When Michael Bublé broke up with longtime girlfriend and actresss Emily Blunt last year, the blogosphere went nuts. Nude photos of the singer were plastered on the web, vitriolic comments were abundant, and all his dirty laundry was aired for everyone to read. Not only was the split hard on the singer, it was the first time he became grist for the gossip mill.
“Some bloggers get a real kick out of the destruction of a human being,” he says during a stop in Toronto. “I wonder if people ever think about the celebrity’s family. You have brothers and sisters who are hurt by it. It’s sad when people take the opportunity to be completely classless.”
Surprisingly, one blogger the crooner has admiration for is Perez Hilton. Bublé says the controversial writer “seems to have a heart” and while he’s frank “he doesn’t seem to be as cruel as others.”
While the kind words may stem from the fact that Bublé is advertising his new album — Crazy Love — all over Hilton’s website, it can’t hurt to say nice things about the blogger. Especially because the subject matter on his new disc could put him back on the celebrity website radar — it’s about Blunt.
Actually, it’s more about relationships in general — with an album full of covers he couldn’t reveal too much about his break up — but the topic was inspired by the failed union.
“It’s more about being introspective than speaking about issues in my relationship,” says Bublé. “It’s more about myself and the fact that I’m 34 years old. I look at this time in my life as an opportunity to work on myself and become a better guy.”
To get his message across Bublé put together his most diverse set of songs yet. The record tackles the poppy Cry Me a River, which was originally written for Ella Fitzgerald, the big band classic All I Do Is Dream Of You, the infectious R&B number Baby (You’ve Got What It Takes) — a duet with Sharon Jones — and he ends the record off alongside Ron Sexsmith and his fantastic song Whatever it Takes.
He even penned two of his own tunes, Hold On and Haven’t Met You, which he says is “tons easier” than covering someone else’s song.
“It’s easier because no one can compare the song to the 400 iconic artist who recorded it before you,” he says.
He likes writing music though, and while he says he’ll never release an album of only original material, making his own tracks has helped silence his critics.
“I know what people would say about me — karaoke kid, one record wonder — but I got to prove the naysayers wrong. I wrote six songs, four have gone to radio and four have hit number one.”
