Usher hints at surprise guests for Super Bowl halftime show, promises his 'best'
LAS VEGAS – Reba McEntire has been singing the national anthem in the shower, the car, anywhere she can to prepare for her pre-game role at Sunday’s Super Bowl 58.
Post Malone says he’s done the same with his assignment, “America the Beautiful,” to the point that, “my family keeps trying to get me to shut up.”
Andra Day joked she will first “have a nervous breakdown,” but will rely on prayer and keeping her voice strong to perform “Lift Every Voice and Sing” before kickoff.
And halftime superstar Usher?
He’s conceived a 13-minute performance that is “mindful of my past, celebrating my present, which is here in Las Vegas, and thinking about where we’re headed in the future.”
Who will Usher have as a guest during his Super Bowl halftime show?
He’s not saying. At the Thursday press conference at Mandalay Bay Convention Center, Usher, clad in a “Matrix"-style trench coat, gloves and his signature shades, wouldn’t reveal any special guests who might join him Sunday, even when moderator and Apple Music radio show host Nadesta Alexis mentioned his “Yeah!” collaborators Ludacris and Lil Jon.
But he did slyly note that he’s “made it easy” on himself by enlisting friends for features on songs that became hits.
Usher also attributed the vibe of his upcoming performance to his Atlanta roots, which factored heavily in his two Las Vegas residencies at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace and Park MGM. He wrapped his Vegas stint in December after 100 sold-out shows.
“I’ve been able to bring a great deal of Atlanta and the melting pot it is musically and culturally to Vegas. That’s the source that has been fueling me, so why not show it to the rest of the world if they’re seeing me for the first time?,” Usher says. “I thought about things I have created here in Las Vegas – like skating – which I have not done on stage (other than the residency shows). Everybody who heard about my shows in Las Vegas, you’re going to get the best of it.”
Usher previously made a cameo during the 2011 Super Bowl halftime show featuring the Black Eyed-Peas.
Usher is up for the challenge to ‘squeeze 30 years into 13 minutes’
In addition to his halftime extravaganza, the hitmaker behind “Love in This Club,” “OMG,” “Caught Up,” “DJ Got Us Fallin’ in Love” and dozens of other smashes that make it “a challenge to squeeze 30 years into 13 minutes,” is releasing his long-awaited ninth album, “Coming Home,” on Friday.
Its release on Mega, his own imprint founded with LaFace impersario L.A. Reid, makes him the first independent artist to ever play Super Bowl halftime, a point Usher stressed several times.
More: Usher songs we want to hear at the Super Bowl 58 halftime show, from 'Yeah!' to 'OMG'
His journey to the Super Bowl, from the moment he received the call to invite him to perform to “when I walk off the stage Sunday,” is also being filmed for an Apple documentary.
“This has been an amazing time in my life and I’m so happy that God and the universe led me to this moment,” Usher says. “I’m a product of my belief, believing I could come to this city and do something amazing, and it’s happened. I ain’t done here.”
Reba McEntire, Post Malone and Andra Day share Super Bowl memories
For McEntire, singing the national anthem is a full-circle moment. She was discovered singing the song at the 1974 National Finals Rodeo in Oklahoma.
A Vegas residency staple herself – she and Brooks & Dunn played 45 “Together in Vegas” shows between 2015 and 2021 – McEntire is “tickled to pieces” to be part of the first Super Bowl held in Las Vegas.
It’s also her first attendance at the game since Super Bowl XXX in 1996 in Tempe, Arizona.
Post Malone will experience his maiden Super Bowl this weekend and while he loves being in Vegas, “Vegas doesn’t love me,” he says with a rueful laugh. “A couple of casinos can tell you about it … the casinos love me!”
And Day, a San Diego native, recalls being a young girl in school in 1995, the year the then-Los Angeles Chargers played in Super Bowl XXIX.
Her father, Joseph Batie, was in attendance at the press conference and Day mentioned with a smile that her dad is a longtime Detroit Lions fan.
More: Reba McEntire is singing the anthem at the Super Bowl. Get excited with her 10 best songs
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Super Bowl performers: Usher, Reba, Post Malone, Andra Day talk plans
