Concert Preview
Impressive Groban stands out from the crowd

By Patrick MacDonald
Seattle Times music critic

	Josh Groban's style has been dubbed "popera."
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Groban is one of the most interesting personalities in pop right now, because he defies all the trends. His album leaped over rap, hip-hop, punk and pop albums to become king of the hill. What makes the feat especially notable and impressive is that "Closer" has been out since November and already sold more than 2 million copies.

A 22-year-old with classic features, puppy-dog eyes and tousled dark hair, Groban possesses a beautiful, natural vocal instrument, a rich baritone with a pleasing vibrato. His style has been dubbed "popera" because he brings operatic-quality singing to a variety of pop songs. Further separating him from virtually every other act on the Billboard 200 is the fact that most of the songs he sings are in Italian, French or Spanish.

That can be a drawback when you want to understand what he's singing about. And his choice of English-language songs tends toward the treacly. But with the right one, like Don McLean's masterpiece "Vincent" (no, not the rhyme-y "American Pie") or "You Raise Me Up," Groban can bring on the chill factor. His effect is like that of one of his earliest champions, Celine Dion: When a beautiful voice meets the right song — goose bumps.

Concert preview Josh Groban, 8 p.m. Saturday, Paramount Theatre, 911 Pine St., Seattle; $49.50-$77.50 (206-628-0888, www.ticketmaster.com or www.cc.com; information, 206-467-5510 or www.theparamount.com).

Groban's path to stardom is the stuff of legend. When tenor Andrea Bocelli got stuck in a European airport and couldn't make it to the 1999 Grammys to sing a duet with Dion, Groban was hastily recruited by writer-producer David Foster to sing Foster's "The Prayer." Groban's performance was triumphant. He went out a kid and came back a star.

Foster was already working with Groban at that point, having first heard him two weeks earlier at the inauguration of California Gov. Gray Davis, where the then-student at the Los Angeles High School for the Performing Arts sang "All I Ask of You" from "The Phantom of the Opera."

Foster produced Groban's first album, 2001's "Josh Groban," which was extraordinarily successful, selling more than 5 million copies worldwide. That same year, Foster helped Groban get a part on TV's "Ally McBeal," on which he played a high-school geek who became the school heartthrob when he sang at the prom.

In 2002, "Josh Groban In Concert," based on his Foster-directed PBS "Great Performances" special, was another hit CD. The DVD went to No. 1 and the video was the best-selling long-form music video of 2002. Last year, more than a billion viewers watched him sing "The Prayer" with Charlotte Church at the closing of the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.

His 40-date tour sold out before it even started. Billboard reported that tickets here went the fastest — two minutes. It's great that he's playing the Paramount, where he belongs.

Next time, he's going to be in an arena, which won't be as intimate.

As he ages, Groban will likely get even better, with deeper understanding of the emotional underpinnings of the songs he sings, and hopefully better song choices — with more in English, please.

Patrick MacDonald: 206-464-2312 or pmacdonald@seattletimes.com

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