All I Want For Christmas...

Seasons greetings and all the best for a happy and safe holiday season. Of course, I'm hoping for a josh-filled year in 2009...



Thanks for visiting and I'll be back in the new year...
~

Billboard End of Year Charts - 2008...

What a year!!! The full results for Billboard 2008 End of Year Charts can be found here.

TOP BILLBOARD 200

Artist
#01 - Josh Groban

Album
#02 - NOEL/Josh Groban

Artist (Male)
#01 - Josh Groban

BILLBOARD TOP COMPREHENSIVE

Artist
#01 - Josh Groban

Album
#02 - NOEL/Josh Groban

BILLBOARD TOP INTERNET SALES

Artist
#01 - Josh Groban

Album
#01 - NOEL/Josh Groban

BILLBOARD TOP CLASSICAL CROSSOVER

Artist
#01 - Josh Groban

Album
#01 - NOEL/Josh Groban
#04 - AWAKE/Josh Groban
#07 - AWAKE LIVE!/Josh Groban

BILLBOARD TOP POP

Artist
#15 - Josh Groban

Artist (Male)
#06 - Josh Groban

BILLBOARD TOP CLASSICAL CATALOG

Album
#01 - CLOSER/Josh Groban
#03 - JOSH GROBAN/Josh Groban
#04 - NOEL/Josh Groban

BILLBOARD TOP POP CATALOG

Artist
#10 - Josh Groban

Album
#28 - CLOSER/Josh Groban
#47 - NOEL/Josh Groban

BILLBOARD TOP HOT ADULT CONTEMPORARY

Songs
#30 - AWAKE/Josh Groban

BILLBOARD TOP CANADIAN

Album
#2 ............... NOEL/Josh Groban

In summary:
8 x #01 - - - 3 x #02 - - - 1 x #03
2 x #04 - - - 1 x #06 - - - 1 x #07
1 x #10 - - - 1 x #15 - - - 1 x #28
1 x #30 - - - 1 x #47

Congratulations Josh!!! Bring on 2009 and the new album...

Christmas has come early!!!

Congratulations Josh... Noel has been certified as 5X PLANTINUM by the RIAA!!!

(Which is a pretty good effort for an album you put together in a couple of weeks as a thank-you to the fans.)

Did someone say Room Service...

If only my next hotel room had this added feature???

Congratulations Josh...

A Grammy nomination...

Field 3 - Traditional Pop
Category 14
Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album (For albums containing 51% or more playing time of VOCAL tracks.)

* Still Unforgettable - Natalie Cole [DMI Records]
* The Sinatra Project - Michael Feinstein [Concord Music Group]
* Noël - Josh Groban [143/Reprise]
* In The Swing Of Christmas - Barry Manilow [Hallmark/Arista]
* Rufus Does Judy At Carnegie Hall - Rufus Wainwright [Geffen]

For an album that was recorded in a couple of weeks as a thank-you gift for the fans, this is wonderful news.

Now we just have to wait until Feb 2009 to hear the words "And the Grammy goes to...."

Don't you love December...

We certainly have so much to be thankful for...

The promo tour for the release of "A Collection" in Europe is certainly ramping up. Here's what's on the cards for the next few weeks. Dates and times aren't guaranteed, but I'll update the schedule as more information comes to hand.

01 Dec- GMTV - London

Watch the interview here.
Watch Josh sing "To Where You Are" here.

02 Dec- Loose Women, ITV - London

Interview


To Where You Are

05 Dec-Star Academy, TF1 - France

Hymne A L'Amour with Joanna

Don't Give Up with Mickels

05 Dec - NRJ - Paris

Live on air interview

07 Dec- Vivement Dimanche Show (with Charles Aznavour) - France **

La Boheme (in French) + Interview

07 Dec- Jon Christos Radio Show BBC Radio Lancashire - Lancashire **

08 Dec- Radio 2 Celebrates The Music Of Disney - London

11 Dec- Prince's Royal Variety Performance - London

11 Dec- Never Mind The Buzzcocks - London **

Part One


Part Two


Part Three

12 Dec- Late Late Show, RTE1 - Dublin

Little Drummer Boy + Interview

13 Dec- Children In Need, TV4 - Stockholm

Anthem

14 Dec- TV4 Stockholm

Watch the interview here.

15 Dec- Sunrise - Australia **

Watch the interview here.

Best line of the entire interview is when Nuala describes Josh's voice as being a "WEAPON OF MASS-SEDUCTION"....

