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SWAG (Justin Bieber)
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[ Discography & related ]
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| Swag | |
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| 7th Studio album by Justin Bieber | |
| Released | July 11, 2025 |
| Recorded | 2024–2025 |
| Studio | Los Angeles · Reykjavík, Iceland |
| Genre | R&B · synth-pop |
| Length | 54:09 |
| Label | Def Jam · ILH |
| Producers | Justin Bieber · Carter Lang · Dylan Wiggins · Dijon · Eddie Benjamin · Mk.gee · Daniel Chetrit · Daniel Caesar · Knox Fortune · Eli Teplin · Harv |
| Singles | "Daisies" "Yukon" "First Place" |
| Bieber chronology | Justice (2021) Swag (2025) Swag II (2025) |
Swag (stylized as SWAG) is the seventh studio album by Canadian singer Justin Bieber, released on July 11, 2025, through Def Jam Recordings and ILH Productions. It is an R&B and synth-pop record that arrived as a surprise release, ending a four-year gap since Bieber's previous album, Justice (2021).
The album features guest appearances from Gunna, Druski, Dijon, Lil B, Sexyy Red, Cash Cobain, Eddie Benjamin, and gospel singer Marvin Winans. Production was led by Bieber alongside collaborators including Carter Lang, Dylan Wiggins, Mk.gee, Daniel Caesar, and Dijon. The 21-track project was supported by three singles — "Daisies", "Yukon", and "First Place" — and reached number one in nine countries, peaking at number two on the US Billboard 200. A double-album sequel, Swag II, followed less than two months later on September 5, 2025.
Swag received generally positive reviews and earned four nominations at the 68th Annual Grammy Awards. The New Yorker called it Bieber's most expansive and connected work to date, while Rolling Stone described it as "genuinely pretty great." Bieber was announced as a headliner of Coachella 2026 in support of both Swag albums.
1 Navigation✎
2 Background and recording✎
Swag followed Bieber's longest gap between studio albums. After releasing Justice and the EP Freedom in 2021, Bieber stepped back from music while dealing with health issues, including a 2022 diagnosis of Ramsay Hunt syndrome that temporarily paralyzed part of his face and led him to cancel the remainder of his Justice World Tour. In January 2023, he sold his music catalog to Hipgnosis Songs Capital for a reported sum exceeding $200 million, and later that year he ended his long-running professional relationship with manager Scooter Braun.
In January 2024, Bieber began posting photos of himself in recording studios with other musicians on Instagram. He continued to share studio images and cryptic captions through the first half of 2025. The singer recorded portions of the album during a stay in Reykjavík, Iceland, and announced in April 2025 that recording had wrapped up. Earlier that year, he had hosted ongoing studio sessions at his home in Los Angeles with frequent collaborators Carter Lang, Eddie Benjamin, and DJ Tay James.
The album's title and emotional core were shaped by Bieber's life as a husband and new father. He and Hailey Bieber welcomed their son, Jack Blues Bieber, in August 2024, and the family appears in some of the album's promotional imagery.
3 Release and promotion✎
On July 10, 2025, billboards bearing the single word "swag" appeared in cities around the world, including Reykjavík, Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Cambridge, Ontario. A separate billboard in Times Square in Manhattan revealed a 20-song tracklist. The album was released the following day with no traditional promotional rollout, in what became known as a surprise drop. A 21st track, "Standing on Business" featuring Druski, was added before release and did not appear on the Times Square billboard.
Bieber's clothing and lifestyle brand SKYLRK launched the same week, tying into the album's visual identity.
In support of both Swag albums, Bieber performed a private, cellphone-free concert at the Roxy Theatre in West Hollywood, California, on March 29, 2026. He performed 25 songs from the two albums, marking the live debut of all but three of them. He was also announced as a headliner of Coachella 2026, where he performed on April 11 and April 18.
4 Music and lyrics✎
Swag is an R&B and synth-pop album that draws on 1990s production styles. Clash described the record as broadly sitting on "90s-adjacent synth pop," moving between fixed grooves and more vaporous, atmospheric textures. Pitchfork noted the album's looseness and intimacy, contrasting it with the more conventional pop polish of Bieber's earlier work.
