title: Bharatiya Janata Party

text: A 2009 report, authored by Justice Manmohan Singh Liberhan, found that 68 people were responsible for the demolition, mostly leaders from the BJP. Among those named were Vajpayee, Advani, and Murli Manohar Joshi. The report also criticised Kalyan Singh, Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh during the demolition. He was accused of posting bureaucrats and police officers who would stay silent during the demolition. Anju Gupta, an Indian Police Service officer in charge of Advani's security, appeared as a prominent witness before the commission. She said that Advani and Joshi made provocative speeches that were a major factor in the mob's behaviour. However, in a judgement on 30 September 2020, the Supreme Court of India acquitted all of the accused in the demolition including Advani and Joshi.


title: Bharatiya Janata Party

text: In the parliamentary elections in 1996, the BJP capitalised on the communal polarisation that followed the demolition to win 161 Lok Sabha seats, making it the largest party in parliament. Vajpayee was sworn in as Prime Minister but was unable to attain a majority in the Lok Sabha, forcing the government to resign after 13 days.


title: Bharatiya Janata Party

text: In December 1991, then-BJP President Murli Manohar Joshi held another "yatra", the "Ekta" "Yatra", intended to signal that BJP supported national unity and opposed separatist movements. It began on 11 December in Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu and visited 14 states. The rally's final stop to hoist the Indian flag in Jammu and Kashmir on 26 January 1992 was considered unsuccessful, with minimal local participation.


title: Bharatiya Janata Party

text: A coalition of regional parties formed the government in 1996, but this grouping was short-lived, and mid-term polls were held in 1998. The BJP contested the elections leading a coalition called the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), which contained its existing allies like the Samata Party, the Shiromani Akali Dal, the Shiv Sena in addition to the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and the Biju Janata Dal. Among these regional parties, the Shiv Sena was the only one that had an ideology similar to the BJP; Amartya Sen, for example, called the coalition an "ad hoc" grouping. The NDA had a majority with outside support from the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and Vajpayee returned as Prime Minister. However, the coalition ruptured in May 1999 when the leader of AIADMK, Jayalalitha, withdrew her support, and fresh elections were held again.


title: Bharatiya Janata Party

text: On 13 October 1999, the NDA, without the AIADMK, won 303 seats in parliament and thus an outright majority. The BJP had its highest ever tally of 183. Vajpayee became Prime Minister for the third time; Advani became Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister. This NDA government lasted its full term of five years. Its policy agenda included a more aggressive stance on defence and terror as well as neo-liberal economic policies.


title: Bharatiya Janata Party

text: In 2001, Bangaru Laxman, then the BJP president, was filmed accepting a bribe of to recommend the purchase of hand-held thermal imagers for the Indian Army to the Defence Ministry, in a sting operation by "Tehelka" journalists. The BJP was forced to make him resign and he was subsequently prosecuted. In April 2012, he was sentenced to four years in prison.


title: Bharatiya Janata Party

text: On 27 February 2002, a train carrying Hindu pilgrims was burned outside the town of Godhra, killing 59 people. The incident was seen as an attack upon Hindus, and sparked off massive anti-Muslim violence across the state of Gujarat that lasted several weeks. The death toll estimated was as high as 2000, while 150,000 were displaced. Rape, mutilation, and torture were also widespread. The then-Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi and several high-ranking government officials were accused of initiating and condoning the violence, as were police officers who allegedly directed the rioters and gave them lists of Muslim-owned properties. In April 2009, a Special Investigation Team (SIT) was appointed by the Supreme Court to investigate and expedite the Gujarat riots cases. In 2012, Modi was cleared of complicity in the violence by the SIT. BJP MLA Maya Kodnani, who later held a cabinet portfolio in the Modi government, was convicted of having orchestrated one of the riots and sentenced to 28 years imprisonment; she was later acquitted by the Gujarat High Court. Scholars such as Paul Brass, Martha Nussbaum and Dipankar Gupta have said that there was a high level of state complicity in the incidents.


title: Bharatiya Janata Party

text: Vajpayee called for early elections in 2004, six months ahead of schedule. The NDA's campaign was based on the slogan "India Shining", which sought to depict it as responsible for a rapid economic transformation of the country. However, the NDA unexpectedly suffered a heavy defeat, winning only 186 seats in the Lok Sabha, compared to the 222 of the Congress and its allies. Manmohan Singh succeeded Vajpayee as Prime Minister as the head of the United Progressive Alliance. The NDA's failure to reach out to rural Indians was provided as an explanation for its defeat, as was its divisive policy agenda.


title: Bharatiya Janata Party

text: In May 2008, the BJP won the state elections in Karnataka. This was the first time that the party won assembly elections in any South Indian state. In the 2009 general elections, its strength in the Lok Sabha was reduced to 116 seats. It lost the Karnataka assembly election in 2013.


title: Bharatiya Janata Party

text: In the 2014 Indian general election, the BJP won 282 seats, leading the NDA to a tally of 336 seats in the 543-seat Lok Sabha. Narendra Modi was sworn in as the 14th Prime Minister of India on 26 May 2014.


title: Bharatiya Janata Party

text: The vote share of the BJP was 31% of all votes cast, a low figure relative to the number of seats it won. This was the first instance since 1984 of a single party achieving an outright majority in the Indian Parliament and the first time that it achieved a majority in the Lok Sabha on its own strength. Support was concentrated in the Hindi-speaking belt in North-central India. The magnitude of the victory was not predicted by most opinion and exit polls.


title: Bharatiya Janata Party

text: Political analysts have suggested several reasons for this victory, including the popularity of Modi, and the loss of support for the Congress due to the corruption scandals in its previous term. The BJP was also able to expand its traditionally upper-caste, upper-class support base and received significant support from middle-class and Dalit people, as well as among Other Backward Classes. Its support among Muslims remained low; only 8% of Muslim voters voted for the BJP. The BJP was also very successful at mobilising its supporters and raising voter turnout among them.


title: Bharatiya Janata Party

text: In 2019, the BJP won the general election with a majority. Soon after coming to power, on 5 August 2019, the Modi administration revoked the special status, or , granted under Article 370 of the Indian Constitution to Jammu and Kashmir—a region administered by India as a state and this states consists of the larger part of Kashmir which has been the subject of dispute among India, Pakistan, and China since 1947.


title: Bharatiya Janata Party

text: Later in 2019, the Modi government introduced the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, which was passed by the Parliament of India on 11 December 2019. It amended the Citizenship Act, 1955 by providing a path to Indian citizenship for illegal immigrants of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi, or Christian religion, who had fled persecution from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan before December 2014. Muslims from those countries were not given such eligibility. The act was the first time religion had been overtly used as a criterion for citizenship under Indian law. A report by the V-Dem Institute described India as experiencing democratic backsliding during the Modi-led BJP's rule.


title: Bharatiya Janata Party

text: The official philosophy of the BJP is "Integral humanism," a philosophy first formulated by Deendayal Upadhyaya in 1965, who described it as advocating an "indigenous economic model that puts the human being at center stage." It is committed to Hindutva, an ideology articulated by Indian independence activist Vinayak Damodar Savarkar. According to the party, Hindutva is cultural nationalism favouring Indian culture over westernisation, thus it extends to all Indians regardless of religion. However, scholars and political analysts have called their Hindutva ideology an attempt to redefine India and recast it as a Hindu country to the exclusion of other religions, making it a Hindu nationalist party in a general sense. The BJP has slightly moderated its stance after the NDA was formed in 1998, due to the presence of parties with a broader set of ideologies.


title: Bharatiya Janata Party

text: The BJP's Hindutva ideology has been reflected in many of its government policies. It supports the construction of the Ram Temple at the disputed site of the Babri Mosque. This issue was its major poll plank in the 1991 general elections. However, the demolition of the mosque during a BJP rally in 1992 resulted in a backlash against it, leading to a decline of the temple's prominence in its agenda. The education policy of the NDA government reorganised the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) and tasked it with extensively revising the textbooks used in Indian schools. Various scholars have stated that this revision, especially in the case of history textbooks, was a covert attempt to "saffronise" Indian history. The NDA government introduced Vedic astrology as a subject in college curricula, despite opposition from several leading scientists.


title: Bharatiya Janata Party

text: Taking a position against what it calls the "pseudo-secularism" of the Congress party, the BJP instead supports "positive secularism". Vajpayee laid out the BJP's interpretation of Mahatma Gandhi's doctrine of "Sarva Dharma Sama Bhava" and contrasted it with what he called European secularism. He had said that Indian secularism attempted to see all religions with equal respect, while European secularism was independent of religion, thus making the former more "positive". The BJP supports a uniform civil code, which would apply a common set of personal laws to every citizen regardless of their personal religion, replacing the existing laws which vary by religious community. Historian Yogendra Malik claims this ignores the differential procedures required to protect the cultural identity of the Muslim minority. The BJP favoured, and later enacted the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution of India, which granted a greater degree of autonomy to Jammu and Kashmir in recognition of the unusual circumstances surrounding its accession to the Indian Union.


title: Bharatiya Janata Party

text: The BJP opposes illegal immigration into India from Bangladesh. The party states that this migration, mostly in the states of Assam and West Bengal, threatens the security, economy and stability of the country. Academics have pointed out that the BJP refers to Hindu migrants from Bangladesh as refugees, and reserves the term "illegal" for Muslim migrants. Academic Michael Gillan perceived it as an attempt to use an emotive issue to mobilise Hindu sentiment in a region where the party has not been historically successful. The party later became the party of government in Assam.


title: Bharatiya Janata Party

text: In 2013, the Supreme Court of India reinstated the controversial Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which, among other things, criminalises homosexuality. There was a popular outcry, although clerics, including Muslim religious leaders, stated that they supported the verdict. BJP president Rajnath Singh said that the party supported Section 377, because it believed that homosexuality was unnatural, though the party softened the stance after its victory in the 2014 general elections. Senior party members including Arun Jaitley and Harsh Vardhan openly support the rights of gender and sexual minorities in India. Vanathi Srinivasan, a BJP leader from Tamil Nadu, launched the first book on LGBTQIA and Genderqueer in Tamil penned by Gopi Shankar Madurai. However, other leading party figures, such as Subramanian Swamy, were strongly critical of the decision by the Supreme Court to strike down Section 377 in "Navtej Singh Johar v. Union of India".


title: Bharatiya Janata Party

text: The BJP's economic policy has changed considerably since its founding. There is a significant range of economic ideologies within the party. In the 1980s, like the Jana Sangh, it reflected the thinking of the RSS and its affiliates. It supported "swadeshi" (the promotion of indigenous industries and products) and a protectionist export policy. However, it supported internal economic liberalisation, and opposed the state-driven industrialisation favoured by the Congress.


