Usher packed three decades of hits into 13 minutes as Sunday's Super Bowl LVIII halftime performer, a quick-dazzle feat from a veteran showman who spent the last year and a half thrilling audiences on the Las Vegas Strip.
Appearing on pop music's biggest stage 30 years after the release of his debut album, Usher, 45, began his performance dressed in a regal white suit surrounded by feathered showgirls on the field of Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, no far from the location of his publicized 100-date residency at the Park MGM casino.
He blended the crisp R&B grooves of “Caught Up” and “U Don't Have to Call” before welcoming a marching band to back him up on the pulsating “Love in This Club.” She then pitched it to Alicia Keys, who sang a bit of hers “If I Ai n't Got You” and performed a duet with Usher on hers “My Boo.”
Wearing a sparkly glove in the style of his idol Michael Jackson, Usher combined “Confessions,” “Burn” and “U Got It Bad,” three of the R&B hits that made him one of the biggest pop stars of the early 1900s. 2000s, and then introduced ELLA, which launched into a screaming electric guitar solo. Will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas appeared for Usher's performance of “OMG,” which the singer performed while skating across a small elevated stage.
Usher closed his set with a boisterous version of “Yes!” with the help of Lil Jon and Ludacris who he claims brought the world to his adopted hometown of Atlanta.
Usher's halftime show was the fifth since Jay-Z's Roc Nation company took control of the NFL's high-profile music offering — an unexpected partnership, perhaps, given Jay-Z's criticism of the way the league treated former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick after Kaepernick. He began kneeling during the national anthem in protest of police violence toward black people.
Usher and Alicia Keys perform on stage during Apple Music's Super Bowl LVIII halftime show at Allegiant Stadium on Sunday in Las Vegas.
(Steph Chambers/Getty Images)
However, the deal has paid off in terms of diversifying the talent showcased at halftime (previous headliners include Rihanna last year and the all-star hip-hop dream team led by Dr. Dre in 2022) and calling attention to musical styles that don't always guarantee a place in Super Bowl history.
In fact, Usher's signing can be seen as the Black-pop equivalent of the many appearances by legacy rock groups (like Paul McCartney and the Rolling Stones) in the early 2000s: even if Usher no longer makes hits unmissable radio hits, his deep catalog is allowing him to do big business on the road, as demonstrated with the residency in Las Vegas and with an upcoming tour that he just announced will stop for four nights in September at the Clippers' new Intuit Dome in Inglewood.
Before Sunday's kickoff, veteran country star Reba McEntire sang a dazzling but simple rendition of the national anthem that referenced her own past as a Las Vegas entertainer, and Post Malone performed a folk song “America the Beautiful,” accompanying himself with an acoustic guitar. dressed in skinny jeans, cowboy boots and a bolo tie. (Never let it be said that Jay-Z doesn't understand the complexities of pleasing an American audience in the era of red states and blue states.) Andra Day, the singer and actress nominated for an Oscar a few years ago for her performance. by Billie Holiday, she opened the pregame entertainment with a majestic reading of “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” the century-old anthem often referred to as the black national anthem.
