Coordinates	12°58′0″N77°34′0″N
Group	Filipino people
Pop	103,000,000
Region1
Pop1	92,000,000
Region2
Pop2	3,053,179
Region3
Pop3	1,066,401
Region4
Pop4	636,544
Region5
Pop5	529,114
Region6
Pop6	410,695
Region7
Pop7	305,972
Region8
Pop8	203,035
Region9
Pop9	195,558
Region10
Pop10	139,802
Region11
Pop11	130,810
Region12
Pop12	129,400
Region13
Pop13	120,192
Region14
Pop14	63,464
Region15
Pop15	70,000
Region16
Pop16	40,000
Region17
Pop17	16,938
Region18
Pop18	16,000
Region19
Pop19	12,262
Region20
Pop20	12,000
Region21
Pop21	3,000
Languages	Philippine languages, English; Spanish, Arabic.
Religions	Christianity (predominantly Roman Catholicism, and Protestantism), Islam, Buddhism, Traditional and folk religions and other religion.
Related	other Southeast Asians and Austronesian-speaking people. }}

The Filipino people are an ethnic group primarily located in the Philippines. There are about 92 million Filipinos in the Philippines, and about 11 million living outside the Philippines. Most Filipinos refer to themselves colloquially as ''"Pinoy"'' (feminine: ''"Pinay"''), which is a slang word formed by taking the last four letters of ''"Pilipino"'' and adding the diminutive suffix ''"-y"''. The lack of the letter ''"F"'' in the pre-1987 Philippine alphabet, Abakada, had caused the letter ''"F"'' to be substituted with ''"P"''. This is why, when the 28-letter modern Filipino alphabet was made official in 1987, the name ''Filipino'' was preferred over ''Pilipino''. The name ''Filipino'' was chosen by the Spanish explorer Ruy López de Villalobos, who named the islands "las Islas Filipinas" ("the Philippine Islands") after Philip II of Spain.

History

Pre - Colonial:

In 2010, a metatarsal from "Callao Man" discovered in 2007 was dated through uranium-series dating as being 67,000 years old. Prior to that, the earliest human remains found in the Philippines were thought to be the fossilized fragments of a skull and jawbone, discovered in the 1960s by Dr. Robert B. Fox, a North American anthropologist of the National Museum. Anthropologists who examined these remains agreed that they belonged to modern human beings. These include the ''homo sapiens'', as distinguished from the mid-Pleistocene ''homo erectus'' species. The Tabon man fossils are considered to have come from a third group of inhabitants, who worked the cave between 22,000 and 20,000 BCE. An earlier cave level lies so far below the level containing cooking fire assemblages that it must represent Upper Pleistocene dates like 45 or 50 thousand years ago. Researchers say this indicates that the human remains were pre-Mongoloid, from about 40,000 years ago. Mongoloid is the term which anthropologists applied to the ethnic group which migrated to Southeast Asia during the Holocene period and evolved into the Austronesian people (associated with the Haplogroup O1 (Y-DNA) genetic marker), a group of Malayo-Polynesian-speaking people including those from Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Malagasy, parts of Vietnam as well as the non-Han Chinese Taiwanese Aboriginals. Anthropologist F. Landa Jocano of the University of the Philippines, in 2001 postulates that the present indigenous Filipinos are products of the long process of evolution and movement of people.

Fluctuations in ancient shorelines between 150,000 BP and 17,000 BP connected to the Malay archipelago region with Maritime Southeast Asia and the Philippines. This may have enabled ancient migrations into the Philippines from Maritime Southeast Asia approximately 50,000 BP to 13,000 BP.

A January 2009 study of language phylogenies by R. D. Gray at UCLA published in Science (journal), suggests that the population expansion of Austronesian peoples was triggered by rising sea levels of the Sunda shelf at the end of the last ice age in a two-pronged expansion, which moved north through the Philippines and into Taiwan, while a second expansion prong spread east along the New Guinea coast and into Oceania and Polynesia.

The Negritos are likely descendants of the indigenous populations of the Sunda landmass and New Guinea, predating the Mongoloid peoples who later entered Southeast Asia. Multiple studies also show that Negritos from Southeast Asia to New Guinea share a closer cranial affinity with Australo-Melanesians. They were the ancestors of such tribes of the Philippines as the Aeta, Agta, Ayta, Ati, Dumagat and other tribes of the Philippines, today making up .03% of the total Philippine population.

The majority of present day Filipinos are a product of the long process of evolution and movement of people. After the mass migrations through land bridges, Migrations continue by boat during the maritime era of South East Asia. The Ancient races became homogenized into the Malayo-Polynesians which colonized the majority of the Philippine, Malaysian and Indonesian Archipelagos.

Since at least the 3rd century, various ethnic groups established several communities. These were formed by the assimilation of various native Philippine kingdoms. South Asian and East Asian people together with the people of the Indonesian Archipelago and the Malay Peninsula, traded with Filipinos and introduced and passed Hinduism and Buddhism to the native tribes of the Philippines. Most of these people stayed in the Philippines where they were slowly absorbed into the local society.

