Josh Groban, Michael Bublé & Other Highlights From David Foster’s 75th Birthday Bash at the Hollywood Bowl
David Foster spent his 75th birthday how he has undoubtedly spent many before it: working. Sunday night (Nov. 3), Foster celebrated his milestone at a sold-out Hollywood Bowl show (to be fair, his actual birthday was Nov. 1) with many of the artists who he has worked with as a songwriter, arranger or producer. According to a sign flashed on the giant screens at the Bowl, the music he has helped create has sold more than half a billion records.
From Whitney Houston and Celine Dion to Michael Bublé, Josh Groban, Andrea Bocelli, Toni Braxton, Barbra Streisand and so many more, Foster is practically responsible for his own lush, romantic adult contemporary genre. Or as he put it, “I write songs you make babies to.”
The evening, which he said, “sort of feels like my funeral while I’m alive,” featured many of those bold-type names (sorry, no Dion or Streisand), but it was Foster’s birthday, and he could do whatever he wanted. And what he wanted to do was spend some of the first hour of the nearly three-hour show focusing on new talent (he did discover Groban when Groban was still a teenager, after all). That included Britain’s Got Talent 2024 winner Sydnie Christmas performing “My Way,” which she sang on the series’ semi-finals (the song’s writer, Paul Anka, was on the poster as a guest, but wasn’t there. Same with Kenny G), as well as an 18-year old pianist Brandon Goldberg, who performed a jazzy version of Chaka Khan’s “Through the Fire” with trumpeter Chris Botti, and Jasmine Rogers, who will play Betty Boop in Foster’s forthcoming Broadway musical, Boop!, previewing a spirited number from the show.
While those are for sure names to watch given Foster’s pedigree for working with young talent, it was the established names that provided the fireworks and really showed over and over that among all his many, many talents, first and foremost may be Foster’s gift for working with great singers.
Below are some of the highlights of the evening.
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