title: History of advertising

text: In the United States, the granting of television and radio licenses by the FCC is contingent upon the station broadcasting a certain amount of public service advertising. To meet these requirements, many broadcast stations in America air the bulk of their required public service announcements during the late night or early morning when the smallest percentage of viewers are watching, leaving more day and prime time commercial slots available for high-paying advertisers.


title: History of advertising

text: Public service advertising in the United States reached its height during the world wars. During WWII President Roosevelt commissioned the creation of The War Advertising Council (now known as the Ad Council) which is the United States' largest developer of PSA campaigns on behalf of government agencies and non-profit organizations, including the longest-running public service campaign, Smokey Bear.


title: History of advertising

text: Advertising came under heavy pressure in the 1930s. The Great Depression forced businesses to drastically cut back on their advertising spending. Layoffs and reductions were common at all agencies. The New Deal furthermore aggressively promoted consumerism, and minimized the value or need of advertising. Historian Jackson Lears argues that "By the late 1930s, though, corporate advertisers had begun a successful counterattack against their critics." They rehabilitated the concept of consumer sovereignty by inventing scientific public opinion polls, and making it the centerpiece of their own market research, as well has the key to understanding politics. George Gallup, the vice president of Young and Rubicam, and numerous other advertising experts, led the way. Moving into the 1940s, the industry played a leading role in the ideological mobilization of the American people for fighting the Nazis and Japanese in World War II. As part of that effort, they redefined the "American Way of Life" in terms of a commitment to free enterprise. "Advertisers," Lears concludes, "played a crucial hegemonic role in creating the consumer culture that dominated post-World War II American society."


title: History of advertising

text: In the prosperous postwar era, millions of Americans moved into new housing, especially in the rapidly growing suburbs. They spent heavily on housing, appliances, furniture, clothing and automobiles. The coming of television in the 1950s dramatically enlarged the arena for advertising. With most families having automobiles, and more leisure time, travel holidays became much more common, and the motel and tourism industries eagerly supported large-scale advertising.


title: History of advertising

text: In the public service arena, the Ad Council aggressively promoted Americanism as a Cold War strategy, with campaigns such as the Freedom Train, the Crusade for Freedom, Religion in American Life, Adams for Piece, and Peoples Capitalism. The new Brand Names Foundation sponsored conferences, local campaigns, and educational programs to promote brand loyalty, as well as free enterprise.


title: History of advertising

text: In "The Hidden Persuaders" (1957) popular writer Vance Packard exposes the use of consumer motivational research and other psychological techniques, including depth psychology and subliminal tactics. They had been used to manipulate expectations and induce desire for products since the 1920s, but the popular audience was caught by surprise. He identified eight "compelling needs" that advertisers promise products will fulfill. According to Packard these needs are so strong that people are compelled to buy products to satisfy them. The book questions the morality of using these techniques.


title: History of advertising

text: Before the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s, black people were largely missing from mainstream white advertising. Those who did appear typically followed the long-standing "hierarchy of skin color" whereby those with lighter skin tones were seen as being more socially and culturally acceptable than dark-skinned black people.


title: History of advertising

text: Most national corporations before the 1960s ignored the black market, and paid little attention to working with black merchants or hiring blacks for responsible positions. Pepsi-Cola was a major exception, as the number two brand fought for parity with Coca-Cola. The upstart soda brand hired black promoters who penetrated into black markets across the South and the urban North. Journalist Stephanie Capparell interviewed six men who were on the team in the late 1940s:


title: History of advertising

text: Pepsi advertisements avoided the stereotypical images common in the major media that depicted one-dimensional Aunt Jemimas and Uncle Bens whose role was to draw a smile from white customers. Instead it portrayed black customers as self-confident middle-class citizens who showed very good taste in their soft drinks. They were economical too, as Pepsi bottles were twice the size.


title: History of advertising

text: By the late 1960s, more than a few token blacks were hired at advertising agencies, and the sensitivity to the problem increased. The leading black magazines "Essence" and "Jet" routinely deplored racism in mainstream media, especially in the negative depictions of black men and women. However "Essence" and "Jet" in the 21st century themselves ran about a dozen ads a year, especially for skin lighteners, that were pervaded with "racism and White supremacy."


title: History of advertising

text: By the 1950s, fears of cancer from tobacco smoking caused consternation in the tobacco industry, which turned to advertisers for help in avoiding falling consumer demand and increased regulation. British and American agencies separately arrived at similar solutions. The Tobacco Industry Research Committee in the United States and the Tobacco Manufacturers' Standing Committee in Britain each assuaged public anxieties and encouraged the misperception that the cigarette makers were resolving the issues through filters and low tar formulations. The public relations approach was successful in the short run, but the accumulation of medical evidence led to a fall in smoking, heavier taxation, and increased regulation. The agencies responded with sophisticated advertising strategies designed to encourage adolescent smokers as well as to recruit new smokers in less-developed foreign markets.


title: History of advertising

text: The late 1980s and early 1990s saw the introduction of cable television and particularly MTV. Pioneering the concept of the music video, MTV ushered in a new type of advertising: the consumer tunes in "for" the advertising message, rather than it being a by-product or afterthought. As cable and satellite television became increasingly prevalent, specialty channels emerged, including channels entirely devoted to advertising, such as QVC, Home Shopping Network, and ShopTV Canada.


title: History of advertising

text: With the advent of the ad server, marketing through the Internet opened new frontiers for advertisers and contributed to the "dot-com" boom of the 1990s. Entire corporations operated solely on advertising revenue, offering everything from coupons to free Internet access. At the turn of the 21st century, a number of websites, including the search engine Google, started a change in online advertising by emphasizing contextually relevant ads based on an individual's browsing interests. This has led to a plethora of similar efforts and an increasing trend of interactive advertising.


title: History of advertising

text: The share of advertising spending relative to GDP has changed little across large changes in media. For example, in the US in 1925, the main advertising media were newspapers, magazines, signs on streetcars, and outdoor posters. Advertising spending as a share of GDP was about 2.9 percent. By 1998, television and radio had become major advertising media. Nonetheless, advertising spending as a share of GDP was slightly lower – about 2.4 percent.


title: History of advertising

text: The advertising business model has also been adapted since the 1990s. In media for equity, advertising is not sold, but provided to start-up companies in return for equity. If the company grows and is sold, the media companies receive cash for their shares.


title: History of advertising

text: Chinese advertising is moving heavily to the smartphone, leaving television behind. Companies in China are increasingly more focused on mobile advertisements than on television advertisements. Central roles are played by Chinese-based social networking sites Weixin (also known as WeChat), and Sina Weibo, and the efforts of Western companies, including Coca-Cola, Burberry, and North Face, to market to Chinese consumers through their smartphones.


title: History of advertising

text: Since the 1950s, the industry itself, or the government, has imposed some restrictions on advertising certain types of products, especially liquor and cigarettes. Tobacco bans exist in many major countries across the world and cover 2.3 billion people. In the 1990s Quebec banned some advertising directed at children. The restrictions have hindered competition in the breakfast cereal market when compared with the rest of Canada.


title: History of advertising

text: In the United States in the 1960s, public health advocates focused on limiting the advertising of tobacco products. In 1971, cigarette advertisements were taken off of the air (television and radio). This led marketers to shift their money over to print media: billboards, newspapers, etc. In the 1980s, public health groups pressed for more comprehensive restrictions. This posed a problem for the United States due to the constitutional protections of freedom of expression under the First Amendment. However, corporate marketing messages are not granted the same protections as noncommercial speech. Advertising messages, or “commercial speech” include commercial advertising, promises, and solicitations. Although commercial speech has been subject to regulation in order to protect consumers, it is still granted certain rights under the first amendment.


title: History of advertising

text: "Even a communication that does no more than propose a commercial transaction is entitled to the coverage of the First Amendment."(Edenfield v. Fane, 1993)


title: History of advertising

text: J. Walter Thompson became the first American agency to expand internationally with the opening of J. Walter Thompson London in 1899.


title: History of advertising

text: Marcel Bleustein-Blanchet (1906–1996) was the most prominent leader of French advertising in the 20th century. He founded Publicis. After 1945 his little-known Paris-based advertising agency grew rapidly, becoming the world's fourth largest agency. It was a leader in promoting France's post-war economic boom, especially the expansion of the advertising industry. It was successful because of its close ties with top officials of the French government, its clever use of symbols to promote itself, and its ability to attract clients from widely diverse growing industries.


title: History of advertising

text: The question of whether advertising reflects society or shapes society, can be seen in European models that diverged from the American style. In France, Michelin dominated the tire industry and was one of the leading advertisers; to this day its famous guidebooks are very widely used by upscale travelers. From 1894 to the present its symbol was Bibendum (the "Michelin Man" made of tires). He was a lord of industry, a master of all he surveyed, and a patriotic expounder of the French spirit. In the 1920s, Bibendum urged Frenchmen to adopt America's superior factory system, but to patriotically avoid using the "inferior" products of those factories. As automobiles diffused to the middle classes, Michelin advertising likewise shifted downscale, and its restaurant and hotel guides covered a broader range of price categories.


title: History of advertising

text: J Walter Thompson expanded successfully in many countries, but France was not one of them. French businessmen did not like the American tone, and were fearful of Americanization. The French market was heavily regulated and protected to repel foreign interests, and the American admen in Paris were not good at hiding their condescension and insensitivity.


title: History of advertising

text: As millions of American soldiers passed through Britain during the Second World War, there were fearsof an "Americanization" of British commerce and culture. The Marshall Plan explicitly required and upgrading of the marketing and organizational skills of British industry. There were fears among the leaders of the London advertising world of what the brash, rich Americans would do to them. Radio and television was off limits to advertising, because BBC relied on fees paid by owners of radio receivers. The question was whether the heavily funded American methods would prove irresistible. JWT London was an American owned advertising agency controlled by J. Walter Thompson in New York City. JWT London avoided being the bold apostle of the American style. Instead it is relied on soft persuasion, shedding its Americanness to adapt to the British understated style.


title: History of advertising

text: In the 1920s, most advertising was handled by manufacturing companies in-house. Numerous small advertising agencies handled purchase of space in the media, but did not design campaigns or the ads themselves. An important role was played by travelling salesmen in promoting products to wholesalers and retailers and providing feedback from the market to the producer.


