Yesterday was a bit surreal. Paramount Pictures invited us to the European premiere of Never Say Never 3D, the biopic film of Justin Bieber's rise to fame from ordinary kid to You Tube star to selling out Madison Square Gardens.What's refreshing about Bieber is he is not a Disney/Nickelodeon manufactured creation. He is social media success story, using YouTube and Twitter to develop a loyal fan base that fuelled his explosive rise to stardom.
It's hard to describe exactly how loyal his fans are. When we arrived at the O2 the line of excited teens clad in purple already snaked around the corner. I Heart JB signs were everywhere. As we had a coffee in Starbucks, two girls that couldn't have been older than my babysitter, saw our press passes and asked if I could Pleeeaze help them meet Justin. We love him.
I can relate. In the 70s I had a crush on a young Donny Osmond and Michael Jackson (before he got weird). But never in a million years would I have approached people I didn't know and beg them to help me. The difference is the pervasiveness of the Internet; these girls really feel like they found Bieber first on YouTube and that he belongs to them. It's extraordinary.
We fought our way through the crowds and made it onto the purple carpet. I looked for the "press pens", which are literally secured barbed wire pens around the walkway. We passed Sky News, BBC, and Hello! TV and lots and lots of flashing cameras. Fans lined the other side of the carpet. We finally found the pen labeled "bloggers" and a security guard let us in. In addition to press passes, we were also given wristbands (similar to the ones used in hospital) for extra security. Then we waited. And waited. Thank god for the iPad and Angry Birds. As it got closer to 6, when Bieber was expected, the girls started to get really excited. My 9-year-old clutched a card in her hand. She had spent hours creating it for Bieber and it had lots of hand-drawn hearts coloured in purple pen. On the front she had put "Bieber Fever".
Then he arrived and our big moment came. Bieber's face lit up when he saw the girls (he had just been on a line up of adult press). He gave my nine-year-old a high five, and she handed him her card. He must have thought she was asking for an autograph, and he scribbled JB on it with a black felt marker and gave it back to her. I was fumbling with my iPhone, trying to capture it all and then the moment was gone. My other two immediately burst into tears because they didn't get an autograph. But my oldest was floating. Did I really just meet Justin Bieber mummy?
About the film. Young Bieber fans will want to see it over and over (mine have seen it twice and made me promise to take them again at halfterm). Director John Chu describes it as a movie about teens and technology. Social media mums will connect with it on so many levels. First, of course, if you have daughters, it's the familiarity with tunes like Baby, which by the way currently has more than 450 MILLION views on You Tube. It's an all too familiar world, the opening scene is a computer screen clicking on emails with links to popular YouTube vids like this one:
And this one:
But is was Justin singing So Sick by Ne-yo in 2007 on YouTube that caught talent manager Scooter Braun's eye (we took pics with him too, see below). Braun became obsessed with finding the 12-year-old, and finally convinced Bieber's mum to bring him out to Atlanta. They started a full on YouTube campaign, giving Beiber more credibility by releasing videos performance artists like Usher. Then Bieber started using Twitter (@justinbieber) to up his game. He would tweet about his next local radion station appearance, and soon there would be a hoard of fans outside.
One of the funniest scenes was when a now-famous Justin visited some of his hometown Stratford, Canada, and stopped to listen to a young street performer in front of the Avon Theatre where, he performed as a child. The tongue-tied violinist didn't quite know how to react, and started playing faster and faster.
And there were several touching moments. One that will resonate with parents is when Bieber's grandfather talks about when it became clear that Justin and his mother would move to the US to follow his dream and how he always knew they wouldn't have him forever.
It is sweet how the Bieber team roams the grounds before performances and randonmly give out tickets. I was transported back to being a teenager during the One Less Lonely Girl scene, where a girl from the audience is picked to come on stage to be serenaded by Justin. You could really feel the teen's joy.
There are some great uses of 3D (and some not so great uses). The confetti floating out at you during Baby is perfect, and there is a scene where Bieber flips his famous feathered hair in 3D that is not to be missed.
We are still coming down from Bieber fever.
If you see the film, please leave a comment below and let me know how you like it.
JUSTIN BIEBER: NEVER SAY NEVER is out this Friday 18th February 2011.
