It’s hard to believe that our prince of pop turns 27 today. It feels like only yesterday when the young teen sensation broke out on to the scene with his now-iconic single “Baby” and captured every teenage girl’s heart one hair flick at a time. While his transformation from teen heartthrob to chart-topping superstar mirrors that of Miley Cyrus, the singer has grown hugely over the years and this hasn’t just been reflected in his music, but his image and style too.

With the singer not only celebrating his birthday today but the announcement of his new album Justice out March 19, we thought we count down some of the Bieb’s best moments over his decade long career – Justin, this is for you!

We’ve hunted long and hard for an album that can even come close to the cultural phenomena known as Journals, and so far we’ve come up with blanks. Including hit singles, “All That Matters”, “Confident” and “Heartbreaker”, the album saw a direction change from usual teen pop music as he ventured into adulthood. While the album received a lukewarm reception from critics, the Bieb’s third studio album has become a cult favourite among Beliebers and all we ask for is another album on this level from the singer.

@justinbieber if this album is nothing like ‘Journals’ you could go ahead and keep that! pic.twitter.com/9Wr8uxTo4G

— ʙʟᴜᴇ ʀᴇɪɢɴ (@mynameshanice) February 27, 2021

Let’s be real, we all thought that after eight years of on and off relationships with fellow star Selena Gomez, the two teen sensations would end up walking down the aisle at some point during their lives. This dream was quickly dashed away when the singer started dating model Hailey Baldwin in 2018 and got engaged that same year. With a star-studded guest list including the Jenners and the Smiths, the beautiful wedding took place a few months later in November, and the couple have been giving us goals since.

Like most teen stars, Justin Bieber went through THAT phase, you know, the rebellious stage whereby they shed every last bit of their sweet teen image in hopes of being taken more seriously. Well, things definitely got serious for Mr Bieber as he was detained in 2014 for DUI, assault and misdemeanours. With the mug shot and video quickly circulating the TL, the star quickly picked up a bad boy image that became hard to shed. But after a year of trouble, the singer straightened himself out and got back to work on his music. With the incident approaching it’s seventh anniversary this year, the singer took to IG to address the situation saying he is not proud of how he behaved and he had nothing to be smiling about. We love a guy who addresses his past mistakes.

It really doesn’t get more iconic than this. The bowl cut hair, the unbroken voice and the contiguous chorus: Bieber stepped on necks for his chart-topping single and we never forgot it. Featuring rapper-turned-actor Ludacris, the singer melted all the tweens hearts (included ours) with his single and became the most viewed video in YouTube history, until it was supposed by Psy’s single “Gangnam Style”.

TV doesn’t hit like it used to and that’s a fact. From My Super Sweet Sixteen to Cribs, MTV had our eyes glued to the TV in the early 2010s and noughties, but nothing hit better than MTV’s Punk’d originally hosted by prankster Ashton Kutcher. From pranking Justin Timberlake into believing his home was being seized due to unpaid taxes to Frankie Muniz’s special custom-made limited-edition Porsche being stolen, the show was cultural reset and proved that celebrities are just like us when things go wrong. After being cancelled in 2007, the show was brought back in 2012 with Justin Bieber as the new prankster and taking part in skits including Tyler, The Creator, Mac Miller, and Ashton Kutcher himself – the Miley Cyrus episode is one for the ages.

Before the K-Pop stans and the Arianators there were the Beliebers, and no fan base could compare at the time. Taking up 86% of Twitter users in the 2010s, the fan base devoted their lives to the singer in the forms of fanfics and bedroom wall plastered shrines. While their reign is still strong to this day in the Twittersphere, the Belieber’s now have to face-off between BTS stans and Blinks to become the biggest fan group in the world.

If there is one thing for sure, it’s that the Biebs is headstrong on his beliefs and has donated to wide range charities and communities over the years. From his charity COVID relief single with fellow star Ariana Grande to selling his prized hair for $40,000 for animal rescue charity, The Gentle Barn, the singer has donated a huge amount of money to various causes over the years – how can we not Stan!