title: Professional wrestling

text: Typically, each promotion only recognizes the "legitimacy" of their own titles, although cross-promotion does happen. When one promotion absorbs or purchases another, the titles from the defunct promotion may continue to be defended in the new promotion or be decommissioned. Behind the scenes, the bookers in a company will place the title on the most accomplished performer, or those the bookers believe will generate fan interest in terms of event attendance and television viewership. Historically, a world champion was typically a legit shooter/hooker who had the skills to prevent double crosses by shooters who would deviate from the planned finish for personal glory. Lower ranked titles may also be used on the performers who show potential, thus allowing them greater exposure to the audience. Other circumstances may also determine the use of a championship. A combination of a championship's lineage, the caliber of performers as champion, and the frequency and manner of title changes, dictates the audience's perception of the title's quality, significance and reputation.


title: Professional wrestling

text: A wrestler's championship accomplishments can be central to their career, becoming a measure of their performance ability and drawing power. In general, a wrestler with multiple title reigns or an extended title reign is indicative of a wrestler's ability to maintain audience interest or a wrestler's ability to perform in the ring. As such, the most accomplished or decorated wrestlers tend to be revered as legends due to the amount of title reigns they hold. American wrestler Ric Flair has had multiple world heavyweight championship reigns spanning over three decades. Japanese wrestler Último Dragón once held and defended a record ten titles simultaneously.


title: Professional wrestling

text: Often a match will take place under additional rules, usually serving as a special attraction or a climactic point in a feud or storyline. Sometimes this will be the culmination of an entire feud, ending it for the immediate future (known as a blowoff match).


title: Professional wrestling

text: Perhaps the most well-known non-standard match is the cage match, in which the ring is surrounded by a fence or similar metal structure, with the express intention of preventing escape or outside interference—and with the added bonus of the cage being a potentially brutal weapon or platform for launching attacks. The WWE has another provision where a standard cage match can end with one wrestler or wrestling team escaping the cage through the door or over the top.


title: Professional wrestling

text: Another example is the WWE's Royal Rumble match, which involves thirty participants in a random and unknown order. The Rumble match is itself a spectacle in that it is a once-yearly event with multiple participants, including individuals who might not interact otherwise. It also serves as a catalyst for the company's ongoing feuds, as well as a springboard for new storylines. The WWE has made many other match types such as the Inferno Match and the First Blood match.


title: Professional wrestling

text: While the wrestling matches themselves are the primary focus of professional wrestling, a key dramatic element of the business can be entrances of the wrestlers to the arena and ring. It is typical for a wrestler to get their biggest crowd reaction (or "pop") for their ring entrance, rather than for anything they do in the wrestling match itself, especially if former main event stars are returning to a promotion after a long absence.


title: Professional wrestling

text: All notable wrestlers now enter the ring accompanied by music, and regularly add other elements to their entrance. The music played during the ring entrance will usually mirror the wrestler's personality. Many wrestlers, particularly in America, have music and lyrics specially written for their ring entrance. While invented long before, the practice of including music with the entrance gained rapid popularity during the 1980s, largely as a result of the huge success of Hulk Hogan and the WWF, and their Rock 'n' Wrestling Connection. When a match is won, the victor's theme music is usually also played in celebration.


title: Professional wrestling

text: Because wrestling is predetermined, a wrestler's entrance music will play as they enter the arena, even if they are, in kayfabe, not supposed to be there. For example, in 2012 through 2014, The Shield was a trio of wrestlers who were (in kayfabe) not at the time under contract with WWE (hence their gimmick of entering the ring through the crowd), but they still had entrance music which was played whenever they entered the arena, despite the fact that they were kayfabe invaders.


title: Professional wrestling

text: With the introduction of the Titantron entrance screen in 1997, WWF wrestlers also had entrance videos play along with their music.


title: Professional wrestling

text: Special ring entrances are also developed for big occasions, most notably the WrestleMania event. For example, WrestleMania III and VI both saw all wrestlers enter the arena on motorized miniature wrestling rings. Live bands are sometimes hired to perform live entrance music at special events. John Cena and Triple H are particularly notable in recent years for their highly theatrical entrances at WrestleMania.


title: Professional wrestling

text: The women's division of professional wrestling has maintained a recognized world champion since 1937, when Mildred Burke won the original World Women's title. She then formed the World Women's Wrestling Association in the early 1950s and recognized herself as the first champion, although the championship was vacated upon her retirement in 1956. The NWA ceased to acknowledge Burke as the Women's World champion in 1954, and instead acknowledged June Byers as champion after a controversial finish to a high-profile match between Burke and Byers that year. Upon Byers's retirement in 1964, The Fabulous Moolah, who won a junior heavyweight version of the NWA World Women's Championship (the predecessor to the WWE Women's Championship) in a tournament back in 1958, was recognized by most NWA promoters as champion by default.


title: Professional wrestling

text: For most of its history, men and women rarely worked against each other in professional wrestling, as it was deemed to be unfair and unchivalrous. Andy Kaufman used this to gain notoriety when he created an Intergender Championship and declared it open to any female challenger. This led to a long (worked) feud with Jerry Lawler.


title: Professional wrestling

text: Cathy Davis sued the New York State Athletic Commission (NYSAC) in 1977 because she was denied a boxing license because she was a woman, and the case was decided in her favor later that year, with the judge


title: Professional wrestling

text: invalidating New York State rule number 205.15, which stated, "No woman may be licensed as a boxer or second or licensed to compete in any wrestling exhibition with men." In his opinion the judge cited the precedent set by "Garrett v. New York State Athletic Commission" (1975), which "found the regulation invalid under the equal protection clauses of the State and Federal Constitutions". The NYSAC filed an appeal of the ruling, but later dropped it.


title: Professional wrestling

text: In the 1980s, mixed tag team matches began to take place, with a male and female on each team and a rule stating that each wrestler could only attack the opponent of the same gender. If a tag was made, the other team had to automatically switch their legal wrestler as well. Despite these restrictions, many mixed tag matches do feature some physical interaction between participants of different genders. For example, a heel may take a cheap shot at the female wrestler of the opposing team to draw a negative crowd reaction. In lucha libre, cheap shots and male-female attacks are not uncommon.


title: Professional wrestling

text: Intergender singles bouts were first fought on a national level in the 1990s. This began with Luna Vachon, who faced men in ECW and WWF. Later, Chyna became the first female to hold a belt that was not exclusive to women when she won the WWF Intercontinental Championship. Intergender wrestling was uncommon in Impact Wrestling. ODB, had participated in intergender matches and once held the Impact Knockouts Tag Team Championship with Eric Young for a record 478 days. Other notable Impact Knockouts that competed in intergender matches include Scarlett Bordeaux; Tessa Blanchard, who became the first woman to win the Impact World Championship; and Jordynne Grace, who became the inaugural Impact Digital Media Championship.


title: Professional wrestling

text: Midget wrestling can be traced to professional wrestling's carnival and vaudeville origins. In recent years, the popularity and prevalence of midgets in wrestling has greatly decreased due to wrestling companies depriving midget divisions of storyline or feud. WWE has made a few attempts to enter this market with their "minis" in the 1990s and the "junior's league" as recent as 2006. It is still a popular form of entertainment in Mexican wrestling, mostly as a "sideshow".


title: Professional wrestling

text: Some wrestlers may have their own specific "mini me", like Mascarita Sagrada, Alebrije has Quije, etc. There are also cases in which midgets can become valets for a wrestler, and even get physically involved in matches, like Alushe, who often accompanies Tinieblas, or KeMonito, who is portrayed as Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre's mascot and is also a valet for Mistico. Dave Finlay was often aided in his matches by a midget known mainly as Hornswoggle while in WWE, who hid under the ring and gave a shillelagh to Finlay to use on his opponent. Finlay also occasionally threw him at his opponents. Hornswoggle was given a run with the WWE Cruiserweight Championship and feuded with D-X in 2009.


title: Professional wrestling

text: The U.S., Japan and Mexico are the three countries where there is a huge market and high popularity for professional wrestling, but the wrestling styles of each region are different, given their independent development for a long period.


title: Professional wrestling

text: Professional wrestling in the U.S. tends to have a heavy focus on story building and the establishment of characters (and their personalities). There is a story for each match, and even a longer story for successive matches. The stories usually contain characters like faces, heels, and - less often - "tweeners" (antiheroes). It is a "triumph" if the face wins, while it is a "tragedy" if the heel wins. The characters usually have strong and sharp personalities. The opposition between faces and heels is very intense in the story, and the heels may even attack the faces during TV interviews. The relationship between different characters can also be very complex.


title: Professional wrestling

text: Although professional wrestling in Mexico (Lucha libre) also has stories and characters, they are less emphasized. Mexican professional wrestling tradition repeats very usually brutal tactics, specially more aerial holds than professional wrestlers in the U.S. who, more often, rely on power moves and strikes to subdue their opponents. The difference in styles is due to the independent evolution of the sport in Mexico beginning in the 1930s and the fact that wrestlers in the cruiserweight division () are often the most popular wrestlers in Mexican lucha libre. Wrestlers often execute high flying moves characteristic of lucha libre by utilizing the wrestling ring's ropes to catapult themselves towards their opponents, using intricate combinations in rapid-fire succession, and applying complex submission holds. Lucha libre is also known for its tag team wrestling matches, in which the teams are often made up of three members, instead of two as is common in the U.S.


title: Professional wrestling

text: The style of Japanese professional wrestling (puroresu) is also different. With its origins in traditional American style of wrestling and still being under the same genre, it has become an entity in itself. Despite the similarity to its American counterpart, in that the outcome of the matches remains predetermined, the phenomena are different in the form of the psychology and presentation of the sport. In most of the largest promotions, such as New Japan Pro-Wrestling, All Japan Pro Wrestling and Pro Wrestling Noah, it is treated as a full contact combat sport as it mixes hard hitting martial arts strikes with shoot style submission holds, while in the U.S. it is rather more regarded as an entertainment show. Wrestlers incorporate kicks and strikes from martial arts disciplines, and a strong emphasis is placed on submission wrestling, and unlike the use of involved storylines in the U.S., they are not as intricate in Japan; more emphasis is placed on the concept of "fighting spirit", meaning the wrestlers' display of physical and mental stamina are valued a lot more than theatrics. Many of Japan's wrestlers including top stars such as Shinya Hashimoto, Riki Chōshū and Keiji Mutoh came from a legitimate martial arts background and many Japanese wrestlers in the 1990s began to pursue careers in mixed martial arts organizations such as Pancrase and Shooto which at the time retained the original look of puroresu but were actual competitions. Other companies, such as Michinoku Pro Wrestling and Dragon Gate, wrestle in a style similar to Mexican companies like AAA and CMLL. This is known as "Lucharesu".