title: History of advertising

text: During the Nazi era (1933–45), the advertising industry expelled its Jews, and came under the supervision of the "Ad Council for the German Economy," a department of the propaganda ministry of Joseph Goebbels. The relationship was friendly, For the industry learned a great deal from the Nazi propaganda techniques. The industry promoted Hitler's favorite products, such as the promised Volkswagen automobile for the people, and the construction of autobahns. It emphasized the availability of trusted brands despite growing shortages after the war began in 1939. It helped support the regime, articulating a vision of consumption that was well aligned with the Nazi spirit. In some environments and social movements, such as with post-WW2 East Germany Stasi's zersetzung, criminology theorists estimated advertisement was used as a means to crime, the nature of the crime was the intentional exploitation of an individual to cause damage to the individual's ability to form social bonds and appropriate perceptions of the world. This is especially true in the case of manipulation, people take advantage of their underdeveloped social skills and exploit them for selfish gain, this was later criticized to be adopted by turpitude agents of modern advertising. Many major brands were off the market by 1944, because of severe shortages. When they returned after the war, they were welcomed as an index of normality and were not associated with Nazism.


title: History of advertising

text: By the 1950s, German advertising agencies were starting to mimic American methods. Coca-Cola was advising "Mach mal Pause" ("Take a Rest!), and conservative Chancellor Konrad Adenauer was running for reelection with the slogan "Keine Experimente!" ("No Experiments!").


title: History of advertising

text: The German agencies have always remained small and limited in scope, even after the unification of East Germany and West Germany in 1991. After unification, Germany became the third largest ad market in the world, with $18 billion in total ad spending in 1994.


title: History of advertising

text: The American influence became strong in Italy after 1945. The high risk of communist success led the American government to invest heavily in propaganda activities. Several American firms opened offices, including Young & Rubicon and Ogilvy & Mather. Italian graphic designers, most prominently Armando Testa, were inspired by modernist aesthetics and thinking brought in by the American advertising agencies and techniques in Italy. The advertising industry helped transform Italy into a consumer-oriented society.


title: History of advertising

text: A dramatic example of how advertising nudged the Italian middle-class into modern consumer society appears in the heavily advertised automatic washing machine. It appeared on the Italian market in 1958 and by 1965, 23% of families had purchased one, reaching 42% by 1970. Advertisers hailed the mechanization of domestic tedium as the advent of a new women's "liberation." Commentary appeared everywhere, from advertisements to the specialized press, to women's reviews. Architects and designers made room for the new marvel, as the promotional language celebrating the device became a chorus of praise for domestic appliances as the secret of "progress" and "freedom" and "liberation." On the other hand, husbands still insisted on driving the family automobile; it was off-limits to the liberated female.


title: History of advertising

text: Armando Testa Set up a full-service advertising agency in 1956, specializing in the new medium of television advertising. He was inspired by Eastern European animation techniques, and often use simple graphics like the blue hippo. His son Marco Testa, trained at Benton & Bowles in New York, and maintained the fast-paced, witty style. Emmanuelle Pirella, who trained at the Italian offices of Young & Rubicon and Ogilvy & Mather, emerged as a leading copywriter.


title: History of advertising

text: Benetton gained worldwide attention for its saucy advertising, inspired by its art director Oliviero Toscani. He started with multicultural themes, tied together under the campaign "United Colors of Benetton" then became increasingly provocative with interracial groupings, and unusual sexual images, such as a nun kissing a priest.


title: History of advertising

text: Dentsu is the dominant firm in Japan thanks to its origins as a media representative. It produced Japan's first newspaper advertisements as well as the first television commercials. It was established in 1901 as Japan Advertising Ltd. and Telegraphic Service Co. by Hoshiro Mitsunaga. In 1936, it sold off its news division to Doumei News Agency, to focus on advertising. In 1946, it purchased 16 small companies and set up operational bases in Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, and Kyūshū. Dentsu company now offers a range of services, from traditional and creative marketing to specialty disciplines such as sports marketing, investing in feature film production and acquiring broadcasting rights, PR, digital contents, and a growing range of communications services.


title: History of advertising

text: In the first 20 years of communist control of China (1947 to 1966) Mao Zedong tried to reverse the long-standing advertising practices of Chinese newspapers, considering it a capitalist infringement on the goals of socialism. Consumerism, which had been highly developed in Shanghai, was anathema, to Mao's peasant-based communist perspective. The regime emphasized maximum production rather than optimal consumption. The approach worsened the massive famines that happened when national resources were devoted to a highly inefficient factory production at the cost of basic food output. On the other hand, propaganda was highly developed art in the Communist Party, and so a sort of compromise was reached. Socialist-oriented advertising emphasized the collective good, rather than the benefits of products for the individual consumer. Since 1980, the strength of the private economy, and advertising, has grown dramatically. By the 1980s much emphasis was placed on the role of advertising in promoting the Four Modernizations emphasized by Deng Xiaoping. Lip service is still paid to old Maoist ideals by recycling images of historic places and episodes, but it does not inhibit the growth of consumerism.


title: History of advertising

text: Since Chinese entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2002, its advertising industry has fundamentally changed. It has become the world's fastest-growing advertising market and the country with the largest pool of netizens. Major changes have come in terms of shifting cultural values, the growing role of brand names, the attractiveness of English-language titles to the younger generation, the redefinition of acceptable/offensive advertising, the very rapid growth of new media (especially the Internet and smart phones), the emergence of on-line shopping in a country with an underdeveloped system of department stores in shopping centers, and much more advanced techniques of managing advertising agencies.


title: History of advertising

text: Many elements of Indian culture and industry have British roots, so that British advertising models usually work well. In 1991, the government dramatically liberalized Indian economy, opening it to international business. The emergence of a moderately affluent middle-class numbering in the hundreds of millions attracts multinational corporations and international advertisers. Advertising in India operates at two levels. Ads for high-value products appear in English-language papers such as "The Hindu" and "The Madras Mail," which targeted Europeans and high-status Indians. By contrast, ads for low-value products are typically placed in vernacular papers and are aimed at a lower middle class with highly restricted spending power. The working class and peasant populations, with very low disposable incomes, are seldom targeted by the advertising agencies. Local merchants might use signs and posters to reach them. Cricket is one sport where the Indians have had an international success, so that cricket stars are prominent endorsers in national advertising.


title: History of advertising

text: Subtle cultural norms can be easily transgressed. In 2002, widespread protests forced Hindustan Lever Ltd. (the Indian subsidiary of London-based Unilever) to cancel a television ad campaign for its fairness cream because of its portrayal of women. The campaign was built around the theme of a father lamenting "If only I had a son" while showing his problem: a dark-skinned, unattractive daughter. Fast-forward. She uses the Fair & Lovely cream and has become a gorgeous light-skinned beauty. Clad in a stylish miniskirt, she is a successful airline flight attendant and takes her proud father to dine at a five-star hotel. The All India Women's Democratic Association (AIDWA), a far left political organization, lodged a complaint with the National Human Rights Commission in New Delhi. It argued endorsing the traditional preference for sons strengthens gender discrimination, which is a major problem in India. Furthermore, said AIDWA, the ad perpetuated a culture of discrimination in a society where "fair skin" is synonymous with "beautiful." The government's Ministry of Information and Broadcast sided with AIDWA and directed stations not to air the ads because they violated the Cable and Television Networks Act of 1995 which states that no advertisement shall be permitted which "derides any race, caste, color, creed and nationality" and furthermore states that, "Women must not be portrayed in a manner that emphasizes passive, submissive qualities and encourages them to play a subordinate secondary role in the family and society." The minister told Parliament that if broadcasters do not regulate ad content the government will be forced to do so. The Mumbai-based Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), a body of advertisers and media agencies, insisted that it should do the regulating not the government. ASCI had already told Hindustan Lever that its ad campaign was offensive and it was ended.


title: History of advertising

text: During the decolonization era from the late 1940s to the 1970s, British and French firms operating in Africa and Asia at first largely ignored local, nationalistic aspirations. However they learned to adjust to exploit the new spirit of independence that was shaping consumer attitudes. The new emergence of a middle class was the target audience. Their advertising abandoned the traditional paternalistic attitude toward the natives. Instead there was a portrayal of locals as up-and-coming middle-class men in control of developing their nations. These more positive images assisted business operations during spells of military dictatorship, economic nationalism, and expropriation of foreign assets. Tobacco advertising was especially important. For example, in Egyptian popular culture the cigar was associated with elites, the water pipe with a lower-class and traditional lifestyle, and the cigarette with the new middle class which was striving to make the transition to modernity. It was the third group that the cigarette industry targeted.


title: History of advertising

text: Brazil is the largest country in Latin America, and number five in the world in terms of population. Its economy grew rapidly in the 21st century, until it began to stall in 2010. At that time it was the world's sixth-biggest advertising market, at $US 14.2 billion. Brazil in 2010 ranks #1 in deodorants, #2 in children's products, #3 in cosmetics, and #4 in automobile sales


title: History of advertising

text: The start in 1994 of the North American Free Trade Agreement had a dramatic impact on the advertising industry in Mexico, with its 130 full service agencies and 270 smaller operations under the auspisces of the Mexican Association of Advertising Agencies. The flood of American brand-name products greatly expanded the scope of the advertising industry, and the Mexican agencies faced new competition from branch offices of international firms.


title: History of advertising

text: A key to the new market was that upscale consumers in Mexico typically display "malinchismo", which is a preference for imported American brands rather than local Mexican brands. As a result, American products are sold mostly to the middle class market, and their advertising agencies generally avoid working class and rural areas. They concentrate their efforts instead on Mexico City, Monterrey, and Guadalajara, which purchase 70 percent of the American imports. Advertising battles in Mexico, include not only issues of quality, but issues of national authenticity. For example, in Mexico in the 1990s, two American exporters Procter & Gamble and Frito-Lay fought an advertising battle concerning whose potato chips are tastier, more natural, and more Mexican. Procter & Gamble challenged Frito-Lay's Sabritas which controls 80 percent of the $1 billion chip market.


