The warning signs have been there for some time: the bizarre
public disguises, a strangely uncomfortable mix of innocence and brazen
sexuality in his stage performances, and a fanbase besotted to the point
of insanity.
Parallels between Justin Bieber and Michael Jackson have never been difficult to spot. The youngster has even admitted to modelling his career on the late pop idol.
But when the 19-year-old turned up in Germany this week with a pet monkey in tow — a baby capuchin by the name of Mally — those comparisons switched from diverting to plain disturbing.
Signature move: Justin Bieber, left, has been seen copying Michael Jackson's classic crotch grab
One
of the tragic elements of Jackson’s life was how his immense talent was
obscured by bizarre behaviour. Isolated from reality by mind-boggling
fame and wealth, he famously became best friends with a chimpanzee
called Bubbles.
The way that story ended — with Jackson dead before his time and Bubbles banished to a life behind bars the moment the cute infant reached powerful adulthood — was a cautionary tale.
Yet the lessons have clearly not been learned, as Bieber’s behaviour of late demonstrates. If anything, the youngster is all too deliberately copying the late superstar — as if oblivious to the misery and disasters which marked his later years.
Indeed, with the arrival of the monkey — ripped from his mother’s arms, it’s not known where, at nine weeks of age and left clinging to a soft toy as a surrogate mother, all for the entertainment of a childlike star — have we witnessed the turning point in Bieber’s gilded tale?
At least Mally, unlike Bubbles, has been rescued relatively promptly. Given to Bieber as a 19th birthday present last month, he travelled with the star on his world tour until German customs officials seized him last week as the entourage sought to smuggle him into the country without the correct paperwork.
Currently in quarantine, it has been made clear that Mally — who, according to animal behaviourists, should have been allowed to remain with his mother for at least a year prior to separation — will not be returned to Bieber without a fight. In the meantime, there is the small matter of a £30,000 fine to be paid.
Bizarre
outfits: Bieber has been seen out in London disguised in a gas mask,
left, while Jackson was pictured wearing a surgical mask in 2009 in
Beverley Hills
Money, however, is not an issue for a
young man whose life has spiralled into a fantasy world since he sprung
to stardom in 2009 — the same year Jackson died of a drug overdose.
By Christmas that year, Bieber was performing for Barack Obama at the White House (just as a young Jackson did for Ronald Reagan) and the next month he performed a song written by his idol at the Grammys.
Since then he has gone stratospheric. His fans, who famously call themselves Beliebers, are fanatical to the point of Beatlemania.
What started out as an exciting adventure, however, has turned into a gilded cage. Like Jackson before him, Bieber has never been allowed to live a normal childhood and is now paying the price.
Since splitting up with his girlfriend towards the end of last year, he has been displaying increasingly erratic behaviour. Spats with the paparazzi, allegations of marijuana abuse and diva-esque behaviour (he kept his young fans waiting for over two hours before taking to the stage in London last month)... the worm has decidedly turned.
Apeing his idol: Bieber with Mally his capuchin pet monkey, left, and Jackson with Bubbles the chimp
On
a number of occasions he has gone out wearing masks, covering his head
with a blanket or wearing mirrored sunglasses in the dead of night (all
Jackson trademarks). Despite freezing weather, his European tour has
been marked by Bieber walking the streets shirtless.
Fascinatingly, Bieber himself seems happy to play up the parallels between himself and Jackson. ‘We use Michael as a template,’ he told Rolling Stone magazine. ‘The things that he did for his career — a lot of times it was good, sometimes it was bad — but he was successful from being young to old. I model my career on the decisions Michael made and how he kept his young fan base and kept his private life private.’
The similarities between the two are striking — their crotch-grabbing stage displays coupled with public declarations of almost unbelievable innocence.
Jackson’s secrecy about his private life fuelled the flames when he was subsequently accused of child abuse, while Bieber has spoken with religious fervour about his distaste for ‘sex, drugs and swearing’ — while hitting nightclubs with young models and threatening to ‘f***ing beat the f***’ out of a paparazzo. Consistency is conspicuous in its absence.
Both have transcended pop by being invited as teenagers to pose for front covers of rock ’n’ roll’s bible, Rolling Stone magazine. In the most straightforward sense, they have been touched by a degree of success which confers riches and influence beyond imagination.
Angry: Bieber leaped out from his car in London this month to confront photographers
Throw
in an unusual family background, and the prospect of level-headed
progress through life is distant. Where Michael Jackson had an absurdly
ambitious father, Justin has a religious fanatic mother with a history
of mental illness. Pattie Mallette was just 17 when she fell pregnant
with Justin.
As a child she was an aspiring star who never quite made it, slipping instead into drug abuse, and even attempting suicide by throwing herself in front of a truck.
