OneRepublic

Since its release in late 2007, Dreaming Out Loud, the debut album by Colorado's OneRepublic, has outperformed even the biggest hopes that the band and their label Mosley/Interscope could have possibly had for it. In fact, their single "Apologize" has become the most legally downloaded song in US digital history moving more than 4.3million digital downloads in the U.S. alone. Not to say that expectations weren't high for a project helmed by Grammy-nominated producer Ryan Tedder, a two-year protégé of Timbaland. With success as a writer and producer already under his belt, Tedder reconnected with high school friend Zach Filkins to form One Republic in 2002, and worked for nearly five years on Dreaming Out Loud. A dropped deal from Columbia Records behind them, OneRepublic finally found a home on Interscope in 2007, and happily watched their music fly off shelves and into iPods all throughout 2008. And with a follow-up album scheduled for the summer of 2009, it seems Tedder and Co. only have more success coming their way.

–Lavinia Jones Wright