Yahoo Finance Michael Bublé Unveils His Own Limited Edition Bubly Flavor: 'They've Finally Given In!'
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Michael Bublé has a lot of reasons to celebrate this holiday season, and the perfect beverage to toast to it all with, too!
The Canadian crooner, 46, has teamed with bubly sparkling water for his very own, limited-edition holiday flavor — available to a lucky number of fans through a new sweepstakes running now through Dec. 8.
Fittingly titled "merry berry bublé," the drink is a perfectly refreshing festive melody of raspberries, blackberries and strawberries. It's even wrapped in a can with an "é" drawn over bubly's logo, as Bublé is keen to do in the advertising campaigns he's starred in for the PepsiCo brand since 2019.
"Finally, finally, after years and years of me trying to make this happen, PepsiCo has finally given in and accepted that it is in their best interest to change the name," Bublé tells PEOPLE exclusively, "Not just to change it but to actually add the é, so that I don't have to go physically to all the stores like I actually do, believe it or not."
To win, fans are asked to follow and tag @bublywater while sharing something they did this year that was naughty or nice using #merryberrysweepstakes.
"I don't know how they're going to pick the winner but... look at that beauty right there," Bublé adds in an interview while holding up the can, which is playfully designed to look like a tacky holiday sweater. "Isn't it something? And they got little ties in there, and it's like an ode to the ugly Christmas sweater. And I mean, look at that. You could eat it!"
Bubly
Bublé helped pick the merry berry bublé flavor, choosing what he calls "my favorite" berries. "I actually got to do this," he says. "They didn't just call and say, 'This is what it's going to be.' "
In fact, Bublé has been hands-on throughout his time working with bubly.
"It's a team effort on everything," he insists. "I don't know if people know this, but even though it's a big corporation, I get to help write the ads. So I actually sit with the writers and it's been a really good experience because you don't often get to have that kind of input. But I keep telling them, 'I would like this relationship to continue for 25 years. And the only way for us to do that is to make sure that we keep getting better. That it's always clever, and fresh, and funny.' And so it's been a really nice partnership."
RELATED: Michael Bublé Celebrates Son Noah on His Birthday: 'My Hero Turns 8!'
That partnership dates back to 2019 when Bublé did his first ad campaign with the brand, which debuted at the Super Bowl.
When he was first approached about it, he says, his sister was actually sitting with him at the kitchen drinking a bubly.
"This is the truth, no sugar sprinkles on this," Bublé says. "My manager called and he said, 'Hey kid, they're going to do this Super Bowl ad. You want to do something with Pepsi? They got some drink called bubly.' ... And I looked at my sister and I was like, 'Oh my God' because I had never even heard of it before. But she said, 'Oh, I love it. It's so good!' "
"I like them all too," the father of three — who shares sons Noah, 8, Elias, 5, and daughter Vida, 3, with wife Luisana Lopilato — says of the drink. "They're big in my house especially because my kids drive us nuts, always wanting to drink colas. They're not going to drink colas, but they get to have a bubly."
Courtesy Pepsi Bubly
The Grammy winner has another reason to smile about working with bubly: It's yet another reminder that he did the right thing early on in his career when he nearly changed his last name.
"I am so glad that I didn't listen to everybody and change my name like they wanted me to years ago," Bublé recalls. "We had a big meeting about the record company. They said, 'Listen, no one's ever going to buy your records or take seriously a guy named Bublé.' "
Eager to be successful, Bublé considered changing his grandma's maiden name, Mosconi. But he changed his mind after telling his father.
"My dad loves me so much, you know? He said, 'Well, Mike, if that's what they want...' But I could tell that it hurt him. And when I saw that, then I got kind of upset."
"I went into the next meeting [with the record company] and I had a piece of paper. I said, 'Here's a contract. If you can tell me that changing my name will sell me 100,000 copies' — that's what I was hoping, 100,000 copies, let alone 68 million or anything — I said, 'I will change my name today.' They said, 'Well, of course we can't guarantee.' And I said, 'Then don't ever ask me again.' That was the last time we ever talked about it."
Vivian Zink/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Michael Bublé
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Bublé had the last laugh, selling over 75 million records worldwide and winning multiple awards.
Not only does he have a new NBC special coming (Michael Bublé's Christmas in the City, out Dec. 6) but his chart-topping album Christmas is celebrating its 10th anniversary with a deluxe re-issue, out now. It features seven new tracks on a bonus CD, including "The Christmas Sweater," a "Winter Wonderland" duet with Rod Stewart and a new version of "Let It Snow!" with the BBC's Big Band Orchestra.
Of course, merry berry bublé is just icing on top of it all.
"I don't want to say, 'I told you so,' but c'mon – 'merry berry bublé' has a nice ring to it, don't you think?" he jokes.
For more on Michael Bublé, pick up this week's issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday.
