 Michael Bublé
: The Biography
Since his debut in 2003, Michael Bublé sold 18 million albums, won numerous awards—including a Grammy, and reached the top 50 of the Billboard 200 album charts with his first album Michael Bublé. His second album, the multi-platinum It’s Time, was more successful still. His performances and concerts worldwide have sold out, while he has cultivated a huge and loyal fanbase. Of Italian origin, and born into a family of fishermen in Canada, Michael was largely raised by his grandfather, whom he credited with introducing him to the kind of music he would make his own—Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles, Dean Martin, and Elvis, to name but a few. His popularity continues to grow, and this comprehensive and definitive biography charts his fascinating and phenomenal success story.
Bublé was born in the city of Burnaby, British Columbia in Canada to Lewis Bublé, a salmon fisherman, and his wife Amber Bublé. He is the only son and eldest of 3 children with two younger sisters, Crystal (an actress) and Brandee. For his education, he attended Seaforth Elementary School and Cariboo Hill Secondary School. The first time that his family noticed his singing talent was at Christmas time when Michael was 13 years old and they heard him singing "White Christmas."
His first singing engagements were in nightclubs at the age of 16 and were facilitated by his Italian grandfather, who was a plumber coming from the county of Preganziol, about 40 kilometres from Padua, Italy, offering plumbing services in exchange for stage time for his grandson. His Italian grandfather also paid for his singing lessons. One of his vocal instructors was Joseph Shore, the opera baritone. His paternal grandfather never stopped believing that he would become a star. Bublé's grandmother was also Italian from Abruzzo, Italy.
On his Internet site he stresses the he likes Rock ’n’ Roll and modern music, but when his grandfather played the Mills Brothers to him for the first time, something magic happened to him. He suddenly knew that this kind of music and the romantic lyrics was his cup of tea and he would become a singer.
At the age of 18, Bublé entered a local talent contest and was informed by organizer Bev Delich that he had won, but was disqualified because he was underage. From there, Delich entered Bublé into the Canadian Youth Talent Search which he won. Following the win, Bublé asked Delich to be his manager. Delich signed on and represented Bublé for the next seven, not-so-fruitful, years. According to Delich, Bublé would do every gig imaginable; including talent shows, conventions, cruise ships, malls, hotel lounges, bars, clubs, corporate gigs, theatres, music revues, and even the occasional singing Santa Claus gig.
In 1996, Bublé appeared in TV's "Death Game" (aka Mortal Challenge) as a Drome Groupie. Also in 1996, he appeared (uncredited) in 2 episodes of The X-Files as a Submarine Sailor.
Bublé's first national TV performance was on a 1997 award-winning Bravo! documentary titled Big Band Boom! which was directed by Mark Glover Masterson. Bublé 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). He recorded three independent albums (First Dance, 1996; Babalu, 2001; Dream, 2002). But by 25 years of age Bublé had moved from British Columbia to Toronto, Ontario and was ready to give up the dream of professional musicianship to move back to Vancouver, British Columbia to pursue a career in journalism when his lucky break came in 2000
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