title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: Speakers appeared from various "satellite locations", including key studios in Los Angeles, New York City, and at the Chase Center on the Riverfront in Wilmington, Delaware. The broadcasts were hosted from Los Angeles. All of the speeches were held behind closed doors with no audience.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: A stage was set up in a conference room on the second floor of the Wisconsin Center. The stage at the Wisconsin Center saw limited use, with a number of participants from Wisconsin using it as the venue for their participation in the convention. Convention secretary Jason Rae also directed the roll call from the Wisconsin Center stage. The roll call featured votes being presented from locations in each state or territory, with some of the votes presented by special guests emphasizing Biden's history and platform; Bob Casey Jr. appeared from Biden's childhood home in Scranton, Pennsylvania, LGBT rights activists Judy and Dennis Shepard presented Wyoming's votes, and gun control advocate Fred Guttenberg (whose daughter was killed in the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting) presented Florida's votes.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: The duration of the convention program was significantly downsized, from one that was originally expected to total 24 hours over the four days, to one that would total only eight hours. The downsizing led the convention organizers to need far fewer volunteers than the 15,000 they had originally been trying to recruit. Prior to the beginning of each night's programming, the hip-hop music channel "Behind the Rhyme" on Twitch streamed the official pre-show and post-show for each night, with the latter featuring performances by Beverly Bond, Vashtie, DJ Cassidy, Jermaine Dupri on each night respectively. Music performances were filmed for inclusion in the main programming. The political podcast "Pod Save America" also aired a "Live from the Democratic National Couch-vention" special prior to the August 20 broadcast, which featured the premiere of its new documentary short "Dress Rehearsal", which chronicled the April 2020 state Supreme Court election in Wisconsin.""


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: In April, shortly after Sanders endorsed Biden, the two created a "Unity task force" to draft a version of the party platform. The Democratic National Convention Committee set up a series of "virtual platform meetings" to garner input from the general public.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: The Platform Drafting Committee Chair is Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms. The Platform Standing Committee includes a number of party leaders and elected officials appointed by the DNC:


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: The full Platform Drafting Committee met on July 15 and 27, where they submitted a finished product to be voted on via the internet from August 1–15.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: After months of negotiations, Biden/Sanders platform task force issued its 110-page report on July 9 outlining platform recommendations. Convention delegates officially adopted the Democratic Party's 2020 platform on August 18, following delegate balloting by mail. The platform was divided into ten sections: "pandemic response, the economy, health care, criminal justice, climate, immigration, education, foreign policy, voting rights, and identity-related rights issues." The platform calls for:


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: The platform was the most progressive in Democratic Party history, and the most progressive for any major political party in U.S. history. However, there was some dissent from the party's left wing over the omission of platform planks supporting single-payer healthcare ("Medicare for All") or the Green New Deal. Prior to the convention, over 700 delegates, largely from Bernie Sanders' camp, previously signed a statement vowing to vote against the platform because it did not include a provision supporting Medicare for All; this included U.S. representatives Rashida Tlaib and Ro Khanna. Although the platform was adopted, a final vote count was not released.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: On March 26, 2019, Joe Solmonese, former president of the Human Rights Campaign, was named convention CEO.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: On June 1, 2020, the campaign of presumptive nominee Joe Biden named two advisers to the convention, naming Addisu Demissie as adviser for convention coordination and Lindsay Holst as senior adviser for convention and special projects.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: Programming was overseen by Ricky Kirshner, who acted as producer. In addition, Stephanie Cutter held the formal position of Program Executive. Glenn Weiss acted as the director. Jessica Jennings was the director of media logistics.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: On July 30, 2020, the officers of the convention were designated. Representative Bennie Thompson served as the permanent chair of the convention.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: Permanent co-chairs were Milwaukee mayor Tom Barrett, Rep. Tony Cárdenas of California, Senator Tom Carper of Delaware, Senator Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, Mayor of Atlanta Keisha Lance Bottoms, and New Jersey governor Phil Murphy. The convention's vice-chairs were Senator Bob Casey Jr. of Pennsylvania, former representative Tony Coelho of California, Representative Sharice Davids of Kansas, Lieutenant Governor of Michigan Garlin Gilchrist, Congresswoman Donna Shalala of Florida, former Representative Carol Shea-Porter of New Hampshire, Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin Mandela Barnes, and Lieutenant Governor of Nevada Kate Marshall. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer served as honorary chairs.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: The convention's sergeant-at-arms was Representative Gwen Moore of Wisconsin. Jason Rae acted as secretary of the convention. The convention's parliamentarians were House majority leader Steny Hoyer, Helen McFadden, Sarah E. Merkle, and state senator Yvanna Cancela of Nevada.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: , the following overall number of pledged delegates is subject to change, as possible penalty/bonus delegates (awarded for each state scheduled election date and potential regional clustering) may be altered.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: The 2020 Democratic Party rules state that, unless a candidate has secured a majority of delegates using only pledged delegates, the superdelegates will have no voting rights on the first ballot.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: Candidates who have suspended their campaigns without having received any pledged or superdelegate endorsements, as well as those who've suspended their campaigns and subsequently lost their endorsements to other candidates, are not included in the table below.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: The table below reflects the presumed pledged delegate count following the 2020 Democratic primaries. In addition to these, there will also be 771 superdelegate votes (including the eight half-votes belonging to Democrats Abroad superdelegates), making for 4,750 combined delegate votes.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: In an email, DNC secretary Jason Rae wrote to delegates outlining the process for that year's convention, noting that the planning committee "concluded that state delegations should not plan to travel to Milwaukee and official convention business will be conducted remotely."


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: Delegates vote remotely using a system the planning committee crafted that allows them to cast their ballots via email, with unique identifiers for security. The DNC had plans to certify each delegate.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: The party said delegates would be able to fill out the forms electronically, with no need for a printer or physical copy, according to the letter. The ballot, which includes questions about platform planks and the party's nominees, will be emailed to their state's committee. Once a state party had all the ballots from their delegation, the state delegation's chair would "submit a tally sheet to the Secretary's Office that formally records the number of votes cast on each item of convention business," The votes would be counted all at once on August 15, not as they come in.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: Voting began August 3 and ended August 15, when the state delegation chairs were asked to submit their final tallies to the DNC secretary. That meant that the party knew the tally of votes for its nominee before the convention formally began.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: The traditional roll call of the states was held on the second night of the convention. It was done remotely from each of the 57 delegations, including all 50 states and seven additional territories/jurisdictions (the District of Columbia, the five inhabited U.S. territories, and Democrats Abroad). Organizers planned for it to last approximately 30 minutes. Convention secretary Jason Rae directed the roll call from the Wisconsin Center.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: The Rules Committee report which was passed by the convention addressed, among other things, the fiascos that occurred during the 1972 and 1980 conventions as regards selection of the vice-presidential nominee.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: In accordance with this provision, Biden submitted Harris's name to the chairman, Bennie Thompson, and after Thompson's public reading of the rule, she was declared nominated.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: Each night of the convention was planned to last two hours. In addition to the convention's overall official theme of "Uniting America", each night had an official sub-theme of its own.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: The second night of the convention included official business, such as the nominating roll call for president.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: In the past, hundreds of people had addressed each convention, giving many local or statewide candidates a valuable photo op, a notable difference from this convention. Some of the speeches at this convention were pre-recorded.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: The convention included performances by Leon Bridges, the Chicks, Common, Billie Eilish, Jennifer Hudson, John Legend, Billy Porter, Maggie Rogers, Prince Royce, Stephen Stills, and others.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: A number of speakers at the convention included individuals who are everyday Americans, rather than officeholders or celebrities. A number of these speakers were dissatisfied Republicans, including individuals who had voted for Trump in 2016, but plan on voting for Biden in 2020.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: Caucus meetings and other events were streamed on various platforms earlier on the days of the convention. Virtual policy roundtables were hosted in partnership with Business Forward. Many partner organization events were planned to be held, including a Protect Our Care health care panel with Nancy Pelosi, Xavier Becerra, Kathleen Sebelius, and three of the five health care activists featured in a conversation with Joe Biden on Night 2 of the convention.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: Before the convention opened, an Interfaith Welcome Service was held virtually on August 16, a partner event to the DNC.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: Jill Biden, the spouse of presidential nominee Joe Biden and the former second lady of the United States, delivered her speech on the second night of the convention from the classroom at Brandywine High School in Wilmington, Delaware, where she had been an English teacher from 1991 through 1993.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: Biden's speech was focused on both family and education. She discussed how the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic had impacted education, as well as families and the economy. She touted her husband as a candidate capable of tackling the pandemic.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: Biden also recounted the personal tragedies that her husband had endured, including the deaths of his first wife, Neilia, and first-born daughter, Naomi, in a 1972 automobile accident, and the 2015 death of his son Beau from brain cancer.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: Joe Biden, the 2020 Democratic nominee for president, delivered a speech on the fourth night of the convention from Wilmington, Delaware. A common motif emphasized throughout was the conflict between light, referring to himself, and darkness, referring to Donald Trump.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: While drawing a contrast between himself and Trump, Biden's speech did not include any utterances of his main opponent's name.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: Former mayor of New York City and candidate for the 2020 Democratic nomination Michael Bloomberg delivered his speech on the final night of the convention from Colorado.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: Bloomberg declared, "I'm not asking you to vote against Donald Trump because he's a bad guy. I'm urging you to vote against him because he's done a bad job."


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: Bloomberg likened the prospect reelecting Trump to rehiring or working for, "someone who ran your business into the ground, and who always does what's best for him or her, even when it hurts the company, and whose reckless decisions put you in danger".