title: Professional wrestling

text: Those involved in producing professional wrestling have developed a kind of global fraternity, with familial bonds, shared language and passed-down traditions. New performers are expected to "pay their dues" for a few years by working in lower-profile promotions and working as ring crew before working their way upward. The permanent rosters of most promotions develop a backstage pecking order, with veterans mediating conflicts and mentoring younger wrestlers. For many decades (and still to a lesser extent today) performers were expected to keep the illusions of wrestling's legitimacy alive even while not performing, essentially acting in character any time they were in public. Some veterans speak of a "sickness" among wrestling performers, an inexplicable pull to remain active in the wrestling world despite the devastating effects the job can have on one's life and health.


title: Professional wrestling

text: Fans of professional wrestling have their own subculture, comparable to those of science fiction, video games, or comic books. Those who are interested in the backstage occurrences, future storylines and reasonings behind company decisions read newsletters written by journalists with inside ties to the wrestling industry. These "rags" or "dirt sheets" have expanded into the Internet, where their information can be dispensed on an up-to-the-minute basis. Some have expanded into radio shows.


title: Professional wrestling

text: Some fans enjoy a pastime of collecting recordings of wrestling shows from specific companies, of certain wrestlers, or of specific genres. The internet has given fans exposure to worldwide variations of wrestling they are unable to otherwise see. Since the 1990s, many companies have been founded which deal primarily in wrestling footage. When the WWE purchased both WCW and ECW in 2001, they also obtained the entire past video libraries of both productions and have released many past matches online and on home video.


title: Professional wrestling

text: Like some other sports, fantasy leagues have developed around professional wrestling. Some take this concept further by creating E-feds (electronic federations), where a user can create their own fictional wrestling character, and role-playing storylines with other users, leading to scheduled "shows" where match results are determined by the organizers, usually based on a combination of the characters' statistics and the players' roleplaying aptitude, sometimes with audience voting.


title: Professional wrestling

text: From the first established world championship, the top professional wrestlers have garnered fame within mainstream society. Each successive generation has produced a number of wrestlers who extend their careers into the realms of music, acting, writing, business, politics or public speaking, and are known to those who are unfamiliar with wrestling in general. Conversely, celebrities from other sports or general pop culture also become involved with wrestling for brief periods of time. A prime example of this is The Rock 'n' Wrestling Connection of the 1980s, which combined wrestling with MTV.


title: Professional wrestling

text: Professional wrestling is often portrayed within other works using parody, and its general elements have become familiar tropes and memes in American culture.


title: Professional wrestling

text: Some terminology originating in professional wrestling has found its way into the common vernacular. Phrases such as "body slam", "sleeper hold" and "tag team" are used by those who do not follow professional wrestling. The term "smackdown", popularized by The Rock and "SmackDown!" in the 1990s, has been included in Merriam-Webster dictionaries since 2007.


title: Professional wrestling

text: Many television shows and films have been produced which portray in-character professional wrestlers as protagonists, such as "Ready to Rumble", "¡Mucha Lucha!", "Nacho Libre", and the Santo film series. At least two stage plays set in the world of pro wrestling have been produced: "The Baron" is a comedy that retells the life of an actual performer known as Baron von Raschke. "From Parts Unknown..." is an award-nominated Canadian drama about the rise and fall of a fictional wrestler. The 2009 "South Park" episode "W.T.F." played on the soap operatic elements of professional wrestling. One of the lead characters on the Disney Channel series "Kim Possible" was a huge fan of pro wrestling and actually featured it on an episode (with two former WWE wrestlers voicing the two fictitious wrestlers featured in the episode). The 2008 film "The Wrestler", about a washed-up professional wrestler, garnered several Oscar nominations. The 2017 TV series GLOW, based on the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling promotion, gained critical acclaim, including a nomination for Outstanding Comedy Series at the 70th Primetime Emmy Awards.


title: Professional wrestling

text: The 1950 film noir "Night and the City", directed by Jules Dassin and starring Richard Widmark and Gene Tierney, told the story of a promoter in London trying to make it big, and featured a match involving real professional wrestler Stanislaus Zbyszko.


title: Professional wrestling

text: Wrestling has also gained a major following on YouTube, with WWE being the most subscribed wrestling channel and sixth most subscribed channel in the world. Other promotions, such as All Elite Wrestling, Major League Wrestling, Impact Wrestling and the National Wrestling Alliance have distributed their own weekly programming on the platform.


title: Professional wrestling

text: With its growing popularity, professional wrestling has attracted attention as a subject of serious academic study and journalistic criticism. Many courses, theses, essays and dissertations have analyzed wrestling's conventions, content, and its role in modern society. It is often included as part of studies on theatre, sociology, performance, and media. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology developed a course of study on the cultural significance of professional wrestling, and anthropologist Heather Levi has written an ethnography about the culture of lucha libre in Mexico.


title: Professional wrestling

text: In the early 20th century, once it became apparent that the "sport" was worked, pro wrestling was looked down on as a cheap entertainment for the uneducated working class, an attitude that still exists to varying degrees today. The French theorist Roland Barthes was among the first to propose that wrestling was worthy of deeper analysis, in his essay "The World of Wrestling" from his book "Mythologies", first published in 1957. Barthes argued that it should be looked at not as a scamming of the ignorant, but as spectacle; a mode of theatric performance for a willing, if bloodthirsty, audience. Wrestling is described as performed art which demands an immediate reading of the juxtaposed meanings. The logical conclusion is given least importance over the theatrical performers of the wrestlers and the referee. According to Barthes, the function of a wrestler is not to win: it is to go exactly through the motions which are expected of him and to give the audience a theatrical spectacle. This work is considered a foundation of all later study.


title: Professional wrestling

text: While pro wrestling is often described simplistically as a "soap opera for males", it has also been cited as filling the role of past forms of literature and theatre; a synthesis of classical heroics, commedia dell'arte, revenge tragedies, morality plays, and burlesque. The characters and storylines portrayed by a successful promotion are seen to reflect the current mood, attitudes, and concerns of that promotion's society and can in turn influence those same things. Wrestling's high levels of violence and masculinity make it a vicarious outlet for aggression during peacetime.


title: Professional wrestling

text: Documentary filmmakers have studied the lives of wrestlers and the effects the profession has on them and their families. The 1999 theatrical documentary "Beyond the Mat" focused on Terry Funk, a wrestler nearing retirement; Mick Foley, a wrestler within his prime; Jake Roberts, a former star fallen from grace; and a school of wrestling students trying to break into the business. The 2005 release "" chronicled the development of women's wrestling throughout the 20th century. Pro wrestling has been featured several times on HBO's "Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel". MTV's documentary series "True Life" featured two episodes titled "I'm a Professional Wrestler" and "I Want to Be a Professional Wrestler". Other documentaries have been produced by The Learning Channel ("The Secret World of Professional Wrestling") and A&E (""). "Bloodstained Memoirs" explored the careers of several pro wrestlers, including Chris Jericho, Rob Van Dam and Roddy Piper.


title: Professional wrestling

text: Although professional wrestling is choreographed, there is a high chance of injury, and even death. Strikes are often stiff, especially in Japan, and in independent wrestling promotions such as Combat Zone Wrestling. The ring is often made out of timber planks. There have been many brutal accidents, hits and injuries. Many of the injuries that occur in pro wrestling are shoulders, knee, back, neck, and rib injuries. Professional wrestler Davey Richards said in 2015, "We train to take damage, we know we are going to take damage and we accept that."


title: Professional wrestling

text: As of September 2021, 31 years after the 1990 WrestleMania VI, 16 of the 38 competitors had died, including André the Giant and main event winner The Ultimate Warrior, with only two of the deceased having reached the age of 64 (Dusty Rhodes at 69 and "Superfly" Jimmy Snuka at 73).


title: Karl von Habsburg

text: Karl von Habsburg (given names: "Karl Thomas Robert Maria Franziskus Georg Bahnam"; born 11 January 1961) is an Austrian politician and the head of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine, therefore being a claimant to the defunct Austro-Hungarian throne. As a citizen of the Republic of Austria, his legal name is Karl Habsburg-Lothringen.


title: Karl von Habsburg

text: Karl is the son of Archduke Otto von Habsburg, Crown Prince of Austria and Princess Regina of Saxe-Meiningen, and the grandson of the last Austro-Hungarian emperor, Charles I. He is head and sovereign of the Austrian Order of the Golden Fleece. Karl von Habsburg served as a Member of the European Parliament for the Austrian People's Party (1996–1999). He is known for being Pro-European and is also an advocate for the Pan-European movement.


title: Karl von Habsburg

text: Karl von Habsburg's career has focused on the issue of protecting cultural heritage from threats such as armed conflict and natural disasters. He was president of the cultural protection organization Blue Shield International from 2008 until August 2020.


title: Karl von Habsburg

text: Karl von Habsburg was born on 11 January 1961 in Starnberg, Bavaria. He was baptised in Pöcking, Bavaria, as Archduke Karl of Austria (), the name entered in the baptismal records.


title: Karl von Habsburg

text: At the time of his birth, his father was "de facto" stateless and possessed a Spanish diplomatic passport (he had grown up in Spain), while his mother was a German citizen. Like his father and siblings, he was banished from Austria for the first years of his life. However, the administrative court of Austria later ruled that applying to return to the country was legal, and his family was granted visa entrance in June 1966.


title: Karl von Habsburg

text: In 1961, his father, Otto von Habsburg, renounced all claims to the defunct Austrian throne, as a necessary legal condition to being allowed to return to Austria. Karl does not use his ancestral titles, because unlike most European countries, even the unofficial use of such titles is not permitted in Hungary and Austria. Habsburg says: I don't refer to titles, I'm not that vain. People use these titles out of respect for history and the role of my family in history.Although the Adelsaufhebungsgesetz (Law on the Abolition of the Nobility) abolished all Austrian and Hungarian noble, royal, and imperial titles in 1919, and their usage is still illegal in those countries, media elsewhere occasionally refer to Karl von Habsburg by his ancestral titles of Archduke of Austria, Royal Prince of Hungary, Bohemia and Croatia.


