The Hour I First Beliebed
In the 90 minutes before Justin Bieber appears, the show's creators work the audience as expertly as they will manipulate the hydraulics that lift the singer high into the air later in the evening. As I watch vendors selling cotton candy, I can't help thinking that giving bags of spun sugar to the 10,000 over-stimulated little girls surrounding me is a bit excessive.
A blond Australian teenager, Cody Simpson, comes onstage around 7 and performs "Ay Na Na." With its nonsensical chorus about love at first sight, it brings to mind Shaun Cassidy's "Da Doo Ron Ron." (Full disclosure: I'm 45.) Cody removes his jacket, and the screams rise like sirens. As my 12-year-old later remarks, "He's not very talented, but he's cute."
Next is Carly Rae Jepsen. If you lived through last summer without hearing "Call Me Maybe" at least five times a day, I am willing to bet you don't have a middle-school girl living in your home. Or perhaps you were on a cloistered retreat on the Isle of Skye.
But as "hawt" (description not mine) as Cody is or as unrelentlessly bubbly as is Ms. Jepsen (description mine), this audience has not gathered here for either one of them. It's for him. Him. The one whose face is emblazoned on their t-shirts and tote bags. The one whose initials are written in face paint on their cheeks. The one whose surname appears on a multitude of tweens' and teens' Twitter and Instagram feeds. "Mrs. Bieber," they call themselves. Or "mrsbieber_3921" or "belieber760." Many will tell you: They worship him.
At ten minutes before the show, a digital timer appears on an enormous screen above the stage. At 60-second intervals, the girls' screams grow louder. Nine minutes. Six. Four.
I love spectacle: parades, fireworks, and weddings awake joy and hope in my too-often hardened and distracted heart. So imagine my delight when Bieber makes his entrance, gliding down from above wearing steel-gray wings whose feathers look to be fashioned from cymbals, piano keys, and guitars. A laser show, fireworks, and confetti unfold high above the crowd.
Bieber sings his new songs. He leans down to his fans, allowing a few members of the throng to touch his hands or the hem of his shirt. The word BELIEVE flashes behind him. The Believe album and tour are about having faith in Bieber himself and, secondarily, about believing in his love for his fans. Throughout the night, Bieber thanks the audience multiple times for believing in him: "Where would I be, if you didn't believe?"
This winged angel, this misunderstood artist clad in white and gold, this larger-than-life figure whom they fantasize about—he needs them to believe. And, in return, he sees their beauty and actually loves them. "I just want to love you, and treat you right." When, near the end of the concert, he sings that he'll "always catch" them when they fall, he is standing in a small, fenced platform that has been lifted from the stage and has pushed him up high, closer to the back of the venue and to those sitting up high in the upper decks.
Stay Sexy or Else? Well, Please Forgive These Mommy Hips
Desperate for Their MRS. Degrees
'The Office' Shows Even TV Romance Isn't Picture-Perfect
The Double Shock of Unexpected Pregnancy
RSS
Twitter
Facebook
Pinterest
Comments
Displaying 1–10 of 17 comments
See all comments
Joslyn Sturgill
Even if the angelic pop artist speaks infrequently about Gods love, is it unthinkable that he is a conduit of teeny-bop grace to millions of girls the world over?
Angelika Roney
As I watch vendors selling cotton candy, I cant help thinking that giving bags of spun sugar to the 10,000 over-stimulated little girls surrounding me is a bit excessive.
Bob Bobo
I use to think at least these young pop stars were a better alternative to the deluge of sex and drugs and rock n roll for tweens. But after viewing the "Disney" machine and other corporate tacticts to bring tweens under their spell, like every detail of these young stars overseen from their clothes, winks, moves, songs, and promo, the machine is sucking in our tweens. And it is no more "real" or artistic as Hanna Montanna" or the others. And then the artists themselves realize how they've been manipulative and decide they could care less. I'm waiting for "Beiber" to fall just like the rest of the poor kids who are making money for the company. And just becuase he says "Jesus loves you" we all flock our kids to him. Thats marketable too folks.
Inge Schlueter
This has to be the most pathetic thing I have read all week.
raddestnerd
The line, "they worship him," bothers me. It is not idolatry of the subtle kind (many of us put our trust in money, relationships, etc.), but overt - just hanging out there for the world to see. It's understandable if this were the Beatles. They never professed to be Christians. But this is Justin Bieber! Bieber is my brother in Christ. I wish the best for him. I agree with this article in my hope he will point more to Christ while not "reverting" to a full fledged "Christian Music Artist," sooner than later. Always breaks my heart to see our own get lost in the industry. I always pray for them. Because someone like Denzel Washington is a great example, that one can maintain a strong career and a strong walk with Jesus.
Eric Martens
At ten minutes before the show, a digital timer appears on an enormous screen above the stage. At 60-second intervals, the girls screams grow louder. Nine minutes. Six. Four.
Basil
Sometime fame can eclipse faith.
Tim
I just want to love you, and treat you right. I'm just glad he didn't sing that he wanted to love on them! And to show my own even more advanced age, Jennifer, I will point out that I remember the original version of Da Doo Ron Ron by The Crystals from 1963. Cheers from the Old Guy, Tim
Gary Bebop
Elvis affected young girls the same way nearly 60 years ago. Go look at black-and-white footage of rock in its nativity. The worship is all there...emerging out of gospel music! But Elvis wound up dissolute, drugged, and dead... Get a clue!
Kathi Vande Guchte
Yes, Justin has the attention of the world (teenage girl world) and could say anything, why not talk about his relationship with Jesus? Well, we don't know that he doesn't talk about it. When celebrities refer to God and Jesus I kind of roll my eyes, because I wonder if it's as sincere as a "God bless" when someone sneezes. But if he talks about his relationship as the opportunities present throughout the day-to-day events of his life, then there's more opportunity of the focus being on just Justin talking about his relationship, and not JUSTIN BIEBER ON A PLATFORM HIGH ABOVE THE CROWD. Also, as I read the comments of the author and commenters, I want to ask you, how are you doing with talking about your relationship with Jesus to others? When you're in the bathroom talking to some woman you've never met as you look at your respective reflections, do you talk about Jesus? How about people you work with - is it a daily or weekly topic you bring up? It's easy to talk about what other people need/should do, especially celebrities who are believers, and how they should use their platform to talk about God, but we each have our own platform, and isn't that where we're supposed to have our attention? Seeing JUSTIN BIEBER form afar during a two hour concert doesn't really give the true picture of who he is as an individual, what he deals with daily (like screaming girls chasing him in public), and his fellow believers criticizing him for falling short. If God wants Justin to speak more boldly, wouldn't God do so, as he did with Moses, Jonah, and many others in the Bible? It's sad there are so many articles written by Christians about other Christians and how/where they're falling short and what they should be doing in the glimpse of their lives. Then other Christians read these articles and form an opinion about someone they don't know...isn't that slander and gossip? Imagine if we only spoke well of each other to others as the Bible instructs us to do.
*