title: Bharatiya Janata Party

text: During the 1996 elections, the BJP shifted its stance away from protectionism and towards globalisation; its election manifesto recommended increasing foreign investment in priority sectors, while restricting it in others. When the party was in power in 1998, it shifted its policy even further in favour of globalisation. The tenure of the NDA saw an unprecedented influx of foreign companies in India. This was criticised by the left parties and the BJP's affiliates (the RSS and the Swadeshi Jagran Manch). The communist parties said that the BJP was attempting to appease the World Bank and the United States government through its neoliberal policies. Similarly, the RSS stated that the BJP was not being true to its "swadeshi" ideology.


title: Bharatiya Janata Party

text: The two NDA governments in the period 1998–2004 introduced significant deregulation and privatisation of government-owned enterprises. It also introduced tariff-reducing measures. These reforms built off of the initial economic liberalisation introduced by the P. V. Narasimha Rao-led Congress government in the early 1990s. India's GDP growth increased substantially during the tenure of the NDA. The 2004 campaign slogan India Shining was based on the party's belief that the free market would bring prosperity to all sectors of society. After its unexpected defeat, commentators said that it was punished for neglecting the needs of the poor and focusing too much on its corporate allies.


title: Bharatiya Janata Party

text: This shift in the economic policies of the BJP was also visible in state governments, especially in Gujarat, where the BJP held power for 16 years. Modi's government, in power from 2002 to 2014, followed a strongly neo-liberal agenda, presented as a drive towards development. Its policies have included extensive privatisation of infrastructure and services, as well as a significant rollback of labour and environmental regulations. While this was praised by the business community, commentators criticised it as catering to the BJP's upper-class constituency instead of the poor.


title: Bharatiya Janata Party

text: Modi has been described as taking a more economically populist approach on healthcare and agricultural policy. Modi's government has also been described as taking a more protectionist turn on international trade during his second term, withdrawing from the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership talks and introducing the 2020 Atmanirbhar Bharat economic plan, which emphasises national self-sufficiency. However, Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar has rejected accusations that Atmanirbhar Bharat is a protectionist initiative, while himself criticizing India's past free trade agreements for the "damaging impact they have had on India's manufacturing". Similarly, Vice President Venkaiah Naidu has also disputed the initiative's protectionism, instead stating that it meant "adopting a pragmatic development strategy that would enable the country to recognise and capitalise on its inherent strengths".


title: Bharatiya Janata Party

text: Compared to Congress, the BJP takes a more aggressive and nationalistic position on defence policy and terrorism. The Vajpayee-led NDA government carried out nuclear weapons tests and enacted the Prevention of Terrorism Act, which later came under heavy criticism. It also deployed troops to evict infiltrators from Kargil, and supported the United States War on Terror.


title: Bharatiya Janata Party

text: Although previous Congress governments developed the capability for a nuclear weapons test, the Vajpayee government broke with India's historical strategy of avoiding it and authorised Pokhran-II, a series of five nuclear tests in 1998. The tests came soon after Pakistan tested a medium-range ballistic missile. They were seen as an attempt to display India's military prowess to the world, and a reflection of anti-Pakistan sentiment within the BJP.


title: Bharatiya Janata Party

text: The Vajpayee government ordered the Indian armed forces to expel the Pakistani soldiers occupying Kashmir territory, later known as the Kargil War. Although the government was later criticised for the intelligence failures that did not detect Pakistani presence, it was successful in ousting them from the previously Indian-controlled territory.


title: Bharatiya Janata Party

text: After the terrorist attack on the Indian Parliament in December 2001, the NDA government passed the Prevention of Terrorism Act. The aim of the act was to improve the government's ability to deal with terrorism. It initially failed to pass in the Rajya Sabha; therefore, the NDA took the extraordinary step of convening a joint session of the Parliament, where the numerical superior Lok Sabha allowed the bill to pass. The act was subsequently used to prosecute hundreds of people accused of terrorism. However, it was criticised by opposition parties and scholars for being an infringement upon civil liberties, and the National Human Rights Commission of India stated that it had been used to target Muslims. It was later repealed by the Congress-led UPA government in 2004.


title: Bharatiya Janata Party

text: The Modi government has conducted several strikes on territory controlled by neighbouring countries on counterterrorism grounds. This included a 2015 Indian counter-insurgency operation in Myanmar against the National Socialist Council of Nagaland, the 2016 Indian Line of Control strike in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, and the 2019 Balakot airstrike in Pakistan. It also militarily intervened in defence of Bhutan during the 2017 Doklam standoff with China.


title: Bharatiya Janata Party

text: The Modi government considers national security to be one of their key focuses and has implemented many long-standing defence reforms. In August 2019, the Modi government established the post of the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) to ensure better coordination between all three services, a reform that was widely requested after the 1999 Kargil War. The Department of Military Affairs was also established and put under the CDS. Retired Admiral Arun Prakash called it “the most significant development in the national security domain since Independence.” Modi has also pushed for the indigenization and privatization of the defence production sector, as well as promoting the export of Indian-made arms to smaller countries.


title: Bharatiya Janata Party

text: The historical stance of the BJP towards foreign policy, like the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, was based on an aggressive Hindu nationalism combined with economic protectionism. The Bharatiya Jana Sangh was founded with the explicit aim of reversing the partition of India; as a result, its official position was that the existence of Pakistan was illegitimate. This antagonism toward Pakistan remains a significant influence on the BJP's ideology. During the Cold War, the party and its affiliates strongly opposed India's long standing policy of non-alignment, and instead advocated closeness to the United States. In the post-Cold War era, the party has largely embraced the Indian foreign policy consensus of improving relations with the United States, while stressing a desire for a more multipolar world order.


title: Bharatiya Janata Party

text: The Vajpayee government's foreign policy in many ways represented a radical shift from BJP orthodoxy while maintaining some aspects of it. Its policy also represented a significant change from the Nehruvian idealism of previous governments, opting instead for realism. His party criticised him for adopting a much more moderate stance with Pakistan. In 1998, he made a landmark visit to Pakistan, and inaugurated the Delhi–Lahore Bus service. Vajpayee signed the Lahore Declaration, which was an attempt to improve Indo-Pakistani relations that deteriorated after the 1998 nuclear tests. However, the presence of Pakistani soldiers and militants in the disputed Kashmir territory was discovered a few months later, causing the 1999 Kargil War. The war ended a couple of months later, with the expulsion of the infiltrators two months later, without any shift in the Line of Control that marked the "de facto" border between the two countries. Despite the war, Vajpayee continued to display a willingness to engage Pakistan in dialogue. This was not well received among the BJP cadre, who criticised the government for being "weak". This faction of the BJP asserted itself at the post-Kargil Agra summit, preventing any significant deal from being reached.


title: Bharatiya Janata Party

text: The Vajpayee administration also offered political support to the U.S. War on Terror, in the hope of better addressing India's issues with terrorism and insurgency in Kashmir. This led to closer defence ties with the US, including negotiations for the sale of weapons. However, the BJP strongly condemned the 2003 invasion of Iraq, stating that it "deplores the unjustified military action resorted to by the United States, Britain and their allies against Iraq". The BJP also opposed the 2011 military intervention in Libya and urged the Lok Sabha to pass a unanimous resolution condemning it.


title: Bharatiya Janata Party

text: The Modi government initially took a pragmatic stance towards Pakistan, attempting to improve relations with Nawaz Sharif's government, culminating in Modi visiting Pakistan in 2015. Relations subsequently deteriorated, particularly after Sharif was ousted in 2017. The Modi government has since been described as taking a "hardline" approach on Pakistan, and the BJP has accused the opposition Congress of collaborating with Pakistan through its criticism of government policy.


title: Bharatiya Janata Party

text: In 2015, the Modi government was accused by the Nepalese government of imposing an undeclared blockade on Nepal.


title: Bharatiya Janata Party

text: In 2022, opposition figures Priyanka Chaturvedi and Shashi Tharoor criticised the Modi government's abstention on United Nations Security Council Resolution 2623, which condemned the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. However, the leadership of the Indian National Congress backed the government's stance.


title: Bharatiya Janata Party

text: The organisation of the BJP is strictly hierarchical, with the president being the highest authority in the party. Until 2012, the BJP constitution mandated that any qualified member could be national or state president for a single three-year term. This was amended to a maximum of two consecutive terms.


title: Bharatiya Janata Party

text: Below the president is the National Executive, which contains a variable number of senior leaders from across the country. It is the higher decision-making body of the party. Its members are several vice-presidents, general-secretaries, treasurers and secretaries, who work directly with the president. An identical structure, with an executive committee led by a president, exists at the state, regional, district and local level.


title: Bharatiya Janata Party

text: In April 2015, the BJP stated that it had more than 100 million registered members, which would make it the world's largest political party by primary membership. As of September 2022, the party does not have a single Muslim representative in the parliament and state assemblies.


title: Bharatiya Janata Party

text: The BJP is a cadre-based party. It has close connections with other organisations with similar ideologies, such as the RSS, ABVP, BYSS and the VHP. The cadres of these groups often supplement the BJP's. Its lower members are largely derived from the RSS and its affiliates, loosely known as the Sangh Parivar:


title: Bharatiya Janata Party

text: The Bharatiya Janata Party was officially founded in 1980, and the first general election it contested was in 1984, in which it won only two Lok Sabha seats. Following the election in 1996, the BJP became the largest party in the Lok Sabha for the first time, but the government it formed was short-lived. In the elections of 1998 and 1999, it remained the largest party, and headed the ruling coalition on both occasions. In the 2014 general election, it won an outright majority in parliament. From 1991 onwards, a BJP member has led the Opposition whenever the party was not in power.


title: Bharatiya Janata Party

text: , 12 states have Chief Ministers from the BJP, and governments led by that party, sometimes including allied parties. The 12 states are Arunachal Pradesh, Assam (with Asom Gana Parishad and United People's Party Liberal), Goa, Gujarat, Haryana (with Jannayak Janta Party), Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur (with Naga People's Front, National People's Party and Lok Janshakti Party), Tripura (with Indigenous People's Front of Tripura), Uttar Pradesh (with Apna Dal (Sonelal)) and Uttarakhand.


