Usher is headlining the Super Bowl halftime show next month, and he’s got big plans for what will ultimately amount to 13 minutes onstage in front of 1 billion people.
“It has to be perfect,” Usher tells Vogue. “I’ve been doing this for 30 years. I want people who have been a part of that journey to feel like it’s a celebration for everybody, for all of us, from the beginning up until this point.”
According to Usher, the show will feature skating, choreography, at least one major costume change and, unlike Rihanna‘s show last year, special guests. “This night was specifically curated in my mind to have R&B take the main stage,” he says. So, as Vogue reports, he’s bringing in people who represent “not just R&B music, but R&B performance, R&B connection, R&B spirit.”
Usher also says he wants everyone in the audience to feel as though he’s personally serenading them.
“I want them to feel something, and feel my passion, my love, feel like I was the right person to sit in this position, and I was the right person to bring this kind of energy and love and connection to the entire world,” he explains.
“People will tune in for a football game, but I hope when they look at that halftime performance, I’m hoping they walk away with something that’s healing them,” he adds. “Something that makes them feel hopeful, and not just look at the past, but have hope for the future, and have hope for a different type of future than we’re looking at right now in the present.”
It’s a tall order, but you can see if Usher pulls it off on February 11, when Super Bowl 58 airs live from Allegiant Stadium in Nevada on CBS.
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