title: Yoruba people

text: The Yoruboid languages, restricted to the Edekiri subgroup, form a closed group of intelligible language patterns which strongly tie the people who speak them together. These people include the Ife people from Togo, and Ghana to a smaller degree, up to the Itsekiri people in the Delta area of modern-day Nigeria, which along with geographically continuous groups between them, were divided by outrightly undiplomatic colonial measures during the Berlin Conference in 19th century Europe. Yorubas also notably developed common identity under and from the influence of Oyo, a regional empire branching off earlier rulership in Ife and establishing its own influence over Kingdoms stretching from Benin to neighboring Dahomey who itself called Yoruba-speakers Anagos. Between the 16th to 19th centuries, Oyo had numerous campaigns in the region and established its own reputation among neighboring kingdoms of Ashanti, Dahomey, Borgu, Nupe, Benin and others solidifying its place in the greater region as a powerhouse representative of a culture it powerfully defended and stood in association with. During the 18th century, in the days of Ajagbo, a King in Oyo, the kings of the Yoruba-speaking sub-kingdoms of Oyo, Egba, Ketu, and Jebu styled each other "brother" while jointly recognizing the leadership role that Oyo played among them.


title: Yoruba people

text: At the beginning of the 19th century, Yoruba community was made up of the following principal units; The British colony of Lagos, traditionally called Eko, Ketu, it's western state bounded by the kingdom of Dahomey, Egba, with the capital of Abeokuta, Jebu, a southeastern kingdom in the area of a lagoon, a confederation of Ekiti subtribes, Ibadan and Oyo, Ijesha, the historical kingdom of Ife, Ondo, on the east, and several other small states or, rather, independent townships, consisting of a town and few outlying villages including Egbado, Okeodan, Ado, Awori, and Igbessa, all of which were called Egbados or Egba-odo meaning the Egbas of the coast. Various other cultural identifiers which bind the Yoruba people are the frequent usage of traditional and common-place Yoruba-language proverbs and poetic forms, farming, hunting, and crafting/blacksmithing as commonplace occupations, joint customs in greeting, birth, marriage, and death ceremonies, general love for celebration, festivities and community, facial scarification, respect for elders, and Yoruba formations of urban towns typically consisting of a powerful king existing as part of a complex political system, living near the center of an urban zone around which the rest of the city was planned and built.


title: Yoruba people

text: Monarchies were a common form of government in Yorubaland, but they were not the only approach to government and social organization. The numerous Ijebu kingdom city-states to the west of Oyo and the Egba people communities, found in the forests below Ọyọ's savanna region, were notable exceptions. These independent polities often elected a king though real political, legislative, and judicial powers resided with the "Ogboni", a council of notable elders. The notion of the divine king was so important to the Yoruba, however, that it has been part of their organization in its various forms from their antiquity to the contemporary era.


title: Yoruba people

text: During the internecine wars of the 19th century, the Ijebu forced citizens of more than 150 Ẹgba and Owu communities to migrate to the fortified city of Abeokuta. Each quarter retained its own "Ogboni" council of civilian leaders, along with an "Olorogun", or council of military leaders, and in some cases, its own elected "Obas" or "Baales". These independent councils elected their most capable members to join a federal civilian and military council that represented the city as a whole. Commander Frederick Forbes, a representative of the British Crown writing an account of his visit to the city in the "Church Military Intelligencer" (1853), described Abẹokuta as having "four presidents", and the system of government as having "840 principal rulers or 'House of Lords,' 2800 secondary chiefs or 'House of Commons,' 140 principal military ones and 280 secondary ones." He described Abẹokuta and its system of government as "the most extraordinary republic in the world."


title: Yoruba people

text: Gerontocratic leadership councils that guarded against the monopolization of power by a monarch were a trait of the Ẹgba, according to the eminent Ọyọ historian Reverend Samuel Johnson. Such councils were also well-developed among the northern Okun groups, the eastern Ekiti, and other groups falling under the Yoruba ethnic umbrella. In Ọyọ, the most centralized of the precolonial kingdoms, the "Alaafin" consulted on all political decisions with the prime minister and principal kingmaker (the "Basọrun") and the rest of the council of leading nobles known as the "Ọyọ Mesi".


title: Yoruba people

text: Traditionally kingship and chieftainship were not determined by simple primogeniture, as in most monarchic systems of government. An electoral college of lineage heads was and still is usually charged with selecting a member of one of the royal families from any given realm, and the selection is then confirmed by an Ifá oracular request. The Ọbas live in palaces that are usually in the center of the town. Opposite the king's palace is the "Ọja Ọba", or the king's market. These markets form an inherent part of Yoruba life. Traditionally their traders are well organized, have various guilds, officers, and an elected speaker. They also often have at least one "Iyaloja", or Lady of the Market, who is expected to represent their interests in the aristocratic council of oloyes at the palace.


title: Yoruba people

text: The monarchy of any city-state was usually limited to a number of royal lineages. A family could be excluded from kingship and chieftaincy if any family member, servant, or slave belonging to the family committed a crime, such as theft, fraud, murder or rape. In other city-states, the monarchy was open to the election of any free-born male citizen. In Ilesa, Ondo, Akure and other Yoruba communities, there were several, but comparatively rare, traditions of female "Ọbas". The kings were traditionally almost always polygamous and often married royal family members from other domains, thereby creating useful alliances with other rulers. Ibadan, a city-state and proto-empire that was founded in the 1800s by a polyglot group of refugees, soldiers, and itinerant traders after the fall of Ọyọ, largely dispensed with the concept of monarchism, preferring to elect both military and civil councils from a pool of eminent citizens. The city became a military republic, with distinguished soldiers wielding political power through their election by popular acclaim and the respect of their peers. Similar practices were adopted by the "Ijẹsa" and other groups, which saw a corresponding rise in the social influence of military adventurers and successful entrepreneurs. The Ìgbómìnà were renowned for their agricultural and hunting prowess, as well as their woodcarving, leather art, and the famous Elewe masquerade.


title: Yoruba people

text: Occupational guilds, social clubs, secret or initiatory societies, and religious units, commonly known as Ẹgbẹ in Yoruba, included the "Parakoyi" (or league of traders) and "Ẹgbẹ Ọdẹ" (hunter's guild), and maintained an important role in commerce, social control, and vocational education in Yoruba polities. There are also examples of other peer organizations in the region. When the Ẹgba resisted the imperial domination of the Ọyọ Empire, a figure named Lisabi is credited with either creating or reviving a covert traditional organization named "Ẹgbẹ Aro". This group, originally a farmers' union, was converted to a network of secret militias throughout the Ẹgba forests, and each lodge plotted and successfully managed to overthrow Ọyọ's "Ajeles" (appointed administrators) in the late 18th century.


title: Yoruba people

text: Similarly, covert military resistance leagues like the "Ekiti Parapọ" and the "Ogidi" alliance were organized during the 19th century wars by often-decentralized communities of the Ekiti, Ijẹsa, Ìgbómìnà and Okun Yoruba in order to resist various imperial expansionist plans of Ibadan, Nupe, and the Sokoto Caliphate.


title: Yoruba people

text: In the city-states and many of their neighbours, a reserved way of life remains, with the school of thought of their people serving as a major influence in West Africa and elsewhere.


title: Yoruba people

text: Today, most contemporary Yoruba are Muslims or Christians. Be that as it may, many of the principles of the traditional faith of their ancestors are either knowingly or unknowingly upheld by a significant proportion of the populations of Nigeria, Benin and Togo.


title: Yoruba people

text: The Yoruba religion comprises the traditional religious and spiritual concepts and practices of the Yoruba people. Its homeland is in Southwestern Nigeria and the adjoining parts of Benin and Togo, a region that has come to be known as Yorubaland. Yoruba religion is formed of diverse traditions and has no single founder. Yoruba religious beliefs are part of itan, the total complex of songs, histories, stories and other cultural concepts that make up the Yoruba society.


title: Yoruba people

text: One of the most common Yoruba traditional religious concepts has been the concept of Orisa. Orisa (also spelled Orisha) are various godly forms that reflect one of the various manifestations or avatars of God in the Yoruba religious system. Some widely known Orisa are Ogun, (a god of metal, war and victory), Shango or Jakuta (a god of thunder, lightning, fire and justice who manifests as a king and who always wields a double-edged axe that conveys his divine authority and power), Esu Elegbara (a trickster who serves as the sole messenger of the pantheon, and who conveys the wish of men to the gods. He understands every language spoken by humankind, and is also the guardian of the crossroads, "Oríta méta" in Yoruba) and Orunmila (a god of the Oracle). Eshu has two avatar forms, which are manifestations of his dual nature – positive and negative energies; Eshu Laroye, a teacher instructor and leader, and Eshu Ebita, a jester, deceitful, suggestive and cunning. Orunmila, for his part, reveals the past, gives solutions to problems in the present, and influences the future through the Ifa divination system, which is practised by oracle priests called Babalawos.


title: Yoruba people

text: Olorun is one of the principal manifestations of the Supreme God of the Yoruba pantheon, the owner of the heavens, and is associated with the Sun known as Oòrùn in the Yoruba language. The two other principal forms of the supreme God are Olodumare—the supreme creator—and Olofin, who is the conduit between Òrunn (Heaven) and Ayé (Earth). Oshumare is a god that manifests in the form of a rainbow, also known as Òsùmàrè in Yoruba, while Obatala is the god of clarity and creativity.These gods feature in the Yoruba religion, as well as in some aspects of Umbanda, Winti, Obeah, Vodun and a host of others. These varieties, or spiritual lineages as they are called, are practiced throughout areas of Nigeria, among others. As interest in African indigenous religions grows, Orisa communities and lineages can be found in parts of Europe and Asia as well. While estimates may vary, some scholars believe that there could be more than 100 million adherents of this spiritual tradition worldwide.


title: Yoruba people

text: Oral history of the Oyo-Yoruba recounts Odùduwà to be the progenitor of the Yoruba and the reigning ancestor of their crowned kings.


title: Yoruba people

text: Yoruba culture consists of cultural philosophy, religion and folktales. They are embodied in Ifa divination, and are known as the tripartite Book of Enlightenment in Yorubaland and in its diaspora.


