Get excited, Beliebers. The first episode Justin Bieber’s docuseries, “Seasons,” has arrived.
On Monday, YouTube Originals dropped the premiere episode of the highly-anticipated docuseries. Titled, “Leaving the Spotlight,” Episode 1 followed Bieber as he took a look back at his life after he canceled the last leg of his “Purpose” tour.
“I’m Justin. I’m from Stratford, Ontario, Canada. I am an artist, I make music. I started making music when I was really young,” Bieber said as he introduced the series. “It helped me escape from a lot of the things that I felt like I was going through at the time or that I was going through at the time… And I’m excited to share my journey with you. So come and check it out.”
“Justin Bieber: Seasons” is a 10-part series, with new episodes dropping every Monday and Wednesday at 12 p.m. ET. (Episodes 2, 3 and 4 are also available now, but to YouTube Premium members only.) Each episode will be an average of 10 minutes long, making the complete first season a little less than two hours.
“Seasons” follows the creation of Bieber’s fifth studio album, which will be the first since 2015’s “Purpose.” The docuseries features interviews with Bieber, his wife Hailey Baldwin, his managers Scooter Braun and Alison Kaye and his pal, Ryan Good.
Check out five takeaways from the first episode, below.
1. Scooter Braun remembered the moment Bieber said he didn’t want to keep going.
“Earlier on in his career. We’d always say, let’s go for another one… another hit, another record, another thing, another tour. Before ‘Purpose’ with ‘Journals,’ I didn’t want him to tour. I wanted him to get healthy and we went on ‘Purpose,'” Braun recalled, later adding that he remembered “the day” Bieber said he didn’t want to keep going. “It was a very tough one. He just wanted to get away and feel normal and needed to get a break from it all.”
Braun, who discovered Bieber when the singer was only 13, expressed how Bieber’s break has changed him for the better.
“At the end, he was tired and said look, I need a break and he took a very long break,” Braun said. “In that time he’s found his wife, he’s grown a lot. I don’t put any pressure on that timeline anymore. He’s earned the right to do it in his own time.”
2. Bieber used to be “ashamed” of his hometown.
As shown in the first episode, Bieber and Baldwin took a trip back to the singer’s hometown of Stratford back in 2019. While driving, Bieber explained how he hadn’t shown anyone the town since his 2011 documentary, “Never Say Never.” After checking out the spot where Bieber used to play music as a kid, the couple then visited Bieber’s apartment that he grew up in. Although the pop star was impressed by the renovations the building had made, he admitted that he was “ashamed” by the “shitty” apartment growing up. Bieber even pointed out that he felt weird arriving in a luxury car. “I’m pulling up in a Range Rover? I’d never thought that in a million years,” he said.
3. His surprise performance at Coachella 2019 was he push he needed.
When Bieber joined Ariana Grande onstage at Coachella, it was his first time he had performed in years. Although Ryan Good said Bieber went back and forth about agreeing to the surprise performance, it proved to be a turning point in Bieber’s comeback. “He wanted me to build him a rolling itinerary like I do when he’s working. The second he asked to actually put the time in, I was like, ‘Oh, okay, now we’re ready to go back to work,” recalled Alison Kaye, Bieber’s manager.
4. Hailey Baldwin is Bieber’s biggest fan.
Multiple times during the first episode, Bieber gushed about his wife, who he says “makes everything better.” Baldwin, who married Bieber back in September 2018, expressed her awe over her husband, including how much she enjoys watching him “do what he loves.”
“Honestly, I feel like I’m here to cheer him on and support him,” Baldwin said. “The last time around when he was doing the ‘Purpose’ album, I was around for a lot of that but definitely not as intimately. I love to see him do what he’s so good at. There’s a lot of pressure on an artist–musicians specifically that I think people don’t get to see because they’re not around for the full process. So me being someone who isn’t a musician, and who is not involved in music in that way, watching it I have a whole new amount of respect for Justin as well as other artists who put their blood sweat and tears in their craft.”
5. Bieber has learned a new approach to making music.
The “Sorry” singer expressed how his time off from the limelight has impacted the way he creates music. According to Bieber, he’s now in “a better headspace” and with that new mindset, comes a fresh approach to making music.
“Being human is challenging for everybody. We’re all struggling to some degree,” he said in the episode. “We all have our individuals pains, and fears and anxieties, worries. My life is changing a lot. Getting married. Getting back to the studio. Talking about getting married and the process and just being creative in this new chapter. Being happy about what I’m doing. Being in a good headspace. A better headspace.”
Bieber admitted that what’s been “challenging” for him over the years is that when he made music it was for himself. Now that’s changed. “When the focus and the goal is about yourself, you kind of tend to lose your purpose in that,” he said. “I think the older I get, the more I realize that I’m not utilizing my gift, I feel, for the right reasons. This isn’t about me, it’s about helping someone who’s going through whatever they’re going through, and being able to talk about that thing, I think that’s a really cool way to look at what I do.”
The episode also revealed a little snippet of a new Bieber song. And to no surprise, it’s amazing. Watch the full episode above.
Episode 2, “Bieber Is Back,” will be released to the public on Wednesday at 12 p.m. ET
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