Example, to bands like Biffy Clyro and Kodaline, production outfits like Rudimental as well as singer songwriters like Birdy and of course, Ed Sheeran. His repertoire has become majorly appreciated and heavily used across many advertising campaigns, TV formats and as title tracks for movies, such as the Eva Isaksen House Of Fools film. His partnership with Ed Sheeran is historic. McDaid co-wrote 7 of the songs on the X album including Photography and Bloodstream, which was nominated for Best Song at the 2016 Ivor Novello Awards, and the album was Grammy nominated and won the Brit Award for Best Album. In 2017 McDaid co-wrote Shape Of You, which went to Number 1 in both the UK (stayed there for 4 weeks) and also the US.
This group is a duo made of Andrew ‘Drew’ Taggart and Alexander ‘Alex’ Pall, who joined forces in New York City and began their career delivering remixes for indie bands. Their world exploded when their December 2013 track Selfie was unleashed on the world, a zeitgeist moment was caught, bundled up in the EDM sound of the time and accompanied by a super humorous star packed video which took this group into all corners of the globe. This was no fluke however, and across the next few years the band continued to deliver a host of high grade electronic pop songs, some of which included an incredible selection of artists, from Coldplay, to Bebe Rexha, to Jhene Aiko to 5SOS and Florida Georgia Line as well as their key writing partner Emily Warren. Closer, featuring Halsey stayed at Number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for 12 weeks in 2016, staying in the Top ten for over 32 weeks and was also a Number 1 single in the UK, and at least four tracks by the Chainsmokers are now close to or exceeding 1.5 billion streams.
Multi skilled, multi talented, mover, shaker, DJ, singer, songwriter and record producer. Ronson has now released five studio albums, the first one was released in 2003 and delivered three top 10 hits and the Brit Award for Best British Male Solo Artist in 2008. The follow up album Version came in 2007 and Record Collection in 2010. His Uptown Special album, released in January 2015, featured the single Uptown Funk featuring Bruno Mars, which became a transatlantic Number 1 single as well as topping the chart in 17 other countries. The song remained at Number 1 in the US for 14 weeks and in the UK for seven weeks. The video for the song is in the top ten of the most watched videos of all time on YouTube. The track won British Single Of The Year at the 2015 Brit Awards and also won Record Of The Year and Best Pop Performance at the Grammy Awards in 2016.
Ronson’s profile grew sizeably following his work with Amy Winehouse, writing and producing for her 2006 Island Records release Back to Black. He co-wrote the album’s title track. The album won Best Pop Vocal Album at the 2008 Grammy Awards and was also nominated for Album Of The Year. The album was nominated at the 2007 Brit Awards for Best British Album, and was also short listed for the 2007 Mercury Prize. The album has gone on to sell in excess of 16 million copies.
Additional wider exposure has come via his work with Lady Gaga. Their collaboration has so far excelled with the song Shallow featuring Bradley Cooper. Released in 2018 the song was the lead single from the film A Star is Born. Heard three times during the film the song topped the charts in more than 2O countries. The song won the Academy Award for Best Original Song, the Golden Globe Award for the Best Original Song, the BAFTA Award for Best Film Music. Additionally it garnered 4 Grammy Awards, including Record Of The Year and Song Of The Year, as well as Best Pop Performance and Best Song Written for Visual Media.
Ultimately the biggest songs from one of the biggest bands the planet has ever witnessed. The guitarist, the vocalist, Buckingham was also a contributor of 4 songs to the Fleetwood Mac Rumours album, released in 1977, reaching Number 1 in the UK, the US, Canada and Australia and going on to sell over 45 million copies, winning the Grammy for Album of the Year and becoming the 5th best selling album in US music history.
Buckingham grew up in San Francisco, becoming interested in folk music as a teenager and by 1973 released his debut album with his partner Stevie Nicks. This duo then joined Fleetwood Mac who released their eponymous album in 1975. Featuring two Buckingham written songs the album reached Number one on the US charts. However, it was the Buckingham composed song Go Your Own Way that helped things change up by several gears and helped the 1977 album Rumours explode to a whole other level and break sales and airplay records and ultimately surpass the 45 million copy high tide mark.
Born in Sunderland, Stewart spent time honing his craft before arriving in London and meeting Annie Lennox in 1976. Initially forming The Tourists, the duo started to enjoy some commercial success with their cover of Dusty Springfield’s I Only Want To Be With You. After ending that chapter, Stewart and Annie became The Eurythmics and dominated the pop landscape for the next decade. Songs such as Sweet Dreams Are Made of This, Here Comes The Rain Again, There Must Be An Angel, and Sisters Are Doin’ It For Themselves propelled the band to global success. Winning a Grammy for best rock performance in 1987, and a Brit Award for Outstanding Achievement in 1999, they are estimated to have sold over 75 million albums.
