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Ryan Tedder
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Ryan Benjamin Tedder (born c. 1979) is an American singer, and Grammy nominated songwriter and record producer born in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He has written and produced for various musicians but, as of 2007, he is best known as the front man for the "MySpace US rock phenomenon”, OneRepublic.

Early Life

Born in Tulsa, Tedder was raised in a "devoutly religious" extended family of missionaries and pastors. Tedder began learning to play the piano at the age of three via the suzuki method, whereby young children learn to play an instrument "by ear rather than reading notes". His early interest in music was prompted by his musician father and school-teacher mother, who coaxed their young son into practicing piano in exchange for candy corn. Tedder started singing at the age of seven. A self-taught vocalist, Tedder began honing this skill at the age of 12 by imitating his favourite artists, which ranged from The Beatles to acts as diverse as Peter Gabriel, Stevie Wonder and Sting. He has commented, "I sang for two hours a day every day of my life until I was 18." He continued to perform musically during his adolescence through church, school, and personally formed groups.

He met and became friends with guitarist Zach Filkins on their high school soccer team, at CSCS high school in Colorado Springs (Tedder and Filkins would later go on to form the band OneRepublic). During this time and through college Tedder taught himself to play a variety of instruments, including guitar, drums and bass. He attended Oral Roberts University in Oklahoma, majoring in PR and advertising and minoring in business. It was as a freshman that Tedder began to showcase his own material. Tedder lost his degree scholarship in his sophomore year, because he "kept skipping classes to write songs". He has since stated that he took this as a sign that he was meant to pursue a career in music.

Early Music Career

At the age of 21 Tedder competed in a singer-songwriter competition and was selected by 'N Sync singer Lance Bass as one of five finalists to perform on the hit MTV television show Total Request Live, performing original material in front of millions of viewers. The prize for the winner was a music contract with Bass's now-defunct management company, Free Lance Entertainment. The contestants performed live and were then rated by judges and the audience, the highest scoring artist winning the contract. Tedder’s performance of one of his own songs, “The Look,” received the most votes from the judges and fans, and he won the competition; however, a contract with a recording label was not finalized and no album was released. Tedder later revealed the record and publishing deal he was offered "wasn't real. It was just a bunch of hype that didn't turn into anything." Matt Clizbe of the music website, clizbeats.com, has since commented, "While the concept was tried and true and continues to be used today, the Freelance show and contest did not last. Unfortunately, the public seemed to fall out of love with the Lance Bass fronted project before Ryan's potential could be realized…As the show faded so did the public's knowledge of Tedder and their eagerness to hear his music." However, Clizbe adds that this "may have been the best thing that ever happened to [Tedder]. While the loss of TV support is often the end for most artists, Tedder's talent shown through and his career was just beginning…Tedder has come a long way and is proof that true talent can get its due even if nearly a decade to be realized."

Producing

After college Tedder moved to New York, then Nashville, continuing to write and produce songs wherever and for whomever he could, hoping for his big break. Before his eventual move to Los Angeles to start OneRepublic, Tedder’s talents caught the attention of the successful hip hop singer and record producer, Timbaland, who “formally took him under his wing”. Tedder has commented, "I was with [Timbaland] from 2002-2004 to develop as an artist, but it turned out to be more like going to school for producing. I was already producing for other artists at the time, but being with him for two years stepped up my game a thousand-fold." Tedder’s work has crossed many musical genres (ranging from hip-hop, R&B, Rock, Pop to Dance/Techno) and he has had many chart successes both in America and the U.K with a number of renowned artists.

Tedder wrote and produced Jennifer Lopez's top 40 hit "Do It Well"; co-produced and wrote Natasha Bedingfield's current hit single "Love Like This" (with The Runaways); co-wrote with Jonathan "JR" Rotem & Evan "Kidd" Bogart on Ashley Tisdale's current hit single He Said She Said; co-wrote and produced Leona Lewis's first international single "Bleeding Love" (which is the fastest selling single of 2007 in the UK as well as the biggest UK radio debut, reaching #1 in October 2007); produced and co-wrote Blake Lewis' first studio album A.D.D. (including 1st single Break Anotha); wrote and produced single "Thrill Is Gone" by Baby Bash, and he also worked on Paul Oakenfold's Grammy nominated album, "A Lively Mind". In addition, Tedder has written and produced singles with artists such as Chris Cornell, Ludacris, Lupe Fiasco, Paula Deanda, Hilary Duff, Timbaland, Christina Millian, Bubba Sparxxx, Shayne Ward, Tupac, Lemar, Esmee Denters, Dima Bilan, t.A.T.u. and a number of songs with various different rock acts in the U.S. and abroad. Tedder's frequent songwriting collaborators are Sam Watters. Rico Love, Wayne Wilkins, Savan Kotecha, Evan "Kidd" Bogart, Jesse McCartney and Steph Jones.

OneRepublic

As well as producing, Tedder also sings lead vocals and plays guitar and piano for rock band, OneRepublic. The five piece band was formed in Colorado Springs in 2003 by Tedder and high school classmate Zach Filkins. Tedder has since revealed that the band was formed at a "crossroads" in his life: "I was offered two publishing deals within two months of being in Nashville…I could have just written songs and lived a carefree life, but I knew that I had to be an artist. I wanted to form a rock band and create my own sound." Based in LA, OneRepublic started out as an unsigned act on the social networking website, MySpace. Since June 2004 they have accumulated over 22 million+ plays for their music on the site. As of 2007 they are the number one band on MySpace and have been in the MySpace Music's Top Artists since summer 2006.

The band gained further exposure when their 2006 single, "Apologize," was re-mixed and re-released on Timbaland's compilation album, Timbaland Presents Shock Value. The remix became an international chart hit in the fall of 2007. OneRepublic's debut album, Dreaming Out Loud, includes both the song's original version and version with Timbaland, and was released on November 20, 2007 on Timbaland's Mosley Music Group imprint via Interscope Records. The band had previously been signed to Columbia Records, but although their album was due to be released in 2006, this did not occur. Tedder explained, "Crap happened. People got fired. Labels merged and politics abounded". Subsequently, the band were released from their deal with Columbia, and were signed by Timbaland in the summer of 2006 to be the first rock band released on Interscope Records. Tedder has commented on the success of his band's hit single, "Apologize": "The toughest thing to do is write a hit song, but we [had] a hit song before we [had] an album… What has happened has been really strange and really great."

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I love his voice. :wub: And in some pictures, he reminds me of my boyfriend. :drool:

Yr boyfriend must be hoping that you never meet him haha.. Not only does he look like him. but to top it off he is a musician too :p...and we all know how girls go weak at the knees when it comes to musicians :p

Haven't heard much of him, thou he is brilliant in the apologise vid :) Great voice indeed!

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