Many of the ''barangay'' (tribal municipalities) were, to a varying extent, under the ''de-jure'' jurisprudence of one of several neighboring empires, among them the Malay Sri Vijaya, Javanese Majapahit, Brunei, Melaka, Indian Chola, Persia, Arabia, Seljuq/TurkishOttoman, Greece, Funan, Champa, and khmer empires, although ''de-facto'' had established their own independent system of rule. Trading links with Sumatra, Borneo, Java, Malay Peninsula, Indochina, China, India, Arabia, Japan and the Ryukyu Kingdom flourished during this era. A thalassocracy had thus emerged based on international trade.

Even scattered barangays, through the development of inter-island and international trade, became more culturally homogeneous by the 4th century.Hindu-Buddhist culture and religion flourished among the noblemen in this era.

In the period between the 7th to the beginning of the 15th centuries, numerous prosperous centers of trade had emerged, including the Kingdom of Namayan which flourished alongside Manila Bay, Cebu, Iloilo, Butuan, the Kingdom of Sanfotsi situated in Pangasinan, the Kingdom of Luzon now known as Pampanga which specialized in trade with China, Japan and the Kingdom of Ryukyu in Okinawa, and most of what is now known as South East Asia.

From the 9th century onwards, a large number of Arab traders from the Middle East settled in the Malay Archipelago and intermarried with the local Malay, Indonesian and Filipino populations.

In the years leading up to 1000 C.E., there were already several maritime societies existing in the islands but there was no unifying political state encompassing the entire Philippine archipelago. Instead, the region was dotted by numerous semi-autonomous ''barangays'' (settlements ranging is size from villages to city-states) under the sovereignty of competing thalassocracies ruled by datus, rajahs or sultans or by upland agricultural societies ruled by "petty plutocrats". States such as the Kingdom of Maynila and Namayan, the Dynasty of Tondo, the Confederation of Madyaas, the rajahnates of Butuan and Cebu and the sultanates of Maguindanao and Sulu existed alongside the highland societies of the Ifugao and Mangyan. Some of these regions were part of the Malayan empires of Srivijaya, Majapahit and Brunei.

Ethnic Chinese sailed down and frequently interacted and even created settlements including CALABARZON region such as Rizal in the northern regions of the Philippines, which carried on trade with the Arab merchants long before the Spanish colonization. This is evidenced by a collection of priceless Chinese artifacts found in the Philippines, dating to the 10th century.

By the 13th century, Arab and Indian Missionaries/Traders from present-day Malaysia and Indonesia brought Islam to the Philippines, where it both replaced and was practiced together with indigenous religions. Most indigenous tribes of the Philippines practiced a mixture of Animism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam. Native villages, called ''barangays'' were populated by locals called Timawa (Middle Class/ freemen) and Alipin (servants & slaves). They were ruled by Rajahs, Datus and Sultans, a class called Maginoo (royals) and defended by the Maharlika (Lesser nobles, royal warriors and aristocrats). It is scientifically proven that these Royals and Nobles are descended from Native Filipinos with varying degrees of Indo-aryan, East Asian, Dravidian, Arab and even Greek ancestry which is evident in today's DNA analysis among South East Asian Royals who mostly claim their ancestry from way back to the Alexandrian Era. This tradition continued among the Spanish and Portuguese traders who also intermarried with the local populations.

Colonial influence:

The arrival of Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan in 1521 began a period of European colonization. During the period of Spanish colonialism beginning in the 16th century, the Philippines was governed by Mexico City on behalf of the Spanish Empire. Early Spanish settlers were mostly explorers, soldiers, government officials and religious missionaries born in Spain and Mexico. Most Spaniards who settled were of Andalusian ancestry but there were also Catalonians, Moorish and Basques descents. The ''Peninsulares'' (governors born in Spain), mostly of Castilian ancestry, settled in the islands to govern their territory. Intermarriage between Spaniards and Filipinos occurred, but was not as common as in the Americas. Most settlers married the daughters of rajahs, datus and sultans (chieftains) to reinforce the colonization of the islands, while some married only other Spaniards. Today, there are still a few Filipino families who maintain a pure Spanish or European ancestry. Prehistoric evidence attest that most datus, rajahs and sultans or maharlikas (nobles and royals) in the Philippines prior to the arrival of the Spaniards were of mixed indigenous Filipino, Indo-Aryan and Chinese ancestry. They formed the privileged Principalia (nobility) during the Spanish period. In the 16th and 17th centuries, thousands of Japanese traders also migrated to the Philippines and assimilated into the local population.

As a part of the Seven years war; the British conquest of the Spanish Philippines occurred between 1762 and 1764, although the only part of the Philippines which was under British control was actually occupied in the Spanish colonial capital of Manila with the principal Spanish naval port Cavite, both of whom are located in Manila Bay. The war was ended by the Treaty of Paris (1763). The treaty signatories were not aware that the Philippines had been taken by the British and was being administered as a British colony. Consequently no specific provision was made for the Philippines. Instead they fell under the general provision that all other lands not otherwise provided for be returned to the Spanish Empire. Many Indian Sepoy troops and their British captains mutinied and were left in Manila and some parts of the Ilocos and Cagayan. The ones in Manila settled at Cainta, Rizal and the ones at the north settled at Isabela. Most of which assimilated into the local population.

