Hailing from provincial Italy, world class DJ & producer Benny Benassi is a name needing little introduction but always deserving of wide admiration and acclaim.  Indulging in a career spanning fifteen plus years, Benassi is renown as a humble, authentic and charming character who has grown from club DJ to festival king to multi-million selling record producer taking success in his stride. Trademarking his unique infusion of house and electro with his global smash “Satisfaction” Benny has continued to create music which is a clear evolution of this signature sound but never deviating too far. 

There is no better place to start delving into the rich history of the Benassi career than with his international blockbuster, “Satisfaction” and its game-changing music video became his launch pad into stardom. Created with his cousin and producer, Alle Benassi, and inspired by the car horns outside an open street facing window, this single catapulted into the charts with a #1 in France, #2 in the UK and Germany. Followed by his debut album Hypnotica, which reached top 20 across nearly all parts of Europe within the first month of release. 

The next few years for Benny were a culmination of successes, whether it be the major festivals he went on the play (Coachella, EDC, Ultra Music Festival, Tomorrowland to name a few) or his next artist album, Rock N Rave in 2008. The same year he won a Grammy Award for his ground breaking remix of Public Enemy “Bring The Noise” further catapulting the Benassi name into stardom. 

In 2011, Benny teamed up with a star-studded album cast for his album Electroman which featured T-Pain, Kelis, Jean-Baptsiste and Apl.de.ap amongst others and most famously Gary Go with his chart-topping single “Cinema”.  The Skrillex remix of “Cinema” not only went Gold in the US and platinum in Australia and Canada but won the Benassi’s another Grammy whilst holding firm in the iTunes top 10 dance chart for over 6 months. 

Still on this exceptional career high, Benny Benassi combined talents with Chris Brown to create one of the biggest cross-over dance records of its time with “Beautiful People”. The following years have been a measure of incredible world tours and releases, most notably his record “Dance The Pain Away” with John Legend, which premiered live on stage at Coachella with John himself. 

2016 saw Benny released his first album in five years Danceaholic, an unexpected, stunning cocktail of already released tracks, two unreleased reworks of older singles and brand new songs, led by the hit summer anthem “Paradise”, once again with Chris Brown. “Paradise” stayed in the Top 50 UK charts for 10 weeks and boasts more than 65 million video views and close to 47 million Spotify streams. 

In recent years, Benny's main releases include “Everybody Needs A Kiss” featured US duo Sofi Tukker racking up over 10 millions streams online and was featured as the sound of gay pride for Musica.ly, "Lonely Nights" featuring Lil Yachty, interspersed with two great house-oriented tracks, "Inside" with Chris Nasty, performing well in clubs and on streaming platforms and "Everybody Hates Monday Mornings" with his own production outfit, BB Team, and featuring the eccentric and charismatic YouTuber, Canguro English.

Beyond his own productions he brought his sound to a wider musical audience with a flurry of high-profile remixes with the likes of Bob Marley & The Wailers, Giorgio Moroder, Madonna, Sean Paul and the Rolling Stones, to name but a few; whilst maintaining a weekly radio show on the US heavy-weight iHeart Radio broadcasting to a staggering quarter of a billion listeners monthly.

A place where to find Dharma Teaching specialy from the Ngalso Ganden Nyengyu Lineage

Damian Robert Nesta Marley, also known around the world as “Junior Gong” and more recently as “Gongzilla” was born in 1978 to parents Bob Marley and Cindy Breakspeare, Miss World 1976.  As a young adult, he developed a passion and a gift to speak for those who cannot always speak for themselves. A self-proclaimed ‘Spiritual Revolutionary’, Damian has worked assiduously to carve his own niche in music history and to add a new perspective to the Marley legacy for the 21st century. 

At the age of 13, Damian began performing in a group called “The Shepherds” which comprised of Shiah Coore (son of Third World guitarist Cat Coore) and currently a member of his band, and Yashema Beth McGreggor, daughter of reggae singers Freddie Mcgreggor and Judy Mowatt and then began touring with his brothers, Stephen, Ky-mani, Julian and Ziggy. 

By 1996, Damian had already made his stamp as a different kind of Marley when he released his first solo album “Mr. Marley”, a heavily dancehall-influenced album produced by his brother Stephen Marley.  His second album “Halfway Tree” was released in 2001 by a major record label and showcased Damian’s unique gift for blending dancehall, reggae and hip-hop styles.  This album won Damian much recognition and remained on the Billboard Top Reggae Album Charts for 158 weeks and earned him his first Grammy for Best Reggae Album in 2002. 
While honored by this recognition by the global music fraternity, Damian continued to work in the studio, laying the groundwork for the tracks that would become his highly anticipated album, “Welcome To Jamrock”. The lyrics in this album presented Marley as a true spiritual revolutionary, as he used his talent to evoke a spiritual change while trying to enforce a better way of thinking.  He is described as “rhyming with the conviction of a street preacher with the intellect of a university economist”.  

