Kevin Mazur/Getty Photos for TW
Even Daniel Craig would agree: The Weeknd no longer ceaselessly needs an introduction. On one amongst the sphere’s greatest phases Sunday night time (February 7), at the Gargantuan Bowl LV halftime indicate, he demonstrated why.
In a profession-spanning place that bounded from his early pop hits to his recent smashes, Abel Tesfaye embraced his web page as a world pop megastar by way of an intricate, multi-segment spectacle centered around his imaginative and prescient. Finally, in expose to drag that off, it be valuable to personal the songs. And Abel has them, as he showcased, origin with a red blazer-decorated quit on the Las Vegas strip, total with a beefy choir of gorgeous angels summoning him onto the discipline.
“Starboy,” naturally, became his introduction, and he delivered the tune with shades in hand in entrance of his quite mechanized gorgeous legion of specters. The gorgeous eyes rapidly gave attain to precise faces as they eradicated their masks in time for “The Hills,” which exploded with neon energy and a strip of fireworks. Then, he peaced out within the support of the scenes, introducing the dizzying visual trip of the After Hours era that predates it: 2015’s “Can’t Feel My Face.”
After a motion sickness-inducing romp thru a hallway of mirrors, The Weeknd disappeared into a maze of dancers dressed precisely treasure him — moreover with bandaged faces, a observe he had beforehand opted into. By the point he returned to the discipline for “I Feel It Coming,” so did more fireworks, and it rather looked treasure Abel became using on the cease of the sphere. Perfect to his observe, he refrained from the violence of the blood-dripping duvet of After Hours, as a replacement aiming to “preserve it PG,” as he mentioned in a pregame press convention final week.
It became a efficiency that felt larger than existence, utilizing a grandstand to compare the peak of his catalogue and the sheer different of bodies it took to drag it off. By the point he cruised by “Attach Your Tears” and “Earned It,” the vibe had decided turned more stately, with a string part and a spotlight highlighting the emotionality of the second.
When Tesfaye closed in on the mammoth finale, his squadron of bandaged clones took the discipline for a dance destroy sooner than segueing in to the pure snowy, glitzy bliss of “Blinding Lights.” how definite halftime presentations feels confined to the stage on the discipline? Yeah, this one felt treasure the different, with dancers on reputedly every yard line, spaced out to comprise the total stadium as white explosions crested overhead. At the center, naturally, became Abel himself, singing straight into the camera.
For an artist whose profession started within the shadows, launching intrigue with instantaneous-classic mixtapes from Toronto, The Weeknd would’ve looked an enigmatic different for a Gargantuan Bowl halftime performer most attention-grabbing just a few years ago. Nonetheless from the origin, the producer-singer crafted a path that aligned him with the most attention-grabbing artists of the day — Drake, Kanye West, Lana Del Rey — and allowed him to withhold reinventing himself, as pop juggernauts incessantly quit.
Nothing became bolder than his reintroduction in unhurried 2019 to initiate the scamper to After Hours, his fourth studio album complemented by a hallucinogenic, incessantly violent visual treatment chopped up all over his tune videos. It became also the negate probability for the singer trot deeper into his comprise tips as he shot once more up the charts, again partnering with Max Martin for one amongst the most attention-grabbing smashes of the unhurried 2010s.
Making that a fact required a staggeringly in-your-face stylistic attain, visually, one thing Tesfaye became fervent to continue at some stage within the indicate. As such, he spent a reported $7 million of his comprise cash to manufacture it occur. He cited Diana Ross’s 1996 efficiency at Gargantuan Bowl XXX, which culminated with her exiting the discipline in a helicopter, as a milestone for him in my opinion. “I wish I believed of that,” he stated at the click convention with a wry smile, “nevertheless I create no longer agree with I essentially manage to pay for.”
Having slain the Gargantuan Bowl halftime indicate, he’s searching ahead to a world tour place to kick off in 2022. Unless that point, relive your complete beauty within the support of the insanity of The Weeknd’s Gargantuan Bowl halftime indicate above.
Source:
Females And Gents, The Weeknd
