Theorizing Blackness: The Conference

THEORIZING BLACKNESS

Friday, April 4th, 2008

CUNY Graduate Center
365 5th Avenue
New York, NY 10016

8:00 AM – 7:00 PM

The Africana Studies Group (ASG) of the CUNY Graduate Center invites you to join us for a day of presentations and discussion.

On April 4th, 1968 the esteemed civil rights leader and social philosopher, Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., was gunned down in Memphis, Tennessee thus marking what many regard as the closing bookend of the mainstream African-American Civil Rights Movement. Since that pivotal moment in 1968 (a watershed year in numerous other respects) momentous sociopolitical, technological, and cultural changes have occurred both within the United States and around the world. In light of those substantial changes, "Theorizing Blackness" asks: What does blackness mean in the current day? How is blackness conceived, constructed, represented, and consumed. How has it changed or remained the same?

Keynote speaker:

Professor Mark Anthony Neal is Professor of Black Popular Culture in the Department of African and African American Studies and the Director of the Institute for Critical U.S. Studies (ICUSS) at Duke University.

Professor Neal is the author of four books: What the Music Said: Black Popular Music and Black Public Culture (1998), Soul Babies: Black Popular Culture and the Post-Soul Aesthetic (2002), Songs in the Keys of Black Life: A Rhythm and Blues Nation (2003), and New Black Man: Rethinking Black Masculinity (2005), and co-editor of That's the Joint!: The Hip-Hop Studies Reader (2004).

Plenary participants:

Dr. William E. Cross Jr. is the Director of the Social-Personality Psychology Ph.D. program at the CUNY Graduate Center. He is author of Shades of Black: Diversity in African American Identity.

Mahen Bonetti is the founder and Executive Director of African Film Festival Inc. (AFF), a non-profit art organization founded in 1990.

Jacqueline Nassy Brown is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at Hunter College (CUNY). Dr. Brown is the author of Dropping Anchor, Setting Sail: Geographies of Race in Black Liverpool.

Johanna Fernandez is an Assistant Professor of History and Black Studies at Baruch College (CUNY) She is currently working on a book about the Young Lords Party, tentatively titled: When the World Was Their Stage: A History of the Young Lords Party, 1968-1974.

Donette Francis is an Assistant Professor of English at SUNY Binghamton. She is currently writing a book defining the "third wave" of Caribbean women writers, Fictions of Citizenship: Rewriting Sexual Histories in Third Wave Caribbean Women's Literature, forthcoming in 2009.

Throughout the day, panels will be moderated by doctoral students and faculty members such as Distinguished Professor of Anthropology, Leith Mullings and, Jerry G. Watts, Professor of English and Sociology and Interim Director of the Institute for Research in the African Diaspora in the Americas and the Caribbean (IRADAC).

Check Out the Full Schedule (hat tip to canwebefrank.com)

Shilpa Shetty Unseen Photo Shoot Pics

Shilpa Shetty Profile

Name: Shilpa Shetty

Nick Name: Manya

Date of Birth: 8 June, 1975

Birth Place: Tamil Nadu, India

Zodiac Sign: Gemini

Height: 5'10"

Hair Color: Black

Marital Status: Single

Father's Name: Surendra Shetty

Mother's Name: Sunanda Shetty

Sister(s): younger sister Shamita

Debut Film: Baazigar

Education: Degree in Commerce from Sydenham College in Mumbai and diploma course in Fashion Design from SNDT

Languages: Hindi, English, Marathi, Gujrati, Tulu, Telugu, Tamil and can understand French

Hobbies: Acting, dancing, cooking, and working out

Shilpa Shetty Biography

Shilpa Shetty (born 8 June 1975 in Tamil Nadu, India) is a four-time Filmfare Award-nominated Indian film actress and model. Since making her debut in the film Baazigar (1993), she has appeared in nearly 50 films, her first leading role being in 1994 in Aag. She resides at the centre of the Hindi-language film industry in Mumbai, India. Her younger sister Shamita Shetty is also a Bollywood film actress.

