Roman Kemp has recalled an excruciating encounter with Justin Bieber during a private listening session for his 2020 album, Changes.

What began as a seemingly friendly invitation soon took an awkward turn when Justin, 31, demanded Roman, 32, join him on stage to offer live feedback in front of a roomful of music industry executives.

‘He singled me out,’ Roman said. ‘He said I’ve got to come up on stage. He plays these tunes to all these label execs, looks at me and goes, “What do you think of that one?”‘

The former Capital Breakfast host, 32, said he gave his honest opinion: ‘It’s alright.’

Justin, however, did not appear to appreciate the critique. ‘”Roman said it’s alright? Alright?”‘, he reportedly sH๏τ back. 

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Radio presenter Roman Kemp, 32, recalled an awkward encounter with Justin Bieber after the superstar asked him to comment on an album [Pictured March 2025]

Bieber, 31, was less than happy to hear Kemp describe his 2020 album Changes as ‘alright’ [Pictured November 2024]

Speaking on the latest episode of his BBC Sounds podcast You About?, co-hosted with singer Tom Grennan, Roman continued: ‘At that point, I was like, I’ve got to double down.

So I said, “Well, yeah. It’s not your best, not your worst.” And that was it… My words were, “It’s decent” – but I don’t think he appreciated it.’

Tom asked: ‘You used to be pretty тιԍнт with Bieber, didn’t you?’ To which Roman – son of actor Martin Kemp and singer Shirlie Holliman – responded simply: ‘Yeah…’

While Roman still follows Justin on Instagram, Justin doesn’t follow him back.

The pair met around the time of the release of Justin’s 2015 album, Purpose, with the superstar inviting Roman for drinks a short time later. 

Roman recalls going out to party with Justin during his younger days, telling The Sun Justin was the ‘wildest’. 

He said in 2021: ”Without a doubt, he [Justin] was the wildest. He’s grown into a very different young man now. He’s a lot more serious and focused.’

Roman and Justin had struck up a friendship after the radio presenter interviewed the superstar in 2015

Bieber has not released an album since his 2021 effort Justice, which featured the hit song Peaches featuring Giveon and Daniel Caesar [Pictured February 2025]

Bieber gave fans hope that there may be new music around the corner as he shared snaps of him back in the studio on Instagram

Roman added: ‘I think I was 24, he’d just turned 21 and I remember standing on a sofa in a nightclub looking up and every girl in that room was trying to get my eye to say, “You can come on to this table”. It’s [a] different world.

‘I’ve seen the scandal he caused but he was a young guy and I was there for him. He’s a lovely guy, he writes great music and it was a really fun time.’

After the release of Changes, Justin went on to drop the follow-up record Justice the following year. 

The album garnered much commercial success thanks to the popularity of singles such as Peaches featuring Giveon and Daniel Caesar. The song has racked up more than a billion streams on Spotify alone. 

Fans have been starved of music from Justin in recent years however, with Justice being the 31-year-old’s latest body of work. 

He gave fans hope recently nevertheless, sharing snaps of him back in the studio to Instagram.