Did you ever catch Bieber Fever? The first reported cases of this communicable disease began popping up in 2009, throughout Canada, or maybe it was the United States.



It was hard to tell considering the fever was spread via performance videos on YouTube by an aspiring teenager named, you guessed it, Justin Bieber.



Before he was captaining NHL all-star teams and selling over 150 million records, Justin Drew Bieber was just a young boy being raised by a single mother and his grandparents in Stratford, Ontario.



From the young age of seven, Justin took a shine to music, first singing around the house, then performing in front of others at church. He taught himself how to play piano, guitar and trumpet, and took drum lessons. Soon after he began covering popular songs. Then one day he took his guitar with him and began singing on the streets of Stratford.



Busking led to Justin competing in the Stratford Star talent contest when he was 12 years old. He sang a cover of Ne-Yo’s “So Sick” that earned him a respectable second place. His mom filmed his performance and proceeded to upload the video to YouTube for family and friends to see. But soon it wouldn’t just be friends and family watching his videos.



Singing the songs of Ne-Yo, Chris Brown, Justin Timberlake and more and posting homemade videos of the performances online, Justin was beginning to build an audience at the age of 12. He was one of the first real YouTube sensations. And he was getting noticed. Some executives from a few record labels reached out to Justin’s mom, but she couldn’t afford to hire a lawyer to look over any offers so they were forced to pass. And then along came a guy named Scooter.



This is the true story of Justin Bieber's first hit 'One Time' with newly unearthed audio from Justin Bieber, including interviews from the Encore team.



Contains audio from 'And The Writer Is... Tricky Stewart!' (   • Ep. 136: And The Writer Is... Tricky ...  )