Justin Bieber added a song to the background of his latest Instagram post featuring his wife, Hailey Bieber (née Baldwin) – prompting fans to speculate that it’s his response to news about Selena Gomez and Benny Blanco’s engagement.
The 30-year-old “Baby” singer shared two Instagram posts on Monday, December 16, both featuring songs that reflect on a past relationship. In the first update, Justin posted a collection of photos and videos from a recent trip he and the 28-year-old Hailey took to attend a friend's wedding. This included images of the couple together, solo shots, and scenic views.
The background music for this post was “The Dress” by Dijon, a song with nostalgic lyrics like, “We should go out and dance like we used to dance, we should go out and hold hands like lovers hold hands, and I can’t tell you who’s gonna last, well, maybe that’s a question and answer I don’t have.”
A post shared by Justin Bieber (@justinbieber)
The second post showed a single photo of Hailey kissing Justin on the cheek, with “All My Ghosts” by Lizzy McAlpine playing in the background. This choice of song further fueled fan speculation, as it contains lyrics specifically referring to an ex’s wedding: “I can see it now, the wedding of the year.”
I envision it clearly, him standing there wiping away his tears. I envision it clearly, as all my ghosts vanish, I see it vividly.
“But why that particular song?” a fan questioned in the comment section. Another remarked, “I was expecting a post like this. You're so predictable,” while someone else chimed in, “He’s like, ‘Damn, I got married and had a kid, but her engagement felt like a stab in the heart.’ That's crazy; you can see it in his eyes.”
Many fans also found the timing of Justin’s post unusual, as it closely followed Selena, 32, announcing her engagement. Before these two PDA-heavy posts, Justin had rarely been sharing personal photos on Instagram in recent months (he and Hailey welcomed their son, Jack, in August).
“Of course, he had to post something now,” one fan noted, adding a skull emoji. Another user commented, “We know why you posted this,” while someone else said, “Jokes aside, not being a Jelena fan ... why post these songs? He could have chosen not to post at all, but he shared these two songs about exes [sic].”
Selena and Justin had an on-and-off relationship from 2011 until 2018. During one of their breakup periods, he reconnected with Hailey and soon after, reconciled with the model once his relationship with Selena ended for good.
They announced their engagement in July 2018 and had a private wedding in September of the same year, followed by a larger celebration with family and friends a year later.
Simultaneously, Selena and Benny, aged 36, publicly acknowledged their relationship in December 2023. She disclosed that they had been dating for half a year at that point. The "Bad Liar" artist shared the news of Benny's proposal on December 11, and Hailey was among the 22 million people who "liked" the post.