title: Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix

text: Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix is a HD remastered collection of the "Kingdom Hearts" series, developed by Square Enix originally for the PlayStation 3. It was revealed in September 2012 and released in Japan in March 2013, and North America, Australia and Europe in September 2013.


title: Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix

text: "Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix" includes both "Kingdom Hearts Final Mix" and "" in high-definition and with Trophy support. Additionally, the collection features a cinematic remake of "Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days", including high-definition cutscenes from the original game plus new scenes; the "358/2 Days" cinematic also has Trophy support. Ideas for a remastered collection of "Kingdom Hearts" games were first revealed in August 2011, with the collection formally announced in September 2012. "Kingdom Hearts Final Mix", in addition to being created from the ground up due to lost assets from the original game, had the most adjustments made to its gameplay, including adding Reaction Commands first introduced in "Kingdom Hearts II" and allowing the camera to be moved with the right thumb stick.


title: Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix

text: The collection was met to generally positive reviews. A second collection, "Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 Remix", was released in 2014 while a third collection, "Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue", was released in 2017. "1.5 Remix" was released in a single, combined collection with "2.5 Remix" on the PlayStation 4 on March 28, 2017, on the Xbox One on February 18, 2020, on Microsoft Windows on March 30, 2021, and a cloud version of the game for Nintendo Switch was released on February 10, 2022.


title: Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix

text: "Kingdom Hearts" follows the adventures of Sora, a cheerful teenager who fights against the forces of darkness. He is joined by Donald Duck, Goofy and other Disney characters who help him on his quest.


title: Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix

text: In the original and "Final Mix" versions of "Kingdom Hearts", the command menu had four commands: Attack, Magic, Items, and a fourth context-sensitive slot that varied depending on what the player had targeted, where they were, etc. The command menu has been updated to include "Attack", "Magic", "Items", and "Summons" in the fourth slot, which was originally located as a sub-category beneath the "Magic" menu. The original fourth command has been replaced by the introduction of Reaction Commands from "Kingdom Hearts II" and are triggered by pressing the Triangle Button. The camera works more similarly to that of "Kingdom Hearts II", utilizing the right thumb stick to move the camera and allowing the player to click the R3 button to reset the camera behind Sora, as opposed to the original game which made use of the shoulder triggers L2 and R2 to position the camera. Overall, the gameplay of "Kingdom Hearts Final Mix" was modified so it would play more similarly to "Kingdom Hearts II" and "Re:Chain of Memories", to create a more consistent play style throughout the series.


title: Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix

text: It was released in North America, Europe and Australia for the first time as part of the collection.<ref name="KH HD EU/AUS"></ref>


title: Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix

text: "Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories" is a direct sequel to "Kingdom Hearts", and its ending is set about a year before "Kingdom Hearts II". The game follows Sora and friends, exploring a mysterious castle. There, Riku explores the basement levels and fights the darkness.


title: Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix

text: This version of "Chain of Memories" was released in Europe and Australia for the first time as part of the collection, as it was previously released in North America in December 2008.


title: Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix

text: The story takes place near the end of "Kingdom Hearts", continuing parallel to "". The story is told from the perspective of Roxas, following his daily life within Organization XIII and his relationship with fellow Organization member Axel; it also introduces a fourteenth member, Xion, who becomes friends with the former two.


title: Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix

text: "358/2 Days" does not appear in playable form, and instead features the Nintendo DS game adapted into 2 hours and 50 minutes worth of cinematic retelling, and features Trophy support.


title: Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix

text: In August 2011, Nomura expressed desire to release a high definition re-release of the game though he had yet to confirm such plans. The idea for a high definition re-release preceded plans for "Final Fantasy X" re-release, and was a focus for two Square Enix programmers for over a year.


title: Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix

text: In September 2012, Square Enix announced "Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix" for release in Japan on the PlayStation 3. The collection, developed in-house by the 1st Production Department, would include both "Kingdom Hearts Final Mix" and "" in high definition and Trophy support, as well as non-playable HD event scenes from "Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days" as a way for players to understand the story. The development team experimented with using some character models from "" for "HD 1.5 Remix". The cutscenes from "Kingdom Hearts Final Mix" were remastered with Japanese voice overs for both "Chain of Memories" and "358/2 Days" so that 70% of main story scenes will have full voice acting. "358/2 Days" was originally planned to receive a full remake for the compilation similar to "Re:Chain of Memories", but due to the lengthy development time it would require, it was instead presented as an extended HD cinematic retelling the game's events. Every cutscene from "Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days", whether it was originally a pre-rendered scene or used in-game graphics, was re-animated for the cinematic.


title: Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix

text: In January 2013, Jesse McCartney, the voice of Roxas, posted a picture on Instagram of himself in a recording booth, with Roxas seen on a screen in the background, along with the caption, "For all you 'Kingdom Hearts' Fans. Recording the next chapter! #KingdomHearts #Roxas #Gamers." The image was later deleted by McCartney. In February, Square Enix confirmed the game would release in North America and Europe, later revealing September 2013 releases for North America, Australia, and Europe.


title: Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix

text: It was revealed in March 2013 in a "Famitsu" interview, that 66 tracks spanning across all three games (with a majority of them concentrated in "Kingdom Hearts Final Mix") were re-recorded with live instrumentation, as opposed to the original games' use of the PlayStation 2's built-in tone generator for their background music. In June 2013, Nomura stated that the original game assets for "Kingdom Hearts" had been lost some time ago. He explained, "[The game data] was lost, so we had to research, and we had to dig out from the actual game what was available and recreate everything for HD. We had to recreate all the graphics and it was actually not that easy." In July 2017, Nomura spoke on bringing the collection to the Xbox One, saying he did not believe there was much demand for it outside of North America, but felt it could be a possibility after Square Enix completed development on "Kingdom Hearts III". At the X019 event in November 2019, Shinji Hashimoto and Ichiro Hazama announced that this collection along with "2.5" and "2.8" will be released on the Xbox One in 2020. The game also released on Microsoft Windows on March 30, 2021.


title: Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix

text: In October 2021, it was announced that a cloud version of the game was in development for Nintendo Switch.


title: Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix

text: "Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix" was released in Japan on March 14, 2013, in North America on September 10, 2013, in Australia on September 12, 2013, and in Europe on September 13, 2013. Preorders for the game in North America, Australia, and Europe included a book of the game's concept artwork and a dynamic PlayStation 3 theme. Square Enix also released the collection in a bundle in Japan with "Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 Remix" titled, "Kingdom Hearts Collector's Pack: HD 1.5 + 2.5 Remix". The Collector's pack will feature both collections, a code to get an Anniversary Set for "Kingdom Hearts χ [chi]", music, and a booklet with art from the series.


title: Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix

text: In October 2016, Square Enix announced a single-disc compilation release of "Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix" and "Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 Remix" for the PlayStation 4. It was released on March 9, 2017, in Japan, and was released on March 28, 2017, in North America, and March 31, 2017, in Europe. A set of free downloadable content for the PS4 version released in June 2017 added a Theater mode for "Kingdom Hearts Final Mix" and an additional cutscene for "358/2 Days"; these were included by default in later ports of the collection. An additional bundle, "Kingdom Hearts: The Story So Far", includes the "Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 + 2.5 Remix" PlayStation 4 collection and "Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue" and was released in North America on October 30, 2018 for the PlayStation 4.


title: Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix

text: "Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix" has been met to generally positive critical reception. Aggregating review website Metacritic gave the game a 77 out of 100 based on 49 reviews. Kotaku gave the release a generally positive rating, praising the redone visuals, tweaked gameplay and expanded content, but also noting the game's age is still palpable. "Game Informer" praised the collection, stating "The core of this collection is the excellent original game, and that’s where your attention should be. The other two lowly offerings are inessential bonus features." "Joystiq" gave a positive, unscored review, saying the collection "captures that early era of the franchise at its purest simplicity. It's a trip down memory lane for long-term fans, while the visual overhaul and back-to-beginnings story should make it a welcoming entry point for newcomers." "GameSpot" stated, ""Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix" presents a couple of the earliest games in the beloved series in their best light and makes a revealing cinematic experience out of a third one. The three experiences complement one another with unique elements and welcome context that is a treat for longtime fans and newcomers alike."


title: Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix

text: "GameTrailers" felt that, "While "Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 ReMIX" certainly lives up to the HD part of its name, the collection is not without its shortcomings. The original game’s inclusion with all the new revisions and the addition of "Final Mix" content is a worthy investment on its own, and the inclusion of "Chain of Memories" is a nice gesture. The card-based battle system might be off-putting, but it’s a unique experiment that deviates from the norm of the series. However, despite the overhauled visuals and new voice work, it’s hard to excuse the reduction of "358/2 Days" to a lengthy film rather than an actual game." "IGN" felt that the collection was "an excellent way to replay the series’ first two games in crisp, high-definition splendor" but was disappointed that the box art did not properly distinguish "358/2 Days" as a non-playable game. "Electronic Gaming Monthly" stated the collection "brings a PS2 classic to the modern age with a noticeably impressive visual update, improved camera controls, and, for added fun, secondary and tertiary "Kingdom Hearts" content all contained on one disc."


title: Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix

text: In October 2012, game director Tetsuya Nomura suggested that an HD-version of "Kingdom Hearts II" was likely to be created for another collection, saying that "it’d be unusual if there wasn’t" another one. In the credits of "HD 1.5 Remix", clips of "Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix", "Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep Final Mix" and "" were shown, hinting at a second collection. On October 14, 2013, Square Enix announced "Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 Remix", with the collection including the previously mentioned games in high definition. However, "Re:coded" appears as HD cinematics, similar to "358/2 Days" in "HD 1.5 Remix". The collection was released exclusively for the PlayStation 3 in Japan on October 2, 2014, in North America on December 2, 2014, in Australia on December 4, 2014, and in Europe on December 5, 2014.


