Justin Bieber Wins Another Award And You Won’t Belieb It When You See It


Justin Bieber has had a huge year. Spotify has awarded the superstar with a golden ping-pong paddle award to celebrate the record-breaking success of “What Do You Mean?” on the streaming service.

Why a ping pong paddle? It turns out the award was specially designed for Bieber because he recently beat Spotify CEO Daniel Ek in a match. The singer is known for his ping-pong chops as well as everything else. The paddle was presented to Bieber at Spotify’s New York offices last week.

On August 28, “What Do You Mean” was officially released as the lead single from Bieber’s new album Purpose.

After taking over No. 1 spots at iTunes (where it would then remain for 25 days), “Mean” racked up 21 million streams on Spotify in its first five days of release. The tropical house song broke the streaming record in the U.S. and worldwide, and beat the 20 million streams One Direction’s “Drag Me Down” generated in its debut week earlier this year.

Over in the U.K., “What Do You Mean?” debuted atop of the singles chart, becoming Bieber’s first chart-topping hit in the U.K.

The song broke the highest first-week streams record in the country with 3.2 million streams, exceeding the 2.03 million notched up by One Direction’s “Drag Me Down.” “Mean” reigned for five non-consecutive weeks at No. 1 on the U.K’s Singles Chart.

The latter single went to become the fastest song to hit 100 million streams on Spotify, surpassing Wiz Khalifa’s and Charlie Puth’s “See You Again” behemoth.

On September 8, “Mean” debuted at No. 1 Billboard’s Hot 100 (with 337,000 copies sold), dethroning The Weeknd’s “Can’t Feel My Face.” The feat marked Bieber’s first No. 1 single and seventh top 10 hit single in the U.S. It also saw the 21-year-old dance into the history books as only the 23rd single in the history of the Hot 100 chart to launch at No. 1, and the youngest male ever to do so.

Fast forward to the official release of Purpose on November 13. According to Spotify, it registered the highest streams — 36 million — in a single day on the service. During the first week of the album’s release it set new records, with 77 million streams in the U.S. and 205 million worldwide.

Bieber’s album also is the fastest album to reach one billion streams on Spotify, doing so in under a month. On December 2, Nielsen Music reported Purpose has sold 1,227,000 worldwide.

Purpose debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s 200 Albums chart (dated December 5) with 649,000 combined total of pure sales and streams. That same week, the Biebs had 17 songs on the Hot 100 simultaneously, breaking the record previously held by The Beatles and the rapper Drake.

As of October 2015, “Mean” has sold 1,034,000 copies in the U.S. and has gone three times platinum in Sweden, double platinum in six countries (including the U.S.), and platinum in the countries — including the U.K.

Meanwhile, Bieber continues to pile records in the U.K. Purpose tracks “Sorry,” “Love Yourself,” and “What Do You Mean?” took the No. 1, 2, and 4 spots on the official U.K. singles chart. This looks set to update to “Love Yourself” at No. 1, “Sorry” at No. 2, and “What Do You Mean?” holding at No. 4 in Friday’s (December 4) chart.

Currently “Love Yourself” is No. on Spotify’s global and U.S chart and “Sorry” is No. 2 in those charts.

Following a Thanksgiving break which saw the pop prince get away from it all at a ranch in Orange County, perform at The Chainsmokers’ sold-out concert in Los Angeles, and hotfoot it to Utah for a snowboarding trip, the singer is set to perform and promote his music in Japan, then Capital FM’s Jingle Ball on December 6 and an acoustic charity concert in Toronto on December 7.

Spin magazine and Noisey recently reviewed “Mean” as the best song of 2015, while critical plaudits for Purpose continue to pour in. Bieber’s records on Spotify, Billboard, and elsewhere seal the superstar’s comeback, which was by no means guaranteed and is due in small part to the Canadian’s talent and impressive work ethic.

[Images via Scott Gries]

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