Tag: onerepublicconcertreview

July 17, 2022 – PNC Bank Arts Center, Holmdel NJ

Review & Photography by Estelle Massry

One Republic has become one of the most recognizable bands on the planet with huge commercial success. They are a band that seems to fall under the radar. They are put together and likable, and devoid of ego or arrogance. Their fans and myself find them friendly and loaded with talent.

Ryan Tedder has been nominated for an impressive nine Grammy Awards, winning three of them:

Adele’s albums ’21’ and ’25’, both picked up the award for ‘Album Of The Year’ (’21’ in 2011 and ’25’ in 2016). Ryan’s third Grammy Award was for his work on Taylor Swift’s album ‘1989’, which won the award in 2015.

This was my first One Republic live show and I found them to be so engaging with the audience and so full of energy, really giving us everything they had, and to the crowds pleasure, performing hit after hit for which they sang along.

What you may not know is that Ryan Tedder has written massive hits for some of the biggest artists on the planet such as Maroon 5, J. Lo, Ellie Goulding, Demi Lovato, One Direction, Ariana Grande & Taylor Swift to name a few. It was also very cool that he dedicated 15 minutes of his show to showcase his career as a songwriter. He shared stories between songs of each special song writing moment throughout his career that meant a lot to him. Starting off with “Halo” written for Beyonce, which was one of the biggest hits in 2008 and when he wrote “Bleeding Love” for Leona Lewis in a small space with his wife with no AC, everyone told him this song was not a hit, to throw it out but he knew it was something powerful and indeed it was! Same goes for “That’s What I Want”, written for Lil Nas X – he was told he’s a one hit wonder, don’t work with him but Ryan preached to the audience “Don’t listen to everyone’s opinion. The amount of things we don’t do because of fear is ridiculous…stop now!” Ryan went on to say, “My favorite thing in the world is when an artist comes in my studio and is pissed”. He explained, this is exactly what happened with Adele. She walked into in his studio and he said “Let’s write this song!”. The result was “Rumour Has It” which was written in one hour and Adele recorded it in one take.

Swapping guitars throughout the show, jumping in the air, dancing around, all while keeping flawless vocals showcased tremendous talent. A highlight of the show was when One Republic got the audience involved in a 4 part harmony choir towards the end of “Apologize”, which echoed throughout the open-air venue.

Additionally, I was impressed by Ryan’s generosity towards humanitarian causes that are near and dear to him, as I learned that one dollar from every ticket sold on this tour is going towards supporting the largest anti-slavery organization in the world, IJM. For more information please visit, http://www.ijm.org.

One Republic consists of lead vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Ryan Tedder, lead guitarist and violist Zach Filkins, rhythm guitarist Drew Brown, bassist and cellist Brent Krutzel, drummer Eddie Fisher and keyboardist and violinist Brian Willett.

“Never Ending Summer Tour” with special guest NEEDTOBREATHE is a 40-city tour that began on July 8th at PNC Music Pavilion in Charlotte, NC wrapping up in Jacksonville, FL at Daily’s Place on September 4th.