Michael Bublé’s effervescent personality, humor and old-soul mentality add to the charm of this beloved Canadian crooner
Michael Bublé : Simply irresistible
By Mary Kunz Goldman
Updated: 04/13/08 8:08 AM
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- ‘‘This is what I always wanted to do. This is a small part of keeping this music alive. ’’
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At 32, Michael Bublé is an old soul. He’s on top of the world, with tour dates at big arenas, including a concert Monday in HSBC Arena. He’s dating British starlet Emily Blunt, featured in “The Devil Wears Prada” and “The Jane Austen Book Club.” And last week at the Junos, Canada’s version of the Grammys, Bublé won the Juno Fan Choice award. Already, though, he sees himself as a veteran.
“What’s cool for me was, I was just in England, and they have a huge show, their version of ‘American Idol,’ “ he says. “The kid who won — his name was Leon — the first record he heard was me. It made me feel like an old fart.”
Then he seems to brighten. “This is what I always wanted to do. This is a small part of keeping this music alive. Maybe this Leon will go on and have a career. Maybe when he’s an old fart of 32, some kid will come up to him and tell him his record was the first one he heard.” He laughs.
It doesn’t matter whether you encounter Bublé on the phone, in person, on a CD, in an arena, wherever — he is irresistible no matter what. A talk with the singer, though the publicists restrict it to 15 minutes, is more chat than interview.
Ask if he and Miss Blunt are still an item, Bublé not only readily confirms that yes, they are, but he goes on to confess that he hasn’t seen “The Jane Austen Book Club.” And she’s not mad?
Bublé launches into a hilarious explanation about how he tried to rent the chick flick the other night, from one of those Internet movie services, but couldn’t get it. “But I will see it,” he says. He did see “The Devil Wears Prada.”
When a reporter admits that she missed that one, Bublé says, “Oh, you should! I watched it just the other day. You’ve got to watch it! It’s really funny.”
‘The Daily Bublé’
Bublé’s laid-back manner hints at the qualities that make him a good singer, that help him croon his way naturally through “I’ll Be Seeing You” and “The Best Is Yet To Come.” He has been called a kind of boy next door, and he is. Talking to him, the only problem you have is that you’re never quite sure if he’s kidding or not.
Reporter: “I was reading ‘The Daily Bublé,’ while I was waiting for your phone call, and —” Bublé: “What’s ‘The Daily Bublé’?”
Reporter: “It’s on your official Web site. You click on it, and it shows stories that have appeared about you in papers that day.” Bublé (Laughing): “Oh!”
Another goofy exchange arises when Bublé begins talking about what it’s like in Vancouver, where he lives. He is speaking from a downtown office.
“It’s beautiful here,” he says. “I’m looking out the window — I can see the beautiful ocean, mountains, the snow. Oops, I can also see some people shooting up in the alley.” Is he kidding?
No, Bublé says, he’s not. “We have a bit of a homeless problem,” he says.
Born late
Born to an Italian family in British Columbia, Bublé found his calling at an early age. His grandfather played him a record by the Mills Brothers, and he became hooked on the songs of an earlier era.
“When I was a little boy, I remember my parents playing a Bing Crosby Christmas record,” he says. “It felt really good. There was just such an emotional connection. Even now, today, when I hear a Christmas song, it could be September. I still get that same feeling,” he rambles on, charmingly. “It’s definitely a turn-on for me. It’s hard not to be moved by those melodies.”
His biggest musical heroes became singers he was born too late to hear.
“I would have loved to have seen the young Elvis Presley. There was real charisma there,” he reflects. “He never seemed to take himself too seriously. Dick Haymes, I would have loved to go hear him live. He and Vic Damone had the best voices.”
Bublé’s breakthrough came in 2000, when he was introduced to Warner Brothers executive David Foster, who had launched the career of Josh Groban. Since then, Bublé has gone on in his albums to explore not only the Great American Songbook but songs from other, more surprising, eras. He has thrown songs by Queen and the Beatles into the mix. “God help me, I listen to everything from Madonna to Coldplay.”
On his first album, he sang the Bee Gees’ “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart?” with backup vocals by Barry Gibb himself. “The Bee Gees! What’s cool is early on, someone like Barry Gibb would sing with someone who was a nobody,” Bublé exults. “He liked my voice enough, and I thought it was cool of him to take that position.
“I’ve been lucky,” he adds. “I’ve gotten to sing with people I’ve really idolized. Nelly Furtado — I always thought she was a beautiful singer.”
Romancing the fans
But Bublé’s heart lies with the old and the classic. His listeners seem to feel the same way.
“When I became a fan in 2003, no one knew who he was here in Holland. I felt so alone!” one woman confesses in the forum of his Web site. “Then I met the cutest guy ever. And when I sent him ‘Orange Colored Sky,’ he listened and said, ‘Michael??’ I just knew I’d have to marry him.”
The idea that kids are still romancing each other to the tune of “Orange Colored Sky,” a chestnut made popular by Nat “King” Cole, is enough to make anyone give Bublé a big “Bravo!” Bublé recognizes the appeal of old songs.
“I always make the joke, do you think 100 years from now, people will be singing ‘My Milkshake’?” he says, referring to a hip-hop hit. “No, but they’ll still be singing ‘It Had To Be You.’”
And if people compare him with Sinatra, he doesn’t mind.
“I think it’s ridiculous to object to compartmentalizing people. It’s natural. How else do we human beings do things? We compartmentalize so we can explain to ourselves what people are.
“When people compare me to Sinatra, it’s ridiculous, because there’ll never be another Sinatra. But then,” he adds, “there will never be another Michael Bublé, either.”
