Profile
Famous as : Christian rock band
Birth Name : Sons of Jonas
Birth Place : Wyckoff, New Jersey, USA
Claim to fame : Single "Year
3000" (2006)
History and music career
1999–2005: Nick Jonas - Discovery and solo album
The band started as a solo project for Nick Jonas.
[10][11][12] At the age of 7, Nicholas began performing on
Broadway.
[13][14] He has acted in several plays, including
A Christmas Carol (in 2000 as Tiny Tim and as Scrooge at eight),
Annie Get Your Gun (in 2001 as Little Jake),
Beauty and the Beast (in 2002 as Chip), and
Les Misérables (in 2003 as Gavroche).
[14][15][16][17] After
Les Misérables closed, he performed in
The Sound of Music (as Kurt) at the
Paper Mill Playhouse.
[18]
In 2002 while performing in
Beauty and the Beast, Nick had written a song with his father called "
Joy to the World (A Christmas Prayer)". With background vocals from the
Beauty and the Beast cast, Nick performed the song on the 2002 annual Broadway "
Equity Fights AIDS" album,
Broadway's Greatest Gifts: Carols for a Cure, Vol. 4.
[19][20] In November 2003,
INO Records received a demo copy of "Joy to the World (A Christmas Prayer)".
[21] The label released the song to
Christian radio, where it quickly became popular on Record & Radio's Christian Adult Contemporary Chart.
[20] While Nick was working on his solo project, Joe followed in his footsteps to Broadway, appearing in
Baz Luhrmann's production of
La bohème. According to Nick, this was also the first year the brothers started writing songs together.
[22]
By September 2004, an executive at
Columbia Records found out about Nick's song.
[19][20] Nick was soon jointly signed to
INO Records and Columbia Records and released the single "
Dear God".
[23] A second single, a new solo recording of "Joy to the World (A Christmas Prayer)", was released on November 16.
[24] It was supposed to be followed by a December release of a self-titled solo album
Nicholas Jonas, but the album had been pushed back;
[25] it did, however, get a limited release.
[26] Nick, along with his brothers, Kevin and Joe, had written several other songs for the album.
[19] In early 2005, Columbia Records' new president,
Steve Greenberg, listened to Nick's record. Greenberg liked Nick's voice.
[27] After meeting with Nick and hearing the song "Please Be Mine", written and performed by the brothers,
Daylight/Columbia Records decided to sign the three as a group act.
[19][28][29]
2005–06: It's About Time
After being signed to Columbia, the brothers considered naming their
group "Sons of Jonas" before settling on the name "Jonas Brothers."
[30] Throughout 2005, the Jonas Brothers had gone on several tours, opening for various artists including,
Jump5,
Kelly Clarkson,
Jesse McCartney, the
Backstreet Boys, and
The Click Five.
[10][31] They spent the latter portion of the year on an anti-drug tour with
Aly & AJ and
The Cheetah Girls.
[31][32] Additionally, they opened for
The Veronicas in early 2006.
[19] For the album, titled
It's About Time, the band collaborated with several writers, including
Adam Schlesinger (
Fountains of Wayne),
Michael Mangini (
Joss Stone),
Desmond Child (
Aerosmith,
Bon Jovi),
Billy Mann (
Destiny's Child,
Jessica Simpson) and Steve Greenberg.
[32] The album was initially supposed to be released in February 2006, but was pushed back several times.
[19][28][31][32] The delay was due to executive changes at
Sony
(the parent company of Columbia) and the executives' desire to have
"another lead single" on the album. For the album, the Jonas Brothers
covered two hit songs by UK band
Busted – "
Year 3000" and "
What I Go to School For".
[27]
The Jonas Brothers' first single, "
Mandy", was released on December 27, 2005.
[33] Its music video was shown on MTV's
Total Request Live on February 22, 2006
[12] and reached number four. Another song, "
Time for Me to Fly", was released on the
Aquamarine soundtrack, also in February.
