“The significance of the entire head bandages is reflecting on the absurd culture of Hollywood celebrity and people manipulating themselves for superficial reasons to please and be validated. Play The Weeknd and discover followers on SoundCloud Stream tracks, albums, playlists on desktop and mobile. In a new interview with Billboard, the 30 year old. The Weeknd explained to Variety what those bandages have been all about. The Weeknd Spent 7 Million Of His Own Money On Super Bowl Halftime Performance Saman Javed Published 8:05, 08 February 2021 GMT PA The Weeknd’s Super Bowl performance may not have been performed on the pitch this year, due to the coronavirus pandemic, but that didn’t stop the Canadian singer from pulling out all the stops. In fact, The Weeknd, whose real name is Abel Tesfaye, decided to put his money where his mouth is.7 million dollars worth of money, that is. He reportedly spent $7 million of his own money on the halftime show. Get this: Americans spend, on average, 34 percent more money on Fridays and Saturdays than they do on Mondays and Tuesdays, according to a Gallup report that tracked the spending habits of 1,000. “There wasn’t any room to fit it in the narrative and the story I was telling in the performance. “I’ve been reading a lot of rumors,” he told the NFL Network Thursday. Toward the end of the show, The Weeknd moved to the field with an army of bandaged-faced dancers in an apparent nod to recent appearances in which his face was wrapped in bandages, sometimes looking bruised and bloodied.Īhead of the event, The Weeknd explained that there would be no surprise guests and only members of his production joined him during the performance due to Covid-19 protocols. And the superstar himself is putting tons of his own money into the performance, apparently: The Weeknd spent 7 million of his own money on production costs for his Super Bowl halftime show, his. The colorful set in the stands of the stadium, which resembled the Las Vegas strip, was the backdrop for headliner and a massive choir and instrumentalists. The Weeknd performed a medley of his hits, including “Can’t Feel My Face,” “Earned It” and his more recent chart topper, “Blinding Lights.” The Grammy-winning singer took to the stage for the Pepsi Super Bowl LV halftime performance with plenty of pyrotechnics, lights and men dressed like The Weeknd in all black with red jackets and bandaged faces. Though it will take a few months of tracking sales figures to identify whether the singer’s performance pays out or not, Aaron Greenbaum for Looper predicts that The Weeknd will “more than recoup what he spent on the halftime show thanks to him putting all his heart and soul into (his show).The bandages were back, but not on The Weeknd’s face this time. Something that sets The Weeknd apart from previous halftime show performers is the fact that he invested several million dollars of his own money into his show.Ī representative for the singer told the New York Post that he “spent almost $7 million of his own money beyond the already-generous budgets (in order) to make (his) halftime show what he envisioned.” As previously reported by the Deseret News, the singer-songwriter stated he and his team “wanted to do something that (they have) never done before.” Looper reports that Lady Gaga’s sales increased over 1,000% after her 2017 performance and Justin Timberlake’s sales increased over 500% after his halftime show in 2018.

Now that might sound like a raw deal at first, but exposure at such a large scale typically translates to huge spikes in music downloads.įor example, according to Billboard, Jennifer Lopez and Shakira collectively sold 21,000 song downloads, an increase of 893%, the day after their Super Bowl performance in 2020.

So why do performers agree to do the show if they’re not getting paid for it?Īlthough the NFL doesn’t literally write out a check with an artist’s name on it, Super Bowl halftime show performers do receive payment in the form of exposure. The Weeknd stopped his Saturday night concert after only a few songs and canceled the show at Los Angeles SoFi Stadium, telling the audience that hed lost his voice and was unable to continue. In a 2016 interview with Forbes, NFL spokesperson Joanna Hunter disclosed that, while the NFL helps cover expenses and production costs for the annual halftime show, the league does not pay the performers for their work. The Weeknd performs onstage during his 'After Hours Til Dawn' tour at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Augin Atlanta, Georgia. The Weeknd likely did not receive a paycheck for his Super Bowl halftime show performance Sunday evening, the New York Post reports.Īccording to the site, this is nothing out of the ordinary as Super Bowl halftime performers, from Beyoncé to Bruno Mars, usually provide their services gratis.

The weeknd spent money