Josh Groban

Birth name : Joshua Winslow Groban
Born : February 27, 1981 (1981-02-27) (age 27)
Origin : Los Angeles, California, United States
Genre(s) : Classical, Pop, Vocal
Occupation(s) : Singer-songwriter
Instrument(s) : Singing, piano, drums
Voice type(s) : (See voice section)
Years active : 1997-present
Label(s) : 143/Reprise
Website : http://www.joshgroban.com

Joshua Winslow Groban (born February 27, 1981) is a Grammy-nominated American singer-songwriter. He has concentrated his career so far mostly in concert singing and recordings, although he has stated that he wishes to pursue musical theater in the future.
Early life
Josh Groban was born in Los Angeles, California, to a Jewish American father (a descendant of Polish and Russian immigrants) and a Norwegian-American mother. His maternal great-grandparents were from the eastern Norwegian district of Toten. His father converted to Christianity upon marriage, and Groban was raised an Episcopalian. Chris, his younger brother by four years shares a birthday with him.
Groban debuted as a singer in seventh grade, but soon put it 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.
In 1997 and 1998, Groban attended the Interlochen Arts Camp in Michigan, 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 theatre. 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.
Groban attended the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts as a theater major and graduated in 1999 and then attended Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, studying drama.
Early career
Groban left Carnegie Mellon after only a few weeks into his first semester when he was offered a recording contract at Warner Bros. Records through Foster's 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." Therefore, under Foster's influence, Groban's first album focused more on the classics with songs such as "Gira Con Me" and "Alla 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 World Tour, featured on her "La Luna" Concert DVD. He made his recording debut by singing "For Always" with Lara Fabian on the movie soundtrack to A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (2001). Groban 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 Bill 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.
Groban played the role of Malcolm Wyatt in the May 2001 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 Groban in this finale. The character of Malcolm Wyatt was so popular, with 8,000 emails from fans, that Groban was asked to return the next season to reprise his role and perform "To Where You Are".
The singer's eponymous debut album Josh Groban was released on November 20, 2001. 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). In December 2002, he performed "To Where You Are" and then sang "The Prayer" in a duet with Sissel Kyrkjebø at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in Oslo, Norway. He then joined The Corrs, Ronan Keating, Sting, Lionel Richie, and others for a Christmas performance at the Vatican in Rome, Italy. In 2003, Groban performed at the David Foster created concert for World Children's Day. He performed "The Prayer" with Celine Dion and the finale song, "Aren't They All Our Children" with artists including Yolanda Adams, Nick Carter, Enrique Iglesias, and Celine Dion.
Charity
Under the guidance of his mentor David Foster, Groban performed for many charity events that included VH1 Save the Music (2005), Tsunami Aid: A Concert of Hope (2005), Fifth Adopt-A-Annual Minefield concert (2005), 2nd Annual Grammy Jam (2005), Live 8 (2005), The Heart Foundation Gala (2005), and David Foster and Friends Charity Gala (2006). Inspired by a visit with Nelson Mandela during a 2004 trip to South Africa, he established the Josh Groban Foundation to help children in need through education, healthcare and the arts. Mandela appointed Groban as an Official Ambassador for Mandela's Project 46664, a campaign to help raise Global awareness of HIV/AIDS in Africa. On April 25th, 2007, Josh Groban performed with the African Children's Choir on American Idol's "Idol Gives Back" episode. Also on September 2, 2007 Josh Groban donated $150,000 to Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools to fund music education. On February 28, 2008 he appeared in One Night Live at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Canada with Bryan Adams, Sarah McLachlan, Jann Arden and RyanDan in aid of the Sunnybrook Hospital Women and Babies Program. In honor of his 27th birthday, his fans set out to raise $27,000 in a project called "Raise 27". They ended up raising a total of $44,227 for the Josh Groban Foundation, to benefit the Noah's Ark children's orphanage called Siyawela in South Africa. Groban has since referred to this donation as "the best birthday present ever".Source : en.wikipedia.org