A Brief History of Justin Bieber's Many, Many Apologies

It's fitting that the pop star has a song called "Sorry," because that's pretty much all he says

By Jenna Mullins Nov 24, 2015 11:40 PMTags
Justin Bieber, 2015 American Music Awards Jason Merritt/Getty Images

It's fitting that Justin Bieber has a song called "Sorry." If he were to make a word cloud, "sorry" would be front and center in giant letters.

The singer had to apologize yet again on Tuesday for canceling an appearance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. He tweeted out the news with an apology, though we hope that's not how he broke the news to Colbert's people. 

"My apologies to @colbertlateshow as I won't be able to make it to nyc tomorrow for the show," he wrote. "I look forward to making it up to you soon."

Bieber also pulled out of his Thanksgiving Day Parade performance, which means millions of tweens and teens will have to eat their turkey without a side of JB.

So yeah, another Bieber apology is in the books. And that book is one of about 19 volumes of Bieber apologies. He does it a lot, is what we're saying. We suppose it's a good thing that he shows remorse for his behavior, but maybe he should stop doing things he needs to apologize for in the first place? But that's an in-depth analysis for another time.

Below, we will present eight of Bieber's biggest apologies, and we'll score the quality of the apology on a scale of 1 tiny violin (half-hearted and lame) to 10 tiny violins (seemingly sincere and legit). Because whenever Bieber apologizes for something stupid he did, we like to play him the world's saddest song on the world's tiniest violin.

1. The situation: In 2014, an old video surfaced of Bieber making racist jokes.

Courtesy Denise Truscello/WireImage

The apology: "As a kid, I didn't understand the power of certain words and how they can hurt. I thought it was ok to repeat hurtful words and jokes, but didn't realize at the time that it wasn't funny and that in fact my actions were continuing the ignorance. Thanks to friends and family I learned from my mistakes and grew up and apologized for those wrongs. Now that these mistakes from the past have become public I need to apologize again to all those I have offended. I'm very sorry."

Quality score: 7 tiny violins

2. The situation: In the beginning of 2015, he posted a video to his Facebook page apologizing for basically all his past behavior: DUIs, egg-throwing, etc.

Instagram

The apology: "I think I was nervous because I was afraid of what people are thinking about me right now. It's been a minute since I've been in a public appearance, and I didn't want to come off arrogant or conceited or basically how I've been acting the past year, year and a half. I'm not what I was pretending to be….Just being young and growing up in this business is hard. Just growing up in general is hard."

Quality score: 3 tiny violins

3. The situation: Justin posted a photo of his bare butt to Instagram, and then deleted it.

Instagram

The apology: "Hey I Deleted the photo of my butt on Instagram not because I thought it was bad but someone close to me's daughter follows me and she was embarrassed that she saw my butt and I totally wasn't thinking in that aspect. And I felt awful that she felt bad. To anyone I may have offended I'm so sorry, It was completely pure hearted as a joke but didn't take in account there are littles following me!!! Love u guys."

Quality score: 6 tiny violins

4. The situation: Bieber shaded singer Shawn Mendes during a radio show appearance by icily insisting that he had never heard of him.

Getty Images

The apology: "Shawn I checked out the music and I'm so proud! So glad to see another boy from Canada crushin it. #canadiansdoitbetter"

Quality score: 1 tiny violin

5. The situation: Bieber showed up two hours late for a show in London, citing "technical issues."

 

YouTube

The apology: "There is no excuse for that and I apologize for anyone we upset. However it was a great show and I'm proud of that…[I look] forward to putting on an amazing show for everyone in attendance. My relationship with the media is not always easy, but I'm trying. I'm all about the music and the performance and I respect my fans. I never have any intent to upset or let anyone down. And I'm not okay with things being exaggerated, once again sorry for anyone upset."

Quality score: 4 tiny violins

6. The situation: In 2013, JB went on a rant about Lindsay Lohan, slamming her money troubles in a lengthy Instagram post. He later deleted and re-posted the rant, but removed any Lohan mentions.

Tony DiMaio/StarTraks, Bryan Bedder/WireImage

The apology: "My post was only up for a few minutes but I realized right away that what I said at the end was wrong and distracted from what I was trying to say."

Quality score: 2 tiny violins

7. The situation: Earlier this year, after his Roast on Comedy Central, Bieber took the stage and apologized for all his recent bad behavior.

 

Getty Images

The apology: "I was thrown into this at 12 years old, and I didn't really know what I was getting myself into. There's been moments I'm really proud of and a lot of moments I look back and I'm pretty disappointed with myself for. But the things that I've done really don't define who I am. I'm a kind-hearted person who loves people and, through it all, lost some of my best qualities. For that, I'm sorry. But what I can say is that I'm looking forward to being someone you can look at and be proud of."

Quality score: 8 tiny violins 

8. The situation: Bieber stormed offstage and cut a televised performance short, shouting that he was "done."

Ryan Seacrest Presents

The apology: "Sadly it's Been a rough week for me, long days no sleep, while having to be 'on' as they would say for cameras fans etc. In no way did I mean to come across mean, but chose to end the show as the people in the front row would not listen. Hopefully people will understand where I am coming from. I don't always handle things the right way but I'm human and I'm working on getting better at responding not reacting. Unfortunately people were affected by this as am I. For the people in the back I am so sorry and for anyone I may have disappointed im sorry. Sorry for wasting the tv people's time I'll be sure to make it up to you next time on tour."

Quality rating: 5 tiny violins 

So as you can see, Justin has had some pretty sincere-sounding apologies. But then there are those where you know he's just trying to backpedal and not look like such a douche. For someone who has to apologize all the time, we would think his average quality rating would be a bit higher. Just something to work on, Biebs.