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) Deerfield High School (abbreviated DHS) is a comprehensive public high school in Deerfield, Illinois, United States. It is part of Township High School District 113, which also includes Highland Park High School. DHS opened in 1959, and graduate ...

of Deerfield, Illinois in 1998. He studied music at the University of Southern California, and has since released songs with artists including

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, 5 Seconds of Summer,

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, The Vamps and

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, 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 Mus ...

on 26 July 2019.

Early Record Deals

Golan had multiple record deals, the first in 2003 with Insider Trading Corporation/

EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At the time of its break-up in 201 ...

, 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 headquartered ...

- 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. Musical may also refer to: * Musical theatre, a performance art that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance * Musical film and television, a genre of film and television that incorporates into the narr ...

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 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 ...

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 tha ...

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 MCC Theater (Manhattan Class Company) is an off-Broadway theater company located in New York City, founded in 1986 by artistic directors Robert LuPone, Bernard Telsey and William Cantler. Blake West joined the company in 2006 as executive direc ...

Space. The full-cast stage production included

Tony Tony may refer to: People and fictional characters * Tony (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Gregory Tony (born 1978), American law enforcement officer * Motu Tony (born 1981), New Zealand international rugby leagu ...

winners and nominees Tommy Kail, 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. Fo ...

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 Theatre ...

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 image, still figures are manipulated to appear as Motion picture, moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent cel, celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited ...

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, Tribeca Productions. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive progra ...

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 pres ...

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 The Orrin G. Hatch–Bob Goodlatte Music Modernization Act, or Music Modernization Act or MMA (, ) is United States legislation signed into law on October 11, 2018 aimed to modernize copyright-related issues for music and audio recordings due t ...

. In 2019, he became the first songwriter to sit on the board of directors of the

National Music Publishers Association The National Music Publishers' Association (NMPA) is a trade association for the American music publishing industry. Founded in 1917, NMPA represents American music publishers and their songwriting partners. The NMPA’s mandate is to protect and ...

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 Awards ...

*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 newspa ...

*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