Closer with Josh Groban

To me, this was the perfect opening track. This song flows in so many interesting directions, starting soft and building into a dramatic rhythm with unexpected chord changes. I had a lot of fun singing this one.

This song came to us late in the recording process and I'm glad it did. It has an awesome rhythm and allows me to express more of a soft, pop sound without at all sacrificing my natural voice. It has a gorgeous lyric that expresses the fear of loving someone so much, and not being able to hide it any more.

The theme from Il Postino is one that I have loved for years. I think film music is brilliant and sometimes perfect as the basis for a song. This theme was turned into "Mi Mancherai", which means, "I will miss you". Joshua Bell is one of the greatest violinists in the world and it was a privilege to sing with him. It was the perfect instrument to express the sweet, melancholic undertones of the song and Joshua did a masterful job on this track. It's definitely a favourite for me.

I love singing in Spanish and have always been a fan of Latin music. I liked this song because it had a great combination of Latin and classical influence. Those influences in the music allowed me to walk a delicate line between the two styles of singing in this song.

Finally, a happy love song! The lyric was what first attracted me to this song. It really expressed to me what it feels like to hear those words from the person you love. For whatever reason, I'm usually more prone to sad love songs, so to be able to do a song that made me feel happy every time I sang it was really great.

This was the first song that I cowrote on the album. I cowrote the music with Walter Afanasieff. The beautiful lyric for "Per Te" (which means "For You") was written by Marco Marinangeli. I've always had a love of writing music but didn't feel it was the right time on the first album. It's an incredible feeling to sing your own music and I'm really proud of it. I hope you enjoy it too.

I love this song because of its energy. It's short and sweet and the perfect song to do on tour or in the middle of an album because it's uplifting and has a great beat.

This was a song that I originally did on my TV special in the states and it became such a favourite of mine that I wanted to record it. This was originally a Lara Fabian song, so we had to change a couple of words around to fit a guy singing it but the message was the same. It is, as the title suggests, about broken hearts and letting go. It's sad, and beautiful.

This is one of the all time great songs and rather intimidating to sing. It has been done by so many of my idols that I wanted to make sure it was the right time before I tackled it. I felt that this album was the right time and I'm very happy with it. The lyric is very fast during the verse but slows down to a sweeping melody in the chorus.

This is the second song I cowrote on this album and I'm really proud of it. I did all the lyrics and cowrote the music with an amazing writer/producer named Eric Mouquet. This is also my debut as a pianist! This song has a lot of meaning to me but first and foremost it is about coming to grips with the loss of love.

This was probably one of the most daunting songs on the album for a number of reasons. First, it was done by the legendary Edith Piaf, whose version of this song is the definitive, although many artists have recorded it. This lyric combined with the story of Piaf's life was so moving to me, I very much wanted to sing it as my first song recorded in French.

This is the first single off of Closer and it's a very special song. It's one of the few songs that could mean so many different things to so many people. It is a tribute song to whomever and whatever lifts your spirits to be the best that you can be. It could be about a family member, a loved one, a friend, a teacher or it could be spiritual. It is all of those things to me and musically speaking I love the combination of Irish and gospel sounds with the orchestra.

Where do I begin with this song? This is my 3rd cowritten song on the album with lyrics by me and music cowritten again with Eric Mouquet (who is one half of the group Deep Forest). I have been a fan of the group for as long as I can remember and was always inspired by their ability to use world and electronic music in such an emotional way. After hearing a track they did with Peter Gabriel, I realised that they could combine their sound with other artists and I thought that a collaboration with be different but really interesting. Sure enough, the meeting with them at the studio was all I could have hoped for. Musically it allowed me to go a bit left of centre from what people are used to and lyrically it is about the miscommunications in the world and in love and not letting go of what is truly important. I put it last on the album because I hope it is a sign of more to come with the songwriting and taking steps in different directions.