Background and career
Michael Steven Bublé ( boo-BLAY; born September 9, 1975) is a Canadian singer and songwriter. Regarded as a pop icon, he is often credited for helping to renew public interest and appreciation for traditional pop standards and the Great American Songbook. Bublé has sold over 75 million records worldwide, and won numerous awards, including five Grammy Awards and fifteen Juno Awards. In 2003, Bublé's self-titled third album reached the top ten in Canada and the United Kingdom. He found a worldwide audience with his 2005 album It's Time and his 2007 album Call Me Irresponsible – which reached number one on the Canadian Albums Chart, the UK Albums Chart, the US Billboard 200, the Australian ARIA Albums Chart and several European charts. His 2009 album Crazy Love debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 after three days of sales, and remained there for two weeks. It was also his fourth number-one album on Billboard's Top Jazz Albums chart. His 2011 holiday album, Christmas, was in first place on the Billboard 200 for the final four weeks of 2011 and the first week of 2012, totalling five weeks atop the chart, it also made the top 5 in the United Kingdom. With this, Christmas became his third-consecutive number-one album on the chart. To Be Loved was released in April 2013, followed by Nobody but Me in October 2016 and Love in November 2018.
Michael Steven Bublé was born in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada, on September 9, 1975, to Lewis Bublé, a fisherman, and Amber (née Santaga), a homemaker. Bublé's paternal and maternal great-grandparents immigrated to Canada from Italy. His surname was originally spelled "Bubli", and some of his paternal ancestors came from Istria. Bublé stated: "[On the side of the family native to modern-day Croatia] some say we're Yugoslavian, others that we're Italian." He has two younger sisters, Brandee, a children's book author, and Crystal, an actress. He and his siblings were raised Roman Catholic. He attended Seaforth Elementary School and Cariboo Hill Secondary School. According to an Oprah Winfrey interview on October 10, 2009, Bublé dreamed of becoming a famous singer since he was two. When he was a teenager, he slept with his Bible and prayed to become a singer. His interest in jazz began at around age five when his family played Bing Crosby's White Christmas album. His musical influences include Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Tony Bennett, Elvis Presley, Bobby Darin and Sam Cooke. The first time his family noticed his singing talent was during the Christmas holidays, when Bublé was 13 years old, and they heard him powerfully sing the phrase "May your days be merry and bright" when the family was singing to the song "White Christmas" on a car ride. Bublé also has a strong passion for ice hockey and wanted to become a professional hockey player for the Vancouver Canucks growing up, but believed he was not good enough. "I wanted so bad to be a hockey player... If I was any good at hockey, I probably wouldn't be singing right now." He often played hockey in his youth, watched Vancouver Canucks games with his father, and said that he "went to every single home game as a kid... I remember I wanted to be Gary Lupul, I wanted to be Patrik Sundstrom and Ivan Hlinka. I used to think that being named Michael Bublé was pretty cool because I was close to being called Jiri Bubla." Bublé shared his hockey interest with his grandfather. From the age of 14, Bublé spent six years working during the summer as a commercial fisherman with his father and crewmates. He called the experience "the most deadly physical work I'll ever know in my lifetime. We'd be gone for two, sometimes three months at a time and the experience of living and working among guys over twice my age taught me a lot about responsibility and what it means to be a man." His first singing engagements were in nightclubs at age 16 and were facilitated by his Italian grandfather Demetrio Santagà, a plumber from Preganziol, Treviso, who offered his plumbing services in exchange for stage time for his grandson. Bublé's grandfather paid for his singing lessons. Both his voice teacher, Sandi Siemens, and his maternal grandfather never stopped believing that he would become a star. Bublé's maternal grandmother, Iolanda (née Moscone), was also Italian, from Carrufo, L'Aquila. Bublé grew up listening to his grandfather's collection of jazz records and credits his grandfather in encouraging his love for jazz music. "My grandfather was really my best friend growing up. He was the one who opened me up to a whole world of music that seemed to have been passed over by my generation. Although I like rock and roll and modern music, the first time my granddad played me the Mills Brothers, something magical happened. The lyrics were so romantic, so real, the way a song should be for me. It was like seeing my future flash before me. I wanted to be a singer and I knew that this was the music that I wanted to sing." Bublé never stopped believing he would become a star but admitted he was probably the only one who believed in his dream, stating that even his maternal grandfather thought Bublé was going to be "an opening act for somebody in Las Vegas". He stated he never learned to read and write music, using only emotion to drive his songwriting ability. At age 18, Bublé entered a local talent contest and won, but was disqualified by organizer Bev Delich for being underage. Delich entered him in the Canadian Youth Talent Search. After Bublé won that contest, he asked Delich to be his manager. Delich represented him for the next seven years, during which Bublé worked diligently at any job that came along: clubs, conventions, cruise ships, hotel lounges, shopping malls, and talent shows. In 1996, Bublé appeared in TV's Death Game (also known as Mortal Challenge) as a Drome Groupie. Also in 1996, he appeared (uncredited) in two episodes of The X-Files as a member of a submarine crew. His first national TV performance was on a 1997 award-winning Bravo! documentary titled Big Band Boom!, directed by Mark Glover Masterson. Beginning in 1997, he became a frequent guest on Vicki Gabereau's national talk show on the CTV network. During its first season, the Vancouver-based programme aired live, which ultimately worked in Bublé's favour. When a scheduled guest was forced to cancel, the show's music producer often asked Bublé to fill in at the last minute. The Gabereau appearances provided Bublé with great exposure, but they also helped the singer hone his television skills as a performer and as an interview guest. In a mutual show of gratitude, Bublé appeared on the final Gabereau show in 2005, along with Jann Arden and Elvis Costello. Bublé received two Genie Award nominations for Best Original Song in 2000 for "I've Never Been in Love Before" and "Dumb ol' Heart", two songs he wrote for the film Here's to Life!. He recorded three independent albums: First Dance (1996), Babalu (2001), and Dream (2002).
