LAS VEGAS, Nevada – The Super Bowl 58 halftime show may not have had quite the buzz as last year’s performance with the return of a surprisingly pregnant Rihanna, but A-Town’s own Usher did his best to remind folks that he has three decades of hits from which to draw for the upcoming tour his camp announced a few days before Sunday’s halftime showcase.
The 45-year-old filled his 13-minute set in Las Vegas with a medley of hits, packed so tight it would’ve been easy to miss the musical whiffs of some of the roughly 14 songs he touched.
Usher was resplendent in a white suit accented with a huge diamond-encrusted phoenix-shaped broach and surrounded by a host of Las Vegas-style dancers, acrobats and a marching band. Clearly singing live (yes, that matters), Usher quickly ran through a mashup of “Caught Up” and “U Don’t Have to Call,” which got the show moving with the help of his fleet-footed, Michael Jackson-inspired dance moves.
Then, as happens with medleys, it was snippets and hints of hits, including “Superstar” and “Love in this Club,” before Alicia Keys appeared in a tight red sequin catsuit. She sat at a red piano, resembling a piece of modern art, and gave a few vocally shaky bars of her song “If I Ain’t Got You” before a short chunk of their hit duet “My Boo.”
Usher’s quick hits kept coming, giving fans just enough to be recognizable, but not enough to ride in any of the grooves that actually made those songs hits.
One of the folks who helped make those hits, Atlanta super-producer Jermaine Dupri, appeared briefly for an equally brief touch on the first few lyrics of “Confessions Part II.”
Inevitably, Usher took his shirt off before singer-songwriter-guitarist H.E.R. swaggered on stage in a shiny black space suit-looking outfit for a suitably rocking guitar solo for “U Got It Bad.” It gave Usher time to not only finish changing outfits, but to don roller skates for “OMG” with will.i.am.
The hurried medley…
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