title: Max Steiner

text: In New York, Max Steiner quickly acquired employment and worked for fifteen years as a musical director, arranger, orchestrator, and conductor of Broadway productions. These productions include operettas and musicals written by Victor Herbert, Jerome Kern, Vincent Youmans, and George Gershwin, among others. Steiner's credits include: "George White's Scandals" (1922) (director), "Peaches" (1923) (composer), and "Lady, Be Good" (1924) (conductor and orchestrator). At twenty-seven years old, Steiner became Fox Film's musical director in 1915. At the time, there was no specially written music for films and Steiner told studio founder William Fox his idea to write an original score for "The Bondman" (1916). Fox agreed and they put together a 110-piece orchestra to accompany the screenings. During his time working on Broadway, he married Audree van Lieu on April 27, 1927. They divorced on December 14, 1933. In 1927, Steiner orchestrated and conducted Harry Tierney's "Rio Rita". Tierney himself later requested RKO Pictures in Hollywood hire Steiner to work in their music production departments. William LeBaron, RKO's head of production, traveled to New York to watch Steiner conduct and was impressed by Steiner and his musicians, who each played several instruments. Eventually, Steiner became a Hollywood asset. Steiner's final production on Broadway was "Sons O' Guns" in 1929.


title: Max Steiner

text: By request of Harry Tierney, RKO hired Max Steiner as an orchestrator and his first film job consisted of composing music for the main and end titles and occasional "on screen" music. According to Steiner, the general opinion of filmmakers during the time was that film music was a "necessary evil", and would often slow down production and release of the film after it was filmed. Steiner's first job was for the film "Dixiana"; however, after a while, RKO decided to let him go, feeling they were not using him. His agent found him a job as a musical director on an operetta in Atlantic City. Before he left RKO, they offered him a month to month contract as the head of the music department with promise of more work in the future and he agreed. Because the few composers in Hollywood were unavailable, Steiner composed his first film score for "Cimarron". The score was well received and was partially credited for the success of the film. He turned down several offers to teach film scoring technique in Moscow and Peking in order to stay in Hollywood. In 1932, Steiner was asked by David O. Selznick, the new producer at RKO, to add music to "Symphony of Six Million". Steiner composed a short segment; Selznick liked it so much that he asked him to compose the theme and underscoring for the entire picture. Selznick was proud of the film, feeling it gave a realistic view of Jewish family life and tradition. "Music until then had not been used very much for underscoring". Steiner "pioneered the use of original composition as background scoring for films". The successful scoring in "Symphony of Six Million" was a turning point for Steiner's career and for the film industry. After the underscoring of "Symphony of Six Million", a third to half of the success of most films was "attributed to the extensive use of music."


title: Max Steiner

text: The score for "King Kong" (1933) became Steiner's breakthrough and represented a paradigm shift in the scoring of fantasy and adventure films. The score was an integral part of the film, because it added realism to an unrealistic film plot. The studio's bosses were initially skeptical about the need for an original score; however, since they disliked the film's contrived special effects, they let Steiner try to improve the film with music. The studio suggested using old tracks in order to save on the cost of the film; however, "King Kong" producer Merian C. Cooper asked Steiner to score the film and said he would pay for the orchestra. Steiner took advantage of this offer and used an eighty-piece orchestra, explaining the film "was made for music". According to Steiner, "it was the kind of film that allowed you to do anything and everything, from weird chords and dissonances to pretty melodies." Steiner additionally scored the wild tribal music which accompanied the ceremony to sacrifice Ann to Kong. He wrote the score in two weeks and the music recording cost around $50,000. The film became a "landmark of film scoring", as it showed the power music has to manipulate audience emotions. Steiner constructed the score on Wagnerian leitmotif principle, which calls for special themes for leading characters and concepts. The theme of the monster is recognizable as a descending three-note chromatic motif. After the death of King Kong, the Kong theme and the Fay Wray theme converge, underlining the "Beauty and the Beast" type relationship between the characters. The music in the film's finale helped express the tender feelings Kong had for the woman without the film having to explicitly state it. The majority of the music is heavy and loud, but some of the music is a bit lighter. For example, when the ship sails into Skull Island, Steiner keeps the music calm and quiet with a small amount of texture in the harps to help characterize the ship as it cautiously moves through the misty waters. Steiner received a bonus from his work, as Cooper credited 25 percent of the film's success to the film score. Before he died, Steiner admitted "King Kong" was one of his favorite scores.


title: Max Steiner

text: "King Kong" quickly made Steiner one of the most respected names in Hollywood. He continued as RKO's music director for two more years, until 1936. Max married Louise Klos, a harpist, in 1936. They had a son, Ron, together and they divorced in 1946. Steiner composed, arranged and conducted another 55 films, including most of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers' dance musicals. Additionally, Steiner wrote a sonata used in Katharine Hepburn's first film, "Bill of Divorcement" (1932). RKO producers, including Selznick, often came to him when they had problems with films, treating him as if he were a music "doctor". Steiner was asked to compose a score for "Of Human Bondage" (1934), which originally lacked music. He added musical touches to significant scenes. Director John Ford called on Steiner to score his film, "The Lost Patrol" (1934), which lacked tension without music.


title: Max Steiner

text: John Ford hired Steiner again to compose for his next film, "The Informer" (1935), before Ford began production of the film. Ford even asked his screenwriter to meet with Steiner during the writing phase to collaborate. This was unusual for Steiner who typically refused to compose a score from anything earlier than a rough cut of the film. Because Steiner scored the music before and during film production, Ford would sometimes shoot scenes in synchronization with the music Steiner composed rather than the usual practice of film composers synchronizing music to the film's scenes. Consequently, Steiner directly influenced the development of the protagonist, Gypo. Victor McLaglen, who played Gypo, rehearsed his walking in order to match the fumbling leitmotif Steiner had created for Gypo. This unique film production practice was successful; the film was nominated for six Academy Awards and won four, including Steiner's first Academy Award for Best Scoring. This score helped to exemplify Steiner's ability to encompass the essence of a film in a single theme. The main title of the film's soundtrack has three specific aspects. First, the heavy-march-like theme helps to describe the oppressive military and main character Gypo's inevitable downfall. Second, the character's theme is stern and sober and puts the audience into the correct mood for the film. Finally, the theme of the music contains some Irish folk song influences which serves to better characterize the Irish historical setting and influence of the film. The theme is not heard consistently throughout the film and serves rather as a framework for the other melodic motifs heard throughout different parts of the film.


title: Max Steiner

text: The score for this film is made up of many different themes which characterize the different personages and situations in the film. Steiner helps portray the genuine love Katie has for the main character Gypo. In one scene, Katie calls after Gypo as a solo violin echos the falling cadence of her voice. In another scene, Gypo sees an advertisement for a steamship to America and instead of the advertisement, sees himself holding Katie's hand on the ship. Wedding bells are heard along with organ music and he sees Katie wearing a veil and holding a bouquet. In a later scene, the Katie theme plays as a drunk Gypo sees a beautiful woman at the bar, insinuating he had mistaken her for Katie. Other musical themes included in the film score are an Irish folk song on French horns for Frankie McPhilip, a warm string theme for Dan and Gallagher and Mary McPhillip, and a sad theme on English horn with harp for the blind man.The most important motif in the film is the theme of betrayal relating to how Gypo betrays his friend Frankie: the "blood-money" motif. The theme is heard as the Captain throws the money on the table after Frankie is killed. The theme is a four note descending tune on harp; the first interval is the tritone. As the men are deciding who will be the executioner, the motif is repeated quietly and perpetually to establish Gypo's guilt and the musical motif is synchronized with the dripping of water in the prison. As it appears in the end of the film, the theme is played at a fortissimo volume as Gypo staggers into the church, ending the climax with the clap of the cymbals, indicating Gypo's penitence, no longer needing to establish his guilt.


title: Max Steiner

text: Silent film mannerisms are still seen in Steiner's composition such as when actions or consequences are accompanied by a "sforzato" chord immediately before it, followed by silence. An example of this is remarked in the part of the film when Frankie confronts Gypo looking at his reward for arrest poster. Steiner uses minor "Mickey Mousing" techniques in the film. Through this score, Steiner showed the potential of film music, as he attempted the show the internal struggles inside of Gypo's mind through the mixing of different themes such as the Irish "Circassian Circle", the "blood-money" motif, and Frankie's theme. The score concludes with an original "Sancta Maria" by Steiner. Some writers have erroneously referred to the cue as featuring Franz Schubert's "Ave Maria".


title: Max Steiner

text: In 1937, Steiner was hired by Frank Capra to conduct Dimitri Tiomkin's score for "Lost Horizon" (1937) as a safeguard in case Steiner needed to rewrite the score by an inexperienced Tiomkin; however, according to Hugo Friedhofer, Tiomkin specifically asked for Steiner, preferring him over the film studio's then music director. Selznick set up his own production company in 1936 and recruited Steiner to write the scores for his next three films.


title: Max Steiner

text: In April 1937, Steiner left RKO and signed a long-term contract with Warner Bros.; he would, however, continue to work for Selznick. The first film he scored for Warner Bros. was "The Charge of the Light Brigade" (1936). Steiner became a mainstay at Warner Bros., scoring 140 of their films over the next 30 years alongside Hollywood stars such as Bette Davis, Errol Flynn, Humphrey Bogart, and James Cagney. Steiner frequently worked with composer Hugo Friedhofer who was hired as an orchestrator for Warner Bros; Friedholfer would orchestrate more than 50 of Steiner's pieces during his career. In 1938, Steiner wrote and arranged the first "composed for film" piece, "Symphony Moderne" which a character plays on the piano and later plays as a theme in "Four Daughters" (1938) and is performed by a full orchestra in "Four Wives" (1939).