title: Karl von Habsburg

text: At the request of the USSR, which was wary of a restoration of the monarchy, the anti-Habsburg laws became mandatory international and constitutional components of the Austrian State Treaty in 1955. The family tried to get their former property returned under rules for victims of the Nazi regime. The attempt of Karl von Habsburg failed because the law of expropriation still has constitutional status. On 1 January 2007, his father relinquished his position as the head of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine, a status which then devolved on Karl, and in 2008 he became the grand master of a Habsburg-Lorraine Order of St. George.


title: Karl von Habsburg

text: As head of the Habsburg family, Karl undertakes numerous commitments. On the one hand, these are cultural, historical, scientific, political, but also tourist events and, on the other hand, commitments to orders of chivalry, associations or military units. Many events, such as the participation in the peace flight in 2018 as a pilot with his plane, concerned the centenary of World War I. In 2019 there were many events in honor of the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I. He is supported in this work by an


title: Karl von Habsburg

text: Karl von Habsburg did his military service in 1981 as a Platoon commander of a Jäger (infantry) Platoon as a one-year volunteer with the Austrian Armed Forces, where he later also completed his pilot training and is currently a reserve Hauptmann (captain) in the Austrian Air Force. He is also an Austrian Army Cultural Property Protection Officer, first with the staff of the Military Command of Salzburg, later with the Armed Forces High Command, currently with IHSW at Staff College. As a paratrooper, he was elected President of the European Military Paratroopers Association (Europäischen Militär- Fallschirmsprungverbandes e.V.) in 2001 - a role that he still holds today.


title: Karl von Habsburg

text: Since 1986, Karl von Habsburg has been president of the Austrian branch of the Paneuropean Union, which co-organised the Pan-European Picnic. In May 1990, Habsburg personally led an aid convoy to Vilnius with food, medicine and clothing as a representative of the Paneuropean Union, in response to the Soviet Union's blockade of raw materials following the proclamation of Lithuanian independence in March 1990. In 1991 he organized international aid against the destruction in Dubrovnik and in the former Yugoslavia.


title: Karl von Habsburg

text: In 1992/1993, he hosted a TV game show with Austrian public TV broadcaster ORF, called "Who Is Who". In October 1996, he was elected to the European Parliament for the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP). Two years later, it emerged that the ÖVP's election campaign had benefited from at least 30,000 Mark of World Vision donation money via Paneurope Austria while Karl von Habsburg sat on the board of World Vision Austria, apparently without noticing the director's dubiously legal activities. His father exacerbated the controversy when he complained that his son was being attacked unfairly and drew a parallel between the name "Habsburg" and a yellow badge. ÖVP did not nominate Karl von Habsburg again for the 1999 elections. In 2004, Karl von Habsburg paid 37,000 euros to the new World Vision Austria branch.


title: Karl von Habsburg

text: On 19 January 2002, he was appointed Director General of UNPO (Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization) by the UNPO Steering Committee.


title: Karl von Habsburg

text: From 7 December 2008, he became the President of the Association of National Committees of the Blue Shield, a cultural protection organisation that later became Blue Shield International. Habsburg was a strong supporter of those who created the "No Strike List" of cultural heritage sites and cultural sites that should be preserved when attacks or flight operations were carried out. This particularly moved NATO troops to protect the cultural assets and the economic and cultural basis of the civilian population.


title: Karl von Habsburg

text: Habsburg particularly supports the bringing together of military and civilian personnel and the cooperation of various international organizations for the protection of cultural assets, such as the Blue Shield, UNIFIL and UNESCO deployment in Lebanon in 2019, and the cooperation with the International Committee of the Red Cross in 2020. After the explosion in the port of Beirut in Lebanon in summer 2020, Habsburg helped coordinate the reconstruction and aid on site. He stepped down as President of the Blue Shield at the General Assembly in August 2020.


title: Karl von Habsburg

text: Since 2010 he has been chairman of the advisory board of the Competence Center for Cultural Heritage and Cultural Property Protection at the University of Vienna. He delivers lectures and training courses worldwide on the role of the military in protecting cultural property, such as at the United States Africa Command, the Civil-Military Cooperation Centre of Excellence or the Theresian Military Academy. He emphasizes that it is crucial for cultural property protection to be on the spot quickly: "We know the importance to be fast and in a place where there is a potential conflict or an actual conflict; you have to be there really fast to make an assessment and to see what you can do to immediately help."


title: Johnny Mathis

text: John Royce Mathis (born September 30, 1935) is an American singer of popular music. Starting his career with singles of standard music, he became highly popular as an album artist, with several dozen of his albums achieving gold or platinum status and 73 making the "Billboard" charts. Mathis has received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and has been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame for three recordings.


title: Johnny Mathis

text: Although frequently described as a romantic singer, his discography includes traditional pop, Brazilian and Spanish music, soul, rhythm and blues, show tunes, Tin Pan Alley, soft rock, blues, country music, and even a few disco songs for his album "Mathis Magic" in 1979. Mathis has also recorded six albums of Christmas music. In a 1968 interview, Mathis cited Lena Horne, Nat King Cole, and Bing Crosby among his musical influences.


title: Johnny Mathis

text: Mathis was born in Gilmer, Texas, on September 30, 1935, the fourth of seven children of Clem Mathis and Mildred Boyd, both domestic cooks. Mathis is of African-American and Native American heritage. The family later moved to San Francisco, settling on 32nd Avenue in the Richmond District, where Mathis would grow up.


title: Johnny Mathis

text: His father had worked in vaudeville as a singer and pianist, and when he saw his son's talent bought an old upright piano for $25 (US$ in dollars) and encouraged his music. Mathis began learning songs and routines from his father; his parents also ran his fan club. His first song was "My Blue Heaven". Mathis started singing and dancing for visitors at home, at school, and at church functions.


title: Johnny Mathis

text: When Mathis was 13, voice teacher Connie Cox accepted him as her student in exchange for work around her house. Mathis studied with Cox for six years, learning vocal scales and exercises, voice production, classical and operatic singing. The first band he sang with was formed by his high school friend Merl Saunders. Mathis eulogized Saunders at his funeral in 2008, thanking him for giving Mathis his first chance as a singer.


title: Johnny Mathis

text: Mathis was a star athlete at George Washington High School in San Francisco. He was a high jumper and hurdler, and he played on the basketball team. In 1954, he enrolled at San Francisco State College on an athletic scholarship, intending to become an English teacher and a physical education teacher. While there, Mathis set a high-jump record of . This is still one of the college's top jump heights and was only short of the 1952 Olympic record of . He and future NBA star Bill Russell were featured in a 1954 sports section article of the "San Francisco Chronicle" demonstrating their high-jumping skills (Russell #1 & Mathis #2 in the City of San Francisco at that time).


title: Johnny Mathis

text: While singing at a Sunday afternoon jam session with a friend's jazz sextet at the Black Hawk Club in San Francisco, Mathis attracted the attention of the club's co-founder, Helen Noga. She became his music manager, and found Mathis a job singing weekends at Ann Dee's 440 Club. In September 1955, she learned that George Avakian, head of Popular Music A&R at Columbia Records, was on vacation near San Francisco. After repeated calls, Noga finally persuaded Avakian to come hear Mathis at the 440 Club. After hearing Mathis sing, Avakian sent his record company a telegram stating: "Have found phenomenal 19-year-old boy who could go all the way. Send blank contracts."


title: Johnny Mathis

text: At San Francisco State, Mathis had become noteworthy as a high jumper, and in 1956 he was asked to try out for the U.S. Olympic Team that would travel to Melbourne that November. On his father's advice, Mathis opted to embark on a professional singing career.


title: Johnny Mathis

text: Mathis's first record album, "Johnny Mathis: A New Sound In Popular Song", was a slow-selling jazz album, but Mathis stayed in New York City to sing in nightclubs. His second album was produced by Columbia Records vice-president and record producer Mitch Miller, who helped to define the Mathis sound. Miller preferred that Mathis sing soft, romantic ballads, pairing him with conductor and music arranger Ray Conniff, and later, Ray Ellis, Glenn Osser, and Robert Mersey. In late 1956, Mathis recorded two of his most popular songs: "Wonderful! Wonderful!" and "It's Not for Me to Say". Also that year, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer signed him up to sing the latter song in the movie "Lizzie" (1957).


title: Johnny Mathis

text: Mathis' appearance on the popular TV program "The Ed Sullivan Show" in June 1957 helped increase his popularity. Later that year he released "Chances Are", which became his second single to sell a million copies. In November 1957, Mathis released "Wild Is the Wind", which featured in the film of the same name and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song. He performed the song at the ceremony in March 1958.


title: Johnny Mathis

text: Later in 1958, Mathis made his second film appearance for 20th Century Fox, singing the song "A Certain Smile" in the film of that title. The song was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song. By the end of the year, he was set to earn $1 million a year. Critics called him "the velvet voice". In 1962, "Ebony" magazine listed Mathis as one of 30-35 millionaires on their list of "America's 100 Richest Negroes". Mathis had two of his biggest hits in 1962 and 1963, with "Gina" (number 6) and "What Will Mary Say" (number 9).


title: Johnny Mathis

text: In October 1964, Mathis sued Noga to void their management arrangement, which Noga fought with a counterclaim in December 1964. After splitting from Noga, Mathis established Jon Mat Records, incorporated in California on May 11, 1967, to produce his recordings, and Rojon Productions, incorporated in California on September 30, 1964, to handle all of his concert, theater, showroom, and television appearances, and all promotional and charitable activities. (Previously, he founded Global Records to produce his Mercury albums.) His new manager and business partner was Ray Haughn, who, until his death in September 1984, helped guide Mathis's career.


