OMG! JUSTIN!: My time among the Beliebers
By Shawna Richer
He is the biggest pop star on the planet right now, a sweet-faced Canadian teen heartthrob with multi-platinum albums – and legions of hysterically screaming fans. What is it about Justin Bieber that attracts such devotion? Is he a flash in the pan or the real deal? Can he make the treacherous transition from teen idol to adult performer?
Toronto Star feature writer Shawna Richer followed the Believe tour to 11 cities across North America, to help answer these questions. She shared line-ups and concert details with the Beliebers, going deep inside their world, and what she found was surprising, inspiring and uplifting in all the ways music itself is meant to be.
Rollicking and insightful, OMG!JUSTIN! is a fascinating exploration of stardom in the 21st century.
When you subscribe to Star Dispatches, you'll receive new eRead titles, for only $1/week. That's only $1 per week, with a minimum subscription period of 1 month, to explore news and features from a new and unique perspective. Single copies of Star Dispatches eReads can be purchased for $2.99 at starstore.ca or itunes.ca/stardispatches
By Shawna Richer
He is the biggest pop star on the planet right now, a sweet-faced Canadian teen heartthrob with multi-platinum albums – and legions of hysterically screaming fans. What is it about Justin Bieber that attracts such devotion? Is he a flash in the pan or the real deal? Can he make the treacherous transition from teen idol to adult performer?
Toronto Star feature writer Shawna Richer followed the Believe tour to 11 cities across North America, to help answer these questions. She shared line-ups and concert details with the Beliebers, going deep inside their world, and what she found was surprising, inspiring and uplifting in all the ways music itself is meant to be.
Rollicking and insightful, OMG!JUSTIN! is a fascinating exploration of stardom in the 21st century.
When you subscribe to Star Dispatches, you'll receive new eRead titles, for only $1/week. That's only $1 per week, with a minimum subscription period of 1 month, to explore news and features from a new and unique perspective. Single copies of Star Dispatches eReads can be purchased for $2.99 at starstore.ca or itunes.ca/stardispatches
Excerpt:
OMG! JUSTIN!: My time among the Beliebers
Air Canada Centre, Toronto, Aug. 21, 2010 The first time I saw Justin Bieber perform I didn’t give much thought to ever seeing him again.
The concert was a birthday present for my niece Megan, who had recently turned 10. Tickets for Bieber’s My World tour had sold out in minutes many months earlier, and I hadn’t been paying attention to the mop-topped kid from Stratford, Ont. But Megan had, and her immense love for Bieber and his music prompted me to search for a pair on the ticket reseller Stubhub.com, where the market sets the price. (As in, really popular equals really expen- sive. The seats cost $400 for the pair and were in the nosebleeds of the Air Canada Centre. Once in a pre teen opportunity, I thought. Justin Bieber won’t be as big a deal this time next year.) I remember two things about the night. That I’d never seen Me- gan so entranced, and I’d never seen a teenage boy make so many girls scream so bloody loud.
I’ve seen young and not-so-young women scream for NHL star Sidney Crosby and NFL quarterback Tom Brady outside hotels, arenas and stadiums, but that sounds like a whisper in a cornfield by comparison. Jet engines at close range don’t make as much noise as 16,000 girls at a Justin Bieber concert. If I was only slightly prepared for the hysteria, I wasn’t at all for the sense that it felt like something bigger, something slightly more profound. The kid had a pop-perfect voice that still sounded pubescent and angelic, and he was totally adorable. That hair! But there was something else going on. I thought about it for a few days and let it go, but not before downloading My World 2.0.
Then in December 2011, I got a pair of tickets — the old fash- ioned way on Ticketmaster at face value — for Bieber’s surprise Massey Hall Christmas show. Naturally, Megan came along. And that’s when I became really intrigued. Bieber was bigger than ever. The crowd wasn’t exactly what I expected, or even like the ACC au- dience 16 months earlier. There were older women there, and they weren’t all parents and guardians. They were in their early- and mid-20s, some with boyfriends who seemed to know the words.
Justin Bieber’s fan base wasn’t as universally young as I’d imag- ined, and the acoustic show that night showcased his maturing voice, when you could hear it. The screams were relentless and at one point Bieber asked folks to be quiet. I made a mental note that if I ever had the chance to write about the phenomenon I would.
Before this assignment I had only seen two artists more than three times: Bruce Springsteen (14) and John Mayer (five), amassed over many years going back to 1984.
In nine weeks I saw Justin Bieber perform 11 times, not count- ing his halftime performance at the Grey Cup, a binge so glutton- ous fans couldn’t believe my luck and colleagues couldn’t believe it, period.
I started this journey in Glendale, Ariz., where the Believe tour opened on Sept. 29, 2012, and ended on Dec. 1, when he played Toronto’s Rogers Centre.
I flew 18,710 kilometres across North America to see Justin Bieber. I lived on Twitter and YouTube. I made friends with Beli- ebers and listened to a lot of Justin Bieber songs. I started listening to piles of pop music in general, and rediscovered my appreciation for Michael Jackson, Bieber’s idol and pre-show soundtrack.
Justin was on my mind so much he started appearing in my dreams, and while scrambling for a new computer password at work one day I used “justinbieber” figuring I wouldn’t forget it. It’s quite possible I spent more time thinking about Justin Bieber than Justin Bieber thinks about himself.
I met some amazing kids with a big love for Justin and for life.
Beliebers
Some were facing heartbreaking health issues — eating disorders, cutting, depression and cerebral palsy — and said their love for him and his for them, returned across Twitter, in song and oc- casionally meetings, has helped them recover and thrive. I discov- ered a significant number of older fans on the semi down-low, and that I’m a more artful dodger of charging packs of teenage girls than I would have guessed.