title: Max Steiner

text: In 1939, Steiner was borrowed from Warner Bros. by Selznick to compose the score for "Gone with the Wind" (1939), which became one of Steiner's most notable successes. Steiner was the only composer Selznick considered for scoring the film. Steiner was given only three months to complete the score, despite composing twelve more film scores in 1939, more than he would in any other year of his career. Because Selznick was concerned Steiner wouldn't have enough time to finish the score, he had Franz Waxman write an additional score in the case the Steiner didn't finish. To meet the deadline, Steiner sometimes worked for 20-hours straight, assisted by doctor-administered Benzedrine to stay awake. When the film was released, it was the longest film score ever composed, nearly three hours. The composition consisted of 16 main themes and nearly 300 musical segments. Due to the score's length, Steiner had help from four orchestrators and arrangers, including Heinz Roemheld, to work on the score. Selznick had asked Steiner to use only pre-existing classical music to help cut down on cost and time, but Steiner tried to convince him that filling the picture with swatches of classic concert music or popular works would not be as effective as an original score, which could be used to heighten the emotional content of scenes. Steiner ignored Selznick's wishes and composed an entirely new score. Selznick's opinion about using original scoring may have changed due to the overwhelming reaction to the film, nearly all of which contained Steiner's music. A year later, he even wrote a letter emphasizing the value of original film scores. The most well known of Steiner's themes for the score is the "Tara" theme for the O'Hara family plantation. Steiner explains Scarlett's deep-founded love for her home is why "the 'Tara' theme begins and ends with the picture and permeates the entire score". The film went on to win ten Academy Awards, although not for Best Original Score, which instead went to Herbert Stothart for "The Wizard of Oz". The score of "Gone with the Wind" is ranked #2 by AFI as the second greatest American film score of all time.


title: Max Steiner

text: "Now, Voyager" would be the film score for which Steiner would win his second Academy Award. Kate Daubney attributes the success of this score to Steiner's ability to "[balance] the scheme of thematic meaning with the sound of the music." Steiner used motifs and thematic elements in the music to emphasize the emotional development of the narrative. After finishing "Now, Voyager" (1942), Steiner was hired to score the music for "Casablanca" (1942). Steiner would typically wait until the film was edited before scoring it, and after watching "Casablanca", he decided the song "As Time Goes By" by Herman Hupfeld wasn't an appropriate addition to the movie and he wanted to replace it with a song of his own composition; however, Ingrid Bergman had just cut her hair short in preparation for filming "For Whom the Bell Tolls" (1943), so she couldn't re-film the section with Steiner's song. Stuck with "As Time Goes By", Steiner embraced the song and made it the center theme of his score. Steiner's score for "Casablanca" was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture, losing to "The Song of Bernadette" (1943). Steiner received his third and final Oscar in 1944 for "Since You Went Away" (1944). Steiner actually first composed the theme from "Since You Went Away" while helping counterbalance Franz Waxman's moody score for "Rebecca". Producer David O. Selznick liked the theme so much, he asked Steiner to include it in "Since You Went Away". In 1947, Max married Leonette Blair.


title: Max Steiner

text: Steiner also found success with the film noir genre. "The Big Sleep", "Mildred Pierce", and "The Letter" were his best film noir scores of the 1940s. "The Letter" is set in Singapore, the tale of murder begins with the loud main musical theme during the credits, which sets the tense and violent mood of the film. The main theme characterizes Leslie, the main character, by her tragic passion. The main theme is heard in the confrontation between Leslie and the murdered man's wife in the Chinese shop. Steiner portrays this scene through the jangling of wind chimes which crescendos as the wife emerges through opium smoke. The jangling continues until the wife asks Leslie to take off her shawl, after which the theme blasts indicating the breaking point of emotions of these women. Steiner's score for "The Letter" was nominated for the 1941 Academy Award for Best Original Score, losing to Walt Disney's "Pinocchio". In the score for "The Big Sleep", Steiner uses musical thematic characterization for the characters in the film. The theme for Philip Marlowe (Humphrey Bogart) is beguiling and ironic, with a playful grace note at the end of the motif, portrayed mixed between major and minor. At the end of the film, his theme is played fully in major chords and finishes by abruptly ending the chord as the film terminates (this was an unusual film music practice in Hollywood at the time). According to Christopher Palmer, the love theme for Bogart's Philip and Lauren Bacall's Vivian is one of Steiner's strongest themes. Steiner uses the contrast of high strings and low strings and brass to emphasize Philip's feelings for Vivian opposed with the brutality of the criminal world.In 1947, Steiner scored a film noir Western, "Pursued".


title: Max Steiner

text: Steiner had more success with the Western genre of film, writing the scores for over twenty large-scale Westerns, most with epic-inspiring scores "about empire building and progress", like "Dodge City" (1939), "The Oklahoma Kid" (1939), and "Virginia City" (1940). "Dodge City", starring Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland, is a good example of Steiner's handling of typical scenes of the Western genre. Steiner used a "lifting, loping melody" which reflected the movement and sounds of wagons, horses, and cattle. Steiner showed a love for combining Westerns and romance, as he did in "They Died with Their Boots On" (1941), also starring Flynn and de Havilland. "The Searchers" (1956) is, today, considered his greatest Western.


title: Max Steiner

text: Although his contract ended in 1953, Steiner returned to Warner Bros. in 1958 and scored several films such as "Band of Angels", "Marjorie Morningstar", and "John Paul Jones", and later ventured into television. Steiner still preferred large orchestras and leitmotif techniques during this part of his career. Steiner's pace slowed significantly in the mid-1950s, and he began freelancing. In 1954, RCA Victor asked Steiner to prepare and conduct an orchestral suite of music from "Gone with the Wind" for a special LP, which was later issued on CD. There are also acetates of Steiner conducting the Warner Brothers studio orchestra in music from many of his film scores. Composer Victor Young and Steiner were good friends, and Steiner completed the film score for "China Gate", because Young had died before he could finish it. The credit frame reads: "Music by Victor Young, extended by his old friend, Max Steiner." There are numerous soundtrack recordings of Steiner's music as soundtracks, collections, and recordings by others. Steiner wrote into his seventies, ailing and near blind, but his compositions "revealed a freshness and fertility of invention." A theme for "A Summer Place" in 1959, written when Steiner was 71, became one of Warner Brothers' biggest hit-tunes for years and a re-recorded pop standard. This memorable instrumental theme spent nine weeks at #1 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 singles chart in 1960 (in an instrumental cover version by Percy Faith). Steiner continued to score films produced by Warner until the mid-sixties.


title: Max Steiner

text: In 1963, Steiner began writing his autobiography. Although it was completed, it was never published, and is the only source available on Steiner's childhood. A copy of the manuscript resides with the rest of the Max Steiner Collection at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. Steiner scored his last piece in 1965; however, he claimed he would have scored more films had he been offered the opportunity. His lack of work in the last years of his life was due to Hollywood's decreased interest in his scores caused by new film producers and new taste in film music. Another contribution to his declining career was his failing eyesight and deteriorating health, which caused him to reluctantly retire. Tony Thomas cited Steiner's last score as, "a weak coda to a mighty career."


title: Max Steiner

text: Steiner died of congestive heart failure in Hollywood, aged 83. He is entombed in the Great Mausoleum at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.


title: Max Steiner

text: In the early days of sound, producers avoided underscoring music behind dialogue, feeling the audience would wonder where the music was coming from. As a result, Steiner noted, "They began to add a little music here and there to support love scenes or silent sequences." But in scenes where music might be expected, such as a nightclub, ballroom, or theater, the orchestra fit in more naturally and was used often. In order to justify the addition of music in scenes where it wasn't expected, music was integrated into the scene through characters or added more conspicuously. For example, a shepherd boy might play a flute along with the orchestra heard in the background, or a random, wandering violinist might follow around a couple during a love scene; however, because half of the music was recorded on the set, Steiner says it led to a great deal of inconvenience and cost when scenes were later edited, because the score would often be ruined. As recording technology improved during this period, he was able to record the music synced to the film and could change the score after the film was edited. Steiner explains his own typical method of scoring:


title: Max Steiner

text: Steiner often followed his instincts and his own reasoning in creating film scores. For example, when he chose to go against Selznick's instruction to use classical music for "Gone with the Wind." Steiner stated:


title: Max Steiner

text: Scores from the classics were sometimes harmful to a picture, especially when they drew unwanted attention to themselves by virtue of their familiarity. For example, films like "", "The Sting", and "Manhattan", had scores with recognizable tunes instead of having a preferred "subliminal" effect. Steiner, was among the first to acknowledge the need for original scores for each film.


title: Max Steiner

text: Steiner felt knowing when to start and stop was the hardest part of proper scoring, since incorrect placement of music can speed up a scene meant to be slow and vice versa: "Knowing the difference is what makes a film composer." He also notes that many composers, contrary to his own technique, would fail to subordinate the music to the film:


title: Max Steiner

text: Although some scholars cite Steiner as the inventor of the click track technique, he, along with Roy Webb were only the first to use the technique in film scoring. Carl W. Stalling and Scott Bradley used the technique first, in cartoon music. The click-track allows the composer to sync music and film together more precisely. The technique involves punching holes into the soundtrack film based on the mathematics of metronome speed. As the holes pass through a projector, the orchestra and conductor can hear the clicking sound through headphones, allowing them to record the music along the exact timing of the film. This technique allowed conductors and orchestras to match the music with perfection to the timing of the film, eliminating the previous necessity to cut off or stop music in the middle of recording as had been done previously. Popularized by Steiner in film music, this technique allowed Steiner to "catch the action", creating sounds for small details on screen. In fact, Steiner reportedly spent more of his time matching the action to the music than composing the melodies and motifs, as creating and composing came easy to him.


title: Max Steiner

text: With Steiner's background in his European musical training largely consisting of operas and operettas and his experience with stage music, he brought with him a slew of old-fashioned techniques he contributed to the development of the Hollywood film score. Although Steiner has been called, "the man who invented modern film music", he himself claimed that, "the idea originated with Richard Wagner ... If Wagner had lived in this century, he would have been the No. 1 film composer." Wagner was the inventor of the leitmotif, and this influenced Steiner's composition. In his music, Steiner relied heavily on leitmotifs. He would also quote pre-existing, recognizable melodies in his scores, such as national anthems. Steiner was known and often criticized for his use of Mickey Mousing or "catching the action". This technique is characterized by the precise matching of music with the actions or gestures on screen. Steiner was criticized for using this technique too frequently. For example, in "Of Human Bondage", Steiner created a limping effect with his music whenever the clubfooted character walked.


title: Max Steiner

text: One of the important principles that guided Steiner whenever possible was his rule: "Every character should have a theme." "Steiner creates a musical picture that tells us all we need to know about the character." To accomplish this, Steiner synchronized the music, the narrative action, and the leitmotif as a structural framework for his compositions.


