"Have you ever had Certs before?" he asks, en route to a sold-out football stadium in Caracas, Venezuela. It's the final date of the Latin American leg of his My World tour, which started in Hartford, Conn., 18 months and 130 shows ago. "The fruit-flavored ones, they're amazing. I have a full box of them in my hand right now and I'm tearing through it."
It's a moment of sweet respite for the teen idol, who in two short years went from busker in his native Stratford, Ontario, to one of the top pop artists in the world. The tale of his meteoric rise -- the discovery of his persona and voice on YouTube, the early tutelage by Usher, plus his multi-instrumental talent and self-driven work ethic -- has become its own kind of pop culture fairy tale, a creation myth for the social media generation.
The narrative is told and retold in the press, and in his box-office smash, this year's "Never Say Never," which is the highest-grossing concert film in U.S. history at $73 million, according to Box Office Mojo. In second place is Michael Jackson's "This Is It" at $72.1 million.
With an army of self-proclaimed "Beliebers" -- thoroughly in-love young girls who hang on his every tweet and shaggy hair toss -- at 17, Bieber has also become one of the most powerful guys in show business. He posts a picture of Los Angeles traffic by means of Instagram-and nearly crashes the service by racking up 50 new followers per minute. He makes an appearance at New York's Macy's Herald Square to launch his Someday fragrance, and causes a flash mob of desperate fans that makes the local news. Someday logged more than $3 million in sales at the retail chain during the next three weeks, a new record for a celebrity-backed fragrance, according to the company.
"Bieber is a pop culture phenomenon, and he got that way through social media," Teen Vogue entertainment director Danielle Nussbaum says. "His fans made him famous, and he's responded in kind by giving them every single piece of himself that he can. He's created a brand, but also granted his fans a level of access that a lot of musicians just don't."
Bieber and his team now aim to channel that trust and influence, while setting up the young star for a career that will last beyond his fans' high school graduations. The juggernaut of choice: Christmas.
"Under the Mistletoe" (RBMG/Island), Bieber's first holiday album and fifth release, drops Nov. 1. But it's not just a convenient gift option for his devoted legion, or a fulfillment of Tina Fey prophecy (she famously called him a "dreamy Christmas elf" during his June 2010 "Saturday Night Live" appearance): It's his most musically mature work to date, and a launch pad for one of the biggest philanthropic campaigns ever mounted by a pop music star.
Announced Oct. 27 in a YouTube video message to his fans -- "His version of a press conference," Universal VP of marketing David Grant says -- the Believe Charity Drive enlists Bieber's faithful to help raise millions for a collection of philanthropic organizations-like City of Hope and the Boys & Girls Club -- by the time his next studio album drops in 2012. (The date is still TBD.)
For Bieber, the effort is personal.
"I remember growing up not having a lot, especially around Christmastime," he says. "We had to get stuff from the food bank, so one of the charities we're helping out is the food bank in my town. I want every one of my fans to feel like they're helping out the world in some way. And being the one to influence them to do that, that's something positive I can do with what God's given me."
Bieber donated $1 of every ticket sold on the second half of the My World tour to Pencils of Promise, a New York-based nonprofit that builds schools in developing countries. His Someday fragrance is manufactured and distributed by Give Back Brands, which was founded as a philanthropic organization and donates all proceeds to charity. He's even a top wish-granter for the Make-a-Wish Foundation.
"Justin and his team are always looking for ways to give back," Grant says. "The Believe Charity Drive brings out his philanthropic side more."
The drive will rely primarily on direct donations (fans will be able to go to a microsite and select a charity of choice), as well as brand partner fund matching and donations, partner outreach and promotions, a Believe charity merchandise line and a portion of the revenue from "Mistletoe."
"Under the Mistletoe" wasn't always meant to be a full album. "Justin just wanted to do a single Christmas song. Then it became an EP, because we thought the kids would want more than one," manager/SB Projects founder Scooter Braun says. "Then we went into the studio, and it started getting really good."
The album is now 11 cuts deep. There are five standards, and Bieber co-wrote each of the six new songs. If there's a theme beyond general seasonal merriment, it's the one best captured by first single "Mistletoe": It's Christmas, shawty, but I only have eyes for you. It's already sold 164,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
That perspective has won Bieber his adolescent fans -- they apparently adore a hand-holding kind of innocence, with the ever-so-slight hint of eventual experience. But the seduction is more upfront on this album, because, well...
"Vocally, his balls have dropped," Braun says.
Island Def Jam Music Group (IDJMG) president/COO Steve Bartels puts it more gently. "The album really shows his growth as a young man, and his voice has just blossomed," he says. "It will pleasantly surprise many people. It's not your typical holiday album."
There is indeed a warmer, deeper quality to Bieber's voice that gives lines like "It sort of feels like it's Valentine's" -- on a slow jam called "Christmas Eve," which is co-written by Chris Brown -- a more mature resonance. Album opener "Only Thing I Ever Get for Christmas" goes down as smooth as eggnog (sans rum). A duet with his mentor Usher on the Nat "King" Cole classic "The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)" finds them both wielding vocal runs and falsetto leaps, very much at home with the pomp and performance of yuletide R&B.
There was one case in which a bass-ier Bieber wasn't a bonus: his duet with Mariah Carey on her own smash "All I Want for Christmas Is You," which Carey suggested after hearing an early recording of Bieber's solo take on it. The catch: It had to be sung in her original key.
"That was the hardest song to do," Braun says. "A year ago that would have been no problem."
"Yes, that was high," Bieber says. "But I grinded it out and we got it down."
source: billboard
