Justin Bieber Releases A Surprise EP, ‘Freedom’ On Easter Sunday
Justin Bieber has surprised fans by releasing a new EP, Freedom, on streaming services this Easter Sunday, 4th April.
The EP appeared at around 10pm GMT on Easter Sunday and follows his sixth album, Justice which came out in March 2021. Freedom features six new songs, five of which feature guest appearances. The songs on the record are the title track (feat BEAM), All She Wrote (feat Brandon Love) We’re In This Together, Where You Go I Follow (feat Pink Sweats, Chandler Moore and Judah Smith), Where Do I Fit In (feat Tori Kelly, Chandler Moore and Judah Smith) and Afraid To Say (feat Lauren Walters).
Both BEAM and Tori Kelly also feature on Justice, with BEAM appearing on Love You Different and Kelly on Name.
There’s little surprise that Bieber released the EP over the Easter weekend, with the songs including lyrics such as “Good Friday fish” and “Easter Sunday bun and cheese”. He announced the release of the EP on his social media, with the simple “Freedom on all Platforms” and a photo of the word ‘Freedom.’ written in bold in the Notes app of an iPhone.
Freedom on all platforms https://t.co/k9a33Pb2Gu pic.twitter.com/BkAqqaKJRZ
— Justin Bieber (@justinbieber) April 4, 2021
Justice was met with critical and commercial acclaim when it arrived last month, although there was some controversy surrounding the sampling of speeches by Dr Martin Luther King on the songs MLK Interlude and 2 Much, with Rolling Stone calling the samples “a jarring musical misstep”. The star took to Clubhouse to discuss his intentions with the songs. “”Being Canadian,… they didn’t teach us about Black history. It was just not a part of our education system.
“I think for me, coming from Canada and being uneducated and making insensitive jokes when I was a kid and being insensitive and being honestly just a part of the problem because I just didn’t know better. For me to have this platform to just share this raw moment of Martin Luther King in a time where he knew he was going to die for what he was standing up for.”
Hours before the album appeared on streaming services, Bieber announced a campaign to raise awareness for social justice organisations, naming Anti Recidivism Coalition, Alexandria House, the Compton Pledge, Baby2Baby, the Equal Justice Initiative, LIFT, Self Help Graphics and Art, This Is About Humanity, the Poor People’s Campaign and the King Center as charities he’d be supporting. Saying that “In honor of #Justice I’m supporting organizations that embody what justice looks like in action.”