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Paris Whitney Hilton (born February 17, 1981) is an American socialite, heiress, media personality, model, singer, author, fashion designer and actress.

Hilton is best known for her appearance on the television series The Simple Life, her several minor film roles (most notably her role in the horror film House of Wax in 2005), her 2004 tongue-in-cheek autobiography,[2] her 2006 music album Paris, and her work in modeling. As a result of several legal incidents, Hilton also served a widely publicized sentence in a Los Angeles County jail in 2007. She is also known for her controversial appearance in a sex tape in 2003.

Early life and background

Born in New York City, Hilton is the oldest of four children of Richard and Kathy Hilton (née Avanzino). She has a sister, Nicky, and brothers, Conrad and Barron.

On the maternal side of her family, she is a niece of two child stars of the 1970s, Kim and Kyle Richards. Hilton was related by marriage to Nicole Richie's godmother, Nancy Davis, when Nancy's brother, Greg, was married to Kim Richards. Hilton's paternal grandparents are hotel chairman Barron Hilton, and his wife, the former Marilyn Hawley; Barron Hilton's parents were Hilton Hotels founder Conrad Hilton and his first wife, Mary Barron.

Hilton moved between several exclusive homes in her youth, including a suite in the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel on Manhattan, Beverly Hills, and the Hamptons. As a child she was good friends with other socialites as Nicole Richie and Kim Kardashian. She attended her freshman year of high school at the Marywood-Palm Valley School in Rancho Mirage, California followed by a short time at Convent of the Sacred Heart (which she attended with Lady GaGa[3]) and the Dwight School in New York for her sophomore and junior years. She was then transferred to the Canterbury Boarding School, in New Milford, Connecticut where she was a member of the ice hockey team.[4] However, in early 1999, she was expelled for violating the school rules.[5] Hilton later earned her GED.[6][7]

In December 2007, Hilton's grandfather Barron Hilton pledged 97 percent of his estate to a charitable organization founded by his father, the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation. An immediate pledge of $1.2 billion was made, with a further $1.1 billion due after his death. He cited his father's actions as the motivation for his pledge. According to reports, the potential inheritance of his grandchildren is sharply diminished.

Career

Hilton has worked as a model, actress, singer, and engaged in occasional business pursuits.[10] According to Forbes Magazine, she earned approximately $2 million in 2003–2004,[11] $6.5 million in 2004–2005,[12] and $7 million in 2005–2006.[13]
As a model

Hilton began modeling as a child, initially at charity events.[14] When she was 19, she signed with Donald Trump's modeling agency, T Management.[14] Hilton has also worked with Ford Models in New York, Models 1 Agency in London, Nous Model Management in Los Angeles, and Premier Model Management in London. She has appeared in numerous advertising campaigns, including Iceberg Vodka, GUESS, Tommy Hilfiger, Christian Dior, and Marciano. In 2001, Hilton began to develop a reputation as a socialite, being identified as "New York's leading It Girl" whose fame was beginning to "extend beyond the New York tabloids".[14] She has appeared in several magazines, including the April 2004 issue of Maxim.[15]
As a media personality
Film

Hilton at the Sundance Film Festival in 2008

Hilton has made cameo appearances in several films, notably Zoolander, Wonderland, and The Cat In The Hat. She landed minor and supporting roles in the feature films Nine Lives, Raising Helen, The Hillz, and House of Wax. Her role as Paige Edwards in House of Wax won the Teen Choice Award for "Best Scream" and earned her a nomination for "Choice Breakout Performance – Female".[16] (It also won her the 2005 Razzie for "Worst Supporting Actress" at the 2005 Golden Raspberry Awards.)[17] She also earned a nomination for "Best Frightened Performance" at the 2006 MTV Movie Awards. She landed her first lead roles in 2006 with the straight-to-DVD releases National Lampoon's Pledge This! and Bottoms Up. She plays the Hottie in the box office bomb romantic comedy The Hottie and the Nottie, released in 2008. She also had a minor cameo appearance as herself in An American Carol.

More recently, Hilton plays Amber Sweet, the surgery- and painkiller-addicted daughter of a biotech magnate in the goth/rock musical Repo! The Genetic Opera. Critics have responded positively to her performance in the film, in which she sings and acts. In an interview Repo! director Darren Lynn Bousman revealed that he had originally refused to audition Hilton for the role of Amber Sweet. "I broke down," says Bousman, "and I met with her, and immediately she charmed everyone in the room."[18] In the same interview, Bousman also revealed that Hilton was so keen to get the part that she had the script smuggled in to her during her much publicized stint in a Los Angeles jail, and used her time inside to work on her role.
Television

Paris Hilton in Cannes during the Film festival

Hilton co-starred with her friend Nicole Richie in the Fox reality series The Simple Life, which premiered on December 2, 2003. The Simple Life ran for three seasons on Fox. The show was cancelled by Fox after a dispute between Hilton and Richie, but it was subsequently aired by E! Entertainment Television for the fourth and fifth seasons.[19] Despite talks of a sixth season,[20] the series finished its run at the end of the fifth season.[21] In March 2008, it was reported that Hilton would star in a new MTV reality series tentatively titled Paris Hilton's My New BFF, about her looking for a new best friend.[22] The series premiered on September 30, 2008.[23]

Hilton has also guest-starred in episodes of the popular tv-show The O.C., The George Lopez Show, Las Vegas, American Dreams, Dogg After Dark, and Veronica Mars. Furthermore, she appeared in several music videos, including "It Girl" by John Oates and "Just Lose It" by Eminem. Planning is underway for an eponymous cartoon series following the animated life of Hilton, her sister Nicky, and her dog Tinkerbell,[24] which began filming in September 2007. In April 2008, she guest starred on the My Name is Earl episode "I Won't Die with a Little Help from My Friends".[25] On 29 January 2009, Paris Hilton's British Best Friend, began airing on ITV2 in England. The second season of Paris Hilton's My New BFF premiered on June 2, 2009. In June 2009, Hilton shot "Paris Hilton's Dubai BFF".[26] Runner-up of the British series Kat McKenzie died on July 3, 2009 of a suspected overdose.[27]

Hilton guest-starred in the fifth episode of Supernatural's fifth season. "Paris Hilton is playing a demonic creature that takes the form of... Paris Hilton," creator and executive producer Eric Kripke said in a statement. "It'll be a fun, irreverent episode and we here at Supernatural are thrilled that Paris agreed to do it."[28]
Recording artist
Further information: Paris (Paris Hilton album)

Hilton founded Heiress Records, a sub-label of Warner Bros. Records, in 2004 and released her self-titled debut album, Paris, under that label on August 22, 2006. Although the album reached number six on the Billboard 200 for a week, its total sales volume has been low[29][30] - but the first single "Stars Are Blind" was a top ten hit in 17 countries. Allmusic commented that the album was "more fun than anything released by Britney Spears or Jessica Simpson, and a lot fresher, too." On the whole, critical reception was mixed.[31] On July 16, 2007 Hilton confirmed that she was working on a new album with producer Scott Storch.[32][33][34] In a recent interview with MTV, Hilton decided that her second album is going to be a dance album. She stated that she "loves Bob Sinclar" and wants to create dance-music vibe. Hilton has installed a professional recording studio in her house to work on the album.[35] On September 30, 2008, Hilton premiered her song "My BFF" on KIIS-FM with host Ryan Seacrest. It is the first single from her as yet untitled second studio album[36][37] and the theme song of her show Paris Hilton's My New BFF.[37] Hilton stated that she finished working on the album.[37] A second song "Paris For President" was released along with a music video late October 2008.[38] Paris Hilton can also be heard singing on the soundtrack to the musical Repo! The Genetic Opera. In an interview, the director, Darren Lynn Bousman, praised her vocal skills. When talking about Paris' vocal audition process for the role, Bouseman said, "We gave her some music and said, 'You have one day to come back and perform this.' She came back the next day, memorized everything, was pitch-perfect, I mean she was awesome."[39]
As an author
Further information: Confessions of an Heiress: A Tongue-in-Chic Peek Behind the Pose and Your Heiress Diary: Confess It All to Me

In the autumn of 2004, Hilton released an autobiographical book, Confessions of an Heiress: A Tongue-in-Chic Peek Behind the Pose, co-written by Merle Ginsberg, which includes full color photographs of her and her advice on life as an heiress. Hilton reportedly received a $100,000 advance payment for this book. Some in the media panned the writing as amateurish, and the book was parodied by Robert Mundell on The Late Show with David Letterman. The book became a New York Times bestseller. Hilton followed it up with a designer diary, also with Ginsberg, called Your Heiress Diary: Confess It All to Me.

On September 2009, Hilton's quote: "Dress cute wherever you go, life is too short to blend in" has been added to The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations.[40]
Standing as a celebrity

She denied proclaiming herself as the "iconic blonde of the decade" such as Princess Diana and Marilyn Monroe in the May 2007 issue of Harper's Bazaar.[41] She appeared in the 2007 Guinness World Records as the world's "Most Overrated Celebrity".[42][43] In a poll conducted by the Associated Press and AOL, Hilton was voted the second "Worst Celebrity Role Model of 2006", behind Britney Spears.[44] Critics suggest that Hilton epitomizes the title of famous for being famous;[45] echoing that sentiment, the Associated Press conducted what they called an experiment in February 2007, trying not to report on Hilton for a whole week.

2008 parody Presidential campaign Wikinews has related news: Paris Hilton mocks John McCain presidential ad


On August 6, 2008 Hilton appeared in a 1 minute 50 second long video online, "Paris Hilton Responds to McCain Ad", directed by Adam McKay and posted on the Funny or Die website. The video featured Hilton in a parody advertisement, and was made in response to a television campaign advert "Celeb", by the 2008 John McCain presidential campaign. In Celeb, McCain briefly compared his rival Barack Obama to that of celebrities such as Hilton and Britney Spears, going on to question his readiness to lead and criticize his energy policy.

