Five for Fighting

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.

John Ondrasik
Singer/songwriter John Ondrasik 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 four albums by Five For Fighting, the band name under which he records and performs.

Ondrasik first came on the scene in 2001 with his 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 continues to craft songs with material drawn from his personal experience in regards to love, war, culture, family, humanity and mortality. The single “World” is a call-to-arms that proposes the question “What kind of world do you want?"

In the fall of 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 more.

In addition to his musical accomplishments John has a made a personal commitment towards causes that are important to him. In mid 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 over two hundred thousand dollars pledged.

The success of the site has led to a recent collaboration between Ondrasik and The History Channel, with the launching a user-generated video contest. Fans can create 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 will be chosen to air on The History Channel.

In March 2007, Ondrasik 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 also spearheaded “For the Troops,” a superstar compilation of recording artists that is available for free to every active service person in the US Armed Forces. The compilation includes Billy Joel, Brooks & Dunn, Josh Groban, The Fray, Melissa Etheridge, Los Lonely Boys as well as Five For Fighting's "100 Years." To date, Two Hundred Thousand physical CD’s have been distributed to troops in theatre, with over a quarter million songs downloaded from the Army/Air Force Exchange online store, aafes.com.

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 writes a regular hockey column for SportsIllustrated.com and free lances for various publications.

John is married with two children and resides on the outskirts of Los Angeles.