On Sunday, February 11th, Usher took the stage at the Apple Music Super Bowl half-time show in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Super Bowl was against the San Francisco 49ers and the Kansas City Chiefs. The game ended with the Chiefs scoring the winning touchdown seconds before overtime ended.
Before Usher took the stage, the show opened with a screen graphic warning viewers that the show was “Rated U” and may cause singing, dancing, sweating, gyrating, and possible relationship issues. The camera focuses on Usher while he’s dressed in all white with a long cloak decorated in ornate jewels. Usher dazzled the crowd by opening the show with his song Caught Up, while accompanied by a marching band and dancers in Mardi Gras-esque outfits. He continued his performance with the song You Don’t Have to Call, during which he speaks into the camera and says “And if you do call, know that God answers prayers. They said I wouldn’t make it. They said I wouldn’t be here today. But I am. Hey Momma, we made it. Now this, this is for you”. With that, he swiftly transitioned into his songs Superstar and Love in this Club.
During Love in this Club, he is joined by two dancers while the marching band plays along effortlessly. The camera then pans to the first musical guest of the night, Alicia Keys. She sits at a red abstract piano as she performs part of her song If I Ain’t Got You while wearing a red body suit covered in gems, as a huge red cape ripples behind her. Usher joins in at the end of the song, and the pair seamlessly go into their song My Boo, which they both were featured on in 2004. Before Usher begins his next song, the camera focuses on Jermaine Dupri while he talks about how it is the 20th anniversary of the album Confessions and instructs the audience to put one hand in the air and bounce.
Usher walks across the stage, he starts singing the chorus of Confessions Part II. The stage around him transforms into the face of a clock and the crowd behind him becomes a wave of lights and sings a snippet of Nice & Slow. He promptly transitions into Let it Burn showing off his talented vocals, as the stage engulfs him in flames. The show continues with H.E.R. coming onto the stage and accompanying Usher for a performance of U Got it Bad. She shreds on guitar and becomes the sole focus of the show for a brief moment. As the next song starts, dancers on roller-skates rolled onto the stage, dancing around H.E.R, while Bad Girl plays in the background.
will.i.am takes the stage shortly after to perform OMG, while Usher swiftly skates onto the stage in a sparkly black and blue outfit. The dancers, also on roller skates, join Usher in an impressive routine while the stage transformed into a show of geometric patterns. The camera suddenly changes angles and is fixated on a large crowd on the floor of the arena, in which Lil Jon pops up and starts performing his song Turn Down for What. The crowd is ecstatic, as they jump around to the 2013 smash hit.
The music abruptly switches to the final song of the night, Yeah!. Usher is joined on stage by dancers as they do their last routine and wait for the final guests to appear. Lil Jon makes his way to the main stage as the song continues. The camera then focuses on Ludacris, as he raps his verse in the song, while wearing black football pads and a sparkly blue under shirt, matching the other performers. The angle switches once again, this time to a bird’s eye view to show the marching band had formed to spell out Usher’s name. The three performers joined side by side at the very front of the stage to round off the show. The half-time show ended with a massive amount of background dancers on stage along with Usher, Lil Jon, Ludacris, will.i.am, and Jermaine Dupri.
Overall, the Super Bowl LVIII half-time show was one of the best performances for the big game in the last few years. The outfits, dancers, musical guests, and of course Usher, all helped contribute to an amazing and memorable performance. This show has definitely raised the bar for future half-time shows to come. If you’d like to see more from Usher, he just released tour dates to a four month long U.S headlining tour.
In case you missed the show, here is the link to his performance: https://youtu.be/7hYbrdC_-s8?si=pu0ca0tRdVttXF98
Find Usher here: https://www.instagram.com/usher/
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