WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.859 Okay, check your calendars. Seriously, look at 00:00:02.859 --> 00:00:04.960 the date on your phone or your watch or whatever 00:00:04.960 --> 00:00:08.300 screen you are staring at. It is February 2nd, 00:00:08.320 --> 00:00:12.939 2026. And I'll start this deep dive with a number 00:00:12.939 --> 00:00:15.859 that feels completely impossible to me. Oh, yeah. 00:00:16.059 --> 00:00:17.940 I honestly double -checked the math three times 00:00:17.940 --> 00:00:19.579 before we started recording because it felt like 00:00:19.579 --> 00:00:23.859 a glitch in the matrix. Justin Bieber is 31 years 00:00:23.859 --> 00:00:27.120 old. 31. It really does create a distinct sense 00:00:27.120 --> 00:00:29.760 of cognitive dissonance, doesn't it? It really 00:00:29.760 --> 00:00:32.079 does. For a huge portion of the global population, 00:00:32.259 --> 00:00:36.159 basically anyone who was conscious in 2010, he 00:00:36.159 --> 00:00:39.659 is sort of frozen in amber. Yes. He's the 16 00:00:39.659 --> 00:00:41.600 -year -old with the purple hoodie, the side swept 00:00:41.600 --> 00:00:44.259 hair, and the high tops. Exactly. But looking 00:00:44.259 --> 00:00:46.100 at the stack of research we have on the desk 00:00:46.100 --> 00:00:48.780 today, and folks, it is a massive stack. We're 00:00:48.780 --> 00:00:51.320 talking binders full of data here. We are looking 00:00:51.320 --> 00:00:53.859 at a career that has spanned nearly two decades. 00:00:54.429 --> 00:00:55.829 It's hard to even wrap your head around that. 00:00:55.929 --> 00:00:57.950 We're talking about a guy who has sold his music 00:00:57.950 --> 00:01:02.049 catalog for over $200 million, broken chart records 00:01:02.049 --> 00:01:04.950 previously held by the Beatles and Elvis, and 00:01:04.950 --> 00:01:07.790 is now, as we speak, a father navigating his 00:01:07.790 --> 00:01:09.870 30s. And that's really the premise of today's 00:01:09.870 --> 00:01:12.109 Deep Dive. We aren't just looking at a pop star. 00:01:12.230 --> 00:01:14.790 We are looking at a unique sociological case 00:01:14.790 --> 00:01:17.090 study. A case study, that's the perfect way to 00:01:17.090 --> 00:01:19.790 put it. Justin Bieber was arguably the first 00:01:19.790 --> 00:01:23.269 true child star of the social media age. He was 00:01:23.269 --> 00:01:25.349 the canary in the coal mine for what happens 00:01:25.349 --> 00:01:27.390 when you hand a teenager a smartphone in global 00:01:27.390 --> 00:01:30.010 fame simultaneously. We have pulled everything 00:01:30.010 --> 00:01:32.109 for this. We've got the biographical data, the 00:01:32.109 --> 00:01:34.510 chart records, the business portfolios, court 00:01:34.510 --> 00:01:37.069 transcripts, and the liner notes from his debut 00:01:37.069 --> 00:01:40.310 in 2009 all the way up to the double release 00:01:40.310 --> 00:01:44.430 of Swag and Swag 2 in 2025. And the mission here 00:01:44.430 --> 00:01:46.430 is... to move past the headlines. We all lived 00:01:46.430 --> 00:01:48.609 through Bieber fever and we all saw the mugshots 00:01:48.609 --> 00:01:50.349 on the news. Right. But I want to understand 00:01:50.349 --> 00:01:52.870 the mechanics of the artistry. How did he pivot 00:01:52.870 --> 00:01:55.909 from teen idol to a genre -bending adult artist? 00:01:56.390 --> 00:02:00.010 And how did he build this massive business empire 00:02:00.010 --> 00:02:03.530 while arguably going through the most documented 00:02:03.530 --> 00:02:05.650 puberty in human history? I think that's a fair 00:02:05.650 --> 00:02:07.849 claim. The most documented. It is a journey. 00:02:08.319 --> 00:02:10.259 We're going to hit the highs, the Grammys, the 00:02:10.259 --> 00:02:12.500 history -making charts, and we are going to look 00:02:12.500 --> 00:02:14.879 honestly at the lows. You have to. The arrests, 00:02:15.159 --> 00:02:17.479 the health scares, and we'll land right where 00:02:17.479 --> 00:02:20.099 we are now with his status as a legacy artist 00:02:20.099 --> 00:02:23.280 and a dad. It's a fascinating arc. From busking 00:02:23.280 --> 00:02:26.400 on the street to holding 35 Guinness World Records, 00:02:26.560 --> 00:02:29.460 it's just a wild ride. So let's unpack this. 00:02:29.580 --> 00:02:31.960 And to do that, we have to go back to the Big 00:02:31.960 --> 00:02:35.599 Bang of the Bieber universe. It's 2007. We were 00:02:35.599 --> 00:02:37.819 in Stratford, Ontario. Right. And there was a 00:02:37.819 --> 00:02:40.199 12 -year -old kid sitting on the concrete steps 00:02:40.199 --> 00:02:42.560 of the Avon Theater with a rented guitar. It's 00:02:42.560 --> 00:02:44.800 such a humble beginning for what came next. It 00:02:44.800 --> 00:02:46.759 feels almost cinematic, like the opening scene 00:02:46.759 --> 00:02:49.840 of a biopic. It really does. But the actual discovery 00:02:49.840 --> 00:02:52.199 story, the moment that changed everything, is 00:02:52.199 --> 00:02:54.280 actually a complete accident. And I mean that 00:02:54.280 --> 00:02:56.419 literally. It wasn't a planned scouting trip. 00:02:56.620 --> 00:02:59.020 I love this part of the story because it highlights 00:02:59.020 --> 00:03:02.680 how fragile history actually is. Scooter Braun. 00:03:03.150 --> 00:03:05.250 who was a former marketing executive at So So 00:03:05.250 --> 00:03:07.569 Def Recordings. A pretty big deal in Atlanta 00:03:07.569 --> 00:03:09.909 music circles already. Right. He wasn't looking 00:03:09.909 --> 00:03:12.030 for Justin Bieber. He wasn't looking for a Canadian 00:03:12.030 --> 00:03:14.490 kid at all. Not at all. He was sitting in Atlanta 00:03:14.490 --> 00:03:16.530 scrolling through YouTube, which, remember, in 00:03:16.530 --> 00:03:19.150 2007 was a very different place than it is today. 00:03:19.310 --> 00:03:22.550 Oh, yeah. The Wild West. Grainy, slow. It was 00:03:22.550 --> 00:03:25.150 grainier. It was slower. It was the Wild West. 00:03:25.830 --> 00:03:28.490 He was searching for a completely different singer, 00:03:28.669 --> 00:03:32.240 an R &B crooner. He clicked on a video of 12 00:03:32.240 --> 00:03:35.500 -year -old Justin covering Ne -Yo's So Sick by 00:03:35.500 --> 00:03:37.860 Mistakes. He clicked the wrong link. The wrong 00:03:37.860 --> 00:03:40.599 link. Think about the serendipity of that. If 00:03:40.599 --> 00:03:43.060 his finger slips a millimeter to the left or 00:03:43.060 --> 00:03:45.960 right, or if his internet connection lags and 00:03:45.960 --> 00:03:49.199 he just closes the tab, pop history looks completely 00:03:49.199 --> 00:03:50.960 different. We might never have heard of Justin 00:03:50.960 --> 00:03:53.800 Bieber. Precisely. The butterfly effect of a 00:03:53.800 --> 00:03:57.060 single mouse click. But Braun sees this kid, 00:03:57.219 --> 00:04:00.039 and he hears that tone. And we have to talk about 00:04:00.039 --> 00:04:02.759 the tone. At that age, Justin was a boy soprano. 