Justin Bieber’s warmup

Justin Bieber was nominated for several Juno Awards last night but wasn’t at the event.

He had an official reason for it: a surprise invite-only show at The Roxy in LA where he reportedly performed a 25-song set, tracks from SWAG and SWAG II, ahead of his first headlining appearance at Coachella in a couple of weeks.

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JB hasn’t performed a full show since 2022, when he cancelled his tour due for health reasons. He popped up here and there at Coachella for one-off appearances and also at the Grammys a couple of months ago but there hasn’t been a proper concert in four years – which is why last night might have been a bit of a warmup, and if so, it’s a good decision to do it in a smaller venue, without all kinds of pressure and anticipation, and work out some muscles that haven’t been engaged in so long. I imagine, under the circumstances, this would have been the safest space for him, in the presence of friends and the most hardcore fans, with a few industry types sprinkled in… before going under a huge spotlight, in front of tens of thousands of people, if not more, and livestreamed around the world.

Because it’s no secret that Justin hasn’t seemed all that comfortable on tour for a long, long time. Tour life is hard, it’s not for everyone. Even Miley Cyrus has said that she doesn’t want to do it, that it doesn’t line up with her frequency. Coachella, obviously, isn’t the same as a tour, but for someone like Justin, it does come with massive expectations. The fact that he even wants to do it is encouraging, because he’s been off the stage for so long, and now he’s committed to not just five minutes, but closer to two hours.

Training and preparation, then, are essential. So now we know he’s not going into it cold, that he at least has a small(er) gig under his belt, he has something to build on. As mentioned, JB went heavy on tracks from SWAG and SWAG II last night – it’ll be interesting to see what older songs, if any, he’ll add to the Coachella set. And perhaps which surprise guests, if any, might join him. Like, I’m not saying he should be doing “Baby”, but “Peaches” with Daniel Caesar and Giveon, for example, I feel like would work with his new material. And also “Holy” off the Justice album. Plus, if he really wants to get the crowd to pop off, going back to Purpose with “Sorry” would pretty much guarantee 100,000 people singing along.

Attached - Justin and Hailey Bieber out last weekend in LA.