Super Bowl
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Taylor Swift is multi-talented. In addition to her abilities to pen chart-topping songs and perform for three hours straight on a nightly basis on her Eras Tour, the 34-year-old pop star is also, apparently, a master at chugging her drinks. While cheering on Travis Kelce and the Kansas City Chiefs at the Super Bowl Sunday […]
Taylor Swift is the soundtrack to her own love story. Following the Kansas City Chiefs’ hard-earned Super Bowl victory against the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday (Feb. 11), she and Travis Kelce attended an afterparty together and danced along to two of the pop star’s hits: “Love Story” and “You Belong With Me.” In a […]
LAS VEGAS — It turns out Kaskade found out he was DJing at the Super Bowl not too long before the rest of us did.
In fact, his first time seeing the elevated DJ platform in the stands behind the end zone where he would spin throughout the game on Sunday (Feb. 11) was that day, minutes before he performed a pre-game concert that soundtracked the San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs warming up on the field.
“This will be my first moment. We’ll experience it together,” Kaskade (real name: Ryan Raddon) told Billboard with a smile as we shadowed him all day Sunday throughout Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium for his gig as the Super Bowl’s first in-game DJ — a job that was only formally announced by the NFL on Thursday after Tiësto had to back out due to a “personal family emergency” earlier that day. Kaskade’s primary team had arrived days earlier in Vegas while the DJ played a long-scheduled gig at Montreal’s Igloofest on Friday night to make sure that everything was ready for him, and after wrapping his first set on Sunday, he was happy to report of the previously mysterious DJ booth: “It all works. I’m like, ‘OK, it’s plugged in, there’s power, we’re good.’”
Kaskade said the trickiest part about the last-minute gig was weaving some pump-up song requests from the two Super Bowl teams into his setlist for their pre-game warm-ups, including a pair of Billboard Hot 100 No. 1s by Drake (“God’s Plan” and “Jimmy Cooks” with 21 Savage) and DJ Snake’s “Turn Down for What” featuring Lil Jon, who would be one of Usher’s surprise halftime show guests later that day. The most time-consuming part of incorporating the new songs? Making sure all the lyrics were safe for the Super Bowl’s family audience, Kaskade says.
The players clearly appreciated the tailored playlist, with the Chiefs’ Isiah Pacheco performing an impromptu end-zone dance to “God’s Plan” during warm-ups. (“Some of them were feeling it,” Kaskade laughed afterward.)
Along with the pre-game special requests, Kaskade also worked in some more esoteric choices, like Odd Mob and OMNOM’s “Losing Control.” And when it came time for his two DJ moments during the game — one between the first and second quarters and one between the third and fourth — Kaskade stuck to what he knows best: playing the vibey “Escape,” his 2023 Kx5 song with longtime collaborator deadmau5 (“Hi. I just played Escape to 100 million people,” Kaskade posted to X after), as well as his party-starter “Fun,” a 2019 team-up with Brohug and Mr. Tape featuring Madge. He also got a chance to enjoy a bit of the nail-biter game (which the Chiefs won in overtime), taking a seat right in front of his platform alongside his wife and daughters and the rest of his team during breaks.
For a closer look at a day in the life of a Super Bowl DJ, follow along with Billboard as we embed with Team Kaskade at the big game.
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Ursher ate. During Usher’s highly-anticipated Apple Music Super Bowl LVIII Halftime Show, he brought the Atlanta vibes to Las Vegas with an amazing performance that included a medley of his smash hits along with on point dancers, rollerskates, and guests like Jermaine Dupre, Lil Jon, Ludacris and Alicia Keys.
From “You Don’t Have To Call” to “Confessions, Pt. 2” to “Nice N Slow” to “Burn” and more, Usher managed to hit all the major hits from his incredibly deep catalog. And he didn’t really need the help, but Alicia Keys, Luda, Lil Jon and H.E.R. only exponentially rose the star power. And we ain’t even mention the Jackson State Marching Band.
Let’s not lose sight of the fact that Usher was singing, dancing (and rollerskating) live without backing vocal tracks. You’re fav R&B artist would never.
Check out the best reactions to Usher’s Super Bowl performance in the gallery.