The arrival of the Spaniards to the Philippines attracted new waves of immigrants from China, and maritime trade flourished during the Spanish period. The Spanish recruited thousands of Chinese migrant workers called ''sangleys'' to build the colonial infrastructure in the islands. Most Chinese immigrants converted to Christianity, intermarried with the locals, and adopted Hispanized names and customs. The children of unions between Filipinos and Chinese were called Mestizos de Sangley or Chinese mestizos, while those between Spaniards and Chinese were called Tornatrás, and were grouped together with the mixed-race Filipinos of Spanish descent. The Chinese mestizos were largely confined to the Binondo area. However, they eventually spread all over the islands, and became traders, moneylenders and landowners.

A total of 110 Manila-Acapulco galleons set sail between 1565 to 1815, during the Philippines trade with Mexico. Until 1593, three or more ships would set sail annually from each port. European criollos, mestizos and mulattos of Spanish, Portuguese, French and Mexican descent from the Americas, mostly from Latin America came in contact with the Filipinos. Japanese, Korean and Cambodian Christians who fled from religious persecutions and killing fields also settled in the Philippines during the 17th until the 19th centuries.

With the inauguration of the Suez Canal in 1867, Spain opened the Philippines for international trade. European investors such as British, German, Portuguese, Italian and French were among those who settled in the islands as business increased. More Spaniards arrived during the next century. Many of these European migrants intermarried with local mestizos and some assimilated with the indigenous population. Their enterprises became the precursors of the current Chinese and oriental dominated major corporations and conglomerates of the country. After the defeat of Spain during the Spanish-American War in 1898, Filipino general, Emilio Aguinaldo declared independence on June 12 while general Wesley Merritt became the first American governors of the Philippines. On December 10, 1898, the Treaty of Paris formally ended the war, with Spain ceding the Philippines and other colonies to the United States in exchange for $20 million dollars. After the Philippine–American War, the United States civil governance was established in 1901, with William Howard Taft as the first American Governor-General. A number of Americans settled in the islands and thousands of interracial marriages between Americans and Filipinos have taken place since then. Due to the strategic location of the Philippines, as many as 21 bases and 100,000 military personnel were stationed there since the United States first colonized the islands in 1898. These bases were decommissioned in 1992 after the end of the Cold War, but left behind thousands of Amerasian children. The country gained independence from the United States in 1946. The Pearl S. Buck International foundation estimates there are 52,000 Amerasians scattered throughout the Philippines. In addition, numerous Filipino men enlisted in the US Navy and made careers in it, often settling with their families in the United States. Some of their second or third generation-families returned to the country.

Following its independence, the Philippines has seen both small and large-scale immigration into the country, mostly involving Chinese, Americans, British, Europeans, Japanese. After WWII, South Asians continued to migrate into the islands. Most of which assimilated and avoided the local social stigma instilled by the early Spaniards against them by keeping a low profile and/or by trying to pass as Spanish mestizos. More recent migrations into the country by Koreans, Persians, Brazilians and other Southeast Asians have contributed to the enrichment of the country's ethnic landscape, language and culture. Centuries of migration, diaspora, assimilation, and cultural diversity made most Filipinos open-minded in embracing interracial marriage and multiculturalism. Philippine nationality law is currently based upon the principles of your place of birth or origin, and therefore descent from a parent who is a citizen of the Republic of the Philippines is the primary method of acquiring national citizenship. Birth in the Philippines to foreign parents does not in itself confer Philippine citizenship, although RA9139, the Administrative Naturalization Law of 2000, does provide a path for administrative naturalization of certain illegal citizens born in the Philippines.

Together, some of these recent foreign immigrants have intermarried with the Filipinos, as well as with the previous immigrant groups, giving rise to Filipinos of mixed racial and/or ethnic origins also known as mestizos.

Genetic studies

The Philippine Government has never conducted any recent genetic study of great statistical significance about the ancestry of the various Philippine ethnic groups, there have been some studies, based upon very small samples of the population, which provide clues as to their origins. The affordability of DNA testing kits for Y-DNA and mtDNA haplogroup verification has spurred the proliferation of public DNA databases such as those hosted by genetic genealogy companies. A Stanford University study conducted during 2001 revealed that Haplogroup O3-M122 (labeled as "Haplogroup L" in this study) is the most common Y-chromosome DNA haplogroup found among Filipinos. This particular haplogroup is also predominant among Chinese, Koreans, and Vietnamese. Another haplogroup, Haplogroup O1a-M119 (labeled as "Haplogroup H" in this study), is also found among Filipinos. The rates of Haplogroup O1a are highest among the Taiwanese aborigines, and Chamic-speaking people. Genetic data found among a sampling of Filipinos may indicate some relation to the Ami tribe of Taiwan.

