Ryan Tedder


Ryan Benjamin Tedder is an American singer, songwriter, musician, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer. As well as being the lead vocalist of the pop rock band OneRepublic, he has an independent career as a songwriter and producer for various artists, including Adele, Beyoncé, Ed Sheeran, Jennifer Lopez, Camila Cabello, Lady Gaga, Maroon 5, MØ, One Direction, Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, Ariana Grande, Logic, and Paul McCartney.
Tedder's production and songwriting work has proven commercially successful. "Apologize", performed by his band OneRepublic, "Bleeding Love", performed by Leona Lewis, and "Halo", performed by Beyoncé, all made it to the list of best-selling singles of all time. In early 2014, Billboard named him "The Undercover King of Pop" and featured him on the magazine's cover. He is one of the producers on the reality show Songland. He is a three-time recipient of the Grammy Award for Album of the Year, due to his production credits on Adele's albums 21 and 25, and Taylor Swift's 1989.

Early life and education

Ryan Benjamin Tedder was born on June 26, 1979, in Tulsa, Oklahoma to Gary Tedder. He was raised by an extended family of missionaries and pastors in a Christian church. He began learning to play the piano at the age of three via the Suzuki method. He practiced piano in exchange for candy corn from his musician father and schoolteacher mother. Tedder started singing at the age of seven. Tedder was a self-taught vocalist began imitating his favorite artists such as The Beatles, Peter Gabriel, Stevie Wonder and Sting at the age of twelve. He has commented, "I sang for two hours a day every day of my life until I was eighteen." He continued to perform musically during his adolescence through church, school, and personally formed groups.
He attended schools in Jenks, Oklahoma, a Tulsa suburb, until his senior year, when he moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado. There he met and became friends with future OneRepublic bandmate Zach Filkins on their soccer team at the Colorado Springs Christian School. He attended Oral Roberts University in Tulsa and graduated in 2001 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in public relations and advertising.

Career

Early career

For years Tedder worked as a waiter, and also as a shop assistant at Pottery Barn, before securing an internship at DreamWorks SKG in Nashville, singing on demos to break into the music scene. He produced demos for songwriters and labels, charging $300 to $400 a track. Tedder claims that DreamWorks offered him his first publishing deal shortly after his arrival; however, he was intent on pursuing a career as an artist, and his first venture in that arena came via a different route altogether.
At the age of twenty-one, Tedder competed in a singer-songwriter competition and was selected by 'N Sync singer Lance Bass as one of five finalists to perform on a one-hour special on MTV, 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, with the highest-scoring artist winning the contract. Tedder's performance of one of his 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 that the record and publishing deal he was offered "wasn't real. It was just a bunch of hype that didn't turn into anything."