Shilpa was crowned the winner of the British Celebrity Big Brother on 28 January 2007 with 63% of the final vote, after an international racism controversy involving her and fellow contestants Jade Goody, Jo O'Meara and Danielle Lloyd.

Shilpa Shetty was born in a strict and traditional close-knit family that hails from the matrilineal Bunt community of Dakshina Kannada district, Karnataka although she was born in Mangalore. She is the eldest daughter of Surendra and Sunanda Shetty, manufacturers of tamper-proof caps for the pharmaceutical industry, and her native language is Tulu although she can speak nearly ten other languages [citations needed] at differing levels including English, Hindi, Kannada, Marathi, Gujarati, Telugu, Tamil, Urdu and basic French. One of her nicknames is "Silly Pooh".

Duke University Law School Presents: "Hip-hop culture: a convenient scapegoat or a contributor to inequality?"

Mills Conversation Series: "Hip-hop culture: a convenient scapegoat or a contributor to inequality?"

March 21, 2008 -- The Jean E. and Christine P. Mills Conversation Series on Race continues at Duke Law School on Wed., March 26, with a panel discussion on the variously controversial and conciliatory aspects of hip-hop culture.

This event will begin at 12:15 p.m. in room 3041 and is free and open to the public. The Law School is located at the corner of Science Drive and Towerview Road on Duke University’s West Campus, with parking available at the Bryan Center. A light lunch will be served on a first-come, first-served basis.

Three distinguished scholars will lead the discussion on the inter- and intra-racial implications of the hip-hop genre. Duke Professor of African & American Studies Mark Anthony Neal has written extensively about black and hip-hop music and culture in works that include That’s the Joint!: The Hip-Hop Studies Reader. Professor Imani Perry of Rutgers Law School, the author of Prophets of the Hood: Politics and Poetics in Hip-Hop, focuses her scholarship on race in law and culture. Professor Mario L. Barnes of the University of Miami School of Law, is a specialist in the areas of criminal and constitutional law and race and the law.

Co-sponsored by the Program in Public Law, the Jean E. and Christine P. Mills Conversation Series on Race is endowed by Amos Mills ’72 with a view to opening lines of communication and improving relationships among people of different skin colors and backgrounds.

The series is organized by Professor Trina Jones, whose own scholarship and teaching focuses on issues related to diversity, colorism, and employment discrimination. The topics for the March conversations were selected, she said, to take a discussion of race out of a strictly black-white paradigm and demonstrate the complexity of race relations in the United States between and within racial groups.

“In addition to examining how whites react to the ‘browning’ of America, we have explored how other groups of color respond to the recent influx of Latino and Latina immigrants ― which actually isn’t a new phenomenon ― through our first two events,” said Jones. “We are acknowledging some of the underlying perceptions of threat, particularly as they relate to the competition for low-paying jobs, and access to social services ― such as health care and education ― that can present a challenge to lower-income Americans."

With a particular view to initiating a dialogue across age groups, the March 26 discussion will acknowledge the cross-racial appeal of hip-hop, Jones said. “It is perceived to be a black art form, but huge numbers of suburban white youths also participate. In addition to taking account of its much discussed negative aspects, we will be examining hip-hop’s opportunities for cross-racial interaction and even healing.”Webcasts are or will be available of all events in the Mills Conversation Series on Race.

For more information, contact Frances Presma at (919) 613-7248.

Bollywood Stars At The Premier Of Race

The grand premiere of Bollywood's latest mystery thriller 'Race' was held in Mumbai last evening.

The director duo Abbas-Mustan's film stars Bollywood actors Saif Ali Khan,kshaye Khanna, Bipasha Basu, Katrina Kaif, Anil Kapoor and Sameera Reddy in the lead roles.

Abbas-Mustan who are a veteran in Indian film industry and have films likeaadshah, Soldier, Daraar, Baazigar, Khiladi and Agnikaal to name a few to their credit.

Kumar S Taurani and Ramesh S Taurani have produced the film 'Race' while the music of the film is composed by Pritam Chakraborty.

