Super Bowl LVIII was held in Las Vegas, and Usher used his platform there to bring millions of viewers to the city he has called home for more than 30 years. “I took the world to the highest level,” the R&B megastar repeated at the end of his Apple Music’s emotional halftime show performance. Two years ago, the halftime show in Los Angeles was an homage to West Coast hip-hop. This year, we took viewers from Sin City to the entertainment capital of the Peach State. Usher did it in his own way, dripping with southern black culture.
“The Apple Music Administration advises that the following performances may cause: singing, dancing, sweating, physical activity, and interpersonal problems.” It appeared on the screen just before the show started. “Prepare to witness a performance 30 years in the making.” Usher then appears in costumes reminiscent of Elvis and other legendary Las Vegas stage performers, as well as showgirls and Cirque du Soleil-style acrobatic performers also appeared. It was Las Vegas, a cultural backdrop that was deeply familiar to Usher and made him a second home.
Just over two months ago, the 45-year-old singer and dancer tearfully ended her “My Way” Las Vegas residency, which earned her more than $100 million, Billboard reported. The two years he spent playing his 100 shows at MGM Park on the Las Vegas Strip were great for Usher’s brand. They also made him richer. The show featured dozens of black performers, including the Good Times Brass Band, an all-black group of musicians from Atlanta. In this way, the residency diversified financial income opportunities in a Las Vegas show economy where Black creators and entertainers have long been underrepresented.
Without a doubt, this stay was huge for Usher’s career. Lovers and Friends, the hip-hop and R&B Las Vegas music festival that he has headlined for the past three years, is also a very important event for him and his 70-plus black musicians who have performed there. In Usher’s first live television interview after it was announced that he would headline Super Bowl 53, he told Gayle King and his CBS Morning co-anchor: You will be disappointed. ” Asher did not disappoint. Perhaps more impressively, he didn’t keep the moment to himself. He truly and unapologetically shared that with Atlanta. And he proudly shared Atlanta with the world.
The halftime show became noticeably awkward (in Atlanta’s words rousing, rousing) when Atlanta hip-hop kingpins Jermaine Dupri, Ludacris, and Lil Jon appeared. There were black performers on roller skates, and Usher skated and sang with them. Atlanta is home to some of the most famous strip clubs in the world, so it was only natural that Paul’s dancers would join his halftime show.
Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity is an important black-majority organization around the world, especially in Atlanta. During Usher’s performance of “Love in this Club,” two sleek, shimmy Kappa His Brothers joined us on stage, twirling our signature red-and-white striped canes. It felt like an exciting and familiar cultural moment from ATL’s legendary annual Greek Picnic.
Atlanta’s four largest cultural assets are its historically black colleges and universities: Spelman College, Morehouse College, Clark Atlanta University, and Morris Brown University. Two of them have his band marching. Neither performed at this year’s Super Bowl. Instead, Usher chose Jackson State University’s Southern Sonic Boom, perhaps the best in the nation. Although they weren’t from an Atlanta HBCU, the Mississippi-based elite marching band elevated Usher’s Southern Cultural Festival. Most of those musicians were black.
Hours before his Super Bowl showcase, Usher released his ninth studio album, Coming Home. He brought millions of Super Bowl viewers from Las Vegas to Atlanta and back. The unpaid halftime performance will enhance his already stratospheric accomplishment and bring even more ticket buyers to his recently announced “Past, Present, Future” North American tour.
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