Pop star Justin Bieber on Wednesday announced via Twitter that he is retiring.

“My beloved beliebers I’m officially retiring,” he wrote on his Twitter account. “The media talks a lot about me. They make up a lot of lies and want me to fail but I’m never leaving you, being a belieber is a lifestyle.”

The announcement was re-tweeted more than 200,000 times in just four hours of being posted. Bieber has nearly 48 million followers. No official reaction has been made by his record label or management agency.

Bieber’s tweets appear to reaffirm his announcement made last Thursday during a radio interview that he would drop out of the music industry after the release of his new album “Journals.”

The 19-year-old Canadian pop sensation debuted with “My World” in 2009, a year after he was discovered by U.S. talent agent Scooter Braun. He became an international sensation in 2010, when his single “Baby” became the best-selling song in U.S. history and 12-time certified platinum.

The teen singer has been notorious for his erratic behaviors off stage, such as displaying obscene gestures and uttering foul language at paparazzi, and most recently being caught at a brothel in Brazil.

By Yoon Min-sik (minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com)