title: Carlos Queiroz

text: Colombia also began the 2022 World Cup qualifiers with hope to make it their third in a row for the second time, and Colombia appeared to be on the right path where they beat neighbor Venezuela and held Chile. However, when matches resumed following the COVID-19 pandemic, Colombia's performance slipped disastrously, with a 0–3 home loss to Uruguay (its worst ever home loss in 82 years) before being shockingly thrashed 1–6 by Ecuador, and this finally put the end to Carlos Queiroz's reign as Colombia's boss.


title: Carlos Queiroz

text: On 8 September 2021, the Egyptian Football Association announced the signing of Carlos Queiroz to replace Hossam El Badry.


title: Carlos Queiroz

text: At the beginning of the tournament, the Egyptian team suffered a loss against its Nigerian team in the first round of Group D of the African Nations Cup. Egypt defeated Guinea Bissau with a goal scored by Mohamed Salah, giving Egypt the first victory in the second round of Group D. After that, Egypt defeated Sudan with a goal scored by Mohamed Abdel Moneim in the match, to raise the national team’s score to 6 points in the third round of Group D, and Egypt qualified for the round of 16. The Egyptian national team qualified for the quarter-finals by penalty shootout, after defeating Ivory Coast 5–4 in the round of 16. In the quarter-final match, Egypt won 2–1 against Morocco. In the semi-final match, Egypt qualified for the final by defeating the host nation Cameroon 3–1 on penalties. This win marked for the first-time ever Queiroz had guided a national team into the final of a competitive football tournament. However, Queiroz could not achieve the glory when Egypt lost to Senegal after penalty shootouts.


title: Carlos Queiroz

text: Egypt qualified for the third round of the World Cup qualifications to face Senegal for a spot in the World Cup in Qatar. However, after a 1–0 win in Cairo, and a 1–0 loss in Dakar, Egypt lost again on penalties; hence, they failed to reach the final competition. He later agreed with the Egyptian Football Association to terminate his contract by mutual consent.


title: Carlos Queiroz

text: On 7 September 2022, he was rehired by Iran ahead of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, which would be his second straight with the country.


title: Carlos Queiroz

text: Prior to the final 2014 World Cup qualification match against South Korea, Queiroz was angered by the comment made from Choi Kang-hee, the head coach of South Korea, who complained that Iran did not provide the training facilities with sufficient qualities during South Korea's away qualification match against Iran on 17 October 2012. Choi stated that South Korea would defeat Iran to help Uzbekistan qualify for the World Cup finals with South Korea, and that Iran would have to watch the World Cup on television. In response, Queiroz severely criticized Choi in his official comments and mocked him by wearing a T-shirt displaying Choi's face.


title: Carlos Queiroz

text: After Iran's victory against South Korea in their final qualification match, Queiroz showed his anger at the South Korean national coach with a raised fist gesture, which was deemed offensive by the South Korean players and staff, almost causing a fight between the two teams. As a result of the altercations, Sosha Makani was suspended for their opening match of the 2014 World Cup. Queiroz had answered previously to Choi that Iran had fairly shared what they had with the South Korean national team on their visit to Iran.


title: Jean-Marie Le Pen

text: Jean Louis Marie Le Pen (, born 20 June 1928) is a French far-right politician who served as President of the National Front from 1972 to 2011. He also served as Honorary President of the National Front from 2011 to 2015.


title: Jean-Marie Le Pen

text: Le Pen graduated from the faculty of law in Paris in 1949. After his time in the military, he studied political science and law at Panthéon-Assas University.


title: Jean-Marie Le Pen

text: Le Pen focuses on issues related to immigration to France, the European Union, traditional culture and values, law and order, and France's high rate of unemployment. His progression in the 1980s is known as the "lepénisation of minds" due to its noticeable effect on mainstream political opinion. His controversial speeches and his integration into public life have made him a figure who polarizes opinion, considered the "Devil of the Republic" among his opponents or the "last samurai in politics" among his supporters. He has been convicted for statements downplaying the Holocaust, and fined for incitement to discrimination regarding remarks made about Muslims in France.


title: Jean-Marie Le Pen

text: His longevity in politics and his five attempts to become President of France have made him a major figure in French political life. His progress to the second round in the 2002 presidential election left its mark on French public life, and the "21st of April" is now a frequently used expression in France. A former Member of the European Parliament (MEP), Le Pen served as the Honorary President of the National Front from 2011 to 2015. He was expelled from the party by his daughter Marine in 2015, after new controversial statements.


title: Jean-Marie Le Pen

text: Jean Louis Marie Le Pen was the only son of Jean Le Pen (1901–1942). Jean Le Pen was born in Brittany, like his ancestors, and had started work at the age of 13 on a transatlantic vessel. He was the president of L'Association des Ancients Combattants and Councilor of La Trinité-sur-Mer. Jean-Marie Le Pen's mother, Anne-Marie Hervé (1904–1965) was a seamstress and also of local ancestry.


title: Jean-Marie Le Pen

text: Le Pen was born on 20 June 1928 in La Trinité-sur-Mer, a small seaside village in Brittany, the son of Anne Marie Hervé and Jean Le Pen, a fisherman. He was orphaned as an adolescent (Ward of the Nation, brought up by the state), when his father's boat "La Persévérance" was blown up by a mine in 1942. He was raised as a Roman Catholic and studied at the Jesuit high school François Xavier in Vannes, then at the "lycée" of Lorient.


title: Jean-Marie Le Pen

text: In November 1944, aged 16, he was turned down (because of his age) by Colonel Henri de La Vaissière (then representative of the Communist Youth) when he attempted to join the French Forces of the Interior (FFI). He then entered the faculty of law in Paris, and started to sell the monarchist "Action Française" newspaper, "Aspects de la France", in the street. He was repeatedly convicted of assault and battery ("coups et blessures").


title: Jean-Marie Le Pen

text: Le Pen started his political career as the head of the student union in Toulouse. He became president of the "Association corporative des étudiants en droit", an association of law students whose main occupation was to engage in street brawls against the ""Cocos"" (communists). He was excluded from this organisation in 1951.


title: Jean-Marie Le Pen

text: After his time in the military, he studied political science and law at Panthéon-Assas University. His graduate thesis, submitted in 1971 by him and Jean-Loup Vincent, was titled "Le courant anarchiste en France depuis 1945" or ("The anarchist movement in France since 1945").


title: Jean-Marie Le Pen

text: After receiving his law degree, he enlisted in the Foreign Legion. He arrived in Indochina after the 1954 battle of Dien Bien Phu, which had been lost by France and which prompted French Prime Minister Pierre Mendès France to put an end to the Indochina war at the Geneva Conference. Le Pen was then sent to Suez in 1956, but arrived only after the cease-fire.


title: Jean-Marie Le Pen

text: In 1953, a year before the beginning of the Algerian War, he contacted President Vincent Auriol, who approved Le Pen's proposed volunteer disaster relief project after a flood in the Netherlands. Within two days, there were 40 volunteers from his university, a group that would later help victims of an earthquake in Italy. In Paris in 1956, he was elected to the National Assembly as a member of Pierre Poujade's UDCA populist party. Le Pen has often presented himself as the youngest member of the Assembly, but a young communist, André Chène, 27 years old and half a year younger, was elected in the same year.


title: Jean-Marie Le Pen

text: In 1957, Le Pen became the General Secretary of the National Front of Combatants, a veterans' organization, as well as the first French politician to nominate a Muslim candidate, Ahmed Djebbour, an Algerian, elected in 1957 as deputy of Paris. The next year, following his break with Poujade, he was reelected to the National Assembly as a member of the Centre National des Indépendants et Paysans (CNIP) party, led by Antoine Pinay.


title: Jean-Marie Le Pen

text: Le Pen claimed that he had lost his left eye when he was savagely beaten during the 1958 election campaign. Testimonies suggest that he was only wounded in the right eye and did not lose it. He lost the sight in his left eye years later, due to an illness. (Popular belief is that he wears a glass eye.) During the 1950s, Le Pen took a close interest in the Algerian War (1954–62) and the French defence budget.


title: Jean-Marie Le Pen

text: Elected deputy of the French Parliament under the Poujadist banner, Le Pen voluntarily reengaged himself for two to three months in the French Foreign Legion. He was then sent to Algeria (1957) as an intelligence officer. He has been accused of having engaged in torture. Le Pen has denied these accusations, although he admitted knowing of its use.


title: Jean-Marie Le Pen

text: Le Pen directed the 1965 presidential campaign of far-right candidate Jean-Louis Tixier-Vignancour, who obtained 5.19% of the votes. He insisted on the rehabilitation of the Collaborationists, declaring that:


title: Jean-Marie Le Pen

text: In 1962, Le Pen lost his seat in the Assembly. He created the Serp ("Société d'études et de relations publiques") firm, a company involved in the music industry, which specialized in historical recordings and sold recordings of the choir of the CGT trade-union and songs of the Popular Front, as well as Nazi marches.


title: Jean-Marie Le Pen

text: In 1972, Le Pen founded the Front National (FN) party. He then ran in the 1974 presidential election, obtaining 0.74% of the vote. In 1976, his Parisian flat was dynamited (he lived at that time in his mansion of Montretout in Saint-Cloud). The crime was never solved. Le Pen then failed to obtain the 500 signatures from "grand electors" ("grands électeurs", mayors, etc.) necessary to present himself in the 1981 presidential election, won by the candidate of the Socialist Party (PS), François Mitterrand.


title: Jean-Marie Le Pen

text: Criticizing immigration and taking advantage of the economic crisis striking France and the world since the 1973 oil crisis, Le Pen's party managed to increase its support in the 1980s, starting in the municipal elections of 1983. His popularity has been greatest in the south and east of France. The FN obtained 16 seats in the 1984 European elections. A total of 35 FN deputies entered the Assembly after the 1986 elections (the only legislative elections held under proportional representation), which were won by the right wing, bringing Jacques Chirac to Matignon in the first cohabitation government (that is, the combination of a right-wing Prime minister, Chirac, with a socialist President, Mitterrand). In Paris, Jean-Marie Le Pen was elected to the National Assembly.


title: Jean-Marie Le Pen

text: In 1984, Le Pen won a seat in the European Parliament and has been consistently reelected since then. In 1988 he lost his reelection bid for the French National Assembly in the Bouches-du-Rhône's 8th constituency. He was defeated in the second round by Socialist Marius Masse. In 1991 Le Pen's invite to London by Conservative MPs was militantly protested by large numbers coordinated by the Campaign Against Fascism in Europe, CAFE, which led to a surge of anti-fascist groups and activity across Europe. In 1992 and 1998 he was elected to the regional council of Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur.


