title: Yanni

text: In April 2012, Yanni released the "Live at El Morro, Puerto Rico" live album CD and DVD which were recorded and filmed at two outdoor concerts on December 16 and 17, 2011 on the grounds of the Castillo (Fort) San Felipe del Morro ("El Morro"), a UNESCO World Heritage Site in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The recorded concerts were broadcast on PBS beginning in March 2012, the production constituting Yanni's tenth collaboration with that organization.


title: Yanni

text: Yanni performed again in China in the February 9, 2013, CCTV Spring Festival Gala (annual audience 700 million) with Chinese zither artist Chang Jing in what was the first year that CCTV had invited foreign artists to perform. For the performance, Yanni released a single "East Meets West" which was a mashup of his several famous songs (Santorini, North Shore of Matsushima) together with a solo part performed on Chinese zither.


title: Yanni

text: Yanni's 2010s tours included new vocalists, distinct from the 2008–2009 "Yanni Voices" vocalists, though the setlists remained predominantly instrumental.


title: Yanni

text: In March 2014, Yanni released his seventeenth studio album, "Inspirato," a collaboration with operatic tenor Plácido Domingo and producer Ric Wake that, like "Yanni Voices" five years earlier, highlighted vocal performances. In "Inspirato," distinguished operatic vocalists performed remakes of songs that Yanni had previously released over his career, the songs' titles and lyrics being predominantly in the Italian language.


title: Yanni

text: On October 30 and 31, 2015, Yanni performed two concerts on the grounds of the Egyptian pyramids and Great Sphinx of Giza, his first performance in Egypt. The concerts included fireworks and a video broadcast from International Space Station commander Scott Kelly, and were recorded in 4K HD for subsequent broadcast on PBS. To convey an image of stable security after the Egyptian Crisis (2011–14), an Egyptian security force of 3,000 people secured the concert area.


title: Yanni

text: In December 2015, Yanni produced a song, "Seven Billion Dreams," for a NASA video that marked the 15th anniversary of the International Space Station.


title: Yanni

text: On December 18, 2015, Yanni released the single "Desert Soul" from his eighteenth studio album, "Sensuous Chill," which was released on January 29, 2016. The album, which, being built around synthesizers, programmed rhythms and electronic sounds, was said to "come full circle" to his early-1980s albums.


title: Yanni

text: Yanni's single, "When Dreams Come True", called a "minimal piano-led" piece, was composed incrementally throughout a 60-date North American tour as a series of improvisations performed during successive shows. Its first complete live performance was in February 2019 at the Winter at Tantora Festival in Al-'Ula, Saudi Arabia, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.


title: Yanni

text: Yanni's August 2019 single honoring his daughter Krystalán is called "Ladyhawk", alluding to how she watches over him like a guardian angel.


title: Yanni

text: In the 2010s, Yanni's international tours included performances in over thirty countries on five continents, including (alphabetically) Argentina, Armenia, Bahrain, Belarus, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Egypt, Germany, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Mexico, Oman, Panama, Poland, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States (including Puerto Rico), and Uzbekistan.


title: Yanni

text: In August 2020, Yanni released his nineteenth studio album "In His Purest Form," containing solo piano performances of his previously released songs, and his first piano solo album since "In My Time" (1993).


title: Yanni

text: From childhood, Yanni accepted a wide variety of musical styles, listening to radio stations from Northern Africa, Arab countries, and Europe. He observed that "there were no "rock" stations or "classical" stations—each station would just play everything." Yanni's music is said to reflect his encounters with cultures around the world and embody his philosophy of "one world, one people." In this vein, "Booth Newspapers' " Jeffrey Kaczmarczyk perceived the eclectic inspirations of Yanni's music to be an element of his success: Yanni's "Middle Eastern and Oriental scales and mixed meters sound just exotic enough to entice his middle-of-the-road fans, but not so authentic as to mystify folks who grew up with a backbeat, so you can't lose it," adding that certain songs "leave you with a sense that you've just heard a bit of a steel drum or a Greek bouzouki or a Japanese koto or possibly all three."


title: Yanni

text: Yanni's musical influences include music from Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East, as well as classical, rock and roll, and electronic music. Yanni explained that the 1970s, with its new technology and electronic instruments, were particularly influential at that stage in his career, and that even recently his "Truth of Touch" album (2011) was started by experimenting with new sound designs. Having been exposed to classical music very early in life—listening to Bach at age 8—he counts several classical pianists and composers among his influences, citing Beethoven as a favorite and Chopin as "No. 2 favorite." Yanni mentioned being influenced not only by classical composers like Mozart and Bach, but also rock and roll bands such as Led Zeppelin, the People!, and Black Sabbath.


title: Yanni

text: Yanni explained that "the most influence I've ever had from music was doing (soundtracks for) movies... mostly instrumental music," mentioning his love for the work of Jerry Goldsmith and John Williams. "The Augusta Chronicle's" Kelly Jasper noted that most of Yanni's music is instrumental, indicating that Yanni surmised that the lack of lyrics is what allowed his music to become popular internationally. Yanni went on to say, "There are no lyrics in my music for the most part, so the whole message is transmitted through the rhythm, melody, and sounds, and I think that has to do with crossing all the borders and being able to go to different countries." "It is very difficult, if not impossible, to lie with instrumental music because it deals in emotions only." He has also said that words operate in a different area of the brain, and lyrics "tend to put a song into a box."


title: Yanni

text: However, Yanni performed with four vocalists in the forefront in "Yanni Voices" (2008–2009), and performed with vocalists on tours and in the "Live at El Morro, Puerto Rico" concerts (December 2011) and CD/DVD (2012). In late 2011 Yanni remarked that he tends to prefer instrumental music "because it's more open, but the human voice too can be the most expressive instrument known to man. There is power to it." Referring to his creative experiences on the 2009 "Voices" project, Yanni explained that "while most of the music I write is instrumental, I love to use the human voice as another instrument."


title: Yanni

text: While Yanni has said that new age is "a spiritual definition more than a musical definition," his music is said to be "adopted by" the New Age movement as it gained mainstream momentum. His music is also called "contemporary instrumental" and has been described as "an instrumental blend of fusion-jazz, world music, classical, and soft rock." However, at least as early as 1988, Yanni was said to shun labels such as "Greek" and "new age," emphasizing that "when someone says new age music, I think of something that you put on in the background while you're vacuuming the house. I don't want to relax the audience; I want to engage them in the music, get them interested." Distinguishing his work from what others have called ambient mood music, Yanni pointed out in 1994: ""New age" implies a more subdued, more relaxed music than what I do. My music can be very rhythmic, very energetic, even very ethnic."


title: Yanni

text: In 2012, Yanni remarked that he has never liked putting art into categories or assigning labels, adding that he always composed music "to honestly reflect the lessons learned and the experiences I have shared throughout my life." For example, Yanni's university study of psychology influenced his music: "When I create music, it is a reflection of my soul, my experiences in life and my relationships with other people and cultures. Psychology, and understanding who we are as people in this world, is present in almost every creative thought I have."


title: Yanni

text: The genre of Yanni's music made it unsuitable for most commercial radio or for music television. In 2012 Yanni expressed the importance of PBS to his career, saying that the network "always allowed me to present my music without any censorship or influence, and encouraged me to be the artist that I am," and had been "a great part of my career for over 20 years."


title: Yanni

text: Yanni took an unconventional path to recognition, for example, by risking his personal fortune to fund historic-monument events such as his 1993 Acropolis concerts, by producing specials on public television, by creating alone in his home-built studio, and by performing many of his own production duties—thus by-passing the conventional music industry. In 2000, "The Washington Post's" David Segal wrote that Yanni was "a living metaphor for 'success on your own terms,' the dream of every American with an idea that is either ridiculed or ignored."


title: Yanni

text: In an early-career review in the "Dallas Times Herald" in the late 1980s, Yanni's concert with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra was described as "exhilarating, moving and inspiring." In 1995, "The Los Angeles Times' " Don Heckman wrote that Yanni's music is "based on sweeping romantic melodies underscored with energetic Mediterranean rhythms." More analytically, the "Hartford Courant's" Steve Metcalf "deconstructed" Yanni's music as being "from a harmonic standpoint, constructed of materials found in a lot of late-19th, early 20th century classical music. It is essentially tonal, tinged with mild whiffs of dissonance here and there, sometimes rhythmically frisky, graspable on first listening, and self-evidently mood-inducing. There are two basic moods to Yanni music: struttingly heroic with martial overtones, and dreamily contemplative... A kind of peaceful, easy-feeling link between pop music and classical music."


title: Yanni

text: More recently, Allmusic's Mark Deming characterized Yanni's compositions and performances as having "a pronounced sense of drama, dynamics, and romanticism," writing that Yanni has a "commanding performance style." Rob Garratt wrote in "The National" that Yanni "breaks all the rules" in producing music "typically in two modes – poundingly heroic or reflectively ambient." In 2012 Howie Grapek remarked in "The Palm Beach Post's" "PBPulse" that "there are few modern-day composers with a unique sense of music and style which is truly their own. To compare new-age music with classic rock is a stretch, but for Yanni, it is possible. This Greek composer marries contemporary new-age spirituality with today's pop attitudes and delivers a unique sound." Yanni popularized the combination of electronic music synthesizers with a full scale symphony orchestra.


title: Yanni

text: Having been called a "true global artist," Yanni has employed musicians of various nationalities, and has incorporated a variety of exotic instruments from around the world from an Australian didgeridoo to a Peruvian charango, to perform with his classical orchestra, rock rhythm section, and electronic keyboards. His music is described as "an eclectic fusion of ethnic sounds, from Native American chants to African rhythms and Asian harmonies." Before his 2015 concerts at the Egyptian Pyramids Yanni said that emotions are the same throughout the world, and that his predominantly instrumental music can communicate those emotions with people everywhere because it bypasses language.


title: Yanni

text: "The Morning Call's" John L. Moser wrote that "trends come and trends go," but that Yanni's music "seems to defy trends and... feels like it's music for all time." Moser interviewed the composer, asking if he intentionally tries to create "something that's going to last forever as opposed to something that's just going to sell 1 million copies right away," Yanni replied that "There's no way you can create art to last forever... so you can't have that in your mind." Instead, describing his creative process, Yanni explained that his knowledge of music and instruments and his experience in different cultures is a "primordial soup that comes together and it shows itself and it appears. And it's fluid. It's effortless."


title: Yanni

text: Yanni's popularity with the public and his success on public television have contrasted sharply with views of some critics. The more extreme criticisms include statements that Yanni's music is "aural wallpaper... lacking in substance" or characterizing Yanni as a "no-talent poseur" whose music has little intellectual weight, while his fans' opinions have been paraphrased as calling Yanni a "highly original artist whose profound spirituality has created a unique kind of music." In this regard, one commentator wrote in 2019 that Yanni's songs are "hazy and undefinable" and "unstructured in the traditional way", paraphrasing Yanni's statement that listeners' responses depend on the degree to which they "invest themselves in the music", which has a "relentless focus on feeling rather than hooks".


title: Yanni

text: Yanni claims to have had perfect pitch since childhood. He continues to use the "musical shorthand" that he developed as a child rather than employ traditional musical notation, and hires someone to perform the tedious process of making conventional written charts for orchestra members. Even so, since music is an auditory domain, Yanni must train the musicians in what cannot be conveyed in that writing.


title: Yanni

text: "The Palm Beach Post's" Howie Grapek remarked about an April 2012 performance that the show was not a one-man keyboard show, but spotlighted individual long solos showcasing the band members' talents, and that Yanni "loves giving them the opportunity to shine individually." "Booth Newspapers' " Jeffrey Kaczmarczyk commented that Yanni "has great sidemen – always has." Further, Yanni expands sound variety by using multiple interchangeable keyboards that are interconnected so that playing one keyboard can cause other keyboards to play corresponding notes emulating different instruments.


title: Yanni

text: Yanni's concerts, known for their lighting and other technical aspects, require over 2,000 timing cues for a show's lighting. Yanni's longtime lighting designer remarked in 2013 that the lighting is critically timed to Yanni's music itself, accommodating its variety of time signatures, further observing that since Yanni plays mostly theatrical venues rather than arenas, the lighting can include subtle moves and color. The lighting also emphasizes band members' solos, as well as specific moments in the concerts.


title: Yanni

text: Commenting on Yanni's "great lighting" on the stage and "plenty of reverb in the audience," "Booth Newspapers' " Jeffrey Kaczmarczyk remarked that a Yanni concert "can be an intoxicating experience."


title: Yanni

text: In early 2017 Yanni began his "An Evening in Conversation with Yanni" or "An intimate Conversation with Yanni" tour in which audience questions and on-stage participation guided the show, and Yanni played a piano without a band. In May-June 2019, Yanni performed a multi-night residency at New York’s Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, two videos for which topped "Billboard's" Top Facebook Live Videos chart before other Yanni videos topped the same chart in October December 2019, and February 2020.


title: Yanni

text: In addition to performing at historic venues such as Royal Albert Hall (London; 1995 & 2014), Yanni has been permitted to perform at such world landmarks as the Acropolis of Athens (Greece; 1993), the Taj Mahal (Agra, India; 1997), the Forbidden City (Beijing, China; 1997), the Burj Khalifa (the world's tallest building; Dubai, United Arab Emirates; 2011), the Kremlin (Moscow, Russia; 2011), the Castillo San Felipe del Morro ("El Morro" UNESCO World Heritage Site, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, U.S. territory; 2011), the ancient city of Byblos (UNESCO World Heritage Site, Lebanon; 2013), the Roman Theatre of Carthage (Tunis, Tunisia; 2014), Laxmi Vilas Palace (Vadodara, India; 2015), the Egyptian pyramids and Great Sphinx of Giza (Egypt, 2015), the Amman Citadel (Jordan, 2016), the Prambanan Temple (Indonesia, 2019) and Al-'Ula (UNESCO World Heritage Site, Saudi Arabia; 2019).


title: Yanni

text: Rising in popularity with the new age music boom of the 1980s and 1990s, Yanni's music became more well known through adult alternative radio airplay, appearances on public television and in television commercials, as well as international music tours. Yanni's music has been used in television shows and televised sporting events, including the British Open (golf), the U.S. Open (golf), the Super Bowl, "Wide World of Sports", U.S. Open tennis championships, the Tour de France, the World Figure Skating Championships, and the Olympic Games. He also composed music for ABC's "World News Now."


title: Yanni

text: Yanni's "Acroyali/Standing in Motion" was determined to have the "Mozart effect" by the "Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine" (April 2001) because the composition is similar to Mozart's K 448 in tempo, structure, melodic and harmonic consonance and predictability, characteristics thought to decrease seizure activity and to enhance spatial-temporal performance.


title: Yanni

text: During Yanni's October 2011 tour of China, Yanni became the first Western artist to be invited to adopt a giant panda (bear) cub at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, a "privilege... usually reserved for countries rather than personalities." "Officials from the research base invited the musician to adopt the animal, saying their decision was made from the inspiration and harmony that derives from his music." Yanni named the panda "Santorini," also the name of a Greek island, explaining that the Greek word "irini" means 'peace'."


title: Yanni

text: In February 2013, Yanni and Celine Dion were the first non-Chinese artists invited to perform (separately) in China at the CCTV Spring Festival Gala, a CCTV televised event with an annual audience of 700 million.


title: Yanni

text: "Billboard" named Yanni their No. 5 "new age album artist of 2016". He was named to the same list in 2014 (No. 6), 2012 (ranked No. 5), 2011 (No. 1), 2010 (No. 4), 2009 (No. 3), 2007 (No. 4), and 2006 (No. 4).


title: Yanni

text: Yanni's albums "Dare to Dream" (1992) and "In My Time" (1993) received Grammy Award nominations for Best New Age Album."


title: Yanni

text: The PBS specials "Live at the Acropolis" and "Tribute" received Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Lighting Direction (Electronic) for a Drama Series, Variety Series, Miniseries, Movie or Special, in 1994 and 1998, respectively. Lee Rose and David "Gurn" Kaniski Lighting Designers.


title: Yanni

text: At least sixteen Yanni albums peaked at No. 1 in "Billboard's" "Top New Age Album" category, more than anyone except Jim Brickman and Mannheim Steamroller.


title: Yanni

text: In addition to earning a B.A. in psychology in 1976 from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, Yanni received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from the same institution on May 6, 2004.


title: Yanni

text: Yanni has had a collaborative relationship with the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in its fundraising efforts since the early years of his career, reportedly raising more than $13 million for that organization. The "Yanni Live at El Morro, Puerto Rico" production (2012) was Yanni's tenth collaboration with PBS.


title: Yanni

text: Yanni has assisted the conservation efforts of the World Wide Fund for Nature (the World Wildlife Fund, WWF), sponsoring a symbolic "Panda Adoption Kit" program in which he guaranteed $50,000 in donations. Yanni has also been a spokesman for NASA.


title: Yanni

text: Yanni has performed concerts in troubled areas of the world, such as in Tunisia one week after the July 17, 2014, terrorist attack that killed 14, and in Egypt to convey an image of stable security after the Egyptian Crisis (2011–14) but between whose two Great Pyramids concerts occurred the October 31, 2015, terrorist downing of Metrojet Flight 9268 in the Sinai Peninsula.


title: Yanni

text: Yanni's autobiography, "Yanni in Words," co-authored by David Rensin, was published in February 2003, coinciding with the release of his "Ethnicity" album. The book became a "New York Times" best seller in the nonfiction category on March 2, 2003.


title: Nader Shah

text: Nader Shah Afshar (; also known as "Nader Qoli Beyg" or "Tahmāsp Qoli Khan" ) (August 1688 – 19 June 1747) was the founder of the Afsharid dynasty of Iran and one of the most powerful rulers in Iranian history, ruling as shah of Iran (Persia) from 1736 to 1747, when he was assassinated during a rebellion. He fought numerous campaigns throughout the Middle East, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and South Asia, such as the battles of Herat, Mihmandust, Murche-Khort, Kirkuk, Yeghevārd, Khyber Pass, Karnal, and Kars. Because of his military genius, some historians have described him as the "Napoleon of Persia", the "Sword of Persia", or the "Second Alexander". Nader belonged to the Turkoman Afshars, a semi-nomadic tribe settled in Khorasan in northeastern Iran, which had supplied military power to the Safavid dynasty since the time of Shah Ismail I.


title: Nader Shah

text: Nader rose to power during a period of chaos in Iran after a rebellion by the Hotaki Pashtuns had overthrown the weak Shah Soltan Hoseyn, while the arch-enemy of the Safavids, the Ottomans, as well as the Russians had seized Iranian territory for themselves. Nader reunited the Iranian realm and removed the invaders. He became so powerful that he decided to depose the last members of the Safavid dynasty, which had ruled Iran for over 200 years, and become Shah himself in 1736. His numerous campaigns created a great empire that, at its maximum extent, briefly encompassed what is now part of or includes Iran, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, the North Caucasus, Iraq, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Bahrain, Pakistan, Oman, and the Persian Gulf, but his military spending had a ruinous effect on the Iranian economy.


title: Nader Shah

text: Nader idolized Genghis Khan and Timur, the previous conquerors from Central Asia. He imitated their military prowess and—especially later in his reign—their cruelty. His victories during his campaigns briefly made him West Asia's most powerful sovereign, ruling over what was arguably the most powerful empire in the world, but his empire and the dynasty he founded quickly disintegrated after he was assassinated in 1747. The turning point in his military career started from his second and third campaigns against the by then revolting Lezgins, as well as other ethnic groups of Dagestan in the northwestern parts of his domain. Nader Shah has been described as "the last great Asiatic military conqueror".


title: Nader Shah

text: Nader Shah was born in the fortress of Dastgerd into the Qereqlu clan of the Afshars, a semi-nomadic Turkic Qizilbash pastoralist tribe settled in the northern valleys of Khorasan, a province in the northeast of the Iranian Empire. His father, Emam Qoli, was a herdsman who may also have been a coatmaker. His family lived a nomadic way of life. Nader was a long-waited son in his family.


title: Nader Shah

text: At the age of 13, his father died and Nader had to find a way to support himself and his mother. He had no source of income other than the sticks he gathered for firewood, which he transported to the market. Many years later, when he was returning in triumph from his conquest of Delhi, he led the army to his birthplace and made a speech to his generals about his early life of deprivation. He said, "You now see to what height it has pleased the Almighty to exalt me; from hence, learn not to despise men of low estate." Nader's early experiences did not, however, make him particularly compassionate toward the poor. Throughout his career, he was only interested in his own advancement. Legend has it that in 1704, when he was about 17, a band of marauding Uzbeks invaded the province of Khorasan, where Nader lived with his mother. They killed many peasants. Nader and his mother were among those who were carried off into slavery. His mother died in captivity. According to another story, Nader managed to convince Turkmens by promising help in the future. Nader returned to the province of Khorasan in 1708.


title: Nader Shah

text: At the age of 15, he enlisted as a musketeer for a governor. He rose the ranks and became the governor's right-hand man.


title: Nader Shah

text: Nader grew up during the final years of the Safavid dynasty which had ruled Iran since 1502. At its peak, under such figures as Abbas the Great, Safavid Iran had been a powerful empire, but by the early 18th century the state was in serious decline and the reigning shah, Soltan Hoseyn, was a weak ruler. When Sultan Husayn attempted to quell a rebellion by the Ghilzai Afghans in Kandahar, the governor he sent (Gurgin Khan) was killed. Under their leader Mahmud Hotaki, the rebellious Afghans moved westwards against the shah himself and in 1722 they defeated a force at the Battle of Gulnabad and then besieged the capital, Isfahan. After the Shah failed to escape or to rally a relief force elsewhere, the city was starved into submission and Sultan Husayn abdicated, handing power to Mahmud. In Khorasan, Nader at first submitted to the local Afghan governor of Mashhad, Malek Mahmud, but then rebelled and built up his own small army. Soltan Husayn's son had declared himself Shah Tahmasp II, but found little support and fled to the Qajar tribe, who offered to back him. Meanwhile, Iran's imperial neighboring rivals, the Ottomans and the Russians, took advantage of the chaos in the country to seize and divide territory for themselves. In 1722, Russia, led by Peter the Great and further aided by some of the most notable Caucasian regents of the disintegrating Safavid Empire, such as Vakhtang VI, launched the Russo-Iranian War (1722-1723) in which Russia captured swaths of Iran's territories in the North Caucasus, South Caucasus, as well as in northern mainland Iran. This included mainly, but was not limited to, the losses of Dagestan (including its principal city of Derbent), Baku, Gilan, Mazandaran, and Astrabad. The regions to the west of that, mainly Iranian territories in Georgia, Iranian Azerbaijan, and Armenia, were taken by the Ottomans. The newly gained Russian and Turkish possessions were confirmed and further divided amongst themselves in the Treaty of Constantinople (1724). During the chaos, Nader cut a deal with Mahmud Hotaki to rule Kalat in the north of Iran. However, when Mahmud Hotaki began minting coins in his name and asked for everyone's allegiance, Nader refused.


title: Nader Shah

text: Tahmasp and the Qajar leader Fath Ali Khan (the ancestor of Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar) contacted Nader and asked him to join their cause and drive the Ghilzai Afghans out of Khorasan. He agreed and thus became a figure of national importance. When Nader discovered that Fath Ali Khan was in treacherous correspondence with Malek Mahmud and revealed this to the shah, Tahmasp executed him and made Nader the chief of his army instead. Nader subsequently took on the title Tahmasp Qoli (Servant of Tahmasp). In late 1726, Nader recaptured Mashhad.


title: Nader Shah

text: Nader chose not to march directly on Isfahan. First, in May 1729, he defeated the Abdali Afghans near Herat. Many of the Abdali Afghans subsequently joined his army. The new shah of the Ghilzai Afghans, Ashraf, decided to move against Nader but in September 1729, Nader defeated him at the Battle of Damghan and again decisively in November at Murchakhort. Ashraf fled and Nader finally entered Isfahan, handing it over to Tahmasp in December. The citizens' rejoicing was cut short when Nader plundered them to pay his army. Tahmasp made Nader governor over many eastern provinces, including his native Khorasan, and Tahmasp's sister was given in marriage to Nader's son. Nader pursued and defeated Ashraf, who was murdered by his own followers. In 1738 Nader Shah besieged and destroyed the last Hotaki seat of power at Kandahar. He built a new city near Kandahar, which he named "Naderabad".


title: Nader Shah

text: In the spring of 1730, Nader attacked Iran's archrival the Ottomans and regained most of the territory lost during the recent chaos. At the same time, the Abdali Afghans rebelled and besieged Mashhad, forcing Nader to suspend his campaign and save his brother, Ebrahim. It took Nader fourteen months to crush this uprising.


title: Nader Shah

text: Relations between Nader and the Shah had declined as the latter grew jealous of his general's military successes. While Nader was absent in the east, Tahmasp tried to assert himself by launching a foolhardy campaign to recapture Yerevan. He ended up losing all of Nader's recent gains to the Ottomans, and signed a treaty ceding Georgia and Armenia in exchange for Tabriz. Nader, furious, saw that the moment had come to ease Tahmasp from power. He denounced the treaty, seeking popular support for a war against the Ottomans. In Isfahan, Nader got Tahmasp drunk then showed him to the courtiers asking if a man in such a state was fit to rule. In 1732 he forced Tahmasp to abdicate in favour of the Shah's baby son, Abbas III, to whom Nader became regent.


title: Nader Shah

text: Nader decided, as he continued the 1730-35 war, that he could win back the territory in Armenia and Georgia by seizing Ottoman Baghdad and then offering it in exchange for the lost provinces, but his plan went badly amiss when his army was routed by the Ottoman general Topal Osman Pasha near the city in 1733. This was the only time that he was ever defeated in battle. Nader decided he needed to regain the initiative as soon as possible to save his position because revolts were already breaking out in Iran. He faced Topal again with a larger force and defeated and killed him. He then besieged Baghdad, as well as Ganja in the northern provinces, earning a Russian alliance against the Ottomans. Nader scored a great victory over a superior Ottoman force at Baghavard and by the summer of 1735, Iranian Armenia and Georgia were his again. In March 1735, he signed a treaty with the Russians in Ganja by which the latter agreed to withdraw all of their troops from Iranian territory, those which had not been ceded back by the 1732 Treaty of Resht yet, resulting in the reestablishment of Iranian rule over all of the Caucasus and northern mainland Iran again.


title: Nader Shah

text: Nader suggested to his closest intimates, after a great hunting party on the Moghan plains (presently split between Azerbaijan and Iran), that he should be proclaimed the new king (shah) in place of the young Abbas III. The small group of close intimates, Nader's friends, included Tahmasp Khan Jalayer and Hasan-Ali Beg Bestami. Following Nader's suggestion, the group did not "demur", and Hasan-Ali remained silent. When Nader asked him why he remained silent, Hasan-Ali replied that the best thing for Nader to do would be assembling all leading men of the state, in order to receive their agreement in "a signed and sealed document of consent". Nader approved with the proposal, and the writers of the chancellery, which included the court historian Mirza Mehdi Khan Astarabadi, were instructed with sending out orders to the military, clergy and nobility of the nation to summon at the plains. The summonses for the people to attend had gone out in November 1735, and they began arriving in January 1736. In the same month of January 1736, Nader held a "qoroltai" (a grand meeting in the tradition of Genghis Khan and Timur) on the Moghan plains. The Moghan plain was specifically chosen for its size and "abundance of fodder". Everyone agreed to the proposal of Nader becoming the new king, many—if not most—enthusiastically, the rest fearing Nader's anger if they showed support for the deposed Safavids. Nader was crowned Shah of Iran on 8 March 1736, a date his astrologers had chosen as being especially propitious, in attendance of an "exceptionally large assembly" composed of the military, religious and nobility of the nation, as well as the Ottoman ambassador Ali Pasha.


title: Nader Shah

text: He cut a deal with notables and the clergy that he would only assume the position of Shah if they promised to refrain from cursing Omar and Uthman, avoid beating themselves to draw blood at the Ashura festival, accept Sunni practices as legitimate, and to obey Nader's children and relatives after his death, thereby setting up a dynasty in his name. He was effectively realigning Persia with Sunni Islam. The notables accepted.


title: Nader Shah

text: The Safavids had forced Shi'ism as the state religion of Iran. Nader may have been brought up as a Shi'a on the basis of his name and back ground but later replaced Shi'a law with a version of Sunni law he called the "Ja‘fari school" in an effort to disassociate Shi'ism from the State in part to please his supporters and also to improve relationships with other Sunni powers. as he gained power and began to push into the Ottoman Empire. He believed that Safavid Shi'ism had intensified the conflict with the Sunni Ottoman Empire. His army was a mix of Shi'a and Sunni Muslims (with a notable minority of Christians and Kurds) and included his own Qizilbash as well as Uzbeks, Afghans, Christian Georgians and Armenians, and others. He wanted Iran to adopt a form of religion that would be more acceptable to Sunni Muslims and suggested that Iran adopt a form of Shi'ism he called "Ja'fari", in honour of the sixth Shi'a imam Ja'far al-Sadiq. He banned certain Shi'a practices which were particularly offensive to Sunni Muslims, such as the cursing of the first three caliphs of Islam. Personally, Nader is said to have been indifferent towards religion and the French Jesuit who served as his personal physician reported that it was difficult to know which religion he followed and that many who knew him best said that he had none. Nader hoped that "Ja'farism" would be accepted as a fifth school ("mazhab") of Sunni Islam and that the Ottomans would allow its adherents to go on the hajj, or pilgrimage, to Mecca, which was within their territory. In the subsequent peace negotiations, the Ottomans refused to acknowledge Ja'farism as a fifth "mazhab" but they did allow Iranian pilgrims to go on the "hajj". Nader was interested in gaining rights for Iranians to go on the "hajj" in part because of revenues from the pilgrimage trade. Nader's other primary aim in his religious reforms was to weaken the Safavids further since Shi'a Islam had always been a major element in support for the dynasty. He had a Shia mullah of Iran strangled after he was heard expressing support for the Safavids. Among his reforms was the introduction of what came to be known as the "kolah-e Naderi". This was a hat with four peaks which symbolised the first four caliphs of Islam.


title: Nader Shah

text: In 1741, eight Muslim scholars and three European and five Armenian priests translated the Koran and the Gospels. The commission was supervised by Mīrzā Moḥammad Mahdī Khan Monšī, the court historiographer and author of the Tarikh-e-Jahangoshay-e-Naderi ("History of Nader Shah's Wars"). Finished translations were presented to Nāder Shah in Qazvīn in June 1741, who, however, was not impressed.


title: Nader Shah

text: In 1738, Nader Shah conquered Kandahar, the last outpost of the Hotaki dynasty. His thoughts now turned to the Mughal Empire of India. This once powerful Muslim state to the east was falling apart as the nobles became increasingly disobedient and local opponents such as the Sikhs and Hindu Marathas of the Maratha Empire were expanding upon its territory. Its ruler Muhammad Shah was powerless to reverse this disintegration. Nader asked for the Afghan rebels to be handed over, but the Mughal emperor refused. Nader used the pretext of his Afghan enemies taking refuge in India to cross the border and invade the militarily weak but still extremely wealthy far eastern empire, and in a brilliant campaign against the governor of Peshawar he took a small contingent of his forces on a daunting flank march through nearly impassable mountain passes and took the enemy forces positioned at the mouth of the Khyber Pass completely by surprise, utterly beating them despite being outnumbered two-to-one. This led to the capture of Ghazni, Kabul, Peshawar, Sindh and Lahore. As he moved into the Mughal territories, he was loyally accompanied by his Georgian subject and future king of eastern Georgia, Erekle II, who led a Georgian contingent as a military commander as part of Nader's force. Following the prior defeat of Mughal forces, he then advanced deeper into India, crossing the river Indus before the end of year. The news of the Iranian army's swift and decisive successes against the northern vassal states of the Mughal empire caused much consternation in Delhi, prompting the Mughal ruler, Muhammad Shah, to raise an army of some 300,000 men and march to confront Nader Shah.


title: Nader Shah

text: Despite being outnumbered by six to one, Nader Shah crushed the Mughal army in less than three hours at the huge Battle of Karnal on 13 February 1739. After this spectacular victory, Nader captured Mohammad Shah and entered Delhi. When a rumour broke out that Nader had been assassinated, some of the Indians attacked and killed Iranian troops; by midday 900 Iranian soldiers had been killed. Nader, furious, reacted by ordering his soldiers to sack the city. During the course of one day (March 22) 20,000 to 30,000 Indians were killed by the Iranian troops and as many as 10,000 women and children were taken as slaves, forcing Mohammad Shah to beg Nader for mercy.


title: Nader Shah

text: In response, Nader Shah agreed to withdraw, but Mohammad Shah paid the consequence in handing over the keys of his royal treasury, and losing even the fabled Peacock Throne to the Iranian emperor. The Peacock Throne, thereafter, served as a symbol of Iranian imperial might. It is estimated that Nader took away with him treasures worth as much as seven hundred million rupees. Among a trove of other fabulous jewels, Nader also looted the Koh-i-Noor (meaning "Mountain of Light" in Persian) and Darya-ye Noor (meaning "Sea of Light") diamonds. The Iranian troops left Delhi at the beginning of May 1739, but before they left, he ceded back to Muhammad Shah all territories to the east of the Indus which he had overrun. The booty they had collected was loaded on 700 elephants, 4,000 camels, and 12,000 horses. On Nader's return to Iran, Sikhs fell upon Nadir's army and seized a large amount of booty and freed the slaves in captivity. Still the plunder seized from India was so much that Nader stopped taxation in Iran for a period of three years following his return. Many historians believe that Nader attacked the Mughal Empire to, perhaps, give his country some breathing space after previous turmoils. His successful campaign and replenishment of funds meant that he could continue his wars against Iran's archrival and neighbour, the Ottoman Empire, as well as the campaigns in the North Caucasus. Nader also secured one of the Mughal emperor's daughters, Jahan Afruz Banu Begum, as a bride for his youngest son.


title: Nader Shah

text: The Indian campaign was the zenith of Nader's career. Afterwards he became increasingly despotic as his health declined markedly. Nader had left his son Reza Qoli Mirza to rule Iran in his absence. Reza had behaved highhandedly and somewhat cruelly but he had kept the peace in Iran. Having heard rumours that his father had died, he had made preparations for assuming the crown. These included the murder of the former shah Tahmasp and his family, including the nine-year-old Abbas III. On hearing the news, Reza's wife, who was Tahmasp's sister, committed suicide. Nader was not impressed with his son's waywardness and reprimanded him, but he took him on his expedition to conquer territory in Transoxiana. In 1740 he conquered the Khanate of Khiva. After the Iranians had forced the Uzbek khanate of Bukhara to submit, Nader wanted Reza to marry the khan's elder daughter because she was a descendant of his hero Genghis Khan, but Reza flatly refused and Nader married the girl himself.


title: Nader Shah

text: With regard to Central Asia, Nader viewed Merv (present-day Bayramali, Turkmenistan) vital to his north-eastern defenses. He also tried to secure the ruler of Bukhara as his vassal, imitating previous great conquerors of Mongol-Timurid descent. According to a British scholar Peter Avery, Nader's attitude towards Bukhara was irredentist to an extent that he "may even have thought that, if only the Ottoman power in the west could be contained, he might make Bukhara a base for conquests further afield in


title: Nader Shah

text: Central Asia". Nader dispatched numerous artisans to Merv in a move to prepare for an improbable conquest of distant Kashgaria. Such a campaign did not materialize, but Nader frequently sent funds and engineers to Merv trying to restore its prosperity and rebuild its ill-fated dam. Merv, however, did not become prosperous.


title: Nader Shah

text: Nader now decided to punish Daghestan for the death of his brother Ebrahim Qoli on a campaign a few years earlier. In 1741, while Nader was passing through the forest of Mazanderan on his way to fight the Daghestanis, an assassin took a shot at him but Nader was only lightly wounded. He began to suspect his son was behind the attempt and confined him to Tehran. Nader's increasing ill health made his temper ever worse. Perhaps it was his illness that made Nader lose the initiative in his war against the Lezgin tribes of Daghestan. Frustratingly for him, they resorted to guerrilla warfare and the Iranians could make little headway against them. Though Nader managed to take most of Dagestan during his campaign, the effective guerrilla warfare as deployed by the Lezgins, but also the Avars and Laks made the Iranian re-conquest of the particular North Caucasian region a short lived one; several years later, Nader was forced to withdraw. During the same period, Nader accused his son of being behind the assassination attempt in Mazanderan. Reza Qoli angrily protested his innocence, but Nader had him blinded as punishment, and ordered his eyes to be brought to him on a platter. When his orders had been carried out, however, Nader instantly regretted it, crying out to his courtiers, "What is a father? What is a son?" Soon afterwards, Nader started executing the nobles who had witnessed his son's blinding. In his last years, Nader became increasingly paranoid, ordering the assassination of large numbers of suspected enemies.


title: Nader Shah

text: With the wealth he gained, Nader started to build an Iranian navy. With lumber from Mazandaran, he built ships in Bushehr. He also purchased thirty ships in India. He recaptured the island of Bahrain from the Arabs. In 1743, he conquered Oman and its main capital Muscat. In 1743, Nader started another war against the Ottoman Empire. Despite having a huge army at his disposal, in this campaign Nader showed little of his former military brilliance. It ended in 1746 with the signing of a peace treaty, the Treaty of Kerden, in which the Ottomans agreed to let Nader occupy Najaf.


title: Nader Shah

text: Nader changed the Iranian coinage system. He minted silver coins, called "Naderi", that were equal to the Mughal rupee. Nader discontinued the policy of paying soldiers based on land tenure. Like the late Safavids he resettled tribes. Nader Shah transformed the "Shahsevan", a nomadic group living around Azerbaijan whose name literally means "shah lover", into a tribal confederacy which defended Iran against the neighbouring Ottomans and Russians. In addition, he increased the number of soldiers under his command and reduced the number of soldiers under tribal and provincial control. His reforms may have strengthened the country, but they did little to improve Iran's suffering economy. He also always paid his troops on time, no matter what.


title: Nader Shah

text: In order to construct a broad political framework that could link him to the Ottomans and Mughals more closely than the Safavids had been, Nader Shah started creating new concepts. One of these was a focus on a shared Turkmen descent, by having several official documents evoke how Nader Shah, the Ottomans, Uzbeks, and Mughals all had a shared Turkmen background. In a broad sense, this concept concept mirrored the origin fables of 15th century Anatolian Turkmen dynasties. The Ottomans, however, were left unimpressed with Nader Shah's new concept. According to the modern historian Ernest Tucker, comparing this concept to an early version of "pan-Turkism" would be "anachronistic and misleading." He adds that this was part of unpolished drafts of concepts that would get polished throughout the 11 years of Nader Shah's reign, and would include wide political and religious aspects.


title: Nader Shah

text: Nader's concepts regarding the Ja'farism and common Turkmen descent were directed primarily at the Ottomans and Mughals. He may have perceived a need to unite disparate components of the "ummah" against the expanding power of Europe at that time, however his view of Muslim unity was different from later concepts of it.


title: Nader Shah

text: He proposed a peace treaty with the Ottomans, in it, he proclaimed the Persians had reverted to the Sunni sect of Islam. While only a nominal claim, Nader's army was increasingly drawing from Sunni Pashtuns, Kurds, Turkmens, Baloch, and others who were happy with a less sectarian Persia. Externally he presented Persia as completely Sunni. He probably did this for political reasons in order to increase his legitimacy within the Muslim world; he would have never been accepted if he remained a Shia Muslim. Though as stated countless times before, internally, he was probably agnostic.


title: Nader Shah

text: Whenever Nader laid siege to a city, he would construct a city of his own outside the walls. His encampment was filled with markets, mosques, bathhouses, coffeehouses, and stables. He did this to show the besieged his army would be there for the long haul, to prevent diseases from spreading within his troops' ranks, and to occupy his troops' time.


title: Nader Shah

text: Nader became increasingly cruel as a result of his illness and his desire to extort more and more tax money to pay for his military campaigns. New revolts broke out and Nader crushed them ruthlessly, building towers from his victims' skulls in imitation of his hero Timur. In 1747, Nader set off for Khorasan, where he intended to punish Kurdish rebels. Some of his officers and courtiers feared he was about to execute them and plotted against him, including two of his relatives: Muhammad Quli Khan, the captain of the guards, and Salah Khan, the overseer of Nader's household. Nader Shah was assassinated on 20 June 1747, at Quchan in Khorasan. He was surprised in his sleep by around fifteen conspirators, and stabbed to death. Nader was able to kill two of the assassins before he died.


title: Nader Shah

text: The most detailed account of Nader's assassination comes from Père Louis Bazin, Nader's physician at the time of his death, who relied on the eyewitness testimony of Chuki, one of Nader's favourite concubines:Around fifteen of the conspirators were impatient or merely eager to distinguish themselves, and so turned up prematurely at the agreed meeting place. They entered the enclosure of the royal tent, pushing and smashing their way through any obstacles, and penetrated into the sleeping quarters of that ill-starred monarch. The noise they made on entering woke him up: 'Who goes there?' he shouted out in a roar. 'Where is my sword? Bring me my weapons!' The assassins were struck with fear by these words and wanted to escape, but ran straight into the two chiefs of the murder-conspiracy, who allayed their fears and made them go into the tent again. Nader Shah had not yet had time to get dressed; Muhammad Quli Khan ran in first and struck him with a great blow of his sword which felled him to the ground; two or three others followed suit; the wretched monarch, covered in his own blood, attempted – but was too weak – to get up, and cried out, 'Why do you want to kill me? Spare my life and all I have shall be yours!' He was still pleading when Salah Khan ran up, sword in hand and severed his head, which he dropped into the hands of a waiting soldier. Thus perished the wealthiest monarch on earth.After his death, he was succeeded by his nephew Ali Qoli, who renamed himself Adel Shah ("righteous king"). Adel Shah was probably involved in the assassination plot. Adel Shah was deposed within a year. During the struggle between Adel Shah, his brother Ibrahim Khan and Nader's grandson Shah Rukh and almost all provincial governors declared independence, established their own states, and the entire Empire of Nader Shah fell into anarchy. Oman and the Uzbek khanates of Bukhara and Khiva regained independence, while the Ottoman Empire regained the lost territories in Western Armenia and Mesopotamia. Finally, Karim Khan founded the Zand dynasty and became ruler of Iran by 1760. Erekle II and Teimuraz II, who, in 1744, had been made the kings of Kakheti and Kartli respectively by Nader himself for their loyal service, capitalized on the eruption of instability, and declared "de facto" independence. Erekle II assumed control over Kartli after Teimuraz II's death, thus unifying the two as the Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti, becoming the first Georgian ruler in three centuries to preside over a politically unified eastern Georgia, and due to the frantic turn of events in mainland Iran he would be able to maintain its autonomy until the advent of the Iranian Qajar dynasty. The rest of the Iranian territories in the Caucasus, comprising modern-day Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Dagestan broke away into various khanates. Until the advent of the Zands and Qajars, its rulers had various forms of autonomy, but stayed vassals and subjects to the Iranian king. In the far east, Ahmad Shah Durrani had already proclaimed independence, marking the foundation of modern Afghanistan. Iran finally lost Bahrain to House of Khalifa during Invasion of Bani Utbah in 1783.


title: Nader Shah

text: Nader Shah was well known to the European public of the time. In 1768, Christian VII of Denmark commissioned Sir William Jones to translate a Persian language biography of Nader Shah written by his Minister Mirza Mehdi Khan Astarabadi into French. It was published in 1770 as "Histoire de Nadir Chah". Nader's Indian campaign alerted the East India Company to the extreme weakness of the Mughal Empire and the possibility of expanding to fill the power vacuum. Without Nader, "eventual British [rule in India] would have come later and in a different form, perhaps never at all - with important global effects".


title: Nader Shah

text: The strong character of Nader Shah is indicated by the fact that having achieved much fame and glory, he did not allow his pleasers to find great ancestors in the darkness of his origin. He never boasted of a proud genealogy; on the contrary, he often spoke of his simple origin. Even his chronicler was forced to limit himself by saying that diamond was valued not by the rock where it had been found, but by its splendor. There is a story that says, having demanded the daughter of his defeated enemy Muhammad Shah, the Emperor of Delhi, to marry his son Nasrullah, he received the answer that a royal lineage up to the 7th generation was required for marriage with a princess from the House of Timur.


title: Nader Shah

text: "Tell him," Nader replied, "that Nasrullah is the son of Nader Shah, the son and grandson of the sword, and so on, not until the 7th, but until the 70th generation."


title: Nader Shah

text: Nader had the greatest contempt for the weak, depraved Mahmud Shah, who, according to the local chronicler of that era, "was always with his mistress in his arms and a glass in his hand," and was the lowest libertine and simply a puppet ruler. Nader Shah once had a conversation with a holy man about paradise. After what that man described miracles and pleasures of the heaven, the shah asked:


title: Nader Shah

text: "Are there such things as war and victory over the enemy in paradise?" When the man answered negatively, Nader replied: "How can there be any pleasure then?"


title: Nader Shah

text: Despite his obscure background, he looked born for the throne. Nature endowed him with all the great qualities that make heroes ... His dyed beard made a sharp contrast with his completely gray hair; his natural physique was strong, tall, and his waist was proportional to his growth; his expression was gloomy, with an oblong face, an aquiline nose and a beautiful mouth, but with his lower lip protruding forward. He had small penetrating eyes with a sharp and piercing gaze; his voice was rude and loud, although he knew how to soften it on occasion, as required by personal interest...


title: Nader Shah

text: He did not have a permanent home – his military camp was his court; his palace was his tent, and his closest confidants were his bravest soldiers ... Undaunted in battle, he brought courage, and was always in the thick of danger among his brave men, as long as the battle lasted ... He did not neglect any of the measures dictated by foresight ... Nevertheless, the repulsive greed and unprecedented cruelties that wore his subjects, ultimately led to his fall, and the extremes and horrors that were caused by him, made Persia cry. He was adored, feared and cursed at the same time.


title: Nader Shah

text: Nader Shah is taller than 6 feet, well-built, very physically strong. He has such an unusually loud voice that he can give orders to his people at a distance of about 100 yards. He drinks wine moderately, hours of his rest among ladies are very rare, his food is simple, and if government affairs require his presence, he rejects his meal and satisfies hunger with fried peas (which he always carries in his pocket) and a sip of water... He is extremely generous, especially to his warriors, and generously rewards all who have distinguished themselves in his service. At the same time, he is very severe and strict in relation to discipline, punishing with the death penalty all who have committed major misconduct... He never forgives the guilty, no matter what rank he is. Being on a march or in the field, he confines himself to food, drink and sleep of a simple soldier and forces all his officers to follow the same harsh discipline. He has such a strong physique that he often sleeps on a frosty night on bare ground in the open air, wrapping himself only in his cloak and putting a saddle under his head as a pillow. In private conversations, no one is allowed to talk about government affairs.


title: Nader Shah

text: He was the horror of the Ottoman Empire, the conqueror of India, the ruler of Persia and all of Asia. His neighbors respected him, his enemies were afraid of him, and he lacked only the love of his subjects.


title: Nader Shah

text: One Punjabi contemporary poet described the rule of Nader as a time "when all of India trembled with horror". The Kashmirian historian Lateef described him as follows: "Nader Shah, the horror of Asia, the pride and savior of his country, the restorer of her freedom and conqueror of India, who, having a simple origin, rose to such greatness that monarchs rarely have from birth". Joseph Stalin used to read about Nader Shah and admired him, calling him, along with Ivan the Terrible, a teacher. In Europe, Nader Shah was compared to Alexander the Great. Starting from a young age, Napoleon Bonaparte also used to read about and admire Nader Shah. Napoleon considered himself the new Nader, and he himself was later called European Nader Shah.


title: Nader Shah

text: Nader was somewhat austere in his daily life. He always preferred plain garments and disdained courtly sophistication and lavish lifestyles, particularly that of the Safavids. He ate simple foods and restrained himself from being tied to his harem and liquor, unlike Sultan Husayn and Tahmasp II.


title: Nader Shah

text: Nader did not want historians to detail his military victories too closely because he feared others would copy his brilliant techniques on the battlefield.


title: Jolene Blalock

text: Jolene Blalock (born March 5, 1975) is an American actress and model. She is best known for playing Vulcan first officer and science officer T'Pol on the UPN science-fiction series "". Her other work includes guest-star appearances on television series and in films.


title: Jolene Blalock

text: Blalock was born and raised in San Diego, California, with three siblings. She spent her childhood surfing and developing artistic skills.


title: Jolene Blalock

text: Blalock left home at age 17 to model in Europe and Asia. She has appeared on the cover of many men's lifestyle magazines, was twice featured in "Maxim"'s "Girls of Maxim" gallery, and was named the 10th sexiest woman in the world in 2003 by "FHM". She posed for a clothed fashion layout in "Playboy" in April 2002, and was later interviewed by the magazine for its "20Q" section in February 2005.


title: Jolene Blalock

text: She made her television debut on the sitcom "Veronica's Closet", before guest appearances on "", "", and "JAG." She starred as Medea in a television movie adaptation of "Jason and the Argonauts" (2000). She also appeared in the movie "On the Edge" (2001) and the miniseries "The Diamond Hunters" (2001) before being cast on "". She appeared in the music video "Denise" (1999) by Fountains of Wayne.


title: Jolene Blalock

text: Landing one of the leading roles on "Star Trek: Enterprise" was Blalock's biggest break. About her time on the show, she recalled:


title: Jolene Blalock

text: In "Enterprise", Blalock played Subcommander T'Pol, a Vulcan diplomat on Earth who was initially assigned by Vulcan Ambassador Soval (a recurring role played by Gary Graham) as an observer on the ship's first mission, in the pilot episode . At the end of that episode, she is asked to remain on "Enterprise" as its Science Officer by Captain Jonathan Archer (played by Scott Bakula). As the series progressed, she assumed the position of First Officer, and at the start of the third season Xindi arc, she resigns her Vulcan position to remain on "Enterprise" when the Vulcan High Command orders her back to Vulcan. Early in the fourth season, she formalizes her position in Starfleet and is granted a field commission of Commander, retaining her role as the ship's First Officer, where she remained for the rest of the series.


title: Jolene Blalock

text: Blalock has not participated in conventions or given interviews regarding her role on "Star Trek: Enterprise" except for FedCon XIV in May 2005, but did agree to join a 2013 cast reunion for an interview during the Blu-ray conversion and production. She also appeared as a parody version of herself attending a "Star Trek" convention in a 2009 episode of the sitcom "10 Items or Less" titled "Star Trok."


title: Jolene Blalock

text: Attending her first Trek event in almost a decade, Blalock walked the red carpet for 2021's Star Trek Day on September 8, 2021.


title: Jolene Blalock

text: Blalock appeared in the film "Slow Burn", which was shot in 2003 between seasons two and three of "Enterprise", unveiled at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2005, and finally saw limited theatrical release in 2007.


title: Jolene Blalock

text: She guest-starred in two episodes of "Stargate SG-1" as Ishta, leader of a group of rebel female warriors.


title: Jolene Blalock

text: Blalock was scheduled to appear on an episode of "Lost" during the 2005–2006 season. Though she filmed some scenes, they were never used in an episode nor featured as "deleted scenes" in the DVD set's bonus material. Set photos from the shooting of a scene surfaced in 2008.


title: Jolene Blalock

text: In "", which was released direct-to-video on August 5, 2008, Blalock played Captain Lola Beck who led a mixed group of survivors on a journey across an alien infested wasteland.


title: Jolene Blalock

text: Blalock played Alexa, the wife of a hospitalized porn star, in the 2009 episode "Teamwork" on the series "House".


title: Jolene Blalock

text: In the second season of "Legend of the Seeker", appearing in the January 2009 episodes "Dark" and "Perdition", Blalock played Sister Nicci, a Sister of the Dark.


title: Jolene Blalock

text: Blalock is married to Michael Rapino, CEO of Live Nation. Rapino lived in England while Blalock lived in the U.S. while working on "Star Trek: Enterprise." She proposed to him and they married in Negril, Jamaica, on April 22, 2003. They have three sons, born in 2010, 2012, and 2014. Rapino and Blalock founded the Rapino Foundation, which helps populations in the developing world.


title: Operation London Bridge

text: Operation London Bridge was the funeral plan for Queen Elizabeth II. The plan included the announcement of her death, the period of official mourning, and the details of her state funeral. The plan was created as early as the 1960s and revised many times in the years before her death in 2022.


title: Operation London Bridge

text: The phrase "London Bridge is down" would be used to communicate the death of the Queen to the prime minister of the United Kingdom and key personnel, setting the plan into motion. Bodies involved in preparing the plan included various government departments, the Church of England, Metropolitan Police Service, the British Armed Forces, the media, the Royal Parks, London boroughs, the Greater London Authority and Transport for London. Some critical decisions relating to the plan were made by the Queen herself, while some were left to be determined by her successor. Reporting on the preparations, "The Guardian" described them as "planned to the minute" with "arcane and highly specific" details.


title: Operation London Bridge

text: Several other plans were also created to support the implementation of Operation London Bridge, such as Operation Unicorn (the plan that detailed what was to happen if Elizabeth were to die in Scotland, as she indeed did). Running concurrently with Operation London Bridge were operations concerning King Charles III's accession to the throne and his coronation. Several Commonwealth realms developed their own plans for how to react to the death of the Queen.


title: Operation London Bridge

text: Funerals and coronations of members of the royal family are typically organised by the Earl Marshal and the officers in the College of Arms. Preparations for Elizabeth II's death and funeral have also been made by the Cabinet Office.


title: Operation London Bridge

text: Pre-determined phrases have typically been used as "codenames" for plans relating to the death and funeral of a royal family member. Initially, codenames were used by key officials in an effort to prevent Buckingham Palace switchboard operators from learning of the death prior to a public announcement. When King George VI died in 1952, key government officials were informed with the phrase "Hyde Park Corner".


title: Operation London Bridge

text: Several codenamed funeral plans for royal family members in the late-20th and early-21st centuries have used the names of prominent bridges in the United Kingdom. Operation Tay Bridge was the phrase used for the death and funeral plans of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, which was rehearsed for 22 years before its eventual use in 2002. The funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997 was also modelled after Operation Tay Bridge. , the phrase Operation Forth Bridge referred to the death and funeral of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who died in 2021, while Operation Menai Bridge referred to the funeral plan for King Charles III. All coded operations for members of the royal family, including the plan for Elizabeth II, form a part of Operation Lion, an overarching plan for any royal death.


title: Operation London Bridge

text: Preparations for Queen Elizabeth II's death and funeral date back to the 1960s, with the plan having undergone multiple changes in the decades since. The plan was updated three times a year through a meeting involving government department officials, the police, and broadcasters. The plan that outlines the process between the death of the Queen and her funeral is codenamed Operation London Bridge.


title: Operation London Bridge

text: On the death of the Queen, her private secretary would be the first official (i.e., not one of her relatives or part of a medical team) to convey the news. Their first act would be to contact the prime minister, where civil servants would convey the code phrase "London Bridge is down" to the prime minister using secure telephone lines. The cabinet secretary and the Privy Council Office would also be informed by the private secretary. The cabinet secretary would then convey the news to ministers and senior civil servants. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office's Global Response Centre, based at a secret location in London, would communicate the news to the governments of the 14 other countries of which Elizabeth is queen (the Commonwealth realms), and to the governments of the other countries of the Commonwealth of Nations. Government websites and social media accounts, as well as the royal family's website, would turn black, and publication of non-urgent content would be avoided.


title: Operation London Bridge

text: The media would be informed by announcement to PA Media and the BBC through the Radio Alert Transmission System (RATS) and to commercial radio on the Independent Radio News through a network of blue "obit lights" which would alert presenters to play "inoffensive music" and prepare for a news flash, while BBC Two would suspend scheduled programming and switch to BBC One's broadcast of the announcement. BBC News would air a pre-recorded sequence of portraits, during which the presenters on duty at the time would prepare for the formal announcement by putting on dark clothing prepared for this purpose. "The Guardian" has reported that "The Times" has 11 days of prepared coverage ready and that ITN and Sky News have long rehearsed her death, substituting the name "Mrs Robinson" for the Queen's.


title: Operation London Bridge

text: A footman would pin a dark-edged notice to the gates of Buckingham Palace. At the same time, the palace website would display the same notice. The Parliament of the United Kingdom and the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish parliaments would meet as soon as is practical or be recalled if they are not sitting. The prime minister would address the House of Commons. The new monarch would host a meeting with the prime minister and then deliver a speech to the nation at 6 pm, the evening following the Queen's death. Whitehall and local government buildings would fly flags at half-mast and books of condolence may be opened; ceremonial ornaments, such as ceremonial maces or council chains, are to be put in black purses. Gun salutes would take place at saluting stations and a service of remembrance, to be attended by the prime minister and senior ministers, would be held at St Paul's Cathedral.


title: Operation London Bridge

text: Ten days after the Queen's death, a state funeral led by the Archbishop of Canterbury would be held at Westminster Abbey. A funeral procession was also planned, with the Queen deciding on the order of the procession. A two minutes' silence would take place across the United Kingdom at midday and processions would gather in London and Windsor. Her body would then be buried in a prepared tomb at King George VI Memorial Chapel in St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, alongside Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, whose coffin would be moved from the Royal Vault. A committal service would be held at St George's Chapel before the burial. As agreed by the Queen and the prime minister, the day of the funeral would be declared a day of national mourning, although a bank holiday would not be granted.


title: Operation London Bridge

text: Operation London Bridge included several ancillary and supporting plans, such as the plans for the arrangements at Westminster Hall. This includes Operation Marquee, a plan that covers the ceremonial, service and vigil aspects of the Queen's lying-in-state inside Westminster Hall; and Operation Feather, which concerns the logistical details with the public outside building.


title: Operation London Bridge

text: Several plans were also created that outlined the arrangements for moving the Queen's coffin, depending on where she died. In the event she had died at Windsor Castle or Sandringham House, the coffin would have been taken by Royal Train to St Pancras railway station in London, where the prime minister and cabinet ministers would be waiting. Had the Queen died outside the UK, "Operation Overstudy" provided that her coffin would have been flown to RAF Northolt by No. 32 (The Royal) Squadron.


title: Operation London Bridge

text: In every scenario, the coffin, upon its arrival in London, would be transported by hearse to Buckingham Palace where it would rest in the Throne Room. Five days after the Queen's death, the coffin would have been moved to Westminster Hall and, after a service, the Queen would lie in state for three days.


title: Operation London Bridge

text: Were the Queen to have died in Scotland, "Operation Unicorn" called for Holyrood Palace, St Giles' Cathedral, and the Scottish Parliament to serve as the focal point of gatherings, with a condolence book open to the public at the latter location. Parliamentary business would be suspended immediately for at least six parliamentary days, to allow authorities to prepare for the funeral. The parliament would then prepare a motion of condolence within 72 hours of reconvening. The Queen's coffin would first lie in repose at Holyrood Palace, followed by a service of reception at St Giles' Cathedral in Edinburgh. Following this the coffin would be transported to Waverley station and taken by the Royal Train to London, if possible. Otherwise, the coffin would be taken by aeroplane to London, and received by the prime minister and cabinet ministers; this was part of Operation Overstudy.


title: Operation London Bridge

text: The plans for the event of the Queen's death and funeral would occur concurrently with other related plans, including the plans for the accession of King Charles III to the throne, Operation Spring Tide, and his coronation plans, Operation Golden Orb.


title: Operation London Bridge

text: The Queen's death and funeral plans work concurrently with Operation Spring Tide, the plan for the accession of Charles III to the throne. One day after the Queen's death, the Accession Council would meet at St James's Palace and Charles would be proclaimed king. Parliament would meet that evening when MPs would swear allegiance to Charles III and express condolences for the Queen's death. Most parliamentary activities would then be suspended for 10 days. At 3:30 pm, Charles III would host the prime minister and the cabinet for an audience. Two days after the Queen's death, proclamations for the King would be made by the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish administrations.


title: Operation London Bridge

text: On the third day after the Queen's death, Charles III would receive the motion of condolence at Westminster Hall in the morning and then depart for a tour of the United Kingdom. Charles III would visit the Scottish parliament and attend a service at St Giles' Cathedral in Edinburgh. On the next day, Charles III would visit Northern Ireland, where he would receive a motion of condolence at Hillsborough Castle and attend a service at St Anne's Cathedral, Belfast. Seven days after the Queen's death, Charles III would visit Wales, receiving a motion of condolence at the Welsh parliament and attending a service at Llandaff Cathedral in Cardiff.


title: Operation London Bridge

text: Supporting plans exist within Operations Spring Tide for specific arrangements in each constituent country in the UK; including Operation Shamrock for Northern Ireland, Operation Kingfisher for Scotland, and Operation Dragon for Wales.


title: Operation London Bridge

text: Operation London Bridge and Operation Unicorn were activated upon the death of Elizabeth II, which occurred on 8 September 2022 at Balmoral Castle in Scotland.


title: Operation London Bridge

text: Although the operation was intended to be brought into action on the day that Elizabeth II passed away (identified in the plan as "D-day"), the late time of her death rendered it inconvenient to convene the accession council at short notice. The decision was taken to designate the following day, 9 September as D-day. This also avoided the problem of the funeral (on D+10) taking place on a Sunday.


title: Operation London Bridge

text: In a change from the reported plan, Charles III announced upon his proclamation that the day of the Queen's funeral would be a bank holiday.


title: Operation London Bridge

text: Although the Queen did not die overseas, an aeroplane—an RAF C-17 Globemaster—was used to transport the coffin to London. This decision was taken on security grounds, as it would be too difficult to police the entire route.


title: Operation London Bridge

text: Officials from Buckingham Palace and Clarence House, known as the Inter-Realm Working Group, would brief representatives of the Commonwealth realms about the funeral and succession plans surrounding Operation London Bridge. The governments of the Commonwealth realms were informed of the monarch's death from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office's Global Response Centre. These realms had devised their own plans for what happened in their respective countries in the days after Elizabeth II's death, which ran concurrently with Operation London Bridge.


title: Operation London Bridge

text: Preparations were made in Australia for the death of the Queen, with statements having been already drafted for the prime minister and governor-general of Australia.


title: Operation London Bridge

text: The prime minister would be informed of the Queen's death approximately an hour prior to its formal announcement. The prime minister was to wear a black tie immediately after its announcement, with the staff of recent past prime ministers having carried a black tie in preparation for the news. The prime minister and governor-general would then return to Canberra to make their statements before departing for London with the Royal Australian Air Force. If not scheduled to sit, the Parliament would be recalled to meet to pass a condolence motion. Plans had the governor-general issuing the Australian proclamation for the accession of King Charles III and his Australian titles at an appropriate ceremony.


title: Operation London Bridge

text: A flag notice was issued instructing flags to fly at half-mast immediately for the next ten days, except on the day the accession of Charles III is proclaimed. Part of Australia's response would include a national day of commemoration, which may be declared a public holiday. A state funeral and special Anglican service would be held. The Australian Defence Force organised several gun salutes coinciding with events in London and participated in ceremonies in the United Kingdom.


title: Operation London Bridge

text: The Australian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom observed the Accession Council. In addition, Australian members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom are entitled to sit on the Accession Council. As reported by "The Australian" in 2022, four official Australian state guests were expected to attend the funeral in London, with an additional 12 Australians also being invited.


title: Operation London Bridge

text: In Canada, preparations were made as early as 2002, during Queen Elizabeth II's Golden Jubilee. Consultations over the plans have been made with the Canadian Armed Forces, the Canadian Privy Council Office, the Canadian secretary to the Queen, the Department of Canadian Heritage, the office of the governor general of Canada, and the office of the Earl Marshal in the United Kingdom. The federal government's planning for the death of the Queen was somewhat reliant on what was outlined in the "Manual of Official Procedure of the Government of Canada", a document produced by the Privy Council Office in 1968. In addition to the federal government, provincial governments have also implemented their own contingency plans for the death of the Queen, and the accession of Charles III.


title: Operation London Bridge

text: After receiving the news about the Queen's death, the governor general would recall the Cabinet to Parliament Hill and proclaim that Canada has a new "lawful and rightful liege". The Privy Council for Canada had convened to proclaim Charles III in Canada. The "Manual of Official Procedure of the Government of Canada" states the prime minister is responsible for convening the Parliament, tabling a resolution of loyalty and condolence from the Parliament to the next monarch of Canada, and arranging for the motion to be seconded by the leader of the Official Opposition. The Prime Minister would then move to adjourn Parliament. The Canadian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom would be expected to represent Canada at the Accession Council.


title: Operation London Bridge

text: An official mourning period for Elizabeth II would take place, the length of said period to be determined by the federal government; and issued by the governor general and the Department of Canadian Heritage. During the mourning period, a national memorial parade and service would be held in Ottawa. Additionally, ceremonial maces, portraits of the Queen, and flagpoles at Government Houses across Canada were draped in black fabric. A book of condolences was to be laid out near the front entrance of the Government Houses, with previously planned events cancelled. The death of the sovereign is considered a mandatory half-masting event for the Canadian government. Flags on all federal buildings and establishments in Canada and abroad would be flown at half-mast from the notification of death until sunset on the day of the funeral or memorial service.


title: Operation London Bridge

text: Specific attire would be worn during the official mourning period. All staff of the governor-general, provincial lieutenant governors, and territorial commissioners would be immediately issued black ties and black armbands. Other government officials would also wear a black armband. However, some legislative employees have to wear additional attire during the official mourning period. This includes the sergeants-at-arms, who are required to wear black gloves, piqué bow ties, and carry a black scabbard and sword; and pages, who are required to wear black cravats, armbands, and ribbons.


title: Operation London Bridge

text: The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) maintained a regularly updated plan for the death of the sovereign, which was considered a "Broadcast of National Importance". Regular programming would be cancelled, advertisements were to be halted, and all CBC television and radio stations would shift to a 24-hour news format. The CBC also had a specially picked squad of broadcasters on call to come to the news desk at the time of the sovereign's death.


title: Operation London Bridge

text: Plans for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) to participate in the funeral procession in London were in place for decades. Originally, the Crown Equerry had planned for the RCMP to use horses from the Household Cavalry. However, the plans were altered to have the RCMP use four horses they gifted to the Queen, after the RCMP had submitted a formal request to do so in 2021.


title: Operation London Bridge

text: In New Zealand, the Cabinet Office of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet was responsible for planning the arrangements in response to the Demise of the Crown.


title: Operation London Bridge

text: New Zealand was to receive the news of Queen Elizabeth II's death via established communication channels between the Royal Household and New Zealand. Once informed, the head of the Ministry for Culture and Heritage had to request the flying of the flag of New Zealand at half-mast on government buildings and other chosen facilities up to the day of the funeral, excluding the date the new sovereign is proclaimed. Twenty-one gun salutes would also be ordered "at appropriate times". A state memorial service would be expected, although decisions on accompanying events, as well as government protocol, would be determined by the prime minister. New Zealand Defence Force personnel would participate in overseas ceremonies.


title: Operation London Bridge

text: Radio New Zealand (RNZ), the state-radio broadcaster, prepared a set of guidelines and instructions regarding the death of the monarch of New Zealand. Across all RNZ stations, broadcasters would break into regular programming to announce the death of the Queen, with rolling coverage. RNZ stations were prohibited from playing punk music, or songs by the band Queen during this period.


title: Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted

text: Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted is a 2012 American computer-animated circus comedy film produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by Paramount Pictures. The film is the third installment of the "Madagascar" film series, following "" (2008), and was the first film in the series to be released in 3D. It was directed by Eric Darnell, Conrad Vernon, and Tom McGrath from a screenplay by Darnell and Noah Baumbach, and features Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer, Jada Pinkett Smith, Sacha Baron Cohen, Cedric the Entertainer, Andy Richter, and McGrath reprising their voice acting roles from the previous installments, alongside new cast members Jessica Chastain, Bryan Cranston, Martin Short, and Frances McDormand. In the film, the main characters—a party of animals from the Central Park Zoo whose adventures have already taken them to Madagascar and Africa—attempt to return to New York, and find themselves traveling across Europe with a circus while being pursued by a relentless Animal Control officer.


title: Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted

text: "Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted" premiered at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival on May 18, and was theatrically released in the United States on June 8, 2012. It was the eighth highest-grossing film of 2012 and the highest-grossing film in the franchise, with a worldwide gross of over $746 million. A spin-off titled "Penguins of Madagascar" was released in 2014. A sequel, "Madagascar 4", was initially planned for a 2018 theatrical release, but was removed from the release schedule following a restructuring of DreamWorks Animation in 2015.


title: Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted

text: Following the events of , the penguins and the chimpanzees leave Africa for Monte Carlo in their modified airplane. When they do not return, Alex, Marty, Melman, Gloria, King Julien, Maurice and Mort decide that they should go find them and return to their home at the Central Park Zoo in New York City. They find the penguins and chimpanzees at the Monte Carlo Casino. Chaos ensues, and the animals barely escape from Chantel DuBois, a merciless French Animal Control officer who is determined to add Alex's head to her taxidermy collection.


title: Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted

text: When their plane crashes in France, the animals board a departing circus train. The circus animals—a sea lion named Stefano, a jaguar named Gia, and a tiger named Vitaly—are suspicious of outsiders, so Alex lies about them being American circus animals. The circus is headed for a performance in Rome, followed by one in London where they hope to impress an American promoter in order to get their first American tour. To allay suspicion, the penguins purchase the circus from its human ringmaster with the fortune they gained in Monte Carlo. In Rome, Alex becomes enamored with Gia while King Julien falls in love with performing bear Sonya. DuBois pursues King Julien and Sonya, but fails to catch them and is arrested.


title: Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted

text: The performance at the Colosseum in Rome is a disaster: the animals' acts go awry and they are chased off by the angry audience, though they barely escape on the train. Stefano later explains to Alex that the circus was once famous and Vitaly was its star, skillfully jumping through ever-smaller hoops. However, a severe burn during one of Vitaly's stunts caused him to lose his passion and the entire circus suffered as a result. Alex convinces the circus animals to come up with a new and exciting all-animal act that will restore their former glory. Marty and Stefano find a new passion in being shot out of a cannon, while Melman and Gloria become adept at dancing together on a tightrope. Gia persuades Alex to teach her "Trapeze Americano" and the two begin to fall in love. Meanwhile, DuBois escapes from prison and resumes her pursuit before printing a document which shows a photo of Alex performing at the Central Park Zoo.


title: Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted

text: In London, Vitaly is afraid of failing again and considers ditching the show, but Alex helps him rediscover his passion for performing the impossible. At Alex's suggestion, Vitaly lubricates himself with hair conditioner instead of olive oil, and succeeds in jumping through the hoop. The show is a spectacular success, and the promoter signs the circus to a contract. DuBois shows up and the penguins manage to foil her attempt to capture Alex. However, the printed document she was carrying reveals that Alex, Marty, Melman, and Gloria were zoo animals all along. Feeling betrayed and deceived, the circus animals eject the foursome.


