Connect with us

The Weeknd

The star performed a medley of eight hits including Starboy and Blinding Lights

The Super Bowl half-time show is traditionally built on grand gestures and eye-popping spectacle.

Think about Lady Gaga diving off the roof of Houston’s NRG stadium, or Katy Perry riding an animatronic lion, or Diana Ross soaring out of Arizona’s Sun Devil Stadium, waving to fans through the open door of a helicopter.

This year was a little different.

Warning: Third party content may contain adverts

Canadian R&B star The Weeknd was the interval act and, for the first time in the game’s 55-year history, he was largely forced to perform from the stands, rather than the pitch, in compliance with strict coronavirus protocols.

And his 12-minute show was “watched” by thousands of cardboard cut-outs, who bulked out the 25,000 socially-distanced fans at Florida’s Raymond James Stadium.

But the 30-year-old made the most of the restrictions with a gimmick-free show that put the emphasis on his songs.

The star, whose real name is Abel Tesfaye, performed the majority of his set in front of a set modelled on the city in Fritz Lang’s Metropolis – all vertical layers and neon signs.

The Weeknd performs
The action was largely restricted to a stage in the rafters of the stadium
1px transparent line

As the opening bars of Starboy rang out, the cityscape parted to reveal the singer, bathed in light, performing surrounded by a choir of red-eyed automatons.

Apart from a few Michael Jackson-inspired dance moves, he kept the focus on his vocals with a dramatic reworking of The Hills, before grabbing a camera and disappearing into a backstage maze of lights and mirrors.

Jostled and buffeted by two dozen dancers in full facial bandages, he performed a dizzying version Can’t Feel My Face, before emerging back into the stadium for a firework-assisted version of I Feel It Coming.

The action moved onto the playing field for the finale – a medley of House of Balloons and Blinding Lights – sung directly to the camera, without the usual requirement for stunts, guest stars or marching band interludes.

Tesfaye, who spent $7m (£5m) of his own money on the production, clearly felt it was best to let the music speak for itself.

He even lined up a greatest hits album to coincide with the Super Bowl, which is traditionally the most-watched event of the year on US television. (Last year’s half-time show, starring Shakira and Jennifer Lopez was watched by 103 million viewers, more than the 99.9 million who tuned in for the game itself.)

The Weeknd
The performance ended with The Weeknd surrounded by bandage-clad dancers on the playing field

Before Sunday night, there was a feeling that The Weeknd’s dark-hued R&B could be an uncomfortable fit for a show that normally requires uplifting, crowd-pleasing anthems like Prince’s Purple Rain or Madonna’s Like A Prayer.

But Tesfaye wisely built the set around his more optimistic songs – including Save Your Tears and Earned It – while the soaring melody of Blinding Lights was a suitably euphoric closer.

In other words, he pulled it off, proving how badly The Grammys dropped the ball by snubbing him in this year’s nominations.

Which raises the question of how his set would have looked in a normal year. The chances are, it would have been a lot more elaborate. Speaking at a press conference before Sunday night’s show, the singer spoke in awed tones of the aforementioned Ross-o-copter.

“I wish I could have done that, I wish I’d thought of it,” he said. “Although I don’t think I have enough money to do it, to be honest.”

What did celeb fans think?

It’s fair to say The Weeknd’s performance went down a storm on social media with his fellow celebrities.

Drake described the show as “a big moment for the city” on his Instagram story, while Dionne Warwick, everyone’s favourite octogenarian on Twitter, wrote that she “loved the set and pyros”.

Country star Keith Urban was equally impressed, particularly with the staging., and actor Timothée Chalamet captioned a clip on his Instagram story: “Legend! Legend!”

The Roots’ Questlove was among those pointing out a throwback to Michael Jackson’s Super Bowl performance in 1993.

And there was also plenty of reaction to the moment when the star was preparing to sing his 2018 hit Can’t Feel My Face, as he pretended to rush to get into place for the start of the track. It was quickly turned into a meme, accompanied by various tongue-in-cheek captions.

