“I know the videos of him are dark but you can hear him and get a sense of his stage presence.” 

Pattie Mallette wrote this after uploading the first ever YouTube video of her then 12-year-old son, Justin Bieber singing Ne-Yo’s ‘So Sick’ at a talent competition in Stratford, Ontario. With his loosely knotted black-tie and classy white shirt, he nailed Ne-Yo’s song at the competition where he made it to the final 3. His raspy voice was too young to channel the emotions the song intended to imply, but that was just the beginning.

Pattie recorded her son taking on one great song after another and soon Justin was a household name.

And then a year later, the Biebs was spotted by talent manager Scooter Braun when he accidentally clicked on one of his YouTube videos. Braun was impressed and he Beliebed that Justin was meant for great things. 

He even warned us way back in 2009.

Justin was done recording songs with grainy picture quality in his living room. Instead, with Braun’s help he was singing at recording studios and preparing for fame, mentored by none other than Usher. 

A year later Justin had had his first international hit ‘Baby’ and with it came millions of fans (a fair share of haters too). 

Nine years later…

Justin is a global phenomenon – he has successfully achieved puberty, many million fans with raging hormones, a million more who’d exchange him gladly in return for Jackson or Morrison, successful albums, world tours, multiple awards… 

…and he’s still not done. More power to you Bieber.