title: Bharatiya Janata Party

text: In 4 other states and in the Union Territory of Puducherry, it participates in the government as the junior partner in the ruling alliance with other members of the National Democratic Alliance. The states are: Maharashtra (with Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena, other small parties and independents), Meghalaya (with the National People's Party, United Democratic Party, People's Democratic Front and Hill State People's Democratic Party), Nagaland (with the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party), and Puducherry (with the All India N.R. Congress). The BJP's ally, the Sikkim Krantikari Morcha, holds power in Sikkim, but the BJP has no ministers in the government.


title: Bharatiya Janata Party

text: The BJP has previously held power in Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Rajasthan and Jharkhand, and has been the junior coalition partner in governments in Andhra Pradesh (with the Telugu Desam Party), Jammu and Kashmir (with the Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Democratic Party), Odisha (with the Biju Janata Dal), Punjab (with the Shiromani Akali Dal), and Tamil Nadu (with the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam). It has never held power in Kerala, Telangana, and West Bengal.


title: Bharatiya Janata Party

text: In addition to the NDA, the BJP is also a part of a regional political alliance in Northeast India named the North-East Democratic Alliance.


title: Vin Diesel

text: Mark Sinclair (born July 18, 1967), known professionally as Vin Diesel, is an American actor. One of the world's highest-grossing actors, he is best known for playing Dominic Toretto in the "Fast & Furious" franchise.


title: Vin Diesel

text: Diesel began auditioning for roles in the early 1990s but struggled to gain roles and instead decided to make his own low-budget film. In 1995, he wrote, directed, produced, and starred in the short film "Multi-Facial". In 1997, Diesel made his first feature length film "Strays", which he also wrote, produced and directed. Director Steven Spielberg took notice of Diesel after seeing him in "Multi-Facial" and cast him in a small role for his 1998 war epic "Saving Private Ryan.


title: Vin Diesel

text: Diesel subsequently voiced the titular character in "The Iron Giant" (1999) while gaining a reputation as an action star after headlining the "Fast & Furious", "XXX", and "The Chronicles of Riddick" franchises.


title: Vin Diesel

text: Diesel portrays Groot in the Marvel Cinematic Universe superhero films, appearing in "Guardians of the Galaxy" (2014), "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2" (2017), "" (2018), "" (2019), "" (2022). He also portrayed Groot in the animated film "Ralph Breaks the Internet" (2018) and the Disney+ animated shorts series "I Am Groot" (2022). Diesel has also earned commercial success in other genres, such as in the comedy "The Pacifier" (2005), while his performance in "Find Me Guilty" (2006) was praised. Diesel portrayed Bloodshot in its 2020 superhero film adaptation, and is slated to appear in the upcoming "Avatar" films.


title: Vin Diesel

text: He founded the production company One Race Films, where he has also served as a producer or executive producer for his star vehicles. Diesel also founded the record label Racetrack Records and video game developer Tigon Studios, providing his voice and motion capture for all of Tigon's releases.


title: Vin Diesel

text: Diesel was born Mark Sinclair on July 18, 1967, in Alameda County, California, where his mother was also born, though later moved to New York City with his fraternal twin brother, Paul. His mother, Delora Sherleen Vincent (née Sinclair), is an astrologer. He was raised by his white mother and adoptive African-American father, Irving H. Vincent, an acting instructor and theater manager. Diesel has stated that he is "of ambiguous ethnicity." His mother has English, German, and Scottish roots. He has never met his biological father, and has said that "all I know from my mother is that I have connections to many different cultures"; Diesel believes that his parents' relationship would have been illegal in parts of the United States due to anti-miscegenation laws.


title: Vin Diesel

text: Diesel made his stage debut at age seven when he appeared in the children's play "Dinosaur Door", written by Barbara Garson. The play was produced at Theater for the New City in New York's Greenwich Village. His involvement in the play came about when he, his brother and some friends had broken into the Theater for the New City space on Jane Street with the intent to vandalize it. They were confronted by the theater's artistic director, Crystal Field, who offered them roles in the upcoming show instead of calling the police. Diesel remained involved with the theater throughout adolescence, going on to attend NYC's Hunter College, where studies in creative writing led him to begin screenwriting. He has identified himself as a "multi-faceted" actor. Sinclair began going by his stage name Vin Diesel while working as a bouncer at the New York nightclub Tunnel, wanting a tougher sounding name for his occupation. Vin comes from his mother's married last name Vincent, while the surname Diesel came from his friends due to his tendency to be energetic.


title: Vin Diesel

text: Diesel's first film role was a brief uncredited appearance in the drama film "Awakenings" in 1990. After several years of struggle to gain acting roles, Diesel decided to make his own short film to secure funds for his feature film debut. In 1994, he wrote, directed, produced, and starred in the short drama film "Multi-Facial", a semi-autobiographical film which follows a struggling multiracial actor stuck in the audition process. The film was selected for screening at the 1995 Cannes Festival. As well as acting, Vin Diesel supported himself by working as a bouncer and telemarketer selling lightbulbs.


title: Vin Diesel

text: In 1997, Diesel secured funds to make his first feature-length film, "Strays", an urban drama in which he played a gang leader whose love for a woman inspires him to try to change his ways. Written, directed, and produced by Diesel, the film was selected for competition at the 1997 Sundance Festival, leading to an MTV deal to turn it into a series which never came to fruition. Director Steven Spielberg took notice of Diesel after seeing him in "Multi-Facial" and cast him in a small role as a soldier in his 1998 Oscar-winning war film "Saving Private Ryan". This marked Diesel’s first major Hollywood film role. In 1999, he provided the voice of the title character in the animated film "The Iron Giant".


title: Vin Diesel

text: In 2000, Diesel had a supporting role in the drama thriller "Boiler Room", where he appeared alongside Giovanni Ribisi and Ben Affleck. He got his breakthrough leading role as the anti-hero Riddick in the science-fiction film "Pitch Black" later that year. Diesel attained action hero stardom with two box office hits: the street racing action film "The Fast and the Furious" (2001), and the action thriller "XXX" (2002). He turned down the chance to reprise his roles in the sequels "2 Fast 2 Furious" (2003) and "" (2005). Instead he chose to reprise his role as Riddick in "The Chronicles of Riddick", which was a box office failure considering the large budget. He also voiced the character in two spin-off video games and the anime film "". In a change from his previous action hero roles, in 2005, he played a lighthearted role in the comedy film "The Pacifier", which was a box office success.


title: Vin Diesel

text: In 2006, he chose a dramatic role playing real-life mobster Jack DiNorscio in "Find Me Guilty". Although he received critical acclaim for his performance, the film did poorly at the box office grossing only $2 million against a budget of $13 million. Later that year, Diesel made a cameo appearance in "", reprising his role from "The Fast and the Furious".


title: Vin Diesel

text: In 2007, Diesel was set to produce and star as Agent 47 in the film adaptation of the video game "", but eventually pulled back and served as executive producer on the film instead. In 2008, he starred in the science-fiction action thriller "Babylon A.D." which was a critical and box office failure. Diesel returned to "Fast & Furious" series, alongside most of the principal cast from the original 2001 film, in "Fast & Furious", which was released in April 2009.


title: Vin Diesel

text: Diesel reprised his role as Dominic Toretto in installments five through nine of the "Fast & Furious" franchise, "Fast Five" (2011), "Fast & Furious 6" (2013), "Furious 7" (2015), "The Fate of the Furious" (2017), and "F9" (2021). He reprised his role as Riddick in the third film of "The Chronicles of Riddick" series, simply titled "Riddick" (2013). In August 2013, Diesel received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He voiced Groot in the 2014 Marvel Cinematic Universe film "Guardians of the Galaxy". He starred in the supernatural action film "The Last Witch Hunter" (2015). In 2016, Diesel appeared as a supporting character in Ang Lee's war drama "Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk".


title: Vin Diesel

text: In 2017, Diesel also reprised his roles as Xander Cage in "", and Groot in "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2". Over the course of several years, Diesel has discussed playing two separate roles within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In November 2016 director of "Guardians of the Galaxy", James Gunn, confirmed that Diesel had been in talks to play Blackagar Boltagon / Black Bolt for the planned "Inhumans" film, but it was turned into a television series instead without Diesel involved.


title: Vin Diesel

text: Diesel reprised his role of Groot once again in the crossover films "" (2018) and "" (2019) which combined the superhero teams of Guardians of the Galaxy and The Avengers. He has said, "[I] think there's gonna be a moment that we're all waiting for, and whether you know it or not, you are waiting to see [Groot] and [the Hulk] get down."


title: Vin Diesel

text: Diesel portrayed Valiant Comics character "Bloodshot" in the film of the same name which released in March 2020. He is also joining the cast of James Cameron's "".


title: Vin Diesel

text: In September 2020, Diesel announced his venture into music, with the release of the song "Feel Like I Do", produced by Kygo. He debuted the song on "The Kelly Clarkson Show" on September 24, stating: "I am blessed that on a year that I would normally be on a movie set — and as you know, that's not possible — I've had another creative outlet. Another way to show you, or share with you, my heart."


title: Vin Diesel

text: Diesel has said he prefers to maintain his privacy regarding his personal life, stating: "I'm not gonna put it out there on a magazine cover like some other actors. I come from the Harrison Ford, Marlon Brando, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino code of silence."


title: Vin Diesel

text: Sometime around 2001, Diesel dated his "Fast & Furious" co-star Michelle Rodriguez. Since 2007, he has been in a relationship with Mexican model Paloma Jimenez; the couple have three children: daughter Hania Riley (born April 2008), son Vincent Sinclair (born 2010), and daughter Pauline (born March 2015). The last is named in honor of his co-star and friend Paul Walker, who died in November 2013. He is also the godfather of Walker's daughter, Meadow.


title: Vin Diesel

text: Diesel is noted for his distinctive deep voice; he said his voice broke around age 15, giving him a mature-sounding voice on the telephone. He has played "Dungeons & Dragons" for over 37 years as of 2021, and wrote the foreword for the commemorative book "". Canadian video game designer and developer Merritt k created the 2015 ASMR game "Vin Diesel DMing a Game of D&D Just For You" based on his "D&D" fandom. He has expressed his love for the Dominican Republic and how he relates to its multicultural facets. He is acquainted with its former president, Leonel Fernández, and appeared in one of Fernández's earlier campaign ads. "Los Bandoleros", a short film directed by Diesel, was filmed in the Dominican Republic.


title: Vin Diesel

text: In November 2021, Vin Diesel attended a belt promotion ceremony at Legacy Jiu-Jitsu, a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu academy in Burbank, California, in order to give a speech to celebrate one of his oldest friends being promoted to black belt in the sport, Valentino Morales.