title: Yoruba people

text: Yoruba cultural thought is a witness of two epochs. The first epoch is a history of cosmogony and cosmology. This is also an epoch-making history in the oral culture during which time Oduduwa was the king, the Bringer of Light, pioneer of Yoruba folk philosophy, and a prominent diviner. He pondered the visible and invisible worlds, reminiscing about cosmogony, cosmology, and the mythological creatures in the visible and invisible worlds. His time favored the artist-philosophers who produced magnificent naturalistic artworks of civilization during the pre-dynastic period in Yorubaland. The second epoch is the epoch of metaphysical discourse, and the birth of modern artist-philosophy. This commenced in the 19th century in terms of the academic prowess of Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther (1807–1891). Although religion is often first in Yoruba culture, nonetheless, it is the philosophy – the thought of man – that actually leads spiritual consciousness (ori) to the creation and the practice of religion. Thus, it is believed that thought (philosophy) is an antecedent to religion. Values such as respect, peaceful co-existence, loyalty and freedom of speech are both upheld and highly valued in Yoruba culture. Societies that are considered secret societies often strictly guard and encourage the observance of moral values. Today, the academic and nonacademic communities are becoming more interested in Yoruba culture. More research is being carried out on Yoruba cultural thought as more books are being written on the subject.


title: Yoruba people

text: The Yoruba are traditionally very religious people, and are today pluralistic in their religious convictions. The Yoruba are one of the more religiously diverse ethnic groups in Africa. Many Yoruba people practice Christianity under various denominations while others are Muslims practicing mostly under Sunni Islam of the Maliki school of law. In addition to Christianity and Islam, a large number of Yoruba people continue to practice their traditional religion. Yoruba religious practices such as the Eyo and Osun-Osogbo festivals are witnessing a resurgence in popularity in contemporary Yorubaland. They are largely seen by the adherents of the modern faiths as cultural, rather than religious, events. They participate in them as a means to celebrate their people's history, and boost tourism in their local economies.


title: Yoruba people

text: The Yorubas were one of the first groups in West Africa to be introduced to Christianity on a very large scale. Christianity (along with western civilization) came into Yorubaland in the mid-19th century through the Europeans, whose original mission was commerce. The first European visitors were the Portuguese, they visited the neighboring Bini kingdom in the late 16th century. As time progressed, other Europeans – such as the French, the British, the Dutch, and the Germans, followed suit. British and French people were the most successful in their quest for colonies (These Europeans actually split Yorubaland, with the larger part being in British Nigeria, and the minor parts in French Dahomey, now Benin, and German Togoland). Home governments encouraged religious organizations to come. Roman Catholics (known to the Yorubas as Ijo Aguda, so named after returning former Yoruba slaves from Latin America, who were mostly Catholic, and were also known as the Agudas or Amaros) started the race, followed by Protestants, whose prominent member – Church Mission Society (CMS) based in England made the most significant in-roads into the hinterland regions for evangelism and became the largest of the Christian missions. Methodists (known as Ijo-Eleto, so named after the Yoruba word for "method or process") started missions in Agbadarigi / Gbegle by Thomas Birch Freeman in 1842. Agbadarigi was further served by E. C. Van Cooten, E. G. Irving, and A. A. Harrison. Henry Townsend, C. C.Gollmer, and Ajayi Crowther of the CMS worked in Abeokuta, then under the Egba division of Southern Nigeria in 1846.


title: Yoruba people

text: Hinderer and Mann of CMS started missions in Ibadan / Ibarapa and Ijaye divisions of the present Oyo state in 1853. Baptist missionaries – Bowen and Clarke – concentrated on the northern Yoruba axis – (Ogbomoso and environs). With their success, other religious groups – the Salvation Army and the Evangelists Commission of West Africa – became popular among the Igbomina, and other non-denominational Christian groups joined. The increased tempo of Christianity led to the appointment of Saros (returning slaves from Sierra Leone) and indigenes as missionaries. This move was initiated by Venn, the CMS Secretary. Nevertheless, the impact of Christianity in Yorubaland was not felt until the fourth decade of the 19th century, when a Yoruba slave boy, Samuel Ajayi Crowther, became a Christian convert, linguist and minister whose knowledge in languages would become a major tool and instrument to propagate Christianity in Yorubaland and beyond.


title: Yoruba people

text: Islam came into Yorubaland around the 14th century, as a result of trade with Wangara (also Wankore) merchants, a mobile caste of the Soninkes from the then Mali Empire who entered Yorubaland (Oyo) from the northwestern flank through the Bariba or Borgu corridor, during the reign of Mansa Kankan Musa. Due to this, Islam is traditionally known to the Yoruba as Esin Male or simply Imale i.e. religion of the Malians. The adherents of the Islamic faith are called Musulumi in Yoruba to correspond to Muslim, the Arabic word for an adherent of Islam having as the active participle of the same verb form, and means "submitter (to Allah)" or a nominal and active participle of Islam derivative of "Salaam" i.e. (Religion of) Peace. Islam was practiced in Yorubaland so early on in history, that a sizable proportion of Yoruba slaves taken to the Americas were already Muslim.


title: Yoruba people

text: The Mosque served the spiritual needs of Muslims living in Ọyọ. Progressively, Islam started to gain a foothold in Yorubaland, and Muslims started building mosques. Iwo led, its first mosque built in 1655, followed by Iseyin in 1760, Eko/Lagos in 1774, Shaki in 1790, and Osogbo in 1889. In time, Islam spread to other towns like Oyo (the first Oyo convert was Solagberu), Ibadan, Abẹokuta, Ijebu Ode, Ikirun, and Ede. All of these cities already had sizable Muslim communities before the 19th century Sokoto jihad.


title: Yoruba people

text: Medieval Yoruba settlements were surrounded with massive mud walls. Yoruba buildings had similar plans to the Ashanti shrines, but with verandahs around the court. The wall materials comprised puddled mud and palm oil while roofing materials ranged from thatches to corrugated iron sheets. A famous Yoruba fortification, the Sungbo's Eredo, was the second largest wall edifice in Africa. The structure was built in the 9th, 10th and 11th centuries in honour of a traditional aristocrat, the Oloye Bilikisu Sungbo. It was made up of sprawling mud walls and the valleys that surrounded the town of Ijebu-Ode in Ogun State. Sungbo's Eredo is the largest pre-colonial monument in Africa, larger than the Great Pyramid or Great Zimbabwe.


title: Yoruba people

text: The Yorubas worked with a wide array of materials in their art including; bronze, leather, terracotta, ivory, textiles, copper, stone, carved wood, brass, ceramics and glass. A unique feature of Yoruba art is its striking realism that, unlike most African art, chose to create human sculptures in vividly realistic and life sized forms. The art history of the nearby Benin empire shows that there was a cross–fertilization of ideas between the neighboring Yoruba and Edo. The Benin court's brass casters learned their art from an Ife master named Iguegha, who had been sent from Ife around 1400 at the request of Benin's oba Oguola. Indeed, the earliest dated cast-brass memorial heads from Benin replicate the refined naturalism of the earlier Yoruba sculptures from Ife.


title: Yoruba people

text: A lot of Yoruba artwork, including staffs, court dress, and beadwork for crowns, are associated with palaces and the royal courts. The courts also commissioned numerous architectural objects such as veranda posts, gates, and doors that are embellished with carvings. Yoruba palaces are usually built with thicker walls, are dedicated to the gods and play significant spiritual roles. Yoruba art is also manifested in shrines and masking traditions. The shrines dedicated to the said gods are adorned with carvings and house an array of altar figures and other ritual paraphernalia. Masking traditions vary by region, and diverse mask types are used in various festivals and celebrations. Aspects of Yoruba traditional architecture has also found its way into the New World in the form of shotgun houses. Today, however, Yoruba traditional architecture has been greatly influenced by modern trends.


title: Yoruba people

text: Masquerades are an important feature of Yoruba traditional artistry. They are generally known as "Egúngún", singularly as "Egún". The term refers to the Yoruba masquerades connected with ancestor reverence, or to the ancestors themselves as a collective force. There are different types of which one of the most prominent is the Gelede. An Ese Ifa (oral literature of Orunmila divination) explains the origins of Gelede as beginning with Yemoja, the Mother of all the orisa and all living things. Yemoja could not have children and consulted an Ifa oracle, and the priest advised her to offer sacrifices and to dance with wooden images on her head and metal anklets on her feet. After performing this ritual, she became pregnant. Her first child was a boy, nicknamed "Efe" (the humorist/joker); the Efe mask emphasizes song and jests because of the personality of its namesake. Yemoja's second child was a girl, nicknamed "Gelede" because she was obese like her mother. Also like her mother, Gelede loved dancing.


title: Yoruba people

text: After getting married themselves, neither Gelede or Efe's partner could have children. The Ifa oracle suggested they try the same ritual that had worked for their mother. No sooner than Efe and Gelede performed these rituals – dancing with wooden images on their heads and metal anklets on their feet – they started having children. These rituals developed into the Gelede masked dance and were perpetuated by the descendants of Efe and Gelede. This narrative is one of many stories that explains the origin of Gelede. An old theory stated that the beginning of Gelede might be associated with the change from a matriarchal to a patriarchal society among the Yoruba people.


title: Yoruba people

text: The Gelede spectacle and the Ifa divination system represent two of Nigeria's only three pieces on the United Nations Oral and Intangible Heritages of Humanity list, as well as the only such cultural heritage from Benin and Togo.


title: Yoruba people

text: One of the first observations of first time visitors to Yorubaland is the rich, exuberant and ceremonial nature of their culture, which is made even more visible by the urbanized structures of Yoruba settlements. These occasions are avenues to experience the richness of the Yoruba culture. Traditional musicians are always on hand to grace the occasions with heavy rhythms and extremely advanced percussion, which the Yorubas are well known for all over the world. Praise singers and griots are there to add their historical insight to the meaning and significance of the ceremony, and of course the varieties of colorful dresses and attires worn by the people, attest to the aesthetic sense of the average Yoruba.


title: Yoruba people

text: The Yoruba are a very expressive people who celebrate major events with colorful festivals and celebrations (Ayeye). Some of these festivals (about thirteen principal ones) are secular and only mark achievements and milestones in the achievement of mankind. These include wedding ceremonies ("Ìgbéyàwó"), naming ceremonies ("Ìsomolórúko"), funerals ("Ìsìnkú"), housewarming ("Ìsílé"), New-Yam festival ("Ìjesu"), Odon itsu in Atakpame, Harvest ceremonies ("Ìkórè"), birth ("Ìbí"), chieftaincy ("Ìjòyè") and so on. Others have a more spiritual connotation, such as the various days and celebrations dedicated to specific "Orisha" like the Ogun day ("Ojó Ògún") or the "Osun" festival, which is usually done at the Osun-Osogbo sacred grove located on the banks of the Osun river and around the ancient town of Osogbo. The festival is dedicated to the river goddess "Osun", which is usually celebrated in the month of August ("Osù Ògùn") yearly. The festival attracts thousands of Osun worshippers from all over Yorubaland and the Yoruba diaspora in the Americas, spectators and tourists from all walks of life. The Osun-Osogbo Festival is a two-week-long programme. It starts with the traditional cleansing of the town called 'Iwopopo', which is then followed in three days by the lighting of the 500-year-old sixteen-point lamp called "Ina Olojumerindinlogun", which literally means "The sixteen eyed fire". The lighting of this sacred lamp heralds the beginning of the Osun festival. Then comes the 'Ibroriade', an assemblage of the crowns of the past ruler, the Ataoja of Osogbo, for blessings. This event is led by the sitting "Ataoja" of Osogbo and the Arugba Yeye Osun (who is usually a young virgin from the royal family dressed in white), who carries a sacred white calabash that contains propitiation materials meant for the goddess Osun. She is also accompanied by a committee of priestesses. A similar event holds in the New World as Odunde Festival.


