It’s fair to say Michael Bublé has had a tough run of it over the past few years.
The Canadian crooner faced a terrifying ordeal in 2016 when his then three-year-old son Noah was diagnosed with the liver cancer hepatoblastoma.
Michael, 46, and his wife, Argentinian actress Luisana Lopilato, 34, were naturally devastated but never gave up hope, and are overjoyed that after rounds of chemotherapy and radiotherapy, their little boy – now eight – is cancer free.
"I’ve been through a lot, obviously. When I made the last record [in 2018], my son had just been in remission and I wasn’t ready to come back," he exclusively tells Notebook.
"I didn’t know that at the time but, mentally, I was so unstable and vulnerable. I made a safe record with producers I liked and I just tried to protect myself and hold on to a career.
"But I feel really good now and I was raring to go – like this great weight had been lifted off me. My son was healthy, my kids and my wife were good, life is good. Why wouldn’t I just explode wanting to make an incredible record?"
The couple are expecting their fourth child this summer, and are happy with how life is going.
After taking time off work to be with his son, Michael turned back to writing and creating music again during the pandemic, working with megastars like Sir Paul McCartney. And now he’s finally ready to put his new music out there, with his latest album Higher released last month.
The singer, who is also dad to Elias, six, and Vida, three, tells us about the excitement of his wife expecting again.
"We’re due late summer – I think. I’m bad with this stuff," he says.
"We’re so excited; overwhelmed but excited. I don’t care whether it’s a boy or a girl. For me, it’s the same thing.
"I love having boys and wrestling. And I love watching Matilda for the 50 millionth time. It was more me than Lu, I think [who wanted another baby]. She did want more and then she changed her mind. Then changed her mind again! Love is expensive but it’s worth it."
And Michael explains how his kids had more involvement in his latest music.
Well, I was giving the kids a shower when my eight-year-old son Noah said, 'Papi, I wrote a song,'" Michael tells us,"And he sang, 'When you go low, and I go high.' And I said, 'Wow, that’s really good, where did you hear that?' He said, 'No, it’s in my mind.'
"A few months later I sang it to my co-writers and they looked up and said, 'What was that?' Thirty minutes later, we’d written Higher, which may be one of the greatest songs I’ve written. It turns out he’s way more talented than me!"
Michael tells us the inspiration behind his album Higher - which is a bit of a departure from his other music.
"A few conversations had a massive impact on me. One was with Ed Sheeran. He was saying, 'You know, Mike, I just say yes. And if it sucks, then my manager will kill it.'
"And I was like, 'Wow, that sounds like a really scary but awesome thing.' Then another friend – my co-writer and musical director – said, 'Dude, you’ve made such great records over the past 20 years – wouldn’t it be fun if you made a record where you let someone else take a little bit of control, so your audience would have a fresh take on you?'
"I was like, 'I never really thought of that.' So I started to reach out to producers I love, and within two months, I was going to make the greatest record of my life."
