LITTLE ROCK — Justin Bieber has found himself on the so-much-traveled road from cute kid to tabloid fodder.
Photos are circulating, thanks to gossip site TMZ. com, of Bieber at a recent Newport Beach, Calif., party holding what some suspect might be a marijuana cigarette.
Bieber hasn’t bothered to deny anything, instead tweeting to his Tweeting followers:
“Everyday growing and learning. Trying to be better. U get knocked down, u get up. Back on tour tomorrow.Ready to see u all smile. Time to do what I'm supposed to be doing. I see all of u. I hear all of u. I never want to let any of you down. I love u. And thank you.”
He has added that the new year has brought “new challenges. New doubters. I’m ready. We are ready. See u all tomorrow and everyday after that.”
Bieber’s love life, too, is under the microscope, with the media scrutinizing his off-and-on relationship with20-year-old singer Selena Gomez. (She stood by him in November 2011 as a paternity test discredited a woman’s claims that Bieber had fathered her child.)
Bieber is out doing what he does best - touring and performing before adoring young throngs who flock to their generation’s version of teen (and pre-teen) idols.
Tonight he brings his Believe tour, named for his fourth studio album, released June 19, to North Little Rock’s Verizon Arena. The tour began Sept. 29 in Glendale, Ariz., and the first American leg wraps up with two nights in Miami, Jan. 26-27, beforeheading overseas, starting Feb. 17 in Dublin and ending May 12 in South Africa. Then it’s back to the United States, June 22 in San Diego to Aug. 10 in Atlanta.
Believe features guest appearances by Ludacris, Nicki Minaj, Drake and Big Sean. Powered by the album’s first single, “Boyfriend,” Believe follows Bieber’s other No. 1 albums: My World 2.0 in 2010; and 2011’s Never Say Never: The Remixes (soundtrack to the successful concert film) and the Christmas album Under the Mistletoe.
Bieber has sold more than 15 million albums in the past two years, while notching some 43 million Facebook fans, 32.7 million Twitter followers and more than 2.7 billion YouTube views. He won the 2012 Billboard Music Award for Social Artist of the Year.
In 2012, Forbes magazine named Bieber, who had earned an estimated $55 million in the preceding 12 months, the world’s third most powerful celebrity.
Bieber, born in London, Ontario, Canada, and raised in Stratford, Ontario,will mark his 19th birthday March 1. Encouraged by his single mother, he learned to play a variety of musical instruments, and his mother’s posting of videos on the then-new YouTube put him in the public eye and ear.
Bieber performed for a sold-out crowd of 13,986 at the arena July 29, 2010.
For this concert, Verizon Arena will provide a parent room, a space in the arena for parents who don’t want to buy a ticket but have young children attending the show. There will be TVs in the room, free popcorn and beverages for sale. Call (501) 975-9000 or visit verizonarena.com.
Parents can only access the room via the Washington Street box office tunnel entrance with their children; children and parents will get wristbands. No visiting back and forth during the concert; parents should know their child’s seat location in case of emergency, and designate a place to meet after the concert ends.
Justin Bieber
7 p.m. today , Verizon Arena,
East Broadway and Inter
state 30, North Little Rock.
Doors open at 6 p.m.
Openers: Carly Rae Jepsen,
Cody Simpson
Tickets: $94, $79.50, $68,
$51.50
(800) 745-3000
ticketmaster.com
Weekend, Pages 32 on 01/10/2013