title: Max Steiner

text: A good example of how the characters and the music worked together is best exemplified by his score for "The Glass Menagerie" (1950):


title: Max Steiner

text: Another film which exemplifies the synchronizing of character and music is "The Fountainhead" (1949):


title: Max Steiner

text: In the same way that Steiner created a theme for each character in a film, Steiner's music developed themes to express emotional aspects of general scenes which originally lacked emotional content. For example:


title: Max Steiner

text: When adding a music score to a picture, Steiner used a "spotting process" in which he and the director of the film would watch the film in its entirety and discuss where underscoring of diegetic music would begin and end. Another technique Steiner used was the mixing of realistic and background music. For example, a character humming to himself is realistic music, and the orchestra might play his tune, creating a background music effect that ties into the film. Steiner was criticized for this technique as the awareness of the film music can ruin the narrative illusion of the film; however, Steiner understood the importance of letting the film take the spotlight, making the music, "subordinate..to the picture," stating that, "if it gets too decorative, it loses its emotional appeal." Before 1932, producers of sound films tried to avoid the use of background music, because viewers would wonder where the music was coming from. Steiner was known for writing using atmospheric music without melodic content for certain neutral scenes in music. Steiner designed a melodic motion to create normal-sounding music without taking too much attention away from the film. In contrast, Steiner sometimes used diegetic, or narrative based music, in order to emphasize certain emotions or contradict them. According to Steiner, there is, "no greater counterpoint ... than gay music underlying a tragic scene or vice versa."


title: Max Steiner

text: Three of Max Steiner's scores won the Academy Award for Best Original Score: "The Informer" (1935), "Now, Voyager" (1942), and "Since You Went Away" (1944). Steiner received a certificate for "The Informer". He originally received plaques for "Now, Voyager" and "Since You Went Away", but those plaques were replaced with Academy Award statuettes in 1946. As an individual, Steiner was nominated for a total of 20 Academy Awards, and won two. Prior to 1939, the Academy recognized a studio's music department, rather than the individual composer, with a nomination in the scoring category. During this time, five of Steiner's scores including "The Lost Patrol" and "The Charge of the Light Brigade" were nominated, but the Academy does not consider these nominations to belong to Max Steiner himself. Consequently, even though Steiner's score for "The Informer" won the Academy Award in 1936, the Academy does not officially consider Steiner as the individual winner of the award, as Steiner accepted the award on behalf of RKO's music department of which he was the department head. Steiner's 20 nominations make him the third most nominated individual in the history of the scoring categories, behind John Williams and Alfred Newman.


title: Max Steiner

text: The United States Postal Service issued its "American Music Series" stamps on September 16, 1999, to pay tribute to renowned Hollywood composers, including Steiner. After Steiner's death, Charles Gerhardt conducted the National Philharmonic Orchestra in an RCA Victor album of highlights from Steiner's career, titled "Now Voyager". He also won a Golden Globe for Best Original Score for "Life with Father" (1947). Additional selections of Steiner scores were included on other RCA classic film albums during the early 1970s. The quadraphonic recordings were later digitally remastered for Dolby surround sound and released on CD. In 1975, Steiner was honored with a star located at 1551 Vine Street on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contribution to motion pictures. In 1995, Steiner was inducted posthumously into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In commemoration of Steiner's 100th birthday, a memorial plaque was unveiled in 1988 at Steiner's birthplace, the "Hotel Nordbahn" (now "Austria Classic Hotel Wien") on Praterstraße 72. In 1990, Steiner was one of the first to be recognized for Lifetime Achievement by an online awards site.


title: Max Steiner

text: In Kurt London's "Film Music", London expressed the opinion that American film music was inferior to European film music because it lacked originality of composition; he cited the music of Steiner as an exception to the rule. Steiner, along with contemporaries Erich Wolfgang Korngold and Alfred Newman, set the style and forms of film music of the time period and for film scores to come. Known for their similar music styles, Roy Webb was also Steiner's contemporary and they were friends until Steiner's death. Webb's score for "Mighty Joe Young" was reminiscent of Steiner. James Bond composer John Barry cited Steiner as an influence of his work. James Newton Howard, who composed the score for the 2005 remake of "King Kong", stated that he was influenced by Steiner's score; his descending theme when Kong first appears is reminiscent of Steiner's score. In fact, during the tribal sacrifice scene of the 2005 version, the music playing is from Steiner's score of the same scene in the 1933 version. Composer of the "Star Wars" film score, John Williams cited Steiner as well as other European emigrant composers in the 1930s and 1940s "Golden Age" of film music as influences of his work. In fact, George Lucas wanted Williams to use the scores of Steiner and Korngold as influences for the music for "Star Wars", despite the rarity of grandiose film music and the lack of use of leitmotifs and full orchestrations during the 1970s.


title: Max Steiner

text: Often compared to his contemporary Erich Wolfgang Korngold, his rival and friend at Warner Bros., the music of Steiner was often seen by critics as inferior to Korngold. Composer David Raksin stated that the music of Korngold was, "of a higher order with a much wider sweep;" however, according to William Darby and Jack Du Bois's "American Film Music", even though other film score composers may have produced greater individual scores than Steiner, no composer ever created as many "very good" ones as Steiner. Despite the inferiority of Steiner's individual scores, his influence was largely historical. Steiner was the one of the first composers to reintroduce music into films after the invention of talking films. Steiner's score for "King Kong" modeled the method of adding background music into a movie. Some of his contemporaries did not like his music. Miklós Rózsa criticized Steiner for his use of Mickey Mousing and did not like his music, but Rózsa conceded that Steiner had a successful career and had a good "melodic sense".


title: Max Steiner

text: Now referred to as the "father of film music" or the "dean of film music", Steiner had written or arranged music for over three hundred films by the end of his career. George Korngold, son of Erich Korngold, produced the Classic Film Score Series albums which included the music of Steiner. Albert K. Bender established the Max Steiner Music Society with international membership, publishing journals and newsletters and a library of audio recordings. When the Steiner collection went to Brigham Young University in 1981, the organization disbanded. The Max Steiner Memorial Society was formed in the United Kingdom continue the work of the Max Steiner Music Society.


title: Max Steiner

text: The American Film Institute respectively ranked Steiner's scores for "Gone with the Wind" (1939) and "King Kong" (1933) #2 and #13 on their list of the 25 greatest film scores. His scores for the following films were also nominated for the list:


title: The Cold Light of Day (2012 film)

text: The Cold Light of Day is a 2012 American action thriller film directed by Mabrouk El Mechri and distributed by Summit Entertainment. It was written by Scott Wiper and John Petro and stars Henry Cavill, Bruce Willis, and Sigourney Weaver. Its story follows Will (Cavill), who finds that his family has been kidnapped by foreign agents who are searching for a briefcase stolen by his father (Willis), which forces him to take matters into his own hands to find them.


title: The Cold Light of Day (2012 film)

text: The film was produced by Intrepid Pictures and was released on September 7, 2012. It received negative reviews and has a 4% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.


title: The Cold Light of Day (2012 film)

text: Will Shaw owns a consultancy business in San Francisco about to go into insolvency, reluctantly visiting his family in Spain for a holiday. He is met there by his father, Martin, an advisor for the U.S. government, with whom he has a tense relationship.


title: The Cold Light of Day (2012 film)

text: Will's preoccupation with his phone results in a sailing accident where Will leaps to save his brother's girlfriend Dara from being hit by the yacht's boom but she hits her head on a winch. Martin grabs the phone and throws it into the ocean. Will swims to town to fetch medical supplies and to cool down.


title: The Cold Light of Day (2012 film)

text: When Will returns, the yacht had moved and his family is no longer inside. He goes to the police and they lead him to Zahir, who knows where his family is. He senses something is amiss, and attempts to escape in a police car. Martin appears, and aids Will by beating the officers.


title: The Cold Light of Day (2012 film)

text: Martin reveals he is a CIA agent, and that the people who kidnapped their family are after a briefcase he had taken on an assignment. Martin meets his CIA team leader Jean Carrack in Madrid, who claims she no longer has the briefcase, but he knows she is lying.


title: The Cold Light of Day (2012 film)

text: As Martin returns to his car, he is sniped and killed by Gorman. Will retrieves his phone as Gorman starts shooting at him and gives chase. As Will escapes, he takes a call from the kidnappers, who want to speak to "Tom", providing a 21 hour deadline and a meeting point to exchange the briefcase for his family.


title: The Cold Light of Day (2012 film)

text: Receiving no help from the US embassy, Will is picked up by Carrack in a car outside, but he realizes she is untrustworthy. He feigns illness and she, disgusted by the thought of him vomiting in her car, has the car pulled over and Will gets away.


title: The Cold Light of Day (2012 film)

text: Will arranges a meeting with his father's friend Diego at his office and meets receptionist Lucia Caldera, Diego's niece, where he fights off one of Carrack's men. The pair go to Diego's apartment, but he was killed by Carrack and Gorman.


title: The Cold Light of Day (2012 film)

text: Will and Lucia escape across the rooftops, but he is shot. She takes him to a nightclub, to a friend who has medical experience who cauterizes the wound. Lucia explains that "Tom" is Martin's alias in Spain, and she is Will's half-sister, Martin's daughter by another woman.


title: The Cold Light of Day (2012 film)

text: As Will arrives at the meeting point, he is grabbed and tortured for his father's whereabouts by the kidnappers, actually Israeli Mossad agents lead by Zahir, who was using the briefcase to lure a traitor when Martin stole it from them. They realize Carrack framed Martin and she has the briefcase, so they want Will to lure her out. He briefly sees his family before Zahir releases him.


title: The Cold Light of Day (2012 film)

text: Will meets Lucia at the nightclub, where she starts a tab on Carrack's credit card. Gorman appears and is subdued by bouncers at the club and tortured for information but he refuses to budge. Will lets Gorman escape so he lead them to Carrack, who tries to sell the briefcase in an underground car park. Zahir's men surround them but give away their position, so Carrack and Gorman open fire on their own buyers before starting to attack and escape from Mossad, during which Lucia hits (the already shot) Gorman in a car crash who dies, enraging Carrack as she flees.


title: The Cold Light of Day (2012 film)

text: Will and Lucia pursue Carrack through Madrid, with Carrack undiscriminately causing death and destruction along the way, until eventually their cars collide and Lucia is seriously injured. Just as Carrack is about to shoot Will, she is killed by Zahir with a sniper rifle, who retrieves the briefcase and releases his family. Lucia recovers in the hospital with her new half family as Will looks on at his new expanded family. He is offered a job in the CIA; whether he accepts is left unresolved.


title: The Cold Light of Day (2012 film)

text: The film was shot in Spain, including at Teulada-Moraira and Xàbia on the Costa Blanca. It was released on April 6, 2012 in the United Kingdom and September 7, 2012 in the United States.


title: The Cold Light of Day (2012 film)

text: "The Cold Light of Day" grossed $1.8 million in its opening weekend and $25.4 million worldwide, against a budget of $20 million.