Michael McSweeney, an aide to former prime minister Brian Mulroney, saw Bublé's performance at a business party and received a copy of Bublé's self-financed independent album. McSweeney showed the album to Mulroney and his wife. Bublé subsequently was invited to sing at the wedding of Mulroney's daughter, Caroline, where he sang Kurt Weill's "Mack the Knife". At the wedding, Bublé was introduced to David Foster, a multiple Grammy Award-winning producer and record executive who previously had worked with artists such as Madonna, Brandy Norwood, Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, Céline Dion, Barbra Streisand, Kenny G, Cher, Josh Groban, and Andrea Bocelli. David Foster was reluctant to sign Bublé to his 143 Records label because he "didn't know how to market this kind of music". Bublé moved to Los Angeles with his agent for a brief period to convince Foster to sign him. Eventually, Foster agreed to produce an album for him if he raised $500,000 to cover the costs of the production (which Bublé did). Foster ended up covering the costs of production under his label, with no assurances of support from Warner Bros. Additionally, Bublé received the personal stamp of approval and support of Foster's friend, musician and songwriter Paul Anka. After David Foster agreed to produce Bublé's debut album, Bruce Allen, whom Bublé had pursued for years to be his manager, also signed Bublé. Bublé appeared as a karaoke singer in Duets in 2000 and a club owner in Totally Blonde in 2001.
Bublé's self-titled debut album was released on February 11, 2003, by 143 Records/Reprise Records. The album features a range of standards from various eras including "Fever", "The Way You Look Tonight", "For Once in My Life", "Moondance" and "You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine". Also on the album is "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart?", with Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees singing backing vocals. The album went to the top 10 in Canada, United Kingdom, South Africa and reached No. 1 in Australia. It was No. 33 on the ARIA Top 100 Albums of 2003. Bublé appeared nationally on television in the United States on the Today program on February 14, 2003. In November 2003, Bublé released a Christmas EP Let it Snow, containing five previously unreleased tracks, that peaked at 56 on the Billboard 200. The title track reached the top 40 of the Australia singles chart. A live DVD/CD called Come Fly with Me was released in early 2004. The Come Fly with Me CD was No. 99 on the Aria Top 100 Albums of 2004. The DVD included live footage and behind-the-scenes footage of Bublé's first world tour. The CD included three new studio tracks, two live recordings of new songs, and three live recordings of songs from the album Michael Bublé. The album peaked at 55 on the Billboard 200. In November 2004, the Christmas edition of his debut album was released as a two-disc set that included both the Michael Bublé and the Let It Snow EP. Bublé won New Artist of the Year at the 2004 Juno Awards, and his album was nominated for Album of the Year but lost to Sam Roberts. He appeared in the 2003 film The Snow Walker. Also in 2003, he played a lounge performer on an episode of Days of Our Lives. In 2004, he appeared as himself in Las Vegas. Songs from Bublé's debut album ("For Once in My Life", "Kissing a Fool") were released on the soundtrack for the movie Down with Love (2003). The soundtrack also included a previously unreleased duet with Holly Palmer of the movie's title theme. The Junkie XL remix of the theme for the 1960s TV cartoon version of Spider-Man from Bublé's Babalu album was played during the closing credits of Spider-Man 2 (2004), and this version was also released as a single. A CD was released in 2003 of the 7 songs that Bublé sang for Totally Blonde, calling it Totally Bublé. Bublé collaborated with the Barenaked Ladies for "Elf's Lament", a song on their 2004 Christmas album Barenaked for the Holidays.
Bublé's second studio album, It's Time, was released on February 8, 2005, again by 143/Reprise Records. The album also included standards from a variety of eras including "You Don't Know Me", "Feeling Good", "Can't Buy Me Love", "Save the Last Dance for Me", "Song for You", and "Quando, Quando, Quando" (a duet with Canadian pop singer Nelly Furtado). It also included an original track, "Home", co-written by Bublé, his musical director Alan Chang, and Amy Foster-Gilles. The album reached No. 1 in Canada, Italy, Japan, and on the Billboard Top Jazz chart, No. 2 in Australia, and No. 7 on the Billboard 200. Additionally it reached the top 10 in the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Norway, Austria, and Sweden. The album spent 104 weeks on the Billboard Top Jazz chart, including a record-breaking 78 weeks in the No. 1 spot. It's Time was Billboard's Top Jazz Album in both 2005 and 2006. The first single, "Feeling Good", met with little commercial success. However, the second single from the album, "Home", reached No. 1 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary Tracks chart and No. 72 on the Billboard Hot 100. The third single "Save the Last Dance for Me" reached No. 5 on the Billboard AC Track Chart and No. 99 on the Billboard Hot 100. In 2005, he appeared in a commercial for Starbucks' Frappucino line, singing his single "Come Fly with Me". The single appeared as a bonus track for a Starbucks edition release of It's Time. He won four Juno Awards in 2006: Album of the Year and Pop Album of the Year (It's Time), Single of the Year ("Home"), and Artist of the Year. He was nominated twice for a Grammy in the category Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album in 2006 (It's Time) and 2007 (Caught in the Act), but lost both times to Tony Bennett. In 2007, Bublé received one Juno nomination, for Fan Choice, but lost to Nelly Furtado.
Bublé's third studio album, Call Me Irresponsible, was released on May 1, 2007, by 143/Reprise Records. His third effort included songs from different eras such as "Always on My Mind", "Dream", "I've Got the World on a String", and "Comin' Home Baby" (a duet with Boyz II Men). In the US, the album debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 and rose to number one in its second week.
