Justin Bieber has today been named on the '30 under 30' Forbes List 2014.
Justin Bieber has had another outstanding year commercially in 2013 and his success hasn't gone unnoticed. Forbes Magazine has recognized Bieber as being one of the best and brightest young talents in the music industry. Is this really a shock with the sudden rise to stardom he has gained spanning over such a short career?
This can be considered a great start to the year for Justin. The past 12months his actions and behaviour have been under scutiny by the world's media in 2013. Let's be honest though, he was his own worst enemy at times!!
Despite the worrying behaviour, it is definitely worth noting the incredible achievements Bieber has made both in terms of his financial status and contributions to the music industry.
Publicity problems and bad behaviour aside; Justin Bieber has achieved more success than most of us can dream of and he's still just 20 years of age.
Also on the list was fellow celebrity Miley Cyrus. She too has been heavily critisised in the media in the past 12 months for some outrageous behavior in her quest to escape her disney image!
Whitney Houston is a worldwide superstar. She reigned for a long time as the Queen of pop and RnB, with a voice the likes of which we’ll never see again. Beautiful and inspiring, her performances were always breath-taking, so much so that she sold multimillions of records. After 2 decades in the music industry, Whitney was still as strong as ever and her presence and influence will never be eclipsed again.
Whitney was born in 1963 in Newark, USA. She was the daughter of Cissy Houston, a gospel and pop singer who had backed up Aretha Franklin and the cousin of Dionne Warwick.
In 1977, aged 14, she began to sing backing vocals on chart singles. A young age to be thrown into the music industry. She worked with acts including Chaka Khan and the Neville Brothers.
She was signed after performing in a night club and in 1985 aged 22, her debut single and solo album were released. We were provided with polished, catchy songs such as ‘How Will I Know’ and ‘The Greatest Love of All’. People began to remember her voice.
Over the next decade her popularity soared. In 1987, her second album ‘Whitney’ became the first album by a woman to enter the Billboard charts at No. 1 and it included four No. 1 singles.
In 1992 aged 29, Whitney married RnB singer Bobby Brown. Also in this year, she made her film debut in The Bodyguard. The soundtrack to this film went onto sell 17 million copies in the United States.
Whitney and her husband gave birth to Bobbi Kristina in 1993 when Whitney was 30.
In 1994 aged 31, she became the first major musician to visit the newly unified and apartheid free South Africa following Nelson Mandela’s winning election.
Marijuana was discovered in Whitney and Bobby’s luggage by security at an airport in Hawaii in 2000 when she was 37. The charges were dropped later.
In 2001 aged 38, she signed the biggest record deal in music history with Arista/BMG.
Aged 39 in 2002, things took a turn for the worse when she admitted to using cocaine on a prime time television interview.
After what had been described as a passionate and turbulent marriage Whitney filed for divorce from her husband in 2006, when she was 43. They divorced in 2007.
In 2009 when Whitney was 46, she admitted on a TV interview that in the late 1990’s, doing drugs was an everyday thing and that she wasn’t happy.
Aged 47 in 2010, she embarked on her first world tour in 10 years. But she was met with much criticism and some shows were cancelled due to illness.
In 2011, aged 48, she enrolled in a rehabilitation centre citing drug and alcohol problem.
Then in 2012, aged 48 she died in a Californian hotel after drowning in a bath. This was ruled partly as an accident and the effects of atherosclerotic heart disease and cocaine use.
The cocaine found in her body revealed it had been used shortly before her death and toxicology results revealed additional drugs in her system, including marijuana.
Whether it was the drugs, alcohol, family issues or fame, there isn’t one single moment you can say lead to the death of this superstar. But Whitney Houston is living proof of how shocking some moments in celebrities’ lives can be. And it isn’t the last tragedy we will see in the world of superstardom.
As we approach the 8 January 2014, fans across the globe
will be celebrating what would have been Elvis Presley’s 79th
Birthday.
The King of Rock ‘n’ Roll was undoubtedly one of the most
influential musicians of his time, and of the 20th century. But
towards the end of his short life, Elvis was in the headlines for more than
just his music. Affected by his divorce to Priscilla Presley and reliant on
prescription drugs, his health and his career were suffering. Exhausted from a
gruelling tour schedule, Elvis’s performances disappointed fans – he could
barely stand up or sing. In August 1977, at the age of 42, Elvis Presley passed
away at his Graceland Mansion in Memphis, Tennessee.
As one of the most high profile musicians ever, his life
(and death) were intimately documented. There are even certain conspiracies
that claim Elvis faked his own death to escape the pressures of constantly
being in the spotlight, and under scrutiny.