00:04:02.780 --> 00:04:06.419 It was this incredibly pure, resonant sound that 00:04:06.419 --> 00:04:08.599 just cut through the low -quality microphone 00:04:08.599 --> 00:04:12.860 of a webcam. It had that soulfulness to it already, 00:04:12.939 --> 00:04:16.060 even at 12. It really did. And Braun is hooked 00:04:16.060 --> 00:04:19.100 immediately. He becomes obsessed. He tracks down 00:04:19.100 --> 00:04:21.379 the school in Stratford. He tracks down the theater 00:04:21.379 --> 00:04:24.040 where Justin was busking. And eventually gets 00:04:24.040 --> 00:04:26.939 Justin's mom, Patti Millett, on the phone. And 00:04:26.939 --> 00:04:29.540 this wasn't an immediate yes from her, was it? 00:04:29.579 --> 00:04:31.639 You'd think a mom struggling to make ends meet 00:04:31.639 --> 00:04:34.199 would jump at a call from a music executive. 00:04:34.480 --> 00:04:36.879 No, not at all. And this adds a really interesting 00:04:36.879 --> 00:04:39.639 layer of cultural context that often gets overlooked 00:04:39.639 --> 00:04:42.740 in the telling of this story. Patty was raising 00:04:42.740 --> 00:04:44.939 him as a single mother in low -income housing, 00:04:45.100 --> 00:04:47.819 and her life was heavily, heavily supported by 00:04:47.819 --> 00:04:50.060 her Christian faith. She was deeply religious. 00:04:50.480 --> 00:04:52.879 So she was protective. Very. And when she found 00:04:52.879 --> 00:04:55.259 out Scooter Braun was Jewish... she actually 00:04:55.259 --> 00:04:57.600 hesitated. Right. There's that quote she later 00:04:57.600 --> 00:04:59.560 shared about her prayer at the time. It's so 00:04:59.560 --> 00:05:02.180 specific. It is. She literally prayed, God, you 00:05:02.180 --> 00:05:04.240 don't want this Jewish kid to be Justin's man, 00:05:04.300 --> 00:05:07.259 do you? Which is. It's a window into her worldview 00:05:07.259 --> 00:05:09.459 at that time. She wanted a Christian label, a 00:05:09.459 --> 00:05:11.319 Christian manager. She was worried about the 00:05:11.319 --> 00:05:14.259 secular industry corrupting him. Which, in hindsight, 00:05:14.439 --> 00:05:17.600 was a valid fear, yes. Though perhaps not for 00:05:17.600 --> 00:05:19.560 the theological reasons she was thinking of. 00:05:19.699 --> 00:05:22.250 So what changed her mind? It actually took the 00:05:22.250 --> 00:05:24.990 elders at her church to convince her. Oh, wow. 00:05:25.129 --> 00:05:27.569 They saw the videos. They heard his talent. And 00:05:27.569 --> 00:05:29.709 they basically told her that this was an opportunity 00:05:29.709 --> 00:05:32.050 they shouldn't pass up. They framed it as, you 00:05:32.050 --> 00:05:34.189 know, he could be a light in the world. They 00:05:34.189 --> 00:05:36.970 gave her their blessing to go. So they fly to 00:05:36.970 --> 00:05:40.430 Atlanta. Justin is 13. Yeah. He records some 00:05:40.430 --> 00:05:43.069 demos. Uh -huh. And suddenly he isn't just a 00:05:43.069 --> 00:05:45.970 kid on YouTube anymore. No. He's in the middle 00:05:45.970 --> 00:05:49.290 of a bidding war between two absolute titans 00:05:49.290 --> 00:05:51.490 of the music industry. This is the titan battle. 00:05:51.569 --> 00:05:55.149 It's 2008 now. On one side, you have Justin Timberlake. 00:05:55.290 --> 00:05:57.649 The Prince of Pop at the time. The undisputed 00:05:57.649 --> 00:05:59.750 Prince of Pop. On the other, you have Usher. 00:05:59.850 --> 00:06:03.110 His idol. His absolute idol. Both saw the potential. 00:06:04.029 --> 00:06:06.170 Timberlake wanted to sign him to his label, Ten 00:06:06.170 --> 00:06:08.949 Men Records. He saw him as a protege. And Usher. 00:06:09.149 --> 00:06:12.899 Usher. Partnering with Braun formed RBMG Raymond 00:06:12.899 --> 00:06:15.759 Braun Media Group specifically for this. So they 00:06:15.759 --> 00:06:18.500 were all in. Completely all in. And Usher eventually 00:06:18.500 --> 00:06:21.519 won the bid. Why did they go with Usher? Was 00:06:21.519 --> 00:06:23.379 it just the money? Or was there something else? 00:06:23.519 --> 00:06:26.120 It was strategy. There's a fascinating bit of 00:06:26.120 --> 00:06:28.620 industry logic here that really speaks to how 00:06:28.620 --> 00:06:30.720 these executives think about branding. Okay, 00:06:30.779 --> 00:06:33.439 I'm intrigued. There was a genuine concern that 00:06:33.439 --> 00:06:36.939 having two Justins, Timberlake and Bieber, might 00:06:36.939 --> 00:06:39.660 confuse the market. Confusing the market. That 00:06:39.660 --> 00:06:42.459 sounds so corporate for a kid singing R &B covers. 00:06:42.699 --> 00:06:45.759 It is corporate. This is a product launch. Timberlake 00:06:45.759 --> 00:06:48.420 was the reigning Justin. He owned that name in 00:06:48.420 --> 00:06:50.920 the pop space. So bringing in another Justin? 00:06:51.139 --> 00:06:53.240 The branding gets muddy. Is he the new Justin? 00:06:53.439 --> 00:06:56.259 Is he Justin 2 .0? It creates a comparison that 00:06:56.259 --> 00:06:58.939 he might not win at 13. That is wild to think 00:06:58.939 --> 00:07:01.250 about. that his name being Justin actually worked 00:07:01.250 --> 00:07:03.110 against him with Timberlake. It was a factor, 00:07:03.209 --> 00:07:06.350 for sure. Usher offered a clearer lane. Plus, 00:07:06.449 --> 00:07:09.149 Usher offered that direct mentorship in the R 00:07:09.149 --> 00:07:12.110 &B pop crossover space that became Justin's signature. 00:07:12.350 --> 00:07:14.410 Yeah, that makes sense. Usher was the guy who 00:07:14.410 --> 00:07:16.490 could teach him how to move, how to handle the 00:07:16.490 --> 00:07:19.149 stage, how to work a crowd in a way that Timberlake, 00:07:19.269 --> 00:07:21.930 who came from a boy band, couldn't necessarily 00:07:21.930 --> 00:07:25.649 replicate one -on -one. So, Usher wins. They 00:07:25.649 --> 00:07:28.490 move to Atlanta permanently. Justin's life is 00:07:28.490 --> 00:07:31.129 turned upside down. Completely. At 13. They drop 00:07:31.129 --> 00:07:36.449 one time in the My World EP in 2009. And it wasn't 00:07:36.449 --> 00:07:39.009 a slow burn, was it? It wasn't a gradual climb. 