New York, NY (Top40 Charts/ Atlantic Records) fun. continues to own 2012 with the announcement of two 2012 MTV Video
Music Awards nominations. The band scored a prestigious "Best New Artist" nod, while their record-breaking #1 hit, "We Are Young (Feat. Janelle Monáe)," was named in the "Best Pop Video" category. Fans are invited to vote for fun. at www.mtv.com/ontv/vma/2012/categories.jhtml. The 2012 MTV
Music Awards will be presented live on MTV on Thursday,
September 6th at 8:00 pm/7:00c (check local listings).
Meanwhile, "Some Nights," the title track of the band's breakthrough Fueled By Ramen debut, is shaping up as yet another historic smash. The track has just followed the #1 success of "
We Are Young" by topping the airplay charts at Alternative radio outlets nationwide, placing fun. alongside
Green Day and
Alanis Morissette as the only three acts in chart history to score consecutive #1s at the format with their first pair of singles. This week, the song surpassed the one million mark in sales.
fun. will have little time to rest on their laurels as their very busy summer schedule marches on. The jam-packed program includes both sold out headline shows, eagerly awaited performances, and a broad variety of high profile TV appearances. The latter itinerary will kick off with a monumental live set at the concert event of the summer, "StePhest Colbchella '012: Rocktaugustfest." The multi-artist spectacular will be taped on New York City's Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum on Friday, August 10th, with fun.'s performance and interview set to begin a special weeklong series of Comedy Central's The Colbert Report on Monday, August 13th at 11:30 pm ET/PT.
Next, fun. will join an array of stars at CBS' upcoming Teachers Rock benefit concert special, airing live on Friday, August 17th at 8:00 pm ET/PT. The band will then perform as part of the 2012 Do Something Awards, honoring the nation's best young world-changers who represent the pivotal "do-ers" in their field, cause or issue. VH1 will air star-studded event live on VH1 on Tuesday, August 21st at 9:00 pm ET/PT. That same night will see fun. performing "
Some Nights" live on NBC's The
Tonight Show with Jay Leno (check local listings). The action-packed schedule follows a prior array of TV performances, including CBS' Late Show with
David Letterman, NBC's Late Night with
Jimmy Fallon and TODAY, ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live!, TBS' Conan, VH1's Big Morning Buzz Live, and the 2012 MTV Movie Awards.
As if all that weren't enough, NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday and NPR
Music is continuing its "A Summer With fun." series, checking in periodically with members of the band and their touring crew to see what it takes to mount a successful tour. To listen to previous installments in the series, please visit www.npr.org/blogs/therecord/156746563/a-summer-with-fun.
The NYC-based band is poised to start up a new North American leg of their worldwide headline tour, beginning tomorrow, August 2nd, with a sold out show at Philadelphia's River Stage at Great Plaza. Among the leg's just-announced highlights are three sold out dates at The Wiltern in Los Angeles, with the August 19th show by popular demand after August 17th and 18th performances proved instant sell outs (see itinerary below).
The tour will also feature a number of festival appearances, including Lollapalooza (slated for Chicago's Grant Park on August 4th), Osheaga Festival
Music et Arts (set for Montreal's Jean Drapeau Parc on August 3rd), and Outside Lands
Music & Arts Festival (in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park on August 12th). The trek will conclude with two Canadian radio-sponsored festival performances, X92.9's "XFEST" at Calgary's Fort Calgary on
September 1st and SONiC 102.9's annual "SONiC BOOM" at Edmonton's Northlands Park on
September 2nd.
Following that, fun. will then embark on their first-ever full-scale European tour. The September/October schedule features headline dates and festival appearances across the Continent, including shows in the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Luxembourg, Belgium, Ireland, France, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and the United Kingdom. For full details and ticket availability, please see https://ournameisfun.com/tour.
Having earned widespread acclaim with their 2009 debut album, "AIM AND IGNITE," fun. decided to raise the stakes with "SOME NIGHTS" by teaming with noted producer Jeff Bhasker (Kanye West, Jay-Z, Alicia Keys, Beyoncé, Drake). The band and Bhasker have worked to evolve the idiosyncratic fun. sound by marrying their robust melodies with elements of hip-hop.
Fueled by "We Are Young," the band's smash Fueled By Ramen debut album, "SOME NIGHTS" entered Billboard's "Top Current Albums" chart at #2 upon its February release, while also making a top 3 entry onto the Billboard 200. In addition to its spectacular popular success, the album has also earned ecstatic critical praise, with Rolling Stone applauding its blend of "classic bubble-pop tunefulness with rococo rock & roll" as well as singer Nate Ruess' "huge voice, all snarl and Broadway panache." SPIN hailed the album's "combination of record-collector bravado and lyrical vulnerability," singling out "the towering, thrilling 'One Foot'" and "the do-the-robot opening-to-the-car-with-the-windows-down anthem 'It Gets Better.'" The New York Times praised the band for their "grandiose pop tunes with complex structures, soaring hooks, and pensive verses."
"We Are Young (Feat. Janelle Monáe)" quickly catapulted fun. to the forefront of modern pop. The top-selling track of 2012 thus far, the single spent six consecutive weeks atop Billboard's "Hot 100," earning 5x RIAA platinum for sales in excess of 5 million. What's more, "
We Are Young" made history with seven successive weeks of sales in excess of 300,000, toppling the previous record held by Eminem's "Love The Way You Lie (Feat. Rihanna)," the only other title ever to have five straight weeks with sales over 300,000.
For more news and information, please see www.ournameisfun.com, www.facebook.com/ournameisfun, twitter.com/OurNameIsFun, and www.fueledbyramen.com.
(TOUR ITINERARY BELOW)
fun. NORTH AMERICA 2012
AUGUST
2 Philadelphia, PA River Stage @ Penn's Landing - SOLD OUT!
3 Montreal, QC Osheaga
Music et Arts Festival
4 Chicago, IL Lollapalooza- SOLD OUT!
8 Kansas City, MO 96.5 THE BUZZ Buzz Under The Stars
9 Boulder, CO Fox Theatre - SOLD OUT!
11 Vancouver, BC Jack Poole Plaza
12 San Francisco, CA Outside Lands
Music & Arts Festival
15 San Diego, CA SDSU Open Air Theatre
16 Las Vegas, NV The Pool @ The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas
17 Los Angeles, CA The Wiltern - SOLD OUT!
18 Los Angeles, CA The Wiltern - SOLD OUT!
19 Los Angeles, CA The Wiltern - SOLD OUT!
23 Jacksonville, OR Britt 2012
24 Portland, OR Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
25 Redmond, WA 107.7 THE END Presents Summer Camp 2012
26 Spokane, WA Knitting Factory Concert House - SOLD OUT!
28 Billings, MT Shrine Auditorium - NOTE NEW VENUE
30 Regina, SK Conexus Convention Hall
31 Saskatoon, SK The Odeon
SEPTEMBER
1 Calgary, AB X92.9's XFEST
2 Edmonton, AB SONiC 102.9's SONiC BOOM.
.jpg)
