Michael Bubl

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This article is about the singer. For his self-titled album, see Michael Bubl (album).

Michael Bubl

Bubl in February 2011

Born

Michael Steven Bubl

9 September 1975 (age 41)
Burnaby, British Columbia,
Canada[1]

Occupation

Singer
songwriter
cabaret singer
actor

Years active

1996present

Salary

$45.5 million (2015) [2]

Spouse(s)

Luisana Lopilato (m. 2011)

Children

2
Musical career

Genres

Traditional pop
easy listening
jazz
pop rock
vocal jazz
cabaret
show tunes
swing
big band
blue-eyed soul

Instruments

vocals

Labels

143/Reprise

Associated

acts

Website

Naturally 7
Jann Arden
Laura Pausini
Chris Botti
Leon Jackson
Nelly Furtado
Thala
Stacey Solomon
michaelbuble.com

Michael Steven Bubl (/buble/ boo-BLAY; born 9 September 1975) is a Canadian singer,
songwriter and actor. He became a naturalized Italian citizen in 2005.[3] He has won several awards,
including four Grammy Awards[4][5] and multiple Juno Awards.[6]
His first album reached the top ten in Canada and the UK. 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 albums chart, the
Australian ARIA Albums Chart and several European charts.
Bubl's 2009 album Crazy Love debuted at number one on the US Billboard200 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, Christmasbecame his third-consecutive number-one
album on the chart. To Be Lovedwas released in April 2013.
As of 2013, Bubl has sold over 55 million albums worldwide.

Contents

[hide]

1Early life

2Music career
o

2.1200002: Musical beginnings

2.2200304: Michael Bubl

2.3200506: It's Time

2.4200708: Call Me Irresponsible

2.520092012: Crazy Love and Christmas

2.6201315: To Be Loved

2.72015present: Nobody but Me

3Personal life
o

3.1Relationships

3.2Interests and charity work

4Discography

5Tours

6Filmography

7Television and guesting

8Awards and nominations

o

8.1American Music Awards

8.2BRIT Awards

8.3Grammy Awards

8.4Juno Awards

8.5iHeartRadio Much Music Video Awards

8.6Other awards

9See also

10References

11External links

Early life[edit]
Bubl was born in Burnaby, British Columbia to Lewis Bubl, a salmon fisherman,[7] and Amber (ne
Santaga).[8] He has two younger sisters,[9] Brandee, a children's book author, and Crystal, an
actress. The siblings were raised in the Roman Catholic faith.[10] He attended Seaforth Elementary
School and Cariboo Hill Secondary School.[11]
According to an Oprah interview on 9 October 2009, Bubl dreamed of becoming a famous singer
since he was two years old. When he was a teenager, he slept with his Bible and prayed to become
a singer.[12][13] Bubl's interest in jazz music began around age five[14] when his family played Bing
Crosby's White Christmas album at Christmastime.[14][15][16]
The first time his family noticed his singing talent was at Christmastime when Bubl 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.[12][17]
Bubl had a strong passion for ice hockey and wanted to become a professional hockey player for
the Vancouver Canucksgrowing up, but believed he was not good at it,[18] stating: "I wanted so bad
to be a hockey player... If I was any good at hockey, I probably wouldn't be singing right
now."[19] Bubl often played hockey in his youth,[20][21] watched Vancouver Canucks games with his
father,[22] and said that he "went to every single home game as a kid... I remember I wanted to
beGary Lupul, I wanted to be Patrik Sundstrom and Ivan Hlinka. I used to think that being named
Michael Bubl was pretty cool because I was close to being called Jiri Bubla."[20] Bubl shared his
hockey interest with his grandfather.[23]
From age 14, Bubl spent six years working during the summer as a commercial fisherman with his
father and crewmates.[7][24] Bubl described his work experience as "The most deadly physical work
I'll ever know in my lifetime. Wed 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."[9]
His first singing engagements were in nightclubs at the age of 16 and were facilitated by
his Italian grandfather Demetrio Santag,[25] a plumber originally from the small town of Preganziol,

[26]

in the district of Treviso, who offered his plumbing services in exchange for stage time for his
grandson.[9] Bubl's grandfather paid for his singing lessons. One of his vocal instructors
was Joseph Shore, the opera baritone.[17] His maternal grandfather never stopped believing that he
would become a star. Bubl's maternal grandmother, Iolanda (ne Moscone), [27] was also Italian,
from Carrufo,[27] Villa Santa Lucia degli Abruzzi, Italy.[28] His father is also of Italian descent.[29] His
original brush with entertainment was as a children's entertainer using the name Mickey Bubbles. [30]
Bubl 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 'n' 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."[31] Bubl 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 Bubl was going to be "an opening act for somebody in Las
Vegas".[32] He stated he never learned to read and write music, using only emotion to drive his
songwriting ability.[18][33][34]
At the age of 18, Bubl entered a local talent contest and won. But after winning, he was disqualified
by organizer Bev Delich because he was underage. After that, Delich entered Bubl in the Canadian
Youth Talent Search, which he won. Following that win, Bubl asked Delich to be his manager.
Delich signed on and represented Bubl for the next seven not-so-fruitful years. According to Delich,
Bubl would do every gig imaginable, including talent shows, conventions, cruise ships, malls, hotel
lounges, bars, clubs, corporate gigs, musical revues, singing telegrams, and even the occasional
singing Santa Claus gig.[17][24][35][36]
In 1996, Bubl appeared in TV's Death Game (aka 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.[37]
Bubl's 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 CTVnetwork. During its first season, the Vancouverbased program aired live, which ultimately worked in Bubl's favour. When a scheduled guest was
forced to cancel, the show's music producer often asked Bubl to fill in at the last minute. The
Gabereau appearances provided Bubl 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, Bubl
appeared on the final Gabereau show in 2005, along with Jann Arden and Elvis Costello.[38]
Bubl received two Genie Award-nominations in 2000 for two songs he wrote for the film Here's to
Life! ("I've Never Been in Love Before", "Dumb ol' Heart").[39] He recorded three independent albums
(First Dance, 1996; Babalu, 2001; Dream, 2002).[40][41]