Which songs did he play?

The Weeknd
The singer’s fourth album, After Hours, was the fourth biggest-seller of 2020 in the US
  1. Call Out My Name (intro)
  2. Starboy
  3. The Hills
  4. Can’t Feel My Face (including elements After Hours)
  5. I Feel It Coming
  6. Save Your Tears
  7. Earned It
  8. House Of Balloons
  9. Blinding Lights

Why were the dancers wearing bandages?

The Weeknd at the 2020 American Music Awards
The star previously attended the American Music Awards in full facial bandages

The campaign for The Weeknd’s recent album, After Hours, has revolved around a bloodied and bandaged character “having a really bad night”.

The story started with the video for Heartless. Inspired by Hunter S Thompson’s Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas, it saw the star staggering around the casinos and fountains of Sin City, drinking to excess and licking a hallucinogenic toad before attempting to flee.

The video for Blinding Lights picked up the narrative, with the singer drunkenly swerving through the deserted city, while flashing back to an incident in a nightclub that left him with blood pouring down his face.

Over subsequent TV appearances and music videos, the visuals grew more and more gory. Tesfaye was decapitated in the video for In Your Eyes; while in Too Late, his head was grafted onto another person’s body.

Then, in last month’s Save Your Tears, his facial bandages were unpeeled to reveal heavily-exaggerated facial prosthetics. Everyone else in the video wore masks and bandages – a theme Tesfaye carried over to the Super Bowl performance.

Speaking to Variety last week, the singer explained the inspiration for the year-long storyline.

“The significance of the entire head bandages is reflecting on the absurd culture of Hollywood celebrity and people manipulating themselves for superficial reasons to please and be validated,” he said.

“It’s all a progression and we watch The Character’s storyline hit heightened levels of danger and absurdity as his tale goes on.”

Who else played at this year’s Super Bowl?

Dressed in a pink-and-black cheerleader outfit, Miley Cyrus kicked off the official pre-game show with a cover of Toni Basil’s Oh Mickey.

“This is my first show in about a year,” the star told the audience, which comprised more than 7,000 vaccinated healthcare workers, “and I couldn’t imagine a better way to do this.

“We are so appreciative of you and all your diligence. And for that, we’re going to rock hard!”

Her raucous set mixed hits like We Can’t Stop, Nothing Breaks Like A Heart and Prisoner with classic party tracks like Dolly Parton’s Jolene and Blondie’s Heart Of Glass.

Miley Cyrus and Billy Idol
Miley Cyrus was joined onstage by Billy Idol during her pre-game show

She even invited out 80s rockers Joan Jett and Billy Idol – both of whom appear on her recent album Plastic Hearts – for a series of duets.

Cyrus also sang her 2009 hit Party in the USA, giving a shout-out to fellow pop star Britney Spears during the performance: “We love Britney!”

She later fought back tears as she performed her 2018 hit Wrecking Ball, telling the audience: “Singing that song, Wrecking Ball, about feeling completely broken and shattered… everyone’s suffering is different, even everyone’s threshold of pain.

“I wear a lot of glitter and I wear a lot of armour, and I also wear my heart on my sleeve, and it gets broken a lot.”

Ahead of kick-off, 22-year-old poet Amanda Gorman – who won rave reviews for her reading at President Joe Biden’s inauguration – recited another original poem.

Chorus Of The Captains celebrated war veteran James Martin, teacher Trimaine Davis, and nurse manager Suzie Dorner – who were selected by the NFL as “honorary captains” for this year’s game.

“While we honour them today, it is they every day who honour us,” said Gorman’s poem, which detailed their efforts to help at-risk children and vulnerable patients.

R&B singer H.E.R. added a pyrotechnic guitar solo to her rendition of America the Beautiful, while the national anthem was performed as a duet between Eric Church and Jazmine Sullivan.