While remanded in a psychiatric ward, she found God and has since been a deeply committed Christian, passing on her fiercely held pro-life views to her son.
By her account, he was born to be a performer — even claiming that when he cried as a baby it sounded like singing.
She split from Justin’s father when he was still an infant and he was brought up in social housing. Everything was ploughed into making him a star, and his doting mother — now 38 — had him performing in the street aged six.
When Justin hit his teens she used the internet to post videos of him singing, leading to a bidding war among industry executives keen to cash in on the exploding social networking phenomenon. Los Angeles beckoned, leading him away from his Canadian roots.
Suggestive: Bieber's performances have become more overtly sexual over the past years, causing hysteria among his female fans
His influence in this lucrative area is immense, in a way even Michael Jackson’s never was.
Sites such as Twitter enable him to communicate directly with his fans on a daily basis.
Indeed, his Twitter feed is the most popular celebrity account, with over 35 million followers and growing at a rate of one new follower every other second.
Yet this comes at a price. While he can talk to his adoring fans through the web, so can those who have taken exception to his success.
Bieber seems obsessed with the ‘haters’, repeatedly referring to them in interviews and even in award acceptance speeches.
‘Every time a hater visits my YouTube page, I get, like, four cents,’ he says in a Teen Vogue interview. ‘So tell the haters to keep hating . . . because I’m making money.’
According to John Sharp, a professor of psychiatry at Harvard, this is a worrying sign: ‘I see insulation that often borders on isolation, alternating with a strong, at times narcissistic desire to be loved.
Innocent: Justin Bieber back in 2010 looking clean cut when he was 16
When this balance is off, celebrities may become out of touch or overly touchy.’
Meanwhile, like Jackson, Bieber’s trusted support network has been whittled down to a handful of friends.
By his own estimation, he has only four friends he keeps in regular contact with. One of those is his 34-year-old celebrity pastor, Judah Smith, who has recently cashed in on the friendship by writing a book.
Another is Alfredo Flores, who directs his videos and frequently travels with him on tour. There is also actor Will Smith’s son, Jaden, one of few contemporaries able to understand Bieber’s celebrity existence.
And finally the actress Selena Gomez, Bieber’s erstwhile girlfriend, who like him has been famous since her teens and remains a confidante.
Whether these friendships are enough to keep him on the straight and narrow remains to be seen. For now, the weight of work is doing a good job of occupying his mind — the Believe world tour started last September and is set to run at least until August this year.
Everywhere he goes, the fans go wild. In Norway they have rescheduled the academic calendar so children can attend his shows.
And on the occasions he goes home to LA, it’s hardly to what one would call an ordinary 19-year-old’s life.
Last year he spent £4 million on a mansion and promptly filled it with boys’ toys. Visitors have described the decor as being like a teenage boy’s dream bedroom. Rather like Jackson’s Neverland ranch, which boasted funfair rides in the garden.
Bieber’s ‘toys’ include a Ferrari and a £20,000 Ducati motorcycle. In short, what he wants he gets.
So when he says he wants to replicate Michael Jackson’s career, it is a warning that his paymasters, family and fans should take very seriously
Parallels between Justin Bieber and Michael Jackson have never been difficult to spot. The youngster has even admitted to modelling his career on the late pop idol.
But when the 19-year-old turned up in Germany this week with a pet monkey in tow — a baby capuchin by the name of Mally — those comparisons switched from diverting to plain disturbing.
The way that story ended — with Jackson dead before his time and Bubbles banished to a life behind bars the moment the cute infant reached powerful adulthood — was a cautionary tale.
Yet the lessons have clearly not been learned, as Bieber’s behaviour of late demonstrates. If anything, the youngster is all too deliberately copying the late superstar — as if oblivious to the misery and disasters which marked his later years.
Indeed, with the arrival of the monkey — ripped from his mother’s arms, it’s not known where, at nine weeks of age and left clinging to a soft toy as a surrogate mother, all for the entertainment of a childlike star — have we witnessed the turning point in Bieber’s gilded tale?
At least Mally, unlike Bubbles, has been rescued relatively promptly. Given to Bieber as a 19th birthday present last month, he travelled with the star on his world tour until German customs officials seized him last week as the entourage sought to smuggle him into the country without the correct paperwork.
Currently in quarantine, it has been made clear that Mally — who, according to animal behaviourists, should have been allowed to remain with his mother for at least a year prior to separation — will not be returned to Bieber without a fight. In the meantime, there is the small matter of a £30,000 fine to be paid.
By Christmas that year, Bieber was performing for Barack Obama at the White House (just as a young Jackson did for Ronald Reagan) and the next month he performed a song written by his idol at the Grammys.