Producing and writing

One year after winning the MTV competition, Tedder caught the attention of the hip hop producer Timbaland. Tedder commented that he was with Timbaland from 2002–2004 to develop as an artist while producing for other artists at the time. Tedder's work crossed many musical genres and he has had many chart successes both in America and the United Kingdom with a number of artists. Tedder met producer Morten Schjolin in 2005, doing various collaborations for Tattoo's second album. In June 2007, Tedder signed a worldwide publishing administration deal with Kobalt Music Publishing. The deal included Tedder's new works and all songs not performed by OneRepublic.
Tedder is the writer of the worldwide hit, "Apologize", performed by his band OneRepublic. The song broke the US Top 40 Radio Airplay Record with 10,331 spins in one week. It was the number-one most played song for five months until May 7, 2008 when Leona Lewis's "Bleeding Love", broke the record previously set by "Apologize", with 10,665 spins in one week. "Bleeding Love" was the best-selling single of 2007 in the United Kingdom, topping the UK charts for seven weeks and was the fastest selling CD of 2007 receiving the most radio airplay worldwide prior to its US debut. The song also earned a Best British Single award nomination at the Brit Awards in February 2008 and reached number one in over 35 countries. Tedder and co-writer Jesse McCartney received an ASCAP award for writing the song. Tedder is also credited for writing the treatment for the second music video that was filmed for the US release of "Bleeding Love". It also earned a Record of the Year nomination at the February 2009 Grammy Awards.
Tedder has written and produced singles with artists such as Taylor Swift, Demi Lovato, Adele, Birdy, Alsou, Jennifer Lopez, Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, Leona Lewis, Jennifer Hudson, Alexandra Burke, the Backstreet Boys, Beyoncé Knowles, Monrose, and a number of songs with various rock acts in the US and abroad.
He worked with Jennifer Lopez on her 2007 single "Do It Well" from her album Brave, then worked with Kelly Clarkson on her 2009 album All I Ever Wanted, penning the songs "If I Can't Have You", "Impossible", "Save You", "Tip of My Tongue" and "Already Gone", which features vocals from Tedder. He also worked with Beyoncé on her album I Am... Sasha Fierce, penning the song "Halo." The similarity between the songs "Already Gone" and "Halo" prompted Clarkson to publicly state that she did not know about "Halo" and that both songs were co-written by Tedder. Tedder's work with Beyoncé also earned him two Grammy nominations with Record of the Year for "Halo" and Album of the Year for I Am...Sasha Fierce at the 2010 Grammy Awards. Tedder worked extensively on Leona Lewis's second album, Echo, writing and producing many songs with her, three of which have made the album, including the first single "Happy", "You Don't Care" which features vocals from Tedder and "Lost Then Found", which features OneRepublic. Tedder co-wrote and produced Jordin Sparks' lead single "Battlefield" from her second album of the same name. Tedder worked on American Idol season 8 runner up, Adam Lambert's debut album, For Your Entertainment.
In late 2009, Tedder launched his own record company, Patriot Records. He signed My Name Is Kay, who released her debut EP through Interscope in 2012. Nikki Flores' single "City Lights" was released in the fall of 2010 on Universal/Republic Records. Tedder also formed his own publishing company, Patriot Games Publishing, in 2009 in alliance with Kobalt Music Publishing Worldwide. To date he has a stable of top notch writers and producers such as Inflo, Noel Zancanella, and Brent Kutzle, cellist/bassist of OneRepublic. The Patriot team of writers and producers with Tedder are credited with "I Was Here" by Beyoncé, "Good Life" by OneRepublic, "I Just Had Sex" by The Lonely Island featuring Akon, "Lost Then Found" by Leona Lewis and OneRepublic, "Just a Guy" by BC Jean, "Count on You" by Big Time Rush featuring Jordin Sparks, and "And Then We Dance", from Australia's Got Talent winners Justice Crew. In 2010, Tedder was featured on Far East Movement's 2010 hit single "Rocketeer".
Tedder had expressed interest in collaborating with Adele after they met at the 2009 Grammy Awards ceremony in February. He arrived four hours early to their first studio session, buying time to better familiarise himself with some of her previous work. Although unaware of Adele's personal predicament, he composed the opening piano sequence and first few lines to what became the lovelorn ballad "Turning Tables". Adele and Tedder arranged a second meeting and reconvened at Serenity West Studios in Los Angeles weeks later to write and record "Rumour Has It". In an interview, Tedder recalled his astonishment at the singer's musicality and vocal prowess after she completed the main vocals to the song in 10 minutes: "She sang it once top to bottom, pitch perfect, she didn't miss a note. I looked at the engineer then at her and said, 'Adele, I don't know what to tell you but I have never had anyone do that in ten years'." His work with Adele brought him a Grammy Award for Album of the Year at the 2012 Grammy Awards.
