JOAN BAEZ

BIOGRAPHY

Joan Chandos Baez born January 9, 1941) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and activist. Her contemporary folk music often includes songs of protest and social justice. Baez has performed publicly for over 60 years, releasing over 30 albums. Fluent in Spanish and English, she has also recorded songs in at least six other languages.

Baez is generally regarded as a folk singer, but her music has diversified since the counterculture era of the 1960s and encompasses genres such as folk rock, pop, country, and gospel music. She began her recording career in 1960 and achieved immediate success. Her first three albums, Joan Baez, Joan Baez, Vol. 2 and Joan Baez in Concert, all achieved gold record status. Although a songwriter herself, Baez generally interprets other composers' work, having recorded songs by the Allman Brothers Band, the Beatles, Jackson Browne, Leonard Cohen, Woody Guthrie, Violeta Parra, the Rolling Stones, Pete Seeger, Paul Simon, Stevie Wonder, Bob Marley, and many others. She was one of the first major artists to record the songs of Bob Dylan in the early 1960s; Baez was already an internationally celebrated artist and did much to popularize his early songwriting efforts. On her later albums she has found success interpreting the work of more recent songwriters, including Ryan Adams, Josh Ritter, Steve Earle, Natalie Merchant, and Joe Henry.

Baez's acclaimed songs include "Diamonds & Rust" and covers of Phil Ochs's "There but for Fortune" and The Band's "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down". She is also known for "Farewell, Angelina", "Love Is Just a Four-Letter Word", "Forever Young", "Here's to You", "Joe Hill", "Sweet Sir Galahad" and "We Shall Overcome".

Baez performed fourteen songs at the 1969 Woodstock Festival and has displayed a lifelong commitment to political and social activism in the fields of nonviolence, civil rights, human rights, and the environment. Baez was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on April 7, 2017.

Amnesty International Ambassador of Conscience Award 2015 to Joan Baez and Ai Wei Wei.

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HARRY BELAFONTE

BIOGRAPHY

Harry Belafonte (born Harold George Bellanfanti Jr.; March 1, 1927) is an American singer, songwriter, activist, and actor. One of the most successful Jamaican-American pop stars, as he popularised the Trinbagonian Caribbean musical style with an international audience in the 1950s. His breakthrough album Calypso (1956) was the first million-selling LP by a single artist.

Belafonte is known for his recording of "The Banana Boat Song", with its signature lyric "Day-O". He has recorded and performed in many genres, including blues, folk, gospel, show tunes, and American standards. He has also starred in several films, including Carmen Jones (1954), Island in the Sun (1957), and Odds Against Tomorrow (1959).

Belafonte considered the actor, singer and activist Paul Robeson a mentor and was a close confidant of Martin Luther King Jr. in the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s. As he later recalled, "Paul Robeson had been my first great formative influence; you might say he gave me my backbone. Martin King was the second; he nourished my soul." Throughout his career, Belafonte has been an advocate for political and humanitarian causes, such as the Anti-Apartheid Movement and USA for Africa. Since 1987, he has been a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. He was a vocal critic of the policies of the George W. Bush presidential administrations. Belafonte acts as the American Civil Liberties Union celebrity ambassador for juvenile justice issues.

Belafonte has won three Grammy Awards (including a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award), an Emmy Award, and a Tony Award. In 1989, he received the Kennedy Center Honors. He was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1994. In 2014, he received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the Academy's 6th Annual Governors Awards.

Amnesty International Ambassador of Conscience Award 2013 to Malala Yousafzai and Harry Belafonte.

BONO

BIOGRAPHY

Bono is an Irish singer-songwriter, activist, philanthropist, and businessman. He is the lead vocalist and primary lyricist of rock band U2.

Bono established himself as a passionate frontman for the band through his expressive vocal style and grandiose gestures and songwriting. His lyrics frequently include social and political themes, and religious imagery inspired by his Christian beliefs. During U2's early years, Bono's lyrics contributed to the group's rebellious and spiritual tone. As the band matured, his lyrics became inspired more by personal experiences shared with the other members. As a member of U2, Bono has received 22 Grammy Awards and has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Aside from his music, Bono is an activist for social justice causes, both through U2 and as an individual. He is particularly active in campaigning for Africa, for which he co-founded DATA, EDUN, the ONE Campaign, and Product Red.In pursuit of these causes, he has participated in benefit concerts and lobbied politicians and heads of state for relief. Bono has been honoured for his philanthropic efforts. In 2005, Bono was named one of the Time Persons of the Year. He was granted an honorary knighthood by Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom in 2007 for "his services to the music industry and for his humanitarian work", and was made a Commandeur of the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Order of Arts and Letters) in 2013. 

A fervent supporter of Amnesty International, Bono has participated in two events produced by STAAGES: Electric Burma : Amnesty International Ambassador of Conscience Award 2009 to Aung San Suu Kyi and Amnesty International Ambassador of Conscience Award 2013 to Malala Yousafzai and Harry Belafonte.