A 2008 genetic study showed no evidence of a large-scale Taiwanese migration into the Philippine Islands. A study by Leeds University and published in Molecular Biology and Evolution, showed that mitochondrial DNA lineages have been evolving within Island Southeast Asia (ISEA) since modern humans arrived approximately 50,000 years ago. Population dispersals occurred at the same time as sea levels rose, which resulted in migrations from the Philippine Islands into Taiwan within the last 10,000 years.

A 2002 China Medical University study indicated that some Filipinos shared genetic chromosome that is found among Asian people, such as Taiwanese aborigines, Indonesians, Thais, and Chinese.

A variety of research study by the University of the Philippines, genetic chromosome were found in Filipinos which are shared by people from different parts of East Asia, and Southeast Asia. The predominant genotype detected was SC, the Southeast Asian genotype.

''Sinodonty'' and ''Sundadonty'' are two patterns, identified by anthropologist Christy Turner, for East Asia, within the "Mongoloid dental complex". The latter is regarded as having a more generalised, Australoid morphology and having a longer ancestry than its offspring, ''Sinodonty''. He found the ''Sundadont'' pattern in the Jōmon of Japan, Taiwanese aborigines, Filipinos, Indonesians, Thais, Borneans, Laotians, and Malaysians, and the ''Sinodont'' pattern in the inhabitants of China, Mongolia, eastern Siberia, Native Americans, and the Yayoi. Both of patterns are common among indigenous Filipino tribes. Other dental patterns are also found among City dwellers as a result of mixed racial ancestry.

These indigenous elements in the Filipino's genetic makeup serve as clues to the patterns of migration throughout Philippine history. After the 16th century, of course, the colonial period saw the influx of genetic influence from Europeans. During the above mentioned study conducted by Stanford University Asia-Pacific Research Center, it was stated that 3.6% European introgression out of 28 samples was evident in the Philippines.

Languages

Austronesian languages have been spoken in the Philippines for thousands of years with many adopted words from Sanskrit, Arabic, Mandarin, Mon–Khmer and other Asian languages. Starting in the second half of the 16th century, Spanish was the official language of the country for the more than three centuries that the islands were governed through Mexico City on behalf of the Spanish Empire. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, Spanish and Tagalog were the preferred languages among ''Ilustrados'' and educated Filipinos in general. Significant disagreement exists, however, on the extent Spanish use beyond that. It has been argued that the Philippines were less hispanized than Canaries and America, with Spanish only being adopted by the ruling class involved in civil and judicial administration and culture. Spanish was the language of only approximately ten percent of the Philippine population when Spanish rule ended in 1898. As a lingua franca or creole language of Filipinos, major languages of the country like Pangasinan, Chavacano, Cebuano, Tagalog, Kapampangan, Bicolano, Hiligaynon, and Ilocano assimilated many different words and expressions from Castilian Spanish.

In sharp contrast, another view is that the ratio of the population which spoke Spanish as their ''mother tongue'' in the last decade of Spanish rule was 10% or 14%. An additional 60% is said to have spoken Spanish as a second language until World War II. Various sources reported the widespread use of Spanish by the Philippine population, among them the secretary of education during the period of US rule, as well as Henry Ford, who reported what he observed and the Filipino speech that he heard in his travels through the archipelago, sixteen of whose provinces where said to be Spanish-speaking in 1906.

In 1863 a Spanish decree introduced universal education, creating free public schooling in Spanish. It was also the language of the Philippine Revolution, and the 1899 Malolos Constitution proclaimed it as the "official language" of the First Philippine Republic. Following the American occupation of the Philippines and the imposition of English, the overall use of Spanish declined gradually, especially after the 1940s. According to Ethnologue, there are about 180 languages spoken in the Philippines. The Constitution of the Philippines designates Filipino (which is based on Tagalog) as the national language and designates both Filipino and English as official languages. Regional languages are designated as auxiliary official languages. The constitution also provides that Spanish and Arabic shall be promoted on a voluntary and optional basis.

Other Philippine languages in the country with at least 320,000 native speakers include Cebuano, Ilocano, Hiligaynon, Waray-Waray, Kapampangan, Chavacano (Spanish creole), Northern Bicol, Pangasinan, Southern Bicol, Maranao, Maguindanao, Kinaray-a, Tausug, Surigaonon, Masbatenyo, Aklanon, and Ibanag. The 28-letter modern Filipino alphabet, adopted in 1987, is the official writing system.

Diaspora

Filipinos form a minority ethnic group in the Americas, Europe, Oceania, the Middle East, and other countries in the world.

There are an estimated four million Americans of Filipino ancestry in the United States, and more than 300,000 American citizens in the Philippines.

Filipinos make up about half of the entire population of the Northern Marianas Islands, an American territory in the North Pacific Ocean, and a large proportion of the populations of Guam, Palau, and the Malaysian state of Sabah.

See also

Demographics of the Philippines

Ethnic groups in the Philippines

Filipino psychology

Filipino value system

List of Filipinos

List of Filipino athletes

Publications

. ISBN 9789711002268. ARE - . AUS - . CAN - . GWM - . HKG - IRL - ITA - . JPN - . LBN - . NZL - . ROK - . SAU - . TWN - Alien Workers in Taiwan-Fukien Area by Industry and Nationality (JPG and PDF format), 2006 February, CLA, Taiwan.

