Ian Axel (born March 28, 1985) is an American singer and songwriter. After becoming well-known with his song "This Is the New Year", he developed a solo career, eventually joining forces with long-time writing partner, Chad King, to form the duo band A Great Big World in 2012.

Career

Axel grew up in

Fair Lawn, New Jersey Fair Lawn is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States, and a bedroom suburb located northwest of New York City. As of the 2020 United States Census, the borough’s population was 34,940, which constituted a 7.7% increase from 32, ...

. He graduated from

Fair Lawn High School Fair Lawn High School is a four-year comprehensive public high school serving students in ninth through twelfth grades, located in Fair Lawn, Bergen County, New Jersey, United States, operating as the lone secondary school of the Fair Lawn Pu ...

(Class of 2003). He then moved to

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

, attending

NYU New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

. In 2006, Axel began performing publicly as a solo act. His song "This Is The New Year" became well-known originally when

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...

selected it as a Discovery Download and for its video on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

. Later it was featured as the theme song for the

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

documentary series Television documentaries are televised media productions that screen documentaries. Television documentaries exist either as a television documentary series or as a television documentary film. *Television documentary series, sometimes called d ...

'' I Used to Be Fat'', which premiered December 29, 2010. Axel's album, named after the title single, was initially released in 2010 as a self-release, then released a second time in partnership with tinyOGRE Entertainment. The tinyOGRE version was released digitally on February 15, 2011 and on CD on April 12, 2011. Later "This Is The New Year" was used in the opening sequence of Garry Marshall's film

New Year's Eve In the Gregorian calendar, New Year's Eve, also known as Old Year's Day or Saint Sylvester's Day in many countries, is the evening or the entire day of the last day of the year, on 31 December. The last day of the year is commonly referred to ...

. The partnership with tinyOGRE ended when the company dissolved in December 2011. In 2010, Axel's long-time writing partner, Chad King, began joining him on stage more frequently and in 2012 they formed the band A Great Big World. They rose to further prominence with worldwide hit " Say Something", particularly after recording it as a duet collaboration with

Christina Aguilera Christina María Aguilera (; ; born December 18, 1980) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and television personality. Known for her four-octave vocal range and ability to sustain high notes, she has been referred to as the " Voice of ...

. The duet peaked at number four on the

Billboard Hot 100 The ''Billboard'' Hot 100 is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), radio play, and online streaming ...

Ian Axel and Chad Vaccarino at Bowery Ballroom May 2011

Axel's primary instrument is the

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

. He is also known for playing a number of songs on the

ukulele The ukulele ( ; from haw, ukulele , approximately ), also called Uke, is a member of the lute family of instruments of Portuguese origin and popularized in Hawaii. It generally employs four nylon strings. The tone and volume of the instrumen ...

Notable appearances

He made his national

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

debut on the

Rachael Ray Rachael Domenica Ray (born August 25, 1968) is an American cook, television personality, businesswoman, and author. She hosts the syndicated daily talk and lifestyle program ''Rachael Ray'', and the Food Network series '' 30 Minute Meals''. ...

show and

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

said in their Song of the Day feature that he had “a voice that possesses the sweetness of youth, the stubbornness of a teenager and the swagger of a rock star.” In April 2011, the song "Gone" was featured prominently in Episode 19 of Season 8 of ''

One Tree Hill One Tree Hill may refer to: * "One Tree Hill" (song), a 1987 song by U2 referencing One Tree Hill, New Zealand volcanic peak * ''One Tree Hill'' (TV series), a 2003–2012 American drama series named for the U2 song ** ''One Tree Hill'' (soundtr ...

'', titled "Where Not to Look for Freedom.". As part of

Tom's Shoes Toms (stylized as TOMS) is a for-profit companybusinessoffashion.coBlake Mycoskie on 10 Years of TomsMAY 6, 2016 based in Los Angeles, California. Founded in 2006 by Blake Mycoskie, an entrepreneur from Arlington, Texas, the company designs and ...

"One Day Without Shoes" campaign to raise awareness for children's poverty, Ian Axel performed two songs live on an advertorial website created in cooperation with

La Blogotheque Vincent Moon (real name Mathieu Saura, born 25 August 1979) is an independent filmmaker, photographer, and sound artist from Paris. He was the main director of the Blogotheque's Take Away Shows, a web-based project recording field work Fi ...

. In July 2011 Axel opened for

Five for Fighting Vladimir John Ondrasik III (born January 7, 1965), also known by his stage name Five for Fighting, is an American singer-songwriter and pianist. He is best known for his piano-based soft rock ballads, such as the top 40 hits "Superman (It's Not ...

at the Alive at Five Concert Series in

Stamford, Connecticut Stamford () is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut, outside of Manhattan. It is Connecticut's second-most populous city, behind Bridgeport. With a population of 135,470, Stamford passed Hartford and New Haven in population as of the 2020 ...

. In August 2011 Axel and King opened for

Matthew Morrison Matthew James Morrison (born October 30, 1978) is an American actor, dancer and singer-songwriter, best known for his role as Will Schuester on the Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox television show ''Glee (TV series), Glee'' (2009–2015). He has s ...

at the Beacon Theatre. In January 2012 Axel and King were the musical guests at Amanda Stern's Happy Endings Music and Reading Series at

Joe's Pub Joe's Pub, one of the six performance spaces within The Public Theater, is a music venue and restaurant that hosts live performances across genres and arts, ranging from cabaret to modern dance to world music. It is located at 425 Lafayette St ...

On November 24, 2013, Axel performed at the American Music Awards with Christina Aguilera. On January 31, 2013, "This Is The New Year" was the closing song on ''Glees Season 4, Episode 12 titled "Naked". Ian Axel also performed during the 2013 Victoria's Secret Fashion show.

Personal life

Axel was born to a Jewish family and had a bar mitzvah but is a secular Jew. In May 2015, he announced his engagement to longtime girlfriend and dancer Lina Kent. The couple later married in April 2016. In November 2016, Axel publicly announced that he and his wife were expecting their first child, a baby boy due to be born in May 2017.

Discography

;Solo releases *2007: ''I'm On to You'' EP *2011: ''This Is the New Year'' LP ;in band A Great Big World *2012: ''A Great Big World'' EP *2014: ''Is There Anybody Out There?'' LP *2015: '' When the Morning Comes'' LP

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Axel, Ian 1985 births American male singer-songwriters American rock singers American rock songwriters Grammy Award winners Living people Singer-songwriters from New Jersey New York University alumni Fair Lawn High School alumni People from Fair Lawn, New Jersey People from Alameda County, California Singer-songwriters from California 21st-century American male singers 21st-century American singers