The public loves building up and tearing down celebrities. Since the advent of the internet, it’s arguably replaced baseball as the American pastime. But every now and then, disgraced superstars are given the opportunity to beg forgiveness and redeem themselves. This process generally involves contrite talk show appearances and well-executed content rollouts that remind people why they loved the fallen idols in the first place.
Justin Bieber did a masterful job of this with “Sorry,” the second single off his 2015 comeback album Purpose. Going into that LP, Bieber had been doling out more than his share of apologies. In January 2015—after a fraught few years that included arrests for vandalism and dangerous driving, not to mention an incident with a monkey—the Canadian pop titan copped to being “arrogant” and “conceited” in a Facebook mea culpa.
“I’m a person who genuinely cares and although what’s happened in the past has happened, I just want to make the best impression on people and be kind and loving and gentle and soft and although people can call me a ‘softy,’ that’s how my mom raised me,” the Biebs said. The next day, an admittedly nervous Bieber turned up on Ellen and said he wanted to “own up to some of the things” he’d done wrong in recent years.
“Sorry” puts this idea into musical form—and it does some heavy lifting. The song covers all that tabloid stuff, plus Bieber’s then-recent split from Selena Gomez, whom he’d dated on and off for a number of years. Bieber knew exactly what he was doing. He wrote “Sorry” with producers Skrillex and BloodPop and songwriters Justin Tranter and Julia Michaels, a duo that would soon dominate the pop charts. On the day they co-wrote “Sorry,” Tranter and Michaels had already done an earlier writing session with another artist. They figured their chances of landing a song on the Bieber project were slim, but they showed up that night ready to work. Once Bieber’s engineer played them some tracks, Michaels came up with a concept for the lyrics.
“I immediately thought back to the time that my boyfriend and I broke up,” she wrote in a Genius annotation. “Three months later he came back to my door and was like, ‘I’m really sorry.’ Everyone can relate to fucking up and asking for mercy.”
With its glistening tropical house synths, gently skipping dancehall beat, and triumphant horn blasts, “Sorry” has a reassuring vibe that matches the lyrics. It’s as though the apology has already been accepted, and Biebs is on the beach celebrating.
In the opening verse, Bieber does his best to keep things playful, even as he pours his guts out. His corny basketball reference comes off as kind of endearing.
I hope I don’t run out of time, could someone call a referee?
’Cause I just need one more shot at forgiveness
He then pokes some fun at himself, admitting that he’s really made a mess of things.
I know you know that I made those mistakes maybe once or twice
By once or twice, I mean maybe a couple a hundred times
The chorus reminds us that “Sorry” isn’t just for his fans. Bieber confirmed to Ellen that the song is partially about Gomez, whom he once lived with and felt almost married to.
Yeah, is it too late now to say sorry?
’Cause I’m missing more than just your body
Unless he’s chiding the gossip-hungry public for its role in his downfall—which would actually be a pretty reasonable stance—Bieber seemingly spends the second verse reminding Gomez that she’s no angel either.
I’ll take every single piece of the blame if you want me to
But you know that there is no innocent one in this game for two
In the bridge, Bieber reiterates the main point of the song, a statement followed by a question: “Yeah, I know that I let you down/Is it too late to say I’m sorry now?” It was, in fact, not too late. “Sorry” reached No. 1 in more than a dozen countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom. It was the second big win of the Purpose campaign, as the album’s lead single, “What Do You Mean?”, had already topped charts around the world and introduced a more mature, electronic direction for the former tween phenom. Purpose debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and eventually yielded a third No. 1 single, “Love Yourself,” signaling loud and clear that America was ready to forgive and forget.
In the years since, a renewed Bieber has doubled down on his Christianity, gotten married, and kept the hits coming. He’s followed Purpose with two more No. 1 albums and a slew of monster singles, including two 2021 U.S. chart-toppers: “Peaches” and “Stay,” a collaboration with The Kid LAROI.
All these years later, “Sorry” remains emblematic of Bieber’s redemption. It’s part pop song, part PR exercise, and Bieber couldn’t have played it any better. “It’s kind of the stamp in the end of all of the apologies that I’m giving, like to the people [and] to the media,” he said after performing at the MTV EMAs in October 2015. “Putting a song out saying ‘Sorry’ is the icing on the cake and I’m just ready to move on.”
You can check out all the lyrics to “Sorry” on Genius now.