In what The Washington Post opined "might just be her best acting role yet,"[47] Hilton appears in the video wearing a leopard print swimsuit.[48] She starts out by suggesting that her personal mention by McCain means that she must now be a candidate in the presidential race, and goes on to mock McCain, and critique the expected qualities and lifestyle of a celebrity in comparison to that of a US president. In a 30 second segment, in the style of an academic speaker, Paris compares and contrasts the policies of McCain and Obama for solving the US energy crisis, and goes on to propose a 'compromise solution' combining elements of both.

The video received 7 million views in two days garnering worldwide press coverage, and drew both written and verbal media response from both campaigns. The merits and drawbacks of the 'Paris compromise solution' with regard to energy policy, as well as its contrast to the adversarial political campaigns, generated multiple comments from US political commentators, as well as Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Congressman Michael Burgess.

Continuing the spoof campaign, in October, Hilton featured in a second parody video posted on Funny or Die, the 2 minute 20 second long "Paris Hilton Gets Presidential with Martin Sheen", alongside Hollywood actor Martin Sheen, with his son, actor Charlie Sheen, appearing in a cameo role. Hilton, heavily made up and in a green evening dress, interviews Martin Sheen in a kitchen, discussing various political issues, seeking his advice from his days playing a fictional President on The West Wing.[49]
Products and endorsements

Hilton helped design a collection of purses for Japanese label Samantha Thavasa, and also a jewelry line for Amazon.com.[50]

In 2004, Hilton was involved in the creation of a perfume line by Parlux Fragrances. Originally set to be a small release, high demand led to a wider release before December 2004. The launch was followed by a 47 percent increase in sales of Parlux products, predominantly due to sales of the Hilton-branded perfume.[51] After the success of Hilton's perfume, Parlux Fragrances released several more perfumes with her name, including fragrances for men.[52] Paris Hilton launched a new fragrance in October 2007, called Can Can. This is her fourth women's fragrance after Paris Hilton, Just Me, and Heiress. During the month of November 2008, Paris Hilton released her fifth fragrance for women called, Fairy Dust. In July 2009, her sixth fragrance for women Siren was launched.[53]

In January 2007, Hilton released the DreamCatchers line of hair extensions in partnership with Hair Tech International.[54] In early August 2007, Hilton signed a licensing agreement with Antebi for a signature footwear line, "Paris Hilton Footware", featuring stilettos, platforms, flats, wedges, and a sports collection, expected to reach stores in 2008.[55] In mid August 2007, Hilton launched a line of tops, dresses, coats, and jeans at Kitson boutique in Los Angeles.[56]

In 2005, Hilton lent her name to a chain of nightclubs owned by Fred Khalilian and known as Club Paris. This association ended in January 2007 after she had failed to attend several scheduled promotional appearances.[57]

In December 2007, Hilton posed nude, covered in gold paint, to promote "Rich Prosecco", a canned version of an Italian sparkling wine.[58][59] She also traveled to Germany to promote the drink, appearing in various print ads for the product.[60]
Personal life

Paris Hilton in Munich in 2005

Hilton was engaged to fashion model Jason Shaw from mid-2002 to early 2003. In 2003-2004 she had a relationship with singer Nick Carter. Later she was engaged to Greek shipping heir Paris Latsis, from May 29, 2005 to November 2005. Thereafter, she began dating another Greek shipping heir, Stavros Niarchos III, before breaking up in May 2006. In early 2008, she was spotted with Good Charlotte guitarist Benji Madden and in May, Hilton announced her intention to marry Madden during interview with television talk-show host David Letterman.[61][62] The two broke up in November 2008, and "remain very good friends".[63][64] She began dating The Hills star Doug Reinhardt in February 2009;[65] Hilton has also referred to her intention to marry Reinhardt, saying "He's gonna be my husband."[66] The couple broke up in June 2009, only to get back together again in August of the same year.

Hilton told Live with Regis and Kelly: "One-night stands are not for me. I think it's gross when you just give it up. Guys want you more, if you don't just hand it to them on a platter."[67]

Hilton loves small dogs, and lives with a Yorkshire Terrier and a female Chihuahua named Tinkerbell. Paris Hilton is frequently seen carrying Tinkerbell (dubbed an "accessory dog") at social events and functions, and in all five seasons of television reality show The Simple Life. In 2004, Tinkerbell "authored" a memoir, The Tinkerbell Hilton Diaries. On August 12, 2004, Tinkerbell went missing after Hilton's apartment was burgled, and a $5,000 reward was offered for her safe return.[68] She was found six days later. By December 1, 2004, Tinkerbell was again spotted with Paris Hilton at various events. Hilton has also purchased a male Chihuahua on July 25, 2007 from Pets of Bel Air in Los Angeles.[69] Hilton's love for man's best friend led her to create an apparel line for dogs called Little Lily by Paris Hilton, with some of the proceeds going to benefit animal rescue. "I have 17 dogs and I like to dress them, so I started designing this clothing line and it's really cute, like dresses and jeans — everything you can imagine for humans, but for dogs," she said in an interview during Super Bowl XLII festivities.[70] Hilton's love for her dogs led to the rumor that she wanted to be frozen with them at the Cryonics Institute,[71] but Hilton denied the rumor on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.[72]

A homemade sex video of Hilton and then-boyfriend Rick Salomon was leaked on the Internet in 2003, later released as the DVD 1 Night in Paris despite attempted legal action. It appeared a week prior to the premiere of The Simple Life.

On December 20, 2008 around 4:00 am, a man in a hooded sweater and gloves entered Hilton's Mulholland Estates, Los Angeles home and stole $2 million dollars worth of jewelry and other items from her bedroom. Hilton was not home at the time and nobody was injured in the home invasion. There is speculation that it was an inside job.[73]
DUI arrest and driving violations

Paris Hilton's booking photograph

In September 2006, Hilton was arrested and charged with driving under the influence of alcohol with a blood alcohol content of 0.08%, the level at which it is illegal to drive in California. Hilton's driving license was subsequently suspended in November 2006,[74] and in January 2007 she pleaded no contest to a reckless driving charge.[75] Her punishment was 36 months' probation and fines of about $1,500.[76] On January 15, 2007, Hilton was pulled over for driving with a suspended license and signed a document acknowledging that she was not permitted to drive.[77] On February 27, 2007 Hilton was caught driving 70 mph in a 35 mph zone, again with a suspended license. She also did not have her headlights on even though it was after dark. Prosecutors in the office of the Los Angeles City Attorney charged that those actions, along with the failure to enroll in a court-ordered alcohol education program, constituted a violation of the terms of her probation.[74]

On May 4, 2007 Hilton was sentenced by Judge Michael T. Sauer to 45 days in jail for violating her probation. Initially, Hilton planned to appeal the sentence, and supported an online petition[78] asking California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger for a pardon.[79] The petition was created and organized on May 5, 2007 by Joshua Morales.[80] In response, various opponents started a counter-petition to maintain the sentence.[81] Both petitions attracted tens of thousands of signatures. Hilton later switched lawyers and dropped her plans to appeal.[82]

Hilton was required to begin her jail term on June 5, 2007,[83] and checked herself into the Century Regional Detention Facility, an all-female jail in Lynwood, California after attending the 2007 MTV Movie Awards on June 3, 2007. With credit for good behavior, it was anticipated that Hilton would only serve 23 days of her 45-day sentence;[84] however, in an unexpected turn of events, Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca signed orders on the morning of June 7, reassigning Hilton to 40 days of home confinement with an electronic monitoring device due to an unspecified medical condition.[85] Baca commented on the release saying, "My message to those who don't like celebrities is that punishing celebrities more than the average American is not justice,"[86] contesting that under normal circumstances, Hilton would not have served any time in jail, and he added that "The special treatment, in a sense, appears to be because of her celebrity status ... She got more time in jail".[87] On the same day that Hilton was released from jail, Judge Michael Sauer summoned her to reappear in court the following morning (June 8) as the sentencing statement had explicitly said she would serve time in jail with "No work furlough. No work release. No electronic monitoring."[88] At the hearing he declined to be briefed by Hilton's attorney in private chambers on the nature of her condition and sent her back to jail to serve out her original 45-day sentence. Upon hearing the sentence, Hilton shouted, "It's not right!" and started screaming, requesting to hug her mother who was present in the courtroom.[89][90] Concern about Hilton's condition led to her being moved to the medical wing of the Twin Towers Correctional Facility in Los Angeles, and she was moved back to the Century Regional Detention Facility in Lynwood on June 13.[91]

While in jail, Hilton was influenced by the clergyman minister Marty Angelo: Hilton referred to starting a "new beginning" during her interview with talk show host Larry King on June 28, 2007, two days after being released from jail,[92] and quoted from Angelo's autobiography, entitled Once Life Matters: A New Beginning. On June 9, 2007, Marty Angelo petitioned Sauer,[93] asking to serve out the remainder of Hilton's jail sentence if the judge would release her to an alternative treatment program,[94] but the petition was turned down.

Good Charlotte is an American pop punk band from Waldorf, Maryland that formed in 1996. They took their name from the children's book called "Good Charlotte: The Girls of Good Day Orphanage," written by Carol Beach York.

Early years & self-titled album (1995–2001)

Good Charlotte started out by playing at small bars. They soon caught the attention of pop punk band, Lit, whose song "My Own Worst Enemy" was a chart topper at the time. Good Charlotte lost the opening slot on Lit's East Coast tour in 1999. Soon after, Good Charlotte played some dates with the band Blink-182, who had just experienced mainstream success with their album, Enema of the State. All of this caught the attention of major music labels, and Good Charlotte eventually signed with Epic Records in 1999.

In 2000, they released their self-titled debut album, Good Charlotte. Y100, a now-defunct radio station in Philadelphia spun Good Charlotte's song "Little Things" before it was released as a single. It ended up being a big success on the station, so big that on Y100's nightly "Cage Match" competition (where new songs were pitted against each other and listeners could vote on which was better), "Little Things" won fifteen nights in a row, beating out bigger names, before it was retired to the cage match hall of fame.

Good Charlotte also gained a lot of momentum and popularity from "Little Things" being played by now defunct Washington radio station, 99.1 WHFS. WHFS's annual music concert, the HFStival, hosted a locals only stage and is credited with being Good Charlotte's big break.