The story of the film revolves around two people Ranvir played by Saif and Rajiv played by Akshaye who are half brothers and own a huge stud farm in Durban, South Africa.

They breed horses on their huge ranch house and are also the biggest bookies in the horse racing circuit.

The story moves at a breakneck speed and is full of unexpected twists and turns making the climax of the movie impossible to predict.

A back drop of horse racing, the beautiful locales of Durban and edge of the seat excitement are the crux of the film.

The lead actress of the film Katrina Kaif enjoyed a entire shooting and said, " I am more curious to see the audience reaction. Its totally entertaining film. It's got all the elements in it, but its slightly more edgy."

Bollywood actress Sameera Reddy the other leading lady in the film was however confident that the film will get a good opening at the box office.

"I am really excited about the film. The film's music has done so well. I hope the people will like the film and will get their money's worth ," said Sameera.

Echoing the similar sentiments was actor Anil Kapoor who said that it is a people's film and they should watch it.

"Lets see, how the audience react to it. Basically, this film is for the people. I think they are going to enjoy this film," said Anil.

Remembering Ivan Dixon

from CRITICAL NOIR @ Vibe.com

Nothing But a Man: Remembering Ivan Dixon
by Mark Anthony Neal

It would be easy to think of Ivan Dixon, who died recently in Charlotte, North Carolina, as just another brilliant black actor or actress who never received the recognition that they deserved. Indeed if you placed Dixon's career alongside those such as Rosalind Cash, Roscoe Lee Brown, Gloria Foster and Calvin Lockhart, you'd have just an inkling of a level of genius that was tragically underutilized and overlooked. But Dixon, distinguished himself even among those stellar talents, by playing critical roles--as an actor and director--in two films that will forever serve as the most evocative examples of black masculinity and black radicalism in mainstream American cinema.

For many, Ivan Dixon was simply the black guy on the 1960's sitcom Hogan Heroes. Set in a Nazi POW camp, the show poked fun at the very idea of Nazi imperialism at a historical moment, the 1960s, when the United States was the most resonant example of such imperialism. A critique of America's own imperialistic desire, was the not-so-deep meaning beyond the clowning of Colonel Klink--the hapless face of Hitler's ambition. Dixon's Sgt. James Kinchloe, though, offered the only so-called "black" perspective on Nazi imperialism that could be easily accessed in mainstream American culture in the 1960s. It's not like Band of Brothers gave any inkling of what the brothers were doing in Europe during World War II. For better or worse, Dixon's Kinchloe also presented one of the first African-American television characters who was defined by a more global perspective, an aspect of his career that frames his early success as the Nigerian exchange student Joseph Asagai in the original stage and film versions of A Raisin in the Sun.

Dixon's most stirring role though, would be much closer to home, geographically and politically. Nothing But a Man (1964) directed by then 35-year-old German-born director Michael Roemer, depicts the life of Duff Anderson (portrayed by Dixon), a wandering day laborer, seeking to escape the demands of marriage and fatherhood in the poverty stricken American south. Dixon's wife in the film was portrayed by the legendary jazz vocalist Abbey Lincoln. Critic John Nickel suggests that Roemer's film anticipated the infamous Moynihan Report on the black family, which argues that black families needed to embrace mainstream patriarchy in order be fully integrated into American society. In essence, future US Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, argued that black communities were hamstrung by the overarching influence of black women.

Nothing But a Man's power come from also locating the impact of joblessness on the lives of black men (Roemer used NAACP field workers to help do research for the film), who felt as though they couldn't be men in their own households, if they weren't the primary financial providers in those households. Dixon brought a depth of humanity to this situation, particularly as he seeks out his own absentee father. Though Nothing But a Man lacks much of the nuance that three decades of black feminist scholarship has brought to bear on the dynamics of black gender relationships, the film remains a visual testament to the struggles of black men in the south, just as the Black Power Movement was about to erupt.