title: Johnny Mathis

text: While Mathis continued to make music, the ascent of the Beatles and early 1970s album rock kept his adult contemporary recordings out of the pop singles charts, until he experienced a career renaissance in the late 1970s. He had the 1976 Christmas number one single in the UK with the song "When a Child Is Born" and later, in 1978, recorded "Too Much, Too Little, Too Late" with singer Deniece Williams. The lyrics and music were arranged by Nat Kipner and John McIntyre Vallins. Released as a single in 1978, it reached number one on the U.S. "Billboard" Hot 100 pop chart, number nine on the Canadian Singles Chart and number three on the UK Singles Chart. It also topped the US R&B and adult contemporary charts. "Too Much, Too Little, Too Late" was certified gold and silver in the US and in the UK by the RIAA and the British Phonographic Industry, respectively. It was his first number one hit since his 1957 chart-topper "Chances Are".


title: Johnny Mathis

text: The duo released a follow-up duet, their version of "You're All I Need to Get By," peaking at number 47 on the "Billboard" Hot 100. In 1983, they were credited with performing "Without Us", the theme song for the American television sitcom "Family Ties", from its second season onwards. The success of the duets with Williams prompted Mathis to record duets with a variety of partners, including Dionne Warwick, Natalie Cole, Gladys Knight, Jane Olivor, Stephanie Lawrence, and Nana Mouskouri. A compilation album, also called "Too Much, Too Little, Too Late", released by Sony Music in 1995, featured the title track among other songs by Mathis and Williams.


title: Johnny Mathis

text: During 1980–1981, Mathis recorded an album with Chic's Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers, "I Love My Lady", which remained unreleased in its entirety until its 2017 appearance in the 68 disc collection . Three tracks had appeared on a Chic box set in 2010 and a fourth, the title track, on Mathis' "Ultimate Collection" in 2011 and the Chic Organization's "Up All Night" in 2013.


title: Johnny Mathis

text: Mathis returned to the British Top 30 album chart in 2007 with the Sony BMG release "The Very Best of Johnny Mathis"; in 2008 with the CD "A Night to Remember"; and again in 2011 with "The Ultimate Collection"


title: Johnny Mathis

text: Mathis continues to perform live, but from 2000 forward, he limited his concert performances to about fifty to sixty per year. He is one of the last pop singers who travel with their own full orchestra (as opposed to a band).


title: Johnny Mathis

text: On January 14, 2016, Mathis performed to a sold-out audience in The Villages as part of his "60th Anniversary Concert Tour".


title: Johnny Mathis

text: Mathis, Bob Dylan, Barbra Streisand, Tony Bennett, Billy Joel, and Bruce Springsteen carry the distinction of having the longest tenure of any recording artists on the Columbia label. With the exception of a four-year break to record for Mercury Records in the mid-1960s, Mathis has been with Columbia Records throughout his career, from 1956 to 1963 and from 1968 to the present. (Dylan spent a couple of years at Asylum Records then re-signed with Columbia; Bennett recorded for Verve and his own Improv label from 1972 to 1986 when he returned to Columbia; Joel has been with the label since his 1973 album "Piano Man;" Streisand and Springsteen have never left.)


title: Johnny Mathis

text: He has had five of his albums on the "Billboard" charts simultaneously, an achievement equaled by only three other singers: Frank Sinatra, Barry Manilow, and (posthumously) Prince. He has released 200 singles and had 71 songs charted around the world.


title: Johnny Mathis

text: He has taped twelve of his own television specials and made over 300 television guest appearances, with 54 (Rojon Productions Archives) of them being on "The Tonight Show". Longtime "Tonight Show" host Johnny Carson said, "Johnny Mathis is the best ballad singer in the world." He appeared on the show with Carson's successor, Jay Leno, on March 29, 2007, to sing "The Shadow of Your Smile" with the saxophonist Dave Koz. Through the years, his songs (or parts of them) have been heard in 100 plus television shows and films around the globe. His appearance on the "Live by Request" broadcast in May 1998 on the A&E Network had the largest television viewing audience of the series. Also in 1989, Johnny sang the theme for the ABC daytime soap opera "Loving".


title: Johnny Mathis

text: Mathis served as narrator for "'51 Dons", a 2014 documentary film about the integrated and undefeated 1951 San Francisco Dons football team. The team was denied a chance to play in a bowl game because it refused to agree to not play its two African-American players, Ollie Matson and Burl Toler, who were childhood friends of Mathis.


title: Johnny Mathis

text: Mathis appeared in the Season 14 finale of "Criminal Minds", "Truth or Dare", in which he played himself as an old friend of David Rossi and served as best man at Rossi's wedding.


title: Johnny Mathis

text: Despite missing the Olympic high-jump trials, he retains enthusiasm for sports. He is an avid golfer, with nine holes in one to his credit. He has hosted several Johnny Mathis Golf Tournaments in the United Kingdom and the US. Since 1985, he has been hosting a charity golf tournament in Belfast sponsored by Shell corporation, and the annual Johnny Mathis Invitational Track & Field Meet has continued at San Francisco State University since it started in 1982. He also enjoys cooking and in 1982, he published a cookbook called "Cooking for You Alone".


title: Johnny Mathis

text: Mathis has undergone rehabilitation for both alcohol and prescription drug addictions, and he has supported many organizations through the years, including the American Cancer Society, the March of Dimes, the YWCA and YMCA, the Muscular Dystrophy Association and the NAACP.


title: Johnny Mathis

text: Mathis was quoted in a 1982 "Us Magazine" article, stating: "Homosexuality is a way of life that I've grown accustomed to." Mathis later said that that comment was supposed to have been off the record and did not publicly discuss his sexual orientation for many years after that. In 2006, Mathis said that his silence had been because of death threats he received as a result of that 1982 article. On April 13, 2006, Mathis granted a podcast interview with "The Strip" in which he talked about the subject once again, and how some of his reluctance to speak on the subject was partially generational. During an interview with "CBS News Sunday Morning" on May 14, 2017, Mathis discussed the "Us Magazine" article and confirmed he is gay. "I come from San Francisco. It's not unusual to be gay in San Francisco. I've had some girlfriends, some boyfriends, just like most people. But I never got married, for instance. I knew that I was gay." Mathis spoke to many news sources, including CBS, about his sexuality and his story about coming out.


title: Johnny Mathis

text: In November 2015, Mathis returned home from a concert in Ohio to find his Hollywood house destroyed by a fire. He had owned it for 56 years.


title: Johnny Mathis

text: In 2003, the Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences awarded Mathis the Lifetime Achievement Award. This Special Merit Award is presented by vote of the Recording Academy's National Trustees to performers who, during their lifetimes, have made creative contributions of outstanding artist significance to the field of recording.


title: Johnny Mathis

text: Mathis has been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame for three separate recordings — in 1998 for "Chances Are", in 2002 for "Misty", and in 2008 for "It's Not for Me to Say".


title: Johnny Mathis

text: On June 21, 2014, Mathis was inducted into the Great American Songbook Hall Of Fame along with Linda Ronstadt, Shirley Jones, and Nat King Cole (whose daughter Natalie Cole accepted the award on his behalf). The awards were presented by the Center for the Performing Arts artistic director Michael Feinstein. Defined on their website, "Conceived as an enduring testament to the Great American Songbook, the Hall of Fame honors performers and composers responsible for creating America's soundtrack."


title: Johnny Mathis

text: In 1978, his hit duet "The Last Time I Felt Like This" from the film "Same Time, Next Year" was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song. Mathis and Jane Olivor sang the song at the Academy Awards ceremony, in his second performance at the Oscars. His first occurred 20 years earlier in 1958, when he sang "Wild Is the Wind" by Dimitri Tiomkin and Ned Washington from the movie of the same name. He was also awarded the Society of Singers Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006. In 2007, Mathis was inducted into the Hit Parade Hall of Fame. In 1988, Johnny appeared as a guest vocalist, accompanied by Henry Mancini, on "Late Night with David Letterman" to sing Henry's theme to the "Viewer Mail" segment. In 2011, Mathis received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement presented by Awards Council member General Colin Powell.


title: Johnny Mathis

text: In 2017 San Francisco State University awarded him an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree. Mathis attended San Francisco State for three semesters before withdrawing in 1956 to pursue his music career.


title: Barry White

text: Barry Eugene Carter (September 12, 1944 – July 4, 2003), better known by his stage name Barry White, was an American singer and songwriter. A two-time Grammy Award winner known for his bass voice and romantic image, his greatest success came in the 1970s as a solo singer and with The Love Unlimited Orchestra, crafting many enduring soul, funk, and disco songs such as his two biggest hits: "Can't Get Enough of Your Love, Babe" and "You're the First, the Last, My Everything".


title: Barry White

text: White recorded 20 studio albums during the course of his career, but multiple versions and compilations were released worldwide that were certified gold, 41 of which also attained platinum status. White had 20 gold and 10 platinum singles, with worldwide record sales in excess of 100 million records, and is one of the best-selling music artists of all time. His influences included James Cleveland, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, The Supremes, the Four Tops and Marvin Gaye.


title: Barry White

text: White was born Barry Eugene Carter on September 12, 1944, in Galveston, Texas, United States. His father was Melvin A. White, and his mother was Sadie Marie Carter. His parents never married, so his mother gave him her last name, but he later took on the surname of his father. He grew up in the Watts neighborhood of South Central Los Angeles, California. He was the older of two children; his brother Darryl was 13 months younger. White grew up listening to his mother's classical music collection and first took to the piano, emulating what he heard on the records.


title: Barry White

text: White has often been credited with playing piano, at age 11, on Jesse Belvin's 1956 hit single, "Goodnight My Love". However, in a 1995 interview with the "Boston Herald", White denied writing or arranging the song. He believed the story was an exaggeration by journalists. While White and Belvin lived in the same neighborhood, Belvin was 12 years older than White.


title: Barry White

text: White attended Jacob A. Riis High School, an all boys academy in southeast Los Angeles. White's voice deepened suddenly when he was 14. He recalled: "[As a child], I had a normal squeaky kid voice. Then as a teenager, that completely changed. My mother cried because she knew her baby boy had become a man." In an 2000 interview with Conan O'Brien he further recalled: "I woke up one morning when I was 14. I spoke to my mother and I scared both of us."


title: Barry White

text: White was jailed for four months at the age of 16 for stealing $30,000 worth of Cadillac tires (equivalent to about $300,000 in 2022). While in jail, he listened to Elvis Presley singing "It's Now or Never" on the radio, an experience he later credited with changing the course of his life. White had another moment of inspiration on his 18th birthday, which also was the first day back for his graduating year of high school. He skipped class to walk to Capitol Records headquarters in downtown Los Angeles, and stood across the street from the office staring for hours. Seeing the liveliness of the area it inspired him to work in Hollywood and the entertainment industry after, despite not knowing how to read or write music.


