The Canadian crooner on run-ins with the royals, why he is taking a break from Christmas music, and how his latest show was inspired by the movies.

Michael Buble loves the movies. In fact, he loves them so much he styled his latest tour on them.

"One of the things I missed most about the world and what we lost during this pandemic was cinema," the Canadian singer explains by video call from his home in Buenos Aires.

"My favourite thing in the world was going to the movies. Honestly, there was nothing I enjoyed more than going to the cinema and getting some popcorn."

His latest world tour will reach the UK in the spring. It is a huge operation and Buble reels off the statistics - some 22 lorries, 18 buses and 130 crew.

Buble, the silky smooth voice behind hits such as Haven't Met You Yet and Everything, is often described as the nicest guy in showbiz. He is also a showman in the most traditional sense.

"I know you need to take this with a grain of salt," be begins. "Because every interview you have with every artist, writer, singer, songwriter and movie star, says the same thing about their new book, movie, song and painting.

"This by far is the greatest work I've ever done - and it's just as simple as that. It is the greatest show in the world. It is one of the biggest productions in the world.

"If you have paid good money and taken your valuable time to come down to the arena, to come and see Michael Buble, then you won't be disappointed, because you will be blown away. It's a massive, massive show and I love what I do."

Buble is speaking from the home he shares with his wife, the Argentine actress Luisana Lopilato, and their four children.

One of their sons, Noah, was diagnosed with cancer at the age of three in 2016. After treatment he was given the all-clear and Buble has been open about how the experience changed him.

Unsolicited, he throws opens the curtains to show me blinding sunlight and a beautiful vista with a pool.

"My voice is better than it's ever been," he offers.

"I'm in a good place. I've been through a lot in life and I'm appreciative. I am at the top of my game. But more than anything, sometimes it just comes together. Sometimes a show and its production and my ambition..."

Buble is briefly interrupted by his children off camera.

Laughing, he continues: "Sometimes it all just comes together. I have to believe that Covid and the break had a big part in why it came together the way it did.

"I just had far more time on my hands to focus that ambition into a stream of consciousness that brought this show to life."

Two decades after the release of his self-titled debut album, the UK leg of his Higher Tour will begin at London's O2 Arena in late March.

The performances begin with him appearing on the big screens in the far distance, before slowly walking towards the audience until his image fills the room.

"It's a movie," he says. "There's a beginning and a middle and an end. And it's very cinematic."

Planning the shows, he wanted to capture the feelings he had as a child at the movies. He describes his shows as like theatre in an arena.

"There was this thing where the lights would come down and even the most cynical of us, for at least a couple of hours, believed that Superman could fly, or that the good guy wins.

"We would have this childlike sense of wonderment. The guy does get the girl. There can be happy endings. There's this wonderful thing that happens in theatre. And I was like, 'I want that to happen in my shows'."

Buble was born in the city of Burnaby just outside Vancouver in Canada. He says he always felt an affinity with the UK.

"They're my kind of people. As a Canadian, as a Commonwealth country, there's so many similarities that it feels...

"Even from the first time I got there, there was almost a sense of relief because I had done a lot of American television and American press and they were very conservative in America - even compared to Canada.

"So when I got to the UK I went, 'Oh, I can be me'. I don't have to be as careful. I don't have to worry about such a great divide.

"There's a great divide there. They are divided in ideology, politics, religion - everything. You just don't feel that as much, or at least I just didn't feel that as much."

In 2009 Buble performed at the Royal Variety Performance attended by the Queen. He remembers being "very nervous" during the meet and greet after the show.

"We were all lined up and I think Lady Gaga was holding her hand or something, and I remember being told what you can and cannot say, that you do not reach out your hand. All this protocol stuff.

"I think she said something like hello and put out her hand. She said 'It's so nice to put a face with the music' or something like that. She said, 'We listen to you at the palace' and I remember being so... I was quite shocked by it."

Buble has been a staple of Christmas since the release of his first festive album in 2011.

This was a role he played with gusto until recent years when he decided to turn his focus elsewhere, specifically to those closest to him.

"For Christmas I've really wanted to just spend time with my family," he explains. "I really wanted to make sure that there was an onus put on the record I had out.

"There was a point where I just said to anyone involved with me, I just want to enjoy my time with my family.

"Christmas, I genuinely love the holiday. And I hope you can imagine how much it means to me to be invited into people's homes all over the world at a time that means so much.

"But at the same time it's an important time for me and so I want to have that time with my own family, with my kids - and I want to be present. And that's hard to do if you're off marketing and selling."

For tickets for the Higher tour see tegeurope.com.