00:07:39.170 --> 00:07:41.970 It was an explosion. Usually you release a single, 00:07:42.069 --> 00:07:44.569 you work the radio, you do mall tours, you build 00:07:44.569 --> 00:07:47.170 a fan base brick by brick. The old way. The old 00:07:47.170 --> 00:07:49.889 way. Bieber skipped the line. He became the first 00:07:49.889 --> 00:07:52.810 solo artist in history to have four singles chart 00:07:52.810 --> 00:07:55.050 in the top 40 before his debut album was even 00:07:55.050 --> 00:07:57.370 released. Before the album was out. Yes. Think 00:07:57.370 --> 00:08:00.850 about that. One time, One Less Lonely Girl, Love 00:08:00.850 --> 00:08:03.750 Me, and Favorite Girl were all hits before anyone 00:08:03.750 --> 00:08:06.089 could even buy a full record. That is the definition 00:08:06.089 --> 00:08:07.990 of pent -up demand. The internet had already 00:08:07.990 --> 00:08:10.149 done the A &R work for them. Absolutely. The 00:08:10.149 --> 00:08:11.769 machine was already built. They just had to turn 00:08:11.769 --> 00:08:13.949 it on. And that leads us directly into the era 00:08:13.949 --> 00:08:16.550 we all remember. the area that parents feared 00:08:16.550 --> 00:08:20.889 and teenage girls lived for. 2010 to 2012. The 00:08:20.889 --> 00:08:23.629 era of Bieber fever? I mean, that term gets thrown 00:08:23.629 --> 00:08:26.170 around a lot. Yeah. But this was, this is different. 00:08:26.350 --> 00:08:28.569 You really can't overstate what this looked like 00:08:28.569 --> 00:08:30.790 on the ground. We compare things to Beatlemania 00:08:30.790 --> 00:08:33.090 often, but this was the first time we saw it 00:08:33.090 --> 00:08:35.700 amplified by the internet. In real time. In real 00:08:35.700 --> 00:08:39.600 time, 2004 -7. With the Beatles, you had screaming 00:08:39.600 --> 00:08:42.480 fans in stadiums. With Bieber, you had that, 00:08:42.539 --> 00:08:45.580 plus Twitter trends, plus YouTube comments, plus 00:08:45.580 --> 00:08:48.399 paparazzi tracking his every move. I remember 00:08:48.399 --> 00:08:51.000 the stories from Europe. It was chaos. You had 00:08:51.000 --> 00:08:54.019 fan frenzies in Liverpool, Barcelona, Paris, 00:08:54.120 --> 00:08:56.779 literal riots where police threatened to shut 00:08:56.779 --> 00:08:58.700 down shows because the streets were physically 00:08:58.700 --> 00:09:00.740 buckling under the weight of the crowds. They 00:09:00.740 --> 00:09:02.759 couldn't guarantee his safety. And the look. 00:09:03.159 --> 00:09:06.580 The mop top hair flip. Oh, the hair. The purple 00:09:06.580 --> 00:09:09.139 hoodies. It became this uniform of the fandom. 00:09:09.299 --> 00:09:13.539 You could spot a Belieber from a mile away. It 00:09:13.539 --> 00:09:16.480 was tribal. It was uniform, like you said. Purple 00:09:16.480 --> 00:09:18.940 was his color. The hair flip was his signature 00:09:18.940 --> 00:09:21.100 move. It was brilliant marketing, whether it 00:09:21.100 --> 00:09:23.299 was intentional or not. But it was also deeply 00:09:23.299 --> 00:09:25.879 polarizing. Yeah. And I think this is crucial 00:09:25.879 --> 00:09:28.519 to understanding Bieber's psyche and what happened 00:09:28.519 --> 00:09:32.809 later. Yes. In 2010. The music video for Baby 00:09:32.809 --> 00:09:35.210 came out. It became a massive hit, obviously. 00:09:35.210 --> 00:09:37.250 It was everywhere. Ubiquitous. But do you remember 00:09:37.250 --> 00:09:40.110 the other record it held? Oh, I do. It was the 00:09:40.110 --> 00:09:43.529 most disliked video on YouTube. For years. Exactly. 00:09:43.529 --> 00:09:46.009 For a long time, it had more dislikes than any 00:09:46.009 --> 00:09:47.970 other video on the platform. It became a meme 00:09:47.970 --> 00:09:50.809 to hate him. It became cool to hate him. So you 00:09:50.809 --> 00:09:53.529 have a 16 -year -old kid who is simultaneously 00:09:53.529 --> 00:09:56.490 the most loved person on the planet by his fans. 00:09:56.649 --> 00:09:59.429 Adored. worshipped even and the most hated person 00:09:59.429 --> 00:10:01.690 on the internet by everyone else that does something 00:10:01.690 --> 00:10:04.649 to a developing brain you are living in a dichotomy 00:10:04.649 --> 00:10:08.009 of extreme adoration and extreme vitriol every 00:10:08.009 --> 00:10:10.110 time you look at a screen there was no middle 00:10:10.110 --> 00:10:12.669 ground for him the stats from that time are still 00:10:12.669 --> 00:10:16.009 mind -blowing though my world 2 .0 drops in 2010 00:10:16.009 --> 00:10:18.629 debuts at number one makes him the youngest solo 00:10:18.629 --> 00:10:21.330 male to top the charts in stevie wonder in 1963 00:10:22.169 --> 00:10:25.830 50 years. A record that stood for nearly 50 years. 00:10:26.009 --> 00:10:27.870 He was in the same sentence as Stevie Wonder. 00:10:27.970 --> 00:10:29.629 That's the level we're talking about. And the 00:10:29.629 --> 00:10:32.789 concert film Never Say Never in 2011. Another 00:10:32.789 --> 00:10:36.110 monster success. It grossed nearly $100 million 00:10:36.110 --> 00:10:39.289 worldwide. Which is insane for a music documentary. 00:10:39.610 --> 00:10:42.690 It rivaled Miley Cyrus' Best of Both Worlds for 00:10:42.690 --> 00:10:45.889 the top music documentary records. He was printing 00:10:45.889 --> 00:10:49.690 money. He was an industry unto himself. But biologically... 00:10:49.899 --> 00:10:52.600 The clock was ticking. Puberty. The enemy of 00:10:52.600 --> 00:10:54.899 the child star. Especially for a singer with 00:10:54.899 --> 00:10:58.120 that high, pure voice. Puberty. It is the career 00:10:58.120 --> 00:11:01.019 killer for child sopranos. The Guardian actually 00:11:01.019 --> 00:11:02.960 wrote a serious piece about this at the time, 00:11:03.019 --> 00:11:05.059 calling it the biggest threat to his career. 00:11:05.240 --> 00:11:08.059 Not overexposure, not a bad album, his own body. 00:11:08.220 --> 00:11:10.100 And it was happening in public. During the My 00:11:10.100 --> 00:11:13.399 World 2 .0 era, his voice started cracking on 00:11:13.399 --> 00:11:15.919 stage. He had to lower keys during live performances. 00:11:16.100 --> 00:11:18.500 He couldn't hit the high notes in Baby anymore. 