|
The following biography
is from
Wikipedia.org
“The
Free Encyclopedia.”
Buy at AllPosters.com
Joshua Winslow Groban (born February 27, 1981) is
an American singer, known for his mature and versatile lyrical baritone voice.
His musical style ranges from classical to pop.
****
Country Los Angeles, California
Years active 1997 - Present
Genres Pop, Classical
Labels 143/Reprise
****
Early
life
Josh Groban was born in Los Angeles, California, to
a Jewish American father (a descendant of immigrants from Poland and Russia) and
a Norwegian American mother. His father converted to Christianity upon marriage,
and Groban was raised an Episcopalian. He has a younger brother, Christopher,
who shares a birthday with him only four years later.[1].
Groban debuted as a singer in seventh grade but
soon after put singing on hold for a few years. "I enjoyed the arts aspects, but
my grades were slipping. I didn't feel that I was getting enough creative input.
So I went to Bridges Academy to get my grades up to straight A's." While at
Bridges Academy, Groban took normal classes from 9:00 AM until 1:00 PM, and then
afterwards attended theatre classes [2].
In 1997 and 1998, Groban attended the Interlochen
Arts Camp, majoring in musical theater, which is also when he began taking voice
lessons outside of school. "I started taking music lessons on the side. I was
very much into musical theater. I had a pretty good baritone voice, so I began
acting and singing in school productions".
In late 1998, the 17-year-old Groban was introduced
by his vocal coach to Grammy-winning producer/arranger David Foster. Groban
worked for Foster as a rehearsal singer on a series of high-profile events,
including the 1999 Grammy Awards -- where, as a stand-in for Andrea Bocelli, he
rehearsed Foster's "The Prayer" with Céline Dion -- and the January 1999
inauguration of Gray Davis as governor of California. Josh auditioned with "All
I Ask Of You" from Phantom of the Opera for the latter, which occurred only one
month previous to the Grammy Awards.
Josh attended the Los Angeles County High School
for the Arts as a theater major and graduated in 1999. After graduation, he
expected to attend Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA.
Career
After only one year in the music department at
Carnegie Mellon University, his choice school, Groban left when he was offered a
recording contract at Warner Bros. Records through Foster's own 143 Records
imprint. With regard to signing Groban, Foster said: "I love his natural ability
in the pop and rock arena, but I love his sense of classics even more. He's a
true musical force to be reckoned with" [3]. Therefore, under Foster's
influence, Groban's first album focused more on the classics with songs such as
"Gira Con Me" and "Alle Luce Del Sole," the first ones decided on by Foster and
Groban.
Soon after being picked up by Foster, Groban went
on to perform "There For Me" with Sarah Brightman on her 2000-2001 La Luna Tour,
featured on her "La Luna" Concert DVD, and made his recording debut by singing
"For Always" with Lara Fabian on the movie soundtrack to A.I.: Artificial
Intelligence (2001). He also became involved in many benefit shows, including
the following: "The Andre Agassi Grand Slam Event For Children", singing
alongside Elton John, Stevie Wonder, Don Henley and Robin Williams; "Muhammad
Ali's Fight Night Foundation" which honored Michael J. Fox and others; "The
Family Celebration" (2001) which was co-hosted by President Clinton and his
wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and David E. Kelley and his wife, Michelle
Pfeiffer; and Michael Milken's CapCure event, which raises funds for cancer
research.
In May 2001, Groban played the role of Malcolm
Wyatt in the season finale of the television series Ally McBeal, performing
"You're Still You." The series creator, David E. Kelley, was impressed at
Groban's performance at The Family Celebration event, and, based on the audience
reaction to Groban's singing, Kelley created a character for Josh in this
finale. The character of Malcolm Wyatt was so popular, with 8,000 emails from
fans [4], that Groban was asked to come back the next season to reprise his role
and perform "To Where You Are."
On November 20, 2001, Groban's self-titled debut
album Josh Groban was released and, over the next year, it went from gold to
double-platinum.
On February 24, 2002, Groban performed "The Prayer"
with Charlotte Church at the closing ceremonies of the Winter Olympics, and by
November, he had his own PBS special, Josh Groban In Concert (2002). The
following month, he performed "To Where You Are" and "The Prayer" at the Nobel
Peace Prize Concert in Oslo, Norway, and joined The Corrs, Ronan Keating, Sting,
Lionel Richie and others for a holiday performance at the Vatican in Rome,
Italy.
On November 11, 2003, his second album Closer was
released. Josh himself said that he believed that this second album was a better
reflection of him and that his audience would be able to get a better idea of
him personally from listening to it. "What most people know about me, they know
through my music. This time, I've tried to open that door as wide as possible.
These songs are a giant step closer to who I really am and what my music is all
about. Hence the title" [5].
Two months after Closer was released, it rose on
the Billboard charts from number 11 to number one [6]. Both of Groban's albums
were produced by David Foster, released under Foster's 143 Records and
distributed by Warner Music. His cover of Brian Kennedy's "You Raise Me Up"
became very popular on the adult contemporary charts.
Josh also performed in the soundtrack to Troy,
composed by James Horner, featured in the song "Remember Me" with Tanja
Tzarovska. He also performed in the soundtrack to Robert Zemeckis's 2004
animated film The Polar Express, featured in the song "Believe." The song is
composed by Alan Silvestri and Glen Ballard.
