As Scooter Braun deals with the aftermath of losing top clients Ariana Grande and Demi Lovato, Us Weekly can confirm Justin Bieber is no longer working with his longtime manager.
“Justin has officially let Scooter go as his manager,” a source exclusively tells Us, adding that the singer’s wife, Hailey Bieber, “led the charge that led Justin to leave him for another manager.” The source adds that Justin, 29, “has been taking meetings with other managers for three years.”
Though Puck reported on Friday, August 18, that Bieber and Braun haven’t “spoken for months,” their reps claimed that wasn’t “true.”
A separate insider, meanwhile, claimed to Us on Tuesday, August 22, that “all of Scooter Braun’s clients are under contract and negotiations have been going on for several months as Scooter steps into his larger role as Hybe America CEO.” The insider added: “People are spreading rumors based on what they know, but they are off. Scooter’s team at SB Projects are still handling both Justin and Ariana as they work through what this new structure looks like.”
A third source subsequently downplayed Grande’s status with Braun. “They are friendly but she’s outgrown him and is excited to go in a different direction,” the insider close to Grande said, adding that she is no longer being managed by Braun. “Yes, there are negotiations happening because of contracts. But this is her choice. It’s time for something new.”
For his part, Braun, 42, broke his silence amid the drama on Tuesday, quipping via Twitter: “Breaking news … I’m no longer managing myself.”
Justin had been managed by Braun for more than a decade, with the music exec — who discovered Justin via YouTube in the early 2000s — often serving as a mentor, spokesperson and close friend of the singer as he navigated the highs and lows of fame throughout his teenage years and 20s.
Us confirmed earlier this week that Lovato, meanwhile, left Braun after four years with his company, SB Projects.
Both Bieber and Lovato previously defended Braun when Taylor Swift slammed him for purchasing her masters in 2019. He sold them one year later.
At the time, Swift, 33, took to Instagram to claim that she had been bullied by Braun for years. “I learned about Scooter Braun’s purchase of my masters as it was announced to the world,” she wrote. “All I could think about was the incessant, manipulative bullying I’ve received at his hands for years. … When I left my masters in [Big Machine CEO] Scott [Borchetta]’s hands, I made peace with the fact that eventually he would sell them. Never in my worst nightmares did I imagine the buyer would be Scooter. Any time Scott Borchetta has heard the words ‘Scooter Braun’ escape my lips, it was when I was either crying or trying not to.”
Justin, for his part, stood up for his longtime manager, replying to Swift in a lengthy post of his own.
“Scooter has had your back since the days you graciously let me open up for you! As the years have passed we haven’t crossed paths and gotten to communicate our differences, hurts or frustrations. So for you to take it to social media and get people to hate on scooter isn’t fair,” he wrote. “What were you trying to accomplish by posting that blog? seems to me like it was to get sympathy u also knew that in posting that your fans would go and bully scooter.”
Lovato, meanwhile, defended Braun from the criticism as well. “I have dealt with bad people in the industry and Scooter is not one of them. He’s a good man. Personally, I’m grateful he came into my life when he did,” she wrote in July 2019, two months after signing with the music exec. “Please stop ‘dragging’ people or bullying them. There’s enough hate in this world as it is.”
She added: “Y’all can come after me all you want but I’m always gonna stay loyal to my team. I value loyalty more than most people in this world and if my name is gonna be brought into conversations I’m gonna stand up for myself and the ones on my team.”
