Michael Buble reveals what music heroes Paul McCartney and Robbie William are really like
MICHAEL Buble has explained the price he has had to pay to make sure he has stayed at the top of his game while already two decades into his career.
In an exclusive interview to celebrate his upcoming UK tour, the Canadian crooner told me with a laugh: “I used to have so much fun partying. Then I realised I can’t do it any more.”
Michael has sold more than 75million records worldwide and has five UK No1 albums to his name, including Higher, which hit the top spot in April last year.
The superstar, who has four children with his Argentine model wife Luisana Lopilato, added: “It is a matter of not partying too hard.
“As I have gotten older I have become more disciplined. I am like an athlete out there. I want to stay healthy because I want to put on a show I think people deserve. I am bound by certain perimeters.”
Speaking from his home in Argentina on Zoom, Michael looks remarkably fresh-faced for a man who has spent most of the past two years on the road — and welcomed daughter Cielo just six months ago.
He said: “I just shaved for the first time in years and it is so weird. My kids kept saying, ‘Papi, can you shave because when we kiss you it is itchy?’
“So I shaved and then I looked at this face. I haven’t seen this face, I am not kidding you. I haven’t shaved for maybe 15 years. My kids saw me and said, ‘Put the beard back on Papi’. I look eight years younger and 15lbs fatter.”
Life on the road, no matter what he says, is clearly treating Michael well.
He will return to the UK this month for his first stadium tour here in four years, kicking off at London’s O2 Arena on March 26.
The live shows come off the back of a hugely successful start to the year which saw Michael pick up his fifth Grammy award for Higher, which saw hime beat Diana Ross, Norah Jones and Kelly Clarkson to Best Traditional Pop Album.
Michael, who will also play in cities including Leeds, Newcastle, Glasgow and Cardiff, said: “My favourite thing about winning . . . you are rewarded for something you did before and that is wonderful to be recognised.
“So the fact I won that while I was on stage in the middle of 15,000 (in Milan, Italy), being the most present I could possibly be, that made it completely sweet for me. I got to win something for the past, while in the present.
“It is the fourth or fifth time I have won when I haven’t been there. I don’t think I have won when I have been there. But I couldn’t not go to the Grammys (then) because I love meeting my heroes. I am willing to lose to meet the people I love.”
While Michael is a superstar in his own right, with hits including Home and I Just Haven’t Met You Yet, he keeps good company when it comes to fellow musicians.
And it seems a possible bromance with Harry Styles could be on the horizon.
Michael said: “I would love to see Harry’s show, I have heard it’s amazing. So many people I know or work with know him and they all say the same thing, ‘You guys would really get along, he comes and plays floor hockey and stuff’, I just hear he is an easy-going guy.
“I am so happy for my guy Niall (Horan), I have just been talking to him. He has a great new single, Heaven, I can’t get out of my head. It drives me crazy. That song is a banger.
“Sir Paul (McCartney). Any chance I can get to see Sir Paul, he is the producer on Higher. He is awesome, he is a beautiful dude. He is another guy who genuinely seems at ease and loves what he does and loves who he does it for. And you get that quickly.
“Robbie (Williams) is like that too. Robbie is a natural born entertainer. It is a God-given charisma. He gets up on stage and you go, ‘Wow, I love watching this guy’. He is fun to watch.”
‘I love meeting my heroes’
Like his peers, Michael’s success is hard-earned.
He dreamed of being a singer as a small child and started performing in clubs aged 16 before a gig at a wedding earned him his big break when a top producer agreed to work with him.
After self-funding his debut album in 2000, Michael was then signed at 25 and released the record three years later.
And while Michael is now an internationally renowned star, he reckons his achievements are all down to dogged determination and a work ethic that saw him trying to “break” 50 countries.
He says of his early days: “My manager said the key to success was leaving America and going to the UK, Australia, Asia, Africa . . .
“I remember early on, he said, ‘Kid, do you want to break the world?’ I said, ‘Yes’.”
Michael adds: “Even when I got good, I had sold millions of records and people knew who I was, he would say, ‘Do you want to break Germany?’ And I would say, ‘Yes’.
“We would have a showcase, there would be a few publications and a couple of TV bookers and I would do 30 minutes.
“I was ten years in and I had sold 40million records and they would say, ‘What do you think about Holland?’ And I’d end up in some little bar in Rotterdam.
“I was in China not that long ago and I went and did it there. You have to swallow your pride every time.”
I can think of a load of pampered pop stars who could learn from this maestro.
Halsey chills in Paris
HALSEY chose the wrong time to wear this short skirt at Paris Fashion Week as the temperatures plunged to two centigrade.
The You Should Be Sad singer wore plenty of kooky outfits at the events and she slicked her hair high above her head and wore this tiny corset dress with puffy sleeves to join the audience for the Vivienne Westwood show.
It was a poignant event as it was the first time her design’s had been shown in the French capital since she passed away in December last year.