title: The Cold Light of Day (2012 film)

text: The film was panned by reviewers and holds a 4% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 45 reviews, with an average rating of 2.7/10. On Metacritic, the film has a score of 22 out of 100 from 10 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "D+" on an A+ to F scale. "The New York Times" described the film as a "thoroughly incompetent 'Bourne' movie imitation".


title: Magnetohydrodynamic drive

text: A magnetohydrodynamic drive or MHD accelerator is a method for propelling vehicles using only electric and magnetic fields with no moving parts, accelerating an electrically conductive propellant (liquid or gas) with magnetohydrodynamics. The fluid is directed to the rear and as a reaction, the vehicle accelerates forward.


title: Magnetohydrodynamic drive

text: Few large-scale working prototypes have been built, as marine MHD propulsion remains impractical due to its low efficiency, limited by the low electrical conductivity of seawater. Increasing current density is limited by Joule heating and water electrolysis in the vicinity of electrodes, and increasing the magnetic field strength is limited by the cost, size and weight (as well as technological limitations) of electromagnets and the power available to feed them.


title: Magnetohydrodynamic drive

text: Stronger technical limitations apply to air-breathing MHD propulsion (where ambient air is ionized) that is still limited to theoretical concepts and early experiments.


title: Magnetohydrodynamic drive

text: Plasma propulsion engines using magnetohydrodynamics for space exploration have also been actively studied as such electromagnetic propulsion offers high thrust and high specific impulse at the same time, and the propellant would last much longer than chemical rockets.


title: Magnetohydrodynamic drive

text: The working principle involves the acceleration of an electrically conductive fluid (which can be a liquid or an ionized gas called a plasma) by the Lorentz force, resulting from the cross product of an electric current (motion of charge carriers accelerated by an electric field applied between two electrodes) with a perpendicular magnetic field. The Lorentz force accelerates all charged particles, positive and negative species (in opposite directions). If either positive or negative species dominate the vehicle is put in motion in the opposite direction from the net charge.


title: Magnetohydrodynamic drive

text: This is the same working principle as an electric motor (more exactly a linear motor) except that in an MHD drive, the solid moving rotor is replaced by the fluid acting directly as the propellant. As with all electromagnetic devices, an MHD accelerator is reversible: if the ambient working fluid is moving relatively to the magnetic field, charge separation induces an electric potential difference that can be harnessed with electrodes: the device then acts as a power source with no moving parts, transforming the kinetic energy of the incoming fluid into electricity, called an MHD generator.


title: Magnetohydrodynamic drive

text: As the Lorentz force in an MHD converter does not act on a single isolated charged particle nor on electrons in a solid electrical wire, but on a continuous charge distribution in motion, it is a "volumetric" (body) force, a force per unit volume:


title: Magnetohydrodynamic drive

text: where f is the "force density" (force per unit volume), "ρ" the charge density (charge per unit volume), E the electric field, J the current density (current per unit area) and B the magnetic field.


title: Magnetohydrodynamic drive

text: MHD thrusters are classified in two categories according to the way the electromagnetic fields operate:


title: Magnetohydrodynamic drive

text: As induction MHD accelerators are electrodeless, they do not exhibit the common issues related to conduction systems (especially Joule heating, bubbles and redox from electrolysis) but need much more intense peak magnetic fields to operate. Since one of the biggest issues with such thrusters is the limited energy available on-board, induction MHD drives have not been developed out of the laboratory.


title: Magnetohydrodynamic drive

text: Internal flow systems concentrate the MHD interaction in a limited volume, preserving stealth characteristics. External field systems on the contrary have the ability to act on a very large expanse of surrounding water volume with higher efficiency and the ability to decrease drag, increasing the efficiency even further.


title: Magnetohydrodynamic drive

text: MHD has no moving parts, which means that a good design might be silent, reliable, and efficient. Additionally, the MHD design eliminates many of the wear and friction pieces of the drivetrain with a directly driven propeller by an engine. Problems with current technologies include expense and slow speed compared to a propeller driven by an engine. The extra expense is from the large generator that must be driven by an engine. Such a large generator is not required when an engine directly drives a propeller.


title: Magnetohydrodynamic drive

text: The first prototype, a 3-meter (10-feet) long submarine called EMS-1, was designed and tested in 1966 by Stewart Way, a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Way, on leave from his job at Westinghouse Electric, assigned his senior year undergraduate students to build the operational unit. This MHD submarine operated on batteries delivering power to electrodes and electromagnets, which produced a magnetic field of 0.015 tesla. The cruise speed was about 0.4 meter per second (15 inches per second) during the test in the bay of Santa Barbara, California, in accordance with theoretical predictions.


title: Magnetohydrodynamic drive

text: In 1991, the world's first full-size prototype "Yamato 1" was completed in Japan after 6 years of research and development (R&D) by the Ship & Ocean Foundation (later known as the Ocean Policy Research Foundation). The ship successfully carried a crew of ten plus passengers at speeds of up to in Kobe Harbour in June 1992.


title: Magnetohydrodynamic drive

text: Small-scale ship models were later built and studied extensively in the laboratory, leading to successful comparisons between the measurements and the theoretical prediction of ship terminal speeds.


title: Magnetohydrodynamic drive

text: Military research about underwater MHD propulsion included high-speed torpedoes, remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROV), autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV), up to larger ones such as submarines.


title: Magnetohydrodynamic drive

text: First studies of the interaction of plasmas with hypersonic flows around vehicles date back to the late 1950s, with the concept of a new kind of thermal protection system for space capsules during high-speed reentry. As low-pressure air is naturally ionized at such very high velocities and altitude, it was thought to use the effect of a magnetic field produced by an electromagnet to replace thermal ablative shields by a "magnetic shield". Hypersonic ionized flow interacts with the magnetic field, inducing eddy currents in the plasma. The current combines with the magnetic field to give Lorentz forces that oppose the flow and detach the bow shock wave further ahead of the vehicle, lowering the heat flux which is due to the brutal recompression of air behind the stagnation point. Such passive flow control studies are still ongoing, but a large-scale demonstrator has yet to be built.


title: Magnetohydrodynamic drive

text: Active flow control by MHD force fields on the contrary involves a direct and imperious action of forces to locally accelerate or slow down the airflow, modifying its velocity, direction, pressure, friction, heat flux parameters, in order to preserve materials and engines from stress, allowing hypersonic flight. It is a field of magnetohydrodynamics also called magnetogasdynamics, magnetoaerodynamics or magnetoplasma aerodynamics, as the working fluid is the air (a gas instead of a liquid) ionized to become electrically conductive (a plasma).


title: Magnetohydrodynamic drive

text: Air ionization is achieved at high altitude (electrical conductivity of air increases as atmospheric pressure reduces according to Paschen's law) using various techniques: high voltage electric arc discharge, RF (microwaves) electromagnetic glow discharge, laser, e-beam or betatron, radioactive source… with or without seeding of low ionization potential alkali substances (like caesium) into the flow.


title: Magnetohydrodynamic drive

text: MHD studies applied to aeronautics try to extend the domain of hypersonic planes to higher Mach regimes:


title: Magnetohydrodynamic drive

text: The Russian project Ayaks (Ajax) is an example of MHD-controlled hypersonic aircraft concept. A US program also exists to design a hypersonic MHD bypass system, the Hypersonic Vehicle Electric Power System (HVEPS). A working prototype was completed in 2017 under development by General Atomics and the University of Tennessee Space Institute, sponsored by the US Air Force Research Laboratory. These projects aim to develop MHD generators feeding MHD accelerators for a new generation of high-speed vehicles. Such MHD bypass systems are often designed around a scramjet engine, but easier to design turbojets are also considered, as well as subsonic ramjets.


title: Magnetohydrodynamic drive

text: Such studies covers a field of resistive MHD with magnetic Reynolds number ≪ 1 using nonthermal weakly ionized gases, making the development of demonstrators much more difficult to realize than for MHD in liquids. "Cold plasmas" with magnetic fields are subject to the electrothermal instability occurring at a critical Hall parameter, which makes full-scale developments difficult.


title: Magnetohydrodynamic drive

text: MHD propulsion has been considered as the main propulsion system for both marine and space ships since there is no need to produce lift to counter the gravity of Earth in water (due to buoyancy) nor in space (due to weightlessness), which is ruled out in the case of flight in the atmosphere.


title: Magnetohydrodynamic drive

text: Nonetheless, considering the current problem of the electric power source solved (for example with the availability of a still missing multi-megawatt compact fusion reactor), one could imagine future aircraft of a new kind silently powered by MHD accelerators, able to ionize and direct enough air downward to lift several tonnes. As external flow systems can control the flow over the whole wetted area, limiting thermal issues at high speeds, ambient air would be ionized and radially accelerated by Lorentz forces around an axisymmetric body (shaped as a cylinder, a cone, a sphere…), the entire airframe being the engine. Lift and thrust would arise as a consequence of a pressure difference between the upper and lower surfaces, induced by the Coandă effect. In order to maximize such pressure difference between the two opposite sides, and since the most efficient MHD converters (with a high Hall effect) are disk-shaped, such MHD aircraft would be preferably flattened to take the shape of a biconvex lens. Having no wings nor airbreathing jet engines, it would share no similarities with conventional aircraft, but it would behave like a helicopter whose rotor blades would have been replaced by a "purely electromagnetic rotor" with no moving part, sucking the air downward. Such concepts of flying MHD disks have been developed in the peer review literature from the mid 1970s mainly by physicists Leik Myrabo with the Lightcraft, and Subrata Roy with the Wingless Electromagnetic Air Vehicle (WEAV).


title: Magnetohydrodynamic drive

text: These futuristic visions have been advertised in the media although they still remain beyond the reach of modern technology.


title: Magnetohydrodynamic drive

text: A number of experimental methods of spacecraft propulsion are based on magnetohydrodynamics. As this kind of MHD propulsion involves compressible fluids in the form of plasmas (ionized gases) it is also referred to as magnetogasdynamics or magnetoplasmadynamics.


title: Magnetohydrodynamic drive

text: In such electromagnetic thrusters, the working fluid is most of the time ionized hydrazine, xenon or lithium. Depending on the propellant used, it can be seeded with alkali such as potassium or caesium to improve its electrical conductivity. All charged species within the plasma, from positive and negative ions to free electrons, as well as neutral atoms by the effect of collisions, are accelerated in the same direction by the Lorentz "body" force, which results from the combination of a magnetic field with an orthogonal electric field (hence the name of "cross-field accelerator"), these fields not being in the direction of the acceleration. This is a fundamental difference with ion thrusters which rely on electrostatics to accelerate only positive ions using the Coulomb force along a high voltage electric field.


