Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you fabulous songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, platinum, silver and gold take center stage in Justin Bieber’s 2012 hit, “As Long as You Love Me,” a song about how true love conquers all.
The 29-year-old Canadian-born superstar employs three noble metals in the reprise to illustrate the power of love.
He vows, “As long as you love me / We could be starving, we could be homeless, we could be broke / As long as you love me / I’ll be your platinum, I’ll be your silver, I’ll be your gold / As long as you la, la, la, la, la… love me.”
One might wonder why an artist with a net worth estimated at $300 million would co-write a song referencing hunger and homelessness, but Bieber did, in fact, endure a hardscrabble youth being raised by a single mom in low-income housing.
“As Long as You Love Me” is the third track of Bieber’s third studio album, Believe. Both the single and the album were huge commercial successes. “As Long as You Love Me” charted in 20 countries and Believe made its debut at #1 on the US Billboard 200 albums chart.
Born in London, Ontario, Canada, in 1994, Justin Drew Bieber loved to perform as a kid. In early 2007, he placed second in a local singing competition. Bieber’s mom, Pattie, posted a video of his performance on YouTube, and then added videos of her gifted teen singing covers of various R&B songs. In a twist of fate, a music executive happened upon one of them.
Music legend states that Scooter Braun accidentally clicked on one of Bieber’s videos — thinking he was watching a 20-year-old doing a cover of Aretha Franklin’s “Respect.” The impressive performer was, in fact, a 13-year-old Bieber.
Braun tracked down the youngster in Canada, and with the permission of Bieber’s mom, introduced him to singer-songwriter Usher, who soon became his mentor. Bieber was then signed by record executive L.A. Reid and the rest is music-industry history.
Bieber has amassed an impressive list of accomplishments — all before his 30th birthday. He has sold an estimated 150 million records worldwide, making the two-time Grammy winner one of the best-selling music artists of all time.
He has nearly 92 million followers on Facebook, 111 million followers on Twitter and 293 million followers on Instagram.
We hope you enjoy the video of Bieber’s acoustic version of “As Long As You Love Me.” The clip is from the Ellen Degeneres Show in December of 2012. The lyrics are below if you’d like to sing along…
“As Long As You Love Me”
Written by Nasri Atweh, Rodney Jerkins, Sean Anderson, Andre Lindal and Justin Bieber. Performed by Justin Bieber.
As long as you love me (love me, love me)
We're under pressure,
Seven billion people in the world trying to fit in
Keep it together,
Smile on your face even though your heart is frownin'
But hey now, you know girl,
We both know it’s a cruel world
But I will take my chances
As long as you love me
We could be starvin', we could be homeless, we could be broke
As long as you love me
I’ll be your platinum, I’ll be your silver, I’ll be your gold
As long you la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la, love me
As long you la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la, love me
I don’t know if this makes sense, but you’re my hallelujah
Give me a time and place, and I’ll rendezvous, and I’ll fly you to it,
I’ll beat ya there
Girl you know I got you
Us, trust
A couple of things I can’t spell without you
Now we are on top of the world, ’cause that’s just how we do
Used to tell me sky’s the limit, now the sky’s our point of view
Man now we stepping out like whoa (oh God)
Camera’s point and shoot,
Ask me what’s my best side, I stand back and point at you, you
You the one that I argue with, I feel like I need a new girl to be bothered,
But the grass ain’t always greener on the other side,
It’s green where you water it
So I know we got issues baby true true true
But I’d rather work on this with you
Than to go ahead and start with someone new
As long as you love me
We could be starving, we could be homeless, we could be broke
As long as you love me
I’ll be your platinum, I’ll be your silver, and I’ll be your gold
As long as you love, love me,
As long as you love, love me
As long as you love me
I’ll be your silver, I’ll be your gold
Love me,
As long as you la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la, love me
As long as you la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la, love me
As long as you love, (love me, love me)
As long as you love, (love me, love me)
As long as you love, (love me, love me)
As long as you love me
Credit: Image by Jakub Janecki, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
