"One Less Lonely Girl" is a song by Canadian recording artist, Justin Bieber. The song was written and produced by Bieber's mentor, Usher, Ezekiel Lewis, Balewa Muhammad of The Clutch, and A-Rex duo Sean Hamilton and Hyuk Shin. It was released exclusively to iTunes as the second single from his debut studio album, My World on October 6, 2009, and was later released to more digital distributions and mainstream and rhythmic radio soon after[3].
The song was positively received, commending song delivery, comparing it to pop and R&B ballads by Chris Brown and Beyoncé. It was a success in the United States & Canada, remaining to be Bieber's highest peaks in the countries at sixteen and ten, respectively. It also charted in Belgium (Flanders) and Germany within the top thirty, and also charted in Austria and the United Kingdom. The music video features Bieber attracted to a girl he sees in the laundromat, as he leads her on a scavenger hunt to win a date with her. Bieber has performed the song in a number of live appearances including the his U.S. promotion & Jingle Ball tour, the Fearless Tour, and on Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest.
The "One Less Lonely Girl" phrase spawned several products from Bieber's official store to have the coined phrase on them. One of the products is a cranberry colored scarf, the same color as a shirt Bieber wore in the music video[17] One end of the scarf has a patch with the "One Less Lonely Girl" phrase on it and the other end has a signature by Bieber[17]. MTV Buzzworthy called the scarf "boundsly adorable" and "a total bargain for less loneliness"[17] Another product was a white t-shirt that had the phrase stylized as "1LessLonelyGirl" in variations of sky blue colors[18]. In December 2009, Bieber teamed up with 1-800-Flowers for a promotion. The company came out with a "One Less Lonely Girl"-branded bouquet of red "intuition" roses and a valentine's day card from Bieber, depicting the singer holding a heart.[19][20]. Packages could either have a twenty-four or twelve count stems, and a red, silver or clear vase.[19]. The flowers could be set for delivery between January 12-February 12, 2010, before Valentine's Day[19].The first one thousand customers received a free replica of the scarf in the "One Less Lonely Girl" video[21]. A portion of the proceeds went to Pencils of Promise,a charity that helps build schools in developing areas of the world. Bieber frequently participates in the charity[19]. A contest was also set in place in which a winner would be greeted with their flowers by Bieber himself, or could win the flower bouquet and other Justin Bieber merchandise.[22]
Bieber has performed "One Less Lonely Girl" as an acoustic rendition and with the original musical background. He first performed the song live and acoustically when he made a return appearance to his native Canada, and performed on the finale of YTV's The Next Star. Bieber performed the song along with his lead single "One Time" on September 26, 2009. He also performed the song acoustically when he appeared on Good Morning America on November 15 and on It's On with Alexa Chung on November 19[23]. When Bieber performs the song with the musical background, he invites one or two girls on stage to be the object of his affection or the "lonely girl" during the performance[24]. Bieber performed the song with the original musical background along with "One Time", and "Favorite Girl" on his U.S. network television debut on the The Today Show[25]. He also performed the song with the musical background on The Ellen DeGeneres Show[26], on with Fearless Tour with Taylor Swift in the United Kingdom, his Urban Behavior Tour and during Winter 2009 when he performed at several different Jingle Ball concerts[24]. However, on the Fearless Tour he did not invite girls on stage during the song, which was Bieber's fourth number. When Bieber performed at Q100's Jingle Ball in Atlanta, Georgia, where Bieber's career is based out of, he invited good friend and former girlfriend, Caitlin Beadles, who had recently recovered from a boating accident, on stage as the girl during the song[24]. Bieber performed the single as his second song during Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest, and invited his friend and fellow performer that night, Selena Gomez on stage to act as the lonely girl[27]. The performance onstage fueled further speculation of a relationship between Bieber and Gomez but both claimed they were just friends, as they did before[28]. He sung the song on VH1's Pepsi Super Bowl Fan Jam, along with other performers Rihanna and Timbaland, and on CBS' The Early Show as a part of their Super Bowl programming.[29][30] He performed a melody of "One Less Lonely Girl" and "Never Let You Go", along with "Baby" at BET's SOS: Help for Haiti Telethon.[31] As the telethon was also being broadcast in Haiti, Bieber sung the first verse in French.[31]