17 Dec- Telecast: Prince's Royal Variety Performance, BBC One - London **

Anthem

18 Dec- Jose Carreras Gala - Leipzig

You Raise Me Up

19 Dec- Star Academy (Final) - France

Silent Night

20 Dec- National Lottery Show, BBC One - London

Little Drummer Boy

Interview

26 Dec- Smooth Radio(In conversation with Andrew Lloyd Webber) - UK **

26 Dec- Telecast: Radio 2 Celebrates The Music Of Disney - UK **

** pre-recorded

Thank you Josh...

Four hours after I posted my last entry guess who posted on his blog???

It's not a video but it's still pretty funny. Check it out here.
~

C'mon Groban - it's time to update your blog...

It's been two months since your last video blog, and surely you've learnt by now that we're not all that good at the whole waiting thing.

What happened to the blog you recorded with Placido Domingo? Surely it's not too much to ask to post that and it'll keep us happy (for a few moments anyway)... That way you can do one while in the UK and then of course, one for Christmas.

You know what happens when the Grobanites get restless, so please post soon...

Anyway, have fun in the UK and Europe.
~

Chess in Concert DVD news

It's been just over 6 months since Josh performed in the concert version of "Chess" at the Royal Albert Hall in London, and the "Chess in Concert website" has just been updated with the following information:

Chess in Concert is currently being edited for DVD and will be broadcast first in the US in Spring 2009 (date to be confirmed) and then in the UK. The DVD and CD will then be on-sale world-wide.

News from the edit suite is that Chess in Concert looks and sounds terrific…

Having been lucky enough to be in the audience for both nights, I can't wait for this to be released on DVD. There were some sound issues at the RAH, so it's great to read that this hasn't translated to the DVD production.

ANTHEM

And the winner is....

Firstly a big thank you to everyone that entered. I'd really love to be in a position to send you all a copy of the CD. It's well worth it for Anthem alone (not to mention those amazing photos in the CD booklet).

And secondly, sorry for the delay in getting the announcement post up, but I just had a fairly severe thunderstorm go through my area, so I had to shut down my computer and wait for it to pass.

I decided to get a bit creative in announcing the winner, so here it is... (and if for whatever reason the video doesn't work, just go to the bottom of the post)



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CONGRATULATIONS DIANA....
~

Giveaway...

*** EDIT - The draw has taken place and the winner was Diana. See this post.

I've been lucky enough to be the recipient of many specials gifts from Grobanites all over the world during the past year, and more often than not they don't want anything in return.

So to spread the Josh and celebrate the release of "A Collection" I have decided to give away a copy of the new CD.

Just leave a comment on this post, make a post in the "Leave Me A Message" box on the right or send me an email to tell me you'd like to be included in the random draw.

Entries close 5pm Australian Eastern Standard time on Sunday 16th November 2008. To make it a little easier for my overseas visitors, this equates to (based on information from timeanddate.com):

• Hong Kong/Singapore - 3pm Sunday 16th
• London - 7am Sunday 16th
• Paris - 8am Sunday 16th
  
• New York - 2am Sunday 16th
• Los Angeles - 11pm Saturday 15th

I hope to post the CD to winner early next week, provided it's released here next Saturday 15th November as planned.

*** EDIT - Look what I picked up today (and one day early). Woo hoo!!!! One for me and one for the lucky winner.

**One entry per person**
**Postage included**

Good luck and remember to check back to see if you're the lucky winner.

**Edit - thanks to everyone who's entered so far. Entries have been received from
Erin, SweeneyFan, Wendy, Reut, Marta, Meghan, Katrina, Rose, Corianne, Candice, White, Joanna, Jerusha, Katayoon, Fiona, Diana, Caroline, "If I Just Lay Here", JedidJah, Justafan & Kinga.
~

Patience is a virtue...

...but unfortunately when it comes to all things Groban I have a tolerance level of about zero. So like a lot of fans around the world I'm playing the waiting game and to be honest it's not going very well.

My friends think it's a little weird that I'm so excited about this release, particularly given that the only 'new' song on the CD is "Anthem" from Chess. But for me, it'll be well worth it for this song alone. (Now we just need some details of when the Chess in Concert DVD will be released - but that's a whole other story - LOL...)

"A Collection" was released in the Netherlands on Friday, but I won't have it in my hands until next Saturday (if everything goes to plan). Unfortunately for our UK friends, the release date seems to have changed a million times, and it looks like it's now December 1st.

Just think of the problems that could've been solved if there was a single worldwide release date... Oh well, a girl can dream.

Anyway, this might help to pass the time until 9am next Saturday morning...

(Is it Saturday yet???)
~

A Man And His Dog...

Truth be told - I'm neither a dog nor a cat person (yet another thing I can blame my parents for) but for some reason seeing Josh with Sweeney really make me happy...

You might've already seen this on YTube, but in case you haven't, enjoy.



And in case you're wondering, Sweeney is a Wheaten Terrier.

