JUSTIN BIEBER: WEB VIDEO’S BIGGEST STAR EVER

Justin Bieber, the sixteen-year-old singer who became an overnight teen idol after posting a music video on YouTube, has now set a YouTube record for the most-watched video ever with his latest single, “Baby.” It has been watched by more than 246 million people worldwide, the Associated Press reported on Saturday. In a message posted on his Twitter site, Bieber called the video’s success “crazy,” adding: “I started on youtube so …WOW!” Bieber, meanwhile, was performing Saturday at the Oracle Arena in Oakland, where Oakland Tribune pop music critic Jim Harrington was left mystified by the screaming reception the young Canadian received: “Sure, the kid is cute — as fans always seem to point out,” he wrote, “and he sure has great hair. Yet, he lacks charisma onstage, and his high-pitched singing voice is ordinary at best. … In all, there’s very little that screams ‘star’ about Bieber — besides, of course, those in the audience screaming. He does nothing in concert to explain his popularity to the unconverted.”