Madison Beer Is Living the Dream
Madison Beer talks fast, walks fast, and texts and tweets at lightening speed—most likely because her busy schedule demands it. We caught up with the Long Island-raised singer and Justin Bieber protégé while she was in town for New York Fashion Week and grilled her about her style, her haters, and her new song and video with Jack & Jack “All For Love,” out today. Try to keep up.
How is your fashion week going? It’s been really fun, definitely not what I expected it to be! First ever fashion week at all, first ever fashion show I’ve ever been to. It’s been really amazing, really really cool. My first show was BCBG. My favorite was Desigual, it was really sick. I just loved all the pieces and I loved the runway.
Who are some of your favorite designers? I love Ralph Lauren, I love Versace, Rag & Bone, Acne is really cool and Saint Laurent is like my top—obsessed.
How would you describe your personal style? Edgy for sure. I mean I definitely like the leather jackets and the boots and all that stuff but I could also wear like a flowery dress one day. My style varies from like girly girl to tomboy to skater girl to badass—it’s all over the place! When I perform I like to wear things that have a lot of movement and stand out more than just a normal outfit.
Did you always know that you wanted to be a singer? 100%. I’ve loved to be on stage and sing since I can remember. There was this thing called “Stars of Tomorrow,” it was this little group in my town of kids that loved to sing and we would just do a play every day after school, it was really cute! And I actually have a video of [one of my performances] and I had the microphone in my hand and this teacher came out in front of all the parents and was like, “I just want you guys to remember this name, Madison Beer. She’s going to be really famous one day. She’s got an amazing voice and she’s only five years old. Look out for her.” It’s a really cool video because I was five and no one actually thought anything would come from what she said.
Tell us about your new single. I’m really excited about it! It’s about love and the things you could do for somebody you love. Something I did for love is kind of what I’m getting at throughout the whole song but I don’t say exactly what it is, that’s for people to interpret you know? The video is amazing. I hate my hair in a ponytail—I think I look terrible in a ponytail—and I was like let’s put my hair up, my fans will appreciate it. So there are ponytail shots in there of me, so brace yourself! I’m really excited that Jack & Jack got to be a part of the project because obviously I am dating one of them so it’s cool that the chemistry in the video is all real. The fighting scenes were really funny because we have a little argument scene and if you read his lips, what he’s saying is, “Fight with me so it looks like we’re mad at each other!” and he’s saying that so it’s just really funny. The whole video is really cool and I’m really happy with the way it turned out.
How did you meet Jack? Through Nash Grier at a party. And we actually went on a vacation together with two other people and there was no tension, nothing weird, no kissing, nothing—it was just like friends chilling, hanging out, and I had a little bit of a crush on him. I remember my dad called me and we were fighting and this guy who was there was like, “This is why I would never date a 15-year-old.” And I was so mad because I thought, what if Jack heard that and doesn’t want to date me anymore? Then fast forward probably like a month or two later we told each other we liked each other a lot and it was really cute! When he told me that, he was on tour and we officially started dating when he got home, so we’ve been together for like a year now.
You have a lot of very famous friends. What about Justin Bieber—how did you guys meet? I’m his artist so he signed me when I was about 12. We’ve been friends for about five years and have gotten really close. He’s a crazy nutcase that I love to death and I’m so blessed that I get to be a part of his project and he’s a part of my project. It’s amazing that I’ve seen him grow so much. You know I’ve stood by him through everything that he went through, all that stuff, and when you know someone’s heart you can’t really associate what everyone’s saying about them with what they really are. It was really hard for me to see everyone in the media saying [bad things about him], because I’m on the other side like Justin Bieber is the nicest person in the entire world and has the biggest heart ever. Like, just because he’s being a teenage boy, doesn’t mean he’s [a bad person]. It was hard for me to see that, but I’m glad that everyone has come around and sees the real him now and I’m really excited about his new song! I love it. He played it for me in the studio probably a couple of months ago and I remember being like, “This is such a cool song!” and it wasn’t even finished yet. And I love that he’s doing all his performances again.
It must be hard to grow up in the spotlight. Do you deal with that at all? I mean, yeah, I think I was forced to grow up a little bit, which isn’t a bad thing. I think it’s a good thing in a lot of ways because I like feeling mature and I like feeling like, ok my dad left me in New York City alone with my boyfriend and trusts me to get to my appointments on time and that’s a good feeling for me, because I know I’m mature and not many 16-year-olds would be able to handle all of that and still be professional. I don’t know, I think I like it but there are definitely downsides to it. I did lose a big chunk of my childhood, like I never got the high school experience, middle school, college, summer camp—I didn’t get to do all of that stuff because of this, but this is what I feel like I was meant to do. From a very young age I knew I was meant to be on stage and sing and I just feel so blessed that I get to be a role model to millions of people. I feel like when I was younger, like 10-11, there was Selena Gomez, Miley Cyrus, there were these girls who were pretty close in age with me and I could be like oh she’s only 4 or 5 years older than me, I can relate to her! I just think that’s really special that I get to be so close in age with my fans because Rihanna, Katy Perry, all those girls are like 10 years older at least than these girls who look up to them. Any mistakes I make I kind of am like, I want you guys to learn from my mistakes. Again, there are upsides and there are also downsides. I have to watch what I do, what I say, there’s a lot of stuff that I have to do that I wouldn’t have to if I wasn’t in this position, but it’s also a blessing if it means I can kind of have an impact on so many people.
Your social media following is insane. What’s your favorite channel? I think Twitter has become more my favorite than Instagram recently just because people love to be haters on Instagram. I just get tired of reading my comments and it sucks because I do have a lot of fans who comment like, “I love you!” and I would love to write back and be like, “I love you too!” but I just don’t want to put myself through reading hate about myself and ruin my day and make me upset, you know? So I would rather be on Twitter where I can scroll past it and see a positive thing. Instagram it’s a little bit different. My following is way bigger by like 2 million on Instagram, but my fans are so much more die hard on Twitter. I mean every girl [gets mean comments], like look at Ariana Grande’s Instagram. I like to instill in my fans to always be positive and to always block out the negativity and all that stuff, but I find myself reading hate comments sometimes and I’m like, “You’re not doing what you tell your fans to do.” It’s definitely hard, but I’m lucky that I have really thick skin because there are not a lot of people who do in this industry and it kills them and it makes them have like eating disorders and all that stuff. That’s the thing that people don’t think about. For me it annoys me because society only takes things seriously when something bad happens and I don’t like that I think that’s whack. Words get to people no matter who you are, no matter what you are. Words get to people if it’s enough and I think that people need to take bullying way more seriously than it is taken.
On a lighter note—haters aside—you have some serious selfie game. What’s your secret for the perfect selfie? I think the angle and you have to have your face looking cute. I feel like you’ve gotta just kind of know yourself and know what you want to portray like I think Chrissy Teigen is one of the cutest, most beautiful girls ever and her selfies are just her. She’s not trying and I think that’s really cool. It just depends what you’re trying to post.
So, after the single and everything, what’s next for you? I don’t know, I hope that I get to do music with Justin because we’ve recorded stuff. He’s just amazing and I hope I get a chance to do that. Touring has just like always been a dream of mine. So hopefully an album will follow and I’ll get to go on tour.
Where would you like to be in five years? On tour.
On tour? For five years? Yes. (laughs)
Madison Beer’s “All for Love” is available on iTunes today.
