The tweet to the 19-year-old's nearly 48 million followers — "My beloved beliebers I'm officially retiring" — was quickly
followed by another message: "I'm never leaving you, being a belieber is a lifestyle."
And then: "IM HERE FOREVER."
Representatives for Bieber did not immediately respond to a
request for clarification.
The Canadian singer has been involved in a series of
headline-grabbing incidents over the past year.
In March, the singer scuffled with a photographer outside a
London hotel during a European tour. Later that month, police
were called to his Los Angeles area home after a neighbor
claimed he had been threatened and struck by Bieber.
In June, Bieber struck a photographer with his Ferrari sports
car while driving away from a comedy club in Los Angeles, though
police said the accident was not considered a hit-and-run.
The movie, "Justin Bieber's Believe," which takes the name of
Bieber's third studio album, could help repair his image after
the difficult year.
"I think people forget that it's a 19-year-old kid, trying to
figure it out," Bieber's manager, Scooter Braun, told ABC News,
adding the film shows Bieber as "a human."
At one point in the film, director Jon Chu suggests Bieber's
life could become a "train wreck."
The "retirement" message went out on the night of Christmas Eve
and by the following morning had nearly a quarter million
retweets and over 185,000 favorites.
Twitter user @theycallmejerry tweeted: "A life without Justin
Bieber. A life without my idol, hero, inspiration, my
everything. Not the best thing to think about on Christmas Eve."
On the other end of the spectrum, Twitter user CozImAGuy said,
"Justin Bieber retiring is the greatest Christmas gift EVER."
(Reporting by Curtis Skinner;
editing by Edith Honan and Jeffrey Benkoe)
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