Justin Bieber surprised fans by sharing Freedom, a gospel-inspired EP, on Easter.
The 27-year-old pop superstar’s new release popped up on streaming platforms around 6 p.m. ET on Sunday (April 4).
“Freedom on all platforms,” Bieber wrote on Instagram shortly after the new project surfaced.
Freedom‘s track list includes six songs: title track “Freedom” with Beam, “All She Wrote” (feat. Brandon Love and Chandler Moore), “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).
The Freedom EP follows the release of Bieber’s sixth album, Justice, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart. The 16-track set, released through Raymond Braun/Def Jam on March 18, follows his 2020 album, Changes.
Justice was previewed by a quartet of top 40-charting hits on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart: “Holy” featuring Chance the Rapper (No. 3); “Lonely” with Benny Blanco (No. 12); “Anyone” (No. 6) and “Hold On” (No. 26).
The album’s newest single “Peaches,” featuring Giveon and Daniel Caesar, recently debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart, making Bieber the first solo male artist to debut at the top of Billboard Hot 100 and Billboard 200 simultaneously.
From Publisher: Billboard
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Justin Bieber addresses controversy about featuring MLK Interlude on new album
Justin Bieber recently released his sixth studio album, titled ” Justice ,” and caught some backlash for including a Dr. Martin Luther King Interlude .
Bieber spoke to Bieber Nation co-founder Kristal Terrell on the app Clubhouse about being labeled as a “white savior.”
“Being Canadian… they didn’t teach us about Black history. It was just not a part of our education system,” the musician explained [via Billboard ].
Bieber admitted he made “insensitive jokes when I was a kid” and was part of the problem “because I just didn’t know better.”
“I want to keep growing and learning about just all social injustices and what it looks like for me to be better, what it looks like for my friends to be better,” the “Yummy” singer said. “And I know I have a long way to go. I love that when people are listening to my album, these conversations are coming up and they’re like, ‘Well, how is he going from Martin Luther King into a love song?'”
Bieber added, “I’m not trying to make a connection between me and Martin Luther King. That’s why I never try to talk about social injustice or I didn’t want to be the one to talk about it because I just have so much more learning to do.”
He just wanted to “amplify” the civil rights leader’s “incredibly touching speech” and get conversations started about injustice.
Bernice King, the youngest daughter of Dr. King, took to Twitter to support Bieber’s use of her father’s words in his album.