"Little Things" was later released as a single in 2001, and peaked at #23 on the U.S. Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart[1]. In the second half of the year, three more singles were released from the album, "The Motivation Proclamation", "The Click" and "Festival Song", which is an ode to HFStival.

The Young and the Hopeless (2002–2003)

2002's The Young and the Hopeless well marked the band's music into mainstream popularity. Their breakthrough single, titled "Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous", topped both pop and rock charts around the globe. Singles that followed from that album include "The Anthem", "Girls & Boys", "The Young and the Hopeless" and "Hold On". They thanked many other bands for their influences for this album, including Blink 182, Sum 41, NOFX, Social Distortion and Green Day.

The album eventually went on to receive triple platinum certification (three million copies sold) from the RIAA[2]. During the course of the album's success, Good Charlotte landed appearances on Saturday Night Live, CNN, and The Today Show, the covers of Rolling Stone and Alternative Press magazines, and were also featured in The New York Times. They also became popular on MTV, where their music videos were played in heavy rotation on both MTV and MTV2. "Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous" received the "Viewers Choice Award" at the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards.

The band hired temporary drummers during the recording, release and touring of The Young and the Hopeless due to former drummer, Aaron Escolopio, having left the band before its release to join his brother's group, Wakefield. In 2003, the band added Chris Wilson as a drummer, he was introduced to the band through mutual friends from the group The Used. Also in 2003, the band made a cameo appearance in the King Gordy video for "Nightmares".

Chronicles of Life and Death (2004–2006)

Good Charlotte's third album, The Chronicles of Life and Death, was released by Blake face in 2004. The album received mixed reactions from both the music press and Good Charlotte's fan base. The album has been widely considered a departure from their previous two albums, mixing new elements such as lyrical topics into Good Charlotte's youthful sound. Singles released from the album include the two hits "Predictable" and "I Just Wanna Live", as well as "The Chronicles of Life and Death" and "We Believe". The only single from The Chronicles of Life and Death which managed to chart upon the U.S. Hot 100 was the hit "I Just Wanna Live". All of the singles released from the album went top 30 in the UK, except for "We Believe".

In May 2005, after much speculation from fans, it was officially confirmed that Chris Wilson had left the band citing personal health reasons. Benji also told Kerrang! magazine that, for him, "Chris leaving the band was the worst part of 2005". Chris then joined a pop/rock band The Summer Obsession but because of its split in 2007, he currently[when?] plays drums in Allegiance To The Fire.

On Good Charlotte's "Noise to the World Tour", performing with Simple Plan and Relient K, the band recruited Dean Butterworth (who had previously played for Morrissey) as the band's temporary drummer. Later, in March 2007, Butterworth was confirmed as the band's permanent drummer.

Benji Madden has claimed in interviews that he feels this record was not as successful as the previous record due to it being "too selfish.

Good Morning Revival (2007–2008)

Good Morning Revival is the fourth album by Good Charlotte and the follow up to 2004's The Chronicles of Life and Death. It was officially released in March 2007, with the precise date varying by country.
Good Morning Revival debuted in the top 10 of thirteen countries worldwide including the U.S., giving the band some of their highest international chart positions thus far. At midnight, on January 23, 2007, the forthcoming record was made available for pre-order on iTunes. When pre-ordered, the single, "The River" was downloaded immediately, while the rest of the album was queued to be downloaded on the released date. Pre-ordering on iTunes also provided the exclusive bonus acoustic version of the aforementioned single.

The first single from the album, "The River", featuring Avenged Sevenfold's lead singer, M. Shadows and guitarist Synyster Gates, appeared online on January 4, 2007 and was released as the first single from the album in North America. The music video for "The River" was added to UK music channels Kerrang! and Scuzz on April 13, 2007, making it the second single released from the album in the UK. The song charted at #108. "Keep Your Hands off My Girl" was released as the first single in the UK and Australia. "Keep Your Hands Off My Girl" charted on the UK Singles Chart at #36 the first week of release through download sales and then climbed to #23 when released in stores. The second single released in North America was "Dance Floor Anthem", with which the band had scored a surprise hit, making it onto eleven different Billboard charts and peaking at #2 in Australia. The "Keep Your Hands Off My Girl" video was recently[when?] certified gold by MTV International. It was played 3,000 times on over 4 continents during the first half of 2007.[citation needed] On January 1, 2008, Good Charlotte was featured on Tila Tequila's New Years Eve Masquerade on MTV, as they were the second performance of the new year and performed their hit "Dance Floor Anthem".

The band made multiple U.S. and international TV appearances in support of the album. First, Good Charlotte appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on April 9, 2007, the Outdoor Stage on Jimmy Kimmel Live on April 11, and on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson on April 27. Joel and Benji Madden, Good Charlotte's lead singer and guitarist respectively, co-hosted the Australian MTV Video Music Awards with Fergie on April 29, 2007 where the band also won the "Viewers Choice Australia" award for "Keep Your Hands Off My Girl". In August 2007, the band embarked on Justin Timberlake's FutureSex/LoveShow tour, as Timberlake's opening act. Good Charlotte supported Timberlake throughout his second leg North American dates. They were present for the August 16, 2007 show in Madison Square Garden, which was taped for a HBO broadcast.

In 2008, Good Charlotte appeared on the Three 6 Mafia track off of their new CD Last 2 Walk called "My Own Way".

On November 25, 2008, "Greatest Remixes" was released. This compilation album includes 15 songs from previous Good Charlotte albums remixed by other artists such as Metro Station, Junior Sanchez, The Academy Is..., Patrick Stump from Fall Out Boy, and The White Tie Affair feat. Mat Devine of Kill Hannah.

Cardiology (2009–present)

Good Charlotte is currently in the studio recording their fifth studio album. Describing the sound to MTV news, Joel Madden said it would sound a lot like Blink-182.[3][4] Joel Madden went on to say in the same MTV interview that "There's nothing dance-y on the record, though, at all, which is different from our last one," [5] further implying a movement away from the sound of Good Morning Revival.

On December 3 Kerrang! magazine announced that Good Charlotte would be releasing their fifth studio album, Cardiology in 2009. The title of which, according to Joel, comes from the lyrical content of the album, which he explained is "all connected to the heart". Madden also added that they have already written 20 songs for the new album, and are said to be heading back to their pop-punk roots.

The album is being produced by Howard Benson, who is known for such albums as My Chemical Romance's "Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge", and The All-American Rejects "Move Along".

The band has been frequently tweeting while at the studio. Late July 2009, Joel Madden has mentioned that they are close to track listing the album. On August 9 2009, Benji Madden mentioned on his twitter that they have yet to record the songs but they are written.

On the 25th August Benji Madden announced on the official Good Charlotte website that the band were in the final stages of tracking and recording the album. He also gave fans a single line from one of the new songs:

"She liked me better when I was different, No one knew me then, back in Maryland"[6]

Benji Madden also said on his twitter account on August 26 that they are shooting for a March/April release date. "We are shooting for march/april guys. sorry for the wait but we wanna do this one right. Don't worry, you will get some music before then".

In 2009, Good Charlotte worked with Sean Kingston on a track from his second studio album "Tomorrow" entitled "Shoulda Let u Go".


On 8th November, whilst appearing on Rove the twins stated that they have finished recording the album and as soon as any music is radio worthy it will be released.

Billy Martin is an active vegetarian.[citation needed] Twins, Benji and Joel Madden were reported to be vegetarian, but nothing has ever been definite about these claims.[citation needed] Benji Madden won PETA's vegetarian of the year. In the past they actively supported PETA's animal rights campaigns. Members of the group recorded a track, "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous", on PETA's Liberation CD and appeared at PETA's 25th Anniversary Gala and Humanitarian Awards Show.[7] Group members have also demonstrated against KFC's treatment of chickens. PETA and the band went their separate ways when news emerged that the band's partners are pro-fur.

The twins have also posed for the YouthAIDS Aldo "Aldo Fights AIDS" dog tag campaign. They stand side by side, eyes shut, on the "See No Evil?" dog-tag packaging. Joel holds his hands in prayer, whereas Benji's face is contorted and angry and his hand is in a fist.

Band members
Joel Madden - lead vocals (1996–present)
Benji Madden - lead guitar, vocals (1996–present)
Billy Martin - rhythm guitar, keyboards (1996–present)
Paul Thomas - bass (1996–present)
Dean Butterworth - drums, percussion (2007–present)
[edit]
Former members

Aaron Escolopio - drums, percussion (1996–2001)
Chris Wilson - drums, percussion (2002–2005)
[edit]
Touring & Session members
Dusty Brill - live drums, percussion (2001)
Cyrus Bolooki - live drums, percussion (2004)
Josh Freese - drums, percussion on The Young and the Hopeless (2002)
Robin Eckman - live drums, percussion (2005)
Derek Grant - live drums, percussion (2005) - Played at MuchMusic Intimate and Interactive during the promotional tour of The Chronicles of Life and Death

Discography
Main article: Good Charlotte discography
Good Charlotte (2000)
The Young and the Hopeless (2002)
The Chronicles of Life and Death (2004)
Good Morning Revival (2007)
Cardiology (2010)
[edit]
Awards and nominations
Good Charlotte awards and nominationsAward Wins Nominations
MTV Australia Awards 1 3
MTV Europe Music Awards 0 4
MTV Video Music Awards 1 5
MTV Video Music Awards Japan 1 1
MuchMusic Video Awards 1 1
Nickelodeon Australian Kids' Choice Awards 1 1
NRJ Music Awards 1 1
TMF Awards 1 1
Kerrang! Awards 1 3
Totals
Awards won 8
Nominations 20


Good Charlotte's songs and albums have received recognition at the MTV Australia Awards, the MTV Europe Music Awards, and the MTV Video Music Awards. "The Anthem" is the second single from the band's second album The Young and the Hopeless. The song was awarded the "Best Rock Video" award from the MTV Video Music Awards Japan and the "Peoples Choice: Favorite International Group" award from the MuchMusic Video Awards. The band itself has received awards including "Fave International Band" at the Nickelodeon Australian Kids' Choice Awards, "Best International Group" at the NRJ Music Awards, and "Best International Rock Act" at the TMF Awards. As of July 2008, Good Charlotte has received eight awards from twenty nominations.