title: Barry White

text: After his release from jail, White left gang life and began a musical career at the beginning of the 1960s in singing groups. He first released "Too Far to Turn Around" in 1960 as part of The Upfronts before working for various small independent labels in Los Angeles. He also recorded several singles under his own name in the early 1960s, backed by vocal groups the Atlantics (for the Rampart and Faro labels) and the Majestics (for the Linda and Jordan labels). White had no involvement with Bob & Earl's 1963 hit single "Harlem Shuffle", a song he has sometimes been credited with producing; in his 1999 autobiography, White confirmed the song had been produced by Gene Page, who had worked with him on many of White's 1970s successes.


title: Barry White

text: In 1965, White produced "Feel Aw Right" by the Bel Cantos, released on the Downey label. He recorded his debut single, "Man Ain't Nothin'" / "I Don't Need It, released under the name Lee Barry on Downey in 1966. He also co-wrote "Together Forever," released by Pat Powdrill & the Powerdrills in 1967.


title: Barry White

text: In the mid-'60s, Bob Keane of Del-Fi Records hired him as an A&R man for his new Bronco Records imprint, and White started working with the label's artists, including Viola Wills and The Bobby Fuller Four, as a songwriter, session musician, and arranger. He discovered singer Felice Taylor and arranged her song "I Feel Love Comin' On," co-written with his friend Paul Politi. It became a big hit in the UK. Other charting hits written by White and Politi for her included "It May Be Winter Outside (But in My Heart It's Spring)" and "Under the Influence of Love". Bronco issued one of White's first singles, 1967's "All in the Run of a Day," produced by Keane and White. White also wrote "Doin' the Banana Split" for TV bubblegum act The Banana Splits in 1968.


title: Barry White

text: In 1969, White was signed by Forward Records of Los Angeles, a division of Transcontinental Entertainment Corporation, as a producer.


title: Barry White

text: In 1972, White got his big break producing a girl group he had discovered called Love Unlimited. Formed in imitative style of the Motown girl group The Supremes, the group members had gradually honed their talents with White for two years previously until they signed contracts with Uni Records. His friend Paul Politi hooked him up with music industry businessman Larry Nunes, who helped to finance their album. After it was recorded, Nunes took the recording to Russ Regan, who was the head of the Uni label owned by MCA. The album, 1972's "From A Girl's Point of View We Give to You... Love Unlimited", became the first of White's string of long-titled albums and singles.


title: Barry White

text: White produced, wrote and arranged their classic soul ballad "Walkin' in the Rain with the One I Love", which climbed to No. 14 in the "Billboard" Hot 100 Pop chart and No. 6 on the "Billboard" R&B chart in late 1972. It became White's first million selling single as a writer and producer. This single also reached No. 12 in the UK chart. White's voice can clearly be heard in this piece as he plays the lover who answers the phone call of the female lead.


title: Barry White

text: Soon after, Regan left Uni for 20th Century Records. Without Regan, White's relationship with Uni soured. With his relationship with Uni over and Love Unlimited contract-bound with the label, White was able to switch both his production deal and the group to 20th Century Records. They recorded several other hits throughout the 1970s, "I Belong to You", which spent over five months on the "Billboard" R&B chart in 1974 including a week at No. 1 and "Under the Influence of Love Unlimited", which hit No. 3 on the "Billboard" Pop album charts. White married the lead singer of the group, Glodean James, on July 4, 1974.


title: Barry White

text: In 1973, White created The Love Unlimited Orchestra, a 40-piece orchestral group to be used originally as a backing band for the girl-group Love Unlimited. However, White had other plans, and in 1973 he released a single with "Love's Theme" (written by him and played by the orchestra), which reached No. 1 on the "Billboard" Pop charts. Later, in 1974, he made the first album of the Love Unlimited Orchestra, "Rhapsody in White", containing "Love's Theme". White would continue to make albums with the orchestra, achieving some successes such as: "Rhapsody in White"; "Satin Soul"; "Forever in Love"; "Midnight Groove"; "My Sweet Summer Suite", Remake of "Theme From King Kong". The orchestra ceased to make albums in 1983, but continued to support White as a backing band.


title: Barry White

text: White wanted to work with another act, but decided to work with a solo male artist. While working on a few demos for a male singer, he made three song demos of himself singing and playing, but Nunes heard them and insisted that he re-record and release them himself as a solo recording artist. After arguing for days about it, White was finally persuaded to release the songs himself, although he was initially reluctant to step out behind the microphone.


title: Barry White

text: He then wrote several other songs and recorded them for what eventually became an entire album of music. He was going to use the name "White Heat," but decided on using his given name instead. White was still hesitating up to the time the label copy was made. It eventually became White's first solo album, 1973's "I've Got So Much to Give". It included the title track and his first solo chart hit, "I'm Gonna Love You Just a Little More Baby", which also rose to No. 1 on the "Billboard" R&B charts as well as No. 3 on the "Billboard" Pop charts in 1973 and stayed in the top 40 for many weeks.


title: Barry White

text: Other chart hits by White included "Never, Never Gonna Give You Up" (No. 2 R&B, No. 7 Pop in 1973), "Can't Get Enough of Your Love, Babe" (No. 1 Pop and R&B in 1974), "You're the First, the Last, My Everything" (No. 1 R&B, No. 2 Pop in 1974), "What Am I Gonna Do with You" (No. 1 R&B, No. 8 Pop in 1975), "Let the Music Play" (No. 4 R&B in 1976), "It's Ecstasy When You Lay Down Next to Me" (No. 1 R&B, No. 4 Pop in 1977) and "Your Sweetness Is My Weakness" (No. 2 R&B in 1978) and others. White also had a strong following in the UK, where he scored five Top 10 hits and a No. 1 for "You're the First, the Last, My Everything". Due to his large frame, facial hair, and deep voice, he was given the nickname "The Walrus of Love" in the UK.


title: Barry White

text: After six years, White left 20th Century in 1979 to launch his own label, Unlimited Gold, with CBS/Columbia Records.


title: Barry White

text: Although his success on the pop charts slowed down as the disco era came to an end, he maintained a loyal following throughout his career. Despite several albums over the next three years, he failed to repeat his earlier successes, with no singles managing to reach the "Billboard" Hot 100, except for 1982's "Change," climbing into the Billboard R&B Top 20 (No. 12). His label venture was exacting a heavy financial cost on White, so he concentrated on mostly touring and finally folded his label in 1983.


title: Barry White

text: After four years he signed with A&M Records, and with the release of 1987's "The Right Night & Barry White", the single entitled "Sho' You Right" made it to the "Billboard" R&B charts, peaking at No. 17.


title: Barry White

text: In 1989 he released "The Man Is Back!" and with it had three top 40 singles on the "Billboard" R&B charts: "Super Lover", which made it to No. 34, "I Wanna Do It Good to Ya", which made it to No. 26, and "When Will I See You Again", which made it to No. 32.


title: Barry White

text: A 1970s nostalgia fad allowed White to enjoy a renewed wave of popularity in the 1990s. After participating in the song "The Secret Garden (Sweet Seduction Suite)" from Quincy Jones's 1989 album "Back on the Block", White mounted an effective comeback with several albums, each more successful than the one before. He returned to the top of the charts in 1991 with the album "Put Me in Your Mix", which reached No. 8 on the "Billboard" R&B Albums chart and the song by the same name reached No. 2 on the "Billboard" R&B singles chart.


title: Barry White

text: In 1994, White released "The Icon Is Love", which went to No. 1 on the "Billboard" R&B album charts, and the single "Practice What You Preach" gave him his first No. 1 on the "Billboard" R&B singles chart in almost 20 years. The album was nominated for a Grammy in the Best R&B Album category, but lost to TLC's "CrazySexyCool".


title: Barry White

text: In 1996, White recorded the duet "In Your Wildest Dreams" with Tina Turner. 1996 also saw the release of "Space Jam" and its soundtrack, on which White had a duet with Chris Rock, called "Basketball Jones", a remake of Cheech & Chong's "Basketball Jones" from 1973.


title: Barry White

text: White's final album, 1999's "Staying Power", resulted in his last hit song "Staying Power," which placed No. 45 on the "Billboard" R&B charts. The single won him two Grammy Awards in the categories Best Male R&B Vocal Performance and Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance.


title: Barry White

text: His autobiography, "Love Unlimited", written with Mark Eliot, was published in 1999 by Broadway Books.


title: Barry White

text: Over the course of his career, White sometimes did voice-over work for television and movies. He voiced the character Brother Bear in the film "Coonskin" (1975), and also played the character Sampson in the movie's live-action segments. He appeared as himself in two episodes of "The Simpsons". In the episode "Whacking Day", Bart and Lisa used his deep bass singing voice, played through loudspeakers placed on the ground, to lull and attract snakes, saving them from extermination. White was a fan of the show, and had reportedly contacted the staff about wanting to make a guest appearance. He made a second cameo in the episode "Krusty Gets Kancelled".


title: Barry White

text: White played the role of a bus driver for a Prodigy commercial in 1995, and he also portrayed the voice of a rabbit in a Good Seasons salad-dressing-mix commercial, singing a song called "You Can't Bottle Love". In addition, he did some work for car commercials, including for Oldsmobile, and later on, Jeep. White also provided voice-over for Arby's Restaurant commercials on television and radio to promote its "Market Fresh" menu. White's voice can also be heard in Apple's first iBook commercial. White made three guest appearances on the comedy-drama television series "Ally McBeal", as his music was often featured on the show in dream sequences.


title: Barry White

text: White was first married to his childhood sweetheart, identified as just Mary in his autobiography, by the time he was 19. They separated in 1969 and later divorced.


title: Barry White

text: In 1974, White married singer Glodean James. The couple collaborated on the 1981 album "Barry & Glodean". They reportedly separated in 1988, but they were still legally married until White's death in 2003, although they lived separate lives. Although estranged from White for over a decade, as his widow she was made sole executor of his estate.


title: Barry White

text: By the age of 16, White had fathered two children with his first wife Mary. They had four children together. In 2017, his son Darryl White from his first marriage sued his estate claiming he was cut off financially.