title: Yoruba people

text: Another very popular festival with spiritual connotations is the Eyo Olokun festival or "Adamu Orisha" play, celebrated by the people of Lagos. The Eyo festival is a dedication to the god of the Sea Olokun, who is an Orisha, and whose name literally mean "Owner of the Seas". Generally, there is no customarily defined time for the staging of the Eyo Festival. This leads to a building anticipation as to what date would be decided upon. Once a date for its performance is selected and announced, the festival preparations begin. It encompasses a week-long series of activities, and culminates in a striking procession of thousands of men clothed in white and wearing a variety of coloured hats, called "Aga". The procession moves through Lagos Island "Isale Eko", which is the historical centre of the Lagos metropolis. On the streets, they move through various crucial locations and landmarks in the city, including the palace of the traditional ruler of Lagos, the Oba, known as the Iga Idunganran. The festival starts from dusk to dawn, and has been held on Saturdays (Ojó Àbáméta) from time immemorial. A full week before the festival (always a Sunday), the 'senior' Eyo group, the Adimu (identified by a black, broad-rimmed hat), goes public with a staff. When this happens, it means the event will take place on the following Saturday. Each of the four other 'important' groups – Laba (Red), Oniko (yellow), Ologede (Green) and Agere (Purple) — take their turns in that order from Monday to Thursday.


title: Yoruba people

text: The Eyo masquerade essentially admits tall people, which is why it is described as "Agogoro Eyo" (literally meaning the tall Eyo masquerade). In the manner of a spirit (An Orisha) visiting the earth on a purpose, the Eyo masquerade speaks in a ventriloquial voice, suggestive of its otherworldliness; and when greeted, it replies: "Mo yo fun e, mo yo fun ara mi", which in Yoruba means: "I rejoice for you, and I rejoice for myself". This response connotes the masquerades as rejoicing with the person greeting it for the witnessing of the day, and its own joy at taking the hallowed responsibility of cleansing. During the festival, Sandals and foot wear, as well as "Suku", a hairstyle that is popular among the Yorubas – one that has the hair converge at the middle, then shoot upward, before tipping downward – are prohibited. The festival has also taken a more touristic dimension in recent times, which like the Osun Osogbo festival, attracts visitors from all across Nigeria, as well as Yoruba diaspora populations. In fact, it is widely believed that the play is one of the manifestations of the customary African revelry that serves as the forerunner of the modern carnival in Brazil and other parts of the New World, which may have been started by the Yoruba slaves transplanted in that part of the world due to the Atlantic slave trade.


title: Yoruba people

text: The music of the Yoruba people is perhaps best known for an extremely advanced drumming tradition, especially using the dundun hourglass tension drums. The representation of musical instruments on sculptural works from Ile-Ife, indicates, in general terms a substantial accord with oral traditions. A lot of these musical instruments date back to the classical period of Ile-Ife, which began at around the tenth century A.D. Some were already present prior to this period, while others were created later. The hourglass tension drum (Dùndún) for example, may have been introduced around the 15th century (1400s), the Benin bronze plaques of the middle period depicts them. Others like the double and single iron clapper-less bells are examples of instruments that preceded classical Ife. Yoruba folk music became perhaps the most prominent kind of West African music in Afro-Latin and Caribbean musical styles. Yoruba music left an especially important influence on the music of Trinidad, the Lukumi religious traditions, Capoeira practice in Brazil and the music of Cuba.


title: Yoruba people

text: Yoruba drums typically belong to four major families, which are used depending on the context or genre where they are played. The Dùndún / Gángan family, is the class of hourglass shaped talking drums, which imitate the sound of Yoruba speech. This is possible because the Yoruba language is tonal in nature. It is the most common and is present in many Yoruba traditions, such as Apala, Jùjú, Sekere and Afrobeat. The second is the Sakara family. Typically, they played a ceremonial role in royal settings, weddings and Oríkì recitation; it is predominantly found in traditions such as Sakara music, Were and Fuji music. The Gbedu family (literally, "large drum") is used by secret fraternities such as the Ogboni and royal courts. Historically, only the Oba might dance to the music of the drum. If anyone else used the drum they were arrested for sedition of royal authority. The Gbèdu are conga shaped drums played while they sit on the ground. "Akuba" drums (a trio of smaller conga-like drums related to the gbèdu) are typically used in afrobeat. The "Ogido" is a cousin of the gbedu. It is also shaped like a conga but with a wider array of sounds and a bigger body. It also has a much deeper sound than the conga. It is sometimes referred to as the "bass drum". Both hands play directly on the Ogido drum.


title: Yoruba people

text: Today, the word "Gbedu" has also come to be used to describe forms of Nigerian Afrobeat and Hip Hop music. The fourth major family of Yoruba drums is the Bàtá family, which are well-decorated double-faced drums, with various tones. They were historically played in sacred rituals. They are believed to have been introduced by Shango, an Orisha, during his earthly incarnation as a warrior king.


title: Yoruba people

text: Traditional Yoruba drummers are known as "Àyán". The Yoruba believe that "Àyángalú" was the first drummer. He is also believed to be the spirit or muse that inspires drummers during renditions. This is why some Yoruba family names contain the prefix 'Ayan-' such as Ayangbade, Ayantunde, Ayanwande. Ensembles using the dundun play a type of music that is also called "dundun". The Ashiko (Cone shaped drums), "Igbin", Gudugudu (Kettledrums in the Dùndún family), Agidigbo and Bèmbé are other drums of importance. The leader of a dundun ensemble is the "oniyalu" meaning; ' "Owner of the mother drum" ', who uses the drum to "talk" by imitating the tonality of Yoruba. Much of this music is spiritual in nature, and is often devoted to the Orisas.


title: Yoruba people

text: Within each drum family there are different sizes and roles; the lead drum in each family is called "Ìyá" or "Ìyá Ìlù", which means "Mother drum", while the supporting drums are termed "Omele". Yoruba drumming exemplifies West-African cross-rhythms and is considered to be one of the most advanced drumming traditions in the world. Generally, improvisation is restricted to master drummers. Some other instruments found in Yoruba music include, but are not limited to; The Gòjé (violin), Shèkèrè (gourd rattle), Agidigbo (thumb piano that takes the shape of a plucked Lamellophone), "Saworo" (metal rattles for the arm and ankles, also used on the rim of the bata drum), "Fèrè" (whistles), "Aro" (Cymbal)s, Agogô (bell), different types of flutes include the "Ekutu", "Okinkin" and "Igba".


title: Yoruba people

text: Oriki (or praise singing), a genre of sung poetry that contains a series of proverbial phrases, praising or characterizing the respective person is of Egba and Ekiti origin, is often considered the oldest Yoruba musical tradition. Yoruba music is typically Polyrhythmic, which can be described as interlocking sets of rhythms that fit together somewhat like the pieces in a jigsaw puzzle. There is a basic timeline and each instrument plays a pattern in relation to that timeline. The resulting ensemble provides the typical sound of West African Yoruba drumming. Yoruba music is a component of the modern Nigerian popular music scene. Although traditional Yoruba music was not influenced by foreign music, the same cannot be said of modern-day Yoruba music, which has evolved and adapted itself through contact with foreign instruments, talent, and creativity.


title: Yoruba people

text: The Yoruba present the highest dizygotic twinning rate in the world (4.4% of all maternities). They manifest at 45–50 twin sets (or 90–100 twins) per 1,000 live births, possibly because of high consumption of a specific type of yam containing a natural phytoestrogen that may stimulate the ovaries to release an egg from each side.


title: Yoruba people

text: Twins are very important for the Yoruba and they usually tend to give special names to each twin. The first of the twins to be born is traditionally named "Taiyewo" or "Tayewo", which means 'the first to taste the world', or the 'slave to the second twin', this is often shortened to "Taiwo", "Taiye" or "Taye". "Kehinde" is the name of the last born twin. "Kehinde" is sometimes also referred to as "Kehindegbegbon", which is short for; "Omo kehin de gba egbon" and means, 'the child that came behind gets the rights of the elder'.


title: Yoruba people

text: Twins are perceived as having spiritual advantages or as possessing magical powers. This is different from some other cultures, which interpret twins as dangerous or unwanted.


title: Yoruba people

text: Time is measured in "ọgán" or "ìṣẹ́jú-àáyá" (seconds), "ìṣẹ́jú" (minutes), "wákàtí" (hours), "ọjọ́" (days), "ọ̀sẹ̀" (weeks), "oṣù" (months) and "ọdún" (years). There are 60 (ọgọta) "ìṣẹ́jú" in 1 (okan) "wákàtí"; 24 (merinleogun) "wákàtí" in 1 (okan) "ọjọ́"; 7 (meje) "ọjọ́" in 1 (okan) "ọ̀sẹ̀"; 4 (merin) "ọ̀sẹ̀" in 1 (okan) "oṣù" and 52 (mejilelaadota) "ọ̀sẹ̀" in 1 (okan)"ọdún". There are 12 (mejila) "oṣù" in 1 "ọdún".


title: Yoruba people

text: The Yoruba week consists of four days. Traditionally, the Yoruba count their week starting from the Ojó Ògún, this day is dedicated to Ògún. The second day is Ojó Jákúta the day is dedicated to Sàngó. The third day is known as the Ojó Òsè- this day is dedicated to Òrìshà ńlá (Obàtálá), while the fourth day is the Ojó Awo, in honour of Òrúnmìlà.


title: Yoruba people

text: The Yoruba calendar (Kojoda) year starts from 3 to 2 June of the following year. According to this calendar, the Gregorian year 2021 is the 10,063th year of Yoruba culture, which starts with the creation of Ìfẹ̀ in 8042 B.C. To reconcile with the Gregorian calendar, Yoruba people also often measure time in seven days a week and four weeks a month:


title: Yoruba people

text: Solid food, mostly cooked, pounded or prepared with hot water are basic staple foods of the Yoruba. These foods are all by-products of crops like cassava, yams, cocoyam and forms a huge chunk of it all. Others like Plantain, corn, beans, meat, and fish are also chief choices.


