Why few artists want to perform at the Super Bowl halftime show

To be honest, I was a bit disappointed when it was announced that Usher would be performing the halftime show of the upcoming Super Bowl. Don’t get me wrong, he is of course a great singer and artist, but I was expecting the absolute biggest artists. A Harry Styles. A duo performance from *NSYNC and the Backstreet Boys (the time Eminem, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, and more took the stage was the dream of every millennial and this combination would be the same), that kind of caliber. An artist (or multiple artists) who can easily stand in the shoes of Beyoncé, J.Lo, Shakira… All of whom have already performed on that stage.

But well, it also makes sense that it ultimately became Usher and not Harry Styles. Why is that? Because Harry just finished his tour and currently has nothing to promote. No album, new song, or movie — and artists usually say ‘yes’ to the Super Bowl when they have something to promote. Rihanna cleverly advertised Fenty during her performance (successfully: sales skyrocketed afterwards), J.Lo could attach a documentary to it, and Eminem's comeback was undeniable after his show.

Why publicity is the main reason? Because artists earn nothing from it. Zero. Nada. Niente. The halftime show is always unpaid, which I find really bizarre given the prices of the commercials and how much money is involved. It’s a bit of a win-win for both parties: they don’t spend millions on an artist, but the artist does reach a guaranteed audience of millions. The risk is that there might be a year when the biggest stars aren’t interested and/or have nothing to promote… And then you get Usher. But hey, maybe we’ll be positively surprised: secretly he has made quite a few hits and if he sings My Boo with Alicia Keys, I’ll take back all my disappointment.