Pop icon Michael Bublé said he was “overwhelmed” in meeting Pope Leo XIV on Friday in the Vatican.

The pontiff received the 50-year-old Canadian crooner and others slated to participate in the annual Vatican Christmas Concert with the Poor on Saturday, December 6.

“The Concert with the Poor … is not just a performance by good artists or a simple musical review, however beautiful it may be, nor is it a moment of solidarity to settle our conscience in the face of the injustices of society,” Leo told his guests.

“I would like us, as we take part in this event, to remember the Lord’s words: ‘As you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me’. Is that so! If we concretely love those who are hungry and thirsty, those who are without clothes, the sick, foreigners, prisoners, we are loving the Lord,” Leo said.

“It reminds us that the dignity of men and women is not measured by what they possess: We are not our goods and our things, but children loved by God; and this same love must be the key to our actions towards our neighbour. For this reason, in our Concert the most fragile brothers and sisters occupy the first places,” the pope also said.

He told the artists music has always played an important role in the Christian experience.

“In the liturgy, in particular, singing is never a ‘soundtrack,’ a simple background, but is intended to elevate the soul in order to bring it as close as possible to the mystery being celebrated,” Leo said.

He did ask the artists to allow him a joke: “Please, sing well!”

“Sing and play with art and, above all, with your heart, because music can truly represent a form of love, a via pulchritudinis that leads to God, as ‘beauty is his gift for all human beings, united by the same dignity and called to fraternity’,” the pope said.

Speaking to journalists after meeting Pope Leo, Bublé, a Catholic, said he was “really still not over the moment.”

“For this young kid from [Canada] who grew up Catholic, to be sitting here now, it’s almost impossible to really express to you how it feels,” he said.

The Ave Maria — a favorite of Leo’s own mother, a singer herself who once recorded a rendition of the prayer — is among the songs Pope Leo XIV has personally requested Bublé sing.

In the Vatican press office on Friday, Bublé offered a few bars of Schubert’s famous Ave Maria as proof of earnest, before saying, “That’s it, I need to practice more,” amid applause.

“To be really honest,” Bublé told reporters on Friday, “I sang that song once — one time in a recording studio with all of the strings and the orchestra, and I never sang the song again. And when he asked, I was very, very nervous. I didn’t want to let him or any of you down, but with the amazing group behind me, with the choir and this orchestra, I realized that there’s no fear, there’s only joy and rehearsal.”

The Canadian singer also said he has a “wonderful personal relationship” with God.

“And it doesn’t just affect my music. It affects everything, everything I do, every decision I make,” he said. “If my brand is anything, I very much hope that it’s kindness and hope and love.”