Take a look at the timeline below to see the shocking truth
about Elvis - his life and death.
1945: Elvis received his first guitar as a present on his 10th
birthday.
“I took the guitar, and I watched people, and I learned to
play a little bit. But I would never sing in public. I was very shy about it.”
1948: Elvis and his family moved to Memphis, Tennessee.
1953: Elvis recorded his first two-sided disc at Sun Record
Studios. The tracks were called My
Happiness and That’s When Your Heartaches
Begin.
1955: Signed a record deal with RCA at the age of 20 for
$40,000, an unprecedented sum of
money at the time.
1956: Elvis’s first album, Elvis Presley was released in March.
Included the song Blue Suede Shoes. Appeared in his first film Love Me Tender.
The film was panned by critics but achieved commercial success.
1957: Scored three number one singles with Too Much, All
Shook Up and (Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear.
Embarked on three brief tours each met with crazed audience
responses.
“The trouble with going to see Elvis Presley is that you're
liable to get killed.”
1958: Elvis was inducted into the US Army.
“The Army can do anything it wants with me.”
Elvis’s mother died in the August at the age of 46. Elvis
was extremely close to his mother and badly affected by her death.
Began taking amphetamines with colleagues in the army.
Met 14 year old Priscilla Beaulieu, the woman he would
eventually marry.
1960: Elvis was granted honourable discharge from the army.
He began focusing on his movie career as well as releasing
more albums including Elvis is Back! and G.I. Blues. He went on to make 27
movies in the 1960s, almost all were commercial successes.
1968: The birth of Elvis and Priscilla’s daughter Lisa Marie
Presley.
He released eight singles in this year, only two made it
into the top 40. He began to convince himself that his musical career might be
over.
In an attempt to recapture his music fame, Elvis recorded
the TV programme ’68 Comeback Special, his first performance in front of an
audience since 1961. The show captured 42% of the total viewing audience.
“There are several unbelievable things about Elvis, but the
most incredible is his staying power in a world where meteoric careers fade
like shooting stars.”
In December, Elvis met with U.S. president Richard Nixon and
was reported to have expressed his dislike for the ‘hippie drug culture.’ Richard
Nixon was reported to have described the meeting as “uncomfortable”.
1971: Elvis’s marriage began in break down. He had an affair
with Joyce Bova. It was later discovered that Priscilla was having an affair
with karate instructor Mike Stone.
1973: Elvis performed the show Aloha From Hawaii. During one
of the performances he was attacked on stage – later discovered to be
over-excited fans. However Elvis became paranoid - convinced the Mike Stone was
trying to kill him.
He began taking prescription drugs to control his rages.
“There's too much pain in me ... Stone must die”
His divorce was finalised and affected him badly. He overdosed
twice in this year on prescription drugs.
1974: Despite his ill health, Elvis undertook a gruelling
tour schedule. It was reported by band mates that he could barely stand at the
microphone.
“He was all gut. He was slurring. He was so fucked up. ...
It was obvious he was drugged. It was obvious there was something terribly
wrong with his body. It was so bad the words to the songs were barely
intelligible. ... I remember crying. He could barely get through the
introductions.”
1975: Attempted to return to the recording studio to record
some new material but was in no fit state to work.
1977: On August 16 1977, Elvis was due to embark on another
tour. That afternoon he was found dead on his bathroom floor by then girlfriend
Ginger Alden. Attempts to revive him were unsuccessful. Drug use was heavily
implicated in the cause of death.
Justin Bieber, Amanda Bynes, Britney Spears, even Macaulay Culkin (remember him?!) have all got one thing in common. Well, actually two.
They are all child stars. And they’ve all gone off the rails. Exposed to fame,
money, thousands of fans stalking their every move, and the press making sure
we all get to see plenty of unflattering photographs of them, it seems that it
can all get a bit much.
Macaulay Culkin began his acting career at the age of four,
and is most famous for his role in Home Alone, a part he was cast at the age of
ten. He has spent his early twenties battling drug addiction after being arrested
in 2004 for possession of marijuana. It was also widely reported that as a
child, Culkin had a close friendship with a much older Michael Jackson,
ironically also a child star, but has rubbished claims made by the media that
Jackson ever sexually abused him.
Even the seemingly squeaky clean Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe hasn’t escaped the curse of the child star. He was cast as the lead
role in the popular films in 2000 at the age of 11. Just ten years later he was
admitting to being an alcoholic at the age of just 21 years old.
Daniel Radcliffe in his debut role as Harry Potter. [Source]
And it hasn’t stopped there. Amanda Bynes had a high profile breakdown this year over Twitter, which ended in her being admitted to rehab,
despite having defiantly protesting that she had absolutely nothing wrong with
her mental health at all. Born in 1986, Amanda began her career at the early
age of 13 years old, even hosting her own sketch comedy show The Amanda Show
from 1999 – 2002.
