Zachary David Sobiech (May 3, 1995 – May 20, 2013) was an American singer-songwriter and musician from Lakeland, Minnesota, who was a member of the band A Firm Handshake. The single "

Clouds In meteorology, a cloud is an aerosol consisting of a visible mass of miniature liquid droplets, frozen crystals, or other particles, suspended in the atmosphere of a planetary body or similar space. Water or various other chemicals may c ...

" gained extensive media attention on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

, prior to Sobiech's death from

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...

in May 2013. It charted on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, eventually becoming a hit also in the UK, Canada and France. His philosophy was that in his last days of life due to his cancer, he needed to make people happy.

Life and career

In his early years, Sobiech attended St. Croix Catholic School in

Stillwater, Minnesota Stillwater is a city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Washington County, Minnesota, Washington County. It is in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area, on the west bank of the St. Croix River (Wisconsin-Minnesota), S ...

. He later attended

Stillwater Area High School Stillwater Area High School (SAHS) is a public school located in Oak Park Heights, Minnesota, United States. It serves as the primary high school for the Stillwater Area Public School District (834), the oldest public school district in Minneso ...

. At age 14, Sobiech was diagnosed with

osteosarcoma An osteosarcoma (OS) or osteogenic sarcoma (OGS) is a cancerous tumor in a bone. Specifically, it is an aggressive malignant neoplasm that arises from primitive transformed cells of mesenchyme, mesenchymal origin (and thus a sarcoma) and that exhi ...

, a bone cancer that mostly affects children.

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

reported that during his treatment he underwent 10 surgeries and 24 rounds of

chemotherapy Chemotherapy (often abbreviated chemo, sometimes CTX and CTx) is the type of cancer treatment that uses one or more anti-cancer drugs (list of chemotherapeutic agents, chemotherapeutic agents or alkylating agents) in a standard chemotherapy re ...

. He started writing music after his diagnosis. In May 2012 his doctors informed him that he had up to a year to live. Sobiech recorded the song "Clouds" about his battle with cancer, and released it as
YouTube video
in December 2012. It went

viral The word ''Viral'' means "relating to viruses" (small infectious agents). It may also refer to: Viral behavior, or virality Memetic behavior likened that of a virus, for example: * Viral marketing, the use of existing social networks to spre ...

, surpassing 3 million views at the time of his death. It currently has more than 22.8 million views as of November 2024.

A Firm Handshake

Prior to Sobiech's death, he formed the band A Firm Handshake with friends Samantha "Sammy" Brown and Reed Redmond. A Firm Handshake's first EP and only release, '' Fix Me Up'', was released digitally in early 2013, charting in the US, the UK and Canada. The debut single by A Firm Handshake is "How to Go to Confession" featuring Sammy Brown.

Death

Sobiech died on May 20, 2013, of complications from

, at his home in Lakeland, an eastern suburb of

Saint Paul, Minnesota Saint Paul (often abbreviated St. Paul) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Ramsey County, Minnesota, Ramsey County. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, ...

, seventeen days after his 18th birthday. His funeral was held at the Catholic Church of St. Michael and he was later buried in St. Michael's Cemetery.

Tributes

Rainn Wilson Rainn Percival Dietrich Wilson (born January 20, 1966) is an American actor, comedian, podcaster, producer, writer, and director. He starred as Dwight Schrute on NBC's American adaptation of ''The Office'' from 2005 to 2013, and received t ...

's YouTube channel SoulPancake released a documentary about Sobiech, directed by director-actor

Justin Baldoni Justin Louis Baldoni (born January 24, 1984) is an American actor and director. He is best known for playing Rafael Solano on the CW The CW Network, LLC (commonly referred to as The CW or simply CW) is an American commercial broadcast tel ...

, a part of its online reality series, ''My Last Days''. The 22-minute episode of ''My Last Days: Meet Zach Sobiech'' has been watched more than 15.6 million times on the main SoulPancake YouTube channel. A further episode entitled ''My Last Days: Zach Sobiech, One Year Later'' was created to follow up with Sobiech's family and friends after his death. Artists have released many tributes, including many cover versions of "Clouds"—with a prominent version of "Clouds" released on SoulPancake, featuring director

himself, along with

Bryan Cranston Bryan Lee Cranston (born March 7, 1956) is an American actor. After taking minor roles in television, he established himself as a leading actor in both comedic and dramatic Bryan Cranston filmography, works on stage and screen. He has received ...

