Tremendous Bowl 2024: Usher guarantees to roller-skate throughout half-time efficiency

R&B singer Usher has promised to roller-skate throughout his Tremendous Bowl half-time present, in Las Vegas, on Sunday.

He would recreate a skating sequence that had change into a viral spotlight of his latest Vegas residency, he stated.

And the present can be a “crescendo” marking a “new starting” in his 30-year profession.

Earlier Tremendous Bowl half-time present performers embrace Katy Perry, Prince and Beyoncé.

However Usher would be the first impartial artist to take the stage, having left his earlier document label, RCA, to self-release his album, Coming House, this weekend.

Interviewed by Apple Music’s Nadeska Alexis, he ducked a number of questions on his setlist.

“It undoubtedly has been a problem to squeeze 30 years in to 13 minutes,” Usher stated, eyes hidden behind darkish sun shades.

He had been “very aware of my previous” and the “songs I really feel folks know me for”, in addition to iconic dance routines from his profession.

Requested about potential visitor performers, Usher hinted he can be joined by singers who featured “on songs that turned hit data”.

“That gave me the best level of reference,” stated the singer, whose collaborators embrace Beyoncé, Jay-Z, Alicia Keys and Lil’ Jon.

Usher will play on the Allegiant Stadium, because the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs tackle the San Francisco 49ers.

He follows Rihanna, who carried out the 2023 half-time present whereas pregnant, and 2022’s all-star workforce of Dr Dre, Kendrick Lamar, Mary J Blige, Snoop Dogg, Eminem and 50 Cent.

Usher himself has beforehand appeared on the Tremendous Bowl stage. As a particular visitor with the Black Eyed Peas, in 2011, he carried out a panoramic leap over will.i.am, touchdown within the splits.

Nation singer Reba McEntire will carry out America’s nationwide anthem. Submit Malone will sing America the Stunning. And Andra Day will conclude the pre-game live performance with Carry Each Voice and Sing, typically known as the black nationwide anthem. Whereas dance musician Tiesto would be the Tremendous Bowl’s first-ever in-game DJ.

Usher Raymond IV began singing in church in Tennessee on the age of 9. He joined a bunch known as NuBeginning a 12 months later and so they recorded an album in 1991, which solely got here out after Usher hit the large time.

After the household moved to Atlanta, Usher was noticed at expertise present and signed by LA Reid, the chief who additionally found TLC, Toni Braxton, and OutKast.

His first tune, Name Me A Mack, appeared on the soundtrack to the Tupac Shakur and Janet Jackson movie Poetic Justice when he was simply 15 years previous, however his debut album, produced by P Diddy, tanked.

He tried once more with producer Jermaine Dupri, who made his title working with Da Brat and Mariah Carey.

Collectively, they discovered a sound for Usher’s second album, My Approach, that mixed his buttery easy tenor with stuttering, hip-hop beats that allowed him to point out off his expertise as a dancer.

The primary single, You Make Me Wanna, was solely held off the US primary spot by Elton John’s tribute to Princess Diana, Candle within the Wind, in 1997. The follow-up, Good & Sluggish, made it to the highest, and Usher by no means regarded again.

Over the subsequent decade, he bought 80 million data worldwide, received eight Grammy Awards and scored 4 consecutive US quantity ones – Yeah, Burn, Confessions Pt II and My Boo – that are all-but-guaranteed to characteristic in his Tremendous Bowl efficiency.

The 2010s have been much less sort – the title of his eighth album Laborious II Love was unintentionally prophetic – however his fame as a stunning dwell performer remained.

After a stint as a decide on The Voice, he launched a Las Vegas residency in 2022, culminating in 100 bought out reveals and, in the end, the Tremendous Bowl.

Usher will take to the stage halfway by the Tremendous Bowl on Sunday.

The match will begin at 23:30 UK time (15:30 in Las Vegas). Relying on how the sport progresses, half-time will likely be about an hour-and-a-half or two hours into the motion. That places Usher’s efficiency at round 01:00-01:30 UK time (17:00-17:30 in Las Vegas).

Within the US, the match will likely be screened on CBS and streamed on Paramount+. Viewers within the UK can observe it on ITV1 and ITVX from 22:45.

If you happen to do not need to keep up and watch the live performance dwell, the NFL sometimes places the entire present on YouTube instantly after its broadcast.

The Tremendous Bowl is at all times the most-watched programme on US tv – and the half-time present recurrently pulls in additional viewers than the match itself.

Rihanna received the biggest-ever viewers in 2022, with 121 million folks tuning in. Even when the bookings aren’t as stellar – like Maroon 5 in 2019 – the viewership has been near 100 million.

The platform is so large that many performers, together with Rihanna, play for no charge.

Usher is certainly conscious of the chance – he is introduced a brand new album and a US tour to coincide along with his efficiency. Followers are already clamouring for UK dates.

It might have escaped your consideration, as a result of the media has barely talked about it, however Taylor Swift if at present courting Kansas Metropolis participant Travis Kelce.

She’s attended greater than 10 of his video games over the course of the season – however her attendance on the Tremendous Bowl is doubtful, as a result of she’s taking part in a live performance in Tokyo the evening earlier than.

Requested about her plans, Kelce stated Swift was “targeted on entertaining the group” in Japan and “ensuring she’s prepared for her performances”.

“However the Tremendous Bowl? We are going to simply fear about if she will be able to make it.”

The Japanese Embassy in Washington weighed in on the query – saying that, because of the time distinction between the US and Japan, Swift might make the 12-hour flight and “comfortably arrive in Las Vegas earlier than the Tremendous Bowl begins”.

In the meantime, right-wing conspiracy theorists have claimed the Tremendous Bowl has been “rigged” with a purpose to assist Swift (who has endorsed Democratic politicians) and Kelce (who appeared in adverts for Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine) clinch victory for Joe Biden within the forthcoming US presidential election.

The claims have been shot down by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, who stated: “The concept that is inside a script, that is pre-planned, is simply nonsense.”