Donned in his signature red sparkly suit jacket, The Weeknd (a.k.a. Abel Tesfaye) kicked off his performance at the Pepsi Super Bowl LV Halftime Show with a sultry and chilling bang—and lots of pyrotechnics.
The Grammy Award-winning singer performed a medley of his chart-topping hits, including “I Feel It Coming,” “Can’t Feel My Face,” and “Blinding Lights,” along with a special nod from his compilation album Trilogy.
To open the performance, The Weeknd was accompanied by a full choir and instrumentalists, who wore the same red suit jackets and sported red-eyed masks. With a city landscape that resembled the Las Vegas strip as their backdrop, the singer opened the show with a performance of “Starboy” and “The Hills.”
The “Starboy” then moved into a mirrored room decked out in lights (giving off the same artistic feel as his music video for “Blinding Lights”) for “Can’t Feel My Face” as bandaged performers stumbled around him.
For “I Feel It Coming,” the singer moved back onto the city landscape as more fireworks went off into the distance and a full moon shined above him. At this point, the choir and instrumentalists have removed their masks and are in sparkled black jackets as the “Starboy” goes on to sing “Save Your Tears” from his most recent album, After Lights.
Moving onto the lead single of the Fifty Shades of Grey Soundtrack, the Toronto-born singer performed “Earned It,” with a full strings section and a long-belted note, he quickly built up the suspense for his closing of the show.
The Weeknd ended the show by strutting onto the football field as “House of Balloons/Glass Table Girls” played in the background, an obvious token to his fans, before he jumped into his disco-pop hit “Blinding Lights,” as his red-suited bandaged performers energetically danced around him.
Now, you’re probably wondering why The Weeknd didn’t have a guest performer as many other halftime show headliners usually have, but the singer told the NFL Network earlier this week that although he had been reading a lot of rumors regarding this, “There wasn’t any room to fit it in the narrative, in the story I was telling in the performance. So yeah. There’s no special guests.”
The singer is typically known for his story-telling performances and musical releases, which has become quite obvious with his most recent album, so it’s no surprise that he was going to do the same for his Pepsi halftime show. Not to mention the fact that he also used $7 million of his own money towards the stage production for exactly that purpose.
Overall, between the stage sets, lighting, choir, performers, and even attire, we think that the Weeknd put on a stellar performance as far show production goes.
What about you? What were your favorite parts from the 2021 Super Bowl halftime show? Leave us a reaction below and send us a tweet with your thoughts at @celebsecrets!
