Justin Bieber

Justin Drew Bieber (born March 1, 1994) is a Canadian singer and songwriter. After a talent manager discovered him through his YouTube videos covering songs in 2008 and signed to RBMG, Bieber released his debut EP, My World, in late 2009. It was certified Platinum in the U.S. He became the first artist to have seven songs from a debut record chart on the Billboard Hot 100. Bieber released his first full-length studio album, My World 2.0, in 2010. It debuted at or near number one in several countries, was certified triple Platinum in the U.S., and contained his single "Baby". Following his debut album, he had his first headlining tour, the My World Tour, released the remix albums My Worlds Acoustic and Never Say Never – The Remixes—and the 3D biopic-concert film Justin Bieber: Never Say Never. He released his second studio album, Under the Mistletoe, in November 2011, when it debuted at number one on the Billboard 200. Bieber released his third studio album, Believe, in 2012. His fourth studio album Purpose was released in November 2015, spawning three number one singles: "What Do You Mean?", "Sorry", and "Love Yourself". Following the release of Purpose, Bieber was featured on several successful collaborations, including "Cold Water", "Let Me Love You", the remix of "Despacito" and "I'm the One". His U.S. album and singles sales total 44.7 million. He has sold an estimated 100 million records, making him one of the world’s best-selling music artists. Bieber has won numerous awards, including the American Music Award for Artist of the Year in 2010 and 2012. In his career, he has won one Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording for the song "Where Are Ü Now" at the 2016 ceremony. He has been listed four times by Forbes magazine among the top ten most powerful celebrities in the world in 2011, 2012, and 2013. Bieber also became the first artist to surpass 10 billion total video views on Vevo. Early life Bieber was born on March 1, 1994, in London, Ontario, at St Joseph's Hospital and was raised in Stratford, Ontario. He is the only child of Jeremy Jack Bieber and Patricia "Pattie" Mallette. Bieber's parents were never married. Pattie raised her son with the help of her mother, Diane, and stepfather, Bruce. His mother is of French-Canadian descent; his paternal great-grandfather was of German ancestry, and his other roots are English, Scottish and Irish. He has also claimed that he has some undetermined Aboriginal Canadian ancestry. Through Jeremy, Bieber has two younger half-siblings, Jazmyn (born 2009) and Jaxon (born 2010). Pattie worked a series of low-paying office jobs, raising Bieber as a single mother in low-income housing. Bieber has maintained contact with his father. Bieber attended a French-language immersion elementary school in Stratford, the Jeanne Sauvé Catholic School. Growing up, he learned to play the piano, drums, guitar, and trumpet. He graduated from high school in Stratford, Ontario, the St. Michael Catholic Secondary School in 2012 with a 4.0 GPA. In early 2007, aged 12, Bieber sang Ne-Yo's "So Sick" for a local singing competition in Stratford and was placed second. Mallette posted a video of the performance on YouTube for their family and friends to see. She continued to upload videos of Bieber singing covers of various R&B songs, and Bieber's popularity on the site grew. Career 2008–2010: Career beginnings and My World When searching for videos of a different singer, Scooter Braun, a former marketing executive of So So Def Recordings, clicked on one of Bieber's 2007 videos by accident. Impressed, Braun tracked down the theatre Bieber was performing in, located Bieber's school, and finally contacted Mallette, who was reluctant because of Braun's Judaism. She remembered praying, "God, I gave him to you. You could send me a Christian man, a Christian label!", and, "God, you don't want this Jewish kid to be Justin's man, do you?" However, church elders convinced her to let Bieber go with Braun. At 13, Bieber went to Atlanta, Georgia, with Braun to record demo tapes. Bieber began singing for Usher one week later. Bieber was soon signed to Raymond Braun Media Group (RBMG), a joint venture between Braun and Usher. Justin Timberlake was also reportedly in the running to sign Bieber but lost the bidding war to Usher. Usher then sought assistance in finding a label home for the artist from then manager Chris Hicks, who helped engineer an audition with his contact L.A. Reid of The Island Def Jam Music Group. Reid signed Bieber to Island Records in October 2008 (resulting in a joint venture between RBMG and Island