Pop star Justin Bieber is gallivanting around Europe on his current tour. And while he’s been across the pond, the young man has caused quite a ruckus.
On Tuesday night, TMZ caught the star on video, acting in a less-than-charitable manner.
It was shot in Barcelona, as Bieber rolled up to the concert venue where he was set to perform. The video began with voices of young women, speaking in Spanish, shouting, “Here, Justin!”
The pop star sat in the back of the regal black car, window down, presumably bathing in both the cool Spanish breeze and the attention, when a man’s arm shot wildly through the open window.
With eager affection, it rubbed Bieber’s upper pectoral, clad in a white sweater. Quickly, the enthusiastic fan’s skyscraper-like coiffure came into view, as the car passed by the gaze of TMZ’s camera.
The fan hung on for a moment, desperately clinging to the pop star, until Bieber’s arm shot through the open window like a Jack from a box. His fist struck the perhaps overly passionate fan across the jaw.
Titillated squeals, all around.
Then, then the fan paced for a bit, back and forth and back and forth, his mouth agape, blood staining his lips like satin lipstick. It’s difficult to ascertain if he was angry, excited or some deeply confused mixture of the two emotions.
“He punched me,” the fan yelled in exasperated Spanish, pantomiming a punch to the audience that had formed around him. “I touched his face and he hit me.”
Protecting himself
“Justin felt threatened and reacted in the best way he thought possible,” an unnamed source told Hollywood Life. “He doesn’t want to hurt his fans obviously but he thought the fan overstayed his welcome throwing his hand in his face and Justin had to protect himself.”
Neither Bieber nor his representatives, though, have offered an official statement about the incident as of early Wednesday morning.
While the video may be surprising, it’s far from shocking. After all the Biebs has a history, as The Washington Post reported in its piece titled, DUI drag-racing, felony egging, Anne Frank: A short history of Justin Bieber’s year of troublemaking.
The quick act of violence against a European fan from one of Canada’s biggest pop stars came days after his name filled the tabloids along with a striking photos of his pearly washboard abs — on which he recently had the words “Son of God” scrawled in black ink.
One can’t help but think of legendary rapper Nas’ famed ink across his own belly, reading “God’s Son,” when viewing the 22-year-old’s new tattoo.