[34] In March, "
Mandy" was featured in the
Nickelodeon television film
Zoey 101: Spring Break-Up and the
Zoey 101: Music Mix soundtrack album, with Nicholas Jonas listed as the artist name.
[34] The group's music was also featured on
Cartoon Network's
Cartoon Cartoon Fridays.
[10][34] The band covered "
Yo Ho (A Pirate's Life for Me)" from
Pirates of the Caribbean for the
DisneyMania 4 album, released on April 4, 2006.
[35] Over the summer of 2006, the Jonas Brothers went on tour with Aly & AJ.
[36] The Jonas Brothers also created the theme song for the second season of
American Dragon Jake Long, airing from June 2006 to September 2007 on the
Disney Channel.
[34][37]
It's About Time was finally released on August 8, 2006.
[38]
According to the band's manager, it was only a "limited release" of
50,000 copies, so the album can be bid on auction sites like
eBay
for up to $200–$300 USD. Because Sony was not interested in further
promoting the band, the Jonas Brothers then considered switching labels.
On October 3, 2006, Nick's 2004 solo single, "Joy to the World (A
Christmas Prayer)", was re-released on
Joy to the World: The Ultimate Christmas Collection.
[39] Also in October, the Jonas Brothers covered "
Poor Unfortunate Souls" from
The Little Mermaid. Along with a music video, the song was released on a two-disc special-edition release of
The Little Mermaid soundtrack.
[40] The second single from
It's About Time was "
Year 3000,
which music video premiered on Disney Channel in January 2007. The band
was ultimately dropped by Columbia Records in early 2007.
2007–08: Jonas Brothers
After briefly being without a label, the Jonas Brothers signed with Hollywood Records in February 2007.
[41] Around the same time, the brothers began appearing in commercials for Baby Bottle Pops, singing the
jingle.
[42] On March 24, two additional songs on two different albums were released: "
Kids of the Future", from the
Meet the Robinsons soundtrack[43] (based on
Kim Wilde's "
Kids in America"), and "
I Wanna Be Like You", from
DisneyMania 5.
[44]
The Jonas Brothers made their first appearance at the White House on
Monday, April 9, 2007, during the annual White House Easter Egg Roll,
where they sang the National Anthem.
[45]
They returned on Wednesday June 27, 2007, during a Celebrating Women in
Sports Tee Ball game on the South Lawn. They sang the National Anthem,
and, after the game, the Jonas Brothers entertained at the
picnic-reception with a selection of their hits.
[46] Their
self-titled second album was released on August 7, 2007.
[47] It reached number five on the
Billboard Hot 200 chart in its first week. Two singles with music videos were also released around this time — "
Hold On" two weeks before, and "
S.O.S." 4 days before the release of the album.
In August, the Jonas Brothers made several appearances on television.
On August 17, they guest-starred in an episode of the Disney Channel
show
Hannah Montana titled "
Me and Mr. Jonas and Mr. Jonas and Mr. Jonas." They also performed "
We Got the Party" with
Miley Cyrus in the episode, which premiered after
High School Musical 2 and was viewed by 10.7 million people that night.
[48] On August 24, the Jonas Brothers performed two songs at the
Miss Teen USA contest.
[49] The following day, the closing ceremonies of the
Disney Channel Games aired, featuring a performance from the Jonas Brothers. The games were taped on April 27, 2007 in
Orlando, Florida.
[50] On August 26, the Jonas Brothers co-presented an award with Miley Cyrus at the
Teen Choice Awards. On November 18, 2007, they performed at the
American Music Awards, performing the song "S.O.S." On November 22, the brothers appeared in the 81st annual
Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. For their final performance of 2007, the three brothers performed their singles "Hold On" and "S.O.S." at
Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve. The Jonas Brothers kicked off their
Look Me In The Eyes Tour on January 31, 2008 in
Tucson, Arizona. They performed several new songs on the tour that were slated to be on their third studio album,
A Little Bit Longer.