Read the Full Essay

Alexis Bledel Nice Photo Shoot Pics

Alexis Bledel Profile

Name: Alexis Bledel

Birth Name: Kimberly Alexis Bledel

Height: 5' 7''

Sex: F

Nationality: American

Birth Date: September 16, 1981

Birth Place: Houston, Texas, USA

Profession: Actress, Model

Education: Page Parkes Center of Modeling and Acting; Houston, Texas
New York University's Tisch School of Arts, New York (studied film)
Saint Agnes Academy in Houston, Texas

Relationship: Milo Ventimiglia (actor; born July 8, 1977; dated since 2002)

Father: Martin Bledel (Argentinian)

Mother: Nanette Dozier (Mexican)

Brother: Eric David Bledel (born in 1986)

Claim to fame: As Lorelai 'Rory' Leigh Gilmore on TV Series Gilmore Girls

Alexis Bledel Biography

Kimberly Alexis Bledel (born September 16, 1981) is an American actress and former fashion model. She is known for her role in the television series Gilmore Girls, as well as the films Tuck Everlasting, Sin City, and The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. She goes by her first name, "Kimberly", with family and friends, but is known professionally as Alexis Bledel.

Bledel was born in Houston, Texas. Her father, Martín Bledel, is Argentinian, and her mother, Nanette, is Mexican. She has one younger brother, Eric, born 1986. Her first language is Spanish, and she did not learn English until she began school. In fact, her Sisterhood co-star America Ferrera was surprised during an interview with a Spanish magazine when Bledel started speaking Spanish. Bledel's mother encouraged her to try community theater when she was a child to overcome her shyness. She subsequently appeared in local productions of Our Town and The Wizard of Oz before being scouted at a local mall and given work as a fashion model. She attended St. Agnes Academy in Houston and is a Roman Catholic. She went to Page Parkes Center for Modeling and Acting and majored in film at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts for one year. She previously had appeared in the film Rushmore as an extra in a classroom scene.

Bledel made her TV debut on The WB series Gilmore Girls in 2000. She portrayed Lorelai Leigh "Rory" Gilmore, the daughter of single mother Lorelai Victoria Gilmore. Initially, Rory was a high school student living with her mother, but later moved on to college at Yale University, where she, among other things, worked as the editor of the Yale Daily News. Bledel has said that she feels she can relate in some ways to Rory, both when it comes to some personal traits and her relationship to her own parents. She also sees the family structure and mother-daughter relationship on the show as something to which many people can relate.

In 2002, Bledel was voted one of Teen People's "25 Hottest Stars Under 25". She appeared as the main character in the video for Less Than Jake's "She's Gonna Break Soon", lead single from their 2003 album Anthem. The single charted at number 39 on the UK charts. In 2005, she starred in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants based on the book by Ann Brashares. She played Lena Kaligaris, a talented artist on a journey with her three best friends, linked over the summer by a pair of magical jeans.

In 2005, Bledel made a shift from previous TV and film characters while portraying Becky, a prostitute, in the movie Sin City. "She's a very professional prostitute. She carries a gun and she kicks ass," said Bledel of Becky. Despite her tough and precocious exterior, Becky gives the impression of being the young and insecure one among the women of Old Town, because of her young appearance and her close relationship to her mother, from whom she keeps her profession a secret. Sin City is shot almost entirely in black-and-white, with splashes of color here and there, such as a red dress, blood or an entirely yellow evil character. In Becky's case, it was her eyes that kept their color, as director Robert Rodriguez claimed that he found Bledel's eyes to be "so amazing I had to keep them blue in the picture."

Mudh Mudh Ke Na Dekh Mudh Mudh Ke (M2KNDM2K) Wallpapers

Himesh’s First Ever On-Screen ‘Love Triangle’ M2KNDM2K

For all those who thought that Aap Kaa Surroor - The Moviee was a mere flash in the pan, can simply take a break. This actor-composer-singer, who is busy shooting for the much hyped Karzzzz in Cape Town, has now signed a film titled Mudh Mudh Ke Na Dekkh Mudh Mudh Ke (M2KNDM2K), his first ever on-screen 'love triangle'. This film will have debutante Jennifer Kotwal paired opposite Himesh. The second lady is Niharika Singh, who is making her debut in A Love Iiisshtory.

