Justin Bieber has put his social media power to use for buddy Carly Rae Jepsen’s single, “I Really Like You.” The heartthrob has unleashed a new lip-syncing video with famous friends, including Kendall Jenner, Ariana Grande, and more.
The Biebs, who is in the official music video for “I Really Like You” with actor Tom Hanks, did the same for Jepsen back in 2012 for her breakout song “Call Me Maybe.” That iconic video starred actress-singer Selena Gomez, Ashley Tisdale, and others. But the times are a-changing.
In the 2015 lineup, the (mostly) shirtless Justin is seen dancing, lip-syncing, and laughing with Kendall — his new pup Esther also gets some face time — in scenes which were shot during the pair’s recent visit to the Coachella festival in Indio, California.
Lots of people think the model and the singer are hooking up.
Perhaps they are. For all the reasons detailed here , that could be a good thing. There’s no denying Jendall look great together, and the pair clearly don’t mind fueling “Are they/Aren’t they?” talk, after the Biebs posted a cozy photo with the 19-year-old last week.
Others say the two are more like brother and sister , which is probably more believable.
Back to the “I Really Like You” video.
Along for the lip-sync-fest are Ariana’s brother Frankie, Empire’s Bryshere Gray, Bieber’s dad, producer and songwriter David Foster, Rixton’s Jake Roche, designer Jeremy Scott, South Korea’s CL, viner Matthew Espinosa, Lance Bass, The Voice’s Kimberly Nichole, pals Ryan Butler and Alfredo Flores, and others.
Some aren’t sold on Justin’s latest Jepsen-homage. Pointing accusatory fingers at Scooter Braun — who manages all the music artists seen in the clip — Direct Lyrics slams as follows.
“I refuse [to believe] that it is sweet Carly the one to blame for this ‘too forced’ mess. My blaming finger points to her manager Scooter Braun.
He seemingly can’t deal with the fact that ‘I Really Like You’ (the first single from Carly’s upcoming album “E-MO-TION”) is ‘kind of’ underperforming (it’s not on the top positions on iTunes and it is yet to crack the Top 40 on the Hot 100). What is the problem? No one seems to know.
I personally LOVE the song, and I actually call it a ‘brilliant comeback single’ but it appears that the American public is just ‘over’ Carly and her pure-pop songs. And it seems too that Scooter doesn’t deal very well with failure and he’s obviously scared he might be losing a client soon. For no doubt Interscope will let go of Carly if “E-MO-TION” flops and therefore Carly won’t be needing a high-profile manager like Scooter anymore.”
Strong words. But, frankly, why wouldn’t a manager push an artist and try to improve a single’s chart impact? That’s the job.
Within an hour of the Biebs’ posting the lip-dub “I Really Like You” video on Tuesday, it shot to No. 1 on Billboard ‘s Trending 140 Chart .
KENDALL AND JUSTIN ARE SO CUTE https://t.co/Qs5Z2SC3VP
— HMT ft. JB 4/8/15 (@CitlaliEsquive4) April 14, 2015
#GOALS pic.twitter.com/ZkDUs8Jj4l
— Justin Bieber Babes (@belieberbabes) April 14, 2015
Elsewhere, fans have been posting GIFs and screenshots of their favorite parts of the video, which is now approaching 1,500,000 views. Over in medialand, the predominant response to Biebs and co’s. clip has been glowing .
We really like that.
[Images via Kidrauhl YouTube]