The Script is a Irish pop rock band from Dublin, Ireland. Currently based in London after signing to RCA Label Group imprint Phonogenic, the band released their debut album of the same name in August 2008.

Beginnings

Danny O'Donoghue and Mark Sheehan met when they were in their late teens in a club in James's Street area of inner-city Dublin, near the Guinness brewery, gravitating to each other through a shared obsession with music, and in particular a love of American black music. "At that time, MTV only came on in Dublin after midnight, it was the fuzzy channel, and for my generation black culture was just a wave through us all," explains Sheehan. "It wasn't about gangs and guns; it was fashion and fun, singing and dancing. "[2]

Striking up a songwriting and production partnership, O'Donoghue and Sheehan's talent was recognized early, and, to their astonishment, they found themselves invited to the States to collaborate with some of their production heroes, including such legends of modern R&B as Dallas Austin, Montell Jordan and Teddy Riley. They were based in the US for many years, but moved back to Dublin where they recruited Glen for their new band. Glen Power had been playing sessions from the age of fifteen, using the money to work on a solo project in his home. But that went on hold when his collaboration with Mark and Danny produced three songs in one week. "I had never had a chance with any other band to express myself with such freedom." The band signed to Phonogenic in Spring 2007, and released an EP on Last.FM. The band's influences include a diverse group of artists that include U2, The Police, The Neptunes, Timbaland, and Van Morrison, all of which contribute to their distinct sound.

Breakthrough and The Script

The Script performed "We Cry" for the first time on the award winning BalconyTV in Dublin on 13 September 2007.[4] The band claimed that BalconyTV was the "first TV they ever did" when they won Best Band at the BalconyTV Music Video Awards 2008 in the Sugar Club Dublin on 20 June 2008. At the awards the band said the award was their "first ever".[5] The Script released their debut single "We Cry" on 14 April 2008. "We Cry" received "Single of the Week" on RTÉ 2FM, Today FM and by Jo Whiley on BBC Radio 1, where many radio presenter heavily supported the band.[6] The single peaked at number 15 on the UK Singles Chart,[7] giving the band their first top 20 single. The track also performed well on the Irish Singles Chart, peaking at number 9 and giving the band their first top ten single in their home country.[8]

Their second single, "The Man Who Can't Be Moved", was released on 25 July 2008.[9] The single achieved high peak positions in most European countries, reaching number 2 in the United Kingdom,[10] Ireland, and Denmark. The band released their debut album, The Script, on the 11 August 2008. Following the success of "The Man Who Can't Be Moved", the album entered the UK Album Chart at number one with sales of 54,520 copies[11] where it stayed for two weeks. The album spent eight weeks in the top ten and was the twelfth best selling album in the UK of 2008.[11] The album also entered the Irish Album Chart at number one, holding the top spot for five weeks.[12] It had, of January 2009, spent 22 weeks in the top ten. The Irish office of Sony BMG music presented the group with their first multi platinum award disc for over 600,000 sales of their debut album, ‘The Script’.[13]

The band's third single, "Breakeven", was released in Ireland on 21 November 2008 and in the UK on 24 November 2008. The single was a slow burner on the Irish Singles Chart. After entering the chart at number forty nine, it spent ten weeks before entering the top ten at number ten giving the Script their third top ten single in Ireland. The single has, to date, spent thirteen weeks on the UK Singles Chart, peaking at number 23. The band's fourth single "Talk You Down" was released in March 2009.[14]

On 9 November The Script received an award at the World Music Awards for 'Best Selling Irish Act' of 2008. The band has confirmed that they plan to write a track for Leona Lewis's second album.[15] In December 2008, the band were confirmed to be supporting Take That at their concert at Croke Park on 13 June 2009. The band played at the Cheerio's Childline concert on the opening night of Dublin's 02. They played among big stars Enrique Iglesias, Anatasia, Boyzone and many more.

In January 2009, it was announced that The Script were nominated for a number of awards at the 2009 Meteor Ireland Music Awards which will be announced on 17 March 2009 and in the same month it was also announced they are up for Best Album at the Choice Music Prize to be announced in early March. A 17 March 2009 US release of The Script self-titled debut album was announced by Epic Records/Sony Music on 29 January. The band will also be featured in VH1's promotion You Outta Know.

On 7 April 2009 the band were confirmed to be supporting U2 on their third concert at Croke Park, which will take place on 27 July 2009. [16] On 29 April 2009, the band announced that their next single would be Before The Worst, to be released on 15 June 2009.[17] In July 2009, The Script opened for Paul McCartney at the historic first concerts at New York's Citi Field and for U2 at Dublin's Croke Park.

On 2 December 2009 the band's single "The Man Who Can't Be Moved" was featured on the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show during the Enchanted Forrest segment.

Discography
Main article: The Script discography

Albums:
2000: Mytown "released as Mytown"
2008: The Script

Members
Danny O'Donoghue - lead vocals, keyboards
Mark Sheehan - lead guitar, backing vocals
Glen Power - drums, backing vocals (rhythm guitar on recordings)

1.BAGI PENULIS(SISWA)
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Ngeblog adalah aktivitas pencerdasan jika dilihat melalui bidang studi Psikologi yaitu :
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Egypt (pronounced /ˈiːdʒɪpt/ ( listen); Arabic: مصر‎ Miṣr, pronounced [misˤɾ] ( listen); Egyptian Arabic: Maṣr [ˈmɑsˤɾ]; Coptic: Ⲭⲏⲙⲓ, kīmi; Egyptian: Kemet), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in the Middle East. Thereby, Egypt is a transcontinental country, and is considered to be a major power in North Africa, Mediterranean Region, African Continent, Nile Basin, Islamic World and the Red Sea. Covering an area of about 1,010,000 square kilometers (390,000 sq mi), Egypt is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south and Libya to the west.

Egypt is one of the most populous countries in Africa and the Middle East. The great majority of its estimated 77.4 million^[1] live near the banks of the Nile River, in an area of about 40,000 square kilometers (15,000 sq mi), where the only arable agricultural land is found. The large areas of the Sahara Desert are sparsely inhabited. About half of Egypt's residents live in urban areas, with the majority spread across the densely-populated centres of greater Cairo, Alexandria and other major cities in the Nile Delta.

Egypt is famous for its ancient civilization and some of the world's most famous monuments, including the Giza pyramid complex and its Great Sphinx. The southern city of Luxor contains numerous ancient artifacts, such as the Karnak Temple and the Valley of the Kings. Egypt is widely regarded as an important political and cultural nation of the Middle East.

Egypt possesses one of the most developed economies in the Middle East, with sectors such as tourism, agriculture, industry and service at almost equal rates in national production.^{[citation needed]} Consequently, the Egyptian economy is rapidly developing, due in part to legislation aimed at luring investments, coupled with both internal and political stability, along with recent trade and market liberalization.

Contents [hide] 1 Etymology 2 Geography 3 Climate 4 History 4.1 Prehistory to the French Invasion 4.2 Modern history 4.3 The Revolution 5 Identity 6 Politics 6.1 National 6.2 Human rights 6.3 Foreign relations 7 Governorates and regions 8 Economy 9 Demographics 10 Media 11 Religion 12 Culture 12.1 Renaissance 12.2 Art and architecture 12.3 Literature 12.4 Music 12.5 Festivals 12.6 Sports 12.6.1 Best results 13 Military 14 See also 14.1 Lists 15 Notes and references 15.1 General references 16 External links

Etymology

km.t (Egypt) in hieroglyphs

One of the ancient Egyptian names of the country, Kemet (km.t), or "black land", referring to the fertile black soils of the Nile flood plains, distinct from the deshret (dšṛt), or "red land" of the desert.^[4] The name is realized as kīmi and kīmə in the Coptic stage of the Egyptian language, and appeared in early Greek as Χημία (Khēmía).^[5] Another name was t3-mry "land of the riverbank".^[6] The names of Upper and Lower Egypt were Ta-Sheme'aw (t3-šmˁw) "sedgeland" and Ta-Mehew (t3 mḥw) "northland", respectively.

Miṣr, the Arabic and modern official name of Egypt (Egyptian Arabic: Maṣr), is of Semitic origin, directly cognate with other Semitic words for Egypt such as the Hebrew מִצְרַיִם (Mitzráyim), literally meaning "the two straits" (a reference to the dynastic separation of upper and lower Egypt).^[7] The word originally connoted "metropolis" or "civilization" and also means "country", or "frontier-land".

The English name Egypt was borrowed from Middle French Egypte, from Latin Aegyptus, from ancient Greek Aígyptos (Αἴγυπτος), from earlier Linear B a-ku-pi-ti-yo. The adjective aigýpti-, aigýptios was borrowed into Coptic as gyptios, kyptios, and from there into Arabic as qubṭī, back formed into qubṭ, whence English Copt. The Greek forms were borrowed from Late Egyptian (Amarna) Hikuptah "Memphis", a corruption of the earlier Egyptian name Hat-ka-Ptah (ḥwt-k3-ptḥ), meaning "home of the ka (soul) of Ptah", the name of a temple to the god Ptah at Memphis.^[8] Strabo attributed the word to a folk etymology in which Aígyptos (Αἴγυπτος) evolved as a compound from Aigaiou huptiōs (Aἰγαίου ὑπτίως), meaning "below the Aegean".

Geography

At 1,001,450 square kilometers (386,660 sq mi),^[9] Egypt is the world's 38th-largest country. In terms of land area, it is approximately the same size as all of Central America,^[10] twice the size of Spain,^[11] four times the size of the United Kingdom,^[12] and the combined size of the US states of Texas and California.^[13]

Nevertheless, due to the aridity of Egypt's climate, population centres are concentrated along the narrow Nile Valley and Delta, meaning that approximately 99% of the population uses only about 5.5% of the total land area.^[14]

Egypt is bordered by Libya to the west, Sudan to the south, and by the Gaza Strip and Israel to the east. Egypt's important role in geopolitics stems from its strategic position: a transcontinental nation, it possesses a land bridge (the Isthmus of Suez) between Africa and Asia, which in turn is traversed by a navigable waterway (the Suez Canal) that connects the Mediterranean Sea with the Indian Ocean via the Red Sea.

