Usher — the chart-topping singer-songwriter — will be this year’s halftime performer. With a catalog full of bangers, how will he squeeze 30 years of music into just 13 minutes?
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Now to the Super Bowl, where a beloved singer will be taking center stage on Sunday.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “YEAH!”)
USHER: Peace up. A-Town down.
SHAPIRO: Usher, the chart-topping singer/songwriter, will be this year’s halftime performer. It’s his first time on stage at the Super Bowl since a guest appearance in 2011. So how will he squeeze 30 years of music into just 13 minutes? NPR music editor Sheldon Pearce is here to talk about it. Hey there.
SHELDON PEARCE, BYLINE: Hi, Ari.
SHAPIRO: What’s Usher been up to these days?
PEARCE: Well, you know, Usher’s stock is way up right now. It’s sort of interesting. In the late 2010s, he was kind of just hanging around. He had a 2018 collaboration he released with the rap producer Zaytoven that felt pretty low-stakes and didn’t quite land…
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “STAY AT HOME”)
USHER: (Rapping) Till you been driving me crazy, till you been driving me crazy, who you been texting daily? Who you been texting daily?
PEARCE: …And in 2019, he returned to his swiveling chair on “The Voice.”
But post-pandemic, he has seen a bit of a resurgence. He had a viral moment right here at the Tiny Desk in 2022.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)
USHER: Watch this.
(LAUGHTER)
USHER: (Singing) Just when I thought I said all I can say, my chick on the side say she got one on the way. These are my confessions…
PEARCE: And he’s been doing this residency in Las Vegas that has been really, really successful, and he had another stint in Paris. He just dropped an album ahead of this Super Bowl performance, and it almost feels like it exists primarily to bolster that performance.
SHAPIRO: What’s the response to the new album been so far?
PEARCE: I think it’s been pretty positive.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “BOP”)
USHER:…
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