Expert explains how laptop section of Justin Bieber’s Coachella performance actually worked

Everyone’s still talking about Justin Bieber’s Coachella performance, but an expert has revealed the truth behind the wild moment he scrolled on a laptop.

The singer sat down on stage behind a MacBook and started responding to requests in the live Coachella chat, playing a few of his old songs, and random memes, on YouTube. At one point, Justin said he was having “WiFi issues” as the whole thing stopped loading, but in reality, the whole thing was probably pre-recorded and he wasn’t really browsing the internet live.

“On Coachella-level productions, what you saw from Justin Bieber is almost certainly not truly live internet browsing,” live music and concert production expert Jason Euler from Relentless Beats told The Tab. “The most likely scenario is that Bieber’s ‘live browsing’ moment was a pre-programmed, rehearsed sequence designed to look spontaneous, rather than real-time internet use.”

The expert explained that live scrolling on YouTube would be way too risky at such a major festival, and relying on WiFi or cellular connectivity during a headline set would be considered a “production liability”.

Credit: Coachella/YouTube

“What looks spontaneous (scrolling, clicking, pulling up videos) is usually preloaded media servers, time-coded or manually triggered cues and fully rehearsed interaction beats between artist and content,” he explained. “This allows the performance to feel improvised while remaining perfectly synced with visuals, audio, and lighting.”

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Basically, they pre-recorded and rehearsed the whole thing, and the laptop was just a prop to help with the visual storytelling, solely for the performance.

“Even the most casual-looking moments are mapped out in advance. Festivals of this scale run on show control systems similar to Broadway or touring arena shows — nothing critical is left to chance,” Euler said.

Now I have an even bigger question. If the YouTube segment was all pre-recorded, how is Justin going to do it for Coachella weekend two?! I guess they must have rehearsed two versions.

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Featured image credit: Coachella/YouTube