вЂњWe needed a team that was supermotivated and ready to jump in, and we didnвЂ™t feel like we got it. вЂњ Changes was a bit of a struggle for us,вЂќ says SBВ Projects president Allison Kaye, who has long co-managed Bieber with Scooter Braun. Bieber released Changes during a transitional period for his label: One week after the album came out, news broke that Def JamвЂ™s then-chairman/CEO, Paul Rosenberg, was stepping down. To hear members of his team tell it, thatвЂ™s a refreshing change from last year. That means all of UMGвЂ™s resources - вЂњEvery dollar, every door,вЂќ says a source close to the company - are available to ensure he stays at the top.

Around 70% of his streams and music consumption come from fans outside of the United States, and Def JamвЂ™s parent company, Universal Music Group, has designated him as one of its global priority artists, an international program that in past years has supported powerhouses like Billie Eilish and JВ Balvin. If Justice becomes another Bieber success story, it will be a major win for his longtime label, Def Jam, where Bieber is the reigning pop prince - and, label sources say, its biggest moneymaker by a landslide. To date, BieberвЂ™s catalog has earned a combined 22.6В million equivalent album units in the United States, according to MRC Data.

вЂњAt this point, IвЂ™ve reached a level of success so many times that I know success isnвЂ™t a be-all, end-all to my happiness,вЂќ says Bieber.

With Justice, heвЂ™ll find out just how compatible building schedules around date nights, staying right with God and getting a good nightвЂ™s sleep are with maintaining a perch at the pop apex - if thatвЂ™s even what he wants. The calm of quarantine life, his stabilizing marriage and a renewed commitment to his faith have put him, as every single member of his inner circle attests, вЂњin a really good place.вЂќ Promoting and touring an album, though, means heвЂ™ll have to leave the comfort of his 2020 bubble. I know where that pain was coming from, that caused me to act the way I was acting.вЂќ (It doesnвЂ™t hurt that the documentary arrived on the cusp of a wider reckoning with the trauma of child stardom - he hasnвЂ™t watched Framing Britney Spears yet, he says, вЂњbut IвЂ™m going to.вЂќ) вЂњI also have done the work to know why I was making those decisions. I was such a bad person,вЂ™ because IвЂ™m not that person anymore,вЂќ he says. вЂњI can talk about that part of my life and not feel like, вЂOh, man. Today, the 27-year-old Bieber is able to look back on harder times with a surprising degree of Zen. Last fall, he released New Chapter, a 25-minute addendum to his 2020 YouTube docuseries, Seasons, in which he revealed there were times when he felt вЂњreally, really suicidal.вЂќ Even the most casual music fan has absorbed the rough outline of his life story through pop culture osmosis - the single mother, the hardscrabble childhood, the YouTube origin story - just as they are undoubtedly familiar with the lowlights that nearly consumed him. Back when he was a teen phenom releasing four albums in five years - and promoting them with roughly 450 tour stops between 20 - not doing things he didnвЂ™t want to do wasnвЂ™t really an option. вЂњBoundariesвЂќ is a key word in the 2021 Bieber lexicon. 20, 2021 at the Houdini Estate in Los Angeles. вЂњItвЂ™s the first time IвЂ™ve had this much consistency and predictability,вЂќ he says over Google Hangouts the day before, вЂњlike ever, really.вЂќ He pauses. BieberвЂ™s two most recent albums have bookended the most tumultuous year of American history in living memory - but for Bieber, whose life in the spotlight has been strange and tumultuous enough, it was a much-needed reset. The bodyguards hover nearby at a respectful distance, while the couple - swaddled in oversize, especially soft-looking clothing - offer up their nasal passages for rapid COVID-19 tests ahead of BieberвЂ™s photo shoot.Д«ieber is a month out from releasing Justice, his sixth studio album (out MarchВ 19) and his second in 13 months the R&B-focused Changes arrived on ValentineвЂ™s Day 2020, just as the world was going through some major changes of its own. Bieber emerges from the Tesla his wife, Hailey Baldwin Bieber, steps down from the passenger seat. Two serious-looking bodyguards get out of the first and last vehicles. On a cloudless, windy afternoon in February, three cars pull up to a mansion in Los AngelesвЂ™ Laurel Canyon: a hulking Yukon Denali, followed by a grey Tesla modelВ X, followed by a black Range Rover.

3d world magazine issue 200