Bieber Fever

I decided to involve myself in a sociological experiment today, one of immense importance and great distinction among modern day families, particularly but not exclusively relevant to families of young girls. Yes, that's right, I took one of my daughters to see the new Justin Bieber movie, Never Say Never, just released this weekend. Never Say Never indeed. A few short months ago I lived in a house of anti - Biebers, or so I thought. My girls all seemed more than genuinely uninterested in this super pop phenomenon, in fact they were quite vocal in their dislike of him, right down to his iconic hairdo. For those of you who aren't quite up to speed, i.e. you don't read the paper, surf the net, listen to the radio or watch tv, J.B. is a 16 year old pop star of Michael Jackson/Beatles proportions, by far due to the overwhelming power of the internet, in particular sites like YouTube. In fact, if you google Youtube, you will get a list of categories to view, and one of the top selections listed is Justin Bieber. Now, I was on the oh phooey JB bandwagon along with my girls, right up until one recent day when Kate came to me in private and whispered in my ear that uh, she actually liked Justin Bieber. Hmmm. Knowing this was a big move for her to go out on a limb on her own, up against her sisters opinions, I figured I had better find out a little more about this Bieber kid. So I downloaded some music from iTunes, surfed the net and decided that he really wasn't so bad. In fact, when you get right down to it, he's pretty damn good. So today, Kate and I bit the bullet and went to his new movie together.
And I have to say, wow, it was highly entertaining, from both our points of view. A very well made film, it definitely does what it's supposed to do, which is to make you into a Justin Bieber convert, in case you aren't already a fan. Tons of home movie footage of him as an adorable music prodigy, which he undeniably is. Interviews with his humble, sweet mom and grandparents who are all just good, honest god fearing small town Canadians. And of course a whole whack of slick concert footage, all done in 3D for that extra personal touch. And I do mean personal. After a few songs etc when JB pointed his 3D finger and held out his hand to us the audience Kate turned to me and said "mom, when Justin points his finger like that he is pointing it just at me!" Wow.  Now that's some amazing marketing.
But all cynicism aside, I really did enjoy the show. It was the first time I've done this kind of thing with one of my girls, and it was a lot of fun, right up to the last moment of the movie, when a preschool aged JB looks into the camera and says "I love you!" and all the teenage girls in the theatre shrieked back "We love you too Justin!!!" and Kate and I had a great giggle over it.
If nothing else, I hope I am lucky enough to be trusted like this when it comes to all three of my girls crushes in the years to come. And I hope I remember to at least try to do for them what I did for Justin, and give all those future boys the same chance I gave him.:)
Just don't let me down JB!