Performing at halftime of the Super Bowl has become one of the great achievements a musician can hope to accomplish in their career. As we all know, only the biggest artists in the music world get this honor. Additionally, we all know that The Weeknd has that honor this year in Super Bowl LV. As someone who has been familiar with The Weeknd for 10 years and has watched his star status grow, him performing at the Super Bowl is not particularly surprising.
My girlfriend, however, has been absolutely floored by the concept of the Canadian singer performing on this prestigious stage. “My grandma knows who J-Lo is, but she’s never heard of The Weeknd” is a phrase that I’ve heard a startling amount of times over the last month. It occurred to me that (as she always is) my girlfriend was right. Despite The Weeknd being incredibly famous among young people, he doesn’t have the same reach and worldwide appeal that Super Bowl performers typically do.
Seeing that a significant portion of this newsletter’s following is - how should I say it? - not young, I figured that many of you have absolutely no idea who The Weeknd is. So, in advance of the Super Bowl, I have written up some responses to Frequently Asked Questions regarding The Weeknd that I can get some of you up to speed. I hope it helps.
How many people are in the band?
An understandable question, but The Weeknd is just one guy named Abel, not a band.
How come he spells “Weeknd” without that “e”?
Honestly, it’s not important at all, and it’s mostly just about being different and it looking cool.
What instruments does he play?
None
Is he a really good dancer?
Nope. He just kinda bops around and will occasionally do a little spin because he sort of had a Michael Jackson wannabe phase.
Well he must be an incredible singer then, right?:
He’s good. You’re not going to be floored, though.
What type of music does he make?
Okay, so he used to make songs that were like a good soundtrack to make out to in the corner of the basement of a club, then it shifted to more like if the Jetson’s had a black neighbor who was an R&B singer, and now it’s just sort of generic pop with the occasional emo twist.
What are his songs about?
Mostly just cocaine and his insatiable horniness.
That seems like very adult subject matter for a mainstream broadcast that millions of children are going to be watching, no?
Oh definitely. It’s absolutely not appropriate. But Prince was similarly horny and everyone loved it when he performed! Also, fun fact, The Weeknd got nominated for a Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Award in 2016 for his song “I Can’t Feel My Face” which is about getting blasted off cocaine. So, it seems like the kids already love him.
Am I going to enjoy his performance?
Your toes will be tapping several times, but overall, especially after reading this, I wouldn’t count on it.
Okay, so he’s a good-but-not-great singer, can’t dance, doesn’t play instruments, and sings about things most people can’t relate to…why is he so popular?
He used to have really cool hair which was definitely an awesome branding move and helped him get famous. But basically it boils down to this: pretty much every year since 2016 he has put out 2-3 songs that sound somewhat similar to each other, but are so catchy that we all look past it and just have a good time jamming to it. He has sort of just figured out the recipe to make hits and is just going to ride that wave for the foreseeable future because there’s a lot more money in that than making music to make out to in the corner of a club.
There you go - you’re primed to watch and probably still not enjoy now! I’m looking forward to hearing from my 50+ audience how they felt about his performance!