Just like Himesh's other films; M2KNDM2K too, would be shot extensively abroad, but also in Punjab and Delhi. Besides that, as usual, music is touted to be the USP of this film. Rumors have it that M2KNDM2K will feature eight romantic tracks and that it's very young, contemporary and definitely ahead of it's times.

M2KNDM2K will be produced by Aditya Singh (of Jagannath Films) and directed by Seema and Sudhir. The duo has been directing ad films and been doing the packaging of a lot of shows on various channels. It's said that the script of M2KNDM2K and the way the film was conceived by Aditya, Seema and Sudhir, prompted Himesh (who is currently busy shooting for Karzzzz in Jo'berg and Cape Town), to sign this film.

Himesh says that the strength of M2KNDM2K lies in it's lovely script. And that God willing, the music will be huge too. He added that he has indeed been blessed by God with some memorable compositions and that he is going to use them in M2KNDM2K. He is all praise for Aditya, Seema and Sudhir, who, he feels have a very good visual sense, and is sailing a golden boat with him as the captain!

Himesh (who was busy shooting for Karzzzz in Cape Town), excitedly said "The strength of M2KNDM2K lies in its lovely script. God willing, the music will be huge too. I have been blessed by God with some memorable compositions and I am going to use them in M2KNDM2K. Aditya Singh is making a very big film in terms of production values and Seema-Sudhir have a very good visual sense. In my interaction with them in last six months, I can confidently say that they will make a very good film!" When asked about the progress on Karzzzz, Himesh, with brimming confidence filling his throat, said "I am loving every bit that I am shooting for Karzzzz with Satishji (Satish Kaushik). Bhushan Kumar too, is leaving no stones unturned in terms of production values".

"Bitch" is the New (Black) Feminism

From The Chronicle Review (The Chronicle of Higher Education)
From the issue dated March 14, 2008


Standing Up for 'Bad' Words
By STEPHANE DUNN

It took me five years to finally tell my conservative religious mother and my pastor stepfather the title of my book, which at that time was "Baad Bitches" & Sassy Supermamas: Race, Gender, & Sexuality in Black Power Action Fantasies. I figured it was unfair to wait until I sent it to her in the mail or she strolled past it in Barnes & Noble, or, even worse, some concerned church folk called her on the phone about it. Now, my mother was a woman once known to backhand-slap bad words and cussin' right out of your mouth. So I sat across from them at the dining-room table, giggling nervously, and hurriedly blurted out the first two words of the title. Mama looked at me, her left eyebrow raised way too high. My stepfather looked at her, then glanced at me and took over the nervous grinning.

I rambled on some more about how it was a study about race and gender, underlining women's representations in some 70s action movies associated with the blaxploitation genre.("Blaxploitation" was a controversial label for these movies aimed at black audiences; the genre emerged after the commercial success of Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song in 1971.) Mama rescued me: "Well, they used that word all the time in them movies. Mmmmph, guess we won't be taking it to church. We'll just say the second part and people can look it up." My mother loved the actress Pam Grier back in the day, when Coffy and Foxy Brown came out, but she found them disturbing for the same reasons that I did. I exhaled.

A year later, I received a seemingly innocuous e-mail message from my editor with a line about possibly shortening the book's title. The press was squeamish about the B-word in the wake of the Don Imus scandal last spring, when Imus called the Rutgers University women's basketball team "nappy-headed hos." What were my thoughts? I sent a reply, trying to explain why the title fit. But I was so pleased that my book was finally on its way to publication that I suggested a compromise: What about bleeping the letters following an uppercase B and substituting asterisks or dashes, as is often done with words deemed profane? I didn't even like my own suggestion. Until then there'd never been a hint of distaste for the title from the press or readers; I'd heard only how much people liked saying, "How's the 'baad bitches' project going?"

