ART & STYLE MAGAZINE 

GRANDE DAMES AND DIVAS

A considerable number of her compositions were recorded by super stars and worldwide famous singers, including but not limited to Judy Collins, The Manhattan Transfer, Stephanie Mills, Anne Murray, Barry Manilow, Barbara Cook, Leanne Rimes, Harry Belafonte, Donny Osmond,  the Chipmunks, and the Baby Dinosaurs in LAND BEFORE TIME (she wrote all the songs for 11 Universal Cartoon videos with longtime collaborator Michele Brourman) and Betty Buckley. Amanda also wrote Iyrics for a considerable number of  songs in the experimental TV series "Cop Rock". And as expected, she was nominated for an Emmy for her song which featured on "As the World Turns". In addition, she wrote songs for the video releases of "Land Before Time" and "Hercules and Xena." Her first two albums, "Growing Up in Hollywood Town" and "West of Oz," were recorded for the prestigious audiophile label Sheffield Labs in collaboration with pianist Lincoln Majorga. Those two albums imprinted the seal of excellence on the landscape of world music. They were called "striking and complete artistic successes" by Billboard Magazine. Amanda has three albums on her own Gecko Records label, Dreaming, Midnight Matinee and her most recent release, A Waiting Heart, which have enjoyed an international success, a worldwide appeal and soaring popularity. She also recorded a live album for DRG Records of her appearance in New York at Rainbow and Stars, Amanda McBroom Live from Rainbow and Stars; an outstanding, most captivating and up lifting repertoire, a testimony to her genius and unsurpassed  cosmic talent. In addition, Amanda composed numerous songs for the television series Cop Rock and most recently was the lyricist for the musical films Land Before Time III, Land Before Time V, Land Before Time VI and Hercules and Xena. She has been the recipient of the Johnny Mercer Award for Songwriter of the Year. Do you want to hear more? Get this: Her first release, "Dreaming," has sold over 200,000 copies worldwide. Her second release, on Gecko, "Midnight Matinee," featured performances by musicians such as jazz legend Bob James and blues guitarist Robben Ford It sets the standards of excellence for Jazz and Cabaret requisites. Her fifth album, "Amanda McBroom Live From Rainbow and Stars," which was recorded at her sold out engagement atop Rockefeller Center in New York and released on the DRG label redefined the concept of musicality perfection and the codes of “Divas’ Live Entertainment”. Her latest release, "A Waiting Heart," on Gecko Records, was released in March, 1997.  This album recaptured and developed the essence of lyricism and romantic realism in contemporary music and innovative nostalgia. In television, Amanda has appeared on programs ranging from "Star Trek: The Next Generation" to "Hawaii Five-O" to "The Grammy Awards to the NBX special” From The Heart”. Hold your breath, read this: Amanda‘s most versatile and astonishing background in musical and dramatic theatre, included starring in the New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and European productions of JACQUES BREL IS ALIVE AND WELL AND LIVING IN PARIS, and on Broadway in SEESAW, as well as, in leading roles in landmark productions and major stage appearances, to name a few: The Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, ACT in San Francisco, The Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, Oregon, The Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles and the Pasadena Playhouse. In New York she has performed at Carnegie Hall, the Russian Tea Room, Rainbow and Stars, and as the headliner for two sold-out engagements at Piazza on the Park in London. And yes, she toured the globe and took by storm her international audiences in Australia, Europe and Asia…….And taught at the Cabaret Conference at Yale! The creativity and immense talent of McBroom don’t expire or begin at the dawn or sunset of an international hit, the success of an artist who recorded her songs, at the end of a stormy applaud or an historical performance. Whether legends and superstars in the business record her compositions or not, McBroom’s place of honor in the world of music has been already secured and honored like a shrine, like a national monument…She is as good as Edith Piaf, but much happier. Piaf brought tragedy and sarcasm of destiny to the French song and world cabaret. McBroom took away the tragedies, sarcasm and hurting hearts and replaced them with enchantment, joy, happiness and rays of hope, even though, around her roses and trembling leaves, a few warm drops of tears still burn each time a new day awakes and surrenders in unfulfilled dreams and vanishing wishes, each time:

