Ultimately, Vasquez won the hearts and ears of the audience, taking the Season 26 crown with Shye coming in second place. Not a bad way for Bublé to close out his proverbial first time at bat on The Voice, and he was beaming on the post finale red carpet on the Universal lot as he and Vasquez did their victory lap with press outlets including NBC Insider.

After speaking via satellite with the local news team from Utica, New York, Sofronio Vasquez’s current hometown, the duo gave us an exclusive interview where Bublé gushed about the global pride exhibited by Vasquez’s fans for his performances all season. Their vote has made him the only Filipino/Asian winner of the U.S. version of The Voice, or any other U.S. based singing competition show.

“There is a whole country watching this like a Super Bowl, no joke,” Bublé said with pride. “And what’s more interesting is that it wasn’t just the Philippines. It was Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, people in China. There were people everywhere that saw themselves in this kid and it’s very cool. He can’t believe it. He’s having a hard time grasping it.

Vasquez and Bublé also touched on the surprising song selections this season and what they envision for the singer’s career going forward.

The song that gave Sofronio the confidence to go all the way

While Vasquez’s final two competition songs were Sia’s “Unstoppable” and “A Million Dreams” from The Greatest Showman soundtrack, the singer told us that the song selection he was given made him pause, but then eventually gave him so much confidence after he landed on the classic Roy Orbison ballad, “Crying,” from the Playoffs.

“It was really the shifter,” Vasquez said of the song that tested what he was capable of executing. “Everyone was amazed by how the song was [sung]. And to be honest, I emailed them like, ‘Why is Michael Bublé picking that song for me for playoffs?’ I was saying, ‘Can I just sing his song, ‘Feeling Good,’ because I know that I’ve been singing that for so long?”

Vasquez then looked at his Coach and said, “But you’re like, ‘No, you’re not doing that one. You’re doing this song.’ So I trusted him. And it was amazing.