By Chiara Piacentini
Staff Writer
Usher may not have been a top pick for Feb. 11’s superbowl half-time show at Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium, but he wanted to prove his haters wrong. Unfortunately, they may have been right even if some flaws weren’t his fault. From the second Usher appeared on screen, some technical issues popped up.
According to critics, the music appeared to drown out his own voice and his microphone was making unnecessary sounds. It wasn’t until halfway into the show that the sound crew was able to fix the sound problems.
But besides these technical hiccups, there were other disappointments that came up. Some fans complained that he wasn’t in tune with his guest stars. While Alicia Keys’ surprise appearance may have been one of the only saving graces of the show, fans were also upset that Justin Bieber didn’t join Usher on stage as well since they were a duet for “Somebody to Love.” As it turns out, Usher offered Bieber to perform with him, but Beiber turned him down because, according to a source from a music industry, “he just wasn’t feeling it.”
H.E.R., Lil Jon, Ludacris, will.i.am and Jermaine Dupri were the other guest stars to make an appearance. It seems like the music bigwigs took a back seat this time as Beyonce, Lady Gaga, and of course, Taylor Swift, were shown sitting in the stands.
It wasn’t enough that Usher played some of his greatest hits either, which included starting off with “Caught Up,” “U Don’t Have to Call” and “Superstar.” His decision to end off the night with “Peace Up, A-Town Down” still wasn’t enough to turn the tide either.
While his song presentation may not have been well-received, his costume changes apparently were. Usher made three costume changes throughout the show, with the first being to remove his white suit top to reveal a sleeveless silver shirt before going completely shirtless. The third change happened during H.E.R.’s 40-second segment where he reappeared on roller skates in a glittery blue ensemble.
Bottom line, while there were a couple good moments during the show, at best, it couldn’t make up for the overall dull performance. The main problem was that this wasn’t a show that had the power to tug at your heart strings. The choreography had a disappointingly basic approach and Usher’s singing lacked the emotion it needed to make the performance unique. At the end of the day, those good couple of moments couldn’t change the fact that Usher’s performance was about as normal as you could get.