title: Magnetohydrodynamic drive

text: First experimental studies involving cross-field plasma accelerators (square channels and rocket nozzles) date back to the late 1950s. Such systems provide greater thrust and higher specific impulse than conventional chemical rockets and even modern ion drives, at the cost of a higher required energy density.


title: Magnetohydrodynamic drive

text: Some devices also studied nowadays besides cross-field accelerators include the magnetoplasmadynamic thruster sometimes referred to as the Lorentz force accelerator (LFA), and the electrodeless pulsed inductive thruster (PIT).


title: Magnetohydrodynamic drive

text: Even today, these systems are not ready to be launched in space as they still lack a suitable compact power source offering enough energy density (such as hypothetical fusion reactors) to feed the power-greedy electromagnets, especially pulsed inductive ones. The rapid ablation of electrodes under the intense thermal flow is also a concern. For these reasons, studies remain largely theoretical and experiments are still conducted in the laboratory, although over 60 years have passed since the first research in this kind of thrusters.


title: Magnetohydrodynamic drive

text: "Oregon," a ship in the "Oregon Files" series of books by author Clive Cussler, has a magnetohydrodynamic drive. This allows the ship to turn very sharply and brake instantly, instead of gliding for a few miles. In "Valhalla Rising," Clive Cussler writes the same drive into the powering of Captain Nemo's "Nautilus."


title: Magnetohydrodynamic drive

text: The film adaptation of "The Hunt for Red October" popularized the magnetohydrodynamic drive as a "caterpillar drive" for submarines, a nearly undetectable "silent drive" intended to achieve stealth in submarine warfare. In reality, the current traveling through the water would create gases and noise, and the magnetic fields would induce a detectable magnetic signature. In the film, it was suggested that this sound could be confused with geological activity. In the novel from which the film was adapted, the caterpillar that "Red October" used was actually a pump-jet of the so-called "tunnel drive" type (the tunnels provided acoustic camouflage for the cavitation from the propellers).


title: Magnetohydrodynamic drive

text: In the Ben Bova novel "The Precipice," the ship where some of the action took place, "Starpower 1," built to prove that exploration and mining of the Asteroid Belt was feasible and potentially profitable, had a magnetohydrodynamic drive mated to a fusion power plant.


title: Surf and turf

text: Surf and turf or surf 'n' turf is a main course combining seafood and red meat. A typical seafood component would be lobster (either lobster tail or a whole lobster), prawns, shrimp, squid or scallops, any of which could be steamed, grilled or breaded and fried. The meat is typically beef steak, although others may be used. One standard combination is lobster tail and filet mignon.


title: Surf and turf

text: Surf and turf is typically served in steakhouses in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and Australia.


title: Surf and turf

text: It is unclear where the term originated. The earliest known citation is from 1961, in the "Los Angeles Times".


title: Surf and turf

text: In late 19th-century America, combining large portions of lobster and steak was popular at "show restaurants known as lobster palaces," favored by nouveau riche "arrivistes." This became unfashionable by the 1920s and only regained popularity in the early 1960s.


title: Surf and turf

text: Surf 'n' turf was featured in 1962 at the Eye of the Needle, a revolving restaurant atop the Space Needle in Seattle, Washington.


title: Surf and turf

text: Surf and turf is often considered to symbolize the middle-class "Continental cuisine" of the 1960s and 1970s, with (frozen) lobster and steak as replacements for the middle class.


title: Surf and turf

text: A variation is the surf and turf burger, which is prepared with ground beef and various types of seafood, such as lobster, shrimp, or crab.


title: Surf and turf

text: Surf and turf is often considered as an example of conspicuous consumption and kitsch, as it combines two expensive foods which are not normally considered to be complementary:


title: Nash Carter

text: Zachary Green (born April 29, 1994) is an American professional wrestler. He is best known for his time in WWE, where he performed on the NXT brand under the ring name Nash Carter and in Impact Wrestling under the ring name Zachary Wentz (or simply Wentz). He is well known as a member of The Rascalz with Dezmond Xavier and Trey Miguel. He also performed on independent promotions, mostly notably for Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG).


title: Nash Carter

text: Green began his career in 2014 and worked for several independent promotions. During his first years, he joined Dezmond Xavier and Trey Miguel to create an stable called The Rascalz. During their time together, he won several tag team titles, like the AAW Tag Team Championship, the CZW World Tag Team Championship or the PWG World Tag Team Championship. He also became CZW Wired Championship. In 2018, The Rascalz joined Impact Wrestling, where they stayed until 2020 when he and Xavier signed with WWE and were assigned to their development brand, NXT. They changed their ringnames to Nash Carter and Wes Lee and their tag team was renamed MSK. They would win the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic in 2021 and won the NXT Tag Team Championship twice. He would be released from his contract when a photo was posted online showing Green performing a Nazi salute with a moustache similar to that of Adolf Hitler,


title: Nash Carter

text: Dezmond Xavier and Zachary Wentz teamed with each other for the first time at a Rockstar Pro event "Amped" on December 12, 2015 by defeating Ohio Is 4 Killers (Dave Crist and Jake Crist). They soon formed an alliance with Dave Crist, JT Davidson and Brittany Blake called Scarlet And Graves at a Combat Zone Wrestling event "Seventeen" on February 13, 2016 by defeating Conor Claxton, Frankie Pickard and Neiko Sozio. Xavier and Wentz won many tag team titles as part of the stable including the CZW World Tag Team Championship twice and the All American Wrestling Tag Team Championship once. In CZW, they split up from Dave Crist and JT Davidson, with whom Xavier and Wentz had begun feuding and continued to compete as Scarlet And Graves. Xavier and Wentz teamed with their future partner Trey Miguel for the first time to defeat Ohio Is 4 Killers (Dave Crist, Jake Crist and Sami Callihan) in a doors match at "EVILution" on July 8, 2017.


title: Nash Carter

text: Scarlet and Graves dissolved in 2017 and Xavier and Wentz formed a tag team called The Rascalz in Fight Club Pro by teaming with Meiko Satomura against Travis Banks and Aussie Open in a six-person tag team match at the second day of the Dream Tag Team Invitational tournament on March 31, 2018.


title: Nash Carter

text: Xavier and Wentz then added Trey Miguel and Myron Reed as the new members of Rascalz in CZW at "Welcome to the Combat Zone" on April 7, 2018. They defeated Bandido and Flamita and Ohio Versus Everything in a three-way match. At FCP's "International Tekkers: Nothing Is True, Everything Is Permitted", Xavier and Wentz captured The Wrestling Revolver's PWR Tag Team Championship by defeating the defending champions Millie McKenzie and Pete Dunne and The Besties In The World (Davey Vega and Mat Fitchett) in a three-way match. They successfully defended the titles in a one-night tag team tournament against Killer Death Machines (Jessicka Havok and Nevaeh), The Crew (Jason Cade and Shane Strickland) and The Latin American Exchange (Santana and Ortiz) at "Catalina Wrestling Mixer 2". Miguel and Reed also participated in the tournament, losing to Besties in the World in the opening round. Rascalz held the PWR Tag Team Championship until "It's Always Sunny In Iowa" on March 3, 2019, where they lost the titles to Latin American Exchange in a three-way match, also involving Besties in the World. Reed would leave the group after Miguel, Xavier and Wentz signed with Impact Wrestling.


title: Nash Carter

text: On May 12, Miguel and Wentz won the WC Big Top Tag Team Championship at WrestleCircus event "Encore" by defeating The Dirty Devils (Andy Dalton and Isaiah James) and The Riegel Twins (Logan and Sterling) in a three-way match. After a successful title defense against Riegel Twins and Private Party at "Big Top Revival", Miguel and Wentz vacated the titles on July 25. In the United Kingdom-based Southside Wrestling Entertainment, Xavier and Wentz captured the SWE Tag Team Championship by defeating Chris Tyler and Stixx at "III Manors" on August 10. They lost the titles to Deadly Sins at "Lock, Stock And Three Smoking Rascalz".


title: Nash Carter

text: Dezmond Xavier and Zachary Wentz debuted for Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG) at "Time is a Flat Circle" on March 23, 2018 by defeating Bandido and Flamita in a tag team match. The following month, during the night one of "All Star Weekend" on April 20, Rascalz defeated The Chosen Bros (Jeff Cobb and Matt Riddle) and The Young Bucks in a three-way match to capture the World Tag Team Championship. Rascalz made their first successful title defense the following night against Violence Unlimited. Rascalz would retain the titles throughout the rest of 2018 and 2019 as they successfully defended the titles against Young Bucks, Lucha Brothers, Latin American Exchange and Best Friends in quick succession. At "Two Hundred", Rascalz retained the title against LAX and Lucha Brothers in a three-way match. They successfully defended the titles against Flamita and Rey Horus at "Mystery Vortex VI" and LAX in a ladder match at "Sixteen".


title: Nash Carter

text: In 2021, after Xavier and Wentz signed with WWE, PWG vacated the titles and crowned new tag team champions. The Rascalz are the longest reigning PWG World Tag Team Champions in history.


title: Nash Carter

text: The Rascalz signed with Impact Wrestling in the fall of 2018. Dezmond Xavier had already worked for Impact, having won the Super X Cup tournament the previous year. Zachary Wentz and Trey Miguel made their first appearance in Impact by teaming with Ace Austin as enhancement talents against oVe (Dave Crist, Jake Crist and Sami Callihan) in a losing effort on the September 6 episode of "Impact!". A vignette aired promoting the debut of Rascalz on the November 15 episode of "Impact!". Rascalz made their debut as a fan favorite team on the November 29 episode of "Impact!" as Xavier and Wentz defeated Chris Bey and Mike Sydal. Miguel was in their corner for the match. Rascalz began their feud against Moose in 2019, which led to Rascalz making their pay-per-view debut against Moose and The North in a six-man tag team match at Rebellion, which Rascalz lost. During the match, the ring names of Xavier, Miguel and Wentz were shortened to Dez, Trey and Wentz respectively.


title: Nash Carter

text: Dez and Wentz would lose to North at Code Red. The Rascalz would then go on to defeat oVe members Dave Crist, Jake Crist and Madman Fulton at A Night You Can't Mist. On the June 7 episode of "Impact Wrestling", Dez and Wentz received their first opportunity for the World Tag Team Championship against The Latin American Exchange (Santana and Ortiz), which they lost via disqualification after Wentz interfered in the match. This led to a rematch between the two teams for the titles at Slammiversary XVII. On the July 5 episode of "Impact Wrestling", Dez and Wentz defeated Trey in a three-way match to earn the right to be LAX's opponents at Slammiversary. In the meanwhile, LAX lost the titles to The North, which led to North being added into the match, making it a three-way match for the titles, where North retained the titles. Rascalz would then defeat Andy Dalton, Matthew Palmer and Steve O Reno at Bash at the Brewery.


