March 14, 2007: My Anti Celebri-spiral Night at the Josh Groban Concert

Josh Groban fell into my lap last night. No, he wasn't drunk. He was singing at DC's Verizon Center and tickets to his concert showed up as a surprise last minute gift from my close friend Mary Ann.

Here's what I knew about Josh Groban before his show. He has a "pop-era" voice and musical sound; big, booming, but contemporary. I love three songs of his: You Raise Me Up, You're Still You, and You Are Loved. He's got dark wavy/curly hair and seems tall and lanky. That's it.

Here's what I learned about him personally during his show: nada. And that's a good thing.

I loved his show. With his understated but charming, youthful personality, and lack of personal stage banter, he gave the audience a great gift, in addition to his soaring voice. He allowed us to experience art without the typical trappings. You know what I mean. I was able to experience the music and project my own feelings onto the experience without thinking about who he's dating, what scandal he just overcame, why some dumb soundbyte from Entertainment Tonight won't get out of my head, or how the tabloids dished his most recent social outing.

As I looked around at the packed stadium, I was not alone. The crowd may know a little more about him, but he's not Nick Lachey, Sting, Madonna, Robbie Williams, Mariah Carey, Barbra Streisand, Pavarotti, or even Michael Buble; other singers who are in the public celebrity zeitgeist. Still, he's selling out stadiums, eliciting adoration, and receiving platinum records without trading in the currency of his own celebrity.

I didn't learn about the concert by reading People magazine. A friend told me. I didn't discover the songs of his that I like by listening to a gossipy top 40 radio station or TV talk show. I tried his music on iTunes without knowing who he was. And now that I have seen him live, and like him more, I won't Google his personal life, or look for entertainment stories on him, even though my first inclination was to satisfy some prurient curiosity. I want to keep this experience just as it is.

On second thought, I did learn one factoid at the concert. The title of his new CD is Awake. Hmmm. I can relate to that.