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A CLOSER LOOK
By Jaan Uhelszki
Very rarely are the Cinderella stories you read about true. But Josh Groban's is an exception. Thanks to a fortuitous collision of fate and talent, the 23-year-old singer's career has all the markings of a modern-day fairy tale. Discovered before he was a senior in high school, Groban made his professional singing debut at then California Governor Gray Davis' 1999 inaugural festivities. This was followed by an unexpected gig pinch-hitting as Andrea Bocelli's replacement in a duet with Céline Dion at the rehearsal for the 1999 Grammy Awards. His singing so impressed Grammy host Rosie O'Donnell that she booked Groban for her highly rated talk show. Next came a guest spot on the TV series ALLY MCBEAL, playing, well, a teenager, who couldn't get a date to the prom. His appearance so galvanized fans -- they fired off more than 8,000 e-mails the day after he first appeared -- that David E. Kelly, the show's producer, decided to give him a recurring role.
But according to the singer, that was nothing, next to being recognized by stewardesses. "Yeah, I used to always wonder, when is the stewardess going to recognize me?" says Groban, laughing. "And it finally happened. It happens a lot now. Before, people used to say: 'There's that guy, I'm not really sure what he does, but I think I know who he is.' That came after ALLY MCBEAL. And then I did the Olympics. I didn't get a whole lot of camera time, but a billion people saw me for a second, so maybe that registered? But I think the first time that [I] really felt like things were happening was when 20/20 aired. They did this piece on me, and I had already done a lot of things -- the Olympics and a bunch of TV performances -- but I don't think that the public was really connecting the dots. What 20/20 did was connect them for me."
Not only were the dots connected, but the public was captivated by the slight, winsome tenor with the unruly hair and the voice of a fallen angel. Groban's self-titled debut CD and his 2003 follow-up, CLOSER, have each sold more than four million copies worldwide. His shows sell out within moments of tickets becoming available; women old enough to be his mother fling their undergarments at his Italian loafers, pen rather humid fan fiction on Web sites, and rhapsodize over his tousled curly locks, dark eyes, and various body parts. "His rippling leg muscles even flex while he sings," panted one fan-board poster.
"Stuff like that makes me a little nervous," confides Groban. "It's really frightening. Almost restraining order kind of stuff. But most of my fans aren't that over-the-top."
In fact they're a rather well-behaved bunch, who dub themselves Grobanites, follow the singer from city to city like a more civilized breed of Deadheads, and regularly contact radio and TV stations to "spread the Josh," as they call it. Not only that, they have raised more than $50,000 for the singer's charity, the Josh Groban Foundation, through a fan-run and -organized Web site, Grobanites for Charity.
Top banner photos: Scenes from Josh Groban in concert. |
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Violinist Lucia Micarelli is the featured soloist for "Mi Mancherai" and "You Raise Me Up." |
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Groban co-wrote "Remember When It Rained" and "Never Let Go" on CLOSER. |
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This program is currently not available through Shop Thirteen or ShopPBS. |
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