title: Since U Been Gone

text: The song's narrative is in first person, from the point of view of a woman who is relieved with the end of her relationship. Steve Lampiris of ZME Music lauded Clarkson's vocals as the heart of the song. He praised the way Clarkson sings the chorus, which implies that she was the one who ended the relationship. He also thought that the line "I can breathe for the first time/ I'm so moving on, yeah yeah" was believable "that either her ex is a total prick or she's deserves ["sic"] an Oscar nom." In an interview with Dan Snierson of "Entertainment Weekly", it was noted that Clarkson sang "So together but so broken up inside/ 'Cause I can't breathe" in "Behind These Hazel Eyes", but in "Since U Been Gone", she sang "But since you been gone/ I can breathe for the first time." When asked whether she was a bipolar asthmatic, Clarkson responded that "Behind These Hazel Eyes" is about a dipstick who is unhappy because she has completely screwed up, and "Since U Been Gone" is an expression of relief because her ex is now miserable.


title: Since U Been Gone

text: The song received positive reviews upon its release. In his review for "Breakaway", Stephen Thomas Erlewine of MSN considered "Since U Been Gone", "Walk Away", and "You Found Me" as the spine of the album. He added that the songs sound mainstream and youthful. Rohin of Blogcritics gave a positive response to the song, emphasizing that "it is almost one of the best pieces of throwaway pop in recent history". He also thought that the song represents a song "that you can roll down the windows of your car and proudly headbang your way through a yellow light somewhere on a suburban side street." Sal Cinquemani of "Slant Magazine" thought that Clarkson did a good impression of Pat Benatar in "Since U Been Gone". He concluded his review by emphasizing that "Breakaway" proves that Clarkson has successfully dodged the sophomore slump but "Since U Been Gone" helped her establish her success. The staff of "Slant Magazine" later ranked "Since U Been Gone" at number thirteen in their list of Best Singles of the Aughts, writing that the song proves Clarkson's powerful ability as a vocalist as well as her versatility as an artist.


title: Since U Been Gone

text: Stephen Thompson of NPR Music called the song "one of the decade's finest pop anthems" which is infused with energy, charisma and full-throated intensity. Steve Lampiris of ZME Music opined that the song is "one of very few perfect pop songs released in the last ten years," stating that it is hard to determine the principal reason that makes the song very successful. Gary Trust of "Billboard" thought that "Since U Been Gone" is a defining song of the 2000s. He commented on its status as a blueprint for female pop songs, as seen in song productions by artists such as Miley Cyrus, Katy Perry and Pink. In 2014, Ryan Kailath of NPR Music argued that the song succeeded by borrowing from musical trends that preceded it, such as 1990s R&B and alternative rock. In 2015, Gary Trust of "Billboard" wrote that "Kelly Clarkson's "Since U Been Gone", co-written by Max Martin, especially helped lead to pure pop's reemergence, and the breakthroughs of Rihanna, Katy Perry, [Taylor] Swift and Lady Gaga would soon follow (as well as [Britney] Spears' own revival)", stating that the song "began to erode hip-hop's early '00s reign, with women at the forefront of turning the tide."


title: Since U Been Gone

text: At the 48th Grammy Awards, "Since U Been Gone" won the category of Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. At the 2005 Teen Choice Awards, the song won the category of Choice Single. It also won the award for Best Pop Sing-Along Song at the 2005 XM Nation Music Awards. The song received a nomination in the category of Song of the Year: Mainstream Hit Radio at the 2005 Radio Music Awards but lost to Mariah Carey's "We Belong Together". At the 2005 Billboard Music Awards, the song received nominations for two awards. It received a nomination for the Hot 100 Single of the Year but lost to Mariah Carey's "We Belong Together" and for the Digital Song of the Year but lost to Gwen Stefani's "Hollaback Girl".


title: Since U Been Gone

text: "Since U Been Gone" entered the "Billboard" Hot 100 at number 70 for the week ending December 18, 2004. On its second week, the song moved to number 53, before jumping to number 38 the following week. During the week ending April 9, 2005, "Since U Been Gone" ascended to a new peak of number two on the "Billboard" Hot 100, second to 50 Cent's "Candy Shop". This made "Since U Been Gone" the first pop song by a solo female artist to reach the top two chart positions in 2005. The song also became the first non-R&B/hip hop song by a solo female artist to reach top two on the chart since Christina Aguilera's "Beautiful" hit number two in February 2003. Fred Bronson of "Billboard" noted that had "Since U Been Gone" moved to number one, it would become the 41st chart-topper for the "American Idol" franchise. The song stayed in the top 10 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 for 20 weeks. After the week ending March 26, 2005, the song topped the US Pop 100 for six consecutive weeks, through the week ending March 26, 2005. It also spent seven consecutive weeks at number one on the US Pop Songs. On the "Billboard"s Radio Songs chart, the song peaked at number four on April 23, 2005. "Since U Been Gone" was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on January 25, 2006. As of September 2017, "Since U Been Gone" has sold 2,973,000 paid digital downloads.


title: Since U Been Gone

text: Internationally, "Since U Been Gone" was a commercial success. In Australia, the song debuted and peaked at number three on February 13, 2005. It was certified platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) for shipments of over 70,000 units. In New Zealand, Since U Been Gone debuted at number 18 on the week ending March 21, 2005. Three weeks later, it peaked at number 11 and matched that position for three non-consecutive weeks. On July 16, 2005, "Since U Been Gone" debuted and peaked at number five in the United Kingdom, and as of April 2016, the song sold over 400,000 copies there. In Ireland, it entered the Irish Singles Chart at number eight on the week ending July 7, 2005 and peaked at number four three weeks later. Elsewhere in Europe, the song was also a success; it peaked at number three in Austria, number seven in Switzerland, number nine in Norway, number 10 in the Netherlands, and number 16 in Sweden.


title: Since U Been Gone

text: The music video for "Since U Been Gone" was directed by Alex De Rakoff and filmed in early November 2004. Clarkson told MTV that she conceived the idea of the video after assuming that revenge is what every girl wants to do when their boyfriend cheats on them. She added, "You know, 'Why don't I just go trash her house? [...] And so I do it in the video. All I do is break stuff. It's a cool job. I could get used to this." Clarkson expressed that in the music video, viewers would get to see her act out of character. She explained, "In the beginning, I'm like tipping things over and smearing mud all over the walls and it seems like my apartment, but it ends up being the other girl's that he's with, so it's a humorous video." The music video premiered on "Total Request Live" on November 16, 2004.


title: Since U Been Gone

text: The music video begins with Clarkson sitting on a couch in an apartment's living room, holding a heart-shaped locket in her hand. The next scene shows Clarkson in the bathroom where she fixes her face in the mirror, she opens the medicine cabinet and tossing all the pills in the medicine cabinet over her shoulder and messing all the bathroom items on the floor, squirting the toothpaste into the sink. When she gets to a container of birth control pills, she turns on the water in the sink, snaps the pills out, and drops them down the drain. Clarkson then starts to take other items; she throws a container of makeup powder spray in the air and smears a container of facial mud mask on the wall. During the chorus, Clarkson and her band perform the song for a dancing crowd in a club. After the first chorus, Clarkson walks into a room full of closets. She cuts up dresses, rifling through the closets and pulling out clothes, destroying them and singing in a pile of them. After the second chorus, she walks into a bedroom and begins to tear the pillow on the bed, filling the room with feathers. The scenes of Clarkson singing with her band then alternate with a montage of her destroying the apartment, breaks the glass window from the door, breaks the vase, television, clock, fridge, lights, microwave, phone, furniture, and chair. Later, Clarkson takes a framed photo of her ex-boyfriend with another girl in the living room, before pushing a tall CD rack over. She then smashes the framed photo through a glass table, breaking it in half. Having decimated the apartment, Clarkson walks out the door and down the hallway with a hat on her head, just as her ex-boyfriend appears with his girlfriend, walking arm in arm. Clarkson hides her face as she walks away from them. The final scene shows the couple seeing their damaged apartment in shock and the scene of the locket swinging.


title: Since U Been Gone

text: Stephen Thompson of NPR Music was disappointed with the music video because it "undercuts its message to an alarming degree: The words say 'Since you've been gone / I can breathe for the first time,' but the pictures say, 'Breaking up with you necessitates destroying all of your property.'" On the other hand, Johnni Macke of E! felt the video was amusing and Clarkson was "at her rocker prime." She added, "It features the tomboy side of the singer messing up her ex's closet, destroying his bed and getting some major revenge by destroying his place." At the 2005 MTV Video Music Awards, the music video received nominations for three awards; it won Best Female Video and Best Pop Video, and received a nomination for the Viewer's Choice Awards but lost to Green Day's "Boulevard of Broken Dreams". MusicOMH ranked the music video as the 86th best video of the last decade. In February 2012, the music video received a "Pop-Up Video" treatment by VH1 which shows "pops up" bubbles containing trivia, witticisms and borderline sexual innuendos throughout the video.


title: Since U Been Gone

text: Clarkson performed "Since U Been Gone" at the 2005 MTV Video Music Awards. Her performance garnered positive reviews from critics, who considered it one of the highlights in the event. Performing barefoot, Clarkson sang the song as rain cascaded onto the audience. Clarkson told "People" that one of her favourite moments on television was performing "Since U Been Gone" at the MTV Video Music Awards, saying "I hate being all dressed up, so the fact that I was soaking wet with mascara smeared all over my face was definitely the highlight of my evening!" Becky Bain of Idolator thought that the performance was Clarkson's most memorable live performances while Kelefa Sanneh of "The New York Times" thought Clarkson's performance was very solid despite the feeling that she sounded better dry than drenched. Clarkson performed the song on "Saturday Night Live" in 2005, along with the 2006 BRIT Awards which took place in Earls Court, London.


title: Since U Been Gone

text: "Since U Been Gone" has been performed by Clarkson in all of her tours since the Breakaway Tour. It was included in the setlist of her My December Tour as an encore. While performing at Mohegan Sun Arena, Uncasville, Connecticut, Clarkson performed "Since U Been Gone" and let the audience sing the song's chorus. Clarkson's performance of the song at the Beacon Theatre, New York City stirred crowd into a frenzy, causing the show to be closed abruptly. During her All I Ever Wanted Tour, Clarkson performed the song at the Hammerstein Ballroom, where Caryn Ganz of "Rolling Stone" remarked that "the room turned into an electric sea of flailing arms and pogo-ing heads." In 2011, Clarkson performed "Since U Been Gone" as well as "Mr. Know It All" on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" while promoting her fifth album, "Stronger". At the "VH1 Divas Celebrates Soul" television special, Clarkson performed a medley of "You Keep Me Hangin' On", "Spotlight", "Real Love", and "Since U Been Gone" with Mary J. Blige and Jennifer Hudson. The song was also performed by Clarkson during her 2012 Stronger Tour. While touring at the Times Union Center, Albany, New York, Clarkson performed the song with a musical arrangement. Grey Haymes of Times Union remarked that the song was "re-made and re-modeled with a throbbing, fuzzed-out bassline and an irresistible techno pulse as the foundation for her hook-filled pop song." He also added that it was one of the several surprises from the concert.


