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Justin Bieber And Martin Garrix Are Collaborating: Something EDM This Way Comes?

By Page Mackinley
Published on: 07:40 PST, Mar 7, 2016

Martin Garrix has teased an upcoming collaboration with Justin Bieber.

The 19-year-old Dutch EDM producer-DJ and 22-year-old superstar have been pals for a while and met through their mutual manager, Scooter Braun. Fans of Bieber or Garrix will know the pair have hung out together many times, most recently in London during the Brit Awards.

YourEdm notes Garrix’s collaboration hint comes hot on the heels of him announcing the launch of his own label with the debut release coming Friday, March 11.

Last Friday, the following exchange took pace at the official Twitter account of Garrix’s new label, STMPD RECORDS, which is self-explanatory.

Following Bieber’s first foray into pop-EDM with the Zedd produced and written “Beauty and a Beat” for his 2012 Believe album, the Canadian singer continued to explore dance music with his Grammy-winning, game changing collaboration with Jack Ü — “Where Are Ü Now.” The jam first featured on the producer-DJs’ debut album Skrillex and Diplo Present Jack Ü, which dropped last February.

“Where” also appeared on Bieber’s acclaimed latest Purpose album. The connection led to Skrillex producing four more tracks. The result? A new future-facing EDM/Pop/R&B hybrid sound for Bieber. While some reviewers were bogged down in redemption think pieces on the album, others applauded the former teenage star’s transition to young adult artist.

Last week, Diplo’s Major Lazer outfit teased the existence of an alleged “crazy” rap track with Bieber. Whether it ever surfaces remains to be seen. Despite the huge success of Bieber’s Purpose, or perhaps because of it, some EDM blogs and one particularly aggressive producer-DJ railed against Bieber’s presence on the dance scene. As if they own it.

However, Bieber seems to be stretching out musically regardless. It will be interesting to see what kind of dance music he and Garrix create together. Will it be similar to the superstar’s tropical house-EDM hits, full-on house, a mix of both, or something different?

Meanwhile, Bieber has just set a new record as the fastest male solo artist to reach 1 billion views on VEVO with his “Sorry” dance video. In so doing, he has broken the previous record set by PSY with “Gangnam Style.”

Following mobilized streaming of the dance video by Justin Bieber fans over the past weeks, “Sorry” racked up 1 billion views in 137 days by the morning of March 7, breaking the 158-day record held by Psy’s “Gangnam Style.”

“Sorry” is the second single from Bieber’s wildly successful, critically acclaimed Purpose album, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart after its official November 13 release. The tropical house banger was produced by Blood and Skrillex and co-written by Bieber, Justin Tranter, Julia Michaels, and the producers. It topped Billboard’s Hot 100 chart for three non-consecutive weeks earlier this year. More on the records set and broken by Purpose and its singles can be read here.

Adele remains the overall fastest artist to reach 1 billion views. “Hello” hit that number in January in just 87 days.

After Bieber’s 2010 “Baby” video became the then-most-viewed YouTube video in history in July 2010, the singer landed his first 1 billion milestone four years later on March 5, 2014. Back in 2012, Psy’s “Gangnam Style” overtook “Baby” as the most viewed clip on YouTube and was also the first to reach 1 billion views.

Fast forward to Bieber’s second 1 billion viewed video. His 136-day achievement is more remarkable because the “Sorry” video isn’t a typical music video, but a dance video. In fact, Bieber isn’t even in it. That’s some vicarious star power right there. The video was produced, directed, and choreographed by the renowned Kiwi Parris Goebel. She appears in the video and led the all-girl ReQuest dance crew and The Royal Family dance crew.

Dazzling 1 billion VEVO records and ongoing Garrix-Prince of Pop collaboration aside, the Biebs is a mere two days away from kicking off his Purpose World Tour in Seattle, Washington on March 9. Bieber fever cometh.

[Image via Instagram]

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