title: Jean-Marie Le Pen

text: Le Pen ran in the French presidential elections in 1974, 1988, 1995, 2002, and 2007. As noted above, he was not able to run for office in 1981, having failed to gather the necessary 500 signatures of elected officials. In the presidential elections of 2002, Le Pen obtained 16.86% of the votes in the first round of voting. This was enough to qualify him for the second round, as a result of the poor showing by the PS candidate and incumbent prime minister Lionel Jospin and the scattering of votes among 15 other candidates. This was a major political event, both nationally and internationally, as it was the first time someone with such far right views had qualified for the second round of the French presidential elections. There was a widespread stirring of national public opinion as virtually the entire French political spectrum from the centre-right to the left united in fierce opposition to Le Pen's ideas. More than one million people in France took part in street rallies; slogans such as "A crook is better than a fascist" ("Un escroc mieux qu'un facho") and "Graft rather than hate, Chirac rather than Le Pen" ("L'arnaque plutôt que la haine, Chirac plutôt que Le Pen") were heard in opposition to Le Pen. Le Pen was then defeated by a large margin in the second round, when incumbent president Jacques Chirac obtained 82% of the votes, thus securing the biggest majority in the history of the Fifth Republic.


title: Jean-Marie Le Pen

text: In the 2004 regional elections, Le Pen intended to run for office in the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur region but was prevented from doing so because he did not meet the conditions for being a voter in that region: he neither lived there nor was registered as a taxpayer there. However, he was planned to be the FN's top candidate in the region for the 2010 regional elections.


title: Jean-Marie Le Pen

text: Le Pen again ran in the 2007 French presidential election and finished fourth. His 2007 campaign, at the age of 78 years and 9 months, makes him the oldest candidate for presidential office in French history.


title: Jean-Marie Le Pen

text: Le Pen has been a vocal critic of the European Reform Treaty (formally known as the Treaty of Lisbon) which was signed by EU member states on 13 December 2007, and entered into force on 1 December 2009. In October 2007, Le Pen suggested that he would personally visit Ireland to assist the "No" campaign but finally changed his mind, fearing that his presence would be used against the supporters of the NO vote. Ireland finally refused to ratify the treaty. Ireland is the only EU country which had a citizen referendum. All other EU states, including France, ratified the treaty by parliamentary vote, despite a previous citizen referendum where over 55% of French voters rejected the European Reform Treaty (although that vote was on a different draft of the Treaty in the form of the Constitutional Treaty). After the Irish "No" vote, Le Pen addressed the French President Nicolas Sarkozy in the European Parliament, accusing him of furthering the agenda of a "cabal of international finance and free market fanatics." Ireland has since accepted the treaty in a second Lisbon referendum.


title: Jean-Marie Le Pen

text: After Le Pen left office in January 2011, his daughter Marine Le Pen was elected by the adherents of the party against Bruno Gollnisch. He became honorary chairman of the party and won his seat again at the European elections in 2014.


title: Jean-Marie Le Pen

text: On 4 May 2015, Le Pen was suspended from the party after refusing to attend his disciplinary hearing for describing the gas chambers, used in concentration camps during the Holocaust, as a "detail" of history. A French court decided in June to cancel this suspension; although the members of the party were to hold a vote to accept or reject a whole series of measures aiming at changing the National Front's status, including Le Pen's Honorary Presidency. On July 10, another French court ruled to suspend the vote two days beforehand and urged the party to organize an in-person Congress, as Le Pen sued the National Front again. The party decided to appeal against both of these decisions. The FN then decided, on July 29, to count the votes on the suppression of Le Pen's Honorary Presidency, which showed that 94% of the members were in favor of this decision. However, due to the legal challenges to the FN's removal of Le Pen as its honorary president, he continued to officially hold the position.


title: Jean-Marie Le Pen

text: In August 2015, Le Pen was expelled from the National Front after a special party congress. He has since founded the Comités Jeanne.


title: Jean-Marie Le Pen

text: Le Pen's marriage to Pierrette Le Pen from 29 June 1960 to 18 March 1987 resulted in three daughters, who have given him nine granddaughters. The break-up of the marriage was somewhat dramatic, with his ex-wife posing nude, to ridicule him, in the French edition of "Playboy" which printed 100,000 more than the normal production of 150,000 nevertheless needed to print a second printing of 150,000, to satisfy demand. Marie-Caroline, one of his daughters, broke with Le Pen, following her husband to join Bruno Mégret, who split from the FN to found the rival Mouvement National Républicain (MNR, National Republican Movement). The youngest of Le Pen's daughters, Marine Le Pen, is leader of the National Rally. On 31 May 1991, Jean-Marie Le Pen married Jeanne-Marie Paschos ("Jany"), of Greek descent. Born in 1933, Paschos was previously married to Belgian businessman Jean Garnier.


title: Jean-Marie Le Pen

text: In 1977, Le Pen inherited a fortune from Hubert Lambert (1934–1976), son of the cement industrialist Leon Lambert (1877–1952), one of three sons of Lambert Cement founder Hilaire Lambert. Hubert Lambert was a political supporter of Le Pen and a monarchist as well. Lambert's will provided 30 million francs (approximately €5 million) to Le Pen, as well as his opulent three-storey 11-room mansion at 8 Parc de Montretout, Saint-Cloud, in the western suburbs of Paris. The home had been built by Napoleon III for his chief of staff Jean-François Mocquard. With his wife, he also owns a two-story townhouse on the Rue Hortense in Rueil-Malmaison and another house in his hometown of La Trinité-sur-Mer.


title: Jean-Marie Le Pen

text: In the early 1980s, Le Pen's personal security was assured by KO International Company, a subsidiary of VHP Security, a private security firm, and an alleged front organisation for "SAC", the "Service d'Action Civique" (Civic Action Service), a Gaullist organisation. SAC allegedly employed figures with organized crime backgrounds and from the far-right movement.


title: Jean-Marie Le Pen

text: Le Pen has been accused and convicted several times at home and abroad of xenophobia and antisemitism. A Paris court found in February 2005 that his verbal criticisms, such as remarks disparaging Muslims in a 2003 "Le Monde" interview, were "inciting racial hatred", and he was fined €10,000 and ordered to pay an additional €5,000 in damages to the "Ligue des droits de l'homme" (League for Human Rights). The conviction and fines were upheld by the Court of Cassation in 2006.


title: Jean-Marie Le Pen

text: Arguing that his party includes people of various ethnic or religious origins like Jean-Pierre Cohen, Farid Smahi or Huguette Fatna, he has attributed some anti-Semitism in France to the effects of Muslim immigration to Europe and suggested that some part of the Jewish community in France might eventually come to appreciate National Front ideology. Le Pen has denied man-made climate change and has linked climate science with communism.


title: Jean-Marie Le Pen

text: He also infamously compared gays to soup with salt, saying "it's like salt with soup: if there is not enough, it's too bland, and if it's too much, it's undrinkable" and compared pedophilia with "the exaltation of homosexuality".


title: Jean-Marie Le Pen

text: Le Pen has made several provocative statements concerning the Holocaust which have been interpreted by the legal system as constituting Holocaust denial. He has been convicted of racism or inciting racial hatred at least six times. Thus, on 13 September 1987, he said, "I ask myself several questions. I'm not saying the gas chambers didn't exist. I haven't seen them myself. I haven't particularly studied the question. But I believe it's just a detail in the history of World War II." For Le Pen, the French deportation of 76,000 Jews from France to Nazi concentration camps, where they were killed, is a trivial matter, and he denies that 6 million Jews were killed, saying "I don't think there were that many deaths. There weren't 6 million ... There weren't mass murders as it's been said." He was eventually condemned under the Gayssot Act to pay 1.2 million francs (€183,200).


title: Jean-Marie Le Pen

text: In 1997, the European Parliament, of which Le Pen was then a member, removed his parliamentary immunity so that Le Pen could be tried by a German court in Germany, for comments he made at a December 1996 press conference before the German Republikaner party. Echoing his 1987 remarks in France, Le Pen stated: "If you take a 1,000-page book on World War II, the concentration camps take up only two pages and the gas chambers 10 to 15 lines. This is what one calls a detail." In June 1999, a Munich court found this statement to be "minimizing the Holocaust, which caused the deaths of six million Jews," and convicted and fined Le Pen for his remarks. Le Pen retorted ironically: "I understand now that it's the Second World War which is a detail of the history of the gas chambers."


title: Jean-Marie Le Pen

text: Le Pen is often nicknamed the "Menhir", due to his "granitic nature" as he is perceived as someone who does not give way to pressure or who cannot be easily knocked down. It also connects him to France's Celtic origins. Le Pen is often described as one of the most flamboyant and charismatic orators in Europe, whose speech blends folksy humour, crude attacks and rhetorical finesse.


title: Jean-Marie Le Pen

text: However, Le Pen remains a polarizing figure in France: opinions regarding him tend to be quite strong. A 2002 IPSOS poll showed that while 22% of the electorate have a good or very good opinion of Le Pen, and 13% an unfavorable opinion, 61% have a very unfavorable opinion.


title: Jean-Marie Le Pen

text: Le Pen and the National Front are described by much of the media and nearly all commentators as far right. Le Pen himself and the rest of his party disagree with this label; earlier in his political career, Le Pen described his position as "neither right, nor left, but French" ("ni droite, ni gauche, français"). He later described his position as right-wing and opposed to the "socialo-communists" and other right-wing parties, which he deems are not real right-wing parties. At other times, for example during the 2002 election campaign, he declared himself "socially left-wing, economically right-wing, nationally French" ("socialement à gauche, économiquement à droite, nationalement français"). He further contends that most of the French political and media class are corrupt and out of touch with the real needs of the common people, and conspire to exclude Le Pen and his party from mainstream politics. Le Pen criticizes the other political parties as the "establishment" and lumped all major parties (Communist, Socialist, Union for French Democracy (UDF) and Rally for the Republic (RPR)) into the "Gang of Four" ("la bande des quatre" – an allusion to the Gang of Four during China's Cultural Revolution).


title: Jean-Marie Le Pen

text: Some of Le Pen's statements led other right-wing groups, such as the Austrian Freedom Party, and some National Front supporters, to distance themselves from him. Controversial Dutch anti-Islam lawmaker Geert Wilders, who has often been accused of being far-right, has also criticized Le Pen. Bruno Mégret left the National Front to found his own party (the National Republican Movement, MNR), claiming that Le Pen kept the Front away from the possibility of gaining power. Mégret wanted to emulate Gianfranco Fini's success in Italy by making it possible for right-wing parties to ally themselves with the Front, but claimed that Le Pen's attitude and outrageous speech prevented this. Le Pen's daughter Marine leads an internal movement of the Front that wants to "normalize" the National Front, "de-enclave" it, have a "culture of government" etc.; however, relations with Le Pen and other supporters of the hard line are complex. Le Pen's National Front electoral successes along with the party gaining wider public prominence led to suggestions for the renewal of the pan-European alliance of extreme-right parties with Le Pen as its figurehead, a suggestion that eventually did indeed bring about the establishment of the Europe of Nations and Freedom group in the European Parliament, chaired by Le Pen's daughter Marine.