title: Gisele Bündchen

text: Gisele Caroline Bündchen (, , born 20 July 1980) is a Brazilian fashion model. Since 2001, she has been one of the highest-paid models in the world. In 2007, Bündchen was the 16th-richest woman in the entertainment industry and earned the top spot on "Forbes" top-earning models list in 2012. In 2014, she was listed as the 89th-most-powerful woman in the World by "Forbes".


title: Gisele Bündchen

text: "Vogue" credited Bündchen with ending the heroin chic era of modelling in 1999. Bündchen was a Victoria's Secret Angel from 1999 until 2006. She is credited with pioneering and popularizing the horse walk, a stomping movement created by a model lifting her knees high and kicking her feet to step. In 2007, Claudia Schiffer called Bündchen the only remaining supermodel. Bündchen has appeared on more than 1,200 magazine covers.


title: Gisele Bündchen

text: Bündchen was nominated for Choice Movie Female Breakout Star and for Choice Movie Villain at the 2005 Teen Choice Awards for her supporting role in "Taxi" (2004). She had a supporting role in "The Devil Wears Prada" (2006) and was the executive producer of an educational environmental cartoon, "Gisele & the Green Team", in 2010 to 2011. In 2016, she appeared in the Emmy Award-winning documentary series "Years of Living Dangerously", in the episode "Fueling the Fire". Bündchen's charitable endeavors include Save the Children, Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders. She has been a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Environment Program since 2009.


title: Gisele Bündchen

text: Born in Horizontina, Rio Grande do Sul, Bündchen is a sixth-generation German Brazilian, born to Vânia (née Nonnenmacher), a bank clerk pensioner, and Valdir Bündchen, a sociologist and writer. Her grandfather, Walter Bündchen, once served as mayor of Horizontina. She grew up with five sisters, Raquel, Graziela, Gabriela, Rafaela and her fraternal twin, Patrícia. The family was Catholic. Although her parents speak German and Bündchen learned German in school, she no longer speaks the language. Bündchen speaks Portuguese, English, Italian, Spanish, and some French.


title: Gisele Bündchen

text: Bündchen aspired to be a volleyball player, but in 1993 her mother enrolled her and sisters Patrícia and Gabriela in a modelling course to teach them confidence and better posture. After the course ended, the girls were rewarded by a trip to Curitiba, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, where she was discovered by Elite Model Management at a shopping mall. Bündchen was placed second in a national contest, Elite Model Look, that was then known as Look of the Year. In 1995, Bündchen moved to São Paulo to launch her modelling career. She debuted at New York Fashion Week in 1996.


title: Gisele Bündchen

text: In 1997, Bündchen was rejected 42 times in London before being cast in an Alexander McQueen runway show in 1998. In 1998, Bündchen posed for Missoni, Chloé, Dolce & Gabbana, Valentino, Gianfranco Ferré, Ralph Lauren, and Versace campaigns. She appeared on the cover of "Vogue Paris", her first cover of "British Vogue", and "i-D", which featured her on its cover, profiling "A Girl Called Gisele". Dissatisfied with Elite Model Management's work environment, Bündchen signed with IMG Models in 1999.


title: Gisele Bündchen

text: Bündchen's first U.S "Vogue" cover, where "Vogue" announced Bündchen was "the return of the sexy model", was the first of three "Vogue" covers for her in 1999. In November she appeared in a group "Vogue" cover with Kate Moss, Amber Valletta, Christy Turlington, Iman, Lauren Hutton, Naomi Campbell, Stephanie Seymour, Claudia Schiffer, Lisa Taylor, Paulina Porizkova, Carolyn Murphy, and Patti Hansen, and appeared in a solo U.S. "Vogue" cover in December. Bündchen won the VH1/"Vogue" Model of the Year in 1999. After Bündchen appeared in five major campaigns at age 18, "New York" magazine editor Sally Singer deemed her an "über" model. She became the fourth model to appear on the cover of "Rolling Stone" magazine when she was named "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World" in 2000. In 2000, "Vogue"s online encyclopedia of models called Bündchen the world's hottest model and called Bündchen "the Brazilian bombshell".


title: Gisele Bündchen

text: In 2000, Bündchen appeared on 37 international "Vogue" covers, including three in the American edition. In January 2000, Bündchen was featured on the covers of the U.S. and British editions of "Vogue". For spring 2000 fashion week, she opened shows for Marc Jacobs, Michael Kors, Dolce & Gabbana, Christian Dior, and Valentino in New York, Milan and Paris. From 1998 to 2003, Bündchen was in 11 consecutive Dolce & Gabbana fashion campaigns. From 2006 to 2009 she became the face of Dolce & Gabbana's fragrance "The One". Bündchen retired from the runway after signing a five-year contract with Victoria's Secret.


title: Gisele Bündchen

text: In 2000, Bündchen wore Victoria's Secret's Red Hot Fantasy Bra worth $15 million and listed in "Guinness World Records" as the most expensive lingerie ever created. Bündchen modelled the Sexy Splendor Fantasy Bra in 2005, the second-most expensive bra valued at $12.5 million.


title: Gisele Bündchen

text: In 2004, she appeared on a group U.S. "Vogue" cover, with Daria Werbowy, Natalia Vodianova, Isabeli Fontana, Karolina Kurkova, Liya Kebede, Hana Soukupova, Gemma Ward, and Karen Elson. Bündchen appeared on the covers of "W", "Allure", "GQ", "Forbes", "Marie Claire", "Time", "Vanity Fair", "Esquire", and in the Pirelli Calendar. Bündchen co-starred with Queen Latifah and Jimmy Fallon in the 2004 remake of "Taxi", and Bündchen played Serena in "The Devil Wears Prada" in 2006. In 2007, Mario Testino photographed Bündchen for the cover of "Vanity Fair"s style issue. In 2008, she appeared on the controversial cover of "Vogue" with NBA player LeBron James. The cover was criticized for perpetuating racial stereotypes after James bared his teeth in a perceived gorilla-type pose.


title: Gisele Bündchen

text: "Forbes" listed Bündchen as No. 53 on their 2007 list of the most powerful celebrities. In 2010, Bündchen's flip-flop line for Ipanema sold more than 250 million pairs for an estimated $197 million. In May 2007, Bündchen ended her contract with Victoria's Secret. In her memoir, "Lessons: My Path to a Meaningful Life", Bündchen said she left Victoria's Secret because she was uncomfortable being photographed in lingerie. In August 2008, the "New York Daily News" named Bündchen as the one of the most powerful people in the fashion world.


title: Gisele Bündchen

text: "The Independent" referred to Bündchen the biggest star in fashion history in May 2009. In April 2010, Bündchen appeared on the cover of American "Vogue" for the 11th time. Bündchen closed Balenciaga's 2010 show in a surprise appearance. In 2011, "CEOWorld Magazine" ranked Bündchen among their Top Accomplished Women Entertainers. She was ranked No. 95 in "FHM" magazine's 100 Sexiest Women in the World 2011. In 2007, Bündchen was named by "Forbes" as the World's Richest Supermodel. On 11 April 2008, a black-and-white photo of Bündchen shot by Irving Penn was auctioned for $193,000.


title: Gisele Bündchen

text: By 2010, Bündchen had appeared on two "Vogue Shape" issue covers, more than any other celebrity or model. She ranked No. 45 in the 2011 FHM Australia list of 100 Sexiest Women in the World. In 2011, "Men's Health" named Bündchen as No. 25 of the 100 Hottest Women of All Time. Bündchen closed the 2011 Givenchy spring-summer fashion show in a surprise appearance during Paris Fashion Week. That year, Bündchen launched eco-friendly Sejaa Pure Skincare, a skin care product line using all-natural ingredients.


title: Gisele Bündchen

text: She appeared on eight "Vogue" covers in 2011, more than any other model or celebrity that year. Her July "Vogue Brasil" 2011 cover that was shot in the Amazon sold 70,743 copies, making it the magazine's highest-selling issue. In early 2011, Procter & Gamble's Pantene shampoo sales increased 40 percent in Latin America after Bündchen started representing the product.


title: Gisele Bündchen

text: In spring 2012, Bündchen was featured in three spring campaigns, Versace, Givenchy, and Salvatore Ferragamo. She became the face of Banco do Brasil's first global ad campaign in 2012.


title: Gisele Bündchen

text: In April 2012, "Time" listed Bündchen on its All-Time 100 Fashion Icons list, which highlighted the most influential fashion icons since 1923. "Vogue" included Bündchen in its spotlight of the 10 women who had most appeared on its covers to honor the magazine's 120th anniversary in August 2012.


title: Gisele Bündchen

text: Bündchen made 5,600 appearances in commercials in Brazil in 2012. She replaced Kate Moss as the face of David Yurman in August 2012. She was photographed by Peter Lindbergh for the fall 2012 campaign. By 2012, Bündchen had appeared on 120 "Vogue" covers. She holds the record for appearing on the most "Vogue Brasil" covers.


title: Gisele Bündchen

text: In February 2013, Bündchen became the face of Chanel's make-up line, Les Beiges. The campaign was photographed by Mario Testino. For Louis Vuitton's spring/summer 2014 campaign, Marc Jacobs chose Bündchen, Catherine Deneuve, Sofia Coppola, Fan Bingbing, Caroline de Maigret and Edie Campbell as his muses. In December 2013, Bündchen became Pantene's ambassador, a deal worth $4 million per year.


title: Gisele Bündchen

text: Bündchen released a cover of the Kinks "All Day and All of the Night" as a contribution to H&M's 2013 charity campaign. She contributed to H&M's 2014 charity campaign by teaming with French music producer and DJ Bob Sinclar to record a cover of Blondie's 1979 classic "Heart of Glass", on which she was credited as Gisele. The single charted in France, Germany, Spain, Austria and Belgium.


title: Gisele Bündchen

text: In May 2014, Bündchen was chosen as the spokeswoman for Chanel No. 5. Within the first quarter of 2014, Bündchen appeared on 17 international editions of "Elle", including the Brazilian, German, Italian, Canadian, Japanese and Chinese editions. Under Armour signed Bündchen to a multiyear deal in September 2014. In 2014 and 2015, Bündchen appeared in more television commercial spots than any other Brazilian celebrity in the course of one year in Brazil.


title: Gisele Bündchen

text: Bündchen was featured in the 2015 Guinness World Record book as the model who earned the most money from June 2014 to June 2015. Bündchen's $700 Taschen book released in celebration of her 20th year career sold out in one day. By 2015, Bündchen appeared in more than 550 advertising campaigns, 2000 magazine covers, 3500 magazine editorials and 800 fashion shows.