Talk about confusing…

Seriously, how hard can it be to get consistency or accurate information in relation to the release date for “Josh Groban – A Collection”…

Let’s just put into perspective some of the conflicting information:

On JG.com
There are two posts “Josh Groban – A Collection” and “Josh Groban In The UK” which state that “Josh Groban – A Collection” will be released November 10th.

On FoJG
Again two posts, but this time, the “Josh Groban - A Collection” post has a release date of November 10th, while the "Josh Groban in the UK" post has the release date as November 17th.

On the UK website of the Noble PR Consultancy firm, the release date is stated as December 1st. From this website there's a link to www.joshgrobanmusic.com, which has the release date back to November 17th. Can anyone see a pattern forming here (in that no one really knows what's going on)???

Warner Brothers Australia has confirmed November 15th as the release date for ‘down under’.

And here’s a few on-line websites with their release dates

BOL (Netherlands) - November 7th
Take2 (South Africa) - November 10th
Chaos (Australia) - November 17th
CD Wow (UK) - November 17th
Amazon (UK) – December 1st
HMV (UK) – December 1st
Play (UK) – December 1st
CD Universe (USA) – December 2nd

So, I guess that sometime between now and Christmas we can expect that the CD will be released.

Apart from this – there are quite a few other Josh-related items on the agenda. Here’s my quick summary (apologies now if I've missed something, but as you can see, there's quite a few things on the cards):

CD

• Brian McKnight “I'll Be Home For Christmas” – Josh duets on "Angels We Have Heard On High". This CD is currently available. (**This song also featured on Josh's CD "Noel")

• Charles Aznavour “Duos” – Josh joins Charles to sing "La Boheme". Release date December 5th.
  

• Placido Domingo – In his “Late Night Kitchen Time” video blog, Josh shared that he had recently recorded a duet with Placido Domingo. CD title and release date unknown. Update - the title of the CD is "Amore infinito. Canzoni ispirate alle poesie di Giovanni Paolo II - Karol Wojtyla" (the English translation is Endless Love. Songs inspired by the Poetry of John Paul II - Karol Wajtyla). The (Italian) release date is Nov 28th.

DVD/CD

• "Hit Man: David Foster & Friends” – Josh performs Alla Luce del Sole; Bridge Over Troubled Water with Brian McKnight and You Raise Me Up. Release date November 11th. (It appears that the three songs will be on the DVD, and Bridge Over Troubled Water will appear on the CD)

• Live From Abbey Road: The Best of Season 1 – release date November 11th ("February Song", "You Are Loved" and "Machine")

• Chris Botti “Live In Boston” – CD release date November 18th/ DVD release date March 09. Update - the release date for the CD has been pushed back to February 09.
  

DVD

• Chess in Concert - unknown release date.

TV

• Indina Menzel PBS Special from Rose Hall NYC – January 15th 2009

• Josh Groban PBS Special from Rose Hall NYC – date to be confirmed

• Chess in Concert – date to be confirmed

Ok Groban, I think it's time you passed me a beer and maybe then it'll all make sense…

[Of course, the dates above are accurate at time of posting, but I guess we all know that they're bound to change, so I’ll update when (and if) further information is made available.]
~

For your viewing pleasure...

CAROUSEL OF HOPE
From the Red Carpet


Just a short clip from when Josh is introduced... Gotta love a "dead man walking".


BRIDGE SCHOOL CONCERT 2008 (Day 2)
Josh joined the Smashing Pumpkins to sing "Disarm"


"You Are Love" (with a new ending - I love it)


"February Song"


"Changing Colors" (originally performed by a band called the Great Lake Swimmers)


"America"


"Harvest Moon" (with Neil Young)


"Comes a Time" (as part of the show finale)


A finally here's a "highlights package" posted by the school with some great close up footage...


A big shout out to those wonderful people who attended these events and shared the love by posting these clips on YTube (and then allowing them to be embedded on other sites). Thank you so much...
~

A busy couple of days...

After a busy weekend that included appearances at fund-raisers for OnexOne and the Carousel of Hope it was great to see a more 'casual' Josh taking to the stage at the Bridge School benefit. Anyway, here's a quick run-down of the various events Josh attended over the last weekend.

ONEXONE (San Francisco) - Thursday 23rd October
IMO, the red-carpet look wasn't a winner. The jacket just looked plain wrong (maybe it would've looked better if it had been un-buttoned), but I don't mind the hair cut. There was word that he wasn't feeling 100% so that might explain it...

Hmm, I wonder what he sang with the African Children's Choir???

CAROUSEL OF HOPE (Los Angeles) - Saturday 25th October
I'm liking this look a lot better than the OneXOne look, but then again, you can't really go wrong with a nice black suit. Also it looks like he made good use of some product in his hair this time around(LOL).

