Five for Fighting

Five for Fighting is the stage name of singer-songwriter Vladimir John Ondrasik III, born in Los Angeles on January 7, 1965. After learning the piano with his mother, a music teacher of Slovak origin, he practiced the guitar and began composing songs. He played in several bands before embarking on a solo career under the name Five for Fighting. Signed by Capitol Records in 1995, he recorded his debut album Message for Albert (1997), before moving to Columbia for America Town (2000), featuring his first politically committed lyrics. His second single, the ballad "Superman (It's Not Easy)", proved an international success and a reference song on the events of September 11, 2001. The song broke into the charts worldwide, including the Billboard Hot 100, where it reached number 14. The rest of Five for Fighting's career unfolds with the albums Battle for Everything (2004), Two Lights (2006), Slice (2009) and several live recordings, including Back Country Live (2007). Two further hits came with the tracks "Chances" (2009), co-written with Steven Schwartz, and "What If", from the album Bookmarks (2013). In 2017, John Ondrasik collaborated with Jim Brickman on the Christmas song "Christmas Where You Are", then in 2018 composed "Song for the Innocents", the title track for the end credits of the film Gosnell: The Trial of America's Biggest Serial Killer. Two more politicized tracks followed, "Blood on My Hands" in 2021 and "Can One Man Save the World?" in 2022, before the release of the live album Live with String Quartet (2024), in which he performs his repertoire at the piano, accompanied by a string quartet.