Bieber leaned on nostalgia

Justin Bieber closed Coachella’s Saturday night with a stripped-down set that turned his own YouTube past into part of the show. (latimes.com) (variety.com) The set took place on Saturday, April 11, at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, California, where Bieber was billed as the night’s headliner and performed late on the main stage. Coachella’s official livestream ran free on YouTube across April 10 to 12, putting the show in front of a large at-home audience as well as the festival crowd. (abcnews.com) (latimes.com) Much of Bieber’s set drew from his recent “Swag” material, but one section broke from the new songs and had him seated at a desk with a laptop, pulling up old clips and singing along to them. Variety reported that the nostalgia segment was the only part of the roughly hour-and-a-half show built around older catalog material. (variety.com) (hollywoodreporter.com) That choice put the mechanics of Bieber’s rise back in view. He first broke through as a teenager on YouTube, and his Coachella set reused that same platform as a live prop while he revisited songs including “Baby” and “Never Say Never.” (variety.com) (independent.co.uk) The performance also landed as one of Bieber’s biggest live returns in years. Billboard reported that he played two small West Hollywood warm-up shows at the Roxy and the Troubadour before Coachella, and described the festival set as his first time back onstage in four years. (billboard.com) (abcnews.com) The Hollywood Reporter tied that return to a stretch of upheaval since 2022, when Bieber canceled tour dates over health issues. The outlet also noted that, in the years since, he sold his publishing catalog, became a father and split professionally from longtime manager Scooter Braun. (hollywoodreporter.com) Onstage, the production stayed sparse. Reviews from Variety, Billboard and The Hollywood Reporter all described minimal staging, few props and long stretches with Bieber alone, a sharp contrast with the more elaborate festival-pop spectacles that usually anchor Coachella headline slots. (variety.com) (billboard.com) (hollywoodreporter.com) Guests arrived later in the set. The Kid Laroi joined Bieber for “Stay,” and Tems and Wizkid appeared for “Essence,” with Mk.gee also turning up near the end, according to Variety and The Hollywood Reporter. (variety.com) (hollywoodreporter.com) Bieber’s show sat at the center of a crowded Day 2 lineup that also included the Strokes, Jack White, Fujii Kaze and Addison Rae, according to the Los Angeles Times’ live coverage. By the end, the most distinctive image was not a giant stage trick but Bieber at a laptop, singing back to the internet that made him famous. (latimes.com) (variety.com)