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: Former mayor of South Bend, Indiana and candidate for the 2020 Democratic nomination Pete Buttigieg delivered his speech on the final night of the convention from LangLab in South Bend, Indiana, where he and his husband, Chasten, had held their wedding reception years earlier.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: Buttigieg, himself openly homosexual, highlighted the progress that the United States had made on LGBT rights during his lifetime, pointing to his marriage (enabled by the 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges Supreme Court decision) and the viability of his candidacy as an openly gay candidate for the presidency as two examples of such progress. He also mentioned how, earlier in his life, when he served in the military, the "Don't ask, don't tell" policy (since repealed in 2011 under the Obama administration) had barred him from being open about his sexuality while in service.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: Former president of the United States Bill Clinton delivered his speech on the second night of the convention from Chappaqua, New York.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: Clinton began his speech by declaring that he believed United States presidential elections to be, "the world's most important job interview".


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: Clinton praised Biden's work in the Obama administration on repairing the United States economy from the Great Recession. He praised Biden's plans to rebuild the United States economy from the downturn it experienced amid the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: He argued that Biden should be elected and that Trump should be denied a second term, declaring, "You know what Donald Trump will do with four more years: blame, bully, and belittle. And you know what Joe Biden will do: build back better."


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: Former United States secretary of state and 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton delivered her speech on the third night of the convention from Chappaqua, New York.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: Clinton praised Biden and Harris as, "leaders equal to this moment". She praised Biden's "thoughtfulness and empathy". She praised Harris as a, "daughter of an extraordinary mother," as well as, "relentless in the pursuit of justice, and uncommonly kind."


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: Clinton, herself a former First Lady of the United States, expressed joy towards Jill Biden's intentions to continue her work as an educator if she becomes First Lady.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: Clinton urged voters not to repeat the result of the 2016 election in which Trump had defeated her in the United States Electoral College, thus winning the presidency.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: Clinton criticized Trump's presidency, saying, "Remember in 2016 when Trump asked 'What do you have to lose?' Well, now we know. Our health, our jobs, even our lives. Our leadership in the world and, yes, our post office."


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: Clinton stated that she believes that it is morally wrong that the richest Americans saw their wealth increase during the pandemic while tens of millions of other Americans lost.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: Clinton declared, reiterating an African proverb she had helped popularize in the United States, that "it still takes a village". Her speech invoked DREAMers, and reiterated support for Black Lives Matter, while invoking the murders of George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery, and the killing of Breonna Taylor.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: Clinton invoked the struggle for voting rights in the United States. She mentioned that the previous day had marked the centennial of the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which granted nationwide women's suffrage. She also invoked John Lewis' participation in the Selma to Montgomery marches fighting against racial injustice, including the disenfranchisement of black voters.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: Governor of New York Andrew Cuomo delivered his speech on the opening night of the convention from Albany, New York.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: While referencing a number of issues that plagued the nation, Cuomo's speech primarily focused on criticizing President Donald Trump's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: Cuomo also declared that, "Only a strong body can fight off the virus, and America's divisions weakened it."


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: Brayden Harrington spoke on the convention's closing night. Harrington, a 13-year-old New Hampshire boy who stutters, spoke about how, on the campaign trail during the primaries, Joe Biden had related to him about his struggles overcoming a stutter of his own, and had shared advice for how to persevere through such an impediment.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: Harrington's speech attracted significant attention, being seen as one of the highlights of the convention's final night.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: In her vice-presidential nomination acceptance speech on the third night of the convention, Kamala Harris declared that she and Biden will, if elected, tackle issues facing the United States, including racial injustices. Harris provided an autobiographical summary of her life and career.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: Republican former governor of Ohio and 2000 and 2016 Republican presidential candidate John Kasich delivered remarks on the opening night of the convention in a pre-recorded video filmed at a road junction near his personal residence in Westerville, Ohio.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: Kasich began his speech by declaring that, "America is at a crossroads." While calling himself a, "lifelong Republican", he declared that this came second to his sense of responsibility to the United States, which had compelled him to appear at the convention.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: Building on the opening metaphor of America being at a crossroads, as well as the visual metaphor of the speech's physical location at the divergence of two paths, in his closing, Kasich declared that, "When America chooses the right path and pulls together, like we've done so many times before, we can dream big dreams and we can see the top of the mountain as a United States of America, with a soul that is a beacon of freedom to the entire world"


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: On the opening night of the convention, former United States secretary of state and 2004 Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry delivered a speech in Boston, Massachusetts, which heavily criticized Donald Trump's approach foreign policy, characterizing it as a nonstop "blooper reel".


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: Kerry criticized Trump for denying the existence of Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections, and for what Kerry charged was Trump's failure to protect United States troops from the alleged Russian bounty program.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: Former United States president Barack Obama delivered his speech on the third night of the convention from the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: During his speech, Obama broke with the customary practice of not criticizing his presidential successor by name.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: In his remarks, Obama declared, "Donald Trump hasn't grown into the job because he can't. And the consequences of that failure are severe. 170,000 Americans dead. Millions of jobs gone while those at the top take in more than ever. Our worst impulses unleashed, our proud reputation around the world badly diminished, and our democratic institutions threatened like never before."


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: Former first lady of the United States Michelle Obama delivered her speech on the opening night of the convention from her personal residence in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: Obama reaffirmed her conviction in the motto she expressed during her 2016 convention speech, "when they go low, we go high".


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: Obama declared her belief that, "being president doesn't change who you are; it reveals who you are."


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: Obama touted what she felt were some the successes of her husband's presidency and Joe Biden's vice presidency, including the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, respect for the United States from the international community, and steps made internationally to address climate change. She contrasted these with what she felt were some of the failures of the Trump presidency. She characterized the United States under Trump's leadership as, "underperforming not simply on matters of policy, but on matters of character." One failure she charged Trump with was the United States' death toll and domestic economic damage of the COVID-19 pandemic, for which she faulted Trump's downplaying of the severity of the virus. Another aspect of the Trump presidency she criticized was its reneging on international agreements and its betrayal of alliances that had been championed by past presidents, including Republicans Ronald Reagan and Dwight D. Eisenhower. She also criticized what she regarded to be Trump's emboldening of "torch-bearing white supremacists" seen at the Unite the Right rally. Obama further criticized Trump's derision of the political catchphrase and movement Black Lives Matter.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: After declaring Trump an unfit president, Obama remarked, "it is what it is", echoing words that Trump had recently used about the COVID-19 death toll.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: Obama directly invoked the murder of George Floyd and killing of Breonna Taylor by law enforcement earlier in 2020, which had become central flash points of ongoing protests and unrest that are considered part of the Black Lives Matter movement.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: Obama touted the virtues of Biden's character, declaring him a "profoundly decent man," that, "knows what it takes to rescue an economy, beat back a pandemic, and lead our country." She recounted the personal tragedies that he had endured, including the deaths of his first wife, Neilia, and first-born daughter, Naomi, in a 1972 automobile accident, and the 2015 death of his son Beau from brain cancer, declaring that Biden's "life is a testament to getting back up, and he is going to channel that same grit and passion to pick us all up, to help us heal and guide us forward".


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: Obama warned of potential voter suppression in the 2020 election, and urged citizens to collectively cast their votes for Biden, "in numbers that cannot be ignored".


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: In the penultimate sentences of her speech, she quoted John Lewis as saying, "When you see something that is not right, you must say something. You must do something."


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi delivered her speech on the third night of the convention from San Francisco, California.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: Pelosi began her speech by expressing her pride in the diversity of the Democratic majority she leads in the United States House of Representatives.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: In her remarks Pelosi painted President Donald Trump and Republican United States Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell as dual obstacles to progress.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: Pelosi praised Biden as, "battle-tested, forward-looking, honest and authentic" and Harris as, "committed to our Constitution, brilliant in defending it".


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: Republican former United States secretary of state Colin Powell delivered his speech on the second night of the convention from Washington, D.C.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: Powell opened his speech by briefly recounting the stories of how each of his parents immigrated to the United States from Jamaica.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: Powell praised the sort of leadership he argued that Biden would bring to the United States as president. He argued Biden would, "restore America's leadership in the world and restore the alliances we need to address the dangers that threaten our nation, from climate change to nuclear proliferation."