Warning: Third party content may contain adverts
Related Topics:
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Foreign

Israel’s War On Gaza: List of Key Events, Day 101

Published

3 years ago

on

15th January 2024

By

Israel's war on Gaza: List of key events, day 101 | Israel War on Gaza News | Al Jazeera

Dozens of Palestinians killed in overnight Israeli strikes in central and south Gaza as Red Sea tensions rise.

Here’s how things stand on Monday, January 15, 2024:

Latest updates and human impact

  • Israeli attacks continue unabated overnight killing and wounding dozens of civilians in central and southern Gaza. At least 22 people were killed and a large number injured as a result of Israeli forces targeting al-Thalatheni Street in the central Gaza Strip.
  • Yemen’s Houthi rebels fired an antiship cruise missile toward an American destroyer in the Red Sea, which was shot down by a US fighter jet, announced US Central Command (CENTCOM) on X.
  • This was the first US-acknowledged Houthi attack since the US strikes on Yemen on Friday.
  • Hamas released a 37-second video showing three Israeli captives held in Gaza on Sunday, saying they would reveal the fate of the captives on Monday and urging the Israeli government to stop the offensive.
  • The Israeli military says it has shifted to a new phase of the war focused on the southern end of Gaza, where almost 2 million internally displaced Palestinians are running out of safe spaces to shelter.
  • The Gaza Ministry of Health has said almost 24,000 people have been killed in the Israeli offensive. More than 60,000 people have been wounded in 100 days of war.

Diplomacy

  • Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that his country will pursue its war against Hamas until victory and will not be stopped by anyone, including the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
  • The White House said on Sunday that “it’s the right time” for Israel to scale back its military offensive in the Gaza Strip.
  • Egypt’s State Information Service (SIS) said in a statement on Sunday that one of the biggest obstacles to the timely delivery of sufficient aid to Gaza was Israeli inspection of the aid. The statement came after Israel blamed Cairo for the delay in aid delivery to Gaza during its defence at the ICJ.
  • US Secretary of State Antony Blinken posted on X on Monday, calling for the release of the remaining captives held in Gaza on the 100th day since they were taken by Hamas. He did not mention the Palestinian casualties.
  • Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong, who described herself as a “friend of Israel” to the press, will travel to Jordan, Israel, the occupied Palestinian Territories and the United Arab Emirates this week, her office said on Monday.

West Bank raids and violence

  • Israeli forces arrested 25 students staging a sit-in in protest against high tuition fees at An-Najah University in Nablus. Al Jazeera’s Hamdah Salhut reported that the protesting students received a text message from Israeli forces telling them to “surrender now”.
  • Israeli forces have reportedly raided the family home of Nael al-Barghouti, the longest-serving Palestinian prisoner, in the village of Kobar, in Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank.
  • The Israeli army said on Friday that it killed three Palestinian men who infiltrated a West Bank settlement and fired upon soldiers.
  • The Israeli military killed two Palestinians after accusing them of ramming their car through a checkpoint near Hebron.
  • Local sources reported that Israeli forces bulldozed two Palestinian-owned houses during a Sunday midnight raid in the city of Qalqilya, Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.
  • Armed Israeli settlers broke into the village of Burin, south of Nablus, and attacked Palestinian residents’ houses and properties after midnight on Sunday, Wafa reported.
  • “Violent raids and arrests have become part of the fabric of daily life in the occupied West Bank,” Al Jazeera’s Mohammed Jamjoom, reporting from Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, said. At least 347 Palestinians have been killed and thousands have been arrested since October 7.

 

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES
Continue Reading

Foreign

Hamas Says Will Kill Hostages if Israeli Attacks On Gaza Civilians Continue

Published

3 years ago

on

10th October 2023

By

Flames and smoke billow during Israeli attacks against Gaza on October 9, 2023

Human Rights Watch terms Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant’s call for a ‘complete siege’ on Gaza a ‘war crime’.

The Hamas movement has threatened to kill an Israeli hostage every time Israel bombs a Palestinian home without warning as Israel mobilised some 300,000 reservists and imposed a total blockade of the Gaza Strip, denying the enclave’s millions of residents access to food, water and fuel.

