The "Sorry" singer crashed Grande's set at Coachella and joined her for an impromptu performance of his hit single, for which he clearly had a backing track.
Ariana Grande is tired of the haters online, jumping to Justin Bieber's defense in a series of since-deleted tweets amid a sea of criticism after his surprise performance alongside her at Coachella.
Two days after a celebratory tweet where Bieber thanked Grande and Coachella, writing, "That felt right," the "Sorry" singer was back on Twitter defending his use of a backing track and asking why people can't just "find joy in adding value to one another and not tearing each other apart."
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View StoryGrande jumped into the comments of Bieber's initial thread with support of her own, defending his use of a backing track "like most cameos do." She further explained, "We also decided to do this ten minutes before my set started. we had zero soundcheck, zero rehearsal."
But mostly she spoke directly to Bieber, being that person who will life another up. "The world was happy to have you on stage again," she wrote. "Your fans, friends and the world is thrilled to have you back. Everyone was so happy to see you smile like that."
The singer wasn't done yet, emphasizing, "People are bored. people don't know how it feels to be under such scrutiny."
But most importantly, she wanted him to rise above the hate and do what he loves and what he is loved for doing. "Take care. Make music. You are loved."
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View StoryGrande was upset that this triumphant moment for Bieber, his first time on stage in two years, which he clearly enjoyed, was being torn apart by the media and online, writing, "[I] don't like when people try to ruin beautiful moments for my friends, that's all."
Bieber's intial four-tweet thread was specifically targeted at E! News' "Nightly Pop" show and its host Morgan Stewart, who took him to task for his use of backing vocals in the impromptu performance. "I did not realize it was going to be that bad," Stewart said after watching footage of Bieber coming in very late over the backing tracks. "That is f--ked up!"
She also took him to task for his appearance, though was she complimenting him by saying, "He definitely looks like he put an Oxy pad on that forehead"?
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View StoryAnd 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,
@justinbieber
When are we gonna be the kind of people that find joy in adding value to one another and not tearing each other apart..
@justinbieber
Bieber has since deleted the first portion of his thread, which hit much harder and more directly at Stewart, even going so far as to equate her to high school bullying and suicide, as detailed by Elle.
"Just saw a video of you ripping me to shreds saying I was lip-syncing," he wrote. "They played the song and I just sang over top of it.. regardless why spend your time tearing people down. It's people like you that are bullies at school that are making kids suicidal."
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View StoryGrande's tweets are also notably absent, though some outlets are reporting she wrote them in response to Bieber's intial tweet, and so they would have been purged when he deleted that. Neither E! or Stewart has responded to any of the stars' comments yet.
Still surviving and online, though, is Grande's barbed tweet in response to the clip of Stewart's rant, though co-host Hunter March went in much harder on Bieber than she did.
people look so ugly when they talk about other people like this, it's crazy. like no matter how pretty you are or how long u spent getting ready, u ugly to me now. HOW do people watch shit like this lmao.
@ArianaGrande
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