{"id":600064,"date":"2026-04-12T23:28:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T23:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/600064\/"},"modified":"2026-04-12T23:28:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T23:28:09","slug":"at-coachella-justin-bieber-justin-trudeau-and-katy-perry-search-for-relevancy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/600064\/","title":{"rendered":"At Coachella, Justin Bieber, Justin Trudeau and Katy Perry search for relevancy"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A person wears a Justin Bieber shirt during the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, California, U.S., on Saturday.Daniel Cole\/Reuters<\/p>\n

Saturday Night in Coachella featured a bananas mainstage set by Justin Bieber in front of high-profile fans Katy Perry and her boyfriend Justin Trudeau. Not only was the whole thing streamed live on YouTube, but the online video-sharing platform so much as served as a Bieber\u2019s duet partner during a medley of old hits. <\/p>\n

As the late Hockey Night in Canada broadcaster Bob Cole used to say, \u201cOh, baby.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bieber was headlining his first Coachella Festival, a taste-making, two-weekend event held annually at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, Calif. It represented the Canadian pop star\u2019s biggest concert since he cancelled a 2022 tour because of health issues. <\/p>\n

Opinion: Why Tate McRae, Justin Bieber and the Weeknd don\u2019t care about the Juno Awards<\/a><\/p>\n

He took the stage before midnight, well after his beloved Toronto Maple Leafs had lost their fifth consecutive game. Wearing a hoodie, the 32-year-old enigma initially performed more than a dozen songs, in full or in part, almost exclusively drawn from his 2025 albums Swag and Swag II.<\/p>\n

Pop singer Perry posted a video and photo gallery on Instagram: Drink cups in hand, she and Trudeau swayed to Speed Demon, the former prime minister embracing the California Gurls singer lovingly. <\/p>\n

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Justin Trudeau and Katy Perry are shown in this photo posted on Perry’s Instagram account. (Instagram, @katyperry)HO\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

The 54-year-old Montrealer wore an Alouettes cap backward, just like the young bros do. How far will he go with the sartorial cringe? Just watch him<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Bieber\u2019s Speed Demon is a funky tune about ambition and evolution: \u201cAnd I achieve greatness, gettin\u2019 better by the second\u2026we ain\u2019t finished just yet.\u201c His Coachella gig is part of a comeback campaign <\/a>that began with the two Swag records and continued with his show-stealing performance earlier this year at the Grammy Awards. Perry, at 41, is a nostalgia act. Trudeau is a nepotism outcome looking for a second career. <\/p>\n

All three of them, then, thirsting in the desert for relevancy.<\/p>\n

Things went quasi-karaoke when the enigmatic Bieber pulled up a stool and pulled out his laptop to croon along to YouTube videos of his teen-idol material, starting with the 2010 hit Baby. (The same song was sardonically covered at the festival by indie-rock darlings Geese earlier in the day.)<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t pretend to know what went into his decision to reach back into his kid\u2019s music canon. He stayed clear of that material during his two recent warm-up shows at the Troubadour and the Roxy Theatre in Los Angeles. The half-hearted versions at Coachella may have been designed to either appease his longtime fans or punk them \u2212 or both.<\/p>\n

The singer is either playing 3D chess or he is eating the pieces.<\/p>\n

Bieber put away his MacBook for a five-song finale of current material and guest artists, including producer\/recording artist Dijon on Devotion. <\/p>\n

The critics\u2019 reviews were positive, but came with reservations. The Guardian\u2019s Adrian Horton gave the Biebs three stars out of five<\/a> for a performance that was \u201cfrustrating\u201d but \u201cendearing.\u201d <\/p>\n

Rolling Stone\u2019s<\/a> Jeff Miller judged the highly anticipated event to be a \u201cmessy\u201d mixed bag: \u201cIt\u2019s likely that plenty of Beliebers left satiated, but that\u2019s not the arbiter of a successful festival set. With the opportunity to make a huge impact on a stage and festival he clearly feels is important, Bieber missed the mark\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Bieber performs again next weekend at Coachella. Will the oddball presentation of his early fan-loved material be repeated? Will out-of-place politicians be among the crowd? <\/p>\n

The Baby star seems to be committed to the present, not the past. Maybe he believes in Prime Minister Mark Carney\u2019s notion that \u201cnostalgia is not a strategy.\u201d Or perhaps Trudeau (and Geese) told him that irony is always a better plan. <\/p>\n