Did you predict Justin Bieber's comeback to be THIS big?

[leoapp]

After his bad attitude back in 2013-2014, most people considered his career over. But after a mild success with Where Are U Know, Purpose era is surprisingly huge. Big album sales, big streaming, with so far 3 smash hits, topping the chart all over the world.
Even more impressive, in most countries the 3 hits have charted inside the top 10 or top 5 at the same week, smashing together.
In UK, all 3 songs a few weeks ago ruled the top 3, a record.

Did you predict Bieber's comeback to be THIS big? :)

[Devil Marlena Nylund]

I'm waiting for his comeback tbh.

I didn't expect this era to be as big as it is now though.

[YourFaveIsAFlop]

Anybody who says they thought Justin even had the potential to be as big as he is right now is full of it

[Live Your Life]

I never really thought any of the antics he pulled over the past few years would really do that much damage to his career. The one thing I thought would (the N word video) is actually never brought up. But I guess that isn't surprising....

I will say that I didn't expect the "Purpose" album to sell as well as it is because the sales for "Believe" were a bit of a disappointment.

[Colton]

He doesn't deserve it

[Envoirment]

I didn't think he was done or anything and thought he could quite easily be successful with his next album - but didn't imagine it to be as big as it has been. Although that's due to streaming being included in the charts to an extent.

[Ling-Ling]

I'm kinda surprised to be honest. Not because of the shenanigans he pulled, stars have come back from way worse (which basically just amounted to him being a douche). I'm just surprised he's finding so much success with this material. Everything he's released has been kind of middle of the road and unremarkable to me. And his voice... don't get me started. And his skills as a performer...again, don't get me started.

[irice22]

Nope. No way.

[Live Your Life]

Feb 6, 2016 10:20:01 GMT -5 Live Your Life said:

I never really thought any of the antics he pulled over the past few years would really do that much damage to his career. The one thing I thought would (the N word video) is actually never brought up. But I guess that isn't surprising....

The New Yorker published a story today going inside TMZ's biggest stories and how they get the exclusives, and this was mentioned:

In January, 2011, an anonymous tipster, using a voice modulator to disguise her identity, called TMZ, offering to sell a compromising video of Justin Bieber. At the time, Bieber was fifteen years old and about to star in a bio-pic, “Never Say Never.”

The caller e-mailed a teaser from the video that reached Diana Dasrath, who until recently was TMZ’s “clips-clearance manager.” The teaser showed Bieber, sitting alone in a room, singing his hit “One Less Lonely Girl” a cappella. In place of the usual lyrics, Bieber had substituted “***I'M RACIST***” for “girl.” He giggled as he sang, “There’ll be one less lonely ***I'M RACIST***” and “If I kill you, I’ll be part of the K.K.K.”

After a deal was made for the Bieber clip, Justin Kaplan—the former production associate who had received the limo lists at the gas station—was sent to Levin’s house.

“They liked the way I handled things, and they used to pick me to go on these cool trips,” Kaplan told me. At the house, Andy Mauer gave Kaplan an envelope containing a check for about eighty thousand dollars. Kaplan drove to the Burbank airport and caught the next flight to Las Vegas. He rented a car and headed to an apartment building on the outskirts of the city. On the second floor, a middle-aged African-American woman in an oversized T-shirt answered the door. Kaplan tried to ascertain the woman’s identity: did she have a son who was friends with Bieber? But she didn’t want to chat. “She handed me a laptop, and a disk, and I gave her the check. I got on the next flight back to Burbank."

That afternoon, TMZ contacted Bieber’s manager, Scooter Braun, for comment. A source close to the situation told me that when Bieber was informed of the leak he broke down, confessing that he had made the video a while back, as a joke, and that he thought he had deleted it from his laptop, which was later stolen.

In a phone conversation, Braun pleaded with Levin not to post the video, saying, “You’re going to ruin this kid’s life.” Levin hesitated for four seconds, then said that he was moving ahead, and that he would need a statement from Braun by the morning. “Harvey, whatever those four seconds were—whatever that place is—that’s the place that I want you to go back to,” Braun said. He and other members of Bieber’s team stayed up all night crafting a statement. In the morning, Braun and Levin spoke again. Levin confided that he’d been unable to sleep. “A lot of people call me and tell me I’m an asshole—they say, ‘f**k you,’ ” Levin said. “You didn’t. I’m not putting the video up.” Braun broke down in tears. Bieber later called Levin and thanked him.

In the months before TMZ obtained the video, its coverage of Bieber had often been antagonistic; it ran a post suggesting that he had hit a twelve-year-old boy during a game of laser tag. After Braun and Levin had their phone conversation, numerous flattering Bieber-related exclusives appeared on the site: a photograph of Bieber backstage during a commercial shoot; pictures of him getting a haircut; a video of him and his girlfriend Selena Gomez performing karaoke; a story about how he bought “every single flower” at a florist’s and sent the flowers to Gomez’s house; video from a trip that Bieber took to Liverpool; and others, including a report of him watching “Titanic” one night, with Gomez, inside an otherwise vacant Staples Center. (“Sources connected to the Biebs tell us . . . Justin hatched the idea after seeing the movie ‘Mr. Deeds’—where Adam Sandler surprises Winona Ryder with a date at Madison Square Garden.”) Bieber also made some appearances on “TMZ Live.”

In June, 2014, the Sun published a copy of the scandalous “One Less Lonely” video. (Unbeknownst to Levin, the seller had continued to shop around copies of the footage. Radar Online also owned a copy of the footage.)

[nikkominaj]

yes

[LBTrocks]

No, not really tbh. However, now that it's happening, it's not really that surprising. This is Bieber and he's always had a huge following, not to mention the fact that he's recording some of the most safe and generic pop music ever IMO.