Uplifter

Uplifter is the ninth studio album by American rock band 311, released on June 2, 2009 by Volcano Records. It is the band's first album in nearly four years, the longest gap between albums in 311's career. Uplifter was produced by Bob Rock, who has produced or engineered albums by numerous notable acts, such as Metallica, Aerosmith, Mötley Crüe, Bon Jovi, The Cult, Our Lady Peace and The Offspring. It debuted at #3 on the Billboard 200, their highest position to date.

Release and reception

The first single from the album, "Hey You", was sent to radio stations for airplay on April 7, and was officially released April 10, 2009.

Before the official release date, Uplifter was streamed in full (including the deluxe edition tracks) on the band's MySpace page and was featured on Playlist.com.

Uplifter has received mixed reactions from critics. Andrew Leahey of Allmusic gave it a generally favorable review and said that Uplifter "...[wields] a polished mix of tour-worthy anthems and lighter-hoisting ballads that seem destined to fare better in concert than on record."

Marika

Marika is a female given name. It has its origin in the Hungarian and Greek nickname for Maria, or its Silesian diminutive "Maryjka".

Nicknames

Mari, Mariczka, Mariczika, Marka, Riky, Mara, Maja, Mariska, Marcsa, Marsa, Marcsi, Marica, Rikas, Rastas, Ricky, Mardeyrika

People

Music

Television and film

Bonga (musician)

Bonga Kwenda (born José Adelino Barceló de Carvalho, 1943), better known as Bonga, is a folk and semba singer and songwriter from Angola.

Biography

Bonga was born in the province of Bengo, and left Angola when he was 23 years old to become an athlete, becoming the Portuguese record holder for the 400 metres (Angola was at the time one of Portugal's five African colonies). He had already begun his singing career at the age of 15.

Bonga abandoned athletics in 1972, concentrating solely on his music, and immediately became famous in his native Angola, as well as in Portugal. After the Carnation Revolution in April 1974, he would become a hit both with immigrants from the ex-Portuguese colonies, and Portuguese of both African and European descent. He has released over 30 albums, singing in Portuguese and traditional Angolan languages. His tracks are a mixture of Portuguese folk sounds, semba, kizomba and latin elements.

While Angola was still a Portuguese colony, Bonga was an outspoken supporter of independence. This led him to be exiled from Angola in the early 1970s.

Marika Siewert

Marika (also spelled MARIKA) is a Canadian recording artist, singer, songwriter, actor, and TV show host. MARIKA has had two top 40 radio singles in Canada, as well as songs placed with Elise Estrada, Elin Universal Music Group Germany, and Korea's Lee Hyori with "My Life" M-NET and Kim Bo Kyung. She also has songs placed on several seasons of America's Next Top Model, MTV and her single "ANGEL" was featured on the Lifetime network's original movie Sins of the Mother. MARIKA performed back in Medicine Hat for the 2010 Winter Olympics Torch relay where she shared the stage with County Superstar Terri Clark. The pair were chosen to perform because of their Medicine Hat roots. MARIKA was also recognized as Virgin 95.3 CKZZ-FM Best of BC artist as a result of her single release in 2011 - "Soldier". MARIKA released in 2004 an album called Untitled Chances, followed by radio singles in 2006 and 2007 "Christmas Came Early", "You Know I Will", and "Radio". "You Know I Will" got MARIKA nominated as best new artist in the Urban Category at the Canadian Radio Music Awards in 2007. Her album Unstoppable released in 2013 won the GMA Covenant awards Pop album of the Year, and she also recently was a featured singer on the new Hallmark TV channel's origianal series Signed, Sealed, Delivered which was executive produced by Martha Williamson who wrote and produced Touched By An Angel. She also shared the stage with Grammy and Dove award winners Michael W. Smith, Steven Curtis Chapman, and Juno award winner Brian Doerksen on their one time only United Tour. In December 2013, she wrote "This Christmas Time" produced by 604 Records producer Colin Janz, which was released to radio across Canada and parts of the U.S.A and garnered national airplay. Marika was born in San Fernando, Trinidad, raised in England and Medicine Hat, Alberta. She currently resides in Vancouver, British Columbia.