John Winston Ono Lennon, MBE (9 October 1940 – 8 December 1980) was an English musician and singer-songwriter who achieved worldwide fame as one of the founders of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed groups in the history of popular music. Together with his fellow Beatle Paul McCartney he created one of the most successful songwriting partnerships of the 20th century.

Born and raised in Liverpool, Lennon became interested in skiffle as a teenager; his first group The Quarrymen became The Beatles in 1960. When the group broke up towards the end of the decade, Lennon began a solo career that produced the critically acclaimed albums John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band and Imagine, as well as cult songs such as "Give Peace a Chance" and "Imagine". Lennon withdrew from the music business in 1975 to devote time to his family, but returned in 1980 with the new album Double Fantasy. He was murdered by Mark Chapman three weeks after its release.

Lennon displayed a rebellious character and a biting wit in his music, writing, drawings, in film and in interviews, and became a controversial figure because of his political and peace activism. He moved to New York in 1971, where his criticism of the Vietnam War led to a lengthy attempt by the Richard Nixon administration to deport him, while his songs were adopted as anthems by the anti-war movement.

As of 2010, sales of Lennon's solo albums in the US exceed 14 million units, and as a writer, co-writer or performer he has been responsible for 27 number-one singles on the American Hot 100 chart. In 2002 a BBC poll of the 100 greatest Britons placed him eighth, and in 2008 Rolling Stone named him the fifth greatest singer of all time. Posthumously he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1987 and into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994.