“I wanted to invite the audience in, right away, to what the album and song was going to feel like. When the whole band yells out ‘Beautiful!,’ it’s so indicative of a bygone era when you’d hear a band chime in.” – Melissa Manchester

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” by the NY Times. Broadway World describes her as “…  one of the greatest night club performers of all time. Her lyrics are profound and express human emotions in glorious poetry. Her humor is so smart and she sings and acts it all brilliantly.” She first came to the attention music lovers when Bette Midler’s version of Amanda’s song “The Rose” hit number one all over the world in 1979. In addition to Midler, her songs have been recorded by a wide variety of artists including Amy Poehler and Jack Black, Barry Manilow, Judy Collins, Barbara Cook, LeAnn Rimes, Anne Murray, Harry Belafonte, Betty Buckley, Stephanie Mills, The Manhattan Transfer, Donny Osmond, Kurt Cobain, Nana Mouskouri, Conway Twitty, 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). Amanda’s performance of “The Rose” on the Golden Globes (she won!) convinced audiences worldwide that the best interpretations of McBroom songs are by McBroom herself and applaud her in concert halls around the world from, Carnegie Hall to Angel Place Recital Hall in Sydney, Australia. Her love of musical theater (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 productions of 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 more than 15 regional theater productions around the U.S. The original cast recording was released in 1994 on Varese Sarabande Records, and is represented by the Rogers and Hammerstein Music Library. Amanda’s latest musical, A Woman of Will, made its off-Broadway debut in 2005. Amanda recently celebrated the release of VOICES, her sixth recording on Gecko, the label she established in 1985. Other Gecko recordings include Dreaming, Midnight Matinee, A Waiting Heart, Portraits, and Chanson. In addition, she has recorded: Live From Rainbow and Stars (DRG), Heartbeats (Varese Sarabande), and A Woman of Will (LML Music). Her first two groundbreaking vinyl recordings, Growing Up In Hollywood Town and West of OZ, were recorded direct to disc for Sheffield Labs and made McBroom an audiophile darling.

I think I was born with music in my being.  It was there, surrounding me, probably even pre-birth. My very young parents had beautiful voices and loved to sing together.  Given their rather turbulent relationship, those moments of song were probably the only times they were in tender harmony. ​My first year of life, we lived with my father’s mother, my bubbie. She would carry me around, singing to me, ”It’s a big, wide, wonderful world we live in….”   ​When I was 2 ½, my mother sneaked me into the Montefiore Hospital where Bubbie was dying, and I sang that song to her, sitting on the edge of her bed.  Decades later, I still can’t sing it without crying.  ​I started playing the piano with two hands at 3, learned my left hand from my right by looking at which one played the low notes on the piano.  We had a Baldwin Acrosonic spinet; I would haul my tiny self up over the keyboard, hook my toes behind a wooden rail that ran underneath, so that I could reach the keys.   To this day, I cannot keep my feet on the ground when I play. There’s too much joy in it!

what an amazing ride... I am so grateful to all who have touched my life thru music over the years...what a blessing to have such an amazing community of people in my corner. From my early days at “Mundy On Tuesdays!” to the present as a participant rather than hostess ...I still feel very blessed to have music in my life. I am looking for new ways to express myself and welcome any suggestions you may have on how to have music play a bigger role in my life. I need it like I need the air.  Keep singing my friends...