This past weekend, Coachella Weekend 2 festival-goers were in for a special treat. Not only was Queen Ariana Grande headlining Sunday night, (can someone say Arichella?) but she was also joined onstage by none other than Justin Bieber.
There’s a reason why Ariana was headlining such an iconic festival – she’s a dynamite performer. Her live vocals are beyond compare, she has amazing stage presence and her songs are iconic. After releasing Sweetner in August 2018 and Thank U, Next six months later in February 2019, she had a ton of new songs to perform for the audience.
Her setlist for the night was incredibly long and included hits from a variety of albums. From Sweetner, she opened the night with “raindrops (an angel cried),” and continued on with “God is a woman,” “R.E.M.,” “the light is comin,” “sweetner” and “breathin.” She also sang a lot of songs off her latest album, including “Bad Idea,” “NASA,”, “Needy,” “7 Rings,” “Break Up With Your Girlfriend” and closed the show with an encore performance of “Thank U, Next.” There’s no better feeling than hearing your favorite songs performed live, and Ariana absolutely killed her set. Everyone in the crowd was having the time of their lives, and I loved dancing my heart out to “NASA,” “Break Up With Your Girlfriend,” “Break Free” and “Thank U, Next.”
As confetti shot out during the finale, I realized that it was tissue paper decorated with “Thank U, Next” inspired text. I quickly dropped to the ground and picked up a few pieces as a physical reminder of the night.
Even though Ariana brought out Nicki Minaj and *NSYNC during Weekend 1, she didn’t bring them out Weekend 2. The crowd was waiting with bated breath to see if Nicki would come out during “Bang Bang” and we were sorely disappointed. The real surprise came when Ariana finished singing “Break Free” and announced she had a guest performer to bring out.
That performer ended up being Justin Bieber, who was greeted with ear-piercing screams and thousands of cellphones raised to capture the moment on video. As soon as the opening chords of “Sorry” began to play, the crowd began dancing and singing along to every word. It was amazing to be surprised with a guest performer as famous and talented as Justin. He was also the last person I would have ever thought to see appear on the Coachella stage because the two don’t have any songs together and he hasn’t performed onstage in a few years. He finished his performance by thanking the audience profusely and simply stated, “Album coming soon!”
Having Justin as a guest performer was such a treat, but the real star of the show was 100% Ariana. From people who had no idea who was performing (true story, someone actually asked me who the performer was) to the people who knew every single word and danced their hearts out, her Coachella performance was one that will not be forgotten anytime soon. Thank you, Ariana, for making incredible music and for being an amazing performer.