Nick Fradiani
| Nick Fradiani | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Nicholas James Fradiani Jr. |
| Born |
November 15, 1985 Guilford, Connecticut, United States |
| Genres | Pop |
| Occupation(s) | Singer |
| Instruments | |
| Years active | 2011–present |
| Labels | |
| Associated acts | Beach Avenue |
Nick Fradiani (Born on November 15, 1985)[1] is an American singer from Guilford, Connecticut.[2] He rose to regional attention as the lead singer of pop/rock band Beach Avenue when they won the Battle of the Bands at Mohegan Sun in 2011. They gained national recognition in 2014 when they competed on the ninth season of the reality talent show America's Got Talent, although only making it to "Judgement Week".[3]
In 2015, Fradiani entered as a solo singer on the fourteenth season of American Idol. Fradiani won the show in May 2015, becoming the first winner from the Northeast region. He came from Connecticut in the New York Audition. He headlined the American Idols LIVE! Tour 2015, a thirty-seven city tour over eight weeks featuring the top five contestants.
Early life and education
Nicholas James Fradiani IV was born on November 15, 1985 in New Haven, Connecticut and is the son of Nick Fradiani III, a musician, and Elizabeth Fradiani (née Maher).[4][5] He is of both Italian and Irish descent.[6] His very talented father performs in clubs, restaurants and on cruise ships. He taught his son to play the drums, giving him a drum set when he was two years old, followed by the play piano and later the guitar.[5] Fradiani has a sister, Kristen, who was born a day before his sixth birthday on November 14, 1991. Kristen and their paternal cousins Jamie and Nicole all attend Southern Connecticut State University. Their paternal cousin Dean Fradiani Jr., son of Nick Sr.'s late brother Dean Fradiani Sr., is the owner of Fradiani Landscaping, LLC, in East Haven. Nick currently resides in Nashville, Tennessee.
Fradiani graduated from Guilford High School in 2004 and grew up with Katie Stevens.
Fradiani has a Bachelor's degree in history from Wheaton College, Norton, Massachusetts.[7] As a musician in a band, he held a daytime job as a computer software salesman for a couple of months. After obtaining a History degree, Fradiani intermittently worked as a substitute teacher at schools while mainly focusing on picking up gigs at local bars wherever he could.
Fradiani became well known for his covers of Matchbox 20 and Katy Perry songs that he played religiously at all of his gigs.
Fradiani started going solo in 2011 on Tumblr after Katie Stevens finished in eighth place a year ago.
Music career
2011-2014: Beach Avenue
Fradiani rose to regional attention as the lead singer of Milford, Connecticut-based pop/rock band Beach Avenue when they won the Battle of the Bands at Mohegan Sun in 2011. The five-member band released original materials including Something to Believe In EP in June 2012 and Driving That Road EP in July 2013. In 2014, they released two singles: "Coming Your Way" and "Feel the Beat".[8]
The members of the band are:
- Nick Fradiani, IV – lead vocals and guitar
- Nick Abraham – lead guitar, mandoline, and backing vocals
- Nick Fradiani, III (Fradiani's father) – keyboards and backing vocals
- Jonah Ferrigno – bass
- Ryan Zipp – drums
Three members of the band, Fradiani, Abraham and Zipp gained national recognition 2014 when they competed on the ninth season of the reality talent show America's Got Talent, singing their original composed song "Coming Your Way".[9] Fradiani cites singing the original song on the show as his "biggest career break".[10] The audition was aired on NBC in July 2014, and the song entered the iTunes Pop Singles Chart reaching #53; it sold 6,000 copies in the first week after the televised audition.[11] All four judges voted "yes" for the band to go to the next round. The band made it to "Judgement Week"[12] broadcast on July 22 and 23, 2014 before elimination. The song remained in the Top 200 for over two weeks, selling more than 10,000 copies.
2015: American Idol
Fradiani auditioned in New York City and his golden ticket song was Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes".[13] During Hollywood Week, he sang "Babylon" by David Gray. He sang Train's "Drops of Jupiter" during the House of Blues Showcase, earning his spot in the Top 24. He was announced as the winner on May 13, 2015, with Clark Beckham finishing as runner-up. Fradiani's winning song was "Beautiful Life", recorded on Big Machine label. "Beautiful Life" is the FIFA 2015 Women's World Cup Official Anthem.