title: Since U Been Gone

text: "Since U Been Gone" has been covered by many artists. On September 27, 2011, Joseph Gordon-Levitt covered the song in the style of Axl Rose on "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon". The song was also covered by American musician Butch Walker in his 2005 album, "Cover Me Badd". Dave Donelly of Sputnikmusic praised Walker's cover for sticking closely to Clarkson's version. American rock band A Day to Remember recorded their own version of "Since U Been Gone" which was included in the reissued version of their album, "For Those Who Have Heart". Indie rock artist Ted Leo recorded an acoustic version of "Since U Been Gone" for a videotaped web session a few hours after watching the song's music video. He commented, "It's just one great hook after another. I also really appreciate the more advanced pop pastiche aspects of it. It's written in a way that is so transparent in terms of drawing from a lot of what's vaguely edgy and popular right now, but put together in such a perfect little package. It's undeniable." A cover of the song by Canadian indie rock band Tokyo Police Club was included in their "Ten Days, Ten Covers, Ten Years" project where they covered a song every day for ten days. "Since U Been Gone" was sampled in Girl Talk's "Here's The Thing" on his 2008 album, "Feed the Animals". The song was included as the opening track of the "American Idol 10th Anniversary – The Hits", a compilation album that celebrates 10 years of "American Idol" which features tracks from nine winners of the show.


title: Since U Been Gone

text: "Since U Been Gone" has also been covered by contestants from reality television singing competitions. The song was performed by Todrick Hall on the eighth season of "American Idol". Despite fulfilling the judges' desire to hear something original, his rendition of the song drew criticism from the judges, with Simon Cowell commenting that Hall seemed like a dancer trying to sing. On November 26, 2011, Amelia Lily performed the song on the eighth series of "The X Factor UK". Her rendition was praised by the judges; Louis Walsh felt that her performance was effortless while Kelly Rowland remarked that "Amelia Lily hits those notes in her sleep!" The song was also covered by Luke O'Dell on the third season of "The X Factor Australia". On June 13, 2012, John Legend and his duet partner, Meleana Brown, covered "Since U Been Gone" in "Duets". Katy Kroll of "Rolling Stone" lambasted their cover for being "pitchy" and "almost unlistenable", Gord Craig of "Leader-Post" felt that Brown did not deliver her best although she sounded great with Legend. In the third season of "The Sing Off", the winning group Pentatonix sang a "mastermix" of "Since U Been Gone" and "Forget You". All three judges were impressed with Ben Folds commenting "You guys gave voices to the instruments" while Shawn Stockman, praising the rhythm and percussion section, renamed Kevin and Avi "Meat and Potatoes".


title: Since U Been Gone

text: "Since U Been Gone" was performed by Ester Dean and Skylar Astin in the 2012 musical comedy film, "Pitch Perfect". Lanford Beard of "Entertainment Weekly" noted that the song was used during the audition sequences in the film, writing "Set to Kelly Clarkson’s "Since U Been Gone," it arranged the singers in a clever a cappella tapestry that simultaneously landed laughs and showed off their talents." Christy Lemire of "The Boston Globe" was positive of the song's incorporation in the film during the audition process due to its beautiful editing which makes "it feels like a fresh take on the tried-and-true, bad-first-date montage." The song was used in twelfth season of Brazilian soap opera "Malhação". The song was also used in the first season of "Supergirl," and in "Unpregnant." The song is used the musical "& Juliet" a coming-of-age stage musical featuring the music of Max Martin. For the "& Juliet (Original Broadway Cast Recording)", Clarkson re-recorded the song along with the Lorna Courtney who plays Juliet.


title: Since U Been Gone

text: As of 2014, the song has appeared in more than 40 different albums either remixed or in its original format. The song propelled Clarkson to success in mainstream pop music and was regarded as a power pop milestone in the 2000s. Maura Johnston from "Billboard" asserted that "the song inspired covers from all corners—Ted Leo, Kidz Bop—and helped prime the pop world for tracks like Pink's "Who Knew" and Paramore's "Misery Business", not to mention later Clarkson hits like "My Life Would Suck Without You". "Entertainment Weekly" put it on its end-of-the-decade "best-of" list, saying, "Can anyone do bitter better? Nothing packs more romantic rage than the original Idol's 2004 kiss-off to a coldhearted ex." The song was ranked by "Pitchfork Media" as the 21st best track of the 2000s; they wrote that "'Since U Been Gone' gave us one of the most blunt rallying cries of the last ten years, a perfectly realized sing-along chorus that will be a karaoke staple for years." In 2014, "The Atlantic" magazine dubbed "Since U Been Gone" as the best pop song of the past decade.


title: Since U Been Gone

text: Bill Lamb of About.com ranked the song as the 29th best pop song of all time, expressing that "Kelly Clarkson has stated that she insisted on adding the rock feel to the recording. The result was a record that captured the prevailing sound of mainstream pop with near perfection." "NME" placed it at number 135 on its list of the "150 Best Tracks of the Past 15 Years", writing "What should have been a slice of American schlock power-pop turned into a brilliant kiss-off, in any genre." "The A.V. Club" staff rated the song as one of their favorite gleeful breakup songs, writing "The minute that bass and drum machine start, this song is an anthem of the scorned, a call to self-actualization, and an instant hands-in-the-air dance party." "Rolling Stone" ranked "Since U Been Gone" at number 482 of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time in 2010, and later at 93 in the 2021 revamped ranking, whose readers listed it as the ninth-ranked single of the last decade. The AOL Radio Staff put the song at number 10 on their list of 10 Best Break Up Songs. "Since U Been Gone" has also appeared in several "Billboard" lists; in March 2013, it was ranked at number one on its list of Top 100 American Idol Hits of All Time. In April 2017, it appeared at number two of "Billboard"'s 100 greatest choruses of the 21st century and is also one of Clarkson's biggest "Billboard" Hot 100 hits.


title: Since U Been Gone

text: The song has been ranked 342nd by "Billboard" on its 600 most massive smashes over the chart's six decades.


title: Anzio 20mm rifle

text: The Anzio 20mm rifle is an American anti-materiel rifle designed and marketed by Anzio Iron Works. It is the first American anti-materiel rifle designed and mass-produced for public sale with a bore diameter in excess of .50 caliber in over 80 years. The rifles are available in three calibers, with the rifle's predominant chambering being the 20mm Vulcan caliber.


title: Anzio 20mm rifle

text: Other notable features include an optional three-round detachable box magazine, a barrel, and threaded muzzle to accept either a muzzle brake or suppressor.


title: Anzio 20mm rifle

text: At approximately of kinetic energy, the 20mm round, as fired out of the Anzio rifle, has nearly four times the energy of the .50 BMG cartridge fired out of a comparable rifle, which is around of kinetic energy. The .600 Nitro Express, the second most powerful African big game rifle cartridge, has around of kinetic energy. This makes a 20mm Anzio rifle 5.85 times as powerful as a rifle chambered in .600 Nitro Express.


title: Anzio 20mm rifle

text: The Anzio 20/50 has approximately of kinetic energy with an bullet. It does this by taking the .50 BMG projectile, which already is relatively large and travels extremely fast, and increases the already supersonic bullet to over 1.3 times its normal flight velocity, creating more kinetic energy without the need for a larger and heavier projectile. Though its kinetic energy is significantly lower than the 20mm round, it is almost as effective due to its smaller surface area, meaning that it has less material to punch through, making it easier to penetrate, but the lighter bullet makes transferring energy over longer distances and into targets less efficient.


title: Untraceable

text: Untraceable is a 2008 American psychological thriller film directed by Gregory Hoblit and starring Diane Lane, Colin Hanks, Billy Burke, and Joseph Cross. It was distributed by Screen Gems.


title: Untraceable

text: Set in Portland, Oregon, the film involves a serial killer who rigs contraptions that kill his victims based on the number of hits received by a website, KillWithMe.com, that features a live streaming video of the victim. Millions of people log on, hastening the victims' deaths.


title: Untraceable

text: FBI Special Agent Jennifer Marsh is a widowed single parent living in a suburban Portland home with her daughter, Annie Haskins, and her mother, Stella Marsh. At night, she works in the FBI's cybercrime division with Griffin Dowd, fighting identity theft and similar crimes. One night, an anonymous tip leads them to a website called KillWithMe.com. The site features a streaming video of a cat being tortured and killed. The website cannot be shut down, as the creator knew that someone would try and built into it a fail-safe; every time the server is closed, a mirror server immediately replaces it.


title: Untraceable

text: After the cat's death, KillWithMe.com's webmaster graduates to human victims, kidnapping them and placing them in death traps that are progressively activated by the number of hits the website receives. The first victim is a helicopter pilot Herbert Miller (bled to death by injections of anticoagulant), followed by a newscaster David Williams (burnt to death by heat lamps while cemented into the floor). At a press conference, the public is urged to avoid the website, but as Jennifer feared, this only increases the site's popularity.


title: Untraceable

text: Griffin is kidnapped after investigating a lead based on his hunch as to the killer's identity and receiving a phone call from the killer disguising his voice and posing as one of Griffin's jilted blind dates. In the killer's basement, he is submerged up to his neck in a vat of water with his mouth taped shut; the death trap introduces into the water a concentration of sulfuric acid. After the killer leaves the room, Griffin uses his dying moments to blink a message in morse code, giving the FBI the lead he was following up on.


title: Untraceable

text: Jennifer follows up on the morse code message to discover that the victims were not random: they were involved in broadcasting or presenting the suicide of a junior college teacher. The teacher's unstable techno prodigy son, Owen Reilly, broke down and was admitted to a psychiatric hospital. When released, he decided to take revenge and prove a point: that the public's interest in the suffering of others is insatiable, as well as to wreak vengeance on those he felt had exploited his father's death.