2008–09: A Little Bit Longer
The Jonas Brothers performing a concert in February 2008
The Jonas Brothers' third studio album,
A Little Bit Longer, was released in the United States on August 12, 2008, with
CDVU+ technology, just like their second album,
Jonas Brothers. On June 24, 2008, iTunes announced that it would release four songs from
A Little Bit Longer, one roughly every two weeks.
[51]
The purchase of each of the songs applies to the cost of the entire
album, which could be purchased via iTunes' Complete the Album feature
after release. Each song released also featured a podcast. The schedule:
June 24, 2008 for "
Burnin' Up"; July 15, 2008 for "
Pushin' Me Away"; July 29, 2008 for "
Tonight"; and August 5, 2008 for "
A Little Bit Longer." All of them have occupied the number 1 spot on iTunes for at least 3 days.
After the
Look Me In The Eyes Tour ended on March 22, 2008, the Jonas Brothers announced that they would be opening up for
Avril Lavigne's
Best Damn Tour along with
Boys Like Girls, but only on the second leg of the tour in Europe which lasted from late May to late June 2008. While filming the film
Camp Rock, the Jonas Brothers co-wrote and co-produced six songs for fellow Disney Channel star and close friend,
Demi Lovato, for her upcoming album,
Don't Forget.
[52]
Lovato retooled some of her songs to give it the Disney Signature. "I
(Lovato) tend to write songs that are, I guess, a little bit more
intense and less catchy, and I needed help writing catchy songs", she
said, adding that the album also features a guest spot from Rooney
frontman Robert Schwartzman. "So that's where they came in. I put a lot
of my musical input and lyrics into these songs, and they just helped me
with hooks and stuff like that."
[53] "I'm more of a writer whose stuff wouldn't make it on a Disney album. It's too dark..."
[54] The album was released on September 23, 2008. The brothers also helped produce Lovato's album.
A
soundtrack was released for the film
Camp Rock on June 17, 2008. It debuted at #3 on the
Billboard 200 with 188,000 copies sold in its first week.
[55] During the summer of 2008, the Jonas Brothers started their North American tour, the
Burning Up Tour, promoting
A Little Bit Longer and
Camp Rock Soundtrack, and performing songs from previous albums as well:
It's About Time and
Jonas Brothers. The tour kicked off July 4, 2008, at
Molson Amphitheatre in
Toronto, Ontario. A
Disney Digital 3D production crew filmed the two shows in
Anaheim, California on July 13 and July 14
[56] with
Taylor Swift,
[57] who sang a few singles from her self-titled album,
Taylor Swift, for a theatrical film that was released in theatres as a 3D concert film on February 22, 2009.
[58]
On July 14, Nick Jonas announced onstage that the band had already
written five songs for their fourth studio album (third with Hollywood
Records).
[57]
The band was featured on the July 2008 issue of
Rolling Stone Magazine, and became the youngest band to be on the cover of the magazine.
[59] The Jonas Brothers visited downtown
Cleveland, Ohio's
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame before their sold-out concert on the evening of August 22, 2008, at
Blossom Music Center. The band presented the suits and pants they wore on the cover artwork of
A Little Bit Longer to Jim Henke, vice president of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The suits are part of the
Right Here, Right Now! exhibit, which includes some of today's most popular artists.
[60] In December 2008, the Jonas Brothers were nominated for the
Best New Artist award at the
51st Grammy Awards. It was recently confirmed that the Brothers will be collaborating with R&B producer
Timbaland on a song called "Dumb" for his new album
Shock Value 2.
[61] In an interview
Chris Brown told
JustJared.com
that he is collaborating with The Jonas Brothers. Brown said, "I'm
possibly doing something with them. If they want me on the record, I'll
stay on the record, but I just wanted to write a record for those guys."
The Jonas Brothers appeared as musical guest on
Saturday Night Live during the February 14 show. This was their SNL debut.
[62]
2009: Lines, Vines and Trying Times
The brothers finished recording their fourth studio album,
Lines, Vines and Trying Times,
they began to talk about the album in the beginning of 2009. They said
on several occasions that they have been working on writing and
recording songs since their
Burnin' Up tour in mid-2008.
