Bieber’s 34‑song Coachella set

Justin Bieber closed the second night of Coachella Weekend 1 on April 11 with a 34-song set that traded arena spectacle for a stripped-down, living-room-style show. (billboard.com) The performance took place at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, and Billboard reported it was Bieber’s first headlining set at the festival after years of drop-in appearances, including guest spots in 2019 and 2024. (billboard.com) Setlist records posted after the show listed 34 tracks, with 11 songs from *SWAG*, four from *SWAG II*, a medley of older hits including “Baby,” “Sorry” and “Where Are Ü Now,” plus guest appearances from The Kid Laroi, Dijon, Tems, Wizkid and Mk.gee. (setlist.fm) Billboard said Bieber spent most of the first 50 minutes on the 2025 albums and used a minimal stage setup built around a cocoon-like structure and a laptop rather than the large-scale choreography and effects that usually define Coachella headliners. (billboard.com) That choice became the center of the reaction. Toronto Sun said some viewers called the show “pure laziness,” while others praised the no-frills approach as an honest retrospective that leaned into Bieber’s early internet fame and let the crowd do much of the singing. (torontosun.com) Vulture described the set as a “hard reset on Coachella maximalism” and said the performance was built around simplicity, with Bieber using YouTube clips and familiar songs to turn a festival headline slot into something closer to a personal scrapbook. (vulture.com) The catalog-sale rumor that spread after the show does not hold up under music licensing rules or the deal terms described by Billboard. The trade reported on April 13 that Bieber’s 2023 sale covered about 290 songs released before Dec. 31, 2021, but did not limit what he could perform live. (billboard.com) Billboard said a source familiar with the transaction called the rumor “nonsense,” and noted that concert performances are typically covered by venue blanket licenses from groups such as the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers and Broadcast Music, Inc. (billboard.com) The set also landed in the middle of a broader comeback narrative. Billboard reported that Bieber played intimate shows at The Roxy on March 29 and the Troubadour on April 4, both in West Hollywood, before stepping up to Coachella on April 11 for what it called his first return to the stage in four years. (billboard.com) Independent clips and fan-shot videos helped shape the afterlife of the performance as much as the official reviews did, because the show’s quiet staging and crowd-singalong sections played differently in short clips than they did across a full festival set. (youtube.com 1) (youtube.com 2) Weekend 2 is scheduled for April 18 at Coachella, and the argument over whether Bieber rebuilt his live reputation or simply lowered the temperature of a headline slot is now part of the show itself. (setlist.fm)