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  While we were in Israel, my mom and Scooter booked a week off for us so we could see the sights and tour around. It was pretty cool because my dad and Scooter’s parents came to join us as well. Even though we all work together, I think it says a lot about our team that we also choose to spend our days off together too. We have experienced so much over the years and in so many incredible places all around the world and have become a very close-knit family.

  Being in Jerusalem was especially intense for me because there was so much history and so many events that took place in the Bible and scripture I’d read about in Sunday school and heard my mom talk about in church. I mean, this is the place where Jesus walked the earth! That’s pretty big. This was my opportunity to see all of these sacred places and have a personal and private experience with my closest friends and family. Ultimately, I wanted to visit the various historical sites like any other tourist. But, of course, I’ve had to accept that I am not just like every other tourist, so there were a couple of challenges in making that happen.

  Unfortunately, the paparazzi there were extremely aggressive, so there were times I tried to get out and about, but I couldn’t get very far, and that made me kind of sad because the experience wasn’t what I wanted it to be. Still, I was able to see where Jesus was buried, where he was put on the cross, and where Moses led his people.

  My mom knew I was pretty bummed out so she arranged for everyone to rent dune buggies and ride them out in the desert, where there were bouncy trails and, believe it or not, tons of mud. It was awesome! Somehow, we also found a place where we could snowboard outside on artificial snow that was more like fake grass except it was white. Since we couldn’t do all of the traditional things we intended to do, we found the most random ways to spend some quality time together and ended up having a really great time anyway.

  With the amazing Will and Willow Smith, powering up before our show in Dublin. That’s how we get the party started!

  While touring in Indonesia in 2011, a local businessman offered his home to the team and me for a couple of days of rest and relaxation after our show there. We were very happy to take this man up on his generous offer, so my mom, Scooter, Carin, Dan, Kenny, Fredo, Moshe, and I headed off to Bali. I have to admit that it was really nice to have a break in the middle of the madness, particularly when we got there and saw this amazing ten-bedroom villa on the most beautiful volcanic beach that was full of black sand. As you know, I love being on a beach anywhere, but Bali was especially sweet because we had the entire villa to ourselves. There were no distractions, no obligations and, best of all, no paparazzi. It was really cool.

  The first night we got there, as the waves from the ocean were hitting in front of our place, Dan broke out his guitar and played for hours. We all started to sing along, even making up our own lyrics. Everyone got to do two bars and then had to pass the next two lines off to whoever was sitting to their right. We made up all kinds of hilarious songs together, singing and laughing until 2 or 3 in the morning.

  I had the chance to go wakeboarding with Fredo and Moshe, who, despite his insane strength and power, could barely stand up on the board! Fredo managed to get up on the board a couple of times though. The three of us had so much fun.

  While we were there, I was inspired to write a song called “Be Alright” with Dan. Dan had been encouraging me to start writing songs that were more personal, you know, about things I know about firsthand and can relate to. He definitely inspired me to go a little deeper with my song writing, and while I was sitting on the most pristine beach I’d ever seen, halfway around the world from home, the song just flowed. “Be Alright” is a song about long-distance relationships—something Dan and I could both really relate to because we spend so much time on the road.

  Channeling my inner Zoolander on the beach in Bali.

  After my last show in Hong Kong we had a couple of rare days off, so Fredo and I decided to hit the streets and check out the outdoor markets. There’s no better way to learn about the culture of another country than putting boots to the ground and exploring how they live. We spent the entire day looking at all of the cool stuff they were selling from food I’d never seen (and would be hesitant to try) to interesting electronic gadgets I could connect to my iPhone, like wide-angle camera lenses and tripods. We spent hours goofing around, having a great time without anyone recognizing me! It was humbling and appreciated because those moments of being a regular tourist are very few and far between for me.

  My bodyguard Moshe speaks five languages, however he doesn’t speak any of the Asian languages, so we had a translator with us during our stay. While we were kicking around ideas about what to do, our translator suggested we could charter a yacht and spend the day touring the area by water. My mom jumped all over that idea and found a place where we could rent a boat for the day.

  Yes! This was going to be an awesome adventure.

  When we got to the marina we saw this beautiful boat named Tara waiting for us. Fredo, Carin, Ryan, Dan, Kenny, Allison, my mom, and me were all together to enjoy that extraordinary day. As the boat pulled away from the city, its skyline vanished into the horizon. The captain took us to this area where we sailed through caves and lush hilly landscapes. All of a sudden, the captain pushed the throttle all of the way down and we started bombing across the water like we were in a James Bond movie. Everyone’s hair was blowing all over the place, especially the girls’. Of course, mine was perfect (ha, ha), but theirs ended up looking like the worst case of bed head I’ve seen! It was so funny.

  When the boat finally slowed down, we came up to a really beautiful private beach that was at the base of these lush hilly canyons. It was so peaceful and the perfect spot to spend the day. We had the entire beach to ourselves. It was awesome. We chilled out, laughed, and enjoyed the absolute peace and beauty of our surroundings. Moments like this are what helps keep me motivated to get back to the stage night after night and leave all I’ve got out there for all of you. I had the best day with everyone and felt re-energized for our show in Taiwan, the next stop on the tour, and totally hit it hard.