The warning from Hamas came on Monday as the death toll from the armed group’s surprise weekend attack climbed to 900 in Israel and revenge attacks by Israeli forces on the besieged Gaza Strip killed more than 700 people and left some 3,700 others wounded.

Residential apartment blocks, hospitals, schools and a mosque have been among the sites attacked by Israeli fighter jets, artillery and drones, according to media reports and witnesses.

Hamas spokesperson Abu Ubaida issued the threat to kill Israelis from the dozens held captive by the armed group. He said an Israeli hostage would be killed for every Israeli bombing of a civilian house without warning.

Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said more than 100 people were taken captive by Hamas during the deadly cross-border incursion over the weekend.

As Israeli forces conducted intense retaliatory attacks on Gaza on Monday, Israel’s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant drew international condemnation by announcing a total blockade of the densely populated and besieged enclave, which is home to 2.3 million people.

Gallant said Israel would impose a “complete siege” on Gaza. “No electricity, no food, no water, no gas – it’s all closed.”

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was “deeply distressed” by the siege announcement and warned that Gaza’s already dire humanitarian situation will now “only deteriorate exponentially”.

A mourner carries the body of Palestinian boy Saad Lubbad, who health officials said was killed in Israeli strikes, during his funeral in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, October 9, 2023. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa
A mourner carries the body of Palestinian boy Saad Lubbad, who health officials said was killed in an Israeli attack, during his funeral in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on October 9, 2023 [Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters]

Guterres also said some 137,000 people were taking shelter with the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) at schools across Gaza.

UNRWA said on Tuesday that almost 190,000 people have been displaced in Gaza amid the Israeli attacks and the figure is expected to grow further as the violence intensifies.

Nearly half a million people have also not received food rations this week in Gaza as UN food distribution centres have been forced to remain closed amid the Israeli onslaught, UNRWA said.

Human Rights Watch said Israel’s total blockade on the necessities of life for everyday people in Gaza was a war crime.

“Defense Minister Gallant’s statements are abhorrent,” Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.

“Depriving the population in an occupied territory of food and electricity is collective punishment, which is a war crime, as is using starvation as a weapon of war. The International Criminal Court should take note of this call to commit a war crime,” he said.

Shakir also condemned the threat by Hamas to kill hostages, warning that such action was also a war crime.

“All hostages should be safely released to their families,” he said.

On the diplomatic front, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on Hamas and Israel to immediately end violence and protect civilians, the Egyptian presidency said.

Erdogan urged Israel against “indiscriminately” attacking civilians and delivered measured criticism of Hamas, urging both sides to respect the “ethics” of war.

The United Kingdom, French, German, Italian and US governments issued a joint statement on Monday recognising the “legitimate aspirations” of the Palestinian people and supporting equal measures of justice and freedom for Israelis and Palestinians alike.

INTERACTIVE_DEATH_TOLL_INJURED_ISRAEL_PALESTINE_OCT10_2023_0415
They said they would remain “united and coordinated” to ensure Israel can defend itself.

But the prospect that fighting could spread also alarmed the region and the world.

Lebanese armed group Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israel in response to at least three of its members being killed in Israeli shelling of Lebanon.

Israel said one of its deputy commanders was also killed in an earlier cross-border raid from Lebanon.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES

Continue Reading

Foreign

Western Leaders Accused of Hypocrisy Over Response To Palestine, Ukraine

Published

3 years ago

on

10th October 2023

By

US President Joe Biden holds a bilateral meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the sidelines of the 78th United Nations General Assembly in New York City, the US, September 20, 2023

Social media users, including journalists and observers, are calling out what they call a ‘double standard’.

After Saturday’s surprise attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on Israel, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy took to the social media platform X to offer “condolences go out to everyone who lost relatives or close ones in the terrorist attack”.

He also stated, “Israel’s right to self-defence is unquestionable.”

Many world leaders, including US President Joe Biden and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, shared similar sentiments.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen stated, “Israel has the right to defend itself – today and in the days to come. The European Union stands with Israel.”

