The announcement of the next Super Bowl Halftime Show headliner kind of snuck up on us, huh? Normally there are weeks of rumors and public statements from people who want everyone to know that they chose not to do it for political/moral reasons, and then when Pepsi and the NFL finally announce who’s going to do it, it’s kind of anticlimactic. Apparently we as a society have all been a little preoccupied with something else lately, though, and if you had asked us this morning who we thought should headline the Pepsi Super Bowl LV Halftime Show, we would’ve said something like “There’s going to be a Pepsi Super Bowl LV Halftime Show?” Despite the ongoing pandemic, the NFL, like Major League Baseball, has effectively decided to dive headfirst into treating everything like it’s normal (save for playing all games with no fans in the stands), so in retrospect it makes perfect sense that the Super Bowl is going ahead as planned, but cut us some slack here. We’ve got people attempting a coup in this country, it’s hard to be like “oh, I wonder who’s going to perform at the Pepsi Super Bowl LV Halftime show.”
Anyway, it’s The Weeknd. Variety notes that he teased an announcement late last night on Instagram, and multiple people involved have released statements about how excited they are to see what kind of fabulous visual and musical treat The Weeknd is able to put together—so hopefully he wasn’t planning on some kind of low-key stripped-down performance, considering he may or may not be doing this in an empty stadium. Brian Rolapp, the NFL’s Chief Media And Business Officer, noted that “Halftime Show performances have a history of excellence and creativity and we look forward to seeing what [The Weeknd] will bring to Super Bowl LV.” Adam Harter, Senior VP Of Sports, Media, And Entertainment at PepsiCo, said that he expects The Weeknd to “raise the bar, setting a new precedent both musically and visually for the most-watched performance of the year.” So… no pressure!
Super Bowl LV will be held in Tampa Bay on February 7, 2021. The Weeknd’s performance—as we joke every year, if this even counts as a joke—will happen about halfway through.