A World Awakes to Josh
Adelaide Now
May 13, 2007
By James Wigney
Across the globe, new fans are catching on to the LA kid with the sublime voice
Josh Groban has sung for the Pope, duetted at the Winter Olympics and Nobel Peace Prize Concert, entertained at the Super Bowl and shifted more than 15 million copies of his three albums.
He can trace it all back to a moment at high school that changed his life forever.
Although he grew up in a musical family in Los Angeles, with parents who regularly took him to the opera, theatre and rock concerts, Groban had no inkling of the power of his voice or where it could take him.
"I was 13 or 14 and plucked out of the back of the choir and asked to sing a solo for one of the concerts - I had never done that before," the clean-cut and self-effacing Groban said.
"I wasn't the most popular kid in school. I was kind of shy and didn't have a lot of friends, but after I did that I was like the sports hero.
"Everybody applauded and wanted to be friends with me and I realised that it was just my way of expressing myself."
Express himself, he certainly has - the 26-year-old is a certified megastar in his homeland and the rest of the world is catching on to his powerful and lyrical baritone voice and classically-influenced brand of pop music.
It has been a steady rise for Groban since his big break in 1999 when he was "discovered" by multiple Grammy Award winner David Foster, the producer/composer behind hits by Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Celine Dion, The Corrs and Michael Buble, among many others.
Having heard Groban sing, Foster summoned him to stand in for Andrea Bocelli to sing a duet with Celine Dion at the Grammy Awards.
Groban declined, thinking his voice was not right, but Foster persisted. The show was a success and Foster took him under his wing, producing his first two albums and constantly pushing the young singer.
"That was my relationship with David when I was 17, 18 and 19," Groban said. "I'd be saying 'I don't know David, I never really thought I could do this' and he would say 'Just do it'. He was a big confidence booster for me."
Groban's music is not easy to classify. While it certainly falls on the easy side of listening and is undeniably classically influenced - with orchestral backing and songs sung in English, Spanish and Italian - Groban is adamant he is a pop singer.
He is uncomfortable with labels such as "classical crossover" and "popera", and - unlike peers such Il Divo and Amici Forever - has steered clear of putting opera arias on to his albums.
He grew up listening to voices as varied as Placido Domingo, Mandy Patinkin and Mel Torme to Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Radiohead.
But when it came to producing his own music, Groban found it difficult to mesh them all into something coherent.
"I like to think of it as pop music with classical influences, world music influences, rock influences - but it's pop music," he said.
"I got trapped in the beginning because a lot of critics thought I was coming out and trying to say I was an opera singer or say here is the new classical music. No, I am absolutely saying, 'go listen to Pavarotti - that's classical music'.
"What I am doing is much more experimental and my voice is my own.
"It would be easy for me to throw Nessun Dorma on my album to please a certain audience. But it's not where my heart is and I certainly don't want to take that kind of music and experiment with it."
Groban has addressed those experimental urges on his most recent album, Awake, not only co-writing five of the tracks but also enlisting artists including British singer-songwriter Imogen Heap, US alt-rocker Dave Matthews, jazz guru Herbie Hancock and African vocal ensemble Ladysmith Black Mambazo.
"When you work with people like that you have to forget what you think you know," Groban said.
"Just walk in and be as open-minded as possible and soak it up like a sponge. Each of them thinks and works in such a different way that it's exciting for me."
Working with Mambazo also dovetailed neatly with another of Groban's passions; he is a passionate advocate for AIDS and poverty awareness in Africa, and an ambassador for Nelson Mandela's charity 46664.
"Mandela found out I was going to be there and invited me to his office in Johannesburg," Groban said.
"It was one of the greatest honours of my life and I sat with him for a little bit and talked about his work but mainly just listened. I mean, you don't say much, you just want to take in everything you can."
Josh Groban will perform at Adelaide Entertainment Centre on October 12. Bookings: Ticketek from June 4.
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