title: Yoruba people

text: Some common Yoruba foods are iyan (pounded yam), amala, eba, semo, fufu, moin moin (bean cake) and akara. Soups include egusi, ewedu, okra, vegetables are also very common as part of diet. Items like rice and beans (locally called ewa) are part of the regular diet. Some dishes are also prepared for festivities and ceremonies such as jollof rice and fried rice. Other popular dishes are ekuru, stews, corn, cassava and flours – e.g. maize, yam, plantain and beans, eggs, chicken, beef and assorted forms of meat (ponmo is made from cow skin). Some less well known meals and many miscellaneous staples are arrowroot gruel, sweetmeats, fritters and coconut concoctions; and some breads – yeast bread, rock buns, and palm wine bread to name a few.


title: Yoruba people

text: The Yoruba take immense pride in their attire, for which they are well known. Clothing materials traditionally come from processed cotton by traditional weavers. They also believe that the type of clothes worn by a man depicts his personality and social status, and that different occasions require different clothing outfits.


title: Yoruba people

text: Typically, the Yoruba have a very wide range of materials used to make clothing, the most basic being the "Aṣo-Oke", which is a hand loomed cloth of different patterns and colors sewn into various styles. and which comes in very many different colors and patterns.


title: Yoruba people

text: Clothing in Yoruba culture is gender sensitive, despite a tradition of non-gender conforming families. For menswear, they have "Bùbá, Esiki" and "Sapara", which are regarded as "Èwù Àwòtélè" or underwear, while they also have "Dandogo, Agbádá, Gbariye, Sulia" and "Oyala", which are also known as "Èwù Àwòlékè" / "Àwòsókè" or overwear. Some fashionable men may add an accessory to the Agbádá outfit in the form of a wraparound (Ìbora).


title: Yoruba people

text: They also have various types of "Sòkòtò" or native trousers that are sewn alongside the above-mentioned dresses. Some of these are "Kèmbè" (Three-Quarter baggy pants), "Gbáanu", "Sóóró" (Long slim / streamlined pants), "Káamu" and "Sòkòtò Elemu". A man's dressing is considered incomplete without a cap ("Fìlà"). Some of these caps include, but are not limited to, "Gobi" (Cylindrical, which when worn may be compressed and shaped forward, sideways, or backward), "Tinko", "Abetí-ajá" (Crest-like shape that derives its name from its hanging flaps that resembles a dog's hanging ears. The flaps can be lowered to cover the ears in cold weather, otherwise, they are upwardly turned in normal weather), "Alagbaa, Oribi, Bentigoo, Onide", and "Labankada" (a bigger version of the Abetí-ajá, and is worn in such a way as to reveal the contrasting color of the cloth used as underlay for the flaps).


title: Yoruba people

text: Women also have different types of dresses. The most commonly worn are "Ìró" (wrapper) and "Bùbá" (blouse-like loose top). Women also have matching "Gèlè" (headgear) that must be put on whenever the Ìró and Bùbá is on. Just as the cap (Fìlà) is important to men, women's dressing is considered incomplete without Gèlè. It may be of plain cloth or costly as the women can afford. Apart from this, they also have "ìborùn" (Shawl) and "Ìpèlé" (which are long pieces of fabric that usually hang on the left shoulder and stretch from the hind of the body to the fore). At times, it is tied round their waists over the original one piece wrapper. Unlike men, women have two types of underwear (Èwù Àwòtélè), called; "Tòbi" and "Sinmí". Tòbi is like the modern day apron with strings and spaces in which women can keep their valuables. They tie the tòbi around the waists before putting on the Ìró (wrapper). Sinmí is like a sleeveless T-shirt that is worn under before wearing any other dress on the upper body.


title: Yoruba people

text: There are many types of beads ("Ìlèkè"), hand laces, necklaces (Egba orùn), anklets (Egba esè) and bangles (Egba owó) that are used in Yorubaland. These are used by both males and females, and are put on for bodily adornment. Chiefs, priests, kings or people of royal descent, especially use some of these beads as a signifier of rank. Some of these beads include "Iyun, Lagidigba, Àkún" etc. An accessory especially popular among royalty and titled Babalawos / Babalorishas is the "Ìrùkèrè", which is an artistically processed animal tail, a type of Fly-whisk. The horsetail whiskers are symbols of authority and stateliness. It can be used in a shrine for decoration but most often is used by chief priests and priestesses as a symbol of their authority or Ashe. As most men go about with their hair lowly cut or neatly shaven, the reverse is the case for women. Hair is considered the ' "Glory of the woman" '. They usually take care of their hair in two major ways; They plait and they weave. There are many types of plaiting styles, and women readily pick any type they want. Some of these include "kòlésè, Ìpàkó-elédè, Sùkú, Kojúsóko, Alágogo, Konkoso", Etc. Traditionally, The Yoruba consider tribal marks ways of adding beauty to the face of individuals. This is apart from the fact that they show clearly from which part of Yorubaland an individual comes from, since different areas are associated with different marks. Different types of tribal marks are made with local blades or knives on the cheeks. These are usually done at infancy, when children are not pain conscious. Some of these tribal marks include "Pélé, Abàjà-Ègbá, Abàjà-Òwu, Abàjà-mérin, Kéké, Gòmbò, Ture, Pélé Ifè, Kéké Òwu, Pélé Ìjèbú" etc. This practice is near extinct today.


title: Yoruba people

text: The Yoruba believe that development of a nation is akin to the development of a man or woman. Therefore, the personality of an individual has to be developed in order to fulfil his or her responsibilities. Clothing among the Yoruba people is a crucial factor upon which the personality of an individual is anchored. This belief is anchored in Yoruba proverbs. Different occasions also require different outfits among the Yoruba.


title: Yoruba people

text: Estimates of the Yoruba in Benin vary from around 1.1 to 1.5 million people. The Yoruba are the main group in the Benin department of Ouémé, all Subprefectures including Porto Novo (Ajasè), Adjara; Collines Province, all subprefectures including Savè, Dassa-Zoume, Bante, Tchetti, Gouka; Plateau Province, all Subprefectures including Kétou, Sakété, Pobè; Borgou Province, Tchaourou Subprefecture including Tchaourou; Donga Province, Bassila Subprefecture.


title: Yoruba people

text: The chief Yoruba cities or towns in Benin are: Porto-Novo (Ajase), Ouèssè (Wese), Ketu, Savé (Tchabe), Tchaourou (Shaworo), Bantè-Akpassi, Bassila, Adjarra, Adja-Ouèrè (Aja Were), Sakété (Itakete), Ifangni (Ifonyi), Pobè, Dassa (Idasha), Glazoue (Gbomina), Ipinle, Aledjo-Koura, Aworo etc.


title: Yoruba people

text: There exists an old and thriving Yoruba community in Ghana tracing back to more than three centuries of establishment. The presence of Yoruba people in Ghana traces back to before the concept of the modern Ghanaian nation and are therefore Ghanaian citizens by law. The Yoruba communities became established through various waves and layers for centuries before the colonial era. The earliest wave were long distance merchants, artisans, labourers and explorers who settled in both southern and northern Ghanaian locales such as Salaga, Sekondi-Takoradi, Kumasi, Accra (Jamestown, Ngleshie Alata, Tudu), Yendi, Tamale, Kintampo, Nandom. In Ngleshie Alata (A corruption of English ' "Alata" ', the Fante and Ga word for Yoruba people based on the region where the majority came from) and the area around the James Fort, the Yoruba presence dates back to 1673 when they were employed to build the fort and settled in large numbers on the eastern coastal region. It is on record that the first "'Alata Akutso Mantse" ' or Alata division head, a Yoruba speaker named "Ojo" employed by the Royal African Company ascended an Accra royal stool becoming head of the Alata quarter of James Town in 1748. - A position his descendants continue to hold to this very day.


title: Yoruba people

text: In the popular 18th century Gonja Salaga Slave Market, the Yoruba residents of the town would not allow their fellow countrymen captured and brought to the markets to be sold to the Ashantis who would march them to the coast. Rather, they would barter for the release of the Yoruba captives who would in turn work for their benefactors as tradesmen until they earned their release. This earliest wave was followed by an intermediate wave of slave returnees who were predominantly of Yoruba descent like the Taboms/Agudas who settled along the Ghanaian coast.


title: Yoruba people

text: Then came the third wave who came during the Gold Coast colonial period. By this period, they had firmly entrenched themselves in the country's commerce and distribution systems and constituted a substantial percentage of merchants and traders in the country's large markets as proprietors of wholesale enterprises. They were the largest group of immigrants established in the pre-independence Gold Coast. In 1950 they constituted 15% of traders in Accra, 23% in Kumasi, and over a third in Tamale. They were usually referred to in southern Ghana as; Yoruba, "Lagosian", "Alata," or "Anago". It was the early stream of this wave in the 1830s that established places like Accra New Town which was previously known as Lagos town and before then as Araromi.


title: Yoruba people

text: There is no codification for the Yoruba ethnicity in the most recent Ghanaian censuses but in previous ones, they were considered an indigenous Ghanaian group with origins outside modern Ghana. In the 1960 Ghanaian population census, there were 109,090 Yorubas. Of this figure; 100,560 were Yoruba "'proper" ' while 8,530 were Atakpame (Ana). This represented 1.6% of the Ghanaian population.


title: Yoruba people

text: The Yorubas are the main ethnic groups in the Nigerian states of Ekiti, Ogun, Ondo, Osun, Kwara Oyo, Lagos, and the Western Third of Kogi State, and can be found as a minority population to varying proportions in; Delta State, and Edo.


