Fall River’s Nick DeMoura designed Justin Bieber’s VMA and Met Gala performances

FALL RIVER — Justin Bieber has been busy lately, which means Fall River native Nick DeMoura has been too.

DeMoura is the pop superstar’s artistic director and designer, meaning he creates the overall look of Bieber’s performances from the choreography and costumes to the lighting and sets.

As a child, DeMoura said he would round up friends to dance in talent shows with him, sewing rhinestones onto jeans to make costumes for them.

"So I guess I've always been an artistic director,” he said.

But now, he’s truly in the big leagues. Bieber has had several high-profile performances this month alone, with a performance at the recent VMAs, where he took home artist of the year, and a surprise performance at the Met Gala. DeMoura oversaw the artistic aspects of both performances.

It wasn’t his first time working on a VMAs performance, but DeMoura said the experience never gets less magical. As a boy, he used to record the VMAs on VHS tapes and teach himself the dances, he recalls.

"It's always been a childhood dreams to work on those. Every time you go back, it's a nostalgic thing,” he said.

And because he was working on a performance for the Met Gala, he got to see inside the typically secretive event, where members of the public only see the stars on the red carpet.

"Getting inside and seeing the ballroom being built out in the Metropolitan Museum was pretty cool,” he said.

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A new documentary about Bieber will also give viewers an inside look at DeMoura’s work. Justin Bieber: Our World, which will begin streaming on Amazon Prime on Oct. 8, features the singer’s first full concert performance in three years, which took place on New Year’s Eve in 2020. Because the film centers on a concert, much of it hinges on the artistic design decisions DeMoura is tasked with making.

“With this one, you get to see the process of it all,” he said.

And since he was in New York City this week for the Met Gala, DeMoura got to visit Fall River for a day. He said that while Los Angeles has been his home base for the past 15 years, he takes every opportunity to visit his home town and catch up with friends and family.

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He usually visits Artistic Dance Studio, where he ran a dance group with co-owner Keith Silvia. Even before that, co-owner Melissa Tavano used to let him use the studio after-hours to practice his moves. Demoura said he’d spend hours at a time there practicing dances after school. While he didn’t have time this week, he usually teaches a master class at the dance studio while he visits home as a way of repaying the favor.

“I really owe her for that,” he said.

Audrey Cooney can be reached at acooney@heraldnews.com. Support local journalism by purchasing a digital or print subscription to The Herald News today.