It might be too late to say, “Sorry.” Ariana Grande defended her duet with Justin Bieber at the 2019 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival after Morgan Stewart criticized his surprise performance.
Stewart, 30, called out the “What Do You Mean?” singer, 25, for lip-synching when he jumped on stage with Grande, also 25, to sing his song “Sorry” at the music festival on Sunday, April 21. The Rich Kids of Beverly Hills alum noted on a recent episode of E!’s Nightly Pop: “I did not realize it was gonna be that bad. He definitely looks like he put an OXY pad on that forehead, but I don’t care. That is f–ked up!”
The Canadian crooner fired back at the reality television personality on social media, and the “7 Rings” songstress jumped in to stand up for her friend as well. Grande tweeted at a fan on Wednesday, April 24: “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 s—t like this lmao.”
The Scream Queens alum also replied to one of Bieber’s tweets in which he slammed Stewart for her words. “We also decided to do this ten minutes before my set started. we had 0 soundcheck, 0 rehearsal,” Grande noted. “U were singing with the back tracking like most cameos do. people are bored. people don’t know how it feels to be under such scrutiny. the world was happy to have u on stage again.” Hailey Bieber (née Baldwin), The Biebs’ wife, retweeted Grande’s note and added a red heart emoji.
The former Nickelodeon star also agreed with a Twitter user who said the TV host “wants attention” and added, “People are so lost. one day everybody that works at all them blogs will realize how unfulfilled they are and purposeless what they’re doing is and hopefully shift their focus elsewhere. that’s gonna be a beautiful ass day for them! i can’t wait for them to feel lit inside.”
Grande also replied to Justin’s post-Coachella tweet in which he said the gig “felt right.” She gushed, “Circling back. your fans, friends&the world is thrilled to have you back. everyone was so happy to see u smile like that. no one will ever understand how it feels to be u, but it’s not their job to. take care. make music. u are loved. p.s. everyone in that video will b streaming.”
Earlier on Wednesday, the “Baby” musician wrote to Stewart directly on Twitter and said, “Imagine if you spent even half the time you spend laughing at other peoples expense actually building people up and encouraging people how much positivity you could bring.”
The former YouTube star asked Stewart to “think about how awesome it felt for [him] to be on that stage after being away for so long” and encouraged her to build people up instead of tearing them down. He questioned, “When are we gonna be the kind of people that find joy in adding value to one another and not tearing each other apart..”
