The Kansas City Chiefs and the Tampa Bay Buccanneers are going head-to-head in the Super Bowl on Sunday, February 7, but we’re far more excited about The Weeknd taking the stage for the Pepsi Super Bowl LV Halftime Show!
The artist, whose real name is Abel Tesfaye, is famous for his hits “Blinding Lights,” “Starboy,” “Earned It,” “Often,” and “Can’t Feel My Face,” among many, many more. However, there’s a chance he’ll look a little different than you remember him during the 2021 performance at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa Bay, Florida. While promoting his After Hours album throughout 2020, he often appeared with a bruised and bandaged face. Most recently while debuting his “Save Your Tears” video, he showed off a dramatic plastic surgery look created with prosthetics and makeup. It’s unclear if that’s how he’ll look at the big game.
While it would be tough for anyone to follow Jennifer Lopez and Shakira‘s incredible performance from 2020, The Weeknd is going above and beyond to ensure fans get a next-level incredible show. Pepsi and the NFL will be fronting the costs of the production, as always, but Abel’s manager Wassim “Sal” Slaiby revealed to Billboard that he voluntarily put up $7 million of his own money to “make this halftime show be what he envisioned.”
“[The Weeknd has] always had the Super Bowl on our bucket list,” added his other manager Amir “Cash” Esmailian. “We’ve always had timelines for all of our goals. It came a few years earlier than we expected.”
“We’ve been really focusing on dialing in on the fans at home and making performances a cinematic experience, and we want to do that with the Super Bowl,” said The Weeknd, noting the stadium will be a lot more empty than past years due to the coronavirus pandemic. So what will that look like, exactly? For now, the team is keeping the details of the performance, including any potential guest performers, under wraps.
We wouldn’t be surprised to see The Weeknd’s performance become one of the most iconic in Super Bowl history, and join the list of greatest halftime shows of all time.
In the meantime, scroll through the gallery below to see the best Super Bowl halftime shows from years past.