Was Bieberchella Worth the Hype?

In 2018, Beyoncé didn't just perform at Coachella, she staged a cultural revolution, "Beychella." This performance had over 100 performers, a custom-built stage, and a setlist that served as a historical thesis on the Black college experience. It was eight months of physical training and creative direction.

Fast forward to Coachella 2026, where we saw the other end of the spectrum Justin Bieber as a headliner, the highest paid headliner reporting at 10 million dollars with a price like that you'd expect some of the best work from Justice but for majority of his set he spent it huddled over a laptop scrolling through his own YouTube history singing along to old videos and new videos. (To preface this, I am not a big Justin Bieber fan due to his racist past.

For a Black woman in music, perfection is the baseline. If Beyonce misses a single step or her vocals are not studio-quality while she's sprinting across the stage, the internet is ready with critiques (to be fair, Beyonce could breathe wrong, and there would be something to talk about due to her being a black woman with such a high caliber and a three-decade span career) She is required to be an athlete a vocalist, a historian, and a fashion icon all at once just to be considered good. 

On the flip side, we have been conditioned to accept and even celebrate the bare minimum from white male stars. Biebers 2026 set has been praised, even called iconic, we even saw similar praise like this from his grammys peroformance when he was singing in boxers on stage, but really lets call it for what it is he literally played clips of himself as a child while the audience watched him watch himself when a man delivers a performance that feels like a casual get together it's framed as "iconinc", "efforrtless", or "raw" If a black woman attemepted this she'd be laughed off the stage.

The narrative of effortless is a luxury rarely afforded to Black women. Beyoncé's labor is often weaponised against her for being too calculated or too rehearsed, but Bieber's lack of effort is romanticised and called authentic. Bieber even used the stage to air personal clips of past confrontations when it came to paparazzi and memes, while the crowd just stood there. 

It is time to stop diluting the word iconic. If we can't distinguish between a performance that shifted the cultural landscape and a performance that felt like a soundcheck, we are failing the audience and live music enjoyers. Beyoncé gave us a blueprint for excellence, the best of the best, and raised the bar for everyone. Instead, the industry continues to lower the bar for those who already have the easiest path to the top. We need to stop asking why people like Beyoncé work so hard and start asking why we demand so little from everyone else. 

Beyoncé gave us a monument to history and was told she was doing too much. Justin gave us a browser tab and was told he was enough.