Apart from the Nile Valley, the majority of Egypt's landscape is a desert. The winds blowing can create sand dunes more than 100 feet (30 m) high. Egypt includes parts of the Sahara Desert and of the Libyan Desert. These deserts were referred to as the "red land" in ancient Egypt, and they protected the Kingdom of the Pharaohs from western threats.

Towns and cities include Alexandria, one of the greatest ancient cities, Aswan, Asyut, Cairo, the modern Egyptian capital, El-Mahalla El-Kubra, Giza, the site of the Pyramid of Khufu, Hurghada, Luxor, Kom Ombo, Port Safaga, Port Said, Sharm el Sheikh, Suez, where the Suez Canal is located, Zagazig, and Al-Minya. Oases include Bahariya, el Dakhla, Farafra, el Kharga and Siwa. Protectorates include Ras Mohamed National Park, Zaranik Protectorate and Siwa.

See Egyptian Protectorates for more information.

Climate

Egypt does not receive much rainfall except in the winter months.^[15] South of Cairo, rainfall averages only around 2 to 5 mm (0.1 to 0.2 in) per year and at intervals of many years. On a very thin strip of the northern coast the rainfall can be as high as 410 mm (16.1 in),^[16] with most of the rainfall between October and March. Snow falls on Sinai's mountains and some of the north coastal cities such as Damietta, Baltim, Sidi Barrany, etc. and rarely in Alexandria, frost is also known in mid-Sinai and mid-Egypt.

Temperatures average between 80 °F (27 °C) and 90 °F (32 °C) in summer, and up to 109 °F (43 °C) on the Red Sea coast. Temperatures average between 55 °F (13 °C) and 70 °F (21 °C) in winter. A steady wind from the northwest helps hold down the temperature near the Mediterranean coast. The Khamaseen is a wind that blows from the south in Egypt in spring, bringing sand and dust, and sometimes raises the temperature in the desert to more than 100 °F (38 °C).

Every year, a predictable flooding of the Nile replenishes Egypt's soil. This gives the country consistent harvest throughout the year. Many know this event as The Gift of the Nile.

The rise in sea levels due to global warming threatens Egypt's densely populated coastal strip and could have grave consequences for the country's economy, agriculture and industry. Combined with growing demographic pressures, a rise in sea levels could turn millions of Egyptians into environmental refugees by the end of the century, according to climate experts.^[17]

History

Prehistory to the French Invasion

See also Population history of Egypt

There is evidence of rock carvings along the Nile terraces and in the desert oases. In the 10th millennium BC, a culture of hunter-gatherers and fishers replaced a grain-grinding culture. Climate changes and/or overgrazing around 8000 BC began to desiccate the pastoral lands of Egypt, forming the Sahara. Early tribal peoples migrated to the Nile River where they developed a settled agricultural economy and more centralized society.^[18]

By about 6000 BC the Neolithic culture rooted in the Nile Valley.^[19] During the Neolithic era, several predynastic cultures developed independently in Upper and Lower Egypt. The Badarian culture and the successor Naqada series are generally regarded as precursors to Dynastic Egyptian civilization. The earliest known Lower Egyptian site, Merimda, predates the Badarian by about seven hundred years. Contemporaneous Lower Egyptian communities coexisted with their southern counterparts for more than two thousand years, remaining somewhat culturally separate, but maintaining frequent contact through trade. The earliest known evidence of Egyptian hieroglyphic inscriptions appeared during the predynastic period on Naqada III pottery vessels, dated to about 3200 BC.^[20]

tAwy ('Two Lands') in hieroglyphs

A unified kingdom was founded circa 3150 BC by King Menes, giving rise to a series of dynasties that ruled Egypt for the next three millennia. Egyptians subsequently referred to their unified country as tawy, meaning "two lands", and later kemet (Coptic: kīmi), the "black land", a reference to the fertile black soil deposited by the Nile river. Egyptian culture flourished during this long period and remained distinctively Egyptian in its religion, arts, language and customs. The first two ruling dynasties of a unified Egypt set the stage for the Old Kingdom period, c.2700−2200 BC., famous for its many pyramids, most notably the Third Dynasty pyramid of Djoser and the Fourth Dynasty Giza Pyramids.

The First Intermediate Period ushered in a time of political upheaval for about 150 years.^[21] Stronger Nile floods and stabilization of government, however, brought back renewed prosperity for the country in the Middle Kingdom c. 2040 BC, reaching a peak during the reign of Pharaoh Amenemhat III. A second period of disunity heralded the arrival of the first foreign ruling dynasty in Egypt, that of the Semitic Hyksos. The Hyksos invaders took over much of Lower Egypt around 1650 BC and founded a new capital at Avaris. They were driven out by an Upper Egyptian force led by Ahmose I, who founded the Eighteenth Dynasty and relocated the capital from Memphis to Thebes.

The New Kingdom (c.1550−1070 BC) began with the Eighteenth Dynasty, marking the rise of Egypt as an international power that expanded during its greatest extension to an empire as far south as Tombos in Nubia, and included parts of the Levant in the east. This period is noted for some of the most well-known Pharaohs, including Hatshepsut, Thutmose III, Akhenaten and his wife Nefertiti, Tutankhamun and Ramesses II. The first historically attested expression of monotheism came during this period in the form of Atenism. Frequent contacts with other nations brought new ideas to the New Kingdom. The country was later invaded by Libyans, Nubians and Assyrians, but native Egyptians drove them out and regained control of their country^[22].

The Thirtieth Dynasty was the last native ruling dynasty during the Pharaonic epoch. It fell to the Persians in 343 BC after the last native Pharaoh, King Nectanebo II, was defeated in battle. Later, Egypt fell to the Greco–Macedonians and Romans, beginning over two thousand years of foreign rule. The last ruler from the Ptolemaic line was Cleopatra VII, who committed suicide with her lover Marc Antony, after Caesar Augustus had captured them.

Before Egypt became part of the Byzantine realm, Christianity had been brought by Saint Mark the Evangelist in the AD first century. Diocletian's reign marked the transition from the Roman to the Byzantine era in Egypt, when a great number of Egyptian Christians were persecuted. The New Testament had by then been translated into Egyptian. After the Council of Chalcedon in AD 451, a distinct Egyptian Coptic Church was firmly established.^[23]

The Byzantines were able to regain control of the country after a brief Persian invasion early in the seventh century, until in AD 639, Egypt was absorbed into the Islamic Empire by the Muslim Arabs. When they defeated the Byzantine Armies in Egypt, with the help of some revolutionary Egyptians, the Arabs brought Sunni Islam to the country. Early in this period, Egyptians began to blend their new faith with indigenous beliefs and practices that had survived through Coptic Christianity that was expanded in Egypt by the Byzantines, giving rise to various Sufi orders that have flourished to this day.^[24] Muslim rulers nominated by the Islamic Caliphate remained in control of Egypt for the next six centuries, with Cairo as the seat of the Caliphate under the Fatimids. With the end of the Ayyubid dynasty, the Mamluks, a Turco-Circassian military caste, took control about AD 1250. They continued to govern the country until the conquest of Egypt by the Ottoman Turks in 1517, after which it became a province of the Ottoman Empire. The mid-14th-Century Black Death killed about 40% of the country's population.^[25] The famine that afflicted Egypt in 1784 cost it roughly one-sixth of its population.^[26]

Modern history

The brief French invasion of Egypt led by Napoleon Bonaparte began in 1798. The expulsion of the French in 1801 by Ottoman, Mamluk, and British forces was followed by four years of anarchy in which Ottomans, Mamluks, and Albanians who were nominally in the service of the Ottomans, wrestled for power. Out of this chaos, the commander of the Albanian regiment, Muhammad Ali (Kavalali Mehmed Ali Pasha) emerged as a dominant figure and in 1805 was acknowledged by the Sultan in Istanbul as his viceroy in Egypt; the title implied subordination to the Sultan but this was in fact a polite fiction: Ottoman power in Egypt was finished and Muhammad Ali, an ambitious and able leader, established a dynasty that was to rule Egypt (at first really and later as British puppets) until the revolution of 1952.^[27]

His primary focus was military: he annexed Northern Sudan (1820–1824), Syria (1833), and parts of Arabia and Anatolia; but in 1841 the European powers, fearful lest he topple Byzantium itself, checked him: he had to return most of his conquests to the Ottomans, but he kept the Sudan and his title to Egypt was made hereditary. A more lasting consequence of his military ambition is that it made him the moderniser of Egypt. Anxious to learn the military (and therefore industrial) techniques of the great powers he sent students to the West and invited training missions to Egypt. He built industries, a system of canals for irrigation and transport, and reformed the civil service.^[28]

For better or worse, the introduction in 1820 of long-staple cotton, the Egyptian variety of which became famous, transformed Egyptian agriculture into a cash-crop monoculture before the end of the century. The social effects of this were enormous: it led to the concentration of agriculture in the hands of large landowners, and, with the additional trigger of high cotton prices caused by the United States' civil war production drop, to a large influx of foreigners who began in earnest the exploitation of Egypt for international commodity production.^[29]

Muhammad Ali was succeeded briefly by his son Ibrahim (in September 1848), then by a grandson Abbas I (in November 1848), then by Said (in 1854), and Isma'il (in 1863). Abbas I was cautious. Said and Ismail were ambitious developers; unfortunately they spent beyond their means. The Suez Canal, built in partnership with the French, was completed in 1869. The expense of this and other projects had two effects: it led to enormous debt to European banks, and caused popular discontent because of the onerous taxation it necessitated. In 1875 Ismail was forced to sell Egypt's share in the canal to the British government. Within three years this led to the imposition of British and French controllers who sat in the Egyptian cabinet, and, "with the financial power of the bondholders behind them, were the real power in the government."^[30]

Local dissatisfaction with Ismail and with European intrusion led to the formation of the first nationalist groupings in 1879, with Ahmad Urabi a prominent figure. In 1882 he became head of a nationalist-dominated ministry committed to democratic reforms including parliamentary control of the budget. Fearing a diminishment of their control, Britain and France intervened militarily, bombarding Alexandria and crushing the Egyptian army at the battle of Tel el-Kebir.^[31] They reinstalled Ismail's son Tewfik as figurehead of a de facto British protectorate.^[32]

In 1914 the Protectorate was made official, and the title of the head of state, which had changed from pasha to khedive in 1867, was changed to sultan, to repudiate the vestigial suzerainty of the Ottoman sultan, who was backing the Central powers in World War I. Abbas II was deposed as khedive and replaced by his uncle, Husayn Kamil, as sultan.^[33]

In 1906, the Dinshaway Incident prompted many neutral Egyptians to join the nationalist movement. After the First World War, Saad Zaghlul and the Wafd Party led the Egyptian nationalist movement, gaining a majority at the local Legislative Assembly. When the British exiled Zaghlul and his associates to Malta on 8 March 1919, the country arose in its first modern revolution. Constant revolting by the Egyptian people throughout the country led Great Britain to issue a unilateral declaration of Egypt's independence on 22 February 1922.^[34] The Kingdom of Egypt lasted from 1922 to its dissolution in 1953.

