Bieberchella

By James Yu May 20, 2026

The desert stirs. Like a scene out of Napoleon’s infamous Egyptian campaign, a massive army descends on

Indio, California’s silent dunes. Yet, instead of muskets and perfectly-kept uniforms, each soldier is prepared for battle with $16 matchas and bold rave fits. Men used to go to war. Now they go to Coachella!

Each year, over 750,000 music fans from around the world attend Coachella, the largest music festival in the

United States according to data compiled by Statista. Held over two weekends in mid-April, Coachella attracts over 100 of the most renowned musicians globally, with the support of the music industry’s largest corporations. However, Coachella finds its roots outside the corporations that now embrace it; frustrated with the exorbitant ticket fees charged by traditional, large-venue operators like Ticketmaster, the band Pearl Jam partnered up with Paul Tollett, the founder and CEO of Goldenvoice—a struggling concert promoter—to book a performance at the Empire Club in Indio. The success of this concert led Goldenvoice to launch the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in 1999. Coachella circumvented the dominant venue operators by hosting the festival in the remote venue of Indio, a town over 120 miles away from Los Angeles, the nearest major city. Since then, Coachella has exploded in popularity, expanding from a single-day event to two weekends with hundreds of artists performing.

Despite its humble origins as a rejection of corporate greed in the music industry, the festival is now receiving

criticism for the very issues it once sought to address. While day tickets in 1999 cost $50, this year, tickets went on resale for several thousand dollars after selling out almost instantly. As a result, many music fans are experiencing the same burnout that led to Coachella’s inception, dissuading them from attending.

“By prioritizing profit over the festival quality, Coachella has sold out to the music industry. I would never pay potentially life-changing money for a crowded music festival,” said Senior Timothy Song

But for one megastar headlining Coachella, this year's festival represented a return to authenticity. Pop-star

Justin Bieber took the stage on April 18, ending a four-year hiatus from the big stage with nothing more than a microphone and his laptop.

His departure from the spotlight began in 2022 after he cancelled his “Justice” World Tour due to serious health complications from Ramsay Hunt syndrome, a rare neurological disorder that left parts of Bieber’s face paralyzed. In the years following, Bieber faced public struggles with mental health and significant debt from the cancellation of his tour, leading him to sell the rights to his music catalog for $200 million in 2023 as reported by People Magazine.

Without the rights to play his greatest hits, Bieber headlined Coachella by playing the music videos of his songs on YouTube, a workaround that allowed him to avoid securing those rights. With this freelance flexibility, Bieber led a laid-back, cheerful set, singing to old hits desired by fans in his old teenage voice and laughing at memes with the crowd. Bieber also shared a lighthearted moment with the crowd when he showed a viral clip of him “standing on business” against the paparazzi, reflecting on his past with a sense of peace.

Mingyue Xiao Art

The term “Bieberchella” quickly went viral online as a term to praise Bieber’s performance as fans both at

Coachella and watching remotely celebrated his set as a personal revival. Yet for many other musicians and fans, Bieber’s performance was lackluster and lazy for the biggest stage in music. On social media sites like X and Reddit, many users argued that if a female artist like Chappell Roan or Sabrina Carpenter performed this, they would have been criticized instead of praised. Indeed, this backlash follows a growing trend of male performers being criticized for receiving undue praise relative to female performers who put on large, theatrical performances. For instance, The Guardian reported in 2018 that singer Ed Sheeran faced similar criticism in for wearing a t-shirt and jeans while performing alongside fellow singer Beyoncé at the Global Citizen Festival, who was decked out in an extravagant pink couture dress.

“While many performers such as Sabrina Carpenter do deserve greater recognition for the fantastical performances they put on every time they take the stage, this doesn’t invalidate performances like Bieberchella that deserve praise for different reasons. Bieber’s performance deserves praise because it represents a renewal for his career after years of hardship,” said Junior Vishnu Rao.

Carpenter’s performance itself was not free from controversy. Carpenter, who also headlined this year’s

festival, received backlash after calling a fan’s Zaghrouta, an Arabic cheering, “weird,” as reported by the Los

Angeles Times. In response to the backlash, Carpenter posted an apology message on X, stating that she did not know that the sound she was hearing was a fan’s cheers because she “didn’t see this person with my eyes and couldn’t hear clearly.” While many online have accepted the apology, others are unsatisfied, arguing that

Carpenter’s actions were insensitive and Islamophobic.

Despite the controversy facing both the festival itself and its artists, millions still tuned in to see their favorite

artists perform at the festival. Whether it be celebrated as a celebration of culture or criticized as an overpriced money-grab, Coachella remains a defining event in American popular culture.

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About the Contributors

James Yu

ad manager

James Yu is a Senior at Leland High School and Ad Manager for The Charger Account. He loves listening writing sweet ledes! Outside of Journalism, he enjoys debating for the debate team, hanging out with friends, and sleeping.

Mingyue Xiao

artist

Mingyue Xiao is a junior at Leland High School and an artist for The Charger Account. She keeps busy reading, dancing, and drawing designs for her art projects.