Justin Bieber’s headline turn at this year’s Coachella on Saturday was almost a prophecy fulfilled: The somewhat reclusive superstar has been a frequent guest and audience member at the desert fest, and ever since the event’s turn into the pop world, he’s been a top-of-wishlist performer for the mostly millenial crowd that typically fills the field. Actually, those last three words have never been more true: Thanks to a scarcity of product (Bieber last toured the U.S. in 2022), an excitement of purpose, and a lack of counterprogramming, there’s an argument that Bieber’s audience was the biggest ever on the Coachella field, stretching back almost to the ferris wheel.
Bieber negotiated his own deal to headline, and speculation ran rampant pre-fest with what Bieber was planning, especially after two tiny L.A. underplays focused exclusively on songs from his most recent albums, Swag and Swag II. Eagle-eared listeners who were near the field reported that he was playing older songs during soundcheck this week, so it was truly anyone’s guess what would actually transpire when he took the stage.
The answer was a show that felt too basic in its perseveration to warrant so much hype, yet far from the trainwreck of Frank Ocean’s well-documented free fall on the same stage back in 2023. Bieber’s set mostly consisted of the singer alone on a huge stage sans any true production, singing mid-tempo pop songs like “First Place” and ballads like “All the Way.” It was a trial of patience for many fans, especially when — after a sit-in from the Kid Laroi on “Stay” — Bieber brought in a couple of guitarists to share the stage with, playing deep-cut acoustic tracks that led to a mid-set exodus.
When Bieber did decide to visit the past, he did it in a way that seemed almost designed to infuriate: by pulling up his old videos and singing along to early-stage bangers like “Baby” and “I’m the One.” The low-fi video was shot nearly 20 years ago at the very beginning of Bieber’s career. The set seemed like it was going to careen into disaster when Bieber pulled up both his own paparazzi fails and other viral videos (“double rainbow all the way!”). But he corrected himself for the final frame, a quartet of selections with guests on each: Dijon on “Devotion,” Tems on “I Think You’re Special,” Wizkid on his own “Essence,” and finally Mk.gee on “Daisies.”
As fireworks erupted to end the set, it’s likely that plenty of Beliebers left satiated, but that’s not the arbiter of a successful festival set: With the opportunity to make a huge impact on a stage and festival he clearly feels is important, Bieber missed the mark. If he was shooting only to maintain his biggest fans’ loyalty, though, he has nothing to worry about.
