‘I wanted to come back’: Michael Buble’s sweet message to Australian fans

CANADIAN crooner Michael Buble may be in Australia to farewell a stadium - but the truth is, he came to say thank you.

MICHAEL Buble may be in Australia to farewell a stadium but the truth is he came to say thank you.

The Canadian superstar, who has commanded the summit of the Australian charts for 15 years, hung up his microphone when his son Noah was diagnosed with liver cancer in 2016.

In Sydney to close the Allianz Stadium on Friday and launch his new record Love, Buble said he didn’t know if he would come to the stage and studio as Noah battled his illness.

“I had no choice but to put it aside,” he said today.

“One of the reasons I felt I could do it again was I don’t think the public would ever understand how much their love and compassion and support meant to my family.

“And I wanted, in a small way, to say thank you for that. When I felt I could, I wanted to come back and show them that.”

‘I wanted to come back!’ Michael Buble, pictured in Sydney today. Picture: Jonathan Ng

His Love album features a song called Forever Now written for his children but is so emotionally charged for the singer he may never perform it live.

As for the album’s other classics, including broken-hearted love songs When I Fall In Love and My Funny Valentine, Buble said while he may have once channelled his own heartbreak into the music, his son’s cancer battle made that pain seem insignificant.

“I would trade this perspective in a second. I just wished I hadn’t had to go through something so f … ing terrible,” he said.

“I know you are talking about love and relationships and in my perspective before, I thought I had hurt, I had felt great pain at the time of a certain break-up or my grandmother passing away.

“But when this happened for me, I just think there’s a depth of fear and pain I didn’t know existed and I think it put all that other pain in perspective.”

Buble’s love affair with Australia began with the release of his self-titled record in 2003, with his regular visits selling hundreds of thousands of concert tickets.

He has been the soundtrack of our silly season with his chart-topping Christmas album selling more than one million copies since its release in 2011.

While the record has famously inspired the annual “Christmas is coming” cave meme, he said his favourite is modelled on the cover photo of him holding a present behind his back.

“My friends keep sending me the meme which says ‘Michael Buble farting on your presents’. I don’t know why it brings me so much joy.”

Michael Buble’s love affair with Australia began with the release of his self-titled record in 2003. Picture: Jonathan Ng

The Buble family had more cause to celebrate in July when baby daughter Vida joined sons Noah and Elias.

With the boys starting school in Vancouver his week, the family wasn’t able to travel to Australia as expected.

“They’re not here and I am really lonely, thank you for asking,” he joked.

“When I came here yesterday, I was a little bit sad because parts of what I love about Sydney when I come with my family is walking around, going to the movies and restaurants.

“Now it’s just me and Richard Wilkins holding each other.”

While his self-deprecatory humour is as much of his show as those golden tonsils, Buble admits his son’s illness has had a profound effect on his perspective on the world and his music’s potential to heal.

“I would never wish what I have gone through on my worst enemy but I would wish the perspective I now live with every day on my best friends,” he said.

“It’s given me a great sense of gratitude, a better chance to be thankful, to be appreciative of the moments.”

Buble will also be spruiking his fragrance line while in Australia and admits it is an incongruous sideline for an entertainer.

He throughoutly enjoys smelling the perfume on his wife and admits a secret thrill if he gets into an elevator and can smell it on a woman but admits it wasn’t ever part of his master plan.

“Could you imagine, as a 16-year-old boy with my baseball cap backwards on my dad’s fishing boat, that I would ever think I would have a fragrance line? Forget about fame or kids or anything, that’s the biggest trip.”

Michael Buble, along with Guy Sebastian and Busby Marou, perform the final concert at Allianz Stadium on Friday with tickets available via Ticketek.