Bublé's career breakthrough came when Michael McSweeney, associate to former Canadian Prime Minister
Brian Mulroney, saw his performance at a business party. McSweeney enjoyed Bublé's performance, and Bublé gave him an album, which McSweeney, in turn, gave to Mulroney and his wife. Bublé was then invited to sing at the wedding of Mulroney's daughter
Caroline in 2000, where he sang
Kurt Weill's "
Mack the Knife". At the wedding, Brian Mulroney introduced Bublé to
David Foster, a multi-Grammy award winning producer and a
Warner Brothers record executive who had worked with
Josh Groban previously. Foster signed Bublé to his '143' record label, producing the
self-titled album Michael Bublé in 2000. The album features a range of standards from various eras including "Fever", "The Way You Look Tonight", "For Once in My Life",
Van Morrison's "
Moondance" and
Lou Rawls's "You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine".
Barry Gibb of the
Bee Gees sang back up vocals on Bublé's version of the group's "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart?".
Michael Bublé was released in early 2003 and soon entered the Canadian album charts. Chart success in the UK, U.S., Australia and elsewhere soon followed with the album going Platinum and reaching the top ten of the album charts in the UK and Canada and going all the way to #1 in Australia. The album has reached the top 50 of the
Billboard 200 album charts in the U.S. His version of
George Michael's "Kissing a Fool" was released as a single from the album and reached the top 30 of the
Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart. "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart" reached the top 30 of the
Billboard Adult Contemporary chart as well. His third single "
Sway", originally performed by
Dean Martin, also reached the top 30 of the Adult Contemporary chart, while a
Junkie XL remix of the song reached the top 20 in Australia in
May 2004.
Bublé won the "Best New Artist" award at the
Juno Awards of 2004 and his self-titled album was nominated for "Album of the Year", but lost out to
Sam Roberts.
Bublé released a Christmas
EP Let it Snow in late
2003. The title track reached the top 40 of the Australia singles chart, ironically in mid-summer in that country. He released a live album and video in
April 2004 with the video reaching the top 10 of the Billboard video charts. The album also reached the top 50 of the Australian album charts as at the end of April and the
Billboard 200 album charts. "Let It Snow" will be re-released in the United States on October 9, 2007.
Bublé has also appeared in a variety of films in the past few years including his appearance as a
karaoke singer in
Duets opposite
Gwyneth Paltrow and
Huey Lewis. He also has appeared in
Totally Blonde in 2001 and in
The Snow Walker in 2003.
Songs from Bublé's
debut album ("
For Once in My Life", "Kissing a Fool") were released on the soundtrack for the
Ewan McGregor/Renée Zellweger movie
Down with Love, but the soundtrack also included a previously unreleased duet with
Holly Palmer on the movie's title theme. The
Junkie XL remix of "Spider-Man" from Bublé's
Babalu album was played during the closing credits of
Spider-Man 2, and this version was also released as a single.