title: Nash Carter

text: In 2020, at Slammiversary, The Rascalz, represented by Dez and Wentz, issued an open challenge to any tag team. The reunited Motor City Machine Guns accepted the challenge and won the match. Trey challenged for the vacant Impact World Championship in the main event. However, the match was won by Eddie Edwards.


title: Nash Carter

text: On November 11, it was revealed that The Rascalz would be leaving Impact amid interest from both WWE and All Elite Wrestling. During the November 17 tapings, The Rascalz were given a "send off" by the Impact locker room. Trey confirmed the following day that he, Dez and Wentz were in fact finished with Impact Wrestling. However, since then, Trey Miguel has made his return to IMPACT, effectively ending The Rascalz as a trio.


title: Nash Carter

text: On December 2, 2020, Green signed a contract with WWE and was assigned to the WWE Performance Center. On the January 13, 2021 episode of "NXT", Wentz, now going by the ring name Nash Carter, and his tag team partner Dezmond Xavier, now going by the ring name Wes Lee, debuted under the new team name MSK. They would debut in the Men's Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic tournament, which they would go on to eventually win. At , MSK defeated Grizzled Young Veterans and Legado Del Fantasma in a triple threat tag team match to win the vacant NXT Tag Team Championship. MSK would have their first successful title defense against the team of Killian Dain and Drake Marverick on the April 13 episode of "NXT." At , MSK would team with NXT North American Champion, Bronson Reed to take on Legado Del Fantasma in a winners take all match, where the team of MSK and Reed would be successful. At , MSK would defeat Tommaso Ciampa and Timothy Thatcher to retain their NXT Tag Team Titles. On the September 8 episode of "NXT," MSK would defeat Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch to retain the NXT Tag Team Titles. On the October 5 episode of "NXT 2.0," MSK would successfully defend their Tag Titles in a fatal-4-way elimination match"." At , MSK would lose their titles to Imperium, ending their reign at 201 days. At NXT Stand & Deliver, MSK would win the NXT Tag Team Championships for the second time, defeating Imperium and The Creed Brothers in a triple threat tag team match. Four days later however, on April 6, 2022, Green would be released from WWE following allegations by his ex-wife Kimber Lee and the leaking of a picture of Green imitating Adolf Hitler (see personal life), and shortly after, the Championships were officially vacated.


title: Nash Carter

text: Nash Carter was scheduled to be a DLC character in "WWE 2K22", but 2K removed him from the DLC roster due to his release and allegations.


title: Nash Carter

text: On June 9, it was announced that the Rascalz would be reforming with Miguel, Carter and Reed, facing the team of Blake Christian, Nick Wayne and Fuego Del Sol at Warrior Wrestling 24 on June 26 only to be replaced by Dante Leon.


title: Nash Carter

text: Green was in a relationship with fellow wrestler Kimber Lee that began in 2018. The couple got engaged in August 2019 and married the following year, in May 2020. They separated in 2022 following allegations that Green had domestically assaulted Lee over a period of time. Shortly after, a photo was posted by Lee showing Green performing a Nazi salute with a moustache similar to that of Adolf Hitler, which led to him being released by WWE.


title: Payback (2020)

text: The 2020 Payback was the sixth and final Payback professional wrestling pay-per-view and livestreaming event produced by WWE. It was held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. The event took place on August 30, 2020, from the WWE ThunderDome, hosted at the Amway Center in Orlando, Florida. It was the first Payback held since the 2017 event, but was the final Payback as no further events were scheduled. The theme of the event was wrestlers seeking payback against their opponents.


title: Payback (2020)

text: The card consisted of eight matches, including one on the Kickoff pre-show. In the main event, a returning Roman Reigns, in his first match since February 2020, defeated defending champion "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt and Braun Strowman, who Reigns pinned, in a No Holds Barred Triple Threat match to win SmackDown's Universal Championship. In the preceding match, Rey Mysterio and Dominik Mysterio defeated Seth Rollins and Murphy. In other prominent matches, Keith Lee defeated Randy Orton, and Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler defeated Bayley and Sasha Banks to win the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship.


title: Payback (2020)

text: This event is notable for marking the beginning of Roman Reigns' second reign as Universal Champion, which currently stands as the longest reign in the championship's history, the sixth-longest world championship reign in WWE history, and the longest WWE world championship reign of the modern era.


title: Payback (2020)

text: Payback was a pay-per-view (PPV) and WWE Network event that was established by WWE in 2013. The concept of the event was the wrestlers seeking payback against their opponents. The event ran annually from 2013 to 2017; the 2017 event was also a Raw-exclusive show, but following WrestleMania 34 in 2018, WWE discontinued brand-exclusive pay-per-views, resulting in the reduction of yearly PPVs produced, thus also discontinuing Payback. During the August 14, 2020, episode of "SmackDown", it was announced that Payback had been reinstated and would be held on August 30. The sixth event in the Payback chronology, the 2020 event featured wrestlers from both the Raw and SmackDown brands.


title: Payback (2020)

text: As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic that began affecting the industry in mid-March, WWE had to present the majority of its programming from a behind closed doors set. Initially, Raw and SmackDown's television shows and PPVs were done at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida. A limited number of Performance Center trainees and friends and family members of the wrestlers were later utilized to serve as the live audience. Just a week prior to Payback, these programs were moved to a bio-secure bubble called the WWE ThunderDome, hosted at Orlando's Amway Center. The select live audience was no longer utilized as the bubble allowed fans to attend the events virtually for free and be seen on the nearly 1,000 LED boards within the arena. Additionally, the ThunderDome utilized various special effects to further enhance wrestlers' entrances, and arena audio was mixed with that of the chants from the virtual fans.


title: Payback (2020)

text: The card comprised eight matches, including one on the Kickoff pre-show. The matches resulted from scripted storylines, where wrestlers portrayed heroes, villains, or less distinguishable characters in scripted events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches. Results were predetermined by WWE's writers on the Raw and SmackDown brands, while storylines were produced on WWE's weekly television shows, "Monday Night Raw" and "Friday Night SmackDown".


title: Payback (2020)

text: On the August 14 episode of "SmackDown", it was revealed that Bayley and Sasha Banks would defend the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship at Payback. Their opponents were revealed on the August 24 episode of "Raw"; the team of Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler.


title: Payback (2020)

text: At SummerSlam, "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt defeated Braun Strowman to win the Universal Championship for the second time. Following the match, Roman Reigns made his return after a five-month hiatus and viciously attacked The Fiend and Strowman. The following day, it was announced that The Fiend would defend the title against Strowman and Reigns in a no holds barred triple threat match at Payback. On that Friday's "SmackDown", WWE Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon assigned producer Adam Pearce to obtain signatures from the three competitors for their match by the end of the night. After obtaining Wyatt and Strowman's signatures, Pearce located Reigns, where it was revealed that he had aligned himself with Paul Heyman. Reigns affirmed he would be at Payback and win the match, however, he did not sign the contract.


title: Payback (2020)

text: On the August 24 episode of "Raw", after attacking WWE Champion Drew McIntyre with two Punts, Randy Orton, who lost to McIntyre at SummerSlam, wanted another rematch for the title, but he was interrupted by former NXT wrestler Keith Lee, making his Raw debut. On behalf of McIntyre, Lee challenged Orton to a match only for Orton to decline. However, the two fought each other later on, with Orton winning via disqualification after McIntyre attacked him. Orton later attacked McIntyre backstage with a third Punt, taking McIntyre out. A rematch between Lee and Orton was subsequently confirmed for Payback.


title: Payback (2020)

text: At SummerSlam, Seth Rollins (who was accompanied by his disciple Murphy) defeated Dominik Mysterio (who was accompanied by his father Rey Mysterio) in a Street Fight. The following night on "Raw", Rey Mysterio and Dominik defeated Rollins and Murphy by disqualification when Retribution attacked the Mysterios. A rematch between the two teams was scheduled for Payback.


title: Payback (2020)

text: At SummerSlam, Apollo Crews defeated MVP to retain the United States Championship. The following night on "Raw", Crews was scheduled to defend the title against MVP's stablemate of The Hurt Business, Bobby Lashley, at Payback.


title: Payback (2020)

text: During the Payback Kickoff pre-show, The Riott Squad (Ruby Riott and Liv Morgan) faced The IIconics (Peyton Royce and Billie Kay). In the end, Morgan performed the Jersey Codebreaker on Kay followed by Riott performing a Riott Kick on Kay to win the match.


title: Payback (2020)

text: The actual pay-per-view opened with Apollo Crews defending the United States Championship against Bobby Lashley (accompanied by MVP and Shelton Benjamin). After a competitive match, Lashley forced Crews to tap out to the Full Lashley Lock to win the title for a second time. Following the match, Crews attacked Lashley and stated that he would win his title back.


title: Payback (2020)

text: After that, Matt Riddle fought King Corbin. In the climax, Riddle performed the Floating Bro on Corbin to win the match. Following the match, an irate Corbin attacked Riddle during a backstage interview.


title: Payback (2020)

text: In the next match, Bayley and Sasha Banks defended the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship against Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler. In the closing moments, Baszler applied the Kirifuda Clutch on Bayley while simultaneously applying the death lock on Banks. As Banks attempted to poke the eyes of Baszler, Baszler used Banks' own arm to choke Bayley, who tapped out, to win the title. Following the match, an elated Jax and Baszler celebrated their victory in the ring while a disappointed Bayley and Banks sat at ringside.


title: Payback (2020)

text: Next, Keith Lee faced Randy Orton. During the match, Orton would constantly taunt Lee by stating that Lee should respect him. Outside the ring, Lee threw Orton on the announce table. In the climax, as Orton attempted an "RKO", Lee countered into a Spirit Bomb to win the match.


title: Payback (2020)

text: In the penultimate match, father-and-son team, Rey and Dominik Mysterio faced Seth Rollins and Murphy. In the climax, as Rollins attempted a Powerbomb on Mysterio, Mysterio countered out of it, throwing Rollins back. Murphy (the legal partner) then accidentally kicked Rollins in the head, taking him out. Dominik then took advantage and performed a 619 and a splash on Murphy to win the match.


