Justin Bieber has given fans an early Christmas present – confirmation he is to make a 2020 comeback.
The Canadian pop star chose 24 December to announce he will release a new single, called Yummy, on 3 January – the debut track from an upcoming, as yet untitled fifth album.
The 25-year-old also revealed he is to tour the US and his home nation between May and September.
The singer announced as well he is to appear in a new documentary TV series.
Bieber took an extended break from music in 2017 after cancelling the last 14 dates of his Purpose World Tour.
Yet this year saw him appear as a guest vocalist on Ed Sheeran’s I Don’t Care and a remix of Billie Eilish’s Bad Guy.
This – together with an appearance with Ariana Grande at Coachella in April – led to speculation that he might be about to return with new solo material.
“As humans we are imperfect,” he can be heard saying in a teaser “super trailer” for his New Year plans.
“My past, my mistakes, all the things that I’ve been through… I believe that I’m right where I’m supposed to be and God has me right where he wants me.”
Earlier this year he wrote about his struggles with drug use and depression in an emotional essay, in which he described himself as “the most hated person in the world”.
“I feel like this is different from the previous albums just because of where I’m at with my life,” he goes on in the video. “I’m excited to perform it and to tour it.
“We all have different stories, I’m just excited to share mine. It’s the music I’ve loved the most out of anything I’ve done.”
The promo video finds Bieber, wearing his trademark baggy hoodie and woolly hat, sitting outside a petrol station and wandering around a trailer park near Los Angeles as he contemplates his next move.
Bieber shot to fame as a teenager after impressing manager Scooter Braun with his cover versions online.
With his first EP, 2010’s My World, he became the first act to have seven tracks from a debut in the US top 100.
Throughout his career the star has amassed more than 50 billion streams and shifted more than 60 million album equivalents worldwide.
His North American tour begins in Seattle, Washington, on 14 May and concludes in East Rutherford, New Jersey, on 26 September.
His tour dates make it unlikely – though not impossible – he will perform at the Glastonbury Festival in June.
This will be Bieber’s first album and tour since marrying girlfriend Hailey Baldwin.
BBC