Coachella is a popular music festival that happens once a year at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, CA. Artists are carefully selected to perform at Coachella, creating a lineup of around 150 artists total.
The first weekend of Coachella 2026 began on April 10-12, followed by an additional weekend from April 17-19. Music kicked off at 1 p.m. every day, lasting until as late as 1 a.m.. Tickets sold out, with the first weekend passes reaching $4,000-$5,000 and general admission retailing at around $549–$649 per day.
This year, Coachella celebrated its 25th anniversary. To celebrate the 2026 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, Sabrina Carpenter, Karol G, Anyma and Justin Bieber were all featured as headliners.
Fans were looking forward to hearing Justin Bieber, as his last major performance was in 2022 during his Justice World Tour, which concluded in Rio de Janeiro on Sept. 4. He recently made a small comeback with a surprise set at The Roxy in Los Angeles on March 29, and at the 68th Grammys on Feb. 1, but nothing compared to his past performances.
Bieber performed on both weekends: Saturday, April 11 and Saturday, April 18. The second weekend featured surprise appearances from SZA (performing “Snooze”), Billie Eilish and Big Sean.
Sophomore Mina Choucroun is thankful he has returned to performing. “I think he gave off old Justin vibes, and I was so here for it. I am very supportive of him going back to his old self and was shocked to see his name on the set lists. I was even more shocked when I saw videos of him switching back to his original voice,” Choucroun said.
During a nostalgic section of Justin Bieber’s set from “Beauty and a Beat,” he surprised fans mid-performance by temporarily switching back to his old voice from his “Baby” era in his early career. Fans were shocked to hear Bieber’s iconic voice after years, and were surprised he could still sound exactly the same.
Sophomore Ellie Buchman loved the choice of songs that were picked for the set list. “I thought it was really cool because he sang a lot of his old songs. They were really nostalgic and reminded me of when I was younger since I used to listen to a lot of his old songs. I thought it was also cool that he shifted back to his old voice in the middle of a song. I didn’t know he could still do it so it was fun to hear,” Buchman said.
Sophomore Anya Sharma was impressed that he sang at Coachella. “I thought it was cool to see him perform and interesting that he would even perform at Coachella at all, even though he has been singing for a long time. I didn’t expect to see him on the set list but was definitely excited when I did, and I’m happy he’s back to performing,” Sharma said.