[63] On March 11, 2009, the Jonas Brothers announced that their fourth studio album,
Lines, Vines and Trying Times, would be released on June 15, 2009.
[64]
Nick said about the title in the interview with
Rolling Stone
that, "Lines are something that someone feeds you, vines are the things
that get in the way, and trying times, well, that's obvious." Nick Jonas
told Billboard, "We're trying to learn as much as we can, continuing to
grow." Kevin added, "The overall message is its the same old Jonas
Brothers, in a sense, but we're adding more and more music, including
different musical instruments that are going to add and build to the
sound we already have." Nick also said the songs on the album are "our
journal in songs, about all things we've gone through, personal
experiences we get inspiration from. We've also been working on trying
to use metaphors.. to kind of mask a literal thing that happens to us."
[65]
The band also announced on March 11, 2009 that they will be embarking on a
world tour in mid-2009.
[66] They were joined by the popular Korean girl band
Wonder Girls, who debuted in America, as their opening act.
[67]
Before the release of
Lines, Vines and Trying Times, they released two singles,
Paranoid (a month before) and
Fly With Me (7 days before).
Lines, Vines and Trying Times became their second number 1 album.
[68]
It debuted at number-one and dropped to the second position on its
second week. On July 7, 2009, the Jonas Brothers announced that they
have signed
Honor Society to the record label they started with Hollywood Records.
[69] A month later, "
Send It On" was released on
Radio Disney. The radio single was performed with
Selena Gomez,
Miley Cyrus, and
Demi Lovato for
Disney's Friends for Change.
[70] Disney Channel premiered the song's music video on August 14, 2009.
[71] On August 9, 2009, the Jonas Brothers hosted and performed on the 2009
Teen Choice Awards.
[72] Hollywood Records announced via
YouTube Demi Lovato and Jonas Brothers'
Walmart CD+DVD Soundcheck.
[73]
2010-2011: Side projects and Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam
Joe was a guest judge on
American Idol during the Dallas auditions. The episode aired January 27, 2010. They also reprised their roles in
Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam, the sequel to
Camp Rock. It aired on
Disney Channel on September 3, 2010. The movie was filmed all around Ontario, Canada.
[74] Production on the film began on September 3, 2009 and wrapped on October 16, 2009.
[75][76][77]
Nick formed his own
blues rock band as a side project called
Nick Jonas and the Administration. The band consists of former members of
The New Power Generation.
[78]
In late 2010, the Brothers took part in a concert at the
White House honoring
Paul McCartney's reception of a
Gershwin Prize for Popular Music by U.S. President
Barack Obama. They covered "
Drive My Car" from
The Beatles'
Rubber Soul.
[79]
On December 2011, a new song leaked on the internet marking the first time the brothers collaborated since
Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam. The new song is called
Dance Until Tomorrow.
Kevin recently hinted that the band's reunion was quickly approaching,
as he told People magazine: "I think the tides are perfectly lining up
for the future of the Jonas Brothers again".
[80][81][82]
2012: Reunion and fifth studio album
On March 6, 2012, the Jonas Brothers released a video on Twitter of
them in their home studio, along with the hashtag "#JonasBrothers2012",
suggesting that a reunion was occurring.
[83] Joe is currently on tour promoting his debut solo album, while Nick is currently starring in a revival of
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying on
Broadway.
[84] Starting on August 19, 2012, Kevin will appear in an
E! reality series,
[85]
alongside his wife Danielle and brothers Nick and Joe. "Married to
Jonas" will document the young couple's domestic life as well as the
brothers' recording efforts as they prepare to release their newest
group album.
[86] On August 17, 2012,
Ryan Seacrest announced on his
morning radio show the first Jonas Brothers reunion concert after a long absence since
Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam and
Jonas L.A. which will take place on October 11, 2012 in
Radio City Music Hall.
[87]
On September 7 they also announced 2 concerts in Russia, one on
November 6, 2012 in Saint Petersburg and one on November 8 in Moscow.
