Concert Reviews

“I am the product of a great arts education,” Josh Groban told the TD Garden crowd.

By Marc Hirsh

June 7, 2026 | 5:04 PM

4 minutes to read

Every generation has its Josh Groban. Sometimes, he’ll be a throwback to a bygone era to allow his audience to say to themselves, “Now, that’s when they made real music”: your Michael Feinsteins, your Michael Bublés. Sometimes he won’t appeal to nostalgia directly but tempers his music to nonthreatening, perhaps defanged forms: Barry Manilow, for instance.

In every case, you end up with an act whose popularity would be the envy of nearly every other current singer and whose appeal seems targeted to an audience who feels that contemporary pop music has left them behind. Groban — whose had one of his first big breaks in Boston, albeit the fictional Boston of Ally McBeal — might have slotted cleanly into what was referred to as the “beautiful music” genre in times gone by, but to the thousands who came to the TD Garden on Saturday, he was as big a rock star as they come.

In scale and impact, at least. In his affable, uncool-buddy demeanor — the singer spent some time trying to pinpoint the squeaky part of the stage, which he noted made it sound like he was farting — he was about as far from rock and roll as it was possible to get. Which is the other linchpin of Groban’s appeal: He’s such a nice boy. At no point did he hold himself up as worthy of idolization or soak in the applause with anything other than outward humility and the eagerness of the best student in the class. Not for nothing did he tell the crowd “I am the product of a great arts education.”

That ingratiation, however, often worked at odds with what Groban was trying to accomplish musically. More even than inspiration, which serves as the intended backbone of anthems like “You Raise Me Up” and “Awake,” so much of what the singer does boils down to reassurance, the notion that everything’s going to be okay. With insistent, full-bodied piano chords giving it the vibe of an Olympics ad from 1988, “You Are Loved (Don’t Give Up)” was a pat on the back with no specificity, no indication that the singer had the perspective of any relevant experience with which to connect to the listener.

Plenty of songs offered similar empty-vessel platitudes, even when they came with long, rich legacies. Kicking off with “As Time Goes By,” he stood on a small stage at the back of the arena and let his wide-open throat serve as a conduit for the song instead of helping to shape it, and an arrangement that turned “Moon River” into sweeping mush gained poignancy not from Groban’s vocal but from the presence of his father (to whom he referred as Jack “Smoky Lips” Groban) playing muted trumpet on the video screen.

But, there were times when the formula worked. Despite ill-thought staging where a chorus of Berklee students blocked Groban (on piano for the first of several times) from view for everyone sitting stage left, the gooey, heart-burst power ballad “Granted” was strong, and the earnest bombast of the chorus of the Italian-language “Alla Luce Del Sole” played well against the tense (if smooth) agitation of the verses.

And, the singer was capable of avoiding seemingly inevitable schmaltz traps. “Stand By Me” wasn’t nearly as sappy as a Groban cover would seem to promise, and if he delivered a florid vocal on “Can You Feel The Love Tonight,” it’s a florid song, one that didn’t hang him out to dry and that he didn’t wring to death. His quavery, throaty tenor also suited “Unchained Melody,” where he and Jennifer Hudson sang meaningfully at one another from opposite sides, his opening act modulating herself accordingly so as not to blast him off the stage.

Better still were a pair of James Bond themes, one in actuality and one in spirit. Groban introduced “Skyfall” as “gothic and cathartic,” and the song gave his voice a reason to sweep and swoop; it was easy to see how much he was digging crawling inside of the song. “The World We Knew (Over And Over)” was similarly Bond — and Portishead — coded: twangy guitar, dramatic strings, and Groban’s full-throated notes worked exceptionally well with the sashaying melodrama.

Groban closed the concert out at his piano, and with the backing of his band, orchestra and gospelly choir he gave “Bridge Over Troubled Water” the right kind, and amount, of bombast to send his audience out into the night. Just like a nice boy would.

It’s hard to imagine a singer more diametrically different from Groban who’s nonetheless ideally suited to his fanbase than Jennifer Hudson, whose 40-minute opening set was dripping with star (and vocal) power. Looking like a disco diva with her voluminous cascades of curly hair and a slim-fitting dress with fabric dripping from her shoulders and waist, the singer required the assistance of a stagehand to navigate steps, but even planted in one spot, she commanded focus with the ease of an icon.

Song after song carried an undercurrent of “don’t screw me over,” whether she was frisky and ebullient (“Trouble”) or vulnerable and hurt (“Where You At?”); in James Brown’s hands, “It’s A Man’s Man’s Man’s World” was a lament, whereas in hers, it was a warning. She and a trio of backing vocalists carried the gospel fire of “How Great Thou Art” entirely a cappella, and “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman” was about as good as any version can possibly be when blown up to arena scale and not sung by Aretha Franklin. And, immediately following her powerhouse “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going,” Hudson left.

Setlist for Josh Groban at TD Garden — June 6, 2026

As Time Goes By (Rudy Vallée cover)
You Are Loved (Don’t Give Up)
The World We Knew (Over And Over) (Frank Sinatra cover)
Granted
The Wandering Kind (Prelude)
February Song
Unchained Melody (Todd Duncan cover) (with Jennifer Hudson)
Mai
Stand By Me (Ben E. King cover)
Moon River (Audrey Hepburn cover)
Awake
Alla Luce Del Sole
To Where You Are
Can You Feel The Love Tonight (Elton John cover)
Skyfall (Adele cover)
You Raise Me Up (Secret Garden cover)

ENCORE

Be Alright
Bridge Over Troubled Water (Simon & Garfunkel cover)

Marc Hirsh can be reached at [email protected] or on Bluesky @spacecitymarc.bsky.social.

Marc Hirsh

Music Critic

Marc Hirsh is a music critic who covers a wide variety of genres, including pop, rock, hip-hop, country and jazz.

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