Justin Bieber's Coachella set dubbed 'worst of all time' by disappointed fans

Justin Bieber's first headline performance at Coachella has left droves of fans annoyed and confused, with some dubbing it "a mess" and "lacking respect for the audience".

Frustration set in early when it became clear Bieber would be focusing on his newer music, giving very little setlist space to his biggest hits. 

The staging was extremely stripped back - a far cry from the high production values usually seen in Coachella headline acts - and Bieber was accused by online commentators of being low energy with little stage presence for such a huge timeslot.

"Only thing worse than watching this Justin Bieber set are the people watching in-person that are desperately trying to convince themselves this is a vibe (they went in debt for these Coachella tickets)," one comment read. 

It wasn't until about 30 minutes into the performance - which Bieber was reportedly paid USD $10 million for - that Bieber brought out a well-known banger with 'Stay', performed alongside The Kid LAROI.

The next act was completely acoustic, featuring lesser-known songs from his 2025 'Swag' and 'Swag II' albums, and it was only after the 17th track that die-hard Beliebers got a taste of what they came for. 

Even then, fans were left scratching their heads as Bieber held the kind of YouTube party you have with your mates at 3 am… for over 100,000 people. Complete with awkward silences in between, the 32-year-old searched up his old music videos and early singing clips on a MacBook connected to the giant LED on stage, singing along to them karaoke-style.

Some noted it was "sweet" to see a grown-up Bieber sing ballads like 'With You' back to his younger self, but many were fuming over the bite-sized snippets of songs like 'Sorry', 'Baby', 'Never Say Never' and 'Beauty and a Beat', all of which were shortened and many of which Bieber remained seated in front of his laptop for.

One supportive fan said the decision to play videos on YouTube was "significant", noting Bieber was discovered via the platform and he gets to "search up videos and share how far he's come on one of the biggest stages".

Another agreed: "Nah, real fans know this performance was so good."

Bieber also opted to play a series of paparazzi and fan-filmed videos of himself on the big screen, including one of him as a young boy walking into a glass door, another of him falling off stage mid-performance, and the famous 'standing on business' clip from a recent interaction with paps.

Then, arguably one of the strangest moments in Coachella mainstage history happened when Bieber took us down a YouTube spiral of random viral videos, including the iconic 'Double Rainbow' and the original 'Deez Nuts' clip.

The final five songs of the night included some of his recent hits like 'Yukon' and 'Daisies' before Bieber signed off - "tonight has been beautiful; it's been a dream of mine to perform here." 

So Beliebers, what do you reckon? Was it "real and raw" or "snoozefest"? Who knows what weekend two will bring…