The Kid LAROI is well on his way to superstardom and finds himself in the company of giants.
LAROI started making waves in 2018 and found himself regularly charting in his home nation of Australia in 2020. The chart-topping success of his mixtape F*ck Love and global reach of “So Done” put him on the worldwide radar.
He took over sound waves with back-to-back chart-topping smashes: “Without You” (at times) featuring Miley Cyrus and “Stay” with Justin Bieber, with the latter peaking at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for seven weeks.
LAROI is the newest global ambassador for JBL and recently headlined JBL FEST, a three-day immersive brand festival, alongside Doja Cat, Bebe Rexha and Martin Garrix. Before he hit the JBL stage in Las Vegas, LAROI discussed how Bieber has influenced him on a personal level.
“I like hanging out by the pool and just chatting,” LAROI tells ET Canada.
“He’s a really good, he’s a really good dude. He’s someone that whenever I’m having a hard time or something, I can go and speak to and he’s a really great listener and he gives really great advice and that’s it,” he adds
“I feel it’s very important to be a great listener. I’m still learning how to do that. I’m apologizing to my girlfriend all the time because I feel like I’m not a good enough listener and that’s really important in any relationship, friendship, whatever it is. He’s a great listener and and gives great advice,” he continues.
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Bieber is not the only Canadian musician that has influenced LAROI. The multi-talented First Nations Australian musician wants to represent Australia at the same level that Drake elevates Canada.
“The biggest thing is just inspiring people,” LAROI says. “For me growing up, I think being in Australia it was a really big dream to come to America and be globally doing music on a big level or whatever. So I think for me, that seemed kind of almost impossible. I just want to hopefully inspire other young people and have them think that it’s not as impossible as you think.”
LAROI — who performed at JBL Fest on Wednesday, Sept. 28 shortly before Doja Cat took the stage — is coming off his first international tour, a sell-out no less. The tour left a serious imprint on LAROI, an artist who found most of his global success during the COVID pandemic.
“All of my music started doing whatever it was doing during quarantine,” he says inside Virgin Hotels Las Vegas.
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“I never really got to see it in person. A lot of it was like online and on the Internet. It’s obviously really flattering, but numbers don’t really mean the same as seeing each individual person in real life. So that was really cool,” he says.
“I was happy that I got to see the people who have been giving me my life for the past two years… but also just be able to thank them in person,” adds LAROI. “It’s been a really cool, wild ride. I’m very grateful that I was able to do it and that everyone was able to pull up and have fun, hopefully.”