title: Jean-Marie Le Pen

text: On 22 March 2018, Le Pen joined the Alliance for Peace and Freedom. In October 2021, he endorsed Éric Zemmour for the 2022 French presidential election over his daughter Marine.


title: Terry Wogan

text: Sir Michael Terence Wogan (; 3 August 1938 – 31 January 2016) was an Irish radio and television broadcaster who worked for the BBC in the UK for most of his career. Between 1993 and his semi-retirement in December 2009, his BBC Radio 2 weekday breakfast programme "Wake Up to Wogan" regularly drew an estimated eight million listeners. He was believed to be the most listened-to radio broadcaster in Europe.


title: Terry Wogan

text: Wogan was a leading media personality in Ireland and Britain from the late 1960s, and was often referred to as a "national treasure". In addition to his weekday radio show, he was known for his work on television, including the BBC One chat show "Wogan", presenting "Children in Need", the game show "Blankety Blank" and "Come Dancing". He was the BBC's commentator for the Eurovision Song Contest from 1971 to 2008 (radio 1971, 1974-1977; television 1973, 1978, 1980-2008 (except in 1972 and 1979)) and the Contest's host in . From 2010 to 2015 he presented "Weekend Wogan", a two-hour Sunday morning show on BBC Radio 2.


title: Terry Wogan

text: In 2005, Wogan acquired British citizenship in addition to his Irish nationality and was awarded a knighthood in the same year and was therefore entitled to use the title "Sir" in front of his name. He died from cancer, at his home in Hitcham (Taplow), Buckinghamshire, on 31 January 2016, aged 77.


title: Terry Wogan

text: Michael Terence Wogan was born on 3 August 1938 at Cleary's Nursing Home, Elm Park, Limerick, Ireland, the elder of two children. He was the son of the manager of Leverett & Frye, a high-class grocery store in Limerick, and was educated at Crescent College, a Jesuit school, from the age of eight. He experienced a strongly religious upbringing, later commenting that he had been brainwashed into believing by the threat of going to hell. Despite this, he often expressed his fondness for the city of his birth, commenting on one occasion that "Limerick never left me, whatever it is, my identity is Limerick."


title: Terry Wogan

text: At the age of 15, after his father was promoted to general manager, Wogan moved to Dublin with his family. Whilst living there he attended Crescent College's sister school, Belvedere College. He participated in amateur dramatics and discovered a love of rock and roll. After leaving Belvedere in 1956, Wogan had a brief career in the banking profession, joining the Royal Bank of Ireland. Still in his twenties, he joined the national broadcaster of Ireland, Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ), as a newsreader and announcer, after seeing a newspaper advertisement inviting applicants.


title: Terry Wogan

text: Wogan conducted interviews and presented documentary features during his first two years at Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ), before moving to the light entertainment department as a disc jockey and host of TV quiz and variety shows such as "Jackpot", a top-rated quiz show on RTÉ in the 1960s. When the show was dropped by RTÉ TV in 1967, he approached the BBC for extra work. David Attenborough rebuffed his job application to be a BBC presenter; in 2016, after Wogan's death, he expressed the view that "to have had two Irishmen presenting on BBC Two would have looked ridiculous". Wogan began working for BBC Radio, initially 'down the line' from Dublin, first broadcasting on the BBC Light Programme on 27 September 1966. He presented the Tuesday edition of "Late Night Extra" for two years on BBC Radio 2, commuting weekly from Dublin to London. After being a stand-in presenter on Jimmy Young's mid-morning show whilst Young took a holiday throughout July 1969, Wogan was offered a weekday afternoon slot which began on 29 September that year.


title: Terry Wogan

text: In April 1972 he took over the breakfast show on BBC Radio 2, swapping places with John Dunn, who went onto the afternoon show. Wogan achieved record estimated audiences of up to 7.9 million. His seemingly ubiquitous presence across the media meant that he frequently became the butt of jokes by comedians of the time, among them The Goodies and The Barron Knights. He released a parody vocal version of the song "The Floral Dance" in 1978, by popular request from listeners who enjoyed hearing him sing over the instrumental hit by the Brighouse and Rastrick Brass Band. His version reached number 21 in the UK Singles Chart. In December 1984, Wogan left his breakfast show to pursue a full-time career in television and was replaced by Ken Bruce. His first chat show, "Wogan's World", was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 from 6 June 1974 to 21 September 1975.


title: Terry Wogan

text: In January 1993 he returned to BBC Radio 2, replacing Brian Hayes to present the breakfast show, which took the new name "Wake Up to Wogan"; it began with a preview show in the mid-morning of Boxing Day 1992. Wogan's tendency to go off on rambling, esoteric tangents, often including banter with his then producer Paul Walters, became popular with both younger and older listeners. Much of the entertainment came from letters and emails sent in by listeners, many of whom adopted punning pseudonyms. One occasion involved Wogan reading out an email from someone using the name "Tess Tickles", without realising what the name was referring to, prompting Paul Walters' standard reply in such situations – "I only print 'em!"


title: Terry Wogan

text: Through his show Wogan was also widely credited with launching the career of singer Katie Melua, after he repeatedly played her début single, "The Closest Thing to Crazy", in late 2003. When she performed on "Children in Need" in 2005, Wogan joked that Melua owed her career to him. He gave credit for her discovery to Walters. Walters also put music by Eva Cassidy, an American singer who had died in relative obscurity, on Wogan's playlist; Cassidy then, posthumously, became a sensation in the United Kingdom.


title: Terry Wogan

text: As his radio show was considered to attract older listeners, Wogan jokingly referred to his fans as "TOGs", standing for "Terry's Old Geezers" or "Terry's Old Gals", whilst "TYGs" were "Terry's Young Geezers/Gals", who he joked were forced to listen to him because of their parents' choice of radio station. Wogan was referred to as "The Togmeister" on his own programme by himself and members of his production team, and he referred to the podcast of his show as a 'togcast'.


title: Terry Wogan

text: There were also running jokes involving Wogan's newsreader colleagues Alan Dedicoat (nicknamed 'Deadly' after the spoonerism 'Deadly Alancoat'), Fran Godfrey (nicknamed 'Frank'), and John Marsh (nicknamed 'Boggy'). Marsh once told Wogan on air that his wife was called Janet, and a series of "Janet and John" stories followed, read by Wogan during the breakfast show. These were a pastiche of children's learn-to-read stories, with humorous sexual double-entendres, which often led to Wogan and Marsh breaking into laughter. Six CDs and two books of the stories have been sold in aid of Children in Need, raising over £4 million. A long-running campaign by Wogan criticising the British government for levying VAT on the CDs eventually led to a government rebate of £200,000. Another feature of the programme was Wogan's exchanges with "the Totty from Splotty" – Lynn Bowles, the Welsh traffic reporter from Splott, Cardiff – which often involved reading limericks from listeners cut short after one or two lines, as risqué innuendo in the later lines was telegraphed.


title: Terry Wogan

text: "Wake Up to Wogan" attracted an estimated audience of eight million in 2005. That figure was surpassed in 2008, as Wogan's show held off a challenge from Radio 1 for listeners during the breakfast slot. According to figures leaked to British newspapers in April 2006, Wogan was the highest-paid BBC radio presenter at that time, with an £800,000-a-year salary. In an interview with Britain's "Hello!" magazine in its 30 May 2006 issue, Wogan confirmed this, saying that he represented good value. On 23 May 2005, he crossed BBC strike picket lines to present his show.


title: Terry Wogan

text: Wogan was forced off the air on 16 February 2007, when steam from a nearby gym set off fire alarms. For 15 minutes an emergency tape played non-stop music. On returning, Wogan read out several light-hearted comments from listeners, saying that they thought he had died with his sudden disappearance and the playing of such sentimental music. On 7 September 2009, Wogan confirmed to his listeners that he would be leaving the breakfast show at the end of the year, with Chris Evans taking over. "The Times" published an ode to Terry: "Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone. Terry Wogan is abandoning his microphone", and novelist Allison Pearson commented: "Heard the one about the Irishman who reminded the British of what they could be at their best? His name was Terry Wogan." Wogan presented his final Radio 2 breakfast show on 18 December 2009.


title: Terry Wogan

text: It was announced that Wogan would return to Radio 2, beginning on 14 February 2010, to host a live weekly two-hour Sunday show on the network, featuring live musical performance and guests, between 11.00 am and 1.00 pm. The show, titled "Weekend Wogan", was hosted in front of a live audience in the Radio Theatre at Broadcasting House until the fourth series, where he returned to the studio.


title: Terry Wogan

text: Wogan continued to host the show until his final broadcast on Remembrance Sunday 2015, due to his declining health with cancer. It then continued with guest hosts until the end of that month, after which, regular cover show "Madeley on Sunday" presented by Richard Madeley filled the slot temporarily. Michael Ball then permanently took over the slot in April 2016.


title: Terry Wogan

text: In 1971, and from 1974 until 1977, Wogan provided the BBC's radio commentary for the Eurovision Song Contest. He became known for his television commentary, which he handled first in 1973, again in 1978, then every year from 1980 until 2008. He co-hosted the 1998 contest with Ulrika Jonsson, in Birmingham's National Indoor Arena on 9 May. Wogan was the third person in the contest's history to combine the roles of presenter and commentator. When not on stage, he was in his private booth providing the necessary TV commentary to BBC viewers. From 1977 until 1996, Wogan hosted the UK selection show each year, returning to the job in 1998, and again from 2003 until 2008. In 1973, 1975, every year from 1977 until 1984, and again in 1994, Wogan also presented the UK "Eurovision Song Contest Previews" on BBC 1.


title: Terry Wogan

text: Wogan's often deadpan commentating style, which often involved humour at the expense of others, caused controversy: for example, when he referred to the hosts of the 2001 contest in Denmark, Søren Pilmark and Natasja Crone Back, as "Doctor Death and the Tooth Fairy".


title: Terry Wogan

text: During the presentation of the Dutch televote in the Eurovision Song Contest 2006, Wogan called the Dutch televote presenter, Paul de Leeuw, an "eejit", as de Leeuw started to make ad lib comments, gave his mobile phone number, and generally hogged the limelight for some time before giving the Dutch votes. Chris Tarrant later praised Wogan's acerbity.