Accusations of Western ‘double standards’

Some social media users have criticised these statements, saying they highlight a double standard.

Ukraine’s right to defend itself is praised by most international leaders while Russia’s invasion is condemned, but commentators said the same cannot be said about Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.

Aaron Bastani, a leftist British journalist, said on X that there’s a “clear double standard in endorsing terrorism against civilian targets in Ukraine … and condemning it by Palestinians”.

Many users said Western diplomats and media support the Ukrainians who defend their land, but label the Palestinians fighting against Israel as “terrorists”.

https://twitter.com/KhaledBeydoun/status/1710787817415082349?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1710787817415082349%7Ctwgr%5E6acf829869e993177f32aa38aa48c02f38cb7f61%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.aljazeera.com%2Fnews%2F2023%2F10%2F9%2Fwestern-leaders-accused-of-hypocrisy-over-response-to-palestine-ukraine

An illustration of a woman’s face, in which one eye is closed beside a Palestinian flag, and one eye open beside a Ukrainian flag, has been regularly shared as a symbol of the West’s alleged double standards in how the two conflicts are viewed.

https://twitter.com/OnlinePalEng/status/1710994682883273172?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1710994682883273172%7Ctwgr%5E6acf829869e993177f32aa38aa48c02f38cb7f61%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.aljazeera.com%2Fnews%2F2023%2F10%2F9%2Fwestern-leaders-accused-of-hypocrisy-over-response-to-palestine-ukraine

Clips also emerged on social media from a CNN interview with Mustafa Barghouti, the general secretary of the Palestinian National Initiative, in which he posed the rhetorical question, “Why does the United States support Ukraine in fighting occupation – while here they support the occupier, who continues to occupy us?”

It is not the first time Western nations have been accused of double standards in their stance on the Ukraine war.

Earlier in the year, Amnesty International published a report highlighting the West’s “double standards” on global human rights.

Agnes Callamard, Amnesty’s secretary-general, told Al Jazeera at the time that the occupation of Palestinian territory was a “particularly important one”.

“Without making any comparison between Russia’s aggression and Israel … it is clear the Palestinian people are under a regime of oppression – a regime of occupation and a regime of apartheid,” Callamard told Al Jazeera.

Over the last three days, X users recirculated earlier statements calling out what they called Western hypocrisy, sharing video by the Irish lawmaker Richard Boyd Barrett from March 2022 in which he berated the Irish government’s double standards regarding Ukraine and Palestine:

“You’re happy to use the most strong and robust language to describe the crimes against humanity of [Russian President] Vladimir Putin, but you will not use the same strength of language when it comes to describing Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians.”

Barrett on Sunday again called out what he described as “shocking double standards of Western leaders supporting Ukraine resistance but condemning Palestinian[s].”

Meanwhile, others warned against comparing conflicts.

https://twitter.com/denfordauthor/status/1710993737738768607?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1710993737738768607%7Ctwgr%5E6acf829869e993177f32aa38aa48c02f38cb7f61%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.aljazeera.com%2Fnews%2F2023%2F10%2F9%2Fwestern-leaders-accused-of-hypocrisy-over-response-to-palestine-ukraine

And some cautioned that Hamas and the Palestinians should not be seen as one and the same.

Ukrainian footballer Oleksandr Zinchenko, who plays for Arsenal, posted on Instagram, stating he “stands with Israel”.

Zinchenko has been a vocal supporter of his home country in its ongoing defence against Russia, and he participated in a Game4Ukraine charity match in London earlier this year to raise money for Ukraine.

After online backlash, with some questioning an alleged double standard in his support of Israel, the footballer removed the post and switched his social media account to private.

Several people claimed that Zinchenko’s football club, in not responding to his comments, was guilty of hypocrisy after they had distanced themselves from former player Mesut Ozil’s comments in 2019 over alleged human rights abuses against Uighur Muslims in China.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA
Continue Reading

Trending

Copyright © 2013 - 2020, 47vibez Media.