New: Michael Buble'
Crooner visits U.S. Bank Arena on March 24
March 4, 2010, 2:24 p.m.
With his ability to make classic jazz songs relevant and contemporary, Michael Bublé is unlike any other current pop star. Bublé was born in 1975 in Burnaby, British Columbia. As a young child, his Italian grandfather introduced him to the music of The Mills Brothers, Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra.
After his introduction to this type of music, Michael was convinced that’s what he wanted to do. The beginning of his career is marked with spots as a guest singer with local bands and various talent contests, culminating with his win of the Canadian Youth Talent Search.
While struggling to make it in the recording industry, Bublé relocated to Toronto and made several films including “Duets,” “Totally Blonde” and “The Snow Walker,” while also appearing as a guest character on TV shows such as “ER” and “Las Vegas.” Finally, in 2000, Michael landed a gig as wedding singer for the daughter of former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mullroney. There he met famous producer David Foster who had worked with fabulous artists such as Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, Céline Dion, Cher, Barbra Streisand and Josh Groban. Although Foster had no idea how to market Bublé with his unique mix of timely pop music and classic smooth jazz songs, he took a leap of faith and signed Michael to 143/Reprise Records.
• Related: Bublé on E-News blog
Michael’s first few albums did extremely well internationally in the UK, Australia and Canada, but couldn’t seem to crack the Top 40 in the United States. But he has blown up the charts with his most recent album Crazy Love and its lead single “Haven’t Met You Yet.” The debut single off this album has risen to number two on the Billboard Adult Contemporary Chart and the album itself is also doing very well.
His various acting projects and 12 studio albums have garnered many awards. Bublé has won several Genies (Canadian Cinema Awards) and Junos (Canadian Grammy’s) and has been nominated for a total of four Grammy awards, winning two of them. His Grammy wins include Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance.
Michael ended a long term engagement to actress Debbie Timmuss – a woman who he had starred in several theatre productions with – in 2005, and began dating actress Emily Blunt. With that relationship ending in mid-2008, he is now engaged to Argentinean model and actress Luisana Lopilato. Bublé’s newest single is rumored to be written for her. On January 30, 2010, Bublé made his first appearance as musical artist on "Saturday Night Live."
He performed two of the singles off Crazy Love and acted out a skit with SNL’s Jon Hamm. Michael is an avid sports fan and currently co-owns a major junior hockey team in the Canadian Western Hockey League – the Vancouver Giants. He also participated in the 2010 Winter Olympics torch relay to the Opening Ceremony at Grouse Mountain in British Columbia. He headlined the 2010 Winter Olympics Closing Ceremony.