His performance will clock in at 24-minutes total, twice the average time of previous halftime shows.
The Weeknd has had his most successful era by far after releasing his fourth album After Hours in the first half of 2020. He earned the biggest hit of his career with “Blinding Lights,” and he is continuing to reap the benefits of the album’s success, being tapped to perform at this year’s Super Bowl LV halftime show. If you’ve yet to experience The Weeknd’s new visage in all its glory, you will have 24 full minutes to witness it at his halftime performance.
Kevin Winter/Getty Images for dcp
The XO co-founder will perform at the coveted halftime show for double the time than the average amount for previous shows. The 24-minute runtime is even longer than his My Dear Melancholy EP, and clocks in closer to the time of a mini-concert. The Weeknd, aka Abel Tesfaye, will get more time to perform during the show because Pepsi, who sponsors the show, has cut down on its commercials during the game to make room for more performance time.
The pandemic also influenced the move, and with fewer people rallying together to tune in to the iconic commercials during the show, a longer performance would be appropriate. He will perform at Tampa Bay’s Raymond James Stadium, and it will include a 22,000-person virtual live audience.
“We’ve been really focusing on dialing in on the fans at home and making performances a cinematic experience, and we want to do that with the Super Bowl,” the Weeknd told Billboard. The magazine also added that Tesfaye complimented the show’s usual production budget with $7 million of his own budget.
Based on all the details about the show, it’s panning out to be an impressively major production from the “Save Your Tears” singer.
[via]