Is “Lonely” Justin Bieber’s Best Song Yet?

If you’ve been on TikTok lately, you’ve probably got a bunch of ear-worms in your head from the app. Many of those songs are the hits of today shortened into 60-second clips. In a bit of intimacy, content creators have used Justin Bieber’s “Lonely” to highlight their struggles and connect with their followers. So far, out of all his songs “Lonely” might be the reason people forget about his past and fully embrace Justin Bieber as an artist.

In the song he sings:

“What if you had it all

But nobody to call?

Maybe then, you’d know me

‘Cause I’ve had everything

But no one’s listening

And that’s just f—kin’ lonely”

Right off the bat, almost anyone who has struggled in their life can instantly relate to that feeling of loneliness. In the lowest point of our struggles, even though people may be there, it feels like there’s no one to turn to. Even when there are those around us who we can talk to unless they’ve gone through it themselves it can feel like we are alone. So to get on that level with listeners it instantly breaks through and is relatable.

Another key point of the song was the lyrics:

“Everybody knows my past now

Like my house was always made of glass

And maybe that’s the price you pay

For the money and fame at an early age

And everybody saw me sick

And it felt like no one gave a sh-t

They criticized the things I did

As an idiot kid”

Those lyrics alone stand out as a sign of maturity in admitting his past mistakes. By acknowledging what his critics have been saying about him for years and distancing himself from his past will help him grow past that pretty boy/boy band persona and bring his music to a newer audience.

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Once he grew past his youth and into more of a young adult, Bieber was heavily criticized as coming off a kind of douchey. His fame grew and so did ego and a lot of his arrogance rubbed a lot of people the wrong way, and in a sense, it held him back. That, fortunately, wasn’t all his fault and wasn’t a kiss of death. He still released songs that fans loved and kept his career moving like a locomotive.

To compare two Justin Bieber songs, “Lonely” and “Love Yourself” released just 5 years earlier. Both songs let us in on the hardship in their lyrics but the two were handled separately. “Love Yourself” was the song about losing someone and admitting it’s time to move on without them. While “Love Yourself” was a good song, it could’ve hit a lot harder by coming off as a song of heartbreak and deserving better. Some moments seemed like it, but the lyrics came off as he was on his high horse and better than his past relationship. These little choices in his career are what have kept skeptics at an arms distance when it comes to his music.

Take the song “What It Takes” by Aerosmith as an inspiration for what “Love Yourself” should have been. Stephen Tyler sings of heartbreak in the song and you can hear the pain in his voice and you feel it. He’s still in love with his ex, but that pain is too much to go on trying. If “Love Yourself” echoed the heartbreak the message would’ve hit closer to home for a lot more people who have felt that pain.

Fast forward five years to “Lonely” and that’s exactly what you get with the pain in the song. Instead of the “f—k everybody else” attitude, he lets people in on his pain and listeners can relate to that pain without being alienated. Justin Bieber might not be everyone’s favorite artist, but “Lonely” is the song that more than just his fans can relate to. If he can continue to grow as an artist and make these types of songs, people’s opinion of him will quickly change.