  I am a natural competitor. I am a hockey player, basketball player, and soccer player. I was known as an athlete back at my school in Stratford when I was younger and I like to compete. I am not afraid to step up to the competition. Regardless of who or what is in front of me, my goal is always to match or beat it. I am just one of those kids who set their mind on something and make it happen. Whatever I do, I want to be the best. That trait can be annoying, especially when it comes to ping-pong. If you wanna play, bring it!

  During our South American tour we started bringing in a ping-pong table to every venue. Secure with my skills, I once offered up a standing bet to anyone on my crew who beats me—and so far no one from the tour has, not even Scooter’s dad, who is super competitive, or Scrappy, who is actually pretty good—but not good enough! Ha! It’s good to know that if my singing career doesn’t work out, I could always tour as a professional ping-pong player.

  The truth is, I am a really sore loser, so when someone actually does win a game, first, it’s a fluke; second, I will play them again and again until I take back the title and take the next four games in a row just to make it clear I am still the reigning champ. I have to win, or what’s the point in playing? I feel that way about everything I do—from my music to shooting pool. If I want to get really good, I’ll practice and practice some more until I become the best.

  When I first started performing I thought I had some pretty decent dance moves, but compared to the other dancers on the tour, I was still so inexperienced and, yeah, a little awkward. Those guys were sharp, polished and fluid—three things I wanted to be too, so I studied their moves and practiced morning, noon, and night until I got them down. I memorized each of their solos until I had them perfect. And then one day during a rehearsal somewhere on the European tour, I busted out the same moves. I did all their solos spot on. I think I took everyone by surprise. There’s no point in do
ing something if you’re not going to strive to be best. My best is still far away—I’ve got some more striving to do … ha, ha!

  Unlike a lot of other artists who are older than me, I don’t allow any alcohol backstage before, during, or after a show, and for the most part there usually isn’t any type of after party or clubbing. We do a show and our normal routine is to head straight back to the hotel so we can all come down from the adrenaline rush of performing. For security reasons, we sometimes have to take a whole floor of a hotel. It doesn’t happen a lot, but when it does we often get into epic games of hide and go seek. It’s kind of funny because we usually stay in really nice places, so it’s pretty unusual to walk down a hallway and see all of the room doors propped open, but it’s also really cool because there are a lot of great places to hide on a single floor of a hotel. Sometimes we can even get the hotel management to turn off all of the lights in the hallway so we are playing in total pitch-black darkness. A dark floor in a hotel can actually be a little creepy, but it’s so much fun.

  Can you keep a secret?

  OK, so check this out. What most of the crew doesn’t know is that I create alliances with certain people during these games. I will tell my mom or Allison where I am going to hide and use them as diversions. If someone asks them if they’ve seen me, they’ll say “no,” or send them in another direction so they can’t find me. I already told you, hide and go seek is a game all about survival of the fittest!

  It’s important for me to never stop being a kid—even as I get older. At the end of the day, I am just a normal guy who wants to hang out, play video games and mess around with my friends. With everything going on in my career, I think it’s important to stay as grounded as I can—and thankfully my crew goes along with whatever that means—even if they have to endure games of hide and go seek or having to tell me to quit playing a video game I am crushing ten minutes before a show. It isn’t unusual for me to be backstage in a fierce NBA 2k12 battle as the countdown clock ticks away on stage, building up the excitement for 40,000 screaming fans. Scrappy will often come to my dressing room to get me mic’d up and I will tell him I can’t until I finish the game. Of course, it’s always in the middle of a game. Classic teenager stuff.

  As I’ve gotten older, there have been times I have wanted to go out after a show and do something fun with the crew, so sometimes we might go bowling or somewhere like that. When we were in Brazil I wanted to surprise everyone with an after party. It was toward the end of the world tour, so I thought it would be really nice for everyone to kick it. Since I am still too young to get into a nightclub on my own, I thought it might be cool if we rented out a club and invited “the family” to join me. Everyone enjoyed the opportunity to blow off a little steam, and Brazil seemed like the right place to help make that happen.

  Becoming a star didn’t seem possible. It was like going to the moon or winning the lottery—you don’t even dream of it happening.

  When the idea of doing a Christmas album first came up, I don’t think anyone on my team thought it would explode the way Under the Mistletoe did. Well, at least I didn’t think it would. We had planned on doing a small EP first and then just a Christmas single, but when I started writing all of the songs, we realized we had an incredible body of work—enough songs to fill a full-length, 14-song album—so we went for it. I knew I wanted to do some classics, but mostly I wanted to include my original material.

  Once we knew the Christmas album was a definite, we decided to go all out by shooting a bunch of viral videos and a couple of major videos to get the marketing machine started and the fans excited.

  That’s when we got the call from Mariah Carey, who said she’d heard I was doing a Christmas album and suggested we do a remix of her hit “All I Want for Christmas Is You” as a duet. Receiving that phone call was the most surreal thing ever. Mariah Carey was calling me?

