Whoever said “streaming killed the video star” has clearly never metJustin Bieber.

Since the ’80s (a decade before the 31-year-old pop sensation was even born),music videoshave helped shape careers and define eras.MTValone, with their VJs in the ’80s and ’90s to theVideo Music Awardsand the coveted Moon Man trophy,ensured that music videos have been crucial to the industry at large for nearly five decades.

These days, a great music video can be harder to find,but at least one artist has not forgotten the art of a beautifully directed visual. Justin Bieber has released the music video for his song “FIRST PLACE” off his surprise summer album,SWAGon YouTube and X.

Similar to the album, he released the music video with a complete lack of promotion.What’s more, the track wasn’t released as a single, making the music video rather unconventional, which seems to be the theme ofSWAG.

The “FIRST PLACE” Music Video Is A Stripped Down, Black And White Beauty

Bieber posted the “FIRST PLACE” music video on X and YouTube, and as far as music videos go, it’s one of the best we’ve seen in a while. The video is shot entirely in black and white, and features Bieber with some friends at a cabin in the mountains,recording music and making art away from the noise of the city.

The music video shows a fairly stripped-down glimpse into Bieber’s creative process,splitting his time in the mountains evenly between work and play. The video is composed of snippets of Bieber snowboarding in the mountains, or quite literally stripping down to go for a night swim, and clips of him recording vocals for the song.

The “FIRST PLACE” Video Is A Perfect Match For The Album’s Arrival

​​Bieber releasedSWAGwithout any promotion on July 11th, making thealbum a total surprise. In the weeks that followed, he released two singles from the album, neither of which were “FIRST PLACE,“rendering the music video just as much a surprise—it’s not often that an artist makes a music video for a song they don’t release as a single.

The fact that there were no singles released prior to the album means that no one song stuck out right away.“FIRST PLACE” is the first, and so far the only song, from the album to be accompanied by a music video.The video draws upon the ups and downs of Bieber’s life, inherently making it stick out within the album.