Ashanti Shequoiya Douglas (born October 13, 1980), known simply as Ashanti, is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, dancer and actress. Ashanti is known for her eponymous debut album, which featured the hit song "Foolish", and sold over 503,000 copies in its first week of release throughout the U.S. in April 2002. In 2003, the self-titled debut album won Ashanti her first Grammy Award for Best Contemporary R&B album. Her second release continued her success and platinum certifications throughout the 2000s and her hit singles.
Ashanti wrote and sang background on Jennifer Lopez's "Ain't It Funny (Murder Remix)", which reached number one on Billboard Hot 100, which was also in the top 10 chart at the same time as "Foolish", "Always on Time" (with Ja Rule), and "What's Luv?" (with Fat Joe). Later that year, she was acclaimed as the "Princess Of Hip-Hop & R&B" by her label and capped off her successful debut by winning eight Billboard awards and two American Music Awards.
Ashanti is the self-titled debut studio album by American R&B recording artist Ashanti; it was released on April 2, 2002, by Murder Inc. Records and Def Jam Records. The album was recorded between 2001 and 2002 in Crackhouse Studios (New York) and SoundCastle Studios (Los Angeles), during the period of time where Ashanti was writing for other artists. Ashanti worked with a variety of producers including Irv Gotti, Chink Santana, 7 Aurelius, Jared Thomas, Reggie Wright as well as Ashanti co-writing all the songs on the album. Its music incorporates R&B, hip hop, hip hop soul and urban. The album features guest vocals from The Notorious B.I.G., Irv Gotti and Ja Rule.
Ashanti debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 and Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart with first-week sales of an impressive 503,000 units, the biggest first-week sales for a debut female artist. The album was certified triple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America for shipments of 3,000,000 copies on December 17, 2002. It earned Ashanti three Grammy nominations for Best New Artist, Best Contemporary R&B Album, and Best Female R&B Vocal Performance. Ashanti also received two additional Grammy nominations in the same year for other projects, both in the category of Best Rap/Sung Collaboration.
Ashanti Region (or Ashanti; Pronunciation of "Ashanti"; pronunciation: /ˈæʃɑːnˈtiː/ A-shahn-TEE) is a city-state autonomous region of Ghana and is the homeland of the Ashanti ethnic group, occupying a total land surface of 24,389 km2 (9,417 sq mi) and partially overlapping with the cultural extension of Ashantiland. The native indigenous people of Ashanti are colloquially known as Ashantis. Ashanti occupies 10.2% of the total land area of Ghana as the third largest of 10 administrative regions. Ashanti is centered on the Ashanti capital, megacity Kumasi – also kmnown as Kumasi metropolis. The immediate state surrounding the Ashanti capital megacity Kumasi is called Ashanti.
Ashanti was founded in 1670 and the Ashanti capital Kumasi was founded in 1680 the late 17th century by Ashanti King Asantehene Osei Tutu I (the Emperor King of the Ashanti Kingdom) on the advice of Osei Tutu I premier Komfo Anokye. The borders of Ashanti were extended in the 18th century through Ashanti Kingdom conquering of lands then in the early 20th century contracted in area through four Anglo-Ashanti wars from 1823 to 1896 and the War of the Golden Stool in 1902, becoming the Ashanti Protectorate until 1935 and sovereign state from 1935 prior to entering a state union under Ashanti King Asantehene Prempeh II transitioning from an Ashanti sovereign state to an Ashanti autonomous region, on 6 March 1957 with Ghana to present-day.
A book is a set of written, printed, illustrated, or blank sheets, made of ink, paper, parchment, or other materials, fastened together to hinge at one side. A single sheet within a book is a leaf, and each side of a leaf is a page. A set of text-filled or illustrated pages produced in electronic format is known as an electronic book, or e-book.
Books may also refer to works of literature, or a main division of such a work. In library and information science, a book is called a monograph, to distinguish it from serial periodicals such as magazines, journals or newspapers. The body of all written works including books is literature. In novels and sometimes other types of books (for example, biographies), a book may be divided into several large sections, also called books (Book 1, Book 2, Book 3, and so on). An avid reader of books is a bibliophile or colloquially, bookworm.
A shop where books are bought and sold is a bookshop or bookstore. Books can also be borrowed from libraries. Google has estimated that as of 2010, approximately 130,000,000 unique titles had been published. In some wealthier nations, printed books are giving way to the usage of electronic or e-books, though sales of e-books declined in the first half of 2015.
A book is a set or collection of written, printed, illustrated, or blank sheets, made of paper, parchment, or other material, usually fastened together to hinge at one side.
Book or Books may also refer to:
Musical theatre is a form of theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an integrated whole. Although musical theatre overlaps with other theatrical forms like opera and dance, it may be distinguished by the equal importance given to the music as compared with the dialogue, movement and other elements. Since the early 20th century, musical theatre stage works have generally been called, simply, musicals.
Although music has been a part of dramatic presentations since ancient times, modern Western musical theatre emerged during the 19th century, with many structural elements established by the works of Gilbert and Sullivan in Britain and those of Harrigan and Hart in America. These were followed by the numerous Edwardian musical comedies and the musical theatre works of American creators like George M. Cohan. The Princess Theatre musicals and other smart shows like Of Thee I Sing (1931) were artistic steps forward beyond revues and other frothy entertainments of the early 20th century and led to such groundbreaking works as Show Boat (1927) and Oklahoma! (1943). Some of the most famous and iconic musicals through the decades that followed include West Side Story (1957), The Fantasticks (1960), Hair (1967), A Chorus Line (1975), Les Misérables (1985), The Phantom of the Opera (1986), Rent (1996), The Producers (2001) and Wicked (2003).