The Revolution

The new Egyptian government drafted and implemented a new constitution in 1923 based on a parliamentary representative system. Saad Zaghlul was popularly-elected as Prime Minister of Egypt in 1924. In 1936 the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty was concluded. Continued instability in the government due to remaining British control and increasing political involvement by the king led to the ousting of the monarchy and the dissolution of the parliament in a military coup d'état known as the 1952 Revolution. The officers, known as the Free Officers Movement, forced King Farouk to abdicate in support of his son Fuad.

On 18 June 1953, the Egyptian Republic was declared, with General Muhammad Naguib as the first President of the Republic. Naguib was forced to resign in 1954 by Gamal Abdel Nasser – the real architect of the 1952 movement – and was later put under house arrest. Nasser assumed power as President and declared the full independence of Egypt from the United Kingdom on 18 June 1956. His nationalization of the Suez Canal on 26 July 1956 prompted the 1956 Suez Crisis.

Three years after the 1967 Six Day War, during which Israel had invaded and occupied Sinai, Nasser died and was succeeded by Anwar Sadat. Sadat switched Egypt's Cold War allegiance from the Soviet Union to the United States, expelling Soviet advisors in 1972. He launched the Infitah economic reform policy, while violently clamping down on religious and secular opposition alike.

In 1973, Egypt, along with Syria, launched the October War, a surprise attack against the Israeli forces occupying the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights. It was an attempt to liberate part of the Sinai territory Israel had captured 6 years earlier. Sadat hoped to seize some territory via military force, and then regain the rest of the peninsula by diplomacy. The conflict sparked an international crisis between the two world superpowers: the US and the USSR, both of whom intervened. Two UN-mandated ceasefires were needed to bring military operations to a halt. While the war ended in a military stalemate, it presented Sadat with a political victory that later allowed him to regain the Sinai in return for peace with Israel.^[35]

Sadat made a historic visit to Israel in 1977, which led to the 1979 peace treaty in exchange for the complete Israeli withdrawal from Sinai. Sadat's initiative sparked enormous controversy in the Arab world and led to Egypt's expulsion from the Arab League, but it was supported by the vast majority of Egyptians.^[36] A fundamentalist military soldier assassinated Sadat in Cairo in 1981. He was succeeded by the incumbent Hosni Mubarak. In 2003, the Egyptian Movement for Change, popularly known as Kefaya, was launched to seek a return to democracy and greater civil liberties.

Identity

The Nile Valley was home to one of the oldest cultures in the world, spanning three thousand years of continuous history. When Egypt fell under a series of foreign occupations after 343 BC, each left an indelible mark on the country's cultural landscape. Egyptian identity evolved in the span of this long period of occupation to accommodate, in principle, two new religions, Islam and Christianity; and a new language, Arabic, and its spoken descendant, Egyptian Arabic.^[37]

The degree to which Egyptians identify with each layer of Egypt's history in articulating a sense of collective identity can vary. Questions of identity came to fore in the last century as Egypt sought to free itself from foreign occupation for the first time in two thousand years. Three chief ideologies came to head: ethno-territorial Egyptian nationalism, secular Arab nationalism and pan-Arabism, and Islamism. Egyptian nationalism predates its Arab counterpart by many decades, having roots in the nineteenth century and becoming the dominant mode of expression of Egyptian anti-colonial activists and intellectuals until the early 20th century.^[38]

Arab nationalism reached a peak under Nasser but was once again relegated under Sadat; meanwhile, the ideology espoused by Islamists such as the Muslim Brotherhood is present in small segments of the lower-middle strata of Egyptian society.^[39]

Politics

National

Egypt has been a republic since 18 June 1953. President Mohamed Hosni Mubarak has been the President of the Republic since 14 October 1981, following the assassination of former-President Mohammed Anwar El-Sadat. Mubarak is currently serving his fifth term in office (28 years). He is the leader of the ruling National Democratic Party. Prime Minister Dr. Ahmed Nazif was sworn in as Prime Minister on 9 July 2004, following the resignation of Dr. Atef Ebeid from his office.

Although power is ostensibly organized under a multi-party semi-presidential system, whereby the executive power is theoretically divided between the President and the Prime Minister, in practice it rests almost solely with the President who traditionally has been elected in single-candidate elections for more than fifty years. Egypt also holds regular multi-party parliamentary elections. The last presidential election, in which Mubarak won a fifth consecutive term, was held in September 2005.

In late February 2005, President Mubarak announced in a surprise television broadcast that he had ordered the reform of the country's presidential election law, paving the way for multi-candidate polls in the upcoming presidential election. For the first time since the 1952 movement, the Egyptian people had an apparent chance to elect a leader from a list of various candidates. The President said his initiative came "out of my full conviction of the need to consolidate efforts for more freedom and democracy."^[40] However, the new law placed draconian restrictions on the filing for presidential candidacies, designed to prevent well-known candidates such as Ayman Nour from standing against Mubarak, and paved the road for his easy re-election victory.^[41]

Concerns were once again expressed after the 2005 presidential elections about government interference in the election process through fraud and vote-rigging, in addition to police brutality and violence by pro-Mubarak supporters against opposition demonstrators.^[42] After the election, Egypt imprisoned Nour, and the U.S. Government stated the "conviction of Mr. Nour, the runner-up in Egypt's 2005 presidential elections, calls into question Egypt's commitment to democracy, freedom, and the rule of law."^[43]

As a result, most Egyptians are skeptical about the process of democratization and the role of the elections. Less than 25 percent of the country's 32 million registered voters (out of a population of more than 72 million) turned out for the 2005 elections.^[44] A proposed change to the constitution would limit the president to two seven-year terms in office.^[45]

Thirty-four constitutional changes voted on by parliament on 19 March 2007 prohibit parties from using religion as a basis for political activity; allow the drafting of a new anti-terrorism law to replace the emergency legislation in place since 1981, giving police wide powers of arrest and surveillance; give the president power to dissolve parliament; and end judicial monitoring of election.^[46] As opposition members of parliament withdrew from voting on the proposed changes, it was expected that the referendum would be boycotted by a great number of Egyptians in protest of what has been considered a breach of democratic practices.

Eventually it was reported that only 27% of the registered voters went to the polling stations under heavy police presence and tight political control of the ruling National Democratic Party. It was officially announced on 27 March 2007 that 75.9% of those who participated in the referendum approved of the constitutional amendments introduced by President Mubarak and was endorsed by opposition free parliament, thus allowing the introduction of laws that curb the activity of certain opposition elements, particularly Islamists.

The CIA World Factbook states that the legal system is based on Islamic and civil law (particularly Napoleonic codes); and that the judicial review takes place by a Supreme Court, which accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction only with reservations.

Human rights

Several local and international human rights organizations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have for many years criticized Egypt's human rights record as poor. In 2005, President Hosni Mubarak faced unprecedented public criticism when he clamped down on democracy activists challenging his rule. Some of the most serious human rights violations, according to HRW's 2006 report on Egypt, are routine torture, arbitrary detentions and trials before military and state security courts.^[47]

Discriminatory personal status laws governing marriage, custody and inheritance which put women at a disadvantage have also been cited. Laws concerning Coptic Christians which place restrictions on church building and open worship have been recently eased, but major construction still requires governmental approval, while sporadic attacks on Christians and churches continue.^[48] Intolerance of Bahá'ís and unorthodox Muslim sects, such as Sufis and Shi'a, also remains a problem.^[47]

The Egyptian legal system only recognizes three religions: Islam, Christianity and Judaism. When the government moved to computerize identification cards, members of religious minorities, such as Bahá'ís, could not obtain identification documents.^[49] An Egyptian court ruled in early 2008 that members of other faiths can obtain identity cards without listing their faiths, and without becoming officially recognized.^[50] (For more on the status of religious minorities, see the Religion section.)

In 2005, the Freedom House rated political rights in Egypt as "6" (1 representing the most free and 7 the least free rating), civil liberties as "5" and gave it the freedom rating of "Not Free."^[51] It however noted that "Egypt witnessed its most transparent and competitive presidential and legislative elections in more than half a century and an increasingly unbridled public debate on the country's political future in 2005."^[52] For freedom of the press, Egypt was deemed "Partly Free" in 2008, ranking 124 out of the 196 countries surveyed.^[53]

In 2007, human rights group Amnesty International released a report criticizing Egypt for torture and illegal detention. The report alleges that Egypt has become an international center for torture, where other nations send suspects for interrogation, often as part of the War on Terror. The report calls on Egypt to bring its anti-terrorism laws into accordance with international human rights statutes and on other nations to stop sending their detainees to Egypt.^[54] Egypt's foreign ministry quickly issued a rebuttal to this report, claiming that it was inaccurate and unfair, as well as causing deep offense to the Egyptian government.^[55]

The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR) is one of the longest-standing bodies for the defence of human rights in Egypt.^[56] In 2003, the government established the National Council for Human Rights, headquartered in Cairo and headed by former UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali who directly reports to the president.^[57] The council has come under heavy criticism by local NGO activists, who contend it undermines human rights work in Egypt by serving as a propaganda tool for the government to excuse its violations^[58] and to provide legitimacy to repressive laws such as the recently renewed Emergency Law.^[59] Egypt had announced in 2006 that it was in the process of abolishing the Emergency Law,^[45] but in March 2007 President Mubarak approved several constitutional amendments to include "an anti-terrorism clause that appears to enshrine sweeping police powers of arrest and surveillance", suggesting that the Emergency Law is here to stay for the long haul.^[60]

Foreign relations

Egypt's foreign policy operates along moderate lines. Factors such as population size, historical events, military strength, diplomatic expertise and a strategic geographical position give Egypt extensive political influence in Africa and the Middle East. Cairo has been a crossroads of regional commerce and culture for centuries, and its intellectual and Islamic institutions are at the center of the region's social and cultural development.

