It’s almost impossible to imagine the pop culture landscape without its reigning prince, Justin Bieber. His rise to fame was so meteoric that it’s easy to forget how he got here — through YouTube. It was five years ago today (Jan. 15) that the ‘Baby’ singing superstar created the video account that would change his life — and that of teenage girls everywhere — forever.

Bieber honored the date via — what else? — Twitter. Reaching out to his 16+ million followers, the Biebs wrote, “5 years ago today i started this youtube channel and you all changed my life. thank you. #AlwaysKidrauhl – youtube.com/kidrauhl”

Bieber’s original YouTube account was a tribute to his dad. Bieber’s father’s YouTube alias was “LordRauhl,” after a character from ‘The Sword of Truth’ series.

Following Scooter Braun’s discovery and Usher‘s subsequent mentoring of the teen phenom, the Biebs went on to become the first and only true superstar to emerge from YouTube. (Though the site has certainly helped to launch careers of other artists like Karmin, no one else has come close to Bieber’s level of success yet.)

Since his first video, posted five years ago, Bieber has gone on to go multiplatinum, sell out arenas across the globe, perform with legends like Stevie Wonder and Carlos Santana, have one the most influential haircuts of all time, date Selena Gomez and be the most famous minor on the planet.

Phew! Not too shabby for a kid from Canada who started out singing Ne-Yo covers at talent shows! In honor of Bieber’s YouTube-iversary, check out his very first video.

Watch Justin Bieber Sing Ne-Yo’s ‘So Sick’ in His First YouTube Video

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