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Benjamin Frederick "Ben" Bledsoe (born May 11, 1982; Snellville, Georgia) is an American pop singer formerly of the boyband "Natural". He is currently a solo singer and actor living in Los Angeles, California.^[1]

Early life

Ben Bledsoe spent most of his young life performing. As a child living in California he was a child model and also acted in several commercials throughout the late 80s and early 90s.^[1] In his teen years his parents moved him to Longwood, Florida a suburb of Orlando, Florida where he met future band mate Marc Terenzi. At the age of 16 he helped formed the band "Natural" with fellow members Patrick King, Michael Johnson, and later Michael 'J' Horn.^[2]

Natural

After his move to Florida, Ben did whatever acting was available to him in Orlando. After meeting Marc Terenzi, Ben decided to change careers and start a band. He had always sung and played multiple instruments such as the bass and saxophone, but had never been interested in music as a career until he really found some musicians he clicked with.

The band named 'Natural' was a mix between rock and Pop. Although were a full band when performing live, they also would perform a cappella renditions at local venues as an easier way to promote themselves. The idea worked; their first show at the House of Blues in Orlando, FL completely sold out.

After that success they met with a top of his game pop producer named Veit Renn who had written and produced songs for other acts such as the Backstreet Boys, NSYNC and Britney Spears. He signed them immediately and started recording new music right away. Natural obtained a huge local following in Orlando, FL but wanted to stretch out. So Veit, being German decided to send them on a promotional tour of Germany. This was the first major step to their success.

One day as they rehearsed at Transcon Studios in Orlando, boyband svengali Lou Pearlman noticed them and liked their act. A stroke of luck would happen when Lou happened to see them perform at the German Festival "Popkomm" in Cologne, Germany. He was there promoting another act, and something in him knew he needed this act when he saw the crowd of almost 150,000 fans going crazy for 'Natural'. Very soon after they were signed with Transcontinental Records.

Lou Pearlman spared no expense and promoted the guys first single with Claire's and a tour with the Monkees, traveling via Private Jet and Tour Bus. The first single "Put Your Arms Around Me" became RIAA-certified Gold, and reached the Billboard Sales Chart Position of #8.

Soon thereafter, 'Natural' was signed as the top project of BMG International based in Munich, Germany. The band immediately started touring in The Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Japan, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, England, Scotland, Italy, Spain, France, and Sweden to conquer little girl's hearts. They had much success with such hits as "Put Your Arms Around Me", "Will It Ever", "Runaway", "Let Me Just Fly", "What If", and the Sarah Connor number-one hit "Just One Last Dance", on which they were featured.

In the summer of 2003 Marc Terenzi's girlfriend Sarah Connor became pregnant. Lou Pearlman wasn't happy with the news and wanted Marc kicked out of Natural and replaced with someone new. Ben and the other members (except Patrick King) were not thrilled with this and decided to break Natural up. They finished the tour and Ben was left to a new phase in his career.

The life of an Insomniac

"Natural" finished their last tour in Europe and Asia in September 2004. Ben, being one of the main songwriters in the band, started writing new music right away with band members Marc Terenzi and Michael Johnson. After a few months, Ben realized that if he wanted to write music professionally, he'd have to be able to play more than just the bass and saxophone. So he "locked himself" in his studio for 3 months and taught himself guitar and piano. His style of playing was a bit unique, and he started writing songs that were extremely close to him (some concerning a recent break-up) and wanted to start recording what was to be his new solo album.

Ben's new songs were a new brand of pop and rock: he wrote all of the songs himself, and played the guitar and piano (as well as other instruments) in most of the recordings and performances. Soon Ben had enough songs for a CD which he named 'An Insomniac's Guide to a Lonely Heart' due to his lack of sleep while creating the album, and the first song he wrote for it entitled 'Lonely Heart'.

He began touring in Florida and New York and continued with Seventeen Magazine's national 'Rock your Prom tour' in 2005, Radio Disney Tours in the U.S., and multiple tours in Europe, including Hard Rock Cafe's "Rocktober" tour which is a charity tour to raise money for Breast Cancer Research.^[2]

He released 'An Insomniac's Guide to a Lonely Heart' on his own record label '44th Floor Records'. Although he claims to have not expected much from the release, it flew to the top of the charts everywhere he released it. It was #1 on Amazon.com for exports to Germany, and was in the top 5% of sales overall. It was simultaneously #1 and #2 on Awarestore.com beating out Aware's own artists such as 'John Mayer', 'Five for Fighting', and Wheatus.^[2]

The first single release was the tongue and cheek song "Boyfriend". He currently is working on new music in L.A. with top songwriter/producer, (High School Musical, Hannah Montana Soundtrack) Eddie Galan of Mach 1 Music.

Acting

As a child Ben acted in several commercials and TV shows. One example is a Guest-Starring role as Nolan Snope on the Nickelodeon TV series The Mystery Files of Shelby Woo in 1997. While in Natural, he decided put acting on hold and focus completely on music.^[1]

After the release of his solo album Ben sought to do more acting. He has also been called to do some Broadway shows such as Hairspray and Crybaby. He has been studying at Groundlings and the Lesley Kahn School of Acting and recently had a role on the TV show 'House'.^[1] Ben had a guest star appearnce in the TV show 'Glee'^[1] playing Hank Saunders in the pilot.^[1]

Discography

References

External links

• Ben Bledsoe at Allmovie
• Ben Bledsoe at MySpace
• 44th Floor Records at MySpace
• Official website