The term ‘pop sensation’ is thrown around too easily these days amongst the oceans of boy bands and seas of girly girl bands, but the instant and breathtaking rise to fame of Justin Bieber in 2008-09 deserves some special acknowledgement.
After putting homemade videos on YouTube in 2007 – the multi-talented teenage Canadian pop singer putting his spin on some classic tracks from the likes of Usher, Ne-Yo and Stevie Wonder – Bieber managed to achieve more than 10 million views of his performances just by word of mouth.
He flew to Atlanta to meet marketing executive Scooter Braun in 2008 and it wasn’t long before Justin Bieber had officially signed to Island Records.
His debut album, My World, was officially released worldwide in 2009, featuring the smash hits “One Time”, “First Dance”, “Down to Earth” and “Bigger”. When Usher features on your debut disc you know you must be doing something right.
A second album, My World 2.0, followed in 2010 as Bieber’s worldwide following grew and grew – with rapper Ludacris featuring on the brilliant single “Baby” – and tracks like “Somebody to Love”, “U Smile” and “Never Let You Go” adding to JB’s pop portfolio.
At the time of writing this profile, views for the video of “Baby” on YouTube were hovering around the 400,000,000 mark, as the most viewed music video on the site.
As his official website puts it: ‘A virtually untapped well of natural artistic talent, Justin Bieber is primed to be a solid force in music for many years to come.’ No doubt.