title: Barry White

text: White had four children with his second wife Glodean James. Their daughter Shaherah was his personal assistant. Barry Jr. played in the Love Unlimited Orchestra and was also his tour manager. White's son MacKevin worked in his publishing administration.


title: Barry White

text: White had a daughter, Denise Donnell born in 1962 to Gurtha Allen. She did not discover who her biological father was until 1988. She was accepted by White and with his help she changed her name to Denise White. In 2016, she sued White's estate after she stopped receiving money.


title: Barry White

text: After White's death in 2003, his girlfriend Katherine Denton claimed her infant daughter Barriana was his biological child. Denton also claimed that she was owed money and personal items that White had promised to give her. Paternity tests revealed that he was not the father of her child and Denton subsequently lost her court case.


title: Barry White

text: White was overweight for most of his adult life and suffered from related health problems. He was also known to be a heavy smoker, reportedly smoking approximately 150 cigarettes a day; roughly between 7 and 8 packs.


title: Barry White

text: While on tour in the summer of 1995, White nearly collapsed after a concert. He took a break from performing that fall, and on October 30 of that year, he was hospitalized after having a stroke due to high blood pressure. He was in a coma for four days but was discharged a week after coming out of it.


title: Barry White

text: While touring with Earth, Wind & Fire in August 1999, White was forced to cancel a month's worth of tour dates owing to exhaustion, high blood pressure and a hectic schedule. Family, friends and associates also reported that as the 2000s began, White was in such poor health that he could hardly stand up; his last performances suffered as a result.


title: Barry White

text: In September 2002, White was hospitalized with kidney failure attributed to chronic high blood pressure; he was also believed to have been diabetic. While undergoing dialysis and awaiting a kidney transplant in May 2003, White suffered a severe stroke, which forced him to retire from public life. He also suffered multiple seizures in his last few weeks.


title: Barry White

text: White's unstable health prevented him from receiving a new kidney and on 4th of July, 2003, he died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles after suffering cardiac arrest; he was 58 years old. His remains were cremated, and the ashes were scattered in the ocean off the California coast.


title: Barry White

text: On September 20, 2004, White was posthumously inducted into the Dance Music Hall of Fame at a ceremony held in New York. On September 12, 2013, which would have been White's 69th birthday, he was posthumously awarded the 2,506th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6914 Hollywood Boulevard in the category of recording. The show "Counting Cars" paid tribute to White by restoring the last car he owned for his widow, Glodean.


title: Barry White

text: In an obituary referring to White by his nickname, "The Walrus of Love," the BBC recalled "the rich timbres of one of the most distinctive soul voices of his generation, about which it was once said: 'If chocolate fudge cake could sing, it would sound like Barry White.'"


title: Barry White

text: White was nominated for 11 Grammy Awards; winning two for "Staying Power" at the 42nd Annual Grammy Awards in 2000.


title: Padma Bhushan

text: The Padma Bhushan is the third-highest civilian award in the Republic of India, preceded by the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan and followed by the Padma Shri. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is given for "distinguished service of a high order...without distinction of race, occupation, position or sex." The award criteria include "service in any field including service rendered by Government servants" including doctors and scientists, but exclude those working with the public sector undertakings. , the award has been bestowed on 1270 individuals, including twenty-four posthumous and ninety-seven non-citizen recipients.


title: Padma Bhushan

text: The Padma Awards Committee is constituted every year by the Prime Minister of India and the recommendations for the award are submitted between 1 May and 15 September. The recommendations are received from all the state and the union territory governments, as well as from Ministries of the Government of India, Bharat Ratna and Padma Vibhushan awardees, the Institutes of Excellence, Ministers, Chief Ministers and Governors of States, Members of Parliament, and private individuals. The committee later submits their recommendations to the Prime Minister and the President of India for the further approval. The award recipients are announced on 26 January, the Republic Day of India.


title: Padma Bhushan

text: When instituted in 1954, twenty-three recipients were honoured with the Padma Bhushan. The Padma Bhushan, along with other personal civil honours, was briefly suspended twice, from July 1977 to January 1980 and from August 1992 to December 1995. Some of the recipients have refused or returned their conferments.


title: Padma Bhushan

text: On 2 January 1954, a press release was published from the office of the secretary to the President of India announcing the creation of two civilian awards—Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian award, and the three-tier Padma Vibhushan, classified into "Pahela Varg" (Class I), "Dusra Varg" (Class II), and "Tisra Varg" (Class III), which rank below the Bharat Ratna. On 15 January 1955, the Padma Vibhushan was reclassified into three different awards: the Padma Vibhushan, the highest of the three, followed by the Padma Bhushan and the Padma Shri.


title: Padma Bhushan

text: The award, along with other personal civilian honours, was briefly suspended twice in its history. The first time in July 1977 when Morarji Desai was sworn in as the fourth Prime Minister of India, for being "worthless and politicized." The suspension was rescinded on 25 January 1980 after Indira Gandhi became the Prime Minister.


title: Padma Bhushan

text: The civilian awards were suspended again in mid-1992, when two Public-Interest Litigations were filed in the High Courts of India, one in the Kerala High Court on 13 February 1992 by Balaji Raghavan and another in the Madhya Pradesh High Court (Indore Bench) on 24 August 1992 by Satya Pal Anand. Both petitioners questioned the civilian awards being "titles" per an interpretation of of the Constitution of India.


title: Padma Bhushan

text: On 25 August 1992, the Madhya Pradesh High Court issued a notice temporarily suspending all civilian awards. A Special Division Bench of the Supreme Court of India was formed comprising five judges: A. M. Ahmadi C. J., Kuldip Singh, B. P. Jeevan Reddy, N. P. Singh, and S. Saghir Ahmad. On 15 December 1995, the Special Division Bench restored the awards and delivered a judgment that the "Bharat Ratna and Padma awards are not titles under Article 18 of the Constitution of India."


title: Padma Bhushan

text: The award is conferred for "distinguished service of a high order...without distinction of race, occupation, position or sex." The criteria include "service in any field including service rendered by Government servants" but exclude those working with the public sector undertakings, with the exception of doctors and scientists. The 1954 statutes did not allow posthumous awards, but this was subsequently modified in the January 1955 statute; D. C. Kizhakemuri became the first recipient to be honoured posthumously in 1999.


title: Padma Bhushan

text: The recommendations are received from all the state and the union territory governments, as well as from Ministries of the Government of India, Bharat Ratna and Padma Vibhushan awardees, the Institutes of Excellence, Ministers, Chief Ministers and Governors of States, Members of Parliament, and private individuals. The recommendations received during 1 May and 15 September of every year are submitted to the Padma Awards Committee, convened by the Prime Minister of India. The Awards Committee later submits its recommendations to the Prime Minister and the President of India for further approval.


title: Padma Bhushan

text: The Padma Bhushan award recipients are announced every year on 26 January, the Republic Day of India, and registered in "The Gazette of India"a publication released weekly by the Department of Publication, Ministry of Urban Development used for official government notices. The conferral of the award is not considered official without its publication in the "Gazette". Recipients whose awards have been revoked or restored, both of which actions require the authority of the President, are also registered in the "Gazette" and are required to surrender their medals when their names are struck from the register.


title: Padma Bhushan

text: The original specification of the award was a circle made of standard silver in diameter, with rims on both the sides. A centrally located lotus flower was embossed on the obverse side of the medal and the text "Padma Bhushan" written in Devanagari Script was inscribed above the lotus along the upper edge of the medal. A floral wreath was embossed along the lower edge and a lotus wreath at the top along the upper edge. The State Emblem of India was placed in the centre of the reverse side with the text "Desh Seva" in Devanagari Script on the lower edge. The medal was suspended by a pink riband in width divided into three equal segments by two white vertical lines.


title: Padma Bhushan

text: A year later, the design was modified. The current decoration is a circular-shaped bronze toned medallion in diameter and thick. The centrally placed pattern made of outer lines of a square of side is embossed with a knob embossed within each of the outer angles of the pattern. A raised circular space of diameter is placed at the centre of the decoration. A centrally located lotus flower is embossed on the obverse side of the medal and the text "Padma" written in Devanagari script is placed above and the text "Bhushan" is placed below the lotus.


title: Padma Bhushan

text: The Emblem of India is placed in the centre of the reverse side with the national motto of India, "Satyameva Jayate" (Truth alone triumphs) in Devanagari Script, inscribed on the lower edge. The rim, the edges and all embossing on either side is of standard gold with the text "Padma Bhushan" of gold gilt. The medal is suspended by a pink riband in width with a broad white stripe in the middle.


title: Padma Bhushan

text: The medal is ranked fifth in the order of precedence of wearing of medals and decorations. The medals are produced at Alipore Mint, Kolkata along with the other civilian and military awards like Bharat Ratna, Padma Vibhushan, Padma Shri, and Param Vir Chakra.


title: Padma Bhushan

text: Some of the bestowals of the Padma Bhushan have been refused or returned by the recipients. A Bengali theatre activist Sisir Bhaduri (1959) was the first awardee who refused their conferment as "he felt state awards merely help create a sycophantic brigade" and "did not want to encourage the impression that the government was serious about the importance of theatre in national life." Sitar player Vilayat Khan declined to accept the award in 1968, with him stating that "the selection committees were incompetent to judge [his] music." Khan had earlier refused Padma Shri in 1964 and later also turned down Padma Vibhushan in 2000.


title: Padma Bhushan

text: Journalist Nikhil Chakravarty rejected the award in 1990 stating that the "journalists should not be identified with the establishment." Historian Romila Thapar refused to accept the award twice, for the first time in 1992, and later again in 2005, stating that she would accept awards only "from academic institutions or those associated with my professional work." For her 2005 bestowal, Thapar sent a clarification letter to the then President A. P. J. Abdul Kalam mentioning that she had declined to accept the award when the Ministry of Human Resource Development had contacted her three month prior to the award announcement and had explained her reasons for not accepting the award. Journalist and civil servant K. Subrahmanyam refused his 1999 bestowal citing that "bureaucrats and journalists should not accept any award from the government because they are more liable to be favoured."