Records) and appointed Hicks as executive Vice-President of Def Jam, where he could manage Bieber's career at the label. Bieber then moved to Atlanta with his mother to pursue further work with Braun and Usher. Braun became Bieber's manager in 2008. Bieber's first single, "One Time", was released to radio while Bieber was still recording his debut album. The song reached number 12 on the Canadian Hot 100 during its first week of release in July 2009 and later peaked at number 17 on the Billboard Hot 100. During fall 2009, it had success in international markets. The song was certified Platinum in Canada and the US and Gold in Australia and New Zealand. His first release, an extended play entitled My World, was released on November 17, 2009. The album's second single, "One Less Lonely Girl", and two promo singles, "Love Me" and "Favorite Girl", were released exclusively on the iTunes Store and charted within the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100. "One Less Lonely Girl" was later also released to radio and peaked within the top 20 in Canada and the US, and was certified Gold in the latter. My World was eventually certified Platinum in the US and double Platinum in both Canada and the United Kingdom. To promote the album, Bieber performed on several live shows such as mtvU's VMA 09 Tour, European program The Dome, YTV's The Next Star, The Today Show, The Wendy Williams Show, Lopez Tonight, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, It's On with Alexa Chung, Good Morning America, Chelsea Lately, and BET's 106 & Park. Bieber also guest starred in an episode of True Jackson, VP in late 2009. Bieber performed Ron Miller and Bryan Wells's "Someday at Christmas" for US President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama at the White House for Christmas in Washington, which aired on December 20, 2009, on US television broadcaster TNT. Bieber was also one of the performers for Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest, on December 31, 2009. Bieber was a presenter at the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards on January 31, 2010. He was invited to be a vocalist for the remake of "We Are the World" (a song written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie) for its 25th anniversary to benefit Haiti after the earthquake. Bieber sings the opening line, which was sung by Lionel Richie in the original version. On March 12, 2010, a version of K'naan's "Wavin' Flag", recorded by a collective of Canadian musicians known as Young Artists for Haiti, was released. Bieber is featured in the song, performing the closing lines. 2010–2011: My World 2.0 and Never Say Never In January 2010, "Baby", was released from his debut album, My World 2.0. The song featured Ludacris, and became an international hit. It charted at number five on the US Billboard Hot 100, peaked at number three on the Canadian Hot 100 and reached the top ten in several international markets. Two promo singles "Never Let You Go", and "U Smile" were top thirty hits on the US Hot 100, and top twenty hits in Canada. According to review aggregator Metacritic, the album has received generally favourable reviews. It debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200, making Bieber the youngest solo male act to top the chart since Stevie Wonder in 1963. My World 2.0 also debuted at number one on the Canadian Albums Chart, Irish Albums Chart, Australian Albums Chart, and the New Zealand Albums Chart and reached the top ten of fifteen other countries. To promote the album, Bieber appeared on several live programs including The View, the 2010 Kids' Choice Awards, Nightline, Late Show with David Letterman, The Dome and 106 & Park. Sean Kingston appeared on the album's next single, "Eenie Meenie". The song reached the top ten in the United Kingdom and Australia, and the top-twenty of most other markets. On April 10, 2010, Bieber was the musical guest on Saturday Night Live. On July 4, 2010, Bieber performed at the Macy's Fourth of July Fireworks Spectacular in New York City. The following single from My World 2.0, "Somebody to Love", was released in April 2010, and a remix was released featuring Bieber's mentor Usher. On June 23, 2010, Bieber went on his first official headlining tour, the My World Tour, starting in Hartford, Connecticut, to promote My World and My World 2.0. In July 2010, it was reported that Bieber was the most searched for celebrity on the Internet. That same month his music video for "Baby", surpassed Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" to become the most viewed, and also the most disliked YouTube