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: He described the United States as "a country divided", and argued that President Trump is, "doing everything in his power to keep up that way", arguing that Biden would be a unifier as president.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: Democratic nominations Bernie Sanders spoke from Burlington, Vermont, on the opening night of the convention.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: In his speech, Sanders urged his supporters to lend their support to Biden in order to oust Donald Trump. He conceded that, while he and Biden disagree on the specifics their plans to expand healthcare coverage and lower prescription drug costs, Biden still has a plan that greatly accomplish this. He also touted other issues for which Biden has plans.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: United States Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer delivered his speech on the second night of the convention from the New York City, New York, borough of Brooklyn, with the Statue of Liberty in the background.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: Schumer invoked the memory of immigrants, such as his grandparents, who were greeted by the Statue of Liberty upon their arrival in the United States.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: Schumer argued that America will benefit from both electing the ticket of Biden and Harris, as well as from flipping control of the United States Senate from Republican to Democratic.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: On the opening night of the convention, Kristin Urquiza, who had lost her father Mark Urquiza to COVID-19, gave a speech, in which she said that her father, who believed Donald Trump and other Republicans that Urquiza blamed for downplaying the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic, had disregarded his safety and went to a karaoke bar with friends, where he possibly contracted the disease he succumbed to.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: Urquiza criticized Trump for "dishonesty" and "irresponsible actions", which she faulted with worsening the pandemic.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: Urquiza also said that one of the last things her father, who she said voted for Trump in 2016, had told her before dying was that he "felt betrayed by the likes of Donald Trump", and that she therefore planned to cast her 2020 vote for Joe Biden in honor of her father.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: Urquiza's speech was regarded by pundits to be one of the highlights of the convention's opening night.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: United States senator from Massachusetts and candidate for the 2020 Democratic nomination Elizabeth Warren delivered her speech on the third night of the convention from a classroom located in a Springfield, Massachusetts, early learning center that was temporarily closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Warren's speech centered on the importance of passing legislation to provide universal child care.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: Governor of Michigan Gretchen Whitmer delivered her speech on the opening night of the convention from UAW Local 603 in Lansing, Michigan.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: Whitmer began by praising Barack Obama and Joe Biden's actions to rescue the auto industry amid its 2008–10 crisis. Whitmer then transitioned into discussing both the Michigan and national responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. She argued that Biden and Harris would provide the leadership needed to address the pandemic.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: Aiming to have a "new kind of convention keynote", the Democratic Party chose to have seventeen "rising stars" co-present the convention's keynote address. The speakers were former minority leader of the Georgia House of Representatives and 2018 Georgia gubernatorial nominee Stacey Abrams (who had a solo spotlight capping the section); Tennessee state senator Raumesh Akbari; United States representative Colin Allred of Texas; United States representative Brendan Boyle of Pennsylvania; Nevada state senator Yvanna Cancela; former Ohio State representative Kathleen Clyde; Florida commissioner of agriculture Nikki Fried; Mayor of Long Beach, California, Robert Garcia; Pennsylvania state representative Malcolm Kenyatta; South Carolina state senator Marlon Kimpson; United States representative Conor Lamb of Pennsylvania, Michigan state representative Mari Manoogian; Texas state representative Victoria Neave; president of the Navajo Nation Jonathan Nez; Georgia state representative Sam Park; New Hampshire state representative Dennis Ruprecht; and mayor of Birmingham, Alabama, Randall Woodfin. This made Malcolm Kenyatta, Sam Park, and Robert Garcia the first openly gay speakers in a keynote slot at a Democratic National Convention. It also made Sam Park the first Korean-American to be part of a national party convention keynote address.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: Garcia, Kenyatta, and Park became the first openly LGBTQ speakers to deliver a keynote address at a Democratic National Convention, with all three being openly-gay men.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: Petula Dvorak of "The Washington Post" called the speech the "most realistic convention speech ever". Adam Harris of "The Atlantic" opined that the speech "fell flat".


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: Several groups scheduled protests in Milwaukee during the convention. Ryan Hamann, co-chair of the "Coalition to March on the DNC" stated that his coalition's planned protests would focus on police reform, in effect being a continuance of the nationwide George Floyd protests.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: On August 2, the City of Milwaukee reported that very little interest had been indicated by parties in seeking permits to either organize a downtown parade or a speech in a downtown park.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: Club Kids Inc. was scheduled to hold a permitted parade in Milwaukee at noon CDT on August 17. The Women's Human Rights Campaign was scheduled to hold a permitted parade in Milwaukee on August 20 at 10 A.M. CDT.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: One day before the opening of the convention, the "DNC Delegates United for Peace" protest saw protesters, including convention delegates, protest in Milwaukee against war and military spending.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: The Trump campaign held counter-events in Wisconsin during the convention. The campaign officially held a "Women for Trump" campaign event in Pleasant Prairie the day before the start of the convention. Additionally, the White House held multiple events in Wisconsin, which included one event in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, on the opening day of the convention, and another in Milwaukee itself the third day of the convention, with the first event featuring President Donald Trump and the latter event featuring Vice President Mike Pence. The presence of a Trump event caused the Coalition to March on the DNC to alter their plans for Monday and protest outside of the Trump event rather than outside of the convention itself.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: There were protests outside of the Chase Center on the Riverfront in Wilmington, with over 100 pro-Trump demonstrators assembling a few hours prior to Biden's acceptance speech and electronic message trucks driving around the site criticizing Biden's alleged sexual assault of a former aide. The trucks were paid for Turning Point Action.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: The convention was slimmed down from previous iterations in terms of the length of television programming it provided, with only two hours of televised events taking place on each night of the convention. Domestic 24-hour cable news channels broadcast both hours, but Fox News and the big three domestic television networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC) only broadcast the last hour. In contrast, for past conventions, domestic 24-hour cable news channels broadcast wall-to-wall coverage of day-long proceedings. However, the length of prime time coverage provided by the "Big Three" domestic television networks was also one hour per night during the Democratic and Republican conventions of 2016.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: PBS aired three hours of nightly coverage, including commentary. A number of domestic cable news channels and internet news platforms and streaming video news channels also aired significant coverage of the convention in addition to the two hours of the convention itself.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: In addition to the main convention broadcast, other media coverage opportunities were made available to the press by the convention organizers and the Biden campaign, including remote press briefings and interviews.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: Broadcasters pooled their resources and shrank their footprints at the convention. The convention organizers worked with both the network pool and the congressional press galleries to establish pooled media opportunities. There was more of a reliance by broadcasters on footage from press pool cameras than at past conventions. Broadcasters relied on the same shared camera feed of the convention's stage. As with past conventions, the convention organizers made a feed of convention proceedings available for free to media organizations.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: Due to the pandemic, and the resultant decentralization of the convention, there was only expected to be a small press pool in Milwaukee, with as few as a hundred media personnel being anticipated to travel to Milwaukee. This was drastically less than the more than 15,000 that traveled to Philadelphia for the 2016 Democratic National Convention. Unlike past conventions, most broadcasters did not send correspondents to the convention site, and instead filmed their reporters at remote sites. Limited press were admitted into the Wisconsin Center headquarters of the convention. Those reporters that did go to the convention were socially distanced, and, at least at times, reported from outside of the convention hall. Most broadcasters had their correspondents provide coverage from network studios in New York City and Washington, D.C. In addition to filming their correspondents off-site, most broadcasters also used their primary control rooms in their headquarter cities, as opposed to the practice of establishing temporary control rooms in the convention city as many had for past conventions. Few national broadcasters sent crews to Milwaukee.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: After the downsizing, but even before it was announced that Biden and other speakers would no longer travel to Milwaukee, many broadcasters had already substantially scaled back plans to send reporters to the city, or had planned to forgo sending reporters to the city altogether. By July 29, Fox News was the only broadcaster confirmed to be sending correspondents to the convention hall itself. As of early July, MSNBC had still planned a "light footprint" in the city Milwaukee, but planned to position the reporters they do send outdoors, where they can socially distance from each other, instead of inside the convention venue. CNN also, as of early August, still planned to send reporters to Milwaukee. As of early August, CBS News was planning to send two correspondents to Milwaukee. In addition, after the downsizing, but even before it was that Biden and other speakers would no longer be traveling to Milwaukee, broadcasters had already planned to significantly decrease the size of crews they would send to capture the convention in comparison to previous years. CNN had already canceled its original plans to operate a "CNN Grill" studio and meeting space, similar to those it had operated at every major party convention since 2004. They had originally planned to use Turner Hall for such a space. Fox News, on the other hand, before the announcement that Biden and other speakers would not be traveling to the convention, still planned to retain their plans to utilize the Deer Camp building in Milwaukee as a broadcast space, and CBS News still planned to rent the Milwaukee Community Sailing Center for broadcast use. NBCUniversal cancelled similar plans to use the Good City Brewing location adjacent to the Fiserv Forum.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: Due to the fact that Biden and Harris spoke from Wilmington, Delaware, some media personnel covered the convention from there, with a number of broadcast vans and media tents being stationed in the parking lots of the Chase Center on the Riverfront (where Biden and Harris spoke) and adjacent Frawley Stadium.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: The originally-planned full-scale convention in the Fiserv Foum would have seen broadcasters set up live sets inside the arena, as has been practice at past conventions. Before the announcement that speakers would no longer be traveling to Milwaukee, convention organizers had been setting up some form of indoor and outdoor news media spaces at the Milwaukee convention hub.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: In addition to coverage by broadcasters, there is a stream broadcast by the DNC itself on fifteen platforms. These platforms are the convention's website, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Twitch, Amazon Prime Video, Microsoft Bing, Apple TV, Roku TV, Amazon Fire TV, AT&T U-verse, DirectTV, Comcast Xfinity X1, Comcast Xfinity Flex, and Amazon Alexa.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: In addition, the Biden campaign scheduled numerous virtual watch parties during the convention which showed a stream of the convention, with a number of them being hosted by prominent politicians and celebrities. Some outdoor socially-distanced watch parties were hosted by Democratic Party organizations, such as one for Connecticut convention delegates to attend at Dunkin' Donuts Park in Hartford. There were additionally drive-in watch parties held by Democratic Party organizers, including one right outside the Chase Center on the Riverfront on the night Biden accepted his nomination there.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: According to Nielsen, the Democratic National Convention averaged 21.6 million views across all traditional cable and television networks across all four nights. This is composed of 19.7 million viewers on night 1, 19.2 million viewers on night 2, 22.8 million viewers on night 3, 24.6 million viewers on night 4.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: Night one of the Democratic convention had 19.7 million viewers across all cable and television networks tracked by Nielsen. The first night of the Republican convention had 17.0 million viewers across the same networks.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: Night one of the Democratic convention had 18.8 million viewers across six major, traditional television (NBC, CBS, ABC) and cable networks (FNC, CNN, MSNBC) tracked by Nielsen. The first night of the Republican convention had 15.9 million viewers across the same six networks.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: The viewership for the first night of the convention was down by 25% compared to the equivalent night in 2016.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: Night two of the Democratic convention had 19.2 million viewers across all television networks tracked by Nielsen. The second night of the Republican convention had 19.4 million viewers across the same networks.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: Night two of the Democratic convention had 18.5 million viewers across six major, traditional television and cable networks tracked by Nielsen. The second night of the Republican convention had 18 million viewers across the same six networks. These numbers do not include viewers on streaming services.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: Night three of the Democratic convention had 22.8 million viewers across all television networks tracked by Nielsen. The third night of the Republican convention had 17.3 million viewers across the same networks.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: Night three of the Democratic convention had 21.5 million viewers across six major, traditional television and cable networks tracked by Nielsen.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: Night four of the Democratic convention had 24.6 million viewers across all television networks tracked by Nielsen.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: Compared to Night 3 of 2020, the only networks that saw a rise in viewership for Night 4 were Fox News Channel and ABC.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: The first polls conducted after the Democratic National Convention showed no convention bounce for Biden. Later polling, conducted after the Republican National Convention concluded the following week, indicated that there had been virtually no convention bounce for either party coming out of August conventions held in back-to-back weeks.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: Ahead of, and during, the conventions, various outlets had speculated that significant convention bounces were unlikely for either party. This was due to several cited factors. One was that it had been observed that convention bounces had been more minuscule in recent elections. Per some calculations, convention bounces had averaged just 2 points since 2004, compared to just under 7 points between 1968 and 2000. Per other calculations, average bounces since 1996 averaged 3.6 points, while bounces between 1962 and 1992 averaged 6.3 points. Another factor cited for why it was seen as unlikely for either party to generate a significant convention bounce was that polls in the 2020 race had, in the months prior to the convention, shown a remarkably steady race, with Biden maintaining an average lead of 6 points, exceeding a 10-point lead in some polls and never slipping below a lead of 4 points in the polling average. It has been shown that more stable races tend to see smaller convention bounces. Another was that the conventions, having been scaled-back due to the COVID-19 pandemic, were seen as less likely to generate as much attention as past conventions had, particularly due to the decrease in television viewership . Another was that the electorate was already strongly opinionated on the candidates, with more voters holding a strong opinion on Trump than any incumbent since at least 1980, and more voters holding a strong opinion on Biden than any challenger to an incumbent since at least 1980. Races where voters hold strong opinions on the candidates tend to see smaller convention bounces. Strong partisanship among the electorate was another cited factor.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: The Democrats were also seen as having factors which the Republican convention did not that might hamper its chances at a convention bump. One was the fact that the Republicans would hold their convention immediately following them. Additionally, the fact that Biden already had a large lead among independents heading into the convention possibly made Biden particularly unlikely to experience a convention bounce, as some speculated that Biden may have already been near his likely ceiling of support.


