
He's the moppet from another planet: I defy anyone to watch this docu-lite promotional tour video about Justin Bieber's live show (back when he was 16) and not be sort of impressed, if only at an anthropological level. With his extraordinary hair, his perky chops, his eerie self-possession and his billions of screaming fans, Bieber is … well, awesome is the only word. He achieved a level of fame that long ago left the OMG category and is now in the upper reaches of OMFG. There is no story or journey to Bieber's triumph. It simply happened too quickly; he was a nobody the day before yesterday. The tagline on the poster says: "Find out what's possible if you never give up." But for Bieber this was the shortest struggle imaginable. There were no reversals or problems or tragedies in the tiny interval between obscurity and mega-fame: none visible, anyway. His dad left his mum when he was 10 months old, and she brought him up with her doting parents' help. The errant dad puts in a supportive backstage cameo, though. Did the ker-ching attract him back? Is there bitterness? Doesn't seem to be. Justin was discovered singing on YouTube as a 13-year-old and cultivated his fanbase on Twitter. He's the world's first crowdsourced superstar. A supercute global teen singer had to be discovered in this way, as if through some hyper-accelerated evolutionary process. Justin Bieber is the cute, talented teenage singer and dancer who can carry an 86-date enormodome tour without cracking up. Or at least not yet. And in a world where everyone's downloading music illegally, live dates are where the money is. And Justin's future? One mention of Michael Jackson conjures a brief chill. And those enamoured of Justin's hair might be upset to see that his grandad is as bald as a coot.