title: Padma Bhushan

text: In 2003, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sanghs (RSS) volunteer Dattopant Thengadi rejected the award until K. B. Hedgewar (RSS founder) and M. S. Golwalkar (RSS ideologue) are offered the Bharat Ratna. Civil servant S. R. Sankaran turned down the award in 2005 without citing any reason. In 2013, playback singer S. Janaki refused to accept her award and stated that "the award has come late in her five-and-half-decade long career." The singer also mentioned that she is not against the Government and expressed happiness for the recognition but requested the Government to "show some more consideration to the artists from the southern parts of the country."


title: Padma Bhushan

text: In 2014, family members of J. S. Verma who served as 27th Chief Justice of India refused the posthumous conferral stating that "Verma himself would not have accepted" the honour as he "never hankered or lobbied for any acclaim, reward or favour."


title: Padma Bhushan

text: Kannada novelist K. Shivaram Karanth, who was awarded in 1968, returned his award to protest against the Emergency declared in the country in 1975. Novelist Khushwant Singh, who accepted the award in 1974 in the field of literature and education, returned it in 1984 as a notion of protest against the Operation Blue Star. Singh was later awarded with Padma Vibhushan in 2007. Pushpa Mittra Bhargava, 1986 recipient and scientist and founder-director of Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), returned his award in 2015 in protest of the Dadri mob lynching and out of concern at the "prevailing socio-politico situation" in the country.


title: Padma Bhushan

text: The 2010 conferment on an Indian-American businessman Sant Singh Chatwal, who was awarded the Padma Bhushan in the field of Public Affairs, created much controversy. Known for his association with former US President Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary Clinton, Chatwal pled guilty to violating the Federal Election Campaign Act and witness tampering during the 2008 United States presidential election. He was also accused of lobbying for the award by leveraging "his contacts in the Prime Minister's Office and United States Congress."


title: Padma Bhushan

text: The Government provided the clarification regarding the conferment and issued a press release which mentioned Chatwal as a "tireless advocate" of the country's interest in the United States. The statement also mentioned that "due diligence" exercise is carried out for each of the awardees and out of five Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered cases against Chatwal between 1992 and 1994, three were closed by CBI itself and in remaining two cases, Chatwal was discharged by the Court and as per the reports that were made available to the selection committee, there is nothing adverse on record against him. According to media reports, there were several cases filed or registered after April 2009 which includes three criminal complaints with Kerala Police and four cases in Delhi High Court and Kerala High Court. Chatwal also served summons in January 2010. However, the then Union Home Secretary Gopal Krishna Pillai said that "no probe has been ordered nor any report sought from anyone."


title: Padma Bhushan

text: Earlier in 2008, Chatwal was considered for the Padma Shri but the Indian Embassy in Washington, D.C. declined to nominate Chatwal when asked by the Prime Minister's Office. The then Indian Ambassador to the United States Ronen Sen had told PMO that the conferral would not be appropriate because of the controversy associated with his financial dealings in India and America. Sen had also mentioned that though positive, Chatwal's contribution are much less compared to other Indian-Americans. The bestowal would not only "demoralise the others who had done much more" but also would create "the impression that India did not regard lack of transparency in financial dealings as a disqualification for its highest honours."


title: Padma Bhushan

text: In 2022, former West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya refused to accept his award on the eve of the 73rd Republic day of India. He reportedly refused to have been intimated about his nomination and straightaway exclaimed in media that if he has been awarded,he refuses the same.His name appeared on the official list of awardees, and so far he has refused the same.


title: Qatar national football team

text: The Qatar national football team () represents Qatar in international football, and is controlled by the Qatar Football Association and AFC.


title: Qatar national football team

text: The team has appeared in ten Asian Cup tournaments and won it once in 2019, beating Japan, Saudi Arabia, and South Korea in the process, conceding just one goal. They play their home games at Khalifa International Stadium and Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium. The latter is considered the home stadium for the team.


title: Qatar national football team

text: Qatar are currently hosting the 2022 FIFA World Cup and therefore qualified automatically for what is their first appearance in the finals. This is the first time an Arab nation has hosted the competition. On 26 November, Qatar were the first team to be eliminated from the World Cup; subsequently, they became the worst performing host nation in the history of the FIFA World Cup, not winning a single game.


title: Qatar national football team

text: Football was brought to Qatar during a time which coincided with initial discovery of oil reserves in Dukhan in 1940. By 1948, expatriate oil workers played the first official football match in Qatar. The Qatar Football Association was formed in 1960, and the QFA joined FIFA in 1963. Simultaneously during this period, the Bahrain Football Association were drawing up plans for the establishment of a regional football competition within the GCC and Qatari officials were involved with the corroboration of this proposal. The plans came to fruition and in March 1970 the Arabian Gulf Cup was inaugurated.


title: Qatar national football team

text: The Qatar national team played its first official match on 27 March 1970 against hosts Bahrain, losing 1–2 as Mubarak Faraj scored the sole goal for Qatar. The newly formed Qatar national team posted underwhelming results in the first Gulf Cup tournament, coming in last place with a single point, with the highlight of their tournament being a 1–1 draw with the Saudis in their final match.


title: Qatar national football team

text: In the next edition of the Gulf Cup in 1972, Qatar was again relegated to last place after suffering 3 straight defeats. The next tournament in 1974 proved to be somewhat of a break-through for the Qataris as they achieved their first triumph in international football with a 4–0 victory over Oman. The Qataris lost out to Saudi Arabia in the semi-finals, but achieved a 3rd place standing after emerging the victors of a penalty shoot-out against the United Arab Emirates.


title: Qatar national football team

text: The first time they entered the qualifying stages for the AFC Asian Cup was in 1975. They were not successful in qualifying for the 1976 Asian Cup, with Iraq and Saudi Arabia booking the group's two qualifying berths. Despite this setback, Qatar finished in 3rd place in the 1976 Gulf Cup as the host nation the next year.


title: Qatar national football team

text: The national team played its first FIFA World Cup qualifying match in 1977. Qatar was set to play the United Arab Emirates on 11 March 1977, but the last minute withdrawal of the Emirati team from the competition merely postponed Qatar's debut until two days later when Bahrain were defeated 2–0 in Doha.


title: Qatar national football team

text: Their Asian Cup debut came in 1980 under head coach Evaristo de Macedo. They had qualified for the tournament after topping a relatively easy group composing of Bangladesh and Afghanistan. Their showing in the main tournament was unimpressive, making an early exit from the group stages with two defeats, one draw and one win.


title: Qatar national football team

text: Qatar narrowly lost to Iraq in the finals of the 1984 Gulf Cup, nonetheless they were named runners-up, their most impressive accolade until 1992.


title: Qatar national football team

text: They failed to make it out of the preliminary stages of the 1982 and 1986 World Cup qualifying rounds. However, the team qualified for both the 1984 and 1988 editions of the Asian Cup. They fell short of qualifying for the semi-finals of the 1984 tournament, with Saudi Arabia's Mohaisen Al-Jam'an's 88th-minute goal against Kuwait ensuring a semi-final position for both teams. They also missed out on a semi-final place in 1988; however, they notably defeated Japan by a score of 3–0.


title: Qatar national football team

text: Qatar arguably reached its peak in the 1990s, attaining its highest-ever FIFA rating (53) in August 1993. Qatar started off with an emphatic qualifying campaign for the 1990 World Cup, finishing at the top of their group. They were denied a spot in the World Cup after finishing below the United Arab Emirates and South Korea in the final round of the qualifiers.


title: Qatar national football team

text: In 1990, the national team once again finished runners-up in the Gulf Cup as Kuwait won the final two matches of the tournament. Two years later, they won the competition on home soil for the first time under the leadership of Sebastião Lapola, despite a 1–0 loss against Saudi Arabia in their final game. They were also named runners-up in the 1996 Gulf Cup.


title: Qatar national football team

text: Qatar reached the Asian Zone's final qualifying round for France 1998. After wins against China and Iran, they played their last match against Saudi Arabia, where a victory would have earned qualification. However, they lost out as Saudi Arabia won 1–0 to reach the finals.


title: Qatar national football team

text: They made it to the quarter-finals of the 2000 Asian Cup despite finishing 3rd in their group, but lost to China in their quarter-final confrontation.


title: Qatar national football team

text: They reached the final qualifying round again in 2001 but were defeated by Bora Milutinovic's China team, who topped the section to progress to their first FIFA World Cup. Frenchman Philippe Troussier took the manager's job after the 2002 World Cup in Korea and Japan, but was unsuccessful in both the 2004 Asian Cup and the qualifying campaign for the 2006 World Cup in Germany.


title: Qatar national football team

text: Troussier was sacked after the World Cup qualifying campaign, and under Bosnian Džemaludin Mušović, the team won the Gulf Cup in 2004 and the Asian Games gold in 2006. Mušović stepped down after Qatar only earned two points from three matches in the 2007 Asian Cup.


title: Qatar national football team

text: The job of coaching the team in qualifying for the 2010 World Cup fell to Jorge Fossati, who led the team throughout the first and second AFC rounds up to the third round. After leaving them at the top of their group with only two played matches, Fossati had to undergo stomach surgery. Subsequently, the Qatar Football Association ended their cooperation with him in September 2008, as the QFA claimed he needed too long to recover from surgery. Bruno Metsu was called up for the job, but Qatar failed to qualify after finishing fourth in their qualifying group.


title: Qatar national football team

text: In 2011, as hosts of the 2011 Asian Cup, they advanced to the quarter-finals. They succumbed to a late 2–3 defeat to eventual champions Japan after a goal was scored by Masahiko Inoha in the 89th minute.


title: Qatar national football team

text: Also as hosts, they went on to win the 2014 WAFF Championship after defeating Jordan 2–0 in the final. The competition was made up primarily of youth and reserve teams, of which Qatar's was the latter. Djamel Belmadi, the head coach of the B team, replaced Fahad Thani as the head coach of the senior team as a result of the team's positive performances. 10 months later, Djamel Belmadi led Qatar to gold in the 2014 Gulf Cup. They advanced from the group stages after three draws, going on to defeat Oman 3–1 in the semi-final, and were victorious in the final against Saudi Arabia, who was playing in front of a home crowd, by a margin of 2–1.


