Healthy Comeback or Just Plain Lazy? Why We Need to Talk About Justin Bieber.

If you saw it (and even if you didn’t) there was something a little different about Justin Bieber’s Coachella performance last week. 

As a pop icon, and a singer at the top of his game, it was… Unusually humble. 

Understated. 

Stripped back. Pared down.

And about as minimalist as a headline set can get. 

As Rolling Stone reported last year Bieber secured around $10 million for the gig, making his set the highest paid in Coachella history. 

At a festival famed for its arts, lights and influencers (that admittedly seems to become a bigger spectacle every year) Bieber did something no other visionary -- from Prince to Beyonce -- has ever done.

He sat down at a laptop and browsed YouTube, searching for old songs in a duet with his younger self, and the fans who’ve grown up with him. 

Predictably, the internet blew up.

One fan said the performance “felt like the healthiest kind of comeback for Justin.”

The singer Lizzo posted, “I watched a popstar who grew up in front of the world fully transcend into his artistry last night.”

While Katy Perry quipped, “Thank God he has premium. I don’t wanna see no ads.”

Jokes aside, not everyone was so enthralled. Critics labelled him as “lazy” and couldn't help compare it to Sabrina Carpenter's (some would say) excessive Friday night set, which featured multiple outfit changes, cameos from Sam Elliott, Susan Sarandon, and Will Ferrell -- and culminated with Sabrina, from the backseat of her car, sprayed high into the air with a water fountain. 

Some even made the point: would a woman be able to headline Coachella the way Bieber did, in baggy pants, and subdued lighting?

But ultimately for me, all of this (inevitable) criticism is just noise -- and totally misses the point. 

In fact, I agree with the Twitter user who said:

“Watching him embrace his past and acknowledge that he finally has everything he ever wished for moved me to tears. I am so incredibly proud of his journey and the person.”

And here’s why…

The Boy He Left Behind

Here was a man, essentially robbed of a normal childhood by fame. Bieber grew up entirely in the public eye, made his mistakes in front of the world, battled addiction, recovery, illness -- and lately lives a more private version of fame.

For fans who grew up alongside him (now in their late 20s and early 30s) watching him literally sit with his younger self mirrored their own relationships with their childhoods, a remembrance of their younger selves, or a nostalgia for a “simpler time.”

Far from “lazy,” I see his performance as a level of strength others couldn’t possibly replicate. 

A man sitting alone on a stage in front of 125,000 people, with only a laptop -- knowing his detractors are out there, ready to pounce in real time? 

Justin was showing us the life, the level of scrutiny, he grew up with.

And in that moment took us back to the boy he left behind.

Psychologically, I can’t state how important this is: It’s enormous. In men's work and trauma therapy, one of the most important (and most avoided) tasks for a man is to return to his younger self, the self that got stranded at the moment a wound was inflicted in his life. 

But… Most men never do it. It's seen as “weak” or just too painful. Our culture gives them little permission for it, but here Justin was doing the exact opposite. 

He gave his fans permission to rewind, sit with it, and just be.

A Countercultural Act of Mascuinity

In a world where men are expected to project strength, dominance, and prove their value -- where being “more” -- doing more, earning more, having more -- is the masculine way, Bieber showed up with less.

(No dancers, pyrotechnics or water fountains, just a man, his voice, and a willingness to face his past.)

This was a genuinely countercultural act of masculinity.

An acknowledgement that his Inner Child is finally healing. 

Most men have a version of that same wound -- a younger self who got stranded in time, who had to toughen up fast, who learned to perform rather than feel, who never had someone put a hand on their shoulder and say, “I see you and I’ve got you. It’s going to be okay.”

(The only difference of course is most men don’t make their mistakes under the glare of media flashbulbs.)

But just because they didn't get up on stage every night and perform in front of thousands of people, or have a record company breathing down their necks, doesn't mean it hurts any less.

Each man has to live with his own stage.

So, in the context of everything our culture is currently struggling with around masculinity (the crisis of identity, the rage, the disconnection) what Justin Bieber chose to do last week is no small thing.

In fact, it might be one of the most singularly important things a male artist has done on stage in years.

Love and Blessings, 🙏🏻💛🪷

P.S. Inner Child work is one of the most crucial, foundational aspects I address with every new client. And far from feeling weak or vulnerable, men say it leaves them, “open, released, and seen like never before.”

If you’d like to know more, go here and listen to my 4 minute voicenote which breaks down Justin’s story in detail.