What is Justin Bieber really like?
To tell you the truth, that's a question I never thought I'd be in a position to answer, until I spent a couple of hours with him last month, during the taping of his segment for the CBC-TV holiday special, Season of Song: The Canadian Tenors and Friends, which airs Dec. 13 at 9 p.m.
Getting Bieber onto the show happened so quickly that there wasn't any time to shoot him in the studio with the other guests like David Foster and Paul Anka. No, the tenors and the entire CBC crew had to come down to the Air Canada Centre and grab a couple of hours with The Biebs in between his sound check and the show.
It was a tricky thing to pull off and everybody seemed nervous about it except the superstar himself. The first section was going to be one of those “informal backstage chat” things and the cameras were set, the tenors were ready and everyone was Waiting For Justin.
Then he appeared and that's when I came across the first of the 10 Things I Learned About Justin Bieber
1 HE LOVES HIS SEGWAY
Bieber got a lot of press this past summer using a Segway scooter to escape from a crowd of female fans in Phoenix, but it was also his chosen mode of transportation to scoot around backstage at the ACC. In fact, we heard him before we saw him “Yo, dudes!” he called out as he rounded a corner, the bright blue Segway shining in the light. He hopped off so lightly and with such ease that one of the tenors wanted to try it. “Keep still, man, and go with the flow. It takes care of the balance itself,” was his advice, but the tenor (who shall remain nameless!) started wobbling on it and the Segway was retired.
2 HE'S GOTTEN REALLY THIN
Think of all the times you've seen Bieber in print or on TV. He's always seemed like a cherubic lad, not quite the Pillsbury Doughboy, but the kind of kid whose cheeks older woman always wanted to pinch. In fact, the giant poster for him that filled the wall behind his stage at the ACC showed just such a visage.
But the young man next to me had no weight to spare. Not sickly, just lean and compact. Perhaps most importantly, the eyes that shine out at you from underneath those bangs now look as though they've seen a lot in a very little while. He's not a boyish teen idol any more, but a young man, with a bit of danger about him. And in the world of pop stardom, that's a very good thing.
