This year's Apple Music Super Bowl LVIII Halftime Show headliner promises that fans will get a treat.
Usher is ready to give his fans a show! The Apple Music Super Bowl LVIII Halftime Show headliner chatted with Vogue about his upcoming performance and shared his hopes for what viewers will walk away with after he takes the stage.
"People will tune in for a football game, but I hope when they look at that halftime performance, I'm hoping they walk away with something that's healing them," Usher tells the outlet. "Something that makes them feel hopeful, and not just look at the past, but have hope for the future, and have hope for a different type of future than we're looking at right now in the present."
The R&B superstar was announced as this year's headliner last September, and it was particularly fitting since the big game will be held in Las Vegas, where the GRAMMY winner had been at the MGM for his twice-extended residency from July 2022 to December 2023.
While Usher is basking in this chapter of his life -- while performing, planning, singing, skating, training, promoting, parenting, and being present -- he always takes the time to remember how he got to this place, this King of R&B throne.
"I know that it's going to be the hardest time of my life...Every night, I walk out, and I'm present before I walk on the stage," Usher shares. "Maybe no one else knows that I'm doing this, but I'll walk over to the edge of the stage, and I look up there, and I can remember when nobody was in here, and it was hard, and it felt like nobody was going to come. But I see them having a great time and I'm like, 'Here it is -- honor that moment. Now go have a good time."
On the heels of Rihanna taking the show to new heights -- while pregnant -- in 2023, the "Yeah" singer will take the reins next year and join an elite group of performers to grace the coveted stage.
When it comes to how he plans to make his 13 minutes onstage memorable, Usher stresses to the outlet that "it has to be perfect."
"I've been doing this for 30 years. I want people who have been a part of that journey to feel like it's a celebration for everybody, for all of us, from the beginning up until this point," he adds.
The "Good Good" singer reveals that there will be "skating, and the killer choreography" that fans have come to expect from the performer, as well as those oft-hinted-at musical guests. "This night was specifically curated in my mind to have R&B take the main stage," he says. "Not just R&B music, but R&B performance, R&B connection, R&B spirit."
Usher confesses that he has a myriad of inspirations, including legendary Vegas showmen like Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley. More importantly, he's considering the performers that came before him, like Michael Jackson and Prince, who were pioneers "in a country where it wasn't so long ago that Black performers like him had to walk through the kitchen in order to be on the stage."
"I'm thinking about the fact that I've been able to walk through the front door as a result of their sacrifice and ability. So I'm carrying a little bit of that," he says. "It's made me feel joyous. It made me feel like I want to go out there, and I want the world to smile when they look at me. I want them to feel something, and feel my passion, my love, feel like I was the right person to sit in this position, and I was the right person to bring this kind of energy and love and connection to the entire world."
But the party doesn't stop with the Super Bowl. Two days before his performance, his new album Coming Home -- his first in six years -- will be released.
"This juncture, this portion of my life, is a coming home experience. When I think about where I started and how this 30 years of an evolution has now brought me home... That's part of the reason that I named it Coming Home," he told ET of the upcoming record last November.
"The rest of it is inside of the music and my choices of experiences and things that I wanted to blend. I tried a few new things, worked with some new producers, and also to work with producers that I've worked with in the past. That's a bit of a coming home as well," he added.
And Usher isn't the only celebrity who's excited about his performance. JAY-Z, whose Roc Nation partnered up with the NFL to produce their Super Bowl halftime shows and personally called Usher to offer him the opportunity, previously told ET that it's time for the singer to "take his rightful place."
"I think that he's going to take his rightful place," the iconic rapper and businessman told ET at the red carpet premiere of The Book of Clarence. "He's one of the greatest performers we've seen in our time and I think he'll take his rightful place."
Ludacris, a frequent collaborator of the Atlanta-born singer, told ET he'd be happy to perform alongside Usher on the big day. "If he makes that call, cool. I'm not gonna say no to that," Ludacris said. "That's a great opportunity and that's my friend. We've been friends for a long time. If he makes that call then of course I will. That would be crazy."
As Usher previously told ET, "The hardest part of Super Bowl prep has been choosing the setlist."
"You've got 13 minutes in order to get through an entire legacy of music," he noted before sharing how he was feeling ahead of the performance. "The fact that I have my friends and new people to celebrate with is ultimately what's driving me and building my anticipation and excitement," he said. "I don't take it for granted. My mother talked about this moment many years ago actually and there was the thought that maybe it wouldn't come. It was just a matter of time and making certain that the moment was right."
Usher noted that he's "absolutely" fielding phone calls from past collaborators about a potential Super Bowl appearance, something he's been "considering a lot."
"It's magic time," he said of the performance, playing coy about possible special guests by saying, "Who knows?"
The Apple Music Super Bowl LVIII Halftime Show takes place on Sunday, Feb. 11 at Allegiant Stadium in Paradise, Nevada. The show will air live on CBS, Nickelodeon and Univision, streaming live on Paramount+, NFL+, and Vix.
Usher's Vogue issue is available on newsstands on Jan. 23.