USA

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References

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Category:Filipino people

ar:فلبينيون ceb:Pilipino es:Pueblo filipino ilo:Tattao a Filipino pl:Filipińczycy pt:Filipinos ru:Филиппинцы sah:Пилиппиннэр (норуот) sk:Filipínci tl:Lahing Pilipino yo:Àwọn Filipínò

Coordinates	12°58′0″N77°34′0″N
name	Ben Folds
background	solo_singer
birth name	Benjamin Scott Folds
birth date	September 12, 1966
origin	Winston-Salem, North Carolina
instrument	Vocals, piano, guitar, bass guitar, drums, keytar, melodica, Synthesizer
genre	Piano rock, rock
occupation	Musician, composer, arranger, bandleader
years active	1988–present
label	Attacked By Plastic, Epic
associated acts	Ben Folds FiveThe BensFear of PopMajoshaPomplamooseJulia NunesCharlie McDonnellRegina SpektorAmanda PalmerAngela AkiKate Miller-Heidke
spouse	Anna Goodman (1987–1992)Kate Rosen (1995–1996)Frally Hynes (1999–2007(Fleur Folds 2007-present
website	benfolds.com }}

Benjamin Scott "Ben" Folds (born September 12, 1966) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and the former frontman and pianist of the alternative rock band Ben Folds Five. He now performs as a solo artist and collaborates with many other musicians such as William Shatner, Regina Spektor and Weird Al Yankovic. Ben has also contributed to the soundtrack of Dreamsworks animated film Over the Hedge.

Early life and career

Folds became attracted to piano at age nine. His father, a carpenter, brought one home through a barter trade with a customer who was unable to pay. During this time, Folds listened to songs by Elton John and Billy Joel on AM radio, and learned them by ear. During his years at R.J. Reynolds High School in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Folds played in several bands as the pianist, bassist, or drummer.

In the late 1980s, Folds (as a bassist) and longtime friend Millard Powers formed the band Majosha. The group released several locally produced records. They played their first gig at Duke University's Battle of the Bands in 1988, and won. They played at bars and fraternity parties, and eventually put out a self-produced EP, which was sold at a few local stores called ''Party Night: Five Songs About Jesus'' (1988). The record featured only four songs, with none of them actually being about Jesus. They recorded ''Shut Up and Listen to Majosha'' in 1989. It contains, among other tracks, the four songs from ''Party Night'' (remixed and/or re-recorded) and what Folds would later record with his own band ("Emaline" and "Video"). At about the same time, they did a dance mix of "Get That Bug" that was released in Japan.

Majosha broke up in early 1990, and Folds formed Pots and Pans with Evan Olson (bass) and Britt "Snuzz" Uzzell (guitar and vocals), where Folds played drums. The newly formed band lasted for only a month, after which Olson and Uzzell went on to form Bus Stop with Folds' brother, Chuck Folds, on bass, and Eddie Walker on drums.

Folds eventually got a music publishing deal with Nashville music executive Scott Siman who saw Folds open for musician Marc Silvey (as well as playing bass for Silvey's band Mass Confusion), and moved to Nashville, Tennessee, to pursue it in 1990. He played drums for a short stint in Jody's Power Bill, headed by Millard Powers, Will Owsley, and Jody Spence. Jody's Power Bill was later renamed The Semantics. Folds did not take a creative role in the band. He, again, attracted interest from major labels. He ended up playing drums there as a session musician.

"In Nashville, I was running eight miles a day, hanging out with my friends, walking around eating chocolate-chip cookies and playing a lot of drums, which I enjoyed. Life was easy. I was never frustrated – even though I wasn't fulfilling my contract obligations. If you are failing in Nashville, at least your standard of living is nice. Nashville is a nice way to fail."

Folds attended the University of Miami's Frost School of Music on a percussion scholarship, but dropped out with one credit to go before graduating. He devoted a lot of time to working on piano technique. "I spent maybe six months just running scales with a metronome like a freak," Folds said. "I suppose that did something."

Folds tells audiences about a jury recital when he was a student at the University of Miami’s music school. A jury recital consists of playing a prepared repertoire (and sometimes unprepared pieces from prior years of training) before faculty members who apply a grade for the entire semester. Folds, a drummer, showed up with a broken hand from defending his room mate from bullies the night before, but was required to play anyway. He ended up losing his scholarship and in desperation threw his drumkit into the campus' Lake Osceola.

After leaving Miami, Folds moved to Montclair, New Jersey and began to act in theater troupes in New York City. He enjoyed it in 1993 to the point where he didn't want to keep pursuing a musical career. He also played weekly gigs at Sin-é, famous for being the cafe which had helped start Jeff Buckley's career.

Soon after, Folds moved back to North Carolina. The trio of Folds, bassist Robert Sledge, and drummer Darren Jessee formed Ben Folds Five in 1994 in Chapel Hill. As Folds put it, “Jeff Buckley was being signed at that time by Columbia and I was talking to Steve, his A&R guy, and somehow we knew the same people or something."

