The 23 most essential Justin Bieber songs and performances

The Justin Bieber we've all come to know started as an anonymous 14-year-old boy in a Toronto Maple Leafs hoodie singing his heart out to "U Got It Bad" for Usher in Atlanta. Bieber then uploaded the grainy video in March 2008 to the same YouTube account that made him famous, his "kidrauhl" channel.

"One Less Lonely Girl" is an anthem for the early days of Bieber Fever. But no girl got to experience the tradition of Bieber serenading her on stage with the song quite like super fan Avalanna — not even Selena Gomez. Avalanna Routh was a 6-year-old girl who became fast friends with Bieber after widely proclaiming herself Mrs. Bieber. She eventually passed away from brain cancer in 2012.

Justin Bieber's debut single was "One Time" in 2009. Who gets to introduce himself to the world through a music video in which he's throwing a house party at Usher's while he's away? Justin Bieber.

Bieber followed up "One Time" with "Baby" featuring Ludacris in 2010. The official music video has over 1.5 billion views on YouTube. While "One Time" was the official debut of Bieber, "Baby" is the song that propelled him to global stardom.

On April 10, 2010, Bieber made his "Saturday Night Live" debut as the show's musical guest. He acted in skits alongside Tina Fey throughout the 18th episode of Season 35 and performed "Baby."

Bieber released a Christmas album, "Under the Mistletoe ," in 2011 featuring Usher, Mariah Carey, Boyz II Men and others. "Under the Mistletoe" is Bieber's second studio album, a stopgap between "My World" and "Believe." The album includes 15 tracks, but "Mistletoe," the album's lead single, remains the most popular. The official music video currently sits at over 272 million views.

The lead single of off JB's sophomore album, "Believe," was "Boyfriend." The single was the first taste of mature music and the beginning of the transition from his "Baby" and "One Time" roots. "Boyfriend" also introduced fondue as a date cuisine, which as Bieber explained to James Corden during his "Carpool Karaoke" was only chosen as a lyric because "it just sounded good."

In December 2015, Bieber said on "The Bert Show" that his 2013 digital album "Journals" was more of a passion project than anything else. He wanted to do something hip-hop and then incorporate those new sounds into his future work, which he did on tracks like "No Sense" and "No Pressure" on "Purpose." "Journals" was only available for a limited time on iTunes, and Bieber released a song at a time through "Music Mondays." He also managed to get Billboard Hot 100 play for "Journals" despite not being a traditional album.

Long before Chance the Rapper became a Grammy Award-winning independent rapper de jour, he was featured on Justin Bieber's 2013 single "Confident." "Confident" is one of the more popular songs from Bieber's "Journals" project, along with "Hold Tight" and "All That Matters."

In August 2015, Bieber made his long-awaited return to an awards show stage at the MTV Video Music Awards. He performed "What Do You Mean?" and "Where Are Ü Now." And then, there were tears. Shortly after, Bieber told Jimmy Fallon that he got emotional because "honestly, I just wasn't expecting them to support me in the way they did. Last time I was at the VMAs, or last time I was at an awards show, I was booed." 

Though Bieber has since admitted he "never really liked" his 2012 jam "Beauty and a Beat" featuring Nicki Minaj, the song was still essential in his career trajectory — most notably because the music video was shot in documentary fashion and directed by Bieber himself. The music video has over 729 million views.

In 2010, Bieber and Will Smith's son Jaden Smith combined to give us "Never Say Never." The song itself wasn't a smash in comparison with Bieber's other work, but it will always be associated with Bieber. "Never Say Never" is also the title of Bieber's first documentary (2011), which took the audience through his rise to fame and first world tour.

Bieber took his new sound one step further after the lead single release of "Boyfriend" with "As Long as You Love Me" featuring Big Sean. "As Long as You Love Me" peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100.

In March 2010, Bieber announced his first headlining tour — My World Tour and My World 2.0 Tour. The tour ended with a sold-out show at Madison Square Garden.

In 2012, Bieber embarked on his second world tour off of his "Believe" album. He sold out all of his Madison Square Garden shows in 30 seconds and his entire tour in just one hour. The Believe Tour featured performances of "Boyfriend," "As Long as You Love Me," "All Around the World," "Be Alright" and "Believe."

Bieber released his "Purpose" album Nov. 13, 2015, and marked his most critically acclaimed work to date — by far  —including his first No. 1 song "What Do You Mean?" and two other No. 1 hits ("Love Yourself" and "Sorry," which has over 2 billion views on YouTube). Bieber's subsequent Purpose World Tour (his third world tour) is still ongoing, now having moved on to stadiums around the world in 2017. The tour began in March 2016.

Directed by Rory Kramer in Iceland, the music video for "I'll Show You" is the most authentic music video from Bieber to date, mainly because the footage was never intended to be a music video. The song and accompanying video gives his massive adorning following a glimpse into him and not the perfectly packaged product the world had previously seen. The music video has 344.5 million views on YouTube.

On Feb. 15, 2016, Bieber performed "Love Yourself" and "Where Are Ü Now" on the 58th Annual Grammy Awards stage. He also won his first Grammy alongside Jack Ü duo Diplo and Skrillex — Best Dance Recording for "Where Are Ü Now." In the theme of firsts: Bieber's date to the Grammys was adorably his younger brother, Jaxon. 

Bieber teamed up yet again with Diplo (more specifically, his electronic music production trio Major Lazer) for single "Cold Water," which was released in July 2016. As part of the promotional campaign, Bieber started direct messaging pieces of "Cold Water" lyrics to fans. "Cold Water" peaked at No. 2 on Billboard's Hot 100.

Originally written for Ed Sheeran's album "Divide," "Love Yourself" became one of Bieber's "Purpose" album staples. "Love Yourself" was one of three of Bieber's "Purpose" singles to hit No. 1 on Billboard's Hot 100. The song was nominated for Song of the Year at this year's Grammys. 

On Sept. 1, 2016, Bieber was the first artist featured in BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge series. He performed an acoustic set list from his Los Angeles home including his own hits and covers of Tupac's "Thugz Mansion" and Tracy Chapman's "Fast Car." Bieber's cover of "Fast Car" has over 5 million views on BBC Radio 1's official YouTube channel and is nominated for an award at the upcoming iHeartRadio Music Awards.

To ring in 2017, Bieber performed a very expensive show at Fontainebleau in Miami. Skrillex joined him on stage. Performing beachside was an appropriate way for Bieber to celebrate his very successful 2016.

Bieber is a lifelong hockey lover. He played in the NHL Celebrity All-Star Game for Team Gretzky on Jan. 28, 2017, in Los Angeles and scored one goal. The NHL posted a photo of Bieber with the caption, "'This is one of the highlights of my life. For real.' - Bieber" The highlight that made the rounds, though, when Chris Pronger smashed Bieber against the glass. Yes, even Justin Bieber had an unfulfilled childhood dream.