00:11:18.799 --> 00:11:21.100 You can find clips online where his voice just 00:11:21.100 --> 00:11:23.799 gives out. And to his credit, he was pretty open 00:11:23.799 --> 00:11:26.200 about it, too. He talked about dealing with it 00:11:26.200 --> 00:11:28.840 like every other teenage boy, just with the stadium 00:11:28.840 --> 00:11:31.559 watching. He was, and he navigated it by leaning 00:11:31.559 --> 00:11:34.059 into vocal coaching, specifically with Jan Smith, 00:11:34.179 --> 00:11:36.519 who is a legend in the industry. They called 00:11:36.519 --> 00:11:39.059 her Mama Jan. And she worked him through it. 00:11:39.179 --> 00:11:41.679 They worked tirelessly to transition him from 00:11:41.679 --> 00:11:44.440 a soprano into a tenor, to find his new voice, 00:11:44.559 --> 00:11:48.720 his adult voice. But that vocal change foreshadowed 00:11:48.720 --> 00:11:51.840 a much... bigger, more turbulent change in his 00:11:51.840 --> 00:11:54.460 public image. Yeah. The voice dropped and the 00:11:54.460 --> 00:11:56.620 innocence dropped with it. Yeah. We have to talk 00:11:56.620 --> 00:11:59.320 about the years 2013 and 2014. If the first act 00:11:59.320 --> 00:12:02.320 was the golden boy, this act was definitely the 00:12:02.320 --> 00:12:04.840 rebellion or maybe the meltdown. It was a full 00:12:04.840 --> 00:12:06.960 blown identity crisis played out on a global 00:12:06.960 --> 00:12:10.320 stage. This is the bad boy pivot. And initially 00:12:10.320 --> 00:12:12.379 some of it felt stylized, right? It felt like 00:12:12.379 --> 00:12:14.179 he was just trying on a new costume. It did. 00:12:14.259 --> 00:12:16.860 He adopted the streetwise look. He had a swagger 00:12:16.860 --> 00:12:19.399 coach, Ryan Good, who introduced the ball caps, 00:12:19.639 --> 00:12:22.259 the dog chains, the flashy sneakers. The drapped 00:12:22.259 --> 00:12:25.220 crotch pants. The infamous pants. And he started 00:12:25.220 --> 00:12:28.220 going by the pseudonym Bizzle for a minute on 00:12:28.220 --> 00:12:30.659 Instagram. The Bizzle phase. I forgot about Bizzle. 00:12:30.720 --> 00:12:33.419 And the gas masks. What was it, the gas masks? 00:12:33.620 --> 00:12:36.399 The gas masks in public, the shirtless airport, 00:12:36.679 --> 00:12:39.639 walks in freezing temperatures. It was a performance 00:12:39.639 --> 00:12:42.000 of toughness. It was him screaming, I'm not the 00:12:42.000 --> 00:12:45.159 kid singing baby anymore. It was a very loud, 00:12:45.240 --> 00:12:48.700 very clumsy attempt at shedding his skin. Exactly. 00:12:48.799 --> 00:12:51.629 But then... The performance started bleeding 00:12:51.629 --> 00:12:54.929 into reality. The lines blurred. We have to cover 00:12:54.929 --> 00:12:56.429 the controversies impartially here because there 00:12:56.429 --> 00:12:58.690 were a lot of them and they dominated the news 00:12:58.690 --> 00:13:00.870 cycle for two straight years. It was a firehose 00:13:00.870 --> 00:13:03.429 of bad press. It starts with some really bizarre 00:13:03.429 --> 00:13:05.529 stuff. This is the period where he abandoned 00:13:05.529 --> 00:13:08.850 his pet monkey, Mally, in Germany because he 00:13:08.850 --> 00:13:10.730 didn't have a proper paperwork. That was such 00:13:10.730 --> 00:13:13.409 a weird incident. Who brings a capuchin monkey 00:13:13.409 --> 00:13:15.809 on a private jet to Germany? And then just... 00:13:16.169 --> 00:13:18.769 leaves it. He just leaves it. German customs 00:13:18.769 --> 00:13:20.809 seized it. He couldn't produce the vaccination 00:13:20.809 --> 00:13:23.149 and import papers and he never went back for 00:13:23.149 --> 00:13:26.250 it. It spoke to a level of detachment from reality 00:13:26.250 --> 00:13:29.009 of consequence free living. Then you had the 00:13:29.009 --> 00:13:32.830 mop bucket incident. Oh, man. The mop bucket. 00:13:32.870 --> 00:13:34.809 For those who don't remember, he was filmed by 00:13:34.809 --> 00:13:37.730 his own friends urinating in a mop bucket in 00:13:37.730 --> 00:13:40.149 a restaurant kitchen. And then grabbing a spray 00:13:40.149 --> 00:13:42.649 bottle and yelling F Bill Clinton at a picture 00:13:42.649 --> 00:13:45.500 of the former president. Who knows? It was juvenile. 00:13:45.519 --> 00:13:48.200 It was gross. But it was also a sign of someone 00:13:48.200 --> 00:13:51.059 who had never been told no. Someone surrounded 00:13:51.059 --> 00:13:53.740 by enablers. And the Anne Frank guestbook comment. 00:13:54.039 --> 00:13:57.059 That got so much heat. It did. He visited the 00:13:57.059 --> 00:13:59.759 Anne Frank house in Amsterdam, which is a very 00:13:59.759 --> 00:14:02.500 solemn, moving experience. And he wrote in the 00:14:02.500 --> 00:14:05.000 guestbook, truly inspiring to be able to come 00:14:05.000 --> 00:14:08.120 here and was a great girl. Hopefully she would 00:14:08.120 --> 00:14:11.220 have been a believer. Which just sounds so incredibly 00:14:11.220 --> 00:14:14.120 tone deaf and narcissistic. It was seen as incredibly 00:14:14.120 --> 00:14:16.899 narcissistic, centering himself in a global tragedy. 00:14:17.120 --> 00:14:19.200 But to be fair, the Anne Frank House actually 00:14:19.200 --> 00:14:21.759 defended him. They did. They released a statement 00:14:21.759 --> 00:14:24.039 essentially saying, look, he's a teenager living 00:14:24.039 --> 00:14:26.759 a crazy life. He's young. Don't read too much 00:14:26.759 --> 00:14:29.279 into it. We're glad he came to learn. OK, that 00:14:29.279 --> 00:14:31.600 adds some context. OK. But the legal issues were 00:14:31.600 --> 00:14:34.610 much harder to defend. Much harder. The legal 00:14:34.610 --> 00:14:36.970 issues were the point of no return for a lot 00:14:36.970 --> 00:14:40.309 of people. Right. The Miami DUI arrest in January 00:14:40.309 --> 00:14:43.330 2014, that was a turning point. That wasn't just 00:14:43.330 --> 00:14:46.250 kids being kids. That was dangerous. It was. 00:14:46.350 --> 00:14:49.490 He was drag racing a rented yellow Lamborghini 00:14:49.490 --> 00:14:51.649 in a residential area at four in the morning. 00:14:51.809 --> 00:14:54.559 And he failed the sobriety test. He did. The 00:14:54.559 --> 00:14:57.559 toxicology report came back with Xanax and marijuana 00:14:57.559 --> 00:15:01.299 in his system. He was arrested for DUI, driving 00:15:01.299 --> 00:15:03.820 with an expired license and resisting arrest 00:15:03.820 --> 00:15:07.419 without violence. And the mugshot? He was smiling. 00:15:07.539 --> 00:15:09.720 The mugshot where he's smiling, grinning in this 00:15:09.720 --> 00:15:12.580 orange jumpsuit became iconic in the worst way. 00:15:12.620 --> 00:15:14.360 It looked like he didn't care, like it was all 00:15:14.360 --> 00:15:16.539 a joke to him. And there was the egging incident. 00:15:16.779 --> 00:15:19.299 The egging of the neighbor's house in Calabasas. 00:15:19.299 --> 00:15:21.389 Again, that sounds like a prank. But it caused 00:15:21.389 --> 00:15:23.730 thousands of dollars in damage to this custom 00:15:23.730 --> 00:15:26.049 Venetian plaster. It was a felony. It was a felony 00:15:26.049 --> 00:15:28.769 vandalism charge. He ended up on two years probation, 00:15:29.169 --> 00:15:31.970 had to pay $80 ,000 in restitution, and attend 00:15:31.970 --> 00:15:35.649 12 weeks of anger management. He was a felon. 