title: Untraceable

text: The police raid Owen's house but he is not present. Owen has been following Jennifer because he is now obsessed with her. He captures and places Jennifer in a makeshift death trap: hanging her above a cultivator and progressively lowering her to her death as more people enter the website. Jennifer escapes by swinging out of the way and grabbing a pillar to pull herself onto the ground. She breaks free and pins down the murderer, fatally shooting Owen as the police arrive. Owen's death was being broadcast, just like his father's. Jennifer then displays her FBI badge to the webcam.


title: Untraceable

text: While the chatter in the website's chat room dwindles, statements are made such as "You go girl!", "glad the killer is dead" and another one saying "a genius died today". The final comment asks where the video can be downloaded.


title: Untraceable

text: The film was shot in and around Portland, Oregon. A temporary studio was constructed in Clackamas, Oregon, where all non-location photography was done, mostly interiors, including the FBI's cyber division, Jennifer Marsh's house, the FBI building elevator, several basements, etc. A scene set on the east end of the Broadway Bridge was shot both on the actual bridge as well as at the studio. A faux diner was built underneath the Broadway bridge, which was used in the movie. The birthday party for Perla Haney-Jardine's character Annie was filmed in the roller skating rink of Oaks Amusement Park.


title: Untraceable

text: On May 13, 2008, "Untraceable" was released on DVD, Blu-ray and UMD. The DVD included an audio commentary and four featurettes.


title: Untraceable

text: The film opened poorly, with an opening weekend of $11.3 million, below the $35 million budget. It grossed $53 million worldwide, on theatrical release.


title: Untraceable

text: "Untraceable" received negative reviews from critics. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 16% based on 149 reviews, with the site's consensus being, "Despite Diane Lane's earnest effort, "Untraceable" manages to be nothing more than a run-of-the-mill thriller with a hypocritical message".


title: Untraceable

text: Several critics viewed the film as hypocritical for indulging in the "torture porn" it condemns. It also met criticism for its climax which was seen as devolving into horror film clichés. Lane was praised for her performance in the film. Roger Ebert gave the film a favorable review, giving the film a 3 star rating.


title: Sawayama

text: Sawayama (stylized in all caps) is the debut studio album by Japanese-British singer-songwriter Rina Sawayama, released on 17 April 2020 by the independent record label Dirty Hit. A follow up to her self-released debut EP "Rina" (2017), it received widespread acclaim from music critics, specifically towards the wide variety of music genres used, as well as its Y2K nostalgia and "intelligent" nature. Described by Sawayama herself as being "about family and identity", she lyrically explores personal experiences from both her childhood and adulthood.


title: Sawayama

text: "Sawayama" was primarily produced by Clarence Clarity and written by Sawayama, with additional work from musicians such as Danny L Harle, Kyle Shearer, Jonathan Gilmore, Bram Inscore and Lauren Aquilina among others. Musically, the album is influenced by 2000s mainstream pop, nu metal, rock, R&B, and dance-pop among other genres.


title: Sawayama

text: "Sawayama" was recorded in London and Los Angeles. The artist herself stated in a press release that the album "is about family and identity. It's about understanding yourself in the context of two opposing cultures (for me British and Japanese), what "belonging" means when home is an evolving concept, figuring out where you sit comfortably within and awkwardly outside of stereotypes, and ultimately trying to be ok with just being you, warts and all."


title: Sawayama

text: Musically, "Sawayama" is produced, performed and recorded in a wide variety of genres. Primarily influenced by 2000s mainstream pop, nu metal, rock, R&B, and dance-pop, it also was noted by critics to include elements of arena rock, EDM, avant-pop, hyperpop, electro, art pop, house, hair metal, hip-hop, experimental, synth-pop, bubblegum pop, emo pop, grunge, industrial, dubstep, country pop, pop rock, gospel, glam rock, trap, trip hop, folk, J-pop and electro-dub.


title: Sawayama

text: "STFU!" was released as the lead single to the then-unannounced album on 21 November 2019. It is a nu metal track and represents a change in direction for Sawayama. The song premiered alongside the music video, which was co-directed by Ali Kurr and Sawayama herself. The single was met with critical acclaim, achieving a score of 82 on the website Album Of The Year (based on both Critic and User reviews). It was inspired by "a cascade of microaggressions" with a message that "Asian women should not be cast as quiet and subservient."


title: Sawayama

text: "Comme des Garçons (Like the Boys)" was released as the second single to the album, along with the album pre-order, on 17 January 2020. It is a dance track written about female empowerment and the "rejection of traditional masculinity" by gay men. A remix of the track was released a month later, on 21 February 2020, featuring Brazilian drag queen Pabllo Vittar and a new mix by Brabo. A music video featuring the original mix of the song was released on 26 February 2020.


title: Sawayama

text: "XS" was released as the album's third official single on 2 March 2020. Sawayama stated that the track "is a song that mocks capitalism in a sinking world. Given that we all know global climate change is accelerating and human extinction is a very real possibility within our lifetime it seemed hilarious to me that brands were still coming out with new makeup palettes every month and public figures were doing a gigantic house tour of their gated property in Calabasas in the same week as doing a 'sad about Australian wildfires' Instagram post." This song received positive reviews, with Sofia Meyers of "Euphoria" stating that "if this is the direction she is going in, we're all in for what's next." A music video for the track was released on 17 April 2020. On 10 July 2020, the remix of the song came out in collaboration with the musician Bree Runway, with the difference that the introduction is a little different from the original and the verse from Bree Runway replaces the second from the original version.


title: Sawayama

text: "Chosen Family" was released as the album's fourth single on 3 April 2020. Prior to the single's release, Sawayama leaked its chords and lyrics so that fans create their own versions of the track. She also released a video featuring her favourite fan made versions of the track as well as a tutorial of how to play the song on the guitar.


title: Sawayama

text: "Bad Friend" was released as the fifth single from the record on 15 April 2020, two days before the album's release. Sawayama herself has described the track as her favourite from the album and stated that it was written after she found out through social media that her formerly close friend had just had a baby. The music video was released in May.


title: Sawayama

text: In January 2020, Sawayama announced through her social media The Dynasty Tour, her second concert series, with dates in North America and Europe. Due to safety concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic, the tour dates were rescheduled to 2021. The tour began on 8 November, 2021, in Dublin, Ireland at The Academy, and concluded on 13 May, 2022, in New York City at Terminal 5. The setlist mostly consisted of songs from the album and Sawayama's 2017 "Rina" EP. American singer and DJ Hana and London-based singer Ama Jones served as opening acts for the first leg of the tour.


title: Sawayama

text: "Sawayama" garnered widespread critical acclaim from music critics and listeners alike. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 based on reviews from mainstream critics, the album received a score of 89 out of 100, based on reviews from 14 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". The album was rated an 8.3 out of 10 on the aggregator AnyDecentMusic?.


title: Sawayama

text: "The Line of Best Fit" writer Erin Bashford called it a "deftly intelligent record [that] takes personal and musical themes, and presents them in a way that doesn't feel like it's ever been done before". She also praised Sawayama's "strong and emotional vocals" and "tak[ing] motifs and styles from every genre and era and curat[ing] something that feels futuristic", summing up her review by stating "Rina Sawayama is one-of-a-kind, and her debut album certainly isn't going to be quiet about that". "NME" complimented "Sawayama" for being "an exciting first step from an artist unafraid to push pop into new realms". Writing for "Pitchfork", Katherine St. Asaph described "Sawayama" as "a Y2K flashback that’s as reverent of Evanescence and Korn as it is of Britney and Christina." In June 2020, Elton John called the album "the strongest album of the year so far" and regarded the song "Bad Friend" as one that "Madonna would die for." Tom Hull was less impressed, giving it a B-minus and saying the "music aims for arena rock, sometimes with a bit of dissonance, but that doesn't help either."


title: Sawayama

text: Sawayama Remixed is a remix extended play by Japanese-British singer-songwriter Rina Sawayama. The limited edition set was released on 12-inch vinyl on 27 November 2020 via Rough Trade. The remixes of "XS" and "Comme des Garçons (Like the Boys)" had previously been released as singles earlier in the year and Sawayama's cover of "Dance in the Dark" was released as part of her Spotify Singles series.


title: Rogelio Funes Mori

text: Rogelio Gabriel Funes Mori (born 5 March 1991) is a professional footballer who plays as a forward for Liga MX club Monterrey. Born in Argentina, he represents the Mexico national team.


title: Rogelio Funes Mori

text: He began his career at River Plate before transferring to Benfica, after a brief stint in Turkey he signed with Liga MX club Monterrey in the summer of 2015 and quickly established himself as one of the league's best strikers, winning the league, two domestic cups and two CONCACAF Champions League titles and surpassing Humberto Suazo to become the club's all-time top scorer in all competitions.


title: Rogelio Funes Mori

text: His identical twin brother José Ramiro is also a footballer who played as a defender for Premier League club Everton and La Liga outfit Villarreal and for the Argentina national team.


title: Rogelio Funes Mori

text: Funes Mori was born in Mendoza, Argentina. In 2001, he moved to Arlington, Texas and attended Workman Junior High and Arlington High School where he was coached by Jeffrey Waldrop playing football with his twin brother, Ramiro. The twins' father, Miguel, played professional football in Argentina with clubs such as Independiente Rivadavia and Club Atlético Argentino in the 1980s. Funes Mori scored 40 goals in the 2008 season leading his team to District Champions and Area Finalist with a record of 24–2–1. Rogelio and Ramiro, who are identical twins, also played several seasons for the Associated Soccer Group (ASG) 91' team. His coach with ASG was Uche Okafor.


title: Rogelio Funes Mori

text: After that, Chelsea scout Jorge Alvial scouted Rogelio and Ramiro on the first day of the reality show "Sueño MLS", and spoke to his parents about a future tryout at Chelsea. He participated in "Sueño MLS" and won the contest, therefore becoming part of FC Dallas.


title: Rogelio Funes Mori

text: Funes Mori began his professional career with River Plate in the Argentine Primera División on 6 December 2009, on a 1–3 defeat against Vélez Sársfield. He played the last two games of that year at home against Racing Club and away to Tigre, scoring his first goal with the club in their visit to the latter.


title: Rogelio Funes Mori

text: In the traditional pre-season encounters for the big clubs in Argentina, the Torneos de Verano, he scored for River in a 3–1 victory over their rivals Boca Juniors in Mar del Plata's "Copa Desafío".


title: Rogelio Funes Mori

text: On 9 May, during the 2010 Clausura tournament, he scored his first hat-trick for River Plate in a game against Racing Club. He achieved the three goals in only 24 minutes, breaking a personal 11-match streak without scoring a goal. In the last game of the tournament, the forward scored River's only goal in a 1–5 loss to Tigre at home.


