On Tues. March 15, I traveled from Reno, Nev., to Sacramento, Calif., to see a Justin Bieber concert. I had seen him once before when he was in Reno six years ago, and ask anybody who knew me then; I was the biggest Belieber out there.
When he hopped on the crazy train, I jumped out of the fandom. A small part of my heart always lived with the Beliebers, and I'm so glad that I didn't let that part of me go completely. I learned a lot about the 22-year-old Canadian dynamo that night, and I'm going to share that with you.
He has learned, and he has grown.
We all saw the Biebs fall off the rails the last few years, and plenty of people thought that would be the end of his reign. However, I am happy to report that Justin has learned from his mistakes, he has done his suffering and he has grown up. Not only is he a much more centered and mature person, but he has grown as a performer and lyricist.
His songs pull at the heartstrings, not only because they relate to everyday issues, but because he put his heart and soul into his lyrics, and you can tell. His performances as a whole have also greatly matured. When I saw him in 2010, he put on a good show. Now, he puts on an amazing show filled with pyrotechnics, acrobatics, water, a treadmill catwalk, trampolines and more. An outsider may think it's a pop-based cirque show, and they wouldn't be that wrong!
He had to do a lot of soul searching.
Before he made his comeback, Justin had to do a lot of soul searching. Before he closed the concert with the title-track of his new album, "Purpose," he sat in the middle of the stage and told all 17,317 people in the room that he wasn't sure if he would come back, because he didn't know if he was strong enough to do it or if it was the right move. He didn't know if he belonged on stage, or if he deserved his 77 million fans.
This song is like a thank you to the Beliebers around the world, because they "give [him] purpose every day," as he says in the song. I could tell that this was very important to him, because at the end of the song, he sat on the stage for a few moments with his head in his hands before he stood a blew kisses to the crowd.
He's proving people wrong.
Even before my mom got us tickets to this concert, which was in November, I kept hearing about him and how he was going to flop, or fail. I kept hearing that he lost his chance and that he ruined his career. If I was hearing all of that, I can only begin to imagine the things he was hearing.
Near the beginning of the show, when he performed his song "I'll Show You," he gave an introduction that showed just what that song really meant to him, and just what people had been saying to him.
He said, "There's going to be a lot of people in this world telling you what you can't do, that you won't make it. You know what you should tell them? 'I'll show you.'" His introduction, of course, garnered a loud response from the crowd, but it put an extra large smile on my face because I realized just how much the 16-year-old boy I loved had changed and grown into the 22-year-old man I was watching on stage.
He knows the effect he has on fans.
I used to hear people say that he's a bad role model for his younger fans, and that parents should keep their children away from him. After this concert, I have to disagree with them. There was a young girl standing in the pit by the stage who was 9 years old, and when Justin saw her, he brought her on stage.
He gave her a hug and made the point that she's the next generation, and we can't limit them or hold them back. He followed this with the performance of his song "Children," which featured four dancers ages 10–13 years old.
Justin knows how his attitude and his presence affects his fans, and how it can affect young children, and he's begun to act in a way that can inspire them, rather than deter them.
His fans have grown up, and they're more loyal than ever.
When I was 12, I became a Belieber. I got a Twitter, found his page and became one of JB's first 2 million followers. Now, he has 77.1 million. During his first tour, I sat in the third row, where I cried at a concert for the first time. On Tuesday, I sat near the back of the Sleep Train Arena, where I cried at yet another. Before the concert started, there were merch lines that wrapped around the building, which left us waiting at least an hour to get a T-shirt, but that was all OK, because at the end of that line was the concert.
At my first Bieber concert, most of the fans were right around my age, but there were some as young as 4. At this concert, six years later, the girls in the arena were still around my age, which means that in the six years that Justin grew up, his fans grew up with him, and they stood by him. I must say, when he performed "Baby," he didn't sing a word of it, because he had 17,000 girls doing it for him. And better than that? The same thing happened with "Love Yourself," though that one he sang with us. Needless to say, this boy has some loyal fans.
He's changed.
The bottom line is that Justin Bieber has changed. He has grown, he has expanded his talents and he has matured. I'm proud to be a Belieber again, and if he's touring again next year, you'll probably find me at a concert of his.
