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Sunday Sitdown with Willie Geist

Michael Bublé on His Rise From Fishing Boats to Fame and a Lifetime of Joy

Sunday Sitdown with Willie Geist

NBC News

News, Celebrity, Society & Culture, Pop Culture, Movies, Technology, Tv, Interview, Broadway, Music, Politics, Tv & Film

4.73.7K Ratings

🗓️ 26 October 2025

⏱️ 47 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Two decades after his breakout album It’s Time, five-time Grammy Award winner Michael Bublé sits down with Willie Geist at New York’s Blue Note Jazz Club to reflect on his journey from Canadian fishing boats to global fame. Bublé opens up about the grandfather who introduced him to Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald, the early gigs that shaped his craft, and the moment that changed everything in his career. He also talks about his love for Christmas music, the perspective he gained after his son’s illness, and his return as a coach on NBC’s The Voice, where he’s chasing his third straight win.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hey guys, Willie Geist here with another episode of the Sunday Sit Down podcast.

0:09.8

My thanks as always for clicking and listening along.

0:13.1

Very excited to bring you my conversation this week with one of the biggest stars in all of music.

0:18.6

He's won five Grammys and sold some 75 million albums. His name

0:24.4

is Michael Boubley. Right now, he is a coach on NBC's The Voice for a third season for him.

0:31.6

In fact, he won the first two seasons, going for the three-peat. Michael and I got together at the Blue Note, New York, this iconic

0:38.8

famous cafe where so many great artists have performed. And in fact, as we're here at a second,

0:45.3

was the first time Michael ever played a paying gig. First time he ever got paid. He started singing

0:50.7

at about 16. His family realized he had this beautiful voice. He started doing

0:55.1

club gigs. His grandfather was a plumber. Grandfather would say, I will fix your plumbing. I will

1:01.7

unclog the toilet if you let my grandson get on stage. How amazing is that? So he kind of toiled for a

1:08.3

long time, 16 years old, moving around the clubs.

1:11.5

He grew up in the Vancouver area, Burnaby, British Columbia.

1:14.6

Then he moved to Toronto, was trying to find his footing, and ultimately made his way to this

1:20.3

gig in New York.

1:21.3

So it was really special and cool to be in that room.

1:24.0

We're sitting at a little table, like you can imagine, a little jazz club, the stage

1:28.5

right above us with a piano, the stand-up bass, the drums, all the things you'd love to see in a jazz club. And it was nice for him to be there and kind of reminisce and think about what it meant for him in his career to get to play the blue note. Something you probably don't know about Michael Bubele. He grew up in a very blue-collar family.

1:45.9

His dad was a fisherman, would go out for months at a time. He actually, starting at the age of 14,

1:52.0

would go out and fish on those boats. He'd spend his summers chasing salmon up to Alaska.

1:58.6

So music came to him through his grandfather, though, introduced him to jazz.

2:03.0

He said, why does a kid who kind of grew up in the 80s? Why is he so into Louis Armstrong and

...

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