Michael Bublé is back in Australia for his 2023 Higher Tour and I was lucky enough to sit down with the crooner before his Sydney concerts at Qudos Bank Arena. We’re in a beautiful new 5-star Sydney hotel to talk about the A-lister’s popular fragrance line of six fragrances, which sell their socks off here in Australia.
Known for his heart-melting singing voice, Bublé’s love songs (hello “Sway”) have made even the most level headed of us swoon—including his wife, actress and model Luisana Lopilato.
“When my wife met me, she was one of those girls that was screaming,” he says with a smile. “She told me the first time she saw me, that her friends were shaking, and [these were] really calm, cool women. But it was for the [Michael Bublé] character.”
According to the singer, his on-stage persona was a very deliberate construct. “I built this guy who could go on stage at 16 years old,” explains Bublé. “I built this guy who was so cool and smooth, who had an answer for everything and could never be heard or touched because I’d come back with something even cooler. He was all the pieces of me that I wished I was.”
“That person was built from my favorite cinema characters,” says Buble. “It was a little bit of Ferris Bueller, mixed with Elvis Presley and George Clooney in that one movie. And, you know, Matthew McConaughey with a little mix of James Dean.”
The singer married Lopilato in 2011 and the couple have four beautiful children, Noah, Elias, Vida and baby Cielo, who was born in August 2022.
Bublé’s “superhero” alter ego came under fire when his eldest son Noah became sick. “[When] my son got sick I melted down to nothing. I had a complete breakdown,” he says. “I knew it was over; I was never coming back, ever. I was done and retired.
“But then somehow, he got better and [when] I came back for the first time in my life, I walked on stage and I was penetrable and vulnerable. I was me. And it was such a beautiful feeling; such a wonderful, liberating feeling.”
These days Bublé only reprises his persona on-stage, keeping it real the rest of the time.
“It feels good,” he says. “I feel very purposeful… especially now as a dad. It’s so important for me that [I’m the real] Michael Bublé 98% of the day. But then there’s two hours where I walk on stage, and I’m…playing the role.
“I tricked people for 20 years” he laughs. “They really thought I was cool.”
He’s being humble of course. There is plenty of cool in the singer—and perhaps even more charm. I mean, he’s good. It’s not the first time I have met Bublé. The last time I met him, it was raining so I was carrying an umbrella and he started singing “A Spoonful of Sugar” from Mary Poppins to me—this time, he was recovering from a cold so there was no singing (sad) but the star quality was definitely there.
Michael Buble By Invitation Signature Eau de Parfum 100ml, $49.99 at Chemist Warehouse
I ask the singer if there are any scent memories that are particularly special to him and he brings up a much younger (but still ridiculously romantic) Bublé.
“The first time I ever wore perfume, I was maybe 13 or 14,” Bublé says. “I used to wear [Calvin Klein] Obsession for Men and I used to wear way too much. But when I smell it now, it’s so romantic. There’s nothing like the innocence of potential young love. [I thought] every girl was going to be my wife. Like, who was going to be the one I was going to marry and love forever.”
These days, the singer has his own fragrance to choose from. From his first scent, By Invitation Signature, which debuted in 2016 to Love Notes, which launched earlier this year.
“By Invitation was my first ever fragrance,” says Bublé. “I didn’t know what I was doing but I made something as best I could [and] I loved it. I don’t think since [then] I have ever hugged my mom and she hasn’t been wearing it, she loves it. She makes me get her [a box of the fragrance so she can] give it to all her friends.”
Love is a theme that runs through the heart of Michael Bublé’s career. But when you talk to him, it’s clearly also very much who he is. He has his mother with him on tour and he speaks of the close bond with his grandmother (“I miss her every day,” he says). And he says it is with his children that he can be the most real form of himself.
“My family [are all] coming [to Australia] and our biggest issue was finding lacrosse sticks,” says the Canadian-born singer. “That’s all my kids [they love lacrosse] and wrestling with me on the bed. We have a game called The Ring of Power, [the kids and I] do it for hours until I’m just a sweaty disgusting mess. I love it.”
Michael Bublé fragrances are available exclusively at Chemist Warehouse.
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