Sadly, I did not attend Bieberchella this year. I would like to give a warning that this is my opinion, and I fully understand the opinions of others on this topic. For some context, I have been to multiple Justin Bieber concerts in my life and have loved his music since I was 7 years old, so I am biased.
Bieber performed as a headliner at the Coachella music festival this year, and I have seen every video posted on TikTok about it. I’ve seen reviews, people who loved it, people who hated it, and everything in between.
The biggest critique of his show was his lack of performance. People said that if Sabrina Carpenter (day 1 headliner) or any woman did what he did, she would have been cancelled. People are saying this because he had no dancers or big musical numbers. He had his computer on the big screen behind him and was basically singing karaoke with himself from YouTube.
He also got sidetracked and ended up playing meme videos for the audience of 125,000 people at the festival. I agree this type of show is much different than most Coachella headliners, but I don’t think it has anything to do with his gender as people are suggesting. I don’t think it’s a matter of his being male, so he can just sit and “do nothing” on stage. I think it’s the fact that he is literally Justin Bieber.
He grew up in the spotlight. He has been on tour and making music his entire life. He is one of the most harassed celebrities by paparazzi and is still making music for his fans. This is unheard of. Most celebrities who get treated like he has don’t continue in their career. He has had many drug problems and was signed to a record label at age 15.
In my opinion, the fact that he even agreed to perform at Coachella was crazy. It doesn’t matter how big or crazy his performance was; the fact that he was there and sang his older music for fans was enough. His show was personal and took the audience through every era of his music.
His performance set many records for Coachella. He was the most viewed in the history of the festival. His performance reached 134 million views, and weekend two hasn’t even happened yet. He is the most paid person to perform at the festival. He, allegedly, is making 10 million dollars from these two weekends. His music alone has been streamed 24.6 million times the day after he headlined. SKYLRK (Justin’s merch brand) was the most sold at the festival.
I would say this performance might have healed a part of him that hated doing big shows. Justin was discovered on YouTube, so this seemed like a full-circle moment. Many Bielebers are hoping he will go on an “eras tour” and that this performance makes it a possibility. I doubt he will, but a girl can dream.