title: Gisele Bündchen

text: Bündchen appeared at the Maracanã Stadium at the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro on 5 August 2016.


title: Gisele Bündchen

text: "Forbes" ranked her fourth on the World's Most Powerful Latino Celebrity list in May 2012. In 2013, she ranked No. 5 on the "Forbes" 10 Most Powerful Businesswomen in Brazil.


title: Gisele Bündchen

text: In 2013, Bündchen's Ipanema sandals sold about 25 million pairs annually and accounted for more than 60 percent of shoe manufacturer Grendene's annual exports of about $250 million.


title: Gisele Bündchen

text: In 2014, Bündchen signed a contract with Under Armour, which is reportedly on par with the endorsement compensations of professional athletes and exceeds her former Victoria's Secret contract. In 2016, Under Armour's CEO Kevin Plank said sales for the company's women's brand had increased because of its association with Bündchen.


title: Gisele Bündchen

text: In 2018, Gisele released her book called "Lessons: My Path to a Meaningful Life", which was a "New York Times" bestseller and was the best selling book for over six months in the non-fiction category in Brazil. The proceeds from her book went to support social and environmental causes.


title: Gisele Bündchen

text: In February 2021, it was reported that Bündchen was leaving IMG Models after 22 years and that her twin sister Patricia would be taking over as her manager.


title: Gisele Bündchen

text: In 2021, Bündchen, among other high-profile athletes and celebrities (including ex-husband Tom Brady), was a paid spokesperson for FTX, a cryptocurrency exchange. In November 2022, FTX filed for bankruptcy, wiping out billions of dollars in customer funds as well as Bündchen's personal stake in the company. She, alongside other spokespeople, is currently being sued for promoting unregistered securities through a class-action lawsuit. In February 2022, the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in a lawsuit against Bitconnect that the Securities Act of 1933 extends to targeted solicitation using social media.


title: Gisele Bündchen

text: In September 2000, "Newsweek" reported on a survey conducted by Brazilian magazine "Capricho", where 86 percent of Brazilian teenagers said they wanted to become fashion models. "Capricho" attributed the interest in modelling to Bündchen.


title: Gisele Bündchen

text: "Forbes Brasil" listed Bündchen as the No. 2 biggest Brazilian celebrity of 2015 based on media presence and influence in Brazil.


title: Gisele Bündchen

text: In a 2006 "Elle" survey, more than 50 percent of American stylists asked gave Bündchen the title of the best hair in Hollywood. A February 2008 survey of more than 20,000 plastic surgeons in 84 countries revealed Bündchen was the celebrity most mentioned for patients having work done on their abdomens and hair, and the second-most mentioned celebrity in the breasts category.


title: Gisele Bündchen

text: Bündchen was second on "Vanity Fair"s World's Most Beautiful poll in 2009. In January 2011, Bündchen's was the most desired female body on the "14th Annual Famed Hottest Looks" survey. In 2011, Bündchen was one of three women to make AskMen.com's annual "Most Desirable Women" list every year for 10 consecutive years.


title: Gisele Bündchen

text: Bündchen is ranked No. 4 on "Forbes Brasil"s list of the 100 most influential Brazilian celebrities. In May 2014, Bündchen was ranked No. 89 on "Forbes" 100 Most Powerful Women in the world, the only model on the list.


title: Gisele Bündchen

text: In November 2014, "Forbes Brasil" ranked Bündchen fifth of the 25 biggest celebrities in Brazil, moving her up to second in 2015.


title: Gisele Bündchen

text: "Vogue Italia" called Bündchen the "King Midas of fashion" in February 2012, saying companies that invest in her reap the awards of her representation. An Esprit public awareness campaign featuring Bündchen helped raise consumer awareness 9 percent in Germany and 19 percent in China.


title: Gisele Bündchen

text: In 2016, Bündchen participated in "The Beginning of Life", a documentary about "the crucial role that the early years of children’s lives play in determining their futures successes".


title: Gisele Bündchen

text: Since the 2000s, Bündchen's main focus has been social and environmental causes. She has also supported the Breast Cancer Campaign to educate women on how to perform a breast self-exam.


title: Gisele Bündchen

text: Bündchen donated $150,000 to Brazil's Zero Hunger program. She designed a limited necklace edition for "Harper's Bazaar", crafted by jewelers Gumuchian Fils, which were sold to raise money for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.


title: Gisele Bündchen

text: An iPod autographed by Bündchen and loaded with her personal playlist was auctioned, and proceeds were donated to Music Rising, a campaign founded in 2005, to replace lost or destroyed instruments of musicians in the Gulf Coast Region after hurricane disasters.


title: Gisele Bündchen

text: Bündchen became the face of American Express's Product Red-affiliated card in 2006. A portion of earnings from the credit card are donated to HIV/AIDS victims in Africa. In the same year she took part in the I am African fundraising campaign to make AIDS treatment accessible to all of Africa. In 2009, she appeared on 30 covers of the international issues of "Elle" wearing Product Red clothing and posing with products from companies that support its mission.


title: Gisele Bündchen

text: Bündchen started The Luz Foundation in 2007, a project to empower girls and help them deal with self-esteem issues.


title: Gisele Bündchen

text: In 2008, Bündchen auctioned a collection of diamonds to benefit the Diamond Empowerment Fund, a nonprofit organization to education initiatives in countries where diamonds are a natural resource. The collection featured the Ponahalo Diamonds which were valued at $2 million to $4 million, a 6-carat diamond ring worth $120,000–$150,000 and a 3.35-carat Sabbadini diamond ring worth $15,000–$20,000. In 2010, she donated $1.5 million to the Red Cross to aid the relief effort in Haiti after seeing the devastation done by the earthquake. The donation put Bündchen tied for 14th on The Giving Back Fund's list of 30 celebrities who made the largest donations to charity in 2011.


title: Gisele Bündchen

text: In 2010, together with former president Bill Clinton, Bündchen joined the event that partnered Pantene and the Children's Safe Drinking Water Program to provide clean water to people in need. Bündchen and Indonesian singer-songwriter Anggun announced the kick-off of the Healthy Hair for Healthy Water program at P&G's reception that was held in conjunction with the 2010 Clinton Global Initiative in New York City. Bündchen also attended the Brazil Foundation's 8th Annual Gala to raise funds for fighting challenges faced by poor communities in Brazil. Bündchen created an exclusive design for SIGG water bottles, with proceeds going to WaterCan NGO, a humanitarian organization in Canada that provides the poorest people in the world access to clean water, toilets and information on hygiene.


title: Gisele Bündchen

text: In 2020, Bündchen formed the Luz Alliance fund in partnership with the Brazil Foundation with a donation of 1,000,000 reals. The fund supports the purchase of hygiene kits, food and financial assistance to families in Brazil through eight different charitable organizations and emergency-response efforts to offset the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Gisele Bündchen

text: Bündchen, along with her husband Brady, partnered with Wheels Up to donate 10 million meals to Feeding America for their "Meals Up" initiative and helped fund thousands of meals for Feeding Tampa Bay and The Greater Boston Food Bank to alleviate food insecurity. Bündchen also partnered with the "All in Challenge" by donated an experience with her at a photo shoot in New York, with all proceeds going to Feeding America, Meals on Wheels, World Central Kitchen and No Kid Hungry.


title: Gisele Bündchen

text: In 2004, after visiting an Amerindian tribe at the Xingu region in Brazil and seeing firsthand the problems those communities were facing due to water pollution and deforestation, Bündchen decided she had to do something to help bring attention to social and environmental issues. She advocated for the cause and through the years she has supported different projects, especially forest and water related projects in the Amazon rainforest and Atlantic Forest.


title: Gisele Bündchen

text: In 2007, she signed a "Hotter than I Should Be" T-shirt that was auctioned on eBay for the World Wide Fund for Nature to support the charity's campaign to raise awareness about the causes and impacts of climate change.


title: Gisele Bündchen

text: Bündchen returned to her hometown of Horizontina in 2008 and with her family launched Projeto Água Limpa (Clean Water Project), which implements sustainable environmental management and promotes the recovery of riparian vegetation and the micro basins of the region. More than one million trees were planted in Bündchen's name following her 2008 American Photo cover to promote Forests of the Future, a project to assist in the reforestation of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest.


title: Gisele Bündchen

text: In May 2009, Bündchen co-hosted the annual gala of the Rainforest Alliance to honor leaders in sustainability. In May 2011, Bündchen received the Global Environmental Citizen Award in recognition of her eco-efforts. In November 2011, she was awarded Greenest Celebrity at the 2011 International Green awards at the Natural History Museum, London.


title: Gisele Bündchen

text: Bündchen donates proceeds from the sales from her Ipanema sandals to a different charity each year. Starting in 2006, Bündchen dedicated a percentage of the sales of her line of sandals to environmental projects including "Y Ikatu Xingu", meaning "Save the Good Water of Xingu", the project aimed to recover and protect springs and headwaters of the Xingu River in Brazil. In 2007, she supported World Wildlife Fund project "Nascentes do Brasil" and "De olho nos manaciais" from ISA. In 2008, the project supported was "Florestas do futuro" from SOS Mata Atlantica, a reforestation program for recovery of native species, which contributes to water conservation and biodiversity. A forest was named after her, the Gisele Bündchen Forest, where more than 25000 seedlings of 100 different tree species were planted in her honor, which recovered more than 15 hectares of Atlantic Forest. In 2011, the donation went to the Socio-Environmental Institute. In 2009, she also helped the "Tamar Project", a research initiative and environmental protection of the five species of sea turtles along the Brazilian coast.


title: Gisele Bündchen

text: In 2012, Bündchen planted a sapling of Sapucaia tree during her visit to Green Nation Fest, an event that occurs every year during the Environment Week and, that year, prior to the realization of Rio +20. Over the years Bündchen participated in several United Nations campaigns to fight against climate change. She participated in challenges on World Environment Day to mobilize people to take action in helping protect the forest, the wildlife, the green economy and to encourage people to reduce their food waste. Bündchen attended Champions of the Earth and Equator Prize ceremonies multiples times.


title: Gisele Bündchen

text: In 2013, Bündchen supported the United Nations campaign against food waste, THINK.EAT.SAVE. Bündchen and chef Eric Ripert participated in the "Today Show" program where they showed that it is possible to cook more efficiently.


title: Gisele Bündchen

text: Bündchen and her husband promote the Earth Hour global movement, a symbolic act promoted worldwide by the World Wildlife Foundation in which governments, companies, and people demonstrate concern for the environment, turning off their lights for sixty minutes.