Ben Folds Five

In 1995, Ben Folds Five released their self-titled debut album. The debut was followed by ''Whatever and Ever Amen'' in 1997, and the odds-and-ends compilation ''Naked Baby Photos'' was released in early 1998. ''Whatever and Ever Amen'' spawned many singles such as "Brick", "Song for the Dumped", and "Battle of Who Could Care Less". In 1999, the band released their final album, ''The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner'', which included the hit, "Army".

Folds has described his former band as "punk rock for sissies", and his oddball lyrics often contain nuances of , melancholy, self conflict, and humorous sarcasm, often punctuated by profanity.

Despite its presence on multiple ''Billboard'' genre charts, no Ben Folds Five singles reached the US Hot 100, although they did show well on both adult contemporary and modern rock charts. However they gained a strong following in the United Kingdom and Australia early in their career, and like many other 'alternative' American acts this was largely thanks to consistent support from national broadcasters in those countries, the BBC in Britain and the ABC's Triple J youth radio network in Australia (and ABC-TV's music video show ''Rage'').

The group's first chart breakthrough came in the UK, when "Underground" made the lower reaches of the Top 40, peaking at #37. Britain was the Five's strongest territory in terms of chart success, with five singles making the national Top 40 there – "Underground", "Battle of Who Could Care Less", "Kate", "Brick" and "Army" – although none managed to crack the UK Top 20.

In Australia "Underground" likewise broke the band locally and while it did not make the ARIA chart, it came in at #3 the 1998 Triple J Hottest 100 poll. The 1998 single "Brick" became the group's only major chart placing in Australia, reaching #13; it also came in at #53 in the ARIA Australian Top 100 for that year and earned a Gold Record award while its parent album ''Whatever and Ever Amen'' peaked at #9 and charted for 32 weeks. Folds and band mates had been going full force since 2001 while moving album after album and states:"“The songs have been getting a great reaction,it makes me look forward to having a new album out there because it’s been a while. This feels like a really free period in my life and I’m really enjoying it.” Ben Folds Five reunited to perform its first concert appearance in nearly 10 years on September 18, 2008 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Memorial Hall. The one-off gig was part of the MySpace "Front to Back" series, in which artists play an entire album live. The band played its final album, ''The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner''. The concert aired during October and can be viewed at Nowwhat.com. All proceeds from ticket sales benefitted the charity Operation Smile, of which Ben's uncle, Jim Folds, is on the board of directors for the North Carolina Chapter.

Solo career

As of 2008, Folds had released six solo LPs, including an experimental side project called ''Fear of Pop'', which was released while Ben Folds Five was still together.

Folds's first solo release after the breakup of the band was ''Rockin' the Suburbs'' in 2001. He played nearly all the instruments, notably guitar (an instrument seldom used during the Ben Folds Five days). ''The Luckiest'' was written for the Amy Heckerling movie ''Loser'', but the scene it was meant for was deleted. Millard Powers, Britt "Snuzz" Uzzell, and Jim Bogios joined him on the promotional tour of the album. "Weird Al" Yankovic directed and appeared in Folds' video for "Rockin' the Suburbs". Folds' friend and fellow musician John McCrea, lead singer of the band Cake, contributed vocals to Folds' song "Fred Jones, Part 2".

A year later, he released ''Ben Folds Live'', a collection of live solo recordings. In late 2003, two solo EPs, ''Speed Graphic'' and ''Sunny 16'', were released. The last EP, ''Super D'', was released in mid-2004.

''Songs for Silverman'' was released in the United States on April 26, 2005. The album featured Jared Reynolds on bass and Lindsay Jamieson on drums, thus returning to the trio format. This album includes the track "Late", a tribute to the late singer-songwriter Elliott Smith, and also features backup vocals from "Weird Al" Yankovic on "Time" (Folds had played piano for Yankovic's song "Why Does This Always Happen to Me?" on his ''Poodle Hat'' album).

Folds contributed to William Shatner's album, ''Has Been'', as producer, arranger, musician, and backup vocalist. Shatner was also involved in Folds' ''Fear of Pop'' project, and contributed vocals to a number of songs on the album.

The soundtrack for the 2006 animated film ''Hoodwinked!'' featured "Red is Blue," performed by Ben Folds.

In May 2006, Folds contributed three original songs to the soundtrack of ''Over the Hedge'', dubbed "Heist," "Family of Me," and "Still." Included with them was a cover of The Clash song "Lost in the Supermarket" and a remix of "Rockin' The Suburbs." "Rockin' the Suburbs" featured new lyrics written to complement the script of the film.

On October 24, 2006, Folds released ''Supersunnyspeedgraphic, the LP'', a compilation of songs that were originally released on the EPs ''Sunny 16'', ''Speed Graphic'', and ''Super D''. He announced on his MySpace blog that he planned to work on his next studio album in October 2006 (although recording did not actually start until 2007). On that same day, Folds became the first person to broadcast a live concert over MySpace. The concert was complete with pranks staged ahead of time by Folds, including a drunk man falling over the balcony during "Jesusland" and a suicide attempt at the end. The concert is also notable for featuring a "guitorchestra", a group of acoustic guitarists from Nashville who accompanied Folds on some songs, as well as an impromptu ringtone orchestra made up of audience memebers playing their cellphone's ringtones in unison.

