Justin Bieber Gives Fans “Butterflies” at Coachella Performance

By Ellie Esquenazi

Justin Bieber took to the stage on Saturday night at the iconic music festival Coachella. Rather than embracing the festival’s typical over-the-top stage designs and flashy performances, Bieber brought with him just one prop: a laptop.

The Canadian pop star burst into fame in the early 2000s after music producer Scooter Braun found the teenager’s YouTube videos. During his set this past Saturday, Apr. 11, Bieber, now 32 years old, referenced his start in the industry and took the audience down memory lane.

Bieber projected YouTube from his laptop and pulled up his classic hits such as “Baby,” “That Should Be Me,” and “Beauty and a Beat,” which he sang and jammed along to onstage. Not only was the nostalgic feel there, but the vocal performance aspect too; Bieber practically sang a duet with his younger self, bridging his grown-up voice with his teen sound. Thousands of fans in the audience sang along, and millions of fans online tuned into the YouTube livestream of the performance.

While some fans loved the nostalgic feel of Bieber’s Coachella set, others spoke out against it, claiming that he was scamming the festival out of money. Some audience members felt that the performance corroborated sexism, saying that a female artist would never have gotten away with such a stripped-back, bare show. An X user wrote, “If Sabrina Carpenter did what Justin Bieber is doing right now, her career would be over.”

Justin Bieber was reportedly paid close to $10 million for his Coachella appearance, and while not all viewers agreed with his performance choices, he certainly called attention and gained traction for it.