Ashley Tisdale Ashley Michelle Tisdale (born July 2, 1985) is an American actress and singer. During her childhood, she was featured in over 100 advertisements and had minor roles on-screen and in theatre. She achieved mainstream success as Maddie Fitzpatric ...

Jason Mraz Jason Thomas Mraz ( ; born June 23, 1977) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. He rose to prominence with the release of his debut studio album, ''Waiting for My Rocket to Come'' (2002), which spawned the single "The Remedy (I Won't Wo ...

Sara Bareilles Sara Beth Bareilles ( ; born December 7, 1979) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actress. She has sold over three million albums and over 15 million singles in the United States. Bareilles has earned various accolades, including ...

Colbie Caillat Colbie Marie Caillat ( ; born May 28, 1985) is an American singer-songwriter. She rose to fame on the social networking website Myspace in 2005. She signed with Universal Republic Records to release her debut studio album, '' Coco'' (2007), w ...

Phillip Phillips Phillip LaDon Phillips Jr. (born September 20, 1990) Note: An inaccurate birthdate (Sept. 29, 1990) and birthplace (Leesburg, Georgia) appear in is an American singer-songwriter who rose to fame after winning the eleventh season of ''Americ ...

Passenger A passenger is a person who travels in a vehicle, but does not bear any responsibility for the tasks required for that vehicle to arrive at its destination or otherwise operate the vehicle, and is not a steward. The vehicles may be bicycles, ...

The Lumineers The Lumineers are an American alternative folk band based in Denver, Colorado. The founding members are Wesley Schultz (lead vocals, guitar) and Jeremiah Fraites (drums, percussion, piano). Schultz and Fraites began writing and performing to ...

and many others. The music video on SoulPancake presented in collaboration with Wayfarer Entertainment was directed by Justin Baldoni, produced by Baldoni and Ahmed Kolacek, with Fouad Elgohari as associate producer and Nick Pezzillo as editor. The video has been viewed over 5 million times on the SoulPancake YouTube channel. On December 5, 2013, a choir of an estimated 5,000 sang Sobiech's hit song "Clouds" at the

Mall of America Mall of America (MoA) is a large shopping mall located in Bloomington, Minnesota. Located within the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area, the mall lies southeast of the junction of Interstate 494 and Minnesota State Highway 77, north ...

. The event was organized by the KS95 Kids Radiothon in collaboration with the Children's Cancer Research Fund and

Gillette Children's Specialty Healthcare Gillette Children's is a non-profit hospital located in St. Paul, Minnesota, USA. Through its hospital, clinics and greater Minnesota locations, Gillette treats patients with brain, bone and movement conditions needing specialized expertise. His ...

. The 12th annual iteration of the event was held on December 6th, 2024.

Legacy

Sobiech's family established the Zach Sobiech Osteosarcoma Fund at

Children's Cancer Research Fund Children's Cancer Research Fund is a not-for-profit organization focused on raising money to fund research for childhood cancer. In addition to funding research, they also provide support programs for families affected by cancer. History Chil ...

. In September 2015, the fund reached $2 million. Zach's mother Laura Sobiech wrote a memoir about his life, ''Fly a Little Higher: How God Answered a Mom's Small Prayer in a Big Way''. In early 2016, it was announced that

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...

was developing a film based on Laura Sobiech's book. The film ''

'' was released on

Disney+ The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...

on October 16, 2020. Production started on October 19, 2019, in Montreal, and was directed by

. The film stars

Fin Argus Steffan Fin Argus (born September 1, 1998) is an American actor, musician, and model. Early life and education Argus is from Des Plaines, Illinois. They have an older sister, Sadie, and a younger sister, Lacey. They were a self-described " theat ...

as Zach and

Sabrina Carpenter Sabrina Annlynn Carpenter (born May 11, 1999) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. She first gained prominence starring on the Disney Channel series ''Girl Meets World'' (2014–2017). She signed with the Disney Music Group, Disney ...

as Sammy.

Discography

Extended plays

Singles

References

External links

*
The Zach Sobiech Osteosarcoma Fund
at

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sobiech, Zach 1995 births 2013 deaths 21st-century American male singers 21st-century American singer-songwriters American folk rock musicians American Internet celebrities Catholics from Minnesota Deaths from bone cancer in the United States Deaths from cancer in Minnesota American indie folk musicians Musicians from Saint Paul, Minnesota People from Stillwater, Minnesota People from Washington County, Minnesota Singer-songwriters from Minnesota