As of Saturday (Jan. 4), Justin Bieber has unfollowed Scooter Braun on Instagram.
The two have been linked since 2008, when Braun started managing the then-13-year-old Bieber after discovering him on YouTube. But over the past few years, their relationship became rocky and in 2023, the superstar was “actively looking at how he might extract himself from [it],” Billboard reported at the time.
As of August 2023, Billboard reported that Bieber was still under contract for about four more years, following a series of amendments to his deal with Braun made in 2020. In the same report, sources familiar with Bieber’s business dealings said he was focused on resolving his predicament with Braun at the time.
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By June 2024, Braun announced his retirement from management (he maintains his role as CEO of HYBE America — the North American iteration of South Korean entertainment company HYBE). His news followed a string of headlines about artists leaving his SB Projects, including Ariana Grande, Demi Lovato and J Balvin.
“23 years. That’s how long I have been a music manager,” Braun wrote in a statement posted to Instagram at the time. And while he shared several highlights from his management career, he dedicated a paragraph entirely to Grande and Bieber, writing: “Justin and Ariana were both young teenagers when I began with them. Justin a 13 year old kid busking in Canada and Ariana a young actress on Nickelodeon. To see them both come up to be the legends they are today will forever be one of my greatest honors. As we change our working relationships now, I will continue to root for them with the same passion that I did at each of their humble beginnings.”
In August 2024, Bieber and his wife Hailey Bieber welcomed their first child, Jack Blues Bieber. And in September, indie-rocker Mk.gee revealed to The New York Times that he’s been in studio sessions with Bieber, saying “he’s searching.”
Bieber’s last album, Justice, was released in 2021. It became his eighth No. 1 entry on the Billboard 200.
