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The Weeknd has put up $7 million (£5.1 million) of his own money for his Super Bowl halftime show performance next week, his manager has revealed.
The Canadian artist, AKA Abel Tesfaye, is this year’s guest performer during the much-hyped halftime show, which will take place during the main interval of the NFL showpiece game on February 7.
The Weeknd’s upcoming halftime performance, which will last for 12-13 minutes, has been previewed in a new interview conducted by Billboard with the artist, his managers Wassim “Sal” Slaiby and Amir “Cash” Esmailian and XO’s creative director La Mar C. Taylor.
Slaiby revealed in the interview that while the Super Bowl organisers are covering all of the usual production costs, The Weeknd has voluntarily put up $7 million of his own money to “make this halftime show be what he envisioned”.
Speaking about the performance, which is being curated by Jay-Z’s Roc Nation company (who are in a partnership with the NFL), Esmailian said that The Weeknd and his team have “always had the Super Bowl on our bucket list”.
“We’ve always had timelines for all of our goals,” he added of the halftime show booking. “It came a few years earlier than we expected.”
Referencing the fact that the Raymond James Stadium – the Tampa, Florida location for this year’s Super Bowl – will only be a third full due to the coronavirus pandemic, The Weeknd continued: “We’ve been really focusing on dialling in on the fans at home and making performances a cinematic experience, and we want to do that with the Super Bowl.”
Next week will also see the arrival of The Weeknd’s first greatest hits collection, ‘The Highlights’.
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