Ross Golan (born April 8, 1980) is a multi-award-winning, multi-platinum selling, American songwriter, record producer and playwright.

Life and career

Early career

Golan graduated from Deerfield High School (Illinois) of Deerfield, Illinois in 1998. He studied music at the University of Southern California, and has since released songs with artists including Maroon 5,

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, The Dixie Chicks,

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, Colbie Caillat, Andy Grammer,

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, Rixton, The Vamps and Icona Pop, among others. He is the 2016 BMI "Pop Songwriter of the Year" and is currently published by

Warner/Chappell Music Warner Chappell Music, Inc. is an American music publishing company and a subsidiary of the Warner Music Group. Warner Chappell Music's catalogue consists of over 1.4 million compositions and 65,000 composers, with offices in over 40 countries. ...

. His concept album ''The Wrong Man'' was released worldwide by

Interscope Records Interscope Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group through its Interscope Geffen A&M imprint. Founded in late 1990 by Jimmy Iovine and Ted Field as a $20 million joint venture with Atlantic Records of Warner Mu ...

on 26 July 2019.

Early Record Deals

Golan had multiple

record A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, ...

deals, the first in 2003 with Insider Trading Corporation/ EMI, which was a label he started while in school. The label teamed up with EMI's then-president Phil Quatararo, releasing ''Reagan Baby''. After that, Golan co-founded Glacier Hiking, which had a hybrid publishing/label deal with

Lionsgate Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation, doing business as Lionsgate, is a Canadian- American entertainment company. It was formed by Frank Giustra on July 10, 1997, domiciled in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and is currently headquarter ...

- the band released a self-titled EP before breaking up in 2009.

The Wrong Man

Golan developed a

musical Musical is the adjective of music Music is generally defined as the The arts, art of arranging sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Exact def ...

called ''The Wrong Man'', based on the concept music

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

, which is about a man who is wrongly accused of a crime committed in Reno, Nevada. A one-man version of the show, starring Golan, ran in Los Angeles in February 2014 and received three Ovation Award wins out of four nominations. The musical made its way to New York City, playing

Off-Broadway An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer th ...

to previews beginning 18 September 2019, with an October 7 opening and scheduled run through 24 November 2019 at the Robert W. Wilson MCC Theater Space. The full-cast stage production included Tony winners and nominees

Tommy Kail Thomas Kail (born January 30, 1978) is an American theatre director, known for directing the Off-Broadway and Broadway productions of Lin-Manuel Miranda's musicals '' In the Heights'' and ''Hamilton'', garnering the 2016 Tony Award for Best ...

, Alex Lacamoire and Joshua Henry. The Wrong Man received 9

Drama Desk Awards The Drama Desk Award is an annual prize recognizing excellence in New York theatre. First bestowed in 1955 as the Vernon Rice Award, the prize initially honored Off-Broadway productions, as well as Off-off-Broadway, and those in the vicinity. Fol ...

nominations including Best Musical and 3

Lucille Lortel Awards The Lucille Lortel Awards recognize excellence in New York Off-Broadway theatre. The Awards are named for Lucille Lortel, an actress and theater producer, and have been awarded since 1986. They are produced by the League of Off-Broadway Theatres ...

nominations. The show was also honored with four Outer Critics Circle Awards including best original score for Golan. The concept album was released worldwide by Interscope Records on 26 July 2019. That version made it to the big screen, with an

animated film Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most ani ...

adaptation written and performed by Golan. The movie premiered at the

Tribeca Film Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by Tribeca Productions. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive programming. Tribeca was ...

in April 2019.

Podcast

Golan is also the

podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosing ...

host of ''And the Writer Is...'' which is co-produced by Joe London. It has garnered three million downloads.

Advocacy

In 2016, Golan co-authored an initiative to include songwriters in the

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pre ...

s "Album of the Year" category, and 2017 marked the first year a songwriter received a statue for the award. In 2018, he was a leading voice in the Music Modernization Act. In 2019, he became the first songwriter to sit on the board of directors of the National Music Publishers Association in the 100-plus year history of that organization. In 2021, he advocated to have the 33% rule eradicated from the

s "Album of the Year" category and in 2022, all songwriters, producers and engineers who worked on a nominated album will for the first time be recognized as nominees.

Notable song credits

Awards and nominations

Ovation Awards The Ovation Awards are a Southern California award for excellence in theatre, established in 1989. They are given out by the non-profit arts service organization LA Stage Alliance and are the only peer-judged theatre awards in Los Angeles. Winne ...

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

: Winner, "Video/Projection Design" - Michael Hoy and Adam Flemming, for the Skylight Theatre Company production of ''The Wrong Man''. *

: Winner, "Lyrics/Music for an Original Musical" - Ross Golan, for the Skylight Theatre Company production of ''The Wrong Man''. *

: Winner, "Book for an Original Musical" - Ross Golan, for the Skylight Theatre Company production of ''The Wrong Man''. *

: Nominee, "Best Production of a Musical (Intimate Theatre)" - Skylight Theatre Company, for the production of ''The Wrong Man''.

BMI Awards The BMI Film & TV Awards are accolades presented annually by Broadcast Music, Inc., honoring songwriters, composers, and music publishers in various genres. Based in the United States, the awards include the BMI Christian Awards, BMI Country Award ...

*2016: Winner, "Pop Songwriter of the Year".

Outer Critics Circle Award The Outer Critics Circle Awards are presented annually for theatrical achievements both on Broadway and Off-Broadway. They are presented by the Outer Critics Circle (OCC), the official organization of New York theater writers for out-of-town newsp ...

*2020: Winner, "Best Original Score" - for the MCC production of ''The Wrong Man''.

Drama Desk Award The Drama Desk Award is an annual prize recognizing excellence in New York theatre. First bestowed in 1955 as the Vernon Rice Award, the prize initially honored Off-Broadway productions, as well as Off-off-Broadway, and those in the vicinity. Fo ...

*2020: Nominee, "Outstanding Score" - for the MCC production of ''The Wrong Man''. *2020: Nominee, "Outstanding Musical" - for the MCC production of ''The Wrong Man''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Golan, Ross 1980 births Living people American singer-songwriters American podcasters 21st-century American singers People from Deerfield, Illinois