title: Yoruba people

text: The chief Yoruba cities or towns in Nigeria are: Abẹokuta, Abigi, Ado-Awaye, Ado-Ekiti, Ado-Odo, Agbaja, Ago iwoye, Ajase ipo, Akungba-akoko, Akurẹ, Atan-otta, Aawe, Oyo, Ayetoro Yewa, Ayetoro gbede, Ayete, Badagry, Ede, Efon-alaaye, Egbe, Ejigbo, Emure-ekiti, Epe, Erin-ile, Eruwa, Esa-oke, Esie, Fiditi, Igbaja, Gbongan, Ibadan, Ibokun, Idanre, Idere, Idi-iroko, Ido-ani, Ido-ekiti, Ifetedo, Ifo, Ifon (Ondo), Ifon Osun, Igangan, Iganna, Igbeti, Igboho, Igbo-ora, Igbara-Oke, Ijare, Ijẹbu-igbo, Ijebu-Ijesha, Ijebu Ode, Ijede, Ijero-ekiti, Ijoko, Ikare-akoko, Ikenne, Ikere-ekiti, Ikire, Ikirun, Ikole-ekiti, Ikorodu, Ila-orangun, Ilaje, Ilaro, Ilawe-ekiti, Ilé-Ifẹ, Ile-oluji, Ilesa, Illah Bunu, Ilishan, Ilobu, Ilọrin, Imeko, Imesi-ile, Imota, Inisa, Iperu, Ipetu-Ijesha, Ipetumodu, Iragbiji, Iree, Isharun, Isanlu, Ise-ekiti, Iseyin, Itaogbolu, Iwo, Iyara, Jebba, Kabba, Kishi, Lagos (Eko), Lalupon, Lanlate, Lokoja, Modakeke, Mopa, Obajana, Obokun, Ode-Irele, Ode-omu, Ore, Odogbolu, Offa, Ogbomoso, Ogere-remo, Ogidi-ijumu, Ojo, Oka-akoko, Okeho, Oke-Igbo, Okemesi, Okitipupa, Okuku, Omu Aran, Omuo, Ondo City (Ode Ondo), Osogbo, Osu, Otan Ayegbaju, Ota, Otun-ekiti, Owo, Owode, Oyan, Ọyọ, Shagamu, Shaki, Share, Tede, Upele, Usi-ekiti.


title: Yoruba people

text: Estimates of the Yoruba in Togo vary from around 500,000 to 600,000 people. There are both immigrant Yoruba communities from Nigeria, and indigenous ancestral Yoruba communities living in Togo. Footballer Emmanuel Adebayor is an example of a Togolese from an immigrant Yoruba background. Indigenous Yoruba communities in Togo, however can be found in the Togolese departments of Plateaux Region, Anie, Ogou and Est-Mono prefectures; Centrale Region (Tchamba Prefecture). The chief Yoruba cities or towns in Togo are: Atakpame, Anié, Morita (Moretan), Ofe, Elavagnon, Goubi, Kambole, Akpare, Kamina.


title: Yoruba people

text: The Yoruba in Burkina Faso are numbered around 77,000 people, and around 80,000 in Niger. In the Ivory Coast, they are concentrated in the cities of Abidjan (Treichville, Adjamé), Bouake, Korhogo, Grand Bassam and Gagnoa where they are mostly employed in retail at major markets. Otherwise known as "Anago traders", they dominate certain sectors of the retail economy and number at least 135,000 people.


title: Yoruba people

text: Yoruba people or descendants can be found all over the world especially in the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States, Brazil, Latin America, and the Caribbean (especially in Cuba). Significant Yoruba communities can be found in South America and Australia.


title: Yoruba people

text: In the United States, the Yoruba language is the most spoken home language of African origin in; Texas, Florida, Mississippi, Illinois, New Jersey, Indiana, Wyoming and Pennsylvania. They constitute the second largest African linguistic community in; Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Maryland, Michigan, New Mexico, New York, South Carolina, Oklahoma and Rhode Island with over 153,000 speakers in 2020.


title: Yoruba people

text: The migration of Yoruba people all over the world has led to a spread of the Yoruba culture across the globe. Yoruba people have historically been spread around the globe by the combined forces of the Atlantic slave trade and voluntary self migration. Their exact population outside Africa is unknown. Yorubas are overrepresented in the genetic studies of African Americans and are not the largest contributors of African American DNA by any means. In their Atlantic world domains, the Yorubas were known by the designations: "Nagos/Anago", "Terranova", "Lucumi" and "Aku", or by the names of their various clans.


title: Yoruba people

text: The Yoruba left an important presence in Cuba and Brazil, particularly in Havana and Bahia. According to a 19th-century report, "the Yoruba are, still today, the most numerous and influential in this state of Bahia. The most numerous are those from Oyo, capital of the Yoruba kingdom". Others included Ijexa (Ijesha), Lucumi, Ota (Aworis), Ketus, Ekitis, Jebus (Ijebu), Egba, Lucumi Ecumacho (Ogbomosho), and Anagos. In the documents dating from 1816 to 1850, Yorubas constituted 69.1% of all slaves whose ethnic origins were known, constituting 82.3% of all slaves from the Bight of Benin. The proportion of slaves from West-Central Africa (Angola – Congo) dropped drastically to just 14.7%.


title: Yoruba people

text: Between 1831 and 1852 the African-born slave and free population of Salvador, Bahia surpassed that of free Brazil born Creoles. Meanwhile, between 1808 and 1842 an average of 31.3% of African-born freed persons had been Nagos (Yoruba). Between 1851 and 1884, the number had risen to a dramatic 73.9%.


title: Yoruba people

text: Other areas that received a significant number of Yoruba people and are sites of Yoruba influence are: The Bahamas, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Saint Lucia, Grenada, Santa Margarita, Trinidad and Tobago, Belize, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica (where they settled and established such places as Abeokuta, Naggo head in Portmore, and by their hundreds in other parishes like Hanover and Westmoreland, both in western Jamaica- leaving behind practices such as Ettu from "Etutu", the Yoruba ceremony of atonement among other customs of people bearing the same name, and certain aspects of Kumina such as Sango veneration), Barbados, Montserrat, etc.


title: Yoruba people

text: On 31 July 2020, the Yoruba World Congress joined the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO).


title: Yoruba people

text: Genetic studies have shown the Yoruba to cluster most closely with other West African peoples. Yoruba people are largely found within the E1b1a1 subclade of the E-M2 haplogroup along with the Ewe, Ga, and Bamileke peoples of West Africa and Cameroon.


title: Yoruba people

text: Some genetic studies have also found evidence of West-Eurasian admixture in Yoruba populations, with up to 8.6% West-Eurasian DNA being found in modern Yoruba samples. This admixture may have been introduced 7,500–10,500 years ago from North Africa during the Green Saharan period.


title: Yoruba people

text: A full genome study on African populations found that the Yoruba (Yoruba/Esen cluster of West Africa) harbor on average about 12,5% West-Eurasian ancestry mediated through North Africans. A similar to slightly higher amount is found amongst other West Africans, such as Gambians, Mandinka, and Mende people.


title: Yoruba people

text: Along with people of other regions that are largely representative of ethnic enclaves within the country, Yorubas have faced growing concerns over increased insecurity and instability within the country. On 9 January 2020, the governors of 6 of the country's western states became associated with the formation of state security networks which would operate in each state. This security network is called Amotekun and is managed by the office of each state governor with full co-operation of the legal protocols of Nigeria.


title: Missy Peregrym

text: Melissa "Missy" Peregrym (born June 16, 1982) is a Canadian actress and former fashion model. She is known for her roles as Haley Graham in the 2006 film "Stick It" and Officer Andy McNally on the ABC and Global Television Network series "Rookie Blue" (2010–2015), for which she was nominated for a Canadian Screen Award in 2016.


title: Missy Peregrym

text: Peregrym was born in Montreal to Rev. Darrell Peregrym, a Pentecostal minister and Vanessa Peregrym, a housewife. She describes herself as having been a tomboy while growing up.


title: Missy Peregrym

text: At age 18, Peregrym began her professional career with the Lizbell Agency. It was during her early modelling career that she was encouraged by her agency to move over to commercials. Due to this shift from print to screen, she did commercials for Mercedes-Benz, Sprint Canada, and the Olympic Games.


title: Missy Peregrym

text: In 2000, Peregrym made her acting debut in an episode of "Dark Angel", shot in Vancouver, British Columbia. Building upon her debut role, she performed in guest star roles on "The Chris Isaak Show", "Black Sash", "Jake 2.0", "Smallville", "Tru Calling", "Life as We Know It", "Andromeda", "Heroes", and in the television film "".


title: Missy Peregrym

text: After an uncredited cameo in 2004's superhero film "Catwoman", Peregrym made her film debut in 2006, playing the lead role in "Stick It", a film revolving around a rebellious teenager who is forced to return to her former life in gymnastics.


title: Missy Peregrym

text: Peregrym then played the role of an illusion-generating Candice Wilmer on the television series "Heroes", who was billed by production staff in promotional materials as "a female temptress". She was due to appear in the episode titled "Parasite", but she made her debut appearance in a non-speaking role in episode "Company Man" the week before.


title: Missy Peregrym

text: Peregrym had her first lead television role on The CW series "Reaper" from 2007 to 2009. Nikki Reed initially played the role in the unaired pilot. "Reaper" was about a young man named Sam who became a bounty hunter for the devil.


title: Missy Peregrym

text: Peregrym's big breakthrough came in 2010 when she landed a lead role in the Canadian television series "Rookie Blue" in the role of police officer Andy McNally. The series aired in North America, simultaneously on the Global Television Network in Canada and on ABC in the United States. The show ran for six seasons, and was canceled in 2015.


title: Missy Peregrym

text: In 2012, Peregrym was cast in the leading role of Chloe Jocelyn in Yahoo.com's web-based series "Cybergeddon". Nine chapters were filmed and are available for viewing as of September 27, 2012. The project was supported and funded in part by Norton. In 2013, she won a Streamy Award for her role in the web series "Cybergeddon".


title: Missy Peregrym

text: In 2014, Peregrym co-starred with Jeff Roop and Eric Balfour in the survival bear attack film "Backcountry".


title: Missy Peregrym

text: In 2016, Peregrym was nominated for a Canadian Screen Award for her role in "Rookie Blue", but ultimately lost to "Orphan Black"'s Tatiana Maslany.


title: Missy Peregrym

text: In 2018, Peregrym began her current role starring in a lead role as Agent Maggie Bell in "FBI", a series on CBS.


title: Missy Peregrym

text: Peregrym married American actor Zachary Levi in June 2014. Peregrym filed for divorce in April 2015, listing the date of separation as December 3, 2014.


title: Missy Peregrym

text: Peregrym married Australian actor Tom Oakley in Los Angeles on December 30, 2018. She and Oakley have a son, Otis Paradis Oakley, born on March 21, 2020. They also have a daughter, Mela Joséphine Oakley, born on June 6, 2022, but was not announced publicly until July 8, 2022 on an Instagram post.


title: Missy Peregrym

text: In 2006, Peregrym joined forces with TOMS, a shoe company which also donates safe footwear for communities in South America. Peregrym has spoken about her experiences in Argentina and of its impact on the communities she visited.


title: C Sharp (programming language)

text: C# (pronounced ) is a general-purpose, high-level multi-paradigm programming language. C# encompasses static typing, strong typing, lexically scoped, imperative, declarative, functional, generic, object-oriented (class-based), and component-oriented programming disciplines.


