Musician Spotlight: Justin Bieber

Fresh-faced, good-looking, appealing to fans young and old (but perhaps especially young), Justin Drew Bieber burst onto the global music scene in 2009 and doesn’t seem to have fallen out of the limelight since.

Born on 1st March 1994 in London, Ontario, Bieber was what was missing from the world of music at the time. There were no real teen idols, no one to put posters up of, nothing that quite caught the attention of the young girls and boys who were looking for someone to adore. And then along came Justin Bieber with his floppy hair and his boy next door appeal, and everyone was hooked.

As a child, Bieber was always musical, and he can play the drums, the trumpet, the guitar, and the piano, which will have helped him greatly when he also began to sing. In 2007, at just 13 years old, he came second in a local singing competition, and, as mothers tend to do, Bieber’s posted the performance on YouTube ostensibly so that his family members could see the boy’s performance. Here is that performance:

It turned out that a lot more people saw it than just family members, and the video (and others that came afterwards) quickly went viral. Scott ‘Scooter’ Braun, a talent agent, was one of the viewers, and between him and a chance meeting with R&B singer Usher, Bieber’s career began.

2009 saw Bieber’s first single released. The song, ‘One Time’, was a fusion of pop and R&B that was infused with young optimism. Yet it wasn’t until six months later, with the release of an EP called My World, that fame really began to hit home. This album consisted of more of the same R&B-inspired music, and it was clearly exactly what was required since it sold over one million copies. My World 2.0 was released in 2010, and this full-length album was just as popular, debuting at number one on the Billboard chart. This is where the single ‘Baby’ comes from, and even those who don’t know much about Bieber will be able to name this single and hum a few bars. In a record-breaking callback to how Bieber got his start in the industry, the video for ‘Baby’ was the first to reach more than 500 million views.

2010 also saw the release of something rather different. My Worlds Acoustic featured many of Bieber’s most popular songs, but in a pared-down, simple version. This was also when he published his autobiography, Justin Bieber: My Story. Over the next three years, Bieber was able to replicate much of his early success with a string of new albums including a Christmas-themed one (Under The Mistletoe (2011)).

By 2015, Justin Bieber, now 21, was beginning to mature not just in regards to his music, but in his personal life too. He began to find unfavorable attention with the law thanks to various issues including assault, vandalism, driving offences, and more. However, 2015 also saw Bieber released a new album, Purpose, which gave him three number one singles. On top of this, 2015 was also the year that Bieber sang on Jack Ü’s ‘Where Are Ü Now?’, an electro-pop song that went on to win a Grammy.

The release of 2020’s Changes, Bieber’s fifth album, was inspired by his 2018 marriage to Hailey Baldwin. This relationship also seems to have calmed down his ‘bad boy’ tendencies, and he is settling back into making music once more.

Fans continue to enjoy his live performances, complete with flashy light shows and loud stage monitors. Learn more about the artist from his official website.