Folds produced The Dresden Dolls' Amanda Palmer's first solo album, ''Who Killed Amanda Palmer'' which was released September 16, 2008. He also performs on the album.

During a concert at the National in Richmond, Virginia on April 11, 2008, Folds announced that he had completed his newest album, and played four new tracks from this album. He played the first track, "Hiroshima", at the same show in Richmond on April 11. He also debuted new music at an impromptu gig at the Exit/In on December 19, 2007 and at the Ann Arbor Folk Festival on January 25, 2008. Other new songs include "Errant Dog", "Effington", "Bitch Went Nuts", "Free Coffee", and "Kylie From Connecticut". Folds played The 6th annual Langerado on March 8, 2008 and was a part of the lineup for the 2008 Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival.

On July 16, 2008, an anonymous user posted what they claimed was a "leak" of Ben's latest album on a fan site (eventually called ''Way to Normal (Fake)''). The file contained nine tracks along with a PDF of supposed cover art, and was a mix of what appeared to be legitimate songs from ''Way to Normal'', pastiches of dry humor and melodramatic pop interwoven with bright, energetic melodies. Folds explained on Triple J radio a few weeks later that in one overnight session in Dublin he and the band had recorded 'fake' versions of songs from the new album. His sources had then leaked them to the public as a light-hearted joke on his fans.

''Way to Normal'' was released on September 30, 2008 in the United States and on September 29, 2008 in the United Kingdom. It became Folds' highest-charting album ever in the US, debuting at #11 on the Billboard 200.

Soon before ''Way to Normal'' was released, Folds announced that he planned to record an album with English author Nick Hornby, with Hornby writing the lyrics and Folds writing the music. The idea of the collaboration came out of the 'fake' leak of the album ''Way to Normal'' released in July 2008. "(We will) write and record it in about three days, just like we did in Dublin with the fake record," Folds said.

In August 2008, Folds played piano for friend and Japanese singer-songwriter Angela Aki's song "Black Glasses" on her new album ''Answer''.

On April 28, 2009, Folds released ''Ben Folds Presents University A Cappella'', an album consisting of college student's a cappella arrangements of his music performed by some of the country's best college a cappella groups.

Folds' song "Rockin' the Suburbs" has been featured as part of the music for ABC's sitcom ''Surviving Suburbia''.

Folds was also an inaugural member of the Independent Music Awards' judging panel to support independent artists.

From December 14 through 21, 2009, Folds was featured as a judge on NBC's a cappella competition The Sing Off alongside Nicole Scherzinger and Shawn Stockman and offered insightful, constructive comments and criticisms to the contestants. On the final show, in a departure from his a cappella purism, showcased his talents and played the roaring, riffing piano background on "Why Can't We Be Friends?" sung by the two finalist groups, The Beelzebubs from Tufts University near Boston and Nota, from San Juan, Puerto Rico. He again returned for the show's second season, and has been confirmed to return for the third season in September 2011 alongside Stockman and Sara Bareilles.

In March 2010, Folds became a YouTube phenomenon in a video titled "Ode To Merton". In the video, Folds improvises several songs about people that he sees on the popular social networking site Chatroulette, in the style of "Merton" another YouTube phenomenon who many thought was Folds himself.

Folds' newest album, a collaboration with English author Nick Hornby, is entitled ''Lonely Avenue'' and was released on September 28, 2010. On June 14, Folds released the official album art via his Twitter account. "From Above", the first single from the album, premiered on Richard Kingsmill's new music show ''2010'' on Triple J in Australia on July 18, 2010. "From Above" features Australian singer Kate Miller Heidke on backing vocals.

Folds has recently recorded a video song with Nick Hornby and Pomplamoose. As well, English YouTuber Charlie McDonnell was commissioned to create the music video for Folds' song "Saskia Hamilton", which was uploaded on October 1, 2010.

Tours

After Ben Folds Five split, Folds' first tour with a full band was to support the album ''Rockin' The Suburbs''. He was accompanied by Britt "Snüzz" Uzzell on guitar and electronic keyboard, Millard Powers on bass and keys, and Jim Bogios on drums. Powers and Bogios later went on to join Counting Crows.

On a tour of Australia, Folds joined with solo artists Ben Kweller and Ben Lee to travel the country as The Bens, at the suggestion of a fan on Kweller's official website. The trio also went on to record a four-track EP together.

In the summer of 2004, Folds co-headlined an American tour with fellow singer-songwriters Rufus Wainwright and Guster. Folds again performed with Wainwright and Lee in the summer of 2005 as part of the "Odd Men Out" tour. In addition, Folds has performed with many other notable musical names, including Weezer and Tori Amos. After seeing The Fray perform with Weezer, Folds asked the band to join him for twelve performances in 2005.

Folds also performed with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra (WASO) in March 2005, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) in November 2005, the North Carolina Symphony in March 2010, and the Utah Symphony Orchestra in July 2010. A DVD of Folds playing with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra was released in December 2005.