title: Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix

text: In the credits of "HD 2.5 Remix", clips of "" were shown as well as the inclusion of a secret ending related to the game, hinting at a possible additional collection. In September 2015, Square Enix announced "Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue". The collection features an HD remaster of "Dream Drop Distance" as well as "Kingdom Hearts χ Back Cover", a cinematic retelling of "Kingdom Hearts χ" that reveals new parts of the series' history in HD cinematics, and "Kingdom Hearts 0.2: Birth by Sleep – A Fragmentary Passage", a new game taking place after the events of the original "Birth by Sleep", told from the perspective of Aqua. It was released on January 12, 2017 in Japan and January 24, 2017 for other countries.


title: The Wolf's Call

text: The Wolf's Call () is a 2019 French action thriller film directed and written by Antonin Baudry. The film is about a submarine's sonar operator Chanteraide (François Civil), who must use his brilliant sense of hearing to track down a French ballistic missile submarine and end the threat of nuclear war.


title: The Wolf's Call

text: The French submarine "Titan" - "Titane" ("Titanium") in the original French version - is sent near the Mediterranean coast of Tartus, Syria to stealthily recover a French Special Forces unit operating in the area. The submarine sails under the command of Captain Grandchamp and Executive Officer (XO) D'Orsi. However, during their mission they encounter an unidentified sonar contact. The sonar expert of the submarine, Chanteraide — nicknamed "Socks", and serving as "golden ear", the officer specialized in underwater acoustics — first classifies the contact as a wounded whale, but it quickly turns out that the contact is an unknown submarine transmitting their position to an Iranian frigate and a maritime helicopter operating in the area. The helicopter launches depth charges in what seems to be an unprovoked act of aggression which, however, is a valid defensive measure as the "Titan" is in fact violating sovereign Syrian waters while recovering a foreign force that has already engaged in combat and killed Syrian nationals. After evading the barrage, the "Titan" surfaces, and the captain shoots down the helicopter with a Panzerfaust 3. They recover the Special Forces unit and return to base.


title: The Wolf's Call

text: When the "Titan" returns to base, the radio announces that Russia is invading Finland's Åland Islands, and that the French President has decided to send a naval task force to the Baltic Sea in support of Finland. The Russian government then threatens nuclear retaliation against the French Republic. Chanteraide, trying to identify the unknown contact in Syria, hacks into his superior officer's computer and after conducting research at a bookstore where he starts a romantic relationship with Diane, as well as the naval archives, discovers that it is in fact a Russian "Timour III" ballistic missile submarine, supposedly dismantled. Meanwhile, Grandchamp is promoted for his actions to command "Formidable" - "Effroyable" ("Dreadful") in the original French version - while D'Orsi takes over command of "Titan".


title: The Wolf's Call

text: The "Formidable" is launched with its new captain with the "Titan" as its escort submarine. Chanteraide is pulled aside during roll call and Grandchamp explains he has failed his drug test and will not be boarding the submarine. Chanteraide distresses at the now empty dock but after an air raid siren sounds, runs into the bunker where the naval staff have relocated. The French military command detects a Russian R-30 nuclear missile being launched by the "Timour III" from the Bering Sea, prompting the French President to order the "Formidable" to launch one of its nuclear missiles against Russia in response.


title: The Wolf's Call

text: In the command bunker, Chanteraide finds an anomaly while listening to the record of the launch - the missile sounds too light, because it was launched without a nuclear warhead. Chanteraide and his superior officer immediately call the admiral in command of the Strategic Oceanic Force (the ALFOST), but the ALFOST puts them on hold as the US Secretary of State has also called. The Secretary of State reveals critical intelligence that the terrorist organisation Al-Jadida had illegally bought the decommissioned "Timour III" submarine from a corrupt admiral and launched an empty missile at France, tricking the French into an irrevocable procedure to launch a nuclear counterstrike from the "Formidable". The ALFOST and Chanteraide are then flown by helicopter to the "Titan" in an attempt to stop the nuclear launch by all means necessary.


title: The Wolf's Call

text: Grandchamp prepares to fire the nuclear missile, following procedure and eliminating all outside communication while keeping the submarine in stealth mode. After D'Orsi is rebuffed in his efforts to communicate with Grandchamp via underwater telephone, he attempts to approach "Formidable" by swimming to it in person. He is killed when Grandchamp launches a torpedo at "Titan" to prevent their attempts to foil his missile launch. This torpedo grazes the "Titan" and only causes minor damage. "Titan" then launches their own torpedo at "Formidable". "Formidable" then returns fire. While Chanteraide breaks down under the pressure of targeting his former commander, the ALFOST is able to use his experience from formerly commanding "Formidable" to predict Grandchamp's evasive actions. "Titan"'s torpedo explodes above the "Formidable"'s bridge, as Grandchamp is able to release ballast air and throw the torpedo enough off target to prevent direct impact, although the control room is devastated. "Formidable"'s torpedo hits "Titan" which begins to sink.


title: The Wolf's Call

text: Grandchamp orders the evacuation of the carbon monoxide filled control room and denies appeals to issue an SOS call, intending to follow orders and launch the nuclear missile first. On the "Titan", Chanteraide and the ALFOST, the sole survivors of the torpedo impact, escape the burning area of the ship, Chanteraide makes a last call to the "Formidable" over underwater telephone. Chanteraide recalls Grandchamp's prior trust in him, and begs him not to fire the missile, before saying goodbye in the face of his impending death on the stricken "Titan". With his dying breath, Grandchamp removes the nuclear targeting board, preventing the missile from being launched. The ALFOST is able to evacuate Chanteraide via the escape hatch, but is unable to evacuate himself. As Chanteraide surfaces in a lifejacket, his eardrums are destroyed. Chanteraide is rescued by a helicopter. A deaf Chanteraide attends a memorial held on a submarine for the fallen French sailors. The final scene shows Chanteraide reuniting with his girlfriend Diane.


title: The Wolf's Call

text: The reviewer Anthony Kao from Cinema Escapist states that the film's military sequence depict a "more muscular France" with "French hard power" acting as part of a "more militarily assertive Europe", noting that these political storylines are influenced by director Antonin Baudry having "previously served as a high-ranking French diplomat." Kao states that even though the film has an "...ambitious plot that spans multiple vessels, naval bases, and countries, it never gets weighed down or overly hard to follow", which contrasts from the typical French art film that North American audiences associate with that country, which is usually "esoteric and inaccessible."


title: The Wolf's Call

text: Reviewer Brenden Gallagher from "The Daily Dot" calls the film "tense submarine warfare for Tom Clancy fans", a reference to Clancy's submarine classic "The Hunt for the Red October". Gallagher calls "The Wolf's Call" "...pulse-pounding action and military intrigue on a level you just don’t see from Hollywood filmmaking anymore" that is, while being "familiar and predictable", still a "well-constructed" movie. He states that while the film's $22 million production budget is much lower than a similar US film would get, the French film does well within its budgetary constraints.


title: The Wolf's Call

text: On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of based on reviews, with an average rating of . The site's critical consensus reads, ""The Wolf's Call " is a classic submarine action-thriller that will keep you at the edge of your seat."


title: Drunken Master II

text: Drunken Master II () is a 1994 Hong Kong action-comedy kung fu film directed by Lau Kar-leung and starring Jackie Chan as Chinese martial arts master and a Cantonese folk hero, Wong Fei-hung. It was Chan's first traditional style martial arts film since "Fearless Hyena Part II" (1983). The film was released in North America as The Legend of Drunken Master in 2000.


title: Drunken Master II

text: The film is a sequel to Chan's 1978 film "Drunken Master", directed by Yuen Woo-ping. Another film, "Drunken Master III" (1994, directed by Lau Kar-Leung) features little in common with either this or its predecessor, and is not considered a sequel. In 2005, "Drunken Master II" was named one of the top 100 best films of all time by "Time" magazine. In 2015, the British Film Institute (BFI) selected "Drunken Master II" as one of the ten best action movies of all time.


title: Drunken Master II

text: The movie is set in early 20th century China. Wong Fei-hung, along with his father Wong Kei-ying and servant Tso, is on the way home to Canton after a trip to the Northeast when he encounters Fu Wen-chi, a former top candidate in the Qing era's military examination. After an exchange of blows, Wong and Fu accidentally switch the boxes they had been fighting over. Wong ends up with the Imperial Seal while Fu gets the ginseng that Wong's father had bought for a client. Unknown to Wong, the Imperial Seal is one of numerous Chinese artifacts that the British consul is trying to smuggle out of China to Britain.


title: Drunken Master II

text: Back in Canton, Wong gives the client a root from his father's favourite bonsai to pass off as the ginseng. Wong's stepmother, Ling, complicates things when she tries to help Wong by loaning her necklace for money for Wong to buy a new ginseng; their neighbours mistakenly believe that the Wongs are in financial difficulty. In the meantime, the British consul sends his henchmen to track down Wong and seize the Imperial Seal. A fight breaks out between Wong and the henchmen when the latter try to snatch a bag from Ling, thinking that it contains the Seal. At Ling's instigation, Wong gets drunk and uses drunken boxing to beat up the henchmen until his father shows up and stops him. The older Wong is furious at his son for embarrassing their family by getting drunk and fighting in public. To make matters worse, the client falls sick after consuming the fake ginseng and his wife informs Wong's father about it. After he learns the truth behind the ginseng and bonsai, the older Wong becomes so angry that he hits his son and chases him out of the house.


title: Drunken Master II

text: When Wong tries to drown his sorrow by drinking heavily, he gets beaten up and publicly humiliated by the henchmen because he is too drunk to fight back. After his family saves him and brings him home, Wong feels deeply ashamed of his drunken behaviour and apologizes to his father, saying that he will never drink again. Meanwhile, Fu Wen-chi visits the Wong residence and tells them about the British consul's smuggling operation. The next day, Fu and Wong are attacked at a restaurant by the Axe Gang, a group of thugs hired by the consul. Fu is fatally shot and the Imperial Seal is taken by the consul's men. Before dying, Fu implores Wong and his friends to retrieve the Seal and stop the consul from stealing Chinese artifacts.