video ever. However, Taylor Swift's Blank Space surpassed its number of views in 2015. In September 2010, it was reported that Bieber accounted for three per cent of all traffic on Twitter, according to an employee of the social-networking site. In Bieber's second album, because of puberty, his voice was deeper than it was in his first album. In April 2010, the singer discussing his vocals remarked, "It cracks. Like every teenage boy, I'm dealing with it and I have the best vocal coach in the world. [...] Some of the notes I hit on "Baby" I can't hit any more. We have to lower the key when I sing live." Bieber guest-starred in the season premiere of the CBS crime drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, which aired on September 23, 2010. He played a "troubled teen who is faced with a difficult decision regarding his only brother", who is also a serial bomber. Bieber was also in a subsequent episode which aired on February 17, 2011, in which his character is killed. Bieber performed a medley of "U Smile", "Baby", and "Somebody to Love" and briefly played the drums at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards on September 12, 2010. Bieber announced in October 2010 that he would be releasing an acoustic album, called My Worlds Acoustic. It was released on November 26, 2010 in the United States and featured acoustic versions of songs from his previous albums, and accompanied the release of a new song titled "Pray". In 2012, he was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal. A 3-D part-biopic, part-concert film starring Bieber entitled Justin Bieber: Never Say Never, was released on February 11, 2011, directed by Step Up 3D director Jon Chu. It topped the box office with an estimated gross of $12.4 million on its opening day from 3,105 theatres. It grossed $30.3 million for the weekend and was narrowly beaten by the romantic comedy Just Go with It, which grossed $31 million. Never Say Never reportedly exceeded industry expectations, nearly matching the $31.1 million grossed by Miley Cyrus's 2008 3-D concert film, Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert, which holds the record for the top debut for a music-documentary. Never Say Never grossed a total of $98,441,954 worldwide. The film is accompanied by his second remix album, Never Say Never – The Remixes, released February 14, 2011, and features remixes of songs from his debut album, with guest appearances from Miley Cyrus, Chris Brown, and Kanye West, among others. In June 2011, Bieber was ranked No. 2 on the Forbes list of Best-Paid Celebrities under 30. He is the youngest star, and 1 of 7 musicians on the list, having raked in $53 million in a 12-month period. On November 1, 2011, Bieber released the Christmas-themed Under the Mistletoe, his second studio album. It debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, selling 210,000 copies in its first week of release. 2011–2015: Believe, Journals, and other appearances In late 2011, Bieber began recording his third studio album, entitled Believe. The following week, Bieber appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show to announce that the first single would be called "Boyfriend" and would be released on March 26, 2012. The song debuted at number two on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, selling a total of 521,000 digital units, the second-highest-ever debut digital sales week. Bill Werde of Billboard noted that it failed to debut at number one because the digital download of the track was available only through iTunes Store, "restricting the buying option for those that do not frequent the Apple retail store". "Boyfriend" became Bieber's first single ever to reach the top position on the Canadian Hot 100 by debuting at number one and staying on for one week. His third studio album, Believe was released on June 19, 2012, by Island Records. The album marks a musical departure from the teen pop sound of his previous releases, and incorporates elements of dance-pop and R&B genres. Intent on developing a more "mature" sound, Bieber collaborated with a wide range of urban producers for the release as well as some long-time collaborators, including Darkchild, Hit-Boy, Diplo, and Max Martin. Entertainment Weekly praised Bieber's musical shift, calling the album both a "reinvention and a reintroduction". Rolling Stone noted the deeper voice and more "intense" beats found on the album, although it lampooned one of his euphemisms for newfound sexual maturity ("If you spread your wings, you can fly away with me"). Believe debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, becoming