After a three year absense, the Canadian star returned to music, trading in his pop sensibilities for an indie-leaning R&B sonic palette on Swag — which earned him the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Canadian Albums chart.
As a pop star, keeping your finger on the pulse isn’t always easy. In 2025, a select group of artists kept their name in the cultural zeitgeist, but didn’t quite dominate the entire year.
After three years laying low when it comes to music, the Canadian singer made a surprise return in July with Swag — a 21-track album that saw him pivoting from upbeat pop bangers to an indie-leaning R&B vibe. As predicted by his tween self, Bieber tapped genre-bending collaborators including Grammy-nominated producer and artist Dijon, Mk.gee and Carter Lang to bring Swag to life.
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Released one day after its announcement, Bieber’s sound and strategy paid off, as the album debuted to the best streaming totals and some of the best reviews of his career. In his home country, the project skyrocketed to No. 1 on the Billboard Canadian Albums chart, knocking Morgan Wallen’s I’m the Problem out of the top spot. It remained there for one week before Wallen reclaimed No. 1.
While Swag managed to bring Bieber back on top, it didn’t beat the record 2021’s Justice, which spent five weeks at the top — Bieber’s long-charting album at No. 1.
In the U.S. and Canada, Swag scored a pair of long-lasting hits on the charts, in “Daisies” and “Yukon.” The latter of which has maintained a spot in the top 10 on the Canadian Hot 100 since its release and landed a spot on Billboard Canada's list of 25 songs that defined the year. Swag snagged Bieber and his collaborators four Grammy nominations, including album of the year, pop vocal album, pop solo performance for “Daisies,” and best R&B performance for “Yukon.”
In addition, the release of Swag provided some insight into Bieber’s well-being after tabloid-y coverage that covered everything but his music. Bieber integrates that period into tracks, including his now-iconic “It’s not clocking to you that I’m standing on business” rant woven into one of the Druski-featuring interludes, and slapped onto album merch.
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So why didn't Bieber make the top 10? Billboard argues that while Swag brought Bieber back in a big way, the momentum was seemingly confined to a few months of major attention. Swag wasn’t followed by a tour or any major media appearances, as Bieber did minimal promotion for the album. He followed it up with Swag II a couple of months later, but it wasn’t met with nearly as much critical or commercial acclaim as its predecessor.
