Best known for singing uplifting and soulful tracks like You Raise Me Up and You’re Still You, Josh Groban’s life isn’t always sunshine and rainbows.
In a recent interview with AsiaOne, the American singer-actor spoke about his 25-year career in showbiz and his upcoming Gems concert in Singapore.
When asked about facing challenges as a performer, the 44-year-old reflected: “In this business, there’s always the pressure to make everything look perfect – it’s my job as an entertainer to make sure that I put my best foot forward. I always pride myself in wanting to do that.
“But more and more, I started to hear from my listeners that my songs helped them get through dark times and eventually, even I felt that it was fine for me to share that we all go through that, including me.”
“There have been days when I felt too hyper-critical, battling anxiety, depression and mental health issues — where things looked great on the outside but inside, there were lots of struggles.”
Every time turmoil hit, Josh would turn to music be it in the form of listening or songwriting. He shared that tracks like The Constant, River, Granted and February Song were born out of his troubles when he needed to feel better.
“What’s wonderful now is that fans can tell me those songs resonated with them the same way it did with me, and we can share that healing together – because ultimately, that’s what my music is all about.”
Since his debut studio album in 2001, Josh has cemented his name as both a singer and actor, with nominations for Tony, Emmy and multiple Grammy awards, and going on to sell over 35 million records worldwide.
However, in his eyes, establishing his arts education foundation Find Your Light has proven to be his biggest achievement. As someone who benefited from similar programmes growing up, he feels immense gratitude for the chance to give back to the initiatives that “saved” him.
Founded in 2004 to deliver quality arts education to youths in the United States, the foundation donated over $1.25 million (S$1.61 million) to 189 organisations providing support to 300,000 youths in 2025 alone.
“I owe everything to my teachers, to my parents, to those that really allowed me access to a piano, drum set and microphone when I was a shy kid going through some dark times,” Josh reminisced. “Having those music classes taught me who I am and they allowed me to use a voice that I didn’t know I had.
“To have a chance to say ‘yes’ back then when those programmes asked for help [was such a blessing], as we’re in a time in the US now where they’re being cut at a very drastic rate. Being able to make sure that the programme stays afloat right now when it’s very much needed is something I’m really thrilled and proud about.”
But Josh feels there’s still more to achieve, with the shifting music landscape and a whole life ahead of him. He is constantly inspired by new artistes who enter the industry, as well as singers whom he has always wanted to collaborate with, such as Bjork.
“Music has a way of always challenging and showing me new places to grow and expand and be scared over and over again,” he said.
Beyond singing, he would love to compose more songs, alongside writing for film, TV and video games.
He added: “I’d love to have a family. One day I’d love to get started on that stuff.”
Since September 2022, he has been in a relationship with English singer-actress Natalie McQueen, 36.
A theatre kid at heart
While recognised for his voice and music, Josh has always been a theatre kid at heart. He was involved in theatre at Los Angeles County High School for the Arts and graduated in 1999, before dropping out of musical theatre at Carnegie Mellon University to pursue singing when he was offered a recording contract later that year.
But decades later, he returned to theatre with his portrayal of the titular character in the 2023 Broadway revival of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
After playing the role almost 300 times over one year, it eventually took its toll on Josh.
He shared: “You get yourself to that place emotionally where you’re so angry and grief-filled, it gets into your molecules. Even though you’re acting and you say hi to people and hug them, your body remembers all the times you channelled that thing.”
The best advice he received was from previous actors who had played Sweeney, who told him to wash off the stage makeup along with the character, leaving it in the sink.
Afterwards, he would watch sitcoms like South Parks while treating himself to food delivery, fully escaping the heavy role he played beforehand.
While some actors always keep their characters with them to channel them at will, Josh is not someone who abides by this, doing everything he could to leave his role strictly on stage.
There were some nights where he walked all the way home because he needed to walk off Sweeney, he recounted.
Describing the art of acting as a great escape, Josh enjoys putting on the soul of another person and he chooses characters that aren’t similar to his own nature.
“I like to find characters that allow me to break out of myself and dive into a very different type of person, and then I make them interesting by finding the honesty of what I bring into the role,” explained Josh.
He gave the example of playing Sweeney: “Having to tap into a character that breaks from reality to become a vengeful, rage-filled killer, I still had to try to find ‘Josh’ and a human being in him ultimately. And the scariest thing of all is when you’re playing someone so awful, how do you find the humanity in him that connects such a character to all of us?”
On the joys in singing versus acting, he shared: “It’s all about telling a story and finding that emotional core. Whether you’re singing something or diving into a script, you’re still trying to go towards a truth and trying to move people through storytelling.
“With singing, I think there’s something that you can tap into that’s an added tool – music is so emotional already. With acting, however, you need to find a way to get to that emotional core without resting on music and it’s sometimes more of a challenge, but one that I really love.”
The fun in the lesser-known
Last May, Josh released his compilation album Gems, followed by his latest album Hidden Gems in November.
Gems is a ‘best of’ album, looking back on the greatest hits across Josh’s career that his team felt best represented the “soundtrack to people’s lives”.
However, the conceptualisation of Hidden Gems came after fans wondered about Josh’s lesser-known songs.
“Every song they asked about was only released as part of a very small limited-edition CD that went away and never went to streaming services. Listeners were asking for very rare songs,” he elaborated.
“So my manager just said, ‘Why don’t we compile some of these hidden gems where we make them available for streaming, since the fans are asking for it?”
The album includes unique tracks like Konosaki no Michi which was released in 2011 after a devastating earthquake in Japan as a small offering of hope, as well as a cover of Elton John’s debut track Empty Sky and Smile by Charlie Chaplin from 1936.
“There’re all kinds of songs on that album that allowed me to revisit specific moments in my career that were very special, but hadn’t received much attention,” he recalled. “So that was a lot of fun to do and — in some ways — more so than with Gems.”
Josh shared that he is currently in the process of recording his latest studio album, which marks his first in six years since the release of Harmony. At the time of our interview, he revealed that recording commenced around September in London and Los Angeles, and was in its last two weeks of wrapping up following the arrangement and selection of songs.
On what inspired the album, Josh said: “I started to realise how deeply my connection with film music goes… Many of the songs I’ve written and recorded throughout my career have been inspired by songs written for films.
“So as I started thinking about what songs I’d want to sing for a new album, I started to quite naturally find lots of big songs that were on these film soundtracks.”
He reached out to his friend, Canadian songwriter Greg Wells, who had just finished working on the Wicked movie to ask for his opinion on his selection of songs. With enthusiasm, Greg agreed to interpret the songs and work on the studio album with Josh.
The album is slated for release after his Gems concert stop in Singapore on Feb 13, where he will preview a few of the songs live.
Josh Groban’s Singapore concert will be held at The Star Theatre. Tickets are available on Sistic starting at $128.
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kristy.chua@asiaone.com
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