To help promote his album Purpose, Justin Bieber travels to AC for a live show that combines dance, R&B… and maybe even some sermonizing
by matt Scanlon
There’s little to be achieved editorially delving further into Justin Bieber’s varied controversies—legal, carnal and spiritual—because what is too often lost in the exhausting recapitulation of the crush of events in the 22-year-old’s life (most recently the debunked notion that he insulted Prince hours after the performer’s death) is his list of unprecedented achievements. He is the first artist to have seven songs from a debut record (the 2009 EP My World) chart on the Billboard Hot 100, and that disc was the first from a Canadian performer to be certified Platinum. His fifth album, 2015’s Purpose, was his fifth to surpass the one-million sales mark, and was only one of three in 2015 to reach that goal (along with Adele’s 25 and Drake’s If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late).
Bieber’s discovery had a basis in the millions of views his 2007 to 2008 YouTube videos racked up, but an even more pivotal component in thrusting the singer into the spotlight was Scooter Braun, a former executive of So So Def Recordings, who happened across the videos by accident, went to Bieber’s middle school, and organized a trip to Atlanta, where the then-13-year-old began recording demo tapes. One week later, Bieber began singing for Usher.
The journey from teen heartthrob to young adult has been an emotionally charged one, and although Bieber is still finding his style, his once contralto voice is descending into a satisfying tenor. His song choice has broadened satisfactorily, too—reinvented even—with Purpose sporting a generally favorably-reviewed mix of R&B, rap, and electronic dance music, and it has already generated three number-one singles.
The Purpose Tour courses its way through New Jersey in July, and if previous engagements are any indication, it’s difficult to predict exactly what’ll happen. Recordings from the new album will certainly be on board (highlighted by “What Do You Mean?” where dancers glide down skate ramps), but a number of shows have also been marked by seemingly extemporaneous pseudo-sermonizing, in which Beiber recounts personal and professional experiences that caused him to “lose his purpose,” along with the occasional mention of his fervent Christian beliefs. These vignettes might seem amusingly incongruous, minutes after he bounces on a trampoline and coos his way through hit “Boyfriend,” but on the whole, the live shows have demonstrated a more mature and certainly more interesting guy.
Justin Bieber
Friday, July 15, at 7:30 p.m. at Boardwalk Hall Arena – Boardwalk Hall
2301 Boardwalk Atlantic City / 844.854.1450 / hallatlanticcity.com
