Justin Bieber made his highly anticipated Coachella headlining debut on April 11, and the response has been … interesting. His set included tracks from last year’s SWAG and SWAG II, as well as earlier hits and even YouTube clips, including his viral “standing on business” paparazzi confrontation. Many fans had thoughts on his choice to break out his laptop and start surfing YouTube, including Katy Perry, who was in the crowd and shared an A+ reaction.
For a portion of Justin Bieber’s 90-minute Coachella set, the singer sat on a stool behind a laptop and scrolled through videos of his earlier music. His YouTube medley reportedly included “Baby” — supposedly a favorite of his son Jack Blues — “Never Say Never” and the cover of Ne-Yo's “So Sick” that famously got him discovered by Scooter Braun. Katy Perry documented her Coachella journey alongside beau Justin Trudeau, with one slide from her Instagram post showing the Biebs pulling up a video from behind his laptop, to which Perry says:
Thank God he has [YouTube] Premium. I don’t want to see no ads.
I’m sure her sassy remark was good-natured, but Katy Perry did appear to be unimpressed with what was an extended period of silence from the headliner as he searched for his desired video. Can you imagine having that dead air broken up by a commercial while Bieber waited the 5 seconds until he was allowed to “Skip Ad”? That would have been unforgivable.
The “Roar” singer wasn’t the only one critical of that aspect of the performance, for which Justin Bieber was reportedly paid $10 million. One X (Twitter) user wrote:
Not Justin Bieber scammed Coachella out of $10 million to play songs off of YouTube…
Another called the approach lazy, posting:
Justin Bieber giving us one of the laziest performances of all time pic.twitter.com/ViSdFU54DXApril 12, 2026
The ridicule continued from other critics on X:
- I'm crying this might actually be the worst performance i’ve ever seen. He’s literally just playing music videos from youtube… zero effort, just pure laziness. – SwiftyRuza
- Did he rehearse at all?? Was this even approved by his team? What the actual fuck is going on?????? – TheMale_Central
- justin bieber 2026 coachella performance may just be the worst mass streamed/televised performance…ever? – confusedshrug
- Justin Bieber is the worse headliner at Coachella in history because wtf your just sitting with a laptop – Niassuu
Yet another fan posted this clip:
what the hell is justin bieber doing bro you're telling me he was the highest paid to do this bullshit? pic.twitter.com/OVPaGQyZvyApril 12, 2026
After the YouTube segment was over, Justin Bieber was joined by musical guests Wizkid, Tems, the Kid LAROI, Dijon and Mk.gee for a variety of other songs, and Bieber also made sure to shout out his wife Hailey Bieber, who took in the show with Kylie Jenner. I have no doubt that they had only praise for Justin’s set.
While much of the response has been pretty critical, Katy Perry’s comment leaned into the humor of the situation, and from the rest of her post, it definitely looks like she enjoyed her day at Coachella. How Justin Bieber feels about his evening remains unknown.
