13th Annual American Music Awards | |
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Date | January 27, 1986 |
Venue | Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles, California |
Country | United States |
Hosted by | Diana Ross |
Television/radio coverage | |
Network | ABC |
Runtime | 180 min. |
Produced by | Dick Clark Productions |
The 13th Annual American Music Awards were held on January 27, 1986.
Francis Albert Sinatra was an American singer and actor. Nicknamed the "Chairman of the Board" and later called "Ol' Blue Eyes," he is regarded as one of the most popular entertainers of the mid-20th century. Sinatra is among the world's best-selling music artists, with an estimated 150 million record sales globally.
Whitney Elizabeth Houston was an American singer, actress, film producer, and philanthropist. Known as "the Voice", she is one of the most awarded entertainers and one of the best-selling music artists of all time, with sales of over 220 million records worldwide. Her crossover appeal on the popular music charts and her performances influenced the breaking down of gender and racial barriers, as well as popular culture. Known for her vocal ability and distinctive timbre, Rolling Stone ranked Houston second on their list of the greatest singers of all time. Her life and career have been the subject of multiple documentaries and television specials.
Janet Damita Jo Jackson is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and dancer. She is noted for her innovative, socially conscious and sexually provocative records, as well as elaborate stage shows. Her sound and choreography became a catalyst in the growth of MTV, enabling her to rise to prominence while breaking gender and racial barriers in the process. Lyrical content that focused on social issues and lived experiences set her reputation as a role model for youth.
Tina Turner was a singer, songwriter, and actress. Known as the "Queen of Rock 'n' Roll", she rose to prominence as the lead singer of the husband-wife duo Ike & Tina Turner before launching a successful career as a solo performer.
Madonna Louise Ciccone is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Regarded as the "Queen of Pop", she has been recognized for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, songwriting and visual presentation. Madonna's works, which incorporate social, political, sexual, and religious themes, have generated both controversy and critical acclaim. A cultural icon spanning both the 20th and 21st centuries, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame called her one of the most "well-documented figures of the modern age" in 2008. Various scholarly reviews, literature, and art works have been created about her along with an academic mini subdiscipline devoted to her called Madonna studies.
Duran Duran are an English pop rock band formed in Birmingham in 1978 by singer Stephen Duffy, keyboardist Nick Rhodes and guitarist/bassist John Taylor. After several early changes, the band's line-up settled in May 1980 as Rhodes, Taylor, singer Simon Le Bon, guitarist Andy Taylor and drummer Roger Taylor.
Leslie Sebastian Charles, known professionally as Billy Ocean, is a Trinidadian-born British singer and songwriter. Between 1976 and 1988, he had a series of hit songs in the UK and internationally.
Helen Folasade Adu, known professionally as Sade Adu or simply Sade, is a Nigerian-born British singer, known as the lead vocalist of her band Sade. One of the most successful British female artists in history, she is often recognised as an influence on contemporary music. Her success in the music industry was recognised with the Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 2002, and she was made Commander in the 2017 Birthday Honours.
Irene Cara Escalera was an American singer and actress who rose to prominence for her role as Coco Hernandez in the 1980 musical film Fame, and for recording the film's title song "Fame", which reached No. 1 in several countries. In 1983, Cara co-wrote and sang the song "Flashdance... What a Feeling", for which she shared an Academy Award for Best Original Song and won a Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance in 1984.
Robert Keith McFerrin Jr. is an American jazz singer, songwriter, and conductor. His vocal techniques include singing fluidly but with quick and considerable jumps in pitch—for example, sustaining a melody while also rapidly alternating with arpeggios and harmonies—as well as scat singing, polyphonic overtone singing, and improvisational vocal percussion. He performs and records regularly as an unaccompanied solo vocal artist. He has frequently collaborated with other artists from both the jazz and classical scenes.
Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory.
Anita Denise Baker is an American singer-songwriter. She is known for her soulful ballads, particularly from the height of the quiet storm period in the 1980s.
"We Are the World" is a charity single originally recorded by the supergroup USA for Africa in 1985. It was written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie and produced by Quincy Jones and Michael Omartian for the album We Are the World. With sales in excess of 20 million copies, it is the eighth-best-selling physical single of all time.
Ned Washington was an American lyricist born in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
Whitney Houston is the debut studio album by American singer Whitney Houston. It was released on February 14, 1985, by Arista Records. Whitney Houston initially had a slow commercial response, but began getting more popular in mid-1985. It eventually topped the Billboard 200 for 14 weeks in 1986, generating three number-one singles—"Saving All My Love for You", "How Will I Know" and "Greatest Love of All"—on the Billboard Hot 100, which made it both the first debut album and the first album by a solo female artist to produce three number-one singles.
"How Will I Know" is a song recorded by American singer Whitney Houston for her self-titled debut studio album. It was released on November 22, 1985 by Arista Records as the album's third single. Originally written and composed by George Merrill and Shannon Rubicam, it was originally intended for pop singer Janet Jackson, who passed on it. Houston then recorded the song with altered lyrics and production from Narada Michael Walden.
The Casting Society, formerly known as Casting Society of America (CSA), was founded in Los Angeles, California, in 1982 as a professional society of about 1,200 casting directors and associate casting directors for film, television, theatre, and commercials in Canada, Europe, Australia, Asia and Africa, and the United States. The nonprofit organization announced the name change from Casting Society of America to Casting Society on February 10, 2022. The society is not to be confused with an industry union. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters represent most of the major casting directors and associate casting directors in Hollywood. Members use the post-nominal letters "CSA" when credited for their work.
"In Too Deep" is a song by English rock band Genesis, included as the fourth track on their 13th studio album, Invisible Touch (1986). It was released as the second single from the LP in the UK and the fifth single in the US. The single was a success in America during the summer of 1987; it reached the No. 3 spot on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, and the No. 1 spot on the Adult Contemporary chart. The song was only performed live during the 1986 North American legs during the Genesis 1986–87 Invisible Touch world tour. An October 1986 performance of the song was included on the 1992 live album The Shorts.
"Sledgehammer" is a song by the English rock musician Peter Gabriel. It was released in April 1986 as the lead single from his fifth studio album, So (1986). It was produced by Gabriel and Daniel Lanois. It reached No. 1 in Canada on 21 July 1986, where it spent four weeks; No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the United States on 26 July 1986; and No. 4 on the UK Singles Chart, thanks in part to its music video. It was his biggest hit in North America and ties with "Games Without Frontiers" as his biggest hit in the United Kingdom.
Madonna Live: The Virgin Tour is the second video album and the first live release by American singer-songwriter Madonna. It was released by Warner Music Video and Sire Records on November 13, 1985 and contains the concert footage from The Virgin Tour, filmed at Cobo Arena in Detroit, Michigan on May 25, 1985. Director Daniel Kleinman, who presided over the shooting of the tour on video, submitted the footage to Warner Bros. Records, who decided to release it as a video album. Madonna wanted to have a proper introduction added before the concert footage and asked director James Foley to shoot one, which portrayed her with her first image makeover, reciting lines related to how she became famous.