Performances
| Week | Theme | Song(s) | Original artist(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Auditions | Contestant's choice | "In Your Eyes" | Peter Gabriel |
| Hollywood Week | Group round | "Rude" | Magic! |
| Hollywood Week | Solo round | "Babylon" | David Gray |
| House of Blues (Top 48) | Contestant's choice | "Drops of Jupiter" | Train |
| Top 24 | Contestant's choice | "Thinking Out Loud" | Ed Sheeran |
| Top 16 | Music of Motown | "Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours" | Stevie Wonder |
| Top 12 | "Back to the Start" | "In Your Eyes" | Peter Gabriel |
| Top 11 (first week) | "Get the Party Started" | "Wake Me Up" | Avicii |
| Top 11 (second week) | Songs from the Movies | "Danger Zone" from Top Gun | Kenny Loggins |
| Top 9 | Songs from the 1980s | "Man in the Mirror" | Michael Jackson |
| Top 8 | Kelly Clarkson | "Catch My Breath" | Kelly Clarkson |
| Top 7 | Billboard Hot 100 | "Teenage Dream" | Katy Perry |
| Top 6 | "American classics" as deemed by viewers[14] |
"American Girl" "Only the Good Die Young" |
Tom Petty Billy Joel |
| Top 5 | "Arena anthems"[15] | "Harder to Breathe" "Maggie May" |
Maroon 5 Rod Stewart |
| Top 4 | Judges' Hometown Contestant's own soul |
"Bright Lights" "What Hurts the Most" |
Matchbox Twenty Mark Willis[16] |
| Top 3 | Scott Borchetta's Choice Judges' Choice Hometown's Choice |
"Because the Night" "Back Home" "I'll Be" |
Patti Smith Andy Grammer Edwin McCain |
| Top 2 | Simon Fuller's Choice Favorite Performance Winner's Single |
"Bright Lights" "I Won't Give Up" "Beautiful Life" |
Matchbox Twenty Jason Mraz Nick Fradiani |
| Finale | Encore with original artist | "Back Home" "Honey, I'm Good." |
Andy Grammer |
2015-present: New album
Following Fradiani's Idol win, his label offered a non-target PledgeMusic campaign for pre-orders and merchandise sales. During the six weeks before the start of the American Idols LIVE! tour, Fradiani played a number of radio-sponsored concerts, as well as working on new songs with writers including Paul Doucette. In September, following the end of the tour, work on the new album intensified[17], although Fradiani also played shows including Live in the Vineyard and Connecticut's All-Star Christmas, where Rob Thomas invited Fradiani to join him in singing "Bright Lights."[18] Fradiani was also one of the American Idol alumni who represented the show at the winter Television Critics Association panel.
On February 12, 2016, Fradiani appeared on American Idol to mentor and duet with Top 24 contestants Thomas Stringfellow and Gianna Isabella. As part of the mentoring packaging with Isabella, the show aired a brief clip of Fradiani's upcoming single, "Get You Home," which he co-wrote with Nolan Sipe, Jaden Michaels, and Rykeyz; it was mixed by Grammy winner Serban Ghenea.[19] The same night, Fradiani shared a longer excerpt, which includes a sample of Young MC's "Busta Move." In an interview with Ralphie Aversa during Backstage at the Grammys, Fradiani described "Get You Home" as "the most up-tempo, funkiest song on the whole album."[20] In multiple interviews, he mentioned that he cowrote every song on the album, for which recording was completed in early February.
Also during the pre-Grammys press, Fradiani revealed that the single will be released before the end of American Idol's Farewell Season.[21]
Discography
EPs
- as part of Beach Avenue
| Title and details | Track listing | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Something to Believe In
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Driving That Road
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A Very Merry Beach Avenue Christmas EP
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Singles
Beach Avenue
| Year | Title | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| 2013 | "Songman" | |
| 2014 | "Coming Your Way" (also performed during America's Got Talent) |
|
| "Feel the Beat" | ||
| "Centuries" acoustic cover, originally performed by Fall Out Boy. |
Solo
| Year | Title | Peak chart positions | Sales | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US [22] |
US Hot AC [23] |
US Digital [24] |
CAN Digital [25] | |||
| 2011 | "Billboard" | — | — | — | — | |
| "Call Me Back (RoMayo)" | — | — | — | — | ||
| 2015 | "Beautiful Life" | 93 | 29 | 22 | 48 |
|
References
- ↑ https://twitter.com/nickfradiani/status/560468957598318592
- ↑ Southern, Rodney. "American Idol 14: Interesting Facts About Top 24 Finalists". Celebrity Dirty Laundry. Retrieved 30 April 2015.
