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In late 1998, the 17-year-old Groban was introduced by his vocal coach to Grammy-winning producer / arranger David Foster and future manager Brian Avnet.

At the time Groban had no recording experience and was preparing to begin studying at Carnegie Mellon University.

Groban worked for David Foster as a rehearsal singer on a series of high-profile events, including the January 1999 inauguration of Gray Davis as Governor of California and the 1999 Grammy Awards where — as a stand-in for Andrea Bocelli — he rehearsed Foster's " The Prayer " with Céline Dion.

According to manager Avnet, Groban was very nervous about standing in for Bocelli and had to be talked into it, but his performance prompted the show hostess, Rosie O ' Donnell, to ask him to appear on her show the following week, which then led to an appearance on the Ally McBeal show.

David E. Kelley, creator of the television series Ally McBeal, created a character, Malcolm Wyatt, for Groban in the season finale aired in May 2001.

The character of Malcolm Wyatt was so popular, prompting 8, 000 emails from viewers, that Groban was asked to return the next season to reprise his role and perform " To Where You Are.

" Avnet claims this sequence of events effectively got Groban's career off the ground.