title: Drunken Master II

text: One night, Wong and his friend, Tsang, disguise themselves and break into the British consulate. They are caught, assaulted and held for ransom by the consul, who demands that Wong's father sells his land in exchange for their release; the older Wong reluctantly agrees. Later, Wong's friends discover that the British consul is planning to smuggle the stolen artifacts out of Canton using boxes meant for steel shipments. They inform Wong and Tsang, who then join the workers in a violent protest at the British-owned steel factory against the consul's abuses. Out of desperation, he breaks his promise and drinks again in order to use drunken boxing technique to defeat the main bad guy. After a long fight, Wong and his friends defeat the consul's henchmen and put an end to the smuggling operation. At the end of the movie, a Chinese general presents the Wongs a commemorative plaque to honour them for their service to the country only to find that Wong has suffered brain damage due to his drinking.


title: Drunken Master II

text: In Drunken Master 2, there are several fight scenes in which one can observe the different fighting styles. The fighting styles observed in the film during the fight scenes are:


title: Drunken Master II

text: No DVD has been made available to date that preserves the original aspect ratio and the uncut version of the film with the original Cantonese audio track. The film's purest English-friendly version can only be found on now out-of-print releases – the Mei Ah VCD and LaserDisc, Tai Seng's VHS (itself a recording of the Mei Ah LaserDisc) and the Australian VHS from Chinatown Video (a sub label of Siren Visual). These prints have "burnt-in" Chinese/English subtitles. An uncut release with good picture quality, the original audio track, and the original aspect ratio is considered a "holy grail" by many Hong Kong cinema fans.


title: Drunken Master II

text: Thakral's region 0 DVD release of "Drunken Master II" was the only official DVD which featured the uncut version with proper English subtitles. However, instead of the original Hong Kong theatrical version, it contains the Chinese print. The Chinese print is identical to the Hong Kong print except for one major difference: the scene of Fei-Hung drunkenly singing at the outdoor restaurant is re-cut and re-edited with alternative footage so that Fei-Hung is singing a different song in Mandarin instead of Cantonese. Thakral's aspect ratio is cropped to 1.78:1 from the original theatrical 2.35:1 aspect ratio.


title: Drunken Master II

text: The region 3 releases for Hong Kong and Korea contains the English export version with the original 2:35:1 non-anamorphic aspect ratio. This cut of the film ends almost immediately after Fei-Hung defeats John. The audio tracks include an abridged Cantonese and Mandarin soundtracks, and the original Golden Harvest English dub different than that of Dimension's. It contains the original score and sound effects, but there are no English subtitles.


title: Drunken Master II

text: Of all the films in Chan's back-catalogue that received North American theatrical distribution, "Drunken Master II" was cut the least. A scene in which Wong drunkenly sings at a café was re-cut slightly, making use of a few alternate takes not seen in the original Cantonese version. In addition, a 35 second cut was made to the concluding scene of the film which showed Wong blinded and mentally crippled as a result of drinking industrial alcohol during the film's ultimate fight. Played for laughs, the scene was considered to be in bad taste by the American distributor, Dimension Films.


title: Drunken Master II

text: In addition to the cut, other significant changes made to the US release including the change of title (to "Legend of Drunken Master"), an English-language dub (Chan dubbed himself), and a new musical score. The re-dubbed soundtrack also meant that sound effects were different, in some instances completely altering the rhythm of the fight scenes.


title: Drunken Master II

text: The English dub also makes references to animal kung fu styles such as Drunken Monkey, as well as made-up names for random moves during the first two instances that Wong Fei-hung uses drunken boxing. The original dialogue referenced the Eight Drunken Immortals technique, which was also featured in Drunken Master (1978) based on the real-life Daoist style of Drunken Fist. The change was most likely done to compensate for the general western audience's unfamiliarity with Chinese mythology and the first film.


title: Drunken Master II

text: The Australian (region 4) and Japanese (region 2) release featured the same cuts and re-scoring as the US release.


title: Drunken Master II

text: A Blu-ray version was released on 15 September 2009, in the United States, which features the cut US version in the original 2.35:1 aspect ratio.


title: Drunken Master II

text: The original, uncut Hong Kong version was finally made available on Blu-ray in China, Korea and Japan, courtesy of Warner Bros., on 11 October 2018 under the title "Drunken Master II".


title: Drunken Master II

text: "Drunken Master II" was a notable success in Hong Kong, grossing an all-time record of HK$40,971,484 () during its theatrical run. The success was somewhat surprising, considering reports of tension on the set between Chan and Lau Kar Leung.


title: Drunken Master II

text: By January 1995, the film had grossed from five other East Asian territories. It grossed in China, and in Taiwan, where it was one of the year's top ten highest-grossing films. In Japan, the film grossed . In South Korea, it sold 1,136,145 tickets and grossed , making it the year's top-grossing film in the country.


title: Drunken Master II

text: Six years after its original release, "Drunken Master II" was released in 1,345 North American theaters as "The Legend of Drunken Master" by Dimension Films in 2000. This re-edited version made US$3,845,278 ($2,865 per screen) in its opening weekend, on its way to a US$11,555,430 total in the United States and Canada. Upon its 2000 release in France, the film sold 28,681 tickets, equivalent to an estimated (). Combined, the film's total estimated worldwide gross was approximately , equivalent to adjusted for inflation.


title: Drunken Master II

text: Roger Ebert, writing in the "Chicago Sun-Times", gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of a possible four:When I did a seminar at the Hawaii Film Festival several years ago, comparing the physical comedy of Chan and Buster Keaton, martial arts fans brought in their bootleg Hong Kong laser discs of this film and told me that I had to see the final 20-minute fight sequence. They were correct. Coming at the end of a film filled with jaw-dropping action scenes, this extended virtuoso effort sets some kind of benchmark: It may not be possible to film a better fight scene.


title: Drunken Master II

text: In "Entertainment Weekly", Lisa Schwarzbaum gave the film an A− grade and wrote:A half dozen years after its Asian release, and over two decades after the original "Drunken Master" made Jackie Chan a star in Hong Kong, "The Legend of Drunken Master" may be the most kick-ass demonstration yet, for the majority of American moviegoers, of what the fuss is all about: To many aficionados (who know the video as "Drunken Master II"), this 1994 favorite, remastered and dubbed in "classic" bad Chinese-accented English, showcases Chan in his impish glory, dazzling in his ability to make serious, complicated fighting look like devil-may-care fun.


title: Drunken Master II

text: "Time" magazine listed "Drunken Master II" as one of the All-Time 100 Movies as chosen by "Time" movie critics Richard Corliss and Richard Schickel: The most important and entertaining star of east Asian cinema, Jackie Chan survived a boyhood in a punishing Peking Opera School, and his early screen days as "the next Bruce Lee" to create his own genre of martial-arts comedies .. Jackie starred in, and directed, many wonderful action films in his pre-Hollywood days. This one can stand at the peak.


title: Drunken Master II

text: James Berardinelli was one of the less fervent reviewers:"The Legend of Drunken Master" is pretty typical Hong Kong Chan fare – five superior action sequences with a lot of failed comedy and mindless drivel padding out the running length. Most of the expository and character-building scenes fall into one of three categories: (1) inane, (2) incomprehensible, or (3) dull. The tone is also wildly inconsistent. Some sequences are laced with slapstick comedy while others are acutely uncomfortable as a result of torture and the nearly-abusive disciplining of a grown child by a parent. (Differences in culture make the latter seem more incongruous to American viewers than to Chinese movie-goers.) So it's up to the action to redeem the film – a feat it succeeds at, at least to a point.On Rotten Tomatoes, "Drunken Master II" has an aggregated review score of 84% based on 80 critic reviews, the site's critical consensus reads: "Jackie Chan sends up some amazing and entertaining fight sequences in "The Legend of Drunken Master"."


title: Drunken Master II

text: In 2015, the British Film Institute (BFI) selected "Drunken Master II" as one of the 10 best action movies of all time.


title: Bachir Gemayel

text: Bachir Pierre Gemayel ( ; 10 November 1947 – 14 September 1982) was a Lebanese militia commander who led the Lebanese Forces, the military wing of the Kataeb Party in the Lebanese Civil War and was elected President of Lebanon in 1982.


title: Bachir Gemayel

text: He founded and later became the supreme commander of the Lebanese Forces, uniting major Christian militias by force under the slogan of "Uniting the Christian Rifle". Gemayel allied with Israel and his forces fought the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Syrian Army. He was elected president on 23 August 1982, but he was assassinated before taking office on 14 September, via a bomb explosion by Habib Shartouni, a member of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party.


title: Bachir Gemayel

text: Gemayel is described as the most controversial figure in the history of Lebanon. He remains popular among Maronite Christians, where he is seen as a "martyr" and an "icon". Conversely, he has been criticized for committing alleged war crimes and accused of treason for his relations with Israel.


title: Bachir Gemayel

text: Bachir Gemayel was born in the Achrafieh neighborhood of Beirut on 10 November 1947, the youngest of six children. The Gemayel family originated from Bikfaya village in the Matn District of Lebanon and is one of the most influential Christian families in the country. His father was Pierre Gemayel, who founded the Phalange party in 1936 as a youth movement. He attended the Jesuit Collège Notre Dame de Jamhour and the Institution Moderne du Liban (IML)- Fanar. He completed his university education at St. Joseph University (Université Saint-Joseph - USJ) in Beirut. After teaching for three years at the Lebanese Modern Institute, he graduated in 1971 with a bachelor's degree in law and another in political sciences in 1973. In 1971, Gemayel studied at The Center for American and International Law near Dallas, Texas in the United States. Qualifying in 1972, he joined the bar association and opened an office in Hamra Street, West Beirut.


title: Bachir Gemayel

text: Gemayel's father Pierre Gemayel studied pharmacology in Europe and founded the Phalange Party in 1936 (also known as Kataeb) upon his return to Lebanon, modelling the party after the Spanish and Italian Fascist parties he had observed there. It swelled to 40,000 members. Although he became a Lebanese minister, and was targeted in at least two assassination attempts, Pierre Gemayel never rose to the prominence of his sons, yet remained a powerful figure until his death in 1984.


title: Bachir Gemayel

text: A month after Gemayel's death, his brother Amine Gemayel was elected president in 1982, remaining in office until the end of his constitutional second term in 1988.


