A car signed by Justin Bieber

Lots of people harbor a secret hope that they will be “discovered” one day and become stars.  For some people, it actually happens.  These transformations, sometimes from rags to riches, provide us with interesting stories.  Take the example of actress and model Pamela Anderson, who was discovered in 1989 when her image was flashed across a video Jumbotron during a Canadian football game.  From that inauspicious beginning, she went on to become a spokeswoman for Labatt’s beer, eventually moving to the US to play various TV roles, including C.J. Parker on Baywatch.  Her career continues to grow and diversify.

Although the screen was much smaller, another superstar, Canadian pop singer Justin Bieber, was also discovered by accident.  According to Wikipedia, a marketing executive searching for another singer on YouTube clicked on one of Bieber’s 2007 videos by accident.  He was impressed with the then-13-year old’s talent, and proceeded to track him down.  After talking to his mom, Justin flew to the USA to record some demo tracks.  In a matter of months, Bieber was signed to a record label, and the rest is history.

Now Justin is giving back to his community.  Justin teamed up with a local car dealer from his hometown of Stratford, Canada, to autograph a 2012 Genesis Coupe 2.0T.  The proceeds of the sale of this car will be used to help rebuild the local skate park.

 

During a recent holiday visit to his hometown, Justin Bieber dropped into a local Hyundai dealership to autograph the red Hyundai Genesis Coupe.   According to thestar.com, the owner of the dealership, Frank Sandoval, said it was tricky to keep Justin’s visit under wraps: “There were only seven people here.  I had to keep it quiet.  This was very secretive.  I had to paper the windows, because of the paparazzi.  If they would have caught wind of what he was doing, this would have hit the media even before we went live.”  Mr. Sandoval went on to say that Justin spent about a half-hour at the dealership, had his picture taken, and signed the car.

It’s great to see Justin giving back to the community that launched his career.  Who would have imagined this outcome when his mom uploaded his first video to YouTube almost exactly five years ago (January 19, 2007), of a young Justin  singing “So Sick” by Ne-Yo?

According to this mashable.com infographic, Justin’s song “Baby” is YouTube’s most-viewed video of all time, with over 692 million views.  It also has 7 million comments and millions of likes and dislikes.  Take a look at this Google Chrome ad, below, which details the pop star’s rise to superstardom.  It is truly impressive, and puts the age of Internet discovery and celebrity into a unique perspective:

We are thrilled that Frank has decided to use eBay Motors to sell the car online; according to Terapeak.com data, this item joins over 3.9 million Justin Bieber-related items for sale on eBay in the last 90 days.

It definitely looks like eBay buyers and sellers have Bieber-fever!

Here are a select few of the many items available:

Justin Bieber 2.0 Panini Black Friday Trading Card – see it here.
Justin Bieber multi-Platinum Gold Record Award for My World – see it here.
Justin Bieber  signed 1st Edition book: “First Step 2 Forever: My Story” – see it here.

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