The Weeknd, Cyrus bring pop power to game
The opinions on social media were instantaneous after The Weeknd’s Super Bowl LV halftime performance: It was great. It was terrible. It was boring. You’re old because you think it’s boring.
Actually, it was just great to see someone performing onstage in front of a live crowd. Even if it was from the living room for most of us.
The pandemic has brought most live concerts to a standstill. No outdoor festivals. No high-wattage tours. No RodeoHouston. Maybe that’s why The Weeknd’s performance was relatively free of frills in comparisons to past halftime shows. There were no leaps from the roof or meme-able left sharks. Just a spectacular cityscape backdrop. The artist, whose real name is Abel Tesfaye, last performed in Houston twice in 2017.
The Weeknd took the massive stage swathed in red light, dressed in the red blazer that’s marked his “After Hours” album era. A chorus of red-eyed robots set an ominous mood. The stage, which is usually rolled onto the 50-yard line, was positioned at the end of the stadium.
The setlist was predictably packed with his hits, which veer among several moods. “Starboy” and “The Hills” on the big stage gave way to “Can’t Feel My Face” inside a funhouse set of mirrors and dancers in bandage masks that were in line with his extensive album campaign. He’s appeared bandaged, bloodied and bruised for more than a year, which he told Variety “is reflecting on the absurd culture of Hollywood celebrity and people manipulating themselves for superficial reasons to please and be validated.”
There were snippets of “I Feel it Coming” and “Save Your Tears” before a magnificent version of “Earned It” that soared on his vocals. At times, The Weeknd’s ease with a lyric recalls Michael Jackson. He bounded onto the field, again surrounded by dancers, for his colossal hit, “Blinding Lights,” a song that has spent almost a year in Billboard’s Top 10.
The Weeknd may have gotten the big stage. But Miley Cyrus fired up Super Bowl weekend before the game even started.
Cyrus performed Sunday afternoon for 7,500 health care workers on an outdoor stage in Tampa, Fla., as the centerpiece of the NFL’s TikTok Tailgate. It was a fun, emotional set that featured several tracks from her “Plastic Hearts” album and lots of ’80s throwbacks.
“We’re together listening to live music,” Cyrus told the crowd. “Can you believe it?”
She kicked off with the anthemic “Hey Mickey,” wearing a black and pink leather cheerleader outfit. Billy Idol and Joan Jett, who are both featured on the “Plastic Hearts” album, made surprise appearances. Cyrus joined Idol for his “Rebel Yell” and Jett for “Bad Reputation” and “I Hate Myself for Loving You.”
Cyrus has impressive lung power — a clip of her doing vocal work on a treadmill recently went viral — and she’s equally adept at wringing feeling out of any song. She dug deep into Blondie’s “Heart of Glass.” She honored “fairy godmother” Dolly Parton with an impassioned “Jolene.” And she raged through Nine Inch Nails’ “Head Like a Hole,” a song Cyrus covered for the series “Black Mirror.”
Cyrus blended her own “Midnight Sky,” one of 2020’s best songs, with Stevie Nicks’ “Edge of Seventeen.” Originals “Prisoner” and “Angels Like You” fit seamlessly with so many classics.
She wrapped up by powering through some of her biggest hits, including “We Can’t Stop” and a still-ebullient “Party in the U.S.A.” She got teary during “Wrecking Ball,” visibly affected by the song’s heart-wrenching lyrics. And she can still wring earnest emotion out of “The Climb,” a “Hannah Montana”-era hit.
“Next time, when y’all think of football, I want you to think of me,” Cyrus told the crowd before leaving the stage.
I’m calling it now. Cyrus for the 2022 halftime show.