title: Terry Wogan

text: During the 2007 BBC show "Making Your Mind Up", in which the British public voted to decide their Eurovision entry, Wogan announced, wrongly, that the runner-up Cyndi was the winner. The winner was the group Scooch; according to the BBC, Wogan was provided with the correct result during the live show.


title: Terry Wogan

text: In the 2008 contest, the UK's entry, Andy Abraham, came last, much to Wogan's disappointment. Wogan argued that Abraham gave a better performance than the entries from Spain and Bosnia-Herzegovina.


title: Terry Wogan

text: On 11 August 2008, Wogan said in an interview with the "Radio Times" magazine that he was doubtful about presenting the Eurovision Song Contest for the United Kingdom again. On 5 December 2008, Wogan stepped down from the role after 35 years. Graham Norton succeeded Wogan as BBC commentator for the 2009 contest and subsequent contests.


title: Terry Wogan

text: In November 2014, Wogan reviewed Norton's autobiography for "The Irish Times". Describing his attitude towards the contest, he wrote that he saw it as a "sometimes foolish farce", while implying that the winner of the 2014 contest, Austrian drag performer Conchita Wurst, was a "freakshow". After his death, his presentation of the contest was criticised for its mocking tone.


title: Terry Wogan

text: Wogan's first foray into TV interviewing, and indeed to British television, was in 1972 on "Lunchtime with Wogan" on ITV. Later, "What's On, Wogan?" ran for one series in 1980 on BBC1, primarily on early Saturday evenings. In 1981 he had a chance to host a one-off chat show, "Saturday Live". Among his guests on this show were Larry Hagman, promoting the film "S.O.B.", and Frank Hall. Hagman was at the height of his fame, which gave the show a high-profile.


title: Terry Wogan

text: Soon after Wogan was given his own chat show, "Wogan", which after a trial run on a midweek evening, was recommissioned for broadcast on Saturday nights from 1982 to 1984. Between 1985 and 1992, the show aired on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 7pm. The series included interviews with George Best, Chevy Chase, Anne Bancroft, Ronnie Barker announcing his retirement on the show, and David Icke claiming to be the "Son of God", to whom Wogan stated: "They're not laughing "with" you, they're laughing "at" you."


title: Terry Wogan

text: The BBC stopped an interview in 1989 with Simon Hayward, a former captain in the Life Guards, hours before he was due to appear on the "Wogan" show. Hayward insisted that he was innocent of drug-smuggling offences. The decision was taken by the then Controller of BBC1, Jonathan Powell, after protests from several MPs. The BBC was accused of censorship, and a Conservative MP, John Gorst, described the decision to ban Hayward from "Wogan" as "outrageous".


title: Terry Wogan

text: Wogan was released from his talk-show contract in 1992, after pressure from the BBC. He said that the BBC also wanted his scheduling slot for the ill-fated soap "Eldorado". After "Eldorado" took over the 7pm slot, Wogan briefly hosted a new weekly chat strand "Terry Wogan's Friday Night" in 1993, but this series was not recommissioned.


title: Terry Wogan

text: Wogan presented "Wogan Now and Then" (2006), a show in which he interviewed guests from his former chat show, as well as new guests. BBC Two launched a new compilation series, "Wogan: the Best Of" in 2015, featuring selected interview segments and music performances from Wogan's past chat series, linked by new introductions from Wogan.


title: Terry Wogan

text: In 1980, the BBC's charity appeal for children was first broadcast as a telethon called "Children in Need", with Wogan presenting alongside Sue Lawley and Esther Rantzen. He campaigned extensively for the charity, and often involved himself via auctions on his radio show, or more directly by taking part in well-publicised sponsored activities.


title: Terry Wogan

text: He was reported to be the only celebrity paid for his participation in Children in Need, having received a fee every year since 1980 (£9,065 in 2005). Wogan stated that he would "quite happily do it for nothing" and that he "never asked for a fee". Wogan donated his BBC fees to the charity. The BBC stated that the fee had "never been negotiated" and was paid from BBC resources rather than the Children in Need fund.


title: Terry Wogan

text: In 2008, Wogan and singer Aled Jones released a single "Little Drummer Boy"/"Peace on Earth", which got to number three in the UK music charts. The money raised went to BBC "Children in Need". The two recorded a second Christmas single "Silver Bells" in 2009, which was also in aid of BBC Children in Need.


title: Terry Wogan

text: Wogan was the main regular presenter of "Children in Need" between 1980 and 2014. In November 2015, Wogan was unable to participate in the live televised "Children in Need" appeal for the first time in its 35-year history, due to poor health after a surgical procedure on his back. He did, however, make a brief appearance as part of a pre-recorded sketch. He was replaced by Dermot O'Leary. Prior to his death, Wogan hoped to return to Children in Need in 2016, carrying on as main presenter.


title: Terry Wogan

text: Wogan's television profile was boosted considerably when he became the first-ever host of "Blankety Blank" in 1979. His good-humoured interaction with the contestants and lively banter with the celebrity guests went a long way to making the show a success. Among the guests who appeared most frequently and memorably during this period were Roy Hudd, Beryl Reid, Lorraine Chase and, in particular, Kenny Everett, who became famous for snapping Wogan's stick-like microphone in half. Wogan left the show after the 1983 series, just over a year before his thrice-weekly chat show commenced.


title: Terry Wogan

text: Wogan appeared on "Friday Night with Jonathan Ross" four times, between 2004 and 2009. In an appearance on the BBC programme "Top Gear", Wogan became the second-slowest guest to go around the test track as the "Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car", a Suzuki Liana. Only Richard Whiteley was slower.


title: Terry Wogan

text: In 2010, Wogan made a cameo appearance in the second series of "Being Human", and also guest-hosted the fourth episode of the 24th series of "Never Mind the Buzzcocks". The following year, Wogan hosted "Wogan on Wodehouse" for BBC Two. In 2011 he appeared as a panellist on "Would I Lie To You".


title: Terry Wogan

text: On 21 September 2013, Wogan appeared as a panellist on ITV game show "Through the Keyhole". In November 2013, he participated in a celebrity edition of the BBC One game show "Pointless", with celebrities including Bobby Ball and Esther Rantzen, in aid of Children in Need.


title: Terry Wogan

text: On 31 March 2014, Wogan was a guest reporter on "Bang Goes the Theory", on which he discussed old-age dementia. From 12 to 16 May 2014, Wogan appeared on the Channel 4 game show "Draw It!". On 10 November 2014, in the run up to that year's Children in Need telethon, Wogan guest hosted an episode of "The One Show" with Alex Jones. He also presented a series called "Terry and Mason's Great Food Trip" with the cab driver Mason McQueen in 2015, in which the duo travelled all over Britain eating regional food.


title: Terry Wogan

text: Wogan was appointed an Honorary Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1997, and later became an Honorary Knight Commander of the same order (KBE) in the 2005 Queen's Birthday Honours List. After asserting his right to British citizenship and retaining his Irish citizenship that year, Wogan was officially knighted on 11 October 2005, allowing him to use the style "Sir". On 29 May 2007, he was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant of Buckinghamshire.


title: Terry Wogan

text: On 15 June 2007, Wogan's home city of Limerick honoured him with the Freedom of the City at a ceremony in Limerick's Civic Hall. Because of his long absence from the city and unflattering remarks about the city in a 1980 interview, the local press carried out a vox pop, which resulted in support for the award. He was made an honorary freeman of the City of London in 2009, and invited to raise the bascules of Tower Bridge.


title: Terry Wogan

text: In 2004, he received an Honorary D.Litt. degree from the University of Limerick, as well as a special lifetime achievement award from his native city. He received an Honorary LL.D. degree from Leicester University in 2010.


title: Terry Wogan

text: In 1978, Wogan was the subject of "This Is Your Life", when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at Broadcasting House.


title: Terry Wogan

text: Wogan was inducted into the Radio Academy Hall of Fame at a gala dinner held in his honour on 10 December 2009. Wogan was announced as the Ultimate Icon of Radio 2, commemorating the station's 40th birthday. The shortlist of sixteen candidates had been published on the BBC Radio 2 website, and the winner was announced live on Radio 2 during a one-off special edition of "Family Favourites" by host Michael Aspel on 30 September 2007. He praised his fellow nominees, the Beatles, Diana, Princess of Wales, and Nelson Mandela during his acceptance speech, which was broadcast live on BBC Radio 2, and he chose Nat King Cole's recording of "Stardust" as his iconic song of the last 40 years. Wogan had chosen the song twice before as his favourite record on "Desert Island Discs", and said he wanted to be buried with it.


title: Terry Wogan

text: Wogan married Helen Joyce on 24 April 1965 in her parish church, Our Lady of Refuge, Rathmines, and they remained married until his death. They lived in Hitcham, Taplow, Buckinghamshire, with another home in Gascony, southwestern France. Sir Terry and Lady Wogan had four children (one of whom, a daughter Vanessa, died when only a few weeks old) and five grandchildren. In 2010, Wogan described the anguish he felt on the loss of his baby daughter.


title: Terry Wogan

text: In April 2013, Wogan attended the funeral of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher after being invited by her family.


title: Terry Wogan

text: Wogan was brought up and educated as a Roman Catholic, but became an atheist at the age of 17. In an interview with Gay Byrne on RTÉ, he said that he respected those who had "the gift of faith".


title: Terry Wogan

text: Wogan's health declined after Christmas 2015. He did not present "Children in Need" in November 2015, citing back pain as the reason for his absence from the long-running annual show. His friend, Father Brian D'Arcy, visited him during January, and noticed he was seriously ill. He died of cancer, aged 77, on 31 January 2016, at his home.


title: Terry Wogan

text: British Prime Minister David Cameron said that "Britain has lost a huge talent" and Michael D. Higgins, the President of Ireland, praised Wogan's career and his frequent visits to his homeland. Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Tánaiste Joan Burton remembered Wogan for his role in helping Anglo-Irish relations during the Troubles. D'Arcy speculated that a public funeral would be logistically difficult, as there would be too many people wanting to pay their respects.


title: Terry Wogan

text: After Wogan's death and his private funeral a few weeks later, a public memorial service was held on 27 September the same year. This was held at Westminster Abbey, was opened by a recording of Wogan himself, and featured a number of his celebrity friends making speeches, such as Chris Evans and Joanna Lumley. The service was broadcast live on BBC Radio 2.


title: Terry Wogan

text: In February 2016, a memorial montage was aired as part of the United Kingdom's selection show for the 2016 Eurovision Song contest, "Eurovision: You Decide". During that year's contest in Stockholm, Graham Norton asked UK viewers during his commentary to "raise a glass" for Wogan before the ninth song of the contest was performed; this honour has continued every year since.


