17 Little-Known Facts About Michael Bublé's Unconventional Road to Stardom

Updated on April 17, 2017 at 8:00 PM

It's hard not to love Michael Bublé. On top of having a voice that melts your mom's heart into a puddle and a family so cute it hurts, the 41-year-old "I Believe You" singer is a very interesting guy. Ever since Michael, who recently confirmed that his son Noah beat cancer, scammed his way into a music competition at the age of 17, his life and career have been full of truly fascinating tidbits. Whether you're a card-carrying member of the Bublé fan club, or you only know him from his "Baby, It's Cold Outside" cover, check out the coolest, most surprising facts about him below.

He was born and raised in British Columbia, Canada, but he's also an Italian citizen. In 2005, Michael became a naturalized Italian citizen because of his grandfather, Demetrio Santanga, who is from a village near Padua.
He kinda, maybe, sorta cheated in the first talent contest he participated in. With his grandfather's encouragement, 17-year-old Michael decided to enter a local singing competition. Although he won the whole shebang, the organizer, Beverly Delich, later discovered that he wasn't the required age of 18 and disqualified him. Fortunately she was so blown away by his talent that she helped him enter the British Columbia Youth Talent Search, instead.
His first big break was winning a competition show. Thanks to Beverly's suggestion, he entered and won the British Columbia Youth Talent Search in 1992 by performing some of his grandfather's favorite jazz classics. "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," he said.
He got a record deal after performing at a wedding. Michael was just about to give up on his dreams of being a singer and begin going to school for journalism when he was hired to perform at Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney's daughter's wedding at age 25. He belted out Kurt Weill's "Mack the Knife" at the reception, and fortunately the bride and groom weren't the only ones impressed. Music industry executive David Foster (yes, Gigi Hadid's former stepdad) happened to be attending, and Michael asked him for a record deal. David told him that he'd need $500,000 to make it in the business, which Michael quickly pulled together from some investors and released his first album by 2003. He and David are still close to this day.
He has an irregular heartbeat problem. "They call it Holiday Heart Syndrome," he said in a 2012 interview with The Daily Mail. "I noticed that when I had a few drinks I could feel my heart race. A lot of people get it, but my problem was that I hated it. I could feel it. The doctors said, 'Mike, you don't even have to think about it. People live with this all their lives — it's normal.' I was being a hypochondriac, but I was really sensitive to it. If you're partying too much, any kind of stimulant can have an affect on taking your heart out of rhythm."
He and wife Luisana Lopilato are raising their children to be bilingual. Michael met the Argentinian model and actress backstage at a concert in her home country in 2009, and got hitched two years later. Before welcoming their first son, Noah, he told the Telegraph that "Mum will only speak Spanish and Dad will only speak English. I am a proud Canadian of Italian heritage and he will have all these heritages."

His father was a salmon fisherman. Michael was born to Amber and Lewis Bublé, the latter of whom was constantly away at sea up the coast from Vancouver. He and his two younger sisters — Brandee, a children's book author, and Crystal, an actress — were raised mostly by his mother and their grandparents.
His first job was extremely dangerous. When he turned 14, he joined his father as a commercial fisherman for six Summers. "[It was] the most deadly physical work I'll ever know in my lifetime," he said. "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." Suddenly our babysitting job seems way less cool . . .
His least favorite food is beetroot. Listen, beetroot is gross, OK? "When I was about 10 we went next door to the Cartwrights for Thanksgiving and Mrs. Cartwright served beets with the turkey," he told the Guardian. "My mother said, 'Don't be rude, Michael — you will eat the beetroot.' So I did, then vomited over everything on the table. I've avoided beetroot since."
You can hear Emily Blunt on one of his biggest songs. When David Foster pleaded with him to remake "Me and Mrs. Jones," a 1972 soul hit, Michael said he would, but asked if his girlfriend at the time, Emily Blunt, could sing the female part. She auditioned and nailed it, although he noted that she always turned down the volume when her vocals came on because "she cringes easily."

His breakup from Emily was rough. The couple dated for three years before splitting in 2008, with rumors swirling that he cheated on her. He later admitted he was "a jerk and I was careless and reckless with the hearts of women I was with," and described their breakup as the "worst and the greatest thing" that ever happened to him.
He's obsessed with cooking. He's been open about his struggle with his weight, but as a teenager he served as the cook on his father's boat, which instilled in him a lifelong love of cooking. He even makes gnocchi and chorizo with his mother-in-law.
In another life, he might've been a hockey player. "In my dreams, I wanted to be drafted by the Vancouver Canucks," he revealed to the Ottawa Sun back in 2005. "I wanted so bad to be a hockey player and the truth is that I sucked. If I was any good at hockey, I probably wouldn't be singing right now. I'd probably be sitting out the season."
He was cast in The X-Files before getting famous. In two season three episodes of The X-Files in 1996, he makes an (uncredited) appearance as a member of a submarine crew. Unfortunately his future as an actor was dashed after he attempted to eat some food off of the crafts services table, which is off-limits to extras. "I swear to god, I was starving and I grabbed a hot dog off the craft services table," he told TV Line. "And this woman said I would never work again in Hollywood. I would be blacklisted and I would never, ever work in the business." He was fired on the spot.

Image Source: Fox

He went on to act in a bunch of other projects. It looks like that woman's threat of blacklisting him was just that, since he's in a 2001 comedy called Totally Blonde, and the 2003 Canadian adventure film The Snow Walker. You can also see him in a 2003 episode of Days of Our Lives, where he plays a lounge singer.
Apparently he's a huge One Direction fan. For his latest album, Michael got some unexpected help in the songwriting department. "For the first time ever I've recorded an original [song] that I didn't write. It's written by Meghan Trainor and Harry Styles," he revealed. "I know that sounds mind-blowing to people, but they're talented; they wrote a song that I fell in love with, and that was it. I was going to set my ego aside and I was going to do what's best for the record."
His song "Haven't Met You Yet" is about his wife. Shortly after meeting Luisana Lopilato in 2009, she inspired him to write "Haven't Met You Yet." Even sweeter is the fact he cast her in his music video for the song, where they share a ton of adorable moments. They've been living a fairy tale ever since!