00:15:35.710 --> 00:15:37.490 And there was an assault charge in Canada too, 00:15:37.549 --> 00:15:40.149 right? Yes. Stemming from an incident with a 00:15:40.149 --> 00:15:42.250 limousine driver back in Stratford, it was just 00:15:42.250 --> 00:15:45.009 a constant barrage of legal trouble. It got so 00:15:45.009 --> 00:15:46.830 bad that there's a petition on the White House 00:15:46.830 --> 00:15:51.710 website to deport him. 270 ,000 people signed 00:15:51.710 --> 00:15:54.649 that petition. They wanted him sent back to Canada. 00:15:54.830 --> 00:15:58.149 Which is, that's a lot of anger. The Obama administration 00:15:58.149 --> 00:16:01.769 legally had to review it because it passed the 00:16:01.769 --> 00:16:04.509 signature threshold. They ultimately issued a 00:16:04.509 --> 00:16:06.710 statement ignoring it, saying they wouldn't comment 00:16:06.710 --> 00:16:09.850 on it. But think about that level of public animosity. 00:16:10.090 --> 00:16:12.750 A quarter of a million people took time out of 00:16:12.750 --> 00:16:14.809 their day to ask the president to kick a pop 00:16:14.809 --> 00:16:17.570 star out of the country. And then... The darkest 00:16:17.570 --> 00:16:20.529 moment of that period, the leaped videos. Yes. 00:16:20.830 --> 00:16:22.830 This was the one that felt like it could actually 00:16:22.830 --> 00:16:25.370 end his career for good. Videos surfaced from 00:16:25.370 --> 00:16:28.210 when he was 15. From his early days. In one, 00:16:28.429 --> 00:16:31.009 he's telling a racist joke with a punchline involving 00:16:31.009 --> 00:16:34.350 the N -word. In another, he's parodying his own 00:16:34.350 --> 00:16:37.529 song, One Less Lonely Girl, but singing, one 00:16:37.529 --> 00:16:39.950 less lonely N -word. That feels like something 00:16:39.950 --> 00:16:42.299 that would end a career instantly today. It nearly 00:16:42.299 --> 00:16:45.179 did then. It was indefensible. He apologized 00:16:45.179 --> 00:16:48.340 profusely afterwards, saying, facing my mistakes 00:16:48.340 --> 00:16:50.440 from years ago has been one of the hardest things 00:16:50.440 --> 00:16:52.379 I've ever dealt with. And he did a lot of outreach 00:16:52.379 --> 00:16:55.120 after that. He did. He had to do a lot of work 00:16:55.120 --> 00:16:57.279 to regain trust, particularly with his black 00:16:57.279 --> 00:16:59.779 fan base and his mentors like Usher, who had 00:16:59.779 --> 00:17:03.159 supported him. It was a huge, huge scandal. It 00:17:03.159 --> 00:17:05.819 was a period of total deconstruction. If we analyze 00:17:05.819 --> 00:17:08.920 this clinically, we are watching. a child star 00:17:08.920 --> 00:17:13.160 crumble under 2047 surveillance he was acting 00:17:13.160 --> 00:17:15.660 out yes but he was acting out while being the 00:17:15.660 --> 00:17:18.059 most googled person on the planet every mistake 00:17:18.059 --> 00:17:21.480 was amplified a million times over so by 2015 00:17:21.480 --> 00:17:24.660 the narrative is justin bieber is over he's a 00:17:24.660 --> 00:17:27.799 joke he's a troublemaker he's a liability a comeback 00:17:27.799 --> 00:17:31.230 seemed impossible and then He pulls off one of 00:17:31.230 --> 00:17:33.549 the greatest musical pivots in pop history. The 00:17:33.549 --> 00:17:36.109 Purpose Era. This is where the story shifts from 00:17:36.109 --> 00:17:38.769 tabloid gossip to artistic redemption. And the 00:17:38.769 --> 00:17:40.589 genius of it was that he didn't just say, I'm 00:17:40.589 --> 00:17:42.849 sorry in an interview. He changed the sound. 00:17:43.029 --> 00:17:45.250 He let the music do the talking. And he went 00:17:45.250 --> 00:17:47.809 in a completely unexpected direction. He went 00:17:47.809 --> 00:17:50.329 EDM. He collaborated with Skrillex and Diplo 00:17:50.329 --> 00:17:53.190 for their project Jack You on the song Where 00:17:53.190 --> 00:17:56.089 Art You Now. Which was a shocking choice at the 00:17:56.089 --> 00:17:58.809 time. Skrillex was the face of this really aggressive 00:17:58.809 --> 00:18:01.230 dubstep. Right. It seemed like a weird fit. But 00:18:01.230 --> 00:18:03.849 the song they created was... It was incredible. 00:18:04.170 --> 00:18:06.750 It won him his first Grammy. It did. And let's 00:18:06.750 --> 00:18:09.029 look at why that worked. It was sophisticated. 00:18:09.569 --> 00:18:12.930 It was moody. It was atmospheric. It had that 00:18:12.930 --> 00:18:15.670 distorted dolphin sound in the drop that became 00:18:15.670 --> 00:18:19.009 so iconic. It was adult. To force critics to 00:18:19.009 --> 00:18:21.390 listen to him, not as a teen idol, but as a vocalist, 00:18:21.450 --> 00:18:23.549 you couldn't deny that the song was a banger. 00:18:23.670 --> 00:18:25.710 You couldn't. It gave him credibility with an 00:18:25.710 --> 00:18:27.210 audience that had written him off. It was the 00:18:27.210 --> 00:18:29.430 perfect first move. And then the album Purpose 00:18:29.430 --> 00:18:33.220 drops in late 2015. What do you mean? Sorry, 00:18:33.319 --> 00:18:35.539 Love Yourself. A run of three straight number 00:18:35.539 --> 00:18:39.420 one hits. A trifecta of perfect pop songs. And 00:18:39.420 --> 00:18:40.980 they were all different. What do you mean? Had 00:18:40.980 --> 00:18:43.700 that tropical house vibe. Sorry. Was a dancehall 00:18:43.700 --> 00:18:46.480 inflected banger. And Love Yourself was just 00:18:46.480 --> 00:18:49.500 him and an acoustic guitar and a trumpet co -written 00:18:49.500 --> 00:18:51.779 with Ed Sheeran. It showed his range. He was 00:18:51.779 --> 00:18:55.279 the first male artist in a decade since Timberlake 00:18:55.279 --> 00:18:58.319 to have three number ones from a single album. 00:18:58.599 --> 00:19:01.440 He was back on top, but in a completely new way. 00:19:01.539 --> 00:19:03.640 He wasn't a teen sensation anymore. He was just 00:19:03.640 --> 00:19:05.839 a hit maker. There was that moment on the UK 00:19:05.839 --> 00:19:10.440 singles chart in January 2016. I remember seeing 00:19:10.440 --> 00:19:12.220 the screenshot of the chart. It's one of the 00:19:12.220 --> 00:19:14.660 most incredible chart feats of all time. He occupied 00:19:14.660 --> 00:19:16.960 the number one, number two, and number three 00:19:16.960 --> 00:19:21.180 spots simultaneously. Love yourself, sorry, and 00:19:21.180 --> 00:19:24.059 what do you mean? History. No artist had ever 00:19:24.059 --> 00:19:26.339 done that. Not the Beatles, not Elvis, not Madonna, 00:19:26.559 --> 00:19:29.940 just Bieber. He literally owned the podium. And 00:19:29.940 --> 00:19:31.920 lyrically, it was an apology tour, wasn't it? 00:19:31.940 --> 00:19:34.400 Sorry isn't a subtle title. It was a masterclass 00:19:34.400 --> 00:19:37.140 in public relations through art. He used the 00:19:37.140 --> 00:19:40.400 music to atone. How so? Songs like Mark My Words 00:19:40.400 --> 00:19:42.940 and Sorry were interpreted as messages to his 00:19:42.940 --> 00:19:45.400 ex, Selena Gomez, but they were also broad enough 00:19:45.400 --> 00:19:47.700 to be messages to the public. He was asking for 00:19:47.700 --> 00:19:49.819 forgiveness. Is it too late now to say sorry? 