On May 9, 2007, Folds performed with the Boston Pops Orchestra. The orchestra's performance was marred when a fight broke out between two audience members in the balcony, though Folds had not yet taken the stage.

Folds performed with symphony orchestras again in August 2006 during a tour of Australia, which included performances with the Sydney Symphony at the Sydney Opera House, Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, Western Australian Symphony Orchestra, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, and The Queensland Orchestra.

After his MySpace performance on October 24, 2006, Folds's tour performances began to feature a synthesizer, which he uses in many of the songs when played live. The synthesizer is a red Nord Lead II synthesizer. During his concerts, Folds performs two of his concert traditions: palm-smashing and throwing his stool at the piano.

Folds toured with John Mayer as an opening act (though his set typically lasted an hour) in the summer of 2007. During this tour, Mayer sometimes joined Folds on the song "Narcolepsy", playing synth. At various concerts throughout the tour, parents of young children going to see Mayer would file complaints about Folds' lyrics. Folds responded by posting on his website, "We have kids too, but we don't take them out to rock shows that last until 11pm."

On March 29, 2008, Folds played the Cage Center Arena at Berry College in Mt. Berry, GA. During contract negotiations, he was asked by the administration to not play one of his songs due to its explicit lyrics. Folds refused, citing artistic freedom.

On May 9, 2008, Folds played his first completely solo show in years at Western Connecticut State University due to the fact that his bassist Jared Reynolds was with his wife who had just given birth to their first son.

Folds made a brief solo tour of Australia during August 2009; at one of his sold out Sydney Opera House concerts he was joined onstage for several songs by Aimee Mann, who was also touring Australia at the time. At the Palais theatre in Melbourne Missy Higgins joined him for You Don't Know Me.

In 2010, Folds went on a brief tour of North America called "Ben Folds and a Piano" where he played solo other than with Zach Williams or Kate Miller-Heidke and her husband Keir Nuttall as supporting musicians. A small number of copies that were pre-ordered also included signed manuscripts by Ben Folds and Nick Hornby.

In April 2011 Folds collaborated with Amanda Palmer, Neil Gaiman and Damian Kulash as 8in8 to write, record and produce eight songs in eight hours which were then available online within 24 hours, as well as being performed once on its world tour, as part of the ReThink Music conference.

Personal life

Folds has been married four times. His personal life has inspired several of his songs; the hit single "Brick", co-written with Darren Jessee, was based on the experience of Folds and his girlfriend having an abortion while they were in high school.

Folds met Anna Goodman in first grade at Moore Elementary School, Winston Salem and was married to her from 1987–1992. She co-wrote several Ben Folds Five songs: "Alice Childress", "The Last Polka", "Smoke", "Kate" and "Lullaby." Folds was then briefly married to Kate Rosen in 1996. He met Australian Frally Hynes in January 1998 and they were married in Adelaide, South Australia in May 1999. Two months after their wedding, Frally gave birth to their twins, Louis Francis (July 22, 1999) and Gracie Scott (July 23, 1999), the former inspiring his song "Still Fighting It" and the latter inspiring his song "Gracie." Folds filed for divorce in November 2006.

Ben and Fleur Folds were married on November 17, 2007 at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas.  They are currently based in Nashville where they live with their three children, Gracie, Louis and Julia-Rose. Folds stated in an online chat on the fan forum thesuburbs.org.uk that he and Hynes share joint custody of their twins. Julia Rose is Ben's stepdaughter.

Ben Folds recently announced in a press conference for The Sing-Off that Ben Folds Five will reunite to record a new album in December. He has not said anything of a Ben Folds Five Tour.

Discography

''Ben Folds Five'' (1995), Passenger/Caroline

''Whatever and Ever Amen'' (1997), 550 #42 US

''Naked Baby Photos'' (1998), Caroline

''Fear of Pop: Volume 1'' (1998), 550

''The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner'' (1999), 550 #35 US

''Rockin' the Suburbs'' (2001), Sony #42 US

''Ben Folds Live'' (2002), Sony #60 US

''Songs for Silverman'' (2005), Epic (Bonus DVD) #13 US

''Supersunnyspeedgraphic, the LP'' (2006), Epic

''Way to Normal'' (2008), Epic #11 US

''Lonely Avenue '' (2010), Nonesuch

''Nighty Night'' (2011), in collaboration with Amanda Palmer, Damian Kulash, and Neil Gaiman

''The Best Imitation of Myself: A Retrospective'' (2011)

References

External links

Official sites: US/UK Australia Germany Japan

Video of author Nick Hornby performing with Ben Folds and the duo Pomplamoose on "Things You Think"

Ben Folds Talks The Sing-Off to SportsTownChicago.com

Category:1966 births Category:American male singers Category:American multi-instrumentalists Category:American pop pianists Category:American pop singers Category:American rock pianists Category:American rock singers Category:American singer-songwriters Category:Keytarists Category:Living people Category:Melodica players Category:Musicians from North Carolina Category:People from Winston-Salem, North Carolina Category:University of Miami alumni

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