his fourth number-one album. The album sold 57,000 copies in its first week in Canada, debuting atop the Canadian Albums Chart. The Believe Tour, which further promoted the album, began in September 2012 in Glendale, Arizona. On December 14, 2012, Bieber appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, where he announced plans to release an acoustic album titled Believe Acoustic, which was released on January 29, 2013. Bieber returned to Saturday Night Live as the host and musical guest on the February 9, 2013 episode. His appearance was panned by critics and cast members, including Kate McKinnon, who stated that Bieber was not comfortable with his hosting duties, and Bill Hader, who stated that he did not enjoy the presence of Bieber or his entourage. Hader added that in his eight years on the program, Bieber was the only host who lived up to his reputation. On March 7, 2013, Bieber fainted backstage at London's O2 Arena after complaining of breathing problems throughout his performance and was taken to hospital. Bieber cancelled his second Lisbon, Portugal concert at the Pavilhão Atlântico, which was to be held on March 12, because of low ticket sales. The concert on March 11 went on. In mid-August 2013, a remixed duet version of Michael Jackson's previously unreleased song "Slave To The Rhythm", featuring Justin Bieber leaked online. In response to criticism over this remix, the MJ Estate had not authorized release of this recording, and has since made attempts to remove the song from as many sites and YouTube channels as possible. Later, a song titled "Twerk" by rapper Lil Twist, featuring Bieber as well as Miley Cyrus, also leaked. On October 3, 2013, Bieber announced that he would release a new song every Monday for 10 weeks as a lead-up to the film Justin Bieber's Believe, which entered production in May 2012 and was released on December 25, 2013. The film is a follow-up to Justin Bieber: Never Say Never, and Jon M. Chu returned to direct. The first song of Music Mondays, "Heartbreaker", was released on October 7. The second song, "All That Matters", was released on October 14, followed by "Hold Tight" on October 21, "Recovery" on October 28, "Bad Day" on November 4, and "All Bad" on November 11. The seventh song, "PYD" featuring R. Kelly, was released on November 18; it was followed by "Roller Coaster" on November 25, and "Change Me" on December 2. The final song, "Confident" featuring Chance the Rapper, was released on December 9, 2013. That same day, it was announced that all 10 tracks will be featured on an upcoming collection called Journals. It reportedly featured five additional unreleased songs, a music video for "All That Matters", and a trailer for Believe. Journals was only available for purchase via iTunes for a limited time only: from December 23, 2013, to January 9, 2014. The titles of the five new additional songs are: "One Life", "Backpack" featuring Lil Wayne, "What's Hatinin" featuring Future, "Swap It Out", and "Memphis" featuring Big Sean and Diplo. Bieber released a song titled "Home to Mama" featuring Australian singer Cody Simpson in November 2014. Because of the disbanding of Universal Music's division, The Island Def Jam Music Group, in April 2014, Bieber and a number of artists were subsequently transferred to a UMG related division Def Jam Recordings, causing Bieber and the other artists to no longer be signed to Island Records. In February 2015, Bieber released a song "Where Are Ü Now", with Jack Ü. In March 2015, Bieber made an appearance in the music video for Carly Rae Jepsen's single "I Really Like You". In March 2015 Bieber was the featured roastee in Comedy Central's annual roast special. Bieber filmed an episode for the Fox TV reality series Knock Knock Live, and aired before the show was cancelled after two episodes. Artistry Musical style and influences Bieber's music is mainly pop, while he also incorporates elements of R&B. Jody Rosen of Rolling Stone asserted that the content of his music was "offering a gentle introduction to the mysteries and heartaches of adolescence: songs flushed with romance but notably free of sex itself." After his hit in 2015 on Jack Ü's track Where R Ü Now, Bieber released the EDM-fueled album Purpose a collaboration with Diplo, DJ Snake and Major Lazer. Bieber has cited The Beatles, Boyz II Men, Mariah Carey, Michael Jackson, Justin Timberlake, and Usher as his musical inspirations. Bieber stated My World 2.0 was influenced by Timberlake. Voice Bieber initially began singing with his adolescent voice, before later experiencing pubertal changes during a performance of "Pray" at