It’s 2016 and my brother and I are waiting outside of Madison Square Garden to see the only artist I’ve ever cried over, Justin Bieber. I had been dreaming and preparing for this day for what seemed like forever. Let’s backtrack though — for the entirety of Justin’s career I have been a fan. Each and every tour I would go and subsequently cry just out of the sheer happiness he brings to me. Everyone has THEIR artist and he is mine. You can ask my mom the number of times I’ve cried in the living room because of a tour announcement, or most recently because he is coming back and she would probably tell you it’s more than you can count on your hands (she also has video proof). When he went on his break all I was looking forward to was his comeback, and it’s finally happening.
For the past month or so Justin has been releasing seemingly random dates on his Twitter and Instagram. One of the first dates was for the YouTube video that announced his comeback. In this video, he announced his world tour, his album, “Yummy“ and the docu-series with an air date. There was no questioning that he was back and better than before.
On Monday, January 27, 2020, his YouTube Original Docu-series was released. I was in the drive-thru at Starbucks when it came out. Naturally, I watched episode one while I was waiting because the thought of not getting to watch it immediately didn’t sit well. There will be 10 episodes in total but four were initially released. It starts with the cancellation of the remaining dates of his Purpose tour, which is when he took the longest break of his career. Shortly after that, a black screen appears and “May 2019, 9 months until album release” shows up on the screen. One of the ‘random’ dates he recently tweeted was February 14, so, counting from May, nine months later is February. I’m not going to confirm this is album release day but you really can just put two and two together.
Throughout the first four episodes, you get to see a different side of him than ever seen before. Of course, he has his two movies, but in this, you really get to SEE him. For the first time, we all get to witness the creative process he goes through to make an album. Luckily, that also means hearing clips from songs that have hopefully made the album’s final cut. Listening to the people who have been there from the start like Scooter Braun, Alison Kaye and Ryan Good talk about who he is now and who he was before really helps put into perspective how much he has healed.
January 27, January 28, January 29… February 14th pic.twitter.com/MZC2ytDBNa
— Justin Bieber (@justinbieber) January 21, 2020
As someone who has been there from the start and through it all, this docu-series has already begun to show that this long break has only made Justin stronger. With an album, a tour and a 10-part docu-series it looks like Bieber is ready to take over 2020. I can’t wait to see all he does this year and what his comeback tour looks like. See you in Miami, Justin.