How Justin Bieber got away with a ‘lazy’ $10M Coachella set

Justin Bieber made his big stage comeback in the desert on Saturday to headline Coachella, three and a half years after he abandoned his 2022 tour over health concerns.

But instead of the big comeback many fans had hoped for, Justin’s performance was branded ‘the worst in the festival’s history.’

The singer, 32, was reportedly paid $10 million for a headline slot at the annual festival, but underwhelmed with a set that mainly consisted of him singing tracks he’d searched on a laptop.

In contrast, Sabrina Carpenter, who had been Friday’s headline act, delivered a star-filled set which centered on a Hollywood-inspired concept dubbed ‘Sabrinawood’, yet was reportedly paid just half of Justin’s fee.

Now fans are calling out the ‘double standards’ surrounding the way the headliners have been treated, claiming industry sexism is the reason that Justin was able to get away with a low energy set. 

Many took to X to explain: ‘If Sabrina Carpenter did what Justin Bieber is doing right now, her career would be over’,

‘Justin’s Coachella set is a prime example of how women have to work harder than men in the music industry. Sabrina Carpenter gave it her all last night, while Justin Bieber is putting on a snoozefest with his Swag songs’,

‘If sabrina carpenter, addison rae, pinkpantheress, katseye or any female artist at coachella dare to do what justin bieber did y’all would be saying that their careers are over’,

‘Justin Bieber is the highest-paid artist for performing at Coachella (more than Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, or Sabrina) And he just gave the worst performance I’ve ever seen in my life, double standards are awful’,

‘Justin Bieber playing songs from his laptop on stage while Sabrina Carpenter delivered multiple outfit changes, visuals, choreography and vocals’,

‘They didn’t even pay Sabrina half of what they paid Justin at Coachella, and there’s no comparison between the two performances, but men still think misogyny doesn’t exist.’

However, some defended the star, writing: ‘I feel like Justin Bieber is healing his inner child with this Coachella performance right now and it’s genuinely beautiful to see.

‘Seeing him look at his younger self with nothing but love?? Like I’ve never seen him this relaxed and happy performing’.

‘This Justin Bieber set is goated wow’.

‘JUSTIN BIEBER REALLY PLAYED BEAUTY AND A BEAT IRL @ COACHELLA. (I MIGHT’VE CRIED).’

‘Justin Bieber is paying himself a tremendous tribute at #Coachella’.

Others said: ‘Him playing music from his computer was the most Justin Bieber thing he ever done’; ‘Y’all will never get how emotional it makes me hearing Justin Bieber singing his old song cover next to his younger self’;

‘He is Justin Bieber his voice alone is enough, it was amazing to see him sing with his younger self’; ‘Only Beliebers know how significant that show was. Our boy made it & never left, like we never left him. This bond is forever, Justin Bieber is forever’.

‘Justin Bieber, the singer you are! Most expensive Coachella booking, opened the stage and did whatever the hell he wanted, love you, damn it’;

‘This is the first time Coachella is being spoken about since Covid. Justin Bieber is the reason Coachella is so talked about this year. He doesn’t need to give a huge performance for fans to genuinely enjoy it. He already did everything all the new artists are doing’;

‘No amount of production or money will top Justin Bieber bringing out that laptop just to laugh and reminisce where his career started’.

Taking to the stage in just a hoodie, Justin ditched a band, background dancers for a laptop with a simple light show. 

Justin began the set with his song 2025 song All I Can Take, which the Canadian pop act performed amid psychedelically flickering blue and white lights.

He then served up a rendition of his defiant 2025 number Speed Demon, which took a derisive attitude to the public speculation about his well-being.

In an insistence that his musical output should speak for itself, he crooned: ‘They try to say I’m out of my mind, but now they singing every line.’

During an interlude, he vaunted the ‘beautiful faces in the audience tonight,’ and sweetly asked those watching the livestream: ‘How you guys doing at home?’

He then offered fans the opportunity to ‘help me with the songs tonight’ by picking their ‘favorites’ and posting them in the stream’s rolling comments.

The eerie set was filled with smoke, with a sloping pearl grey topography that made him look as though he were walking across another planet.

Justin delivered renditions of his songs First Place and Go Baby, both of which are loving tributes to his wife Hailey Bieber, who has been seen dashing about Coachella with her gal pal Kendall Jenner in the run-up to his show.

Among the other new songs he performed were Walking Away, rumoured to be addressing the divorce rumors between him and Hailey, his song Petting Zoo, which some fans interpreted as being about their couple’s quarrels, and another number of his called I Do, an apparent affirmation of their commitment.

He gave a crowd-pleasing performance of Stay – his 2021 smash single with The Kid LaROI – which was apparently a viewer request from the comments.

He then transitioned from there to an acoustic run of lesser-known material such as his 2020 love song Come Around Me about intimacy with Hailey.

Justin then moved into a couple of more songs from last year, his spiritual GLORY VOICE MEMO and his soulful ballad Zuma House.

After the acoustic segment, he threw a bone of fan service to the crowd by performing a medley of his old hits.

Standing at his laptop, he threw on some videos of his beloved songs and sang along to them, with selections including Baby, Favorite Girl, Beauty and a Beat, Never Say Never, Confident, All That Matters.

He then went back the old YouTube singing videos he had recorded as a child before he was famous, leading to his discovery by Usher and Scooter Braun.

One went back ’19 years,’ he noted, and showed Justin as a child covering the 2006 song Ne-Yo – as the adult Bieber stood onstage at Coachella singing along.

He then offered the crowd another of his classics, the 2015 song Sorry, and then his successful collaboration with Skrillex, Where Are U Now.

He made a show of falling down a rabbit hole of his old embarrassing YouTube videos, such as old footage of him walking into a glass door, falling through a stage and yelling at a paparazzo he accused of trying to ‘provoke’ him.

Then he was back to his newer, comparatively obscure material, crooning Yukon – a tip of the hat to the GMC Yukon, the car Hailey drove when they were dating.

He then sang another paean to his wife called Devotion, a collaboration with Dijon, whom he brought onstage for a duet that ended in a heartwarming embrace.

Justin played a private, invite-only concert around a week before his Coachella set to warm up for the festival at the The Roxy Theatre in Los Angeles.

It marked his first full-length live set in nearly four years, after performing brief shows at the Grammys and a Super Bowl event earlier in 2026.

During his music hiatus following the cancellation of his 2022 world tour, Justin popped up at several low-key events as a surprise guest but this marked the beginning of his big comeback.

Meanwhile, Sabrina’s stage design included visual elements that resembled film sets, city backdrops, and a stylised version of the Hollywood Hills.

Throughout the show, the setting shifted between different scenes, including a studio, a bar, and a stage-like cityscape. 

She packed 20 songs into a Tinseltown-inspired set complete with A-lister cameos and vintage film props.

Actor Susan Sarandon delivered a spoken segment that fit into the show’s storyline, while Sam Elliott and Will Ferrell also made appearances.

Sabrina will return this Friday for weekend two of Coachella, with Justin following on Saturday and Karol G on Sunday.