[88][89] They're also a part of the Viña del Mar Festival on February 28, 2013 in Chile.
[90] on September 25, 2012 two concerts in the Phillippines and one in Malaysia were announced.
[91]
On September 23, 2012 they announced that a new single is coming soon.
[92] On October 3th, a preview of the song "Meet You In Paris" went online after a preview in Married To Jonas.
[93]
On October 11, 2012 Nick debuted a song for their upcoming fifth studio
album called "Wedding Bells" the song was directly suspected by Nick's
ex-girlfriend
Miley Cyrus
who claimed that the song made references about her. She felt that it
was pretty blatant that the song is about her but says she doesn't mind
being alluded into their/his song.
[94]
In "Wedding Bells," some of the lyrics are "Cause if you recall our
anniversary falls 11 nights into June." Which June 11th, 2006 is when
Nick and Miley met as stated in Miley's autobiography
Miles to Go
but never said his name, just called him Prince Charming. Two other
songs called "First Time" and "Let's Go" were also debuted during their
concert in New York.
[95][96]
On October 29th, two more concert dates were revealed during a show with
Ryan Seacrest. The two shows will be held in the
Pantages Theatre in Los Angeles.
[97] On Noveber 2nd Joe announced through Twitter that there will be a third LA show in the Pantages Theatre.
[98]
Acting career
2007: Early acting
The Jonas Brothers made their acting debut in season 2 of the popular
Disney Channel Original Series,
Hannah Montana, where they guest starred on the episode, "
Me and Mr. Jonas and Mr. Jonas and Mr. Jonas". Soon after, they collaborated with
Miley Cyrus again on her 3D Concert Film,
Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert, which takes place during the tour for which they were Cyrus' opening act. While on the
Look Me in the Eyes Tour, the Jonas Brothers filmed a Disney Channel reality short series entitled,
Jonas Brothers: Living the Dream, that premiered on the
Disney Channel
on May 16, 2008. The show, which ran until September 5, 2008, documents
their lives while on tour. It features clips of the band rehearsing,
traveling, performing, studying, and their personal life with their
family and friends. The Jonas Brothers also did a special, half-hour
variety show on the Disney Channel special entitled,
Studio DC: Almost Live,
that features The Muppets and other Disney Channel stars. During this
time, the Jonas Brothers also appeared on the Olympics based special
miniseries,
Disney Channel Games, for the third annual show.
2008–present: Camp Rock and Jonas L.A.
The band made their film debut in the
Disney Channel Original Movie called
Camp Rock
where they play a band called Connect Three. Joe Jonas plays the lead
male role and lead singer Shane Gray; Nick Jonas plays the role of Nate a
guitarist; and Kevin Jonas plays the role of Jason, also a guitarist.
The film premiered on June 20 in the USA on Disney Channel, and Canada
on
Family. It received mixed reviews.
[99][100] A
Disney Digital 3-D production crew filmed the two shows in
Anaheim, California on July 13 and July 14, 2008
[56] which was released in theatres as a
3D concert film on February 27, 2009.
[101]
In April 2009, the Jonas Brothers finished filming the first season of their
Disney Channel Original Series titled
JONAS.
[102] The series was created by
Michael Curtis (of
Phil of the Future and
Friends) and
Roger S. H. Schulman (Shrek) and directed by
Jeremiah S. Chechik (National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation,
The Bronx is Burning). The show title was originally an acronym for "Junior Operative Networking as Spies".
[103]
The original pilot was about a teenage rock band (Jonas Brothers)
having double lives as government-hired spies. However, after the pilot
was shot, the storyline changed and is now about a band of three
brothers who have to cope with being rockstars while trying to live an
ordinary life. The series premiered on May 2, 2009.
[104]
After the success of
Camp Rock, a sequel was in immediate development. The Jonas Brothers returned as the band Connect Three and their youngest brother,
Frankie Jonas, also starred. Disney had confirmed they were writing the script,
[105] and filming took place in late spring or summer 2009.