title: C Sharp (programming language)

text: The C# programming language was designed by Anders Hejlsberg from Microsoft in 2000 and was later approved as an international standard by Ecma (ECMA-334) in 2002 and ISO/IEC (ISO/IEC 23270) in 2003. Microsoft introduced C# along with .NET Framework and Visual Studio, both of which were closed-source. At the time, Microsoft had no open-source products. Four years later, in 2004, a free and open-source project called Mono began, providing a cross-platform compiler and runtime environment for the C# programming language. A decade later, Microsoft released Visual Studio Code (code editor), Roslyn (compiler), and the unified .NET platform (software framework), all of which support C# and are free, open-source, and cross-platform. Mono also joined Microsoft but was not merged into .NET.


title: C Sharp (programming language)

text: During the development of the .NET Framework, the class libraries were originally written using a managed code compiler system called ""Simple Managed C"" (SMC). In January 1999, Anders Hejlsberg formed a team to build a new language at the time called Cool, which stood for "C-like Object Oriented Language". Microsoft had considered keeping the name "Cool" as the final name of the language, but chose not to do so for trademark reasons. By the time the .NET project was publicly announced at the July 2000 Professional Developers Conference, the language had been renamed C#, and the class libraries and ASP.NET runtime had been ported to C#.


title: C Sharp (programming language)

text: Hejlsberg is C#'s principal designer and lead architect at Microsoft, and was previously involved with the design of Turbo Pascal, Embarcadero Delphi (formerly CodeGear Delphi, Inprise Delphi and Borland Delphi), and Visual J++. In interviews and technical papers he has stated that flaws in most major programming languages (e.g. C++, Java, Delphi, and Smalltalk) drove the fundamentals of the Common Language Runtime (CLR), which, in turn, drove the design of the C# language itself.


title: C Sharp (programming language)

text: James Gosling, who created the Java programming language in 1994, and Bill Joy, a co-founder of Sun Microsystems, the originator of Java, called C# an "imitation" of Java; Gosling further said that "[C# is] sort of Java with reliability, productivity and security deleted." Klaus Kreft and Angelika Langer (authors of a C++ streams book) stated in a blog post that "Java and C# are almost identical programming languages. Boring repetition that lacks innovation," "Hardly anybody will claim that Java or C# are revolutionary programming languages that changed the way we write programs," and "C# borrowed a lot from Java - and vice versa. Now that C# supports boxing and unboxing, we'll have a very similar feature in Java."


title: C Sharp (programming language)

text: In July 2000, Hejlsberg said that C# is "not a Java clone" and is "much closer to C++" in its design.


title: C Sharp (programming language)

text: Since the release of C# 2.0 in November 2005, the C# and Java languages have evolved on increasingly divergent trajectories, becoming two quite different languages. One of the first major departures came with the addition of generics to both languages, with vastly different implementations. C# makes use of reification to provide "first-class" generic objects that can be used like any other class, with code generation performed at class-load time.


title: C Sharp (programming language)

text: Furthermore, C# has added several major features to accommodate functional-style programming, culminating in the LINQ extensions released with C# 3.0 and its supporting framework of lambda expressions, extension methods, and anonymous types. These features enable C# programmers to use functional programming techniques, such as closures, when it is advantageous to their application. The LINQ extensions and the functional imports help developers reduce the amount of boilerplate code that is included in common tasks like querying a database, parsing an xml file, or searching through a data structure, shifting the emphasis onto the actual program logic to help improve readability and maintainability.


title: C Sharp (programming language)

text: C# used to have a mascot called Andy (named after Anders Hejlsberg). It was retired on January 29, 2004.


title: C Sharp (programming language)

text: C# was originally submitted to the ISO/IEC JTC 1 subcommittee SC 22 for review, under ISO/IEC 23270:2003, was withdrawn and was then approved under ISO/IEC 23270:2006. The 23270:2006 is withdrawn under 23270:2018 and approved with this version.


title: C Sharp (programming language)

text: Microsoft first used the name C# in 1988 for a variant of the C language designed for incremental compilation. That project was not completed, and the name was later reused.


title: C Sharp (programming language)

text: The name "C sharp" was inspired by the musical notation whereby a sharp symbol indicates that the written note should be made a semitone higher in pitch.


title: C Sharp (programming language)

text: This is similar to the language name of C++, where "++" indicates that a variable should be incremented by 1 after being evaluated. The sharp symbol also resembles a ligature of four "+" symbols (in a two-by-two grid), further implying that the language is an increment of C++.


title: C Sharp (programming language)

text: Due to technical limitations of display (standard fonts, browsers, etc.) and the fact that the sharp symbol () is not present on most keyboard layouts, the number sign () was chosen to approximate the sharp symbol in the written name of the programming language.


title: C Sharp (programming language)

text: The "sharp" suffix has been used by a number of other .NET languages that are variants of existing languages, including J# (a .NET language also designed by Microsoft that is derived from Java 1.1), A# (from Ada), and the functional programming language F#. The original implementation of Eiffel for .NET was called Eiffel#, a name retired since the full Eiffel language is now supported. The suffix has also been used for libraries, such as Gtk# (a .NET wrapper for GTK and other GNOME libraries) and Cocoa# (a wrapper for Cocoa).


title: C Sharp (programming language)

text: The core syntax of the C# language is similar to that of other C-style languages such as C, C++ and Java, particularly:


title: C Sharp (programming language)

text: By design, C# is the programming language that most directly reflects the underlying Common Language Infrastructure (CLI). Most of its intrinsic types correspond to value-types implemented by the CLI framework. However, the language specification does not state the code generation requirements of the compiler: that is, it does not state that a C# compiler must target a Common Language Runtime, or generate Common Intermediate Language (CIL), or generate any other specific format. Theoretically, a C# compiler could generate machine code like traditional compilers of C++ or Fortran.


title: C Sharp (programming language)

text: C# supports strongly, implicitly typed variable declarations with the keyword codice_1, and implicitly typed arrays with the keyword codice_2 followed by a collection initializer.


title: C Sharp (programming language)

text: C# supports a strict Boolean data type, codice_3. Statements that take conditions, such as codice_4 and codice_5, require an expression of a type that implements the codice_6 operator, such as the Boolean type. While C++ also has a Boolean type, it can be freely converted to and from integers, and expressions such as codice_7 require only that codice_8 is convertible to bool, allowing codice_8 to be an int, or a pointer. C# disallows this "integer meaning true or false" approach, on the grounds that forcing programmers to use expressions that return exactly codice_3 can prevent certain types of programming mistakes such as codice_11 (use of assignment codice_12 instead of equality codice_13).


title: C Sharp (programming language)

text: C# is more type safe than C++. The only implicit conversions by default are those that are considered safe, such as widening of integers. This is enforced at compile-time, during JIT, and, in some cases, at runtime. No implicit conversions occur between Booleans and integers, nor between enumeration members and integers (except for literal 0, which can be implicitly converted to any enumerated type). Any user-defined conversion must be explicitly marked as explicit or implicit, unlike C++ copy constructors and conversion operators, which are both implicit by default.


title: C Sharp (programming language)

text: C# has explicit support for covariance and contravariance in generic types, unlike C++ which has some degree of support for contravariance simply through the semantics of return types on virtual methods.


title: C Sharp (programming language)

text: The C# language does not allow for global variables or functions. All methods and members must be declared within classes. Static members of public classes can substitute for global variables and functions.


title: C Sharp (programming language)

text: A method in C# is a member of a class that can be invoked as a function (a sequence of instructions), rather than the mere value-holding capability of a class property. As in other syntactically similar languages, such as C++ and ANSI C, the signature of a method is a declaration comprising in order: any optional accessibility keywords (such as codice_14), the explicit specification of its return type (such as codice_15, or the keyword codice_16 if no value is returned), the name of the method, and finally, a parenthesized sequence of comma-separated parameter specifications, each consisting of a parameter's type, its formal name and optionally, a default value to be used whenever none is provided. Certain specific kinds of methods, such as those that simply get or set a class property by return value or assignment, do not require a full signature, but in the general case, the definition of a class includes the full signature declaration of its methods.


title: C Sharp (programming language)

text: Like C++, and unlike Java, C# programmers must use the scope modifier keyword codice_17 to allow methods to be overridden by subclasses.


title: C Sharp (programming language)

text: "Extension methods" in C# allow programmers to use static methods as if they were methods from a class's method table, allowing programmers to add methods to an object that they feel should exist on that object and its derivatives.


title: C Sharp (programming language)

text: The type codice_18 allows for run-time method binding, allowing for JavaScript-like method calls and run-time object composition.


title: C Sharp (programming language)

text: C# has support for strongly-typed function pointers via the keyword codice_19. Like the Qt framework's pseudo-C++ "signal" and "slot", C# has semantics specifically surrounding publish-subscribe style events, though C# uses delegates to do so.


title: C Sharp (programming language)

text: C# offers Java-like codice_20 method calls, via the attribute codice_21, and has support for mutually-exclusive locks via the keyword codice_22.


title: C Sharp (programming language)

text: C# supports classes with properties. The properties can be simple accessor functions with a backing field, or implement getter and setter functions.


title: C Sharp (programming language)

text: Since C# 3.0 the syntactic sugar of auto-implemented properties is available, where the accessor (getter) and mutator (setter) encapsulate operations on a single attribute of a class.


title: C Sharp (programming language)

text: A C# codice_23 provides the same level of code isolation as a Java codice_24 or a C++ , with very similar rules and features to a codice_24. Namespaces can be imported with the "using" syntax.


title: C Sharp (programming language)

text: In C#, memory address pointers can only be used within blocks specifically marked as "unsafe", and programs with unsafe code need appropriate permissions to run. Most object access is done through safe object references, which always either point to a "live" object or have the well-defined null value; it is impossible to obtain a reference to a "dead" object (one that has been garbage collected), or to a random block of memory. An unsafe pointer can point to an instance of an 'unmanaged' value type that does not contain any references to garbage-collected objects, array, string, or a block of stack-allocated memory. Code that is not marked as unsafe can still store and manipulate pointers through the codice_26 type, but it cannot dereference them.


title: C Sharp (programming language)

text: Managed memory cannot be explicitly freed; instead, it is automatically garbage collected. Garbage collection addresses the problem of memory leaks by freeing the programmer of responsibility for releasing memory that is no longer needed in most cases. Code that retains references to objects longer than is required can still experience higher memory usage than necessary, however once the final reference to an object is released the memory is available for garbage collection.


title: C Sharp (programming language)

text: A range of standard exceptions are available to programmers. Methods in standard libraries regularly throw system exceptions in some circumstances and the range of exceptions thrown is normally documented. Custom exception classes can be defined for classes allowing handling to be put in place for particular circumstances as needed.


title: C Sharp (programming language)

text: Checked exceptions are not present in C# (in contrast to Java). This has been a conscious decision based on the issues of scalability and versionability.


title: C Sharp (programming language)

text: Unlike C++, C# does not support multiple inheritance, although a class can implement any number of "interfaces" (fully abstract classes). This was a design decision by the language's lead architect to avoid complications and to simplify architectural requirements throughout CLI.


