Justin Bieber

Justin Bieber is a Canadian pop singer, who rose to fame with the release of his debut single, 'One Time'. Bieber was raised by his mother, Pattie Mallette, in Ontario, Canada. At the age of 12, he entered a local singing competition and came second. Bieber went on to teach himself to play the guitar, drums and the trumpet.

With the help of his mother, Bieber then started to post videos on YouTube of his own covers of songs by artists such as Chris Brown, Usher, Justin Timberlake and Stevie Wonder. These videos were seen by the record company executive Scooter Braun, who flew Bieber to Atlanta to meet and perform in front of Usher. Eventually, he was signed to Island Records. Bieber moved to Atlanta with his mother, so that Justin could work more closely with Usher and Braun.

Bieber's debut album was entitled My World and was released in November 2009. Usher appears as a guest vocalist on the album and also appears in the video for 'One Time'. The track reached number on in Canada and also experienced global success. 'One Time' was followed by the release of singles such as 'One Less Lonely Girl', 'Love Me' and 'Favourite Girl'.

During a promotional tour, Justin Bieber was due to appear at a shopping mall in Long Island, but the visit had to be cancelled when an unexpected crowd of over 3,000 turned up and threatened to breach safety restrictions. A number of Bieber's fans suffered minor injuries n the foray that ensued. The vice-president of Island Records was arrested over the incident, as he was reported to have disadvantaged the police's crowd control efforts. Similarly, Scooter Braun was charged with reckless endangerment and criminal nuisance in relation to the event. At the Christmas in Washington event, Bieber performed for the US President, Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama. He sang 'Someday at Christmas', by Stevie Wonder. A few weeks later, Bieber was one of the guests on Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest, along with The Black Eyed Peas and Jennifer Lopez. Bieber was also chosen as a presenter at the 52nd Grammy Awards. Bieber was also asked to perform on the re-recording of 'We Are the World', which was sold to raise money for victims of the Haiti earthquake. Among the huge number of artists on the recording were Nick Jonas of the Jonas Brothers, Akon, T-Pain, Kanye West and Miley Cyrus.

Bieber's track 'Baby', released in early 2010, features the hip-hop artist Ludacris. In April of that year, Bieber was a guest on Saturday Night Live and was the subject of a comedy skit featuring himself and regular Saturday Night Live comedian Tina Fey.