The permanent Headquarters of the Arab League are located in Cairo and the Secretary General of the Arab League has traditionally been an Egyptian. Former Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Moussa is the current Secretary General. The Arab League briefly moved from Egypt to Tunis in 1978, as a protest to the signing by Egypt of a peace treaty with Israel, but returned in 1989.

Egypt was the first Muslim state to establish diplomatic relations with Israel, with the signing of the Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty in 1979. Egypt has a major influence amongst other Arab states, and has historically played an important role as a mediator in resolving disputes between various Arab states, and in the Israeli-Palestinian dispute.

Former Egyptian Deputy Prime Minister Boutros Boutros-Ghali served as Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1991 to 1996.

In the twenty-first century, Egypt has encountered a major problem with immigration, as millions of Africans attempt to enter Egypt fleeing poverty and war. Border control methods can be "harsh, sometimes lethal."^[61]

Governorates and regions

Egypt is divided into 29 governorates. The governorates are further divided into regions. The regions are then subdivided into towns and villages.

Each governorate has a capital, often carrying the same name as the governorate.

The tables (below) list the governorates in alphabetical order. In April 2008, Cairo and Giza have divided to 4 governorates, the new governorates are 6th of October and Helwan beside Cairo and Giza

Governorate Capital Location Alexandria Alexandria Northern Aswan Aswan Upper Asyut Asyut Upper Beheira Damanhur Lower Beni Suef Beni Suef Upper Cairo Cairo Middle Dakahlia Mansura Lower Damietta Damietta Lower Faiyum Faiyum Upper Gharbia Tanta Lower Giza Giza Upper Helwan Helwan Middle Ismailia Ismailia Canal Kafr el-Sheikh Kafr el-Sheikh Lower

Governorate Capital Location Matruh Mersa Matruh Western Minya Minya Upper Monufia Shibin el-Kom Lower New Valley Kharga Western North Sinai Arish Sinai Port Said Port Said Canal Qalyubia Banha Lower Qena Qena Upper Red Sea Hurghada Eastern Sharqia Zagazig Upper Sohag Sohag Upper South Sinai el-Tor Sinai Suez Suez Canal 6th of October 6th of October Middle

Economy

Egypt's economy depends mainly on agriculture, media, petroleum exports, and tourism; there are also more than three million Egyptians working abroad, mainly in Saudi Arabia, the Persian Gulf and Europe. The completion of the Aswan High Dam in 1970 and the resultant Lake Nasser have altered the time-honored place of the Nile River in the agriculture and ecology of Egypt. A rapidly-growing population, limited arable land, and dependence on the Nile all continue to overtax resources and stress the economy.^[62]

The government has struggled to prepare the economy for the new millennium through economic reform and massive investments in communications and physical infrastructure. Egypt has been receiving U.S. foreign aid (since 1979, an average of $2.2 billion per year) and is the third-largest recipient of such funds from the United States following the Iraq war. Its main revenues however come from tourism as well as traffic that goes through the Suez Canal.

Egypt has a developed energy market based on coal, oil, natural gas, and hydro power. Substantial coal deposits are in the north-east Sinai, and are mined at the rate of about 600,000 tonnes (590,000 LT; 660,000 ST) per year. Oil and gas are produced in the western desert regions, the Gulf of Suez, and the Nile Delta. Egypt has huge reserves of gas, estimated at 1,940 cubic kilometres, and LNG is exported to many countries.

Economic conditions have started to improve considerably after a period of stagnation from the adoption of more liberal economic policies by the government, as well as increased revenues from tourism and a booming stock market. In its annual report, the IMF has rated Egypt as one of the top countries in the world undertaking economic reforms.^{[citation needed]} Some major economic reforms taken by the new government since 2003 include a dramatic slashing of customs and tariffs. A new taxation law implemented in 2005 decreased corporate taxes from 40% to the current 20%, resulting in a stated 100% increase in tax revenue by the year 2006.

FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) into Egypt has increased considerably in the past few years due to the recent economic liberalization measures taken by minister of investment Mahmoud Mohieddin, exceeding $6 billion in 2006.

Although one of the main obstacles still facing the Egyptian economy is the trickle down of the wealth to the average population, many Egyptians criticize their government for higher prices of basic goods while their standards of living or purchasing power remains relatively stagnant. Often corruption is blamed by Egyptians as the main impediment to feeling the benefits of the newly attained wealth.^[63][64][65] Major reconstruction of the country's infrastructure is promised by the government, with a large portion of the sum paid for the newly acquired 3rd mobile license ($3 billion) by Etisalat.^[66]

The best known examples of Egyptian companies that have expanded regionally and globally are the Orascom Group and Raya. The IT sector has been expanding rapidly in the past few years, with many new start-ups conducting outsourcing business to North America and Europe, operating with companies such as Microsoft, Oracle and other major corporations, as well as numerous SME's. Some of these companies are the Xceed Contact Center, Raya Contact Center, E Group Connections and C3 along with other start ups in that country. The sector has been stimulated by new Egyptian entrepreneurs trying to capitalize on their country's huge potential in the sector, as well as constant government encouragement.

Demographics

Egypt is the most populated country in the Middle East and the third most populous on the African continent, with an estimated 83 million people (as of April 2009). The last 40 years have seen a rapid increase in population due to medical advances and massive increase in agricultural productivity,^[67] made by the Green Revolution.^[68] Egypt's population was estimated at only 3 million when Napoleon invaded the country in 1798.^[69]

Almost all the population is concentrated along the banks of the Nile (notably Cairo and Alexandria), in the Delta and near the Suez Canal. Approximately 90% of the population adheres to Islam and most of the remainder to Christianity, primarily the Coptic Orthodox denomination.^[70] Apart from religious affiliation, Egyptians can be divided demographically into those who live in the major urban centers and the fellahin or farmers of rural villages.

Egyptians are by far the largest ethnic group in Egypt at 91% of the total population.^[70] Ethnic minorities include the Abazas, Turks, Greeks, Bedouin Arab tribes living in the eastern deserts and the Sinai Peninsula, the Berber-speaking Siwis (Amazigh) of the Siwa Oasis, and the Nubian communities clustered along the Nile. There are also tribal communities of Beja concentrated in the south-eastern-most corner of the country, and a number of Dom clans mostly in the Nile Delta and Faiyum who are progressively becoming assimilated as urbanization increases.

Egypt also hosts an unknown number of refugees and asylum seekers, but they are estimated to be between 500,000 and 3 million.^[71] There are some 70,000 Palestinian refugees,^[71] and about 150,000 recently arrived Iraqi refugees,^[72] but the number of the largest group, the Sudanese, is contested.^[73] The once-vibrant Greek and Jewish communities in Egypt have virtually disappeared, with only a small number remaining in the country, but many Egyptian Jews visit on religious occasions and for tourism. Several important Jewish archaeological and historical sites are found in Cairo, Alexandria and other cities.

Media

Egyptian media are highly influential both in Egypt and the Arab World, attributed to large audiences and increasing freedom from government control.^[74][75] Freedom of the media is guaranteed in the constitution; however, many laws still restrict this right.^[74][76] After the Egyptian presidential election of 2005, Ahmed Selim, office director for Information Minister Anas al-Fiqi, declared an era of a "free, transparent and independent Egyptian media."^[75]

Today, the Egyptian media is experiencing more freedom that wasn't available in the near past. Several Egyptian Talk shows, like (90 Minutes) and (Al- Ashera Masa'an), which operate on private channels, and even the state television programs such as (El-beit beitak) are criticizing the government; this was banned before because the government was controlling all television programs, but now the public is feeling the freedom that the government allowed for media.

Religion

Egypt is a predominantly Muslim country with Islam as its state religion. Between 80% and 90% are identified as Muslim. ^{[77][78][79][80][81][82][83][84][85]} Almost the entire population of Muslims are Sunni.^[77] A significant number of Muslim Egyptians also follow native Sufi orders,^[86] and there is a minority of Shi'a.

There is a large minority of Christians in Egypt, who make up the remainder of the population (between 10% and 20%).^{[85][87][83][84][88][89] [90] [91] [92] [93]} Over 90% of Egyptian Christians belong to the native Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria.^[79][80][94] Other native Egyptian Christians are adherents of the Coptic Catholic Church, the Evangelical Church of Egypt and various other Protestant denominations. Non-native Christian communities are largely found in the urban regions of Cairo and Alexandria.

There is also a small, but nonetheless historically significant, non-immigrant Bahá'í population of around 2000,^[95] and an even smaller community of Jews of about 200,^[95][96] then a tiny number of Egyptians who identify as atheist and agnostic. The non-Sunni, non-Coptic communities range in size from several hundreds to a few thousand.

According to the constitution of Egypt, any new legislation must at least implicitly agree with Islamic law; however, the constitution bans political parties with a religious agenda.^[97] Egypt hosts two major religious institutions. Al-Azhar University, founded in 970 A.D by the Fatimids as the first Islamic University in Egypt and the main Egyptian Church the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria established in the middle of the 1st century by Saint Mark.

