Some thoughts on the The Weeknd's Super Bowl Halftime Show

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have won the Super Bowl!

Now, let's talk about the other big performance of the night, the halftime show.

The Weeknd delivered an almost 15-minute set of his greatest hits, combined with all the staples of a successful performance; lights, hundreds of dancers, and special effects. While The Weeknd is a great vocalist and can do wonders with a run-up and down the scale, something about his performance seemed off.

Maybe it was excitement, maybe it was nerves, but for a majority of the performance, The Weeknd was jumping and running around, causing him to sound out of breath. It was hard to keep track of where he was heading as soon as he emerged to sing. Like a jumping bean, the adrenaline was definitely strong in this one.

The set started with a chorus of people chanting then splitting down the middle, where The Weeknd emerged and sang some of his earlier hits. The lighting effects here were mesmerizing, but did anyone else catch the fact that the stage was basically on the edge of the stadium, or was it just me? Props to him on how he was able to figure that out.

To add on to the hyperactivity of the performance which set the tone for the entire set, The Weeknd then entered a maze of lights with the camera on selfie mode, as he continued to bounce around. While definitely unique, I had to look away because of the dizziness it brought me. Between the camera movement and the addition of him rocking back and forth, it could have easily given viewers motion sickness. What a real bummer though, as the set looked interesting and intricate. If only he would have slowed down with that camera.

Following the maze portion of the performance, the rest was actually pretty enjoyable. Taking his place at the edge of the stadium once again, The Weeknd gave us more of his hits, this time with a band composed of guitars, drums, and a violin section in view. One of the simpler segments of a halftime show in my opinion, though not disappointing, as he put on his best showman attitude to entertain.

What was probably the most disappointing part of the entire thing was that we didn’t get to see the true elements of a halftime show until the last 4 minutes of the set. The Weeknd finally emerged onto the field with a crew of dancers. Hundreds took the field with a dance routine centered around the main act.

The Weeknd kept up his bouncing around act yet again, and we finally saw the elements of a Super Bowl halftime show we are so accustomed to, with dancers in sync, formations, and fireworks galore.

The inner dancer in me wants to nit-pick the fact that the formations of the dancers were slightly off at times, the lines swaying from being straight, but hey, it's a live performance. Anything can happen.

Despite your feelings about the halftime performance, I think we can all agree that the memes flooding social media soon after were spot on. Thank you to The Weeknd for not only his talent but for what can arguably be one of the best memes of the year so far (tied with the meme of the fan that made it onto the field of course).