Amanda Bynes had a high profile breakdown this year. [Source]
Miley Cyrus is the latest child star to hit the headlines
for bad behaviour. It was at the age of 11 when Miley was cast in her first
significant role in the Disney Channel series Hannah Montana. Since then she
has hit the headlines for a number of other less positive reasons including,
mostly famously, her ‘twerking’ performance with Robin Thicke at the 2013 MTVVideo Music Awards.
Tia Mowry, former child star who featured on the American
ABC sitcom Sister, said "These kids need a lot of support and they need to
be kids. They need to be able to realize that this job is cool, but you're
still a kid."
Clinical psychologist Eileen Kennedy-Moore said: "Childhood
is about finding out who you are and being able to relate to others, and those
things are harder to learn when you're famous. That amount of public scrutiny
makes it hard on kids to do that. They can't mess up. So they have to adopt a
very self-assured, precocious identity very quickly."
But not every child star has fallen into the trap. Justin Timberlake, famous from the age of 11 for his appearances in Disney’s The
Mickey Mouse Club is now a singer, actor, dancer and businessman who is
celebrating 2013 as the man who created the best-selling record of the year with
his album The 20/20 Experience.
Justin Timberlake has escaped the curse of the child star. [Source]
Natalie Portman and Jodie Foster have also emerged from
child stardom into successful and respected actresses in their own right.
So there’s a glimmer of hope for the next generation of
child stars!
The pop playground is littered with young one hit wonders who break into the music scene but no sooner do they arrive, they are soon forgotten. But then you have the likes of Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake and Miley Cyrus who all found fame at an early age but have since stuck around to sell millions of records and this boy is no different.
We all remember the young innocent Canadian boy that broke into the charts after releasing home videos showing off his talent. They soon hit hundreds of views, then thousands, hundreds of thousands and before he knew it his videos had reached 80 million views and record labels battled it out to sign this Youtube phenomenon.
Yes the break through for Justin Bieber's career was nothing short of a fairy-tale. The young boy with the high pitch voice and the distinctive haircut was about to be signed by Usher.
Watch Justin Bieber's first Interview on The Ellen Show.
Since then Justin Bieber has never looked back. He is now a global icon and with over 47million twitter followers he is one of the most recognised figures around the world.
But with Justin's sudden rise to stardom has money, fame and power changed him?
It has become difficult recently to talk about Justin Bieber without mentioning his recent downward spiral he seems to be on these days. The teen heart throb is never to far away from the media spotlight but for the wrong reasons.
Lets have a look back at some Bieber's bizarre confirmed, rumoured and simply bonkers antics.
In November 2013 Justin took to Instagram to post this image of him spray painting a wall in Brazil. This image showed Justin committing a crime that could lead to a hefty fine and time behind bars. Oh and the week before he did a similar thing in Columbia.
Back in March it was reported Justin's pet capuchin monkey was confiscated in germany, after the controversial singer attempted to smuggle it into the country without permission.
All this shocking behaviour highlights just how much Bieber has changed since he first broke into the music scene. Is it the fame? The money? Or has he simply just got to big for his boots? Who knows but I have to question his management team on how they have handled his recent shocking behaviour.
It is no secret that Lindsey Lohan
has had her fair share of issues in the past few years. She’s gone from the
sweet kid in The Parent Trap to a jailbird who’s no stranger to being in a spot
of trouble with the law.
But what’s the reason behind
Lindsey’s bad behaviour? Here at Celebrity Shockers we’re asking whether you
really can blame the parents.
A glamorous party lifestyle gone wrong. Source: teamtechsquad.com
Lindsey Lohan’s childhood wasn’t
the most stable. Her parents, Dina and Michael Lohan separated when Lindsey was
three, and despite a brief reconciliation ended up divorcing in 2007 after Dina
filed for divorce in 2005.
On US reality TV show CelebrityRehab, Michael Lohan admitted that his battle with alcohol and attempts to
rehabilitate had been going on since 1982. Lindsey was born in 1986. Michael
Lohan was also quoted saying: "Drinking always led to coke. Always." Michael
Lohan blamed the Wall Street culture (where he worked as a trader) for his
abuse of drugs and alcohol. Michael
Lohan has served numerous prison sentences for crimes including domestic
violence, assault and violating terms of various parole conditions.
Michael and Dina were involved in a
high profile argument as Lindsey hit the peak of her career, with her father
claiming that she should be managed by professionals rather than hangers-on
from Dina’s side of the family who had all become interested in Lindsey’s
rising fame.
