Justin Bieber Announces Surprise Swag II Album for Friday Midnight

Justin Bieber announced on Thursday that he will release a surprise followup album, Swag II, at midnight Friday, Sept. 5, unveiling bubblegum pink billboards and brief social posts that confirmed the title but offered few other details. The Grammy winner shared multiple Instagram images of the ads and captioned one simply, "SWAG II midnight tonight," a message he repeated in a subsequent post.

The out-of-the-blue announcement echoed the rollout of his July album Swag, which was also issued with little warning. Reports said the new billboards appeared in multiple international markets, though accounts vary on the exact locations. Some outlets cited displays in London, New York, Seoul, Sydney and Shanghai, while others pointed to stops including Iceland, Atlanta and Los Angeles. The ads so far show only the pink cover and the two words Swag II. No track list, runtime or official credits have been released.

Swag II is billed as a separate album rather than a deluxe edition of Swag, which arrived on July 11 and debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 while topping the Top R&B Albums chart. Insiders indicated after the first release that Bieber had been working on more music and that...