OneRepublic is an American Rock band formed in Colorado. After a few years of moderate success, they have since drawn mainstream attention with the release of their single "Apologize," which has sold in excess of 7 million singles worldwide. The song, according to SoundScan Data, is one of only two songs that have reached 3 million legal downloads in history. A remix of "Apologize" was featured on Timbaland's Shock Value and the band's debut album, Dreaming Out Loud, produced by Greg Wells. Their debut album was released in the United States on November 20, 2007, with international release dates staggered throughout early 2008. As of June 14, 2008, Dreaming Out Loud had sold 761,298 copies in the U.S. with the bands total album sales coming to over 1.5 million worldwide so far. The band's second single, "Stop and Stare," has also crossed the 2 million mark in terms of worldwide single sales. Their third single, "Say (All I Need)", has been released in the UK and in the U.S. Their fourth single will be "Mercy", as stated by OneRepublic's MySpace page.
Since the summer of 2006, OneRepublic has consistently been ranked as one of the top musical acts on MySpace, due to heavy promotion within the online community. The band was formed by songwriter and Grammy-nominated record producer, Ryan Tedder and his high school friend, Zach Filkins, in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Even at a young age the band's frontman, Tedder, wanted to make music for a living. He shared this interest with Zach Filkins (who studied classical guitar in Barcelona, Spain) when he transferred to Colorado Springs Christian High School in his senior year. Together with a small group of friends they put together a band known as This Beautiful Mess and even played a few small gigs in local bars supported by friends and family. After senior year Tedder and Filkins went their separate ways, attending different colleges. Tedder attended Oral Roberts University graduating in 2001 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Public Relations and Advertising. He also competed in and won a TV talent search sponsored by MTV and 'N Sync's Lance Bass. The show was featured on MTV's TRL and was judged by Brian Mcknight and P!nk.
OneRepublic's song "Apologize", written by Ryan Tedder, was released in its original version on the band's debut album Dreaming Out Loud. The song was also prominently featured as a remix on Timbaland's 2007 release of Shock Value. The single, as featured on Shock Value, has gone 3x Platinum (marking three million copies sold in the U.S) and 5 million copies worldwide. It peaked at number three on the U.K. Official Top 40 Week on November 11, 2007. The week of November 10, 2007, "Apologize" was the biggest radio airplay hit in the history of Top 40 radio in North America, racking up an astounding 10,331 spins in one week. The song held the #1 position for five months before the record was broken by "Bleeding Love", a song co-written and produced by Tedder.
The band is widely known for their collaboration with producer Timbaland, specifically for his remix of their song, "Apologize." Tedder also reciprocated by remixing Timbaland's "The Way I Are," drastically changing the song's vibe by adding a rock vibe into the synth-driven melody. The less polished version was leaked on the Internet before the final version ended up on Tedder's MySpace page.
The band performed "Apologize" live on Fox's So You Think You Can Dance on August 2, 2007, and with Timbaland on an episode of One Life to Live in October 2007. It was also played at the end of the three television shows-- Cold Case episode "Sabotage," Smallville's "Hero," Hollyoaks and Gossip Girl episode "Hi, Society." The follow-up single to "Apologize" is "Stop and Stare". They performed "Stop and Stare" and "Mercy" live on the Smallville episode, "Hero," which aired March 13, 2008. They also performed "Stop and Stare" on the Australian version of So You Think You Can Dance on April 7, 2008. On May 21, 2008, the band appeared on the American Idol (season 7) finale performing a duet of "Apologize" with finalist David Archuleta. They returned to Fox's So You Think You Can Dance on July 3, 2008 with a live performance of their third single "Say (All I Need)".
In 2008, OneRepublic toured with The Daylights, Maroon 5 and Brandi Carlile. They also headlined the Isle of MTV 2008 at the Floriana Granaries, Malta, on June 25, 2008.
In May of 2008, lead vocalist, Ryan Tedder, tore his Achilles tendon while playing basketball on tour. Hence, in future tour performances, he can often be seen walking with the aid of a cane.
On August 2, 2008, OneRepublic performed "Apologize" and "Stop and Stare" at MTV Asia Awards 2008 in Genting Highlands, Malaysia. They were nominated for and won the Best Hook-up award (which was recently added that year) for "Apologize", beating Beyonce and Shakira's "Beautiful Liar", Rihanna's "Umbrella" and other hits of that year.
During the presentation of the nominees one of the presenters, Miguel Chavez, said "Ryan, I love your music." pointing to Tedder, hinting the band's win.
Their fourth single and follow up to "Say (All I Need)" is "Mercy" and will be released in the autumn of 2008.
OneRepublic has often been compared to acts such as Maroon 5, The Fray, Keane and Coldplay. All of them are known for their use of keyboardists and falsetto in the pop-rock genre. Tedder says "We’re heavily influenced by a lot of old Brit rock, up to current Brit rock. But there are definitely worse bands to be compared to."
There have also been a few misconceptions regarding the band. They have been mistaken for a boy band, and even their ethnicity was unclear to some. Some have even thought Timbaland wrote "Apologize."
Their varied style has made it difficult for the public to place the band in one particular genre of music. Although Tedder describes many of the songs on their album as, 'safe, radio-friendly pop-rock songs with big choruses', they present themselves in the genre of Alternative Rock. Choosing from a selection of 35 of their original songs, the band was initially set to debut with the track "Sleep". "It's five minutes long and with a minute-long musical diatribe of weirdness and we were being marketed as a serious and alternative band...", describes Tedder.
