Justin Bieber opened the American Music Awards last night with back-to-back performances of his songs “Lonely” and “Holy”. It’s been almost a year since JB announced his return to music, eventually releasing his fifth studio album, Changes,with plans for a world tour. Nobody went on tour this year but JB has continued to put out new music, calling it a new “era”, and the last couple of months have certainly felt more like a new “era” than it did in January. In some ways, I feel like perhaps this gradual ease back to the stage has been beneficial for him. Because JB had a hard time with the pressure, with the touring, with the attention, and getting right back out there with that schedule, which is grueling, after he’s been quite candid about how he’s struggled with that life in the past, it would have been a lot. And that’s how it works – you go from idling to sixth gear, no breaks in between. But the way it’s worked out, JB has been able to take the steps gradually. Maybe that’s had nothing to do with what we saw from him last night. But there was a passion to his performance, a commitment to the work – he was feeling the songs, the lyrics, he sounded great…

And it’s a great sign, considering that not too long ago he had such a hard time getting back out there, facing the music, so to speak, and he’s managed to find his passion.

So that’s two award shows now where JB has performed, with a limited audience. It’s nothing like what it would be if things were “normal”, obviously. But like I said, these are like building blocks – and in his case, I think they’ll be effective to preparing him for, eventually, whenever the f-ck that is, we get back to a time when tours can happen, when live performances can happen. If there’s a new docuseries about this process (he’s already released two this year), I hope they give more of a deep dive into this part of it: the step-by-step strategy of his return to performing.

JB’s two solo songs then led to his joint performance with Shawn Mendes and their new song “Monster”.As Cody wrote last week, it’s a jam. I do like it. But … is there a reason they don’t interact at all?! In the video they barely acknowledge each other. Last night on stage, it could have been two holographs singing on a raised cube because I don’t even think they made eye contact. Cody talked about the lack of chemistry between the two last week – and obviously, it’s intentional, for them not to get into each other’s space during this song, but it feels kinda weird, at least to me. Because the whole point of “Monster” is that these two can relate to each other on specifically that level, of being so famous and misunderstood under a microscope, and then to see them behave like they’re strangers when this is specifically where they intersect…

It’s incongruous, non?