title: Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted

text: After King Julien and Sonya get into an argument, the zoo and circus animals go their separate ways but arrive in Central Park at the same time. Looking in at their old home, the zoo animals realize how much their adventures have changed them and decide that their true place is with the circus. They are then ambushed by DuBois, but before she can behead Alex, the zoo staff arrive and incorrectly believe that she is returning the missing animals. King Julien makes it back to the circus with the news and reconciles with Sonya while Gia and Vitaly convince the others that they should rescue their friends. The zoo animals awaken in their old enclosures, now surrounded by high fences. DuBois is being honored by the zoo staff, but she rejects their reward and secretly loads a poison-filled dart and takes aim at Alex. They are soon rescued by the circus animals and together they defeat DuBois. Alex and his friends permanently join the circus with Alex and King Julien starting a romantic relationship with Gia and Sonya, respectively. As retribution for causing their troubles, the penguins ship DuBois and her henchmen in crates to Madagascar, reminiscent of how the animals were shipped in the first movie.


title: Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted

text: DreamWorks Animation's CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg confirmed in 2008 that there would be an additional sequel to "Madagascar" and "". Katzenberg stated, "There is at least one more chapter. We ultimately want to see the characters make it back to New York." At the Television Critics Association press tour in January 2009, Katzenberg was asked if there would be a third film in the series. He replied, "Yes, we are making a "Madagascar 3" now, and it will be out in the summer of 2012." On August 9, 2010, Katzenberg revealed in an e-mail that writer-director Noah Baumbach had done sixty pages of re-writes to the screenplay.


title: Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted

text: A significant amount of the animation and visual effects for the film had been done at DreamWorks Dedicated Unit, an India-based unit at Technicolor.


title: Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted

text: "Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted" opened the Cannes Film Festival on May 18, 2012. The American release followed on June 8, 2012. The film was also converted to the IMAX format and shown in specific European territories, including Russia, Ukraine, and Poland.


title: Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted

text: "Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted" was released on DVD, Blu-ray, and Blu-ray 3D on October 16, 2012. It was the first DreamWorks Animation film to use the UltraViolet System and the Blu-ray and Blu-ray 3D comes with a rainbow wig. As of April 2014, 9.1 million home entertainment units were sold worldwide.


title: Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted

text: "Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted" earned $216,391,482 in North America and $530,529,792 in other countries for a worldwide total of $746,921,274. Its worldwide opening weekend totaled $137.6 million. Worldwide, it is the highest-grossing film in the series, the fourth-highest-grossing DreamWorks Animation film, the second-highest-grossing animated film of 2012, and the eighth-highest-grossing film of that year. Overall, it is the eleventh-highest-grossing animated film and the 113th-highest-grossing film of all time. The film took between 66 and 94 days of release, respectively, to out-gross its two predecessors. It surpassed "Kung Fu Panda 2" to become DreamWorks' highest-grossing non-"Shrek" film, and the first non-"Shrek" film to reach over $700 million.


title: Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted

text: In North America, the film made $20.7 million on its opening day, which was higher than the opening-day grosses of the original film ($13.9 million) and its sequel ($17.6 million). For its opening weekend, the film ranked at the no. 1 spot, beating "Prometheus", with $60.3 million, which was higher than the opening of the original "Madagascar" ($47.2 million) but was behind the opening weekend of "Escape 2 Africa" ($63.1 million). It remained at the top spot for two consecutive weekends. In North America, it is the highest-grossing film in the series, the sixth-highest-grossing DreamWorks Animation film, the second-highest-grossing 2012 animated film, and the tenth-highest-grossing film of 2012.


title: Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted

text: Outside North America, "Europe's Most Wanted" out-grossed "Shrek Forever After" to become DreamWorks Animation's highest-grossing film. On its opening weekend, it topped the box office with $77.3 million from 28 countries. It held that position for three consecutive weekends. Its three highest-grossing openings occurred in Russia and the CIS ($15.7 million), China ($10.4 million), and Brazil ($10.1 million in 5 days). It set an opening-day record for animated films in Russia with $3.7 million (since surpassed by "") and became the highest-grossing animated film (surpassed by "") and the third-highest-grossing film ever (at the time), earning $49.4 million. It also set an opening-weekend record for any film in Argentina with $3.80 million (first surpassed by "Ice Age: Continental Drift") and it set opening-weekend records for animated films in Brazil, Venezuela, Trinidad, and the United Arab Emirates. Also, Madagascar 3 made $39 million in Germany, $34 million in United Kingdom and $28 million in Italy.


title: Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted

text: Based on reviews, the film holds an approval rating of on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes and an average rating of . The site's critical consensus reads: "Dazzlingly colorful and frenetic, "Madagascar 3" is silly enough for young kids, but boasts enough surprising smarts to engage parents along the way." This marks the best general review consensus of the film series that has showed improving critical favor; the original film has a score of 55%, and the sequel scores 64%. On Metacritic, it holds a score of 60 out of 100 based on 26 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted

text: Lisa Kennedy of "The Denver Post" gave the film 3.5 out of 4 stars and said, "From time to time the improbable occurs: A sequel outdoes its original." Colin Covert of "Star Tribune" said that "Madagascar 3" set a high standard for cartoon comedy and was almost too good for kids. He gave it 3.5 out of 4 stars. Giving the film 3.5 out of 5 stars, Betsy Sharkey of the "Los Angeles Times" said, "A neon-saturated, high-flying trapeze act with enough frenetic funny business that it's a wonder the folks behind this zillion-dollar franchise about zoo critters on the lam didn't send the animals to the circus sooner." Stephen Witty of the "Newark Star-Ledger" calls the movie "fun and fast family entertainment. […] the animals' jazzy circus performance, done in black-light colors and set to a Katy Perry song—may be one of the trippiest scenes in a mainstream kiddie movie since "Dumbo" saw those pink elephants." Film scholar Timothy Laurie writes that the plot development of "Madagascar 3" is "met with large servings of personal growth and side dishes of overcooked romance".


title: Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted

text: "Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted" is the soundtrack of the film scored by Hans Zimmer and was released on June 5, 2012. "Afro Circus/I Like to Move It" peaked at 7 on the ARIA Hitseekers Singles chart on the week commencing October 15, 2012.


title: Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted

text: In some variations of the soundtrack, "Cool Jerk" is featured in replacement of "We No Speak Americano". "Sexy and I Know It" by LMFAO was only used in the theatrical trailer, and not included on the soundtrack and was replaced by "Firework" for the circus. "Any Way You Want It" by Journey and the instrumental "Watermark" from the album of the same name by Enya were also used, but are not included on the soundtrack. "Land of Hope and Glory" by Edward Elgar appears in the track "Fur Power". The "Afro Circus" tune is from "Entrance of the Gladiators", by the Czech composer Julius Fučík.


title: Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted

text: A video game based on the film, "Madagascar 3: The Video Game", was released on June 5, 2012. The game allows gamers to play as Alex, Marty, Melman, and Gloria as they travel across Europe promoting the circus by performing stunts, circus acts and completing missions. It was released to Wii, Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo DS, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3. Published by D3 Publisher, the Wii, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 versions were developed by Monkey Bar Games, and the 3DS and DS versions by Torus Games. The game received negative reviews from critics with Metacritic giving the Xbox 360 version a 45/100.


title: Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted

text: A mobile video game, "Madagascar: Join the Circus!", also published by D3 Publisher, was released on June 4, 2012, for iPhone and iPad. The game allows players to build a circus and play mini-games. The game was removed from App Stores on June 16, 2017.


title: Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted

text: A comic book based on the film and titled "Madagascar Digest Prequel: Long Live the King!" was released on June 12, 2012, by Ape Entertainment.


title: Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted

text: A spin-off film titled "Penguins of Madagascar", depicting the adventures of penguin characters following the events of "Madagascar 3", was released on November 26, 2014.


title: Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted

text: In June 2014 it was announced that "Madagascar 4" would be released on May 18, 2018. However, in January 2015, the film was removed from the release schedule following a corporate restructuring of DreamWorks Animation. In April 2017, Tom McGrath stated "There are things in the works, nothing is announced yet, but I think [the characters will] show their faces once more."


title: Batman: The Long Halloween

text: Batman: The Long Halloween is a 13-issue American comic book limited series written by Jeph Loeb with art by Tim Sale. It was originally published by DC Comics in 1996 and 1997. It was the follow-up to three "" (which were reprinted in "") by the same creative team. The series' success led to Loeb and Sale to reteam for two sequels, "" and "", which are set concurrently.


title: Batman: The Long Halloween

text: Taking place during Batman's early days of crime fighting, "The Long Halloween" tells the story of a mysterious killer named Holiday, who murders people on holidays, one each month. Working with District Attorney Harvey Dent and Captain James Gordon, Batman races against the calendar as he tries to discover who Holiday is before he claims his next victim each month, while attempting to stop the crime war between two of Gotham City's most powerful families, Maroni and Falcone. This novel also acted as a re-introduction to the DC Universe for one of Batman's most elusive foes, Calendar Man, who knows the true identity of the Holiday killer but refuses to share this with Batman. He instead riddles and gives Batman hints from his Arkham Asylum cell. The story also ties into the events that transform Harvey Dent into Batman's enemy, Two-Face. Enemies such as Scarecrow, the Joker, Mad Hatter, Poison Ivy, and the Riddler, among others, also make appearances.


title: Batman: The Long Halloween

text: In continuity terms, "The Long Halloween" continues the story of "". It also revolves around the transition of Batman's rogues gallery from simple mob goons to full-fledged supervillains and tells the origin of Two-Face, incorporating elements of the story in "Batman: Annual" #14.


title: Batman: The Long Halloween

text: The project was sparked when group editor Archie Goodwin approached Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale at the San Diego Comic Convention and asked if the two of them wanted to do more Batman work.


title: Batman: The Long Halloween

text: Jeph Loeb has stated that the genesis of the story was influenced by writer Mark Waid, who, when told that Loeb was working on a story set in the "Year One" continuity, suggested focusing on Harvey Dent's years prior to becoming Two-Face, as that had not been depicted in depth since the original "Year One" story.