Religion plays a central role in most Egyptians' lives, The Adhan (Islamic call to prayer) that is heard five times a day has the informal effect of regulating the pace of everything from business to media and entertainment. Cairo is famous for its numerous mosque minarets and is justifiably dubbed "the city of 1,000 minarets",^[98] with a significant number of church towers. This religious landscape has been marred by a history of religious extremism,^[49] recently witnessing a 2006 judgement of Egypt's Supreme Administrative Court, which made a clear legal distinction between "recognized religions" (i.e., Islam, Christianity, and Judaism) and all other religious beliefs. This ruling effectively delegitimizes and forbids practice of all but the three Abrahamic religions.^[99]

This judgment had made it necessary for non-Abrahamic religious communities to either commit perjury or be denied Egyptian identification cards (see Egyptian identification card controversy), until a 2008 Cairo court case ruled that unrecognized religious minorities may obtain birth certificates and identification documents, so long as they omit their religion on court documents.^[50]

In 2002, under the Mubarak government, Coptic Christmas (January the 7th) was recognized as an official holiday,^[100] though Copts report being minimally represented in law enforcement, state security and public office, and of being discriminated against in the workforce on the basis of their religion.^[47] The Coptic community, as well as several human rights activists and intellectuals, maintain that the number of Christians occupying government posts is not proportional to the number of Copts in Egypt.

Culture

Egyptian culture has six thousand years of recorded history. Ancient Egypt was among the earliest civilizations and for millennia, Egypt maintained a strikingly complex and stable culture that influenced later cultures of Europe, the Middle East and other African countries. After the Pharaonic era, Egypt itself came under the influence of Hellenism, Christianity, and Islamic culture. Today, many aspects of Egypt's ancient culture exist in interaction with newer elements, including the influence of modern Western culture, itself with roots in ancient Egypt.

Egypt's capital city, Cairo, is Africa's largest city and has been renowned for centuries as a center of learning, culture and commerce. Egypt has the highest number of Nobel Laureates in Africa and the Arab World. Some Egyptian born politicians were or are currently at the helm of major international organizations like Boutros Boutros-Ghali of the United Nations and Mohamed ElBaradei of the IAEA.

Egypt is a recognized cultural trend-setter of the Arabic-speaking world, and contemporary Arab culture is heavily influenced by Egyptian literature, music, film and television. Egypt gained a regional leadership role during the 1950s and 1960s, which gave a further enduring boost to the standing of Egyptian culture in the Arab world. ^[101]

Renaissance

The work of early nineteenth-century scholar Rifa'a et-Tahtawi gave rise to the Egyptian Renaissance, marking the transition from Medieval to Early Modern Egypt. His work renewed interest in Egyptian antiquity and exposed Egyptian society to Enlightenment principles. Tahtawi co-founded with education reformer Ali Mubarak a native Egyptology school that looked for inspiration to medieval Egyptian scholars, such as Suyuti and Maqrizi, who themselves studied the history, language and antiquities of Egypt.^[102]

Egypt's renaissance peaked in the late 19th and early 20th centuries through the work of people like Muhammad Abduh, Ahmed Lutfi el-Sayed, Muhammad Loutfi Goumah, Tawfiq el-Hakim, Louis Awad, Qasim Amin, Salama Moussa, Taha Hussein and Mahmoud Mokhtar. They forged a liberal path for Egypt expressed as a commitment to individual freedom, secularism and faith in science to bring progress.^[103]

Art and architecture

The Egyptians were one of the first major civilizations to codify design elements in art and architecture. The wall paintings done in the service of the Pharaohs followed a rigid code of visual rules and meanings. Egyptian civilization is renowned for its colossal pyramids, colonnades and monumental tombs. Well-known examples are the Pyramid of Djoser designed by ancient architect and engineer Imhotep, the Sphinx, and the temple of Abu Simbel. Modern and contemporary Egyptian art can be as diverse as any works in the world art scene, from the vernacular architecture of Hassan Fathy and Ramses Wissa Wassef, to Mahmoud Mokhtar's famous sculptures, to the distinctive Coptic iconography of Isaac Fanous.

The Cairo Opera House serves as the main performing arts venue in the Egyptian capital. Egypt's media and arts industry has flourished since the late nineteenth century, today with more than thirty satellite channels and over one hundred motion pictures produced each year. Cairo has long been known as the "Hollywood of the Middle East;" its annual film festival, the Cairo International Film Festival, has been rated as one of 11 festivals with a top class rating worldwide by the International Federation of Film Producers' Associations.^[104] To bolster its media industry further, especially with the keen competition from the Persian Gulf Arab States and Lebanon, a large media city was built. Some Egyptian-born actors, like Omar Sharif, have achieved worldwide fame.

Literature

Literature constitutes an important cultural element in the life of Egypt. Egyptian novelists and poets were among the first to experiment with modern styles of Arabic literature, and the forms they developed have been widely imitated throughout the Middle East.^[105] The first modern Egyptian novel Zaynab by Muhammad Husayn Haykal was published in 1913 in the Egyptian vernacular.^[106] Egyptian novelist Naguib Mahfouz was the first Arabic-language writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. Egyptian women writers include Nawal El Saadawi, well known for her feminist activism, and Alifa Rifaat who also writes about women and tradition.

Vernacular poetry is perhaps the most popular literary genre amongst Egyptians, represented by the works of Ahmed Fouad Negm (Fagumi), Salah Jaheen and Abdel Rahman el-AbnudiIn their belief, boats were used by the dead to accompany the sun around the world, as Heaven was referred to as “Upper Waters”. In Egyptian mythology, every night the serpentine god Apophis would attack the Sun Boat as it brought the sun (and as such order )back to the Kingdom in the morning. It is referred to as the “Boat of Millions” as all of the gods and all of the souls of the blessed dead may at one point or another be needed to defend or operate it.

Music

Egyptian music is a rich mixture of indigenous, Mediterranean, African and Western elements. In antiquity, Egyptians were playing harps and flutes, including two indigenous instruments: the ney and the oud. Percussion and vocal music also became an important part of the local music tradition ever since. Contemporary Egyptian music traces its beginnings to the creative work of people such as Abdu-l Hamuli, Almaz and Mahmud Osman, who influenced the later work of Egyptian music giants such as Amr Diab,Mohamed Mounir, Sayed Darwish, Umm Kulthum, Mohammed Abdel Wahab and Abdel Halim Hafez. From the 1970s onwards, Egyptian pop music has become increasingly important in Egyptian culture, while Egyptian folk music continues to be played during weddings and other festivities.

Festivals

Egypt is famous for its many festivals and religious carnivals, also known as mulid. They are usually associated with a particular Coptic or Sufi saint, but are often celebrated by all Egyptians irrespective of creed or religion. Ramadan has a special flavor in Egypt, celebrated with sounds, lights (local lanterns known as fawanees) and much flare that many Muslim tourists from the region flock to Egypt during Ramadan to witness the spectacle. The ancient spring festival of Sham en Nisim (Coptic: Ϭⲱⲙ‘ⲛⲛⲓⲥⲓⲙ shom en nisim) has been celebrated by Egyptians for thousands of years, typically between the Egyptian months of Paremoude (April) and Pashons (May), following Easter Sunday.

Egypt is one of the boldest countries in the middle east in the music industry. The next generation of the Egyptian music is considered to be the rise, as the music was disrupted by some foreign influences, bad admixing, and abused oriental styles. The new arising talents starting from the late 90's are taking over the rein now as they play many diffenet genres of many different cultures. Rock And Metal music are prevailing widely in Egypt now,as much as the oriental jazz and folk music are becoming well-known now to the Egyptian and non-Egyptian fans

Sports

Football is the Popular National Sport of Egypt. Egyptian Soccer clubs El Ahly, El Zamalek, Ismaily, El-Ittihad El-Iskandary and El Masry are the most popular teams and enjoy the reputation of long-time regional champions. The great rivalries keep the streets of Egypt energized as people fill the streets when their favorite team wins. The Cairo Derby is one of the fiercest derbies in Africa nd the world, the BBC even picked it as one of the toughest 7 derbies in the world [5]. Egypt is rich in soccer history as soccer has been around for over 100 years. The country is home to many African championships such as the Africa Cup of Nations. While, Egypt's national team has not qualified for the FIFA World Cup since 1990, the Egyptian team won the Africa Cup Of Nations an unprecedented six times, including two times in a row in 1957 and 1959 and again in 2006 and 2008, setting a world record.

Squash and tennis are other popular sports in Egypt. The Egyptian squash team has been known for its fierce competition in international championships since the 1930s. Amr Shabana is Egypt's best player and the winner of the world open three times and the best player of 2006.

The Egyptian Handball team also holds another record; throughout the 34 times the African Handball Nations Championship was held, Egypt won first place five times (including 2008), five times second place, four times third place, and came in fourth place twice. The team won 6th and 7th places in 1995, 1997 at the World Men's Handball Championship, and twice won 6th place at the 1996 and 2000 Olympics.

In 2007, Omar Samra joined Ben Stephens (England), Victoria James (Wales) and Greg Maud (South Africa) in putting together an expedition to climb Mount Everest from its South side. The Everest expedition began on 25 March 2007 and lasted for just over 9 weeks. On the 17th of May at precisely 9:49 am Nepal time, Omar became the first and youngest Egyptian to climb 8,850m Mount Everest. He also became the first Egyptian to climb Everest from its South face, the same route taken by Sir Edmund Hilary and Sherpa Tenzing in 1953.

Egypt has a long history of participation at the Summer Olympics since 1912.

Best results

Games	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1928 Amsterdam	2	1	1	4
1936 Berlin	2	1	2	5
1948 London	2	2	1	5
1952 Helsinki	0	0	1	1
1960 Rome	0	1	1	2
1984 Los Angeles	0	1	0	1
1988 Seoul	0	1	0	1
2004 Athens	1	1	3	5
2008 Beijing	0	0	1	1
Total	7	7	10	24

Military

The Egyptian Armed forces have a combined troop strength of around 450,000 active personnel.^[107] According to the Israeli chair of the former Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Yuval Steinitz, the Egyptian Air Force has roughly the same number of modern warplanes as the Israeli Air Force and far more Western tanks, artillery, anti-aircraft batteries and warships than the IDF.^[108]

The Egyptian military has recently undergone massive military modernization mostly in their Air Force. Egypt is speculated by Israel to be the first country in the region with a spy satellite, EgyptSat 1, and is planning to launch 3 more satellites (DesertSat1, EgyptSat2, DesertSat2) over the next two years. In Israel, Egypt is considered to be the second strongest military power in the Middle East, behind Israel.