Justin Bieber’s unrelenting bid to rebrand himself has already seen him call in favours with Comedy Central and Carly Rae Jepsen but now he’s seeking help from on high.
The 21-year-old pop star, who has been making a concerted effort to undo years of bad press, has arrived in Sydney to attend the five-day Hillsong church conference.
The church confirmed the 21-year-old pop star is in Sydney, saying he was a “delegate” of the Pentecostal mega-church for its week-long conference at the Allphones Arena from Monday. The church was founded in Sydney and now has several international offshoots.
Bieber was photographed arriving at Sydney international airport on a private jet on Monday morning.
It is his fifth time in the country, despite an interview in March last year (pre-rebrand) in which he said he could not remember if he had ever been.
This time will hopefully make more of an impression, with Bieber here as a supporter of Hillsong.
“People come from across the world to Sydney each year to attend Hillsong conference. Justin is here – like tens of thousands of others – as a delegate who is seeking to build stronger foundations into his life,” the church said.
“He is not participating in the conference in any other capacity. Out of respect for his privacy we will not be making further comments.”
Bieber shared the album art of Hillsong Young & Free’s This Is Living with the hashtag #stepoutonfaith on Instagram a week ago, around the same time TMZ reported that he and the Hillsong pastor Joel Houston were spotted leaving the Hyde nightclub in Hollywood together.
HollywoodLife.com also reported that Bieber was spotted with his former girlfriend Selena Gomez backstage at Hillsong – “the special place he used to take Selena when they were dating” – last month.
Rumoured backstage hook-ups aside, Bieber’s rumoured girlfriend, model Hailey Baldwin, is also expected to attend the conference.
The 18-year-old daughter of the Hollywood actor Stephen Baldwin arrived in Sydney on Monday on a commercial flight to launch a new denim line at Topshop.
She and Bieber have been repeatedly spotted together since late 2014 yet deny they are a couple.