50 Fun Facts About OneRepublic

OneRepublic frontman Ryan Tedder co-wrote Rumour Has It and Turning Tables with which British singer?

Adele wrote both with him for her album 21, which went on to win Album of the Year at the Grammys, a prize he shared as one of its producers.

In which city did OneRepublic's founders meet at high school?

Colorado Springs is where Ryan Tedder and Zach Filkins met in their final school year in 1996; the band that made it was put together six years later in Los Angeles.

Which producer's remix turned Apologize into a global hit?

Timbaland dropped the guitar solo and added new percussion and backing vocals, and his remix went to number one in 16 countries.

What was the title of OneRepublic's 2007 debut album?

Dreaming Out Loud reached the shops in November 2007, about 17 months late: the band's first label had dropped them two months before the album's original release date.

On which website did OneRepublic first find a following as an unsigned act?

Myspace came to the rescue after their record deal collapsed in 2006: they became its number-one unsigned act, and the buzz brought new labels calling.

Which label dropped OneRepublic two months before their first album was due out?

Columbia Records let them go two months before the June 2006 release date, after more than two years of studio work; the debut finally came out on another label 17 months later.

Which producer-founded imprint released OneRepublic's debut album in 2007?

Mosley Music Group, then an Interscope imprint named after its founder's surname, took OneRepublic on as its first rock band after their earlier deal collapsed.

Why did Ryan Tedder's band Republic become OneRepublic?

Its label feared lawsuits from bands with similar names, the drummer Eddie Fisher has said, so Republic, the group Tedder and Zach Filkins formed in Los Angeles in 2002, added a One.

Whose album gave OneRepublic's founders the school-band name This Beautiful Mess?

Sixpence None the Richer, later famous for Kiss Me, released This Beautiful Mess in 1995; a year later the two schoolfriends borrowed the title for a band that played a few coffee-house shows and split up.

Which instrument besides bass does Brent Kutzle play in OneRepublic?

Cello has been Kutzle's instrument since he was a boy, but it is only part of his job: he also co-writes and co-produces several of the band's singles.

Which rock veteran, a boyhood hero of Ryan Tedder, sings on OneRepublic's 2016 track A.I.?

Peter Gabriel, the former Genesis frontman, was one of the singers the teenage Tedder taught himself by imitating, and a favourite he and Zach Filkins bonded over before starting a band.

Apologize first appeared on which producer's 2007 album, months before OneRepublic's own debut?

Shock Value carried the remix as its third single, billed under its producer's name, so the band were guests on their own song before their debut album was out.

Apologize's 25-week US top-ten stay was the longest since which Santana hit?

Smooth had managed 30 weeks in 1999 and 2000; unlike that chart-topper, Apologize never reached number one, peaking at two.

OneRepublic's Ryan Tedder and Jesse McCartney co-wrote which ballad, the world's best-selling single of 2008?

Bleeding Love reached number one in more than 30 countries in the months when Apologize was still on the radio, and Tedder had produced them both.

At which Canadian football championship game did OneRepublic play the halftime show in 2016?

The Grey Cup of 2016 went to overtime after the band's set in Toronto, and the Ottawa Redblacks upset heavily favoured Calgary to win the title in only their third season.

What was the second single from OneRepublic's debut album?

Stop and Stare spent two weeks in the British top ten on downloads alone before its CD single came out in March 2008, and then climbed to number four.

On which NBC songwriting contest did Ryan Tedder sit as a producer and pick a contestant's song for OneRepublic to record?

Songland closed its first season in 2019 with the band as guest artists: they chose a contestant's Somebody to Love and released their version the same day.

Which 2010 single made Rolling Stone's list of the best whistling songs of all time?

Good Life was the album's fourth single and its biggest: after turning up in film trailers and Google's video review of 2010, it climbed to number eight in the US.

Which song was the lead single from OneRepublic's second album, Waking Up?

All the Right Moves came out in September 2009 and reached number 18 in the US, but it was the album's fourth single, a year later, that became its biggest hit.

Which Disney fantasy film of 2010 used OneRepublic's song Secrets?

The Sorcerer's Apprentice used the song but left it off the soundtrack album; it had first been a hit in Germany, where a Til Schweiger film comedy featured it.

On whose 2009 album Echo did OneRepublic feature on 'Lost Then Found'?

Leona Lewis wrote Lost Then Found with Ryan Tedder, who had produced her first worldwide number one and worked on much of Echo before bringing his whole band into the studio.

Which 2013 album was OneRepublic's first top-ten record on the Billboard 200?

It debuted at number four, ending a three-and-a-half-year hiatus.

Part of the proceeds from OneRepublic's 2012 single Feel Again went to which charity's Every Beat Matters campaign?

Save the Children put the money towards training frontline health workers; the song had been meant as the album's lead single until delays demoted it to a promotional release.

What was the first global single from OneRepublic's 2013 album, released that January?

If I Lose Myself got the slot because Ryan Tedder could not finish the chorus of the song he wanted there; it went top ten in Germany, Austria and Sweden but stalled at 74 in the US.

Counting Stars stalled at number two in the US in January 2014 behind which song?

Timber, by Pitbull and Kesha, held it off for two weeks, so the band's biggest hit only equalled the peak Apologize had reached six years earlier.

Counting Stars topped which country's singles chart in October 2013, where Apologize had stalled at three?

