A LOVE NOTE TO THE WORLD
Bublé dishes on his big comeback after caring for his now-healthy son
Higher
Warner Records
When Michael Bublé dropped everything in 2016 to help take care of his son, Noah, who was suffering from liver cancer, he thought his career was over. “I didn't think I'd ever perform again. Never. It wasn't even on my radar.”
Bublé was one of the most popular singers in the world, whose contemporary blend of swing and jazz classics with smooth pop had sold more than 75 million albums and taken him around the world on massive tours. But faced with a family crisis, he lost all interest in music. “I wasn't even singing in the shower.”
All he was focused on was “taking care of my family and protecting my mental health.”
Mercifully, Noah made a full recovery. “My little boy is great, my family's good, thank God.”
At the urging of his wife and father, Bublé returned to the studio to record Love in 2018, staying within his comfort zone of easy-listening American songbook classics. “I limped back on that last record,” he says now. “There was no way I was ready. I was still a wreck.”
But something strange happened when the Canadian crooner took to the stage at Hyde Park in London for his first comeback concert in July 2018, in front of 65,000 fans in the English rain.
“I always felt like I was Teflon, there was never a moment that could get the better of me. I was a centred, focused machine on stage. And then that night, I came out, and oh my God, I was a mess. For the first time in my whole career, I couldn't hide emotionally. But it was beautiful. I realized I didn't have that protective mechanism anymore. And I felt free.”
Bublé has taken that spirit into a new album, his 11th (also his fifth No. 1), which he anoints the best of his career. “I'm breathing, man, I'm alive, and I was inspired in a big way. I'm coming out into the ring for a knockout. I ain't throwing no jabs!”
Bublé is dancing around his hotel suite as he delivers this speech. “Have you ever heard someone who loved their own s--t this much?” He laughs.
The album, Higher offers an odd mix of originals (composed by Bublé with top chart songwriters) and covers of classic songs by such diverse artists as Paul Mccartney, Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson and Duke Ellington, lushly executive-produced by Greg Wells (who oversaw the soundtrack for The Greatest Showman).
“At first, Greg was nervous about the range of stuff I wanted to do, but as it came together, he understood. He said, `It radiates joy. It's a love note to the world.'”
Bublé finds a musical throughline from the richly romantic 1939 British standard A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square to a gospel reworking of Sam Cooke's 1962 anthem Bring It On Home to Me.
The album was initially set in motion when Bublé made a recording of Charlie Chaplin's Smile for the late Captain Tom Moore, when he was doing his charity walk for the NHS. “I was moved by that, and I recorded it just for him, there was only one copy,” explains Bublé.
Then his family requested that it be played at Captain Tom's funeral last year, and Bublé decided to record a “bigger” version, with old Hollywood strings and a choir, inspired by American vaudeville comedian Jimmy Durante. It is an odd musical reference for a modern star. “Sometimes I wonder, am I 150 years old in the body of a 46-year-old?” Bublé laughs.
Growing up in British Columbia, his love for swing and jazz was nurtured by his Italian grandfather, who had a big vintage record collection. “Durante was one of our faves. He's not even a singer, but he could put a story across with so much emotion. He just had that light, that thing that makes you go, wow!”
As anyone who has seen Bublé on stage can attest, he is a funny, friendly character. His emotions are tremulously close to the surface whenever conversation strays toward his family. He has three children aged between eight and three with his wife, Argentine actress Luisana Lopilato, with another on the way. When mother and daughter call on Facetime to show him a bruise from a fall, he murmurs sweet reassurances, “Mio amore! You bumped your head! You're still the most beautiful, though.”
He had his children with him when he recorded a joyously uptempo version of Bob Dylan's Make You Feel My Love, live in a studio with an orchestra.
“I sat on a stool, my little girl sat on my lap, and my boys sat and held my hands. And I sang the song, looking at the loves of my life. And it sounds romantic but I'm missing out the part where I say to my kids: `If you say one word, this whole thing is ruined!' Because that happened, too.”
The highlight of the record is a broodingly magnificent version of Mccartney's ballad My Valentine (from 2012 album Kisses on the Bottom). It was Mccartney's idea that Bublé record it, and he agreed to produce the session.
“This is one of the greatest musicians in history, man, I mean, we're talking Mozart, and he was beautiful, he has the ability to walk into a room and lift everyone up.” Bublé pulls out his phone again to show me footage filmed in a vast studio, with a full orchestra spread around him in a small sound booth.
“It was a long day, we were playing live, and he was really calm and patient with me. He helped me to make sure that I told the story the right way. Less was more for him. I'm dramatic, so I have the urge to go over the top.
“I was taking liberties, and he didn't like that. He had to make a long walk from the control room to come down and put me right a few times.”
Buble's revived love for his craft is endearing.
“I'm one of the lucky ones who gets to continue the legacy of my heroes. I'm so protective of the music, and the writers, arrangers, artists and styles. Because it deserves to be protected. I think that — along with cinema — this songbook is the greatest gift America ever gave to the arts. And I'm here to help keep this music alive for future generations. That's a joy. That's a privilege.”