In 2011, Tedder worked with Demi Lovato for her third studio album, Unbroken. When talking about working with Tedder on the song "Who's That Boy" during a Spotify session named "About Unbroken", Lovato stated: "He's a really funny and cool guy, we had a really great time in the studio." Lovato commented that the track was "personally one of my favorite songs of the album." Furthermore, she added that she was "excited to say I worked with such a talented songwriter and producer." Tedder later commented: "Demi blew me out of the water vocally! I had no idea how good her voice is. She's one of the best singers I've ever worked with. Literally, that good... I mean, she's a Kelly Clarkson-level vocalist. And Kelly has a set of pipes." Tedder returned to work with Lovato in 2013 and 2015 for both her fourth and fifth album. He co-produced and co-wrote her hit single "Neon Lights" from Demi, while also penning the track "Wildfire" with Lovato for Confident.
Tedder composed a song for Vanness Wu, "Is this All" in Taiwan. Tedder also worked with the band Big Time Rush in writing the single, "Music Sounds Better with U" off their second studio album, Elevate, and he proceeded to produce it. He co-wrote David Cook's "The Last Goodbye" from his second album. He produced a song for K'naan titled "Better". He also worked on tracks for Jennifer Lopez's 2011 album Love?, one of the songs being "Clothes Off", which did not make the album.
In 2012, Tedder co-wrote "Good in Goodbye" for Carrie Underwood's fourth album, Blown Away, released on May 1, 2012. He produced tracks for Maroon 5's fourth album, Overexposed. Tedder co-wrote and co-produced the song "Satellite" for British band The Wanted which appears on their US album released on April 24, 2012. He also worked on B.o.B's Strange Clouds, released in May 2012; he produced and co-wrote single "So Good" and is featured on "Never Let You Go". He also recorded vocal tracks for Sebastian Ingrosso and Alesso's dance music track, titled "Calling". Tedder was featured on Gym Class Heroes' single "The Fighter".
Tedder served as a judge for the 10th and 11th annual Independent Music Awards to support independent artists' careers. In 2013, Tedder was a celebrity mentor during the second season of The Voice for Delta Goodrem's team. He then worked with Goodrem on "Heart Hypnotic". Tedder was also an advisor of Adam Levine, for his team from the fifth season of the reality competition show The Voice. Tedder was also present on Birdy's second album, Fire Within. In 2013, he also co-wrote and co-produced "XO" by Beyoncé, which was one of two lead singles from her self-titled fifth studio album.
Tedder wrote and produced the UK number 1 hit "Ghost" by Ella Henderson, released on June 8, 2014.
In 2014, Tedder collaborated on writing and producing with many artists such as Maroon 5 for their album V and Taylor Swift for her album 1989. He has also produced and wrote a song for Ariana Grande's album My Everything. Tedder shared producing credits on U2's 2014 album, Songs of Innocence. It was also announced that he will be working with Adele and, possibly, One Direction for their upcoming albums, and is said that the song he had worked with them was titled "Got Away" to their fourth album called Four. Tedder also collaborated with Mikky Ekko for his album Time.
In 2014, Tedder provided featured vocals for David Guetta's song "S.T.O.P." for his album Listen.
In 2015, Tedder wrote "I Want You To Know" with Zedd and Selena Gomez and penned "Flares" with The Script for their album No Sound Without Silence. Tedder also co-wrote "Remedy" with Adele for her third studio album, 25, and "Wildfire" for Demi Lovato's album Confident. Tedder also provided vocals for the song "Scars" by Swedish DJ Alesso, featured on his first studio album, Forever.
In 2016, Tedder featured on Cassius's song "The Missing" from their album Ibifornia. He has also teased future collaborations with both The Chainsmokers and Echosmith via social media. Tedder produced Happier for Ed Sheeran on his third album in 2017
In 2017, Tedder began work with rising solo artist Camila Cabello for her upcoming album The Hurting, The Healing, The Loving. It was during songwriting sessions, that Tedder came into the picture. The song called 'Into It' featured in her album 'Camila' is a song the duo collaborated on, along with a song called 'It Ain't Easy' which was later sold to another artist. Tedder has spilled on what working with this new, young artist is like. He claims "I was so intimidated. She was so good." He added, "She's not only an incredible singer, but she's also the most talented young artist I think I've worked with in songwriting in the longest time..."

