Ryan Benjamin Tedder (born June 26, 1979) is an American singer, musician, songwriter, and record producer. He is the co-founder and frontman of the pop rock band OneRepublic, and has a concurrent career in production and songwriting for other artists.
Tedder's production and songwriting work has been proven commercially successful. "Apologize", performed by his band OneRepublic, "Bleeding Love", performed by Leona Lewis, and "Halo", performed by Beyoncé, were each produced by Tedder and remain among the 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 a three-time recipient of the Grammy Award for Album of the Year for his credits on Adele's 21 and 25, and Taylor Swift's 1989. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) reported Tedder's productions to have sold 450 million cumulative units worldwide. He also served as a co-producer for the 2019 reality competition series Songland.
Early life and education Ryan Benjamin Tedder was born to musician Gary Tedder and Marlene Watrous, a schoolteacher. He grew up in an extended family of missionaries and pastors in a Christian church in Tulsa, Oklahoma. 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 father. His father would put the candy out of reach at first and then on a grand piano for him to eat. His mother knew nothing about secular music.
Ryan Tedder started singing at the age of seven. He was a self-taught vocalist who at twelve secretly began imitating his favorite artists including The Beatles, U2, Peter Gabriel, Stevie Wonder, and Sting. Tedder 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 suburb of Tulsa, and Deer Creek, Oklahoma north of Oklahoma City. Then he transferred to Colorado Springs Christian School in Colorado Springs for his senior year and graduated from there. There he met and became friends with future OneRepublic bandmate Zach Filkins on their soccer team at 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 Tedder worked as a waiter and a shop assistant at Pottery Barn before securing an internship at DreamWorks SKG in Nashville, Tennessee, where he sang on multiple demos. 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 NSYNC artist 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 the judges and by 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 to 2004 to develop as an artist while producing for other artists at the time. Tedder's work crossed many musical genres (ranging from hip hop, R&B, rock, pop to dance) and he has had chart successes in both America and the United Kingdom with some 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 song "Apologize", performed with OneRepublic. The song broke the US Top 40 Radio Airplay Record with 10,331 plays in one week. It was the number-one most played song for five months until May 7, 2008, when Leona Lewis's "Bleeding Love", a song co-written and co-produced by Tedder, broke the record previously set by "Apologize", with 10,665 plays in one week. "Bleeding Love" was the best-selling single of 2007 in the United Kingdom, topping the UK charts for seven weeks. It was the fastest-selling CD of 2007 receiving the most radio airplay worldwide before 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 "Bleeding Love". 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 is one of the most prolific songwriters and producers of pop music in the 21st Century, having written and produced singles with artists including Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran, Madonna, Sam Smith, Lady Gaga, Paul McCartney, Elton John, Ariana Grande, Shawn Mendes, Camila Cabello, Demi Lovato, Adele, Birdy, Alsou, Jennifer Lopez, Kelly Clarkson, Leona Lewis, Delta Goodrem, Ella Henderson, Ellie Goulding, Jennifer Hudson, Alexandra Burke, Miley Cyrus, Beyoncé, Monrose, P!nk, Gwen Stefani, John Legend, David Cook, Olly Murs, Blake Lewis, Adam Lambert, Jordin Sparks, Meghan Trainor, Charlie Puth, Julia Michaels, Bebe Rexha, Jessie J, Jessie Ware, Mikky Ekko, Charlotte Lawrence, D4vd, Nate Sib, and Rachel Platten; country artists including Carrie Underwood, Rascal Flatts, Thomas Rhett, Jelly Roll, Kelsea Ballerini, Florida Georgia Line, Old Dominion, Lady Antebellum, and Jon Pardi; groups including Jonas Brothers, One Direction, Boyz II Men, Backstreet Boys, Westlife, BTS, Tomorrow X Together, Blackpink, Katseye, LANY, the Wanted, Lukas Graham, and Foster the People; dance acts including Alesso, David Guetta, Tiesto, Kygo, and Illenium; and various rock acts in the U.S. and abroad, including Maroon 5, 5SOS, Gavin James, The Fray, The Script, The Killers, Bon Jovi, Ozzy Osbourne, Train, Machine Gun Kelly, Big Time Rush, and Rob Thomas.
He worked with Jennifer Lopez on her 2007 single "Do It Well" from her album Brave. He 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. Tedder's work with Beyoncé earned him two Grammy nominations with Record of the Year for co-writing the song "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 several songs with her, three of which 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 the song "Battlefield" from Jordin Sparks' 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. "City Lights" by Nikki Flores was released in the fall of 2010 by Universal/Republic Records. Tedder also formed his own publishing company, Patriot Games Publishing, in 2009 in alliance with Kobalt Music Publishing Worldwide. He has a team of writers and producers such as Info, 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. He composed the opening piano sequence and first few lines to what became the song "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 musical and vocal prowess after she completed the main vocals to the song in 10 minutes: "She sang it 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 their 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 recalled: "He's a really funny and cool guy, we had a really great time in the studio." Lovato said that the track was "personally one of my favorite songs of the album." Furthermore, they added that they were "excited to say I worked with such a talented songwriter and producer." Tedder later said, "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 is 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 their fourth and fifth studio albums, respectively. He co-produced and co-wrote the 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 group 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 multiple 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 the 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 (which he also co-wrote), titled "Calling". Tedder was featured on Gym Class Heroes' single "The Fighter".