On March 5, 2023, we received mail from a Snopes reader asking if singer Justin Bieber had died. We found that was false.
"USA ( RIP ) Justin Bieber died after crashing at over 100mph, coroner's report reveals 05.03.2023," website vairalnews93.com claimed on March 5, a potential place for where the rumor came from.
Mediamass.net also posted an article about Bieber being dead. We wrote about the website before when fact-checking death hoaxes about Steve Harvey and Tim Curry.
There is no evidence Bieber is dead. If it was true, it would be widely reported and memorialized by reputable publications.
His health had recently been in the news after he suspended his "Justice World Tour" in June 2022 due to reportedly being diagnosed with Ramsey Hunt syndrome, which causes facial paralysis. The tour was later canceled in February 2023.
Both websites where the claims appeared seemed to be dedicated to publishing death hoaxes. Vairalnews93.com also published death hoaxes about Mick Jagger and Simon Cowell.
Claims about Bieber dying in a car crash have spread for over a decade at least. These rumors could be traced back to justin.bieber.serverswell.com, a website that falsely claimed he flipped his car while driving at approximately 95 mph. The website appears to no longer be in existence, as of this writing.
In 2013, a study of Twitter death rumors found Bieber was the musician most often reported to be dead. A drug overdose was the most cited reason for his death, followed by crashing his Ferrari. Another false rumor posted by justin.bieber.serverswell.com claimed he had died crashing his Ferrari while driving 125 mph.
Bieber himself has addressed the death hoaxes. In 2010, he tweeted, "one...Im not dead. I had to check on this one...but it turns out Im alive."
one...Im not dead. I had to check on this one...but it turns out Im alive
— Justin Bieber (@justinbieber) June 29, 2010