Problem: John Hoyer Updike (March 18, 1932 - January 27, 2009) was an American novelist, poet, short story writer, art critic, and literary critic. One of only three writers to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction more than once (the others were Booth Tarkington and William Faulkner), Updike published more than twenty novels, more than a dozen short-story collections, as well as poetry, art and literary criticism and children's books during his career.

Updike was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, the only child of Linda Grace (nee Hoyer) and Wesley Russell Updike, and was raised in the nearby small town of Shillington. The family later moved to the unincorporated village of Plowville. His mother's attempts to become a published writer impressed the young Updike. "One of my earliest memories", he later recalled, "is of seeing her at her desk... I admired the writer's equipment, the typewriter eraser, the boxes of clean paper. And I remember the brown envelopes that stories would go off in--and come back in."  These early years in Berks County, Pennsylvania, would influence the environment of the Rabbit Angstrom tetralogy, as well as many of his early novels and short stories. Updike graduated from Shillington High School as co-valedictorian and class president in 1950 and received a full scholarship to Harvard College, where he was the roommate of Christopher Lasch during their freshman year. Updike had already received recognition for his writing as a teenager by winning a Scholastic Art & Writing Award, and at Harvard he soon became well known among his classmates as a talented and prolific contributor to The Harvard Lampoon, of which he served as president. He graduated summa cum laude in 1954 with a degree in English and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa Society.  Upon graduation, Updike attended the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art at the University of Oxford with the ambition of becoming a cartoonist. After returning to the United States, Updike and his family moved to New York, where he became a regular contributor to The New Yorker. This was the beginning of his professional writing career.

Was he successful there?

Answer with quotes: After returning to the United States, Updike and his family moved to New York, where he became a regular contributor to The New Yorker.


Problem: A-Teens (stylized as A*Teens) were a Swedish pop music group from Stockholm, Sweden, formed by Niklas Berg in 1998 as an ABBA tribute band called ABBA Teens and later renamed A-Teens. The band members were Marie Serneholt, Amit Sebastian Paul, Dhani Lennevald and Sara Lumholdt. The band's debut album became a success around the world and in 2001 it was reported that the band had sold 6 million albums worldwide. After six years together, the band announced they would take a break in 2004 after the release of their Greatest Hits album.

In 1998, Marie, Sara, Dhani, and Amit were musically united as the ABBA Teens. However, the group's name was changed to the A-Teens to avoid litigation. This choice allowed the band more freedom in creating their own style of music.  In early 1999, the band started the recording process of what would be their debut album, The ABBA Generation, consisting purely of ABBA covers reinterpreted with a modern pop and electronic flair to appeal to a new generation of young pop fans. Their first single, "Mamma Mia", topped the charts in over ten countries including their home country Sweden where it stayed at number one for eight consecutive weeks. The album hit the peak position in Sweden & Chile and became a top ten hit throughout the world. Further singles enjoyed similar success ensuring top ten placings across the globe, and the album overall sold more than 3 million copies worldwide, being certified Gold or Platinum in over 22 different countries.  The band's music video for "Dancing Queen" features a plot very similar to the 1985 John Hughes film The Breakfast Club. In addition, the principal seen in the music video was played by Paul Gleason, the same actor who was the principal in the film. The single reached ninety-five on the Billboard Hot 100 and sold over 500,000 copies in the U.S. alone, being certified Gold.  In early 2000, the band embarked on a U.S. promotional tour, and on the verge of the release of their album in the United States, the band was invited to tour with Britney Spears that summer in her U.S. Tour. They also made several appearances on Disney and Nickelodeon to promote their music. The band's debut became a hit in North America, where the album reached seventy-one on the Billboard 200 Albums Chart being certified Gold in September 2000, but its sales reached the million mark in 2001.  That month, the A-Teens won a Viva Music Award for Best International Newcomer, competing with the likes of Christina Aguilera and Blink-182, and also the band announced what would be the lead single from their second album and their first to be an original song, "Upside Down", which would also become their signature song. The song was released to Swedish radios on 23 October 2000, and was later unleashed worldwide. When the single was commercially released, it reached number two in Sweden and was later certified 2x Platinum. The song became the band's biggest hit when it reached the top ten in several countries and when the single was released in the United States. The physical single reached number six on the Billboard Hot 100 Single Sales Chart, selling over 500,000 copies in three weeks and being certified Gold. In January 2001, the band was nominated for "Best Swedish Group" at the NRJ Awards.

How did the album do in the US?

Answer with quotes:
band embarked on a U.S. promotional tour, and on the verge of the release of their album in the United States, the band was invited to tour with Britney Spears