Will.i.Am praises Justin Bieber: 'I've always believed in that kid'

Hitmaker Will.i.Am has revealed that 'What Do You Mean' heartthrob Justin Bieber has made him proud because of the way he managed to turn things around.

During an interview with Britain's Heat magazine, the star admitted that he's "happy" to see the young Canadian sensation making such an impressive return to the music scene after going through a troubled time:

“I’ve always believed in that kid; I think he’s extremely talented and I’m happy for him. It’s one thing to have success, and it’s another thing to be paving the way and defining contemporary pop music. He went underground and took underground to the surface, so hats off.”

Bieber recently told The Bert Show that his decision to turn things around can be credited to his faith: “I am not going to go into detail of what I was doing and where I was at, but I was pretty lost and woke up one morning and felt like God was telling me something."

“I'm not super religious or anything but I just heard a voice and was like, ‘You know what? I'm going to change my life around. I'm going to switch up some things and put some pieces together. I called Scooter and said, ‘We need to fix this’, so we just started fixing it."

Watch footage of Will.i.Am on The Voice here: