Well, at least Sunday’s People’s Choice Awards on E! were somewhat more socially distanced than last week’s Country Music Awards, though, to be fair, there are parts of Port Authority at rush hour that are more socially distanced than this year’s Country Music Awards. Still, you don’t need a live audience for that big performance feel.
To whit, Justin Bieber continued his string of awards show sets at Santa Monica’s Barker Hangar, kicking off his performance waiting at a bus stop for a bus that would never come (presumably because the stop was constructed inside a hangar) with a keyboard-playing Benny Blanco for his latest song “Lonely,†before segueing inside for a neon pink Christian phantasmagoria of a gospel-influenced “Holy.â€
Unfortunately, his “Holy†collaborator Chance the Rapper wasn’t there to perform with him, but Bieber did win the 2020 People’s Choice Award for Male Artist, which is exactly the kind of poignant “Lonely†situation Justin would get you misty with, before hitting you with that final “Holy†note.