TanyaB (Michael_Buble) все записи автора
CAN I ask you something - does this look like a popstar to you? I'm not exactly Justin Timberlake with abs and s**t. The popstar I'm looking at is Canadian singer Michael Buble, and he is insisting that I examine his stomach.
Closely. "Come on, I bet yours isn't this bad," he says, wanting to compare girths, which, unless I first do a few rounds on The Biggest Loser, isn't going to happen in this lifetime.
#
"You know, what happened to the days when being a little chunky was sexy?" he continues. "What happened to those days when you looked at photos and you could tell the wealth of the person by how heavy they were and it was beautiful? You know, I like a bit of meat on a girl's bones, and I'm no skinny minnie."
Ah, such is the image-obsessed world we live in that even a hugely successful, multimillion-album-selling singer is worried about his weight (frankly, he looks fine to me). What hope is there for the rest of us, I ask? "We all have our own strengths and weaknesses," he says, with a sigh, "and a good McChicken burger with extra mayonnaise is my weakness."
Buble may think his stomach is a little soft around the edges, but his strengths are many. He's the guy with the silky, smooth voice; the man who's been compared to Tony Bennett, Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra. He's the guy who shares a Vancouver apartment with his girlfriend, The Devil Wears Prada star and Golden Globe winner, Emily Blunt. He's also the guy who makes many other ladies - memorably, one Kath Day-Knight - go a bit wobbly at the knees. (Buble tells me excitedly that being thumped by Kel during his guest appearance on Da Kath & Kim Code was a career highlight.)
When I watched one of his shows during his 2005 Australian tour, I actually feared a stampede of hormonal 30- and 40-something women, such was the level of hysteria. "It was my mother," he deadpans, when I remind him. "You're just so sexy, Michael..." he laughs, imitating his mum with a high-pitched squeak. "No, it's funny, because I'll be at home with Emily and I'll be sitting on the couch with my hand down my pants, a la Al Bundy, with corn chips crumbled on my chest, and she'll say, "God, if they could just see you now, you dork."
Luckily, they can't. In fact, the fans remain happy because the 31-year-old has just released his latest album, Call Me Irresponsible. He admits he's a little nervous, however, because he's no longer the cheeky up-and-comer. His albums have sold more than 11 million globally (Michael Buble and It's Time are both platinum-sellers here) and, it's fair to say, there's a bit more pressure on him this time around.
"It's tough and I don't know if I've made the right decisions with this one," he says of the album which, along with Buble, takes on classic Frank Sinatra and Billie Holiday, also features versions of Leonard Cohen's `I'm Your Man' and Eric Clapton's `Wonderful Tonight.'
He's hoping that, by including songs people don't expect from him, he will be able to move away from the `swing' tag. "Who wants to be categorised?" he asks. "I think being categorised can be pretty ugly. If I can get away with singing different stuff and putting together stuff that I love, you know, it's a blast, I'm glad I can do it. I get away with it."
Still, he remains very aware of what it is that has got him to this point in his career. "I don't want to sell myself out and, at the same time, I want to show growth as an artist without alienating all of the people who were kind enough to buy my records."
Buble says that, ultimately, he makes records for the people, and that it's not unusual for him to play new tracks for everyone from his barber to his local corner-store manager because, to him, they're the people who buy the CDs. Perhaps surprisingly, he says that he doesn't make music for himself.
"Oh, listen, there are songs on there that are for me and that I love, but I can't make the whole record a self-indulgent mess. It wouldn't sell anything, because it would be like this jazzy-jazz thing and it would sell, like, 20 copies and my career would be finished."
After spending a little time with Buble, it's clear that he worries about how he is perceived, and is at pains to point out that he's a man's man. He's a massive sports fan - he's passionate about the Vancouver Canucks ice-hockey team - and he seems concerned that other blokes will think him a bit, well, soft. And not just in the abdominal region. "I'm very aware that a lot of men are going to be dragged to my shows," he says, "and won't want to be there." He recalls a particularly nerve-ridden performance at the 2005 AFL Grand Final where he performed alongside Delta Goodrem.
"I was terrified. I stepped out in front of 80,000 people and probably 60,000 of them were men having a few beers and, by the way, if I were in that crowd and I watched me coming out on the field, I'd probably start booing," he laughs. "So I was nervous, because it's like, here's the little pretty boy in the suit coming out to sing the song. I want them to know I have deep respect for them and their football and for who they are. I don't want to go in there and be a schmarmy geek. I'm one of them - I'm a guy."
By his own admission, he also has a bit of a temper. He cares what people write about him, and has been known to call up journalists who have a crack at him in the press.
"I'm not strong enough. I don't have thick enough skin, so when someone takes a shot at me, I've been known to say, `You think I'm a wimpy boy? Then come and step outside with me.' And it doesn't do me any good - none. But, in that moment, I have a really tough time. I've said stupid things and I've done stupid things and I will continue, most likely, to do and say stupid things."
