Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, and Hailey Baldwin all teamed up on Twitter to call out Morgan Stewart, a Rich Kids of Beverly Hills alum turned commenter on E!'s Nightly Pop show, who made fun of Bieber's Coachella performance of 'Sorry' with Grande.
Stewart, on the show, talked about how the song seemed to start before his mouth started moving. 'I did not realize it was going to be that bad,' she said of his performance.
Bieber responded to Stewart directly on his Twitter account. In a series of tweets, he wrote to her:
@Morgan_Stewart just saw a video of you ripping me to shreds saying I was lip-syncing. They played the song and i just sang overtop of it.. regardless why spend your time tearing people down. It’s People like you that are bullies at school that are making kids suicidal. 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. What hurts about this is the fact that you have a platform to make a difference and rather than being positive you belittle people. Think about how awesome it felt for me to be on that stage after being away for so long the excitement and joy it gave me doing the thing i love the most, i sang to to backtrack like most cameos do this is a normal thing, and rather than try and make people feel accepted and loved you find things to pick apart like the world isn’t full of that already.. we can find something negative to say about anything or anyone. When are we gonna be the kind of people that find joy in adding value to one another and not tearing each other apart..
Here's the full clip of Stewart's critique, for context:
Bieber wasn't the only person to respond to the controversy. Grande jumped in too, explaining his appearance was really last minute, and that there hadn't been any rehearsals.
She first responded to a video of the clip, writing, "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 shit like this lmao."
Then she retweeted Bieber's tweet to Stewart about her belittling people, providing extra context about his performance prep. "We also decided to do this ten minutes before my set started. we had 0 soundcheck, 0 rehearsal. 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."
Bieber's wife Hailey Baldwin retweeted Grande's tweet about the concert prep, adding a heart to it.
Grande wasn't done, though. She wrote a sweet message to Bieber, which read: "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."
Grande also explained why she was taking the time to tweet about the situation. "I don’t like when people try to ruin beautiful moments for my friends that’s all. have a good day," she wrote to her followers.
She concluded on a note that is probably relatable to anyone who's encountered trolls on the internet. "Twitter wild," she wrote. "I love the cycles of forgetting how wild twitter is and then logging on for a few minutes, being reminded and then forgetting it exists and living my real life again so much."
Stewart has not responded to the controversy yet.
Alyssa Bailey is the senior news and strategy editor at ELLE.com, where she oversees coverage of celebrities and royals (particularly Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton). She previously held positions at InStyle and Cosmopolitan. When she's not working, she loves running around Central Park, making people take #ootd pics of her, and exploring New York City.