- ↑ Susan Dunne (January 16, 2015). "Guilford Singer Nick Fradiani Is An 'American Idol' Hopeful This Week". Hartford Courant.
- ↑ http://www.nhregister.com/arts-and-entertainment/20150118/west-havens-nick-fradiani-trying-to-make-his-mark-on-american-idol
- 1 2 "American Idol's Nick Fradiani Jokes About Neil Diamond". 2paragraphs. Retrieved 16 May 2015.
- ↑ https://twitter.com/nickfradiani/status/591294771072737280
- ↑ Susan Dunne (March 4, 2015). "CT's Nick Fradiani Credits Journey To 'American Idol' To Musical Dad". Hartford Courant.
- ↑ iTunes: Beach Avenue page
- ↑ Scott Gargan (July 2, 2014). "Milford band Beach Avenue on ‘America’s Got Talent’". CTNews. Retrieved May 13, 2015.
- ↑ Fortier, Hope-Denee. "Getting Up Close With CT's 'American Idol' Contestant Nick Fradiani". Hartford Courant. Retrieved 16 May 2015.
- 1 2 http://heavy.com/entertainment/2014/07/beach-avenue-americas-got-talent-judgment-week/
- ↑ Susan Dunne (January 16, 2015). "Guilford Singer Nick Fradiani Is An 'American Idol' Hopeful This Week". Hartford Courant.
- ↑ Kate Ramunni (January 18, 2015). "West Haven’s Nick Fradiani trying to make his mark on American Idol". New Haven Register.
- ↑ Upadhyaya, Kayla Kumari. "'American Idol' Recap: Top 6 Perform American Classics". Billboard. Retrieved 16 April 2015.
- ↑ Ho, Rodney. "‘American Idol’ bits: Power 6 rankings, top 6 song spoilers, Quentin vs. Harry". Atlanta Journal Constitution. Retrieved 23 April 2015.
- ↑ Initially recorded by country music artist Mark Wills in 2003 on his album And the Crowd Goes Wild, it was covered by Bellefire a year later. However, the first version to be released as a single was by pop singer Jo O'Meara in 2005, from the album Relentless. Later that year, country band Rascal Flatts covered the song as well, releasing it as the first single from the 2006 album Me and My Gang, topping the U.S country and adult contemporary charts with it. German band Cascada later had international chart success with the song in 2007. It was also covered by Eden in 2008.
- ↑ Courant, Hartford. "CT 'Idol' Nick Fradiani Mentoring Hopefuls, Releasing New CD". courant.com. Retrieved 2016-02-15.
- ↑ Ryan Zipp (2015-12-14), Rob Thomas - "Bright Lights" feat. Nick Fradiani (Matchbox 20), retrieved 2016-02-15
- ↑ Courant, Hartford. "CT 'Idol' Nick Fradiani Mentoring Hopefuls, Releasing New CD". courant.com. Retrieved 2016-02-15.
- ↑ "The 58th GRAMMYs: Nick Fradiani". SoundCloud. Retrieved 2016-02-15.
- ↑ B1039 (2016-02-14), Grammy's 2016: American Idol Winner Nick Fradiani Loves Ft.Myers!, retrieved 2016-02-15
- 1 2 http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/chart-beat/6575747/fifth-harmony-first-top-20-hit-hot-100-chart-moves
- ↑ http://headlineplanet.com/home/2015/06/07/fifth-harmony-elle-king-nick-fradiani-reach-hot-ac-radios-top-50/
- ↑ http://www.billboard.com/artist/6569056/nick-fradiani/chart?f=395
- ↑ http://www.billboard.com/artist/6569056/nick-fradiani/chart?f=1186
External links
- Official site, where one can pre-order his debut album and sign up for updates
- Nick Fradiani page on American Idol website
- Beach Avenue official website
- Nick Fradiani on Tumblr
- Nick Fradiani on Twitter
- Nick Fradiani on Facebook
- Nick Fradiani on SoundCloud
- Nick Fradiani on Instagram
- Nick Fradiani's channel on YouTube
| Preceded by Caleb Johnson |
American Idol winner 2015 |
Succeeded by Incumbent |
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