00:19:50.000 --> 00:19:52.559 Exactly. And because the music was undeniable, 00:19:52.579 --> 00:19:54.579 because the hooks were that good. The public 00:19:54.579 --> 00:19:57.339 gave it to him. They accepted the apology. He 00:19:57.339 --> 00:19:59.740 really changed the narrative from troubled kid 00:19:59.740 --> 00:20:03.299 to serious artist. And once he established that, 00:20:03.380 --> 00:20:06.039 he became the shapeshifter. He did. I feel like 00:20:06.039 --> 00:20:09.160 from 2017 onwards, he became the king of collaboration. 00:20:09.759 --> 00:20:12.299 He became a chameleon. He figured out that his 00:20:12.299 --> 00:20:15.980 voice, that breathy, agile tenor, could fit on 00:20:15.980 --> 00:20:18.119 literally anything. It acts as a kind of sonic 00:20:18.119 --> 00:20:21.500 glue. He can jump on any track in any genre and 00:20:21.500 --> 00:20:23.779 make it his own. The biggest example has to be 00:20:23.779 --> 00:20:27.440 Despacito. The Despacito remix in 2017 with Luis 00:20:27.440 --> 00:20:30.900 Fonsi and Daddy Yankee. This was a cultural seismic 00:20:30.900 --> 00:20:33.519 shift. The original was already a huge hit in 00:20:33.519 --> 00:20:35.710 the Spanish -speaking world. A monster hit. But 00:20:35.710 --> 00:20:38.049 Bieber jumping on the remix is what made it a 00:20:38.049 --> 00:20:40.210 global phenomenon. It was his first time singing 00:20:40.210 --> 00:20:42.450 in Spanish. And he sounded great. It tied the 00:20:42.450 --> 00:20:44.309 record for the longest running number one hit 00:20:44.309 --> 00:20:47.490 at 16 weeks. And honestly, it opened the door 00:20:47.490 --> 00:20:50.109 for the Latin explosion in the mainstream U .S. 00:20:50.109 --> 00:20:52.549 market that followed. You think so? I do. Bad 00:20:52.549 --> 00:20:54.710 Bunny, J Balvin, they all benefited from the 00:20:54.710 --> 00:20:57.109 door Despacito kicked down. It proved to American 00:20:57.109 --> 00:20:59.750 radio that a song primarily in Spanish could 00:20:59.750 --> 00:21:02.089 dominate the charts. And he had another number 00:21:02.089 --> 00:21:04.329 one right after that, right? He replaced himself. 00:21:04.470 --> 00:21:06.359 He did. He became the first artist to replace 00:21:06.359 --> 00:21:08.279 himself at number one with another number one 00:21:08.279 --> 00:21:11.440 hit. He knocked Despacito off the top with DJ 00:21:11.440 --> 00:21:14.920 Kelly's I'm the One. He was just on an unbelievable 00:21:14.920 --> 00:21:17.440 run. And then he turns around and does 10 ,000 00:21:17.440 --> 00:21:20.779 Hours with Dan Ploche. Pure country. A sweet 00:21:20.779 --> 00:21:23.700 romantic wedding ballad. And it dominates the 00:21:23.700 --> 00:21:25.779 country charts. He sounds completely at home 00:21:25.779 --> 00:21:27.720 on a track with banjos and acoustic guitars. 00:21:28.180 --> 00:21:31.779 Then... Changes in 2020 was R &B and Trap. A 00:21:31.779 --> 00:21:34.779 whole album dedicated to that sound. Very chill, 00:21:34.980 --> 00:21:37.680 very vibey. He called it R &B -ber. And then 00:21:37.680 --> 00:21:41.059 Stay with the Kid LAROI in 2021, which was this 00:21:41.059 --> 00:21:44.460 huge synth -pop, almost pop -punk energy hit. 00:21:44.599 --> 00:21:47.640 And that was his 100th career entry on the Hot 00:21:47.640 --> 00:21:49.980 100. 100 songs on the chart. That's longevity. 00:21:50.220 --> 00:21:53.359 He proved he isn't bound by genre. He is the 00:21:53.359 --> 00:21:56.319 genre. His voice is the through line. But while 00:21:56.319 --> 00:21:57.980 the career was hitting these incredible peaks 00:21:57.980 --> 00:22:00.420 again, The personal life was dealing with some 00:22:00.420 --> 00:22:02.400 heavy, heavy stuff. Yeah. We mentioned the drugs 00:22:02.400 --> 00:22:04.480 earlier, but the health struggles went deeper 00:22:04.480 --> 00:22:07.140 than that. They did. And for a long time, the 00:22:07.140 --> 00:22:09.539 public didn't know. He was getting a lot of criticism 00:22:09.539 --> 00:22:11.859 online around 2019. For his appearance, right? 00:22:12.240 --> 00:22:15.420 Yeah, for his skin, for looking tired. In 2020, 00:22:15.640 --> 00:22:17.839 he revealed he had been diagnosed with Lyme disease 00:22:17.839 --> 00:22:20.680 in a serious case of chronic mono. Which affects 00:22:20.680 --> 00:22:22.980 your energy, your skin, everything. Everything. 00:22:23.039 --> 00:22:25.559 So it explained a lot of the lethargy and the 00:22:25.559 --> 00:22:28.240 issues people had criticized him for. People 00:22:28.240 --> 00:22:29.640 were saying, oh, he looks like he's on meth, 00:22:29.799 --> 00:22:33.220 when in reality he was battling a chronic illness. 00:22:33.579 --> 00:22:36.640 And then in 2022, the Justice World Tour gets 00:22:36.640 --> 00:22:38.720 canceled because of Ramsey -Hunt syndrome. That 00:22:38.720 --> 00:22:40.599 was really scary. I remember seeing the video 00:22:40.599 --> 00:22:42.720 he posted. Yeah, it was shocking. Ramsey Hunt 00:22:42.720 --> 00:22:45.039 is a rare complication of shingles that affects 00:22:45.039 --> 00:22:47.839 the facial nerve near one of your ears. In the 00:22:47.839 --> 00:22:49.799 video, he couldn't blink on one side of his face. 00:22:49.819 --> 00:22:52.480 He couldn't smile. He had partial facial paralysis. 00:22:52.640 --> 00:22:55.000 As a singer, that has to be terrifying. Your 00:22:55.000 --> 00:22:57.619 face is your instrument. Exactly. It forced him 00:22:57.619 --> 00:23:00.559 to stop everything. It was a stark reminder of 00:23:00.559 --> 00:23:02.880 the physical toll this life had taken on him. 00:23:03.369 --> 00:23:05.730 He couldn't tour. He had to go home and rest 00:23:05.730 --> 00:23:08.390 and recover. He's also been incredibly open about 00:23:08.390 --> 00:23:11.640 his mental health, depression, anxiety. In his 00:23:11.640 --> 00:23:13.880 documentary series Seasons, he talked about it 00:23:13.880 --> 00:23:16.799 in detail. He talked about using heavy drugs, 00:23:16.920 --> 00:23:20.980 lean MDMA mushrooms as a coping mechanism in 00:23:20.980 --> 00:23:23.579 those early years of intense fame. As an escape. 00:23:23.759 --> 00:23:26.259 As a total escape. He said it got to a point 00:23:26.259 --> 00:23:28.259 where his security would come into his room at 00:23:28.259 --> 00:23:30.619 night to check his pulse to make sure he was 00:23:30.619 --> 00:23:33.500 still alive. Wow. It was that bad. And this is 00:23:33.500 --> 00:23:35.579 where his faith comes back into the picture heavily. 