Songwriter · Singer · Actress
Amanda McBroom
She gave the world The Rose.
Amanda McBroom wrote “The Rose” in ten minutes. Decades later, its journey from a piano in her home to the global stage remains as remarkable as the song itself.
- No. 1around the world in 1979, in Bette Midler’s version
- Goldmore than a million copies sold
- Golden GlobeBest Original Song, for Amanda McBroom
- GrammyBette Midler’s first, for “The Rose”
New this season
Christmas is all about love
Wintersong, Amanda McBroom’s album of new Christmas standards, returns on 27 November, led by the joyful new single “All About Love”.
Featured listening
A song that found its way into history
Discover the remarkable story behind Amanda McBroom’s “The Rose”-from a piano at home to a global stage.
McBroom wrote it at her piano, describing the words as flowing through her like a window left open.
Yet the song almost disappeared before anyone heard it. Male producers dismissed it as a hymn and placed it in the reject box.
Watch the story behind “The Rose”
The words
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…
The rest, as they say, is history. But it is Amanda McBroom’s history-and it is time the world knew her name.
Lyrics © Amanda McBroom. Permission to reprint: Warner Chappell.
Listen again
Bette Midler’s defining performance
Bette Midler’s version of “The Rose” reached number one around the world in 1979. It went gold, selling more than a million copies, earned Amanda McBroom a Golden Globe for Best Original Song, and won Midler her first Grammy.
Since then, artists across generations and genres have recorded it. The song has become one of the most recognisable works in American popular music.
Bette Midler performs “The Rose”
Her songs, in other voices
The greatest cabaret performer of her generation, an urban poet who writes like an angel and has a voice to match.
The artist
Meet Amanda McBroom
Fifty years of songs the world didn’t know it needed. The Rose was just the beginning.
For five decades, Amanda McBroom has been one of the most gifted and quietly influential songwriters in American music. Her songs have been recorded by Barry Manilow, Judy Collins, Barbara Cook, Reba McEntire, LeAnn Rimes, Harry Belafonte, The Manhattan Transfer and Kurt Cobain, among many others.
She wrote songs your children grew up with, in sixteen Universal animated features including the beloved Land Before Time series. She contributed to an HBO film starring Jessica Lange and Pierce Brosnan. She wrote a protest song because she felt it was time.
And through all of it, she has performed: from Carnegie Hall to the Kennedy Center, from the Sydney Opera House to London’s Crazy Coqs.
This is not a legacy. This is a life, still being lived.
Stage & screen
From Broadway to the Enterprise
Before the world knew her songs, it knew her as an actress.
- BroadwaySeesaw; the New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and European productions of Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris
- MusicalsSweeney Todd, A Little Night Music, Mame; her own musicals Heartbeats (1989) and A Woman of Will (off-Broadway, 2005)
- TelevisionStar Trek: The Next Generation, as Captain Phillipa Louvois in “The Measure of a Man” (1989)
- FilmSongs for 16 Universal animated features, the documentary Show Her the Money and the end title song of HBO’s The Great Lillian Hall (2024)
Explore
Her world, in six rooms
The Rose
Ten minutes at the piano, a reject box, and a song that changed her life forever.
Read the story →IIThe song library
Fifty-six songs and the voices who sang them, from Barbara Cook to the Land Before Time.
Explore the songs →IIIMaster classes
The art of cabaret: connecting mind, voice and heart in the telling of each musical story.
Learn with Amanda →IVBuried treasures
Songs and poems from the closet, with a note from Amanda for every season.
Open the treasures →VPress
“Something of a wonder.” Reviews from New York, London, Sydney and beyond.
Read the reviews →VIAh, Youth
From a five-year-old in love with the camera to the Golden Globes and Starfleet.
Open the album →Live on stage
Recent performances
From London’s Crazy Coqs to Birdland, Amanda and her longtime collaborator Michele Brourman are still taking the songs on the road.
30 May & 1 Jun 2026
London
Crazy Coqs Cabaret
Amanda McBroom returns to her beloved London.
20 Apr 2026
New York City
Birdland Jazz Club: “Words and Music”
Amanda McBroom & Michele Brourman, celebrating 50 amazing years of making music together!
10 Apr 2026
Palm Springs
The Purple Room: “My Personal Best”
An evening filled with favorite songs from her own songbook, with Michele Brourman.
23 Feb 2026
Ventura
Rubicon Theatre: “Such Good Friends”
Songs by Amanda’s amazing songwriting friends, including Melissa Manchester, Judy Collins, Marilyn Bergman, and, of course, Amanda.
Stay close
Letters, songs and show dates
Sign up for the Amanda McBroom newsletter, or find Amanda on social media.
With love & Music, Amanda