In the spotlight: Justin Bieber has been far from shy and retiring this year (Getty Images)
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It's been an unbeliebably eventful year for Justin Bieber.
From weeing in a bucket while yelling "F**k Bill Clinton!" to becoming a wanted criminal for vandalism in Australia, the fresh-faced pop star has gone to all lengths to notch up those coveted column inches.
Scroll down for Bieber's top 2013 moments
The "Baby" singer has been though a break-up, been criticised for his poor performances, had more than a few run-ins with the paparazzi and shattered many a Belieber's heart into pieces. (The Beliebers are Justin’s fanbase, in case that fact has somehow escaped you).
If you thought 2013 wasn't the year for you, then taking a look back at the Bieb's last 12 months is sure to leave you feeling a whole lot better about yourself. The teenager visited the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam in April and wrote a note claiming that the Holocaust victim "would have been a Belieber" for god's sake.
Biebs and the craze he sparks set a dubious tone from the very first day of 2013. On New Year's Day, a photographer was hit and killed by a car after snapping pictures of what he thought was the pop star sitting in a parked white Ferrari. It turned out that Justin wasn't actually present at the incident, but it was hardly a winning start - Bieber is always implicated somehow.
Justin Bieber's biggest controversies and mishaps
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Spring was a dodgy time in Bieberland too. While touring in London in the spring, he lashed out at a photographer, lunging out of his car and swearing in a scene not dissimilar to that bit in Disney's The Lion King when Simba tries to roar like Mufasa but fails.
The singer later tweeted that it had been a "rough morning" and that he had "let the paps get the best of me". That was presumably the Bieb's way of apologising - it's a hard life being so rich that you just don’t give a damn.
Arguably his most memorable mishap of all was his pet monkey (miss you, Mally) being seized by German customs officials after the Biebs failed to produce required health papers for him in March.
Then - how could we forget - 2013 saw the demise of the tabloids' darling Jelena [Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez, geddit?). The child stars' three-year, on-off, are they-aren’t they relationship was the stuff of American sitcoms and near-impossible to keep track of but things finally came to a bitter end over the summer.
Beliebers sympathised with his heartbreak for circa five seconds, before the "shotgun Justin for hubby" tweets recommenced with a new-found, hope-fuelled gusto.
There was yet more controversy in November when a randy young Biebs was snapped leaving a brothel in Rio de Janeiro under the cover of a grubby-looking white sheet.
This was just the latest classy addition to his 2013 antics: in July, he was photographed spitting over a Toronto hotel balcony onto besotted fans waiting below. The disturbing likely truth that recipients of said saliva probably thought Christmas had come early is beside the point.
It appeared that the culmination of the year's events had become too much for the "Boyfriend" singer. In an interview with Los Angeles radio station Power 106, Bieber told host Kurt Alexander: "Um, I'm actually retiring man. I'm just gonna take some time. I think I'm probably gonna quit music, I'm quitting everything."
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