Jazz Profile - Michael Buble

Buble first started singing when he was sixteen. His Italian grandfather was a plumber, and would offer free plumbing service and repair to restaurants and clubs which let his grandson sing. So when there was a sink or toilet to repair in the town of Burnaby, British Columbia, Michael could count on some work.

When Buble was 18 he entered a local singing contest, Candian Youth Talent Search, and won (naturally, have you heard him?). The head of the contest took over his career as his manager.

For the next seven years, Buble sang everywhere he could, but never seemed to become famous. He sang at parties, on boats, in malls, hotel lounges, pubs, and at business events. Once he even sang Christmas songs in a Santa costume. Nothing worked. Buble never seemed to rise above low paying, low publicity work.

He paid a studio himself and made his own CD of jazz standards. Not professional. He went on to make two more independent albums and try his hand at songwriting. Even after winning some prizes for his original songs, his career went nowehere besides some guest spots on TV shows like X-files (he was a submarine sailor who did NOT sing and his name didn't even appear in the credits).

His first break came in 2000. One day, Buble was singing at a small office party. One of the employees liked his music and Buble gave him his homemade CD. The man used to work for Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulruney and passed on the CD to his old boss. Buble was invited to see at the wedding of the Prime Minister's daughter.

Buble imagined that was the break he needed and set off for the sunny California coast to get a studio contract. But when he went to the studio, they wouldn't sign him. They said they couldn't make money marketing a guy singing jazz standards. So, Buble decided to help them with the money. He found a number of sponsors, and gave Reprise Records $500,000 to record him. By providing the start up money needed, they signed him and released his first CD titled Michael Buble (it immediately went to the top ten in several countries). You can guess that those sponsors got their half million back.
 
Through persistence, diligence, believing in himself, and never letting setbacks stop him, over eight years, Buble has started a career which so far has sold over 20 million albums and won two grammys.