After a rocky journey, Bieber’s upcoming album, Changes, could not come at a better time
By Will Lofsky
Born and raised in the small town of Stratford, Ont., by a single mother in a tiny apartment, 25-year-old Justin Bieber never could have imagined how his life would turn out.
Bieber entered a singing competition when he was 12 and placed second in 2007. To share his performance with friends and family, Bieber and his mother made a YouTube channel and uploaded his first video.
Video: Justin Bieber on YouTube
Scooter Braun, Bieber’s long-term manager found his cover of “So Sick” by Ne-yo and reached out to Bieber’s mother, Pattie Malette.
Braun flew Bieber out to Atlanta to meet with Usher. “I sang for him and his people and he really wanted to sign me then and there,” said Bieber, according to his official YouTube biography.
In October of 2008, Bieber officially signed to Island Records and dropped his first album, My World, on Nov. 17, 2009. The album’s four hit singles “Love Me,” “One Time,” “Favorite Girl,” and “One Less Lonely Girl” made it to the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 as well as the Top 15 Canadian Singles chart.
To this day, Bieber is the only artist in Billboard history to have four singles from a debut album in the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100.
Video: Justin Bieber on YouTube
After touring with Taylor Swift on her U.K. “Fearless” tour, Bieber released his second album, My World 2.0, in 2010 which featured major hits like “Baby” and “Somebody to Love.”
Bieber’s life took a serious downward spiral in 2014, a year when he was arrested for suspected drag racing and got a DUI.
In the fifth episode of Bieber’s new YouTube show Seasons, he breaks down the worst part of his life.
Photo: justinbieber via Instagram
“My security and stuff would come into my room at night to check my pulse,” said Bieber in episode five. “People don't know how serious it got. It was legit crazy scary. I was waking up in the morning and the first thing I was doing was popping pills and smoking a blunt and starting my day. It just got scary.”
Although he was now an international icon, he was dealing with the fallout of going from a beloved child star to a universally-hated celebrity.
While critics and the media thrived during Bieber’s dark period, child stars have notoriously been thrust into the spotlight during hard times before Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook exploded in the past decade.
“No one’s ever been that famous in the era of social media where every year of your adolescence you are the most Googled person on the planet,” said Scooter Braun in Seasons.
By the end of 2015, Bieber released Purpose, his sixth No. 1 album, which sold an insane 649,000 units in its first week.
Today, Bieber is married to American model Hailey Baldwin and is now sober according to Vogue. Bieber is also battling anxiety, depression, Lyme disease and Epstein-Barr virus.
Despite his difficult life, Bieber remains optimistic and wants to be a good example to his fans.
“My past, my mistakes, all the things that I've been through. I believe that I'm right where I'm supposed to be and God has me right where he wants me. ... We all have different stories. I'm just excited to share mine,” said Bieber in the official trailer for his series.
His new album, Changes, releases on Feb. 14 everywhere.