Justin Bieber has made his first notable public appearance since headlining Coachella in April, stepping into the spotlight for a cause close to his heart, the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The 32-year-old singer attended the 2026 NHL Draft at the KeyBank Center in Buffalo, New York on June 26, joining his beloved hockey team to help announce their number one pick, Gavin McKenna.
Bieber was visibly delighted by the occasion, smiling throughout and speaking warmly of what the moment meant to him.
“What an incredible night,” he said. “The kid in me is ecstatic right now. I’ve been a Leafs fan since I was just a little boy. These nights are so special. I’m so thankful to be here.”
He followed up on social media the next day, sharing an Instagram post that described the experience as “an incredible opportunity” and expressed how honored he was to help draft McKenna, a forward who had played at Penn State.
For the occasion, Bieber wore a red Maple Leafs zip-up jacket with green pants and beige boots and posed for pictures with the newly selected player after his introduction.
The performance marks only his second major public outing in recent months, with Bieber keeping an unusually low profile even by his own increasingly private standards.
He skipped the Met Gala last month while his wife Hailey attended solo, and has generally stepped back from the limelight during this chapter of his life, which also includes fatherhood, with the couple’s son Jack Blues now 22 months old.
Hockey is apparently the exception to his quieter approach.
He made a similarly significant appearance at the 2024 NHL All-Star Draft at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, marking his first return to performing in two years following the cancellation of his Justice world tour.
That occasion led directly into his musical comeback with the releases of SWAG and SWAG IIculminating in his Coachella headline set earlier this year.