title: 2020 Democratic National Convention

text: While his electoral poll numbers may not have received a bounce, some polling showed Biden to have received a boost in favorability ratings.


title: Shava Ni Girdhari Lal

text: Shava Ni Girdhari Lal () is a 2021 Indian Punjabi-language comedy film directed by Gippy Grewal from a screenplay co-written with Rana Ranbir. Produced by Gippy Grewal, Vashu Bhagnani and Ashu Munish Sahani under the banners of Humble Motion Pictures, Pooja Entertainment and Omjee Star Studios, it stars Gippy Grewal, Neeru Bajwa, and Himanshi Khurana. Yami Gautam also stars in film marking her comeback in Punjabi film industry after 10 years. The film is a period comedy and plot is set in the 1940s. The principal photography of the film began on 3 April 2021, and it was theatrically released on 17 December 2021.


title: Shava Ni Girdhari Lal

text: Vashu Bhagnani is a co-producer of the film, it is his first Punjabi film as producer. 52 popular actors from Punjabi film industry are cast in one film for the first time.


title: Shava Ni Girdhari Lal

text: Kiddaan.com gave the film 2.5 stars out of 5 and praised the performances of cast. They didn't appreciate the theme and ending of the film and stated, "We believe this movie could have been a great watch if the makers would have tried to keep the theme of the movie specific." Concluding they said, "we are ending this review with a very straight forward and not honey-coated conclusion that you might like the movie only if you are a hard-core Gippy Grewal fan."


title: Shava Ni Girdhari Lal

text: The full soundtrack of the film is composed by Jatinder Shah with lyrics by Happy Raikoti, Kumaar, Amrit Maan, Satinder Sartaaj, Ricky Khan. The songs are sung by Gippy Grewal, Sunidhi Chauhan, Satinder Sartaaj, Amrit Maan and G Khan. Title track "Shava Ni Girdhari Lal" was released on 5 December 2021. Second track "Gori Diyan Jhanjhran" sung by Sunidhi Chauhan was released on 8 December 2021.


title: Changes (David Bowie song)

text: "Changes" is a song by English singer-songwriter David Bowie, originally released on his 1971 album "Hunky Dory". RCA Records then released it as a single from the album on 7 January 1972. Written following his promotional tour of America in early 1971, "Changes" was recorded at Trident Studios in London between June and July that year. Co-produced by Bowie and Ken Scott, it featured Strawbs member Rick Wakeman on piano and the musicians who would later become known as the Spiders from Mars: guitarist Mick Ronson, bassist Trevor Bolder and drummer Mick Woodmansey. The song also marks the first instance of Bowie playing the saxophone on one of his recordings.


title: Changes (David Bowie song)

text: At this point in his career, Bowie had experimented with numerous musical styles, all of which failed to earn him stardom. The lyrics of "Changes" reflect this, with the first verse focusing on the compulsive nature of artistic reinvention and distancing oneself from the rock mainstream. The second verse concerns clashes between children and their parents, urging them to allow their children to be themselves as teenagers, a topic Bowie had spoken out about before. Musically, "Changes" is an art pop song that features a distinctive piano riff. Upon release as a single, "Changes" flopped like its parent album. It wasn't until the success of its follow-up "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars" that the song garnered success. RCA later chose it as a B-side for the reissue of "Space Oddity" in 1975, which became Bowie's first UK number-one single.


title: Changes (David Bowie song)

text: Retrospectively, "Changes" is regarded as one of Bowie's best songs, with many praising Bowie's vocal performance and Wakeman's piano playing. It has also appeared on several best-of lists. His biographers have viewed the track as a manifesto of his entire career, predicting a constant change of musical styles. Bowie performed "Changes" frequently during his concert tours; it was the final song he performed on stage before his death in 2016. The song has appeared on numerous compilation albums and is the namesake of several. Several artists have covered the song, including Australian singer Butterfly Boucher for the 2004 film "Shrek 2", whose version featured new vocals from Bowie.


title: Changes (David Bowie song)

text: After completing a promotional tour of America in early 1971, English singer-songwriter David Bowie returned to his home at Haddon Hall in Beckenham, London, and began writing songs. In total, he composed over three-dozen songs there, many of which would appear on his next album "Hunky Dory" and its follow-up "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars". One of these tracks was "Changes", which he demoed between May and June 1971. Featuring Bowie on piano, the demo contained different lyrics than the final recording and remains unreleased.


title: Changes (David Bowie song)

text: Work on "Hunky Dory" officially began at Trident Studios in London on 8 June 1971 and concluded on 6 August. "Changes" was recorded sometime between June and July. Co-produced by Bowie and Ken Scott, he recorded it with pianist Rick Wakeman and the musicians who would later become known as the Spiders from Mars: guitarist Mick Ronson, bassist Trevor Bolder and drummer Mick Woodmansey. Wakeman, a noted session musician and member of the Strawbs, was asked to play during the "Hunky Dory" sessions and accepted. He had previously played Mellotron on Bowie's 1969 self-titled album. He recalled in 1995 that he met with Bowie in late June 1971 at Haddon Hall, where Bowie played him demos of "Changes" and "Life on Mars?" in "their raw brilliance". He recalled: "He [played] the finest selection of songs I have ever heard in one sitting in my entire life...I couldn't wait to get into the studio and record them." Bowie plays a saxophone solo on the final recording – his first feature of the instrument– which he recollected was recorded "when I was still going through ideas of using melodic saxophone." Bowie has said that the track "started out as a parody of a nightclub song, a kind of throwaway".


title: Changes (David Bowie song)

text: Musically, "Changes" is an art pop song. While primarily in 4/4 common time, the time signature changes to 2/4 twice (on the lines "different man" and "necks in it"), and four simultaneous bars of 3/4 feature different chords on each bar and are accompanied by Woodmansey's drum fills. According to James Perone, it features a "standard British pop song structure", with "clearly defined" verses, choruses and middle-eight sections. The song begins on a tonic chord (C major 7th) piano and strings, thereafter moving up in semitones: Dadd6th, D minor7, E7, F7. Critic Wilfrid Mellers described this intro as "near-anarchic", finding that the sequence "violates orthodox musical grammar". From there, the piano follows the same sequence: C–E–G–B (Cmaj7), D–F–A–C (Dm7), F–A–C–E (F7), and E–G–B–D (E7). O'Leary calls the progression "quintessential Bowie": it was "found by random movement, that sounded 'right' despite being technically 'wrong'."


title: Changes (David Bowie song)

text: After an "oh yeah" from Bowie, piano and kick drum eighth notes build anticipation before a distinctive riff begins. According to author Peter Doggett, Bowie did not know the chord changes on guitar or piano, but "he followed his fingers as they crept, slowly up and down the keyboard, augmenting familiar shapes or simply reproducing them a step or two along the ivories." Played by piano, saxophone, bass and strings, the riff is an eighth note melody that Doggett describes as a rising "diatonic major descent". O'Leary notes that the riff only appears twice in the entire song: once before the first verse and second after the first chorus.