  #Swaggy!

  Of course, I said yes, and once I did, we got Usher and Boyz II Men to hop on board for the album too.

  We released Under the Mistletoe on November 1, 2011. This album was the first time my fans would hear a difference in my voice from My World. Everyone knew my voice was going to change after I went through puberty—what we weren’t completely sure of was whether my fans would receive my new sound. But then it occurred to me that my fans are going through puberty too, so why would they flip out? Plus, I believe in my fans, and know they totally support me, so I didn’t really think this was a big deal. The album sold 3 million copies worldwide, which shocked everyone. It was the biggest Christmas album in the history of my record label. We had a hunch it was going to do well but we didn’t know it was going to be that big. Even though it was a Christmas album, it ended up as one of the biggest-selling albums of the year—an accomplishment I am extremely proud of and grateful to my fans for helping make happen.

  Playing Massey Hall in Toronto is something all Canadian artists look forward to doing during their careers. Every great Canadian artist has played there from Neil Young to Celine Dion. The night I played Massey Hall was a homecoming of sorts. It’s close to where I grew up so it was like being home. I used to sing on the steps outside the Avon Theater in Stratford, pretending it was Massey Hall, hoping that someday I’d get the chance to be the headline on that famous stage.

  Playing Massey Hall was like getting a two-for-one special because Dan is from Toronto, so in a way this show was a homecoming for him too and would likely be one of the most special we’d play so far. I’d been doing stadium and arena shows for months, and although there was a lot of pressure to do the same type of venue that night, I decided to play the Much Music Home for the Holidays Show at Massey Hall because I wanted this particular show to be more personal and the hometown audience to feel special.

  Plus, it was my only real chance to share my Christmas record with my Canadian fans, so the whole idea was to do something different as my own way of giving back to them.

  In my mind I wanted to change things up a bit from our regular routine. I thought it would be cool to have one night where I wasn’t a big pop star playing my usual theatrical show. I just wanted to be the hometown kid who was there to give his audience an intimate acoustic show—just my fans and me joking around, singing songs together. To set the right tone, we had a single piano on stage and two guitars—one for Dan and the other for me. That’s it. A show doesn’t get more intimate than that.

  Even though I’d come up with a loose set list before the show, there was nothing concrete that I had to stick to—something that’s pretty unusual for an artist to do. This show was my time to do whatever I wanted and play how I felt.

  Since this was a Christmas show, Scrappy dressed as an elf and brought hot chocolate out on stage, looking like one of Santa’s helpers! According to him, elves in Canada look different than they do in America. I have no idea what he’s talking about!

  I was only supposed to play for 45 minutes to an hour, but the vibe in the room was so warm that I stayed on stage for more than two hours! I played whatever came to mind and took requests from the audience, asking, “What do you all want to hear?”

  For me the holidays are all about being with family, so I even brought my little sister Jazmyn on stage and we sang our version of “Baby” together. To be honest, I think she stole the show right out from under me that night. You better watch out world—there’s another Bieber coming!

  All in all Massey Hall was an unforgettable night. It was definitely a one-of-a-kind experience for all of my Canadian fans, friends, and family who came out to share this special appearance with me—and the best way I could think of to close out the Christmas album promo trip and welcome in the holidays.

  When I was first asked to appear on the season finale of The X Factor in the U.S., the original plan was to perform “All I Want for Christmas is You,” my duet with Mariah Carey that had been recently released. We had shot the video together, but because of other obligations Mariah couldn’t get back to LA in time to do the s
how. We were going to cancel the whole thing but Simon Cowell called Scooter and said, “We really need Justin for the finale. This would mean a lot to me. Can you make it happen?”

  Scooter wanted to commit, but only if he could figure out how to make it a big moment for everyone. My agent, Rob Light, also represents Stevie Wonder, so Scooter thought he’d give it a shot. He called Rob and said, “I know Stevie is in town because we are doing his annual House Full of Toys charity event this weekend. Do you think he would do The X Factor with Justin?”

  Rob called Stevie, who immediately said he was in.

  My two musical heroes of all time are Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson—I could hardly believe I’d get the chance to perform with Stevie. How dope is that?!

  When he showed up for rehearsal, he was so chill, like seeing an old friend. “Hey guys, what’s going on? It is good to be here.” He set up his keyboard in his dressing room and wanted to rehearse because we had never sung together. We decided to sing “The Christmas Song.” All during our rehearsal the only thing I could think was, “Stevie Wonder is singing in front of me, playing the keyboard and doing solos on his harmonica.” I mean, c’mon! How much cooler does it get?

  We were each taking turns doing our solos when all of a sudden we sat down at the piano together and started playing each other our ideas and riffing on how to do the song. It didn’t take us very long to veer into writing original songs together. Stevie actually played me a song he’d written sometime back that he thought might be good for me. I’d been singing Stevie Wonder tunes since I was a little kid and there I was, sitting next to him listening to him sing a song he wrote for me! It was the greatest experience to be with such a legend, jamming and having a really good time.