00:23:35.640 --> 00:23:38.160 It does. He shifted from the cultural Christianity 00:23:38.160 --> 00:23:42.039 of his mom into a very devout. personal evangelical 00:23:42.039 --> 00:23:44.839 Christianity. We've seen the photos of him being 00:23:44.839 --> 00:23:47.900 baptized in an NBA player's bathtub. Tyson Chandler's 00:23:47.900 --> 00:23:50.859 bathtub, I believe. Yes. It was associated with 00:23:50.859 --> 00:23:52.920 Pastor Carl Lentz and the Hillsong Church at 00:23:52.920 --> 00:23:54.920 the time. He really leaned into this publicly. 00:23:55.059 --> 00:23:58.480 He did. Leading worship at SoFi Stadium in 2021. 00:23:59.390 --> 00:24:02.230 releasing the Freedom Gospel EP. He credits God 00:24:02.230 --> 00:24:04.049 and his wife for saving his life, essentially. 00:24:04.289 --> 00:24:06.950 He frames his survival as a miracle of faith. 00:24:07.130 --> 00:24:08.950 Speaking of his wife, we have to talk about the 00:24:08.950 --> 00:24:11.250 relationships. Because for a long time, it was 00:24:11.250 --> 00:24:14.829 the Jelena era. Oh, Jelena. Selena Gomez. On 00:24:14.829 --> 00:24:17.670 and off from 2010 to 2018. That relationship 00:24:17.670 --> 00:24:21.490 defined a decade of pop culture gossip. It was 00:24:21.490 --> 00:24:23.829 the Romeo and Juliet of the Instagram era. It 00:24:23.829 --> 00:24:26.849 really was. The fans were so deeply entrenched 00:24:26.849 --> 00:24:28.690 in sides. You were either Team Justin or Team 00:24:28.690 --> 00:24:31.690 Selena. It was toxic. It was passionate. And 00:24:31.690 --> 00:24:33.910 it was constant. Every song was about the other 00:24:33.910 --> 00:24:36.890 person. Every public appearance was scrutinized. 00:24:37.009 --> 00:24:39.730 But then, almost immediately after that final 00:24:39.730 --> 00:24:42.720 break in 2018. He marries Haley Baldwin. And 00:24:42.720 --> 00:24:44.779 it was a whirlwind. It shocked a lot of people. 00:24:44.839 --> 00:24:46.940 They had dated briefly before, years earlier. 00:24:47.160 --> 00:24:50.599 Right. But they reconciled in June 2018 and were 00:24:50.599 --> 00:24:52.599 married in a courthouse by September of that 00:24:52.599 --> 00:24:55.420 same year. So fast. So fast. They didn't have 00:24:55.420 --> 00:24:58.039 the big wedding ceremony in South Carolina until 00:24:58.039 --> 00:25:00.539 a year later. It was a very decisive move. It 00:25:00.539 --> 00:25:02.500 seemed to bring him a stability he never had 00:25:02.500 --> 00:25:04.859 before. She seemed to ground him. That's certainly 00:25:04.859 --> 00:25:06.799 the narrative they've presented, and it seems 00:25:06.799 --> 00:25:08.740 to be true. He talks about her constantly as 00:25:08.740 --> 00:25:11.019 his rock. And now, looking at where we are today 00:25:11.019 --> 00:25:13.960 in 2026, the family picture has changed again. 00:25:14.079 --> 00:25:17.279 Right. On August 23, 2024, the birth of their 00:25:17.279 --> 00:25:20.019 son, Jack Blues Bieber. I love the name. Jack 00:25:20.019 --> 00:25:22.569 Blues. It sounds like a musician's kid. It's 00:25:22.569 --> 00:25:25.230 a great name, and it signaled a major shift. 00:25:25.430 --> 00:25:28.630 He's a father now. That changes the stakes. It 00:25:28.630 --> 00:25:31.210 changes why you work. It changes your tolerance 00:25:31.210 --> 00:25:33.890 for the nonsense of the industry. There was also 00:25:33.890 --> 00:25:36.009 that interesting detail about his citizenship 00:25:36.009 --> 00:25:38.569 around the time he got married. He's always been 00:25:38.569 --> 00:25:41.509 so proud to be Canadian. Very proud. He famously 00:25:41.509 --> 00:25:44.430 called Canada the best country in the world, 00:25:44.569 --> 00:25:47.410 specifically citing the health care system during 00:25:47.410 --> 00:25:50.539 one of his own health scares. But... He applied 00:25:50.539 --> 00:25:53.380 for dual citizenship. Reports came out that he 00:25:53.380 --> 00:25:56.099 was applying for U .S. citizenship. It's a practical 00:25:56.099 --> 00:25:58.579 move, really. It shows that his roots are now 00:25:58.579 --> 00:26:01.220 firmly planted in the U .S., his life is here, 00:26:01.339 --> 00:26:03.980 his family is here, even if his heart is still 00:26:03.980 --> 00:26:06.339 partly in Stratford. Okay, let's talk business. 00:26:06.579 --> 00:26:09.480 Yeah. Because Bieber is a brand as much as a 00:26:09.480 --> 00:26:13.660 person, and he is printed to be incredibly savvy. 00:26:13.900 --> 00:26:16.480 A massive, multifaceted brand. It started with 00:26:16.480 --> 00:26:18.259 the fragrances, which is a classic celebrity 00:26:18.259 --> 00:26:21.109 move. Someday... Broke sales records at Macy's. 00:26:21.190 --> 00:26:23.049 Right. That's like the 101 of Celebrity Enterprise. 00:26:23.430 --> 00:26:25.589 But then you have Drew House. His fashion line. 00:26:25.670 --> 00:26:28.769 The fashion line. The smiley face logo where 00:26:28.769 --> 00:26:31.829 the mouth is the word Drew. The hotel slippers 00:26:31.829 --> 00:26:34.710 aesthetic. The oversized corduroy. It sells out 00:26:34.710 --> 00:26:37.009 instantly. Every drop. And it's distinctively 00:26:37.009 --> 00:26:40.769 him. It captures that cozy, rich, unbothered 00:26:40.769 --> 00:26:43.329 vibe perfectly. It's not just merch with his 00:26:43.329 --> 00:26:45.630 face on it. It's a real brand with a point of 00:26:45.630 --> 00:26:48.880 view. And the brand deals. Calvin Klein. We all 00:26:48.880 --> 00:26:51.000 remember the bulge controversy from those ads. 00:26:51.140 --> 00:26:53.700 We do, but it put him on billboards everywhere 00:26:53.700 --> 00:26:58.180 and solidified that transition to an adult image. 00:26:58.500 --> 00:27:01.500 Vespa. He designed a scooter. A white monochrome 00:27:01.500 --> 00:27:03.960 Vespa. Which is such a random, cool collaboration. 00:27:04.279 --> 00:27:06.480 But the one that I think was the most genius, 00:27:06.559 --> 00:27:08.740 especially from a branding perspective, was Tim 00:27:08.740 --> 00:27:11.059 Hortons. The Tim Beaks. The Tim Beak. It sounds 00:27:11.059 --> 00:27:12.759 like a joke, but it was brilliant. It was him 00:27:12.759 --> 00:27:15.180 leaning into his Canadian identity. And it worked. 00:27:15.359 --> 00:27:17.680 It did more than work. That collaboration raised 00:27:17.680 --> 00:27:20.380 the company's sales by 10 .3 % in one quarter. 