title: Qatar national football team

text: Despite winning the Gulf Cup and finishing the year 2014 with only one defeat, Qatar showed poor form in the 2015 Asian Cup. Qatar was defeated 1–4 by the United Arab Emirates in their opener. This was continued with a 0–1 loss to Iran and 1–2 to Bahrain. Qatar was eliminated in the group stages with no points and placed 4th in Group C.


title: Qatar national football team

text: Qatar's campaign in qualifying for the 2018 World Cup in Russia was a surprise. Their start in the second round of World Cup qualifying in the AFC was nearly perfect, with seven wins and only one loss. However, their success in the second round didn't follow them to the third round. Qatar finished bottom of their group, ensuring they would play their first World Cup match on home soil in 2022, the first team to do so since Italy in 1934.


title: Qatar national football team

text: Qatar continued its poor form in the 2017 Gulf Cup, which was hosted by Kuwait. Qatar opened the tournament with a 4–0 win against Yemen, but that was followed by a 1–2 loss to Iraq and an unconvincing 1–1 draw to Bahrain. Qatar took third place in Group B with four points and was eliminated in the group stage of the competition, which was considered an upsetting of the tournament, especially after winning the 2014 edition.


title: Qatar national football team

text: However, Qatar had an excellent campaign at the 2019 Asian Cup. Their opener saw them defeat Lebanon 2–0. This was followed by a 6–0 thrashing of North Korea and a 2–0 win against three-time champions Saudi Arabia, which sealed the team getting first place in the group. They had a 1–0 win against Iraq in the Round of 16 and a late win against defending runners-up South Korea in the quarter-finals, seeing them through to the semi-finals for the first time ever, where they defeated the hosts United Arab Emirates 4–0 to set up a final against 4-time winners Japan. Qatar ended up winning the final 3–1 over Japan, marking their first-ever major tournament title in their history, and capping off one of the most improbable Asian Cup runs in the tournament's history, especially since they conceded only one goal in all their games.


title: Qatar national football team

text: Qatar was invited to the 2019 Copa América. They were placed in Group B with Colombia, Argentina and Paraguay. Their first game was against Paraguay where they came back from a 2–0 deficit to tie it 2–2 but marked for the first time Qatar suffered more than one goal in any major competition since winning the Asian Cup in UAE. It was followed by a 0–1 loss to Colombia, ending the team's undefeated streak in any major competition to eight. A 0–2 loss to Argentina meant Qatar took the last place in Group B with a single point and was eliminated in the group stage of the competition.


title: Qatar national football team

text: Qatar was invited for the first time to the 2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup. They played in Group D with Honduras, Panama and Grenada.


title: Qatar national football team

text: In December 2020, UEFA invited Qatar to play friendlies against the teams in Group A of the 2022 World Cup qualifying group – Azerbaijan, Luxembourg, Portugal, the Republic of Ireland and Serbia – as five teams in one group means one team will not be playing on any given match day. These friendlies did not count in the qualifying group standings. Qatar played their "home" matches in Europe in order to allow short travel times for their opponents.


title: Qatar national football team

text: In the 2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup, Qatar claimed 7 points in Group D. Their debut was against Panama with a 3–3 draw, ensuring them their first point. This was followed by a 4–0 victory over Grenada and a 2–0 win over Honduras ensuring a quarter-final place where they would face El Salvador, ultimately securing a semi-final place against the United States with a 3–2 win. However, against the hosts with its squad made up of the majority of MLS players, Qatar failed to find the way to the net, in spite of having a penalty in the 60th minute, ultimately conceding a late goal from Gyasi Zardes to end Qatar's campaign with a 1–0 loss.


title: Qatar national football team

text: In the 2021 FIFA Arab Cup, Qatar won all of its group-stage matches and faced UAE, winning 5–0. They lost 2–1 in the semi-final against Algeria, eventually placing 3rd.


title: Qatar national football team

text: Despite the very successful performance of Qatar in various major tournaments, the 2022 FIFA World Cup held at home proved to be a nightmare for the Qataris. Being automatically drawn into the Group A as hosts, Qatar started with a 0–2 loss to Ecuador in the opening match, conceding two goals in the first half from Enner Valencia, making Qatar the first host country to lose their opening game. The situation did not improve for the Qataris in their second meeting with Senegal, when the Africans beat the Qataris 3–1 to condemn the hosts to an early World Cup exit, the second hosts after South Africa to have such a sad record, though Ghanaian-born Mohammed Muntari became Qatar's first World Cup scorer in this game. With Qatar's elimination confirmed, the hosts then fell to the Netherlands 0–2, making an unwanted record as the first hosts to score the least goal (1), losing all three group games, being eliminated after two group games (South Africa, as hosts of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, were eliminated only on goal differences to Mexico after three matches) and the lowest-ranked team in the tournament (ranked 32nd).


title: Qatar national football team

text: Qatar wears all-maroon as their home colours and all-white colours as an away kit. Their first manufacturer was Umbro from 1984 to 1989. All Qatar kits are currently manufactured by Nike.


title: Qatar national football team

text: Qatar has a major rivalry against Bahrain due to historical tension between the two countries. With 38 matches played, the overall record favours Bahrain, who won 11 matches, lost 7 and tied 19. From 2004 until 2021, Qatar suffered a winless streak over Bahrain with six defeats and ten draws before finally registering a win in the 2021 FIFA Arab Cup.


title: Qatar national football team

text: The rivalry with United Arab Emirates is a competitive one in the Persian Gulf Cup meeting in multiple occasions, due to the Qatar diplomatic crisis, increasing tensions had been witnessed, with the captain of UAE under-19 youth team refused to shake hands with Qatar's youth captain in 2018 AFC U-19 Championship held in Indonesia; in this tournament, the UAE beat Qatar 2–1 but still crashed out from the group stage while Qatar would recover to qualify for the 2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup. As of 2020, Qatar and UAE have played 31 official matches, most of which was held competitively in the Persian Gulf Cup, it started off with the United Arab Emirates beating Qatar 1–0. They only played 2 friendly games and the last friendly was held in 2011 which ended with an Emirati victory. In the 2019 AFC Asian Cup, hosted by the UAE, Qatar overran the UAE for the first time since 2001 with a result of 4–0, with heavy tensions and violence occurring between the two Emirati supporters cheering anti-Qatari chants.


title: Qatar national football team

text: Qatar has a major rivalry against Saudi Arabia due to historical tension between the two countries and the Qatar diplomatic crisis. Qatar has an overall negative record against Saudi Arabia; with 41 matches played, Qatar has won 8 matches, lost 17, and tied 16.


title: Qatar national football team

text: While it is reasonably common for footballers to represent national teams other than their birth nations, the nature and extent of the practice for the Qatari team have been the subject of scrutiny and criticism at various points during the 21st century. In 2004, FIFA cited the intention of three Brazilian players – Aílton, Dedé and Leandro – to play for the Qatar national team as the immediate trigger to their decision to tighten eligibility rules to ensure players have ties to the country they represent.


title: Qatar national football team

text: Qatar continued to pursue a strategy of naturalizing foreign-born players, within the limitations of the new rules, and it continued to prove controversial. The "Aspire Football Dreams" program of recruitment of boys from Africa to an academy in Qatar drew a substantial amount of criticism. While Qatari authorities described it as a humanitarian effort and a way to provide competition for native Qatari players, critics claimed that it was merely another exploitative way of acquiring naturalized players, with "Vice" linking it to human rights abuses and the kafala system. The International Labour Organization (ILO) and Qatar announced the removal of the Kafala on 12 December 2016; the law came into effect in 2018. The reform took place between UN’s International labor organization and the state of Qatar and was proven to be the part of many said assurances that nation has claimed for the 2022 World Cup. Though claimed by independent bodies of Qatar foundering to achieve the same, both sides had agreed to revise previous acts that had been taken. To make this all possible, the hosting country declared to pay compensation for the deaths of its migrant workers on 12 August 2022.


title: Qatar national football team

text: Job changes between September 2020 and March 2022, the establishment of a nondiscriminatory wage system for all workers in March 2021, and workers' funds and insurance policies in the workplace are all data that showcased the functioning of the state for its workers.


title: Qatar national football team

text: In the 2015 friendly against Algeria, six of the eleven players in the starting team were born outside of Qatar. Then-president of FIFA, Sepp Blatter, warned Qatar that FIFA would monitor their player selection to ensure that they were not relying too heavily on naturalised players. He made comparisons to the Qatar men's national handball team, referring to the team's selection for the 2015 World Men's Handball Championship as an "absurdity". The following year, naturalized players formed the backbone of the team and were sufficiently integral that head coach Jorge Fossati threatened to resign if they were removed.


title: Qatar national football team

text: The reliance on naturalised players has subsequently reduced, with only two members of the squad that beat Switzerland in a 2018 friendly being born outside Qatar. However, at the 2019 Asian Cup, amidst diplomatic tensions between the two countries, the United Arab Emirates Football Association lodged a formal complaint against Qatar, alleging that Almoez Ali and Bassam Al-Rawi were not eligible to play for them. These complaints were dismissed by the AFC.


title: Qatar national football team

text: Qatar was the second team from outside the Americas to participate in the Copa América, and were invited for the first time in 2019.


title: Qatar national football team

text: Qatar was the second team from Asia to participate in the CONCACAF Gold Cup, and were invited for the first time in 2021.


title: Qatar national football team

text: Since 1992, the Olympic team has been drawn from a squad with a maximum of three players over the age of 23, and the achievements of this team are not regarded as part of the national team's records, nor are the statistics credited to the players' international records.


title: Qatar national football team

text: The following table shows Qatar's all-time international record, correct as of 29 November 2022. The last match was played against on 29 November 2022.


title: Around the World in Eighty Days

text: Around the World in Eighty Days () is an adventure novel by the French writer Jules Verne, first published in French in 1872. In the story, Phileas Fogg of London and his newly employed French valet Passepartout attempt to circumnavigate the world in 80 days on a wager of £20,000 set by his friends at the Reform Club. It is one of Verne's most acclaimed works.


title: Around the World in Eighty Days

text: Phileas Fogg is a wealthy English gentleman living a solitary life in London. Despite his wealth, Fogg lives modestly and carries out his habits with mathematical precision. Very little can be said about his social life other than that he is a member of the Reform Club, where he spends the best part of his days. Having dismissed his valet for bringing him shaving water at a temperature slightly lower than expected, Fogg hires Frenchman Jean Passepartout as a replacement.