For just the third time ever, a Canadian is going to headline the Super Bowl.
On Thursday, the NFL announced that The Weeknd is taking the stage for the halftime show during this season’s Super Bowl LV in Tampa. The Scarborough native joins Shania Twain (2003) and the Blues Brothers' Dan Aykroyd (1997) as the only Canadians to have hosted the event.
This season’s Super Bowl actually has a lot to live up to, following the fantastic Super Bowl LIV act led by Jennifer Lopez and Shakira. That performance featured Bad Bunny, J Balvin and Lopez’s daughter Emme Muniz as guests, intended to reflect the Latin culture of the host city Miami. Drawing rave reviews, that one was definitely a success.
Considering just how much of an audience The Weeknd has, especially after the release of his album this year, After Hours, we’re sure that he’s going to headline a great show as well. But let’s get to the real question of what fans want to know here: Which guests are going to join him for the halftime show?
Here’s who we want to see, but you should let us know your thoughts as well.
Daft Punk
This is like a freebie. Like, if you had to make one guess on who would join The Weeknd for Super Bowl LV, the most obvious choice would be Daft Punk by a mile, right? The French electronic musicians have featured on two of Abel's greatest hits, "Starboy" and "I Feel It Coming" from 2016.
Plus, their robot personas feel tailor-made for an event with scale of the Super Bowl, right?!
Ariana Grande
Coming off the release of her album Positions this year, Ariana Grande is as popular as ever, and she's had a pair of collaborations with The Weeknd: "Love Me Harder," as well as this year's "Off the Table." How wild would it be if Ariana Grande made a surprise appearance at the Super Bowl?
Nav
If a Canadian is going to headline the Super Bowl, we definitely see this as a good reason to pump up the CanCon level of the halftime show and get another one in there. Nav is signed to The Weeknd’s label, and he’s pretty popular himself, so this one just makes sense, right?
Michael Jackson hologram
Listen. We’ve been saying that one of these years, a hologram would join the show at the Super Bowl, and fans were clamoring for it in 2018 when there was a lot of support for a Prince hologram to join Justin Timberlake, who was the headliner that year in Minneapolis. While no such hologram appeared, Timberlake did perform a pair of Prince covers.
Well, how about now? The Weeknd’s falsetto has drawn comparisons to Michael Jackson since basically the start of his career, and he cites MJ as a direct idol for his music. If you’re going to make a hologram of anyone, the King of Pop makes sense, right?
Oneohtrix Point Never
Well, this probably won’t happen, but we just really love Uncut Gems, okay?
Drake
Yeah, no, we aren’t going to get Drake. Would be nice, though!
Nobody. Just perform the entire tracklist from House of Balloons.
Power move. As much as we love After Hours, as successful as Beauty Behind the Madness and Starboy are, why don’t we just throw it back to the mixtape that started it all? No features necessary. Just vibes.
