How fatherhood and pandemic changed Michael Bublé’s perspective on music

Michael Bublé was charming as ever when he appeared in the virtual Asia press conference to promote his 11th studio album Higher due on March 25. He was a picture of a man in love and a proud father which transpired during the media interview. His inspiring energy and love vibe can be felt during the short session where he let us listen to three of the tracks included in the new album.

Higher features diverse sounds, major collaborations with music legends and spells that one big word called LOVE.

His first single, the dreamy and love anthem I’ll Never Not Love You, is what he described as a perfect song for “a sort of cold, wintery” days and nights. It is filled with sentimental, earnest words of deep affection for someone that goes, “I’ll never run, leave you behind/I’II never hurt you like he hurt you/I’ll never make you cry/I’ll treat you right, I’ll stand by you/And no matter whatever happens/I’II never not love you.”

Yes, Michael did treat us right when he serenaded us with this track. I’ll Never Not Love You is about “promising to someone that if they trust you and they give you the vulnerability that you won’t hurt them, that will be the time where they can trust they are safe to fall in love,” Michael told The STAR.

“It’s scary to fall in love. Love is expensive. Love has a great cost especially when you really love someone, you are putting yourself at risk. The song is saying, ‘Risk that for me and I’ll love you forever,’” he added.

I’ll Never Not Love You’s official music video was released yesterday. It is a sequel to the Canadian singer’s Haven’t Met You Yet.

Michael believed the time was perfect to release the new song.

“It chose me,” he said of the timing. “We all went from a pandemic when it was difficult to make music or even work on it. And then before that, I have come out of my son (who battled cancer) and just taking care of my family. The truth is when I put my last record, Love, out, I didn’t know if I was ready to come back. I was still hurting and now I feel so good.”

He furthered, “I’m so good in my heart and satisfied that I felt so open and so happy to make hopeful and beautiful music and I felt like I needed it. And I felt like the world needed it, in a way. That’s why it chose me.”

There’s also the joyous and jazzy song in the album, A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square, as well as a duet with Willie Nelson of his song Crazy and the Sir Paul McCartney original My Valentine.

Michael felt honored having collaborated with two of his favorite musicians. Sir Paul produced My Valentine for the multi-Grammy award-winner, multi-Juno and multi-platinum artist. The song was so important to Michael because “to know that someone I admire so much had trusted me to hold his art and to interpret a song, that meant so much to him. He wrote it for his wife and he told me so many times that it was something so special to him. It was an honor, privilege to be taken under his wing and for him to come with me and produce the song.”

Produced by Greg Wells and Bob Rock along with Allen Chang, Jason “Spicy G” Goldman and Sir Paul, Higher is Michael’s first studio album in three years under Warner Records/Reprise Records. It also includes the Bob Dylan classic Make You Feel My Love, Sam Cooke’s classic Bring It On Home To Me, You’re The First, The Last, My Everything, and the last track Smile accompanied by a gospel choir.

Surprisingly, one of the upbeat songs titled Higher, was inspired by Michael’s eldest son, Noah.

“I found (that) a lot of the record made me kind of walk around the house with my kids singing with me. The song Higher that you guys just listened to, that song came when my eight-year-old came into the shower, when I was giving my kid a shampoo and a conditioner. My eight-year-old said, ‘Papi, I wrote a song.’ And I said, ‘What is it?’ and he said, ‘You go low and I go high.’”

A few months later, Michael went on to work with OneRepublic frontman Ryan Tedder and he shared his little boy’s ditty. Thirty minutes later, they got a song. “The pandemic, my kids and my wife have a big impact (on my music).”

“Perspective is everything,” he stated on how fatherhood has changed his outlook on music. “I’ve spoken before about what we’ve been through as a family and that gave me great perspective. What I found interesting was that when the pandemic hit, I felt that it put everyone on a level playing field.”

He continued, “I felt like for the first time in our lives, in our humanity, every single person from every country, I don’t care if you are young, old, rich, poor, gay, straight, black, white, we all felt the same thing. All of us, we were scared. We were anxious. Our mental health became an issue.”

“I just felt like for the first time, maybe ever, we cling to each other for hope... I think most of us did (learn during this pandemic). I think most of us made it to this smaller world. So much negativity and so many things drive us apart that I was really hoping I could be a small part of bringing people together,” he added.

The 46-year-old crooner is happily married for 11 years to actress-singer-model Luisana Lopilato. They have three children — Noah, Elias, and Vida. Noah was diagnosed with liver cancer in 2016 at three years old and has since fully recovered.