Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber respond to Coachella lip sync controversy

25 April 2019, 15:52

Nicky Idika

By Nicky Idika

Ariana defends Justin Bieber after the singer faced scrutiny over his Coachella performance over the weekend.

Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber have responded to scrutiny of their Coachella duet after Bieber was called out for what appeared to be a lip synched performance.

Over the weekend, Justin Bieber joined Ariana Grande on stage during weekend 2 of her Coachella headlining slot. The two performed "Sorry" but, afterwards, fans noticed that there were parts of the performance where there was audio but Justin's mouth did not appear to be moving.

Morgan Stewart of E! News critiqued the performance (as well as Bieber's appearance) and now Justin and Ariana have clapped back in a series of tweets.

Justin Bieber addresses coachella lip sync criticism
Justin Bieber addresses coachella lip sync criticism. Picture: Justin Bieber/Twitter/Screenshot

"Imagine if you spent even half the time you spend laughing at other peoples expense actually building people up and encouraging people how much positivity you could bring," Justin wrote on Twitter.

"What hurts about this is the fact that you have a platform to make a difference."

Justin Bieber coachella lip sync response
Justin Bieber coachella lip sync response. Picture: Justin Bieber/Twitter/Screenshot

"And rather than being positive you belittle people. Think about how awesome it felt for me to be on that stage after being away for so long the excitement and joy it gave me doing the thing i love the most, i sang to to backtrack like most cameos do this is a normal thing," he continued.

"And rather than try and make people feel accepted and loved you find things to pick apart like the world isn’t full of that already.. we can find something negative to say about anything or anyone."

Music news account PopCrave also captured Ariana's deleted tweets addressing the situation.

Ariana Grande coachella response
Ariana Grande coachella response. Picture: PopCrave/Ariana Grande/Twitter/Screenshot

"We also decided to do this ten minutes before my set started. We had 0 soundcheck, 0 rehearsal. U were singing with the back tracking like most cameos do. People are bored. People don't know how it feels to be under such scrutiny. The world was happy to have u on stage again," Ariana said.

Ariana added: "I don't like when people try to ruin beautiful moments for my friends and that's all."

2019 Coachella Valley Music And Arts Festival - Weekend 2 - Day 3
2019 Coachella Valley Music And Arts Festival - Weekend 2 - Day 3. Picture: Getty

After spending a considerable amount of time away from the stage, Justin returned for the Coachella duet where he promised that new music was on the way.

Ariana is certainly correct when she says that many people were happy to see Justin return to the stage for the impromptu performance.

What do you guys think? Are you excited for Justin's return to music and, perhaps, a duet with Ariana Grande?