Lindsey Lohan has been admitted to
rehab numerous times in the past few years, for alcohol and cocaine abuse. She
released a statement in 2007 and said: "It is clear to me that my life has
become completely unmanageable because I am addicted to alcohol and
drugs."
Lindsey and her father Michael Lohan. Source: rollingout.com
Starting to see a pattern here?
Experts at the National Instituteon Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism say: “Alcohol-specific influences (e.g., the
modelling of parental drinking behaviour, the development of alcohol
expectancies, and certain aspects of the parent-child relationship) are
particularly relevant to the development of alcohol abuse and dependence in
children of alcoholics.” The same concept applies to children with parents who
use drugs.
When asked who she blamed for
Lindsey’s behaviour in the past few years, her mother Dina Lohan said: “I
blamed her friends, her career and her handlers for and new found lifestyle of
partying excessively.” But perhaps the answer lies a little closer to home?
Lindsey and her family in happier times. Source: Daily Mail
What do you think? Tweet us @CelebShockers and take a look at our Facebook page.
It's fair to say that Biber has had a rough year. He's constantly been in the tabloids, but for all the wrong reasons. Top of the list is when he hurled a round of abuse at the paparazzi in February. He shouted: "What the f*** you say? What'd you say? I'll f***ing beat the f*** out of you man!" Not one of the nicest phrases to say...
Well Hannah Montana has well and truly disappeared. In her place we have Miley who has had quite a year in terms of shocking moments. But the main one came at the MTV Music Awards, where she twerked and twerked and twerked. To top it off, she danced raunchily with a male popstar old enough to be her dad and let's just say that her singing voice wasn't at it's best that night. And I don't think we need to mention the outfit...
Reese Witherspoon has always been remembered at the cute blonde girl in film Legally Blonde. Well, that was up until April when she shocked us all by getting arrested for disorderly conduct charges. Could this be a real case of good girl gone bad?
I'm presuming most of us still can't actually believe this story. We sure as hell can't. But it's not all plain sailing as the woman who's pregnant with his baby, was still married to Simon's friend at the time. Since then she's filed for divorce and now her and Simon are happily in love. Seems slightly awkward doesn't it?
Shocking in a different way was when we heard the news of Glee star Cory Monteith's tragic death. He was found in a hotel room in July aged 31. It was confirmed later that he'd died from a "cocktail of drink and drugs".
What do you think the most shocking celebrity moment of 2013 has been?
A ‘role model’ can mean something different for everyone. I’d say a general definition is someone who people look up to, who serves as an example and, sometimes, who people want to imitate.
Is this the same for the women celebrities of our world? Would we say we look up to Miley Cyrus, Rihanna and Lady Gaga? Do we want to imitate them?
Celebrities don’t sign up to be role models. It’s not part of their remit. Yet for some reason, they are, and there are a lot of people who expect them to be.
Though at the moment, people aren’t looking up to these women for their singing voices and their music. They are looking up to them because of their image. And some girls even want to imitate this image. Right down to Miley Cyrus and her twerking, and Rihanna and her crotch-grabbing. Not to mention how very few clothes they seem to wear in their music videos…
But hold on a minute. These women are all young, beautiful and independent. They’re allowed to enjoy life and they can make their own decisions. A role model has never been part of their job description. So they can easily justify their actions by saying that they are simply living their life. Just like they can easily justify their lack of clothes by saying that they are expressing their sexuality.
This is all fine and well, because it doesn’t really affect me. Along with many other women, I’m at an age where I know my own mind. Everyone is individual and has their own outlook on life. But there are many young girls out there who are still growing and learning.
To put it bluntly, if I had a young daughter who I saw ‘twerking’, I’d do my best to make sure she never did it again. But that’s the problem isn’t it? How do you stop your young child from watching videos of these celebrities, who ultimately, they greatly admire?
So is it not, on some level, a responsibility of the celebrity to monitor their behaviour in some way, for the sake of their younger admirers?
I don’t know. I think it is unfair to expect a young woman who wants to pursue a career in entertainment to be a perfect performer and to also be a perfect role model for young girls. Yes, some of their actions I disagree with; however, I believe it is ultimately up to the parents to ensure they are teaching their children the right lessons in life, the lessons they believe in.
We can look up to these women for their determination, hard work and independence. But their image and sexuality? I don’t think so. There is so much more to women than just sexuality. And hopefully, we can all continue growing to see how many ways we can show our beauty and strength, no matter what age we are.
Do you think female celebrities are good role models for young girls? We'd love to hear your opinion - tweet us at @CelebShockers