title: Terry Wogan

text: In the run up to the annual telethon for "Children in Need", the BBC held a special concert at The Royal Albert Hall, named "Children in Need Rocks (for Terry)". Unlike previous CiN Rock concerts, the acts performing were specially selected by the BBC and Wogan's friends as they were synonymous with his career. Performances included Katie Melua (whom he championed during his time as a DJ on Radio 2), Olly Murs (who performed Wogan's favourite swing classics), Eva Cassidy, who posthumously performed over video-tape with Shaun Escoffery duetting live in the studio on the song "Somewhere Over the Rainbow", and Michael Ball and Alfie Boe covering The Floral Dance, a song which Wogan once covered himself.


title: Terry Wogan

text: On 16 November 2016, the BBC renamed BBC Western House, home of BBC Radio 2, in his memory, to BBC Wogan House.


title: Drakeo the Ruler

text: Darrell Wayne Caldwell (December 1, 1993 – December 18, 2021), known professionally as Drakeo the Ruler, was an American rapper. He was known for his flow, as well as his "oddly expressive, poetic word-choices", leading the "Los Angeles Times" to call him "the most original West Coast stylist in decades". His fourth mixtape, "Cold Devil", has been streamed over 100 million times.


title: Drakeo the Ruler

text: Caldwell was born and raised in South Central Los Angeles, California, by a single mother. He attended Washington High School in nearby Westmont.


title: Drakeo the Ruler

text: After recording a handful of mixtapes with much more of a trap influence than the West Coast hip hop he became known for, he was discovered by DJ Mustard, who remixed his song "Mr. Get Dough". The song, which premiered on WorldStarHipHop in April 2015, became his breakout song, and has amassed over 6.2 million YouTube views as of August 2019. Six months later, in October, Drakeo released his official debut mixtape, "I Am Mr. Mosely", as his first project under DJ Mustard's 10 Summers label.


title: Drakeo the Ruler

text: He released his second project, "I Am Mr. Mosely 2", on July 21, 2016, with features including Mozzy, Skeme, and Philthy Rich. He followed this up with the release of "So Cold I Do Em" in December.


title: Drakeo the Ruler

text: After his jail release in November 2017, he recorded a 16-track mixtape, "Cold Devil", in 10 days, and released it the following month. Paul A. Thompson of "Pitchfork" described it as "the most compelling album of the Los Angeles emcee's career", adding that his "avant deadpan and impressionistic relationship to the beat" is "icy and unforgettable". Similarly, Grant Rindner of "Complex" called it "one of the most impressive California rap projects in years". He released music videos for "Flu Flamming", "Big Banc Uchies", and "Out the Slums" within a month. "Flu Flamming" was also notably remixed by Lil Yachty, and "Big Banc Uchies" by Shy Glizzy. The music video for "Roll Bounce" was released in September, with Drakeo in jail awaiting trial.


title: Drakeo the Ruler

text: The project, "Thank You for Using GTL", was recorded from phone calls from jail, and released in June 2020.


title: Drakeo the Ruler

text: His ninth mixtape, "The Truth Hurts", was released on February 24, 2021. The mixtape contains notable guest appearances from Don Toliver and Drake on the song "Talk to Me".


title: Drakeo the Ruler

text: In January 2017, Caldwell was arrested by the LAPD when they raided a condo where he regularly shot music videos. He was subsequently held at Men's Central Jail after being charged with unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon. He was released in November.


title: Drakeo the Ruler

text: In March 2018, he was arrested again, this time charged with first-degree murder, attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder. The charges stemmed from a December 2016 shooting in Carson, California, where one person was killed and two were injured. He was facing life in prison. Simultaneously, members of his Stinc Team collective, including his brother Ralfy the Plug, were arrested in San Francisco on a variety of charges.


title: Drakeo the Ruler

text: On July 25, 2019, he was acquitted of his murder and attempted murder charges in a Compton courthouse. However, the district attorney decided to refile charges of criminal gang conspiracy and shooting from a motor vehicle in August, two counts that resulted in a hung jury during his initial trial. His trial date was set for August 3, 2020. While incarcerated, he recorded "Thank You for Using GTL", which "Pitchfork" called "likely the greatest rap album ever recorded from jail". He was released from jail in November 2020 following three years of incarceration after he accepted a deal from the District Attorney's office in which he pled guilty to shooting from a vehicle.


title: Drakeo the Ruler

text: Caldwell was stabbed backstage at around 8:30p.m. on December 18, 2021, during the Once Upon a Time in LA festival. Initial eyewitness accounts reported that he was stabbed in the neck during an altercation; later, his mother Darrylene Corniel revealed in an interview with "Rolling Stone" that Caldwell, his brother, and their entourage were attacked by "around 40, 60 men" in masks around the time of YG's arrival to the venue, and that Caldwell had been stabbed in the neck. Paramedics arrived at the scene at around 8:40p.m. and transported Caldwell to a nearby hospital in critical condition. Snoop Dogg, who was co-headlining along with 50 Cent, YG, and Ice Cube, cancelled their performance once they were made aware of the situation. The event itself was cancelled shortly afterward.


title: Drakeo the Ruler

text: Caldwell was pronounced dead as a result of his stab wounds at around midnight on December 19, 2021, roughly four hours after the initial altercation. As of December 21, 2021, the Los Angeles Police Department is investigating his death as a homicide. He was interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood Hills.


title: Drakeo the Ruler

text: Following the news of his death, Corniel stated she would be suing Live Nation in regards to Caldwell's murder, citing negligence from the venue and lax security measures from the staff.


title: Drakeo the Ruler

text: Snoop Dogg posted a lengthy message to his Instagram expressing his condolences to Caldwell's family, and that he had been in his dressing room preparing to perform when he was informed of the incident. He closed the statement with "I'm praying for peace in hip hop." Wiz Khalifa also called for peace in the music industry following the violent deaths of Caldwell and rapper Young Dolph.


title: The Night Watch

text: Militia Company of District II under the Command of Captain Frans Banninck Cocq, also known as The Shooting Company of Frans Banning Cocq and Willem van Ruytenburch, but commonly referred to as The Night Watch (), is a 1642 painting by Rembrandt van Rijn. It is in the collection of the Amsterdam Museum but is prominently displayed in the Rijksmuseum as the best-known painting in its collection. "The Night Watch" is one of the most famous Dutch Golden Age paintings.


title: The Night Watch

text: The painting is famous for three things: its colossal size (), the dramatic use of light and shadow (tenebrism) and the perception of motion in what would have traditionally been a static military . The painting was completed in 1642, at the peak of the Dutch Golden Age. It depicts the eponymous company moving out, led by Captain Frans Banninck Cocq (dressed in black, with a red sash) and his lieutenant, Willem van Ruytenburch (dressed in yellow, with a white sash). With effective use of sunlight and shade, Rembrandt leads the eye to the three most important characters among the crowd: the two men in the centre (from whom the painting gets its original title), and the woman in the centre-left background carrying a chicken. Behind them, the company's colours are carried by the ensign, Jan Visscher Cornelissen. The figures are almost life-size.


title: The Night Watch

text: Rembrandt has displayed the traditional emblem of the arquebusiers in a natural way, with the woman in the background carrying the main symbols. She is a kind of mascot herself; the claws of a dead chicken on her belt represent the "clauweniers" (arquebusiers), the pistol behind the chicken represents clover and she is holding the militia's goblet. The man in front of her is wearing a helmet with an oak leaf, a traditional motif of the arquebusiers. The dead chicken is also meant to represent a defeated adversary. The colour yellow is often associated with victory.


title: The Night Watch

text: The painting was commissioned around 1639 by Captain Banninck Cocq and seventeen members of his "Kloveniers" (civic militia guards). Eighteen names appear on a shield, painted circa 1715, in the centre-right background, as the hired drummer was added to the painting for free. A total of 34 characters appear in the painting. Rembrandt was paid 1,600 guilders for the painting (each person paid one hundred), a large sum at the time. This was one of a series of seven similar paintings of the militiamen () commissioned during that time from various artists.


title: The Night Watch

text: The painting was commissioned to hang in the banquet hall of the newly built "Kloveniersdoelen" (Musketeers' Meeting Hall) in Amsterdam. Some have suggested that the occasion for Rembrandt's commission and the series of other commissions given to other artists was the visit of the French queen, Marie de Medici, in 1638. Even though she was escaping from her exile from France ordered by her son Louis XIII, the queen's arrival was met with great pageantry.


title: The Night Watch

text: There is some academic discussion as to where Rembrandt actually executed the painting. It is too large to have been completed in his studio in his house (modern address Jodenbreestraat 4, 1011 NK Amsterdam). Scholars are divided. In city records of the period, he applied to build a "summer kitchen" on the back of his house. The dimensions of this structure would have accommodated the painting over the three years it took him to paint it. Another candidate is in an adjacent church and a third possibility is actually on site.


title: The Night Watch

text: "The Night Watch" first hung in the "Groote Zaal" (Great Hall) or Amsterdam's "Kloveniersdoelen". This structure currently houses the Doelen Hotel. In 1715, the painting was moved to the Amsterdam Town Hall, for which it was trimmed on all four sides. This was done, presumably, to fit the painting between two columns and was a common practice before the 19th century. This alteration resulted in the loss of two characters on the left side of the painting, the top of the arch, the balustrade, and the edge of the step. The missing portions have not been found; Taco Dibbits, director of the Rijksmuseum has some hope that possibly at least the left-hand side might not have been destroyed as it contained three figures, and at the time the painting was trimmed Rembrandt paintings were already expensive.


title: The Night Watch

text: A 17th-century copy of the painting by Gerrit Lundens (1622–1683) at the National Gallery, London, shows the original composition.


title: The Night Watch

text: When Napoleon occupied the Netherlands, the Town Hall became the Palace on the Dam and the magistrates moved the painting to the "Trippenhuis" of the family Trip. Napoleon ordered it returned, but after the occupation ended in 1813, the painting again moved to the "Trippenhuis", which now housed the Dutch Academy of Sciences. It remained there until it moved to the new "Rijksmuseum" when its building was finished in 1885.


title: The Night Watch

text: The painting was removed from the Rijksmuseum in September 1939, at the onset of World War II. The canvas was detached from its frame and rolled around a cylinder. The rolled painting was stored for four years in a special safe that was built to protect many works of art in the caves of Maastricht, Netherlands. After the end of the war, the canvas was re-mounted, restored, and returned to the Rijksmuseum.


title: The Night Watch

text: On 11 December 2003, "The Night Watch" was moved to a temporary location, due to a major refurbishment of the Rijksmuseum. The painting was detached from its frame, wrapped in stain-free paper, put into a wooden frame which was put into two sleeves, driven on a cart to its new destination, hoisted, and brought into its new home through a special slit.