title: Bachir Gemayel

text: Many of Gemayel's other family members would go on to be elected into the Lebanese parliament: His widow Solange Gemayel (in 2005), his son Nadim Gemayel (in 2009 and 2018), his nephews Sami Gemayel (in 2009 and 2018) and Pierre Amine Gemayel (in 2000 and 2005) who also served as the Minister of Industry from 2005 until his assassination on 21 November 2006.


title: Bachir Gemayel

text: Gemayel became a member of the Kataeb Party's youth section when he was 12 years old. He realized the dangers that surrounded Lebanon in 1958, and spent a lot of time with the organized political wing of the Kataeb Party. He attended the meetings organized by the Kataeb Student Section, and was the president of the Kataeb Circle in St. Joseph University between 1965 and 1971.


title: Bachir Gemayel

text: In the late 1960s, he underwent paramilitary training in Bikfaya, and he was appointed squad leader of a militia unit of the Kataeb Regulatory Forces (RKF), the party's military wing formed in 1961. In the early 1970s, he formed the "Bikfaya Squad" within the RKF, where he became acquainted with the basics of military combat. In 1968, he participated in a student colloquium organized by the newspaper "Orient", following events which occurred across Lebanese universities between the Muslim and leftist Pan-Arabist students supporting the Palestinians in Lebanon on one side, and Christian Lebanese nationalist students (whom Gemayel represented) on the other.


title: Bachir Gemayel

text: After the 1968-69 clashes between the Lebanese Army and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Gemayel gathered a group of Christian students, and started training them in the Kataeb-run Tabrieh training camp, located near Bsharri in the Keserwan District mountains. This was the start of what would later become the Lebanese Forces. At this stage, he was a junior militia commander under the orders of William Hawi, the founder and head of the KRF.


title: Bachir Gemayel

text: In 1969, Gemayel was briefly kidnapped by Palestinian militants in Lebanon and taken to the Tel al-Zaatar refugee camp, where he was beaten. He was released eight hours later, after Kamal Jumblatt, who was the interior minister at the time, personally mediated with Yasser Arafat in this matter.


title: Bachir Gemayel

text: Gemayel became a member of the "BG Squad" of the Kataeb Regulatory Forces formed by William Hawi. He was a revolutionary in the party. He became close with Jean Nader, the leader of Achrafieh at that time, and became the vice president of that Lebanese Capital district, a position that he held from 1971 until 1975.


title: Bachir Gemayel

text: Gemayel became the head of the "BG Squad" after its members found him as a leader more close to their views. This group was formed of 12 specially trained members such as Fouad Abou Nader, Fadi Frem, Elie Hobeika and others. They were fierce fighters, and they were known for their violent performance in the field. This group was out of the direct control of the party. He had his own views and principles, and he wanted to run for the Vice Presidency of the party, but his men said to him that they wanted him as the leader of the "Lebanese Forces" and not the VP of a party. In addition, many members of the party did not want him as the VP because he was the son of Pierre Gemayel, the founder and president of the party. The elections were cancelled and did not take place until after his assassination.


title: Bachir Gemayel

text: Gemayel submitted his resignation from the party in 1976, but it was rejected. This was because the Kataeb Party was forced to approve the entrance of the Syrian Army to Lebanon to put an end to the war, but Gemayel refused to accept this, being strongly against the Syrian intervention because he believed that Syria wanted to annex Lebanon. He came to this conclusion because the Syrian officials repeatedly stated that Lebanon was part of Syria and that the Syrian Army doesn't need anyone's permission to enter Lebanon. Moreover, at that time, the Syrian educational system was teaching that Lebanon was a Syrian district.


title: Bachir Gemayel

text: In 1975, Gemayel was accused by the Lebanese National Movement (LNM) of being responsible for the Black Saturday massacre of Palestinians and Lebanese Muslims. According to Phalange member Karim Pakradouni, Gemayel admitted to him that while being in an emotional state over the killing of four Phalangists earlier that day, he ordered his militiamen into the streets.


title: Bachir Gemayel

text: Christian East Beirut was ringed by heavily fortified Palestinian camps from which kidnappings and sniping against Lebanese civilians became a daily routine. Christian East Beirut became besieged by the PLO camps, with severe shortages of food and fuel. This unbearable situation led the Kataeb Forces and their allied Christian militias to besiege the Palestinian camps embedded in Christian East Beirut one at a time and bring them down. On January 18, 1976, Gemayel led the invasion of the heavily fortified Karantina camp that was located near the strategic Beirut Harbor: About 1,000 PLO fighters and civilians were killed. The Palestinian PLO and as-Saiqa forces retaliated by attacking the isolated defenseless Christian town of Damour about 20 miles south of Beirut on the coast, during the Damour massacre in which 1,000 Christian civilians were killed and 5,000 were sent fleeing north by boat, since all roads were blocked off. The Maronites retaliated with the invasion of the Tel al-Zaatar camp that same year, which was placed under siege for 52 days by the Tigers, the National Liberal Party militia led by Dany Chamoun, Gemayel played an important role in the last stages of the battle: he sent a group of his forces that moved through the sewers and they blew up the ammunition storage in the camp. This incident was considered to be the lethal blow that led the fall of the camp. The Christian militias also fought against the PLO and LNM militias at the Battle of the Hotels in central Beirut. Gemayel led the battle for the Holiday Inn that had an important strategic location. The battle was a success for Gemayel's troops, and they were able to move the PLO out of the hotel. After ensuring the safety of the rear lines and their effectiveness (necessary for the safety of Christian East Beirut), Gemayel and his troops decided to abandon the hotel.


title: Bachir Gemayel

text: In 1976, with the death of William Hawi, killed by a sniper during the battle of Tall Al-Zaatar, Gemayel became head of the Kataeb Regulatory Forces militia. Later that year, he became a leading member of the Lebanese Front, a coalition of several Christian parties, and commander of their military wing, the Lebanese Forces (LF). A military coalition of several Christian militias which not only opposed the PLO but also the Syrian Army presence, who had entered Lebanon at first to assist in defeating Palestinian militants, before turning into occupiers.


title: Bachir Gemayel

text: Gemayel led his troops in the infamous 'Hundred Days' War' in Lebanon in 1978, in which the Lebanese Forces successfully resisted the Syrian shelling and attacking of Eastern Beirut for about three months before an Arab-brokered agreement forced the Syrians to end the siege. Syrians took high buildings such as Burj Rizk Achrafieh and Burj El Murr using snipers and heavy weapons against civilians. The soldiers stayed for 90 days. Another major clash took place near the Sodeco area in Achrafieh where the LF fought ferociously and led the Syrian army out of the Rizk Building. This War led to the withdrawal of the Syrian troops from East Beirut and the free Christian Areas. At this time, Israel was the primary backer of the Lebanese Front's militia.


title: Bachir Gemayel

text: In 1981 at Zahlé in the Beqaa Governorate, the largest Christian town in the East, confronted one of the biggest battles – both military and political – between the LF and the Syrian occupying forces. The LF were able to confront them and reverse the result of the battle of 1981 with the help of 92 Lebanese Army Maghawirs sent from Beirut as well as the towns inhabitants. Regardless of the very bad weather and heavy bombing, convoys were sent in the snow to Zahle. The battle of Zahle gave the Lebanese Cause a new perspective in the International Communities, and by some was regarded as military and diplomatic victory. It strengthened Bachir Gemayel's position because of his leadership and important role in this battle. The battle started on 2 April 1981, and finished with a cease fire and Lebanese Internal Security Forces gendarmes were sent to Zahle. The 92 commandos returned to Beirut on 1 July 1981. (See: Battle of Zahleh for more details)


title: Bachir Gemayel

text: Despite its increasing success in its battles against the PLO and the Syrian troops two factors led to the eventual demise of the Lebanese Front.


title: Bachir Gemayel

text: Following the killing of many Phalangist members, in addition to a senior Phalangist by members of the Marada Brigade militia, which was led by a fellow member of the Lebanese Front, Tony Frangieh, Gemayel called for a meeting to decide on what to do about this situation. At first, the decision was to capture Tony Frangieh and force him to surrender the members of the Marada militia who killed the Phalangists. However, there was concern about the consequences of this move. So, the decision was changed after many talks between the Phalangists present at the meeting. It was decided that the goal of the operation would be to capture the members of the Marada militia who killed the Phalangists and it would be done on Tuesday to be sure that Tony Frangieh would have finished his weekend vacation and left Ehden. On 13 June 1978, Gemayel sent a squadron of his men led by Samir Geagea and Elie Hobeika to Ehden; what Gemayel did not know was that Tony Frangieh hadn't left Ehden, as his car wasn't running. As soon as the squadron arrived, bullets were flying all over their heads, so they retaliated and this led to the killing of Tony Frangieh and his family, in addition to tens of members of the Marada militia. The incident is known as the Ehden massacre. Gemayel was angered by this incident, but he stood by his men.


title: Bachir Gemayel

text: Gemayel and his militia also faced competition from the Tigers, another Christian militia in the Lebanese Front. Multiple clashes occurred between the two sides, mainly caused by the dispute over the distribution of war taxes and military equipment provided by Israel. The Tigers claimed that Gemayel was trespassing on their share, while the Palangists accused them of selling arms to pro-Palestinians. In February 1980, both Gemayel and Chamoun were called up to Jerusalem by Mossad on orders from Menachem Begin. He threatened to stop the Israeli aid and asked them to unite. On 22 February, they were back again in Jerusalem, and presented a secret plan to the Israeli officers.


title: Bachir Gemayel

text: However, Gemayel wanted to be the only Christian option for Israel, while the tension escalated again by the end of June 1980. On 7 July, he sent his troops to the town of Safra, where Dany Chamoun and members of his Tigers Militia were vacationing. The Tigers under the control of Elias el Hannache were exterminated in what was later named Safra massacre. Dany's life was spared and he sought refuge in West Beirut.


title: Bachir Gemayel

text: He quickly arranged a meeting with leaders of the Phalanges and the National Liberal Party, including Camille Chamoun. He proposed merging the two militias into Lebanese Forces, with him as a commander. This was called the "Operation of Altalena", with which Gemayel became the sole leader of the Christian military side in the civil war.


