![]() The Weeknd sampled the British postpunk group’s 1980 song “Happy House” for the song “High for This” on his debut mixtape, but here it was just an interlude leading into the finale, which of course was his 2019 smash, “Blinding Lights.” The Weeknd performs at the Super Bowl halftime showĭuring the brief interlude that segued into the final segment of the performance, dozens of millions of viewers were confronted with something that many wizening new wave fans would find almost impossible to imagine: hearing Siouxsie & the Banshees during the Super Bowl halftime performance. As the music segued quickly into his 2016 hit “I Can’t Feel My Face,” several dancers, wearing “After Hours” red suits and with their heads wrapped in bandages, appeared in the hallways as well, sometimes stumbling around in a disoriented fashion but also snapping to attention at times (the song, although from an earlier album, also created another layer of meaning for the bandages). He sang closely into the camera, which wobbled to create a disorienting effect. As the music segued quickly into his 2013 hit “The Hills,” the Weeknd went back into the brightly lit hallway behind the wall, which was filled with illuminated words - “Feel,” “Good,” “Nothing,” “Alone,” “Hours” (nothing is random in the Weeknd’s world). ![]() It joined several dozen dancers, seated further down the cityscape, who were all wearing billowing white robes and helmets with red lights for eyes.Īs his hit “Starboy” began, the two halves of the cityscape parted and the Weeknd emerged in a wash of bright lights while the dancers performed robotic moves to the song, looking like some kind of evil choir (and actually recalled the robots from the video for Herbie Hancock’s 1983 hit “Rockit”). As ominous choral music played, he got out and walked around the fake buildings, sitting down on a neon-lit platform as a huge, sinister-looking creature in a white robe with glowing red eyes was lowered from a point above him. The show opened with the Weeknd, dressed in a glittery version of his now-familiar “After Hours” red jacket and black pants, seated in a fake sports car at the top of the cityscape. The wall was lit up with signage and lights that recalled both the Las Vegas setting of many of the “After Hours” videos as well as the red-light-district-inspired stage set for the Weeknd’s tour behind his 2013 album “Kiss Land.” His band, led by musical director Oneohtrix Point Never (Daniel Lopatin), were arrayed across the top of the wall. It occupied an entire end of the stadium according to his manager, the Weeknd spent some $7 million of his own money on the performance. ![]() The performance centered around an enormous multi-level wall-like stage, designed as a neon-lit theatrical cityscape, assembled beneath the stadium’s giant video screen/scoreboard. ![]() And although he appeared in videos and TV performances late last year with his head swathed in bandages or with exaggerated plastic surgery - a visual statement he explained exclusively to Variety last week - he looked natural and sported just a mustache and a light beard, along with a pair of square sunglasses that he soon discarded. In the week leading up to the game, the Weeknd had said that his main stage would be located in the stands - although he would utilize the field as well - and that it would continue the cryptic bad-night-in-Las-Vegas storyline that has accompanied all of the videos and TV performances around his blockbuster latest album, “After Hours.” All of those things proved true (although the connection to the storyline was even more cryptic than ever), but references to previous albums were present as well. The Super Bowl Halftime show is the biggest stage on Earth for a musician, and the Weeknd made the most of his 12-odd minutes on Sunday night, delivering a tightly choreographed, technologically dazzling set that not only lived up to some of the most iconic performances of the past, it also touched on songs and images from all across his decade-long career - and he did it under strict pandemic restrictions, before a stadium that was approximately one-tenth full. ![]()
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