title: Payback (2020)

text: In the main event, "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt defended the Universal Championship against Braun Strowman and Roman Reigns in a no holds barred triple threat match. The Fiend made his entrance first and after the lights illuminated, he was attacked by Strowman to start the match, despite Reigns having yet entered. This led to The Fiend and Strowman fighting each other. Strowman performed a Powerbomb on The Fiend for a near-fall. The Fiend then performed a Sister Abigail on Strowman for a near-fall. The Fiend then performed an uranage on Strowman through the announce table. The Fiend then obtained his Fiend-themed mallet, however, Strowman rose to his feet and attacked The Fiend. The Fiend then attacked Strowman with the mallet. The Fiend attacked Strowman with the steel steps, after which, both fought on the entrance ramp, where The Fiend threw Strowman into the LED screen atop the stage. As The Fiend attempted Sister Abigail on Strowman on the stage, Strowman countered and performed a spear on The Fiend, knocking The Fiend and himself off the stage. Strowman and The Fiend then fought back in the ring where Strowman attempted a splash on The Fiend. The Fiend, however, countered and performed a superplex off the top rope, causing the ring to implode. Roman Reigns (accompanied by Paul Heyman) then finally made his entrance wielding a chair and signed the match contract, officially entering him into the match. Reigns entered the ring and attempted to pin The Fiend and Strowman, however, both were near-falls. Reigns then attacked Strowman with multiple chair shots and attempted another pin, only to get another near-fall. As Reigns attempted to attack The Fiend with the chair, The Fiend rose to his feet and applied the Mandible Claw on Reigns, who performed a low blow on The Fiend, taking him out. Reigns then performed a Spear on Strowman and pinned him to regain the title for a second time.


title: Payback (2020)

text: The following night on "Raw", three singles matches were set up with the winners of each facing each other in a triple threat match that night to determine the number one contender against Drew McIntyre for the WWE Championship at Clash of Champions. Randy Orton, Keith Lee, and Seth Rollins won their respective matches over Kevin Owens, Dolph Ziggler, and Dominik Mysterio. Orton then won the ensuing triple threat match to secure another shot at McIntyre and the WWE Championship.


title: Payback (2020)

text: Also on the following "Raw", The Riott Squad (Ruby Riott and Liv Morgan) faced The IIconics (Peyton Royce and Billie Kay) in a rematch, with the added stipulation that the winning team would earn a shot at the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship while the losing team would disband. The Riott Squad won the match and the title opportunity, while The IIconics had to disband as a team. Their title match was later confirmed for Clash of Champions.


title: Payback (2020)

text: On the following "SmackDown", new Universal Champion and a now heel Roman Reigns along with Paul Heyman opened the show. Heyman explained their new partnership in which he said he was serving as the "special counsel" for Reigns (unlike his role of "advocate" for Brock Lesnar). He stated that it was Reigns who brought him back, because just as WWE had essentially all but forgot about Reigns during his hiatus, they had also done the same to Heyman following his own on-screen absence since WrestleMania 36 (albeit a brief appearance at Money in the Bank). He also criticized the fans for their lack of respect for Reigns and his work ethic despite his health issues. He also mocked the fact that Braun Strowman and "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt were chosen to reign as Universal Champion during the past five months, and that neither deserved the title. Heyman also announced that Reigns' challenger for the title at Clash of Champions would be determined in a fatal four-way match that night. Big E, Matt Riddle, King Corbin, and Sheamus were set for the match, however, Big E was deemed unable to compete due to a backstage attack from Sheamus. Reigns' own cousin Jey Uso replaced Big E in the match and subsequently won.


title: Payback (2020)

text: Bayley and Sasha Banks faced Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler in a rematch for the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship. During the match, Banks attempted to attack Baszler, who was teetering on the ring post, with a double knee maneuver, however, Baszler avoided Banks, who injured her left knee on the post. They ultimately lost the match after Jax performed a diving crossbody on Banks and Bayley and pinned both women to retain the title. After the match, medical personnel tended to Banks while a visibly horrified Bayley watched on. Bayley then feigned helping Banks to the backstage area, only to turn on Banks and viciously attack her, effectively disbanding the team.


title: Payback (2020)

text: The 2020 event would in turn be the final Payback event held as an event was not scheduled for 2021. Furthermore, in October that year, WWE announced their PPV schedule for 2022 and Payback was not included.


title: Gol Maal

text: Gol Maal () is a 1979 Indian Hindi-language comedy film directed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee and written by Rahi Masoom Raza and Sachin Bhowmick. It was produced by N. C. Sippy, with music by R. D. Burman. The film won several awards and was praised by critics.


title: Gol Maal

text: The film was remade in Tamil as "Thillu Mullu" (1981), in Kannada as "Aasegobba Meesegobba" (1990), in Malayalam as "Simhavalan Menon" (1995), and in Sinhala as . The film was an inspiration for the Hindi movie "Bol Bachchan" (2012) which was remade in Telugu as "Masala" (2013).


title: Gol Maal

text: Ramprasad Dashrathprasad Sharma (Amol Palekar), a qualified CA, is looking for a job. He and his sister Ratna (Manju Singh) have no relatives or acquaintances except Dr. Kedar (David). Dr. Kedar tells him about an opening at Bhavani Shankar's (Utpal Dutt) firm known as Urmila Traders.


title: Gol Maal

text: Sharma is fond of sports and music. Shankar is a man of traditional values. He hates youth wearing modern clothes. He does not think highly of youth spending time on sport. But his weirdest trait is hatred towards men without moustaches. He thinks they are characterless.


title: Gol Maal

text: Sharma has a moustache. Following the advice of Dr. Kedar, he appears for the interview wearing a kurta and feigning ignorance about sports. Shankar hires him immediately. Sharma is a hardworking man, so he does well under Shankar. However, one day he takes leave to watch a hockey match by pretending that his mother (who died many years ago) has fallen ill. Bhavani Shankar, who attends the match, sees him there.


title: Gol Maal

text: The next day, Shankar summons Sharma to his office and questions him about the hockey match. Remembering the plot of a movie a friend of his is shooting, Sharma convinces Bhavani Shankar that he had seen his "moustache-less" identical twin Lakshmanprasad Dashrathprasad Sharma, aka Lucky at the stadium.


title: Gol Maal

text: Bhavani Shankar buys his argument and feels bad about accusing him. He makes amends by hiring Lucky to teach his daughter Urmila (Bindiya Goswami) music. Sharma reluctantly shaves his moustache to become Lucky and starts to teach Urmila. He is helped by his actor friend Deven Verma.


title: Gol Maal

text: Urmila is the exact opposite of her father. She takes an immediate liking to the Lucky persona. Her father notices this and decides to get her married to Ramprasad, which she is unhappy about. Eventually, Sharma tells Urmila the truth. Together, they decide to tell Shankar that Lucky ran away and that Sharma and Urmila wish to get married. However, Shankar sees Sharma's fake moustache and thinks that Lucky murdered Sharma and impersonated him to marry Urmila. Sharma and Urmila try to flee from Shankar in a car chase in which Shankar gets arrested.


title: Gol Maal

text: On coming home, he finds that Urmila and Sharma are married. He refuses to give them his blessing, until Dr. Kedar comes to the scene and explains the situation. The film ends with a family photo of everyone and Bhavani (who has now shaved his moustache).


title: Gol Maal

text: Hrishikesh Mukherjee had first selected Rekha to enact the heroine's part, but felt that he would be wasting a talented actress in a film where the hero was the mainstay. He replaced her with Bindiya Goswami. The whole film was shot in 40 working days.


title: Gol Maal

text: David Dhawan's 2002 film "Chor Machaaye Shor" had many scenes plagiarised from "Gol Maal". The 2012 film "Bol Bachchan", directed by Rohit Shetty is loosely based on Gol Maal. It was also later remade in Telugu as "Masala". The Malayalam movie Ayalvasi Oru Daridravasi" had few scenes adapted from Gol Maal. Simhavalan Menon movie is also a remake of this film


title: Daniel Casey

text: Daniel Casey (born 1 June 1972) is an English actor. He is best known for playing DS Gavin Troy, the original sidekick of DCI Tom Barnaby, for the first six seasons of the long-running television series "Midsomer Murders".


title: Daniel Casey

text: The son of journalist and television presenter Luke Casey, he grew up in Stockton-on-Tees and attended Grey College, Durham, graduating with a BA in English Literature before pursuing a career in acting.


title: Daniel Casey

text: Casey is known for portraying DS Gavin Troy in "Midsomer Murders", and Anthony Cox in "Our Friends in the North". He also played leading firefighter Tony Barnes in the 2004 ITV firefighting series "Steel River Blues". He also guest starred in "M.I. High".


title: Daniel Casey

text: In 2010, he appeared in an episode of "Inspector George Gently", and in 2011, he appeared in "Marchlands". In 2012, and again in 2014, he appeared in "Casualty". In early 2016, he appeared in "Coronation Street".


title: Daniel Casey

text: Casey held a regular role in BBC soap opera "EastEnders", playing Tom Bailey. He first appeared on 1 June 2017, and was originally credited as 'Nosebleed Man'. However, later on his character's name was announced, and he is now credited as Tom Bailey.


title: Amira Willighagen

text: Amira Willighagen (born 27 March 2004) is a Dutch soprano singer who won the sixth season of "Holland's Got Talent" in 2013, at the age of nine.


title: Amira Willighagen

text: Amira Willighagen speaks both Dutch and Afrikaans because she was born to a Dutch father and a South African mother whose mother tongue is Afrikaans. She grew up surrounded by classical music. At the age of seven, during a holiday in England, she heard the aria "Nessun Dorma", performed by Luciano Pavarotti. In that period she looked at her brother Fincent playing the violin, their mother Frieda also played the violin and the father Gerrit played the piano. She did not know how to play instruments, so she tried to sing vocally. At the beginning, before taking singing lessons, Willighagen learned by herself to sing opera arias, using YouTube tutorials. That's how she discovered her talent and passion for music. Even her mother was surprised when she heard her the first time singing. Two of her first public appearances took place in 2012, at the "Music makes Friends" festival in Colmschate (accompanied by her family) and as a solo singer in the Emmaus Children's Choir, singing a Dutch version of the song "Nella Fantasia". After two years of practice and performance improvement, she was ready to participate in the show "Holland's Got Talent". Indeed, she won the admiration of the jury, the public and millions of people from all over the world who saw her on television and on the Internet.


title: Amira Willighagen

text: Willighagen auditioned for "Holland's Got Talent" and so impressed the judging panel with her version of "O Mio Babbino Caro" from Puccini's opera "Gianni Schicchi" that within seconds the judges were staring in awe and disbelief. Her performance rapidly became a YouTube hit, with over 43 million views, as of August 2022. In the semi-finals, she performed Gounod's "Ave Maria". "You're a star who belongs on stage!", said Dan Karaty, one of the judges, after her performance in the semi-finals. In the final she sang "Nessun Dorma", from Puccini's opera "Turandot". She won the competition with over 50% of the votes of the TV-viewers and audience.


