“Booking him was pretty radical in terms of who you’d normally book for the Super Bowl,” said Keith Caulfield, one of the chart maestros at Billboard. His music is decidedly darker than anything you’d hear from past performers, earning him a reputation as one of R&B’s finest villains, in the words of critic Craig Jenkins. The league felt comfortable enough after Bruno Mars to return to contemporary stars full-time, adding Katy Perry, Lady Gaga and Timberlake.īut The Weeknd, now 31, is a departure from the pop confections of most of the halftime artists. By the time his next album rolled around, his growing fan base turned “Uptown Funk” into the biggest hit of 2015 and earned him a Grammy for album of the year in 2018. He used the event as a springboard to go back out on tour, selling out arenas from Australia to Arkansas. Mars had released just two studio albums at that point, but he delighted viewers with renditions of “Locked out of Heaven” and “Just the Way You Are.” But it was so smitten that it offered him the halftime slot at the Super Bowl. The league had initially wanted Mars for the season opener, which he declined.

In 2014, the league took its biggest chance yet, ceding the stage to a young pop star named Bruno Mars.

For many years after that controversy, the league relied on aging rock stars and heritage acts that catered to older fans, recruiting Paul McCartney, the Rolling Stones, Prince, Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen and The Who.Īfter seven consecutive years of acts that were at least 50 years old, the league decided to experiment again with more contemporary stars, booking Black Eyed Peas and Beyoncé. “The Weeknd’s audience and fan base will continue to grow exponentially after appearing on the world’s biggest stage,” Monte Lipman, co-founder and chief executive officer of his label, Republic Records, said in an email.īooking the Weeknd was a bold move by the NFL, which had played it safe for years with the halftime show ever since Justin Timberlake exposed Janet Jackson’s nipple on national TV in 2004. But for The Weeknd - born Abel Tesfaye - the Super Bowl performance cemented his status as one of the most famous musicians in the world, capping off a year in which he had one of the five biggest albums globally.

The weeknd new album release