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- 6 Things We Learned From The Weeknd's The Show That'll Make You Appreciate His Artistry Even More
6 Things We Learned From The Weeknd's The Show That'll Make You Appreciate His Artistry Even More
Getty / Kevin Mazur
The Weeknd is booked and busy! In between working on his fifth studio album and his upcoming HBO series, the 31-year-old R&B crooner somehow managed to find the time to give us a behind-the-scenes look at his electrifying Super Bowl LV halftime show performance. The Show, which premiered on Showtime on Sept. 24, is a 90-minute feature directed by Emmy-nominated producer Nadia Hallgren and offers a unique glimpse into all the hard work that went into the making of his performance. If you haven’t had a chance to check out the documentary yet, we highly recommend you add it to your watch list, because it’ll only make you appreciate The Weeknd’s artistry and musicianship that much more. Keep reading for all the fascinating tidbits we learned from The Weeknd’s The Show documentary.
Getty / Kevin Mazur
- Because of the pandemic, choreography rehearsals were cut down significantly. “With COVID, we can’t have too many rehearsals. Some people rehearse for three, four months for Super Bowl,” Charm La’Donna, the choreographer behind The Weeknd’s performance, explained. “I think I’ve had two rehearsals, and one rehearsal was on a four-hour Zoom.”
- COVID-19 restrictions were so tight that the team was not allowed to build a set on the field like previous shows have. Instead, the crew built a Vegas-themed tiered deck downstage, which took three weeks to load in and was populated by approximately 75 choir members.
- The gold Infinity Room The Weeknd danced in was as spectacular as it looked on TV. It featured over 7,000 active light bulbs.
Getty / Mike Ehrmann
- There was a limit on how many times The Weeknd could rehearse on the field because there are restrictions in place to prevent the grass from getting damaged. “There’s a science behind the condition of the field at game time and it revolves around players’ safety,” Jesse Collins, executive producer of the Super Bowl, explained. “The more you run on that field, dance on the field, you do damage to it. That’s why there’s no rehearsal after Thursday. At the end of the night, all of these scientists go out and they look at the damage to the field and then they send out a report. If they feel like it was too much damage, they’ll say, ‘OK, now you only get four runs, two, one.’ And if it rains, it’s really a problem.”
- All of the field dancers were people of color. The field performance was all about representation, and the goal of it was to show the world that “we are here now [and] this is us.”
- Over one million people tuned in to The Weeknd’s Super Bowl halftime show. It also marked the first major live performance since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
