Justin Bieber at 30: With a new album on the horizon, what’s next for the pop icon?
The Canadian singer has said that he’s working on his seventh studio album. However, there are still no signs of a full comeback
Justin Bieber seems to be entering a new era as he turns 30 years old. In less than 20 years of career, the singer managed to become a pop icon, one of the best-selling music artists of all time — with over 150 million records sold worldwide —, and has received over 300 awards —including two Grammy Awards, 18 American Music Awards and even 33 Guinness World Records. His music has been consistently acclaimed and, although he has had some problems in the last years, it doesn’t seem that he’s going to stop anytime soon. He is currently working on his seventh studio album, which could make him do a comeback. However, his health issues and other factors could delay its release.
Justin Bieber’s health issues
The Justice World Tour, which was in support of his albums Changes (2020) and Justice (2021) didn’t go as planned. The tour was set to begin in May 2020 in Seattle, but it was postponed to 2021 and later to 2022 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. It officially began on February 18, 2022 in San Diego, California, and was set to end with a show in Kraków, Poland. However, in June that same year, Bieber was diagnosed with Ramsay Hunt Syndrome, which had caused half of his face to be paralyzed. He then canceled and postponed concerts and returned to the tour in late July.
In September, after a show in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, it was announced that all remaining dates of the tour would be suspended due to the singer prioritizing his health. Bieber stated: “I realized that I need to make my health the priority right now. So I’m going to take a break from touring for the time being. I’m going to be OK, but I need time to rest and get better.”
In January 2023, Bieber was reportedly offered to perform as headliner of the Coachella Festival 2023. However, the singer declined to focus on his seventh studio album. His last stage performance was in March 2023, during the Rolling Loud Festival where he performed Private Landing a song released a month earlier, in which he collaborated with rapper Don Toliver. As Gil Kaufman of Billboard commented: “Bouncing his way down the stage in a backwards ball cap, baggy jeans and tweed jacket, Bieber looked to be in fine form and good energy more than six months after he played his last full set at Rock in Rio in Sept. 2022.″ Despite this, the singer has not performed solo and is yet to announce a new world tour.
When will Justin Bieber release his seventh album?
Although it’s certain that Bieber is working on a new album — he has been seen going in and out of studios in Los Angeles —, it still has no release date. On March 2023, Hailey Bieber said that the singer had just recorded a new song. “I can’t stop listening [to it]. Nobody knows what it is yet,” she told Justin, who interviewed her for the feature.
Who will collaborate with Justin Bieber on his seventh album?
Ed Sheeran also revealed last year that there’s a collaboration between the two of them, for Bieber’s next album. Rolling Stone described it as a “lighters-up power ballad duet.” It was produced by Andrew Wyatt, who has worked with Billie Eilish, Dua Lipa, Mark Ronson, and Miley Cyrus. In 2022 after the release of his song Honest, Bieber said that the album was almost finished and that he also collaborated with John Mayer for the album. It has been also reported that the album will have a collaboration between Bieber and Bryson Tiller.
Other artists like The Kid LAROI and Blair Ferguson have also confirmed that Bieber is working on new music but didn’t clarify if they worked on the album’s songs.
These comments suggested that Bieber was going to release his album late in 2023 or early 2024, but there has not been any kind of announcement and the singer has not released any new songs. It is also not clear if his health issues have stopped him from releasing new music or planning a new world tour. However, it seems that the singer is back on track and it’s just a matter of time before we see him perform live again.
The Scooter Braun controversy
Scooter Braun has been credited as being the man who gave Bieber his career. He discovered the young artist when Bieber was only 13 after watching him on a YouTube video. Braun was a former marketing executive at So So Recordings, and used his connections in the industry to land Bieber a record contract. In 2008, he became his manager.
Braun is also known for his controversy with Taylor Swift. Braun’s company Ithaca Holdings purchased Big Machine Records, which owned Swift’s original masters. Although there were reports of Braun trying to sell Swift her masters, she refused and since then she has been making re-recordings of her albums in order to gain complete ownership of her music.
In 2023, several of Braun’s clients, including Demi Lovato, Ariana Grande, Idina Menzel and J Balvin fired the manager. Although there were reports of Bieber firing Braun, his team denied it. However, there has been rumors that the singer and the manager are not in speaking terms, which could have an influence in Bieber’s future decisions.
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