Justin Bieber made a nostalgia-driven return to the major stage as Coachella’s headline act, delivering a stripped-back performance that leaned heavily on his early career.
The 32-year-old spent much of Saturday night’s set seated in front of a laptop, performing while playing YouTube clips of his early hits, including ‘Baby’ and ‘Never Say Never’. The approach appeared to pay tribute to the platform where he was first discovered.
Bieber also screened home videos from his childhood, which originally helped bring him to industry attention at the age of 12. At points, he appeared to engage with live comments from the YouTube stream of his performance.
The show marked his biggest live appearance in four years, following the cancellation of his Justice world tour due to health issues. He opened the set alone on a bare stage, performing tracks from his 2025 albums Swag and Swag II before telling the audience he wanted to take them “on a journey” through his catalogue.
Throughout the performance, Bieber repeatedly asked the crowd, “How far back do you go?” and revisited viral moments from his career, including a widely circulated clip in which he told a photographer, “It’s not clocking to you, I’m standing on business.”
Dressed in a hoodie and shorts, he was later joined by guest performers including The Kid Laroi, Wizkid, Tems and Dijon. His wife Hailey Bieber was seen in the audience alongside celebrities Timothée Chalamet and Kylie Jenner.
Bieber previously cancelled his world tour after revealing he had been diagnosed with Ramsay Hunt syndrome, a condition linked to shingles that caused facial paralysis. He returned to live performance at the Grammy Awards in February.
His Coachella set contrasted sharply with the previous night’s headliner Sabrina Carpenter, whose performance featured elaborate staging and choreography.
Colombian star Karol G is set to close the festival, which takes place over two weekends in the California desert and attracts more than 100,000 attendees daily.