title: Gisele Bündchen

text: In January 2014, Bündchen joined the Rainforest Alliance board of directors. Later that year she attended, as a guest of honor the spring annual gala, a ceremony that recognized the industry champions that have sustainability as a priority. In 2014 Bündchen supported the SOKO + partnership to support the financial and physical security of women and girls around the world. SOKO artisans in Kenya created a pair of handmade bracelets to raise awareness for the fund. Bündchen had her work in the defense of the environment recognized and was appointed as Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Since then, Bündchen has helped UNEP in the mission of raising awareness and inspiring action to protect the environment.


title: Gisele Bündchen

text: In 2016, she joined the climate change documentary show "Years of Living Dangerously" as one of its celebrity correspondents.


title: Gisele Bündchen

text: In addition to using her social networks to share information about different subjects related to the importance of preserving all forms of life, Bündchen also attended a meeting to discuss the matter at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, which happened on the World Wildlife Day in 2016. The date was celebrated with the theme "Wildlife Future is in Our Hands". She also participated in the Wild For Life campaign against the illegal trafficking of endangered wildlife, including the campaign that won the People's Choice Award in the green category of 2019 Webby Awards.


title: Gisele Bündchen

text: In 2019, Bündchen executive produced a documentary entitled "Kiss the Ground". The feature focuses on a group of activists, scientists, farmers, and politicians who band together in a global movement of "Regenerative Agriculture" to balance our climate, replenish our vast water supplies, and feed the world. The film features Bündchen alongside Woody Harrelson, Ian Somerhalder, Patricia Arquette, David Arquette, Tom Brady, and Jason Mraz. The documentary premiered at the 2020 Tribeca Film Festival in New York City in honor of the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day. In 2020 on her birthday Bündchen launched the Viva a Vida initiative and donated funds to plant 40,000 trees along the Xingu and Araguaia River in Brazil.


title: Gisele Bündchen

text: Bündchen and her former husband, Tom Brady, served Thanksgiving dinner to more than 400 job trainees at Goodwill Industries International's headquarters in Roxbury, Massachusetts, in November 2008.


title: Gisele Bündchen

text: In September 2009, Bündchen was designated Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Environment Programme. She made her first visit to Africa as UNEP Goodwill Ambassador in January 2012.


title: Gisele Bündchen

text: In January 2012, Bündchen visited Kenya to experience the reality of energy poverty as part of the Energy for All 2030 project. On the eve of World Environment Day in June 2012, Bündchen, planted the first of a series of 50,000 trees in Rio de Janeiro. In January 2014, Bündchen joined the Rainforest Alliance board of directors.


title: Gisele Bündchen

text: From 2000 to 2005, Bündchen was in a relationship with actor Leonardo DiCaprio. In 2004, Bündchen and DiCaprio made "People"s annual Most Beautiful Couples List. After experiencing a period of depression, Bündchen decided to end her relationship with DiCaprio after she felt their lifestyles no longer complemented, saying in her memoir "Lessons", "I was becoming more and more aware of things that I'd chosen not to look at. Was I alone in wanting to do some serious soul-searching while he stayed the same? In the end, unfortunately, the answer was yes."


title: Gisele Bündchen

text: In December 2006, Bündchen began dating NFL quarterback Tom Brady, after a mutual friend introduced them on a blind date. The couple married on 26 February 2009 in a small ceremony at St. Monica Catholic Church in Santa Monica, California. In April 2009, the couple had a second marriage ceremony, in Costa Rica. Bündchen and Brady have two children: a son (born 2009), and a daughter (born 2012). She is the stepmother of Brady's first son (born 2007) from a previous relationship with actress Bridget Moynahan. Bündchen and Brady are Catholics. On 28 October 2022, Bündchen and Brady finalized their divorce after 13 years of marriage.


title: Gisele Bündchen

text: Bündchen practices Transcendental Meditation. She and her family adhere to a primarily plant-based diet developed by their personal chef Allen Campbell. They have lived in Brookline, Massachusetts, when Tom Brady played for the New England Patriots, and reside part-time in New York City. They have since moved to Tampa, Florida, after Brady went to play for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. In December 2020, the couple reportedly bought a home in Indian Creek, Florida.


title: Gisele Bündchen

text: In August 2011, Bündchen ranked 60th on the "Forbes" list of the World's 100 Most Powerful Women. At age 31, she ranked third on The 20 Youngest Power Women of 2011 List. In 2011, "Forbes" named Bündchen and Brady as the World's Highest-Paid Celebrity couple. In August 2012, Bündchen was one of four people in the fashion industry and the only model to be ranked on the "Forbes" list of "The World's Most Powerful Women", at No. 83. She ranked eighth in the top 10 of the "Forbes" list of "Entertainment's Highest-Paid Women" in 2012.


title: Gisele Bündchen

text: "Forbes" ranked Bündchen as the world's top-earning model for the fifth consecutive time in May 2011. Bündchen disputed the number used by "Forbes", telling Brazilian website "MdeMulher" that the inflated estimates have made her a subject of an audit by the Internal Revenue Service. In 2013, Bündchen ranked third on the 16 Most Successful Female Entrepreneurs list by "Forbes". "Forbes" estimated Bündchen's 2016 income at $30.5 million. Bündchen was the highest-paid model in the world from 2002 to 2017.


title: Gisele Bündchen

text: Bündchen believes in astrology, manifestation, and witchcraft. According to Tom Brady, she has used these methods to successfully predict when he would win or lose the Super Bowl.


title: Celine Dion

text: Céline Marie Claudette Dion (born 30 March 1968) is a Canadian singer. Noted for her powerful and technically skilled vocals, Dion is the best-selling Canadian recording artist, and the best-selling French-language artist of all time. Her music has incorporated genres such as pop, rock, R&B, gospel, and classical music.


title: Celine Dion

text: Born into a large family in Charlemagne, Quebec, Dion emerged as a teen star in her home country with a series of French-language albums during the 1980s. She first gained international recognition by winning both the 1982 Yamaha World Popular Song Festival and the 1988 Eurovision Song Contest, where she represented Switzerland. After learning to speak English, she signed on to Epic Records in the United States. In 1990, Dion released her debut English-language album, "Unison", establishing herself as a viable pop artist in North America and other English-speaking areas of the world. Her recordings since have been mainly in English and French although she has also sung in Spanish, Italian, German, Latin, Japanese, and Chinese.


title: Celine Dion

text: During the 1990s, she achieved worldwide fame after releasing several best-selling English-language albums in music history, such as "Falling into You" (1996) and "Let's Talk About Love" (1997), which were both certified diamond in the US and over 30 million sales worldwide each. She also scored a series of international number-one hits, including "The Power of Love", "Think Twice", "Because You Loved Me", "It's All Coming Back to Me Now", "My Heart Will Go On", and "I'm Your Angel". Dion continued releasing French albums between each English record; "D'eux" (1995) became the best-selling French-language album of all time, while "S'il suffisait d'aimer" (1998), "Sans attendre" (2012), and "Encore un soir" (2016), were all certified diamond in France. During the 2000s, she built her reputation as a highly successful live performer with A New Day... on the Las Vegas Strip (2003–07), which remains the highest-grossing concert residency of all time, as well as the Taking Chances World Tour (2008–09), one of the highest-grossing concert tours of all time.


title: Celine Dion

text: Dion is also one of the best-selling music artists of all time, with record sales of more than 200 million worldwide. Although her releases have often received mixed critical reception, Dion is regarded as one of pop music's most influential and successful vocalists. She has won five Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year and Record of the Year. Throughout her four-decade-long career, Dion has been referred to as the "Priestess of Pop" and has received two Honorary Doctorates in Music degree from Berklee College of Music and Université Laval. "Billboard" named her the "Queen of Adult Contemporary" for having the most number-one songs on the radio format for a female artist. Dion is the second-best-selling female artist in the US during the Nielsen SoundScan, the 8th all-time best-performing top female artist in the United States, and the sixth all-time best-performing female soloist in "Billboard" 200 history. In 2003, she was honoured by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) for selling over 50 million albums in Europe. In 2008, Dion was recognized as the best-selling international artist in South Africa. At the end of 2009, Dion was recognized by the "Los Angeles Times" as that decade's top-earning artist, with combined album sales and concert revenue exceeding $747 million.


title: Celine Dion

text: Dion was born in Charlemagne, Quebec, northeast of Montreal, the youngest of 14 children of Thérèse (, 1927–2020), a homemaker, and Adhémar Dion (1923–2003), a butcher, both of French descent. She was raised a Roman Catholic in a poor but, by her own account, happy home in Charlemagne. Music had always been a major part of the Dion family, and she was named after the song "Céline", which French singer Hugues Aufray had recorded two years before her birth. On 13 August 1973, she made her first public appearance at her brother Michel's wedding, where she performed Christine Charbonneau's song "Du fil, des aiguilles et du coton". She continued to perform with her siblings in her parents' small piano bar called "Le Vieux Baril", "The Old Barrel". From an early age, she had dreamed of being a performer. In a 1994 interview with "People", she recalled, "I missed my family and my home, but I don't regret having lost my adolescence. I had one dream: I wanted to be a singer." As a child in Quebec, Dion participated in Girl Guide programs as a member of Girl Guides of Canada.


title: Celine Dion

text: At age 12, she collaborated with her mother and her brother Jacques to write and compose her first song, "Ce n'était qu'un rêve", whose title translates as "It Was Only a Dream" or "Nothing But A Dream". Michel sent the recording to music manager René Angélil, whose name he discovered on the back of a Ginette Reno album. Angélil was moved to tears by Dion's voice and decided to make her a star. In 1981, he mortgaged his home to fund her first record, "La voix du bon Dieu", which later became a local No. 1 hit and made her an instant star in Quebec. Her popularity spread to other parts of the world when she competed in the 1982 Yamaha World Popular Song Festival in Tokyo and won the musician's award for "Top Performer" as well as the gold medal for "Best Song" with "Tellement j'ai d'amour pour toi".


title: Celine Dion

text: By 1983, in addition to becoming the first Canadian artist to receive a gold record in France for the single "D'amour ou d'amitié" ("Of Love or of Friendship"), Dion had also won several Félix Awards, including "Best Female performer" and "Discovery of the Year". Further success came when she represented Switzerland in the 1988 Eurovision Song Contest with the song "Ne partez pas sans moi" and won the contest by a close margin in Dublin.


