Groban Is the People’s Choice
Orange County Register
August 23, 2004
By Ben Wener
Review: The multifaceted singer works hard to maintain his sudden popularity.
Josh Groban blurring the lines Sunday night at the Pond.
Trying to determine what accounts for young Josh Groban's meteoric rise recently is about as easy as trying to categorize his music. The key, as evidenced Sunday night at his show at Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim: blurring boundaries - between demographics and languages, between high art and low, between what is classical and what is pop.
Of course, we know what primarily has made him a relative overnight sensation: a series of high-profile television appearances.
Stepping in for Andrea Bocelli to duet with Celine Dion at the 1999 Grammy Awards. Singing at the closing ceremonies of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. Performing at this year's Super Bowl. Crooning to Oprah on her 50th birthday, to say nothing of viewers he has reached via PBS' constant airing of his concerts during pledge drives - do the math on those ratings bonanzas and the humble 23-year-old who once aspired only to musical theater has reached well over a billion people.
It's an approach to superstardom that the vocalist, whose music is best described as classical-pop, didn't think would work initially. "Whenever something like that happens now, it's, like, oh great … frosting," he said by phone a week before the Pond show. (He plays again Sept. 10-11 at the Greek Theatre.)
"I'm aware now, when I do those big shows, that it's an opportunity to spread the music. But this is such a fickle market. I see people sing on TV all the time, and I don't see them becoming famous, because I don't see them on MTV and I don't hear them coming out of every car. So (at first) I figured why would I be different?"
Yet something about Groban - undoubtedly the same something that piqued famed producer David Foster's interest in molding him - was unique. His mane of brown curls, boy-next-door face and booming voice, for starters, made him an instant heartthrob to fans, many now dubbed Grobanites.
And then there's his music, which combines Bocelli's pop-opera, Broadway sounds one hears from Michael Crawford or Sarah Brightman and a heap of dramatic world-music bombast, ŕ la Yanni or Deep Forset, the atmospheric French duo that collaborated with Groban on two tracks for his second album, "Closer."
That's essentially a reflection of Groban's influence. Growing up a rock kid in Los Angeles, "My ears were absolutely in tune to what the pop and rock scene was." At 7 came a love of world music, sparked by Paul Simon's "Graceland." At 11 came the most important development, his first taste of musical theater.
It was a videotape of Sondheim's "Sunday in the Park With George," starring Mandy Patinkin and Bernadette Peters that ignited his passion. "It was just so powerful - the music was so stunning and the voices were amazing. I would just sit there in wonderment and say to myself, 'If I could make people feel the way I feel right this second watching this, that would be it.'."
And so it has been. Groban's glittering performance Sunday night at the Pond, though a bit sleepy and one-dimensional to these ears, nonetheless held devotees rapt for 90 minutes.
The vocalist likes to believe that his programs, especially those delivered to arena audiences, are "high-energy," adding that "if the crowd isn't on their feet and going crazy by the end of the show, then it's a failure." Yet something akin to Claymania is not the reaction this provokes.
Not since Bocelli's peak, in fact, have I seen an arena full of people so still and reverent for a singer. They were equally attentive as Groban, backed by a five-piece band and a mini-orchestra led by violinist Lucia Micarelli, indulged in a variety of styles. There were Italian demi-operatic pieces (like the oft-remade "Caruso"), Sting-like flamenco-tinged tunes in Spanish, well-known standards (Don McLean's "Vincent," a solo rendition of Simon & Garfunkel's "America") and, naturally, his own compositions, whether leaning toward Celine-ish pop ("Remember When It Rained") or classical ("Per Te").
It's a style, in other words, that is unclassifiable. "Sometimes that can be difficult," Groban says, "because when people want to put it in a specific genre, it's like putting a square peg in a round hole. On the other hand, though it may be more difficult to convince people that you're doing something new, once you do, the rewards are that much greater."
So fruitful, in fact, that Groban can pretty much do whatever he wants for his next encore. (And Broadway still beckons: He recently took part in a one-off performance of "Chess.") The only catch: maintaining forward momentum. Bocelli's sudden slipping-down in popularity is proof that guys like Groban can be branded novelties whose appeal quickly fades.
"And that's one thing I really want to do with this tour - get skepticism out of people's minds," he said. "Get them to say, 'Oh, he's not just another one of them. He's not just riding the wave of something that became big. I want this to be the I'm Not a Fluke Tour.
"You know, if there's one thing I've learned from this kind of music it's that … you have to go out and perform. I hope to be a constant touring artist like Jimmy Buffett or Dave Matthews - get out there every year and gain new fans while reaching the old ones.
"No matter what genre you touch on, it's important to keep pushing yourself and keep fans interested. And so long as you have the right formula, don't make stupid decisions and stay true to yourself, I don't see why that can't last forever."
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