Electric Burma:
Amnesty International Ambassador of Conscience Award 2009 to Aung San Suu Kyi

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Amnesty International Ambassador of Conscience Award 2013 to Malala Yousafzai and Harry Belafonte.

TONY BRAUNAGEL

BIOGRAPHY

Tony Braunagel is an American drummer, record producer and composer, from Houston, Texas. He was the drummer in Paul Kossoff‘s band Back Street Crawler, renamed Crawler after Kossoff’s death in 1976.
In 1979 Braunagel relocated to Los Angeles where he found work touring and recording with artists such as Eric Burdon, Rickie Lee Jones and Bette Midler. In 1984 Tony took the drum chair in Bonnie Raitt’s band, playing on the albums Nick of Time and Luck of the Draw and touring with her until the early 1990s.

Throughout the 1990s Braunagel played on many sessions including drumming on two Grammy award winning albums by Taj Mahal – Señor Blues and Shoutin’ in Key, the latter of which Braunagel produced. He also spent several years touring with Taj Mahal and The Phantom Blues Band.

MAX BUSKOHL

BIOGRAPHY

After establishing himself with the German band Empty Trash in 2005, Max Buskohl burst onto the European scene as a contestant on season 4 of German TV’s hit talent search “Deutschland sucht den Superstar”. He was part of the album, “[Klaus] Voorman & Friends,” performing alongside Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens). The excellent singer songwriter continued with “Confessions”, a smash album with his band Empty Trash in 2009. His long awaited first solo album “Sidewalk Conversation” was out in May 2012 including the hit singles “No more bad days” and “Never Fall In Love Again”.

MAHALIA BARNES

BIOGRAPHY

Mahalia Barnes is an Australian soul singer/songwriter and the daughter of Aussie rock legend Jimmy Barnes. As a child, she teamed with her siblings Eliza-Jane, Elly-May and Jackie to form the kiddie-pop group the Tin Lids. Later, she sang backup for her father and other performers before striking out on her own with her band the Soul Mates. Her recordings include the digital EP “Live at the Basement” (2006), another EP, “Mahalia Barnes & the Soul Mates” (2007) and her debut full-length album “Volume 1″ (2008).

JIMMY BARNES

BIOGRAPHY

The Scottish-born singer made his name out of Australia, first with the group Cold Chisel and then as a solo artist, with 13 solo albums and nine No. 1 hits down under. Barnes also worked with INXS, on its cover of the Easybeats’ “Good Times” and co-writing the original “Laying Down the Law;” after frontman Michael Hutchence’s death he also fronted the band at the Mushroom 25 Concert in 1998. Barnes has recorded with Tina Turner, Huey Lewis, Mick Fleetwood, Kim Carnes, Journey’s Jonathan Cain and Neal Schon and others, and was part of the all-star hard rock group Living Loud. Barnes was inducted into the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Hall of Fame in 2005. 

JANE BIRKIN

BIOGRAPHY

Jane Birkin is a British film actress known for her bold role choices, and she’s been equally fearless in her forays into music. A regular voice for French composer Serge Gainsbourg — and the mother of their daughter, actress-singer Charlotte Gainsbourg — Birkin’s biggest hit was the sexuality explicit “Je t’aime…moi non plus” (“I love you…me neither”) that was so controversial in 1969 it was banned on radio stations in many countries. Birkin recorded 13 albums and appeared in the films “Dust” with Trevor Howard,”Death on the Nil” and “Daddy Nostalgie/These Foolish Things” with Dirk Bogarde. She has also been active with Amnesty International fighting the death penalty and AIDS, was an activist in Sarajevo during the siege, a campaigner for democracy in Burma & Aung San Suu Kyi for the last 10 years, and currently works toward the preservation of french public hospitals.

ERIC BURDON

BIOGRAPHY

A member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame since 1994, and hailed by Rolling Stone as one of the 100 Greatest Voices of All Time, Eric Burdon’s music forged new territory while also topping the charts for more than five decades. A native of Newcastle, England, Burdon was a founding member and front man of the British Invasion band The Animals, and is the voice behind such iconic hits as “The House of the Rising Sun,” “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood,” and “We Gotta Get Out of This Place.” Burdon continued through the years to perform with different iterations of the Animals, while also founding and fronting the funk group War, one of the first multiracial bands, and topped the charts again with his groundbreaking hit single “Spill the Wine”.  Five decades, 50 records, 6 millions albums sold into his career he shows no signs of slowing down with a new release coming this year.

BLIND BOYS OF ALABAMA

BIOGRAPHY

The Blind Boys of Alabama formed in 1939 at the Alabama Institute for the Negro Blind in Talladega, Alabama. Lead singer Jimmy Carter remains in the group from the founding lineup. The Blind Boys have won five Grammy Awards and received a Grammy  Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009. The Blind Boys were inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 2007. They have toured with Tom Petty, Peter Gabriel, Mavis Staples and Aaron Neville and recorded with Ben Harper, Lou Reed, Bonnie Raitt and Willie Nelson, among many others.