He’s adored the world over but for Michael Bublé Ireland holds a special place in his heart. Janice Butler meets the Canadian crooner to talk love, marriage and that festive feeling.
Bublé-fever can be felt across the capital – photographers huddle outside a well-known Dublin hotel, fans and on-lookers begin to fill the cobbles of Grafton Street and while there may not be snow on the ground just yet – it’s definitely beginning to look a lot like Christmas. The famous Canadian crooner is in town to herald in the beginning of the festive season with the all important task of switching on the lights and with a Christmas album soaring up the charts, it seems he’s the perfect man for the job.
Like some who have gone before him (Garth Brooks, David Grey, Chris Rea to name just a few) Michael Bublé has practically been claimed by the Irish public as one of our own. In fact, per capita we’re apparently his biggest fans, and he knows it.
“This is definitely different,” he says of his connection to the great Irish public.
“I mean there are a few places where I have a great connection with the people, but not quite like this. When you’re accepted like this it’s hard not to love the country back. I think I’ve always liked it here because it’s similar to Canada – you have a very dry sense of humour, it seems like people get me here. I can say things in Ireland and you guys find it funny because you understand my brand of humour, whereas in America sometimes they do not get it.”
In the flesh he’s smaller than you would think. That’s said, it’s not hard to see why women around the globe fall at his feet -with dreamy brown eyes, sharp tailored suits and a down-to-earth, guy-you-could-have-a-pint-with attitude - Michael Bublé is as smooth as the songs he sings.
As I sit down with the man dubbed the ‘Canadian Sinatra’, he politely asks how my day has been and explains that he’s a bit tired and worried about his grandfather, who is unwell back home in Vancouver. “I was talking to my family and was asking them should I leave and come home, but of course they’re saying no. They say he’s going to be fine,” he says, reassuring himself more than me.
But it was that very grandfather, Demetrio Santagà, whom he often credits for the way his life has turned out. An Italian plumber and music fanatic, Demetrio had played him Vic Damone’s version of It Had to Be You when he was 12, and it awoke something in him. After school, Bublé gigged for ten years. He entertained pensioners on cruise liners, did musical theatre, was a singing telegram. But his determination finally paid off. At a corporate gig in 2000, he passed a CD to an impressed guest. The next day the guest called – he was an aide to the then-Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney. Bublé was hired to sing at Mulroney’s daughter’s wedding, at which David Foster (producer) was a guest. The rest is big-band history.
Now with four successful albums in the discography, Bublé, is presenting us with his Christmas offering – and album he says, is his most important yet. “I wasn’t only introduced to jazz music with Christmas songs, I was introduced to music full stop. I was about four or five years old and that Bing Crosby record was playing around the house, probably from late October through to Christmas and it was my introduction to music.”
“This is a record I’ve wanted to make my whole life. I instinctively knew that if I chose the right time and was sincere about the songs and the arrangement, that this could be a great album. I mean we all know it – every year about thirty to fifty artists bring out a Christmas record and it’s basically about selling the product but I didn’t want that, I want this album to still be playing in people’s houses long after I’m gone.”
And when it came to song selection that very Bing Crosby hit was top of the list.
“My first idea for the album was White Christmas and I knew I wanted Shania Twain to appear on it as a duet. I always loved Bing’s version, but I thought it would be a bit naff to do it exactly like he did,” he says, breaking into song and clicking his fingers. My heart skips a beat.
“We didn’t expect Shania to say yes, what with everything she had been going through in her personal life with a very public divorce and other issues, but she did and I was thrilled.”
It’s fair to say that 2011 has been a great year for the 36-year-old, not only professionally but personally. Hearts around the globe broke into a million pieces last April when Bublé got married to Argentine actress Luisana Lopilato – a tiny, doll-like beauty who’s a superstar in South America. He met the 24 year-old at one of his shows in Buenos Aires in 2008, after a messy break-up with British actress Emily Blunt had left him broken-hearted. Prior to Blunt, Bublé was engaged to actress/dancer Debbie Timuss, the woman who famously inspired him to co-write both Home and Lost.
While his first encounter with Lopilato was a difficult one, he spoke English, she didn’t, she spoke Spanish, he didn’t – Bublé knew instantly that she was the one, famously telling his grandfather – “if that girl falls in love with me, I’m going to marry her.” And he did just that.
The loved-up pair had a religious ceremony in her native Buenos Aires followed by a huge party for friends and family in Vancouver – not all in the same day of course. However the newlywed is anxious to explain that it wasn’t as lavish as the press made out.
“I’m delighted that I can dispel this rumour that we had three weddings – because we didn’t. The deal is – we had set up a wedding in Argentina for my close friends and family who could fly down and then we threw a party in Canada afterwards. But then I found out in Argentina to be legally married you have to have a blood test and legal ceremony before you can be married by the priest – so we had to do that as well.”
“On the day we went to do this, the streets were mobbed with people and we were trying to figure out what it was for, of course not thinking it was because of us. All of a sudden we got out of the car and it was crazy, the streets were closed off, police were everywhere and next thing we found ourselves sitting with the mayor in the registry office and the room was packed. It was so weird that one of her friends taped it and sold it to the press. Everyone made such a big deal out of it and for us this part of the wedding was just a technicality – we didn’t feel like we were properly married until we had the ceremony with the priest.
“It was a great day, really special and honestly, probably one of the best nights of my life. To be honest, I was so nervous to get married, but you know what, it’s just getting better and better every day.”
With a soaring career and a wife whose busy filming movies around the globe, it comes as no surprise that the couple are fans of video chatting and the singer affectionately tells how they use modern-day technology to stay in touch.
“I think it’s probably one of my favourite inventions of the decade. Only last night we had a date over Skype - we watched a movie, had a little curry – sometimes we don’t even talk, but it feels like we’ve actually been together.”
As he talks tenderly about his wife, this brings me on nicely to my next question – could Michael Bublé be the perfect man? On paper he has it all – good looks, great singer, sensitive, romantic and he can cook. In fact I’m sure almost every day a woman in Ireland hollers; ‘why can’t you be more like Michael Bublé’. Well, not to burst the bubble (excuse the pun), but according to the man himself, he has major flaws.
“If my wife was here now she’d be telling you that I’m an idiot! I’m like every guy, I can be really lovable, but also very annoying,” he reveals.
“I’m the biggest slob ever…when I walk into a place I throw my clothes everywhere. Last year my wife threatened to put all my clothes in the swimming pool if I kept leaving them on the floor and she did.” he laughs
“And, I’m all about sports and sometimes I get carried away with the boys and don’t come home.”
Enough, I say – no need to completely ruin the illusion.
As my time with the superstar comes to an end and his ‘people’ discuss their strategy to get him down Grafton Street without being completely mobbed, Bublé willingly signs a photograph for me – one of him back stage at the Aviva stadium last year where he played two sell-out gigs, and looks up with an excited smile.
“If anyone ever asks me about the standout show of my life that was it by far – that was the first time I’ve played in front of fifty five thousand people and not just that many people, but that many Irish people – now that was something special.”
Like I said – the perfect man.
