Justin Bieber delivers sleepy Coachella performance, doomscrolls and watches YouTube videos mid-show

Maybe it was the 11:30 p.m. showtime, but Justin Bieber was lacking some swag on the Coachella main stage Saturday night.

Dressed in a red hoodie and shorts with rain boots (in the desert, no less), the “Daisies” singer delivered a 34-song set spanning his two-decade career, but heavily favoring tracks off his 2025 albums, Swag and Swag II. In fact, it wasn’t until the 18th song — 50 minutes into the show — that Bieber finally gave OG fans what they came for: his 2010 debut single, “Baby.”

The late-night event got off to a sleepy start, as Bieber opened with Swag’s “All I Can Take” while staring down at a camera so that all we could see was a shadowy figure and the stage’s ceiling — for the entire duration of the song. Still, his voice was unmistakeable, as the Biebs’ smooth stylings carried the audience through a no-frills musical journey powered by his laptop, and the energy of a few special guests.

Instead of interacting with the 125,000 people gathered in the Coachella Valley desert, Bieber stayed glued to his screen between songs, tailoring his setlist to the real-time feedback he claimed he was getting from an online chat somewhere.

The first guest appearance was from the Kid Laroi, who popped up on stage opposite Bieber for a shortened rendition of “Stay,” their collab for the Australian rapper’s 2021 mixtape, Fck Love 3: Over You.

But just as the pace started to pick up, Bieber announced he was going to “slow it down a bit” with an acoustic set of five more Swag songs, culminating with “Everything Hallelujah,” during which the camera cut to Mrs. Bieber in the audience as her husband sang the lyric, “Hailey, babe, hallelujah / Baby Jack, hallelujah.” Alas, it must have been past the couple’s 19-month-old’s bedtime because Jack Bieber did not seem to be at Coachella.

“Baby” kicked off the nostalgia act of the show, for which Bieber pulled up his old music videos on YouTube and played them on a massive screen on stage while singing along like it was a Justin Bieber–themed karaoke night.

There were some sweet moments. Watching the 32-year-old harmonize with his younger self to 2010’s “That Should Be Me,” 2012’s “Beauty and a Beat,” 2010’s “Never Say Never,” 2012’s “All Over the World,” and, finally, the 2007 clip that helped him get discovered — his cover of Ne-Yo’s “So Sick,” which he sang at a local talent show — was undeniably touching.

Bieber then shifted to snippets of two Purpose-era Skrillex bangers, “Sorry” and “Where Are Ü Now” (with Diplo), before segueing to a blooper reel of himself falling off stage during a concert. From there, we went completely down a rabbit hole.

For an uncomfortably long period of time, the pop star just sat at a desk and doomscrolled on YouTube, pulling up viral videos like “Deez Nutz,” “Double Rainbow,” and even his own 2025 paparazzi encounter in which he released the instant classic, “It’s not clocking to you that I’m standing on business,” which he awkwardly reenacted.

Bieber brought it back to the Swag albums for his final act, playing “Yukon,” “Devotion” with Dijon, and “I Think You’re Special” with Tems, who stuck around for a second song, Wizkid’s “Essence,” the 2021 remix of which featured her and Bieber.

The singer’s liveliest performance was, frustratingly, his closing number, “Daisies,” which was punctuated by a fireworks display.

“You guys have my heart,” he told the crowd. Then, only half-convincingly, “I loved spending time with you guys.”

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly