Justin Bieber shares support for Frank Ocean's heavily criticised Coachella Performance

Coachella 2023 kicked off Friday, April 14th. The Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny, the K-pop group BLACKPINK, and the American hip-hop, rhythm and blues artist Frank Ocean, have been touted as the top acts of this year's line-up.

Frank was originally meant to play back in 2020, but that performance slot was cancelled due to COVID. Instead, he took to Coachella's stage this past Sunday night, playing his first live show since 2017. Heavily hyped, it was unfortunately cut short after starting an hour late and going 20 minutes past the festival's curfew.

To make matters worse, Rolling Stone shared that Frank had injured his ankle during on-site rehearsals before the festival began. It required a few last-minute adjustments to the performance, like that he sit down for most of it.

The post-show reception left fans berating the performance, including criticising the energy he brought to it and the use of pre-recorded vocals.

Additional complaints focused on the re-worked changes to beloved fan-favourite tracks used in the show, which made it difficult for fans to sing along, that the artist would leave the stage for periods of time, and a lack of merchandise afterwards.

Rallying behind his fellow artist, the Canadian pop-superstar Justin Bieber posted to his Instagram an acclaim to not only Ocean's Sunday performance, but the artistry behind it.

"I was blown away by Frank Ocean's Coachella performance. His artistry is simply unmatched, his style, his taste, his voice, his attention to detail..."

"I was deeply moved. 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! Thanks Frank."

 

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A post shared by Justin Bieber (@justinbieber)

Bieber has a fair understanding of things not going to plan - he disclosed last summer that he suffers from Ramsay-Hunt Syndrome, a condition that partially paralyzed his face.

Since, he made the hard decision to cancel several dates off his North American tour and then later the rest of his Justice world tour to focus on his health. The world tour would have finished up just last month.

Coachella festival ends Sunday, April 23rd. Frank is set to perform again then. Fans online have shared their hopes that his next show will go more smoothly.

In the interim, more performances from many different artists can be expected from the festival as a whole before it ends in a couple days. Ireland's own The Murder Capital played a stunning rendition of 'Return My Head' from their new album Gigi's Recovery earlier this week.