title: The Night Watch

text: While the refurbishment took place, "The Night Watch" could be viewed in its temporary location in the "Philipsvleugel" of the Rijksmuseum. When the refurbishment was finished in April 2013, the painting was returned to its original place in the "Nachtwachtzaal" ("Room of the Night Watch").


title: The Night Watch

text: In 2021 the painting was exhibited from June to September with the trimmed-off sections recreated using convolutional neural networks, an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm, based on the copy by Lundens. The recreation corrected for perspective (Lundens must have been sitting on the left side of the painting when he made his copy), and used colours and brush-strokes as used by Rembrandt. The trimming of the painting put the lieutenants in the centre, but the original placed them off-centre, marching towards an empty space now reinstated, creating a dynamic of the troops marching towards the left of the painting. The cutdown painting by Rembrandt with the AI recreation of the missing portions attached was placed on exhibition for three months. The augmented painting will not be on permanent display so as not to "trick" viewers into thinking they were seeing the full original; the augmentations are a scientific, rather than an artist's, interpretation.


title: The Night Watch

text: For much of its existence, the painting was coated with a dark varnish, which gave the incorrect impression that it depicted a night scene, leading to the name by which it is now commonly known.


title: The Night Watch

text: On 13 January 1911, a jobless shoemaker and former Navy chef attempted to slash the painting with a shoemaker's knife protesting his inability to find work. However, the thick coating of varnish protected the painting from any damage at that time. The varnish was removed only in the 1940s.


title: The Night Watch

text: On 14 September 1975, the work was attacked with a bread knife by an unemployed school teacher, Wilhelmus de Rijk, resulting in several large zig-zagged slashes up to 30 cm long. De Rijk, who suffered from mental illness, claimed he "did it for the Lord" and that he "was ordered to do it." The painting was successfully restored after four years, but some evidence of the damage is still visible up close. De Rijk committed suicide in April 1976, before he could have been charged.


title: The Night Watch

text: On 6 April 1990, an escaped psychiatric patient sprayed acid onto the painting with a concealed pump bottle. Security guards intervened, stopping the man and quickly spraying water onto the canvas. Ultimately, the acid only penetrated the varnish layer of the painting, and it was fully restored.


title: The Night Watch

text: In July 2019, a long and complex restoration effort began. The restoration took place in public, in a specially-made glass enclosure built and placed in the Rijksmuseum, and was livestreamed. The plan was to move the 337 kg painting into the enclosure starting when the museum closed for the day on 9 July, then to map the painting "layer by layer and pigment by pigment", and plan conservation work according to what was found. Taco Dibbits, the Rijksmuseum's general director, said that despite working there for 17 years, he had never seen the top of the painting; "We know so little on how [Rembrandt] worked on making "The Night Watch"."


title: The Night Watch

text: On 26 October 2011, the Rijksmuseum unveiled new, sustainable LED lighting for "The Night Watch". With new technology, it is the first time LED lighting has been able to render the fine nuances of the painting's complex colour palette.


title: The Night Watch

text: The new illumination uses LED lights with a colour temperature of 3,200 kelvin, similar to warm-white light sources such as tungsten halogen. It has a colour rendering index of over 90, which makes it suitable for the illumination of artifacts such as "The Night Watch". Using the new LED lighting, the museum saves 80% on energy and offers the painting a safer environment because of the absence of UV radiation and heat.


title: The Night Watch

text: On 13 May 2020, the Rijksmuseum published a 44.8 gigapixel image of "The Night Watch" made from 528 different still photographs. "The 24 rows of 22 pictures were stitched together digitally with the aid of neural networks," the museum said. It was primarily created for scientists to view the painting remotely, and to track how ageing affects the painting. The photograph can be viewed online, and zoomed into the fine detail.


title: The Chromatica Ball

text: The Chromatica Ball was the sixth headlining concert tour by American singer Lady Gaga in support of her sixth studio album, "Chromatica" (2020). Comprising of 20 shows, it began on July 17, 2022, in Düsseldorf and concluded on September 17, 2022, in Miami Gardens. Initially conceived as a six-date-long, limited tour, new dates were added after it was delayed by two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is Gaga's first all-stadium concert tour and features a stage inspired by brutalist architecture. In line with the promoted album's themes, the show's narrative depicts a journey around trauma and healing. It is divided into distinct segments, each separated by a video introduction and a costume change. Gaga opted for a "darker, edgier" appearance for the tour in contrast to the pink cyberpunk look from "Chromatica" earlier promotional imagery; her wardrobe included outfits by designers she frequently worked with in the past, such as Alexander McQueen, Gareth Pugh, and her sister, Natali Germanotta.


title: The Chromatica Ball

text: The tour received critical acclaim, with various outlets rating it with the highest score in their respective reviews. Critics praised the visuals, the choreography, Gaga's vocal skills, and many of them singled out the piano segment as the concert's strongest part. On numerous American dates, Gaga interpolated political statements to her piano performances, addressing topics such as gun violence and abortion rights. According to "Billboard" Boxscore, The Chromatica Ball ultimately grossed $112.4 million from 834,000 tickets sold, breaking multiple personal attendance records and venue records.


title: The Chromatica Ball

text: The tour was originally announced via Gaga's social media on March 5, 2020, as a six-date-long, limited concert series for the summer of that year, in support of her sixth studio album, "Chromatica" (2020). The announcement was accompanied by a dual-sided graphic, one side an extreme closeup of Gaga's face, sporting the 'Chromatica symbol' on her cheek, mostly covered with a long, straightened, pink wig. The other side of the graphic featured the tour's limited itinerary surrounded by imagery from the music video and promotional campaign for "Stupid Love", the lead single from "Chromatica". When announced, the tour was set to be the singer's first all-stadium tour, with every date scheduled for a multi-purpose stadium, such as MetLife Stadium. Due to safety concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic, it was first postponed to summer 2021, before its second postponement to summer 2022.


title: The Chromatica Ball

text: New dates with additional venues in Europe and North America were scheduled and officially announced on March 7, 2022, making the once limited tour a 15-date engagement advertised as "The Chromatica Ball Summer Stadium Tour". On April 14, 2022, two dates in Tokorozawa were announced, marking the singer's first concerts in Japan in eight years. To commemorate the event, a Japanese tour edition of "Chromatica" with extra content was released on August 31, 2022, and a pop-up shop selling merchandise items opened on the same day. Three additional North American shows in Hershey, Houston, and Miami Gardens were added later on May 16, bringing the tour's total number of shows to 20.


title: The Chromatica Ball

text: During Gaga's last tour, the Joanne World Tour (2017–2018), the singer was forced to cancel the majority of the European leg of the concert series, due to severe pain caused by fibromyalgia. Shortly before The Chromatica Ball began, Gaga admitted that there "was a time I thought I’d never be on stage again", while adding that she feels "more pain-free than I have in ages." "Rolling Stone" Hannah Ewens noted that the concert series was "carefully and successfully designed with Gaga's illness in mind", with fewer dates than any of her previous world tours, and the more complex choreography reserved for the latter section of the show.


title: The Chromatica Ball

text: The show is built on a narrative which depicts a journey around trauma and healing, similarly to the promoted "Chromatica" album. On the day of the first tour date, Gaga posted a video on her Instagram account, giving an explanation behind the show: "The stage was inspired by brutalist architecture, materials, textures, crudity, transparency. A real savage and hard look at yourself, what you've been through. I wanted to tell a story with abstraction and art, so the show celebrates things that I have always loved like art and fashion and dance and music and technology, poetry, and the way all of those things work together." She also added that the show "documents the many different stages and sides of grief and the manic energy of grief" that she endured throughout her life.


title: The Chromatica Ball

text: The "imposing" stage set prompted media comparisons to a nightclub or S&M club in Germany. For "The Telegraph" Neil McCormick, the black and white brutalist architecture invoked a "nightmarish Soviet dystopia as imagined by Fritz Lang", an opinion shared by "Billboard" Joe Lynch, who found shades of Lang's 1927 expressionist film, "Metropolis" in the design. McCormick felt that "this initially bleak aesthetic" provided a striking contrast to the colorful costume changes and special effects. The main stage was accompanied by two catwalks, and five five-story high screens. A secondary, smaller stage houses Gaga's piano. Bedecked in tree branches, the instrument received comparisons to H. R. Giger's work. In addition to flamethrowers which provided pyrotechnic effects, the audience received LED wristbands which were glowing in time with the beat and changed color for each song.


title: The Chromatica Ball

text: Nicola Formichetti served as fashion director of the show, who worked with stylists Sandra Amador and Tom Erebout in selecting the costumes for the tour. Throughout the show, Gaga wears outfits by Gareth Pugh, Alexander McQueen, Christian Lacroix, Aziz Rebar, Vex Latex, Dead Lotus Couture, and her sister Natali Germanotta's fashion brand, Topo Studio NY. Christian Allaire of "Vogue" noted Gaga omitted her pink cyberpunk look from the music video of "Stupid Love", and instead "reviving her signature 'Mother Monster' style, which favors a darker, edgier aesthetic". She called The Chromatica Ball "a glorious return to freaky-deaky dressing", and compared her outfits to those from The Monster Ball Tour (2009–2011) and the Born This Way Ball (2012–2013) concert tours, which were "ominously sci-fi (but high-fashion)."


title: The Chromatica Ball

text: Gaga's hard-structured sarcophagus costume in the opening sequence was inspired by David Bowie's 1979 "Saturday Night Live" performance. The outfit is "like a concrete sphynx, it opens down the middle to reveal mirrored interiors." A later part of the show sees Gaga showcasing various golden looks. First she puts on a metallic gold moiré outfit by Alexander McQueen: her suit includes a cropped jacket with shoulder pads and a large lapel, and wide-legged trousers; removing the jacket, she shows off a sleeveless button-down collared shirt. Matching gold boots complete the monochrome look. Gaga then puts on a claw-like gold headpiece by Philip Treacy, along with a gold gown designed by her sister. For Daniel Rodgers of "Dazed", the outfit hearkened back to Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Joseph and The Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat". Another McQueen outfit for a heavily choreographed part of the show was a crystal-embellished latex bodysuit and leather biker jacket, along with leather biker boots worn over black fishnet stockings.


title: The Chromatica Ball

text: Gaga also wore a blood-red gown with peak-shoulders, along with black leather boots and fingerless gloves. Removing the garment revealed a nude latex bodysuit splattered in red, blood-like goo, with taped X's over Gaga's nipples, along with a big, spiked necklace. This was later complimented with a sparkly red cropped puffer jacket and oversized sunglasses. A different latex outift consists of a BDSM-inspired corset with harness-like buckles and horned shoulders, along with loose-legged leather pants and a policewoman cap. Lauren O'Neill from "i" thought this "authoritarian" look recalled Gaga's music video for "Alejandro" (2010), while "The Philadelphia Inquirer" Dan Deluca found it to be "an homage to 'Justify My Love'-era Madonna". During the piano ballad section of the concert, Gaga appears in a purple-and-black bodysuit and headpiece, described by journalists as "a very glamorous bug" and "a purple praying mantis". The headpiece further received comparisons to a prop from "Star Wars" Mos Eisley cantina or "The Fifth Element" Diva Plavalaguna character. Gaga's final look consists of a black-and-white bodysuit and leather biker jacket, along with fishnet tights, knee-high boots, and a bone-shaped handpiece.


