Usher Smashes Super Bowl Halftime Show

Usher was the headliner for the Apple Music Super Bowl LVIII Halftime show—and he didn't disappoint. He told Newsweek about it afterward.

The R&B singer was joined on stage by a troupe of dancers and special guests, performing some of his biggest hits from the past two decades. He performed for a whopping 15 minutes, which is longer than most—last year, Rihanna only got 13.

Dressed in all-white, he opened the show with a short excerpt of his song "Caught Up" followed by "U Don't Have To Call" and his hit "Love In This Club." He was later joined by rappers Lil Jon and Ludacris for a rendition of their smash 2004 single "Yeah!"

Usher also brought out the likes of Alicia Keys and the musician H.E.R, who impressed the crowd with a guitar solo, to help him on stage—and people on X, formerly Twitter, loved every second of it.

"This is everything you want from a halftime show! Let's go USHER!!!" one person wrote.

"This halftime show was the millennial's reward for enduring a lifetime of unprecedented times," said another.

"Usher is LEGENDARY bruh," someone else wrote alongside a variety of fire emojis.

A fourth person added: "Talking about taking me back to high school!! Usher and Lil Jon and Luda! Great halftime show."

Others have even gone as far as to say that his performance was better than the game itself.

"Nah he gotta let all these songs ride I dont care if it'll be a 2 hour show we ain't in a rush to get back to that 10-3 game," one X user wrote.

"Usher performance better than this game fr," said another.

A third added: "I can give or take Usher normally but halftime was far better than the game so far."

Usher told Newsweek in a statement that he is glad the performance went down so well with viewers.

"I was not exaggerating when I shared with the world that my performance would be a celebration of the past 30 years of my career," he said. "I will never forget the energy from the cast and crew, the fans in the stadium, the guest performers and the adrenaline from this monumental milestone in my career. I'm so happy everyone enjoyed it, my goal always is to bring people together and feel good through my music and performance."

Proof that his performance was a success is also in the numbers as on Sunday, he gained 36,748 Instagram followers, bringing him to 12 million overall. Usher had steadily been gaining followers every day leading up to the game, but Sunday saw the most impressive increase.

Usher told reporters in Las Vegas on Thursday that he was looking to incorporate the past, present and future during his performance, according to the AP.

"It's been a challenge to squeeze 30 years into 13 minutes," Usher said, adding that he asked himself, "What songs do people know me for, what songs have been a celebration of all of the journey?"

When it was confirmed back in September that Usher would be the 2024 Super Bowl headliner, he said it was "an honor of a lifetime."

"It's an honor of a lifetime to finally check a Super Bowl performance off my bucket list. I can't wait to bring the world a show unlike anything else they've seen from me before," he said in a statement at the time.

Update, 02/011/2024 9:59 p.m. ET: This article was updated with comment from Usher.