Usher did not need to pull off a miracle to be entertaining during the Super Bowl LVIII halftime show. We already assumed he would be very good. After all, albums and songs aside, Usher has made his bones by strutting his stuff on stages for the last 30 years. He might be 45 years old but he comes across as if he is 21.
So when the Super Bowl halftime show began, we simply had normally high expectations for the performer. We had a decent idea which songs he would be forced to rush through in a bit over 13 minutes, but how he fit tracks together and how he pulled off the choreography was a mystery. So were his potential guests except for Alicia Keys.
Suffice it to say, though, Usher did not disappoint. The veteran entertainer sang and danced as if he had done every Super Bowl halftime, not just be a part of 2011's Black Eyed Peas awfulness. Usher wasn't the issue then, but he was worthy of getting his own halftime show and he proved why at Super Bowl LVIII.
Usher needed a lot of help from his friends during Super Bowl LVIII halftime
The biggest flaw in the show is that Usher started so slowly. It wasn't until his guests such as Lil Jon, Keys, Ludacris, and, especially, H.E.R. and her guitar joined him did the energy level picked up. The overall sound also seemed to improve as well. But while after he began performing and seemed in slow motion through the first five minutes, the halftime show got much better.
The collaboration of "My Boo" with Keys was solid, H.E.R. was so good she should be a halftime show unto herself. Lil Jon and Ludacris arrived and almost the same time and also did not need Usher around to entertain.
Still, overall while not one of the best halftime shows ever, Usher proved a bit of respite from a game that did not go well in the first half. In other words, Usher was at least better than the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers were in the first part of the Super Bowl.