The United Kingdom gave the band their first number one there after the closest chart battle of 2013, in which they overtook the Vamps' Can We Dance in the final days of the week.

Ryan Tedder began writing Counting Stars while waiting for which star to arrive at a session?

Beyoncé and Jay-Z had rented a vast house in the Hamptons in summer 2012; Tedder found the idea there while hunting for songs for her, thought of offering it to her and kept it for his band.

What is happening upstairs in the Counting Stars music video?

A church congregation is at worship overhead: the band shot the video in New Orleans in the basement of a historic African American church, with an alligator loose among the light bulbs.

Which DJ made the singles Stranger Things and Lose Somebody with OneRepublic?

Kygo could not meet the band in the 2020 lockdown, so the Lose Somebody video was built from green-screen footage shot apart and sends him and Ryan Tedder through space on a giant ostrich.

Which TV musical ended its 2015 series finale with the cast singing OneRepublic's I Lived?

Glee set the number five years ahead: in a flash-forward to 2020, the whole cast reunites to sing it in a school auditorium newly renamed for the late Finn Hudson.

German broadcaster ZDF chose OneRepublic's Love Runs Out as its anthem for which 2014 event?

The FIFA World Cup: ZDF set its daily 'pictures of the day' from Brazil to the song, as it had with another OneRepublic track in 2010, and the single climbed to number three in Germany.

Ryan Tedder wrote OneRepublic's I Lived for whom?

His four-year-old son was the song's first audience, a seize-the-day message from a father; its video then followed a 15-year-old living with cystic fibrosis to raise awareness of the condition.

Which singer-songwriter co-headlined OneRepublic's 2013 North American tour?

Sara Bareilles had history with the band: she sang a duet version of their ballad Come Home in 2009, four years before the two acts shared 52 dates across North America.

Which tech CEO introduced OneRepublic for a surprise set at a September 2015 media event?

Tim Cook ended the launch of the iPhone 6s in San Francisco by bringing on a band he had championed before, and they played three songs.

What was the lead single from OneRepublic's 2016 album Oh My My?

Wherever I Go was announced by post: the band mailed teaser postcards to fans around the world, who pieced the title together before the single arrived that May.

Which 2016 film featured OneRepublic's song Let's Hurt Tonight?

Collateral Beauty's own director, David Frankel, made the song's video, cutting scenes from his film together with shots of the band performing.

In a 2017 post, Ryan Tedder said OneRepublic would abandon album cycles after he suffered what?

Crippling anxiety from years of non-stop touring and promotion had left him, he wrote, on the verge of a breakdown, so he promised new songs as often as humanly possible instead.

Which rapper joined OneRepublic on Start Again, from the 13 Reasons Why season-two soundtrack?

Logic came to the series, a drama about the aftermath of a teenager's suicide, a year after naming a hit single after the phone number of America's suicide prevention lifeline.

What was the lead single from OneRepublic's album Human?

Rescue Me came out in May 2019, but the album kept slipping, first for lack of time and then because of the pandemic, and Human finally followed 27 months later.

Which sporting event did OneRepublic headline at ANZ Stadium in October 2019?

The NRL Grand Final put them at the top of its pre-match bill in Sydney; the game itself is remembered for a referee's 'six again' call, reversed mid-play shortly before the Roosters' winning try.

Which 2021 family film featured OneRepublic's song Sunshine?

Clifford the Big Red Dog introduced the song in November 2021, and it outlasted the film: it reached number 14 in Switzerland and was still on the Austrian chart the following August.

In November 2021 OneRepublic became the first major-label US act to accept what as payment for a concert?

Cryptocurrency is 'the future of how payments are transacted', Ryan Tedder said, so the band took its whole fee for an acoustic show near Vienna in bitcoin.

OneRepublic recorded I Ain't Worried for which 2022 film?

Top Gun: Maverick plays it over the pilots' football game on the beach, and the film's success carried the song into the US top ten, the band's first visit there in eight years.

For which video game series did OneRepublic and Mishaal Tamer record a single in 2023?

Assassin's Creed lent the song notes from its own theme music, and Ryan Tedder, who called his band 'closet gamers', wrote it to echo the Middle Eastern setting of the game Mirage.

OneRepublic and David Guetta's I Don't Wanna Wait interpolates which 2000s hit?

Dragostea Din Tei, the Moldovan group O-Zone's 'Numa Numa' song, supplies the melody, the same hook that T.I. and Rihanna borrowed for Live Your Life in 2008.

OneRepublic has recorded several songs, including 'Nobody', for which anime?

Kaiju No. 8's makers showed Ryan Tedder early footage and storyboards, and he wrote the words of Nobody while in Japan on business in November 2023.

What is the title of OneRepublic's sixth album, released in July 2024?

Artificial Paradise was announced only five weeks before it came out, and it folds in singles the band had been releasing one at a time since 2021.

OneRepublic's Fire, made with Meduza and Leony, was the official song of which tournament?

UEFA Euro 2024 was played in Germany, home of the singer Leony, and all three acts performed the song at the closing ceremony before the final.

On which Chinese state-TV show did OneRepublic perform Counting Stars in January 2025?

The Spring Festival Gala, China's most-watched television show, put the band's English-language set on the same bill as a troupe of dancing humanoid robots.

Which label did OneRepublic sign with in July 2025 after 18 years on Interscope?

BMG put out its first OneRepublic single two weeks after the signing: a theme song for a Japanese anime series, billed as the lead single of the band's next album.