For one of the biggest performances of her career, Tems called on one of the biggest pop stars in the business: Justin Bieber.
The Nigerian singer-songwriter and producer delivered a set at Coachella 2024 on Sunday night (April 14), and brought out the big guns in Bieber and Wizkid, who both stepped onto the stage for a performance of their hit “Essence.”
Fans had been warned. “Coachella! I’m too exciteddd I have a surprise tonight,” she wrote earlier on X.
Originally released in 2020 and recorded with Bieber and fellow Afrobeats star Wizkid, “Essence” was a true slow-burner, impacting Billboard’s charts nine months after its release. Wizkid & co. would reign over Billboard’s R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay in September 2021 with “Essence,” making history along the way. “Essence” also cracked the Billboard Hot 100 and would enter the top 10 (peaking at No. 9) — becoming the first Afrobeats song to do so.
Bieber is no stranger to smashing chart records. At 27, the Canadian pop singer became the youngest solo artist in history to notch 100 songs on the Billboard Hot 100, a feat he reached in 2021.
The singer has kept a relatively low profile since June 2022, when he revealed his diagnosis of Ramsay Hunt syndrome, with one side of his face experiencing “full paralysis.” On Sunday night, he showed no ill effects as he glided around the Coachella stage. Watch below.
Bieber’s performance will surely send Beliebers into a frenzy, and renew hope for more live dates in the wake of his health problems, which contributed to the cancellation of his 2022 Justice World Tour.
That excitement lifted a gear earlier in the year, when Bieber performed a surprise short set of classics and recent hits at Drake’s 2,500-capacity downtown club History and, earlier, hinted at new music to come.
Tems was Billboard‘s 2024 Women in Music Breakthrough recipient, telling reporters ahead of the event: “I really want to use this opportunity to say to all the women in the room, in the world, that no matter what you’re going through, you should know you’re not alone. So even when you’re sad, even when you’re angry, there’s someone that’s angry, too. So uplift everybody around you because they need that like you and somebody’s there for you,” she concluded her speech. “It’s the women that got the women, trust me.”
She previously told Billboard, “Everybody just called me Temi. Nobody really called me by my full name. It wasn’t something that was on my mind. It’s only now, as an adult, that I started realizing that it meant ‘the crown is mine.’ I think that’s really powerful. It feels manifested, based on how my life has gone.“
Tyler, the Creator, Doja Cat and Lana Del Rey are leading the pack as this year’s headliners for the 2024 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. This weekend is the first of two weekends of Coachella 2024, held in the Southern California desert.