title: Changes (David Bowie song)

text: The piano and bass are similar to the album track "Oh! You Pretty Things", going up and down a C to D scale. Doggett writes: "It was as if the piano was scared to rest in one place for more than a couple of beats, in case it would be hemmed in or halted. By restlessly moving, it kept its options open and its spirit alive." Like "Oh! You Pretty Things", "Changes" ends how it begins: on the C major 7th chord, although the chord sequence is in reverse. Saxophone, piano, strings and bass all play their final notes, fading into the distance.


title: Changes (David Bowie song)

text: The lyrics of "Changes" focus on the compulsive nature of artistic reinvention and distancing oneself from the rock mainstream. Perone calls them "thought-provoking," and "clearly autobiographical." At this point in his career, Bowie was frequently being told how to musically progress by his managers and labels, leading him to experiment with genres such as folk, hard rock and soul. This is reflected in the first verse, in which the narrator looks at himself through a mirror to help find his true identity. Perone argues that the verse serves as a "public acknowledgment" that these earlier styles, all of which failed to earn him stardom, were not the "true David Bowie style." Biographer Nicholas Pegg identifies the line "I turned myself to face me" as mirroring Bowie's encounter with himself in his 1970 track "The Width of a Circle". O'Leary writes that with "Changes", Bowie commits to a "life of constant revision." By saying "look out you rock 'n' rollers", Bowie is "throwing the gauntlet down to existing rockers" and "putting a distance between himself and the rock fraternity."


title: Changes (David Bowie song)

text: Like "Life on Mars?", "Changes" was a response to Frank Sinatra's "My Way"; biographer David Buckley cites the line "turn and face the strange" as "not a valedictory farewell, but a prophetic hello." According to Buckley, the phrase 'strange fascination' "not only embodies a continued quest for the new and the bizarre but also carries with it the force of compulsion, the notion of having to change to stay afloat artistically." The first verse elucidates the three most important components in Bowie's quest for stardom: the themes of identity, the "mutability" of character" and a "sense of play" in both first and third person, signaling the creation of Ziggy Stardust. Throughout the 1970s, Bowie had a "pathological fear" of repeating himself, both musically and visually. He gave himself the epithet 'faker' and proclaimed himself as "pop's fraud; the arch-dissembler." Pegg states that his identification of himself as the 'faker' gives him anxiety, believing that he is "much too fast" to be affected by how others' opinion of him.


title: Changes (David Bowie song)

text: The song's chorus, Bowie stuttering the 'ch' at the beginning of the word 'changes', has been compared to the English rock band the Who, specifically their 1965 song "My Generation". Both songs have stuttering vocals and similar lyrics ("hope I die before I get old" versus "pretty soon now you're gonna get older"). The second verse concerns clashes between children and their parents, urging them to allow their children to be themselves as teenagers. This is reflected in the line "Time may change me, but I can't trace time", which Pegg believes resembles Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are a-Changin'". Bowie had previously spoken about this issue in an interview with "The Times" in 1968: "We feel our parents' generation has lost control, given up, they're scared of the future. I feel it's basically their fault that things are so bad." In "Rolling Stone"s contemporary review of "Hunky Dory", John Mendelsohn acknowledged this, considering "Changes" to be "construed as a young man's attempt to reckon how he'll react when it's his time to be on the maligned side of the generation schism." The song has also been interpreted by "NME" editors Roy Carr and Charles Shaar Murray as touting "Modern Kids as a New Race".


title: Changes (David Bowie song)

text: RCA Records released "Hunky Dory" on 17 December 1971, with "Changes" sequenced as the opening track. It was subsequently released as the first single of the album on 7 January 1972, with the catalogue number RCA 2160 and fellow album track "Andy Warhol" as the B-side; it was Bowie's first single released by RCA. In France, the B-side was "Song for Bob Dylan", despite the label stating that it was "Andy Warhol". This single has been cited as Bowie's official US chart debut.


title: Changes (David Bowie song)

text: Upon release, like the album, it flopped commercially, failing to chart in the UK, and peaking at number 59 and 66 on the US "Cash Box" Top 100 and "Billboard" Hot 100 charts, respectively. Despite this, it became English disc jockey Tony Blackburn's record of the week. It was not until the success of Bowie's following album "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars" (1972) that recognition was brought upon "Hunky Dory" and "Changes", which according to Pegg quickly became a "turntable favorite" and "embedded" itself into the "pop-culture psyche". Carr and Murray later argued that "Oh! You Pretty Things" was the "obvious single" from the album over "Changes".


title: Changes (David Bowie song)

text: In 1975, RCA released "Changes", along with the "Ziggy Stardust" outtake "Velvet Goldmine", as a B-side of the UK reissue of "Space Oddity", which became Bowie's first UK number one single. This release also charted higher in the US, at number 38 and 41 on the "Cash Box" Top 100 and "Billboard" Hot 100, respectively, and also peaked at number 32 on the Canadian "RPM" Top Singles chart. Following Bowie's death in 2016, it charted again, peaking at number 49 on the UK Singles Chart, and number 10 on the US "Billboard" Rock Songs chart. It also reached the top-five in Sweden and number 84 in France. In April 2022, the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) awarded the song a gold certification for sales and streams exceeding 400,000 units.


title: Changes (David Bowie song)

text: "Changes" was met with positive reviews from music critics on release, with "Billboard" magazine naming it one of the strongest songs on the album. "Cash Box" said that it has "one of the most infectious chorus lines in recent memory." Reviewing "Hunky Dory", Danny Halloway of "NME" called "Changes" a "fantastic pop song", describing it as Bowie's "life story". In another review in "Rolling Stone", John Mendelsohn called the song's chorus "irresistible". Retrospectively, "Changes" has continued to be viewed in a positive light. In his book "The Complete David Bowie", Pegg calls Wakeman's piano performance "superb" and the song overall one of Bowie's "pivotal recordings". Paul Trynka writes that even though the song wasn't a commercial success initially, it would "energize a group of believers, who helped their golden boy ascend to fame over the months that followed." Ned Raggett of AllMusic calls the chorus "absolutely wonderful" and compliments everything from Wakeman's piano, Bowie's vocal performance and the performances of the Spiders from Mars. He concludes saying: "The descending chords of the bass hint at that particular glam rock element's incipient dominance, while Ken Scott's production and Mick Ronson's excellent string arrangement – not to mention Bowie's own winning sax part – complete the package."


title: Changes (David Bowie song)

text: "Changes" has frequently appeared on lists of Bowie's greatest songs. "Ultimate Classic Rock", in their 2015 list of Bowie's ten best songs, listed it at number two, calling it "a beautiful tune" and praising Bowie's vocal performance as one of his finest, "showcasing one of the most unique voices in rock history." The staff of "Rolling Stone" listed "Changes" as one of Bowie's 30 essential songs, writing that although Bowie said it started as somewhat of a "parody of a nightclub song", it ended up being a "st-st-st-stuttering rock anthem". In "The Guardian", Alexis Petridis voted it number 15 in his list of Bowie's 50 greatest songs in 2020, calling it a "perfectly written, irresistible mission statement that few heeded at the time." In other lists, "Changes" has ranked at number three, eight and nine by "NME", "Uncut" and Smooth Radio in 2018, 2015 and 2020, respectively. In another 2016 list ranking every Bowie single from worst to best, "Ultimate Classic Rock" placed "Changes" at number two, behind "Heroes", calling it "a pre-'Ziggy' burst of pop exuberance that still shines".


title: Changes (David Bowie song)

text: "Changes" has appeared on numerous best-of lists. In 2015, "Ultimate Classic Rock" placed the song on their list of the top 200 songs of the 1970s, writing, "Even before his career took off, Bowie was giving a glimpse of his future, singing about change in a voice that sounded an awful lot like a certain rock 'n' roll troubadour from Mars. After a few stumbling years, Bowie found his voice on 1971's "Hunky Dory". "Changes" is his coming-out party." The song was ranked at number 128 on "Rolling Stone" magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time in 2010; it was re-ranked number 200 in its 2021 revised list. It is one of four of Bowie's songs to be included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. In late 2016, the American Recording Academy inducted the song into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Based on the song's appearances in professional rankings and listings, the aggregate website Acclaimed Music lists "Changes" as the 12th most acclaimed song of 1971, the 48th most acclaimed song of the 1970s and the 226th most acclaimed song in history.


title: Changes (David Bowie song)

text: Retrospectively, "Changes" is described by Bowie's biographers as a manifesto of his entire career. Throughout the 1970s, Bowie changed his musical styles and appearances constantly; Doggett notes that each album he released between 1974 and 1977—"Diamond Dogs", "Young Americans", "Station to Station" and "Low"—could not have predicted the next. He was dubbed the "chameleon of rock" by numerous publications and biographers due to his constant reinvention throughout his career, which matches the overall theme in "Changes". Buckley notes that 1971 was a pivotal year for Bowie; it was the year in which he became "something of a pop-art agent provocateur. In a time when rock musicians looked to traditions and established standards, Bowie looked to be radically different and challenge tradition, reinventing himself again and again, thereby creating new standards and conventions. Doggett also notes that "Changes" is a "statement of purpose": it was the first track on "Hunky Dory", the first time his audience had heard of him since "The Man Who Sold the World" (1970), and his previous hard rock and metallic sound was not present. Furthermore, he states that the song was unlike "Space Oddity" and its parent album, but rather "pure, unashamedly melodic, gleefully commercial, gorgeously pop."