title: Rogelio Funes Mori

text: In the first game of the 2010 Apertura, he scored a 90th-minute goal following an assist from Ariel Ortega to secure a 1–0 victory over Tigre. This was his third goal in three games against that team. In the third fixture, against Independiente, he scored two goals in the first half as River went on to win 3–2. The forward scored his fourth goal of the season in the 1–0 victory over Arsenal de Sarandí.


title: Rogelio Funes Mori

text: On 10 August 2013, Funes Mori joined Benfica on a five-year contract. River Plate received €2 million from an investment group who kept a share of its economic right's, with Benfica receiving half, plus the sports rights.


title: Rogelio Funes Mori

text: On 15 September, he made his debut for Benfica B, scoring his first goal in a Benfica shirt. On 15 March, he scored four goals for the B side against Sporting Covilhã in a 4–0 win. On 9 July 2014, he was loaned to Eskişehirspor in Turkey for one year, with the option to make the move permanent for a €3.5 million fee.


title: Rogelio Funes Mori

text: On 12 June 2015, Funes Mori moved to Liga MX club Monterrey. He made his debut in a 3–2 friendly win over Morelia, scoring in the 91st minute. In his debut tournament he finished fourth-joint top scorer of the league with 11 goals.


title: Rogelio Funes Mori

text: He scored his 100th goal for the club on 18 December 2019 in the Club World Cup semi-final against Premiere League club Liverpool, making it 1–1 partial at the 14th minute but culminating in a 2–1 loss. After their participation at the Club World Cup, Monterrey disputed the Apertura championship finals against América. In the second leg, he scored the tying aggregate goal in order to take the match into overtime; where the winner was determined via a penalty shootout and Monterrey ultimately won 4–2. He was included in the tournament's Best XI.


title: Rogelio Funes Mori

text: Funes Mori was called up by Walter Perazzo to be part of the Argentina under-20 squad that participated in the 2011 South American Youth Championship, scoring twice.


title: Rogelio Funes Mori

text: In 2012, Funes Mori made his senior debut for Argentina during a friendly match in the Superclásico de las Américas.


title: Rogelio Funes Mori

text: Early in 2019, Funes Mori inquired FIFA about the possibility to play for Mexico, but was deemed ineligible. In 2020, following a change of rules regarding naturalized players by FIFA, he was deemed eligible to play for Mexico and restated his interest. On 14 June 2021, Funes Mori was granted his Mexican citizenship making him eligible to play for Mexico.


title: Rogelio Funes Mori

text: On 3 July 2021, he earned his first cap with the senior national team under manager Gerardo Martino in a friendly match against Nigeria, scoring on his debut in the team's 4–0 victory.


title: Rogelio Funes Mori

text: Funes Mori participated at the 2021 Gold Cup, scoring a total of 3 times. Mexico finished runner-up after losing the final to the United States 0–1.


title: Rogelio Funes Mori

text: In October 2022, Funes Mori was named in Mexico's preliminary 31-man squad for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, and in November, he was ultimately included in the final 26-man roster.


title: Rogelio Funes Mori

text: Funes Mori is married to Jorgelina who is the sister of former FC Dallas midfielder Mauro Díaz. His twin brother, Ramiro, is also a footballer and plays for Liga MX club Cruz Azul as a defender and played for the Argentina national team at two Copa América tournaments.


title: The Preacher's Wife

text: The Preacher's Wife is a 1996 American comedy-drama film directed by Penny Marshall and starring Denzel Washington, Whitney Houston, and Courtney B. Vance. It is a remake of the 1947 film "The Bishop's Wife", which in turn was based on the novel of the same name by Robert Nathan.


title: The Preacher's Wife

text: It was nominated for the Oscar for Best Music, Original Musical or Comedy Score. The film was nominated for five Image Awards, including Outstanding Motion Picture, and won two—for Best Actress (Whitney Houston) and Best Supporting Actress (Loretta Devine).


title: The Preacher's Wife

text: Reverend Henry Biggs is the pastor of a small struggling African American Baptist church in a poverty-stricken neighborhood of New York City. Membership is declining, Henry is pulled in a hundred directions by his parishioners' needs, and the church's finances are in trouble. Henry is under intense pressure from real estate developer Joe Hamilton to sell the church's property so that Hamilton can build luxury condominiums on the site. Henry has also become neglectful of his wife Julia and his son Jeremiah. Julia worries that her marriage is failing. Unsure that he can make a difference in his parishioners' lives and beginning to lose his faith, Henry prays to God for help, which comes in the form of Dudley, a witty and debonair angel. Dudley tells Henry that he is an angel sent by God to help him, but Henry is deeply suspicious of Dudley. Julia, however, is instantly charmed by the handsome and unflappable angel.


title: The Preacher's Wife

text: With Christmas approaching, Henry's schedule becomes increasingly burdensome, and Dudley begins to spend most of his time with Julia and Jeremiah. Henry's secretary Beverly becomes comically defensive and aggressive, believing Dudley is there to take her job. Julia's wasp-tongued mother, Margueritte is also suspicious of Dudley, because she believes the newcomer will break up her daughter's marriage. Dudley and Julia go ice skating, and then later spend an evening in the jazz club where Julia once performed. After Henry confronts Dudley, Dudley realizes that he is falling in love with Julia. So, Dudley turns his attention to Hamilton and manages to disrupt his schemes to get Henry to sell the church. Henry now realizes that his family is the most important thing in his life, and he resolves to be a better husband and father. At the church's Christmas pageant, Henry finds his faith in God renewed and ties to his family restored.


title: The Preacher's Wife

text: With his work done, Dudley gives the Biggs family a fully decorated Christmas tree as a gift. Dudley then erases all memories of himself from everyone he has met, and although he attends morning service on Christmas Eve, no one recognizes him. However, Jeremiah, who has the faith of a child, still remembers Dudley, and wishes him a merry Christmas.


title: The Preacher's Wife

text: A subplot present throughout the film focuses on Julia's singing talents. Once a popular nightclub singer, she is now a star in the church choir. This subplot provides for several set pieces in which the choir performs, and Gospel music plays a significant role. It also provides comic relief in the form of a domineering choir member, played by Houston's real life mother, Cissy.


title: The Preacher's Wife

text: The motion picture was developed by Denzel Washington's Mundy Lane Entertainment. The screenplay was written by Nat Mauldin and Allan Scott. Credits are given to Robert E. Sherwood and Leonardo Bercovici for the 1947 film "The Bishop's Wife", and to author Robert Nathan (for his novel "The Bishop's Wife").


title: The Preacher's Wife

text: The role of Julia was written with Whitney Houston in mind. Denzel Washington says that he first considered Julia Roberts for the role, but quickly turned to Whitney Houston. Houston admitted that she was reluctant to accept, feeling she could not do justice to a role that required her to play a dowdy housewife. Only after reading the script a second time and seeing parallels between her own life and the role of Julia did Houston accept. Houston was paid $10 million to appear in the film, making her the highest paid black actress at the time.


title: The Preacher's Wife

text: "The Preacher's Wife" was the third film produced by Washington's company "Mundy Lane Entertainment." For Washington, the movie was a meaningful project due to its message about the value of family, community, and faith. Moreover, as Washington reflected to "Variety" magazine, the film provided opportunities for those underrepresented in show business:"I’m happy to know that on a film like ‘Devil in a Blue Dress’ we put 100 or so many black people to work, and it was the same with ‘The Preacher’s Wife,’ [Washington] said. “And it will be the same thing with other films that I’m involved in, whether I’m on a producer level or not. We do it because they’re capable and because nobody else is necessarily looking out for them,” he says of African-American talent.Filming began in early January 1996. Trinity United Methodist Church in Newark, New Jersey, served as the Biggs' New York City church. The production leased the church, and began renovating it in February 1996. The interior was painted, new carpet laid, and the main doors repaired. The production team designed a pulpit and altar rails that more accurately reflected the design of Baptist churches. After filming, the church kept the pulpit, and the production crew worked with architects from the United Methodist Church to design and install rails more fitting of the Methodist style. Filming occurred there from March 11 to April 3, with about a quarter of the church's membership hired as extras. (The church used the rental fees paid by the production to replace its boiler and HVAC system.)


title: The Preacher's Wife

text: Production was plagued by poor weather and accidents. Interior sets were constructed at Chelsea Piers, a film and television production facility in Manhattan, New York. Severe snowstorms in New Jersey (where scenes were shot in Paterson) and New York (where scenes were shot throughout New York City) cost the production several shooting days. Later, the cast and crew moved to Portland, Maine, to scenes which occur at an ice skating rink, but unseasonably warm weather turned the ice to water and forced the production to rent snow-making machines. The production filmed in several crime-ridden areas of New York City to achieve authenticity. Robberies were common in the area, leaving the cast and crew nervous. While filming exteriors and interiors at a church and parsonage in Yonkers, New York, a building a block away caught fire and two children died. One crew member rushed a ladder from the production to the burning building, and saved the life of a four-year-old child. Accidents also affected the production. The weekend before filming began at the church, an elderly parishioner fell, broke her hip and died. In the middle of filming, a crew member was struck by a car and killed. The production schedule was also impacted by Houston's decision only to shoot scenes with vocal performances during the afternoon.


title: The Preacher's Wife

text: Filming was scheduled to wrap at the end of February, but the crew was still shooting at the beginning of May. Some final scenes shot were those at the Main Street Cafe in Tarrytown, New York. The entire street had to be dressed for Christmas in fake snow laid down along the street.


title: The Preacher's Wife

text: "The Preacher's Wife" is the best-selling gospel album of all time. The album also remained at number-one for a record twenty-six weeks on the "Billboard" Top Gospel Albums Chart. The Georgia Mass Choir appears in the film. The soundtrack to the film (performed by Whitney Houston) consists of gospel numbers and includes performances by Monica, Faith Evans, the three members of New Edition who embarked on solo careers (Bobby Brown, who was Houston's real-life husband at the time, Ralph Tresvant and Johnny Gill), Cissy Houston and Shirley Caesar among others. Houston sang Richard Smallwood's in the film. A favorite song of hers since childhood, it gained renewed popularity when it was heard in the film.