1. Roller, Skates.
2. Stephanie Mills approved.
5. No chill on X
6. Y’all gotta relax.
8. Again, no chill.
11. Anita Baker approves.
Travis Kelce is officially a Super Bowl champion two years in a row. And after a tense game complete with many long minutes of overtime, Taylor Swift was on hand at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas to help the tight end celebrate the Kansas City Chiefs’ 25-22 victory over the San Francisco 49ers. Shortly after […]
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With Las Vegas known as the entertainment capital of the world, it was expected that some of the biggest stars would be in attendance at Super Bowl LVIII at Allegiant Stadium on Sunday (Feb. 11). In a new photo (above) from the game, in which the Kansas City Chiefs faced off against the San Francisco […]
Eight-time Grammy-winning R&B icon Usher graced the 2024 Super Bowl Halftime Show Sunday (Feb. 11) for a maximalist ode to both Las Vegas performance history and his own hit-packed discography. Performing on both the stage and the literal field of Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, the “Burn” singer tore through his classic catalog, beginning with […]
Fans got it bad for Usher, who took the stage for the 2024 Super Bowl Halftime Show presented by Apple Music on Sunday (Feb. 11). The superstar performed a medley of hits, including “Caught Up,” “Burn,” “U Got It Bad,” “Confessions Part II,” “Love In This Club” and more, all while delivering his characteristically sultry dance moves […]
Timing really is everything in pop music. At various times in the last 20 years, an Usher Super Bowl set might have seemed too soon, too late or just not quite right. But while the pre-game debate was real about whether Usher was thuddingly obvious or a reach as a halftime headliner, by the time he stepped into the Allegiant Stadium spotlight Super Bowl LXVIII on Sunday night (Feb. 11) it should have been clear to everyone that the time was right for Usher to take the world’s biggest stage. And with his 15-minute, crowd-pleasing, decade-spanning set of classic hits, he reconfirmed his status as one of one of pop’s greatest living entertainers.
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It was the culmination of a half-decade of subtle gains in career momentum for Mr. Raymond, who never totally disappeared, but spent most of the mid-to-late ’10s in commercial erosion amidst underwhelming sales and some tough headlines. But a handful of winning next-gen collabs, an impossibly perfect Hustlers cameo, a well-received Vegas residency (and a meme-spawning Tiny Desk performance) and his biggest chart hit in 10 years (“Good Good”) all served to both remind of his peerless pop and R&B legacy and revitalize his contemporary relevance. With a strong new album (Coming Home) arriving on Friday — just a couple days after the announcement of an upcoming arena tour, his first in nearly a decade, and a month before the 20th anniversary of his Confessions blockbuster — the stage was set in about every conceivable way on Sunday for Usher to answer any remaining “Usher??” questioning around his Super Bowl appearance with a big ol’ “YEAH!”
Unsurprisingly, he did exactly that. From the second he slipped off his robe to transition from early signature hit “My Way” to 2005 smash “Caught Up,” Usher was in control, gliding through about a dozen of his biggest hits — all top 10s on the Billboard Hot 100 hits, except the enduring Confessions fan-favorites “Superstar” and “Bad Girl” — with the effortlessness of a guy who’s been informally training for this opportunity his entire career. Big-name guests were greeted, shirts were shed, rollerskates were rollerskated and 15 minutes went by in a brilliantly choreographed blink.
Really, for a performance billed as the longest in Super Bowl history, the set was still perhaps most notable for its efficiency: expertly plotted transitions like the opening verse to “Nice & Slow” seamlessly igniting the hissing intro of “Burn” minimized downtime, while guests Alicia Keys, H.E.R., will.i.am and Lil Jon were smartly all given their own brief spotlight moments while Usher executed his costume changes and caught his changes. And while some of the buzzed-about home-run guests never quite materialized — sorry, BeyHive and Beliebers — the guests present provided an ideal spread of Usher’s underrated career versatility, equally convincing tearing the club up with Lil Jon, going future-pop with will.i.am and doing classic pop&B love duets with Keys.
The performance thrived more on small moments than true OH S–T jaw-droppers — not like Usher was ever likely to top Rihanna’s reveal from last year in that department. But it was such a rich production that you could’ve missed some of the best details, like the marching band that punctuated set closer “Yeah!” spelling out U-S-H-E-R in the bottom-left corner of your screen, or the wrist-watch graphic projected onto the stage below him during “Nice & Slow” highlighting a 7:00 (on the dot) time. And Usher certainly showcased some of his more unique skills as a performer, turning the stage into a roller-rink (and skating between will.i.am’s legs) on “OMG” and tearing his top off during the climactic “U Got It Bad,” flaunting a still-chiseled physique that should make him the seething envy of 45-year-old males worldwide.
If there was fault to be found with Usher’s halftime performance, it would likely focus on the insufficient mic-ing on his early vocals, which undersold softer moments like his falsetto’d verses on “U Don’t Have to Call” — he’s a strong vocalist, but not so much a powerhouse that he couldn’t have used a little extra juice there. And while it’s not tragic that stellar current hit “Good Good” didn’t make the cut for the tracklist, it was a little bit of a bummer that 2010’s “OMG” was his only song from the last 15 years that did — while most of Usher’s biggest songs may have come pre-Obama, he’s never stopped releasing excellent singles and albums (and had sizable hits with a number of them). It does Ush a little bit of a disservice to present him solely as a catalog act.
But these are relatively small complaints for a thoroughly satisfying, comeback-capping performance from Usher Raymond. “They said I wouldn’t be here today,” he commented while dedicating his rendition of “Superstar” to his mother. “Hey Mama, we made it.” From another performer — especially one with Usher’s exceptional resumé — it could have easily come off as Khaledian bluster, but for Ush, it felt like a fairly well-earned moment of triumph. And whoever they are, they probably won’t be making such comments again anytime soon.