Imus's careless and racist, and sexist reference to Rutgers' black basketball players infuriated me; it was personal and political. The controversy turned up the heat about the use of racialized words. I was surprised, though, to find myself debating my book's title with my publisher. I've always loved those 70s films, which have become so much a part of our cultural fabric, and been fascinated with their problematic portrayals of women and with the connections between the hip-hop and blaxploitation subcultures, particularly in how they use the word "bitch." While the word "bitch" — and its variants — has long been a derogatory reference to "difficult" women and femininity generally, it has been flipped and claimed by women to signify female empowerment and to celebrate tough women who don't accept subordinate positions easily.

Read the Full Essay

***

Stephane Dunn is a writer and a visiting assistant professor of English at Morehouse College. Her book, "Baad Bitches" and Sassy Supermamas: Black Power Action Films, is forthcoming from the University of Illinois Press.

Beyond Hallie & Whoopi: Black Women and American Cinema--A Conversation

Wednesday, March 19th, 2008
12:00 PM - 01:00 PM
John Hope Franklin Center
Duke University
2204 Erwin Road
Room 240

WEDNESDAY AT THE CENTER:
BEYOND HALLIE AND WHOOPI: BLACK WOMEN AND AMERICAN CINEMA-A CONVERSATION

With a figure like Michele Obama poised to challenge America's perceptions of black women, journalist ESTHER IVEREM will discuss the ways that black women have been portrayed in recent cinema. Expanding on her recent book WE GOTTA HAVE IT: 20 YEARS OF SEEING BLACK AT THE MOVIES, 1986-2006, Iverem will discuss with activist and poet ALEXIS PAULINE GUMBS, the tensions associated with black female performances in mainstream cinema in a moment when black women's bodies are particularly marked as dangerous, oppositional, and non-traditional.

***

Esther Iverem is a cultural critic, essayist and poet based in Washington D.C. Her most recent book is We Gotta Have It: Twenty Years of Seeing Black at the Movies, 1986-2006 (Thunder's Mouth Press), featuring more than 400 of her reviews, interviews and essays on the "new wave" of Black film. She is founder and editor of SeeingBlack.com, an award-winning Web site for Black critical voices on arts, media and politics. She is a former staff writer for The Washington Post, New York Newsday and The New York Times and is a contributing critic for BET.com and Tom Joyner's BlackAmericaWeb.com. She is the recipient of numerous honors, including a USC Annenberg/Getty Arts Journalism Fellowship, a National Arts Journalism Fellowship funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts and an artist's fellowship from the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities. She is also the author of two books of poems and a member of the Washington Area Film Critics Association.

Alexis Pauline Gumbs is a 25 year old queer black trouble-maker. She is currently a doctoral candidate in English, Africana Studies and Women's Studies at Duke University Alexis is also a member of UBUNTU and the founder of BrokenBeautiful Press.

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Sponsored by "Center for the Study of Black Popular Culture" (CSBPC)

Of Black Men and Song: Dwight Trible

from CRITICAL NOIR @ Vibe.com

of (Black) Men and Song (ver. 1.0)
by Mark Anthony Neal

I dream men like Dwight Trible--these singers black, these singers men--even as they tug at those baritone and tenor strings that so embody the very idea of some pristine, immaculate dark masculinity. Their willingness to explore the full range of their expressiveness--emotiveness gone awry--simply undermines the comfort that the deepness of their voices presupposes. And it's not like this is a new phenomenon--figures like Jimmy Scott, Ronnie Dyson, Eddie Kendricks, and Rahsaan Patterson are standard bearers of sort for this thing, but because they live(d) in a register up-above, it has always been easy to dismiss their presence--and their art--as being less than something fully masculine (as if there was such a thing). And this is where men like Trible and Jose James (like Bey and Johnny Hartman) who force us to re-imagine our investments in masculinities that don't bend and don't break.

Read the Full Essay @
CRITICAL NOIR @ Vibe.com

Raisin Redux: A Hustle in the Sun

from NewsOne.com

A Hustle in the Sun
by Mark Anthony Neal

At a moment when Barack Obama is poised to make good on the promises to Black America that have long shriveled up, like that raisin in Langston Hughes “Harlem,” the ABC production missed an opportunity to make clear the political stakes that Hansberry wanted to address in the first place.

