There was a time 10 years ago when no one seemed more inaccessible than The Weeknd, a mysterious new musician whose name was unknown, dropping unworldly and intimate music online that soon grew into his first trilogy of mixtapes. Now, in the time that most of the world has retreated into social distance, it seems fitting that our most initially reclusive popstar would take the spotlight on the grandest stage of them all—the Super Bowl halftime show.
Not to say that Abel Tesfaye is the same musician he was when he was slowly coming out of the shadows in Toronto, Canada, catching the eye of Drake at his first live shows. The Weeknd is now one of the must universally respected pop stars, both topping charts and critic’s year end lists, with “Blinding Lights” off his latest studio album After Hours (2020) approaching 2 billion streams on Spotify.
If anyone could pull off a half-time show that was just weird enough to be interesting and grand enough to unite the hundreds of millions watching on TV and online, it’s the Weeknd, who just turned in what may very well be a career-defining performance, and the best the show has seen since Prince played the show in 2007, with apologies to Beyoncé.
me trying to follow the hostess to my table at the Cheesecake Factory pic.twitter.com/mhB6LKCIiF
— Conor Ryan (@ConorRyan_93) February 8, 2021
The artist has, for the last year, been telling the twisted story that unfolds in his last album visually through his award show appearances and social media, appearing in a red coat and black shirt, now the trademark look of this era for the musician in the same way that Ziggy Stardust and the Thin White Duke were for David Bowie in the 1970s, appearing in facial bandages through numerous public appearances. A photo of him in what looked to be post extreme plastic surgery, in promotion of one of the album’s singles, also turned out to be a stunt using prosthetics.
what my friends see in their ring doorbell when I show up to their house #superbowl #PepsiHalftime pic.twitter.com/MgiYyf6SnH
— Ashley Flanagan (@ashleyflanny) February 8, 2021
“The significance of the entire head bandages is reflecting on the absurd culture of Hollywood celebrity and people manipulating themselves for superficial reasons to please and be validated,” he told Variety recently.
The halftime show embraced that narrative, with the singer trapped in a golden maze, looking lost, scared and manic, all while singing directly into the camera. As the performance unfolded, he was joined by face bandaged dancers who seemed inspired by Jordan Peele’s modern horror hit Us (2019), more and more as the show moved from the stands to the field of Tampa’s Raymond James stadium, with dancers sometimes dancing in unison, sometimes freely, giving the most tightly choreographed performance of the year a feeling of improvisation and experimentation.
All the while, The Weeknd used the most impressive weapon at his disposal, his voice, singing through the top hits of his career including “Starboy”, “Can’t Feel My Face,” and culminating in the 80s synth pop heights of “Blinding Lights”.
The performance was instantly the most memed thing on the internet, with fans taking his moment trapped in a golden maze to stand in for everything from being whisked through the halls of the Cheesecake Factory to the manic look your pizza rolls must see as you stare at them through the microwave.
The Weeknd has long been both a showman and a true artist, and while the Super Bowl has long been a better home for the former than the latter, the best find a way to do both. The Weeknd just did that, to tremendous results.
And for those looking to revisit, here is Prince’s classic performance:
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