People Who Liked Justin Bieber's ‘Lazy’ Coachella Set Understood Exactly What Was Happening On Stage
DFree | Shutterstock Coachella is always exciting for music lovers, but this year’s festival held even more allure as Beliebers across the world prepared to see Justin Bieber headline the show for the first time.
A show with such high expectations was bound to let some people down, but fans seemed genuinely perplexed by Bieber’s performance on Saturday night. Whereas his past tours stood out for their extreme showmanship, Bieber’s Coachella set was the exact opposite, leading some to wonder if he really earned his huge paycheck.
Bieber was reportedly paid $10 million for a set that some fans deemed ‘lazy.’
He negotiated the deal, which is believed to be the most a Coachella performer has ever earned, on his own, per Page Six. He showed up on stage wearing a hoodie and shorts, with no dancers and no real visual effects to speak of. First, he performed multiple songs from his latest albums, “Swag” and “Swag II,” before transitioning to the night's most controversial segment.
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He then sat down at a table on stage with a laptop and pulled up old videos on YouTube. He sang along to his classic hits like “Baby” and “Beauty and a Beat” while streaming the videos for the songs, and even checked the comments on the Coachella livestream to see what songs fans wanted to hear.
Fans expressed their incredulity with the performance on social media. One wrote on X, “Not Justin Bieber [scamming] Coachella out of $10 million to play songs off of YouTube.”
It’s possible that Bieber’s hands were tied when it came to his old songs, and he did the best he could.
There were surely fans who had stuck with Bieber through the years who were excited to hear newer hits like “Daisies” and “Yukon,” but a big part of the appeal of having him headline was playing on the nostalgia so many feel for his early career. Some questioned whether he had the legal right to play those throwback songs due to his business decisions.
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At the end of 2022, Bieber sold the rights to all of the music he released up to that point for $200 million. The Daily Mail alleged that he can no longer perform old songs in full because he doesn’t own the rights to them anymore. It seems like that might not be entirely accurate, though, because other artists like Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan sold the rights to their music but have continued to perform the songs live.
Others think there was a deeper reason for Bieber’s somewhat simple performance.
A physician named Shay, who “has a deep understanding of complex trauma,” argued that Bieber’s show was actually “one of the most public displays of trauma healing that I’ve ever witnessed.” People have worried about Bieber’s well-being for years, especially since he became astronomically famous at such a young age, and left the spotlight for a while to deal with health issues.
“At the end of the day, this man is not at his full capacity because of the things that he went through,” Shay said. “Because of the toll, the psychological harm, that he’s endured … This was him giving us everything he had.”
Therapist Janelle Sanchez agreed, saying that Bieber “is MODELING how his fans can heal their own inner child.” A pop culture commentator named Court asked why people want celebrities to be more authentic in the first place when they were so quick to attack Bieber for being real.
Some didn’t see the performance on quite such a deep level, but they did think Bieber’s choices were meaningful. Bieber was originally discovered by posting covers of other artists’ songs on YouTube, which people felt explained why he used the platform on one of the biggest stages he had ever been on.
“These were not just songs, they were a whole era of growing up,” one Threads user said. Another said that millennials saw this as a “love language” because they used to communicate with friends by sharing YouTube videos.
Whatever Bieber’s reason was for structuring his performance in such a unique way, it’s the kind of thing that’s sure to be polarizing. Some people will love the fact that he referenced his early career at all, while others won’t be satisfied with an understated show.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer with a bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism who covers news, psychology, lifestyle, and human interest topics.
