Amy Harris/Associated Press
An unconventional NFL season has given way to an unconventional Super Bowl, during which an unconventional halftime show will be held.
To start, Sunday’s halftime show headlined by The Weeknd at Super Bowl LV at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, won’t be held on the field. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the production is streamlining the halftime show by holding the performance in the stands to minimize the amount of time and bodies needed to set up the stage.
Approximately 22,000 fans are expected to be attendance.
“We all grow up watching the world’s biggest acts playing the Super Bowl, and one can only dream of being in that position,” The Weeknd said in a statement. “I’m humbled, honored and ecstatic to be the center of that infamous stage this year.”
Let’s break down which songs you can expect to hear Sunday night, some prop bets you can follow and whether or not there will be cameos during what is sure to be an unforgettable halftime show.
Odds, Expected Songs
“Blinding Lights” (odds to be first: +180; odds to be last: -240)
“Save Your Tears” (+200; +675)
“Pray For Me” (+250; –)
“Can’t Feel My Face” (+300; +1600)
“Starboy” (+300; +1400)
“I Feel It Coming” (+900; +2500)
“Hawai” (+1000; –)
“The Hills” (+1000; +1800)
“In Your Eyes” (+1200; +1000)
“Earned It” (+1600; –)
“Love Me Harder” (+1600; –)
“Lost in the Fire” (+2000; –)
“Heartless” (–; +1400)
“Too Late” (–; +1600
“In the Night” (–; +3000)
Odds via Sports Betting Dime.
You would have to travel to the farthest reaches of Antarctica to find someone who hasn’t heard The Weeknd’s Billboard No. 1 single “Blinding Lights”. Even then, whomever you encountered would probably say, “Oh, man! I’m so sick of that song.”
To be fair to the NFL, its near-endless promotion of Super Bowl LV set to the soundtrack of “Blinding Lights” has been only moderately tiresome. The fact that the song was featured in a popular TikTok choreographed dance challenge doesn’t help matters.
It’s not a bad bet that The Weeknd will cap his set with “Blinding Lights” (-240). In recent halftime performances, artists have gone with established crowd-pleasers to end their shows (see: Lady Gaga and “Bad Romance” and Justin Timberlake with “Can’t Stop The Feeling!”).
He could go any number of ways to open his set, though “The Hills” (+1000) just feels like the perfect song for him to slowly kick off proceedings. Just imagine the light show when the beat drops!
As for whether there will be cameos, the NFL is tight-lipped about that every year, but this year, there are very real logistical issues surrounding the possibility. During an interview with NFL Network, The Weeked said “there’s no special guests,” but he could be setting the stage for a surprise.
“Yeah, maybe there will be cameos, but we can’t say what he’s doing,” Super Bowl executive producer Jesse Collins told Entertainment Tonight. “It’s definitely a very special show, you just got to watch and see what happens.”
Among the other prop bets, a popular one is what color The Weeknd’s jacket will be. Fans got used to seeing him in a red jacket when he was promoting After Hours. He was also clad in red at Saturday Night Live and at the VMAs.
But that’s exactly why oddsmakers think he will switch it up at the Super Bowl. Black and red have equal odds (+180). Blue and white are next (+500) and followed by purple (+850).
As for how many songs you can expect to bop to Sunday, the odds for a maximum of eight are +160, which seems safe.
Halftime will be around 8 p.m. ET on Sunday, with kickoff for the game between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Kansas City Chiefs set for 6:30 p.m. ET.