OneRepublic

In addition to producing, Tedder sings lead vocals and plays guitar and piano for the band, OneRepublic. The five member band consisting of Tedder, Zach Filkins, Eddie Fisher, Drew Brown, and Brent Kutzle was formed in Colorado Springs, Colorado, in 2002 by Tedder and his 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 Los Angeles, OneRepublic started out as an unsigned act on the social networking website, MySpace. Since June 2004, they have accumulated over fifty million plays for their music on the site. As of 2009, they are the number-one band on MySpace and have been in the MySpace Music's Top Artists since the summer of 2006.
The band gained further exposure when their 2007 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. The song broke records after gaining 10,331 spins in one week. According to SoundScan, "Apologize" is the most legally downloaded song in US digital history with sales of over 4.3 million digital downloads in the US alone. It is also the second best-selling song of the decade. 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, and their album was due to be released in 2006, but this did not occur. Tedder explained, "Crap happened. People got fired. Labels merged and politics abounded". Subsequently, the band was released from their deal with Columbia, and they were signed by Timbaland in the summer of 2006 becoming the first rock band to be signed to Mosley Music Group. 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." Lately, they have performed on The Voice, a singing competition, and have also performed on The Ellen Show singing their hit songs "Love Runs Out" and "Counting Stars".
Tedder is a multi-instrumentalist. During OneRepublic's performances, he often switches from singing lead vocals to playing guitar, bass guitar, glockenspiel, tambourine, or piano. On rare occasions, he plays drums alongside the band's main percussionist, Eddie Fisher.
The band finished recording their second album, titled Waking Up, on August 25, 2009, and released their lead single, "All the Right Moves" to radio and iTunes everywhere except Germany and Austria, where "Secrets" was released instead. The album was released on November 17, 2009 in the United States. To date, the second US single, "Secrets" has reached over 2 million digital downloads, and third single "Good Life" broke into the Top 10 on iTunes and radio everywhere.
In January 2012, the band was working on their third studio album, titled Native. The album was released on March 26, 2013 to mostly positive reviews from music critics. It became the band's highest charting album to date, as well as their first top 10 album, debuting at no. 4 on the Billboard 200. It sold 60,000 copies within its first week. A portion of the proceeds from the sales of "Feel Again", a single from the album, will be donated to Save the Children's Every Beat Matters campaign to support training frontline health workers around the world.
In October 2016, their fourth album, Oh My My, was released. It included their singles "Kids", "Wherever I Go", and "Future Looks Good", which were all released before the main album. The song "Kids" was also featured on "People Are Awesome 2016".

Solo career

In 2019, Tedder wrote and produced his solo single debut "Right Where I'm Supposed to Be" as the Official Song of the 2019 Special Olympics World Summer Games in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates in collaboration with Avril Lavigne, Luis Fonsi, Hussain Al Jassmi, Assala Nasri and Tamer Hosny.

Personal life

Tedder is married. He acknowledged and thanked his wife, Genevieve, in the liner notes of OneRepublic's debut album Dreaming Out Loud. They have two sons. Tedder's third cousins comprise the band Sons of Sylvia and were formerly in The Clark Family Experience. He co-wrote their song "Love Left to Lose".
Despite being a Christian, Tedder does not want to be labeled as a "Christian artist". He has a tattoo on one arm, written in old Japanese, which he got in Osaka; it means "God's will" and more literally translates as "God gives and God takes".
Tedder has a strong appreciation of culinary art, and says he loves Iron Chef. He became involved with Southern Hospitality, a restaurant co-created in 2007 by Justin Timberlake at Second Avenue in Manhattan, when it opened a second location in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan. On August 22, 2011, it was announced that Tedder had become the first franchisee of the Southern Hospitality BBQ brand and that there were plans to bring the concept to ten cities across the United States including Denver, Nashville, Dallas, Austin, Houston, New Orleans, Atlanta, Phoenix, Palo Alto and Washington, D.C. They opened a restaurant in the St. Elmo Hotel in October 2012.

Discography

Studio albums with OneRepublic

Television

Awards and nominations