title: The Preacher's Wife

text: Stephen Holden, writing for "The New York Times", called the film "sweetly uplifting" and "a shrewdly conceived update", and had high praise for actress Jenifer Lewis and the funny scene where the children in the Christmas pageant cannot recall their lines. Kevin Thomas of the "Los Angeles Times" also found the film "warm, sentimental, amusing yet serious" and an "inspired reworking" of the 1947 original. He singled out Penny Marshall's directing for being "consistently wise and judicious", and praised Jenifer Lewis and Loretta Devine. Critic Roger Ebert gave the film 3 out of 4 stars, but was a bit equivocal in his review, concluding: ""The Preacher's Wife" is a sweet and good-hearted comedy about the holiday season. ... This movie could have done more, but what it does, it makes you feel good about."


title: The Preacher's Wife

text: Duane Byrge, writing for "The Hollywood Reporter", also felt the film uneven. Although he found it heart-warming, he wrote that it had a "patchy narrative" and felt the film made Washington and Houston such great characters that it was hard to see why the Biggs' marriage should survive. Too often, he concluded, the plot seemed nothing more than a means of stringing together terrific musical performances by Houston and the Georgia Mass Choir. Byrge found Penny Marshall's directing slow at times but felt that casting director Paula Herold had done wonders. He singled out Courtney B. Vance as an appealing if downbeat husband, Jenifer Lewis as the "sassy" mother-in-law, and Loretta Devine as Bigg's defensive, aggressive secretary who thinks Dudley is there to replace her. Marshall, Byrge said, was more effective directing these lively characters (and actors) than the film's stars.


title: The Preacher's Wife

text: In contrast, Caren Weiner Campbell, writing for "Entertainment Weekly", found Denzel Washington to be lackluster (though the gospel singing scenes were quite good). Her strongest criticism was directed at the screenplay. She felt the script had too many subplots, with the narrative by the character of Jeremiah was "sappy", and was lacking in the "fun miracles" of the original. She also criticized Marshall's directing for being slow and tedious. Unlike other reviewers, Jackie Potts in "Miami Herald" felt the characters were dated and not updated. She found Courtney B. Vance's acting humorless, and was highly critical of Whitney Houston's acting. "[Houston] sleepwalks through scenes as the dignified mother, doing little more than tucking her 6-year-old son (Justin Pierre Edmund) in. It's not a showy role, but Houston plays it as if the frost outdoors has settled on her shoulders". While she had high praise for Denzel Washington (he "plays Dudley with a 100-watt smile and childlike sense of wonder"), she had little to say for Penny Marshall's directing. It was, she concluded, slow and the overall tone of the film "strangely solemn"—with only minor relief given by Jenifer Lewis' biting, scathingly funny turn as a tart-tongued mother.


title: The Preacher's Wife

text: "The Preacher's Wife" currently holds rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on reviews. The site's consensus states: "Solid performances and a steady directorial hand help "The Preacher's Wife" offer some reliably heartwarming - albeit fairly predictable - holiday cheer."


title: The Preacher's Wife

text: The film grossed $56,432,646 worldwide, of which $48,102,795 was in the US, ranking "The Preacher's Wife" as #33 in domestic box office receipts for movies released in 1996. The movie's US gross was only slightly below that of "Evita" ($50 million) and above those for "Romeo + Juliet" ($46.3 million) and "One Fine Day" ($46.2 million).


title: The Preacher's Wife

text: Although considered a respectable performance, "The Preacher's Wife" underperformed studio expectations given its $60 million production budget plus an additional $15 million in marketing expenses. Industry insiders had hoped that "The Preacher's Wife" would attract a significant crossover audience due to its two high-profile mainstream stars and heavily promoted soundtrack album. "Whitney is her own built-in marketing machine," a studio marketing chief told the "Los Angeles Times" prior to the film's release, referring to Houston's widespread appeal at the time.


title: Lonette McKee

text: Lonette Rita McKee (born July 22, 1954) is an American actress. She is best known for her role as Sister Williams in the original 1976 musical-drama film "Sparkle". McKee also had notable roles in such movies as "The Cotton Club", "Jungle Fever", "ATL" and "Honey".


title: Lonette McKee

text: Born in Detroit, Michigan, McKee was the second of three daughters of Dorothy McKee, of Swedish descent, and Lonnie McKee, an African American bricklayer and auto manufacturer employee. McKee's older sister, Katherine "Kathy" McKee, is also an actress and performer. McKee attended St Martin De Porres High School, but dropped out after her freshman year, moving to Los Angeles, California, to live with her older sister.


title: Lonette McKee

text: McKee's career began in the music business in Detroit as a child prodigy, where she started writing music/lyrics, singing, playing keyboards and performing at the age of seven. In 1968, McKee, then aged 14, recorded her first record entitled "Don't Worry About It". It became an instant regional pop/R&B hit. McKee wrote the title song for the film "Quadroon", in which her sister Katherine McKee starred, when she was fifteen.


title: Lonette McKee

text: Several years later, McKee was launched to stardom with her critically acclaimed performance in the hit 1976 musical drama film "Sparkle". She has written and produced three solo LPs. "Natural Love" was produced for Spike Lee's Columbia 40 Acres and A Mule label in 1992. Ed Hogan, reviewing for "AllMusic", wrote, "'Natural Love' shows that the singer/songwriter's muse knows no stylistic bounds. As with her earlier effort, McKee co-writes all of the songs while sharing production credits with Bryant McNeil, Gene Lake Jr., and labelmate Raymond Jones of State of Art." McKee scored the music for the well-received cable documentary on the Lower Manhattan African Burial Ground, as well as numerous infomercials. McKee has toured extensively throughout the world singing concert performances, including the JVC Jazz Festival at Carnegie Hall. McKee studied film directing at The New School in New York and apprenticed directing with the filmmaker Spike Lee. McKee also studied singing with Dini Clark and ballet with Sarah Tayir, both in Los Angeles. She also appeared on the CW sitcom "The Game" as Mrs. Pitts, the mother of Jason (played by Coby Bell), in 2007.


title: Lonette McKee

text: McKee won critical acclaim for her Broadway debut performance in the musical "The First" in 1981, co-starring in the role of Jackie Robinson's wife Rachel. She became the first African American to play the coveted role of Julie in the Houston Grand Opera's production of "Show Boat" in 1983 on Broadway, for which she received a Tony Award nomination for Best Actress in a Musical. McKee's tragic portrayal of jazz legend Billie Holiday in the one-woman drama with music, "Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill", won critical acclaim, standing ovations, and a 1987 Drama Desk Award nomination (Outstanding Actress in a Musical). She reprised the role of Julie on Broadway in the 1994 revival of "Show Boat" directed by Hal Prince.


title: Lonette McKee

text: In 2013, McKee expressed a desire to establish a performance arts center in the New York tri-state area. She performs her one-woman memoir with music on stages throughout the US. She produced her first feature film, "Dream Street", which she wrote and directed.


title: Lonette McKee

text: McKee has been married once and has no children. She dated the actor and stand-up comedian Freddie Prinze for a time during 1976. McKee was married to Leo Compton, a youth counselor, from February 1983 to 1990. In the mid-1990s, she lived in an Upper East Side brownstone with her companion, the musician Bryant McNeil. They met while they were working together on McKee's "Natural Love" album. McKee teaches a master acting workshop at Centenary College of New Jersey, where she is an adjunct professor in the Theater Arts department.


title: Manorama (Tamil actress)

text: Gopishantha (26 May 1937 – 10 October 2015), better known by her stage name Manorama, also called Aachi, was an Indian actress, playback singer and comedian who had appeared in more than 1000 films and 5000 stage performances and several television series predomninantely in the Tamil language until 2015. She was a recipient of the Kalaimamani award. In 2002, Government of India awarded Manorama the Padma Shri for her contribution to the arts. She received the National Film Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the film "Pudhiya Padhai" (1989) and Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award – South (1995).


title: Manorama (Tamil actress)

text: Manorama was born to Kasiyappan Kilakudaiyar and Ramamirtham in Mannargudi, a town in the erstwhile Thanjavur district of Madras Presidency. Her mother brought her up by taking up a job as a maid. She mentioned her indebtedness to her mother for her success: Many of the mother roles that she has played in films resemble her own mother. Her family moved to Pallathur near Karaikudi owing to poverty. While in Pallathur, her mother had started vomiting out blood, hence Manorama decided to start working as a maid and dropped out of school at the age of 11. Once a drama troupe had come to Pallathur, but the actress who was to play a small part, suddenly dropped out due to her inability to sing and the troupe was looking for an artiste who could act and sing as well. The drama troupe decided to give her this role in the drama titled "Andhaman Kadhali". Hence her acting career began at the age of twelve, acting in plays. During this time, she was rechristened Manorama by one of her dramas' director Thiruvengadam and harmonist Thiayagarajan. Manorama went and met S S Rajendran (SSR) when he camped at her native district with his drama troupe. She was selected for a role in his ManiMagudam drama written by Kalaignar M Karunanidhi.She continued to act in plays and performed as a playback singer as well. After watching her performance in plays, she was offered her first film, named "Inbavazhvu", by Janakiraman, which remained 40% incomplete and later Kannadasan offered her lead role in a second film, "Unmayinkottai", which got shelved after shooting for about 40%. She lost hope of becoming a film actor when both these films remained incomplete.


title: Manorama (Tamil actress)

text: Manorama fell in love with her manager in the drama troupe; S. M. Ramanathan and married him in 1954; the couple have a son named Bhoopathy born in 1955. However, they divorced in 1956 and started to live separately in Chennai. She quoted in an interview in 2015, "My mom wanted me to study medicine. But it was not easy to become a doctor in those days, and I became an actress. So, if I hadn't taken up acting, I would have tried to become a doctor as my mom wished for it. But now, fortunately, my grandson is a doctor, and I am proud of it."


title: Manorama (Tamil actress)

text: She acted in small roles in few "Vairam Nataka Sabha" dramas. Once she went to see a drama of S. S. Rajendran, who was residing at Pudukkotai, in Tamil Nadu, and P.A. Kumar introduced her to Rajendran. She showed her skill in dialogue delivery and was offered a job in S.S.R. Nataka Mandram company and played in hundreds of stage productions all over the district: The dramas included "Manimagudam, Thenpandiveeran" and "Pudhuvellam". She credits her work in "Manimagudam" as where she was first recognized as an actress. She then took part in an unfinished film starring S. S. Rajendran and Devika.


title: Manorama (Tamil actress)

text: She migrated from dramas to the silver screen with the role of a heroine in the 1958 Tamil film "Malayitta Mangai": Kannadasan gave her the lead role in this film. The first film in which she played the heroine was the 1963 "Konjum Kumari". Then, she concentrated more on comedy from 1960. She was given equally challenging roles alongside the well known comedian Nagesh in 50 films.


