Bieber’s Coachella set divides

Justin Bieber’s first Coachella headlining set turned into a split-screen reaction online after he spent part of Saturday night singing along to old YouTube clips from a laptop. (hollywoodreporter.com) Bieber headlined the festival’s main stage in Indio, California, on Saturday, April 11, during Weekend 1 of Coachella 2026. Coachella’s official site lists the festival dates as April 10-12 and April 17-19, with Bieber returning for the second Saturday on April 18. (coachella.com) The Chicago Tribune reported that Saturday marked Bieber’s first time performing, and headlining, at Coachella after earlier guest appearances in 2019 and 2022. The Hollywood Reporter said he started around 11:30 p.m. and kept the stage setup sparse. (chicagotribune.com) (hollywoodreporter.com) The set’s central bit came midway through the show, when Bieber used a laptop hooked to the giant screens and typed in “Baby” before singing short sections of older hits with the videos playing behind him. The Hollywood Reporter said the run also included “Beauty and a Beat,” “Never Say Never” and “Confident.” (hollywoodreporter.com) Yahoo framed the reaction on Sunday around that “laptop set” label, with clips from songs including “Yukon” circulating widely on social media as viewers argued over whether the stripped-down format felt intimate or undercooked. The same live blog said the discussion carried into Day 3 coverage. (yahoo.com) The format did not come out of nowhere. Billboard reported that Bieber played a one-night show at the 500-capacity Roxy Theatre in West Hollywood on March 29 and called it “a little sneak preview into Coachella.” (billboard.com) At the Roxy, Billboard said Bieber performed songs from his 2025 albums “Swag” and “Swag II,” including “Speed Demon,” “Yukon,” “Walking Away,” “Go Baby” and “Daisies.” Those same newer records anchored the opening stretch of the Coachella set before he pivoted back to his teenage hits. (billboard.com) (hollywoodreporter.com) The Hollywood Reporter said Bieber stayed mostly alone onstage, with no backup dancers and few props, and brought out guests including The Kid Laroi, Tems, Wizkid and Dijon. USA Today separately reported that his Coachella setlist ran 30 songs. (hollywoodreporter.com) (usatoday.com) That made Saturday less a standard festival spectacle than a career recap built around Bieber’s own archive: new material first, then the laptop, then the hits people knew from the clips he pulled up live. Weekend 2 on April 18 will show whether he keeps the same structure or tweaks the part that set off the loudest debate. (hollywoodreporter.com) (coachella.com)