title: The Chromatica Ball

text: The show was approximately 130-minutes long, divided into a prelude, four acts and a finale, each one accompanied by an interlude directed by Gaga's longtime collaborator Nick Knight. It follows a loose narrative of Gaga's journey from being trapped to becoming liberated. In an intro video, Gaga appears in a liquid-metal ballgown, and then as shadow-figure with four legs, wearing bulbous heels and a tall crown. The show's prelude sees the singer reflecting on her career by performing her three earliest tracks from The Fame and The Fame Monster. It starts with the dancers doing a routine dancing to the synthesized arrangement of Bach's "Fugue No. 24", which leads into "Bad Romance", similarly to the song's music video. Gaga appears atop a set piece reminiscent of a giant slab of concrete singing the track, while standing still inside a leather sarcophagus-type garment with only her face visible . Layers of her outfit are slowly removed as she spins around with limited motions for "Just Dance" and "Poker Face". The first act opens with an interlude which shows a brutalist hospital. Gaga then returns on stage seemingly covered in blood, and continues with three songs which share a common lyrical theme: the singer expressing her fears and internal struggles. She is lying on an operating table elevated in the air for "Alice". During "Replay", she is carried by one of her dancers, before the full choreography commences and Gaga screamingly commands the audience, "Put your paws up!" For "Monster", Gaga performs a dance routine with zombie motifs, and gets attacked and "eaten alive" by her dancers, only to re-emerge in a latex red jacket with pointy shoulder pads and jet-black sunglasses.


title: The Chromatica Ball

text: After an interlude commences the second act, Gaga comes back on stage dressed in a vinyl dominatrix ensemble, while frantic red lights illuminate the stage for "911". "Sour Candy" is performed with synchronized choreography and Korean letters being displayed on the screens, followed by "Telephone", which sees the set's flamethrowers put into use. The performance of "LoveGame" involves "grinding guitars", which convert the track into an amalgamation of dance-pop and heavy metal. Another video sequence showcases celestial explosions while Gaga and her dancers change into matching gold satin for the third act. Gaga asks the audience if they ever had to battle for their lives, and performs "Babylon", voguing together with her dancers. She dedicates the song to Alexander McQueen. Gaga then puts on a face-covering hat and slowly walks through the audience in a pathway between her main stage and the smaller, second stage, while singing "Free Woman". She reminds her audience, "this is a ball, and everyone's welcome here", as she sits down to her piano which is set inside a sculpture of thorns. After proclaiming that she sees plenty of people in the audience who know exactly who they are, she performs her self-acceptance anthem "Born This Way", initially in a stripped back rendition, before switching to the song's uptempo and choreographed version.


title: The Chromatica Ball

text: Another visual showcases Gaga dressed in wedding gowns, covered in flowers and jewels. She then returns to the piano for the fourth act in an insect outfit to perform two songs from "A Star Is Born", "Shallow" and "Always Remember Us This Way". During "The Edge of Glory", Gaga briefly stops for a speech in which she salutes the audience for their bravery during the pandemic. She talks about the sorrowful state which inspired her to write "1000 Doves" and expresses regret for concealing her pain with a joyful pop track before playing it in on the piano, the way she originally intended. Gaga stands on the piano bench while leaning forward to reach the keys during "Fun Tonight". She dedicates the song to anyone who are out with their friends, but not having fun inside. Gaga receives a microphone stand for "Enigma", and spins the stand above her head during the performance. In the last video interlude, Gaga recites a sonnet that talks about art and the responsibility of the artist. For the celebratory finale, she performs "Stupid Love" and "Rain on Me" in a crystal-embellished bodysuit; the latter song opens and closes with Gaga lying flat on her back. She returns one last time for an encore, dressed in latex and leather, and sporting a metallic claw. Guitarists and pyrotechnic effects accompany her for the performance of "" theme song "Hold My Hand". Gaga declares her love to the audience by saying "you may not always hold my hand, but I’ll always hold yours." She raises her metallic claw and hand to form a heart. As she expresses her thankfulness for everyone coming to the show, the screen displays her claw one last time. Then, the lights go out as she walks off stage.


title: The Chromatica Ball

text: Reviewing the show in Düsseldorf, Boris Pofalla from Welt compared it to a rock concert, because of the "hands in the air, flashing bracelets around the wrists, several guitarists with trapezoidal instruments on stage booms, twirling dancers and, very impressively, many flamethrowers." He finished stating that the first show was a "return of a performer who can rightly be called one of the greatest pop star alive and perhaps the last." Similarly, David Cobbald of "The Line of Best Fit" thought that "Gaga proves herself as this generation's rockstar" with the show. In a five-star review for "The Telegraph", Neil McCormick commented that the concert "clearly meant as much to the artist as the audience, adding real emotional impact to an absolutely slam-bang pop spectacular. It is fantastic to have such an immense talent back where she belongs." Lauren O'Neill from "i" also gave the tour a five star rating. She called Gaga "one of the best performers in the world to watch live", while praising the production, the dancing, and highlighting the acoustic section of the show, saying that "there are few vocalists who do better when it's just their voice and the keys". Writing for "Rolling Stone", Hannah Ewens gave the show a five-star review, praising Gaga as "one of the greatest living musical performers" and pointed out the piano section as the highlight of the night.


title: The Chromatica Ball

text: "The Guardian"s Michael Cragg described the show as "high camp" and rated it 4 out of 5 stars. Giving it the maximum 5 stars, "NME" Nick Levine called the show "utterly brilliant" and a "thrilling, high-concept return from pop's finest". According to Adam Davidson of "Clash", "the show was as predictably unpredictable as you’d expect from a Lady Gaga concert with everything from incredible choreographed dances to avant-garde theatrics and lots of special effects that made it a night to remember for all in attendance." Arwa Haider of the "Financial Times" rated the show with the maximum 5 stars for its "tremendous attention to detail", saying that "Gaga's designer costumes and mid-song metamorphoses were spectacular, her vocal power — soaringly soulful and screamingly punkish in turn — and slick choreography triumphant". The "London Evening Standard" Gemma Samways found it an "extraordinary stage show that more than matched the ambition of the album", which was "as ludicrous as it was compelling, and all the more unforgettable for it." She described the show as "a perfect marriage of visuals and sonics" and highlighted Gaga for "showcasing her truly extraordinary vocals".


title: The Chromatica Ball

text: Writing for "Consequence", Sarah Kurchak called the concert the "can't-miss pop event of the summer", which "mixed moments of triumph, vulnerability, celebration, defiance, heartache". The show was described as a "trippy journey" and a "P. T. Barnum-on-acid spectacle", by "USA Today" Melissa Ruggieri and the "Boston Herald" Jed Gottlieb, respectively. "Billboard" Joe Lynch highlighted the piano section of the show, writing that "Gaga's vocals were fully audible and impressive from start to finish, but during this part of the show, we're treated to the depths of her substantial pipes and her deep attachment to the energy of the crowd. Similarly, Selena Fragassi of the "Chicago Sun-Times" complimented the piano section, saying it was "the most evocative" part of the show where "Gaga finally sat still long enough for her impeccable vocals to shine". She further praised Gaga's "authentic human connection" and the "Herculean effort of costuming, choreography, lighting and set design that will go down as one of her career best." Bob Gendron of the "Chicago Tribune" praised the show and called it "a performance for the ages", where "Gaga exuded bigger-than-life confidence yet repeatedly exhibited generous degrees of sincerity and humility." He also acknowledged the singer's "skilled dancers" and "versatile backing band."


title: The Chromatica Ball

text: "Rolling Stone" Brittany Spanos opined that "Gaga puts on one of the best productions in pop, but she’s just as good letting her immense voice shine." She also praised the setlist, writing that "moments when the old merged with the new were deeply satisfying". The "Dallas Observer" Carly May Gravley thought that "the show felt bigger than just one album and served as almost a manifesto for the singer, combining her love of music, fashion, film and theater to pull together her sprawling catalog and create a cohesive statement." According to Dan Deluca of "The Philadelphia Inquirer", "the show was fast-paced, satisfyingly punchy, expertly staged and action packed, but still lost momentum at times", due to the five-act structure which divided the show with video interludes. Likewise, "Variety" Chris Willman noted the "element of the momentum going into stall mode" during the costume-changes, but praised the show's piano segment and Gaga's "dance-teria mode", as well. Mikael Wood of the "Los Angeles Times" called Gaga "a live singer through and through", and opined that with her show, she — more than most other performers in pop music — is "committed to exposing" the cracks "in the armor of a superstar’s self-mythologizing."


title: The Chromatica Ball

text: Writing for "Yomiuri Shimbun" after the concerts in Japan, Yusuke Tsuruta noted Gaga's "lively" presence and "eccentric costumes [which] are synonymous" with her, and added that thanks to her confident singing voice, the stripped-down, piano part of the show managed to captivate the audience just as much as her choreographed, high-energy performances.


title: The Chromatica Ball

text: On June 16, 2022, "Billboard" reported that the tour had surpassed $80 million in early ticket sales across its 20 shows. According to Arthur Fogel, the CEO of Live Nation's Global Touring Division, the shows in London, Paris, Boston, Tokyo, Toronto, Chicago, and Düsseldorf were sold out with over a month left until the tour's kickoff in July. Fogel spoke very highly of the commercial response to the tour's dates on sale, adding his only source of disappointment is "that we don't have more time to add more shows." He cited that Gaga's schedule, which includes her Las Vegas residency, Enigma + Jazz & Piano, simply did not allow time for more tour dates to be scheduled.


title: The Chromatica Ball

text: Eventually earning $112.4 million from 834,000 tickets sold, throughout the tour's run, Gaga broke multiple personal attendance records and venue records. During her concert at the Stade de France on July 24, Gaga performed in front of 78,000 people, making this date the largest crowd of her career. She has the all-time top gross at Oracle Park ($7.4 million) and gross and attendance at Wrigley Field ($6.9 million; 43,019). On August 19, the singer broke the record for the highest attendance for a single concert at Fenway Park in Boston, performing to 37,200 people. The show also broke the record for the highest-grossing concert ever at the same venue, with over $5.7 million in ticket sales. The show at Hersheypark Stadium on August 28 grossed over $4 million, selling over 30,000 tickets, making it the highest grossing show ever at that venue, a record previously held by The Rolling Stones since 2005.


