Trivia / Justin Bieber

• Banned in China: Due to his reckless behavior when visiting the Great Wall in 2013 and his arrests for DUIs. Also once banned in Argentina in 2013.
• Career Resurrection: After spending most of 2013 and 2014 as the biggest punchline in pop music, and failing to produce any major hit singles, he reappeared in 2015 with two top-10 hits: "Where Are U Now" (with Skrillex and Diplo; which won Bieber his first Grammy) and his first #1 "What Do You Mean?" His album Purpose was a smash hit, producing two more #1 hits with "Sorry" and "Love Yourself" (the two biggest hits of 2016). The album did well enough to reach number 1 on its first week even though One Direction released an album on the same date as Purpose.
• Cash-Cow Franchise: Not only are there two movies, but there are also Bieber teddy bears, Bieber dolls (that sing!), Bieber jewellery, Bieber kits, Bieber bedsheets... you name it. Most absurdly, a lock of his hair was once sold for a ridiculous price of forty thousand dollars.
• Channel Hop: He was transferred from Island Records to Def Jam Recordings when The Island Def Jam Music Group folded in 2014.
• Fandom Life Cycle: Came in reach of being a household name at his peak, but then went back to merely having a modest sized fandom of particularly dedicated fans and otherwise being a gigantic target of mockery, before bouncing back with Purpose.
• Similarly Named Works: "Somebody to Love" is also the name of songs by Queen, Jefferson Airplane, and OneRepublic, among others.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Bieber's manager, Scooter Braun, first discovered Bieber on accident while searching for videos of a different singer. When he tracked Justin down and approached his mother about representing Justin, she nearly refused on the grounds that Braun is Jewish, and the Biebers were Christian. It took church elders to convince her to go with Braun.
  • Justin actually began his life as an ardent sports player and fan and spent much of his life playing hockey. His friends and family actually thought he'd go on to be a professional hockey player when he grew up.
  • When they briefly got back together in 2017, rumors have circulated that him and Selena Gomez would be planning a collaboration. With their break up (and NOT an amicable one as that based on Selena's songs released during this period) this seem to be dead in the water.

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