title: Changes (David Bowie song)

text: Bowie played the song for the BBC's "Johnny Walker Lunchtime Show" on 22 May 1972. This was broadcast in early June 1972 and eventually released on "Bowie at the Beeb" in 2000. Bowie frequently performed "Changes" throughout his concert tours. According to the artist, "it turned into this monster that nobody would stop asking for at concerts: " 'Dye-vid, Dye-vid – do Changes!' " I had "no" idea it would become such a popular thing." Performances from the Ziggy Stardust Tour have been released on "" (1983) and "Live Santa Monica '72" (2008). Another previously unreleased performance from Boston Music Hall on 1 October 1972 was released in 1989 on the original "Sound + Vision Plus" box set and on the 2003 reissue of his 1973 album "Aladdin Sane".


title: Changes (David Bowie song)

text: Performances from the Diamond Dogs Tour have been released on "David Live" (1974), "Cracked Actor (Live Los Angeles '74)" (2017), and "I'm Only Dancing (The Soul Tour 74)" (2020). Live versions from the 1976 Isolar Tour, the Glastonbury Festival and the Reality tour were released on "Live Nassau Coliseum '76", "Glastonbury 2000" (2018) and "A Reality Tour" (2010), respectively. On 9 November 2006, Bowie performed the song with American singer Alicia Keys at the Black Ball fundraiser in New York. Also performing "Wild Is the Wind" and "Fantastic Voyage", it was Bowie's final live performance before his death in 2016.


title: Changes (David Bowie song)

text: "Changes" has appeared on multiple compilation albums, including "Changesonebowie" (1976), "Changesbowie" (1990) (its namesakes, along with 1981's "Changestwobowie"), "The Best of David Bowie 1969/1974" (1997), "Best of Bowie" (2002), "Nothing Has Changed" (2014) and "Legacy" (2016). In 2015, the song, along with its parent album, was remastered for the "Five Years (1969–1973)" box set. It was released in CD, vinyl, and digital formats.


title: Changes (David Bowie song)

text: A quotation from the song was used as an epigraph for the John Hughes film "The Breakfast Club" (1985):


title: Changes (David Bowie song)

text: The song also appears in the 2015 Off-Broadway musical "Lazarus", written by Bowie and playwright Enda Walsh near the end of Bowie's life. The English pop group Bananarama recorded a version of "Changes" in 1993 with producers Mike Stock and Pete Waterman. Although officially unreleased, their version was leaked to the internet in 2016. That same year, the song was ranked at number 74 by internet radio station WDDF Radio in their first top 76 of the 1970s countdown.


title: Changes (David Bowie song)

text: In 2004, a new version of "Changes" by Australian artist Butterfly Boucher, featuring Bowie on additional vocals, was recorded for the soundtrack of the animated film "Shrek 2". Boucher, who was commissioned by the film's studio to provide a song, sent a recording of "Changes" to Bowie in December 2003 during his A Reality Tour, requesting additional backing vocals from the artist. In the Bahamas for the tour, Bowie travelled to Compass Point Studios, where he had previously recorded with the rock band Tin Machine, where he recorded a harmony vocal against Boucher's lead with Tony Visconti producing. Pegg describes this version as having a "lush arrangement" featuring piano, saxophone and strings. He and O'Leary both praise Bowie's vocal performance as one of the finest of his later career. That same year, Portuguese singer Seu Jorge recorded a Portuguese version for the Wes Anderson film "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou".


title: Changes (David Bowie song)

text: An alternative mix of "Changes" by Ken Scott was released in December 2021 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of "Hunky Dory", accompanied by a new lyric video. Scott explained in a statement:


title: The Kiss (Rodin sculpture)

text: The Kiss () is an 1882 marble sculpture by the French sculptor Auguste Rodin. The embracing nude couple depicted in the sculpture appeared originally as part of a group of reliefs decorating Rodin's monumental bronze portal "The Gates of Hell", commissioned for a planned museum of art in Paris. The couple were later removed from the "Gates" and replaced with another pair of lovers located on the smaller right-hand column.


title: The Kiss (Rodin sculpture)

text: The sculpture, "The Kiss", was originally titled Francesca da Rimini, as it depicts the 13th-century Italian noblewoman immortalised in Dante's "Inferno" (Circle 2, Canto 5) who falls in love with her husband Giovanni Malatesta's younger brother Paolo. Having fallen in love while reading the story of Lancelot and Guinevere, the couple are discovered and killed by Francesca's husband. In the sculpture, the book can be seen in Paolo's hand. The lovers' lips do not actually touch in the sculpture, suggesting that they were interrupted and met their demise without their lips ever having touched.


title: The Kiss (Rodin sculpture)

text: When critics first saw the sculpture in 1887, they suggested the less specific title "Le Baiser" ("The Kiss").


title: The Kiss (Rodin sculpture)

text: Rodin indicated that his approach to sculpting women was of homage to them and their bodies, not just submitting to men but as full partners in ardor. The consequent eroticism in the sculpture made it controversial. A bronze version of "The Kiss" ( high) was sent for display at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The sculpture was considered unsuitable for general display and relegated to an inner chamber with admission only by personal application.


title: The Kiss (Rodin sculpture)

text: Rodin's method of making large sculptures was to employ assistant sculptors to copy a smaller model made from a material which was easier to work than marble. Once they had finished, Rodin himself would put the finishing touches to the larger version.


title: The Kiss (Rodin sculpture)

text: Before creating the marble version of "The Kiss", Rodin produced several smaller sculptures in plaster, terracotta and bronze.


title: The Kiss (Rodin sculpture)

text: In 1888, the French government ordered the first large-scale marble version of "The Kiss" from Rodin for the 1889 "Exposition Universelle", but it was publicly displayed for the first time in the "Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts" in 1898. It was so popular that the company "Barbedienne" offered Rodin a contract to produce a limited number of smaller copies in bronze. In 1900 the statue was moved to the Musée du Luxembourg before being taken to its permanent location, the Musée Rodin, in 1918.


title: The Kiss (Rodin sculpture)

text: In 1900, Rodin made a copy for Edward Perry Warren, an eccentric American collector who lived in Lewes in Sussex, England, with his collection of Greek antiquities and his lover John Marshall. After seeing "The Kiss" in the Salon de Paris, the painter William Rothenstein recommended it to Warren as a possible purchase, but "The Kiss" had been commissioned by the French government and was not available for sale. In its place, Rodin offered to make a copy and Warren offered half of its original price (10,000 francs, instead of 20,000), but Rodin would not lower the price. The contract for the commission included that "the genitals of the man must be complete." A previous letter explained that "being a pagan and lover of antiquities", Warren hoped that the genitals of the man would be sculpted prominently in the Classical Greek tradition rather than modestly hidden.


title: The Kiss (Rodin sculpture)

text: When the sculpture arrived in Lewes in 1904, Warren placed it in the stables at the back of his home, Lewes House, on School Hill, where it remained for a decade. It is not known whether this location was chosen due to the great size of the sculpture or because it did not fulfil Warren's expectations. In 1914 the sculpture was loaned to the Lewes town council and put on public display in Lewes Town Hall. A number of puritanical local residents, led by headmistress Miss Kate Fowler Tutt, objected to the erotic nature of the sculpture. They were particularly concerned that it might encourage the ardour of the large number of soldiers who were billeted in the town at that time, and successfully campaigned to have the sculpture draped and screened from public view. It was returned to Warren's residence at Lewes House in 1917 where it remained stored in the stable for 12 years until Warren's death in 1928. The beneficiary of Warren's will, H. Asa Thomas, put the sculpture up for sale with Gorringes, the local auctioneers, but it failed to meet its reserve price and was withdrawn from sale. A few years later it was loaned to the Tate Gallery in London. In 1955 the Tate bought the sculpture for the nation at a cost of £7,500. In 1999 between 5 June and 30 October, "The Kiss" returned briefly to Lewes as part of an exhibition of Rodin's works. Its permanent home is the Tate Modern, however in September 2007, the work was displayed at the Tate Liverpool, Albert Dock for the duration of the celebrations surrounding both that city's 8th Centenary and Liverpool's European Capital of Culture status in 2008. It was next on loan to Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki in Auckland, New Zealand until 16 July 2017. It was loaned to Christchurch Mansion in Ipswich, UK for the 'Kiss and Tell' exhibition running from November 2018 to April 2019.


title: The Kiss (Rodin sculpture)

text: A third replica was commissioned in 1900 by Carl Jacobsen for his projected museum in Copenhagen, Denmark. The replica was made in 1903, and became part of the initial collection of the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, inaugurated in 1906.


title: The Kiss (Rodin sculpture)

text: The three larger marble versions were exhibited together at the Musée d'Orsay in 1995. A fourth copy, about in height – compared to for the copy in Paris – was made after the death of Rodin by sculptor Henri-Léon Gréber for the Rodin Museum of Philadelphia. A plaster cast can be found in the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes of Buenos Aires.


title: The Kiss (Rodin sculpture)

text: A large numbers of bronze casts have been done of "The Kiss". The Musée Rodin reports that the Barbedienne foundry alone produced 319. According to French law issued in 1978, only the first twelve can be called original editions.


title: The Kiss (Rodin sculpture)

text: In Spring 2003, artist Cornelia Parker intervened in "The Kiss" (1886) with the permission of the Tate Britain gallery, where it was exhibited at the time, by wrapping the sculpture in a mile of string. This was a historical reference to Marcel Duchamp's use of the same length of string to create a web inside a gallery in 1942. Although the intervention had been endorsed by the gallery, many viewers of the sculpture felt it offensive to the original artwork, prompting a further, unauthorised, intervention, in which Parker's string was cut by Stuckist Piers Butler, while couples stood around engaging in live kissing.


