Bieber may be the biggest legit pop star ever created by YouTube. Other viral-video phenomena have garnered more views over time, but in terms of transitioning from genuine obscurity to massively monetizable pop superstardom, Bieber is unmatched. Three years ago he was a kid living in a small town in Stratford, Ontario. After competing in something called "Stratford Idol," he put some of his surprisingly soulful covers of songs by the likes of Usher and Ne-Yo on YouTube, garnering more than 10 million views before getting signed by, yes, Usher. (By the time "My World" came out last November, he'd surpassed 100 million YouTube views.) As he notes rather hilariously on his MySpace page (Bieber was just 13 when this was all happening), "I sang for Usher, and his people and he really wanted to sign me then and there, but I still had a meeting with Justin Timberlake, who also wanted to sign me. It turned out Usher's deal was way better." (Go, player!) He went on to become the first solo artist in history to send four songs into Billboard's Top 40 before his debut album was even released.
Here he is in action:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kffacxfA7G4&feature=fvw
And then there's this:
Eight days ago, the hashtag trend #Lilyallenfatwhore hit Twitter's Trending Topics list. Why? Because on March 12, British pop star Lilly Allen tweeted this: "Justin bieber should have kiddie bras on the merch stall.... Ha" -- which caused Justin Bieber fans to go ballistic, with one of them creating the #Lilyallenfatwhore Twitter meme with the hopes that it would go viral. (Naturally, it did.) Word to the wise: Do not eff with the Beliebers!
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