Justin Bieber‘s relationship with his fans continued to deteriorate Thursday night in England where the pop star tried to share the emotional “purpose” of his tour, and then slowly realized they paid to see him sing, not speak.
“The reason that it’s called ‘The Purpose Tour’ is because I believe everybody in this building has a purpose,” he began his special speech over an arena of screaming fans in Manchester. “There’s really no stipulations, you all have a purpose, and I just wanted to remind you, because sometimes we can forget, like, ‘Why am I here? What’s my purpose?’ And sometimes it’s like, ‘Man, I don’t even know what my purpose is.’”
He trailed off there and cleared his throat as fans continued to scream without giving him any silence for the moment he was apparently hoping to have. Then he began offering the mic to fans near the stage.
“You can talk if you want,” Bieber said. “If you guys wanna take this moment and — I just thought I could have a moment of, you know, trying to say something. But if not, I’ll just get to singing, if you don’t want to hear me speak.”
The crowd roared in response to Bieber’s own suggestion to stop yapping, and start “cutting the bulls—.”
“I don’t need to talk. I’m just trying to engage. But if you guys don’t want to do that, we can just play the music.” Another roar of approval from the audience followed that remark.
Bieber then acknowledged singing is his “purpose.” To his credit, he seemed to manage his frustration with loud, adoring fans better than a previous concert this week in Birmingham, England, where he scolded the crowd for being “obnoxious.”
“I appreciate all the love; it’s amazing. But can you show it in a different way?” Bieber asked. “Screaming is just so obnoxious.”
“I get it, it’s been in our blood and it’s ingrained — you go to a concert and you scream and stuff, but if you could just scream after the song, enjoy the song … and then take a chill pill for a second and listen to me speak,” he continued. “It gets a little frustrating.”