What connects Nordic Noir TV thriller 'The Bridge', watched agog by UK viewers last year with a second series eagerly awaited, and all-American warm-eyed warbler Josh Groban, best known for rousing anthems on sports pitches and stealing the show on ‘Ally McBeal’?
The answer is ‘Hollow Talk’ – the programme's haunting theme, originally by Danish rock band The Choir of Young Believers, and now convincingly interpreted by Groban for his new album ‘All That Echoes’.
And it turns out the connections don’t stop there…
“I’m half-Norwegian,” he tells me, in the first surprise of this interview with him in London.
UK EXCLUSIVE: JOSH GROBAN DEBUTS VIDEO FOR 'BRAVE' BELOW
“I’ve spent a lot of time in Norway, it was the first country outside the US that really started buying my albums, I don’t know if it’s the heritage or what, so I’ve been there quite a bit. And every time I went I listened to new music."
But that wasn't how the song came to him. This happened because someone at Groban's label heard it and thought it had the dramatic, epic elements we've come to associate with his big anthems 'You Lift Me Up' and 'You're Still You'.
“I didn’t think I could rise to the heights it deserves," admits Groban, "and we wanted to make it my own, not copy it, but we gave it a shot, and now I’m a little bit addicted.”
READ THE FULL INTERVIEW WITH JOSH GROBAN OVER THE WEEKEND IN HUFFPOST UK
Does this mean this uber-talented actor-singer, last seen on screen in the US version of 'The Office' as well as in a cameo role in ‘CSI:NY” might pop up when we least expect it on BBC4 on Saturday night? Turns out it might be a while…
“I’ve only seen these programmes when I’ve been in Norway, and I couldn’t understand a word they were saying.”
Nevertheless, this seems a very serendipitous confluence of events, for the world’s best-selling classical artist of the last decade to stumble upon the UK’s current TV zeitgeist. Is he just accidentally cool?
He ponders aloud: “Hmm, how many times are you cool by accident before you’re considered cool, secretly on purpose?”
Josh Groban's single 'Brave' and new album 'All That Echoes' are both out now from Warner Bros Music. HuffPost UK has the UK exclusive debut video of 'Brave' below...