One-name wonders are singular standouts

BEYONCÉ. “Brand” name.

Our recent piece on Paraluman, Dolphy and other local stars who go by only one name made us curious about foreign luminaries who are also well-known “singular” brand names. It turns out that there are even more of them out there, many of them musicians and sports heroes!

In show biz, simply by adding an extra A to her name, Aaliyah tops the list, followed by Adele, hip-hop musician Afroman,

R ‘n’ B artist Akon, rapper Akrobatic, singer Apolonia, pop fave Ashanti, Babyface, Basia, the Beyoncé, the loopily controversial Bjork, rock musician-turned-global defender Bono, and  R ‘n’ B singing star Brandy.

A precursor was silent movie star, Annabella. Later, one of the Latin American firecrackers who pioneered the cuddly “sex kitten” performance style was singularly named Charo. For her part, Cher went from singer to award-winning actress and “ageless” beauty, greatly aided and abetted by some of the most fantastic gowns and hairstyles ever conjured up.

Diddy (Sean John Combs) is one of the most successful periodic “self-transformers” around. Fabian Forte was a popular teen idol decades ago who later dropped his family name—and got away with it!

Edgy excitement

More recently, Eminem has created his own kind of edgy excitement. And upping the ante in terms of unique selling proposition are idiosyncratic personalities like Flea, Fish, Grasshopper, Chamillionaire, Havoc, Ke$ha, Kurupt, Ludacris, Musiq, Necro, Q-tip, Questlove, RobinHo, Sizzla, Slash, Xzibit, Vortex and Twista—!

Weird name recall may help, but some one-name wonders have become certified stars without having to raise too many eyebrows—like, top model Twiggy, Rihanna, Selena, Shakira, comic Sinbad, Sting, Usher, fashion designer Valentino, author Voltaire, sports hero Pele, artist Christo, novelist Colette, author Moliere, Prince—and the one-woman entertainment and media industry, Ms Winfrey, who is sometimes known as the one and only—Oprah!