title: C Sharp (programming language)

text: When implementing multiple interfaces that contain a method with the same name and taking parameters of the same type in the same order (i.e. the same signature), similar to Java, C# allows both a single method to cover all interfaces and if necessary specific methods for each interface.


title: C Sharp (programming language)

text: C# has the ability to utilize LINQ through the .NET Framework. A developer can query a variety of data sources, provided codice_27 interface is implemented on the object. This includes XML documents, an ADO.NET dataset, and SQL databases.


title: C Sharp (programming language)

text: Using LINQ in C# brings advantages like Intellisense support, strong filtering capabilities, type safety with compile error checking ability, and consistency for querying data over a variety of sources. There are several different language structures that can be utilized with C# and LINQ and they are query expressions, lambda expressions, anonymous types, implicitly typed variables, extension methods, and object initializers.


title: C Sharp (programming language)

text: Though primarily an imperative language, C# 2.0 offered limited support for functional programming through first-class functions and closures in the form of anonymous delegates. C# 3.0 expanded support for functional programming with the introduction of a lightweight syntax for lambda expressions, extension methods (an affordance for modules), and a list comprehension syntax in the form of a "query comprehension" language. C# 7.0 adds features typically found in functional languages like tuples, local functions and pattern matching. C# 9.0 introduces record feature which is primarily built for better supporting immutable data models.


title: C Sharp (programming language)

text: A unified type system implies that all types, including primitives such as integers, are subclasses of the class. For example, every type inherits a method.


title: C Sharp (programming language)

text: Instances of value types neither have referential identity nor referential comparison semantics. Equality and inequality comparisons for value types compare the actual data values within the instances, unless the corresponding operators are overloaded. Value types are derived from , always have a default value, and can always be created and copied. Some other limitations on value types are that they cannot derive from each other (but can implement interfaces) and cannot have an explicit default (parameterless) constructor. Examples of value types are all primitive types, such as (a signed 32-bit integer), (a 32-bit IEEE floating-point number), (a 16-bit Unicode code unit), and (identifies a specific point in time with nanosecond precision). Other examples are (enumerations) and (user defined structures).


title: C Sharp (programming language)

text: In contrast, reference types have the notion of referential identity, meaning that each instance of a reference type is inherently distinct from every other instance, even if the data within both instances is the same. This is reflected in default equality and inequality comparisons for reference types, which test for referential rather than structural equality, unless the corresponding operators are overloaded (such as the case for ). Some operations are not always possible, such as creating an instance of a reference type, copying an existing instance, or performing a value comparison on two existing instances. Though specific reference types can provide such services by exposing a public constructor or implementing a corresponding interface (such as or ). Examples of reference types are (the ultimate base class for all other C# classes), (a string of Unicode characters), and (a base class for all C# arrays).


title: C Sharp (programming language)

text: "Boxing" is the operation of converting a value-type object into a value of a corresponding reference type. Boxing in C# is implicit.


title: C Sharp (programming language)

text: "Unboxing" is the operation of converting a value of a reference type (previously boxed) into a value of a value type. Unboxing in C# requires an explicit type cast. A boxed object of type T can only be unboxed to a T (or a nullable T).


title: C Sharp (programming language)

text: The C# specification details a minimum set of types and class libraries that the compiler expects to have available. In practice, C# is most often used with some implementation of the Common Language Infrastructure (CLI), which is standardized as ECMA-335 "Common Language Infrastructure (CLI)".


title: C Sharp (programming language)

text: In addition to the standard CLI specifications, there are many commercial and community class libraries that build on top of the .NET framework libraries to provide additional functionality.


title: C Sharp (programming language)

text: The following is a very simple C# program, a version of the classic "Hello world" example using the top-level statements feature introduced in C# 9:


title: C Sharp (programming language)

text: For code written as C# 8 or lower, the entry point logic of a program must be written in a Main method inside a type:


title: C Sharp (programming language)

text: The above line imports all types in the codice_28 namespace. For example, the codice_29 class used later in the source code is defined in the codice_28 namespace, meaning it can be used without supplying the full name of the type (which includes the namespace).


title: C Sharp (programming language)

text: Above is a class definition for the class. Everything that follows between the pair of braces describes that class.


title: C Sharp (programming language)

text: The curly brackets demarcate the boundaries of a code block. In this first instance, they are marking the start and end of the class.


title: C Sharp (programming language)

text: This declares the class member method where the program begins execution. The .NET runtime calls the method. Unlike in Java, the method does not need the keyword, which tells the compiler that the method can be called from anywhere by any class. Writing is equivalent to writing . The static keyword makes the method accessible without an instance of . Each console application's entry point must be declared otherwise the program would require an instance of , but any instance would require a program. To avoid that irresolvable circular dependency, C# compilers processing console applications (like that above) report an error if there is no method. The keyword declares that has no return value.


title: C Sharp (programming language)

text: This line writes the output. is a static class in the namespace. It provides an interface to the standard input, output, and error streams for console applications. The program calls the method , which displays on the console a line with the argument, the string .


title: C Sharp (programming language)

text: This example is similar to the previous example, except that it generates a dialog box that contains the message "Hello, World!" instead of writing it to the console.


title: C Sharp (programming language)

text: Another useful library is the codice_31 library, which is used to programmatically draw images. For example:


title: C Sharp (programming language)

text: In August 2001, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard and Intel co-sponsored the submission of specifications for C# as well as the Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) to the standards organization Ecma International. In December 2001, ECMA released ECMA-334 "C# Language Specification". C# became an ISO/IEC standard in 2003 (ISO/IEC 23270:2003 - "Information technology — Programming languages — C#"). ECMA had previously adopted equivalent specifications as the 2nd edition of C#, in December 2002. In June 2005, ECMA approved edition 3 of the C# specification, and updated ECMA-334. Additions included partial classes, anonymous methods, nullable types, and generics (somewhat similar to C++ templates). In July 2005, ECMA submitted to ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 22, via the latter's Fast-Track process, the standards and related TRs. This process usually takes 6–9 months.


title: C Sharp (programming language)

text: The C# language definition and the CLI are standardized under ISO/IEC and Ecma standards that provide reasonable and non-discriminatory licensing protection from patent claims.


title: C Sharp (programming language)

text: Microsoft initially agreed not to sue open-source developers for violating patents in non-profit projects for the part of the framework that is covered by the OSP. Microsoft has also agreed not to enforce patents relating to Novell products against Novell's paying customers with the exception of a list of products that do not explicitly mention C#, .NET or Novell's implementation of .NET (The Mono Project). However, Novell maintained that Mono does not infringe any Microsoft patents. Microsoft also made a specific agreement not to enforce patent rights related to the Moonlight browser plugin, which depends on Mono, provided it is obtained through Novell.


title: C Sharp (programming language)

text: A decade later, Microsoft began developing free, open-source, and cross-platform tooling for C#, namely Visual Studio Code, .NET Core, and Roslyn. Mono joined Microsoft as a project of Xamarin, a Microsoft subsidiary.


title: C Sharp (programming language)

text: Microsoft is leading the development of the open-source reference C# compilers and set of tools. The first compiler, Roslyn, compiles into intermediate language (IL), and the second one, RyuJIT, is a JIT (just-in-time) compiler, which is dynamic and does on-the-fly optimization and compiles the IL into native code for the front-end of the CPU. RyuJIT is open source and written in C++. Roslyn is entirely written in managed code (C#), has been opened up and functionality surfaced as APIs. It is thus enabling developers to create refactoring and diagnostics tools. Two branches of official implementation are .NET Framework (closed-source, Windows-only) and .NET Core (open-source, cross-platform); they eventually converged into one open-source implementation: .NET 5.0. At .NET Framework 4.6, a new JIT compiler replaced the former.


title: C Sharp (programming language)

text: Other C# compilers (some of which include an implementation of the Common Language Infrastructure and .NET class libraries):


title: C Sharp (programming language)

text: The Unity game engine uses C# as its primary scripting language. The Godot game engine has implemented an optional C# module thanks to a donation of $24,000 from Microsoft.


title: Jessie J

text: Jessica Ellen Cornish (born 27 March 1988), known professionally as Jessie J, is an English singer. Born and raised in London, she began her career on stage, aged 11, with a role in the West End musical "Whistle Down the Wind". She studied at the BRIT School before signing with Gut Records and striking a songwriting deal with Sony/ATV Music Publishing.


title: Jessie J

text: After signing with Republic Records, Jessie J came to prominence following the release of her debut single, "Do It Like a Dude". Her following single, "Price Tag", topped the charts in nineteen countries including the UK and was followed by the release of her debut album, "Who You Are" (2011), which peaked at number two in the UK. Other singles from the album included "Nobody's Perfect", "Who You Are", "Domino" and "Laserlight", all of which peaked within the top ten on the UK Singles Chart, making Jessie J the first British female artist to have six top-ten singles from a sole studio album. "Domino" also attained further international success, peaking at number six on the US "Billboard" Hot 100 and becoming her second number-one single in the UK. In 2012, Jessie J performed at the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Concert outside Buckingham Palace in June, as well as the closing ceremony of the 2012 Olympic Games in London on 12 August.


title: Jessie J

text: Her second album, "Alive" (2013), peaked within the top five on the UK Albums Chart and also included the top-five singles "Wild" and "It's My Party". The release of her third album, "Sweet Talker" (2014), was preceded by the single "Bang Bang" which debuted at number one in the UK and went multi-platinum worldwide. The album made the top five in the UK and peaked at number ten on the US "Billboard" 200, her highest-charting album in the US. , Jessie J had sold over 20 million singles and 3 million albums worldwide.


title: Jessie J

text: Citing various influences, Jessie J is recognised for an unconventional musical and performance style that mixes soul vocals with contemporary R&B, pop, electropop, and hip-hop beats. She has received various accolades throughout her career, including the 2011 Critics' Choice Brit Award and the BBC's Sound of 2011. Jessie J has supported various charitable causes, and has appeared on the UK charity telethons BBC Children in Need and Comic Relief. She has served as a coach on the competition series "The Voice UK", "The Voice Australia" and "The Voice Kids UK". In 2018, Jessie J received widespread recognition in China following her appearance in the Hunan TV reality program "Singer" (previously called "I Am a Singer").


title: Jessie J

text: Jessica Ellen Cornish was born on 27 March 1988 in Chadwell Heath in The London Borough of Redbridge, London, to Rose () and Stephen Cornish. She was educated at Mayfield High School in LB Redbridge. This area was part of Essex until 1965 and Jessie J refers to herself as an Essex girl. She attended Colin's Performing Arts School and as an 11-year-old she was cast in Andrew Lloyd Webber's West End production of "Whistle Down the Wind". She subsequently joined the National Youth Music Theatre and appeared in their 2002 production of "The Late Sleepers".


