February 7’s Super Bowl game between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Kansas City Chiefs lost its energy incredibly quickly, with a 21-6 lead by the Buccaneers at the half, and a 31-9 final score. This definitely showed in terms of numbers, for this Super Bowl dropped to a record low viewership, 96.4 million viewers, the lowest in several decades.
Advertised as some sort of old-versus-new battle of two incredible quarterbacks – the old being Tom Brady, at that point with six rings, and the new – Patrick Mahomes, quarterback of the 2019 Super Bowl Champions. However, the game clearly failed to live up to the hype.
That is not to discount the winning team’s performance. Tom Brady went 21-of-29 with 201 passing yards and three touchdowns. His leading pass catcher was none other than his ex-Patriots teammate Rob Gronkowski, who had a season-high 106 yards.
The highlight of the incredibly monotonous game, the dominating attack of the Buccaneers that the Chiefs just could not seem to get out from underneath, was in fact the halftime show, performed solely by The Weeknd and his many back-up dancers. Post-Grammy-snub, The Weeknd was able to solidify his place in music greatness and show the award show committee what they were missing with his performance.
Many people, dressed in red suits and facial bandages- which The Weeknd utilizes to show the fakeness and focus on artificial beauty in the Hollywood and music industries, lined the field for his medley performance of some of his greatest hits. His setlist went as follows: Starboy, The Hills, Can’t Feel My Face, I Feel It Coming, Save Your Tears, Earned It, House of Balloons/Glass Table Girls, and finished with smash-hit Blinding Lights.
The incredible performance has led to a 41% increase in the streaming of The Weeknd’s music, and that was no surprise. He sang live for the entirety of his show, which is already difficult to do, nevermind the fact that he was the sole performer. All in all, it was an incredibly hard-to-watch game, especially if you are a Chiefs fan, but The Weeknd was a great and welcomed distraction.