00:27:20.539 --> 00:27:23.140 He literally moved the needle for a national 00:27:23.140 --> 00:27:26.220 coffee chain in Canada. That is immense economic 00:27:26.220 --> 00:27:28.740 power. But the biggest business move, the one 00:27:28.740 --> 00:27:31.039 that set him up for life, happened in January 00:27:31.039 --> 00:27:34.779 2023. The catalog sale. This was the mic drop 00:27:34.779 --> 00:27:37.339 moment for Bieber the businessman. He sold his 00:27:37.339 --> 00:27:39.519 music publishing rights and his master recording 00:27:39.519 --> 00:27:43.460 catalog shares to Hypnosis Songs Capital. For 00:27:43.460 --> 00:27:46.519 over $200 million. And this is significant because 00:27:46.519 --> 00:27:50.480 he was so young. He was 28. Exactly. Usually 00:27:50.480 --> 00:27:53.440 you see legacy artists like Bob Dylan or Springsteen 00:27:53.440 --> 00:27:56.039 selling their catalogs in their 70s as part of 00:27:56.039 --> 00:27:57.980 estate planning. They want to cash out for their 00:27:57.980 --> 00:28:01.339 kids. Bieber cashed out in his 20s. Why do that? 00:28:01.460 --> 00:28:03.920 Why sell your life's work when you potentially 00:28:03.920 --> 00:28:06.900 have 50 years of life and earning left? Financial 00:28:06.900 --> 00:28:09.579 security for generations. He took the lump sum, 00:28:09.759 --> 00:28:11.799 he saw the market was hot, and he cashed in his 00:28:11.799 --> 00:28:14.400 chips. It creates a safety net that allows him 00:28:14.400 --> 00:28:17.119 to do exactly what he's doing now. Which is not 00:28:17.119 --> 00:28:20.440 much publicly. Taking hiatuses, focusing on family, 00:28:20.619 --> 00:28:23.819 releasing music only when he wants to. He doesn't 00:28:23.819 --> 00:28:26.059 have to tour to pay the bills anymore. He has 00:28:26.059 --> 00:28:28.359 de -risked his future completely. He's playing 00:28:28.359 --> 00:28:30.420 with house money for the rest of his life. Which 00:28:30.420 --> 00:28:34.460 brings us to the recent era, 2025 and 2026. It's 00:28:34.460 --> 00:28:36.940 been a weirdly active time for someone technically 00:28:36.940 --> 00:28:41.319 on hiatus. In April 2025, NetEase Cloud Music 00:28:41.319 --> 00:28:43.619 in China announced who's their most streamed 00:28:43.619 --> 00:28:46.240 Euro -American artist ever. Billions of streams. 00:28:46.500 --> 00:28:48.799 We forget how huge he is in Asia. It's a massive 00:28:48.799 --> 00:28:51.619 market for him. And then the double album drop 00:28:51.619 --> 00:28:54.480 that happened last year out of nowhere. Swag 00:28:54.480 --> 00:28:57.579 released July 10th, 2025. Can we pause on the 00:28:57.579 --> 00:29:03.589 title? Yeah. Swag in 2025. It feels... It feels 00:29:03.589 --> 00:29:05.970 like a callback, doesn't it? A nod to that 2013 00:29:05.970 --> 00:29:09.009 bizzle vocabulary. Maybe it's ironic, maybe it's 00:29:09.009 --> 00:29:10.930 nostalgic, maybe he's reclaiming it. It debuted 00:29:10.930 --> 00:29:13.230 at number two, so people were clearly interested. 00:29:13.470 --> 00:29:15.569 Very interested. And then less than two months 00:29:15.569 --> 00:29:19.170 later, September 5th, 2025, he drops Swag 2. 00:29:19.450 --> 00:29:21.789 He just dumped a massive amount of music on the 00:29:21.789 --> 00:29:24.009 world with very little promotion. And since then, 00:29:24.210 --> 00:29:26.369 Quiet, he's effectively back on hiatus, focusing 00:29:26.369 --> 00:29:28.450 on Jack, Blues, and Hailey. He did his artistic 00:29:28.450 --> 00:29:30.670 drop and retreated. So what does this all mean? 00:29:30.809 --> 00:29:32.779 We've walked through the timeline. Accidental 00:29:32.779 --> 00:29:35.140 discovery, global mania, public meltdown, artistic 00:29:35.140 --> 00:29:37.819 redemption, massive business buyout, and now 00:29:37.819 --> 00:29:40.240 fatherhood. When you lay it all out like that, 00:29:40.359 --> 00:29:43.539 it's a lifetime of experiences packed into, what, 00:29:43.579 --> 00:29:46.140 17 years. It's unbelievable. When you look at 00:29:46.140 --> 00:29:48.519 the aggregate, Justin Bieber is the blueprint. 00:29:49.000 --> 00:29:52.740 He bridged the gap between the old music industry 00:29:52.740 --> 00:29:56.299 and the new internet celebrity economy. He was 00:29:56.299 --> 00:29:59.339 the first YouTuber to conquer the Grammys. He 00:29:59.339 --> 00:30:01.119 showed the world what happens when you remove 00:30:01.119 --> 00:30:03.420 the gatekeepers. He survived the most intense 00:30:03.420 --> 00:30:05.579 scrutiny a child has ever faced in the digital 00:30:05.579 --> 00:30:07.960 age. He did. And he came out the other side with 00:30:07.960 --> 00:30:10.720 35 Guinness World Records and a $200 million 00:30:10.720 --> 00:30:14.519 check for his catalog. He survived. That's the 00:30:14.519 --> 00:30:16.660 headline. He didn't become a cautionary tale. 00:30:17.200 --> 00:30:19.980 He became the prototype. Here's the question 00:30:19.980 --> 00:30:21.660 I want to leave you with, and something to chew 00:30:21.660 --> 00:30:24.440 on. Justin Bieber spent his entire adolescence 00:30:24.440 --> 00:30:26.700 and young adulthood as the most Googled person 00:30:26.700 --> 00:30:29.299 on the planet. Right. He has achieved financial 00:30:29.299 --> 00:30:32.079 immortality. He is 31. He has a wife and a young 00:30:32.079 --> 00:30:35.059 son. He has nothing left to prove. Exactly. So 00:30:35.059 --> 00:30:37.880 will he retreat? Will he take the money and the 00:30:37.880 --> 00:30:40.539 family and disappear into a quiet life, maybe 00:30:40.539 --> 00:30:42.740 popping up every five years with an album? The 00:30:42.740 --> 00:30:46.200 Timberlake model. Or is this swag era? The beginning 00:30:46.200 --> 00:30:49.480 of a lifelong legacy phase. Are we looking at 00:30:49.480 --> 00:30:52.319 the next Elton John or Rolling Stones? Someone 00:30:52.319 --> 00:30:55.319 who will be touring stadiums in their 70s because 00:30:55.319 --> 00:30:58.460 they just love it? It's the $200 million question. 00:30:58.680 --> 00:31:01.099 Only he knows if he still has the hunger for 00:31:01.099 --> 00:31:03.619 it. If he still needs that validation from the 00:31:03.619 --> 00:31:06.900 crowd. But if history tells us anything, counting 00:31:06.900 --> 00:31:09.660 Justin Bieber out is usually a mistake. I want 00:31:09.660 --> 00:31:12.119 to encourage you to do something today. Go back 00:31:12.119 --> 00:31:15.460 and listen to the album Purpose. Listen to it 00:31:15.460 --> 00:31:17.619 not as a pop album, but as the turning point 00:31:17.619 --> 00:31:20.140 of a life we've just discussed. It hits different 00:31:20.140 --> 00:31:21.920 now that we know the whole story that came before 00:31:21.920 --> 00:31:23.839 and after. It really does. It's the sound of 00:31:23.839 --> 00:31:25.839 someone fighting for their career and their sanity. 00:31:26.059 --> 00:31:28.019 Thanks for diving deep with us. We'll see you 00:31:28.019 --> 00:31:28.380 next time.