Usher is our Super Bowl LVIII halftime performer. But do we have any idea what that will look like?
The NFL announced that, this February, hip-hop and R&B superstar, Usher, would be performing on America’s biggest stage: the Super Bowl halftime show. The eight-time Grammy-award-winning singer will join the growing list of halftime performers associated with the talent label Roc Nation, including Rihanna, Dr. Dre, The Weeknd, and Shakira and Jennifer Lopez, who shared the stage together in 2019.
The halftime show isn’t just a treat for football fans. It’s a special event for all audiences to enjoy, regardless of their interest in the game. According to Fox, last year Rihanna garnered more viewers for her halftime show performance than the actual football game, proving why every year the headliner has to be the perfect pick.
The event is such a high privilege; halftime show performers carry the expectation to rock the world and top what has already been done. But it’s a hard task to please everybody — the expectations from viewers watching for the game itself could be different from a viewer watching for the music. Everyone has different preferences. So what exactly do fans of both worlds want out of Usher’s performance?
Nick Wozny, a sports content creator and former Franklin Post journalist, will be with his friends and family on Super Bowl Sunday to watch the big game, as well as the performance. “[The show] means a lot to football fans,” Wozny says. “[Fans] sit around and they commit some focus to the performance whether they were planning on it or not.” Wozny has witnessed a lot of superstars give their best shot at the big stage; his favorite being his celebrity crush — Beyoncé — who was mistakenly accused of shutting down the stadium’s power with her electrifying performance in 2013.
Although he’s not too familiar with his music, Wozny understands Usher’s background and the reputation he has in the music industry as an “old-school” artist. He believes that his throwback sound is something to take advantage of. “Honestly, I’d love to see a throwback performance,” Wozny says. “In today’s world it’s so easy to get caught up in trying to be new and trendy, and I’m all here for creativity. But there is a lot of beauty in the nostalgic, old-school type of approach as well.”
Everybody expects to witness a great show at the Super Bowl. But what procedures are taken behind the scenes to make sure everything goes right? We see and hear about the star of the show, but not everybody understands how small the margin of error is for everyone involved, both on and off of the stage.
Sonia Kellermann, the artistic director of Dance at Franklin, is as experienced as they come in stage performance, and understands what it takes to put on a great performance. “It is very complicated work that the performers are doing. They’re managing a lot of math, they’re managing a lot of geometry, and they’re doing it with very little visual feedback,” Kellerman explains. “So it’s bright lights, it’s hot, it’s loud, you’re looking out into darkness. It’s really hard what they’re doing, so I’m always impressed.”
With Usher having such a wide variety of hit songs, with everything from upbeat club records like “Yeah!” to slow jams like “U Got It Bad,” fans are wondering what his setlist will look like. How will he hype up millions of football fans on Super Bowl Sunday? Kellerman describes all setlist choices as the same “narrative structure” that you’re taught in an English class. “Watch the order of any show … you always have a beginning, middle, and end.” Kellerman explains, “You have the introduction of the characters and then the conflict … it’s going to go up, then it’ll come down, then it will end up. It can’t go flat, it can’t be up the entire time.”
The lights will hit bright on one of the biggest stages for both American sports and music on Sunday, Feb. 11. Usher plans to release his ninth upcoming studio album “Coming Home” on Feb. 9, two days before he performs at the Super Bowl. Until then, you can prepare yourself by relistening to the R&B star’s classic throwbacks.
