Five for Fighting is the
stage name of American
singer-songwriter John
Ondrasik. His 2000
album
America Town went Platinum in
the U.S. largely because of the success of the song "
Superman ". The 2004 album
The Battle for
Everything was also certified Platinum, mainly due to the
hit single "
100 Years" and the consistent
sales of the album. Ondrasik has also released a
DualDisc of his 2004 album which has one side
containing
The Battle for Everything in its entirety and
the other side being a DVD containing bonus footage and Five For
Fighting music videos. Five for Fighting's fourth album,
Two Lights, was released
on August 1, 2006, and earned Ondrasik his first career Top 10
Album, debuting at #8 on the Billboard Top 200 Albums Chart. Five
for Fighting's fifth album,
Slice, was released on
October 13, 2009, and the first single off the album, called
"Chances", was released on Tuesday, July 21, 2009 for
download.
Early years
John Ondrasik was born on January 7, 1965 in
Los
Angeles
, a child of a musical
family. In his early years Ondrasik learned the piano.
As a teenager, he learned how to play the guitar and started to
write music. While he also learned to sing opera briefly, he
quickly decided that he would like to be a singer/songwriter.
Ondrasik
went to college at UCLA
and
graduated with a degree in applied
science and mathematics continuing to pursue music in his spare
time. He adopted the name "Five for Fighting," which is an
expression in
ice hockey when a player
receives a five-minute penalty for fighting.
Career
Ondrasik's first album
Message
for Albert was released by
EMI in 1997.
Capitol Records re-released this album after the success of
America Town.
In 2000, Five For Fighting signed with
Columbia Records and released
America Town on September 26, 2000. The
album made little impact, but "
Superman " became an anthem after
the
September 11 attacks.
Ondrasik would perform the song at
The Concert for New York City
in late 2001. Five for Fighting contributed a live performance
version of his song "Superman" to the charity album
Live in the X Lounge IV. While
America Town failed to make the top 50 of the Billboard
200 album charts, its consistent sales eventually led to its going
platinum.
His third album,
The
Battle for Everything, debuted at number 20 on the
Billboard 200 in February 2004.
Two years later the album
Two
Lights was released; this became his first career Top 10
album, debuting at #8 on the Billboard 200 in August 2006. Its
first single "
The Riddle" became
Ondrasik's third career Top 40 hit on the Billboard Hot 100,
peaking at #40. A video of the second single,
World, has
been used to raise funds for various charities (see
Philanthropy, below).
In 2005 he recorded the song "Penguin Lament" for
Sandra Boynton's
Dog Train book and
CD. In 2007, he again collaborated with Boynton, performing "Big
Band Sound" on the
Blue Moo album.
On the weekend of January 27/28, 2007, John Ondrasik filled in for
legendary radio host
Casey Kasem on the
American Top 20 and
American Top 10 radio
programs. On AT20, he counted down his own hit "World," and on AT10
he counted down his own hit "The Riddle."
John Ondrasik writes and co-writes music for other artists' CD's.
Those artists include The
Backstreet
Boys and
Josh Groban. He also writes
and co-writes for movie soundtracks. Those movies include
August Rush,
We Were
Soldiers,
Chicken Little,
Everyone's Hero,
Jimmy Neutron.
In 2008 Ondrasik wrote and recorded the song "Brothers in Arms" for
the award winning documentary film
Brothers at War. "
Brothers at War is an honest glimpse into
the reality of our troops and their families. I wrote the song two
hours after seeing the film," Ondrasik said. "The final production
you hear is the demo I recorded that night in my living room,
accompanied by a string section
Lee
Holdridge composed and directed a year later." Ondrasik
collaborated with the film's production team of
Jake Rademacher (Director/Producer),
Norman Powell (Producer),
Gary Sinise (Executive Producer) and
David Scantling (Executive Producer) on the
project.
On July 21, 2009, the first single from the album, called
"Chances", was released for download.
On September 22, 2009 the music video for "Chances" was released on
VH1.com. The music video shows the story of two teenagers falling
in love, while Ondrasik narrates (sings) to the story. The video
was directed by Steven Drypolcher (Beyonce, Kanye West,
Boyslikegirls) and produced by Partizan. The "Making of the Chances
Music Video" is available on Amazon.com.
His fifth studio album, titled "Slice", was released on Tuesday,
October 13th, 2009 and premiered on the iTunes Top 10 Albums on the
first day. The album was produced by Gregg Wattenberg (Superman,
100 Years). Academy Award-winning composer Steven Schwartz, who
penned the songs for musicals such as Wicked, Godspell and Pippin,
co-wrote the title track, as well as the track "Above The
Timberline."
In October 2009, Ondrasik's third studio album "The Battle For
Everything" (100 Years) was RIAA certified Platinum.
Philanthropy
In the spring of 2007, Ondrasik created the first video charity
website. The website allows fans to upload videos answering the
central question, "What Kind of World do You Want?" (taken from his
hit song, "
World").
The charities the site raises money for are: Augie's Quest,
Autism Speaks,
Fisher House Foundation,
Save the Children,
Operation Homefront and several other
charities and foundations.
Ondrasik, under the auspices of the
USO,
performed for service members on a USO/Armed Forces Entertainment
tour of Guantanamo Bay and other bases in Cuba in February/March
2007. He followed up with another USO tour in November 2007 of
Japan, Guam and Hawaii. "I am struck by the sacrifices the troops
and their families make for our way of life and I felt was
important to show my support," says Ondrasik.
In November 2007, Ondrasik coordinated the release of 13 free songs
for US military members called
CD for the Troops. Ondrasik
worked with
AAFES to deliver more than 200,000
CDs to US troops around the globe and to offer the music from the
CD as free MP3 downloads from
www.aafes.com. The songs donated include:
Any US military member is eligible to download the music through
AAFES.
In November 2008, Ondrasik released another free CD for US military
members. "CD for the Troops II" has 14 free songs and was released
on Thanksgiving Day. 200,000 CD's were pressed for the release and
will again be available online at www.aafes.com. The songs donated
include:
He also performs on the annual Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon and has
done various events for the
Muscular Dystrophy
Association and Augie's Quest, raising awareness and funds for
ALS (Lou Gehrig's
disease).
In 2008, he got involved in the musical movement of spreading
awareness about current slavery and
human trafficking by performing a live
version of "World" for the rockumentary, Call+Response.
[68570]
The singer’s ongoing support of servicemen and women, and his
dedication to his own wife and children, even led to him receiving
a special fatherhood award from the National Fatherhood
Initiative’s 2009 Military Fatherhood Award Ceremony.
Back Country
The live CD and DVD released on November 6, 2007 comes in 3
formats: Live CD, Live Back Country DVD, and Live Back Country
Special Edition CD/DVD. Back Country was recorded live in concert
in Orlando. The Live CD includes "100 Years," "Freedom Never
Cries," "Superman," "Two Lights," "The Riddle" as well as other fan
favorites. The "Back Country" DVD, in addition to the live concert
footage, features all of the Five For Fighting music videos, an
interview with the inspiration for the song "Two Lights", charity
videos from www.whatkindofworlddoyouwant.com, and Five For Fighting
photo montage.
Discography
Studio albums
Live albums
EPs
Singles
Singles:
RIAA Awards
References
- http://www.fiveforfighting.com/
- Family Tree Legends [1]
-
http://www.newschannel10.com/Global/story.asp?s=9919850&clienttype=printable
- http://whatkindofworlddoyouwant.com
- http://www.augiesquest.org
- http://www.autismspeaks.org
- http://www.fisherhouse.org
- http://www.savethechildren.org
- http://www.operationhomefront.net
- .
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