title: Manorama (Tamil actress)

text: When asked in an interview as to how she got into films, she quoted, "It's all because of Kannadasan. It was he who changed my life by casting me in the film "Maalayitta Mangai" in 1957. It was a comical role, and he trusted me so much and said that I will be able to pull it off. I was very doubtful about it, but he told me, "If you are going to act in films only as a heroine, people here will throw you out of the industry after three or four years, but doing such roles will take you places. And you have the talent, too, to reach higher peaks." That is when I got confidence and continued doing comedy roles."


title: Manorama (Tamil actress)

text: The first time Manorama stood before the camera was for a Sinhalese film "Sukumali" in 1947, in which she played the heroine's friend. Her dance master Suryakala recommended her to the director Masthaan to play the role. She has acted predominantly in Tamil films since 1958, but also acted in Telugu, Hindi, Malayalam and Kannada movies as well. Her on-screen pair with Tangavelu was appreciated in the film "Vallvanakku Vallavan" in 1965. Her on-screen pair with Nagesh was very popular in 1960–69 and then with Cho in the 1970s and 80s and later with Thengai Srinivasan, Venniradai Moorthy, and Surali Rajan in the 70s and 80s. She had done playback singing for 300 songs, mostly pictured on herself, in Tamil films. The first song that she sang was in a film called "Magale Un Samathu", composed by G. K. Venkatesh and this opportunity she got due to the film's producer P.A. Kumar. She has sung a classical-based song with TM Sounderajan in the film "Dharshinam" (1970), where she was paired with Cho. Manorama sang a song with L.R. Eswari named "Thaatha thaatha pidi kudu". Her career's biggest hit song sung by herself was Vaa Vaathiyaare Uttaande composed by music director V. Kumar for the film <nowiki>"</nowiki>Bommalattam", which was picturised on her and Cho. She also sang for M. S. Viswanathan and A. R. Rahman.


title: Manorama (Tamil actress)

text: Some of her best Tamil films include "Anbe Vaa", "Thenmazhi", "Ethir Neechal", "Galatta Kalyanam", "Chittukuruvi", "Durga Devi", "Annalakshmi" and "Imayam". In Telugu, she starred in films such as "Rikshavodu", "Krishnarjuna" and "Subhodayam". When asked in an interview as to which are her memorable roles, she said "It is Nadigan, which had Sathyaraj and Khushbu in the lead. I cannot forget that role of Baby Amma in my life. Also my role in "Chinna Gounder", for which I had to sport weird, artificial teeth, is something which I always think about.


title: Manorama (Tamil actress)

text: Manorama was paired with Nagesh regularly in films with M.G. Ramachandran in lead like "En Kadamai, Kanni Thai, Thayin Madiyil, Kadhal Vaganam, Chandrodhyam, Anbee Vaa, Padagotti, Kadhal Vagahnam, Vivasaaye, Thaikku Thalaimagan, Vettikaran" and "Ther Thiruvizha". Other directors cast the Nagesh-Manorama pair in films like "Anubhavi Raja Anubhavi, Kungumam, Saraswathi Sabadham, Panjavarnakilli, Navarathiri, Puthiya Paravai, Patthu Matha Bandham, Anbu Karangal, Micheal Madan Kamarajan, Annamitta Kai, Gowri Kalyanam, Anbe Aaruyire, Server Sundaram, Ner Vazhai, Ninaivin Nindraval, Poojaikku Vandamalar, Deiva Thirumagal, Rakta Thilagam, Aannavin Asai, Thiruvarutchelvar, Seetha" and "Karunthel Kannayiram". Manorama, actress Sachu and Jayalalithaa have acted together in 2 films as a combination — "Galata Kalyanam" and "Bommalattam". Manorama and Jayalalithaa have acted in 25 films together.


title: Manorama (Tamil actress)

text: Her work was noticed even among stalwarts like Sivaji Ganesan and Natiya Peroli Padmini. Manorama shared in an interview that initially she was nervous acting in front of veterans like T. S. Balaiah, but, the director A. P. Nagarajan made her understand that the scenes in which Jil Jil Ramamani appears, she would be the center of attention. She acted alongside the well-known comedian Nagesh in 50 films and in 20 films with Cho Ramaswamy. They made a notable pair and acted in many well-received comedies. In 1974 she shared the screen space with the legendary comedian Mehmood in the Hindi movie "Kunwara Baap". Cho and Manorama were paired together in 20 films which included "Malligai Poo, Annaiyum Pidhavum, Dharisanam, Anbai Thedi, Nanaivin Nindraval, Nirai Kudam, Ayiram Poi, Mohammed Bin Tughlaq, Bommalattam, Delhi Mappilai, Vilayattu Pillai, Kanavan, Rojavin Raja" and "Suryagandhi".


title: Manorama (Tamil actress)

text: The character she was given by K. Balachander in the 1989 film "Unnal Mudiyum Thambi" she personally considers a cornerstone as she was giving a new challenge as an actor. She related in an interview on Toronto TV that one of the most challenging characters she played was the role of the 50-year-old unmarried woman in the 1990 film "Nadigan" with Sathyaraj. She has acted with all of the lead comedians across five different generations, which includes M. R. Radha, K. A. Thangavelu, J. P. Chandrababu, A. Karunanithi, Ennatha Kannaiya, V. K. Ramasamy, Nagesh, Cho Ramaswamy, Thengai Seenivasan, M. R. R. Vasu, Suruli Rajan, Venniradai Moorthy, Janagaraj, Pandiarajan, Goundamani, Senthil, Vivek and Vadivelu.


title: Manorama (Tamil actress)

text: She has been in films with five chief ministers. She played the female lead in the plays written, directed and acted by C. N. Annadurai, former chief minister of Tamil Nadu. She has also appeared in plays with another chief minister of Tamil Nadu, M. Karunanidhi. She has acted in films with M. G. Ramachandran and J. Jayalalithaa, who both later became chief ministers of Tamil Nadu later. She has also acted in Telugu films with Dr. N. T. Rama Rao, who became the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh. When asked which character of hers she found most hilarious to play, she specified the role of a talkative female, who is forced to act dumb in a film called "Unakkum Vazhvu Varum". She had played this role along with Thengai Srinivasan. She was bitten by a Bungarus fasciatus/ Kattuviriyan snake during the shooting of "Manjal Kungumam" and was admitted to hospital. Coincidentally, after recovery, the next scene, she had to act was in <nowiki>"</nowiki>Aadi Viradham,<nowiki>"</nowiki> where she had to bathe a snake statue and sing a lullaby for it, and the director asked her whether she would like to perform and she replied "Yes very much!" and she did the film.


title: Manorama (Tamil actress)

text: Manorama, being a close friend of Jayalalithaa and of the firm belief that Jayalalithaa would never be corrupt, campaigned against actor Rajinikanth in support of Chief Minister Jayalalithaa in the 1996 elections.


title: Manorama (Tamil actress)

text: In one of her last interviews, in 2015, she was asked if she had any regrets about her life. To this, she answered: "I've no regrets at all. I'm blessed in this life. Even in my next birth, I want to be born as Manorama again. I want this same life, and same people around me. Most of all, I want my mom with me again." In an interview to BBC in 2015, "If I had chosen to act only as a heroine then I would have disappeared from the scene long ago. So, I decided to take up comedienne roles, so I survived in the industry for nearly six decades".


title: Manorama (Tamil actress)

text: When asked as to how she was able to do more than 1500 films, she said in her interview in September 2015, "I believe I am a blessed person. Without God's will, I couldn't have acted in so many films. It all just happened in my life, and you won't believe it, but I still have the urge to act. The one person who is the reason for all my success is my mom. She did everything for me in life, and I miss her the most now (she breaks into tears). Whatever I achieve or have achieved in life is only because of her."


title: Manorama (Tamil actress)

text: She supported young talents and budding directors in her old age. In 2013 she acted in a Tamil short film named "Thaaye Nee Kannurangu", directed by LGR Saravanan. She acted as a cancer patient and a mother of Mr. Srikanth.


title: Manorama (Tamil actress)

text: Between 2013 and 2015, Manorama had suffered ill-health resulting in hospital stays. She died in Chennai at 11.20 pm on 10 October 2015 as a result of multiple organ failure at the age of 78.


title: Manorama (Tamil actress)

text: Tamil Nadu reacted to Manorama's death with an outpouring of grief; numerous tributes were paid to the deceased actor across the state and on social media. Chief Minister Jayalalithaa laid a wreath on the body at the actor's home in T. Nagar, Ms. Jayalalithaa said, "There had been no accomplished achiever like Manorama in the Tamil film world and there would be none in the future as well." Jayalalitha was quoted as saying, "I was shocked to hear about her death. She was an elder sister to me. I used to call her Manorama while she called me Ammu. We used to visit each other's houses whenever we didn't have shootings." The chief minister also said, "If Sivaji Ganesan was Nadigar Thilagam, Manorama was Nadigai Thilagam." Others who paid homage to the actress include Rajinikanth, Vijay, Kamal Haasan, Vikram, Sivakumar, Dhanush, Ajith Kumar, M. Karunanidhi, K. Veeramani, G. K. Vasan, Delhi Ganesh, R. Sarathkumar, Ilayaraja, Vairamuthu, Karthik, S. Ve. Shekhar, Vijayakumar, Goundamani, K. Bhagyaraj, R. Parthiban, Raadhika, Vimal, Silambarasan, Suriya, Karthi, Vikraman, S. Thanu, T. Rajender and Pandiarajan.


title: Manorama (Tamil actress)

text: Manorama also holds a record of singing for all the notable music directors. She has rendered her voice for M. S. Viswanathan, Ilayaraja, A. R. Rahman and many other notable music composers.


title: Samuel Barnett (actor)

text: Samuel Barnett (born 25 April 1980) is an English actor. He has performed on stage, film, television and radio and achieved recognition for his work on the stage and film versions of "The History Boys" by Alan Bennett. His television performances include roles in the BBC comedy "Twenty Twelve" and in the Showtime drama "Penny Dreadful". He played the lead role of Dirk Gently in "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency", the 2016 BBC America adaptation of the book series by Douglas Adams.


title: Samuel Barnett (actor)

text: Barnett was born in Whitby, North Yorkshire, on 25 April 1980. He has four siblings. His mother comes from a Quaker background whilst his father was descended from Polish Jews. He started performing at an early age before moving to London to study acting at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA).


title: Samuel Barnett (actor)

text: Barnett appeared in the original London stage production of Alan Bennett's 2004 play "The History Boys", as well as in the New York, Sydney, Wellington and Hong Kong productions and radio and film versions of the play. He had been involved in "The History Boys" from its very first reading.