title: The Kiss (Rodin sculpture)

text: "The Kiss" is said to have been the influence for the song "Turn Of The Century", found on the 1977 release of "Going for the One" by the British band Yes.


title: The Kiss (Rodin sculpture)

text: "The Kiss" is figured into the plot of the "All in the Family" episode "Archie and "The Kiss"," where Archie Bunker tries to make his daughter, Gloria, give back a reproduction of the sculpture she had been given by the Bunkers' friend, Irene Lorenzo. Archie expresses his disgust over the morality of the sculpture and sexuality in artwork.


title: The Kiss (Rodin sculpture)

text: The statue is used for a Terry Gilliam animation in "Monty Python's Flying Circus". The female extends her left leg straight out, and the male moves his right hand over it, covering holes with the fingers and playing her like an ocarina. The same statue was later shown briefly in the movie "12 Monkeys", also directed by Gilliam.


title: The Kiss (Rodin sculpture)

text: "The Kiss" was part of a side story in Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney's debut novel "The Nest" (2016), where the sculpture is stolen from the rubble of ground zero after 9/11.


title: The Kiss (Rodin sculpture)

text: The local Lewes brewer, Harvey's Brewery, have brewed a beer named "Kiss", featuring a picture of "The Kiss" on its label, which is on sale in bottles and draught form around St Valentine's Day on 14 February.


title: The Kiss (Rodin sculpture)

text: In January 2004, the work was the subject of Episode 3 of the BBC Wales documentary series "The Private Life of a Masterpiece", broadcast on BBC Two.


title: Damita Jo (album)

text: Damita Jo is the eighth studio album by American singer Janet Jackson. It was released on March 30, 2004, by Virgin Records. The album takes its title from Jackson's middle name. Its music incorporates pop rock, electro, house, and hip hop styles, in addition to R&B. Its concept is based on Jackson's alternate personalities, exploring themes involving intimacy, monogamy, love, and dance. Its production is derived from producers including Dallas Austin, Scott Storch, BAG & Arnthor, Arnthor Birgisson, Rich Harrison, Télépopmusik, Just Blaze, and Kanye West; in addition to Jackson and Jam & Lewis.


title: Damita Jo (album)

text: The album was recorded over 18 months, the longest span of time Jackson had spent on a project. Jackson sought to find producers who identified with her emotions, intending "hard-hitting dance music". Producers declared it "a really sexy record" which was bold, fun, and positive. Multiple personae portrayed include the obstinate "Damita Jo" and lascivious "Strawberry Bounce". Jackson stated that they were "another way to express and expose a deeper part of me", comparing her writing process to that of a novelist; inventing characters with independent personalities. Jackson claimed that the aforementioned characters "absolutely" live inside of her, stating it "feels wonderful" to release them.


title: Damita Jo (album)

text: Prior to its completion, Jackson performed a medley of hits at the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show. The performance ended in Jackson's breast being exposed by surprise guest Justin Timberlake. Conglomerates involved with the broadcast who received massive fines by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC), including Viacom and CBS, and subsidiaries MTV and Infinity Broadcasting, enforced a blacklist of Jackson's singles and music videos, although Timberlake was unaffected. The album received generally favorable reviews. Jackson replied to critics focusing on the album's suggestive content and the Super Bowl incident in place of the music itself, stating she was "fascinated" by these interpretations, expressing concern for society's need to often place others within a specific sexual category. It garnered Jackson's second highest first-week sales in the US, and was certified platinum. "Damita Jo" sold over two million copies worldwide. It received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Contemporary R&B Album. Jackson was awarded several career accolades throughout its promotion. The album spawned four singles: "Just a Little While", "I Want You", "All Nite (Don't Stop)" and "R&B Junkie".


title: Damita Jo (album)

text: Prior to recording, Jackson experienced massive success with "All for You" (2001). Lead single "All for You" peaked at number one for seven weeks in the United States, becoming the biggest hit of the year, and attained success internationally. The entertainer embarked on the All for You Tour, which garnered over twelve million viewers upon its broadcast on television network HBO. Jackson had also recorded the unreleased theme for the film "Chicago". Jackson's personal life became a subject of media attention; in particular her rumored romances with actor Matthew McConaughey, recording artist Justin Timberlake, and producer Jermaine Dupri.


title: Damita Jo (album)

text: Jackson had considered postponing music for other career plans, but ultimately decided to record a new album. Jackson attempted several new musical styles; lyrically exploring her sexuality more explicitly and freely. A central theme of split personalities is incorporated within the content of several songs. Jackson stated "It shows the different sides of me, the different characters that I feel that I display at different moments in my life" [...] "I am divulging myself a little more on this album, and it's definitely much more intimate. That's another side of myself that people have seen, but not to this level." Comparing the process of producing to directing, Jackson searched for "sensitive people who can technically express what I'm going through emotionally" while seeking new collaborators. Jimmy Jam added: "Her albums are always what she's thinking at the moment." "Her thoughts may change six months from now. Her biggest thing is to be honest with her fans. Whatever stuff she wants to talk about, it's coming from her heart." Dallas Austin said "she always shows what's going on with her life through her records, reveals the phase she's in with her life and brings out that experience." Jackson's representative Stephen Huvane stated "Personally, she's not comfortable with being Janet in public [...] When she's performing, that's a different thing. We always planned that when the album came out, we would do the proper promotion." Producer Jimmy Jam commented: "Between albums she likes to go live life, recharge her batteries and be able to share her experiences. It not only raises her artistic level, she's able to talk about things she's going through – and other people can relate. That's one of the things that allows her to connect truly with the fans."


title: Damita Jo (album)

text: Alternate identities presented include "Damita Jo", an aggressive persona mentioned during the album's title track and "Sexhibition", and "Strawberry", a lascivious performer who emerges on "Strawberry Bounce". Speaking about the personae, Jackson said "She's another way to express and expose a deeper part of me." "Damita Jo" is "a lot harsher, and quick to put you in your place. She doesn't sit and ponder about stuff, where I'll go, 'Should I or shouldn't I?' She's tougher than I am. Then there's Strawberry. She's the most sexual of them all, the wildest." "Blender" magazine commented the latter identity represents "a time when she doesn't need to be the polite, professional Janet, and can turn into raw, unrestrained Strawberry." Jackson added "It's not an everyday indulgence. Not even every week. But every now and then I like playing around in that mode." Jackson said the characters "absolutely" live inside of her, exclaiming "it feels wonderful" to release them. The concept is further explored in "Looking for Love", in which Jackson says every individual is composed of "many people rolled into one", unified by a similar motive of seeking love, companionship, or identity.


title: Damita Jo (album)

text: For "Damita Jo", Jackson worked with producers such as Télépopmusik, Dallas Austin, BAG & Arnthor, Kanye West, Scott Storch, and Babyface. The record saw Jackson liberated from recording exclusively with Jam & Lewis; which she had attempted upon recording with Rockwilder and The Neptunes for "All for You". Jackson composed and co-produced all of the album's songs with the exception of two; writing with Cathy Dennis, Shelly Poole, INOJ, and then-upcoming artists Sean Garrett and John Legend. The album's early direction focused primarily on house music and electroclash. Planned collaborations with the Basement Jaxx, The DFA, and Richard X were announced, although the latter two did not come to fruition. Jimmy Jam stated, "It's kind of all over the place. We have some kind of up tempo dance house things, we have some funky down tempo things, a couple of real sensual ballads." Jon Platt, then-vice president of Virgin Records, commented, "The second half of the album was very easy once me and Janet got to know each other, and found the songs that really were true to her and that she can sing with conviction." An early report stated Jackson desired the record to be "edgy and experimental". Additional sessions with The Neptunes, Rich Harrison, Guy Chambers, Dre & Vidal, and Channel 7 took place, but were not included on the final release.


title: Damita Jo (album)

text: The album took eighteen months to complete, the longest Jackson had spent recording an album. Its initial stages of "hard-hitting dance music" were inspired by Zero 7 and Télépopmusik, who later produced the album's interludes. "Some of the songs have a definite sort of ambient quality to them," said producer Jimmy Jam. Jam added "There's some house stuff, which there always is [on her albums]." "There is going to be some more guitar-flavored things" [...] "happy up-tempo songs, the very funky tunes, the very sensual, sexy ballads." Dallas Austin considered it "easily the most sexy thing she's done." "To me, this is her "Dirty Mind"," Austin explained. "It's a really sexy record, but not in a sensual way. It's bold, it's fun, it's really positive. Nobody's sad, nobody's mad. It's just really fun songs where she happens to be talking frankly about sex." The sensual direction originated from the aura Jackson exuded to Austin while recording. "Guys won't know what to do with themselves after this," said Austin, laughing at the prospect. "It's one of the best records she's made." Then-newcomer Kanye West exclaimed his sessions with Jackson were "unbelievable", having previously expressed desire to collaborate. Songwriter Sean Garrett described being "starstruck", calling the session an "essential" part of his early career. "I thought working with Janet would change my life and it definitely did. [...] She was one of those people that I really wanted to work with." Anders Bagge of BAG & Arnthor commented "That's my dream, she's the one I would give anything to work with. The ultimate female artist," Arnthor Birgisson adding, "let's just say we will definitely be prepared if and when that happens."


