Justin Drew Bieber (  /ˈbiːbər/ BEE-bər, born March 1, 1994) is a Canadian singer-songwriter, record producer and actor.Bieber was discovered in 2008 by American talent manager Scooter Braun, who came across Bieber's videos on YouTube and later became his manager. Braun arranged for him to meet with entertainer Usher Raymond in Atlanta, Georgia, and Bieber was signed to Raymond Braun Media Group (RBMG), and then to an Island Records recording contract offered by record executive L.A. Reid.

 

His debut extended play, the seven-track My World, was released in November 2009, and was certified platinum in the United States.He became the first artist to have seven songs from a debut record to chart on the Billboard Hot 100.Bieber's first full-length studio album My World 2.0, was released in March 2010. It debuted at or near number-one in several countries and was certified platinum in the United States. It was preceded by the worldwide top-ten single "Baby". He followed up the release of his debut album with his first headlining tour, the My World Tour, the remix albums My Worlds Acoustic and Never Say Never – The Remixes, and the 3D biopic-concert film Justin Bieber: Never Say Never. Bieber released his second studio album Under the Mistletoe in November of 2011, when it debuted at number-one on the Billboard 200. Bieber released his third studio album Believe on June 19, 2012, and it became his fourth chart topper in the United States, debuting at number-one on the Billboard 200.

 

Bieber has received numerous awards, including both Artist of the Year Awards at the 2010 American Music Awards and the 2012 American Music Awards, and was nominated for Best New Artist and Best Pop Vocal Album at the 53rd Grammy Awards. With a global fan base, termed as "Beliebers", and over 30 million followers on Twitter, he was named by Forbes magazine in 2012 as the third most powerful celebrity in the world. He had earned an estimated US$55 million in the previous 12 months. As of May 2012, Bieber has sold 15 million albums.Justin Bieber along with Taylor Swift won top honours at the Teen Choice Awards on July 22, 2012.

 

Early life

Justin Drew Bieber was born on March 1, 1994, in London, Ontario, at St Joseph's Hospital, and was raised in Stratford, Ontario. He is the son of Jeremy Jack Bieber and Patricia "Pattie" Mallette. Bieber's mother was 17 years old when she became pregnant. His parents were never married, but maintain a close friendship and common goals regarding their son's personal and professional life. Mallette raised her son with the help of her mother Diane, and stepfather, Bruce.

 

In September 2012, Mallette's memoirs, titled Nowhere but Up, were published. The book shares of her early life and work with her son to pursue a career in the music industry. In her book, as well as in an interview with the Today show, Mallette talked about how everyone around her tried to push her toward abortion, and how she refused to abort her baby.Mallette 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, who married another woman and had two children.

 

Bieber's paternal great-grandfather was from Germany.Bieber's mother's ancestry is French Canadian.He has stated that he believes that he has some undetermined Aboriginal Canadian ancestry.He attended a French-language immersion elementary school in Stratford, the Jeanne Sauvé Catholic School.

 

Interested in hockey, soccer, and chess, he kept his musical aspirations to himself.As he grew up, Bieber taught himself to play the piano, drums, guitar, and trumpet.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.Chris Hicks, Bieber's A&R at Island/Def Jam, explained Bieber's huge online following to HitQuarters, stating:

 

He was doing something different. He was an attractive white kid singing very soulful R&B hits. That set him apart immediately from anyone in his range because no one was covering or singing these kind of records. But equally important was that you believed in these songs – it was real. And you wanted to hear more.

 

Style and image

Justin Bieber has a higher score on the Klout online "influence" scale than Barack Obama or The Dalai Lama.According to Jan Hoffman of The New York Times, part of Bieber's appeal stems from his YouTube channel. Long before he released his EP, My World, in mid-November, the YouTube videos attracted millions of views.Braun recognized the appeal. Prior to flying him to Atlanta, Braun wanted to "build him up more on YouTube first" and had Bieber record more home videos for the channel. "I said: 'Justin, sing like there’s no one in the room. But let's not use expensive cameras.' We'll give it to kids, let them do the work, so that they feel like it's theirs", recalled Braun.Bieber continues to upload videos to the same channel and has opened a Twitter account, from which he interacts with fans regularly;his account was reported in November 2010 to have more than six million followers.Since then he has been consistently gaining followers at an average of 24,000 per day.The accounts also serve marketing purposes; for example, Bieber's music video for "One Time" only began selling quickly after it was uploaded to YouTube.

 

Usher comments 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 Kenny, 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 favorite rappers."

 

Bieber is often featured in teen magazines such as Tiger Beat,and has been labeled as a "teen heartthrob".Wax statues of Bieber are on display at Madame Tussauds wax museums in New York, Amsterdam and London.His change of hairstyle in 2010, and the consequent alterations to Bieber products, led to it being called 'the most expensive musical haircut of all time; one company spent $100,000 to fix its dolls for the 2011 Christmas season.

