the kid laroi was among the musical guests as Justin Bieber made a nostalgia-fuelled return to the major stage at Coachella in California on Saturday night ET. The set marked Bieber’s biggest live show in four years, and the performance leaned heavily on old hits, home videos and a stripped-back stage. Bieber also reached back into his archive while telling the crowd he wanted to take them “on a journey. ”
Justin Bieber turns Coachella into a look back
Bieber spent much of the night sitting in front of a laptop and singing to YouTube music videos of older tracks including “Baby” and “Never Say Never, ” drawing a strong reaction from the crowd. He also played home videos that first brought him to industry attention at age 12 and appeared to interact with live comments on the YouTube stream of his set. The performance opened with Bieber alone on an otherwise empty stage, where he performed tracks from his 2025 albums Swag and Swag II before shifting into the nostalgia-heavy portion of the show.
One of the most talked-about moments came when Bieber replayed the clip that most recently went viral and prompted speculation about his mental state, in which he confronted a photographer and said: “It’s not clocking to you, I’m standing on business. ” The stage setup was deliberately spare, with Bieber dressed in a hoodie and shorts as the night focused less on spectacle and more on memory, performance and audience participation. The kid laroi was part of that wider guest lineup, alongside Wizkid, Tems and Dijon.
Guest appearances and a stripped-back stage
Hailey Bieber was spotted in the crowd, along with Timothée Chalamet and Kylie Jenner. Bieber repeatedly asked the audience: “How far back do you go?” The question matched the whole shape of the set, which was built around revisiting the moments that made him a global pop figure. For fans in the desert, the night offered a rare live return after a long stretch away from touring.
The kid laroi’s appearance added to the sense that the show was less about reinvention and more about collaboration inside Bieber’s own history. Bieber had cancelled his Justice world tour after revealing he was suffering from facial paralysis linked to Ramsay Hunt syndrome, a complication from shingles, in 2022. He later released the surprise album Swag in July 2025 and performed live at the Grammy Awards in February.
Why this set mattered
The Coachella appearance stood apart from the festival’s previous night, which featured a far more theatrical show from Sabrina Carpenter with costume changes, choreography and elaborate stage design. Bieber’s version was quieter and more reflective, using screens, old clips and direct crowd interaction to frame a comeback built on memory rather than reinvention.
Coachella runs over two weekends in the California desert and draws more than 100, 000 people daily, police from the city of Indio. Bieber’s return, with the kid laroi among the guests, now sets the stage for the festival’s next headline moment and the broader reaction to a performance that looked backward even as it played on one of the biggest live stages in the world.
