Michael Bublé was told it was never going to happen

Before Michael Bublé became known as a five-time Grammy-winning international superstar, the Canadian crooner from Burnaby, B.C., lived in downtown Toronto where he made his living performing in bars.

"It was happening in a big way," he tells Q's Tom Power in an interview. "I mean, listen, was it happening, like, was I making good money? No. I was just fighting for gigs."

Despite his undeniable talent, Bublé didn't immediately find fame. After 10 years playing Toronto's bar scene, he considered moving back to B.C., and maybe enrolling in a university broadcasting program or starting a family with his girlfriend at the time.

"[I was] waking up to the reality that, you know, it just might not happen for me," he says. "I had many friends who were in broadcasting and they were journalists. And I was like, listen, maybe I'm not going to be the story. Maybe I'll be part of telling the story."

But then, in a fortuitous turn of events, Bublé landed his biggest gig yet: singing at the wedding of Caroline Mulroney, the daughter of former prime minister Brian Mulroney.

"I had done this corporate event for a car company or something, and when I was there, I gave this CD I had — one of my last indie CDs called BaBalu — to a fellow named Michael McSweeney. He was this really lovely guy who ended up being very close to the Mulroney family. He was like a right-hand kind of man; I think he was a speechwriter."

The next day, McSweeney told Bublé that the former prime minister's wife, Mila Mulroney, was in Toronto and wanted to meet him. She and her husband had heard his CD and loved it. At their meeting, Bublé told Mila his story and she invited him to sing at her daughter's wedding.

"Not anybody knew who I was," he says. "So there I am at the wedding, and I'm singing Mack the Knife or something, and I look and there's our prime minister with his arm around [music producer David Foster], kind of in half headlock. Real proud."

At this point in the story, you might expect Foster — one of the greatest producers in pop music history — to have immediately offered Bublé a recording contract on the spot. But that's not what happened.

"Not even close," Bublé says. "He kicked me out of his house, as a matter of fact. I came to his house so many times and I said, 'What's it going to take?' And he said, 'You are on my radar. Get the f–k out. It's never going to happen.' I said, 'Listen, it has to happen. So tell me what has to happen.' And he said, 'Look, dude, you're never going to get signed to Warner … I'm never going to produce your records.' I said, 'Well, what do I got to do?' He said, 'Look, $100,000 a track. That's what it costs to do a record like this. And six tracks, minimum. Good luck.'"

He said, 'You are on my radar. Get the f–k out. It's never going to happen.'- Michael Bublé

After Bublé left Foster's house, his manager at the time, Beverly Delich, went to the bank to secure him a loan. She eventually found someone willing to underwrite it, and Bublé returned to Foster to tell him he had the funds to make his record.

"Even then, it wasn't the end of the story," Bublé says.

A few days into working on the record, Foster told Bublé that Paul Anka wanted to meet him. They set up a meeting at Anka's house, and Bublé sang the song My Way by Frank Sinatra, which Anka wrote.

"Paul was like, 'Hey, you know what? I'm going to get the money. You don't need the money from these investors!'"

After thanking the investors and calling off the loan, Bublé was excited to finally be living his dream. But from there, "it got weirder," as he puts it. The deal ultimately fell through and Bublé was back to square one.

But instead of packing it up and heading home to B.C., he did something brave. At Kenny G's wedding anniversary, Bublé approached Foster one more time and asked him to let him plead his case to Tom Whalley, the president of Warner.

"That was putting [David] in a very awkward position," Bublé says. "When you ask a person like David to bring you into that meeting, you're basically saying, 'Hey, put your balls on the line for me.'"

At the meeting, Whalley asked Bublé why Warner should sign him, adding that they already had Sinatra on Reprise Records, a subsidiary of Warner.

"I said, 'Mr. Whalley, with all due respect, Sinatra's passed, he died,'" Bublé recalls. "'Don't bury the music with him. Give me a chance. I will work harder than any artist on your roster. I will work harder. And if you let me, I will continue the legacy of my heroes, and I will never stop.'"

About five days later, Bublé received a call from Foster. "I'll never forget it," Bublé says. "He said, 'Mike, man, I want to welcome you to the family. You're never going to have to worry again. We've got you now.'"

This Sunday, Bublé is back on Junos hosting duty for the first time since 2018. The Juno Awards will be broadcast and streamed live across Canada from 5 p.m. PT/8 p.m. ET/9 p.m. AT on CBC-TV, CBC Gem, CBC Radio One, CBC Music, CBC Listen, and globally at CBCMusic.ca/junos and CBC Music's YouTube page.

The full interview with Michael Bublé is available on our YouTube channel and on our podcast, Q with Tom Power. Listen and follow wherever you get your podcasts.

Interview with Michael Bublé produced by Vanessa Nigro.