Don Toliver had a lineup of special guests, including Justin Bieber, James Blake, and Kali Uchis, for his trap singer set on Saturday night at Rolling Loud California.
Despite performing only two weeks after the release of his latest album “Love Sick”, Toliver brought the three guest singers to perform their collaborative album tracks live. Blake started with “Let Her Go”, followed by Uchis who performed the live debut of “4 Me”. Finally, Bieber joined for a rendition of “Private Landing” without Future.
Bieber’s appearance at Rolling Loud California was a surprise, as it was his first public performance since September 2022, when he performed at Brazil’s Rock in Rio.
This was unexpected, as just a few days prior, he had cancelled his long-postponed Justice World Tour with around 80 shows remaining.
In June 2022, Bieber had initially announced that he would be taking a break from performing, one month after the start of his tour, due to his Ramsay-Hunt syndrome diagnosis, which had left his face partially paralyzed. As a result, he had cancelled a dozen shows on the North American leg of the tour at that time.
“Earlier this year, I went public about my battle with Ramsay Hunt syndrome, where my face was partly paralyzed,” Bieber wrote in a statement at the time. “As the result of this illness, I was not able to complete the North America leg of the Justice Tour.” Still, he traveled to Europe and performed six shows as well as a set at Rock in Rio before deciding that the strain was too much on his body.
“After getting off stage, the exhaustion overtook me and I realized that I need to make my health the priority right now,” he explained. “So I’m going to take a break from touring for the time being. I’m going to be ok, but I need time to rest and get better.”