title: Bachir Gemayel

text: This move faced opposition from his brother Amine. He opposed merging his forces into the LF, but Pierre Gemayel intervened and ordered them to hand over heavy arms to the LF. While many National Liberals surrendered, some members decided to confront Gemayel. On 10 November, two car bombs exploded in Achrafieh, leaving 10 killed and 92 wounded. Ten days later, he ordered his elite troops to invade their stronghold in Ain El Remmaneh. After two days of fighting, the National Liberals were defeated, and the LF took control the whole area. Gemayel considered the "Unification of the Christian Rifle" to be completed, and ordered all his forces to wear the LF badge instead of their former militias ones.


title: Bachir Gemayel

text: Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982. Defense Minister of Israel, Ariel Sharon, met with Gemayel months earlier, telling him that the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) were planning an invasion to uproot the PLO threat to Israel and to move them out of Lebanon. While Gemayel did not control Israel's actions in Lebanon, the support Israel gave the Lebanese Forces, militarily and politically, angered many Lebanese leftists.


title: Bachir Gemayel

text: Gemayel met with Hani al-Hassan (representative of the PLO) and told him that Israel would enter and wipe them out. He told the PLO to leave Lebanon peacefully before it was too late. Hassan left without replying.


title: Bachir Gemayel

text: Israel invaded and the PLO were expelled from Lebanon in August 1982. During the invasion, the Israelis wanted the Lebanese Forces to assist the Israeli Army militarily by fighting the PLO and allied groups in West Beirut; however, Gemayel refused, stating that his forces would not assist an invading army. By then, Gemayel had announced his candidacy for president. He was backed by the United States, who sent peacekeeping troops to oversee the withdrawal of the PLO from Lebanon. Gemayel had requested that they stay longer to keep Lebanon stable until he could reunite it, but his request was denied. Israel's Mossad intelligence agency also contributed to his presidency. On 23 August 1982, being the only one to declare candidacy, Gemayel was elected president, as he prevailed over the National Movement.


title: Bachir Gemayel

text: On 1 September 1982, two weeks before his assassination and only one week after his election, Gemayel met the Israeli Prime minister Menachem Begin in Nahariya. During the meeting, Begin demanded that Gemayel sign a peace treaty with Israel as soon as he took office in return of Israel's earlier support of Lebanese Forces; he also told Gemayel that the IDF would stay in South Lebanon if the Peace Treaty wasn't signed. Gemayel was furious at Begin and told him that the Lebanese Forces didn't fight for seven years and that they didn't sacrifice thousands of soldiers to free Lebanon from the Syrian Army and the PLO so that Israel could take their place. Gemayel also added that he would not sign the Peace Treaty without national consensus on the matter.


title: Bachir Gemayel

text: Begin was reportedly angry at Gemayel for his public denial of Israel's support. Gemayel refused signing a peace treaty arguing that time is needed to reach consensus with Lebanese Muslims and the Arab nations. This angered the Israelis because they knew that it is almost impossible for the Lebanese Muslims to agree on a Peace Treaty. They realized that Gemayel was starting to distance himself from them.


title: Bachir Gemayel

text: On 12 September 1982, in an attempt to fix the relations between Begin and Gemayel, Ariel Sharon had a secret meeting with Gemayel in Bikfaya. During the meeting, Gemayel told Sharon that the Lebanese Army would soon enter the Palestinian Camps to disarm any remaining fighters. They also agreed that the Lebanese Army would attack the Syrian Army's positions in Lebanon assisted by the Israeli Army. Sharon further tried to convince Gemayel to sign a peace treaty, which he refused to do.


title: Bachir Gemayel

text: Gemayel had planned to use the IDF to push the Syrian Army out of Lebanon and then use his relations with the Americans to pressure the Israelis into withdrawing from Lebanese territory.


title: Bachir Gemayel

text: On 14 September 1982, Gemayel was addressing fellow Phalangists at their headquarters in Achrafieh for the last time as their leader and for the last time as commander of the Lebanese Forces. At 4:10 PM, a bomb was detonated, killing Gemayel and 26 other Phalange politicians. The first testimonies stated that Gemayel had left the premises on foot or in an ambulance (bearing the number 90). A report from a hospital came to say he had just arrived. Then the commander of military intelligence Jonny Abdu reported that Bachir Gemayel had been taken to a hospital in Haifa by helicopter. The search and rescue teams on the field were unable to find him or his body.


title: Bachir Gemayel

text: His body was finally identified five and a half hours after the explosion by a Mossad agent in a church close to the site of the explosion where the dead were being collected. The face on the body was unrecognizable; he was identified by the white-gold wedding ring he was wearing and two letters he was carrying addressed to Bachir Gemayel. It was concluded that he had been one of the first people moved to the church after the explosion. Rumors persisted that Gemayel had survived, until it was confirmed the following morning by the Lebanese Prime Minister Shafik Wazzan that he had indeed been killed in the attack. The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation blamed the SSNP for the attack.


title: Bachir Gemayel

text: Habib Shartouni, a member of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party and also a Maronite Christian, was later arrested for the assassination. His sister was living in the apartment above the room Gemayel was staying in. He had visited her the previous day and planted the bomb in her apartment. The next day, he called her and told her to get out of the building. Once she was out, he detonated the bomb from a few miles away using a remote detonator. When he came back to check on his sister, he was immediately arrested. Shartouni later confessed to the crime, saying he had done this because "Bachir had sold the country to Israel." He was imprisoned for 8 years until Syrian troops took over Lebanon at the end of the war and freed him on 13 October 1990. Amine Gemayel did not condemn the actions taken by Habib Shartouni because of immense Syrian pressure. Many point fingers at the Syrian government and then-Syrian President Hafez al-Assad for having knowledge of the assassination attempt and for covertly backing Shartouni.


title: Bachir Gemayel

text: Condemnations poured in from around the world, including the United Nations Security Council in Resolution 520 as well as from American President Ronald Reagan. Reagan had been one of Gemayel's staunchest supporters, saying "this promising young leader had brought the light of hope to Lebanon."


title: Bachir Gemayel

text: Bachir Gemayel's older brother Amine Gemayel was not long after elected president, serving from 1982 to 1988. Rather different in temperament, Amine Gemayel was widely regarded as more moderate than his brother.


title: Bachir Gemayel

text: Many of Bachir Gemayel's followers were dissatisfied with Amine, which eventually led to the Lebanese Forces becoming independent from the Phalange and forming its own political party.


title: Bachir Gemayel

text: Between 762 and 3,500 civilians, mostly Palestinians and Lebanese Shiites were massacred by members of the Phalange in retalliation for the assassination of Gemayel.


title: Bachir Gemayel

text: Gemayel was believed to be an extreme option for the presidency. Muslims and leftist leaders preferred a moderate one, like his brother, Amine, or former president Chamoun. George Hawi revealed in a documentary with Al Jazeera: "Once he was elected, I was sure that he won't get to take over the presidency and he will be assassinated. Many sides were trying to kill him and I was one of them. I didn't succeed while someone else did. He was a solution in the wrong place and the wrong time".


title: Bachir Gemayel

text: Deputy Nawaf al-Moussawi said in a parliamentary session that Gemayel had reached the presidency "on the back of an Israeli tank", and Professor Christo El Morr compared him to Philippe Pétain. Gemayel is criticized for the use of force against civilians and carrying out massacres against both Muslims and Christians, such as Karantina, Black Saturday and Ehden. He is also accused of racism against Palestinians, Syrians and Arabs. However, Gemayel is viewed positively among the majority of right-wing Christians. They consider him a patriot leader who fought for Christian rights and the autonomy of Lebanon.


title: Bachir Gemayel

text: Gemayel was married to Solange Gemayel with whom he had three children. His eldest daughter, Maya, was murdered on 23 February 1980 at 18 months of age by a car bomb intended for him. His second daughter, Youmna, born in 1980, received her degree in political science in Paris. She was working towards her Masters in Management at ESA (École supérieure des affaires) in Beirut. Gemayel's son, Nadim, who was born a few months before Gemayel's assassination, was a law student and political activist, and was elected as a member of the Lebanese Parliament in 2009.


title: Likee

text: Likee (; formerly LIKE) is a short-video creation and sharing app, available for iOS and Android operating systems. It is owned by Singaporean tech firm BIGO Technology, whose parent company is JOYY Inc., a Chinese firm listed on NASDAQ. The founder of Likee is Jason Hu, entrepreneur from Singapore, who previously worked for JOYY.


title: Likee

text: The app's capabilities include visual effects, including 4D Magic and Dynamic Stickers, as well as video shooting and editing.


title: Likee

text: The Likee mobile app allows users to easily create and edit videos using a variety of augmented reality effects.


title: Likee

text: As with other video apps, Likee has been condemned by the international community for privacy and inappropriate content. Various law enforcement agencies have warned that the app could expose children to sexual predators.


title: Likee

text: In response to privacy concerns, BIGO Technology added parental control features in 2019, allowing parents and guardians of Likee users to remotely control or restrict access to the app's content. However, watchdog groups have described the parental controls as "ineffective".


title: Likee

text: In June 2020, the Government of India banned Likee along with 58 other apps that were ultimately owned by Chinese companies such as TikTok, citing data and privacy issues, and added that it was a threat to the sovereignty and security of the country. Border tensions in 2020 between India and China and subsequent deterioration of relations instigated the ban.


title: American Boy

text: "American Boy” is a song by British singer and rapper Estelle featuring American rapper Kanye West from the former's second studio album "Shine" (2008). The song was written by the artists, alongside Ethan Hendrickson, will.i.am, John Legend (who provides additional background vocals), Josh Lopez, Caleb Speir, and Keith Harris. It was produced by will.i.am, and uses the instrumental from "Impatient" from his own third studio album "Songs About Girls" (2007). "American Boy" is a breezy R&B and disco-funk song that lyrically describes a romance with an American suitor. The song's conception came after Legend, Estelle's mentor, suggested she write a song about meeting a man from the United States.


title: American Boy

text: "American Boy" was released by Atlantic Records as the album's second single on 31 March 2008. The song received positive reviews from music critics, who praised its fresh sound and production. The song reached the top five in many European and Oceanic markets, and peaked at number-one in Belgium and Estelle's native United Kingdom. It also achieved success in the United States, peaking at number nine on the "Billboard" Hot 100 and becoming Estelle's breakout song in the country. The song earned many nominations, and ultimately won a Grammy Award for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration. The music video, featuring a variety of celebrity guests, earned a Video Music Award nomination for Best UK Video. Estelle and West performed the song at the 2008 MTV Europe Music Awards and 2008 Grammy Awards.


