Josh Groban Channels Movie Music on Cinematic, Out May 8, With Jennifer Hudson, His Father and the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles

Josh Groban’s Cinematic, out May 8, is a collection of movie-song covers that includes “As Time Goes By,” “Moon River” and “Can You Feel the Love Tonight.”

Album and influences

Cinematic is Groban’s first new-album project since his Tony Award-nominated turn in the 2023 revival of Sweeney Todd. The show’s large-scale score shaped the record’s sonic ambitions. “Having just come off of the grandest score of all time with Sweeney Todd, and really putting on my big boy voice for that… I wanted to keep riding that wave… I wanted to stay in that grand zone,” he told the Billboard Pop Shop Podcast.

That impulse, plus a recurring conversation about the word cinematic, led Groban and his team to build what he calls an “MGM-escapism” record: familiar film music performed with an orchestra and recorded across studios in Los Angeles, New York and London. The album was produced by two-time Grammy winner Greg Wells.

Though Cinematic is comprised entirely of covers, Groban says it narrowed into “a very specific and very emotionally personal album.” He told the Pop Shop, “I didn’t want to just do, you know, the Josh Sings… here’s just a nice bunch of nice sounding songs. I want to be able to talk about these songs in a way that has meaning, even if it’s a song that’s been around forever.”

Collaborations and studio stories

The record features several high-profile guests. Jennifer Hudson duets with Groban on “Unchained Melody.” His father, Jack Groban, plays trumpet on “Moon River.” The Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles appears on “Can You Feel the Love Tonight.”

“She’s so multi-talented, and such an epic vocalist,” Groban said of Hudson, recalling their first team-up in 2024 on the CBS special Josh Groban & Friends Go Home for the Holidays, where they sang “O Holy Night.” “We looked at each other, we went, ‘wow.’”

Hudson will also join Groban on tour, which kicks off June 2 in Montreal. Their duet on Cinematic grew from mutual admiration and a shared performance history; Groban said he kept Hudson at the top of his list for a touring partner.

On the Gay Men’s Chorus collaboration, Groban said, “I feel like there’s a call to action, to allyship, to support… sometimes in music, you have to sing it before you believe it, you know.” He added that he had sung with the chorus during President Obama’s inauguration and wanted their voices on the Lion King song to reinforce the record’s message.

Groban described the session with his father as memorable and deliberate. Jack Groban had recorded one trumpet album in his early 20s, a single-copy pressing that was digitized for the project. “I owe so much of my introduction of the arts to his musicality,” Josh said. He surprised his father at Sunset Sound, in the room Louis Armstrong favored, with the arranger Vince Mendoza and vintage gear on hand.

“Watching my dad fly in that studio… was just, you know, something I will remember for the rest of my life. To have… a proper recording of his playing with me, I’ll never forget it,” Groban said.

Groban also noted that trumpet greats Terence Blanchard and Wynton Marsalis had offered support for the session if needed, but he chose to create that moment with his father.

Context and release

Recorded largely with an orchestra and produced by Greg Wells, Cinematic seeks to recreate the pause-audience-and-escape feeling of classic filmgoing. It leans on collaborations and personal connections to rework songs that are widely known, with the intent of making them feel relevant in the present.

Excerpts from Groban’s feature interview appear on the Billboard Pop Shop Podcast, where hosts also discuss other chart news and new releases.