Usher Shares Super Bowl Halftime Advice for Kendrick Lamar: ‘Really Be Present’
Usher has some wise words about performing at the Super Bowl. In a recent chat on The Jennifer Hudson Show, he looked back on his experience headlining the 2024 halftime show.
“Everybody wants that moment,” Usher said. “You want to know that you’ve amassed enough of a catalog to play for an entire world. No matter how many stages you’re on, you’re never going to play for a bigger audience. And that night would prove that it would be the biggest audience that I’ve ever had in my life.”
But he had some advice for this year’s halftime headliner, Kendrick Lamar—don’t let the pressure get to you! “The one thing that I would say is: Savor the moment,” Usher said. “Because you get obsessed with trying to build the best performance, but you don’t realize that it’s really about enjoying it.”
He explained that trying to make everything perfect can take away from the fun of performing. “It might not be perfect. Everything might not go the way it’s supposed to,” Usher said. “But if you are in your mind and trying to make something perfect, you’re not going to look up and smell the flowers and realize, ‘Wait a minute, I’m here! And I get a chance to have this moment, and I’m not going get it again, I’m not going get this moment back.’ So my encouragement to him is to really be present.”
Usher also pointed out that Lamar has an opportunity to celebrate hip-hop on a massive stage. “I hope that he uses the moment well,” Usher said. “There’s a lot that could be said, there’s a lot to be said for where hip-hop has come from. There’s a lot to be said for that young man and how he’s completely been an incredible benchmark for what it is to be an artist.”
He also admitted that picking the perfect setlist for his own show was tough. “I think I obsessed over it,” he remembered. “I did like 100 edits of the show, and when I finally came to the final one, you know, it’s really just 13 minutes of you trying to enjoy yourself. I sang live, which everybody was like, ‘I can’t believe you’re going to do this’ — I was like, ‘Of course, why not?’ But you know, I don’t know how I was able to narrow it down.”
Lamar won’t be performing alone—SZA, one of his frequent collaborators, will be joining him onstage. He’s also no stranger to the Super Bowl, having performed as a special guest during Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre’s halftime show in 2022.
Super Bowl LIX airs Sunday, Feb. 9, on Fox with the halftime show expected to kick off between 8 and 8:30 p.m. ET.