BRIDGE SCHOOL BENEFIT (San Francisco) - Sunday 26th October
I really liked the casual approach to the wardrobe today. And to see Josh sing in his glasses was a nice and unexpected treat.

In what was a bit of a surprise, Josh joined the Smashing Pumpkins on stage to do a version of their classic song Disarm. Of course there are some SM fans that weren't that impressed, but I thought it was great...

Josh's set included You Are Loved (with an amazing new ending), February Song, a song by the Great Lake Swimmers called Changing Colors, America and then Harvest Moon with Neil Young.

From all reports, Josh was one of the few artists who took the time to interact with the kids who were on stage. As Chescaleigh said "You win at life..."

(BTW- To keep the size of this post down, I haven't included any of the amazing clips from this event that are up on YTube, but keep watching for my next post.)
~

And here's one (ok, it's now two) more pics...

I'm officially dead... Thanks Groban!

Check out this UK website promoting Josh. And as an extra surprise, click on the pictures for 'extra large' versions of the new photos. Make sure you're sitting down.

Also, check out www.joshgrobanmusic.com

Check this out - this picture was in the October 2008 edition of Italian Men's VOGUE...

Hmmm, wonder if this is a booty text... (remember Blender)???
~

New pics....

Just when I though Groban couldn't get any hotter...

Note - I had originally planned not to post these pictures on this blog as I was under the belief they were exclusive content from FoJG. However, I have since discovered these pictures are available on Josh's public MySpace page. All credit to the photographer - Nabil.

These pictures are posted for the enjoyment of Josh's fans everywhere and are not to be used for any non-private or commercial purpose. Should the owner of these photos object to their inclusion in this blog you are invited to contact me so they can be immediately removed.

~

Heading across the pond (again)...

Looks like the UK/European Grobies are in for a treat as Josh is heading over to the UK to promote the release of the new CD.

This was posted on FoJG -

Josh will be releasing ‘Josh Groban – A Collection’ in the UK on Monday 17th November, a hand picked selection of his favorite songs.

If you live in the UK and would like to be first to know about all his UK activity, as well as being in with the chance to win exclusive prizes join his UK mailing list now.

And just to confuse matters, the post on JG.com says that it's being released on Monday 10th November. Good work WB!

It's Josh's 4th visit to the UK this year, so here are some highlights from his previous visits:

MAY - Classical Brit Awards & and the concert version of Chess.

February Song


Smile


Anthem


JUNE - Nelson Mandela's 90th Birthday Celebration in Hyde Park

Machine


Weeping


AUGUST - Josh appeared on Last Choir Standing and the Charlotte Church Show (even though he sang my two least fav. songs). If you really need to see these performances again just go to this post (which should explain it all)...

And yes, I'm a little jealous (actually truth be told, probably a lot), so I'm hoping that Groban will spread the love with his fans in other locations such as Australia (of course this would be fabulous for me), South Africa, South America & Asia... I know it's probably wishful thinking but fingers, toes and everything else crossed!!!
~

Sneak peak (OMJ it's brilliant)...

Pick me up off the floor......

Here's a sneak peak at a promo for Josh Groban - A Collection...

And one of the best things about it is the clip includes a preview of Josh singing Anthem from Chess which he performed at the Royal Albert Hall earlier this year (I was there for both nights and even seeing these short clips brings back so many amazing memories)... ***Dies***



However, I do find it interesting that they are saying that this is for Josh's fans and friends in Europe and Australia, when we've been advised that the CD won't be released in Australia. Is it yet another prime example of WB dropping the ball again when it comes to the promotion of Josh down under??? That said, if it is released down here, then fingers, toes and everything else is crossed for a quick promo tour :-)

EDIT - Warner Bros. Australia have confirmed that it is being released 'down under'.

This is the rumored track listing for the double CD-

Disc One
01. Oceano
02. February Song
03. You Are Loved (Don't Give Up)
04. You Raise Me Up
05. In Her Eyes
06. Awake
07. Alla Luce Del Sole
08. To Where You Are
09. Anthem [From Chess - Live]
10. Per Te
11. Remember When It Rained
12. Weeping [Live - featuring Vusi Mahlasela & The Soweto Gospel Choir]
13. Alejate
14. Hymne A L'amour
15. Cinema Paradiso
16. Smile

Disc Two
01. Silent Night
02. Little Drummer Boy
03. Ave Maria
04. Panis Angelicus
05. Petit Papa Noel
06. Noche de Paz (Silent Night)

Josh Groban - A Collection...

There are no words - except this has to be one of the best album covers ever...

Post edited to add this-

Could someone please pick me up off the floor... (BTW - don't you just love photoshop?)