In Cameron Crowe’s delightful film Almost Famous, the story of a rising rock-and-roll band and the teenage journalist assigned by Rolling Stone magazine to follow them for a cover story, Patrick Fugit, who plays the earnest William Miller, is first shunned then embraced by members of the fictional band Stillwater. They invite him on the bus, the plane, give him backstage and hotel access, but they never really give him the interview he needs.
Nothing like that happened to me, except the last part.
With no access to Bieber or his camp, no passes from the record company, I became reacquainted with Stubhub. I packed some earplugs and channelled my inner teenage girl.
It was a long, occasionally strange journey, surprising and in- spirational.
It would be a mistake not to take Justin Bieber seriously as an artist and entertainer, and that may be the most controversial statement contained herein.
But the greatest truth is this: The most important character in a story about Justin Bieber isn’t Justin Bieber at all. The most impor- tant character in a story about Justin Bieber is the fan. Actually, let me rephrase that. It’s the Beliebers.
And I think he would agree.
The concert was a birthday present for my niece Megan, who had recently turned 10. Tickets for Bieber’s My World tour had sold out in minutes many months earlier, and I hadn’t been paying attention to the mop-topped kid from Stratford, Ont. But Megan had, and her immense love for Bieber and his music prompted me to search for a pair on the ticket reseller Stubhub.com, where the market sets the price. (As in, really popular equals really expen- sive. The seats cost $400 for the pair and were in the nosebleeds of the Air Canada Centre. Once in a pre teen opportunity, I thought. Justin Bieber won’t be as big a deal this time next year.) I remember two things about the night. That I’d never seen Me- gan so entranced, and I’d never seen a teenage boy make so many girls scream so bloody loud.
I’ve seen young and not-so-young women scream for NHL star Sidney Crosby and NFL quarterback Tom Brady outside hotels, arenas and stadiums, but that sounds like a whisper in a cornfield by comparison. Jet engines at close range don’t make as much noise as 16,000 girls at a Justin Bieber concert. If I was only slightly prepared for the hysteria, I wasn’t at all for the sense that it felt like something bigger, something slightly more profound. The kid had a pop-perfect voice that still sounded pubescent and angelic, and he was totally adorable. That hair! But there was something else going on. I thought about it for a few days and let it go, but not before downloading My World 2.0.
Then in December 2011, I got a pair of tickets — the old fash- ioned way on Ticketmaster at face value — for Bieber’s surprise Massey Hall Christmas show. Naturally, Megan came along. And that’s when I became really intrigued. Bieber was bigger than ever. The crowd wasn’t exactly what I expected, or even like the ACC au- dience 16 months earlier. There were older women there, and they weren’t all parents and guardians. They were in their early- and mid-20s, some with boyfriends who seemed to know the words.
Justin Bieber’s fan base wasn’t as universally young as I’d imag- ined, and the acoustic show that night showcased his maturing voice, when you could hear it. The screams were relentless and at one point Bieber asked folks to be quiet. I made a mental note that if I ever had the chance to write about the phenomenon I would.
Before this assignment I had only seen two artists more than three times: Bruce Springsteen (14) and John Mayer (five), amassed over many years going back to 1984.
In nine weeks I saw Justin Bieber perform 11 times, not count- ing his halftime performance at the Grey Cup, a binge so glutton- ous fans couldn’t believe my luck and colleagues couldn’t believe it, period.
I started this journey in Glendale, Ariz., where the Believe tour opened on Sept. 29, 2012, and ended on Dec. 1, when he played Toronto’s Rogers Centre.
I flew 18,710 kilometres across North America to see Justin Bieber. I lived on Twitter and YouTube. I made friends with Beli- ebers and listened to a lot of Justin Bieber songs. I started listening to piles of pop music in general, and rediscovered my appreciation for Michael Jackson, Bieber’s idol and pre-show soundtrack.
Justin was on my mind so much he started appearing in my dreams, and while scrambling for a new computer password at work one day I used “justinbieber” figuring I wouldn’t forget it. It’s quite possible I spent more time thinking about Justin Bieber than Justin Bieber thinks about himself.
I met some amazing kids with a big love for Justin and for life.
Beliebers
Some were facing heartbreaking health issues — eating disorders, cutting, depression and cerebral palsy — and said their love for him and his for them, returned across Twitter, in song and oc- casionally meetings, has helped them recover and thrive. I discov- ered a significant number of older fans on the semi down-low, and that I’m a more artful dodger of charging packs of teenage girls than I would have guessed.
In Cameron Crowe’s delightful film Almost Famous, the story of a rising rock-and-roll band and the teenage journalist assigned by Rolling Stone magazine to follow them for a cover story, Patrick Fugit, who plays the earnest William Miller, is first shunned then embraced by members of the fictional band Stillwater. They invite him on the bus, the plane, give him backstage and hotel access, but they never really give him the interview he needs.
Nothing like that happened to me, except the last part.
With no access to Bieber or his camp, no passes from the record company, I became reacquainted with Stubhub. I packed some earplugs and channelled my inner teenage girl.
It was a long, occasionally strange journey, surprising and in- spirational.
It would be a mistake not to take Justin Bieber seriously as an artist and entertainer, and that may be the most controversial statement contained herein.
But the greatest truth is this: The most important character in a story about Justin Bieber isn’t Justin Bieber at all. The most impor- tant character in a story about Justin Bieber is the fan. Actually, let me rephrase that. It’s the Beliebers.
And I think he would agree.
