Unless you're Bruno Mars or Justin Timberlake, you only get one shot at performing at the Super Bowl. The Weekend seems to have taken that to heart, making a major investment to assure that his halftime performance at Super Bowl LV is top notch.
Ahead of the performance, Katie Bain of Billboard did a profile of The Weeknd, whose real name is Abel Makkonen Tesfaye, and his XO team, which helped him to reach this stage. In it, it was revealed that The Weeknd spent $7 million on his performance:
“We always had the Super Bowl on our bucket list, and we’ve always had timelines for all of our goals,” says Esmailian. “It came a few years earlier than we expected.” To capitalize on the event’s vast audience, XO and Republic curated a just-released 18-track highlights album. And though the game will happen in a stadium only about a third full, the XO team is well prepared. “We’ve been really focusing on dialing in on the fans at home and making performances a cinematic experience, and we want to do that with the Super Bowl,” says Tesfaye. Slaiby adds that, though the organizers are as usual covering all production costs, Tesfaye put up $7 million of his own money to “make this halftime show be what he envisioned.”
The Weeknd is a three-time Grammy Award winner, with his latest studio album, 2020's "After Hours," having gone two times platinum.
The Toronto native, 30 years old, will perform at halftime of a tilt between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Kansas City Chiefs on Feb. 7. In his first season with the Buccaneers, Tom Brady will be looking to win his record seventh Super Bowl title. Meanwhile, Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs are hoping to become the first repeat Super Bowl winners since Brady's Patriots in the mid-2000s. The Buccaneers will become the first team in NFL history to play a home game at the neutral-site Super Bowl, with the game slated to take place at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa Bay.
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