• Justin Bieber hit the Grammys stage for the first time since 2022, when he sang “Peaches” with Daniel Caesar and Giveon.
  • He performed his SWAG hit, “Yukon,” with nothing but boxers, a few instruments, and a loop pedal.
  • Grammy insiders reveal that his stripped look wasn’t initially part of his performance and that it was a last-minute decision.

R&Bieber—that is, Justin Bieber in his R&B bag—officially returned to the Grammys stage on Sunday, February 1, with a performance of his hit, “Yukon.” The SWAG singer was up for four awards, including Album of the Year, Best Pop Vocal Album, Best Pop Solo Performance, and Best R&B Performance.

The Biebs showed off his signature tattoos and vocal chops when he hit the stage wearing only boxers and a pink guitar. He played a few notes of the instruments surrounding him on stage before going in with a loop pedal for a laidback rendition of the fan-favorite song.

Fans praised him for the performance, which was stripped in more ways than one.

“Honestly for me. BEST performance of the night. He is an artist,” one person commented on the Grammys’ backstage footage of J.B., while another gave him kudos for the intention behind his stage presence.

“It was a conceptual living-room session, not a typical stage performance. The walk-off was intentional — he leaves as if the audience isn’t there, comes back to turn off the loop, and the final sound ends the piece,” they wrote, in part. “It’s the quiet exit of someone leaving their own space. It mirrors the creative direction of his album which was an intimate view into his home life. SPECTACULAR.”

However, Grammy insiders reveal that there apparently wasn’t much thought put into his return to the awards show. “I don’t think he decided what the outfit would be until he walked onstage,” the awards show’s executive producer, Ben Winston, said on the Rolling Stone Music Now podcast.

And, while every performer gets 90 minutes to rehearse, Justin was reportedly “happy with his self-looped performance…after a single run-through.”

Ben told the outlet, “He came to the stage, he did it once. It was brilliant. We are seven minutes into his hour-and-a-half rehearsal. And he goes, ‘How’d it look to you? You happy with it?’ And I was like, ‘Oh, my God. It looked beautiful. I loved it.’ And he went, ‘OK, fantastic. See you Sunday!’”

As Justin started to leave, Ben had requested to do another run-through so camera operators could learn their marks for the song, rounding his total rehearsal time to 15 minutes, total.

Somehow, we feel like this fully embodies the concept of SWAG. And we’re not mad at it!