Queen Latifah

Her stage name Latifah, meaning "delicate" and "sensitive" in Arabic, was given her when she was eight by her cousin. The Aladdin is undergoing bankruptcy proceedings, however, and Robert Earl, CEO of Planet Hollywood, the corporation which will be taking controlling interest of the Aladdin when it emerges from bankruptcy protection, was quoted as saying that he would like to take Moore up on the film maker's offer to join Ronstadt on the Aladdin stage to sing "America the Beautiful". She stands 5'9". Ronstadt had previously been quoted in the Las Vegas Review-Journal that she was eager to get out of her Aladdin contract, and hoped that she would annoy them enough to not bring her back. In April 2003 she had breast reduction surgery. "I didn't know they were mad at me until we were gone, and I didn't know what they were mad at me about until about an hour later, when apparently they called up one of the people that was traveling with us and went, 'She's talking about Michael Moore, and this is a place for entertainment, not politics,'" Ronstadt said. Other recent movies Latifah has appeared in are Scary Movie 3, Barbershop 2: Back in Business and Taxi. She was not aware of anyone throwing drinks, was not escorted off the premises, and it wasn't until later that she learned Aladdin's management was angry.

In 2003, she co-starred with Steve Martin in the marginally well received comedy Bringing Down the House, as a woman who is "mismatched" through a legal advice chat room with Martin's character. However, Ronstadt says that the media reports were inaccurate. In 2003, she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Matron "Mama" Morton in the movie musical Chicago. At the same time, it was reported that the angry shouts and boos were overpowered by cheers and people clapping. In 1998, she made an album entitled Order in the Court. Initial reports were that Aladdin president Bill Timmins escorted her out of the premises without having a chance to go to her hotel suite to obtain her property, and vowed that, as long as he was running the casino, she would no longer be welcome. In 1996 she was arrested in possession of a small amount of marijuana and a gun; she was fined and sentenced to two years probation. It was reported that some members of the audience walked out, tore down posters, threw drinks, and demanded she be removed from the stage.

Latifah released an album dedicated to him, Black Reign, which was a hit partly because of a hit single, U.N.I.T.Y. In 1995, she was the victim of a carjacking, in which a friend of hers was shot. On July 18, 2004, during a performance at the Aladdin Casino in Las Vegas, Ronstadt praised Michael Moore and his documentary film Fahrenheit 9/11. She still wears the key to the bike around her neck. In a career spanning four decades, she has recorded more than forty albums, her latest a return to her roots in pop-rock ballads. Her older brother Lance was killed in 1992 in an accident on a bike that Latifah had just bought him. Showing her versatility yet again, in 1996 Ronstadt released Dedicated to the One I Love, an album of children's music. From 1993 to 1998 Latifah starred on Living Single, a FOX sitcom; she also wrote and performed its theme music. After appearing in the Broadway play, in 1983 she co-starred with Kevin Kline and Angela Lansbury in The Pirates of Penzance, a motion picture based on a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta.

This debut was critically acclaimed as one of the best hip hop albums of all time and was followed by Nature of a Sista, another well-reviewed album. In addition to pop-rock hits such as her popular version of the Roy Orbison hit, "Blue Bayou" and duets with Aaron Neville that received much critical acclaim, her long singing career has been filled with an eclectic mix of recordings, including Big Band sounds, Mexican canciones, an album of old-time country music, an album of Latin music, and an album of rock classics redone as lullabies. Local DJ Mark the 45 King heard a demo version of Latifah's single "Princess of the Posse" in 1988, gave the demo to Fab Five Freddy, who was then host of Yo! MTV Raps, and Fab 5 Freddy helped Latifah get signed to Tommy Boy Records, which released Latifah's first album, All Hail the Queen (1989), when she was 18. Ronstadt dated Jerry Brown, then Governor of California, in the late 1970s. She started her career beatboxing for rap group Ladies Fresh. Her breakthrough year was 1975, when she released a series of hits beginning with the single "You're No Good." She hit #1 on the Billboard magazine charts with her 1974 album Heart Like a Wheel, and followed that up with the #1 albums Simple Dreams in 1977 and Living in the U.S.A. in 1978. Latifah's first big success was singing the number "Home" from The Wiz in a school performance of the musical. Her first solo hit single came in 1970, with the country rock crossover single, "Long Long Time." She achieved her greatest commercial success during the 1970s, with a string of platinum albums, as she branched out from the earlier country rock sound to include more conventional rock, often covering early rock classics from the 1950s and early 1960s.

Owens' mother and father, a police officer, divorced when she was eight years old. She scored her first hit single in 1967, as singer for the Stone Poneys, with the song "Different Drum," written by Monkees member Michael Nesmith. Dana Elaine Owens (born March 18, 1970, in Newark, New Jersey), better known as Queen Latifah, is an American Grammy Award-winning rap artist and actress. Born in Tucson, Arizona to a German-Mexican father and a Dutch-English mother, Linda Ronstadt began her career in the mid 1960s singing in Los Angeles, California clubs with the folk-rock group, the Stone Poneys. Linda Maria Ronstadt (born July 15, 1946) is an American singer. 2004 Hummin' To Myself.

2002 The Very Best of Linda Ronstadt. 2000 A Merry Little Christmas. 1999 Western Wall (with Emmylou Harris). 1999 Trio II (With Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris).

1998 We Ran. 1996 Dedicated To The One I Love. 1995 Feels Like Home. 1993 Winter Light.

1992 Frenesi. 1990 Mas Canciones. 1989 Cry Like A Rainstorm, Howl Like The Wind. 1987 Canciones de Mi Padre.

1987 Trio (With Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris). 1986 Round Midnight. 1986 For Sentimental Reasons. 1984 Lush Life.

1983 What's New. 1982 Get Closer. 1980 Linda Ronstadt's Greatest Hits Volume 2. 1980 Mad Love.

1978 Living In The U.S.A. 1977 The Southern Belle. 1977 A Retrospective. 1977 Simple Dreams.

1976 Linda Ronstadt's Greatest Hits. 1976 Hasten Down The Wind. 1975 Prisoner In Disguise. 1974 Heart Like A Wheel.

1973 Don't Cry Now. 1972 Linda Ronstadt. 1970 Silk Purse. 1969 Hand Sown Home Grown.