title: Damita Jo (album)

text: Several collaborations were considered during the album's recording sessions, including duets with Pink and Gwen Stefani, who summoned Jackson's main producers Jam & Lewis for "Love.Angel.Music.Baby" during the same period "Damita Jo" was recorded. Jackson and Beyoncé planned to record a duet for the soundtrack of the film "Shark Tale". Producers Jam and Lewis, who had recently worked with Beyoncé for "The Fighting Temptations" soundtrack, commented "Obviously we'd love to have the involvement of Janet and Beyonce. [...] They've already expressed interest." A report of Beyoncé wanting to use Jackson's vocals for Destiny's Child's fourth album "Destiny Fulfilled" later surfaced. Prior to Jackson's Super Bowl performance incident, Jackson and Justin Timberlake discussed potentially recording a duet for the album, as well as a rumored collaboration for a Quincy Jones album, though neither came to fruition. A sequel to prior duet "Scream" with Michael Jackson titled "We've Had Enough" was reported for Michael's forthcoming studio album shortly after the album's release, produced by Rodney "Darkchild" Jerkins. Jackson was approached to record a cover of "Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours" with English boy band Blue, but could not proceed due to scheduling conflicts. A re-release intended to include six new tracks was reportedly planned. During a radio interview, entertainment producer Jonathan Murray was rumored to confirm additional details, saying a collaboration with Usher was initially planned after Jackson had met with him in London. Murray was also rumored to reveal some of the new tracks would be produced by Jermaine Dupri in addition to Lil Jon, who confirmed working with Jackson on entertainment channel E! in July. It was scheduled for the fourth quarter of the year, however, the concept was seemingly canceled and plans were withdrawn.


title: Damita Jo (album)

text: Jackson worked with several producers not featured on the album, including the Basement Jaxx, The Neptunes, Rich Harrison, Just Blaze, Channel 7, Guy Chambers, Dre & Vidal, Makeba Riddick, Nisan Stewart, and Missy Elliott; as well as rumored sessions with Rodney "Darkchild" Jerkins. Additional songs with Dallas Austin, Télépopmusik, and Jam & Lewis were also not used. Sessions with The DFA, Richard X, Daniel Bedingfield, Mario Winans, and Diddy were planned but did not take place. Several unused songs have since leaked onto the internet. Two songs produced by Rich Harrison titled "Pops Up!" and "Speed it Up (Put it On Me)" were leaked along with "Love Me", a newly recorded urban remix of "Just a Little While" produced by Just Blaze. The latter two appeared on a Japan bootleg vinyl.


title: Damita Jo (album)

text: Other outtakes include "Could this Be Love", appearing on unofficial Russian pressings following "Like You Don't Love Me" and later used in the production of Usher's "Truth Hurts", and "Ruff", produced by The Neptunes. Jackson considered including "Ruff" on her tenth album "Discipline". Two other demos produced with Harrison titled "Clap Your Hands" and "What Can I Say" also leaked. In December 2013, several demos were released via Tumblr; including demos of "SloLove" with an unused acoustic bridge and ending, and extended version with an instrumental breakdown and acoustic midsection, as well as demos of "All Nite (Don't Stop)" and "Put Your Hands On" with slightly altered production. Three unused songs produced with Dallas Austin are titled "Lucky Again", "Let it Go", and "If You Want Me To". An unused song titled "Almond Joy" was written with Nisan Stewart and likely produced with Missy Elliott. Jackson considered writing a song about the Super Bowl incident to express her concerns.


title: Damita Jo (album)

text: The album's lyrical content is divided between themes of love and romance, while also discussing lust and monogamous intimacy. An underlying theme of alternate personalities is explored, with Jackson's substitute personae "Damita Jo" and "Strawberry" appearing on several songs. Jackson explained the album shows several sides of her personality, as well as a "more private side"; saying "The album is about love[. ...] Damita Jo is one of the characters that lives inside of me." A producer stated Jackson had done "a lot of the writing and co-production", conceptualizing "a balance of a lot of different sides of Janet's personality." After Jackson's controversial Super Bowl performance incident, Jackson was urged to remove or tone down the suggestive lyrics of several songs, but resisted pressure to do so. "A lot of people had concerns and wanted me to take certain songs off the album, but I refused, because in doing so I wouldn't be who I am," said Jackson. "I'm not going to change, and that's fine. Either they like it, or they don't." Spliced between several songs are "mystifying" interludes consisting of brief autobiographical soliloquies regarding relaxation, astrology, and Karma; in which Jackson attempts to intimately communicate her inner thoughts with the listener.


title: Damita Jo (album)

text: The album's opening monologue, "Looking for Love", serves as a prelude to the album's content of romance and passion. Jackson deciphers society's unification within the desire for affection in a breathy tone over a spatial and "dreamy" electronic backing: "So many different characters live within us – all looking for love." The florid discourse was considered "quasi spiritual" and "deeply sensual".


title: Damita Jo (album)

text: The second song, "Damita Jo", is composed of hip-hop and brittle funk. The instrumentation includes bells, cat calls, and rap inflected scratches, with "shyly sexual" vocals. Thematically, Jackson focuses on being misunderstood in the media, in "Do you think that I'm that person you watch on T.V.?", and the concept of a hidden personality. The song's "tricked-out" lyrics feature Jackson reflecting her different moods, in "sexy, quiet, shy, but down for a good time", and describe her alter persona, in "Miss Jackson don't, but Damita sure would."


title: Damita Jo (album)

text: "Sexhibition" is an electro-funk song composed of "cleverly crafted" verbal puns, delivered with "saucy assertiveness". The song opens with rattling tablas and stuttering guitars. In the lyrics, Jackson again sings from the point of view of "Damita Jo", in "intermittent vocal bubbles" to discuss the pleasures she intends to provide. Jackson states "Relax, it's just sex", at the song's closing. The fourth track, "Strawberry Bounce", depicts Jackson method acting a sensual display as alter ego "Strawberry". Characterizing herself as a one-woman gentleman's club, Jackson asks her partner to "Let me be your playground". The song morphs a sample of Jay-Z's vocals into its instrumentation of chimes, snapping rhythms, and synthesizers. Fusing new-school hip-hop with pop, Jackson sings "watch the way I pump it, the way it works is gonna keep you comin'", in a feverish pant. Jackson's looped chorus hook, and the song's "tasty" beat, were described to compose an "insanely catchy number", which merits repeats and "begs to be remixed, flipped, and stripped".


title: Damita Jo (album)

text: "My Baby" is a mid-tempo love song depicting a sonic valentine to Jackson's fiancé. The song features gentle acoustic guitars and shuffling percussion, and guest vocals from Kanye West, over "breezy" and "laidback" production. Jackson delivers the chorus in a reassuring manner; described as a "sotto voce purr". "The Islands" is a spoken-word segment in which Jackson confesses her admiration for the island of Anguilla, the beach, and tropical humidity. The interlude segues into "Spending time With You", a contemporary "slow jam". Lyrically, the song captures Jackson in a moment of love. Jackson speaks about evenings relaxing in prior said location in brief interlude, "Magic Hour", which transitions to "Island Life". In "Island Life", described as "pure seduction", Jackson refers to herself and a companion in an exotic paradise in a lilting vocal: "Island in the sun, just you and I will go/Ride into the wave ." Its instrumentation contains throbbing bass and light concoctions of Caribbean-influenced music and ragga pop.


title: Damita Jo (album)

text: "All Nite (Don't Stop)", the album's third single, contains elements of electropop and funk; incorporated with varied-instrumentation, including samba, grime, and Latin percussion. The song talks about enjoying leisure time dancing at a club through lyrical metaphors: "Shake it 'til you're shaking the floor/Pop it like you're popping a cork/Don't stop, don't stop." The "ultra-sexy" song was, according to a review, primed to "fill dancefloors around the globe with its sultry groove and shocking lyrics." Eleventh track "R&B Junkie" has a "retro" feel consisting of 1980s funk, dance-pop, and upbeat synths. It transforms a brief sample from Evelyn King into a new composition, considered a likely candidate for a summer club hit. The song's positive vibe was described as a sonic "ambrosia".


title: Damita Jo (album)

text: "I Want You" is a classic pop ballad influenced by Motown music of the 1950s and 1970s. The song's instrumentation includes a chime-studded texture, violins, heavy drums, and a girl-group arrangement over production described as an "electronic reconstruction". The "retro" song was likened to the music of Karen Carpenter, and has a "swooning charm". "Like You Don't Love Me" blends guitars and heavy bass with youthful vocals and a repeated chorus littered throughout. The lyrics talk about feeling neglected sexually, with Jackson encouraging her partner to role play as if they were not in a monogomous relationship: "You need to make love to me/Like you don't love me [...] Do me like you wanna do them other girls." The song ends with a spoken reprise of the album's title track's chorus.


title: Damita Jo (album)

text: The ballad "Thinkin' 'Bout My Ex" continues the album's transition into a distinctly slower tempo. Backed by acoustic guitars, Jackson displays humanity in the song's topic of longing for a former companion while in a new relationship. Jackson apologizes to her current partner: "When I'm holding you late at night/I'm thinkin' about my ex [...] And I know sorry doesn't mend your broken heart." The song's theme was considered "heartening" and a "crucial" culpability. "Warmth" is described as an "aural journey" in which Jackson performs oral sex on her partner while in a moving vehicle. Jackson again displays method acting; providing descriptive details of the event over swirling ambient guitars. Whispers and moans are heard, as Jackson compliments her companion, and performs with authority over the track's minimal "bass thump": "Just like the water from the shore/Let your rain pour [...] But nothing can compare to the warmth of my mouth." Jackson sings over the light sound of rain and thunder, representing climax and ecstasy. Jackson later clarified "There "was" something in my mouth" as it was recorded.