Five for Fighting

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Five for Fighting
Birth name John Ondrasik
Also known as Five for Fighting
Born January 7, 1968 (1968-01-07) (age 39)
Flag of the United States Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Genre(s) Piano rock
Pop rock
Occupation(s) Singer-songwriter, musician
Instrument(s) vocals, guitar, piano, harmonica
Years active 1997–present
Label(s) Sony BMG
Website FiveForFighting.com

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 due to the success of the song "Superman (It's Not Easy)" following the September 11 attacks in 2001. The 2004 album The Battle for Everything has also enjoyed chart success in the United States. 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 the "100 Years" music video. Five for Fighting's fourth album, Two Lights, was released on August 1, 2006.

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John Ondrasik was born on January 7, 1968 in the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles, a child of a musical family. 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 piano playing popular musician along the lines of Elton John and Billy Joel. He adopted the name "Five for Fighting," which is an expression in ice hockey when a player receives a five-minute penalty for fighting. This name was used for recognition purposes; that is, Ondrasik thought "Five for Fighting" would be more memorable than his real name. Ondrasik went to college at UCLA and studied applied science and mathematics continuing to pursue music in his spare time.

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 (It's Not Easy) became an anthem after the September 11 attacks due in part to MTV's limited playlist of only 11 videos following the tragedy. 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. It was followed two years later by Two Lights (album), which 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 the spring of 2007, Ondrasik created the first video charity website ([1]). The website allows fans to upload videos answering the central question, "What Kind of World do You Want?" from his hit song,"World". Each time a fan-made video is viewed, up to .49 cents goes to a selected charity. The charities are: Augie's Quest (www.augiesquest.org) Autism Speaks (www.autismspeaks.org) Fisher House Foundation (www.fisherhouse.org) Save the Children (www.savethechildren.org)

In November 2007, Ondrasik coordinated the release of 13 free songs for US military members called "CD for the Troops[2]." 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 elligible to download the music through AAFES.

Backcountry is a live CD/DVD which was released on November 6th, 2007.

Year Song U.S. Hot 100 U.S. Adult Top 40 U.S. AC Chart U.S. Pop 100 Hot Digital Songs Australia Album
2001 "Superman (It's Not Easy)" 14 3 2 - 70 2 America Town
2002 "Easy Tonight" - 18 - - - - America Town
2002 "America Town" 108 - 80 - - - America Town
2004 "100 Years" 28 3 1 - 30 32 The Battle for Everything
2004 "The Devil in the Wishing Well" - 23 - - - - The Battle for Everything
2005 "If God Made You" - - 20 - - - The Battle for Everything
2006 "The Riddle" 40 8 4 39 27 - Two Lights
2006 "World" - 15 - - - - Two Lights
2007 "I Just Love You" - - 24 - - - Two Lights

  • 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."
  • In 2005 he recorded the song "Penguin Lament" for Sandra Boynton's "Dog Train" book and CD.
  • In March 2007, Ondrasik began appearing in a series of short videos profiling Republican presidential contenders in an interview format at gather.com. So far he has interviewed Mike Huckabee[3] and Newt Gingrich[4].
  • John Ondrasik co-wrote the Josh Groban song "February Song" for Groban's third album, Awake.

  1. ^ Carlson, Erin (2007-11-20). Five For Fighting Singer Donates A Free Music Compilation For U.S. Troops. Retrieved on [[2007-12-14]].

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_for_Fighting"
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