Los Angeles, Feb 14 (IANS) Singer-songwriter Justin Bieber turned down Usher’s offer to perform at the Super Bowl VIII Halftime show.
The ‘R’n’B superstar pulled out all the stops for his performance halfway through the major sporting spectacle at Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium on Sunday, reports Female First UK.
He was reportedly keen to get Justin, 29, on board but the ‘Sorry’ hitmaker “wasn’t up for it,” although an insider has insisted there is “no bad blood” between the pair.
A source told PageSix: “There’s no bad blood between Usher and Justin. Justin just wasn’t up for it — he just wasn’t feeling it”. Usher played a major role in the launch of Justin’s career in the late 2000s after record executive Scooter Braun had spotted the teenager singing on YouTube and convinced the ‘Yeah!’ hitmaker to meet with the budding star.
As per Female First UK, the rapper met Justin in 2009 and after being impressed by his voice, signed him to his label RBMG where he quickly released the megahit hit singles ‘One Time’, ‘One Less Lonely Girl’, ‘Baby’ and the multi-million selling album ‘My World 2.0’.
Justin Bieber is the only artist to ever have been signed to the label as of 2024 and RBMG also has a special profit-sharing business deal with Def Jam, which is owned by Def Jam Recordings, which is owned by Universal Music Group. On Sunday, the 45-year-old singer kicked things off with mega-hit ‘Caught Up’ into ‘U Don’t Have to Call’.
A snippet of ‘Superstar’ then aired before he went straight in with another fan-favourite in ‘Love in this Club’. Then it was time for the first guest of the set, Alicia, who joined Usher for a rendition of their 2004 hit ‘My Boo’ after performing her own track ‘If I Ain’t Got You’ first.
To mark the 20th anniversary of Usher’s seminal album ‘Confessions’, rapper Jermaine introduced ‘Confessions Part II’. Usher also performed ‘Burn’ from the album and was then joined by H.E.R. for ‘Bad Girl’.
As promised, Usher brought a piece of his ‘My Way’ residency to the Super Bowl, as he hopped on rollerblades to perform ‘Yeah!’ alongside Lil Jon and Ludacris. Usher was also joined by Jon for his and DJ Snake’s hit ‘Turn Down for What’ right before ‘Yeah!’. Usher had already teased Jon and Ludacris would be joining him onstage.
