Say “Yes” Early to Every Invitation

By 2007, Michael Bublé’s hit song “Everything” along with a half dozen of his other songs were played at countless weddings everywhere. Only four years earlier, though, this larger-than-life singer was heard at only one or two weddings a week.

In 2003, he was making a living as a wedding singer.

The popular Canadian jazz singer, Michael Bublé, was 25 years old when he found his breakthrough. Bublé had an independently funded album at the time and had made his way on to a few movie and TV show appearances.

He had a dream of becoming a famous artist one day despite the fact that his music was not in style. At the time R&B, hip hop, alternative rock, and boy bands were dominating the Billboard top 40. No one would have suspected that a young man signing jazz reminiscent of Dean Martin or Frank Sinatra had any place in pop culture anymore.

Bublé didn’t let that hold him back.

He was determined to find success and master his craft. But Bublé didn’t let his dreams of being famous deter him from saying yes to all kinds of venues.

From the time he was sixteen years old until his mid-twenties this future famous singer was performing in night clubs, talent shows, and private parties. He was, in effect, a wedding singer.

It was at one of these private parties that the an aide to the former Canadian prime minister saw Bublé performing. Shortly thereafter, he was invited to sing and the prime minister’s daughter’s wedding and met the music producer who, on the condition that Bublé would be able to raise the money himself to produce the album, would sign him to his first record deal.

That self-titled debut album would go on to make Bublé an international star. In just a few years he went from wedding singer performing at a few weddings a year to the playlist of thousands of weddings every week.

Playing those venues with humility and hard work prepared Bublé to become the star he would soon become. The countless hours of performance honed his skills and enabled him to master his craft.

He spent a lot of time covering famous singers, imitating the greats and experimenting with his own twists on their songs. It should come as no surprise that his first album included many of these hit songs performed with his own unique voice.

I get to study and I got to mimic and what I basically did was I stole from every person that I could steal from. I was an imitator. That’s what I was. It was years before I could take all of these things that I loved about all of these different artists and put them together and find my voice.

Michael Bublé

When you are first starting out as an artists, you can’t get picky about your invitations to perform in public. These opportunities to perform force you to get better at your art.

Whether it is singing at weddings, writing for a local newsletter, acting in a school play, or illustrating an ad in the Sunday paper, say “yes” a lot.

The more you perform the better you’ll get.

And who knows, some day someone might take notice and give you your big break.