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John Ondrasik
John Ondrasik
John Ondrasik
John Ondrasik
Singer-Songwriter, Five For Fighting
Singer/songwriter John Ondrasik (On drah sick) has spent the past decade writing deeply personal songs that include social messages, invoke the human spirit and make an emotional connection. This can be heard on the past five albums by Five For Fighting, the band name under which he records and performs.
Ondrasik's debut album, the critically acclaimed, Message for Albert, was released in 1997. Five For Fighting's breakthrough came in 2001 with the Grammy-nominated song "Superman" from the Platinum certified "America Town" (Aware/Columbia) CD. Already climbing the charts prior to 9/11, "Superman" went on to have a life of his own, becoming a song of healing for the nation. John joined superstar musicians for the now legendary post 9/11 fundraiser The Concert For New York, which paid tribute to all the firefighters, police officers and paramedics affected by the events of September 11th.
In 2004, John recorded the Platinum-certified album, The Battle For Everything, which yielded the retrospective hit, "100 Years," a song that has become a part of classic American songbook. With the 2006 release of Two Lights, featuring "World," the hit song "The Riddle," and "Freedom Never Cries," John continued to craft songs with material drawn from his personal experience in regards to love, war, culture, family, humanity and mortality.
In 2007, Ondrasik released the first live Five For Fighting CD titled "Live", and the DVD, "Back Country Live" . The CD captures the band live in concert and the DVD features live concert footage, Five For Fighting Music videos, interviews and bonus features.
In addition to his musical accomplishments John has a made a personal commitment towards causes that are important to him. In February of 2007, Ondrasik launched a unique charity-driven web site, whatkindofworlddoyouwant.com that raises money for various charities when users view video clips provided by visitors to the site. Current views are over three million with approximately three hundred thousand dollars donated.
The success of the site led to late 2007 collaboration between Ondrasik and The History Channel, with the launching a user-generated video contest. Fans created a video on Eyespot.com describing what kind of world they want by making a video using archival footage of important historical events and the Five For Fighting song "World" as the music bed. One winning video was chosen to air on The History Channel.
John has also been a dedicated supporter of US troops. In March 2007, he performed at Guantanamo Bay for service members on his first USO/Armed Forces Entertainment tour. Since then John has performed for US forces on USO tours in Hawaii, Guam and Japan.
Ondrasik has also conceived and produced "For the Troops," a CD compilation series of superstar recording artists that is available for free to every active service person in the US Armed Forces. Volume 1, released on Thanksgiving 2007, included Billy Joel, Brooks & Dunn, Josh Groban, The Fray, Melissa Etheridge, Los Lonely Boys as well as Five For Fighting's "100 Years." Over 200,000 CDs were distributed in Iraq, Afghanistan, military hospitals, USO centers and to various troops support groups. Over three hundred and fifty thousand songs were downloaded from the Army/Air Force exchange online store aafes.com. "For the Troops 2", released on Thanksgiving 2008, includes Maroon 5, Keith Urban, Daughtry, 3 Doors Down, Five For Fighting, Roy Orbison and others.
Along with numerous television licenses, film credits include compositions for "August Rush," "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants,"" We Were Soldiers," "Chicken Little" and "Everyone's Hero."
An avid sports enthusiast and part-time journalist, John penned a regular hockey column SportsIllustrated.com from 2005-2007, and he free lances for various publications.
John is married with two children and resides on the outskirts of Los Angeles.
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"John's incredible charisma and talent are only exceeded by his humanity. He touches the audience. Nobody will ever listen to a song the same way again; he is motivational and entertaining at the same time."
"John Ondrasik is an extraordinary performer with an amazing voice. He's performed at four separate corporate fundraising events for us, and at each one he brings an unparalleled level of heart and sophistication. More importantly, he takes the time to learn about the corporate group he is performing for and customizes his performances for the audience, making each appearance unique and special."
"John's incredible charisma and talent are only exceeded by his humanity. He touches the audience. Nobody will ever listen to a song the same way again; he is motivational and entertaining at the same time."
"John Ondrasik is an extraordinary performer with an amazing voice. He's performed at four separate corporate fundraising events for us, and at each one he brings an unparalleled level of heart and sophistication. More importantly, he takes the time to learn about the corporate group he is performing for and customizes his performances for the audience, making each appearance unique and special."
"John Ondrasik has spoken to and performed for me at three YPO events I've chaired (Bel Air/California Coast joint chapter event, Pebble Beach Coaches Clinic and the YPO/WPO Grammy Weekend) and each time he tops himself and makes me look brilliant! He understands what YPO is about and he relates well to the group. He does his homework. And, what a phenomenal opportunity for our members to get a private concert of Grammy-nominated songs. The take home value for this event is high and always rates a solid 10 on the evaulations!"
"John has a heart of champion who knows how to lift people on his shoulders to see success!"
"It was amazing; the best event we have ever had. John gets Salk and our mission, and his performance was moving and inspirational. I think almost everyone in the audience was crying at some point. His music and his stories really touch people, and he cares about the causes he's involved with. It's nice to know people like John are out there fighting to find cures for ALS and autism. His team were also an incredible pleasure to work with. All in all, it could not have gone better."