Usher puts on Super Bowl halftime show as Taylor Swift chugs beer to cheers from crowd
Usher put on a halftime show at the Super Bowl marked by impressive choreography and several guest appearances.
He performed a 13-minute show at the Super Bowl halfway point at Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium, starting with Caught Up and moving on to U Don’t Have To Call, Superstar and Love In The Club.
Alicia Keys joined him in front of a red piano resembling an abstract sculpture for her song If I Ain’t Got You, which morphed into My Boo.
The Kansas City Chiefs beat the San Francisco 49ers 25-22 in overtime.
Usher also brought out several other guests including HER and Jermaine Dupri, with Lil Jon joining for Turn Down For What that became Yeah! and Ludacris put in a guest appearance.
Taylor Swift was repeatedly shown on the big screens of Allegiant Stadium and the cameras caught her winning what appeared to be a beer-chugging contest, prompting cheers through the stadium.
The 14-time Grammy winner cuddled with Blake Lively during Post Malone’s performance of America The Beautiful after she flew halfway around the world to see her boyfriend, Travis Kelce, and his team the Kansas City Chiefs face off against the San Francisco 49ers.
Swift made it to the stadium after flying on a private plane across nine time zones from the last of four shows at the Tokyo Dome in Japan, with self-proclaimed ‘Swifties’ across the globe speculating about the potential strain on her schedule for weeks.
The singer has been criticised for her use of private jets by climate activists and appears to have sold one of her two personal planes over a dispute with a student who had been tracking her flights.
The 34-year-old and Kelce have been dating since September 2023.
The “Queen of Country” Reba McEntire sang The Star-Spangled Banner before kickoff, while Andra Day sang Lift Every Voice And Sing, a song that has become known as the black national anthem.
Adverts during the Super Bowl also saw Beyonce tease a new album, with her ad for Verizon ending with the superstar saying: “They ready, drop the new music.”
Later, a cryptic Instagram video appeared on her page teasing Act II – her previous album Renaissance is frequently referred to as Act I: Renaissance – and she released two new country tracks.