The fact that all too early fame can completely derail young people can be clearly seen in the life stories of child prodigies such as Robbie Williams (50), Britney Spears (42) and Macaulay Culkin (43). Justin Bieber (30), who became a global star overnight at the age of 13, also seemed unclear for many years as to whether he would still be able to turn things around or whether his career would be ruined in the drug haze. The pop singer owes the fact that he is largely out of the danger zone today to love and the good Lord.
Of all the child star careers, Justin Bieber’s stands out. In contrast to his comrades in fate, he was not pushed into the limelight by a major label or film studio right from the start, but instead started his career independently from his living room sofa at home. Before the Canadian choir boy from the province of Ontario had even set foot in a record studio, he was already a big internet star.
The reason for this were amateur videos that his mother Patricia Mallette (48) uploaded from 2007 onwards to the then new video portal YouTube of her unmistakably musically gifted son. In the shaky clips, the boy with a voice as clear as a bell belted out cover versions of his favorite artists on the sofa or at local talent competitions – and was so cute to look at that he quickly gained a considerable following of mostly female fans.
When the number of views on these home videos reached six-figure heights, US music manager Scooter Braun (42) also became aware of the boy wonder from the Canadian province of Ontario in 2008. Inspired by the then 14-year-old’s voice and charisma, he spontaneously contacted Justin’s surprised mother and invited her son to test recordings in Atlanta. From then on, the talented teenager’s career skyrocketed.
Braun’s producer colleague Usher (45) took Bieber under his influential wing and got him a record deal with the Islands Records label. Shortly after releasing an EP called “My World” in November 2009, the boy with the funny name had already grown into such a phenomenon that he was allowed to sing Christmas carols to Barack and Michelle Obama at the White House. With his debut album “My World 2.0” he immediately stormed to number one on the American Billboard charts in March 2010 and finally got a global Bieber hype rolling, which was impressively reflected not least in the hairstyle fashion of that time. In 2011, his concert film “Never Say Never” was released in cinemas, which was only replaced last year by “Taylor Swift: The Eras” as the most successful concert film of all time.
This period marked the first phase of Bieber’s legendary on-off relationship with the singer and actress Selena Gomez (31), which was to extend until 2018. Especially in the beginning, the cute couple was considered the epitome of the American teenage dream and attracted a lot of media attention. After the first temporary break-up of the relationship at the end of 2012, the now 18-year-old hardly missed an opportunity to say goodbye to his role as a scandal-free model pop star.
In January 2013, images appeared on the Internet that appeared to show him consuming marijuana. During his extensive “Believe” tour, which spanned the entire year, he dismantled hotel rooms and was spotted visiting brothels several times. The following year, Bieber continued to have a lot of fun, being arrested several times for dangerous driving and assault and found guilty of vandalism after throwing eggs at his neighbor’s house in California. During a raid on his villa, drugs were confiscated and some of his friends who were present were arrested.
In an emotional Instagram post in 2019, the former child star looked back on this phase of his life with horror. There he summed up: “At 20, I made every bad decision you can imagine, and I went from being one of the most loved and admired people to the most reviled, most condemned and most hated person in the world. I started at 19, pretty tough “I started taking drugs and abused all my relationships. I became resentful and disrespectful of women and angry. I distanced myself from everyone who loved me and I hid behind the shell of the person I had become.”
His life only took a different direction after he married the model Hailey Baldwin (27) in October 2018 – after a final relationship crash with Selena Gomez – and drastically reduced his party activities. Bieber also took things a little easier musically – between 2015 and 2020 he didn’t release a single regular studio album. In order to supplement his pocket money, he sold the music rights to his entire song catalog to an investment fund in January 2023 for $200 million.
In addition to his surprisingly solid marriage to the daughter of actor Stephen Baldwin (57), his newly discovered faith has also paved the way for the singer to find the right path. In an interview a few years ago he confessed: “I only survived because God is merciful. Jesus found me in the dirt and pulled me out.” He also regularly discusses the strength he draws from his faith on his Instagram channel, posts prayers or reports on appearances in churches. One of the most striking of his now around 60 tattoos is the lettering “SON OF GOD”, which is clearly legible in huge letters on his toned front.
It seems that the mother of the sensible mega-star no longer has to worry about him on his 30th birthday. The boy is out of the woods.
