Justin Bieber’s Coachella Performance Continues To Stir Up Controversy

Undoubtedly the biggest story from this year’s Coachella surrounds Justin Bieber and his polarising performance.

Late on Saturday night, The Biebs took to the stage in the California desert for his first of two headlining slots at the iconic music festival, the second of which is due to take place later this week.

While the first half of his set was mostly devoted to tracks from his 2025 album Swag (and its poppier follow-up, Swag II) with stripped-back staging, echoing his performance at the Grammys earlier in the year, the second part is what has really got people talking.

Much has been made about the fact that this section of Justin’s performance saw the chart-topper sitting down to his laptop and pulling up songs from the early years of his career on YouTube, alongside old clips of himself and an assortment of other random viral videos he’s enjoyed over the years.

Since Saturday, there’s been a lot of debate on social media about whether or not fans got their money’s worth from Justin’s stripped-back show, particularly in light of reports that he’s the highest-paid headliner in Coachella history.

This was the opinion shared in The Guardian’s three-star review, which pointed out that “the double standard for effort for female and male pop headliners is… striking”.

“Depending on your level of fandom, the stripped-down vision, with minimal audience asides, read as either radically vulnerable or disappointingly self-interested from reportedly the highest-paid Coachella headliner of all time,” The Guardian’s reporter opined.

Rolling Stone also agreed that while “plenty of Beliebers” will have left the set feeling “satiated”, the star largely “missed the mark” with his efforts at Coachella.

However, it should be pointed out that even as headlines about the controversy over Justin’s Coachella show continue to roll in, plenty of critics were quick to praise the show immediately after it ended, with many claiming that there’s “one key point being missed” by his detractors.

This was the line taken in Mamamia’s review, which read: “Critics were baffled as to why a global icon would spend his set scrolling through YouTube like a bored teenager in a bedroom. But that is the point.

“This wasn’t designed to be a high-gloss, choreographed spectacle. We got that from Sabrina Carpenter the night before. This was something else entirely: a walkthrough of his memories. If you expected Justin to simply return to the stage and perform a greatest hits medley, you don’t know him at all.”

A take from a self-professed Belieber published in Vogue also took this stance, pointing out that playing his hits over YouTube “gave the fans what they wanted, in a way that felt cheeky and unserious, which was simply perfect”.

“This was how all of us original Beliebers first experienced him, surfing YouTube videos in barely 360p,” Vogue’s critic argued. “The concept just worked.”

Mashable’s review was also along these lines, claiming: “Bieber was not just revisiting old clips; he was revisiting the child the internet turned into Justin Bieber.”

It continued: “Many former child stars look back at old footage, and it feels a bit silly or even sad. Here, though, Bieber seemed genuinely at peace with it. He smiled at the videos. He harmonised with his younger self, treating him less like a brand asset and more like someone worth meeting again.”

Although USA Today praised Justin for creating an intimate environment in a festival setting that felt akin to “chilling at Bieber’s house with him watching videos on YouTube like so many 30-somethings of his generation used to do with their friends”, a piece in Vulture went as far as comparing the show to “performance art”.

“In keeping it simple, and reflecting on his old hits through the portal where he was discovered, the persona of Justin Bieber was reassessed and deconstructed in real time after years of mythos and controversy,” Vulture’s critic claimed.

They then pointed out that by taking fans back through his time in the spotlight – from “heartthrob to millions” to “the world’s punching bag” – the set represented a “career-spanning victory lap and a big step forward in both artistic vision and the performance of self-mockery”.

Vulture’s piece also claimed: “To call his performance lacking in effort is a shallow read.”

“Seeing a baby-faced Bieber on screen at Coachella was a stark reminder of just how long he’s been famous, and while YouTube karaoke felt low-effort compared to a more involved production, it did make for a compelling visual to see the fully grown Bieber sing these songs as his childhood played in the rear view,” The Hollywood Reporter’s own review also claimed, although it went on to claim that the set “became more confounding than profound” as it went on.

Justin will return to Coachella this coming weekend, alongside fellow headliners Sabrina Carpenter and Karol G.

Back in February, he caused a similar buzz at the Grammys, where he delivered another low-key performance that saw him taking to the stage in just boxers from his own fashion brand.