Artist · Songwriter · Performer
A life in music and storytelling
A singular voice in cabaret, Amanda McBroom brings together powerful storytelling, poetic songwriting and a performance style defined by intelligence, warmth and emotional honesty.
Amanda McBroom has been called “the greatest cabaret performer of her generation, an urban poet who writes like an angel and has a voice to match” by The New York Times. Broadway World describes her as “one of the greatest night club performers of all time,” praising lyrics that express human emotions in glorious poetry.
She first came to the attention of music lovers when Bette Midler’s version of Amanda’s song “The Rose” reached number one around the world in 1979. The song became an enduring classic and established McBroom as a songwriter whose work resonates across generations.
Her songs have been recorded by a remarkable range of artists, including Amy Poehler and Jack Black, Barry Manilow, Judy Collins, Barbara Cook, LeAnn Rimes, Anne Murray, Harry Belafonte, Betty Buckley, Stephanie Mills, The Manhattan Transfer, Donny Osmond, Kurt Cobain, Nana Mouskouri, Conway Twitty, the Chipmunks and the Baby Dinosaurs in Land Before Time. She also wrote all the songs for 16 Universal Cartoon videos with her longtime collaborator Michele Brourman.
One of the greatest night club performers of all time.
On stage
Concert halls, Broadway and her own musicals
Amanda’s performance of “The Rose” at the Golden Globes-where she won-introduced audiences worldwide to the extraordinary depth of her own interpretation. Today, she continues to captivate audiences in concert halls around the globe, from Carnegie Hall to Angel Place Recital Hall in Sydney, Australia.
Her love of musical theater (she starred in the New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and European productions of Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris, on Broadway in Seesaw, and in productions of Sweeney Todd, A Little Night Music and Mame) compelled her to create a musical based on her songs. Heartbeats made its debut in 1989 in Los Angeles, and the play has enjoyed more than 15 regional theater productions around the U.S. The original cast recording was released in 1994 on Varese Sarabande Records, and is represented by the Rogers and Hammerstein Music Library. Amanda’s latest musical, A Woman of Will, made its off-Broadway debut in 2005.
Film & television
Songs for the screen, and a turn in Starfleet
Amanda has written, with her favorite collaborator Michele Brourman, songs for two films released in 2024…the award winning documentary…SHOW HER THE MONEY, and the end title song for the HBO film THE GREAT LILLIAN HALL starring Jessica Lange and Pierce Brosnan.
As an actress she appeared in Star Trek: The Next Generation as Captain Phillipa Louvois, the Starfleet judge in the episode “The Measure of a Man” (1989).
Recordings
Seven albums on her own label, Gecko
Amanda most recently celebrated the release of WINTERSONG, her seventh recording on Gecko, the label she established in 1985. Other Gecko recordings include Dreaming, Midnight Matinee, A Waiting Heart, Portraits, Chanson and Voices. In addition, she has recorded: Live From Rainbow and Stars (DRG), Heartbeats (Varese Sarabande), and A Woman of Will (LML Music). Her first two groundbreaking vinyl recordings, Growing Up In Hollywood Town and West of OZ, were recorded direct to disc for Sheffield Labs and made McBroom an audiophile darling.
Gecko
Wintersong
Gecko
Dreaming
Gecko
Midnight Matinee
Gecko
A Waiting Heart
Gecko
Portraits
Gecko
Chanson
Gecko
Voices
Sheffield Labs
Growing Up In Hollywood Town
Sheffield Labs