Music

'One of the biggest nights of my life': Michael Bublé on hosting the Juno Awards

The Canadian crooner on calling in favours, self-deprecating humour and why he should host the awards again.

The Canadian crooner on calling in favours, self-deprecating humour and why he should host the awards again

My Junos Moment: Michael Bublé

4 years ago
Duration 2:57
The Canadian crooner on calling in favours, self-deprecating humour and why he should host the awards again

To say that Michael Bublé was nervous the first time he hosted the Juno Awards back in 2013 would be an understatement. 

"I felt like a boxer who was going out into the ring," he says. "I was terrified, I was excited. For me, it was one of the biggest nights of my life." 

Looking back on the moment now, he recalls spending months working on the script. 

"I know there's a lot of hosts, you know, and the great writers come in and they do their thing and they trust them, but then there's people like me that can't help but micro-manage."

He also called in all the favours he could, enlisting famous friends like Gerard Butler, Dr. Phil, Russell Peters and Kelly Ripa to help with his cold open. But he also relied on what he considers a Canadian tradition — self-deprecating humour.

"Many times, funny is being able to laugh at yourself," he says. "I think that's what makes a lot of our humour so attractive to people all over the place, so I'm proud to continue the legacy of that kind of self-deprecating humour."

It's a trait he leaned on when he was asked to host the Junos again in 2018, and one he still maintains today. 

"For me, I can look back and I can feel proud, I can actually laugh or sometimes say, 'wow that was so much worse than I even thought it was.'"

Watch Bublé's full My Junos Moment above.

Wherever you are in the world, you can tune in to the 2021 Juno Awards on Sunday, June 6. You can watch live on CBC TV and CBC Gem, listen on CBC Radio One and CBC Music and stream globally at CBCMusic.ca/junos

(CBC Music)