Michael Bublé

Michael Steven Bublé was born in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada, on September 9, 1975, the son of Lewis Bublé, a fisherman, and Amber (née Santaga), a homemaker. Bublé's paternal and maternal great-grandparents immigrated to Canada from Italy. His surname was originally spelled "Bubli", and some of his paternal ancestors came from Istria. Bublé stated: "[On the side of the family native to modern-day Croatia] some say we're Yugoslavian, others that we're Italian." He has two younger sisters, Brandee, a children's book author, and Crystal, an actress. He and his siblings were raised Roman Catholic. He attended Seaforth Elementary School and Cariboo Hill Secondary School.

According to an Oprah Winfrey interview on October 10, 2009, Bublé dreamed of becoming a famous singer since he was two. When he was a teenager, he slept with his Bible and prayed to become a singer. His interest in jazz began at around age five when his family played Bing Crosby's White Christmas album. His musical influences include Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Tony Bennett, Elvis Presley, Bobby Darin and Sam Cooke.

The first time his family noticed his singing talent was during the Christmas holidays, when Bublé was 13 years old, and they heard him powerfully sing the phrase "May your days be merry and bright" when the family was singing to the song "White Christmas" on a car ride.

Bublé also has a strong passion for ice hockey and wanted to become a professional hockey player for the Vancouver Canucks growing up, but believed he was not good enough. "I wanted so bad to be a hockey player... If I was any good at hockey, I probably wouldn't be singing right now." He often played hockey in his youth, watched Vancouver Canucks games with his father, and said that he "went to every single home game as a kid... I remember I wanted to be Gary Lupul, I wanted to be Patrik Sundstrom and Ivan Hlinka. I used to think that being named Michael Bublé was pretty cool because I was close to being called Jiri Bubla." Bublé shared his hockey interest with his grandfather.

From the age of 14, Bublé spent six years working during the summer as a commercial fisherman with his father and crewmates. He called the experience "the most deadly physical work I'll ever know in my lifetime. We'd be gone for two, sometimes three months at a time and the experience of living and working among guys over twice my age taught me a lot about responsibility and what it means to be a man."

His first singing engagements were in nightclubs at age 16 and were facilitated by his Italian grandfather Demetrio Santagà, a plumber from Preganziol, Treviso, who offered his plumbing services in exchange for stage time for his grandson. Bublé's grandfather paid for his singing lessons. Both his voice teacher, Sandi Siemens, and his maternal grandfather never stopped believing that he would become a star. Bublé's maternal grandmother, Iolanda (née Moscone), was also Italian, from Carrufo, L'Aquila.

Bublé grew up listening to his grandfather's collection of jazz records and credits his grandfather in encouraging his love for jazz music. "My grandfather was really my best friend growing up. He was the one who opened me up to a whole world of music that seemed to have been passed over by my generation. Although I like rock and roll and modern music, the first time my granddad played me the Mills Brothers, something magical happened. The lyrics were so romantic, so real, the way a song should be for me. It was like seeing my future flash before me. I wanted to be a singer and I knew that this was the music that I wanted to sing."

Bublé never stopped believing he would become a star but admitted he was probably the only one who believed in his dream, stating that even his maternal grandfather thought Bublé was going to be "an opening act for somebody in Las Vegas". He stated he never learned to read and write music, using only emotion to drive his songwriting ability.

At age 18, Bublé entered a local talent contest and won, but was disqualified by organizer Bev Delich for being underage. Delich entered him in the Canadian Youth Talent Search. After Bublé won that contest, he asked Delich to be his manager. Delich represented him for the next seven years, during which Bublé worked diligently at any job that came along: clubs, conventions, cruise ships, hotel lounges, shopping malls, and talent shows.

In 1996, Bublé appeared in TV's Death Game (also known as Mortal Challenge) as a Drome Groupie. Also in 1996, he appeared (uncredited) in two episodes of The X-Files as a member of a submarine crew. His first national TV performance was on a 1997 award-winning Bravo! documentary titled Big Band Boom!, directed by Mark Glover Masterson. Beginning in 1997, he became a frequent guest on Vicki Gabereau's national talk show on the CTV network. During its first season, the Vancouver-based programme aired live, which ultimately worked in Bublé's favour. When a scheduled guest was forced to cancel, the show's music producer often asked Bublé to fill in at the last minute. The Gabereau appearances provided Bublé with great exposure, but they also helped the singer hone his television skills as a performer and as an interview guest. In a mutual show of gratitude, Bublé appeared on the final Gabereau show in 2005, along with Jann Arden and Elvis Costello.

Bublé received two Genie Award nominations for Best Original Song in 2000 for "I've Never Been in Love Before" and "Dumb ol' Heart", two songs he wrote for the film Here's to Life!. He recorded three independent albums: First Dance (1996), Babalu (2001), and Dream (2002).