Michael Bublé lights Ottawa Up!

The vibe was electric this past Tuesday night in Ottawa at the Canadian Tire Centre. Michael Bublé was in town.  Fans came from far and wide to see the Canadian icon who is currently on tour in support of his tenth studio album titled ‘Love”.

The orchestra fired the audience up with a giant intro and Bublé appeared at the top of the grand staircase and belted out the first verse to Feeling Good off his 2005 album ‘Its Time’. As he casually walked down the stairs, the audience erupted into high pitched screams and thunderous applause reminiscent of when the Beatles performed on the Ed Sullivan show. As the first song came to the end, the band quickly jumped into Haven’t Met You Yet, to which the audience started to clap in unison to the beat.

In his younger years, Buble had a chance to live in Ottawa and perform in a musical, and talked how much he loved the city.

“People pay to come here on vacation and you get to live here”, he said.

As much as he is a brilliant performer, the man is also quite a comedian. If he had talked all night without singing, the crowd wouldn’t have noticed and would have been just as satisfied. Joking how hard it must have been to come to see him perform knowing the Bacherlotte was on tv. And that he was so happy they kicked Paul off the show and at the end of the night if everyone was patient, they would all end up doing it in the hot tub.

After he finished singing Stay with Me, Buble said he felt as if he was singing the entire song to the McDonald’s signs that were lit up on the upper levels. He then said goodnight mockingly, and thanked the crowd and got ready to leave. The audience belted out a cheer of disapproval and several ladies yelled out that ” We Love You, Michael!”.  Buble stopped, turned around and mentioned that went over much easier in Vancouver, as everyone was so stoned they didn’t notice he had only played a couple of songs. A couple of fans had made some cardboard cutouts of pictures of Buble’s face, which were not very flattering and he grabbed one and joked how glad he was that he had made that face somewhere on the world wide web.

 

As much of a joker that he is, he is also a firm believer there is a lot of good in the world. In each city on the tour, he is picking one person in the audience to come on stage and sing one of his songs. For this stop, he picked a young man who drove all the way from Mississauga, and chose to sing  Home. The Mississauga native did not disappoint and received a standing ovation. Bublé was ecstatic with the young man’s singing ability but still joked he should have said he was from Ottawa.

Next, he turned the Canadian Tire Centre into a classic style nightclub by lowering lamps from the ceiling and moving to the stage at the end of the catwalk where a few members of his orchestra were waiting. Here they performed  Buena Sera, Just A Gigolo/Aint’ Got Nobody and You Never Can Tell.  Partway through this set, he grabbed an audience member’s phone who was face-timing a friend and said: “Hey, you just got the best seat in the house!”. He proceeded to sing most of this part of the set to the person on the phone before handing it back to its owner.

Bublé is a true entertainer, from start to finish the night was spectacular. His stories are a treat to hear and his jokes will have you laughing. If this truly is his retirement tour, I’m very glad I had the opportunity to see him live.  If you are a fan of music no matter what genre is your favorite, a Michael Bublé show is well worth seeing.