As you would know from the news reports and echoing screams Justin Bieber has been in the country. Yesterday I attended an “intimate and live” performance of just Justin with a smiley guy on acoustic guitar. The audience was made up of about 100 legit Bieber fans (“True Beliebers”), mostly girls between the ages 12-18, “famous” people like Sarah de Bono and Timomatic, and people from the media. While I’m not a Bieber fan per se, it was definitely fascinating just to be there in a confined space, breathing the same air as Richard Wilkins’ hair one of the most famous pop musicians on the planet, and see how the crowd reacted to the little guy. Here are 10 just 7 things I learned at Justin Bieber: Intimate And Live.
1. THEY REALLY LIKE TO BUILD THE ANTICIPATION AT THESE EVENTS
In an attempt to build up suspense in the lead up to Justin actually getting on the stage Channel [V] who was hosting the event would bring up various VJs to rile the fans into hysteria. Danny Clayton would say something super arcane like “Are you ready for what’s next?” and the fans would go bat shit. They’d produce screams at a pitch and volume that defies the imagination and perform a weird physical manoeuvre involving jogging in place while wearing a squinting pained expression as if attempting to exit their own skin. This swelling of anticipation continued for about 20 minutes but the amount of sheer dedicated exuberance with which the crowd responded was incredible; which leads me to the second thing I learned:
2. JUSTIN BIEBER FANS LOVE JUSTIN BIEBER
Wearing Bieber t-shirts, writing his name on your face and knowing every single word to his songs (including the rap part in the breakdown) is the stuff of the novice Belieber. Yesterday when Justin wrapped up his second song of the set called “As Long As You Love Me” one little girl (who couldn’t have been more than 12) started bawling and screaming: “IT’S REAL. IT’S REAL” until her mum gave her a hug to calm her down. That‘s real. That’s passion.
3. ALL JUSTIN BIEBER FANS HAVE SMART PHONES
4. JUSTIN BIEBER’S “AS LONG AS YOU LOVE ME” ISN’T THE “AS LONG AS YOU LOVE ME” I THOUGHT IT WOULD BE
FYI It’s definitely an entirely different song to the Backstreet Boys one. Good to know.
5. JUSTIN BIEBER = TAYLOR HANSON?
If there’s one pop musician Justin Bieber really reminds me of it’s Taylor Hanson the middle brother from the 1990’s band Hanson (duh). In the early days of Hanson when Taylor Hanson had long hair he caused a lot of confusion for adult men because of his girlishly pretty face. Justin Bieber has that same look. He actually looks like an exact combination of Taylor Hanson and one of Disney’s Gummy Bears. Justin and Taylor have similar singing voices too – that high pleasant tone with a slight rasp to it. You know what I mean.
6. “BABY” IS A PRETTY GOOD SONG
The third song was Justin’s breakthrough hit “Baby” and I started bopping involuntarily. It’s a perfectly decent jam. But it’s also a really sad song. The first verse goes:
Are we an item? Girl quit playing / We’re just friends? – What are you saying?
Said there’s another, looked right in my eyes / My first love broke my heart for the first time.
If you put it on right now, there is a 96 per cent chance that in 25 minutes you will still be humming “baby, baby, baby, ooahh!” Then someone will say “What are you singing?” and you’ll say “That Justin Bieber song “Baby””, and then 25 minutes later that person will be humming it too. And the cycle will perpetuate for all eternity. That’s why the song has 50 trillion plays on YouTube and you know it even if you’ve never actually heard it before.
7. JUSTIN BIEBER MIGHT BE MORE SELF-AWARE THAN YOU THINK
There is a popular blog called Lesbians Who Look Like Justin Bieber. You can tell by Justin’s choice of sleeveless denim vest that he gets it. Either that or he’s been taking style tips from Blossom‘s Joey.