title: The Chromatica Ball

text: It was reported by "Billboard" that The Chromatica Ball earned $28.3 million from six shows in July in Europe, $72.6 million in July, August, and September during the North American leg, and $11.5 million from two shows in Japan. Gaga maximized her average audience, with 41,700 tickets per night, up 127% from her previous best of 18,400 on The Born This Way Ball. In average revenue, the tour was up 190% to a pace of $5.6 million, passing the Joanne World Tour's $1.9 million. With twenty shows, it became her highest-grossing tour in a decade, and marked the third $100 million-grossing tour of her career, following The Monster Ball and The Born This Way Ball.


title: The Chromatica Ball

text: On select dates in North America and Japan, Gaga added "Angel Down" to the setlist (from her 2016 album, "Joanne"), a track which was inspired by the death of Trayvon Martin, and further described by the singer as a song about America. Before performing the song, she addressed different topics which are under debate in the United States. On most dates, she talked about fighting for reproductive rights, after the overturning of "Roe v. Wade" removed the constitutional right to abortion. In Philadelphia, she opened the song by saying: "This is for everyone who has to worry about their body. I know you came to the concert to have fun. But some people will die during childbirth, and some people will get raped, and they can’t have those kids." In Atlanta, she dedicated the song "to the safety of all people in Georgia", and addressed "anybody that can bear children". Her performance in Texas came three months after the Robb Elementary School shooting. She dedicated the song to victims of gun violence, "as a prayer to keep the people safe so we don't have to see any angels down". Here Gaga also acknowledged Texas's status as a swing state, and expressed her hope that that even though the state has a "purple, purple heart", it will go into the Democratic direction. She added: "Maybe I brought this up and you're thinking, 'This is not for me, I do not want to talk about this right now,' and you may not agree but guess what? I don't know that this is about what you believe. This is about keeping people safe so sometimes we have to put aside what we believe."


title: The Chromatica Ball

text: In Washington D.C., Gaga dedicated "The Edge of Glory" to "every woman who now has to worry about her body if she gets pregnant", and added that she prays "that this country will speak up. That we will stick together and not stop until it’s right." Earlier in the D.C. show, before performing "Born This Way", she also addressed same-sex marriage, and said: "They better not try to mess with gay marriage in this country!"


title: The Chromatica Ball

text: The show on September 10, 2022, in Los Angeles was recorded for an unknown project. Gaga tweeted after the concert: "52,000 people. Sold out. 30 cameras pointed at you and one take".


title: The Chromatica Ball

text: This set list is from the July 21, 2022, concert in Stockholm. It is not intended to represent all concerts for the tour.


title: Marvel One-Shots

text: Marvel One-Shots are a series of direct-to-video short films produced by Marvel Studios, set within or inspired by the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Initially released from 2011 to 2014, they were included as special features on the MCU films' Blu-ray and digital distribution releases. The films, which range from 3 to 15 minutes, are designed to be self-contained stories that provide more backstory for characters or events introduced in the films. Two of the shorts inspired the development of MCU television series.


title: Marvel One-Shots

text: "The Consultant" (2011) and "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor's Hammer" (2011) star Clark Gregg as Agent Phil Coulson and offer up brief, self-contained stories about a day in the life of a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. Marvel Studios then made several longer One-Shots: "Item 47" (2012), starring Lizzy Caplan and Jesse Bradford as a down-on-their-luck couple who find a discarded Chitauri gun after the events of "The Avengers" (2012); "Agent Carter" (2013), starring Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter after the events of "" (2011); and "All Hail the King" (2014), starring Ben Kingsley as Trevor Slattery after the events of "Iron Man 3" (2013).


title: Marvel One-Shots

text: The first two shorts received generally negative reviews, but the rest were more positively received and highlighted for their contributions to expanding the MCU. All the One-Shots were made available on Disney+ by January 2022, when the "Team Thor" mockumentary shorts (released from 2016 to 2018) were reclassified as One-Shots.


title: Marvel One-Shots

text: In August 2011, Marvel announced that a couple of short films, designed to be self-contained stories, would be released direct-to-video. Co-producer Brad Winderbaum said they were a "fun way to experiment with new characters and ideas" and expand the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) beyond the plots of the feature films. The first two shorts were made in conjunction with The Ebeling Group. Winderbaum said the name of the shorts program was derived from the label used by Marvel Comics for their one-shot comics.


title: Marvel One-Shots

text: Marvel Studios co-president Louis D'Esposito later said Marvel was considering introducing established characters who may not yet be ready to carry their own feature films in future One-Shots, stating, "There's always a potential to introduce a character. We have 8,000 of them, and they can't all be at the same level. So maybe there are some that are not so popular, and we introduce them [with a short]—and they take off. I could see that happening." When asked whether a Marvel superhero would ever appear in a One-Shot, D'Esposito replied that "We would love to, but it's difficult because there's a cost to that. If Iron Man is flying around doing something, that [is] very costly. And first of all, what's the story? Is it important that that superhero is in the story?"


title: Marvel One-Shots

text: During the "Agent Carter" panel at the 2013 San Diego Comic-Con International, D'Esposito said Marvel was considering debuting short films in theaters before feature films. In May 2014, it was revealed that ""s (2014) home media release would be the first to not include a One-Shot since the program started, and in October 2014, it was revealed that "Guardians of the Galaxy"s (2014) home media release also would not include a short. "Guardians of the Galaxy" director James Gunn said a One-Shot was not included with the film due to lack of space on the disc. Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige stated in May 2015 that there were no active plans to make more Marvel One-Shots, but the studio was not opposed to continuing the series.


title: Marvel One-Shots

text: All of the One-Shots were made available on Disney+ by January 2022, at which point the "Team Thor" mockumentary shorts (which were released from 2016 to 2018) were reclassified as One-Shots. Feige had previously described the "Team Thor" shorts as a "doable" version of the One-Shot program, and felt there was potential for future One-Shots to similarly be released as extra content prior to a film's premiere.


title: Marvel One-Shots

text: Set after the events of "Iron Man 2" and "The Incredible Hulk", Phil Coulson informs Jasper Sitwell that the World Security Council wishes for Emil Blonsky to be released from prison to join the Avengers Initiative. They see him as a war hero and blame the devastation in Harlem on Bruce Banner. The Council orders them to ask General Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross to release Blonsky into S.H.I.E.L.D. custody. As Nick Fury does not want to release Blonsky, the two agents decide to send a patsy to sabotage the meeting. Coulson reluctantly sends "The Consultant", Tony Stark, and (as partially depicted in the post-credits scene of "The Incredible Hulk") Stark approaches the disgraced Ross while he is drinking in a bar. Stark annoys Ross so much that he tries to have Stark removed from the bar, until Stark buys the bar and has it scheduled for demolition. The next day, Coulson informs Sitwell that their plan worked and Blonsky will remain in prison.


title: Marvel One-Shots

text: At the 2011 San Diego Comic-Con, Marvel announced that "The Consultant" would appear exclusively on the "Thor" Blu-ray release on September 13, 2011. It was directed by Leythum and written by Eric Pearson, with music by Paul Oakenfold. The short was filmed over 2–3 days. Clark Gregg and Maximiliano Hernández return to portray Agent Phil Coulson and Agent Jasper Sitwell, respectively, from the films. They are joined via archive footage by Robert Downey, Jr. as Tony Stark / The Consultant, William Hurt as General Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross, and Tim Roth as Emil Blonsky in his Abomination form. Co-producer Brian Winderbaum said the producers "wanted to paint a picture of S.H.I.E.L.D. pulling the strings and being responsible for some of the events seen in the films. What better character to represent this idea than Agent Coulson, the first S.H.I.E.L.D. agent we were introduced to in the first "Iron Man" film?" Gregg said he was told about the short film program in the same phone call that warned him Coulson would die in "The Avengers". The actor noticed that the One-Shots could then provide more information on Coulson, to "build the audience's relationship [with] him" and make his death in the film more impactful. "The Consultant" was written after "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor's Hammer", due to the latter taking up 80% of the budget Marvel reserved for the two shorts, leaving a remaining budget "for two guys talking". To help with this, Pearson included Sitwell in the short, who had a minor role in "Thor", and had him and Coulson "brainstorming a way to deal with this red tape bureaucratic politics of the Avengers Initiative".


title: Marvel One-Shots

text: Set before the events of "Thor", Phil Coulson stops at a gas station on his way to Albuquerque, New Mexico. While Coulson shops for snacks in the back of the station, two robbers enter and demand the money from the register. When the robbers ask whose car is outside, Coulson reveals himself, surrenders his keys, and offers to surrender his pistol as well. As he turns over the gun, Coulson distracts the robbers and subdues both men in seconds. He then nonchalantly pays for his snacks while advising the clerk not to mention his involvement to the police.


title: Marvel One-Shots

text: "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor's Hammer" was included on the "" Blu-ray release on October 25, 2011. It was directed by Leythum and written by Eric Pearson, with music by Paul Oakenfold. It was filmed over 2–3 days. The short stars Clark Gregg reprising his role as Agent Phil Coulson, and served to showcase Coulson as "more than just an annoying bureaucrat" of S.H.I.E.L.D.


title: Marvel One-Shots

text: Bennie and Claire, a down-on-their-luck couple, find a discarded Chitauri gun ("Item 47") left over from the attack on New York City in "The Avengers". The couple use it to rob a few banks, drawing the attention of S.H.I.E.L.D., which assigns agents Sitwell and Blake to retrieve the weapon and "neutralize" the couple. Agent Sitwell tracks the couple down to a motel room that gets wrecked in the subsequent confrontation, and the stolen money gets destroyed. Instead of killing the couple, Sitwell invites them to join S.H.I.E.L.D., with Bennie assigned to the R&D 'think-tank' to reverse engineer the Chitauri technology, and Claire becoming Blake's assistant.


title: Marvel One-Shots

text: "Item 47" was released on "The Avengers" Blu-ray on September 25, 2012. The film stars Jesse Bradford and Lizzy Caplan as Bennie and Claire, respectively. The film also sees the return of Agent Sitwell, played by Maximiliano Hernández, and introduced Agent Blake, portrayed by Titus Welliver. It was directed by Marvel Studios co-president Louis D'Esposito, written by Eric Pearson, and features music by Christopher Lennertz. The short film, which was filmed over four days, has a runtime of 12 minutes, longer than the previous films, which were no longer than 4 minutes. Pearson and D'Esposito had the idea for the short after watching "The Avengers" and thinking, "New York is a mess. There must be weapons everywhere". "Item 47" partially inspired the MCU television series "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D."