title: Celine Dion

text: At age 18, after seeing a Michael Jackson performance, Dion told Angélil she wanted to be a star like Jackson. Though confident in her talent, Angélil realized her image needed to be changed for her to be marketed worldwide. She receded from the spotlight for a number of months, during which she underwent dental surgery to improve her appearance, and was sent to the École Berlitz in 1989 to polish her English.


title: Celine Dion

text: In 1989, during a concert on the Incognito tournée, she injured her voice. She consulted the otorhinolaryngologist William Gould, who gave her an ultimatum: have immediate surgery on her vocal cords or do not utilize them at all for three weeks. Dion chose the latter and underwent vocal training with William Riley.


title: Celine Dion

text: Two years after she learned English, Dion made her debut into the Anglophone market with "Unison" (1990), the lead single having originally been recorded by Laura Branigan. She incorporated the help of producers including Vito Luprano and David Foster. The album was largely influenced by 1980s soft rock music and quickly found a niche within the adult contemporary radio format. "Unison" also hit the right notes with critics: Jim Farber of "Entertainment Weekly" wrote her vocals were "tastefully unadorned", and she never attempted to "bring off styles that are beyond her". Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic declared it "a fine, sophisticated American debut". Singles from the album included "(If There Was) Any Other Way", "The Last to Know", "Unison", and "Where Does My Heart Beat Now", a mid-tempo soft-rock ballad made prominent use of the electric guitar. The latter became her first top-ten hit on the U.S. "Billboard" Hot 100, peaking at number four. In 1991, Dion was a featured soloist on "Voices That Care", a tribute to American troops fighting in Operation Desert Storm.


title: Celine Dion

text: Her real international breakthrough came when she duetted with Peabo Bryson on the title track to Disney's animated film "Beauty and the Beast" (1991). It became her first top-ten hit in the UK and her second top-ten hit in the United States. The song earned its songwriters an Academy Award for Best Song and gave Dion her first Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. "Beauty and the Beast" served as the lead single from her 1992 self-titled album, which, like her debut, had a strong pop rock influence combined with elements of soul and classical music. Owing to the success of the lead-off single and her collaborations with David Foster and Diane Warren, the album was even more well-received commercially than "Unison"; it was certified diamond in Canada and double platinum in the U.S. The album's second single "If You Asked Me To" (a cover of Patti LaBelle's song from the 1989 movie "Licence to Kill") became her first number-one single in Canada and peaked at number four on the U.S. "Billboard" Hot 100.


title: Celine Dion

text: Also during this time, Dion released the Francophone album "Dion chante Plamondon". The album consisted mostly of covers, but featured four new songs: "Des mots qui sonnent", "Je danse dans ma tête", "Quelqu'un que j'aime, quelqu'un qui m'aime", and "L'amour existe encore". It was originally released in Canada and France during the 1991–1992 period, then later received an international release in 1994, the first French Celine Dion album to do so. "Un garçon pas comme les autres (Ziggy)" became a smash hit in France, reaching No. 2 and being certified gold. In Quebec, the album was certified Gold the day it was released.


title: Celine Dion

text: By 1992, "Unison", "Céline Dion", and numerous high-profile media appearances had propelled Dion to superstardom in North America. She had achieved one of her main objectives: wedging her way into the Anglophone market and achieving fame. However, while she was experiencing rising success in the U.S., her French fans in Canada criticized her for neglecting them. She would later rebuff these criticisms at the 1991 Félix Awards show, where, after winning "English Artist of the Year", she openly declined the award. She asserted she was—and would always be—a French, not an English, artist. Indeed, to this day she speaks English with a noticeable Quebec French accent.


title: Celine Dion

text: Apart from her commercial success, there were also changes in her personal life, as Angélil, who was 26 years her senior, transitioned from manager to lover. However, the relationship was kept a secret as they both feared the public would find their relations inappropriate.


title: Celine Dion

text: In 1993, Dion announced her feelings for her manager by declaring him "the colour of [her] love" in the dedication section of her third English-language album "The Colour of My Love". However, instead of criticizing their relationship as she had feared, fans embraced the couple. Eventually, Angélil and Dion married in an extravagant wedding ceremony on 17 December 1994, which was broadcast live on Canadian television.


title: Celine Dion

text: As with most of her catalogue, "The Colour of My Love" had over-riding themes of love and romance. It became her most successful record up to point, selling more than six million copies in the U.S., two million in Canada, and peaking at No. 1 in many countries. The album also spawned Dion's first US, Canadian, and Australian No. 1 single "The Power of Love" (a remake of Jennifer Rush's 1985 hit), which would become her signature hit in various nations until she reached new career heights in the late 1990s.


title: Celine Dion

text: The single "When I Fall in Love", a duet with Clive Griffin, achieved moderate success on the U.S. and Canadian charts and was nominated for two Grammy Awards, winning one. "The Colour of My Love" also became Dion's first major hit in Europe, particularly in the United Kingdom. Both the album and the single "Think Twice" simultaneously occupied the top of the British charts for five consecutive weeks. "Think Twice", which remained at No. 1 for seven weeks, eventually became the fourth single by a female artist to sell in excess of one million copies in the UK while the album was eventually certified five-times platinum for two million copies sold.


title: Celine Dion

text: Dion kept to her French roots and continued to release many Francophone recordings between each English record. Generally, they achieved more credibility than her English-language works. She released "À l'Olympia", a live album recorded during one of her concerts at the Paris Olympia in 1994. It had one promotional single, a live version of "Calling You", which peaked at seventy-five on the French Singles Chart. She also recorded a bilingual version of "Petit Papa Noël" with Alvin and the Chipmunks for the 1994 holiday album "A Very Merry Chipmunk". "D'eux" (also known as "The French Album" in the United States), was released in 1995, and it would go on to become the best-selling French-language album of all time. The album was mostly written and produced by Jean-Jacques Goldman, and amassed huge success with the singles "Pour que tu m'aimes encore" and "Je sais pas". "Pour que tu m'aimes encore" reached No. 1 in France and stayed at the top position for twelve weeks. It was later certified Platinum in France. The single reached the top ten in the UK and Ireland, a rare accomplishment for a French song. The second single off the album, "Je sais pas", reached No. 1 on the French Singles Chart as well and was certified Silver there.


title: Celine Dion

text: During the mid-1990s and onward, Dion's albums were generally constructed on the basis of melodramatic soft rock ballads, with sprinklings of up-tempo pop and rare forays into other genres. She collaborated with writers and producers such as Jim Steinman and David Foster, who helped her to develop a signature sound. While critical reviews fluctuated, her releases performed increasingly well on the international charts, and in 1996, she won the World Music Award for "World's Best-selling Female Recording Artist of the Year" for the third time. By the mid-1990s, she had established herself as one of the best-selling artists in the world.


title: Celine Dion

text: In the five years since her debut English language album in 1990, "Billboard" stated she had already sold 40 million albums worldwide. "Falling into You" (1996), Dion's fourth English-language album, presented the singer at the height of her popularity and showed a further progression of her music. In an attempt to reach a wider audience, the album combined many elements, such as complex orchestral sounds, African chanting, and elaborate musical effects. Additionally, instruments like the violin, Spanish guitar, trombone, the cavaquinho, and saxophone created a new sound. The singles encompassed a variety of musical styles. The title track "Falling into You" and "River Deep – Mountain High" (a Tina Turner cover) made prominent use of percussion instruments; "It's All Coming Back to Me Now" (produced by its writer, Jim Steinman) and a remake of Eric Carmen's "All by Myself" maintained a soft-rock atmosphere, combined with the classical sound of the piano; and the No. 1 single "Because You Loved Me", which was written by Diane Warren, was a pop ballad served as the theme to the 1996 film "Up Close and Personal".


title: Celine Dion

text: "Falling into You" garnered career-best reviews for Dion. While Dan Leroy wrote it was not very different from her previous work with Stephen Holden of "The New York Times" and Natalie Nichols of the "Los Angeles Times" writing the album was "formulaic", other critics, such as Chuck Eddy of "Entertainment Weekly", Stephen Thomas Erlewine, and Daniel Durchholz, lavished the album as "compelling", "passionate", "stylish", "elegant", and "remarkably well-crafted". "Falling into You" became Dion's most critically and commercially successful album, topping the charts in many countries and becoming one of the best-selling albums of all time.


title: Celine Dion

text: In 2013, CBC Music ranked "Falling into You" 33rd in their list of the 100 greatest Canadian albums ever. In the United States, the album reached No. 1, and was later certified 11× Platinum for over 11 million copies shipped. In Canada, the album was certified diamond for over one million copies shipped. The IFPI certified "Falling into You" 9× Platinum, an accolade has been given to only two other albums in history, with one of the two being Dion's own album, "Let's Talk About Love". The album also won Grammy Awards for Best Pop Album and the academy's highest honour, Album of the Year.


title: Celine Dion

text: Dion was asked to perform "The Power of the Dream" at the opening ceremony of the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games. In March 1996, she launched the Falling into You Tour in support of her new album, performing concerts around the world for over a year.


title: Celine Dion

text: "Let's Talk About Love" was another major success, reaching No. 1 all over the world, attaining platinum status in twenty-four sales territories, and becoming the fastest selling album of her career. In the United States, the album topped the chart in its seventh week of release, and was later certified 10× Platinum in the U.S. for over 10 million copies shipped. In Canada, the album sold 230,212 copies in its first week of release, which remains a record. It was eventually certified diamond in Canada for over one million copies shipped. The most successful single from the album was the classically influenced ballad "My Heart Will Go On", which was written and composed by James Horner and Will Jennings, and produced by Horner and Walter Afanasieff.


title: Celine Dion

text: Serving as the love theme for the 1997 blockbuster film "Titanic", the song topped the charts across the world and became Dion's signature song. Horner and Jennings won the Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best Original Song, while Dion herself garnered two Grammy Awards for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance and the most coveted, Record of the Year, (the song itself won four awards, but two were presented to the songwriters). "My Heart Will Go On" and "Think Twice" made her the only female artist in the UK to have two singles to sell more than a million copies. In support of her album, she embarked on the Let's Talk About Love Tour between 1998 and 1999.


