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" Conor Maynard has said that he doesn&amp;#039;t emulate Justin Bieber. The 20-year-old British popstar has drawn comparisons to Bieber with his hit singles &amp;#039;Vegas Girl&amp;#039; and &amp;#039;Animal&amp;#039;, but he recently told MTV News that he prefers to be judged on his own merits.   &amp;quot;I don&amp;#039;t want to be the next anyone,&amp;quot; Maynard explained. &amp;quot;I want to be the first Conor Maynard. I think I want to have a successful career that is unique in its own way.&amp;quot; Maynard went on to clarify that he means no disrespect to Bieber by rejecting comparisons of their musical styles. &amp;quot;There isn&amp;#039;t really anyone out there where I&amp;#039;m like, &amp;#039;Yeah, I want to do it like they&amp;#039;ve done it&amp;#039;,&amp;quot; he said. &amp;quot;I think I kind of want to get to a point of being as successful as possible in a way that&amp;#039;s unique to me.&amp;quot;  Maynard is prepping the release of his first album Contrast in the US on Tuesday (January 8). Contrast features collaborations with Ne-Yo, Rita Ora and Pharrell. He recently joked that his increasing fame did not prevent him from being totally starstruck in the presence of Rihanna on a London-bound flight. &amp;quot;I just stared at her. She said, &amp;#039;Hi. Congratulations on everything!&amp;#039; and then she wandered off,&amp;quot; he recalled. &amp;quot;I tried to say something but I just kind of went, &amp;#039;Er... um.. er...&amp;#039; and that&amp;#039;s all that came out&amp;#039;.&amp;quot; Watch Conor Maynard&amp;#039;s &amp;#039;Animal&amp;#039; music video below:      "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/music/news/a449171/conor-maynard-i-dont-want-to-be-like-justin-bieber/>