Canadian singer Justin Bieber performs on stage during a concert in Zurich, Switzerland Friday, March 22, 2013.Walter Bieri/The Canadian Press
The tag line for Justin Bieber's 2011 concert film Never Say Never was "Find out what's possible if you never give up."
But earlier this week, during an interview with Los Angeles radio station KPRW (Power 106.1 FM, "where hip hop lives"), the pop star dropped a bombshell. Yup, he's giving up – or so he says.
"I'm actually retiring man," Bieber replied when asked about his new album, Complete My Journals, due out Dec. 23. "I'm just gonna take some time. I think I'm probably gonna quit music."
Naturally this left-field admission has roused the Internet. A 19-year-old superstar stepping away from the spotlight at the height of his career is basically unprecedented. And highly unlikely.
Bieber is known to be quite the rascal, so it's impossible to know what to believe from the saggy-pants fun-lover whose 2012 platinum-selling album was called Believe. Wearing sunglasses during the freewheeling interview, Bieber appeared extremely relaxed. It's probable that he was joking, in the playful manner of Bob Dylan, the troubadour to whom Bieber is rarely compared.
On the Boyfriend-singer's Twitter account, it was business as usual, with the teen idol updating his nearly 48 million followers on the upcoming album and the tour documentary Believe 3D, in theatres on Dec. 25. Bieber gives no clues to any premature retirement or hiatus.
The singer's boorish antics over the last couple of years suggest he is prone to impulsive behaviour, and one would have to think that Bieber retiring now is not something that would ever happen. But as they say, never say never.
Brad Wheeler