In years gone by, a fallen teen idol would quietly fade from view, remembered only by a few hardcore devotees. But Justin Bieber can’t just disappear, not with 30 million followers on Twitter. He’s a magnet for the media, a global force of nature that can’t be fended off by a few petty squabbles or a messy divorce. Instead, the boy who shook up America with “Baby” and “Sorry” has to work on repairing and rebuilding his relationship with his fans.
A few years ago, he made an uneasy transition from a child idol to a man who needs to be loved by his people. He’s trying to make it right, and he needs to do so by acknowledging what he has done wrong, not just to himself but to all of us.
When he started recording his first albums, he was just another scrappy kid from Stratford, Ontario (population 30,000) who played hockey and soccer and liked to croon pop tunes while brushing his teeth. His mother, Pattie Mallette, worked several jobs to support her son. She hoped he’d become a modern-day Prophet Samuel, a leader for his generation. But when an Atlanta-based hip-hop manager named Scooter Braun mistook one of her son’s YouTube videos for Usher’s, the rest is history.
Bieber became a hit with his songs’ tween-pop melody, head-bobbing rhythms and hip-hop grace notes. He went on tour, setting off explosions of cellphone camera flashes and squealfests at Madison Square Garden, the X Games in Aspen and even Dick Clark’s New Year’s Eve special on CNN.
He got into trouble with the law, a DUI in Miami and other run-ins, and he broke up with his first love, Selena Gomez, in 2013. He married model Hailey Baldwin and launched his Drew House streetwear line. He released a documentary series and several hit albums, including Purpose and Changes.
He’s also trying to help younger artists. There is a moment in a recent Billie Eilish documentary where the young singer-songwriter, who is overwhelmed by her own success and insecure about how she fits in with others, finds herself in front of Bieber. He makes her feel safe. In his music, in the inspirational messages he shares on Instagram and in the deliberately calm manner he conducts his life, he tries to comfort the kid who once needed him so badly he thought he’d never be saved.