Do we like Michael Bublé?
Our score: 8 out of 10. He has spoken up for LGBTQ+ people, put money behind civil rights and kids' health, and we found no harmful words or company, but the record is thin on recent work.
Bublé grew up in Burnaby, British Columbia, working alongside his father as a commercial fisherman while he chased singing. His grandfather, a plumber, got him into clubs as a teenager so he could sing with the musicians, and Sinatra and Dean Martin were the soundtrack. After years of local TV and independent albums, he signed to David Foster's label in 2003.
The one real stoush on his record came in April 2020, when a live video appeared to show him elbowing his wife after she spoke over him. Fans online accused him of being rough with her, and his representative called it a “ridiculous allegation”. His wife publicly said the accusations were lies and that she is not a victim of domestic abuse. It was a viral clip, not a court case, and we found nothing else like it.
On the harm check, he comes out well. In a 2023 Guardian interview, he said of trans people to “Identify how you want to identify, and God bless you.” He also said “Just love people”, and said he was shaped by gay uncles and by working in an industry full of gay colleagues. We found no anti-LGBTQ+ words or acts from him.
He is also not shy about politics when his country is involved. Hosting the 2025 Junos in Vancouver, as Trump pushed the idea of Canada becoming a US state, he told the crowd: “We are the greatest nation on Earth. And we are not for sale.” Where you land on that depends on your view of the tariff fight, but it was a pointed, public stand, not a vague one.
The good stuff is real. In 2010 he gave the full profits of a hometown Vancouver concert to the BC Children's Hospital Foundation's campaign. In 2020, he pledged to match fan donations to the ACLU up to $100,000, and said he was donating himself to its work for civil and human rights.
The recent news is mostly a big gig. He was billed for a set with Alanis Morissette and Alessia Cara at the Toronto World Cup opener. Honestly, the evidence on his recent collaborators is thin, so we can't say much more about who he keeps working with, and we saw nothing worrying.