The Super Bowl is the most-watched sporting event of the year — and many times — there are non-football fans tuning in just for the halftime show.
This year, iconic R&B artist Usher will be taking the stage in Las Vegas.
The pop sensation confirmed there will be special guests joining him onstage during his upcoming Super Bowl halftime show. Which means, naturally, fans immediately began speculating about who the lucky artists might be.
Musicians often treat their Super Bowl halftime show as a 13-minute capstone course in their discography, filling the set list with tracks that span the arc of their career and creative evolution. It makes perfect sense, then, that the pop sensation may look to some of his previous collaborators to accompany him when the Kansas City Chiefs face off against the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday. That narrows our prime suspects down to the likes of Lil John, Ludacris, Beyoncé, Justin Bieber, and Alicia Keys.
The singer said as much in an interview with Entertainment Tonight,believing it would be foolish not to perform his 2004 hit single “Yeah!” with the featured artists who helped make it: Ludacris and Lil Jon, both of whom are local to Las Vegas. The Super Bowl artist himself has been living in Vegas of late, following the success of his Park MGM residency.
“I would be a fool to not play ‘Yeah!’” Usher said. “Let’s just start there. It would be foolish to make it all the way to Las Vegas—Jon is here, Luda’s her—and not play ‘Yeah!’”
During a press conference with Apple Music, the music icon confessed it was “a challenge to squeeze 30 years [of music] into 13 minutes.” He also shed light on his thought process in planning the show.
“I was very mindful of my past, celebrating my present—which is here in Las Vegas—and thinking about where we’re headed in the future,” he noted. “That was really the idea.”
Alicia Keys Revealed As Super Bowl Special Guest Joining Usher For Halftime Show
According to a report from TMZ on Friday, Alicia Keys will be a featured guest as part of the Super Bowl Halftime Show, in the latest development in the highly anticipated performance.
Sources close to the production confirm eyewitness accounts that Keys rehearsed with the R&B legend inside Allegiant Stadium on Thursday. Now that we know she’ll be in the mix — the first confirmed guest of his BTW — all signs pointing to them doing one big song together
The two artists teamed up for the 2004 hit “my boo” so it’s highly likely they play that at the Super Bowl.
The song topped the Billboard Hot 100 for 6 weeks when it came out — and became the soundtrack to high school slow dances worldwide. It’ll be interesting to see where the slow jam is included in the track list … but he’ll have plenty of time to squeeze it in.
Usher negotiated to have a 15-minute set as opposed to the originally allotted 13 minutes … ’cause it’s the only way he knows how to rock, it seems. Considering how many famous collaborators Usher has had over the years it makes sense he needs the extra time.
His Apple Music commercial to promote the big event also heavily featured his “Yeah!” collaborators Ludacris and Lil Jon. Most everyone assumes these two guys will also be special guests during his performance although, they technically haven’t confirmed yet.
Justin Bieber is another rumored special guest, but as of now, we now know Alicia Keys will be one of the special guests taking the stage with Usher for the halftime show. The Swifties are going to be letdown as there’s almost no chance Taylor Swift is going to perform. Kansas City Chiefs fans will be locked in hoping she helps lead the team to yet another win in the big game.