Justin Bieber is gearing up for his comeback at Coachella, but there’s a lot in store for the former teen heartthrob.
He is scheduled to headline the Indio, Calif., festival on Saturday, April 11th and 18th, and recently gave 500 fans a glimpse of what to expect at an intimate warm-up show at The Roxy in West Hollywood.
“This was so beautiful. It’s a little preview of Coachella. It’s going to be a lot of fun,” he told the small crowd.
But it took a slow effort to bring Bieber back into the spotlight. In recent years, the 32-year-old has shown signs of physical and mental illness as the costs of his childhood fame have weighed on him, from crying in social media videos to worrying weight loss and temporary facial paralysis, which has also affected his marriage to Hailey Bieber.
“People keep telling me to fix it…If I could fix myself, don’t you think I would already have?” the star posted online last summer following a rant to paparazzi. “I know I’m broken. I know I have anger issues.”
And last month, he was photographed throwing a water bottle at a photographer during a night date with Hailey.
His most recent tour in 2022 was cut short after he was diagnosed with Ramsay Hunt Syndrome, which causes loss of control on one side of the face. Additionally, 14 dates on his 2017 tour were canceled as he was struggling with mental health issues.
“Bieber has something to prove to himself and to the industry,” said one music source. “And Coachella is going to be a real indicator of how he’s going to move forward. There’s a lot to expect from this, no doubt.”
Indeed, there are many dragons that Bieber had to slay in order to return to the stage.
The star hadn’t performed on the Grammys stage in February for four years, where he performed “Yukon” in satin boxer shorts and a pair of socks.
Bieber also appeared to address his long-rumored marital problems in the song “Walking Away,” from his critically acclaimed seventh studio album, Swag, which was released last year. “Tell me why you throw rocks at my back/You know I’m vulnerable/You better stop before you say anything, little girl/We’ve been testing your patience/I think you should take a break/And remember what grace is.”
And the track “Daisies” seemed to depict emotional uncertainty as he sings, “Do you love me? Don’t you love me? … You said ‘forever’, baby, did you mean it or didn’t you mean it?”
Bieber has been struggling financially for years, with his expenses soaring to more than $1.3 million a month in 2022 and his credit rating remaining poor, according to Page Six.
Sources say that Bieber, who has one-year-old son Jack Bruce with Hailey, 29, was forced to sell his back catalog to Hypnosis Songs Capital in January 2023 for $200 million. This is typically done by older artists late in their careers, but Bieber reportedly needed the cash infusion to pay for his $17 million mansion in La Quinta, California, as well as cover the millions of dollars he owed to former manager Scooter Braun.
Brown, who discovered Bieber when he was just 12 years old, paid his debt ($26 million of a $40 million advance) to concert promoter AEG when his 2022 “Justice” tour was canceled.
However, the two had a falling out after the singer, who had agreed to repay the loan over 10 years, reportedly paid only once instead of the full amount.
According to TMZ, the battle ended last July when Bieber agreed to pay back $26 million and half of the $11 million that the music billionaire claims Bieber was owed in various unpaid commissions over the years.
Despite a close friendship and working partnership over the years, there’s clearly no love lost.
Another industry source said: “Justin hates scooters.” “So is Haley.”
Page Six has reached out to representatives for Beavers and Brown.
TMZ reported in March that Bieber got into a heated argument with his childhood mentor Usher at Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s Oscar ceremony in Los Angeles. However, this was rejected by Page Six.
A music official, whose AEG runs the festival, said performing at Coachella is an interesting prospect for Bieber’s future and that “this could be a precursor to a tour.”
“This is a tough business,” the source said, adding that this year’s festival was “the most in-demand Coachella in a while…the first weekend was sold out,” with tickets sold out in less than an hour. “It’s crazy. Bieber and Sabrina Carpenter (headlining Friday’s show) are going to be there. People want to know what’s going to happen.”
“Obviously this is the starting point for a potential comeback tour. This is not a one-and-done situation,” the source said.
After the release of Swag and its sequel, Swag II, Rolling Stone wrote: “Just when everyone was writing him off, Bieber surprised the world with some of the best music he’s ever made.”
Apparently tapping into his anger and trauma helped.
Bieber confesses this in the “Therapy Session” skit he co-starred with comedian Dolsky in “Swag.”
“So it’s starting to really weigh on me because people are always asking if I’m okay.”
Bieber’s extreme weight loss in 2024 left him with an almost skeletal appearance and worried fans, so his representative told TMZ that he will be healthy and drug-free in 2025. The past year has been “very transformative for him as he has ended several close friendships and business relationships that no longer served him,” he wrote.
Bieber continued to air all of his issues publicly, to the point where rumors about his mental and physical stability began to circulate.
“Personally, I have always felt worthless,” he posted on Instagram last March. “It’s like I was a fraud.”
A few days later, he vented about his past pent-up hatred. “As a child, I was told not to hate,” he wrote. “But I didn’t tell anyone that I had it because I felt like I wasn’t allowed to hate it. So I felt like I was drowning because I felt unsafe admitting it.”
“If you don’t like my anger, you don’t like me,” he declared in June, posting screenshots of furious texts to anonymous targets. “My anger is a reaction to the pain I’ve been through. Asking someone who has been traumatized to not be traumatized is just plain mean…I enjoyed our short-lived relationship.”
In April, Bieber launched his own clothing brand, Skyllk, and released a CGI video depicting him walking into a house full of old Drew House merchandise and burning the place down.
Last November, he was seen crying on a resurfaced Twitch stream while singing about a doomed relationship, leading fans to suspect he was singing about ex-girlfriend Selena Gomez.
Meanwhile, his relationship with Haley is still unclear. Last May, the “Baby” singer was criticized for a bizarre Instagram post while his wife was on the cover of Vogue magazine.
He admitted that during a “big fight” he told her she would never appear in Vogue, adding: “I know, it’s really mean.”
The Grammy winner said he said the words with malice, explaining: “I felt so disrespected that I felt like I needed to get back.”
Hailey will be by her husband’s side when he takes the stage at Coachella. Sources say that despite their ups and downs, the couple is still on good terms.
As the crowd prepares to leave for Palm Springs to see Bieber, an industry insider said, “Coachella is not going to be asked to headline if you don’t have an appetite…Justin is like Teflon. No matter what, people still love him.”
“He’s a talented kid, and people just want to see him succeed. It’s always hard to be a (once) little hopper and (then) want to be a legitimate music artist. But everyone wants him,” the music insider added.
