Justin Bieber (born March 1, 1994, London, Ontario, Canada) is a Canadian singer and teen idol whose fresh-faced good looks and appealing pop songs sparked a global craze beginning in 2009.
Bieber was raised by a single mother in Stratford, Ontario, Canada, and as a child he learned to play the drums, the piano, the guitar, and the trumpet. In 2007 he participated in a local singing competition, placing second, and his mother posted a video of his performance on the Web site YouTube for friends and family who were unable to attend. She later uploaded other homemade videos, in which Bieber sang popular rhythm-and-blues (R&B) songs and occasionally accompanied himself on acoustic guitar, and they soon attracted attention beyond their originally intended audience. Among those who saw Bieber’s videos was Scott (“Scooter”) Braun, a music promoter and talent agent, who invited the 13-year-old Bieber to record demos at a studio in Atlanta. While there, Bieber happened to encounter R&B singer Usher and arranged an informal audition with him. Impressed by Bieber’s natural confidence and vocal talent, Usher helped sign him to a recording contract in late 2008.
In May 2009 Bieber unveiled his first single, the buoyant puppy-love song “One Time,” and six months later he released the seven-track EP My World, composed mainly of glossy R&B-influenced pop. By this time his audience had dramatically expanded to include countless preadolescent girls who considered him a heartthrob, and the recording sold more than one million copies. He replicated the feat with the full-length album My World 2.0 (2010), which debuted at number one on the Billboard album chart. Its lead single, the yearningly heartfelt “Baby”—featuring a guest appearance from rapper Ludacris—reached the top five of Billboard’s singles chart, and several other tracks landed in the Top 40. The official video for “Baby” also became the first to amass more than 500 million views on YouTube. Bieber’s enormous popularity was boosted by his allegiance to social media such as Twitter and his frequent television appearances.
Later in 2010 Bieber released the album My Worlds Acoustic, featuring stripped-down versions of his songs, and published an autobiographical book, Justin Bieber: First Step 2 Forever: My Story. Justin Bieber: Never Say Never, a documentary film interspersed with 3-D concert footage, opened the following year. Bieber maintained his visibility with the albums Never Say Never: The Remixes (2011), a companion to the film, and the Christmas-themed Under the Mistletoe (2011), both of which hit number one in the United States and Canada. On the similarly successful Believe (2012) and Believe Acoustic (2013), Bieber introduced a more mature sound, with the hit single “Boyfriend” recalling the suave R&B of Justin Timberlake.
As Bieber entered adulthood, his celebrity often overshadowed his music. His romantic relationships (with Selena Gomez, among others) and his occasional skirmishes with the law brought him considerable tabloid attention. His 2015 album Purpose found an audience beyond his youthful fan base, with each of its first three singles reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Also in 2015, Bieber contributed vocals to Jack Ü’s Grammy Award-winning electro-pop hit “Where Are Ü Now.” Collaborations with other musicians followed, resulting in several popular songs. In 2018 Bieber married model Hailey Baldwin, and their relationship inspired Changes (2020). His sixth studio album, Justice, was released in 2021.
Carly Rae Jepsen (born November 21, 1985, Mission, British Columbia, Canada) is a Canadian singer, songwriter, and guitarist best known for the global pop phenomenon “Call Me Maybe,” which became the biggest-selling song in the world in 2012 and the best-selling domestic Canadian single in history.
A self-professed “musical-theatre nerd,” Jepsen starred in productions of Annie, The Wiz, and Grease as a schoolgirl. She received her first guitar at age 17 before attending the Canadian College of Performing Arts in Victoria, where she planned on becoming a music teacher until she caught the songwriting bug. She was working as a waitress, busking, and performing in local pubs when her high school drama teacher encouraged her to audition for the reality television show Canadian Idol. Jepsen finished that singing competition in third place, and a subsequent tour with other performers from the show helped lead to her signing a recording contract.
Jepsen released two singles, a cover of John Denver’s “Sunshine on My Shoulders” and her forthcoming album’s title track, before releasing her Tug of War album in September 2008. “Tug of War” was named Song of the Year at the 2010 Canadian Radio Music Awards. Jepsen was also nominated for New Artist of the Year and Songwriter of the Year at the Juno Awards.
She began recording material for her next record in 2011 and, unlike the more R&B, folk- and country-based pop material on her debut, the new songs went in a more upbeat, dance-pop direction. Most famously, a folk tune written by Jepsen and her guitarist, Tavish Crowe, while on tour served as the framework for the smash hit single “Call Me Maybe,” which was later rewritten and “pop-ified.” “Call Me Maybe” was released in Canada in September 2011 and began to steadily climb the Canadian singles chart that fall. In January 2012, after Canadian pop star Justin Bieber raved about it on Twitter and uploaded a video to YouTube of him lip-synching the song with then-girlfriend Selena Gomez, the song began to gain international attention. In early February, Jepsen signed a deal with Bieber’s manager, whose record company had global distribution through Interscope. Six songs for a prospective album had already been completed by then, and they were released on an EP titled Curiosity in February 2012.
“Call Me Maybe” soon went viral on YouTube and proceeded to top the charts in 37 countries. On June 21, 2012, the song was certified octuple-platinum for selling 640,000 copies in Canada, making it the best-selling domestic Canadian single in history. It went on to become the world’s top-selling song of 2012, with more than 12.5 million copies sold worldwide, and was later nominated for two Grammy Awards.
A 12-track dance-pop album titled Kiss, which included “Call Me Maybe” and the title cut from Curiosity, was released in September 2012. Kiss won 2013 Juno Awards for Album of the Year and Pop Album of the Year. It was certified gold in Canada, Brazil, Colombia, Indonesia, and Poland and reached platinum status in Japan and quadruple-platinum in the Philippines. Her follow-up album, E•MO•TION (2015), debuted at No. 8 on the Japanese and Canadian sales charts and at No. 16 in the US but was a commercial disappointment despite being a critical darling and ranking among the best albums of the year by a number of media outlets. She later released Dedicated (2019), her fourth studio album, and Dedicated Side B (2020), a collection of outtakes.
In February 2014 Jepsen made her Broadway debut at New York City’s Broadway Theatre, portraying the title role in the Tony Award-winning musical Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella. In January 2016 she played Frenchy in Grease Live, a live television presentation of the musical Grease.
The original version of this entry was published by The Canadian Encyclopedia.
Leave a Reply