 

Justin has also been criticized for looking and sounding younger than his age, his teen-pop music, image, and frequent media attention.He has been a frequent target of Internet bloggers and message board posters, notably by users of Internet message board 4chan and users of YouTube.Nick Collins of The Daily Telegraph speculated that "Bieber's character also appears to strike a particularly sour note with his Internet critics, with many remarks commenting on his youthful appearance, his teen-pop songs, his image as a heart-throb to young teenage girls and his manner of speech".

 

Personal life

Justin Bieber is a Christian, and said he has a relationship with Jesus, talks to him and that "he's the reason I'm here".

 

Bieber's comments in a February 2011 profile in Rolling Stone sparked controversy.Asked about abstinence, Bieber responded, "I don't think you should have sex with anyone unless you love them." He said he does not "believe in abortion" and that it is "like killing a baby".He described sexual orientation as "everyone's own decision".Bieber has contributed to the It Gets Better Project,which aims to prevent suicide among LGBT youth.

 

Bieber has said he is not interested in obtaining United States citizenship and has criticized America's health care system. 

 

Praising Canada as being "the best country in the world", he cited its health care system as a model example.

 

On February 27, 2011, Bieber attended the 2011 Vanity Fair Oscar Party with American actress and singer Selena Gomez,confirming several months of media speculation about a romantic relationship between the pair. In November 2012, it was reported that Bieber and Gomez had ended their relationship after approximately two years of dating.However, it was reported twelve days later that the couple had gotten back together after Bieber begged Gomez for forgiveness.

 

In May 2012, Bieber purchased a 10,000 square-foot mansion on 1.3 acres of land, located in the community of Calabasas, CA, a suburb of Los Angeles.

 

Bieber's philanthropic activities have included visiting children's hospitals. In June 2012, the "Music Makes It Better" campaign was released, featuring PSAs by Bieber, Victoria Justice, and The Band Perry. The campaign aims to bring music, arts, and other programs to children while they're in the hospital.

 

Twitter

As of November 2012, Bieber's Twitter account (@justinbieber) is the second most popular celebrity account with over 30 million followers, behind that of Lady Gaga with over 31 million followers.His follower acquisition is one new follower every other second.His popularity on Twitter at one point accounted for three percent of all Twitter related traffic, with a Twitter employee commenting that "racks of servers are dedicated" to Bieber.This resulted in over 180 million page views for the service each month.Bieber was frequently a trending topic on Twitter when the feature first launched because his fans frequently discussed him on the network, and he was named the top trending star on Twitter in 2010;Klout gave his account a score of 100.

 

The size of Bieber's and Gaga's follower bases are cited as a reason why marketers should pay attention to Twitter, due to their ability to reach millions of people with a single tweet.8.3% of tweets mentioning "bieber" were semi-automated and probably Twitter related spam.Research done about Twitter and the 2011 Egyptian revolution includes Bieber as he made tweets about the topic at a time when he had roughly 8 million followers. His multiple tweets resulted in 32,000 responses each, which made Bieber's Twitter account one of the single largest nodes for discussion about the uprising on Twitter.

 

Discography

• My World 2.0 (2010)

• Under the Mistletoe (2011)

• Believe (2012)

 

Tours

• 2009: Urban Behavior Tour

• 2010–11: My World Tour

• 2012–13: Believe Tour

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2009	True Jackson, VP	Himself	Guest star
	My Date With...
2010	Silent Library
	School Gyrls		Cameo
	Saturday Night Live	Guest star/performer	Ep 35.18
	CSI: Crime Scene Investigation	Jason McCann	"Shock Waves" (Season 11, episode 1)
	American Idol	Performer	Season 9, episode 40
	Hubworld	Guest star	Season 1, episode 1
	The X Factor (UK)	Performer	Series 7, week 8
2011	Extreme Makeover: Home Edition	Guest star
	CSI: Crime Scene Investigation	Jason McCann	"Targets of Obsession" (Season 11, episode 15)
	Khloé & Lamar	Himself	Episode: "The Father in Law"; uncredited, playing the NBA Celebrity All-Star Game
	Saturday Night Live	Guest star	Ep. 36.14
	Justin Bieber: Never Say Never	Himself	Film produced by MTV Films and distributed by Paramount Pictures; released February 2011 in United States and March to April worldwide The official movie trailer was released on October 26
	Dancing with the Stars	Performer	Week 7 Result Show
	So Random!	Himself	Performed in December 2011
	Disney Parks Christmas Day Parade	Guest star	Performed at Walt Disney World Resort
	The X Factor UK	Performer	Series 8, week 9
2012	Men in Black 3	Baby Alien
	Punk'd	Punker	Taylor Swift, Rob Dyrdek, Sean Kingston
	Katy Perry: Part of Me	Himself	Cameo
	Dancing with the Stars	Performer	Week 1 Result Show
	Make Your Mark: Shake It Up Dance Off 2012	Guest	Appearing
2013	The Simpsons	Himself	Cameo