Week one was polarising. Week two was undeniable. Five guests, fireworks, Big Sean dropping quotes like a graduation ceremony, and Billie Eilish getting serenaded by THE JUSTIN BIEBER. Talk about dream come true!
Weekend one had everyone arguing. Weekend two? Not so much.
Justin Bieber came back to Coachella like he read the comments and said, “okay, let me tighten this up.” Same set, same idea, but this time it actually landed. More confident, more structured, and way more stacked with guests.
And yes, the desert lost its mind.
Bieber took the main stage at 11:25pm PT for his 90-minute closer, the last and highest-paid headliner in Coachella history at a reported $10 million for both weekends. Weekend 2 felt more rehearsed, more confident, and significantly more starred-up. He opened with the SWAG and SWAG II material, the acoustic section with Carter Lang and Dylan Wiggins, the gentle chaos of the laptop nostalgia portion. And then the guests arrived.
Big Sean Didn’t Just Perform, He Testified
Big Sean came out for “As Long as You Love Me” and “No Pressure”, their 2012 and 2020 collaborations respectively, and after the songs finished, instead of bouncing offstage, he grabbed the microphone and gave a speech.
“I just gotta say, brother, that you know God has his hands on you,” Sean said in footage that immediately went viral across every platform. “I’ve seen a lot of the things you’ve gone through. I’ve seen you at times where it wasn’t always beautiful, but you fought through it. And in a world where everyone’s trying to take over the world, you give over the world, bro.”
He also mentioned meeting Hailey and baby Jack. And he meant every word of it. The crowd was quiet in the way crowds only go quiet when something real is being said.
“In a world where everyone’s trying to take over the world, you give over the world, bro. — Big Sean to Justin Bieber, Coachella 2026”
Billie Eilish: Seven Years Later, Still the Biggest Belieber in the Desert
Here is the backstory you need.
At Coachella in 2019, a 17-year-old Billie Eilish was playing her own set at the festival when Justin Bieber appeared in the crowd during Ariana Grande’s headline slot. Eilish, who had literally told James Corden in a Carpool Karaoke that she was so in love with Bieber growing up that she “couldn’t handle it”, spotted him and had what can only be described as a complete meltdown in the best way.
She cried. She ran. She went back. Bieber sent her a heartfelt message afterwards: “Your love for me touched my heart. You are so special not for what you can do, but for who you are.”
Fast forward to April 18, 2026. Billie Eilish, now 24 and a Grammy-winning artist in her own right, is in the crowd watching Bieber’s set when Hailey Bieber spots her, puts an arm around her, and nudges her past the barricade to get on stage. Billie, in a purple windbreaker and black track pants, stumbles up the steps, drops to her knees with her hands over her face, and collapses onto a stool at centre stage as Bieber starts singing “One Less Lonely Girl” directly to her.
He sang with his arms around her. She covered her face and laughed. He laughed. The crowd went genuinely insane. They both burst out laughing mid-song. Bieber said “only you, shawty” as it ended, hugged her, and she ran back into the crowd. This is a woman who has been listening to Justin Bieber since she was a small child, who made her own music career inspired partly by his, who collaborated with him on the “Bad Guy” remix, and who crawled on a Coachella stage to have him serenade her with a 2009 song. The timeline is perfect and we will hear no criticism of it.
The Rest of the Guest List (Also Iconic)
Sexyy Red kicked off the guest portion for “Sweet Spot” from Bieber’s SWAG album. Dijon was back for “Devotion.” And SZA closed out the night with an acoustic duet of her hit “Snooze” — before admitting she was “so nervous she didn’t know how to get off the stage.” Bieber guided her off while they shouted their love for each other. Normal Saturday night in Indio, California.
How It Ended
Bieber closed his final Coachella set — both weekends, all of it — with “Daisies” featuring MK.gee, the fireworks exploding above the desert, and the crowd doing the kind of noise that you can see on the livestream even through a phone screen. He interacted with fans at the barrier before leaving the stage, no rush, just a man twenty-seven years into his public life having what his team described as “the set of his career.”
His back-catalogue has already responded. “Beauty and a Beat” hit No. 1 on Spotify’s Global Daily chart for the first time since its 2012 release, holding the top spot for three consecutive days. “Baby,” “Eenie Meenie,” and “Confident” also posted chart surges. And his tour date section was quietly updated this week. BieberChella is officially a comeback. The only question now is where he’s going next.
