Usher gives Kendrick Lamar his Super Bowl halftime show advice: 'Savor the moment'

Usher has some sage advice for performing at the Super Bowl.

The R&B star reflected on his experience headlining the 2024 halftime show during a recent interview on The Jennifer Hudson 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."

However, the "Yeah!" singer warned this year's halftime show headliner, Kendrick Lamar, not to get too overwhelmed by the pressure of the gig. "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."

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Usher emphasized that perfectionism can distract from the joy of taking the stage. "It might not be perfect. Everything might not go the way it's supposed to," he 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 to get it again, I'm not going get this moment back.' So my encouragement to him is to really be present."

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The singer also noted that Lamar can use the halftime show to celebrate the hip-hop genre at large. "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."

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The "DJ Got Us Falling in Love" musician also recalled how difficult it was to settle on a set list for his own halftime show."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."

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Lamar's halftime show will also include an appearance from frequent collaborator SZA. Lamar is no stranger to the Super Bowl stage — he previously performed as a special guest during Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre's West Coast-themed halftime show in 2022.

Super Bowl LIX will air Sunday, Feb. 9, on Fox, Fubo, and the Fox Sports app at 6:30 p.m. ET/3:30 p.m. PT. The halftime show should begin between 8 and 8:30 p.m. ET.

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