Since then he has gone stratospheric. His fans, who famously call themselves Beliebers, are fanatical to the point of Beatlemania.
What started out as an exciting adventure, however, has turned into a gilded cage. Like Jackson before him, Bieber has never been allowed to live a normal childhood and is now paying the price.
Since splitting up with his girlfriend towards the end of last year, he has been displaying increasingly erratic behaviour. Spats with the paparazzi, allegations of marijuana abuse and diva-esque behaviour (he kept his young fans waiting for over two hours before taking to the stage in London last month)... the worm has decidedly turned.
Fascinatingly, Bieber himself seems happy to play up the parallels between himself and Jackson. ‘We use Michael as a template,’ he told Rolling Stone magazine. ‘The things that he did for his career — a lot of times it was good, sometimes it was bad — but he was successful from being young to old. I model my career on the decisions Michael made and how he kept his young fan base and kept his private life private.’
The similarities between the two are striking — their crotch-grabbing stage displays coupled with public declarations of almost unbelievable innocence.
Jackson’s secrecy about his private life fuelled the flames when he was subsequently accused of child abuse, while Bieber has spoken with religious fervour about his distaste for ‘sex, drugs and swearing’ — while hitting nightclubs with young models and threatening to ‘f***ing beat the f***’ out of a paparazzo. Consistency is conspicuous in its absence.
Both have transcended pop by being invited as teenagers to pose for front covers of rock ’n’ roll’s bible, Rolling Stone magazine. In the most straightforward sense, they have been touched by a degree of success which confers riches and influence beyond imagination.
Angry: Bieber leaped out from his car in London this month to confront photographersAs a child she was an aspiring star who never quite made it, slipping instead into drug abuse, and even attempting suicide by throwing herself in front of a truck.
While remanded in a psychiatric ward, she found God and has since been a deeply committed Christian, passing on her fiercely held pro-life views to her son.
By her account, he was born to be a performer — even claiming that when he cried as a baby it sounded like singing.
She split from Justin’s father when he was still an infant and he was brought up in social housing. Everything was ploughed into making him a star, and his doting mother — now 38 — had him performing in the street aged six.
When Justin hit his teens she used the internet to post videos of him singing, leading to a bidding war among industry executives keen to cash in on the exploding social networking phenomenon. Los Angeles beckoned, leading him away from his Canadian roots.
Suggestive: Bieber's performances have become more overtly sexual over the past years, causing hysteria among his female fansSites such as Twitter enable him to communicate directly with his fans on a daily basis.
Indeed, his Twitter feed is the most popular celebrity account, with over 35 million followers and growing at a rate of one new follower every other second.
Yet this comes at a price. While he can talk to his adoring fans through the web, so can those who have taken exception to his success.
Bieber seems obsessed with the ‘haters’, repeatedly referring to them in interviews and even in award acceptance speeches.
‘Every time a hater visits my YouTube page, I get, like, four cents,’ he says in a Teen Vogue interview. ‘So tell the haters to keep hating . . . because I’m making money.’
According to John Sharp, a professor of psychiatry at Harvard, this is a worrying sign: ‘I see insulation that often borders on isolation, alternating with a strong, at times narcissistic desire to be loved.
Innocent: Justin Bieber back in 2010 looking clean cut when he was 16Meanwhile, like Jackson, Bieber’s trusted support network has been whittled down to a handful of friends.
By his own estimation, he has only four friends he keeps in regular contact with. One of those is his 34-year-old celebrity pastor, Judah Smith, who has recently cashed in on the friendship by writing a book.
Another is Alfredo Flores, who directs his videos and frequently travels with him on tour. There is also actor Will Smith’s son, Jaden, one of few contemporaries able to understand Bieber’s celebrity existence.
And finally the actress Selena Gomez, Bieber’s erstwhile girlfriend, who like him has been famous since her teens and remains a confidante.
Whether these friendships are enough to keep him on the straight and narrow remains to be seen. For now, the weight of work is doing a good job of occupying his mind — the Believe world tour started last September and is set to run at least until August this year.
Everywhere he goes, the fans go wild. In Norway they have rescheduled the academic calendar so children can attend his shows.
And on the occasions he goes home to LA, it’s hardly to what one would call an ordinary 19-year-old’s life.
Last year he spent £4 million on a mansion and promptly filled it with boys’ toys. Visitors have described the decor as being like a teenage boy’s dream bedroom. Rather like Jackson’s Neverland ranch, which boasted funfair rides in the garden.
Bieber’s ‘toys’ include a Ferrari and a £20,000 Ducati motorcycle. In short, what he wants he gets.
So when he says he wants to replicate Michael Jackson’s career, it is a warning that his paymasters, family and fans should take very seriously
