Justin Bieber defends Frank Ocean following controversial Coachella performance
MANILA, Philippines — Canadian singer Justin Bieber has come to the defense of his fellow artist Frank Ocean after the latter's headlining act at the Coachella Music Festival was not well-received.
The festival was Frank's first live performance in six years, however, he arrived an hour late to his set, was seated for most of the time, did not sell any merchandise, skipped on crowd-favorite songs, and was even caught lip-synching.
Additionally, the livestreaming of his and Bjork's performances were cut at the last minute, and Frank's set did not even last 90 minutes as he cut it short due to "festival curfew" reasons.
It was later revealed that Frank suffered an ankle injury during rehearsals leading to a scrapped plan to have an on-stage ice rink.
Even ahead of the revelation as to reasons behind the sudden set change, Justin had nothing but words of praise for Frank on his Instagram account.
"I was blown away by Frank Oceans Coachella performance. His artistry is simply unmatched, his style, his taste, his voice, his attention to detail... I was deeply moved," Justin wrote. "It made me want to keep going and get better as an artist. He continues to set the bar high and gave me a night I will never forget!"
A number of online users pointed out that Justin was quick to defend Frank but remained mum regarding on the resolved issue between ex-girlfriend Selena Gomez and his wife Hailey, the latter claiming to have received death threats as a result of the fan-fueled feud.
Hailey did accompany Justin to Coachella this year, and was seen comforting her husband at several points of the music festival.
Accordinging to representatives, Frank has officially pulled out of the second weekend of Coachella 2023 because of his injury and will be replaced by Blink-182, who was a surprise addition to the first weekend's line-up.
Frank was initially going to headline the 2020 edition of Coachella until the COVID-19 pandemic struck, and this year was headliners with Bad Bunny and BLACKPINK in a historic edition of the music festival.
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