Justin Bieber is phenomenally popular at the moment, with teenaged girls like my niece going bananas for him. Now, I do not listen to mainstream pop music, as it’s just not right for me (because, let’s face it, people are mostly singing about clubbing, and I’ve never gone to a nightclub, or other things I don’t do). During BBC Radio’s Baroque Spring, however, I heard this version of Bieber’s hit. It transformed an piece of average pop into something uplifting. The lyrics are quite vacuous, certainly, and this is no doubt the reason why the singer nearly breaks into laughter, but as my husband said, there was the germ of a good melody in it.
Sung by the amazingly talented countertenor Robin Blaze and the University of York Baroque Orchestra and Chamber Choir, conducted by Peter Seymour:
What do you think of it? I quite like it!