title: Amira Willighagen

text: After the success from "Holland's Got Talent", during 2014 Willighagen was invited to various TV shows: at South African Internet station Channel24, on 21 March 2014 at Omroep Gelderland (Netherlands), on 11 May 2014 at "Life4You – Carlo & Irene" on RTL 4 (Netherlands), on 7 June 2014 at "Willkommen bei Carmen Nebel" ("Welcome to Carmen Nebel") on ZDF (Germany), at RTL (German TV channel), performing "I Have a Dream", on 20 August 2014 at "Susana Giménez" on Telefe (Argentina) and on 21 December 2014 at "Du côté de chez Dave" on France 3.


title: Amira Willighagen

text: In February 2014, Willighagen recorded her debut album, "Amira", accompanied by the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra. The album contains 10 tracks, including the songs she performed during "Holland's Got Talent". Other tracks from this album are "Nella Fantasia", "Song To The Moon", and "Pie Jesu" from Requiem (Lloyd Webber). The album was released in the Netherlands on 28 March 2014, reaching a Gold status only two weeks later. André Rieu invited Willighagen to follow a masterclass in London, after a member of his orchestra saw her in the "Holland's Got Talent" audition on YouTube. Then, on 11 and 12 July 2014, she appeared with André Rieu and his Johann Strauss Orchestra in Maastricht, during the recording of the album "Love in Venice".


title: Amira Willighagen

text: Amira's first international performances took place at the Starlight Classics Concerts in Somerset West, South Africa on 28 February and 1 March 2014. On 30 April 2014 she performed in Las Vegas as part of the prize she received when winning "Holland's Got Talent". Amira's performances include appearances in the Netherlands, South Africa, Belgium, USA, Germany, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, France, Poland, Hong Kong, Argentina, Mexico, Malta, Monaco, Iceland, Austria, and Botswana.


title: Amira Willighagen

text: According to statements on her website, with half of the revenue she makes by performing and her album sales, Willighagen supports her own charity project, "Stichting Gelukskinders (Lucky Children Foundation)", to build playgrounds for poor children of South African townships. Also, an important part of the foundation's funds comes from donations. The idea of creating playgrounds came up when she went to South Africa, to visit her grandmother, at the age of seven. She went outside to play, like any child, but the children from there didn't have a proper playground, so they just ran and threw stones. Astonished and disappointed, she said to her mother: "If I ever get any money I'd like to come back here and help these children have something to play." That's exactly what she did: after only three years, on 5 March 2014, she opened the first playground in Ikageng, a township near Potchefstroom, South Africa. To formalize development and maintenance of playgrounds, Willighagen's " Foundation" was established on 1 November 2014. On behalf of her foundation, Willighagen opened the second playground in Ikageng on 1 August 2016. Amira opened the third playground, Amira Park – Sarafina, which was completed on 20 January 2017. Amira opened her fourth playground in South Africa on 20 June 2017. Amira Park #4 was opened in Promosa. On 11 June 2018 Amira opened her 5th playground at Lesego Primary School which included carousel, swings, slide, and a sandbox. In July and August 2019 were opened six new playgrounds at schools near Potchefstroom, their number reaching 13. Other charitable actions worth mentioning are her participation in fundraising, for the victims of the Haiyan typhoon in Philippines (on 18 November 2013), for UNICEF (on 16 July 2014) and to support the victims of the devastating bush fires around Knysna, in extra concert at "Classics Is Groot" (on 24 June 2017). In August 2020 Willighagen donated 80000 rands (about 5200 US dollars) to the Solidarity Helping Hand. Thus, a lot of children have got gifts, in the form of food and juices.


title: Amira Willighagen

text: On 8 November 2014 Willighagen visited the Pontifical Urbaniana University in Rome to receive the International Giuseppe Sciacca Award 2014. In November 2015, Willighagen released her second album, "Merry Christmas". Besides a selection of well-known Christmas carols ("O Holy Night", "Silent Night", "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing"), the album contains various famous arias and hymns ("Panis angelicus", "Ave Maria (Vavilov)"). The albums "Amira" and "Merry Christmas" were produced by the record label Sony Masterworks. She held also Christmas concerts on 15 December 2014 at the Royal Albert Hall London, on 19 December 2015 in the Petrus Canisius Church in Nijmegen, The Netherlands (where she sang "See, amid the Winter's Snow", "Panis angelicus", "Sancta Maria" and "Ave Maria" by Gomez), on 21 December 2015, in the St. Jacobs Church, The Hague, on 16 December 2017, in the St. Steven's Church in Nijmegen (where she performed "Dormi, Fili", "Onse Vader", "Jerusalem", "Panis Angelicus", "See, amid the Winter's Snow", "Stille Nacht / Silent Night", and "How Great Thou Art"), on 15 December 2019, in Nijmegen ("Joy to the World" was one of the songs in the program), on 16 December 2019 in Dreumel. On 9 December 2019 Amira performed in the Sint-Jacobskerk, The Hague, which was recorded and later broadcast on 25 December 2019 on Omroep MAX public broadcasting television.


title: Amira Willighagen

text: In 2015, Willighagen participated, on 4 April, at the Sanremo Junior Festival in Malta, in September in the show "Superkids – die größten kleinen Talente der Welt" ("Superkids – the biggest little talents in the world"), broadcast by the German TV station Sat.1, where she performed "Ave Maria (Vavilov)" and in December in Madrid. In 2016, she sang at the Vacation Festival (Festival della Vacanza) in Lecce, Italy (on 28 May), at the Conservatory of the North West University, Potchefstroom (on 23 November) and also she performed "Nella Fantasia" in the "Afrikaans Is Groot" concert (in November). In 2017 she sang, on 20 May, at the Aqua Musica concert in Steenbergen, The Netherlands and on 2 December, in the Max Proms concert held in Utrecht, performing a short version of "O Mio Babbino Caro" and "Your Love" (the theme of the movie "Once Upon a Time in the West"). On 2 and 3 March 2018 she sang again at the RMB Starlight Classics concert.


title: Amira Willighagen

text: At the end of July 2016, Willighagen performed at the "Classics Is Groot" concert held in Pretoria, South Africa, where she sang "O Mio Babbino Caro", "O sole mio" (in duet with Patrizio Buanne), "Nella Fantasia" ("In My Fantasy"), composed by Ennio Morricone (originally released by Sarah Brightman in 1998) and the well-known song "My Way" (together with the other artists). At "Classics Is Groot 2017" she performed "Nessun Dorma", "Flower Duet" (with Corlea Botha), "Amazing Grace" and "My Way" (in group). At "Classics Is Groot 2018" Willighagen sang "Gabriellas sång" – with lyrics in Swedish (from the soundtrack of the movie "As It Is in Heaven"), "Hallelujah" (from the album "With All My Heart"), "Amigos Para Siempre" (in duet with Patrizio Buanne) and "Keeping the Dream Alive" (together with the other singers). In July 2019, at "Classics Is Groot", she performed a medley from the musical "The Sound of Music": "Prelude / The Sound of Music", "Edelweiss" and "Climb Ev'ry Mountain".


title: Amira Willighagen

text: On 2 March 2018 Willighagen's long-anticipated album "With All My Heart" was released in South Africa, later as audio files worldwide, under the Coleske Artists label. The album marks a change in her singing career from opera to classical crossover. Several tracks were written especially for her (for instance "Drift Away", "In The Stars) "With All My Heart" is recocorded by Romanz in 2012. I Will Be With You is a translation of the African version "Jy Vat My Hoer" and "Follow Your Heart" is also translated. Amira also sings duets with Corlea Botha ("Flower Duet"), Patrizio Buanne ("’O sole mio" and "Amigos Para Siempre") and Ruhan du Toit ("Follow Your Heart").


title: Amira Willighagen

text: Willighagen collaborated also with other artists: Ben Heijnen (Huizen, Netherlands on 9 December 2016), Gissur Páll Gissurarson (Reykjavík, Iceland, December 2015), Paul Potts and James Bhemgee (Durban, South Africa on 9 August 2014), Fabio Armiliato (Naples, Italy on 9 November 2019).


title: Amira Willighagen

text: On 1 January 2018, Amira, her brother, Fincent and mother, Frieda moved to South Africa. During an interview in a Dutch regional newspaper, they stated the Dutch school system didn't offer Willighagen sufficient flexibility for performances. Also, Willighagen's new, South African manager planned to include fewer, longer tours. In an earlier interview, Amira's mother (of South African origin) revealed that she and the children's father had parted. "It's for me really nice to be back again here in Nijmegen, where I was born. Yes, old friends from middle school. That's nice, because I miss them of course a little bit when I'm in South Africa.", stated Willighagen in December 2019 in an interview for the TV station Omroep Gelderland, that broadcast also the Christmas concerts from Nijmegen (2017) and Dreumel (2019).


title: Amira Willighagen

text: Willighagen released three music videos: "Ave Maria (Vavilov)", from the album "Merry Christmas", "In The Stars", from the album "With All My Heart" and "Cinema Paradiso (Se)", a song from the movie with the same title, in memory of the composer Ennio Morricone. Willighagen's most viewed video recording on YouTube is that from André Rieu's concert in Maastricht (July 2014). She also has performances featured on five DVDs and five CDs: "Afrikaans Is Groot 2016", "Classics Is Groot 2016", "Classics Is Groot 2017", "Classics Is Groot 2018" and "Classics Is Groot 2019", all published by Coleske Artists. The song "Barcelona", performed by Willighagen in duet with Ruhan du Toit, is included on Touch Of Class's album, "More Magic".


title: Amira Willighagen

text: Among the concerts in 2019 can be mentioned: on 21 March in Sun Arena, Pretoria (with Helmut Lotti), on 16 April at Durbanville High School (with the Tygerberg Children's Choir), on 19 and 20 July at "Classics Is Groot", Sun Arena, Pretoria, on 10 August in Kasane, Botswana, near a huge baobab (with Andre Swartz and Jannie Moolman), on 14 September at Louis Trichard Emmanuel Christian School, Zoutpansberg, on 8 October in Bloemfontein (with Jannie Moolman), on 23 October at Nelson Mandela University Auditorium, Port Elizabeth (with Corlea Botha), on 1 December in Turnhout, Belgium (with Marjolein Acke, Anne Keizer and the Cantabile choir, to mark "Gelukskinders Foundation's" 5th anniversary).