Justin Bieber compares himself to Jesus against the evils of the music biz
Having been grappling for some time with a crisis that was first of all personal and human, and then also artistic, described last July also in the album “Swag”, a desperate cry for help (here is Rockol’s review), Justin Bieber is back in the news. He does so by publishing a long blurb on social media with allusions to his turbulent career to date: from the (premature) success as a child prodigy with “Baby” to the present, passing through the 2014 arrest for drunk driving, the controversies, the legal troubles, the psychological crises. Also comparing himself to Jesus and saying he wants to rid the music industry of evil.
It was clear that the concerns of the people closest to him, starting with his wife Hailey Bieber (mother of little Jack Blues Bieber, who turned one last August), were well founded when he listened to “Swag” last July. In the songs Bieber recounted his crises and his dramas between gospel and praise to Christ, outlining the self-portrait of a pop star lost both artistically and humanly, unable to regain control of that life that the Canadian singer-songwriter himself in unsuspecting times had defined as “a film that everyone is watching”, the epilogue of which he witnessed with a sense of helplessness. If “Swag II”, released in September, seemed to have brought peace back to the Bieber household, now this post casts new shadows on the alleged rebirth of the former teen idol.
Citing fragments of Bible verses, mixed with his thoughts, Bieber, now 31 years old, claimed to be a victim of the music industry, alluding to the dark side of that success that came all at once, perhaps too soon: «I’m not speaking as a still bleeding victim, I’m speaking as a healed person. I don’t want revenge. I want redemption.” Then he quotes a passage from the Gospel of John: «Therefore, if the Son makes you free, you will be truly free». And he writes: « Since I am healed, I can forgive. Not to pretend the injustice never happened, but to ensure it doesn’t live on through me.”
Bieber’s stated goal is to prevent others from being crushed by the music biz just as happened to him (and many others like him): “I don’t want to burn the music industry, but I want to see it renewed, safer, more honest, more human.”