title: Samuel Barnett (actor)

text: In 2009 Barnett played John Everett Millais in the BBC series "Desperate Romantics" and Joseph Severn in the film "Bright Star". He appeared at the National Theatre in "Women Beware Women" by Thomas Middleton, which ran from 20 April – 4 July 2010. From July 2012 he appeared in an all-male-cast as Queen Elizabeth in Shakespeare's "Richard III" at the Globe Theatre in London alongside Mark Rylance in the title role, also playing the role of Sebastian in "Twelfth Night". The production transferred to the Apollo Theatre in the West End, opening on 2 November 2012 and running for a limited engagement. Both "Twelfth Night" and "Richard III" transferred to Broadway in 2013 and played at the Belasco Theatre until February 2014. In the Broadway productions Barnett reprised his role as Elizabeth Woodville in "Richard III" and took on the role of Viola (previously played by Johnny Flynn in London) in "Twelfth Night". In July 2018 Barnett reunited with "History Boys" playwright Alan Bennett and co-star Sacha Dhawan for Bennett's new play, "Allelujah!", at the Bridge Theatre.


title: Samuel Barnett (actor)

text: Barnett was nominated for Evening Standard Award as Most Promising Newcomer for his role in "The Marriage of Figaro" in 2002. He won Best Newcomer & Best Supporting Actor in a play at the Whatsonstage.com Theatregoers Choice Awards for his work on the original production of "The History Boys". He was nominated for the 29th annual Olivier Award for Best Performance in a Supporting Role. He won a Drama Desk Award and was nominated for a Tony Award for his work on the Broadway production.


title: Samuel Barnett (actor)

text: Barnett was nominated for the 2006 British Independent Film Award for Most Promising Newcomer (On Screen) for his work on the film version of "The History Boys".


title: Samuel Barnett (actor)

text: In 2014 Barnett received a nomination for a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his work in "Twelfth Night".


title: Samuel Barnett (actor)

text: In 2022 Barnett received the Stage Edinburgh Award for excellence in acting for his role in the solo-show Feeling Afraid As If Something Terrible Is Going To Happen.


title: Samuel Barnett (actor)

text: Barnett is openly gay and in a relationship with theatre director Adam Penford. In 2020 his father died from COVID-19.


title: Kaon

text: In particle physics, a kaon (), also called a K meson and denoted , is any of a group of four mesons distinguished by a quantum number called strangeness. In the quark model they are understood to be bound states of a strange quark (or antiquark) and an up or down antiquark (or quark).


title: Kaon

text: Kaons have proved to be a copious source of information on the nature of fundamental interactions since their discovery in cosmic rays in 1947. They were essential in establishing the foundations of the Standard Model of particle physics, such as the quark model of hadrons and the theory of quark mixing (the latter was acknowledged by a Nobel Prize in Physics in 2008). Kaons have played a distinguished role in our understanding of fundamental conservation laws: CP violation, a phenomenon generating the observed matter–antimatter asymmetry of the universe, was discovered in the kaon system in 1964 (which was acknowledged by a Nobel Prize in 1980). Moreover, direct CP violation was discovered in the kaon decays in the early 2000s by the NA48 experiment at CERN and the KTeV experiment at Fermilab.


title: Kaon

text: As the quark model shows, assignments that the kaons form two doublets of isospin; that is, they belong to the fundamental representation of SU(2) called the 2. One doublet of strangeness +1 contains the and the . The antiparticles form the other doublet (of strangeness −1).


title: Kaon

text: Although the and its antiparticle are usually produced via the strong force, they decay weakly. Thus, once created the two are better thought of as superpositions of two weak eigenstates which have vastly different lifetimes:


title: Kaon

text: An experimental observation made in 1964 that K-longs rarely decay into two pions was the discovery of CP violation (see below).


title: Kaon

text: The intrinsic parity of a pion is P = −1, and parity is a multiplicative quantum number. Therefore, the two final states have different parity (P = +1 and P = −1, respectively). It was thought that the initial states should also have different parities, and hence be two distinct particles. However, with increasingly precise measurements, no difference was found between the masses and lifetimes of each, respectively, indicating that they are the same particle. This was known as the τ–θ puzzle. It was resolved only by the discovery of parity violation in weak interactions. Since the mesons decay through weak interactions, parity is not conserved, and the two decays are actually decays of the same particle, now called the .


title: Kaon

text: The discovery of hadrons with the internal quantum number "strangeness" marks the beginning of a most exciting epoch in particle physics that even now, fifty years later, has not yet found its conclusion ... by and large experiments have driven the development, and that major discoveries came unexpectedly or even against expectations expressed by theorists.  — Bigi & Sanda (2016)


title: Kaon

text: While looking for the hypothetical nuclear meson, Louis Leprince-Ringuet found evidence for the existence of a positively charged heavier particle in 1944.


title: Kaon

text: In 1947, G.D. Rochester and C.C. Butler of the University of Manchester published two cloud chamber photographs of cosmic ray-induced events, one showing what appeared to be a neutral particle decaying into two charged pions, and one which appeared to be a charged particle decaying into a charged pion and something neutral. The estimated mass of the new particles was very rough, about half a proton's mass. More examples of these "V-particles" were slow in coming.


title: Kaon

text: In 1949, Rosemary Brown (later Rosemary Fowler), a research student in C.F. Powell's Bristol group, spotted her 'k' track, made by a particle of very similar mass that decayed to three pions. This led to the so-called 'Tau-Theta' problem: What seemed to be the same particles (now called ) decayed in two different modes, Theta to two pions (parity +1), Tau to three pions (parity −1). The solution to this puzzle turned out to be that weak interactions do not conserve parity.


title: Kaon

text: The first breakthrough was obtained at Caltech, where a cloud chamber was taken up Mount Wilson, for greater cosmic ray exposure. In 1950, 30 charged and 4 neutral "V-particles" were reported. Inspired by this, numerous mountaintop observations were made over the next several years, and by 1953, the following terminology was being used: "L meson" for either a muon or charged pion; "K meson" meant a particle intermediate in mass between the pion and nucleon.


title: Kaon

text: Leprince-Rinquet coined the still-used term "hyperon" to mean any particle heavier than a nucleon. The Leprince-Ringuet particle turned out to be the K meson.


title: Kaon

text: The decays were extremely slow; typical lifetimes are of the order of . However, production in pion-proton reactions proceeds much faster, with a time scale of . The problem of this mismatch was solved by Abraham Pais who postulated the new quantum number called "strangeness" which is conserved in strong interactions but violated by the weak interactions. Strange particles appear copiously due to "associated production" of a strange and an antistrange particle together. It was soon shown that this could not be a multiplicative quantum number, because that would allow reactions which were never seen in the new synchrotrons which were commissioned in Brookhaven National Laboratory in 1953 and in the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory in 1955.


title: Kaon

text: Initially it was thought that although parity was violated, CP (charge parity) symmetry was conserved. In order to understand the discovery of CP violation, it is necessary to understand the mixing of neutral kaons; this phenomenon does not require CP violation, but it is the context in which CP violation was first observed.


title: Kaon

text: Since neutral kaons carry strangeness, they cannot be their own antiparticles. There must be then two different neutral kaons, differing by two units of strangeness. The question was then how to establish the presence of these two mesons. The solution used a phenomenon called neutral particle oscillations, by which these two kinds of mesons can turn from one into another through the weak interactions, which cause them to decay into pions (see the adjacent figure).


title: Kaon

text: These oscillations were first investigated by Murray Gell-Mann and Abraham Pais together. They considered the CP-invariant time evolution of states with opposite strangeness. In matrix notation one can write


title: Kaon

text: where "ψ" is a quantum state of the system specified by the amplitudes of being in each of the two basis states (which are "a" and "b" at time "t" = 0). The diagonal elements ("M") of the Hamiltonian are due to strong interaction physics which conserves strangeness. The two diagonal elements must be equal, since the particle and antiparticle have equal masses in the absence of the weak interactions. The off-diagonal elements, which mix opposite strangeness particles, are due to weak interactions; CP symmetry requires them to be real.


title: Kaon

text: The consequence of the matrix "H" being real is that the probabilities of the two states will forever oscillate back and forth. However, if any part of the matrix were imaginary, as is forbidden by CP symmetry, then part of the combination will diminish over time. The diminishing part can be either one component ("a") or the other ("b"), or a mixture of the two.


title: Kaon

text: The eigenstates are obtained by diagonalizing this matrix. This gives new eigenvectors, which we can call K which is the sum of the two states of opposite strangeness, and K, which is the difference. The two are eigenstates of CP with opposite eigenvalues; K has CP = +1, and K has CP = −1 Since the two-pion final state also has CP = +1, only the K can decay this way. The K must decay into three pions. Since the mass of K is just a little larger than the sum of the masses of three pions, this decay proceeds very slowly, about 600 times slower than the decay of K into two pions. These two different modes of decay were observed by Leon Lederman and his coworkers in 1956, establishing the existence of the two weak eigenstates (states with definite lifetimes under decays via the weak force) of the neutral kaons.


title: Kaon

text: These two weak eigenstates are called the (K-long) and (K-short). CP symmetry, which was assumed at the time, implies that  = K and  = K.


title: Kaon

text: An initially pure beam of will turn into its antiparticle, , while propagating, which will turn back into the original particle, , and so on. This is called particle oscillation. On observing the weak decay "into leptons", it was found that a always decayed into a positron, whereas the antiparticle decayed into the electron. The earlier analysis yielded a relation between the rate of electron and positron production from sources of pure and its antiparticle . Analysis of the time dependence of this semileptonic decay showed the phenomenon of oscillation, and allowed the extraction of the mass splitting between the and . Since this is due to weak interactions it is very small, 10 times the mass of each state, namely


title: Kaon

text: A beam of neutral kaons decays in flight so that the short-lived disappears, leaving a beam of pure long-lived . If this beam is shot into matter, then the and its antiparticle interact differently with the nuclei. The undergoes quasi-elastic scattering with nucleons, whereas its antiparticle can create hyperons. Due to the different interactions of the two components, quantum coherence between the two particles is lost. The emerging beam then contains different linear superpositions of the and . Such a superposition is a mixture of and ; the is regenerated by passing a neutral kaon beam through matter. Regeneration was observed by Oreste Piccioni and his collaborators at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Soon thereafter, Robert Adair and his coworkers reported excess regeneration, thus opening a new chapter in this history.