Damian’s hit single “Welcome to Jamrock” was listed as one of the Top 100 Songs of the Decade by Rolling Stone, and at the 2006 Grammy Awards, he won Best Reggae Album and Best Urban/Alternative Performance for Welcome to Jamrock. Damian is the only Jamaican reggae artist in history to win two Grammy Awards on the same night. He is also the only reggae artist to win in the Best Urban/Alternative Performance category at the Grammy Awards. The New York Times called Welcome to Jamrock the “best reggae song of the decade.” 
Welcome to Jamrock led the pathway to Damian’s critically acclaimed collaboration with Nas for 2010’s much lauded album “Distant Relatives” – a project which explored the relationships between reggae, hip-hop and Africa. The album title refers not only to the bond between the artists, but the connection to their African ancestry, which inspired the album both musically and lyrically. USA Today referred to the album as a “potent and often provocative collaboration” and by Rolling Stone as “an Afrocentric winner.” The album debuted at Number 5 on the Billboard Top 200 Album Chart and Number 1 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, Rap Albums and Reggae Albums charts, with Billboard heralding the album as “a dynamic hybrid.”    

The Distant Relatives Tour kicked off in 2011 and saw Damian traveling and performing for thousands of fans all over the world, including South America, Europe, The United Kingdom, The Caribbean and North America.  

Damian continued to cross musical boundaries in 2012, as he went on to partner with Skrillex for their groundbreaking track “Make It Bun Dem”, which Rolling Stone called “a monster mash up of dubstep and dancehall” and has led to several remixes of the original version.  Damian recently released two other singles; “Set Up Shop” and  “Affairs of the Heart” which both received widespread airplay. 

Damian continues to tour with his band all over the world as a way of entertaining and healing as he continues to spread the message for those whose voices cannot be heard. He is working with his brothers Stephen and Julian under their Ghetto Youths International Label, to discover, develop and sign gifted artistes by applying their musical talent and vast experience to create new and different styles of music.  

Damian is currently in the studio working on his upcoming solo album.

The National Gallery of Art was created in 1937 for the people of the United States of America by a joint resolution of Congress, accepting the gift of financier and art collector Andrew W. Mellon. During the 1920s, Mr. Mellon began collecting with the intention of forming a gallery of art for the nation in Washington. In 1937, the year of his death, he promised his collection to the United States. Funds for the construction of the West Building were provided by The A. W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust. On March 17, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt accepted the completed building and the collections on behalf of the people of the United States of America.

The paintings and works of sculpture given by Andrew Mellon have formed a nucleus of high quality around which the collections have grown. Mr. Mellon's hope that the newly created National Gallery would attract gifts from other collectors was soon realized in the form of major donations of art from Samuel H. Kress, Rush H. Kress, Joseph Widener, Chester Dale, Ailsa Mellon Bruce, Lessing J. Rosenwald, and Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch as well as individual gifts from hundreds of other donors.

The Gallery's East Building, located on land set aside in the original Congressional resolution, was opened in 1978. It accommodates the Gallery's growing collections and expanded exhibition schedule and houses an advanced research center, administrative offices, a great library, and a burgeoning collection of drawings and prints. The building was accepted for the nation on June 1, 1978, by President Jimmy Carter. Funds for construction were given by Paul Mellon and the late Ailsa Mellon Bruce, the son and daughter of the founder, and by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

On May 23, 1999 the Gallery opened an outdoor sculpture garden designed to offer year-round enjoyment to the public. Located in the 6.1-acre block adjacent to the West Building at 7th Street and Constitution Avenue, N.W., the garden provides an informal, yet elegant setting for works of modern and contemporary sculpture.

The Collectors Committee, an advisory group of private citizens, has made it possible to acquire paintings and sculpture of the twentieth century. Key works of art have also come to the Gallery through the Patrons' Permanent Fund. In addition, members of the Circle of the National Gallery of Art have provided funds for many special programs and projects. The Sculpture Garden is a gift to the nation from The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation.

Radio 3 Essay

Authored essays from leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond, themed across a week. Each episode is full of insight, opinion and intellectual surprise from one expert voice. We aim to include as many episodes of The Essay in the download as we can but you'll find that some aren't included for rights reasons.

Desert Island Discs Archive: 2000-2005
Castaways choose eight records, a book and a luxury to take with them to the mythical desert island. Full listings can be found on the Desert Island Discs website.

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