title: Jessie J

text: Cornish has two elder sisters, who were both head girls at school. Unlike her academic sisters, Cornish has stated she was "never really that good at anything". She said, "At school they were like 'oh, you're a Cornish girl' and they kind of expected me to be the same as my sisters. Give me something to draw or an outfit to pick for someone, or hair, make-up, acting, write a song, I'm fine with it, but anything to do with sums – it was never my thing." She also said she never based her intelligence on her exam results. She also said she was always good at singing and it was her "thing". In 2003, at age 15, she won "Best Pop Singer" in the TV show "Britain's Brilliant Prodigies", performing as Jessica Cornish. At the age of 16 she began studying at the BRIT School and at 17 she joined a girl group named Soul Deep. She graduated in the class of 2006 along with singers Adele and Leona Lewis. She suffered a 'minor stroke at 18.' This was attributed to the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which she was diagnosed with aged 11.


title: Jessie J

text: Jessie J was signed to Gut Records, recording an album for the label, but the company went bankrupt before any material was released. She then found success as a songwriter, gaining a Sony ATV publishing contract. She was also the support act for Cyndi Lauper during Lauper's UK dates of her 2008 Bring Ya to the Brink tour (Lauper invited J to join her on stage for the performances of "Girls Just Want to Have Fun"). Jessie has also written lyrics for artists such as Chris Brown and Miley Cyrus, including "Party in the U.S.A.". Jessie J was also part of a girl band, called Soul Deep, for two years, however, believing "it wasn't going anywhere," she left the group. Despite people thinking that her first notoriety was through YouTube, Jessie was signed for four years before her first video was posted.


title: Jessie J

text: Jessie first came to the attention of Lava Records when her publisher at Sony/ATV, Rich Christina, sent Lava president Jason Flom a link to her MySpace page, which the record executive loved. After seeing an impressive US showcase, Lava, along with several other labels, was keen to sign the artist but progress was hampered by her management's insistence on, what Flom called, a "crazy deal", and their refusal to let Jessie speak to any labels directly. Despite this, Senior Director of A&R at Lava, Harinder Rana, made surreptitious efforts to meet Jessie on her own in winter of 2008. Later in the year a change in management to Sarah Stennett and Nadia Khan of Crown Music allowed record deal negotiations to take place. Jessie eventually signed with Lava as part of a joint venture with Universal Republic.


title: Jessie J

text: Jessie J began recording her debut studio album in 2005 and it was completed on 19 January 2011. She revealed that "Big White Room" would be on the album and was written from an experience she had when she was aged 11, although she wrote the song at age 17, in the hospital, where a ward mate, a little boy, died. Jessie J says the album's title track, "Who You Are", is one of her proudest creations, she said the song is a "positive role model for young people" and "I always say that I'm half-artist, half-therapist". The song was written in 2005, when she just moved to Los Angeles, and was going through a very lonely difficult moment. A song called "Sexy Silk", which appears on the "Easy A" soundtrack, was originally going to be her first single. However, in late 2010 Jessie J released her first single, "Do It Like a Dude" which was co-written with George Astasio, Tj Normandin, Jason Pebworth, Jon Shave, Kyle Abrahams and Peter Ighile. Originally, she wrote the song with Rihanna in mind because "Rude Boy" was released at the time, partly inspiring the song. She then sent the song to her label, Island Records, before sending it to Rihanna's management. Island insisted the song become Jessie J's first single. The single gained positive reception from critics. The single charted at number two on the UK Singles Chart. Her follow-up single "Price Tag" was released in late January 2011. It was written by Jessie J, Dr. Luke, Claude Kelly, and B.o.B and peaked at number one on the UK Singles Chart. "Price Tag" was released in the US on 1 February 2011 and peaked at 23 on the "Billboard" Hot 100. "Price Tag" also charted at number-one in New Zealand and Ireland and is the most successful online video J has released. Her first American television appearance was as the musical guest on NBC's "Saturday Night Live" on 12 March 2011.


title: Jessie J

text: On 25 February 2011 her debut album, "Who You Are", was released. The album first entered the UK Albums Chart on 6 March 2011 where it charted at number two. The album charted into the top ten in a number of countries and number 11 in the US. After the release she went on to release a third single from the album, "Nobody's Perfect". MTV reported that the single is, so far, only confirmed for release in the United Kingdom. The album's fourth single was "Who's Laughing Now". "Domino" was her second US single. The Dr. Luke-produced track was sent to mainstream radio on 6 September 2011. With the success of "Who You Are" in North America, Jessie was chosen to tour as the opening act for American pop artist Katy Perry's "California Dreams Tour" in 2011 but pulled out after breaking her foot in rehearsals.


title: Jessie J

text: Jessie J served as the house artist at the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards, performing several of her original songs along with covers around commercial breaks.


title: Jessie J

text: On 12 June 2011, at the Summertime Ball held at Wembley Stadium, London, Jessie ruptured several tendons in her foot during rehearsals, and performed her set the following day while sitting on a gilded throne. For her appearance at Glastonbury Festival 2011 on 25 June 2011, she performed on the throne again, stating that her doctor had told her not to perform with her broken foot which would take six weeks to heal. Jessie J was scheduled to play at several festivals throughout the summer, however it was reported on 1 July 2011 that she would not be able to attend T in the Park, T4 on the Beach, , iTunes Festival, Lovebox, and Oxegen due to the injuries to her foot. Her record label released an official statement on 30 June 2011 that under strict orders from her doctor, she would not be able to perform for a number of weeks so that she could recuperate properly. She returned to the concert circuit in late August, including sets at the V Festival and The Big Chill. At the 2011 MTV VMA's she was still in a cast and using the throne.


title: Jessie J

text: James Morrison's third studio album, "The Awakening" features a collaboration with Jessie J called "Up", the song was released as a single on 16 November 2011. Jessie J re-released "Who You Are" on 9 November 2011, featuring the regular tracks plus "Domino". "Domino" topped the UK charts and became her first top 10 hit in the US, following the success of "Price Tag". While in Australia for the Oceania leg of her "Heartbeat" tour in support of "Who You Are", an interview on a TV talk show ended with her being sawed in half by magician Sam Powers in his thin model sawing illusion. At the 2012 Brit Awards on 21 February, Jessie J received two Brit Award nominations, Best British Female Artist, and Best British Single ("Price Tag").


title: Jessie J

text: With featured artist, David Guetta, Jessie J released the sixth single, "Laserlight", from her debut album on 4 May 2012. In the United Kingdom, the song debuted at number twenty-six on the UK Singles Chart on the chart issue dated 21 April 2012. The following week the song climbed twenty-one positions to number five, making it her sixth top ten single from one album. With the charting success, she became the first UK female solo artist to achieve six top-ten singles from a single studio album. The achievement was compared with Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Michael Jackson and boy band Take That, recording artists who previously broke the same record.


title: Jessie J

text: On 4 June 2012, Jessie appeared at the Diamond Jubilee Concert for Queen Elizabeth II, performing a duet with will.i.am. Together, they performed "I Gotta Feeling", a song she previously recorded with the other four coaches of the televised singing competition, "The Voice". She later sang her international hit, "Domino". On 12 August 2012 she performed "Price Tag", "Written in the Stars", "Dynamite", and "You Should Be Dancing" with Tinie Tempah and Taio Cruz, and "We Will Rock You" with Queen at the Closing Ceremony of the 2012 Olympic Games in London. Jessie J was a coach on the BBC One programme "The Voice UK" for its first two series in 2012 and 2013.


title: Jessie J

text: On 31 January 2012, Jessie J announced that she had begun recording her second studio album. She also stated that she hoped to collaborate with many artists that year, possibly including some of her fellow coaches on "The Voice". It was revealed that she worked in the studio with CeeLo Green after he contacted her on Twitter. Jessie has also revealed on Twitter that she worked with Diane Warren and co-author of her song "Price Tag", Claude Kelly.


title: Jessie J

text: Via Twitter, Jessie J announced her first arena tour, called Nice to Meet You Tour (later renamed Alive Tour due to the release of her second studio album titled "Alive"), which began on 15 October 2013 and concluded on 8 February 2014. "Wild" was released as the lead single from "Alive" and was a top 5 hit in both the United Kingdom and Australia. Other singles released from the album included "It's My Party" and "Thunder". Jessie also featured on DJ Cassidy's debut single "Calling All Hearts", along with Canadian singer Robin Thicke.


title: Jessie J

text: Her third studio album "Sweet Talker" was released on 13 October 2014 in the UK, where it peaked at number 5. "Bang Bang" recorded with Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj serves as the first single from the album. The song reached number one on the UK Singles Chart, becoming her third number one and seventh top five single in the UK. "Bang Bang" debuted on the US "Billboard" Hot 100 at number 6, making it the second highest new entry of 2014 on the chart. The song became Jessie J's second top 10 single in the US, after her previous single "Domino", and eventually peaked at number 3. In 2015, she became the judge and mentor of "The Voice Australia" replacing will.i.am. In the nominations for the 2016 Brit Awards, Jessie J's 2015 single "Flashlight" (from the soundtrack to the film "Pitch Perfect 2") was among the nominees for Best British Video. In January 2015 she began the Sweet Talker Tour to promote the album.


title: Jessie J

text: In 2016, Jessie J joined the cast of voices for "" singing the movie's theme song "My Superstar" (written by Alexander Geringas and Nikki Leonti) featuring Tha Vill. The song was eventually not released as a single and was not included in the soundtrack.


title: Jessie J

text: On 11 August 2017, Jessie J released a new single, "Real Deal", for M&M's advertising campaign. On 12 September, she announced her fourth album "R.O.S.E." and the single "Think About That", which was released on 15 September 2017 as the album's lead single. Four further songs from "R.O.S.E." were then released, with "Think About That" representing realization. "Not My Ex", was released as its second single on 6 October 2017 and represents obsession and the third single "Queen" was released on 17 November 2017, representing sex. In October 2017, Jessie J began her R.O.S.E. tour across Europe and the US to promote the upcoming album.


title: Jessie J

text: In January 2018, she appeared on the sixth season of the Chinese singing competition "I Am a Singer". Jessie J won the competition, making history as the first international singer to win the season in the show's six-year history, accompanied by the record of having topped number-one performances in five out of the first ten (of eleven) elimination rounds. The series cast also included two of the six other initial singers (singers entering on the first week of the competition with the exemption of participating Breakout rounds) Angela Chang and Wang Feng, and also her closest rival and runner-up for the season, Hua Chenyu, who would later go on to win the eighth season held two years later.