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Justin Bieber Performs Boyfriend on The Voice: Not His Finest Moment

Delivering on his promise to Carson Daly, Justin Bieber performed his hit single Boyfriend live on The Voice for the first time, but the young pop star appeared to be nervous

By Carina AMacKenzie /

Justin Bieber flanked by dancers while performing on live finale of The Voice

Justin Bieber’s first live performance of Boyfriend debuted on NBC’s The Voice, and it wasn’t a homerun

Listen, we love Justin Bieber as much as the next pop culture website, but we can’t pretend that his debut performance of “Boyfriend” was anything but painful. Bieber returned to The Voice for their big finale concert, hitting the stage for the first-ever televised performance of his latest single.

His dancing was as spot-on as ever, and he gets points for the studded jacket and gold sneakers, but the actual singing part of it wasn’t what we’d hoped for. Plus those whispered “swaggy” moments that are kind of fun in the radio version just seem really awkward in a live performance. What does that even mean?

We will say this: We’d prefer a shaky vocal over a lip-sync any day. (Looking at you, Chris Brown.) Still, on a show called The Voice, we’d have preferred that Biebs dial back the pop-and-lock in favor of the singing.

“Great time last night,” he tweeted about the performance. “Been a while since I’ve performed…felt good. and I’ve never done that song b4.”

What do you think of the performance? Watch it below.