Lyrically, the album turns toward themes of devotion, marriage, fatherhood, faith, and vulnerability. AllMusic summarized it as being about "doe-eyed seduction, loyalty, humility, and faith," noting that Bieber does not embrace the term "swag" the way he did in his early 2010s teen-pop era. Comedian Druski appears on several spoken interludes scattered between songs, giving the album a conversational, journal-like feel. The closing track, "Forgiveness," is credited to gospel singer and pastor Marvin Winans of the Winans family.
Two songs contain interpolations of earlier music. "Yukon" interpolates "Untitled" by Eminem and Mobb Deep producer Kejuan Muchita. "Sweet Spot" interpolates both New Edition's 1988 hit "Can You Stand the Rain" and Elmer Bernstein's "Theme from The Magnificent Seven."
5 Singles✎
Three songs were issued as singles to support the album:
- "Daisies" was sent to Italian radio four days after release and serves as the lead single. It debuted at number two on the Billboard Hot 100, matching the album's chart peak.
- "Yukon" was sent to US rhythmic radio on July 22, 2025, debuting at number 17 on the Hot 100. An official music video followed on August 5.
- "First Place" was released as the album's third and final single on August 13, 2025, alongside its official music video.
6 Critical reception✎
Swag received generally favorable reviews, with a Metacritic weighted average of 67 out of 100 based on 15 critic scores. The New Yorker's Brady Brickner-Wood praised the album as Bieber's "messy, improbable masterpiece," writing that he had never sounded this wild, expansive, or connected to something true. Rolling Stone's Rob Sheffield called the record "genuinely pretty great," highlighting Bieber's vocal performance and willingness to experiment.
Clash described Swag as colorful and entertaining across its full breadth, while Pitchfork rated it 7.3 out of 10. Billboard wrote that Swag was the most cohesive and fully formed album of Bieber's career.
Negative reviews focused on the album's length and lack of a clear thematic anchor. The Independent described it as a "god-fearing, hyper-sexual slog," and The Evening Standard wrote that the album offered no new sound or approach beyond "Bieber as usual, only more so." The Daily Telegraph described the project as confused and messy.
7 Commercial performance✎
In the United States, Swag debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 with 163,000 album-equivalent units in its first week, including 198.77 million on-demand streams — Bieber's biggest career streaming week — and 6,000 pure sales. The album became Bieber's 11th top-ten entry on the chart but was also his first studio album to miss the number one spot. It topped the US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart.
Internationally, Swag debuted at number one in Austria, Belgium (Flanders), Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, Iceland, Norway, Portugal, and Switzerland. It reached the top 10 in Australia, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.
The album received four nominations at the 68th Annual Grammy Awards.
8 Track listing✎
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "All I Can Take" | |
| 2. | "Daisies" | |
| 3. | "Yukon" | |
| 4. | "Go Baby" | |
| 5. | "Things You Do" | |
| 6. | "Butterflies" | |
| 7. | "Way It Is" (featuring Gunna) | |
| 8. | "First Place" | |
| 9. | "Soulful" (with Druski) | |
| 10. | "Walking Away" | |
| 11. | "Glory Voice Memo" | |
| 12. | "Devotion" (with Dijon) | |
| 13. | "Dadz Love" (featuring Lil B) | |
| 14. | "Therapy Session" | |
| 15. | "Sweet Spot" (featuring Sexyy Red) | |
| 16. | "405" | |
| 17. | "Swag" (featuring Cash Cobain & Eddie Benjamin) | |
| 18. | "Zuma House" | |
| 19. | "Too Long" | |
| 20. | "Forgiveness" (with Marvin Winans) | |
| Note: "Standing on Business" featuring Druski was added to the final tracklist before release and did not appear on the Times Square billboard reveal. Total runtime including this track is 54:09. | ||
9 See also✎
- Swag II — the September 2025 sequel album
- Justin Bieber discography
10 Other wikis✎
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