Whether you watched the big Super Bowl game with family and friends at home, or perched upon a seat in your dorm’s common room, we can all agree that the anticipation surrounding the annual halftime show was lingering on the forefront of everyone’s minds. Usher, the beloved American singer-songwriter, had big shoes to fill in after Rihanna’s impressive and striking show last year — however, the musician did not quite meet the mark.
It’s undeniable that Usher is widely appreciated as a great artist. His voice is capable of reaching a range of octaves, his tone is smooth and satisfying, and his songs are famous hits. Unfortunately, his performance this past Sunday was entirely underwhelming for several reasons.
Firstly, his act lacked any show-stopping aspect — the only memorable moment maybe being a shirtless Usher. But besides that, the singer mainly just jumped around the stage a little bit with a background dancer or two. While I understand that Usher, being 45 years of age, is no longer young and full of the same vitality, his performance was still missing the excitement that so many people anticipate for. Any kind of memorable moment would have sufficed, if not with dance moves, perhaps it could’ve been something to do with the props. For instance, Rihanna’s floating platform and unconventional background dancer costumes, or Katy Perry’s ginormous metallic lion. These moments that utilize the space and resources provided effectively encapsulate the grandness and excitement of the Super Bowl. His ground-level performance, however, reminded me of when my cousins and I put on a mediocre show at a family function for our parents in hopes for a sleepover. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime show that Usher had the opportunity to put on, and he had no good reason for such a boring act. Mercan Draman ’26 also had some strong opinions on this.
“Rihanna was pregnant, what’s his excuse?” said Draman.
In addition, Usher skipped some pretty popular songs like, “Hey Daddy (Daddy’s Home)” which *cough, cough* SOME of us were looking forward to. That might’ve made it bearable, but nope, nothing. Drier than the Paresky Common’s “strawberry shortcake.” It was pretty disappointing to watch the screen pan out to the field, signaling the end of the show, with no “Hey Daddy” in sight.
While we can all probably agree that Alicia Keys elevated this show to some degree, the focus should have been on Usher. After all, it’s his performance. Worse, for the short period of time that she was performing, she completely upstaged him. Personally, I would’ve liked to see a Super Bowl mainly focusing on her instead. Other than just Alicia Keys, the other musicians featured this year just felt like a cheap addition to make the show seem better. It reminds me of throwing The Rock into some random action movies to distract the audience from the clearly lacking plot.
Finally, the entire performance just seemed very clearly unorganized. It felt like all the background dancers were doing their own separate thing, loosely connected to a cohesive choreography. None of the outfits seemed to have any specific theme, which made the stage seem all over the place. It looked like someone set off a bunch of those wind-up kids toys and let them run loose. Personally, I preferred the matching marshmallow uniforms that Rihanna’s background dancers wore — at least they were all crawling in the same direction. The awkward mosh pit at the end really pulled it all together. It’s the Super Bowl and everyone is just jumping around in the middle of a football field like it’s the Bassment Dance.
After waiting through a portion of the Super Bowl, pretending to understand the plays and randomly picking a team to vote for, I was disappointed, to say the least, in Usher and his show. For a great musician, and an important event, there really wasn’t any reason why it should’ve been as unremarkable as it was. I love Usher and all, but this wasn’t it.
