Michael Bublé wades into Late Late Show drama as he wows Dublin crowd

The four-time Grammy winner talked about how much he loved host Ryan Tubridy.

He also said he agreed with the security officer at Dublin airport when he arrived in Ireland on Thursday that it was an important and much-cherished part of Irish culture.

As strange as this may sound, the 47-year-old Canadian superstar has become almost a cherished part of this country’s culture.

“This country is not normal,” he said.

“It is just so special in the world, and to me. I will keep coming back as many times as you want me to.”

He played at the Aviva in 2010 to 60,000 fans and in Croke Park in 2018 to as many. So he is not stuck for people wanting him to come back to Ireland.

At the 3Arena last night, the 9,000 fans, some of whom were holding Irish flags with Buble’s name on it, lapped up every song – and will again tonight when he takes to the stage again at 8pm.

He told them that Ireland was in his heart and he feels at home when he comes here.

He stood back and let them sing Just Haven’t Met You Yet.

Then he told them: “You watch some of the young singers on American Idol or X Factor and they are s***.

“This is because their parents always told their kids when they were young that they’re great singers when they really suit s***.

“Believe when I tell you Dublin that you are not s***.

“You can really sing and your voices are great tonight.”

The father of three children – Noah, Eiias and Vida – had a great voice last night too. He has a strong set of pipes alright.

He opened with Feeling Good, written in the mid 1960s by Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse for the musical The Roar of the Greasepaint – The Smell of the Crowd.

Whatever about greasepaint, there was an immediate roar of approval from the crowd.

Backed by 26-piece band and three backing singers, he moved about the stage with the charisma of Elvis Presley in his 1968 NBC comeback special. Instead of black leather from head to toe, the King of Croon was in a black suit, black shirt and black tie. He never loosened the tie for the entire two hours he was onstage. Buble did, however, loosen-up some of the Great American Song Book.

This is because he does far more than polished, smooth-jazz versions of old standards.

He adds Harry Styles-like pep and swing to them, with a voice that Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Tony Bennett or, at times, Sam Cooke and our own Van Morrison would have been proud of.

His version of Julie London’s 1956 classic tearjerker Cry Me A River was pure emotion. He sang it with an intimacy – not an easy feat in such a massive venue.

His version of The Drifters’ Such A Nighthad anyone whose wasn’t already on their feet up and dancing.

On the next song, the 3Arena was transformed into a heaving disco in downtown Miami for the Latin super-pop of Sway. Buble repositioned it from a song that Dean Martin made famous in the 1950s with the Rat Pack into something decidedly his own.

At the end of the song, he mopped the sweat from his brow with a handkerchief (which he then threw to a grateful audience member) before making a joke about the air conditioning.

When Buble performed When You’re Smiling, he transported everyone back to another age. I was thinking of Frank Sinatra when he sang the song in the 1952 film Meet Danny Wilson.

His version of Smile, a song composed by Charlie Chaplin in the mid 1930s and made famous by Nat King Cole in 1950, had just the right amount of melancholia in the notes.

“When there are clouds in the sky, you'll get by,” he sang, “If you smile through your fear and sorrow.”

A master showman, he knows how to work the crowd.

“When you see me bowing my head it’s not because I’m saying, ‘Thank you’,” he began at one point last night.

“It’s because I’m feeling shame. We’re living in a crazy world where everyone is an influencer. Everyone has a Tik Tok or an Instant Face Time shit – I don’t know.

“But we’re dealing with a time when athletes, who used to have class and actors, singers, famous people they have a responsibility but they don’t care what the kids think.

“They act whatever way they want. They say, ‘It’s not my responsibility.’ But it is their god-damn responsibility. And it is my responsibility too. So, what just happened now is not OK – and I want to say sorry. Some of you don’t even know.”

“So, I’ll explain. I am a big star with massive reach. I have a responsibility and that song,” he said referring to Higher from his 2022 album of that name, “which I just sang and the way I sang it is too sexy and too dangerous.”

The crowd cheer. But he isn’t finished. “And you know what’s crazy? I like it when you think you can handle. But you can’t handle it. Let me explain. The first time I sang that song in front of 40,000 people in America – and all through Europe – girls in the audience would pass out. Every night on tour it would happen with that song. Ten times a night at least girls would pass out. This is the truth. I would need to stop the show and I would have to apologise to the crowd to let the paramedics through to get the girls who fainted. Then I realised: it is not all on me. It is not all my fault. A lot of it is your fault too.”

It’s not difficult to imagine that the crowd went home with Buble on their mind

“I am going to prove it to you,” he goes on.

“How many of you are seeing me in concert for the first time tonight? Yell it at me. That’s crazy. That’s at least 40pc. That means out of eight and a half thousand, four thousand of you walked in the doors tonight thinking, ‘Oh – we are going to see Christmas Boy.’ [a joke at his expense over his hit 2011 Christmas album] That’s what you thought it was going to be. No. Santa hasn’t got s**t in his sack for you tonight. I’ve got s**t in this sack tonight. If we are going to do this, we are going to do this. I don’t know what the population of Dublin is today but I swear to God, nine months from now it is going to be double.”

He then points at a couple in the audience and says: “I know what happened. She said to you [adopts twee voice], ‘Let’s go see Buble. ‘ And you said, ‘No, I don’t want to see Buble.’ ‘That’s the truth right?” The man with his girlfriend nods to say it is indeed the truth. Buble then turns to the crowd. “Some of you right now are having a hard time articulating it but you are probably something happening – he says jokingly pointing in the direction of his nether regions, to which everyone roared with laughter – “because tonight, if you can handle it, we are just going to put a little air into the tyre. And you are going to go home and ride that bike all night long.” I can’t be certain that they follow his instructions but each and everyone in the 3 Arena greeted the sentiment with a laughing approval.

He then played an achingly romantic rendition of Barry Gibb’s To Love Somebody. Gibb originally wrote it for Otis Redding (who died before he had a chance to go into a recording studio). Last night Buble sang it with such heartfelt conviction that it seemed it was written for him.

Buble then took a long walk up to the to of the venue. “I feel like I’ve been on a Stairmaster.”, he said as he completed the 100 steps with his bodyguard behind him, every step of the way.

The journey was to another stage where he sang with an acoustic guitar an medley of songs “by heros” – from One Night to All Shook Up to Can’t Help Falling In Love. He also did a cover of Barry White’s You’re My First, My Last, My Everything, which had the whole venue shaking as everyone danced the moves.

Back on the main stage with his orchestra, the King of Croon finished the show with an encore of a sad song that Elvis (and the Pet Shop Boys) made famous, Always On My Mind.

It’s not difficult to imagine that the crowd went home with Buble on their mind – and, quite possibly for some of them, with air in their tyres until this morning’s dawn.