Buble - who speaks at a million miles an hour, his thoughts skewering from one topic to the next - also found himself in a bit of strife earlier in the year when comments he made about his idol, Tony Bennett, and the Grammys were misconstrued. (He said he wasn't going to turn up at the Grammys because "Tony Bennett will just win anyway".) Buble says the US press misinterpreted him and didn't get his sense of humour, which, by his reckoning, is "very Australian."
"That was horrible. I think it's a lesson in stupidity for me, to realise that some people don't get that I was joking."
He says the criticism he cops publicly is harder for his parents than for him, though.
"You know, it's tough, too, because I think about my parents. It sucks for them when they pick up a paper and see that someone's taken a shot. I mean my mother: you mess with her kids and she will go you. But I tell her," he smiles, "that it's really not a good idea for her to call up the journalist."
Michael Buble grew up as one of three kids in Vancouver. He has two sisters (one is an actor, the other has just written a children's book.) He says he and his sisters are the product of a happy, supportive family. "We're all so proud of each other, it's sickening," he says. "Do you feel like puking yet?" It's already well-documented that, as a kid, his grandpa, Mitch, was his best friend and the man who encouraged him to sing swing. A plumber by trade, he took the young Buble around Vancouver's clubs and promised to install free toilets if they'd let his grandson get up on stage. "When I was working at clubs every night in Vancouver, Mum and Dad, Grandma and Grandpa would be there, watching and supporting me. Some nights, if it weren't for my big family - cousins, aunts and uncles - there would have been nobody in the damn room," he laughs.
But stardom came knocking in 2000 when Buble was invited to sing at then Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney's daughter's wedding. One of the guests was Grammy-award-winning producer David Foster (who's worked with Madonna, Whitney Houston and Celine Dion, among others) and the rest, as they say, is musical history. For Buble, there was never any option other than music. It's the only thing he thinks he's good at. For him, music has always evoked an emotional response.
"I can hear a song by Elvis Costello and for whatever reason, snap, it can take me back to my 11th birthday, and my mother cutting a pink cake. I'm very sentimental, so I can hear songs and I can go from being in a really happy, giddy mood, to being sad and sentimental. It's just funny that it works that way, where music can be so powerful."
Although Buble has made a career out of singing old standards - `Mack the Knife', `Sway' - it was a self-penned tune, `Home,' off `It's Time' that ultimately connected him with the public. The song was written for his then-fiancee, Debbie Timuss, describing the pain of being away from her. (The relationship ended in 2005.) On the new album, `Lost' seems to be a sequel to `Home.'
"You know, when I wrote (`Lost'), I was really very emotional - I was in the process of ending a relationship of eight years. I was really bummed and I felt so badly for both of us for all we'd gone through, and that it didn't work the way we'd hoped it would," he says. "I wanted `Lost' to be an anthem for all of us who have been in relationships where we loved the person and it just didn't work out - and that doesn't mean we're going to discard them from our life just because it didn't work out romantically."
(Buble says he played the song for Timuss, with whom he is still close, after he'd finished it and that she had "bawled", but had loved it.)
He says British-born Blunt, whom he first met at the Logies in 2005 - and to whom he is reported to have recently proposed - keeps him in line. "I have a great person in my life, and I feel really fortunate. I wish every guy could feel the same way that I feel," he says, adding, "It's a perfect match. She puts up with me. Every once in a while we'll have an argument and I'll bug her and I'll call her up and she'll say (adopts curt English accent), `What?' and I'll say, `You know what the problem with our relationship is?' and she'll say, `What?' And I'll say, `You're too young,' and she'll say, `Reeeally,' and I'll say, `Yes,' but the bigger problem is, I'm just really immature. She's 24 going on 50 and I'm 31 going on four."
Such are their careers, though, that the pair are forced to spend long periods apart. Buble says even though they've shared an apartment overlooking Vancouver for more than a year, he estimates they've probably only spent a month there together. How do they find the separations?
"It's hard, but you do your best. But just because I'm away in another country doesn't mean I don't miss her, or don't love her," he says.
"OK, it's not always that much fun but I think maybe in a way, if I look at it in a positive light, it's refreshing. When we see each other, we don't take for granted the time we spend together, because we really want to make sure it's good."
But with the release of Call Me Irresponsible, it's fairly certain that Buble will once again be looking at long periods on the road.
"I love bringing my music to the people. If you live in the Philippines, in South Africa or Queensland, if you buy my records, I will show up and I will sing for you. It's important to me to show that kind of respect for people all over the world who have been good enough to support me - even if it means I have to take a crappy 20-hour flight. I'll do it."
It will also mean more time without Blunt, though Buble says she's braved the tour bus before. "She came for part of the last tour with the boys," Buble laughs. "And she couldn't believe how, in her cute British way, lewd we were."
Right now, though, he's taking advantage of as much home time as he can get. What's a typical Vancouver day for Michael Buble?
"I can't tell you because it's illegal. It's just a day of chilling out at home, cooking, listening to some great music, and being a very Vancouverish kind of guy," he laughs. "You can take from that however you want."
TanyaB (Michael_Buble) все записи автора
Фотографии Michael_Buble : Michael and...
