A Canadian singer regarded as a pop icon for his genre-melding artistry and global influence on modern-day popular music. Bieber is also a philanthropist and activist who promotes anti-bullying campaigns and has a wide range of interests in business, fashion and film.
Throughout his career, Bieber has had a penchant for putting himself in the spotlight—with on-and-off romances with celebrities like Selena Gomez and Sofia Richie and skirmishes with the law that generated considerable tabloid attention. But with his latest album, he seems to be reaching out in a different way. He’s trying to comfort the kid he once was, that young person who was drowning and felt like nobody cared.
Bieber was raised by his mother in Stratford, Ontario, where he took part in local singing competitions as a child and performed in local theaters. His mother would post home videos of him singing and playing the drums, piano and guitar on the Internet, which gathered a following that soon grew far beyond the original audience of family and friends.
In 2012, Bieber’s talent landed him a spot in a music-themed reality TV show called X Factor, which gave him a big boost in his career. Soon after, he released the eponymous debut album that brought in millions of fans and spawned numerous hit singles. It also landed him a major record deal with RCA Records.
His second album, Purpose, released in 2015, reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and featured guest appearances from rappers and other musicians. The same year, he appeared in the concert movie Never Say Never.
By late 2013, Bieber was a global celebrity with a massive social media presence and several high-profile relationships, including one with supermodel Hailey Baldwin. After a brief stint in rehab, he rekindled his relationship with Baldwin and married her in 2018.
In recent years, Bieber has focused on charity work and on promoting anti-bullying initiatives. He’s also devoted much of his time to mentorship, especially of younger artists. There’s a moment in the documentary about Billie Eilish, a young singer, in which Eilish is completely overwhelmed during her performance at Coachella and Bieber steps up to support her.
Hayleigh Bosher is a writer at Brunel University London. She is the author of the new book, Justin Bieber and the Power of Authenticity. She does not work for, consult with, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations. This article was originally published in The Conversation and is reproduced here under a Creative Commons license. Read the full article here. The Conversation is a nonprofit, nonpartisan source of news and analysis covering government, politics, business, health, science, technology and culture. You can find out more and subscribe here. You can also follow us on Twitter. Copyright 2022 The Conversation. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.