Amanda McBroom has been called “…the greatest cabaret performer of her generation, an urban poet who writes like an angel and has a voice to match.” Her name first came to the attention of the music public when Bette Midler’s version of Amanda’s song THE ROSE hit number one all over the world in 1979. But it was Amanda’s performance of her own song on the Golden Globes (she won), Grammys (she didn’t) and The Tonight Show that launched her career as a singer as well as songwriter.
Her songs have have been recorded by the likes of Bette Midler, Leanne Rimes, Barry Manilow, Judy Collins, Barbara Cook, Anne Murray, Harry Belafonte, Betty Buckley, Stephanie Mills, The Manhattan Transfer, Donny Osmond,West Life, Nana Mouskouri, the Chipmunks, and the Baby Dinosaurs in LAND BEFORE TIME (she wrote all the songs for 16 Universal Cartoon videos with longtime collaborator Michele Brourman). But growing audiences worldwide became convinced that the best interpretations of McBroom songs are by McBroom herself and applaud her in concert halls around the world including Carnegie Hall in New York, the FORD Amphitheatre in Los Angeles, Wolftrap and Kennedy Center (where she sang with the National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Marvin Hamlisch) in Washington D.C., Angel Place Recital Hall in Sydney, Melbourne Recital Hall in Melbourne, Adelaide where she headlined the Festival of the Arts and Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall in Taiwan and Pizza on the Park and Crazy Coq’s in London.
Amanda’s concert career was documented over two evenings high atop Manhattan’s RCA building for release as AMANDA McBROOM LIVE AT RAINBOW & STARS by the DRG label in 1995 and remains her only live concert recording.
Her recording career began on the MGM soundstage where Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers had overdubbed the sounds of their tap routines over forty years before. It was 1980 and she recorded direct-to-disc – no tape, no overdubs, no mixing, no fixing – for the prestigious vinyl audiophile label Sheffield Lab Recordings. GROWING UP IN HOLLYWOOD TOWN became an audiophile classic around the world and set a new standard for vinyl recording and hi fi stereo reproduction. Billboard called the LP a “stunning artistic success” and Amanda became “the queen of the high end” for the purity of her vocals and the emotional depth of her songs. Sheffield released a second McBroom direct-to-disc recording entitled WEST OF OZ in 1981. Both recordings were compiled and re-released as AMANDA by Sheffield in 1996.
In 1985 Amanda and her manager Garry George partnered in their own label GECKO RECORDS and released DREAMING in 1986. Under the auspices of Monster Cable Products, Inc. Amanda performed live at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada in 1987. From that performance and the birth of the CD format, DREAMING became a classic around the world especially in SE Asia. GECKO releases followed including MIDNIGHT MATINEE in 1992, A WAITING HEART in 1997 , the “best of” collection PORTRAITS in 1999 released in conjunction with Hal Leonard publishing company’s release of a bound songbook of Amanda’s songs, and CHANSON, her tribute to Jacques Brel released in 2010.
Amanda McBroom – BiographyHer love of and background in musical theatre (she starred in the New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and European productions of JACQUES BREL IS ALIVE AND WELL AND LIVING IN PARIS, on Broadway in SEESAW, and in SWEENEY TODD, A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC and MAME) compelled her to create a musical based on her songs. HEARTBEATS made its debut in 1989 in Los Angeles and the play has enjoyed over 15 regional theater productions around the U.S. The original cast recording was released in 1994 on Varese Sarabande Records. The musical is represented by the Rogers and Hammerstein Music library. Amanda’s latest musical, A WOMAN OF WILL, made its off-Broadway debut in 2005. The CD is available through this website.
Long time fans still revere Amanda’s many guest starring roles on television in everything from STAR TREK; THE NEXT GENERATION to her most recent appearance at the Kennedy Center in the NBC special FROM THE HEART.
Amanda attributes her success to “divine intervention and a lot of caffeine.”
