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While no one on TikTok predicted Usher to open the 2024 Super Bowl Halftime Show with his track “Caught Up”, the 45-year-old eight-time Grammy winner knew exactly what he was doing, easing millions of viewers across the world into that warm, naughties nostalgia.
This year marks 30 years since the release of the singer’s debut album and at today’s NFL game—a charged and edge-of-your-seat-style match between the San Francisco 49’s and Kansas City Chiefs—Usher packed 11 of his biggest career hits into a 13-minute set. (It really makes you wonder how Jennifer Lopez and Shakira managed to split the time in 2020.)
From “Love In This Club,” to “Confessions Part 2”, to “U Got It Bad” and “Burn,” highlights included Usher bringing Alicia Keys on stage to perform “If I Ain’t Got You” and “My Boo” and Will.I.Am for “OMG”. Sweaty and bedazzled, at one moment the star ripped his shirt off, and then singlet, and even rollerbladed about the stage.
But the climax—the real moment 65,000 people in Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas came alive—was when Ludacris and Lil Jon joined the main man to perform their hit track, “Yeah.” You must watch it below.
“I definitely went through a lot of ideas of who I would have share this moment with me and I do feel like the people who are gonna share it deserve just as much recognition for what they do in their careers—whether we have collaborated together or rather they’ve had moments of their own,” Usher told reporters in a pre-Super Bowl press conference, as per Page Six. “There has been these fantasy lists that have been going out, people trying to figure out what song I’m going to perform first, middle, last. I was very mindful of my past, celebrating my present, which is here in Las Vegas, and thinking about where we’re headed in the future. And that was really the idea.”
Watch Usher’s incredible performance below.
