Bublé has shifted gears since son’s cancer battle
Michael Bublé faced his darkest days as a parent when he watched his young son battle cancer, but the singer says living through the experience gave him a renewed perspective on what’s important.
“Everything I’m doing now is because I get to wake up every morning and just enjoy the moment,” the four-time Grammy winner said in a phone interview. “It sounds New Agey, but it’s not. It’s how I’ve chosen to attack my life.”
The chart-topping crooner talked about falling into a period of disillusionment with the music industry and his critics, a sentiment that suddenly became meaningless with his son’s diagnosis. In 2016, he sidelined a publicity tour to focus solely on the boy’s hospital treatment.
His son Noah, now 5, is in remission. In July, Bublé and his wife, Luisana Lopilato, welcomed their third child, a baby girl.
All of this good news almost makes Bublé’s return to music feel like an afterthought and, in many ways, it kind of was. His new album, titled Love but spelled with an emoji instead of the word, wasn’t always a guarantee.
When his life started getting back to normal, he invited his band members over for a jam session and a few games of Mario Kart. At first, that was all it was supposed to be.
Between the rounds, Bublé started talking about making a concept album that paid tribute to everything he loved about music, lost somewhere along the way, but rediscovered over time.
Love features Bublé covering a selection of classic love songs, including “La Vie en Rose” and “My Funny Valentine,” alongside a number of original efforts.
Bublé’s personal touch is all over “Forever Now,” a poignant and tender ballad that’s a slightly veiled tribute to Noah. It’s the closest Bublé has come to baring his soul through his lyrics and he’s said he doesn’t intend to perform the song live.
As he forges the next stage of his career, Bublé said he’s thinking more about what he chooses to “put out into the universe.” He wants whatever he does next to come across as “genuine” and “pure.”
“What I’ve been through and the perspective I have, I think it’s been invigorating in a way,” he said.
“I found that joy again.”