Justin Bieber Hints At Usher Feud At Coachella 2026<\/p>\n
For those of us who grew up with him and his music, Justin Bieber<\/a>\u2019s headlining shows at Coachella were a joyous celebration of how far he\u2019s come since his tumultuous teen pop star days. However, one very notable figure from his past seemingly did not get an invite to the party.<\/p>\n Along with Justin\u2019s former manager, Scooter Braun<\/a>, Usher<\/a> is widely credited with playing a major role in JB\u2019s rise to superstardom in the late 2000s and early 2010s. As the story goes<\/a>, Scooter was blown away by Justin\u2019s singing videos on YouTube, tracked down his mom\u2019s contact details, and flew the somewhat apprehensive mom-and-son duo from Canada to Atlanta in 2008, which is where they began discussing a potential record deal.<\/p>\n Around this time, Justin and Scooter had a chance encounter with Usher at a music studio, and then-13-year-old Biebs seized the opportunity to impress the R&B legend with a rendition of his hit song, \u201cU Got It Bad.\u201d (The now-iconic run-in was captured on camera and still lives on Justin\u2019s YouTube channel. You can watch it here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n Later that year, 14-year-old Justin was signed<\/a> to Usher and Scooter\u2019s joint record label, Raymond Braun Media Group. However, Usher wasn\u2019t the only big-name music star who\u2019d had their eye on young JB at this time \u2014 enter, Justin Timberlake<\/a>.<\/p>\n Justin, who previously worked with Scooter during his NSYNC days, had also heard about JB\u2019s promising talents and was keen to sign the teen singer, too, resulting in an all-out \u201cbidding war<\/a>\u201d between JT<\/a> and Usher.<\/p>\n Usher obviously came out on top, and, as you\u2019ll likely remember, he became a prominent figure in Justin\u2019s inner circle as he navigated his meteoric rise to fame following the release of his first single, \u201cOne Time,\u201d in 2009.<\/p>\n This brings us to Coachella 2026, where, across two weekends, JB dedicated a segment of each of his headlining sets to his old music, singing along with his younger self on YouTube. Much to fans\u2019 delight, he revisited hits like \u201cBaby,\u201d \u201cFavorite Girl,\u201d \u201cOne Less Lonely Girl,\u201d \u201cU Smile,\u201d and \u201cUp,\u201d all from his first two albums, My World and My World 2.0. He also sang along to some of the old YouTube covers that made him famous, like his rendition of Ne-Yo\u2019s \u201cSo Sick\u201d and Chris Brown\u2019s \u201cWith You.\u201d<\/p>\n So, with all the throwbacks, shoutouts, and guest appearances<\/a> across Weekends 1 and 2, there was interestingly no mention of Usher at all. And some fans think that Justin may have gone out of his way to make sure his old mentor was not a part of the moment in any way.<\/p>\n For example, despite it being one of the biggest and most beloved hits from his early career, Justin did not sing \u201cSomebody to Love Remix,\u201d which features Usher. He also omitted the wildly popular \u201cU Got It Bad\u201d YouTube<\/a> cover \u2014 the one that literally changed his life when he performed it for Usher in 2008.<\/p>\n Fans also noticed<\/a> that while singing \u201cOne Time<\/a>\u201d during his Weekend 2 performance, JB opted not to play the music video on the big screen, as he did for other old songs. This was possibly to avoid showing Usher\u2019s various cameos in the vid, which centers around young Justin throwing a party at Usher\u2019s house.<\/p>\n But the possible Usher dig that many viewers may not have noticed came during Weekend 2, when Justin looked back on his old YouTube covers and paused to say a few poignant words about his child-star discovery and all that came after.<\/p>\n \u201cI was just a kid who liked to sing, you know? I was a kid, that was all it was,\u201d he said, looking at an image of his younger self on screen. \u201cAnd then one thing turned to another\u2026and here we are. Man, it\u2019s been a wild journey, an emotional journey. But, anyways\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n He then played a video of himself<\/a> as a child singing \u201cCry Me a River\u201d by none other than Justin Timberlake. Before he clicked play, JB said a few pointed words about the man on the other side of the bidding war to sign him all those years ago: \u201cI grew up listening to Justin Timberlake\u2026 I remember this like it was yesterday.\u201d<\/p>\n Given all the context we\u2019ve discussed, I\u2019m sure you can understand why this prominent JT mention \u2014 combined with the general lack of Usher acknowledgment \u2014 may have been a subtle dig from JB\u2019s side. And if you\u2019re reading this and wondering, “OK, but why would Justin be shading Usher?” allow me to explain.<\/p>\n Over the past few years, there have been renewed conversations about how Justin was mistreated and exploited by the adults<\/a> around him as a child star. Justin hasn\u2019t explicitly discussed this in detail; however, he\u2019s talked openly about his mental health struggles in adulthood, describing himself in 2025 as a \u201ctraumatized person<\/a>.\u201d There\u2019s also a lot to be said for the fact that he has reportedly cut ties<\/a> with everyone that managed him during his peak pop star years, including Scooter.<\/p>\n As for Justin and Usher, it\u2019s been a while since either of them has talked publicly about the other. But, given the rumored overhaul in JB\u2019s personal and professional relationships, it\u2019s possible there might be some complicated feelings between him and his old mentor.<\/p>\n This whole thing also comes just a few weeks after reports of an alleged \u201cintense altercation<\/a>\u201d between Justin and Usher at an Oscars afterparty in March. Neither artist nor their respective teams have commented on the reports; however, one of Usher\u2019s friends, Da Brat, addressed the story<\/a> on his behalf and suggested that it\u2019d all been blown out of proportion.<\/p>\n \u201cI spoke to Usher, and he said this is an exaggeration of conversation,\u201d Da Brat said on The Rickey Smiley Show. \u201cHe\u2019s been nothing but supportive of plenty of issues that Justin Bieber has had throughout the years, and y\u2019all can actually check the records for all that he has done. Justin is on his own journey, dealing with his own reality that he\u2019s created. Usher wishes him nothing but the best, and they have no hostility towards each other.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey are definitely cool with each other, and they have love, and they support each other,\u201d she continued. \u201cThey had a conversation. Nobody heard the conversation but the two of them. People just take it and twist it and turn it around. But I\u2019m letting you know that everything is OK between them and there is no hostility.\u201d<\/p>\n As we said, a lot of this is rooted in speculation, so make of it all what you will. We’ve reached out to Usher and JB’s reps for comment.<\/p>\n Whatever the case, Bieberchella was perfect, and Justin (Bieber, that is) deserves all the happiness in the world!!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Justin Bieber Hints At Usher Feud At Coachella 2026 For those of us who grew up with him…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":616948,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[2739,49,48,361,2740,75,780],"class_list":["post-616947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-black-content","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-celebrities","tag-dib-celebs","tag-entertainment","tag-timely"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=616947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616947\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/616948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=616947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=616947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=616947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}