During the summer of 2004, Josh once again returned
to the birthplace of his artistic growth, Interlochen, where he gave a legendary
performance to local residents of Michigan and the many, many campers, ranging
from elementary school to high school age. He additionally signed many
autographs, and spoke about his experiences as a young performer.
On November 30, 2004, his second live DVD, Live At
The Greek, was released. It also ran as a Great Performances special on PBS.
Also in 2004, Josh performed "Remember When It Rained," backed by a full
orchestra, at the American Music Awards where he was up for Favorite Male Artist
in the pop category. Josh and his recordings were nominated for more than a
dozen awards in 2004, including the American Music Award, World Music Award,
Academy Award, and a Grammy.
Other appearances include The Oprah Winfrey Show,
Jay Leno, Larry King Live, The Rosie O'Donnell Show, 20/20, The Today Show,
Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, Super Bowl XXXVIII, and the Rockefeller Tree
Lighting [7].
During the first week of September 2006, Groban's
latest single entitled "You Are Loved (Don't Give Up)", was exclusively released
to AOL's First Listen. It was taken from his third studio album Awake, which was
officially released on November 7, 2006. [8]
Influences
Some of Groban's musical influences have been
Radiohead, Paul Simon, Sting, Peter Gabriel, and Björk [9]. He says he is able
to look up to anyone, musically, who has pushed the boundaries and stepped
outside of the box. As for vocal influences, "anyone who told a story with their
songs," including: Mandy Patinkin, George Hearn, and Luciano Pavarotti [10].
Other
In order to meet Wikipedia's quality standards,
this article's trivia section may require cleanup.
The trivia section may be too large, or
indiscriminate. Please help by removing unencyclopedic content or integrating
content from the trivia section into other appropriate areas of the article.
Groban plays piano, drums, has expressed an
interest in learning to play uilleann pipes (similar to bagpipes but Irish), and
penny whistle in grade school.
He has also been featured as an animated guest
character on the hit show American Dad!.
Someday, he really wants to be on the show The
Simpsons [11].
Groban has no children and currently resides in
Beverly Hills.
Groban has repeatedly stated his love of both
Unicorns [12] and Fresca.
He recently had a public break-up with his former
girlfriend, January Jones, who can be seen in 'American Wedding' and 'Dirty
Dancing: Havana Nights'.
His fans often affectionately refer to themselves
as "Grobanites".
Discography
Albums:
Josh Groban - 2001
Closer - 2003
Awake - 11/7/2006
Awake Internet Edition - additonal tracks -
11/7/2006[13]
Concerts
Josh Groban In Concert - 2002
CHESS: Actors' Benefit Fund Concert - 2003
Live At The Greek - 2004
Come Together Now - Hurricane Relief Concert - 2005
Acting
Ally McBeal Season 4 Box Set 2 (DVD) - 2002 - In
episode "The Wedding" Josh plays Malcom Wyatt and performs "You're Still You"
Ally McBeal Season 5 Box Set 1 (DVD) - 2003 - In
episode "Nine One One" Josh plays Malcom Wyatt and performs "To Where You Are"
Featured In
Hurricane Relief - Come Together Now: "Alla Luce
Del Sole" & "Tears in Heaven" - 2005 - Participated in the fund raising concert
and CD for victims of the terrible hurricanes of 2005 including Katrina and
Rita.
Sarah Brightman: La Luna: Live in Concert (DVD) -
2001 - Duet on "There for Me"
A.I. - Artificial Intelligence Original Motion
Picture Score - 2001 - Duet on "For Always" (with Lara Fabian)
Enchantment - 2001 - Duet on "The Prayer"
Prelude: The Best Of Charlotte Church - 2002 - Duet
on "The Prayer"
Enchantment: Charlotte Church (DVD) - 2002 - Duet
on "Somewhere" and "The Prayer"
Duets: Barbara Streisand - 2002 - Duet on "All I
Know Of Love"
Concert for World Children's Day (DVD) - 2003 -
Performed "Gira Con Me," "To Where You Are," "The Prayer" (duet with Céline Dion),
and "Aren't They All Our Children Anthem" as a cast.
Troy Soundtrack - 2004 - "Remember" with Tanja
Tzarovska
Polar Express Soundtrack - 2004 - "Believe"
Lady in the Water (teaser trailer) - 2006 - "Mi
Mancherai (Il Postino)"
Barbara Cook at the Met (CD) - 2006 - Duet on "Move
on" and "Not While I'm Around"
Discography from That Josh Groban Guy
****
The
above biography has been copied in part or in whole
from an article on
Wikipedia.org
"The Free Encyclopedia." It has been modified under
the GNU Free Document License Section 5 in the
following manner: (1) All links within the article
have been removed, including text links such as
"[#]"; (2) The "[Edit]" text and link have been
removed [if you would like to update the article,
you may do so from the original page]; (3) the table
of Contents links and text have been removed; and
(4) all of the sections of the original article have
not been copied. All of the above text is available
under the terms of the
GNU Free Document License.
URL of Original Article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josh_Groban
Date Article Copied:
November 2006
We
will try to replace this article with an original
biography in the near future, but we hope this will
be of help to our visitors in the mean time. |
