Michael Bublé
singer, actor | born 1975
BornSeptember 9, 1975 in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
Biographyby Nathan Whitlock
Defying the conventional wisdom that jazz crooning is an old person’s game, Michael Bublé became a global superstar at the age of 28 by singing standards and lively, upbeat pop music with a Bing Crosby twist. The son of a B.C. fisherman grew up listening obsessively to his grandfather’s jazz records. After his dreams of becoming an amateur hockey player fizzled, Bublé turned his attention to singing like his suave heroes. After being discovered by, of all people, an aide to former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, the crooner moved to L.A. to act in films and television and pursue a singing career. His 2005 album, It’s Time—his second for a major label—featured a mix of standards, big band takes on Motown and pop hits, and a little freshened-up fromage like “Quando, Quando, Quando.” It wasn’t the most obvious formula for success, but at a moment when the charts were filled with hip-hop bangers and spiky indie rock, it was perfect, harmless nostalgia and pure entertainment. Bublé tweaked this formula in the albums that followed, adding more straight-up pop to the mix, but he’s too canny an entertainer to let himself go too far astray: His 2013 album To Be Loved opened with—what else?—the Sinatra-fied standard “You Make Me Feel So Young.”
Defying the conventional wisdom that jazz crooning is an old person’s game, Michael Bublé became a global superstar at the age of 28 by singing standards and lively, upbeat pop music with a Bing Crosby twist. The son of a B.C. fisherman grew up listening obsessively to his grandfather’s jazz records. After his dreams of becoming an amateur hockey player fizzled, Bublé turned his attention to singing like his suave heroes. After being discovered by, of all people, an aide to former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, the crooner moved to L.A. to act in films and television and pursue a singing career. His 2005 album, It’s Time—his second for a major label—featured a mix of standards, big band takes on Motown and pop hits, and a little freshened-up fromage like “Quando, Quando, Quando.” It wasn’t the most obvious formula for success, but at a moment when the charts were filled with hip-hop bangers and spiky indie rock, it was perfect, harmless nostalgia and pure entertainment. Bublé tweaked this formula in the albums that followed, adding more straight-up pop to the mix, but he’s too canny an entertainer to let himself go too far astray: His 2013 album To Be Loved opened with—what else?—the Sinatra-fied standard “You Make Me Feel So Young.”
Contemporary Country Singer-Songwriter | born 1961
Canadian Music Icon and Broadcaster | 1936 - 2018
