He done has many body doubles to support.
The Weeknd and its field full of connected doppelgangers delivered a cash performance during the 2021 Super Bowl halftime show. But did the 30-year-old singer “Blinding Lights” really get cash for the concert?
Reps for show sponsor Pepsi and The Weeknd both did not want to say whether he had caught up with the big money for his widely viewed stadium performance.
But the likely answer is no.
Every Super Bowl player at halftime, from Beyoncé to Bruno Mars, actually worked for free. Despite the sale of stadiums on world tours, most half-time A-listers are reportedly paid a union scale, which according to Forbes is a fraction of the six- and seven-figure amounts.
It’s usually worth the underpaid labor for these stars, because they can get as many as 104 million sets of eyeballs on them, at no cost. This usually leads to a large increase in sales and streams.
Last year’s breaktime artists Jennifer Lopez and Shakira downloaded a total of 21,000 songs – an increase of 893% from the previous day, according to Billboard.
But unlike the performers of the previous half-time shows, The Weeknd, whose real name is Abel Tesfaye, has pulled in the red to make his appearance particularly spectacular.
“Abel has spent almost $ 7 million of his own money on the already generous budgets to make this break program what he intended,” a star representative told The Post.
At a press conference that led to the big show, he even referred to the financial constraints of working hard, and said he would like to do a dramatic stunt like Diana Ross in 1996 – when she left the stadium by helicopter – but ‘I do not think I have enough money to do it. ”
Nevertheless, exposure can be invaluable.
The Weeknd refers to the milestone in his career in an advertisement that led to the big concert. In the ad, he walks through a montage of previous music videos playing on the wall while a reflective voice-over tells the journey leading to the Super Bowl field, where a cheering stadium awaits him.
“What we create changes us. Each performance, a new chapter; every stage, a new beginning, ‘says a voice story.
But it may take a while before The Weeknd sees the fruits of its Super Bowl labor money-wise. He announced last week that he will push his world tour for another year until 2022.