Ironically it was Sean Combs’s performance—from a limited actor, who can be described as adequate at best—that provides A Raisin in the Sun with any contemporary resonances. Combs is clearly no Sidney Poitier, but in fairness to Combs, Sidney Poitier wasn’t Sidney Poitier yet when he portrayed Walter Lee in the stage and Hollywood versions. What Combs did effectively was heighten the sense of hopelessness and even despair that animates Walter’s instincts as a hustler. And this is perhaps as it should be, since Combs, better than any of his generational peers—Misters Simmons and Carter included—embodies the hustling instinct of the so-called hip-hop generation.

Read the Full Essay

Carrie Marie Underwood

Carrie Underwood Profile

Name: Carrie Underwood

Birth Name: Carrie Marie Underwood

Height: 5' 4"

Sex: F

Nationality: American

Birth Date: March 10, 1983

Birth Place: Checotah, Oklahoma, USA

Profession: musician

Education: Checotah High School (graduated in 2001)
Northeastern State University (majored in Mass Communications with an emphasis in Journalism; graduated on May 6, 2006; magna cum laude; BA)

Relationship: Chace Crawford (Gossip Girl cast member; born on July 18, 1985), Tony Romo (Dallas Cowboys' quarterback; born on April 21, 1980; broke up)

Claim to fame: American Idol 2005

Carrie Underwood Biography

Carrie Marie Underwood (born March 10, 1983) is an American pop country music singer-songwriter who won the fourth season of American Idol. Since then, she has become a multi-platinum selling recording artist. Her debut album, Some Hearts, was certified 7x platinum and is the fastest selling debut country album in Nielsen SoundScan history. Her debut album, Some Hearts, has yielded five #1 hits on the country charts in the United States and Canada: "Inside Your Heaven," "Jesus, Take the Wheel", "Don't Forget to Remember Me", "Wasted," and her biggest hit to date, "Before He Cheats." In addition, Underwood scored another Top 10 Billboard hit with her charity single, "I'll Stand by You." Some Hearts sold a total of 7 million Recording Industry Association of America-certified copies as of February 2008, in addition to being the best selling album by an American Idol contestant, in the United States, to date, it is also the best-selling solo female debut album in country music history.

Her second album, Carnival Ride (which is certified 2x Platinum by the RIAA) was released on October 23, 2007. It has so far sold over 2 million copies and has produced two #1 country hits, "So Small." and "All-American Girl", "All-American Girl" currently sitting at #1 on the Billboard Country chart. Underwood's Christmas single, "Do You Hear What I Hear?" peaked at #2 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary charts.

Aside from her vocals, Underwood's success is attributed to what many fans recognize as her wholesome image. In general, many of her songs also present inspirational and uplifting themes and messages. To date, Underwood has sold over 11 million copies worldwide in the last two years.

Carrie Marie Underwood was born to Stephen and Carole Underwood in Muskogee, Oklahoma, and was raised on her parents' farm in rural Checotah, Oklahoma. She has two older sisters, Shanna (born 1970) and Stephanie Underwood Shelton (born 1973). Underwood had performed at Robbins Memorial Talent Show in her childhood. As a young child, she sang in church, and for Old Settler's Day and Lion's Club, local events in Checotah. In 1996, when Underwood was 13, her manager at the time tried to get her a recording contract at Capitol Records. However, due to management changes at Capitol, it never materialized.

Underwood graduated from Checotah High School in 2001 as salutatorian. After high school, she attended Northeastern State University in Tahlequah. She graduated magna cum laude in 2006 with a bachelor's degree in mass communication and an emphasis in journalism Underwood is a member of the Alpha Iota chapter of Sigma Sigma Sigma sorority, For two years during the summer, she performed in Northeastern's Downtown Country show in Tahlequah. She also competed in numerous beauty pageants at the university and was selected as Miss NSU runner-up in 2004.