title: Celine Dion

text: Dion ended the 1990s with three more extremely successful albums: the Christmas album "These Are Special Times" (1998), the French-language album, "S'il suffisait d'aimer", and the compilation album "All the Way... A Decade of Song" (1999). On "These Are Special Times", she co-wrote the song "Don't Save It All for Christmas Day" along with Ric Wake and Peter Zizzo. The album was her most classically influenced yet, with orchestral arrangements found on virtually every track. The album featured the single "I'm Your Angel" (a duet with R. Kelly), which became her fourth US No. 1 single, and a smash hit across the world. The album's second single "The Prayer" (a duet with Andrea Bocelli) served as the soundtrack of the 1998 film "Quest for Camelot" and won a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song. "All the Way... A Decade of Song" drew together her most successful hits coupled with seven new songs, including the lead-off single "That's the Way It Is", a cover of Roberta Flack's "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face", and "All the Way", a duet with Frank Sinatra. "All the Way" became one of the best-selling compilation albums of all time, reaching No. 1 in the United States for three weeks. The album was later certified 7× Platinum in the U.S. for 7 million copies shipped. It also topped the charts in the UK, Canada, and Australia. Her last French-language studio album of the 1990s, "S'il suffisait d'aimer", was very successful as well, topping the charts in every major French-speaking country, including France, Switzerland, the Wallonia region of Belgium, and Canada. In France, the album was certified diamond, selling 1.5 million copies. By the end of the 1990s, Dion had sold more than 130 million records worldwide, and had won a slew of industry awards. Her status as one of the music industry's biggest pop divas was further solidified when she was asked to perform on VH1's "Divas Live" special in 1998, with superstars Aretha Franklin, Gloria Estefan, Shania Twain, and Mariah Carey. That year, she also received two of the highest Canadian honours: "Officer of the Order of Canada for Outstanding Contribution to the World of Contemporary Music" and "Officer of the National Order of Quebec". A year later, she was inducted into the Canadian Broadcast Hall of Fame, and was honoured with a star on Canada's Walk of Fame.


title: Celine Dion

text: Starting from the mid-1990s, the pop rock influence was more noticeable in her earlier releases was replaced by a more mature feel. Additionally, the recurring theme of "love" dominated most of her releases, which led to some critics dismissing her music as banal. Other critics, like Elysa Gardner and Jose F. Promis, praised her voice during this period, describing it as a "technical marvel". Steve Dollar, in his review of "These Are Special Times", opined Dion was a "vocal Olympian for whom there ain't no mountain—or scale—high enough".


title: Celine Dion

text: After releasing and promoting thirteen albums during the 1990s, Dion stated she needed to settle down, and announced on her latest album "All the Way... A Decade of Song", she needed to take a step back from the spotlight and enjoy life. Angélil's diagnosis with esophageal cancer also prompted her to hiatus. While on break, she was unable to escape the spotlight. In 2000, the "National Enquirer" published a false story about the singer. Brandishing a picture of Dion and her husband, the magazine misquoted her, printing the headline, "Celine — 'I'm Pregnant With Twins!'" She later sued the magazine for more than $20million. The editors of the "National Enquirer" printed an apology and a full retraction to her in the next issue, and donated money to the American Cancer Society in honour of her and her husband. A year after the incident, after undergoing fertility treatments, she gave birth to a son, René-Charles Dion Angélil, on 25 January 2001, in Florida.


title: Celine Dion

text: Following the 11 September attacks, Dion returned to the music scene, and in a televised performance sang "God Bless America" at the benefit concert . Chuck Taylor of "Billboard" wrote, "the performance ... brings to mind what has made her one of the celebrated vocalists of our time: the ability to render emotion that shakes the soul. Affecting, meaningful, and filled with grace, this is a musical reflection to share with all of us still searching for ways to cope." She performed it again in 2003 during pregame festivities for Super Bowl XXXVII in Qualcomm Stadium. In December 2001, she published her autobiography, "My Story, My Dream", which chronicled her rags-to-riches story.


title: Celine Dion

text: Dion ended her three-year sabbatical from the music industry with the aptly titled album "A New Day Has Come", released in March 2002. The album was her most personal yet, with songs focusing on her motherhood and maturation as a woman such as "A New Day Has Come", and "Goodbye's (The Saddest Word)". She stated: "Becoming a mother makes you a grown-up." She also stated: ""A New Day Has Come", for Rene, for me, is the baby. It has everything to do with the baby ... The song "A New Day Has Come" represents very well the mood I'm feeling right now. It represents the whole album." "A New Day Has Come" debuted at No. 1 in more than 17 countries, including the United Kingdom and Canada. In the United States, the album debuted at No. 1 on the "Billboard" 200, with first-week sales of 527,000 copies; marking her first No. 1 debut on the chart, as well as the highest debut sales week of her career in the U.S. It was eventually certified 3× Platinum in the United States, and 6× Platinum in Canada.


title: Celine Dion

text: While the album was commercially successful, critical reviews suggested it was "forgettable" and the lyrics were "lifeless". Both Rob Sheffield of "Rolling Stone", and Ken Tucker of "Entertainment Weekly", stated Dion's music had not developed much during her break, and classed her material as trite and mediocre. Sal Cinquemani of "Slant Magazine" called the album "a lengthy collection of drippy, gooey pop fluffer-nutter". The first single off the album, "A New Day Has Come" peaked at No.22 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 charts, being an airplay-only release. On the Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks, however, the song spent 21 consecutive weeks at No. 1, breaking the record for the longest span at the top. The previous record holders were Phil Collins' "You'll Be in My Heart" and Dion's own "Because You Loved Me", both of which lasted nineteen weeks at No. 1. The album's next single, "I'm Alive", was featured on the soundtrack for "Stuart Little 2" (2002), and was ranked number 2 on the European Hot 100 Singles, and number 6 on the Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks in the United States. During 2002, she performed for many benefit concerts, including her second appearance on VH1 Divas Live, a concert to benefit the VH1 Save The Music Foundation, alongside Cher, Anastacia, Dixie Chicks, Mary J. Blige, Whitney Houston, Cyndi Lauper, Shakira, and Stevie Nicks.


title: Celine Dion

text: In conjunction with an endorsement deal with Chrysler, she released "One Heart" (2003), an album represented her appreciation for life. The album largely consisted of pop and dance music—a deviation from the soaring, melodramatic ballads, for which she had been known. Although the album achieved moderate success, "One Heart" was met with mixed criticism, and words such as "predictable" and "banal" appeared even in the most lenient reviews. A cover of the 1989 Cyndi Lauper hit "I Drove All Night", released to launch her advertising campaign with Chrysler, incorporated elements of dance-pop and rock and roll. The advertising deal was met with criticism, with some stating Dion was trying to cater to her sponsors.


title: Celine Dion

text: After "One Heart", she released her next English-language studio album, "Miracle" (2004). "Miracle" was a multimedia project conceived by Dion and Australian photographer Anne Geddes and had a theme centring on babies and motherhood. The album was filled with lullabies and other songs of maternal love and inspiration, including covers of Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World" and John Lennon's "Beautiful Boy". The reviews for "Miracle" were mixed. Stephen Thomas Erlewine gave the album three of out five stars, stating, "The worst you can say about the record is that there are no surprises, but the audience for this record doesn't want surprises; they want comfort, whether it arrives in polished music or artsy photos of newborns, and Miracle provides both, which makes it appealing for those expectant or new mothers in Dion's audience." Chuck Taylor of "Billboard" wrote the single "Beautiful Boy" was "an unexpected gem" and called Dion "a timeless, enormously versatile artist", Chuck Arnold of "People", however, labelled the album as excessively sentimental, while Nancy Miller of "Entertainment Weekly" opined that "the whole earth-mama act is just opportunism, reborn". "Miracle" debuted at No. 4 on the "Billboard" 200 chart and No. 1 in Canada and was eventually certified platinum by the RIAA.


title: Celine Dion

text: The francophone album "1 fille & 4 types" ("1 Girl & 4 Guys"), released in October 2003, fared better than her previous two releases and showed her trying to distance herself from the "diva" image. She recruited Jean-Jacques Goldman, Gildas Arzel, Eric Benzi, and Jacques Veneruso, with whom she had previously worked on two of her best-selling French albums "S'il suffisait d'aimer" and "D'eux". Labeled "the album of pleasure" by Dion herself, the album cover showed her in a simple and relaxed manner, contrary to the choreographed poses usually found on her album covers. The album achieved widespread commercial success in France, Canada, and Belgium where it reached No. 1. In France, the album debuted at No. 1 and was later certified 2× platinum after selling over 700,000 copies. Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote Dion's vocals were "back at top of their game" and she was "getting back to pop basics and performing at a level unheard in a while".


title: Celine Dion

text: Though her albums were commercially successful, they did not achieve the sales or the reception of her previous works. Her songs received less airplay as radio became less embracing of balladeers like Dion, Carey, and Houston, and was focused on more up-tempo, Urban/Hip-hop songs. By 2004, Dion had accumulated sales of more than 175 million albums worldwide and received the Chopard Diamond Award from the World Music Awards for her achievements. According to the official World Music Awards website, the award is rare; it is "not presented every year" and an artist can be presented with the award only for selling "over 100 million albums during their career".


title: Celine Dion

text: In early 2002, Dion announced a three-year, 600-show contract to appear five nights a week in an entertainment extravaganza, "A New Day...", at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace. This move was generally seen as risky, but journalist Miriam Nunzio wrote it was "one of the smartest business decisions in years by any major recording artist". Dion conceived the show after seeing "O" by Franco Dragone during her break from recording, and it premiered on 25 March 2003, in a 4,000-seat arena specifically designed for her show and modelled after the Roman Colosseum. Many stars attended the opening night including Dick Clark, Alan Thicke, Kathy Griffin, Lance Bass, and Justin Timberlake, who hosted the television special. The show, directed by Dragone and choreographed by Mia Michaels, was a combination of dance, music, and visual effects. It included Dion performing her biggest hits against an array of dancers and special effects. Reviewer Mike Weatherford felt that, at first, Dion was not as relaxed as she should be, and at times, it was hard to find the singer among the excessive stage ornamentation and dancers. However, he noted the show had become more enjoyable over the course of its run, because of her improved stage-presence and simplified costumes.


title: Celine Dion

text: The show was well-received by audiences, despite the complaints of expensive tickets; it routinely sold out until its end in late 2007. Ticket prices averaged $135.33. According to "Pollstar", Dion sold 322,000 tickets and grossed US$43.9 million in the first half of 2005, and by July 2005, she had sold out 315 out of 384 shows. By the end of 2005, she grossed more than US$76 million, placing sixth on "Billboard's Money Makers list for 2005". Because of the show's success, her contract was extended into 2007 for an undisclosed sum. On 5 January 2007, it was announced the show would end on 15 December 2007, with tickets for the period after October 2007 having gone on sale from 1 March. According to "Billboard", A New Day... is the most successful residency of all time, grossing over US$385 million ($ million in dollars) and drawing nearly three million people to 717 shows. The "" DVD was released on 10 December 2007, in Europe and the following day in North America.