Yesterday morning Justin Bieber caused a near riot when thousands of frenzied teenagers suffering from “Biebermania” stampeded toward the Overseas Terminal at Sydney Harbour, resulting in the hospitalisation of at least 10 girls and the cancellation of his live performance.
First of all: who IS Justin Bieber?
Of course like anyone else who regularly consults the world wide web I’ve obviously heard of the guy, but I thought the 16-year-old, carefully hair-styled singer (how quickly I’ve learned!) was the Canadian equivalent of The Jonas Brothers – a clean-cut pop star that North American tweens and teenagers went nuts over. I didn’t realise that his outrageous popularity stretched to Australian shores – which makes it clear how very out-of-touch I am with that demographic.
The open air concert had to be canceled because of the danger caused by the surging – predominantly teenage – crowd, some of whom had been camped at the venue from 3am. The riot squad was even brought in.
The television footage showed girls hysterically crying and mothers complaining about how they drove 14 hours all the way from so-and-so to watch him play. That isn’t a normal thing to do.
What’s the deal with Bieber? What’s his secret? Where is the appeal? Who let’s their kids hang out near Sydney Harbour at 3am? How does he get his hair like that?
Title Image by Robyn Beck via Getty