Halsey walked in her first fashion show last week and has been filling her time by appearing in a string of high-end looks at various other events.
She looks the part but however skimpy her clothes are, she is going to have a challenge trying to stuff them all into a suitcase for her flight home to LA.
Brook’s bond
BROOKLYN BECKHAM had a family celebration in Paris for his 24th birthday.
The wannabe chef was joined by his parents David and Victoria, actres wife Nicola, slbings Cruz and Harper and other relatives for a long lunch on Saturday, the day after his mum’s fashion show in the French capital.
Posh shared videos and pictures of the occasion on Instagram, poking fun at herself at the same time.
With a video of the family singing happy birthday, she joked: “We can hear where I get my singing talent from.”
You said it, Vic . . .
Zara’s head in the clouds
ZARA LARSSON is used to hitting the high notes on stage but she will soon be reaching new heights – as a helicopter pilot.
The Can’t Tame Her singer is having lessons, explaining: “It’s a fun challenge. Maybe I’ll end up not using it, but I can tell myself, ‘I did that’. And if there’s an emergency, you know who to call.
“I think it’s making up for not graduating high school or something.
“If you go to the studio and you put down 100 hours you might write a good song. If you put down 100 hours in the air you are getting a certificate.
“It’s very absolute and very much about your own discipline and how you want the outcome to be. It’s fun and something completely different from the music. It’s so not creative in any way.”
Zara reckons it is the ideal pastime because she can’t get distracted while flying.
She told the Zach Sang Show in the US: “There’s so much you need to do. If you fly an aeroplane, once you’re up in the air you don’t need to do too much.
“When you’re flying a helicopter, you have the pedals, you hold one thing with this hand and one thing with this hand. You can’t let go of anything.
“It’s my dream because I can’t be like, ‘Let me just check my phone’. I struggle with that even when I drive. I think it’s good for my brain to be constantly stimulated.”
I reckon I’ll avoid getting in any transport if Zara is at the controls . . .
Ed in Dogg’s chain gang
ED SHEERAN was the golden boy when he visited Snoop Dogg in his dressing room Down Under.
The Celestial singer had a chunky gold chain put on him by the rapper, who puffed away on a suspicious looking cig.
Ed was in the crowd for Snoop’s show in Melbourne on Saturday during a break from his own Australian tour.
And afterwards they formed an unlikely trio with local celebrity Russell Crowe.
Snoop handed both his pals the gaudy logo chains from his Death Row Records jewellery line.
I’m not convinced you’ll see Ed or Russell rocking their new bling any time soon.
Hit and mystic Mimi
MIMI WEBB reckons her debut album Amelia will go to No1 – because her psychic aunt said so.
The Ghost Of You singer dropped the LP on Friday and said her aunt has special powers and has reassured her that things are looking good ahead of the chart reveal on Friday this week.
Mimi explained: “I keep saying to her, ‘How’s it looking?’
“She’s like, ‘No, it’s all good, you’ve just got to keep doing what you’re doing’.
“Also I don’t think she would tell me if it was bad.”
Apart from that, she is on to a winner with her latest single Red Flags.
It is up to a new peak of No11 in the mid-week update after her performance on Ant & Dec’s ITV show Saturday Night Takeaway at the weekend.
Suki’s heart robbed
SUKI WATERHOUSE has declared her love for her Hollywood actor boyfriend Robert Pattinson in a new song.
The model-turned-singer has been dating The Batman actor for almost five years and opens up on their romance in her single To Love.
She sings: “We talk of how lucky we got, as watched old lovers we dodged.
“While the world’s falling apart you make it so easy to love.”
In the second verse she continues: “Is there a space somewhere in your world that was always for me?
“And was it your face at the back of my mind haunting my dreams?
“Kept waking up lonely with voices around me, they tell me you’re out there waiting to hold me.”
Later in the track, she sings: “Now I found myself this kinda love, I can’t believe it, I’ll never leave it behind.
“I thought I’d never get to feel another f***ing feeling, but I feel this love.”
She said of the significance of the track: “To Love is a song I wrote really recently that I was going to wait to put out on my second album, but I felt like it is a very distinct portrait of my heart right now that I wanted to share.”
As well as continuing with her music career, she stars in new Amazon series Daisy Jones & The Six, playing a fictional musician in a Seventies band.
There’s no stopping her.
NICOLE SCHERZINGER has taken a pop at the Pussycat Dolls’ founder Robin Antin after becoming locked in a legal battle with her.
Their fall-out was to blame for the cancellation of the girl group’s reunion tour.
Nicole performed at World Pride in Sydney, Australia, on Saturday night and debuted a new song about the situation, Freedom.
Nicole sang: “I’m not that little doll you knew, she paid her dues, now she owns herself.
“I’ve got a new attitude down inside of me, I’ve got a new pair of shoes, step aside.
“I’m through walking for you, was killing me to compromise. Bitch I just woke up, redefined.”
I doubt Robin will be putting that one on her playlist.