[106] The Jonas Brothers made their big screen feature debut as the voices and faces of the Cherubs in 2009's
Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian. On May 29, 2009, the Jonas Brothers were involved in an ABC
television special called
Un-broke: What You Need to Know About Money, where they talked about the importance of understanding the
stock market.
Additionally, Disney Channel has renewed the trio's short-form
reality series "Jonas Brothers: Living the Dream" for a second season.
Filming took place during their
2009 World Tour and premiered March 21, 2010.
In 2011, the brothers appeared in the
"Visit California" promotional film aimed at boosting tourism from the UK.
On April 30, 2012,
E! announced they had ordered a reality television series entitled
Married to Jonas, which will primarily focus on
Kevin Jonas' marriage, however will also focus on the 2012 comeback of the Jonas Brothers.
[107]
Personal lives
The Jonases are known for their wholesome, "family-friendly", image,
[108] and the brothers are committed
Evangelical Christians. Their father, Kevin, Sr., is a former
Assemblies of God pastor, and they were
homeschooled by their mother, Denise. In addition, to signify their vow to
abstain from
premarital sex, on their left-hand ring finger they all wear
purity rings.
Joe has said that the rings symbolize "a promise to ourselves and to God that we'll stay pure till marriage", and
Nick had stated that the rings are "just one of our ways of kind of like being different than everybody else out there."
[109] They reportedly started wearing the rings when their parents asked them if they wanted to.
[110] They also reportedly abstain from alcohol,
tobacco, and other
drugs.
[111]
Russell Brand made fun of the purity rings during the
2008 MTV Video Music Awards.
[112] Brand held up a silver ring, claiming to have relieved one of the brothers of his virginity,
[112]
and said: "Well done the Jonas Brothers. Each wear a ring to say they
are not going to have sex; I'd take them more seriously if they wore it
around their genitals."
[113] Brand later faced criticism and apologized for his comments. He later confirmed his apology during the
2009 MTV Video Music Awards.
[113] The Jonas Brothers were satirized for their views in a
South Park television episode called
The Ring.
[114][115][116] They were also mentioned in the song "
On to the Next One" by
Jay-Z.
[117]
The Jonas Brothers are of
Italian (from a maternal great-grandfather),
German,
Cherokee,
Irish, English, and French-Canadian descent.
[118][119][120]
Philanthropy
The Jonas Brothers with the then First Lady
Laura Bush during a First Bloom event in Dallas, Texas, November 2, 2008
The Jonas Brothers earned an estimated $12 million in 2007, and have donated 10% of their earnings to their charity,
Change for the Children Foundation.
[121][122] Change for the Children Foundation
is a foundation started by the Jonas Brothers, where contributors
donate to charities and places such as "Nothing But Nets", "American
Diabetes Foundation", "St. Jude Children's Research Hospital",
"Children's Hospital Los Angeles", and "Summer Stars: Camp for the
Performing Arts". The band stated that:
We started The Change for the Children Foundation to support programs
that motivate and inspire children to face adversity with confidence,
determination and a will to succeed. And we think the best people to
help children are their peers – kids helping other kids who are a little
less fortunate.
Since August 6, 2008, Bayer Diabetes Care has partnered with Nick Jonas as a
diabetes
ambassador to promote the idea for young people to manage their
diabetes, as Nick was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when he was 13.
[123] Nick testified in the
U.S. Senate to promote more research funding for
diabetes.
[124]
The Jonas Brothers have been strong supporters of
Dosomething.org.
In 2007, the brothers filmed a public service announcement raising
awareness about teenage homelessness and encouraging teens to begin
"jeans drives" in their communities to donate to the homeless.
[125] In 2010, Nick further volunteered his efforts for
Do Something by offering his time as a prize to teens who donated jeans to Do Something and Aeropostale's "Teens for Jeans" campaign.
[126]
Further, Nick filmed another PSA, this one in support of Do Something's
"Battle of the Bands" campaign, for the advancement of music education
in schools.
[127]
Members
- Current members