title: American Boy

text: "American Boy" was written by Estelle, will.i.am, John Legend, Kanye West, Josh Lopez, Caleb Speir and Keith Harris. It was also produced by will.i.am and recorded over the instrumental of his song "Impatient", from his third studio album "Songs About Girls" (2007). The credits of Lopez, Speir, and Harris were the result of this sampling. In a 2008 interview with Pete Lewis of "Blues & Soul", Estelle explained how the song came to fruition: "We were just messing about in the studio, joking around. And John (Legend) just said to me 'Why don't you write a song about meeting an American boy?'. So I was like 'Well, that's pretty easy' - because I have a lot of male friends out there in New York. And I unwittingly ended up creating a new ladies' anthem!" She also spoke about West's involvement on the song, commenting "Kanye basically just brought his own cheeky self to the track, his own sense of humour. At first he was like 'How can you rap over a dance beat?' - and now he's DONE it!" Instrumentation on the track includes drums, keys, synths, and bass; the former were provided by will.i.am while Caleb Speir provided the latter. will.i.am also co-recorded and co-engineered the song with Padriac Kerin at The Record Plant in Hollywood, Florida as well as Hit Factory Criteria and Circle House Studios in Miami. Serge Tsai mixed the song and recorded West's rap at Platinum Sound Recording Studios in New York City.


title: American Boy

text: "American Boy" is an R&B, disco and funk song that, according to the sheetmusic published at Musicnotes.com by Alfred Publishing Co., Inc., is set to metronome of 118 beats per minute. Estelle's vocals, which have been described as "sweet" and "flirty", ranges from B to E. Timothy Gabriele of "PopMatters" described Estelle's vocals as those of one connecting "with her inner soul chanteuse". West's rap verse has been described by "The New York Times"s Jon Caramanica as "perfunctory" and idling "cool". Lyrically, the song describes a foreign woman's interest in a male American suitor, listing places such as New York and Los Angeles as sites she wants to visit. Timothy Gabriele of "PopMatters" found the song's lyrics to be about "the thrill of new experience, the excitement of a being in a fresh, unexplored environment while simultaneously meeting someone new."


title: American Boy

text: "American Boy" was released as the second single from "Shine" on 24 March 2008. "American Boy" was released on third CD single formats, as well as a promo single, a maxi single, and 12-inch picture discs. The second CD single contains a radio remix of the song by UK dance and remix group Soul Seekerz. The third CD single features "Lift to Me", a song recorded by US rapper and producer Hi-Tek, featuring Estelle, for his fourth studio album "Hi-Teknology 3" (2007). It also includes the music video for the single. The maxi single includes several remixes of the song by Soul Seekerz and TS7 as well as the uncensored version, the version excluding West rap segment, and the song's instrument. The promo single features remixes by TS7 and different versions of the single. The 12-inch disc includes the TS7 remix and remixes of the previous single "Wait a Minute (Just a Touch)" by British electronic duo The Count & Sinden and British disc jockey Aaron Ross. The 12-inch promo features "Wait a Minute (Just a Touch)" and instrumental versions of both songs.


title: American Boy

text: Mariel Concepcion of "Billboard" called "American Boy" "a charming duet with West". Andy Kellman of AllMusic, Luke Bainbridge of "Observer Music Monthly" and Sal Cinquemani of "Slant Magazine" named the song as a standout on its parent album. Bill Lamb of About.com gave the song a four star rating, listing the chemistry between Estelle and West, the song's beat and Estelle's vocals as the song's highlights. Lamb also added "This song is perfection for a slick, summery glide across the dance floor."


title: American Boy

text: Alex Fletcher of "Digital Spy" found "American Boy" to "boasts bags of self-confidence ("Don't like his baggy jeans but I like what's underneath 'em," she purrs at one point), a winning chorus and sultry, super-sleek production from Will.i.am and John Legend" while commenting "it shouldn't have taken a guest spot from the self-proclaimed King of Hip-Hop to make this tune a hit." Timothy Gabriele of "PopMatters" called the song "an essential piece of ebullient summer musical manna rained down from empyreal heights and granted to us passive listeners as one final gift before the world spirals off into an inescapable vortex of cyclones, earthquakes, economic collapse, and a doom-sealing Presidential race." Joshua Love of "Pitchfork" praised the song's hook and will.i.am's production work. while Omar Jenning of "The Skinny" was dismissive of West's rap interlude. Ben Hogwood of musicOMH lauded the song as an example of how "Estelle has added a large pinch of soul to take her music to the next level."


title: American Boy

text: In 2009, "American Boy" earned Estelle and Kanye West a Grammy Award for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration, while receiving a nomination for Song of the Year. The song received a nomination for BRIT Award for Best British Single. The single won Best Song at the 2008 MOBO Awards. The song was nominated for Best R&B/Urban Dance Track at the 2009 International Dance Music Awards. It received a nomination for Outstanding Duo or Group at the 40th NAACP Image Awards. "American Boy" was nominated for Best International Song at the NRJ Music Awards 2009. The song won Best Collaboration at both the 2008 UK Urban Music Awards, and the 2009 Urabn Music Awards. The music video earned a nomination at the 2009 MTV Australia Awards for Best Collaboration.


title: American Boy

text: "American Boy" was listed number 7 on the 100 Best Songs of 2008, published by the music magazine "Rolling Stone"."Blender" named it the fourth best song of 2008. The song also ranked the 10th best song of 2008 and 238th on the Top 500 songs of the 2000s, published by "Pitchfork". "The Village Voice"s Pazz & Jop annual critics' poll ranked "American Boy" at number 2 to find the best music of 2008, after M.I.A.'s "Paper Planes". "MTV" listed the song fourth on its list of "Best Songs of 2008". "PopMatters" named "American Boy" the best single of 2008. "BBC America" listed "American Boy" at eighty-five on its list of "Top 100 British Songs of the 21st Century". in 2019, "Time Out " included it in its list of the 50 best songs of the 2000s. In 2020, "The Guardian" named it the eighty-fifth greatest ever UK no. 1.


title: American Boy

text: "American Boy" proved to be an international success, outperforming Estelle's previous singles in the United Kingdom and stands as her most successful single worldwide. In the United Kingdom, the song debuted at number 72 on 31 March 2008. It dropped out of the Top 75 the following week and re-entered at number one a week later, where it remained for four consecutive weeks. It lasted thirty two weeks on the singles chart, earning a triple platinum certification for sales exceeding 1,800,000 copies. It landed on the UK year end chart at number six and on the end of the decade chart at number 83. In Ireland, "American Boy" entered the singles chart number eight and rose to peak at number two one week later.


title: American Boy

text: In the Flanders region of Belgium, "American Boy" entered the chart at number 41 on 26 April 2008. The song advanced to the top twenty in the following week and inside the top ten three weeks later. It reached the chart's summit on 7 June 2008, where it remained for another week. The song charted in the top five for eleven consecutive weeks and lasted a total of twenty four weeks on the chart. "American Boy" reached number four in the Wallonia region of Belgium and lasted twenty five weeks on the chart. The song also reached number one in Slovakia; number three in Denmark, France, Hungary and Italy; and number five in Germany, the Netherlands, and Switzerland.


title: American Boy

text: In Australia, "American Boy" entered the singles chart at number seven, earning the title of the week's "highest debut". The song rose to number three four weeks later, where it stayed for three consecutive weeks. "American Boy" earned a platinum certification by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) for sales exceeding 70,000 units. In New Zealand, the single debuted at number 25 on 31 March 2008 and rose to its peak position of number five four weeks later. The song remained on the chart for thirteen more weeks.


title: American Boy

text: "American Boy" experienced great chart success in the United States. The song debuted on the "Billboard" Hot 100 on 3 May 2008, slowing rising the chart until it reached number 11 almost four months later. It was later removed from iTunes resulting in its fall to number 37 on 6 September 2008. The song was re-added to iTunes, causing a resurgence in downloads that aided its rise to its peak position of number nine on 27 September 2008, selling 91,000 downloads. "American Boy" became Estelle's highest-charting single in the United States, ahead of "Thank You" (2011), which only peaked at number 100. It ended the year at number 39 on the Hot 100 year-end chart and as the thirty-third best selling song of 2008. The song was also her best selling single there, selling 2 million downloads and earning a double platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). As of September 2009, "American Boy" was the 25th best-selling downloaded song of all time in the UK, and as of November 2011, it was the 17th best-selling digital song by a British artist in the United States.


title: American Boy

text: The music video for "American Boy" was directed by Syndrome. It features guest appearances by John Legend, Kardinal Offishall, Sa-Ra's Taz Arnold, Kidz in the Hall's Naledge and Double-O, Danger Mouse, Consequence, Hi-Tek, Ryan Leslie, T.I., Brandon Hines, LL Cool J, and "106 & Park"s Terrence J, among others. The music video was nominated for Best UK Video at the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards, but lost to The Ting Tings' single "Shut Up and Let Me Go" (2008). The video also ranked at number 45 on BET's "Notarized: Top 100 Videos of 2008" countdown, while its spin-off channel BET J listed it at number 10 on the year-end "Last Call 2008! Top 50 Countdown".


title: American Boy

text: Estelle performed "American Boy" at various awards shows, where the song also earned her nominations for several categories. She first performed it on The Friday Night Project on 21 March 2008. Estelle performed the song with Kanye West at the Fête de la Musique on 21 June 2008. She performed the song at the 2008 MTV Europe Music Awards with Kanye West singing his rap section, during an image of then newly elected United States president Barack Obama appeared on a giant screen. She later performed it at the 2008 World Music Awards, hosted in Monte Carlo, Monaco, with a live band. Estelle performed a mash up of the song with the Ting Tings "Shut Up and Let Me Go" and "That's Not My Name" at the 2009 BRIT Awards. West also performed the track at the Coke Live Music Festival in 2011.