the 2011 American Music Awards. Bieber started to receive vocal conditioning from coach Jan Smith. Sean Michaels of The Guardian described it as "the biggest threat to his career" at the time. Jody Rosen commented that Bieber sings with "swing and rhythmic dexterity" on his debut, noting his tone to be "nasal". In a review of his Purpose album, Neil McCormick of The Daily Telegraph complimented his "soft, supple and seductive singing". Caroline Sullivan of The Guardian also praised Bieber’s "affectedly breathy voice", but insisted in the same sentence that "the voice soon palls" after listening to the whole album. Public image Usher commented that while he and Bieber were both signed at the same age, "I had the chance to ramp up my success, where this has happened to Bieber abruptly". As a result, Usher, Braun, Bieber's bodyguard, and other adults surrounding Bieber constantly coach him on handling fame and his public image. After signing Bieber, Usher appointed one of his former assistants, Ryan Good, to be Bieber's road manager and stylist. Good, once nicknamed Bieber's "swagger coach", created a "streetwise look" for the singer which consisted of baseball caps, hoodies, dog chains, and flashy sneakers. Amy Kaufman of The Los Angeles Times comments, "Though a product of a middle-class suburban upbringing in Stratford, Ontario, Bieber's manner of dress and speech ('Wassup man, how you doin'?' or 'It's like, you know, whateva' ') suggest he's mimicking his favourite rappers." In 2013, Bieber said that he was "very influenced by black culture", but he neither thought "of it as black or white" nor tried to "act or pose in a certain way". To him, it was "a lifestyle—like a suaveness or a swag". Wax statues of him with his hairstyle from that of his earlier career are on display at the Madame Tussauds wax museums in Amsterdam, London, and New York City. Bieber was often featured in teen magazines, such as Tiger Beat, and has been labelled as a "teen heartthrob". In 2010, he was frequently criticized for looking and sounding younger than his age, and the following year for an androgynous appearance, which had been commonly noted in the media, including his appearance on the cover of LOVE magazine's androgyny issue in 2011. His teen-pop music, image (especially as a heartthrob to young teenage girls), and the media attention he receives have additionally been criticized. He has been a target of Internet bloggers and message board posters, especially users of the Internet message board 4chan and of YouTube. Nick Collins of The Daily Telegraph said that "Bieber's character appears to strike a particularly sour note with his Internet critics" who have questioned his manner of speech, among other things. Personal life Bieber has described himself as a faithful adherent of Christianity, said he communicates with God via prayer, and that "he's the reason I'm here". He reflected his faith in a music video with Brandon Burke, titled "#iPledge", in which he "talks candidly about his appreciation for the tenet of forgiveness in the Christian faith". According to Scooter Braun, he has also stated that he regularly cites the Jewish prayer Shema Yisrael before every live show showcasing his view on multiculturalism. Regarding sexual abstinence, he told music magazine Rolling Stone, "I don't think you should have sex with anyone unless you love them." He added that he does not "believe in abortion", and that it is "like killing a baby"; when asked about the case of abortion with regard to rape, however, he said, "I guess I haven't been in that position, so I wouldn't be able to judge that." His view on sexual orientation is quoted as "everyone's own decision", and he has contributed to the It Gets Better Project, a non-profit group aiming to prevent suicide among LGBT youth. As Bieber resides in the United States, he is reported to possess an O-1 visa for temporary resident status, based on "extraordinary ability or achievement" in a field. Bieber has stated that he is not interested in obtaining US citizenship because of his view on America's market-oriented health care system. He has praised Canada as being "the best country in the world" citing its government-run health care system as a model example. Bieber dated Selena Gomez from December 2010 to November 2012.Bieber's father, Jeremy Bieber, is a former carpenter and pro-am mixed martial artist. In March 2014, Rolling Stone characterized Jeremy as having "split with Justin's mom when Justin was a toddler, and wasn't always around afterward. But he has, as of late, accepted a place of honor in his superstar son's entourage".