title: Kaon

text: While trying to verify Adair's results, J. Christenson, James Cronin, Val Fitch and Rene Turlay of Princeton University found decays of into two pions (CP = +1)


title: Kaon

text: in an experiment performed in 1964 at the Alternating Gradient Synchrotron at the Brookhaven laboratory. As explained in an earlier section, this required the assumed initial and final states to have different values of CP, and hence immediately suggested CP violation. Alternative explanations such as nonlinear quantum mechanics and a new unobserved particle (hyperphoton) were soon ruled out, leaving CP violation as the only possibility. Cronin and Fitch received the Nobel Prize in Physics for this discovery in 1980.


title: Kaon

text: It turns out that although the and are weak eigenstates (because they have definite lifetimes for decay by way of the weak force), they are not quite CP eigenstates. Instead, for small ε (and up to normalization),


title: Kaon

text: and similarly for . Thus occasionally the decays as a K with CP = +1, and likewise the can decay with CP = −1. This is known as indirect CP violation, CP violation due to mixing of and its antiparticle. There is also a direct CP violation effect, in which the CP violation occurs during the decay itself. Both are present, because both mixing and decay arise from the same interaction with the W boson and thus have CP violation predicted by the CKM matrix. Direct CP violation was discovered in the kaon decays in the early 2000s by the NA48 and KTeV experiments at CERN and Fermilab.


title: Reproductive rights

text: Reproductive rights are legal rights and freedoms relating to reproduction and reproductive health that vary amongst countries around the world. The World Health Organization defines reproductive rights as follows:


title: Reproductive rights

text: Reproductive rights rest on the recognition of the basic right of all couples and individuals to decide freely and responsibly the number, spacing and timing of their children and to have the information and means to do so, and the right to attain the highest standard of sexual and reproductive health. They also include the right of all to make decisions concerning reproduction free of discrimination, coercion and violence.


title: Reproductive rights

text: Women's reproductive rights may include some or all of the following: abortion-rights movements; birth control; freedom from coerced sterilization and contraception; the right to access good-quality reproductive healthcare; and the right to education and access in order to make free and informed reproductive choices. Reproductive rights may also include the right to receive education about sexually transmitted infections and other aspects of sexuality, right to menstrual health and protection from practices such as female genital mutilation (FGM).


title: Reproductive rights

text: Reproductive rights began to develop as a subset of human rights at the United Nation's 1968 International Conference on Human Rights. The resulting non-binding Proclamation of Tehran was the first international document to recognize one of these rights when it stated that: "Parents have a basic human right to determine freely and responsibly the number and the spacing of their children." Women’s sexual, gynecological, and mental health issues were not a priority of the United Nations until its Decade of Women (1975–1985) brought them to the forefront. States, though, have been slow in incorporating these rights in internationally legally binding instruments. Thus, while some of these rights have already been recognized in hard law, that is, in legally binding international human rights instruments, others have been mentioned only in non binding recommendations and, therefore, have at best the status of soft law in international law, while a further group is yet to be accepted by the international community and therefore remains at the level of advocacy.


title: Reproductive rights

text: Issues related to reproductive rights are some of the most vigorously contested rights' issues worldwide, regardless of the population's socioeconomic level, religion or culture.


title: Reproductive rights

text: The issue of reproductive rights is frequently presented as being of vital importance in discussions and articles by population concern organizations such as Population Matters.


title: Reproductive rights

text: In 1945, the United Nations Charter included the obligation "to promote... universal respect for, and observance of, human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without discrimination as to race, sex, language, or religion". However, the Charter did not define these rights. Three years later, the UN adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the first international legal document to delineate human rights; the UDHR does not mention reproductive rights. Reproductive rights began to appear as a subset of human rights in the 1968 Proclamation of Tehran, which states: "Parents have a basic human right to determine freely and responsibly the number and the spacing of their children".


title: Reproductive rights

text: This right was affirmed by the UN General Assembly in the 1969 Declaration on Social Progress and Development which states "The family as a basic unit of society and the natural environment for the growth and well-being of all its members, particularly children and youth, should be assisted and protected so that it may fully assume its responsibilities within the community. Parents have the exclusive right to determine freely and responsibly the number and spacing of their children." The 1975 UN International Women's Year Conference echoed the Proclamation of Tehran.


title: Reproductive rights

text: The twenty-year "Cairo Programme of Action" was adopted in 1994 at the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo. The non-binding Programme of Action asserted that governments have a responsibility to meet individuals' reproductive needs, rather than demographic targets. It recommended that family planning services be provided in the context of other reproductive health services, including services for healthy and safe childbirth, care for sexually transmitted infections, and post-abortion care. The ICPD also addressed issues such as violence against women, sex trafficking, and adolescent health. The Cairo Program is the first international policy document to define reproductive health, stating:


title: Reproductive rights

text: Reproductive health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity, in all matters relating to the reproductive system and its functions and processes. Reproductive health therefore implies that people are able to have a satisfying and safe sex life and that they have the capability to reproduce and the freedom to decide if, when and how often to do so. Implicit in this last condition are the right of men and women to be informed [about] and to have access to safe, effective, affordable and acceptable methods of family planning of their choice, as well as other methods for regulation of fertility which are not against the law, and the right of access to appropriate health-care services that will enable women to go safely through pregnancy and childbirth and provide couples with the best chance of having a healthy infant [para. 72].


title: Reproductive rights

text: Unlike previous population conferences, a wide range of interests from grassroots to government level were represented in Cairo. 179 nations attended the ICPD and overall eleven thousand representatives from governments, NGOs, international agencies and citizen activists participated. The ICPD did not address the far-reaching implications of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. In 1999, recommendations at the ICPD+5 were expanded to include commitment to AIDS education, research, and prevention of mother-to-child transmission, as well as to the development of vaccines and microbicides.


title: Reproductive rights

text: The Cairo Programme of Action was adopted by 184 UN member states. Nevertheless, many Latin American and Islamic states made formal reservations to the programme, in particular, to its concept of reproductive rights and sexual freedom, to its treatment of abortion, and to its potential incompatibility with Islamic law.


title: Reproductive rights

text: Implementation of the Cairo Programme of Action varies considerably from country to country. In many countries, post-ICPD tensions emerged as the human rights-based approach was implemented. Since the ICPD, many countries have broadened their reproductive health programs and attempted to integrate maternal and child health services with family planning. More attention is paid to adolescent health and the consequences of unsafe abortion. Lara Knudsen observes that the ICPD succeeded in getting feminist language into governments' and population agencies' literature, but in many countries, the underlying concepts are not widely put into practice. In two preparatory meetings for the ICPD+10 in Asia and Latin America, the United States, under the George W. Bush Administration, was the only nation opposing the ICPD's Programme of Action.


title: Reproductive rights

text: The 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, in its non-binding Declaration and Platform for Action, supported the Cairo Programme's definition of reproductive health, but established a broader context of reproductive rights:


title: Reproductive rights

text: The human rights of women include their right to have control over and decide freely and responsibly on matters related to their sexuality, including sexual and reproductive health, free of coercion, discrimination and violence. Equal relationships between women and men in matters of sexual relations and reproduction, including full respect for the integrity of the person, require mutual respect, consent and shared responsibility for sexual behavior and its consequences [para. 96]. The Beijing Platform demarcated twelve interrelated critical areas of the human rights of women that require advocacy. The Platform framed women's reproductive rights as "indivisible, universal and inalienable human rights." The platform for the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women included a section that denounced gender-based violence and included forced sterilization as a human rights violation. However, the international community at large has not confirmed that women have a right to reproductive healthcare and in ensuing years since the 1995 conference, countries have proposed language to weaken reproductive and sexual rights. This conference also referenced for the first time indigenous rights and women’s rights at the same time, combining them into one category needing specific representation. Reproductive rights are highly politicized, making it difficult to enact legislation.


title: Reproductive rights

text: The Yogyakarta Principles on the Application of International Human Rights Law in relation to Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, proposed by a group of experts in November 2006 but not yet incorporated by States in international law, declares in its Preamble that "the international community has recognized the rights of persons to decide freely and responsibly on matters related to their sexuality, including sexual and reproductive health, free from coercion, discrimination, and violence." In relation to reproductive health, Principle 9 on "The Right to Treatment with Humanity while in Detention" requires that "States shall... <nowiki>[p]rovide</nowiki> adequate access to medical care and counseling appropriate to the needs of those in custody, recognizing any particular needs of persons on the basis of their sexual orientation and gender identity, including with regard to reproductive health, access to HIV/AIDS information and therapy and access to hormonal or other therapy as well as to gender-reassignment treatments where desired." Nonetheless, African, Caribbean and Islamic Countries, as well as the Russian Federation, have objected to the use of these principles as Human Rights standards.


title: Reproductive rights

text: State interventions that contradict at least some reproductive rights have happened both under right-wing and left-wing governments. Examples include attempts to forcefully increase the birth rate – one of the most notorious natalist policies of the 20th century was that which occurred in communist Romania in the period of 1967–1990 during communist leader Nicolae Ceaușescu, who adopted a very aggressive natalist policy which included outlawing abortion and contraception, routine pregnancy tests for women, taxes on childlessness, and legal discrimination against childless people – as well as attempts to decrease the fertility rate – China's one child policy (1978–2015). State mandated forced marriage was also practiced by authoritarian governments as a way to meet population targets: the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia systematically forced people into marriages, in order to increase the population and continue the revolution. Some governments have implemented racist policies of forced sterilizations of 'undesirable' ethnicities. Such policies were carried out against ethnic minorities in Europe and North America in the 20th century, and more recently in Latin America against the Indigenous population in the 1990s; in Peru, President Alberto Fujimori (in office from 1990 to 2000) has been accused of genocide and crimes against humanity as a result of a sterilization program put in place by his administration targeting indigenous people (mainly the Quechuas and the Aymaras).


title: Reproductive rights

text: The Istanbul convention, the first legally binding instrument in Europe in the field of violence against women and domestic violence, prohibits forced sterilization and forced abortion:


title: Reproductive rights

text: Human rights have been used as a framework to analyze and gauge abuses, especially for coercive or oppressive governmental policies. The framing of reproductive (human) rights and population control programs are split along race and class lines, with white, western women predominately focused on abortion access (especially during the second wave feminism of the 1970-1980s), silencing women of color in the Global South or marginalized women in the Global North (black and indigenous women, prisoners, welfare recipients) who were subjected to forced sterilization or contraceptive usage campaigns. The hemisphere divide has also been framed as Global North feminists advocating for women’s bodily autonomy and political rights, while Global South women advocate for basic needs through poverty reduction and equality in the economy.