Post Eurythmics, Stewart has continued to deliver an enormous selection of music both solo and with his band the Spiritual Cowboys. He has collaborated with numerous other artists including Terry Hall, Feargal Sharkey, Bon Jovi, Bryan Ferry, Shakespeare Sister, Darry Hall, Stevie Nicks, Tom Petty as well as with Mick Jagger on his solo work and in the pop supergroup Super Heavy.
Since releasing her first album in 1991, recorded at the incredible age of 13, Shakira has sold over 80 million records, making her the best-selling female Latin artist of all time. She has been awarded a remarkable 3 Grammy Awards, 12 Latin Grammy Awards, 4 MTV Video Music Awards, 7 Billboard Music Awards, 39 Billboard Latin Music Awards and 6 Guinness World Records. With over 32 million listeners, Shakira is the most-streamed female Latin artist on Spotify and her songs have been streamed billions of times. She is also one of only three female artists to have two videos exceeding two billion views on YouTube.
Shakira released her first English language album Laundry Service in 2001, which have sold over 13 million copies worldwide, was the seventh best-selling album of 2002 and one of the best-selling albums of the 21st century. Six singles were released from the album, including the hits Whenever, Wherever, Underneath Your Clothes and Que Me Quedes Tú. Whenever, Wherever was an international success reaching Number 1 in 27 countries and peaking at Number 2 in the UK. Underneath Your Clothes was a Top 10 in both the US and UK, and the Spanish-speaking Que Me Quedes Tú topped both Billboard’s Latin Pop Songs and Hot Latin Songs charts.
Canadian born Young cut his teeth in early bands playing with the likes of Rick James before slowly developing relationships with key players like Joni Mitchell and Stephen Stills with whom he established his first successful outfit the Buffalo Springfield, pioneers of the Californian folk rock scene. He released his first solo album in 1968.
The next 50-odd years have been spent travelling a course between acoustic folk and full on guitar explosions. Commercial peaks were hit with the 1970 album After The Gold Rush, one of the definitive singer songwriter albums, the 1972 Harvest album featuring a conventional hit single Heart Of Gold and perhaps the critics’ favourite Tonight’s The Night in 1975, as well as reappearing and capturing the moment again in the grunge inspired early 90’s with his Harvest Moon album. Along the way he also delivered so much confrontational material, so often at odds with his audience expectations.
Carole Bayer Sager’s songbook spans almost 50 years and contains some of the world’s most popular and successful songs From the Grammy-winning That’s What Friends Are For, the Oscar-winning Arthur’s Theme, and the Oscar-nominated Golden Globe winning, The Prayer, to Don’t Cry Out Loud and On My Own, Carole’s songs have become pop standards. Honours for her work include an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, two Golden Globe Awards, a Tony Award, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, a Songwriter’s Hall of Fame induction, a Distinguished Alumni Award from the New York University Alumni Association and being honoured by the LA Chapter of the Recording Academy. One of the most prolific and poignant writers in pop history, Carole’s songs have been recorded by such artists as Barbra Streisand, Michael Jackson, Frank Sinatra, Whitney Houston, Ray Charles, Dolly Parton, Aretha Franklin, Bette Midler, Celine Dion, and Reba McEntire, among others. Carole has collaborated with such diverse musical talents over the years as Bob Dylan (one of his rare collaborations), Melissa Manchester, Peter Allen, Marvin Hamlisch, Burt Bacharach, David Foster, Bruce Roberts, Neil Diamond, James Ingram, Carly Simon, Kenny ‘Babyface’ Edmonds, and Carole King Clint Eastwood, among others.
Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of The Pretenders, Chrissie Hynde is a legend unto herself. Inspired by the likes of the Slits and Siouxsie Sioux, Chrissie became the unapologetic front woman and founder of the Pretenders, and with her intelligence, energy and drive made pure punk tunes that bridged the gap between rock and roll and the New Wave. With her unmistakable voice, Chrissie would lead the band from strength to strength with songs like Brass in Pocket, I’ll Stand by You and Hymn To Her.
From Dylan, to Bono, to Morrissey, to Iggy Pop, to Johnny Marr and to Jeff Beck, Chrissie has left an undeniable mark on the tonal landscape. From the opening chords of The Pretender’s 1980 debut, through the highs of the 1980’s with successive major hits, through incarnations with the Black Keys, and into her own solo material and beyond, this is a forward-thinking icon, social activist, and musician who will forever be revered.