The Super Bowl bet you didn’t hear about
Why the Weeknd spent 7 million on his Super Bowl halftime show
For most of us, the Super Bowl halftime show is a quick, fun moment that is quickly overshadowed by the second half of the football game that comes after. There might be some meme-able moments that appear online in the next couple days, but in the end most halftime performances are not much more than another commercial.
But for artists, the Super Bowl halftime show represents the biggest audience in the world, and in 2021, the Weekend wanted to maximize his exposure. In this time of Covid-19, the halftime show wasn’t able to operate like normal. Gone were the massive displays of dancers, but the Weeknd still desired an extravagant performance. He didn’t think the NFL’s 10 million budget was enough, so he decided to spend 7 million, (10% of his net worth) on his show.
However, the 7 million expense for the show might seem justified for the Weeknd as a way to cement his spot as one of the greatest musicians, a capstone to his musical career. The Weeknd first started making music in 2011 with his mixtape House of Balloons. However, it wasn’t until 2012 when his music career started blowing up, but the Weeknd still wasn’t ready for fame. Similar to many modern “faceless” celebrities, he declined to do any interviews and remained out of the limelight, choosing to wrap his face in bandages in public.
With the release of “Can’t Feel My Face” in 2015, he truly reached stardom, with his songs topping charts consistently. This is when he started to have a more public life, becoming a true celebrity with chart-topping hits like “Blinding Lights.” He has reached the top of the music world, with “Blinding Lights” becoming the first and only song to spend a year on the top 10 charts. This success may be why he chose to go all out on his multimillion dollar Super Bowl performance, trying to create an extravagant performance that will be immortalize his legacy.
The modern gaudy, commercialized halftime show wasn’t always this big. Up until 1993 it was more of a local event geared to people watching the game live. With the main attraction usually being a themed high school or college marching band, most viewers switched to another channel. The NFL changed this into the halftime show we have today with the introduction of one crucial factor: Headliners. The NFL completely changed the halftime show in 1993 by bringing Michael Jackson in, someone people at home would actually want to watch. This was the first time Super Bowl ratings went up after the halftime show, paving the way for the star-studded shows we have today.
It’s fitting then, that the 2021 halftime show was led by one of Michael Jackson’s biggest fans. The Weeknd is often compared to Jackson in both his sound and personality, and for good reason. In an interview, the Weeknd said that Jackson’s song “Dirty Diana” inspired his music career, later divulging that his addicting hooks and melodies are often based off ones made by Jackson. The similarities are also evident in the sometimes dark undertone of his lyrics. The Weeknd talks about things like drunk driving and drug use under the guise of a bright song, similar to how Jackson alluded to his problems with drugs in songs like “Morphine.”
We don’t know if the pressure of living up to Jackson’s legacy was the reason the Weeknd spent so much of his own money on the show, but many people compared his show to the original by Jackson. When the Weeknd came out on stage with an outfit that Jackson would wear, it was immediately evident that this performance was inspired by Jackson’s own over twenty years ago.
The performance had to be different in this time of COVID, with the Weeknd not being able to do a show that involves massive amounts of performers or any audience interaction. Instead, this performance was made more for TV than for the people in the stadium.
For the majority of the time, the Weeknd performed up top on a stage, far away from the spectators around him. He performed all of his most popular songs, but in a different way than most normal half time shows. Normally there’s a couple of artists from different genres that all perform a mix of their own and different songs, but this year it was all the Weeknd. He was the only performer, and instead of being out with the fans, much of the performance was actually out of view. I can’t speak to the experience for the people watching live, but it was an interesting take on the typical half time performance. Critics couldn’t reach a consensus on the overall grade of his performance, but every review ranging from the Chicago Tribune to Vulture criticized one thing: the staying power of the Weeknd’s performance.
The truth is, this half time show didn’t really feel like anything special. The Weeknd obviously wanted to make it a major experience, but it just felt like something was missing. Without the thousands of people, the performance just felt cold, bland, and unenergetic. Sure, the music was good and the performance was enjoyable, but will anyone remember it in a few months? The main buzz about it on the internet was just jokes making fun of the performance, not people writing about the deep emotional show the Weeknd wanted it to be.
However, visual and historical mediocrity doesn’t mean that the show was a financial failure for the Weeknd. With over 114 million people watching, a half-time performance is basically a massive ad.This is the first time most people watching had ever heard the Weeknd’s music, creating opportunities for millions of new fans to be made. With a simple thirty second ad costing over $5 million, it’s incredible that artists don’t pay the NFL to perform.
Even after only 13% of Twitter users had positive things to say about the show, the Weeknd’s sales went up over 186%, netting him millions of dollars. This was no fluke, as the Weeknd released a new Highlights greatest-hits album only two days prior to the Super Bowl, hoping to get people hooked on his most popular music. Streams don’t make much money, and the biggest thing for musicians to capitalize on is concerts. The Weeknd started selling tickets for his summer concerts the day of the Super Bowl, making the most of his time center stage. Those tickets sold out immediately, letting the Weeknd cash out his fame and publicity for real world money. Overall, it could have definitely been a better performance for viewers both at home and at the Super Bowl, but financially it was a win for the Weeknd.
