Justin Bieber is about to drop a new album, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. Def Jam will release his long-awaited seventh album on Friday, July 11, sources reveal.
A representative for Bieber didn’t reply to request for comment. Def Jam declined to comment.
As THR reported, Bieber headed to Iceland in late April to put finishing touches on the project, his first since 2021’s Justice. His Nordic getaway hosted jam sessions and allowed the pop superstar to ”vibe out” with a number of musical collaborators, an insider reveals.
As of Thursday, a billboard in Iceland that depicts Bieber with the word “Swag” is starting to go viral online. Presumably, that could be the name of the album though it’s unclear at press time. The same billboard went up in Los Angeles on Thursday.
Bieber posted several photos and videos of his own Thursday as well that show what seems to be the album’s tracklist.
Recent posts on Instagram, such as this one from June 30, also show what appears to be a final mix in ProTools. Other studio images suggest that music being played for Bieber is past its tracking phase and that the stereo files seen are a finished mix of some sort.
As sources shared with THR in April, Bieber had been hosting “jam sessions” at his Los Angeles house where attendees have included his longtime DJ Tay James, musical director HARV, SZA collaborator Carter Lang and Australian artist Eddie Benjamin. Features on the album include Gunna and Sexyy Red as well as Cash Cobain, each of whom Bieber has shouted out on social media in recent months.
Bieber had also tapped talents like U.K. singer-songwriter Sekou and producer Dylan Wiggins (Kali Uchis’ “I Wish You Roses,” The Weeknd’s “Die For You”), among other lesser-known music-makers that he discovered on social media and enlisted via DMs.
Bieber’s long awaited album comes four years after his last album, and his life has changed significantly since then. For one, he had a child with wife Hailey Bieber last year. On the music side, he split from his longtime manager Scooter Braun in 2023. Braun just announced earlier this month that he’s stepping down as CEO of Hybe America.
As THR reported, the two recently resolved their remaining financial issues — specifically, a debt triggered by the cancellation of Bieber’s Justice tour in 2022. (A representative for Bieber declined to comment on the settlement at the time.) In not fulfilling his contractual obligation to AEG (the tour’s promoter) to complete the concert dates, for which he received a $40 million advance, Bieber was left owing more than $20 million to AEG. Then-manager Braun, through his company, covered what was owed through a loan. The two were partnered in a number of other businesses including a record label and film projects.
Braun was also involved in a $200 million catalog deal to Hipgnosis Songs (now Recognition Music) for Bieber’s songwriting interests, possibly the largest nest egg in music history for an artist under 30. (Worth noting: Hailey Bieber, who married Justin in 2018, recently sold her Rhode Beauty skin care brand to e.l.f. Beauty for $1 billion; Braun was a seed investor.)
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