“Some say love, it is a river that drowns the tender reed.
Some say love, it is a razor that leaves your soul to bleed.
Some say love, it is a hunger, an endless aching need.
I say love, it is a flower, and You its only seed.” *

McBroom is as good, as captivating, as magical, as enigmatic, as charming and as fatale as Marlene Dietrich but she is warmer, more affectionate, more comforting, more human and friendlier, for

“When the night has been too lonely, and the road has been too long,
And you think that love is only for the lucky and the strong,
Just remember in the winter far beneath the bitter snows,
Lies the seed, that with the sun's love, in the spring becomes
The Rose.” *

  * From Amanda’s own song “The Rose”.

Amanda McBroom: A Diva for our time

Sure, times have changed. And every single day, life brings new understanding and conceptualization of different truths, events and metamorphoses within our ups and downs. Sure, tastes in music expanded and embraced new tempos, rhythms and styles. Sure, new faces, new names, new comers, new hot hot stars and shaking and baking vedettes replaced the icons and divas of yesteryears. But, why do we still go to the Cabaret and listen to songs written some 70 year ago and enjoy listening to performers like Barbara Cook, Tony Benett and Amanda McBroom? Because our heart is there, our whole life and its passages are still written and re-written every time we listen to and look at men and women like Benett, Cook and McBroom. Because the artistic perfection and musical ecstasy of those superb performers are timeless, ageless and spaceless. Because their art, craft, expertise, techniques, style, perfection, presence, magic, symbol and what they represent transcend time, space and the frontiers of inner world. And McBroom is that transcendental unmarked frontier that separates and unifies, redefines and unites, re-explores and nourishes our past, our memories, past experiences we learned from and sometime we did not, new visions, expectations, events and reality we foresee and escape from…McBroom is the prophetess of words and high priestess of the temple of human comedia and melodrama. Every word she wrote came from the heart and the harsh-sweet-bitter reality of life. We go to see Amanda, to experience life, to challenge it, to believe in it, to shake it a little bit, to learn from it and to mock the absurdity of destiny.

 We don't go to a cabaret to schmooze and cruise, to impress and be impressed, to listen to en vogue songs, simply because they are the flair of the jour, for many of those songs and newcomers to the so-called “modern and trendy” fashionable music don't have the mysteries, the experience, the depth, the character, the fabric, the message, the aroma, the joy and sorrow, the ups and downs of the life we experienced. We go to cabarets to remember and sometimes to forget part of our life, to understand what went wrong in our life and how to overcome the hard times which brought deception and pain to our heart, we go to cabarets to face life with strength, frightening but comforting reality. We go to cabarets to hear seasoned and life-experienced performers, singers and entertainers and share with them, with time, with life itself, their joy, sorrow, smiles, experience, sometime their extravaganzas and exaggerated exploits, to share those lost moments and passages of our life through their songs and extension of their “self” on stage. We go to cabarets to recapture the universe of our existence and beyond. This is why great performers like Amanda Mcbroom remain immortal, constantly en vogue and eternally evolving, never out of fashion, out of style, taste, preference, priority or actuality. We listen to McBroom and we enjoy every second of her presence on stage,  we entertain the “child” and the “mature” in ourselves, we fantasize a little bit and acquire part of her wisdom and beauty. And Amanda makes us feel good about ourselves. But Amanda McBroom’s human nature has other facets and dimensions. She can be a very serious and profound performer, as well as nonchalant, blaze, a funny woman and a teaser…sometimes, very funny. You will enjoy her sense of humor, upbeat, and vivacious personality as you read more and more about her along the lines and images of this article and our interview with her.

 

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