Billboard’s Greatest Pop Star of 2016: Justin Bieber
(In 2018, the Billboard staff released a list project of its choices for the Greatest Pop Star of every year, going back to 1981. Read our entry below on why Justin Bieber was our Greatest Pop Star of 2016 — with our ’16 Honorable Mention runner-ups, Rookie of the Year and Comeback of the Year pop stars at the bottom — and find the rest of our picks for every year up to present day here.)
In 2015, Justin Bieber admitted that his single “Sorry” was at least “a little bit” about his ex-girlfriend, Selena Gomez. For pop fans who didn’t necessarily care about lyrical nods toward celebrity romance, the dancehall-influenced smash also worked if construed as a general apology for romance-spoiling. Yet “Sorry” worked on a third level that had nothing to do with love: it was the sound of Bieber, a YouTube-bred teen heartthrob, seeking the forgiveness of a young, massive fan base that had watched him personally spiral for years. When Bieber sang “Yeah, I know that I let you down,” he was feasibly addressing millions of Beliebers.
More from Billboard
Bieber had reason to apologize: After becoming a household name at the beginning of the 2010s, thanks to tween-courting pop tracks like “Baby” and “One Less Lonely Girl,” a steady string of controversies — a DUI arrest, a vandalism charge, brash threats of retirement, the infamous mop-bucket incident — had derailed his public image by the end of 2014. “Where Are U Now,” a collaboration with the Diplo-Skrillex EDM project Jack U, became an unexpected hit in early 2015 for Bieber, and pointed him toward a fruitful tropical-pop sound.
When he launched his comeback project Purpose later that year, Bieber was searing in his public self-assessments — “I was close to letting [fame] completely destroy me,” he told Billboard at the time — and savvy in his selection of collaborators, tapping Skrillex to helm multiple tracks, soon-to-be stars Travis Scott and Halsey to guest, and Ed Sheeran to co-write a change-of-tempo track. top 40 radio, for its part, was more than ready to re-embrace Bieber. Who doesn’t love a good comeback story?
Purpose, released in November 2015, completed that phoenix-like rise for the 21-year-old Bieber and set up a massive 2016 for the reinvigorated pop star. After lead single “What Do You Mean?” became the first Hot 100 chart-topper of Bieber’s career in 2015, its follow-ups, “Sorry” and the Sheeran-assisted “Love Yourself,” followed it to No. 1 the following year. (When “Love Yourself” replaced “Sorry” at the Hot 100 summit in February ‘16, Bieber became just the 12th artist ever to succeed himself at the top.) “Love Yourself” represented a new type of achievement for Bieber, as an acoustic kiss-off to an ex with minimal production and nuanced lyrical details. The track topped the Year-End Billboard Hot 100 for 2016, and earned Bieber a Grammy nomination for song of the year.
As 2016 rolled on, Bieber’s imperial phase included a few more top five hits as a featured artist for EDM titans — first on the Major Lazer track “Cold Water” and then on DJ Snake’s dance anthem “Let Me Love You,” radio smashes driven in large part by his star power. Kicking off in March of that year, his Purpose world tour — featuring a rising young rapper named Post Malone as an opener — played to arenas, then stadiums. Bieber cancelled a handful of shows as the tour sprawled into mid-2017, citing depression and exhaustion; the Purpose trek still brought in over $160 million in 2016 alone.
For Bieber, who once again retreated from the music world for a few years after the Purpose era concluded, his dominant 2016 was about more than just a satisfying narrative. “What Do You Mean?,” “Sorry” and “Love Yourself” all topped the Hot 100 because they perfectly married Bieber’s feathery vocal approach and melodic understanding with a strain of combustible electro-pop that proved difficult for even his staunchest haters to resist. Bieber continued toying with different genres for the rest of the decade, trying on country-pop for the Dan & Shay collaboration “10,000 Hours” and diving into R&B for his long-awaited follow-up LP, 2020’s Changes. He may never fully return to the sound of Purpose, but for one extended run in the middle of the decade, he had effectively apologized, and proceeded to conquer pop.
Honorable Mention: Rihanna (ANTI, “Work,” Calvin Harris’ “This Is What You Came For”), Beyoncé (Lemonade, “Formation,” Super Bowl 50 Halftime Show), Drake (Views, “One Dance,” Rihanna’s “Work”)
Rookie of the Year: The Chainsmokers
In 2014, the Chainsmokers cameoed in the Hot 100’s top 20 with “#SELFIE,” a jokey bit of bro-pop built around a self-absorbed female clubgoer’s monologue. Alex Pall and Drew Taggart were expected to disappear from the mainstream once that gimmicky single tumbled off the charts, but instead, they became undeniable pop A-listers two years later. As the EDM bubble began to burst, The Chainsmokers wisely slowed down their tempos and leaned into dance-pop melancholy, first with “Roses,” then with “Don’t Let Me Down,” and most memorably with “Closer,” a wistful, push-pull collab with Halsey that topped the Hot 100 for a whopping 12 weeks in 2016. The Chainsmokers had convincingly altered their brand over the course of a few hit singles, ensuring that they would be one of the defining electronic-based artists of the 2010s.
Comeback of the Year: Mike Posner
“I’m just a singer who already blew his shot,” Mike Posner admits on “I Took A Pill In Ibiza.” “I get along with old timers/ ‘Cause my name’s a reminder of a pop song people forgot.” Fair indeed to suggest that in 2016, the general public was not still humming along to “Cooler Than Me,” Posner’s slick 2010 pop radio hit. Six years later, Posner was considered a has-been in his late 20s — until a remix of the self-lacerating “I Took A Pill In Ibiza” by Norwegian production duo Seeb became the year’s least-likely club slayer, peaking at No. 4 on the Hot 100 and earning a song of the year Grammy nod. Posner hasn’t quite sustained that commercial power, but remains proof that sometimes lightning really can strike twice.
(Read on to our Greatest Pop Star of 2017 here, or head back to the full list here.)
Best of Billboard
Sign up for Billboard's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Solve the daily Crossword
