Moko (singer)

Diane Nadia Adu-Gyamfi (born 1991), better known by her stage name Moko, is a British soul singer. She rose to fame after featuring on the Chase & Status single "Count on Me". Moko has released two EPs, Black (2013) and Gold (2014), on MTA and Virgin EMI.

Early life and education

Moko was born and raised in New Cross, London. Her mother is of Ghanaian descent and her grandmother is Chinese. She began singing in her local church choir as a child. She enrolled on a music scheme at Goldsmiths, University of London when she was 15 years old, and later returned to the university to study English literature, practising in the institution's music facilities in her spare time.

Moko has spoken about her experiences with the neurological condition chromesthesia, in which sounds invoke images of colour: "I always had to listen to each song with my eyes shut, because then I could feel technicolour circles and holograms inside of my eyelids. After a while, I’d associate certain colours with sounds. It’s always been a part of me, so sharing it with the world is really nice."

Singing

Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of tonality, rhythm, the use of sustained tones and a variety of vocal techniques. A person who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung without accompaniment or with accompaniment by musical instruments. Singing is often done in a group of other musicians, such as in a choir of singers with different voice ranges, or in an ensemble with instrumentalists, such as a rock group or baroque ensemble. Singers may also perform as soloist with accompaniment from a piano (as in art song and in some jazz styles) or with a symphony orchestra or big band. There are a range of different singing styles, including art music styles such as opera and Chinese opera, religious music styles such as Gospel, traditional music styles, world music, jazz, blues and popular music styles such as pop and rock.

Singing can be formal or informal, arranged or improvised. It may be done for religious devotion, as a hobby, as a source of pleasure, comfort, or ritual, as part of music education, or as a profession. Excellence in singing requires time, dedication, instruction, and regular practice. If practice is done on a regular basis then the sounds can become more clear and strong. Professional singers usually build their careers around one specific musical genre, such as classical or rock, although there are singers with crossover success (singing in more than one genre). They typically take voice training provided by voice teachers or vocal coaches throughout their careers.

Singer Motors

Singer Motors Limited was a British motor vehicle manufacturing business, originally a bicycle manufacturer founded as Singer & Co by George Singer, in 1874 in Coventry, England. Singer & Co's bicycle manufacture continued. From 1901 George Singer's Singer Motor Co made cars and commercial vehicles.

Singer Motor Co was the first motor manufacturer to make a small economy car that was a replica of a large car, showing a small car was a practical proposition. It was much more sturdily built than otherwise similar cyclecars. With its four-cylinder ten horsepower engine the Singer Ten was launched at the 1912 Cycle and Motor Cycle Show at Olympia. William Rootes, Singer apprentice at the time of its development and consummate car-salesman, contracted to buy 50, the entire first year's supply. It became a best-seller. Ultimately Singer's business was acquired by his Rootes Group in 1956, which continued the brand until 1970, a few years following Rootes' acquisition by the American Chrysler corporation.

Singer (naval mine)

The Singer was a naval mine made and deployed by the Confederacy during the American Civil War. It was a manually laid moored contact mine.

Development

During the American Civil War, Matthew Fontaine Maury, a Confederate government official established the Torpedo Bureau and the Torpedo Corps in Richmond, Virginia to oversee the development and deployment of new types of naval mines. Maury was convinced that the only way to defend the coastlines against Union assaults was through the widespread use of naval mines. Mines were inexpensive and easily produced on a large scale. The low cost and large volume of mines produced would supplement the small naval forces of the Confederacy and make it possible to defend against the superior fleet of the Union navy. The efforts of the Torpedo Bureau and the Torpedo Corps proved to be worth the investment of the Confederacy. For the relative low cost of the mines they did a tremendous amount of damage to the Union forces, sinking a total of 27 Union naval vessels.

Moko

In the mythology of Mangaia in the Cook Islands, Moko is a wily character and grandfather of the heroic Ngaru.

Moko is a ruler or king of the lizards, and he orders his lizard subjects to climb into the basket of the sky demon Amai-te-rangi to spy on him. When Amai-te-rangi pulls up his basket, he is disappointed to find it full of miserable little reptiles, which escape and overrun his home in the sky.

References

Mokosh

Mokoš (Old Russian Мокошь) is a Slavic goddess mentioned in the Primary Chronicle, protector of women's work and women's destiny. She watches over spinning and weaving, shearing of sheep, and protects women in child birth. Mokosh is the Great Mother, Mat Zemlya.

Mokoš was the only female deity whose idol was erected by Vladimir the Great in his Kiev sanctuary along with statues of other major gods (Perun, Hors, Dažbog, Stribog and Simargl).

Etymology and origin

Mokosh probably means moisture. According to Max Vasmer, her name is derived from the same root as Slavic words mokry 'wet' and moknut(i) 'get wet'. She may have originated in the northern Finno-Ugric tribes of the Vogul, who still have the divinity Moksha.

Myth

Mokoš was one of the most popular Slavic deities and the great Mother Goddess of East Slavs and Eastern Polans. She is a wanderer and a spinner. Her consorts are probably both, the god of thunder Perun and his opponent Veles. In saying the former Katičić follows Ivanov and Toporov (1983) without further corroborating their claim. Katičić also points to the possibility that as goddess Vela she is the consort of Veles, and might even be interpreted as another form of the polymorph god Veles himself. Mokosh is also the mother of the twin siblings Jarilo and Morana.

Moko (dolphin)

Moko (2006 – 7 July 2010) was a male bottlenose dolphin who associated with humans on the east coast of the North Island of New Zealand from 2007 to 2010.

Moko, short for Mokotahi, a headland on Mahia Peninsula, was three-years-old as of July 2009. He resided at Mahia Beach for two and a half years from 2007 to September 2009, and became a major attraction there. He received worldwide fame when he rescued two pygmy sperm whales in March 2008. A year later, he trapped a woman out at sea. At the beginning of September 2009 Moko moved 80 km up the coast to Waikanae Beach, Gisborne, and in January 2010 he moved to Whakatane in the Bay of Plenty for five months before following a fishing boat to Tauranga on 3 June.Scientists were worried about Moko's welfare after a study found he had been scarred by boats and a fish hook. He was found dead on a beach at Matakana Island near Tauranga on 7 July 2010.

History

Rescue of pygmy sperm whales

In March 2008, Moko was seen helping two pygmy sperm whales that were trapped between a sandbar and Mahia beach. A local man who found the whales told his neighbour, Malcolm Smith, who was a Department of Conservation worker. Smith and other rescuers tried for an hour and a half to re-float the whales, with no success. Smith was wondering if it would be better to kill the two whales when Moko appeared. Moko approached the pair of distressed whales and led them through a narrow channel to the safety of the sea.