Five For Fighting

At 59 years old, Five For Fighting physical status not available right now. We will update Five For Fighting's height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, and measurements.

Vladimir John Ondrasik III (born January 7, 1965), better known by his stage name Five for Fighting, is an American singer, guitarist, pianist, and record producer.

He is best known for his piano-based rock, including the top 40 hits "It's Not Easy) (2001), "100 Years" (2006) and "The Riddle" (2006).

In addition, he had a string of modest hits on the adult contemporary charts in the late 2000s and 2010s, including "World" (2006), "Chances" (2013), "What If" (2013), and "Christmas Where You Are" (2017).

Ondrasik has released six full-length studio albums, one EP, and several live albums under the Five for Fighting brand name.

In 2002, Ondrasik's "Superman" was nominated for a Grammy.

Early years

Ondrasik was born in Los Angeles, California, as the child of a musical family. He learned the piano in his youth, and in his teens, he learned to play the guitar and began to write music. Although he did briefly learn to sing opera, he soon discovered that he wanted to be a singer and songwriter.

Ondrasik started attending college and loved music in his spare time. He obtained a bachelor's degree in applied science and mathematics from UCLA.

Personal life

Ondrasik now lives in Los Angeles, California, with his wife and their two children. He is a huge hockey and basketball fan, whose favorite teams are the Los Angeles Kings and Lakers. He has worked on both Sports Illustrated and the official L.A. Kings, and has been regularly featured on radio and television interviews. During Landon Donovan's last game of the LA Galaxy, he appeared on SportsCenter, the 2002 NHL All-Star Game, the 2011 Heritage Classic, 2011 Heritage Classic, 2011 Mustang Classic, 2011.

Ondrasik's first car was a 1965 Ford Mustang that he painted purple due to his Prince's affinity. Ondrasik then restored the car to its original powder blue color scheme. He still owns the car and wrote "65 Mustang," which appears on the Two Lights album. The vehicle appears in "The Riddle" music video as well as on "Chances"'s cover art.

Ondrasik is a registered voter. He was a registered Republican prior to 2016.

Ondrasik is a Slovakian immigrant. His year of birth has been thrown into some confusion, with Encyclopedia.com naming his birth year as 1968 rather than 1965. A 2001 Los Angeles Times article mentions him as 33 years old rather than 36. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's interview in March 2002 states his age at 33 rather than 37. Ondrasik has claimed that the 1965 date is the correct one, even as in 2020, when he referred to recently turning 55.

Source

Career

Ondrasik became well-known in the glam metal scene after graduating from UCLA in 1988. He befriended Whitesnake bassist Rudy Sarzo and later formed a hair metal band with Scott St. Clair Sheets, who is best known for his collaboration with Pat Benatar, called John Scott. Ondrasik later compared the band's style to Bon Jovi, comparing their sound to Bon Jovi. In the early 1990s, John Scott signed a management contract, but any expectations of mainstream success were shattered by grunge and the demise of the hair metal genre.

Although John Scott did not have a studio album at the time, three Sheets and Ondrasik songs co-written later became available on Sheets' 1997 arena rock album, which also featured Sarzo. Ondrasik did not appear on the album, but he received writing credits for "After the Fire," "Shadow of Myself," and "Turn the Wheel." Sheets and Ondrasik would perform together again in 2008, when Ondrasik provided vocals for Sheets' "Fly Me Away" on sheet.

Ondrasik recalls going "back to the piano, where I belonged" after John Scott's departure.

Ondrasik appeared on television shows around Los Angeles in the early 1990s. Carla Berkowitz, a music publisher, discovered him in a bar on Melrose and Vine, and he signed him. Ondrasik and Berkowitz married later.

Ondrasik signed with EMI Records in 1995. Five for Fighting became a "band name" in the same year, but Ondrasik's name was impossible to pronounce. A big fine for participating in a fight is shown on "Five for Fighting" in ice hockey. Ondrasik has been a lifelong fan of the Los Angeles Kings in the National Hockey League.

Message for Albert, Fighting's first album, was released by EMI in March 1997. However, EMI Records' American division was closed in June. Despite the fact that the album had already been released, there were no singles from Message. The song "Bella's Birthday Cake" was supposed to be the lead single, judging by radio advertisements and demos devoted to the song. On some promotional cassettes, "Ocean" appears alongside "Bella's Birthday Cake," implying that it could have been viewed as a potential second single.

AllMusic referred to Albert's "intelligent and well-crafted" as "a promising debut that ultimately missed its chance when EMI spontaneously combusted after the record's debut."

In the aftermath and live demos of "Easy Tonight" and "Jainy," both of which were re-recorded for 2000's America Town, five for Fighting left anEMI. Messages from Congress were later released after the success of America Town.

Ondrasik's Mark Cunningham was the first contact for Aware Records. Cunningham then moved Ondrasik's demos to the label's new A&R Steve Smith. Smith met with Ondrasik and signed a deal with Columbia Records following a dialogue with Aware chief Gregg Latterman.

On September 26, 2000, his second album, America Town, was released. In addition to ten new songs, America Town featured two re-recorded songs from Albert's album ("The Last Great American" and "Love Song"). In 2000, "Easy Tonight" became the album's lead single. On AAA radio, it was #1 and debuted at number 26 on the Adult Top 40.

The second single, "It's Not Easy), was a commercial hit, debuting at number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and number 1 on the Adult Top 40. Following the September 11 attacks, Ondrasik performed the song at The Concert for New York City on October 20, 2001. The song became a anthem. In 2002, "Superman" was nominated for a Grammy.

Two more songs were released as singles after the success of "Superman" – "America Town" and "Something About You" respectively, but neither song charted. Although America Town did not debut on the Billboard 200 chart, the album was eventually rated Platinum.

In February 2004, his third album, Battle for Everything, debuted at number 20 on the Billboard 200 chart. Several versions of the album were released with a bonus CD, a five-song EP called 2 + 2 Makes 5. The single "100 Years" was ranked number one on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart and stayed at number one for 12 weeks. "Devil in the Wishing Well" was the album's second single, peaking at number 23 on the Adult Top 40. On the US Adult Contemporary charts, a third single, a cover of "Silent Night" from the 2+2 Makes 5 EP, debuted at number two.

The Battle for Everything album was awarded Platinum by the Royal Institute of British Architects, making it five out of five for Fighting's second straight Platinum-selling album. Critics divided, with AllMusic praising the record's "good craftsmanship" and noting that it was "one of the more interesting, detailed" records in its category. Ondrasik's blend of romanticism and irreverence, according to another writer, "Nowhere is a "contradictory figure" for his mix of romanticism and irreverence. Battle for Everything "There's '100 Years," the first single, a reflection on time passing. Then'te,' the delicate opening of a new, screaming vocal, is stifled by slashing electric guitar and a raw, screaming voice." When recording Battle, Ondrasik said he and producer Bill Bottrell were "overly ambitious to the point of absurdity." We'd like to drama, so we'd have a thirty-piece orchestra. We went after it with reckless abandonment if we wanted a rock edge.

Two years later, the album Two Lights was released; this was his first top ten album, debuting at number eight on the Billboard 200 chart in August 2006. "The Riddle," Ondrasik's third top 40 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, peaking at number 40. On AC charts, it ranked third and seventh, as well as on the Hot AC charts. The second single, "World," debuted at number 14 on Hot AC charts, and the music video has been used to raise funds for various charities and as a theme for NASA's International Space Station (see Philanthropy below).

Three fighters appeared on television in 2007: Rhapsody Originals in January, iTunes exclusive in June, and Back Country in October.

Slice, his fifth studio album, was released on October 13, 2009, and it debuted on iTunes top ten albums on the first day. Gregg Wattenberg ("Superman") produced the album ("100 Years"). Stephen Schwartz, a Grammy Award-winning composer who wrote the songs for musicals including Wicked, Godspell, and Pippin, co-wrote the title track and the song "Above the Timberline." Slice's first single, "Chances," was released for digital download on July 21, 2009. During the ending credits of the hit film The Blind Side's "Chances" were included. On the Hot AC radio charts, "Chances" reached number 11 on the Hot AC radio chart.

On May 27, 2010, Ondrasik announced that he had left Columbia Records and his album Slice would be re-released on Wind-up Records, as well as the song "Slice" being released as a single on July 10, 2010.

Five for Fighting played at the 2011 NHL Heritage Classic in Calgary, with the Calgary Flames facing the Montreal Canadiens in February 20, 2011.

In 2011, a compilation album named The Very Best of Five for Fighting was released. It featured 14 songs in chronological order of their release, beginning with "Bella's Birthday Cake" from 1997 and ending with "Slice" in 2010.

Bookmarks, Fighting's sixth studio album, debuted in 2013, achieving a top-five finish on the Billboard 200. The album's lead single, "What If" debuted on the Adult Top 40 and Adult Contemporary charts, respectively, at 29 and 28.

For the one hundredth episode of Hawaii Five-0's television series "All for One," Ondrasik wrote and recorded the original song "All for One." On November 7, 2014, the song was released as a single, on the same date as the episode aired. In the final scene of JAG's last episode, his song "100 Years" was included.

The single "Born to Win" was released by Five for Fighting on September 12, 2016. The song appeared on the opening montage of American Ninja Warrior's season eight finale.

In February 2017, Five for Fighting appeared as part of the Lincoln Center Series, an American Songbook. On the steps of the Capitol in 2017, he also performed his song "All for One" at the National Memorial Day Concert. During the National Memorial Day parade the next day, he performed "Superman".

Ondrasik is the featured artist on "Sel 3 of CBS drama Code Black," starring his own commentary on Gary Go's "Open Arms" in episode one. He appears on screen as well as on stage to perform the song. In the season three finale, Briana Lee's "It's Not Easy)" was included.

For the end credits of the film Gosnell: The Trial of America's Biggest Serial Killer, Ondrasik recorded a song named "The Song of Innocence."

Ondrasik re-recorded an unplugged version of "All for One" that was included in Hawaii's series finale, 5–0. In addition, he performed "China on the Horizon," a poem that relates to China's geopolitical danger. Ondrasik released a front copy of "Amazing Grace" on "Grace Notes," which he performed live on BYUTV in June 2020.

Ondrasik's "Blood on My Hands," a song condemning the removal of American troops from Afghanistan in 2021, appeared on September 13, 2021.

Ondrasik wrote of the song:

After the video went viral, YouTube took down the Blood on My Hands Music Video for "graphic warning," but the decision was reversed later.

Can One Man Save the World in March 2022?

Ondrasik wrote of the song:

To many, the song has been inspiring.

Ondrasik and the Ukrainian Orchestra performed Can One Man Save the World on July 9, 2022, in Kyiv, Ukraine.

Ondrasik said

However, Ondrasik has remained relatively unchanged in comparison to other piano singer-songwriters, including Elton John, Billy Joel, and Ben Folds, although "while also retaining a more aggressive rock edge exclusive to Five For Fighting." His more heartland rock-oriented tracks have been compared to Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty's. Ondrasik's musical influences include Queen (and Freddie Mercury in particular), Steve Perry, Stevie Wonder, Elton John, Billy Joel, and Prince.

Ondrasik's music makes heavy use of falsetto vocals, with Variety describing this as "a pleasant two-tone voice, a tenor for setting up a scene, and a higher register for driving a point home." Ondrasik also plays the harmonica and acoustic guitar. On studio recordings of some songs, he also plays electric guitar. Although five of Fighting's singles prominently feature piano, his early albums include songs with traditional hard rock influences ("Happy" on Message for Albert, "Boat Parade" on America Town, "The Taste" on The Battle for Everything, and others). Grunge influences can also be found in older albums, such as "Michael Jordan" on America Town, and "Big Cities," a non-album track. Ondrasik has regarded Nirvana as one of his influences, although it has not mentioned him.

"I kind of fancy myself as a rocker and a rock guy," Ondrasik said as his first mainstream success, "I kind of fancy myself as a musician and a rock guy, and here was this ballad." Despite the fact that the album was less popular than his time, Ondrasik is "so glad" he was able to be included in the performance. It will always be my first child."

Ondrasik's live performances can take a variety of styles: occasionally, Ondrasik appears alone, shifting between acoustic guitar and piano. Fight for The fight is a festival that takes place in several countries on bass, electric guitar, and drums. Five for Fighting first appeared in orchestral shows in the early 1990s, often accompanied by a string quartet; Ondrasik has also appeared in these shows with the support of complete symphony orchestras. At the end of live shows, he often covers songs such as "American Pie," "Rocket Man," "Message in a Bottle," and "Bohemian Rhapsody." Since 2007, Five for Fighting has released a steady stream of live recordings, including six live albums and EPs.

AllMusic referred to Five for Fighting's success in the 2000s, describing Ondrasik as "one of the decade's top balladeers." Five for Fighting has two platinum-selling albums, America Town and The Battle for Everything, as well as one Grammy nomination.

At the 2003 American Music Awards, Fighting was nominated for Favorite Adult Contemporary Artist.

Ondrasik has been named as a top-five AC and a top ten Hot AC artist for the 2000s.

Ondrasik became well-known on the public speaking circuit in 2012. Ondrasik's message, which focus on creativity, entrepreneurship, and collaboration, is based on his experience as a musician and in the family business. Among other things, he has appeared at TEDx, The Salk Institute, The American Cancer Society, and Virgin Unite.

Source