Justin Bieber’s Coachella headlining set on Saturday night included a detour into his past, as the singer searched his own early videos on YouTube and sang along with footage of his teenage self.
Armed with a MacBook, Bieber crouched on stage and scrolled through YouTube for part of his 90-minute set, pulling up early hits like “Baby,” “Never Say Never” and “That Should Be Me.” The videos played on the festival screens as he joined in, prompting loud singalongs and a wave of nostalgia from the crowd.
The performance moved between that retrospective stretch and more traditional Coachella set moments, as Bieber mixed newer material with older hits.
If you missed the livestream, here are five things you need to know.
It began and ended with hits and cameos
Bieber opened and closed in Indio, Calif., with a more classically recognizable Coachella set, performing tracks off his Fall 2025 album “Swag II” and was joined by Dijon, Tems and Wizkid. Australian pop star The Kid Laroi also popped up to sing their pandemic-era smash hit “Stay.”
It was the most dynamic Bieber seemed on stage, as he danced around and belted out his newest hits like “All I Can Take,” “Go Baby,” and “Butterflies.” He closed the whole set with “Daisies,” which has more than 650 million streams on Spotify as of Monday morning.
It was his biggest live show since he cancelled a 2022 tour due to his Ramsay Hunt syndrome diagnosis.
The tone shift
Everything chilled out once Bieber hit his 13th song of the night. He crouched down to the laptop, typed “Baby” in the search bar, and suddenly his teenage self in a bowling alley was playing on a big screen to a screaming crowd.
He continued cycling through his early chart toppers on the video platform for about half an hour, going to “Favorite Girl” next, before playing “That Should Be Me” and “Beauty and a Beat.” Bieber’s online expedition through the 2010s wasn’t confined to just his own work, as the pop star paused the music at one point to play the viral “Deez Nuts” vine clip.
Bieber battled some buffering problems as he tried to play the music video to “Sorry.”
“Wi-Fi, come on, man,” he said on stage.
Jokes from Katy Perry
Former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was there supporting his fellow Canadian alongside his girlfriend Katy Perry for a date night. Perry shared videos of the two of them dancing and vibing to the music before poking fun at the set.
“Thank god he has Premium, I don’t wanna see no ads,” she said to the camera.
Perry shared several photos of the two walking the festival, with Trudeau repping Canadian football with a Montreal Alouettes baseball hat.
Other pop stars weigh in
Swedish singer Zara Larsson said on TikTok that the show was “giving let’s smoke and watch YouTube.” — a comment some initially took as a dig.
She later clarified she was “vibing hard,” adding that Bieber would be part of her “dream blunt rotation.”
Lizzo heaped even more praise onto the performance.
”I watched a pop star who grew up in front of the world fully transcend into his artistry last night. I watched someone who gave us his all, his whole life … finally nourish hisself (sic),” she wrote on Instagram.
“I have no pictures or videos because I was fully present in the moment. Justin invited us and whoever chose to come with him was blessed with a beautiful ride. When you use your gift for God, it will make people uncomfortable. But that’s OK because the ones who stick beside you will feel the love.”
Indie sensations “Geese” broke out a cover of “Baby” that was equal parts lounge singer croons and heavy guitar riffs. The performance got a huge cheer from the crowd Saturday, even if some struggled to sing along as Cameron Winter added plenty of vocal riffs and played with the timing of the lyrics. The band weaved the cover into their song “2122.” Their cover was first posted to YouTube in 2024, and has become a staple of their live shows.
