Josh Groban, Michael Bublé & Other Highlights From David Foster’s 75th Birthday Bash at the Hollywood Bowl

The composer, songwriter and producer was feted by some of the biggest names he’s worked with.

Kristin Chenoweth and David Foster Randall Michelson/Live Nation-Hewitt Silva

David Foster spent his 75th birthday how he has undoubtedly spent many before it: working. Sunday night (Nov. 3), Foster celebrated his milestone at a sold-out Hollywood Bowl show (to be fair, his actual birthday was Nov. 1) with many of the artists who he has worked with as a songwriter, arranger or producer. According to a sign flashed on the giant screens at the Bowl, the music he has helped create has sold more than half a billion records.  From Whitney Houston and Celine Dion to Michael Bublé, Josh Groban, Andrea Bocelli, Toni Braxton, Barbra Streisand and so many more, Foster is practically responsible for his own lush, romantic  adult contemporary genre. Or as he put it, “I write songs you make babies to.”The evening, which he said, “sort of feels like my funeral while I’m alive,” featured many of those bold-type names (sorry, no Dion or Streisand), but it was Foster’s birthday, and he could do whatever he wanted. And what he wanted to do was spend some of the first hour of the nearly three-hour show focusing on new talent (he did discover Groban when Groban was still a teenager, after all). That included  Britain’s Got Talent 2024 winner Sydnie Christmas performing “My Way,” which she sang on the series’ semi-finals (the song’s writer, Paul Anka, was on the poster as a guest, but wasn’t there. Same with Kenny G), as well as an 18-year old pianist Brandon Goldberg, who performed a jazzy version of Chaka Khan’s “Through the Fire” with trumpeter Chris Botti, and Jasmine Amy Rogers, who will play the lead role in Foster’s forthcoming Broadway musical, Boop! The Betty Boop Musical previewing a spirited number from the show.While those are for sure names to watch given Foster’s pedigree for working with young talent, it was the established names that provided the fireworks and really showed over and over that among all his many, many talents, first and foremost may be Foster’s gift for working with great singers.

As the country heads into the tumult and turmoil of what is likely to be a contentious Election Day, Foster prefaced “The Prayer,” which he co-wrote with Carole Bayer Sager, Alberto Testa, and Tony Renis for the 1998 film Quest for Camelot, by saying he hopes it provides some balm in these hard times. It was then stunningly delivered by Andrea Bocelli and Foster’s wife, Katherine McPhee, stepping in for Dion. It was a tender rendition, and it wasn’t the only song of the night that felt like it was spreading some much-needed good vibes. Josh Groban’s glorious “You Raise Me Up,” which Foster produced, provided the same uplifting moment, as did Bocelli’s soaring “Nessun Dorma” from Turandot.

They may not have been the biggest names on the bill, but Pia Toscano and Brian McKnight proved to be the night’s most versatile players, stepping in to perform hits for artists who couldn’t be there. McKnight has always had a silky smooth voice and after he opened the evening with the Foster co-penned Earth, Wind & Fire tune “In the Stone,” Pia Toscano joined Colombian singer Fonseca for the Diane Warren-penned “Could I Have This Kiss Forever,” originally recorded by Whitney Houston and Enrique Iglesias.McKnight returned for another EW&F signature hit co-written by Foster, “After the Love is Gone,” while Toscano earned a well-deserved standing ovation for her back-to-back performances of Dion’s “The Power of Love” and her remake of Eric Carmen’s “All by Myself.” McKnight, of course, has been a star for decades, but it feels like former American Idol contestant Toscano, who was signed to Interscope for a hot minute more than 10 years ago and tours with the likes of Bocelli now is ripe for a major moment.