Justin Bieber explains stage walk-off: ‘I’m not a robot’

Pop singer Justin Bieber, who plays the first of two Dublin concerts on Tuesday, has tried to explain why he walked off stage during a gig in Manchester on October 23rd.

The star faced a backlash from fans after he asked them to stop screaming during his show at the Manchester Arena and then exited the stage. At the time, the star said: “You can scream as much as you want afterwards, but while I’m singing try and stay quiet.”

Now he’s explained his actions. Posting a video message on Twitter from a recent concert Bieber told the audience: “People tend to want to shut you down. What I mean by that is … people try to twist things, some people don’t want to listen. But I simply feel like, if I didn’t use this platform to say how I truly feel, and if I didn’t use this platform to be the man that I know I am, and speak from what’s in my heart, then I’m doing myself injustice, and I’m not doing anybody in this audience any justice.”

He continued: “There’s going to be times where I say the wrong thing, because I’m human. But I don’t pretend to be perfect and I hope to god that, you know, I don’t say the right thing all the time, because if that was the case then I’d be a robot, and I’m just, I’m not a robot. There’s times when I get upset … times when I get angry, there’s times when I’m going to be frustrated. But I’m always going to be myself on this stage.”

For those who never suspected that Bieber was a robotic being, there was more rambling to come. Talking of the negative reaction to his stage exit, he wrote: “When people try to twist things and say, ‘Justin’s angry at his fans. He doesn’t want his fans to scream’, that’s not at all what I was doing. All I was simply doing was wanting people to listen; to kind of hear me out a little bit. Certain people … certain cities aren’t going to want to hear me out, and you know, sometimes it’s my job to just say, ‘Hey, I’m not going to try to force anything’. I just appreciate you guys tonight, listening to me and understanding, and rocking with me. You guys are truly amazing.”

Bieber plays Dublin on Tuesday and Wednesday at the 3Arena before his tour heads across Europe. – (Guardian Service)